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 THE FULNESS OF TIME
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW 
 ilublialwre to tht Gnibmttg. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. 
 New York, The Macntillan Co. 
 London, Simfkin, Hamilton and Co. 
 Cambridge, - Macmillan and Bowes. 
 Edinburgh, Douglas and Faults. 
 Sydney, 'Angus and Robert ton.
 
 THE 
 
 JFULNESS OF TIME 
 
 AND OTHER STUDIES 
 IN THEOLOGy: 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. JOSEPH CONN, B.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF TILLICOULTRY 
 
 GLASGOW 
 JAMES MACLEHOSE & SONS 
 
 publishers to tbe University 
 
 1903 ^ 
 DP '
 
 GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. ^ "~-v^ PAGE 
 
 I. THE (^ERSONALITY OF Gom - i 
 
 II. THEWORLIJAND THE LlFE OF MAN: HOW THE OLD 
 
 TESTAMENT WRITERS LOOKED AT THEM, - - 17 
 
 IIIj FAITH) IN GOD: AT THE ROOT OF JEWISH HOPES 
 
 AND EXPECTATIONS, 26 
 
 IV. THECpULNESS OF TlM^ 38 
 
 V. THE IMPRESSION MADE BY (CHRIST) ON THOSE WHO 
 
 HAD EYES TO SEE, 59 
 
 VI. CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS, - - - - 71 
 
 Vll. THE ATTITUDE OF THE ENLIGHTENED GREEKS 
 
 TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY, 87 
 
 /~* ~"~^*>^ -> 
 VIII. THE INCARNATIONS THE POSSIBILITY OF IT, AND 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR IT, 102 
 
 IX. CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE NATURE AND THE 
 
 NEEDS OF MAN, 117 
 
 X. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH, - - 136 
 
 XI. WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?} 156 
 
 XII. A NEW EARTH WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, 184 
 
 XIII. THE COMPLETION OF THE; KINGDOM OF GOD) - - 200
 
 " In necessariis unitas, indubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas." 
 RUPERT SELDEN. 
 
 "The world, after all, is a fact: sun, moon, and stars are 
 real ; men and women live and love ; the moral law is strong ; 
 in a word, the universe exists, and some positive account of it 
 must needs be true ; it can never be finally explained by a 
 negation."). R. ILLINGWORTH. 
 
 ' ' We must think of Christianity as essentially related to the 
 antecedent course of man's spiritual life, and related to it in a 
 way which man's rational spiritual life by its very nature 
 involves. But the connection of Christianity with the past 
 which we here assert is a connection which at the same time 
 involves the annulling and transmuting of the past by a new 
 creative spiritual force." PRINCIPAL CAIRO. 
 
 " But when The Fulness of Time was come, God sent forth 
 his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
 them that were under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of Sons." GAL. iv. 4, 5.
 
 I. 
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want (Ps. xxiii. i). 
 
 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that 
 fear him (Ps. ciii. 13). 
 
 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from 
 thy presence (Ps. cxxxix. 7). 
 
 THE distinguishing characteristic of the Religion 
 of the Israelites is well known to every reader 
 of the Old Testament. While the nations that 
 surrounded them were given up to Polytheism and 
 Idolatry, the Israelites believed in one only living 
 and true God : Creator and director of all things : 
 One who, though transcending, was yet immanent 
 in the world : a Personal and Ethical Being who 
 stood in moral relationship with man. 
 
 How exalted this belief appears to be when it is 
 compared with the beliefs that prevailed in those 
 early times ! And how true it seems when con- 
 trasted with some of the most modern interpretations 
 of our religious impressions ! 
 
 Does a man believe in more Gods than one? 
 Then his belief is in direct conflict with that faith in 
 the unity of nature which every increase in scientific 
 knowledge helps to strengthen. 
 
 A
 
 2 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 Does any one assert that the universe is simply a 
 gigantic piece of mechanism constructed and set 
 agoing by one who has vanished from the scene 
 of his labours and has gone we know not whither ? 
 Such a belief will, of course, destroy religion, but it 
 will do more. It will put an end to all ethics, to 
 all our ideals, and to all our efforts to realise them. 
 "It will reduce" says Mr. B. F. C. Costelloe 
 " consciousness to a mockery, spirituality to a dream, 
 and love to a chemical attraction : and after all it 
 will have explained nothing, but have rendered 
 everything insoluble." 
 
 Does a man believe in an Impersonal God, "a 
 stream of tendency which makes for righteousness"? 
 Then the question arises, How can you have righteous- 
 ness without right thinking and conscientious doing ? 
 And how can you have these apart from a Person ? 
 Moreover, a belief of this kind is likely to carry a 
 man further than he may be inclined to go. A stream 
 must flow in its appointed channel, and it cannot rise 
 higher than the source from which it comes. A 
 stream must have its origin in the hills of God, 
 and find its replenishment in the rains that fall from 
 heaven. 
 
 Does a man believe that this divinely fair and 
 cunningly ordered universe owes its origin to accident 
 and its government to chance ? Then he believes in 
 a miracle infinitely greater than any recorded in the 
 word of God. " Was there " asks Lord Kelvin 
 " anything so absurd as to believe that a number of 
 atoms by falling together of their own accord, could 
 make a sprig of moss, a microbe, a living animal? 
 People thought that given millions of years these
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 3 
 
 might come to pass, but they could not think that a 
 million of millions of millions of years could give 
 them unaided a beautiful world like ours. . . . 
 Forty years ago I asked Liebig, walking somewhere 
 in the country, if he believed that the grass and 
 flowers which we saw around us grew by mere 
 chemical forces ? He answered, No ; no more than 
 I could believe that a book of botany describing 
 them could grow by mere chemical forces." 
 
 Some scientific men, it is true, do not like to 
 be asked to take their choice in what seems an 
 inevitable alternative belief in a creative and direc- 
 tive Power, or belief in a fortuitous concourse of 
 atoms. They prefer to think of the world as gra- 
 dually evolved by eternal laws out of primeval atoms, 
 elements, matter. But evolution, we must carefully 
 remember, is not, of necessity, such a godless creed 
 as many have imagined it to be. 
 f" When the famous French mathematician Laplace 
 went to Napoleon to beg him to accept a copy of 
 his great work, the Mecanique Celeste, Napoleon said 
 to him, " Mons. Laplace, they tell me you have written 
 this large book on the system of the universe and 
 have never even mentioned its Creator." Laplace, 
 though time-serving as a politician, was as conscien- 
 tious as a martyr in reference to his philosophy, 
 and drawing himself up he bluntly replied, " I had no 
 need of that hypothesis." Napoleon, greatly amused, 
 related the incident to the celebrated mathematician 
 Lagrange, who exclaimed, " Ah, that is a beautiful 
 hypothesis ; it explains so many things." How 
 different Laplace's conduct was from that of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, who closed the third book of his Principia
 
 4 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 with a noble passage of ascription to " the Most 
 High God, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Omnipotent, 
 and Omniscient, who ruleth all things not as a mere 
 spirit of the Universe, but as the Lord and Master 
 of all, whose name is the Lord God Almighty.'^/ 
 
 There was an excuse for Laplace. He dealt with 
 the universe as a mathematical problem in dynamics. 
 To him the universe was a machine, and the things 
 he had to discuss were blind forces which could be 
 measured, and dead matter with the characteristics of 
 mass, weight, rigidity. But how different all things 
 are to the modern evolutionist ! Matter to him is 
 not dead and unproductive, but possessed of " the 
 promise and the potency" of all things. Atoms to 
 him are not lifeless but animated, endowed with the 
 properties of attraction and repulsion, and possessed 
 of such a resemblance to life, feeling, thought, that 
 pleasure and pain and love and hate may almost be 
 predicated of them. To him chemical elements are 
 no longer simple elements, but resolvable into simpler 
 forms of matter, which in turn may be refined away 
 altogether into ethereal vibrations or electrical energy; 
 so that atoms of matter have come to "ue thought of 
 by some as concentrated portions of electricity. To 
 the man of science in our day there is no such thing 
 as empty space. To him the whole of space, so far 
 as it is not occupied by ponderable matter, is filled 
 with a continuous ultra-gaseous substance called 
 ether a substance which is so light and subtle that 
 it cannot be weighed, if indeed it has any weight a 
 substance which is for ever in motion, and to whose 
 vibrations we are indebted for light, radiant heat, 
 magnetism and electricity.
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 5 
 
 The man who goes to the root of things, therefore, 
 if he has eyes to see, may well find himself at every 
 step face to face not merely with a creative, but also 
 with an indwelling and directive Power: for how can 
 " purposive contrivance " be produced by purely 
 mechanical processes without design ? We are not 
 surprised, therefore, when we discover that even such 
 a man as Haeckel sees God everywhere and recog- 
 nises the Divine Spirit in all things, and is able to 
 quote with approval the words of Giordano Bruno, 
 " There is one spirit in all things, and no body is so 
 small that it does not contain a part of the divine 
 substance whereby it is animated." 
 
 And so the advance of science does not necessarily 
 tend to banish God from the Universe. On the con- 
 trary it enables us to emphasise more strongly than 
 we have hitherto done the great fact of the divine 
 Immanence, for it reveals God as a permanent 
 resident in the world, and not as a mere occasional 
 visitor coming now and again to supplement or 
 amend His original creation by external and arbitrary 
 interferences. If law implies Lawmaker, and if " the 
 reign of law " be regarded as another name for the 
 abiding Presence of a great sustaining and directing 
 Power, it is difficult for us to find fault with Dr. 
 Strong, Dean of Christ Church, when he defines 
 evolution as " an organic teleological process, a 
 process guided by rational purpose at every step, 
 determined in every detail by the consciousness of 
 an end in view." If all things are for ever changing, 
 if the world is only in the process of being made, if 
 the universe is only becoming what it will one day 
 be, then the question arises, what is the nature of the
 
 6 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 change that is thus taking place? If it is not a 
 mere drift or aimless clash of elements producing 
 chance products to be devoured by chaos, but an 
 evolution or process evolving higher and higher 
 forms, then there is order underlying the change, and 
 purpose behind the order with a guiding hand direct- 
 ing things towards the predestined end. 
 f To some men in our day the existence of God 
 would almost seem to be a luminous self-evident 
 fact. They need no argument to convince them, for 
 their spiritual vision is such that they can say : 
 
 " Where'er I look abroad, 
 I see the living form and face of God." 
 
 To others, God is a spiritual experience an ex- 
 perience which, they think, can only be theirs because 
 God makes His presence felt in their souls. God is 
 immanent, they say, in man's rational, moral, and 
 spiritual nature, and influences that side of our nature 
 where the finite being blends with the Universal 
 Being : and so our best knowledge of God is an 
 immediate consciousness of God. " The feeling of 
 God within us is, for us at least who feel, the certified 
 fact that God is." , 
 
 But man is essentially a rational being, and it is 
 only by slow and laboured steps that many men rise 
 from the seen to the unseen, from nature up to 
 nature's God. Nevertheless, by men and women of 
 this kind, if they are earnest in their search, there are 
 always to be found in reason and in the nature of 
 things sure grounds for the belief in God as a 
 personal and moral Being. 
 
 The ever-changing phenomena in a universe, which 
 nevertheless does not pass away, constrain us to
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 7 
 
 think of and believe in an unchanging reality which 
 underlies all things. The power, the life, the 
 fruitfulness of nature seem to speak of an abiding 
 presence immanent in nature. Matter never comes 
 before us as matter and nothing else. When we 
 look at matter it is clearly seen to be matter in 
 motion, and so impelled by some power : or matter 
 at rest, and so acted upon by equal and opposing 
 forces : or matter animated by life and characterised 
 by growth, as we have it in plants and trees : or 
 matter remarkable for its form and colour, and thus 
 distinguished for its beauty like the flower : or 
 matter endowed with sensation, as we have it in the 
 animal : or matter inhabited by mind and guided 
 and directed by reason and conscience, as we have 
 it in man. 
 
 And so the material universe inevitably leads us 
 beyond itself to the Power the Presence which is 
 within, behind, and above nature. 
 
 " Yes, write it in the rock Saint Bernard said 
 Grave it on brass with adamantine pen : 
 'Tis God Himself becomes apparent, when 
 God's wisdom and God's goodness are display^, 
 For God of these His attributes is made." 
 
 And when reasoning from the works of God to Him 
 whose works they are, we must not forget that man 
 is part of the universe whose existence has to be 
 accounted for. Man is the flower and crown of 
 creation, but he belongs to it. And when we dream 
 of explaining the universe by a fortuitous concourse 
 of atoms, we must think of man with his reason, 
 conscience, free-will ; with his sympathies, affections, 
 unselfish acts, self-denying deeds ; with his efforts
 
 8 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 for the welfare and his struggles for the existence of 
 others. 
 
 If all things owe their existence to the blind 
 operation of mechanical laws how are we to 
 account for the free acts of man ? We may, of 
 course, say that human freedom is not so unqualified 
 a thing as many imagine it to be. But we know that 
 man is responsible only to the extent to which he is 
 free, and we all feel that there is much, very much 
 indeed, in our lives for which we are responsible. 
 And so every action of human free will is a miracle 
 to physical and chemical and mathematical science. 
 
 And how are we to account for the " moral 
 imperative" as it is felt by the human conscience? 
 The " I ought " that is for ever welling up from the 
 depths of our being is a strange fact. It speaks to 
 us not in the way of information, but commandment. 
 It tells us that we are under the obligation of a 
 moral law which we did not make, but which we 
 must obey a moral law which we are constrained 
 to think of as emanating from a personal author. 
 And so it introduces us to another mind, before 
 which we bow in instinctive homage a mind stored 
 with the same moral order as our own, if not indeed 
 the source of that order in ourselves. The power 
 which made the world and all things has bestowed 
 on man that moral consciousness which condemns 
 what is evil, approves what is good, and urges us 
 on in the path of purity and holiness. And so this 
 moral consciousness in man is it not a suggestion 
 of moral consciousness without? a proof in fact that 
 God is a moral Being? for man's moral consciousness 
 is God's voice in man.
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 9 
 
 When we think of these things after this fashion, 
 we can with calmness and confidence turn our faces 
 backward towards the beginning of the universe, and 
 ask ourselves the questions, Is Spirit self-existent and 
 eternal ? or Is it a function of matter ? Is matter 
 self-existent and eternal ? or Has matter been brought 
 into existence by Spirit ? 
 
 In the human personality in which alone we can 
 find an analogy imperfect and inadequate doubt- 
 less to the Divine Personality, spirit and matter are 
 always found together. And spirit is here so closely 
 connected with matter, and apparently so dependent 
 upon it, that it is difficult for us to think of the 
 spirit of man as existing apart from the material 
 body. But whatever may be the origin of the spirit 
 in man, and however unimportant it may seem to be 
 when we are in infancy, there can be no doubt that 
 the spirit gradually asserts itself, until it occupies a 
 position that is significant in the extreme. The 
 matter of our bodies is for ever changing, but our 
 spirit remains one and the same, and throughout the 
 whole of its experience it is conscious of its identity. 
 Our bodies are acted upon and shaped by what is 
 external to them, but our spirits determine themselves 
 from within, and without compulsion elect what they 
 are going to do and what they are going to be. It 
 is the spirit that thinks, wills, loves, distinguishes 
 between good and evil, chooses its own end. And 
 the transcendent importance of our spiritual nature is 
 even more clearly seen when we notice that while 
 spirit can be of no use to matter, matter is of " inces- 
 sant and inevitable use to spirit." Except when we 
 are asleep, the spirit never ceases to use the eyes,
 
 10 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 the ears, the mouth, the hands, or the feet. So 
 thoroughly indeed in every way does the uncon- 
 scious matter of our bodies not to speak of the 
 matter that is outside us serve the purposes and 
 minister to the needs of our self-conscious, self- 
 determined spirits, that it is difficult for us to keep 
 from believing that it exists to serve the purposes of 
 spirit. 
 
 It may not be easy for us to think of spirit as 
 existing and acting without matter : but it is im- 
 possible for us to think of matter as existing and 
 acting without spirit. It may be difficult to think 
 of matter as owing its existence to spirit, but it is 
 impossible for us to think of spirit as an evolution 
 from matter. For evolution does not create. It 
 can only bring forth as a result what has been in 
 some way present in the process. A process of 
 evolution, therefore, which ends in spirit must have 
 had spirit in it from the beginning. 
 
 When we think of God as the great first cause 
 of all things, we do not require to think of Him as 
 existing by Himself for an eternity before resolving 
 to create the world. Neither do we require to 
 restrict His creative functions to a single act to 
 imagine Him creating the substance of the world 
 in a moment, endowing it with the faculty of the 
 most extensive evolution, and then troubling Him- 
 self no further about it. 
 
 Doubtless it is difficult for us to picture to our- 
 selves how the eternal purpose did actually realise 
 itself in time. But the difficulty seems to be 
 lessened when we think of God not as mere arbi- 
 trary power, but as intelligence, love, wisdom, holi-
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 11 
 
 ness ; not as a mere abstract self-identical unity, 
 but as a self-revealing spirit whose very nature 
 makes it necessary for Him to reveal Himself in 
 order to realise the glory and blessedness which 
 are possible for Him. When we think of God after 
 this fashion it is not unreasonable to expect that 
 He should eternally manifest His inner nature in 
 " an infinite cosmos of inter-related physical and 
 psychical agencies." 
 
 Modern science knows nothing of a beginning. 
 As to the origin of matter and life it can, apart 
 from inference and speculation, neither affirm nor 
 deny creative power. 
 
 All things in this world are for ever changing: 
 but most scientific men in these days believe in 
 what has been called the law of substance, which 
 embraces the chemical law of the conservation of 
 matter as well as the physical law of the conserva- 
 tion of energy. The law of the conservation of 
 energy asserts that the sum of force which is at 
 work in infinite space is unchangeable, however 
 many transformations its constituent parts may 
 undergo. The law of the persistence or indestructi- 
 bility of matter declares that the sum of matter 
 which fills infinite space is ever the same, however 
 much its component parts may change their shape 
 or nature. 
 
 But even the most thorough-going believers in 
 the conservation of matter and energy may not be 
 so far removed as they imagine from a legitimate 
 Christian belief on the subject of the origin of 
 things, for according to this law a body has merely 
 changed its form when it seems to have disappeared,
 
 12 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 and it is merely a question of change of form in 
 cases where a new body seems to have been pro- 
 duced. But all scientific men admit that the 
 physical universe as it now exists is greatly different 
 from what it must have been in the dim and distant 
 past, while the great majority of them maintain that 
 the matter of the universe, which is now so solid, 
 is likely to have been, at successive periods as we 
 go backward, in a state which we may justly charac- 
 terise as viscous, fluid, gaseous, etheric, and so 
 practically invisible to such eyes as ours. There is 
 nothing, therefore, absurd in the belief that the 
 visible universe in which God now dwells, and 
 through which He reveals Himself unto the children 
 of men, may have been at one time the invisible 
 vesture of the Great Unseen. And when scientific 
 belief maintains that the visible universe came forth 
 from the unseen, it is not out of harmony with 
 Christian faith, which understands ' that the worlds 
 were made by the word of God : so that things 
 which are seen were not made of things which do 
 appear.' Moreover, when scientific men declare that 
 the universe, which began in time, may in time 
 come to an end, they are in accord with St. Paul 
 and St. Peter, who say : ' The things which are 
 seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
 seen are eternal.' ' The heavens shall pass away 
 with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are 
 therein, shall be burned up.' 
 
 With regard to the beginning of the universe, 
 of which we can know so little, one remark may 
 safely be made.
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 13 
 
 If the present visible universe came forth from 
 the invisible if the unseen universe gave birth to 
 the seen then the force which brought about the 
 change must have had its origin in will force, which 
 is the product of mind ; for, so far as we know 
 anything on the subject, it is spirit alone that is 
 self-determined and able to originate change without 
 compulsion from without. 
 
 Whatever else the universe is, it is a universe of 
 changes ; of effects produced by causes which are 
 themselves effects. And if we are not to go back- 
 ward for ever from physical cause to physical cause, 
 we must come at last to spirit : for physical causes 
 are not in the true sense causes at all. They are 
 simply the antecedents or conditions which transmit 
 causation which they themselves cannot originate. 
 It is spirit alone that is self-conscious and self- 
 determined, and able out of its own inner nature 
 to originate change. Spirit must, therefore, have 
 existed before the time when that process of 
 development was set agoing which has resulted 
 in our present physical universe. Before any 
 given point of time, before the happening of 
 any event or change, God was, God must have 
 been. When we remember this, we see how self- 
 evidently truthful is the great assertion made in 
 the opening words of Genesis, ' In the beginning 
 God created the heaven and the earth.' 
 
 The relation of the Divine Personality to the 
 human is an extremely interesting but profoundly 
 difficult subject. In every act of conscience we 
 distinguish between what is and what ought to 
 be, between the promptings of our inclinations and
 
 14 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 passions and the voice of the moral consciousness 
 which seems to be of us, but which we recognise 
 to be over us, and which, somehow or other, we 
 are constrained to think of as the voice of God 
 within us. In this way the finite self awakes to 
 find over against its own self " an infinite self 
 making its presence felt by waves of emotion, new 
 and most wonderful." The human soul is neither 
 self-derived nor self-subsisting, but, however depend- 
 ent upon God we may feel ourselves to be, we 
 are never so carried away by the thought, " God 
 is all," that we are unable to distinguish between 
 ourselves and Him who is all in all. Our power 
 to resist the moral order of the universe, the 
 existence of sin and our sense of responsibility, 
 remind us that we have an individuality and a 
 freedom which are not illusory, and that the human 
 spirit cannot be regarded as " a mere mode of the 
 universal spirit." 
 
 The human personality is a unity, not simple 
 and undifferentiated, however, but highly complex, 
 made up of many parts, faculties, functions which 
 act and react on each other and which are necessary 
 to the existence of each other and of the whole. 
 
 May it not, indeed, be asserted that every person 
 is a trinity in unity ? Are not body, soul, and 
 spirit a trinity in unity ? Does not a man think 
 and feel and will with three different sides of his 
 one nature ? We are all well-acquainted with the 
 conscious self, but have we not discovered in these 
 later days the importance of the sub-conscious self, 
 and are we not greatly interested in the mutual 
 relations of these two parts of our personality ?
 
 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 15 
 
 " A person," says Mr. Illingworth, " is a subject 
 who can become an object to himself, and the 
 relation of these two terms is necessarily a third 
 term. I cannot think or desire or will without an 
 object which is either simply myself or something 
 associated with myself or dissociated from myself 
 considered as an object, in either case involving 
 my objectivity to myself. . . . And I cannot think 
 of the world I live in without thinking of it 
 negatively as outside me, or positively as including 
 me, in either case related to myself." 
 
 And how can an individual realise his personality 
 apart from association with others ? Separated 
 from others wholly and from the first, our moral 
 as well as our intellectual capacities would be 
 undeveloped, and we would remain strangers to 
 those deeds of love and self-sacrifice which enable 
 us to emerge from the narrow and dead life of 
 self-centred individuality, and to become partakers 
 in a wider and fuller life which ennobles and en- 
 riches. But is not the first stage in our association 
 with others to be found in the family which is 
 the unit of society ? And does not the family 
 imply the existence of father, mother, child ? And 
 is it not, therefore, a trinity in unity ? After 
 the same fashion, Is it not impossible for us to 
 think of God as a self-identical unity who is 
 shut up for ever in blank potentiality of Being ? 
 God is love, we say. But love is social in its 
 character, and where could God's love from the 
 first find satisfaction save within the unity of the 
 Godhead ? And how could God's greatness be 
 realised and His blessedness perfected apart from
 
 16 THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 the wonderful visible universe which reflects His 
 glory, and the children of men who were made 
 in His image and whose very fall has been the 
 occasion for a signal manifestation of the Divine 
 compassion and mercy? 
 
 When we think of these things after this manner 
 we become less inclined than, perhaps, formerly we 
 were to find fault with the Christian doctrine with 
 regard to God that doctrine which represents God 
 not as a self-identical unity, but as a self-revealing 
 Spirit ; a Trinity in unity who, in perfect love, and 
 for the realisation of their glory and blessedness, 
 go forth from out themselves " to create, to sustain, 
 to redeem, to sanctify, to bless."
 
 II. 
 
 THE WORLD AND THE LIFE OF MAN : 
 HOW THE OLD TESTAMENT WRITERS 
 LOOKED AT THEM. 
 
 The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In 
 his hand are the deep places of the earth : the strength of hills is 
 his also. ... O come, let us worship and bow down : let us 
 kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God ; and we are 
 the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand (Psalm xcv. 3). 
 
 " CONDUCT," says Matthew Arnold, " is three- 
 fourths of life." With at least equal truth it is 
 possible for us to assert that the standpoint from 
 which the Old Testament writers looked at things 
 was three-fourths of their inspiration. 
 
 The best and clearest thinkers in Israel were as 
 far as possible from being materialists or poly- 
 theists. They were convinced that matter was 
 neither the only nor the most important thing 
 in the universe. Behind matter and force they 
 discovered a mysterious agency a Presence a 
 Person of whose existence they were as sure as 
 they could be of anything that is to be seen by 
 the outward eye. In short, they perceived and 
 realised the existence and character of the one 
 
 B
 
 1 8 THE WORLD AND MAN. 
 
 only living and true God in a way that was 
 quite unique. 
 
 And their exalted thoughts about God naturally 
 determined their method of looking at the world 
 and at the life of man. They never dreamt of a 
 religion without God, or of a philosophy of 
 human life which did not take into account the 
 universe that is around us, and of which we form 
 a part the God who has created all things, and 
 in whom we live and move and have our being. 
 
 " Know well thyself, presume not God to scan, 
 The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 The wisest and best Israelites would have rejected 
 the pre-supposition that underlies such words as 
 these, for to them God was knowable and, to a 
 certain extent at least, known, and they clearly 
 perceived that we could not know ourselves well 
 and truly without knowing something at least 
 about the universe and the Creator of it the 
 Eternal not-ourselves that makes for righteous- 
 ness. And so they thought of all things in their 
 relation to God. ' In the beginning God ' these 
 opening words of Genesis give us the key-note 
 not merely to the story of creation, but also to 
 the whole of the Bible. 
 
 Moreover, in consequence of their clear vision 
 of God the sacred writers are always on the out- 
 look for, and they are better able than others are 
 to recognise, indications of God's presence in the 
 world of men. They saw God's hand in the rise 
 and fall of nations, and history was to them the 
 unfolding of His purpose.
 
 THE WORLD AND MAN. 19 
 
 The Bible, consequently, was not meant to give 
 us facts of history merely. Even the historical 
 portions were not written solely with the intention 
 of relating to the Jewish people the important 
 incidents and events in their national history. 
 They were written that all of us might know 
 something of the way in which God deals on the 
 whole with nations, and with individual men and 
 women in this world. 
 
 And the prophetical Books of Scripture have a 
 moral and spiritual meaning and purpose which can- 
 not be overlooked. It is a mistake to think of pro- 
 phecy as history written beforehand, or to believe that 
 the Prophets were merely foretellers of future events. 
 The Prophets were profoundly interested in the 
 secular welfare of their people, and their counsels 
 and warnings were founded on a true knowledge 
 of what was taking place around them, and on a 
 right understanding of the natural tendency or 
 drift of affairs. But they were, above all things, 
 preachers of moral and religious truth. Owing to 
 their clear spiritual vision they could penetrate 
 more deeply beneath the surface and could see 
 more clearly than others into the heart of things ; 
 and so they could interpret more truly than others 
 what God was doing and commanding in their 
 own age, and they were better able than others 
 to foretell what, in judgment and redemptive mercy, 
 God meant to do and must do in the divine 
 event. 
 
 And this reminds us of the fact that the Books of 
 Scripture were written with a special purpose as well 
 as from a special point of view. From first to last
 
 20 THE WORLD AND MAN. 
 
 their constant purpose is that of leading men to God, 
 whose nature and character they ever more and 
 more clearly reveal. 
 
 No writers see so clearly or realise so keenly the 
 great, the awful difference between right and wrong, 
 good and evil, righteousness and sin. They have an 
 enthusiasm for righteousness, for in their eyes it is 
 the doing of that which is pleasing in the sight of 
 Him whose name is Holy, whose power is irresistible, 
 and who is for ever blessing those who fear and 
 serve Him. And no writers have so great a horror 
 at sin, for it is rebellion against God the doing of 
 that which is diametrically opposed to the will of 
 Him who hateth evil and whose righteous judgments 
 are for ever going forth against all workers of 
 iniquity. And no writers are so terribly alive to 
 the fact of sin's existence. They see it where ordi- 
 nary eyes are unable to discern it. They see it 
 tainting almost every action of the great majority 
 of men and women. They see it at the centre 
 of our being poisoning the springs of life. And so 
 they are forever warning men and women against 
 sin, forever exhorting us to do that which is 
 pleasing in the sight of God. ' Be sure your 
 sin will find you out.' ' Though hand join in 
 hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.' ' Ye 
 that love the Lord hate evil : he preserveth the 
 souls of his saints : he delivereth them out of the 
 hand of the wicked.' 
 
 How or when some of the apparently earlier 
 Books of the Old Testament assumed exactly their 
 present form, how or when the Israelites came to 
 believe that their national Jehovah was the righteous
 
 THE WORLD AND MAN. 21 
 
 Ruler of all nations, and of the whole universe, we 
 need not for our present purpose inquire. Doubt- 
 less it was only gradually, and as they were taught 
 by men peculiarly susceptible to moral and religious 
 truth, and as they were disciplined by the stern 
 logic of events, that even the most faithful reached 
 the pure and exalted conception of God and our 
 personal responsibility to Him which is to be found 
 in the Prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 
 Ezekiel. But " for the root idea from which the 
 perfect flower grew " we may have to go back to a 
 very much earlier period in Jewish history. " Israel 
 on the way to exile is on the way to become Israel 
 after the Spirit." These words are true, but it is 
 possible to make too much of the truth which they 
 contain. The exile purified, broadened, and en- 
 nobled Israel's thoughts of God, but did the exile 
 originate Israel's faith in God ? 
 
 Whatever we may think on this subject one 
 thing is certain. When the Israelites did believe in 
 one God who is Lord of all, and when they did 
 realise in thought the full significance of what 
 they believed, a great revolution must neces- 
 sarily have been effected in their thoughts, beliefs, 
 convictions with regard to the world and to the life 
 of man. 
 
 We are all aware of the great change in men's 
 views brought about by the acceptance of the 
 Copernican in place of the older astronomy which 
 regarded the earth as the centre of our system, while 
 the sun, moon, and stars were thought of as mere 
 ornaments of our firmament or light-givers to the 
 earth. How changed men's views of things became
 
 22 THE WORLD AND MAN. 
 
 when they realised the truth that the sun is the 
 centre of our system and that the earth is merely 
 a planet revolving round the sun. When this great 
 fact was brought home to the minds of men 
 astronomers had to recast their science, whilst multi- 
 tudes who were not astronomers had to alter radically 
 many of the opinions which they had held tenaciously 
 for years. 
 
 And yet the revolution brought about by the 
 Copernican system of astronomy is as nothing when 
 compared with the revolution effected in the thoughts 
 and lives of men when they began to look at the 
 world and human life with the eyes of the sacred 
 writers, for then the truth was borne in upon them 
 that the things which are unseen are eternal, that the 
 life is more than meat and the body than raiment, 
 and that righteousness, truth, and goodness are 
 infinitely more important than those things towards 
 which the hearts of the children of men are usually 
 so strongly inclined. There is no comparison, 
 from the point of view of religion, between the 
 position of the man who worships idols and whose 
 religion consists in rites of an absurd or debasing 
 kind, and that of the man who realises the great- 
 ness and the holiness of God, and who, in answer 
 to the question, ' Wherewith shall I come before 
 the Lord and bow myself before the high God ? ' 
 is able to say, ' He hath shewed thee, O man, 
 what is good, and what doth the Lord require of 
 thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to 
 walk humbly with thy God ' ; ' Thou desirest not 
 sacrifice, else would I give it : thou delightest 
 not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a
 
 THE WORLD AND MAN. 23 
 
 broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, 
 thou wilt not despise.' 
 
 And are not men greatly strengthened for the 
 doing of what they know to be their duty, and is 
 not their sense of the importance of right doing 
 intensified and deepened, their perception of what 
 is right for them clarified and quickened, when they 
 pass from the point of view of morality to that of 
 religion and look at things from the theological 
 standpoint of the Jews of old ? It may he true 
 that the earliest religions do not seem to stand in 
 a close relation to morality. The mighty tyrants 
 worshipped by men in ancient times were often 
 thought of as appeased, not by the moral actions 
 and fair lives of men, but by gifts, offerings, sacri- 
 fices, deeds which might be of an illegitimate or 
 immoral kind. 
 
 It may be true that morality is not dependent 
 on Theology, and even when we do not admit that 
 conscience is the product of social opinion and 
 custom, we may believe that moral ideas have arisen 
 and been developed in the social life of man, and 
 have only afterwards been set up in connection with 
 the gods. But if higher conceptions of duty have 
 led men to nobler thoughts of God, we must not 
 forget that worthy religious beliefs have done much 
 to advance the ethical ideas of men, and have 
 helped them to live more consistently in harmony 
 with them. 
 
 It is impossible to read the Old Testament with- 
 out perceiving that with the Israelites morality was 
 closely connected with religious belief. And because 
 the God in whom they believed was a moral deity,
 
 24 THE WORLD AND MAN. 
 
 this close connection of religion and morality was a 
 great gain to them. 
 
 How could such a people in such circumstances 
 as those in which they often found themselves have 
 retained their faith in moral truth if it had been 
 regarded as having no connection with religious 
 belief? Must there not have been to them a 
 marvellous reinforcement in hope, confidence, and 
 strength when as their thoughts came back, so 
 to speak, from heaven to earth they felt themselves 
 possessed of the unwavering conviction that when 
 they were doing their duty they were doing what 
 God wished them to do : that when they were 
 obeying the dictates of conscience they were obey- 
 ing the voice of God within them : and that when 
 they were living in harmony with the moral law, 
 which is in us and of us and yet over us, they were 
 in league with Him who is from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting, and whose plans and purposes cannot fail ? 
 
 And what a blessed experience must have been 
 vouchsafed unto the select few who, in virtue of their 
 true conception of God, had at least a glimpse of 
 the meaning of " the calling of Israel " ! For when 
 other Jews were wrapped up in a selfish exclusive- 
 ness and puffed up by the narrow belief that the 
 chosen people were the favourites of Heaven and 
 destined to be the only recipients of that great 
 salvation which would yet be forthcoming from the 
 Lord, they were able to rejoice in the thought that 
 Israel was the servant of Jehovah and elect for the 
 sake of mankind the nation through whom other 
 nations were to receive ' the light ' and the blessings 
 which come from a knowledge of the true God the
 
 THE WORLD AND MAN. 25 
 
 nation which, though punished, afflicted, purged, 
 chastened, purified, was yet to be the means by 
 which other nations would share in a salvation 
 which, because needed by all, was meant for all.
 
 III. 
 
 FAITH IN GOD AT THE ROOT OF JEWISH 
 HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS. 
 
 Where is thy zeal and thy strength, . . . are they restrained? 
 (Isaiah Ixiii. 15). 
 
 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come 
 down (Isaiah Ixiv. i). 
 
