Article April 11, 1903 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from F. B. Meyer, Joseph Parker

The Rev. A. Francis Walch, in an article in The Universalist Leader, says: "Jesus was bent on saving men into a life that should exhibit a growing likeness to his own. With a divine presumption that he was offering to men a most desirable thing for them, he said, Follow me;' 'I am the Light of the World;' 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life;" 'I am come that they might have Life;" 'I am the good Shepherd;" 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.' So to be saved by Jesus must be to be led along his way of life, until we shall come to be like him; until in thought and affection, in service and sacrifice, we are dominated and possessed by the same spirit that dominated and possessed him. The salvation which Jesus promised is thus the fulness of life to those for whom God had purposed it. It had its origin in and received its power from a loving Father. Jesus claimed himself to be the earthly expression of that Father's love; a love that persistently refused to be denied or defeated, but that would go out willingly and gladly on its way, into every 'far country' and each dark mountain, until every man at last should own its power and live in the midst of its beauty. Here is the very heart of the message of Jesus. A message of love and helpfulness; of helpfulness as the best expression of love; of love as the broadest and deepest impulse to helpfulness. Then in view of the fact that Jesus looked out into the world as filled with children of God to be saved from all sin and smallness and to become like himself, it is right to say again that this is a most natural thing for him to do. When we come to understand that the real purpose of Jesus was to save men and women, and to save them in such a manner that they should feel it to be according to God's purpose that they should be saved, and that they should feel that it was as the children of God that they were being saved, then I think we feel that this is a most natural service for him to render, and one justifying all his sacrifice and devotion. Every promise of Jesus, to save, is made with the largest possible assurance. There is a confidence in all his promises that seems to reach down into the very heart of man's need of salvation and looks up into the very midst of God's abundance. where every soul is to find its complete satisfaction."

Rev. John M. Davidson says in The Christian Register:—

"There is that element of divinity in us that will inevitably, sooner or later pull us out of imperfection and draw us to God....

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