Baccalaureate Sermon
145
the Sermon on the Mount. In this lesson on prayer, the
highest exercise of which man is capable, Jesus taught that
God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will, were to be man’s
first concern. Even man’s bread-acquiring activities were to
be under the direction of God. Man was to look to God for
deliverance from sin, that which keeps man from putting
God first.
If there be a God of righteousness and justice and love on
the throne of the universe, and this is the belief of theistic
religion, an attempt to build a house for His children without
any reference to His will, will be no improvement on the
original tower of Babel.
Madam Chiang Kai-Shek tells us that “in old Chinese art,
there is just one outstanding object, perhaps a flower, on a
scroll. Everything else in the picture is subordinate to that
one beautiful thing. An integrated life is like that. What is
that one flower? As I see it now, it is the will of God. . . . I
used to pray that God would do this or that. Now I pray
only that God will make His will known to me.”1 China has
sent to the United States a Christian missionary. May many
more come to this needy field.
A third word of Jesus that would be rock in the foundation
of our new house is that concerning the supreme worth of
personality.
III. HIS WORD CONCERNING THE SUPREME WORTH OF
PERSONALITY
Certain New Testament scholars have gone so far as to
say that this is the distinctive teaching of Christianity. They
base their claim on the fact that in the words and works of
Jesus the individual came before sacred rites and laws.
Whenever the rites and laws stood in the way of the needs
of men they were by that fact abrogated.
1I Confess My Faith, Mei-Iing Soong Chiang, p. 9.