 THE same facts often make different impressions 
 upon, or suggest different inferences to, different 
 people. 
 
 One man looking over the pages of history sees 
 nothing therein but isolated events of more or less 
 interest and importance, while to another they 
 contain a record of God's way with man. One 
 man, as he scans the face of nature, sees nothing 
 but particles of matter and thinks of nothing 
 but blind force and mechanical laws, but another 
 sees God everywhere and looks upon nature as 
 God clothed in material dress that thus He may 
 appeal through our senses to our souls. And it 
 was even so with the people of old. When 
 they looked at nature and at human life, some 
 saw things which others did not see and realised 
 the meaning and significance of things on which
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 27 
 
 others put little or no stress. What we may 
 call the prior spiritual convictions of men were 
 different, and so they interpreted what was before 
 them in different ways. 
 
 Take, for example, the attitude of men and 
 women towards the sterner and more sorrowful facts 
 of life. 
 
 Those who were unspiritual and unbelieving were 
 confirmed in their unbelief by what they saw. How 
 can there be a righteous God, they asked, when the 
 inequalities of life are so great and when there is 
 so much sin and sorrow in the world ? How can 
 a righteous God bear so long with the sins of wicked 
 men ? How can a just God permit so many and 
 so great inequalities and injustices to exist in human 
 life? And so they said there is no God, and if 
 there be He has forsaken the earth and cares not 
 at all for us miserable men. 
 
 But the prior spiritual convictions of pious and 
 enlightened Jews would never, for more than a 
 moment, tolerate such inferences and conclusions 
 from even the saddest of facts. To them God, 
 though invisible to the bodily eye, was yet the most 
 real and powerful fact in all the universe of being, 
 and the sternest and most perplexing experiences 
 in life were not able to make them give up their 
 faith in God. There might be, there were, things 
 in human life which perplexed them, and which 
 they could not reconcile with the existence of God : 
 but God, they felt sure, was on His throne over- 
 ruling all things, and they were convinced that He 
 would yet make light to arise in the darkness, so 
 that men might clearly see Him energising wonder-
 
 28 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 fully, and causing all things to work together for 
 good to them that loved Him. 
 
 The Israelites had been long in Egypt, and we 
 may be quite certain that in many ways they owed 
 much to a people who for hundreds, if not for 
 thousands, of years before the exodus were far 
 advanced in learning, in art, in civilisation. The 
 Jews of St. Stephen's time meant more than some 
 of us are inclined to think when they said that Moses 
 was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. 
 Nevertheless there was one all-important matter in 
 regard to which Moses, after the example of 
 Abraham, wished his people and himself to be 
 clearly marked off from those among whom they 
 dwelt. A few of the Egyptians may have been 
 possessed of a worthy conception of God, but in 
 the religion of the people there were gods many 
 and idols innumerable, with customs and practices 
 of an absurd and degrading kind ; and from all 
 these Moses naturally wished his people to be free. 
 Moreover, while the Egyptians believed in a future 
 life and in a judgment after death, their belief was so 
 darkened by baleful superstitions and doleful legends 
 that the future, with its sombre gloom, overshadowed 
 for them the immediate practical duties of the 
 present. Instead of being to them an inspiration 
 and a help, their belief in a future life was a night- 
 mare which robbed them of their strength. 
 
 Possibly it was because Moses clearly perceived 
 the hurtful character of the Egyptian belief in a 
 future life that he was divinely led towards that 
 belief which he tried to impress upon his people 
 belief in an ever-present God, governing and guiding
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 29 
 
 now, rewarding the righteous, pardoning the peni- 
 tent, and punishing the guilty. And it may have 
 been because Moses believed his people to be 
 specially blessed of Him whose power and good- 
 ness they recognised, and whose will they obeyed 
 a divine society certain to be supported by an 
 extraordinary Providence that in the earlier books 
 of the Bible so little stress is laid upon the doctrine 
 of a future life that some have been inclined to 
 wonder whether, at first, the children of Israel were 
 even so much as acquainted with it. 
 
 Now it is not difficult to see that when believing 
 as Moses had taught them the children of Israel were 
 not destitute of a reason for the faith that was in 
 them a reason vaguely felt if not always clearly 
 seen. 
 
 For, after all, it is man's inhumanity to man that 
 causes such countless thousands to mourn; and why 
 should we blame God for the evil done by man ? 
 There is one thing in the universe which God did 
 not create, and that is sin, whose evil and hurtful 
 consequences to the sinner as well as to others are 
 more or less apparent unto all. Sin owes its origin 
 to man, who is a Self, a Personality , endowed with 
 the gift of freedom and self-determination, without 
 which a moral life is impossible, and who can, and 
 only too often does, introduce disorder, lawlessness, 
 rebellion into the world by ignoring his true place 
 in the universe of being, and putting his own will in 
 the place of the will of Him who is, and ought to be 
 recognised as, supreme. 
 
 But when we overlook what evil man hath done 
 to himself and to his brother man by his sin, and
 
 30 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 think only of our relationship to Him who is in- 
 visible, we cannot fail to perceive the abiding good- 
 ness of the Lord. Is not our existence a thing for 
 which we ought to be thankful ? Is it not a 
 glorious thing that God hath prepared for us a 
 habitation in this wonderful universe? that we are 
 privileged to look abroad upon the marvels and 
 beauties of earth and sky and sea, to experience the 
 pleasurable consciousness of continued life and 
 activity, and to know that our every blessing comes 
 down to us from Him who causeth His sun to shine 
 upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the 
 just and on the unjust? 
 
 In the eyes of the Jews material possessions 
 bulked very largely, and it was difficult for them to 
 believe that a man was blessed of God if he was not 
 successful, rich, and honoured. And was there not 
 an element of truth at the root of such a belief? 
 Even in a disordered state, where unjust laws pre- 
 vailed, were not God-fearing, conscientious, honest, 
 thrifty, hard-working men and women as likely as 
 any others to secure a competent portion of the 
 good things of this life ? And even in such a state, 
 when we look long enough at human life, do we not 
 often see good men come at last to their own, while 
 mischief, sorrow, and disaster sooner or later follow 
 in the train of godlessness, vice, knavery, and pro- 
 fligacy? 'Though a sinner do evil an hundred times 
 and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that 
 it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear 
 before him ; but it shall not be well with the wicked.' 
 ' I have seen the wicked in great power and spread- 
 ing himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 31 
 
 away, and lo, he was not : yea, I sought him, but 
 he could not be found. Mark the perfect man 
 and behold the upright: for the end of that man is 
 peace.' 
 
 Moreover, however materialistic the Jews might 
 be in their ideas with regard to prosperity it did not 
 require a very pious Jew to see that material 
 blessings were not the only good things of which a 
 man could be possessed. Were not they who trusted 
 in the Lord and who strove at all costs to do what 
 they believed to be His will, possessed, as a rule, of 
 an inward satisfaction, a peace of mind, a strength, a 
 hope, a confidence which were altogether wanting in 
 the case of those who were unbelieving, faithless, 
 sinful ? And was there not a restlessness, a dissatis- 
 faction with self, a wretchedness, a misery in the 
 hearts and lives of the godless, the unbelieving, the 
 careless, the sinful, which even the greatest material 
 prosperity was not able to remove or undo ? 
 ' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel 
 of the ungodly . . . but his delight is in the law of 
 the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and 
 night.' ' Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who 
 walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that 
 keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the 
 whole heart.' 
 
 At the same time we must carefully remember 
 that the question as to the inequalities and injustices 
 in human life did not come before the minds of the 
 children of Israel in the way in which it presents 
 itself to us. For with the Israelites the great thing 
 was not the individual, but the family, the tribe, and, 
 above all, the nation in which all property and
 
 32 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 power were centred and which assigned to the 
 individual the status, the power, the authority which 
 he possessed. And so in their eyes there was 
 nothing very irrational in the idea that God should 
 punish the community for the sake of the individual, 
 or that the father's virtues and vices should be 
 visited on the children or the children's children. 
 They did not, therefore, when they attempted to 
 justify the way of God with man, feel any great 
 need of the doctrine of a future life, more especially 
 as that life was for long only too often thought of as 
 a life of inactivity, dulness, death the continued 
 existence of pithless shades in a land of powerless- 
 ness and forgetful ness. 
 
 Even towards the close of the kingdom of Judah, 
 when, in order to undo the evils of a fatalism that 
 was paralysing the efforts of the people and driving 
 them to despair, the Prophets had to assert the 
 worth and emphasise the responsibility of the indi- 
 vidual, they did not summon to their aid the 
 doctrine of a future life, for they still believed in the 
 old doctrine which asserted that, all things con- 
 sidered, the individual's experiences were in keeping 
 with his deserts. But owing to the circumstances 
 in which they found themselves they had to restate 
 the doctrine, calling attention to and strongly 
 emphasising the sin fulness of those who suffer 
 the iniquity of those who are afflicted of the Lord. 
 ' In those days,' says Jeremiah, ' they shall say 
 no more the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the 
 children's teeth are set on edge. But every one 
 shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth 
 the sour grapes his teeth shall be set on edge.'
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 33 
 
 ' The soul that sinneth,' says Ezekiel, ' it shall die. 
 The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, 
 neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son ; 
 the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, 
 and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.' 
 
 Jeremiah and Ezekiel, like Job, could not have 
 been far away from belief in the doctrine of a future 
 life. Nevertheless, without it, and with the aid of 
 the old doctrine, they were able, so they were per- 
 suaded, to solve the problem with which they had to 
 deal. And we are the less inclined to wonder at 
 this conviction of theirs when we remember that to 
 them the fate of the individual was overshadowed by 
 the consciousness of the living presence of a God 
 who concerned Himself, more especially, with the 
 welfare and wellbeing of the people as a whole. 
 
 With them, as with the great majority of the Jewish 
 people in the days of old, the thought of a God-fearing 
 society upon the earth, a perfect kingdom supported 
 by an extraordinary providence, was the thought 
 which above all others possessed their minds. With 
 them, therefore, the great question was, Will God's 
 own kingdom yet be established on the earth in 
 all its glory and in all its completeness ? Will 
 God's own peculiar people yet be exalted and 
 honoured among the nations ? And will all nations 
 yet be constrained to confess that Jehovah is in very 
 truth the only living and true God ? 
 
 The Prophets as they succeeded each other were 
 inspired by hope as they looked forward to the 
 future, for they saw their own nation chastened, 
 transformed, exalted, and they pictured the advent 
 of an age when Israel, freed from foreign oppressions 
 
 c
 
 34 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 and purified from ungodly members, would realise 
 its ideal character and live an idyllic life of righteous- 
 ness. Yea, they had hope for other nations also, 
 for ' the day of the Lord,' whose early dawn they all 
 eagerly awaited, was a day when the power and 
 glory of the Lord would be fully manifested before 
 all men, and when the nations of the world, acknow- 
 ledging God to be the Lord, would be incorporated 
 with or made willing subjects of a glorified Israel, or 
 else remaining irreconcilably hostile they would be 
 utterly destroyed by God and His people. 
 
 Without a belief of this kind, how could the 
 Prophets of Israel have borne themselves up with 
 heart and hope in the presence of facts that often 
 were disappointing in the extreme ? What was 
 required, most people felt, was a signal manifesta- 
 tion of the power of Almighty God. Proud and 
 haughty men must be humbled, and godless and 
 insolent nations must be made to see that they 
 cannot continue to ignore and defy the Lord. 
 
 And they were sure that this expectation of theirs 
 would yet be realised. It must be so, for God 
 exists and rules, and must prevail in the end. God 
 is in His heavens, and sooner or later it would be 
 right with their nation and with the world. 
 
 And pious Jews had no doubt at all as to the 
 truthfulness of the prophecies of their inspired 
 Leaders and Teachers and as to the coming of that 
 which to their mind was inevitable. One of the 
 most remarkable things in Jewish history is this, 
 that the star of hope never ceased to be visible to 
 many, however dark and clouded the sky of their 
 national life might seem to be. Hope sprang
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 35 
 
 eternal in the Jewish breast. Even in the time of 
 direst calamity and deepest humiliation the sure 
 vision of her best and ablest men foresaw and fore- 
 told a time of deliverance and victory and greatness 
 when He would come who would be mighty to 
 save, who would restore the kingdom to Israel and 
 reign in righteousness over the whole world. But 
 the pious Jews were perplexed by the delay in the 
 coming of that time. Why did God permit the 
 world to go on as it was ? Why did He not at 
 once interfere and deliver the world from sin and 
 sorrow? Why did the great Deliverer delay His 
 coming? Why did He not rend the heavens and 
 come down and banish sin and sorrow and misery and 
 oppression for ever from the earth ? ' Where is thy 
 zeal and thy strength ' they cried to God ' are 
 they restrained ? ' ' O that thou wouldest rend the 
 heavens, that thou wouldest come down ! ' 
 
 Who could have anticipated the strange and un- 
 natural use which some have made of the hopes and 
 expectations of the Jews? Who could have pre- 
 dicted that they would be used as an argument 
 against the divine origin of Christianity ? And 
 yet so it has been. The wish was father to the 
 alleged fact, some have said. Men invented what 
 they were always expecting. And so we are re- 
 minded that this tendency among people in former 
 days to believe that a certain event was likely to 
 happen is for us an argument against the belief that 
 it has actually taken place. 
 
 But such an argument can only hold good if the 
 event expected be antecedently improbable, which in 
 this case it is far from being.
 
 36 FAITH IN GOD. 
 
 If God be not a mere self-identical unity, but, as 
 we have reason to believe, a self-revealing Spirit, is 
 it not perfectly natural for Him to desire to enter 
 into communication with the men and women He 
 has called into being? And if He reveals Himself 
 unto them, are we not entitled to expect that that 
 Revelation will be made in a manner suitable to 
 their needs and conditioned by their moral and 
 spiritual capacity ? 
 
 It is true that the form in which the hopes and 
 expectations of the Jews were popularly expressed 
 had led the people of Christ's day to look for a 
 deliverer of a kind greatly different from the one 
 that was actually sent. But, as many people soon 
 perceived, Christ really answered to the greatest 
 needs, deepest longings, and noblest aspirations of 
 the Jews, even when seeming to disappoint them. 
 For the popular beliefs were crude representations 
 of habitual and instinctive convictions which arose 
 from the very depths of their being. They believed 
 in a righteous God whose will must in the end be 
 realised, and it was perfectly natural for them to be 
 convinced that a life of sin is not the true and 
 normal life for man, and that a world of increasing 
 wickedness is not the world as God meant it to be, 
 or as He wished it to be, or as He willed that in the 
 future it should be. 
 
 And why could not God have been in Christ fully 
 and abidingly even although He was born of a 
 woman and made under the law? 
 
 If God dwells anywhere on earth it is in the 
 humble and pure heart. If God is to be seen any- 
 where on earth it is in the life of man. And does
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 37 
 
 not God work out his plans and purposes in human 
 affairs by the instrumentality of man ? We need 
 not be surprised, therefore, when we find that the 
 Divine Spiritual Power makes itself manifest in the 
 Man Jesus that it is from the bosom of humanity 
 that He is raised up who is to be a light to lighten 
 the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel. 
 And how could one sent by God redeem a sinful 
 nation, not to speak of a wicked world, without 
 opposition, conflict, pain, sorrow without being, as 
 the Prophet foretold, ' despised and rejected of men, 
 a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief with- 
 out being wounded for our transgressions and 
 bruised for our iniquities without that sacrifice 
 which the good of others demanded without that 
 giving up of Himself for the wellbeing of others in 
 which divine love reaches its highest expression and 
 finds its richest, purest, most abiding blessedness ? 
 
 The hopes and expectations of the Jews, there- 
 fore, were not mere illusions without any ground in 
 reason or in the nature of things. And instead of 
 being an argument against the truth contained in 
 the words, ' God sent forth his Son,' they, in reality, 
 lead up to and prepare us for that great event which 
 took place in ' the fulness of time.'
 
 IV. 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his son 
 (Gal. iv. 4). 
 
 WHY was the advent of our Saviour so long 
 delayed ? Why did He not come at a much earlier 
 period in the world's history? 
 
 When we are perplexed by this question it will 
 be well for us to remember the words, ' When the 
 fulness of time was come, God sent forth his son.' 
 
 The Gospel was withheld until the world was 
 ready for its reception. The Saviour came when 
 the course of preparation for His coming conducted 
 through the previous ages was completed. 
 
 Had our Saviour come into the world when 
 Judaea was comparatively independent and severely 
 intolerant, He might have been crushed at once by 
 those in authority, or innumerable and well-nigh 
 insurmountable obstacles might have been put in 
 the way of His work among the Jews. 
 
 Had He come into the world long before the 
 fulness of time, He might have come into a world 
 divided up into countless separate kingdoms, jealous 
 of each other, or at war with each other, and filled
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 39 
 
 with people narrow-minded and prejudiced a set 
 of circumstances which must have seriously impeded 
 the work of the Apostles and missionaries in the 
 early days of the Christian Church. 
 
 But in the fulness of time Judaea was a province 
 of the mighty Roman Empire an Empire that 
 comprised almost the whole civilised world an 
 Empire over the whole of which one language was 
 well understood an Empire throughout which peace 
 then prevailed, and wherein every kind of religion 
 was tolerated an Empire so thoroughly organised 
 that there was frequent and easy communication 
 between the capital and the most remote provinces. 
 It was now comparatively easy, therefore, for the 
 disciples and followers of Christ to preach what 
 they did preach and where they did preach it. 
 
 And we must carefully remember that the Jews 
 in Palestine were only a fraction of the Jews in the 
 world at the coming of Christ. In the course of 
 the ages the Jews had been scattered everywhere 
 throughout the world, and everywhere they had 
 made their influence felt. They were everywhere, 
 and everywhere in force throughout the Roman 
 world : and outside the Roman world there were 
 great colonies in Babylon, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and 
 in every place or city of any importance. And 
 wherever they went the Jews carried their faith with 
 them that faith which marked them off from all 
 others that clear strong faith which filled them with 
 hope and confidence, and which was so well able to 
 hold its own against the superstitions of the world, 
 and to arrest the attention of those who had no real 
 faith in anything.
 
 40 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 But here we must pause to notice that moral 
 discipline and those mental and spiritual movements 
 by which the Jews had been prepared for the 
 reception of the Universal religion. 
 
 To the Israelites there was to be but one God, 
 and His right to their sole allegiance was not to 
 be doubted. But in the course of the ages the 
 misfortunes and sorrows of God's people had often 
 been so trying, so overwhelming, that had it not 
 been for the Leaders and Prophets who from time 
 to time arose in Israel, the faith of the great majority 
 would have been seriously endangered. 
 
 Now it does not surprise us to find, even in the 
 earliest period of Israel's history, divine grace work- 
 ing and good men striving for the removal of 
 spiritual blindness and for the undoing of the evil 
 which sin had wrought upon the earth. For while 
 sin is the sign of man's fall, it may also be made 
 the means of his moral uprising. Our moral sense 
 brings home to us, and rebukes us for, our im- 
 perfections and our sins. But in the very act of 
 doing this, it becomes a witness to the divinity of 
 our nature, and an earnest of the glory that may 
 yet be ours. And so it is for us a divine voice 
 calling upon us to forsake our sins exhorting us 
 to be faithful to those Revelations which God is 
 ever breathing into the consciences of those who 
 seek to do His will and urging us on to heights 
 of holiness to which we have not as yet attained. 
 There is thus a divine side to the higher thoughts 
 of men : and God is in every noble effort for the 
 regeneration of the world. We are not perplexed, 
 therefore, when we find it said in Scripture that
 
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 41 
 
 God called Abraham, and that Abraham responded 
 to the call. And we have no great difficulty in 
 discovering the purpose which God meant to work 
 out through the instrumentality of those faithful 
 servants whom from time to time He raised up for 
 the instruction and guidance of His own peculiar 
 people. 
 
 It is true that the children of Israel were often 
 far from being what God wished them to be. Time 
 after time they fell back into idolatry and super- 
 stition : often, very often, they gave themselves up to 
 grievous sin. Stern was, therefore, the discipline to 
 which they had often to be subjected. Severe was 
 often the chastisement wherewith the Lord chastised 
 them. But not even in their greatest trials and tribu- 
 lations did the most faithful wholly lose their faith 
 in God. And, strange to say, at every turning- 
 point in their history there stood forth before them 
 at least one man who spoke with authority, and who 
 in the most earnest and impressive way pointed out 
 to the people the real meaning and significance of the 
 crisis that had overtaken or was about to overtake 
 them. Even the enemies of Israel were, the Prophets 
 asserted, in the hands of God, who determines the 
 limits of their power, and can say to them, Thus 
 far shalt thou come, but no further. Moreover, 
 Jehovah's attitude towards Israel and all other 
 nations was, the prophets declared, conditioned by 
 His righteousness and justice; and what they 
 asked could even the Jews expect from great and 
 long-continued unfaithfulness to God and to His 
 law but sorrow, mischief, and disaster, which were 
 at once a manifestation of God's displeasure at sin,
 
 42 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 and an indication of the possibility that God's 
 purposes for mankind might have to be realised 
 through an Israel purified by much discipline " a 
 shoot from the stock of a felled tree, the remnant 
 of an afflicted and poor people." In Israel and 
 in the world God may have some seemed to 
 suggest a ministry through that better part of the 
 Jewish nation which, after being purified by trial, 
 would truly represent the whole, make atonement 
 for the sins of the whole, and secure a blessing for 
 the whole. 
 
 Without doubt, God had for Israel plans and 
 purposes of the wisest and most beneficial kind. 
 And yet, the Prophets said, these might not be 
 exactly what Israel desired and expected. The 
 salvation which God had in store for them might 
 be of a deeper and more spiritual kind than that 
 of which they fondly dreamed. Even the great 
 Prophet who was to prepare the way for the 
 Lord's day of judgment and redemption, the great 
 and righteous King who was to arise from the 
 house of David, might be ' a Servant of Jehovah,' 
 a vicarious Sufferer, one who would bear the 
 griefs and carry the sorrows of His people, one 
 who would be wounded for the transgressions and 
 bruised for the iniquity of His people ; and so 
 not in accordance with their ideas regarding the 
 Deliverer whom God would yet raise up. 
 
 It is true that many of those who heard the 
 words of the Prophets did not lay them to heart ; 
 did not even understand them. And many of 
 those who in after ages read the words of the 
 Prophets did not perceive their meaning and
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 43 
 
 significance. And so materialistic in their con- 
 ception of things were they, and so wedded did 
 they continue to be to the expectation of a great 
 and glorified Israel that was one day to bear 
 sway over all the nations, that when Christ 
 appeared upon the earth the people were, for the 
 most part, blind to the real greatness of Him who 
 came " in weakness and in woe," in meekness and 
 humility ; and there was little to attract them in 
 that kingdom of peace and truth and love and 
 righteousness into which Jesus called men, and of 
 which the words could be truly spoken, ' the 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation, 
 neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there, for 
 behold the kingdom of God is within you.' 
 
 Nevertheless, there were a few who were able 
 to recognise the grace and glory of Jesus 
 Christ, and the value and importance of that 
 salvation which God vouchsafed to men in Him. 
 Some, like Simeon, had been disciplined and 
 trained to wait for the consolation of Israel 
 for Him who was to be a light to lighten the 
 Gentiles as well as the glory of God's people, Israel. 
 And some, like John the Baptist, were able to 
 see in Christ and in His kingdom a grander ful- 
 filment of their hopes and expectations than that 
 of which the Israelites for so long had dreamed. 
 The Psalms to be found in the first two chapters 
 of St. Luke the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and 
 the Nunc Dimittis to which utterance was given 
 by Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, are beautiful 
 examples of the hope of Israel which was nurtured 
 in saintly souls " through the teaching of the
 
 44 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 Scriptures and of the Spirit of God, under the 
 Old Dispensation." 
 
 In the next place, we must carefully remember 
 that at the coming of Christ, belief in a Resur- 
 rection, in a Judgment, and in a future existence, 
 would seem to have become somewhat common 
 among the Jews. 
 
 It is true that the belief then held was not so 
 spiritual, so purified, or so exalted as the faith of 
 the Apostles. Neither was it placed on the firm 
 foundation laid by Him who brought life and 
 immortality to life through the Gospel. More- 
 over, it was only gradually that the Jews had 
 attained unto the belief that then was theirs. 
 At a very early period in Israel's history the 
 thought of a continued existence after death was 
 not altogether wanting. Doubtless, it was an 
 existence rather than a life of which men then 
 spoke an existence indefinite, vague, shadowy. 
 Nevertheless, when men died they were spoken of 
 as ' gathered unto their fathers,' and at a later 
 day they were represented as going down into 
 Sheol. And these expressions at all events the 
 latter meant that death was not regarded as ending 
 all. By and by, however, the faith of the Israelites 
 became more definite and confident. But even 
 yet it was merely a hope, not a dogma ; and for 
 a time it was a hope for the renewal and resur- 
 rection of the nation rather than for the resurrection 
 of individuals. And when an advance is made and 
 men begin to think of the resurrection of indi- 
 viduals, the hope is, even to the close of the Old 
 Testament, limited, or well-nigh limited, to Israel.
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 45 
 
 Now it is not difficult for us to explain how it 
 was that the thoughts of the Jews on this subject 
 became clearer and more distinct as the years 
 passed by. 
 
 1. The inequalities of life must always have pro- 
 duced in the faithful a tendency towards belief in a 
 future life, and in personal immortality. Goodness 
 and virtue do not always receive in this life what, 
 under the government of a holy and omnipotent God, 
 we should expect them to receive. Evil doing is not 
 always followed by that condemnation and punish- 
 ment which ought to be meted out to it. Might 
 often prevails over right, and unscrupulousness and 
 dishonesty often win that success which ought always, 
 as we think, to follow in the train of virtue. 
 
 And what conclusion is forced upon us by these 
 things, in view of God's justice and might ? Is it not 
 that there must come a time, in another life, if not 
 in this, when the world will be judged in righteous- 
 ness, and when every man will receive according 
 as he hath done, whether it be good or bad ? 
 
 2. The great national catastrophe the Captivity 
 gave rise to practices, thoughts, feelings, which 
 tended towards a belief in personal immortality. 
 
 Far away from Jerusalem, and without the aid of 
 the Temple Services, it was necessary for the Jews 
 to have, much more than heretofore, personal and 
 direct dealings with God in prayer. And this awoke 
 within them the consciousness of their personal 
 responsibility to God, and led them more and 
 more to look for the divine benediction in " that 
 spiritual satisfaction which is the boon of all who, in 
 any age, or in any land, repose their simple faith in
 
 46 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 God." And close spiritual fellowship with God 
 helped to create the conviction that they who walked 
 with God and lived in God must be personally 
 superior to death. The eternity of God became the 
 ground of their confidence with regard to the future. 
 ' Art not thou from everlasting, O Lord my God, 
 mine Holy One ? we shall not die.' ' Therefore my 
 heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; My flesh also 
 shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my 
 soul to Sheol ; Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy 
 one to see corruption.' 
 
 3. Belief in the resurrection of at least the pious 
 Israelites would seem to have followed naturally in 
 the train of belief in the Messiah and the Messianic 
 kingdom. 
 
 The Jews of a later date knew well that many of 
 their ancestors had served the Lord with all their 
 heart. Some of them had even died for their faith. 
 Were they then to have no share in the glory of the 
 Messianic kingdom ? 
 
 Moreover, the Jews then living were not sufficiently 
 numerous to be the predominant power in the king- 
 dom of the Messiah. And so, to fill up this want, 
 all those faithful servants of the Lord who had 
 departed in the true faith must live again. ' Thy 
 dead shall live ; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake, 
 and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; for thy 
 dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast 
 forth the dead.' ' Many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
 life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.' 
 
 And when we reach the Apocrypha those semi- 
 sacred books which are not in the Canon of Scripture,
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 47 
 
 but which have always been highly valued in the 
 Church on account of the light they throw on the 
 history of the Jews during the time which elapsed 
 between the close of the Old Testament and the 
 birth of our Lord we find that the doctrine of a 
 resurrection and of a future life for the good has 
 taken firm possession of the hearts and minds of 
 many of the Jewish people. Thus, for example, in 
 the Book called "The Wisdom of Solomon" we have 
 such passages as these : " The souls of the righteous 
 are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch 
 them. In the eyes of the foolish they seem to 
 have died ; and their departure was accounted to 
 be their hurt, and their journeying away from us to 
 be their ruin : But they are in peace. For even if 
 in the sight of men they be punished, their hope 
 is full of immortality." " The righteous live for 
 ever, and in the Lord is their reward, and the case 
 for them with the Most High." And in 2nd 
 Maccabees, vii. 1 4, we have this passage : " And 
 being come near to death he (the fourth of the seven 
 brethren who were martyred) said thus : It is good 
 to die at the hands of men and look for the hopes 
 which are given by God, that we shall be raised up 
 again by him ; for as for thee (the King) thou shalt 
 have no resurrection unto life." 
 
 When we read such words as these we can easily 
 understand how thoroughly prepared the way v/as 
 for the coming of Him who was able to say, ' I am 
 the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in 
 me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and 
 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die.'
 
 48 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 But beyond the range of Judaism the world was 
 prepared for the coming of Christ. 
 
 The religions which flourished within the Roman 
 Empire, and which were thus brought, more or less, 
 into contact with Christianity in its earliest days, 
 were infinite in number and of the utmost diversity : 
 ranging from the lowest forms of idolatry to specu- 
 lations of the noblest and most rational kind. 
 
 The popular religions of Greece and Rome with 
 their innumerable deities and their strangely varied 
 forms of worship were " too poor and fanciful to 
 contribute anything directly to the treasury of 
 Christian truth." And from the lower forms of 
 idolatry which were to be met with in the Empire 
 what theological or philosophical light could thought- 
 ful men expect to get? It is true that in the vague 
 gropings of these heathen worshippers after that 
 mysterious Power which they felt to be in nature, 
 there is an indication that even to them there were 
 more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of 
 in ordinary philosophies. And, doubtless, in the 
 breasts of many there was a vague awe, a sense of 
 fear, engendered by the consciousness of the exist 
 ence of Powers unseen, on whose due propitiation the 
 safety of the state and of the individual depended. 
 But no more positive contribution than this was 
 made by the religions of the Roman Empire to that 
 preparation which in the heathen world was made 
 for the coming of Christ. 
 
 For more than this we must go to some of the 
 Greek poets, such as Aeschylus and Euripides, and 
 more especially to the great Greek philosophers and 
 to those in the Roman world who had learned from
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 49 
 
 them : for, as is well known, philosophy became at 
 last in the Republic the religion of the intelligent 
 and the rule of life for the virtuous. 
 
 The sanctions of a future life form no part of the 
 religious thought of Aeschylus. The world to come 
 is not denied by him, but, though sometimes it would 
 seem to be implied, it is invariably left out of sight. 
 At the same time Aeschylus testifies to the reality of 
 sin, and to the consequences that follow in its train : 
 and it is difficult to read his works without feeling 
 the need which man has of a divine deliverer " to 
 check and control the consequences of violated 
 law." 
 
 Euripides brings before us with startling vividness 
 the sorrows and failures of the good. But even in 
 his most tragic and pathetic scenes he appears to be 
 feeling after God and His righteousness ; and 
 although his view of man's destiny is a very 
 sombre one, yet he does seem to reach the con- 
 viction that they who have greatly reverenced the 
 gods will prosper yet, and that retribution will 
 ultimately overtake the wicked. 
 
 Socrates traced his deepest thoughts and noblest 
 aspirations to divine suggestions, and with him the 
 hope of immortality and the belief in a world which 
 is spiritual and eternal are clear and strong. And 
 he would seem to have reached these anticipations 
 of Christian truth by practising the famous maxim 
 know thyself which he commended to all others, 
 and especially to those who on a superficial examina- 
 tion of the world without are prone to make arbitrary 
 and shallow assertions with regard to the nature of 
 things. For it is only when we look within us and 
 
 D
 
 50 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 study what ought to be best known by us, viz., our- 
 selves, the powers and processes of the mind, the 
 nature and character of our feelings, desires, volitions, 
 aspirations, that we can ever truly know what lies 
 without us and about us. 
 
 Plato believed that in Mind or Reason there was 
 to be found that which gives to human nature its 
 fellowship with the divine, and enables us in the 
 conduct of life to be conformable to the order and 
 harmony which everywhere prevail in nature. He 
 also endeavoured to lead man beyond what is seen 
 and temporal to "the eternal prototypes of the 
 beautiful, the true, and the good from which man 
 has fallen ; thus awakening in him a deep longing 
 for the blessings he had lost." 
 
 Plato grasped firmly the idea that there was a 
 unity in nature : he was convinced that there was 
 reason at the root of things. And as he constantly 
 thought of the end which things were meant to 
 serve, and judged of means in their relation to ends, 
 we may be sure that if Plato had attempted to con- 
 struct a system of nature, " he would " as Dr. Edward 
 Caird has said " have adopted the teleological view 
 of things in which God would have been conceived 
 as a designer working with a conscious purpose to 
 realise an end, and that end the happiness of his 
 creatures, especially man." But Plato and his 
 followers, with all their spiritual and noble concep- 
 tions, could never altogether rid themselves of the 
 notion of an aristocracy of souls. ' God hath made 
 of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all 
 the face of the earth ' these words which doubtless 
 secured for St. Paul the sympathy of his Athenian
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 51 
 
 audience would have sounded strange in the ears of 
 Plato, and they would have been called in question 
 by many of his disciples. For they found it difficult 
 to keep from thinking that one race was pre-eminent 
 over every other, and that there was a natural and 
 necessary distinction between Greek and Barbarian, 
 bond and free. 
 
 Not to the Philosophers so much as to the con- 
 quests and the policy of Alexander the Great are we 
 indebted for the uprooting of those exclusive ideas 
 which did something to mar the philosophy of Plato. 
 " Alexander," says Plutarch, " did not hearken to 
 his preceptor Aristotle, who advised him to bear 
 himself as a prince among the Greeks, his own 
 people, but as a master among the Barbarians ; to 
 treat the one as friends and kinsmen, the other as 
 animals or chattels. . . . But conceiving that he 
 was sent by God to be an umpire between all, and 
 to unite all together, he reduced by arms those whom 
 he could not conquer by persuasion, and formed of a 
 hundred diverse nations one single universal body, 
 mingling as it were in one cup of friendship, the 
 customs, the marriages, and the laws of all. He 
 desired that all should regard the whole world as 
 their common country, the good as fellow-citizens 
 and brethren, the bad as aliens and enemies ; that 
 the Greeks should no longer be distinguished from 
 the foreigner by arms or costume, but that every 
 good man should be esteemed an Hellene, every evil 
 man a Barbarian." 
 
 And these thoughts and sentiments did not pass 
 away with the Empire of Alexander, but survived 
 and became more common in the great Roman
 
 52 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 Empire which took its place. And so when we 
 draw near to the time of Christ we find in some of 
 the best philosophers the doctrine of the equality of 
 all God's children, of Greek and Barbarian, bond 
 and free as well as distinct fore-shadowings of 
 other pre-eminently Christian doctrines. 
 
 Many, for example, then declared that virtue, not 
 pleasure, is the chief good in life, and, emphasising 
 the spiritual nature of man, asserted that birth, rank, 
 country, wealth are mere accidents in human life. 
 
