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— L

OUR

ELDER BROTHER

HIS BIOGRAPHY.

E. P. TENNEY,

AUTHOR OF
" Triumphs of the Cross " ; "A Story of the Heavenly Carnpfires," etc., etct

ASSISTED BY

Bishop E. R. Hendrix, Ll/.D.,

Prof. Geo. P. Fishfr, LL.D.,

Editor George E. Horr, D.D.,

Bishop John H. Vincent, D.D.,

REV. F. A. Nobee, D.D.,
President E. H. Capen, Lly.D.,

Rev. Edward Everett Haee, D.D.,
Evangelist Dwight I,. Moody,

Rev. Charees H. Parkhurst, D.D.,

Evangeeist H. M. Wharton, D.D.,
And Other Authors.

ILLUSTRATED

With a Portfolio of Sacred Art, consisting; of 24 Photographic Reproductions
of the World's Celebrated Paintings.

The ^ing^iehstfdson Co.

Springfield, Mass.

Richmond. Des Moines. Indianapolis. San Jose. Dallas. Toledo.

1899.

®4^Mft&

Copyrighted, 1897 and 1899, by
THE KING-RICHARDSON CO.

Springfield, Mass.

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PROF. N. L. NELSON,

BRIGHAM YOUNG ACADEMY.

CHRIST'S LIFE AS A WORLD-POWER

By N. Lv. NELSON,

Professor of English in the Brigham Young Academy.

WITHIN the memory of men still living-, a tidal wave, mountain high,
broke upon the western shores of America. So great was its mo-
mentum that in many places it swept everything before it for miles
inland. The same wave, moving westward, deluged whole islands in its
course, rose up against the coasts of Japan, China, and Australia, and. still
unchecked, poured its flood upon the Indian ocean ; then advancing with
gradually diminishing front along the south coasts of Africa it surged on-
ward past the Cape of Good Hope, till it met in Mid- Atlantic the eastward
moving column set in motion by the same upheaval. Northward it trav-
eled also and southward till the frozen regions of the poles had been bathed
in its ever-widening circle ; and passing round these fortresses of eternal
snow and ice it met again between Europe and America.

What titanic power, the reader is ready to ask. could set such a wave
in motion? Science tells us that it started from a subterranean earthquake
somewhere in the Pacific ocean. Now. if on the shores of California, rive
thousand miles distant, there could be seen an advancing wall of water
appalling in its height, how awful must have been the disturbance at the
point of upheaval ! Such is the natural exclamation ; but is it justly made?
On the contrary, the disturbance would be scarcely perceptible, save to
trained powers of observation. To realize this fact, suppose a ship float-
ing on the area beneath which the volcanic eruption took place. The up-
heaval must have involved several square miles, and, therefore, could not
have occurred suddenly. It took perhaps over an hour, or exactly the time
elapsing between the first and the second wave, or any two succeeding
waves. Now a ship might thus alternately rise and sink, and no one on
deck, save he who might watch for the event, be aware that a force had been
unchained which in a few hours would traverse the length and breadth of
every ocean ; which fact brings me directly to the point of this illustration.

The birth of Christ was the most tremendous event that has ever taken
place on the face of the earth ; an event whose far-reaching consequences
we realize but dimly even now. Who then, save the few that were on the
watch tower, could know what it meant nineteen hundred years ago? For
thirty years Christ lived the life of an ordinary man, — the Carpenter's son.
The three years of His ministry were, indeed, filled full of mighty works ;
but who were able to interpret them? Even His disciples failed at first to
grasp the meaning of His life. What then? Does this fact abate one jot
the endless influence of it? Was the tidal wave less a tidal wave, that its
beginning was unperceived?

But my illustration presents contrasts as well as analogies. The mo-
mentum of the tidal wave came from beneath and propagated itself through
the medium of a material ocean. The momentum of Christ's life came
from above and is carried forward through the medium of a spiritual ocean.

The tidal wave diminished in force as it advanced, and finally spent itself
upon insurmoutable barriers. Christ's life gains in momentum as the
years go by. Bishop Heber was a prophet. The power of Christ's life
does, "like a sea of glory, spread from pole to pole" : not only inundating
the level shore-line of natural purity and piety, but climbing the cold
heights of pride and worldly ambition, and flooding, with its genial warmth
and brightness, the frozen regions of sin and despair. Nay, not only
giving life and hope to the living, but rekindling faith and effort among
the dead ; not only drawing souls to him in regions where the sun still
shines, but leading " captivity captive " even from among the " spirits in
prison." And this tidal wave of redeeming power will go on till every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess : till death is put under His feet,
and Christ shall present to the Father a glorified earth filled with glorified
inhabitants just as the Father conceived it at the dawn of creation, when
the * -morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

Christ's life differs from all other lives in that it is self-luminous.
Not only does light come from it, but warmth : light for the understand-
ing, and warmth for the heart. Take any other name which history sets
in contrast with that of Christ — Alexander. Caesar, Xapoleon — and it is
seen to-day only because the lurid glare of events is reflected upon it. Such
lives are cold, dead centers from which emanates no power to enkindle
souls. They may appeal to our imagination, but only as does the blight
of the blizzard or the track of the cyclone. Selfish from beginning to end,
they are destructive rather than constructive in their tendency ; if we gain
wisdom from them, it is because we deplore, not because we admire. Other
characters in history, the poets, the sages, and the prophets, whose lives
resemble Christ's as stars do the sun, teach positive lessons to mankind,
and are self-luminous to the extent that the Christ Spirit shines through
their thoughts and deeds. And so also may our lives shine, if we shall
learn the secret of the indwelling Light of the universe.

It is a striking co-incidence that the highest civilization of the
nineteenth century is co-extensive with Christianity. From a material
point of view this civilization is attributed to the fact that men turned
from books to nature : turned from the hoary superstitions of ages, ex-
panded and elaborated in the darkness of cell and cloister, to the bright
new page of God's own book whose daily record is written by the sun. But
it remains yet to be decided, whence came the impulse that moved Chris-
tian peoples and not other peoples to seek God's will through the medium
of His works. " The cause of the cause," so the schoolmen were fond
of saying, "is the cause of the thing caused." Man can express out-
wardly only that which he first feels inwardly, and the same law holds
true of nations ; and so at the last analysis it will be found that the glory
and enlightenment of our day are the outcome of Christ's life : for the
inner man is Christ's domain : it is here that world-powers are born.

But how could the imperfect record of a brief life, set in the dark-
ness of a barbarous age, accomplish such tremendous results in world-
shaping ? If it were only a record, how, indeed ? The secret of its power
lies in the fact that Christ still liveth. This is the meaning of a life self-
luminous. Christ taught men the golden rule, but it would have remained
a rule — it would never have worked itself into the abolishment of slavery
and the establishment of the rights of man — had not the ever-present

Christ Spirit given it life and direction. When the golden rule shall have
done its work, we shall have universal justice : justice between man and
man, between man and beast, and between man and inanimate life.
Superincumbent on this foundation will reign a higher law — a law of love,
which Christ's life also stands for, both in precept and example. The
working of this law will mean the Millennium — a new heaven and a new
earth.

Such is and such will be the influence of Christ's life as a world-power.
But its influence on the masses is only the aggregate of its influence upon
the individual. How does it, how ought it, to influence you and me?
Note the passage of Scripture (Heb. 2 : 11) : "For both He that sancti-
fieth and they who are sanctified are all of one : for which cause He is not
ashamed to call them brethren." He is not ashamed to call us brethren
because it is in the solemn, the everlasting truth. We belong to the same
divine race. Let us not spiritualize away this glorious truth. Christ is
our Elder Brother, not in a figurative, but in a real, literal sense. He was
with the Father before the world was : so were we. He has returned to
the Father : so may we.

Christ was the foremost to hold up this transcendent truth. He taught
us to pray, " Our Father," and nowhere has He intimated that Father
means anything else than father. As a further rebuke to the Theosophic
conception of Deity as a vague, impalpable essence or influence, Christ
said, " Who hath seen me hath seen the Father " : a saying made plainer
still by Paul's commentary that our Saviour is the brightness of His Father's
glory, the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). Xow, it is of such a
being that Christ says : "Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is
perfect."

Here then is set forth the ultimate goal of man : to be perfect as his
Father in Heaven is perfect. It is a stupendous mission, but not an im-
possible one. Our Elder Brother accomplished it, and we are enjoined
to follow His example. Tn this short command are summed up all the
legitimate aspirations and achievements of man for millions of ages to
come ; whether physical, intellectual, social, moral, spiritual, or in what-
ever other way aspiration and achievement may raise man in the direction
of God. But how shall this goal be reached with the fewest retrograde
movements V '• Follow me," said our Saviour. The meaning and pur-
pose of life are thus made clear : God the Father, the end : God the Son, .
the means.

If then any man would know the secret of Chrits's life as a world
power, let him reflect that the Father gave Him as an example of how we
ought to live; and if he marvels at the effectiveness of this life, let him
know that God places the whole power of the universe behind any man
or woman who will follow in His footsteps.

With such convictions as to the influence of Christ's life in the
world, 1 need make no apology for indorsing a work that aims to set
forth in clear, simple language the record of His deeds while on earth.
The plan is certainly an admirable one, and gives evidence of ripe scholar-
ship and years of patient, loving study of the theme. The author has
evidently soughl to bring together, from a thousand sources, the bright
and wise tilings that have been said concerning our Saviour. The book
is. in fact, not so much a narrative as an exhaustive commentary on the
lib- of our Elder Brother.

List of Contributing Writers.

E. R. Hendrix, LL.D., Bishop of M. E. Church, South, Kansas City.
John H. Vincent, D.D., Bishop of M. E. Church, Topeka, Kas.

E. H. Capen, LL.D., President of Tufts College.
George E. Horr, D.D., Editor of " The Watchman," Boston.
Edward Everett Hale, D.D., Pastor, Editor, Author, Boston.
George P. Fisher, LL.D., Professor of Yale University.
Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D., Pastor, Reformer, Writer.
D wight L. Moody, Evangelist of two Continents.

F. D. Huntington, L.H.D., D.C.L., Bishop of Central New York.
Augustus H. Strong, D.D., LL.D., Pres. of Rochester Theol. Sem.
Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn.

^H. M. Wharton, D.D., Pastor, Evangelist, Author, Baltimore.

F. A. Noble, D.D., Pastor of Union Park Church, Chicago.

W. M. Barbour, D.D., LL.D., Pres. of Cong. College, Montreal.
A. H. Currier, D.D., Prof, of Sacred Literature, Oberlin College.
Daniel Dorchester, Jr., D.D., Late Prof, of Boston University.
John S. Sewall, D.D., Bangor Theological Seminary.

Edward Abbott, D.D., Editor of " Literary World," Boston.

William T. Herridge, B.D., Ottawa, Ont.

Alexander McKenzie, D.D., Pastor, First Cong. Church, Cambridge.

Writers of Selected Chapters.

William C. Wilkinson, D.D., Prof, of Chicago University.

J. C. Ryle, D.D., Lord Bishop of Liverpool, England.

Alexander McLaren, D.D., Fallowfield, Manchester, Eng.

Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D., Pres. of Princeton University.
William E. Gladstone, Ex-Prime Minister of England.

Preface.

C5 I HIS book is written solely to set forth Jesus Christ as
4 I Our Elder Brother : as the individual helper of
Q I every man, My Elder Brother.
If, perhaps, as some are disposed to say, there have been
books enough to explain the Gospel text, or books enough
of controversy defending this or attacking that, or books
enough on the theology of Christ's life, yet this book is in-
tended solely to depict the Wonderful Story in its relation
to every human life — My Brother. Luther has said much
about the precious proDouns of the Bible, — Me, My, I,
Thou. It is this snug-fitting personal relationship between
Our Elder Brother and the weary and heavy laden of the
world that is the theme of this book. It is an attempt to
approach the life of Jesus from the human side, in sym-
pathetic touch with each child of humanity.

This book cannot be better prefaced than to tell how it
came to be written. These studies were blocked out
twenty-five years ago, and thereafter, some phase of this
great theme so constantly presented itself to the writer's
mind, that of public addresses every Sabbath for many
fears one out of seven had for its sole topic the person or
work of Jesus Christ. Nearly three hundred popular pre-
sentations were so made, of the principal lines of thought
now comprised in this book : so the Author was constantly
studying and re-studying how best to interest and instruct
not scholars but the common people in the salient features
of our Masters Life and Work ; condensing and adapting

PREFACE.

the voluminous and invaluable works that he found in the
libraries, to aid those who have no leisure for extended re-
search. In order better to do this, the Author classified his
studies, in the attempt to see what the eyes of Jesus saw,
to hear what his ears heard, to perceive what people he
constantly met, and to know how he appeared when min-
gling with the sons of men. And so fascinating was the
work of picturing all this, that the writer found himself
little by little reading everything that could be seized upon
in the great libraries upon the subject.

Living in a neighborhood where he could have access to
fourteen hundred thousand books, he discovered that the
book world for the most part presents the life of our Lord
in Chronological rather than Topical arrangement, and
through Expository rather than Devotional treatment. To
meet his own needs, therefore, the Author selected a few
hundreds of volumes, and took years enough to study them
with great care ; * and then he arranged his notes along the
lines indicated in the first ten books of the Table of Con-
tents of this work, — " What Jesus Christ is to Me." Hap-
pily, however, in later reading, more material was found
that was already classified under one or another of the
topics alluded to.

Without hope of preparing or presenting a New Imita-
tion of Christ, the writer did hope to form for himself and
for the average man a picture of the Life of our Lord
wrought out in the light of modern studies and setting
forth the Master in his relation to modern life, since the
contemplation of the Life of Our Lord in the Nineteenth
or Twentieth Century must be based upon fullness of

* A Catalogue of these books will be found in the Appendix.

PREFACE.

knowledge, garnering the fruit of eighteen hundred years
of research and studying the story of the Son of Man in its
relation to the world-problems of the very generation in
which we live.

To do this, we need to seize upon certain characteristics
of the story, rather than consume time in discussing ques-
tions of interpretation or commenting on all the details
alluded to in the Gospels : to study the spirit of Christ as
revealed in the incidents of his life rather than make a
microscopic examination of the incidents themselves. In
preparing this book, therefore, the Author has sought to
present to the average man, as if in personal conversa-
tion or familiar address, the results rather than the proc-
esses of much that is best in modern scholarship, and to
emphasize the most important points by citing the words of
competent authorities : often doing it without crowding the
page with a record of earmarks to indicate the sources of
studies which have been carefully prepared.*

Abundant citation is a part of the plan of this book :
upon literary grounds there should be less ; yet the multi-
plication of testimonies is one of the main ends sought,
with the intent to show the attitude of world-wide scholar-
ship and life experience toward certain phases of our
Saviour's life. By this plan, the reader has the benefit of
phrases more accurate or felicitous than those of the

*The Author has been at much pains to secure accuracy in his cita-
tions, so making them trustworthy for all ordinary purposes ; yet in the
interest of the general reader it has seemed best to remove from the notes
all those references to book titles and pages and editions which facilitate
the work of special students. When, however, the Author has condensed
a quotation, he has asked the reader to " Compare " it with the original
passage as it is indicated by a note.

PREFACE.

Author in setting forth the praises of Immanuel, and in his
thoughtful hours he is edified and quickened by the perusal
of thoughts gathered from regions afar or penned at first
in distant ages : and the reflections and annotations of the
most eminent students are in this way brought to the serv-
ice of those who have little leisure for elaborate studies.
Among those whose words are cited, there are some of the
most eminent people in the world, some perhaps being
great statesmen, the uncrowned kings of Christendom, who
have brought their most precious gifts to Christ, whose
words are reproduced to aid the meditations of those who
dwell far from palaces and the great capitals of civilization.

There is a perennial interest throughout the world in
tracing and retracing the steps of the Son of Man ; pictur-
ing the mountains and seas, the gardens or solitudes, that
he gazed upon. And the Author can but felicitate himself
and his readers that the art of the painter has been called
to the aid of the pen, in the1 Album of Pictures which is
bound into this volume to illustrate the Life of our Lord.

And he can but be grateful to those Special Writers whose
contributions to this volume so greatly enhance its value.

" To make Jesus better known," says Faber, "is to make
him better loved : " and this book will abundantly fulfill its
mission, if, by it, any one is led to a better knowledge of
the Saviour of men, and to love him more. And if any
reader peruses these pages in the daily hour alone with
God, the writer can but pray that the Holy Spirit which
helpeth human infirmities may heal the imperfections of
this work, and make it spiritually helpful to him who seeks
therein to learn more of the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Table of Contents,
^<&?&-

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

PAGE

What Our Elder Brother is to Me, . 66

Book I.
OUR PATTERN IN YOUTH.

Chapter 1.— The Manger Child, 71

2.— The Home at Nazareth, 81

3.— The Boyhood of Jesus, 91

Book II.
OUR BROTHER IN TOIL.

Chapter 1. — A Master at the Work-Bench, . . . 101

2.— His Work without Flaw, . . . . 115

3. — The Nazarene Neighbors, .... 125

4. — Mystery of the Wilderness, .... 132

Book III.
OUR DIVINE HELPER.

Chapter 1. — At Home by the Sea,

2. — Stilling the Angry Waves, .
3.— The Madman of the Tombs, .
4. — The Hungry Thousands Fed,
5. — The Divine Healer, ....
6. — New Life for the World, . .

143
149
153
157
160
164

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Book IV.
OUR EXAMPLE IN SELF-RENUNCIATION.

PAGE

Chapter 1. — A Singular Life of Service, .... 171

2.— An Unselfish Ideal, 178

3.— The Hovel and the Palace, .... 182

4.— Moral Miracles, 185

Book V.

OUR PASTOR AND PREACHER.

Chapter 1. — A Lesson at the Wellside, .... 189
2. — His Manner in Attracting Attention, 205
3.— His Rhetorical Power, 217

Book YI.
OUR TEACHER.

Chapter 1. — The Master and His Pupils, .
2. — His Originality in Thought, .
3. — His Self -Assertion, ....
4. — A Kingdom to Establish, . .
5. — His Gentleness and Severity,
6.— The World's Great Teacher,

225

238
242

252
269
279

Book VII.

OUR SUFFERING SAVIOUR.

Chapter 1.— Entering the Shadows, . . . . . 289

2.— The Heavenly Vine and Bread, . . 299

3.— The Awful Night in Gethsemane, . 309

" 4.— The Midnight Hour, 320

5.— A Triumphant Mob, 326

6. — The Darkness at Noonday, .... 338

PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Book VIII.

OUR RISEN REDEEMER.

Chapter 1. — The Resurrection Morning, .... 357

2.— Where was His Abode ? ..... 3G4

3. — Opening the Heavenly Gates, . . . 374

4. — Confident Witnesses, 380

5. — The Paschal Lamb, . 394

Book IX.
OUR FRIEND ON HIGH.

Chapter 1. — Loving Kindness Personally Admin-
istered, 401

2.— Mystery of the Two Natures, ... 412

3. — Contrasts in Divine Self-sacrifice, . 419

Book X.

THE WONDERFUL NAME.

Chapter 1. — The Scriptural Symbols of Christ, . 431

2. — His Name Reflected in Nature, . . 435

3. — Emblems in Human Life, .... 438

4.— The Mystical Union, 443

5. — Alpha and Omega, 448

0. — The Royal Diadem. 452

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Co ntr it> -cited. Chapters.
Book XL
THE MASTER AND HIS MESSAGE.

PAGE

Chapter 1.— As a Lad in the Temple, 459

By E. R. Hendrix, S.T.D., LL.D.

Chapter 2. — As a Pattern in the World of To-day, 463
By John H. Vincent, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 3.— The Guide of Life, 466

By Elmer H. Capen, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 4. — Our Imitation of the Master, . . . 472
By George E. Horr, D.D.

Chapter 5. — The Church in Samaria, 475

By Edward Everett Hale, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 6.— A Story of Skill, 480

By President W. M. Barbour, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 7. — The Democracy of Jesus, .... 486
By William Herridge, B.D.

Chapter 8. — Character of His Teaching and Work, 492'
By George P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 9. — The Master, the Message 506

By Augustus H. Strong, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 10. — Not Law But Love 512

By John S. Sewall, M.A., D.D.

Book XII.
THE VOICE AND THE LIFE.

Chapter 1. — John's Voice and Christ's Life, . . 519
Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, S.T.D., L.H.D., LL.D.

Chapter 2.— The Transfiguration, 532

By Edward Abbott, D.D.
15

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

Chapter 3. — The Door of Salvation, 538

By Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D.

Chapter 4. — Our Lord Jesus Christ, 542

By the Evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

Chapter 5. — My Personal Friend, 545

By the Evangelist H. M. Wharton, D.D.

Chapter 6. — Our Sympathizing Friend, .... 548
By Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.

Chapter 7. — Love as a Clock- weight, 552

By A. H. Currier, D.D.

Chapter 8. — The Name above Every Name, . . 559
By Frederick A. Noble, D.D.

Chapter 9. — Christ our Authority, 566

By Daniel Dorchester, Ph.D.

Chapter 10. — Christ in the Old Testament, , . . 574
By Alexander McKenzie, D.D.

Supplementary Book:.

SELECTED CHAPTERS.

Chapter 1. — His Characteristics as a Preacher, . 589

By Professor William C. Wilkinson, A.M.

Chapter 2. — In Remembrance of Me, 594

By Rt. Rev. John C. Ryle, D.D., D.C.L.

Chapter 3.— Two Sayings from the Cross, . , . 597
By Alexander McLaren, D.D.

Chapter 4.— God's Love in Scripture, 601

By Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D.

Chapter 5. — The Redemption of Humanity, . . 604
By Rt. Hon. William E. Gladstone.
16

LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS.

24 Photographic Reproductions of

Trie World's Celebrated Paintings.

TITLE. ARTIST. PAGE.

Angels Appearing to the Shepherds, Plockhorst, . . 18

Arrival of the Shepherds, . . . . Le Rolle, ... 20

View of Nazareth, Photograph, . . 22

On His Way to Jerusalem, .... Mengelberg, . . 24

In the Temple, H. Hofmann, . 26

Jesus and John the Baptist, . . . E. Winterstein, . 28

Christ's Farewell to his Mother, . . Plockhorst, . . 30

Peter's Walk upon the Water, . . . Plockhorst, . . 32

Raising the Daughter of Jairus, . . Oustav Richter, 34

The Good Shepherd, . . . . . . Plockhorst, . . 36

Jesus and the Woman, Emile Signal, . 38

The Penitent, Plockhorst, . . 40

The Sermon on the Mount, . ... Dubufe, ... 42

Preaching from a Boat, H. Hofmann, . 44

Casting out the Money Changers, . F. Kirchbuch, . 46

His Entry into Jerusalem, .... Plockhorst, . . 48

In Gethsemane, E. K. Liska, . . 50

The Arrest, C. F. Galabert, . 52

Leaving Pilate's Hall, Pore, . . . . , 54

Returning from the Tomb, .... Plockhorst, . . 56

The Women at the Tomb, .... Plockhorst, . . 58

On the Way to Emmaus, Plockhorst, . . 60

The Ascension, G. Biermann, . 62

Lo, I Stand at the Door and Knock, . Karl Schonherr, 64

Angels Appearing to the Shepherds.

Plockhorst.

Bernhnrd Plockhorst was born at Brunswick, 1825 ; his studies were pursued at Munich and
Paris, in Holland, Belgium, and Italy. For three years he was professor in the Art School at
Weimar. His studio is in Berlin.

H^h

Calm on the listening ear of Night
Come Heaven's melodious strains,

Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver mantled plains.

Celestial choirs from courts above,

Shed sacred glories there ;
And angels with their sparkling lyres,

Make music on the air. "

Rev. E. H. Sears.

^§jy£-

The heart must ring thy Christmas bell,

Thy inward altars raise ;
Its faith and hope thy canticles,
And its obedience, praise. "

Whittier.

This scene of the Nativity illustrates Book First, Chapter One.
19

Arrival of the Shepherds.

Painted in 1888 by LeRolle.

The studio of Henry Le Rolle is in Paris, his native city.

-?~*^f-

The management of the light in this painting suggests the
words : " I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever oelieveth
in me should not abide in darkness."

" When Christ was born, midnight gloom lightened into midday
brightness. When Christ died, midday darkened into midnight."

Moody's Notes from my Bible.

View of Nazareth.

Photographed.

-s-*-s-

We want no prophets here ! Let him be driven
From synagogue and city ! Let him go
And prophesy to the Samaritans.

The world is changed. We Elders are as nothing
We are but yesterdays, that have no part
Or portion in to-day ! Dry leaves that rustle,
That make a little sound, and then are dust !

A carpenter's apprentice ! A mechanic,
Whom we have seen at work here in the town
Day after day ; a stripling without learning,
Shall he pretend to unfold the Word of God
To men grown old in study of the Law ? "

Longfellow's Divine Tragedy.

This view illustrates Book First, Chapters Two and Three.

On His Way to Jerusalem.

Painted in 1876 by Mengelberg.

0. Mengelberg was bom in Dusseldorf in 1817. He was a pupil of Dusseldorf Academy.
Subjects, history and portraits.

-S-Jfc-H

We are to think of Jesus as making this three days' journey
nearly threescore times before he began his public ministry.

"Palestine in that day as in this had more than three hundred
different sorts of birds. They cooed in the groves, and twittered in
the branches, and flitted among the rocks, and warbled in the sky,
and skimmed the hillsides, and darted over the meadows, and vied
with each other to make the Son of God welcome and happy."

Geikie.

The artist represents the holy family at the moment when
Jesus sees Jerusalem for the first time. His eager attitude is that
of a leader.

" Jesus, still lead on,
Till our rest be won.
Heavenly Leader, still direct us,
Still support, console, protect us,
Till we safely stand
In our Fatherland."

Count Zinzendorf, IT 21.

This painting illustrates Book First, Chapter Three.
25

In the Temple.

Hofmann.

The original painting is in the Dresden Gallery.

Hemrieh Hofmann was bom in Darmstadt, 1824. Studied at Dusseldorf, Antwerp, Munich,
Dresden, and four years in Italy. He is a professor in the Dresden Academy.

-=:~$~s-

" The legends of early Christianity tell us that night and day,
where Jesus moved and Jesus slept, the cloud of light shone round
about him. And so it was ; but that light was no visible Shechinah;
it was the beauty of holiness ; it was the 'peace of God.' '

Dean F. W. Farrar.

This thought is indicated by the artist in the glory which
glorifies the figure of Jesus, even in his child-life.

This illustration pertains to Book First, Chapter Three.

Jesus and John the Baptist

E. Winterstein.

vhe original painting hangs in the Dresden Gallery.

-2-*-s-

" Antra deserti teneris sub annis."

"In caves of the lone wilderness thy youth

Thou hiddest, shunning the rude throng of men,
And guarding the pure treasure of thy soul
From the least touch of sin.

"There to thy sacred limbs the camel gave

A garment coarse; the rock a bed supplied;

The stream thy thirst, locusts and honey wild

Thy hunger satisfied."

Breviary in Lyra Catholica.

This painting illustrates the period m the life of Jesus that is alluded to in
Book First, Chapter Three.

Christ's Farewell to His Mother.

Plockhorsi.

The original of this painting is owned by Mr. H. L. Dousman, of St. Louis.

-5-&-S-

This work of art represents Jesus at the moment when he was
leaving the home of Mary to enter upon his public ministry.

Mrs. Jameson in her "Legends of the Madonna," alludes to a
beautiful belief concerning the continued influence of Mary upon
the later life of Jesus : —

" The theologians of the Middle Ages insist on the close and
mystical relation which they assure us existed between Christ and
his mother: However far separated, there was a constant commun-
ion between them; and wherever he might be, in whatever acts of
love, or mercy, or benign wisdom occupied for the good of man —
there was also his mother present with him in the Spirit."

Peter Walking upon the Water.

Plockhorst.

-i-Xhl

"Lord save me." "Short prayers are long enough. Not
length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty
teacher of brevity. All that is real prayer in many a long address
might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter. "

Charles H. Spurgeon.

This painting illustrates Book Third, Chapter Two.

Raising the Daughter of Jairus.

Gustav Richter.

This painting, executed in 1856, is now in the National Gallery in Berlin,

Gustav Riehter was born in Berlin about 1822. Aprofessorinthe Royal Academy of Arts
in Berlin, and a member of the Academies of Munich and Vienna. Died, 1884.

-2-#-S

''Maiden, arise!
See, she obeys his voice ! She stirs ! She Hues I"

Longfellow's Bivme Tragedy.

This illustration relates to Book Third, Chapter Six.

The Good Shepherd.

Ploekhorst.

i-^r-h

Art in the early Christian centuries delighted in picturing Jesus
as the Shepherd, youthful and majestic, caring for his sheep in every
season.

" Come, wandering sheep, 0 come ;
I'll bind thee to my breast -,
I'll bear thee to thy home,
And lay thee down to rest."

Lyra Catholiea. Spanish Hymn.

'*' When in clouds and mist the weak ones stray,

He shows again the way,

And points to them afar

A bright and guiding star.

Hallelujah ! "

Krummacher.

This painting illustrates Book Five, Chapter Three, and Book Ten, Chapter Three.

Jesus and the Woman.

Emile Signol.

Emile Signol was born in Paris, 1804. At twenty-six he gained as a prize the privilege uf
studying three yeai s at Rome. A member of the Institute and an officer of the Legion of honor.
Many of his works are at Versailles. The original of this illustration, painted in 1840, is at the
Luxembourg Museum.

-s^iei-

This story of Jesus' pity for the woman and his indignant
rebuke of her sinful accusers, is one of the earliest of the traditions
concerning Christ ; and it is probably authentic, even if unrecorded
in the earliest Gospel manuscripts.

Jesus was that sort of person that a sinful woman would bathe
his feet with her tears and a learned rabbi would seek him in the
night upon the slopes of Olivet; the religious extremes in Judea
finding in Jesus a sympathizing friend.

Spurgeon relates the story of a wicked, yet half-penitent woman
in Dublin who greeted the clergyman who called on her, by saying }
"If Jesus Christ had been here so long as you have, he would have
called on me long ago."

This painting illustrates Book Five, Chapter One, the story of the Woman of
Samaria ; also Book Six, Chapter Five, Jesus' contact with the Pharisees.

The Penitent.

Plockhorst.

■z^y

This picture represents the return, not perhaps of a prodigal,
but of a young man recognizing his need of Christ's friendship,
and the answering sympathy of him "who looking earnestly" upon
the young man, is said to have "loved him." The angel faces
peering out of the cloud indicated the joy in heaven, "over one
sinner who repenteth."

It is the appro aehableness of Jesus which led Robertson to say,
"He who stood in divine uprightness that never faltered, felt com-
passion for the ruined, and infinite gentleness for human fall.
Broken, disappointed, doubting hearts in dismay and bewilderment
never looked in vain to him. Very strange, if we stop to think of
it, for generally human goodness repels from it evil men ; they shun
the society and presence of men reputed good. But here was purity
attracting evil; that was the wonder. The Son of Man was ever
standing among the lost, and his ever predominant feelings were
sadness for the evil in human nature, hope for the divine good in it
and the divine image never worn out."

This painting illustrates Book Five, Chapter One, Jesus as a Pastor; and
Book Six, Chapter Five, the Gentleness as well as the Severity of Christ.

The Sermon on the Mount,

Eclouard Dubufe.

The Beatitudes.

"If we estimate character more by the standard of Christ's
Beatitudes than what we shortsightedly call 'results,' we shall find
some of the sublimest fruits of faith among what are commonly
called passive virtues : —

'• In the silent endurance that hides under the shadow of great
affliction; in the great loveliness of that forbearance which 'suffers
long and is kind ' ; in the charity which is not easily provoked ; in
the forgiveness which can be buffeted for doing well and take it
patiently ; in the smile upon the face of diseased and suffering per-
sons, a transfiguration of the tortured features of pain brightening
sick rooms more than the sun ; in the unostentatious heroisms of the
household amid the daily dripping of small cares ; in the noiseless
conquests of a love too reverential to complain ; in resting in the

Lord and waiting patiently for him."

Bishop Huntington.

This painting illustrates Book Five, Chapter Three.

Preaching from the Boat.

Hofmann.

The original of this painting is in the National Gallery at Berlin.

-i-y^y

This painting illustrates Book Five, Chapter Three. It was
said by Jesus, "I have not come to heal the siek, but to preach the
Kingdom of God." In these preaching tours, we are to think of the
preacher as adapting his words to the hour and the scene. He who
upon the land told the story of the Sower, may have told his water-
side hearers about the Mustard-seed, since the lake shores were
lined with this plant, or he may have spoken of the Goodly Pearl
from the waters of the Arabian Gulf, which he saw a caravan mer-
chant seeking to sell at Capernaum.

The story of the Fishers and the drag-net might have illus-
trated a transaction going on in the sight of his hearers at that very
moment.

We can but think of the privilege of those who listened to the
preaching of Jesus. "Certainly," says St. Jerome, " a flame of
fire and starry brightness flashed from his eyes, and the majesty
of the Godhead shone in his face."

Casting out the Money-Changers.

F. Kirehbuch.

-3-*->

This painting, which illustrates the reference to this seene in
Book Five, Chapter Two, and in Book Seven, Chapter One, is based
upon the story in the Gospels of the two cleansing s of the temple ;
one at the commencement of Jesus' public ministry at the April Pass-
over after his baptism in January, and again at the beginning of
the Passion week.

The need of such acts has been well stated by Bean Farrar,
which I present in condensed form.

" In the court of the Gentiles were penned flocks of sheep and
oxen, while the drovers and pilgrims stood bartering around them ;
there were the men with great wicker cages filled with doves ; and
under the shadow of the arcades, the money-changers, with tables
covered with small coin.

This Court of the Gentiles, which was a witness that the temple
should be a house of prayer to all nations, had been degraded into a
place for foulness, like shambles, and for bustling commerce, like a
densely crowded mart, while the lowing of oxen and bleating of
sheep, the babel of language, the huckstering and wrangling, and
clinking of money might be heard in the adjoining courts, disturbing
the prayer of the priests and the Levites' chant. "

His Entry into Jerusalem.

Plockhorst.

-f-*-S-

"A great multitude of people

Fills all the street ; and riding on an ass

Comes one of nolle aspect, like a king !

The people spread their garments in the way,

And scatter branches of palm trees !

Blessed

Is he that cometh in the name of the Lord !

Hosanna in the highest."

The Divine Tragedy

This painting illustrates Book Seven, Chapter One.

In Gethsemane.

K K. Liska.

l-Dhh

" Aeeording to all the consenting testimonies, the Lord of Glory

went through death, to save us from it. He drank the eup of bitter

woe, that we might quaff from heavenly chaliees the wine of life.

All faintness and gloom which his mysterious being could know, he

folded around, he took within him, that we might walk celestial

streets with palm and harp, in robes of white."

R. S. Storrs, LL.D.

This painting illustrates Book Seven, Chanter Three.

The Arrest.

Charles F. Galabert.

Charles F. Galabert was born at Nimes, 1819. A pupil of Delaroehe. An officer of tlie
Legion of Honor.

j-a-s-

" What lights are these ? What torches glare and glisten

Upon the swords and armor of these men ?

And there among them, Judas Iscariot ! "

The Divine Tragedy.

This painting illustrates Book Seven, Chapter Four.

Leaving Pilate's Hall.

Gustave Bore.

Paul Gustave Bore was born in Strasburg, 1833 ; died, Paris, 1883.

H~#rh-

This work of art which illustrates Book Seven, Chapter Five,
was painted in the years 1867-1872. It was not completed when
the Franco-German war broke out, and during the Siege of Paris the
canvas, twenty feet by thirty, was buried for security against injury
by shot and shell.

This painting was included in the American Exhibition of
Bore's works.

John and Mary Returning from the Tomb.

Plockhorst.

This painting is in the Lowenstein Gallery, Moscow.

-i>*rh

Stabat Mater Dolorosa.

" Who, on Christ's dear mother gazing,
Pierced by anguish so amazing,

Born of woman, would not weep ?
Who, on Christ's dear mother thinking,
Such a cup of sorrow drinking,

Would not share her sorrows deep ? "
From the Latin of Jacopone de Benedietus, a Francisean monk, ob. A. D. 1306.

The Women at the Tomb of Christ.

Plockhorst.

This painting which illustrates Book Eight, Chapter One, luas a Medal work at the Berlin
Exhibition.

K-#~S

PONE LUCTUM, MAGDALENA.

" Mary ! leap for joy and gladness,

Christ has triumphed o'er the tomb ;
He hath closed the scene of sadness,

He of death, hath sealed the doom ;
Whom thou late in death wast mourning,
Welcome now to life returning. "

From the Latin. Lyra Catholiea.

■ ->.

V m

i 4|

On the Way to Emmaus.

Plockhorst.

The original painting is owned by Mr. H. L. Dousman, of St. Louis.

-3-*-!

"From this episode I learn that Christ is willing to be the com-
panion of my life-journey, until I reach the heavenly home. He
that walketh with Jesus, walketh surely, his journey will be safe and
he will never miss the right road."

A i .port of Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler's words upon this incident.

To illustrate Book Eight, Chapter One.

The Ascension.

Gottlieb Biermann, Berlin.

s-*-* — ■

: Rise, glorious Conqueror, rise, —
Into thy native skies,

Assume thy right.
And where in many a fold
The clouds are backward rolled —
Pass through the gates of gold,

And reign in light."

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges.

To illustrate Book Eight, Chapter Three.

Lo, I Stand at the Door and Knock.

Karl Schonherr.

Karl Sehonherr was born in Saxony, 1824. A professor at Dresden Academy.

-5~3^S-

In the Chapel at Wellesley College there is a memorial window
presented by Governor Claflin of Massachusetts, which represents
Jesus knocking at the door of the heart. The very first Sunday it
was seen, one student, who had hesitated long to undo the door,
yielded to the Pilgrim knocking and let her Saviour in.

"Jesus Christ is no burglar," said a loving pastor, and when
he said that, one, who had been long waiting for the knocking Christ
to break through, yielded, and opened the door for Christ to enter.

" In the silent midnight watches,

List — thy bosom's door :
How it knocketh, knocketh, knocketh,

Knocketh evermore.
Say not 'tis thy pulses beating,

' Tis thy heart of sin :

'Tis thy Saviour knocks and crieth,

'Rise and let me in."'

A. C. Coxe.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

What Our Elder Brother is to Me.

^x&

(5p|T every disciple in every age were to report what
Jesus Christ is to him, he would but describe the link
by which he is united to God in Christ, and the very
variety of these personal impressions would more
fully set forth the character of the Son of Man in its adap-
tation to the wants of all men in all ages. The fact that
there is a four-sided Gospel story encourages the painters,
poets, and teachers of the world to attempt the portrayal of
certain attributes of Jesus, which are dwelt upon by the
imagination of the artist, the singer, or the moralist.

What Jesus Christ is to me is my message to the world.
It is my individual answer to the question, " What think
ye of Christ ? " To contribute one's own impression of the
Gospel portraiture, to present the evangel in its modifi-
cation of personal life, is one's best contribution to the
thought of his generation. " What I was as an artist once
seemed to me of some importance," said an eminent Eng-
lishman, " but what I am as a disciple of Christ interests
me now." What think ye of Christ, sets aside all other
questions as of secondary import. He alone whose art or
calling is the expression of his view of Christ is the happy

WHAT JESUS CHRIST IS TO ME.

man : I am indeed content in drudgery since I know that
my Lord was uncomplaining and faithful as a hand-toiler ;
or I am with great joy an artist, since he too loved the
green earth and the blue sea, and made everything beauti-
ful. Or, if this is not correctly stated, it is to be said that
he is the happy man who is always picturing to himself
what Jesus Christ said or did, or would say or do in one's
own circumstances, — who is always seeking to conform his
life to the Divine Ideal. When this is the main thought in
life, all else is dignified, and one as truly leads an artist life
as Raphael or Angelo, in his attempt to depict the char-
acter of the Invisible.

"Who, indeed," asks Herder, "could venture, after
John, to write the life of Christ ? " If however our poor,
awkward, uninspired words can give no true idea of that
mysterious Person as he was in Galilee and Judea, yet in
thoughtfully contemplating the character of Jesus as it
was unfolded in his earthly mission, and seeking to form a
mental likeness of the Saviour and delineate him for the
eyes of others, our own mental conception of him is likely
to be more perfectly formed, and our picture will have an
individuality about it, — not perfect, but for immediate
purposes more perfect than if we had never attempted it.
Desiring, therefore, as we do, more than all things else, a
growing likeness to the character of the JSTazarene, we
must, for our own delight and profit, look again and again
at this story ; and question about it, and talk about it, till
it glows before us in colors fresh as the first light of the
morning, which never wearies us.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Nor is the true character of the Master seriously misrep-
resented by the attempts made by a great and varied host
of writers, to set forth, each in his own way, what Jesus
Christ is to him. As we get new ideas of the glory of the
sun, by its very power to shine out through the mists or
clouds which often intercept its beams at its rising, so
every effort to set forth the glory of the Sun of Righteous-
ness affords a new illustration of his power, in that his
shining is not hindered by the multitude of words which
are — so vainly — said to illustrate his life. There is there-
fore some advantage in the attempt of different persons to
report how they read the story of Jesus, as the very day-
dawn is varied by the different combinations of atmos-
pheric phenomena morning by morning. But it is the
clouds which receive glory, and not the sun ; no cloud adds
to the light, but it receives from the light that which
makes us glad to gaze upon it. So those who seek to
describe the life of Jesus add nothing to his glory, save as
they receive from the contemplation of his character that
spiritual quickening which leads men to glorify him.

It is the hope of gaining this spiritual advantage which
leads us to turn again and again to the story of Jesus of
Nazareth. "If," says Dr. R. S. Storrs, " the early legend
had been true, and the napkin of Veronica had kept the
imprint of the Saviour's face as he wiped with it the
bloody sweat on his way to the Cross, the city which con-
tained it would have been, by means of it, the center of
concourse for mankind." To reproduce his likeness has
been the unutterable longing of those who have loved him

WHAT JESUS CHRIST IS TO ME.

in all ages. It is of perennial interest, to paint the Lord
Jesus in accordance with one's own ideal of him ; and the
world's galleries of art have been crowded in each new
generation with a new series of the Madonna and the Holy
Child, or new portraiture of the scenes in his life. New
thoughts arise concerning him, new kings arise to do him
homage, — let then his life be reproduced anew, for every
new generation.

Like the magnetic mountain in Arabian story, the
cradle in Bethlehem attracts all travelers whose ships pass
that way ; and the study of his life becomes the center to
which the devout mind is more and more drawn with
irresistible influence.

It was said by D'Aubigne to a doubting student, that
the main question to decide was the Incarnation : with
that, all difficulties are easily resolved, — without that, there
is no need of resolving any. To know God and Jesus
Christ is enough, — to know God through Jesus Christ ;
since it is easier to know much about an incarnate Deity
in human limitations, than to know a little about the First
Cause in the attributes characteristic of God. If, there-
fore, we seek to know God through Jesus Christ, let us
exult with Faber : "To think, to speak, to write perpetu-
ally of the grandeurs of Jesus, — what joy on earth is like
it ? That which is to be our occupation in eternity, usurps
more and more with sweet encroachment the length and
breadth of time. Earth grows into heaven, as we come to
live and breathe in the atmosphere of the Incarnation. "

BOOK ONE.

-i£&*hS&-

Our Pattern in Yontti

^3§i£^

Chapter 1. Page 71.

The Manger Child,

Chapter 2. Page 81.

The Home at Nazareth.

Chapter 3. Page 91.

The Boyhood of Jesuis,

CHAPTER ONE.

The Manger Child.

NO other event in the history of the world has so aroused
the enthusiasm of poets and painters, philosophers
and religious devotees, statesmen and men of affairs,
as the birth of Jesus Christ. To this the world is never
weary of turning; childhood, youth, early manhood and
womanhood, and mature years, — all ages interested in the
Babe of Bethlehem.

The angels in heaven, too, found in this event new occa-
sion for song, and their melodious voices were heard upon
the earth.

" It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold :
1 Peace to the earth, good- will to men

From heaven's all-gracious King.'
The earth in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing."

— E. H. Sears.

" Hark, how all the welkin rings, —
Glory to the King of Kings !
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.
[Book I.] 71

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies ;
Universal nature, say, —
< Christ the Lord is born to-day.' "

— Charles Wesley.

" Peace on earth, good will from heaven,

Reaching far as man is found ;

Souls redeemed, and sins forgiven,

Loud our golden harps 'shall sound.

Hallelujah!"

— John Cawood.

"Glory to God in the highest :" this is nothing else
than the first table of the moral law, — love to God. On
the earth peace, good will to men : this is nothing else than
the second table of the law, — love to man. This is the
angelic interpretation of the Advent.

The apostles are spoken of as " preaching peace through
Jesus Christ." Their message was " the Gospel of peace."
The New Testament benediction, fourteen times repeated,
is " Peace be with you." "These things," quoth the Master,
" I have spoken unto you that ye, might have peace."
" Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you." The
holy child Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.

" ' What means this glory round our feet,'

The magi mused, ' more bright than morn? '
And voices chanted, clear and sweet,

< To-day the Prince of Peace is born.'

" ' What means that star,' the shepherds said,

< That brightens through the rocky glen? '
And angels, answering overhead,

Sang, < Peace on earth, good will to men.' "

— James Russell Lowell.

THE HOLY CHILD.

" Yet with the woes of sin and strife,

The world has suffered long ;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong ;
And men, at war with men, hear not

The love-song which they bring :
Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing-

" Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled ;
And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world :
Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on heavenly wing,
And ever o'er its babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

" O ye, beneath life's crushing load

Whose forms are bending low ;
Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow, —
Look now, for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing :
Oh, rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing.

" For lo, the days are hastening on
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold ;
When Peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing."

— Edmund H. Sears, D.D.

THAT the birth of the Good Shepherd, who was to lay
down his life for his flock, should be made known
first to the shepherds near Bethlehem, accords well with

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the story of the manger. The world's people as such abide
to-day in the fields, in pastoral or rural calling ; four or
five out of every six of the population of this globe to-day,
being interested in caring for sheep and cattle. And as
to their present average condition, two out of every five
would esteem the cave where Jesus was born, a very
palace ; living, as they do, in circumstances more humble
than the wayfarers who sought hospitality on this memo-
rable night at Bethlehem. So true is it that our Lord took
to himself the state of the average man.

The poor man's child in lonely lot, — -
In field, perchance, or hovel cot, —
Is dear to Him of humble birth ;
His cry the sweetest sound on earth.
Can e'er the Manger-Child forget
The woes of earth His lambs beset?
The piteous bleat of anguished hours
Is heard by Him in heavenly bowers, —
And light divine for new-born child
Illumes the night, howe'er so wild.

" rf OY to the world, the Lord is come :
I Let earth receive her King ;

Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing."

— Isaac Watts.

" All my heart this night rejoices,
As I hear,
Far and near,
Sweetest angel voices :
« Christ is born,' their choirs are singing,
Till the air
Everywhere
Now with joy is ringing."

— Paul Gerhardt, 1656.

THE HOLY CHILD.

Save on the west, there are deep valleys around the
village of the Manger ; fertile vales that favor the flocks.
Aroused from their devout and withal sleepy medi-
tations, by the glory gleaming from the opening skies —
as if the celestial gates had been flung back and the
eyes of the angel hosts were flashing through the night to
search the dark streets of Bethlehem upon its ridge — the
shepherds with faces now aflame with heavenly radiance,
swept noiselessly onward in search for the cradle of Christ ;
and everywhere wings of gold were down sweeping, and
the night was illumined by the glory of the Lord shining
about their feet, as they advanced with tuneful step.

" What sudden blaze of song

Spreads o 'er the expanse of heaven ;
In waves of light it thrills along
The angelic signal given :
« Glory to God,' from yonder central fire,
Flows out the echoing lay, beyond the starry choir."

