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1
2
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1
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6
THE ONLY TRUE LIKENESS OF
Our Saviour^
Taken from one cut in an Kmerald l)y command of Tiherius Gvsar
and which was given from the Treasury of Constantinople, by
the Kmperor of the Turks, to Pope Innocent VIIL, for
the redem;}tion of his brother, then a captive to
the Christians.
/
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J '7 .
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Hr'
-
itU
111. '
•
»
THE GREATEST NAME
IN THE WORLD.
BY
REV. JOHN W. MacCALLUM.
WITH
INTRODUCTION BY REV. JOHN POTTS, D.D.
7
TORONTO:
WILLIAM BRIGGS,
W«sLgY Buildings.
*loHTii»Au : C. W. COAXES.
1898.
Halifax : S. f . HUKSTIS.
BRioos. at the Department of Agriculture.
Co the
CbviBtian fiouno People
OF AMERICA,
WHO ARE TO GUIDE THE DESTINIES OP OUR LAND
FOR A BRIEF PERIOD
AND WHOSE IMPRESS UPON THE TIME IN
WHICH THEV LIVE
SHALL MIGHTILY TELL FOR RIGHTEOUBNE88
AND
THE SALVATION OF TAB WORLD,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In harmony with the urgent wishes of a great
many friends, the author has submitted the
following lectures to the generous public.
There was but one single aim in their pre-
paration and delivery, and that was to intensify
the interest of young people in the life, Gospel,
and universal reign of Jesus Christ.
There are many thoughtful, earnest souls,
struggling with difficulties arising from the'
insinuations and sophistries of the multiform
infidelity of to-day, which calls its ignorance
" philosophic reason " and its stupid blindness
"scientific doubt;" and if these addresses shall
have helped them in any way to a clearer
vision of the Truth, the author will not only
feel justified, but also amply repaid for doing
VI
Preface.
what has been done. As the (juotation marks
will show, I have drawn freely from the writ-
ings of others-jewels of thought to adorn and
beautify these pages. To the authors, whose
names it would be impossible always to specify.
I herewith pay my humble and grateful
acknowledgments.
The picture of our Saviour is an exceedingly
rare and valuable one, and was presented to the
author by Mrs. Chas. P. Younge, of Utica, N.Y.
May His gracious smile be upon the reader.
Tor.nU, W,s. "^^"^ ^ MacCaLLUM.
INTRODUCTION.
Every book which has for a theme the Lord
Jesus Christ is freighted with much blessing to
its earnest readers.
The Christ has attracted painters, poets,
biographers, teachers and preachers, and all
these have presented as best they could their
ideal of the uni({uc and glorious character of
the Saviour of the world. Much as has come
into the worlds of Art and Literature illustra-
tive of the Incarnate One, much more shall
burst forth from the consecrated brains and
loving hearts with an effort to express the faith
and love of the adoring disciples of their
adorable Lord.
The accomplished Prof. Drummond wrote
with exquisite literary skill and with Christ-
like grace of "The Greatest Thing in the
World," and now John W. MacCallum writes of
'• The Greatest Name in the World."
T
4
^
Vlll
Introduction.
This little book is the author's tribute of
loving homage to his Redeemer and Lord. The
reader will soon find that it is a graceful tribute
which will inspire similar thoughts of Christ to
those so beau ti full}" expressed by the writer.
May "The Greatest Name in the World"
have many readers who shall ponder its stimu-
lating contents until with Alfred Lord Tennyson
they shall sing,
" Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen Thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove."
John Potts.
Toronto, February^ 1898.
CONTENTS.
Chapter I,
The Greatest Name in the World -
PAOR
11
Chapter II.
Scepticism a Mystery -Miracle and Science Alike
Attest His High Origin and Messiahship - . 22
Chapter III.
Kxalted Expectations of What the Messiah Should be - 40
Chapter IV.
A Perfect Ideal
Chapter V.
Greatest Among Teachers .
What He Taught -
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
His Power and Its Sources - . . .
Chapter VIII.
His Discourses Clear and Pointed -He Alone is Grea
Chapter IX.
What Napoleon Thought of Jesus
Chapter X.
Crowning Results of His Life's Work
55
68
81
89
reat - 98
109
120
" ^''°" «*"" <■«« *« nanu J£SUS."-Uke i. 31.
"^ wawe */>/<jV/i i, abore even, name " Ph.r • ••
«« -7' J
phiiij^:;;:;:'*™^^^^''"'--^'-''-''^'-"-
THE GREATEST NAME IN
THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
Great names arc gathered into constellations.
Stars gather and glitter in galaxies. The planets
all are members of one great family. There is
nothing in all the realm of Omnipotence without
its dependency, its relationship. The whole
dazzling array of worlds above us point their
fingers of light to the '' King of Day." and in
one glorious tuneful voice exclaim, " Our briglit-
ness comes from him." The radiant sun extends
its long spears of flame toward the throne of
God, and cries, " He gives me my light ! "
Every great man points to some other great
man as the moulder in a large degree of his life
and destiny. Thousands of redeemed ones on
earth and in heaven point to Legh Richmond
as the one who led them to Christ. Legh
12
The Greatest Name in the World.
Richmond points to William Wilberforce as the
human agency in his redemption. Wilberforce
ir turn points to Cowper and Dr. Thomas Scott,
while Scott points to John Newton. Adoniram
Judson was led to God by Claudius Buchanan,
while Buchanan tells us that the converted sailor,
John Newton, led him to the light. Newton
tearfully mentions his sainted mother, whose
legacy of faith was the agency of his salvation.
There is a golden chain of circumstances, run-
ning through all the history of our country's
achievements and greatness, back to a day when
a mysterious fog hung its filmy curtain over all
the lower end of Long Island, where Washington
and his troops were cornered by the British
General, and under which coverlet of liquid
drapery, an escape was made that eventually
led to the established freedom of the American
Colonies. From that period there runs a line
of divinely appointed events, back through the
battle-fields of Bunker-Hill, Concord, Lexington,
the Boston Massacre, the Stamp Act, Queen
Anne's War, Pcnn's Treaty — back to the landing
on Plymouth Rock of the one hundred and
twenty Pilgrims from the Maijffower, on Re-
ligious Freedom's natal Birthday, December
21, 1620. Back of this date sixty-five years
runs the " chain of circumstances," to the time
The Greatest Name in the World. 13
when the State Religion of England changed
from Catholicism to Protestantism, back to
Luther, back to Wycliff, back to Savonarola,
back to John Huss, back to Arnold, through the
Crusades, on and back through the ages, until
the end of the golden chain is found fastened to
a Bethlehem manger, forever more illustrious as
the first earthly resting place of our now
ascended Lord. Thus behind all the gi-eat
names of history, is '* that Name which is above
every name " — the Greatest Name in the World.
The testimony of the wisest and best men
throuirhout the centuries all bear witness to His
sublime elevation and majesty, above all that is
earthly or human. Those who stand out in
prominence on the page of history, characterize
themselves by some particular trait or action.
Usually, though, where they excelled in one
virtue, ten vices were dominant. It was so with
Demosthenes, with Alexander the Great, with
Caesar and with Pilate. David blackened his
whole history by the murder of Uriah (2 Samuel
xi, 6-22). Solomon's idolatry and intemperance
cast a grim, sombre pall of fitful shadows over
all the works of his hand and brain. The lion-
like boldness of Peter in Jerusalem and Antioch,
his death by crucifixion, with his head down-
ward, does not blot out his denial of Christ in
14
The Greatest Name in the Worhi.
Pilate's judginont-h.'ill. Paul never can out-live
the martyrdom of Stephen.
Christ alone presents a perfect model — a per-
fect record. His life was blameless and spotless
— from the time of His first appearance in the
Temple, until the end of His public ministry,
which only ceased with His life. Had He lived
other than a faultless life in Nazareth, His
village home, the Jews, who were His bitterest
enemies, would have cast it up to Him. But not
a word of such is heard. He grew up as a
'* tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground "
(Isa. liii. 1). He was (]uiet and unassuming,
loved and loving ; His words and ways enrapt-
uring the soul their magnificence attracted. He
was not a recluse, even though He created no
questions about His divinity, until after His
appearance to Israel as their Saviour.
Humility was the robe under which the eaglet
was to preen its wings for a flight across the
ages and around the globe. With love alone
He was to ultimately lift all men ;'nto the light
of heaven's joys — bring the Maker and clay into
harmonious union, usher in the Golden Era of
Humanity, and complete the Universal Brother-
hood of Man. Beyond comparison, without par-
allel, the image of the Invisible God (Col. i. 15),
the One whom angels comforted (Matt. iv. 11),
The Greatest Name in the World. 15
tlie Star and Ideal of all prophetic utterances,
the returned Traveller from the world of spirits
(1 Peter iii. 19), the discerner of our inmost
thoufjht, was Jesus, whose " life is the light of
men" (.John i. 4), and whose consuming love
now attracts and will \'et lead the whole human
family
" Up tho stfirry pathway
To the tlirone of God."
" He is the magnetic centre from which the
continents have been touched and all the world
shall yet be moved. Toward Him the prophets
pointed f(3rward ; toward Him the apostles and
martyrs pointed backward ; toward Him all
heaven pointed downward ; toward Him, with
foaming execration, perdition pointed upward.
Round His name circles all history, all time,
all eternity, and with scenes from His life-work
painters have covered the mightiest canvas, and
sculptors cut the richest marble, and orchestras
rolled their grandesj oratorios, and Churches
lifted their greatest doxologies, and for Him
and His followers heaven has built its highest
ihrones."
His Personal Appearance.
We do not understand what Isaiah meant
when he said in prophetic announcement, " He
hath no form or comeliness ; and when we shall
,fl
16 The Greatest Name in the Worhi.
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him " (Isa. liii. 2). That the great grief which
wrung His soul, from the contemplation of the
awful price it was to cost Him to save a lost
world and bring it back to God, may have
changed his countenance and bearing until
misguided and misjudging wisdoui would reject
Him, is possible.
Human nature, for the most part, is cold,
unsympathetic and selfish. Only the pain and
sorrow of our dearest friends excite our compas-
sion and sympathy. We daily read of the great
heart-breaking grief of thousands all around us,
and, aside from tho immediate notice given to it
at the time, we think no more of it, except as
some strong mind utters its sentiments of sym-
pathy, which are apt to excite our more active
attention. The sadness of others seldom casts
a shadow over us. A horse in his stall will relish
his grain while his mate is dying beside him.
When Jesus looked down upon Jerusalem and
wept over it, stretching forth His hands, ex-
claiming, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not !" (Matt, xxiii. 37), He drew a striking
The Greatest Name in the World. 17
esire
hich
\ the
, lost
have
until
reject
cold,
1 and
mpas-
great
picture of man's inordinate worship of self ; of
the cold, unfeeling nature of man for man, as
compared with the warmer, unselfish nature of
the birds of the air, and of the fowls of the
liarn-yard.
How graphically the whole story of His rejec-
tion is told in a single statement, " He was des-
pised and rejected of men." Why ? He was " a
man of sorrows and ac<iuainted with grief," and
men, not fully understanding the cause of His
grief, " hid, as it were, their faces from him," and
when " he was despised " — as before Pilate, when
the same rabble, who a few days before had
cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David" (Ma^t. xxi.
9), now clamored for His crucifixion — " we
esteemed him not." Still, great grief does not
destroy the " beautiful " in our nature ; and the
compressed agonies of the w^orld, as they were
laid on Jesus, did not rob Him of those outward
excellencies which make man the noblest work
of God. That there was a charm in His benign
countenance, a nobility in His bearing, a divine
majesty in His walk that excited reverence ; a
form that was the perfection of Eden's original
model, a mysterious attractiveness about His
presence, all history, both sacred and profane,
testifies.
i!
18 The Greatest Name in the World.
" No inortul cjin with him cumpfiio
Aino)i<4 the hoiih of men ;
Fuii'er is lie thiiii all the fair
Who till the heavenly train."
He was not inoroly an on 11 nary, e very-day
man, althouiifh He wore the <(arl), spoke the
lan<(ua^e and took upon Himself the fleshly
form of the beings He came to save. Nor did
He appear to tlie world a prodi<(y to be won-
dered at, without due reverence and aduiiration ,
nor was He a stern recluse, as His forerunner,
but " the ^uest of all who souglit Him, mingling
with all to breathe His holiness on all." He
set aside Nature's unbending laws that He
might more fully supply the desperate needs
of humanity.
His presence connnanded attention. Wher-
ever He went, great crowds fcjllowed Him. Nor
did he appear to men as Shakespeare did to
Coleridge, "a giant stripling who had never
come to his full height, else he had not been a
man, but a monster."
He was a full-grown and thoroughly expanded
man, containing in Himself, moreover, the pure
essence of all men ; mirroring on that calm fore-
head, and in that deep eye of His, the "great
globe itself, and all which it inherit." When
the gray-haired apostle was on the solitary
iU^
'I
The Greatest Name in the World.
19
•y-day
ie the
fleshly
or cli*l
3 WOll-
i-ation ;
runner,
in«^ling
." He
lat He
» needs
Wher-
, Nor
(lid to
never
been a
)anded
le pure
n fore-
I" great
When
lolitary
island of I'at'nos "for the testimony of Jesus,"
Im' i'*'adily reeogni/ed the Tniversal Piishop of
our soids, although it was years after His ascen-
sion. When "clothed in the ii'lories of eternity. "
gold-girt, head, foot, face and eyes hla/ing with
unutterable splendor, and with two-edge(l Hword
and a voice like many waters issuing from His
mouth, He talked of the ultimate and everlast-
ing "bridal of the earth and sky," He was then
as easily recognized as when, on the foam-
crested billows of Gennesaret, He a])peared to the
troubled, tempest-tossed disciples, and spoke the
wi'athful elements into voiceless calm.
*' He wjis Hot
In t'dstly ifiiinont cl.ul, nor on His hrow
The symbol of a princely lineage wore ;
N<» followers at His l)ack, nor in His hand
Buckler, or sword, or spear, yet in His mien
Command sat throned serene, and if He smiled,
A kingly ccmdescension graced His lips.
The lion would have crouched to in His lair.
His garl) was simple and His sandals worn ;
His stature modell'd with a perfect grace ;
His countenence the impress of a god.
Touched with the opening inn(»cence of a child ;
His eye was blue and calm, as is the sky
In the serenest noon ; His hair, unshorn.
Fell to His shoulders ; and His curling beiird
The fulness of perfected manh(->od bore."
20 The Greatest Name in the Worid.
Tliat J<'HUs jKwscsHod 11 (livinity iihovt? all the
ciidownn'MtH of all otluT men who had prece<led
Him — a full and .soid-satisfyiii*^ .salvation, aho\'e
all that the most <levo\it heathen worshipper
had relef^ated or ascribed to the <;ods — His bit-
terest enemies have conceded and testitie<l.
Christianity, as a self-sustainin<^ system, is
possible only where Christ, as a livin^^ Saviour
— co-e(jual with (Jod and the Holy Spirit — is
accepted and made the corner-stone of the struc-
ture. There is between Christianity and reli«:;ion
the ditterenceof the finite and infinity. Religion
means sectarianism and intolerant bigotry.
Christianity repivsents a heart surcharged with
charity and the broadest philanthropy. Mil-
lions have been sacrificed in the name of religion,
but Christianity never spilt a drop of blood.
To preacli redemption to dying men, when no
redemption is allowed, because of an abject dis-
avowal of the claims of Jesus as a Redeemer
" sent from God," is to make sport of mortal
agonies, and to perpetrate a burlesque upon all
that is holy and good. A Christless sermon is
the merriment of hell. The cross is to the long-
ing soul a nonentity, when the victim — the
sacrifice — is robbed of His divinity.
All Christian theology rests upon these three
statements : " The Word was made flesh and
r
ligion,
1.
en no
dis-
emcr
lortal
n all
ion is
llong-
-tlie
The G rente St Name in the World. 21
(tontcfl) anion{T ns"; "I and My Fatlicr arc
one " : and " I am tlic Wav, tlu* 'I'rutli an<l the
Life; no man cometli imto tiie Father hut hy
Me." No explanation can he ^'iveii to the
invHterious relations ol* the Trinity, even though
it he a prohleni as deep as the hiWH of t^ravita-
ti(jn, and dark as the j^rave itself. Wliy should
we repudiate it, just heeause we cannot un<ler-
stand it, when all around us there are millions
of unfathomahle mysteries, like the tintin<( of
the violet; the colorinj^ of the huttertiy's win^;
the o])eration of mind upon nuitter, and the roll
iuid march of the seasons throuj^di the centuries.
We only know that the Scriptures tell us that
He is divine, endowed with the powers of the
eternal, and that hetween Him and God tliere is
no ditt'erence, that "in the beginning He was
the Word, which was with God, and God was
the Word." (John i. 1.)
Ithree
and
CHAPTER II.
