Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-12-04

THE SELF-ENIDENCING CHRIST

/ mas Deen often remarked tnat mankind
| is incurably religious"
Hence the great number of religions
in the world, most Of which have been mis-
leading and misled attempts to satisfy this
death less thirst of the human soul for COM
muniOn with the divine being. Men have
fashioned them in laundering efforts to ap-
proach God "if haply they might feel after
Him and find Him, though He be not far
from every one of us" (Acts Xvii:27.)
These false faiths have been made to meet
the deep demand Of the heart for something
whereby its estrangement from God might
be cured and the saving knowledge OF him
brought nigh.
As cOunterfeits are proofs Of the existence
of genuine coin, so these spurious cults at
test that somewhere there is a true religion.
But how shall it be distinguished from the
false? How shall the base coin be detected
and the genuine be discovered?
Jesus answered for us these questions of
deep concern. He said Then if any man
shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or
there; believe it not. For there shall arise
false Christs, and false prophets. and shall
show great signs and wonders; insomuch
that IL 1t were possible, they shall dec i've
the very elect Behold | have told YOU be-
fore. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you,
Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth :;
behold he is in the secret chambers; believe
it not. For as the lightning cometh out of
the east; SO shall also the coming of the Son
OF Man be-. (MattheW NNiV:21)
The great truth which underles and
shines through these words Of the Master is
that in himself are sef-eyidencing qualities
which can no more be initiated, or disguised,
than the selt-attesting lightning, shining
from east to west can be initiated by some
inferior flame flashing and Pickering within
narrow limits. He is his own central and
c nVncng evidence.
mere man cannot .| successfully the
part Of God. His cheap, theatrical attempt
to act as he imagines God would act is self
exposed by it's essential impossiblity.
Of all the sons of men, who have come
into the world, only the Son - Man has eX-
emplifed the perfeCtions of God. In every
feature of His face shines the divine glory.
One who was closest to Him. and who leaned
upon His bosom, said of Him. We beheld
His glory, the glory of the only begotten
of the Father" as he dwelt among US in the
flesh full of grace and truth" John i: Ia. J
With this testimony the wisest and best men
of the most enlightened peoples of the earth
have agreed. 1hstinctively the hearts of men
respond adoringly to His divine characteris-
tics when in their most serious states of
mind they face Him attentNely.
A saying attributed to Charles Lamb finds
responsive echo in the souls of even multi
udes who do not claim to be among His fol
lowers: eff Shakespeare should enter our
company, all would rise; but if Jesus
SnOulQ come IN we all would 1all at his
feet"
SO indisputably perfect and inimitabe is
the character of Jesus that some learned
sceEtics in the past have held that His por-
traiture as depicted by the four evangelsts
was creation of fiction, that no such man
ever lived.
But that theory has been generally aban-
doned now. Indeed, when it was most cur
rent it was rejected by a majority Of the pro-
foundest students of the Gospels Even such
minds as William EIery Charming, who failed
to grasp the truth of Christs equality with
God, refused to accept it.
| In his great discourse on the "Character of
Christ Charming says, the more we con-
template Christs character, as exhibited in
! the Gospels, the more we shall be impressed
with its genuineness and reality. 1t was plain
ly drawn from life. The narratives of the
| EVangeists bear the marks Of truth, perhap