— John Keble.

THE Romans little noticed it ; they were all absorbed in
noting the youthful prince Augustus. Yet the birth
of Jesus forms the grand turning point in the world's
history : the centuries which had gone before, were now
sealed up ; and the doors were closed on all ages since
Adam : henceforth men began to count the years anew, — as
if the true life of the world had just commenced, and a
new order of time was now to unfold upon the earth, the

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

years of our Lord.* And this grand era had its beginning,
not as we would have ordered it. We would have had the
new-born King laid in a cradle decked with diamonds, in a
temple radiant with silver and gold and gems of every
hue : but he brought with him no splendid house from
heaven, choosing the rather a manger in a chamber hung
with spiders' webs.

The religious pole of the globe, that attracts the thoughts
and guides the steps of all who wander over its surface, is
found in a stable at Bethlehem. Yet vain it is, O man,
that Christ were born in Bethlehem, if never born in thee.
Has not the inn of his birth become the shrine of all
nations, and does he not receive all comers ?

ISE were the men who came, when they saw the beams
of the star out of Jacob.

" 'Tis now fulfilled what God decreed, —
' From Jacob shall a star proceed ' :
And lo, the eastern sages stand,
To read in heaven the Lord's command."

— Latin hymn translated by J. Chandler.

* The Christian era, instead of the Roman year, was first used by the
Venerable Bede, early in the eighth century ; and was soon after used by
the kings of France ; and it was in error by four years, being so much
later than the birth of Christ. Edersheim thinks that the birth of the
Saviour is more likely to have occurred the 25th of December than any
other date, and that it could not have been later than the beginning of
February. Geikie says, between December and February : Geisler, Feb-
ruary. Other authorities suggest different dates. All the old chro-
nology is difficult. No one pretends to know when Alexander the Great

THE HOLY CHILD.

As celestial voices had guided unlearned men to Christ,
so now a finger of light directed the magi. As the devout
shepherds had been eagerly watching for the coming Mes-
siah, so these wise men, by Jewish books scattered in the
East, knew that the set time had come for the appearance
of the King of kings upon this earth.

The imaginative Bede says, that Caspar was a ruddy
youth, who brought frankincense for the infant Saviour's
worship ; and that Melchior was an old man with a long
white beard, who brought a gift of gold, as if tribute
to a king ; and that Balthasar was very dark, with a heavy
beard, who brought myrrh, as if for our Lord's burial. Yet
the soul's adoration on the part of any poor disciple in this
day, is worth more than all the gifts of the magi. When
we reflect upon this strange story of myrrh and frankin-
cense and gold from the Orient, we cannot but follow in
imagination those men endowed with heavenly wisdom, —
fire-worshipers, pagans as we should say, seeing the Invisi-
ble God through the fire, — who journeyed far to greet the
infant King of the Jews. And we can never forget the
sweet story of the ancient church which declares that
Christ's doubting disciple found the magi in the distant
east a few years after Christ's resurrection, and there told

was born, as to the month or the year : that he conquered the world is
known. Upon the whole the Christian world is right in singing : —

" Chime, ye bells of Christmas tide,
Let the joyful chorus peal :
Gates of heav'n are open wide ;
Low before our Lord we kneel."

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

them the full story of Jesus, and baptized them ; and that
they went forth into more distant countries preaching
Christ and him crucified ; and that like so many of those
early Christians they died as martyrs, — receiving thus
heavenly crowns from the Babe of Bethlehem in return for
their early gifts, and their life of faith.

So early did the Gentiles begin to gather at the feet of
Jesus, — the Oriental magi, the Syrophcenician, and the
Greeks; all in token of days to come. And the wise men
of the Gentiles have come in all ages bearing gifts to the
Holy Child.*

THE magi inquired of the rabbis in Jerusalem, where
Christ should be born. "And," says Jeremy Taylor,
" they told them right ; but the wise men went to Christ and
found him, and the doctors sat still and went not." And
later on these same blind and perverse doctors, who were
bound to reject Jesus anyway, said, "We know this man
whence he is ; but when the Messiah cometh, no man
knoweth whence he is."

As a child, Jesus was rejected of men. Strange was the
contrast between the conduct of humble shepherd, devout
philosopher, holy man and maid in the temple, and that of

*"TTe all know," says Geikie, "how lowly a reverence is paid to
him in passage after passage by Shakespeare, the greatest intellect known
in its wide, many-sided splendor. Men like Galileo, Kepler, Bacon,
Newton, Milton, set the name of Jesns Christ above every other. Spinoza
calls Christ the symbol of divine wisdom ; Kant and Jacobi hold him up
as a symbol of ideal perfection ; and Schelling and Hegel, as that of the
union of the divine and human."

THE HOLY CHILD.

bloody Herod. But he who had already slain his own
brother and his own wife and three of his own sons, and he
who ordered a massacre of the heads of many distinguished
families for the day of his funeral so as to cause general
mourning, found peculiar joy in causing lamentation among
the mothers who dwelt near Bethlehem. And although the
slaughter of the innocents could not have comprised a very
great number in the region of so small a village, yet the
mandate was one which would not scruple at mere numbers
whether a score or a thousand, if anything were to be
gained by multiplying victims.

These holy children, the first of that great multitude
who have been slain in the name of Jesus, have been
pictured by Hunt, in cherub forms, hovering over the path-
way of the Holy Family in their flight to Egypt. This
" Triumph of the Innocents," is a poem as well as a paint-
ing,— and a prophecy, too, dear to motherhood so oft stricken
by the hand of violence.

WHILE men thought the Wonderful Infant slain, the
Lord was hiding himself in the ancient home of Israel
in the valley of the Nile. And it were nothing very strange
if there were some truth in old story, that the flight was so
sudden, the family suffered from poverty in a foreign
country ; * that he who afterwards had not where to lay his
head, now wore fine flax gathered by his mother seeking

* On the other hand, Dr. T. De Witt Taxmage suggests that the
gold given by the wise men was of timely service in this journey.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

charity from door to door. Neither were it strange, if
Mary had some forebodings of a life of persecution and
sorrow for her son, whose painful wanderings began so
early. The visiting angel did not reveal to the mother that
her son was to be "The Man of Sorrows" ; but, torn from
her home by persecution for his sake, she might now have
begun to suspect it. I can hardly wonder, therefore, that
the men of early times, who reflected on these hours in
Egypt, should have represented the mother of Jesus with
mind prepared for every grief, and becoming acquainted
with the future life of her son, baptism and temptation,
scourging and cross, — through the prophetic inspiration of
a poor woman of Egypt, who treated the holy family with
great courtesy, and who begged as an alms the gift of true
repentance and eternal life.

That such a scene should come down to us in the paint-
ings of the early Church is only an indication of the popular
belief that the peculiar glory of Christ, manifested in the
strange portents of his birth, was made known in the land
of his exile.

Setting aside old traditions, we know that Joseph did
wisely in seeking his acquaintances, and perhaps his kin-
dred, in Egypt ; there being, it is said, about a million of
his countrymen settled there at the time.

Yet a voice was heard from heaven : "Out of Egypt
have I called my son." And Jesus henceforth abode in
Nazareth.

CHAPTER TWO.

The Home at Nazareth.

-*S>JBKS>-

(5j"|"~ HAVE often wished that I could picture to my-
self the early home of Jesus, and see what the
wondering eyes of this boy saw when they first
opened to notice the surroundings of his village and
the wider scenery of his native country. The Mosaic law
speaks of the desolation into which the Holy Land would
fall if the Jews were unfaithful to their religious privileges ;
and there is represented " a stranger from a far country
going to see the plagues of the land, and the sicknesses
which the Lord hath laid upon it." Yet, even in its decay,
travelers from all lands find that in Palestine which makes
it the joy of their lives to visit it.

The physical characteristics of the ancient home of
God's people are such that it has been sometimes called a
" Museum Land," in which may be found choice specimens
of almost every kind of scenery in the world. Within
limits no larger than one of the smaller states of New
England or a single county of one of our western or south-
ern states, we find a hundred and fifty miles of wild sea-
coast ; and mountains rising eight or ten thousand feet

[Book I.] 81 6

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

above the sea ; and the swift Jordan makes its bed in the
bottom of a ravine some three thousand feet deep, — in the
first part of its course running through lakes among the
hills which are marvels of beauty, and losing itself at last
in the salt sea. The climate is as varied as the face of the
country ; both unmelting snows and tropical heat in the
land of promise. And there was in former ages a great
variety in the products of the soil.

Palestine is like a platform, or stage, standing apart, for
the display of the dramatic life of the Saviour of men. It
is like an upland islet, or rather peninsula pushing down
from the north, between the Mediterranean on the west, the
Jordan ravine and seas of sand on the east, and the south-
ern desert toward Egypt. West of the Jordan the northern
portion of this platform is but twenty miles wide, and only
twice that on the south opposite the Dead Sea ; and it is
in length less than sevenscore miles from Dan to Beer-
sheba. A long plain extends along the coast, narrow at the
north, and widening toward the south. It was once
wooded in part, and a part was cultivated. All Palestine
is a table-land, from fifteen to eighteen hundred feet above
the sea, cut here and there by east and west water courses.
Jerusalem and Olivet, Hebron and Bethel, Ebal and Geri-
zim, are from eight to twelve hundred feet higher than the
general face of the country. This hilly Palestinian plat-
form is nowhere level, in any considerable area, except in
the red plain of volcanic soil called Esdraelon, of some
twelve by fifteen miles, near Nazareth.

THE HOME AT NAZARETH.

THE upland basin of Nazareth is twelve hundred feet
above the sea. It is surrounded by fifteen gently
rounded hills, from four to six hundred feet high. The valley
between them may be described as star-shaped, about a mile
across, with five fingers thrust between eminences on every
side. The walls of these hills make an amphitheater, folding
like rose leaves, and they shut out the winter winds from
the sunny nook which offers garden sites to the Nazarenes.
The brown bottom lands are very rich ; and we see flocks
of goats or sheep nibbling in the green hollows, or we see
fields of barley or wheat, — and there are oraDges, pome-
granates, fig trees, and mulberries, and so many olives that
the rabbis say, " the Galileans wade in oil." The pear or
apple orchards are sometimes inclosed by hedges of prickly
pear ; and there are stone walls like those in New England.
Among brilliant flowers, we recognize the lily, the tulip,
the anemone, the poppies, and the wild geraniums. The
skirts of the hills are covered with gardens, — citrons, cab-
bages and carrots, lettuce, mustard and peas, growing
everywhere ; and the heights are clad with vineyards.
Among the birds with which Jesus must have been familiar
in his boyhood, we note the linnet, the goldfinch, the yel-
low hammer, the thrush, the lark, the house martin, the
wren, the blackbird, and the robin.

The narrow streets of Nazareth run along in irregular
terraces upon the southern slope of one of the highest of
the hills ; perhaps two hundred feet from the bottom, and
four hundred from the top. There is no distant view on

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

account of the surrounding hills ; but one sees the fertile
valley and the green slopes, with here and there sharp
ledges breaking roughly out of the mountain sides, like
that from which the Nazarenes once tried to cast down
Jesus to kill him. The bald limestone ledges, from which
the soil has been washed, are snow-white ; and the dwell-
ing houses look like cubical blocks of yellowish limestone,
low and flat-roofed, dazzling in the sun, with walls occa-
sionally relieved by a climbing vine. There are no win-
dows,— light comes in through the door ; and there is need
to light a candle, if a piece of silver is lost in a corner.
A rich man's house, however, has an inner court and more
freedom for light.

Down upon the hillside below the city a bubbling spring
bursts forth from a fissure in the limestone. vThe water is
as sweet to-day as when Mary, the mother of Jesus, went
there. It runs so copiously as to make a brooklet — once, if
not to-day, running wild — racing along among the reeds
and tall grasses, the willows and the alders, to water the
vale below. It is the home of the hyacinth, the yellow
water-lily, the sweet marjoram, the mint, and thyme ; just
as they appeared to the Babe of Bethlehem, when carried
in the arms of his mother along the singing, sparkling
waters eighteen hundred years ago.

THE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD.

■v

S upon the stainless skies

Peaceful hangs the new-born sun ;
So upon thy bosom lies,
Mother pure, thy Holy One.

THE HOME AT NAZARETH.

Ah, how lovely that repose,

Mother with the Infant fair, —
Twined, as with the tender rose,

Violet and lily are."

— Latin hymn of the 15th century.

It was in the family of his mother that Jesus learned
the life of love, and very largely his human wisdom. Mary
was peculiarly fitted to aid his early life, and to prepare
him for his future work : " Mary, the meekest and lowliest
of maidens, — it is her sweetness, her grace, her modesty,
which is the fitting ornament in her peerless work." *

" It was long," says an English preacher, f " long before
she revealed to anyone the message of the angel. Her
silence is, next to that of Christ, the most remarkable
thing in this history. She was a woman of quiet thought,
of solitary prayer, of tacit power. It is impossible to get
rid of the belief that this had its natural influence on the
development of the human nature of Christ. We see at
least that in the highest and noblest way our Saviour's life
embodies this strength of waiting, this silence of growth,
this love of lonely meditation."

The highest degree of mental force is exhibited by
Mary's hymn of thanksgiving. And it seems likely that
she bore a part in Bible making, by relating the details of
Jesus' birth, as they are recorded in the Gospel of Luke.

It has been also urged by one of our most suggestive
writers]: that Mary showed herself a woman of remarkably

* Canon H. P. Liddon. f Stopford A. Brooke, D.D.
J Horace Bushnell, D.D.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

well balanced character, from her ability to commend
herself to Joseph under circumstances peculiarly trying ;
her calmness and composure of spirit under the strange
ordeal confirming in his mind the dream he had of her
integrity.

Then, too, that the mother should keep all the wise say-
ings of her son in her breast, was a mark of rare wisdom.
She was quiet, and praised God silently, instead of gadding
among the neighbors boasting of her strangely precocious
child. "Had Christ's mother," says Bushnell, "been a
forward and loud woman, advertising always her miracu-
lous child, reporting his strangely phenomenal acts, re-
peating his speeches and telling what great expectations
she had of him, it really seems that she might have quite
spoiled his Messiahship. At any rate he must have under-
taken his ministry at an immense and almost fatal disad-
vantage."

Mary's expectancy as to the character of Jesus must,
however, have led her to tell him, as child or youth, the
story of the angelic annunciation, and of the kings out of
the Orient ; which could but have excited inquiry in the
mind of Jesus, and prompted his search for the meaning of
that law which he was to fulfill.

That Christ appreciated the character of her who bore
him, we have every reason to believe ; and the even bal-
ance of his character leads us to look in on Mary's home
in the early manhood of Jesus, as a place of peculiar com-
fort to the mother in the companionship of her beloved and
loving son. And in the miracle at Cana no reprimand is

THE HOME AT NAZARETH.

implied in the Greek words used, though our translation
seems a little harsh to our occidental ears.*

It is, however, clear enough that Christ understood his
kingdom to be founded on no peculiar honors to Mary.
Everywhere the idea of obedience to God was set forth as
the first thing, and the highest honor possible to anyone
was to be found only in that. When, therefore, a woman,
after the oriental manner of speaking, uttered a blessing
upon his mother, Jesus said, " Yea, rather, blessed are they
that hear the word of God and keep it." And directly after,
his mother was said to be standing on the borders of the
crowd, which had packed itself into the court where he
was, and Christ said to those about him, "Who is my
mother?" "Who are my brethren ?" And after a pause,
when he had looked round about on all those who were
near him, drawing the eyes of all to himself, then he
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said,
with eyes full of love, and lips of gentle accent, "Behold
my mother, and my brethren : They are these which hear
the word of God and do it. For whosoever shall do the
will of God my Father which is in heaven, the same is my
brother, and my sister, and mother." So far only as Mary
was a holy woman, was she nearly related to her own son.

Doubtless in those days when the zeal for his Father's
house consumed him, Mary herself joined in with the rest
of her family in fearing that Jesus was beside himself.

* This episode indicates that the hour had come, in which Jesus was
to act, not merely as the son of Mary, but as the Messiah.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

That was what they said,— that he was out of balance.
They could not appreciate the greatness of his mission, nor
the means he thought necessary for carrying it out. And
her heart sank and almost broke, when he, whom she knew
to be the most prudent and thoughtful of men, went clash-
ing against the religious authorities of his people, — against
scribe and Sadducee, Pharisee and priest, the high priest
of God, and all revered rabbis of the holy people ; and
entered into that path which led to a slave's death on the
cross.

When the loving son, in dying, gave the care of his
mother as a legacy to John, the beloved disciple in taking
her to his own home did not glorify her and worship her.
Christ, not Mary, is the prominent figure in the Gospel.*

In the days following the resurrection and ascension of
Jesus, we find the mother of the Lord among the disciples,
of like faith with them, and with them counted as being
next of kin to the glorified Redeemer, f

" Say of me as the angel said, < Thou art
The blessedest of women.' — Blessedest, — ■
Not holiest, not noblest ; no high name, —
Whose height, misplaced, may pierce me like a shame
When I sit meek in heaven."

— Mrs. Browning.

* John, with whom the mother of Jesus lived, and who survived her,
said nothing of her death or life ; and no New Testament writer outside
of the Evangelists ever spoke of her.

f Acts 1 : 14. The last time Mary is spoken of in the Bible, was
when she attended a prayer meeting.

Yet, having said so much, the fact remains that the mother of Jesus
has in the world's love so warm a place, that universal manhood is loyal

THE HOME AT NAZARETH.

IS it not hard for us with our knowledge of our Re-
deemer's later life and his death and his glory, to think
of Jesus as a child at home in the house of Mary and
Joseph? How strange the scenes, if, with all our present
ideas of Jesus and his disciples, we could have looked
about in the time of his childhood ; — to see that rough and
ready young fisherman Peter, swearing up and down the
shores of the lake, or drawing stout nets full of fish from
its waters ; or to see the lad Saul in Tarsus learning the
tentmaker's trade in view of the snowy Taurus, and after-
wards studying as a young man in Jerusalem ; or to see
the child John the beloved, or that John who lived as a
hermit in the deserts meditating on God's promises to give
Messiah to Israel ; or if we could have seen the Messiah
himself, a boy in house and carpenter's shop at Nazareth, —
as the early painters depict him when a little child, amused
at handling shavings in the shop of Joseph. Brothers
were there, first to play, then to toil in the shop.

Gibbon, the historian, relates that in the reign of Domi-
tian, A. D. 81-96, two grandsons of Jude, the brother of

to her, and womanhood has for her inestimable reverence. She came
once, as a stranger, says the legend, to a German village, and lived among
the people as if she had long been one of their neighbors ; her guise being
adapted to every age and class. To the aged women her kindly features
looked old ; and to the maidens she was a light hearted girl ; the young
matrons believed that she was a happy mother ; but when a child clung
to her clothing and looked up into her eyes of infinite affection, the little
one discerned what no one else knew, that she was Mary the mother of
Jesus : age after age the world will be always a little child, and the
world's heart will love her.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Christ, were then living on a farm of twenty-four acres
near Cocaba, and that their hands were hard with toil.
They were brought before the Roman authorities and
accused of being descendants of the ancient kings of Israel.
And they confessed that they were the sons of David, and
relatives of Jesus ; but they declared that the Messiah's
kingdom was spiritual : and it seems not unlikely that
they thought the Messiah had come. This incident makes
it the more real to us that our Saviour had boy playmates
whom he called brothers, Jude for one. And his later life
of unspeakable dignity had its beginning in a life among
the lowly. He who was to found a new household of faith
was first obedient to the laws of domestic life.

And he, in whom all the families of the earth were to be
blessed, learned as the oldest child to prove a blessing to
younger children in the house of Mary ; and upon the death
of Joseph to assume the burden of maintaining the house-
hold by his handicraft.

That " there was in him all that was most manly, and
all that was most womanly, the strength and wisdom and
authority of manhood, with the tact and delicacy and
intuitive discernment of womanhood," * was due, doubtless,
in part to the human hand of a revered mother, as well as
to the divine-human instinct of his own unique character.
And it is the glory of humanity that Jesus came as the
Divine Incarnation, born of a woman, born under the law.

* Henry M. Goodwin, D.D.

CHAPTER THREE.

The Boyhood of Jestas.

fF the medley of squalid homes for the poor, that con-
stitutes the most notable feature of the Galilean vil-
lages of to-day, does not picture to us the Nazareth
which Jesus saw, yet he must have found there the
chattering, jangling vegetable dealers and merchantmen
or workmen at their trades, all in the roadway opposite their
open shops or stalls, and the obtuse donkeys and patient
camels, the chickens and the children, — the streets full of
motley crowds, — just as to-day.

The population was then four or five times as large as
now; Doctor Selah Merrill, our foremost authority, estimat-
ing it from fifteen to twenty thousand. It was indeed a
small city rather than a large village. Three commercial
or military roads brought strangers through the town, or
at the foot of the hill ; or they passed not far behind the
town. The caravans of Midian, or from Damascus, or
Egypt, and the great religious pilgrimages, and the Roman
legions, and the retinues of foreign princes, were moving
hither and thither within sight of the Saviour in his boy-
hood.

In going up to Jerusalem at twelve years old, there was

[Book L] 91

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

first a sharp ascent over a stony path, then a descent of a
thousand feet through narrow passes to the plain of Esdra-
elon. All the way southward, past green Tabor and the
lesser Hermon, clambering along the white limestone hills,
or passing between cactus hedges that guarded patches of
arable ground, pausing under a palm tree or sycamore, or
gathering daisies or dandelions, amid the sage, mignonette,
or thistles and brambles, up journeyed the lad with his
questions for the rabbis at Jerusalem. Bright eyed chil-
dren, with the joy of the hills in their faces, went with
him, and with him they sang the pilgrim songs.

It was the first journey he had made, when old enough
to take notice. He saw the city of the Great King, and the
pilgrims ; the Greeks too, and the Romans, the wild men
of the desert, and travelers from the East arid from the
Nile. And here he heard discussions upon the national
theology. He had already thought of those questions
which the rabbis debated, and he was drawn at once to the
aged men as they sat asking and answering questions ;
acutely listening and aptly asking, but not yet himself
teaching with authority above that of the scribes. In
childlike simplicity he presented to the most learned men
of his nation those problems he had been weighing in his
obscure home among the hills. He who was so sharp in
questioning and answering with the doctors in later life
had no small skill at it now. If childhood is always asking
questions, the inquiries of Jesus were not unlikely followed
up with method and purpose, like the simple and effective
questioning of Socrates.

THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.

These dry doctors, however, mindful of their own fame,
forgot the Wonderful Child, when this religious prodigy
was again 'concealed under the brow of the high hill at
Nazareth. *

IT was said by Irenaeus that Jesus sanctified childhood by
passing through it ; and by Bonaventura that we are to
become little with the " Little One," that we may increase
in stature with him. It is strange indeed that the God-
man increased in wisdom, that there was a time when he

* " Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house? " Jesus won-
dered that Joseph and Mary did not seek for him first of all in the temple.
Did they not already know his passion for learning of spiritual things,
and his interest in the ritual of worship? That Joseph and Mary should
have rested in comparative ease during a day's journey, before they sought
•for him, shows that they were in the habit of trusting the lad out of sight.
He had shown proof that he could care for himself. It shows also that
Jesus was companionable at that age, and found often with other chil-
dren. He knew the childhood plays in the market towns.

Dr. Tristram suggests that Joseph thought that Jesus had gone with
the women and children, who usually traveled an hour or two in advance ;
and that Mary supposed him to be with the men of the company, coming
an hour or two later.

At twelve, Jesus had become a " Son of the Law " ; and at the syn-
agogue phylactaries had been put upon him as a mature person. It was
at this period that the journey to Jerusalem was made, wherein he
gathered food for long meditation in first meeting the sages of his people.
And though he wTas probably not yet fully conscious just who he himself
was, his relation to his heavenly Father seemed henceforth the nearer and
dearer. It is Luke alone who relates this story of the child in the temple,
and he alone who emphasizes the fact that he was ' ' subject to his par-
ents."

Nota Bene. — The visit of Jesus as a lad at the temple is the topic of a
valuable Article by Bishop Hendrix in Chapter 1, of Book xi.

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

was less wise than afterwards, that his wisdom developed
as he grew in stature ; and that he increased in favor with
God, that the divine manifestation — the out-gleaming of
the Light of the World in these boyhood days — was less at
first than afterwards. The nature of Christ was developed
in a manner not unlike that which characterizes human-
ity.* It seems likely that the Divine Personality, the In-
dwelling Godhead, was manifested in him, in a manner
analogous to the action of the Holy Spirit upon human
nature now, and that the human powers of Jesus responded
perfectly to the Divine ; it being, in effect, much as if the
Holy Spirit without measure were acting upon human
powers, and the human were in perfect accord with the
divine monitions.

The perfection of his human nature is illustrated by his
coming a little at a time, into a knowledge which he did
not have before. Amid common grieving and rejoicing,
sleeping and waking, he advanced from wisdom to wis-
dom, and from grace to grace. His advance, however, was
not from folly, not from wrong ideas, not from graceless-
ness.

His mental development was powerfully aided by the
right determination of his character : his spiritual life
favored his perception of the truth ; and his apprehension
of what was true, was so related to the executive part of

* " He had only the same means as the rest of us, of becoming con-
scious of his relationship to God. For if this were not so he is no ex-
ample to us, he was not tempted like as we are." — Thomas Hughes.

THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.

his nature, that he willed to act according to the truth he
saw. So he came into possession of wisdom, if not of
book or rabbinical learning. He tested the doctors when
he was twelve years old, and concluded not to add to the
elementary instruction of the synagogue, any longer term
of sitting at the feet of the scribes and Pharisees.*

IT is clear enough, however, that he learned from Moses, if
not from those who sat in Moses' seat. The law was
taught to Jewish children so early that they began to re-
peat it, at five years old. The poorest of the people had
portions of Holy Writ. Jesus must have seen all the rolls
of the Law and the Prophets in the synagogue, or in the
houses of the wealthy, when he was a child. The Son of
David must have studied well the ancestral Psalter. The
sacred songs of his people, the old proverbs, and the
Hebrew history were conned by him who spake as never
man spake. The warmth and illustrative power of the
inspired preachers of old, the seers and prophets of the
earlier dispensation, were caught by him. As a youth he
came into sympathy with the stalwart saints who had
made venerable his native country, — the heroes and patri-
archs, poets and kings.

* Jerusalem was the city of fashion, of wealth, of luxury, of culture.
The relatively illiterate people of the towns were held in contempt. The
Hebrew pronunciation of the Galileans subjected them to ridicule.
" Perish the sanctuary," cried the educational zealots, " but let the chil-
dren go to school ; " " the breath of the children who attend school is the
strongest safeguard of society."

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It was written of the law, — " thou shalt meditate therein
day and night." In these days of his youth and early
manhood, Jesus reflected upon the principles underlying
the sacred text. He knew that anger was murder (Matt, v :
21, 22) ; that sin consisted in a wicked look (Matt, v : 27-29) ;
that the spirit of the third commandment comprehended
more than its letter (Matt, v : 33-37) ; and he threw light
upon what the Sabbath was for, by citing the usage of
David (Mark xi : 15-19). He liberalized the national mind as
to retaliation, and the forgiveness of injuries (Matt, v :
38, 39, Matt, v : 43-45) ; he so sharply discerned the mean-
ing of Moses, that he could set the Pharisees ' to rights as
to divorce (Matt, xix : 3-9) ■ he could silence the Sadducees
by ancient texts (Matt, xxii : 23-33) ; and by ancient texts
win the approval of the national conscience in twice cleans-
ing the temple (Mark xi : 15-19, John ii : 16). To the
rabbi Nicodemus (John iii : 10), he explained the meaning
of Ezek. xxxvi : 26, 27, and Jer. xxxi : 33. It was his life
mission to expound the spirituality of the law, which the
scribes and Pharisees had missed (Matt, v : 17-20, Rom. x : 4),
and to fulfill it : and to become the Lawgiver of new ages.

These. points indicate plainly that from a child he knew
the Holy Scriptures.

WE know, too, that the Holy Child had an exquisite sense
of color, as he considered the lily in royal array; or with
unfeigned humility he considered the worm, which symbol-
ized the poverty of spirit of him who was the reproach of

THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.

men and the despised of the people. The white and moss
rock-roses, and the pink phlox, so abundant near Nazareth,
often greeted him in his walks along the lonely glens or
upon the hilltops. The wildest panorama in all Palestine, un-
surpassed even by Mount Tabor, is seen from the top of the
eminence upon whose slope the city is built. Snow-crowned
Hermon is a score of miles distant upon the north ; and the
dome of Tabor, with its sturdy oaks, is upon the southeast ;
in the south and southwest, is the plain of Esdraelon ; in
the west is the long ridge of Carmel,— and, twenty miles
away, the blue sea ; and in the foreground are the rough
backs and precipitous ledges of the hills which surround
the vale of Nazareth, and five hundred feet below is the
city itself. Clambering the rough hillsides or walking here
and there amid growths so familiar, the sage, the nettles,
the horehound, appeared the Holy Child in his boyhood, as
he studied with the psalmists and prophets of his people
the out-of-door revelation.

NOR can we rid ourselves of the notion that amid walnuts
and maples, the tamarisk, the acacia, the ash, the juni-
per and pine, the Son of Mary must often have thought
of his higher kinship and his Father's house. The sumac,
the ivy, and the hawthorn must have seen him, when, for
the hour, he forgot the Nazarenes, and would fain repose
upon the bosom of Jehovah.

He was no Pharisee to pray upon the street corners, but
in the morning, rising up a great while before day, or upon
the approach of evening, when the holy mountains were

97 7

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

casting lengthening shadows across the vales or table-lands,
and the shepherd boys were bringing in their flocks, and
the vineyards and fields were sending home their laborers,
then Jesus went forth into some solitary place to commune
with Him who seeth in secret. He who loved Olivet began
by loving the hill behind Nazareth. The gloom and the
glory of the nights of Palestine were well known to him ;
whether the black tempest was seen rising from the Medi-
terranean, or the constellations were clear.

The low mountains upon an inland sea were less damp
at night than the elevations of our Atlantic seaboard, and
warmer than the dry hills of our high altitudes, so that the
conditions were favorable for entering into the closet of
the night when the door of the day was shut. And in the
silent and solitary watch, the light of heaven shone upon
him who in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and
supplications, with strong crying and tears.

He who thought it needful to abide forty days in the
desert at the beginning of his public ministry, early abode
certain days and nights removed from society and the home
circle. Nor was this strange, when we consider that he
had already made such an amazing remove from heights
above, coming to this lonely and savage outpost of creation,
where the most loving friend could scarce remind him of
the society of heaven. When Jesus came at last to be
conscious who he was, was there no homesick feeling ever
rising in the heart of the God-man, as he wandered about
by night on the Nazarene hills often gazing heavenward ?

The habit of spiritual communion was well fixed, long

THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS.

before he prayed in the holy hour of baptism, and long
before the fashion of his countenance was altered as he
prayed in the hour of transfiguration, and long before he
stood at the silent tomb of a friend, testifying, "I know
that that Thou hearest me always." It was in early life
that his perfect moral nature so coincided with the Divine
Mind, that he knew the perfect use of prayer, — dwelling in
the secret place of the Most High, and abiding under the
shadow of the Almighty.

30ME morning, when returning to his lowly home, there
must have dawned upon him that idea which is ex-
pressed in Rev. xxii : 16, that he himself was the bright, the
Morning Star. Dawn it did, upon some happy morning, the
thought that he himself, at the carpenter's bench, was the
Messiah, — the theme of hope and prophecy for four thou-
sand years. It was the study of the Messianic texts, to-
gether with meditation and prayer, that led him to this
conclusion. And his mind was mainly led to it, by the
unfolding of his Divine Nature, as he increased in wisdom
and stature and waxed .strong in spirit ; this Divine Life
acting upon his personality in a manner analogous to the
manner in which the Holy Spirit acts upon the human soul,
or as the Holy Spirit would act upon a character already
morally perfect. The grace of God was upon him, and in
him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily ; and he
was calm and content, as if he had no great work to do.

BOOK TWO.

•-»£****-

Otir Brother in Toil.

•**$&+*■

Chapter 1. Page 101.

A Master at the Work=Bench

Chapter 2. Tage 115.

His Work Without Flaw.

Chapter 3. Page 125.

Trie Nazarene Neighbors.

Chapter 4. Page 132.

Mystery of trie Wilderness.

CHAPTER ONE.

A Master at ttie Work=Bench

^Sv

HETHER the Messianic idea dawned upon the
Saviour of men early or late, there appeared
no smack of boyish self-conceit, nor lack of
youthful modesty, nor impropriety of manly action, nor
lack of such dignity as might befit the extraordinary claims
he was about to make for himself.

It is much, in view of the problems of the present cen-
tury, to know that the singular balance and proportion of
character attained by Jesus Christ, — which call upon all
unbelief to " come and see " whether any good thing can
come out of Nazareth, — was wrought out, in its rudiments,
in the life of a common laborer.

If he watched the coming of the crocus and the mallows,
if he observed the water-cress, and the shaking reeds of the
brook ; if he wandered among the gardens, — the gourds and
the pumpkins of Palestine ; if he noted the almond tree and
the lime, the date palm and pistachio ; — yet was this man no
dreamer, no aimless wanderer in the night watches, and no

[Book II.] 201

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

predestined rhetorician to paint the aspects of nature. He
handled rather the level, the plummet, the square.

Allowing for the moment the claims he made for him-
self, and that the ages have made for him, it would have
been extraordinary if he — in whom all prophecy was ful-
filled and to whom was applicable every name of the Holy
One of God which was revealed in Old Testament song or
story — had appeared in any other guise than that of a day-
laborer. Had he contravened the average lot of the race,
he would have been no Son of Man. Jesus would have
been but an alien if in the commonwealth of Israel he had
failed to learn a trade : manual work being so honored
among God's ancient people, that every rabbi could earn
his living by labor ; and it was a Jewish proverb that " he
trains his son to be a thief " who teaches him no regular
trade. "The tradesman at his work," said the Talmud,
" need not rise before the greatest doctor ;" and " the most
ordinary laborer, who is of the seed of Abraham, is the peer
of kings." And it was told in old tradition that when
David thought himself perfect, Nathan reminded him that
he had no handicraft : the king therefore learned to handle
the tools of an armorer.

Jesus, as the Son of David, disciplined his eye, and
skilled his fingers in handicraft ; glorifying the work-bench,
and hallowing the implements of toil. He, in his highest
nature, did this, to identify himself with the race he sought
to benefit, much as the Russian Czar served his people best
by plying the tools of a ship-carpenter. It is notable that
the painters in recent years have been attracted by this

102

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

artisan story, finding Jesus in sympathy with the toilers of
to-day. Through him the dignity of labor is seen, in its
true relation to the grandeur of human life and destiny.

The oriental carpenter, in the time of Jesus, was some-
times a wagon smith, or he made plows and yokes.
Shelves, cupboards, chests, or wooden ware for the house-
holder, and carved work came from the carpenters shop.
Sometimes, too, he wrought in metals. The old paintings
depict Jesus as a child playing with shavings in the shop ;
and Jesus and Joseph are sometimes seen on the ancient
canvas building boats, or making fences. *

From his after skill in dovetailing argument and illus-
tration with subtle doctors or the carping multitude, he
must have early gained rare skill in joining things together
in workmanlike shape ; and his sharpness in dealing with
lawyer, and scribe, and Pharisee, betokened early aptitude
in handling edge-tools. Plato, who would exclude bad
workmen from an ideal republic, lest they exert an evil
influence upon youth, would have spoken of Jesus as exert-
ing a salutary influence, like a breeze bringing health, f

With hard hands, toughened by toil, Jesus was ready to
take his turn upon the Sabbath day in handling the roll of

* The stone mason did most of the house building in Nazareth. The
carpenter shop in the time of our Lord was of arched stone, or it was a
cave cut out of the limestone hillside. The mechanics were usually seated
at their work, — there being no work-bench in the modern sense.

fit is impossible to think of him as doing his work so ill that it
needed to be done over again ; or of being a mechanic unmanly in his
private and social habits.

103

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the law in the synagogue, and as ready to expound Moses
and the prophets as to vie with the artisans of his age, who
decorated the house of God with vines of gold, or added
luxuriant features to the splendor of oriental architecture.

No trait of Jesus' character was more marked than the
prudence begotten by his sober and well balanced life as a
craftsman. He was one apt to count the cost before build-
ing. It is likely that his competency and faithfulness were
in such demand that he earned good wages, and provided
for his own house, and laid up money against the time
when he should lead a life of wayfaring. *

If, indeed, the question is raised what Jesus was doing
in thirty years before his public ministry began, it is to be
answered, that he was manufacturing a character to take
out into the world with him ; he built up that which was
nobler than all the famous buildings of Athens, he made
Nazareth more memorable than Rome.

OATLENCE was a strong element of his character. The
^C hand which plied the tools might have been laid on
the eyes of the blind. His voice, expended in kindly
speech to his mother, might have been calling the dead to
life, or silencing the winds upon the mountains. And only
five miles from Nazareth was Nain, where many widows
buried their sons, and were inconsolable. Jesus learned
first of all the lesson of patient waiting, — abiding his time.

* This is implied in the story, as to the first part of it. The record
in Luke viii : 1-6 refers to the second preaching tour.

104

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

He who was conscious of the highest kind of power, was
content for the time with his trade ; and this while he had
a nature so enthusiastic that when he had once entered
upon his great work he was said to be " beside himself."
His ability to curb his mighty forces during all these early
years has led one to say that " Christ's greatest miracles
were wrought within himself."* That calmness which
characterized him afterwards was learned in the carpenter
shop, where he gained the invaluable discipline of doing a
regular day's work — year in and year out ; and he was
patient in toil, which one would think might have easily
seemed irksome. Did the Son of Man, coming to the earth,
need to make fences and plows for years ?

He who was designing to make himself the central
figure of the world, drawing the love and service and
worship of all men, and giving laws to all, was self-
possessed, and content with the simplicity of his life. He
who was to be so energetic in public life was not apathetic
but calm, with a certain orderliness of living : " There are
twelve hours in the day ;" "My time is not yet come."
This deliberation, this determination not to be hurried, is
characteristic ; and it is closely connected with the grand
schooling of the work-bench, and persistent attention to
the duty of the hour, and present faithfulness.

Another characteristic of Jesus was his Humility. He
who made himself of no reputation — by renouncing for the
hour his heavenly reputation — was unmindful of the petty

* Henry Ward Beecher.

105

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

triumphs of the ambitious youth of a Galilean village ; and
he was content with such inconveniences as pertained to
his earthly condition. This was not bred of any craven
spirit ; but was due to his perception of the true proportion
of life in its relation to things unseen and time unending,
which gave him a certain regal bearing and courage to
contrast with his lowliness.

He who said that men must become as little children in
order to enter the kingdom of God, kept within himself a
little child's heart, docile, simple, straightforward, artless.
When he was laying the deep foundations of the kingdom
of love, "he came," says Dean Farrar, " to teach, that con-
tinual excitement, prominent action, distinguished services,
brilliant success, are no essential elements of true and noble
life ; and that myriads of the beloved of God are to be
found among the insignificant and the obscure." This is a
lesson worth making fences for, — dignifying the common
employments of men.

Another characteristic of our Lord was his Sympathy
with the Poor. He who was to learn what hunger is, and
who was to be without a place to lay his head, needed to
exercise no condescension in visiting the poor.* He held

*He who promised to his disciples heavenly mansions, now moved
about among hovels unclean as well as uncomfortable. Where there
was no limestone, the house-walls were of mud, with a roof of poles and
a thatching of reeds and layers of earth. There was only one room. At
their meals the poorer people sat on the floor, the ground bare and hard ;
having to eat, a thin sheet of barley bread baked in a neighborhood oven,
figs, olives, and dates, and perhaps fish cooked in oil. There were no
windows, unless two or three little openings, seven inches by nine ; and

106

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

no earthly rank, and there were none to be classed below
him in condition. He was surrounded by men of simple
life, with few wants, and much leisure for rude speech and
the invention of uncouth interpretations of Scripture. The
Son of Man came to be known as the friend of the poor,
when as a class they were friendless.

Another element in the character of Jesus was that
Sociability which must have been manifested in early life, —
making him a good neighbor in Nazareth. A certain deli-
cacy, refinement, gentleness, and geniality made him a
welcome guest, even in a house where the master was out
of sympathy with the spirit of Jesus. Yet there was no
levity in his vivacity. Capable of forming intimate friend-
ships, he could be both social and solitary ; leaning hard
upon human helpers, and much alone with God. In an age
of religious ascetics, he never disdained the solaces of
mortality ; and when banqueting with the opulent he had
no scruples in diet. He did not teach abstinence, but
virtue ; he did not reprove enjoyment, but vice. He prac-
ticed self-denial, yet never tortured his body by needless
austerity.

Then, too, a certain Serenity of spirit, tranquillity amid
the rage of his enemies, was well settled as a characteristic
in those years when his life was like sunshine in the house
of Mary. His seriousness never degenerated into melan-
choly. He was sorrowful yet always rejoicing. The man

the door was four feet high. There was sometimes a seat extending round
the interior, which was used for the bed, — each sleeper with a rug.

107

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

who perhaps hardly ever smiled, declared a joyous, gleeful
child to be the image of the kingdom of heaven. The sad
man died bequeathing joy to his disciples, — "that they
might have my joy fulfilled in themselves."

Nor can one even glance at the Gospel story, without
discerning in Jesus qualities that make for Leadership. His
calmness as well consisted with thunder peal and light-
ning stroke, as the blue of heaven with cloud and tempest.
He who was as sensitive as a woman was as bold, aggres-
sive, and fearless, as a warrior. His sobriety was balanced
by enthusiasm. Dignified, sincere, benignant, just, right-
eous, and true, he pursued life's pathway in one unalterable
course, — breaking men off from antique notions, and or-
ganizing the world anew. With caution and firmness, and
with faith in God, he bearded the ecclesiastics who mis-
represented the religion of his people.*

His executive qualities were aided by his Knowledge of
Men, first acquired at Nazareth. The townsmen had little
idea of what eyes were peering out upon them from that
carpenter's shop. His acquaintance with human nature
astonished his disciples. "He knew all men, and needed
not that any should testify of men ; for he knew what was
in man." Year by year he attended the feasts at Jerusalem,
undazed by the pretensions of the reputed sages of his peo-

*" Jesus Christ was, in some respects, the most bold, energetic, and
courageous man that ever lived ; but in others he was the most flexible,
submissive, and yielding:" the one course pertaining to his Father's
business, the other to his own personal welfare.

— Jacob Abbott.

108

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

pie. He was a discerner of motives, the intents of the
heart. With penetrating insight, he could read the hearts
of covetous or vacillating inquirers, of impulsive disciples,
of wondering crowds ; nor was he angered at men's misap-
prehension of his own life and work, — unless at such mo-
ments as called for righteous indignation against crafty
and hypocritical foes, who were destroying Israel.

As a Patriot he mourned over the doom of Jerusalem,
as if the predestined fall of a sparrow, noted by infinite
love. He was a pattern of civil obedience, and veneration
for authority ; being mindful of the claims of Caesar —
sharply separating between State and Church — and par- .
taking of no political fears under the eagles of Eome. His
life he devoted to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

To be Spiritually Helpful to others was the passion of his
life ; his friendly and affectionate instruction by day being
supplemented by solemn hours of prayer in the night.

THE elements which go to make up the full Proportion
of our Saviour's Character cannot be referred to with-
out detailing his whole life ; it would be needful to go over
the story step by step, to observe him as a child at home, as
a youth, as a laboring man, when met by temptation, when
healing the multitude, in his career of self-sacrifice, in his
qualities as a teacher, preacher, pastor, in his sufferings
and death, — at every turn, whenever, wherever we see
him, we discern qualities that lead us to speak of him
as perfect in the symmetry and equipoise of his charac-

109

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ter. And this character, in its majestic and matchless
fullness, was formed when Jesus was working as a com-
mon carpenter, — his three years' ministry being but the
development of powers already existent and ready for
service.

How new it all was to the world, appears in the remark
of an eminent art critic, that ancient art knew no lines of
suffering or of pity aside from the face of Jesus. * In him we
find both resolution and resignation. He was courageous,
and he had fortitude to bear. There was in him no distor-
tion. We often say of one that he was a legalist, — not so
Jesus ; or a recluse, — not so the Nazarene Carpenter. He
was not an extremist : neither an abnormal pietist, nor an
austere man. " We cannot," says Philip Schaff, " properly
attribute to him any one temperament : he was neither
sanguine like Peter, nor choleric like Paul, nor melancholy
like John, nor phlegmatic as James is sometimes repre-
sented."

" The symmetry, grace, and ease " of the character of
Jesus, says Conder, in his Basis of Faith, \ "conceal from
us its colossal proportions. Saints, heroes, sages, the lights
of human history, occupy their separate departments of
greatness. None of them is great all round. We are not
surprised to find the loftiest wisdom unsympathetic, and
impatient of conceited ignorance : the most spotless purity,
cold and ascetic ; the most ardent love, partial and jeal-

*The Rev. F. H. Allen.
f Page 367 ; compare p. 359. London, 1877.

110

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

ous ; the most tender-hearted benevolence deficient in
righteous indignation, the purest zeal in tolerance, the
deepest humility in nobleness. But in Jesus we can find no
exaggeration, no deficiency."

So perfect was the combined strength and purity and
moral beauty of the life of Jesus, that we are wont to
believe him to have had every attribute we would desire to
see in a friend. This is based on the Scripture representa-
tions concerning him. His life was steadfast as the sun,
and as well proportioned ; a round orb, shining with
even strength. The more we know of him, the more we
behold the perfection of his character. And like the sun,
his perfection is manifested to all beholders. ''He is tran-
scendently beautiful and glorious to the rudest aspirant
after goodness, and no less so to a Fenelon, a Martyn, an
Oberlin, a Judson ; the ignorant woman who can hardly
spell out his story in her Bible can imagine no other being
so lovely, so adorable, — and he seems no less the highest
type of humanity to Milton, Newton, Locke, Bunsen, Fara-
day." *

In seeking phrases to depict the lights and shades of
spiritual beauty in the character of the Son of Man, I cite
two sentences : —

*Prof. A. P. Peabody, of Harvard College.

The testimony of President Mark Hopkins is so phrased as to bring to
us again the image of the sun : "Take away, if you will, the vital
element of the air, disrobe the sun of its beams, but remove not from me
this life of my life ; leave to me the full-orbed and unshorn brightness of
the character of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness."

Ill

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" Once in human history, we meet a being who never did
an injury, and never resented one done to him, never
uttered an untruth, never practiced a deception, and never
lost an opportunity of doing good ; generous in the midst of
the selfish, upright in the midst of the dishonest, pure in
the midst of the sensual, and wise far above the wisest of
earth's sages and prophets ; loving and gentle, yet immov-
ably resolute, and whose illimitable meekness and patience
never once forsook him in a vexatious, ungrateful, and
cruel world."* "We behold him in every conceivable
variety of position, mingling with all sorts of persons, and
with all kinds- of events ; we follow the steps of his public
life, and we watch his most unsuspecting and retired mo-
ments ; we see him in the midst of thousands, or with his
disciples, or with a single individual ; we see him in the
capital of his country, or in one of its remote villages, in
the temple and the synagogue, or in the desert or in the
streets ; we see him with the rich and with the poor, the
prosperous and the afflicted, the good and the bad, with his
private friends, and with his enemies and murderers ; and
we behold him at last in circumstances the most over-
whelming which it is possible to conceive, deserted, be-
trayed, falsely accused, unrighteously condemned, nailed
to a cross : but wherever he is and however placed, in the
ordinary circumstances of his daily life, or at the last
supper, or in Gethsemane, or in the judgment hall, or on

* John Young, LL.D.

