JESUS CHRIST GOD'S SON AND OUR LORD.

III.

JESUS CHRIST GOD'S SON AND OUR LORD.

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"But these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."-JOHN xx. 31.

It is properly considered a part of a good education to acquire the habit of addressing every one by his proper titles, giving honor to whom honor is due, and reverence to whom reverence is due.

This is clearly the teaching of the Bible. And St. Paul recognized it when he said, in relation to his reproof of Ananias, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." Acts xxiii. 5.

We are ready to form our estimate of a person's bringing up, character, refinement, and politeness, by his tone of voice and the style he uses in addressing his neighbor. His culture and acquaintance with good society are at once recognized by the grace with which he makes his salutations. Nor is this inconsistent with common sense, or in any way forbidden by the Gospel. Christianity is not a crusade against good manners; nor is it built upon the ruins of civiliza

tion and of the Fine Arts. Ancient history, and the monuments of the early ages of the Church, prove that no man was more honest and polite than Abraham the friend of GOD, and the Father of the faithful; and no people were more considerate in showing marks of respect where they were due, and could not be construed into, or be mistaken for, marks of homage to idols, than the primitive Christians. But, if I am not mistaken, our times are distinguished for two grave errors, the prevailing of which proves that our Christianity, in at least two particulars, is not equal to that of the first ages of the Church, namely: First, We are deficient in respect for aged persons, and we do not give honor where honor is due, to our teachers, magistrates, and parents. Irreverence, and a want of obedience and humility before superiors, are prominent faults among us. And the fruits of such things in childhood and youth are nothing but evil to the Church and to society. And, secondly, There is in our day a sad, a very sad want of reverence for the name of God, and especially for the NAME of Jesus CHRIST. The early Christians were so full of love for the name and character of Jesus, that they had very little need for any other Creed, or Confession, or Articles of Faith, than the mere name of their Redeemer. To be called a Christian in honor of Christ, although the name was then one of reproach, and subjected them to the severest persecution, was their highest honor and greatest delight. But so much are we given to things gross, earthly, and temporal-so great is our idolatry for human intellect, and its developments and creations, progress and material achievements, that but few seem to be aware of the deadly heresy that is destroying the life of our Christianity. Nothing is more clearly proven by the present age of the world, and the present state of Christendom, than this: namely, that the advance of the physical sciences, increased wealth from the wonder

THE DEADLY HERESY.

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ful aids of science in using the elements, and the products of the earth, is not true piety; it is not even morality. The printing-press, the public schools, the telegraph and railways, steamships, oil-wells, and gold-mines, are intended for good, but they are not THE ONLY GOOD; they may be so used as not to be good at all. They are not of themselves sufficient to make men decent and moral and happy, much less pious.

The politeness and mental activity and scientific culture of France were never greater than when she abolished Christianity and drenched her soil in blood. You may depend upon it, mental culture, public education, commercial prosperity, and material wealth, may be very far from morality and true piety. However much we may insist on good works, and admire every thing that is lovely and refined, still the amenities and elegancies of society are not always evidences of pure morals, nor is mere morality the same thing as grace. We may have even the form of godliness, and yet be without its power. And when we see from the Holy Scriptures on the one hand, that God's only-begotten Son has a name that is above every name, and excels all mankind in glory, and that there is nothing in the universe to be compared to Him, and that consequently we owe Him the deepest reverence, the profoundest homage, the most ardent love, and that it should be our greatest delight to confess His name; and then, on the other hand, call to mind the fact, that we have many schools of philosophy and theology, representing colleges and universities in all parts of Christendom, that agree scarcely in any thing else except as Herod and Pilate agreed-to condemn Jesus of Nazareth-either by denying His personal existence, or His divinity, or atonement, or the influence of His Holy Spirit;-when we see that Strauss, and Renan, and such writers, are the

most popular of our day; and when we find so little reverence for the Son of God in many of the books used in our Christian families and societies, then we are filled with shame, and are obliged to confess that our type of religion falls far below that of the martyrs, and confessors, and covenanters of old. We seem to forget that it is the will of God the Father "that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." "No man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." We seem to forget that "whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God, and whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." We read that when many disciples went back, and walked no more with Jesus, He said unto the twelve: "Will ye also go away?" And then Simon Peter nobly answered, saying: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." John vi. 66-69.

Here Peter declares that (1.) Jesus is Christ—that Christ, meaning the Christ promised in the Old Testament as the Messiah to come, and (2.) that the promised Messiah who is called Christ was the Son of God, and therefore (3.) he called him LORD. And so in Matth. xvi. 16, 17, when Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus not only acknowledged the truth of his profession, but added: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

And as on the Day of Pentecost, so everywhere and always the burden of the preaching of the Apostles was to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ the Son of God, risen from the dead and exalted to reign both as Lord and Christ. So the Ethiopian converted said:

CONFESSING JESUS AS CHRIST.

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"See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" And Philip said, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." And so Philip preached in Samaria, and so Paul preached, from his first sermon in Damascus to his last one from the block on which he was beheaded in Rome, saying, Jesus is Christ the Son of God. Acts viii. 35, 37; and ix. 20. It would perhaps surprise many of you if you were to look out the passages of Holy Scripture that speak of Jesus as Christ the Son of God, and make faith in Him as such the only condition of salvation. You remember that the second article of our Creed on which we are speaking says: "And I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” We have already spoken of the name Jesus, and also of His official title, Christ. It remains therefore for us now to dwell on the other two titles in the article: His only Son, our Lord, which declare His relation to the Father and His relation to us. And here,

I. It is reasonable, if our holy religion be what we believe and say it is—a revelation from God, the Infinite, to us His finite creatures, that there should be mystery in it-and there must be, until the finite can comprehend the Infinite, which is clearly impossible. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are not known from the works of creation. All we know of them is from Revelation. The Doctrine of the Trinity no man can know unless it is revealed, and no mortal can fully comprehend it even when it is revealed. A fact or doctrine may be declared, and the manner or nature of it still be incomprehensible. We believe many things as facts which we cannot explain. The mystery of the Incarnation, the miraculous birth of Jesus, and of his relation to the Father Almighty-a relation expressed by the words,