Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1914-10-02
TRIBUTE FROM AL
rThinkers@and Writers Of Every
Age Have Admired Divine :
Character of Christ.

What think We of Christi" is the
greatest question man ever mas
flung at him, and to put 1t aside Win
either carelessness or irreverence Is
the token of a. shallow mind.
In this day Of commercialism's ST.
premacy in the realm of action ana
the inordinate preponderance of phys
ical science in the realm of thought
are we giving due thought to the splr-
itual element in our Interpretation OF
life? If we are not, certainly an hon.
est and serious effort to form just
appreciation of Jesus Christ and the
place which he has acquired in both
civics and philanthropy, as well as IN
commerce and ethics, is we'll worth
while,
1t is no easy thing to form a just
appreciation Of Jesus. None OF US
ever saw him in the flesh. Few OF
us have even visited the land where
he was born or mingled with its peo'
pie and customs We are dependent
on others for his life story, and what
we think of the life which he lived,
of his teachings about God and life
and duty, of his claims and his deeds
our opinion Of all such things must
be formed at secondhand.
1t Is exceedingly interesting to read
what the prominent men Of history
thought of Jesus. Both Josephus, the
Jewish historian, and the jewish
TalmUd recognize his historic reality,
and the latter accounts for his mira
cles by the exercise Of magic learned
In Egypt, while Tacitus, the Latin
historian, and Pliny the Younger In
cidentally testify to his death under
Pontius. Plate, and his worship by
the Christians as God. CELSIUS, in the
second century, the first heather phi
losopher to write against Christianity,
makes some eighty quotations from
the New, Testament or illusions to
Incidents. narrated in 1t, and so con-
firms the existence of the four gos-
pels at that early date. The historical
features of the life of Jesus, In other
words, are authentic, and as reliable
as the data connected with any other
historical character, whatever be your
views on New Testament inspiration.
All Have Rendered Tribute.
Here and there among the great
thinkers of history have been those
who have called Jesus fanatic or an
| f,,~1c%1r p,,S ne tho prnof
of the race have given him a place
of unequaled supremacy. Spinoza, the
greatest Jewish philosopher Of his
tory, declared Christ was the temple
of God, because in him God has most
fully revealed himself" Diderot one
day astonished the group of infidel
French philosophers to which he be-
| longed by declaring, II defy you all
to prepare tale so simple and at
| the same time so sublime and so
touching as the tale of the passion
and death OF Jesus Christ" And let
rs not forget 1t was Rousseau who
said: :-"If the life and death OF
Socrates were those of a sage the
| lll0' anu uGdlll VI UCouS "Oi IhooC Va
q God" Napoleon said Everything
In him astonishes me. Be-
| tween him and whatever else in the
world there Is no possible term of
comparison" and Goethe: Il consid-
er the gospels to be thoroughly genu-
Inc, for in them is the effulgent re-
Election of a sublimity which emanat.
ed from the person Of Christ; and
this is as divine as ever the divine
appeared on earth" Renan declared:
Whatever may be the surprises OF
the future, Jesus will never be sur
prfsed."
Miracles of Grace.
But the great test Of Jesus is that
which each man can make In the
laboratory of his own life. Receive
him at his claims and try him out In
your own experience. His ability to
transform a blatant coward into
brave Christian leader, to change a
narrow-minded fanatic into brother
to humanity, to make a ministering
saint of woman Of the streets. is
not confined to the days of his flesh.
These miracles of grace are being
wrought in every land on earth today.
You can try Christ cut for yourself
Give up your sinful life,, take him as
your loving Savior, and Lord. and
try to relive his life among men. You
will find him sufficient for all your
needs and as good as his word. You
will soon be saying, as did even the
brilliant Unitarian, William Ellery
Charming: 1.-THE more / know OF
Jesus the less I can spare him, and
the place which he fills in my heart,
the quickening office which his char
acter performs, is to me no mean
proof of his reality and his superhu-
man greatness. The grand miracle Is
the perfect divine character of Christ"
ARRANGING A STRAP HINGE