112

THE LEVEL, THE PLUMMET, THE SQUARE.

Calvary, he is the same meek, pure, wise, Godlike Be-
ing.''*

So perfect was the equilibrium of his powers, that he
was a model in conduct: "A model," says Dr. Albert
Barnes, "for kings and princes, sages and philosophers, the
humble, the unlearned, the lowly, the down-trodden : in
prosperity and in adversity, in joy and in sorrow ; in benev-
olence, in purity, in gentleness, in the love of truth, in the
love of justice ; in childhood, in youth, and in middle age ;
under obloquy and reproach ; in dealing with crafty and
unprincipled men ; in abandonment and persecution ; in the
severest form of death, and under all that could shake the
firmness of virtue : — where has there been such a character,
except in the person of Jesus Christ ? "

It is this absence of anything like one-sidedness in the
character of Jesus, that has led James Martineau to say :
"To have neither restlessness nor apathy, — but to pass
freely between energy and repose, at the call to act or the
need to suffer ; to bind wounds, without indulgence to the
sins of men ; to have no tears, but those of pity ; to utter no
reproach, but as the true interpreter of conscience ; to send
forth no cry, that does not soften into, prayer ; to mingle
with the beauty of the world, yet find it but the symbol of
a more transcendent glory ; — only brings us somewhat
nearer to that marvelous life, in which the contradictions
of thought and the conflicts of feeling formed the very har-
mony of a nature lifted into perfect peace."

* Compare Young's Christ of History, p. 227.

113 8

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

So far as may be observed in his recorded action, Jesus
was without imperfection in the attributes of his character.
So nearly does he represent an ideal character, that Mr. J.
Stuart Mill has made the approval of Jesus the rule of
virtue, even for unbelievers.*

' ' Jesus is the ideal of virtue," said Coquerel ; "so per-
fect that all the efforts of the most delicate conscience, the
most fertile imagination, the most expansive charity, can-
not add to it the least trait."

* ' ' Nor, even now, would it be easy for an unbeliever to find a better
translation of the rule of virtue, from the abstract unto the concrete, than
the endeavor so to live that Christ would approve his life."

114

CHAPTER TWO.

His Work Without Flaw.

(^ I HE well-rounded orb of the character of Jesus was
4 I surrounded by the halo of a Sinless Life. So perfect
~JL was his life, that, amid a world full of evil men,
Jesus was like a lily in purity. Amid the perverse children
of a crooked generation, he had none of the faults common
to childhood. And as a man, he never confessed guilt or
made a profession of repentance. Contrast his course in this
respect, with all the saints in the Old Testament and the
New. "I have need to be baptized of thee," said John by
the river side, when he saw the Lamb of God, without
blemish and without spot. This was said concerning the
former character of Jesus as a holy man, already known to
John, and before the Holy Dove descended to mark the
Messiah. Belonging, as Jesus did, to a race perpetually
repenting and making new resolutions, he boldly challenged
the world, "Which of you convinceth me of sin ?" Jesus
claimed that he always did those things which are pleasing
to the Father.

Did sin never break in, to make these pretensions
absurd ? Did he never sin in some small degree, violating

[Book n.] 115

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the holy law in one point, so being guilty of all ? What
man of our race has been known to sin in so slight a meas-
ure that none have discovered it ? * Had Jesus been guilty
of sin, been' a sinner by habit or been once betrayed into it,
would not the enemies of Christ, searching through all
these centuries, have been able to find it out ? And yet
to-day no voice is raised save against such faults as his
cursing a barren fig tree, or denouncing hypocrites, or
cleansing the den of thieves that denied the temple of God.
But had he never taught his disciples the sin of profession
without possession by cursing that pretentious fig tree, the
enemies of Christ would be now saying that his teachings
lacked emphasis, and that he gave no stern rebuke to
hypocrites. And if he had never denounced the Pharisees,
it would have been said that his character was imperfect,
in that he had no holy wrath against such sins as theirs.
If he could have lived by the side of such people, and never
denounced them, he would have been imperfect. Ye that
love the Lord, hate evil, f And if he had failed to scourge
the unclean beasts from the courts of God's house, and to
drive out the money changers by his severe look of author-

*" While Moses, the meekest man, sinned in anger; and Abraham,
the father of the faithful, in unfaithfulness ; and Peter, the fearless, in
cowardice ; and John, the apostle of love, in vindictiveness, — Jesus alone
never sinned." — Bishop Perowne, D.D.

f It is not recorded that Jesus was angry when the Nazarene mob
sought to kill him, or the Jews to stone him, or when he was falsely
accused at his trial ; his righteous indignation was justly aroused by hypo-
critical ecclesiastics, who were morally unclean.

116

WORK WITHOUT FLAW.

ity, it would be said that he had no courage and no leader-
ship such as would have been becoming in the Messiah.

His enemies when he was alive had every chance to
know him ; but both Pilate and Judas declared him inno-
cent,* and they who stood taunting at the cross could only
say : " He trusted in God ;" " He saved others. "f Said the
Messiah, — They hated me without a cause. No malignity
could find stains of sin upon him. And those who best
knew him, who leaned upon his bosom or learned the full
story of his life from his intimates, declared that in him
was no sin, that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, who as our high priest needed not to offer up
sacrifice for his own sins. J

Yet this sinless being, of infinite purity, expressed deep
sympathy for those overborne by storms of passion ; indig-
nant at wrong, he was patient with the wrongdoers ; in-

* How gladly would Judas have comforted himself in his anguish, if
he had betrayed guilty blood.

f " For three long years, the Pharisees were watching their victim, —
mingling in every crowd, hiding behind every tree ; they examined his
disciples, cross-questioned all around him ; they looked into his ministerial
life, his domestic privacy, his hours of retirement : and they finally came
forward with the sole accusation, that he had shown disrespect to the
Roman governor ; and the Roman judge pronounced this accusation void. "
— F. W. Robertson, Sermons, compare p. 685. New York, 1870.

X The followers of Jesus believed him so supernaturally pure and holy,
that they were ready to allow the claim he made for divine honors. He
was to them the Just One, the Righteous, the Holy One ; neither was any
guile found in his mouth. " He who sees him," says Oosterzee, " has
seen the Father, since no troubled sea can thus clearly reflect the image of
the sun of the firmament."

117

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

tensely abhorring iniquity, he was moved by a profound
pity for those trained to sin from early childhood ; nor was
his sanctity ever divorced from practical benevolence, out-
pouring a divine affection for the offspring of human
wretchedness.

It is this personal love, bestowed alike upon the good
and the victims of evil, that has evoked the strongest kind
of testimony to the sinlessness of Jesus, — as if he were
the moral ideal of the race. Modern unbelief has sharply
distinguished between Christ and Christianity. The objec-
tions are never against him ; his character is always com-
mended. It is those who have imperfectly followed the
Saviour, who have been attacked by unbelief. Even when
their opposition has grown out of a practical dislike to the
moral ideal set forth in Christ's life, the consciences of
men have commended his life ; commended that which
their evil passions have kept them from following.* So
severely did Jesus spiritualize the moral law, and so rigidly
did he set forth a life of self-sacrifice for others as the ideal,
and so thoroughly did he enforce these teachings by his
example, that the world stands condemned by his life.

No prophet has seen in vision so holy a character as that
of Jesus of Nazareth ; nor has any sage conceived of it.
The great heathen philosophers declared that no one could
lead a perfect life. And eighteen hundred years have not

* As it is said that Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just
man and holy ; so the worst men have always had a sense of moral separa-
tion between themselves and Jesus.

118

WORK WITHOUT FLAW.

furnished a disciple so holy as the Master ; whose life was
pure as a sunbeam, though it shone in foul places. The
appearance of this Sinless One upon the earth, makes that
whole period in which he lived luminous with hope for
man, in spite of the sinfulness that slew him.

WITHOUT raising now the inquiry whether the Deity
was manifested as an incarnation in Jesus of Naza-
reth, it is to be stated as one of the points of perfection, that
there was nothing derogatonj to the divine nature in the
records of his life : this illustrates the proportion of his
character.

The consistency of his life, more perfect and beautiful
even than his words, suggests nothing hypocritical or pre-
tentious. There was indeed a magnanimity of spirit, and an
indifference to neglect and to despite against his person, a
meekness and majesty of bearing, and a looking forward
into future ages, that comport well with the highest claims
he put forth as to his real relation to the human race ; his
even balance of character sustaining in every way what he
said in regard to his own mission. He maintained with per-
fect consistency the character of a personage as perfect as
the Heavenly Father.

Therefore it is, that he draws all men unto him. There
is a natural gravitation of souls, says Archbishop Trench,*
which attracts them to mighty personalities, — an instinct
in man which tells him that he is never so great as when

* Compare p. 155, Christ the Desire of all Nations. Philadelphia, 1854.

119

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

looking up to one greater than himself ; that he is made for
this looking upward, — to find a nobler than himself, and to
rejoice and be ennobled in it : it is the natural basis on
which the devotion of mankind to Christ is built by the
Spirit.

THE Jewish Messiah, however, was no Jew ; "he has no
race mark." * He did not, in his character, set forth
the typical attributes of any one nationality, although the
artists of all ages have betrayed their own limitations by
painting him as Jew, Greek, or barbarian. The galleries
are full of Italian, German, Dutch, or French Christs. But
Jesus was the Son of Man, standing for the race.f

This fact shows, at the least, that his character was no
myth made up by several Jews, each taking a turn at it,
and writing independently. "The invention of it," said
Rousseau, "would be more astonishing than the hero."

* Hugh Miller Thompson.

f "The Christian type of character, if it was constructed by human
intellect, was constructed at the confluence of three races, the Jewish, the
Greek, and the Roman, each of which had strong national peculiarities of
its own. A single touch, a single taint of any one of those peculiarities,
and the character would have been national, not universal : transient, not
eternal : it might have been the highest character in history, but it would
have been disqualified for being ideal. Supposing it to have been human,
whether it were the effort of a real man to attain moral excellence, or a
moral imagination of the writers of the Gospels, the chances, surely, were
infinite against its escaping any tincture of the fanaticism, formalism,
and exclusiveness of the Jew, of the political pride of the Roman, of the
intellectual pride of the Greek. Yet it has entirely escaped them all."

— Goldwin Smith, D.C.L.

120

WORK WITHOUT FLAW.

The creation outright of such a character, as a literary-
feat, would have made the fishermen of Gennesaret the
intellectual leaders of the world. None but a Jesus, said
Theodore Parker, could fabricate a Jesus.*

A character so unique as that of Jesus cannot be ac-
counted for upon the same grounds as those upon which
we account for the upspringing of the world's great men :
Jesus Christ is of another order, there is only one Christ. \

Looking at the Gospel story merely as literature, it is to
be accounted for. The most rational theory, in accounting
for it, is that it is true : the ideas underlying the character
of Jesus had at that time no existence outside of himself.

"If any man can believe," says Jenyn, "that, at a time
when the literature of Greece and Rome, then in their

*" It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not
historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been
superadded by the tradition of his followers. . . . Who among his
disciples, or among their proselytes, was capable of inventing the sayings
ascribed to .Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed in the
Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee ; as certainly not Paul,
whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort ; still
less the early Christian writers. About the life and sayings of Jesus there is
a stamp of personal originality, combined with profundity of insight, which
must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who
have no belief in his inspiration, in the very first rank of men of sublime
genius of whom our species can boast." — John Stuart Mill.

f Compare Principal C. A. Eow's Bampton Lectures, p. 97. London,
1877.

" The character of Jesus," says Dr. Chaining, "is wholly inexpli-
cable on human principles."

" The person of Christ is the miracle of history." — Philip Schaff,
LL.D.

121

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

meridian luster, were insufficient for the task, the son of
a carpenter, with twelve of the humblest and most illiterate
men, his associates, unassisted by any supernatural power,
should be able to discover or invent a system of theology
the most sublime, and of ethics the most perfect, which
had escaped the penetration and learning of Plato, Aristotle,
and Cicero ; and that from this system, by their own sa-
gacity, they had excluded every false virtue, though uni-
versally admired, and admitted every true virtue, though
despised and ridiculed by all the rest of the world ; — if any
one can believe that these men could become imposters, for
no other purpose than the propagation of truth, villains for
no end but to teach honesty, and martyrs, without the least
prospect of honor or advantage ; or that if all this should
have been possible, these few inconsiderable persons should
have been able, in the course of a few years, to have
spread this their religion over most parts of the then known
world, in opposition to the interests, pleasures, ambition,
prejudices, and even reason of mankind ; to have tri-
umphed over the power of princes, the intrigues of states,
the force of custom, the blindness of zeal, the influence of
priests, the arguments of orators, and the philosophy of
the world, without any supernatural assistance ; — if any
one can believe all these miraculous events, contradictory
to the experience of the powers and dispositions of human
nature, he must be possessed of much more faith than is
necessary to make him a Christian, and remain an unbe-
liever from mere credulity."

122

WORK WITHOUT FLAW.

NO moral theory or precept is so eloquent as this life,
presenting as it does an ideal of character imitable in
its human perfections, and inspiring a moral ambition
to become complete in Christ Jesus.

Bishop Colenso, in his Natal Sermons, makes the point,
that since there are many relations in life which Jesus
never sustained, and many circumstances in which he never
was placed, the Imitation of Christ cannot be to copy his
acts, but to imitate the spirit of the Master : —

" We appeal to Christ's example as the perfect model,
because we appeal to the spirit of his life ; to the principle
which ruled it, to that conformity to the perfect will of
God, the desire to please his Heavenly Father, the surren-
der of his own will to God's will, which he manifested on
all occasions. It is to the spirit of his life that we must
appeal if we would 'put on Christ.' In the life of Christ,
the leading idea is of one who lived wholly for others, to
comfort and to heal ; to bring home to God the lost sheep,
to awaken penitence in the sinner, and to assure the peni-
tent of pardon and peace. And if the history in the Gospels
is but a sketch, it is in a measure filled up by the lives of
the members of the body of Christ in every age." *

If we may not take the square and the level and the
plummet, and imitate the Divine attributes of our Lord, we

* Compare Vol. I., p. 317, Vol. II., p. 325. London, 1886. For
these citations and many others, I am indebted to the references found in
Whitmore's Testimonies of Nineteen Centuries to Jesus of Nazareth, Nor-
wich, 1888.

123

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

may at least hew to the line of the mind that was in
Christ, so far as relates to his human characteristics,—
and it would be heaven upon earth if all the sons of men
would imitate the human attributes of our Lord.

He who will make a good copy of a painting must keep
his eye on the subject, else he will daub or rnake bad lines,
and have to make the attempt over and over again. If the
eyes do not turn away from Christ, but if we are always
looking unto Jesus, we shall have the more success in
becoming like him, — and we shall be satisfied when we
awake in his likeness.*

*N. B. — This whole topic of the Imitation of Christ is discussed at
some length, in the Special Articles presented in Book XI., Chapters
2, 3, 4 ; the different phases of the subject being presented by Bishop
Vincent, President Capen, and Dr. IIorr.

124

CHAPTER THREE.

His Nazarene Neighbors.

-^f^r.

HAT else was to be noted in Nazareth? The
light of God shone upon those hills ; but the
darkness comprehended it not. The sage old
men gathered in the synagogue upon the Sabbath day and
read the Messianic prophecies, and asked : Where is the
promise of His coming ? When will He appear ? They
never dreamed that a lad in their own congregation was to
be the Saviour of the world. And the young men of the
village were so uncouth and wicked, that it passed into a
proverb, — Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?
And it never occurred to them that the pious youth whom
they jeered at as a juvenile saint, was He who should rule
the world some day, and at last call all men before His
Judgment seat.

When the multitudes went thronging into the valley of
the Jordan to be baptized of John, some of these wise old
men, and young scapegraces, and that rough, hard-featured
class which made up the middle life of Nazareth, went

[Book II.] 125

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

down into the wilderness to see. Had Elijah returned ?
Had Messiah come ? *

The valley of the Jordan is a strangely twisted gorge
from two to three thousand feet deep, ploughed like a ditch
into the face of the country, its flat bottom being from six
to twelve miles wide, almost desert and barren, save where
the line of green thickets extending far up and down the
valley marks the ordinary channel of the foaming waters.
Wild beasts make their dens in these leafy coverts close by
the stream ; and the voice of the lion is lifted up when he
is roused from his lair by the Jordan in high flood. Wild
men make this valley their home ; the tent of the Bedouin
causing fear, as if he were fierce and untamable as the
beasts of prey.

Into this valley came crowding to John's Baptism all
they of Jerusalem, and all the land of Judea, and all the
region round about Jordan, proud Pharisee and unbeliev-
ing, mocking Sadducee, scribe and rabbi, bloody soldier,
and hard dealing publican, — a generation of vipers fleeing

* The preaching of John stands like a preface to the Gospels, and we
hastily pass over it to read the story beyond. He was but a voice : " Be-
hold the Lamb of God." Had he stood by himself, as an Old Testament
prophet, he would have been one of the greatest of them all ; but appear-
ing as the morning star — burning and shining light — of the new dispen-
sation, his light was quenched in the sunrise. Yet neither the naming
Isaiah, nor Ezekiel with his mystery, nor Jeremiah with his tears, nor
Elijah always standing before Jehovah, made so straight for the sinner's
conscience as he whose words rang out through the whole country, empty-
ing every house by his call.

It was, says Edersheim, a Sabbatic year, A. U. C. 779, when the
people were at leisure.

126

THE BELOVED SON AND THE NAZARENE NEIGHBORS.

from wrath to come ; and among the vipers came the old
neighbors of Jesus, turbulent Nazarenes who had made
their town infamous in all the nation. And they saw with
their own eyes the Dove of God descending and resting on
the Carpenter's Son, or they heard the strange story from
those who saw it. But they could not believe eyes or ears.
Yet somehow there floated back to the village on the hill-
side rumors that Jesus the son of Joseph had been pro-
claimed by John to be the Lamb of God, — whatever that
might mean. And then they heard that their Carpenter
was fashioning eyes and limbs for blind and halt down by
the sea ; but they doubted him.

When his journeyings (fifteen months after his baptism)
took him again to Nazareth, as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to
read ; and they gave him the book of the prophet Isaiah ;
and he opened the book and found the Messianic prophecy,
and read, — read with some strange emphasis, as if what he
was reading was true : —

" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ;

He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted,

To preach deliverance to the captives,

And recovering of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty them that are bruised,

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

And then he closed the book, and gave it again to the
minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. There was
something in his voice and manner which led them to look

127

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

at him with earnest expectation. When all were gazing
and eager to catch his words, he hegan to say unto them :
" This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." And all
bore witness to the truth of what he said, and wondered at
the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. His
sermon was fitting to the text, — good news for the poor,
heavenly healing for those whose hearts were breaking,
liberty to bruised captives, light for those in darkness ; a
new era of mercy from the Lord, who was now fulfilling
the cherished hopes of God's people during all the cen-
turies since Adam and Abraham.

But they could hear no more ; they could not get rid of
the memory of that work-bench where he once stood.
They asked one another, — "Is not this Joseph's son?"
And he turned on them suddenly, suggesting what was in
their thoughts, — unbelief down at the bottom, and curios-
ity to know whether he would not perform in their sight
such miracles as he was said to have wrought in Caper-
naum. And he announced to them that the Lord showed
mercy to whom he would, and strongly implied that it was
not the divine purpose that he should perform miracles
among that people, who had already seen the most wonder-
ful miracle of all, his sinless life, and heeded it not. And
here they were — interrupting his gracious words, by ask-
ing about his father and f amity. It was what they had
always said.

And all they — in that packed and ill- ventilated syna-
gogue,— when they heard him talk of God's acting accord-
ing to his own secret purpose of mercy toward Naaman and

128

THE BELOVED SON AND THE NAZARENE NEIGHBORS.

the widow at Sarepta, were filled with wrath ; and rose
up, and with all the fury of an oriental mob thrust him out
of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down head-
long. But he passing through the midst of them went his
way.

When he made his next visit to the place where he was
brought up, their unbelief had so far given way that when
they heard him in the synagogue on the Sabbath, they ad-
mitted that he had performed miraculous deeds, and that
he had a spirit far above the common. Hearing him they
were astonished, saying, "From whence hath this man
these mighty works, and this wisdom ? And what wisdom
is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty
works are wrought by his hands?" But that carpenter's
shop then broke in on their vision. And they asked the old
question by which they had always excused themselves
from receiving his example or advice, " Is not this the
carpenter, the carpenter's son, the son of Mary, the brother
of James, and Joses, and of Jude, and Simon ? And are
not his sisters all here with us ? Whence then hath this
man all these things ? "

They began then to doubt whether he had all these
things. They believed him when they heard what he was
doing on the seashore, but now that he was with them
again, and they could look at him and get a sight at the
very hands which once plied the hammer and nail and saw,
they could not believe any longer. There must be some
mistake about all this, — they said. And he could there do

129 9

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

no mighty work, because of their unbelief ; save that he
laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And
even Jesus, knowing the Nazarenes as well as he did, mar-
veled because of their unbelief. They were harder than
he had thought. With all his knowledge, he learned as a
new lesson the truthfulness of the proverb he had already
repeated to them more than once, that a prophet is not
without honor, — but in his own country, and among his
own kin, and in his own house.

If he had come from some far country they might have
received him. Says an English preacher: "They might
have worshiped the ' great unknown ' ; they might have
received a prophet with whose antecedents they were unac-
quainted ; but to suppose that the representative of the
Highest should be a Nazarene, that the special messenger
of God should belong to a family of neighbors, that the
revealer of the kingdom of heaven, the bringer in of the
great jubilee, should have been their playmate ; this vio-
lated their fleshly reason, and they were offended in
him." *

Jesus had worked as a plain man at the carpenter's
bench so many common sort of years — eighteen of them
— that the high hopes which his own kinsfolk early
cherished had perhaps died out of them ; and it was only
of late that Mary and his brethren saw life and vigor im-
mortal and infinite indicating what manner of man he
was. How then could these neighbors yet receive the idea

*The Rev. A. J. Morris.

130

THE BELOVED SON AND THE NAZARENE NEIGHBORS.

which so slowly dawned on even his chosen followers, that
he was indeed the Messiah ? These young men were not
yet prepared to believe that they had been day by day
walking with the Infinite Son of God. But the lowly car-
penter's Son rose, crying, "lam the bread of life ; he that
cometh to me shall never hunger." And the Nazarene
mechanic is the central figure of the world's history.*

*In the foregoing chapter, upon page 126, the allusion to John's Ministry is
illustrated by Bishop Huntington's Article, page 519.

131

CHAPTER FOUR.

Mystery of trie Wilderness,

s^-

^5 S HIS story — the drama of the desert — came into the

4 I Gospel record, either through its relation by Jesus,
^— 1— or as a vision from the Holy Spirit to the writers.
That Jesus related it is most likely. He was not, however,
given to telling stories about himself for the mere amuse-
ment of his auditors. He told it briefly, pointedly, like a
parable, to instruct his disciples in regard to his mission.

When they had not been long with him, on some day
when it was apparent to them that Jesus was journeying
without seasonable food, he may have discerned their
thoughts or heard hints that he should make bread from
the stones ; and he would by the story of the temptation
teach them the true use of miracles.

And in their ignorance of the real design of Jesus in
performing wonderful works, they may have expected deeds
perhaps athletic, that would literally astonish the nation,
and demonstrate at once his supernatural gifts. If they did
not hint so much, if even they thought so, he knew it ; and
would intimate that it was a suggestion of the adversary.

And in respect to the third temptation, it is well known

[Book ii.] 132

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION.

that the disciples expected their Messiah to set up a visible
kingdom ; and Jesus would rebuke the thought.

IT is plain that our Saviour's relation of the brief story of
the temptation would tend to correct the ideas of the
disciples upon the points alluded to. He may not have told
it so formally to the whole company of disciples, as to lead
the evangelists to rehearse it as a parable. If he told it,
perhaps more than once, or perhaps part at one time and
part at another, to this disciple or that, as need might
require, it is easy to see how the story would appear in the
Gospels without being designated as a parable. The dis-
ciples undoubtedly understood the story to be not parabolic,
but historical ; standing for a fact in the life of Jesus.

So standing, it is a mystery. It is to be classed with the
mystery of the two natures. We do not, and cannot, under-
stand the mysterious union of the human and the divine in
the person of our Lord ; nor can we understand how in any
proper sense he could have been tempted of the devil.

We do best to take the story as we find it, and we are
not to insist too much upon explaining it at all points.
This accords with a rule in exposition which we apply to
the parables of our Lord : they are designed to teach one
principal lesson, and an interpretation is not to be de-
manded for every detail, — " a' parable is not to be made to
walk on all fours."

The main design of this story of the temptation of Jesus
is to show, that he believed, as it appears also elsewhere, in
a personal devil ; and that in his own life, after his baptism,

133

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

before the beginning of his public ministry, he had to
decide once for all whether he would conduct his ministry
in such a manner as to please the devil and the Jews ; and
that in deciding upon the course to be pursued, he elected
to follow the mind of God as expressed in the tenor of the
Scripture. * He chose a course counter to the Jewish
thought, and it ultimately led him to death by Jewish
hands. In it all, however, he fulfilled the Scripture ; he
ought, as he told the Emmaus disciples, to have suffered.

WHEN Jesus as a child inquired in the temple, he may
have asked the learned doctors whether the Messiah
would be a suffering Saviour. When therefore a divine
voice, in the hour of baptism, put an end to all questioning
as to his own Messiahship, " Thou art my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased," he had to make up his mind as
to the course that he would pursue. For six winter weeks
following, he roamed over wild hills and in desert places,
prayerfully planning the details of his mission, so far forth
as to fix once for all the principles upon which he should
proceed ; deciding (among the limestone cliffs and caves of
the wilderness f near Bethabara) just how to use and how
not to use his miraculous powers, and deciding to contra-

* " Jesus saw the short, Satanic path to Messianic domain, but chose
Gethsemane and Calvary." — Roswell D. Hitchcock, LL.D.

f According to Stanley and Edersheim. — It is a strip of country
thirty-five miles by ten ; a region sorely shaken by earthquakes, and torn
by winter torrents, an appalling desolation of deep rifts and rocky
ridges, — sometimes a cut thirty feet wide and a thousand deep.

134

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION.

vene the Jewish devil that urged him to set up a visible
kingdom. Thenceforth, with the baptism of suffering be-
fore him, he was straitened till it should be accomplished.

It is clear that the divine voice related to his Messianic
work, and that the temptations related to it. The Messianic
idea was developed a little at a time in the mind of Jesus,
and now the hour had struck ; and he must be alone with
the Father and the angels, and must repel unscriptural sug-
gestions that threatened his Messiahship. He who knew
what was in man, had now arrived at so clear a conception
of the wickedness of the world, that he could foresee at a
glance what would come to him if he should continue to
please God rather than those who misrepresented God in
the Holy Land.* The breath of hate, the curses of wrong-
doers, the shameless faces, the beginnings of woe, caused
the Saviour to shudder, as he anticipated them in the
wilderness. The fall of the Mosaic system was impending.
He could see that it would bring him to the cross, f

We do not understand that Jesus saw Satan, when the
devil desired to sift Peter as wheat. And whether sleeping
or waking he may not have seen the grim adversary among
the wild beasts of the desert. Bleak were the ledges where
he felt the weight of demoniacal suggestions ; and where

* Visiting Jerusalem thrice annually during eighteen years, he had
come to well settled convictions concerning the unscriptural administration
of Judaism by priests and rabbis.

f " Jesus took upon himself the sentence of death in the wilderness,"
says Bushnell, " and bowed himself in consecration upon it ; coming out
to live martyr-wise."

135

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he decided that they were demoniacal and unscriptural
views of Messianic work. And the drear scenery shone
with new light, when he was visited by the angels of God.

It need not be thought that if Jesus was tempted in all
points as we are, that the trial was in the desert. He was
tempted in all points before and after ; tempted " vehe-
mently/' tempted to say and do unwisely, impatiently.
Here it was temptation relating to his Messianic work.
When the Saviour afterwards spoke of the sufferings he
was to endure, and Peter said, " That be far from thee,"
Jesus knew that this was the old Satanic suggestion to seek
his kingdom in a way not laid down in the law and the
prophets.

The unholy legions of the prince of the power of the air
were alert when Jesus came, and it was a part of his hu-
miliation that his divinity was so concealed that Satan
might venture to question it. The head of the serpent that
had trailed through Eden, was now crushed in the desert.

Conscious of a will of his own * Jesus sought not to do
his own will, but to please God ; and the brightness of his
holiness was never tarnished.

"Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle."

* " If from the constitution of his person it was impossible for Christ
to sin, then his temptation was unreal and without effect, and he cannot
sympathize with his people." — Charles Hodge, LL.D.

A quaint German writer says, that as the Lord went with the angels
to behold the sin of Sodom with his own eyes, so the Lord came in the
flesh to know by his own experience if the temptations of men were as
difficult as David and the men of the Old Testament had often represented
them in their prayers.

136

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION.

" The Lord God will help me ; I shall not be confounded :
therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I
shall not be ashamed." Had the demon assailed a rock in
the desert, he could not have been more completely foiled.

So the lily asserted itself amid desolation, the desert
bloomed as the rose, and the wilderness became a paradise.

The Devil's Bread.

JESUS had not tested his miraculous powers ; he was
tempted to test it privately for his own convenience.
Since, however, he had taken upon himself our human
nature, and the common lot of man, he decided not to forsake
this line of life at the outset of his mission. Instead of get-
ting his own living by miracle, he decided to endure hardship,
leading the life of a wanderer, hungering often. It would
have violated the very condition of the Incarnation, if he
had not been subject to the state of ordinary humanity.
Unless he was ready to enter on a life of privation he would
never reach the cross. If he had begun his Messianic work
by a miracle to allay his own hunger, he would have ended
it by calling on the twelve legions of angels to destroy his
enemies. And his disciples would have desired to establish
no self-denying church ; and they would have been tempted
to sustain its ordinary wants by miracle, and to be very
particular as to the quality of their bread.

Had the Christ set out not to deny himself, he would not
have left the glory he had in worlds on high. Yet, having
come, he suffered Satanic taunts upon hungering in his
Father's house.

137

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

<* He sitteth there in silence, worn and wasted
With famine, and uplifts his hollow eyes
To the unpitying skies." — Longfellow.

" If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread," was the same kind of appeal that was
made by the demons who crucified him : " If he be King
of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will
believe him."

Satan tempted Adam, and he did eat : not so Jesus. It
was his meat to do his Father's will. He was himself that
Bread which came down from heaven.

The lust of the flesh found no response in the Redeemer.
His godlike powers were not set to getting for himself a
good living. " Man shall not live by bread alone." The
leeks, the onions, the flesh pots of Egypt, the quails, the-
manna, the loaves, the fishes, — these be thy gods, 0 Israel :
this was a demoniacal suggestion.

.Ari Acrobatic Leap.

UPON the face of the story the account in Luke is more
climacteric than that in Matthew, at least from the
modern point of view ; the flight from the temple heights
and the upbearing of angel arms being a more famous thing
than sitting uneasily upon a throne. The authorities however
have decided that Matthew has the right of it ; * so that if
the second temptation had succeeded we should have seen
the strange spectacle of the Carpenter's Son executing
somersaults, or leaping through the air, falling from dizzy

* Trench, Farrar, et al.

138

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION.

heights as once Satan fell from heaven : * and if this pro-
posal was rejected as unwise in the Messiah, then many
capers that are cut by grotesque disciples in different ages
are quite inexcusable and blameworthy. There was at least
religious common sense in the decision of Jesus ; and the
Founder of our faith gave no countenance to foolhardy ex-
ploits in the name of piety.

To jump at demoniacal suggestion, to seek personal dis-
play and the pride of life, to begin a Messiahship by capti-
vating the crowd, to exercise a rash faith, to use divine
powers for gaining the applause of men, to appear as an
athlete in an age of gladiators and physical prowess, — ac-
corded not with the dignity and method of the Lord of
Nature, who began his earthly mission quietly, calling his
disciples one or two at a time, and making himself little
prominent : " consciously dissolving self in God's glory." f

In the first temptation, Satan had said, " Distrust Provi-
dence " : now he appeared with a Bible under his arm,
saying, " Trust Providence ; and if you do, then leap — to
the surprise of the Jews, — God will bear you out in it."

The ninety-first Psalm is justly esteemed one of the
finest in the whole collection. The unknown author could,
however, have had no thought when he penned these words
that he would become so famous an author as to be read in
hell ; yet the devil learned a part of it by heart, and used it

* The pinnacle was at the eastern end of the southern colonnade, four
hundred and fifty feet above the Kedron valley.

f J. A. Picton's phrase.

139

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

to entrap the Saviour of men. He did not, however, quote
the thirteenth verse, — the trampling upon the dragon.

It had been said in ancient prophecy that Messiah would
come suddenly to his temple ; and the Jews looked for his
appearing in the open heavens, down-flying, and alighting
among the worshipers of the temple. And this notion was
presented as a possible way for opening the Saviour's
mission. Its rejection involved the traversing of rabbinical
interpretation, which appears to have been suggested by
the arch-enemy.

A Temporal Kingdom.

REMEMBERING royal robes on high, and with no small
experience in decking out the kings of this world, the
prince of the power of the air laid claim to the owner-
ship of our globe ; displaying the most civilized part of it,
as if upon a magic mountain. Fresh from the workshop at
Nazareth, Jesus was now brought face to face with the pomp
and glitter of Rome and the gorgeous East. Satan had bought
many a man at less price.* It was a temptation to avoid
self-sacrifice, and find some easy path to the throne of the
world, f It was a temptation to favor the lust of the eyes, —

* " A matter of half-a-crown, or ten groats, a pair of shoes, or some
such trifle." — Bishop Andrews.

' < The temptation in the wilderness turned on the question what sort
of a kingdom he should set up, and by what sort of agency ; and he
rejects every Satanic proposal to establish an outward kingdom by force,
even by his own miraculous power." — Samuel Harris, LL.D.

f " The people from whom Jesus had sprung, had lost under the Roman
yoke the remains of their ancient nationality ; hatred of Home was then
at its height among them, and in the deserts and mountains of Judea

140

THE MYSTERY OF THE TEMPTATION.

a temptation typified in the triumphal entry into Jeru-
salem.

Jesus, the descendant of ancient kings who had borne
sway over many generations, he who spoke and acted as
one having authority, had, however, a Kingdom appointed
unto him, — a Kingdom in which no tears should flow, in
which none should sit in darkness, in which all wrongs
should cease, and in which the truth should go forth
unbound. He would still his heart, and bide his time.
And it has been proved that he was able enough to establish
the Kingdom of God, without asking help of the devil.
Instead of being drawn to the world, he drew the world to
himself.

bands of liberators were daily formed under some patriot distinguished for
his boldness or some other characteristic. These movements were seconded
by celebrated prophecies, which had long announced a chief and Saviour
to the Jewish people. The relation of these ideas and interests to the new
kingdom, the coming of which Jesus Christ proclaimed, was evident.
Nevertheless, so far from conniving at and employing them, he trampled
them under feet." — The Rev. Peke Lacordaire.

141

BOOK THREE.

.-^~fc-X?<-

Our Divine Helper.

§&%&<&

Chapter 1. Page 143.

At Home toy the Sea,

Chapter 2. Page 149.

Stilling the Angry Waves.

Chapter 3. Page 153.

Trie Madman of the Tombs,

Chapter 4. Page 157.

The Hungry Thousands Fed

Chapter 5. Page 160.

The Divine Healer.

Chapter 6. Page 164.

New Life for the World.

CHAPTER ONE.

A.t Home by the Sea.

(IV'F we look in upon the home of Jesus by the sea of
Galilee, we find that when he came and dwelt in
Capernaum, he left behind him at Nazareth his
carpenter tools, and appeared as a Divine Me-
chanic. " God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power : who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God
was with him." These words contain an epitome of
Christ's life : he went about doing good. "And great

* Introductory Note. — That Jesus was the Master of laws super-
natural is assumed in the Gospel story ; nor is it more needful to question
how, than to interrogate the Mystery of the Two Natures of our Lord, or
the Philosophy of the Atonement. The Apostles assume an Atonement
of some sort, properly so called, without philosophizing upon it ; and the
Incarnation, without attempting to explain it ; and the miracle-working
power of our Lord, without debating upon the harmony or clashing of
natural and supernatural law.

It does not accord with purposes of this book (which is devotional
rather than controversial or even expository), to do otherwise than fol-
low the New Testament trend, in assuming that the miracles were per-
formed in accordance with laws unknown to men, by a Divine Mechanism
which the Nazarene Carpenter understood.

[Book III.] 143

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

multitudes came unto him, having with them those that
were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others,
and cast them down at Jesus' feet ; and he healed them
insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the
dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk,
and the blind to see : and they glorified the God of Israel."

The intensity of the excitement caused by these miracles
is better understood by recalling the narrow limits within
which they were wrought. Palestine, even including the
region beyond Jordan, was not so large as the states of
Massachusetts and Connecticut, being a trifle larger than
Vermont ; and the " sea " of Galilee or Tiberias was but a
lake, Genesareth, eight or nine miles wide and eighteen
long.

The lake lies low in a deep basin more than six hundred
feet below the level of the Mediterranean. Rather tame
looking limestone hills, with steep sides and round backs,
rise to a height of from one to two thousand feet on every
side. Approaching from the west we do not see the water
till we are near by, and then we look down upon the bright
blue waves about ten hundred feet below us. We now see
that the hills do not anywhere advance into the water, and
that there are no meadows near the shore and no trees to
speak of. A few scattered palms rise not far from the
brink ; and almost the whole coast of the lake is lined by
low shrubs of thorn. There is a little beach of dark-brown
sand extending the entire circuit ; and many bare isolated
bowlders, some black, some light, are seen on the margin.
We discover no sails upon the waters.

144

AT HOME BY THE SEA.

In one part of this sink among the hills there is a plain
five miles wide and six or seven long. And descending to
this level we find the sun pouring down upon us with great
power, shut in as we are by the high rim of limestone
ledges which rise on either side. The soil here is very
fertile, and watered by four abundant springs, which pour
their streams across the plain. And lifting our eyes we
find ourselves, as if in a vast garden : — Oleanders, in clumps
thirty feet in diameter and twenty feet high, are blooming
on the shore of the lake ; and bright colored birds are flit-
ting through the air, filling the sky with song, — and they
fly over a lake that is shaped like a harp ; on every side we
note the date palm, the sugar cane, the pomegranate, the
indigo, the cotton plant, and the rice fields ; and we gaze
in delight upon the green grass and the fields of wheat and
barley, patches of citrons and choice melons ; and upon the
lower steps of the hills we see olives and vineyards. Snow
is scarcely ever known here, so that the valley has the
advantages of a semi-tropical as well as a temperate zone.

This is the plain of Tiberias : and in former ages the
shores were more densely clad with trees ; and by careful
culture, grapes and figs if we are to believe the old his-
torian were in fruit ten months of the year. And the same
authority has delighted to dwell upon the peculiar charms
of this home by the Galilean sea. " Its nature," he says,
" is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that
all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants ac-
cordingly plant all sorts of trees there ; for the temper of
the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very well with those

145 10

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

several sorts. Particularly walnuts, which require the
coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty ; there are palm
trees also, which grow best in hot air, fig trees also and
olives grow near them, which yet require an air that is more
temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature,
where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to
one another to agree together ; it is a happy contention of
the seasons, as if every one of them laid claim to this coun-
try." *

This region was once volcanic, and to the northwest of
the lake is found an ancient crater three or four hundred
feet long and one hundred wide ; with steep sides of lava,
forty feet deep. Seven earthquakes have shaken these hills,
and rocked the waters of this sweet sea. Sixty years ago,
a thousand people perished on this plain of Tiberias by the
earthquake's shock. This therefore is a region where we
may look to find hot springs. And it is believed that the
springs of Tiberias would attract great attention in Europe ;
while those of Gadara, just across the water, were ranked
as second in the whole Roman empire. This valley was
therefore a famous watering place in the olden time.

If now we could have entered the vale of Genesareth in
the time when Jesus went to dwell there, we should have
found the whole western and northwestern shores crowded
with the life of six cities ; whose ruins still remain. Bedouin
flocks and herds are feeding there to-day among the pros-
trate columns ; sculptured capitals are overgrown by thorn

* Josephus.

146

AT HOME BY THE SEA.

and brier. And, in the springtime, bright flowers are
rising from the ground where these fair dwellings once
stood.

Here stood Capernaum ; its present site hard to identify.*
The streets were not more than six feet wide ; the window-
less outside walls of the houses giving shade from the heat.
The dwellings were of lava stone, each with one room,
twenty feet square and six feet high. There were three or
four thousand people here when Jesus was a citizen. The
road from the sea to Damascus passed through this city ;
and the caravans, that halted here, carried the words and
deeds of Jesus to Syria, Arabia, Babylon, to Egypt, and to
Greece and Kome.f

At the time these cities were standing, the lake must
have been often white with the sail of fishermen ;J who
drew out of the blue deep a wonderful store of food for the
multitudes. And pleasure seekers, to gain relief from the
heated shores, had their choice of riding on the cool waves,
or of seeking the breezes which swept the hilltops. So
Christ one day gathered the people upon the top of one of

* Dr. Selah Merrill and Dr. Geikie say at Khan Minyeh ; others,
foui' miles away, at Tell Hum.

f The people of Tiberias comprised Persians, Arabs, Egyptians,
Greeks, and Romans, as well as Jews ; a great multitude of Gentiles in
Capernaum.

t Josephus gathered two hundred and thirty ships near Tiberias.
Tarichea, on the south, was famous for shipbuilding. Farrar estimates
some two hundred scores of boats and ships upon this inland sea, in the
time of our Lord.

147

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the peaks overlooking one part of the lake, and there pro-
nounced the Beatitudes. Or he sat upon the waters of
Genesareth in a floating pulpit : and as we walk the shores
there to-day we find little inlets where streams come down
from between the hills, good places for the fishermen's craft
to ride near the shore, and we see, on each side the mouth
of the creek, basaltic rocks which afford pleasant seats,
where sometimes the people sat while Christ taught them
from out the ship. And there are wild ravines and elevated
table-lands favorable for days or nights of prayer, and
great solitudes on the east of the lake.

" I have created seven seas, saith the Lord, but out of
them all I have chosen none but the sea of Genesareth : "
so said the rabbis. Yet if we walk those shores to-day, and
dream of them as they were in their days of glory, we find
ourselves forgetting the beauty of the foliage, the gen-
erous growths of the harvest, the pleasant homes of the
thronging multitudes, — and we think only of Jesus who
came from Nazareth to dwell there ; and. if we can walk
the paths he trod, and climb the hills where he overlooked
this sea, and move over the waters which so often upbore
him, we find more comfort than in all other history and all
other beauty of this favored spot. Jesus left his inland
home and came hither, and at once it was said that "the
people which sat in darkness saw great light " ; he rose
upon these homes by the sea like the dawning of the morn-
ing kindling in the east, glancing on the waves, and bright-
ening their hillsides.

148

CHAPTER TWO.

Stilling the Angry Waves,

^s*s>

*7T.S we lift up our eyes and see the mountain wall that
l\ surrounds us not far away on every side of the lake,
one of the first things we notice is the break between
the hills, through which the cool breezes sweep in upon the
heated valley. The Syrian sun is singularly fierce in this
enclosed area, and the low shores and the plain of Tibe-
rias glow with furnace heat ; but when the sun sinks in
the west, the winds from the mountains begin to blow
through the gorges as if they were tunnels or blow pipes, —
sometimes in a short squall, or again they roar through the
ravines all night. Occasionally by day we may look out
upon the waters, when all is serene on the shore, and see
sheets of foam, — a sudden tempest boiling in the midst of
the sea, shaking the fishermen's boats and terrifying those
who are tossed on the boisterous waves. This is caused by
some heavy wind coming down from a high rift in the
mountains, striking the surface of Genesareth, stirring up
a fury, then glancing off, and striking the opposite hills
high up, leaving either shore of the lake quiet.*

*H we go to Mount Desert, upon the coast of Maine, where moun-
tains rise directly out of the briny waves to a height of from a thousand
[Book in.] 149

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

The apostolic fishermen of the Galilean sea were there-
fore often in peril. And one night they received Jesus into
their ship, " even as he was," weary with his labors ; and
he was at once lulled to sleep by the music of the waters
rippling against the sides of their ship, — resting his head
upon some rail or block for his pillow.* And there came
down a storm of wind on the lake, "and the waves beat
into the ship," so that it filled. "The ship was covered
with the waves," and they roused the sleeper, saying,
"Lord, save us: we perish." But as an ancient Roman
general once, rebuked his boatmen for being afraid to
launch out upon a stormy flood when he was to go with
them, so now Christ, the true Lord of the seas, said, "Why
are ye fearful, 0 ye of little faith ? " So says Bengel, " Jesus
calmed first the minds of his disciples, then the sea." He
arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, " Peace,
be still." And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm ;
and then in that strange calm, he again asked, " How is it
that ye have no faith ? "

Whether or not the remainder of the night was filled
with songs we know not : but we can easily imagine the
rougli sailors singing, as they bailed out their boat, one of
the old Hebrew hymns : "The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters ; yea, than the mighty waves

to eighteen hundred feet, we find similar phenomena ; so that it is need-
ful there to caution the unwary against the fierce arms of the wind, which
may at almost any moment sweep out from a cleft in the hills, to overturn
the barks of those who think to sail serenely along that savage shore.
*Or the steersman's leather cushion — Farrar.

150

STILLING THE ANGRY WAVES.

of the sea." And perhaps there were angel bands hovering
over them also singing, " The Lord sitteth upon the floods ;
yea, the Lord sitteth king forever."

Upon another night, when the purple sunset shadows
were falling upon the lake, after a day of great toil, Jesus
departed into a mountain to pray ; yet his eye was often
turned from out his wild closet to watch the billows which
were breaking against his sinewy disciples, as they tugged
heavily at their oars in rowing against a contrary wind
almost all night. Black scuds were flying across the sky,
half obscuring the light of the stars or the paschal moon ;
and Jesus, sheltered from the wind in some pocket of the
crags on the mountain side, often looked out to see what
headway was being made by that dark boat dimly seen,
which bore his own loved ones. And at last he went down
to the shore and stepped forth upon the uplifted waves, and
walked as firmly over their rough backs as when he trav-
ersed ragged rocks of the hard hillside. With light and
easy motion he trod the fickle sea ; the wind tearing at his
garments, and the waters rising and clapping their white
hands about him, yet serenely adapting himself to the
changing surface, like a bird in mystic motion upon the
rising and falling waves.

It is no wonder that his disciples cried out for fear at the
strange apparition, visible in a patch of silvery moonlight.
As presumptuous Peter went forth to meet him, the noise
of the wind in the rigging and the dash of the water caused
his confidence to collapse ; yet Jesus soon placed his feet
upon the ship's planks, — bearing with him the drenched

151

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Peter. And the wind suddenly ceased. We do not wonder
that his disciples in their stress "were sore amazed in them-
selves beyond measure ; and that they, that were in the
ship, came and worshiped him who had spoken, " It is I, be
not afraid." " Of a truth," they said, " thou art the Son of
God." Then swiftly plowed their keel the waves, as if
breathed upon by a gale from heaven, so that "immedi-
ately the ship was at the land whither they went."

152

CHAPTER THREE.

The Madman of the Tombs,

^3o£<©>

^^\ UT more wild than the raging of fierce sea waves
was the tempest which tore the souls of lunatics,
*J i who once dwelt in the tombs upon the hither
shore of these waters of Galilee : nay, the mad-
men are dwelling there to-day.* A recent traveler descend-
ing one of the mountains east of the lake, tells us that, as
he passed through a Moslem cemetery in the night, he
found a naked maniac fighting with dogs for a bone ; and
the wild man seized his horse's bridle, and almost forced
him off the brink of the cliff.

