Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-02-26

nothing violent to thought in the claim that God became man.
 The Christian conception is con- pletely incorporated in the substance of the gospels. It obtrudes itself too forcibly in every line to be removed without destroying the gospels as a whole. Rationalizing critics who have essayed to tear the gospel into sheds have been unable to eliminate the superhuman and Christ character and they who destroy faith in his di- vinity furnish part of one of the strongest arguments in favor of it. The men who originated and main tained the school of destructive cri- ticism have written their own pro- fession of faith in Christ of the au- thentic gospels.
 Strauss says: Never at any time will it be possible to rise above Him. nor to imagine any who should even be equal with him.
 Parker says: Jesus pours out a doctrine beautiful as the light, sub lime as Heaven, true as God
 Renan says: Between thee and Gcd there is no longer any distinc- tion, thou has completely overcome death. Take possession of thy King dom
 In the testimony of all these and of all other critics of that adverse school, Christ is the most perfect of men. So perfect that he stands pre- eminently and excessively alone, but we say, if Christ were not God. not only is he not good, but the most colossal imposter, the most deceitful of men, for by direct statement and explicit claim, confirmed by works to Which He referred as evidences of his claim-a claim for which he died He created conviction that has nev- CT died, that is the the eternal God. Not only did he make the claim ex- plicit. but he appropriated to Him. self an addition, the exclusive attri- butes of deity, perfected holiness such as no mortal ever dared to pre- tend to, superiority and mastership over the laws, the Prophets of the Old Testament He claimed that in his person the Old Testament pro- phesies were fulfilled. He appealed to the Old Testament prophecies in confirmation of that claim He claim ed and received the worship and the love of mankind, worship, which in kind is due to God alone. In con- firmation of the same claim he ut tered prophecies as evidences of the truth. He said, for instance, You want sign. I will furnish a sign of my resurrection from the dead on the third day. And if the eviden- tial value of miracles wanes with the lapse of time, the evidential value of prophecy increases. He, an obscure peasant, the ideal of a despised race, who died to all appea rances defeated, boldly and unaquivecally proclaimed that He would establish a worldwide kingdom that should endure to the end of time, that He would Worship and live by all the generations of men, that he would work a moral re- volution, which would be the source of progress. Christianity, with its mi raculous history, its undying life and It's incon1parable worth, testifies to the absolute truthfulness of that pro- phecy. The obscure Nazarene of cen- turies ago dominated the world of the Twentieth century; the years are named for it. The laws of every pro- gressive nation takes count of His philosophy, the literatures of the world proclaim him, the best minds are engaged with the truths which he revealed, the hearts of the purest are given to him with an enthusiasm fresh and miraculous as the life of the apostle protesting Nothing can sepa- rate me from the life of God and Christ, Jesus.' The child who lisps his name at it's mothers knee, and the old man who calls his name in his declining day, bear witness to the sublime faith of the world in Him, whom the world has always recog- nized as God. The nations that have