Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-10-06
hat suffered and died for them.

that suffered and died for them.
That is another great, big truth.
has been too great for the minds Q
men, and so they have thought of tn
suffering as being a mere incident il
his life. Or they have turned his teach
ings upside down and have made them
selves believe that he suffered to appeas
the wrath of God or to reconcile God t.
men, or to satisfy a law of God, or t.
make forgiveness possible when the ain
and object and purpose was to SHOW
the love of God which bears the sin
of many that men may 90 free.
"ln the last place, we have in tn,
gospel the secret of life There are two
conceptions of the secret of life. There
is the CONCEPTION of tn Pharisee o.
Christ's time, of the religionist of the
middle ages, and of our more modern
| Puritanism.
1T is that lfe's secret is strong will
| within set to obey law without. The
law says, Thou shalt not steal; thou
shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit
adultery; thou shalt not bear false wit
ness. To live strong, A'ic life, I
must obey these laws, even though I
would like to disobey some of them.
There are three attitudes toward law.
The first is the attitude Of the man who
is indifferent and violates law with i'm
pr1nity. That is the attitude of the
criminal. The second is the attitude of
the man no says, If ! violate law
will suffer penalty To avoid this,
will studiously keep the law That is
the attitude of the religionist of the mid
die ages.
"The ideal attitude is the attitude of
Paul Law for him has not passed
away. Law never passes away. But he
had brought himself into harmony with
it, SO that he was able to write, We are
not under law. but under grace And
also, Brethren, ye are called unto lib
ertyv That is the liberty of the larger
life. the life in which all is harmony
with the laws of God And the secret
of it, he gives us in the words. 4 live.
yet not 7, but Christ liveth in me- and
the life I now live is life of faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and who
gave himself for me- The secret of
Paul's wonderful life is in the fact that
he had come into personal touch with
the Eternal And coming into this per-
sonal touch, the law of love had entered
into him, which is the law of perfect
liberty. The obligation of law is not
set aside, but it is TRANSPORTED.
THAT is the Christ secret of life
which is part of the good news to men.
He never wanted to give himself to
pleasure, but for the sake of reward or
to avoid punishment, gave himself to
sacrifice instead. He never wanted
riches, and yet put them aside because
it was his duty to do so. No! No:
Here was one who was inspired by the
larger life and lived the larger life, and |
so was able to say, I do always the |
things which are pleasing to him. He
was not a man who of set purpose did !
what God told him to do, but he was
one who was so in harmony with God
that he thought Gods thoughts, willed
Gods will, and lived Gods life. IN the
Utmost thought and experience he was
working with God.
"The secret of life-what is it? I am
the vine, ye are the branches. A vital
contact with the divine so that the d.
vine blood flows into our veins, the
divine life into Our being. We become
one with Christ by personal contact
with him. 1t has been we'll said that
the greatest power in the world is per-
sonal power, the power of one person.
ality over another. That is the power
of the great soldier. Phil Sheridan
could ride down the line and cry out,
Boys, we are going this way and turn
a rout into a charge He inspired his
soldiers with a new courage. He put
new heart into them That is the pow
er of the great leader.
"That is true of the orator. There
are some men learned in all that the |
schools have to impart, with splendid |
diction, perfect rhetoric, graceful ap-
pearance, studied gestures, and yet will
rock the cradle of stupid congrega-
ton to Sleep And there are other men
who have received no training in ora
tory, whose diction is far from splen-
did, who violate all the rules of rhetor-
ic, who stumble in. their grammar, who
are awkward in their gestures and un-
couth in appearance, and yet they have
the power to inspire and enthuse and up
life. Why is it? What is the secret
or 1t! One mas IN MIN the power to
impart life, and the other has not.
IF the touch of the human person.
atty means 50 much, what must be the
touch the divine personality mean] If
it means so much to have a man put
himself into the hearts and lives Of
other men and live in them, what must
it mean to have oGd put himself into
mems lives and live there? And it is
part of the gospel message that he does
that very thing. As he has come in ma
ture, so he has come in man. As every
song of the bird is his song, as every
Rower that blooms speaks his beauty, as
every thunder of the storm utters his
voice, so he has come in man-in man,
not outside man. His, laws are not ex-
:ernal laws by which I must square my 7
conduct, but the laws of my own ma
nm