SCEPTICISM A MY STIJRY -MIRACLE AND
SCIENCE ALIKE ATTEST HIS HIGH
OBiaiN AND MESSIAHSHIP,
It is not our choice nor aim to discuss here the
question as to the existence of a Triune God.
How a being of richly endowed intellect, warm,
quick-beating heart, standing up in a creation
so infinitely full of testimonies to the existence
of a Great Spirit, can so prostitute his faculties
as to look up to heaven, and before the " myriad
host " of voiceless worlds, the unbanked ocean of
stars, and all the ceaseless witnesses of nature,
say, " There is no God," is a problem to our
mind almost as deep as the sonship of Jesus.
" Where there is not a flower that blossoms in
the garden, but preaches that there is a God ;
nor a leaf that twinkles in the sunbeam, nor a
cloud that passes over the moon, nor an insect
which flutters in the breath of the gale, or
creates a tiny tempest on the waves of the pool,
but repeats and re-echoes the testimony, that
Scepticism a Mystery
23
there is a God ; where the lion roars it out amid
his native wilds, and the humming-bird says it in
every color of her plumage, and every wai'ture
of her wing ; where the eagle screams up the
tidings to the sun, and the sun in reply writes
them round the burning iris of the eagle's eye ;
where the thunder, like a funeral bell hunjx
aloft in the clouds, tolls out, 'there is a deity;'
and the earthquake mutters and stammers the
same great truth below; where snow in its silence,
and storm in its turfnoil ; summer in its beauty ;
winter in its wrath ; the blossoms of spring, and
the golden glories of autunm, alike testify ;
where the ten thousand orators of nature, the
thunder-bolts, the hail-stones, the rain-drops;
the winds, the ocean waves, the flushing, the
falling foliage of the woods, the lightning of the
sky, and the wild cataracts of the wilderness arc
all crashing out, blazing out, thundering out,
and whispering out, and murmuring out, true
and solemn tidino;s about the Beini]: who made
them all ; who gave the torrents :
' Their strength, their fury, and their joy,
Unceasing thunder and eternal foam ; '
who clothed the woods; who scooped out the bed
of the sea; who bringeth the wind out of His
treasures ; and maketh a path for the lightnings
1 1
i\
24
The Greatest Name in tlu World.
of the thunder ; that such a being, placed in the
centre of so sublime a circle of witnesses, should
say, 'I doubt, I deny, I cannot believe that
there is a God ;' nay, that he should have realized
in his imaginary experience the tremendous
dream of Jean Paul Richter, have lifted himself
up through the starry splendors of the universe,
but found no God ; have risen above their remot-
est suns, but found no God ; have descended to
the lowest limits of space ; looked down into the
abyss and heard the rain-drops descending and
the everlasting storm raging, but found no God;
should have come back from an empty heaven
to a fatherless world and said, ' We are all
orphans, neither I nor you have any God,' — is
in truth a profound and awful, an inscrutable
mystery."
Poor Shelley, the poet, made this mistake, and
the wrathful waters were scooped into a grave
for him where he was buried (on the Serchio>
Italy), under the curtain of a dreadful storm —
the Death Angel with his fingers on the black
key board of the thunder-cloud, rolling forth a
requiem, the tempest shrieking a pitiless dirge,
while the convulsed deep, with ghastly, mocking
sob, hushed the burdened cry of the overwhelm-
ed soul, whose hollow laugh was at last and for-
ever turned upon itself.
)1
Scepticism a Mystery.
25
and
frave
;hio>
m —
lack
th a
rge,
ing
Im-
for-
Hazlett missed his way into the kingdom by
bhuidering into the plague-stricken jungles of
scepticism.
Voltaire said : "In twenty years Christianity
will be no more. My single hand shall destroy
the edifice it took the twelve apostles to rear,"
Imt he stumbled into the grave weeping over his
fate.
Gibbon, " with solemn sneer," devoted parts
of his gorgeous history to sarcasm upon Christ
and His followers. But the palpable blunders
in that great work only too plainly demonstrate
his ignorance of the true principles of Chris-
tianity. Prejudice, Ignorance, and unrelenting
Hate were the vultures that preyed upon the
vitals of this modern Prometheus, who with the
cliains of his iron will was bound to the tire-
swept rock of Scepticism, in the arid waste of
])espair, where during long years of remorse and
secret anguish he lay, until death mercifully
broke the galling chains, and permitted the
captive, with a long, deep, hollow moan, to drop
into the grave, past whose dark, gloomy portals
we dare not look.
Wilmot, the infidel, when dying, lai<l his
trembling, emaciated hand upon the sacred vol-
ume, and exclaimed, solemnly and with un-
wonted energy, " The only objection against this
26 Tlie Greatest Name in the World.
Book is a bad life ! " Blunders ! mistakes ! fail-
ures ! bankruptcy ! everlasting paupery ! Oh !
it's an awful thing to get lost in the dismal
swamp of scepticism ! When a man is too proud
to pray, too mean to rigidly and honestly in-
vestigate, too ignorant to consistently reason, he
becomes an infidel. We met a seeming intelli-
gent man in Detroit, who called himself an
agnostic (which is the literal ecjuivalent to the
Latin word "ignoramus"), and he classed
Socrates, John Calvin and John Wesley in the
same age, cited up Protestantism for burning
Bruno, in Rome, finally declaring Christianity
stood unalterably opposed to science ; and, when
we hinted that he was exactly what the name
indicated, was angry at us. Oh ! young man !
stand back from the meshes of this awful curse ;
you can gain nothing by doubting. Faith is
easy as compared with doubt. In the time it
will take you to seek out one point against
Christianity, you can on your knees find Christ,
the source of all secret strength, as also of all
spiritual ease. Try Him before any other.
Build on a sure foundation. Build on the Rock.
But avoid this dreaded leprosy of which we
speak. It never has done, and never will do,
anything for a living soul, but curse it, blast it,
damn it.
Scepticism a Mystery
27
Would you blindly give up a faith that offers
the best possible solution to the enigmas of life
and death, for a life-creed, which begins with,
" I don't believe in a higher power than blind
chance," and ends with either the hangman's
rope, suicide s poison, or assassin's knife ? Do
not think that any argument you can raise
against Christianity is, or will be, a new point
with which you thrust out its life or weaken its
stays.
Celsus, of the second century, and Porphry, of
the fourth century ; Paine, of the seventeenth
century, and Ingersoll, Huxley, Renan, Strauss
and Mill, of the nineteenth century, have said
all that can be said :
" Their tonguos are used to speak deceit ;
Their slanders never cease."
These spiders suck poison from the sweetest
flowers, and then, with satanic complacency,
sting your soul with their virus of death. " My
son, if 'infidels' entice thee, consent thou not."
Their creed may seem pleasant and fair, and
their belief promise to bring peace of mind and
heart, " but in the end it biteth like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder." " There is a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof is death." Infinitely more plain and easy
to attain and to travel in is
1 1
/I I
28
The Greatest Name in the World.
The Way of Life,
tlie liighway of holiness, a way in which mil-
lions have gone, and none of them have ever
been rejected or have regretted their course.
What no man has rejected let all men pursue.
Christ traced out this way by bleeding foot-
marks and over stony roads, past rcnded sepul-
chres, from Bethlehem to Galilee, Galilee to
Jerusalem, Jerusalem to Calvary, Calvary to
Gethsemane, Gethsemane to Olivet, Olivet up
to the open gates, from the open gates to the
Great White Throne ; for
" By a new way which no nian ever trod,
Christ mounted up to the throne of God."
To Know Him is to Idolize Him.
It is impossible for one in whose soul is
kindled the sacred fires of divine love, to read
the incidents in the New Testament connected
with the life of the Son of God without being
thrilled with a thankfulness and joy which
borders nigh unto ecstacy. W^ho, having by
faith - P' a Him in the plenitude of His power,
d'Bf i'iu^'' t'-^e downcast, healing the sick, casting
<>! 7 »^.e\x)s, cleansing lepers, robbing death of its
\^:viiir>-" \ iking the wave, hushing the tempest,
1
Scepticism a Mystery.
29
to
to
increasinor bread five-thousand-fold, blessing
little children, weeping over Jerusalem, praying
in the Garden, suffering on Calvary, marching
out of the rock-ribbed tomb, ascending from
Olivet, and blessing the earth, can keep from
ejaculating : " Mighty Son of the Mighty God ! "
Speechless wonder or bursting praise nmst
always follow a glance at Him, in the depths of
His love, or in the majesty of His sovereignty.
At the mention of His name I have known the
drunkard to start from his frenzy, leap out of
the galling chains in which he has been bound
for twenty years, and, clothed in his right mind,
go forth, breathing the testimony of divine sav-
ing to rescue thousands from death and illimit-
able woe. At the name of Jesus, spoken to him
reverently, I have known the maniac to cease his
wild ravings and become as a little child, tender
and submissive. In a revival, not long since, a
helpless stammerer was suddenly cured of his
impediment as he named the name of Christ in
praise. I have seen men who had been bitterest
enemies for years, suddenly fall weeping into
each other's arms, their spite and hatred buried
forever, just by the power of the name of Jesus.
Oh ! it is a mighty Name ! Jesus ! Almost the
first word a little child learns to speak. The
orphan dries his tear and smiles as he hears that
I i
TT7
30
TJie Greatest Name in the World.
uaine. Jesus ! The soother of all our woes. The
old man, talking of the Dark River, and of
departed friends, wholly unconscious of his
watchers, suddenly opens his eyes with a gaze
of intelligence at the mention of this Wonderful
Nan»e. Sweetest word ! Uttered in prayer over
the gaping tomb, whispered in benediction,
lisped from dying lips, shouted by the rising
soul, chanted by angels ! Mighty name ! We
speak of its value, influence and power, but we
cannot tell its eternal potency.
Wonderful Births.
This name immediately associates itself with
all that is strange or weird or fascinating about
our advent into this " poor citadel of man."
We read of Solomon's birth, and of the birth of
David and of Samuel, Joash, and John the
Baptist, among prophets and kings of the Scrip-
tures; and of the advent of Shalmaneser 1st
and Nebuchadnezzer, Homer, Alexander the
Great, Demosthenes, Plato and Cnesar, among
the great lights of the heathen world. But the
added mysteries, the splendors, the poverty, the
honors, the shame, the regal magnificence of all,
together with their wonderful records, sink into
utter insignificance before the splendid, yet
mysterious circumstances attending the adv^ent
Scfpficisjii a Mysfciy.
81
of Clirist into this world. For, il' tliese caniu
into tliis world as prodigies, to he wond(jre<l at,
Clirist came the lowliest anion*; the lowlv^ and
the niitj^htiest among the mighty as a Ood to
thrill, attract and save the world.
The Hebrew prophets who were permitted to
unlatch tlie doors of the future, and look upon
the world's great drama of centuries, yet to be
enacted, saw what was not as yet dreamed of by
the inhabitants of the earth, and clearly de-
scribed the advent of Jesus through and from
a source by man considered impossible. The
"seed of the woman" "shall l»ruise" the "serpent's
head," was the prophecy of an incident which
was to make woman, who caused the fall, become
the being who, under God and without " the
will of man," would bring salvation to the ends
of the w^orld.
Man, as an individual, a free agent, proved his
cowardice and everlasting unworthiness to be
associated with the generation of the Son of
God, and begetter of his own and the world's
redemption, in the remotest degree, when he
whiningly said, '' The woman whom Thou gavest
to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat" (Gen. iii. 12), throwing the entire blame
upon the one whose liand might have been
stayed by a word or look ; for loving and im-
ffi
;.1.|
32 The Greatest Name in the World.
mediate conccHHion has been one of her para-
mount attrilmtes since the hour (mkI created her
woman. Hut Hell'-exoneration does not obviate
the palpable Fact of hiw guilty weakness, nor
the shiftin(»; of the Ijiame upon weaker shoulders
make the burden easier for him to bear, nor
brin^ him into favor with God. Out of Para-
dise he is driven. But to the woman the
PROMISE IS MADE — in thy seed — not seeds, as of
many, nor seeds intimating the concurrence of
man — but in one, the woman's alone, shall all
the nations of the world be blest — a swift com-
mentary and reiteration of a preceding promise,
" the med of the woman " shall bruise the ser-
])ent's head.
By the operation of the Holy Spirit upon
Mary, the prophecy of Isaiah (vii. 14), " Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
call his name Immanuel," is fulfilled, and Christ
comes — born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God, and the groaning world at last beholds —
in the Babe of Bethlehem —
The Redeemer of Mankind.
That He should be the seed of the woman
was known to Adam ; but not of what nation,
till Abraham ; nor of what tribe, till Jacob ; nor
Scepticisjn a Mystery.
33
(jI' what sex, till David ; nor whether born of a
virgin, till Lsaiah. Thus by degrees was that
" great mystery of godliness " revealed to man-
kind. They who sneer at the miraculous con-
ception of Jesus say, with almost the same
breath, that they believe in the probabilities
and possibilities of spontaneous generatio.i.
Such palpable inconsistency must of necessity
bring a man to the lowest stratum of human
depravity. Would any one ask for an explana-
tion of this mystery ^ There can be but one,
and only one, and that is told by angelic an-
nouncement to Mary in Luke i. 35 : " The Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also
that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God."
That ends it, for what God does is beyond the
limit of our rights to question. The angels
desired to look into it and were denied. Stand
back then, oh, frail man, and assume no longer to
force God's secrets. Nor deign a reason for His
inscrutable works, until you can think as He
thinks, and know as He knows.
"Inspiration conies :
' To answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds ; beyond, abstain
To ask ; nor let thine own invention hope
3
34 The Greatest Name in the World,
Tliirif^H not ruvoalod, wliich thu invisihlt! King,
Only OnniiHcient, huili HU(>i»rt>sHed in night,
To none connniniicahlt in eaitli or liuavun.'
• ••••••••
Enough is left beHideH to Heurch and know ;
In nieaNiue wlmt the mind nmy well contain."
— Par. Loist, li. 7, lines llJ0-2(), 129.
This, indeed, is the Word, " made liesh and
that dwelt }iniont( UH " (.lolin i. 15), but renieni-
ber, when you be<^in your interpretation of Him
as the " Word," that you assume to know (iod's
unuttered thoughts; shoulder the mystery of
eternity ; speak the inconceivables of Imman
thought into existence, and stand as the reveaU'i-
of the doings and counsels of the eternal ages,
which are only known to God. While the
expression, " The Word," may ofier a solution in
itself, as indicating the means of communication
between the creature and Creator, yet it is
buried under the awful truth that, " In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and that God was the Word."
Science and the Incarnation.
While I maintain that the Scripture contains
enough evidence bearing on the Incarnation, to
make it reasonable and acceptable, I also wish
Srr/^fiiisiii a Mystery.
85
to cull your attention to tlio uiiiiiipeacliiihln
testimony of science? to tlie possibility of such a
hirtli, and also to the I'act tluit the miraculous
conception of Jc^sus is in perfect accord with,
and not unalterably opposed to the course or law
of Great Nature.
Above all othei- things, let us be clear. Merci-
less consistency with ourselves will correct much
of (air reli^nous and)lin<(, and strai<^hten out
many a crooked and stony tj^ieolo^ical pathway.
There is nothintjj connected with the miraculous
birth of Christ which should sta<,r<;er any one
who admits the absolute existence of even one
miracle; for what, after all, is a miracle but a
momentary interference with the ordinary course
of some one particular law of nature by the
Sovereion Creator, \Nhile He performs some
beneficent deed for His sufi'erino- otispring ?
None of Creat Nature's laws were any more
violated in the Incarnation than in the (hvi<lin<;'
of Jordan, or the halting of astronomy over
Ajalon, or the stilling of the tempest, or in
raising to life the son of the widow of Nain.
Have faith in Cod. Atonement in Christ implies
as nuich faith in His Incarnation as in His
resurrection. The plain teaching of Paul (Gal.
iv. 4; Rom. iv. 24, 25) leaves no room for doubt
aV)out this statement, which so liappily accords
86 The Greatest Name in the World.
with the famous passage in John iii. 10. "But
when the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman. . . .
Jesus our Lord, . . . who was delivered for
our offences, and was raised again for our
justitication."
Reject the Incarnation, and the promise of a
glorious resurrection in and through Christ will
never enkindle a single throb of hope in your
soul, or for you throw a ray of light into the
voiceless shadows beyond the tomb. No Incar-
nation, logically means no substitutional sacri-
fice, and consequently, no resurrection. In the
very nature of things, it is impossible for you to
repose your eternal destiny upon a Gospel sys-
tem, any portion of which you reject. Every
individual truth is a key-stone. Remove one>
and the whole structure falls.
Personally, I prefer to remain on the old ship
which has triumphantly emerged unscathed
from nineteen centuries of satanic bombardment,
than trust myself at this late hour to any of
your narrow, leaky, little surf-l)oats whose only
lif j-saving apparatus is an interrogation
point.
