Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-02-18
Jesus Was Poet of Human Soul By Rev. J. EDWARD kIRBYE Pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church,
 Des Msines, Iowa

Robert Browning has sometimes been called the poet of the soul. This has been said of him because he analyses, sees deeply, feels intensely, loves romantically and interprets wisely; but I am sure that Jesus Christ is a greater poet of the human soul. 1 say poet, because there is a distinct literary charm, an intellec- tual height, an imaginative qualityt a wise insight into the soul of man, Tin this message which he is speaking.
 He knew men, and that statement from one of the sacred writers has a great deal of meaning in it. He knew God more intensely than others. He may have lacked education. He may have associated with the schools in Jerusalem and imbibed their culture. but no one ever emphasized more deeply, felt more intensely, inter- preted more wisely than did Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is analyst of the moods of the soul and offers a solution to it's problems. He reveals to man the heart of the divine.
 He is not philosopher in the ordi. nary acceptance of this term. A phil osopher is one who is skilled in so phistry, in science, one who looks up on reason as the infallible guide, who schools himself to think and practice only at the dictates of cool reason. That is the meaning of the word phil osophy. Jesus did not forsake his reason, but in the sense that we un- derstand philosophy. He did not aim at this achievement, but he did be lieve that he saw the moods of the soul of man and believed that there were highways of progress out and beyond the reaches of the stoic cpl curean philosophy of his day and he challenged these to an intellectual combat. You cannot fail to see his underlying principles in this sermon. He had thought them out carefully, had seen them in their relations ano believed fully on their wisdom and practicability.
 Jesus is not scientist. A scientist ID OAAS "iiO oi1lQooVo hAO ACo6Ct oS verely tests it, co-ordinates and syste matizes it, until he reduces 1t to an accuracy, especially with reference to the laws of nature. He is not par. ticularly interested in humanity, ex cepting as this humanity serves nls good. Jesus did not do that. He hae no laboratory, made no experimental tests.
 His only logic was truth in all its relations, as it loomed large upon the horizon of his soul. Jesus was the post-thinker in Gods out-of-doors. The human heart and men in human rela- tions engaged his thought and atten. tion. The altruistic motive was al ways uppermost. And yet. while Jesus was not distinctly scientist, his psychology is in harmony with tn most modern interpretations of the moods of the human mind. and some of the principles of modem pedagogy are very forcibly expressed in tht sermon on the mount
 Jesus is not a theologian in the ordl nary acceptance of that term. nor ir the acceptance of the term as 1t wa> known in Jerusalem in his day. The theologian emphasized the value C.. law, the logic of the law and the logic of theory. Jesus did not do that Jesus said very emphatically that man was much greater than the law. anc much more important than theory; that law was made for man and not man for law, and out of this value he placed upon the human soul he re- constructed a thought of the father hood of God, the brotherhood of man and the essential value of his own per sonality. which makes his doctrine unique. But human interest was nev CT sacrificed to the interest of the ory or an ecclesiastical proposition
 It is not of Christ, then. the philos opher, the teacher, the scientist or the theologian, but the Christ who was in terested in the multitude because he believed that he had remedies for their ills. healing for their sickncsses. life instead of death. hope instead o. sorrow. I like this thought of Mat thew in introducing Jesus to us in this wonderful sermon: And seeing the multitude. he went up into mountain. !" The multitude interested him. They were upon his heart. They had left their cares, their tasks. their anxle. ties, their bickerings and had come to hear him.