 Shortly before the time of Christ some of the 
 Stoics were inclined to believe that " the deity is an 
 all-pervading spirit animating the Universe, and 
 revealed with special clearness in the soul of man, 
 and that all men are fellow-members of a single 
 body united by participation in the same spirit." 
 
 And as the Roman Empire gradually became co- 
 extensive with the civilised world, we find anticipa- 
 tions of the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of 
 man. Thus, for example, Cicero, who died 43 B.C., 
 says : " The whole world is to be regarded as a 
 common city of Gods and men." " Nature ordains 
 that a man should wish the good of every man who- 
 ever he may be, for the very reason that he is a 
 man." " To reduce man to the duties of his own 
 city and to disengage him from duties to members 
 of other cities is to break the universal society of 
 the human race." 
 
 But Philosophy was for the few : it left the great 
 mass of men untouched. And even those who were 
 familiar with Philosophy were made by it to feel 
 and see that even the best of ancient Philosophies 
 lacked one thing the one thing needful that fuller
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 53 
 
 knowledge that was to permeate and transform all 
 sinful man's natural knowledge of divine things 
 that elixir of life that alone is able to vitalise the life 
 of man. The best Philosophies could to some extent 
 show how worthy of being saved man is, but how 
 to completely effect that operation they did not 
 know. They were able to bring man near to the 
 kingdom of God, but to secure his complete ad- 
 mission was beyond their power. The ladder which 
 they set up on earth was high, but the top of it did 
 not reach to heaven ; and because it leaned against 
 the unsubstantial clouds men felt and saw that it 
 was unstable and likely to fall. There was a link 
 wanting in the golden chain by which the Philo- 
 sophers sought to bind earth to heaven, man to 
 God : and men were persuaded that the chain was 
 not so perfect as the Philosophers imagined. The 
 world by wisdom knew not the Almighty unto 
 perfection. The Philosophies of men could not re- 
 veal to us the inner nature and character of God and 
 His relation to the children of men. However ably 
 a few might speculate, the people as a whole knew 
 nothing of man's being made in the image of 
 God nothing of the underlying kinship of God 
 and man nothing of the self-realisation and self- 
 revelation of God in humanity nothing of the 
 Fatherhood of God and of the Sonship of Man 
 nothing of God's love and mercy and compassion 
 nothing of God's ceaseless efforts for the salvation 
 of sinners. 
 
 And so Philosophy failed to bestow upon man 
 that of which sinful man stood above all things 
 in need : and the most intelligent men grew weary
 
 54 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 of it. Even the Religions of the day ceased to 
 have influence with the great mass of those who 
 formerly believed in them, for the freedom of thought 
 in which men then delighted had sapped and under- 
 mined the superstitions and irrational beliefs which 
 almost everywhere prevailed. And losing such re- 
 straining influences as were in the old religions, the 
 lives of men deteriorated and became more worldly 
 and sinful. And failing to cultivate their spiritual 
 nature men lost the thought and the sense of the 
 world unseen and eternal. 
 
 " As it is by nature that we believe in the being 
 of the gods, and by reason that we apprehend their 
 nature, so it is by the unanimous opinion of all 
 nations that we hold the doctrine of the permanent 
 existence of the soul." The weakness of the belief 
 which, according to Cicero, was so widely entertained 
 will become apparent when we remember that it was 
 before Cicero and Cato that Julius Caesar in the 
 presence of the Roman Senate gave utterance B.C. 
 63 to those words which have ever since been 
 regarded as " the Manifesto of Roman Unbelief on 
 the subject of future existence." The question 
 before the Senate was, What should be done to 
 those agents in Catiline's conspiracy who were 
 in custody ? When Caesar's turn for speaking 
 came, he said : " In pain and misery, death is the 
 release from all suffering, not increased suffering : 
 death dissolves all the ills of mortality : beyond 
 it is no place either for pain or pleasure. Where- 
 fore keep these criminals alive, to suffer a fitting 
 penalty ; after death there is no more punishment 
 for sin, neither is there any reward for virtue."
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 55 
 
 Caesar was, for the year, Pontifex Maximus, the 
 highest functionary of the state religion : and yet 
 he was neither rebuked nor contradicted by the 
 Senate not even by the grave and virtuous and 
 religious Cato or by the eloquent orator Cicero, who 
 was consul for the time being : two men who made 
 speeches after Caesar and who, as Sallust says, 
 referred to Caesar's speech. 
 
 Now, what are we to infer from this incident 
 this blank negation of all faith and hope, unrebuked 
 and uncondemned " in the gravest of assemblies, on 
 the gravest of all public occasions"? The indiffer- 
 ence of such an audience to the expression of 
 such views by such a man on such an occasion 
 shows that while the thought of a future life may 
 have existed as a sentiment or aspiration with 
 a few, yet, speaking broadly, the great mass of 
 the people of Rome were destitute of a real 
 and living belief in a future state of divine retri- 
 bution. 
 
 And how Rome thought and felt and acted to- 
 day, in that way the most distant provinces of the 
 Empire would think and feel and act sooner or 
 later. For there was a constant intermingling of 
 the nations within the Roman Empire. All roads 
 led to Rome, and people were constantly going to 
 and coming from the great centre of the Empire and 
 of the world. Many of the adherents of the various 
 religions of the Empire must, therefore, have come in 
 time to see that the gods they worshipped were, at 
 the best, but local deities, and that the peculiar form 
 of their religion was determined mainly by the char- 
 acter of their own locality and by the circumstances
 
 56 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 of their own people ; while the philosophical sceptics 
 would find themselves ever more and more con- 
 vinced that all the religions were equally false 
 even when they were not equally degrading in 
 their tendencies and hurtful in their results. The 
 people when they met in city or in country 
 must have compared their religions, and they must 
 have been forced to see that all their religions could 
 not be wholly true, whilst all might abound in 
 absurdities even though not wholly false. And 
 looking into each other's faces, and realising their 
 oneness and their brotherhood, the more intelligent 
 must have felt within them a yearning for a true 
 knowledge of Him for whom all were seeking and 
 after whom all were groping a desire for one true 
 religion that would be equally adapted to and 
 equally helpful to all. Then rose from earth to 
 Heaven, as it were, the cry of some of the best in 
 all the nations : " Are we all orphans ? and have we 
 no Father ? no one God and Father of all ? " And 
 then it was that Christ came, revealing the Father : 
 the Father who loved all His children with a love 
 past understanding ; the Father in whose eyes the 
 children are of such value that He is prepared to 
 make even the greatest sacrifice for their welfare ; 
 the Father who gave his only begotten Son that 
 whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but 
 have eternal life. 
 
 And 'the Saviour of the world did not come a day 
 too soon, for the decay and death of men's religious 
 beliefs had been accompanied by the destruction of 
 morality, and at the birth of Christ the state of the 
 world was deplorable in the extreme. In this en-
 
 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 57 
 
 lightened age the moral sense of man had become 
 completely blunted, and the national conscience was 
 a thing of naught. "Immorality, sensuousness, gross- 
 ness, gluttony, cruelty, bestiality, sordidness, syco- 
 phancy, untruthfulness, were," says Professor Wenley, 
 " never so rife at one time ; and as if to render the 
 situation even more gloomy, acts such as we should 
 regard with utter revulsion, amounting even to 
 physical sickness, were perpetrated not in secret, 
 but in the light of common day, and this without 
 arousing anything in the nature of serious or 
 unanimous protest" 
 
 " When Jesus came 
 The world was all at peace in utter wickedness." 
 
 Doubtless, the testimony borne by Juvenal, 
 Tacitus, Suetonius, Persius, and Martial, to the 
 abounding and shameless iniquity of their time, 
 may be held as referring in the first place and for 
 the most part to life in Rome and in those pleasure 
 cities of the Empire which imitated or taught the 
 capital. Doubtless, among Rome's hundred million 
 subjects there would be, at all events in country dis- 
 tricts, many whose lives were fair and worthy. And 
 even in Rome itself there would be some of whom 
 it could not be said that they loved the darkness 
 rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 
 But the facts would seem to show that such were 
 the exception which goes to prove the rule. Speak- 
 ing broadly and generally, men and women had 
 fallen away from the eternal laws of righteousness 
 and were walking in the vanity of their minds, 
 according to the whims of evil hearts, the prompt-
 
 58 THE FULNESS OF TIME. 
 
 ings of sinful passions, or the suggestions of depraved 
 and degrading inclinations. 
 
 " On that hard Pagan world disgust 
 
 And secret loathing fell ; 
 Deep weariness and sated lust 
 
 Made human life a hell." ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Terrible is the picture which even heathen writers 
 draw of the state of society at the time of Christ. 
 When we read their description of the moral corrup- 
 tion which seemed to prevail everywhere we can 
 understand the words of St. Paul to the saints at 
 Rome and Ephesus : 
 
 'As they did not like to retain God in their know- 
 ledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to 
 do those things which are not convenient, being 
 filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, 
 covetousness, maliciousness.' ' This I say, therefore, 
 and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not 
 as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 
 having the understanding darkened, being alienated 
 from the life of God through the ignorance that is in 
 them because of the blindness of their heart ; who 
 being past feeling have given themselves over unto 
 lasciviousness, to work all unclean ness with greedi- 
 ness.' 
 
 When we know the state of the world at the 
 advent of Christ we are compelled to admit that it 
 was in the fulness of time that Jesus came.
 
 V. 
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST ON 
 THOSE WHO HAD EYES TO SEE. 
 
 The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, ) full of grace and 
 truth (John i. 14). 
 
 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John xiv. 9). 
 
 No written word has come down to us from Christ 
 Himself. All that we know of Him comes to us 
 through the minds and memories of others. His 
 kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and with perfect 
 wisdom He has chosen to be remembered and to 
 live on in the world through the impression He 
 made on those who had eyes to see through the 
 reproduction in others of His own mind and spirit 
 and life. 
 
 It is on this account that the Gospel of St. John 
 is to many the most precious of all the Gospels. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel was written long after the 
 death of Christ by the Apostle John, or, possibly, by 
 some faithful pupil who endeavoured to give, to the 
 best of his memory, a short sketch of his Master's 
 teaching with regard to Christ. In order that a 
 precious testimony might not die with the aged
 
 60 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 Apostle, but be helpful to men and women in 
 generations to come, or in order that something 
 might be done to encourage the hearts and 
 strengthen the hands of many who in times and 
 circumstances trying to their faith wished to be 
 reassured with regard to the truthfulness of the 
 things which they believed, the aged Apostle, or 
 some faithful pupil of his, committed to writing the 
 story, which St. John had been telling in words all 
 his life, of the things which he had seen and heard 
 many years before in the cities of Judah and in the 
 fields of Galilee. 
 
 And beautiful and touching the narrative is, for 
 there is in it something of the tender grace of a day 
 that is dead ; and clear and distinct it is, for the 
 events here recorded have made a marvellous im- 
 pression on the Apostle, changing the whole current 
 of his life and causing him to live for things unseen 
 and eternal. 
 
 But there is one thing which seems to well-nigh 
 overshadow everything else in the narrative of St. 
 John, and that is the Personality of Jesus, with 
 whom the Apostle had for long been in the closest 
 fellowship and with whose inner life he was specially 
 familiar. When we read St. John's Gospel we are 
 impressed by the fact that Christ was greater than 
 His words and deeds, great though these undoubtedly 
 were. As the Apostle looks back with wistful eyes 
 to those wonderful days that cannot come again, the 
 vision of the Master as He lived and worked rises up 
 before him, and we cannot help feeling, as we read, 
 that it was Christ Himself even more than His words 
 and deeds which made on the Apostle that deep and
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 61 
 
 abiding impression which seems to have completely 
 transformed his life. 
 
 And what is the testimony which is borne to 
 Christ by that sincere and God-fearing man who 
 testified with regard to the things which he had 
 heard, which he had seen with his own eyes, and his 
 own hands had handled of the Word of Life ? 
 
 We can well understand the difficulty which St. 
 John had in trying to describe the Person and 
 Character and Life of our Saviour, for were there not 
 in Him graces and virtues which never were, after 
 the same fashion, in any other graces and virtues 
 quite beyond the power of words to express ? There 
 was something in His appearance which arrested 
 attention : something in His look which drew men 
 unto Him : something in His voice which quickened 
 men and women into newness of life. There would 
 seem to have been in Him a majesty, a grace, a 
 truth, a tenderness, a sympathy, a love, a purity, a 
 holiness which secured the interest, enlisted the 
 sympathy, and drew forth the love and devotion of 
 all who were not blinded by prejudice or carried 
 away by passion, and who were not indisposed to be 
 guided by those better thoughts and feelings which 
 in the presence of Christ were engendered within 
 them. 
 
 " It was," says Canon Scott Holland when 
 describing the impression made upon St. John by 
 the Presence of Christ, " nothing short of the 
 supreme vision of all visions. It was the disclosure, 
 the unveiling of God Himself. It was in character, 
 in substance, in reality, God's own glory. Whatever 
 men have found God to be, whatever our fathers of
 
 62 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 old time felt God to be as He shone in upon their 
 hearts through the splendour of the Skekinah in the 
 Tabernacle of Moses, that same thing Jesus showed 
 Himself to be. We saw Him, saw Him long, saw 
 Him near, saw Him carefully ; and what we saw in 
 Him was the glory of God, the glory as of the only 
 begotten Son of the Almighty Father." 
 
 " In the eyes of St. John," says Canon Liddon, 
 " the eternal Person of Jesus shone forth through 
 His Humanity with translucent splendour, and wove 
 and folded around itself, as the days and weeks 
 passed on, a moral history of faultless grandeur. It 
 was not the disciple who idealised the master ; it was 
 the Master who revealed Himself in His majestic 
 glory to the illumined eye and to the entranced 
 touch of the disciple. No treachery of memory, 
 no ardour of temperament, no sustained reflectiveness 
 of soul, could have compassed the transformation 
 of a human friend into the Almighty and Everlast- 
 ing Being. Nor was there room for serious error of 
 judgment after a companionship so intimate, so 
 heart-searching, so true, as had been that of Jesus 
 with St. John. And thus to the beloved disciple the 
 Divinity of his Lord was not a scholastic formula, 
 nor a pious conjecture, nor a controversial thesis, nor 
 the adaptation of a popular superstition to meet the 
 demands of a strong enthusiasm, nor a mystic 
 reverie. It was nothing less than a fact of personal 
 experience." ' 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 ; (for the Life was 
 manifested, and we have seen It, and bear witness,
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 63 
 
 and shew unto you that Eternal Life, which was 
 with the Father and was manifested unto us ;) that 
 which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.' 
 
 As closely connected with this we have to notice 
 the purpose with which, according to St. John, 
 Christ came into the world. 
 
 According to this gospel Christ came into the 
 world that men might have life, and have it more 
 abundantly. That to which He calls men and that 
 which He offers unto them is a new life man's true 
 life a life spiritual, divine, eternal. Eternal life, 
 according to the Fourth Gospel, is above all things 
 the perfection of the spiritual life. It is a life lived 
 as in the Presence of God, a life animated by the 
 Spirit of God, a life of constant communion with 
 God a life which assures us that we who live in 
 God will live for ever. Eternal life is not so much 
 an endless duration of being, as being of such a kind 
 that time cannot very well be regarded as the measure 
 of it. It is the nature and character of the life 
 rather than its duration which is the important thing 
 about eternal life. And so eternal life is a thing 
 which may be ours now as well as hereafter. ' This 
 is life eternal, that they might know thee the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' 
 
 Now this life was and is the possession and 
 the gift of Christ 
 
 That which above all things characterised the life 
 of Christ was His unsullied purity, His deep spiritu- 
 ality, His close fellowship with God, His perfect 
 obedience to the divine will, and that spirit of loving 
 self-sacrifice which constrained Him to live and 
 suffer and die for the salvation of men. And so
 
 64 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 fascinatingly beautiful was that life, and so divinely 
 powerful, and so stamped with the impress of 
 eternity, that when they who knew Christ best and 
 loved Him most saw Him put into the grave, they 
 could not, save only for a moment, believe that all 
 was over with Him. " They felt," as Bishop Well- 
 don says, " that He had displayed before human 
 eyes the witness of a spiritual and ageless existence." 
 
 Moreover, they clearly saw that the life He lived 
 was in its essence such a life as, to a greater or less 
 extent, they could live. They were persuaded that 
 in proportion to their faithfulness to Christ, and 
 according to the measure in which they were filled 
 by His spirit, they would become possessors of the 
 eternal life which Christ offers unto all and pleads 
 with all men to make their own. They were certain 
 that the gift of eternal life would be given to all 
 those who perceived the beauty of holiness, and the 
 importance of things unseen and spiritual, and who, 
 yearning to be possessed of these things, drew near 
 to Christ and lived in close communion with Him. 
 
 Worthy of notice are the purpose and the plan of 
 the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 The purpose is clearly set forth in the words : 
 ' 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.' And the Gospel 
 as we find it worthily realises this clearly expressed 
 purpose. From the teaching of St. John, or from 
 the cycle of representative facts which formed the 
 common ground- work of the Apostolic Message, the
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 65 
 
 author of this Gospel has carefully selected those 
 works and words of Jesus which seem to testify most 
 strongly to the pre-eminently divine nature of Christ. 
 Here, for example, are recorded eight miracles 
 but they are representative miracles : one only of 
 each class being given. Strange to say, there is here 
 no miracle in which a Demoniac is healed. Now 
 the healing of Demoniacs, so often mentioned in 
 the other Gospels, is exactly the class of miracles 
 which many in these days find least difficulty in 
 accepting. May it not have been that miracles of 
 this class are here omitted because they did not 
 seem to the writer to testify with sufficient force to 
 the divine power of Jesus ? To the author of 
 the Fourth Gospel the wonderful works of Jesus 
 are not so much miracles as signs. The question 
 as to their being violations of the laws of nature 
 does not occur to him. And yet he seems quick 
 to perceive that miracles of a certain kind suggest 
 and emphasise the pre-eminently divine nature of 
 Jesus. 
 
 And equally significant are the words and sayings 
 of Jesus as they are recorded in the Fourth Gospel. 
 In the Synoptic Gospels the discourses of Christ are, 
 as a rule, simple, direct, easily intelligible, inculcat- 
 ing moral principles and religious truths which are 
 illustrated and enforced by many parables. But in 
 the Gospel of St. John there are if we except 
 John x. 1-5 no Parables : and the discourses are 
 often deep and mystical, and as if they came from a 
 mysterious Personage invested with divine attributes 
 and claiming to be one with the Supreme God. 
 ' I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me 
 
 E
 
 66 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall 
 never thirst.' ' I am the vine, ye are the branches : 
 he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth 
 forth much fruit : for without me ye can do nothing.' 
 ' I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man 
 cometh unto the Father but by me.' ' I am the 
 resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live : and who- 
 soever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' 
 ' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' 
 ' I and the Father are one.' 
 
 No one could stand in the presence of Christ 
 without being strangely and powerfully impressed 
 by Him. Even the casual spectators had to put to 
 themselves and to each other the questions, ' What 
 manner of man is this ? ' ' Whence hath this man 
 this wisdom and these mighty works ? ' 
 
 In the Gospels according to St. Matthew, St. 
 Mark, and St. Luke the earliest biographies of 
 Christ which have come down to us our Saviour 
 is clearly marked off from other men. ' All things 
 are delivered unto me of my Father : and no man 
 knoweth the Son but the Father : neither knoweth 
 any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom- 
 soever the Son will reveal him.' ' And Simon 
 Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living God.' ' They feared greatly, say- 
 ing, Truly this was the Son of God.' 
 
 But in St. John's Gospel what has been called the 
 Divinity of Christ is more clearly enunciated than in 
 the other Gospels. And this was so, not because 
 St. John was less careful with regard to his facts, or 
 more disposed than others were to idealise and
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 67 
 
 theorise, but because this Gospel is not so much 
 a memoir as a loving reminiscence which came into 
 existence at a time when the perplexed followers of 
 Christ, confronted by determined enemies of the 
 Gospel, required to be reassured by the most com- 
 petent authority, in the plainest language, and in the 
 most unhesitating manner with regard to the nature 
 and character of that marvellous Being who had 
 long ago appeared among men. 
 
 It is true that we do not see Christ with our own 
 eyes, but only through the eyes of others. And 
 what they tell us of Him may come to us coloured, 
 to some extent, by their prior convictions and mental 
 prepossessions. It is not wise of us, therefore, to be 
 too ready to believe assertions that seem contrary to 
 reason or experience even when they are made on 
 the authority of inspiration or miracles, for " the 
 reality of the inspiration or of the miracle can only 
 be established by reason." 
 
 Moreover, we must carefully remember that moral 
 goodness can never be inferred from extraordinary 
 power. Without their message of mercy the mighty 
 works of Christ might have been attributed to a 
 power from beneath and not to a power from above. 
 No mere wonders or signs on the earth or in the 
 heavens could by themselves have demonstrated the 
 love of God for man. No material or physical 
 phenomena, however marvellous or mysterious, are 
 or can be, by themselves, demonstrative of spiritual 
 truths. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. 
 Wonderful works, therefore, cannot be regarded as 
 the primary proof of the Incarnation : " for the In- 
 carnation is primarily and essentially a spiritual fact,
 
 68 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 and no conceivable amount of evidence that is 
 merely material can prove it." 
 
 And so if we are to become possessed of the 
 Revelation of God which Christ made to man, we 
 must go to Christ's life and to His words which 
 shine by their own light and commend themselves 
 to the consciences of men and above all to that 
 spirit, that personality, that character of which His 
 life and words were but the outward expression. 
 
 When we penetrate beneath the surface and come 
 into contact with that spirit which inspired His 
 words, and to that heart which prompted His actions 
 when, in very short, we draw near to the Lord 
 Himself we see at once that He was from Heaven 
 and heavenly. When we draw near and perceive 
 the tenderness, the sympathy, the compassion that 
 underlay His every word and act and deed, we 
 cannot help perceiving the divine nature of the Son 
 of Man. When our eyes are opened to the spirit 
 of love and self-sacrifice which breathes through His 
 whole life, and which is specially manifest in the 
 mysterious agonies of Calvary, we feel ourselves 
 constrained to say, Surely this was the Son of 
 God. 
 
 It is true that a certain moral affinity is needful, 
 if we are to be able to perceive the Divinity of 
 Christ in His Person, His Character, His Life. And 
 it was because of their moral and spiritual blindness 
 that many of those who were brought into contact 
 with Christ failed to be fully convinced by this 
 the primary evidence of His Divinity. But though 
 the appeal which Christ made to the hearts and 
 souls of men by the divine nature of His character
 
 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 69 
 
 and life was rejected by those who did not know 
 goodness when they saw it, or were so full of 
 religious errors and prejudices that they could not 
 fail to put a wrong interpretation on what they 
 saw, it was accepted by that little band of faithful 
 followers who were constantly with Christ, " the 
 men and women whom His glance had kindled and 
 His voice had quickened into newness of life, and in 
 whose souls, as they looked and listened, insight 
 arose out of much love." 
 
 It is true that it was only gradually that even this 
 little company of faithful souls came to see the Son 
 of God in this Son of Man. Prejudices and 
 misconceptions prevented them for a time from 
 seeing the Messiah in one who had so little earthly 
 pomp and power. False notions of greatness pre- 
 vented them for a time from seeing the true 
 greatness of Him who was meek and lowly, and 
 who came not to be ministered unto but to 
 minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 
 Elements of worldliness still adhered to these 
 hearts and minds, blinding them to the real worth 
 of Him who was absolutely pure and holy and 
 full of love and grace and truth. From worldli- 
 ness and prejudices and false notions, therefore, 
 they had to be delivered, but it was a work 
 which required patience and thought and toil. 
 Careful training and words of rebuke and warning 
 and encouragement and consolation were required 
 before even the faithful few could rise to that con- 
 ception of Christ which enabled St. Peter to say for 
 them and for himself, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God.'
 
 70 THE IMPRESSION MADE BY CHRIST. 
 
 But the end was gained at last ; and although in 
 the hour and power of darkness their faith for a 
 moment seemed to fail them and they were like 
 reeds shaken with the wind, nevertheless the fine 
 gold of a self-sacrificing spirit had been struck in 
 them, and there were already growing up in the soil 
 of their hearts those vigorous seeds of faith and love 
 and devotion which Christ had planted and which 
 were destined in the near future to bring forth 
 abundantly fruits of the most desirable kind. The 
 cloud that received Christ out of the disciples' sight 
 was big with mercy towards them, for it was when 
 the earthly life of Jesus was over that the eternal 
 life of His Spirit was most obviously seen in their 
 lives. Then the revelation of that infinite righteous- 
 ness, goodness, love, which was made by the life and 
 death of Christ, came to them with redoubled power, 
 and they were constrained to believe that He was 
 from Heaven, of God, Divine, with a faith which no 
 argument could lessen, and which neither life nor 
 death nor things present nor things to come could 
 subvert or overthrow.
 
 VI. 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 He came unto his own, and his own received him not (John i. n). 
 Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block (ist Cor. i. 23). 
 
 ONE of the strangest, saddest things in the life of 
 our Saviour is to be found in the fact that He was 
 rejected by His own people. ' He came unto his 
 own, and his own received him not' 
 
 Why did the Jews as a nation reject Christ ? 
 Why was He a stumbling block unto them ? When 
 we think of their faith in God and remember all 
 their hopes and anticipations, we naturally expect to 
 find the Jews giving to Jesus a unanimous reception 
 and a loyal and willing obedience. But our surprise 
 passes away when we remember that the Messiah 
 whom the Jews of Christ's day were prepared to 
 receive was the Christ of ordinary Jewish expecta- 
 tion and not the Christ of Calvary a conquering 
 Christ, not one who was to suffer and to die. 
 
 Even the disciples did not like to hear Christ 
 talking about a kingdom founded by the death of 
 the King, of a society which was to be in the world 
 and yet not of it, of the Master whom they knew 
 and loved betrayed, forsaken, and denied by His
 
 72 CHRISTS RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 chosen friends. And as for the Jewish people as a 
 whole, they had made up their mind with regard to 
 what the Messiah ought to be and must be. And 
 because Jesus did not become to them what they 
 wished Him to be, and because being merely, as 
 they thought, a man like themselves, He yet put 
 forth wonderful claims in behalf of Himself, they 
 began to regard Him as an impostor and as an 
 enemy of their religion, and so they turned against 
 Him, and made His life all sad and anguished by 
 their enmities, and at last they nailed Him to the 
 tree of shame. 
 
 Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews because, 
 while He seemed to put forth in behalf of Himself 
 claims which they did not expect the Messiah to 
 make, He yet was not outwardly and with power 
 fulfilling their expectations with regard to the 
 Messiah. They did not imagine that the Messiah 
 would make Himself equal with God or claim the 
 power to forgive sins. But they believed that He 
 would be specially sent of the Lord that He would 
 be possessed of a power which would unmistakably 
 prove his divine mission, and that he would appear 
 with a pomp and circumstance which would compel 
 the obedience, if not the love, of all. 
 
 And so the Jews were far from being satisfied 
 with the appearance of Christ and with His method 
 of living and working. These were not sufficiently 
 extraordinary and marvellous, they thought, for the 
 accomplishment of God's purposes towards Israel 
 and towards the world. The work that required to 
 be done could only be effected by a great manifesta- 
 tion of power. God must lay bare His arm, God
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 73 
 
 must put forth His might, God must rend the 
 heavens and come down if the Messianic kingdom 
 was to be established at once and for ever. And so 
 they could not accept Christ as the Messiah, the Great 
 One sent of God, simply because He did not seem 
 to be endowed with sufficient power and authority. 
 
 From this fact it is possible for many of us to 
 learn a lesson. 
 
 In our desire to do justice to the Divinity 
 of Christ we are apt to forget the limitations to 
 which He voluntarily subjected Himself in order 
 that He might be one with us for our salvation. 
 We think of the virgin-birth : we dream of an 
 immaculate conception : and we are amazed when 
 we find St. Paul saying that Jesus was ' made of a 
 woman,' ' sent in the likeness of sinful flesh,' ' born of 
 the seed of David according to the flesh.' 
 
 We look at Christ as He is portrayed in the 
 Gospels, and we see His Divinity shining out 
 through His humanity, and beholding His glory we 
 become so absorbed in the thought of His Divine 
 Sonship that we forget about His humanity, and we 
 are surprised when at every point in His history we 
 are confronted with the fact that He was a man a 
 man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 
 
 We start with certain preconceptions with regard 
 to the Divinity of our Lord, and we do not know 
 what to make of those passages of Scripture which 
 bring before us the human nature of Christ, and 
 which remind us of the truth that is in the words, 
 " the divine is to be sought in Him only in the 
 form in which it is capable of being found in a 
 man."
 
 74 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 ' Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me 
 good ? None is good save one, even God' 
 ' Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of 
 man it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever shall 
 speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be for- 
 given him, neither in this world, nor in that which is 
 to come.' ' But of that day or that hour knoweth no 
 one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, 
 but the Father.' ' My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me ? ' Passages such as these, testify- 
 ing to the humanity of Christ, do not seem to 
 be quite in harmony with our presuppositions with 
 regard to the Divinity of Christ, and we have 
 difficulty in accepting them as genuine. How apt 
 we are to forget that it is passages such as these 
 which seem to keep some who approach the Gospels 
 without our presuppositions from rejecting them as 
 works of imagination destitute of a real basis in 
 historical fact. 
 
 Christ was in very truth God manifest in the 
 flesh ; but just because we believe Him to have been 
 such, we naturally expect to find not merely sparks 
 continually flashing forth from His Divinity, but also 
 miraculous deeds done by Him in almost constant 
 succession. And yet how different the reality is 
 from such an expectation ! He was born of a 
 woman, but there is nothing extraordinary in that. 
 He was made under the law, but there is nothing 
 miraculous in that. He was touched with the 
 feeling of our infirmity, and He was subjected to 
 all the ordinary troubles and trials of humanity, 
 but there is nothing save the common experience 
 of men in all that. And as He lived and worked
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 75 
 
 among men, and went out and in among friends 
 and foes, was not His life, on the whole, of such 
 a kind that in all honesty even the most severe 
 critics can accept as historical facts, at least the main 
 incidents in that divinely tragic career which is so 
 vividly portrayed for us by the Evangelists? 
 
 That Jesus lived a life of transcendent moral and 
 spiritual beauty that He spoke, with authority, words 
 of heavenly wisdom that He was vehemently opposed 
 by the priests and rulers of his day that He was 
 betrayed by one of His disciples, denied by another, 
 and deserted by all of them that He was condemned 
 to death ; that He was crucified on the Cross ; and 
 that in His death-hour He prayed for His enemies in 
 the words, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do ' are facts accepted by men whom no 
 one could regard as credulous. But facts such as 
 these are not what we naturally expect to find when 
 we begin the study of the Gospels with certain mental 
 prepossessions with regard to the Divinity of Christ. 
 There is consequently more significance than at 
 first seems apparent in the words of Canon Scott 
 Holland : " Is it not amazing that a Creed which 
 starts with such tremendous assertions about the 
 person of its founder, should keep itself so well in 
 hand, so rigidly under control, that its main force is 
 spent in exhibiting the loyalty with which the only 
 begotten Son of God submitted to every ordinance 
 of man and nature, how He bent Himself down to 
 the hard and narrow frontiers of His natural lot ? 
 The Incarnation is the revelation of the binding 
 force of natural law, to the necessities of which God 
 gave up His Son. It is the loud proclamation of the
 
 76 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 deference God pays to that nature which is His own 
 creation. Where indeed can we learn more em- 
 phatically than from the Cross of Christ the validity, 
 the sanctity of those natural conditions which God of 
 His own will obeyed even to the death of His Son 
 rather than break ? " 
 
 In the second place : Do we not, in our divided 
 Christendom, sometimes sigh for an infallible autho- 
 rity in matters of faith? an authority that will 
 relieve us of the difficulty and responsibility of 
 judging for ourselves. And since we cannot believe, 
 as many do, in the infallibility of the Pope, we are 
 prone to dream of an infallible Church a Church 
 armed with power to silence all doubt, to root out 
 all unbelief, and to force us to believe in spite 
 of ourselves. And are we not tempted to 
 believe that such a Church exists in the world 
 when we read such words as these ? ' Thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
 Church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it. And I will give unto thee the keys 
 of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou 
 shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and 
 whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven.' ' Lo I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world.' ' When he, the Spirit 
 of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.' 
 
 The Church, it is true, is a divine institution. It 
 owes its origin to Christ. It was begotten of the 
 Revelation of Himself which God made in Him who 
 was the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether 
 lovely. But the Church is also a human society. It 
 is a continuation and extension of the fellowship of
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 77 
 
 the disciples who were personal friends of Christ, and 
 who were held together after His death, not merely 
 by their affectionate remembrance of Him, but also 
 by the convictions, the spirit, the life, the faith, the 
 hope which they had in common. ' Every good gift 
 and every perfect gift is from above,' but God's good 
 gifts to us come not directly but indirectly, not un- 
 conditionally but conditionally, through material, 
 animal, human agencies. Consider the lilies of the 
 field how they grow. God arrays them in a glory 
 greater than Solomon's not directly, but mediately 
 through the kindly influence of dews, and rain, and 
 sunshine. The health of the body is from God, but 
 care is necessary for its preservation, and when we 
 are unwell we consult a physician and submit to his 
 treatment And it is even so in the spiritual domain. 
 God is the source of all wisdom, but He imparts 
 it through the lips and pens of human teachers. 
 God uses man to bring man to Himself. " Through 
 man to man is the primal law of the Incarnation." 
 Even the Son of God had to become man in order 
 that He might bring sinful men back to God. And 
 everything we know of Him who is the Light of 
 the world has been mediated to us through men. 
 No written word has come from Christ to us, 
 and we have no means of knowing what He was, 
 what He said, what He did, except through the 
 words of those who had been with Him. 
 
 But whatever we may think of these things, it 
 is perfectly obvious that the Church can have no 
 authority other than the authority of Christ. 
 And Christ did not compel the Jews to believe. 
 He never dreamt of arbitrarily subjecting His
 
 78 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 hearers to earthly loss or physical pain on account 
 of their unbelief. He did not require from His 
 followers a mere blind attachment to His person, 
 or an unquestioning and unreasoning acceptance 
 of His doctrine. He imparted to His hearers the 
 truth as they were able to bear it, and He always 
 aimed at awakening their spiritual intelligence and 
 at leading them into an ever fuller knowledge and 
 realisation of the truth. The authority of Christ 
 was the authority of those divine truths which He 
 revealed to men ; truths concerning the nature of 
 God and the true nature of man ; truths con- 
 cerning the relationship of God to us and our 
 relationship to God. It was "the authority of 
 the divine character of the perfect man swaying, 
 because of His divine perfectness, the hearts and 
 minds of men." It was the authority of truth 
 approving itself to man's understanding, the autho- 
 rity of justice, righteousness, and holiness com- 
 mending themselves to men's consciences, the 
 authority of goodness and love appealing to the 
 hearts of men and constraining them to live, not 
 unto themselves, but unto Him who died for 
 them and rose again. 
 
