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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATURDAY, ^MAY 11, 1907. His Mother’s Sermon station, tho world to sinners'*—The Apostle Paul. By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, Pastor Second Baptist Church W IEN’ I read the headlines ot the newspaper this week which broke the sad mews to the world that Dr. John Watson wns dead, the World was at once lovelier to me. I suppose millions of people on this earth have been thinking this week ot "The Bonnie Brier Bush." and of Drumtochty 1 .and Us dear people. The sweetest, tenderest story of a half cen tury Is in that book. Andrew Car negie has said that he defied any man to reail it without tears. It Is entitled "His Mother’s Sermon.” It tells the talc, probably John Watson’s own ex perience. of a young preacher's first sermon. Ambitious to give a scholarly account of himself, he prepared with labor a learned discourse, came down to dinner satisfied and proud. Tiled his maiden aunt reminded him anx iously of his mother's dying wish In her last farewell to him, that when some day he stood In his own pulpit lie should speak “a gude word for Jesus Christ.” He turned pale, left the table, thrust teh learned deliverance Into the fire and began the night-long wrestle in an agony of love to make ready for the morrow when he should fulfill her request. Dr. John Watson tells with an Infinite pathos how on the next day he went Into his pulpit and so spake of Christ that a Holy Presence filled the place and the people "saw no man save Jesus only.” I have taken Ian Moclaren's b<*-k down and read that story again with my heart yonder in the Iowa city, where John Watson lies cold under his wife’s caress, far away from the high lands of Scotland and his “Drumtochty folk." "His mother's sermon!" I have wondered what Its text was, from which the loyal boy spoke his "gude word for Jesus Christ" that day. Over and over I have pondered the many loving words Christ’s greatest lover •poke of Him, but none has seemed so sure, so good as this;. "It is a (pithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." | If J may have my earnest guess this was the text of "his mother’s sermon*" Paul's "gude word for Jesus Christ.” Now I hold this faithful, this wor thy, -this all-believable saying up be fore you and ask you Just two ques tions about it: / First. Did you ever hear of any one else coming into the world with such Second. Did He accomplish His pur pose? Does Christ really save sinners? Try to rub out this saying from your mind. Forget that you have ever heard of Jesus Christ and try to im agine that you are in this world with no knowledge of the Gospel, and then look out on life with some such ques tion In your minds as this: ‘‘What do men come" into the world for. »»h a t do they nlm to do during the years they have on this earth?" What Are You Here For? • Of how many people you know you would have to confess that you could not make out what they they had come Into tha world for? Search as you will, you can lind no evidence of any serious nnd set purpose. Their lives appear to be vague and weak. In their work they ore eddying about from one position to another, quite as contented 111 one as another. In their thoughts and feelings they drift with every cur rent. They are wafted hither and thither by «ach vagrant breexe. And no clear Idea of what they are living for nr of what they mean to be can he gathered. Tho best that can be Justly said of them la that they have come Into the world to be and do nothing In particular and that they do tt to admiration. . Concerning others we ot»ene we have to confess that they are Intel ligent and capable, but there is no den- nlte moral almln their 11 v t n K. MIh f< j J- tune or evil teaching ha* spoiled of Its serious and noble Into"!- T, ‘** are pessimist*. They are llving for nothing because nothing to them is worth living for. They own them- selves confused. Moral values are de mented They live—they keep on- ESlVEu for? The invarlahleanswer Is "Because we can not help °n™ It’s all a Joke or tragedy to be Pjsyod out helplessly and ns comfortably as possible. The best that »n be ssJd ls that they have come Into the worm to be at wnr with fate andto despise life and to be victim* of necessity, and There'remains a tine body of other people of whom you must sav vey have a purpose, but you can not say It Is n noble one. They arc living with definite aims day by day and their plans are ambltlou* and unrelenting. Their stakes are securely ***. They are doggedly driving after them, meas uring even- chan” ^ erl S u t ,° on further and further. But the aim* are all on tho level of “Hand the goals are all set to *elf-aggrandl«; ment. Incidentally and as a minor consideration, ‘hey maintain high Ideals and noble sympathies. bu ‘ always In subordination to an overruling purpoao to achieve selfishly. £' on '® 1 to you have corn© Into *° make money, to amass an cs tat $* .g ers to seek pleasure; others to.ggre£ tlse themselves and to raako a bubble reputation, while other*, Wjdl appear ances, have come Into the world toaI vertlse their tailors and dressmakere. or to make tho greatest possible dis play of