Review of Rev. Henry Irvine's Sermon – "It is Finished"

Winnipeg, 1913

The Man and His Message

No. 24 — Rev. Henry Irvine at Fort Rouge Methodist Church
(By Criticus.)

[The writer attended on Easter Sunday, the service that day most given over to the choir and the service of song. The present building was opened for worship in 1911. He gives a summary of the church's history and some of the pastors they've had.]

The present pastor, the Rev. Henry Irvine, took up his ministry at Fort Rouge in 1909, and has sustained the difficult burden of the transition period, always a trying time in the history of a church. The removal from the small frame building to the commodious (it will seat, I should imagine, about 800 worshippers) sanctuary now used for worship, necessarily brought with it peculiar trials to the minister, and his people speak with gratitude of the way Mr. Irvine adapted himself to the position. They know him for a kindly, diligent pastor, hardworking and always ready to respond cheerfully to their calls, one who in sickness is invariably sympathetic and helpful, a true minister to the needs of his flock. Mr. Irvine came from Collingwood, Ont., and removes this June to Fort William.

His Message

The preacher intimated at the beginning of his address that for that evening his part of the service was a restricted one, and he intended only to give a short address. He spoke the significance of the words of Jesus: "It is finished," and gave a helpful, suggestive exposition of the task of our Lord, which was "finished" on Calvary's Cross. It was a quiet, thoughtful review in brief outline of the life mission of the Master. Neither in form or content was the address ambitious. Its phraseology was simple and unadorned, and the delivery was as unpretentious as the matter. Mr. Irvine speaks in a low monotone, has practically no gestures, rarely relaxes in facial expression (which is grave and subdued) or changes his posture of hands resting on the sides of the desk with body slightly bent over. The whole delivery struck one as somewhat heavy and unimpressive. But it ought to be stated that the occasion hardly afforded a visitor a fair opportunity of hearing the preacher.

The text was taken from the Gospel of John, 19th chap., 30th verse: "It is finished." The preacher said that there was sadness in these words and at the time the whole world was darkened and nature seemed to shudder in sympathy with a suffering God. ...

We like to think of the tenderness Jesus, "Lord, remember me," and the precious words that have been the comfort of many, "This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Someone has said that the greatest words in all the language art these: "It is finished." The work is accomplished; there is relief, exaltation, a sense of completeness. "What was the task that was finished? We had it defined in the words, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many." We are not to take "ransom" literally, but to understand that Christ came to give deliverance from the thralldom of sin, from the dominion of passion. ...

The greatest purpose of Jesus was to bear witness to the truth. Not to scientific truth, but to moral and spiritual truth; to tell them things about God and sin that they did not know. Both in word and in deed Jesus was a perfect witness to God and goodness. ...

In John iii: 16, we have the "Gospel in little" and in it all the Gospel is embodied. Then in the parable of the prodigal son we have a wonderful revelation concerning God. This wipes away theologies and makes the relation between the sinner and God that between a father and his son. The kind of a father shown in the parable would take back even that kind of a boy and that is the relationship between the human children and the Divine Father. ...

Then Jesus taught concerning sin that it consisted not in what your hand did, but in what your mind is; not in the outer act, but the inner temper. ...

Jesus not only gave beautiful teaching, but lived His own teaching. Our Lord taught many things that seem utopian and visionary, but He did them Himself. Following Him, down to this day Christian men when hurt by their enemies have given back nothing but love and kindness until men have been won to God simply by what the individual was in his inner spirit as manifested in his actions towards his enemies. ...

No one ever worked so intently as Jesus at the task God sent Him into the world to do. He said Himself, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, for the night cometh, when no man can work." "He set His face steadfastly towards Jerusalem," going to His death. Men tried to dissuade Him, but He persisted. And what effect the death of Jesus had upon God we cannot understand, but the effect on humanity we can understand and appreciate in part. ...

In a bit of effective autobiography the preacher told of his Catholic boyhood and the wonderful impression made by the first hearing of the story of the Cross and spoke of the death of Jesus and its significance. In conclusion he said that the text meant that God gave Jesus a hard task and it was done. He had the task of doing something for all humanity; in His expiring moments He exalts the task and says: "It is finished." Then He gave up the ghost. — H.D.R.

—Manitoba Morning Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, April 5, 1913, p. 2, literary section.