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HOURS
WITH
THE EVANGELISTS.
BY
I. NICHOLS, D.D.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOLUME I.
BOSTON:
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.
M DCCC LXVII.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by
CROSBY AND NICHOLS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Cambridge: Presswork by John Wilson and Son.




TO
MY FRIENDS
OF THE FIRST PARISH IN PORTLAND,
THIS WORK,
PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST,
AND INTENDED TO SERVE AS A MEMORIAL OF A LONG
AND HAPPY CONNECTION WITH THEM,
EXTENDING THROUGH NEARLY HALF A CENTURY,
IS VERY RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
INSCRIBED
BY THEIR PASTOR,
I. NICHOLS.








PREFACE.
MY DEAR AND RESPECTED PARISHIONERS:
UNFITTED, as I have long been, by the state
of my health, to select and prepare a volume
of my discourses for publication, as you had
the kindness to request, I now, agreeably to
your wishes, place another memorial at your
disposal in its stead. Your distinguished liberality, in offering, in terms so kind and earnest, to pass an edition of the present work
through the press, demands my warmest gratitude.  I have thought that it might be no
inappropriate substitute for the  volume  you
first desired, containing, as it does, so many
extended remarks upon topics usually chosen
for the pulpit.   Much of it has been written since I retired from  the active duties of
the ministry.  I am    aware  how   many and
how great are its defects, but I can surely




Viii               PREFACE.
rely  upon  your   candor and   indulgence  for
any apology it may need.
The chief interest of a token of this nature is the sentiment which accompanies it;
but I trust that one whose faith in Christianity has been continually, during a long
life, acquiring new confirmation, can scarcely
declare his sincere religious convictions in any
form without benefit to some minds. Every
minister of ordinary fidelity must have received assurances of useful religious impressions he has often been instrumental in making; and it is impossible he should not regard these as the richest reward of his labors. Who can say to what extent the simplest thoughts he shall leave behind him may
be fruitful of similar results? That the views
presented in these volumes may give to them
some value, beyond the pleasure they may
afford as an expression of affection, is the
sincere prayer of
Your devoted Friend and Pastor,
I. NICHOLS.
CAMBRIDGE, January, 1858.




CONTENTS
OF VOLUME FIRST.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION....  1
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL COINCIDENCES..       75
CHAPTER II.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS...  97
CHAPTER III.
THE MYTHICAL THEORY.....113
CHAPTER IV.
MIRACLES- THEIR HARMONY WITH NATURE.. 130
CHAPTER V.
MIRACLES -THEIR USES..... 154
CHAPTER VI.
MIRACLES- THEIR CREDIBILITY..  178




X                 CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER VII.
THE NATIVITY... 209
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS..   232
CHAPTER IX.
JOHN THE BAPTIST... 255
CHAPTER X.
THE BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION....   277
CHAPTER XI.
THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS... 293
CHAPTER XII.
NATHANAEL. -THE MIRACLE AT CANA...   336
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.. 353
CHAPTER XIV.
NICODEMUS......   364
CHAPTER XV.
CONVERSATION WITH THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.   380
CHAPTER XVI.
CURE OF THE NOBLEMAN'S SON-OF THE IMPOTENT
MAN.......   395




HOURS
WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE chief design of this work is to notice, in
the order of events, some of the principal characteristics of the gospel history,-the arguments,
internal and external, for its authenticity, by
which I have been most impressed,-and especially the life, character, and instructions of Jesus
Christ. An abstract treatise upon these topics is
not my aim; but I should be happy, if any
might here meet with some satisfactory answer
to their inquiries as to the evidence we enjoy
for a religious faith.
Not a few, I am    sensible, may say,-We
need not evidences, so much as a preparation
for evidences in the state of our own hearts.
Raise our affections to God in an earnest and
VOL. I.           1




2       HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
supreme devotion. No fear of unbelief, if the
heart is only right. What we want is the soul
of religion. Its evidence will take care of itself.
Break these chains and charms of the world.
Indeed, convince us that they are capable of
being broken.   From  what we experience in
ourselves and see in others, we are strongly inclined to regard the whole idea of a spiritual
life as purely conventional. Give us facts upon
this subject.
We may reply, that there are some facts from
which at least a happy augury may be deduced
that men are recognizing more and more, what
the gospel assumes to be true, that its principles
agree with the voice of their own hearts. What
an improved moral aspect our general literature
has exhibited, as intellectual culture has been
more widely diffused, and a greater number
and variety of minds have sat in judgment
upon its character and merits! In the last century, the terms naturalist and mathematician were
almost synonymous with unbeliever; but now,
the most distinguished names in both these departments, in our own country certainly, are
illustrious examples to the contrary. The great
American civilian-perhaps the most eminent
representative, in his day, of the sublime simplicity and power of the highest order of Grecian
eloquence-directed that his testimony to the
divinity of Christianity, as shown in the Sermon




INTRODUCTION.               3
on the Mount, should be inscribed upon his
tombstone. How few will deny that no part
of their own experience will compare for interest
and moment with their religious history! Who
retires from the most elevated office without
feeling that the remainder of his life cannot be
too much devoted to those truths which are far
more intimately connected with his present and
future happiness than any secular condition can
be? Professed unbelievers occasionally tell us
what they can respect and what they can receive,
in regard to religious subjects; and in these
exhibitions of their sentiments, I have noticed,
in repeated instances, the testimony they have
unintentionally borne to the actual spirit and
doctrines of the gospel itself.
But to speak more directly to the objection so
often urged by those who are immersed in the
cares and trials of this mortal being. We want,
say they, an inward moral force,-we want the
energy of soul which can still the stormy elements of passion, which can repress all repining
thoughts and wasting anxieties, and subject our
desires and affections to God; but we can hardly believe, they observe, that any such energy
exists or is compatible with the necessary conditions of this selfish and warring life,-this being
of the earth, earthy,-this round of frivolity,this hot haste and turmoil of the world.
Facts contradict this incredulity,-the facts




4       HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
which pertain to the nature and claims of the
spiritual life. The gospel is a religion of facts.
It deals in declarations, promises, commands. It
treats its blessings and its laws simply as facts,
recommends them as facts, and leaves them as
facts. It enters into no metaphysical proof of
any one of them. It takes it for granted that
its principles are deeply seated in the human
breast, and that the eye that will not see its light
needs not to be illumined, but to be couched.
Nature presents itself to us in a similar light.
In the relation in which we stand to Universal
Providence, of the finite to the Infinite, we must
look for realities rather than for reasons in the
general arrangements of that Providence.   To
submit and conform to facts is the great law
of our being.
Now, of all facts, I know of none more certain than religious facts. Of some of these, I
feel, without a shadow of misgiving, that they
are true, and I ask no more assurance in regard
to them than I already possess. I know that I
am endowed with a moral nature. I am sure I
have a sense of right and wrong. I am conscious of a religious sentiment. I cannot but
regard the universe around me as manifesting
the agency of an Intelligent First Cause. I am
impressed, beyond any seeming possibility of
doubt, by the general reality of the gospel history; and all the skeptical objections to partic



INTRODUCTION.                5
ular parts, I ever meet with, never shake my
conviction in this regard. And yet clouds of
mystery invest all these facts. Still, no such
obscurity rests on any one of them, as essentially to impair my conviction of its reality.
What shall I say, then? I will let fact have its
proper weight, and mystery its proper weight,
each according to its own particular nature.
Now, in each of these instances I have named,
the fact requires action on our part, and the
mystery does not.    It is mysterious, that the
inborn religious sentiment should be liable to so
much perversion; but this mystery demands no
action; it only remains a shadow upon the sentiment itself. It is a mystery, that the belief
in one God, infinitely wise and good, is embarrassed by so much apparent evil in the universe; but this, again, requires no action. The
miracle, which forms so large a part of the gospel history, has some inscrutable characteristics;
still, it is an inscrutableness which calls for no
action. But the religious sentiment, on the contrary, is essentially active in its demands. So
is the manifestation of a Supreme Intelligence,
the Author and Ruler of all, as we behold it in
the order and beauty of the material world. So
are the divine authority and holy principles of
Christianity.
But is not this an anomalous and strange
condition of things?




6       HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
It is the common condition of all things in
me and about me. It is a fact that I must eat
to live;-it is a mystery how food enables me
to live. It is a fact that I have a mind prompting me to study, to labor, and to perform many
other acts;-but what a mystery is mind! Let
each, I repeat, have its appropriate influence: the
uneradicable fact, that will keep its hold upon
my mind, and master every scruple, let me do
all I can to prevent it; and the mystery, that
will cling to that fact, notwithstanding. Let tree
and parasite grow together.  Let facts, which
demand action, produce action.  Let mysteries,
which hang their shadows about my mental
vision, remain as shadows upon my mental vision.
Let me take everything as it is, in this wonderful existence.
Every one should possess himself of free, fair,
systematic views of religious facts, together with
the general evidences of their truth. One should
always have at hand some plain, practical solvent
of skeptical objections, as the ready thought and
salutary habit of his mind. Never let the justice and goodness of Providence be assailed in
our hearing and find us unprepared with a pertinent reply. If the trials and moral dangers which
are spread over our lives are pleaded as an
apology for unbelief and irreligion, let us be
prepared to speak, with the force and eloquence
which the theme demands, of the spiritual facul



INTRODUCTION.               7
ties which God has lodged within us. Let us
be ready to show that God does not demand a
life superior to that of the body without having
provided us with powers superior to those of
the body.
There is no idea more thoroughly pervading
the preaching of Christ than that of the inward
utterances of the soul. He everywhere assumes
that there is an earlier voice than revelation;
that there are fundamental ideas of truth and
duty in the bosom of man, which claim our regard before we have been enlightened by any
special illumination from  above.  Throughout
the Sermon on the Mount, he does not once
found a claim to the observance of the precepts there inculcated upon the fact of his own
mission; but he appeals directly to the moral
instincts of his hearers.
A knowledge of Christian evidences is not,
then, our first necessity.  There are  sacred
principles in our nature which demand a previous attention,-the moral sense, and the religious sentiment. These belong to our highest
or spiritual nature. They constitute our great
capacities of resemblance to God. They are the
most glorious and important gifts he has imparted to us. We war against humanity, when
we revolt against these faculties. We turn away
from a divine voice, when we refuse to listen to
them.




8       HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Every individual has a feeling of the divinity
of the moral sense. In thought's hushed hour,
there is a whisper in the breast, which, though
it may not startle the outward ear, speaks with
authority of the right, the good, the holy, and
the just. It has never been mute as to our
judgment of others, however it may sometimes
seem to have been so as to our judgments of
ourselves. When, in the abuse of our moral liberty, we have trampled down this faculty, and
made it for the time powerless of any benefit
to ourselves, it has still remained a solemn arbiter in our minds for the benefit of others.
And how much this fact imports, as to the sublime and important function which God attaches
to the moral sense! But this is not all. Nothing
gives this faculty so lofty a character, such an
impress of divinity, as the consciousness in the
mind of every one that it ought to govern him.
When one is angry, he does not feel that he
ought to be angry.   If alive to the common
pleasures of life, he has no sense of obligation
connected with this enjoyment. No one of our
most innocent passions ever clothes itself with
majesty, and, with a sceptre in its hand and a
crown upon its head, utters the voice of solemn
and imperative command to every other feeling
in our bosoms.   But that innate principle of
the soul, the moral principle, does. It naturally
does,-instantly, irresistibly, universally does. It




INTRODUCTION.               9
is endowed with an irrepressible consciousness
of its own rightful supremacy in our breasts.
But there is another and a higher principle in
the soul.  It is that instinctive feeling in all
minds, of every country and every class, which
induces them to look up to a Power above
them, on which to repose their trust.    Says
Dr. Livingstone, in his recent most interesting
publication entitled Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,-" There is no necessity
for beginning to tell even the most degraded of
these people of the existence of a God or of a
future state, the facts being universally admitted.... On questioning intelligent men among
the Bakwains, as to their former knowledge of
good and evil, of God and the future state, they
scouted the idea of any of them   ever having
been without a tolerably clear conception on all
these subjects."  What a proof that God has
made man to be a religious being! Let the
world go ever so pleasantly with him, let him
be surrounded by ever so many earthly securities and blessings, his heart instinctively rises,
he cannot prevent it, to an invisible Power, of
whose guardian care he feels that he stands
in need.
And how striking the evidence of the importance the Creator has attached to this part of
our moral constitution, the religious sentiment,
in the fact that all his revelations of truth have




10      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
been made to this sentiment alone! He has
given no message from heaven for the advancement of any science or art.   No one faculty
of the mind, except the highest and the best,
has been the subject of supernatural enlightenment. What a coincidence, what a harmony,
between the Providence without and the Providence within!
Will any one, then, whose life is contradictory
to the moral and spiritual faculties of his nature,
pronounce himself a child of Nature? Let him
notice some nature whose every power is in
action and moves perpetually on in its appointed path without interruption.  Let him  look
at that plant. Can he improve it? Let him
observe that bird. Can he do anything better
for it than to let it alone, to follow its own
course? Is it thus with natures inferior to his
own?  Can he doubt, then, if his inclinations
and tendencies are in opposition to his happiness, that it is because he lives in opposition
to the original and God-implanted faculties of
his nature?
But where is our warrant for deducing any
argument from what Providence has done for the
lower orders of being, in support of a similar
benevolence to man? Are we not too utterly
depraved in our nature, to leave anything to be
inferred from them in our favor? —Our warrant,
I answer, is to be found in the words of Jesus




INTRODUCTION.             11
Christ:-  Behold the fowls of the air: for they
sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not much better than they?"  In what
Providence has done by nature for the inferior
creatures Jesus finds a reason why his disciples
should infer that Providence has done even more
of a similar character for them. Again, has he
not still further vindicated our natural destiny
from the imputation of any such hopeless disobedience to our Creator as leaves no room for
comparing the happiness which the humbler
races derive from obeying the laws of their
nature with what we may expect from obeying
our own?   Has he not intimated that God
would never have bidden us to be as happy as
the birds, to be full of love, to rejoice always,
and the like, if he had not capacitated us for
these blissful conditions?  God will not reap,
he has told us, where he has not sown. True,
there are moral and intellectual differences
among men; but Christ has made full allowance
for this fact, in declaring that God will require
the improvement of only one talent from those
to whom he has imparted only one.
But to dwell no further upon the general
principle, that, if our conduct thwart the fundamental faculties which God has given us by
creation, we cannot reasonably expect to enjoy
any substantial happiness. Let him who is con



12      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
scious of no such happiness scrutinize his own
particular experience.  Let him  see if every
deep disturbance of his peace be not resolvable
into some manifest violation of his moral and religious nature. Is he sorely tried by some reverse of fortune, and does a dark cloud seem to
hang over his days?   If he discerned God in
every direction, what a clear and calm state of
mind would he now enjoy! Is he rich in this
world's goods, and does he often sigh over the
utter emptiness of his wealth? If a principle of
divine charity, like that inculcated in the New
Testament, were the habit of his mind, what a
high and happy office would he be conscious of
filling, as the friend of man and the steward
of God, in the possession of such ample means
of beneficence! Does he suffer from the slights
and inattentions he meets with in the social circle? If he cherished a filial and supreme veneration for God, how would he scorn not to
think too highly of his favor to be made miserable by any want of courtesy from men!
The great need of many a man, I admit, is
not so much that of a knowledge of Christian
evidences as of a better state of heart to receive
and improve them. Yet a knowledge of these
evidences might be useful even to him. Christianity might quicken his moral perceptions; it
might call into action his religious sentiment.
Upon these perceptions and this sentiment it is




INTRODUCTION.              13
based. But this is not all. Should any one be
living in the neglect of the voice of God in his
own soul, and be suspicious that any much-respected religious belief was a delusion, he would
be apt to regard this idea as an apology for
his own indifference to all religion.  An acquaintance with the proofs on which that belief
is founded might preserve him from this danger.
Would that a similar danger were less, from
various quarters! Whatever may lead one to
look contemptuously upon any religious manifestations furnishes so much nutriment to his skeptical tendencies. Do some who profess faith in
Christianity disparage the teachings of Nature
and oppose revelation to reason? Do they assume to monopolize the right of private judgment in the interpretation of Scripture, and to
establish dominion over the understandings of
their fellow-believers?  Does any theologian appear to forget the dignity and sacredness of his
office, and to be actuated rather by pride of
intellect than by a sincere reverence for the
truth? The sneers of a worldly skepticism will
be excited, and many will be led to doubt
whether a rational, humble, and venerated faith
ever is or can be a reality, and a powerful
reality to the mind. I can approve no such extravagant conclusions. It does not follow, because
a man's practice is inconsistent with his faith,
that his faith is not sincere, or not well founded.




14      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Indeed, I may say as to this whole class of objections, that, whatever charge of inconsistency
they may fix upon Christians, yet, in some respects, they reflect honor upon Christianity itself.
What a powerful argument for this religion, that
so many should acknowledge its truth, who are
not in harmony with its spirit, or who are wanting in emotional tendencies to assist their logical conclusions in its favor!
I have noticed the coincidences of Christianity
with those fundamental faculties of our moral
nature, conscience and the religious sentiment.
But another coincidence is no less striking. We
see in the New Testament, that, deeply as these
faculties are implanted in our souls, a blindness
to them was one of the chief obstacles to the
teachings of Jesus and his apostles.  It is so
still. Not a few profess to be in the dark as
to the reality of a moral sense. They suggest
a difficulty in the various and even contradictory moral senses which they discover in the
world. But what is the moral sense? It is
that faculty in man which dictates the performance of certain classes of actions, resulting from
certain principles innate in the human breast,
as being of sacred obligation. For example, it
is a principle in the mind of man that he has a
right to his own possessions, and that every one
is bound to act in deference to that right; in




INTRODUCTION.              15
defending it, if assailed, one's conscience would
concur with his resentment. Another principle
in human nature pronounces it sacredly obligatory upon every child to be obedient to his
parents. Another recognizes the will of God as
the highest rule of duty. Lastly, it is a principle of our nature to acknowledge a useful and
a good, which we are bound to consult, on the
broad scale of universal welfare, irrespectively of
our own selfish interest and gratification. The
classes of actions resulting from these principles
have the natural authority of conscience in their
favor. But then it happens that there is a great
diversity of opinions as to what actions properly
belong to these classes, and hence the diversity
of consciences among men. One person believes,
for example, that a certain article belongs t6
him, and therefore that every one is bound in
conscience to treat it as being his, upon the
principle that all have a right to their own.
But others deny that such is the dictate of
conscience in this instance, for they say that
the article in question is none of his. One person is of opinion that such or such a mode of
worship, or that this or that conduct towards
one's fellow-creatures, has been commanded by
God, and that these, therefore, are dictates of
conscience, upon the principle that the will of
God is the highest law. Others deny that they
are dictates of conscience, for they maintain




16      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
that God has given no such commands. So
through all the classes of actions I have referred
to, there are diversities of opinion as to the
particular acts which fall under each class, and
consequent diversities of conscience among men.
When Paul was under the influence of his
Jewish education, he verily thought that he was
obeying the Almighty in persecuting the Christians. After his conversion, the new ideas of
God and his will which he received from the
gospel led him to regard all religious persecution as a sin. The same act which his conscience commended at one time it condemned
at another.
The fact is, nothing would be so detrimental
to the cause of truth and virtue as that every
conscience should remain immutable as to every
particular act it approved or condemned, never
changing its view of it under any new light it
might receive. Yet many seem to consider that
the moral sense is a faculty which decides at
once, unchangeably and irrevocably, for all times,
for all places, and for all men, the character of
every deed that can be performed.   No wonder that such persons should be disturbed by
the diversities of conscience which they witness
in the world.
Still it is a painful truth, with which every
one must but too soon become acquainted, that
all is not conscience that passes under that name.




INTRODUCTION.              17
There are too many who say and who think that
they are acting conscientiously, when they are
in reality only obeying the impulse of their passions.  They have been tampering with conscience.  They have been blinding it.   They
have been perverting it. They have been taking pains to multiply arguments to themselves
that what is really contrary to Scripture is
accordant with Scripture, that what is injurious
to society is beneficial to society. They have
closed their eyes to all facts and reasonings
which look a different way from that which a
bad heart has prompted them   to take.  They
have wrought upon their minds a partial and
false impression of things. Conscience, in them,
is consequently not entitled to be called conscience, for it has been controlled by a most
wilful and wicked interference with its natural
functions.
In reviewing this subject, how striking to
observe that men are so constituted by nature
as to regard the will of God as the highest
law of a good conscience, seeing that a true
obedience to this will can never possibly lead
us into any mistake! Again, how observable
that the child naturally feels bound in conscience to obey his parents! He is at that age
at which he needs their guidance; but when he
has arrived at years of discretion, then, as if of
its own accord, the moral faculty seems to relax
VOL. T.           2




18      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
its hold upon him, in regard to requiring his
implicit obedience to any human authority whatever. Finally, how deserving of notice, that, with
the progress of life, no duties, those of submission
and obedience to the Divine will excepted, seem
to develope themselves so largely to our moral
sense as those which are based upon broad and
noble views of the best interests of man! for
here is a department of conduct concerning
which our increasing enlightenment and improvement make us more and more competent to
form a correct judgment.
Let me say to every one who is commencing
life,-Cherish a profound respect for your sense
of right and wrong. Bow down to the dictates
of this faculty as the voice of God in the soul
of man. True, your moral sense may sometimes
err. You may believe that God requires what
in point of fact rests upon no divine command.
You may think that an action is beneficial to
the world, when, in reality, this opinion is the
result only of your inexperience. Always, therefore, diligently cultivate your mind and enlarge
your knowledge, that you may have a correct
conscience.  Yet be it your happiness to feel,
that, whatever your mistakes, while you honestly
endeavor to find out your duty and to act accordingly, you will be accepted.
For myself, I come from the experience of
life with no one impression more deep upon




INTRODUCTION.              19
my mind than that produced by the numberless
observations I have made of the advantages
of youthful integrity.  I can say without reserve or qualification, that these have led me
to feel that a young person who has attained
a fixed respect for moral and religious principle
is a made man. In the review of all I have
seen of the varied course of events, I can feel
no anxiety about his substantial happiness and
success. I should never care to ask whether he
had inherited a fortune or not. I know that
he would adorn prosperity and derive improvement from adversity. I know that such a character as his would be regarded as of priceless
worth in any situation of trust.  Other things
may fluctuate in value, but this never does.
There is never enough of it to satisfy the demand. Yet these are no motives to the man
himself. Christ never proposed a perishable world
as a motive to exalted virtue; neither can any
one to whom the character belongs propose it
to himself.  He feels an interior reverence for
his spiritual nature. He walks with God. He
looks upon this Infinite Being as his Parent,
upon Christ as his friend, upon mankind as his
brethren.  Let afflictions touch him, they but
brighten the gold. Let worldly fortune descend
upon him, he soon discerns its emptiness except
so far as it may be made the minister of love
and usefulness. What a striking proof that God




20      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
and Nature coincide in conceding a sublime
and unearthly elevation to a religious temper
of mind!
As there are some whose minds seem to be
blank with regard to the reality of a moral
sense, notwithstanding Providence and the human
soul unite with Christianity in acknowledging
this faculty in every human being, so there are
not a few who seem to disallow the teachings
of our nature as to the existence of an innate
religious sentiment. Their objection is the same
in this instance as in the other, namely, the
variety and even contradictory character of the
religious sentiments prevalent among men. But
these diversities argue no more in the one case
than in the other; and in neither are they
greater than in the jarring voices of reason
itself upon all subjects.
What is the religious sentiment? It is that
element of their moral constitution which leads
mankind to look up to a Power above them, on
which they believe that they depend, and in
which they place their trust. It supplies a sense
of security and a hope of protection which they
can derive from no other source, and stimulates
their consciences as nothing else can. What a
kind and noble provision, as an aid to our rational faculties! What an original and deep-laid
proof from the Creator himself, that more is ne



INTRODUCTION.              21
cessary for our happiness than we can find in our
earthly lot! Blinded as this faculty has often
been, and in a greater or less degree indeed
always is, in its perceptions of the truly Divine,
yet how striking the elevation it has exhibited
above the grade of intellectual culture with
which it has been generally connected!
It must not be confounded with superstition
or idolatry, often as with these it has been united.
It is an under-voice of the human soul, beneath
all exterior devotion. It has ever had its own
distinct and independent utterance.  It is that
mysterious intuition of the Infinite, which marks
the spiritual nature of man. His visible objects
of worship have only indicated the state of his
knowledge of outward Nature. His deification
of so many parts of the material universe has
had its origin in his ignorance of the true character of physical causes. The sun, the moon,
the mountain, the thunder, the tempest, he has
considered as being so many living and voluntary agents. No wonder, therefore, he should
have regarded them as the proper objects of
his homage.
But God has not left the proof of his own
being and attributes as a mere germ of the instinctive religious sentiment.  He has brought
man's highest faculty, his reason, into this great
argument. He has embodied his own intelligence




22      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
in those forms of skill, beauty, and grandeur,
which this faculty can discern and appreciate.
The Infinite Mind has made itself plain to our
minds by manifestations which we have been able
to understand as those of a thinking and designing Creator. It might have been otherwise, and
yet Nature have acted according to eternal laws.
Though there had not been a thing in the material universe whose construction was intelligible to us, it might have answered all other
purposes as well as it does at present. The bird
might have moved through the air in some mysterious manner without the beautiful structure of
the wing, in which such wisdom  and skill are
exhibited. That God has so wrought in accordance with our rational powers we cannot, therefore, but regard as most happily adapted to lead
those powers to himself, and establish our belief
in an Intelligent First Cause upon an intellectual foundation.
I know that another reason is usually assigned
for the existing order of Nature. It has been
said, that it is by observing the harmonious arrangements, the unbroken succession of causes
and effects in the natural universe, that we ourselves are led to argue from causes to effects,
and from effects to causes. But for this order in
the material world, it has been thought that our
minds would have been kept in perpetual infancy, that our innate capacity of reasoning would




INTRODUCTION.             23
never have been developed. But though this
opinion has the support of high authority, I
have questioned whether it does not prove too
much. Does the animal exercise his ingenuity in
consequence of having studied the laws of the
physical creation?  Why may we not believe
that every intelligent creature, man included, is
naturally furnished with a self-unfolding intellect?
When we behold the glorious system displayed
in the material world, we may be said to resemble the novice in any art when he is admitted
into the cabinet of a master. His admiration is
unbounded, his powers are stimulated to the
utmost, but his talents are not then for the first
time called into action.
I look out upon the visible universe. It is
full of indications of purpose and contrivance.
I am overwhelmed with admiration and astonishment. That desire for explanation which is one
of our earliest feelings, and which grows with
the progress of our intellectual faculties, leads
me to inquire the cause of this immense, this
glorious, this lovely spectacle. Do I know of
any power which acts with volition and design,
that I should ask the question whether any such
power may have been concerned in the authorship of what I see? I do. I am no stranger
to this description of power. I am conscious of
something in myself, which I call mind, which
works with will and plan upon the physical ele



24      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ments around me, and which is ever moulding
inert and senseless matter into numberless convenient and beautiful forms. By its mysterious
energy, metals become chronometers, clay is converted into vases, trees are framed into edifices.
I cast my eyes about me and Nature is full of
chronometers, vases, edifices, or what is equivalent. There is the same appearance of artistical
and designing wisdom in the objects which she
exhibits to my view, as there is in any piece
of my own workmanship. The appearance is
absolutely boundless. It is the great first aspect
of the material world.
In seeking for the origin of the phenomena
presented in that wonderful display of utility,
order, and magnificence by which we are surrounded, we thus find what seems to be a kindred agency in our own conscious intelligence.
Looking, indeed, at the universe as it appears
to our observation, we detect no visible cause of
that glorious and magnificent system which it
everywhere exhibits. Here we are totally in the
dark. But not so as to feeling within ourselves
a faculty capable of executing works similar to
those which we behold in Nature. It is not a
mere supposition, a barely conceivable fact, a
purely metaphysical hypothesis, that there is
such a thing as a contriving power capable of
achieving the most beautiful physical combinations; but it is a reality, of which we have the




INTRODUCTION.              25
surest possible cognition, an innate, unchanging,
and universal cognition, coextensive with man
himself. True, this power in us acts only within
a restricted compass; whereas that Original and
Supreme Mind of which we may regard our own
as but a faint resemblance fills an unbounded
sphere, if it fill any, with the manifestations of
an All-wise, Uncaused, and Infinite Author. Yet
of an Infinite and Self-existent Creator I can
form no idea. Be it so. To how limited an
extent are our conceptions the standard of reality in the vast compass of Nature! But if an
Infinite Intelligence surpasses our comprehension,
how much more inconceivable is a self-produced
or a self-existent universe!- in one or other of
which I must believe, if I reject the doctrine of
an Uncreated and Omnipotent Mind.
As from the conscious powers of our own
minds over matter we are led to infer the existence of an Intelligent Creator exerting similar
powers to similar results, though upon an immeasurably greater scale, so from the nature of
his faculties we descend to that of our own,
bringing with us a most important suggestion as
to their nature also. His must possess essential
independence and perpetuity. Thought, volition,
purpose, in this Almighty and Eternal Being,
cannot consist of perishable elements. The inference how interesting, that neither may they
in ourselves!




26      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
When I look within me, I am not more conscious of a capacity for thought, choice, design,
than I am of a moral sense. A moral idea, the
idea of a moral law, is seated in the very centre of our souls. It compels us to love the good
and approve the right. We cannot but believe
that this noblest characteristic of the spiritual
nature must exist in its absolute perfection in
God.
Still the manifestations of his moral character
necessarily lie under a peculiar disadvantage.
They cannot be so plain to our eye as is the
proof of an All-powerful, All-designing Intelligence. The indications of Creative and Infinite
Mind are spread in the clearest forms over the
whole visible world. But the moral results to
which any outward arrangements in Nature may
tend —results always more or less remote-cannot be equally apparent at first sight. If I discover but a single house upon a desolate island,
I know that a man has been there before me;
but what his disposition may be is not so easily
detected at a glance. All human motives and
feelings, with the little depth they can have for
their concealment, we see but as through a glass
darkly, whenever we attempt to judge of them
from casual and superficial appearances merely.
But to discover all the designs which an All-wise
and Infinite Disposer may have in any fact
which he has established, requiring, as it must,




INTRODUCTION.              27
a full knowledge of all the relations in which
it stands and all the effects it is adapted to produce, must obviously be an impossibility to a
finite mind.
Only five causes can be imagined for the existence of suffering and seeming evil under the
government of an Intelligent Creator: that he
has not the power to prevent them; or that he
is a positively malignant Being; or that he is indifferent to the happiness of his creatures; or that
he is partial and capricious in his kindness; or
else, that he is a consistent, omniscient Benefac,
tor, who consults the best interests of all in
ways which often surpass our comprehension.
The doctrine of inability seems hardly entitled
to notice. I allude to it only because it was an
ancient conjecture among some heathen philosophers, that natural evil is to be ascribed to a
stubborn, refractory quality in matter, which
would not permit it to be perfectly formed and
fashioned even by a divine hand. But who can
adopt such an hypothesis to account for what
may seem to be defects and evils in the universe? Who can believe, for example, that, if
some species of serpents are furnished with poisonous fangs, it is because the Creator had not
the power of omitting this dangerous part of
their structure, though in so many serpents it
is actually omitted? or that, if some marshes
and fens emit noxious effluvia, he could not




28      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
have exempted them from this perilous property,
notwithstanding it is one from which by suitable
skill and pains on our part they can be effectually freed? or that, if we naturally suffer from
the fear of sickness, of want, and of death, he
could not but have indued our nature with these
painful sensibilities, though they are subject in
some measure to our own control, and many
persons seem to have little or no experience
of them at all? The whole idea of inability is
manifestly absurd,-I mean simple, absolute inability, like that of lifting a pyramid or emptying
the ocean with one's hand.   But a moral inability may exist where a natural does not.
Afflictions may be indispensable to call out and
to improve the religious element in our souls.
In order that a free agent may continue free,
his moral faculties must be permitted to expand
and develope themselves, and his destiny be dependent on his exercise of these faculties; in
other words, his happiness must be committed
to his own keeping, so far, at least, that he
shall generally suffer, and always be exposed to
suffer, the natural consequences of his misconduct, without any interposition to prevent them.
But if we look well to the grounds of the
charge of natural evil against this great world
of life, how much may the truth of the charge
itself be called in question! Are not the sufferings to which we are liable outweighed by the




INTRODUCTION.              29
blessings we receive, in the proportion of many
millions to one?   In truth, have not all the
miseries which may be warrantably gathered
from experience been greatly exaggerated and
misunderstood?  A  prominent class are those
commonly associated with the idea of death. A
violent death, particularly, has been generally
regarded with the greatest horror.  But facts
are continually coming to light which challenge
the justness of this feeling. It has long been
known that the gradual suffocation by water, in
the act of drowning, is far from being painful.
The author himself has had personal experience
how little consciousness of suffering attends it.
It is now in evidence, that the sensations which
accompany modes of death the most revolting
are far from correspondent to the ideas which
are generally entertained of them,-that of
being consumed   by fire not excepted.   The
songs of so many martyrs at the stake may be
considered as authorizing a strong surmise of
this. Ravaillac is said to have slept upon the
rack. We have all seen with feelings of commiseration the sportings of the cat with the
mouse, which it seems to take a pleasure in
tormenting. But Dr. Livingstone, in his recent
account of his missionary tour in South Africa,
says that he was in the jaws of a lion precisely in the same way, but experienced no suffering, not even fear, though one of his limbs




30      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
was crushed. He expresses it as his opinion
that such is the experience of all animals in
a similar situation. A natural death, physicians agree, is generally far more easy than is
usually supposed. Considering how little the inferior animals are subject to those maladies to
which all the physical sufferings of the departing
hour are to be attributed, death is probably to
them the mere falling asleep.
But we must not stop here. The moral benefits that accrue from suffering to beings endowed with a moral nature must be considered.
Can any person name the pain or the affliction
from which he is sure that an overbalance of
good does not actually result? I am prepared
to express my belief that every event of Providence is a blessing. Every appointment of God,
the operation of every natural law, it accords
with my views of the Divine government to
regard in the light of a benefit, and as being
the best thing, under the circumstances, which
could have taken place. In other words, so far
as suffering is resolvable into an arrangement
of the Deity, it is universally an expression of
the Divine benevolence.
Again, that the dark features of sorrow and
apparent calamity in our world are not to be
attributed to an omnipotent Malignity, as their
cause, requires no proof, when we observe the
happiness, and the plainly intended happiness,




INTRODUCTION.              31
which is distributed through all animated nature.
There are organs and arrangements in every
sentient creature which seem to have no other
end but to produce agreeable sensations. All
living things cling, apparently, to life.  Look
where we may, we discover innumerable forms
of delighted existence.  "When we consider,"
says a powerful writer, "that the mere consciousness of animal energy, and the free exercise of it within the limits of fatigue, is pleasurable in a very high degree, is an animal good
of an intense kind, who can estimate the enjoyments which the inferior races derive from
this source? Here we must take also into view
that the powers of locomotion are proportionably much greater in them than they are in
man.   Yet even to him they are a perpetual
fountain of delight."
It cannot be said, therefore, that God is a
malignant Being,-that he rejoices in the production of misery. Neither can it be a matter of
indifference to him whether his creatures are
happy or not. Else, why so many provisions
whose sole purpose, as well as tendency, seems
to be to impart enjoyment? No more can we
find the grand solution of those sufferings which
intermingle with the pleasures of life in ascribing them to a partial, capricious, irregular benevolence; for partiality, irregularity, caprice are
antipodal to all the great characteristics of Uni



32      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
versal Nature. It is an impeachment of the intellectual dignity of the Infinite to pronounce him
a half-planning, half-completing, inconsistent Creator.
Only one explanation remains,-that the seeming chasms we discover in the Divine goodness
are the results of a perfectly harmonious wisdom, seeking the highest and best ends in ways
which we are not able always to comprehend.
We are accustomed to speak of the universe
as presenting one vast display of Creative and
Infinite Mind, on account of those manifestations
of contriving skill which it exhibits even to the
most superficial observer.  But beautiful and
striking as are those manifestations of a Supreme Intelligence which we discover throughout
the material world in mechanical and physical
adaptations of means to ends, there are others
by which they are equalled, and some by which
they are surpassed. Nature is full of arrangements which upon examination reveal the most
admirable beauty, utility, and fitness. Now the
very fact, that any arrangement, any phenomenon, requires mind to investigate and develope
it, and that, when thus investigated and developed, it is seen to contain useful and excellent
provisions, proves that its authorship is to be
attributed to mind.
Why does a watch prove an inventor more




INTRODUCTION.              33
than does a crude, shapeless block of metal?
Because the one presents to our eye no systematic collocation of parts in its structure, plainly
indicative of design, and calling forth a connected ratiocinative train of thought in the observer,
-while the other does. In what respect does a
book, with its orderly disposition of letters and
words and sentences, differ from so much paper
covered all over with the unformed, unmeaning
scrawls of the nursery?   I answer as before,
in the intelligence it exhibits, and the intelligence it calls into exercise. And what a book
is Nature! In awakening and exercising our
intellectual powers it surpasses all other volumes. To the infancy of man it was the primer.
To his maturer years it has been the most
instructive and delightful subject of study, the
fruitful archetype of all his inventions, the most
perfect ideal of Art, and an inexhaustible field
of scientific investigation and improvement.
I observed that there are other displays of an
Infinite Mind in the works of creation besides
those of contrivance. It is true that the watch
and other similar productions of human skill
have been the usual illustrations employed in
speaking of the natural manifestations of Divine
Intelligence. But to how limited an extent do
they afford us any just conception of the Deity!
As the expression of a noble intellect, how humble the most perfect chronometer, compared with
VOL. I.           3




34      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
some wise, profound, and comprehensive plan, extending over a long period of time, and embracing a vast diversity of distinct and independent
agencies, all combining in their various ways to
effect its accomplishment! Who would think of
likening the ingenuity exhibited in the best-contrived and most powerful implement of war to
the grasp of mind which was required in projecting one of Napoleon's campaigns? Indeed,
how contracted the delight with which the optician recognizes the laws of his beautiful science
in the formation of the eye, compared with those
impressions of an All-guiding and Supreme Intelligence we receive when we look abroad over
the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and trace
their multiform and harmonious systems through
the ages of geological history!
As science is continually passing on in its examinations of the vast system of Nature, it is
always discovering new proofs of design, and
those of a more comprehensive and complicated
character. The animal world is now distributed
into four cardinal divisions,-the radiate, the articulate, the mollusk, and the vertebrate. These
great primitive forms of animal life, to one or
other of which all animals belong, and have belonged from the earliest geological periods, are
found together in every geographical locality.
They are universal coexisting types of Animated
Nature, so far as zoological science has carried




INTRODUCTION.              35
its investigations in the sea or upon the land;
that is to say, each has its representative, its
specimen example, everywhere. Their infinitely
divisional diversities are not universal, but only
the structural outlines which class them under
the four heads which have been named. That
these grand organic formules of the animal kingdom are found in all places proves they are no
results of physical causes, such causes being necessarily so different, both in kind and degree,
in different situations. And even if it could be
conceived that to such causes one of them might
be attributed, the same causes could not antagonize themselves and be productive of the other
three. In other words, their plurality, as well as
universality, is evidence of a Designing Mind.
But without troubling one's self to imagine how
a diversity of production could arise under one
and the same physical action, the question still
occurs,-Why should the number of productions
be precisely four?  Why not more? Where, in
such a case, is the plurality to stop? Again, to
look at the different classes, orders, families, genera, and species, which are distributed in their
several localities over the globe, what physical
causes could have been so different in each locality as to have peopled it with the peculiar
animals by which it is distinguished? Moreover,
all physical causes which characterize different
localities, such as pertain to soil, water, air, and




36      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
so forth, require time to produce their appropriate effects. They act gradually, and must be
liable to interruption from incidental circumstances. Had they, therefore, been the authors of
animal life, we must occasionally have seen the
marks of this interruption in the incompleteness
of animal forms.    But no   such irregularities
have been detected,-not even in fossil remains.
There are no unfinished animals; there is nothing in zoological history to answer to those inevitable disturbances and imperfections to which
all blind material action must be liable in the
course of any process which is more or less protracted, as in all developments of animal structure. Further, with every new being, if produced
by natural agencies, there would be a new opportunity for some accidental failure in their
operation. What, then, shall we say to the fact,
that, in all the ranks of Animated Nature, and
among all the individuals belonging to them, in
their measureless successions from the earliest
periods of fossil history, no defective specimendefective in respect to its class-has yet been
brought to light? Moreover, every animal passes
through various stages before it attains its maturity.  Physical causes, that might not be able
to effect an anomaly in its fully developed organs, might be sufficient to give an irregular
cast to the yielding and fluid elements of its
embryonic condition. But the foetal state and




INTRODUCTION.              37
the perfect structure are marked with equal
uniformity in their appropriate characters, and
contribute their respective parts to make up
the harmonious whole which comprises every
creature in the universe.-And these four grand
divisions of the animal world are sufficient to
supply every geographical locality with its congenial inhabitants. What a manifestation of the
prospective wisdom of the Creative Mind!
Of the different kinds of intellectual power
displayed in the universe, none is more striking
than that recognized by the mathematician. He
is astonished at the high and wonderful forms
in which it is exhibited in the material world.
He beholds Intelligence geometrizing in Nature.
The most curious and difficult problems of the
calculus are there illustrated.  Questions, which,
in the last century, were proposed merely as
exercises and tests of mathematical ability, and
which, it was thought, were of so recondite and
ideal a character that they never would come
to any practical application, have since been
found wrought out in the living mechanics, the
literal mzecaniqte celeste of the physical creation.
Perhaps there is no more distinguishing attribute of mind than Will. We cannot frame to our
conceptions a greater difference between a man
and a stone than when we say, the one does not
move of its own accord, and the other does.
In how many ways may the power of will be




38      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
inferred from the phenomena of the material
world! What an infinite diversity of action we
discover in Nature! What a variety of beings
we behold, each the result of some different mode
of operation! Suppose some mysterious cause,
acting without will, to be the supreme agent;
why has it not pursued a simple, single, blind
perpetuity of movement in one and the same
direction? How can an involuntary power turn
about, or deviate from a right line? And even
if we might conceive of some random irregularity of action in matter acting without design,
how could it produce the glorious harmony of
creation?-Nature, then, is one vast exhibition
of will.
Again, it is the property of will to exercise
control; and the more absolute and interponent
the control, the more conclusive the evidence
that it is to be attributed to will. There is no
fact in Nature with which we are more familiar
than the discontinuance of physical powers and
tendencies when their action would be detrimental or unnecessary. Why is that powerful appetite, hunger, immediately suspended when we
have taken a sufficient quantity of food? How
suddenly the maternal affection ceases in the
animal, when her young have arrived at an age
to provide and act for themselves, and no longer
require any services that she can render them!
But the human parent, on the contrary, can




INTRODUCTION.              39
always be useful to her children; and her affection remains almost, if not quite, undiminished
to the end of life.
Perhaps the most marked expression of will is
seen in government; and the most striking form
of government is the infliction of punishment.
And what a system of penalties do natural laws
exhibit, when they are violated by any folly or
imprudence whatever! There is a government
in all things, and that government punishes
those who rebel against it.
Mind is endowed with moral qualities.    So
says all our experience and consciousness. We
are sensible of a peculiar pleasure in conferring benefits and in beholding them conferred.
We love every exhibition of benevolence. What
manifestations of a similar feeling in the Power
that created this happy and glorious world!
What marks of a parental interest! What communications of beneficence and joy! What kind
designs, what sublime and boundless purposes
of love, plainly characterize the principles from
which the universe sprung!
Again, we are conscious of faculties which
are delighted with the beautiful, and are filled
with admiration at grand and awful scenes. In
emotions of this nature the soul swells with
transport, and recognizes some of the highest
characteristics of its own spiritual attributes and
Divine affinity. What an acquaintance with such




40      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
faculties on the part of the Creative Mind does
the universe display! What an intention to indulge them to the utmost seems to be revealed
through the whole natural world! How does
such a design seem to delight in irradiating
everything in the heavens and on the earth, the
air, the clouds, the sea, the distant stars, with
beauty and magnificence! What leaf, what microscopic form, but seems to show that the
Creator intended to gratify the observer? We
can think of no reason why these things should
have been made so, but the pleasure which is
afforded by their beauty. For aught we can see,
whatever is useful in Nature might have been
destitute of every attribute which renders it
pleasing, and yet have been of as much advantage to us in other respects as it is now. At
the same time, how many things, as symmetrical
and perfect as any which are revealed to our
view, are buried in the depths of the sea and in
the bowels of the earth! May we believe that
this harmony of the seen and the unseen is in
accordance with a universal system, which the
eye of the Infinite alone fully embraces? Yet
why this universal beauty, unless because it has
to him its own intrinsic charm?
The universe is filled with the manifestations
of system. Everything has its appropriate place,
its appropriate time, and its appropriate office.
The artist has always anticipated the spirit of




INTRODUCTION.                41
these Divine models. He has always appreciated
the necessity of rule and unity in his productions. He introduces the mere show of columns,
portals, windows, when they answer no other
purpose but to preserve the symmetry of his
edifice.  The  same in   Nature.   The   mammae
of the male are the blind windows of the architect.*
Rather than sacrifice order to contingency in
matters of minor importance, the architect prefers to run the risk of the contingency. He will
not construct an edifice with all the doors and
windows upon one side merely because a possible tornado may sometimes render this irregularity expedient. Is it too much to say that we
discover something similar in Nature? The animal instinct prompts to connections which from
particular causes are occasionally unfavorable to
a perfect reproduction. Once in an age there is
a monstrous birth. No miracle is wrought to
prevent it. The freedom of the creature is not
interfered with for the sake of averting so rare
and unimportant an anomaly.-On the other
hand, the builder would be held responsible, if
he should sacrifice the strength and security of
a castle to the minor considerations of architec* The most distinguished modern name on the rolls of Natural
Science speaks of such parts of the animal frame, not as performing
any organic function, but as preserved in obedience to a certain
uniformity of preestablished structure.




42      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tural symmetry and beauty. So in momentous
cases,-to sanction a divine revelation, for example,-God has been pleased to deviate from
the order of Nature by giving miraculous testimonials to his messengers.
Hardly less than order do we love variety.
But it must be harmonious variety.   It must
embrace the intrinsically pleasing, and, as far as
possible, the practically beneficial also.  If no
end appears to be proposed but novelty alone,
we may be struck with the ingenuity of the
artist, but this is a pleasure which soon passes
away. How much of this useful and concordant
variety we behold in Nature! No two countenances are precisely alike. Within an area of a
few inches, millions and millions of different expressions are comprehended. What a union of
diversity and utility! But for this variety of
features in the human face, we could not have
been distinguished from one another. No such
distinction, to the same extent, could have been
lodged in any peculiarities of size, color, or shape,
of which the human body admits. In short,
when we look round upon the natural world,
how multiform the products of creative power!
Every drop of water is peopled. The very air
we breathe is animated.   The universe teems
with countless forms of activity and enjoyment,
each subserving some useful purpose in the relations in which it is placed. It would seem tc




INTRODUCTION.             43
be the law of Providence, that whatever is possible, consistently with harmony and happiness,
shall be actual also, under the Divine government.
How accordant with this system is the doctrine of Christianity, that our Heavenly Father
has designed a resurrection for man,-a change
of worlds, —a passing from death unto life,-a
going up higher,-from living here in a grateful improvement of his goodness, to soaring amid
still nobler displays of his munificence! This
more exalted existence would seem necessary to
complete the boundless infinitude of his creative
benevolence. How much would be wanting in
the glorious analogies of his works, if there were
no such thing as a renewal of being,-if there
were no place where his children could feel that
peculiar and unutterable gratitude which must
arise from a perpetual reunion, and from knowing that former trials and former dangers have
passed away forever! A similar, though inferior
experience marks the history of the good through
life. Their virtues have always been achieving
new triumphs, their moral advancement affording
them new securities, their increasing piety giving
them new thankfulness to and new enjoyment in
God. Why not an harmonious and consummating
change of a kindred character at the last? Why
not a resurrection, which shall complete and assure forever this beautiful moral gradation, that




44      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
shall absolutely perfect the spirit which has so
long been working out the progressive stages of
its growth? Surely, in all the varieties of existence throughout innumerable worlds, there must
be this. Why not in our case as well as in any
other? A revelation has declared that in our
case it shall be actually exemplified.
Such are some of those counterparts to our
mental faculties which we discover in the natural
manifestations of a Supreme Intelligence. And
is the human mind patterned after the Infinite
Mind? The essential attributes of mind, it may
be answered, are necessarily the same in all intellectual natures.  All revelation presupposes
this fact; for it assumes that we are capable
of perceiving the truths which it communicates
from God,-in other words, that we have a resemblance to him in understanding. We obtain
the same conclusion from Nature. Her phenomena are not void and mysterious to us, but articulate with design, wisdom, and benevolence.
I need not say they must owe their origin to
faculties similar to those by which they are understood and appreciated.
True, our minds are very imperfect. With
much intellectual light, there is much moral darkness in them. But they themselves do not confound their excellences with their defects. We
are not more conscious of intellect than that




INTRODUCTION.              45
none of our mental failings form any part of a
perfect intelligence.
But our good traits,-are they not in a state
of central and irreconcilable conflict with those
facts which give to Natural Providence so many
perplexing aspects? Even here we may borrow
light from our own minds by which to see the
perfection of what might otherwise appear to be
exceptional in the beauty of creation. It is one
of the most constant facts of our experience,
that from pains, disasters, and temptations may
come a nobler order and well-being. We do
not hesitate to subject our children to much
hard discipline in order to promote their benefit.
We have, therefore, only to conceive that similar
results were intended to flow from seeming evil
under the Divine government, and it will give
a cheering consistency to the views with which
we are furnished by the universe, and free the
goodness of God from every warring and mysterious appearance.
Before leaving this subject, a most strange and
contradictory fallacy of some atheistic philosophers may be noticed. The universe, they observe, is one grand unit, which admits of no
development, analysis, or explanation. It stands
alone, they say,-the only thing of the kind;
and all that can be affirmed of it is, that it is
what it is, one eternal anomalous phenomenon,
without resemblances or analogies. Having no




46      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
test or standard in Nature to which it can be
brought, it must be left, they tell us, in its own
unapproachable and utter isolation,-and can
only be contemplated in a simple, mute, and
prostrate homage of the soul.  An indivisible
mystery, an infinite monad, circling into itself,
and inwrapping itself forever, it shines like a
distant star with but a single ray.
But are these philosophers consistent with
themselves? Do they keep to their own principle? Do they not enter into the circle of Nature to discover the functions and characteristics
of every portion of it? Do they not, for example, proclaim the law of gravitation as being the
cause of all the principal movements in the
machinery of the material world? Why, then,
should the religious observer be confined to one
blind simplicity of admiration? Why may not
he investigate also? If the former has detected
in the falling apple and the oscillating pendulum
an illustration and type of that vast power by
which planets revolve around their central orb,
why may not the latter ascend from particular
to universal truths, and find in the intelligent
beings around him the index and the proof of
an Almighty Intelligence?
I have thus glanced at some of the leading
arguments by which the being and attributes
of God are demonstrated.   But is any such




INTRODUCTION.             47
demonstration needful?  Why may there not be
in the soul an innate susceptibility for the acknowledgment of a Heavenly Father as well
as an earthly one? The germinant power of
the filial emotion in the infant mind lies in no
exercise of the reasoning faculty; why should
it in the devout mind? Is there less expression
in the glories of the universe than in the
features of the human face? It is certain that
a finite no more than an infinite intelligence is
an object of sight. Neither can be recognized
except through the veil of a physical exterior.
How inestimable the privilege, that this recognition is granted us in respect to the Being of
Beings! that we can add to those demonstrations of his existence and attributes which reason
derives from his works, but for which we are
not always prepared, those immediate impressions which are instantaneously produced by the
magnificence and beauty of the external world!
that, when we are not inclined to metaphysical
argument, we can go forth and look upon the
face of Nature, can observe the starry hosts, or
scan the everlasting hills, or mark the daybreak,
or listen to the surging ocean in the solemn
watches of the night!
In the recognition of the Divine Being, intellect harmonizes with instinct. And so also in
respect to his worship. If the former teaches us
the duty of prayer, the latter has made it the




48        HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
natural tendency of the soul;-prayer,-no less
adapted to promote our highest culture, than our
support, consolation, and happiness.
Nor is communion with himself the only communion which God has made to exercise and
exalt our noblest faculties. Communion with the
wise, the benevolent, and the true has a similar
effect.   Many    such   aids  has   he  afforded   us.
There are ever spread out to our eye, there
are ever rising before us, those startling exhibitions of moral greatness which excite and intensify our reverence for moral greatness itself.
The noble and the good, scattered along the
ages of history, have contributed to keep the
human mind alive to what is most truly to be
honored and revered in man.
"Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts in glad surprise
To higher levels rise.
"The tidal wave of deeper souls
Into our inmost being rolls,
And lifts us unawares
Out of all meaner cares.
"Honor to those whose words or deeds
Thus help us in our daily needs,
And by their overflow
Raise us from what is low!" *
* Longfellow.




