Great themes of the Christian faith

Front matter

GREAT THEMES THE CHRISTIAN FAI

As Presented By

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN GEORGE A. BUTTRICK EDWIN HOLT HUGHES CLOVIS G. CHAPPELL ERNEST FREMONT TITTLE JAMES I. VANCE

Preface

With the exception of the one by the late Dr. J. H. Jowett, all of the sermons included in this volume are contemporary and have not been published before. They come, for the most part, from men either now or recently engaged in the exacting work of a busy ministry and represent the normal emphasis which pastors in leading American pulpits lay recurrently upon the cardinal ideas of the Christian message. To picture these themes and the varying approaches which men in every section make to their treatment is the purpose of this book. The idea - of a collection of star performers was entirely remote from anything the publishers had in mind. Nor was it their intent to offer a series of case studies in representative preaching. Rather, they hope that this book, made up as it is of sermons which are talented and at the same time preached with definite religious force and conviction, will suggest to the ministers in whose hands it falls ideas, illustrations, and methods which will be of inspiration and practical help in their own work.

eel v4 it we \

Contents

Pee Cry OF DERELICTION Gy) ie Sue) aL BR ce George A. Buttrick

TRE BELATED PREACHER ) 35.0056) os hea) SE a ee ee Clovis G. Chappell

DPE INGDOM OF GOD sy Lire ta ie li eat me Rete aes Ernest Fremont Tittle

II

When we consider Jesus himself as our exemplar in this respect, we find the two elements appearing in his character, as they do in his teaching. He is often called “the meek and lowly Jesus.” It is strange that the most powerful figure in the world’s history should permit those adjectives to be applied to Himself. They are related not only to the humble birthplace in the stablecave; and not only to the carpenter shop, in Nazareth; and not only to the unresisted cross. They are rather related to something deep in the very nature of our Lord. He does impress us as humble; and when He declares that he is “meek and lowly in heart,” we feel the truth of his words.

Yet this impression of humility is in company with an impression of majesty. The Lamb of God is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The prophecy of the Old Testament concerning the day of God’s full grace was that the Lion and the Lamb should lie down together; it is not irreverent to say that they were in company in the nature of Christ. The man who was “meek and lowly in heart”

cleansed the Temple of the noisy and cheating traffickers. Indeed He made claims of a peculiar personal majesty. His “I’s” are impressive beyond all other words to tell. “I am the way,” “I am the truth,” “I am the Life,” “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the Door,” “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” “I and my Father are one.” He made comparisons that no other man would have dared to make,—‘“‘A greater than Solomon is here,” for example. Who else could have put himself beyond the wisest and most magnificent of Israel’s Kings, and still have escaped the charge of individual conceit? One feels like asking—How comes it that the world persists in speaking of One who made these claims as the humble Nazarene, or as “the meek and lowly Jesus’’?

This lowly One claimed empire. The world was His by a peculiar right. “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He describes all nations as being gathered before Him for the word of destiny. The student of the Bible can gather the remainder of the material for himself; it is enough now to declare that the One who was called “meek and lowly” said things about Himself and claimed things for Himself, that would convict any other person of the rankest egotism. We need not press the lesson too far, as it relates to ourselves. But we can surely say that if Christ in his amazing realm combined the humble spirit with majestic claims, we are allowed to believe that in our own tiny empires of responsibility and opportunity, we can be humble without being abject and powerless. ‘A broken and emptied vessel” is not the final symbol of humility.

On the other hand, the vessel that would boast of its grace, and beauty, and fulness as if they were self-conferred, is not the token of the Kingdom. When the potter finds the clay and does the molding, he is entitled to his praise. Evidently there were three classes whom Jesus rebuked most sharply—the hard-hearted, who neglected kindly social duties; the materialistic who put their dependence upon the coarser things of life; and the selfsufficient who took to themselves credit for their “gifts” and ascribed not glory to the Author. Perhaps his words about the last-named class were the most severe. Once he scorched his way through many verses of indictment,— with phrases that were piercing indeed. ‘‘Ye generation of vipers.” “Ye serpents.” ‘Ye whited sepulchres.” ‘‘Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Yet the persons to whom He spoke thus were not bad people in their usual conduct. They did tithe. They did fast. The Pharisee in the parable did not lie about himself. The tale of his mere behavior was doubtless true. The difficulty was that he assigned credit to his own merit and power. He travelled by the throne of God as the most appropriate road to his own heart! He came near to the Altar but was very far from the Altar’s God.

Humility, therefore, must always be the recognition of our dependence. The question is for each, “What hast thou that thou hast not received? This drives us back to the givers, and to the Giver. It is often said in outworn witticism that the difficulty with the so-called self-made man is that he worships his Maker! The truth is that there is no self-made man. Any honest appraisal of one’s self will quickly show that fathers and mothers, friends and teachers, and God Himself have been the givers of real life to us. We have done something, and given something. Yet, if we keep our books on both sides of the ledger, we shall always find a big balance of debit recorded against us. The gifts we have received are so many more and so much greater than the gifts we have conferred. Where then is boasting? The crime of the Pharisee is that he sins against the essential facts of life. The lack of humility always stands for falsehood. Self-satisfaction is always a liar! Humility is truthfulness.

With all this in mind, we can understand Jesus’ indignation against the pride that swaggered over its own character or strutted before its own achievement. Usually the trouble is that, the great Babylon that we think we built, we did not build in any large part. God made the materials. He provided for us, also, a thousand partners. All true cathedrals of the soul represent a company that no man can number. They stand for centuries of cooperating spirits. When at last the capstone is placed, the cry of “Grace! Grace!” is always appropriate. Even a Christopher Wren is never alone. The glory of St. Paul’s is from God, as it is to God. If humility does not mean a false depreciation of our nature so that the verdict becomes an untruth, neither does it mean a false appreciation of our character and work, so that the verdict again becomes an untruth. Humility does mean the recognition of the fact that life itself is the gift of grace; and that when our thought travels upward along the path by which that gift comes, the goal is always God.