It has always seemed to me one of the
monstrous freaks of reason — the most unwar-
rantable and yet complete burlesques upon in-
Scepticism a Mystery.
87
telligence — that a man being accessible to all the
necessary scientific aids to faith, shonld, when
walking through the tropical forests of revela-
tion, boundless in their scope, but intersected by
beaten paths, each of which leads to the Realm
of Peace, and richly illuminated by the light of
science, should tear down the trusty finger-
boards at all section lines, destroy his compass,
voluntarily seek the shadows, then throwing
himself upon the ground, charge Inspiration
with his folly and befogment, complaining
meanwhile to the passers-by : " I cannot find my
way home."
While I hold to a belief in the goodness of
God, I must believe that, although I cannot
know all about the forest, there is a way out, and
that I shall find my way back to my Father's
House.
Let us reverently approach this (juestion of
the Incarnation, and under the light of modern
science, and with the aid of the microscope,
learn whether the origin of the life of our Lord
is compatible with natural law. IVlany centuries
before Christ, it was prophesied that he should
be virginally born. Professor Huxley says :
" Generation by fission and gemmation are not
confined to the simpler forms of life. Both
modes are common, not only among plants, but
Sill
•SI 1
38
The Greatest Name in the World.
amon^ animals of considerable complexity."*
"Throughout almost the whole series r* ^'ving
heings we find agamo genesis, or, no ,exual
generation. Eggs, in the case of drones among
bees, develop without impregnation. "f Ex-
amples of the origin of life without two parents
are numberless.
" When Castellet," says A. R. Wallace, Dar-
win's coadjutor, " informed Reaumur that he
had reared perfect silkworms from the eggs
laid by a virgin moth, the answer was, ' ex
nihilo nihil fit,' and the fact was disbelieved. It
was contrary to one of the widest and best
established laws of nature, yet is now universally
admitted to be true, and the supposed law ceases
to be universal. ":|: "Among our common honey-
bees," says Hackel, " a male individual, a drone,
arises out of the eggs of a queen if the eggs have
not been fructified; a female, a (jueen, or a work-
ing bee, if the Q^^g has been fructified. "i^
Take up your Lyell, your Mivart, your Owen,
and you will read this same important fact
which Huxley, Hackel and Wallace here asserts
♦Article, "Biology," Encyc. Britt., 9th ed., p. 686.
t Ibid, p. 687.
:{:A. R. Wallace, "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism,"
p. 38 ; London, 1875.
§" History of Creation," Vol. i, p. 197.
Scepticism a Mystery. 39
when they say that the law that individuals
may be virginally born extends to the hi^dier
forms of life. That great soul, the tender-
spirited and sainted Lincoln, in his early days,
with little knowledge, but great thoughtfulness'
was troubled with this difficulty, and was
almost thrown into infidelity, by not knowing
that the law that there must be two parents is
not universal. With throbbing heart I thank
Almighty God— in whose unclouded presence
the serene soul of the martyr now rests— for the
instruments put in my hands and the grace with
which He has enabled me to use them in flashing
across the brows of men this new and gracious
beam of light— the latest science concerning
miraculous conception.
I i
CHAPTER III.
EXALTED EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT THE
MESSIAH SHOULD BE.
It was in the Jewish and heathen mind a
foregone conclusion that such a birth should
have a tinge of the miraculous ; that it should
take upon itself somewhat of the superhuman
and divine, and that the circumstances con-
nected with the birth should witness to its
potency and declare its worth.
The whole world, as if touched by a single
chord, and nourished from a single source, con-
fidently looked for a Great Deliverer. The
Plebeians — the lower and oppressed classes of
Roman dominancy — and the Jews, whose temple
had been defiled and whose nationality had been
absorbed by Rome, looked for one who would
restore the first-named to equal rights and privi-
leges, and transform the Jewish people into the
governmental head of all nations. Just before
the birth of Christ, Herod the King had made
all Jews take the oath of allegiance to him and
What the Messiah Should Be,
41
the Emperor, which act too fully spoke the fear
of his mind as he anticipated the advent of this
Heavenly Prince. See his consternation merg-
ing into impotent rage, culminating in an order
for the massacre of the male children throughout
Judea, under the age of two years, all because of
the events that celebrated
This Wonderful Birth.
Angels from the far-off portals of the skies
put aside the drapery of clouds and announced
to startled shepherds the Incarnation, while
some of the best singers of a world where all
sing, suddenly appeared under a canopy of
light, and chanted a peace anthem, until hill,
valley and plain echoed the hallelujah chorus.
The burden of their song was :
' ' Glory to God in the highest,
Peace o\\ earth
And good-will to men."
The news is speedily carried to the Imperial
Courts, and the wisest of wise men in the east
wend their way over the plains, led by a star,
until at last in a stable they find the object of
their search, and then devoutly bend their tired
knees in worship before the infant Jesus, all
the time " rejoicing with exceeding great joy."
42
TJie Greatest Xauie in the Worid.
There is a beautiful legend about the birth of
Christ : How that when Joseph and Mary
reached Bethlehem, she requested him to remove
her from the n^s on wliich she rode, which he
did ; but the oni^ place that could be found was
a cave, near the grave of Rachel, into which no
light ever entered. Into this she went, and sud-
denly the whole ^))<.^q was filled with beams of
light, as if ol iv^ ^nn. which never departed
while she remain v,'i tl-e'-e T cannot refrain from
giving the story a.-^^ I re^^ '•'; so filled is it with
beauty and suggcsti' i ii'--'jf^ .
" In this cave the child was born, and the
angels were round Him at His birth and wor-
shipped the new-born, and said, ' Glory to God
in the Highest, and peace on earth and good-
will to men.' Meanwhile, Joseph was walking
about seeking help. And when he looked up to
heaven, he saw that the pole of the heavens
stood still, and the birds of the air stopped in
the midst of their flight, and the sky 'was
darkened. And looking on the earth he saw a
dish full of food, prepared, and workmen resting
around i^, with their hands in the dish to eat,
and those who were stretching out their hands
did not take any of the food, and those w^ho
were lifting their hands to their mouths did not
do so, but the faces of all were turned upwards.
IV/ia^ the Messitxh Should Be.
43
And he saw sheep which were being driven
along, and the sheep stood still, and the shep-
herd lifted his hand to strike them, but it
remained uplifted. And he came to a spring,
and saw goats with their mouths touching the
water, but they di<l not drink, but were under a
spell, for all things at that moment were turned
from their course." But if wonders such as these
were wanting, there was enough in the incident
connected with the birth, by way of Divine
attestation, to prove for ever the Sonship of the
Saviour.
If His birth was mean on earth below, it was
" celebrated with halleluiahs by the heavenly
hosts in the air above." Together with this,
tliere were the strange circumstances of angelic
visitation in different parts of the country, to
the two Marys at different times, also to
Zacharias in the Temple, who was struck dumb
for his unbelief ; and the ecstatic utterances of
Simeon and Anna, the prophetess, when they
beheld in the infant Jesus the Lord's Christ
(read Luke, chaps, i. and ii.).
Besides this, there was the adoration of the
Magi. This was probably the most significant
fact or incident in connection with the whole
event. If they had simply gone from Jerusalem
down to Bethlehem, it would hardly have en
44 TJie Greatest Name in the World.
listed tlie attention of the sacred narrator. But
when they come to Jerusalem they at once con-
vince the royal and learned classes that a more
than usual circumstance has happened by their
expression, '* We have seen His star in the East,
and have come to worship Him." The truth of
the matter was, that these wise men had been
travelling for five months, guided by this mys-
terious messenger of the skies, through the
months of August and September and October
and November and December, until the long
march from Chaldea to Bethlehem is accom-
plished, and these noble representatives of the
proud princes of Paganism, "flocking to the
light" — " Kings coming to His rising," find at
last in the smiling babe, whose soft face presses
the pale cheek of Mary, the " Hope of Nations,"
the Saviour of men. Besides this, there are
many beautiful incidents in connection with
this birth related in history, and told with
traditional fervor and splendor.
The Indians of America declare that both the
tame and wild beasts do change their position
at the hour of midnight before Christmas, re-
maining on their knees for an indefinite time,
while we all remember of hearing it said before
us when we were children, that the cattle and
sheep in the barnyard knelt at the hour of mid-
night preceding the dawu of Christmas morn.
H7mt the Messiah Shon/d Be,
45
Although we are ready to rej)U(liate tradition
and myth, still tliere is a svi<^<ijeHtiveness in it all
to which we do well to take heed. The beast of
the field, the fowls of the air, the finny monsters
of the deep, the plants of the forest, the fiowers
of the garden, the opening buds on the trees,
the seed bursting through the sod, the dreamy
mists hovering over the placid bosoms of all our
sparkling lakes, the wind in its caprice, the
(jcean in its fury, the wild leaping lightnings of
the cloud, and the setting sun, all lift up their
voices, or finger, or reed, or spray, or beam of
light, and point in adoration toward their Pro-
vident Creator.
This birth was the last effort on God's part in
behalf of a lost race —
His Greatest Gibt to Humanity.
Born amid the rude surroundings of the
manger. His birth seemed to declare in itself
that while He came to save men from their wild,
mad plunge into perdition, He also came for the
allev^iation of the painful abuses heaped upon
the speechless creatures of God, who, the night of
the nativity, heard the first cry of the Infant
Lord. I cannot but believe that the plaintive
bleat and bellow and moan which has been
going up for ages as a prayer, will be answered
i|
-«•"
il
4«
The Greatest Nauie in tJie World,
in the puniahment of tliose wlio maltreat the
dumb bruteH.
By this lowly advent childhood was honored,
and the cradle was — for all ages to come — to
mean more than the grave. It was God's ivay
of reaching the every need of man. Christ
might have come to earth in full stature of
manhood at the very start, as Adam did, with-
out the introductory feebleness of infancy, but
He did not ; or He might have come to the
throne of universal empire, with the waving of
banners, blare of trumpets, roll of drums, rattle
and din of artillery, the wild tumult of contend-
ing armies, midst shriek of wounded, cry of
maddened battle-chargers, dying moan of friend
and foe, and thus establish Himself on the
throne of David, as most of the Jewish kings
had done, but He did not.
He came at a time when the whole world was
at peace, with unnumbered blessings to our race,
and seemed to be a
" Feather from an angel's wing of Love,
Dropped into the sacred lap of motherhood."
No longer was Moloch to receive into his fiery
arms the shrieking offspring of weeping mothers ;
nor the Nile to have its human sacrifices ; nor
the Ganges to be the grave of millions of India's
lV//(f/ the Messiah Should Be.
47
igs
Lce,
Irs ;
lor
la's
lu'lplcMs babes; for tlie atoneint'iit in Him wan
now complete to whosoever would accept it,
and henceforth His intercessory prayers were to
brino- the Heavenly Father and the earth-born
child into a glorious, everlasting reconciliation
foi"
" God only in tho Heavens,
rnderstfUulH the pijiyer He says :
For of all the cries and pleadings
That have yet ascended tliere,
None has ever come before Him
Mighty as that infant's [)rayer."
This name is intimately and forever associated
with the
Complete and Permanent Change of all
Dates
from B. C. to A. D. At the time of Christ's
appearance there were three different modes (jf
reckoning time, and right in the great Roman
Empire there were three classes of dates used by
the people. Thus, when Christ appeared, one
dated it as coming in the 194th Olympiad : a
second called it the 75«'ird year from the founda-
tion of Rome; while a third named the time as
the 4714th year of the Julian period. Besides
that, there were twelve eras, connnemorative of
great battles, notable births and incipient begin-
nings of wdiat, in after time, crowded the pages
I
48
TJic Crcatcst Nnvie in the World.
of history with illuHtrious .'ichiovoinoiits.* Peri-
ods, too, there vveri^ without number.
Even the Jews, who ol' all others nii<^ht be
expected to correctly record the time, made
wretched ].)lunders, datino- not from Creation, but
from Abraham or David ; often losinj^j track of
correct tin)e by dating from one kint»'s ascension
to that of anotlier. And if it were not for tlie
infallibility of divine record, all dates B. C. nmst
be liopelessly lost in the tangled labyrinths of
tradition and myth. The people were " like
sheep having no sliepher<l." No bright star
with beckoning ray attracted their attention
sufficiently to centralize their vision, and form a
basis for their hopes and lives.
The unliappy (piarrel in the Corinthian Church
(1st Cor. i. 10-17) was brought about by the
existence in their midst of that unsettled, vacil-
lating nature of the heathen and fanatical Jews,
which was so often seen demonstrated in the
jangles and persecutions throughout the life-
work of Christ and Paul.
They forgot their duty to principle in their
blind attachment to the person. They — as is
often seen to-day — rended the church to its
foundation over a simple question of leadership.
They quarrelled and wrangled as to who should
Encyc. Britt., Vol. v., pp. 720 and 770.
ll'/idt the Mcssinh Should Be.
49
icir
|h is
its
|hip.
mid
1)0 first, either Paul, Aj)poloH or Cephas, while
Christ was sacrificed on the altars of their
selfishness — crucified in His Father's House, by
His own followers — His kinsmen.
Christianity is a divine reli^don, and cannot
he comprehended in a sin«^le thought. It is a
system <jf Faith alone. Philosophy, as a science
of the intellect, appeals solely to the reason ;
}>ut faith in Christ as the Science of sciences
came into the world to create a new philosophy,
an entirely new field of thought which, \\ hile
surpassing heathen (i.e., Greek and Roman)
philosophies would, at the same time, crowd
the soul with higher ideals and more uhlimely
original thought.
The early Christians, however, found it ex-
tremely difiRcult to disabuse their minds of the
cold, stilted philosophy of their time, when
accepting the fresh, invigorating, rejuvenating
faith of the Gospel, and not unfrequently had
their hopes blasted by an attempt to blend all
these contending factions into one soul-saving
creed. Having dropped the right oars to ex-
amine others, their crafts were engulfed in the
foaming rapids, running wild to the whirlpool of
death, before they could reach again the well-
tried but discarded oars.
(Nor should we censure very strongly this
!■
50
Tke Greatest Name in the World.
attempt to reconcile these contending factions.
Christian zeal has always sought peace, espe-
cially on doctrinal points, notwithstanding the
fact that this is the rock on which the Church
has been wrecked scores of times. A few com-
parisons of current Church history will furnish
sufficient proof on this point.)
The cold, dreamy, yet stilted philosophy of
Aristotle had not the tender pathos and gleams
of hope which characterized the work of Soc-
rates, nor the stately grandeur of Solon's unself-
ishness and humane laws, emphasized by the
supreme dedication of his life to the good of
humanity. None of these reached the heights
of Plato's reasoning, nor surpassed him in his
conception of an ideal philosophy which would
combine in one system the better parts of all the
others, thus amalgamating the minds of the whole
human family into one common creed. But the
result of each man's life was — as far as the bet-
terment of a lost race is concerned — a failure.
What could the people do other than what they
had done ? They adopted new dates, declared
the perfection of new systems, deified their heroes;
they would find a new God, then, with true east-
ern devotion, kneel at the shrine of their idolatry.
To them there was no history aside from that of
their successes as a people. The (question with
W/iat the Messiah Should Be
51
jhe
lole
the
3et-
iire.
■oes;
them was not, How long since this globe was
inhabited ? nor, How soon will it cease to be ?
but, What place shall we fill in history which
dates no farther back than the period of our
inception ? Thus engrossed in themselv^es — each
nation, as a person, having different likes and dis-
likes, different ambitions and avocations, differ-
ent hopes and fears, different views of present
duties and of future existence, different ideas
of life with its responsibilities, and death with
its subsequent developments — is it any wonder
that there should be a vast, incongruous mass of
dates among these multitudinous factions that
plunged the whole post-diluvian world into an
inextricable labyrinth of cycles, periods and
dates, from which none but the " Maker of his-
tory " could produce a chronology of harmony
or untie its Gordian-knots \ Dying Jacob told
the whole story of the union of these contending
factions into one great body when, projecting
himself down through the centuries, he saw and
foretold the fact in a single statement : " The
sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-
giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come,
and unto him shall the gathering of the people
be." That this prophecy has been literally ful-
filled none can intelligently deny. The life of
Jesus — sinless, stainless, spotless, comprehending
52
TJie Greatest Name in the World,
within itself a sublimely moving, creating force,
at one and the same time showing the sterility
of Judaism, crowding out all the forms of hea-
then culture and philosophy, and giving in place
a pure, refreshing soul-gladdening Gospel — is
sufficient reason for the wonderful success of
His cause, the greatness of His name and the
division of all history into two parts, viz., that
before Christ and that after Christ.
