The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-02-14

Of history. The impulse Of the match
less personality began to make itself
felt throughout the world. Soon three
thousand men and women enthusiastic
.cally Joined the cause In the very. city
in which He had been executed as a
criminal. His influence goes out in
ever widening circles. Five thousand
more are noted at one time. This
personality Is in deadly combat with
the Jewish authorities and finally
with Roman power and Grecian cul-
turc. But after a. two hundred and
fifty contest, in which all these tre-
mendous forces fought with the ener.
BY OF despair, the Roman. Empire
surrendered-the Gallean peasant had
conquered. Emperors, at least nomi-
nally Christian, sat upon the throne OF
Nero and JDiocletean. The complete
ness OF the triumph is surely striking.
by simply associatfng them with
Himself, Jesus changed the humble
fishermen OF Gallilee from ordinary
men into the leaders Of new and
worldwide movement, and has made
them famous for all time. More people
read Peter, John and Matthew today
than read Homer and Virgil or Shakes
peare. We call our children JONI,
James, Philip and Thomas and the
name Of the mother of Jesus Is com
monest of all.
No character of the past exerts so
direct and powerful an influence on
the present world as Jesus The
movement to which his personality
gave the initial impulse has outliyed
all contemporary governments, phil
.osophies and social systems; has en-
dured all the storms OF nineteen CEN
turtles and is the strongest in the
worlds foremost nations and was new
err more powerful or more hopeful
than it is today.
One of the most remarkable fea-
lures about Christianity is It's facul-
ty OF self-adjustment and seK-purifi-
cation. Throwing off that which was
useless and effete. she renewed her
self in the Reformation and again in
the Wesleyan revival. Outworn powers
are cast aside, traditions fade, doc
trines are modified-much she once
thought essential she now sees was
not the essence after all.
She takes all life as her empire ana
looks forward to the day when not
only the inner life and the home, but
business, politics, education, art, mu-
sic, literature and the whole social or
der shall be Christian.
She feels sure no discovery of
truth can ever disconcert or harm
her, for she knows that in her exper-
fence OF union with Jesus anc con-
munion with God she has touched the
rock bottom of life. Thus she Is GER
tain OF ultimate victory. She knows
that when the world gets through with
all its experiments, 1t is bound to come
back to her and her experience of
God through Jesus Christ.
The whole point is this, that all
this power OF self-purification all this
capacity for profounder. insight and
growing vision, all this adaptability
to human hearts and minds in every
age, all this stir of shape and, certainty
of faith in short, all the actually and
potency OF life she constantly refers
to the spirit of Jesus evoking in her.
In Him and In Him alone, she rec
ognizes the source and impulse of her
vital energy.
So the power behind history is the
power of a personality, the personality
OF the Man OF Nazareth. Increasingly
helpful; still easily the leader Of men,
the dominant infiuence-the perpet-
ual challenge to all men everywhere,
the unique character of history. The
life, the hope and the savior of the
world