Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-25
CHRIST IN THE LIFE
 OF THE CHURCH ToDA1

OF THE CHURCH TODAY
 What think ye of Christ was the ton Ac of the Christmas sermon delivered Sunday morning at the Central Baptist church by the pastor, Rev. David A. Pitt, D. D. Rev. Dr. Pitts topic was Matthew p: fl. In part the preacher said:
 Now as we approach this old and yet ever-new question, where. snail we be- gin? Back with the prophets, or with the first Christmas, or, with those who knew Christ in the days or His flesh or with His greatest interpreter, the apostle Paul?
 Why not begin with the fact Of Christ in the life of the church toaay? How inextricably the thought of Christ is in terwoven with the eye of the church. Not only do we yearly celebrate His birth but We meet weekly for worship on the day that commemorates His vic tory over. the. grave. His preeminence is seen also in the ordinances, in bap- tisIns and the. Lords supper. fine can didate for baptism declares his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and every time we celebrate the Lords supper we do it in remembrance or Him. |. Note His unique place in the hymn book and the Scriptures. In our nymnal 100, or one-fourth, of all the hymns are devoted to Jesus Christ, and the most beautiful hymns in the book are found in this section
 , What would our Bible be with Christ left out?. once heard Henry Van Dyke preach on a ''Christless Bible He began in Genesis with the promise
 that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head" and thus he l reviewed prophets, evangellsts and apostles ending with the Hallelujah chorus of the redeemed in heaven and I assure you there did not seem much | of the Bible left when Christ had been
 removed.
 Every candid observer must acknowl. edge the centrality of Jesus Christ in | the Scriptures, in the hymnal, the or1i. nances and the worship of the church We worship +'the God and Father oi l of our Lord Jesus Christ
 | This is not one of the seven wonders of the world. Rather it is the wonde; ! of the world. when you consider His loTvly birth. His homeless life, His hum ble followers, His unjust condemnation 1 and His cruel death resulting in the ap. | parent defeat of Himself ana His move l ment.
 l Who would have that. on that frs l Good Friday that 1900 years after one 1 third of the human race would be cele
 brating His birth and that Tor Hi
 sake" is increasingly the greatest mo
 tive in all the world.
 The wonder grows when one remem bers that His claim to a unique rela l tion to. God and man has been chal
 lenged from the apostolic age down t 1 the present. The clash of lower am 1 the higher view of Christ's person i intimated even in the New restamen. l but it becomes more evident in the sec
 ond century, acute in the third an,
 fourth, then in the. sixteenth and agail
 in the nineteenth in unitarianlsm.
 Now, unitarianisrn mas done much t
 hunlanize- evangelical theology but
 admits it's lack of gospel for the mas of the people at home or for the heath
 en abroad, that is why it turned owe . the property in Boston, on whic. tn : Morgan Memorial now stands, to tn Methodists. That is why it asked on 5 of the evangelical missionary societir to choose some missionaries and sen
 them out and direct them in. tn l preaching of the. evangelical gospel an } the unitarians would help support then l That was most magnanimous actio I to take but it was a serious admissio 1 to make regarding their lack of a gos 5 pei to reach, the people. gs l Il The more the church. has made , 1 Jesus Christ the more she has prospere i. and every, great revival of the churc
 has been associated with a new empha i sis on Jesus Christ. That was true i the days ot Luther, Wesley, Carey. an sl in our own day in our emphasis of th
 social gospel and Christian internatior aNs4n. Glover is right. Individus II Christians, and. the church coI1ectiyel , have never made enough of Jesu Christ. The more they, have made, ( Him the more they have prospered an ] the, more has the, world been ;he1pe forward toward the. kingdom of God < 4. This is but a hint as. to the answa of the centuries; regarding Jesus Chris But this is more than the historics ! question. Ut becomes a moral, questio 1 what do we think of i'm in relation |
 ourselves. and families, the church, oy .l country and the world? No more vit; question can confront us as we fac the coming. year than this, What thin l ! va hf FNhrist 2''