--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Welling, Milton H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 2 published: 1928-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Milton H. Welling, “The Man of Nazareth,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 2 (December 1928): 127–128." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera322unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera322unse start_page: 127 end_page: 128 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera322unse publication_year: 1928 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Man of Nazareth The Man of Nazareth Address Delivered by Hon. Milton H. Welling at the U. A. C, November 23, 1927 Two thousand years ago the man of Nazareth turned upon his inquisitors with a question of his own, "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?" May I have the boldness to use that as a text for the few observations I shall make today? The world has been seeking a solution to that question for almost 20 centuries. What I may say today will not add a single new idea to the perplexed thought of mankind about it; but what you and I think and feel about it today will most certainly influence our own lives and, in a large measure, determine what manner of men we ourselves shall be. I beg leave to say that I have not the least right to approach the subect from a scientific point of view, but, after all, men are usually influenced more by what they feel than by what they know. Espe- cially, as in this case, if their reputed knowledge bannot be subjected to the searching conclusions of a laboratory test. My firm belief is that any system of ed- ucation which has for its ultimate con- clusion a denial of the divinity of the mission of Jesus of Nazareth is a menace to the State. I do not care how far the deductions of the evolutionist may go if he will stop short of making the acknowledged Savior of mankind a mere man. I regret to say that one comes in contact with students sometimes who are graduated from our schools with noisy proclamations of their unbelief. They appear to think they have achieved impressive confirmation of their knowledge if they can attack faith in God and the divinity of the mission of Jesus, the Christ. Is it too much to ask men and women in our colleges to maintain, at least, the tolerance in this matter that they do in their ordinary theories, or, if they will, "facts" of science. Times change. I remember the stoutly asserted "fact" of my too-brief college days, that the atom was the indivisible unit of matter. Today you tell us much more about the atom. I quote, "The atom of many elements is more complex in struc- ture than a piano. Its structure is an- alogous to that of our solar system — a cen- tral sun with planets revolving around it. The atom has its nucleus with revolving attendants, the distances between which are relatively comparable to inter-planetary distances in our solar system." Thirty years ago, I was credulous enough to believe after two years of chem- istry and physics that I was reasonably fa- miliar with the composition of matter. Today, I have just finished reading the "Mystery of Matter." What I then set down as fact you denounce and utterly disprove today. If the scientific mind, looking down through the microscope, has utterly recon- structed its notion of the smallest known quantity in the world, I may be pardoned if I question the right of that mind when it casually looks up into the universe and denies the existence of God and the immac- ulate conception of his son Jesus Christ. I do not know how this necessary mir- acle of man's relationship to Deity was brought about, but that limitation ought in itself to forbid the arrogant assertion of unbelief in God. Last winter I delivered an address over the radio. The immediate audience was made up of 1,500 college men and wom- en, but 300 miles away was • another audience who could hear every word I spoke, every breath I drew. No human being understands the processes by which the voice is carried through space, but we know it is so transmitted to remote sta- tions. If my voice can reach my friends at great distance under such imperfect agencies as man's devices, I shall not doubt the solemnly considered word of the man 128 IMPROVEMENT ERA who declares that God has spoken to him and proclaimed the truth of his existence. I said in the beginning that any theory of education which denies God and the divine mission of the Savior of mankind is a menace to the State. I say this be- cause the world has advanced more rapidly under the influence of the Christian re- ligion than under other systems of phil- osophy. Greek civilization, based upon the love of beauty, could not endure. Ro- man civilization was based upon the doc- trine of brute force. It could not meet the need of the world. Civilization has reached its loftiest heights under the in- fluence of the teachings of Jesus of Nazar- eth, who substituted the law of love for the law of force. In 1914 a great English statesman said that he saw "no way out of the present crisis in our civilization unless there should, perchance, arise a religious leader of the simplicity, dignity and exaltation of char- acter of Jesus of Nazareth, who could lead the nations to peace, justice and broth- erhood." Henry C. Emery, professor of economics of Yale University, has said, "We are told by some writers that the world is waiting in an agony of expectation for some great social philosopher who shall bring to it the new message of salvation. If so the world is wrong, for there is no message to bring it peace from its manifold ills, save that heard nineteen centuries ago from the pro- foundest of all social philosophers, the man of Nazareth." I believe these statements are true, and believe also that he was the literal Son of God — the Redeemer of the world. If there are things about such a declara- tion, common alike to most of our re- ligious experiences, which seem to conflict with the conclusion we reach in our chem- ical and physical laboratories, I ask that they be respectfully laid aside without prejudice until such time as they receive a glorious confirmation in the fuller knowledge of the future. In conclusion, I quote an estimate of the Master by one not holding my religious views: "There is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never trav- eled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He had nothing to do with in this world except the naked power of his divine manhood. "While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him; another betrayed him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on the cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying, and that was his coat. When he was dead he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. "Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today he is the center of the hu- man race, and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat. and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as profitably as has that one solitary man." One fact stands out in bold relief in the history of men's attempts for better- ment. That is, that when compulsion is used, only resentment is aroused, and in the end nothing is gained. Only through moral suasion and appeal to men's reason can a movement succeed. — Samuel Gompers.