Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 286, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1914 — HONORED ALL MEN [ARTICLE]

HONORED ALL MEN

Never a Word of Contempt or Scorn Came From the Lips of Our Lord. A few privileged men move in splendid circles; they are the actors in great affaire, and their names will he writ large on the page of history. It Is an instinct to honor the mighty, the gifted, and the famous. But the immense majority spend their lives in the most commonplace scenes, an infinity of petty tasks consumes their time and strength, and the experiences which make up the life-story of the multitude are hardly important enough to be mentioned in domestic correspondence.

. Bnt on investigation we find that the great minds of the earth have also been concerned with the most modest affairs of human life. For instance, Shakespeare writes of kings and conquerors, of battles and empire, of love and beauty, of the deep things of the Intellect and the heart, and he treats these high themes with wonderful mastery and splendor of expression. With his name we associate only supreme genius and immortal fame. Yet when we read his last will and testament and find him bequeathing his second-best bed, we see that the great master had, like the rest of ns, to deal with very minor matters indeed. Our difficulty is with the word all. “Honor all men.” The people In Africa as well as the people In America. The dwellers in the slums as the residents of the avenue. All men! The servant as well as the master; the maid as well as the mißtress; the Illiterate as well as the scholar; the sinner as well as the saint. Men of high character and achievement—we delight to honor them. The tramp, the drunkard, the criminal—how can we honor them? And yet the apostle makes no exception when he says, honor all men. It Is a tremendous demand, and tremendously hard to obey, and yet we must strive to obey it If we would have the mind which was in Christ Jesus. Passed None By. For this is what Cftrist did daring his earthly life—he honored all men. This was indeed a thing which differentiated him from everyone else of his time. The good people of Palestine in his day never thought of honoring all men. On the. contrary, there were certain folk whom they regarded only as objects es their scorn and contempt. They honored the pious Pharisee, but the “publicans and sinners” they treated as the filth and offspring of all things. Jesus honored all men. He honored Matthew by calling him as an apostle; he honored Zaccheus, the chief publican; he honored the woman who was a sinner and defended her before Simon and his assembled guests; he honored the frivolous and sensual woman of Samaria when he taught her at Jacoh’e well; he honored even that wretched woman who was dragged before him by a brutal mob, and saved her by his word of Justice and pity. That was always characteristic of our Lord. Palestine in his day had its share of wastrels and ne’er-do-wells, of low and degraded people, and Jesus came into close contact with them. But you will Search the Gospels in vain for any word of contempt or scorn from his lips.

Looked Into the Heart When Christ looked upon men what did he see? Ordinary men saw simply the eordldnees of life and its vicious characteristics. Jesus saw more. As St. Jobnsays:. “He knew what was in man.” Everybody could see the brutish conduct, everybody could see the vice and the shame. But Jesus looked beyond the outward conduct to the heart, and in the hearts of even the Calibans of humanity. He saw potencies and possibilities of good. Browning expresses his robust faith that in the worst of men there is something good. He sees men All With a touch of nobleness, despite Their error, upward tending all, though W6ftk * • • 3k like plants in mines which never saw the sun; . But dream of him arid guess where he may be 1 And do their best to climb and get to him. Our Lord had that faith before Browning. He saw some good even in the worst of men. They werfe made in the image of God, though that image had been sadly defaced, overlaid with selfishness and sin, though never w&olly lost. And that Is why we, too, must honor oil men. Jesus saw the possibilities Id human nature where we usually see only common clay. The ruby is a bit of crystallized earth colored with Iron; ths opal is so mnch silica and water; the diamond is charcoal; and Indeed, such substances as clay and flint form the basis of nearly all the precious stones. To our Lord the human soul was infinitely precious, so that even the wealth of the world was not to be compared to it in value. There was but one thing of sufficient value to buy the soul of man, and that was the blood of the spotless Son of God. He died for all men. Therefore honor yourself, for Christ honored you, and scorn anything which may degrade or bring upon you dishonor. Then, also, you will see something to reverence and honor in every man and woman you meet, tor even in the battered and broken wrecks of humanity we see children of the love of God, our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. It is not for you and me to Judge as to concerning whom the Lord of Hosts hath said: “They shall be mine in that day when I make up my Jewels.”