Could we have crossed the lake in the Saviour's time,
going a few miles inland, we should have seen the city of
Gadara hanging aloft upon a rough and high mountain
ridge, with sides so abrupt and with top so sharp that it
would seem, says the historian, the city must fall down by
its own weight ; the southern part of the mountain rising
to great height like a citadel. It was compactly built, per-

* The modern region is so like the ancient that Renan calls it < 'A
fifth gospel; mutilated, but legible still."

[Book III.] 153

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

haps half a mile east and west, and a fourth of a mile north
and south. The city was in some sort unique. An amphi-
theater was cut out of the living rock. The main street
was forty-five feet wide, lined each side with a row of Co-
rinthian pillars ; and it was paved with blocks of black
basalt, — the pavement remaining to this day, and showing
the marks of chariot wheels which rolled that way eighteen
hundred years ago. In the sides of the limestone ridge on
which the city stood, many of the ancient tombs remain,
affording rooms perhaps twenty feet square, in which the
modern Gadarenes have their homes. Similar tombs are
found in many places away toward the lake side ; and it
was among these tombs that Christ found the madman, —
after he had stilled the waves of the sea in the day of tem-
pest. And it was from this city on a hill, whence the
astonished people came to see the maniac and his Saviour.
The evangelists give a wild picture of the man. He had
devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any
house, but in the tombs. And no man could bind him, no,
not with chains : because he had been often bound with
fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asun-
der by him, and the fetters broken in pieces : neither could
any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in
the mountains, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
And he was exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by
that way. "In the paroxysms of his huge woe," adds the
commentator, * "he tore apart the massive fetters as

* George Shepard, D.D.

154

THE MADMAN OF THE TOMBS.

though mere flaxen strings, and then ranged abroad in a
horrid freedom, uttering shrieks and yells, that reverber-
ated among the mountains and echoed over the sea, so that
no one dared pass that way ; thus infuriate was he with the
demons and the hell within, and bloody all over with the
gashing stones."

Do you ask, What was a demoniac ? I answer in the
words of an English preacher, * " A spiritual burglar bro-
ken into a man." And this man had a legion of demons
raging within : " a legion," like a squadron of Roman sol-
diers in fierce battle array. But Jesus came near ; and as
he had subdued the sea waves, so now he subdued the
storm in the mind of the madman, — Peace, be still. And
the man quieted himself, and sat at the feet of Jesus ; while
the demons raced down the mountain side upon the legs of
swine, f

The one out of whom the devils were departed, besought
Christ that he might be with Him ; he felt safe only by the
side of the Saviour. But Jesus taught him that the way to

*Eev. A. J. Morris.

f The Author, in the text, has followed the average commentator as to
the Gadarenes. Farrar, however, locates Gadara some distance south
of the lake, and thinks the miracle took place near Gergesa ; the Gersa, or
Kerza of the modern Arab. This notion is favored by Thomson's Land
and Book. If so, the Gadarenes, it is likely, had joined the multitude
that thronged wherever Jesus appeared.

As to the swine, the Gergesenes preferred their swine to their Sav-
iour ; as, at a later period, the rabble voted to rescue the robber Barabbas,
instead of their Messiah.

A quaint commentator upon this miracle gravely tells us, — "It is
self-evident that a herd of swine could not be confederate in any fraud."

155

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

be rid of evil spirits was to go to his friends proclaiming his
new Master, telling how great things the Lord had done for
him. And it would seem from the record that the Holy
Spirit henceforth possessed him, and used him with great
power.

Returning again to Capernaum, we find Jesus casting
out a devil in church : for demons had dared to enter the
synagogue. So the Lord of heaven, in wild waste places or
in cities, in tombs or in meeting houses, rebuked the spirit-
ual foes of man.

G)(D

156

CHAPTER FOUR.

The Hungry Thousands Fed.

-£»$««£.

IF now we go forth again by the lake side, we shall
find Jesus thronged by five thousand people hunger-
ing for the bread of life, and before they left him
hungry for the bread which perisheth. And he
spread a table there and fed them all. It was in a desert
place to which he had gone to find rest ; but the multitudes
crowding on their way to the feast of the passover at
Jerusalem were bent upon tasting first this Bread which
had come down from heaven, and they restlessly sought
till they found him. Mothers with their children and with
their own aged parents, were made to sit as if around their
own home table. High limestone cliffs rose not far off, but
here the grass was green, and Jesus, who was thought by
Mary after the resurrection to be the gardener, now ar-
ranged the people, according to Mark, in "garden plats."
The artists of the world have greatly delighted in painting
the appropriate scenery of this miracle, with its crowds of
oriental people.

It was in the month Nisan, when the fields were aglow

[BOOK III.] 157'

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

with flowers ; and the gay colors worn by this oriental
crowd made a great impression upon Peter, when the red
and the yellow and the blue were seated in little companies
of fifties and hundreds. Perhaps, as one has suggested,
they were arranged in two semi-circles : having, in the
outer, thirty bands of one hundred ; and, in the inner, forty
bands of fifty ; each company being placed upon three
sides of a square, with the fourth side open — according to
the eastern form of laying tables : thus the whole throng
of five thousand could be easily waited upon without con-
fusion.

So Christ was an organizer, a general, a natural ruler ;
and we behold him reigning in the desert over an orderly
town suddenly rising out of the wilderness. We can hardly
wonder that after they had tasted his heavenly bounty they
wished to take Jesus by force and make him a king ; which
he thwarted by wandering off into the mountain solitudes
alone.

The people had followed Christ, taking literally no
thought as to what they should eat or what they should
drink, and now all things were added unto them. Jesus
had boundless resources, and they did not need to go away ;
they found all things in him, as if he were "the world's
housekeeper."* "Give ye them to eat." "Open thy
mouth wide and I will fill it," said he " who had the key of
heaven's garner at his girdle."

Christ set herein an eminent example to feed the hungry

♦Joseph Parker, D.D.

158

HUNGRY THOUSANDS FED.

on something besides tracts and theology. Yet he gave
them simple diet, bread and fish.* Doubtless the power
which multiplied these could have fed them with more
toothsome food than barley, which was distinctively the
food of the poor ; but he made no attempt to please their
palates with pastry.

That the bread was good, not spoiled in the making,
seems evident from the relish with which they took it.
From what followed, we know that the people thought the
feast good enough to come from a king. So Christ digni-
fied the business of bread making : to do that work well is
a true heavenly gift. But it is written that Jesus did not
undertake it without first praying over it : so all the evan-
gelists particularly notice. Prayers rising from the kitchen
must be therefore acceptable to God. So good a woman
as Mary Lyon said she always spoke to God about topics
she should be ashamed to speak of to earthly friends. To
pray over burnt biscuit and save one's temper is pleasing
to God. Cooks as well as kings are heard in heaven.

Moreover the bread was increased in the distribution,
and they had more left at the end of the feast than at the
beginning. Yet he who made so much would not tolerate
wasting : if he was bountiful, he was economical, — saving
the fragments.

*Johnvi: 1-4. The fish were dried or pickled, to be eaten with
bread. The Greek term indicates minute knowledge of the lore of Gali-
lean fisher-folk ; showing that the fourth Gospel was written by one know-
ing well Genesareth. Vide Edersheim's Life of Christ. Vol. I., p. 682.

159

CHAPTER FIVE.

The Divine Healer.

' ~i£;(& (Si (Si (Si ^k&;~ ■

O find we this poor Mechanic from Nazareth, the
Carpenter's Son, making a great stir in the
neighborhood of the shining Galilean sea ;
everywhere performing wonderful works, ex-
citing the minds of people and drawing together immense
multitudes to receive the blessing which by word and deed
he bestowed on all freely as the sunshine or the dews of
night. Crowds of men and women and children turned
out of their homes with all their sick folk ; * and they
surged through the streets of Capernaum searching for
Jesus, or they gathered, waiting at the gates of the city
to see him coming home from nights of prayer or errands
of mercy in the country round about. And strangers
from afar left their common employments, and journeyed
to this city by the sea ; and the whole population was in
movement to behold the Lamb of God to whom John
pointed, — as, a few months before, they had all flocked

*Arciibisiiop Whately said that Jesus only twice made bread, lest
the supply of want multiply want ; but often healed the sick, which would
not increase the objects of charity.

[Book III.] 160

THE DIVINE HEALER.

to the banks of Jordan to receive baptism at the hands of
the forerunner of Christ.*

There was something in the face, the eyes, the appearance,
and words of Jesus, which led the needy to confide in him,
and bear to him their diseased. Whether in the narrow
streets, or without in desert places, they came to him from
every quarter. St. Mark declares that at one time Jesus
could no more enter his own city openly, on account of the
numbers who thronged about him whenever he was seen.
How often I dream about it, and wish I could have been
there a little before sunset. In the cool of the day the
Saviour came forth from retirement, and according to the
saying of the prophet, " himself took our infirmities and
bare our sicknesses." It is said that he laid his hands on
the sick and healed them all. His heart was full of sym-
pathy ; and it is emphatically said again and again that he

* The swift succession of stirring events in the life of our Saviour
appears in the chronological sequence of certain events connected with this
story. It was upon the sixth day of the week that Jesus left Capernaum by
boat at noontide. A multitude followed around the shore to meet him at his
landing. Jesus, however, sought to be alone with his disciples ; but the
great gathering crowd moved him to compassion, and he took up again his
burden of teaching, and healing the sick. Then followed the miracle of
the five loaves and two fishes. Jesus then disappeared, and the people re-
tired to their villages before the Sabbath should begin. The disciples by
command of Jesus attempted to return to Capernaum by water, and worked
nine hours against the wind. Then Jesus walked on the water, rescued
Peter, and the wind ceased at three in the morning. At Capernaum,
Jesus visited the synagogue, and the greatly excited elders questioned him.
Then followed the discourse in the eighth of John ; and many who de-
sired the day before to make him a king, now forsook him, — upon his
claim to be himself the Bread from heaven.

161 11

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

touched the diseased, placing loving hands upon them,
even when a word would have done as well. He had com-
passion on a loathsome leper, and drew near, and reached
forth the healing arm to him. His fingers were put upon
the eves of the blind, and in that day the eyes of the blind
saw out of obscurity and out of darkness. It came to be
understood that his touch was life, and that the very fringe
on his garment — by which as a child of Israel he was re-
minded to keep the commandments of God — had healing
in it. It is said, therefore, that " they pressed upon him to
touch him, as many as had plagues " : and again it is said
that "the whole multitude sought to touch him, for there
went virtue out of him and healed them all." Jesus felt
the power going forth, even if one touched him secretly ;
and he was exhausted by healing, and worn down by sym-
pathy.*

To many of the sick, new spiritual life was imparted in
their healing. For he asked, Believest thou that I can do
this ? and according to their faith it was unto them. By
faith, inwrought, they rose to life everlasting. The figures
of these obscure persons have come down to us through

*In illustration of this point, Dr. George F. Pentecost has related
that a beautiful and pure woman went into a New York prison, where she
saw a miserable wretch, wrecked by a life of licentiousness and debauched
by drink. She approached to speak to her, and as she did so, stooped
down and kissed her polluted lips. The woman sprang to her feet as
though she had been touched with fire, and then, bursting out into great
sobs of penitence, fell at the feet of the Christian woman who had kissed
her. " Do you come to me in the name of Christ ; and do you kiss me
for his sake? Then he who has put such pity in your heart will save me."

162

THE DIVINE HEALER.

eighteen centuries, photographed upon the Gospel page, be-
cause for one moment the blessed Light of the World shone
upon them ; all their former and their later lives unknown
to us. Some of them doubtless have names now well known
in heaven. And we ourselves may some day take these pic-
tures, and stand beside them ; and see if we can identify a
maniac who sat at the feet of Jesus overlooking Genes-
areth, or certain Roman rulers who pleaded with Jesus to
save a son or a servant.

163

CHAPTER SIX.

New Life for the \Vorld.

ONE day in Capernaum, Jesus went into the chamber
where a dead maiden was lying : but he looked on
death as a mere sleep, and by a word awakened her to
life again. So upon another day, going forth from his
home by the sea, he walked toward Jerusalem to attend the
passover : and when he approached the hillside on which
stood the city of Nain, — walking a path we now may tread
to the very gateway, — he, the Consolation of Israel, met a
great procession ; for the light had gone out from the wid-
ow's house, and they were making mourning for an only
son, most bitter lamentations. And when the Lord saw
the mother, he had compassion on her, and said unto her,
" Weep not." Jesus wiped away all tears from the eyes of
the mourners, and there was neither sorrow nor crying, for
there was no more death : so was fulfilled upon the earth a
promise made for the heavens. Christ touched the bier,
and they that bare him stood still : no nearer to the grave
should he be borne. And Jesus said, " Young man, I say

[Book III.] 164

LIFE FROM THE DEAD.

unto thee, Arise." And he that was dead sat up,' and be-
gan to speak : and he delivered him to his mother. Then
came fear on all : and they glorified God saying, A great
prophet is risen up among us ; and God hath visited his
people.

THESE scenes in the neighborhood of Jesus' home by the
sea, are only specimens of an unwearied activity ex-
tending throughout his entire public ministry, and
manifested in almost every place trodden by his sacred
feet. Let any person read St. Mark's Gospel at one sitting
— it will take only about an hour — and see the whole won-
derful panorama of Christ's life unrolled at once, and he
will be ready to use the hyperbole of St. John, and believe
that if the works of Jesus had been all recorded in their
fullness the world itself would not hold the books written.

"Evil spirits," says Chrysostom, "everywhere fled and
started away from him. Satan covered his face and re-
tired ; every kind of infirmity was loosed, the graves let free
the dead, the devils those whom they had maddened, and
diseases the sick. One might see eyes fashioned, palsied
and distorted limbs fastened and adapted to each other,
dead hands moving, palsied feet leaping amain, ears that
were stopped reopened, and the tongue sounding aloud
which before was tied by speechlessness. For having taken
in hand the common nature of man, as some excellent
workman might take a house decayed by time, he filled up
what was broken off, banded together its crevices and

165

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

shaken portions, and raised up again what was entirely
fallen down."

So wrought the Carpenter's Son: " Jesus of Nazareth,
anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, went about
doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him."

3UCH deeds we expect to find manifested by God's own
Son. The Incarnation was the great miracle, and the
works which we admire were his natural deeds.* He
could touch the secret springs of nature, and by one flash
of the Almighty Power set the world to wondering. He
who filled the grapevines year by year with fruit could
easily change water to wine in a moment. And men who
never heeded the divine power in common things were ar-
rested by the unusual acts of Christ, as if they heard celes-

* Minor miracles are not wisely contended for : if Christ is truly
the Son in the Holy Trinity, the deeds of wonder-working are cred-
ible, being wrought by the fiat of One who knew how to handle the
forces he had made ; if he was not, then no miracle is worth debating
about. The question of the Incarnation itself does not depend on the
verity of the minor miracles ; it is settled upon other grounds. As evi5.
dences, the miracles do not prove the Deity of Christ ; although they
sealed his Divine mission, as the miracles wrought by prophets and
apostles attested their calling.

Compare Isa. xxix : 18, 19 ; and xxxv : 5, 6 ; and lxi : 1, 2, with Matt.
xi : 2-5, and Luke vii : 19-22.

The true use of the story of the miracles, to-day, is for showing the
philanthropic, or what Edersheim calls the theanthropic, ministrations
of our Lord.

166

LIFE FROM THE DEAD.

tial music sounding in the skies, and calling them to hear
the voice of God's only beloved Son.

YET I hear a strange voice resounding among the Galilean
hills or echoing on the shores of the sea. It is a voice
of cursing, "Woe, woe." It is Jesus himself denouncing
those cities in which his mighty works were done, for their
unbelief. " This upbraiding," says the commentator,* "is
the prelude to the Last Judgment." And may we not fear
lest we ourselves stand in the line of these curses, if like the
lepers we are unthankful recipients of mercy, and unmoved
by the gracious deeds of the Saviour of men : or if we are
moved by them only to place ourselves as tools in the hands
of Christ's enemies ; like him who waited for the disturbing
of the water, halting through years of infirmity, and then,
when the Saviour drew near, having no faith, and not
knowing who healed him, — and when knowing, betraying
him to persecuting foes. We can, if we will, misuse all the
loving deeds of Christ in our behalf, and spurn him as a
mere carpenter's son of common lineage. If so, let us
beware lest it be more tolerable in the Day of Judgment for
Sodom than for us. Were all things created by Christ, and
we by him? All things created for him, and we not for
him ?

*J. A. Bengel, D.D., 1752.

167

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

YET I also hear the voice of Jesus saying, " Blessed are
they that have not seen, and yet have believed." And
I am glad that I never saw him, and that I stood not with
his disciples when their bread was increased, or when their
nets brake with miraculous multitude of fish, or when he
touched the blind or raised the dead ; for, seeing not, I have
believed, and I may therefore claim a greater benediction
than belonged to his own loved ones by his side.

We live, moreover, in days when Christ is working with
more power than in the ancient times, healing now the
souls as once the bodies of men. And we may carry to him
our aged parents, or little children, sisters, brothers, com-
panions, and friends ; and we may bear to -him our own
infirmities : and we hear to-day his voice, " Him that cometh
to me I will in nowise cast out." We will arise and go to
him, forcing a way through all obstacles, breaking through
the roof where he is, and lowering our friends at his feet ;
or, if men charge us to hold our peace, we will cry the more
a great deal, "Thou Son of David have mercy on me," —
crying again and again, till Jesus stands still, and the
disciples say, "Be of good comfort, for he calleth thee"; or
if Christ himself seems to turn us away as we have long
despised him, yet in the hour of our need we will go out to
meet him, and plead like the foreign woman for the crumbs
that fall from his table, till he shall say, "Great is thy
faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

Will the world never learn the lesson taught by the blue

168

LIFE FROM THE DEAD.

waves and high shores of Genesareth ? Are you tempest
tossed on life's sea ? See to it that Christ walks the waves
beside you, or sleeps in your ship. Do you wander in
deserts or in mountain solitudes ? Invite then Christ to
go with you, contending with evil/ spirits and praying
amid the mountains. Are you burdened with many cares ?
Go, day by day, and tell Jesus : seek his society, his friend-
ship.

Every day we will read over the words, and weigh
them as we read : *

" I need thee, precious Jesus, I need a friend like thee —
A friend to soothe and pity, a friend to care for me :
I need the heart of Jesus, to feel each anxious care,
To tell my every trouble, and all my sorrows share.

" I need thee, precious Jesus, for I am very poor,
A stranger and a pilgrim, I have no earthly store :
I need the love of Jesus to cheer me on my way,
To guide my doubting footsteps, to be my strength and stay.

" I need thee, precious Jesus, for I am very blind ;

A weak and foolish wanderer, with dark and evil mind :

I need the light of Jesus to tread the thorny road,

To guide me safe to glory, where I chall see my God."

— Rev. Frederick Whitfield,
Vicar of St. Mary's Church in, Hastings.

* These were the lines found in the pocketbook of the late Gover-
nor Dunlap, of Maine, after his death ; precious words, borne by him in
journeyings far and near.

169

BOOK FOUR.

■-»$^*-S3«-

Otir EDxarinLple
In Self=RenuLnciation

, ■ ^^Slfe-^

Chapter 1. Page 171.

A. Sino;uilar Life of Service.

Chapter 2. Page 178.

An Unselfish Ideal.

Chapter 3. Page 1u2.

Trie Hovel and trie Palace,

Chapter 4. Page 185.

Moral Miracles.

CHAPTER ONE.

.A Singular Life of Service.

-**•£

E sometimes speak of the miracles of Christ as
being a most striking exhibition of the divine
power. And we are pointed to them again
and again as the great wonder in the strange life of the
Nazarene Carpenter. There is, however, another thing
more remarkable than all the wonderful works of Christ.
It is the spirit in which he wrought — a spirit of self-sacri-
fice.

That Jesus should have been so self-sacrificing when he
had the power to perform such miracles was a marvel in
his lifetime ; and the wonder has increased in all the ages, —
the greater wonder as men have better known the true char-
acter of the Nazarene. If the miracles in number and
character were new to the world, the unselfish life intro-
duced as a practical power among men was still more
memorable. It is written that even the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his
life a ransom for many. His leading aim was to minister
to others, and to give up life itself to this end. Self-sacrifice
was his sole purpose, — living for others, dying for others ;

[Book IV.] 17^

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

and his miracles were only incident to this great plan.
They appear in the scheme of his life only as the tools he
used in his self-sacrifice for others.*

Theologians have disputed whether Christ's life and
death was the more to honor the divine law and satisfy the
divine justice, or whether it was the more designed for
an example of self-sacrifice to men. That the atonement
wrought by Christ's humiliation throughout his entire life
and by his death, answered both these ends is true. It is
the unselfish example of Jesus, of which I now speak.

This self-sacrifice seems greater on account of the mirac-
ulous power which accompanied it. Jesus performed no
miracles for his own relief. He took the common lot of
weariness and of sorrow ; no one made bread for him when
he hungered, or calmed the storms of heaven when they
beat pitilessly upon his head.

He was a wanderer from town to town, depending on
the charity of his friends, while he bestowed heavenly
favors in return for the earthly. Said Edward Irving :
" For a piece of bread he could restore an injured limb ; for
a meal of meat he could recover a parent from the very
article of death ; for a night's accommodation he could cast
out a devil ; and a good reception in any city he could
conciliate by the recovery of all its sick and disabled peo-
ple." Yet, in spite of these gifts, he was sometimes hungry ;
and he, who fed multitudes by miracles, was himself com-

* " It is probable that the whole system of miracle working was rather
a condescension of our Lord ; that it looked to him as but an inferior
ministry." — Bishop Huntington.

172

MY EXEMPLAR IN SELF-SACRIFICE.

pelled to gather heads of standing wheat for eating, as he
passed through the fields.

It was in memory of these strange contrasts in the life
of Jesus, that Augustine set him forth as the great example
of self-sacrifice, saying : " The Bread came down, that he
might hunger ; the Fountain came down, that he might
thirst ; the Way came down, that he might be wearied in
the way ; the Life came down, that he might be slain : and
dost thou refuse to labor ? Seek not thine own." So St.
Paul says : "Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became' poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Think, for a moment, how low a condition he took among
men. And, in illustration of it, read one or two sentences
from one of the most eminent of American preachers,
preaching now through his books to a far wider congrega-
tion than he ever reached by his voice. "If Jesus," it is
said, " had come as one born of a good family, if he
had been a considerable owner of real estate, if he had
made his journeys in a chariot, and lodged at night with
distinguished senators and persons of consideration, if he
had been a great scholar among the rabbis, or had been
familiar to the people in the livery of a judge, or a priest,
winning great popularity by the profuseness of his chari-
ties, and exciting even applause by his attention to low
people and his tender ministry to their diseases : dying
finally by some of the modes that are common, to be fol-
lowed to his burial by multitudes that came to weep their
loss at his grave — if, I say, he had lived in condition, and
died as one admired for his excellence, the real depth of his

173

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

virtue could never even have been conceived. No, it was
only as he waived the honors of condition in his birth, and
the comforts of property in his life; became a footman,
hungered often ; slept under the sky, shivering with cold ;
spent himself daily in exhausting sympathies, and got
almost no sympathy in return ; met the looks of crafty
messengers and spies on every side, and scarcely found a
place, except in the lone recesses of the mountains, where
his ear was not all day, perhaps all night, saluted by the
carping sounds of bigot voices quarreling with his doc-
trine ; ending finally his hunted, hated, weary life, by a
slave's death on the cross, — this too, even for enemies, as
truly as for his friends, — it is here that we begin to really
look down into the very depths of his bosom, depths holy
and divine, that no mortal plummet has sounded."

How strange is the story of the Gospels, that the Lord
of all the worlds had not in this world a place to lay his
head. He who made the birds and the foxes, and gave
them an instinct for making homes for themselves, volun-
tarily chose to have no home that he might serve those who
had homes. Besides the privations incident to his own
choice of ceaseless wayfaring, the malice of men some-
times deprived him even of common hospitality. Did not
the Samaritans refuse to give Jesus a lodging ? They
so agreed in one thing with their enemies, the Jewish
bigots, in maltreating Christ ; Jesus being left to go forth
as the bridegroom in the Canticles, saying, "My head

* Horace Bushnell, D.D.

174

MY EXEMPLAR IN SELF-SACRIFICE.

is filled with the dew, and my locks with the drops of the
night."

We are not to forget the physical exhaustion connected
with unremitting toils of the Saviour. Did not the multi-
tudes throng about him, so that there was no time even to
eat? Was it not said that he was beside himself — being
consumed by zeal ? " The day is short ; the work is great ;
the Master presseth : " exclaimed the teacher of the holy
law. So also Jesus said : "I must work the work of him
that sent me while it is day :" " My meat and my drink is
to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work : "
"I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I
straightened till it be accomplished."

Are we not apt to get narrow views of Christ's character
from the record of his work in certain lines ? Do not
his miraculous deeds make us forget his skill in teaching ?
Do not his words of wisdom make us forget the propor-
tion of his gifts ? It is only by some care in observing the
story of his life, that we gather hints which show him to
have been great on every side. Were we to make a cata-
logue of the elements of character which we associate with
human greatness, we should find in the Evangelists our
warrant for believing that the Christ — had he chosen to do
so — could have excelled in various departments of thought
and action. But he deliberately subordinated all things to
his one work of self-sacrifice for the good of others.

For example, we know that Jesus had moral wisdom
such as never appeared upon the earth before. And he had
great persuasive power over men. He could, therefore, as

175

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

an instructor, have added much to what we now know, and
have blessed all ages with a boon of heavenly wisdom.
Yet instead of giving himself solely to this, a large part of
his ministry was devoted to relieving the wants of suffer-
ers ; as if to benefit his own neighbors in his own day was
worth more than his teachings could be to coming genera-
tions. He could easily have given us a few more chapters
of his instructions in the Gospel, but instead of Bible-mak-
ing he went about to heal the blind, cleanse lepers, and
cheer the sorrowing. He preached, and taught in conversa-
tions, the doctrines which underlie the Kingdom of heaven.
But instead of enlarging on these teachings as he might
have done, as we should think with infinite profit to all
after ages, he chose rather to show what his religion would
do in a life. It seems as if his declaration of -the doctrines
of his new Kingdom was merely incidental, while his absorb-
ing purpose was to give an example of the spirit which ought
to pervade that Kingdom. In short, Christ was determined
to illustrate his own doctrines by his own deeds ; and he
who went about doing good, found that his commands
that other men should live unselfishly, would have double
weight when enforced by his example. So that, even as a
teacher, he was wise in affording so many good deeds for
record by his biographers.

Not till we enter the heavenly world, shall we behold
Christ's character as it is, in all its proportions. In this
world all his attributes gave way to the one purpose and
passion of self-sacrifice. God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son. And he led upon the earth a life

176

MY EXEMPLAR IN SELF-SACRIFICE.

of pure benevolence, and crowned it all by giving life itself,
a ransom for many. We think it heroic, if we take calmly
the suffering that comes unexpectedly upon us. But Jesus
saw the sorrow, and went forward. He steadfastly set his
face toward it, knowing what he must endure. He selected
the path of sorrow, for the sake of conferring infinite
advantage upon the souls of men. All the particulars of
Christ's life, — his nights of prayer and days in the wilder-
ness, his hours of teaching and hours of healing, his con-
tending with foes, and his bitter death, — are all explained
by this great purpose, expressed in his own words, that the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

177

CHAPTER TWO.

An Unselfish. Ideal.

UT one thing is still more wonderful than the
fact of Christ's personal self-denial for the sake
of others. It is, that he introduced the unselfish
life as an ideal in the moral world ; and first
made it a practical power in the lives of men. Outside the
scheme of redemption revealed in the Old and New Testa-
ments, there had been no great prominence given to self-
denial for the sake of others, as the fundamental moral
principle on which to live ; or if the idea had been suggested
by other religious systems, none ever succeeded so well as
the plan of which Christ is the central figure in making
unselfish living the leading aim of multitudes of men. To
live for others is the demand of the moral law : supreme
love to God, and to love other men as one's self, is the Old
Testament doctrine. This law was a schoolmaster to bring
men to Christ. And Jesus emphatically taught the same
lesson by precept, and taught it by his own example. A
life of unthanked self-denial was put forth as the Christian
ideal.* Jesus did not teach men to despise the body, or, on

* " Love as God loves, regardless of merit and of the reciprocity of
love." — C. J. Vaughan, D.D.

[book iv.] 178

AN UNSELFISH IDEAL.

the other hand, to seek pleasure as the end of life, not even
moral pleasure ; but to serve God and man unselfishly, and
thus to gain the greatest joy without seeking it. And the
fact that our Saviour himself led this life has proved a
great power in leading others to do it ; the disciples have
sought to be like the Master. When we look at him calmly
moving on his life-journey toward the cross, dispensing
blessings on all he met or passed in the way, we must
conclude that we shall imitate him only as we deny our-
selves. We can imitate the earthly life of Christ only by
seeking to have a spirit like his.

"And stricken be these feet ere they despise
The path the Master trod."

We see the ultimate influence of the precepts and example
of Jesus in transforming human character in the case of
James and John, who sought high honor in Christ's King-
dom. Jesus said to them : " Whosoever of you will be the
chief est, shall be servant of all." They wanted to get the
leadership, and Christ told them how to do it. He demanded
that they should be unselfish, though they should die for it.
They were baptized with the baptism of Christ, they gave
life itself : James baptized with his own blood, drawn by a
sword, and John baptized in boiling oil. So had they high
honor in the Kingdom.

As a principle for the conduct of disciples in all after
ages, none are left in doubt what to do. We have citations
from two of the apostles. It is said by Peter, "Hereunto
were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving

179

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

us an example that ye should follow his steps." And it is
said by John, " Because he laid down his life for us, we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." This is not
only a pretty sentiment, to be admired as an ornamental
Christian motto, but a principle to guide the life. Self-
devotement, not self-development, is the aim of a holy life.
The leader in the Church of God is the one who leads in
self-sacrifice. " He that is greatest among you," said the
Master, " let him be servant of all."

The example and the words of Jesus make it clear that
if one seeks to live entirely for others, he is a leader in the
Church of God. Is any one ambitious ? Let him excel all
men in self-sacrifice. This astounding principle, announced
by Jesus, so reverses the world's standard of aggrandize-
ment,* that there is, somewhere in the world to-day, one
standing at the head of the human race ; not one great in
the eyes of men, but the angels know him to be the leader
of all men in self-sacrifice for others. We talk about one's
capacity to do this or to do that. He who has the greatest
capacity for self-sacrifice is king in the moral universe.

Did not the Lord of the moral universe become incar-
nate, bear the cross, and suffer crucifixion that he might
save others ? By it, he has made us to know that this is
the only thing worth living for — that we are poor, base,
mean and contemptible, unless we are striving for this more

* " The Gospel brings new measurements; new standards of value;
new reckonings of much and little, high and low, humble and exalted,
strong and weak." — Bishop Huntington.

180

AN UNSELFISH IDEAL.

than for everything else, — to live wholly for others. The
voice of Christ is constantly calling his disciples to greater
sacrifices — to become living sacrifices. * A contempt of life
in following a holy purpose is the very thing Christ had ;
he carefully conserved his life against his enemies till his
hour came, and then he gladly laid it down. It was so
taught, that the only use in prolonging a disciple's life one
moment is to work for Christ, — to carry through the proj-
ect of bringing men and women and little children to
Jesus, that he may heal them : so living a life of self-sac-
rifice for others, if one lives at all.

* " Let us listen," says St. Bernard, "to no one, neither to man
nor to spirit, who would persuade us to come down from the cross ; let us
persist in remaining on the cross, let us die on the cross, let us be taken
down by the hands of others and not by our own, after his example, who
said on the cross, < It is finished.' "

181

CHAPTER THREE.

The Hovel and the Palace.

'^er<^- is? is? i») ^kac-

{0 truer word has been spoken than that of Mr. H.
M. Alden (God in His World) : " If we have set
e) ^ out to find the palace of our King, resolv-

ing that we will enter in and live with
him, we are not in the right way, and shall never see the
palace, nor find the King : he is serving our poor brothers
in wretched hovels numberless and near at hand, and if we
will join him in this service, we shall find him there, and
every hovel will seem to us his palace."

"The fact that life is a battle," it is said in Harris'
Kingdom of Christ on Earth, "demands of every Christian
the spirit of martyrdom. There cannot be a Christian life
without it. He who has not learned to value duty, fidelity,
the Kingdom of Christ, more than property, reputation, or
life, has not learned the first lesson of Christian living."
"Whoever," says Dr. Storrs, " conceives of Christian serv-
ice as consisting chiefly in hearing sermons, enjoying the
pleasant society of good people, cultivating taste and a
kindly temper, passing temperately through a prosperous
life, and giving occasionally, of an overabundance, for re-

[Book IV.] 182

THE HOVEL AND THE PALACE.

lief of the needy, has certainly missed the grandest idea of
his religion concerning true worship."

These affirmations offer but other ways of stating the
grand central truth of Christianity, that life's languor is to
be broken up by the introduction of the living Christ, the
man Divine, — with a moral enthusiasm so contagious as to
set fire to every heart, and with a wisdom so far reaching
and practical as to change the face of society. The Church
of God can never fulfill its mission as the world's cross-
bearer — the living indwelling Christ of to-day — by the
adoption of vaporing resolutions that express sentimental-
ity indisposed to exertion, or a mere verbal interest in the
world's woe. To imitate Christ, who pleased not himself, to
lead a true altar-life, is needful for the salvation of man-
kind.

The child of Christ, the partaker of the free gift, the heir
of heaven, the pilgrim, the stranger, the bearer of the
Cross, the follower of the Meek and Lowly, is God's ap-
pointed visitor to the hungry, the naked, the sick, the im-
prisoned. He was appointed to " remember the forgotten."
Self-denial costs no struggle in a soul thoroughly disciplined
in the school of Christ.

It was the plan of Jesus, to establish his religion solely
upon the idea of a Divine unselfish love as the rule of
human life ; making self-sacrifice for the sake of others,
the normal action of all men. And in this he set the self-
sacrificing example, — as the Good Shepherd finally laying
down his own life for the sheep. No other great religion
was ever so founded.

183

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

This is the condition precedent in all the work wrought
by the Master. His preaching and teaching are not to be
considered as topics that are separated from his life of self-
renunciation, but rather his self-sacrifice for others is the
main fact, and all the anecdotes of his ministry are but
incidental. This doctrine of setting aside all private in-
terest as the main object in life and taking a course of
singular devotement in promoting the good of other people
is at the foundation of all else in the Saviour's life and in
the Kingdom he sought to establish : self-sacrifice for
others being but a term to express that unselfish love
which led God to give his only begotten Son, and which is
the primal element of that renewed character which con-
stitutes discipleship.

It is the imitation of this Christ-character, inwrought in
disciples by the Holy Spirit — the sanctifying, energizing
Christ present to-day — that is the main instrument God
uses in propagating this Christ-idea of unselfish love
throughout the world : " Sacrifice conscious and uncon-
scious for the life of others," being, in the words of
Robertson, "the grand law of the Universe" ; the harmony
of all the spheres of God being in accord with this note.

184

CHAPTER FOUR.

Moral Miracles.
*s*3§£*s>

IT is this idea of disinterested love and unthanked self-
denial, as the mainspring of conduct — which has become
the rule for myriads of lives throughout the Christian
ages — that is more wonderful than the miracles of Christ :
it is itself more astounding than the incarnation, since it
has transformed multitudes of human lives, making them
in a measure divine in aspiration, inspiration, and in the
performance of acts in accord with the divine mind and
which fulfill the divine purposes. It is the outcome of the
transcendent self-sacrifice of the Son of Man. He planned
to die ; his dying but a part of his ever living — his unending
influence and present power on the earth. It is the triumph
of a new commandment of love to lay down life itself for
one's friends, and to befriend every child of humanity by
seeking to develop in him a like unselfish loving life, and
those dormant spiritual energies which he has in his own
soul as a child of God.

What was the life of Christ but the creation of a spirit
that will carry the world for Christ ? What is carrying the
world for Christ, but a moral miracle greater than any which
Jesus wrought in the realm of nature ? What is the spirit

[Book IV.] 185

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

of self-sacrifice, but a moral miracle in a selfish world ?
What is this, but the germ of all human progress ?

The quelling of storms on the sea is not so great an ex-
hibition of the divine power, as that which has appeared in
the quickening of the human intellect under Christian
civilization ; by which men have made the powers of nature
serve in sending glad tidings of peace from nation to nation.
The power of Jesus in multiplying bread is not so wonder-
ful as the spirit of Christian beneficence which has so largely
blessed the population of the globe, and not more wonder-
ful than the Christian thrift which is raising the world out
of the reach of famines. And the miracles of healing de-
moniacs and men with palsy, are only figurative of a higher
power growing up under Christianity, by which madmen
and the sick of divers diseases are being systematically
healed in multitudes ; while the restoring of sight to the
blind and power of foot to the lame, are not to be mentioned
with the moral miracles wrought by the divine power in
the very ages in which we live. So a mediaeval missionary
to Sweden, when told that his prayers had healed the sick,
said that if his supplications had power, he desired only
this miracle, that God would make him a good man, which
would be the greatest miracle of all, — a miracle that has
been wrought every day since the Resurrection and the
Pentecost.*

*" Is it possible for us to ignore the fact that civilization, in all its
more conspicuous phases and forces, is distinctively energized by the prin-
ciple of self-renunciation? Not from the pulpit alone or even chiefly,
but from the myriad voices of the press, — from the moral writers of every

180

MORAL MIRACLES.

Christ came to do a deed and to organize a work that
should carry the world, — taking to himself a Kingdom ; and
the principle of self-sacrifice was the one fitted to his use.
By it, moral miracles are changing the face of the world ;
removing sorrow, the curse of sin, and sin itself, the source
of all our ills.*

IN the topics succeeding in this volume, it remains to
examine the methods by which the self-sacrificing spirit
of Jesus wrought in performing the moral miracles con-
nected with his mission: the adaptation of his influence to
individuals and to men in large companies ; and his forth-
putting of ideas that are related to the principle of self-
sacrifice ; and certain phases of his life and his death,
which illustrate his self-devoted love to mankind.

school, from essayists in politics and public economy, from the drama
and the stage, from the editorial columns of the most venal newspaper,
from the realms of fiction, — the truth is unceasingly affirmed and illus-
trated, that a life of self -surrender and sacrifice is the only true life for
man on earth." — S. E. Herbjck, D.D.

* " Greater works than these shall ye do." — "It was historically the
work of Christ to expel cruelty, to curb passion, to brand suicide, to punish
and repress infanticide, to drive the impurities of heathendom into dark-
ness ; to rescue the gladiator, to free the slave, to protect the captive, to
nurse the sick, to shelter the orphan, to elevate woman, to shroud with a
halo of innocence the tender years of childhood ; to change pity from a
Roman vice into a Christian virtue, to change poverty from a curse to
a beatitude , to change labor from a vulgarity into a dignity and beauty,
to sanctify marriage, to reveal angelic purity, to create charity with a world-
wide horizon." — Compare Farrar's Life of Christ, pp. 420, 421, Yol. II.

187

BOOK FIVE.

-*£=B*-.^<-

Our Pastor and Preacher,

»$^,^^,<s^_ .

Chapter 1. Page 189.

A Lesson at the Wellside.

Chapter 2. Page 205.

His Manner in Attracting: Attention,

Chapter 3. Page 217.

His Rhetorical Power.

CHAPTER OKE.

A. Lesson ,at the Wellside.

^**Ms- ■

(5n^F the Holy Land is the background of all pictures of
our Saviour's life, the best introduction to our Lord's
pastoral ministration is found in the vale of She-
chem.* Travelers in the Holy Land represent this
vale as a paradise. Those who approach it, — wearied with
the glittering, fiery light of an atmosphere which carries
no moisture, and entering now upon a region where the
morning and evening air is laden with vapor, — find pre-
sented to their eyes a charming picture, which is rendered
still more beautiful by the haze through which it is seen.
Eegions bare and uncomely, mountain sides with little
verdure, give place to rugged hills with green slopes, and
gardens made musical by living waters. For a mile on the
north of the city, the road runs between cultivated lands.
The fig, almond, walnut, apricot, mulberry, pomegranate,
olive, and the orange grow in orchards upon the banks of
running brooks. The grapevines bear heavy clusters, and

*N. B. — The conversation of our Lord with the woman of Samaria, is the
topic of a very suggestive Article by Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Chap-
ter 5, Book xi.

[book v.] 189

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the mulberry trees grow to an immense size. Picturesque
olives gather in groves, and their slender leaves of gray
green, rippling in every breeze, are always a delight to the
eye. Hosts of song birds enliven the air ; the voice of the
nightingale recalls, to the European tourist, memories of
home. Dr. Robinson, our sober American professor, not
apt to go into ecstasies over anything, declared that this
valley was a "scene of fairy enchantment." This vale — a
mile wide and six in length, — is eighteen hundred feet above
the sea, and the city is built on the watershed, where foun-
tains are springing and rills are flowing.

If we pass out of the eastern gate of the city, we shall
move along the valley under the frequent shade of olive
trees, until we reach the ground made memorable by the
patriarchs. When Abraham first entered the promised
land he set up his tent and altar under an oak at Shechem.*
It was in this valley that Jacob bought a piece of ground,
dug a well, and bequeathed it to Joseph. And when the
patriarch made his home in Hebron, his sons led their
flocks into this rich vale of Shechem. It was not far from
here that Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites. Jacob's well
is one of the best identified of the holy places in Palestine.
One of the most eminent Biblical scholars has stated that
he would rather stand there than upon any other spot,

* It was under the shade of this ancestral oak that Jacob buried cer-
tain idols, charms and earrings, brought by his family from Padan-aram.
In the latter times when your true Jew wanted to ridicule the men of
Shechem, he would say, " The relics which our father Jacob buried under
the oak, were dug up and worshiped by your pagan ancestors."

190

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

being most sure that he planted his feet upon the very
ground trodden by the Saviour of men.*

Would you love to stand by those stones made holy by
the feet of Jesus, and place your feet in his very steps ?
No, I would not go there till I should first dig deep for a
well here, — I would at my own door raise the water of life ;
I would go out into a quiet valley or upon a secluded hill-
side near my own home, and there pierce for spiritual
waters. Unless I can meet Jesus himself, and obtain from
him such drink that I shall never thirst again, I have no
wish to go to a spot where Christ talked with another
eighteen hundred years ago. To make holy places by
meeting our Saviour in this country is more needful than
travel over sea : faith is Olivet, love is Galilee.

WHEN Jesus approached the well he seems to have been
moved by a holy constraint ; he must needs go that
way. Traveling north he sat by the wellside, as if
about to continue his journey by passing along the eastern
slopes of Ebal without entering the city. He waited there
while his. disciples went into the town to buy bread. It is

* There is a pit ten feet square, lined with stone, and in the bottom
of this pit is the month of the well. The well mouth is arched, and about
two feet in diameter at the top, and nine feet wide below, cut down through
the solid rock. It is now about seventy-five feet deep ; once much deeper,
it has been partly filled with the rubbish of thirty-six hundred years. The
curbstones are worn with deep grooves, cut by the ropes of the water-
drawers. In the month of March there is a depth of fifteen feet of water
in the well ; there is often less, and it is sometimes dry.

191

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

probable that our Saviour sat with his face toward the city,
and he may have seen the woman coming out. The town,
it is likely, at that time, extended somewhat nearer to the
well than it does now ; the modern town is a mile away.
When we know the eastern customs we find nothing incred-
ible in the record that the woman left a city of fourscore
springs and fountains to go a'little distance to the ancient
well ; nor need we think that the sacred associations of the
place were the main ground of her going there. Those long
residing in the East tell us that the orientals have such
notions of the purity of water, that they frequently bring it a
long distance for drinking, sometimes from a fountain miles
away ; though they draw water for other purposes from
the deep wells of cities and villages. The wild Arabs are as
particular as horses as to the water they drink. If Jacob's
well had a reputation for furnishing what an oriental taste
pronounced to be good water, that would account for the
woman's journey. Or, indeed, the woman's work in the
field may have been near the well ; and, it being six in
the evening, she may have gone to this ancient well to fill
her water jar before returning to her home in the city.

We behold now the Lord of Israel asking water at
Jacob's well. And here he opened another fountain, a well
of living water. He of whom it was said that "he receiveth
sinners and eateth with them," would now drink with a
Samaritan woman with whom no Jews would have deal-
ings. Jesus, however, forgot his own thirst in trying to
satisfy the soul of her who came to the well. He announced
himself as the fountain of life.

192

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

" Art thou greater," asked the sneering woman, " than
our father Jacob ? "

When, however, the eyes of Jesus pierced her through
and through, and when she felt that Jesus was grieved at
her sins, she believed that such sympathy and such penetra-
tion indicated the presence of a divine teacher ; and she
was ready to question with him on matters of faith, per-
haps at first to divert Jesus from talking about her loves
and domestic experiences. But as he spoke, she was so
struck with the solemnity of his words to her, that her
conscience was aroused ; and she believed that Jesus had
revealed to her the central idea of her life, and had ex-
posed to her all her sins. And when she referred to the
coming Messiah (her ideal being in advance of that the dis-
ciples had, they thinking of a king but she of a teacher),
she was ready to hear the voice of Jesus : " I that speak
unto thee am he." *

At this point the disciples returned, as if by their bread-
loaves they would choke the outflowing of the words of
life, in the very moment when the fountain was sweetest.
Words had been uttered more astonishing than their ears
had ever heard, — " I that speak unto thee am he : " and
they came in, marveling that Jesus should exchange a
word with a woman, and she a Samaritan ; and they began

* Jesus charged Peter, at a certain time, to tell no man that he was
the Messiah. It was no departure from this policy, to tell the great secret
to the woman at the well, and the whole Samaritan city ; since the Jews
had no ordinary dealings with the Samaritans, — still less did they credit
their religious affirmations.

193 13

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

to disturb the heavenly feast by talk of the bread they
bought in the city. The disciples in going to the city to
buy bread did not speak to the Samaritan woman, if they
met her or saw her ; it is no wonder then, that they won-
dered at Jesus, that he should talk with her. The meat
Jesus had eaten, the doing of his Father's will, they knew
not of. The disciples were as blundering as the woman ;
they knowing not the meaning of the meat upon which he
fed, as she could not tell what he meant by the living
water.

Rest and power came to Jesus through his attempt to
heal spiritual disease, to enlighten the dark mind, and to
lead one who was out of the way. He had the joy of an
angel over the woman's repentance ; or the joy of the
shepherd in finding the lost. So it is not strange that he
forgot his weariness and his thirst and his hunger.

Thus the weary one, at the wellside, gave rest to the
heavy laden one, who had come unto him. And such spirit-
ual activity was imparted to this woman, that henceforth
it was her meat and drink to do the will of the Master.
She forgot her errand at the well of Jacob, having found
the true fountain of life. Chrysostom declares that she
was more zealous than the apostles : " They when they
were called, left their nets ; she of her own accord, without
the command of any, leaves her water pot, and winged by
joy performs the office of evangelists. And she calls not
one or two, as did Andrew and Philip, but having aroused
a whole city and people, she brought them to him." And it
is remarked by Cyril, that Jesus at the beginning told her

194

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

to call her husband, and at the end she called all the men
of the city to come to Christ. She proclaimed him who had
revealed her sins ; she would not hide her manner of life,
if by it she could reveal Christ. And as the Samaritans
crowded out to meet him, Jesus said to the disciples,
"Lift up your eyes, and see the fields white for the har-
vest." The Jews often gathered to behold the miracles of
Christ ; the Samaritans now came out by the cityful merely
to listen to the words of a teacher. The fields were indeed
white for harvest. And Jesus began to reap ; and the people
believed on him, not on account of the words of the woman,
but because they themselves drew the water of life from the
Heavenly Fountain. And they said, " Now we believe, for
we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Saviour of the world."

elE, see a man which told me all things that ever I did :
is not this the Christ ? " The woman of Samaria
was astonished at the adaptation of the words of
Jesus to her personal character and spiritual wants. This
unpretending work of Jesus in talking with this woman by
the wayside was — if we look at it in its full bearing — more
important to the world than the work of many a warrior or
statesman in some splendid action that has filled the world
with its fame. This wellside talk illustrates the habit of
Christ's life : his most vital teachings were put forth, not
in elaborate sermons, but in conversations.

