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Jesus’ Picture of
God the Father
By Thomas Guthrie, D. D. Once an Eloquent and Noted Preacher of Edinburgh, Scotland
Note.—Dr. Thomas Guthrie was one of the most eloquent of the great Scotch preachers. He was born in 1803 and died in 1873. In 1837, when he was 34 ears of age, he was appointed one of the m inisters of the old Grey Friars P arish in Edin burgh. While the work was intended to reach especially the degraded population of one of the worst districts of Edinburgh, Dr. Guthrie’s remarkable eloquence won for ' him such a high place in the general estimation, th at his church was crowded often times with the great, as far as -they would be allowed admission to the church, but the poor were always kept in mind. Dr. Guthrie was noted especially for his rhetorical ability but he showed great devotion to the tru th and made great sacrifices for what he believed to be the tru th . Such was the public esteem in which he was held, that in 1865 he was presented with $25,000 as a token of public appreciation. In 1911 a fine statue of him was erected in Edinburgh’s famous Princess Street Gardens. In this sermon we find a specimen, not only of his rhetorical gifts, but of his ability as an interpreter of the Scripture. The sermon here given is only part of the entire dis course, which was on the parable of the Prodigal Son, and is an exposition of the parable.
man, or even in the noblest aspects of- humility, is an irreverence—offensive and revolting. • PULPIT OFFENDERS Yet there have been representations yof our heavenly Father more revolting. He has suffered less injustice from painters than from preachers. Thundering out the terrors of the law, armed with bolts of vengeance, and scowling down from pul pits, they have stood there as unlike as pos sible to Him who wept over Jerusalem, and when He saw the multitudes, had com passion on them. By representing God in dark and gloomy colors, with an expres sion on His countenance of stern sever-
W ’W ^H E N he was yet a great way °ff, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fel1 on his neck and [lys^gg S - jf kissed him.”—Luke 15 :20. The representations of God the Father in the most splendid paintings of the an cient masters are worse than in bad taste. His Son assumed the human form; and, far short as the highest art comes of ex pressing the love and mildness and majesty that beamed in the face of Jesus, we are not offended by its efforts. Though they may not satisfy, they do not shock us. But to set forth the invisible God, in the char acter of the “Ancient of Days,” as an old
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