The Penn's Grove record., 1911-06-16

Christ himself appeals to us. as he
did to the Jews of old when he says:
Judge not according to the ap-
pearance, but Judge the righteous
judgment"
And well we need to heed the ap
peal. To judge by appearance is a
most common weakness. OF all his
torical characters who have been sub
jected to the misjudgment of his fell
low men does not Christ stand en-
phatically marked as the Misjudged
One? Misjudged by his townsmen,
misjudged by the spiritual leaders OF
his time. whose duty 1t was to have
watched the signs of their times pre-
dicted by the prophets and SO clearly
fulfilled before their own eyes that
he that runneth might read, and yet
the majority failed to recognize the
Amounted One.
Misjudged by scribes, Pharisees,
the Sanhedrim with two notable ex-
ceptions, he did not even escape the
total misjudgment of his own dis
ciples and his own kin.
Not only did Christ's contempor-
aries fail to Judge the righteous judg-
ment. Others Of other times, yea,
even Of our own, have shown the
same lack of judgment. With the
Jews as a nation and within the
church, among the gentiles, though on
different lines, misjudgment Of Christ,
that somber specter-o of unbelief, has
tacitly adhered throughout the ages
as a doleful heirloom.
Mary, In her lack of appreciation
of the divinity of her child, fails to
judge a righteous Judgment when she
found him In the temple questioning
and hearing, and receives as a re-
buke: "Wist ye not that ! must be
about my fathers business?"
The scribes saw in him only the
carpenters son and, arrogant in their
classical pride, asked with super
cilious contempt, whence hath he
then this ~learning?"
The Parisees, blinded by their self
righteousness which amounted to
self-worship and created around them
selves an air Of exclusive sanctity in
nothing second to the caste feeling OF
the Brahman, seeing Jesus receiving
sinners and eating with them" and
Judging by appearances, saw In him
only one of the puebel aspiring to a
thing beyond his reach and ken and
said: praise God, we know that his
man is a sinner!"-John 1924.
The priesthood, who, with the
Parisees only added burden to burden
upon the people, without aiding them
with their smallest finger, as well as
the Sanhedrim as a whole, looked
upon this Jesus who did well, helping
all, as one playing to the galleries for
Interior purposes; q usurper n an
interloper within.
The Jew of today Judges most
harshly of him who has done most to
exalt the nation whose only excuse
for existence is that he, the despised
one, should come through 1t. for the
despising of whom they are today
despised, but through whom they
shall see him whom they have pierced
and acknowledged him the Messiah.
The Mohammedan judges Of him as
the prophet whose term has expired
only to be supplanted by another.
The Unitarian, the T~heosophist, the
Brahma Sumaj, Reformed Buddhist
and others Of a similar stamp, agree
In assigning to Christ a place in their
systems as a good man, the best man,
a teacher, a model, a prophet, yea,
even a God, lacking in judgment and
failing to judge the righteous 1udg-
ment.
And why? For, says Jesus, "Ye
Judge after the f1esh,"-John S:15.
sSpiritual things must be spiritually
d~iscerned.' God is a spirit and those
that worship him must worship him
in spirit and truth. Only those who
have been spiritually r~egenerated,
thus having received the spirit OF
God, can judge a righteous Judgment
of the person and divinity Of Jesus
Christ. No man can say that Jesus
is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit
1 Cor. 1873. who is a liar but he
that denieth that Jesus is the
Christ? He is anti-Christ who denieth
the Father and the SOM John,
2:22.
Is then Christ misjudged by allf
No, blessed be God, he has yet a
remnant preserved unto himself.
1000 knees who have not bowed
unto Baal."
Then asked Jesus Of them, Whom
say ye that l ann" And Simon
Peter answered and said. Thou are
the Messiah. the Son Of the living
Cod" And Jesus answered and said
unto him, blessed are thou. Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed 1t into thee but my father
which Is in Heaven"
The man who was born blind.
healed by Jesus, driven out OF the
by the blinded priests and
Pharisees, judged a righteous tudg-
ment and acknowledged and o
shipped Jesus as the Son Of Cod
John 8.
Jesus himself said John 10Y, Il am
the Son Of God. and furthermore the
Father and l are one. he who seeth
me seeth the Father"
At his baptism and at the trans
~1guration God himself by a voice out
of Heaven bore him witness. This is
a sure saying worthy of all accept
ance. Let US ask of him and he will
give you the spirit who will lead us
into all the truth as 1t Is in Christ