The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-08
4WHAT THINK YE
 0F THE CHR|ST?' IS
 DR. C0X'S SUBJECT
German Philosophers Have Utterly Elected Christ From Their Philisophies,
 Says Pastor

Rev. S. O. Cox, pastor of the Hand- ley Memorial Presbyterian church, preached at the Cumberland Presbyte- rian church in Norwood in a joint service of the two churches Sunday night, from the text, What Think ! e of the Christ" He said in part:
 Many and varied are the questions which force their claims upon us from time to time, some important, some of only relative importance, others un- worthy. and life, like a mirror, rt- fleets both these questions and our responses thereto. But among these many concerns of our feverish lives. thgre arises this question, the ques- ton supreme, What think ye of Christi Of this question dare to de- clare, in the calmness of perfect as- surance. that this is the question of the ages.
 PERENNIAL QUESTION
 "lt is a perennial question, and not mere;y an echo bounded forward from age 10 age; either $ it made threa'- bare through repetition; it is today living aud vital with all the power Of its firat vocaEzatlon. Indeed, We may say that wkta all other concerns have teen lost in thc oblivion of dead centuries. this will live as the ques ton, What think ye of the Christ? What are our passing concerns of to- day. what are our lIves of yesterday! y"Win those questions be of n1omen; to you or to the generations that must succeed thousand years henca? '? What think of the Christi The ques ton for childhood for youth. for az ? a question addressed to the presen; as we'll as to tIc past, and it viii he addressed To tnat of the future. Ii is a question that is to greet you frs, -% 1-e-H confront you In ceath and in Judgment it will be, What thought you of the Christi?
 EUROPEAN WAR
 s"The issues that are to be fought out wonder on European soil will prove to be only temporary and unsa tisfactory unless they can be defined in the true terms of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. Every catastrophe that has befal1en the world might have been avoided, could have been avoided had the world had correct thoughts about Christ and had it been obedient unto that knowledge This is the worlds one and only safeguard, to know Jesus. whom to know is life eternal.
 s"In fact, with reference to the con- flict of this present hour there is vast ly more at stake than mere national
 
 anything else of a merely political character. This war could not have been had its makers thought clearly about the Christ and their purposes and policies been conformed to those thoughts.
 "A wit has said that Balkan pig is the cause of this war, but this was only the occasion. The cause of tEis war is to be found in the fact that German theology and German religion TO longer had in them any room for the Christ of God. He must needs be expunged from their theology, from their religion and from their life be- fore they could enter upon such war of aggression. Nor are we lacking in evidences as to the truth of these statements.
 UTTERLY ELECTED CHRIST
 If we turn to their great pilosophi- cal and theological leaders, such as Strauss, Eucken and Nietzche, we fine that they have not only failed to pro- vide room for the Christ in their philo. sophies and their theology, but they have utterly elected him from every place in their life and thought, ant their great leader. Nietzche, has gone so far as to declare that Christianity is one great curse, the one moral blem ish of mankind,' and Christian moral ity is the most malignant form of al falsity.'
 And why has the Christ been thu. pulled down from his exalted place a the right hand of God? Simply because German aggrandisement and German policy of aggression is overbounded by the lowly Nazarene."