The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-08-24
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. C. B. ETSLER.
Theme: Christie Consciousness.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Sunday morning
the Rev. Clarence Bartlett Etsler,
pastor of the Church of the Good It'd
ings, preached on "The Essential Me-
diation of the Christie Consciousness"
The text was from I. John $40: He
that believeth on the Son OF God hath
the witness in himself" Mr.. Etsler
said:
In this day of skeptical spiritual
unrest and mental reconstruction, we
hear considerable speculation as to
the peson and place Of Jesus Christ.
I want to convince you that questions
of Christ's ~genealogy and birth are
overshadowed in Importance for us
by the experience. of His conscious
birth within our present lives.
We ask no man to believe In Jesus
Christ as the Son Of God upon histor-
ical evidence alone, for such evidence
may not be satisfactory to all. But
we do ask every man to believe on the
Son of God and the power OF a Christ
like life, upon the witness of the
Christ consciousness. He that be-
lieveth on the Son Of God hath the
witness in himself"
We do not ask mento give credence
to external evidence, but we commend
to every soul the Christ witness in
himself. We ask some of our breth-
rem, what was the purpose of Jesus
life, and they reply that He was God
in human form seeking by His death
and suffering to cancel mankind's
debt unto Himself in a substitutional
atonement of vicarious sacrifice, what
soever that may be. If Christ was
God and found it necessary to con-
form to such a complicated process IN
order to placate Himself, then we are
w~orshiping a God who violates cur
conception of perfect justice.
But some will say: "Ah! then you
deny the divinity of Christi" No.
most Enthusiastically, we do not. We
affirm He was divine and we affirm
the divinity of every created soul.
We affirm Christ was divine and we
affirm the same for all mankind.
Christ's mission was to reveal the
vital truth that He and we, and every
soul that lives are children of the
living God.
The consciousness Of Christ was d
consciousness of His divine relation
ship to God as Father and Son. Our
consciousness, the price Of a complete
life, is a consciousness Of our relation
ship to Christ and fellowntan as
brothers all, and through that on
seriousness the supreme revelation.
like that which came to Him that we
are Gods offspring, too. Not that
Christ was God. conceived OF Him
self in any miraculous way, but that
He was born as you and l, according
to Gods established means of re-cre-
alton. and that His heritage was the
heritage we all receive of human evo-
luton and divine self consciousness.
How does Christ differ from other
men we ask? In this, His perfect coll
seriousness of sonship with God. But
does this explain His power to heal
the sick and to speak peace unto troll
bIed souls, or are the recorded evil
iences Of His seeming supernatural
Dower to be relegated to the realm OF
myth and legend? In the light OF
modern knowledge, we believe the
seemingly inexplicable occurrences OF
the s~o-called miracles of Christ were
out the natural results Of His supreme
God-consciousness. "Christ's Cod
consciousness called to His Father
through all space. He sent His word
and healed; the wind and waves
obeyed His will. 1t Is written that
He touched the higher etheric vibra-
lions with the powerful thought OF
His master mind and the thought
turned into wine and loaves and
6shes-"higher intelligence projected
into form through the God-conscious-
ness"
But why may not we come forth
with into vital union with God; why
with Christ can we not attain to the
God-consciousness at once? why
might not the art student create the
masterpiece of all Angelo? Why
might not the young wood worker
produce a Cremona or a Strad? Why
might not a freshman engineer de
sign a Brooklyn Bridge? Why might
not the graduate from the pushcart
brigade presume to pilot a Packard
over the Vanderbilt cup course?
Must they not all receive a masters
instruction and gain perfection by
their steady attention to trifles under
the masters guiding hand? For
there is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the mai
Christ Jesus" 20 God, Thou hast
searched me and known me, Thou art
acquainted with all my ways. There
is not a word in any tongue but 10,
o God, Thou knowest it altogether.
Such knowledge Is too wonderful Tor
me: it is high, I cannot attain unto
it,"
Such, in substance, is the complaint
Of many who have sought the Cod
consciousness without the mediation
of Jesus Christ. And because they
have found it not they have said:
ut is too high for me, I cannot attain
unto it, it is reserved for the favored
few" AS sensible for the raw student
who fails to produce the masterpiece
to give up in hopeless despair. Jesus
answered and said, if a man love Me
he will keep My words and My Father
will love him and we will come unto
him and make our abode with him;
neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son and he to whom the SoL
will reveal Him."
We may repeat the affirmation that
we believe in the universal father
hood Of God, but God-consciousness
can only come from within. Not all
the affirmation of a lifetime can take
the place of the internal evidence.
Our consciousness, however, is de-
pendent largely upon our objective
experience. it is gagged in great
measu by our active relation of life