The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1918-02-28
THE REC0NC|LER
BY His Teaching, by His Life and
by His Atonement Christ
Seeks to Win Man

ASAG"AA SOTs y 10. NOl WiS IN
Christ, reconciling the world unto him.
SELF"
Jesus is set before us in the gospels
as the revealer of the Father, as the
Supreme Guide of man, as the Sinless
and Perfect One who showed that the
price Of this world had nothing in him.
These Offices and acts eliminated IN
his death and resurrection, which, in q
thousand ways we can never fully real
ize, abolished the hindrances and bar
rters between the Creator and the crea-
ture. Hence the apostle, in describing
the ambassadors trip Of the Chris
tian ministry. lays its weight upon one
paramount moral and spiritual truth
embodied In the historical RedeemeeA
He soaemnly assures us that God ~
In Christ. reconciling 10 to himsotei
giving unto ill who believe pardon In
their trespasses and sins. admitan9
them into the fellowship Of life eternali
What love, what service. can DO -
Vital or as precious a. this love AZ
service1
Certainly, all men. however degrad-
ed, have an inkling Of their Nakeel
Belief In his existence 10 too deeply
rooted In the human soul. too maGnia.
Gently expressed in the Scriptures, T.
be In any real danger. But our Lord
raises this instinct for God. this faint
apprehension Of his existence, this
ideal Of his nature, into state of grace
! and holiness and love. He WHITES the,
conception Of the Eternal One until II
gains measureless capacity for life and
power. And he does this in three
great ways: by his teaching. his life,
and his atOnSlnent.
80 'r' His Teaching. e.
II Is not superficial or an arbitrary
relation. On the contrary, it arises out
OF the divine element in man, which
God ever seeks to affiliate with his in
finite love; to bring into closest fellow
ship. into one living unity. Such an
exalted view of our natural affinity
with the Father of the spirits Of all
flesh can be held consistently with the
fullest recognition of that radical moral
disorder and spiritual failure of men
which we call sin. Christ speaks Of
the best of men as being evil. He
traces this evil to their hearts, and
draws the darkest pictures of its grav-
tty and consequences. He calls saint
and sinner alike to repentance. and
tells the learned and piOus Nicodemus
that he and all others must be born,
from above, regenerated, before they
can enter the kingdom. He detected
sin in its first inceptions, and tracked
it down to its last and dreadful result
in punishment and In spiritual dissOlu-
ti"n. What others regarded as anger
he denounced as murder; where the
ordinary person saw no more than de-
SIRE he saw adultery. ~rfs-.. .,,.-s :
His Example. rs =
Jesus met this disaster by announc-
ing himself as the Shepherd who seeks
the lost sheep, the Physician who heals
discussed souls. the Saviour who pays
the ransom for forfeited lives. His
mission was to bring men out of the
false and ruinOus relations which are
wrought by sin, and into the true and
enrichfng relations due to their re-
stored Inheritance in God. ~.
But how could such instruction al
this prevail against feshly appetites
and immoral tendencies, If 1t stood
alone. unsupported by example and
left entirely to precept? Prophets
and sages have given US similar ad-
vice. not so illustrious, not SO author
ltative, but wise and clear enough to-
be received. They were not SO re-
ceived because those who aspired to
be our guides were themselves In q
ike condemnation with Us. Therefore
It Is important to recall that II Jesus
reconciles US to God by his words, 10
reconciles US still more by his life.
He was sinless. without spot or blen-
ish!
Hls Death.
Thus. with one exception, the life
Of Jesus aud the teaching of Jesus
have been the greatest religious forces
that have entered our mortal sphere.
That exception is his death.
Not on the teaching nor ON the life
of the Christ do the New Testament
writer's lay chief stress as the means
OF del1Verance from sin, but on the
death Of Christ.
Consider the space and treatment
given to the death of Christ in the
scripture. Now it rrcurs again and
yet again; now it is attached to all
heights and depths of love. sacrifice,
deliverance, holiness and alteration.
ConSider'itS permanent monument in
the sacrament of the Lords Supper,
which is to be to all Christians "a
memorial Of his precious death until
his coming again."
Here the whole Deity is known,
Nor dare a creature guess
Which of the glories brightest shone.
The justice or the grace.
Rev. S. Parks Cadr.an, D. D., In
Christian Herald.
We Must Wait on God.
BE still, and know that l am God"