INTRODUCTION.              49
It would be no argument for Christianity,
then, that its own great utterances were absolutely new. If wise and truth-loving men have
always acted with something of a gospel power
upon the religious sentiment of their day, we
could hardly wish to contemplate an opposite
fact in the history of Providence, or to see
that the germs of our spiritual nature were
ever left without some powerful aids to bring
them into life. Says Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History,,-" The religion published by Jesus
Christ to all nations is neither new nor strange..... For though, without controversy, we are
but of late, and the name of Christians is indeed
new, and has not long obtained over the world,
yet our manner of life and the principles of our
religion have not been lately devised by us, but
were instituted and observed, if I may so say,
from the beginning of the world, by good
men accepted of God, from those natural notions which are implanted in men's minds.....
For what else does the name of Christian denote
but a man who by the knowledge and doctrine
of Jesus Christ is brought to the practice of sobriety, righteousness, patience, fortitude, and the
religious worship of the one and only God over
all?" *
I can believe that in the early foretime of
the race whole nations may have exhibited a
* Book I. ch. iv., as quoted by Lardner.
VOL. I.           4




50      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
purer faith than that which they afterwards displayed. Illustrious lights there certainly always
were, in the darkest ages of heathenism. But
the most powerful minds show a sad reaction
on themselves from those by which they were
surrounded, and which, though their philosophy
might amuse, it could never regenerate. "When
they knew God," says the Apostle, "they glorified him not as God." In short, the religious
sentiment had well-nigh yielded to skepticism,
idolatry, and vice, among all nations, with the
exception of one alone, which had been favored
with special religious light.
And what know we of this people? They
were distinguished by the knowledge and the
worship of the one true God. Their Scriptures
commence with this sublime declaration:-" In
the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth." The Old Testament constantly uses the
term God, as expressive of the Supreme Divinity.
Even in its earliest portions, he is called "the
Lord God," "the Most High God, Possessor of
Heaven and Earth,"' the Almighty God," the
"I Am." In the Book of Job, in the Psalms,
and in the Prophets, the descriptions of God, as
the sole Creator and Potentate of the Universe,
are unrivalled for force, beauty, and sublimity.
They are without a parallel in any other writings.




INTRODUCTION.             51
If the particular parts of the Old Testament I
have named are distinguished for the exalted
ideas they present of the Supreme Being, it must
be remembered that they are the parts which
were more particularly suitable for their expression. These ideas, it is manifest, must always
have been cherished among the Hebrews, though
they became more articulate with the religious
progress of the nation.  It was impossible that
David and the prophets should have suddenly
come forth with a new theology not based on
the previous sentiments of their countrymen,at least, without giving notice of the change.
All that they say of God they plainly recognize
as belonging to the familiar conceptions and admitted faith of their readers. The Psalms, especially, were popular compositions,- national
poetry,-and not theological discourses. They
were for the most part appointed to be sung in
the temple, and of course were adapted to the
religious sentiments of the worshippers generally.
It is true we frequently meet in the ancient
Scriptures with the expression, " other gods," as
if the existence and power of other divinities,
besides the One Supreme Jehovah, were not denied. But with what contempt are they spoken
of in the Bible, even as far back as the days of
Moses! In Deuteronomy, he calls the gods of
the heathens "'the work of men's hands, wood




52      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat,
nor smell."
In many parts of the Jewish Scriptures God
is spoken of as the God of the Jewish nation,
nay, even of single families and individuals.
He is called'the God of Israel," "the God of
Abraham," and the like. But these expressions
only indicate the merciful promises and care he
vouchsafed to this nation, and to those persons
in particular,-and were not meant to be considered as excluding all other people from the
Divine dominion and goodness.    In  calling a
person my friend, I do not thereby imply that
he is the friend of no one else. Jesus said,
" My God! my God!" but we do not herein
understand him as denying that Jehovah was
the God also of his disciples.
"In every stage of society," says Milman,*
"under the pastoral tent of Abraham, and in
the sumptuous temple of Solomon," a belief in
" One Almighty Creator of the Universe maintains its inviolable simplicity" among the Hebrew people. Many contracted conceptions of
him, it is true, were entertained. And are they
not still,-even  by professed Christians, theologians, and philosophers?
We see a strong religious individuality throughout the Old Testament history. We find nothing like it among the Pagans. It corresponds,
* History of the Jews, Book I.




INTRODUCTION.             53
upon a national scale, to those superior advantages and attainments which, in private life, have
always raised a few resplendent names above
the common level of mankind.
A truly extraordinary history is that of the
Hebrew race! It presents us higher thoughts
and devouter spirits than we find in any other
authentic annals before the time of our Lord.
We cannot look at the laws and institutions of
Moses without feeling that he was raised up for
a new and exalted work of religious and civil
reform. Not that all his institutions were absolutely original with him. This had been superfluous. It were quite an arbitrary requisition to
demand that a movement, a progress, should not
use the resources nor avail itself of the experience of the past. In Egypt, where the Jewish
lawgiver was born and educated, certain religious
observances and ceremonies were strikingly natural, beautiful, and imposing, and had always
been watched with lively interest by his countrymen, to whom they were familiar from' their
infancy. It is not strange, therefore, that he
should have felt he was not availing himself of
an undue liberty of appropriation in transferring
them  into his own system;-though still we
cannot be sure that he derived anything from
these sources.
And what more of this remarkable nation?
Many ancient annals. And by whom written?




54        HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Our information on this point is limited and
obscure. We have to accept them, for the most
part, on the general basis of the nation's own
received and accredited records. We take them
from   the   national shelf.    We    can  throw    little
certain light upon them beyond the interior
marks of artlessness and sincerity they exhibit,
the conformity of their main features to collateral heathen testimony, and the remarkable
confirmation of some of their minuter details
by monumental inscriptions which have been recently discovered. I am not aware that there
is much in the New Testament referring to the
narrative portions of the Old, beyond some brief
and occasional allusions, which might have been
more or less of a conventional nature.*
These national histories attract our special
attention through one observable feature. Whatever was said or done by Moses, or any other
religious leader, he is very apt to be represented as saying or doing by the command of God.
* A general reference to the whole of the Old Testament may be
thought to be contained in 2 Timothy, iii. 16,-" All scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine," etc.
But such authorities as the Syriac Version, Grotius, Schleusner, not
to mention other writers of distinction, read the passage thus:"All scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable," etc. So
when Jesus is said (Luke xxiv. 45) to have "opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures," the reference, obviously, is only to the Messianic prophecies, though Luke's
own expression, Scriptures, might seem to include all the ancient
Hebrew Scriptures, without exception.




INTRODUCTION.             55
This is a constant formula of Old Testament
narrative. And was it not a natural expression
of a general religious idea? In the mind of
a Jew, was not such language unavoidably suggested and sustained by that unqualified reverence which he entertained for the divine commission of Moses, and those of his distinguished
compeers and successors in Church and State?
Was it not an obvious result of that devout
belief which every Hebrew cherished in the
theocratic character of his whole history?
Besides, if there was nothing formulary and
conventional in such phraseology, but we are to
take it literally as it stands, we are pressed
with the difficulty, that, in numerous instances
where it occurs, there would have been a very
needless exercise of supernatural interposition
in directing Moses to do what his own judgment must have dictated, and circumstances have
compelled, without any such command. Josephus speaks of him, in general terms, as guided
by the Spirit of God in executing the duties
of his office; yet he mentions particular acts
as if they were done by the Jewish lawgiver
of his own volition merely, though they are
attributed in the Hebrew Scriptures to the express mandate of the Deity.
Further, the dramatic style of historical writing prevailed then. It distinguished two of the
most eminent historians of antiquity, Thucydides




56      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
and Livy. Speeches were put into the mouths
of kings, generals, and leading characters, which
it was never understood they actually uttered.
The same usage, in a higher application, may
elucidate the Bible history. Its traces plainly
appear in the speeches ascribed to God in the
Book of Job.
Indeed, the same idea lies at the basis of
expressions which are in constant use among
ourselves. A living faith, a familiar trust in a
Father God, is always speaking of persons for
whose religious character a high respect is entertained, as being led by the hand of Providence in their most common actions.
On the whole, I must consider all such expressions as I have referred to, wherever they
occur in the Old Testament, as being subject
to the view I have taken of them, where any
moral difficulty would be thereby relieved; for
example, where wars, massacres, and the like,
are apparently ascribed to the immediate command of God.
The earliest stages of the Hebrew Church
were doubtless similar in many respects to those
of the Christian. The Mosaic miracles could not
but have had as powerful an effect on the Jewish mind as the miracles of our Lord and his
apostles upon the minds of the primitive Christians. They must have excited the popular imagination to a high degree, and have given a




INTRODUCTION.              57
new force to that natural propensity which men
have so often discovered to believe in supernatural agency, especially when exerted for religious purposes.  There must have been many
Hebrew legends similar to those which have
come down to us from the first ages of our own
religion. But no distinct records of them, like
the spurious Gospels, have been preserved. It
may naturally be surmised, therefore, that they
were interwoven with the authentic portions of
the Scriptural history itself. This will account
for several relations in the Old Testament, which,
like the arrest of the sun by Joshua, rather remind us of the apocryphal stories of the early Christians, than of those sublime miracles of
the Burning Bush, the Passage of the Red Sea,
the Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, and
others, which form so striking a part of the
Jewish Scriptures. Besides, if it be true that
these Scriptures represent the general compass
of Jewish literature when they were collected,
this will explain why legendary relations are
intermingled with them, which might otherwise
have been transmitted in a separate form.
But where shall we draw    the line? What
have we in the Old Testament which demands
our respect?
We have a practical and authentic account
of man, which infinitely surpasses all narratives
of olden times, and perhaps of any times. It




58      IIOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
spreads out his history before us in the oppo.
site states of bondage and freedom, of theism
and idolatry. We see him in the patriarchal
state, the civil state, and in the multiplied aspects of individual character and life,-exhibiting every variety of disposition he ever displays, in every variety of situation in which
he can be placed,-thus making the Old Testament the most pertinent and instructive introduction to Christianity, imaginable. If the gospel tells us what man ought to be, the Old
Testament has first told us what he is.     If
we cannot understand our indebtedness to revelation without a careful study of our race under all its numberless diversified phases, these
phases are presented to us authentically in the
ancient Scriptures.  First, then, I say, we have
in the Old Testament a complete, striking, and
reliable picture of the moral aspects of humanity,-one fitted to precede a system which gives
us a just view, and makes a faithful application
through Jesus Christ, of all the moral remedies
which humanity requires.
We have the prophecies, especially those
which, in their highest and largest construction,
announce a kingdom of truth and righteousness,
to be extended over the earth by a person of
the most exalted qualifications for the office.
What may well gain them the greater admiration, the prophets themselves were zealous He



INTRODUCTION.             59
brews, as much alive, perhaps, as any of their
race, whether of their own or other times, to
the proudest secular hopes of their country; yet
nothing can be more mild and peaceful than
their representations of the ultimate triumphs
of their religion.  Other prophecies are of a,
minatory character, threatening the people with
that very judgment, namely, exile and dispersion, so signally illustrated in the present condition of the Jews,-a condition plainly harmonizing with the whole drama of that peculiar
Providential government which constitutes the
staple of the Scriptural history of this remarkable nation.
We have the most eloquent and lofty expressions of religious sentiment. There are no
such strains of devotion on record, as we have
in the Prophets and the Psalms. With equal
simplicity and sublimity, they call on the heavens and the earth to praise God. They exhibit
hearts more deeply touched by the glories of the
universe, more profoundly bowed in reverence,
more devoutly uplifted to the Almighty Father,
than could have been expected from any reach
of thought or feeling to which mankind had
generally attained at that period. And these are
not the effusions of Iny single mind, but of
many minds.   They pervade all the religious
compositions of the Old Testament.  Such remarkable traits in the whole national spirit are




60      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
inexplicable, till we recur to the national story
of the Hebrews. Here we see a visible, palpable presence of God with his people, which
accounts for the sublime conceptions, the fervid
and exalted aspirations, which breathe in all
their writings on religious subjects. Such ideas
of the Deity and his government could not
have come from their imagination,-could have
come only from their history. The favorite language of public devotion is even now derived
from these sources. How many modern liturgies are in great part made up from the ancient
Hebrew Scriptures! Did a purer expression of
religious truth ever flow from the lips of man
than we have in the words of the prophet
Micah,-" What doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?"   How grand and
energetic that exhortation in Isaiah,-" Bring no
more vain oblations! It is iniquity, even the
solemn meeting! Wash ye; make you clean;
put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes!   Seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the
widow!"
We have the Decalogue,-the noblest specimen of moral legislation on record, prior to the
gospel,-the best argument for the whole Bible,
as has been said by some practical observers of
civil and social institutions.




INTRODUCTION.              61
We have a system of religion and polity incomparably superior to any which was contemporary with it; admirably adapted to preserve
that equality among the people which is the
only security for liberty,-to foster the love of
country, to prevent a spirit of foreign conquest,
to make the burden of public defence the lightest possible to those who were called to sustain it; enjoining more humanity to those in
servitude than we find prescribed in the institutions of any other ancient nation; having
a religious ceremonial free from the sensuality
and priestcraft we see in all heathen superstitions, and accompanied with the most express
declarations of the utter insignificance of all
ritual observances without virtue.
We have an abundance of striking historical
facts to sustain the great Christian principles,
that God is no respecter of persons, that he
will not reap where he has not sown, and
that all may expect to enjoy his kind regard
in any condition of ignorance or error not occasioned by their own fault.   Thus, when did
Abraham receive his first assurance of the Divine blessing? While yet dwelling with those
who served other gods, a member of an idolatrous family, his own mind still in a degree tinctured with the prevailing superstitions.
When was Moses chosen of God to be the
leader of Israel? While residing at an Egyp



62      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tian court, with an Egyptian education. When
were Joshua and other Hebrew     commanders
distinguished by pledges of the Divine favor?
When, not superior to the spirit of the age,
they could put men, women, and children to the
sword, on achieving a conquest. Who was he
that could indite the prayer,-" Preserve my
soul, for I am  holy!  Save thy servant that
trusteth in thee! Thou, Lord, hast holpen me
and comforted me "? It was that favorite monarch of Israel, who, under the darkness of an
unchristianized age, could utter the imprecation,
-"Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors!
Consume them in wrath! Consume them, that
they may not be!"
Similar facts, indeed, are not wanting in the
Christian Scriptures.  Under a mistaken sense
of duty to Christ, the favorite disciple wished to
consume a whole village of the Samaritans with
fire from  heaven, and was told by his Master
that he knew not what manner of spirit he was
of. Saul of Tarsus received special conversion,
when, under the leadings of a misguided conscience, he was on his way to Damascus to
persecute the Christians. The prayers and alms
of the heathen Cornelius came up with acceptance before God. But in the ancient Scriptures
a whole national history is replete with facts of
this sort.
We have an all-important distinction, most




INTRODUCTION.              63
emphatically announced, between voluntary and
involuntary error,-between sin in its true sense,
as the conscious violation of known duty, and
those venial transgressions into which one is betrayed by an unenlightened conscience. Joseph's
brethren knew the sin they were committing in
their cruel treatment of their brother. And how
much were they made to suffer for it! David
was conscience-smitten for the crime charged
upon him by Nathan. And how was that crime
avenged! He was dethroned, driven from his
kingdom, obliged to flee for his life, and all a
father's feelings cut to the quick, by a rebellious son. Read his penitential psalms. Self-condemning, self-loathing, he could find relief only
in venting reproaches against himself. It was
not enough for him to pronounce his own condemnation before his accuser; he must proclaim
his harrowing consciousness before all the people, in the most pitiable expressions of humiliation and agony, as a stern and awful warning
to the world against such iniquities as his. The
people were not insensible of their own sinfulness in view of their immoralities and apostasy
from the true God. And how were they punished also! To what a sad captivity were they
consigned! In short, the mercy of Providence
towards honest mistake and unenlightened conscience is not more strikingly displayed in the
ancient Scriptures than is its impartial and




64      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
crushing retribution upon all presumptuous wickedness and unprincipled baseness.
A blinded conscience has fallen into no greater
or more frequent errors than those which flow
from the incongruous principle, that the end
sanctifies the means. We trace these moral inconsistencies, these strange combinations of hostile elements, through all the mazes of man's
history,-in his secular and religious life, in his
private and his public walks. They have consecrated his avarice, his lust, his bigotry, his
cruelty, as well as his ignorance. But in all the
annals of the past, can we point to any more
striking examples of this unnatural alliance between good and evil than are exhibited by
those Christian nations who justify the horrors
of war on the ground of preserving political
levels and of averting uncertain dangers which
they anticipate from the growth of neighboring
communities? And is it reasonable to suppose
that men could have entertained higher conceptions of duty and right before the pure and
lofty principles of the gospel had been promulgated, than have been sanctioned since by the
common practice of the whole Christian world?
To save his life from the cruelty of a powerful monarch, Abraham availed himself of a specious, though doubtful fact, and called his wife
his sister. She really did stand in a relation to
him which, no doubt, he thought admitted of




INTRODUCTION.             65
the  construction he put upon it.   Whether
a far greater concealment of the main truth,
whether an absolute departure from all truth,
in dealing with a ruffian, were not admissible
as a means of escaping a violent death, would
not probably be thought by many a perplexing
question even in our time.
Jacob had bought the birthright of Esau.
Shall he incur an unsparing malediction for subsequently resorting to an artifice in order to
secure what he then deemed his right?
Can no mitigation be imagined for what is so
often spoken of as the meanness and trickery
of Jacob in multiplying that part of the flock
under his charge which belonged to himself,
rather than the other which was the property
of Laban, when he was able to say, with truth,
to his wives, the daughters of Laban, — Ye
know that with all my power I have served
your father, and your father hath deceived me
and changed my wages ten times"?
Men apologize for revenge, under a supposed
sense of duty to the public and the demands
of justice. If retaliation is often treated with
indulgence even in Christian lands, shall there
be no charity exercised towards the sons of
Jacob who laid waste a Canaanitish settlement
where their own sister had been dishonored?
I would defend no deviation from the highest standard of gospel morality. Still, I know
VOL. I.           5




66      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
not what should render the dictates of an unenlightened conscience more unpardonable at an
early than at a late period of the world.
But with all the blemishes we discover in
it, the patriarchal history of the Old Testament
is invaluable for its simplicity and naturalness.
Great care must have been taken of the record, to have kept it so wholly free from the
common traditions of those early days, about
satyrs and centaurs and griffins, and so many
similar fictions of the imagination. Had it been
the story of our own childhood, it could not
have been a more ingenuous, probable, unlabored
narrative. It has given out happy influences in
its day. The sunny beauties of its domestic
scenes have great attractions for children. Then
they are in the Bible, everything about which
is so venerable and so peculiar! The few other
histories whose fragments have come floating
down on the stream of time have no Abraham,
no Joseph, no David and Jonathan, no Samuel   Our fathers and mothers could hardly
have made Sunday books of them; but these
formed our most interesting reading when the
Bible was first put into our hands.
But the time arrived for the Hebrew dispensation to give place to one more adapted to the
conscious necessities of the soul. " Old things
are passed away," says the Apostle; "behold, all




INTRODUCTION.              67
things are become new." We must not receive
this declaration in too literal a sense.  Some
advancement had been made, and Christianity
availed itself of the first opening which offered
for the introduction of its own more spiritual
system. Long, wide-spread, and ardent expectations had, to a certain extent, prepared the
way.
There was that larger and more peaceful intercourse among the nations of the earth which
was favorable to the diffusion of a universal
religion. Philosophers had done something for
social and religious ideas.  The contact which
the Jews enjoyed with foreign minds during
their protracted Babylonish exile, the severe
judgments inflicted on them amidst all the punctiliousness of their ritual observances, together
with the sublime lessons of their prophets, had
been attended with some advantages as to their
intellectual and moral progress. But the progress was limited. A mere leaven action was all
that Christianity could exert at first.  Many
wonder at the restricted character of that action, and that even now it is not more extended.  But this is a subject too deep for us.
What changes must be slow and what rapid,
under those restorative and perfecting processes
which are set in motion by the wisdom of God,
it were rash in us to pronounce.   Stupendous
geological periods had elapsed, ere the succes



6 8     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
sion of animal life eventuated in the appearance
of man upon the earth. Who knows the period
of man's moral cycle, or the portion of this
cycle that will have rolled off when some particular stage of his improvement shall have been
reached?
Some preparation for a spiritual and individual
faith in the room of an organic and sacerdotal
religion had taken place, I say, when the central
power of a new and world-wide civilization was
first established in the regenerative influence of
Christianity. But how little had been done!
how little proportionate to the results which the
gospel was ultimately to effect, destined as it
was to comprehend all mankind in its embrace,
and to open the kingdom of God to a different order of minds from those by which that
kingdom was then monopolized! In the, lifetime of its great Author that noble instrumentality merely began to display the power which
was to accomplish such wonders of moral renovation. A living influence of light and love
was manifest only here and there, upon individual souls. The smallest life-points of a higher culture just began to appear. Judaism still
lingered, still flourished, among the great mass
of the people. Ceremonies, forms, prejudices,
hatreds, kept the places which were due to the
conscience and the affections. Priests and temples formed the dead embodiment of a church




INTRODUCTION.              69
which needed a living and spiritual head. And
Judaism lingers, flourishes still,-and will do so,
so long as ecclesiastical takes the place of personal religion, so long as sects quarrel, and each
has its Jerusalem and its Gerizim to itself.
Yes, Judaism flourished even amid the labors
of Jesus. But its adverse and earthly tendencies did not destroy his influence. Though trodden under foot of pride, contempt, and hatred,
the mustard-seed took root. What an argument
for Christianity! What a proof that it was impossible it should not live!  And what additional evidence of its transcendent character,
that eighteen centuries even of Christian culture
have brought the natural heart of humanity to
sympathize but imperfectly with Him who manifested the most exalted spirituality of views
in connection with the most expansive benevolence, and whose superiority to the best men
was equalled only by his kindness to the
worst!
But if the spirit of a narrow religionism was
not eradicated by the gospel, still spiritual truth
could be presented in a form less open than
the Jewish Scriptures to the suspicion of national limitations and influences, and adapted,
with less exposure to mistakes and objections,
to commend itself to universal reason and acceptance.
This we enjoy in the New Testament. We




70         HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
have here a system of faith and practice contained in writings with whose origin we are
sufficiently acquainted, and of whose authenticity
as the records of the life and ministry of a
Heaven-commissioned Teacher we have ample
proof,-a system manifestly worthy of a Divine
revelation, and eminently fitted to answer the
all-important end of commending the essential
truths of religion and the great principles of
piety and virtue to the profound reverence of
every mind.
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament     have     now    been    long    distributed,-in
the   main    without     note    or  comment.*        By    a
* I say in the main, but not without being deeply sensible of the
exceptions involved in this qualification, embracing all the headings
of the chapters, all the marginal references and marginal notes
of every description, all the divisions into chapters and verses, the
entire punctuation, and everything in our English Bibles that is
printed in Italic,-all of which important particulars are unauthorized additions to the ancient text,-to say nothing of the many erroneous renderings of single words, and the numerous idiomatic
and conventional phrases, which, much to their mystification with
the English reader, are not converted into the corresponding ones
of our own language. But though our present translation is so far
from being a faithful reproduction of the original, yet any attempt
at emendation would be attended with serious difficulties, from the
sectarian opposition it would meet with, the danger to the incomparable rhetorical beauties and excellences of the existing version,
— beauties and excellences which in a remarkable degree distinguished the literature of the period when this version was made,
and which in a revised translation would be liable to be seriously
impaired or lost, -and most of all, the violence which must be
done to the popular veneration for a volume to whose holy texts we




INTRODUCTION.               71
charity thus wisely conditioned, the Christian
sects have rendered   a service   to  the  truth
which may help to atone for the injuries they
have done it in    other respects.  The result,
we may trust, will be, that a community of
sentiment, grounded upon essential principles,
intelligible and applicable to every mind, such
as form the distinguishing features of the Christian system, will come about, at last, in the
Christian Church.
But the Scripture as a Light is perhaps hardly
so important as the Scripture as a Power,-or
what it has done in teaching things before unknown, or with which men were but imperfectly acquainted, as what it is always doing in
strengthening a sense of those fundamental principles of piety and virtue which are received by
all. The subjects on which the most able interpreters of the sacred volume have displayed
their ingenuity and learning are but shadows,
for the most part, compared with those eternal
verities which commend themselves to every
man's conscience in the    sight of God.    Yet
while these require no critical exposition, they
do stand in need of some holy enthronement,
some exterior consecration, to insure them their
most effectual enforcement on the great mass of
mankind,-in other words, a Bible.
have been so long accustomed,-a veneration that has been the
gradual growth of ages, and which it would require ages to reestablish.




72      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Few persons think absolutely for themselves,
on any subject. A perfectly individual opinion
is rare. To most people it is the great sayer
that makes the   great saying.   Washington's
Farewell Address is a noble body of political
wisdom; but his name has done much to give
it the estimation it enjoys.  When the Jews
were filled with admiration of the instructions
of Christ, because he taught them, as they said,
" as one having. authority, and not as the
scribes," they had been listening to one of his
simplest and most practical discourses,-the Sermon on the Mount; but it was associated in
their minds with his reputation, his miracles,
as well as with the mysterious force of utterance it naturally derived from his own consciousness of his divine mission.
Reverence, therefore, is a vast moral power.
Enlighten it as much as possible;-this will be
one of its best safeguards from perversion, and
one of the most effectual means to secure for it
a permanent place in the mind. Enlighten it,
I say. For I could wish no child of mine to
be the slave of a blind and passive reverence.
The sublime sentiment of religious veneration I
would have associated in his mind only with
religious truth. I would have him prove all
things, and hold fast that which is good. Let
him see every just distinction between the
human and the Divine,-between what is of




INTRODUCTION.             73
doubtful and what is of certain authority.  If
sound criticism has discovered interpolations and
admixtures in the Bible, this is but analogous to
the general course of moral Providence in other
things. For what high-hearted, Heaven-moved
champion of virtue has ever appeared in our
world, save only its one Divine Exemplar, in
whose character there was not some alloy?
God grants his blessings to the extent of the
occasion, and no farther,-leaving always a full
margin for the exercise of our own fairness,
honesty, and reason.  We did not need in
Paul a perfect man, but we did need an early
convert of distinguished understanding and missionary gifts, one whose culture, talents, and
opportunities gave a peculiar weight to his
faith in the great facts of the gospel history,
and whose spirit and life strikingly attested his
sincerity.  So the Jewish economy required a
courageous and devout leader, possessed of an
enlightened and exalted mind, well suited to
conduct the Hebrews forth from Egypt, to separate them from their idolatrous neighbors by
religious institutions adapted to this purpose,
and bring them to a permanent settlement at
last, in which they should long remain the
light of mankind as to the great truths of
the Divine unity, and of God's moral government over the world.   Moses combined these
high qualifications in a remarkable degree, yet




74      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
without being a faultless character, like his
great antitype and successor, Jesus Christ.
The conspicuous traces of a peculiar Providence in the Genetic and Patriarchal histories,
in the law given at Mount Sinai, in the prophecies, in the religious culture, unparalleled in its
day, of so many of the leading men of the
Jewish nation, all culminating, at last, in the
Saviour and Christianity, I would have a child
recognize with a reverential faith which should
exert its influence upon the mind through life.
I would have no other than an enlightened reverence; and I would have this invest the most
important truths with its mysterious power,the profoundest power in the human breast.
In the rapid preliminary survey which has
now been taken of the grounds of religious
faith, we have glanced at the leading truths
and evidences of Natural Religion, the earliest
records of Divine Revelation, and the inauguration of the gospel system.   Pursuing the
survey, we enter upon the principal subject
of these volumes, namely,-the characteristics,
facts, and evidences of the gospel histories.




CHAPTER I.
GENERAL COINCIDENCES.
AT a time when free communications of
thought, the world over, are making all persons acquainted, whether they will or no, with
every doubt that has ever been expressed by
skeptical minds, faith is needing all its securities. Yet security is not all. Few of us may
need to be fortified against infidelity.  But a
living Christian faith is a blessing never superfluous to any; and I know of nothing better
adapted to promote it than a just inside view
of Christianity, especially of those testimonies
to the genuineness and authenticity of the evangelical records which are spread over the
records themselves.  Of these, none are more
likely to be generally understood and appreciated than the coincidences which may be noticed
throughout the gospel relations, and which are
so particularly worthy of notice in writings composed, as the Gospels were, by different authors,
and bearing such evident marks as the Gospels
do of having undergone no careful revision.




76'     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
In judging of the truth of any account, there
are few things we look to so much as consistency. We bring together the slightest incidents,
and regard no evidence of authenticity as more
decisive, than when a variety of detached particulars, taken at random, are found to harmonize with one another in a manner plainly natural and unpremeditated. The slighter they are,
and the more indirect their agreement, the more
conclusive are they considered. A number of
witnesses in a court of justice never command
more credit than when their respective testimonies are found to possess this circuitous and circumstantial correspondence. It is a test so easily applied, and so highly appreciated, that any
pains will be amply rewarded which shall have
been the means of bringing to light one additional confirmation of this nature to the gospel
history.
The remark is hardly needed, that coincidences serve to authenticate not merely those
parts of a narrative in which they immediately
occur, but other parts, also, which may not happen to contain any coincident materials. In all
narratives, there are some facts which must necessarily stand on their own evidence, or on the
authority of the historian.  They cannot be
checked by any circumstantial incidents; for
they have none.    The more important, then,
not to overlook those which are thus corrobo



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          77
rated; that, by seeing that the truth is told
where it is substantiated by some undesigned
agreement of circumstances, we may be more
sure it is told where it cannot be accompanied by this species of confirmation.
A coincidence is not to be determined by
incidental agreements only. There will be occasional dissonances between the most honest
historians who undertake to relate the same
events. There will be incongruities, indeed, in
any single history, however upright the intentions of the author. A degree of discrepancy,
therefore, in a relation of any considerable extent, especially between several relations going
over the same ground, inasmuch as it is naturally to be expected, is itself a coincidence.
And yet we not unfrequently see Christians soberly treating every alleged variance between
different parts of the gospel history as a solemn impeachment of its authenticity!
Another kind of coincidence lies in the whole
tone of an honest and faithful narrative. We
feel, in perusing it, that it is to be trusted.
There is an air of truth which there is no mistaking. And this is a test which has been admitted to apply to the gospel narratives with
unexampled force. If an infidel should wish to
give his child some just idea of the life and
character of Jesus Christ, he would not hesitate to put one of the Gospels into his hands.




78      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
The coincidences of a history may belong
either to its particular incidents, or to certain
general relations which it possesses, apart from
any direct agreement of its own current and
single facts among themselves.
Viewing the gospel histories first in their
general relations, I begin by remarking that
there is a stamp of coincidence, if I mistake
not, in the fact, that they did not appear till
some time after our Saviour's day.   Mohammed gave his religion to the world under his
own hand. So any other enthusiast would have
done.  He would have been governed by an
irresistible impulse to self-communication;-how
or where it should be made would not have
been deemed so material. Allowing no space
for the gradual development of his system,
probably having no system to develope, he
would have been eager to favor the world with
his pretended messages from above as soon as
possible. But once conceive of a teacher calmly, justly conscious of a time-long, earth-wide,
soul-wide, and Heaven-sent mission, his proceedings would be apt to be marked by dignity,
moderation, and trust.  So was it with Jesus.
As his religion was adapted only to a spiritual
and of course a progressive culture, as the
leaven principle lay in its very nature, so he
was content, at first, with casual, private, individual communications, as circumstances opened




GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          79
the way. He sowed the seeds of his religion
in silence.  He forbade his miracles to be
proclaimed from the house-top. He had nothing published in his own day.
If this showed little impetuosity or impatience
on the part of Jesus, it harmonized with his
spirit in other respects also. For if there was
any one sin to which he manifested particular
aversion, it was that of insincerity; and the
course which he pursued was strikingly adapted
to prevent any insincere demonstrations towards
himself by the people of his time. The gentle
manner in which he invited the attention of
men to his religion, and the slow revelations he
made of himself as to some subjects, were suited to keep back the hasty and over-zealous.
His doctrines upon these subjects were of so
exalted a nature, that a forced and hollow conformity was all that could have been expected
from many individuals then.  And still not a
few of those very individuals would have pretended to be his disciples, notwithstanding,even as to those very doctrines, too, if he had
encouraged it.  He trod cautiously, therefore,
at the first. He urged none to any outcomings in his cause which would not have corresponded to their real convictions and feelings,
or which would have been in advance of the
faith to which they had yet attained. Better
a tardy discipleship than a nominal one. Bet



80      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ter distant approaches to the truth, which were
real so far as they professed to go, than a
pretended acceptance of more, which was only
a name and an outside.
Again, our Lord was in no haste to remodel
the outward institutions of society. But enthusiasts are apt to exhibit their foremost zeal in
changes of this nature. He disturbed no existing relations between master and servant, or
ruler and subject, except to make the best of
them, by uniting them as they stood with all
the righteousness and true holiness of which
they admitted. Social improvements were left
to come along in a natural way, as the spirit
of Christianity advanced, and men silently glided
under its influence.
But though fanaticism would not have consulted circumstances, we may be told that timidity
would. The history of Jesus, however, shews
nothing of timidity. He spared no proper denunciations of the wicked rulers of the day.
His instructions, as calm and circumspect as
they were resolute and bold,-yet not more so,
-were adapted to work a progressive change,
and meet our highest ideal of such a reformer
as he professed to be.
We discover much of the same spirit in his
Apostles. Had they been mere agitators, restless men, who followed Jesus for reasons which
they could hardly explain to themselves, be



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          81
yond some indefinite hopes which they indulged,
would they have written of him as they have
done? They plainly had a most profound veneration for him. They tell right on, in the most
artless manner, what they recollect of his sayings and doings, as if their reverence for him
consecrated to their feelings everything they remembered of him, whatever it might be. They
give no glowing description of anything as for
the sake of description. They exhibit no ambition in their narrations. And so it must have
been. If they were induced to follow him from
such motives and such convictions as appear in
their writings, if they really loved him  and
believed in him as they profess, they must
have felt inclined to be the mere simple recorders of his life and ministry.
And here, viewing Christianity as intended to
pass down to the end of time, and as needing,
therefore, to carry its testimonials in its own
hand, to be able to prove itself by itself to all
varieties of minds, it is a moral coincidence
that it was communicated in an historical form.
In this form those not much inured to close
thinking are able to discover many proofs of its
authenticity. All can appreciate the marks of
truth and honesty of which history admits. We
might have had a doctrinal New Testament, without any narrative at all. As it is, we have four
different narratives, each distinguished by the
VOL. I.           6




82      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
characteristics of artless sincerity, and where
the feeling of reality, excited by one incident
after another, becomes insensibly associated with
every part, and the faith of the reader is an
accumulated impression, resulting from the successive signatures of truth, which leave their
unconscious effect upon his mind as he goes
along.
The Gospels abound with incidents. The ZendAvesta, the sacred book of the Persians, consists
mainly of mystical speculations, prayers, and
moral sentiments.   The Vedas, the holy writings of the Hindoos, are made up of invocations, hymns, maxims, precepts, and explanations
of mysteries.  The Koran, the Bible of the
Mohammedans, is a mass of rhapsodies.     But
then it had less occasion for incidents than the
gospel documents.   Incidents are important to
miracles, by attaching to them those little harmonies of circumstance which render them more
striking and by which their reality is confirmed;
but Mohammed did not pretend to work miracles. Incidents are indispensable in all biographies as indications of character. They are the
theatres of example,-its developmental field.
A trait which no language can define, except
in round and general terms, they exhibit in its
most delicate lines, its nicest and most shadowy
touches. But the Mussulman does not profess
to hold up his lawgiver as the model of a fault



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.           83
less life. The gospel does so hold up Jesus. It
identifies itself with him. It had no choice of
modes, therefore, in which to come before the
world. A real life must make facts its portrait,
and rude historians must make facts their pencil. For abstract delineations, vivid and racy
touches of character, showing up the whole man
by a few masterly strokes, drawing forth the
latent qualities of another's nature from  the
deep wells of one's own kindred consciousness,
such historians as the Evangelists had no particular endowment. They could tell in a plain
way all they knew; but no aesthetical culture,
no contemplative familiarity with lofty images
of excellence, had qualified them for any singular nicety of discrimination or delicacy of
sentiment as moral painters.  I need not say
how well they have done what they undertook. The sublimest of all examples is indebted to, their relation in a manner and a measure
without parallel in history. They have left the
believer no reason to regret that Christianity is
to be tried by the life of its Author, and no
occasion to plead for that distinction between
the teacher and his teachings which candor is
so often called to concede in other instances.
The Christian world would be less disturbed by
the most violent attack upon its faith than by
the least reflection cast upon the personal character of Jesus Christ.




84      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Through the long course of ages there have
been those who have stood nobly forth in the
cause of truth and virtue. But these honored
names are scarcely more than mere names to
us; and of the few of whom we know something, how little do we know which brings
them nigh to our hearts, elevates us by their
elevation, strengthens us by their strength, and
speaks to our souls with the voice of their infelt
piety! With the disciples of Pythagoras, we are
told, his word was law, but not his example, as
I ever heard. Not even the greatest and best
names in Scripture, one only excepted, are proposed to us as the perfect models of a holy
life.
For these and other reasons we cannot sufficiently appreciate the importance of the historical
form in which Christianity has been transmitted
to us. It has set forth a personal religion by
personal and living illustrations,-the only possible way. It is not easy for either good or
evil to be brought home to the heart in an abstract form. Murder ceases to shock when perpetrated on the scale of a great battle.   It
leaves little definite impression to talk of the
advancement or deterioration of an age in mere
general terms. Describe the times of Charles the
Fifth and of the Philips, as superstitious, persecuting, corrupt, and how feeble a conception we
gain of their atrocious and revolting features,




GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          85
compared with that produced by the pictures
we have received from    the pencils of Prescott and Motley!    The graphic and affecting
scenes in which Mrs. Stowe has represented the
evils of slavery have done more to stir the
public sensibility to this huge wrong than perhaps all the treatises upon it which were ever
written. And thus it is that around the living
Jesus of the four evangelical biographies the
whole reality of his religion centres. It is no
unimportant coincidence, therefore, that, while
the gospel faith requires Christianity to be a
vital power in our hearts, the gospel history
has taken such effectual means to make it so.
The historical form has an important relation
to the Christian miracles. Miracles are necessarily historical. We need to behold them in situ.
Seen in their original relations and circumstances, they make a more just and forcible
impression. They lie before us in all the vividness of minute and living reality. As we thus
look at them  in the evangelical accounts, we
are struck with the absence of all apparent
study or afterthought. Everything occurs as occasions lead the way. We mark a harmony with
persons, places, and incidents of various kinds.
There is every stamp of time and circumstance.
A list of miracles appended to the Bible, in the
shape of so many authentications of the Christian doctrine, would have left a very different




86      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
impression from that which the gospel miracles
make in their present connections, blended, as
they are in the evangelical histories, with such
a variety of dramatic incidents, ushered in with
no flourish, railed off by no protestations, and
plainly not what the rest of the story was
made up for,-but having their own regular
and quiet places in the narrative, and no more.
There is not a miracle in either of the Evangelists which is presented in a testimonial form,
nor one in which the writer seems to be thinking of any impression he is producing, or of
any honor he is reflecting upon Jesus.   And
so it must have been. For once suppose that
Christ's miraculous powers were entirely understood and admitted by all his disciples, and they
would necessarily have been spoken of by them
in calm, dignified, and simple narrative terms.
It is the way in which they do speak of them,
without any note of admiration or inviting any
particular attention to them.  Whatever they
relate they seem to take it for granted will be
received and understood as they have recorded
it. The narrator appears to be too conscious of
the truth of what he is writing, to dream that
it will ever be the subject of any skeptical
scrutiny. He never intensifies his statements,
as though he thought there might be those
who would doubt them.
The necessity for an historical revelation ad



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          87
mitted, it becomes another coincidence that the
Providential circumstances under which Christianity arose inevitably rendered it historical.
Few philosophical or learned men could have
been among its earliest advocates. The arena
in which it opened lay far below their level.
Jewish learning could not have enlisted itself
in the cause of an obscure individual, advancing
pretensions at variance with the universal sentiment of the leading personages of the day.
Disciples barely competent to relate what they
had seen and heard were all whose pens Christianity could have commanded then. True, there
was one philosophical and accomplished mind
among them, —Paul. But he was not of the
earliest converts. A Gospel from his hand would
have been more than a simple record of facts.
But the record is best as it is. And what it is
circumstances naturally made it. For once admit
that there was such a person as Jesus Christ,
preceded by the most ardent anticipations and
desires on the part of a whole nation for such
a messenger from Heaven as he professed to
be, and it cannot be doubted that many must
have been drawn to him, and left accounts
of him, which their successors could not have
suffered to be lost. A divine revelation could
not but have been preserved. We must have
had some memorials of it resembling our present Gospels.




88      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
That the gospel history has been preserved
in writing is another striking coincidence. We
must be sensible that its transmission to after
ages could not have been safely trusted to tradition, upon seeing what tradition has done to
corrupt many of the doctrines and institutions
of Christianity.
A loose impression may be entertained that a
written religion is artificial, frigid,-that it wants
the power of an indwelling spirit in the soul of
man. Such an impression is loose. It is not a
sound deduction from   experience.  A  religion
may be preserved and propagated orally or
otherwise.  Orally, it is apt to  assume   the
language of the believer and diffuser himself It
insensibly takes the stamp of his mind, and is
little more at last than the moral index of its
own disciples. And hence we see in a religion
which but passes from mouth to mouth, or
whose records are locked up with a priesthood,
no vivifying and reformatory activity.  It has
no fixed, venerated history to appeal to. The
people are their own religion; —a fact, it is
true, not without its compensation.  It is fortunate that superstitions are not apt to be historical, but that the unauthentic character of
their transmission usually accords with that
of their original; for while an oral channel
would be likely to adulterate a true religion, it
would be apt to have an ameliorating influence




GENERAL COINCIDENCES.           89
upon a false one.    Changes have necessarily
crept into all those religions of which their disciples personally have been or have chosen to
consider themselves as the only repositories. For
the conservation of a perfect religious system
repositories of this sort must always be unsafe.
Nothing can preserve any religion pure, but a
document, unless it be a form; and hence a
religion without form, or nearly so, like Christianity, demands a record,-and the fact of its
being demanded proves its bestowal, provided
the religion itself is divine.
It is, therefore, a loose impression, that a
written word, a book Christianity, is too organic, too objective, has too much finality about
it, for a living and energizing faith. A second
thought must dismiss this impression. I see in
the Christian Scriptures the medium which has
perpetuated the sublimest truths through ages
of error and corruption, and which can itself be
corrupted by no sect or priesthood, but with a
sure ultimate correction of the evil. What better? I fear experience will lead us to speak
with great reserve of the prospects of any authentic religious faith which is intrusted to the
custody of human minds alone, without any
historical depository, held in reverence and consulted by all as the only genuine standard of
the faith itself.
Still, however, we have an oral and a contro



90      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
versial Christianity, notwithstanding the written
word. Men have honestly differed in their interpretations of this word,-to say nothing as
to how far prejudice, ambition, and superstition
have been too powerful for the record.   Yet,
without a record, there would have been no admitted criterion of doctrine,-no ground of hope
for a future unity of the Church. Besides, the
most important part of the New Testament is a
unit, and always has been, and always will be,
-namely, the life of Jesus. There has been
but one understanding as to his example, however many there may have been as to his
words. If his cross has been associated with
controverted views, the model of devotion, of
submission, and benevolence he exhibited upon
it has inspired all true hearts with grateful, reverential affection and admiration. If the nature
of his miracles has been the subject of debate,
not so the spirit he displayed in their performance.  If theories of his metaphysical nature
have divided his disciples, as to his feelings
towards God and his conduct towards men there
has been no diversity of opinions. This agreement with regard to the living, moral, intrinsic
Jesus, the Jesus of history, is as conspicuous
among the most learned as among the most
simple and humble of his followers. The heresiarch, the polemic, the speculatist have not dissented here from the great body of the Chris



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.         91
tian world. This fact, we may believe, is destined to become more and more prominent in
the aspects of the Christian faith. Centres of
agreement that never lose their attraction are
always taking advantage of every new disruption or diminution of strength in the circumference.  A  permanent vortex   amid fluctuating
materials draws all into itself at last. Indeed,
with that innate love of harmony which belongs
to the human mind, even those diversities of
religious opinion which are the most legitimate,
and which will always have their intellectual
existence, will insensibly incline to yield and
give way under the unceasing action of any
universal and persistent unity of Christian sentiment.
The critical proofs of the genuineness and authenticity of the Gospels cannot have full justice done them within the compass of these volumes.  It seems difficult to believe, however,
that the internal marks of truth and reality
they present should not have impressed every
attentive and unprejudiced reader. I know not
what better evidence we could have than they
actually exhibit, that they were the productions
of artless writers, who were coeval with the
events said to have taken place, and who had
not only a full belief, themselves, in the facts
they have related, but a minute and intimate
acquaintance with them.




92      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
That contemporaneously with these occurrences a religion sprung up, such as could not
have arisen, if the occurrences themselves were
not real, we know as well as anything in history is known; and that our present Gospels accompanied the rise of this religion, and that no
other documents of the kind were received with
the same veneration by the Christian community, we also know. They could be almost literally rewritten as they stand, from ancient quotations of an early date. And so it must have
been,-if that estimation was attached to them
from the first which a belief in their apostolical origin would necessarily have created.
It is true, they did not command a universal
reception immediately. There were scruples, and
there was skepticism. And what believer could
wish to look back upon a Christian antiquity
in which there was not sufficient intellectual
culture to enable the uninformed, the prejudiced,
and the ill-disposed-classes that must always
exist-to raise a specious objection against a
religion so far above them and so much opposed to them as Christianity was? Testimonies in
favor of the gospel histories, which had come
down to us from so rude an age, could hardly
have been set at a high mark. That underlying
culture, which is necessary to give an intellectual value to an age's faith, must give a power
to its unfaith; and while we lament the sub



GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          93
tilty of modern unbelief, we may be sure, from
this very subtilty, that there has been an advancement in the depth and philosophy of the
religious sentiment.
As it is, there are few arguments for Christianity we can less afford to lose than those
for which we are indebted to its earliest opponents. The writings of Celsus alone, a freethinker of the second century, furnish ample
evidence of the genuineness of the evangelical
records,-containing, says Lardner, no less than
"the whole history of Jesus, as recorded in the
Gospels." He calls the books to which he appeals in his controversies with the Christians
their books, and says they were composed by
Christ's disciples. This may satisfy. We are as
competent as he to judge of the validity of his
objections, having in our possession all the data
upon which he professes to base them.
But Christianity had not only to encounter
the doubts and skepticism which there will always be some to cherish towards any religion,
however unreasonably,-it necessarily embraced
within its pale no inconsiderable number of
credulous and fanatical persons.  No wonder,
then, we have apocryphal gospels of an early
date, combining with many of the details of the
evangelical narrations others so absurd, childish,
and extravagant, as to forbid their reference to
a common origin.




94      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Suppose, however, there had been nothing of
the kind,-that, in the primitive Church, no
manifestations of a visionary and superstitious
spirit, or of any particular passion for the marvellous, had appeared. Would this have formed
an argument in favor of Christianity? or would
it not rather have been a fact hardly capable
of solution? Would there have been no ground
for the remark, that, if Christ ever performed
the miraculous works ascribed to him by the
gospel historians, the effect must have been
seen in an inflamed popular imagination manifesting itself in a thousand fantasies and fictions,
and a readiness to believe in any wonders alleged to have been wrought in support of his
cause? We produce, in the pseudo-gospels, the
proofs of the actual existence, at the period referred to, of such a state of the popular mind
as is here argued. But now, instead of being
acknowledged as the natural productions of a
miraculous age, these extravagant legends only
reveal, we are told, the weak and unsound character of the gospel era, and serve to cast suspicion on the whole supernatural history of the
New Testament. With such versatility of objection has Christianity to deal!
But whatever attestations to the divine origin
of our faith we may derive from antiquity, some
profess to think there must always be an essential defect in every argument of this nature.




GENERAL COINCIDENCES.          95
All historical testimony, they say, is weakened
by time. But how weakened, unless time brings
some counter testimony to light? If the character of an event is not changed by years, why
its credibility? That Xenophon was the author
of the Anabasis is as certain now, and is felt by
every one to be as certain, as it was ten centuries ago. The truth is, time is necessary to
a religion, to settle it upon the basis of absolute and unassailable certainty. Celsus might
have said to the Christians of his day,-" You
are new. Soon you will meet with the usual
fate of deluded and fanatical zealots. Your extravagance will be duly appreciated by other
times and other men. You will sink into oblivion." Thus far the gospel has found no occasion to shrink from the test of history. It has
been in advance of every age to which it has
yet come.
Some profess to attach little or no importance
to the historical argument for Christianity, because history, as they say, implicates itself with
the accidents of time and requires so much critical erudition to sift it properly. With as good
reason it might be said that the great mass of
mankind have no concern with any ancient
facts, because they are unable to look up and
settle the authorities upon which they rest.
Admit this inability.  Have we Americans no
concern with those illustrious events in our




96      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
early history which cast so glorious a light
upon the principles and institutions of a free
government, because we must generally rely on
a few learned men to make a thorough investigation of them? So with Christianity. Much
that belongs to its remote antiquity is received
by most Christians upon trust.  How it could
have been otherwise is one question; why it
need have been otherwise is another.




