The hymn beginning:
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress:
'Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head,
was written by Zinzendorf, whose culture
and piety appear so conspicuously in the
more than two thousand hymns which came
from his pen. It was suggested by a picture
in the Düseldorf Gallery, "Ecce Homo,"
representing Jesus crowned with thorns.
From the pathetic face above he turned to
the legend beneath: "All this I have done
for thee; what hast thou for me?" The
vision and the question led him to adopt for
his life motto: "I have but one passion,
and that is He, and only He." (Text.)
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Christ's Fulness—See Fulness, Christ's.
CHRIST'S LOVE
Cyrus, the Persian, loved Lysander, one
of his great generals, so much that, it is said,
he exprest his readiness to melt down his
throne of massive gold and give it to him.
But Christ, our King, left His throne
for the love of the humblest soul.
(Text.)
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Christian Currents—See Currents of Life.
Christian Experience—See Paradox.
CHRISTIAN FULNESS
A Christian is an unfailing spiritual Niagara,
not a cow-track pool to be drunk dry
by a thirsty sunbeam.—F. F. Shannon.
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CHRISTIAN HONESTY
A Chinese Christian ferryman, poor in
money but rich in faith, one night ferried
a man over the river. After throwing the
cash for his fare into the bottom of the
boat, the passenger departed hurriedly. The
Christian went to pick up the money and
found a magnificent pair of gold bracelets
which the man had dropt. He tied up his
boat and tried to find his passenger, but he
was lost in the crowd. According to the
Chinese law, he could keep the bracelets, but
he did not feel comfortable in doing this.
He went to the preacher and together they
took the bracelets to the mandarin, and later
it was found that a wealthy Chinese had
been robbed and the man who dropt the
bracelets was a thief. The owner received
them very thankfully and gave the mandarin
a small reward for the finder. The incident
imprest the official very much. "I have
never seen or heard anything like this," he
said. "Your religion must be a true religion
and your God a loving God, thus to influence
a poor man to give up wealth for conscience
sake." He praised the boatman, who went
to his poor, damp, mud hut on the bank of
the river with a contented mind.
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CHRISTIAN SPIRIT, THE
The King of Italy displayed a truly royal spirit when he went to the earthquake region at Messina and Reggio, and personally assisted the sufferers. An account in the press says of this:
The King has made himself dear to all
his subjects, especially to those in the earthquake
zone, by his prompt and personal aid
in times of disaster. This makes plausible
a story told by his companions to-day, who
say that as the royal pair and the crowd
surrounding them made their way through
the ruins a man pinned under a great block
of stone and supposed to be dead raised his
head, repeated the cries of acclaim and dropt
back dead. (Text.)
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Christian, The, and Christ—See Christ, Union with.
Christian Travelers in Foreign Lands—See
Sunday Desecration by Christians.
CHRISTIAN UNITY
The Rev. John Fawcett, D.D., wrote the
hymn, "Blest be the tie that binds"—perhaps
the noblest hymnic expression of Christian
brotherhood; and the author is himself one
of the best examples of its sentiment.
Brought to God by the Methodists, under
the ministry of Whitefield, he joined that
body, and became later pastor of a Baptist
church in Bradford, England, and finally was
settled at Wainsgate. Receiving a call to
succeed the celebrated Dr. Gill in London,
he had his goods packed ready for removal,
when his loving people gathered, weeping, to
say farewell, which so touched him and his
good wife that he said, "I will stay; you may
unpack my goods, and we will live for the
Lord lovingly together." This experience, it
was, which led the author to compose the
now popular hymn. (Text.)
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