When Jesus conversed with Mcodemus alone by night,

195

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he announced one of the most important doctrines of our
faith. As the noble Jew searched the slopes of Olivet that
night, to find the lowly roof which sheltered Jesus, it would
not have been thought beforehand, that the words he was
to hear would be proclaimed henceforth from the house-
tops,* and that the thought given in that secret place in the
silent hours of darkness would change the face of the
world — " Except a man be born again."

It was probably this adaptation of the Saviour's conver-
sations to the individual wants of men, which preserved
his words to all generations. They made in their utterance
an impression which could not be forgotten. Those with
whom he conversed felt their own needs so thoroughly met
by his words that they repeated them to all the world, that
all men might profit by heavenly wisdom. Jesus' habit of
teaching by conversations led him uniformly to say the
right thing in the right place ; to fit the truth snugly to
each case, — to utter in every ear the words which the
hearer most needed. It was this which made the lesson by
the wellside so impressive. The woman heard what she
must hear or fail of salvation. Nicodemus, master in
Israel, needed to be born again. The stirring Martha,
drawn about, distracted by cares, needed to learn quiet-
ness.

Another element which contributed to the preservation
of what we should call the casual conversations of Jesus,

* This conversation itself was most likely on the housetop : the gray-
headed man and the youthful Jesus alone with God under the stars.

196

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

was the sympathy and kindness of heart manifested in his
teachings. The woman at the well had the confidence
within an hour to trust him as a friend. A living, loving
teacher could win to obedience those who would not heed
the cold, stern, written code of the divine law. He was
known to be the Friend of sinners. Men who deemed the
law an iceberg, thought of Jesus as the sun. The Master
proved himself to be a personal guide to men and women
who found little inspiration and little winning power in
mere book directions to holy living. The Redeemer of men
sought out wandering sheep ; he searched for the lost dili-
gently, as one would for silver lost in the house. He would
not willingly leave a fallen woman to perish at last in the
depths of despair. He came to call sinners to repentance ;
and he associated with them that he might lead them to
follow his call. He loved men when he hated their sins.
He accepted the hospitality of the Pharisees, even when
he rebuked their hypocrisy. There must bave been some-
thing genial and winning in the society of Jesus, or the
hospitality of his enemies would not have been urged upon
him. He was approachable. The children loved him ; and
the most learned asked him their hardest questions. If the
rich sought him and invited him to feasts, the poor also
were with him always, His eyes were full of love. Men
and women could read in his look a warm affection to the
human soul. He looked earnestly on men, loving them.
As men use the eye for sin — sin by a look — Jesus had, on
the other hand, a godly use of the eye. His heart sought
every avenue to express its affection for the souls of the

197

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

perishing. The author of an early Apocryphal book
writes : " None but the Father could so love his own chil-
dren as Jesus loved men. His great sorrow was that he
must be striven against by those in their ignorance, for
whom he strove as his children ; and yet he loved them that
hated him, and he prayed for his enemies ; and these things
he not only did himself, as a father, but also taught his dis-
ciples to pursue the same course of conduct toward men as
their brethren."

THE scene at Jacob's well, setting forth as it did Jesus'
readiness to enter into religious conversation, and
the appropriateness of his teachings fitting the truth to
every one with whom he dealt, and the marked love and
sympathy with which he wrought upon the souls of men,
make it proper to speak of our Saviour as engaged frequently
in what we call Pastoral Work, as distinguished from the
work of preaching. So far forth as the life of Christ was
that of a public teacher, he made prominent the parochial
care, the personal ministry to individuals. So personal
was all the preaching of Jesus, and so profound and far
reaching were the principles which he announced in private
conversation, principles adapted to the wants of men in
every age, that it is difficult for us to classify the sayings
of the Saviour, and speak of some as being sermons and
others as conversations. The most elaborate discourses of
Christ were conversational, and the words he uttered from
house to house or by the way are not less weighty and ener-

198

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

gizing than those words which were spoken in the ears of
the multitude. Whether we consider the full or the frag-
mentary teaching of Jesus, they all bear the marks of being
spoken for the hour, and so deal with the case in hand, that
it would be impossible to arrive at any correct apprehen-
sion of the proportion of his teachings, the adaptation of
his words to all men, modifying all extremes of character,
without reading page after page of the words of him who
spake as never man spake. Then indeed we discover that
he addressed to every man a word in season.

Do we not, to-day, behold the Son of Man approaching
us, or sitting by the way, as once by the wellside, where
we may greet him in the midst of our common avocations ?
And is he not ready, to-day, to satisfy the peculiar want of
every soul ? It is by becoming intimate with Jesus that
we shall be molded and changed till we become like him.

There is nothing so pleasing in human friendships as the
modifications of character that are wrought by intimacy.
Better than martial victories are the " silent triumphs of
wisdom," as souls are quietly turned off from unseemly
ways and led to a loftier life. This occurs often in domes-
tic life. If then we become the intimate friends of Jesus,
we may expect singular modifications of character to arise
from the very variety and proportion of his characteristics.

WE do not always think how great a diversity of charac-
ters our Lord met in his daily ministry; and he
sought to right up every man on the side where ha most

199

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

needed it. This gives an almost contradictory appearance
to the collated sayings of the Saviour ; the words are how-
ever but epigrams easily remembered, that tend to
straighten out the crooks of ill-balanced people, first one,
then another.

Is not Jesus the Word ? His very life is eloquent in its
appeal to us. Whether we read his discourses, or his words
by the way, or study the lessons taught by his miracles, in
whatever way we approach the life of Jesus, we find the
Saviour speaking to us personally, and addressing to us
just those words .we most need, as if he were the Shepherd
and Bishop of our souls.

If one were inflated by wealth, Jesus would appear to
him as having no home to rest in. If, on the other hand, a
man were oppressed by poverty and pinched by want,
Christ would approach cheering him with the hope of
heaven and the golden crowns. To the rich he said, Go, sell
that thou hast. To the poor in spirit, he promised treasures
in heaven. To a hoarding man, Jesus would say, Labor not
for the meat that perisheth. Of a wasteful man, Christ
would demand care in gathering up fragments.

If one should become a friend of Jesus and retain a
proud spirit, Christ would ask him to bear cups of cold
water, and wash the feet of his disciples. If, on the other
hand, the man were lowly and discouraged, Christ would
appear to him promising thrones and dominions. To the
high-headed and ambitious, Jesus would say, Except ye
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the king-
dom of heaven. But he would point the humble and shrink-

200

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

ing to John the Baptist, and say to them, that the least in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Jesus took men
out of fishing boats, and made them kings and priests unto
God. But when men approached him who sought for the
highest places in the Kingdom, he asked them to share his
baptism of suffering.

To those who are light and joyous, Jesus appears weep-
ing over the dooms of the lost. To those who are oppressed
with grief, Christ draws near, as in the solemn hours of his
last supper with his disciples, — Jesus, in the silence of mid-
night, singing the Hallel, the great song of praise to God.
To those who indulge in too much gayety, Christ is seen
holding out his crown of thorns to check unseemly mirth.
But to a man in great despondency, Jesus comes bidding
him rejoice and be exceeding glad, though in the midst of
persecutions.

We are of disproportionate life, and if we fondly cling
to new graves, and refuse to take up again the burden of
life, we hear the Son of Man roughly declaring, Let the
dead bury their dead, follow thou me. Or if we straight-
way forget the dead, and are cold and unmoved by opening
tombs, we see our Saviour weeping at the grave of a friend,
or touching the bier of the only son of a widow.

We are disproportionate ; and if our souls are cold, and
turn away from human friendships as of no use, — we see
Jesus visiting at the house in Bethany, or we behold him
on the cross, commending his mother to the care of his
beloved disciple. But if our souls are tangled, and too
much wed to earthly friendships, we hear a stern voice,

201

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

demanding that we hate father and mother and all relation-
ships, and bidding us forsake all to follow him.

We are disproportionate. Christ then exhibits himself
as tender or rough to suit our peculiar need. If our souls
are fearful and trembling, he will quench no smoking flax.
If our souls are bold and fiery, he appears scourging hypo-
crites from his temple, and denouncing Sadducee and Phari-
see. If our souls love peace, Christ is the Prince of Peace.
But if our souls are valiant for fight, he comes not to the
earth to bring peace, but a sword. If any man asks Jesus
about his kingship over the nations, his answer is, My
Kingdom is not of this world. But if men are spiritless in
the great exigencies of life, we hear the same voice com-
manding, If any man have not a sword let him sell his
garment and buy one. To those who are fevered and
impatient in his service, Jesus appears, saying, Sleep on
now and take your rest. But if any are drowsy in hours of
peril, we hear the Saviour questioning, "What, could ye not
watch with me one hour ?

Is one too dependent on others ? The Messiah is seen
treading the wine press alone. Is a man lonely in warfare
with evil powers ? The Son of Man appears, declaring that
twelve legions of angels are in waiting. If a man is legal,
and clings to the old Mosaic economy and the traditions of
men, Jesus stands before him, rejecting the letter of the law
and overturning old ceremonies. But if the man is of a
careless order of mind, and would riot in unholy liberty,
Christ is discovered, declaring that not one jot or tittle of
that stern law shall fail. When Jesus saw men careless of

202

THE LESSON AT THE WELLSIDE.

the law, he bade them do as they — vile Pharisee and vain
Sadducee — commanded, for they were in Moses' seat : —
" Whosoever shall break one of these least command-
ments, and teach men so, shall be least in the kingdom of
heaven." Yet Jesus plucked corn on the Sabbath, and
bade men beware of the leaven of Pharisee and Sadducee ;
and he purified the temple of Jehovah, after men had de-
filed it under the sanction of revered teachers.

Were any disposed to render to earthly governments the
praise that was justly his due, Jesus bade them never to
deny him when brought before governors and kings. But
if any gave not honor to those in rule over them, Jesus
commanded them to render to Csesar the things that are
Csesars.

" See that thou say nothing to any man," said Jesus ;
" neither go into the town nor tell it in the town :" — this,
when men were naturally too bold, or the Kingdom needed
prudent heralds. Again, he turned on a man who would
quietly follow him with a dumb tongue, and commanded
him to leave his company, and go everywhere proclaiming
how great things the Lord had done for him.

If any were full of light and careless talk, Jesus would
remind them that they must give account for every word
in the Day of Judgment. But some, who were slow of
speech, were so quickened by contact with him, that they
filled the world with the fame of Jesus, and were prepared
to sit down at his right hand in the last dread Day.

To men of timid mind, Christ taught the most invigorat-
ing and terrible doctrines. To those of uncompromising,

203

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

severe, and cold intellects, Jesus showed how he could die
for his enemies.

Thus the whole human race find their most profound
wants met in Jesus, and the character of every man may
be rounded to perfection through the modifying friendship
of Christ.

Jesus, then, is the Friend we most need, to modify and
shape us ; we, complaining so much, and having so much
to complain of, in ourselves, — with disproportionate lives
moved by divers passions, — we need the molding hand of
Christ upon us.

In this very hour, the Saviour of men is waiting by the
wayside, and he is ready to enter into conversation with us ;
and if we will go to him, and confide in him, he will open
to us a fountain of living water. And the very words of
Jesus will be fulfilled in us, — " Whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst."

204

CHAPTER TWO.

His Manner in Attracting
Attention.

^s^^s>

VEN if it is difficult, among the words of Jesus, to
find formal discourses and call them sermons, it is
plain enough from the Gospel text, that the
conversational proclamation of the truth in three tours
about Galilee were called preaching services ; and it is
not unlikely that our Lord at times addressed the mul-
titudes at some length, even if informally, upon other
occasions than that of the Sermon on the Mount, which is
the only public discourse reported that modern usage would
designate as a sermon.* If we cannot therefore speak of
the manner or action of Jesus as a preacher in any modern
sense, we may suitably ask what the Gospels say of his
manner or action in securing attention to the truth and
enforcing his words.

TTjN illustration of the manner of Jesus is found in an in-
* V^, cident that occurred at the beginning of Passion
Week. It is said that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and

*The words of Jesus to his disciples at the institution of the Lord's
supper were of the nature of a farewell address privately uttered.

[Book v.] 205

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

into the temple : and when he had looked round about upon
all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out
unto Bethany with the Twelve. It was near the close of
the day of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the day
before the second cleansing of the temple. When he came
into Jerusalem all the city was moved, saying: "Who is
this?" And the shouting multitude answered: "This is
Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth." According to Matthew,
the blind and the lame then came to Jesus in the temple,
and he healed them. And the Levite chorister boys in the
temple sang : " Hosanna to the Son of David." As it came
near nightfall, the songs ceased, and the prophet of Galilee
ceased from works of mercy ; and he surveyed in silence
the temple, with searching eyes looking about upon the
den of thieves, upon the traders in sacrifices, and upon the
money changers, as if wondering that the lesson he had
taught them once before was now forgotten, and medita-
ting on his repetition of the lesson on the morrow. In that
solemn eventide his external appearance so impressed the
people, that Mark, in gathering up the story of that day,
forgot all about the songs of the children and the miracles
of healing, as if the only incident of the day, after the
triumphant entry, was the silent walk of Jesus about the
holy house, with unspeakable dignity in his mien, and with
eyes which probed the consciences of the guilty men who
had dishonored the temple of the living God. He had
entered the city like a king in triumph, and there was
something regal in his bearing as Jesus seemed to fill the
Father's house with a presence which drew men's eyes off

206

THE MANNER OF CHRIST AS A PREACHER.

all else ; as if they beheld the glory of the only begotten
Son of God.

The very presence of Jesus seemed at times to glow with
supernatural power, producing effects so astonishing that
some writers have spoken of this as if it were miraculous.
While we need not resort to such a theory to account for
the marvelous results, we may admire that air of ineffable
authority and justice and might which was manifest when
the Son of Mary gathered up a handful of the rushes that
were used for bedding the cattle on the floor of the temple
courts, and made a scourge, and then by word and act
scattered the oxen and owners, the doves and the brokers,
from the house of Jehovah, — which they had no right to
invade with their unholy and unclean traffic. The moral
sense of the sinners themselves and of the gathered multi-
tudes applauded the deed ; and the appearance of the
prophet of Nazareth somehow enforced his claims to bear
rule in that hour.

Did not John say of the glorified Son of Man that his
eyes were as a flame of fire, and that his countenance was
as the sun shining in his strength ? When therefore those
who came to apprehend Jesus in the hour of betrayal fell
to the ground, they may have seen in his face and bearing
an exhibition of the true character of the man Christ Jesus,
the Incarnate Jehovah.*

* ' < He of whom John bore witness as the Christ ; he whom the mul-
titude would gladly have seized, that he might be their king ; he whom
the city saluted with triumphant shouts as the Son of David ; he to whom
women miuistered with such deep devotion, and whose aspect, even in the

207

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It seems clear from such incidents in the life of the
Saviour that there was something in the manner of the
man which drew attention to himself. And we may
therefore well believe that in his ordinary work, as a
prophetic Teacher and Preacher, he spoke with authority
and not as the scribes.

A singular story is recorded in the tenth chapter of John,
when the Jewish mob took up stones, to stone Jesus. Even
as their hands were raised, they were arrested by some-
thing in the bearing of Christ, as he turned upon them,
ironically asking them for which of his good works they
were about to - stone him. And for the moment he held
them, till he finished his talk, and then escaped. This tact,
this dignified and emphatic demeanor, this ability to quell
a mob by the eye and voice, was one of the characteristics
of Christ's power as a public teacher and preacher.

IF we inquire into what is called the manner of Jesus as a
mere rhetorician, the action as distinguished from the
voice, we find him making great use of the eye ; " looking

troubled images of a dream, had inspired a Roman lady with interest and
awe ; he whose mere word caused Philip and Matthew and many others*
to leave all, and follow him ; he whose one glance broke into an agony of
repentance the heart of Peter ; he before whose presence those possessed
with devils were alternately agitated into frenzy or calmed into repose, and
at whose question, in the very crisis of his weakness and betrayal, his
most savage enemies shrank and fell prostrate in the moment of their
most infuriated wrath, — such an one as this could not have been without
the personal majesty of a prophet and a priest." — Dean F. W. Farrar,
Life of Christ

"It is plain," says Keim, "that his was a manly, commanding,
prophetic figure."

208

THE MANNER OF CHRIST AS A PREACHER.

round about," as once in the temple. When the rich young
man went away grieved, it is said that Jesus "looked
round about," and having drawn all eyes to himself he said,
"How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God." And in the story preceding, it is par-
ticularly noticed that Jesus fastened his penetrating, loving
eyes upon the young man, " beholding him."

So when Peter, upon one occasion, took Jesus and began
to rebuke him, saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this
shall not be unto thee," — it is said that there was an em-
phatic pause, as well there might be when a man upon the
earth would take it in hand to rebuke the Lord's Anointed ;
and the eyes of the Saviour were fixed on the disciples,
securing their attention to a rebuke they would be likely to
remember. " But when he had turned about," it is said,
"and looked on his disciples," he rebuked Peter. This
was purely rhetorical ; he might have said it to Peter, with-
out dramatic action. This " looking round about" made a
great impression upon Peter, who was Mark's mentor in
preparing his Gospel ; and it is in Mark alone (save one in-
stance in Luke) that we find reference to this trait in the
manner of Christ as a teacher. Peter remembered the eye
of Jesus, which was fastened upon him in the judgment
hall, when the disciple denied his Master.

So, too, in that memorable instance, in which Jesus said
that his .disciples and all who did the divine will were next
of kin to him, he first " looked round about " to give the
greater emphasis to what he was about to say.

Such instances lead us to believe that what may be

209 14

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

called the st action " of Jesus the preacher, was remarkably
well adapted to secure attention to the truth, and to enforce
his words. And it seems likely that his elocution was
equally striking. One so thoughtful of his manner must
have been mindful of tones and modulations appropriate to
his words. Was there not a winning, convincing voice, as
well as matchless phraseology, that led to the affirmation,
" Never man spake as this man " ? We get little idea of
the power of Demosthenes, and of the great orators whose
fame has comedown to us through the ages, from the words
reported to us. We get little idea of the popular influence
of Jesus as a preacher, from his reported words.

JESUS' habit of emphatically drawing attention to what
I he was about to say or do, appears in some of his
miracles. For example, when the sick of the palsy was
let down through the roof, Jesus merely said, " Thy sins are
forgiven thee : " — as if the sick man was more grieved for
his sins than for his palsy. And then the Master waited, to
give time for the scribes and the Pharisees to turn over
these words a little ; and when they began to say in their
hearts that Jesus was blaspheming, in presuming to forgive
sins, he again took up his work. " That ye may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I
say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed." And imme-
diately he arose ; and departed, glorifying God. The
miracle was thus made to say, "Jesus, having power to
heal the sick, is, also, clothed with authority to forgive

210

THE MANNER OF CHRIST AS A PREACHER.

sins." This was the great lesson and object of the miracle :
one was healed, but multitudes have been forgiven.

Then, too, take the case of healing the withered hand
on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees, referring to a former
miracle on the Sabbath, had asked Jesus whether it was
lawful to heal on that day ; and Jesus, at first, appeared
not to notice their question. But they watched him, it is
said. There was something in his manner which kept their
eyes. on him, and he knew their thoughts.

There is something very dramatic about the healing
which then took place. Jesus said to the man which had the
withered hand, "Rise up, and stand forth in the midst."
And then, as he stood, Jesus questioned the Pharisees — and
this was his true answer to their former question, — " I will
ask you one thing : — Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do
good, or to do evil ? To save life, or to destroy it ? " There
was then a pause, and his enemies, on their part, did not
answer a word. Then Jesus began again to question
them, — " What man shall there be among you, that shall
have one sheep, and if it fall into the pit on the Sabbath
day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? How much,
then, is a man (this man) better than a sheep ? Wherefore
it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." And then, it
is said, there was another long silence, in which the Saviour
" looked round about on them all with anger, being grieved
for the hardness of their hearts." Then unto the man, who
had been standing there all this while as the text for a
sermon to the Pharisees on Sabbath keeping, Jesus said,
"Stretch forth thine hand." And the Pharisees were filled

211

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

with madness at this strange logic ; and they went out, and
plotted to kill him. They could not stand those searching
eyes, and that emphatic dramatic rebuke of their false
notions of the Sabbath, and of their cumbersome tradition
concerning the ceremonial law, and of their malicious
hatred of the Messiah.

It was the manner, the emphasis, of Jesus' preaching,
which made it such a power in bringing men to a decision
for or against himself.

Jesus, moreover, in giving instruction, not only used his
miracles for emphasizing his words, but they were some-
times made the very occasion of peculiarly fitting words, as
if their main design was for a sort of object teaching.
Take for example the sixth chapter of John. The feeding
of five thousand was followed next day, when everybody
was talking about the miracle, by a weighty discourse on
the Bread which cometh down from heaven, as if the
earthly might lead to apprehend the heavenly.

IT is related that upon one occasion, Napoleon told an
ambassador, that if his sovereign did not do so and so,
the French armies would dash the Austrian power into a
thousand pieces. And as he said it, he struck with sharp
blow a beautiful vase upon the desk by which they were
standing, and shivered it upon the marble floor ; just so
would he break the Austrian empire. The use of symbols
for enforcing the words spoken, was common with the
prophets of Israel ; horns, yokes, girdles, broken bottles,
were used : and the prophet of Nazareth plied like instru-

212

THE MANNER OP CHRIST AS A PREACHER.

ments in his teaching". The curse upon the barren fig tree
is an example, — a curse on profession without possession,
a symbol of Israel.

Look for a moment at another illustration of the unique
style of teaching which Jesus adopted. While it can hardly
be called object teaching, it has in it the use of a symbol,
and also much of the dramatic element.

One day after the Saviour had been beset by Sadducee
and Pharisee, he thought to Avarn his disciples against their
teachings ; but he did not say it out straight, as most of us
would have done. He knew that when they left the wicked
and adulterous disputants, and entered into a ship to go
over the lake, the disciples had forgotten to provision their
vessel, and had with them only one loaf of bread ; and he
waited, therefore, till, tossing on the uneasy waves, they
were getting hungry, — when he abruptly said, " Take heed,
and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and, of the Sad-
ducees, and of the leaven of Herod."

And then he was silent ; as if he was waiting for his words
to work in their minds, like leaven in meal. And they, it
seems, went to talking about it among themselves, wonder-
ing what he meant. And finally, when they — first rum-
maging among their luggage — missed their bread, they
came to the sage conclusion that he was warning them
against getting anything edible of bakers, Pharisaic and
Sadducean. It just accorded with the spirit of that age, —
if they did not like a man's doctrine they would not trade
with him.

They said, " It is because we have taken no bread."

213

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Ancl then, after a little, Jesus reminded them that they
need not feel troubled about bread, so long as he was with
them.

" 0 ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves,
because ye have brought no bread ? When I brake the five
loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of
fragments took ye up ? "

They said unto him, "Twelve."

" And when the seven loaves among the four thousand,
how many baskets full of fragments took ye up ? "

And they said, " Seven."

And he said unto them, " How is it that ye do not
understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
the Sadducees ? "

"Then understood they," says the story, "how that he
bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the
doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

He did not tell them plainly that he meant doctrine,
though he did say that he did not mean bread. And they
got it through their skulls at last, that it was a figure of
speech he was using ; and when it got through, it stuck
fast. The rough fishermen never forgot it. They steered
wide of Pharisaic and Sadducean doctrine after that.
But we do not read that Jesus multiplied their one loaf to
satisfy their well whetted appetites. He went hungry, and
allowed them to do so, — save as they lunched on this pre-
cious morsel of wisdom, to give dangerous doctrine a wide
berth.

214

THE MANNER OF CHRIST AS A PREACHER.

Now this was a little drama, taking considerable time
for its unfolding. Perhaps Jesus thought of it when
they were passing over in the ship, — just how he should
teach this lesson the most effectively. Most of us would
have merely spent the time going over, in petulantly scold-
ing about the Sadducees and the Pharisees ; and telling the
disciples in round terms to look out for their doctrines, —
for they were bad heretics. Certainly the course the
Saviour took was the more dignified and impressive ; and
the lesson stands out on the Gospel page to-day, attracting
us to it by its unique presentation, and we ourselves are
careful to "beware" as did those who first heard it.

WHEN upon one occasion our Lord omitted the cere-
monial washing before eating, and so violated the
usage of good society, it was to draw attention, and to
give emphasis to the rebuke he was about to administer
to those, who, though pure in their own eyes, were not
washed of their filthiness.

And when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, his
deed gave weight to his affectionate command that they
should have the same spirit which actuated him. A medi-
aeval exposition renders it thus : —

" I will not serve the Creator," says man. " Then I,"
saith the Creator, " will serve thee, O man. Do thou sit at
the banquet ; I will minister to thee, and I will wash thy
feet. Do thou rest ; I will bear thy sicknesses, I will carry
thine infirmities."

215

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Jesus did not need to speak many sermons, since he
acted so many. Indeed his whole life was such as to add
emphasis to every word he uttered. So thoroughly did his
example enforce his precepts, it has been justly said that
" Christ came not to speak the Gospel, but to be the
Gospel."* When Jesus said, "Follow thou me," men were
invited to imitate one, who though he was rich yet for the
sake of men became poor, that they through his poverty
might become rich. By the life of self-sacrifice, by the
laying down of life itself, he spoke to the human race,
declaring the hatefulness of sin, and manifesting the love
of God. This example is never worn out, it is a story the
race will hear with new wonder age after age : — " God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have
everlasting life."

*Alex. McLaren, D.D.

216

CHAPTER THREE.

His Rhetorical Power.

(JY'T was remarked by the late President McCosh of
Princeton, that "Plato and the Greek philosophers
spoke and wrote only for the educated, and never
thought of addressing the great mass of the people,
who were in fact despised by them ; but of Jesus it was said
that the common people heard him gladly : this constituted
a new era."*

Among two millions of people, Jesus made three preach-
ing tours, going from village to village, besides the instruc-
tion he gave outside of Galilee. " The time is fulfilled, and
the Kingdom of God is at hand," — this was his message ;
"repent ye, and believe the Gospel." When he saw the
multitudes, he was moved with compassion, because they
fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no
shepherd. The Holy Land was full of synagogues, yet the
truth was not adapted to the people by the rabbis ; who dis-
cussed trifling nicety of forms, and captious questions. The
common people heard Jesus gladly, and the hearts of the
poor thrilled with new hopes, and high and holy aspirations.

* Christianity and Positivism. Compare p. 279. JSTew York, 1871.
[Book v.] 217

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

THE prophet of Nazareth appealed to the Scriptures, to
the Divine authority, and to the human conscience ;
but everything was informal, — nothing more sermon-
like than his farewell discourse to his disciples, or his
words upon the Mount. He presented no dry and argumen-
tative processes of reasoning. His plain and simple words
were easily understood. And he was skilled in gaining the
people's attention.

He put the truth into such shape as to suit the story
loving, story telling Orient. He made a single parable
more effective than many a book full of our modern the-
ology or sermonizing. His brief and pointed lessons have
passed into the proverbs of the nations. The world can
never forget the wonderful story of the love of God as it is
expressed in the words we often use, — "the returning
prodigal." Seeing a man going forth to sow, — since the
man did not become one of our Lord's hearers, — Jesus
straightway seized on him, and made him a text for his
sermon ; nor will the story ever pass from the memory
of mankind. The everyday similes of our Saviour have
obtained such hold on the common mind that their very
titles seem to suggest infinite riches of wisdom and knowl-
edge. The Pearl and the Hid Treasure, the Leaven, the
Tares, the Unmerciful Servant, the Wicked Husbandmen,
the Marriage of the King's Son, the Talents, the Ten Vir-
gins, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, Dives and Laz-
arus, the Lost Sheep, the Unjust Judge : — these are the
words we prize more thari the great libraries of the world.

218

THE RHETORICAL FORMS ADOPTED BY JESUS.

/'YESUS made a great deal of use of familiar objects to
illustrate his instructions. Grass blades and wheat

fields, fig trees, and miles of yellow mustard trees
along the lake shore or stretching far over hills and plains,
became his preachers. He looked out on regions clad in
living green, and then as the scorching south wind swept
over the country for a day or two, turning every living
thing into the color of ashes, he spoke of that grass which
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. Jesus had
watched the reeds by the brookside, shaking in the wind.
" The birds of heaven, and the lilies of the field," says
Lange, "become, through him, the thoughts of God." He
spoke of God's care of the birds ; he noticed their nesting.
He alluded to the fowls of the air, and the harmless doves
upon the flat roofs of Nazareth. The color of the evening
sky appeared in his discourse, the rising of shower clouds,
and the lightning from east to west as he had seen it on the
hills of Galilee, — these illustrated the points he made. The
grapevine is constantly appearing and reappearing.*

Mr. Beecher, in his comments upon the Life of Christ,
has called our attention to the fact that in his comparisons,
Jesus did not make use of nature wild, so much as nature
cultivated : " There are in the Gospel narratives no waves,
storms, lions, eagles, mountains, forests, plains." "It was
the city set upon a hill that our Lord selected, not the hill

* It is not needful to suppose that John xv was spoken near the vine-
yards in the valley ; it might have been suggested by the cup at the Lord 's
Table.

219

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

itself, or a mountain ; vines and fig trees, but not the cedars
of Lebanon, nor oaks." "Human occupations furnish the
staple of his parables and illustrations." "The plow, the
yoke, the seed-sowing, the harvest-field, flocks of sheep, bar-
gains, coins, magistrates^ courts of justice, domestic scenes,
— these are the preferred images of our Saviour's discourses."

While our Lord was greatly moved by the beauty of the
earth, he drew men's attention only to the homely facts of
the daily life, — if by them he might make an entrance for
the truth. He watched the shepherds, till he was certain
that it was the voice of the Master which led the sheep to
obey him, and "that no change of dress could cheat the wise
flocks ; living speech being the index of the soul, while robes
and ornaments may be shifted every hour. Fishers and fish
nets preached for him, and laborers debating over their
wages ; and he knew the time for the reapers to go forth.
As a young mechanic at Nazareth, he had seen excavations
made, sometimes thirty feet below the surface, to reach the
underlying ledge, and then arches built up to the super-
structure ; and when he spoke of that which he had seen,
some house that was not founded on a rock', swept away by
a sudden rain pouring in torrents down a hillside, all the
ages hearkened to his words, and " a house on the sand " is
a phrase in the mouth of every one.

Not Socrates himself, who was forever talking about
some craftsman, placed so great honor as did Jesus upon
the everyday activities. He remembered the housewife's
broom ; and the search for some small coin, in the ordinary
dark house, without a window. He knew about leaven, and

220

THE RHETORICAL FORMS ADOPTED BY JESUS.

at the morning hour he had watched the women with their
bread ready for the baking, going forth to the public ovens
outside his home in Nazareth. He noted in memory the ill
judgment of men who put new wine in old goatskin bottles.
And either in the house of Mary his mother, or in the house
of the careful Martha, he saw that it was bad economy to
patch old garments with new cloth, and he straightway put
that homely illustration into one of his sermons ; and the
poor of the earth, and good housewives — the uncounted
multitudes who have had to mend old clothes, and withal to
mend their soul's garments, — have always remembered it.

Nor did Jesus fail to utilize his observation of the
amusements of little children, and turn the illustration
against chronic fault-finders. Feasting and music and
dancing were introduced as rhetorical embellishments of
the most serious of his parables,

His illustrations throughout give the impression that
Jesus had a genial and a human interest in all human af-
fairs ; and this gave him favor with the multitude.

^J TIS popularity as a preacher and teacher was enhanced

l\ by resources so varied, that he was without a match,

"" in points quite outside of his miraculous power.

He not only grounded his instructions upon the Holy

Scriptures, which were known and accepted by all ; he not

only took texts out of the history of his people, as when he

talked about manna at Capernaum, where the very carving

over the door of the synagogue suggested it ; — but he was

so familiar with the Old Testament history and poetry that

221

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he always had an answer at hand -for his adversaries, and
he had the tact to use his information in a telling way.

He was moreover so well versed in the whole category of
principles which underlie universal human conduct, that he
could instantly solve difficult questions by announcing some
general rule, that would obviously apply in all ages, settling
the matter definitely and forever.

As a master in logic, singularly skillful in irony when
occasion required it, he yet exercised a studied calmness of
utterance, and rarely used invective.

He had the rare art of combining what appeared to be
informal or colloquial statement, and exactness of phrase-
ology ; as if he had thought out every conceivable topic,—
through and through, — and could in a flash give an expres-
sion of his thought that would require no mending at any
subsequent age of the intellectual progress of mankind.*
" Every sentence which he utters," says Dr. Thomas Armi-
tage, " is a masterpiece of uniqueness, as well in its litera-
ture, as in its philosophy and spirituality. There is nothing
ill-balanced or embarrassed, feverish or disjointed, in his
conversation and discourses. He is ever tranquil, measured,
exact, pungent, and self-possessed."

Then, too, while his sayings are notable for their power
in understatement, he was apt at judicious exaggeration,
when by it he might fix things in memory, and stimulate

* Pascal noticed this : " Jesus has said tilings so simply, that it seems
that he has not thought of them ; and so precisely, that we see clearly
what he thought of them."

222

THE RHETORICAL FORMS ADOPTED BY JESUS.

inquiry. And sometimes, for like reason, his words were
riddles for subsequent solving. He caught at the proverbs
of the people, and when he said that those who gained power
with God in prayer could plant trees in the sea and move
mountains, he meant just what the common people meant
when they expressed the might of their teachers by saying
of a favorite rabbi, — he plucked up mountains by their
roots to-day. By sayings short, sharp, and personal he made
new apothegms, and led men to turn about quickly in their
spiritual career, to act for or against him. The sayings of
Jesus were well adapted to a keen proverb-making people,
and his words have gone out to the ends of the world. His
words are eminently quotable ; making complete sense in
snugly put, portable phrases, adapted to pass from one to
another like coin of the realm.

To crown all : in respect to longevity of influence, looked
upon solely as a rhetorical merit, all the wisdom of Jesus, —
appealing as it does to all mankind, and so attractive, per-
tinent, and usable, — is so compact that every man can
carry it in his vest pocket ; all the recorded words of Jesus,
prior to his ascension, being not more than, say, one fifth
longer than a single oration of Demosthenes.*

*De Corona. The words of Jesus are to this oration as thirty-six to
twenty-nine.

N. B. — The topic of Jesus as a preacher and teacher is presented more fully
on page 575, in an Article by Professor W. C. Wilkinson of Chicago

University

223

BOOK SIX.

~-»£5-*-C^«-

Our Teacher.

+*>&**• —

Chapter 1. Page 225.

The Master and His Pupils

Chapter 2. Page 238.

His Originality in Thought.

Chapter 3. Page 242.

His Self=Assertion.

Chapter 4. Page 252.

A. Kingdom, to Establish.

Chapter 5. Page 269.

His Gentleness and Severity

Chapter 6. Page 279.

The World's Great Teacher

CHAPTER ONE.

The M aster and His Pmpils.

^Hl'^

(^ HE pastoral work of the Saviour leads us to think of
4 what he did in training others to become pastors

~-L and teachers of the new dispensation ; a work car-
ried on mainly by conversations, and by the example of
Jesus.

The students of the Pastoral College were selected to be
eye and ear witnesses of the life and resurrection of our
Lord. They were fishermen, — patient, careful, skilled, pru-
dent, cunning to catch and to cure, versed in curious lore,
able to adapt themselves to the intricate necessities of their
business, bold and ready for enterprise in all weathers, men
willing to toil all night ; men ever busy, mending their nets
when not fishing ; men of wit to live, watching the markets.
We have left all, quoth Peter. He had nothing to leave but
a boat and a net.

The fish, the ship running before the wind, or a ship's
anchor, were favorite symbols in the early church, engraved
upon gems, or worn as talismans. And they sang songs in
which Jesus is set forth as the Divine Fisherman : —
[bookvi.j 225 15

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" Fisher of men, the Blest :
Out of the world's unrest,
Out of sin's troubled sea, —
Taking us, Lord, to Thee."

— Clement op Alexandria.

"The Magi," says Bengel, "were led by a star; the
fishermen by fishes to Christ." It was the miraculous
draught that filled their nets, that led Peter to an emphatic
acknowledgment of the divine power manifested by Jesus.
The apostle might have become an opulent fish dealer, and a
local religious leader noted for a certain rude eloquence of
speech : but when he let his lines go, and let go of such
ecclesiastical prejudices as were already fastening upon
him like barnacles, and when he followed Jesus, — he became
one of the foremost powers upon this globe.*

The zeal and leadership of Peter ; the ambition and
native force of James, the son of Zebedee ; the philosophic
head, the loving heart, of the robust and manly John, — and
his fiery temper brought under wise control ; the doubt-
ing and enthusiastic nature of Thomas ; the eagerness to
lead men to Christ which characterized the simple and

*" We find, in tracing Peter's career, that his zeal was mixed with
many inconsistencies. Inconstancy compromised his ardor ; temper lurked
in close alliance with his impetuosity ; and violence of speech was a morti-
fying appendage to his vehemence. But Christ saw that he had in him the
noble material of a vital and victorious apostleship, and it is most inter-
esting for us to see how the benignant spirit of the new faith worked upon
him, till it finally purged out the old, bitter leaven, refashioned him into
a self-commanding as well as an eager champion, and at last made him
first and foremost of the twelve companions of his Lord." — Bishop
Huntington.

226

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

plodding mind of Philip,— Philip sought out by Jesus and
first called of all that company ; the guileless life of Bar-
tholomew * ; the rigid morality of James the Just ; the
practical talent of Matthew ; the nameless virtues of Simon
Zelotes, and of Jude,f and of that strongman Andrew,
always one of the four leaders in that band of twelve ; and
even the economical turn of Judas Iscariot, carrier of the
bag, — were all needed to complete the College of the
Apostles. The full eyes of Jesus read these men, and com-
prehended at once the use they would be to him, and of
what use he could be to them.

This, indeed, is a wonderful story. To say nothing of the
spiritual relations which these men sustained to the begin-
nings of the new religious era, we find that out of some
thousands of Galilean fisherfolk a little handful of obscure
men became the followers of our Lord, — and in virtue of it,
their names in after ages headed the list of the world's
great men ; they came, indeed, to be designated as patrons of
princely merchants, warriors, and kings ; cathedrals were
called after them, and churches among all races of men ;
and their names were placed upon geographical landmarks
in every quarter of the globe. A single one of these men,
who went, it is said, upon a mission to the Scythians, is now
the patron saint of one-sixth of the entire land surface upon
this planet. Whether or not St. Philip, in his youth, had
been a chariot driver, whether St. Bartholomew had been a
gardener, whether St. John had been more often rebuked

* Nathaniel, f Lebbseus, the stout hearted.

227

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

by Jesus than any other except Peter, — it all matters not ;
their names were set apart to be honored during all ages.

Trie Itinerancy.

THE most that the disciples learned from the Master was
acquired in a life of ceaseless wandering, — the peri-
patetic school of a divine philosophy.

When the peculiar mission of John the Baptist was
ended, Jesus began to preach, and to call for followers, and
to organize his Kingdom among men. He did not, like John,
seek for louely wastes, but he was oft in the crowded cities
and densely peopled villages. His progress through the
country was heralded by wonderful works, that called the
multitudes together to hear his wonderful words.*

A retinue of the wretched sought him by rugged paths,
as he walked hither and thither, — perhaps in the winter
when snow was falling like wool, or the hoar frost was
scattered, or when the ice and cold possessed the land.
The robin redbreasts, the lark, and the nightingale, were
acquainted with all his ways ; the swallows, too, the spar-
rows, and the willow wren. And Jesus, a little in advance

* These preaching tours made a great impression upon the mind of
Humbert de Romanis, General of the Order of the Dominicans, in the
thirteenth century : —

" Christ," he says, "celebrated the mass (the Lord's supper) but once ;
heard no confessions ; seldom administered the sacraments ; did not em-
ploy himself much in the liturgical adoration of God ; but he was con-
st an tly engaged in prayer and preaching. Indeed, after he had once
commenced preaching, he spent his whole life in that employment, much
more than in prayer."

228

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

of his company, sometimes saw the foxes hastening to their
holes, when he himself had no place for repose.

He in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge often entered into the synagogue, * or he taught
by the side of the sea, or upon a hilltop, or upon the street,
or in the open court of some private house. Rembrandt
pictures our Saviour as standing upon a millstone preaching
to the people, — to an unhappy woman, to a wretch con-
victed of guilt by his own conscience, to a mother and child,
to an old man, to a group seated upon a bench near by, to
unbelievers and critics.

In great part, these homilies were never reported f • yet

* There were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem. The
synagogues throughout the country were open daily for morning worship,
and for a continuous afternoon and evening service. The most devout
Jews were in frequent attendance. Then, too, the second and the fifth
days in the week were observed as such seasons of special worship as to
call in the country people. It was therefore always easy for Jesus to find
people ready to hear his words.

f See, for example, Mark i : 21,38,39 ; and ii : 2,13 ; and vi : 2,34 ; and
Luke v : 3. These unrecorded sayings of Jesus must have entered into the
speech of the times and the traditions of the early Christian generations.
One such saying is quoted in Acts xx : 35 : " Remember the words of the
Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Do we sometimes regret the loss of those precious words, and try to
imagine with what parables and pithy sentences the vacancy may be filled?
But we are like the men who could not with the wealth of a kingdom
finish one window which the genii had left incomplete when they built a
palace.

Yet our Saviour affirmed, "In secret have 1^ said nothing." His
words that we now have, contain the germs of all we need ; like grains of
celestial wheat, to satisfy the whole world with that bread which cometh
down from heaven.

229

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

we know that he everywhere proclaimed those principles
which should underlie the everyday life of those who would
live as the sons and the daughters of the Almighty.

And every day, whether walking between the cactus
hedges, or plucking the grain that crowded the path, the
Master was tutoring his learners: "Why are ye so fool-
ish?" "Do ye not understand ?" "Know ye not this
parable ? " " Have I been so long with you, and yet thou
hast not known me ?" Sincere, faithful, and impartial
was the Master ; nor did he foster their pride and lack of
reason.

So affectionate was the Son of Man that his disciples
dared be familiar with him in some moods, — so much so as
to tempt him with evil suggestions. So Peter in his carnal
weakness once took Jesus to task, and began to rebuke him
for not doing as his disciples wanted to have him do.

Sometimes, however, Jesus bore a forebidding aspect, or
manifested a certain divine dignity of bearing, which kept
men from venturing too near ; so fending off familiarity
and needless questioning, that at times no man durst ask
him further questions. So came the disciples to know that
there was a distance which could not be bridged by words,
between them and their Lord. As a Teacher, his sayings
now manifested unspeakable tenderness, then sharp sever-
ity; so he timed his words to the needs of those who followed
him.

The main secret of the influence of Jesus over his disci-
ples was in the fact that they found in him,

230

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

Not a Doctrine to be Believed,

BUT A PERSON TO BE LOVED.

THEY believed his doctrine by first loving his character.
They loved his character by being first drawn by his
personal love to them ; a love which they learned to
look upon as divine, — as God's love : "In this was mani-
fested the love of God toward us," said the apostle John,
" because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that
we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son."

Love is the universal solvent. Having drawn men to
himself, Jesus fastened them to himself by the cords of
love. And then he introduced the truth into their minds a
little at a time. Not otherwise could he have handled those
young men, some of whom were so rash, and others of
doubting disposition, and all slow of heart.

.His warm pergonal affection appeared in his desire to
have three disciples near him when he was in bitter sorrow ;
and when he encouraged one to repose his head upon the
bosom of his Lord. He was tender, sympathetic, charitable,
and patient ; nor was he " ashamed " to call them brethren,
although they were ignorant, and selfish and cowardly.
Did he not affirm that they had kept his word, when they
had merely tried to keep it ; and that he was glorified in
them, when his glory was but imperfectly reflected ? He
accepted the will for the deed, and he knew that they de-
sired to glorify him. He upbraided them not because they

231

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

forsook him and fled, but because of their unbelief in his
resurrection. Ought they not to have expected it ?

We shrink from trenching upon the personality of
another, — from so much as touching his person ; only among
intimate friends is there more freedom. It was a token of
great affection that Jesus said to Thomas, "Handle me,
and see."

It was this personal love of Jesus Christ that awakened
a personal love to him, " He first loved us." *

The disciples were attracted to the person of their Mas-
ter. They believed in him, although they did not compre-
hend the full scope of his mission. It was not until after
some years of reflection, and of spiritual enlightenment,
that the new ideas they obtained from Jesus gained such
power over their lives that they became Christians, instead
of being Jews devoted to their Messiah.

They learned through love, they found the embodiment
of the truth in Jesus f ; his sublime precepts and simple
rules of conduct, and the clear theological principles upon
which they were based, were easily understood, and so prac-
tical as to be realized in his own life ; he lived perfectly, —
as if indeed God were the common Father, the God of love,

* " The hold which Christ has, is chiefly dependent on those personal
affections and the reverential regard, which souls, that receive Christ,
entertain towards him." — President Woolsey.

f "Jesus Christ and his message are so interwoven and interlaced in
such a fashion, that you cannot get rid of him and keep the message. He
himself is the truth — Christ is Christianity." — Alexander McLaren,
D.D.

232

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

and all men brethren with a golden rule of conduct between
them.

Does not the sword of the Spirit require a handle ? Must
not the truth, sharp, bright, keen-edged, and piercing be
embodied in somebody's life ? The truth of God was con-
crete in the life of Jesus. Hence his leadership of the
twelve, and of all the hosts of the people of God throughout
the ages.

This embodiment of the truth in a life has proved to
have in it a motive-power never found in mere abstrac-
tions. The consistency of the character of Jesus gave such
power to his teachings as to quite transfigure the world of
dogma. In him, we now see that the vital principles of
truth are related to life, as soul to the body ; the ethical
truths uttered by Jesus being so set forth in his own life as
to present the most lovable character known to history. It
is this which has gained for him the adherence of a great
variety of personalities, no one of whom has discovered
anything lacking in the proportion of his attributes.

Mankind is strongly moved by sympathy, they take to
truth when bodied in a life. Mankind has great imitative
powers; a life can be imitated, — while many cannot tell
beforehand how abstract truth would look in a life.

The personality of Jesus had its effect upon the twelve
apostles and the five hundred other disciples of Jesus.
They were fair representatives of the average man, sym-
pathetic, imitative ; and the principles of the New Testa-
ment at once appeared in some hundreds of lives, — and a
new era was so entered upon. If the Christ-like character

233

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

has to-day any foothold upon the earth, it is traceable from
the hundreds of millions back to millions, and from millions
to thousands, and from thousands to hundreds, and from
hundreds to the twelve, and to Jesus himself.

The heroisms of Christendom began in Galilee, in "the
personal following- of a personal leader." * The moral struc-
ture of the Kingdom of God in the world to-day, exists
through the personal imitation in all ages of the character
of Christ, who is to mankind the very vision of God. The
personal fascination or personal magnetism of the charac-
ter of Jesus, is through his manifestation of the positive
and well proportioned moral character of God, who loved
us before the foundation of the world.

