The copper era., 1911-11-03

no man knows whence He is.-John 7:27 The fact that Jesus remained in | Galilee while his disciples went tc
 Jerusalem to attend the feast of the tabernacles aroused much discussion
 among the people. Suddenly in the
 midst of the talk, Jesus appeared, and
 began to address the gathering with
 the utmost frankness. At this those ! present were greatly surprised and many were half inclined to believe in
 him. However, they said that there | is nothing wonderful, occult or mys- ! terious about this man. We know | him, he is the son of Joseph, the car l penter, and Mary. Therefore, he can
 not be the Christ, for when he comes
 no one will know of him. The sugges-
 tion that this man about whom there
 was no suggestion of the preternatural
 or mysterious was the Christ offended the good people who were looking for their Savior's coming There was no thought of the nobility of character,
 the power of action, or the holiness of the life that would fit the man to lead Gods chosen people, but that he was too commonplace to be Gods messen- ger.
 This error is common, even today in the age of advanced learning and reasoning great truth stated in plain, cC1nprehensible, unvarnished words, will ofttimes fail to impress the nearer, when a lot of high-flOwn phrases, possibly meaningless, will give a conviction of depth of thought and power of expression. In fact, one of the most popular books of the day has won it's laurels in this manner. Throughout the ages the world has been humbugged by those who played oh this preconception of wisdom.
 The real truth when it comes to us is almost always just the reverse of this thought. It is simple, easily un- 6erstoOd, with no suggestion of the mysterious, occult or profound. Thus we find that the people are wrong in the main part, for the best messages and ideas are often conferred in the simplest of terms and come from the common man or woman. It is indeed well to be hospitable in the entertain ing of strangers, for they may turn out to be angels of God. Abraham in en- tertaining the three travellers found that they brought to him Gods mis-
 
 gate of Sodom, welcomed the footsore wanderers, who warned him of the destruction of the city. Not every an- gelic visitation has been made in this simple manner, but 1t is enough for us that many of the important ones have.
 To date all the progress made along lines of religious development have tended to simplify and to make more plain the ways of God. Browning in his prologue to "Oscelo' has stated very beautifully that man has stripped the covering of mystery from the trees. the mountains and the lakes, but that in doing so, it has brought him into closer touch with the Lord. God is indeed revealed in bare nature His truth is shown in the phenomena despoiled of their myster. and illu- sion. To those who go beyond the mere phenomena, and get into their meaning, God is far more wonderful than to those who regard him simply as the ruler of all things. If we could see and hear completely. we would be certain that all around us are revela- tiOns of God. The everyday friend slips of the office, the shop, the home, are many voices crying the will and love of the Lord
 To return to the story, we find that the people at the feast still believed that there was a Christ to come, and this faith is commendable. Had they believed that this man was the Mes siah, that the divine had transfgured the human and that the human had not dragged down the divine, they would have grasped the great truth in the matter. The secular is the shrine of-the sacred and not it's grave Gods love reaches out and through human love does great things, at the same time completely changing the latter. To some unfortunate people the destroying of the mysterious by science has also taken away God That is a grievous loss. All the deep CT, diviner influences that reach the human life are as active now as they ever were. We still need inspira ton from above, encoura cement and love which can be found only through God All that tends to dignify and to make beautiful the common and natural ! things is God, and to fail to sense the great love of God is to fail to secure ! a working foundation for life and for | eternity. Losing Gods love, we lose that which our best natures demand ! and need.
 The thought that angels may ap- pear in the garb of the common, every day traveller or worker Is the begin ming of wisdom, but not its end In order to complete the thought we must hear the message brought and then go out and apply it to our lives. do the task demanded and grow big ger. Then, even as angels appear as one Of us, so we as common people Of th4 earth paO do tba y,orl, oP n.