Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-11

Jesus Identifies himself with the
big crowd of plain people. He was
one of the masses" a toiler and
the son of q toiler; He was in such
close fellowship with the working
man tnat He was called the car
penter." DR.. Van Dyke has written
truly:U'
But l think the King of that coun-
try comes out from His tireless
host.
And walks in this world of tin"
weary, as If ~te loved it the
most;
He meets again the laboring men
who are looking and longing
for Him."
No Buddha immured in lonely and
ascctic contemplation was He, but
real man, touching life on all levels,
and yet closest to the duSt-grimed
and sweaty crowd of common peo-
pie. The modern fashion of preach
ing Christ as the best Brother of all
mankind, who loved them up to the
level of life and the limitless meas
ure of death, is as near to the sim
pie gospel" as preaching can get.
Lining Up With the Crowd
A snob wants to emphasize the
differences between himself and the
mass of mankind: a Saviour stresses
the points of likeness. This lesson
6pon the baptism and the tempta-
tion of Jesus, has one great message:
the identity of the Master with the
life and lot of people. He was at
constant pains to associate himself
with the sorrows and tolls and joys
and hopes and religious aspirations
of the big crowd of us.
Johns preaching was not perfect:
it was only preparation; none the
less, Jesus insisted that He be pub
licly enrolled as one OF johns
crowd. A lot of conceited persons
think the church is not perfect and
not quite up TO their standard; and
so refuse to unite with it. To all
such may be commended the eN-
ample of Jesus; He joined Johns
church. He found the best crowd
and stood with it. No idle, carptng
critic He.
Each in his place standing for the
best he knows and not withholding
open allegiance to the best and most
hopeful organization God has pro-
vided, is the program of progress.
Open and public confession by
church membership is the counsel
conveyed by the example of Jesus
in His Baptism. He wanted TO be
counted among the friends of God
on earth. That way comes Chris
tion solidarity.
4 Real Mans Battle
After exaltation comes depression;
the ecstatic experience of baptism,
when the heavens opened and the
Father attested His approval of
the Son, was succeeded by the temp
tation in the wilderness. Jesus went
apart awhile; to take the measure
and meaning of Himself, His new
,yr. "isuce and His mission. Every
j, person understands the
l. Jesus wants to get away
IT.. he crowd; to be alone with
himself and God.
But He did not get away from the
devil. Modern philosophy is inclin-
cd to ignore the devil; substituting
Gevilish tendencies in humanity.
OF man and accept Satan. Every
body who has lifted his eyes six
inches from the rim of a book
knows that there are forces in the
world which make for unrighteous-
ness. The ugly thing called sin is
no mere theological term; it is a fact
of life.
A successful businessman sat op-
posite me and said, 81 tell you, l
know men and 1 know myself and
it is only the grace of God that keeps
me from tumbling over into the vol
cano." That man was not talking
about any metaphysical or subJec-
tive errors; he meant gross sins,
such as the law of the land recog--
nizes as crime; Yet he Is gooa
man, made such, he aVows, only by
the religion of the tempted Christ.
No Sham Fight
Into 81 ch battles as this-the kind
which most upright men know as
more real experiences than any
struggle in business-Jesus went
lie fought the fight that no good
man can escape; and He fought 1T
with no weapons that may not be
ours.
1t was no sham battle that Jesus
wGged. He could have fallen even
as we may fall. 1t was possible for
Him to sin; otherwise the experience
of the Temptation would have been
las idle as painted ship upon
painted ocean"
Sturdy words need to be spoken
en- this point, to meet the miscon-
ception of those who would amas-
culate the Temptation; and Rev. DR..
j. H. Jowett has spoken them:
Whatever else my Lord shall be to
me, He shall not be a counterfeit
man, exposed to counterfeit fire,
mere stage fire, man played upon
by harmless sheet lightning and
never moving amid the dread bolts
and forked flame. His shall not he
the sham fight and mine the real
struggle, or He can be no leader to
me. He himself suffered being
tempted. He felt the real heat of
the fire, and felt the fascination of
the real seduction. Jesus of Naz-
areth had the real devil to meet and
the real battle to wage, and the gar
lands on His noble brow were nobly
Won"
A Three Battle War
To the mind of the lonely, spent,