 And what authority can be stronger or more 
 enduring than this ? Yea, what other authority 
 do men and women require? We are saved, not 
 by the number of articles in a creed which we 
 carelessly accept, but by those truths, few and 
 simple it may be, in which we have faith, and 
 in which we believe the more, the more we test 
 and try them by living in accordance with them. 
 After all, no spiritual truth is really true to us
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 79 
 
 until its truthfulness has taken hold of our hearts 
 and minds. Blind acceptance has no moral worth, 
 and can never be for long truly helpful. What 
 possible good, therefore, could be permanently 
 done to us by a great, overwhelming, arbitrary, 
 and external authority so armed with power as 
 to compel us to believe in things in which we 
 can find no living interest, or in which we can 
 have no real faith at all? 
 
 In the third place, is there not a tendency, 
 especially among those who do not believe in the 
 infallibility of the Pope or of the General Councils 
 of the Church, to resort to a mechanical and unnatural 
 method of treating Holy Scripture ? In order to 
 arm it with what we deem to be a proper external 
 authority, we speak of every letter and syllable 
 of the Bible as due to the direct dictation of the 
 Almighty, and we think of the Bible as coming 
 to us armed with power, and saying sternly to us, 
 reject, tamper with, or overlook one letter or 
 syllable herein contained, and you are an unbe- 
 liever, and therefore in the most deadly peril. 
 
 Now, I need scarcely say that this is not the 
 true attitude to take up towards the Word of 
 God. 
 
 Doubtless, the Bible comes to us with a message 
 from Heaven, which we reject at our peril. But 
 it brings this message to us by revealing to us 
 truths of the utmost importance with regard to 
 God and ourselves. By enabling us to see the 
 worth and importance of these truths it ennobles 
 our minds and purifies our hearts, and draws us into 
 communion and fellowship with the mind and will of
 
 8o CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 God. The Scriptures are inspired of the Lord, and it 
 is impossible for us to read them with a humble and 
 understanding heart without perceiving and feeling 
 their inspiration without hearing God speaking to 
 us as He speaks in no other book. But while tha 
 Scriptures are inspired of the Lord, they were 
 written by men and for men. They were written 
 in popular language and so as to be understood 
 by the people. They were written by men who, 
 so far from being machines in the hands of God, 
 were able to manifest in their writings their own 
 powers and characteristics and peculiarities. " Their 
 thoughts were tinged," says Archbishop Magee, 
 " by the philosophy, their knowledge was limited 
 by the scientific knowledge of their own times ; 
 they spoke the history and the science as truly 
 as they spoke the dialect and the grammar of 
 their day : to suppose anything else would be 
 to suppose not a supernatural, but an unnatural 
 inspiration." The Bible is inspired ; but the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture does not necessarily imply the 
 inerrancy of Scripture the absolute infallibility of 
 every letter, syllable, word, or sentence. Holy men 
 of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost. " The Divine Spirit whose office it is to 
 inspire human minds with the knowledge of the 
 Truth, rested," says Bishop Welldon, " upon the 
 literary labours of the Evangelists. Without His 
 inspiration the Gospels would not have been what 
 they are ; nay, they would not have been at all. But 
 the Evangelists do not claim, and the Gospels, if 
 honestly treated, do not exhibit complete immunity 
 from fault or error. . . . Nobody who is a capable
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 81 
 
 judge of literature doubts that they are true ; but their 
 truth lies in the substance, not in the letter ; and as 
 authorities they are far more impressive by their dis- 
 crepancy than if they were only so many copies of 
 the same original." 
 
 The Bible is divine, and yet it is profoundly 
 human. It contains a message from God, but that 
 message comes to us through the writings of man. 
 What a heavenly treasure we have here, and yet it is 
 in an earthen vessel. And why should we be sur- 
 prised at this ? It is through the human that we see 
 the divine. It is through the finite that the infinite 
 is shadowed forth to us. It is through the material 
 that the spiritual is revealed. It was through the 
 human weakness of Jesus that the glory and the grace 
 of the Highest were made plain to man. It is in the 
 simple elements of Bread and Wine that Christ 
 draws nigh unto us and gives Himself unto us in 
 the Holy Communion. Why then should we be 
 amazed to find that it is through the words of simple 
 honest men that we are put in possession of the 
 Power of God and the Wisdom of God ? ' The 
 foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weak- 
 ness of God is stronger than men.' ' God hath 
 chosen the foolish things of the world to confound 
 the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of 
 the world to confound the things which are mighty ; 
 and base things of the world and things which are 
 despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which 
 are not, to bring to nought things that are : that 
 no flesh should glory in his presence.' 
 
 Misled by appearances, and anxious to demon- 
 strate that there is no heavenly treasure in the 
 
 F
 
 82 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 earthen vessel, some have laid violent hands upon 
 the earthen vessel, and, smashing it to pieces, they 
 have injured or mutilated the treasure which it con- 
 tains. But even the foolish and unskilful conduct of 
 some who are inclined to deal rashly with the Bible 
 is no sufficient reason why we should resort to a 
 mechanical and unnatural interpretation of it. For 
 such a method of looking at Scripture prevents us 
 from seeing its surpassing beauty and unique value, 
 and keeps us from discovering many of the 
 precious lessons which it has been written to teach us. 
 Moreover, such a method of interpreting Scripture 
 must, in these days, tend to make us the slaves of 
 unnecessary fears : for every now and again we are 
 sure to be seriously alarmed at what we take to be 
 the destruction of the heavenly treasure, but which, 
 in reality, may only be the skilful opening of the 
 earthen vessel in order that the treasure which it 
 contains may be the more clearly seen and the more 
 highly prized. 
 
 But an operation of this latter kind requires, it 
 need hardly be said, the clearest vision and the 
 most loving care. To get out of the Word of God 
 all that it is capable of teaching us we must study it 
 constantly and reverently, with an eager desire to 
 know the truth, and with an unswerving loyalty to 
 the light which it reveals to us. " It is," says 
 Archbishop Magee, " as we study the Bible : as 
 we make it the rule of our life, as we have recourse 
 to it in our hours of sorrow and weakness, trial 
 and temptation, that we find in it ever some 
 word of God that reaches our souls. It is as 
 we gather from it our consolation in sorrow, our
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 83 
 
 strength in trial, our comfort in adversity, our 
 patience in trouble ; it is as we gain from it daily 
 light on our path through the world's tangled wilder- 
 ness of temptation and sin, that it shall become, in 
 the light of its own revealing, the manifestation of 
 God to us." 
 
 The Scriptures are by themselves alone a lamp 
 unto our feet and a light unto our path. The 
 entrance of God's Word giveth light ; it giveth 
 understanding unto the simple. " Those things which 
 are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for 
 salvation are," says the Westminster Confession, 
 " so clearly propounded and opened in some place 
 of Scripture or other that not only the learned but 
 the unlearned, in a due sense of the ordinary means, 
 may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." 
 But all things in Scripture are not alike plain in 
 themselves nor alike clear unto all. And when 
 difficulties arise, who is to resolve them ? When 
 we are confronted with theological differences what 
 is to be the court of appeal ? " The authority 
 of the holy Scripture," says the Westminster Con- 
 fession, " for which it ought to be believed and 
 obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any 
 man or church." " We may be moved and induced 
 by the testimony of the Church to an high and 
 reverent esteem of the holy Scriptures ; and the 
 heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the 
 doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of 
 all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to 
 give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of 
 the only way of man's salvation, the many other 
 incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection
 
 84 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly 
 evidence itself to be the word of God ; yet, notwith- 
 standing, our full persuasion and assurance of the 
 infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from 
 the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness 
 by and with the word in our hearts" 
 
 It is easy to criticise the position taken up by 
 the Westminster Confession on the subject of autho- 
 rity in religion. We may say that it does not 
 sufficiently guard us against the play of subjective 
 individualistic fancies. May not an ignorant and 
 mistaken man regard his own foolish notions as 
 due to the working of the Holy Spirit in his heart ? 
 And do we not, therefore, require an infallible 
 Church to interpret the Word of God for us ? yea, 
 to tell us what the Word of God is ? But if the 
 words of the Westminster Confession may in this 
 respect be regarded as defective, it is difficult to 
 keep from believing that they point in the right 
 direction. 
 
 Think for a moment of the relation of the Church 
 to the New Testament Scriptures. 
 
 We all know that the Gospel was preached for 
 many years before it was written. The Church, 
 therefore, does not owe its existence to the New 
 Testament. On the contrary, the New Testament 
 owes, in a sense, its origin to the Church. But it 
 was not to the Church as an organised corporate 
 body that we are indebted for the New Testament 
 Scriptures. These Books were written by individuals, 
 and at first they were accepted by individuals, either 
 because from their own personal knowledge they 
 knew them to be true, or on account of the authority
 
 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 85 
 
 of the writers, who were men who had seen the Lord 
 or had been companions of those who had seen Him. 
 
 And notice how necessary, how indispensable, 
 these Scriptures have been, if not to the origin, at 
 all events to the healthy life of the Church. What 
 kind of Church would we now have, and what kind 
 of Gospel would now be preached in it if tradition 
 and hearsay had been the only authorities for our 
 faith, and if during all the Christian centuries the 
 New Testament Scriptures had not been in existence 
 to instruct and correct the Church ? The strongest 
 evidence in behalf of the facts which underlie 
 Christianity is that of the Apostles who were com- 
 panions of Christ from His Baptism till His 
 Ascension ; and next to theirs comes the testimony 
 of those who have set forth a declaration of the 
 things which they received from those who ' from 
 the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of 
 the Word.' But the further we come from the time 
 of Christ the less weighty becomes the evidential 
 value of the unsupported assertions of those who tell 
 us with regard to Christ things which are not to be 
 found in the New Testament. 
 
 It is true that Christ has promised to be with His 
 Church always, and to guide it into all truth. We 
 must not, therefore, overlook or ignore the religious 
 insight of the living Church when it uses wisely all 
 that is subsidiary. What better, what other, court 
 of appeal can we have than an enlightened Christian 
 consciousness ? The decisions on matters of doctrine 
 which are now made by us may not all be final, for 
 even we ourselves may in a short time pass beyond 
 them. Fuller knowledge, increased light, greater
 
 86 CHRIST'S RECEPTION BY THE JEWS. 
 
 purity, tend to clarify our spiritual vision and give us 
 a more perfect insight into the meaning of divine 
 things. And so there is a sense in which every age 
 requires its own theology " its reasoned system of 
 beliefs expressed in terms of its own consciousness." 
 But if our religious consciousness be enlightened, 
 if it be penetrated and moulded by the wisest judg- 
 ments of human reason, if it be thoroughly versed in 
 the best conclusions of the age as to the contents of 
 the Bible and as to the meaning of the world and 
 of life, then its doctrinal decisions are the best that 
 under the circumstances can be had by us. They 
 may not be absolutely final, for posterity may be 
 able to go beyond them. But at present they are 
 for us the measure of our apprehension of the truth, 
 and nothing more perfect is in the meantime possible 
 for us.
 
 VII. 
 
 THE ATTITUDE OF THE ENLIGHTENED 
 GREEKS TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : and 
 others said, We will hear thee again of this matter (Acts xvii. 32). 
 
 SOME of those who listened to St. Paul at Athens 
 believed, doubtless, in the survival of the soul after 
 the dissolution of the body. But, in all probability, 
 they regarded the material body as the prison-house 
 of the spirit, and believed that it was only when in 
 a disembodied state that the soul was able to attain 
 unto a knowledge of eternal truth, or to become a 
 participant in a state of perfect bliss. To men 
 thinking after this fashion there must have been a 
 difficulty in agreeing with St. Paul when he spoke 
 of a resurrection and of a future state in which the 
 personality will again manifest its activities through 
 the instrumentality of a bodily organism, more 
 especially as St. Paul was not permitted to explain 
 that he spoke of a ' spiritual body.' 
 
 Moreover, in that Athenian audience there must 
 have been Epicureans and Sceptics who believed that 
 the spirit is a function of the body and dies with the
 
 88 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 body, and to whom, therefore, the thought of a 
 resurrection and a future life was absurd. 
 
 We all know St. Paul's reply to those who spoke 
 after this fashion. Yes, he said, a body is necessary 
 for the completion of the personality, but in the 
 future the soul will have a body a body which, 
 though it corresponds to, will yet be greatly different 
 from the present material body a body not subject 
 to disease and decay, but characterised by incorrup- 
 tion, power, glory a body perfectly adapted to the 
 altered circumstances of pur being and fitted to be 
 the instrument of the activities of our noblest faculties. 
 And if any one says that all this is miraculous and 
 unbelievable, St Paul points to the supernatural- 
 ness of what is natural in the case of the seed sown 
 in the ground. ' Thou fool, that which thou sowest 
 is not quickened, except it die : And that which 
 thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, 
 but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or some other 
 grain : But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased 
 him, and to every seed his own body. ... So also 
 is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in cor- 
 ruption; it is raised in incorruption : It is sown in 
 dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weak- 
 ness ; it is raised in power : It is sown a natural 
 body ; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a 
 natural body and there is a spiritual body.' 
 
 But the Epicureans and Sceptics of Athens would 
 not listen to what St. Paul had to say on this great 
 subject. The slightest reference to Resurrection and 
 Judgment was enough for them. They would listen 
 to reason, but they would have nothing to do with 
 what seemed miraculous.
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 89 
 
 Now, there are many in our own day who take up 
 towards Christianity exactly the same attitude. To 
 them Christianity is foolishness, and they will have 
 nothing to do with it because there is, or seems to 
 be, in it a miraculous element. To deal satisfactorily 
 with a position of this kind is difficult ; but there are 
 many considerations which ought to be able to help 
 us when we are tempted to rush to a rash conclusion 
 on the subject. 
 
 To begin with, miracles were never meant to be 
 the only, or indeed the primary, evidence of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 We cannot verify the miracles of Christ, and the 
 further we get from them the weaker the evidence 
 in support of them seems to be. And if we take 
 them by themselves, and apart from Christ and 
 His purposes of love to man, we are apt to think 
 that they who tell us of them were self-deceived, 
 or imperfectly informed, for scarcely any con- 
 ceivable amount of testimony appears sufficient to 
 adequately prove them in face of the long-continued 
 and uniform testimony of Nature's laws that miracles 
 do not happen. 
 
 To believers the miracles of Christ are credible, 
 because they were done by Him. " We believe 
 in the miracles because we believe in Christ, not 
 in Christ because we believe in the miracles." 
 When believed in, the miracles become to us a 
 revelation of Christ's mercy, pity, love, and divine 
 power. But the very fact that during Christ's life- 
 time, and immediately after His death, such 
 miracles as are found in the Gospels were attri- 
 buted to Christ, helps to strengthen that evidence
 
 90 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 to which on a priori grounds no one can object. 
 When we find that many years perhaps after a 
 great saint's death miracles are said to have been 
 worked by him, we do not put the belief aside as 
 altogether valueless, or look upon it as undoing 
 the testimony which otherwise we are disposed 
 to accept with regard to him. However arbitrary, 
 senseless, or grotesque the miracles ascribed to 
 him may be, we regard them as a further con- 
 firmation of the belief that the Saint really lived, 
 and that in his day he was a person of out- 
 standing greatness and goodness. And so when 
 we find that even in Christ's lifetime many 
 miracles of love and mercy are assigned to Him 
 by those who knew Him best of all, are we not 
 justified in thinking that they bear strong testimony 
 to the power as well as to the greatness and good- 
 ness and love of Christ ? Even when we think that 
 the miracle narratives are to some extent the pro- 
 duct of religious emotion, and an imitation of a 
 literary method sometimes resorted to in setting 
 forth the lives of heroes, we are constrained to 
 believe that the narratives were really suggested to 
 Christians by the wonderful and beneficent deeds 
 actually done by Christ, and that they were made 
 to assume their present form because it seemed 
 the best means whereby to bring out and emphasise 
 that unique goodness and divine power of Christ 
 which, without doubt, made a marvellous impression 
 on those who were privileged to see Him. 
 
 We must not, however, forget that the Incarnation 
 was " the gradual self-revelation of a Person to 
 spiritually minded persons," and that in innumer-
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 91 
 
 able ways that Revelation was made to man. By 
 words, by acts, by deeds, by looks, by silences, by 
 prayers, by tears, as well as by signal manifestations 
 of power, Christ made Himself known to those 
 who had eyes to see, hearts to love, and minds 
 to understand. And where faith in Him was not 
 elicited by these revelations of His nature and 
 character there would seem to have been little 
 chance of its being called forth by mere exhibitions 
 of marvellous power. This becomes quite evident 
 when we read the pathetic but apparently fruitless 
 appeals which, according to St. John's Gospel, 
 Christ sometimes addressed to the people. ' The 
 same works that I do bear witness of me that the 
 Father hath sent me.' 'If I do not the works of 
 my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though 
 ye believe not me, believe the works.' ' Believe me 
 for the very works' sake.' 
 
 Christ saw that the people who witnessed His 
 miracles perceived, as a rule, almost nothing but 
 the power made manifest in them, and He knew 
 that the manifestation of power was no guarantee 
 of goodness ; and so He was persuaded that 
 wonderful works did not of necessity compel even 
 those who beheld them to believe in Him. Instead 
 of working miracles, therefore, to produce faith, 
 He is often represented in the Gospels as demanding 
 faith as a condition of their being worked. ' He 
 did not many mighty works there because of their 
 unbelief.' ' Thy faith hath made thee whole.' 
 ' According to thy faith be it unto thee.' Now 
 if miracles could be so ineffective in the case of 
 those who beheld them, what can we expect
 
 92 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 from them in the case of those who did not see 
 them? 
 
 Quite obviously the Gospels do not give us a 
 complete account of the public ministry of Christ. 
 ' Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence 
 of his disciples which are not written in this book.' 
 And the words and incidents recorded in the 
 Gospels were not narrated in such a way as to 
 anticipate every difficulty which may occur to critics 
 and scientific men in these days. Neither shorthand 
 writers nor photographic artists accompanied the 
 Saviour by the way, and the narratives about 
 Christ's wonderful works do not come to us verified 
 and certified by a committee of experts. The 
 Gospels seem to be short sketches meant for popular 
 use, written by and for people to whom any extra- 
 ordinary occurrence viewed in the light of Divine 
 Providence was a miracle people who were con- 
 vinced that God lives and reigns and works and 
 interposes in behalf of His kingdom, but who 
 had neither our conception of the universality and 
 invariability of Nature's laws, nor our knowledge 
 of what is possible and what impossible. More- 
 over, the Gospels were written with a pur- 
 pose. ' 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 Gospels were written in such a way 
 as to make upon their readers, so far as short 
 carefully arranged memoirs could do it, an im- 
 pression similar to that which was made by Jesus 
 Himself upon those who were privileged to behold 
 Him, and who had eyes wherewith to see.
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 93 
 
 And who will say that the Evangelists have failed 
 in their attempt? In the Gospels there may be 
 differences here and there as to points of detail, and 
 as to the setting of several incidents differences 
 which under the circumstances we naturally expect 
 to find, and which, in very truth, point to the inde- 
 pendence and worth of their testimony. But one 
 thing is obvious, there is no difference in the Portrait 
 which the Evangelists draw. " The general impres- 
 sion which they create the impression of a unique 
 Personality is the same everywhere." 
 
 The facts of human nature which make religion a 
 possibility and a necessity for man are spiritual 
 facts. ' They that be whole need not a physician, 
 but they that are sick.' ' I am not come to call the 
 righteous, but sinners to repentance.' And Christ's 
 invitation is addressed to the unlettered as well as to 
 the learned, to the simple as well as to the wise. 
 He makes His appeal not so much to the conscious 
 reason as to that complex of moral feelings which 
 we call conscience. But this does not mean that 
 Christianity is a plant which flourishes only on the 
 soil of human ignorance. For feeling cannot exist 
 without some degree of knowledge. We cannot, 
 for example, love that which we do not in some 
 wise know. We may take it for granted, therefore, 
 that what we call conscience has always underlying 
 it, and bound up with it, a knowledge which, how- 
 ever, may be incipient a reason which may to a 
 great extent be unconscious, reflecting little if at all 
 upon its own operations. 
 
 The Incarnation is a spiritual fact : and spiritual 
 things must be spiritually discerned. The great
 
 94 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 aim of the Gospels is to bring us into the presence 
 of a Unique Personality, a Divine Man, the Son of 
 God, the Light of the World, the Life of Men, in 
 order that we may become possessors of that 
 spiritual, divine, eternal life which was the possession 
 and is the gift of Christ a gift which is offered 
 unto us, and which we are earnestly entreated to 
 make our own. And whatever we may think of 
 the Gospels in this direction or in that, they do 
 accomplish the aim and realise the purpose of their 
 writers. Swiftly but surely they bring us into the 
 strangely impressive presence of the Divine Man 
 who, realising in all their fulness His Divine Son- 
 ship and His Human Brotherhood, lived the truest, 
 highest, noblest life possible to man the life spiritual, 
 divine, eternal the life to which we all are called 
 of God. 
 
 And when we respond to the invitation of Christ, 
 and make our own the life to which He calls us 
 the life of faith in God, love to God, devotion to 
 God the life which is hid with Christ in God the 
 life which assures us of immortality and makes us 
 more than conquerors through Him that loved us 
 we feel under no obligation and possessed of no 
 inclination to put a stumbling-block in a brother's 
 way by assigning to miracles a place in the Christian 
 Evidences to which they are not entitled. Moreover, 
 we are then better able to appreciate the arguments 
 produced by those who maintain that the Gospel 
 reports with regard to the deeds of Christ are, even 
 when taken literally, well nigh as credible as those 
 with regard to His words. 
 
 These arguments may be put as follows :
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 95 
 
 1. The Gospels everywhere state that the intro- 
 duction of Christianity by Christ was accompanied 
 by wonderful deeds called 'signs' or 'mighty works' : 
 and there are many considerations which point to 
 the probable truthfulness of the Gospel statements. 
 
 The Jews rejected Christ not because, in their 
 opinion, He did no wonderful works, but because 
 the wonderful works done by Him were not, in 
 their belief, equal to His pretensions. They were 
 not sufficiently great and startling for one pretending 
 to be the Messiah and did He not claim to be the 
 Son of God ? Does not this imply that Jesus was 
 almost universally believed to have wrought many 
 wonderful works? 
 
 Again, the Jewish world in Christ's day had not 
 our belief with regard to the reign of law. They 
 believed in the possibility of miraculous phenomena, 
 and they were convinced that wonder workers had 
 often appeared among them. Any one, therefore, 
 who wished to gain a hearing among the Jews must 
 be prepared to do what, as they believed, they had 
 seen many others doing. How in such an age and 
 among such a people was it possible for Christ to 
 arrest attention and to have His claims considered, 
 if He was not prepared to walk in the footsteps of 
 the wonder workers whom they had seen ? 
 
 2. Some of the miracles ascribed to Christ in the 
 Gospels are merely deeds of healing which, however 
 marvellous they may be, cannot in our day be 
 regarded as miraculous. Christian science, faith- 
 healing, mind-curing, may come very far short of 
 what some of their adherents claim for them, but in 
 the opinion of men well qualified to judge there is
 
 96 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 sufficient evidence to show that a certain mental 
 attitude towards the universe, and a faithful adher- 
 ence to a certain philosophy of life have a tendency 
 to prevent certain diseases, to relieve sufferers from 
 certain ills, and even to delay the approach of death 
 to many a victim beyond the power of absolute cure. 
 
 We all know that mind can influence mind 
 and that the body can be influenced through 
 the mind. Faith, excitement, enthusiasm can make 
 people forget their sorrows ; yea, they have been 
 known to rid men of certain ailments and to cure 
 them of certain diseases. We are not surprised, 
 therefore, to find Dr. Mackintosh saying in his 
 Natural History of the Christian Religion : " Christ 
 may have cured or alleviated nervous and hysterical 
 complaints and mental derangements of various 
 kinds by a certain moral ascendency which he 
 gained over many who came within the sphere of 
 his influence. . . . The exalted state of feeling, the 
 sense of blissful awe produced in sensitive minds by 
 the voice and aspect of One whom they believed to 
 be a Teacher sent from God, the righteous shiver, the 
 sudden shock of emotion sent through their minds 
 by His passing shadow or even by the touch and 
 rustle of His garment, were enough to produce 
 wonderful effects within the area in which the moral 
 and physical nature of man act and react on each 
 other." 
 
 3. If Christ by His words, acts, looks, silences, 
 tears, and natural manifestations of wonderful power 
 produces upon us the impression which He made on 
 the people of His day, viz., that He is a unique 
 Personality, one in whom the wisdom and goodness
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 97 
 
 and love of God were revealed in a supreme degree ; 
 if we are convinced that Jesus was spiritually one 
 with God, and therefore a perfect source and channel 
 of Divine Light and Life ; is it not difficult for us to 
 keep from believing that the Divine Strength was 
 made perfect in His human weakness, and that it is 
 not wise of us to attempt to assign a limit to His 
 power ? 
 
 It is true that some of the wonderful works 
 ascribed to Christ in the Gospels cannot be classified 
 with deeds of healing, for they seem to be quite 
 inconsistent with our experience of the working of 
 law in the material world. And there are men who, 
 when they find it difficult to interpret such narra- 
 tives in a literal way, listen readily to critics who tell 
 us that the stream of pure tradition began to be 
 contaminated with foreign elements very near its 
 source, and who endeavour to explain how a nucleus 
 of simple fact, or figurative language used by our 
 Lord, or the influence of certain Old Testament pas- 
 sages, may have contributed to the rise of some of 
 these nature-miracle narratives. Some of these 
 attempts to explain the words of the Gospels are 
 interesting and suggestive, but few, if any, of them 
 are perfectly convincing. For even when we are 
 inclined to handle the Gospels with the utmost 
 severity it is difficult for us to get away from the 
 conviction that they are far from being valueless 
 as sources of history. However critical may be 
 the attitude assumed by us whenever the word 
 miracle is mentioned, it is hard for us to keep from 
 believing that the Gospel narratives with regard to 
 the miracles correspond at least in some way, how- 
 
 G
 
 98 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 ever imperfectly, to remarkable facts in the life of 
 our Saviour facts which had arrested general 
 attention, and were well known in Palestine. Are 
 we not almost compelled to believe that there is 
 much more in the nature-miracle narratives of Scrip- 
 ture than many in these days are inclined to imagine 
 when we put to ourselves the question, What think ye 
 of Christ ? what think ye of Him to whom we are 
 indebted for Christianity and Christendom ? And 
 when we find ourselves constrained to say that He 
 was a Unique Personality a Person in whom the 
 Divine Power, as well as the Divine Wisdom and 
 Love, was made manifest in a transcending degree. 
 
 4. When we think, as many now seem inclined to 
 do, more of the unity than of the uniformity of 
 nature, we see the universe to be a coherent whole, 
 " whose elements are intimately bound together by 
 the mutual ministrations of all to each and each to 
 all." And this view of things leads to the convic- 
 tion that nature is rooted and grounded in Spirit. 
 Hence comes the idea that nature is the expression 
 or manifestation of Spirit yea, that nature is Spirit. 
 
 Now, when we reach this exalted conception of 
 the universe the difficulty about miracles becomes 
 infinitely less than formerly it was. For if Spirit be 
 at the root of all things, why should not the processes 
 of nature be modified " for an adequate spiritual 
 end " ? 
 
 We are free agents, and just because we are such 
 we can interest ourselves in particular things, and we 
 can do much to realise our wishes. As we live in 
 this world, we are indeed constantly changing, for the 
 accomplishment of our ends, the natural trend of the
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 99 
 
 forces that play around us and upon us. Iron is 
 heavier than water ; but we can build large steel 
 ships and load them with thousands of tons of cargo 
 and make them sail swiftly over the sea. 
 
 And if man can act in this fashion, why may not 
 God, in His own far greater fashion ? If every act of 
 ours introduces something new into the sequence of 
 material and organic forces, why may not God also 
 intervene and mould, when so He wills, the solid 
 course of physical change and consequence, and that 
 too without violating any of nature's laws ? 
 
 I know, of course, that in these days there are 
 two kinds of supernaturalists. 
 
 On the one hand, there are the " refined " or 
 " universalistic " supernaturalists the class to which 
 most philosophers belong. They see God every- 
 where, but nowhere in particular. They find God 
 working everywhere, and yet at no single point in 
 all the universe is there any sign of special divine 
 intervention. They see God more clearly in the 
 orderly course of nature than in any unexpected and 
 wayward phenomenon. They say, with Martineau, 
 that " the customs of Heaven ought surely to be 
 more sacred in our eyes than its anomalies : the 
 dear old ways of which the Most High is never tired 
 than the strange things which He does not love well 
 enough ever to repeat." 
 
 And yet these men may have no leanings towards 
 what is called Naturalism. On the contrary, many 
 of them have an increased sense of the reality of the 
 supernatural. They believe that a spiritual interpre- 
 tation of things is ultimately the only rational one, 
 that the laws of nature are the ways of the Spirit
 
 ioo ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 
 
 who utters Himself through the forms of nature, and 
 that the most unique and wonderful things in nature 
 are " the exceptional births and workings of nature 
 moulded by the unknown powers of Spirit." 
 
 How closely related, after all, such men are to 
 that more common class of supernaturalists to whom 
 the epithet " piecemeal " has been applied. 
 
 The latter have no difficulty in believing in divine 
 interventions. They think that God interests Him- 
 self not merely in the world as a whole, but also in 
 the details that go to make the whole yea, that He 
 interests Himself in the whole by interesting Himself 
 in the parts. They believe that at certain points, 
 for certain reasons, God bursts in upon the world's 
 phenomena. 
 
 " Both instinctively and for logical reasons," says 
 Professor William James, " I find it hard to believe 
 that principles can exist which make no difference 
 to facts. But all facts are particular facts, and the 
 whole interest of the question of God's existence 
 seems to lie in the consequences for particulars 
 which that existence may be expected to entail. 
 That no concrete particular of experience should 
 alter its complexion in consequence of God's being 
 there seems to me an incredible proposition." 
 
 And this leads me to say that the position which 
 is thus possible to a speculative philosopher reason- 
 ing from a priori grounds is in these days being 
 made more tenable by our increasing scientific know- 
 ledge, which is swiftly opening our eyes to the fact 
 that there are more things in nature than were 
 formerly dreamt of by scientific men. " No pro- 
 cedure," says W. H. Mallock, " is more essentially
 
 ATTITUDE OF ENLIGHTENED GREEKS. 101 
 
 unscientific than to assume that no process actually 
 takes place in the universe other than those which 
 science in some formal manner has recognised. 
 Indeed, every fresh discovery which science makes 
 shows that the constitution of things, as potentially 
 amenable to inquiry, is complex to a degree inde- 
 finitely beyond our present knowledge ; and this is 
 especially true of the processes which are imme- 
 diately concerned with life. Our modern knowledge 
 of electricity, of the ether, and of the X rays 
 constitutes a warning against any undue haste in 
 dismissing facts as incredible merely because they 
 are new and strange."
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE INCARNATION; THE POSSIBILITY 
 OF IT, AND THE NECESSITY FOR IT. 
 
 Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness : God was 
 manifest in the flesh (i Tim. iii. 16). 
 
 God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to 
 redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
 of sons (Gal. iv. 4, 5). 
 
 WITH Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 
 eleventh century, the great question, was, Cur 
 Deus homo ? Why did God become man ? But 
 in our day the question which most seriously 
 perplexes many is the prior one, Deusne homo ? 
 Did God become man ? If so, in what manner, 
 Quomodo Deus homo ? 
 
 Now, when we are considering this subject we 
 must not make a mistake with regard to the kind 
 of proof which alone is possible here. " A demon- 
 stration of the supernatural is an impossibility ; 
 it is a contradiction in terms. . . . The facts 
 which we allege as evidence of the supernatural, 
 such as miracles and prophecy, are themselves 
 supernatural, and our adducing them as such in 
 proof of the supernatural is a mere begging of 
 the question in dispute. The supernatural is not
 
 THE INCARNATION. 103 
 
 to be demonstrated ; it is to be felt ; it does not 
 prove itself to sense ; it reveals itself to faith." 
 These words of the late Archbishop Magee serve 
 to remind us of the fact that the manifestation 
 of Himself which God has given us in Jesus 
 Christ is one that is, so far as such a thing can 
 be, perfectly natural and intelligible. For here 
 as elsewhere though more perfectly than else- 
 where the divine is revealed to us in and through 
 the human, the spiritual in and through the material, 
 the supernatural in and through the natural. And 
 if in the preparation of the world for Christ, or 
 in the Person and life and teaching of Christ, or in 
 the consequences that followed in the train of 
 Christ, we cannot perceive the divine in the human, 
 God in man, then any merely external proof 
 such as miracles will be unable to prove the 
 divinity of Christ, much less to bring this great 
 truth home to us in such wise that we may pass 
 under the power and pressure of it. 
 
 The great difficulty which many have in con- 
 nection with the Incarnation arises from the fact 
 that we are so prone to think of it as an isolated 
 event, a strange freak of the supernatural, uncon- 
 nected with everything that preceded it in history 
 and in human life, and destitute of relationship with 
 that which obviously resulted from it, viz., the 
 Church which was founded by Christ, which in 
 accordance with His promise has survived the ages, 
 and which to-day is healthier, stronger, and more 
 active than ever it was before. 
 
 But we cannot have a true understanding of 
 the Incarnation when we look at it in this way.
 
 104 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 And Scripture distinctly tells us that we are 
 not to think of it after this fashion. 
 
 Christ came when the world was prepared for 
 His coming. And when He came He ' took upon 
 him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
 likeness of men : and being found in fashion as 
 a man, he humbled himself.' We are thus told 
 that Christ's Incarnation was a voluntary self- 
 limitation of Himself for purposes of love to man. 
 But otherwise we know that Christ lived and 
 suffered and died for the eternal good of men, and 
 that while He lived He was under the conditions 
 and limitations of humanity conditions and limita- 
 tions which, whatever their effect in other directions, 
 did not seem to interfere with His full union and 
 communion with God, His thorough discernment 
 of the human heart, and His perfect knowledge of 
 spiritual truth. 
 
 ' When the fulness of time was come, God sent 
 forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
 the law.' 
 
 But just because Christ assumed the form of frail 
 mortality, and came into a world that was prepared 
 for His coming, Christianity always has been, and 
 possibly always will be, liable to what we may 
 call a merely naturalistic explanation. ' We have 
 this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency 
 of the power may be of God and not of us.' But 
 men have devoted so much attention to the earthen 
 vessels that they have been apt to overlook the 
 treasure which they contain. God's strength was 
 made perfect in the human weakness of Jesus, but 
 many have been so absorbed in the contemplation
 
 THE INCARNATION. 105 
 
 of this human weakness that they have often failed 
 to perceive the divine strength that was revealed in 
 and through it. God often accomplishes the most 
 wonderful results by means and instruments which 
 in themselves are weak and ineffective, but we shut 
 our eyes to this fact, and many are consequently 
 unable to understand the meaning and significance 
 of the words of St. Paul, ' the foolishness of God is 
 wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger 
 than men.' 
 
 The most obvious fact about Christ was His 
 humanity ; but there is nothing in this fact incon- 
 sistent with the truth brought out in the words, 
 ' God sent forth his Son/ ' God was in Christ.' For 
 if we can find the Infinite in the finite, the super- 
 natural in the natural, we surely need not be 
 surprised to find God in man, who is the greatest 
 of all the creatures of God the one who was made 
 in the image of God, and who still retains some 
 outline of that image, however far he may now be 
 from that ideal life which was meant for him. 
 