I do not say that heathenism had no bearing
upon the success of Christ's holy Gospel ; for
God has ever made the wrath of the heathen
to praise Him, Thus, while " Judaism was pre-
paring salvation for mankind. Heathenism was
preparing man for salvation." And just in pro-
portion as men come into the kingdom of God
do the histories of the world point to the Incar-
nation. Indeed, so fixed a principle has it become
throughout the world, that a great proportion of
the Jews, and in fact all the civilized European
nations, date their time from Christ's birth.
Under a Jewish synagogue in one of our large
cities I saw on the corner-stone this significant
inscription : " Erected A.D. (in the year of our
Lord) 1888." How forcibly the words of Jean
Paul Richter comes to us in the light of these
statements ? He exclaims : " The life of Christ
concerns Him who, being the holiest among the
W/iat the Messiah Should Be.
53
miglity, the mif^htiest among the holy, Hfted
with His pierced hand empires oft' their hinges
and turned the stream of centuries out of its
cliannel, and still governs the ages."
If, indeed, all the weeping centuries before the
Incarnation, heathen and Jewish, looked for a
" Divinity that would shape their ends," by de-
livering them from their dark and dreary state
into an intelligent appreciation of spiritual
things, " and so bring peace " — and all the ages
since Christ have pointed backward to the
" manger in Bethlehem," are we not right in
saying that " the full history of the world is a
history of redemption " ; that every incident of
moment, forming a date in history, is but a
spoke in the wheel of events which has been
instrumental in revolutionizing the whole his-
tory of the human race ? To the casual ob-
server of Providence, to the superficial reader
of history, there appears no thread, no system,
no continuity in it. One course of events is
seen here and another there. Kingdoms play
the clown on the stage of action : now, for the
first, attracting attention ; next, great and
powerful ; then the curtain drops, and they are
forgotten. All is a series of splendid, chaotic
rhapsodies, melodramas and tragedies, Xo less
chaotic seems the history of the Church.
i;
54 The Greatest Name in the World.
Changes innumerable are continually going on
within it and around it. But all is not chaos.
The Christian student looks at the weird scene,
and then draws from it that long chain of
events, indissolubly connected, which brings
every fragment of history into the great plan,
sees it animated with one soul, and that soul is
Providence.
Thus does the light of a revealed Providence
throw upon our pathway a radiance which,
running forward to embrace the millennium, is
greeted by a gold-glinted sunbeam, which points
backward to a " Being " suspended on a cross,
on a hill outside of Jerusalem, dying under the
black curtain of a Judean midnight, midst the
terror of tumbling thunderbolts, rending rocks,
consternation of rising dead, and weeping
worlds — a Being whose birth, life, death, resur-
rection and ascension, ending the story of a
wonderful life, stopped the flight of centuries,
illuminated the ages, lifted humanity up to a
never- before dreamed- of spiritual elevation, and
inaugurated a new beginning of time, that be-
gins and ends within a circle upon which is
written this significant title, " The Year of Our
Lord."
CHAPTER IV.
A PERFECT IDEAL.
! I
One great reason why Christ has gained such
an elevation, such a precedence, over all men of
every age, is chargeable to the fact that He
furnished a perfect ideal for humanity.
Other men had excelled in a few things :
Moses, as a lawyer ; Joshua, as a soldier ; Samuel,
as a judge; David, as a poet; Demosthenes, as
an orator ; Alexander the Great, as a general ;
Herodotus, as a historian, and Solomon, as a
king. But the example of each was only in
part what we might have expected as a whole-
Their imperfections were so palpable as to pre-
clude the possibility of men finding in such
persons a sufficient pattern for their lives. A
model is a model only where it reaches the line
of perfectedness. This is and ever has been a
very busy world, and men will study men rather
than books about men, generally gauging their
lives by the status of some other life.
History is only biography generalized. Our
56
The Greatest Name in the World.
t
B
reading is made up out of what others have
done. No kind of " studious entertainment
does so generally delight as history," or the
tradition of remarkable examples. Even those
who have an " abhorrence or indisposition
toward other studies, are yet often much taken
with historical narration " — those narrations
where the commanding spirit of some great
man impresses and electrifies the reader.
The history of Macedonia is fairly compre-
hended in the life story of King Philip and
Alexander the Great. The history of France
from 1790 until 1815 concentrates in the biog-
raphy of Napoleon. The biography of Wash-
ington furnishes the history of American in-
dependence. Where is the school-boy who
to-day does not aspire to be a Henry, a Webster,
a Lincoln, a Grant, a Beecher, a Talmage, a
Brooks or a Moody ? So largely do we partake
of the spirit of these ideal characters, that in
our emulation of their deeds we insensibly be-
come somewhat like unto them. The laws of
gravitation do not belong to dull rocks and
burning stars alone. They enter into humanity
so thoroughly that, impressed with what de-
lights us in the lives of other men, we, like the
star as it nears the sun, unconsciously reflect
the light, and become more like unto this beauti -
A Perfect Ideal.
57
fill Sun which has so niao-netized and attracted
our attention.
Success in any profession depends largely, if
not entirely, upon the nature and elevation of
the ideal, whether it be the platform orator,
general, or merchant prince. Imitation is a
substitute for experience. The best forecast of
the future is the history of the past. We steal
our honors from no one, even though \ e copy
the lives of the best. Parental experience is
intended to be the
^e
Pt
FiNUER-BOARDS AlONG THE ROAD OF LiFE,
which posterity must follow. The ancient
Romans were accustomed to place the busts of
their distinguished ancestors in the vestibules
of their houses, that they might be continually
reminded of their noble <leeds. They supposed
that the recollection of the illustrious virtues of
these ancestors would lead to the imitation of
tlie same by all the living members of their
households. There is no doubt that the influ-
eiice of this practice was most happy upon the
livinof, awakenini*; in many breasts hi<»h and
noble aspirations. At any rate, history records
the names of many renowned Romans who came
from families in which this custom was observed.
The young grew up to reverence the worthies
58
Tlie Greatest Name in the World.
whose statues tliey daily saw, an<l to emulate
the virtues which f>^ave their ancestors such
lasting fame. We are all children in this sense,
and each and all seek examples from among
both the living and the dead ; but none of us has
ever found a human example whose complete
life satisfies us. We grow sick at the sight of
the failures of our best ideals. No history gives
us the ideal man, whose every example and
precept can be safely followed. The Bible alone
reveals Him in the carpenter's Son — Jesus, the
Nazarine.
In Him the Highest Ideal is Realized.
Would you seek the spirit of humility i Had
any man greater reason for self-exaltation ?
Yet, when Christ came into this wretched world,
of all the miracles recorded in the Gospel He
scarce did any for His own private relief ; and
to show that He endured His sorrows for our
sakes, and tasted the sting of stripes that we
might be healed, " so were the joys He tasted
in relation to us; we read not (which is highly
observable) in the whole Gospel that ever He
rejoiced but once, and that was when His
returned disciples informed Him that they had
victoriously chased devils and diseases out of
oppressed moi'tals, and that by His authority
A Perfect Ideal
59
men hiul been dispossesHed ()f ]x)th the tempter
and punishment of sin," Would one seek a
pliilantliropist ( See in tliis " despised Galilean"
one who, being infinitely rich, for our sakes
became poor that through His poverty we might
be rich — who was so poor that to save Himself
and His disciples from embarrassment He per-
formed a miracle to pay the Roman tax. Be-
sides that, see tlie pity of His great soul, often
welling up in tears at the distress of His friends,
and how many times He healed the sick and
raised the dead to comfort breaking hearts !
In these, as well as in all other times, there has
been much talk about "all-rounded me?i," ex-
emplary men, men of unwavering and sanctified
influences. Behold in this Israelitish Prince the
uniformity of a virtuous life — all the strength
and beauty, the pity and power, grace and
glory, honesty and righteousness, the justifica-
tion and sanctification, the meekness and wis-
dom, the ardor and devotion, the earthly and
heavenly, the human and divine attributes,
blending and towering up, until, on our bended
knees, we gaze upon His transfigured and glori-
fied countenance in speechless praise. What
comprehensiveness of all things that are lovely !
" He," exclaims Flavel, " seals up the sum of all
loveliness ; things that shine as single stars with
''« If
60 TJie Greatest Name in the World.
a particular ^'lory, all meet in Christ as a glorious
constellation." Seeker after a perfect model, a
perfect example, cast your eyes among all cre-
ated beings. Survey the universe ; observe
"strength in one, beauty in a second, faithfulness
in a third, wisdom in a fourtl\," but you shall
find none excelling in them all, as Christ does.
Bread has one quality, water another, milk an-
other ; but none has all in itself like Christ has.
He is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty,
a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded,
sight to the blind, liberty to the captive, peace
to the anguish-stricken, and whatsoever a soul
can desire is found in Him. Although He
strives not, yet He is everywhere victorious;
quiet, yet when He speaks it wakes the dead :
patient, yet He demands instant and complete
submission to His will ; submissive, yet ruling
over all ; enduring : considerate, tender to the
weakest; loving, with that love which crowns
all who follow Him to the end with everlasting
life. To the end that we might have a divinely
perfect pattern to imitate, God raised up His Son
Jesus, furnished with rare endowments, and
assisted by the Holy Spirit in the performance
of this purpose. The records of the virtuous
examples of this just Person were " written for
our admonition — they were set before us as
A Perfect Ideal.
61
copies to transcribe, as a light to guide us
rightly. In the nature of the thing itself, this
good example is of singular advantage to us, as
being fitted to have a mighty influence upon us,
in that it directs more pleasantly than precepts
or connnands, while it inclines our reason to
good conduct, commending itself to us by plaus-
ible authority," thereby inciting our passions
Jind impelling them onward in the performance
of duty. It raises hope, inspires courage, pro-
vokes emulation, awakens curiosity, afJects
fancy, sets in motion all the springs of activity,
stimulates faith, and impels us onward and up-
ward in the pathway of life, until we reach the
shining goal where gather and glitter, like the
stars of the firmament, the ransomed innnortals,
clothed and patterned like unto Him,
*' Who among the sons of men
Is fairest and first."
Is it any wonder, then, that Christ should per-
meate so entirely
The Literature and Science of the Ages ?
Reason it as you will, the obvious truth pre-
sents itself, that a wonderful influence has been
exerted upon the whole class of literature and
science of the ages by the promulgation of the
i»
62
The Greatest Natue in the World.
•^ \
teac]nn«ijs of Jesus Christ. With the opening of
the (lark a<^es, the Bible " retired from the world
as an inspiring af]^(!ncy," or was imprisoned in a
cell, from which l)ut a few Hickerin^j beams
reached the outer world. Luther called it from
the hiding-places into which it was never again
to enter.
Often had the attempt been made to break
the weary didness and awful thraldom of the
whole civilized world, but it was never fully
successful, and the defeat left men in deeper
darkness than before, 'i'he age of schoolmen
and scientific inrjuirers, under the leadership
and ai)proval of Roger Bacon and ])uns Scotus,
did not lift the cloud nor emancipate the intel-
lect of humanity. Their philosophy was too
much of intellect and not enough of God. Phil-
osophy is no more Christianity than is the tune-
less sighing of the forest, under the black wings
of the storm-king, the uplifted doxology of
mortal worship. It can prepare men for the
truth, but it cannot give men salvation. The
tendency of
Philosophic Spe(xxation
is to blind the masses by the bright rays re-
flected from one or more of its " suns," thus
misleading the very ones it is intended to guide.
// Pcrfrcf Idrnl.
63
re-
What (Ux'H the uvcraix*' man care phout hi;;lj-
sounding' discourses upon " a priori," and tho
cverlastin^if " e//o," and tho " unrovditloved,"
and the "first (•(tnsc," atid tlie " aftsolitte," and
the thousand coniplicat<Ml deductions and <hy
abstractions of metaphysics, when the cry of
his soul is, " i)]\ ! that 1 kn(nv wliere I mi<^ht
find Him ? " Science with its hostility has done
little for maidvind exc(?pt to prov(i the innnut-
ahility of th(> facts it once soufji^ht to disprove
and destroy, lint these contendin<^ forces have
been "piloted into the realm of the inysteric^s
of the Gospcd, and apprehended as never before
the close relation of these ^ireat truths with the
central ideas of Chiistianity." Poetry, romance
— the whole ran^e of literature — has been elec-
trified l)y the presence of that mysterious intiu-
ence emanating from the name of Christ. There
can be a philosophy without Christianity, but
there can bo no Christianity without a divine
philosophy. Still there was much truth in the
vM»'ious systems of philosophy, such as those
u^lit by Confucius, Cato, Plat(j, Socrates and
ristotle ; for what, after all, is philosophy, but
a splendid attempt to unravel the mysterious
dream of immortality. But science must have
the *' Lit'^^t which lighteth every man that Com-
eth int( the world," to precede it in all its
64 The Greatest Name in the World.
essential developments, tmcl it is so, that all the
various departments of science have been ani-
mated by the touch of men, who, resting their
liope on the statement, " Thy word is truth,"
have not been afraid to push their rigid investi-
gation to the last door of geology, and have
forced it to confess the truthfulness of the
inspired record and the existence of an intelli-
gent Creator. Among its expounders are Chal-
mers, Whewell, Hitchcock and Pye Smitli, names
emblazoned on tlie scroll of fame.
Ever since Christ propounded the great mathe-
matical problem, " How much will it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul. Or what shall a man give in ex-
change for his soul? " (Mark viii .36, 37) mathe-
matics have been " represented and elevated to
he gem of sciences by the hand of such stal-
w^art Christians " as Isaac Barrows, Roger Coles,
Matthew Sijwart, while in the category of
associates are the names of Faraday, Samuel
Clarke, Carpenter, Fleming, Sir Wm. Thomp-
son, Abbe, Picard, Priestly and Bradley, all of
whom believed the Bible. In
Poetry and Literature
the debt is obvious. Could Milton have written
" Paradise Lost " and " Paradise Regained," or
A Perfect Ideal.
65
P-
of
lor
Dante his " Inferno," or Cowper, Wesley, Mont-
gomery, Toplady, Heber, sang the nation into
ecstacy, if " Scripture had not presented a theme
and suggested a way to use it ^ " Byron wrote
under the " influence of the Hebrew spirit."
Literature owes its existence, its permanence
and its world-v/ide prestige to the greatest
Name in the world. Says Dr. Mendenhall,
" All literature has e(|ually shared in inspira-
tions from this common source, though the debt
is more obvious in some departments than in
others. Let it be philosophical, historic, ethnic,
religious and scientific, the department has been
affected mor« or less by the commanding truths
of Christianity, either modified by them, or
vainly attempting to modify them ; but whether
resisting or accepting them, whether harmony
or struggle be the result of contact with them,
the effect is marvellous and usual 1}^ visible.
"Sceptical literature owes its possibility to that
which it assails. Voltaire was possible, only
because twelve apostles lived and died ; Renan
had written nothincr had not Christ and Paul
lived and taught : Hume had never discussed
miracles had not the miracle-worker first ap-
peared ; Matthew Arnold writes because there
was a Christ. Again the incidental effect of
the truths of revelation in literature is quite as
5
i
66
The Greatest Name in the World.
impressive as the more direct and positive influ-
ence. The majority of books, not religious,
relate to subjects which it has suggested, and
it is difficult to write on things entirely outside
of it. Even the novelist gives a Christian tinge
to his stories, or impregnates them with Chris-
tian sentiment, as the means of commending
them to public opinion. One lays down * The
Tale of Two Cities,' by Charles Dickens, in
tears, because the hope of the resurrection is
mingled with the execution of a doomed man.
' Ben Hur,' by Gen. Lew Wallace, is but a tale
of the Christ. The thought of God, as developed
in the Old Testament, the character of Christ,
portrayed in such simplicity in the gospels ; the
thrilling ideas of inspiration, miracle, prophecy,
retribution and immortality, find their way into
public thought, crowd magazines, fill the news-
papers, and multiply volumes without end."
And when we think of the volumes, the piled-
up libraries of the w^orld — written as " conmient-
ary, expository, or in the defence and promul-
gation of Christianity ; " of the printing presses,
sending their white- winged messengers of peace
to all lands ; of the multitudinous translations
of the Bible and its aids into the languages of
the people ; of the widespread diffusion of know-
ledge through the energies of the universities,
A Perfect Ideal. 67
colleges, free schools and academies, we are
forced to concede the poignancy of the remark,
Ihe Christian pen is mightier than the sword "
that the name of Christ commands the attention
love and reverence of the wisest men of all ages '
that His teachings will yet become the basis of
the fundamental belief of all men, so entirely •
will so be woven into the great structure of this
world's hope, that to tear this name away would
be to rend the world to its foundations
CHAPTER V
GREATEST AMONG TEACHERS.
Besides this, the name of Jesus has been, and
must ever be, the greatest among teachers.
Under this head we can do nothing less than
inchide His completed life ; for whether He
broke bread, or taught on the mountain, or read
in the synagogue, or passed the night with the
wild beasts, or walked tlie wave, or stilled the
tempest, or defeated death, or spoke from the
cross, or mounted to the skies, He taught.
