this calendar scheme. They alone have
voiced a protest before Congress, for
they alone have on their side the words
of Jehovah himself: “The seventh day
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
Christ in History
(Continued from page 21)
New Testament Scriptures, being in
Greek, could be read by the educated in
all parts of the empire. The preachers
who spoke Greek could be understood
everywhere by the same classes.
5. The messianic prophecies, open to
all who would read them, and understood
by the spiritually minded among the
Gentiles as well as the Jews, definitely
identified Jesus of Nazareth as the
Christ.
6. And when the new religion appeared
it was met by the Romans with the
tolerance customary in their treatment
of the faiths of their subjects. To them,
Christianity was only one more of the
queer faiths that had come from the
Orient. Later, when they saw it as a
menace to their ideas of religion as
patriotism, and when they heard the
Christian predicting the overthrow of the
empire, they turned with fury upon the
new faith. But it was too late. Chris-
tianity had had time to become estab-
lished.
In considering the results of the minis-
try of Christ, we find the subject dividing
itself into two parts, the direct effect of
His teaching and work upon His con-
temporaries, and the after-effects.
HE Di1SAPPOINTED THEIR PREJUDICES
HERE can be no doubt that Jesus
was considered an iconoclast and a
violent radical by His contemporaries.
Time and again He ruthlessly trampled
the conventions into which their leaders
had carefully educated the Jews. The
rabbis had made the Sabbath a burden;
Jesus made it a day of good deeds and
pleasant communion with nature. The
Pharisees prided themselves on their
punctilious observance of the law; Jesus
exploded their conceit and called them
white-washed tombs, men who were
spiritually dead. Social distinctions
meant much to the Jews; the Son of
God dined with publicans and sinners as
readily as with the elders, and He was
not above offering salvation and re-
habilitation to fallen women. Hatred of
their oppressors had become almost a
part of the Jewish religion, and the heap-
ing of curses on the Romans was their
favorite pastime; the Man who loved all
men instructed them to turn the other
cheek. The Jews, knowing from the
prophecies that the day had come,
awaited with impatience the hero-
messiah who was to come in the trap-
pings of a king to remove from them the
hated Roman yoke, and was then to lay
the world at their feet and rule from the
throne of David; a lowly Carpenter,
born in a stable of a plebeian mother,
JULY, 1929
His court composed of a tax collector
and a few fisher folk, announced to them
that He was the Expected One. That was
too much for them, so after a great deal of
talk they crucified Him, their Messiah.
And to this day men dispute the divinity
of the Christ. It is a part of the curse.
“Our blindness be upon us and upon our
children.” the frenzied mob might have
cried. The result would have been the
same.
Although Jesus’ public ministry was
not of long duration, its energizing effect
upon the work of the faithful is beyond
computation. Before His advent He had
always had professed followers. But
with the exception of the prophets and
some others — a few, perhaps only one
in a generation — these followers had
not been active workers or missionaries.
They had been the church apathetic, and
sometimes a bit apologetic, not to say
rebellious. Now all this was changed.
Within a generation the gospel went to
all the inhabited globe, first to the Jews,
then the Roman Empire was given its
chance, then to the barbarians. Neither
wild beasts, nor dangers from the sea, nor
the persecutions of the Jews, nor the
prospect of death in a Roman amphi-
theater under the eyes of the jeering mob
or as a pitch-dipped torch lighting
Ceesar’s garden parties, could deter the
Christians. The greater the dangers and
the hardships the more intense was their
zeal, They had caught the heavenly
vision.
Not all of His professed followers have
kept to the path He laid out for them,
but enough have so that throughout the
Christian era He has never been without
true witnesses. Philosophers, scientists,
artists, orators, literati, administrators,
and statesmen have dedicated their best
efforts to the advancement of His coming
kingdom. Armies of laborers have
worked for Him. All that is best in the
culture and civilization of the West, as
well as all the real progress that the hu-
man race has made — these are attrib-
utable to Him. No one else has so pro-
foundly influenced the lives of men and
the destinies of nations. Jesus Christ is
the most important person in history.
The Unanimous Voice
(Continued from page 19)
thought, too sacred to be delegated;
hence they provided that the care of
religion, the freedom of speech, and the
freedom of the press, should never de-
pend upon legislation, but should be
left to the voluntary action of the people
themselves. — Works of James A. Gar-
field, Vol. 2, page 578.
Chester A. Arthur.— The prevalence
of health, the fullness of the harvest,
the stability of peace and order, the
growth of fraternal feeling, the spread of
intelligence and learning, the continued
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty
— all these and countless other blessings
are cause for reverent rejoicing.—
Thanksgiving Proclamation, Oct. 20, 1883.
“Messages and Papers of the Prestdents,”’
Vol. 8, page 160.
Grover Cleveland. — The United
States must hold in their intercourse
with every power that the status of
their citizens is to be respected and
equal civil privileges accorded to them
without regard to creed.— First Annual
Message.
Benjamin Harrison. — [Our citizens
should be thankful] for the preservation
of those institutiors of civil and religious
liberty which He gave our fathers the
wisdom to devise and establish and us
the courage to preserve.— Thanksgiving
Proclamation, Nov. 13, 1801, * Messages
and Papers of the Presidents,’ Vol. 9.
page 102.
William McKinley. — Free speech, a
free press, free thought, free schools,
the free and unmolested right of religious
liberty and worship, and free and fair
elections are dearer and more universally
enjoyed today than ever before. These
guaranties must be sacredly preserved
and wisely strengthened. — Inaugural
Address.
Theodore Roosevelt. — Probably the
best test of true love of liberty in any
country is the way in which minorities
are treated in that country. Not only
should there be complete liberty in
matters of religion and opinion, but
complete liberty for each man to lead
his life as he desires, provided only
that in so doing he does not wrong his
neighbor.—*“ African and European Ad-
dresses,” page 61.
William H. Taft. — The government
of the United States treats all churches
and creeds alike. It protects them all,
but favors no one against another.
It is not engaged in proselyting for one
church or creed, and any officer using
his office for such a purpose, directly
or indirectly, ought to forfeit his office.—
Annual Reports of War Department, 1902,
Vol. 1, page 239.
Woodrow Wilson. — America has no
reason for being unless her destiny and
duty be ideal. It is her incumbent
privilege to declare and stand for the
rights of men. Nothing else is worth
fighting for.—“ The Essential American
Traditions,” page 161.
Warren G. Harding. — We cannot
erect too many memorials to religious
liberty, nor can we have too much
religious life in America. —A¢ dedication
of a memorial to Roger Williams, Wash-
ington, D. C.
Calvin Coolidge. — So long as our
Constitution remains in force, no
majority, no matter how large, can
deprive the individual of the right of
life, liberty, or property, or prohibit
the free exercise of religion or the free-
dom of speech or of the press.—*“ Founda-
tions of the Republic,” page 95.
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