Article January 1, 1910 Issue

The lowly Nazarene is and must ever continue to be our...

Martin Sindell

Sabbath Recorder

The lowly Nazarene is and must ever continue to be our example—our Wayshower. Whatever was necessary for him to overcome, that he might thus show his sonship with God, is also our duty to overcome. What he accomplished by his understanding of truth, we are to accomplish some time, some where. If Jesus "increased in wisdom . . . and in favor with God and man," it is ours to do likewise. Of Jesus it is true, as of other good and wise men, that he struggled to overcome the world, for he was "in all points tempted like as we are." His splendid victories over sin, disease, death, and "the flesh" will some time have counterparts in every individual life. In our human experiences we are ever dissatisfied with our present attainments. With great zeal we endeavor to accomplish our desires; to better ourselves mentally and financially. Shall not the same be true of our religious experiences? If a faith which is attended by material symbols and ceremonies fails to satisfy us, is it not our privilege, nay, our duty, to seek a wholly spiritual worship? In this search and attainment we are following the Master, for he taught that "neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," were men to worship the Father, but "in spirit and in truth." That is, place and form were not essential to true worship, but an understanding of God was. This understanding came to Jesus gradually; and as it increased, his words and deeds became more wonderful. "They were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power."

He was reared by a devout Jewish mother, who doubtless gave him the "precept upon precept; line upon line," of the Moses-taught beliefs; but as he "increased in wisdom" he rose above the material concept of religion, and by his pure helpful life gave to the world a faith for which it had been longing, but which, sad to relate, is still unacquired. The heights to which Jesus led a few followers were at length lost to view, the night of the "dark ages" having gradually settled down upon them. But in the midst of that darkness there was a Luther who caught a faint gleam, a gleam on whose glittering length was written the significant words: "The just shall live by faith." This transcendent thought dispelled somewhat the appalling darkness, and hope was renewed. Luther rose above many of the beliefs which had beclouded his spiritual vision, and gladly accepted the light thus revealed. The truth which Jesus understood and demonstrated, which a few centuries later Luther longed for and partially grasped, was the same truth, changeless, beautiful, practical. Shorn of human vestments, it lifted men into "the secret place of the most High," the consciousness of the ever-presence and helpfulness of God.

No period of the world's history has a special claim on truth. Since God is "no respecter of persons," neither is He a respecter of times. His truth is revealed to any person in any age who is sufficiently pure of heart to receive it. Then the "still small voice" whispers to the individual consciousness the wisdom of which Jesus spoke when he said to Peter. "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee." Thus we may see that a godly thinker in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries may receive the God-given truth in equal measure with a person of the twentieth century before Christ.

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