Nothing short of Omnipotence can clothe Him
in His proper vesture. Nicodemus, a ruler
among the Jews, duly acknowledged Christ's
claims when he addressed Him as " Rabbi " (i.e.,
my Master), and he spoke for the great San-
hedrim when he said, " We know thou art a
teacher come from God; for r.o man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with Him"
(John iii. 1-5). Gamaliel evidently shared with
Nicodemus this view, in his defence of Peter
and the apostles before the Judges, when he
Greatest Among Teachers.
69
said, " Refrain from tliese men and let tliem
alone; for if this counsel or this work be of
men, it will come to naught ; but, if it be of
God, ye cannot overthrow it" (Acts v. 88, 89).
A monumental impostor cannot succeed as a
religious teacher. The people found in Christ
the culmination of all prophetic utterance, which
gives a reason for the candid confession of the
two great Jewish lights — His ready acceptance
by the common people, and the spontaneous
testimony of Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi. 16).
EXCUHSIS.
In another place, we spoke of the prevalent
notions in Jewish and Gentile mind of the
coming Messiah. Scriptures spoke of Him as
Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 10), Prophet (Deut. xviii. 15),
Immanuel (Isa. vii. 14), Wonderful, Counsellor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace (Isa. ix. 6), Desire of the Nations^ (Hag.
ii. 7), Star and Sceptre (Num. xxiv. 17), a
Shepherd in the Land (Zech. xi. 16), Ruler in
Israel (Mic. v. 2). Has Scripture been verified {
According to New Testament teaching, it has :
for He is there called Shepherd and Bishop of
our Souls (1st Peter ii. 25), Root and Ofispring
of David, Briglit and Morning Star (Rev. i. 16),
70
The Greatest Name in the World.
Faithful Witness, Prince of the Kings of the
Earth (Kev. i. 5), Author and Finislier of our
Faith (HeV). xii. *1), Advocate, Jc^sus Christ the
Righteous (1st John ii. 1), Propitiation (1st John
ii. 2), Son of God, True God (1st John v. 20),
Author of Eternal Salvation (Heb. v. ix), De-
liverer (Rom. xi. 26), Light of the World (John
viii. 12), Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev. v. 5),
Mediator ( 1 st Tim. ii. 5), High Priest (Heb. v. 10),
Saviour (Luke ii. 11), Messiah (John i. 41), Lord
God Almighty (Rev. xv. 3). The Mighty Angel
clothed with thunder, visiting the earth a
multitude of times, driving out of Eden the
unfaithful tenants, condemning and branding
Cain, trying Abraham's faith, wrestling with
Jacob, visiting Lot, destroying Sodom, convers-
ing with Moses in the liery bush, directing
Joshua's assault upon Ai, upbraiding kings for
wicked disobedience, wrapping in the dreamless
sleep of death the hosts of Sennacherib, watch-
ing with Daniel in the den of beasts, treading
the seven-times-heated furnace with the three
Hebrew children who came from the flames
untouched; that spoke to Mary, and inspired the
writing of Man's Treasure -House of Truth —
this Mighty Angel is none other than Jehovah,
the angel of the Lord, incarnated in the form
and being of Christ, who, in the Gospel, goes
Greatest Among TeaeJiers.
71
forth seek ill <( the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. The Jews readily understood Christ to
mean this when to them He cried, " Before
Abraiii was, I am;" and the One who sealed His
command to Moses, in his appointment as leader
of Israel, by the title of " I am," is instantly
recognized as the " Prophet whom the Lord
would raise up " (as intimated by the dyintr
chieftain in his farewell address to his people),
as the great " I am," who was ordained to lead
them in paths of peace, and teach them the way
of everlasting life.
Will you, at this very point, hear the straight-
forward reasoning of Napoleon as he stands on
the brink of eternity \ " Admit, however, as
the scientific method requires you to do, that
Christ was so exceptional a soul that God was
in Him in a thoroughly exceptional manner ;
admit with Rousseau that He lived a sinless life
admit with the most scholarly of modern in-
fidels, that God was in Him in such a sense as
He never was in any other created being:
admit this, and you have conceded enough to
prove that you logically ought to regard this
exceptionally holy and wdse Being as veracious ;
and, therefore, that you, in consistency with
your own admissions, ought to accept Christ's
testimony concerning Himself. Take that, as
li
72
Tke Greatest Name in the World.
reinforced by the testimony of tlie ages to His
work in the world, and perhaps you will not be
at a loss for reasons for changint^ your word
'divinity' into 'deity' if you are lof^ical."
Leibnitz said that those who deny the deity
of our Lord and yet pra^^ to Him, may be good
men, but that surely they are not good logicians.
This seeming excursis brings us back to the
Teacher with a more perfect knowledge of the
deep rich veins of wisdom from which He drew
the water of life that He poured forth for the
refreshing and ennobling of all people ; and the
right by which '•' He taught as one having
authority and not as the scribes."
Jesus, an Historic Person.
One more question seems to present itself here
bearing on the importance of His historic posi-
tion. That Jesus was certainly an historical
person of the period alleged none has ever
denied. He was a Jew. His mother and Joseph
were Jews. Joseph was a carpenter in humble
circumstances. He was in the precinct of Jeru-
salem when Jesus was born and cradled in a
manger. There is no evidence of other educa-
tion than that received with His then reputed
father in the workshop, during the first thirty
years of His life. " How knoweth this man
Greatest Among Teachers,
73
letters, seein«^ He never learned," is a .fewisli
f|uesti()n, which indicates their knowled<^e of His
home and early life. About the age of thirty
He left His home, announced His mission, and
entered upon His public ministry. From that
time He liad no home. The foxes had holes, the
birds of the air had their nests, but He had not
where to lay His head. For three years He
went about doing good, healing the sick, raising
the dead, casting out devils, performing miracles
in attestation of His claim, prophesied the
<lestruction of Jerusalem, the tinal and complete
victory His Gospel should make over the world.
His death by crucifixion, and how He would rise
the third day ; after which He was crucified by
the Romans at the instigation of tlie infuriated
Jews. These all are matters of history. "And,"
says the great Niebuhr, " the man who does not
hold Christ's earthly life, with all its miracles,
to be as properly and really historical as any
event in the sphere of history, I do not consider
to be a Protestant Christian."
a
From Heathen Sources,
we derive confirmatory evidence of the historic
Christ. Suetonius, a heathen historian of the
first century, described the "followers" of Christ
as a " sort of men addicted to a new and magical
74
The Grraffst Name in tJic World.
Huporstition." Critias, anotlier lieatheii author
ot* early date, Htyl(Ml the Christians, " inapcal or
conjurinf( men." Phh'gon, in the thirteenth or
fourteenth book of his ehi'onicles, has ascribed
to Christ tlie foreknow ledt^^e of some future
events, and testified that the things s])oken of
happened according to what he liad declared.
Celsus lived in the second century, and was one
of the ablest opponents (Christianity ever had.
He spoke of the Christians as a society of
" magicians," and of Christ as liaving ac(|uired
His power from the Eg3qitians, and having on
the account of them proclaimed himself as God.
He likewise gave a sunnnary of Christ's miracles,
showing them to })e exactly the same as described
in the Gospels ; for, according to him, they were
of " cures," " resurrections of the dead," or a
" few loaves which fed the multitude, many
fragments being left." " Thus from the scanty
notices of heathens, even, we can derive a con-
firmation of the main external facts in the life
of Christ — His miracles His parables, His cruci-
fixion, and His claim to divine honor ; the devo-
tion, the innocence, the heroic constancy and
nmtual affection of His followers, and the pro-
gressive victories won by His religion in despite
of overwhelming opposition, alike physical and
intellectual. ... It is remarkable that from
Greatest Awof/o- Teaehers.
75
iiitonsoly eiiihittcrLMl Jewisli sourec^s wc* derive
an absoliiti' confiniiation of His miracles, His
crucifixion, and even liis innocence, I'or not a
sinole crime but that of \vorkin<;' miracles by
ma<;'ic and claimint;^ divine honor, is e\'en in
these sources laid to His charge."
And attain, " Even the most advanced sce})tic
cannot deny that by His life and teachin*^ He
lias altered tlie entire current ol" human liistory,
and raised the standai'd of liuman morality."*
Thus has the wrath of man been made to praise
our God, and the arrows sharpentMl for the
destruction of our Prince been used as pens of
steel dipped in the hues of eclipse, to write the
discomfiture and everlasting defeat of the ene-
mies of riohteousness.
md
om
His Oratory Unsurpassed.
In His preaching He revealed some of those
remarkable powers of declamation which gave
Him a superiority above all who had ever
spoken. " He was an orator in every sense
of the word. There is a closer connection
between the form and spirit of His discourses
than in the case of any other orator. He
* Article on "Jesus Christ" iji Knoyc. Britt., ed. 1892,
Vol. xiii. , page 656-8.
76
The Greatest Name in the World.
') !!■'
cho.se the most striki!i<( ways of prt'scntiii^'
truth. Fi^nnvs of hj)(.'('cIi, illustnitions ami
parables are as tliick in His sermons as stars in
tlie milky way. The oeneial manner of His
address was direct or conversational. He always
had His audience in mind ;ind held the attention
by His interro<^ative style. ' Are not five spar-
rows sold for two farthin<^s ? ' ' What went ye
out in the wilderness to see V At times He com-
manded ln*s .audience. ' Be not afraid of them that
kill the body. Let your loins be girded about,
and your light burning.' At other times He
warns, rebukes, reproves, reproaches, prohibits.
' Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees ;' *ye hypo-
crites, ye can discern the face of the sky and tlie
earth.' ' Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re-
(juired of thee.' This form of direct address often
becomes sympathetic, as if He held His audience
in His mind and knew their frailties. ' Come unto
me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden and
I will give you rest.' He was impres.sed deeply
with the great truth that things in heaven are
known by their likeness to things on the earth ;
hence He often speaks in the language of oratoric
correspondence. His most remarkable figure of
this nature is His comparison of Himself to a
vine. Contrast and antithesis abound : ' H' a
son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
Greatest Auious; TcacJicrs.
77
will lie pfive him a stone ? Or it* he ask a Hsh
will 1r' give him a Hei-pcnt '. Or if lio ask an eg<^
will he give him a scorpicjn :*' ^o truly oratori-
cal was the style of Jesus that lie touched every
chord of the liuman heart. A man of keen sen-
sibilities, sympathetic by nature, and living
amid scenes of distress, sorrow and poverty.
His lieart was easily moved, and therefore His
pathetic elo(|uence was deep, sincere and unsur-
passed. Take, for example, his mournful dirge
over Jerusalem. His story of the prodigal's
return luis no ecpial for tender pathos in the
records of oratory." Hence the power by which
He moved the thousands who listened to Him.
He was intensely original, and originality in
an individual is a form of maijfnetism we cannot
resist. It is a charm coveted by many, but
possessed by a few. Thousands of people hated
Pitt and and Walpole in England, but they could
not help listening to them. Many who bore for
Daniel Webster and Wendell Phillips consuming
spite, felt the power of their originality and
lingered upon their words, charmed into silence
V)y their magnificence. Whitefield, Edwards,
Wesley, Spurgeon and Beecher have been decried
and persecuted by their enemies for preaching
sensational sermons, when, in fact, it's the lucid,
inimitable originality of the speakers that pro-
78
The Greatest Name in the World,
vokes the onslaught. It was so with Christ, but
still His persecutors listened, even while they
bite their lips with rage at His arraignments of
their sins, and scoffed at His offers of salvation.
A truth unwaveringly believed, and vigorously
preached, must invariably create a sensation. It
has yet to be recorded where and when a Relig-
ious Revival amounted to anything that was not
accompanied by great excitement. When a man
sees the desperate wickedness of his heart, and
begins ^,:) call on God for mercy, it is — of neces-
sity — a case of tremendous excitement, both on
earth and in heaven ; for " The angels of God
rejoice over the redemption of one sinner," and
are we poor^^frail, dying mortals less perturbable
than angels \ Why did the enemies of Jesus so
dog His footsteps ? Let them answer for them-
selves. Never man spake like this man. The
simplicity of His teaching — the profundity of
His thought — His absolute silence about any
teacher outside of the Scriptures — His spiritual
interpretation of the prophetic utterances, His
contempt for worldl}^ honor. His work among
the common people, His fearlessness in rebuking
sinners, His unselfish love for a suffering race,
His miracles. His claims of divinitv, all intensi-
fied the popular interest, and captivated His
most deadly enemies by His new law of love,
Greatest Aiiioiig Teae/iers.
79
\\\g
and His fervent offers to men of eternal life ;
for, after all, said they, " When Christ cometh,
will he do more miracles than this man hath
done ? "
The style of his discourse was matchless for
(juality, ([uantity and adaptation to his audience.
It was always beautiful without ever descending
to the pretty ; " ele«^ant, without approaching; the
neat : simple, but never weak ; sublime, but
never inflated : stront;, without l)eing harsh ;
terse, but never curt ; clear and brilliant as crys-
tal," it approaches the line which " trembles on
perfection." It has all the beauties of the Psalms,
Isaiah, Zechariah and Daniel, with tlu' pathos of
Jeremiah and tlu; majestic sweep of Ezekiel.
But while ib comprehends the beauty of each it
surpasses them all. Fre<juently imitated, it 1-.
the most unapproachable of styles. While it
presents iiot " a sinofle point to the caricaturist,"
it drives the imitator to despair.
'* Many who strove to imitate His flight
With weaker wing unearthly tiuttering made."'
" It is not turbid and earthly, but fertile and
lofty" from its source under the Throne, to
where it ends in the ocean of God's love. Pro-
found and deep, limitless as to range. He covers
all that is to be known by man. " It is," says
80
The Greatest Name in the World.
Gilfillan, "a high, pure and cultivated energy,
equal to the demands of His intellect and nothing
more ; illustrative rather than condjinative ;
epical, rather than dramatic; refined, rather than
rich ; select, not copious." It was not merely the
fruit of a prolific imagination, although He made
much use of this faculty. He spoke as one seeing
the Invisible, having converse with the Eternal ;
and told of things to come with the same strength
which characterized Him in His discourses on
past events. His delivery was net " easy and
gossiping like the average," but more vigorous
and intense. He strikes upon ' deeper chords,"
abounds more in pensive reminiscences ; rises to
" finer bursts of eloquence, ' and reveals more of
the strange machinery of His own mind. His
words were full of thought, full of character, full
of Himself. He lifted the mysterious veil of the
future and unravelled its secrets. He who knew
all that was in th*; heart of man, also knew the
secret thoughts of the Most High: hence the
fervor of exhortation to flee from the wrath to
come, and prepare for the time when " In flam-
ing vengeance" the Lord shall descend to execute
judgment u}>on His enemies, and take His re-
deemed to rest forever with Him in His King-
dom.
ing
ve;
lan
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lal ;
gth
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and
L-OUS
•ds,
;s to
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the
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ute
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mg-
CHAPTER VI.
WHA T HE TA UGHT.
He taught, that man's first duty was to God,
not through consuming fear, but passionate love.
If we serve Him through fear of punishment,
we make Him a stern, implacable Judge, an un-
feeling King, and bend a servile, trembling
knee — not before the throne of mercy, but a bar
of irrefragible justice, from which all shrink in
deadly fear. But if we worship Him as " Our
Father in Heaven," as taught by Christ, then
with cheerful steps we hasten to the service of
joy — to the delightful converse with the
One who smiles His smile of ineffable r^p-
ture into the heart of the weakest of all His
children. An infinitely kind and indulgent
Father we — poor, frail children of dust — have.
The Scriptures, made up of sixty-six ])ooks,
composed in several ages by <lifferent men,
written and composed under varying con<li-
tions (ranging between the splendors of eastern
Court, and foul, disease-breeding cell in Mamer-
82
The Greatest Name in the World.
tine prison), teem with the idea of pity and love
for helpless humanity — alway withholding pun-
ishment, when the penitential pleadings of the
transgressor is heard. Thus when Christ is
teaching of the issues of this life, and how the
subsequent life will be moulded l»y our actions
here, He presented — as the case demanded — God
as a Father or a Judge. He does not appeal
merely to the fears of men ; " He enlightens
their judgment and extinguishes error, preparing
the mind for a rational litudy of truth;" He
pities the idolatry of the Gentile, and terribly
rebukes the hypocritical selfishness of the Jews.
He dethrones idols, and enthrones a personal
Creator, giving one an " inside view of the divine
government, and pointing out the necessity of
harmony with divine will." " He reveals human
helplessness to an alarming degree, creating a
desire for rescue, and then provides an available
remedy for sin by offering Himself as a substi-
tute for punishment in their place, urging all to
appropriate it as soon as presented ; and to en-
force the duty of volitional surrender to God,
and the necessity of a new life. He points out
the fearful guilt of delay, and the awful conse-
quences of rejection, at the samo time enticing
men into immediate obedience by the pronnse
of rewards, as fascinating as they are wonderful.
