The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-05-22
SUFFERING SERVANT
OF GOD HIS SUBJECT
Rev. w, Oliver Gordon breaches
Strong Sermon at Asbury
Methodist Church.
SUFFERINGs OF
CHRIST FORETOID
Chief Aim of Every Christian Should
BE to Garry tho Son of God Through
the World, and Keep His Spirit
Within.

Rev. w. Oliver Gordon, of Branch
Memorial Church. last night preached
at Asbury Methodist Church, deliver
ing a strong sermon on The Suffer
ing Servant of God" taking his text
from Isaiah 500
He Is desplsed and rejected of
men; a man Of sorrows and acQuaint-
ed with grief and we hid as It were
our faces from Him; He was despised,
and we esteemed Him not"
He said in part:
The text is perhaps the finest state
ment of vicarious suffering that L. to
be found in sacred literature. 1t is
one that comes to US charged with
the most solemn and inspiring asso-
Citations. 1t is all but impossible to
consider 1t apart from those associa-
tons And perhaps there Is no rea-
son why we should, but II may be
helpful 10 us to try and learn why
the text ever came into Christian
use at all
II Is commonly supposed that these
words had an immediate and direct
reference to the passion of our Lord
anu DdNlouE N~HB ISl. ISaShiig 81,
as / hope presently to show the con-
vention belief about the matter
which seems to be that five centuries
or 30 before Jesus was born a Jewish
prophet foresaw His advent and was
able to describe His experience minute
ly even to the agonies OF Calvary.
1t Is here that we have a natural
and inspired anticipation of what our
Lord must pass through for the re-
Il -
view of the meaning of the words is
also the assumption that the redemp-
ton here alluded to was delIverance
from a'future he'll by the payment of
the debt which sinful humanity owed
to God.
The spiritual seer who gave utter
lance to the words of the text was
thinking of the suffering of God. the
man who holds for an ideal a higher
than a feeble desire to benefit his
fellow men must indeed submit to
loontempt. hatred, agony of body and
mind and occasionally even death
This becomes obvious at once when
We examine this wonderful chapter in
| which the conception OF the suertnR
servant OF God is no beautifully set
forth.
Jesus In Mind.
Now II is evident that the writer
had Jesus In mind at the time he
wrote the words In the 5Brd chapter
OF Isaiah. True they had waited cen.
turtles for fulfillment. There was sure
ly something supremacy dominating
within the spiritual seer that gave him
vision OF an experience through which
Jesus was to pass And doubtless this
was what inspired him to give utter.
| ance 10 such burning eioquen
language.
There are some scholars OF oul
modern times who seem to think thai
the writer was thinking about Jere.
miah and not Jesus. and this discrip-
ton OF an experience filled with con.
tempt. hatred. agony and death was
what jeremiah had suffered. and tina
for the sake Of his people whom hi
had tried 10 save. And further thai
these words were a sort OF misceilane-
Gus collections interpreted with Z
good deal OF biographical matter In
| troduced by other hands, and thai
they were written to remind his peo-
pie of what he had suffered for their
| aakes.
There is no doubt that jeremiah
was a great noble prophet. He mad
the unpopular task of warning
whole generation against its sinfu
folly and goddess self Indulgence. The
consequences IN the performance OF
this task was that he first wa
! laughed at as crank, ana AFTER
wards hated as a public nuisance.
1t was the same then. a. II Is TO-
say, people do not like being told
about their faults, especially II they
have no intention of giving them up
So Jeremiah had TO endure the NAL
treatment which has been handed oui
to every saviour OF the race since the
Contempt, hatred, agony OF body
and mind. What became OF him IN
the end we do not know for certain
hut II ia thought that he was thrown
into prison. and badly beaten. and At
last murdered by his own country
Imen. whom he had loved and sought
to save
In after days. when the Jewish peo-
lp,e were delivered from captivity and
had come to their senses. they saw
that Jeremiah had been the very soul
Of the nation. So they celebrated the
memory OF the great and noble proph-
ct with reverent affection.
jeremiah endured much for the sake
OF the people he loved and set out
to serve and save, and yet I am not
prepared 10 say that the spiritual seer
who wrote the fifty-third chapter OF
Isaiah was thinking of Jeremiah.
But l think am right in saying that
none fulfilled the experience as de-
scribed so perfectly as Jesus.
Evidence Conclusive.
The evidence is conclusive: Jesus
was indeed despised and rejected OF
men. His contemporaries did not UNI
derstand Him. and where they did He
exasperated them.
The Pharisees and soribes and the
ofYicial opponents of the national faith
naturally hated this Jesus whose life
was such a rebuke to theirs.
He did not spare these masters OF
Israel. He called them by their right
names. and exposed their practices
All the shams and the hypocrisy OF
the religion of the day passed under
His scathing review. And the frowns
OF the great and coarse disapproval
of an angry mob made no difference
whatever to Jesus. who went right
on In the course He had adopted
without a trace OF self-consciousness
in His demeanor.
His aims for the common good were
so consistently sincere that they
thought He must be shamming. They
could not believe that He meant 1t
for they had not been accustomed to
see 1t in their leaders and teachers.
IL He is not careful one would say
4 He will bring the house abot His ears.