CHAPTER II.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.
WE have a fourfold Gospel.     The natural
check and counter-check existing in this plurality will readily be seen.-Again, all the Gospels
enjoyed the reputation of apostolical or subapostolical authorship from an early date. No
one of them could have been considered as entitled to this distinction but for important reasons. That four spurious writings should have
been thus honored is quite inconceivable.-Two
of the Gospels, and no more, bear the names
of Apostles. If they were indebted to fiction
for this distinction, it is a natural inquiry, why
the other two were not honored in the same
way. A difference so apparently arbitrary certainly looks like historical fact.-Further, each
of the Gospels is sufficient for the great objects of Christian faith. The reception of any
one of them by the early disciples is an argunent in favor of the rest. For what need
of the rest, when one of them was enough for
all the purposes of a gospel history? and how
VOL. I.           7




98      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
reluctant must the Christian community have
been to place three other histories by the side
of an apostolical memoir, without having the
most satisfactory proof of their being of equal
authority with this important and venerated
document!-Again, that there should have been
more than one Gospel, more than one repository of facts so momentous as the sayings and
doings of a divine teacher, is in harmony with
the course of general Providence. We are accustomed to repetitionary blessings. Our most
necessary senses are given us in pairs.  Our
bodily sustenance is not permitted to depend
on but a single article of food. Nature is full
of equivalents.
There are long passages in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, which are the same, word for word,
or nearly so, in each. How this could have
happened in three original and independent
productions has been a matter of inquiry. But
it strikes me in a very different light from that
of a difficulty. Notes of what they had seen
and heard in their attendance upon Jesus might
very naturally have been taken by the more
considerate and intelligent of his immediate
companions and   disciples.  These memoranda
would as naturally be distributed, and unequally of course, among the Christians of that
day. Some would be found in the hands of
all the believers,-others, in those of a few




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPE1D.     U0
only; and the most common would be likely
to be introduced into every history of Jesus
that should be composed. No Christian writer
of that day, not even an Apostle, would have
been apt to be so ambitious of original authorship as to be unwilling to make use of any
authentic materials ready prepared for his use,
especially such as had gained a high veneration and were widely known.
There are blanks in the gospel histories.
Mark and John say nothing of the birth and
early life of the Saviour. Observable omissions,
most assuredly, and we press them on the attention of the reader. There was no necessity
for them.   Materials could easily have been
found to supply the deficiency. The very fact,
therefore, that the early days of the Saviour
are passed over in silence by half of his biographers, vindicates the authenticity of what
is actually told; since no fabler would have
felt any inducement to leave these chasms, but
quite the reverse. The occurrence of these or
similar blanks in the several Gospels proves
their fragmentary character generally. It shows
that they were drawn up with no view to historical completeness. Moreover, all artless writers are apt to speak as to particular facts disproportionately. It is somewhat uncertain how
much they will tell us of what they know,
where they will begin, or where they will leave




100     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
off. With them a circumstance is often more
important than the main current of the story.
We have ample illustrations of this throughout
the gospel narratives. Luke does not mention
the journey of the wise men to Bethlehem,
nor the flight to Egypt,-though these are conspicuous events in Matthew's Gospel. Matthew,
on the other hand, says nothing of the circumstances, recorded by Luke, of Jesus' visit to
Jerusalem when twelve years old, and of his
memorable conversation with the doctors in the
temple, on that occasion.
If facts like these may seem too extraordinary to have been omitted by any Evangelist,
provided they were true, we must not forget
that the whole life of Jesus was extraordinary.
We may believe there was no one incident in
it that was regarded by his biographers as having any distinguished claim to notice over many
others, and that out of the great mass of interesting facts respecting him, with which they
were familiar, they take one and omit another
with scarcely a conscious reason for the selection. It is certain that they never dwell on
any particular detail with the least pointing of
the finger,-or make a single remark which
would indicate that it seemed to them peculiarly entitled to be recorded.  Not a miracle
has an exclamation connected with it in all
the gospel histories. But what is told is told




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.   101
with the utmost straightforwardness and simplicity, whatever it be and whichever Evangelist
it be.
Why Luke has omitted events in the early
life of Jesus which are found in Matthew, it is
impossible to say. But we are none the less
struck with the artlessness of Matthew's account
of them, notwithstanding. The same is true of
the temple scenes, which Luke mentions and
Matthew  does not.  Both narratives are fragmentary, but each fragment is perfect in itself,
-and it is a natural story. I know some have
spoken of an apparent discrepancy. Luke, they
observe, has related, that, after the presentation
of the infant Jesus in the temple, his parents
returned to their abode in Nazareth; but according to Matthew their residence would seem
to have been in Bethlehem,- a presumption
grounded, I conclude, upon the statement of
this Evangelist that Herod sent the wise men
to Bethlehem to find the young child, where,
as he had learned, the prophets had declared
the Messiah was to be born. But there is
no certain proof that they followed his direction.  It is simply stated, that, "when they
had heard the king, they departed, and lo! the
star which they saw in the East went before
them, till it came and stood over where the
young child was." The star might have guided
them to Nazareth.




102     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
But admit a real discrepancy. Shall we acknowledge that the most honest historians are
liable to differ from one another occasionally,
but resolutely refuse to tolerate any one difference in particular? —receive the principle, but
always object to the application?   Speaking
of the Gospels, Niebuhr remarks,-" He whose
earthly life and sorrows are depicted there has
for me a perfectly real existence, and his
whole history has the same reality, even if it
be not related with literal exactness in any
single point."  Such a remark from him will be
appreciated.
The character of Jesus, as delineated by all
the Evangelists, is the same, though they may
exhibit different features in somewhat different
lights and proportions. There is no incongruity, nor anything that looks like a mere work
of imagination, in their several portraitures.
No one can believe they have painted a nonexistence.  We see that there was plainly a
veritable original before them, which impressed
itself upon their minds with a distinct and living force. And so it must have been; if there
was a real Jesus, and they sincerely cherished
that belief in him which they professed, they
must have accorded in their representations of
him.  They could have felt no solicitude to
embellish a character which they regarded with
the deepest reverence, and of which they must




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.    103
have felt that the simplest description would
be the highest praise.  What they so loved
and venerated alike they must have painted
alike. If they had varied, it must have been
where we know it has not been. One or more
of them must have omitted traits they have introduced, and introduced traits they have omitted. His meekness, his humility, his kindness
to the Samaritans, his aversion to the use of
any means for forwarding his cause but those
of persuasion, were contradictory to all their
national preconceptions of the expected Messiah; yet these traits have a prominent place
in the representations which they have given
us of Jesus, notwithstanding.  But the opposite traits, though they were the characteristics
of their day, though they accorded with the
earliest moral lessons of their education, though
they were fostered by all the traditions, precepts, and examples they had received from
their religious guides, we do not once detect
in anything they represent as said or done by
their Master, on any occasion whatever.
In the first three Evangelists, we have the
objective portrait of Jesus,-the visible, historical Christ. This accords with the peculiar relation in which these Evangelists stood to Christianity. They were its first historians, and this
circumstance would naturally lead them to give
the world a general account of the life and




104     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
labors of the great Founder of the new religion.
In the Gospel of John the subjective or
spiritual portrait is more especially delineated.
John was the last Evangelist. When his Gospel was written, the principal historical facts
relating to Christianity, and its general system
of morality and doctrine, were already well
known and understood.    It was reserved for
the favorite disciple, as befitted his pure, loving, and gentle nature, to delineate the more
ethereal features of the religion,-its charity,
spirituality, heavenly-mindedness,-and these, accordingly, are chiefly conspicuous on his canvas. Here is manifested the interior Christ,the Only-begotten Son dwelling in the bosom
of the Father, and drawing thence the inspiration for his mission and doctrine, his labors
and self-sacrifice. Here are recorded those divine discourses, which, as uttered in the audience of his enemies, compelled the reluctant
confession, "Never man spake like this man,"
and which the devout mind adoringly owns as
the very expression and radiant reflection of
the Divine Mind.    Here we behold the personal, emotional Jesus. Here are preserved to
us those farewell conversations, all-redolent of
heaven, in which, when now about to depart
unto the Father, he pours out the fulness of
his great heart in words of love and tender



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.     105
ness, of sympathy and consolation, which, from
that upper chamber where they first fell upon the sorrowing hearts of his own chosen
few, have gone forth to all the world, entering
into the chambers of sorrow everywhere, —and
through all the centuries from then till now,
to all the countless multitudes of his disciples,
of every rank and condition in life, have been
the mourner's purest, sweetest, exhaustless consolation and peace. And following these, the
prayer. The conversations have admitted us to
the Saviour's closest earthly intimacy: in the
prayer we pass with him behind the veil, the
awed witnesses of his soul's most secret communings with its God.-By this Evangelist, in
short, we are assisted in penetrating into the
higher types of our Lord's spiritual life.  On
his pages the inner heart of the gospel system
is laid open.   From  the other historians we
learn what Jesus did; from John, who Jesus
was.
The memoir by John is distinguished by another feature, which gives it a striking individuality and importance. The other Gospels contain various particulars of what was said or
done by Christ on different occasions, from
which we may form an estimate of his character for ourselves. But John confines his narrative almost entirely to what the Saviour said
of himself, of his office and motives, his per



106     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
sonal sentiments and views. Thus we have
both the exoteric and the esoteric biography
of our Lord. And it is well. They are complementary to one another.     One shows we are
not deceived in the conclusions we derive from
his public conduct and discourses as to the spirit and aims by which he was animated; while
the other affords us the historical facts which
prove that he was not deceived himself.       In
a word, we have a double portraiture of Christ,
-the direct and the indirect, his disciples' and
his own; and combined they form an harmonious whole. If both had been drawn by one
and the same hand, we should not have had
so convincing a proof of the existence of the
living original of both as we have now.
John has thus contributed a most important
addition to the evangelical history. From the
peculiar intimacy and affection which subsisted
between himself and Jesus, whence he has been
called Pectus Christi, "the Bosom of Christ,"
what the Saviour said of himself would naturally have had a greater interest to him than
what he said upon other subjects. He might
also have noticed how much the previous Evangelists had omitted of this autobiography of
their Master, which he has introduced.*
* It is an opinion resting on high authority, ancient and modern,
that it was a special design of John, in writing his Gospel, to correct the errors of the Nicolaitans, Cerinthians, and other heretics of




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE           GOSPELS.       107
Paul, also, has given us a sketch of his great
Master. It is his own, and it is the last. He
confines himself almost entirely to the death of
Jesus and his return to life. This he was natuthat period. Lardner does not assent to it. Besides the objections
which he has stated, it has seemed to me somewhat remarkable, if
it was a primary object with the Evangelist to refute specific heresies, that he should have made no express allusion to their authors.
I must confess I discover nothing in his Gospel which is not susceptible of a natural interpretation, without any reference to the
false doctrines of the day. It is true, that certain terms occur in
it, not unfrequently, which were much employed in the mystic
phraseology of the heretics alluded to,-such as Light, Life, Grace,
Fulness, Truth; but, as used by John, they make perfectly good
sense in their ordinary significations.
It is commonly stated, that the main design of this Evangelist
was to show that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. This has been
inferred from  the clause at the end of the twentieth chapter,"These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have life through
his name,"-the clause being detached from its connection and
read as though it formed the entire conclusion of the chapter. It
is so read even by the accurate Lardner, who paraphrases it thus:
-" This history has been written, that they who believe may be
confirmed in their faith, and that all others, who yet believe not,
may believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and obtain
that life which he promiseth to those who believe in him and obey
him." The passage in full is as follows: -" And many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, ye
might have life through his name." The whole reference is to the
Saviour's miracles, of which the Evangelist observes that he has
related only a part, and these simply to convince his readers that
Jesus is the Christ. He says nothing about his purpose in writing the Gospel at large. And yet, ascribing to the language a
general application, a late prominent skeptic proceeds to deduce




108        HOURS WITH      THE EVANGELISTS.
rally led to do by the circumstances of his conversion. It was with a crucified and risen Saviour that his faith in Christianity commenced.
A crucified and risen Saviour appeared to him
on his way to Damascus. A crucified Saviour
he had despised; a risen Saviour he had discredited. Around these two points, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, now commences     the  great    revolution    of  his   life.   He
preached     " Jesus   and    the   resurrection."     "Of
the hope and resurrection        of the dead," he       says
to  the   Jewish    Council, "I     am    called  in   question."    The    same    was    his  declaration    to   the
Roman     governor     Felix.    He    thus   prefaces   his
Epistle   to  the   Romans: —"Paul, a          servant    of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God, which he had promised
afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
therefrom conclusions impeaching the credibility of this Gospel.
"A narrative," says he, "written with a controversial aim, a narrative, more especially, consisting of recollected or selected circumstances and discourses, carries within it, as every one will admit,
an obvious element of inaccuracy. A man who writes a history to
prove a doctrine must be something more than a man, if he writes
that history with scrupulous fidelity of fact and coloring."
Lardner is of opinion, that even the proem of John's Gospel was
not aimed against heretics, but that it contains only general doctrines, and uses words in their customary senses, such as were
familiar to every Jew. But for so many high authorities on the
other side, I could not hesitate to concur with this eminent Biblicist.




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.     109
was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God
with power, according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead."
The death of Jesus, and his triumph over the
grave, form the great meridional line which runs
through all the Pauline Epistles. It could not
have been otherwise. A Hebrew of the Hebrews, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, Paul
must have been partial to everything in his
new faith which bore any sacrificial aspects, especially as he naturally must have been desirous to present the gospel in as acceptable a
light as possible to his former fellow-religionists,
in whose system the sacrificial element so predominated.
Again, the cross and the resurrection were
the especial objects of Jewish and Pagan assault
and unbelief; and his was not a spirit to shrink
from the defence of any cause he had espoused. "We preach Christ crucified," says he," unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto
the Greeks foolishness."
I pause to notice, that, in certain passages
in the Acts, Paul is represented as having received his apostolical commission from the heavenly voice, at the time of his conversion,while in other passages he speaks of the voice
as having referred him for information concerning his new duties to a future conference with




110     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Ananias at Damascus. Some think there is a
discrepancy between the two accounts; but I
am  unable to perceive it.  The passages are
these. In his speech before Agrippa, Paul remarks, that the voice said to him, "I am Jesus,
whom   thou persecutest.  But rise and stand
upon thy feet. For I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose, to make thee a minister and
a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen and of those things in the which I
will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the
people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I
send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in me." Here we
see that Paul received his apostleship when he
was converted. The passage said to be contradictory to this is the following, in his defence
before the multitude at Jerusalem:-" And the
Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all things
which are appointed for thee to do."  To do.
Ananias did tell him what to do, and that was
to receive Christian baptism:-" Arise, and be
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on
the name of the Lord."    The heavenly voice
first appoints him to be a witness and a minister for Christ, and then directs him to go to




CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS.    111
Damascus, where he would be told what he was
to do to execute the office he had received. I
see no disagreement here.
Some have felt another difficulty. We gather,
they say, from Acts ix. 19-20, xxii. 10, and
xxvi. 20, that Paul was instructed in the peculiar doctrines of his new faith during his
abode with the disciples at Damascus; yet he
himself declares, in the Epistle to the Galatians,
that he did not receive his knowledge of Christianity from any of the apostles or disciples of
Jesus.  But I see nothing in these passages
which conflicts at all with his declarations concerning himself. The first, Acts ix. 19-20, is
as follows -"Then was Saul certain days with
the disciples which were at Damascus.    And
straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." But it
is not said that he gathered this doctrine from
them.  Indeed, he could not have needed to
gather it from any one. It was the very subject-matter of his conversion,-the doctrine he
had always been opposing, prior to this event;
and which he too well understood, as being the
fundamental article of the Christian faith, to require to be informed of it when he became a
believer. The second passage, Acts xxii. 10, is
one that has already been remarked upon:"Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it
shall be told thee of all things which are ap



112     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
pointed for thee to do."   To do, be it again
observed,-not to believe. In the third passage,
Acts xxvi. 20, it is stated that Paul "shewed
first unto them of Damascus,... that they
should repent and turn to God and do works
meet for repentance." But here is no distinguishing doctrine of the Christian system; and
if there were, it is not said that he was taught
it by the disciples at Damascus.




CHAPTER     III.
THE MYTHICAL THEORY.
SOME, who are accustomed to seize upon
everything in the gospel histories which may
admit of being pressed into a questionable
shape, have remarked upon the strong infusion of Hebrew prejudices with which these
histories are tinctured. They would have a medium as little colored as possible by any tint
of its own, through which to view the life and
actions of a divine teacher. And suppose we
looked in vain in the gospel relations for any
mark of the national or religious education of
the writers. What would the infidel have said?
Unlettered men the authors of these productions, and yet not a trace to be detected in
them, from which the country, age, or early
associations of the writers could be inferred!
-pure, abstract historians, maintaining always
the severest exactitude of philosophical narrative, and free from all those biases by which
facts are so often discolored and distorted by
the most honest!  We need not resort to conVOL. I.           8




114     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
jecture to judge how far this would have been
considered a moral coincidence by those never
at a loss for an occasion to put the Christian
records upon their defence.
Among the views which have been taken of
the simple annals of our faith by those who
have nb propensity for agreeing with common
minds is the singular hypothesis, that a large
portion of the history of Jesus is a kind of
myth, in which the writers have embodied the
then existing ideas of the Messianic office in a
form patterned after the stories of the Old Testament and adapted to the prevalent taste of
that period. What is meant by the term myth
I cannot very confidently undertake to say. As
employed by Strauss, it seems to be a sort of
involuntary fiction, woven around some Scriptural fact, by which the fact itself is magnified
or symbolized beyond the original reality. We
have an example, as he tells us, in the Four
Gospels, whose principal contents he supposes to
be ideal, combined with some scanty materials
from the actual life of the Saviour, and where
the mythical part consists of various superexalted conceptions of the Messiah, produced by
natural exaggeration in the progress of time.
"We distinguish by   the name of evangelical
myth," he observes, " a narrative relating directly or indirectly to Jesus, which may be considered, not as the expression of a fact, but




THE MYTHICAL THEORY.         115
as the product of an idea of his earliest followers."
Were it not for the skepticism  Strauss has
expressed in regard to the miraculous part of
the gospel history, from which many of the coincidences noticed in these volumes are gathered, and for the new coincidences he has
unintentionally suggested to me, I should not
have deemed his speculations to be properly a
subject for consideration here. I propose only
a few general observations on them.
He commences with rejecting, as antiquated,
obsolete, inconceivable, the idea of the historical reality of the gospel miracles.
What there is so very incredible in the idea
of a messenger from heaven being attended by
something supernatural in his mission to earth
I must confess I do not perceive.  Having acknowledged a divine revelation, I have no wonder left for mere sequential and subordinate incidents, however extraordinary, provided they
are manifestly adapted to the main object of
the revelation itself. As is the principal, so, I
am prepared to suppose, would naturally be the
concomitants. Some persons, however, seem to
overlook this consideration. While they speak
as believers of the sublime and solemn message
from heaven communicated by Jesus Christ,
they appear to have lost sight of the supernatural element involved in the very fact of




116      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
his mission, in professing to be shocked by
those deviations from the common and familiar
processes of Nature which they read of as exhibited in his wonderful works.
Dr. Strauss admits that "it would most unquestionably be an argument of decisive weight
in favor of the credibility of the Biblical history, could it indeed be shown that it was
written by eye-witnesses, or even by persons
nearly contemporaneous with the events narrated." He regards the Gospels as having been
compiled from traditionary sources, in which
many of the traces of the historical Jesus had
become effaced, and the pleasing visions of an
imaginative faith substituted in their stead.
All the Gospels, with the exception of John's,
are supposed by the great body of Biblical
critics to have been written somewhere about
thirty or forty years after the death of Jesus.*
This date admits of their apostolical authorship, but has a less favorable aspect looking
to the Straussian scheme of a traditionary origin. Facts must have spoken with their own
voice over so narrow an interval. At the close
of this short period, as the learned have gen* Strauss himself supposes that the greater part of the myths or
fictions, which, according to him, were interwoven with the true
history of Jesus, and which he regards as forming the great body
of our present Gospels, were incorporated into these narratives in
the period between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, -not forty years.




THE MYTHICAL THEORY.          117
erally held, several distinct and independent histories of Christ made their appearance, each
bearing the name of an apostolical or sub-apostolical author; nor am I aware that any other
author was ever named for either of them except the one to whom it is actually attributed.
If at some late day their authorship was assigned wholly by conjecture, singular that conjecture  should never in  any  instance have
strayed beyond one particular name! A similar fact is not, perhaps, to be found in all
literary history, especially as to four separate
productions.
Again, eye-witnesses of the acts and ministry
of Jesus must have been living at the received
dates of the present Gospels.  Apostles must
have been living, who would have been a check
upon any false accounts of him in their day,
and rendered it difficult for a spurious Gospel
to have sustained itself with the great body of
Christian believers,-even  allowing that they
had given no written relations of their own.
But, thirdly, it is simply incredible that the
Apostles should have committed nothing to writing, themselves,-or that documents proceeding
from their pens should not have enjoyed a
merited and wide-spread reputation among the
early Christians, and have been sacredly preserved as the authentic records of their faith.
The Apostles have amply shown in their epis



118     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tolary writings how diligent and earnest they
were to do everything in their power to finish
their work as teachers of Christianity and missionaries of the cross. Can it be believed that
they would have suffered the Christian community to remain without any authentic and
written accounts of the life and instructions
of its Founder? They must have cared that
the great first story of their religion should be
on record; and faithful disciples must have seen
to it that the record should be distributed and
never lost.  Many who had heard something
of the story must have been curious to hear
more, and believers must have been eager to
satisfy their curiosity. That such was the fact
we learn indirectly from St. Luke, who speaks
of many as having "taken in hand to set forth
in order a declaration of those things which are
most surely believed among us."
Beyond a doubt, things took their natural
course in this particular. A contrary supposition would impugn the whole idea of a sensible
and zealous apostolate, and of an intelligent and
honest antiquity to the Christian Church. But
few, I imagine, have cast any imputation upon
the first disciples and teachers of our religion
as to their having been wanting in zeal, intelligence, or integrity.  Who could be deemed
sincere and ardent in a cause they had espoused, if not they who sacrificed to it every



THE MYTHICAL THEORY.          119
thing which was dear to flesh and blood? or
what better evidence could the Apostles have
given of their solicitude to be faithful in the
service of the gospel than they actually manifested in their writings, ministries, and lives?
Again, it would seem singular that a large
and important community, like the Christian,
should, for centuries, have been without any
history of its rise and founder, or any publicly
received account of them, except a few fragmentary and inartificial memoirs, unless these
memoirs enjoyed a peculiar rank and estimation,
in which no others could hope to compete with
them. Prior to Eusebius, the father of Church
history, who wrote as late as the commencement of the fourth century, we have no connected and orderly account of gospel events,
besides what is contained in the evangelical
relations. Nor can this be attributed to any
dearth of Christian writers during this long interval.  Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp,
Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Dionysius of Alexandria, Gregory of Neo-Caesarea, Arnobius, Lactantius, and numbers more, all flourished during this period, and several of them
would have adorned any age of the Christian
Church by their learning and abilities.  They
wrote on a variety of subjects relating to Christianity,-its evidences, expositions of the Scrip



120     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tures, and so forth,-but not one of them has
left us any biography of Christ, or any history
occupying the general ground of the Evangelists.
There are many manuscripts of the Gospels,
or of parts of the Gospels, written in different
countries and at different periods, from the fifth
century downwards,-besides many manuscripts
of ancient versions of the Gospels in different
languages, one of these versions dating from
the second century,-also manuscripts of numerous works abounding in quotations from the
Gospels, the works of Christian apologists, commentators, and others, of the age immediately
succeeding that of the Evangelists,-all adhering to the evangelical text precisely as it now
stands, with only trifling and accidental variations. Such was the estimation which the ancient Christians attached to the sacred text, in
each of the several forms of copies, versions,
citations, commentaries, in which it has been
handed down to us! What a breadth of concurrent evidence to show the veneration in
which the text was held when all these copies,
versions, citations, and commentaries began to
be made! As early as the latter half of the
second century the Gospels enjoyed an established reputation, as "sacred books, among Christians, throughout the civilized world." Now this
veneration could not have arisen suddenly; it




THE MYTHICAL THEORY.          121
must have been coeval with the first appearance of these books, and have flowed down in
a continuous stream, in order to have attained
to such a height at so early a period. And besides, it is irreconcilable with the ordinary principles of human nature, that, during their own
day, the history of Christ should have fallen
into neglect among his primitive followers,that, while they were making every personal
sacrifice for their faith, they should have been
careless about the documents in which the faith
itself was contained.
Again, I know not who can deny that the
evangelical relations are every way worthy of
their reputed authorship. There is an air of
artlessness and reality about them which little
comports with the idea of their having proceeded from those who did not know or were not
disposed to tell the truth.  Words and deeds
are there ascribed to the original companions of
Jesus which it is difficult to believe that they,
or any of their successors, or any person who
might wish to publish an acceptable history of
Christianity, would have invented.  Thus, the
Apostles are sometimes represented in these relations as expressing decided non-concurrence in
their Master's remarks. But no degree of deference to him on their part could have appeared
too great in the eyes of a fabulist. Not that
the story, as it is, violates probability on ac



122     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
count of these dissents. But what deserves attention is, that, in every case where the dissent is expressed, it always turns upon some
point where we can see upon reflection it
might have been expected; yet these are points
which would not have been likely to find
their way into a common tradition, or to occur to one who was composing a fabulous history. To have thought of them, one must have
reflected with care upon the force of Jewish
prejudices at that day, and upon the sudden
conversion of the first disciples to Jesus, which
left so many of these prejudices still hanging
about them,-as well as upon Christ's very
gradual and gentle way of disclosing his views
to his followers, and of removing the false notions in which they had been educated respecting the Messiah's kingdom; for it is always
in these connections that the Apostles are described as expressing any difference of opinion
from him.
Again, the Evangelists speak of Christ's frequently foretelling to the Twelve his own approaching crucifixion, and of the utter aversion
and unbelief with which all such annunciations
were received by them,-so that, when the catastrophe actually occurred, they forsook him
and went their ways. These things could hardly have been the suggestions of fancy to one
wishing to place before the Christian commu



THE MYTHICAL THEORY.          123
nity such facts as they would like to know;
nor could the disciples of Christ have been
ready to lend a credulous ear to any story in
which they should be contained.
I might mention other illustrations in the
Gospels of that ingenuousness which belongs to
truth, without recurring to any external testimonies to their genuineness and authenticity,a class of evidence of which it is acknowledged
more may be produced for these remarkable
narratives than for any other ancient writings
whatever.
In the course of a period sufficiently long for
traditions to have been formed, they must, in
all probability, have been not only numerous,
but, in several respects, diverse. If, therefore,
the Evangelists gathered their facts from such
sources, it is remarkable that so little of this
diversity should appear in their historical quaternary.
Further, no history can be more patient of
plain, dry, every-day matters of fact than the
Four Gospels. If these narratives were derived
from legendary sources, it is remarkable that
they should be so free from all inflation of
style and extravagance of any kind,-that they
should so abound with names and references to
passing occurrences,-and that the most fanciful
parts, as some profess to regard them, namely,
the miracles, should be as largely interwoven




124     HOURS WITIH THE EVANGELISTS.
with such commonplace details as any other
and perhaps more.
Another mark of original authorship exhibited by the Gospels is their freedom from any
profusion of prominent indicative particles,thus, therefore, and the like,-such as naturally
fall into the style of a narrator who is drawing from foreign sources and relating at secondhand an account of things to which he is personally a stranger, and who is anxious to keep
the attention of his readers to the facts before
them. If either of these histories was the work
of such a writer, he must be acknowledged to
have possessed no ordinary talent for giving
to a compilation the appearance of an original
composition resting on a familiar acquaintance
with the materials. One could scarcely tell how
to reconcile such a production with entire artlessness and sincerity in the author. What we
could say to four distinct productions of the
kind, I know not.
The truth is, that most of the attempts to
disturb the admitted authorship of the Gospels
have arisen, I suspect, from incredulity as to
the miracles recorded in them. Yet no exception, so far as I am aware, can be taken to
their genuineness on this account, which is not
equally applicable to the First Epistle of St.
Paul to the Corinthians, the genuineness of
which was never called in question.   In this




THE MYTHICAL THEORY.           125
Epistle the author openly refers to Christ's resurrection as certified, among other witnesses,
by the Twelve, and consequently by Matthew
and John. It is a noticeable fact, indeed, that
there is scarcely one of the Pauline Epistles
which does not refer to Christ's resurrection.
If the general miraculous history of the Saviour, contained in the Four Gospels, forms no
part of the Epistles of Paul, it must be remembered that he wrote to believers, who could
not be supposed to need any recurrence to this
history for the confirmation of their faith, but
only to be enlightened in the religion they had
received, and to be carried forward in its practical objects. Hence it is observable, that even
when Paul speaks of the resurrection of Christ,
to which he makes so frequent allusion, there
is no appearance of his doing so with the view
of strengthening the argument for the authenticity of the Saviour's divine mission, or for
the Christian belief in general,-but either to
direct attention to it as a grand feature in the
life of Jesus, a sublime stamp and characteristic of his glory,-or else to explain and enforce some particular doctrine or duty immediately connected with it,-or, lastly, to draw
from this wonderful event a forcible illustration
for some object or other which he had in
view.
Besides, Paul was not a witness at first hand




126     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
of any of the facts recorded in the Gospels.
He felt no special responsibility with regard to
the early history of the religion. Here he himself was but a learner. He took the story from
those sources which were open to all. And accordingly he has made no further use of the
history of Jesus than belonged to the immediate purposes of his discourses and epistles,
which professedly took up Christianity at a
stage subsequent to its historical original.
The mythical theory supposes an attempt on
the part of the gospel writers to make the history of Jesus tally with the lives and actions
of great men mentioned in the Old Testament.
Moses experienced a wonderful deliverance when
an infant; therefore Christ must receive a like
illustrious attestation of the Divine favor; and
a mythical childhood, embracing a remarkable
preservation of his life during his infancy, was
fabricated for this and other purposes by his
disciples. Moses performed wonders on the Nile
and at the Red Sea; for this reason Christ is
represented as exercising a similar or greater
power over the waters of Palestine. So says the
mythist. There is no end to such correspondences.  Ingenuity can easily make them    out.
Some degree of likeness may always be traced
between any two eminent individuals who have
occupied similar positions in the world's history.
It would not be difficult, a few ages hence, to




THE MYTHICAL THEORY.         127
cast suspicion upon the historical reality of the
most distinguished of modern generals, if, to
prove him a mythical character, it were sufficient to show that he bore a striking likeness
to some illustrious warrior of ancient times.
But I go farther. As to the resemblances
which have been noted between the Jesus of
the New Testament and the prominent actors
under the ancient covenant, what if no such resemblances existed? Suppose that nothing recorded of him could be brought into any comparison with what is related of his great prototype, the founder of the Jewish dispensation.
Moses foretold that a prophet like unto himself
was to be raised up. Christ is generally admitted to have been the prophetic personage to
whom he alluded. But there was the utmost
care, notwithstanding, on the part of Divine
Providence,-so we will suppose,-not to mark
the similarity of their missions by any similarity in their credentials. Though it could not
but have had great weight with every Hebrew
to witness in Jesus powers at once analogous
and superior to those which were displayed by
Moses, yet they were not bestowed. How sterile the argument in favor of the gospel history
which the unbeliever would have professed to
discover in this fact! Why not a little more
consideration, it would have been asked, for the
honorable, time-rooted attachment of the Jews




128     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to the illustrious and Divinely-appointed head
of their own sacred institutions?  What with
their reverence for him, and the strong impression they had always cherished that some high
and august credentials properly appertained to
the Messianic office, they could not but have
expected that one invested with this office, especially if commissioned of God to establish a
dispensation to succeed their own, would be surrounded by a still brighter halo of glory than
that by which the Levitical lawgiver had been
distinguished,-in short, that nothing would be
wanting which might assist them in transferring
their allegiance from the Law to the Gospel.
True, they would have acknowledged that a
spiritual and peaceful system, of which a life of
humiliation and suffering in its founder formed
a necessary part, might not have admitted of
his occupying a position of so resplendent and
imposing a character as that assigned to Israel's
leader. Yet Jesus, we should have been told,
might have been glorified in many ways, not
incompatible with the most lowly and oppressed
condition. He might have calmed the sea, and
yet have fallen the victim of unbelieving violence. He might have been miraculously preserved in his infancy, and yet have suffered
at last upon the cross. The Israelite, it would
have been remarked, had enough to try his
faith, in having to exchange his religion for an



THE MYTHICAL THEORY.          129
other, under any circumstances, without being
perplexed by what to him must have been
mysterious indeed,-how   a religion superior to
Judaism should be attended with less striking
credentials than those of which Judaism itself
could boast.
The turn which the scale would thus have
taken shows that mythical views do not adapt
themselves to the gospel case.   So far from
wondering that Christ bore some resemblance
to his venerated predecessor,-the fact on which
the mythical theory is built,-we might rather be surprised that the resemblances are not
more numerous, as they doubtless would have
been, had the Evangelists been eager to discover them, or labored to make them out.
In the field of Jewish history there was no
dearth of materials. Dr. Jortin  specifies nearly
forty instances of resemblance between Moses
and Christ. The gospel writers have referred
only to one or two,- and to these with no
apparent intention of reflecting honor thereby
upon their Master.
* Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. pp. 138-148.
VOL. I.            9




CHAPTER    IV.
MIRACLES-THEIR HARMONY WITH NATURE.
THE advocacy of miracles on the ground of
coincidence may seem incompatible with their
import. They are apt to be regarded as specific events, occurring under no influence of time
or circumstance, destitute of analogy, nay, opposed to all other facts. This is a view I cannot accept.  Because miracles stand alone in
their phenomenal character, it does not follow
that they have no harmonious relations to other
events. Such relations can be pointed out; and
were they ever so obscure, we know that the
records of science are stored with seemingly
isolated phenomena, which are nevertheless connected with the great system of Nature, as ultimate experience is sure to prove.
A miracle may be defined as a phenomenon
out of the established line of natural causation,
the result of a special intervention of Providence in Nature, showing an express volition of
Deity for some particular end.
A messenger from heaven is to be accredited.




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 131
He is enabled to perform a miraculous act, such
as giving sight to the blind, or raising the dead
to life, to prove that God is with him.
The act is not to be termed repugnant to
Nature, though deviating from it. Here is simply a new power for a new purpose. Regular
powers are not violated; another power intervenes. Had Lazarus been permitted to remain
in the grave, his body would have been consumed under the ordinary chemical agencies of
Nature; but Providence preserved it from their
influence, and renewed its vitality. So one takes
a leaf out of a flowing brook and carries it
higher up the stream.   The laws of running
water are not thereby violated; their action in
this particular instance is only avoided.  Had
the current itself been compelled to carry the
leaf upward instead of downward, there would
have been a violation of a natural law,-as
there would also have been in the case of
Lazarus, had those material agents which would
naturally have decomposed his body after death
been made to reanimate it. But I know not
how any natural law is invaded by protecting
from its power some object over which that
power would otherwise have been exerted.
Operations of this kind are continually going
on in the physical world. When the cold atmosphere of winter would congeal the surface
of a lake, the particles immediately exposed be



132     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
come specifically heavier by condensation and
descend out of the reach of frost, leaving another and another stratum to repeat the process, till every drop has come in succession to
the top,-by which time, if the water be of
any considerable depth, the danger will probably have passed away. The freezing power of
the air is not, in this case, violated, because
the liquid strata, one after another, are removed
from its influence. True, the removal is natural; but suppose it had been supernatural, the
result would have been the same. The laws of
Nature are violated no more in the one case
than in the other.
Even, therefore, if the laws of Nature be regarded as the organic fixtures of the universe,
of which it were difficult to believe that any
violation should be permitted, there is no necessity for saying that any such violation takes
place in the case of a Christian miracle. But
Newton is said to have believed in no such fixtures, independent of the immediate agency of
the Deity.
All this, however, belongs to the metaphysical and explanatory philosophy of miracles. In
order to the credibility of a supernatural effect,
it is not requisite that we should be able to
explain it, or to unfold the precise process by
which it is produced.
Are miracles possible? is the first inquiry.




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 133
Not that it is questioned whether the power of
the Almighty be adequate to the performance
of miracles; but whether such interruptions of
the order of Nature be compatible with the
Wisdom and Goodness by which that order was
established. Natural science, it is argued, the
whole system of inductive reasoning in its application to the material universe, involves the
supposition of the universal and permanent uniformity of Nature, and no generalizing conclusion could ever be drawn from any physical
phenomenon, if this uniformity were not maintained inviolate.
I answer, that natural philosophers themselves
by no means unite in this opinion.  Some of
the most zealous and successful of them have
been eminent believers in the Christian miracles,
and these are the only miracles of which we
are now speaking. We know of no miraculous
interventions since. But even were there an occasional recurrence of such events, still how little would they interfere with scientific researches!  They would be known immediately for
what they were. They would have their own
supernatural signatures and indications.  The
miracle-worker would announce the nature of
his work. He would appeal to it as the proof
of his divine commission. It would not profess
to be a natural phenomenon; and none would
mistake it for a natural phenomenon.




134     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
The order which the Creator has established
in the physical universe is unquestionably best
-best, even as we can see-for his intelligent
and sentient creatures. But should ever its interruption in particular instances be more beneficial on the whole than its unvarying continuance would be, then the principle of the rule
would plainly become the principle of the exception, and the standing uniformity must yield
to the change of circumstances.
Facts strikingly indicative of this accommodating character of systematic law are widely
spread through the whole natural world. On
the continent of New Holland there are forms
of animal and vegetable life which might be
called deviations from Nature, if Nature were
uniformity,-such as seeds growing on the outside of the shell, black swans, white ravens,
quadrupeds with bills, and the like. No doubt,
in these anomalies peculiar circumstances were
consulted; and we have only to suppose that
the power which Jesus exerted of walking on
the sea was likewise an adaptation to extraordinary occasions, and the case of miracles falls
under the category of a natural arrangement.
It is easy to conceive of a faith so strong in
a settled order of the universe, as to recoil
from the idea of any departure from it. There
is such a departure, apparently, in every miracle,-that is, to a certain extent.   A  new




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 135
power steps in and makes the blind man to
see at a word, from which, in the ordinary
course of events, no such phenomenon would
ensue.  So far, within this compass, there is
a deviation here from the regular order of Nature.
But taking a wider view, where does Nature
begin, and where does it terminate?  In the
contemplation of a universal plan, boundless and
complete, the work of Omnipotent Wisdom and
Goodness, should we not expand our thoughts
as much as possible, and regard whatever would
seem conducive to a good and useful end as so
far entitled to be embraced in this comprehensive and perfect scheme?   And does it not
fall within the conception of utility that the
great Superintendent should sometimes depart
from the laws of physical order, as generally established, to meet important emergencies which
could not have been provided for in any purely
mechanical arrangements?-to meet, that is, the
moral necessities of his free and accountable
creatures?
Were the universe a machine in every respect, its regular action would never need to
be interrupted for the benefit of any particular part.  But how is the moral freedom  of
man to be always accurately met by any regulation which is itself not free? The free agent
moves in an ideal world,-a world of volition




136     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
that centres in himself. He chooses and rejects
at his pleasure. He travels in a path of his
own. His own, I say. Understand this term in
any but its natural sense, its full sense, and we
are abusing language in calling man a free
agent. Let him act wrong or right, it is in the
exercise of his moral liberty. We must look
this matter in the face and take the consequences.  God is willing to permit the consequences. He has placed an intelligent creature on
this theatre of action, —a very frail and shortsighted creature, to be sure,-still, so it is, he
has placed him here as an actually free being;
and no theoretical gloss of ours must be put
upon the fact to make a finer and better matter of it than it really is. There is such a
thing as free agency,-free to iniquity and confusion, and free to rectitude and order,-and
the question is, How in all its waywardnesses
is it to be managed by a corrective and counteracting hand? Shall that counteraction be a
fixed passivity of system, always proceeding in
a certain undeviating way, like the planets in
their orbits? In this case, will the superintending power, and the free mind on which it is
to act, always come fairly together, face to face,
to suit the action of the power to the necessities of the mind? Will an orderly, path-determined supervision always hit an irregular, capricious, and wayward agency precisely at the




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 137
right point? If the shepherd may not desert
the highway, can he be always at hand to turn
back the aberrations of his flock?  He must
have the same liberty with them; if they leap
the wall, so must he.
Thus a Providence not bound to mechanical
rules seems to be indispensable to humanity
in its existing condition.  In short, the free
agency of man creates a necessity for an interposing care,-in other words, for occasional deviations from what is termed the natural order
of things,-in fine, for miracles.
But it may be said,-If man is a free agent,
let him act out his freedom under the inflexible
and harmonious laws of that government to
which he is subject. Let him take the consequences of conforming or of not conforming
to them.   It belongs to the very nature of
his freedom and his moral discipline that it
should be so. Act as he may, there will be no
need of Almighty interposition to preserve the
universe from  harm.-No, but there may be
for his benefit.
Say what we may of a strict theoretical exactitude of movement as most agreeable to our
highest conception of an harmonious world, utility is on the side of Providential freedom. And
what is order to utility? or rather, what order
so perfect as that which comprehends the freest
concessions to utility?




138     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Nor is this mere speculation,-the principle
that in any system the best arrangement is
that which conduces to the best results.  We
see it displayed in actual Providence,-none
more conspicuously. We look abroad upon the
universe and behold a subserviency of means to
ends, so various and vast, as to be sufficient
to supply faith for any Providential measure,
however wonderful, that may only exhibit a
salutary tendency. The energies there at work
are upon so stupendous a scale, that no power,
natural or supernatural, need hold itself too
high to cooperate by their side. No incredibility, therefore, attaches to miracles, in the plan
of Providential dynamics, though they do affect
us with astonishment.  Is there any call for
them? is the question. If there be, they need
not shrink from a connection with so many useful instrumentalities in Nature which overwhelm
the imagination with unutterable awe.  Have
they anything to do?   Would the believing
world, and the world not believing, feel that
a principal evidence for divine revelation was
withdrawn, if these were taken away? This, I
judge, is the great question concerning miracles.
I say again, that in the works of God we
discover one unbounded system of the fit and
the good. If an object is to be effected, the
most suitable means are called into action to




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 139
accomplish it. We see nothing lame or stint,
ed, —no beginning to build, without the ability to finish. Adequate agency characterizes the
operations of Nature.  If any particular measure, therefore, have been necessary to bring to
pass some great end of Divine wisdom, analogy would lead us to conclude that it has been
actually employed. Would miracles draw attention and give effect to any truth in behalf of
which they were wrought? Do a large portion
of mankind consider such Heaven-sealed testimonials indispensable to a Heaven-sent message?
With supposed counter sanctions of this very
description had Christianity to contend when
she stepped forth upon the stage. Might it not,
then, be presumed that God would not suffer a
communication from himself to lack a species
of confirmation so accordant with the principles
of human nature, or fail to give the miracles
he should employ for this purpose a magnificence and certainty that would fit them to prevail over all spurious competitors?
I have alluded to man's moral freedom, as
one grand, inevitable occasion for a Providential administration of this sort. If he were a
machine, adapted to move perpetually in one
unvaried round of fixed conditions, he might
be left to travel his own course forever without any interposition for his benefit. But the
changeful and contrarious phases of this moral




140     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
humanity of ours can never be accurately met
by any stated and regular appliances, but must
be followed, like the wandering sheep of the
parable, by a care variable as its own eccentric
path.
And this consideration may obviate an objection which has been advanced against the
whole doctrine of miracles.  It has been maintained, that "the proposition, that God works
sometimes mediately, sometimes immediately, upon the world, introduces a changeableness, and
therefore a temporal element, into the nature
of his action," and "contains a theological contradiction." *  As if God had not already introduced this very contradiction,-as Strauss is
pleased to term it, —and on an extensive scale,
far beyond that witnessed in the miracles of
the New Testament, by the creation of free
minds! In the exercise of our own wills, we
as truly break in upon what he calls the mediate action of God, the outward mechanism of
Nature, as could be done by what he denominates the immediate working of God himself,-we
as really interrupt the absolute wheel-and-axle
uniformity of physical causation as a Divine volition could do. We interpose, by our volition,
to prevent the stone from falling to the ground,
and the rivers from running into the sea. At
* STRAUSS, Life of Jesus. Translated from the 4th German
Edition. Vol. I. p. 72.




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 141
our command, the grass grows where otherwise
it would not have appeared, and ceases from
the spots where Nature would have rendered it
abundant. And were our free and independent
actions only the operations of an Infinite Will,
they would be to all intents and purposes miracles. They are irregular enough to be thus
characterized. Nothing but their frequency, and
the absence of any immediate divine object, disqualifies them for this high distinction.
I am sensible that the voluntary acts of our
~minds, by which we mould and direct material
agencies at our pleasure, belong themselves to
the system of Nature and form a regular part
of it. Still they are interposing volitions, which
take their own arbitrary movement from their
own independent centre. They are distinguished
by the free element as much as the Divine volitions. Though finite and erroneous, and herein
sinking away from all comparison with the acts
of the Unerring Will, still they are spontaneous,
and perform the office of a controlling power
over surrounding objects. Calling them natural
makes no difference; Nature is nothing more
than the great system of Providential realities.
In this view the miracle is only the infinite
of the finite. We see in it our own autocracy
of choice,-only omnipotent; our own self-originated agency,-only not the work of a limited
intelligence, but the appointment of a perfect




142     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
wisdom; Nature,-only not at its minimum, but
at its maximum point of moral power.
I repeat, therefore, that this freedom of mind,
this imperium in imperio, whose intervenings and
interactings render corresponding ones apparently indispensable on the part of the Divine administration, takes away everything mysterious
from the mere theory of the miracle. It is impossible that the movements of a free agent
should be reduced to a mechanical routine; the
irregular inust be met by the irregular. Man
cannot be governed by any physical uniformities. These can act upon his conduct only as
he permits them  to act.  They can surround
him with influences adapted to induce an orderly use of his faculties; and this they do. Nature is our constant and glorious teacher. In
its common phenomena it displays to our minds
lovely and sublime manifestations of system.
The regular operations of cause and effect in
the physical universe furnish us those data of
calculation which are useful for the training of
our reasoning powers. Yet they do not control
us.  We exert a control over them; and the
miracle, so called, does no more,-only it does
it better and to a greater extent. Man can
have his will over the angry sea only by pouring oil upon the waves; he cannot smooth them
by a word. Each were equally the miracle of
principle, but not equally the miracle of power




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 143
The material bows alike to both,-only their
range is different. In short, our supermechanism or supernaturalism of capacity, call it which
we may, is that of a finite being. That which
from its incomparable superiority engrosses the
name of supernatural belongs to an Infinite
One. His interpositions are always beneficial,while we are perpetually abusing our sovereignty over physical agents to suit some selfish inclination of our own. God leaves the course
of material laws to a settled routine, except on
extraordinary occasions which require a deviation; we often interfere, in our limited way,
where no good end is obtained by it. But although his interventions are distinguished by
a wisdom as well as power infinitely exalted
above ours, still in both alike the passivity of
the mechanical and material is subjected to the
volitions of the free mind.
Such is the standing co-attitude of those two
great natural factors, human liberty and material fixedness,-if material agencies can be
called fixed, when they are so much under our
control. And how long might we suppose matters would continue thus, and that all the causes at work upon our earth would be those of
Material Nature, on the one hand, and of human volition, on the other? Forever? I can
imagine not. And when not? When these two
alone were no longer sufficient,-when either




144     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
had undergone some change that required the
intervention of another power,-when the human will, for example, had become so enslaved
by a long habit of transgression and sin, as to
need some additional appliances besides the stated and normal teachings of Natural Providence.
The Christian revelation has met this exigency.
Here deep calleth unto deep; the supernatural
answers to the unnatural; the merciful Father
is pleased to desert the high road of Providential uniformity to follow the wanderings of
his blind and infatuated child.
The idea that God has sometimes interposed
by specific and extraordinary measures in his
moral government of mankind, as occasions have
required, harmonizes with what we learn and
observe of the course and method of the Divine
administration in the physical world. To the
eye of Science the universe does not exhibit
one continuous development, one vast self-unfolding system, from some incipient ovum of existence. It finds that this great earthly theatre
has been several times within the compass of
fossil history reopened with new  dramatis persounc. And even in the present geological period it discovers indications of new initial phenomena in the works of Nature. Although an
orderly gradation runs up from the first rudimental animal till it reaches its culmination in
man, yet we know of no general laws of mat



HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 145
ter which would naturally produce this ascensional series, or which seem capable of bridging over the interval which lies between every
species and the species which is next above
it. True, the phenomena of successional existence are regular in Nature; none more so;
yet no philosophy of material causation with
which we are acquainted helps us to any explanation of that serial process itself which rises from one level to another in the animated
world. It is nothing like water running down
a hill-side, or seeds swelling by moisture, or
buds opening under the expansive power of
heat, or sap ascending by the capillary structure of the tree. In every new succession, from
the mollusk to the mammal, a complete end
and a complete beginning seem to come together, like the contiguous links of a chain. A
unity of type may be detected throughout the
series, but each individual class displays a distinct and separate formation. There is no appearance of any self-elongation in the antecedent to reach the sequential and superior grade.
In other words, we trace no consecutive action
of general physical laws in the proceeding, but,
as far as we can discover, the Creator was
pleased of his own will to appoint these animal
gradations, and to embody the appointment in
the shape of a fixed physiological law,-a law
neither of heat, nor of moisture, nor of gravity,
VOL. I.           10




146     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
nor of any of the regular powers and properties
of matter, but a sort of naturalized miracle.
Again, there are cases in which there appears
to be an abrupt and arbitrary arrest of physical causation to meet a special emergency. To
revert to an illustration that has been already
adduced for a different purpose. When a wintry atmosphere spreads over the bosom of a
lake, it contracts the particles of water which
are exposed to it, and causes them, in consequence of the increased specific gravity thus acquired, to sink.  The next layer below takes
their place, and so on in succession, creating a
constant motion downward and upward. But
lo! while all this motion is regularly going on,
it suddenly stops!  The circulation lasts sufficiently long to bring up all the water to the
top to be cooled down to within eight degrees
of the freezing-point, when, the action of the
frost still continuing, instantaneously, as by a
word, these effects are arrested, are reversed,
condensation is stopped, the water begins to
expand, the watery surface is made lighter instead of heavier by the cold so as to be incapable of sinking any more, circulation ceases,
and the lake, which a few cold nights would
otherwise have converted into a solid bed of
ice destructive to its finny inhabitants, is now
simply crystalled over, affording them effectual
protection  and  a genial temperature.  What




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 147
more signal interposition of Divine Providence
in Nature? What more striking analogy to the
Christian miracle than this exceptional provision
of physical law for a beneficent end?
We find ourselves in a universe where Providence is constantly communing with us through
a medium as nearly resembling a miracle as
were possible without destroying the character
and office of the miracle itself. It presents,
that is, as far as may be, the most striking
counterparts to a miracle.
If a miracle is mysterious, so also are there
mysteries in the works of Nature. The growth
of a blade of grass is as inexplicable to our
philosophy as the blasting of a fig-tree at the
command of Jesus; not equally surprising, it is
true, from a circumstance which is nothing to
them and nothing to us,-the simple fact of
frequent and ordinary occurrence. God has imparted a principle of life to the animal structure; and who can unfold the nature of life,
better than he can explain a resurrection from
the dead? True, life is a constant phenomenon,
and a resurrection not; and, what is equally
certain, life needs to be a constant phenomenon,
and a resurrection not. Each has occurred as
often as was suitable in the view of Him who
created and governs the universe. Why, then,
should the one be pronounced more in harmony
with Nature than the other, when both have




148    HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
their appropriate times and places in the infi.
nite system of Providence, who rules over Nature and whose will is Nature?
But if a miracle is not a more mysterious
act of Divine power than the most common
fact in Nature, how, it may be asked, is it
any peculiar expression of the Divine will, or
why should it be regarded as more a credential from the Almighty, for one to raise the
dead than to be the ordinary instrument of
bringing a human being into existence?-To
raise the dead, I would answer, is not in itself
a more inconceivable act of Omnipotence than
to bestow life in the natural way. In their intrinsic element of possibility they are equally
beyond our philosophy. But the power to restore life is only occasionally imparted, for some
extraordinary end,-and then, through no regular chain of physical causation. A specific volition of the Almighty is necessary, and it is
confined to some particular instance. With this
it begins, and with this it terminates. A new
power is granted for a new   purpose.  When
Jesus spake the word and the fig-tree wasted
away, there was an immediate interposition of
God, to enable him to give this very impressive
proof that God was with him. But when that
fig-tree originally grew up under the culture of
the husbandman, though the process was utterly
mysterious, yet it spoke nothing remarkable for




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 149
that husbandman in particular, for it was only
the regular repetition of a phenomenon that
had always occurred under the hand of every
husbandman who had been at pains to cast a
fig-seed into the ground.
Similar phenomena are of constant occurrence
in the natural world,-the same in principle,
though different in form,-new powers, I mean,
for new objects. How many the cases in which
a human being finds himself in the enjoyment
of faculties, when they have become necessary
to him, which he did not originally possess! An
infant could no more build a house or solve a
mathematical problem than he could raise a
dead person from the grave; but abilities for
these and other purposes arise Providentially
within him at an after period of life. These
things come to every individual, indeed, for
they are needed by every individual; whereas
what are called supernatural powers are displayed only by a few, and they are needed
only by a few.
True, the faculties which are unfolded in the
progress of life are inlaid in our original constitution, and are sure to be developed when the
occasions for them  occur,-whereas miraculous
endowments are specially imparted for extraordinary purposes. But this difference is unavoidable.  The nature and office of the miracle
demand it, as imperatively as important inter



150     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ests demand a general regularity in the material universe.  We can conceive of no other
way in which Providence could adapt itself to
the wants of a free agent than by an alternative system of constant and occasional provisions, ordinary and extraordinary, as the appropriate demands for them might arise.
If any take a pleasure, therefore, in thinking
of Providence as steadily adhering to one harmonious plan, they may enjoy this noble conception of the Divine dominion,-the case of
miracles not excepted. But then plan must be
understood in its highest and most comprehensive sense, as including both moral and physical laws in all their bearings upon one another.
In such a glorious and illimitable scheme we
may conceive that miracles make their appearance as often as they are required; just as other Providential phenomena take place in their
appropriate seasons.  When the vernal sun is
pouring forth its warmth, and the husbandman
has deposited his grain in the earth, and all
things are now ready, we behold a natural
mystery,-for who can explain it? A radicle
shoots out from the seed, the embryo of the
future vegetable. And I must regard it as a
parallel fact, that, when the proper period had
arrived, new and mysterious powers were conferred on particular individuals to radicate the
moral plant from which a higher condition of




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 151
humanity was to receive nourishment and support.
Should it be said that there is this difference between natural and supernatural phenomena,-that the former have their regular times,
the latter none that we know of,-if it were a
difference of any importance, it were easy to
show  that natural provisions for the development of new powers, as they may be needed,
are in many cases not limited to any fixed period as to their exhibition or continuance. The
sheep of the tropics, with his coat of hair suited to an equatorial region, has lodged within
him the power of exchanging it for a coat of
wool, if ever and whenever he shall be transported to the North, as probably he never will
be. This may be parallel enough to the uncertain and occasional need of miraculous interposition in the moral government of the universe.
A miracle has been termed a transgression of
the laws of God. What laws?     Those which
regulate the succession of day and night, which
make the decay of the fig-tree progressive, the
subsidence of the tempest gradual, and the death
of the body final and complete? or those which
belong to a higher department of the Divine
administration,-the instruction  and  happiness
of intelligent beings? An event may break off
from some mechanical order in the material




152     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
world, and yet be charged with a commission
from God of incalculable importance; it may
disturb a mere physical routine, to accomplish
some great moral end of the Divine government. And this I understand to be the very description of a Christian miracle. We witness no
phenomenon more frequently than that of some
power of Nature arrested or overcome, that it
may permit a different power to take its place
for a season. There is the power of gravitation,
for example, one of whose regular operations
consists in causing water to descend into the
earth; but we see the action of this power
overruled by the interposition of another power
which is lodged in the tubular structure of a
plant, and which causes the liquid element to
ascend and incorporate itself with the body of
the vegetable. So throughout the great whole
of Providential Nature, we behold a perpetual
series of conflicting processes. And it was only
an illustration of the same procedure, when, to
confirm a special revelation from Heaven, some
few physical laws were controlled in the shape
of a Christian miracle. If it display the wisdom
of the Creator that a capillary attraction has
been provided in the vascular system  of the
vegetable, to invert, for the benefit of that vegetable, the course which water would regularly
pursue, I can see no conflicting and contrary
arrangement, if the laws of health and life were




HARMONY OF MIRACLES WITH NATURE. 153
arrested, in the great providence of Christianity,
for the purpose of nourishing the plant whose
leaves are for the healing of the nations.
In fine, when I behold the constant intervention of overruling agencies in the visible
universe, I can see no reason why, when we
come to the higher department of the spiritual
life, everything like antagonism of powers or
controlling interference should be regarded as
unnatural. True, the material agencies referred
to  are  matters of constant observation.        But I
do not know what principle is involved in frequency   of occurrence.     Frequent or unfrequent,
they are examples of cause supplanting cause,the Christian miracle differing from them only
in exhibiting a moral instead of a material control, besides being so much more uncommon as
it is necessary it should be to answer its intended purpose.
NOTE. —The similarity of some of the foregoing views to some
that are found in the recent treatise by the Rev. Dr. Bushnell,
entitled Nature and the Supernatural, makes it proper to state,
that, at the date of the publication of that work, the corresponding portions of the present work, embracing this and the two
following chapters on Miracles, were already in the hands of the
printer, and had been several years in manuscript.




