The Creed of Jesus and Other Sermons (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907. Excerpt: ... THE ATTITUDE OF JESUS TOWARD NATURE Matt. 11:35. "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." The most casual reader of the Gospels notices that He, who "knew what was in man," and is unquestionably our greatest expert in human nature, had also a most keen and interested eye for the ways of the dumb creation. His sayings abound in pictures of the scenes about Him, sketched in the briefest compass of words, but which, like the diminutive canvases of the old Dutch masters, give us a marvellously detailed view of the landscape. Although the accurate description of the scenery of Syria was never His conscious aim, His observation was so correct and His genius for reproducing what He saw in word-paintings so perfect, that we, who are familiar with His sayings, know the sights of Palestine almost as well as we do those of our native land. We seem to have seen with our own eyes a typical Syrian field with its four kinds of soil, and to have watched the fate of seed sown on each; to have stood by while the two houses were built, one on rock and the other on sand foundations, and to have been present when the sweeping storm of wind and rain reduced the latter to a heap of debris; to have visited a vineyard with its hedge and tower and winepress and laborers bearing the burden and heat of the day; and to have been with a flock of sheep when it was called out of its fold by the well-known voice of its shepherd and led to pasture, or when shepherdless the sheep were lying scattered and torn on the rocky hill-sides, or when it was left in a place of security while the shepherd went off" after the one sheep which had strayed away. How many of the plants of the country are familiar to us from His allusions to them--the tiny mustard seed which grows into a shrub l...