The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1917-05-18

vi Greenv:,le, S. c.
today as some think he will, he will
not lack for service. He would be
met by the rich and great of all the.
earth and crowned Lord of ALL and
worshipped and adored by all if they
but knew him as God, but incarnated
in humanity in need and in distress
he is despised AID rejected of men
of all men, for who loves and honors
and serves those who are so poor as
to be destitute of clothes and food,
who are sick, who are in prison and
in distress and in disgrace.
If Jesus would only come in the
form of the great and rich and pow
erful, men would accept him and
serve him gladly. They are eager to
serve such men now and always have
been. But men circumstanced as de-
.scribed in this Scripture are despised
and often hated even by those who
claim to be disciples of Jesus
All my life l have been taught that
the Christian ideal is service for man
for Christ's sake. If one doesn't see
Christ in the man and the service Is
not with an eye single to his glory 1t
it not Christian service. It is mere
humanitarianism. So we teach. And
that is where we miss the point.
That Samaritan. didn't see any God
there by the road bleeding and dying.
He saw simply man. He didn't say
or think, here's an opportunity to
serve God. God was not in his
thought. He saw simply man and
served him for his own sake. Those
who teach and practice this for
Christ's sake do but little service for
either man or Christ.
Abstract ideas soon become OBJ
struse and go up in vapor. They new
er take hold of the heart and life.
Man is concrete, and love and hate
and all the we'll springs Of acts arise
out of the concrete and relate to the
concrete. The poet is the idealisr,
the distracted one. He deals tn
ideas. sentiments verify. But his art
Is to put them in concrete form. And
he wouldn't please and move men II
he didn't. Christ himself Is a poetic
conception, the sweetest, most beauti-
fuT and grandest in literature. That
is why we say Matthew and Mark ana
Luke and John and the rest dtdnT
conceive him. The man who admfres
and praises Shakespeare for his crea-
tons and calls him great and then
charges Matthew with creating
Christ and still bellttIes him, surely
doesn't stop to- consider his 1nconsis-
tency. No one conceived Christ. He
was God manifest in the flesh. And
he became this by loving and serving
men. And those who succeed In De-
coming Christlike are those VINO love
and serve men. Mark you, love ana
serve men, not worship men. That 49,
il must be- needed service and SER
vice rendered without hope OF reward.
If I am poor and sick and In prison,
the man who serves me can not hope
foe reward, nor will he serve me un-
less he loves me-.
Those who do this; are unconscious
of it.. 1t seems to them little ana
not great. Those who go down INTO
the depths because it appeals to them
as a. great and praiseworthy thing
won't get far into the depths nor stay
there long. But If L go thsre amer
nv child or brother or friend, l shall
on deem enough to find him and stay
till I bring him..
I scared a preacher well nigh to
death by preaching this sort OF
heresy in his pulpit He thought
knocked out the atonement and ROD
bed Christ Of his glory. L didn't won
der at that. His round of ministerial
duties were so different from that. He
was one of the best kept men ID
town and moved among the elite. II
Jesus had been born Of rich parents
and inherited or made fortune anu
lived like a prince, this world Wonio
have been lost till now. II the poor
ever get saved the poor VIII have 70
save them. Menial service must
needs be done in the meniaI spirit
If I think am playing the Loro
when I voluntarily become the SER
want of all, I miss the point When-
ever my servant begins to feel his
Importance an dmagnify his Office l
know it is time to change servants
Whenever Masters gets his country
preacher made into a hero, he wont
be worth killing. That's the reason
the college and seminary man fails
out there in the country. It Is the
one who doesn't feel equal to doing
great things and doesn't try to 90
great things that does them. II 1
think I have a great life to live I'm
sure to live small one.
If have the Christ spirit, II L
have like him been crucihed l am
humble and will wash the disciples.
feet and minister to the lowly. And I
wouldn't wash any mans feet I didn't
love- I'd die first. The crux OF the
whole matter is loving folks.