]V/iaf He r audit.
88
an<l as divine as tliey are iinperislialjle." Wliat
subjects for study are tlie words, " Look unto nie
and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else:" and, "Come
unto unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden
and I will (jjive you rest ; take my yoke upon
you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly
in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls:
for my yoke is easy and my burden is li<j;ht ; "
and this, " Seek ye first the kin^^dom of (iod
and His ri<;hteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you." To Israel it was God hrst,
and the lesson is repeated here by Christ, " (iod
first — God first ! " This duty is fraught with
pleasure, where love instead of fear stinmlates
the activities. But this ])y no means compre-
hends the whole extent of our duty Godward.
One of the stron^^est proofs we have of the com-
plete spiritual change wrou<^ht in the discijdes
and people inmiediately followino- Pentecost, was
their cheerful distribution of i^oods to the needs
of their brethren, a very practical exposition of
the " new conunandment," which is " Love thy
neighbor as thyself." To love Goa means to do
His will : "Obedience is b«;tter than sacrifice." He
taught that it was the " doer " of God's will, who
would enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that
the doer of His Father's will was — touching
84 TJic Greatest Name in t/ie World.
assnmnce — Christ's own " ])rother and sister and
mother." Besides tliis hiw of love, which pro-
j<.'cts itself from its "habitation in the conse-
ci'ated soul " to tlu^ amelioration of the needs of
our suffering brethren, He issued a " Golden
Rule of conduct." All things "whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even so
unto them." Nothing but pure, God-like,
heavenly love can produce the harmonious per-
formance of this law. Added to this there are
" instructions in righteousness," regulating our
deportment toward our enemies : Love your ene-
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them that love you ?
No ! Them that are sick among your friends I
No 1 For them who have never heard of you ?
No ! Prav for them — which — despitefuUy — use
you- ind persecute you. And why this re([uire-
ment I " l liat ye may be the children of your
Father which is Heaven ; " for all good done to
men was accepted by God, and accordingly
rewarded by Him, as if done for Himself. Thus
did He teach that all work of merit must spring
from the heart : that mere outward performance
of duty did not indicate a supreme, overruling
love as the mainspring of its action.
Il7/(f/ He TauQ-ht.
S5
to
I us
n^
The Heart Is For (Iod.
He demands iiothinj^ less than entii'e soverei^'n-
ity of tlie throne-room of life. Conso(juently
every evil thought nnist be put away, and holi-
ness must be written within and without, and
sealed with insignia of God's love, for the lieart is
the source of all good and evil in our lives : henee
His statement that from " the heart proceeded
evil thoughts, nuirders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt. xv. 19):
" for of the abundance of the heart his mouth
speaketh" (Luke vi. 45).
Soundness of faith is impossil)le when under
the latter conditions. Goo<lness is but a sound-
ing brass, or a picture of a reality not possessed.
" By their works ye shall know them. Not
every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will .say to me in that day Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name \ And in thy
name have cast out devils : and in tiiv nam<' done
majiy w<>n«l('rful works: and then will I profess
unto them: I ne\iT knew you, depart from me,
ye that work ini(|uity " (Matt. vii. 21-2o). The
celebrated Wm. Jay, of Hath, ust'd to say,
"Christ marks His sheep in two places — the
'^«
86
The Greatest !\ame in the ]Vorld.
oars Jiiid i'eet — ' tlioy hear my voice, and lollow
me.' " While it is true that faitli in tlie Lord
God will save a soul, without works (as in the
case of Abraham, " who believed God, and it
was imputed unto him for ri^jjliteousness "), yet
works of love make the oreat measurino- line by
which the world iud<4:es our Christian zeal an<l
integrity. " If a man love not his brother whom
he hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen t " Our faith is shown by our
works. Yoi.i' practical charity for the suffering
brother next door and the needy everywhere is
heaven's impartial estimate of your love for
God, Practically, faith is doing what God tells
us to do, without asking any questions. The
faith, like the friendship, of the ordinary man,
is fairly tested, the result invariably being a just
criterion — when you touch his pocket-book.
Thousands of so-called Christians have but one
God, and that is the golden god, before which,
with true Eastern devotion, they kneel in
idolatrous w^orship. In His terrible picture of
the judgment day, Christ puts the leading char-
acteristics wliich will distin<»-uisli the two classes
of mankind from each other, namely, the ones
whose work proved their faitli, and the others
whose faith bore no fruits. To the first class
He gives eternal life ; to the second, banishment
W/mt He Taus-ht.
87
from His glorious presence for ever. Tlius does
he outline tlie full and perfect duty of man to
God, which is to love God and keep His com-
mandments, which, when cheerfully and lovingly
performed, brings the smile of approval from the
Father above (Matt. xxvi. fSl-45), His gracious
benediction, together with the sweetness of his
presence in our hearts, which is a title-deed to
the imperishable pos ssion of the King of kings
— a mansion of bliss, in " that city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
"Never Spake Man Like This Man,"
is a most conscientious testimony from Jewish
and hostile sources, based upon a careful com-
parison of His teachings and language with that
of the diversified styles of the prophets on one
side, and of the inspired utterances of the
mightiest minds of tlie heathen world on the
other.
His language was made up of the simple
words in every-day use, but what coruscations
of genius, what dazzling hues encircle and flame
out in some of his fervid utterances, especially
when speaking of His coming to judgment and
the end of the world (Matt, xxiv.' 30-32). Still
His words can be understood by a little child.
Majestic in their simplicity, they contained an
(r^
88
The Greatest Name in the World.
imperial authority with tlie perfection of mild-
ness. His precepts thus spoken were irresist-
ible.
Coupled inseparably with this form of lan-
guage was a loo;ic, the natural [)roduct of His
exquisitively sensitive mind, that never knew
defeat, because His premises, beino- always fault-
lessly drawn, the conclusion must of necessity
be beyond (piestion.
Behind these two characteristic traits w^is a
mind capable of deducing the most momentous
problems down to the well-known and appre-
ciable facts — a mind that instantly perceived the
reason for every question arisino- in the human
heart, ofttimes antedating the (piestion with an
answer to the ceaseless bewilderment of all who
heard.
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V
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11
11
o
CPIAPTKI? VII.
HIS POWER ANl> ITS SOURCES.
A DREAMY sentence never fell from His fervid
lips. His thought was always vivid; His pic-
tures graphic : His illustrations terse, practical,
(|uickly and easily understood, poignant and
adapted to the ininiediate need.
Nothing short of infinite powers of perception
will enable us to penetrate the deep recesses of
divine wisdom, which ever and anon focused its
rays through His words, upon the breathless
multitudes who hung upon His teachings their
destinies of eternal life and death.
Whether by Elijahian vision he saw on the
blue scrolls of the sky, penned in words of liquid
gold, the words which He spake, or whether
from the deep depths of His imagination He
drew the wa-ird, fascinating, pathetic, and some-
times overwhelmingly awful pictures with
which He drove home His teachings, that
sometimes angered, sometimes charmed, and at
all times enthralled the multitudes, and that
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TJic Greatest Name in the World.
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lias lod tlie world into a bri<^liter light and
higher hopes, we know not.
He was intensely hunum in every respect, but
proved the possibilities of an intimate union
between God and man. Indeed, His perfect
humanity revealed the liigher divinity in which
we beheld the God. I think, however, these
human utterances are the result of human
imagination, ///s (lii'initij wats laid in Ilia
miracles and in His impcrvlousness to sin.
His hunianitii is told In the agonies He en-
dured, and His keen knowledge of and deep
sympathy for a snjfo'ing race.
In iivcry sense. He was a man — teaching,
laboring, suffering as men — only without sin.
Therefore, I give to all His tremendous utter-
ances a source in his human imaginative Ijrain.
Yet how lofty, how superb, how majestic these
were ! Imagination, in our sense of the term, is
at once illustrative and creative. It "sees by
intuition, it illustrates by metaphor, it speaks in
nmsic." All great tluMight links itself instan-
taneously to imager}^ and comes forth like
Minerva, in a "panoply of glittering armor.'
Without it, Innnan activity would be an ever-
lasting impo.'^sibility. The brain is the battery
wliere all the electric currents of life are stored,
but imagination is the controlling and intelligent
His Poivcr and Its Sources.
91
like
lOV.
vcr-
jtery
)i'ecl,
Icfent
power that puts eaeli of tliese eurrentH into its
lawful place, ^ivint^ life ami impetus to all that
makes us nobler than the brute. It ]mts thought
into an intellit^ent and intellij^iblc shape an«l
gives to man the domi nancy over all the forces
of nature. Ail great thought is, in a word,
poetical, and creates at once a rhythm of its
own. With this explanation, we hold imagina-
tion »^^o be one of the most God-like of powers,
and it was with these very powers that He
coined His pictures out of everything in nature,
and gave to them a life that ever broadens as
the 3'ears roll by. Before Him, natiu-e was a
moving panorama of iuifa<ling splendors, with
an inexhaustible wealth of sublime suggestive-
ness. "Consider the lilies" was a sentence in
THE MIGHTIEST .SERMON EVER UTTERED, and it Was
intended to strengthen the faith of the disciples
in the Fatherhood of Mod, as exeniplitied in His
provision for the needs of all His childi-en. He
exhorts them to put their trust in Providence,
who supports the feeble plants, and afiectionat<'ly
points them to the H(3\vers, and tells tluMU that
although they (the disciples) are sutt'erers now,
they will be clothed with a vcstin-e more glorious
and lasting than that of the lilies when the
Father's home is reached on high. We have
learned by experience, what was intuitive truth
1
II
t7
92 T/ie Greatest Name in the World.
to Him, that the "meanest flower that grows
can give thoughts which do often lie too deep
for tears "; for even weeds, thorns and thistles,
springing above their primeval curse, may to
some appear lovelier than the fairest minion of
the garden. He beholds the fruits of the earth,
and teaches us to judge of men by their works.
Figs do not grow on thistles, nor apples on
thorn-bushes, and the status of moral grandeur
is in proportion to the amount of fruit borne.
There is nothing in all the realm of nature that is
beautiful if it lacks goodness — serviceableness.
That is beautiful, no matter how rugged the
form it wears, when it conduces to the better-
ment and welfare of our race. The fig tree,
beautiful in its proportions, is made an object
lesson, and is cursed because of its sterility.
Standing upon the rock-ribbed mountain, He
speaks of the powers of faith, saying, ** If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder
place, and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you." Pointing to the clouds,
where the electric flashes are leaping from cloud-
dome to cloud-dome across awful chasms of
space, seaming and shocking the wide air with
livid lines of fire. He tells of the complete over-
throw of Satan's kingdoms, " the powers of the
I
%
His Power and Its Sources.
93
air," in a single statement, "I saw Satan, as
lightning, fall from heaven." From the Euro-
clydon, tire-winged, howling with the burden
of infuriated tempests, sweeping with devastat-
ing breath over the land, He draws a simile of
His coming to the Judgment, with the storm-
cloud for His chariot, drawn by the white charg-
ers of prophetic vision, riding down the sky with
rattling hoof of thunder-bolt and lightning of
drawn sword ; and foretells the terror of the
wicked when, pointing to the earthquake-rended
mountains. He declared that men will call upon
the rocks to hide them from His presence when
He shall come with the glory of His Father and
with ten thousands of His saints. An infant is
brought to Him, and He recommends innocence,
declaring that all who would finally enter His
kingdom must become as little children, " for of
such is the kingdom of heaven."
Being among shepherds, He gives Himself the
appellation of the Good Shepherd, and represents
Himself as bringing back the lost sheep to the
fold. As He leaves the city and goes up the
mountain. He beholds the great crowds follow-
ing, who gather around Him and sit at His feet.
From the very sight of this multitude, composed
of the poor and unfortunate, He deduces His
Beatitudes : " Blessed are they that weep."
T*m
94
T//C Great est Name in the World.
\
I
II
" Blessed are they tluit do liunger and tliirst. "
Such as ohserve His precepts, and tliose who
slight them, are compared to two men who build
houses, the one upon a rock, the other upon sand.
When lie asks the woman of Samaria for drink,
He expounds to her His heavenly doctrine under
the beautiful image of a well of living waters.
Wlien He wishes to picture heaven, He compares
it to a homestead, obtained by direct inheritance
without injustice, kept without dis(juietude, a
place where time is spent without repentance —
the kindliest, sweetest, sublimest place in the
universe, ruled by justice, mercy and love,
having everything needful to make us eternally
happy. From the picture of the impecunious
debtor. He makes mercy the queen of human
attributes. He made the occasion of the feeding
so many thousands with a few loaves the subject
of a sermon in which He elevates charity above
all other faculties, both human and divine, de-
claring that His life would yet be laid down for
all mankind, that they through Him might be
brought to God.
Thus does His teaching emanate from the
fountains of love in His great soul. His char-
acter was amiable, open and tender, and His
charity unbounded.
The Evangelist gives us a complete and ad-
mirable idea of it in these few words, " He went
His Poivcr and Its Sources.
95
about floinf]^ jijood." By every act of His life
He taught complete, loving sulmiiKsion to the
Father's will. His resignation to the will of
God is conspicuous in every moment of His life.
He loved and felt the sentiment of friendship.
The man whom He raised from the tomb,
Lazarus, was His friend. It was for the noblest
sentiment of life that He performed the greatest
of His miracles. In Him the love of country
may find a model. O Jerusalem ! Jerusalem !
He exclaimed, at the idea of the judgments that
threatened that guilty city, " How often would
I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not ! "
Casting His sorrowful eyes from the top
of the hill over this city, doomed for her
crimes to a signal destruction. He was unable to
restrain His tears : " He beheld the city," says
the Evangelist, " and wept over it."
Obedience to the laws that be, both political
and divine, was taught by the miraculous finding
of the coin in a fish's mouth, accompanied by
one imperative connnand, " Render unto Caesar
that which is C;«sai's, and unto God that
which is God's."
His tolerance was no less remarkable. When
His disciples begged Him to command fire to
come down from heaven on a village of Samaria
96
The Greatest Name iu the World.
■I I
1
^^H
\
i
\
L
which had denied Him hospitality, He replied,
with indignation, " Ye know not what manner
of spirit ye are of." And when— a few months
after this event — He went weeping up the hill
from the gates of Jerusalem toward the place of
crucifixion, bearing His cross, deserted by His dis-
ciples, hooted at by the rabble — insulted, derided
and spit upon by the High Priests — maltreated
by the soldiers — fainting, bleeding, suffering the
piled up miseries and sorrows of all ages, stag-
gering, falling — with the smothered cry of sym-
pathy from the four Marys ringing, lingering in
His ears — propelled by the force of the mob up
the hill, yielding His hands to the outstretched
beams of the cross, yet never chiding nor speak-
ing while the rusty iron spikes tore and mangled,
and fastened them quivering, bleeding, excruci-
ating to the wood — enduring the thirst, the
inflammation, the fractures, the gangrene, the
taunts of the Jewish and Roman officials; the
horrors of the darkening sky ; the fainting sun ;
the rending of the marble-girded mountains ;
the desertion of His friends ; the bereavements
of the heavens ; then, at the end of these awful
hours of agony, after affectionately addressing
His mother, and finished His incomprehensible
life with a prayer for His murderers, with almost
the last gasp of His sorrow-burdened breath,
He taught the omnipotence, the sublime emacu-
His Power ami Its Sources.
97
late unselfishness of Love, the immensity of
which, with all its great deeps, its majesty and
grandeur, its immeasurable heights, its un-
fatliomal>le tlepths with all the secrets of its
saving power, is only known to Go<l. By it,
the penalty of exclusion from heaven, and
deprivation of God's favor, and consignment to
the place of misery, because of our sins. He
obviated. He expiated guilt, He " made recon-
ciliation for inquity," He purchased eternal life.
To those who were in Him, " There was now no
condemnation. Their sins were forgiven, and
they were at peace with God." By it Christ
" vanquished death and him that had the power
of it." He plucked out its sting, and secured our
final triumph over it, and thus taught us to dis-
miss all our alanns (John xi. 25, 2G). Our
bodies must return to our kindrefl earth, but
they shall be raised again, spiritual, incorrup-
tible and glorious. They shall be reunited to
their never-dying and sainted partners, and
shall enter into the regions of immortality
where " They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on
them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and
shall lead them unto living fountains of water ;
and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes "(Rev. vii. 16,17).
7
CHAPTER VIII.
HIS DISCOURSES CLEAR AND POINTED-
ALONE IS GREAT.
HE
8
Meaningless platitudes and soft arraifjn-
ments of terrible facts found no part in the
practical developments of His themes. He
dealt with the questions which most concerned
men and their destinies. In His coversations
and His sermons, He never went above the
heads of the people He taught ; or, if He did,
it was in apologue, metaphor or parable, which
either explained itself or was explained by Him.
