The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-12-02
''ReIixIon and Art'-Christ Before
PLATE.

Sunday evening in the Baptist
church Rev. George Laughton gave
the first Of series of sermons on
Religion and Art" The topic was
Christ Before PLATE, and those who
attended received reproduction of
Hoffman's famous picture. He said
in part: ut is generally conceded
that Christianity has given to Art
its most exalted ideas, and arts
highest mission has been to reveal
to the world Jesus Christ in his
birth, in His life, in His death and
in his resurrection. Go to Europe
and you will find that three-fourths
of the paintings in the great gal
leries of Antwerp, Munich, Dresden,
Florence, Rome, and Madrid, are
Biblical, and OF these two-thirds re-
late in some form to the person and
ministry of Christ. This evening i
want to direct your attention to
subject that has engrossed the at
tention of the great artists. 1t is
said that there are no less than 60
different pictures of Christ before
PLATE. The one you are looking at
is a reproduction of Hoffman's great
painting. Is there message in
that scene for US today? There were
many great Romans living at the
time of the crucifixion, but the name
of Pontius PLATE will be remember
ed when the name Of every other
Roman is forgotten. His career
furnishes us with the most emphatic
dramatic incident of the irony of fate
that history affords. By the irony
of fate is meant the march of events
to an issue the very opposite of that
which the cunning Of man has in
tended, and that irony of fate is the
moving of Gods finger. This man
was the autocratic ruler of Jew
ish city, but the men he despised
and hated bent his will to theirs.
He knew that in Christ there was no
fault but at the behest of others
he who stood as the representative
of Rome's unyielding power, scourg-
ed Christ as common malefactor.
And the Irony of fate reaches its
climacteric point in this-that PLATE
who wanted nothing to do with
Jesus, found this anne Jesus ines
capable. PLATE declared Jesus to
be innocent, and yet in it's last stage
it was Pilates hand that nailed
Jesus to the Cross. He was the one
man who might have saved Jesus
on that awful day."
The speaker then went on to
describe certain events in the life OF
PLATE which showed what manner
he was.
but the frame work of this
mans history does not interest us
as much as his spiritual history.
When we study that with the charity
that ought to fill our hearts we shall
be inclined to think pitifully of the
man. He was a man of fine mind.
More sermons have been preached
from the words PLATE spoke on that
day than from any other words
spoken by those who took part in the
woe-laden tragedy. What is Truth?'
Behold the Man. What Shall l do
With Jesus?' Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews What / Have
Written, / Have Written, are all
words spoken by PLATE. Truly this
man was one of whom James Rus
sci Lowell's words are applicable:
Once to every man and nation comes
the moment to decide, In the strife
of truth with falsehood, for the good
or evil side: Some great cause. Gods
new Messiah, offering each the
bloom or blight, Part the goats up
or the left hand and the sheep up
on the right; and the choice goes by
forever 'twix that darkness and that
light
And yet we must not isolate this
man and his crime and his fate.
Though this spiritual tragedy was
played out to it's close on the high
stage of history two thousand years
ago, and before the face of Christ
vet it is not unlike some of the
tragedies that are happening today,
and in which we perhaps take a
part. Few men betray Christ in
cold blood as did Judas. Few die
reviling Him as did the impenitent
thief. But every day men refuse
Christ's claims. They decline to
commit themselves to the acceptance
or rejection of them. For mark
you, we are not called upon to &C
cept some opinion about Christ, we
are not compelled to accept this or
that dogma on His Person; to join
some other branch of His church
is not indispensable to an entrance
into his kingdom. These things may
trouble and bewilder you. But to
call an appeal of Jesus. to acknowl-
edge the sovereignty of his charac-
ter, to be true to the pattern of his
life, to enter into his spirit and tenn
per, to these things there is only one
of two answers. In this hour you
are either accepting or rejecting
Christ.
With what awful sanctions is this
gospel of the inevitable decision
pressed home. The spiritual content
of human history, the experiences of
v,,;II;onS IF aarth's living children