Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1909-04-29
not in harmony with the fundamental

conceptions and the peasants ideas
Of God. All are admitting that they
must come to the recognition of the
existence of an Infinite source and
| personal God who controls all things,
and this is the specific statement OF
Jesus when He said: pray, our
Father, who art in. heaven" Every
statement and every theory of the
sociologists Of this time is pre-stated
in the language of the old Jewish
| peasants Sol and every great princi-
pie that guides us is stated better by
Him. When you look owe the world
| you find that where this Gospel has
gone the world has new conceptions
Of man. Nowhere else do you find
the conception of man Fin the image
of God" and standing In all funda-
| mental essentials on a common plat
form. It has given new conceptions
of mans attitude toward God, Of his
| duty to his fellow man. There was
no conception Of international law IN
f! til Christianity brought it. And this
| peasants sol in Palestine prophesied
all this recognition Of these princi-
pies 1900 years before. What r
we to say about that? Is He more
than a peasants son or is there some
unlisted element therec
We must look around to find the
cause OF this un%accounted for phe-
| nomenon Of history. We have ex-
hausted the assets of David's son. and
we must find something else. Some
things, it Is true, can be accounted
for. as the son Of David, but not all.
The times and the character of Jesus
will account for some, but there is a
large residue left that cannot be ac-
counted. for that way. Some say,
Jesus is undoubtedly the pre-emin-
ent teacher Of the world. Nobody
ever equaled Him before or since or
is ever likely to-, but" they say,
shakespeare was undoubtedly the
highest genius in his line, and he
went so high that nobody aspires to
touch him. Socrates was a philoso-
pher. and in his line nobody aspires
to take away his crown. And so
Jesus in His line was the product of
His day. He came from the Jewish
people, a most pious family, in a time
when the world was trying to be so
wicked, and He was a splendid re!f-
gious genius and we bow down to
Him p~re-eminent in His sphere" Will
1t do? We will admit that the cir
cumstances and times did for Jesus
about all that coulu be done to make
Him pre-eminent as a moral teacher,
but why did not other people-the
martyrs. the Gisciples-why didn't
Paul rise to the same pre-eminence?
No man could lay a finger on Paul's
life and say, Here is a moral weak
ness that accounts for it." If Jesus
was no more than a peasants son He
never could, then or since, have com
handed the respect of a single man
such as He has now. Suppose a man
came frOm England and wanted us
to start Sturgeon clubs in every town
In America and worship Sturgeon;
or suppose some one wanted us to
start Phillips Brooks clubs and be-
come BrOoksites, we would say,
There is a sanitarium over there;
you had better go there" You see
that If Jesus were nothing more than
q pre-eminent son of David He would
be on the same plane with Sturgeon
and Brooks. We will honor such
men and take counsel from their wis
dom, but lever bow down to them.
And men would never bow down to
and worship Jesus Christ If He were
not something more than a son Of
David. But" you say, that hy-
| Dothesis does not account for the fact.
I'VE admit the mystery, but there
Is a certain unlisted element that we
cannot see yet" Let us see what His
apostles say. Paul had his own the
CRY when he said that He was "in the
form of God, yet He made Himself
OF no reputation and took upon Him
the form Of a servant. and was found
in the likeness Of the flesh and suf-
fered death, ven the death Of the
cross" There is a notion of pre-ex-
dstence. That is Paul's conception Of
the unlisted asset, that pre-existing
glory with. God. That does not an
swer the question, but it answers
something. He did what David never
did. He took on Him our form and
went back to accomplish the finish OF
the work. In the Hebrews we reao
that He was the express image OF
God and by Him all things consisted
and held together" So you have the
hypothesis OF His being larger than
David's son.. who took on Him the
form Of David's son. Then we find
Jesus speaking with authority. 1T
: hath been seid by men of old time.
~ A~- $3.50 2EZ LA :,