CHAPTER VII.

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF THE CROSS.

Text-" Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Jas. 1:17.

Man is, by nature, religious, and all of the race are reaching out after God "if haply they may find Him," though in fact He is not far from any of us.

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In every form of worship from the "Voodoo " of Africa to the great "ethnic religions" and particularly in the "universal religion universal religion" which Jesus came in the "niche of time" and revealed to us as the more abundant life," men are taught to revere God, and while most men are willing to concede the superiority of Christianity, some criticise the methods by which our truth has been revealed. Yes," says one, "I admire the life and character of Jesus and recognize in His teachings some superior principles, but I must reject His claim to divinity because of the barbarous aspects of the scenes attendant upon the tragedy of Calvary. Think of a God who would consign His own Son to a death so ignominious and revolting! Think of the 'Shadows' that lay athwart the path of the innocent

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mother and unsuspecting disciples of the meek and lowly Nazarine!'

It is with a view to answering these seemingly logical objections (but really human sophistries) and with a hope of giving you a perspective of God's motive through His own lens, that this theme is developed.

Every light has a common center and radiates with equal force in all directions.

The blending of "Lights and Shadows" make all forms of matter manifest to the senses.

The beauty in light is not evident until it is broken up.

How beautiful are the colors of the spectrum when the rays of light from old Sol shine through the water drops, which with prismatic effect separate them and develop God's "golden bow of promise" upon upon a darker background of clouds which reflect to us this simple yet most interesting phenomenon of the "art gallery of the skies."

As one approaches the light from a distance, shadows at first predominate, but ultimately disappear.

The shadows serve a beneficent purpose as they always point to the object casting them and incidentally to the light beyond, without which, neither objects nor shadows would be discerned.

Let us approach the "light" from darkness in God's own way.

The Origin of Our Religion.

The Christian religion is a special revelation engrafted into Judaism which owes its origin to the Persian and Egyptian systems.

Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees. His descendants went down into Egypt where Moses became versed in "all the learning of the Egyptians."

The Parsee or eastern philosophy was Pan Theistic one mind- one center with two forces constantly at variance- centripetal and centrifugal -emanating from and returning to the comon center.

In this system man was either attracted to the center or repelled to the outer confines of the universe, with mind the controlling influence.

The Egyptian was materialistic and thought of matter as of greater import and somehow spirit was connected with, but subject to it.

One indelible impression which the Egyptian left upon Judaism is the Bible number "seven."

In their "Mysteries," three (the triangle) represented divinity; "four" (the square) symbolized man "scattered to the four winds of Heaven."

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In this system spirit had to "come down" and matter reach up" to be perfectly joined, but matter was the dominant factor.

In reading recently a book on Comparative

Theology, I was impresed by a statement that the Christian religion has in it the possibilities of har monizing all the idiosyncrasies of the ethnic religions and making the race one.

Jesus the Climax of Revelation.

If this be true, each race has had its revealed truth in the "niche of time" and religion at once becomes a series of developments, with climax succeeding climax, until the advent of the Christ who is the "fullnes of all and in all."

"And I doubt not through the ages
One increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened
With the process of the suns."

"God

As I read of the yearning for a “golden mean in religion, in the teachings of Confucius, and find a literal application of it in the blending of the old systems to form Christianity, it seems to me that the hand of divinity is with us and that: moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform," and that method, precision and law are everywhere in evidence, working to a harmonious finale, a common fate and destiny for the race.

The Critic Has Misinterpreted.

Assuming that this is true, what particular objection can anyone have to the cross as a means of revelation?

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God foreknew the result?" Yes, He understood perfectly the horrible suffering of Jesus and the shadows which that grewsome old cross would cast over the lives of Mary and the disciples.

What, then, was His motive? To reveal to men the truth that we are His, created in His image and since He is our Father, we are all brethren, and since the revelation came through Jesus, we are one in Him.

"For not to natural conception, nor to human instincts, nor to the will of man did they owe the New Life but to God." (New ver.) Jno. 1:13.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 Jno. 3:2.

"And I shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness

The image of God was buried deep in the heart of man and his nature.

The vision of Paradise vouchsafed to the first pair in the Garden of Eden, has left an indelible impression on the race and is, in a measure at least. responsible for the "heart hunger" of the race in its yearning for the unattainable in the great beyond, without having any known human means by which to reach the Elysian fields of which men dream an echo to that first vision.