The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1909-04-30
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. ALvAh S. HOBART
Theme: The Unlisted Asset.

lreaCNeQ sunday morning III NIt Lui-
manuel Baptist Church, Lafayette
avenue and st. James place. His
subject was The Unlisted Asset
and his text was Matthew 22:4l-44:
while the Pharisees were gathered
together Jesus asked them, saying:
What think We of ChristF Whose
son is He9' They say unto Him, The
son of David He saith unto them,
How. then. doth David in spirit call
Him Lord. saying the Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
till | make thine enemies thy foot
stool. If David then call Him Lord,
how is He his son?' And no man
was able TO answer Him a word,
neither burst any man from that time
forth ask Him any questions. Or.
/ Hobart said:
Sometimes in the summer the Their
mometer runs up into the nineties,
/ and we call Il hot weather, but we
! take off our coats and attend 20 our
! business and say 10 our friends: This
! is summer. but after all ! rather like
summer. | do not see that the sum-
mer is 70 be so much dreaded And
! the next day the thermometer stands
! Just as II did the day before, but we
are nearly smothered. and we say:
II cannot stand Il at all. think this
! is about the worst climate; IL is
| enough TO kill a man" What is the
! difference? The thermometer does
not tell the whole story. To-day
! there are only sixty degrees OF hui
midity, but yesterday there were nine
". There is a certain unlisted ele-
ment in the weather that the thermom-
! eter does not make any account Of,
but that unlisted element makes all
the difference in the world. A man
is sick and his doctor tells that he
has an incurable disease and cannot
! live, because the medical records do
not show a single case Of recovery
from that particular disease. Never
theless the man RECEIVERS completely,
and the only way the astonished doc
tor can account for IL is by saying
that the man had n great fund of in
| eXhaustihle vitality. That vitality Is
the unlisted asset in the case.
This is the idea I have I'm mind
| when ! speak TO You concerning the
unlisted asset in Jesus. These people
| wanted to know certain things and
He wanted them to believe certain
things. There seemed 10 BE- some
doubt as TO the Messiah, and Jesus
asked them what sort OF man they
thought the Messiah was going to be.
Whose son will He be when He
comes?" and they said, why, Da-
vids SON" Then He said. Have we
not read the psalm wherein David
said. The Lord said unto my Lord?'
In the Jewish realm no man would
ever call his son Lord" How was
lit? They did not know. They found
IN the Old Testament Scriptures that
| ~ ,,n1fctaI aCCnt Now
history presents a similar problem
Things have happened that we cannot
account for in the ordinary way. Be
lore, or soon after, A. ID. 800, the pa
gan kings of Rome ceased to be, and
a confessedly Christian king sat In
the centre Of the Roman Empire.
Now the teachers of that gospel did
not have philosophy like the Romans
or literary culture like the people OF
Rome or Athens.
They suffered persecution and were
called "the eoff-scouring OF the world.
They had no armies. nor temples, ana
vet inside of $50 years they displaced
the Emperor on his throne by the
Gospel OF Jesus Christ How are you
going to account for that? Somehow
these unframed fishermen, and that
cast-out Pharisee of the Jewish eccle-
giastical institution, had gone ahead
with the unlisted power and won
these marvellous victories. Something
was there besides, something greater
than a son of David. A humble peas
ants son in Palestine prophssied that
His name should be above eSerythlng
and that all the nations OF the world
should know 1t and bow down 10 ~
What do we see to-day? Why, the
.f hn
guided by the fundamental principles
that that peasant taught. To-day the
philosophers of the world are slough
ing off all the speculations that are
not in harmony with the fundamental
conceptions and the peasants ideas
of God. All are admitting that they
must come 70 the recognition OF ths
existence OF an Infinite source and
personal God who controls all things,
and this is the specific statement OF
Jesus when He said: "Prar. our
Father, who art in heaven Every
statement and every theory or the
sociologists of this time is pre-stated
in the language OF the old Jewish
neasant's son and every great prinei-
ple that guides US is stated better by
Him. When you look over the world
YOU find that where this Gospel has
gone the world has new conceptions
OF man. Nowhere else do you ma
the conception OF man "in the image
of God" and standing In all funda-
mental essentials on common plat
form. II has given new conceptions
OF mans attitude toward God, OF his
duty TO his fellow man. There was
no conception of international law I'M
I'll Christianity brought It. And this
peasants son in Palestine prophesied
ali this recognition OF these princi-
piles 1900 years before. What are
we 20 say about that? Is He more
than a peasants son or Is there some
unlisted element there?
We must look around 20 find the
cause OF this unaccounted for phe-
nomenon OF history. We have .et-
bausted the assets OF Davld's son. and