been raised again from the dead, or a God to have died and passed through Resurrection. Only Christianity con- ceives and offers to the world the idea of the Resurrection. Paul realized that this was the central thing in Christian- ity. It was by the Resurrection, he tells us, that Jesus Christ was authenticated. The character of Jesus does fqrbid His possible classification with men. Some would have Him authenticated by His miracles, while others have held that He evidenced His divinity by the Divine beauty, purity and holiness of His doc- trine. But I remind you that it was in R EDEMPTION is to be by the death of the Redeemer; the cross is the way to the throne. "Not only must I die," says Christ, "but you must die also. Life can be saved only by losing it. If you are to be Christed, Christianed. you must share with me this dreaded experience. You must know what it is to die yourself and to take up the cross." Observe, here comes an abso- lutely new idea. Christ does not speak of self-denial, but of denial of self. Self-denial is known to every form of human exertion. It is indispensable to all human .attainment, whether of good or evil. All religions know it and prac- tice it. In all paganism asceticism is an indispensable element. Denial of self and not the denial of one part of self, to gratify a no t h e r' part, but an utter denial, the death of self for others, is peculiar to Christianity, for the place of self can be occupied only by Christ. It is so completely the death of self that self cannot determine either the act or time of any offering. We have no right to make any sacrifice except as God determines. The death of Christ was voluntary on his part; yet he could do this only at a time and in the way appointed by the Father. "Then charged he his' disciples that they should tell no man that he was "Thy faith hath saved," I read, and turned Full on my soul an anxious eye, "Hast thou this faith?"I asked, and burned
none of these regards that Saint Paul found his evidence of Christ's divinity. How, then? "Declared to be the Son of God with power * * * by thè resur- rection from the dead." The power of the Resurrection is made the central, indispensable, fundamental thing in Christianity and distinguishes it from every other, religion. It is the great chasm between Christianity and all other religions, that ca,nnot be bridged. You may find resemblance after resem- blance between our faith and the faith of non-Christian people, but, at last, you come to a gulf over which you can not descend to find a bottom. Jesus the Christ." They were not pre- pared to make known the wondrous rev- elations to which they--had listened and the world was not prepared to receive them. There could be fitness neither for the speaking nor the hearing until the Spirit is poured out from on high, anointing the herald as the master was anointed, and convincing the world of sin because they had not believed on Christ. When the time comes for the promulgation of the truth, the cross will be the factor in all successful work for the Master. Christ's death, now so appalling in the shadow it casts, will be the theme of the Christian preacher in all ages, the only power to break the heart and subdue the will. In these days, when we are so contin- ually exhorted to "go back to the gos- pel" and to rediscover the human side of Christ, it is well to remember that the disciples were forbidden to preach the Christ of the gospels, that it was not the conception of Christ's human nature that saved men, but his divine; that if he had been content with the acknowledgment of perfect human virtue and perfect teaching, he would not have been crucified; and that now, as of old, we should know no Christ after the flesh, but ever preach a crucified and risen Lord, not a memory, but a living Christ.
Christ and the Cross By H. C. Weston
For years, until she made reply—
"Through all my depths profound Have I explored; Not faith, but God I found, God, and his word/"
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker