SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14396, 31 December 1910, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

NOTES OF SERMON preached by the Rev. J. G. CHAPMAN, in the Wesleyan Church, New Plymouth. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” —John 1, 14. John speaks of Jesus Christ as “the Word.” A word is the outside of a thought; thought articulate. Jesus Christ was God articulate. “He that hath soon Me hath seen the Father ” “He being the brightness of His Father’s glory and the express imago of His Person.’’ Before Jesus came, humanity had crude and partial ideas of God. God revealed Himself but dimly through the patriarchs and prophets. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, “God, "Who in ancient times spoke to our fathers through the prophets, has at the. end of these days spoken to us through a Son.” Why did God wait so long before sending His Son into the World to make Himself known Four thousand years intervened between the downfall of the first Adam and the advent of the second Adam. Why did not God fix the Garden of Gethseniano nearer, the Garden of Eden; the hill of Calvary nearer the hill of Sinai? Because God’s revelations are conditioned by man’s readiness to receive and understand them. The mental and moral capacity of tho world was not equal to apprehend Christ and His Gospel before. Even the secrets and forces of nature are hidden from man, until ho is fitted to know them. The knowledge of steam and electricity was withheld for.ages, because man could not bo trusted with such discoveries without a more thorough moral discipline. What a mercy the Alexanders, arid Caesars, and Hannibals know nothing of gunpowder, and dynamite, and Maxims, or those cruel butchers would soon have depopulated tho world. . There is in the universe a great law of accommodation, ■ that takes into consideration the capacity of those to whom tho revelations are made., God has been a slow Teacher, because man has been- a slow scholar. God was preparing the world for ages for His greatest -revelation, Jesus Christ; and “in the fulness of time” Ho came. That the time was opportune we know. The whole world was united under ono sceptre; the Roman Emperor Augustus was sole lord, and practically all mankind wore citizens of one State. The world, too, was at peace under the shadow of , the ROMAN EAGLES. ' The far-etretching highways that rayed out from Rome rendered travelling easy and safe for the preachers of the now Gospel. Then the Greek language, with its almost infinite adaptations, became the universal language, and was a magnificent medium for Gospel dissemination. There was, too, an earnest expectation among men for some great deliverer to appear. Socrates sighed aloud for a teacher from heaven. Pliny prayed for a now,deliverer great and strong. Aurelius, sad and agitated, stretched out his hands for something beyond, i So intense was this expectation, that the Roman Colossus, Augustus Caesar, was welcomed by many as tho expected deliverer. Thus it was that the world wa,s ripe for-His appearing. Now our text says “The Word was ihade flesh.” Do you realise the significance of that? It skews us the, greatness of the Divine .condescension and humiliation'. What an infinite stoop, from God to, man. 'When He took on Him the nature of man, He laid aside His glory, His Divine attributes. Christ- “emptied Himself,” we read; not by; becoming a poor man, hut by becoming man at nil. Mortals robed in flesh cannot realise tho revulsion and horror that the pure and perfect spirit must have endured in taking upon Him the house of clay. Wo pat, and hug, and stroke this “too, too solid flesh,” with a love so blind that we do not sec how tqndishlv revolting it might bo as a prison for Him Who dwollcth in light and holiness. The missionary goes to tho savage, but goes in his proper self. Ho does not become a savage. Ho is willing to suffer from the savagery of others, to eat their food, to smell their odours, to have,his taste revolt and his spirit ache at their foulness. But propose to him that ho should enter that black body, wear that grease, and exhale that odour; propose to him that his purer soul—which icgards their appetites and habits with loathing —should bo brought into fellowship with that black body as to be tempted in all points as they are! Propose it, wo say, and who would go forth to prophesy to the slain ? HUMAN LOVE AND PITY would scarcely reach so far. It will lead, a man to forsake home, and country, and comfort, and earthly love. It will lead him to say, "Into famine, or persecution, or peril; or torture, or death, send me—but lot it be ‘me.’ Empty mo not of that I am. Compass me net with tho infirmities I go to heal. From a safe and superior height lot me look clown; there am I, send ‘mo.’” How great, then, was _Christ’s-.humiliation when His pure spirit entered a human body.