To the blunted perceptions and perverted taste of the age
in which Jesus lived, he was without form or comeliness. A
few indeed saw the beauty of his holy and self-denying life,
and called him Master and followed in his footsteps ; and

* R,t. Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D.
In his sermon on the Living Christ, the Bishop also says of the twelve
apostles: "These men, living close to Jesns all the time, deep in the
secrets of his nature and his life, — they needed no miracle to tell them
what he was. He was their constant miracle." This thought is ampli-
fied by Professor J. R. Seeley, in Ecce Homo (Compare pp. 176, 177) :
" Some men have appeared who have been as levers to uplift the earth
and roll it in another course, — Homer by creating literature, Socrates by
creating science, Caesar by carrying civilization inland from the shores of
the Mediterranean, Newton by starting science upon a career of steady
progress ; but these men gave a single impact, like that which is conceived
to have first set the planets in motion : Christ claims to be a perpetual at-
tractive power, like the sun which determines their orbit ; they contributed
to men some discovery, — Christ's discovery is himself."

234

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

to their praise will it forever stand on the heavenly record,
that the Son of God on earth was not utterly unappreciated
nor utterly misunderstood. No men ever lived who added
such glory to humanity. The vast and imposing array of
poets and sages, prophets and kings, throughout the world's
whole history, have not added such nobleness to our race as
did the humble friends of the wayfaring Christ, in that
they were his friends. For that was an age when men
bound heavy burdens and laid them on other men's
shoulders ; that self-seeking age would not know a self-
denying Redeemer. It is the one saving feature of such an
age, that there were in it a handful of men who dared be
Christ's disciples.

The nobility, the grandeur, of the work carried out by
the apostles is closely connected with the instruction they
received from the Master ; from his direct tuition in words,
as well as from his charitable, patient, catholic life.* It is
expressly stated that the apostles gathered themselves to-
gether in their peripatetic academy, and told Jesus not
only what they had done, but what they had taught, f This
rehearsal, whether it originated with them, or was sug-
gested by him, indicates the relation of pupils and Master.
They learned his lessons. However imperfect their learn-
ing, and imperfect the exhibition of his character in theirs,
God used these imperfect instruments for working a socio-
logical revolution in the world ; bringing in an era when

*Matt.xviii:21,22. Luke ix : 54, 56. John iii : 16,17. Markxvi:15.
f Mark vi : 30.

235

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the sick and the sorrowing were to have fair consideration
in the kingdoms of the world, — of which the devil then
claimed the ownership, possessed, as the kingdoms were,
by robust leaders, prosperous, hardhearted, and selfish.

When Jesus drew men to himself, centered their lives
upon himself, making himself their Master,* they found not
only rest in imitating his meekness and lowliness, but his
yoke so easy as to be related to their spiritual lives as a
bird's wings are, — a burden indeed, but light and helpful in
soaring heavenward. \

Jesus inspired common men to do uncommon deeds ; the
weak were made mighty, the cowards bold and ready for
martyrdom. Men who fled at sight of his cross, readily ran
to their own crosses. Those who walked with the Nazarene,
were so filled with the spirit of their Master that men took
knowledge of them, and knew that they had been with
Jesus.

"Follow thou me:" forsaking all, we follow, — to be
loved by him, disciplined by him, nourished by his teach-
ings, trained to his service, — calling to our brothers through-
out the earth, " We have found the Messias."

"Jesus calls us, o'er the tumult
Of our life's wild, restless sea ;
Day by day his sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, Christian, follow me."

— Cecil Frances Alexander.

*Matt. xxiii : 10.

f Suggested by a simile of St. Bernard.

236

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE.

" Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow thee ;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, —

Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.
Perish, every fond ambition,

All I've sought, or hoped, or known ;
Yet how ricn is my condition, —
God and heaven are still my own."

— Henry Francis Lyte<

Kollo^?^ Me.

Comfort those who weep and mourn,
Heal the wounds by sorrow torn ;
Walk the path that I have worn, —
Follow me, follow me.

Mercy now to all proclaim ;
Sinful man to save I came :
Call the guilty in my name, —
Follow me, follow me.

Bend with me, on prayerful knee ;
Bear thy cross, and thou shalt see
Laurel crown the shameful tree :
Follow me, follow me.

Never yet was I alone,

God in love I've ever known ;

List and hear, of love the tone,-*

237

CHAPTER TWO.

His Originality in Thought.
<s*s>

fF men are divided into two classes, — those who stamp
their own impress on society, and those who are
merely molded by society,— then Jesus was the

most eminent personage who has ever appeared upon
this globe ; since no one has contributed so much of original
vital force as he to the formation of new social conditions.
Various social classes are affected by this or that leader,
but Jesus reaches every class.

His unique personality was actuated by powers within,
calling him, impelling him, to a certain course. He needed
no prompting or direction from the ecclesiastical authorities
of his times ; but his divine nature manifestly appointed
him to his work, — and, in it, he was animated by ideas
native to his mind. Save in respect to boldness, faithful-
ness, unselfishness, humility, and in his attitude toward
moral evil, he had nothing in common with John the Bap-
tist. He had not the ordinary rabbinical book lore. The
sages of the far east he knew not, nor the wise Greeks ; and
the far western paganism had as little to offer him as the
barbarians of the Orient. He was not a man limited by his

[book vi.] 238

THE ORIGINALITY OF JESUS.

own times, or his own country, His thought was as free,
as if from heaven.

The entire substance of his teachings is so familiarly
known to us, that we think of his maxims as being mere
truisms ; yet in his own generation they excited the utmost
astonishment. It is expressly stated, that it was his
"doctrine," at which they were astonished.* The Sermon
on the Mount was not apparently more surprising to his
hearers than the words he uttered upon many other occa-
sions : "His word was with power," " He taught them as
one having authority."

His teaching was wholly religious, f and it was wholly in
accord with the Scriptures of his people. " To this end was
I born., and for this cause came I into the world, that I
should bear witness unto the truth." He seized upon many
points in the Old Testament, that the scribes and Pharisees
had missed, or misapprehended ; taking out certain great
principles of life and faith, and making them the principal
dogmas of the new dispensation. And in doing this, he
acted as the Word, the authoritative expression of the Di-
vine Mind ; so, when compared with the scribes and rabbis,
he was original and independent, — pouring new light upon
the ancient ritual and upon the holy hymns of earlier ages.

One of the ideas which Jesus made prominent was that

* Matt.,vii : 28, 29. Mark xi : 18 ; and vi : 2. Luke iv : 32.

f " He never refers to secular history, poetry, rhetoric, mathematics,
astronomy, foreign languages, natural sciences, or any of those branches
of knowledge which make up human learning and literature." — Philip

SCHAFF, D.D.

239

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

of the Fatherhood of God. There are more than three
times as many allusions to the Heavenly Father in the
Sermon on the Mount, than there are in the whole body of
Hebrew Scriptures ; and the Gospels call God our Father
more than thirty times as often as the entire Old Testa-
ment. It was a new era opening to mankind, when God
appeared under this familiar designation of human love.
Its scanty use in the Old Testament seemed like one of
many poetic terms, — Jesus brought it into common use;
and henceforth the love of God — affirmed by a few in the
elder time — was now trumpeted from the housetops.

This prepared the way for a living spiritual worship, in
the place of a defunct ritualistic service. The personal hab-
its of Jesus, his "wont " to pray, had great weight with his
followers. And his comments upon prayer are of distinct
and unique value in the Biblical texts relating to the topic.

Closely connected with this, is the emphasis Jesus placed
upon man's sonship of God, quieting man's unrest, and
leading him to apprehend that which is the greatest in life.
Jesus taught men that if they are relatively ignorant of
God, or even prodigals, }ret are they sons, who need spirit-
ual renewal and a prompt return to filial love and service.

From this grows out the doctrine of the brotherhood of
man : the rights of man, equality before the law, equal
chance in the competition of life, brotherly love, mercy, the
forgiveness of injuries, benevolence, the right use of
wealth, the Golden Rule,* — all these are involved in our

* " A rule as portable as oar self-love." — John Harris, D.D.

240

THE ORIGINALITY OF JESUS.

Saviour's teaching upon this point. It was this which
tended to break down the difference between the Greek
and the barbarian, the bond and the free. It tended also
to repress intolerance, and sometimes to count outsiders as
disciples. Jealous sectarians were changed by Jesus into
the most charitable and catholic of men.*

Then, too, in making luminous the relation between man
and his Maker, Jesus placed so much emphasis upon the
doctrine of a future world, that it passed into a proverb
that life and immortality are brought to light through the
Gospel. An idea to which little reference was made in the
Old Testament, now came to be one of the great factors in
the new dispensation.

There are two other points relating to the originality of
Jesus that invite consideration : the one., what Jesus said
about himself ; the other, his idea of the Kingdom he was
about to establish.

* " My neighbor is neither my fellow-sectarian, nor my fellow-
countryman, nor my fellow-churchman, but man in need." — Rev. C. A.
Row, in his "Jesus of the Evangelists."

241

CHAPTER THREE.

His Self-Assertion.

.Qs,

(3 HE principles announced by Jesus, then so new to the
4 world, proved, under the Holy Spirit, and through

^-L the instrumentality of the early disciples, to be the
historic beginning of a new age in the realm of
ideas. This religious movement centered about the proc-
lamation of Jesus, that he was to receive the undivided
homage of every human soul, and that his followers must
prepare for him a Kingdom throughout the earth.

St. Paul did not say, " If ye love me, keep my command-
ments," or " If any love not Paul let him be accursed."
Yet Jesus made this claim for himself. Others might seek
the truth, he was the truth ; and the allegiance of all lovers
of the truth was due to him alone.

The other doctrines of Jesus, and all his maxims, found
their authority in the central truth, that he would draw
all men personally unto himself. The self-central charac-
ter of Jesus' teaching is illustrated by our finding forty-six
references to himself in one chapter of the Gospels.
[book vi.] 242

THE SELF-CENTERED SAYINGS OF JESUS.

UPON the truth of his Messiahship he would build his
Church. "Christ was the Rock," says Augustine,
"upon which Peter himself was built." After this
confession of Peter, for prudential reasons, lest he need-
lessly antagonize his enemies, Jesus charged his disciples
that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.*
And in the next verse, it is said, from that time he began
to show his disciples what he should suffer, and his death.
Yet when the end came, he uttered before the high priest,
in that solemn hour in which he was condemned to die for
it, the same truth that had been first made known at Jacob's
wellside.f There can be no difference of opinion upon this
point, — that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, and that he
looked upon it as his mission to be the Saviour of the
world.

As the Messiah, or the Son of God, he claimed to be the
source of spiritual life, through whom men would come
to the Father. % He did not bid the weary and heavy laden
goto God with their burdens, but to come to himself. § He
represented himself as the living Bread from heaven, of
which if a man eat, he will live forever. || He claimed to be
the spiritual light of the world. T

Jesus taught that he himself was the center of the moral
universe, in such sense that all men were to come to him for
salvation. He pardoned sin, and claimed authority to do

*Matt. xvi:20.

f Mark xiv : 61-64. Matt, xxvi : 63-66. Luke xxii : 67,68.
% Jojm xiv : 6. § Matt, xi : 28. || John vi : 51. ^ John viii : 12,

243

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

it.* In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus taught the
master in Israel " heavenly things," " known " and " seen"
by the Son of Man, concerning the scheme of salvation : —
God so loved the world that he gave his Son ; who must be
lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish:
that the world through him might be saved, f In accord
with this, Jesus demanded supreme love, and cross bearing
in his service. J And he bade his disciples celebrate his
self-sacrifice for the world's salvation, throughout the
church, during all ages, in the maintenance of the Lord's
Supper. §

THERE are several particulars in which Jesus associated
his claims with the claims of Jehovah, as if classifying
himself with God. Take, for example, the passage
(John xiv : 1), " Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe
in God, believe also in me " ; words uttered under the
shadow of the cross, and with a vision of his sepulcher at
next door.

In John v : 17-46, Jesus claimed to have a share in the
unceasing energy of God in his providential care and all
sustaining force, — "My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work." And then, when the Jews thought his words blas-
phamous, he entered into a more detailed statement ; claim-

* Matt. ix:6. Mark ii : 5,10.

f John iii : 11-17. The same thing in substance is stated in John
vi : 37-40.

t Matt, x : 37,38. § Mark xiv : 22-24. Luke xxii : 19, 20. %

244

THE SELF-CENTERED SAYINGS OF JESUS.

ing power to raise the dead,* to judge the world, f to carry on
the works of God, and affirming that this was the Scriptural
teaching concerning the Messiah. The record in John x :
24, 25, 30, 33,36-38, leaves no doubt that the Jews understood
Jesus as classifying himself with God as to his claims.];

Jesus said many things which affirm his pre-existence.§

Jesus associated himself with the Father,] in the promise
of a future-abiding with his disciples.

He who had no place to lay his head, affirmed that he
would prepare a place in heaven for his disciples.

Jesus associated himself with the Father, as the prayer-
hearing God.^f

Jesus associated himself with the Father in sending. the
Holy Spirit.**

He associated himself with the Father, and with the
Holy Spirit, in the baptismal formula.

Jesus claimed all authority in heaven and in earth, and
that his mandates ft were to be observed in discipling all
nations. J;J

*In John x: 18, Jesus says that he has power to lay down his life,
and to take it again.

f This claim is elaborated in Matt, xxv : 31-46.

X Jesus' claim, in Matt, xii : 6, 8, to be Lord of the Sabbath day, and
greater than the temple of Jehovah, must have seemed blasphemous to his
enemies.

§Johniii:13; vi : 33, 35, 50, 51, 62; viii : 58 ; x : 36 ; xvi : 28 ;
xvii : 5 .

|| John xiv : 23. If John xiv : 13, 14 ; xvi : 23, 24. ** John xiv : 16, 26.

|f What Jesus taught, as in John xiv : 28, about his mediatorial office,
and his subjection therein to the Father, does not conflict with all the
affirmations he made as to his essential nature.

JJMatt. xxviii : 18, 20.

245

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

IF such words were found in Socrates, in Plato, in Aris-
totle, in Pliny, or in Cicero, it would be said that divine

honors were claimed. And the very least that can be
said of the public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth is this : that
he lived every day upon the assumption that he was to be
the Redeemer of the world. It was the main thing about
him.

If it was a delusion, it was interwoven with all his
thoughts and all that he did. If his pretensions were ill-
founded, the idea indicated intellectual disorder. There
was, however, a certain calmness and even balance in his
daily living, such as we associate with sanity of mind. If
we lay aside for a moment the question of his Messiahship,
and take up the character of Jesus in its ordinary manifes-
tations, and consider what he taught, and what he did, and
what he was in the well-rounded proportion of his intel-
lectual and moral gifts, — and then if we take one glance
along the ages, and consider what benefits have accrued to
mankind through the influence of Jesus, does it seem credi-
ble that a beneficent Providence should connect such a life
and such an influence with insanity in the mind of Jesus ?
It would be out of analogy with the usual divine operations.
The universe is not the outgrowth of unreason ; and " God
in history " has not so ordered it that the most progressive
part of mankind during two thousand years has derived its
most helpful influences from a mind hopelessly insane in its
principal intellectual conception. " If," says Professor Tal-
cott, " if there ever was a sound human intellect, clear,

246

THE SELF-CENTERED SAYINGS OF JESUS.

well-balanced, and raised above every influence that could
disturb or cloud its operation, it was the intellect displayed
in the recorded life of Jesus of Nazareth."*

Still more preposterous would it Ipe to think of Jesus as
deliberately setting out to impose on his contemporaries
and after ages, by attempting to imitate God so closely that
man wTould credit the deception. He taught, that all men
should honor the Son as they honored the Father, f Did he
seek to lead men into idolatry ? He did nothing to rebuke
the belief, taking root in the minds of his disciples, that he
was the Son of God. Would he not have done so, if he had
been merely a good man ? Jesus was not sincere, if he was
not divine ; not unselfish, not humble, not honest, if he
was not the Son of God. Peter frankly said to Cornelius,
" Stand up, I myself am also a man." If Jesus was merely

* " The Christ of the Gospels shows not the faintest trace of fanaticism
or self-delusion. On the contrary, he discouraged and opposed all the
prevailing carnal ideas and hopes of the Messiah, as a supposed political
reformer and emancipator. He was calm, self-possessed, uniformly con-
sistent, free from all passion and undue excitement, never desponding,
ever confident of success even in the darkest hour of trial and persecution.
To every perplexing question he quickly returned the wisest answer ; he
never erred in his judgment of men or things : from the beginning to the
close of his public life, before friend and foe, before magistrate and people,
in disputing with Pharisees and Sadducees, in addressing his disciples or
the multitude, while standing before Pontius Pilate or Caiaphas, or sus-
pended on the cross, — he showed an unclouded intellect and complete
mastery of appetite and passion ; in short, all qualities that are the very
opposite of those which characterize persons laboring under self-delusion
or any mental disease." — Philip Schaff, D.D.

fJohn v :23.

247

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

a man, should he not have frankly told Peter so, when the
disciple confessed his Master's Messiahship ? The silence
of Jesus was fraudulent unless he was the Son of God.
" See thou do it not," said the angel to Saint John, "for I
am thy fellow servant: worship God."* Was the angel
more honest than Jesus ? Jesus was not " the faithful and
true witness,"f unless he was what he claimed to be. J Un-
less Jesus was what he claimed to be, his denunciation of
hypocrites would have recoiled upon himself.

Yet, " a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." "It cannot,"
says Dr. Joseph Parker, "be an easy task hypocritically
to represent God upon the earth, without now and again
letting the mask slip aside. How can the finite steadily
carry the Infinite, when the Infinite is at war with him ?
Christ mUst be more than a good man, or worse than
the worst man." "The only alternative," says Professor
Talcott, "that remains to us is : — either, to accept him for
what he declares himself to be ; or, to ascribe to him with-
out any qualification, the boldest, the most arrogant, the
most blasphemous of all impostures, yet an imposture stead-
ily directed to the promotion of the highest style of good-

* Rev. xix : 10. f Rev. iii : 14.

I " If Christ is not truly God, then Mahomet would indisputably
have been a far greater man than Christ, as he would have been far more
veracious, more circumspect, and more zealous for the honor of God, since
Christ, by his expressions, would have given dangerous occasion for
idolatry ; while on the other hand not a single expression of the kind can
be laid to the charge of Mahomet." — Lessing.

248

THE SELF-CENTERED SAYINGS OF JESUS.

ness, and connected with a life which, except upon this
revolting supposition, is a life of sinless perfection, and the
only such life, that has ever been lived upon earth."*

It is very common to say of a man who is well known
to us, that he is " not the kind of a man " who would do so
and so. . The study of the character of Jesus Christ shows
that he was neither insane nor wicked, — he was not that
kind of a man. "If," says the author of Ecce Homo, "if
his biographers have delineated his character faithfully,
Christ was one naturally contented with obscurity, wanting
the restless desire for distinction and eminence which is
common in great men, hating to put forward personal
claims, disliking competition and disputes ' who should be
greatest,' finding something bombastic in the titles of
royalty, fond of what is simple and homely, of children,
of poor people, occupying himself so much with the con-
cerns of others, with the relief of sickness and want, that
the temptation to exaggerate the importance of his own
thoughts and plans was not likely to master him ; lastly,
entertaining for the human race a feeling so singularly fra-
ternal that he was likely to reject as a sort of treason the
impulse to set himself in any manner above them. Christ,
it appears, was this humble man. When we have fully pon-
dered the fact, we may be in a condition to estimate the force
of the evidence, which, submitted to his mind, could induce
him, in direct opposition to all his tastes and instincts, per-

* Christianity and Skepticism: Lecture by Professor Daxie-l S. Tal-

COTT, D.D.

249

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

sistently, with the calmness of entire conviction, in opposi-
tion to the whole religious world, in spite of the offense
which his own followers conceived, to claim a dominion
more transcendent, more universal, more complete, than
the most delicious votary of glory ever aspired to in his
dreams."

When we " look at his unaffected and all-pervading
piety, at his universal and self-sacrificing benevolence, look
at his purity and elevation above the world, listen to his
prayers for his murderers on the cross," * we cannot think
of Jesus as being the kind of a man who would be easily
deceived in regard to his own mission, or who would deceive
others.

It is much more reasonable to suppose that God revealed
himself in the person of Christ, than to suppose that he who
was the highest realization of earthly excellence, was
secretly proud, and self-seeking and hypocritical ; or self-
deceived, and deceiving others throughout fifty or sixty
generations of men.

"Jesus," says Pascal, "spoke so simply of the greatest
things, and even of divine things, that we feel that he must
have been familiar and at home with them." His character
confessedly accorded with his high claims. And, the most
pure and elevated among mankind find that in his charac-
ter, which still stands before them as an unattained ideal
perfection. "In his person, speaking human language,

* President Mark Hopkins, LL.D.

250

THE SELF-CENTERED SAYINGS OF JESUS.

mingling freely in human society, the world saw that which
permanently raised its idea of God." *

The Infinite Majesty, the Creator of the ends of the
earth, was never more alone in the universe, than was
Jesus Christ upon the earth, in his nature and in his activi-
ties,— forever solitary, and forever occupied in the new
creation : both equally manifesting God in his self -revela-
tion in the physical and in the spiritual creation. Is it not
the chief study in earthly lore, to learn to know God aright,
and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ?

* Professor Dods, Essay upon Trustworthiness of the Gospels.

251

CHAPTER FOUR.

A. Kingdom to Establish.

-^©<^ — ■

(^ HE teaching of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of
God, was, like the other ideas he put forth, but the
expression of a thought with which he had become
familiar in studying in Hebrew history, poetry, and proph-
ecy, in early manhood at Nazareth. His originality con-
sisted in more sharply outlining the nature of the Kingdom,
in its principles, and in giving great prominence to the idea
in his teaching, and in making definite plans for realizing the
visions of ancient seers by establishing the spiritual reign
of God among men in world-wide relations.

The old dispensation had made it clear that there was a
perfect moral providence ruling over the world, yet the
Jewish system was essentially provincial ; and Jesus threw
aside the old religious machinery,* and gave to the relig-
ious spirit of his people new forms through which to work
— forms adapted to the whole world.

There is no lack of originality in this scheme, — a Naz-
arene Carpenter setting out to redeem the whole human

* This was the final effect of his teaching, when connected with the
providential movements pertaining to the fall of Jerusalem.

[book vi.] 252

THY KINGDOM COME.

race by spiritual ideas of such a nature that they could be
carried to every part of the globe. The novelty of it, when
the scheme came to be understood, and when men knew
what the ideas were, was well fitted to enlist the interest
and enthusiasm of the choicest spirits in the Hebrew and
the Gentile world.

It was a deliberate plan to outreach the grave, to pass on
beyond it, to seize upon limitless years, to project his per-
sonality upon all coming time. It was connected with a
vital movement, that had been already working during some
centuries : and Jesus took up the work of the most clear-
sighted and devout priests, prophets, and kings of the elder
world, — and what he did was with reference to the entire
sweep of after ages. Soberly, serenely, he did what God
had been doing in the moral government of mankind ; and
the goal he set for himself was not one to be reached in his
lifetime, but after a long series of centuries. And in doing
what he did in his brief years, he took nothing from his con-
temporaries, but to such as received him he imparted such
power as they needed for carrying forward the Kingdom of
God, — " I appoint unto you a kingdom." He no sooner said
this, than he came to the end of his life ; but his work was
successful, in that there were men so imbued with the spirit
of their Master as to be prepared to reign in a spiritual
kingdom. It was to be a reign of righteousness, of love to
God and man ; and it was to be advanced by moral means.
It was this thought, which, like an undying seed, was
planted in the hearts of a few disciples.

The rabbis had thought the Messiah would bring to them

253

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

political freedom ; and Jesus was misunderstood at first by
the apostles, and they sometimes doubted the expediency of
his course, and they were disappointed at his death. But
the heart of Jesus knew no discouragement, he was confi-
dent of future days ; and he calmly acquiesced in the sub-
jection of his people to Rome, and wept over the sorrows of
that national dissolution which he foresaw. He foresaw
also the universal dominion of truth, purity, and peace,
among men ; and when he was about to die, he assumed
that his Gospel would be preached throughout the world,
and that deeds of kindness and fealty to him would be
spoken of in far away realms and climes. So in that
despairing age, Jesus proclaimed the final triumph of the
truth, and the subjugation of mankind by force of ideas
and the power of love, rather than through the conquest
of arms.

OUR Saviour taught that the Holy Spirit would be the
divine instrumentality for carrying forward this work.
When we consider the contribution of Jesus to the world's
thought, we are, for one thing, to note this : he took the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament, and
gave new force to it ; portraying certain characteristics of
the dispensation of the Spirit, and leading his disciples to
rely upon the Holy One, as in effect the present Christ in all
ages, — so baptizing them with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
"God permitted," says Chrysostom, "the single temple
at Jerusalem to be destroyed, and erected in its stead

254

THY KINGDOM COME.

a thousand others of far higher dignity, — * Ye are the
temples of the living God.'" "He dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you," said Jesus. When, therefore, Luther was
tempted, he took refuge in the words of Jesus, saying to
the adversary, "Martin Luther does not live here, Jesus
Christ lives here." When an eminent, modern seer tells
us, " I see not any road of perfect peace which a man can
travel, but to take counsel of his own bosom," we wish
to add, " Blessed is that bosom in which the Mighty Coun-
selor abides." " I dwell with him that is of a contrite
spirit," saith the high and lofty One who inhabit eth eter-
nity.

Thou God of prophet's fire,

To Thee our souls aspire :

We cry with tongues unclean,

We cry with anguish keen,

For touch of living coal

To cleanse the life and soul.

To Thee is our desire,

O penetrating fire ;

Our hearts for Thee aglow,

We kindle Thee to know,

Thou God of prophet's flame, —

The Heat, the Light, Thy name.

Baptizing fire, descend, —
The light of God to lend
To lisping tongues of fire ;
Our lips shall never tire
Thy name to sound on earth,—
Thou Fire of Heavenly birth.

255

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

IN selecting the twelve, Jesus did not first call the rich or
the scholars of the nation ; he took men as he found

them, not men of genius but of common sense. He set
out to establish his Kingdom, as to its human instrumental-
ity, by the activity of the average man, of ordinary diligence
and thoughtful thrift, — working men, baptized and sancti-
fied, in whom the Holy Spirit was indwelling.

The influence of Christianity in uplifting the world can-
not be accounted for, on the theory of a mere human life of
Christ, or by the ordinary operation of human activity.
What perpetuated the influence of Jesus, and what gave
efricienc}^ to the apostles of the new faith, was the power of
the Holy Spirit. The life and work of Jesus, and of his
disciples in all ages, but represent a part of that mighty
movement which had been begun of old time, and which
has been carried forward through hoary centuries until
now, and which will continue while sun and moon endure,
— the activity of Infinite Love in redeeming mankind, in
perfecting the moral evolution of the race, in recreating
man in God's image.

It is only by the doctrine of the Kingdom of God that we
can account for the outcome of the relatively obscure life of
Jesus. The very fact that he was, upon his own theory and
in the sober judgment of vast multitudes of men, in some
proper sense the incarnation of the Infinite Power that makes
for righteousness, avails us nothing, in accounting for the
amazing results of his mission, except as it is connected with
what went before and what came after in the moral govern-

256

THY KINGDOM COME.

ment of the God with whom we have to do. Unless the words
of Jesus are true that " the Father worketh hitherto, and I
work," and unless it be true that the Spirit of the living God
has worked during all subsequent ages, and is to work until
the average man upon this globe is in the image of God and
in harmony with him, and until society is regulated by the
law of love, the life of Jesus was that of a carpenter with-
out significance ; and, upon the other hand, if it be credible
that God has so made the world that he can continue to
have to do with it, and so made man that he can influence
him for good, and if God is governing this world, then it is
altogether credible that God was in Christ in such sense as
to make good the affirmations of Jesus in regard to his
mission, — and if so, then the life of Jesus appears in its
historic relations, God with us, as he has been since the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

It is in this light alone that Jesus' choice of the apostles
seems reasonable, or defensible. It was a choice made in
accordance with God's design to use and to honor the
average man, and to fit him for high place now and in
ages unending. If Jesus had not been confident that his
work was of a piece with what went before and what was
to come after, in its divine energy, then he would have
bungled at his work like an awkward carpenter patching
up God's moral world through the instrumentality of
wealthy extortioners, and prejudiced, learned, and cruel
ecclesiastics.

The contrast between the circumstances under which the
teachings of Jesus were uttered, and the blaze of glory

257 17

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

which afterwards surrounded his words, has been by no
one better set forth in two paragraphs than by Mr. J. M.
Lowrie : —

" We have here brought before us a young man born in
lowly life, having no advantages of position, or even edu-
cation, to lift him above the mass of men ; and contenting
himself by instructing, with the voice merely, the humble
classes in society in one of the meaner provinces of the
Roman Empire. For three or four years he spent his time
in these pursuits ; he gathered about him a meager band of
disciples, not above his own state ; he awakened only per-
secution and contempt among the influential men of his
own nation ; and before he reached the middle age of life,
he was condemned as a malefactor, and put to a violent
and shameful death.

" After his death the most remarkable and permanent
power belonged to one whose life, up to its latest moment,
had been full of humiliation. His were the mighty words
of the world. They were living and life-giving principles,
which took hold upon men with regenerating power.
There was nothing in his claims, his teachings, his promises,
to inflame or to gratify the ordinary passions of men ; no
honors to be won, no ambition to be gratified, no sensual
pleasures to be enjoyed. Yet his words were powerful as
no other teachings have ever been upon the earth. They
went forth from the narrow boundaries of Judea, and
attacked the hoary prejudices and superstitions of the
pagan world ; and in a few centuries, the Gospel of the de-
spised man of Galilee became the avowed faith of the

258

THY KINGDOM COME.

Roman Empire. And now for many ages, during which
hosts of great men have risen and been forgotten, his
words, wherever received in their simplicity, have had a
power to cast down superstition, to change the aspect of
human society, to teach men the true principles of freedom,
to awaken impulses that refine and strengthen and elevate
humanity, and to support true morality and true piety, —
that seems strangely in contrast with the feeble attain-
ments of his life work, and with the apparent triumph of
his foes in his death upon the cross."

There is no way in which this can be accounted for,
except by the truth of the doctrine of the Kingdom of God,
which reveals to us the work of Jesus as one part only, the
most vital part, of the scheme of human redemption, which
began before the Christian era, and which has been actively
carried on by the Holy Spirit in the later centuries. If the
Kingdom of God is credible, then the Incarnation is credi-
ble ; and the historic effects attributed to the life and work
of Jesus are easily explicable. And the chief effect is seen
to be the elevation of the average man, through awakening
in him the moral energies that constitutionally belong to
him by his being made in the image of God.

IT is in the light of the doctrine of the Kingdom that we
understand the method of man's moral evolution, —
slowly unfolding during the cycles of human history.

Man's moral redemption is not wrought out by formally
following book directions ; it is wrought out through ideas
which transform the life. Jesus first of all bound his dis-

259

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ciples to himself by ties of personal affection, — and then,
after that, revealed to them the crosses they should bear as
his disciples ; adapting his words to their minds, by an
orderly progression of thought, — first shadowing, then
clearly showing, one by one, the fundamental ideas of his
Kingdom. At first, he was easily understood ; then the
minds of his disciples were tasked, as the Master went for-
ward. His early claims seemed so simple, that it was like
continuing the work of John the Baptist ; yet he ended
with demanding the undivided homage of every human
soul. At first, his comments on the Mosaic code showed
the spirituality of the law ; afterwards he proclaimed him-
self to be the Lawgiver, equal with the Father. He first led
a life of self-sacrifice, and taught others to do it ; and then
he explained that his death upon the cross was needful to
fulfill the Scriptures, — that a suffering Messiah must found
a new Kingdom of Love,

He tempered his words to the ability of his disciples to
profit by them, — " I have many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear tiiem now." In the minds of the disciples,
the Messianic ideas were developed gradually ; and the
timeliness of his teachings is a lesson to all after ages.

Jesus has never been surpassed as a teacher ; he knew
how to draw out the mental force of his pupils. He did not
do all their thinking for them. Nor did he impart too much
information, but left something for the scholars to do. He
aroused their thinking faculties, and taught them principles
of world-wide application. He gave them seed-thoughts ;
vital like the seeds of the mangrove, which sprout before

260

THY KINGDOM COME.

they fall, and are so weighted as to fall with the sprout
uppermost, — so that they begin to grow as soon as they
touch the ground.

Jesus was far more than a carpenter ; he did not under-
take to govern the lives of his disciples through measuring
lines. — chalking out states of mind by compass and square.
He announced, rather, certain principles of conduct,* by
which they could and must regulate their practice, — so
making them independent and trustworthy. Their atten-
tion was not directed to sinnings, but to sin ; they were to
contend against that selfishness which is the essential ele-
ment iltall wrong doing. He developed individual manli-
ness, by putting upon each one the responsibility for his
own self -making or marring.

Jesus taught no casuistical mechanics, — a living by
forms, ceremonies, and states of mind ; but he gave to every
disciple ideas by which to govern life, and then bade him
shift for himself like a man. He addressed himself to con-
science, and led men to attempt to do the will of God ; and
he trusted that in such an exalted life they would have
power to regulate their common affairs in a moral manner,
without minute directions from him.

A striking illustration of the method of Jesus is found
in his political teachings : he did not teach politics, — yet he
taught moral principles which overturned empires. He
appeared to be regardless of external circumstances, or im-

* " Let him that is without sin cast the first stone : " this is a very
Christlike anecdote, even if not authentic. The principle is, that those
who would enforce the law must obey the law.

261

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

mediate events, — fixing his mind rather upon some far off
age when righteousness and justice would be meted out,
and when the oppressor would cease to do evil ; and he set
to work to insert in the minds of men righteous and just
ideas by which ultimately to right all social wrongs.

Another illustration of his method of promoting freedom
of development in his Kingdom, is found in the fact that
Jesus formulated no creed, but gave his disciples such ma-
terial that they could make one. Would it not have been
easy for the Master to give a definite creed in a few words,
and so silence the sound of controversy in all ages ? Yet,
he did not saw and hammer his dogmas, to make them fit
men square or round. His disciples were kept in tow, not
by mere theological leading strings, but by intellectual
and moral leadership. He chose to have men study, he
would discipline them in thinking. Many of his words
were to be understood only by taking time for reflection.
His phrases were of deep and philosophic import, far reach-
ing, and fruitful of students in all generations ; so that the
Christian Church has furnished the intellectual leaders of
mankind, — men able to formulate and to defend their
symbols of faith, and to set forth the results of Christian
thinking, age after age.

THE very idea of a Kingdom of God among men, implies
the conduct of operations during many ages of his-
tory ; and it implies an Infinite Patience, self-control, kind
dealing, and the repetition of line upon line in giving in-

262

THY KINGDOM COME.

struction. No one can read over the details of the encoun-
ters Jesus had with his disciples, his crafty enemies, and the
rude multitudes, without being impressed with his self-pos-
session, his long suffering, his meekness, and the iterative
element in his teaching. Nor can one read the story with-
out being impressed at every turn with the coolness and
the even balance of Jesus under all circumstances. Nothing
could be farther from the temperament of an enthusiast,
or a deluded fanatic. He was wholly possessed by a great
idea, and he was governed always by principle, never by
impulse ; his years of public ministration being marked by
the same degree of patience that was exercised in his calm
waiting, during -thirty years of carpentry.

An illustration of this occurs in St. Mark's Gospel
(i : 32-39), where Jesus refused to do good. When all the
city was at his door, he rose up long before day and went
into a solitary place ; and his disciples searched for him,
saying, "All men seek thee." But he turned a deaf ear, —
saying, " Let us go into the next towns."

That is, he choose his work ; rejecting this, and electing
that. Not attempting to do it all, he sacrificed the less to
the greater. He went into the next towns, that he might
preach there also. In one town, or one small city, he
might have stayed as a physician ; and might even have
given to that district immunity from future disease. But
he took the broader, wider way.

Again in St. Matthew's Gospel (x : 5,6), Jesus narrowed
the direction to his disciples, — " Go not into any way of the
Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans."

263

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Why did he not manufacture disciples by miracle, raising
up enlightened and zealous children of Abraham out of the
stones, so that the Samaritans and the Gentiles might have
heard the Gospel news without delay ? Nothing erratic,
however, was there about his ministry ; he planned to
carry on his work a little at a time, in an orderly manner,
— by a natural development like that from seed to fruit. It
was connected with a Kingdom, in which moral evolution
is marked by slow and sure processes ; like the work of
God in creating, developing, and sustaining the physical
universe.

We can see therefore why Jesus should walk patiently
with perfidious Judas, and those who were slow of heart.
He did not expect them to be rooted and grounded in love,
except by the inworking power of the Holy Ghost. The
unbelief, and misbelief, and prejudice, of narrow-minded
disciples called for patience on his part. "If I had a
friend," says Dr. Bushnell, "who was always making me
to appear weaker and meaner than I am, putting the flat-
test construction possible on my words and sayings, pro-
fessing still, in his own low conduct, to represent my ideas
and principles, protesting the great advantage he gets,
from being much with me, in just those things where he is
most utterly unlike me — I could not bear him even for one
week, I should denounce him utterly, blowing all terms of
connection with him. And yet Christ has patience large
enough to bear us still."

So, too, in dealing with the ecclesiastical leaders of
Jewry, Jesus proceeded upon the principle that it would be

2G4

THY KINGDOM COME.

long before his mustard seed would grow into a tree. He
came unto his own, and his own received him not. What an
inexpressible disappointment it would have been to Jesus, if
the main end of his life had been to gain the good will of
his contemporaries. " Consider him who endured such con-
tradiction of sinners against himself." In the discourse in
the eighth chapter of John, Jesus was ten times captiously
interrupted, unfairly contradicted, or reviled. In the midst
of very solemn words, one of his hearers broke in, asking
a question about division of property. He was taunted as
a suicide, when he spoke of his home in heaven. The eye
and lip of scorn were familiar to him. Yet there was about
him nothing abject, nor did he swerve from his supreme
purpose on account of Pharisaic sneers.

The kindly light, so clear, and piercing like a sunbeam,
shone in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended it not.
The fickle multitude were ready to feed from his bounty,
or to crucify him, according to the mood of the hour. Having
eaten to satiety their barley loaves and fishes, they left the
crumbs scattered about, and had no appetite for the Bread
that came down from heaven. Only a handful of men,
easily counted, took up the cross to follow him. At the
very highest estimate, out of Rve thousand seated about
his miraculous table, not one in ten became a disciple in
the lifetime of Jesus. When the Son of God came to
earth, he had a right to expect a good greeting ; but he was
not so successful, in the immediate results of his preaching
and teaching, as we should have thought beforehand that
the Son of God would be. It was a part of his humiliation :

265

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the God-man consented to be unsuccessful in pleading with
men. He saw men turn their backs on him. Did not
Capernaum admire his miracles, then treat his moral man-
dates with cold neglect ? Nazareth had no faith in his
miracles, no patience with his words ; and the rabble, who
had known him when a boy, took him up behind the city,
and tried to throw him off a precipice. He made three
preaching tours in Galilee, and had a great following ; but
the crowded villages rejected his doctrine. Did not the
man who was cured of a disease of thirty-eight years'
standing, use his new strength in leaguing at once with the
enemies of Jesus ? It would be easy to believe that his
voice, too, joined in the bitter cry — " Crucify him, crucify
him." Yet Jesus was moved by compassion, whenever he
saw a crowd ; as if they were sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus knew that his humbling religion would be long in
conquering the proud race of man ; that his lofty precepts
would find slow entrance into minds groveling in the dust.
He knew that his gentle religion would find it difficult to
win rough men to believe on him ; and that so severe a
religion would be slow to lead men to believe in such justice.
Yet he knew that at last, all the meek of the earth and all
the just of the earth would be attracted to himself. He did
not wildly lead a rebellion against Roman oppression ; but
he steadily worked to promote that holy life, by which his
countrymen might be free indeed. He put forth those
principles which remodeled society. Jesus did not fret in
the midst of a wicked world. During four thousand years
a violent race had run riot over the globe. Jesus came ;

266

THY KINGDOM COME.

uttered a few parables, healed a few sick, — and died.
Four years after, Caligula reigned. Twenty-one years
after, Nero reigned. Galba, Domitian, Decius, Diocletian,
and such creatures reigned for three hundred jeavs ; then
the principal figures in history were cunning and worldly
minded ecclesiastics, and petty puppet kings, for twelve
hundred years more. Did not Jesus know that this would
be so ? Could he not see the line of coming kings ? Did
he not know that it would be hundreds of years before
his religion would get to the throne, and take a great part
in history ? Yet Jesus did not fret ; nor was he anxious for
the success of his doctrine. Day by day, he was speaking
the words that were spirit and life ; yet he knew that they
would fall powerless on the ears of the masses of mankind
for many generations, — as snownakes falling on the sea.
A voice from heaven said, i( This is my beloved son, hear
ye him," but Jesus knew that men would not hear him.
Yet he spoke right on every day, and his words had the
vitality of the thoughts of God.

Fretting is no part of the work of reform. Amid the
intolerable reign of Satan, Jesus bore up and began his own
reign. Nor was he out of heart in the midst of apparent
disaster, the ignominious failure of what seemed — to con-
temporary Jewish and heathen historians — an insignificant
career.

It was this sublime patience that attracted the attention
of St. Paul, a patience connected with the reign of God :
" I am also your brother, and companion in tribulation,
and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ"

267

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

So there was founded upon the earth that phase of the
Kingdom of God now known as the Church of Jesus
Christ :—

"The Church of apostles and martyrs, of fathers and
confessors ; in catacombs and in prisons, in deserts and
caves of the earth, in palaces and cathedrals ; in exile and
in missions, in all ages the one flock of God, the Church of
the past, the Church of the present, the Church of the
future, chanting ever the same faith, holding ever the same
Christ, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
be, world without end." *

" Our God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come ;
Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home :
Under the shadow of thy throne

The saints have dwelt secure ;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure." f

* Joseph P. Thompson, D.D.

\The topic of this chapter, the Kingdom of Christ, is also the subject of a
chapter by Professor Sewall, page 512. Vide also an Article by Rev.
William Hekridge, B.D., in Book XL, Chapter 7, upon the Democracy of
Jesus, which illustrates^ the far-reaching influence of Jesus as a practical re-
former, in promoting the Divine Kingdom among men.

208

CHAPTER FIVE.

His Gentleness and. Severity.

<s>

OHN the Baptist apprehended only the severe side
of the Saviours character, — " Whose fan is in his
hand " ; gathering the wheat, and burning the
chaff. His own speech was of sharp and stinging
quality. Yet the fierce men of war became meek ; lawyers
learned new lessons ; priests and Levites were taught by
him ; the debased and hopeless found new life, and formed
new purposes. So the friend of the Bridegroom prepared
for the coming of a spiritual Kingdom.

THE teaching of Jesus in regard to advancing the King-
dom of God, implies a state of warfare, in order that
men of good will may be at peace : " first pure, then peace-
able." Jesus never taught that it was a matter of indiffer-
ence how men were related to him; they must decide
against him, or be on his side. Jesus joined issue with the
world, the flesh, and the devil.*

* " The factious disputing of Pharisee and Sadducee, the wild fanati-
cism of the zealots, the eccentricities of the Essenes, the worldiness of the
priests, the profligacy, the domineering, hard-hearted ambition of the Roman
world, the effete rhetoric of the Greek world, found their proper level in the
presence of an influence which ran counter to them all. ' ' — Dean Stanley,
[book vi.] 269

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

With a majestic self-assertion of his claims, with great
boldness identifying himself with the work of the Father
and Moral Governor of mankind, and setting himself up as
the attested representative of the Highest, he spoke with
authority, with a certain urgency, in an aggressive spirit,
bringing matters to a crisis in respect to personal allegiance
or hostility. Did he not test the multitudes with such doc-
trines that many left him ? He sifted them. Men were to
be attached to him by the truth or not at all. " Come unto
me," he said, " take my yoke upon you." But they had to
leave Mammon behind them ; he would allow no divided
service, — " He who is not with me is against me, and he
that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."

The teaching of Jesus was preeminently incisive. His
appeals were direct, personal, pointed, practical ; inviting
men to immediate action for, or against, the Kingdom of
God. Take, for example, Luke ix : 59, 60 : —

The man was called a disciple by one evangelist. He
probably talked of becoming one : but when Jesus spoke
to him about actually doing it, his hollow heart was dis-
covered, and he was off, — " Suffer me to go [having de-
parted] to bury my father ; " as if already out of sight of
the Saviour. Jesus read the character of the man at a
glance, and bade him decide now or never.*

* To care for his father's old age was his intent. Or, if a burial was
imminent, the Nazarite law (Numbers vi : 6, 7) would direct him to fol-
low Jesus at once. The man expressed no purpose ever to follow (com-
pare Elisha, I. Kings xix : 19, 20) ; had he been ready to go, his name
might have been added to the honorable roll of those who soon went forth
everywhere to preach him who was the Resurrection and the Life.

270

GENTLENESS AND SEVERITY.

So, too, when an eager young man, with a heart full of
unrest, came " running" for eternal life, — he aimed high,
and then refused the means of reaching what he sought ;
having learned that his money was his master. Zaccheus
decided instantly to give up all : yet this young nobleman
lacked one thing, amid all his treasures.

Upon another occasion, Jesus startled his hearers by
turning round in the face of a crowd who were following
him, and saying abruptly, " If any man come to me, and
hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple." This was his text, and the men
pricked up their ears to hear the short and pithy sermon or
explanation he made of the text. They were given to
understand that this business of chasing round in a crowd
after a popular favorite, was a very different thing from
taking up the true work of disciples. He would not have a
wavering unreliable mob at his heels, when they ought to
be at the work of godly decision and self-denying service.
And he finished up his remarks to them on that occasion,
by using what seems to have been a favorite form of
speech with him : " Salt is good : but if the salt have lost
his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned ? It is neither fit
for the land, nor yet for the dung hill ; but men cast it out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Then he went on
his way again.

That his hearers should make good use of their ears, and
hear pungent things, he was determined. He made the
men about him know what they would be at. If they

271

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

would follow him, he said that he had not so much of a
home on this globe as the foxes had. No man putting the
hand to his plow was permitted even to look as if he would
go back. Whoever would build must first count the cost
and do it intelligently. He that was not ready to forsake
all he had could never become a disciple. " Seek ye first,"
said Jesus, "the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness" :
God first, and man second ; or there is no disciple.

When Jesus saw crowds gathering together in the name
of religion, he knew that they might side with the enemies
of God when there should come up test questions ; and he
would have men out and out his, or not his, — " Whosoever
doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my
disciple." It was this close and sharp personal preaching,
that separated out from the aimless multitudes a handful of
men, who began to conquer the world for their Master.

IT is plain enough, therefore, that Jesus could not get on
with the Pharisees, — they were too wicked. He might
have tolerated their jealousy and their misinterpretation of
Messianic Scriptures, and all their sanctimonious puerilities,
but he could not do otherwise than utter in tender words
of inexpressible sorrow his condemnation of those moral
vipers, who crawled in and out of his Father's house, defil-
ing it. True workman as he was, he still might have borne
with them for shirking their share of life's burdens, yet
their devouring widow's houses invoked his wrath. He did
not object to their building tombs to the prophets, but that

272

GENTLENESS AND SEVERITY.

they should themselves be like whited sepulchers called
down his curse.

Jesus was the " Friend of Sinners," yet, in his character
he was "separate from sinners" ; and when the Pharisees
could not be led by love, he turned upon them : " I go my
way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins :
whither I go ye cannot come." Beholding their foredoomed
capital, he wept over it, but the tears of Jesus did not hinder
the march of the legions. He wept over the precious stones
of the city ; but he did not revoke their doom, nor was one
stone left upon another in all Mount Zion.

