The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1909-12-10
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. L. O, ROTENBACH
Theme: Love of Christ.

byterian Church, the pastor, the Rev.
L. o. Rotenbach, NJ. A, Sunday morn
ing preached on THE Optimism and
Omnipotence of Love-" He took as
his text, John 1894, and l. Corin-
thians 1873: "a new commandment
l give unto you, that We love one an
other; even as have loved you, that
We also love one another" Love
never faileth."
Mr. Rotenbach briefly dwelt upon
the scene in the upper chamber at
Jerusalem as presented by John,
bringing out the touching contrast as
revealed on the one hand in the weak
ness and petty self-seeking Of the dis
ciples, with the strength and self-re-
nunciation of the Master, while He
girded Himself and bathed their feet;
and on the other hand, in the callous
unresponsiveness of Judas pursuing
his sordid purpose, with the unfailing
tenderness of the Christ committed
to His passion, as He gave the sop
and Judas went out. By the contrast
he brought out vividly the optimism
and omnipotence of the love of Christ,
and then continued:
What elements can we discover In
this love which is pre-eminently the
love of Jesus? Are they not these,
namely-vision, faith, sacrifice? AS
to vision. Just recall the age or rath-
er Jesus point of contact with the
age. Through Nazareth ran one of
the great caravan routes connecting
the great sea on the west with Dam
ascus in the east, and this was crossed
at points by the coast route to Egypt,
ca fhof Na1oyof6SS CT fc 70 ~
lar with Syrian and Tyrian, Roman
and Greek, as we'll as Jew. AS cara
van centre much that was coarse, un-
humanity, was in evidence, to say
nothing of the vices of the Roman
times that even so-called culture
boasted. No wonder the exclamation,
"Can any good thing come out of Naz-
areth?" Thirty years of that unique
life were spent here. There is also
His contact with His own people, the
Jews; we'll did He know their incon-
sistency of character, SO startlingly
revealed when one day they cried,
"Hosannah, blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the Lord" and the
next with equal vehemence, "Away
with Him; cruelty HIM" And then
there is the irreligious attitude and
activity Of the great leaders of relig-
ion, Pharisee, Sadducee and scribe,
whose envy and hatred bounded Him
to death, to say nothing of the weak,
halting and vacillating character of
those called to be His disciples.
Such was the Masters world con-
tact-His touch at different points
with the spirit and conditions of His
age. This was what He saw; but was
this all that He saw? For this surely
no vision was needed and no man
need become seer.
Beneath this fotsam and jetsam,
this superficial aspect of the ebbing
and flowing tide of human life, down
In the deeps, He saw with the true
seer's eye the wondrous possibilities,
human and divine, of the essential
man, inherent in all humanity, which,
If realized, would make man in a
transcendent sense the child OF God.
Think you this was the result of OBJ
servation? Say, rather, that obser-
vation tended to confirm it. "He
knew what was in man." because He
knew what was in Himself. Exper-
fence, personal, wherein He realized
the possibilities of His own inner life,
not miracu1ously, but naturally, and
enabled Him to sec that the true man
is within, and If realized in actual
life, would be glorious.
Then, again, the love of Jesus Is
characterized not only by vision,
which sees the best in man and his
noblest possibilities, but also by faith
that intense life-gripping conviction
which unfalteringly believes that there
can and shall be realized in the spirit
and life of personal experience by
man, so that He shall be their living
expression. VIII you say that His
own experience had nothing to do
with this faith? Then remember ''He
was tempted at all points like as we
are" He knew what the power Of
sin was and He also knew that sin
could overcome by the faith and the
love of God, and He overcame, as we
must overcome. How else His atti-
tude toward the woman of sin at His
feet in the temple when the religion
lists accused, when He said to her,
penitent, Neither do L condemn
thee" How else defend His story of
the two sons, the one the prodigal and
the other worse than prodigal for
ihSoh ciu idI LOW oCl1uSuuCSS, w uO
stayed at home? Or how understand
His potent, painstaking efforts to
teach and train, to develop and to
give character to His very imperfect
and ofttimes SHINING disciples? He
had profound faith in the redemp-
tive quality in man.
He believed with all the intensity
OF His being that man could become
the child of God. crowned with honor
and glory.
And once more He not only saw the
vision beautiful, not only believed
that it could be realized in living hui
man expression, but He utterly aban-
doned Himself in sacrifice to it's act
ual realization, who for the JOY set
before Him endured the cross, despis-
ing the shame"
Could that superficial aspect Of hui
manity which He saw and came into
touch with in the spirit and condition
of His age, that Grass superstition,
that cruelty and lechery in high
places as we'll as low, that abandon
ment to vice which gloried in it, that
haunting hypocrisy-could that in
spire joy for the cross, the joy of self
sacrifice?
Ihe vision with its penetrating
glance into the deeps of life with their
wondrous possibilities, which angels
might envy; the faith that believed,
yea. knew that all this could be act
ualized in the living experience and
expression of spirit and character in
man, these and only these mads possi-
BILE the joyous abandonment Of Jesus
Christ in the self sacrifice of love to
their certain realization.
And that cross of Jesus 10 more,
far more, than those crossed pieces of
timber on Calvary. The cross was His
life and especially the brief years OF
His ministry.
Then take that scene in the upper
chamber. Jesus bathes the disciples
feet? Yes, but notice, He bathes the
feet of Judas! Judasi yea, more, as
He sits down He says, He that eat
eth My bread lifted uphis heel against
Me- 1t would seem Is though a
heart of stone would break Yet there
sits Judas unmoved. Did Jesus de-
sist? lie speaks again, and He is
moving toward a climax in His reach
ing after the soul of this man. ''Veri-