CHAPTER V.
MIRACLES- THEIR USES.
How far God's interposing hand is introduced
in human affairs is beyond our knowledge. Its
secret modes of interposition may be constant
and innumerable.  Of those which have been
manifest to human observation, the gospel is
the chief. The Paternal Mind here comes conspicuously forth, communicating with our minds
in the exercise of mind's appropriate sovereignty over the organic and the material.
Something of the same kind, only upon a
smaller scale, and not divine, man always needs
and always enjoys.   He needs constant intercourse with the minds around him; and here
are spiritual sympathies prepared for him, as
unfettered, if not as glorious, as those of a
special revelation from heaven. As I said, he
needs this intercourse. A solitary intellect, surrounded by an unchanging regularity of Mechanical Nature, would see nothing to reflect
and awaken itself. Mind must be the life of
mind.




USES OF MIRACLES.          155
Are all minds equally competent to minister
to this need? Far from it. The highest mental communications of man with man are as
uncommon as the interpositions of the Divine
agency in the world of miracles. It is a rare
and mountain range of noble spirits which from
time to time have been the light and blessing
of their race. And what is it but the same administration carried to its utmost height, when
the Infinite Mind itself steps forward into this
great communion and holds direct intercourse
~with our minds through some manifest subjection of the material to his will, such as perpetually attends the expression of our own wills,
-only in his case in an infinitely higher degree?  To communicate with each other, we
invite our friends to the domestic board, and
set before them the grain which Nature would
have left in the kernel, but which we have
taken out of her hands, and have converted
into bread, by a process of which she knows
little. To communicate with our minds, God
draws nigh to us, as it were, through a social
symbol, in making a single loaf to multiply itself into many loaves, by a process of which
Nature knows absolutely nothing.
Some persons stand aloof from everything miraculous, as an aid to the spiritual life,-and
that upon one general principle, namely, the
alleged sufficiency of all true religion without




156     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
any outward help. They profess to be satisfied
with the interior traits of artlessness and sincerity which mark the story of the Evangelists,
the plain tokens of Divinity in the precepts and
doctrines of the gospel, the noble virtues of
its great Teacher, and its own wonderful spread
and triumph in the world.    It is enough for
them to discern moral truth with a moral eye.
They consider it derogatory to spiritual intellections to suppose they should require an indorsement from any hand whatever.
But this, I fear, is an exaltation of human intellection which it can hardly claim from experience. A religion of pure intuition has few
examples in history. If we have religious intuitions, as we certainly have, it does not follow
that they do not admit of confirmation. All
our other intuitions certainly do. The fact is,
intuition is liable to be confounded with instruction. Many truths are apt to be considered
as intuitive which are the growth of long and
silent indoctrination.  That fundamental principle of Christianity, for example, that it is our
duty to love God with all our heart and all
our soul and all our mind and all our strength,
plainly depends for its acceptance upon several
premises, all of which have been denied or
questioned by some, and been but imperfectly
apprehended by any outside the Christian pale.
It requires, in the first place, a belief in an




USES OF MIRACLES.          157
Infinite Father, while many have regarded the
Divinity only with sentiments of awe and terror. It requires that the chilling philosophy be
repelled which represents the Almighty as too
exalted above his creatures to concern himself
in their affairs. It requires that the mysteries
of Providence be in some measure cleared up
to the eye of faith.  Here, then, we need a
revelation, or some adequate authority or instruction, in order to a practical recognition of
the first and great commandment. I would not
*say that without a revelation we should have
had no faith in God himself, since all revelation supposes this very faith; but the practical
power of a truth is a very different matter
from  its mere philosophic perception; and I
doubt if there be any moral truth whose impression and efficacy do not materially depend
upon the authority on which it is announced.
I am sensible that it is not difficult to array
intuition against external authority in religion,
if we allow ourselves to overlook some impor-'tant distinctions. On intuition all external authority in religion must depend. The authority
of the Bible itself must depend upon it. For
how does the demonstrating of the Bible to be
the word of God prove its supreme authority,
or that it is an infallible standard of the true
and the right, unless to the eye of reason it be
first manifest that He whose word it is both




158     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
knows the truth and is disposed to tell it to
his creatures? There must be an a-priori belief
in his moral attributes, or else a book-revelation
is of no use.
So much we may justly say,-that the keystone of the glorious arch of revelation is intuition. Hence some have inferred that there is
no call for an outward authoritative revelation
of moral and spiritual truths. Nor would there
be, if it were confined to the first and simple
principle of God's veracity in general; since our
confidence in his veracity must precede our confidence in a revelation, and not be the result
of it. But how much more may a revelation
impart than the single assurance that God is
true!-For what purpose were we created?-Is
there to be a future life?-Does natural evil answer important and preponderating moral ends?
-Good men and wise have differed much upon these points, and upon others of equal practical moment, which can be definitively settled
only by revelation. Here, then, is plainly occasion for an external authoritative communication
from Heaven, although there may be no room
for any such communication as to the one fundamental fact of the Divine veracity.  Who
would say to Plato or Socrates,-I can receive
nothing upon your authority, since it was by
my own discernment I satisfied myself that
your authority was of any weight?




USES OF MIRACLES.          159
In short, the Bible may be our great spiritual guide, and yet we may have gathered our
principal trust in it from some intuition or reasoning of our own.
Many, however, appear to think that to lean
upon another in a question of truth is an intellectual solecism.  But what is there repugnant to right reason in accepting truth on the
warrant of one whom we feel to be superior
to ourselves in wisdom and goodness? We cannot, they tell us, borrow a conviction; we canhot believe by proxy; we cannot think by
miracles.  Truth to them, they say, must be
a matter of their own perception,-not the projected influence of another's perception upon
their minds. But their own perception may be
through another's perception.  Deference to a
superior may be as independent an act of the
mind as any whatever. We sacrifice our intellectual freedom, not by yielding to authority,
but by not using our own understanding to
see the grounds upon which it is entitled to
our submission. If we consider the miracles of
the gospel a sufficient evidence of its truth,
we act ourselves, and are guilty of no want of
allegiance to our own minds, by resting our
belief in the gospel upon that basis. I doubt
if an atheist could have gone away an atheist
from the scene of the resurrection of Lazarus,
or if he could have felt his new convictions




160     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to be any dereliction of his own mental dignity and independence.
Not only is a miracle the appropriate signature of a revelation, but it responds to a powerful instinct in human nature. To the mighty
and the awful we have a peculiar natural sensibility. We listen to a strange voice with open
ear and fixed attention.  The same   remark
produces more than the ordinary impression
when it comes from a new and imposing quarter.  The very stupendousness of a miracle,
therefore, must be favorable to the influence of
any truth which may be associated with it. A
lofty emotion asks the concurrence of a lofty
circumstance. Sensation is an aid to sentiment.
The sea inspires devotional feelings which the
shells upon its beaches never could awaken.
The shells may afford as logical proof of an
Almighty Wisdom as the ocean,-perhaps more,
-but they do not display such an inspiriting
and moving manifestation of it.  We cannot
wonder, therefore, that revelation should avail
itself of supernatural accompaniments to impress
itself more deeply upon the human mind, and
to give new force to every other argument in
favor of its own reality. Reason may teach as
much as a miraculous instructor, but not with
the same weight.
Many desire more sensible evidence of a
Heavenly Friend. "Show us the Father," they




USES OF MIRACLES.           161
say, "and it sufficeth us."  True, they remark,
we may trace his footsteps in the works of
creation; there is a rational manifestation of
the Divine Paternity in every bird that flies
and every flower that blows: but we could wish
the All-Good would proclaim himself to us in
a more immediate way.     The appearances of
physical agency crowd upon our notice; they
make the first impression; they preoccupy the
senses: may we not almost wonder, then, they
inquire, that, if behind these material scenes we
indeed have a Heavenly Parent, he does not
sometimes announce himself to his children in
an audible manner?   We are aware, they confess, that frequent outspeakings of his Providence would lose their effect, or rather, produce
too much effect; they would be apt to overpower our moral liberty; one could hardly feel
temptation, or freely act himself, with a constant miracle by his side: yet in mercy to us
short-sighted creatures, the better to enable us
to realize a divine love, might we not hope
for an   occasional lifting  of the veil,-some
word, some outspoken word, at times, from God
himself, amid all this noiseless machinery and
breathless silence of Nature?-This word we
have. In the mighty works of Jesus we have
it. God has spoken to us by one who sustained the office and authority of his messenger, and taught a system of morality and religVOL. I.           11




162     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ion which for purity and sublimity has no parallel, and whose miracles amply evidenced the
divinity of his mission.
Then, too, a filial sentiment to the Father,
as strengthened by the gospel, proportionally
aspires to a near communion with the great
Object of its affections. It peers with a more
wistful eye into those material shadows which
Nature hangs between ourselves and him.   It
aspires to the closest intimacy possible with the
Benefactor whom Jesus has taught us to love
with all our soul and with all our strength.
And Christ has said so much that was never
said before to exalt our aspirations to a Heavenly Parent, as renders it consistent that he
should have done much that was never done
before to confirm our faith in such a Being.
The supernatural works of mercy he wrought
in his Father's name were of an harmonious
and concurrent character with his words. His
miracles and his teachings were complementary
to one another.
But some are fond of critical distinctions.
We acknowledge, say they, that the recorded
miracles of Jesus were beneficent.  He made
the lame to walk, and the blind to see. He
went about doing good by his mighty works.
We admit that they proved that the love of
the Father dwelt in him and imparted to him
supernatural powers. But did not their office




USES OF MIRACLES.           163
here terminate? How could they be called testimonials to Christianity? They were expressive
of his personal kindness to individuals.-True,
but they were none the less miracles on this
account. They were supernatural attestations to
the divinity of the gospel, and to the fatherly
goodness of the great Author of Nature at the
same time. This double office which they fulfilled is characteristic of his Providence, ever
as wise as it is beneficent,-embodying various
benefits in one and the same provision of his
kind and bountiful care. The miracles of Christ
at once attest the spirit and the divinity of his
mission. There was scarcely one he performed
but some calamity was removed by it.      The
heart of that wonderful power which he exerted
beat a perpetual response to the pleadings of
sorrow and misery. In fine, if sin and suffering
exist in our world under the Divine permission,
the mighty works of Jesus point to a large
remedial provision which has also come into
our world, not merely under the permission of
God, but by his voluntary and immediate act.
But the miraculous element in Christianity is
adapted not merely to strengthen our faith in a
Merciful Ruler of the Universe, but to remind
us that there is a Ruler of the Universe. Our
greatest danger is not so much an unmindfulness of the paternal character of God, as forgetting him altogether, and not feeling any




164     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
practical influence of his being and providence
upon our hearts.
Every moral sentiment needs a ready activity, a prompt, spontaneous movement in our
breasts, in order to produce any decisive effect
on our temper and conduct. There must be an
instantaneous and involuntary recurrence to the
Deity in all our thoughts, to render our belief
in him a living spring of piety and righteousness. Here the Bible exerts an influence it is
impossible to calculate. From the nature of the
human mind, it must be so. The Bible is continually exciting a sense of a Supreme Governor of the Universe, even in the most worldly
and thoughtless readers. And none of us can
tell how much we derive our very idea of a
God, at least every definite and efficient impression of his being and dominion, from that
persistent implication of him and of his providence which flows along directly and indirectly, particularly in the accounts of the miracles,
from one end of the sacred volume to the
other.
A person is continually hearing, saying, and
doing things which take for granted some particular point as true; and the consequence is,
his conviction of its truth is steadily deepening,
though without any additional argument, it may
be, in its support. He is a loyal monarchist or
an ardent republican because he has always




USES OF MIRACLES.          165
been familiar with the praises of a monarchy or
of a republic as the best form of civil government. The devout woman lays down her work
in dismay at hearing one deny the existence of
a God. Not that she is better acquainted with
the proofs of his existence than those who are
less disturbed than herself by this incredible impiety,-but she has long been ripening to the
highest and happiest of all beliefs under the unconscious influence of her Bible, in which the
being and government of God are presupposed
throughout.  So he who has shocked her by
his infidelity may not be particularly versed in
atheistic lore,-but bold assumptions and scoffing propensities have probably been taking their
bad way in him a long time, till they have
worn an impression upon his mind which he
mistakes for proof.
Similar views may be taken of the whole system of Providence under which we live. One
event after another awakens an involuntary reference to an Almighty care. Every affliction is
adapted to produce this effect. And no one can
say how much he is indebted to such events
for the devout impressions he entertains of a
divine government; nor what religious influences their continual recurrence may have exerted on the undefined and composite character
of his motives, without his being conscious of
the fact. They accomplish more than argument,




166     HOURS WITH. THE EVANGELISTS.
because more subtile and constant in their action.
How few persons, in the performance of any
duty, are sensible of being actuated by any
sharply defined motive, or by any abstract reasoning whatever! In how small a part of our
conduct, indeed, are we moved otherwise than
by the simple force of spontaneous impulse!
Habit forestalls argument. Opinions are put in
abeyance by emotional antecedents.  The cure
of the blind man, the resurrection of Lazarus,
have made unconscious impressions upon readers
of the Bible which no theoretical infidelity has
been able to efface. That law of the human
mind by which strength of conviction and vividness of conception are closely allied-a most
happy law, when we consider that the same
causes which produce the one usually require
the other-assigns an emphatic importance to
the miraculous element in, Christianity, on account of the influence of miracles upon the
conceptive and imaginative faculty.
Polytheistic errors have been undermined by
the supernaturalism of the gospel. The mighty
works of Jesus exhibit no multiplicity of divine
powers; they are all the acts of one Almighty
Power. If, as some think, they recognize the
existence of evil spirits, it is not in the capacity
of divinities, but merely as mysterious agents,
which were subject to the power not only of




USES OF MIRACLES.            167
Jesus, but of Jewish   exorcists.  Furthermore,
the miraculous manifestations in the gospel histories have no pantheistic appearance.   They
are the acts of a personal Father. In fine, the
miracles of Christianity are at war with the
whole idea whether of a multiform or an impersonal Deity.
Again, the supernatural facts of the gospel
history sustain an important relation to that
great primary article of the gospel faith, the
doctrine of immortality.  The mental leap required for the conception of a miracle is akin
to that which is necessary for belief in a future
life. Both demand the same species of intellectual effort. True, a belief in immortality is
natural to man. It finds a strong response in
our moral constitution. And other natural facts
yield it a certain degree of illustration and support. The seed and the worm undergo transformations which may be drawn into some analogy to that stupendous change which awaits
ourselves. We see also that the powers of the
most insignificant insect are carried out to their
utmost possible completeness, and that they
have always been as they are at present.
There is not a creature besides ourselves in
which we discover any latent susceptibility of
improvement, apparently only waiting for favoring circumstances to render it a nobler being.
In short, the present existence of every animal




168        HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
below the grade of humanity appears to cover
all the natural capabilities of its species. Hence
we might infer that man also would enjoy a
privilege of existence sufficient for the development of all his faculties, and for their attainment to their proper perfection. This, it is
believed, they never do attain in this world.
The Christian is never improving more rapidly
than when his last hour for improvement would
seem to have arrived.* Another life, then, is
plainly necessary for his moral maturity. But
another life demands a resurrection.
A resurrection, however, has no parallel in
Nature. The change of a worm to a winged
* If it be said that the phenomenon of death is an apparent
extinction of vitality, and as much so in respect to the mental
as the physical being,-I reply, that we have a glorious conviction of the future and continued existence of our minds, such as
we have not in respect to that of our bodies. We have an intuitive feeling of the union of our minds with the mind of God,
-that in him we live and move and have our being. We irresistibly embrace him, cleave to him, trust to him, as our own intellectual and moral centre, our all in all, and cannot but entertain a corresponding feeling that we, as his intellectual and moral
children, have the arms of his interest and love folded around
us. The idea of going away or being torn away from this communion is revolting to us. Because he lives, we cannot but feel
we shall live also; and this may be the explanation of that otherwise obscure observation of Jesus, that "God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living."
Again, we have evidences of the future and continued existence
of our minds after death which do not apply to the body, in the
progressive nature of mind, in revelation, and so forth, on which
we cannot here enlarge.




USES OF MIRACLES.           169
creature has been compared to it. But science
sees through this animal metamorphosis at every stage. It is a continuous process. Not so
with the termination of one life and the commencement of another in the same being. Here
is an interruption, a break. Death is a gulf too
deep for human sounding, and human experience has found nothing wherewith to bridge it
over.
The august and glorious scene we behold
over our heads every clear night produces emotions not dissimilar to those which stir the soul
in the contemplation of an endless and infinite existence. But every part of this mighty
spectacle is uniform. It contradicts no existing
order.  The millions and   millions of worlds
which fade away from our sight in the Milky
Way are only so many larger suns than our
own, and so many more of them. But a resurrection is an event as strange as it is amazing.
So also are the Christian miracles. They seem,
therefore, an appropriate part of the  gospel
system, to prepare our minds to live in the
familiar and constant faith of a future   and
higher life. They accustom  us to the contemplation of a Providence superior to   physical
laws.
Among the most important uses of our Lord's
miracles are to be mentioned those which they
served in his day. And first, they gave him a




170     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
prestige most necessary then. Other distinctions
were expected in the Messiah which were not
exhibited in Jesus,-crowns and victories, splendors and glories of an earthly nature. Christ
could not have met any such expectations as
these. They were incompatible with a primary
object of his mission, his sufferings,-and, indeed, with all the objects of his mission. The
disappointment was deep.  Strange to Jewish
expectants, the humble appearance of one whom
they had clothed in imagination with all the
magnificence of a conquering prince!   What
should be done, in such a case, to prevent an
erroneous interpretation of prophecy from being an insuperable obstacle to his reception?
What, I answer, could more effectually content
his countrymen for his want of human grandeur than the grandeur of his miraculous powers? What better equivalent for a command
over man than a command over Nature?
True, his disciples wrought miracles also. But
this was only a new honor reflected on him,
when every miracle of theirs had to be wrought
in his name.
Those claims to their veneration, which the
Jews, with their low moral ideas, could not
easily educe from the instructions and example
of Jesus, they were able to discover in those
works of power by which he made the lame
to walk, the blind to see, and the dead to rise




USES OF MIRACLES.           171
from their graves. Power was their chief association with the Messiah,-in accordance with
their interpretation of the prophecies: as in
Zechariah,- "He shall sit and rule upon his
throne"; and in Micah, —" He shall stand and
rule in the strength of the Lord"; and in Isaiah,
-"He shall divide the spoil with the strong."
Again, when so many were repelled by the
lowly appearance of Jesus, which was so contrary to the views then entertained of the Messianic character, it was necessary that he should
enforce his teachings by some exhibition of authority beyond the mere natural influence of
the truths which he uttered.
I know some have asked,-What have miracles to do with teaching?-Nothing, directly.
Miracles are not propositions.  It is not their
office to answer questions, expose mistakes, or
conduct an argument to a logical conclusion.
But they can arouse attention to a teacher.
They can give him prominence in the public
eye. They can attach a mysterious solemnity
to his words. Truth is not, indeed, truth the
more, because he who has pronounced it has
performed some supernatural act; neither is it
truth the less, because it has flowed through
ever so humble a channel. Still, the confidence
with which it is received may be increased by
the  exalted character of the speaker.   Who
would question an assertion made to him by an




172     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
angel he saw descending out of heaven? It
were an instance of incredulity to which there
is no parallel, for one not to believe in a resurrection which should be announced to him by
a person just stepping out of his grave. Who
is not influenced by the associations with which
a subject happens to be presented to him?
What are all conventional sentiments but illustrations of this fact? To childhood the authority of the parent is more than the wisdom of
his counsels.  He who cannot judge can still
revere; and the teacher can do what his teachings could not.
We accept it, therefore, as a self-consistent
fact, that a miraculous element entered into the
earliest ministrations of the gospel. Few minds
at that period had been developed into any con-,
currence with the large and elevated principles
of Christianity. No process of moral education
had gone far in that direction.  To say otherwise were to impeach one of the strongest
arguments for Christianity itself; it would be
a virtual denial of the new spiritual power
which Jesus exerted over the souls of men.
In other words, the employment of miracles
in the first establishment and propagation of
the gospel harmonizes with that low scale of
moral ideas which the gospel presupposes tc
have then generally existed as a reason for its
own bestowal.




USES OF MIRACLES.           173
There has been a singular misapprehension
as to the confirmation which miracles impart
to the teachings of him by whom they are
performed. They sanction everything he says,
as some imagine, or sanction nothing. As the
Apostles are believed to have entertained erroneous opinions on some subjects, therefore their
authority as instructors, it is argued, took nothing by their supernatural gifts.  It certainly
did not take universal infallibility, nor did the
Apostles themselves pretend it did. They said'that God had invested them with the Apostolic office, to certify certain great positive facts:
that Jesus was the Christ promised aforetime
in the ancient prophecies; that he died and
rose again; and that there will be a resurrection from the dead for all mankind. Not,
however, that it is hence to be concluded, that,
apart from those fundamental matters which
were expressly given them in charge, we may
set light by their authority.  Indeed, if all
they said and wrote were only understood as
they intended, there would be little disposition,
I judge, to discriminate between their official
and their personal claims to consideration. But
allowing an ample margin for human errors outside of their immediate commission, those miraculous credentials which were avowedly given
them for objects wholly independent of such
errors are in no way affected thereby.




174     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
By some, however, this whole matter is regarded as of minor importance. They have no
inclination, they say, to trouble the believer
by asking him to rail off the appropriate province of the Apostolate and show how many of
the Apostles' opinions were confirmed by their
miracles, and how many were not.   They do
not deem that any were confirmed by them.
Truths which can enter the human mind only
by transit through miracles they are yet, they
say, to learn.  Truth, as they conceive, admits
only of intrinsic certitude. In accepting or rejecting whatever is presented to his mind, every person, as they judge, must be governed by
the appearance it exhibits to his mind.-Surely.  But it may exhibit facts quite foreign to
his previous and personal knowledge of the subject. It may exhibit many impressive testimonials, human or superhuman, as to the matter
in question.  If so, he does not stand alone
and independent in relation to it. Indeed, the
perfect individuality, the absolute intellectual independence of any man whatever, in any case
whatever, is easily disproved. Do away with every opinion which has been partially or wholly
derived from education, custom, tradition, leave
only the results of individual discovery or demonstration, and few of the truths now generally
embraced would be left to the world at large.
The isolated intellect would sink into barbarism.




USES OF MIRACLES.            175
Authority can claim the fee of the principal
fields of human knowledge, and any attempt to
dispossess her would be as unwise as it would
be vain., It is impossible for any one mind to
do all its own thinking. A division of labor
is as necessary in mental as in other pursuits.
There are few conclusions in which trust is not
a necessary appurtenant to investigation. Shall
we admit all trust but the highest? all testimony but that which is above ourselves? all
authority but a miracle?
The question has been asked,-Do we believe
the miracles of Christianity because of the truth
of Christianity, or do we believe its truth because of its miracles? Presented in this alternative form, the question has an appearance of
precision and completeness it does not sustain
upon examination. The fact is, it is loose and
ambiguous, and must be restated before it can
receive a definite answer.
What is meant by the truth of Christianity?
-the divine origin of the gospel, or its own
intrinsic reasonableness and excellence? If the
former, must we see the divine origin of the
gospel before we receive its miracles? Surely
not;-the miracles assist us to discern its divine origin.  If the latter, must we see the
reasonableness and excellence of the gospel before we receive its miracles? To a certain extent we must;-we want -to see that the gos



176     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
pel deserves miraculous attestations; though few
minds are capable of being so affected by the
beauty and perfection of Christianity as not to
feel the importance of that confirmation which
it derives from the supernatural signatures with
which it was accompanied.
On the other hand, do we believe the truth
of Christianity because of its miracles? To discriminate again. Must we wait for miracles in
order that we may have full and authoritative
evidence of the divine origin of the gospel?
I think we must; at least, most of us must.
Are we to wait for miracles in order to discover the essential reasonableness and excellence
of the Christian religion? By no means.
It has often been charged against the argument from miracles, that it travels in a circle, proving Christianity by the miracles, and
the miracles by Christianity. Leaving the solution of this circulating syllogism to those who
can understand it, I have only to remark that
it is not before us now. What we now say is,
that the gospel doctrines and the gospel miracles are mutually indebted to each other. With
all its heavenly characteristics, it would be difficult to convince most persons of the divine authority of Christianity but for its miraculous
testimonials. It is no less true that to many
minds, miracles, as such, would appear wanting in moral credibility, if the doctrines in sup



USES OF MIRACLES.           177
port of which they were reputed to have been
wrought were manifestly repugnant to sober
reason and common sense.    We can admit a
mistake, but we cannot embrace an absurdity.
The subject may be familiarly illustrated. A
person presents himself to our government as
an ambassador from one of the most polished
and distinguished courts in Europe. He is a
most polished man himself, acquainted with all
public affairs, and of admirable abilities. Shall
he be acknowledged, notwithstanding he produces no official credentials of his mission? Certainly not. Another presents himself as from
the same court. But he is rude and vulgar
in his manners, ignorant of the first principles
of political economy and international law, and
every way incompetent for the office with
which he professes to be invested.   Still his
papers look fair.  Shall they be   accredited?
Impossible!  They are counterfeit, beyond   a
doubt.
VOL. I.           12




CHAPTER VI.
MIRACLES- THEIR CREDIBILITY.
WE have noticed some of the important uses
of the Christian miracles. And now what is
our evidence of the truth of these extraordinary events?
Some profess to doubt whether they admit of
proof,-that is, from human testimony, the only
absolute proof they can have to us.   It has
been objected, that they are contrary to expe.
rience. It was upon this ground that Hume
assailed their credibility.  And what did he
mean by declaring them contrary to experience? Surely not that similar events had never occurred before; for I am aware of no fact
or reason upon the strength of which any such
negative could be maintained. And even allowing there were both, it would still be necessary to show that there had ever been any occasion for miracles before the gospel day, such as
Christianity created. In what way this could
be shown I am at a loss to conjecture.
But if, in pronouncing the Christian miracles




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.      179
contrary to experience, Hume intended to say
that they were deviations from the visible and
ordinary course of Nature, it must be admitted
that they were such: and no less must it be
admitted that such they must necessarily have
been; they could not otherwise have accomplished their all-important purpose.  For if it
were a common, natural process to raise the
(lead by a word, as much so as to produce motion in a living being by the same means, how
could the one act more than the other be re*garded as the sign-manual of Heaven?
There is only one view of experience, then,
which can avail the hypothesis of Hume, namely,-that, except as regards the immediate observer, the proof of a miracle must depend upon testimony, and that all testimony in such
a case is necessarily inadequate. And this, in
fact, is his meaning. It is not out of the course
of experience, he remarks, for the best witnesses to be sometimes mistaken, but it is so for
a miracle to be performed. How, then, he inquires, is the balance of experience against a
miracle to be overcome?
Without taking notice of other answers which
might be made to this inquiry, it is sufficient
for our present purpose to observe that what
is to be proved is a Christian miracle. And
what was a Christian miracle?   A  supernatural occurrence in the providence of God, in



180     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
troduced by him for a purpose worthy of his
goodness, and to which such an occurrence was
of the highest importance. He could perform
the miracle, if he chose,-and as far as we can
see, he had every motive to perform it which
could arise from that interest he ever takes in
the moral welfare of his creatures. Did he actually perform it? is the question. Is it incredible that he should have exercised his power,
to whatever extent, where advantages would result that were worthy of this exercise? Such
an inquiry demands no answer. We have only
to suppose, then, that to his all-seeing eye such
advantages were involved in a revelation authenticated by miracles, and that these miracles
were accordingly to have been looked for from
his infinite benevolence,-and if so, it assuredly
falls within the competency of suitable testimony to prove that they were actually performed.
Allowing, that, in a mere abstract question concerning testimony and miracle, we might say
that no miracle can be substantiated by any
testimony,-a concession I never could make,yet this is not the question before us now.
Our present inquiry is,-What amount of testimony ought to be required to prove a thing
that was to have been expected?    Certainly
not an extraordinary amount.
So far from being contrary to experience, we
may justly allege that the Christian miracles




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.      181
rest on experience.  When I say they rest on
experience, I refer to the experience we have
of the moral providence of God,-to which the
Christian miracle has its most interesting and
important relation. That the Christian miracles
are beyond natural experience cannot be disputed. And, indeed, they derive all their value
hnd significance from this very fact. But there
is another kind of experience, which may be
called moral experience. If the bestowment of
supernatural powers on Jesus Christ for the
benefit of that faith which he came to establish
in the world was worthy of the Divine wisdom
and mercy, then has it moral experience in its
favor. For with what fact are we more familiar in the moral government of God than the
adoption of needful measures to accomplish ends
worthy of his benevolence 
That a religion fitted to unfold the noblest
and highest faculties of the mind should seem
of more importance to Deity than any mere
physical order of perishable things, who will say
is inconceivable? Struck with the sublime inquiry of our Lord, "What shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?"-filled with the belief
that the grand design which God pursues on
this earthly theatre is in harmony with this
great question propounded by his Son,-overflowing with a conviction that God is Love,
and that he makes every event directly or indi



182     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
rectly subservient to the purposes of his goodness, I cannot but look upon the gospel by
him authenticated in the mighty works of our
Saviour as being the glory and the culmination
of his moral Providence.
The gospel presents us four contemporaneous
narratives, written under circumstances as favorable as possible to entitle them to credit, and
bearing as strong marks of historical reality as
it is easy to imagine. They inform us of the
appearance in Judea, at the time prophetically designated according to the universal belief
among the Jewish people, not to say throughout the East, of one bearing the title of the
Messenger and Messiah of God.     He wonderfully fulfilled a long line of Scriptural promises and predictions in their highest and noblest
signification. He taught a system of morality
and piety every way worthy of a divine original,-fitted, as no other system ever was, to redeem the millions of our race from the power
and misery of sin,-surpassing all that philosophers had ever taught,-bringing life and immortality to light,-authenticated by the most
striking and beneficent miracles, and by none
more remarkable than that of the beautiful and
sublime example of its Author.   This religion
has been mighty and has prevailed. The most
distinguished philosophers, scholars, jurists, statesmen have expressed their belief in it, and as



CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       183
signed their reasons for their belief, upon moral
and critical grounds. It has applied a spring
to the best energies of the human mind,-and
the world might be challenged to produce the
individual, well informed upon the subject, who
would not say, that make all men Christians
in the true sense, and this earth would become
a paradise.
But does not the idea of a miraculous revelation that has to make its way gradually in
the world spread a cloud over the impartial
goodness of the Deity?   Does it not leave a
large portion of mankind to live and die in
hopeless religious ignorance?-I reply,-If a
miraculous revelation taught that God is a respecter of persons, or that any who are disposed to embrace the truth in the love of it
may not always have religious light enough to
guide their way to Him who accepteth the
heart, then such a revelation would be a mystery indeed. But no such charge can be justly
brought against the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Are any inclined to doubt the fact of a spiritual illumination having ever been divinely imparted for the benefit of mankihd, which professed to have been given at a particular time,
in a particular place, through particular individuals, and in particular forms, instead of being diffused over all the earth at once?-Is
there a person, I would answer, who questions




184     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the historical reality of Moses, Socrates, Plato,
Newton, and other extraordinary lights of the
world, merely because they shone in their own
separate candlesticks and followed one another
in succession as the intellectual and moral luminaries of their race?
But there are always those who are reluctant to believe in anything which is greatly out
of the line of every-day experience. So many
centuries ago!  In Judea! By Jesus and his
Apostles! However susceptible of proof these
gospel miracles, they observe, it cannot be denied that they stand alone,-that they are passing strange.-And is strangeness so very foreign
to reality? There are strange events besides
miracles.  All along in the pathway of history there are chasms deep and startling. It requires a long bridge to reach the isolated
greatness of David, Homer, Shakspeare, Washington. Some minds are more infrequent than
the prodigies of Scripture.
I love to mark the admixture of the special
with the ordinary in the providence of human
affairs. Order! It can be urged too painfully
upon my notice. Death itself is in the regular
course of events.  I am   glad, therefore, that
order means no more than it does. I rejoice to
trace the footsteps of a time-conquering, earthconquering Power to which all that we call
regularity is a feeble barrier.  It is delightful




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       185
to separate the land of Abraham and Moses
and Jesus from all other lands. I cling to a
spot which the unearthly has never forsaken.
It is now scathed. The lonely traveller revives
its ancient associations as he winds among its
ruins.  But other associations have succeeded,
equally sacred and wonderful.  Its very desolation is the handwriting of prophecy, and adds
another page to its theocratic history.
Strange are miracles?  Do   we call them
strange? We do not bestow the same epithet
upon prayer.   Nothing is more common and
familiar than to pray. We never wonder that
any should ask of God those mercies which
they need. And yet what does prayer imply
but a belief in blessings bestowed in answer to
it over and above those accruing in the regular course of Providence? True, the philosophy
of prayer, what prayer means, what it looks
to, what it depends upon, has called forth a
variety of theories and explanations; but any
attempt to satisfy mankind, that, when they
have prayed for restoration to health, for the
life of a child, or for the averting of some
calamity, a desire was not expressed for some
specific providence adapted to their case, were,
I believe, about as fruitless an undertaking as
could well be imagined. Thus, then, the real
substance of the miraculous lives constantly in
our hearts and forms one of the most precious




186     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
of our Christian trusts. And shall we shrink
from any more public and conspicuous form of
it? Shall we recoil from the idea of Providential interposition, if it ever attempt to pass
out over. our own private door-sill,-if it pretend to take the character of a general revelation, of a miraculously attested message from
God to all mankind?
Does one look back with incredulity on the
historical wonders of the gospel? How does he
look forward to the wonders it has predicted?
He must be in harmony with himself, have unity in his own stand-point, consistency in his
own views, before he passes judgment on the
harmonies of Providence.  If that future life
foretold by our Saviour had actually burst upon
our eyes, should we recall with amazement the
supernatural works attributed to him by the
Evangelists?  Should we not rather feel that
the two great sections of the Christian history,
the beginning and the end, responded to one
another? I know not why we should assume
a peculiar probability in favor of prospective
miracles, why expect the time is to come when
we shall undergo a change contrary to all our
previous experience, but confine our belief in
unexperienced occurrences to that period exclusively. In other words, I perceive not why extraordinary facts in a religious system are credible only at its winding up,-or for what rear




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       187
son more respect is due to the prophetical than
to the historical parts of the New Testament.
But I am jealous, says one, of all marvellous
relations, for the reason that nothing has been
too incredible for the wonder-loving propensity
to accept. Without pretending to have a perfect acquaintance with any miracle in particular,
I confess, he observes, that all such alleged occurrences are substantially the same to me.And is this the dictate of a sound mind, that,
though a subject may involve results of the
deepest importance to mankind, we may properly regard it as unworthy our attention, if
errors have ever been connected with it? The
relations against which this inflexible indifference plants itself belong to a department which,
if it contain great openings for credulity and
delusion, also embraces the highest possible inlet
of divine illumination to man. A religion professing to bestow such illumination, and which
all must acknowledge to be worthy of a divine
original, asks for our belief.  Surely, it may
jjustly claim to have its credentials carefully investigated.
So far from indiscriminately rejecting all alleged miracles as unworthy of consideration, a
sound philosophy will be disposed to regard
any apparently well-authenticated claims to miraculous power as demanding a reverent investigation, in a religious connection with the pur



188     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
pose of the Deity in its bestowal. If apparitions, witchcraft, and like marvels, have fled as
the general light of reason has advanced, no
wonder, when they all shrink before the inquiries,-To what department of moral and religious utility do they belong? What important
truth do they enforce? What noble intuition
of the human mind receives new   confirmation
from them? What gratitude do they awaken
to the Infinite Disposer? It is impossible not
to be struck with the contrast they exhibit in
dignity, simplicity, and beneficence to the gospel miracles. Infidels themselves have not been
insensible of this fact. The most confirmed unbelievers have been chary of appealing to the
moral discernment of mankind in adventuring
their doubts of those wonderful works by which
Jesus lightened the cares and sorrows of the
wretched, did away the darkness of the tomb,
and illustrated a godlike benevolence in new
and supernatural forms.
It is true that nothing has been too chimerical for the wonder-loving propensity to embrace;
but no more true than that nothing has been
too absurd for the reasoning faculty to admit.
And no more true is either, than that, unless
there had been nothing too fantastic and improbable to delight the passion for the marvellous, creating temptations to gratify it by the
most wild and puerile fictions, there would not




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       189
have been the force there now is in that great
Christian argument which is based on the dignity and consistency of the gospel miracles. An
insatiable craving for the wonderful would have
taken no fastidious notice of romance and exaggeration. A blind voracity would not have been
so dainty that its caterers should have had to
select with care what they offered to its acceptance. But no such propensity appears in
the gospel historians.  Their miracles are not
only amazing, but useful, beneficent, august, and
~manifestly worthy of a divine original.
The Christian, therefore, may willingly admit
the existence of a natural love of the marvellous, the more of this love the better, so long
as the gospel miracles will bear to be tested by
the severest rules of intrinsic fitness and credibility. Nor is it only a striking argument in
favor of these miracles as being no work of
human imagination, that such a thing as a
supernatural trifle is not to be found among
them. The innate proclivity of the human mind
to look beyond itself into the world of mysterious agencies finds in Christianity a field for
its noblest gratification. There it is guided to
the highest object to which it can be directed.
It is preserved from a thousand errors into
which it is liable to be betrayed. No moral
remedy for a diseased imagination is equal to a
rational Christian faith. A mind attuned to the




190     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
conception of an Infinite Father, forever exercising a beneficent and august dominion over the
universe, can hardly harmonize with views of
supernatural powers which seem  to be of an
extravagant or frivolous nature. On the other
hand, its sympathies must be essentially engaged in favor of a professed interposition of divine mercy marked by the highest characteristics of wisdom, dignity, and benevolence.
Whatever claims to supernatural accompaniments may be disallowed to a religion, on account of any unworthy character it may exhibit or any unimportant end it may propose, no
such objections apply to Christianity. Age after
age had been flowing on. The religious interest had assumed a thousand shapes. Still the
world was given over to sense. Socrates and
Plato had died and left no mark. So much
the moral sentiment had not done. Alas for
its prospects!-when a revelation arises to its
aid, with truths the most elevated, with rules
of virtue the most noble, and attended with
confirmations the most popular and imposing.
It prevailed, and became the centre of a new
civilization. This position it has continued to
maintain with the increasing confidence of the
intelligent and good.  Shall we challenge it
forthwith to give an account of itself to us
in every particular?  Shall we take it into
our leading-strings, prescribe all about it, and




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       191
be jealous of everything strange? Why may
not its methods have been as extraordinary as
the blessings it has conferred are novel and
immeasurable?
It has often been said that every religion
has in its turn laid claim to a divine original,
and therefore, who, it is asked, shall decide
between them?-I answer,-We must elect, we
do elect, between different religions, in view of
their differences in spirit, general ideas, tendencies, and practical characteristics. Now, if community of pretensions does not put rival systems on a level in respect to their contents,
why should it in respect to their testimonials?
But further.  A  religion presents itself for
our acceptance purporting to be of divine origin. The person by whom     it is promulgated
professes to be in direct communication with
the Supreme Mind. For evidence of his divine
commission he makes a solemn and public appeal to the Infinite Being himself asking to be
enabled to perform an act which is out of the
course of Nature and which this Being alone
can give the power to perform.    The appeal
is to all appearance successful.  He performs
the desired act.  Can we pronounce this fact
to be without conclusion, or believe that God
would permit the most striking expression of
his own immediate agency to be precisely counterfeited by an impostor, so as to expose man



192     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
kind to certain deception in a case of the highest importance?
There is, indeed, a wide belief that other
beings besides the Deity, or those specially commissioned by him, have exercised miraculous
powers. If such facts have ever occurred under
a different order of things from that which now
exists, they must have belonged to those secret
works and ways of the Almighty in which he
makes use of remote secondary causes for the
accomplishment of his purposes. Of this we are
sure, that no powers, be they what they may,
have ever passed beyond his control.
The Bible speaks of wonderful acts performed
by the Egyptian magicians. But in what uncertainty are they clothed!  They melt away
into conceivable and probable illusions, when we
consider that they might have been performed
upon a small scale-and the actual scale we
know not-without any unparalleled dexterity
in the art of legerdemain. Add to this the incomparable advantages the performers enjoyed
as to the means of preparation, and, most of
all, the advantage of a favoring multitude, and
of a court anxious that they should succeed.
Indeed, several things serve to show that there
was no real miracle in the case.   First, one
of the attempts was utterly abortive —so stated
in the very narrative which speaks of their success in three other instances,-and I need not




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.        193
say in what light a single failure on the part
of a pretended wonder-worker puts any claim
he may advance to the exercise of divine powers. Then, as to the successful feats.'The first
was an apparent transmutation of a stick into
a serpent,-what would be considered an ordinary sleight of hand in Eastern countries now;
tricks with serpents being among the most common with Oriental jugglers.   The second was
the conversion of water into blood,-coloring it,
no doubt; but this must have been upon a
small scale, if, as the narrative states, Moses had
just converted all the waters of the Nile, the
chief source of supply to all the land, into blood.
The third was the production of frogs from the
river,-a matter obviously   of little difficulty,
when its waters, through the miraculous agency
of the Hebrew prophet, were already preternaturally swarming with them. It is observable,
moreover, that, when the plagues inflicted by
the hand of Moses were of a nature to attack
the magicians themselves, and interfere with the
usual exercise of their bodily powers, such as
the lice, boils, and so forth, their exploits seem
to have stopped; they were unable to perform.
Again, it looks as though Pharaoh himself soon
began to distrust them; for he appears never
to have called for their services after the fourth
time, when they failed. Besides, if these magicians really possessed any supernatural powers,
VOL. I.            13




194     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
why did they not relieve the king and the
country at once from the plagues under which
they were suffering? This they never attempted.
But other Scriptural history. "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children
cast them out?"  "Your children!"-True. But
not to say that demoniacal possessions were
probably, for the most part, merely natural diseases and infirmities, admitting of corresponding
remedies, our Saviour does not assert that his
countrymen actually cured the maladies attributed to the agency of evil spirits; he is merely
defending himself from the charge of performing such cures by the assistance of Beelzebub.
As the Jews claimed the like power for their
own exorcists, he simply asked what was the
nature of this power in their case. If it afforded no proof of any confederacy with the Prince
of Devils when exercised by them, why should
it when exercised by him? His object was not
to affirm their miraculous gifts, but simply to
vindicate his own from an unjust and foolish aspersion.
The question has been asked,-Are not miracles represented in the Bible as not always to
be received as interpositions of God?   Moses
forbade his countrymen to pay any regard to
signs and wonders performed for the purpose of
seducing them from the worship of Jehovah.



CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.      195
True; yet he does not say that a seducing wonder can ever be a genuine miracle. He is not
discussing the nature of miracles. But whatever
the wonder might be,-this is the point,-whatever the wonder might be, it must be repudiated immediately, without one further thought
about it, on the supposition that it would lead
to any breach of their allegiance to the Supreme Being.
But what are we to say of the legendary
miracles which are claimed for the first few
centuries succeeding the apostolic age?-Without presuming to deny that miraculous powers
may still to some extent have lingered in the
Church after the gospel day, it is impossible
not to be struck with several remarkable particulars in which the miracles in question differed from  those that accompanied the introduction of Christianity into the world.
And first, as regards the relation in which
they stood to one another in point of time.
A belief in such phenomena as a Heaven-appointed means of spreading the Christian faith
had become established when these alleged miracles of a later date are said to have been
performed. Miracles had been employed in the
first promulgation of the gospel, and it were
natural to ask why they should not be continued for its complete diffusion over the earth.
The inflamed imagination that would be likely




196     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to follow a miraculous age could hardly be expected to discern the line of demarcation that
might properly be drawn between Apostles and
disciples of Apostles as to the occasion which
existed for extraordinary confirmations of their
respective ministries.
Then as to the difference in the relations
which the evangelical and the patristic miracles
respectively sustained to Christianity itself. The
evangelical miracles were needed for the initiatory and immediate establishment of the gospel.
They had an all-important part to perform in
kindling a religious reverence for the new religion. They were wanted to exert a controlling influence in favor of the gospel over that
veneration for an ancient faith which stood in
its way. They were needful in assisting the
Jew to give up his old religious attachments,
than which none could well be stronger, and
accept others in their stead. These offices performed, the gospel now effectually launched upon a deep and powerful belief, it might be
left, like other blessings, to take its own natural course of distribution. Like other blessings,
I say; for it requires but a hasty glance at
the history of Providence to see that one of
its leading characteristics has ever consisted in
bringing out from time to time some important
improvement by means of some extraordinary
agents or some peculiar combination of events,




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.     197
and then leaving it to ordinary agents and ordinary events to develope its practical capabilities for the general good. That such is the
proper view to be taken in the present instance
would seem to be indicated by the fact, that
missionaries now-a-days make no pretensions to
supernatural powers, though why such powers
would not be very useful now it might be difficult to show.
Another difference between gospel and legendary miracles relates to evidence. I would make
no round allegations of pious fraud against the
Fathers of the Church. They were sincere men,
I doubt not. But they had some notions about
an innocent use of deception for good purposes
which would hardly accord with the sentiments
of Christians at the present time.  Mosheim
thinks that many of them were obnoxious to
the charge of countenancing imposture, when
in their opinion it would promote an important religious end. How far some such infatuation might have induced them to give a coloring now and then to a wonderful occurrence,
when they thought it would help the Christian
cause, it is impossible to say. I must feel that
any miracle which rests only upon their authority wants confirmation. This is certain, that, had
the Gospels but breathed an intimation that deception might ever be lawfully practised for re
ligious purposes, we need be at little pains to




198     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
conjecture how long ere the world would have
come to the conclusion that the relations they
have left us could not be indorsed by too indubitable testimonials. But we have yet to discover a shadow of any such intimation in the
New Testament; on the contrary, we find there
the most indignant repudiation of the maxim,
"slanderously reported," says St. Paul, as current in the Church in his time,-" Let us do
evil that good may come."
Again, under whose eyes were these postapostolical miracles performed?  Whose prejudices did they encounter?  Were they objects
of calumny and cavil to Pharisaical bigotry and
hate, watching for any possible pretext to cast
discredit upon them,-or were they wrought
mainly in the presence of those who wished
to believe them, and were solicitous for their
success? We know how it was. They appealed, for the most I art, to the judgment of
friends, and of those who had no incredulity
to surmount; and as Christianity rose to power, the rulers both of State and Church were
delighted, not offended by them;-circumstances which make all the difference in the world
in respect to the degree of credit to which
they are entitled a; compared with the gospel
miracles.
Again, a miracle demands an appropriate and
adequate occasion.  We need to behold some




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       199
high moral relation in which it stands, some
important end it is suited to promote.   God
would never interrupt the regular order of Nature for trivial reasons. If even the resurrection
of Lazarus had terminated in its own beautiful
beneficence to a single family, it would have
been shorn of an essential element of its present
credibility. But what can be said for heathen
and patristic prodigies regarded in this point of
view? What all-important objects do they seem
to have accomplished?   Put a similar question
to the Christian miracles, and the answer is
readily returned.
Finally, every fraud demands a motive. We
can see what that motive may be when a system  is to be upheld which secures ease and
wealth and social consideration to its friends;
and such a state of things has attended all the
principal miracles which have been brought forward as rivals to those of Christianity.  But
what earthly inducement had the Apostles to
embark in a cause which revolted all their educational prejudices by requiring them to put
their trust in a humiliated and crucified Messiah,-which was opposed by all around them,
especially by the rich and powerful, with the
utmost malignity,-and which involved to its
open advocates and followers the risk of everything dear to flesh and blood?
Says Niebuhr, in reference to the facts of




200     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the gospel history,-" The fundamental fact of
miracles, according to my conviction, must be
conceded, unless we adopt the not merely incomprehensible, but absurd hypothesis, that the
Holiest was a deceiver, and his disciples either
dupes or liars, and that deceivers had preached a holy religion, in which self-renunciation
is everything, and in which there is nothing
tending towards the erection of a priestly rule,
nothing that can be acceptable to vicious inclinations. As regards a miracle, in the strictest sense, it really only requires an unprejudiced and penetrating study of Nature to see
that those related are as far as possible from
absurdity, and a comparison with legends or
the pretended miracles of other religions to
perceive by what a different spirit they are
animated." *-Niebuhr's authority upon legendary matters needs no comment of mine.
But in order to vindicate the authenticity of
the Christian miracles, it surely is not necessary to produce a specific and detailed refutation
of every apocryphal miracle.    It is sufficient,
I conceive, to see a broad general distinction,
a grand class difference, between them. To require a minute and complete disproof of all the
spurious testimonies with which every idle story
is accompanied were preposterous. Great pains
* Life and Letters of B. G. NIEBUHR. Edited and translated
by S. WINKWORTH. 2d ed. Vol. I. p. 345.