jewelry In the smallest possi ble space. A Singular Life. Now, Imagine that among alt these you saw one moving about with one thought ever tn Ms mind, and one purpose running through every action, and that thought and purpose was not to blame men nor to shame them nor to condemn them, and not to cast them away from his presence as unworthy and unclean, but to save them from their sins and redeem them from their unworthiness and cleanse away their stains. When he saw the great throng of purposeless people he did not bentean them, but put his faith In them and energized their Irresolution by giving them purpose and Inspiration. To the despairing and the perplexed who" are living for no reailxcd Ideal he brought the commission of a great and worthy aim and to the pessimistic sweetness and light and purposeful life. For the multitude living for' them selves and for earthly (sordid and self ish ends, the strong and strenuous worker under the whip and In the bondage of the struggle for material glory he brought a loving warning and the call to noblest ambitions and la bors to save their souls from the prof itless contest of gaining the world. When he met a proud and covetous man he did not say. "So stuck up. so stingy.” He sought to lead htm to a better worship than Idolatry of self or pelf. When he met a boy who was the slave of lust or a girl who waa the victim of frivolity he did not turn away In disgust, but set to work to save them from their debasement and make them pure and earnest and true. When he saw a man degrading his manhood and grieving his wife and friends by drink he leu pel to his side nnd put his arms about him and drew Min out of the way of death nnd shame. How wonderful such a life would be! How different from most men’s lives. "Why.” you would say, "that man ’ doesn’t live for himself; does not think of himself.” You would suppose that he had nothing to do but to help men and to save them. Now. we know that *uch a man has lived on this earth and that He was the man Christ Jesus. His testimony about Himself was, "The Son of Man Is come to seek and save that which was tout." His contemporaries said of Him: "He went about doing good and heal ing all that were oppressed of the d *And. my friends, though these words are nothing new to you. 1 want to remind you afresh of the absolute originality of the life of which ‘hey are true. There ha* never been another human life quite like Christ * 0? no other man can It be said. He came Into the world to save sinners, as It can of Jesus Christ. . Here and there, ‘hank God, there hnve been men who have had Inkling* of the divine Idea of life, and who have loved the soul* and bodies of their fellow-men with a noble love, ana who have labored with hand and fortune to rescue the fallen nnd save the outcast and open the prison* to them who were hound. Oh, we can not forget that noble earl who lived and labored forthe noor of London, nor John Howard, Who heard the sighing of the prisoneni in European dungeons and let the clean sunshine into them! . . They were the highest types AnglD* 8axon civilisation has seen; but at their best how far are they Moved from Him who comprehended^ all classes in Hla ministering love and His limitless redemption. No, youma£r*n- sack history and explore literature to Ita Innermost recesses and ita furthest boundaries, and Jesus Christ stands out not less, but more original, unique and alone. Of Him and Him only can this cood word ho spoken without reserve and in all tho height and depth and length of its meaning: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. «He might have reared a palace at a Who sometimes had' not where .to lay His head. __ . , . Time was when He who nourished crowds with bread Would not one meal unto Illmselr af ford. He healed another's scratch; His own side bled— Side, feet and hands with cruel pierc ings gored. Twelve legions, girded with angelic sword. Stood at His beck, tho scorned and buffeted. Oh wonderful, tin* wonders left undone. And scarce less wonderful than thoso He wrought! Oh, - self-restraint, surpassing human thought. To have all power, yet btf as having none! Oh, self-denying love that thought alone For need of oth<*rs, never for His own!” . Did Christ Fail? Did Christ accomplish His purpose? He Himself declared that He was "straitened till * it bo accomplished." Was He doomed to disappointment? Did He fall? . There were at tho time some, and some are now, who regard the life of Christ a pathetic tragedy, ending In a public murder. What is tin* fact? Then* sire just four points «>f vir\^ for the understanding and appreciation of the life and death of Christ. From the standpoint of the world and its standard of judging the llfo ot Christ was a series of disappointments and His death an assassination. From the standpoint of God the life and death of Christ was a divine appointment The Apostle ‘Peter, speaking on the day of Pentecost, set these two aspects in their exact relation. "Him being delivered up by the determinate coun sel hnd foreknowledge of God, yet by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay.” Now the third viewpoint Is the viewpoint of Jesus Himself. To Him His life and death w*as a volun