The Growing Christ
The Twofold Touch
"The angel of the Lord smote Peter on the side and raised him up . . . and his chains fell off” (Acts 12:7). “The angel of the Lord smote Herod because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost” (Acts 12:23). T HE effect of this twofold touch of the same hand can be seen everywhere about us. To one, God’s touch brings freedom, to another, agony and death. One or the other of opposite results must come to every man, and what the effect of His presence shall be depends entirely upon yourself. You settle it yourself what God shall be to you. Your attitude to .His divine revelation and to His work deter mines it. Herod was the enemy of the Gospel. He had no room for any God but himself. The chapter opens with his boasting and ends with the people proclaiming him a god. But the story doesn’t end there. This mighty man whose soldiers had roughly thrown Peter into jail, is devoured by mere worms. Get the irony of i t ! And it is well to look at the end of any man who opposes God’s truth, rather than his beginning. Judge not the infidel and the rationalist in the days when he is in the popular swim. Read his story through to the last chapter and you may draw a different conclusion. You say, How shall I know what his end will be? Use the Word of the living God, verified through all human history, as your telescope. The Gospel has always been either the savor of life unto life or of death unto death. To this day, it either strikes off a man’s shackles and turns him out into the sunshine of God’s love, or it becomes eventually the fatal occasion of his utter spiritual darkness, torment of conscience and final separation from God. Herod was eaten of worms—“BUT the word of God grew and multiplied.” Note the eloquence of that little word “but.” In spite of mighty antagonists, the progress of the Gospel stays not. Let us learn that God directs all events in the best interests of the spread of His Gospel. , —K. L. B. A Forgotten Historic Fact I N this day when we are leaving God out of many events in our country’s life, and refusing to recognize His Son, it is well to go back to the early days and recall those times when our founders turned imploringly to heaven for divine interposition and aid. Do you recall to mind that sublime picture, when in 1774 the Congress, assembled in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, prayed as perhaps men can only pray when all human help has failed and God alone remains as the Deliverer? George Washington, Patrick Henry, Randolph, Rut ledge, Lee and all the rest of the men who composed that first Continental Congress assembled on the morning of September 7, 1774. The Rev. Mr. Duche Was asked to come and read prayers to the company. He came and after reading Psa. 35 (it was the morning after the cannonade of Boston; how appropriate that Psalm) he read several prayers in the established Episcopal ritual,
“Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). HE Son of God had emptied.1Jims'el f of His out ward glory to come afmong then.,¡¡Conceived of the Holy Ghost, He entered this world through the same gateway by which all other human beings enter. There is no more difficult subject in theology than that of the development of the human soul of Jesus, though some feel themselves competent to speak very positively about it. In one short verse of Scripture we are permitted to learn that in His youth, at least, Jesus grew in wisdom. This can only mean that His attainment of knowledge at that period of His life, was progressive. He came to know certain things, as we come to know, otherwise how could it be said that He “increased in wis dom” ? In His early years there were mysterious limita tions which were gradually pushed ou t; thus, in His human nature, He became fully acquainted with our experience. We are quite apt to forget that it was during this time of His life that much"of the great work of the Second Adam was done. The growing up through infancy, child hood, youth, manhood, from grace to grace, from holiness to holiness, from knowledge to knowledge, was the foun dation of three active years of ministry consummated by His sacrificial death upon the cross. This constituted “the obedience of one man” by which He could become a perfect Saviour. Let us understand, however, that He came through this period of His earthly life zvithout one polluting touch o f sin. He was the perfect child, the perfect boy, the perfect youth, the perfect flower of manhood. He grew naturally, unfolding all His powers in a completely healthy progress. No stage was abnormally developed. He did not think the thought of a youth when a baby. He did not think as an adult when a youth. “He increased in zvisdom and stature.” He was like the plant which is perfect as a green shoot above the earth : it is all it can be then. Later it is more perfect as adorned with leaves and branches: it is all it can be then. Still later it reaches a fujl perfection when the blossom breaks into flower. He was as perfect as He could be at every stage of His existence. There was no retrogression. The difference between His growth and ours may be illustrated in the work of an inferior artist who arrives at a certain amount of perfection through a series of failures which teach him where he is wrong. By repeated errors qnd corrections, he is able finally to produce a tolerable picture. The work of a man of genius, however, is very different. He has visualized the perfect picture at every stage before he touches a crayon to the canvas. There are his first sketches, but they are perfect and contain the germ of all. The filling in continues, but his work is perfect in its several stages. Such was the development of Christ. It was orderly, faultless, unbroken. Humanity, free from all taint of sin, went forward according to human nature as intended in the purpose of God.—K. L. B.
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