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.       201
have been taken, and very properly, certainly,
and with entire success, it may be, to prove
that the miracles said to have been wrought
at the tomb of the Abbe Paris are unsupported
by competent evidence, and that circumstances
attending them were indicative of imposture.
But let the refutation have been more or less
complete, it is absurd, I say again, to demand
that in every instance and in every respect a
most decisive contrast of particulars should be
shown between those mighty works that were'wrought in support of the gospel revelation and
the many marvellous stories which owe their
origin to cunning, ambition, superstition, and fanaticism. It were requiring the concession of
a broader margin to the religious skeptic than
is granted to any other. What a situation of
things, truly, if no sign-manual were allowed
to be reliable, provided a single spurious autograph could be produced so skilfully executed
that the fraud could not be detected by any
comparison with the original!
Miracles have been succeeded by other means
of disseminating the truth. The circulation of
the Scriptures, the force of education, the more
intellectual habits of modern times, that mental culture which has been steadily increasing
the capacity of men to think and judge for
themselves upon all subjects, render the gospel




202     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
faith less dependent upon that passive reverence
which it is the specific function of the miracle
to excite. Still the historical importance of the
miraculous attestations which accompanied the
first promulgation of Christianity can never decline under any change of time or circumstances.
But some may ask,-How far do the actual
results of the Christian miracles harmonize with
the idea that any such mysterious agencies
were ever put in operation? Has the gospel
gone forward in the world with a march worthy of the wonderful machinery ascribed to its
introduction?-Admit it has not,-a concession
I never could make,-what blessing is there
to which favoring antecedents have not been
necessary, and whose spread has not depended
on a thousand causes always liable to change,
and which by their inconstancy have strikingly diversified the intellectual and moral condition of man? One thing is certain: every advancement, social, moral, or intellectual, is left
very much to our own study and fidelity to forward it to its highest and best results. Prominent points are lit up along the pathway of
progressive civilization, as by a divine hand;
but we have none the less to exercise our
own skill and put forth our own exertions, in
order t6 a successful course. Christianity furnishes guidance, but does not supply locomo



CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.        203
tion in this advancement. The fountain gushes
from  the hill-side, but we must prepare the
channels through which it is to be diffused.
If it has had but a limited diffusion, whose
part has not been performed?
The gospel has taught those who embrace
it, that by their good works they must lead
men to glorify their Father who is in Heaven.
It could, in reason, have said no less. In proportion as a religion extols piety and holiness,
the world must be led to doubt its sincerity
or question its efficacy, should it seem to intrust its cause to worldly and wicked men.
In the first three centuries, Christianity, as
regards the splendor and power of its extension, won its principal trophies. It almost extirpated idolatry from the greatest empire of
the earth.  In connection with this fact, how
interesting the consideration, that during the
first three  centuries  the  Christians were remarkable for the purity of their lives and the
power of their religion over their personal characters, as acknowledged by the Pagans themselves! Even after this period, Julian the Apostate exhorted the heathen priests, whose cause
he had espoused, to imitate the benevolence
and other virtues of their opponents, if they
would establish their own respect and' authority with the people. Further, look at the success of the gospel missionaries, subsequently, in




204     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
converting whole nations, as in Britain, Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and other regions. We
are struck, not only with the self-denying and
noble fidelity of these men, but with the fact
that their labors were performed among those
who, as yet, had formed no intimate acquaintance with the Christian communities of their
time. Xavier, an example of the loftiest vir.
tues, carried the gospel to the farthest bounds
of India at a period when India had had no
intercourse of any consequence with European
countries. So with the early missionaries among
the aborigines of America.
I say not that Jesus taught that his religion was to be spread only through the virtues
of its disciples, but that these virtues would
eminently conduce to its reception in the world.
To consider the gospel as resting for its recommendation on the good character of its adherents alone were indeed unreasonable.   An
intelligent Hindoo, for example, in looking at
Christianity, might be expected to say,-I will
endeavor to appreciate it as it is in itself, and
not as it is exhibited in the lives of men.
What if the conduct of many of its professed
followers is bad?  That conduct may be a
gross departure from  its principles.  Shall a
parent lose his upright and honorable character in my eyes because he is so unfortunate
as to have children who are a disgrace to




CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES.      205
him?  Shall I shun the calm pursuits of ordinary life because multitudes who engage in
them show an utter contempt of human rights
and the laws of God? Is there nothing to recommend the domestic state because a mother
is frequently driven to despair by a drunken
and brutal husband? Are civil institutions of
no value because nations are so often oppressed by tyrannical rulers?  No, I will look at
this Christianity patiently, closely, honestly. I
will endeavor to lay it open and understand
it in its own intrinsic nature and proofs, and
as it is addressed to man as a rational being.
Nor is it without recommendations in the characters of its followers and in the effects it has
produced. I see around me, indeed, bigots and
skeptics and unprincipled persons who hail from
under the banner of the cross; but I also see
liberal-minded, faithful, conscientious Christians.
And if history is to be trusted, the world never witnessed such a succession of upright and
exemplary men as those who continued for
several centuries after the time of Jesus to
form the great body of the Christian Church.
Though drawing their accessions from a world
black with corruption and crime till they became a vast community, they exhibited, as a
whole, for hundreds of years, a purity and elevation of character, an integrity in all the relations of life, a constancy in virtue, under all




206     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the influences, insidious and threatening, by
which they were surrounded, such as made
them the wonder and the glory of their times.
Yes, I will look,-he will remark,-at Jesus Christ, and at what he taught, both in
his own personal ministry and through that of
his Apostles. If I discover a diamond, it shall
be none the less a diamond to me because I
find it among stones and rubbish. I want to
hold communion with an intelligence and goodness infinitely surpassing my own. That want
is not satisfied by the religious traditions and
observances of my own country. If God, who
has granted so many other blessings to mankind, has somewhere and at some time bestowed upon them a grand comprehensive truth to
expand the soul to the utmost and enrich it
with the glorious fruits of wisdom and virtue,
let me know it, if possible, and let it liberate
and raise nmy mind. If that portion of the human family, to whom we look for superior advantages in general knowledge, and who have
acted the most important and stirring part in
the history of the world, have received a higher light upon religious subjects than men have
commonly enjoyed, let me behold its heavenly
beams. Of the nature and claims of the light
itself alone can I pretend to judge. Why, in
any instance, it should have been bestowed at
an earlier period or under greater advantages




CREDIBILITY     OF MIRACLES.              207
for its action    than   it has in    others, I have      no
faculty   to  discover.     Though      I  can   intuitively
appreciate religious truth in itself considered, I
cannot intuitively perceive what ought to be all
the circumstances of its communication. Sure I
am, nevertheless, that, if Christianity is adapted to breathe trust, courage, benevolence, magnanimity, and all the sentiments which belong
to a pure and noble mind, it is the best gift
which human beings can receive from God.
So   might    well   say   an    enlightened     Hindoo,
-and so, we may trust, many such are continually saying to their own hearts.*
* The Rajah Rammohun Roy visited England to enjoy, as he
anticipated, a paradise upon earth, among a people who had grown
up under the benignant influences of a religion which he had recommended to his own countrymen in his celebrated work entitled
The Precepts of Jesus,-anticipations indulged, I confess I feared,
not a little to the detriment of his faith. But I am happy to be
able to record the pleasing proof that he died firm in the belief
which throughout the last ten or fifteen years of his life had imparted to him serene comfort, peace, and hope. His death took
place in England, while on a visit at the house of a friend, near
the residence of John Foster, the celebrated Baptist writer and
preacher, who passed two evenings in his company, about a fortnight before his decease.  Foster says,-" I had entertained a
strong prepossession against him, but my prejudice could not hold
out half an hour after eeing in his company.  He was a very
pleasing and interesting man, intelligent and largely informed.He avowed, unequivocally, his belief in the resurrection of Christ
and in the Christian miracles generally.  At the same time he
said that the internal evidence of Christianity had been the most
decisive of his conviction. And he gave his opinion, with some
reasons for it, that the miracles are not the part of the Christian
evidence the best adapted to the conviction of skeptics. This led




208       HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Christianity is the only religious system whose
principles are suited alike to all mankind. It is
prepared to spread an equal light and influence
over the earth. It is neither of an Occidental
nor of an Oriental type, but presents an admixture of both, in the clearness of its doctrines and the soundness of its precepts, and
in the fervor of its exhortations and the splendor of its promises. The first moment of its
birth, a   distant mission    surrounded    its  cradle
with testimonials of respect. It is called a religion; but Christ termed it a truth; and truth
refers to   the  individual mind.      If Christianity
is what it professes to be, the peace of the
heart, the lifter-up of the soul to its loftiest
heights of trust, love, and purity, then in embracing it one simply does justice to his own
intellectual and moral nature,-he does what,
if there were not a Christian in the world besides himself, he ought to do of his own accord.   Here, names are nothing,-but thoughts,
affections, sentiments, are everything.
one of the gentlemen to observe, that surely the skeptics must admit, that, if the miracles recorded were real facts, they must be
irrefragable of the truth of what they were wrought to attest.
The Rajah instantly assented to this, and said, very pointedly,
that any argument on that subject was quite superfluous to him,
for that he did believe in their reality."-Life and Correspondence
of JOHN FOSTER. Edited by J. E. RYLAND. Vol. II. pp. 142,
158.




CHAPTER VII.
THE NATIVITY.
THE Gospels inform us that miraculous circumstances attended the birth of Jesus.  But
suppose they had related nothing remarkable
concerning this event, should we not have
heard from skeptical quarters of a natural disposition in mankind to associate wonderful prognostics with the birth of extraordinary personages, and that it was incredible that no such
disposition should have manifested itself among
the earlier Christians in respect to the Messiah, on the supposition that they regarded
him as a divine messenger? We should have
considered it no disparagement to, simple, artless historians,-objectors would have said,though they had related some marvellous stories of their hero; we should always have distinguished between a little amiable credulity
on their part, in a matter of this nature, and
their express testimony as to noonday facts
which they professed to have witnessed. Had
it been replied, that they had recorded nothVOL. I.           14




210     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ing extraordinary of their Master's nativity because nothing extraordinary distinguished it, it
is easy to see what a new form objections
would have taken. We should, no doubt, have
heard how singular it was that one whose life
and death had been signalized by so many
miraculous authentications of his heavenly commission should have had nothing of the kind
to attend his birth.  Where, it would    have
been asked, could supernatural testimonials have
been better bestowed than upon his infancy,
that period in the lives of eminent persons
which is most apt to be looked to for the
omens of their future greatness? If it was
necessary that he should be subjected to humiliation and suffering in the general course
of his ministry, the more requisite that he
should receive some divine attestation to his
exalted character where it was possible to be
given him. Some heavenly sign to indicate his
office and rank would seem  to have been especially suitable at a period of low moral culture, when there were few, particularly among
the Jews, perhaps, who were touched so much
by a holy veneration for spiritual qualities in
any object of their admiration, as by outward
distinctions, such as this people had been led
to associate with the idea of the Messiah. It
seems, therefore, that we may well be satisfied
with the account the Evangelists have given




THE NATIVITY.            211
us of the nativity of our Lord, when it so
accords with what the infidel would have demanded, if we had not received it.
I cannot better do justice to the consistency
which marks the natal history of Christ, as recorded in the Gospels, than by quoting the observations of an eminent critic:-"In regard to
the main event related, the miraculous conception of Jesus, it seems to me not difficult to
discern in it purposes worthy of God. Nothing
could have served more effectually to relieve
him from that interposition and embarrassment
in the performance of his high mission, to which
he would have been exposed on the part of
his parents, if born in the common course of
Nature. It took him from their control, and
made them feel, that, in regard to him, they
were not to interfere with the purposes of God.
It gave him an abiding sense, from his earliest years, that his destiny on earth was peculiar and marvellous, and must have operated
most powerfully to produce that consciousness
of his intimate and singular connection with
God which was so necessary to the formation
of the character he displayed and to the right
performance of the great trust committed to
him. It corresponds with his office, presenting
him to the mind of a believer as an individual set apart from all other men, coming into
the world with the stamp of God upon him,




212      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
answerably to his purpose here, which was to
speak to us with authority from      God." 
It has been noticed that two of the Evangelists, Mark and John, have no account of the
Nativity. It may be that John purposely confined himself to those events which had fallen
under his own personal observation; for there is
no incident mentioned in his Gospel, of which
he was not either certainly an eye-witness or
may not easily be supposed to have been. In
the introduction to his First Epistle, he remarks,
in emphatic terms,-"That which was from        the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word
of Life,-that which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you." He refers, probably, to
his Gospel, as it is here only that he has related anything concerning Christ which he had
seen, or recorded any of his discourses which
he had heard.t
At the comparatively early period when the
first three Gospels were written, the current of
popular interest in regard to all such narratives
* The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels. By ANDREWS NORTON. 2d ed. Vol. I. p. lxiv.
t "I suppose he here alluded to his own Gospel, in which he
had related the particulars whereby the Word was proved to have
been made flesh." —MACKNIGHT, Translation of the Apostolical
Epistles, Note to 1 John i. 3.




THE NATIVITY.             213
would naturally flow to the great leading story
of Christianity. It would be an historical interest. Indeed, the whole tone of Christian culture then could hardly have passed the historical stage. The Christian public could not hear
too much of the wonderful story. But when
the fourth Gospel was written, a different state
of things existed. The intense curiosity which
had been excited had been gratified in the
main. There was little further occasion for any
general histories. The disciples would naturally
desire to receive from the favorite Apostle a
memoir consisting of his own personal reminiscences of his divine Master; and John, as the
last survivor of the apostolical company, might
feel that there was good reason for composing
a Gospel in which omissions of historical particulars should be supplied, so far as there was
any occasion, and many subjects of a more spiritual tone introduced than were contained in
previous relations.
Not, however, that the first three Gospels
confine themselves to historical notices altogether. We are especially indebted to Matthew for
the Sermon on the Mount; and Luke has reported the Parables more fully than either of
his brother historians.  Yet both the Sermon
and the Parables are distinguished by historical features adapted to the earliest period of
the Church. Thus, the memorable discourse in




214     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
question does not enter into the deeper spiritualities of the interior life, such as meet us
everywhere on the pages of Saint John, but
rather enforces those positive every-day rules
of Christian piety and virtue, which, next to
the essential facts of the Christian history, it
was important should be promulgated with the
least possible delay, like the Ten Commandments of Moses.    Again, the Parables relate
almost wholly to the incipient and historical
stages of Christianity,-such as the first reception of the gospel kingdom, its rejection by the
Jews, and the destruction of Jerusalem.   But
when the venerable Apostle who put the finishing hand to the evangelical records sat down
to his divine work, all these matters were familiar to the Christian world. The initial story
of the Church had been told; and the favorite
companion of our Lord was at liberty to gratify
the wishes of his brethren by giving them one
more relation, made up of his own particular
reminiscences, in which he might indulge himself with recalling the more esoteric and sublime
instructions of his great Teacher and beloved
Friend. Such a relation, it is hardly necessary
to remark, would be unlikely to include any
account of the Nativity.
Mark is supposed to have written under the
direction of Peter; and in corroboration of this
opinion, critics have observed, that, whenever




THE NATIVITY.             215
Peter has any particular share in a transaction, Mark is apt to mention circumstances respecting it which are not recorded by the other
Evangelists. Moreover, Peter's call is the first
that Mark mentions, and about the first incident of any kind he has related in what would
seem to be fairly the commencement of his history. For though he previously alludes to the
preaching of John in the wilderness, to the
baptism and temptation of Jesus, and to the
commencement of his public ministry in Galilee,
one-third of a single chapter is all the space
he assigns to these important events. The account of the temptation, which in Matthew occupies eleven verses, and thirteen in Luke, is
in Mark compressed into the compass of two,
one less than he has taken in relating the call
of the Apostle Peter. All this agrees with the
supposition that the immediate design of Mark
in writing was the narration of the events
which occurred subsequently to the entrance of
Peter upon the apostolic office.  If such was
the limited object of his Gospel, we are not to
be surprised that it contains nothing concerning the infancy and early life of the Saviour.
When we turn to Matthew, we see abundant
proof that it was far from his purpose to begin
his relation at the commencement of his own
apostleship, or to confine himself to what had
fallen under his own personal notice.  As he




216     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
wrote first, he would naturally mention every
prominent event.  Accordingly, we find that
he has recorded the nativity, the visit of the
Magi, the flight to Egypt, the massacre at
Bethlehem, the preaching of John, the baptism,
the temptation, together with the calls of the
Apostles Peter and Andrew, James and John,
besides the long discourse upon the Mount,
extending through several chapters, and a considerable number of miracles and other occurrences, all of which preceded his own connection with Jesus.
The particular design of Luke's Gospel is stated in the preface:-" Having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, it
seemed good to me to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein
thou hast been instructed ";-from which we
gather that it was intended to be a full and
connected account of the mission of Jesus, and
might naturally be expected, therefore, to embrace some notice of the miraculous circumstances of the Nativity.
The gospel account of the Saviour's nativity
commences with an angelic annunciation of the
coming event to Mary, his mother, preceded by
a similar annunciation in respect to his forerunner, John the Baptist.




THE NATIVITY.            217
Luke informs us that John's parents were
Zacharias and Elizabeth,-that Zacharias was
a priest of the course of Abia, and that his
wife was of the daughters of Aaron. This particularity is noticeable. A priest is mentioned,
-his name,-the name of his wife,-her lineage,-and the course in the twenty-four divisions of the Jewish priesthood to which he belonged.  Such details are too minute and of
too public a nature for invention.  Zacharias
and Elizabeth were without children and ad-'vanced in years.  While Zacharias was burning incense in the temple, there appeared to
him an angel, who informed him that he should
have a son who would be the forerunner of
the Messiah. He ventured to express his incredulous amazement, and inquired by what sign
he should know that an event so improbable
would ever come to pass. He was told that
he should be dumb until the day when the
prediction should be fulfilled. The people wait
for him without the temple, and wonder at his
delay; and when at last he makes his appearance, they perceive from his inability to speak
that he has seen a vision.   I am  impressed
by so many minute particulars again, some of
which it is impossible should have been unknown to the Jewish priests, had they been
true, or escaped exposure, had they been fabricated.




218     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
The succeeding incidents have the same factlike character. The birth of John is mentioned,
-his circumcision on the eighth day, when his
name was to be given him,-the desire manifested by his friends that he should receive the
name of his father,-his mother's opposition,
-their appeal to Zacharias himself, who wrote
that his name was John,-and the sudden restoration thereupon of the power of speech to the
old man. The Evangelist observes, that these
events were matters of notoriety, and that "all
they that heard them   laid them  up in their
hearts, saying,' What manner of child shall this
be?"' Their notoriety follows of course, if they
actually took place; and events of so public a
nature were no materials for fiction, so short
a time after their alleged occurrence.
Upon the recovery of his speech, Zacharias
proclaims his joyful emotions in a hymn of
praise and thanksgiving to God; and whoever
takes an interest in noticing the coincidences in
the gospel relations may stop to observe the
topics which are introduced:-" Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people," —referring to the immediate
coming of the Messiah, whose forerunner John
was announced to be;-to which is added the
following exulting strain:-"That we should be
saved from our enemies, and from the hand
of all that hate us." Consider that this was




THE NATIVITY.             219
the universal and settled opinion of the Jews,that all their joyful expectations of the Messiah
centred in the idea, that he would assume the
power and insignia of a temporal potentate
and deliver them from every earthly oppression. But after his crucifixion, the views of his
followers underwent an important change. Their
notions of the new dispensation were not so
deeply tinctured with earthly anticipations as
before. A higher idea than they had hitherto
cherished now formed a prominent trait of their
associations with the Messiah,-namely, that of
his sublime death.  To this was added another, equally beyond any of their former conceptions,-that of his resurrection. Throughout the
Acts and the Epistles, these two ideas will be
found to characterize the impressions then entertained of Christ, and to form the engrossing topics whenever his name is introduced.
They constitute the great central points around
which the minds of the Apostles seem now to
revolve. And it was after this change in their
sentiments had taken place, that the gospel
histories, we are to remember, were composed.
They are the prominent topics of their preaching while these histories are being written; but
there is not a trace of them in the histories
themselves,-I mean in the early glorifications
over the coming mercy which are there recorded. Take the hymn, for example, ascribed




220     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to the father of John the Baptist. The joy he
here expresses at the near advent of the Messiah has all the earthly character of Jewish
anticipation. It indicates nothing of the new
conceptions which were entertained of the Saviour at the time the hymn was recorded by
Luke. The explanation is, that the Evangelist
performed his duty and recorded facts,-and
the fact naturally was, that Zacharias, before
the death and resurrection of Jesus, would cherish the universal and darling expectation of the
day, as to the nature of the Messianic kingdom. The remark, it is true, amounts only to
this,-that the hymn answers to the time when
it is said to have been uttered. The thought
which naturally arises is, that, had it been an
invention, it might have exhibited an anachronism. The author, writing from his own mind
alone, would have been in danger of expressing his own views, rather than those which
belonged to the period to which the hymn
was ascribed; we should have been likely to
have had the song of Luke in the mouth of
Zacharias.
I have often admired this particular species
of congruity in the Gospels, on a variety of occasions. Though they were all written after it
was fully ascertained by the disciples that their
Master was far from answering, in all respects,
to the national expectations of the Jews, which




THE NATIVITY.             221
were their own former expectations, yet, in recording what was said by Zacharias, by Elizabeth, by Mary, by Simeon, by John the Baptist,
or by any other person, respecting the Messiah,
before his death, that is to say, before the period arrived which created new associations with
his character, they never, in a single instance,
represent anything as expressed by these individuals but what conformed to the very limited
notions of an earlier day. An author, with his
thoughts always about him, might never, indeed,
in any one of a large number of instances, suffer himself to get before his story, or to confound the opinions which belonged to his own
time with those which appertained to a previous period. But then he should never be off
his guard, nor unversed in the art of the most
careful and accurate narrative,-not so much
so, at least, as might have been expected of the
humble biographers of Jesus, who, if, under all
their appearance of artlessness and inexperience,
they were really lynx-eyed and astute in every
particular, must be confessed to have possessed
a talent for disguising wariness under the semblance of simplicity, unprecedented in the annals of literary history.
An angel announced the birth of John to
Zacharias. It is not always certain what was
meant by an angel. The natural elements are
sometimes called angels in the Bible:-" He




222     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
maketh the winds his angels, and flames of
fire his ministers."  The angel in the present
instance might have been a natural agent,-it
might have been a vision. Zacharias is expressly said to have seen a vision. True, the visionary appearance called himself Gabriel; but
Gabriel was only the regular Hebrew epithet
for an angel of the higher order.
After the birth of John was foretold to Zacharias, it was also announced to Mary that she
was to be the mother of him who should be
the Saviour of the world. And because the
great event thus revealed to her, stored as it
was with such unspeakable blessings to mankind, was to be accomplished by an immediate
act of God, she was told that her child should
be called the Son of God,-a Scriptural explanation most observable and ever to be remembered in regard to the meaning of an epithet
so often applied to Jesus in the New Testament.
The circumstances of the Nativity are related
by Luke as follows.-" And it came to pass in
those days, that there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed."-There is Scriptural usage for confining the expression, "all the world," to the land
of Judea. The "taxing" is supposed to have
been a census or registration of persons and
property.-" And this taxing was first made




THE NATIVITY.             223
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,"- or, as
Dr. Lardner renders it,-" This was the first
assessment of Cyrenius, governor of Syria,"implying that he had taken the census twice.
The second, which is the one best known in
history, was taken several years after the birth
of the Saviour. Of the first, here referred to
by Luke, besides an allusion to it, as is probable, in Josephus,* we find frequent express
mention in the writings of the early Christian Apologists, and a distinct recognition of
it also as a well-known event by the Emperor
Julian.t
"And all went to be taxed, every one into
his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and lineage
of David,) to be taxed, with Mary, his espoused
wife."- Commentators have remarked upon the
evidence afforded by this journey of the fact
that Jesus was a descendant of David, as his
Messianic office was supposed, according to the
prophets, to have required that he should be.
Yet there is no reference, in Luke's notice of
the journey, to any fulfilment of prophecy; it
is merely stated,-and this in the regular or* Antiquities, Book XVII. ch. ii. sec. 4.
t See LARDNER, Credibility of the Gospel History, Part I. Book
II. ch. i.




224     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
der of the narrative,-that, in obedience to an
edict requiring the people to present themselves for registration in the cities of their respective families, Joseph repaired with his wife
to Bethlehem, rather than to Capernaum, Jericho, or any other place, because Bethlehem
was the city of David, and he was of the
house and lineage of David.   We have thus
an undesigned confirmation of the descent of
Jesus, or what would legally be considered his
descent, through the vinculum  matrimonii, from
his great progenitor, David.
While Joseph and Mary were at Bethlehem,
the Saviour was born; and because no other
place could be obtained, the infant was laid in
a manger. Of any connection between this and
other attendant circumstances we have no hint
in the narrative; but it naturally occurs that
*the registration must have drawn many strangers to Bethlehem, who may easily be supposed to have preoccupied all the accommodations
for travellers before the parents of Jesus arrived.
"And there were in the same country," says
Luke, "shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night," when an angel appeared to them, announcing the birth of
Jesus, a multitude of the heavenly host following with the ascription, "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward




THE NATIVITY.             225
men!"-It is interesting to notice the freedom
from all national partiality, the catholic and
philanthropic spirit, of the song here attributed
to the herald angels. How different from the
hymns of Zacharias and Mary with reference
to the same event!    The harps of those devout Hebrews sound only the honors which
the advent of the Messiah was supposed to be
then ushering in upon the descendants of Abraham, while the strains of the celestial choir
are worthy of the expansive benevolence of
heavenly beings.  Shall we ascribe this difference to the skill of the narrator?  Was he
aiming to give a stronger air of reality to
the story? So deep a design hardly accords
with the artlessness of the gospel historians.
Besides, if Luke derived his information from
traditionary sources, there is little appearance
of probability in the idea that Hebrew tradition should have intentionally contrasted the
narrowness of Hebrew gratitude with the more
generous sensibilities of angelic spirits.  One
thing only explains the matter. The shepherds
reported what they actually heard, and their
report was faithfully handed down among the
early Christians.
One might seek long for a combination of
circumstances more abounding in beautiful and
striking correspondences to the nature of our
Saviour's mission than those here recorded by
VOL. I.           15




226     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the Evangelist. He is born of a lowly Jewess; he is laid in a manger; the persons to
whom his birth is first made known are humble
shepherds; and in the stillness of night, the
strains which descend from heaven announcing
the event breathe glory to God and benevolence to man. I should think an infidel would
say,-Commend me to fabulists of so strict a
taste, so nice a perception of propriety,-who,
though humble and unlettered men, from whom
a work of imagination would hardly be one of
much refinement, and who would naturally feel
that splendid accompaniments were proper to
an august occasion, have attached no worldly
pomp and glitter to the birth of Jesus, but
have fitted all the circumstances of this event
to the meek and benevolent character he was
to bear. But most people, it is probable, are
no believers in any superior qualifications of
these men for their undertaking beyond those
of sincerity and truth. If anything has given
a singular pertinency and beauty to their account of our Saviour's nativity, it must be attributed to the historical facts with which they
had to deal, and not to any peculiar ability of
their own.
In speaking of the parentage of Jesus, it
should be remarked, that, while his ancestry,
conformably to prophecy, followed the line of
David and Abraham, it was plainly requisite




THE NATIVITY.            227
that his immediate origin should be humble,
not only in order to accord with another portion of the prophecies, which predicted that he
should come forth like "a root out of a dry
ground," and be "despised and rejected of men,"
but also to harmonize with the design of Christianity itself, and furnish one important evidence of its supernatural original. A spiritual
and divine religion could not be too remote in
its earthly circumstances from any secular connections to which its origin might possibly be
attributed. The question should arise only to
be dismissed, Whether it was indebted to family
influence, or to the advantages of education in
its followers, or to any favoring accidents of
fortune. And such is actually the position in
which Christianity is presented in its early history.
Luke has preserved the following incident attending the presentation of Jesus in the temple.
"And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon; and the same man
was just and devout, waiting for the consolation
of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy
Ghost, that he.should not see death before he
had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by
the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him
after the custom of the law, then took he him




228     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,-'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes
have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to
lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.' "-We have constant occasion to notice the minute specifications of persons and
names, times and places, in the gospel histories.
Simeon blesses the mother and her infant,
but at the same time obscurely intimates to
her some great affliction for which she must
prepare. He tells her that her child "is set
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel,"
-referring, perhaps, to the different receptions
he would meet with from different classes of
men; adding, "that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed,"-meaning, we may conjecture, that he would put to the test the characters of his countrymen, and bring out the
real spirit which breathed within them, whether of truth and honesty, or of carnal insensibility and worldliness of heart. He concludes
with telling her that " a sword shall pierce
through her own soul also,"-alluding, not improbably, to the crucifixion of her son. Mary
would seem never to have forgotten this painful, though mysterious premonition. We discover her maternal anxiety, through the whole




THE NATIVITY.            229
subsequent history, on a variety of occasions
When Jesus but went into a house with a
crowd of people, she appears to have been apprehensive of some danger to him, and sent in
a message to call him out. The fortitude which
she manifested at the cross, where she had the
resolution to be present during the awful scene
of the crucifixion, may naturally have been owing, in some degree, to a long preparation for
some such catastrophe which the prediction of
Simeon had wrought in her mind. We never
find her, after this prediction, expressing the
same glowing anticipations as to the earthly
prospects of her son which were entertained by
the disciples generally.  The mother of James
and John requested that her sons might have
the first places assigned to them, under the temporal dominion which was expected to be established by the Messiah. But Mary, though the
most interested party, so far as any such expectations were concerned, is never brought
before us, through the whole course of the
evangelical narrative, as manifesting any other
feelings than those of maternal solicitude and
patient resignation, after the remarks addressed to her by the aged Simeon in the temple.
Another incident on this occasion, as related
by Luke, was the following. "And there was
one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Pha



230     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
nuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great
age, and had lived with an husband seven years
from her virginity; and she was a widow of
about fourscore and four years, which departed
not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto
the Lord, and spake of him to all them that
looked for redemption in Jerusalem."-Again,
what minute particulars! How irresistibly do
they produce the impression of real history!
One little matter, especially, may be noticed.
In all artless relations, things are apt to be
introduced which have little or no interest on
their own account, but seem to be mentioned
merely because they happen to be true. Fiction, always intent upon its object, never strays
into irrelevant particulars. But the mere reality of a fact is apt to give it a value with
simple and honest relators which it never has
with the fabulist, nor with any writer who is
versed in the art of pleasing and pertinent narrative. In the present instance, we are told
that Anna "had lived with an husband seven
years from her virginity." I need not say that
this was a circumstance more likely to be recorded by one relating all he knew, and confounding the truth with the importance of an
incident, than as possessing any essential moment in the history.




THE NATIVITY.            231
I have adverted to the exultations over the
nativity of Jesus ascribed to certain devout persons, as containing interior proof of their own
authenticity. But, besides this, they involve an
intrinsic authentication of the main event to
which they lefer,-the Nativity itself. The fact,
that an humble cottager of Israel had become
a joyful mother, considered as a mere natural,
every-day occurrence, could hardly have awakened devout transports in persons not immediately interested. Nor would the mother's own
unsupported averment as to some remarkable
providence connected with the birth of her child
have been sufficient to enkindle any such emotions.  But once suppose the incidents mentioned in the gospel history to have occurred,
namely, the loss and restoration of speech to
Zacharias, the testimony of Elizabeth, and the
report of the shepherds, and the story hangs
together. We have one striking, self-supporting
coincidence throughout. The harmony is complete.




CHAPTER VIII.
THE INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.
AMONG the events which distinguished the in
fancy of Jesus, Matthew relates the journey of
the Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem, in
the days of Herod the Great, to do homage
to the new-born king. They are called in the
original, Magi,-a name applied in Oriental
countries to sages, philosophers, and priests.
Grotius and others suppose them to have come
from  Arabia. Tacitus* observes, —It was an
extensive persuasion, that it was written in the
ancient books of the priests, that, at that very
time, the East should rise in strength, and persons coming from Judea should obtain dominion." The time referred to was that of the
destruction of Jerusalem.  Suetonius t mentions
a similar, if not the very same fact.    "An
old and constant opinion," he says, "had prevailed over the whole East, that it was written in the books of the Fates, that at that
time some coming out of Judea should obtain
* Hist. Lib. v. c. 13.  t Vita Vesp. c. 4.




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.     233
dominion." "What the original was," observes
a learned commentator,' of this uncommon expectation, which now prevailed among such different and widely distant nations, is not difficult to ascertain. Among the Jews, it took its
rise from the prophecies concerning the Messiah contained in their sacred books, as Josephus and Tacitus insinuate. Among the Arabians, it was derived from the promise made
to Abraham, whose descendants they were by
Ishmael. Of this promise they preserved a traditional knowledge, as is evident from the words
of the Arabian prophet, Balaam, Numbers xxiv.
17:-' There shall come a Star out of Jacob,'
etc.... Among the other Eastern nations, the
expectation above mentioned owed its original
to their commerce with the Jews and Arabians,
but especially with the Jews, who, in their several captivities, being dispersed through the East,
spread the knowledge of their prophecies, together with their religion, wherever they came,
and begat that expectation, which was so universal that it merited to be taken notice of
even by the Roman historians." 
There can be no doubt that a general expectation of the kind described by Tacitus and
Suetonius existed in the East; and if so, the
visit of the Magi to Judea, as related in the
*MACKNIGHT, Harmony of the Four Gospels, Note to Matt.
ii. 1.




234     HOURS WTITH THE EVANGELISTS.
gospel history, was not an improbable event
Philosophers, in early ages, were in the habit
of journeying to distant countries to collect information, which was not to be obtained as at
the present day through the medium of the
press. That they should travel from Arabia to
Jerusalem, were it only from motives of curiosity, is not surprising, when they performed
journeys from  Greece to Egypt, and even to
India, from a similar inducement.
It was stated by the Magi that they had
seen his star in the East,-which denoted to
them the birth of a king of the Jews. What,
in our modes of speaking, would express simply the appearance of a new heavenly body,
might, in their mystical phraseology, have had
a very different signification. The star, we may
suppose, was some meteorological phenomenon.
The arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem, making inquiries respecting a new-born king of the
Jews to whom they desired to pay homage,
must unavoidably have come to the knowledge
of Herod, the reigning monarch. He sent, says
the Evangelist, for the priests and scribes, to
interrogate them concerning the birth-place of
the extraordinary personage whom they were
then expecting. On learning from them that
Bethlehem was the place designated by the
prophets, he directed the Wise Men to proceed to that city and search diligently for the




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    235
young child, and when they had found him, to
return and bring him word, that he might go
and worship him also.
It has been taken for granted that the Magi
did actually go to Bethlehem, as Herod had directed them, and there found Jesus and his
mother. This has led to a charge of discrepancy in the evangelical relations,-Luke making
Nazareth to have been the place of the Saviour's residence after his presentation in the
temple. But there is no mention in the Gospel of any particular place to which the Magi
repaired, after they had left Herod. It might
have been Nazareth.   Matthew  simply states,
that, "when they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star which they saw in
the East went before them, till it came and
stood over where the young child was." To
be sure, Nazareth was about one degree of latitude north of Jerusalem. But what was this
distance, especially with a heavenly light to
guide them, to those who had travelled so
much farther to see the infant Christ?
Being divinely admonished not to return to
Herod, as Matthew goes on to relate, the Magi
"departed into their own country another way";
whereat the king, disappointed in his perfidi-;ous designs, "was exceeding wroth, and," determined not to be frustrated, "sent forth and
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem;




236        HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
and   in   all the   coasts   thereof, from      two   years
old and under, according         to  the   time   which   he
had diligently inquired of the Wise Men."
The evangelical historian says nothing as to
the accordance of these proceedings of Hierod
with his general spirit and character, as described  by   other authors.      This    he  naturally    would
have done, if he had been desirous of strengthening the credibility of his own narrative; for
nothing would have been easier than to adduce
similar instances of Herod's perfidy and cruelty.*
* "When any one looks upon the punishments he inflicted,"
says Josephus, " and the injuries he did, not only to his subjects,
but to his nearest relations, and takes notice of his severe and
unrelenting disposition there, he will be forced to allow that it was
brutish and a stranger to all humanity."- Antiquities, Book XVI.
ch. v. sec. 4.
When near his end, according to the same authority, he projected a strange and unheard-of piece of posthumous barbarity.
"He got together the most illustrious men of the whole Jewish
nation, out of every village, into a place called the Hippodrome,
and there shut them in. He then called for his sister Salome and
her husband Alexas, and made this speech to them:'I know
well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my death.
However, it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts,
and to have a splendid funeral, if you will but be subservient to
my commands. Do but you take care to send soldiers to encompass these men that are now in custody, and slay them immediately upon my death, and then all Judea and every family of
them will weep at it, whether they will or no."'"-Jewish War,
Book I. ch. xxxiii. sec. 6.
Josephus often remarks upon Herod's extreme jealousy with regard to his crown, and his readiness to take any step, however
base, for the maintenance of his power. Among the numerous il



INFANCY    AND    CHILDHOOD     OF JESUS.       237
I have sometimes thought, that, if the massacre at Bethlehem had been a mere traditionary
story, it'would have been more prodigal of
lustrations of this disposition, related by the Jewish historian, the
following must strike every reader as a singular counterpart to his
wily and atrocious conduct in the gospel tragedy.  "When the
youth Aristobulus, who was now in the seventeenth year of his
age, went up to the altar, according to the law, to offer the sacrifices, and this with the ornaments of his high-priesthood, and when
he performed the sacred offices, he seemed to be exceeding comely,
and taller than men usually were at that age, and to exhibit in
his countenance a great deal of that high family he was sprung
from.  And a warm    zeal and affection towards him  appeared
among the people; and the memory of the actions of his grandfather Aristobulus was fresh in their minds; and their affections got
so far the mastery of them, that they could not forbear to show
their inclinations to him. They at once rejoiced and were confounded, and mingled with good wishes their joyful acclamations
which they made to him, till the good-will of the multitude was
made too evident, and they more rashly proclaimed the happiness
they had received from his family than was fit under a monarchy
to have done. Upon all this, Herod resolved to complete what he
had intended against the young man. When, therefore, the festival was over, and he was feasting at Jericho with Alexandra,
who entertained him there, he was then very pleasant with the
young man, and drew him into a lonely place, and at the same
time played with him in a juvenile and ludicrous manner. Now
the nature of that place was hotter than ordinary; so they went
out in a body, and of a sudden, and in a vein of madness; and
as they stood by the fish-ponds, of which there were large ones
about the house, they went to cool themselves by bathing, because
it was in the midst of a hot day. At first, they were only spectators of Herod's servants and acquaintance, as they were swimming;
but after a while, the young man, at the instigation of Herod,
went into the water among them, while such of Herod's acquaintance as he had appointed to do it dipped him, as he was swimning, and plunged him under water, in the dark of the evening,




238      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
striking incidents. I can suppose that an angel
would have been represented as coming to the
rescue of the endangered infant, and a voice
from heaven have been heard denouncing the
Divine vengeance against the       bloody  and   impious Herod.     Again, it would     have   been  in
keeping with a fabulous narrative, if, to complete the picture of this determined and ruthless tyrant, we had been told that officers were
sent with   the  Wise   Men   to  make    the  more
sure of accomplishing his murderous object. In
fact, Strauss thinks the absence of such an
incident a defect in the     narrative.   But suppose it had been introduced. How many skeptics would have remembered the precautionary
artifices of the murderer of Aristobulus, and expressed their surprise that the wily manager of
that deep-laid tragedy of the drowning of the
young high-priest in apparent sport should have
attempted any open assault upon the mysterious
King of the Jews while the Wise Men who had
come to worship him were on the spot! How
much more probable, as we should have heard,
as if it had been done in sport only; nor did they desist till he
was entirely suffocated. And thus was Aristobulus murdered."Antiquities, Book XV. ch. iii. sec. 3.
When we are further told, that, from similar motives of jealousy,
he put to death his favorite wife Mariamne, and two of his own
sons, the slaughter in Bethlehem seems no longer incredible, but
rather an internal evidence of the authenticity of the gospel history.




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    239
some adroit and covert machination for accomplishing his cruel design!
Matthew informs us, that, at the same time
that the Wise Men were admonished to return
to their own country a different way from that
by which they came, Joseph and Mary were
warned by Divine Providence to fly with the
voung child into Egypt, where they remained
till the death of their persecutor had removed
the occasion of their exile. Their return is
mentioned by the Evangelist as a fulfilment of
the Scripture,  Out of Egypt have I called my
Son." The original passage is in Hosea xi. 1:
-" When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
and called my son out of Egypt." It refers to
the escape of the Israelites from their bondage
in Egypt.  The two cases are very different,
and yet there is an analogy between them;
and a Scripture is often said to be fulfilled,
when nothing more is intended thereby than
that it is apposite to the existing occasion,
without any regard to its original application.
The ancient Hebrew Scriptures were the Jewish classics,-and we can easily conceive that
they should have been frequently cited, as we
cite our own classic authors, merely to illustrate
or enforce something of a parallel nature.
Matthew states, that, when Joseph returned
from his temporary exile in Egypt, he heard
that Archelaus was upon the throne of Judea,




240     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
as the successor of Herod, and, being " afraid to
go thither," "turned aside into the parts of Galilee." A coincidence may here be noted. Archelaus did succeed Herod, but was deposed by
Augustus, who died in the fourteenth year of
our Lord; consequently, if, when Joseph returned from Egypt, Archelaus was king, Jesus must
have been in his childhood, though at what
period of his childhood we cannot accurately
determine.
Joseph, it is plainly intimated in the gospel
narrative, did not expect to hear that Archelaus
had succeeded Herod. If we turn to Josephus,
we shall find that Herod had originally, out
of hatred to Archelaus, bequeathed his kingdom to Antipas, his youngest son, but that just
before his death he altered his testament in
favor of Archelaus.  This latter circumstance
seems to have been unknown to Joseph, who,
at tidings of the death of Herod, concluding
that Antipas would be his successor, had immediately left Egypt for his native land, and
first learned on reaching the borders of Judea
the unexpected change in the succession. What
an extent and complication of indirect and minute coincidences! And this is not all. Why
should Joseph have turned aside into Galilee,
when he heard that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room   of his father Herod? That
he was so directed of Providence does not di



INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.     241
minish the pertinency of the question. It would
seem  to indicate that Galilee was not under
the same government as Judea.     Yet it was
so when Joseph left Judea, to go down into
Egypt. It was so in the time of Herod. But
by his last will Herod divided his kingdom,
giving  Judea  to Archelaus, and Galilee and
Peraea to Antipas. Here, then, the Evangelist
is explained as to the course he represents Joseph to have taken, though without giving us
any direct information for that purpose. Moreover, we have an historical explanation, though
not alluded to in the gospel narrative, of Joseph's preference of Galilee to Judea for his
place of residence, in the fact of the tyrannical character of Archelaus, of whom  the Jewish historian relates, that, in a solemn protest
by his subjects to the Emperor against his confirmation as their ruler, it was charged, that,
"lest he should be in danger of not being
thought the genuine son of Herod, he began
his reign with the murder of three thousand
citizens."  But against Antipas, the ruler of
Galilee, no such allegation of bloodthirstiness
is brought; and although, it is true, he bears
the obloquy, both in Jewish and Christian history, of having beheaded John the Baptist, yet
the Evangelists who relate the particulars concur in representing the order for John's ex* JOSEPHUS, Jewish War, Book II. ch. vi. sec. 2.
VOL. I.           16




242      HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ecution to have been given with reluctance,
and only in fulfilment of a rash oath made
to the daughter of Herodias to give her whatever she might ask.*
These numerous coincidences seem to render
the authenticity of this relation a matter of
just induction,-to say nothing of the evangelical testimony.    Nor ought it to      be  overlooked that the facts are all closely linked together.   Succeeding   events demand     the   preceding.
Wise Men     come from     Arabia to   Jerusalem   to
do homage to the new-born king, and find him
in the cottage of Mary. They would not have
made the visit, nor could they have discovered
the child, unless they had enjoyed       some extraordinary guidance. Herod betrays his jealousy
for his crown by destroying all the infants in
Bethlehem.     Why    this  atrocity?    The   arrival
of the Magi in the metropolis asking about a
new-born king of the Jews satisfies this inquiry. A poor Jewish couple with their young
child fly for refuge to a distant land. Admit
their lives to have been in danger and the
matter is explained.
* The reason assigned by Josephus for the execution of John
was Herod's fear of him, on account of his great influence with
the people. If the Jewish historian says nothing of John's denunciation of the incestuous marriage with Herodias, he might not have
known of it, or have thought it had little to do with his death,
in comparison with the king's jealousy. But the particularity of
the evangelical relation affords a presumption in its favor.




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    243
Strauss remarks,-"As, according to Matthew,
the birth of Jesus became known at Jerusalem,
which was in the immediate vicinity, by means
of the star,-if this representation be historical,
that of Luke, according to which the shepherds
were the first to spread abroad, with praises to
God, that which had been communicated to
them as glad tidings for all people, cannot possibly be correct. So, on the other hand, if it
be true that the birth of Jesus was made
known in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, as
Luke states, by an angelic communication to
the shepherds, Matthew must be in error, when
he represents the first intelligence of the event
as subsequently brought to Jerusalem, which is
only from two to three hours distant from Bethlehem, by the Magi." *
I find no such statement in Matthew,-that
the first intelligence of the Nativity was brought
to Jerusalem  by the Magi.   But Strauss assumes, that, if Luke's account of the angelic
communication to the shepherds had been true,
the people of Jerusalem would have had nothing to learn from the Magi about the Saviour.
Is this worthy of an astute and ingenious critic?
The arrival of the Magi might have occurred
many months after the Nativity, or at any time
when Jesus could properly be called a "young
child"; and it might, accordingly, have been
*Life of Jesus, Vol. I. p. 219.




244     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
at so late a period as to have allowed abundant room for the report of the shepherds to
have fallen into oblivion. With the conceptions
so universally entertained of the proud lineage
of the Messiah, and of the regal majesty in
which he was to appear, how long can it be
supposed that a general and ardent interest
would be felt throughout the metropolis-if,
indeed, any such interest were ever excitedin a story, resting on the authority of a few
humble shepherds, of an angelic announcement,
of which they were the sole witnesses, that
Christ the Lord had been born of peasant parentage in the stable of a neighboring villageinn? There would be those to repeat the story, and those to believe it, perhaps; but what
would become of it after a few months, or
even a few weeks?    But by-and-by there arrive in the city a company of persons from
the East, bearing the mysterious and honored
title of Magi, bringing with them treasures
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and saying,
"Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
for we have seen his star in the East, and are
come to worship him." Here, verily, was something to produce excitement,-and no wonder,
as the Evangelist relates, all Jerusalem was
moved.
The report of the shepherds, it is intimated
by Luke himself, made but a transient impres



INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    245
sion, even upon the Bethlehemites, with the
exception only of the mother of Jesus. "And
all they that heard it wondered at those things
which were told them by the shepherds. But
Mary kept all these things and pondered them
in her heart." How plainly is it here implied
that others did not keep them and ponder them
in their hearts!  They wondered for the moment, and that was all. If the shepherds could
command no    more attention  to their story
among their fellow-villagers, how is it to be
supposed they would meet with better success
in the proud and worldly city of Jerusalem?
The Evangelists have related little of Jesus
from his infancy to the commencement of his
ministry. It is nearly all comprised in the account of his visit to Jerusalem, at the age
of twelve, and in the general remark of Saint
Luke, that he "increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and man." This is followed by a silence of nearly twenty years.
Was a chasm so considerable owing, on the
part of the evangelical historians, to their ignorance of the facts omitted, or to the private,
un-Messianic character of the facts themselves?
We know not. This, however, is certain,-fiction would never have left so considerable a
void.  Ample materials to fill it might have
been collected from apocryphal sources, at least.




246     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
I can hardly conceive of a less imaginative feature in the whole gospel narrative.  Nothing
could well wear a more historical appearance.
The truth is, we have traditions enough, such
as they are, respecting the sayings and doings
of Jesus during the period in question.  But
no great critical penetration is requisite to discover why they should have been regarded as
of no authority by persons competent to judge.
They exhibit little resemblance to the gospel
relations, and on this very account have an
important use.  They show   what these relations themselves would have been, had they
been the fabrications of that day.  They represent Jesus as exercising his miraculous powers, not as the appropriate accompaniments of
a spiritual and benevolent ministry, as we behold them in such striking and beautiful consistency in the goslel histories, but frequently
in order to revenge real or imaginary affronts
he had received. In short, they describe him,
as the imagination of the day would naturally
delineate any fictitious personage, as marked
by the vindictive spirit of the age. They reproduce such a Messiah as James and John
would have had their Master to be, when they
asked his consent to destroy a whole village
of the Samaritans because the inhabitants treated him with inhospitality on his way to Jerusalem.




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    247
Among the few things related in the Gospels
concerning the early life of Jesus, as I have
said, is his visit to Jerusalem in company with
his parents, when he was twelve years old, and
the scene in the temple on that occasion, in
which he forms so conspicuous a figure. At
this age, it is to be remarked, children were
considered as entering on the state of manhood, and as being qualified accordingly to partake of the Passover.
An ingenious writer, in remarking upon this
visit, observes, that, according to Josephus, Archelaus, the successor of Herod, was deposed
in the tenth year of his reign, corresponding,
probably, to our Lord's twelfth year,-which
he thinks may account for the parents of Jesus
venturing to take him up to Jerusalem at that
time.* But if this was the regular year for
the commencement of an attendance upon the
Passover, we may rather see the event in question, I judge, in the light of a providence, as
to rendering the journey safe for him.
"And when they had fulfilled the days," says
Luke,  as they returned, the child Jesus tarried
behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to
have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk
* Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and
New Testament. By J. J. BLUNT. pp. 345-6.




