Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1915 — Three Things That Offend [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Three Things That Offend

By REV. J.H. RALSTON

Secretary of CompoadMce Depall*** l Moody Bible Imitate. Chicago

TEXT—And the word was made flesh.— John 1:14. Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. —Matt. 27:42. We will not have this man to reign over ua.— Luke 19:14. The personality of Jesus Christ .stands out as the world’s greatest

product, and that by the practically unanimous consent of all who have knowledge of him. The manifestations that belong to the human nature of Jesus Christ are admired and praised. He was a g r e a*t teacher and exempllfler of the highest morals, of the most generous disposition even

to the sacrifice of himself for his friends. But when claims are made beyond such manifestations, there are hesitation, denial, and, ultimately, either in thought or word, malice. He Is despised and rejected of men. The Deity, of Jesus Christ. The incarnation is denied —God did not become flesh, the person who stands before men is not God, only a man, very superior indeed, but nothing more than a man. When the proposition is made that he was not of human fatherhood, many who claim to be his friends, and even professed believers in his deity, at once object on the ground that this militates against his perfect humanity. In these things it must be remembered that If the claims that are made for the beautiful character of Jesus be allowed, we are forced to accept something beyond his mere humanity, for he said: “I and my father are One,” and “He that hath seen me, hath seen the father.” These statements are made In such connection that it is impossible to make them mean less than that Jesus Christ claimed to be God, If any record of Jesus Christ which enables men to speak of his beautiful character is to be the record must be believed that he was bom of the virgin, and that the holy thing that was boro was of the Holy Ghost —otherwise the Integrity of the biblical record as to the personality of Jesus Christ is properly challenged. The Death of Jesus Christ. Men said as Jesus hung on the cross, “Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." That Is simply another evidence of the offense of the cross. Many who study Jesus in the light of his death say that he entirely misunderstood his .mission, that he became the victim of his folly and suffered a premature and unnecessary death, and' in so doing deprived mankind of three score or more years of a perfect life which might have regenerated the race. The offense of the crosß has not eased to this day, and when Jesus, in his willing and purposed death, suffered on Calvary, he invited the malice and hatred of all subsequent ages. The rash vow of the Jews: “His blood be upon us and our children,” has kept that race in hatred of that cross, and all likewise who do not love that cross are in league with the Jews in their opposition to the Messiah. What has been the testimony of history as to the relative effect of the life or death of Jesus Christ? Secular histi ry, even, proves to us that where men have accepted the salvation that was secured through the cross, they have risen to the highest morality, aad to the highest social culture of the best sort. It was not the life of Christ that struck at the root difficulty. but the death. “Except a com of wheat fall Into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Jesus said to Pilate: “I am a king." He came to establish a kingdom, of which himself should be the head, and the world’s history would have been entirely different from what it has been if he had been accepted by the Jews at Jerusalem as their king when he made his triumphal entry. Bnt there is something in the kingship of jlesus that seems at once to arouse antagonism, not simply among his enemies, but his professed friends. During his earthly life he was sensitive to his kingship, and at one time said that he could command twelve legions of angels and they would come to him. The cry of the citizens in the parable of the nobleman: “We will not have this man to reign over us,” can be applied to the man of this day. Our view of Jeans as king cannot be complete until he rules ms King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That manifestation must be at his second coming, when he shall execute judgment on his enemies. This kingly coming is misrepresented, maligned and hated, bnt It will be realized as certainly aa the incarnation and the death on the cross. The deity, the sacrifice, the atonement, .and tba Wngritty nt Jana. Christ always have. and always . urere received by the world’s hate.