The rabbis were all Pharisees, and they sat in Moses'
seat, as the true successors of prophets and patriarchs.
There were, of the Pharisees, six thousand heads of house-
holds in Judea, in the time of Herod the Great ; forming
an overwhelmingly strong party of wary and wily dispu-
tants, ever ready to quote the elders in Israel of preceding
generations, ready in the technique of ritual observance,
learned in mystical lore, and as a class perverting the law
to unrighteous uses.* They found in Jesus more than their
match ; one whose words they could not take hold of before
the people.

Contact with rigid Pharisee and subtle Sadducee did not
lead Jesus into wild statements concerning spirits in the
other world, or to a lax interpretation of the law ; he was

* In the time of Herod, no Jewish intellect was permitted even the
slightest political activity ; and all the pent up energies of the ablest men
in the nation were given to formulating definitions and directions as to the
Mosaic law.

273 18

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

guarded in his words and of well-balanced mind, observing
due proportion in the truths he announced. He was, among
the sophists, still straightforward ; and he was free from all
taint of the hoary superstitions that were fostered and per-
petuated by the bigots of his people. He rudely shocked
the oriental notion that the old is always sacred, that
custom is law even in morals, that the new is revolutionary.
The spirit of the East was devout in the ritualistic worship
of an unseen God, testifying for him in an age when
idolatry occupied the throne of the world : it was the
miracle of Jesus' life that he set free this religious spirit ;
breaking, for many in Jewry, the rigid and rusty shackles
of venerable formulas, which had been rubbed up and
riveted anew by each new generation of the scribes and the
Pharisees.

With the scribes and Pharisees, their malignity was
religious,— it was piety in them to slay Christ : this was the
standpoint they occupied. Finally, all that was worst in
Judaism came to be considered but a synonym for Pharisee ;
until the very name of Pharisee became such an abomina-
tion that it was definitely dropped out of Jewish nomen-
clature after the fall of Jerusalem.*

* Hating Jesus, his name and his memory, yet they gave in their
bitter testimony to the facts of his life ; the Talmud, says Dean Farrar,
contains a score of references to Jesus, confirming his stay in Egypt, his
Davidic descent, his miracles, his apostolic following, his excommunication
by the Sanhedrin, his crucifixion, and even his innocence.

274

GENTLENESS AND SEVERITY.

'7T.S a training for the Twelve, and for the disciples of
[\ Jesus in early ages, the aggressive spirit of the Master
had to do with the great success that attended the
proclamation of Christ and him crucified in the years next
following the resurrection. It was affirmation, not nega-
tion, that attacked the Roman empire.

Meek and lowly were those who had been with Jesus,
yet they proclaimed the full and fair proportion of the Sav-
iour's character, which was modeled on the study of those
Messianic texts upon which he had meditated during a
score of years in his workshop at Nazareth. They knew
that their Lord had read of old time, that he who was
anointed to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the
broken hearted, to comfort all that mourn, should also pro-
claim liberty to the captives and proclaim the day of God's
vengeance. The Hebrew hymns, in his childhood, had
taught Jesus that the Messiah should redeem the poor and
needy from the hand of deceit and violence. And in the
book of the law, he had read that he who was merciful
and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands of generations, for-
giving iniquity, transgression arid sin, would yet by no
means clear the guilty.

So it came about that the Rose of Sharon was not thorn-
less ; and that he, who had been named in ancient song as
the Lily of the Valley, had been also called the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. And men, too, were warned lest they pro-
voke the wrath of the Lamb of God : " For whither should

275

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

we go for refuge, save to him ? If we find wrath with him,
with whom shall we find ruth ? "

Christ was manifest as the Infinite Conscience, to main-
tain Moral Law among men. Was he loving and tender ?
Was he not also stern and sometimes filled with righteous
indignation ? Did not both meekness and majesty abide
in his face ? Is not the law of love a two-edged sword ?
Is not the Moral Governor of the universe the enemy of all
who persistently oppose the law of love, all who attempt,
so far as they are able, to break down the well-being of
all worlds ? To love holiness is to hate sin ; nor can
love do otherwise than be the enemy of all that is
inimical to the object of love. If any one does not hate
evil, how can he love goodness ? Jesus would never quench
smoking flax or be unmindful of the least sign of celes-
tial fire, yet he would bring forth justice to victory. Did
not his goodness have edge to it, to wield against badness ?*
Electricity is present in a myriad beneficent forms in na-
ture, yet there are conditions in which it will rend the sky
and tear the earth. Therefore it is written: "He that
hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the Son hath
not life;" "Whosoever shall deny me, him will I also
deny ; " " He that disbelieveth shall be condemned."

* * ' Your goodness must have some edge — else it is none. ' ' — Emerson.

276

GENTLENESS AND SEVERITY.

THE manifest mercy — the gentleness as well as the
severity — of the mission of Jesus is set forth as a
scheme of redemption. It was no mere ethical system,
however sublime : the life and death of Jesus meant far
more. It exalted self-sacrifice into a world-wide principle,
for the practical conduct of men : and it made God and
man to be at one.

When Thomas Aquinas asked Bonaventura to show him
the library whence he had derived his stores of knowledge,
in answer he pointed to the crucifix. " The Incarnation,"
says Faber, "is the point of arrival and departure of all his-
tory. The destinies of nations, as well as of individuals,
group themselves around it." The salvation of the world
has been wrought out by a spiritual Messiah, a suffering
Saviour. Men are to be saved through faith in Christ and
him crucified.

Jesus came to the earth as the expression of God's love
to men, to teach that the Almighty is the All-merciful.
Nor did the All-father ever upbraid a penitent prodigal be-
fore receiving him. "When Christ saith, 'Come unto
me,' he does not say, 'First love, and then come.' No,
' Come ' to him, — that you may be made to love him. He
does not say, 'Come,' because you are melted into contri-
tion ; but that you may be : ' Come,' not because you have
a deep conviction of sin, but that it may be made deep." *

" I am that wounded man ; blessed Samaritan, heal me :

*Dean W. F. Hook.

27?

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

I am that wandering child, that is not worthy to be called
thy son ; Father, make me thy meanest servant : I am the
lost sheep, O seek and save me ; bring me home, Lord,
unto thy heavenly fold." *

" Thou art in the heart of those that confess Thee, and
cast themselves upon Thee, and weep in Thy bosom, after
all their rugged ways. . . . With inward groanings, I
knock at Thine ears, and, with a settled faith, cast my care
on Thee."f

" I have sinned," it is said in the prayers of St. Anselm,
" I have sinned, and Thou hast suffered it ; I have offended,
and yet Thou endurest me. If I repent, Thou sparest ; if
I return, Thou receivest me ; yes, moreover, while I defer,
Thou waitest for me. Wandering, Thou recallest me ; re-
sisting Thee, Thou invitest me ; slumbering, Thou awak-
enest me ; returning, Thou embracest me ; ignorant, Thou
teachest me ; grieving, Thou soothest me ; when I am
down, Thou raisest me up ; fallen, thou restorest me : Thou
givest to me asking, Thou art found of me seeking, Thou
openest to me knocking."

All this faith and hope and love, — this penitence, this
grieving, this self-abasement, this bringing the heart to
God, this loud and importunate calling after the Father to
receive his sinning child, — this is the outcome of the
mission of Jesus, in its gentleness and in its severity.

* Christopher Sutton, D.D., a.d. 1600.
f Saint Augustine.

278

CHAPTER SIX.

The World's Great Teacher.

EAVEN and earth, saith our Lord, shall pass
away, but my word shall not pass away. If we

£> I take the hundred great men of history, and

select from them all, those who have been
great in the department of which Jesus made a specialty —
the religious; if we write down these names; and if we
then compare, one by one, their sayings with the words of
Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, we shall find him unmatched in the purity of his
ethical system, the sublimity of the truths he announced,
in depth and breadth of reasoning upon the highest themes,
in logical clearness, in insight into the moral wants of man-
kind, and in fervent love for humanity, — a standing mira-
cle of moral wisdom out of heaven, the shadowless light of
God. And even all this is but a part of what the apostle
has called the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The poets, the philosophers, the sages, are notable for
this excellence, or for that, but there is no one whom we
can for a moment compare with the Man of Nazareth.

[Book VI.] 279

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

"Without writing a single line/' says SchafY, "he set more
pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons,
orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, sweet
songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of
ancient and modern times."

The longest of the Gospels is little more than two-score
pages octavo in good type, and the four with all their repe-
titions of the same things comprise not a hundred and fifty
pages, — and yet we will match them against the libraries
of the world for their moral and religious influence upon
mankind. He was not an author, nor a scientist, nor a
philosopher, nor a statesman, nor a warrior, but he. was
morally and intellectually unique in this, — that men have
never found one error in his teachings, nor have they in
eighteen centuries of amazing intellectual activity added
one iota to what he advanced upon moral and religious sub-
jects ; and if any one challenges this, let him point out
from all other sources the first ray of moral or religious
truth that has been added to the teachings of Jesus.*

The words of Jesus never grow old, — they were fitted to
the times in which he lived, but they are equally applicable
to all lands in all ages. Neither was his instruction at that
time so far in advance of men's moral needs, as to lose its
pertinency. The words of Jesus were like the light from
heaven, adapted to the morning or to the evening of the
world.

* For this sentence, the Author is indebted to Christ and Ills Work,
by Cyrus 1). Foss, New York, 1878. It is a condensed statement, based
on what is said upon pages 49 and 51.

280

THE WORLD'S GREAT TEACHER.

It is a far reaching truth, that sweeps away all rival
claims for the moral supremacy, when we say of Jesus that
he is "the eternal contemporary of us all." * " You never
get to the end of Christ's words," says Dean Stanley.
"There is something in them always behind. They pass
into proverbs, they pass into laws, they pass into doctrines,
they pass into consolations ; but they never pass away, and
after all the use that is made of them they are still not ex-
hausted." f

WHAT has been said, however, in the preceding section
is not to be insisted upon. What is truly unique in
the teachings of Jesus is that which is behind his words, —
his personal character, his life, and his death of self-sacri-
fice ; in fact the very appearance of Jesus upon this globe
was in expression of God's disapproval of sin, and his love
for the sinner. It was the work of Jesus, first and last, to
institute a scheme of Redemption, to bring back to God his
wayward and wandering children. And when we speak

* This is the happy phrase of Frances E. Willard, LL.D.

f This chapter is for testimony. I will, therefore, cite Dr. George
Putnam's Sermons. Jesus, he says, commends himself to the most
thoughtful men of ail ages : « < Nearly all the most eminent thinkers and
writers in literature, philosophy, and religion, are not hostile in spirit to
Jesus Christ. They do not wish to diminish his influence. They are
most serious and earnest, if not devout men. They are not scoffers.
They profess the highest appreciation of Christ, and regard themselves as
promoting his true cause, his real and legitimate influence. The spirit
which actuates them is not hostile to religion, or to Christ as its highest
representative."

281

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

about the ultimate success of the teachings of Jesus, through-
out the ages following his death, we put this foremost,
that as a scheme of Redemption it has found no match for
moral influence, among schemes originating with either or
all of one hundred of the most eminent religious, moral,
and philanthropic leaders of mankind.

We can never get the full measure and sweep of Christ's
teachings, except as we take into view their relation to the
dreary ages of history. The primitive man was brutal.
During untold years, violence had reigned in the earth.
This Nazarene peasant showed his relationship to the Eter-
nal God — who foresaw the end from the beginning — when
he brought a message of peace on the earth to the men of
good will. And although ages swept onward before his
ideal had a perceptible influence upon the nations, yet the
illuminating spark of divine fire had fallen upon the earth.
The Hebrew dream of a golden age to come, taking definite
shape in the mandates of the Son of Man upon the horns of
Hattim, marks an era in moral evolution which gives un-
speakable dignity to Jesus, and sets him apart as the Moral
Leader of mankind. The advancement of the Kingdom of
God in the world so carries with it the influence of Jesus,
that his name is exalted above every name.

This arises mainly from the fact that in God's moral
government of the world, the government was upon his
shoulders, and Jesus was made the King of kings. The
appearance of God in history, marked and decided as it
was in the old dispensation, was so pronounced in the new
age, that Jesus may be spoken of as the chief exponent or

282

THE WORLD'S GREAT TEACHER.

executive of the Kingdom of God for after times. He ex-
pounded its theory, he made clear the principle of love
which underlies every part of its movement. He established
the Kingdom, as the leading power among the principali-
ties of the world. It was the empire of righteousness, gain-
ing sway in every quarter of the globe.

" In all nations above the line of semi-barbarism," says
Professor Talcott, " his law is to-day the acknowledged
standard of right ; and in his name, professedly at least,
kings reign and princes decree justice. Through influences
going forth from him, whole races of men have been
brought up from the depths of savage life. The annals of
all time may be searched in vain for the record of such a
change accomplished by any other agency. Every step of
substantial moral progress recorded in the history of man-
kind since his time, has had its origin in his teachings.
This position which Jesus occupies in general history, is a
position for which the whole preceding history of the world
was a preparation. He is the central figure of all ages. Is
it conceivable that such a position can have been allotted by
an overruling Providence, or even by blind chance, to an
imposter, or a fanatic, or a being that never existed but
in fiction f

" His Kingdom was to be established primarily in the
hearts of individual men. To individuals the call was
addressed to become his subjects ; to love him with a
supreme affection, — and to take his life of labor and sacri-
fice for the good of others as the model for their own lives.
Individuals were brought under the influence of that love,

283

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

which was manifested in giving his life a ransom for many.
In whatever part of the world the words of Jesus have been
made known, there have always been found hearts ready
to receive them ; and to these they have become the me-
dium of a new life. A New Style of Character has come
into existence, — a character to which nothing more than a
distant approximation has ever been witnessed in lands
unvisited by revelation, and even that but rarely, — a char-
acter the controlling element of which is supreme love to
Christ, and love to man for Christ's sake, and which is
uniformly referred, by all in whom it is exhibited, to the
power of Christ- working in them. This character, in its
distinctive features and in its practical manifestations, is
essentially the same in every land, and has been so in every
generation. The personal experience connected with it is
corroborated by the testimony of millions upon millions,
living or dead, representing every century, every race of
men, every grade of cultivation, every form and aspect of
human life ; all agreeing in this one thing, — the spirit of
loving trust in Jesus and of hearty obedience to his law." *
If I may still cite testimonies, let it be Frances Power
Cobbe : — " The coming of Jesus was to the life of human-
ity, what regeneration is to the individual. The world has
changed, and that change is historically traceable to
Christ."

* These two paragraphs are adapted to these pages, from a series of
valuable articles in the Christian Mirror, a few years since, by Professor
D. S. Talcott, D. D., of Bangor Seminary.

284

THE WORLD'S GREAT TEACHER.

" The moral civilization of the world," says Professor
Andrews Norton, " the noblest conception which men have
entertaitfed of religion, of their nature, of their duties, are
to be traced back directly to Jesus Christ." *

" In him is centered all that is good and exalted in our
nature. Whatever may be the unlooked for phenomena of
the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will
grow forever. All ages will say, that among the sons of
men none has ever been greater than Jesus." f

" The idea of Jesus," says Bishop Brooks, " is the illumi-
nation and the inspiration of existence. Without it, moral
life becomes a barren expediency, and social life a hollow
shell, and emotional life a meaningless excitement, and in-
tellectual life an idle play and stupid drudgery. Without
it the world is a puzzle, and death a horror, and eternity a
blank. More and more it shines as the only hope of what
without it is all darkness."

Well then may we say, that "Christ can no more be
expelled from the course of history than the sun from the
circle of the sky. Skepticism about Christ is also skepti-
cism about history itself ; unbelief in him is unbelief in the
controlling ideas by which men have been inspired, and in
the chief objects for which men have hitherto lived." J

*" I believe in Christ, 'the life: I think that is my whole creed."
— W. D. Howells.

" At the basis of our modern civilization lies the thought of Jesus." —
De Pressense\

fThe close of Kenan's Life of Jesus.
% Professor Henry B. Smith, D.D.

285

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

"Christ," says our Germanic American scholar, Philip
Schaff, "is the glory of the past, the life of the present,
the hope of the future."*

There can, indeed, be no more fitting simile than that of
Dr. Samuel Harris : — "A god of the Scandinavian mythol-
ogy was challenged to a race and was outrun ; his competi-
tor in the race had been Human Thought. In all which
pertains to man's moral and spiritual life, Christ has been
tested in the race with human thought for eighteen hundred
years, and has been always in advance ; and by his spiritual
quickening of men, it is he himself who has given to human
thought its power and speed."

[ ESUS did not angrily chafe, nor contend with ignomin-
+J ious contemporaries who contradicted his doctrine ; he
left the truth to do its own work, to be energized by the
Divine Spirit, and to win its way. The words of Jesus in
Galilee, in Judea, on the coasts of Sidon, were powers such
as had never appeared before upon this globe. Jesus
calmly waited in view of their final triumph. Within the
bosom of the Son of Man dwelt the peaceful Dove of God.
A Divine Life reigned in all his human faculties.

"Every man," said Jesus, "that hath heard, and hath

* << Whatever progress mankind may make, they can never outrun the
teaching of Christ." — E. S. Gannett, D.D.

"Humanity, as it passes through phase after phase of historical
merit, may advance indefinitely in excellence, but its advance will be an
indefinite approximation of the Christian type. " — Goldwin Smith, D.C.L.

286

THE WORLD'S GREAT TEACHER.

learned of the Father, cometh unto me." The men who are
attracted to God, and who have religious longing, and who
are taught of the Father, will certainly go to Christ as the
religious leader of the world.

The Golden Rule will yet cut off all the tyrants and all
oppressors, and bring in the Golden Age. As the drops of
rain and the sunbeams make the grass blades and leaf and
flower and fruit adorn our raw hillsides, and clothe the
naked earth, so will the wilderness and solitary place be
glad for the words of Jesus as for the water of life ; and
the desert shall blossom as the rose. Distant rivers of the
earth, with uncouth, savage names, will roll as with the
sweet music of Jordan in a purified world. And places of
worship, sacred as the hill of God, will rise among the
barbaric villages of far off continents.

So all the world is looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith ; he who was the beginning and the
ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come.*

* N. B. — For further illustration of this topic, Jesus as a Teacher, the reader
is directed to the Article by Professor Fisher upon the Seed-like Character
of the teachings of Jesus, page Jfi2 ; to Dr. Strong's Article, page 506 ;
to Dr. Huntington's Article, page 519 ; and to Dr. Dorchester's
Article, page 566.

^S|

287

BOOK SEVEN.

+£&frt&-

Our Suffering Saviour,

-**>*I51fr<s*

Chapter 1. Page 289.

Entering the Shadows.

Chapter 2. Page 299.

The Hea.ven.l3r Vine and. Bread..

Chapter 3. Page 309.

The Awful Night in Gethsemane,

Chapter 4. Page 320.

The Midnight Hour.

Chapter 5. Page 326.

A. Triumphant Mob.

Chapter 6. Page 338.

The Darkness at Noonday,

CHAPTER ONE.

Entering the Shadows.

^s^^

(^ I HE shadow of the cross was never far from falling
4 1 on the footsteps of Jesus. The conflict of ideas
^iJL between the Man of Sorrows and those who were in
authority, began before the twelve were chosen, and before
the second preaching tour through Galilee. It related to
works of mercy upon the Sabbath day. Glimpses of Geth-
semane, the betrayal, and the judgment hall, began to
dawn dimly * upon the mind of Jesus, long before he went
up to Jerusalem — as if going into the valley of the shadow
of death. Nor did he flinch from the baptism of suffering,
which awaited him. f

When an eager and sanguine disciple could ill bear the
thought that his Master should be manifested as a suffering
Messiah, the great lawgiver of Israel and the chief of the

* Jesus as a child came to his knowledge a little at a time, growing in
wisdom ; it must have been so in his manhood. Before he began his
ministry he did not know so minutely as he did after a year or two, just
the effect his teaching would have upon the enraged rabbis.

f Luke xii : 50. Consult also John iii : 14 ; Matt, xvi : 21 ; and
xvii : 22, 23 ; Mark x : 32 ; Matt, xx : 28 ; and xxvi : 2 ; John xii : 23,
24 ; and vi : 51.

[Book VII.] 289 19

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

prophets appeared in a flood of celestial glory, upon the
slopes of Hermon, to converse with Jesus about his decease
so near at hand ; thus surrounding that dread event with
ineffable light. To this grand climax of the centuries of
Jewish history, the Law and the Prophets had pointed.

In ascending from Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and the three
disciples had picked their way amid the vineyards, the
wheat fields, and the orchards ; and in the falling day, ere
plunged into a ravine with its screening oaks, they paused
to look at the rose and red of sunset, and the light on the
western sea. In the early part of the night the disciples
slept, while Jesus prayed. When they were awake, they
saw his glory, and his very garments shone like heavenly
raiment. So were the chief apostles strengthened, against
the time when their faith would be sore tempted. And in
the morning light they returned to the Roman city, where
pagan images stood upon the street corners : and here Jesus
cast out devils ; not however casting out that Roman devil,
which later on served as the instrument of his crucifixion.

THERE is a tragic interest in the story of the Feast of the
Tabernacles in the autumn before the death of Jesus.
He had already begun to avoid his enemies by retiring to
northern Galilee, in order that he might be free to give fur-
ther instruction to his disciples, and fulfill his mission —
until his time should come. He went privately up to the
feast. And there he cried earnestly : "If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink " ; and again, he pro-
claimed himself "the Light of the world."

290

THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

It was an hour of peril. His enemies, again and again,
sought to take him. And in his encounters with them, he
alluded to their seeking to kill him, and even to their cruci-
fying him ; and he had finally to conceal himself, to avoid
being stoned.*

WHEN the springtime approached, the resurrection of
Lazarus brought about a crisis.
The secluded home at Bethany had become a house of
sorrow. Jesus was beyond Jordan. The domestic servants
had often gone down the road looking eastward, to see if
Jesus were coming up from the wilderness. When our
Lord approached the town, he saw, amid scattering olives,
oaks, and palms, certain tombs that had been cut from the
limestone ledges near his pathway ; and there were broken
bowlders, and shrubs of the almond, or the pomegranate.
And here he waited the coming of the mourners, that he
might see them apart from professional wailers, whose
sharp outcries and conventional lamentations jarred upon
his sense of fitting serenity at the graveside. Nor did Mary
need to go to her brother's grave, to weep there, since he, who
was the Resurrection and the Life, had also come hither.
Jesus wept ; being troubled, and groaning in spirit, — tak-
ing upon himself domestic sorrows. He, however, who
wept as a man, now spoke like a God, f calling in a loud

* John vii : 30, 44-46 ; and viii : 40 ; xxviii : 59.
f Archbishop Leighton.

291

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

voice to awaken him who was sleeping. And he that was
dead came forth.

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, believed
on Jesus ; " they had come as the merciful, and they ob-
tained mercy." Yet some went away to the Pharisees, who
would not believe on Jesus, though one rose from the dead.
They did not deny the miracle,* but they were politicians,
affirming that if Jesus gained a greater following, it would
displease the Romans ; and they decided under the counsel
of the high priest to put him to death whenever he might
be found, — and it was thought that he might appear at the
passover.

This miracle so notable, placing beyond all doubt the
divine calling of Jesus, f determined the adversaries of the
Messiah to put Jesus to death : and, a little later, to kill
Lazarus also, through whom many went away to believe
on Jesus.

CROM that day forth, it is said, they took counsel together
I to put him to death. Jesus, therefore, walked no more
openly among the Jews, but went thence into a country
near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there

*Johnxi: 47-50, 56, 57.

-j- The raising of the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of
Nain, and of Lazarus, proceeded upon what Archbishop Trench has
called "an ascending scale of difficulty"; since it was, in Bengel's
phrase, raising the dead " from the bed, the bier, the grave " (Matt, ix :
25 ; Luke vii : 14 ; John xi : 44), — one just dead, one about to be buried,
one after the funeral. This was conclusive, clinching testimony, to the
message of Jesus.

292

THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

continued with his disciples. It was a day's journey thither,
upon the Jordan road north ; along the eastern slope of
the table-land of Palestine, — between the populous villages
and the river ravine. Although there were vines and fig
trees, with now and then an orchard of olives, yet for the
most part the obscure and crooked path passed over bare
ledges or along ragged cliffs, sometimes under the shadow
of towering crags, — a world of stone. They encountered
bowlders, fragments of rock, or areas of smoothed pebbles ;
and when they paused by the wayside, it was to find some
rocky tomb, or a cave that had been the haunt of robbers,
or used as a hiding place from invaders. They sometimes
crossed wild ravines upon glistening and slippery rocks,
where winter torrents were pouring. It was everywhere
a lonely landscape, made memorable by ages of Jewish
history. Yet these desolate hills were less inhospitable than
Mount Zion. They found the miniature city, with its tower
and its houses of stone, occupying the top of a conical hill ;
and here Jesus remained with the twelve, for forty days.

After which, the time having come when all things that
were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man
should be accomplished, Jesus told the twelve what was
about to occur,* and that it was in accordance with the
ancient prophecies of a Suffering Saviour. Yet the mock-
ing, the scourging, and the spiteful treatment, his death
and resurrection, that he told of, they could not understand.
It was, they said, some parable of occult meaning.

*Luke xviii: 31-34.

293

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

As they passed through Jericho, upon their way to
Jerusalem to attend the passover, Zaccheus became a dis-
ciple, and Bartimeus was healed. These lessons of sharp
decision, and of importunity, have made the site of Jericho
memorable throughout the world.*

" To thy garments we will cling,
All our need before thee bring ;
Son of David, hear our cry,
Pass not, pass not by."

At Bethany, Jesus was anointed for his burial. She who
had sat at Jesus' feet to learn of him, and who had fallen at
his feet in her hour of grief, now poured upon his feet that
precious ointment, whose odor has gone forth throughout
the world, f " While the victories of many kings and gen-

* " It is now difficult," says Dr. William Hanna, " to determine
the site of the city ; so little is left of it, — its hippodrome and amphitheater,
its towers and its palaces. Its gardens and its groves are gone ; not one
solitary palm tree for a blind beggar to sit beneath, nor a sycamore for
anyone to climb. The City of Fragrance it was called of old. There
remains now but the fragrance of those deeds of grace and mercy done
there by him, who in passing through it closed his earthly journeyings,
and went thence to Jerusalem to die."

f"Mary arose and fetched an alabaster vase of Indian spikenard,
and came softly behind Jesus, and broke the alabaster in her hands, and
poured the precious perfume first over his head, then over his feet ; while
the atmosphere of the whole house was filled with the fragrance." —
Dean Farrar.

The sharp comment of St. John (xii : 4-6) upon the speech of Judas
on this occasion, has led the Scotch preacher, Dr. John Ker, to say :
" Judas the thief takes the side of poverty that he may plunder it." And
and it also led the quaint Quesnel to say (referring also to John xvii : 12,

294

THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

erals," says St. Chrysostom, "are lost in silence, and many
who have founded states and reduced nations to subjection
are not known by name, the pouring of ointment by this
woman is celebrated throughout the whole world ; the
memory of the deed hath not waned away."

THE first day of that week, which has been so fittingly
called the holy of holies of Christ's life,* was the day
when the Mosaic law set apart the paschal lamb for sacri-
fice,— fitting day to designate in some marked manner the
Lamb of God, for the coming sacrifice. It was the day of
the triumphant entry into Jerusalem ; an expression of the
popular applause for the raising of Lazarus, f which left
now no room to doubt that the Messiah had come. It was
the only time in which Jesus bore part in a great public dis-
play : it was to draw the more emphatic attention, by con-
trast, to what was so soon to follow. J

" Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates.
Behold, the King of glory waits ;
The King of Kings is drawing near,
The Saviour of the world is here."§

and John x : 28, 29) : " Christ trusts a thief with his money, because he
sets no value on it ; but he keeps souls in his own custody. He suffers his
money to be stolen from him, but never his sheep."

* Olshausen. f This is particularly noted, — John xii : 17,18.

X " What he was then, when he rode in triumph into Jerusalem, that
is he now to us this day, — a king, meek and lowly, and having salvation,
the head and founder of a kingdom which can never be moved." —
Charles Kingsley.

§ Georg Weissel, 1630. Lyra Germanica.

295

OUR ELDKKT BROTHER.

In riding over the southern slope of Olivet, Jesus could
not see the "City of the Great King," till he reached that
point where the path turns north. The glory * of the city
moved the Redeemer to tears for its pending doom.f The
Shechina, said the rabbis, J had retired to the Mount of
Olives, and there for three years had called in vain to the
people to repent ; and had then withdrawn forever. As
Jesus when a child had seen the birds of prey, so now he
saw the gathering of the eagles of Rome about the devoted
city. " Thou shalt be oppressed and spoiled evermore, and
no man shall save thee."

For Jerusalem are tears ;

Thus for man God's love appears :

Warning words the sinner hears.

* " The great wall of the temple enclosure," says Geikie, " now bur-
ied under a hundred feet of rubbish on the east side, stood up fresh from
the hands of the builder, in its vast height ; the eastern side of Mount
Moriah and the bed of the Kedron were rich with vegetation, and the
slopes around were dotted with great mansions embosomed in verdure ;
the broader level below the pool of Siloam was a paradise of waving
green ; and the temple courts rose, one over the other, in dazzling white,
— the temple itself, of snowy white set off with flashing gold, surmount-
ing all."

f " Upon Palm Sunday, when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem,
and was adorned with the acclamations of a king and a God, he wet the
palms with his tears, sweeter than the drops of manna or the little pearls
of heaven that descended upon Mount Hermon ; weeping in the midst of
this triumph, over obstinate, perishing, and malicious Jerusalem." —
Bishop Jeremy Taylor.

% Referring to Ezk. xi : 23 : « < The glory of the Lord went up from
the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east
side of the city."

296

THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

Haste, Jerusalem, to turn, —
Lest thy gates in anger burn ;
Penitent, thy lesson learn.

Thy Redeemer's tears have wet
Cheeks where love and grief have met :
Haste to pay, of love, thy debt.

Love unknown,- — *tis mercy's hour ;

Clouds above thy head now lower :

Do not crown with thorns God's power.

Doom for sin has loud out-pealed ;
Fate for sin is ever sealed :
Penitent, — thy sins are healed.

THE second cleansing of the temple occurred the day
following. And for it Jesus was sharply questioned
by the rabbis next day, Tuesday of passion week. "All
the world is gone after him," they said ; and they demanded
by what authority he took such a course. And all day
long, he foiled his adversaries in sharp question, and quick
reply.*

All the people came early in the morning to him in the
temple ; and they heard the parable of the two sons, of the
wicked husbandmen, and of the wedding garment, — and
they heard the Saviour's condemnation of the Pharisees.

When certain Greeks desired to see him, Jesus thought
at once of the far reaching influence of his passion in

* John xii : 19 ; Matt, xxi : 23 ; and xxii : 15-46.

297

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

drawing all men to himself.* Yet his soul was so full of
his approaching sacrifice, that he was speechless through
sorrow ; nor could he continue to speak without first break-
ing forth into an agonized prayer like that of Gethsemane.

Upon returning to Bethany at nightfall, Jesus paused
upon the ridge of Olivet, and looked back upon the city,
and told his disciples of the woes to come upon it, and pro-
nounced judicial condemnation upon the leaders of the
people.

The day following, while Judas was plotting to betray
innocent blood, Jesus remained at Bethany ; where he
abode until near the evening hour of Thursday, — when he
went to Jerusalem to observe the feast of the passover with
his disciples. \

* It has been noted by Gerhaedt that the wise men of the Orient
came to see Jesus at the sunrise of his life ; and that now these men of
the Occident came, desiring to see him, as his sun was about to set.

f For Bishop Ryle's remarks upon the Lord's Supper, which was instl'
tuted at this feast, see page 580.

298

CHAPTER TWO.

The Heavenly Vine and Bread.

-sMfc-*

"PON the rising of the paschal moon, a fire was kin-
dled upon the Mount of Olives, and corresponding
fires were instantly kindled upon hilltops
eastward, — till a line of fire flashed from
Jerusalem to Babylon. During a thousand years, the smoke
of the paschal sacrifice had ascended from the sacred city.
Josephus reports the number of paschal lambs sacrificed,
between three and five o'clock in the afternoon, to be more
than a quarter of a million, and the attendance upon the
feast of the passover more than two and a half millions of
worshipers. Tents and booths and the gay colors of the
children of the Orient covered the entire region, — the
gardens, the vineyards, the olive groves, and the sides of
the mountains round about Jerusalem. The air was filled
with the songs of Zion : "Let Zion rejoice ; let the daugh-
ters of Israel be glad." All this multitude of people rose up
one day, and sacrificed Jesus as the Paschal Lamb. They
were for the moment of one accord, with few dissenting
voices, — a few hundreds out of the millions. As a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

[Book VU.] 299

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It was the boast of the city that no one ever failed of
finding a hearty hospitality, and the disciples of our Lord
found an upper room, where they might eat their bitter
herbs and unleavened bread, — while contending who should
be greatest in the Kingdom of the Messiah now so near at
hand. Here too their Saviour taught them concerning the
spiritual nature of his Kingdom ; and gave them a lesson in
humility by washing their feet, so travel sore in his serv-
ice,— and even washing from the feet of Judas the dust
which he had gathered by walking between the murderers
and their victim.

Jesus, who knew what was in man, who perceived the
thoughts of his adversaries, had long ago read the char-
acter of Judas, — and he had spoken of it a year and a half
before the betrayal ; indeed, says John, Jesus knew it from
the beginning.* "Now is the Son of Man glorified,'7 said
Jesus, when Judas went forth to perform quickly what he
had the heart to do. For the Master had said to him,
"That thou doest, do quickly." So (says John Angell
James), "Jesus made haste to the cross, impatient for the
hour of sacrifice."

* St. Cyprian has called attention to the patience of Jesus, in not
openly pointing out Judas by name, when he knew that he was a traitor.
Edersiieim and others note that the conversations at the paschal table,
relating to Judas, were uttered in a low tone, — Matt, xxvi : 25, and John
xiii: 26.

" Jesus knew from the beginning," — that is, from the beginning of
Judas' thought to betray his Lord. It does not refer to the time when
Jesus — after a night of prayer — chose Judas for one of his disciples ; he
would not have deliberately picked out a traitor. Vide John vi : 64,

300

THE PASCHAL FEAST.

IT was after this, that the Sacrament of our Lord's Supper
was instituted with the eleven. How tenderly they
loved him. The mutual affection between Christ and St.
John and its attitude of familiarity was of no sudden
growth. If Jesus had not placed his arm about the reclin-
ing John, and drawn him tenderly to himself, the beloved
disciple would hardly have ventured on so close approach, —
with loving eyes looking up into the loving eyes of Jesus.
Christ was upborne, and carried forward by the love of his
disciples. Yearning for the voice of kindness and the touch
of friendly hands, he whom the world hated was com-
forted by the manifestation of human love.

" With desire," said Jesus, "I have desired to eat this
passover with you before I suffer."

"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying,

and compare verses 60, 61 ; by which it appears that the true character of
certain disciples was now — by their own conduct and choice — discovered
to themselves and to Jesus. John xiii : 18, 19, is to be explained in the
same way.

It was when Jesus foresaw the despair of Judas, that he quoted from
the book of Enoch, which was then much read, declaring that it would
have been better for him if he had never been born. But he who had
already washed the feet of Judas would have pardoned him, if, instead of
hanging himself, he had appeared at the cross in true penitence and faith
like the dying thief.

There is a touch of pathos in the record of John, that when Judas
had received the sop from his Master, he " went immediately out, — and
it was night." It was indeed night, a chill falling upon all the world.
"A night," says Quesnel, " the most criminal, dreadful, and dark, and
yet the most holy, hopeful, and bright."

301

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

This is my body which is given for you, this do in remem-
brance of me.

"And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them,
saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the cove-
nant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins."

The significance of these words was better understood
after his death. He spoke of a present transaction, or one
about to be : " This my body," is being given, is being
broken. "This my blood," is being shed.*

As the disciples had failed to understand repeated allu-
sions to his death, so now our Saviour's instruction had to be
limited to the capacity of his hearers to comprehend his
words. When, however, he spoke of his blood as the
token of a new covenant, shed for many for the remission
of sins, they must have classified this saying with his giving
his life a ransom for many ; f that is> as "the blood of the
paschal lamb redeemed the ancient people of God, so now
his own blood would have redemptive power in a new cove-
nant adapted to world-wide sinners.

Thou Wine of God, in red outflow,
Now quench in me my thirst so deep ;

I long at last my God to know,
As o'er my sins I sigh and weep.

Thou Bread of God, so sweet thy taste,

In hunger keen I seek for thee ;
All other food I count but waste, —

Thy strength supports and comforts me.

*EDERbHEIM.

f Matt, xxvi : 28 ; Matt, xx : 28.

302

THE PASCHAL FEAST.

The simple rite instituted by Christ has no more literal
significance than when he said, "I am the vine," or " I am
the door." This sacrament was our Lord's own comment
upon that discourse which so stumbled the Jews,* about
eating his flesh and drinking his blood : no feast of kings,
no feast of angels, so costly as this.

One element in this new covenant is that of binding the
disciples to each other and to their Lord. Eating bread to-
gether, they are to stand by each other, and to stand by
Christ, and he by them, f

The Lord's Supper, in its first observance, marks the
birthday of organized Christianity. This with its corre-
sponding symbol, Christian baptism, holds us "in com-
munion with all the people of God in times past and
present, amid changes of all other customs." J

The world-wide sweep of this ordinance, established by
Jesus upon the night before his death, is illustrated by a
communion service held not long since in India, in a chapel
of the American Board. Here a Brahman sat beside a
pariah, a representative of the English nobility and mili-
tary officers in full dress by the side of men whose clothing
was not worth half a dollar ; here were the lame, and per-
sons from an almshouse, and converted Mohammedans, and

* John vi: 54.

f Dr. William Thomson, the Syrian missionary, suggests this ; who
adds, that the orientals complain of the occidentals for having no "bread
and salt covenants," — of whose virtue, as a bond between men, romantic
tales abound in the East.

% Nehemiah Adams, D.D.

303

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Scotchmen, and Americans ; some wore turbans of various
colors, and some left their sandals at the door ; some sat on
the floor, some on benches, and some sat cross-legged ; and
there was one man there who had committed perhaps
twenty murders, — and yet the blood of Christ availed for
all ; and it was a common bond between them, as well as
between them and their Lord.

" As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do
show the Lord's death till he come : " —

" Until the trump of God be heard,
Until the ancient graves be stirred,
And with the great, commanding word,
The Lord shall come." *

"The body of Christ," says Calvin, f "is not brought
down into the sacrament ; but the soul of him who par-
takes thereof is raised by faith towards heaven, and is
there brought into contact with the body of Christ, and
thus made a partaker of the divine life." These words are
however but another way of expressing the spirituality of
Christ's own words. Those who have love in their hearts
will behold him in the breaking of bread ; and they will
receive from him the priceless treasure of his love. So an
oriental king is said to have given precious gifts to those
who discerned him, when he went into a company in form
invisible to ordinary sight ; it being said that those favored
ones could see him, because they had love in their hearts
for him.

*Lyra Eucharistica.
f A summary of his words, by Planck.

304

THE PASCHAL FEAST.

THE artless * discourse of Jesus after the supper, and the
prayer he uttered, are kept in the affectionate remem-
brance of God's people in all ages, being the dying words
of that Friend which sticketh closer than a brother, f

Many of these words of Jesus could not have been clear
to the disciples at the hour. Not yet did they apprehend
that their king would be crucified ; but now they knew that
they would be separated from him for a time at least. His
allusions to the Father's love, and to the privilege of prayer,
they did understand at once.

It is believed that the upper room where they were, was
the same room where the pentecostal descent of the Holy
Spirit took place, — in the house of the mother of St. Mark.
Whether this be so or not, the promise of the Comforter, by
him who was a comforter beyond any the world had seen
before, is one of the most notable things he uttered ; indi-
cating, as it did, that the present work of Jesus was but an
initial one, that the Kingdom of God was to be carried to a
triumphant issue by the Holy Spirit, — who was to be a
way-leader J into all truth, — testifying to the Christ, who

* The simplicity of this farewell address is illustrated, says Tholuck,
by John xiv : 2, 3, 16, 18, 21, 23 ; and John xvi : 23, 24, 26.

f In John's Gospel, the 14th chapter appears to have been spoken at
the table ; chapters 15-17 were uttered, it is likely, in the same room,
rather than upon the street or even in some secluded spot upon the slopes
approaching Gethsemane, where they would have been liable to early dis-
turbance. Indeed, a solitary place outside of the garden itself must have
been hard to find, amid the booths and tents of passover week.

$ EdersheiM.

305

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

had come forth from the Father and who was about to
return to the Father.

It is the total impression of this farewell discourse, that
it is of a piece with the Old Testament in its representations
of the love of God. The disciples must have recalled those
precious words : —

" I have loved thee with an everlasting love." " Can a
women forget her suckling child ? She may forget ; yet
will I not forget thee." "I have graven thee upon the
palms of my hands." " I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee." " In thine affliction, I am afflicted."

Jesus stood for the unity of God's self -revelation of love
inexpressible : God is love.* And at this supreme moment
Jesus imparted to his disciples his own joy and deep seated
peace, — "my peace I give unto you." f

And then, just as he was going forth to agonize with the
Father alone in Gethsemane, he uttered those triumphant
words, "I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

* It is impossible to emphasize this point too strongly. Jesus himself
was but the expression of God's affection for the human race. The entire
mission of the Saviour, his life, his death, was a failure, unless in it there
was brought into the world the idea of a loving Father, anguished over the
sins of men.

" In Christ, God reveals his love as entirely self -moved. Man is not
required to do anything to kindle loving-kindness in the heart of God ; if
loving-kindness and mercifulness are not eternal in God, nothing which
man can do could create them there : he might as well suppose that it
depends on him to kindle sunbeams in the sun ; God's love in its over-
flowing fullness pours forth like the sunshine, illuminating and quickening
the universe, and therein revealing God." — Samuel Harris, LL.D.

f " These are last words, as one who is about to go away, and says
1 Good night,' or gives his blessing." — Luther.

306

THE PASCHAL FEAST.

And he who had been born in a stable now made to his
disciples a promise of heavenly mansions. And he who
was to die on the morrow at the beck of more than two
millions of his countrymen, addressed a small band of his
followers who were to be scattered within an hour, — " Be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world." He had indeed
conquered ; and the victory was to be his, throughout all
ages, until time shall be no more.

THE seventeenth chapter of John was read to John Knox
daily, during his last sickness ; and Bossuet had it
read to him threescore times, when upon his bed of dying.*

It is the only prayer of Jesus, on record, — unless of one
clause, or in the Lord's prayer. The hour had come ; his
mission as the Giver of eternal life — the knowledge of God
— was now about to be finished : conscious of the glory that
should follow his sacrifice, his words read like a snatch
from a poem out of paradise ; filled as it is with thought at
high range, befitting the Son of God. He prayed for the
unity of his disciples, and for their sanctification in the
truth, and for those who, in all after ages, should believe
through their testimony.

And in this prayer, Jesus anticipated the vital union of
the disciples with himself in future eons of bliss ; a union

* These incidents beautifully illustrate the 20th verse, " Neither
pray I for these alone."

When Knox became a Protestant, he said that he first cast anchor in
the seventeenth of John ; here he found something for his troubled souJ
to hold by.

sor

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

appropriately symbolized by the Unity of the Blessed Trinity,
"As thou art in me," "that they may be one in us " : so
should they be made the sharers of his glory. "Father, I
will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me
where I am."

Day has touched the heavenly hills,
We are free from earthly ills ;
Death is o'er and life begun, —
Life is hid in God's own Son :
Hallelujah.

Time is past, and every sin,
Through the gates we enter in ;
Sing we then the newest song, —
Praising Christ in tuneful throng :
Hallelujah.

308

CHAPTER THREE.

The Awful Night in Gethsemane

— m •)*

I IS midnight ; and on Olive's brow
V. The star is dimmed that lately shone ;
'Tis midnight ; and in the garden now,
The suffering Saviour prays alone.

" 'Tis midnight ; and from all removed,
Immanuel wrestles lone with fears :
E'en the disciple that he loved

Heeds not his Master's grief and tears.

" 'Tis midnight ; and for others' guilt,
The Man of Sorrows weeps in blood ;
Yet he that hath in anguish knelt
Is not forsaken by his God.

" 'Tis midnight ; and from ether-plains
Is borne the song that angels know ;
Unheard by mortals are the strains

That sweetly soothe the Saviour's woe."*

* William B. Tappan, a.d. 1819.

[Book VII.] 309

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

HEIST Jesus had spoken these words,* and when
they had sung an hymn,t he went forth as
he was wont, over the brook Kedron to the
Mount of Olives ; and his disciples also followed him. Then
cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane,
where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his
disciples.

The present site of the garden, with its eight olive trees,
sixteen or seventeen hundred years old, if not the original
location, is but slightly to the south of it. In reaching it,
the company came down four or rive hundred feet to the
valley, crossed the stream, and then ascended perhaps two
hundred and fifty feet. It was a private garden, whose
honored and unknown owner was friendly to Jesus, who
went there so often that Judas knew the place. There were
sheepfolds on the slopes of Olivet, near by, bereft of their
lambs for the passover ; and here he who was to be led as a
lamb to the slaughter, sought to be alone for prayer, to
fortify himself for the dread hour ; and that he might not
be surprised at his devotions by the arrest so imminent, he
set Peter and James and John to watch. And he was him-
self so constantly upon the lookout, that whenever he had
been alone a little while, he approached his sleeping night-
guard to see whether Judas was not there too.

* John xviii : 1 .

f Probably the last part of the 118th Psalm, the close of the Hallel,
the great song of praise to God, comprising Psalms cxv-cxviii, which was
sung at the close of the passover ; as Fsalms cxiii-cxiv were sung at the
beginning.

310

THE GARDEN OF THE LORD

It seems likely that the disciples, within earshot, were
so drowsy that they heard but a fragment of the broken
prayers of Jesus, yet the keynote of the petition was thrice
uttered ; though, after the first time, in slightly modified
form. Even before he was quite alone with God, it is said
that he began to be "sore amazed" or "troubled" (the
word means separation from home at a time of trial), and
"desolate" or "very heavy"; and he saith unto his dis-
ciples, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful [" encompassed
on all sides by grief," as if all God's waves had gone over
him], even unto death." It was, says Bishop Lightfoot,
a "confused, restless, half-distracted state which is pro-
duced by physical derangement or mental distress."* He
poured out his soul unto death. Incoherent anguish he
knew, else could he never have been a sympathizing Sav-
iour for groaning, sobbing human wretchedness, helpless
and uttering piercing outcries to God.

" The experience of Jesus," says President D wight, f " in
its contrast with other hours before and after, the change of
feeling from triumphant confidence and victorious calm-
ness, is wonderful but not inexplicable. The closing hours
of his work and life must, as it would seem, have been filled
with thoughts moving outward and forward toward the
great triumphs of his Kingdom in the coming years and
ages, and also with thoughts of that mysterious trial of soul

* Professor Edwards A. Park speaks of our Lord, in this hour, as
" moving to and fro, now walking, now standing still, now falling down,
now uttering broken prayers."

f In the Sunday School Times.

311

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

which was so soon to be undergone. The alternations from
one to the other must have been frequent and sudden. The
dark hours and the light hours must have drawn closely
together."

"As an exegetical question," says Dr. Samuel T. Spear,*
" there can be no reasonable doubt that he referred to the cup
of his sufferings and death on the cross, which he saw to
be immediately impending, and of which he then, for some
reason, had a vivid, appalling, and overwhelming vision.
His human nature, for the moment, shuddered and shrank
under that terrible apprehension, and was moved to its pro-
foundest depths."