248     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
and acquaintance. And when they found him
not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him."
A slight coincidence here is not undeserving
of notice. We see how early Jesus had established himself in the confidence of his parents;
so that, when they were travelling in a large
company, probably a caravan, though they knew
not where he was, they nevertheless betrayed
no anxiety about him for a whole day. The
intelligent and religious spirit he subsequently
discovers strikingly harmonizes with this reliance
which they seem to have reposed in him.
He was found, not as they anticipated, among
his friends, but sitting in the midst of the doctors in the temple, listening to them and asking them  questions.  "It being the custom,"
says Strauss, "for the Rabbins to be placed on
chairs, while their pupils sat on the ground,"
he makes it a subject of cavil that a child
should be represented to have been treated
with so much respect as to be elevated, as he
states it, " if not to a place of preeminent
honor, at least to a position of equal dignity"
with that occupied by the doctors.   The objection shows what a slight amount of difficulty is sufficient sometimes to arrest the notice
of critics who are determined, as they say, to
read the gospel histories without partiality or
prejudice.  But, in point of fact, no such dis



INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.   249
tinction is related to have been shown to Jesus. The Evangelist represents him simply as
"sitting in the midst of the doctors,"-but
whether in a place of more or less or equal
dignity we have not the slightest hint.
That the Rabbis should have evinced an interest in the child Jesus is intrinsically probable.  For suppose that nothing of the kind
had occurred. The case would have stood thus.
Notwithstanding his wonderful nativity had been
noised abroad, nothing was known of him, as'yet, by the leading men of the nation. The attention of the priesthood had not been drawn
to the events at Bethlehem;-not even the
visit of the Magi to Jerusalem had led them
to keep an eye upon the family of Mary and
Joseph.  The parents went up every year to
the metropolis to attend the annual feast, and
the mysterious child himself once penetrated
into the interior of the temple; but they took
no notice of him.  The skeptic would hardly
have been struck with the verisimilitude of
this account.
When his parents found him in the temple,
they expressed surprise.  Said his mother,"Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?  Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."-The thought occurs,-Where had they
found him? In the sanctuary. And could anything have been more gratifying? Why speak.




250     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
of being thus dealt with? Why not delighted?
-Very natural, I answer, that they should
have been pleased to find him in such a place
and in such company. But is not something
else still more natural? Suppose such had been
their confidence in his attention to their wishes, that they would have considered it literally
impossible he should knowingly have done anything to afflict them; and suppose, also, that
their alarm for the safety of such a child had
been what it naturally would have been. Let
a mother say what would have been the character of the emotion exhibited by them, when,
after a painful search, they at last found him.
Would it have been an emotion indicative of
past solicitude, or only of present gratification
and joy?
Jesus replies to his parents by asking if they
were not sensible he must be about his Father's business,-or, as some would render it,
in his Father's house. The Jewish doctors are
said to have taught the people publicly in the
temple, at the national festivals.  It may be
thought, therefore, that he meant, he was only
in the regular place and way of his duty, like
any other child. But how, then, could his conduct have appeared so strange to his parents?
or how could they have failed to understand
the import of his answer? The truth, we may
believe, was, that he had a consciousness of




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    251
his Messianic office, even at this early period,
which he did not and could not fully explain
to them.
In Jesus' mode of speaking to his mother,
not only on the present occasion, but at other times, some have felt there was a tone of
freedom and superiority hardly to be expected
from the humble deference of a dutiful son.
"How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not
that I must be about my Father's business?"
So, too, at the marriage-feast in Cana,-"Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour
is not yet come." On the cross also,-" Woman, behold thy son!" When informed, on one
occasion, that his mother and brethren were
at the door, desiring to speak with him, he
replied,-" Who is my mother? and who are
my brethren? Whosoever shall do the will of
God, the same is my brother, and sister, and
mother." In the tone of all these expressions
I am struck with something of a moral coincidence. Do they not betray a deep latent consciousness in the bosom of Jesus that he was
raised above all common relations to any human being, except in qualified respects? That
in very truth he did hold a position in which
all domestic ties were merged, I have no occasion to say.
I discover no design on the part of the Evangelist to invest the early life of his Master




252     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
with an imposing dignity, or to give us splendid glimpses of those exalted thoughts that
were then moving in his soul. He makes no
comment upon what Jesus observed to his parents; yet it is impossible not to perceive in
what he said an underlying consciousness of
some high mission he was to fulfil, but over
which a veil was drawn to their eyes. At the
same time, he plainly alludes to something
within their knowledge which ought to have
prevented their surprise at finding him in the
temple. He referred, we may believe, to the
extraordinary circumstances of his birth and infancy.
But who can say,-a skeptic may ask,-that
all this consciousness of his was not a precocious exaltation of mind, a natural enthusiasm
merely?-But a natural enthusiasm must act
naturally. It must take its cast from surrounding circumstances. It must feel the bias of education, association, sympathy. In a Jew it must
be a Jewish emotion. It must harmonize with
Hebrew conceptions, when Hebrew hopes have
excited it. Yet the Jews, it seems, did not understand those inspiring thoughts which filled
the bosom of the youthful Jesus,-not even his
parents.
Among other things dropped at intervals, in
the course of this artless narrative, I have not
been unobservant of the following:-" Behold,




INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.    253
thy father and I," says Mary, C have sought
thee sorrowing." We may, perhaps, detect in
these words a degree of solicitude concerning
him, natural to a mother, beyond what was
manifested by her husband; but we certainly
see his solicitude too, though in the early
stages of the history a reason appears why it
might have been otherwise, but for an angelic
communication made to him concerning the
child. The coincidence may be noticed.
I may add, that a minute circumstance shows
how it could have happened that this scene in
the temple should find a place in the history,
though there was no disciple present to report
it.  It is stated, that Mary " kept all these
sayings in her heart," —referring to the conversation with her child;-through her, doubtless, this conversation, together with the incident which gave rise to it, became known to
the Evangelist.
Jesus lived with his parents in retirement till
he was thirty years old. It may seem remarkable, that one, who at the age of twelve years
was conscious of being charged from heaven
with a higher duty than that of consulting the
wishes of his earthly friends, should have remained for so long a period in obscurity, in the
bosom of the domestic circle. Suppose merely
an extraordinary moral prematurity on his part,




254     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
combined with constitutional enthusiasm, and it
was indeed remarkable. In such case, he must
have been constantly hearing the voice of his
own mind calling on him, in the fulness of his
spirit and the inspiration of his object, to go
forward to achievement. But suppose him to
have received an errand from  God; what time
would have been likely to be divinely appointed for his entrance upon his mission? He often spoke of the brevity of his ministry. "A
little while," he said, "I am with you." It was
a little while. It could not have been otherwise. Without a miracle to prevent it, there
was necessarily a speedy termination to his labors. The fierce and powerful hostility he could
not but excite admitted of no other result.
These, then, were the alternatives:-Should his
all-important work, which, under any circumstances, must soon be brought to a close, be commenced at as early an age as possible? or was
a preference to be given to mature years?
True, all this might have been rendered a matter of indifference. God might have imparted a
miraculous energy to the merest child, and secured him a respect altogether beyond his years.
But God does not thwart'nor assist the natural
order of events by special interpositions, when
the object may be accomplished without them.




CHAPTER IX.
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
A NEW religious era was now commencing.
The last great prophet was to appear. A glorious reign of truth and righteousness was to
be introduced, before which every stronghold
of sin was to be thrown down. Suppose there
had been no forerunner of this epoch,-nothing mentioned of any in the gospel records.
What would have been said?    We can imagine the discoveries a skeptic would have made
in those ancient Scriptures to which Christians
are accustomed to appeal as predicting such a
herald, and the stress he would have laid upon the belief of the Jews that a pioneer of
this description was to precede the prophet in
question. He would, no doubt, have reminded
us how strong and universal this belief among
them was, and what important preparation a
forerunner could have made for the new dispensation, what a prestige he would have given
it,-all accompanied with a due suggestion on
his part, that, when any great end in Provi



256     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
dence is to be accomplished, we must presume
that every suitable measure will be adopted
to insure its success.
That a forerunner of the Messiah, answering to the general expectation of the Jews,
actually appeared in the person of John the
Baptist we learn incidentally from other sources besides the gospel history.  "John, that
was called the Baptist," says Josephus, "was a
good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards
one another and piety towards God, and so to
come to baptism;-and they came in crowds
about him, for they were greatly moved by
hearing his words." 
John declared himself to be the herald of the
Messiah, and preached repentance as the necessary preparation for admission into the coming
kingdom. Shortly after, Jesus commenced his
public ministry.  They both taught the same
general truths, but exhibited a striking distinctness in their missions. They had separate followers. One never dictated to the other. Each
maintained his own independent sphere.   The
like is not to be found, so far as I am aware,
in all religious history.
Few passages in the New Testament have
elicited more interest in the way of interpre* Antiquities, Book XVIII. ch. v. sec. 2.




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          257
tation, or called forth more various explanations, than the observation of the Forerunner,
recorded by Saint John, "I knew him not,"referring to Jesus, antecedently to his baptism.
It might appear from   this remark that the
Baptist had had no knowledge of Christ up
to that moment; and yet they were near relatives. The remark occurs twice; first in the
following connection:-" And I knew him not"
(or, "had not known him,"-for the verb is in
the pluperfect); "but that he should be made
manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water."  And again, with the interval of a single verse, as follows:-" And I
knew him not" (or, "had not known him");
"but He that sent me to baptize with water,
the same said unto me,'Upon whom       thou
shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining
on him, the same is he which baptizeth with
the Holy Ghost."'
That John had at least a personal acquaintance with Jesus previously to his baptism appears from the statement in Matthew, that,
when Jesus came to be baptized, "John forbade him, saying,'I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"'    He
must also have long known,-from     his own
parents, surely, if from no other source,-that
Jesus was the Messiah, and that the time
would come for him to be proclaimed, and
VOL. I.           17




258     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to have his way prepared before him. But
John's conception of the Messianic office and
character would seem, primarily, to have been
simply the common Jewish idea, as expressed
in the song of his father Zacharias,-namely, that the coming Deliverer was to "save
them from their enemies and from the hands
of all that hated them,"-that is to say, that
he was to be a powerful monarch, who would
free Judea from every yoke, and establish her
supremacy in the earth.   The spiritual object
of Christ's mission, that he was to baptize
with the Holy Ghost, was not at first known to
John. He had associated no such office with
his great kinsman,-not till a special communication from heaven announced to him, "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."    For how,
previously to this communication, should John
have entertained a more sublimated conception
of the Messianic office than his father Zacharias possessed, from whom he probably learned
all he had hitherto known of the Messiahship
of Jesus?-and that Zacharias knew nothing
of any spiritual office which the Messiah was
to bear is evident from the whole tenor of his
hymn on the expected coming of Christ.
It would appear, then, that, before the baptism of Jesus, John already knew him both




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          259
personally and as the Messiah,-regarding him,
however, only as a temporal prince and deliverer, conformably to the common notions of the
day,-and that he now for the first time learned the spiritual office which he was to sustain,
in baptizing with the Holy Ghost. And herein
I find the explanation of his remark,  I had
not known him,"-his meaning being, as I conceive, that he had not heretofore known him in
the particular character in which he was then
manifested, his spiritual character.
A striking incident related in the Acts of
the Apostles evinces that John, during the first
of his preaching, had never spoken of Jesus
in connection with the Holy Ghost, nor spoken
of the Holy Ghost in any manner whatever.
"And it came to pass," says the historian,
that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to
Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, he said
unto them,'Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since ye believed?' And they said unto him,'We have not so much as heard whether there
be any Holy Ghost.' And he said unto them,'Unto what, then, were ye baptized?'    And
they said,'Unto John's baptism."' Grotius observes, that "from hence it appears that John
baptized unto repentance, but not unto the
promise of the Holy Ghost."* I should qual* Annotationes in Acta Apostolorum, cap. xix. ver. 4.




260     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ify this remark by saying, that he did not
baptize unto the promise of the Holy Ghost
till he had received the heavenly annunciation,
that Jesus was to baptize with the Holy Ghost.
Still one point may seem to call for explanation. The first three Evangelists speak of John
as announcing, even before the baptism of Jesus, and, as it would appear, from the very
outset, that he who was to come after him
was to   baptize with the Holy Ghost.     But
the Evangelists can hardly be said to be strict
chronologists.  Thus, Luke, in his account of
the Baptist, puts John's imprisonment before
the baptism of Jesus, though his imprisonment,
we know, terminated in his death.    Writing,
as they did, some thirty or forty years after
the events they record, it is natural that these
events should, in some cases, lie in their memories very much in masses and wholes, rather than in all their several exact connections
with times and circumstances. Accordingly, in
speaking of the great topics of John's preaching, they might have combined all together in
a single notice, without accurately distinguishing the seasons and occasions when particular
subjects were actually brought forward. An exacter method would have been, perhaps, too exact for such simple and unpractised historians.
In reply to the repeated inquiries of the




JOHN THE BAPTIST.           261
Jews and his own followers, John uniformly
declared,-" I am   not the  Christ.-He   that
cometh after me is preferred before me, for
he was before me.-He must increase, but I
must decrease." -These ingenuous avowals give
a lively impression of his sincerity, and of his
distinct, unvarying consciousness of the real relation in which he stood to Jesus. Yet they
serve to illustrate how differently a fact which
affords pleasure to a believer may be regarded by one who is differently influenced. To
Strauss it seems incredible that John should
ever have made any such declarations, for the
reason, as he remarks, that "the instance would
be a solitary one, if a man, whose life had
its influence on the world's history, had so
readily yielded the ascendant, in his own era,
to one who came to eclipse him and render
him  superfluous."  But so far from   sinking
his own importance by acknowledging the superiority of Jesus, John would have made himself a mere pretender by taking the opposite
course.  He had no ascendency to give up.
He professed, when he commenced his ministry, to act only a subordinate part.  Having
announced the arrival of the Messiah, he could
do no less than treat him with the respect
due to his Messianic office.
Strauss has pronounced it inconceivable that
* Life of Jesus, Vol. I. p. 331.




262     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
John should ever have held Jesus to be the
Messiah, when he could send an embassy to inquire of him whether he was the Messiah or
not. He also says it is "psychologically impossible" that John should have become wavering
in his belief in Jesus, provided he had previously witnessed the miracle alleged to have
been exhibited in testimony of him at his baptism.  A  psychological law  against moral inconstancy and inconsistency would certainly be
a most happy provision for our benefit. But
the question is, Where is it to be found? Certainly not where it is most wanted,-to keep
men from uniting to a belief in God a wicked and godless life.
John was then in prison, and, with the ideas
which he cherished of the coming Deliverer, he
could have entertained little apprehension of
ever being deserted himself in his utmost need;
yet, as the fact would naturally appear to him,
he was so deserted. It is not difficult to conceive that the consequence should have been
that his belief in Jesus' Messianic testimonials
sustained a shock. True, he had witnessed one
of these testimonials with his own eyes; and
so had all Christ's disciples witnessed similar
testimonials to him with their own eyes,-nevertheless they forsook him  at last.  In short,
I have yet to learn of what moral instability
any man is absolutely incapable.




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          263
The frankness with which the Evangelists
have spoken of this embassy from John claims
a passing remark. It must have been unpleasant to them to record a fact like this; yet
they have recorded it notwithstanding.
Strauss considers it inconceivable on another
account that John should ever have believed
in Jesus. "He who, like the Baptist," says he,
" esteems it piety to fast and mortify the body,
will never assign a high grade in things divine to him  who disregards such asceticism."*
What! John place piety in penances, and the
like! When the people asked him what they
should do to escape the judgments of Heaven,
does he say, "Abstain from everything pleasant
to the senses,-macerate the body"? By no
means. But, " He that hath two coats, let him
impart to him that hath none; and he that
hath rneat, let him do likewise. Exact no more
than that which is appointed you. Do violence
to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be
content with your wages." The Pharisees and
Sadducees come to him to be baptized.    "0
generation of vipers," he exclaims, "who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
Small appearance this of any exaggerated estimation on his part of an butside, ceremonial
righteousness!
The ministry of John the Baptist, as it is
* Life of Jesus, Vol. I. p. 331.




264     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
exhibited in the gospel history, affords one of
the strongest evidences of the divine mission of
Jesus. It gives us the actions and sayings of
a person who manifestly believed in the extraordinary and heavenly office of the Saviour.
We feel that it never could have entered into
the thoughts of one like John to bear false
testimony. No,-Jesus did not stand alone in
avouching his Messiahship.
John proclaimed his own work as being, next
to the annunciation of the Messiah, that of a
preacher of repentance. And there is an air of
deep and artless sincerity in the manner in
which he performed this duty which may well
arrest attention. Nothing can exceed the moral simplicity and grandeur with which he stood
upon the banks of the Jordan, where he baptized those who professed their penitence, and
with such an undistinguishing admonition to all
classes-for all classes were there-called upon them to repent of their sins. Nor does he
hesitate to express his opinion as to who had
come without sincerity. He denounces the proud
hypocrites who were present from the highest
ranks in Church and State. All Jerusalem, say
the Evangelists, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, came to be baptized
of him,-Pharisees, and Sadducees, and publicans, and soldiers, and people,-all sects, all




JOHN THE BAPTIST.           265
occupations, all classes.  We see a universal
and simultaneous religious movement, occasioned by the expectation of the immediate coming of the Messiah.
Similar movements have not been uncommon
in our own day, and in all ages of the world.
The one in which John was the conspicuous actor he treated with caution, and yet also with
respect. No doubt, we ought to do the same
in  all similar instances.  Religious sympathy
is a provision of a kind Providence for communicating to all men the benefit of each other's religious convictions and sensibilities. Multitudes are immersed in the world, taken up
with secular business or with public transactions
and events. But some have more moral individuality, or they feel the force of some divine
visitation, or the Spirit of God is pleased to
strive more particularly with their hearts. And
there is a religious sympathy awakened around
them.   And why not? why not sympathy in
our highest concerns, as well as in any of the
ordinary interests and relations of life?  True,
a mere sympathetic religious feeling has some
peculiar characteristics by which it is distinguished from the proper individuality of religious impression which has its centre in one's
own bosom.    It is vivified and put in action
by the force of example.   Its first impulse is
to fall into the religious current that is sweep



266     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ing around it.   It impels to join   with the
throngs that are crowding the churches.     It
listens to the preacher who may happen to
address it.' It has little choice of religious topics beyond his selection. The love of God or
the blessed promises of the gospel may be the
inspiring theme; or, on the other hand, the awful consequences of unrepented sin may be the
only subject presented.  The religious sensibility, surrendered to the reigning sympathy, is
ready to be moved in any direction in which
the force is applied.
All this, as some may think, savors too much
of externality and mechanism.    But there is
one deep individuality, one strong personal emotion, which is almost invariably present at such
seasons, and which is worth all these sympathetic experiences. It is that of a lively sense
of past transgression. It is prayer against besetting sins, against private faults, against this
conscious immorality and that conscious immorality. There is a natural affinity between condemnation of sin and religious feeling, however
the latter may be excited.   Call no state of
mind artificial in which a man is alive to his
past errors and supplicates for assistance to
forsake them.  There may be a retrogression.
The spirit of contrition and sense of sin may
dwindle down and sink away. But blessed the
hope they may not!




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          267
Disadvantages there are, no doubt, in all such
religious feeling as springs from aught else than
personal conviction, the turning of the mind of
its free accord to God and duty.   He whose
religious interest is sympathetic is apt to take
too much for granted which is addressed to
him by the leaders of such movements as I
have described.  Any sect can take him into
their training and submit him to their opinions.
He is apt to judge of his religious condition by
the degree of enthusiasm they may induce or
feel a motive to encourage in their converts.
He is in danger, therefore, of an exaltation too
high for an humble and abiding peace. Hope
is succeeded by despondency; and this transition he will be liable to regard as a proof
that all his past experience has been one merely of imagination.
Better, then, to begin aright in the original
plan of our lives, in a true feeling of our duties, in an immediate knowledge of God, having
a holy centre of our own, an individual and
inner life of religious principle, than to be indebted to sympathy for any after-communication of religion, or to any source liable to be
regarded as extrinsic and incidental, and separate from the essential tempers, tastes, and
motives of our own hearts.   Better be from
the first a calm and constant reader of the
Bible than suddenly repair to it in an excited




268     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
frame of mind and under the dictation of others. Dost thou love God and Christ and thy
fellow-men? Keep on quietly as thou hast commenced,-self-surrendered  to the  Divine will,
living a blameless life, and praying and striving earnestly to grow in all true holiness.
Your course need not be a fluctuating one in
order to be truly Christian. It cannot, indeed,
be one of continual successes.  Often disturbed, mortified, and disheartened you must be.
But as you yield yourself more and more
flexibly to the will of God, the blessed work
of the Spirit will go on, and you will gradually become a new man in Christ Jesus.
I see no difference between Jesus and his
forerunner, in the general tone of their sentiments; only more refinement and elevation,
more entire spirituality of views, more gentleness and tenderness, in the great Teacher.
John bore no slight resemblance to an ancient
prophet. His office required it. A generation
of cold, hypocritical formalists needed a stern
preacher of righteousness, to prepare them for
the gospel day.   The people, moreover, were
on tiptoe, looking for just such a forerunner
of the Messiah as he was. And besides, John
was of the   order of Nazarites, whose vows
bound them to great austerity in their modes
of life.




JOHN THE BAPTIST.           269
But Jesus plainly sought to give no repulsive aspect to his doctrine.  His ministry required an easy intercourse with the world at
large. Austerity would have been in the way
of a spiritual and   universal religion.  It is
impossible to overlook the want of correspondence between his example and any such sternness as some have attributed to many of his
maxims. Thus, they quote his precepts not to
lay up treasures on earth, to take no thought
for the morrow, and so forth, as pointing to a
recluse and monastic life. They view his whole
system as leading to contempt of the world.
They say it is adapted to thwart man's nature,
and induce a morbid condition of the soul. But
everything tends to prove that it was his object only to raise the highest conceptions of
the spiritual character of his religion. He meant
to open to his disciples deeper and serener fountains of peace and trust than are afforded by
this passing and fluctuating state. He nowhere
calls them to follow the ascetic and superstitious usages of a monkish life. In the room
of shunning all communion with the world, and
not mingling in its pursuits, he tells them to
let their light so shine before men, that they,
seeing their good works, may glorify their Father who is in Heaven. His own freedom of
social intercourse drew down upon him the animadversions of the  bigots about him.    His




270     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ministry was a scene of the most varied and
active fellowship with all classes; we find him
sitting at meat alike with publicans and Pharisees, at marriage-feasts and at the tables of
the rich; and so much did he avoid all appearance of an unsocial spirit, that he was
charged by his enemies with going to the opposite extreme.
With the preaching of John the Baptist, as
described by the Jewish and gospel writers,
and the history of the eventful era announced
by him, is associated the memorable prophecy
in Malachi:-" Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to his temple, and the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in [or wish for]:
behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.
But who may abide the day of his coming?
and who shall stand when he appeareth? For
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap;
and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
In his denunciations of divine retribution, the
prophet sets forth the prominent sins of the
times referred to in his prediction, and it will




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          271
be perceived that they are principally those
which Christ especially noticed in his reprobation of the degenerate people of his day:-" I
will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the
hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from
his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of
Hosts." These words find a correspondence in
those bold and cutting rebukes in which our
Lord exposed the profligacy of his own times,
and which he so pointedly directed against adulterers and those who betrayed others into adultery by their false doctrines of divorcement,against false swearers and those who encouraged false swearing by their absurd distinctions
between oaths,-against those who wronged the
fatherless and the widow, and who were the
signal objects of his most solemn denunciations.
But perhaps no portion of the prophecy exhibits more striking coincidences with the events
of the gospel age than the conclusion:-" Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root
nor branch. But unto you that fear my name




272     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.... Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with
a curse," -or, in other words, so as to prevent,
if possible, or take the appropriate means to
prevent, the infliction of punishment on the
land,-not earth, as the original, not only here,
but often elsewhere also, is inappropriately rendered in the common version of the Scriptures.
When this prophecy was uttered, the Jews
had returned from that long captivity in Babylon to which the predictions of national judgments in the Old Testament so frequently refer.
But the spirit of prophecy foresaw in the distant future a still heavier judgment awaiting
them for their sins. Such a calamity actually
befell them in the gospel age,-a calamity far
exceeding any they had ever before experienced. Moreover, not many years anterior to this
catastrophe, a remarkable person, styling himself a messenger from God, and who authenticated his commission by miracles, made his
appearance in Judea, preaching everywhere a
sublime system of piety and virtue, severely
reproving the people for their immoralities, and




JOHN THE BAPTIST.          273
denouncing the corruption of the priesthood.
Thus was it foretold. As his immediate precursor, came also one who might be termed
another Elijah, from the strong resemblance he
bore to that stern and minatory prophet, assailing the vices of the day with remarkable
zeal and boldness, and endeavoring to persuade
the Jews to a general reformation as the only
means of averting an impending destruction
which would prove, he observed, as "an axe
laid to the roots of the trees."  A personage
every way resembling him had been announced by the Messianic prophets, and our Saviour
declared that John was the individual foretold.
Does any one say that all this is certainly
quite remarkable,-but that still it is possible
that John, notwithstanding he was a just man,
and held in the highest reverence, might have
been misled by an ardent imagination in supposing himself the Forerunner predicted? One
thing is plain.  The destruction of Jerusalem
shortly after his day was no illusion of the
imagination. The catastrophe really took place,
whatever may be thought of its being a fulfilment of the judgment denounced by Malachi.
It followed the preaching of John, precisely as
it had been predicted that a tremendous calamity to Judea would follow the preaching of a
prophet whose description strikingly answers to
that of the Baptist. And as that terrible event
VOL. I.           18




274     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
which overthrew and scattered the Jewish nation soon after the time of the Forerunner was
no matter of fancy, neither could any imagination have foreseen it. In the time of Malachi,
there was no apparent reason for expecting
that any such ruin was to be visited upon the
land. But it took place notwithstanding. Explain it as we may, it took place.   Not only
was Judea trampled down and wasted immediately after the time of the Baptist, not only
did the day come which burned like an oven,
but, from that time to this, it has continued
to burn so as to leave the stock     of Israel
neither root nor branch of what it once was.
In preaching, therefore, as he did, of a calamity to come, John labored under no false expectations.  Terrible as was the prophet's description of it, it was not more terrible than
the event predicted actually proved.
Another circumstance shows that John was
laboring under no inflation of mind, was heated by no fire of his own kindling. When asked whether he was the Elias who was to come,
he answered in the negative. He might have
believed, as his countrymen generally believed,
in a literal reappearance of the real Elias as the
immediate forerunner of the Messiah, and have
intended his reply to suit this erroneous opinion. Certain it is, that we see nothing in him
like a propensity to exalt himself. He declines




JOHN THE BAPTIST.           275
an honorable title which really belongs to him;
and self-diminution is no characteristic of fanaticism.  He manifests nothing like a mind
lifted above the real and actual into the region of dreams and fancies. In short, there is
no mistaking the marks of a sincere and calm
conviction in the bosom of the Baptist, that he
was truly the harbinger of the Coming One.
I need not say what a great thing it was
for the new dispensation to be ushered in by
such a herald as John. A character and reputation like his, placed in the forefront of the
incoming religion, formed a seasonable antagonism to the prejudices of his countrymen against
a lowly and spiritual Messiah. They were happily adapted to create a counterbalance for the
truth against the opposing influence of great
names.
In John the Baptist we behold a connecting
link between  Moses and Christ.    Jesus pronounced him   more than a prophet.    It was,
perhaps, because he more than predicted the
coming of the Messiah; he pointed him out to
the people, and was himself an immediate and
efficient coadjutor in the Saviour's labors. Yet
at the same time Jesus said that even the least
in the kingdom   of heaven was greater than
John. This could have had no reference, however, to the personal character of the Fore



276     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
runner, but is to be regarded as referring
merely to the introductory nature of his office,
or to the defective views entertained by him
in common with his countrymen.




CHAPTER X.
THE BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION.
WITH the multitudes who came to be baptized of John in Jordan came Jesus also and
received baptism at the hands of the Forerunner. Considered as an ordinance for the penitent, it would seem open to inquiry, why the
Saviour should have admitted the applicability
of this rite to himself.  Yet John, though he
would have declined administering it to Jesus,
appears to have been influenced by no other
scruple than a deep sense of his own unworthiness to perform it on a person so much his
superior.  Some have supposed that our Lord
wished to imitate a similar observance required
of the Jewish priests when they entered on
the duties of their office. But he says nothing of this himself.  The appearance is, that
he meant to comply with the ordinance in its
general design. Baptism denotes purity. Saint
Peter speaks of it as "the answer of a good
conscience toward God."   As administered to
the crowds who confessed their sins on the




278     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
banks of the Jordan, it was typical of the new
and holy life on which they were professedly
entering. As observed by Jesus, it had a still
closer and higher correspondence to its original
import.  In him its complete spiritual significance was realized.  By honoring the emblem
of personal holiness, he honored the principle
of which it was symbolical.  This was reason
enough for its observance by him. It became
him to teach us in every possible way the
importance of that interior purity on which
our acceptance with God depends. It has been
generally thought that he meant to enforce
the observance of this and all similar duties
upon his disciples by his own example. But
even for this purpose, the act, in itself considered, must have been suitable for him; otherwise it would have been an example of performing an inappropriate ceremony.
The evangelical history connects a remarkable event with the baptism  of Jesus.  " And
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo! the heavens
were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting
upon him; and, lo! a voice from heaven, saying,'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.'" Such is Matthew's account, with
which Mark's and Luke's substantially agree.
That of John is as follows:-" And John bare




THE BAPTISM OF JESUS.        279
record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And I knew him    not; but He that sent me
to baptize with water, the same said unto me,'Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.'" This
is the Baptist's own account, as preserved by
the Evangelist. He says nothing of the voice;
he speaks only of the dove. Why this omission? The answer, I conceive, is plain. John
is telling how he knew Jesus to be the person who was to baptize with the Holy Ghost.
It was by the descent of a dove, or a dovelike appearance, upon Jesus, by which the Spirit
had previously informed him the person in
question would be designated.  This sign, he
observes, he had actually witnessed.  He does
not say what else he had seen, or what else
had occurred.  He mentions the fact he has
occasion to mention, and nothing more.
Some have regarded this entire account of
the wonderful phenomenon attending the baptism of Jesus as mere bold Oriental imagery.
Others believe, that, though nothing, perhaps,
was seen in the actual shape of a dove, there
was a descent of something with a dovelike
motion. But most adopt a literal interpretation
throughout.
The question occurs,- If the Divine Spirit




280     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
was the proper parent of Jesus, why should
it descend and abide upon him? It could not
thereby produce a more intimate union between them.-No, but it could signalize and
assure the union which did actually subsist.
After the Baptism succeeded that remarkable
scene usually called the Temptation.   Strauss
sees here a discrepancy in the evangelical relations. He says,* that, while, according to the
first three Evangelists, Jesus, immediately after
his baptism, "betakes himself for forty days to
the wilderness, where the temptation occurs,
and then returns into Galilee,-John, on the
contrary, is silent concerning the temptation,
and appears to suppose an interval of a few
days only between the baptism of Jesus and
his journey into Galilee, thus allowing no space
for a six-weeks' residence in the wilderness."
This supposition, of "an interval of a few days
only between the baptism of Jesus and his
journey into Galilee," is ascribed to the Evangelist on the ground that two days before the
journey in question John the Baptist is represented as giving an account of the miraculous
incident which occurred at the baptism, and
"that the most natural inference is that the
baptism took place immediately before John's
narrative of its attendant occurrences,"-a most
* Life of Jesus, Vol. I. p. 370.




THE TEMPTATION.            281'
extraordinary inference certainly, and plainly unsupported, even according to Strauss's own showing, by anything contained in the evangelical
record. "The fourth Evangelist," as Strauss remarks,  commences his narrative with the testimony which the Baptist delivers to the emissaries of the Sanhedrim; the next day, he makes
the Baptist recite the incident which in the
synoptical [or first three] Gospels is followed
[preceded, rather] by the baptism"; or, more
circumstantially, the next day, John, seeing Jesus approaching, points him out to the bystanders as "the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world," and then in evidence relates the particulars of his manifestation at his baptism.  "Again, the next day,"
Strauss continues, "he causes two of his disciples to follow Jesus; farther, the next day, as
Jesus is on the point of journeying into Galilee, Philip and Nathanael join him; and lastly,
on the third day, Jesus is at the wedding in
Cana of Galilee." The utmost to be gathered
from all this is, that two days before the departure of Jesus into Galilee his forerunner
makes incidental mention of his baptism; but
of the length of time which had elapsed since
the baptism took place we have' not the slightest intimation. There is nothing whatever in
the narrative to preclude the supposition of
an interval of forty days, or even twice forty




282     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
days, or whatever other period might have been
necessary for him to have in the mean time
gone into the wilderness and passed through
the temptation, as related by the other Evangelists, and then to have returned to the Jordan, as here noticed, for a second interview
with his forerunner.
But to turn to the scene of the Temptation.
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, and there, after fasting forty days, we
are told that he was importuned by a tempter
to convert stones into bread to satisfy his hunger; then, that he was transported to the pinnacle of the temple, and urged to cast himself
down from that lofty eminence, so as to give
occasion for a fulfilment of the Scripture that
the angels should bear him up; and that, lastly, there were shown to him from the top
of a high mountain all the kingdoms of the
world, which the tempter offered to bestow on
him, provided he would fall down and worship
him.
Literally understood, the account presents supernatural facts. It is, indeed, a matter of
doubt how far it was intended to be so understood.  Calvin supposes that a part of the
temptation was a vision. Many regard it in
this light throughout, and as intended to depict some of the principal trials upon which
Jesus was then entering in his great ministry,




THE TEMPTATION.           283
and which he thus conquered mentally in anticipation of their actual occurrence.
The language of the Evangelist is, that Jesus " was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness." We have parallel expressions in the
prophet Ezekiel.  "Now  it came to pass in
the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the
fifth day of the month, as I was among the
captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God."
He says expressly that they were visions; but
then he describes them as though they were
actual occurrences. "And I heard a voice of
one that spake.  And he said unto me,'Son
of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak
unto thee.' And the Spirit entered into me,
when he spake unto me, and set me upon my
feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
And he said unto me,'Son of man, I send
thee to the children of Israel'"   Then the
Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a
voice of a great rushing." "So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in
bitterness, in the heat of my spirit."  " And
the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and
the heaven, and brought me in the visions of
God to Jerusalem." "Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the east gate
of the Lord's house."  "Afterwards the Spirit
took me up and brought me in a vision by




284     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the Spirit of God into Chaldea."  "In the visions of God brought he me into the land of
Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain."
Here are mentioned changes of place by the
agency of the Spirit, apparently real, which
were only   visionary.  If anything, therefore,
is to be gained by supposing the Temptation
to have been chiefly mental, the bold Oriental character of Scriptural language may be
urged in support of such a view.
Christ was first solicited to perform a miracle
to satisfy his hunger.  Either because he saw
that the proper period had not arrived for the
termination of his fast, or that he considered his
supernatural powers as not intended to be used
for his own benefit, he refused to exert them,
observing,-" Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." We notice the same spirit
through his whole ministry. He never betrays
any anxiety about his own personal comforts.
One long course of labors, trials, exposures, sacrifices, was his life.
He was next urged to cast himself down
from the pinnacle of the temple, in order to let
the multitude see, by the miracle that should
be performed for his preservation, that God was
with him.   "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God," was his memorable reply.     " Thou




THE TEMPTATION.           285
shalt not trifle with Providence, or presume to
think of drawing out the Divine power by any
voluntary acts of thy own for this purpose."
To create an unnecessary occasion for a miracle, with a view to eliciting one, was, in his
opinion, an offence against God. It is observable how he always avoids such appeals to
the Divine power.   He performed no gratuitous miracles, miracles that were their own end,
as if meant only to astonish the beholder. He
walked upon the sea, but he did not invite
the multitude to the shore to see it done; it
was done in the night-time, and solely for the
benefit of his disciples.  Not that he always
studied secrecy in the supernatural testimonies
he gave of God's presence with him.     This
would too much have limited their effect and
impaired their evidence. Still they always met
some special occasion of the moment, exhibiting his wisdom, goodness, and power at the
same time.  Striking the contrast, in this respect, between the evangelical and apocryphal
miracles! In the latter the manifest object is
always to excite wonder merely. One of them
exhibits Jesus as giving life to some images of
birds which he had made of clay, when playing with children of his own age. A fabulist
would hardly be apt to ask whether a pretended miracle accorded or not with the proper
purpose of such a phenomenon. Its effect up



286     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
on the imagination would be sufficient with
him. The same with an impostor. Hence the
uniform benevolence exhibited in the Christian
miracles forms no slight argument for their
genuineness.
The spirit which Jesus manifested, in waiting
calmly, and even sufferingly, upon the Divine
will,-doing nothing impatiently or prematurely, either out of its place or before its season,
-is to be seen not merely in the first two
temptations in the wilderness, but in all the
trials of his life.  Thus, he seems never to
have been without a sense of the tragical death
which awaited him. But it induced no precipitancy in his conduct.  We can readily conceive that one who knew he was destined to
a martyr's fate, and who always saw it impending  over him, should often exclaim, "I
have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
am I straitened till it be accomplished!"-but
not so readily how he should be able to maintain a constant care not to hasten the catastrophe a single moment before its time. That
time had plainly arrived, when the rulers had
made up their minds to arrest him at all
events, as they clearly had at the time they
bribed one of his disciples to point him out to
the officers in the garden of Gethsemane. Never before this did he go like a lamb to the
slaughter. He had shunned danger. He had




THE TEMPTATION.           287
avoided multitudes. He had retired from time
to time into remote places. But a determination once exhibited by the civil authorities to
resort to violence, once power, malice, and
treachery combined to get possession of his
person, a miracle alone could preserve him;
for opportunities to effect their purpose could
not be wanting.    Continual escapes on  his
part would have compromitted his dignity and
self-respect. His hour had evidently come, and,
having come, he confronts his enemies and
calmly says to them,-for how calmly does he
say it!-" I am   he whom   you seek."   We
mark the mind made up, whose trust and
peace and portion were in God. His life, we
see, he felt to be a sacrifice which in God's
own time was to be offered upon the altar
of humanity.  He held it prudently, while it
was to be held at all,-but ever with a steady
foresight of the coming hour, and with an uplifted eye to the Divine will.
In conclusion of his temptations in the wilderness, all the kingdoms of the world are offered to Jesus, if he will desert his moral position and go over to the tempter. He is put
to the test, whether he is capable of being
governed by selfish ambition. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God," is his sublime reply,
"and him  only shalt thou serve."  The Jews
threw their whole national weight into the scale




288     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
of this temptation, by the secular ideas they
entertained of the Messianic kingdom, and their
eagerness to put a temporal crown upon the
head of Christ. But he resisted this strongest
of all earthly seductions, when he was the only person living who had sufficient insight into
the true nature of the Messianic office to sue
it in the light of a seduction.
The entire scene thus presents itself to me.
The Spirit of God, which was given to Jesus
without measure, was bestowed upon him for
a special purpose, at the commencement of
his ministry,-with reference, that is, to the
martyr work upon which he was now entering, a work involving such heavy trials and
sufferings to himself and such important blessings to the world. We know how he sought
and how   he received his Father's aid. " Angels came and ministered unto him." A voice
from the clouds pronounced over him, —'This
is my beloved Son."  He prayed with the deepest fervor for divine strength.  What more
suitable, then, than that those mysterious trials
which lay before him, in which he would so
require the assistance of the Spirit, should be
preceded by some impressive and particular assurances from the Spirit of its own all-sufficient presence with him, whenever it should be
needed to enable him to sustain and overcome
them?




THE TEMPTATION.            289
Thus he is moved by the Spirit to go into
the wilderness of Judea, where, without any
suffering, he is enabled to endure a suspension of physical sustenance sufficiently long to
have been fatal to him in the ordinary course
of Nature.  He fasts forty days and hungers
not. He begins his public career, that is, with
a wonderful experience of Almighty care. If
he is to be subjected to many hardships, and
yet is never to perform a miracle for himself,
he receives at the outset a striking proof of
that Almighty support on which he may rely.
But in the midst of this protracted fast Nature
is suddenly set free, and he feels the cravings
of hunger,- when, lo! he has another experience of the divine power to which he may
look forward with cheerful trust to be with him
under any test of his submission and self-command, however severe, to which he may be
subjected.  The Spirit above measure is present with him again, and he is enabled calmly
and nobly to say to this fierce impulse of Nature,-" Man shall not live by bread alone."
What a ground of reliance this for all future
fortitude he may need!
Again, a visionary tempter solicits him to
renounce the unostentatious spirit he so naturally unites with a consciousness of his real,
superhuman rank, and to perform some act
whereby he may gain the praises of men. In
VOL. I.           19




290     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
an imaginary scene which seems to him a
reality, he is on the pinnacle of the temple.
All Jerusalem is before him, inviting him to
prove the divine protection which is promised
in the Scriptures to the personage he professes
to be, by casting himself off and being borne
up by angel hands.    But his soul is strong
in the Lord anew. The Spirit is with him.
He is equal to the resistance required, and
says,-" Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God."
Another scene becomes for a moment a miraculous reality to his view. He sees earthly
empires spread out before him in all their magnificence and glory.  The sceptre of universal
worldly dominion glitters in his eyes. It seems
to be offered to him. But the Spirit is with
him again, and he is enabled to turn with
scorn from this powerful lure, and say, —  Get
thee behind me, Satan!"
How grateful to his feelings these repeated
and intensified proofs of that indwelling presence of the Spirit on which he may repose
his trust with regard to the unexperienced
trials of his eventful and heavenly work! Anticipate what pains, what moral dangers he
may, in that great errand on which he is going forward, here is actual supernatural experience to assure him that his Father will
fulfil the prophetic word:-" Behold my ser



THE TEMPTATION.           291
vant whom   I uphold! I have put my Spirit
upon him.   He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth."
Well might the Evangelist say, after the scene
in the wilderness,-" And Jesus returned in the
power of the Spirit into Galilee "!
But some may ask,-How could Jesus Christ
be tempted?-Temptation, I answer, is not incompatible with the most triumphant resistance
to it.  It need not endanger us, if it only
try us. It has performed its noblest office, not
when it has tested, but when it has attested
our moral principles. Inconceivable, do we say,
that Jesus should have yielded to any form or
degree of temptation? And what has made it
inconceivable, but that strength of character
which he actually exhibited, under all the moral trials by which he was assailed?
If the disciples had invented a grand pageant
of temptation for their Master's glory, it would
hardly have been the one they have recorded of him. With their ideas, they would not
have represented it as a counsel worthy of the
Prince of Darkness, that, in the last extremity
of hunger, Jesus should be invited to perform
a miracle for his own relief, and thus do for
himself what he so often did for others under
similar circumstances.  The same of the next
temptation.  Would the fishermen of Galilee,
of their own instinct, have revolted at the




292     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
thought of his displaying his supernatural powers for the very purpose of such display,that is, to awaken and intensify the faith of
the spectators? True, we of the present day,
with that more discriminating moral culture we
have enjoyed, can perceive, on reflection, that
it was best he should confine his miracles to
works of benevolence and special instruction.
But in that age a rounder, stronger, warmer
view of their proper occasions would naturally
have been taken.    Our standard as to such
matters has felt the refining influence of Christianity, and leads us to admire the example
which Jesus exhibited, in so uniting, as he
did, the manifestation of his supernatural gifts
with the merciful objects of his divine mission,
and making the utmost of his wonderful endowments for the benefit of men. But no such
standard, I suspect, would have been acknowledged by people generally, or even by the best,
at that period. The more decisive, on this account, the evidence for the record as it stands.
Fiction would not have invented temptations
the point of which would have been unseen
by those to whom the story was addressed.
Tradition would not have preserved temptations through ages that could not feel the
force of them, unless this tradition had been
truly and literally historical.




CHAPTER XI.
THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.
AMONG the earliest acts of Jesus, after he
commenced his public ministry, was the choice
of a company of followers to be his immediate
and constant attendants. He appointed twelve
of his disciples for this purpose, under the
name of Apostles.   There have been various
conjectures as to what determined him in favor of this particular number. A larger number would have been more likely to excite
the jealousy of the Jewish rulers; a smaller
could not be desirable, when they were to be
the special witnesses and reporters of his miracles and teachings. "I deem it," says an able
writer, "one of the strongest evidences of the
truth of our Saviour's miracles, that they were
performed not only in sight of the multitude,
but of a select company, who were too familiar with him to be deceived themselves, and
too honest to join with him in deceiving others. Being brought into the midst of his operations, they were qualified to judge of their




294     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
reality and integrity, and therefore qualified to
report them to the world with all the warmth
of conviction, and all the directness, particularity, and authority of constant experience and
repeated vision. A changing crowd, never composed, perhaps, on any two occasions, of the
same materials, might have been mistaken; but
a band of twelve companions could not have
been. They were fitted, as in no other way
they'could have been so well, for the purpose of declaring to men the power from
above with which their Master was invested;
and that they might be thus prepared was
one of his designs in choosing them.' Ye
are witnesses of these things,' said he to the
Eleven, after his resurrection from the dead.
He evinced a consciousness of innocence and
sincerity by admitting so many partakers of
his secret counsels and his daily deeds; and
he manifested his wisdom by securing such an
irrefragable testimony to the reality of those
signs from heaven which pointed him out as
truly the Son of God."*
With these companions always attending him,
he enjoyed an opportunity of communicating
his thoughts more freely and clearly than would
have been possible under any other circumstances. It was thus only he could secure
* Lives of the Twelve Apostles. By F. W. P. GREENWOOD. pp
31-32.




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.    295
competent depositories and teachers of his religion. And the humble walks of life from
which they were taken render more observable the elevated sentiments they have ascribed
to him.   Many of his discourses which they
have recorded were far from answering to
their ideas.  His lessons upon meekness, forgiveness, and mercy before sacrifice were plainly indebted to no suggestions of theirs; they
would have had him call down fire from heaven to consume his enemies. In short, we have
received his sentiments through a medium incapable of improving them,-and can only be
struck with what we may believe was the
reverence which prevented the attempt.
His appointment of a number of persons to
be constant attendants upon his ministry was
fraught with another advantage.  It was important that no part of his example should
be lost. Yet much of it must have been lost,
but for those who were constantly with him
to tell us all they saw and knew of him in
private. They might have drawn a very imperfect character without being aware of its
imperfection; but they have recorded nothing
we could wish had been omitted.    Why the
Gospels are not full of inconsistencies in the
whole spirit and conduct of the Saviour, such
as Christians now would be obliged to defend
as best they might, we have the satisfaction




296     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
to know is owing to the fact that there were
no such things to be related of him; for we
are sure that not many such faults would have
been concealed by his biographers through any
superior moral taste and culture of their own.
They saw him under every variety of circumstances, in all those unstudied attitudes in which
men unconsciously reveal the secret springs by
which they are moved; and a more beautiful
portraiture of a kind, benevolent, disinterested,
and noble spirit could not have been delineated,
even though far more practised pencils than
theirs had assayed the task.
The first names on the apostolical catalogue
are the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew.
Not much is related of Andrew.    He seems
to have been originally a disciple of John the
Baptist.  The modern Greeks make him     to
have been the founder of the Church at Byzantium  or Constantinople; but they assume
what has no authority from the ancients.  In
connection with Andrew an incident may be
mentioned as a specimen of the minor harmonies in the evangelical narratives. It is related in Saint John's Gospel, that, when certain Greeks were desirous of seeing Jesus, they
made application to Philip; and " Philip cometh and telleth Andrew." If we look into a
distant part of the same Gospel, we see why




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.    297
Philip should have spoken to Andrew particularly. In this remote portion of the narrative
it is said that "Philip was of Bethsaida, the
city of' Andrew and Peter." They were townsmen.
Among the most distinguished of the Apostles was Simon Peter. In all the Gospels his
name is always mentioned first in the catalogues of the Twelve. This might have been
partly on account of his age, as it is thought
he was the oldest of the company, and partly
because of his early call,-one disciple only,
and he but little known, having preceded him.
He bore a conspicuous part by his preaching
and writings in the spreading of the gospel,
especially after the resurrection of Jesus,-an
event which seems to have infused a new energy into his character.  He is said to have
preached at Rome after the Apostle Paul, and
to have died a martyr in that city.
Towards the close of John's Gospel, the Saviour is represented as saying to Peter,-"Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young,
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither
thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old,
thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou
wouldest not."  "This spake he," observes the
Evangelist, "signifying by what death he should
glorify God." Here is a plain intimation not




298     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
merely that Peter was to die an old man, as
he actually did, but that he was to perish by
violence,-and what is more, that it was not
to be a violence inflicted in a sudden tumult,
like that in which James was killed by a blow
with a fuller's pole, or that in which Stephen
was stoned to death, but that he was to meet
his fate by some mode in which the hands
of the victim were bound and he was carried
away  to  execution.  The common mode of
crucifixion united both these particulars.  The
sufferer was bound in order to be scourged,
and then conducted to the cross.  That Peter
suffered in this manner seems to be well attested.
It may be suggested, that, as John's Gospel
was written after the death of Peter, it was
easy to insert in it a prediction of the event
in question. But those who can listen to such
an insinuation must go farther. They have got
to consider, that, if the author has not told
the truth, he has given us an example of
consummate adroitness in not representing Jesus as saying to Peter in so many words,
"Thou shalt be crucified," but alluding to the
manner of the death in such indirect terms
as would naturally lead his readers to infer
he was honestly recording the very language
made use of by his Master. The prediction is,
Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and an



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     299
other shall gird thee, and carry thee whither
thou wouldest not": clear enough when circumstances are put together, yet not so clear
but that the Evangelist makes it more so by
adding an explanation of his own.   Why not
have saved himself this trouble by using more
definite language in the first instance?  The
answer is, that he was reporting a prophecy,
not fabricating one.
An eloquent writer justly observes, -" No
one has ever read the New Testament with any
degree of attention, without gathering from it
an impression of Peter distinct and peculiar."
Wherever he is introduced, it is he who speaks
and acts. However various and dissimilar the
occasions, it makes no difference. We see the
same person, -not in palpable repetitions of
words and deeds, but in delicate touches, in
which no aim is discoverable to make any impression on the reader.
However casually or abruptly introduced, Peter is ever the same ardent, impetuous character,-first on all occasions to believe and to
adventure, but too apt to be deficient in stability and resolution. When called to the discipleship, he displayed his characteristic temper.  Jesus commands him    to let down his
net into the sea. "Lord," he replies, "we have
toiled all night and have caught nothing; nevertheless, at thy command I will let down. the




300     HOURS WITH THIE EVANGELISTS.
net."  He sees Jesus walking   upon the sea,
and, while all the other disciples are overcome
with fear, he is ready to confide in the cheering voice of his Master. Jesus says to them,
-" It is I: be not afraid."  Peter answers, -
"Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee
on the water." But no sooner does he touch
the boisterous element, than, beginning to sink,
he cries out with terror, - " Lord, save me!"
After many of his disciples had left him because his ideas were too spiritual for them, Jesus asked the Twelve whether they also would
go away. Peter is foremost in the assertion of
his fidelity. "Lord, to whom  shall we go?"
he replies; "thou hast the words of eternal
life." Jesus warns his little company that they
will all fall away from him and forsake him.
"Though all should fall away," says Peter, "yet
will not I!"- and this protestation he repeats
with increasing emphasis as his Master intimates his distrust of its fulfilment.  He was
the only disciple who resisted the officers that
were sent to arrest Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane: he inflicts a blow upon one of
their attendants, and the next moment flies.
To be true to Nature in delineating an impetuous temper, something more is necessary
than to keep the portrait always good in the
single feature of impetuosity. For, like many
other qualities, this is a genus which has a va



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     301
riety of species; and the varieties must not be
confounded with one another. One species is
instantly subdued by gentle remonstrance, and
has nothing moody in its composition. This is
the kind we see uniformly exhibited in the gospel accounts of the Apostle Peter. Frequent
examples occur. " And the Lord turned and
looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the
word of the Lord, how he had said unto him,'Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me
thrice.' And Peter went out and wept bitterly."  When the Saviour washes his disciples'
feet, Peter protests against the performance of
this menial service by his Master:-"' Thou
shalt never wash my feet!" he says.    Jesus
mildly replies,-"If I wash thee not, thou hast
no part with me"; and immediately the vehement disciple exclaims,-" Lord, not my feet
only, but also my hands and my head!"
He occasionally receives a pointed  rebuke
from his Lord, but never, in a single instance,
does he betray any alienation of feeling on
this account.  He is grieved, or he is silent,
but in no case does he ever return a disrespectful answer. Of this we have a memorable
instance, when the risen Saviour, three times
in succession, inquired of him if he loved him.
At first the interrogation was promptly answered with one of Peter's decided asseverations:-" Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love




302     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
thee."  But at last he replies in a manner
plainly showing that he is grieved at the repetition of the question. Once he was publicly
reproached by Paul for his inconsistency in
refusing to eat and drink with the Gentile
converts, as he had formerly done. But Peter
never seems to have harbored any unkind feelings on this account towards that Apostle. He
speaks in one of his Epistles of the writings
of his "beloved brother Paul."
It were difficult to discredit a history which
contained but a single character like this, so
perfectly of a piece always, and so true to
life. Strange, if in the web of a long narrative
one only thread should be genuine, one, too,
which is woven into almost every principal incident in the relation,-there being scarcely a
transaction of importance in the whole gospel
history in which Peter does not bear a conspicuous part.  Nor is this all.  His peculiar
characteristics have an interesting connection
with Christ himself. Peter was not a person
to be trusted not to make incautious remarks.
He had no natural gift for keeping secrets.
Yet, as the treacherous Judas had nothing to
divulge discreditable to the Saviour, neither had
the hasty and inconsiderate Peter. In his most
free and unguarded moments, he never excites
in our minds the faintest shadow of a suspicion as to anything said or done by Jesus be



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     303
hind the scenes which we could wish not to
believe.
Origen, and others of the Fathers, inform
us, that Peter was crucified, at his own request, with his head downward.   Probably it
seemed to him a more humble posture than
that in which his Master suffered.  "An affecting conclusion of his eventful life," as one
finely remarks, "and another striking exhibition of the ardent character which adhered to
him to the last."
The next in order on the apostolical catalogue are James and John the Evangelist.
John is supposed to have been the youngest
of the Apostles. The original employment of
these two brothers, as of the preceding, was
that of fishermen.  John appears to have enjoyed a peculiar share of the Saviour's affection.  He  is distinguished  as " the  disciple
whom Jesus loved." The attachment was mutual. Nothing could keep him from being present at the Crucifixion, where, in defiance of
all personal danger, he took his position by
the cross.  Here he was honored by a new
pledge of affection from his Master, who, in
his dying agonies, commended his mother to
his care.
But the affection which Jesus showed to his
favorite disciple has more than one aspect. It




304     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
was not a passionate, effeminate emotion, adapted to unman and injure the object of it. It
encouraged no capriciousness or weakness,overlooked no want of fortitude, energy, or attention to duty.  It was earnest, steady, elevated. We see Christ the Saviour in Christ
the Friend.
We have evidence that there were fierce
elements in the natural temper both of John
and James. Christ denominated them Sons of
Thunder. Stung by the inhospitality with which
their Master was treated at a certain village
of the Samaritans, where, because he was journeying towards Jerusalem, the inhabitants refused to receive him, the two brothers would
have had them instantly destroyed by fire from
heaven.  Yet no one of the Apostles was so
striking a type as John of tender and affectionate old age,-no one has spoken so strongly of the duty of never indulging hatred, but
always cherishing kind and benevolent feelings.
His Epistles are overflowing with love. "He
that saith he is in the light, and hateth his
brother, is in darkness even until now.  He
that loveth his brother abideth in the light,
and there is none occasion of stumbling in
him; but he that hateth his brother is in
darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth
not whither he goeth."  From these pointed remarks, in which John describes a state of en



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.    305
mity and unkindness as one of darkness and
ignorance, it might be suspected that he had
not forgotten the rebuke of Jesus at the Samaritan village,-" Ye know not what manner
of spirit ye are of." So again he observes,"If a man say,'I love God,' and hateth his
brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not
his brother whom he hath seen, how   can he
love God whom he hath not seen?"
We see in another respect how much the
natural disposition of this disciple admitted of
improvement, and how   much improvement it
actually underwent in the school of Christ. He
and his brother once came to Jesus with a request remarkable for anything but an unambitious and disinterested spirit: -" We would
that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we
shall desire. Grant unto us that we may sit,
one on thy right hand, and the other on thy
left hand, in thy glory."-"Ye know not what
ye ask," was the reply. "Whosoever will be
great among you shall be your servant."   It
is observable how much the Epistles of John
are distinguished by their reprehension of every proud and worldly feeling. "All that is in
the world," he remarks, "the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world."
To quote all that he has said against an arrogant, carnal, self-seeking temper would be to
VOL. I.           20




306     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
transcribe a very considerable part of his writings.
At another time John came to Jesus with
the complaint,-" Master, we saw   one casting
out devils in thy name; and we forbade him,
because he followeth not with us."  Jesus answered,-" Forbid him not; for there is no
man which shall do a miracle in my name
that can lightly speak evil of me.    For he
that is not against us is on our part." It is
remarkable how emphatically John lays it down
in his Epistles, that to go forth in the name
of Christ is enough to entitle a person to the
distinction of a Christian disciple.  We know
not the Apostle who speaks so strongly of
the entire sufficiency of a simple belief in Jesus as the Christ.   "These are written," he
says toward the close of his Gospel, "that ye
might believe  that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that, believing, ye might
have life through his name."
But whatever natural points in his character
were imperfect, there was an ingrained moral
elevation in his soul favorable alike to that
peculiar intimacy in which he lived with Jesus and to the influence of the Saviour's spirit
upon his own.   The vehemence of his native
temper we easily see; but it was generous,
ductile, affectionate. There were manifest'traits
in his disposition like those of his Master, on



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     307
ly demanding a discipline which the Master's
never required.
A coincidence may here be remarked in the
three memorable instances we have noticed in
which John was rebuked by Jesus, namely:
first, when his indignation was aroused by the
affront which Christ had received from the Samaritan villagers; next, when there was an apparent interference with the Saviour's prerogatives by one who assumed to cast out devils
in his name; and last, when he expressed his
desire to have a place next to Jesus in his
kingdom. In each we see John's affection for
his Master.  The substantial identity of this
trait, and yet its delicate differences of aspect,
in these several instances of its manifestation,
are strikingly observable.
John has given us a selection of the most
important miracles of Jesus, with more particular details than we have received from any
other source. To him we are indebted for the
account of the resurrection of Lazarus, and the
cure of the young man who was born blind.
We can nowhere study to so much advantage
the essentials of the Christian system as in his
writings. Whoever, also, would see the deeper
and nicer lines in the character of Christ must
be familiar with this Evangelist.
The qualities for which one has credit in the
public estimation are not always those which




308     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
reveal themselves to careful observers in his unguarded moments.   To know   one thoroughly,
we must behold him behind the scenes, we
must hear his private remarks.   What does
some intimate and ingenuous companion say of
him? Here the value of John's Gospel shines
out in everything he has told of his divine
Friend.  John lay on Jesus' breast, and he
has written about him  a long memoir,-and
something has made it a simple, unstudied story of exalted sentiments, ardent piety, beautiful sympathies, and unbounded benevolence.
What was that something, but the constant
observation of these traits in the being with
whom it was his privilege to be thus acquainted?
In this view I cannot overlook the fact that
so large a part of the New Testament is epistolary.  Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus,
from their private nature, let us the more intimately into the temper and spirit of the author. Private they were,-though public now.
They were the free and unreserved expressions
of personal sentiments and feelings to individual associates. How strong the hold which the
Christian religion had upon the mind of the
writer! How profound the concern he expresses for the spread and success of the gospel!
What solemn injunctions to the young Evangelists to be personally and vitally religious!




