East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-12-25

| taining to the SeasOE's most suDllme
and appropriate theme, "The Deity
OF Jesus" II Jesus were only a man,
why has not our century produced a
better one? Time has improved up
on everything else. We have clean
| er moral atmosphere than Jesus had.
Only the most radical and unbalanc-
ed cynic. would deny that the world
has improved since Jesus time. Hav-
| Ing therefore, an environment more
salubrious to moral character today
than Jesus had, why have we not sur
passed him? 1 challenge you who
believe that Jesus as only man, to
reconcile that belief with the fact that
you are a better man than He was.
On the contrary, the character of Je-
sus, as admitted by all, was so perfect
that it requires more faith-yea even
credulity-to believe that such a
character could be only man than
to believe that He was God Again,
think of His spiritual discernment
"He spake as never man spake.'
Where did he learn what He taught
us about God. All the tangible con-
ceptions that we have of God today
are due to Jesus teachings and life.
Mere words of a teacher cannot i'm
part an original concept of God. The
human mind is such that it requires
a concrete illustration. That is the in
trinsic proof and necessity of the in
4 carnation.
Certainly Jesus thought He was di-
vine, or else He was an imposter ana
a hypocrite, because He assured all
His followers that He and the Father
we're one: "He that hath seen Me,
hath seen the Father" He claimed
higher authority than even the sac
red scriptures: at is written but
/ say" He placed Himself above the
sabbath: 'The Son of man is Lord
of the Sabbath" He placed Hlmsell
above Abraham, the father or the
Hebrew people: Before Abraham
was, am" Yet, "a greater than
solomon is here" He also claimed
pre-existence: In his prayer to the
Father He said, "Glorify Thou me
with thine own self with the glory
which I had with Thee before the
world was" Finally He claimed to
be absolutely without sin: "Whlen
OF Won convinceth me of SIM" mo-
once did He ever betray the slghtes'
consc, business of wrong-d doing. his
own testimony is that He was Goa
and all the New Testament writers be-
lieved Him.
Not only so, but Christianity has
been built upon that testimony ano
thar belief. Could so great struc'
ture. with it's 1000 years in process
Y of erection have been built upon er
ror and delusion? 1t is unprecedent
8 ed and unbelievable that the sahu
stone of error could support so grea
!, a structure for so long a period. Jes
t MS in history! He walks down TN
+ centuries with the tread of con
:, dueror, He has lifted empires Oh
y their hinges and turned the stream
e of history into new channels. VIVA
: is the explanation Certainly HIS la
d hors were too large for the callber o
J. man So thought Napoleon who sa
d 81 know men. and Jesus Christ Is nc
: man. Superficial minds see re
Is semblance between Christ and IN
founders of great empires and IN
o gods of other religions. That resehl
D, b,ance does not exist. There is be
d tween Christ and all other religion
whatsoever the distance of intihitE-
d Alexander. Char,emagne, Caesar an
myself have founded great empire
unon force. Jesus alone founded IA
= amnire upon love and millions toda
q would die for Him. I think I-undel
4 stand something of human hatur'
Z and 1 tell you Jesus Chlst was rioi
than a man."
I History-that is the test. by the
4 fruits We shall know them" D'soeli'
II in the Deity of Jesus is not new OF OF
1 iginal While He Walked the stree
of Jerusalem some said: "You beln
man. are making yourself Gou
They organized and were known
tho Ehionites But in the fifth cel
turv thew vanished from the cart
sIotar other organizations were TORN
cd There were the Gnostics OF u
SECOND century. the Neoplauonlsts
tho third Arianism of the fourth, al
4 Socinianism of the sixteenth me
all rejected the divinity of Christ p'
thev soon weakened and passeu aW"
The only one that has remnant
Socinlanism. which became the tou'
n dation of modern Unitarianism' l.
nc Glance a moment at its history al
g the fruits of its belief. In the egg
teenth century it struck its roo'S de'
into the Presbyterian churches
England-with this result: L
mentab'e decline in English PresoEI
rianism from that date, and today
e among the weakest denomlnato
Of that country, tagging far hehh
the Baptists, Congregationalists al
wesleyans. History talks, But 10,
again: Unatarium next seized |
Episcopal "Tling's Chapel of BosIo
nearly all the faculty of Harvard -
Iere and the Beacon street aristo
racv soon after the Congregation
| churches came over to the Unltarl
! view of Jesus Certainly Unitarian.
!. had a fair chance, if money and orai
H are of any advantage. All TINS ma
j nened in the first quarter of the n'r
teenth century. What are the resu
N after eighty years of trial? The L
| Congregationalists who clung to
| Divinity of our Lord. today num'
| 100000, while the Unitarian eiem'
which was in the lead eighty ye'
ago. today number about one-tei
that many, or 10000, The conc'
II 1 to pr1x-