This was so in the parable of the tares, and of
the mustard seed, of the leaven, of the hidden
treasure, and of the draw-net.
Acting upon the assumption that all men by
nature had an innate knowledge of God, and
that all by sin were marred, diseased and for-
ever dead. He spake of God as an affectionate
Father — One who was not unapproachable or
needed mighty expiations to appease His wrath
— but one who grieved because of the prodi-
His Discourses CUor and Pointed.
99
irodi-
gality of His waywanl cliiMreii (Liikf xv. 11);
sent forth His only Son to convince them of
their error, and with })rice of His precions
blood (Jolni iii. 16) reconcile them to (jo<l
(2 Cor. V. 18-21) and make them a<,aiin heirs of
lieaven (Rom. viii. 17). Before Him l»y|)ocrisy
shrank away, and hid itself in shame, pain and
ra<;e \nider tlie excoriations of His fearful re-
buke. To the Jewish and Gentile mind, sin
only existed in acts and words, which could not
be hidden, and they vainly believed that Ion<(
prayers on tiie street corners ; fastings ; broaden-
ing of their phylacteries and being called Rabbi,
Rabbi ; building the tombs of the prophets ;
giving of tithes opeidy ; the wearing of a sad-
dened visage ; garnishing the sepulchres of the
righteous ; apologizing for the nnirders done by
their fathers, would make up for their lack
of humility of soul, and cover their deep-seated
and abominable guilt ; but Jesus turns the full
noon-tide light of His melting gaze upon their
hearts (for the face is the mirror of the heart)
and cries, " Woe unto 3'ou, scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites ! For ye shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men ; for ye neither go in your-
selves, neither sutler ye them that are entering
to go in. Ye devour widows' houses, and for
a pretence make long prayers. Ye compass sea
100 The Greatest Name in the World.
\ 11^ i'
^1 \\ •$
and laud to inakt* one proselyte, and when he is
made, ye make him two-fold more the child of
hell than ^ourselveH. Ye pay tithe of mint
and ani.s(> and ennnnin, and have omitted the
wei«,ditier matters of the law, jud^^ment, mercy
an<l faith. Ye make clean the outsiile r>f the
cnp and of the platter, but within they are full
of extortion and excess. Thou Mind Pharisee !
Cleanse first that which is within the cup an<l
platter, that the outside of thetn may In* clean
also. Woe unto you, scribes, Phari.sees, liypo-
crites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's Injnes and of all un-
cleanness ; even so ye also outwardly appear
rif^hteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and ini(|uity. Ye serpents; ye genera-
tion of vipers ; how can ye escape the danmation
of hell?" (Matt, xxiii. 13-33).
He sometimes ctiused them to be their own
accusers in the adjudication of some sin. They
bring unto Him a woman taken in adultery —
they claim to have taken her in the very act,
and ask Him to settle the disposition of the
criminal, by invoking the law of Moses, which
said she must be stoned. It was not a con-
scientious desire to put away the sinner from
Israel, and thus make an example of evil-doers
His Discourses Clear and Pointed. 101
own
ry—
y act,
f the
hich
con-
froin
doers
VI
by roiilly HtM-iiit^ the eiiljuit Htoiiod to deatli, rls»'
He would havu answered diflrrently : hut that
thi'y nujnrht luive to iiceusu Him as a UHur|H'r of
Uonian and Jewish hiws, th«'y eonie to Him,
and a trjvat number nt* stalwart mm stand
boastingly around this poor sin-crush('<l, l»otrayL'«l
and fritrhtened Maj((hdene, and with loud-
moutlied denunciations call for her death. Jesus
looks at them, then at the woman ; then stoop-
ing, writes on the j^round as thou^di He heard
'them not. Still they clamor. lA't him, said
Jesus, that is without sin amon<^ you (for,
undoubtedly, they all were more guilty than
she, and it was another case of supine Adam
putting his guilt on a frail woman's shoulders)
cast the first stone at her. What is the result {
They slink away. They must either confess or
flee, and fleeing away from the scene of their
guilt is, uncjuestionably, evidence of their guilt,
it is confession.
In driving out tlie money-changers fi'om the
temple, He called them a " den of thieves," and
indignantly overthrew their tables and drove
them out. But when calle<l upon to settle a
dispute between His followers, as to who should
be great in the kingdom of heaven, He uses the
most loveable terms, and similes, in the settle-
ment of the trouble, by the introduction of a
'>?
102 The Greatest Name in the World.
little child, witli a rceoimiieiKlatiou to each, to
Imjcoimo <;reat tlirou<;li loving stTvicrs to each
other.
When Nicodcmus came to converse with Him
about tlie life to come, hein<r attained throuirh
a hidden life with God here, His manner of
aronment is clear and practical. He revealed
to the " blind leader " the mysteries of eternal
life in the soul, tells how it comes, its action —
inscrutable in its issue and I'esults — like the
wind coming from the hand of God, with bene-
dictions upon mankind and the earth, then
returning again to its native and highborn
Source — how He, as the only Begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth, came to save all
who should believe on God through Him. That
as like the brazen serpent was lifted up in the
wilderness, and a look at it saved the [)erishing
people, so He lifted up from the earth, would
draw all men unto Him, Then, finally, as the
Jewish Ruler tells by his (piestions, how desirous
he is to come to the light and do the truth,
Jesus says (by way of encouragement, and an
unuttered prophecy of the time he would through
his consistent and virtuous walk attain unto the
light he so much desired), " He that doeth truth
Cometh to the light" (John iii. 21). But of all
His sublixne discourses and familiar talks with
His Discourses Clear and Poiuted. lOJi
the people, that one with Peter on the pehbly
beach of Tiberias at early <lawii, a week follow-
ing the Resurrection, is the iijost .liversified,
most pathetic, most soul-touching, most beautiful
of all. Seven sad and weary disciples are draw-
ing near the shore, after a fruitless night's toil.
A stranger on the shore noticing their complete
dejection, called out in a tender, shepherdly tone :
"Children, have you any meat?" To their
negative answer. He replies, " Cast the net on
the right side of the ship." They do it, and the
net IS tilled to breaking. Memory, which seldom
sleeps, here associates this miracle with others
of like character. John discovers first the real
nature of the Being who spoke, and exclaims in
a reverent tone, " It is the Lord." Peter springs
overboard, and is first on shore, and kneds
before his risen Lord. Turning from His self-
prepared meal of broiled fish, Jesus looks with
those deep calm eyes of His upon the trembling
penitent, and in words wliich breathe forgive^
ness. He begins and ends the conversation oi all
others, that will live and ever become more
glorious while His name is spoken on earth.
Gently, but how closely does He grapple in a
series of interrogations, with the heart and con-
science of His hearer ! It was like a spirit
" talking to him of eternity over the mouth of
i
I'i
'
' ill'
' ^s**
1 ■.'S+-^
104 T/ie Greatest Name in the World.
the grave, and by the light ol" the waning
moon." How strict, yet tender the questioning 1
For an instant, the conscience, a " discoloured
form, is naked and bare before the ((uestioning
eye, and writhes visibly under the force of His
terrible investigation" (John xxi. 14-19). But
the vows there taken, under the effect of such
scenes, were never broken, until the great soul
of the Martyr leaped from the cross up to a
Throne. Jesus spoke of heaven as an ac<iuisition
to be sought after with tears — yea, even if it
was necessary, through torture and blood. But
He never talked of what the future life was
like, save to liken heaven unto a place where all
who enter in should rest forever from care and
pain, and be inconceivably and eternally happy.
Never once does He venture to tell to dull
and heavy ears the secrets of that realm of
peace. To miss heaven, meant to be banished
from God, lose an inheritance among the pure
and undeiiled, and, like a helniless ship, without
a compass, and with torn sails, be driven out to
sea — not even allowed a quarantine within sight
of the heavenly harbor, but compelled to drift
dismantled and wrecked on the wild waves of
despair in the awful storms of an ev^er-deepening
night, the thunders rolling, the lightning flash-
ing, strange voices of wrath mingled with every
His Discourses Clear and Pointed. 105
broatli, while the omit bell of eternity tolls the
.soleuni funeral knell for the lost throu^rh all
their dreary, solitary and everlastino- voyage.
In Him Alone Tkue Gheatness is Found.
His name stands the nii^rhtiest among the
mighty. In the annals of history, all that is
called great is insignificant when compared with
what this name represents. What, after all, is
true greatness ? History presents a long line' of
illustrious men, whose notoriety is written in the
blood they have shed. What ghastly fields from
which to garner the sheaves of glory : Enough
blood has been spilt to make these men "great"
which, if gathered into one great bulk, would
form a lake seventeen miles long, one mile wide
and one hundred feet deep— a lake large enough
to float the combined navies of both hemi-
spheres.
Nebuchadnezzar, Davi<l, Alexander the Great,
Gesar, Constantine, Charlemange, Mahomet
Frederick the Great, William II., Charles
yA\. of Sweden, Napoleon, Washington, Grant
Wolseley, names emblazoned upon the scrolls of
history, written in marble, extolled in verse and
song; names around which circle the many-
tinted halo of human greatness ; but their way
to the pinnacle of human greatness was over
106 The Greatest Name in the World.
I
crnslied hearts, rended tiivsidcH, Imried mon-
arehieH, and thr<)u<^]i seas of liuiiiaii ^(jre. Such
is the incompatiblo tenets of our hiws and liunian
constitutions, that we incarcerate for a few
months, and then dash out the life of the poor
wretch, who has ejected a soul from its tene-
ment house of clay before its time. If he has
killed scores, the government gives him the
highest seat of honor, and if he has slain his
tens of thousands, his name is emblazoned on
the inq^erishable marble, erected in gorgeous
mausoleum, encircled and overarched with
banners, while his memory is perpetuated and
handed down as an example for the generations
of to-day to follow and emulate. But compare
the virtues and vices of many of these great
ones, and you have a dew-drop of purity
over agamst a mountain of inicpiity. The
man whom the American nation is pleased to
call its most illustrious general (and over whose
form they have erected a tomb out of purest
marble, in a very blaze of architectural beauty
and strength, and have recorded thereon his good
deeds for his country) died while under indict-
ment for larceny. Who was Homer, Demos-
thenes, Cato, Cicero, Herodotus, Xenophon and
Pericles, among the ancients ; and Walpole,
Patrick Henry and Bismark, of later times, but
His Discourses Clear cvui Pointed. 107
men wliose greatness orcw out of tlii'ir [jowcr to
excite tlieir couutiymeii to slaiiohttT their
enemies in battle, whicli is nothint^ less tlian
judicial murder.
The history of a nation is found in the history
of its wars. The men who Haure on historic
pa((e are for the most part coimected witli
battles fou<,dit by their countrymen, althou<;]i
(singular as it may appear) the men who precipi-
tated the conflicts are seMom or never found
where Imllets wliistle and cannons boom. Tlieir
greatness, their miohtiness, is traceable to the
destruction of men, and murder, whether indi-
vidual or by national consent, is odious. It is
said that Bluchers timely arrival on the field of
Waterloo settled the destinies of Europe. Be it
so, but what historian of comint^ years will be
competent to the task of ^^ivin*^ him a place
other than beside the merciless butchers of other
ages and centuries ? As the years roll by, and
moral worth begins to take the ascendency, an«l
magnanimity (such as Nelson exhibite<l at Tra-
falgar, when he thrice ordered his men to cease
firing upon a ship which he thought had struck
its colors — the ship from which he afterward
received his death-wound) take the place of
barbarian savagery which knows no mercy for
the fallen foe, this Prussian general's name will
108 The Greatest Name in the World.
be tarnislied and blackened by his furious and
merciless pursuit and revolting slaughter of the
disordered, conquered and fleeing French, after
the battle of Waterloo, June 18tli, 1815.
Beautiful as were the many manly qualities
and majestic utterances of David, illustrious as
were his military achievements, yet we instinc-
tively shrink back from him as we hear the
prophet tell the long story of his life in the
portentous statement, " Thou art a man of
blood." The reprehensible nature of war is in
the destruction of the innocent for the sins of
the guilty. Then true greatness must be sought
in other classes and conditions of men. Who
would not rather be Luther the " lone monk,"
who with nothing but a Bible in his hands made
everything tremble from the Vatican in Rome
to the farthest monastery in Germany, than
Co3ur de Lion or the Iron Duke ?
Who would not rather bt a Chrysostom than
a Pliny the younger ; or a, Paul rather than a
Nero, or a Whitetield rather than a Tom Paine,
or a Jonathan Edwards or a Wesley than a Vol-
taire ? They have been " truly great who have
been truly good," and have in their time blessed
men by their living, having emulated the cause
of Christ.
CHAPTER IX.
WHAT NAPOLEON THOUGHT OF JESUS.
Let me quote the testimony of Napoleon, which
was uttered not many months before he was taken
up into the Unseen Holy. His comparisons are
faultless, his deductions are overwhelmin^dy
convincing, his utterances candid and fervid, his
faith inspiring, his thoughts winged. One day
he was speaking of the divinity of Christ, and
also of His influence upon the world. General
Bertram said: "Let Jesus be whatever you
please— the highest intelligence, the purest
heart, the most profound legislator, and in all
respects the most singular Being who has ever
existed— I grant it. Still he was simply a man
who taught His disciples and deluded credulous
people as did Orpheus. Confucius, Brahma. Jesus
caused Himself to be adored because His prede-
cessors. Iris and Osiris, Jupiter and Juno, had
proudly made themselves objects of worship.
The ascendency of Jesus over His time was like
the ascendency of the gods and heroes of fable.
irr'
Ul[
110 T/ie Greatest Name itt the World.
If JcsuH has impassioned and attached to His
chariot the multitude, if He lias revolutionized
the world, I see in that only the power of j^enius
and the action of a connnandin(]j spirit, which
van([uishes the world as so many con<|Uerors
have done — Alexander, Ca'sar, you, sir, and IMo-
hammed — with a sword." Napoleon promptly
replied : I know men, and I tell you that Jesus
Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a
resemhlance between Christ and the founders
of empires, and the ^ods of other religions. The
resemblance does not exist. There is between
Christianity and whatever other religion the
distance of infinity. We can say to the authors
of every other religion, you are neither gods nor
the agents of deity. You are missionaries of
falsehood, moulded from the same clay with the
rest of mortals. You are made with all the pas-
sions and vices inseparable from them. Your
temples and your priests proclaim your origin.
Such will be the judgment, the cry of con-
science of whoever examines the gods and
temples of paganism.
Paganism was never accepted as truth by
the wise men of Greece, neither by Socrates,
Pythagoras, Plato, Anaxagoras or Pericles. But,
on the other side, the loftiest intellects since the
advent of Christianity have had faith, living
JV//at Xapoleon Thouf^ht of Jesus. Ill
faitli, a practical faitli in the mysteries and the
doctrines of the Gospel. Not only Bossiiet and
Fenelon, who were preachers, but Descartes and
Newton, Leibnitz and Pascal, Corneille and
llaciene, Charlemagne and Louis WW. Paf]fan-
ism is the work of man. One can here read but
our imbecility. What do these gods, so boast-
ful, know more than other mortals. These le<^-
islators, Greek or Roman :* This Numa, this
Lycurgus ( These priests of Lidia or Memphis ?
This Confucius, this Mohannned ? Absolutely
nothing. They have made a perfect chaos of
morals. There is not one amonii' them all who
has said anything new in relorence to our future
destiny, to the soul, to the essence of God, to
creation. Enter the sanctuaries of paganism —
you there tind perfect chaos, a thousand contra-
dictions, war between the go<ls, the imuiobility
of sculpture, the division and rending of unity,
the parcelling out of the divine attributes, muti-
lated or denied in their essence ; the sophisms
of ignorance and presumption, polluted ff^'tcs,
impurity and abomination adored, all sorts of
corruption festering in the thick shades, with
the rotten w^ood, the idol and his priest. Does
this honor God, or does it dishonor Him ? Are
these religions and these gods to be compared
with Christianity ? I see in Lycurgus, Numa
M
(f .
u
1
1
i
1
j
I
112 T/ir Greatest Name in the World.
and Mohammed only legislators who, having the
first rank in the state, have sought the best solu-
tion of the social ])roblem ; bnt I see nothing
there which reveals divinity. Nothing announces
them divine. On the contrary, there are num-
erous resemblances between them and myself,
foibles and errors which ally them to me and to
humanity. It is not so with Christ. Everyt/dnfj
in Him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me
and His will confounds me. Between Him and
whoever else in the world there is no possible
term of comparison. He is truly a Being by
Himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the
truths which He announces and His manner of
convincing, are not explained either by human
organization, or by the nature of things. His
birth and the history of His life ; the profundity
of His doctrine, which grapples the mightiest
difficulties, and which is of those difficulties
the most admirable solution; His Gospel; His
apparition ; His empire ; His march across the
ages and the realms — everything is, for me,
a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges
me into a reverie from which I cannot escape ;
a mystery which is ever before my eyes; a
mystery which I can neither explain nor deny.