 We often use the phrases " a mere man," " the 
 natural man," but we sometimes use them carelessly 
 and without a proper regard to their true meaning. 
 Mere man does not mean mere animal, for every 
 man has gifts, powers, faculties which animals do 
 not possess. The natural man is one who has so 
 neglected the cultivation of his spiritual nature that 
 the lower elements in his being have supreme control 
 in his life. But we have no right to assume that 
 there is no spark of life divine in comparatively 
 unspiritual men, for even men fast bound in the 
 chains of sin often feel inclined to give utterance
 
 1 06 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 to these words, ' the good that I would, I do not : 
 but the evil which I would not, that I do. 1 
 
 " Down in the human heart crushed by the Tempter, 
 Feelings lie buried that grace can restore." 
 
 Yes, grace can restore these feelings, and grace 
 alone can restore them. But they are there for 
 restoration. Although crushed they are not utterly 
 destroyed ; although buried they are not wholly 
 dead. Is there a man was there ever a man wholly 
 destitute of every spark of the life divine ? " Look 
 into your own souls," says Bishop Lightfoot, " and 
 what do you find there ? Yes, ye yourselves are the 
 temples of the Living God. He is there, there, 
 whether you will or not. Through your reason, 
 through your conscience, through your remorse and 
 regrets, through your capacity of amendment, through 
 your aspirations and ideals He speaks to you. You 
 are His coinage. His image and superscription are 
 stamped upon you." Verily we are greater than we 
 know, and we have been more highly favoured than 
 we are apt at times to imagine. Even the natural 
 man may not be wholly destitute of spiritual life ; 
 and God is nearer to those who are His than even 
 faithful Christians appear at times to realise. Now, 
 if we are temples of God, if God dwells in us, except 
 we be reprobates, if His Presence is specially vouch- 
 safed to those who are God-fearing and holy, then 
 in a most unique sense must it be true that God was 
 in our Lord and Master, for in the pure heart of 
 Jesus God must have found a peculiarly fitting 
 abode, and the life lived by Christ and the words 
 spoken by Him and the works done by Him clearly
 
 THE INCARNATION. 107 
 
 show that as He dwelt in no other, God must have 
 dwelt in Him. 
 
 The question is sometimes asked, Was Redemp- 
 tion an after-thought on God's part an arbitrary 
 expedient suddenly resorted to when unexpected 
 circumstances had arisen which called for drastic 
 measures? Would, indeed, Christ have ever taber- 
 nacled amongst men if man had never fallen from 
 the estate wherein he was created ? As every one 
 knows, hypothetical questions are, as a rule, more 
 interesting than useful. And of all hypothetical 
 problems this is one of the least practical. For 
 whatever answer be given to this question, we can 
 never verify its truthfulness, and we cannot test it 
 because we cannot reproduce the circumstances pre- 
 supposed in the question. The world can never 
 be what it would have been if man had never 
 sinned. 
 
 It is difficult for us to think of the incarnation of 
 the Son of God as wholly and solely conditioned by 
 human sin. Does not such a view of things con- 
 strain us to believe that it is a good thing for us that 
 man has sinned ? Is not sin, on this supposition, a 
 fortunate and blessed thing, seeing it has procured 
 for us so great a Saviour and such a marvellous 
 manifestation of the divine love and mercy ? " O 
 felix culpa quae talem ac tantum meruit habere 
 redemptorem ! " And yet if man had never sinned 
 there would have been no passion of Christ and no 
 death on Calvary, for these were obviously brought 
 about by the sin of man. And is it not difficult for 
 us to see how, without the sufferings and death of 
 Christ, we could have attained unto that knowledge
 
 io8 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 of God's love, which is to us " the most immediately 
 impressive and soul-subduing " His infinite compas- 
 sion for sinners and His unquenchable desire for 
 their salvation ? for these were realised and revealed 
 to us in the sufferings and death of Christ. 
 
 Nevertheless, if man had never fallen it might, 
 some think, have been necessary for the Son of 
 God to become man, for innocence is not holiness : 
 it is good unrealised. And the absence of sin 
 is not the same as the presence of innumerable 
 virtues trained to the utmost. And so for the 
 further perfection of man and for his growth in 
 grace, it might have been necessary for God to 
 grant to man the privilege of a nearer and fuller 
 revelation of His character and His will. The 
 pure in heart shall see God, but if, as certain 
 passages of Scripture would seem to suggest, there 
 are to be degrees of glory in Heaven, why could 
 there not have been on earth degrees of perfection, 
 even supposing man had remained entirely free from 
 sin? And does not the Word of God speak of Christ 
 as the end as well as the beginning of creation as the 
 goal and crown of the universe as well as its creative 
 agent as the One in whom alone God's purposes in 
 creation are completely realised ? And are not all 
 these assertions in harmony with the supposition 
 that Christ might have been born into the world 
 even supposing man had never sinned ? 
 
 But we never dream of troubling ourselves with 
 such questions when we think of creation as a Reve- 
 lation of God : a revelation more clearly seen in the 
 intelligence and conscience and virtues of good men 
 than in anything to be found in the vegetable or
 
 THE INCARNATION. 109 
 
 animal world : a revelation which finds its highest 
 realisation in Him who is the perfect pattern of 
 what our human life should be. We never think of 
 troubling ourselves with such questions when we 
 remember that God's purposes of love to man must 
 in the end be carried out : else were He not the 
 Creator and Ruler of all the greatest as well as 
 the best in all the world. The possibility of sin 
 on man's part, therefore, naturally involves the ex- 
 istence and, in God's good time, the activity of a 
 Saviour who is abundantly ' sufficient for these 
 things.' 
 
 Does it not indeed almost seem as if Atonement, 
 At-one-ment, Reconciliation were eternal, " in- 
 wrought into the nature of things, for the merging of 
 earth's discords in the triumphant revelation of God 
 as all in all ? " 
 
 Ever since the first origin of evil in the world 
 God has been working powerfully for the good of 
 man. 
 
 We were made for holiness and not for sin, and 
 our God-given nature is such that it is well-nigh im- 
 possible for a simple and unsophisticated man to sin 
 without being the possessor of thoughts and feelings 
 which tend to bring him back into, and to urge him 
 on in, the way of God's will for Him. God has 
 always been revealing His righteousness through 
 the ways of Providence, the rise and fall of nations, 
 the movements of society, the incidents and accidents 
 in the lives of men. When God's judgments are in 
 the earth the inhabitants of the world are taught 
 righteousness. The conscience of man has ever 
 borne testimony to the righteous laws of God. ' For
 
 i io THE INCARNATION. 
 
 when the Gentiles which have not the law do by 
 nature the things contained in the law, these having 
 not the law are a law unto themselves, which show 
 the work of the law written in their hearts, their 
 conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts 
 the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.' 
 The spirit of truth in man, our sense of right, our 
 love and pity and generosity, our heavenly aspira- 
 tions, our yearnings for a life completely free from 
 sin what are these but the indications of the 
 Presence and the Power of that Spirit of God that is 
 for ever moving around and within our souls, re- 
 proving us of sin and righteousness and judgment, 
 revealing to us the awful obligations of duty and 
 purity, and holiness, and " illuminating our con- 
 sciences with higher and holier thoughts of God ? " 
 In the inspired Prophets of the Lord, who were 
 terribly alive to the righteousness and holiness of 
 God, and who were for ever calling upon men to live 
 soberly and righteously before God, and in all 
 humble and God-fearing men and women whose 
 pious and holy lives have commended them to the 
 best and deepest instincts of our nature, we have a 
 revelation of God that must be fruitful for good to 
 all those who are able to discern it. 
 
 Now, when we think of these things after this 
 fashion the transition to Christ is not so difficult. 
 We then see that Christ came in the line of the 
 Prophets and of all the best and wisest men in the 
 preceding ages. " It is," says Principal Caird, " a 
 conception of the divine order of the world not less 
 shallow than irreverent which regards the religious 
 experience of the pre-Christian ages only in the
 
 THE INCARNATION. in 
 
 light of an abortive experiment, and represents 
 uncounted generations of the human race as having 
 being utilised by Providence merely to prove man's 
 spiritual incapacity and ineptitude." 
 
 To understand the necessity for the Incarnation it 
 is above all things necessary to bear in mind the 
 relative importance of things material and things 
 spiritual. ' That is not first which is spiritual but 
 that which is natural, and afterward that which is 
 spiritual.' These words remind us of the relative 
 importance of the material and the spiritual, but in 
 so doing they bring before us the order or sequence 
 in accordance with which the material and the 
 spiritual come into visible prominence. They tell us 
 that the material leads up to and terminates in the 
 spiritual, which, it is to be remembered, is the flower 
 and crown of the material. 
 
 The truthfulness of this is apparent both in nature 
 and in human life. 
 
 Those who can read the book of History which is 
 written on the rocks tell us that long ages had to 
 elapse before that life of any kind was possible upon 
 the earth, and that when it did appear it manifested 
 itself in simpler forms which gradually led up to the 
 higher, assuming at last its highest and noblest 
 form in the life of man. First we have the lifeless 
 earth, and then we have living organisms : vegetable 
 and animal life terminating in the life of man. 
 The introduction of life, the principle of growth and 
 fertility, distinguishes the organic world from the 
 inorganic which underlies and supports it. The 
 introduction of sensation, or the sentient and appe- 
 titive principle, marks off the life of the animal from
 
 ii2 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 the life of the plant : while reason and freedom and 
 self-determination and the moral life draw a line of 
 distinction between man and the animals. There is 
 thus in nature a progressive order in the develop- 
 ment of life, each stage being clearly marked off 
 from and yet closely connected with the one be- 
 neath it, each stage underlying and preparing the 
 way for one above it, where a newer and higher 
 principle of life is introduced into the existent and 
 natural order of things. 
 
 And when we look at the life of man we see it to 
 be a law of his being that the natural should lead up 
 to and terminate in the spiritual. Our intellectual 
 and moral faculties are the last to be developed. At 
 first we are met by the demands of our bodily nature, 
 and so our appetites and senses are exercised first of 
 all, and at the beginning almost solely. But by and 
 by the intelligence and the conscience make them- 
 selves manifest, and the soul with its marvellous 
 powers and infinite aspirations shows us that man is 
 above all things a spiritual being. ' When I was a 
 child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I 
 thought as a child : but when I became a man I put 
 away childish things.' " What a piece of work is 
 man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! 
 in form and moving how express and admirable ! in 
 action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like 
 a god ! " How the spiritual grew out of the natural ; 
 what were the steps in the process by which man has 
 become what he is, we may not exactly know. 
 But this we do know, and this we should carefully 
 remember, man is the flower and crown of all visible 
 created things.
 
 THE INCARNATION. 113 
 
 " There is," says Professor Hugh Walker, " a gulf 
 never satisfactorily bridged between ethical principles 
 as gradually evolved out of the non-moral state and 
 the " moral imperative " as it is felt by the human 
 conscience. Hence, the man of religion insists, 
 the necessity of being specific about that vague 
 Power dimly seen behind the philosophy of 
 evolution ; and hence the necessity, in the view 
 of the metaphysician, of regarding evolution from 
 above as well as from below. We learn much 
 by tracing things to their origin ; but to learn 
 all we must consider as well what they ultimately 
 become. It is, in fact, the final form that gives 
 importance to the question of origin." 
 
 It is true, indeed, that multitudes of men and 
 women live neglectful, to a greater or less extent, 
 of the fact that they are intellectual, moral, and 
 spiritual beings endowed with reason and conscience 
 which were meant to be the guides and regulators 
 of their lives. Instead of being masters of them- 
 selves, rulers of their own lives, they are slaves of 
 their senses, their appetites, their passions, their 
 desires. Only too often men and women live as 
 if the lower elements of their being were not only 
 the most important, but the only elements in their 
 nature; and so their spiritual nature is neglected 
 or crushed, and their noblest gifts and faculties 
 are destroyed, and they become total strangers to 
 those aspirations, high instincts, mysterious yearn- 
 ings which reach out beyond this passing world until 
 they lose themselves in the bliss of communion with 
 God. The make and structure of our being is not 
 for sin, but for holiness. ' As the hart panteth after 
 
 H
 
 114 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, 
 O God.' " Thou has made us," says St. Augustine, 
 " for Thyself, and our heart is ill at ease until it 
 find repose in Thee." Nevertheless man has been 
 endowed with moral freedom, and so he can, and 
 only too often does, cause evil things to be in 
 what was otherwise God's fair universe. Men talk 
 of the violations of Nature's laws which must be, 
 they think, involved in every miracle, but the 
 greatest, the most frequently repeated, yea the only 
 violation of Nature's laws of which we have any 
 experience is sin. God made man in His own 
 image, and righteousness was meant to be His 
 being's end and aim. Every sin we commit, there- 
 fore, is a violation of the true laws of our being, 
 which are in very truth real laws of Nature. And 
 as moral and spiritual interests are for us of in- 
 finitely more importance than material interests, it 
 is easy to see how it is that the havoc wrought in 
 this world by the sins of thoughtless and wicked 
 men is of the most serious character. God is our 
 absolute Lord and infinite benefactor, and sin is 
 rebellion against God. God is holy, and as evil 
 is the opposite of holiness there is to God in all 
 this world nothing so horrible as sin. Sin is the 
 greatest evil which can happen to any man, and 
 no amount of material advantage should weigh 
 with an honest man against his moral degradation. 
 ' What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole 
 world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man 
 give in exchange for his soul?' 
 
 Need we be surprised, therefore, when it is asserted 
 that God found it necessary to interfere in His
 
 THE INCARNATION. 115 
 
 own wise and rational way in and among the affairs 
 of men ? to specially manifest Himself to men who 
 were so prone to ignore Him ? to reveal plainly and 
 unmistakably His true nature and character to men 
 who were so apt to have false and erroneous beliefs 
 with regard to Him ? to make sinful men alive to 
 the true design of their being, and to supply the 
 means whereby they could be enabled to realise it ? 
 We are spiritual beings, and we could not believe 
 in a God who thought more of matter than of the 
 souls of men. Whatever we may think of the 
 cosmic order and of the sequence of cause and effect, 
 we could not believe in a God who is untouched 
 by the tragedies played on the stage of the human 
 heart " where the fierce lights of passion blaze." 
 
 And how could Christ have been our Example, 
 our Ideal, our Teacher, our Helper, if He had 
 been raised high above the ordinary conditions of 
 human life, and had passed through none of our 
 experiences ? How could He have been the great 
 Head of our redeemed humanity, the first Fruits 
 from the dead, our Representative with the Father, 
 our Intercessor with the Father, if He had not been 
 closely allied to us, bone of our bone and flesh of our 
 flesh ? ' Wherefore in all things it behoved him to 
 be made like unto his brethren, that he might be 
 a merciful and faithful high priest in things per- 
 taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins 
 of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered 
 being tempted, he is able to succour them that are 
 tempted.' 
 
 It is therefore quite in accordance with our 
 deepest thoughts and noblest feelings that Christ
 
 ii6 THE INCARNATION. 
 
 comes before us in the Gospel as a renewing power : 
 a Saviour from sin, striving to put right what has 
 been done amiss by man and to re-establish in 
 human life a harmony which has been destroyed or 
 marred by sin. 
 
 And so the life of Christ may well be thought of 
 as God's protest against man's blindness to Himself 
 as He is revealed in Nature and in Providence and 
 in the soul of man. Yea, it is a manifestation of 
 God's love and mercy towards men who are con- 
 tinually violating the laws of their own true nature, 
 and living neglectful of the fact that the material is 
 subservient to the moral and spiritual in man, and 
 who have forgotten the important truth that " the 
 object of living is to live well and to grow in 
 righteousness and in holiness and in nearness to 
 the perfection of God." And if in making this 
 protest and this Revelation the Gospel writers would 
 seem to represent God as violating the uniformity 
 of Nature, we must remember that this apparent 
 violation of Nature's laws is, even with them, in 
 the interests of a deeper law the law of the true 
 nature of man, the law of the righteousness of God, 
 the law of the moral order of the universe.
 
 IX. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 
 
 Man shall not live by bread alone (Matt. iv. 4). 
 He shall give thee the desires of thine heart (Ps. xxxvii. 4). 
 As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive 
 (I Cor. xv. 22). 
 
 THE Christian Church is a visible result of the 
 coming of Christ ; and there is, in the opinion of 
 many, no stronger argument in behalf of Chris- 
 tianity than the facts of the Church's history, its 
 origin and growth, the changes effected by Chris- 
 tianity on the convictions, the characters, the lives 
 of an ever-increasing number of men and women. 
 The Church owes its origin to Christ, and was 
 meant to be the abiding place on earth of the 
 Divine Spirit, the treasure house of God's grace, 
 the channel of God's gifts. It was to be the 
 home of God's saints, where they were to be 
 confirmed in the faith, trained in the Christian 
 life, and built up towards the life eternal by the 
 ministry of word and sacrament. It was to be 
 a city set on an hill, a light shining in a dark 
 place, an instrument for the effective working of
 
 ii8 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 God among men, a means for the conversion and 
 regeneration of the world. But the story of the 
 Church in its first days did not seem to be pro- 
 phetic of its future greatness and glory. When 
 Christ was crucified all His disciples forsook Him 
 and fled, and the penitent thief may be said to 
 have constituted the whole Christian Church in 
 himself. And nothing in the New Testament is 
 more remarkable than the quiet confidence with 
 which our Saviour predicted the future greatness 
 of His Church when as yet it had scarcely an 
 existence. Its founder said that the Church would 
 not fail, and it has not failed. He said that He 
 would be with it always, and He has fulfilled His 
 promise. The growth of the Church is fore- 
 shadowed in these words : ' The kingdom of 
 heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a 
 man took, and sowed in his field : which indeed is 
 the least of all seeds : but when it is grown, it is the 
 greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so 
 that the birds of the air come and lodge in the 
 branches thereof/ ' The kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three 
 measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.' 
 And the prophecy contained in these words has 
 been fulfilled. Truly marvellous has been the 
 progress made by the Church. Strangely wonder- 
 ful has been the influence which Christ has 
 exerted and even now exerts in the world. The 
 change which Christ wrought upon His disciples 
 and which was perfected only when He had gone 
 away, that same change has the unseen Christ 
 been working on men and women all down the
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 119 
 
 Christian ages ; and the effects of this working are 
 to be seen not merely in the number of those who 
 are consecrated to His service, or in that vast 
 multitude of men and women who to a greater 
 or less extent have learned of Him, but also in 
 the innumerable ameliorations, improvements, re- 
 forms, which in the course of the centuries have 
 been effected on the outward lot of man. 
 
 The history of the Church, it is true, has been 
 a troubled one. Over and over again there have 
 come up against her waves of what the world 
 thought disaster, but storm after storm she has 
 weathered and wave after wave she has sur- 
 mounted. Now her existence was threatened 
 from without and the great ones of earth per- 
 secuted her almost to death. And now great 
 danger came to her from within : for heresy arose 
 to weaken her, or schism came to shatter her, or 
 intellectual doubt killed her energies, or moral 
 corruption threatened her existence. But the 
 Divine Life and the Divine Spirit were in her and 
 they could not perish, and her grand faith and 
 noble aspirations and high ideals would not be 
 crushed out of her, and ' One Lord, one faith, 
 one baptism, one God, and Father of all ' was a 
 bond of union infinitely stronger than all the 
 forces that were making for division. And so, 
 notwithstanding all the dangers which menaced 
 her in the past, the Christian Church using the 
 word not in a sectarian manner, but in the broad 
 sense which regards unity of spirit, harmony of 
 aim and homogeneity of life as a more funda- 
 mental and essential unity than unity of organisa-
 
 120 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 tion is alive to-day, and, in spite of her present 
 difficulties and dangers, she is as earnest, active, and 
 successful as ever, adapting herself to the changes 
 necessitated by time, but trusting in her great Head 
 and looking forward with hope, with confidence, to 
 a success greater than she has yet achieved. 
 
 But the question arises, To what are we to 
 attribute the growth, yea, the origin of Christ's 
 Church on earth ? 
 
 The Church owes its origin to the impression 
 made by Christ on those who knew Him best of 
 all, and to the conviction of which they became 
 possessed a conviction which has not been im- 
 possible to men and women of the later genera- 
 tions a conviction towards which many in these 
 days have been favourably disposed by the Teach- 
 ing of Christ and by the fact that Christianity 
 answers to the true nature and fundamental needs 
 of man. 
 
 In what remains of this paper let us consider 
 how Christianity answers to the nature, the needs, 
 the aspirations, and the hopes of man. 
 
 Possessed as we are of a physical nature, with 
 its clamorous appetites and its innumerable bodily 
 needs, we are tempted at times to believe that man 
 is merely a superior kind of animal, living by bread 
 alone, and with no interest in anything save what 
 he can see and touch and taste.*J And yet in our 
 better moods we are certain that this is not a true 
 description of our nature and character. 
 
 " For what is man 
 
 If the chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more."
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 121 
 
 We know that we have a reason and a conscience 
 which ought to be our guide ; and we are all con- 
 scious, at least at times, of feelings, wishes, aspira- 
 tions which material things can never satisfy. We 
 all feel that we are capable of and meant for a 
 higher and nobler life than that of an animal : even 
 for a life guided by reason and conscience, a life of 
 faith, love, righteousness, holiness, a life of self- 
 denial and self-sacrifice for our own good and for 
 the good of our brethren ; and we all somehow or 
 other have a belief that no life can be at its best 
 or worthiest which is not after this pattern. ^ 
 
 Now, Christianity recognises the spiritual nature 
 of man. Even in the first chapter of Genesis we 
 read of our exalted origin : ' God created man in 
 his own image, in the image of God created he 
 him ; male and female created he them.' And 
 did not our blessed Lord and Master give utterance 
 to these words : ' Man shall not live by bread alone, 
 but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
 of God'? 'What is a man profited if he shall gain 
 the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what 
 shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ' 
 
 Moreover, our religion is a religion of faith in that 
 spiritual world whose centre and origin is God. 
 
 However much our senses may appear to ignore 
 or deny the existence of such a world, the deepest 
 and truest instincts of our being are in harmony 
 with this faith. Somehow or other we believe that 
 the supernatural is always present in the natural. 
 Behind what the outward eye sees we feel that there 
 is the great unseen. And so we think that if we 
 could only get behind the vesture by which God
 
 122 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 reveals and yet conceals Himself, if only we could 
 abolish the intervening medium which hides God 
 from our view, we would find ourselves in the 
 presence of a glory unspeakable. We are convinced 
 that somewhere within the wonderful temple of the 
 universe there is an inner temple, a holy of holies; 
 and we yearn for a fuller knowledge of that holy 
 place. 
 
 "O for a nearer insight into heaven, 
 
 More knowledge of the glory and the joy, 
 Which there unto the happy sons is given, 
 Their intercourse, their worship, their employ." 
 
 And to this desire of ours Christianity most provi- 
 dentially responds : not with full and detailed 
 information, it is true, for now we see through a 
 glass darkly, now we know in part. Nevertheless, 
 Christianity does respond to our yearning, giving 
 us an assurance which otherwise we could not have, 
 and telling us everything we require to know. 
 
 ' The things which are seen are temporal, but 
 the things which are not seen are eternal.' ' Eye 
 hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 into the heart of man, the things which God hath 
 prepared for them that love him.' 'The sufferings 
 of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' 
 ' There remaineth a rest for the people of God.' 
 ' They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
 more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any 
 heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the 
 throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
 living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes.'
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 123 
 
 But further, Christianity answers to the needs 
 of sinful man. And what is it which, above all 
 things, sinful man requires ? " What humanity 
 needs is to be saved from itself, its fallen and 
 perverted self: what it craves is to be left to itself." 
 What sinful man needs most of all is the assurance 
 of the divine forgiveness, a new heart, a soul so 
 thoroughly in love with the things that are just 
 and pure and true and holy and so certain of the 
 worth and of the final victory of these things, 
 that he is constrained and enabled thereby, in 
 spite of life's many and great temptations, to walk 
 with confidence in the straight path of duty, and 
 to follow on where Christ doth lead the way. 
 
 Our circumstances and surroundings mean much 
 to us, for they have an unmistakable effect upon 
 our hearts and lives. When, therefore, you change 
 for the better the outward lot of a man whose 
 surroundings are unfavourable to his growth in 
 grace and his increase in virtue, you do well, for 
 in blessing him outwardly you are, it may be, 
 making a contribution towards his moral and 
 spiritual prosperity. 
 
 Moreover, education is a matter of great moment 
 in a man's life, for, as we all know, much of the evil 
 in this world is, in great part, due to ignorance. 
 
 But the great and fundamental source of evil 
 in this world is the self-willed, selfish, sinful heart 
 of man ; and this, as every one admits, is not, of 
 necessity, re-made or even re-formed by a re-shaping 
 or re-arranging of our circumstances. You may 
 educate men, and place them in the most fortunate 
 circumstances, and yet they may continue to be
 
 124 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 the slaves of sin and the instruments of evil. The 
 inner, secret self, the unseen spiritual seat of thought 
 and desire and will, is not inevitably and always 
 affected by a change in our outward circumstances. 
 And so long as that inner self is unchanged, so 
 long as we are sinful and self-condemned, linked 
 fast to a guilty past and to an evil present, what the 
 better are we of any change that may be effected 
 in our surroundings ? 
 
 But change a sinful man's heart and you change 
 the whole world for him. Enable him to see the 
 beauty of holiness, and to love and to have con- 
 fidence in truth and goodness, and you have made 
 everything new for him. Give him the happiness, 
 the hopefulness, the confidence, and the strength 
 of those who are rejoicing in the consciousness of 
 the forgiveness and love of Him who first loved 
 us, who loves us still, and will always love us, 
 and that man has entered another world, where 
 " he breathes a lighter air, sees an intenser sunlight, 
 and moves to the impulses of a more generous 
 spirit." 
 
 Now, Christianity in this respect answers to the 
 greatest and most fundamental needs of man. By 
 revealing to us, in Christ, the length, breadth, 
 height, and depth of the love and mercy of Him 
 whose will it is that all men, even the chief of 
 sinners, should be saved, and who is ceaseless in 
 His efforts for the realisation of His loving purposes 
 towards man, the Gospel can touch and soften the 
 hardest hearts, can transform the lives that are 
 most accustomed to evil, and can so strengthen 
 and encourage us in holiness and well-doing that
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 125 
 
 we are afraid no longer of even the strongest 
 assaults of the Evil One. 
 
 And yet, strange to say, in the very act of 
 enabling us to perceive the lost ideal of our nature, 
 Christianity deepens within us the consciousness of 
 sin. ' Come unto me,' said Christ, ' all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest.' And yet the first thing which the coming 
 of Christ effected was to make careless, worldly, or 
 sinful men uneasy, restless, and dissatisfied with 
 themselves. The life which Christ lived stood up 
 in solitary grandeur before the eyes of men, and 
 it was in painful contrast with the life which they 
 were living. And so they were shaken out of 
 their carelessness and indifference, and they saw 
 and realised their imperfections and sins as they 
 had never realised them before, and they became 
 uneasy, uncomfortable, alarmed. 
 
 And as it was then, so it is now. The sense 
 of sin has never perhaps been altogether absent 
 from the heart of man, but it has been deepened 
 and intensified by Christianity. We cannot think 
 of Christ's absolute sinlessness and of His perfect 
 purity without realising the awful chasm that 
 separates us from Him. When we look on this 
 picture and on that we see at once that we have 
 failed to realise the design of our being, that we 
 have fallen from the estate wherein we were created, 
 and that we have grievously sinned against the 
 Lord. What a world of meaning there is in the 
 simple words we repeat so often, ' If we say that 
 we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us.'
 
 126 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 But not only does the Gospel convince us of 
 our sin and show us what we ought to be, it 
 constrains and enables us to become that to which 
 we are called of the Lord. We may not like the 
 way in which what is called the doctrine of the 
 atonement is often stated, but we know that God 
 must of necessity hate sin, and we cannot help 
 believing that our sins separate between us and 
 Him whose approbation we earnestly desire. And 
 thinking of the displeasure of a righteous God, 
 our souls are disquieted within us, yea we are well 
 nigh driven to despair. Now, when this is our 
 condition, how is light to arise in the darkness ? 
 How is hope to come to our despairing souls ? 
 Words may then help us, but facts alone can bring 
 complete relief. Hope may be ours, when we are 
 told that God loves us in spite of our sins, and 
 that with Him there is forgiveness for all who are 
 truly penitent. But it is only when we see God 
 in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself that 
 our hope is transformed into certainty. " When," 
 says Harnack, "the Holy One descends to sinners, 
 when He lives with them and walks with them, 
 when he does not count them unworthy, but calls 
 them His brethren, when He saves them and dies 
 for them, then the terror of the awful judge melts 
 away, and they believe that the Holy One is Love, 
 and that there is something mightier still than 
 Justice Mercy." 
 
 If the Incarnation of Christ be the wise and 
 fitting means used by God for showing Himself as 
 He really is unto those who could not or would 
 not know Him aright, then the sufferings of Christ
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 127 
 
 are a profounder manifestation of God's love for 
 man, and a more thorough realisation of His 
 desire to save sinners than could have been pos- 
 sible otherwise : and the Cross is the culmination 
 of the sufferings of Christ the ultimate experience 
 in the sacrifice made for the salvation of sinners. 
 " On the Cross Christ suffered what was necessary 
 for the going forth of the divine forgiveness in all 
 its fulness to a sinful world, and for bringing to 
 bear upon it all those divine influences by which 
 alone its salvation can be secured." The Cross is 
 thus the measure of God's hatred of sin and of His 
 love of the sinner. It is the realisation and mani- 
 festation of that love for man which even death 
 could not conquer, that love by which the hearts of 
 sinful men are touched and renewed, that love by 
 which they are drawn away from their old sinful life 
 and constrained to live for Him who suffered for us, 
 leaving us an example that we should follow His 
 steps. When we remember that the sorrows and 
 sufferings of the Holy One and the Just were 
 willingly borne for our good, though they were 
 brought about by the sins of men, are not our 
 hearts melted within us, and do we not feel drawn 
 towards Him who hath done such great things 
 for us? And when we remember that Christ our 
 great Elder Brother, who is bone of our bone 
 and flesh of our flesh, has been completely vic- 
 torious over temptation and sin, and that He 
 appears before God as the Head of a redeemed 
 humanity, and the victorious leader of those who 
 are returning to the Father, do we not feel as if 
 we had part and lot in an offering with which
 
 128 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 God must be well pleased, for it is a harvest of 
 souls that can come to an end only when man 
 has ceased to live upon the earth ? 
 
 It is only, as it were, from a distance that even 
 the best and wisest of men can obtain a glimpse 
 of the truth on this great subject, but we neces- 
 sarily miss much when we fail to bear carefully in 
 mind the great fact of the solidarity of humanity. 
 
 We make a mistake when we look upon ourselves 
 as isolated individuals, living a life wholly un- 
 connected with the lives of others, a life in which 
 we are unindebted to those who have gone before 
 us, and uninfluenced by those who are round 
 about us. 
 
 Doubtless every man has a distinct and separate 
 personality of his own, a freedom of action which 
 is undoubted, and a responsibility which cannot be 
 denied. Our lives are practically in our own 
 keeping, and to an unlimited extent we can make 
 or mar them. 
 
 Nevertheless, the human race is one. For good 
 or evil we are closely linked together, and innumer- 
 able multitudes of the dead and of the living have 
 had something to do with the forming of every 
 individual character and with the shaping of every 
 individual life. 
 
 After all, we are the sons of our fathers, the 
 descendants of our ancestors, the heirs of the past, 
 the inheritors of what has come down to us, the 
 outcome of our circumstances and surroundings. 
 " Old faces long buried look out of our eyes ; voices 
 from out of forgotten and unknown graves speak 
 through our lips." Hereditary features, hereditary
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 129 
 
 tendencies, hereditary characteristics ; who has not 
 noticed the existence of these things in those whom 
 we know best of all ? 
 
 The negative side of this great truth is apparent 
 to every one. 
 
 It is often because the fathers have eaten sour 
 grapes that the children's teeth are set on edge. 
 It is true that sin is never our sin, or sin for which 
 we are to be blamed, until we have given way to it 
 and made it our own. Nevertheless, there may be 
 in us a taint or tendency, a weakness or wilfulness 
 which we have inherited from those who have gone 
 before us, and which predisposes us to deeds of 
 sin. Moreover, the evil done by men lives after 
 them, and the thoughtlessness, the folly, the sinful- 
 ness of the fathers may involve the children and 
 the children's children in sorrow, mischief, and 
 disaster. And we all know that men and women 
 are often subjected to suffering and loss through 
 the thoughtlessness, the selfishness, and the sinful- 
 ness of others. Subtract from the sum total of 
 our life's account the injuries directly or indirectly 
 inflicted upon us by our fellowmen, and what 
 reason would there be for the great majority of 
 our murmurs and complaints? Nor does faith or 
 piety or goodness exempt a man from the hostility 
 of the worldly and the sinful. On the contrary, just 
 because the spirit of the world is opposed to the 
 spirit of faith and goodness, just because lies are in 
 every case antagonistic to truth, the hatred of sinful 
 men is often manifested in the most bitter and 
 determined manner towards those whose characters 
 and lives are altogether different from their own. 
 
 i
 
 130 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 But we must not overlook the fact that this 
 truth has a positive as well as a negative side. 
 And if we see the losses, we must not be blind to 
 the gains that come from heredity. 
 
 Good as well as evil comes to us from the 
 solidarity of humanity, from the fact that the human 
 race is one, and that the individual members of it 
 are closely bound together. In every domain of 
 life we are constantly face to face with the 
 blessings we have inherited from those who have 
 lived before us. A sweet disposition, a good 
 temper, unselfish inclinations ; do not these things 
 often seem to be inherited by us ? The extent to 
 which our country has been brought under cultiva- 
 tion, the wisdom of our laws, the worth of our system 
 of government, the mechanical inventions which we 
 owe to those who lived before us, the wealth of 
 literature which has been handed down to us 
 here, as elsewhere, we see the truth of the saying, 
 ' Others have laboured, and ye are entered into their 
 labours.' And in our ordinary daily experiences we 
 may all see something of the way in which the lives 
 of multitudes in every age are blessed by the un- 
 selfishness, the self-denial, the self-sacrifice of those 
 noble and devoted souls who consciously or uncon- 
 sciously are followers of Him who suffered for us. 
 Does it not indeed seem to be a fact pervading 
 all Nature, as well as all human life, that there 
 are results desirable, yea, absolutely necessary, which 
 can only be brought about by self-sacrifice, suffering, 
 decay, death ? 
 
 The hard rock has to be shattered and pul- 
 verised ere it can be the soil on which the
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 131 
 
 shrub will grow. The leaves of the trees have 
 to decay and die and fall, if we are to have 
 that rich and nutritious earth so necessary for 
 the support of vegetable life. ' Except a corn 
 of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
 alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' 
 The anguish and travail of the mother are the 
 condition of the child's life, and the self-sacrifice 
 of the parents is necessary for the proper up- 
 bringing of their children. To advance the well- 
 being, increase the happiness, extend the liberty, 
 add to the knowledge and heighten the virtue 
 of mankind this requires love, thought, toil, self- 
 denial, and self-sacrifice on the part of many men 
 and women. And ever and again for the accom- 
 plishing of some great end, for the carrying out 
 of some noble purpose, it would seem to be 
 expedient that one man should die for the people. 
 After all, it is not selfishness or self-assertion, 
 but self-sacrifice, which is the greatest power on 
 earth, " and the supreme act of sacrifice is 
 death." Hence it is that the blood of the 
 martyrs is the seed of the Church : and hence 
 it is that the life of Christ is " the archetype 
 of all true lives." 
 