He laid His glory by, -Ho wrapped. Him in our cloy; Unmarked by human eye, Tho latent Godhead lay. Note some further marks of His humiliation. In the days of His flesh He was not “Almighty God came down to earth a little while in the form of man.” He was God become man. The Virgin Mary was His cradle. Ho derived nothing froni her. The law of heredity had nothing to do with Him. Ho eame to live man’s life. “In all things He was made like unto _ His brethren,” sharing their limitations, physical and intellectual. Ho knew what it was to exnorfcnce weakness and weariness,' hunger and sorrow. His knowledge, too, was limited, for Ho said, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the- angels which are iu heaven, neither the Son, hut tho Father” (Mark 13, 32). Ho had marvellous wisdom, but it was the Father’s gift. (John 7, 16-17.) “Tho Word which ye hoar is not mine but the Father which sent Me” (John 14, 24). Ho wrought miracles, hut of Himself He cOnld do nothing; “tho Father abiding in Me, He depth the works” (Mark 14, 16). And this is the stupendous affirmation of the New Testament, that this weak man was the Eternal Son of God incarnate, and had behind Him a measureless life at the Father’s right hand. In all this consisted His humiliation. This was His self-emptying. Our God contracted to a span Incomprehensibly made man. But notice this fact; that in His humiliation He was perfect man; THE APEX OF THE PYRAMID, tho flower of the race. Before Jesus came, the world had not known a perfect man. Fragments of men were plentiful enough, but no complete man had appeared. Most human characters have the defects of their virtues. But Christ had no predominant virtue, as Ho had no defective weakness. There was no want of balance in the symmetry of

His character.* All virtues and excellencies met and harmonised in His perfect manhood. He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and yet He was the Lamb of God. He touched humanity at every point. The poor find in Him a Brother, the rich an Example. The unlearned understand Him, and the learned never outgrow Him. _ There is an uniqueness about Him which you fail to find iu any other man; e.g., the human family is divided into two classes by the circumstance of sex. Bach sex has its own characteristic features. In man you look for strength, greatness, nobleness, and courage. In woman you discover gentleness, sweetness, purity and self-sacrifice. In Jesus, you find not only these qualities of manhood, but also the characteristic features of womanhood. A woman finds no more difficulty than a man docs in discovering her ideal in Jesus Christ. Again, think of Christ’s rank. What separates men to-day is social rank and class distinctions. How would you class Jesus? Where would you place Him? He was born of a peasant woman, yet He was the- scion of the , princely house of David. He moved among the humblest of the land, yet He stood unawed in the presence of princes. You cannot say to which class He belonged. Rank and class distinctions were lost in Him. Neither can you place

- NATIONAL LIMITATIONS

round Him; Though born a Jew, you cannot say Ho was Jewish. Ho was absolutely free from all looaland national limitations. Born in Judea, He was r. Citizen of tho world. Read His words and sayings, and you cannot detect ary foreign accent in His speech. He,is-a foreigner to no one; Neither can you limit Him to any period. Though born 19 centuries ago, there is nothing obsolete or antiquated about Him. His mind cannot be limited to any one century. His words and sayings are curiously dateless. His speech is modern speech, His teachings modern teachings. No period can arrest Him and say you belong to me. Dr. Fitchett has written an-interesting chapter on. the “Logic of the changed calendar.” Ho asks, What is tho meaning of the date on your calendars—l9ll ? From what event are those, years counted F ■ From the birth of Ono Whom all Christendom rovers and worships., Tho centuries carry His signature, and the years of tho modern world are labelled by universal consent, the “years of our Lord.” No ono.knows how it came to be done, or when, or by whom. Every newspaper in the civilised world—though ■ some of them fill theit columns with attacks on Jesus Christ — readjust their dates to His birth.

CALENDARS AND ACTS OP PARLIAMENT,

business, and politics, and literature; tho vorv dates on our chctpies and_ letters, all are thus unconsciously adjusted to the chronology of Christ’s life. To write a human signature on Time itself, ! to put a human name on the brow of tho hurrying centuries—this is a marvellous achievement. Individuals and peoples have attempted to change: the date on ; the calendar, hut .have failed. Franco tried it—the Revolution 1 was to bo counted ns the year One. It lasted only thirteen years and then How do:you account for our calendar? Not conspiracy; not accident; no imperial edict; no concensus'of decision; but by a'convergence of silent, unrecognised, almost unconscious force?, all ■civilised time is baptised into the name of Jesus Christ. Here is a peasant, in the darkest ago of tho world;-Ho lived in a subject province,; Ho never wrote a sentence which has hceri preserved; Ho died when Ho had Scarcely reached manhood, and He died cast out by His own race, 'and abandoned by His scanty hand of followers; and yet twenty centuries after Ho hung on His cross. His birth is accepted by believers and unbelievers alike, as tho point whence all the centuries must tie counted. In Paul Richter’s magnificent sentences, “The crucified Jew, being the. holiest among the mighty, and the' mightiest among the ■ holy, jms lifted with His pierced hands, empires off their hinges, turned the stream of the centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages.”