River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-03-24
The Glory of
the Nazarene
By Rev. VIM. E. Three, D. D.
And we beheld his glory.-John IL

mat citizen Oh lH0 earth, some
nineteen centuries ago, certain Syr-
ian Jew, one Jesus of Nazareth, lived
life that was life of glory, is the
thing that is here said. Other things
are said, but our matter of talk is
this. It is not a theological vision. but
plain record. THE word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we be-
held his glory"
Not that to the son of Zebedee
theological vision was wanting. To
him the historic Jesus of his genera
ton was an eternal, ineffable some
thing known as the Word OF God I'm
the beginning was the word and the
word was with God, and the word
was Cod" and "The word was made
flesh and dwelt among U.S." AS speech
is a revealing, message, from the
soul invisible, so the Christ was a
word from Cod Further, this Christ
was with John the potent universal
Creator. 'All things were made by
him and without him was not any
thing made that was made" This
same Creator and word has also life
and light. In him was life, and the
life was the light of men," There may
be existence without light, but exist
ence without life there is not, and
that new thrilling thing, the key of
being, the light of the world, and the
secret of destiny, is in the Christ.
Surely the invisible and overriding
Jesus shone zenith high in the eyes of
John, and there was theological vision
in plenty. But it was this vision be-
come flesh and dwelling among us
that was the immediate concern. One
too poor for where to lay his head;
barren of social prestige, without Gull
ture of the schools, writing no books,
showing scant regard for organism or
institutions, setting the sword into it's
sheath, beggaring himself deliberate
Iy of every arm of power in honor
with the ages, and so mighty as to
bend and rock the earth with his
tread, making men suspect him
nothing less than God, was a spectacle
unspeakable for a Galilean fisherman.
Fifty years and more he remembers
what his eyes have seen, and only the
greatest words under the sun and
stars are able to tell his tale. "And
we beheld his glory"
The glory of the Christ life may be
seen earliest, possibly, In that it is
the only one of it's kind. 1t was a
unique life. Jesus Christ was one,
"only begotten." In all the ages he
has no fellow. When Napoleon said:
mot one is like him. he had this
vision. 1t is of the genius of greatness
to carve a niche for itself, to fly in it's
own orbit, to evermore walk lonely.
Moses, Aristotle, Caesar, Shakespeare,
are memories of the forgotten, and
live among the dead. So there was
never another like the Son of Mary.
Reverence is born of respect, and wor-
ship Of the Christ may we'll begin by
finding him among the solitary few.
History can neither be written nor
read without mention of His name.
Jesus of Nazareth is even now Jesus
of the planet.
But the glory of Christ is unique,
especially, in being such glory to the
mind of God. Jesus is the only be-
gotten "of the Father" A compli-
ment of benediction gathers it's music
and fragrance from its source. The
great of earth must read their glory,
always, in a revised version. The
MONDAY light of one generation fades
in another to smoking taper Call
no man happy until he is dead" is an
ancient epitaph. Only the judgments
of the immortals stand. That the
life of the Christ is glory with the
Eternal, is at once patent of worth
and a call to prayer. That worship
of the historic Jesus is not rank
idolatry finds it's one reason here; he
is in time a veritable manifestation
of the eternal God. Forevermore the
Almighty Father exists in some fash
ion as a revealer, and in this fashion
never repeats himself. "'In the begin
ming was the word and the word was
with God" Like the shock of earth
quake or the rising of the sun this
divine word breaks into human his
tory as Jesus of Nazareth and passes
on, and very rightly men tarry in
reverence at his feet. That human
soul which sees in Christ a unique,
solitary, unsharable revealing of God
alone may worship him.
This leads me naturally to say that
the glory of the Christ life is seen also
in it's transcendence. 1t is a bio
graphy evermore parting from men
and carried out of their vision "The
darkness comprehended it not" The
world knew him not" Ills own re-
ceived him not" Men face the Christ
not only with mortal opposition, but
with mental collapse. They reject
him as surely that they are little as
they are wicked Their logic falls III
a heap. They walk by faith or stag
ger to the dust. Unless they believe
on his name, receive him, are given
right and power to be sons of God,
are vertically born again, they never
catch the glory of the Christ. A simply
human Christ, a Christ who is not
transcendent, turns every Christian
church into heather temple, baptism
to an empty, wicked farce, the bread
and wine to symbols of a gigantic
lie, and Christian people everywhere
into the most miserable of men.