The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1922-04-10
MCGOWAN PLEADS
FOR ACCEPTANCE
OF FRESH TRUTHS
Dumbarton Avenue Rec
tor. Cites Caiaphas' Ex-
ample as Warning.
By REV. b. 1. MCGOWAN,
Dumbarton Ave. NJ. z. Church NV.
Cai.phas Blinded by Light.

CaIaphas Blinded by Light.
Caiaphas represented the Jewish
nation of his day. blind and big
apparently unable to appreciate or
accept Jesus as the Messiah be-
cause they had preconceived notions
as to what the Messiah should be
they expected a militant Messiah.
and when Jesus came as a spiritual
leader, they refused to have Him.
Caiaphas epitomized the blind and
senseless bigotry of ecclesiastical
power. Instead OF changing their
opinions Of the expected Messiah,
such leaders as Annas and Caiaphas
blindly went on their own way.
Jesus stood in their way. His light
was too bright for them, and they
had nothing to do but to get rid
OF Him Thus they plotted His death
and were so unjust as to subject
Him to the unfairest and most lille
gal trial in the history of the world.
II ever an innocent victim was sac
rifced to brutal and blind prejudice,
Jesus was such a one.
Caiaphas ought to warn US against
setting up arbitrary interpretations
of the Scriptures and religion, and
holding them with unchanging spirit
against all new evidence. Let US
accept new truth; let us be wiling
to allow the light of new ideas to
shine upon our minds; thus We will
offset the fatal tendency to remain
static and not grow.
Jesus Brought New Light.
Jesus came among His people
bringing fresh and new light upon
al fR,eN NJ
readjustin2 their ideas to conform to
His teachings. assumed a hostile at
titude and stubbornly refused to ac-
cept Him. They quarreled and wran-
gled with Him. All the while He
gave them wonderful evidence which
any mind should accept. Led by
their fanatical leaders, the Jews of
His day bounded Him to His death.
Now much of their blindness was
due to sin. Jesus charged these
men with being the children of the
devil. He uncovered their hypoc-
risy. He held before them the
pitiable duplicity of their hollow
religious pretensions. Only the
pure in heart can see God. No man
can come to an appreciation of
high and holy things whose life is
stained with iniquity.
Men are blinded by the white
light of righteousness today. Jesus
stands before US clean, pure, holy.
and the shining purity of His life
is too much for our mortal and
sinful eyes. We either come to
Him for cleansing or shrinking
from Him, all the while trying to
make out that we are worthy. The
Saar1hfn~
acter shines into the dark recesses
OF the world life and uncovers its
sin.
II am the light Of the world"
said He. and today that light shines
everywhere.
should walk I'm Light.
What will we do with the Light
While we have the light we should
walk in it. Or will we, like
Csiaphas and those bigoted Jewish
leaders, face him complacently and
contentedly and try to make out
that nothing is wrong with us?I
Let US not deceive ourselves. Jesus
bids us follow Him into the deeper
experiences Of life, but we cannot
do II unless we humbly and with
child-life faith open our lives to
the light II we refuse to see Him,
II we try to make Him conform to
our standards, IL we endeavor to
Mt Him into our preconeeived ideas,
we will eventually lose Him alto
gether.
The light shineth in the dark
ness, and the darkness compre-
hendeth II not. Ever the same. The
sinful, darkened life cannot an
preciate or comprehend His life ana
nght. Let US come to Him that in
HIS light we may have light, and
we may walk in the light as He is
in the lipht