Here I see nothing human. The nearer I ap-
proach, the more carefully I examine. Every-
Hyia/ Napoleon Thought of Jesus. 113
hiiig
[iices
lum-
ul to
Itiwj
js nic
I and
ssiblo
,g by
. the
ler of
uinaii
His
ndity
itiest
ilties
His
s the
me,
nges
ape ;
s; a
eny.
ap-
ery-
thing is alx)ve me, everything remains grand^
of a grandeur which overpowere. His relif/ion
18 a revelation from an intelligence which cer-
tainly is not that of man. There is a profound
originality, which has created a series of words
and of maxims before unknown. Jesus bor-
rowed nothing from our sciences. One can
absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the
imitation or example of His life. He is not
a philosopher, since He advances by miracles,
and, from the connnencement His disciples wor-
shipped Him. He persuades far more by an
appeal to the heart than by any display of
method and of logic. Neither did He impose
upon them any preliminary studies, or any
knowledge of letters. All His religion consists
in believing. In fact, the sciences and phil-
osophy avail nothing for salvation, and Jesus
came into the world to reveal the mysteries of
heaven and the laws of the Spirit. Also, He
has nothing to do but with the soul, and to that
alone He brings His Gospel. The soul is suffi-
cient for Him, and He is sufficient for the soul.
Before Him, the soul was nothing. Matter and
time were the masters of the world. At His
voice everything returns to order. Science and
philosophy become secondary. The soul has
reconquered its sovereignty before one single
word — Faith.
8
114 The Great est A'tuiie in the World.
III
He imposes His belief upon none, and no one,
thus far, has been able to contradict Him. First,
because the (iospel contains the purest morality,
and also, because the doctrine it contains of
obscurity is only the proclamation and the truth
of that which exists when no eye can see, and
no reason can penetrate. Who is the insensate ?
Who will say " No " to the intrepid voyager,
who recounts the marvels of the icy peaks
which He alone has had the bc^ldness to visit ?
Christ is that bold voyager. One can doubtless
remain credulous, but no one can venture to say
it is not so.
Unquestionably, with skill in thinking, one
can seize the key of the philosophy of Socrates
and Plato, but to do this it is necessary to be a
metaphysician, and, moreover, with years of
study one must possess special aptitude. But
good sense alone, the heart, an honest spirit, are
sufficient to comprehend Christianity.
You speak of Ca3sar, of Alexander, of their
conquests, and of the enthusiasm they enkindled
in the hearts of their soldiers ; but can you con-
ceive of a dead man making conquests with an
army faithful and entirely devoted to his mem-
ory ? My armies have forgotten me, even while
living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hanni-
bal. Alexander, Charlemagne and myself have
What Napoleon TJioui^Jit of Jesus. 115
► one,
First,
ality,
ns of
truth
, and
sate ?
rager,
peaks
visit ?
btless
to say
2, one
crates
) be a
rs of
But
it, are
their
Indled
con-
h an
Imem-
I while
[anni-
have
founded empires, but upon what did we rest the
creations of our genius \ Upon force.
Jesus Christ founded His (uiipirc upon love.
Ours have vanished ere tlie end of our natural
lives. But the kini^<l(jni of Jesus overspreads
the whole earth, and to-day niillions would die
for Him. What a proof of the divinity of
Christ I With an em})ire so absolute, He lias
but one sint^le aim, the spiritual melioration of
individuals, tl\e purity of conscience, the union
to that which is true, the holiness of the soul.
The founders of other relij^ions never conceived
of this mystical love, which is the essence of
Christianity, and is beautifully called charity.
In every attempt to effect this thing, namely, to
make Himself beloved, man deeply feels his own
impotence. So that Christ's greatest miracle
undoubtedly is the reign of charity. Assassin-
ated by the English oligarchy, I die before my
time, and my dead body, too, must return to the
earth to become food for worms. Behold the
destiny near at hand of him who has been
called the great Napoleon ! What an abyss
between my deep misery and the eternal reign
of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, adored,
and which is extending over all the earth. Is
this to die ? Is it not rather to live ? The
death of Christ ! It is the death of a God !
P'l
116 The Greatest Name in the World.
And ... if you do not perceive that Jesus
Christ is God — very well, then I did wrong to
make you a General.
Was this modern intellectual Colossus wrong ?
The Church of both hemispheres and of all
creeds answer No ! He who never bent his
knee before a foe, here devoutly bows in
worship before Him at whose birth the morn-
ing stars sang together, and all the sons of
God shouted for joy — the man who was the
" highest possible ideal of manhood ; " always
" majestic and simple ; " " infinitely firm and
infinitely gentle ; " *' unsurpassed in His sub-
lime simplicity and earnestness ; " " the man
who, above all others, was of unparalleled pur-
ity and elevation of character ; " whose " life
was uniformly noble and consistent with His
lofty principles ; " " the grandest of all known
men of the human race in all time ; " " the
greatest moral reformer who ever existed on
earth ; " " the invidual who has made the species
take the greatest step toward the divine ; " who
was " uni(|ue in everything ; " " to whom nothing
can be compared ; " who was, in fact, " the most
beautiful incarnation of God in the most beauti-
ful of forms ; " " whose life and death was that
of a God ; " the man who with " His own pierced
hands, lifted the gates of empires off' their hinges,
4^:
IVkat Napoleon Thought of Jesus. 117
turned the tide of centuries toward tl,e .nillen-
"lum, and still governs the ages ; " " who is the
■mage of the invisible God, the first-born of
every creature, who is before all things, and by
whom all things exist;" and who is the Head
of the body, the Church ; who is the beginning,
the first-born from the dead ; that in "all things
doth Imve the pre-enunence. in whom doth all
fu nesa dwell , " who, upholding all things by
the word of H,s power, by Himself purged our
sms and is now sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high ; " crowned with glory and
honor, and whose " throne is forever and ever "
W hat more can be said by way of proof of the
mfimte superiority of Jesus above all n>en and
all hat IS great, glorious and nn'ghty in the
whole realm of science, literature, n>oral and
spiritual maxims, teachings, oratory an,l religion
and a perfect human life ? From the most noted
men of eighteen centuries, we have collected
evidence; both infidel, pagan and Christian, and
their united voices seem to come up in a chal-
lenge, which rings round the globe, " Who is He
ha condemneth ? It is Christ that died-yea
that ,3 risen again, an,l become the first fruits
of hem that slept." Out of His own originality
he has erected an edifice of j.raise dedicated to
the salvation of men, to which are hastening
118 T/ie Greatest Name in the World.
millions of worshippers, from whose doors ascend
unceasingly precious son(T^s of redeeming love,
while at His altar kneel in silent devotion the
greatest, the wisest, the kingliest of the ages.
From the dim distance of millenniums yet to
come — the pinnacle of centuries — He smiles
upon the results of His completed labors, and
beckons us to
" Follow on till the eye grows dim
And the soul like an ark-freed dove,
Shall soar away to the realms of day
Where the lamb is the light thereof."
But His life is complete ; His work is done,
and His victory over, all the world is assured.
No longer needs He to wander over the chilly
earth, seeking the love and sympathy of
strangers. No longer under gloomy Judean
midnight skies does He seek in vain a place to
lay His weary head, for the weariness of battle
has given way before the approach of victory,
and the thorn-crowned king of the Jews has put
on the royal diadem of the King of kings, while
the gracious eyes, which once closed in sleep
under cypress tree in Gethsemane, or under
arbor of Lebanon cedar on pillow of stone, is
opened to watch from His everlasting heights,
the home-coming of His children, who will by
by
What Napoleon Thought of Jesus, 119
and by rest their weary head on the tender,
affectionate bosom of Him, wlio now and forever
rests His head on the bosom of God. " Repose
now in thy glory, noble founder ! Thy work is
finished ; thy divinity is established. Fear no
more to see the edifice of thy labors fall by any
fault. Henceforth beyond the reach of frailty,
thou shalt witness from the heights of divine
peace the infinite results of thy acts. At the
price of a few hours of suffering, which did not
reach thy grand soul, thou hast bought the most
complete immortality. For thousands of years
the world will depend on Thee ! Banner of our
contests, thou shalt be the standard about which
the hotest battles will be given. A thousand
times more alive ; a thousand times more be-
loved, since thy death, than during thy passage
below. Thou shalt become the coi-ner-stone of
humanity so entirely, that to tear thy name
from this world, would be to rend it to its
foundations. Between Thee and God, there will
no longer be any distinction. Complete con-
queror of death, take possession of thy kingdom
whither shall follow Thee, by the royal road
which Thou hast traced, ages of worshippers."*
* Kenan's Life of Jesus, p. 351.
CHAPTER X.
Mi-4
CROWNING RESULTS OF HIS LIFE'S WORK
It is suitable and right that we should here
answer one more question, viz., What has been
the effect of His life- teaching in its entirety
upon the world?
Could the world have reached the present
stage of splendor — domestic comfort; civiliza-
tion, with its category of sciences ; international
quietude^, and the immortal blessedness of relig-
ious freedom, and spiritual peace, under the
teachings of Brahma, Confucius, Mahommed, or
the philosophies of Greece and Rome ? After
removing seven-tenths of dross from Confucian
theology (if you may style it theology) you
may come to a few social maxims and political
or civil laws, nothing upon which the soul may
feed. Brahminism is no better. The highest joys
of th^ future life offered by Mohammedanism
is a paradise of luxury where sensuality is
sanctified, carnality is deified, and lust sits for
ever enthroned as God. Greek and Roman
Crowning Results of His Lifes Work. 121
philosophy but lived to attend the funeral of
exhausted and sterile Judaism. Multitudinous
attempts have been made by gifted men in
every century since Christ to create some
new religion, which would, in part, grant
the carnal excesses of the heathen worship on
one side, adopting some of the Christian tenets
and practices on the other, and thus, by capti-
vating the nations by their liberties and
promises, overturn the whole system of Chris-
tianity, and obliterate the name of Christ- as a
divine Saviour— from the world. Witness the
failure, the awful failure, the everlasting failure,
of fanaticism and false religions. The house
built on the sand was as beautiful in outward
appearance as the one on the rock, but the wind
and rain wrought devastation with it, and death
held high carnival, while the one on the rock
felt not the jar, nor trembled at the tempest's
fury. For the most part, these religions have
perished, or are perishing, from the world.
Paganism is a brood of horrors. The God of
Confucius frowns upon his followers. The
place of Diana's temple can scarcely be located.
Corinth, with her temples, marble statues and
citadels, under the corrupted name of Gorthos,
stands before the gaze of centuries, the dead yet
living witness of the fate that overtakes apos-
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122 T/te Greatest Name in the World.
tacy, licentiousness and crime. Ancient Rome
lives in the crumbling columns of the Colosseum,
Forum, and the Catacombs. The Jerusalem of our
Saviour's time lies eighty feet below the surface
of the earth. Not a stone remains of all her
ancient magnificence to tell the story of her
fate. The Pyramids, in their portentous silence,
lift up before us the frozen prayer of all ages,
for light. Why the ruin of all these structures
which have outlived tlieir empire's greatness ?
Their people forsook God, crucified Christ, and
tried to reach heaven by man-made scaffolding,
which seems to the imagination, through the
vista of eighteen centuries, to rise up " a great,
grotesque structure, which, uncrowned with
deity, unfinished by its architect, deserted by its
friends, mutilated by its foes, stands an ever-
lasting monument of the mingled wisdom and
folly, the strength and the weakness of man."
Such systems of belief, such doctrines, could
not and did not help man to get any nearer to
God. They rather shipwrecked the soul on the
ocean of despair, where no light nor life could
come, nor friendly voice to cheer the drowning
man with words of hope, as he sank for ever
'oe.'^.th the restless wave.
Not so with the religion of Jesus Christ. " It
]i .8 confirmed the doctrine of our immortality,"
>>
Crowning Results of His Life's Work, 123
and scattered abroad the germs of lieavenly life
by its fundanieiital reiiuireinents of love to God
and our neighbor. Its inHuences are traced
through humble homes and throne-rooms, ele-
vating the one and giving quiet and purity to
the other. Elevation of character and morals.
a lively spiritual hope, is the effect of our accep-
tation of this religion, which is "spiritual instead
of ceremonial and external, universal instead of
local." It elevates and e(|ualizes humanity ; not
by detracting from the nobility of the high-
minded and intellectually superior classes, but
giving such a spirit of gentleness and humility
as will lead them to immediate recognition of a
poor man when he has the " wedding a-arment "
on. " It has given us the magnificent dowry of
a faith in One Common Father of the whole
human race, and thus of a world-wide brotlier-
hood of all mankind. The poor and needy are
partakers of all His benefits, and used as the
instruments of His service in spreading the
news of salvation over the land. Labor has
been made noble, it has " made humanity a
growing force in things private, civil and political.
Twelve unlettered fishermen, brawny muscled,
sun-browned, horny-handed sons of toil, become
the star-eyed, trumpet-voiced apostles, who over-
threw principalities and powers; stopped in
124 The Greatest Name in the World.
their flow downward the tide of centuries ;
made pa^an thrones and they that sat tliereon
tremble, and turned the thoughts of the nations
to God. The expurgations of society became
the basis of evangelical power. Tlie sect of the
" Despised Nazarines " have become a mountain
filling the whole earth. The midnight anthem
of angels, which rolled a billow of light over the
Bethlehem plains, has transformed the islands of
the sea into concert halls, the tuneful forests
into organ-lofts of worship, and filled the world
with songs of everlasting praise. In His name,
woman has been honored and elevated ; man-
hood has been ennobled, and the home made the
purest, the happiest place on earth. It has lifted
poverty above shame, abolished slavery, and
hushed the thunders of war. Hospitals for the
poor, the maimed, the deaf and the blind have
been erected in every civilized country, while
asylums for the orphan, the inebriate and insane
are the direct outcome of the effect of this holy
religion. Reformatories, and more just laws fol-
low, with free schools and universities for the
propagation of knowledge, wherever this Gospel
is preached. Missions are being founded every-
where, from the frozen islands in the north,
through arid wastes to the steaming waters of
the equator and the countries of the south.
Crowning Results of H's Lifes Work, 125
Savage lands are beinjr reclaimed, and savage
lips are being taught to sing Messiali's praise.
And thus, through unnumbered cliannels and
agencies, by the spirit of love and meekness,
does Christ reign from the rivers unto the ends
of the earth, and He must reign until the last
enemy, even death our ancient foe, is van-
quished, and Christ indeed is to us below and
the redeemed above, all and in all.
Christ the Eternal Refuge of His People.
To us who read His word, and love Him be-
cause He first loved us, a sense of safety enters
into our lives which so establishes us in our
faith that, like Paul, we are ready to exclaim :
"Neither things present nor things to come, nor
life nor death, nor any other creature is able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus," who from all the ills and snares of life
redeems and saves us. Thus, while the salva-
tion of the Gospel implies our deliverance from
all these evils, and our participation in all the
joys of a close intercourse and relation with
Him, it also implies our admission into His
Heavenly State. It is in order to bring us
there at last, that all His miracles were per-
formed, all His promises were made, and all the
benefits just enumerated are conferred upon us.
m
IS;!
126 T//e Greatest Name in the World.
and it is tliere accordingly tliat they sliall be
couHunnnate<l. Salvation, in this Hense, throujjjh
Christ, is eternal life. ffere we see through a
glaHH, darkly, but through him we are delivered
from ignorance ; and in Heaven no cloud shall
obscure our view, no veil of prejudice shall cover
our hearts. Through His name we are delivered
from guilt; and in Heaven, at its very threshold,
our acquittal and justification shall be pro-
claimed before an assembled world, and God's
reconciled countenance shall shine upon us for-
ever. Although born sinful, we are, through
Him, delivered from the power of sin ; and in
Heaven there shall be no tempter and no temp-
tation — nothing that defileth and nothing that
is defiled. Through His name, we are delivered
from the ills and calamities of life, and in
Heaven all tears shall be wiped from the eye
and all sorrow banished from the heart ; there
shall be undecaying health, and there shall be
unbroken rest, and there shall be songs of un-
mingled gladness. " So death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned," and from it we
shrink ; but Christ has abolished death, and
through Him we are delivered from the power
and fear of death ; and in Heaven there shall be
no more death, the saints shall dwell in that
sinless and unsufFering land, as the redeemed of
Crowning Results of His Lifcs Work. 127
Him " who was dead and is alive a^^ain and
liveth forever more." All tinners are theirs;
theirs is the unfading crown ; theirs is the in-
corruptible inheritance ; theirs the imperishable
kinordom of the King of kings ; theirs are the
blessedness and undinmied glories of eternity.
" Unto Him who has redeemed us to God by
His blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation, and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests ... be blessing
and honor and glory and power, world without
end. Amen."