 It is true that there are burdens so peculiarly 
 our own that each one must bear them for him- 
 self. If, for example, we are conscious of the 
 divine disapproval, the divine displeasure, the 
 divine wrath, it is because we ourselves have 
 sinned. However much the sin of another may 
 vex us and trouble us, it would not bring about 
 the consciousness in us of the divine wrath
 
 132 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 against us. " The stings of conscience, the 
 darkening of the moral perceptions, the extinction 
 of the light of purity in the soul, the hateful 
 bondage of evil passions, the bitterness of remorse, 
 the shrinking from hateful memories of the past, 
 the vague foreboding of the unknown future" 
 these terrible penalties, says Principal Caird, come 
 not to us from the iniquity of others, but follow 
 in the train of our own sin : and however much 
 we may be aided by the sympathy and the 
 help of others, each one of us, so far as such 
 things are concerned, has his own burden to 
 bear. 
 
 And yet even in reference to such things as 
 these, it may be said of Christ that He suffered 
 with us, and through us, and for us. 
 
 Christ had a fellow-feeling with us in our 
 infirmities, and He could not look on suffering 
 without suffering. From all frivolity and un- 
 earnestness His pure and sincere soul drew back 
 as with an instinctive recoil. To His divinely 
 wise mind blindness and thoughtlessness and folly 
 were a terrible vexation, and to His loving heart 
 worldliness and sin were a grief past understand- 
 ing. " Not only can a good man suffer for sin, 
 but," says Principal Caird, " it may be laid down 
 as a principle that he will suffer for it in propor- 
 tion to his goodness. Not only can the sinless 
 suffer for sin, but there are sufferings for sin which 
 only he who is himself sinless can in the fullest 
 measure undergo. It was possible for Him who 
 knew no sin to bear on His soul a burden of 
 humiliation, shame, sorrow for our sins, which in
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 133 
 
 one aspect of it was more profound and intense 
 than we could ever feel for ourselves." 
 
 And so Christ was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions and bruised for our iniquities. So truly, 
 indeed, did He bear our griefs and carry our 
 sorrows, and so surely was the chastisement of our 
 peace upon Him, that for a moment, in the closing 
 scene of His life, in the agony on the Cross, it 
 seemed as if the face of His Father was turned 
 away from Him. ' My God, my God, why hast 
 thou forsaken me?' He thus experienced all the 
 consequences of sin, though in them all He recog- 
 nised and honoured the justice and righteousness 
 of God's condemnation of sin. Yea, underlying 
 them all He clearly saw the love of God for men 
 who thoughtlessly or wilfully would destroy them- 
 selves by their sin. Our iniquities were thus laid 
 upon the Holy One and the Just, and the willing 
 manner in which He bore them, and the spirit of 
 perfect love to man which was revealed in His 
 profound sorrows and most tragic agonies, have 
 touched the hearts and opened the eyes of multi- 
 tudes of men and women, and have been the 
 means of binding them to Him in the sure bonds 
 of love and trust. Moreover, they have dispelled 
 the cloud of separation which sin caused to arise 
 between us and God, for they have given us the 
 assurance that a loving Father yearns and strives 
 for the return of every prodigal, and freely pardons 
 and willingly restores to His favour all in whom 
 is the earnest of better things to come in virtue 
 of their union with Him whose life was one of 
 perfect obedience to the will of God.
 
 134 CHRISTIANITY ANSWERS TO THE 
 
 And what a hopeful, helpful thing it is for us to 
 know that there is forgiveness even to the chief of 
 sinners. Does not such knowledge introduce into 
 the lives of the most sinful a transforming influence 
 which may renew their lives, and an upward current 
 which may carry them on to the haven they fain 
 would reach, the end they earnestly desire to see. 
 
 Yes, the Advent of Christ is a fresh start for the 
 human race a new beginning for the religious life 
 of man. By becoming bone of our bone and flesh 
 of our flesh Christ linked himself to humanity in 
 the closest possible way, and gave an upward impulse 
 to the life of man, so that we rise with Him into 
 newness of life. " God as man elevated humanity 
 from its own self-contempt," revealed to us the pos- 
 sibilities that lay hid in our being and infused new 
 aims, new motives, new desires, new hopes, new 
 energies into mankind. Yea, God as man has intro- 
 duced a new life into the world of men. ' I am come 
 that they might have life, and that they might have it 
 more abundantly.' And this new and more abundant 
 life ceased not when Christ passed away from the 
 earth, but has been poured down upon man through 
 the centuries, and still comes to us from Christ 
 through the new and living way which he conse- 
 crated and left open for ever through the sacred 
 portal which He opened and no man shutteth. 
 
 There is a solidarity in the human race : a solidarity 
 even in our salvation. 
 
 Say what we may of our individuality, we are 
 closely bound together. In innumerable ways we 
 influence each other for good or evil. Is it not a 
 blessed thing for us to know, therefore, that while
 
 NATURE AND THE NEEDS OF MAN. 135 
 
 the good suffer for the bad, the bad are greatly 
 blessed and benefited by the good that while the 
 race may be cursed through the sin of Adam, it is 
 blessed through the perfect righteousness of Christ. 
 ' As by one man's disobedience many were made 
 sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be 
 made righteous.' ' For as in Adam all die, even so 
 in Christ shall all be made alive.'
 
 X. 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life 
 (John vi. 63). 
 
 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it 
 be of God, or whether I speak of myself (John vii. 17). 
 
 WHEN we study the teaching of Christ we soon 
 perceive it to be thoroughly in harmony with the 
 nature and character ascribed to Christ in the 
 Gospels and in perfect accordance with fact and 
 reality. Is Catholic doctrine Bible Truth ? Is 
 Evangelical doctrine Bible Truth? Questions such 
 as these are naturally very interesting to many 
 people, but there is a much deeper and more 
 important question which we must not overlook, 
 Is Christian doctrine Divine Truth ? Is it in 
 accordance with the nature of things ? Is it true ? 
 Nothing is more remarkable than the extent to 
 which we can all verify in our lives the teaching of 
 Christ. Indeed one of the strongest and most 
 convincing proofs of the truthfulness of Christianity 
 is to be found in the experience of those who 
 have taken Christ at His word, and have responded 
 to His gracious invitations. Everywhere and always
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 137 
 
 they assure us that there is no life to be compared 
 with the life to which Christ calls us, and that there 
 are no such blessed experiences as those of the 
 faithful followers of the Lord. 
 
 It is true that at first some at least of Christ's 
 precepts are not very pleasing in the eyes of the 
 natural man. So long as we are convinced that the 
 things which we can see and touch and taste are 
 the most important, yea, the only important things 
 in the world so long as fortunate outward circum- 
 stances seem to us to be the only things worthy of our 
 consideration so long as the blessedness of having 
 plenty and of being environed with what must 
 minister to pleasure, is the only blessedness of which 
 we can dream for so long must many of the pre- 
 cepts of Christ appear to us to be doubtful, if not 
 absurd. But sooner or later our experience of life 
 must make such a position impossible for us. For 
 the things which are seen are temporal, and sooner 
 or later there must come a time when we pass from 
 them or they from us. Sooner or later we begin 
 to surmise that there are more things in heaven 
 and in earth than are dreamt of in the philosophies 
 of worldly men. Sooner or later the eye is not 
 satisfied with seeing and the ear is not satisfied with 
 hearing, and men begin to ask the question, ' What is 
 a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul ? ' Now, when light from another 
 world thus breaks in upon us and when our worldly 
 or sinful life becomes to us a weariness, a burden, a 
 pain, there is nothing better for us to do than simply 
 to respond to the words of Christ, ' come unto me,' 
 ' learn of me,' ' follow me.'
 
 138 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 When we go to Christ and learn of Him we are 
 undisturbed by those things which are constantly 
 destroying the peace and happiness of ordinary 
 men. 
 
 ' Blessed are the meek,' says Christ, and when we 
 are meek and lowly we are unaffected by those 
 humiliations that destroy the happiness of those who 
 are proud and self-satisfied. 
 
 ' Love your enemies,' says Christ, ' bless them that 
 curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
 pray for them which despitefully use you, and 
 persecute you.' How very irrational this precept 
 seems to be. And yet it is only when we abound 
 in love to our neighbour that we see the possibilities 
 of good which lie hid in him ; and only then are we 
 able to live and labour for the highest good of men, 
 undeterred by the weaknesses, imperfections, sins 
 which make themselves manifest in their lives. 
 
 ' Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and 
 persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil 
 against you falsely for my sake.' When our Saviour 
 gave utterance to these words He did not mean 
 to say that there is some peculiar virtue or blessed- 
 ness in the mere fact of being persecuted. He 
 here speaks of the inner satisfaction that comes to 
 all faithful souls from zealous labour in a worthy 
 cause, notwithstanding all the difficulties and 
 troubles wherewith their efforts may be attended. 
 Is there no pleasure to the noble soul in the 
 consciousness of having done one's duty when it 
 was difficult, or in being victorious over temptations 
 which seemed destined to draw us into sin ? Is 
 there no pleasure in undergoing hardships for the
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 139 
 
 cause which we value highly or in making sacrifices 
 for those whom we love ? 
 
 ' Blessed are the pure in heart.' ' Out of the 
 heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
 fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies : these 
 are the things which defile a man.' Christ knew 
 that the heart of man is the centre of his being, and 
 that out of it are the issues of life. And so His 
 mind is always centred upon what a man is, and not 
 upon what he has got ; upon his inner character, 
 and not upon his outward possessions : for He 
 knows that they only can be regarded as truly 
 happy who are possessed of the best gifts love 
 to God and love to man, and purity of heart and 
 holiness of life and heavenliness of purpose and 
 endeavour. 
 
 And who can for a moment doubt whether 
 Christ's method of looking at and speaking about 
 these things is the right one? For what to us 
 are even the most fortunate outward circumstances if 
 our peace of mind is ruined by envy, malice, or 
 uncharitableness ? What to us is the greatest earthly 
 prosperity so long as we feel ourselves to be linked 
 fast to a guilty past, or know ourselves to be the 
 slaves of some degrading passion or lust which is 
 debasing our minds, sullying our consciences 
 or wrecking our lives. But let our hearts be right 
 with God, and let us seek first the kingdom of 
 God and His righteousness, and then, whatever 
 our earthly circumstances may be, we have the 
 blessing of heaven, and the peace of God which 
 passeth understanding ; that peace which the world 
 can neither give nor take away.
 
 140 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 And those precepts of Christ which have more 
 especially to do with a man's duty toward his neigh- 
 bour, how true they are and how very important ! 
 
 Christ always recognises the individual man, and 
 it is always to the individual that His words are 
 addressed. Religion is with Him a personal matter, 
 and He calls men individually to repentance and 
 reformation. But He never forgets that the indivi- 
 dual is a social being related in innumerable ways 
 to other men and women. And so, while all Christ's 
 precepts have a bearing upon the social life of man, 
 there are some which have specially to do with our 
 duties towards others. And these precepts, how 
 different they are from those in accordance with 
 which most men usually regulate their conduct 
 towards others, and yet how profoundly wise they 
 are, and how greatly they are admired by the 
 most enlightened consciences and by the noblest 
 natures. 
 
 Christ calls us to self-denial and self-sacrifice, and 
 yet, strange to say, He demands of us nothing that 
 is inconsistent with our well-being, for our highest life 
 can only be attained when we feel our unity with our 
 fellow men and when our narrow, self-centred life is 
 lost in the fuller and richer life that comes from 
 communion with others. 
 
 ' Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for 
 this is the law and the prophets.' ' By this shall all 
 men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 
 one to another.' How apt we are to forget our duty 
 towards our brethren ; and this is often so, because 
 we do not see how indebted we are to other people,
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 141 
 
 and how necessary they are to our well-being, if not 
 to our existence. Only too often do we think of 
 ourselves as if we were isolated units, absolutely 
 independent individuals, the sole creators of our 
 fortunes, the unaided authors of our happiness, beings 
 who receive little, if any, help or succour from those 
 who are round about us. And thinking in this way, 
 we make a very serious mistake. However impor- 
 tant or unimportant we may be, we are all to a 
 greater or less extent related to and dependent on 
 one another. Society, in very truth, is composed of 
 individuals necessary to each other's well-being, and 
 who exist and work, unconsciously where not con- 
 sciously, indirectly if not directly, each for all and all 
 for each, so that in the state as in the body, ' the eye 
 cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee : nor 
 again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.' 
 If you possessed the world and were alone upon it, 
 your position would not nearly be so enviable as 
 that of the most miserable creature at present upon 
 the earth. Your great possessions would not be 
 able to purchase for you the necessaries of life. 
 Your power and influence would not be sufficient 
 to command one puny creature to do your bidding ; 
 with all your property you would have to do every- 
 thing for yourself ; and so for you the only question 
 would be, How am I to keep soul and body to- 
 gether? Moreover, if you possessed the earth and 
 were alone upon it, you would inevitably be a 
 stranger to your finest thoughts and noblest feelings. 
 Affection, sympathy, love would be for you names 
 and nothing more. Acts of kindness and deeds of 
 self-sacrifice would become for you impossible. And
 
 142 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 your life, destitute of all these things, would scarcely 
 be worth the having. 
 
 And this leads me to notice the well-known words 
 of Christ, ' He that findeth his life shall lose it, and 
 he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.' 
 
 How absurd these words seem to be, and yet 
 how true they are. We must die to our old sinful 
 worldly self before that we can ever live that pure 
 and heavenly life to which we are called. We must 
 put off the old man, which is corrupt according to 
 the deceitful lusts, before we can put on the new 
 man, which after God is created in righteousness 
 and true holiness. When we do what we can to 
 make the world better, we are helping to make the 
 scene of our life more pleasant and desirable than 
 otherwise it would be. We must love our neigh- 
 bours if we are to call forth towards ourselves that 
 affection and love which can so greatly bless our 
 lives. " A deeper self-hood, a richer personality," 
 says Dr. Momerie, " comes to a man from com- 
 munion with others and sacrifice for others than he 
 could possibly have gained by any amount of solitary 
 contemplation or self-aggrandisement. It is only as 
 our individual, narrow, exclusive, isolated self is 
 developed into a larger, inclusive, sympathetic self 
 that we come to our highest life. To go forth out 
 of self, to have all the hidden wealth of feeling of 
 which I am capable called forth towards others, and 
 to receive back again this wealth redoubled in re- 
 ciprocated affection and increased power of loving, 
 this is to live wisely and well not to do this is to 
 eliminate from life all that makes it most truly 
 human, all that makes it most really valuable."
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 143 
 
 Take now the subject of Prayer. 
 
 Does not our Saviour by example as well as by 
 precept point out to us the true nature and the great 
 value of prayer ? He did not pray with others 
 because He had no sins to confess, no pardon to 
 ask. But ever and anon He resorted to prayer and 
 communion with God, thus showing us that an 
 answer to petitions is not the whole result of prayer. 
 One of the principal results of prayer is the change 
 that is so often effected in the minds and hearts of 
 those who pray often and earnestly. They may 
 have begun by wishing to change the purposes of 
 God with regard to themselves, but they have ended 
 by being themselves brought into harmony with the 
 mind and will of God. And when we have reached 
 the stage when we are able to say, 'Not my will but 
 thine be done,' what spiritual blessings may we not 
 expect from prayer ? " There exists around us," 
 says Frederic W. H. Myers, " a spiritual universe, 
 and that universe is in actual relation with the 
 material. From the spiritual universe comes the 
 energy which maintains the material : the energy 
 which makes the life of each individual spirit. Our 
 spirits are supported by the perpetual indrawal of 
 this energy." To pray, therefore, is to put ourselves 
 into direct communication with that mysterious 
 power from which all grace and life and energy 
 proceed. It is to have the strength of God made 
 perfect in our weakness. It is " to attach the belts 
 of our machinery to the power house of the universe." 
 If we ask and receive not it is because we ask amiss. 
 ' Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, 
 he will give it you.'
 
 144 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 But there are many other subjects on which Christ 
 teaches with authority, for in reference to them His 
 words are light-bringing and life-giving. So far as 
 we can verify them His words are true, and we are 
 persuaded that we can trust Him where we cannot 
 see. 
 
 Take, for example, the subject of Sin. 
 
 Christ never makes light of sin. He never tries 
 to persuade us that conscience is but a bundle of 
 prejudices not entitled to respect. He never 
 suggests that in certain circumstances a man may 
 be wholly blameless when he sins. Christ never 
 speaks of evil as unripe good, good in the making, 
 though He gives us to understand that God can 
 overrule evil unto good. He never says that the 
 fall of man is necessary to his rise, though He tells 
 us that a fall into grievous sin may awaken a man 
 to a deep sense of his true position, and thus be 
 the means of his rising to a height of holiness 
 to which otherwise he might not have attained. 
 Christ does not think of sin as a thing to be 
 avoided merely because pains and penalties follow 
 in its train, nor of virtue as a thing that ought to be 
 practised solely because of the pleasure or happiness 
 which it may bring. With Him sin is that which 
 is morally and divinely condemned, and which is 
 therefore to be avoided whatever good things it 
 may promise unto us. With Him virtue is conduct 
 which is morally and divinely approved, and which 
 consequently must be followed by us even when 
 it involves us in loss, pain, tribulation, persecution. 
 ' Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after 
 me, cannot be my disciple.' To Christ sin is doubt-
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 145 
 
 less an anti-social act, a wrong done by man to 
 man : but it is more, for man is more than a social 
 being. He is a religious being, conscious of being 
 morally related to the Great Unseen. He is a 
 rational and spiritual self, incapable by his very 
 nature of finding perfect satisfaction in pleasure or 
 gratified feeling. He has ideals of duty which he 
 must try to realise, and visions of a common good 
 for himself and others which he must endeavour to 
 bring about if he is to be the possessor of that 
 blessedness which Christ has promised to His faith- 
 ful followers. And our Saviour tells us that it is 
 not our acts merely but our motives, not our deeds 
 but our intentions, not what we have done but what 
 we have honestly striven to do, that is the divine 
 touchstone of human character. Christ takes it for 
 granted that the spiritual life is growth : sorely 
 impeded sometimes a fight in which there is often 
 a strong foe to be overcome. But He never has any 
 doubt as to the result in those who are faithful. 
 For God is in and with those who are His. And 
 as God is stronger than Satan, and goodness more 
 enduring than evil, the purpose of God with regard 
 to those who are His will not be baulked what- 
 ever the evil one may do. The profoundest 
 compassion always characterised Christ's attitude 
 toward the erring and the sinful, for He saw that 
 circumstances and the law of heredity may affect 
 us, and He knew that ignorance and thoughtless- 
 ness are seldom wholly absent when we sin. But 
 Christ's mercy and compassion never prevented 
 Him from seeing the element of free-choice and 
 self-will that is in every sin, however many and 
 
 K
 
 146 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 good may be the excuses which can be pleaded 
 in extenuation. To Christ there is in human life 
 something higher than heredity. It is a spirit, 
 an inspiration from on high, a divine impulse 
 which if responded to no circumstances should be 
 able to overbear. And so with Christ sin is a 
 personal fault and never wholly a misfortune a free 
 act of the soul and never a necessity. It is a 
 misuse of that freedom which, as we feel, we all 
 possess. Moreover, it is always, to a greater or less 
 extent, rebellion against God and the putting of our 
 own will in the place of God's. It is the introduction 
 of disorder and disturbance into a world in which 
 otherwise law and order would everywhere prevail. 
 And so, with Christ, sin is a most serious affair in 
 respect of our relation to God as well as an evil 
 which works untold mischief in our lives, and in the 
 lives of others a doctrine with regard to sin which 
 our own hearts, when consulted, will acknowledge to 
 be true. 
 
 Take, again, the subject of Sorrow. 
 
 Sorrow is one of the sternest and yet one 
 of the commonest facts in human life. Man 
 is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. 
 There may be lives which have known little of 
 true gladness, but there is no human life wholly 
 ignorant of sorrow. Now, our blessed Lord and 
 Master is the great comforter of all who are 
 in sorrow. And what light does He throw on 
 this important subject ? Does He tell us that 
 pain and sorrow are wholly useless, and that 
 they ought never to have been in the lives of 
 men?
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 147 
 
 Pain and sorrow He tells us are sometimes a 
 punishment for sin ; but even when this is so we 
 have a manifestation, not of the vengeance, but of the 
 righteousness and of the love of God. What kind of 
 kingdom would the kingdom of God be if its highest 
 interests could easily be trifled with ? And would it 
 be well for a sinful man if no notice were ever to be 
 taken of his sin ? Is it not well for the sinner when 
 by correction he is driven out of his sin ? Verily 
 the severity of God is the outcome of His love 
 and goodness. 
 
 And even when pain and sorrow come to us not 
 from our own sin, but from the sins and faults 
 of others, they may be productive of great good in 
 our lives. If they are borne in the right spirit they 
 may tend to the improvement of our character. 
 It is natural for us to love the sunshine and the 
 smooth way. It is natural for us to think that it is 
 in every way best for us when we are fortunate and 
 successful in our lives. And yet how few there 
 are who have not been able to extract some blessing 
 from the trials, the troubles, the sorrows to which 
 they have been subjected. For these things break 
 in upon our worldliness and selfishness, sometimes 
 as with the crash of doom, compelling us to realise 
 the relative importance of things temporal and 
 things eternal, and forcing us to see how dependent 
 we are at all times upon God. And so at the close 
 of our disappointments and sorrows, or in spite of the 
 continuance of them, we find ourselves sometimes 
 giving utterance in all truthfulness to the words, 
 ' It was good for me that I have been afflicted, that 
 I might learn thy statutes.'
 
 148 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 Take, further, the subject of death and what 
 comes after it, and you will find that the teaching 
 of Christ not only responds to our noblest hopes and 
 longings, but also satisfies our sense of justice and 
 becomes more real and true to us as we live under 
 the power of it. 
 
 When a man diej what becomes of him ? Does 
 he still exist, or was the last moment of earthly life 
 the last moment of his existence ? Now, all materi- 
 alistic systems of philosophy assert or assume that 
 life is a mere function of matter, and that the soul 
 dies with the body : just as the music ceases when 
 the harp is broken. But all systems of philosophy 
 are not materialistic in their nature. Yea, the 
 noblest thoughts of the greatest men have, as a 
 rule, been antagonistic to the supposition that death 
 ends all. And it is not difficult to understand 
 why this should be so. 
 
 Is there not something disappointing, something 
 well nigh incredible, in the thought that just when 
 good men and women have become most worthy of 
 life, and most capable of living, they should cease 
 to be ? Is it not difficult to believe that men are to 
 go on increasing in virtue and in godliness merely 
 to find out at the end that they are but " spray flung 
 out of the deep to reflect the light of other worlds 
 and fall back into the dead sea " ? And is not our 
 sense of justice unsatisfied with the supposition that 
 death ends all for man ? Are the inequalities of 
 life to continue for ever? Are the injustices to 
 which multitudes have been subjected never to be 
 redressed ? Shall not the judge of all the earth 
 do right ? Is there not, therefore, a sense of relief
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 149 
 
 and a feeling of satisfaction in the Scriptural as- 
 surance that every one of us must appear before 
 the judgment seat of God to receive according 
 as we have done, whether it be good or bad ? 
 And does it not seem as if the sanctions of a 
 moral life become much less effective when we have 
 rejected the doctrine of a future life ? 
 
 It may be true that virtue can exist without what 
 may be called the lower religious sanctions the 
 hope of the divine reward or the fear of the divine 
 punishment in another world. But if virtue is to 
 live and thrive, is it not necessary for her to be 
 certain that she is not a passing, evanescent thing, 
 a mere temporary disturbance, an unreal pheno- 
 menon ? If she is to flourish vigorously, does she 
 not require the assurance that no worthy life is ever 
 lived in vain, that our noblest aims and most faithful 
 endeavours never come to nought, but survive with 
 their effects and consequences even beyond the 
 limitations of this world : enduring, at the heart 
 of things, as a part of the eternal world ? 
 
 And is it not impossible to think of the immor- 
 tality of virtue apart form Personal survival the 
 Eternity of God, and what seems involved in it, or 
 conditioned by it, the immortality of those who are 
 truly virtuous ? The Individual perishes if the human 
 race endures. But if ' Heaven and earth shall 
 pass away' the human race as we know it may 
 yet cease to be. And in that case how can virtue 
 be thought of as surviving apart from the Eternity 
 of God ? " Virtue can persist only if there is a 
 survival, and if the right Will continues in an 
 immaterial world."
 
 ISO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 And how can we as individuals be greatly edified 
 and inspired by an immortality in which we are 
 to have no personal share ? How can we have that 
 encouragement and help for the work and cares 
 and troubles of life which we so greatly require if 
 the future we are to look forward to is to be one 
 in which we shall see nothing, hear nothing, know 
 nothing, remember nothing, love nothing, be in- 
 terested in nothing, be conscious of nothing ? 
 
 " Hath man no second life ? pitch this one high : 
 Sits there no judge in Heaven our sin to see ? 
 More strictly then the inward judge obey : 
 Was Christ a man like us ? Ah, let us try 
 If we then, too, can be such men as He." 
 
 This is noble teaching. It is to all intents and pur- 
 poses the practical teaching of Christianity without 
 the beliefs which help so powerfully to confirm and 
 support such teaching. But many will draw an 
 entirely different inference from the pre-supposition 
 that there is no God and no future life. And the 
 great mass of men, if utterly destitute of the leading 
 Christian beliefs, are not likely to live in accordance 
 with the precepts given in the above lines. 
 
 It is true that there are some who appear to be of 
 a different opinion. It has even been said that belief 
 in a moral order of the universe may prevent the uni- 
 verse from becoming morally ordered that belief in 
 a Divine Being who overrules all things and whose 
 righteous will must in the end be realised is almost 
 certain to paralyse our energies by tempting us to 
 stand idly by looking for support from above, or 
 listlessly waiting for things to work out by them- 
 selves the good which we desire to see. But any
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 151 
 
 danger that may lurk in this direction is as nothing 
 when compared with that which is to be found in 
 the heartlessness and listlessness which are sure to 
 overtake us when with hopeless hearts we look out 
 on the great fight of evil against good, feeling 
 persuaded that it is a losing battle we are waging 
 when we match our human weakness against the 
 overwhelming might of the powers of evil in the 
 world. We are saved by hope ; for it inspires us 
 with strength and courage and activity. But what 
 hope can we have if we cannot look up 
 
 "from the finite to infinity, 
 And from man's dust to God's divinity " 
 
 if we are not convinced that goodness and truth 
 are divine and of the Lord, and therefore infinitely 
 stronger and more enduring than evil and lies ? 
 
 It is all very well for people who have been living 
 throughout their lives in a religious atmosphere with 
 religious influences constantly playing upon them, to 
 speak as if it were quite an easy thing to retain the 
 highly moral life required by Christianity after that 
 we have divested ourselves of all the Christian 
 beliefs. But the question is : Will the great mass of 
 men and women continue to live as Christians ought 
 to live long after they have ceased to believe in God 
 and in the world unseen ? Most thoughtful people 
 will be inclined to answer this question by asking 
 another. Can a grand superstructure exist without 
 foundation ? Can there be fruit without a tree on 
 which it is to grow ? Can a stream go on for ever 
 completely separated from its source? If all our 
 present moral sanctions and aids to a worthy life
 
 152 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 are scarcely able to keep us up to the standard 
 that is required of us, how will it fare with us when 
 the strongest and best of them are taken away? 
 We all know the power and persistence of habit and 
 custom : but in this changeful world even they are 
 ready to perish, when the reason that suggested them 
 or the conviction that gave rise to them has ceased to 
 be. And it is even so with faith and life, creed and 
 conduct. Sometimes our creed sits lightly on us, for 
 we have adopted it carelessly, and in much of it we 
 can scarcely be said to believe. We are weak and 
 fallible, and often we are untrue to our strongest 
 convictions and holiest resolutions. But all the same, 
 belief is the parent of action, and the lives of men 
 and women on the whole are to a greater or less 
 extent coloured and controlled by what they truly 
 and thoroughly believe. And when conviction, with 
 regard to God and the world unseen, perishes the life 
 that flowed from it is smitten with death and soon 
 will die. " What if the flush of sunlight plays upon 
 the horizon ? The sun is set and ere long it will 
 be light." 
 
 And here it may be noticed that Christians are 
 often taunted with the peculiar selfishness which 
 is supposed to be inherent in their religion. Men 
 speak of the " other-worldliness " of Christianity, 
 and they who tell us that virtue is its own reward 
 are regarded as occupying a much higher standpoint. 
 But the real difference between Christians and these 
 critics of Christianity does not turn upon the 
 question as to whether virtue is its own reward, but 
 upon the question whether this reward can be 
 sufficiently secured within the narrow limits of an
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 153 
 
 earthly existence. Virtue is its own reward in 
 Christendom not less truly than amongst the purest 
 and noblest philosophers. For the Christian life is 
 not a life of virtue undertaken in order to win a 
 life of worldly pleasure in another state of existence. 
 It is a life of righteousness, and the prize to which 
 it looks forward is a life of the same nature and 
 character, but in a sphere where " righteousness 
 takes new and transcendental proportions and be- 
 comes its own crown and reward." But neither in 
 Philosophy nor in Christianity can virtue be said 
 to be its own reward to those who do not as yet 
 delight in virtue, and who have to struggle unceas- 
 ingly against temptations to worldliness, selfishness, 
 and sin. And this struggle can only be rationally 
 justified when we are convinced that the cause of 
 virtue represents everything that is noblest and 
 best and most enduring, and that no sacrifice we 
 can make in the domain of worldly success, personal 
 inclination, selfish pleasure, and sensual gratification 
 is too great a price to pay for the blessedness which 
 we feel sure must come sooner or later to those who 
 delight in the things that are just and good and pure 
 and true. 
 
 When death is thought of as ending all for all 
 men, then, in the opinion of many, the reward of 
 virtue is not, in the great majority of cases, 
 sufficiently secured. 
 
 " My own dim life should teach me this, 
 
 That life shall live for evermore, 
 
 Else earth is darkness at the core, 
 And dust and ashes all that is." 
 
 Moreover, our noblest virtues would then seem to be
 
 154 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 deprived of that atmosphere without which they 
 cannot thrive. 
 
 " Truth for truth and good for good : the Good, the True, the 
 
 Pure, the Just 
 Take the charm ' for ever ' from them and they crumble into 
 
 dust." 
 
 But when we believe in God and in the life 
 eternal, are we not inspired with hope and courage 
 and strengthened for the life and work to which God 
 has called us? He that has this hope purifieth 
 himself, even as Christ is pure. And when we are 
 possessed of pure hearts and live in God and for 
 God, how certain we become that because He lives 
 we shall live also. ' Art thou not from everlasting, 
 O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die.' 
 
 It is difficult at times to believe in immortality. 
 When the dull clods thud upon the coffin lid it is 
 difficult for us to keep from believing that death ends 
 all. When we look upon the cold, stiff, insensate 
 corpse, fit only to moulder into dust, and contrast 
 what is with what was, it is difficult for us to 
 believe in a life after death. When we think of 
 the selfishness, the meanness, the worldliness, the 
 brutality, the bestiality of some men and women, it 
 is difficult for us to keep from believing that man 
 is merely an animal, " living a brief life and dying 
 an unmeaning death." But when we live as do 
 many of the children of God when we remember 
 that time is a part of eternity when we realise the 
 act that every moment of our lives we are in the 
 presence of God when we live honest, conscientious, 
 God-fearing lives when we covet the best gifts and
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE DIVINE TRUTH. 155 
 
 follow after the things that are just and pure and 
 lovely and of good report when we rise in spirit 
 above the world and look constantly beyond it 
 when we identify ourselves with, and live for, 
 interests and causes and works which are of the 
 Lord, and which are as eternal as God Himself, 
 we cannot believe ourselves deceived, we cannot 
 believe that man is mortal. We are sure and 
 certain then, that we who believe in God, and live 
 in and for Him, shall live for ever. 
 
 ' If any man will do God's will he shall know 
 of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether 
 I speak of myself.'
 
 XL 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 What think ye of Christ ? (Matt. xxii. 42). 
 
 Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. xvi. 16). 
 
 WHAT we think of Christ must depend, in some 
 measure, on what we ourselves are : our mental and 
 spiritual characteristics. This was true of those 
 who saw Christ in the flesh, and to a greater extent 
 it is likely to be true of those who can only see 
 Christ through the eyes of others. 
 
 Most intelligent Christians are now so accustomed 
 to see the Divine in the orderly uniform course 
 of nature that they are surprised when they are re- 
 minded that in the distant past there may perhaps 
 have often been in nature vast upheavals and over- 
 whelming catastrophes. So prone are they now to 
 see the Divine in ordinary human nature that they 
 do not know what to think of that marvellous mani- 
 festation of the Divine which was made in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 But there are still many with whom it is far 
 otherwise. They can see the Divine most clearly, if 
 not solely, in the unusual and startling, and they do 
 not know very well what to make of those passages
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 157 
 
 in Scripture which bring before us the human nature 
 of Christ. 
 
 Take, for example, the attitude of Christian 
 people towards those narratives in Scripture which 
 give us the genealogy of Jesus. 
 
 Some Christians, full of the thought of the 
 Divinity of Christ, are perplexed when they read 
 the genealogies given in St. Matthew and St. Luke. 
 Why, they ask, should so much stress be laid on the 
 earthly origin of the Virgin-born Son of God ? And 
 why should the descent of Christ be traced through 
 Joseph, who is, according to common belief, merely 
 the legal or putative father of Jesus ? 
 
 But this difficulty never presents itself to those 
 who seek for the natural explanation of what seems 
 to be supernatural, and who, perceiving that earthly 
 evolution means heavenly involution, do not find it 
 hard to believe that Jesus may well have been at 
 once Heaven-begotten and Earth-born. Even to be 
 born of a virgin is after all to be born of a woman, 
 and to be born of a woman is to be born of 
 humanity. But to be born of humanity is, we must 
 remember, to be made in the image of God and to be 
 closely related spiritually to our Father who is in 
 heaven. Many people, accordingly, ask the question : 
 Is not St. Luke a true evolutionist? for in tracing the 
 genealogy of Jesus does he not go back to Adam, 
 ' which was the son of God ' ? And do not the 
 genealogies of St. Matthew and St. Luke remind us 
 of the divine care with which at every stage the 
 evolutionary process which ended in Christ was 
 carried on ? Does not the name of Abraham bring 
 up before our mind the man who was to be the
 
 158 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 father of the faithful people in whom all the nations 
 of the earth were to be blessed ? And do not the 
 other names in these genealogies lead us backward 
 into the most distant past, and do they not remind 
 us at every step of the fact brought out so clearly in 
 the Old Testament, that the stock from which Jesus 
 came was a spiritual stock, wisely selected, carefully 
 tended, thoroughly trained, strictly disciplined, and 
 so made capable after many centuries of producing 
 One who was born not for His own nation only, but 
 for all the world ? 
 
