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Show j Some Errors of a j Local Unitarian ' Art. IH-The Great Mystery of the Incarnation, Which J Underlies All Christian Teaching, Is to the Unitarian I An Unknown Doctrine. 31 ' 1 " (Written for the Tntermountain Catholic.) This character grew in strength and lauty. as a flower drinks in the nourishment nour-ishment nf rains and dews, and kindly earth, and graciously unfolds itself to Ithp pun. As he entered upon his public career, we see him encountering and vanquishing the temptations natural to his age, l ower and purposes. He had a will in opposition to God's will, and tried to overcome it as we do ours. He prayed. "Not my will, but thine be done." Tnroughout his whole life he may be measured by human standards, j-jp'has his seasons of depression and his moments of exaltation, like weaker men. and his nature responds to the nve that is lavished on him. and to the malice that lies in wait to trip him up. His faith in human goodness is the faith of a. moital fellow feeling that has itself known trouble and trial. 1 Imperfect ion belongs to humanity, and Jppuf was not perfect, for he said: "There is none good, but one; God." It is not the most perfect men that have E rendered the world the most service. Men are inspired more by the spectacle of struggle, than by the picture of per- j fee tion. Kev. Philip S. Thacher in Salt Lake Tribune. "This character," as described in the tirrple language of the gospel, differs materially from the above. The evan- gelisfs description is devoid of all rhetorical nourish. It is plain and art- less. "And the child grew and waxed I strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was in him." (Luke xi, 40.) As the Fon of the Eternal Father this wis- m was infinite, since, according to ( Ft. Jnhn. "He was the true light, which ; lifhts every man that cometh into the vorid." He was all light: the light of mature, "shining in darkness which un- J derfiood it not." I The temptations which Christ en- j countered and vanquished, whether in the desert or in the garden of olives, helnr.eed to his human nature and sh nv him as described by St. Paul "in all things yet without sin) like as we are." Heb. iv. 15-16.) According to the ancient prophets the expected Messiah, Mes-siah, who was to atone for the sin of our first parents, was to be the true ar.d only begotten Son of the Father. The prophet. Isaias. answering his own question propounded to Achaz, said regarding re-garding the expected Messiah: "Hear ye. therefore, O house of David: is it a small thing for you to be to my God nlso? Therefore, the Lord himself i shall give you a sign. Behold, the vir- j pin shall conceive and bear a son: and his name shall be called Emmanuel." Ms. vii. 14.) The prophet tells what the Messiah would do, and who he was. "The people that walked in darkness have :.n a great light; to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen. For a child is born unio us. and a son is given to us. H's government is upon his shoulder; i sind his name shall be called Wonderful. Wonder-ful. Cnr.seiior. God the Mighty, the Father of th" world to come, the Prince j of pacp. His empire shall be multi-is multi-is I'lied, and there shall be no end of T-eaee. He shall sit upon the throne of "David and upon his kingdom, to sty-, gth.-n it with Judgment and with ,ii;st;e from henceforth and forever." tix. 2. 1.7.) The shove, according to Hebrew tradition?, tra-dition?, ajpiied to the expected Messiah. Mes-siah. That the opinion was generally h;d is evident from its application to J'sus by St. Mathew, who said: "Now all this '.as done, that the word might bf- fulfil '-l wiiuh the Lord spake by the pinph't. saying: Behold, a virgin shall v. ith child, and shall bring ' nh a son, and they shall call his irne Kn-.manuel. which being Interpreter" Inter-preter" is. f,r with US." Th- d -"-trine foretold by the ancient K'-ph.-ts !. to be found almost in every 'n.pie,. . ,). xew Testament. It has l"-en the i...-,tnon tradition and teaching teach-ing r.f ; ;.-) st ians for the past twenty twen-ty certur;..,. The c. -, ,.-y!ttPry Cf tnp Incarnation, . y-li h n i ;j.-s aii Christian teaching, tf ' tf th.- I : itarian creed an unknow- I fi,,'- I " :io- . It proclaims Jesus real- t y sr..- t u both God and man. The I rrvs-.-y the Incarnation teaches I 'hat :;, -ao natures were so united in J Jesjv ;;S 1n f,,rm on person. Unitari- anism denies this common belief of Christians and places Jesus in the same category with other men. As viewed from the texts'quoted by the local representative rep-resentative of that creed, they appropriate appro-priate to themselves all the sacred language lan-guage of the Bible, and utter the foulest foul-est blasphemy in the term of faith and piety against the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of the. human race. Christ's humanity "is carefully depicted de-picted by Rev. Thacher, but all reference refer-ence to his divinity is not only excluded but actually denied, yet any person carefully reading sacred scriptures and analyzing every instance where Christ's humanity manifests itself will find, simultaneously, reference to his divine character. His humanity is made manifest man-ifest when we are told: "And Jesus wept," but soon' after he shows that he is master of life and death by resuscitating resus-citating Lazarus. In Calvary we behold be-hold his human nature when he dies an ignominious death on the cross, but at the very mcment the spirit leaves the body the sun is eclipsed, the earth quakes, the dead rise from their graves, thereby proclaiming the divinity. The most pronounced French infidels could find no human standard to compare com-pare with Jesus. Rousseau and Renan could not find words to express the beauty, grandeur and superhuman character of Jesus, but like modern infidelity, in-fidelity, which assumes the sacred name of Christianity, they studied the art of poisoning the wells by mingling blasphemy with their great praises. "His seasons of depression" were made manifest during his passion when he suffered torments inflicted by men, but his last agony was the culmination of sufferings freely endured for man's sake. It was self-imposed. It needed Almighty strength to endure it, and was imposed by Infinite Justice. "Jesus was not perfect." This is a contradiction of St. Paul's teaching, who says he "was like man in all things (excepting sin.") It contradicts his own challenge to the whole Jewish nation na-tion and Pagan world. "Which of you will convince me of sin?" But did he not say: "There is none good, but one; God?" He also said, "I and the Father are one." The great and grand central point from which all faith arises is the Incarnation, In-carnation, which means, according to St. John, "the word made flesh." Any denial of this sublime m'ystery-!name-ly-rthe word was made flesh and dwelt among us is a denial of the first principles prin-ciples of Christianity. But the "word made flesh" was Jesus Christ. Scriptural Scrip-tural testimony makes this as clear as the evidence we have that George Washington was the father of our country. The very name, Christianity, confirms that testimony. Jesus, being its principle, is the beginning and end, and the author of our faith. St. Paul so considered him, not merely as a orophet or teacher, but the very source and embodiment, of the Christian faith. In his epistle to the Corinthians, he says: "I was determined to know nothing noth-ing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." Why? "For," as St. Peter says, "there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby where-by we can be saved, neither is there salvation in any other." "Jesus was not perfect" according to the Unitarian creed, and yet he himself him-self tells us, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "He that believeth in me shall not walk in darkness; he that be-litveth be-litveth in me, though he be dead, shall live." Again, he said, "because I live ye shall live also," and "without me ye can do nothing." When Mr. Thacher asserts that "Jestw was imperfect," it is not our purpose to reply to his personal views, but nly the system which he represents. repre-sents. Unitarians reject the Incarnation, Incarna-tion, and in so doing reject Christianity Christian-ity its-lf. Jes' s Christ is God incarnate, perfect per-fect Cod and perfect man, "the word made flesh and dwelling among us." The s riptures tell us that "every spirit that confesseth Jesus is come in the flesh is of God. and every spirit that dissolveth Jesus," that is, separates sep-arates the human nature from the divine, di-vine, "ia not of God." What then? It is anti-Christ. (To be continued.) |