The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1909-02-19
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON eY
FATHER MURRAY.
Constitution of the Church.

. .
preached Sunday morning on THE
Constitution of. the Church" from
this text:
"All power is given to Me in heav-
en- and in earth. Go, therefore. teach
We all nations; baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son.
and of the Holy Ghost. teaching them
10 observe all things whatsoever
have commanded you: and behold |
am with you all days, even 10 the
consummation of the world" Father
Murray said:
This is the constitution of the
church. We find il at the end of the
first gospel. Ii is the greatest docu-
ment of all time. 1t applies TO every
land till time shall be no more. IL is
brief and il is perfect. 1t suffers no
amendment. God is its author.
AS IL is God that gave il, II is from
Him IT. derives all its importance.
And its Importance is TO be measured
by the importance of it's Author
Other constitutions there are framed
oy men, rich in blessings, hut they
are for nation. This is for a world.
Nations die and with them their con-
stitutions. This will endure as long
as the race. Manifold are its bless
ings, as was 10 be expected from its
Author, of whom the meek and in
spired Moses is the head of the book
records. In the beginning God
created heaven and earth" Such is
God The prophet lsaias tells us that
he saw the seraphs, the highest choir
OF angels, in the presence of their
Creator. and that he heard them cry
ing one TO another: Holy. holy, holy,
the Lord God OF hosts, all the earth
is full of His glory" Great, then, is
the constitution of the church
] have told you that II was God
that gave the constitution OF the
church. It's words are the words of
Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God q.
the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity From eternity this Person
had "all power in heaven and in
earth" This same divine Person as
the Person OF Christ's humanity,
which He assumed that He might suf-
fer for us, has now also "all power in
heaven and in earth" When He died
as man, for He could not die as God,
He merited all power This Is the
power He refers to in the preamble
of the great constitution that He gave
TO His church. This power is the
source and strength of that constitu-
ton.
1t was for us Christ died. With
out doubt when He died for us He
showed us the deepest affection. To
use Lincoln's expression on the field
of Gettysburg: He paid the last full
measure OF devotion" When He
gave His life, He made a sacrifice so
much greater than the sacrifice of
our lives would be as a divine person
is greater than we. Jesus has been
so good to us that we ought to regard
Him as an other self.
The power that Christ merited we
find Him shortly using in our inter
ests. He first uses IL in sending His
apostles to teach men the new thing
that had come TO pass. How else
could they know that they had Saw
iour? His command was: Teach We
all nations" Gre9t as was that COM
mand, ii was not equal to the charity
that prompted It, for Jesus is love IT.
self And in what was He their Saw
Jour? He was to save them from
their sins That we do not appre-
ciate the evil of sin Is mans great
misfortune. We know that II we ap-
preciate the evil OF sins we would not
commit them. II they are blotted out
only by the blood Of the Son OF God
Il is no wonder that we do not under
stand them. We do understand sin
enough to know that II is disgusting
and Injurious. How disgusting and
injurious then must IL appear in the
sight Of Cod, The philosophers give
us another aspect Of sin. They tell
&c n nf a.
thing we ought to possess. Want
sometimes becomes very hard to bear
Sin in the soul is the greatest want,
for It means want of spiritual life. A
dagger will kill the body. Sin is the
most deadly of all daggers, for it kills
the soul.
When Christ came the world was
reeking with sin. So disgusting is
the account history gives us that we
think we could not endure to live
arong the abominations of the past.
BY their sins. men, not only as indi-
viduals, but as whole nations, had Of
Tended the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost They had made an
enemy of Him that could send them
to eternal punishment. Christ mer-
oifully commands His apostles to
wash away the sins OF the nations,
baptizing them in the name OF the
Father and OF the Son and Of the
Holy Ghost. This was an exercise Of
that almighty power that He had re-
ceived Thus was the account which
the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost had against them 10 be washed
away in the waters OF baptism What
n debt the nations owe 70 Christ!
AS the Issue proved. IL was no easy
task 70 which the apostles were sent.
Christ sent them TO do mems work.
But the apostles were full Of the sub
lime spirit of the Saviour. who had
trodden the winepress alone. For
three years they had imbibed the
lion spirit OF Christ. So difficult was
their task that in its discharge they
one and all encountered the martyrs
trial. The foul spiriti OF darkness
did not yield without a contest, but
he had 20 yield. We can glory that
Christ so filled His apostles with His
n.