Show JESUS CHRIST V r I Jesus Christ waa the son of Joscp and Mary He was born In honest wedlock and no taint was flung on marriage by l miraculous Interposition Mary the only one who could know the facts in lIe case said that Joseph was his father and the genealogies trace his descent through Joseph Those among whom he was brought up looked upon him a the son of Joseph There are no corrections of tjTls error if It was one either rom us himself or from his disciples And as both friends and enemies held I there was ample opportunity oppor-tunity for making a correction 1C it had been required The stories of his birth are legendary and In harmony with what we know of the tendency of the human mind at that age Wonderful stories of the descent de-scent and paternity of great men were common In those times The gospel stories arc the poetic renderings of Impassioned Im-passioned minds after years of dwell ing on the life and career of Jesus Affection and admiration are always liable to exaggeration Like other great reformers such as Bud < a Zoroaster Confucius Jesus appears ap-pears to have been well educated and wcil connected His parents were in comfortable circumstances If not wealthy Toseph Is called a carpenter but the word denoting this Implies that he may have been a builder or a carver In wood and does not Indicate a humble calling St t Paul said that Jesus though rich for theaake of his work became popr The roughclad rOUhhcn prophet John was overcome by the social so-cial position of Jesus and said You come to me to 1 man unworthy by position to tie your shoes Thin character grew In strength and beauty as a flower drinks In the nourishment nour-ishment of rains and clews and kindly earth and graciously unfolds Itself to thcflUM As he entered upon his public career we see him encountering and vanquishing the temptations natural to his age power and purposes He had a will In opposition to Gods will and trJed to overcome it as we do ours He prayed Not my will but thine be done Throughout his whole life he may be measured by human standards He has his seasons of depression and his moments of exaltation like weaker men and his nature responds to the love that Is lavished on him and to the malice that lies In wait to trip him up His faith In human goodness Is tho faith of n mortal fellow feeling that has Itself known trouble and trial Imperfection belongs to humanity and Jeous was not perfect for he said There la l none good but one God I Is not the moot perfect men that have rendered the world the most serviceMen service-Men are Inspired more by the spectacle of slruccrlc than bY the nlcturo of nor fection The authority of Jesus was such as ni lull inhered in such u man the authority of character truth and purity The blood of the human race was throbbing In his heart and other men felt the power of his manhood There was no novelty in Ills teachings but he welcomed all truth from whatever what-ever source it came He was n Jew and never changed from the Jewish faith but took Its great truths to his heart and warmed them Into life They wore as rough diamonds in his sermon they are gems cut and polished and set Inn royal diadem He loved the beautiful beau-tiful In nature and his parables prove that he was J poet and 11 philosopher He never made any creed The only condition of membership In his kingdom king-dom of God as ho announced I Is goodness Yet he has been made tho center oC elaborate metaphysical and theological speculations which prevent people from seeing the real Jesus He bade all men love their enemies and his dying words breathed a prayer of forgiveness for-giveness And yet this tender loving man haj been lifted on a flaming throne and turned Into n cruel and Inexorable Judge who hurls thunderbolts thunder-bolts ofwrath at his enemies and Imprisons Im-prisons them Mn everlasting torture This Is the Jesus that ban been held before tho world for centuries Jesus was the very Incarnation of the spirit of democracy Ht was attracted to the common people and they were drawn to him Ills friends and asqo elates had not n touch of what society calls respectability about them Yet in his name there are churches organized around the spirit of the most proud Bclfseeklng exclusive aristocracy In the heart of every man there Is n possible Christ What he achieved others can attempt He thus becomes an inspiration not by degrading his own nature but by l showing that there are divine elements In all men To become be-come one with God In not to transcend but lo realize our true nature Though Jesus rises above the level of common humanity he io no more to be looked upon us distinct from the masses be Ticiith him than the loftiest mountain Cn7it bathes Its head In heaven Is I Independent Inde-pendent of the earth from whose surface sur-face It rises In sublime grandeur He simply aums up and represents humanity hu-manity I Is not the supposed sinless ness of Jesus not the wonders he Is said to have wrought not his faithfulness faithful-ness to duty nor his goodness that win our desire to be lee him I Is his struggles with temptation his shrinking shrink-ing from pain his indignation at those who would drive the children from him his scorn of hypocrisy his tears at the grave of n friend and the darkness which doubt swept across his soul lee n wintry desolation These experiences show him to have been like ourselves The fineness of his manhood was Its completeness His character was nowhere no-where distorted By his piety and tenderness ten-derness his devotion to truth and right his patient warfare against sin and misery his sorrowful sympathy with guilt he became the most beautiful expression ex-pression of the divine lifethe example of what God will do for a faithful human hu-man soul Ho Is the one man who embodies em-bodies a universal goodness and whose life was what ours ought lo be Indeed In-deed since we live In happier circumstances circum-stances and enjoy n fuller revelation o the InfInite I know of no reapon why we should not he better and climb to heights of piety he never trOll PHILIP S THACIIER Pastor of Unitarian Church |