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     309
What unaffected solicitude that they should not
merely labor for the general diffusion of the
Christian faith, but that the power of that
faith should be experienced in their own bosoms!   We see a soul pouring out its convictions, not before the world, not where an
Apostle would naturally command public respect for his consistent earnestness in his office, but in the communion of private friendship, and under no inducement to express either
less or more than it really felt. They are the
exhortations of one friend to other friends to
be true to the faith of Christ,- exhortations
flowing from a large and powerful mind,-one
which had enjoyed the amplest opportunities
for ascertaining the truth of Christianity and
learning what Christianity was.  I know   of
nothing like them in all religious literature,
outside the Christian Church.
John is said to have attained a very advanced age. Towards the close of the first century he was banished to the island of Patmos,
whence being recalled after a year or two, he
finally ended his days at Ephesus. He is supposed to have written his Gospel at a late
period of his life.
Of Philip, the next on the catalogue of the
Apostles, we know   but little.  His call was
early. It has been supposed, from the account




310     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
in John's Gospel, that Peter and Andrew were
called at the same time with Philip, which
would not accord with what is elsewhere related.  But this supposition is plainly incor
rect. John relates, that Andrew, who was originally a disciple of the Baptist, hearing his
master, as Jesus was passing, designate him
as the Lamb of God, he thereupon followed
and inquired of him  where he abode.   Jesus
invited  him  to  come and see; and he accordingly went, and staid with him the remainder of the day; and afterwards brought
his brother Simon to see him. It is not said
that Jesus invited them then to follow him;
but this invitation wvas extended to Philip.
Assuming that John dates the call of Andrew
and Peter from the period of this visit, and
observing that Matthew refers it to a subsequent occasion, when the Saviour was walking
by the Sea of Galilee, some have pronounced
these accounts contradictory.  But the account
in Matthew obviously implies previous acquaintance: Jesus confidently calls,-the brothers unhesitatingly follow: they had met before; when
and how we learn from John. Thus the one
Evangelist incidentally illustrates and supports
the other, and the alleged contradiction turns
out to be a coincidence,-a result not uncommon with objections, even from the most able
and learned skeptics, some of whom, and it is




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     311
a painful remark, while professing the strictest
judicial impartiality, such as becomes every
philosopher and every member of a Christian
community, are plainly nothing less than special pleaders against the gospel history, and
capable, themselves, for the most part, of solving their own difficulties with a tithe of the
ingenuity they exhibit in raising them.
Eusebius informs us that Philip died at Hierapolis, in Phrygia, and that he had daughters
who prophesied. Two incidents, and about the
only ones recorded of him in the Gospels, furnish new instances of historical harmony in the
gospel relations. When a numerous company
of people on a certain occasion had followed
Jesus into the desert, he requested Philip to
tell him whence they should obtain bread to
feed so great a multitude.  "This he said to
prove him," says the Evangelist; which may
mean that Jesus intended to call forth in his
disciple some new faith towards himself,-or
else awaken him to see, as in the result he
must have seen, how poor a faith he had entertained in his Master's power.  With a singular simplicity, as if Christ were really at a
loss what to do, and were solicitous to have
the benefit of his advice, Philip immediately
goes into a calculation as to how many pennyworth of bread would be necessary, when the
Saviour relieves him from any further anxiety




312     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
on the subject by a miraculous production of
the food required.
On another occasion, Jesus observed to his
disciples,-" If ye had known me, ye should
have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.""Show  us the Father," said Philip, "and it
sufficeth us."  Jesus replies,-" Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, Philip?    He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou,
then,'Show us the Father'?   Believest thou
not that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me? The words that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
On both occasions, we mark a manifest slowness of apprehension on the part of this Apostle, and it is difficult to say on which of them
it is most conspicuous,-whether in his not
bethinking himself of Christ's power to dispense with the ordinary means of obtaining
food whenever he wished, or his not considering that the Father might be said to be seen
in any person whom he had empowered to
speak in his name and to do his works,-especially when a Scripture well known to Philip, and which it seems singular he should have
overlooked, had pronounced that no one can
literally see God and live.




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.    313
Our knowledge of Bartholomew is confined
to the fact that he was one of the Twelve;
though there is a tradition that he preached
the gospel in India, and in some other Eastern countries, and, what is still more doubtful,
that he suffered martyrdom at Albanopolis, in
Armenia. Many suppose him to have been the
same with Nathanael, on whom Jesus bestowed the encomium, "Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!"
The brief notice taken of Bartholomew and
of several of his brethren —for scarcely anything is mentioned of a number of them, beyond their names-shows how little the evangelical accounts were indebted to mere tradition
and hearsay.
We are told but little of Thomas, but that
little is interesting. He is mentioned only in
three instances, and in each it is striking how
perfectly we recognize the same person.  The
most important is the following. Thomas was
informed by the other disciples of our Lord's
resurrection. He had probably not been with
his brethren during the scenes which immediately preceded this event. On the other hand,
from what is said of his backwardness to believe, we may suspect he left them immediately after the crucifixion and gave up all
hope of beholding his Master again.   There




314     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
are plain intimations in the Gospels to this
effect. "Thomas, one of the Twelve," remarks
an Evangelist, "was not with them when Jesus came" (after his resurrection).  And this
small proof of any anticipations on his part
of a reappearance of Jesus is nowise improved
by his answer to them, when they inform him
that they have seen the Lord:-"Except I shall
see in his hands the print of the nails, and
put my finger into the print of the nails, and
thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." In this emphatic protestation as to the
evidence he should demand, before he would
believe, we see a spirit of pertinacity, full as
plainly as any other characteristic. Jesus condescends to favor him   with the satisfaction
which he had been pleased to make the condition of his faith:-" Reach hither thy finger
and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side; and be not
faithless, but believing."  The delicate reproof
conveyed in this repetition of Thomas's expressions requires no notice.  Convinced and
overwhelmed, the now melted disciple exclaims,
" My Lord and my God! "-a striking, but
natural revulsion of that rough honesty of feeling, in which there is no mistaking Thomas.
The whole account would lead us to regard
him as of a warm and generous temper, but
naturally incredulous and abrupt.




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     315
These features stand out in bold relief on
whatever occasions Thomas appears in the gospel history.  In his farewell discourse to his
disciples Jesus observes, — I go to prepare a
place for you; and whither I go ye know,
and the way ye know." Thomas uses no circumlocution in expressing to his Master a quite
different idea of the matter, as it appears to
him.  He loses no time in protesting in the
plainest terms his entire ignorance of what
Jesus had just declared they all well knew.
"Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and
how can we know the way?"      After this, it
can hardly surprise us that his doubts and
denials should rarely be marked by any want
of explicitness.
But a third occasion furnishes grateful evidence how all this could be united with no
lack of generosity or ardor of character. When
Jesus once proposed to go into Judea, the journey was opposed by his disciples on account of
the danger to him which would attend it, in
consequence of the hostility of the Jews. But
he was not to be prevented by such considerations from performing a duty of benevolence,
and replied, that he must labor while the day
lasted, and that he could not be thinking then
about matters of personal comfort and safety.
When Thomas saw his Master's resolution, as
if it struck a kindred chord in his own bosom,




316     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
he said to his brethren,-" Let us also go, that
we may die with him."
There are Christians now in India who bear
the name of Saint Thomas,-some think because their ancestors were converted by this
Apostle; but of the truth of this supposition
there is no conclusive proof. We have a very
interesting account of them by Dr. Buchanan.
He informs us that they inhabit the interior
of Travancore and Malabar, in the South of
India, and have been settled there from the
early ages of Christianity.  When the Portuguese, under Vasco da Gama, first visited India, "they were agreeably surprised," says the
historian, "to find upwards of a hundred Christian churches on the coast of Malabar.   But
when they became acquainted with the purity
and simplicity of their worship, they were offended.'These churches, said the Portuguese,'belong to the Pope.'-'Who is the Pope?'
said the natives;'we never heard of him....
We are of the true faith, whatever you from
the West may be; for we come from the place
where the followers of Christ were first called
Christians.' When the power of the Portuguese
became sufficient for their purpose, they invaded these tranquil churches, seized some of the
clergy, and devoted them to the death of heretics.... They were accused of the following
practices and opinions:-' That they had mar



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     317
ried wives; that they owned but two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; that
they neither invoked saints, nor worshipped
images, nor believed in purgatory; and that
they had no other orders or names of dignity
in the Church than Priest and Deacon.' These
tenets they were called on to abjure, or to
suffer suspension from all Church benefices. It
was also decreed that all the Syrian books on
ecclesiastical subjects that could be found should
be burned, -' in order,' said the Inquisitors,'that no pretended apostolical monuments may
remain.' The churches on the sea-coast were
thus compelled to acknowledge the supremacy
of the Pope.... The churches in the interior
would not yield to Rome. After a show of
submission for a little while, they proclaimed
eternal war against the Inquisition; they hid
their books, fled to the mountains, and sought
the/ protection of the native princes."
Two centuries had elapsed after this period
without any further knowledge of these churches, when Dr. Buchanan, about the year 1805,
conceived the idea of visiting them. By the
aid of the Marquis Wellesley, then GovernorGeneral of India, he succeeded in this interesting undertaking. "The first view," he observes,
" of the Christian churches in this sequestered
region of Hindostan, connected with the idea,f their tranquil duration for so many ages,




318     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
cannot fail to excite pleasing emotions in the
mind of the beholder. The form of the oldest
buildings is not unlike that of some of the old
parish churches in England,-the style of building in both being of Saracenic origin." They
showed him an ancient Christian church which
bore the name of Saint Thomas; and their
tradition is, that this Apostle preached the gospel in their country. Dr. Buchanan was much
pleased with the simplicity of their worship,
and found that a very ancient copy of the
New Testament in their possession did not
contain the disputed passage, 1 John, v. 7, respecting the heavenly witnesses. "How wonderful it is," he observes, "that, during the dark
ages of Europe, whilst ignorance and superstition in a manner denied the Scriptures to the
rest of the world, the Bible should have found
an asylum in the mountains of Malay-ala, where
it was freely read by upwards of an hundred
churches!" 
The next on the list of the Apostles is Matthew. Before his call, he was a publican, or
collector of customs, under the Roman government. This office was odious to the Jews, principally, as it may be supposed, from its reminding them of their subjection to a foreign power.
* Christian Researches in Asia. By CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN,
D. D. pp. 106-145.




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.    319
But there was much in the general character
of this class of men to justify the antipathy
with which they were regarded. Matthew seems
to have lived in comfortable circumstances. He
is spoken of as being the owner of a house,
and as giving on one occasion a large entertainment. Though he was a constant attendant
upon our Saviour and an eye-witness of almost
every transaction in the gospel history, he very
rarely makes any allusion to himself.
It is generally supposed that he wrote his
Gospel in the Hebrew language.   If so, it is
only the Greek translation that is now extant;
this, however, we are able to trace back to a
very early date. It is said that Matthew died
a martyr in Ethiopia, but the mode of his
death is uncertain.
Mark was not an Apostle, though some of
the Christian Fathers affirm that he was one
of the Seventy whom Jesus sent forth to
preach. We gather from the evangelical history, that he was the nephew of Barnabas, and
the son of Mary, at whose house the first
Christians seem to have been in the habit of
assembling.  His Jewish name was John, and
Michaelis thinks he adopted the Roman name
of Mark at the time he left Judea on his
missionary labors, according to a practice not
uncommon among the Jews when they trav



320     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
elled into foreign countries.  Peter gives him
the affectionate appellation of son, which has
led to the opinion that he was converted by
that Apostle.  He was for a considerable period the companion of Paul and Barnabas, but
is supposed to have received the materials of
his Gospel principally from Peter.  The Catholics believe, though upon uncertain tradition,
that he died a martyr at Alexandria, in Egypt,
and that his remains were transported to Venice, whose splendid cathedral is called by his
name.
Luke is supposed to have been of Gentile
parentage, and, according to Eusebius and Jerome, was a physician of Antioch. As his was
a learned profession and Antioch a distinguished
city, it may be presumed he was an educated
man. We are not informed of the circumstances of his conversion, nor in what manner he
became acquainted with Christianity. From the
expression in the preface to his Gospel, "Having had perfect understanding of all things
from  the very first," he might almost seem
to have enjoyed a personal knowledge of what
he has related. But from a previous observation in the same connection it has been inferred that this "perfect understanding," as he
terms it, was derived from some who were
immediately conversant with the facts he has




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     321
recorded; for he speaks of them as facts "delivered unto us" by those who "from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of
the Word." The whole subject seems involved
in some obscurity.  This, however, is certain,
that, if the common opinion be correct, that
Luke gathered the materials for his Gospel from
various sources, the city in which he lived
was favorable for this purpose, being a place
of great resort and remarkable for its toleration of all religious opinions. It was here that
the disciples were first openly spoken of as a
religious community by the name of Christians.
From  all these circumstances Luke's belief in
Christianity acquires a peculiar value. He had
the best opportunities for collecting information
respecting its early history.  He  formed  an
early acquaintance with Saint Paul, and was
for several years his companion and fellowlaborer in the work of the ministry. He was
the author of the Acts of the Apostles, as well
as of the Gospel which bears his name, both
of which he dedicated to a distinguished person whom   he styles the "most excellent Theophilus," and seems to have composed them at
his request. The apparently high rank of this
individual harmonizes with the respectable position we assign to Luke.   The superior literary merit of these productions is another coincidence in the   same  direction.  Some have
VOL. I.           21




322     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
thought they have discovered medical terms in
both of them, strikingly agreeing with the reputed profession of the author. The great particularity of dates, names, and so forth, may
be considered as being another professional earmark in these writings, and as also forming
an observable coincidence. with the fact which
Luke mentions of his minute knowledge of
the original history of our religion.
We next come to the Apostle James the son
of Alpheus. He is called James the Less,-as
some of the Fathers have conjectured, on account of his diminutive stature, but as others
suppose, from his being junior to James the
brother of John the Evangelist. Sometimes he
is denominated James the Just. He was cousin
to Jesus, and seems to have been the presiding Apostle at Jerusalem. It might be thought
that he was indebted for this distinction to his
relationship to our Lord; but Christ had other
relatives among the Twelve beside James. The
voice of antiquity is loud as to the high repute in which he was held by the people of
Jerusalem, especially for moderation and justice. Josephus is supposed to refer to his martyrdom as having given so great offence to
his fellow-citizens as to have induced them to
remonstrate to the Roman governor, and procure the deposition of Ananus, the High-Priest,




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     323
by whose instrumentality he had been put to
death.
It is interesting to notice how much the
Epistle which bears his name exhibits of that
practical good sense and that impartial respect
for the rights of all classes which would be
apt to be considered important qualifications
for the office which he held as head of the
Christian community in Jerusalem. He exhorts
his readers to rejoice in the trials of life as a
salutary discipline, yet never to impute any
temptation to sin to the Divine agency, but
solely to the criminal inclinations of the transgressor himself; to be faithful doers of God's
sacred word, and not deceive themselves with
the idea that it is sufficient to be hearers
merely; not to court the rich and despise the
poor, but to show kindness to all without distinction; to esteem faith as of value only as
it is productive of a holy life; to avoid corrupt, profane, intemperate, contentious, and insincere speech,-always remembering that the
wisdom which is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, without partiality, and without hypocrisy; to guard against
covetousness, sensuality, pride, detraction, and
hasty judgments of others; never to be overconfident in any worldly undertaking, but to
be always mindful of the uncertainty of life,
and always commit their way to an overruling




324     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Providence; that amid all his riches the oppressor of the poor should dread the displeasure of offended Heaven,-while the Christian
should cherish patience and trust under all his
trials, according to the example of the prophets and patriarchs of old; that they should be
prayerful in adversity and religiously cheerful
in prosperity; and lastly, that they should confess their faults one to another, and implore
the Divine mercy for themselves and for their
fellow-beings,-at the same time ever exerting
themselves to the utmost to enlighten the erring and reclaim the sinful.
Such is the substance of this Epistle, which
is surpassed by none of the apostolic writings
in practical wisdom and the variety of plain
every-day truths which it contains.
Of Jude we know but little, except that he
was one of our Lord's Apostles, and brother
of James the Less. To him one of the canonical Epistles has been generally attributed. Of
the place and circumstances of his death we
are not informed, nor have we any particular
account of his labors in the apostleship.
Of Simon Zelotes, otherwise called the Canaanite, our knowledge is equally scanty. His
case affords another illustration of the difference between the gospel narratives and mere




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     325
legendary relations; for while scarcely a fact is
recorded of this Apostle by the Evangelists,
there are traditions about him in abundance.
One name alone remains, and that covered
with never-dying infamy,- Judas Iscariot. As
has been said,' there is a solemn obscurity
hanging over the life of this man." We are
barely informed that he was the son of Simon;
-what Simon we know not; nor could any
of his contemporaries have known, merely from
this description of him,-the name of Simon
being so common at that period.   It bespeaks
the delicacy of the Evangelists that they have
given us so little information concerning this
pitiable family. The story of the arch-apostate
is briefly told. In the course of his attendance
upon Jesus he gave manifest proof of being of
a, sordid spirit, and was at last bribed by the
Jewish rulers to point him out to the officers
who were sent to arrest him. After committing this act of treachery, he did not wait to
witness the result, but, overcome apparently
with remorse, put an end to his own life.
It has been surmised that he had not anticipated any serious consequences to Jesus. As
he had known him to pass unharmed through
the midst of enraged multitudes, possibly he
expected he would do the same in the present instance.  Or he may have depended up



326     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
on the Saviour's innocence to secure his acquittal. Not improbably the priests had given
him false assurances as to their intentions.
Some have suggested that it was his design
to put the Messianic claim   of Jesus to the
test,-under the idea, that, if he were truly
the Messiah, his enemies could have no power
over him. If he had been influenced by this
latter motive, the apparent success of his perfidy would have seemed to him its justification,-instead of which, overwhelmed by a sense
of his own guilt, after the betrayal had taken
effect, he went out and committed suicide.
Judas has furnished a testimony to our Lord
which could have come from no other quarter.
We see that Christ was not surrounded by
friends alone. He was always under the familiar observation of one who was capable of treating him with the utmost dishonor and injustice. Had it been otherwise, there would not
have been wanting persons to suggest, that,
if, among his constant attendants, there had
only been some one who was free from blind
devotion to him, facts might have come to
light not so clear of every cloud as his friends
could  have  desired.  There  are, indeed, no
comments in the gospel writers as to the
credit which in this view redounds to Jesus
from the treachery of Judas. The simplest relation possible is all we have from them. Not




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.      327
even a "Thus perisheth the traitor!" points
the moral of their tale. Never was that important requisite of history, naked truth, more
perfectly observed than it is in theirs. "There
is no history like it," said Diderot.
In his last interview with the Twelve, Judas
being present, Jesus announces that one of
their number is about to betray him.    There
are few more striking and unobtrusive evidences of Christ's prophetic knowledge than
this.  The last thing for his enemies to have
divulged would have been the plot they were
laying  for his arrest.  There   could  be  no
stronger case, therefore, for the manifestation
of his prescience, and it is difficult to say in
what more simple and forcible manner it could
have  been  manifested.  We must read      the
whole account.   It is stamped with an artless
matter-of-fact reality which it is impossible to
put out of sight.   It is noticeable how   the
prophecy is interwoven with the narrative.
There is a long train of incidents and conversational remarks in which the foresight of
Jesus is disclosed by various intimations.  Hie
is celebrating the Passover for the last time.
Before the solemnity commences, he takes a
vessel of water and begins to wash the feet
of his disciples, much to the astonishment of
Peter, who is unable to account for so lowly
an act on the part of his Master. Jesus says




328     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
it is to teach this important lesson, that, if
he performed so humble a service for them,
they ought to manifest a similar spirit towards
one another. Such was his favorite mode of instruction,- figurative, brief, emphatic. He then
observes,-"Now ye are clean, but not all."
Here he begins alluding to Judas. So remarks
the Evangelist. " He knew," says John, " who
should betray him; therefore said he,'Ye are
not all clean."' John felt that the expression
might be somewhat obscure; for he gives us
his own impression of its meaning, as referring to Judas. We see that he did not choose
to relate more than he remembered; otherwise
he would have made the expression clear in
the first instance, so as to have needed no
explanation.  If any one should suggest that
it was his intention to produce this very impression on the reader, that he was conscientious to record neither more nor less than
what he heard his Master actually say, I can
only reply,-Impute who can such consummate
art to any one of the authors of the New
Testament!
The allusion to Judas was so very obscure
that only the traitor himself would be likely
at the moment to perceive its drift. The delicacy of the Saviour is noticeable.  He says
just enough to correct any false impression
which Judas might be entertaining of the se



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     329
crecy of his plot, as if to induce him to desist
before a public exposure should drive him to
desperation. But Judas betrays no emotion.
On resuming his seat, Jesus remarks,-" I
speak not of you all; I know whom I have
chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled,'He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.'  Now I tell you
before it come, that, when it is come to pass,
ye may believe that I am he." Presently he
observes, as John informs us, — Verily, verily,
I say unto you, that one of you shall betray
me." While these repeated intimations rise in
distinctness each above the preceding, the repetition makes it certain that John did not
misunderstand his Master.
The finishing touch to the artless simplicity
of the evangelical narrative is what is related
of the disciples.  " And they were exceeding
sorrowful," says Matthew, "and began   every
one of them   to say unto him,'Lord, is it
I?' And he answered and said,'He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same
shall betray me.  The Son of Man goeth as
it is written of him; but woe unto that man
by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had
been good for that man, if he had not been
born.'  Then Judas, which betrayed him, an.
swered and said,'Master, is it I?' He said
unto him,'Thou hast said."'   If Judas had




330     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
been conscious of being innocent, it would be
difficult to say what would have been his
most natural mode of signifying it. I am sure
it would not have been the one he adopted.
Something more expressive of wounded feeling
would have appeared. As it is, we can seem
to see the malignant leer, and to hear the cold,
slow tone of deliberate insult and revenge with
which he echoes the question, " Lord, is it I?"
-immediately retiring, as he utters it, to execute his diabolical design.
Whoever feels an interest in tracing every
token of that divine foreknowledge which our
Saviour manifested on this occasion may notice
a chain of minute incidents,-for a chain it is.
Peter receives from his Master, in the hall of
the High-Priest, a look which makes him go
out and weep bitterly.  What did that look
mean?   To answer this question, we must attend to another incident, namely, that at that
very instant the cock crew. And what of this?
Peter, I reply, had just denied his Lord,-and
if we look back into the account, we find it
stated, that, on the evening when Jesus announced the treachery of Judas, he also foretold that Peter, that very night, before the
cock crew, would deny him thrice. But what
temptation would Peter have to deny him,to deny, that is, that he knew   him,-unless
Jesus should be under arraignment? And this




THE APOSTLES AND E) ANGELISTS.    331
leads to the conclusion, that Christ's foretelling
to Peter the unfaithful conduct of which he
was that night to be guilty was a proof that
he had also a prescience of the treachery, and
of the consequences of it, which awaited him
from another quarter. In other words, his foreknowledge of the fate impending over him
was shown not by one solitary fact merely,
but by a series of different facts which are
linked together for a long distance.
The Acts of the Apostles represent Judas as
having purchased a field with the reward of
his iniquity.  But Matthew   states that the
priests took the thirty pieces of silver they
had given him, and which in a fit of remorse
he had thrown down in the temple, and with
them  purchased the Potter's Field, as a burialplace  for strangers.  Suppose  a discrepancy
here.  We could only infer, at the    utmost,
that one historian was better informed than
the other.  Neither of them  was present.  It
was purely a matter of report,-and one in
which the Apostles could have felt no very
anxious interest.  Still, commentators do  not
acknowledge that any discrepancy exists. They
observe, that one may be said to purchase
whatever is bought with his money.    Besides,
it is hardly possible that such a person as Judas would have provided a cemetery for strangers at his own expense, under any circum



332     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
stances,-even if his own untimely end had
allowed him the opportunity.
Another apparent disagreement has been suggested. In one account we are informed that
Judas hanged himself; in another, that, "falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst,
and all his bowels gushed out." How far the
gospel writers cared to inform themselyes as
to what became of this miserable man it is
impossible to say. It is quite likely, however,
that the common explanation may be true,
which unites both accounts, and supposes him
to have fallen from some elevated spot where
he had suspended himself, and that his body
was mangled in the manner described.
Such, Christian reader, were those who were
invited by our Saviour to be the immediate
attendants upon his ministry,-simple, unlettered men, taken from various humble walks in
life.  Had there been no other reason why
God, in conferring upon mankind the mercy
of a revelation, should have intrusted the communication of it to one in lowly circumstances,
but that others also in lowly circumstances
should become the witnesses and recorders of
his words and actions, we can conceive that
this alone would have shown the wisdom of
assigning it to a person of this description.
For in religion we want truth; and in the




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     333
historians of a religion we need all the evidence possible that they have given us the
truth,-the truth as it was, the life of the
author as it was, everything as it was.  And
Providence has seen to this. The gospel history has been written for us by those who
could not have fabricated it, even if they had
made the attempt. I say again, in religion
we want truth. No matter if its records are
ever so imperfect, so long as their general veracity is unimpeachable,-so long as a stream
of simplicity and nature runs through them
with all the force of vivid and manifest reality.
Such records, I repeat, we have received.
They carry us into the very presence of the
Great Teacher. We walk with him by the
Sea of Galilee.  We stand with him    on the
steps of the Temple. We listen to the most
beautiful sayings, the most noble and inspiring
doctrines that were ever uttered,-and we know
by whom they were uttered, and in whom we
have believed.
Nor did it disqualify these humble men for
their important office that their conceptions of
the Messianic kingdom were not more elevated
and just. A fuller development to their minds
of the ultimate objects of Jesus might have
raised our respect for them; but would it
have increased our faith in the gospel history?




334     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Should we have regarded it as a natural coincidence, if they had been represented as looking to no earthly rewards of their fidelity,
cherishing none of the secular anticipations of
that day, but fixing their desires altogether
upon the spiritual blessings of the coming dispensation?  A company of common men, casually brought together, who sympathized with
their countrymen in none of the notions entertained by them concerning a matter in which
the whole nation felt the most profound interest!
But what more could a Christian well wish
for than the facts as they really were? What
a strong impression must Jesus have made upon his disciples that he was deserving their veneration and trust, when, notwithstanding they
could not reconcile many things he said and
did with the character he professed to bear,
they still so loved and honored him! The.difficulties of their faith constitute one of the
most convincing proofs of its truth. If it had
concurred with their prejudices, it would not
have been remarkable that they should have
entertained it. I hardly know how to explain
the powerful influence it obtained over them,
without taking into view its extraordinary credentials.  Christianity  could  not easily  have
found a day to which its supernatural character would have been more necessary than it




THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS.     335
was to theirs, or when any other means for
its success besides miraculous ones would have
been more entirely diverse from the temper
of the minds on which it was to operate,a day of nationality and exclusiveness,-a day
of human conceptions and earthly entanglements, which could have seen little to satisfy
it in the moral instructions and natural relations of Jesus.  The revelation for which the
universal Jewish mind then looked and longed
was one having reference altogether to the
outward, the visible, the temporal,-not in the
least to any rules of virtue or problems of
the spiritual life.




CHAPTER XII.
NATHANAEL.-THE MIRACLE AT CANA.
ON the return of Jesus from the scene of
his temptation to that of his baptism, on his
way to Galilee, occurred the interview with Nathanael, thus related in the Gospel of John:
"The day following, Jesus would go forth
into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto
him,'Follow  me.'  Now  Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  Philip
findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,'We
have found him of whom Moses in the Law,
and the Prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph.'  And Nathanael said unto him,'Can there any good thing come out
of Nazareth?'  Philip saith unto him,'Come
and see.' Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him,
and saith of him,'Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!' Nathanael saith unto
him,'Whence knowest thou me?' Jesus answered and said unto him,' Before that Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree,
I saw  thee.'  Nathanael answered and  saith




NATHANAEL.              337
unto him,'Rabbi, thou art the Son of God,
thou art the King of Israel.' Jesus answered
and said unto him,'Because I said unto thee,
I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou?
Thou shalt see greater things than these.' And
he saith unto him,'Verily, verily, I say unto
you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and
the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man.'"
Nathanael was convinced that Jesus was the
Christ.  So it appears here. And it is to be
noticed as a harmony, that we find him a believer at the end of the Gospel.  It is there
mentioned, that, " After these things, Jesus
showed himself again to the disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed he
himself.  There were together Simon    Peter,
and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of
Cana in Galilee."  Cana was but a short distance from the Sea of Tiberias. The geographical coincidence is observable.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he
bestowed a eulogium upon him, extraordinary
as proceeding from a perfect stranger; and
that Jesus was a stranger to him is the full
appearance of the fact, as confirmed by Nathanael himself.  Surprised at this encomium,
implying as it did that the Saviour had been
previously acquainted with him, Nathanael replies:-" Whence' knowest thou me?"      The
VOL. I.           22




338     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
encomium was this:-" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom   is no guile!"    And what I
now particularly notice is its striking pertinency and justness.   Notwithstanding the strong
prejudice evinced in the question, " Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth?" we
see that our Lord spoke truly the real character of the man.    For this prejudiced Jew
had frankness and candor enough, it appears,
to be willing to examine and test the correctness of his unfavorable impressions by a
personal visit to Christ.  Nor is this all.  No
sooner does Christ present merely a single proof
of his supernatural powers, by informing him
that he saw him under the fig-tree before
Philip called him, than this simple-minded Hebrew surrenders all his scruples and declares
himself convinced that Jesus is the Messiah.
But the incident is of less importance, perhaps, than the noble lesson to be derived from
it,-that men may embrace the most erroneous views in respect to Christ,-and, by parity of reason, on any other subject,-and yet
be entitled to the praise of integrity, so long
as they are desirous of ascertaining the truth,
and use all the means for this purpose in
their power.
After his interview with Nathanael, Jesus
went to Cana of Galilee, where he attended




THE MIRACLE AT CANA.           339
a marriage-feast, and performed his first miracle. The host seems to have been a person
of humble condition: so we should infer from
the fact that Jesus' mother and disciples were
invited; and this inference harmonizes with the
circumstance, that in the midst of the entertainment there was found to be a deficiency
of a principal article generally provided at such
festivities.  Says the mother of Jesus to him,
--  They have no wine."      This would have
been likely to happen only at a feast given
by a person of moderate means. It was the
natural prompting of female sensibility for the
mother to apprise her son of the unpleasant
situation of their friends occasioned by this deficiency, especially if she had any mysterious
impression of his ability to extricate them from
their embarrassment. In all difficulties, we instinctively turn to the person present who is
supposed to be most able and disposed to remove them; and the application is apt to be
brief and simple in proportion to the confidence reposed in his ability and benevolence.
So it was in the present instance.   Mary informed Jesus in the fewest possible words of
the existing state of things, and then left it
to him to relieve the necessities of their host
as he might see fit.
It is mentioned that "there were set there
six water-pots of stone, after the manner of




340     HOURS WlTH THE EVANGELISTh.
the purifying of the Jews, containing two or
three firkins apiece.  Jesus saith unto them,'Fill the water-pots with  water.'  And they
filled them  up to the brim.   And he saith
unto them,'Draw   out now, and bear unto
the governor of the feast.' And they bare it.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the
water that was made wine, and knew not
whence it was, (but the servants which drew
the water knew,) the governor of the feast
called the bridegroom and saith unto him, VEvery man at the beginning doth set forth good
wine,-and when men have well drunk, then
that which is worse; but thou hast kept the
good wine until now.'" The historian himself
was probably present. There could have been
no illusion.  There was no room  for mistake
as to the conversion of the contents of six
large vessels from water into wine.
Among the minor coincidences in this relation, one is thus remarked upon by the Rev.
J. J. Blunt, Margaret Professor of Divinity,
Cambridge, England:-" There appears to me
to be in this passage ['Fill the water-pots with
water'] an undesigned coincidence,-very slight
and trivial, indeed, in its character, but not on
that account less valuable as a mark of truth.
These water-pots had to be filled before Jesus
could perform the miracle.  It follows, therefore, that they had been emptied of their con



THE MIRACLE AT CANA.           341
tents; the water had been drawn out of them.
But for what purpose was it used? and why
were these vessels here? It was for purifying.
For Call the Jews,' as Saint Mark tells us more
at large, (vii. 3,)'except they wash their hands
oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.'
The vessels, therefore, being now empty indicates that the guests had done with them,that the meal, therefore, was advanced; for it
was before they sat down to it that they performed their ablutions; a circumstance which
accords with the moment when our Lord is
represented as doing this miracle; for the governor of the feast said to the bridegroom,'Every man at the beginning doth set forth good
wine, but thou hast kept the good wine until
now.' It is satisfactory, that, in the record of
a great miracle like this, the minor circumstances in connection with it should be in
keeping with one another." 
Another still slighter particular may not be
wholly undeserving of notice. Six large vessels
of stone, containing several firkins apiece, for
daily religious purification, may seem a great
number to be possessed by a single family in
an humble condition of life.   But suppose a
festival to which invitations were so numerous
that one of the principal articles of the en* Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old ana
New Testament, p. 291.




342     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tertainment proved insufficient for the guests,
and we can easily believe that vessels might
have been borrowed for so unusual an occasion.
It is a little curious that Dr. Clarke, in his
Travels in the East, speaks of seeing, as he
walked among the ruins of a church in a village occupying the site of the ancient Cana
of the   New   Testament, c large massy   stone
water-pots, answering the description given of
the ancient vessels of the country; not preserved nor exhibited as relics, but lying about,
disregarded by the present inhabitants, as antiquities with whose original use they were
unacquainted.   From  the appearance, and the
number of them, it was quite evident that a
practice of keeping water in large stone pots,
each holding from eighteen to twenty-seven
gallons, was once common in the country."*
The incidental character of this miracle may
be noticed,-and so, too, of all the miracles of
Jesus.  Circumstances rarely admitted   of any
preparation for them. They were performed as
occasions happened to arise. No matter when,
where, or how   sudden the call, Christ immediately listened to it.  He receives an invitation to a marriage-feast, and there miraculously
supplies a want which the numerous company
* Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. By
E. D. CLARKE, LL. D. Part II. sect. i. ch. 14.




THE MIRACLE AT CANA.          343
that attended him had not improbably created.
A blind man calls to him from the way-side,
as he happens to be passing by, and he instantly restores him to sight.  In the course
of a journey, he arrives at the gate of a city
at which a funeral train is going    out; he
stops the bier, and fills a widow's heart with
joy by restoring her only son to life.   Such
were his miracles.  They formed a constant
and regular part of his ministry, as if they
were only ordinary events. He cures the diseased and raises the dead in the same simple
manner in which he performs any other act.
It is not directly so stated in the history, indeed; but so it appears in the quiet course
of the  relation.  He  exerted  his miraculous
powers, not as though he was thinking of any
impression they were producing upon the bystanders, but only of the good he was doing
to the subjects of them or to their afflicted
friends.
The miracle at Cana has been thought to
have an important bearing upon a question
much agitated at the present day. It has been
considered as justifying a doubt, if not as presenting a positive refutation, of the fundamental principle of the temperance movement, that
wine ought never to be used as a beverage.
But it does not appear to me that it is neces



344     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
sarily to be regarded in this light.   We do
not certainly know what objects Jesus had in
view in this manifestation of his supernatural
power.  Besides the relief of his entertainers,
he might have intended to produce an impression of his mysterious greatness upon the
gay and festive circle around him, many of
whom, perhaps, he would never have an opportunity of impressing in the same manner again.
Then, too, many have felt the interesting connection of this miracle with the important institution which afforded the occasion for its
performance. The ministers of religion, in celebrating the nuptial rite, are in the habit of
alluding to this connection as conferring distinction on the rite itself. If such an association is natural now, it was doubtless natural
then; and we know it was one of the objects
of our Saviour's ministry to render honor to
the matrimonial bond.
If to drink wine is sinful in itself, an intrinsic and positive crime, a malum per se, there is
nothing more to be said for the miracle at
Cana.  But it has never been so viewed, to
my knowledge.
But so large a quantity of wine as Jesus
created! Some have thought it was sufficient
to satisfy a numerous company for a period as
long as a nuptial festivity ever lasted in those
days.  If it was no more than sufficient for




THE MIRACLE AT CANA.         345
a great marriage-feast conducted according to
the common custom of such occasions, probably it was no more than sufficient for this.
But there is another view, which is not to be
overlooked. A degree of magnitude in respect
to measure and quantity, especially in a miracle of this nature, was manifestly important.
The Egyptian magicians are supposed to have
been indebted for their success, in some of
their pretended imitations of the supernatural
achievements of Moses, to the small scale on
which they were performed. It is by no means,
therefore, a matter of indifference that many
of our Lord's miracles were of so liberal and
ample a character. When the multitudes came
to him with their maimed and their sick, he
healed them   all.  After the  miracle  of the
loaves, several baskets-full of fragments were
gathered up.
It is an interesting inquiry, how far Jesus
has sanctioned the common use of wine as a
beverage, either by the miracle in question or
by his own general practice. We know there
was nothing peculiar in his mode of living.
He ate and drank like other men. He drank
wine.  And has he not thereby prescribed a
universal rule?-We may answer with confidence, that all he said and did, at all times
and on all occasions, was not intended for indiscriminate and perpetual observance; other



346     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
wise we should be bound to conform to the
Jewish rites and ceremonies, since he conformed to them.
But as to the use of wine as a beverage,
has he not given us more than his own practice, to make his intention plain? Did he not
say something directly in favor of such use?
-Nothing, that I remember.     In other cases
he often accompanied his example by some
precept or remark, to enforce an imitation of
it upon his followers. Thus, if he prayed, he
has also commanded us to pray. If he was
meek, he has also commanded us to be meek.
He not only complied with the usages of the
Jewish law, but he enjoined it upon his disciples to comply with them also. There is less
to be urged, then, on the ground of his example and teachings, in favor of the practice
under consideration, than there is for our adhering to the Jewish ceremonial.
Again, it cannot be overlooked that Christ's
social position was different from ours, and that
he often adapted what he said or did to his
peculiar circumstances.  This was the case in
respect to matters of the very kind we are
now  considering.  The Baptist prescribed numerous fasts to his disciples, which our Lord
remarked were unsuited to his own disciples
at that time; but by-and-by, the condition of
things, he said, would be changed,-referring




THE MIRACLE AT CANA.         347
to his death,-and then they would be only
too much disposed to fast.
The exalted objects of his mission demanded
that he should live on the most friendly terms
with  all classes of men.   The   Scribes and
Pharisees reproached him for the freedom of
his intercourse with publicans and sinners. His
reply was,-The greater the sinner, the greater
his need of a kind interest on the part of
those who might assist him   to reform.   His
ideas of the Messianic kingdom were so utterly
at variance with those which the people generally entertained with regard to this great object of their national hopes, as to be ascribed
by many to a visionary mind. This was plainly a reason for departing as little as possible
from any respectable usages of the day in his
personal habits. As it was, his uniting, as he
did, the sublimest system of piety and virtue
in his teachings with a life like that of common men must have been peculiarly striking
to the Jews, accustomed as they were to associate the greatest austerity with the office
of a prophet.   We can probably hardly estimate its effect at that period.  Such mysterious powers and such sanctity of character, keeping so along upon the level of ordinary life,
must have wrought deeply upon their minds.
It may well produce a strong impression even
now, indeed, that, while any fanatical pretender




348     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
would naturally study some singularities to attract attention, especially those of self-denial and
austerity, we see nothing of the kind in Jesus.
He trod the narrow and difficult path between
inflexibility and indulgence, between essentials
and non-essentials, between rules and exceptions,
with wonderful precision and uniformity. It is
impossible to say which is the more observable,
his zeal in vindicating the sanctity of the temple, or the contempt he manifested towards all
superstitious notions of the Sabbath when they
stood in the way of the duties of benevolence.
It was plainly his object, not to define, but
to do,-not to minister in speculative generalities, but with practical efficiency,-not to accomplish everything, but something. His gospel,
he said, was like leaven. It was prospective,
time-long, soul-deep. There were many things
about it, he observed, which his disciples were
not prepared to receive at that moment.   He
took his measures accordingly.   His personal
labors were introductory. He concentrated them
within a restricted compass.  In the spirit of
that vast gradatory reform he had undertaken,
he announced that he himself was "not sent
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  His first step was the selection of a
small, but devoted company of constant attendants, who, with few broad qualifications for
the great outlying field of the Christian apos



THE MIRACLE AT CANA.           349
tolate, were eminently qualified for apostolical
functions of an initiatory nature, and to be to
all after times the witnesses of the life, teachings, and miracles of their Master.
He assailed no prejudices which were not
directly opposed to the great seminal truths of
the gospel, and which time and events would
gradually do away. He made no attack upon
the corrupt civil and religious establishments
around him. He taught that religion is not a
local and outward service, but that it has its
seat entirely in the heart; still, he was a
strict observer of the temple worship, notwithstanding.  He founded no benevolent institutions; he paid no attention to many an interesting form of philanthropy. He said nothing
on the subject of dietetics; he lived in respect to such matters as others lived.    Physicians have discovered the injurious nature
of several modes of medical treatment which
were formerly in vogue; but no light is cast
upon these subjects in his discourses.   Little
interest was then felt in philanthropic undertakings, especially those of a broad and prospective character. Indulgences not revolting in
their first steps, nor otherwise criminal than in
their excess, demanded a more comprehensive
and cultivated moral feeling than   existed in
that day, to awaken any general grief or horror.  In  short, any benevolent project which




350     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
looked only to distant results, and required
great self-denial the mean while, would have
met but a cold reception; it would have been
thought visionary.
True, there was total abstinence, even in
that age. But it bore no resemblance to our
temperance movement.   The posterity of Rechab were laid under an injunction by their
father Jonadab, who lived in the time of Jehu,
king of Israel, not to drink wine, nor build
houses, nor sow grain, nor plant vineyards,to hold no lands, and to dwell in tents all
their lives. This injunction they continued to
observe above three hundred years.   But it
was a family singularity altogether, and was
so regarded. It had evidently no reference to
any general advantage to mankind. No benefit to the world could have been contemplated
in not building houses, or sowing grain, or
owning lands. The same may be said of the
Nazarite pledge, which, while it demanded abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, also required that the hair should be suffered to
grow, that one should not enter into any
house in which there was a dead body, nor
be present at any funeral.
In neither of these usages do we behold any
similitude to that mighty enterprise whose blessings have come thronging around us in our
time.  And it may be doubted whether the




THE MIRACLE AT CANA.         351
world was ready for this enterprise at that period. True, we think of the ultimate benefits
to after ages from  some open and unqualified
stand by Jesus himself in this matter.   We
may say the same of ultimate benefits that
would seemingly have ensued, had he led the
way by his own example in relaxing the exactness and rigor of the Levitical law; since,
only a few years after his death, the Church
was thrown into convulsions by the pertinacity
with which the Jewish converts maintained the
universal and perpetual obligation of the Mosaic ceremonial.
The truth is, Jesus was the broad-day teacher of the immediate sphere which he himself
occupied. It was enough for him to consult his
own position, and leave it to those who should
come after him to consult theirs by applying
the principles of the gospel to actual life as
the proper occasions should arise.
And where, at this moment, would his position be in relation to that vast moral enterprise which is now struggling for success, and
which only asks of every individual some little
sacrifice of personal indulgence on the altar of
humanity? Who but must admit that we learn
nothing more clearly and forcibly from him than
the duty of generous self-denial and self-sacrifice, whenever they may be necessary for the
cause of benevolence and righteousness?




352     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
Few virtues have a perfect objective sameness, an unvarying identity of form, in all situations and in all ages of the world.   It is
only the spirit of goodness which is of unchanging obligation.  The progress of society
will always be requiring new modes of Christian action.  The gospel tree is full of buds.
They are not all unfolded at once. They were
not so in the time of our Lord.      What is
innocent to-day may be criminal to-morrow,
through a change of circumstances which will
preserve the principle while it modifies the application.  The same benevolence which once
converted water into wine might display itself
at the present moment by an opposite transformation. The spirit of Jesus is to look always
to the highest good.