 And are not some good Christians perplexed 
 when they are told that physically, intellectually, and 
 spiritually Christ had a development from infancy 
 to manhood similar to our own ? Thinking con- 
 stantly of the Divinity of Christ they are prone to 
 imagine that He must always have been what He 
 only afterwards became, and they know not what 
 to think when they are referred to passages of 
 Scripture which are as the breath of life to other 
 Christians. 
 
 ' And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and 
 in favour with God and man.' ' And the child grew 
 and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and 
 the grace of God was upon him.' These words tell 
 us that Christ grew up gradually under the influence 
 of His home and natural surroundings : and that as 
 His eyes opened to all that was around him, so did 
 His mind gradually awaken to those divine truths 
 which afterwards he uttered with authority and not 
 as the scribes. 
 
 ' And when the devil had completed every tempta- 
 tion, he departed from him for a season.' These
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 159 
 
 words remind us that the Sinless One was made 
 perfect in holiness by temptation that temptation 
 had upon Him as He grew to maturity something 
 like the effect which it has upon all who conquer 
 it by the grace of God and who feel themselves 
 " lifted to a loftier moral greatness, a surer and more 
 commanding strength than would have been possible 
 without the struggle." 
 
 ' It became him, for whom are all things, and by 
 whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
 glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect 
 through sufferings.' ' Though he were a Son, yet 
 learned he obedience by the things which he 
 suffered.' These words tell us that suffering in a 
 sense did for Christ as His powers and faculties 
 developed, what it does for all who meet it and pass 
 through it in the right spirit, and who feel that their 
 sense of God's nearness is intensified, their humility 
 deepened, and their sympathy quickened by the 
 process. 
 
 And what are we to think of Christ as He went 
 out and in among men in the full exercise of His 
 ministry ? 
 
 Many people find no difficulty in the wonders 
 and marvels ascribed to Christ in the Gospels. 
 To them, indeed, Christianity would probably be 
 incredible if it were not believed to be supported 
 by the miracles of Him who is Lord in the physical 
 as well as in the moral domain. The miraculous 
 in the Person and work of Christ is to them a 
 revelation of the presence and of the power of 
 God a reminder that God still lives and works 
 even in the ordinary processes of nature where
 
 1 60 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 our sin-darkened eyes are only too often unable 
 to behold Him. 
 
 But the position of many Christians is greatly 
 different from this. To them the spiritual content 
 of the Gospel is the main thing, and it is by 
 Christ that they have thus been taught. They 
 perceive the importance of the usual, the spiritual 
 significance of the material, the supernaturalness of 
 the natural, and it is Christ who hath opened their 
 eyes to these truths. Can we be surprised when 
 we find such people thinking and speaking as much 
 about spiritual law in the natural world as about 
 natural law in the spiritual world ? Can we wonder 
 that to them the uniformity of nature is a revelation 
 of the presence and power and wisdom of God, and 
 that they find it difficult to think of what seems a 
 failure in God's plan of the world a failure whose 
 consequences require to be prevented by methods 
 which seem to be irregular if not lawless ? 
 
 The tendency to think after this latter fashion 
 has been strengthened and deepened in modern 
 times not merely by our increasing knowledge of 
 nature's laws, but also by the conviction now almost 
 everywhere prevalent that in the distant past the 
 Christian Church in her legitimate desire for the 
 confirmation and advancement of moral and spiritual 
 truth was only too often careless and indifferent 
 with regard to what may have seemed to her to 
 be morally unimportant matters, viz., the facts of 
 history and science. 
 
 Great would appear to have been the credulity 
 of men in what are called " the ages of faith." 
 Whatever supported or illuminated the claims of
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 161 
 
 Holy Church did not to the great majority require 
 proof. It carried within it the evidence of its own 
 truthfulness. And so beautiful legends were no 
 sooner imagined than believed ; no sooner believed 
 than they were written down as facts of history. 
 
 Wonders and marvels will never cease in the 
 world or in human life ; but miracles in the sense 
 of violations of the laws of nature or arbitrary 
 interferences with the established order of nature 
 do not happen now. 
 
 They have gradually ceased, people assert, as 
 men have become more careful with regard to their 
 facts, and as they have required more exact and 
 severe proofs in order to believe. As was to 
 have been expected, some say, the supply of 
 miracles ceased with the demand for them ; and 
 the demand gradually became a thing of the past 
 as people came to see that there is law and order 
 everywhere in nature, and as they refused to believe 
 in a world guided by isolated acts of arbitrary inter- 
 vention. And so multitudes of intelligent and earnest 
 people are now inclined to think that the so-called 
 Church miracles of the early and middle ages were 
 only pious frauds, or ordinary natural phenomena 
 which were mistaken for miraculous events. And 
 some going backward further still are not afraid 
 to ask even in reference to the Gospels, Is there 
 nothing but history here ? Is there not also an 
 element contributed by the imagination of men, 
 or due to their affection for a long lost friend, or 
 to be accounted for by hopes and expectations 
 which they fondly cherished and which they wished 
 to see in some wise fulfilled ? Even with regard 
 
 L
 
 1 62 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 to the question immediately before us the nature 
 and character of the life lived by Christ the modern 
 critical spirit suggests questions which would have 
 startled our forefathers, and which must be very 
 perplexing to ordinary believers. 
 
 It is true that some in these days do not put 
 much stress on the historical truthfulness of the 
 Gospels. They tell us that the Gospels are authori- 
 tative for us even supposing them to be merely 
 works of imagination utterly destitute of an histori- 
 cal basis ; for the authority of the Gospels is, they 
 say, the authority of a moral ideal which need not 
 be historical in order to be true. Even when we 
 take it for granted, what few would venture to 
 assert, that the Gospels are wholly imaginary, they 
 still present us with an ideal of a morally perfect 
 life. But a moral ideal once formed is certainly 
 authoritative for man's moral nature. " Simply 
 because it has constructed such an ideal it is 
 morally bound to aspire to realise it" 
 
 But although a man is bound to try to realise 
 the ideal which he may have formed or adopted, 
 surely the general historical truthfulness of the 
 Gospel narrative its truthfulness in its main out- 
 lines is a matter of much more serious importance 
 than some people seem inclined to believe. 
 
 It must always be of great practical importance 
 for man to know whether and to what extent his 
 ideal has been realised in ordinary human life. 
 For whatever man has done man may aspire to do, 
 and whatever man has been that may man hope 
 to become. " We needs must love the highest 
 when we see it " ; but if the highest has never
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 163 
 
 actually been seen by man, and if we are only 
 possessed of idle fancies and of vague dreams with 
 regard to it, then, however beautiful and uplifting 
 our ideal may be, it is not likely to have for us 
 that solemnising awe, that commanding authority, 
 that constraining power which a religion must have 
 if it is to be of any great use to us. We may 
 be subdued before the grace and grandeur of a 
 moral superior ; but is it possible for us to venerate 
 our own idea ? A fundamental element in religion 
 is a sense of absolute dependence, but how can we 
 have a sense of absolute dependence on a merely 
 abstract ideal ? 
 
 Moreover, we must remember how apt our fancies 
 are to mislead us, and how prone we are to imagine 
 things which have no existence. We may give to 
 airy nothing a local habitation and a name, but it 
 does not thereby cease to be airy nothing. We may 
 speak as if the baseless fabric of a vision were some- 
 thing real and substantial, but our words do not 
 transform the vision into a reality. . It is true that 
 spiritual truths may be taught by fancies and ideas 
 as well as by parables and fables, for they as well as 
 parables or fables may help to open our eyes to the 
 existence of spiritual facts which at present we do 
 not see. But when a man wishes to assure himself 
 of God's presence and working, he must have more 
 than words about God, however attractive they may 
 be ; more than fancies about divine things, however 
 beautiful they may be ; more than the ebb and flow 
 of subjective feelings, however lively they may be. 
 If we wish to have anything like certainty on the 
 matter we must be able to find outside ourselves
 
 164 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 facts through which God plainly reveals Himself unto 
 us. We must go to nature, history, and human life 
 for the confirmation of what we seem inclined to 
 believe. If God is to reveal Himself to us it must be 
 through facts which are an actual part of human 
 knowledge and experience. 
 
 Now, it is just after this fashion that God comes 
 to us in Christianity. Christianity is an ideal, but it 
 claims to be an ideal revealed through a fact. It is 
 a spirit, but a spirit revealed through a body. God 
 is revealed to us in Christ, not through Christ's 
 words merely, but also and more especially through 
 His person and character, through His deeds of love 
 and mercy, through His sufferings and death, through 
 the love that was revealed in His passion the love 
 that was stronger than death ; for death itself could 
 not keep Christ from His purposes of love to man. 
 
 But, a religion that thus comes to us through 
 facts and transactions within the domain of historical 
 knowledge cannot afford to be indifferent to his- 
 torical evidence. 
 
 Doubtless the eternal truths taught us by our 
 religion are all-important. But the contingent 
 truths of history, in which they are realised and 
 through which they are revealed, can never be un- 
 important, but must always have for us " an abiding 
 and inexhaustible value and vitality," not merely on 
 account of what they are in themselves, or in the im- 
 portant consequences that directly flow from them, 
 but also, and more especially, because they reveal to 
 us eternal truths about God, and about His purposes 
 towards the children of men. What God is once, 
 He is for ever : for with Him is no variableness,
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 165 
 
 neither shadow of turning. And every act of God is 
 not only important in itself, but precious also in the 
 inferences which it enables us to draw with regard to 
 the character and the purposes of God. Just as a 
 very small arc of a circle enables us to determine the 
 whole circle, so any act of God in the past is a sure 
 foundation for our faith in God in all the future. 
 The coming of Christ into the world, therefore, is 
 more than a contingent fact of history, whose tem- 
 porary importance has long since been exhausted. It 
 is a guarantee of God's continued love for His 
 children and of His present strenuous efforts for 
 their salvation. And the death of Christ is more 
 than a great work done once for all. It is a pledge 
 of all that God is now doing, and will yet do, in and 
 for and by the children of men. ' He that spared 
 not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, 
 how shall he not with him also freely give us all 
 things ? ' 
 
 Now, it is just here that the intelligent Christian 
 in our days finds a chief difficulty. Does the 
 historical evidence of which we are possessed suffice 
 by itself to bring home to us the reality and 
 truthfulness of certain things generally believed by 
 Christians? Christ's life, for example, was, we are 
 told, stainless, perfect ; and therefore a moral miracle 
 as great as any physical miracle can be. But when 
 we look closely into the matter we are at once con- 
 fronted by a difficulty which may be expressed in 
 the words, Can we, so far away from the time referred 
 to, trust such human testimony as we have when it 
 asserts that Christ was sinless and perfect ? We are 
 told that Christ's Personality made a marvellous
 
 1 66 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 impression on many of those who were brought into 
 contact with Him ; but to see our Saviour as He 
 lived on earth, and merely to hear of the effect which 
 His Personality had on those who saw Him, are two 
 quite different things. " No mathematical fact is 
 doubtful : no historical fact is certain." But if 
 these words are true, there are many things in the 
 Gospels which from their very nature cannot, on the 
 mere ground of such historical testimony as we have, 
 be regarded as more than highly probable. And so 
 we are scarcely surprised when we meet with men 
 who speak to us after this fashion : " The spiritual 
 senses of fallible men cannot suffice to certify the 
 fact of absolute sinlessness any more than their 
 physical senses can certify the perfect sphericity of a 
 ball." 
 
 To all who take up a position of this kind it must, 
 of course, be said that the testimony of a few fallible 
 men is far from being as we have seen and shall 
 see all that we have to found upon when coming to 
 a conclusion on this subject. 
 
 It is impossible to accept the main Gospel facts 
 in such a way as to pass under the power and 
 pressure of them unless we read the New Testament 
 with the necessary preconceptions and prior convic- 
 tions. A whole series of prior convictions with 
 regard to God, the slavery of sin, and the reason- 
 ableness of redemption must be present with us if 
 we are to feel the full force and power of the 
 Gospel narratives. But we do not require to be 
 ashamed of such preconceptions, for, as we have 
 seen, they may be perfectly rational and in accord- 
 ance with the facts of ordinary human experience.
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 167 
 
 And is it not always possible for us to reason 
 backward from an effect to its cause? How, for 
 example, are we to account for Christendom except 
 by pointing to Christianity ? and how are we to 
 account for Christianity apart from Christl Unless 
 we postulate the existence of a unique personality 
 pre-eminent in love, goodness, and truth, and as like 
 as may be to the Jesus of whom we read in the 
 Gospels, it is impossible for us to explain satis- 
 factorily the origin of Christianity or the existence 
 of Christendom. 
 
 The facts, therefore, through which God reveals 
 Himself unto us are of great importance, and so we 
 must give due weight to the evidence which helps 
 to assure us of their reality. 
 
 All that we know of Christ comes to us through 
 the minds and memories of others. Why Christ 
 Himself abstained from writing we are not told, 
 but we may easily conjecture. He foresaw that His 
 own written words would be of little avail without a 
 perpetual miracle to preserve them from corruption: 
 and He knew how apt men are to be brought into 
 bondage to the letter which killeth. But Christ 
 came to bring in the Dispensation of the Spirit: 
 ' The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit 
 and they are life.' And so Christ chose to be 
 remembered in the world and to live on in the 
 world, not by verbatim reports of His words or 
 photographic pictures of His deeds, but by begetting 
 His own mind and spirit in others by the mar- 
 vellous impression which, as He knew, the Son of 
 God must produce on those who had the eye to see 
 and the ear to hear. And so it was enough for
 
 1 68 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 Christ to form a society which was to bear witness 
 to Him found a living Church which, by His 
 Spirit, was to be guided into all truth. 
 
 St. Paul is the earliest witness to Christianity ; 
 for many of his Epistles are, without doubt, older 
 than the oldest of the Gospels. But in none of 
 these Epistles is there any reference to the signs, 
 wonders, mighty works of Christ. Strange to say, 
 it is only in Acts ii. 22 and x. 38 that, outside the 
 Gospels, there is any such reference in the New 
 Testament. And this silence of the other parts 
 of the New Testament on the subject of the miracles 
 of Christ has induced some men to believe that the 
 Gospels were written at a late date, and when there 
 had arisen a desire to make Christ like unto the 
 heroes and founders of other religions a tendency 
 to decorate the story of Christ's life with " fictitious 
 miracles." 
 
 But when we are inclined to theorise on this 
 subject, it will be well for us to remember that 
 St. Paul believed in the greatest of all the miracles 
 recorded in the Bible the Resurrection of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. And it would not be right for us to 
 say that he had no real grounds for his belief. 
 Doubtless, the appearance of the glorified Christ 
 may have at once suggested this belief to him, and 
 have confirmed him in it. But evidence in support 
 of it was quite within his reach, and we may be 
 perfectly sure that it was not overlooked. When St. 
 Paul went up to Jerusalem about three years after 
 his conversion, it was we are told in Galatians 
 i. 1 8 to see Peter: with whom, we are further 
 informed, he abode fifteen days. But St. Peter, in
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 169 
 
 the opinion of St. Paul, was a witness to the resur- 
 rection, for did he not see Christ i. Cor. xv. 5 
 after that He had risen from the dead ? Can we 
 believe that such a man as St. Paul could remain 
 with such a man as St. Peter for such a lengthened 
 period of time without discussing the subject of the 
 resurrection ? And if there had been any serious 
 difference in their beliefs, would it not have been 
 somewhere stated by St. Paul ? The fact that St. 
 Paul is silent as to differences between him and 
 St. Peter ought surely to make us feel certain that 
 about eight years after the resurrection St. Peter and 
 those \.ho were associated with him at Jerusalem 
 believed on this all-important subject exactly as St. 
 Paul believed : and as, according to St. Luke, the 
 Christians of Jerusalem believed a few days after 
 the death of Christ. 
 
 The Gospel according to St. John was written at 
 a comparatively late date. But even the Synoptic 
 Gospels, in point of time, come after many, if not 
 all, of the Epistles of St. Paul. From this, however, 
 it is not necessary to infer that the Synoptic Gospels 
 have been seriously coloured by the later notions 
 of men with regard to Christ. For, strange to say, 
 we do not find in them many of those thoughts, 
 ideas, phrases, methods of statement, and argu- 
 ment which are to be met with in the Epistles, 
 and which seem to have grown up in the minds 
 of the Apostles and of the first Christians in the 
 twenty or thirty years which followed the death of 
 Christ. 
 
 " Each Evangelist," says Dr. Chase, " edited 
 and arranged the materials on which he worked,
 
 i/o WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 sometimes interpreting them, sometimes giving them 
 greater point or fulness, sometimes adding informa- 
 tion which he derived from some authority unknown 
 to or unused by the others." But what were the 
 materials on which the Evangelists worked ? Even 
 when we think of the Gospel that was second in 
 point of time as indebted to the one that was first, 
 and of the third as indebted to the first and second, 
 it is necessary for us to think of one, if not all, of 
 them as depending upon a Gospel narrative that 
 was oral in its beginning a well known and gen- 
 erally received verbal or written account of the life 
 of Christ, together with a record of His sayings. 
 But even this ancient substratum this earliest 
 form of the Gospel is likely to have contained 
 narratives with regard to the miracles of our Lord: 
 for miracles nature miracles as well as miracles 
 of healing are to be found in the common tradition 
 of the Synoptic Gospels, the matter which is to be 
 found in all the three Evangelists, and which may 
 be regarded as exhibiting " the closest approxima- 
 tion we possess to some parts of the original 
 narrative from which our Gospels are derived." 
 When writing the Gospels, therefore, St. Matthew, 
 St. Mark, and St. Luke seem to have done their 
 utmost to give us in its simplest form the Gospel 
 Story which was taught in the first Christian 
 Churches. In their well-arranged and orderly narra- 
 tives they tell us those things which were most 
 surely believed and most firmly established in the 
 early Church, ' even as they delivered them unto us, 
 which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and 
 ministers of the word.'
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 171 
 
 " Whatever may have happened at the grave, and 
 in the matter of the appearances one thing," says 
 Harnack, " is certain : this grave was the birth- 
 place of the indestructible belief that death is 
 vanquished, that there is life eternal." But if this 
 belief took possession of the followers of Christ very 
 shortly after the death of our Saviour, how are we 
 to explain its origin apart from the resurrection 
 and "the matter of the appearances"? We may 
 say that Christ had displayed before human eyes 
 " the witness of a spiritual and ageless existence," 
 and had so powerfully impressed the disciples that 
 they could not for more than a moment believe 
 that all was over with Him when He was laid in 
 the grave. When they pondered over His words 
 of Promise, thought of all that He had been, and 
 realised the power wherewith the remembrance of 
 Him acted upon them still, it may have been easy 
 for them to believe that Christ was risen, yea, that 
 He had actually been seen by them. But if we 
 can believe in a Personality so unique and so 
 powerful in spiritual influence, why should we take 
 it for granted that in every conceivable way He 
 must of necessity have been holden of death ? And 
 why should we find an insuperable difficulty in our 
 path when we think of accepting the emphatic and 
 doubtless well-tested testimony of St. Paul, who 
 assures us that Christ ' was seen of Cephas, then of 
 the twelve ; after that he was seen of above five 
 hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part 
 remain unto this present ' ? 
 
 But whatever we may think on this subject, it is 
 well for us to remember that what the Gospels tell us
 
 i/2 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 about Christ is worthy of the most careful attention, 
 for their words express the convictions of those who 
 knew Christ best of all. And special confidence 
 ought we to have in the words of the Gospels when 
 the character of Christ is concerned, for in the moral 
 and spiritual domain the disciples were as competent 
 as witnesses can be. They knew Christ well ; they 
 had been chosen by Him ; they had been taught by 
 Him ; they had become imbued by His Spirit. 
 They had been with Him in all circumstances of 
 familiarity, and they must have been swift to detect 
 any signs of imperfection or moral frailty in Him, 
 for whose sake they had given up so much, and on 
 whom their future so greatly depended. Their con- 
 victions, therefore, are not to be lightly set aside. 
 And yet, when we come to think of it, is it not 
 difficult, in some respects, to distinguish between 
 their convictions and the beliefs of many in these 
 days, who are generally regarded as severely critical ? 
 " The fact," says Dr. Mackintosh in the Natural 
 History of the Christian Religion, " that men who 
 were in hourly intercourse with him, while placed 
 in the most trying and testing circumstances, 
 could discern no evil in him, could even derive 
 from his behaviour the strangely novel idea of 
 a perfectly sinless being, is enough to establish his 
 claim to a position in the history of mankind abso- 
 lutely peerless. ... If already during his lifetime 
 they formed such an estimate, it can only be regarded 
 as a confession that there was in his character and 
 conduct a phenomenal depth and beauty which 
 baffled comprehension and rivalry." 
 
 Men who think and speak after this fashion are, in
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 173 
 
 one respect at least, not very far removed from the 
 ordinary Christian position. To them has been 
 granted a perception, indistinct and imperfect, per- 
 haps, but still real, of that unique characteristic of 
 Christ which believers call His Divinity a charac- 
 teristic which does not mar or distort His humanity, 
 but which is revealed to us in and through His 
 humanity, and which permeates, exalts, transfigures, 
 and transcends His humanity. Not seldom has it 
 happened that hesitating minds have been led 
 forward to a fuller faith by looking closely at the 
 marvellous portrait of Christ which is given to us 
 in the Gospels, and by thinking of the way in 
 which our Saviour is represented by the Evangelists 
 as living and acting before the eyes of men. " The 
 Gospel," says Rousseau, " has marks of truth so 
 great, so striking, so perfectly inimitable that the 
 inventor of it would be more astonishing than the 
 hero." 
 
 It would not have been a difficult thing for the 
 Gospel writers to have told us that Jesus was a 
 wonder-worker, by whom miracles of all kinds were 
 continually being worked. But the chief charac- 
 teristic of Christ as He comes before us in Scripture, 
 is the severe restraint He imposes on Himself in the 
 use of His supernatural powers, the moral and spiri- 
 tual purpose underlying the use of them, and the love 
 and mercy made manifest in and through them. 
 
 It would have been an easy thing for the 
 Evangelists to say that the character of Christ was 
 flawless, perfect. But a chief feature in the character 
 of Christ as He is presented to us in the Gospels 
 is the balance and proportion of excellences which
 
 174 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 seem so contradictory. He is at once tender and 
 severe : tender to all who are unfortunate, and 
 severe in His attitude towards the insincere. He 
 is a hater of evil, and yet He was merciful to its 
 victims. He is loving and gentle, yet withal in- 
 vincibly resolute. He is patient, and yet He is 
 full of holy zeal. He is humble and meek ; but 
 look at the assertions He makes with regard to 
 Himself and the claims which He puts forth in 
 behalf of Himself. 
 
 It would have been a comparatively simple thing 
 for the Gospel writers to have contented themselves 
 with telling us that Jesus was Divine. But instead 
 of doing this they bring this Divine Man down 
 into the arena of ordinary human life, and depict 
 Him as He went out and in amongst men, speaking, 
 working, sympathising, sorrowing, suffering in the 
 various situations in which He found Himself. The 
 Gospels bring Christ graphically before us, and show 
 us vividly how He demeaned Himself in all the 
 varying circumstances of His changeful lot, whether 
 believed in or rejected, followed or persecuted, loved 
 or hated, revered or execrated ; and in all they give 
 us a life-like and consistent portrait of a singularly 
 unique Personality. " If," says Rousseau, " the life 
 and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life 
 and death of Jesus are those of a God." 
 
 Now, the ablest of those who have attempted the 
 task know how difficult it is to idealise a character, 
 and how well-nigh impossible it is to keep that 
 character distinct, clear-cut, and life-like, unless it 
 has been suggested by a life that has really been 
 lived, and which is to a greater or less extent known
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 175 
 
 to them. How, then, is it possible for us to believe 
 that the Fishermen of Galilee could succeed in a task 
 infinitely more difficult than had ever been attempted 
 before ? How could they have imagined such a life 
 as that of Jesus Christ, and how without innumerable 
 inconsistencies and blunders could they have depicted 
 the Divine Man as living, working, suffering, dying 
 for and at the hands of sinful men ? Only one 
 explanation would seem to be possible. They had 
 in their minds a real character a life that was 
 actually lived. They produced a distinct, true, living 
 likeness of Christ, not so much because "Heaven 
 held their hand," as because they had before their 
 eyes " the great original " one with whom they were 
 acquainted, or whose life was well known to them. 
 " It is," says J. S. Mill, " of no use to say that 
 Christ is not historical, and that we do not know 
 how much of what is admirable has been super-added 
 by the tradition of His followers. The tradition of 
 His followers may have inserted all the miracles He 
 is reputed to have wrought. But who among His 
 disciples, or among their proselytes, was capable of 
 inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of imaging 
 the life and character revealed in the Gospels ? 
 Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee : as certainly 
 not S. Paul whose character and idiosyncracies were 
 of a totally different sort : still less the early 
 Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident 
 than that the good that was in them was all derived, 
 as they always professed that it was derived, from 
 the higher source." 
 
 1 When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth 
 his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.'
 
 176 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 When we think of the way in which events 
 happened and affairs shaped themselves in the ages 
 immediately preceding the coming of Christ, how 
 apt many of us are to think and speak after this 
 fashion : Christ was merely the creature of His 
 age and circumstances, and any greatness which may 
 be claimed for Him is due to the fact that He 
 seized upon ideas which were already in cir- 
 culation, and by speech and act expressed them 
 more clearly and powerfully than others had done. 
 There is no new element in Christianity : it is simply 
 " the reproduction in collective form of the ideas 
 contained in the religious and in the philosophical 
 and ethical systems of antiquity." 
 
 Now, when we are inclined to think and speak 
 after this fashion it will be well for us to remember 
 the facts and reflections which show us how 
 impossible it is to account in this way either for 
 Christ or for Christianity. 
 
 In the first place, no truly great man is or can be 
 merely the creature of his age and circumstances. 
 
 It is true that famous men often do owe much 
 some very much indeed to their circumstances, and 
 to those who have lived before them and prepared 
 the way for them. Very often men seem to be 
 great because they are standing on the shoulders of 
 others, or because they have been able to complete 
 that which others have nearly finished. But the real 
 greatness of a man is to be measured not by what 
 circumstances have made him, but by what he has 
 been able to do in his circumstances or in spite 
 of them. 
 
 And judged by this standard, who can be com-
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 177 
 
 pared with Jesus ? His circumstances were not 
 favourable to greatness or to reputation, or to the 
 rise and increase of His influence. Never, indeed, 
 was there a man who in many respects owed so 
 little to His birth, His surroundings, His country, 
 His time. And yet, who has made such a distinct 
 contribution to the religious knowledge and to 
 the spiritual life of the world ? Who has made such 
 a powerful impression, morally and spiritually, on his 
 own age and on succeeding ages ? Christ was born 
 into an humble home in an obscure village of an 
 unimportant country in which dwelt an isolated and 
 exclusive people. But in Him there is not the 
 slightest taint of class-feeling, provincial narrowness, 
 or national exclusiveness. When He comes forth 
 before the eyes of men He is full of grace and truth, 
 the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether 
 lovely, so that in Him alone all men can find the 
 true ideal of what a human life should be. And 
 when He speaks all can listen, all are constrained 
 to listen, for His words are applicable to all, con- 
 taining as they do the eternal principles in accord- 
 ance with which human life should at all times 
 be regulated. 
 
 In the second place, however closely connected 
 with the past Christianity may be, it is not either as 
 a theological or as a moral system the mere repro- 
 duction in a collective form of the ideas contained in 
 the religious, philosophical, or ethical systems of 
 antiquity. 
 
 The God of Christianity is not " the First Cause " 
 or " the Almighty Creator and Governor of the 
 World " of whom the philosophers spoke. On the 
 
 M
 
 178 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 contrary, He is a self-revealing Spirit who, while 
 He transcends the world, is immanent in it and 
 at once realises Himself in and reveals Himself 
 to humanity. Christianity thus brings down the 
 divine into the form of an individual life lived 
 under ordinary human conditions in order that 
 humanity may perceive its own true character and 
 be enabled to rise to the divine. 
 
 Even the more particularly Jewish conceptions 
 are transformed by the magical touch of Christianity. 
 " The sense of alienation and distance from God 
 which had grown upon the pious in Israel just in 
 proportion as they had learned to look upon Him 
 as no mere national Divinity, but as a God of 
 justice who would punish Israel for its sin as 
 certainly as Edom or Moab is," says Dr. Edward 
 Caird, " declared to be no longer in place ; and 
 the typical form of Christian prayer points to the 
 abolition of the contrast between this world and 
 the next which through all the history of the 
 Jews had continually been growing wider : 'as in 
 heaven, so on earth.' The sense of the Division 
 of man from God, as a finite being from the 
 Infinite, as weak and sinful from the Omnipotent 
 Goodness, is not indeed lost ; but it can no longer 
 overpower the consciousness of oneness. The terms 
 ' Son ' and ' Father ' at once state the opposition 
 and mark its limit. They show that it is not an 
 absolute opposition, but one which presupposes an 
 indestructible principle of unity, that can and must 
 become a principle of reconciliation." 
 
 And the Christian Ethical System is different 
 from all the systems that preceded it. It may be
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 179 
 
 possible to collect from the pages of pre-Christian 
 Pagan writers isolated passages which have a greater 
 or less resemblance to some of the precepts of 
 Christianity, but even a very considerable amount 
 of success in this work cannot make us blind to 
 the fact that there is in Christianity something which 
 is distinctive and peculiar. " Ancient morality, like 
 ancient astronomy, concerned itself," says W. L. 
 Watkinson, " with a narrow sky and a few stars ; the 
 morality of Christ, like the astronomy of Copernicus 
 and Newton, lets us into the infinite heaven, with 
 some constellations not seen before, and with new 
 possibilities of character ever glowing into sight." 
 
 Before Christ's time intelligent men had their 
 ideas more or less vague of duty, and their classi- 
 fication, more or less defective, of the virtues. But 
 Christianity enlarged to a marvellous extent the 
 range of duty, extending it to the minutest details 
 of life, and demanding the highest principles in the 
 ordinary work and commonplace affairs of our life. 
 
 Moreover, Christianity assigns great importance 
 to many virtues which were inadequately realised 
 or not recognised at all in pre-Christian Ethics. 
 Everyone will admit that the originality of an 
 ethical system depends less on the elements of 
 which it is composed, and which must in a sense 
 and to a certain extent be the same in all, than 
 on the value or importance assigned to the various 
 virtues, and on the way in which they are " fused 
 into a symmetrical whole." 
 
 Now, we all know that Christianity lays special 
 stress upon virtues which were ignored or over- 
 looked by the ancient philosophies.
 
 i8o WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 Love to God and man is at the centre of the 
 Christian system ; and here a virtue to be great, 
 yea, to be worthy of the name, must be penetrated 
 by a spirit of love. And hence it comes about 
 that reverence, devotion, purity, righteousness, 
 humility, meekness, long-suffering, pity, mercy, 
 unselfishness, self-denial, self-sacrifice, have a position 
 in the Christian system of morals which they have 
 in no other. Doubtless, all true virtues that were in 
 the old systems such as wisdom, courage, temper- 
 ance, justice, patriotism, bravery are to be found in 
 Christianity ; but here they are so inspired by the 
 divine spirit of love, and so broadened out in their 
 meaning and significance, that it is difficult for us 
 to recognise the old in the new. How different 
 Patriotism, for example, becomes, when, instead of 
 looking upon the people of other countries as 
 enemies whom we are bound to hate, we are 
 possessed of that humane spirit which leads us 
 beyond the bounds of our own country and 
 enables us to see our brethren in all the children 
 of men, and especially in those who are ignorant, 
 superstitious, downtrodden, oppressed, and in all 
 those who stand in need of such help as we can 
 render. How different bravery becomes when it 
 ceases to be identified with the virtue of the soldier 
 who will die on the field of battle rather than desert 
 at the approach of the enemy, and includes the 
 virtue of the soldier of the Cross who withstands 
 principalities and powers for the sake of Christ's 
 cause, who resolutely fights against evil wherever 
 he may find it, and who in heathen and barbarous 
 lands proclaims the gospel of God's love even
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 181 
 
 when he has to face loss, tribulation, suffering, 
 death. 
 
 No ; Christ's circumstances did not make Him 
 what He was, nor did the Religions and Philosophies 
 of the ancient world make Christianity what it is. 
 It is true that the Old Philosophies had educated 
 men on moral and spiritual subjects, and so well 
 had they done this that people had become 
 conscious of the imperfections of even the best 
 philosophies. The Old Religions led up to Chris- 
 tianity and prepared men for it ; and in nothing 
 was this more apparent than in the fact that the 
 old religious beliefs were perishing because people 
 had outgrown them and were already feeling after 
 something higher and better. But to prepare the 
 way for something better and to discover or produce 
 it are two quite different things. There is some- 
 thing in Christianity that was not in the religions 
 and philosophies of the ancient world, and we do 
 not account for Christianity when we say that it is 
 a combination of pre-existent elements. We might 
 as well try to account for the light of day by 
 saying that it is the sum total of the light of all 
 the stars, with an element of light contributed by 
 the sun. The sun does make a contribution to the 
 light of day, but it is a great one so great as to 
 obscure the united contributions of the stars. And 
 so Christ is the greatest Teacher the world has 
 seen, not because He learned and reproduced all 
 the wisdom of the wise who lived before His day, 
 but because He dwelt in God and God in Him, and 
 because He was thus the Revealer of God to man, 
 the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth, the
 
 1 82 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 
 
 Life, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. 
 He now shines alone in the Spiritual Heavens, 
 not because he has united in Himself the feeble 
 twinklings of innumerable spiritual stars, but because 
 He is the great Sun of Righteousness, shining by 
 His own inherent light, and causing all other 
 luminaries to pale their ineffectual fires. 
 
 " Our little systems have their day, 
 
 They have their day and cease to be, 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 
 
 It has been said that the ideal of duty and of 
 human excellence given us in Christianity are 
 perfect and final. If this be, as we believe, true, is 
 it not difficult for us to think of its origin apart from 
 its realisation in Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Before Christ's time men had their ideals, which 
 became nobler as the years passed by, higher and 
 fuller conceptions of excellence taking, in the course 
 of time, the place of those that were lower. Why 
 did not this gradual evolutionary process go on 
 for ever ? Why at a certain period in the history 
 of the race did a perfect and final ideal of duty 
 and human excellence dawn upon the world ? 
 Before Christ's time many had endeavoured to 
 answer the question, ' Canst thou by searching find 
 out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto 
 perfection ? ' No one had found out the Almighty 
 unto perfection, but some had met with a certain 
 amount of success in their attempts. It was reserved 
 for Him who came in the fulness of time to be com- 
 pletely successful where others had failed. To His 
 clear vision God and the other world were as truly
 
 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 183 
 
 visible as to His outward eye were the most obvious 
 objects which lay before Him. What a marvellous 
 revelation of Divine things comes to us from the 
 words of Him who could speak with authority and 
 not as the scribes from the life of Him who was 
 able to say, ' He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father.' 
 
 Now, as we all know, character is the condition of 
 moral insight. The pure in heart, and they only, 
 shall see God. " Increasing purity," says Dr. D. 
 W. Forrest, " alone brings increased vision ; but the 
 increase is merely relative. Absolute insight implies 
 absolute inner harmony of nature." If, therefore, 
 Christ gives us, so far as circumstances permitted 
 and human speech allowed, a full, true vision of 
 God and divine things, a perfect and final ideal of 
 duty and of human excellence, are we not going 
 beyond the facts of the case when we say that the 
 Jesus of History is essentially and fundamentally 
 different from the Christ of Faith, and that the one 
 was transformed into the other solely by the excited 
 imaginations of credulous men ? 
 
