Norwich bulletin., 1919-04-19

l and the Church of the Good Shepherd GUniversalist) joined. the different pastors participating in the order of the service. A collection that was taken amounted to s43.07 and was fer the Near East Aid fund.
 The sermon was by Rev. c. H. Rick etts of the Greeneville Congregational church, who spoke upon The Fettered Christ Victorious, from the text in bound Him they led him away and de- livered Him to Pentius Pilate, the governor. The order of the service was as fel- lows:
 i urgan Prelude. Frederick W. Lester, sentences. minister and choir; prayer, Rev. J. F. Cobb; anthem. by cheir;; responsive reading. led by Rev. P. A. Legg; scripture lesson by Rev. G.. H. Strouse; hymn: prayer and benedic- tion, Rev. E. A. Legg.
 In part Rev. MT. Ricketts spoke as follows:
 Let us consider in what the binding of Jesus consisted. He was Ted away" not carried or dragged, hence 1 it was only his hands that were i bound. But why should hands like those have been fettered? No hands 1nerited perfect freedom more than | ttCS'f lAalioS LIkoS iA6d DGcil 0CNolCa' lC honest toll. that never retaliated. that were devoted to charity and mercy, that stopped the funeral procession and made it give up it's dead, that touched blind eyes, deaf ears, and silent tongues and they became in stinct with life again. These were the hands that were cruelty bound and nailed to the cross.
 In. what sense then was this letter ing triumph for Christ?
 There was the voluntary repression of conscious power.
 His hour had come. No other hypo- thesis will satisfactorily explain his
 arrest, his chains and his cross Had
 he used his inherent strength. the re- suit would have been "a ideally differ
 ent Once before three times the pres
 ent number tried to seize him, but he
 passed through their midst untouched
 No other accused party ever fixed tht
 date and foretold the manner of his
 execution. He proved himself sreatel
 than judge, jury and law that con
 demned him. Had il been the will O
 his Father. he could easily have par
 ried the cruel blow of his arrest ant
 crucilXion. One word of protest iron him and the uDraised arm against hin would have been paralyzed What i
 his own testimony? "Thinkest thol
 that l cannot now pray to my Father
 and He shall presently give me nor
 than twelve legions of angels"
 Our Lords voluntary acceptance 0
 sacrifice contradicts tke pagan asser
 ton that Self preservation is the frs
 law of nature" It may be of ou
 fallen nature but. not Of our sanctifie
 nature. Everything mean, cowardl
 and devilish in history is due to tn
 selfish in man; everything noble, he = roic and gcdlille to the sacrifcial. S Take the sacriical out of histor
 and where would be the Marathon, t Thermopylaes. Iarategas. Gettysburg. e Marnes and Verduns? It was not sel t preservation that smashed the ol e E.; Hindenburg line and saved Europ from further autocracy! The act C t those splendid American marines wh ], turned back the Teutonic hordes a e Chateau Theirry was grounded in sac 1, rihce not self preservation. If tn Canadians who went over the top q : Vimy Ridge sought self preservation
 it was failure, but as sacrifice t 1 save the channel ports from the Hun it was a success.
 o Then we see that evil is permitte . because of the resultant good.
 s Jesus did not allow himself to | = fettered because of pacifism. It wa | q cowardice. It was not submission un ej grounded in principle. Simply his hot q had come to fulfil Gods historic wor ,e in human redemption By the voluntar
 sacrifice of himself on the cross As | s was innocent his binding was clearl n g criminal act, and all criminality l.. evil. That evil was permitted becaus ,e the resultant good was nothing les V than paving the way for humanity if upl:ft and redemption, "and I, if |
 lifted up from the earth, will draw a IS men unto me-" .. y While wrong is on the throne tran J. bling on every human right 1t is hal l. to see where the victory comes in. j. we are not too impatient our eyes wi
 see the chains lifted from the innoeel le to the guilty Take this recent fiendis 50 war condemned by every law of Gc
 and humanity. Haven't the chai1
 lifted? The bound are now free, ar
 the free bound. Was not weak, lit 25 Belgium bound and gagged almost ot the point of suffocation? But she stoc " for justice, freedom and humanity as principles for which the Christ di. as and are now enthroned. German s, sought to crush the things for whit d Christ died and her autocracy Il; s changed to anarchy. Freedom " lg never come to Germany until her pc, Id pie fall on their knees before an ou S. ragged God and cry for mercy and pa IS don. The unrepentant nation will nev a regain its moral self respect until T. first gets right with God. The natit
 is being tried not by the Paris tr h, bunal but by the tribunal of Gods in Tt partial justice.
 va In the third place. minorities, thoul O. apparently defeated, may have u 'e, promise and potency of victory. an Christ was virtually alone on Ca is, vary. The disciples for the most pa er, forsook him and fled at the cruel ie. moment of his sacrifice. Even tn r. did not realize that the unbinding 1g his hands to be nailed to the cross "
 the unbinding of power that was to
 the earth with spiritual life and ligl
 The fettered Christ was victoria ed oyer. sin and was soon to be ov .i- death.
 he On Calvary Christianity lost it's pr ng vincialism. and nationality. The ere ". was the pathway to the larger huIna of ity. The Holy Spirit made it worl CT wide Paul, it's first great represent ry tive, was greater than Felix. Festus ss King Agrippa, although they we
 vastly in the majority. And when t
 bound apostle was condemned by |
 Roman court and executed the thin he he stood for in less than three ce dI turies changed pagan Rome into |
 recognized Christian capital of { s. world for more than thousand yea T T'i When later the time came to reass the original gospel simplicity concer ing sacrifice, Luther found hims , most decidedly in the minority. I
 consensus of public opinion was wh
 lv against him. He stood alone beft .lu W Charles V and the angry prelates Ie- Council of Worms when he Sd
 Were there as many devils at Wor lrd as there are tiles on the roofs of ell houses, I would not retract God be