CHAPTER XIII.
THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.
FROM Cana, Jesus went down to Capernaum,
and thence to Jerusalem.   This was the commencement of his' public ministry in the Jewish metropolis.  His first act after his arrival
was a pointed expression of his displeasure at
a gross profanation of the temple which he
found permitted by the Jewish rulers.    One
court had been converted into a market-place.
He was no precisian. He was soon to exasperate a bigoted veneration for this very edifice by taking the noble stand, that the true
worshipper must worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, and that acceptable devotion was
confined neither to Jerusalem nor to Gerizim.
Still, he did not repudiate all sacred associations with times and places.   It was a disgusting spectacle to him to see the secular
uses to which a portion of the Jewish sanctuary
was given up.   With their ideas, the authors
of this indecency were guilty of a flagrant sin.
"Take these things hence," he said to them;
VOL. I.           23




354     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
"make not my Father's house an house of
merchandise." He partially executed the work
of removal with his own hands, and by this
act seems to have impressed the beholders as
assuming to himself a striking prerogative of
the Messiah.  "What sign showest thou unto
us," they demanded, "seeing that thou doest
these things?" Perhaps they remembered the
prediction in Malachi, which speaks of the Messenger of the Covenant as coming suddenly to
the temple and purifying it like a refiner's
fire. It is probably difficult for us to appreciate the effect which this act of his had upon the Jewish spectators, accustomed, as they
were, to associate power with command, and
deed with word, in their conception of a prophet. Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the
Lord; and Moses took the calf which the Israelites had made and burnt it in the fire.
Jesus is related to have done the same thing
again towards the close of his ministry. Some
have regarded the account of the repetition of
this act as an error in the history. But why?
Suppose the history had informed us that no
occasion for a repetition ever occurred. Should
we not have heard how unlikely it was that
the Jewish rulers should ever have changed
their practice from any regard to the rebukes
of Jesus?   On the other hand, suppose the
profanation had continued, and we had been




THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.       355
told he never evinced displeasure a second time.
Would this have been thought a consistency?
We have a plain coincidence in the story as
it is; and, in fact, each purification presents
particulars peculiar to itself, and just such as
were appropriate to it.  In the first, we are
informed that Jesus found in the temple oxen
and sheep; the sacred court was used as a
barnyard,-the most offensive part of the profanation. In the second, no beasts are mentioned. So it seems there had been a partial
correction of the sacrilege. In the first, Jesus
employed a scourge of small cords to expel the
sheep and the oxen, probably by a gentle waving of the implement, to most animals usually
so formidable,-and likewise so far conformed
to the type of the ancient prophet as to overturn the tables of the money-changers,-contenting himself with a calm remonstrance to
the minor offenders who were present only
with their doves:-"Take these things hence;
make not my Father's house an house of merchandise." But when called a second time to
show his sense of this profanation of the sacred
precincts, he casts out the buyers and sellers,
overturns not only the tables of the moneychangers, but also the seats of those that sold
doves, and addresses them   all indiscriminately in these sharp and pointed terms: —"It is
written,'My house shall be called the house




356     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
of prayer'; but ye have made it a den of
thieves."
A mistranslation of a clause in John's narrative has led to a singular misconception.  It
stands thus in our Bibles:-" And Jesus went
up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the
changers of money sitting; and when he had
made a scourge of small cords, he drove them
all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the
oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and
overthrew the tables; and said unto them that
sold doves,'Take these things hence; make not
my Father's house an house of merchandise."'
From this it has been thought that the whip
was applied to the sellers as well as to the
animals. Not only is such a supposition very
unlikely, considering the insignificance of the
instrument, and for other reasons, especially as
touching the dignity of the transaction,-but it
was after the sellers had all been expelled,
according to our translation, that Jesus said
to those who sold doves, "Take these things
hence." Thus it seems that they were still in
the temple; they had not been expelled. The
truth is, the expulsion was wholly confined to
the animals, and this fact would have appeared
in a correct translation.  The passage should
have been rendered,-"He drove them all out
of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen."




THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.       357
Jesus had been honoring by his presence a
nuptial feast. Now we behold him deeply moved at witnessing a profanation of sacred things.
The appropriate moral sensibility he manifested
in a great variety of circumstances formed one
of his most remarkable characteristics.  In no
respect do we more need, or find it more difficult, to imitate him. He stands alone, as regards the constant harmony of his mind with
the situations in which he was placed. There
was that perfect poise in his character which
enabled him to turn with dignity and ease to
meet every occasion with the feeling that became it.  Yet no character is less easily explained upon natural principles,-none less attributable to the force of native temperament.
It is this want of consistency, the not passing
from one virtue to another as circumstances
may require, the failure to unite generous and
noble traits with those belonging to the humblest walks of duty, which forms the principal
defect of all mere natural characters, and which
so marks with imperfection the spiritual culture
even of the best men.   No human being has
ever succeeded so completely in the arduous
work of self-discipline, but that his constitutional proclivities will occasionally slip out from under every habit which has been superinduced
upon them.   But we observe nothing of the
kind in Jesus. I have no remembrance of any



358     HOURS WITH TIE EVANGELISTS.
thing approaching it, in a single instance. Under all the various expressions of his feelings
we behold a consistent whole.
And here, no doubt, is the chief reason why
all the portraits of him we ever see are so
unsatisfactory. In executing any work of this
kind, the painter endeavors to bring out the
predominant trait,-to give the expression, as
he terms it. If it is an historical portrait,
this must be left to his imagination, or he
must gather it as well as he is able from
what he knows of the individual.    It must
be the stand-point of the pictorial ideal,-the
secret inspiration of his whole work.
But what expression shall he assign to Jesus? Shall it be that of the gentle teacher,
who quenched not the smoking flax, nor broke
the bruised reed? or that of the august and
mysterious prophet, who denounced the tyrant
and the hypocrite, and before whom the people
fell upon their faces to the ground? Shall it
be that of him who wept over Jerusalem, or
of him who uttered a fearful woe upon its impious and cruel inhabitants? The painter's art
does not reach to the exhibition of a character of such balanced and equal virtues as to
be falsified by any delineation in which there
is the least deficiency or the least predominance of any one excellence in particular. In
such a case, he must leave a part untouched.




THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.       359
He can give us only a choice of disappointments.  He pursues the course which might
have been expected.   He avoids the difficulty
he could not surmount. He avails himself of
particular situations in which the Saviour appears under particular aspects, and hides the
limitation of his art under that of the scene.
Now he gives us a Jesus upon the Cross,now a Jesus upon the Mount. Here Christ is
healing the sick; there he is administering the
Last Supper. The historian must complete what
the painter is competent merely to commence.
The former must present the combination, from
which the latter can only select.  A Raphael,
a Correggio, a Titian, could not achieve an
equality with a John, a Luke, a Matthew, even
by their genius. In details they were able to
conquer the advantage of the pen over the
pencil; but they had not the power to paint
an entire Jesus.
I know of no commentary upon the gospel
history, therefore, which can be compared with
theirs, as a vivid demonstration of the fact that
this history has accomplished a union of excellences in the character of its great subject which
stands alone in the annals of the world. Neither do I know   of any critics whose decision
upon this point is so conclusive as that of a
miscellaneous assembly looking over a gallery
of Scripture pieces. There is one figure which




360     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
satisfies nobody. And why not? Because not
one of the whole number but has been all his
days insensibly receiving an impression of it
from the evangelical relations. That impression,
though he has probably never thought of it,
unites such various and opposite features of
majesty and loveliness, as to defy every attempt to reproduce it by all the powers of
color and form.
Whether this apology for the immortal masters of the pictorial art is fanciful merely, or
whether this universal dissatisfaction with their
noblest attempts is the fault of observers and
has no foundation in reality, let those pronounce
who are familiar with the Scriptural representations of Christ. What one virtue would they
say had the ascendency in his character? What
was his salient and commanding excellence?
Was he better capable of administering consolation or rebuke, when necessary? Did he display a predilection for calm instruction or for
active benevolence? Where did he seem most
equal to the occasion? in fearlessly upbraiding
the hypocritical and wicked men who were in
power, or in meekly enduring the cruel wrongs
which they inflicted on him?   Was he more
ready to encourage and animate his disciples
when they needed it, or with a prudent foresight and a faithful friendship to warn them
against false hopes and expectations? Did he




THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.      361
belong to that class of reformers who love to
undermine opposition by gentle methods, or to
the class who prefer to hew their way to their
object by the straightest path? Where do we
seem to see the most of his real disposition?
in abstaining from all unnecessary offence to
the public authorities and obeying the laws of
those who sat in Moses' seat, or when, with
an apparently deliberate defiance of Pharisaic
superstition and inhumanity, he often performed, and suffered his disciples to perform, works
of kindness and necessity on the Sabbath-day?
Was it Luther or Melancthon, should we say,
who had more particularly studied his example? or in the mingled mildness and energy
of his character do we see the pattern from
which both might have drawn the noblest traits
by which they were severally distinguished?
Considering his discourse to the Samaritan woman upon the nature of true worship and the
preference due to inward devotion over all outward forms, and looking at the short and dispassionate model of prayer which he gave to
his disciples, might we be led to infer that his
piety was of a subdued and intellectual cast?
But then his night-long supplications,-the fervid and overflowing emotions of Gethsemane!
To a disciple who asked permission of absence
for a little while to attend the obsequies of a
parent, "Let the dead bury their dead," was




362     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
his reply. To another disciple, who warmly repelled the idea that a cruel death should ever
befall him, "Get thee behind me, enemy!" he
said. Was his temper marked by a certain
sustained inflexibility and firmness, which made
him hold on the even tenor of his way without much solicitous concession to the moral
weaknesses of those around him? "Neither do
I adjudge thee to the legal penalty of this
crime; go and sin no more," he says to the
fallen and guilty daughter of Israel.  " When
he saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the
spirit and was troubled."  "Jesus wept."
True, we frequently see quite opposite traits
of character in the same individual. Even in
cold natures a fine enthusiasm will occasionally
burst forth. The most stagnant atmosphere will
give birth to a tornado. Instinct and culture,
habit and impulse, often produce sudden and
energetic contrasts. The lower and higher emotions have many a struggle with one another;
now this is in the ascendant, and now that.
No person is always himself; still every person
has his predominant temper.   But in all the
variety of circumstances in which Jesus appears
in his eventful history, for what particular kind
and capacity of virtue should we say he was
less specially fitted?  I must confess myself
unable to decide.




THE TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE.      363
Further,-no one disposition jn any person
is invariably true to itself. In whom did we
ever know a perfect unity in this respect? Yet
what trait could we desire had been better
balanced in Jesus than it was?
Do any say that a character composed of
such harmonious contrasts is too unique and
singular for anything but fiction? But there it
is, in a most simple and artless narrative. Besides, imagine who can that the writers of the
Gospels conceived of a moral combination higher
than has ever been exemplified in any human
being before or since their time! It is as far
above art as it is beyond history, and forms,
without a doubt, the grand psychological proof
of the truth and reality of the gospel relations.




CHAPTER XIV.
NICODEMUS.
CHRIST'S memorable conversation with Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim,
may be placed here. This dignitary had heard
of the miracles of Jesus, and came to him in
person to satisfy himself whether he was the
Messiah who was then expected by the Jewish
nation. Addressing our Lord by the respectful
appellation of Rabbi, he told him he was sensible that he was a teacher sent from   God,
because no one could do the miracles which
he did unless God were with him.     This remark led me to notice a slight coincidence.
"No man," said Nicodemus,' can do these miracles that thou doest," and so forth. The question occurred to me,-What miracles?    I had
in mind only the miracle at Cana. But turning back to the preceding chapter, I read,"Now when he was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, in the feast-day, many believed in his
name, when they saw the miracles which he
did."  Nicodemus seems to have resided     in




NICODEMUS.              365
Jerusalem, and the miracles he alludes to, as
matters apparently of his own personal knowledge, are stated to have been wrought in that
city.
To escape observation, he chose the nighttime for this visit. At such an hour no one
would have been likely to be with Jesus except some intimate companion, as John, the
beloved disciple. This little circumstance I was
led to think of, on seeing it objected by Strauss
that John alone of all the Evangelists has any
account of this interview. The fact would appear to be rather a coincidence than a difficulty.
The Pharisees would have had it believed
that Jesus made no impression on the higher
classes.  "Have any of the rulers or of the
Pharisees believed on him?" they demanded.
Strange, if they had generally believed on him!
He could look for little sympathy from them.
Hearts open to truth were all that he could
hope to impress. It is therefore a moral coincidence that to the gospel was assigned a
lowly birth,-that it had its origin among lowly and humble men. To few others could so
simple a religion have presented any attractive
features.  But more than humble minds were
necessary. A spirit to suffer and make sacrifices was indispensable.  It is another coincidence, therefore, that Christianity arose in that




366     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
sphere of life where there were the fewest
sacrifices to be made. Still, it is not literally
true that Jesus found no followers but among
the poor.   It could not have been.   Human
nature is everywhere too much the same for
such a limitation to have been possible. It is
therefore a mark of moral harmony in the
history, that it intimates the existence of a
friendly feeling towards him, to a certain extent, even in the higher ranks, —it being related, that "among the chief rulers also many
believed on him, but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him, lest they should be
put out of the synagogue." It is John who
mentions this fact; and in the interview with
Nicodemus, at which he was probably present,
the Jewish ruler might naturally have made
some reference to other persons of his own
class who had the same belief with himself;
and who even more than himself were unwilling to let it be known.
In a late conspicuous attempt to depreciate
the gospel history, it is intimated that Nicodemus might have been a fictitious personage, introduced by the Evangelist to refute the taunt
of the Pharisees,-"Have any of the rulers or
of the Pharisees believed on him?"*   Among
other replies to so hardy a suggestion, it might
be asked,-Why, then, did the sacred histo* STRAUSS'S Life of Jesus, Vol. II. p. 153.




NICODEMUS.               367
rian leave Nicodemus's complimentary address
to Jesus in a state of such gratuitous incompleteness, by representing him as being confounded at the replies he received to his inquiries, and, for aught that appears, going away
dissatisfied with his interview? I refer to his
astonishment and perplexity at Jesus' observations respecting regeneration. A fabulist, who
had invented the story with a view of honoring
Christ, would have represented the Hebrew dignitary as filled with admiration at all that was
said by the Saviour on this occasion.
Nicodemus was persuaded that Jesus was
a messenger sent from God, but was afraid
to confess his conviction.  He was plainly a
timid, worldly believer; and this fact forms
the key of all that was said to him    by our
Lord. It marks the reality of the whole scene,
and presents it in striking correspondence with
all the notices we have of the man. He appears several times in the course of the gospel history, and always the identical character
that he is here.    The coincidence  does not
stand out, it is true, upon the face of the
record. Nothing is said by the Evangelist to
direct attention to it. The reverse. The different occasions are so widely apart that it does
not arrest the notice of the general reader.
The interview of Nicodemus with Jesus is
in the third chapter of John's Gospel, and we




368     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
first meet with him again in the seventh chapter. And how does he appear here? He is a
member of the Jewish Sanhedrim still. He has
not exposed himself to be cast out of the synagogue by an open confession of Christ. And
few, probably, would have anticipated any such
event, in view of the impression we receive of
his want of moral intrepidity from his nocturnal visit to our Lord. Yet, solicitous as he is
to conceal his faith, we discover abundant evidence of the faith itself. Sitting in his place
in the Jewish Senate, he is plainly a believer,
but sufficiently far from any intemperate zeal
in the expression of his belief. They are discussing the question of arresting Jesus. Nicodemus ventures to inquire, (it is the utmost
effort to which his courage is equal,) whether,
as an abstract question, (he is careful to put
it in that form,) whether, generally speaking,
it be regular to decide without investigation.
"Doth bur law judge any man before it hear
him and know what he doeth?" They answer
his inquiry in a way he had probably hoped
to avoid, and was little prepared to encounter,
and which they evidently felt was suited by
its compendious character to the particular species of temperament with which they had to
deal. They wished to know whether he, too,
had come over to the new religion. "Art thou
also of Galilee?"  Too searching an interroga



NICODEMUS.              369
tory this, for Nicodemus! He shuns the storm.
He does not deny the charge, indeed.     He
cannot bring himself to this.  With all his
weakness, he has a sincere and conscientious
faith. But he moots no more general questions about the powers of the Sanhedrim. He
is plainly the believer who came to Jesus by
night.
The next and only other place where he appears is in the nineteenth chapter. The scene
of the Crucifixion was over.  The multitude
had retired from  Calvary.  The silence and
darkness of evening had succeeded. "And Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus,
but secretly, for fear of the Jews, besought
Pilate that he might take away the body of
Jesus; and Pilate gave him leave.  He came,
therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And
there came also Nicodemus, which at the first
came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred
pound weight. Then took they the body of
Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the
spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury."
The same faith,-the same attention to personal safety.  Such coincidences would be felt
to be striking in any history.
But to return to the interview.  The Jewish counsellor was afraid to have his belief in
Christ made public. He seems to have been a
VOL. I.           24




370     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
worldly man, on whom the miracles of our
Lord had made a deep impression, without
much spiritual effect. He could not resist his
conviction, but he was not prepared to make
any personal sacrifices on account of it. From
what he had heard and seen, he had no doubt
that Jesus was a messenger sent from God,
and trusted, on conferring with him, to find
his hopes confirmed, that he was the great
national Messiah for whose coming they were
all so anxious at that period. But his faith
and hopes were destitute of any moral type;
he dreamed only of a Messiah who should
manifest his greatness in the exaltation and
glory of the Jewish nation.
Such was the case to which our Lord was
called'to speak. In that emphatic style which
he occasionally employed,-"Verily, verily," says
Jesus to him, "except a man be born again,
he' cannot see the kingdom of God." By this
was meant the Messianic kingdom, the kingdom of which the thoughts of Nicodemus were
then so full. But its nature was anything but
what he had conceived. He can answer only
in the way of objection, and asks,-"How can
a man be born when he is old?"      He professes not to be sensible of the Saviour's meaning; yet the expressions, "new  birth," "new
creature," and the like, were common among
the Jews to denote religious conversion. We




NICODEMUS.             371
see the coincidence. Nicodemus was not thinking of religious conversion. He was not prepared to think of it.  He was thinking of
sceptres and dominions.  He could have comprehended the remark, had he come to converse with Jesus upon spiritual themes.  But
spiritual and Messianic ideas he had not put
together. We could not have a more pertinent
incidental fact to show, what the history of the
time evinces, that the Jewish mind was wholly absorbed in the anticipation of a national
Saviour. Nicodemus was the type of his day,
and we place this fact among the harmonies
of the gospel relation.
Jesus now changes his phraseology:-"Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God." What before was
being " born again" is now  being " born of
water and of the Spirit." The substituted language made everything plain, —at least, might
have done so, it should seem. And how pertinent to the easy Nicodemus! He was wanting in moral courage to confess his belief in
Jesus as the Christ. He was therefore told he
must be born of water; he must be baptized;
he must give an outward and public token
of his Christian discipleship. Nor was he merely a timid believer,-he was a worldly one
also.  He had set his heart wholly upon a




372     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
temporal Messiah.  He must be born of the
Spirit.
Jesus adds,-" Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth: so is every one that is
born of the Spirit." The Messianic enrolment
was to resemble the movement of the wind,a wind so gentle that you cannot tell its direction. It was to be no popular movement,no visible display,-nothing national,- nothing
public,-but an interior and religious matter,
altogether in the breast of the individual.
Nicodemus supposed, that, when the Messiah
appeared, the Jews, as a body, would become
his people, like a whole community tendering
their allegiance to their ruler. If they flocked
to the Jordan to be baptized, the popular notion apparently was that it was little more than
a ceremony,-a formal, solemn inauguration of
the new order of things. Came the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, the dignitaries and the common people, persons of all ranks and all conditions, and of characters equally promiscuous.
But the Baptist himself had more discriminating views. He required a personal repentance,
a virtuous life; and herein, I conceive, was
about the only distinction between his views
and those of his countrymen generally, in re.




NICODEMUS.              373
gard to the nature of the Messianic kingdom.
He believed, as they believed, that it was to
be a kingdom of great temporal glory; but he
also believed that it was to be no less distinguished by the highest moral and spiritual
characteristics. He was, therefore, far from seeing fit subjects of the approaching reign in all
who thronged the banks of the Jordan. "0
generation of vipers," he said to many of them,
"who hath warned you to flee from the wrath
to come?   Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet
for repentance; and think not to say within
yourselves,' We have Abraham to our father."'
So Jesus admonished Nicodemus, that, if he
would become a subject of the Messianic kingdom, he must seek that high distinction through
the silent power of a spiritual life.
He added, that these ideas ought not to be
strange to him. "Art thou a master of Israel,
and knowest not these things?" He might well
say this to a person of his education.   The
Messianic dispensation was plainly described in
the Prophets as one of peace and righteousness,-as where it was said, that God would
write his law in the hearts of his people,that a king should reign in righteousness,and that all the children of the kingdom should
be taught of God.
He then observes,-" If I have told     you
earthly things and ye believe not, how shall




374     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but
he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man, which is in heaven." As much as to
say,-If I have spoken truths to be fulfilled
even on earth, and which are plain to every
serious and well-disposed person without any
special illumination, who has the Old Testament in his hands, and yet you fail to apprehend these, (referring to the nature of the
Messianic kingdom,) how can you receive those
communications concerning a heavenly state,
which, of all teachers, I alone, who came from
the Father, and am always in the Father, have
brought to light by his Spirit?
Much has been said of the mysterious nature of this whole conversation with Nicodemus. Ideas hard to be understood have been
supposed to be embraced in it. But, as if to
show that he meant nothing difficult to reason,
Jesus concludes by speaking in terms of striking simplicity and plainness of the whole subject of Christian discipleship.  First, he says,
the true disciple must receive him as the Messenger of God and the Saviour of men. Secondly, that this is the character of those who
are cut off from Christian blessedness, namely,
that they "love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil,"-whereas the genuine believer "cometh to the light, that his




NICODEMUS.              375
deeds may be made manifest that they are
wrought in God."  What I condemn,-says Jesus,-and all that I condemn, is a voluntary
moral blindness. Historical faith alone is not
sufficient to constitute a Christian; there must
be a virtuous and holy life.-Read the closing
remarks of Christ to Nicodemus and see how
forcibly these views are presented. And what
noble views they are! They should be inscribed over the door of every Christian church.
Some may think that Paul sets forth a different principle,-that, so far from dividing
men into two great classes, those who open
their eyes and those who close them, where
matters of truth and duty and moral discernment are concerned, he rather denies the existence in the human soul of any natural capacity of moral discernment, by declaring that
"the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned."  But
in the passage here quoted Paul is not speaking of any natural defect in the moral powers
of man, but only of an historical defect on
the part of the Gentiles as regards a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. And this defect
he does not charge upon them as a crime, but
only refers to it as the reason why they were
ignorant of facts which could be learned only
from  the Bible.  So the context shows.   No




376     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
one could speak more strongly than he does in
support of that great maxim of our Lord, that
it is not darkness, but wickedness, for which
men will be condemned,- and that it is not
light, but virtue, that will secure their acceptance with God. "There is no respect of persons with God," says the Apostle. "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish
without law; and as many as have sinned
in the law shall be judged by the law. For
not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified."
Jesus never exhibits greater elevation and
consistency than in that calm superiority he
so constantly manifested over all the passions
and prejudices by which he was surrounded.
We see in him a soul always self-possessed, and
too conscious of its own greatness to be disturbed by any false estimation which might be
entertained of him by others. Who can name
the thing he ever said or did in which he
did not appear dignified and simple, and where
his moral stand-point did not seem to lie within his own bosom? How little desire he manifested to collect about him imposing numbers
or illustrious  disciples!  In  his conversation
with Nicodemus, we perceive a single aim to
instruct, and no solicitude merely to please.
He addresses the like calm exhortations to the
Hebrew dignitary as to Martha of Bethany.




NICODEMUS.              377
The complimentary style in which the Rabbi
had  introduced  himself makes no difference.
Jesus is not to be prevented from speaking his
mind decidedly and fully to his distinguished
visitor about the false views he entertains concerning the Messianic kingdom.
That firm, dignified manner to the great, that
gentleness and condescension to the poor and
lowly, which were conspicuous traits in Christ's
character, were the unstudied expression of a
soul that maintained one constant position of
interior sublimity and communion with God.
He looked down from too lofty a height to
recognize any artificial distinctions among men,
or any distinctions but those of goodness and
worth. "The Son    of Man who came down
from  heaven  and who is in heaven," were
words of his which had always a striking illustration in his deportment towards different
classes of men. Nothing that is great or small
in the world's eye seemed to be so measured
in his. Peter was astonished that he should
wash his disciples' feet; Pilate knew not what
to make of the apparent indifference to the
station and power of a Roman governor exhibited by the prisoner before him.
And it must have been so. To a mind in
conscious communion with God, what could
there have been in any outward condition
of life? The Apostle says that Jesus humbled




378     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
himself to the death of the cross. He could
have meant only, that he underwent what men
consider a humiliating death. Jesus could have
been sensible of no real humiliation in his crucifixion. It were exaggerating the value of the
external to say that it could hold an important
place in his thoughts. We may term him a
king, or we may term him a servant; he called
himself both, and appeared not to have felt
any essential difference between the two.
Had he ever quailed before the great because they were great, or had he ever avoided them or opposed them on this account,had he ever conferred favors upon the multitude because they were the multitude, or ever failed to upbraid them when they deserved it,-some might have argued that he was
not insensible to outward distinctions among
men, though he had his own way of treating
them. But he allowed them to have no influence upon him at any time or in any manner whatever.  It was not his condescension
to the ignorant and wretched, nor his fearlessness before the rich and great, which bespoke
the exalted tone of his spirit, so much as his
constant, entire neutrality of feeling respecting
all the mere externals of life indiscriminately.
Kindness to the humble is apt to be self-complacent; independence towards the high and
powerful somewhat defiant: a superiority to




NICODEMUS.              379
any considerations either of lowness or loftiness of condition is nobler than either. It is
proof that we are standing on a commanding
eminence, when hill and valley appear upon
a level to our eye.
And as it implies a lofty moral elevation
when we lose sight of all external differences
among men, affecting our regard to their intrinsic claims upon our justice, benevolence,
and courtesy,- so, too, as respects our estimate of the services we render to our brethren: it shows an affinity of our minds with
God himself, when we study the happiness of
those around us in little things as well as in
great,-when we are glad- to give a cup of
cold water, as well as to. bestow some distinguished benefit,-when, in short, we are like
Him who could sympathize with the most
obscure and neglected sufferers, or suffer himself upon the cross. His heart was in a work
whose vast compass embraced the welfare of
the world, — And how     am  I straitened," he
exclaimed, "till it be accomplished!"- yet he
would take journeys to perform  single acts of
benevolence to afflicted individuals. He wanted
not this resemblance to the Almighty Mercy
he professed to represent,-the Mercy on which
a universe depends, and without which not a
sparrow falls to the ground.




CHAPTER XV.
CONVERSATION WITH THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.
JESUS was now preaching not far from the
place where John was baptizing, when John's
disciples informed their master that the fame
of the new teacher was spreading rapidly, and
that the people were all flocking to him. His
reply evinces how little he was actuated by
any personal considerations. "A man can receive nothing," he observes, "except it be given
him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that
I am  sent before him. He must increase, but
I must decrease." We mark the interest he
takes in the fame of Jesus. His own consideration is so much on the wane that his disciples take notice of it.  They tell him  what
a superior interest the public are now exhibiting in another.  So it must be, is his answer,-the answer of a sincere man, who felt
himself to be a forerunner and nothing more.
But to Strauss this answer seems intrinsically
unnatural, and therefore he does not believe




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.         381
it was ever made.   I must entertain a different opinion. Instead of an incongruity, I am
struck with a coincidence in the reply ascribed
to John. The very point of the story is, that
he was a herald of Christ, —so announced from
heaven, personally so felt to be.  The more
sincere his profession of this heraldship, the
less would he dream of any departure from it.
True, it must be trying to a distinguished man
to be cast into the shade. To yield the point
willingly, openly, decidedly, as John did, that
he must decrease and another increase, he
would need to have a full belief that he was
acting only a subordinate part, and never have
looked to anything beyond it. I therefore put
down this incident as one of the moral coincidences of the gospel history.
The rising consideration of Jesus must have
had an effect there and then in more respects
than diminishing the attendance upon John.
The Jewish nation must have caught the report
with eagerness, that the Messiah had appeared.
The spirit of revolt against the Roman power,
from which they expected he would deliver
them, must have begun to draw breath. Fearing, perhaps, some tumultuous movement of this
nature, Jesus withdrew into Galilee. It is impossible for us to know how far Providence
may have adjusted his Galilean connections
with reference to such escapes from the fierce




382        HOURS WITH      THE EVANGELISTS.
and blind enthusiasm of the Jews, as well as
tempering not a little the enthusiasm itself.
Nothing     could    have    been    better   adapted     to
cool their ardor in offering him a crown, and
make them more calm attendants upon his
ministry, besides securing a longer opportunity
for the influence of his example and instructions upon their minds. A Jerusalem Messiah
would have been proclaimed at once. In more
respects, therefore, than one, had Nazareth an
importance in the great drama of the gospel
history. But for Galilee, we know not, humanly speaking, where Christianity would have
been now.
His journey      led  him    through    Samaria.      He
was resting on the well of Jacob near Sychar
in that country, when a woman from the city
came to draw water. He asked her for some
of   it  to   drink.*     She    expressed     surprise:* As a matter of minute coincidence, I may mention that a
recent visitor to Palestine remarks, that, when he was in Samaria,
he put the question to some of the people, whether they had any
intercourse with the Jews. " Only in drinking water together," was
the reply. It might almost seem that this beautiful scene at the
well had made such an impression on both Jews and Samaritans,
that, though they continued their alienation from one another in
all other respects, they made an exception in favor of the act to
which this incident refers. This traveller noticed another circumstance also, which may be considered as an instance of minor harmony with the gospel history. He observed that at their meals
the Samaritans placed three thin loaves before each guest. This
reminds us of the passage in Luke (xi. 5-6):-'"And he said
unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.           383
"How is it," said she, "that thou, being a Jew
askest drink of me, which am a woman of
Samaria?" Jesus replied, that, had she known
who was speaking to her, instead of wondering at his request, she would have asked
of him that living water which he was able
to bestow. After explaining his meaning to
her,-she having supposed     that he   referred
to some mysterious power which he possessed of drawing the water for himself,-he directed her to go and call her husband. She
told him  that she had no husband. "Thou
hast answered truly," he rejoined; "for thou
hast had five husbands, and he whom thou
now hast is not thy husband." Grotius thinks
that she had used the privilege of divorce,
which, by the Mosaic law, belonged to the
husband only, though it was not infrequently
assumed by the wife also. She does not seem
to have entertained any deep sense of her
criminality, however, judging from her eagerness to obtain the mysterious stranger's views
upon a totally different point, namely, which
was the true temple, that at Jerusalem, or
that upon Mount Gerizim. He replied in one
of his most impressive discourses upon the
nature of true worship.
him at midnight and say unto him,'Friend, lend me three loaves;
for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have
nothing to set before him'?"




384     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
"Woman," he said, "believe me, the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in
truth."  This was not said in Jerusalem.   It
was uttered in no conversation with a lawyer
eager to catch and to criticize everything that
fell from his lips. It was not a reply to a
company of supercilious and bigoted Pharisees.
It was no formal proclamation to a multitude.
Jesus is alone, with only a single, humble, individual listener,-besides, perhaps, the one' disciple by whom his words have been preserved to us. In the spontaneous and almost silent
outflow of his soul we catch the utterance,
-There is no worship but the worship within.
What is this splendid temple in Jerusalem,
and what its rival upon Gerizim? Nothing!
The devotion of the affections is the only true
devotion. God is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
This sentiment is addressed to a woman of
Samaria.  Coming from   a Jew, it might have
seemed to her a great concession against the
temple at Jerusalem, and not a little have
gratified her feelings.  But Jesus catered to
no sectarian spirit. If he embraced an opportunity to enlarge her mind with juster views
of worship than she had entertained before, he
would not suffer the occasion to pass without
admonishing her with sufficient plainness of




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.          385
her own schismatic errors and superstitions.
He would not have her think that all this liberality of his was owing to any indifference to
religious institutions. He would not allow her
to depart without the lesson, that, if there was
a worship higher than the Jewish, it was not
that of the Samaritans. He told her that her
countrymen did not know what they worshipped. Their religion was, in truth, of a strangely incongruous character.  It owned the obligations of the Mosaic law, and yet set up a
temple and a priesthood of its own in defiance
of that law. No, he was not saying things
which rose above the sentiments of his countrymen in order to conciliate her. If the worship at Jerusalem was a subject of his animadversion, that on Mount Gerizim was still more
so. Such true distinctions, giving neither intolerance nor schism the advantage, combining
the liberal with the conservative, are the characteristic expression of our Saviour's sentiments
and spirit.
He announces his Messiahship more plainly
to the woman of Samaria than he was in the
habit of doing to the Jews. They could hardly
hear the name, MESSIAH, without a commotion.
They supposed his coming was first of all to
be attended with the successful assertion of their
own national supremacy. The glory of Judea
filled up the measure of their expectations from
VOL. I.           25




386     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
him. They were longing for a political salvation. A moral redemption they cared and they
knew but little about. Not that they absolutely ignored every spiritual feature of the expected kingdom. They would not say but that
a reign of righteousness had been seen afar
from the watch-tower of prophetic vision. But
what they thought of most was a reign of a
far different nature. They doted on the secular symbols and illustrations of the Messianic
empire presented in the pages of the Prophets.
These they Were willing to understand in their
literal sense,-the hosts, the battles, the victories,-and there was everything to be done
to disabuse them of their mistaken views.
Jesus used no reserve in announcing himself to his Samaritan hearer, but informed her
explicitly that he was the Messiah. There was
no danger of any outbreak for Hebrew aggrandizement among her people. Neither was
the Samaritan conception of the Messianic office
so secular as the Jewish. Those more figurative and symbolical Scriptures from which
the Jew derived his fond expectations of a
temporal Saviour, namely, the Psalms and the
Prophets, the Samaritan did not acknowledge
as of any canonical authority. The Pentateuch,
the only part of the Old Testament which
he received, described the Messiah simply as
a prophet,-one of whose principal offices was




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.          387
to teach, or communicate the Divine will. It
is an observable coincidence, therefore, that the
woman of Samaria expresses it as her expectation that the coming Deliverer is to be a
teacher sent from  God:-" When he is come,
he will tell us all things."  In other words,
she refers to the promised Messiah simply in
the character ascribed to him by Moses, in the
Pentateuch, when he said that God would raise
up a prophet like unto himself.
Meanwhile the disciples who went to Sychar
to purchase food returned. They were probably not all the Twelve. John, at least, as we
may suppose, had remained with Jesus at the
well.  Seeing  their Master talking  with the
woman, they marvelled. Far different the light
in which the matter stands to our view at the
present day! We feel its harmony with the
spirit of his religion, and with the nature of
the office he professed to bear.  It accorded
with his own deep sense of the character of
the work in which he was engaged, that not
a single mind should come in his way without
sharing in his spiritual interest. It must have
been so. It is one of the constant facts of
his history, the practical verification he gave
of his commission by the spirit of his own life.
I say it must have been so. The equal benevolence he showed to Samaritan and Jew, the
unaffected moral concern he manifested towards




388     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
persons of every class, regardless of conventional distinctions, could not but have dwelt
within a soul profoundly conscious of a divine
mission for the exaltation of humanity and the
salvation of the world. A leader in a magnificent worldly enterprise would be apt to be
absorbed in some great measure pertinent to
his purpose. He would be on the alert in opposing other systems and vindicating his own.
But suppose one consciously inspired with some
divine truth essential to the present and future
welfare of every human being, and we can
readily believe he would be rather disposed to
be constantly giving utterance to that truth in
all his walks, than to be promulgating his own
plans and expectations on some large scale,that we should behold him eager to impress
every soul with which he came into communication, and leading a life of love in perpetual labors, in simple, secret, sympathetic ways.
Remote developments, the unexplored future,
the great whole of his success, he would be
likely to confide to the hands of his Father
in Heaven,-while he gave himself rather to
the care of individuals as they came in his
path, and labored with a minute, unslumbering watchfulness for their good. So appears Jesus in the gospel histories, -planless, noiseless,
meeting circumstances as they arise,-calmly
sowing the seed of his beautiful and sublime




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.         389
truth, and occasionally accompanying it with
the assurance that it is finally to render fruitful an earth-broad field.  He withdrew  from
crowds. He was seen more frequently in the
villages of Galilee than in Jerusalem. He was
willing to sit upon a well and instruct a Samaritan woman who happened to be there. I
know not how others may regard these facts,
but to me there are few more striking testimonials to the divinity of our religion.
A minute circumstance is introduced here,
concerning which it is to be remarked that
one does not see how it came to be mentioned, unless it actually occurred. It was natural
that the disciples should "marvel that he talked with the woman."     Such a circumstance
would offer itself spontaneously to any writer,
if he were only composing a fictitious relation.  But how  should it be a matter of
course to add,-"Yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?"
One would think, that, if they had wondered
at this occurrence, they would have expressed their surprise rather than concealed it,and so to a fabulist it would naturally have
appeared. The fact as it was, however, was
remembered, and therefore recorded, - so it
would seem.
Amazed at the knowledge he exhibited of
her secret life, the woman hastened back to




390     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
the city to give information of this wonderful
person with whom she had been conversing
On hearing her story, the people flocked out
to see him, and invited him to tarry with
them. He accepted their invitation, and stayed two days. Some who remember that he
subsequently enjoined it upon his disciples not
to enter into any city of the Samaritans may
regard this injunction as inconsistent with his
own compliance with the request of the people of Sychar. But this compliance only shows
how little the prohibition in question was dictated by any unfriendly feelings towards the
Samaritans.  To  accept their hospitalities for
himself was a very different thing from permitting his disciples to go among them without him.   The feud then subsisting between
this people and the Jews would have made
such permission dangerous.
Besides, Jesus plainly intended to restrict his
labors, and those of his Apostles also, during
his own life, within the limits of the Jewish
nation.  We may not know     his reasons, but
one naturally occurs. The Judaic element was
important to his Church at that period, in several respects. Before Christianity had gained an
establishment in the world, it had special occasion for those aids which this element might
afford it. One aid was the remarkable attachment of the Jew to his own Scriptures; and to




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.         391
these Scriptures, especially the Prophecies, Christianity appealed as one of its principal supports. The Old Testament was the classic, the
rubric, the oracle, the glory of the Hebrew.
He counted its very letters. It was to him the
word of God; and let him embrace a religion
as being based upon this foundation, and no
superstition or philosophy would occasion any
peril to his faith. We cannot overlook this reason, why, in that system of moral harmonies
which always characterizes the Divine administration, the Christian seed should have been
sown in a Jewish soil. The gospel was not left
to stand alone on its own simple moral claims,
which the world was so little prepared to appreciate,-no, nor even on its own miraculous
testimonials. But there was a religious culture
in the Jewish mind adapted to yield it a powerful support, such as it could derive from no
other human source. God was pleased to connect the two systems of Judaism and Christianity; and while the one was a schoolmaster
to bring men to Christ, the other was a completion and confirmation of its predecessor.
Will not the enlightened Hebrew be interested in this view? Will he not acknowledge
that the simplicity and grandeur which form
the staple of Old Testament piety are reflected
in the piety of the New, and that the gospel
is not more remote from the Pharisaical prac



392     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
tices and doctrines it condemns than was the
spirit of their own venerable law in the days
of the Decalogue? Was Gamaliel nearer to David than Saint Paul? or were they who would
not suffer a starving man to rub a blade of
wheat on the Sabbath more imbued with the
genius of primitive Hebraism than their own
famed king, who "did eat the shew-bread, when
he was an hungered, and they that were with
him"?  Shall the descendants of Abraham never
admit that the sublime elevation and benevolence of Christianity, as set forth by Jesus
Christ, are the culmination of their own ancestral religion, as exhibited in their own sacred
writings, however it may differ from its traditionary additaments? We have our traditions,
too; and in any religion there would be need
of a miracle to prevent them from sliding in,
in some degree, and substituting the wisdom
of man for the authority of God.
The Jewish convert to Christianity felt an
intensity of interest in his new belief such as
a Jew  only could feel.  Accustomed to look
upon his own nation as the chosen subject of
a divine administration, familiar with special
manifestations in its favor through all his ancestral history, he took up his adopted religion
with a trust and a zeal of which no Gentile
belief was capable, and which were so necessary to bear it triumphantly over the sea of




THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.          3 93
prejudice and persecution upon which it was
then launched. Blessings which ask no assistance from circumstances are of rare occurrence
in our world.
But while I see a specific power in Jewish
conversion, to which circumstances gave a peculiar value in the gospel age, and which will
serve to account for the concentration of Christ's
labors to this result, I can also see how far he
was from lobking to a mere numerical increase
of his followers. The multiplication of Jewish
adherents, at any rate and in any way, was
not his object. He would explain to all his
countrymen the general nature of his mission,
and that in respects quite antagonistic to their
fondest preconceptions.  They flattered  themselves that the coming dispensation would be
principally for their benefit.  Direct contradiction was not his method. He undermined rather than attacked their prejudices.  He made
use of their expressions, but he substituted a
higher and juster class of significations.  He
said to them, that the kingdom   of God was
at hand,-but not, as they said, that it was
to be confined to them.    He constantly impresses us with the thought, how temporarily
in his view the light of the gospel was to be
restricted within the geographical lines of Judea, and how soon the lines themselves were
to be obliterated.




394     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
One minor coincidence may here be noticed
When Philip the Evangelist was in Samaria, it
is stated that he preached the gospel and baptized both men and women. This was after the
death of Jesus, and after the expiration of that
immediate commission which he gave to his disciples, in which he forbade their preaching in
the cities of Samaria or of the Gentiles. Strauss
objects, that the fact here mentioned "is a complete contrast to that of the first admission of
the Gentiles: while in the one there was need
of a vision and a special intimation from the
Spirit to bring Peter into communication with
the Heathens, in the other, Philip, without any
precedent, unhesitatingly baptizes the Samaritans."  I must confess my inability to discover any inconsistency here. The only objection
ever taken to the admission of the Gentiles
had no application to the Samaritans. The objection was, that the Gentiles were uncircumcised. But the Samaritans were particularly
scrupulous in the observance of the ordinance
of circumcision. Thus we perceive why the
primitive Church found no fault with Philip
for baptizing the Samaritan believers, while
they called the Apostle Peter to account for
extending this rite to Gentile converts.
* Life of Jesus, Vol. II. p. 42.




CHAPTER XVI.
CURE OF NOBLEMAN'S SON-OF IMPOTENT MAN.
CHRIST has now returned once more into
Galilee, and is on a second visit to Cana, where
he had performed the miracle at the marriagefeast.  A nobleman of Capernaum, hearing of
his arrival, comes and entreats him to cure his
son, then lying at the point of death.  The
harmony of facts is noticeable.  If Christ had
lately performed a miracle in Cana, it would
have been little short of incredible, that a nobleman of the vicinity, whose son was dangerously ill, should not have received information of his return and come in person to
solicit the exercise of his power in his favor.
Christ spake the word and the child was healed; and what cannot but be observed, the cure
and' the word were simultaneous,-thus showing that the imagination of the patient had
nothing to do with his recovery. The Evangelist does not invite our attention to this fact.
He says nothing of the distance of Cana from
Capernaum. It is wholly our own conclusion,




396     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
that no influence went out from the voice of
the Saviour, operating on the imagination of
the boy. Our Lord seems sometimes, in his
miraculous works, to have studied to repel the
idea of any natural cause being concerned in
them. For example, no natural power could
have operated in raising Lazarus to life, or
the widow's son,-nor in feeding the thousands with a few loaves and fishes,-nor in
converting the water into wine at the marriage-feast,-nor in withering the fig-tree,-nor
in calming the sea by a word.
It was the custom of Jesus to demand faith
in himself from  those who sought his supernatural aid. One design in this may have been
to bring into action a great auxiliary to the
faith itself;-and faith had occasion for every
auxiliary then.  We can but faintly conceive
how  much it had to overcome,-how      many
obstacles stood in the way of believing in an
humble and persecuted Messiah. One way to
assist it was to require it as a condition of
his miraculous favors. A more fixed attention,
a more careful consideration, a more fair and
honest conclusion as to his claims, could not
but have been induced, when the reception
of some much longed-for mercy was dependent on it.   We need not ask    whether the
head can ever be influenced by the heart, or
whether the perception of a truth has any



CURE OF THE NOBLEMAN'S SON.      397
thing to do with the desire to perceive it. The
faith of Jesus was so opposed by the united
forces of pride, power, and wickedness, as to
be entitled to the aid of every measure which
could properly be employed to counteract them.
If fear, on the one hand, was closing the minds
of multitudes to the proofs of his Messiahship,
it was plainly reasonable that hope, on the
other, should apply a force in the opposite direction. Still, he did not always demand faith
from those who were brought to him to be
healed.  "They come unto him    bringing one
sick of the palsy. When Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy,'Son, thy
sins be forgiven thee. Arise, and take up thy
bed, and go thy way into thine house."' Here
we see not the faith of the patient, but of his
friends.  Sometimes he required no faith from
any one, and no faith was expressed by any
one. They were cases in which neither they
who needed his miraculous aid, nor their friends,
had enjoyed any opportunity of becoming acquainted with him or his supernatural powers.
Thus, he must have been a stranger to the
woman whose son he restored to life, when, as
he was journeying, he happened to meet the
funeral procession.  Here he made no demand
of faith from the disconsolate mother.
Nor did he require faith in himself as a condition of his miraculous cures alone. "He that




398     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
believeth on me," he remarked, "the works
that I do shall he do also." Whatever his
disciples asked of God they were to ask in
his name. Without him, they were to feel
they could do nothing. It is easily seen how
closely this must have united them to him,
closely as the branches to the vine,-how it
must have led them to feel the importance of
looking to him on all occasions, and of keeping
ever in mind the proofs that he gave them of
his authority and power. We can imagine nothing more adapted to quicken their faith in the
divinity of their own mission. Every disappointment they experienced in their labors must
have awakened them to an earnest review of
the grounds of their belief; and every new
success they must have felt as an added motive for confidence in their Lord, and in the
glorious destiny of the cause in which they
were embarked.
Jesus returned from Galilee to the Jewish
metropolis to attend the feast of Pentecost.
Here he performed a cure, the circumstances
of which are thus related:
"Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheepmarket, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew
tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these
lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
halt, withered, [waiting for the moving of the




CURE OF THE IMPOTENT MAN.       399
water. For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool and troubled the water;
whosoever then first, after the troubling of the
water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.]  And a certain man
was there, which had an infirmity thirty and
eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and
knew that he had been now a long time in
that case, he saith unto him,'Wilt thou be
made whole?'   The impotent man answered
him,'Sir, I have no man, when the water
is troubled, to put me into the pool; but,
while I am coming, another steppeth down
before me.' Jesus saith unto him,'Rise, take
up thy bed, and walk.' And immediately the
man was made whole, and took up his bed,
and walked. And on the same day was the
Sabbath."
Many eminent commentators regard that part
of the account which is inclosed in brackets
as an interpolation, and as not improbably a
tradition, which some Christian Father of note
saw fit to write upon the margin of his manuscript, from which it afterwards found its way
into the text. The pool, it is likely, was a
medicinal spring, whose   sanative  properties
were thought to be increased by agitation.
The angel might have been a person sent for
this purpose, as the original word is often
used in the sense of servant or messenger.




400     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
The impotent man, who had found no one
to assist him in descending into the pool, attracted the notice of Jesus, who followed his
miraculous cure of him with the admonition,
"Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto
thee." This significant warning implies nothing
favorable as to the past life and character of
the man, and suggests a little matter of coincidence, which may be thought not undeserving of notice. I mistrust that he was better
known than was for his advantage, considering
what a want of sympathy he experienced from
the people at the pool,-to say nothing of
the fact that he turned informer against his
benefactor, apparently in a voluntary and very
forward manner.
We see a benevolence in Jesus which compassionated the most guilty, and sought to recover them to the paths of virtue. There was
nothing like selection in the objects of his beneficence. He was prompt to meet every suffering and every want that came in his way.
And no favoring circumstances were consulted
in the exercise of his extraordinary powers.
He performed his wonderful cures indiscriminately, without any attention to circumstances.
He left them to be sifted in every imaginable mode. Any one might see them for himself, and speak about them for himself. Ample
rewards from the scribes and rulers, it may be




CURE OF THE IMPOTENT MAN.        401
presumed, awaited all who had doubts to express as to their reality, or who could be tempted to become the tools of those who wished
to excite doubts; but, if we may trust the
most artless of histories, none were ever expressed.  Among all the accusations brought
against their Author, as not being of God, and
the like, there never was any charge of deception with regard to them. He was denounced
for performing miracles on the Sabbath, -but
the truth of the miracles themselves was never
disputed.
It seems strange that cunning and malice
should have found no more to say against these
marvellous works which were carrying everything before them with the people, than that
they were performed out of time or out of
place. Out of time and out of place, it is true,
meant a great deal with the Pharisees.     It
seems incredible that they should condemn an
acknowledged miracle merely because it was
wrought on a particular day. But when we
see how absurd their usages were, we shall
cease to wonder at anything of this nature,
however preposterous. The following are specimens of these absurdities:
It was unlawful, they said, to put water into
a vessel set to catch the sparks from a lamp
on the Sabbath-day,-lest there should be, as
I suppose, an act of extinguishing; or to take
VOL. I.           26




402     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
up a weight from a cask,- though the cask
might be inclined so that the weight would fall
off of itself; or to grind a knife,-though one
knife might be sharpened against another; or
to take fish from  a pond,- though a bird
might be taken from a cage; or to draw a
vehicle on the ground, if it were heavy enough
to make a furrow,-regarding this, perhaps,
as a kind of ploughing; or for one suffering
from toothache to wash his mouth with vinegar,-though he might dip a piece of meat
into vinegar and take it into his mouth; or
to tie camels together and lead them out to
water,-though he might lead them    by different ropes, provided the ropes did not get
twisted.*
To bring matters to any point of common
sense with such persons, the truth must be
strongly put. And this Jesus did. In a long
and powerful discourse held with the Pharisees,-recorded in the fifth chapter of John,he begins by speaking of his own union with
God.    My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." The law of Moses had been appealed
to on their part as requiring a stricter observance of the Sabbath than he, as they pretended, had practised. He replied, that he came on
a mission from God. And I shall do good to
all,-he says,-as occasions may arise, whether
* Mischna.




CURE OF THE IMPOTENT MAN.       403
upon the Sabbath or any other day, even as
He doth who hath sent me.-He notices, in
the first place, an exception which the Pharisees had taken to his use of the expression,
"My Father." They accused him of making
himself equal with God.   He replies,-" The
Son can do nothing of himself, but what he
seeth the Father do." He goes on to enlarge
upon the declaration that he exercised only
a delegated power, observing, that his Father
had committed all judgment unto him, had
given him to have life in himself, and so forth,
-and then adduces the proofs of that delegation.
He first alludes to the testimony which had
been borne to him   by the Baptist,-reminding them of the embassy they once sent to
John, and of the answer they received from
him.
But he adds, that he has greater testimony
than this. "The works," said he, "which the
Father hath given me to finish, the same works
that I do, bear witness of me." Here he presents the argument from miracles.
Again,-"The Father himself, which hath sent
me, hath borne witness of me," -referring to
that direct and miraculous testimony proclaimed from heaven,-" This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased."
Finally, he appeals to the testimony of their




404     HOURS WITH THE EVANGELISTS.
sacred writings:-"Search the Scriptures; for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me." Here he introduces the prophetic proof of his Messiahship,
with special allusion to the remarkable prediction of Moses:-" Had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me; for he wrote of me."
He had in view, no doubt, these memorable
words of the Jewish lawgiver:-" The Lord
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like
unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken."
One divine signature which attended him he
does not mention,-that exhibited in his own
life. He dwells upon the external argument
altogether.  The argument from  his personal
character he seems to have thought scarcely
adapted to that period; and it is difficult to
believe that it would have been appreciated
by those who were capable of pronouncing it
a crime to heal a man on the Sabbath-day.
In this discourse occurs that remarkable declaration of which Paley has said, that, had Jesus uttered no other, he had enunciated a
truth well worthy of that splendid apparatus
of prophecy and miracle with which his mission was introduced and attested. The declaration is this:-" The hour is coming in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice and shall come forth,-they that have




CURE OF THE IMPOTENT MAN.        405
done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection
of condemnation."
After the miracle at the Pool of Be'thesda, Jesus retired into Galilee. This he did to avoid
the fury of the Jews, who were determined to
put him to death for breaking the Sabbath,or rather, for exposing the wickedness of their
priests and rulers, and for disturbing the false
hopes they entertained of a temporal Messiah.
END OF VOL. I.