 When we draw nigh to Jesus to learn of Him, do 
 we not, as it were, feel God drawing us to Himself 
 and making us possessors of the life divine ? 
 
 " It is this that makes faith quite certain that 
 this Jesus is not a human invention." " As surely 
 as everything depends on the soul finding God and 
 becoming one with Him, so surely is He the true 
 Saviour, Guide, and Lord who leads the soul to God."
 
 XII. 
 
 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN DWELLETH 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for ... a new 
 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter iii. 13). 
 
 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven 
 (Matt. vi. 10). 
 
 THE Christian Religion is a religion of hope ; and 
 we all know how fruitful for good a reasonable hope 
 firmly held may be. What would our life be without 
 hope ? Who could live on through three score years 
 and ten in utter hopelessness ? Who could bear up 
 under the troubles and trials, the sorrows and disasters 
 of life if he had no hope of anything in heaven 
 or earth ? 
 
 Doubtless there are hopes which are false and 
 spurious, hopes that will deceive us and fail us at 
 the last, hopes that will encourage us in indolence, 
 presumption, self-conceit, and lead us on to sorrow, 
 mischief, and disaster. Nevertheless, any hope not 
 positively sinful or wholly irrational is, perhaps, 
 better for man than no hope at all ; for, however 
 poor and inadequate it may be, it will serve to keep
 
 A NEW EARTH. 185 
 
 him going until a worthier hope has taken possession 
 of him. 
 
 And we all know that the hope set before us in 
 the Gospel is reasonable as well as adequate, worthy, 
 holy, inspiring, ennobling, for it is founded on the 
 conviction that God is the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and for ever, and that His will must in the end be 
 realised that all things serve God's sovereign will 
 and carry out His plans and purposes, which are 
 plans and purposes of love to man, that the things 
 which constitute the character of God are worthy of 
 our love, trust, confidence that goodness is infinitely 
 more powerful and enduring than evil, truth than 
 lies, love than hate that the great Judge of all the 
 earth will most certainly do right that truth, 
 righteousness, love, mercy " are principles to be 
 carried out to the utmost extent, and to be trusted 
 and followed in the direst extremity." 
 
 True, the time has been when the hope of 
 Christians was not in all respects similar to our own. 
 ' Why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same 
 Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall 
 so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into 
 heaven.' These words were remembered by the 
 early Christians and interpreted in a certain way 
 they were a source of comfort and strength and 
 joy. The expectation that the ascended Christ 
 would shortly return in glory and in power for 
 the sudden and miraculous establishment of His 
 kingdom this hope sustained the early Christians 
 in the darkest days, and enabled them with 
 earnestness and confidence to do the duty that 
 lay to their hand.
 
 1 86 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 When the Master in whom they so thoroughly 
 trusted was taken away from them, when the whole 
 world was arrayed against a handful of men whom 
 it hated, despised, persecuted, how could the first 
 Christians have hopefully set about the work to 
 which they had been called, if they had not been 
 persuaded that Christ would speedily return arrayed 
 in glorious majesty, if they had not been convinced 
 that soon He would emerge from His celestial 
 chamber resplendent in glory, and attended by 
 countless myriads of His Father's angels ? 
 
 When the early Christians were bitterly opposed 
 and violently persecuted, when even their most 
 faithful efforts seemed unavailing and failure stared 
 them in the face, it did them good to think that the 
 day was coming, yea, was near at hand, when in the 
 most sudden and unexpected way, by some signal 
 manifestation of the power of God, a glorious trans- 
 formation would be effected and men would behold 
 new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. 
 
 But in the meantime all things seemed to continue 
 as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
 Days, months, years passed, but Christ did not 
 return in power and glory. Generation followed 
 generation, but the mighty transformation had not 
 become a thing of the past. 
 
 Nevertheless, during all these years the Christian 
 Church had been increasing in numbers, power, 
 and influence. Faithfully and effectively she had 
 been giving herself up to the work of enlightening 
 the world with Christ's word of truth, and of 
 permeating the world with His Holy Spirit. And
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 187 
 
 notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers which 
 she had to confront, her work had been abundantly 
 blessed of the Lord, and there had been a movement 
 upward and onward all along the line. Everyone 
 will admit that the nations have gradually become 
 more enlightened, more righteous, more merciful, 
 more humane. 
 
 But just on account of this success, the attention 
 of Christian men has now become centred upon 
 other aspects of Christian truth. Men have begun 
 to realise that God's Church is one on earth and in 
 the heavens that the Church on earth is but the 
 visible portion of a great invisible whole " bound 
 together in the same order of supernatural life." 
 
 " One army of the living God, 
 To His command we bow, 
 Part of the host have crossed the flood, 
 And part are crossing now." 
 
 We now see, as we never saw before, that the earth 
 is also the dwelling-place of God, and the home 
 of God's saints. And we are beginning to ask in all 
 seriousness the question, whether we really have been 
 honestly trying heretofore to make the earth worthy 
 of the honour which has thus been conferred upon it, 
 and whether we have been doing our best to bring 
 about a realisation of the prayer, ' Thy will be done 
 on earth, as it is in heaven ' ? 
 
 Now, when we think of the earth as God made it, 
 there can be no doubt that it was a suitable and 
 fitting place for the abode of the Saints of God. 
 
 What a marvellous place is this earth on which 
 we live, and which was meant to be to us, for a time 
 at least, not merely a place of existence, but a home.
 
 1 88 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 How interesting it is : how exceedingly fruitful ; 
 how surpassingly beautiful. The varied forms of 
 life that are upon the earth, the growth of the way- 
 side flower, the formation of a drop of dew, the 
 coming of the rain, the origin of light and heat, the 
 raising up of the hills, the laying out of the seas do 
 we not find in these and in innumerable other things 
 matters of the deepest interest and well fitted to 
 exercise and educate our intellectual powers ? 
 
 And see how productive the earth is and how able 
 " to provide without stint the main requisites of 
 human happiness." Is it not a fruitful garden for 
 man to dwell in ? Is it not capable of producing 
 in abundance food for our hunger and water for our 
 thirst ? And is it not a labouring machine constantly 
 working for our good ? The garden and the harvest- 
 field, the forest and the glade, the mountain and the 
 valley, the river and the ocean, the winds and the 
 waves, the rain and the dew, the light and the heat 
 do they not all in innumerable ways furnish us with 
 the conditions and the means of healthy and happy 
 living ? 
 
 And is not the earth beautiful as well as useful ? 
 Is there not beauty everywhere on earth and sky and 
 sea for the eyes that are opened to behold it. 
 " Every sort of beauty," says Mr. Greg in his Enig- 
 mas of Life, " has been lavished on our allotted 
 home ; beauties to enrapture every sense, beauties to 
 satisfy every taste ; forms the noblest and the love- 
 liest, colours the most gorgeous and the most delicate, 
 odours the sweetest and the subtlest, harmonies the 
 most soothing and the most stirring. . . . Everything 
 is bestowed in boundless profusion on the scene of
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 189 
 
 our existence ; we can conceive or desire nothing 
 more exquisite or perfect than what is round us every 
 hour." 
 
 " God made the country, and man made the town." 
 It is only in a subordinate and qualified sense that 
 there is any truth in these familiar words. For God 
 made man, and God has given him strength and 
 skill ; and anything that man can do is simply a 
 shaping into other forms, and a putting into new 
 relationships the matter which God has prepared for 
 his use. And it is to God that man owes the inspi- 
 ration towards everything that is wise and good and 
 worthy in his works in the country and in the town. 
 
 But there is one thing in the life of man, 
 whether it be in the country or in the town, which 
 is not due to God. To the Christian the facts of 
 nature are the acts of God ; but to the Christian 
 there is one thing in existence which is not a fact 
 of nature, but an unnatural fact. Sin was not 
 called into being by God. Evil formed no part 
 of the original constitution of things. Man is 
 himself responsible for sin and for all the sorrows 
 and privations and miseries that have followed in 
 its train. 
 
 God made man in His own image, and He 
 meant man to love Him, and to live for Him. 
 But He knew that a forced love is no love at 
 all, and that a mechanical obedience is no obedi- 
 ence at all. And so God endowed man with that 
 freedom which is his grandest characteristic 
 that free will without which real love and true 
 service are impossible, but with which, alas, dis- 
 obedience and sin may quite easily arise.
 
 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 And, as we all know, man chose that alterna- 
 tive which he ought carefully to have avoided. 
 Thoughtlessly or wilfully he preferred evil to good, 
 the suggestions of Satan to the known will of 
 God. And so the responsibility for the moral evil 
 that is in the world rests solely with the free 
 agents who have sinned. 
 
 We live in a Paradise of God's arranging ; but 
 it is a Paradise where the lives of many have 
 been made sad and miserable by the folly and the 
 sin of man. " The world which we inhabit is," 
 says B. F. C. Costelloe, " the world our fathers 
 made, and it is beset with the result of old 
 ancestral sin : for it is the tragic property of 
 wrong that its ill consequences affect not only him 
 who does it, but also those to whom his life is 
 bound in this great family of struggling souls." 
 And even now men cause evil things to be in 
 what ought to have been a fair and delightful 
 Paradise. Even now the sins of men cast a dark 
 shadow where all ought to be purity and peace. 
 Even now men do what they ought not to do, 
 and leave undone duties which they ought to 
 perform. Only too often even now the evil hearts 
 of men constrain and urge them on to vex and 
 grieve and injure and persecute their fellow men 
 and so they increase the evil that is upon the 
 earth ; that evil from which have come the trials, 
 the troubles, the privations, the sorrows, the suffer- 
 ings which are so often to be met with in the 
 lives of men. 
 
 But we who have faith in God do not believe 
 that this state of matters will prevail upon the
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 191 
 
 i 
 
 earth for ever. God |s in fcfee heaven^, and so it 
 
 must sooner or later be all right with the oarthi 
 God is on His throne overruling all things, and we 
 who have faith in God are persuaded that there 
 is a limit to the mischief that can be done by 
 sinful man. Yea, because God hath already 
 brought near His righteousness in Jesus Christ, we 
 cannot believe that selfishness and injustice will 
 characterise for ever the conduct of man towards 
 his brother man. The spirit of Christ and His law 
 will yet bear sway on the earth. Love and not 
 selfishness will yet be the constraining power in 
 men's lives, and justice and considerateness will 
 yet be the distinguishing marks of all those rules 
 and regulations in accordance with which the 
 wealth of the world is distributed. We who have 
 faith in God look for a new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. We believe that the kingdom of 
 God will yet come, and that God's will will yet 
 be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 
 
 And is there not, after all, a good reason for 
 the hope that is in us? Are there not to be seen 
 by us almost everywhere signs and indications in- 
 numerable of the coming of that for which we look ? 
 For, notwithstanding the backward state of some 
 countries, is there not on the whole an upward 
 movement among the nations ? In spite of the 
 selfishness and sin still in the world, are not men 
 becoming more righteous, more considerate, more 
 merciful, more humane in their feelings and 
 sympathies? The teaching, the example, and the 
 spirit of Christ have had a wonderfully beneficial 
 effect upon the hearts and lives of men, ay even
 
 192 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 upon the conditions under which and the surround- 
 ings amid which men and women fulfil the task 
 which destiny has set down for them. Christ's life 
 has been a fountain of new life in the world, His 
 spirit a source of inspiration, His teaching and 
 example the light of the world, and love and 
 loyalty to Him a mighty power in the lives of 
 men, constraining them to all manner of good deeds. 
 It is true that some have been inclined to 
 doubt the truth of this assertion. 
 
 "The nineteenth wave of the ages rolls 
 
 Now deathward since his death and birth, 
 
 Has he fed full men's starved-out souls ? 
 Has he brought freedom upon earth ? 
 
 Or are there less oppressions done 
 On this wild world beneath the sun?" 
 
 These are very clever lines, but the questions to 
 which they give expression are inspired by the 
 spirit of prejudice or exaggeration. Had the poet 
 said that Christians have not always been so 
 true to the spirit and teaching of Christ as they 
 ought to have been, and that consequently the 
 world has not made the progress it ought to 
 have made, we could all have thoroughly agreed 
 with him. 
 
 But we cannot shut our eyes to facts, and so 
 we must know something of the blessings which 
 Christianity has brought or has been the chief 
 agent in bringing to mankind. 
 
 Innumerable are the improvements and ameli- 
 orations and reformations which have followed in 
 the train of Christianity. " The high conception 
 that has been formed of the sanctity of human
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 193 
 
 life, the protection of infancy, the elevation and 
 final emancipation of the slave classes, the sup- 
 pression of barbarous games, the creation of a 
 vast and multifarious organisation of charity, and 
 the education of the imagination by the Christian 
 type, constitute together a movement of philan- 
 thropy which," says Mr. Lecky in his History of 
 European Morals, " has never been paralleled or 
 approached in the Pagan world." 
 
 Now, when we remember what has been done 
 by Christianity in the past, and when we think 
 of the way in which the spirit and the teaching 
 and the life of Christ have commended themselves 
 to and have taken possession of the hearts and 
 minds of multitudes of the most intelligent and 
 influential men and women of our time, we cannot 
 but be hopeful with regard to the future ; we 
 must believe in the progress which is yet to be 
 made by us if only Christian men and women are 
 true to the calling wherewith they are called of 
 the Lord. 
 
 But if we really wish to bring about that for 
 which we look, we must endeavour to live up to 
 our wishes : we must work along the line of our 
 prayers. We must look to our hearts and lives, for 
 out of the heart are the issues of life ; and when 
 we are cultivating the garden of our own lives, we 
 are doing much to advance the Kingdom of God, 
 for we are setting an example which, in the way 
 of influence, must powerfully act upon the men 
 and women who are round about us. And we 
 must look to the way in which, in all our relation- 
 ships, we act towards those who are brought into 
 
 N
 
 194 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 contact with us day after day. Think of the 
 misery that is caused in this world by envy, malice, 
 uncharitableness, evil-speaking, lies, dishonesty : and 
 try to imagine what a changed place the earth 
 would be if these things had no place in our hearts 
 and lives, and if all men were true to Christ's 
 golden rule, His new commandment, and His 
 doctrine of the brotherhood of humanity. And 
 we must carefully bear in mind the duties that 
 devolve upon us as citizens, who in free countries 
 like our own have practically the making of the laws 
 in our own hands. It is our Christian duty to see 
 to it that the laws of the land are impartially ad- 
 ministered, and that in themselves these laws are 
 equitable and righteous, and for the good of the 
 whole community. How difficult it is to make 
 such laws we all know ! But that is all the more 
 reason why men possessed of the spirit of Christ 
 and anxious for the advancement of His kingdom 
 should pay strict attention to the duties devolving 
 upon them as citizens, for upon the nature and 
 character of the laws of the land depends to a 
 great extent the question of the approach of that 
 for which we look a new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. 
 
 Moreover, if that for which we look is at no 
 very distant date to become a reality, we must 
 cultivate that humane spirit which is ready to pass 
 the bounds of our country and kindred, and to 
 go on errands of mercy to the ignorant, the needy, 
 the helpless, the oppressed, wherever they may be. 
 On the face of the earth there are still many 
 nations and tribes which are steeped in ignorance,
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 195 
 
 superstition, or barbarism. There are still multi- 
 tudes who need our prayers, our sympathy, our 
 example, our help. And if they do not get 
 these things it will be long, very long indeed, 
 before that human eyes can see that for which 
 Christians look a new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. But we will not fail to help them 
 we will not shirk altogether the white man's 
 burden if we are true to the calling wherewith 
 we are called of the Lord. Freely we have re- 
 ceived, and freely will we give and nobly will we 
 do, if we remember the example of Christ, and 
 bear in mind His words, ' Go ye, therefore, and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : 
 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you : and lo, I am with you 
 alway even unto the end of the world.' 
 
 Now, when we cease to be ' fervent in spirit, 
 serving the Lord,' when we are tempted to weari- 
 ness in well-doing, when we are disappointed and 
 disheartened by an apparent want of success in 
 our efforts to advance the Kingdom of God on 
 earth, it will help us greatly if we remember : 
 
 I. The inherent difficulty that there always is in 
 the doing of good. 
 
 We all know how difficult it is to drive away 
 the misconceptions and prejudices and supersti- 
 tions and erroneous beliefs which have taken 
 possession of the minds of men. 
 
 And we all know how difficult it is to rid our- 
 selves of evil habits which we have carelessly or 
 wilfully formed. Bad habits are easily and quickly
 
 196 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 called into being, but to get rid of them when 
 formed severely tries the temper and the strength 
 of the best of men. For they come almost to 
 be part and parcel of our nature, and to separate 
 ourselves from them is like to self-destruction. 
 
 But the formation of good habits is an affair 
 of the greatest difficulty. For here we have to 
 go against the grain of the natural man, and our 
 selfish desires and sinful inclinations and un- 
 hallowed passions proclaim war against any and 
 every attempt to control or restrict or restrain 
 them. And when for a prolonged period we have 
 been the slaves of evil habits the task which the 
 self-reformer sets himself is difficult in the ex- 
 treme. ' Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or 
 the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do 
 good that are accustomed to do evil.' 
 
 We need not be disheartened, therefore, when 
 we do not meet with all the success we could 
 wish for in our many and varied efforts to serve 
 the Lord and to advance His kingdom on the 
 earth. 
 
 To enlighten the minds of men, to purify their 
 hearts, to ennoble their lives, to give an upward 
 tendency to their thoughts and desires and wishes, 
 to take part and lot with Christ in the regenera- 
 tion of the world this is a glorious work, but 
 it is a difficult and trying one, and he who would 
 have a share in it must not expect to accomplish 
 all his wishes in a moment, and as by the wave 
 of a magician's wand. 
 
 II. We must carefully remember that there 
 always is a harvest to our sowing a result from
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 197 
 
 our faithful efforts to serve God and to advance 
 His kingdom although we may not be able to 
 see it in all its fulness or to put a right estimate 
 upon it. 
 
 Some result from our labours, if they are 
 earnest and worthy, we are likely to see. But 
 the sum total of the results accomplished by us, 
 we may never know. And the results which we 
 cannot trace may be infinitely more important 
 than those which we can trace. 
 
 In the past the good work done in the world 
 was not wholly accomplished by the few great 
 men whose labours obviously have not failed and 
 whose names have been handed down in honour 
 to our day. In the past there were millions of 
 unknown toilers whose humbler lives have done 
 good service to mankind. Their labours were not 
 in vain, though they are unremembered now, and 
 though they were unnoticed even in their own 
 day. And just so is it with ourselves. It is not 
 the few but the many who are carrying on the 
 world's work so that it may be well with those 
 who are to come after us. Multitudes of men 
 and women are blessing the world by their 
 labours, and yet their labours are left unnoticed 
 and we cannot trace the results of their good 
 deeds. 
 
 Nevertheless, none of these good deeds are ever 
 lost. They never fail of a good result. They 
 leave indelible traces on the souls of those who 
 do them : they are recorded in the Lamb's Book 
 of Life : and they all go to the making of that 
 mighty stream of goodness by which Providence
 
 198 A NEW EARTH WHEREIN 
 
 fertilises the ages. The bread cast upon the 
 waters may not be found for many days ; but 
 found at last it shall be by some one or other. 
 The rain when it has fallen disappears beneath 
 the surface of the earth, and for a time no trace 
 of it is seen ; but when the warm and genial 
 weather comes again, it causes the earth to 
 abound in vegetation. And equally productive and 
 salutary are the good deeds done by men and 
 women. 
 
 " We scatter seeds with careless hand, 
 We dream we ne'er shall see them more ; 
 
 But for a thousand years 
 
 Their fruit appears 
 In weeds that mar the land 
 
 Or healthful store. 
 
 The deeds we do, the words we speak, 
 Into still air they seem to fleet ; 
 
 We deem them ever past, 
 
 But they shall last : 
 In the dread judgment 
 
 They and we shall meet." 
 
 Think, for a moment, of the greatest work that 
 ever was done on earth. Think of that unknown 
 life that for thirty years was lived at Nazareth. 
 Think of the three years' patient preaching amid 
 abuse, insult, contempt. When Jesus died no life 
 seemed so unsuccessful and so unproductive as 
 His. When our Saviour hung upon the Cross His 
 life appeared to be a total failure, for all His 
 disciples and followers had forsaken Him, and the 
 penitent thief seemed to be the only soul that He 
 had for His hire. But the Saviour's Cross became
 
 DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 199 
 
 the throne of His power. And ever since that 
 day all eyes have been drawn to Him who, on 
 the Cross, was lifted up ; and even those who do 
 not professedly belong to Him have had to admit 
 that His influence on the hearts and lives of men 
 has been, and still is, the greatest and the most 
 beneficent the world has ever known. 
 
 Let us think on these things, and let us lay 
 them to heart. Let us trust in the Lord and 
 do good, assured of this, that no deed done for 
 Christ ever fails of a result or of a reward. 
 ' Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due 
 season we shall reap, if we faint not.' ' There- 
 fore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, un- 
 moveable, always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour 
 is not in vain in the Lord.'
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE COMPLETION OF THE KINGDOM 
 OF GOD. 
 
 Are there few that be saved ? (Luke xiii. 23). 
 
 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man 
 could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, 
 stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 robes, and palms in their hands (Rev. vii. 9). 
 
 THE ideas entertained by many with regard to the 
 final completion of the Kingdom of God are a 
 stumbling-block in the way of their faith. When 
 they think of the future which awaits us they are 
 perplexed and troubled, for they see vast multitudes 
 falling under a doom that is awful banished for ever 
 from the presence of the Lord to a place where God 
 has forgotten to be gracious, or ceasing to exist at 
 the stern fiat of Him who called them into being. 
 If only a few are to be saved, has not God made 
 man in vain ? Has not the mission of Christ been 
 a failure ? Will not Heaven be shorn of great part 
 of its glory and joy ? And will not ' the victory of 
 God over Satan prove to be less complete than we 
 now expect? 
 
 But why should men have such ideas when they 
 think of the completion of the Kingdom of God ?
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 201 
 
 Nowhere in Scripture are we told the exact 
 number of those who are to be saved. To the 
 man who put the question, Are there few that be 
 saved ? our blessed Lord and Master replied : ' Strive 
 to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say unto 
 you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' 
 And these words remind us that when we attempt 
 to answer this question definitely and precisely, we 
 are trying to be wise beyond what is possible for us. 
 We do not know our own hearts perfectly, and we 
 may be sure that our opinion with regard to what 
 God thinks, or will think of others, is well nigh 
 valueless. 
 
 As we live in this world we doubtless have often 
 to form judgments with regard to our neighbours, 
 and there rnay be times when it is necessary for us 
 to act upon such judgments. We may even find it 
 incumbent on us to give expression to them. But 
 we may take it for granted that such judgments are 
 always more or less tentative and partial, and never 
 wholly and absolutely true. Even when there is no 
 beam in our own eye to obscure our vision, and 
 no want of charity in our heart to bias our judgment, 
 we cannot truly judge of the motives which are 
 at work in another's mind, and we cannot fully 
 know his difficulties and temptations and trials. 
 
 "Who made the heart, 'tis He alone 
 
 Decidedly can try us ; 
 He knows each chord, its various tone, 
 Each spring, its various bias. 
 
 Then at the balance let's be mute, 
 
 We never can adjust it ; 
 What's done we partly may compute, 
 
 But know not what's resisted."
 
 202 THE COMPLETION OF 
 
 It is foolish of us, therefore, to dogmatise with 
 regard to the future weal or woe of even our nearest 
 friend. It is absurd of us even to attempt to give a 
 definite answer to the question as to the number of 
 those who are to be saved. It is not for us to 
 know the times and the seasons which the Father 
 hath put in His own power. It is not for us to dare 
 to anticipate the judgments which will be pronounced 
 on the great and awful day of the Lord. It is 
 enough for us to make sure that all will be well with 
 ourselves on that great day. It is enough for us to 
 be certain that we are obedient unto the command, 
 ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say 
 unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' 
 
 But although our Saviour has discountenanced all 
 foolish curiosity and idle speculation on the subject 
 of the number of those who are to be saved, He has 
 never forbidden earnest and reverent thought about 
 the future and about the completion of the Kingdom 
 of God. And it is not difficult for us to understand 
 why this should be so. Our hope with regard to 
 what is to be influences our life in the present, and 
 affects our destiny in the future. And so there is 
 no reason why we should not, but every reason why 
 we should, think earnestly and reverently sometimes 
 about what we hope for, for ourselves and others. 
 
 Now, when we think about the future, the under- 
 lying and determining thought with many is the love 
 and goodness of God. 
 
 God is love, they remind us ; and His purposes, 
 which cannot fail, are purposes of love to us. And 
 so they are full of hope with regard to the future of 
 humanity. If not in this life, then certainly in the
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 203 
 
 life that is to be, salvation will be found by every 
 human soul. Far more confidently do they speak 
 than does the Poet of the Larger Hope, to whom we 
 are indebted for the well-known lines : 
 
 " Oh yet we trust that somehow good 
 Will be the final goal of ill, 
 To pangs of nature, sins of will, 
 Defects of doubt, and taints of blood. 
 
 That nothing walks with aimless feet, 
 That not one life shall be destroy'd 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 
 When God hath made the pile complete." 
 
 They believe in the ultimate pardon of the wicked 
 who are condemned at the Day of Judgment. They 
 maintain that the Divine Purpose of love which 
 will have all men to be saved will not for ever be 
 frustrated by man's resistance. They assert that, 
 " sooner or later, after, it may be, the lapse of ages 
 numbered beyond human ken," all souls will rest, 
 purified and renewed, in the bosom of the Universal 
 Father. 
 
 Now, there is no reason why Christians should 
 not entertain a pious wish, or religious hope, with 
 regard to the future well-being of all men. To 
 such a wish or hope we are prompted by some of 
 our best thoughts and feelings. 
 
 "The wish that of the living whole 
 No life may fail beyond the grave, 
 Derives it not from what we have, 
 The likest God within the soul?" 
 
 And are there not many passages of Scripture which 
 seem to speak of a final victory when God shall
 
 204 THE COMPLETION OF 
 
 be all in all, and when all things shall be as God 
 wills them to be ? 
 
 But when men proceed to dogmatise on this 
 subject, and to assert that, because God is love, 
 every soul which He has made must find salvation 
 in this life or in that which is to come, then they 
 are wise beyond what is written, and their dogmas 
 are not justified by the teaching of Scripture or 
 by the facts of the case. 
 
 Does not our Saviour speak of the sin that hath 
 never forgiveness, of the worm which dieth not, of 
 the fire that cannot be quenched, and of the great 
 gulf which none can pass ? And do we not see 
 the power and persistence of evil in this world ? 
 and does it not seem as if it were possible for a 
 man to so indurate himself in evil in this life as 
 to extinguish all capacity for goodness? 
 
 And what is there in the future which must of 
 necessity bring about a great change in hardened 
 sinners whom the incidents and accidents of life 
 have not affected in the slightest ? " If God is 
 anywhere He is here ; if He is near to the soul 
 at any time it is now ; if a decision of eternal con- 
 sequence can be taken under any circumstances, it 
 can be taken in this world." Even now we are 
 living under a canopy of love, and if, so circum- 
 stanced, men remain blind to the love of God, or 
 if seeing it they can remain untouched and un- 
 affected by it, what reason have we for asserting 
 that something will be met with in the future that 
 must of necessity bring every hardened sinner to 
 repentance ? God is love now, as well as in the 
 future ; and yet we can all see the terrible pre-
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 205 
 
 rogative of man's freedom that freedom by which 
 God's purposes may be daily frustrated that free- 
 dom by which men may, in the course of time, 
 harden themselves into " an irremediable anta- 
 gonism " to God and goodness. 
 
 How then can we possibly assert that no soul 
 will remain for ever unreconciled to God ? To 
 speak after this fashion on this great subject, is it 
 not to belittle our present life? to forget that time 
 is part of eternity ? not to speak of putting a 
 great temptation in the way of the thoughtless and 
 the careless. 
 
 But with others, when they think about the 
 future, the underlying and determining thought is 
 the righteousness rather than the love of God the 
 severity rather than the goodness of God. And 
 when this is the predominant thought, there are 
 always many considerations which tend to give a 
 sombre aspect to our view of things. 
 
 The conviction that sin cannot be forgiven till 
 it is repented of and forsaken : the belief that 
 without holiness no man can ever see the Lord or 
 enjoy His favour: our knowledge of the power and 
 persistence of evil in this world : the fact that many 
 die and make no sign, that multitudes pass away 
 without ever hearing of Christ : the widely enter- 
 tained opinion that many of our Saviour's words 
 assert or imply that our future destiny is determined 
 during our life on earth : the stern and startling 
 words of Jesus, ' Many are called, but few are 
 chosen,' ' Strait is the gate and narrow is the way 
 that leadeth unto life,' these and many other con- 
 siderations tend to darken our hope and to make
 
 206 THE COMPLETION OF 
 
 us fearful and afraid when we think of the future 
 of the great mass of men. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of all these things, it is 
 possible for men and women who think often of the 
 righteousness of God to entertain the larger hope as 
 they meditate on the completion of the kingdom of 
 God. For whatever else they believe in, they believe 
 in the fairness and justice of God, and with confidence 
 they can ask the question, Shall not the Judge of all 
 the earth do right ? 
 
 All men have not the religious advantages of 
 which we stand possessed, but did not our Saviour 
 give utterance to these words, ' Unto whomsoever 
 much is given, of him shall be much required ' ? All 
 men have not the knowledge of God that we have, 
 but God has never left Himself without a witness 
 on the earth, and no one is, or ought to be, wholly 
 destitute of a knowledge of God's will for him. ' For 
 when the Gentiles which have not the law, do 
 by nature the things contained in the law, these 
 having not the law are a law unto themselves, 
 which shew the work of the law written in their 
 hearts ; their conscience also bearing witness and 
 their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else ex- 
 cusing one another.' Many are still ignorant of 
 the Gospel : many have not as yet heard the 
 name of Christ ; but has not St. Peter said, ' Of 
 a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of 
 persons : but in every nation he that feareth 
 him and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
 him.' We may believe that it is only while the 
 lamp of life holds on to burn that the sinful man 
 may return to God, and yet in our hearts we may
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 207 
 
 entertain the hope that God's mercy at the last will 
 be extended to multitudes whose case to our limited 
 view may be desperate ; for no man can truly read 
 the heart or rightly interpret the life of a fellowman, 
 and no one knows the germs of goodness or the 
 earnest of eternal life that may be in men and women 
 seemingly irreligious and godless. At death our fate 
 may be fixed ; and yet multitudes of those who die 
 and make no sign may have within them the seeds 
 of holiness which, under altered circumstances and 
 in a more congenial clime, shall yet spring up and 
 become beautiful trees abounding in good fruit. 
 
 The atmosphere is much, though it be not every- 
 thing. It cannot sow the seed or plant the trees ; 
 but it may promote the life and growth of both, or 
 bring about their decay or death. And so translation 
 to another world may not be able to bring to life 
 those who are really and truly spiritually dead ; but 
 surely in the world unseen we may expect to find 
 that which will be favourable to the growth of love, 
 purity, holiness, that which will revive the spiritual 
 life that is faint and flickering, that which will bring 
 to maturity whatever forms of half-developed good- 
 ness a man has won his way to here. 
 
 When we think on these things after this fashion, 
 it is easy for us to believe in those words which are 
 so full of hope : ' Be of good cheer : I have over- 
 come the world.' ' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto me.' ' Wherefore God also 
 hath highly exalted him and given him a name 
 which is above every name : that at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
 and things in earth, and things under the earth :
 
 208 THE COMPLETION OF 
 
 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
 Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' 
 ' They shall come from the east, and from the west, 
 and from the north, and from the south, and shall 
 sit down in the kingdom of God. And, behold, there 
 are last which shall be first, and there are first which 
 shall be last.' ' I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, 
 which no man could number, of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the 
 throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a 
 loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.' 
 
 However orthodox we may be, therefore, we can 
 all be sharers in the larger hope. We can all 
 avail ourselves of the inspiration and encourage- 
 ment that come to us from many passages in the 
 Word of God. 
 
 But a hope of this kind was given for our 
 salvation and not for our undoing. He who is 
 possessed of it ought to purify himself even as 
 Christ is pure. For the best way in which to 
 bring about that which we wish to happen is to 
 make manifest in our lives the patience and 
 the faith of the saints. When we make our own 
 calling and election sure we are adding to the 
 number of the faithful. When we give ourselves 
 unto the Lord we are increasing the number of 
 those who are to be saved. But when we give 
 ourselves to the Lord, live in His love and fear, 
 identify ourselves with His cause, and yearn and 
 strive for the advancement of His kingdom, do we 
 not feel as if something were lacking to our joy
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 209 
 
 in life so long as multitudes are still enemies to 
 God and to His cause ? ' There is joy in the 
 presence of God over one sinner that repenteth.' 
 These words tell us that God and the Heavenly 
 Host are profoundly interested in the career of 
 every soul that lives that to them there is a 
 sense of loss, a feeling that something is lacking, 
 when a soul made in God's image wanders into 
 the paths of folly and sin that the joy of the 
 Heavenly Host is in a sense bound up with 
 the spiritual prosperity of men and women on the 
 earth. And as it is in Heaven so is it with 
 the saints of God on earth. The cause of God, the 
 cause which we have so much at heart, is re- 
 tarded by the faithlessness, the worldliness, the 
 sinfulness of men. And so we are grieved by 
 the sins of our fellowmen, and we rejoice in 
 their faith and goodness. Our faith in God is 
 strengthened by the fact that multitudes have 
 faith in Him. Our joy and peace in believing 
 are not lessened and weakened, but increased 
 and deepened by every addition to the number 
 of believers. 
 
 There is joy in the presence of the saints of 
 God on earth over one sinner that repenteth. 
 How indeed should it be otherwise? Is not that 
 sinful man now repentant our brother? And is 
 he not, like ourselves, a son of God and a 
 brother of the just men made perfect around 
 God's throne? 
 
 And so all earnest Christians feel necessity 
 laid upon them to live not for self but for 
 others. They are constrained to pray, to labour, 
 
 o
 
 210 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 to strive for the moral and spiritual redemption 
 of that world for which the Son of God lived 
 and died. 
 
 God grant that day after day this may in- 
 creasingly be the case. And in order that it 
 may be so may we put aside all tormenting 
 fears and anxieties with regard to the completion 
 of the Kingdom of God. May we remember and 
 realise the truth that God is our Father in 
 Heaven, and that His purposes are purposes of 
 love to us. And while we strive to make our 
 own calling and election sure, and earnestly 
 labour for the salvation of others, may we with 
 hope and confidence commit our own future and 
 the future of others to the keeping of Him in 
 whose hands we are in death as in life, assured 
 that God will never fail in mercy towards us, 
 and that when the day of eternity breaks, and 
 the shadows of time flee away for ever, we 
 shall, if we have been faithful, find ourselves in 
 the presence of God and in the company of 
 that countless multitude who have died in the 
 Lord, and are now with Him where He is. 
 
 GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND co.
 
 u 
 
 ' .: ! 
 C65 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 Series 9482
 
 000 894 023 1