tary sacrifice. "I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No man taketh it from Me. but I lay it down of Myself." Ho was a voluntary offer ing. not a helpless victim. Christ's will fitted perfectly Into the determi nate counsel and foreknowledge of God. There is nothing unreconciled In the three aspects of Christ's.'Ufa and death. It was a murder, It was a divine appointment, it was a voluntary offering. The responsibility for tho murder rests with the murderers who acted utterly outside any conscious co. operation with the divine appointment and were swayed by motives and pas sions born of the devil. Tho responsibility for the sacriflco rests with Christ, who acted utterly within the consciousness of the divine appointment and was moved by mo tives born of God. The best judgo of his success or fail ure in a given program is tho actor himself, who knows, os other! do not, what the end to bo accomplished Is. Judged by Christ Himself, His purpose was accomplished. He did what He camo to do. He finished His work and the last word on the cross was a cry of achievement Ho plainly understood tho failure of His enemies and their Ignorance of tho real fact in His cru cifixion. "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they do." Oh. If they had known what they were doing, they would not have been murderers. They would have been priests at the highest and holiest altar ever raised In this world and fellow helpers in the will of God to bring redemption and salvation down to men. But there is still another point of view from which the success or fail ure of the life and death purpose of Christ must bo regarded. It is the standpoint of the sinner. Does tho crucified Christ really save from tho standpoint of the sinner? "He camo into tho world to save sinners.” Has He saved them? Does He save them? Hero tho appeal Is confined to history and experience. All Christian apologetics narrow to this point. It Is a simple test that mokes up or down for Christianity. Paul supplies tho material for the test when he says "of whom I am chief." If Christ lias saved a sinner and one who was the chief of sinners, can we not submit that it is a-faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ is tho Savior of sinners? Or even go further bock and lay the test at tho case of the first disciples. Did Christ redeem the men who gathered round Him during His life on earth? Com pare the sort of men they were when He began with them with what Ho made of them. Compare the Peter of tho Gospel with tho Peter of tho book of Acts, the boaster and tho traitor with the humble hero and apostle, and then ask: "Did he save?” Yes, He did. Has He redeemed men from their sins during the centuries between that day and this? Let men like Justin, martyr, saved from the suicide of de spair; and Augustine, saved * from chambering and wantonness, and Bun- yan and Luther, crying, "Oh, my sins, my sins," saved from doubt and dread; and John Newton, whose epitaph writ ten by himself and now on his tomb stone, reads thus: "John Newton, clerk, once an Infldbi and libertine, a serv ant of slaves in Africa, waa by tho rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, par doned and appointed to preach tho faith he hail long labored to destroy;” and John McGowan, on whose head stone In Bonehill Fields 1 read, "John McGowan, who at tho hand of God merited nothing but final destruction yet through the grace of Christ waa enabled to hope In a finished salvation —let them reply. After all, tny friends, the test of a religion, like the test of a machine, ia not its philosophic or scientific or the ological exactness, but "Does it work?* We will examine Into tho rope when wo get on shore out of the grip of death; wo will study tho mysteries of redemp tion to better advantage when we are rested from tho turmoils of life, not far hence. But now, does Christ sovo us from our seas? In Him do we find temptations baffled? Does Christ make us better men and women? Can Ho pull the sting of sin out of our lives* and Inspire the power of goodness Into them? That is the question. If not, wo Christians arc most miserable, and I am tho vain preacher of a Redeemer who does not redeem, a Savior who can not save. But Christ has saved, does save and can save. That Is not our theology. It Is our experience. We never did a wrong, committed a sin, that we did not first pull away from and get free from Christ to do It. • There Is not a sin In our past lives, nor a sinful disposition In our present hearts, of which He will not be Master and Deliverer, If we will repent and lay hold upon Him In sincerity. "There’s a Joy for overy sorrow, There's a euro for every pain, There's a sweet for every bitter, And for every loss a gain. There is light beyond the darkness, There Is hope beyond the grave. If wo only will remember That Christ Jesus came to save.” Not Faster Than 10 Miles. nuiMiru.iiuiD **ui—c siT-iiu* may be jrarmlMd has posted a, sign rend ing: “Ye that toil shall not spin In auto mobiles along b * ‘ “ ' hour. Ho salth I ONLY EXCLUSIVE TENT AND AWNINQ E8TABLI8HMENT IN THE CITY CALL FOR SOLICITOR WITH SAMPLES — BELL PHONE 2400 • L. WALL PAPER SAMPLES FREE ‘."TobmV 0 WILLIS WALL PAPER CO.