Sermon Preached by the Rev. A. N. Rowland in Advent Season 1924, at Union Church, Shanghai being Jesus coming unto schich tebeth sony the sri ofthe him saith Behold the Lamb of God] world." John 1. 29.
The name of Jesus Christ touches: all the concerns of mankind, and anyone of them can be profitably considered from this standpoint in the hour of worship, But we have the privilege in the last month of the year of tracing back the radi jon of His influence to its very puree and giving our minds to the study of His personality. For His gospel is himself, Here is a picture of Him from the hand of one who knew Him well, the famous John the Baptizer. "Behold the Lamb of God," he said, not publicly I think but within the hearing of his intimate disciples. The words were drawn out of this student of human nature as he Jooked at Jesus. (of. w. 29, 3 We must take these words then, not 'a8 a dogma, that is a dictation to our thought, but as a picture, that is awakening and satisfaction of our thought, As Jesus himself said afterwards, "Consider the lilies of the field," so John says to teachable hearts, "Behold the Lamb of} God:" look Until the divine meaning dawns upon you—~ flesh, looking out of the eyes of! 1 person, able to lay his warm hand fon every soul, conveying through life itself the gospel of God. Then he says "Look,"—says it in every! verse of his 21 chapters "Behold the Lamb of God.'
T used to wonder at the weight allowed by the evangelist to the sole testimony of John, just as I have been surprised at the burdens carried by the single wheel of a Chinese barrow. But John was not merely an individual, he was the central conscience of the chosen people, approved as such by both its religious and popular representatives. And if you have such man you do not increase the value of his judgment by supplying him with a committee or surrounding him with a crowd, They would be more likely to be swayed by partilities and prejudices than he because he was. responsible, and on ibility has "had its not so when men act! in a throng: then responsibility is divided and'diminished. The crowd that shouts Hosannah counts for nothing at a crisis, for its memers have not answered all the questions that need to be asked or even realized what they are, But John had staked his life on this significance of one person. All its narrative is made to turn on the action of His truth and grace.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.