The sensitive mind of Jesus foreknew his end, and all the
fore-shadows fell upon Gethsemane. Amid the dark brown
trunks of the olive trees, and their quivering gray leaves,
in the light of the full moon, he saw that scene so soon to
appear on Golgotha. There was a physical shrinking ;
arising perhaps from physical exhaustion, f A lifeless
pallor overspread his face, as he stood before God alone,
in the dimly lighted darkness that shrouded Gethsemane.

No argument of reason, no strength of faith, nor ardor
of hope can remove the instinctive horror which repels the
thought of personally undergoing death ; which in the case

*In The Independent.

f Jesus entered his work as a hard-handed and rugged day laborer,
in the full maturity of early manhood ; yet, says Bushnell, "he put
himself into his great ministry with such momentum and constancy,
giving so much counsel, expending so much sympathy, suffering so great
waste of sorrow, that he died like one ripened by full age."

312

THE GARDEN OF THE LORD.

of Jesus was death in the midst of life, death by violence,
death by protracted torture ; death associated with betrayal
by one, denial by another, desertion by all, death accom-
panied by calumnious accusation, malignant spite, and
murderous frenzy, — death moreover as the representative
of sinful men. In some mysterious manner he bore our
guilt ; upon his spirit weighed the burden of our sinfulness,
of which the most terrible proof was being given in his re-
jection and murder. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the
iniquity of us all/*' Death, too, in what seemed desertion
by God, as though heaven was closed against him, — man
murdering him, God forsaking him. His sensitive humanity
shrank from such a cup.*

This story is too true. It would never have been made
up by men creating a myth ; it would have been deemed
inconsistent with what went before it and the triumphant
issue. If divine, Jesus was also human ; f and he broke down
utterly. "The flesh will quiver, when the pincers tear:"
and notwithstanding all the high courage of the Redeemer
of the world up to the close of his public ministry, and the
private discourse with his own, yet when he took a little
time to be alone before the armed mob should be upon him,

* This entire paragraph should be credited to the Rev. Newman
Hall, LL.B. ; being culled, condensed, and adapted from the Doctor's
paper upon " Christ's Prayer in Gethsemane," published in the Congrega-
tionalist some years since.

f " If Jesus Christ seemed to fear death, it was because he conde-
scended to all the weakness of humanity; his body trembled, but his
soul was immovable." — Voltaire.

313

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he could but let fall drops of sweat, as if great drops of
blood, and thrice beseech the Father, if possible, that he
might be spared drinking the bitter cup of sorrow ; yet
never failed this Son Divine to qualify his words in sweet
submission, " As Thou wilt."

WHEN Jesus, as child, youth, and man, began to enter-
tain the idea of his Messianic mission, he knew that
he was to be heavenly minded ; but he did not, at first,,
know that he would be killed on that account. He was a
holy child, pure as a lily, when he first encountered the
rabbis at Jerusalem ; nor did he, for some time, suspect that
his very innocence was against him, among the leaders of
Israel. He never did a wrong act or was conscious of sin,
— little apprehending that he would die between two
thieves. He comforted every mourner, and he bore about
with him light and love ; ncr did he think at first that he
would be buffeted and spit upon by the " people of God."

He came ultimately, however, to understand fully what
would befall anyone who dared live at cross-purposes with
the high priest and his unholy clique. And his gentle, lov-
ing spirit recoiled in horror at the deliberate wickedness of
hypocrites who thrust aside the rightful heir, and claimed
God's heritage as their own. He who could look on no sin
with allowance, he who was of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, was clad in human form, with fleshly limitations ;
and he recoiled from the ignominy of being caught like a

314

THE GARDEN OF THE LORD.

criminal by a night search, and he shrank from encounter-
ing demons who delighted in torture.

What other was Gethsemane than the awaking of Jesus
to the horrors of his situation ? While the disciples slept,
he was wide awake to the reality of that which he had been
dreaming about for years, — that human guilt, which had
now gone so far.* He had been steadily looking forward
to it, and now the children of Abraham had rejected their
Messiah ; and their wickedness was to be consummated in
that very hour. And the Friend of sinners could but be
grieved that he found the earth in such condition ; since he
knew that the ghastly cruelty of Rome, the ghoulish conduct
of Jewish rabbis, and the satanic treachery of a disciple,
were but an insignificant part of the woes of the world,
crying unto heaven in ages past, in ages to come.

Was it not this which gave a deadly sickening odor to
that cup, which Jesus was now to refuse — or to drink?
Well might he have deliberated a little, whether to commis-
sion the twelve legions within call to come wheeling down
upon the earth and make an end. He chose rather to suf-
fer wrong, and he drained the cup. As the Son of the
Highest, it remained for him to fulfill God's part, — the dis-
play of ineffable love, patience, longsuffering, self-sacrifice.
And this he did ; meeting with divine meekness the wrath
of those sinners, into whose bloody hands he was falling.

* " It was the burden and the mystery of the world's sin which lay
heavy on his heart ; it was the tasting, in the divine humanity of a sinless
life, the bitter cup which sin had poisoned." — Dean Faerae.

315

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

OEKHAPS Gethsemane stands for far more. A veiling
<V mist hangs low over the garden of our Saviour's sor-
row, and all that passed we cannot know. He was
interlocked with the guilt of the world. He alone knew
what was in man, knew the depth of human sinfulness,
and what it would lead to. Was there nothing more
than grieving over the wickedness of the Jews in shedding
innocent blood ? Was there nothing more than the agony
of slighted love, the unmerited hatred of those he had
sought to save ? Conscious of coming out of the eternities
into time, and subjecting himself to earthly condition, did
he find nothing worse than a bigoted Church ?

He was no Jew, even at Gethsemane. The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He was made sin for us ; at least
in being treated like a sinner by men, and apparently for a
moment abandoned by his God. The most guilty of the
race could not have had, at the hands of God and man, any
greater earthly punishment than was put upon him who
was called the Lamb of God.

We need not seek for the mysteries of the Atonement in
the deep shadows of Gethsemane. The at-one-ment be-
tween God and man, wrought out by the life and the death
of Christ, is a far wider work than that expressed by the
pangs of a moment in the Garden or upon the Cross.
These incidents in the life of Jesus are but a part of one
long humiliation, of sorrow unto death, to express Infinite
horror and Infinite displeasure for the sins of men ; and
Infinite love in bearing men's sins, in entering into the fel-

316

THE GARDEN OF THE LORD.

lowship of all human wretchedness. A clear apprehension
of this wrath of man in its vain contest with Infinite justice
and love, was one of the constituents of our Saviour's cup
at Gethsemane.

IF it be possible," " If Thou wilt," cried Jesus. Had it
been possible, it would have been done. The death
of Jesus, prefigured in the paschal lamb, was needful
to complete the Atonement.

This was the message of the angel, if one appeared to
strengthen Jesus ; indeed, the * angel was depicted upon
canvas, some centuries since, as exhibiting the cross to our
Redeemer in the garden.*

This is indicated by a certain acquiescence in the second
prayer : " O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me,
except I drink it, thy will be done." The depth of the
Saviour's anguish is indicated in that his resignation in
the second prayer needed to be wrought over again in the
third ; he whose voice had quieted the storms of Gen-
nesaret, now calling upon God to still the tempest in his
heart.

So, St. Paul says, Jesus " learned " obedience by the
things which he suffered. Aside from the Temptation of
our Lord, he passed through no trial that so touches upon
the experience of every disciple as this. The Garden, too,

* Luke xxii : 43, 44, are left out of manuscripts most ancient. " We
may," however, "well believe that every listening angel around the
throne was melted to tears, when three times < O my Father, if it be pos-
sible,' escaped from the lips of the Son of God." — J. L. Withrow, D.D.

317

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

throws light upon the Wilderness. He must have had a
certain shrinking from becoming a Man of Sorrows, when
he laid out his course as to the conduct of the Messianic
Kingdom. Yet he never wavered in loyalty to the Father's
will and the ancient Scriptural text.

Indeed the most marvelous part of this story is the
record * that Jesus, after his arrest, bade Peter put up his
sword, reminding him of angelic succor hard by, — " But
how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must
be ? " " The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I
not drink it ? " f This shows conclusively what was the
nature of the "cup," as well as the settled determination
of Jesus to leave the squadrons of angels in the sky, while
he himself should be "cut off" according to Daniel ix : 26 ;
and fulfill the remarkable prophecy in Isaiah liii : 5-9. J

When we ask then as to Jesus in Gethsemane, —

" Will he not lift up
His lips from the bitter cup ;
His brows from the dreary weight,
His hands from the clenching cross ? ' ' §

we know what will be the outcome. His mental discom-
posure passed by. This was the form in which the Father
answered his prayers. || " The real purpose of that prayer,"

* Matt, xxvi : 52-54. f John xviii : 11 .

% Compare Mark ix : 12 ; and Luke xxiv : 26, 27 ; and 44-46 ; also
Acts xvii : 2, 3 ; and xxvi : 22, 23 ; I. Cor. xv : 3.

§ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, — The Seraphim.

|| Compare Hebrews v : 7, where it is said that the prayer of Jesus
was heard.

318

THE GARDEN OF THE LORD.

says Bascom, "was inner strength, a renewed sense of the
divine presence, a thorough reconciliation to the divine
method."

God took the bitterness out of the cup ; removing the
sharpness of the agony, and granting him a quiet mind ;
yet leaving him the cross. He was delivered from the fear
of the cross. " A stream of eternal peace," says Lange,
"wells forth from his most arduous conflict in Gethsemane ;
the accursed tree itself becomes a mark of honor, when his
holy hand touches it."* The last words of Jesus at the
Lord's Table were virtually the last in Gethsemane, —
"That the world may know that I love the Father ; and as
the Father gave me commandment, even so I do."

After Gethsemane, the worst was over, — until he came
to drink the dregs of the cup, in the dull and hopeless
physical pain, and the spiritual bereavement of his last
conscious hours upon the cross.

* So what the first Adam lost in the garden of Eden, the Second
Adam gained in the garden of Gethsemane. — Suggested by Edersheim.

319

CHAPTER FOUR.

The Midnight Hour.

<s?^^s?

(^ I HE inexpressible distance between Jesus and his dis-
4 I ciples is indicated by the sleep of Peter, James, and
®LL. John, when they were on guard in the garden of
the Saviour's sorrow. His human nature had sought their
sympathy ; in the hour of darkness that could be felt, he
desired to know that friends were near.* Yet Jesus needed
not to say, " Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray." In
those desolate moments, he would have been as much alone
with them, as apart. " I looked for some to take pity, and
there was none." " I have trodden the winepress alone."

It was near midnight, after a hard, exciting day ; and
the disciples were grieved and stupefied by the fact that

* Commenting upon these events, President Dwight has emphasized
the point that Jesus desired Peter to be with him, even though he had but
a moment before warned the apostle that he would deny him before morn-
ing. " The denial would be but a temporary, even a momentary, lapse ;
the great movement of life would go forward notwithstanding this, and
beyond this. Jesus could keep near to himself, in the darkest hour, one
who was to say, with an oath, <I know not the man.' The line which
separated Peter from Judas, — how clearly Jesus saw it." — Article in
Sunday School Times by Timothy Dwight, LL.D., Yale University.

[book vii.] 320

"I AM HE.

their Lord was soon to be separated from them, they hardly
knew how. They were sleeping for sorrow, says St. Luke.
They could not have been aware of the pending arrest of
Jesus ; although John knew that Judas would betray him,
and Jesus had told them at the brook crossing, "All ye
shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written,
I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."*
The apostles were full blooded men, muscular, hearty,
with the vigor of scores of years in them, and their eyes
were heavy ; they could sleep on the Mount of the Trans-
figuration of Jesus, or on the greensward of that holy
ground set apart for his exquisite grief. The Master has
made their apology, " The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh
is weak." "Ye are they," Jesus had said, "which have
continued with me in my temptation." And he had more
patience with their human infirmity, than has been mani-
fested by the sleepless disciples of subsequent ages.f

THE rude band of the chief priests and captains of the
temple, the elders, and the multitude with them, and
the clattering Roman soldiery, now broke into the holy of
holies, the praying place of Jesus in the garden. The full
moon did not answer and they bore torches to search for

* It is noteworthy, that Jesus gave this warning in no reproachful
spirit ; but as an occasion for making an appointment for a future meeting
with his disciples in Galilee.

fMatt. xxvi:45, 46; Mark xiv:41. "Sleep on now:" "Rise,
let us be going." There was a little interval of time between these two
expressions ; the latter referring to the approach of Judas. — Edersheim.

321 21

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

him, as if Jesus were likely to run away and hide himself.
Then, too, they were well armed.* And Judas was armed
with a kiss. We shudder, when we think that he may have
kissed Jesus before that, — so affectionate and approachable
was the Son of Man. He might have indicated the person
of Jesus by some other token ; he had the heart to do it in
this way. Nor did Jesus spurn the embrace of the son of
perdition, f

WHEN Jesus was sought for to be made a king," says
St. Bernard, " he escaped ; but when he was brought
to the cross, he freely yielded himself." " Whom seek ye ? "
he asked; and as soon as he said unto them, " I am he,"
they went backward and fell to the ground. "He," says
Dr. Withrow, "at whose words wild winds immediately
stilled to a great calm, and stormy seas smoothed out as
lakes of silver, had but to look on the armed company and
the attending rabble, and they fell, as if an electric cloud
had been discharged upon them all." There was probably
something in the appearance of Jesus which smote the
armed band with terror, even if there was no forth-putting
of miraculous power. They knew his power, and feared it.

* " So also might butchers do well to go armed, when they are pleased
to be afraid of lambs by calling them lions." — Bishop Jeremy Taylor.

f The blood money, says Farrar, bore an olive branch, the emblem
of peace ; a censer, the emblem of prayer; and the legend, "Jerusalem,
the holy."

322

"I AM HE."

Olshausen has said that they were "held by the viewless
bands of the Spirit." *

He who might have replied by fire and whirlwind, an-
swered in a still small voice : " I have told you that I am
he. If therefore ye seek me. let these go their way." So
he provided for the flight of his disciples.

lt Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured, Him
Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life? " f

Jesus had said, " Of these which thou gavest me, have I
lost none." He therefore planned for their escape;! les^
the college of the Apostles be broken up. They had not
earlier fled, although warned of it two days before, and
again warned an hour before. They clung to him, till
Jesus suggested their flight.

Peter, however, set out to make good his word,§ "If I
should die with thee, I will not deny thee." Had there
been any virtue in swords, he would have made good his
word. When, however, Jesus bade him resist not, and when
his Master did not call on frw elve legion of angels, and when
he put forth no self-defense but meekly yielded, then Peter
knew that the armies of Rome would prove too much for

* Dean Farrar has remarked in this connection : < ' The savage
and brutal Gauls could not lift their swords to strike the majestic senators
of Rome. ' I cannot slay Marius,' exclaimed the barbarian slave ; fling-
ing down his sword, — and flying headlong from the prison into which he
had been sent to murder the aged hero."

f Mrs. Browning.

X John xviii : 9 .

§ John xviii : 10 ; compare Mark xiv : 29-31.

323

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

him alone unaided by the power of his Lord : then fear so
unmanned him that he was ready to quail at the approach
of a servant girl ; and he quite forgot the voice out of the
cloud, "This is my beloved Son."

Within sound of the mockery of his enemies, and with
their binding cords about him, Jesus was not agitated ; and
he still made high claim to control the movements of the
armies of heaven.* The calm reliance of Jesus upon celes-
tial aid, if need be, instead of raising a mob when he might
have done so, to attack his foes, shows that Jesus was no
ill-balanced enthusiast. He voluntarily laid down his life,
that he might take it again.

There is in the Vatican a painting of this wild scene in
the garden when the soldiers bore Christ away. A fierce
Roman captain is represented as dragging Christ away by
grasping at his robe. And a soldier has him by the arm,
and a rope is about the Saviour's neck. Another soldier,
with clinched fist raised, and who appears to be uttering a
loud cry, is close behind our Lord, and spears and battle
axes rise on every side like a thicket. In the background,
two disciples are running away between the tall trees. In
the foreground Peter, with drawn sword, is bending over
the prostrate Malchus. And behind him is seen the figure
of Judas fleeing, — with his hands clasped, as if he were
about to wring them in great agony ; and with a sad, earnest
face, as if now at last he were conscious of the great wrong
he had wrought, and were now setting his face towards the
door of despair.

*Matt. xx vi: 53.

324

"I AM HE."

Yet the grand figure in the picture is that of Christ him-
self, whose face is full of pity for a sinning race ; having
the look of one who has just risen from agonizing prayer
for the perishing millions, — and now so full of pity for the
whole human race as to be scarcely conscious of the acts of
those who are bearing him away.

And we know that in a moment he touched the wound
of Malchus, and went forth to meet his death, led like a
paschal lamb to the slaughter.

325

CHAPTER FIVE.

A. Triumphant Mob,

-^y©<^-

NCE within clutch, the adversaries of Jesus made
short work with him ; doing so much in the dark-
ness that they had him nailed to the accursed
tree by nine o'clock in the morning. There were
twenty thousand resident priests in Jerusalem ; and among
them all, there were enough who were ready to plait thorns
for the Saviour's brow.

The tribunal before which Jesus was tried, did not try
him at all. It was only a form for announcing what they
had long intended to do,— to murder him in some author-
ized form. There was no charge substantiated, save that
to which he confessed then and there, and of which, before
that time, they had often heard him speak, — that he claimed
to be the Messiah.

Jesus was really condemned for free speech, which those
who then sat in Moses' seat did not allow, except on their
own side. Corrupt and wicked as they were, they would
not have objected to his Messiahship, had he been at one
with them. Jesus, as a teacher, became a martyr to in-

' Book VII.] 326

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

tolerance.* It was feared lest his foes lose their grip on
the perquisites of the Mosaic system. Bitter and malignant
were these wicked husbandmen, who rose and slew him
whom they should have reverenced, that they might claim
his inheritance.

They had been waiting an occasion when they could
slay the Saviour in safety to themselves. If at any time
they had stoned him for blasphemy, they would have
offended the people and Pilate. Since the resurrection of
Lazarus, they had taken counsel together ; and they had
planned it all out. And now they were going to give the
Paschal Lamb a " trial," before butchering him : it was not
i question of guilt or innocence.

The high priest's office was much sought for, affording
peculiar privileges for trading in the temple, and for mak-
ing gain through various oppressions connected with the
political relation of the high priest to the Roman power ;
when he was subservient, he virtually ruled Israel, and
greatly enriched himself.

Resolute and calm stood the Saviour of men before the
high priest of his nation, with face downcast as might
become one in the presence of him who represented the
Mosaic ritual ; and over against him stood the violent and
mitered priest, — disturbed, and eager for condemning his
victim to the paschal sacrifice. At about four o'clock, upon
this morning of the seventh of April, the Sanhedrin ap-

* < ' Champion of a divine morality, he drew the world after him ; he
had but to speak the word, and his enemies were no more. But he who
came to destroy intolerance, refrained from imitating it." — Rousseau.

327

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

peared. And he who was called the " Faithful Witness,"
was now accused by false witness, — but those testifying
did not agree, and nothing came of it ; nor could the high
priest have been greatly surprised at the " peace " of Jesus
in answering nothing, — " as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

Then came the main question : <( I adjure thee by the
living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the
Son of the Blessed." In answer to this, and quite in con-
trast with his silence upon false accusation, Jesus at once
affirmed his Messiahship ; this was true, and he empha-
sized it.*

More than once, the Jews had taken up stones to stone
Jesus for saying the same thing ; f but his death was re-
served till the high priest might officially offer him up at
the passover. Caiaphas now solemnly rent his clothes,
saying, J " He hath spoken blasphemy. What need we
of witnesses ? What think ye ? " They answered, and
said, "He is guilty of death." So he was made sin, who
knew no sin ; so far at least as to be treated like a sinner,
— a blasphemer.

The truth is, however, that the crime of the high priest
and the council of seventy is divested of all dignity, and
defense ; even if they believed, contrary to the Scriptures,
that the Messiah was to be human, § they stand convicted
and condemned for having treated the Christ like a com-

* Matt, xxvi : 03, 64. f John viii : 59 and x : 31 . £ Matt, xxvi : 65, 66.
§Vide article Son of God in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.

328

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

mon blasphemer, utterly ignoring the miraculous tokens —
which they admitted * — of his divine mission, and cavil-
ing at his claims, because his teaching undermined their
own position. Even Pilate could discern their motives,
knowing that the chief priests had delivered him for
envy, f

The consent of Pilate was needful in order to put Jesus
to death ; and until the Roman governor could be found,
the high priest and distinguished masters in Israel took the
time for insulting Jesus. In the house of the high priest,
he who had denounced hypocrites was now set upon as a
hypocritical pretender to the Messiahship. He who had
opened the eyes of so many of the blind, was now blind-
folded ; and those cheeks, which had been wet by tears of
sympathy for mourners, and tears for Jerusalem, were spit
upon. He who had healed the withered hand, was now
struck by hands which he would not wither in return.
Such miraculous power abode in him, that healing went
forth from the hem of his garment, and his " voice could
command every element of destruction, and add thereto
legions of invisible spirits ; and yet he had to bear the
contumely of every worthless menial, who could sharpen
his tongue or lift up his heel against him." J

When reviled, he reviled not again. He manifested no
impatience toward the scowling priests. He made no
murmuring and uttered no complaint when they buffeted

* John xi : 47. f Matt, xxvii : 18.
% These quoted words are from Edward Irving.

329

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

him. He met their taunts with holy resignation. He drank
the bitter cup, enduring the contradiction of sinners against
himself. " He was not," says Edersheim, "defenseless but
undefending, not vanquished but uncontending, not help-
less but majestic in voluntary self-submission for the high-
est purpose of love." By the very conditions of his holy
nature, he could resort to no human weakness even if backed
up by divine power in avenging himself, but he committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously.*

THE chief priests now bound Jesus and delivered him to
Pontius Pilate. The governor's quarters were in
Herod's palace, whose magnificence is portrayed by Jewish
historians. The broad avenues leading thither were
thronged by the mob ; and the trees with cross-like arms
overhung the Man of Sorrows, and the cool waters of arti-
ficial streams gurgled mournfully at the world's great
grief, as Jesus walked beside them between the Roman
soldiers.

It is grimly and grotesquely related f that the priests
piously kept themselves out of Pilate's precincts, lest they
be defiled by his heathen hall of justice. They, too, who had
sought repeatedly to stone Jesus, now took great pains to
inform J Pilate that it was unlawful for them to put any-

*I. Peter ii : 23. What, however, human weakness would usually
do, can be seen by consulting Dante's Inferno, where he speaks of the
fate of Judas, and the eternal crucifixion of Caiaphas.

f John : xviii : 28. % John xviii : 28.

330

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

body to death ; and they wanted him to kill Jesus for them.
At this stage of the proceedings, however, these persons,
so scrupulous to observe strict law and equity, were careful
not to tell Pilate what was the real charge against Jesus ;
that they looked on him as a malefactor ought, they said,
to satisfy the governor.

They knew that Pilate would never kill Jesus upon the
original charge of his claiming to be the Messiah. This
throws light on the character of the Seventy who " tried "
and condemned Jesus. With them it was, truly, not in the
slightest degree a question of guilt or innocence ; it was a
question of how to get Jesus killed. It was no "defile-
ment " for them to lie ; they could swear falsely, and then
go on with their passover undisturbed. They said that
Jesus perverted the nation, forbidding to give tribute to
Csesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.

Pilate questioned Jesus therefore as to his kingship. He
found him indeed a king, self -poised, with no quickening of
heart beats in the presence of Roman power and Roman
cruelty. Jesus claimed to be a king, but not of this world,
having no servants to fight, — a king in the realm of truth,*
winning conquests age after age in all lands. Here in the
very presence of his executioner, Jesus "expected to lift
his crumbling arm out of the grave, and sway with it the
living world." f

* " What is truth, asked Pilate ; and he stayed not for an answer." —
Bacon's Essays.

f Samuel Harris, LL.D.

331

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

As to a carnal kingdom, the attack of the Jews upon
Jesus was grounded upon this : that Jesus was not a politi-
cal king in the sense that they supposed the Messiah would
be ; and yet, at their instigation, Pilate cut him off on the
pretext that he aspired to be a political king.*

After Pilate's first examination of Jesus, however, in
his "trial," the vacillating Pilate pronounced Jesus inno-
cent. The Jews then rallied with new charges, accusing
Jesus of many things. Yet Jesus was silent in the judg-
ment hall, and he answered nothing to their false witness.
And when the astonished Pilate asked, " Answerest thou
nothing ? " Jesus still answered nothing ; he would not
put himself on a level with liars, to affirm or deny, f

When, however, Pilate gave his verdict upon their
" many things" of accusation, "I find no fault in this
man," the chief priests were the more fierce, saying, "He
stirreth up the people, from Galilee to this place." This
Pilate caught at, and sent Jesus to Herod, who happened to

* " They laid information against him before the Roman government
as a dangerous character ; their real complaint against him was precisely
this, that he was not dangerous. Pilate executed him on the ground that
his Kingdom was of this world ; the Jews procured his execution pre-
cisely because it was not." — Ecce Homo.

f The Roman governor evidently thought Jesus would wrangle and
retort, as was common in the Orient. But it did not occur to the Son of
God that this would comport with his soriship ; one of the tokens of which
was a dignified and Divine silence. " My Father honoreth me, "he had
said ; and he little heeded what the chief priests and elders were saying.
Making no reply to their false accusations, he was content with hearing
celestial voices that bestowed upon his name honor, and glory, and bless-
ing.

332

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

be in town, and who had jurisdiction over matters Galilean.
So Pilate and Herod, who had been at enmity, now shook
hands over the condemnation of Christ. Herod on his
part was glad to see Jesus, hoping he would exhibit before
him some miracle, and "he questioned with him in many
words," but not one word did he get in reply from one who
held him beneath contempt. Then the chief priests and

scribes stood and vehemently accused Jesus. Herod, how-

ever, after hearing them, made up his mind that Jesus as a
pretender to a kingship was not a seriously dangerous char-
acter. Herod and his valiants spent their time, therefore,
mocking at Jesus as an innocent fanatic ; and they arrayed
him in a gorgeous robe, to suit his kingly claims, and sent
him back to Pilate, — who thereupon said that he would re-
lease Jesus, since both he and Herod found in him nothing
worthy of death.

Even if the governor played fast and loose with the
principal priests, he was, however, as a politician, bound to
content the masses of the people whatever might happen
to Jesus. According to custom, the offer was now made
to the multitude to release Jesus, or Barabbas who was in
prison for sedition and murder. The chief priests and
elders persuaded the mob to ask Barabbas and destroy
Jesus. So was the Messiah despised and rejected of men.
Now Pilate, willing to release Jesus, spoke again, "What
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ ?" Nor
did it occur to him to ask, " What will this man called Christ
do with me ? "

Then arose that dread cry, ' ' Crucify him, " ' ' Crucify him. "

333

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Pilate had reason to fear a Jewish mob. When he had
once taken the Roman standards, surmounted with the
idolatrous image of the emperor, within the sacred pre-
cincts of the temple, the mob had shut up the governor five
days in his palace, till he removed them.

Zealots for the law, the hard-hearted, the sanctimonious
Pharisees, and the fickle mob gathered by the festal days
from every village from Dan to Beersheba — including the
rude Nazarenes, who had always said that Jesus was an im-
poster, — were now all in full cry, " Crucify him,"
" Crucify him."

Yet Pilate argued with their leaders : " Why ? What
evil hath he done ? " So, for the third time, he pronounced
Jesus innocent.

And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that
he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the
chief priests prevailed.

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that
rather a tumult was made, he "took water, and washed
his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the
blood of this just person : see ye to it."

Vain it was that he washed his hands : he did not wash
them in innocency.*

* Impressive are the words of an English primate, the Archbishop
of York : —

" Of one who represented for eleven years the horrible might of Rome
to the prostrate Jewish people, it may be said that almost nothing is now
known except that he put to death One whom the Jews spoke of as the
Carpenter's Son. In ten thousand congregations every Sunday this crime
is commemorated. There is something strange and awful in this unsought

334

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

Loudly cried the Jewish people in answer to their Roman
ruler, " His blood be on us, and on our children " : a curse
so horrible in its fulfillment, that its prescience had already
moved their rejected Messiah to tears.

Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him ; and his sol-
diers stripped him, and put on a scarlet robe, and they
plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed
in his right hand, and they bowed the knee, and mocked
him as a sham king ; and they spit upon him, and took the
reed and smote him on the head.

He who had plied the scourge in cleansing his Father's
house, now yielded his back to the smiters.* Yet no word
of complaint arose from the patient sufferer. He had al-
ready foretold these very indignities ; f and since they
were all subservient to the death before him, he " hid not
his face from shame and spitting."

So was Jesus made a curse for us, — treated as an accursed
one. The crown of thorns, the bleeding brow, be ours ; if

pre-eminence in infamy. There is something awful in the fact that a
crime which he sought to disavow was really perpetrated through him ;
that it proved to be the greatest wickedness which the world has ever
seen, although Pilate knew it not ; and that this unhappy man, after he
had ended his earthly troubles by the death of a suicide, should never be
allowed to sink into the dark oblivion that he courted for himself when he
ended his spoilt and frustrated life. Down all the ages echo the words of
condemnation — < Crucified under Pontius Pilate, crucified under Pontius
Pilate.' "

*The gore of criminals lately scourged, still marked the pillar to
which our Lord was fastened by an iron ring ; blood, too, upon the
leather thongs, with their cubes or hooks of bone.

fLukexviii: 31-33.

335

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

by being- mocked at, we may honor his name, or serve the
souls for which he suffered shame.

Pilate could but be moved by the spectacle of our
Saviour's meekness and majesty under torture and insult ;
and he again protested the innocence of Jesus, as he brought
him forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
robe: "Behold the man." And there stood Jesus amid
the spears of the soldiers, amid the clamoring priests, amid
a human surging sea ; and again his ears were pierced with
the maddened cry, " Crucify him," " Crucify him."

Pilate once more protested his innocence : "I find no
fault in him." Then the chief priests, seeing that their
charge of political offense had utterly fallen through,
finally told Pilate the truth, " We have a law, and by our
law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of
God."

Upon this recurrence to the old charge kept secret till
now, Pilate examined Jesus anew ; * this charge being new
to him. It seemed credible to Pilate that his prisoner had
rule in a spiritual kingdom, and he was afraid to go for-
ward, f He asked Jesus whence he came : but there was
no answer. " Speakest thou not to me ? I have power
to crucify thee, or to release thee." " Thou couldest have
no power against me, except it were given thee from above :
therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater
sin." Caiaphas was worse than Pilate.

*John xix: 8-11.

f His wife had already warned him to have nothing to do with that
just man. Matt, xxvii : 19.

33G

THE CROWN OF THORNS.

Thenceforth, it is said, Pilate sought to release him.*
But Caiaphas was equal to the emergency. He knew
Pilate better than Pilate did ; he knew that he was a politi-
cian : — "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's
friend, f

This was touching the governor at a tender point. If
Jesus with his amazing influence were to be spared, the
Jews would accuse their governor at Rome. It was a
threat, and it succeeded. The order for crucifixion was
signed.^

. The result of this trial for Jesus was to establish his
innocence. As the Paschal Lamb, he was without spot or
blemish ;§ and as such he was offered as a sacrifice by the
high priest at the passover.

*" Contemporary historians tell us that Pilate was an austere and
cruel man, a man of firm resolves, and one who shrank not from the de-
struction of human life : but we see here, that for once the cruel man be-
came merciful; for once, the man of resolve became timid." — F. W.
Robertson.

f Those who made boast to Jesus that they were never in bondage to
any man, now claimed no king but Csesar.

X The " trial " of Jesus was really the trial of Caiaphas and of Pilate,
by which the world has condemned them. It cannot be said that it was
a matter of indifference to Pilate whether Jesus perished ; yet it was not
in him to risk becoming a political martyr to save the innocent. And the
bigotry of the Jews and the malignity of the chief priests did not lead
him to think the religion of Judea better than the heathenism of Rome,
so that he decided according to a Roman standard : Caiaphas knew better,
save as he was blinded by the god of this world. (II. Cor. iv : 4.)

§ Exodus xii : 5 ; and repeated with ceaseless iteration in the Hebrew
books.

337 22

CHAPTER SIX.

The Darkness at Noonday.

ae?^- B B B ^ka; ■

^dj OLGOTHA was a dome-like ledge, or slightly ris-
ing rocky ground with summit rounded like a
skull, nigh to Jerusalem, and a little north of the
city, where criminals were commonly executed, — and there
our Saviour suffered like a condemned thief. Sad indeed
was that funeral procession, when Jesus was led forth : a
soldier first of all, bearing a legend publishing the crime of
Jesus, his earthly kingship they said it was ; then came
four soldiers and their centurion, and they bore the wicked
hammer and the cruel nails ; and Jesus walked between
them, staggering under the weight of that rugged beam,
which as the true cross was now distinguished from all
other trees of earth, — he walked silently with blood stained
garments marked by thorns and scourge ; then came the
two robbers, each with his own cross, and each with soldier
guard ; then walked the triumphant chief priests, the scribes
and Pharisees, learned rabbis and the elders of Israel, and
that malignant mob, whose outcries for crucifixion had
prevailed, and Barabbas perchance so early released now
joined the throng, and perhaps that recreant whom Jesus
had healed that he might enter into league with the enemies

[Book VII.] 338

CALVARY.

of our Lord ; then, struggling along after the motley multi-
tude had gone by, came a wailing and lamenting company,*
and St. John and Mary the mother of Jesus among them.
Then there came — who shall say that they did not come —
an innumerable company of angels — not now needed to
defend the Christ ; those angels who sang at his birth, his
guardian spirits who had sustained Jesus when distressed
in the wilderness or moaning and sobbing in the garden,
those principalities and powers who were to bear their part
in the tragedy of the crucifixion, rending the rocks and
hanging the skies in black, those faithful ones who were to
stand beside the Roman soldiers at the tomb of Jesus, —
they were all here, with folded wings and tearful eyes, with
martial step and hands upon their sword hilts, ready to
rescue the patient sufferer if he should choose not to lay
down his life for a guilty world.

All the way was a Via Dolorosa, " The Way of Sorrows,
traversed by Jesus in pain and agony, watered with his
tears, bathed in the blood which flowed from his sacred
veins." f Was there no devout and sympathizing child to
wipe the bloody sweat from the Saviour's face ? Was there
no curse for gross insults offered to the Lord of glory ?

He who upheld the worlds by the word of his power,
now fainted under the weight of his cross. The torturing
wood, the instrument of cruelty from Asia, was now laid by

*Luke xxiii : 27-31. "Daughters of Jerusalem," said our Lord,
" Ave ep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." A
prophetic saying, fulfilled in the lifetime of many of them.

f Padre Agostino da Montefeltro.

339

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

a European mandate, upon strong shoulders from Africa, —
the continents so bearing a part in the Saviour's crucifixion ;
the executives and the soldiers of Rome, the accusers of
Judea, and the merciful Cyrenian, representing the known
world. " When Simon came out of the country to Jerusa-
lem, one April morning, he was an obscure and unknown
man : but when the cross of Jesus was laid upon his shoul-
der, his patent of nobility was secure ; and wide as the
world, and lasting as the ages, is the fame of the man who
bore the Saviour's cross."* Edersheim interprets Mark
xv : 22, as indicating that Jesus, who had not tasted food or
drink since the paschal supper, now needed to be supported
during the remainder of the way.

THEY reached the place, says Mark, at nine o'clock ;
perhaps not twelve hours after our Lord had broken
the bread, and tasted the cup, with his disciples : so great
was the haste of the friends of Judas. The Roman cour-
tesy of a draught of drugged wine, to deaden sensibility,
Jesus rejected. And now was fulfilled the Messianic words
that Jesus had pondered in the carpenter's shop, " They
pierced my hands and my feet."

It had been written, that unto Christ every knee should
bow, and every tongue should swear. Yet in the place of
allegiance, men stood up, and nailed him high ; and moved

*Rev. II. L. Hastings.

The sons of Simon are named by St. Mark, — as if they were known as
Christians.

340

CALVARY.

their tongues to curse the anointed of God. How strange
the fulfillment of prophecy : of Christ it had been written,
" Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, thy right
hand shall teach thee terrible things " ; yet the right hand
of Christ was pierced with nails. The hand that wielded
the scepter of the universe was stretched out empty. The
hands that had wrested the victims of death from his power
were now made fast by the messengers of death.

Those feet that were to bruise the head of the serpent,
and press the neck of man's immortal enemy, were torn by
the rough iron spikes.

1 < Those blessed feet were nailed
For our advantage on the bitter cross."

Then was fulfilled the prophecy concerning the Messiah,
that he should bear the sin of many, and make interces-
sion for the transgressors: "Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do."* The hammering soldiers
knew nothing of the character and dignity of our Lord ;
who was praying for them, — as the friend of the un-
friendly.

" I believe that prayer was answered," says D wight L.
Moody. " We find that right there in front of the cross, a
Roman centurion was converted. It was probably in
answer to the Saviour's prayer. The conversion of the
thief, I believe, was in answer to that prayer of our' blessed
Lord. Saul of Tarsus may have heard it, and the words

* ' i Christ forgave his murderers before his blood was cold on their
hands." — President E. D. Griffin, LL.D.

341

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

may have followed him as he traveled to Damascus ; so
that when the Lord spoke to him on the way, he may have
recognized the voice. One thing we do know ; that on the
day of Pentecost some of the enemies of the Lord were con-
verted. Surely that was in answer to the prayer, " Father,
forgive them." *

The patient suffering of our Lord, and his prayer for his
murderers, melted the centurion's heart ; and the strange
portents that accompanied the death of Jesus satisfied him
that he had crucified a righteous man, — nay, "the Son of
God" ; an acknowledgment of divinity that came too late.
The most wonderful part, however, of the Saviour's patient
thoughtfulness and petition, relates to his true murderers,
the Jews, who stood behind Pilate: "Father, forgive
them ; for they know not what they do." f The prayer of
Jesus was not for God's wrath, but for God's pity upon his
f oes. I So Jesus, says Alford, " inaugurates his interces-

* " B uny an in his Jerusalem Sinner Saved," says Mr. Moody, " sup-
poses Christ, after his resurrection, sending Peter to all sorts of men.
Go, Peter, and tell that man who spat in my face that I forgive him. Go
and tell that man who placed the crown of thorns npon my head, that if
he repent I will forgive him and grant him a crown of glory with no
thorn in it. Tell that man who struck me with the reed and sent the
thorns into my brow, that I will forgive him and give him a scepter in
my kingdom. Tell that man who smote me with his hand I forgive him ;
the man who took the spear and pierced my side, that my blood cleanseth
from all sin."

f So Peter (Acts iii : 17) said, " I wot that through ignorance ye did
it, as did also your rulers." And St. Paul (I. Cor. ii: 8) affirms that
" none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

J S. Baring Gould contrasts this passage with Psalm cxviii : 11, 12.

342

CALVARY.

sorial office,— his teaching ended, his high priesthood
begun." *

Not yet were the eyes of cruelty moistened,not yet were
priestly consciences stirred by remorse. But the prayer
was answered on the day of pentecost next following. St.
Stephen, too, heard the prayer of Jesus, and in the hour of
his own martyrdom he kneeled, and cried with a loud voice,
" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge " : and when he had
said this, he fell asleep.

WHAT kind of a man Pilate was, appeared in the false
inscription he put up, — knowing that Jesus 'Claimed
only a spiritual kingdom ; yet having wronged his con-
science by crucifying the innocent, he now advertised to the
world that Jesus was after all a political offender. " Pilate
gave Christ the title of king, and crucified him as a thief." f
He, too, placed the malefactors on either side of the inno-
cent,— the holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners ;
so numbering him with the transgressors.

Now Jesus saw that he was already numbered with the
dead, since his only earthly store, his travel-worn clothing
tattered and stained by his contact with the mob, was now
divided out under his eyes. And when he saw them part-

*See Dr. McLaren's Article, page 588.

In respect to this divine spirit of onr Lord, how true are the thought-
ful words of Rousseau : " If the life and death of Socrates are those of
a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."

f Antonio de Guevara.

343

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ing his garments among them, and casting lots upon his
vesture, he could but call to memory that ancient Hebrew
hymn, which must have seemed to him, in his early man-
hood when he began to discern that the Messiah would be a
Man of Sorrows, the song of his own crucifixion.*

And then Jesus saw the careless soldiers, faithful in
their guard, sit down at the foot of the cross to watch his
life away. " They looked at the sufferings of Christ, and
saw nothing. These rude legionaries gazed for hours on
what has touched the world ever since, and saw nothing
but a dying Jew. They thought about the worth of the
clothes, or about how long they would have to stop there,
and in the presence of the most stupendous fact in the
world's history were all unmoved ; and tramped back at
night to their barracks utterly ignorant of what they had
been doing. We too may gaze on the cross, and see noth-
ing." f

There were not, however, wanting certain friendly eyes J
to watch their thorn-crowned Saviour ; going forth unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Angelic spirits, too, were waiting, bowing their sad faces,

* The garment without seam, woven from the top throughout, was,
to Jesus, some friendly token. Did it come from the grateful home of
Jairus? Was it made by one who found healing in the hem of his
garment? Was it the gift of Mary of Magdala? A soldier won it at dice.
Did he wear it in scenes of shame and violence? Was it soon rolled in
blood? Was he softened, and saved by it, and made meet for heaven?

f Alexander McLaren, D.D., in the Sunday School Times.

% Luke xxiii : 49 ; Heb. xiii : 13.

344

CALVARY.

as Jesus extended his arms upon the cross to bless the
world from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.

1 ' No rod, no scepter is
Holden in His fingers pale :
They close instead upon the nail, '

Concealing the sharp dole —
Never stirring to put by

The fair hair peaked with blood,
Drooping forward from the rood

Helplessly — heavily —
On the cheek that waxeth colder,
Whiter ever, — and the shoulder
Where the government was laid."*

" Bound upon the accursed tree,
Faint and bleeding, who is He ?
By the eyes so pale and dim,
Streaming blood and withering limb ;
By the flesh with scourges torn ;
By the crown of twisted thorn ;
By the baffled, burning thirst ;
By the drooping, death-dewed brow —
Son of Man, 'tis Thou, 'tis Thou." f

UNFRIENDLY faces, too, had gathered to watch Jesus,
when his life was slowly ebbing away, — the weight
of the body ever tugging at the pierced tendons of the
hands, and pressing upon the bruised bones and pierced
muscles of the feet. It would appear that wicked hands
were rubbed in glee, as if demons had become priests of

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning, — " The Seraphim."
f Quoted by Tholuck in Light from the Cross.

345

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Israel, upon the "preparation day" for the passover Sab-
bath. Ghastly was the merry making of those who wagged
their heads, in derision of exquisite anguish. We can but
shudder at the elaborated terms of derision employed by
the chief priests ; words caught at by the coarse and savage
soldiery.

Coming and going on the high road not far away, there
was a constant succession of passers-by, from the vast con-
course present at the passover, to heap affronts upon the
silent sufferer. He who of late was moved by compassion
at seeing the multitude as sheep without a shepherd, now
half forgot himself in grieving over the surging throngs
about the cross ; and the guilt of the jeering priests dis-
tressed him more than their sarcasms.

They admitted that Jesus had saved others, and knew
not that it was to save others that he was now lifted up.
They taunted him with inability to save himself and come
down from the cross. He could have done it : it was his
divine love, and not the nails, that fastened him to the
shameful wood. " In that breast wrung by mortal agony,"
says Tholuck, " there still dwells the consciousness that he
is a king, who voluntarily submits himself to all the out-
rage and suffering his rebellious subjects put upon him."
Do you exalt the greatness of man ? Behold his guilt.
Josephus says, " I believe that if the Romans had not come
upon this wicked race when they did, an earthquake would
have swallowed them up, or a flood have drowned them, or
the lightnings of Sodom struck them. For this generation
was more ungodly than all that had suffered such punish-

•3-46

CALVARY.

ments." " Had I been there," cried Clovis, " I would
have avenged Christ's wrongs." *

It is written : " Cursed is every one that hangeth upon
the tree." The cross was a public shame, attracting the
eyes of the millions as could not have been done had Jesus
been stoned by a mob. It was like dying, in these days,
upon the gallows, f It subjected one to the scorn of the
blind and brutal populace, Yet Jesus endured the cross,
despising the shame.

The sufferings of crucifixion were not intense enough to
cause unconsciousness ; but the long continuance of the
torment made it unendurable, or it was as horrible in
every way as could be endured. It is possible that the
Crucified One, at first, before dizziness made it impossible
to think connectedly, may have attempted, by force of
will, to divert his thoughts from centering on himself, by
mechanically running over the Psalms he had learned in

* It was so said, when St. Remy first rehearsed the story of the Pas-
sion at the French Court.

The black and silent cross of Calvary was, however, avenged : it
being probable that some of those who abused Christ in that dread hour,
were afterwards crucified by the* Romans ; who, thirty years after, con-
demned thirty-six hundred citizens of Jerusalem, — crucifying many of
the most prominent people. And, a few years later, so many were exe-
cuted that, day after day, four or five hundred new victims were seen upon
the crosses near the city. There were not crosses enough for the victims,
or places to stand the crosses, says the historian.

f The gospel story of the crucifixion shows that its details are true ;
the death was so shameful, that it would have been slightly spoken of,
if it had been made up, — since the same writers claimed for Jesus the
brightest honors of a divine life. It was Jesus who conferred renown
upon that which had been a symbol of dishonor.

347

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

youth. If so, the twenty-second must have been one, since
it illustrates this tragedy at so many points that it is re-
peatedly referred to in the story : —

"I am a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they shoot out the
lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that
he would deliver him, — let him deliver him. * The assembly
of the wicked have inclosed me. Be not far from me, for
trouble is near ; for there is none to help. Be not thou far
from me, O Lord : O my strength, haste thee to help me."

For sympathy, as for anyone in the jeering crowd, Jesus
was almost alone, f

" He looked for some to pity. There is none.
All pity is within Him, and not for Him ;
His earth is iron under Him, and o'er Him
His skies are brass :
His seraphs cry < Alas '
With hallelujah voices that cannot weep ;
. And man, for whom the dreadful work is done —

Is crying with scornful voice
< If verily this be the Eternal's Son.' " J

* Compare Luke xxiii : 35, 37.

f ' ' Many reverenced his miracles ; few followed the ignominy of his
cross." — Thomas a Kempis.

" Christ's circle narrowed down : first, the multitudes left him ; then,
many so-called disciples; then, the twelve." — Moody's Notes from My
Bible.

" 1 have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was
none with me." — Isa. lxiii : 3.

% From The Scraplnm, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

348

CALVARY.

THE chief priests and the impenitent thief were in full
sympathy in their abuse of Jesus : it was the penitent
criminal whose conduct was in contrast with Caiaphas.
Faintly listening to the mocking crowd below, Jesus forgot,
for a moment, the horror of his situation, in hearing the
prayer, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom."

The penitent was better instructed than Pilate, as to the
nature of Christ's Kingdom, and he had faith in Jesus when
all the world rejected him. He had perhaps long plied his
trade among the crowds that followed Jesus ; hearing his
words, noting his miracles, — and pilfering.* Some word
or look of Christ may have been like an arrow of conviction
in his soul ; and now he repented, and professed his faith.

" On me, as thou art dying,

Oh, turn thy pitying eye :
To thee for mercy crying,

Before thy cross I lie.
Thine, thine the bitter passion,

Thy pain is all for me ;
Mine, mine the deep transgression,

My sins are all on thee."

*7T.ND now the night of the cross began to fall, — that
l\ supernatural blackness of the sky which blotted out
the noonday sun : and, ere it was dark, Jesus saw that
his mother, and his own beloved John, had come near to the
cross. He scanned her sorrowing face, as she recalled the

* Josephus, in writing about the times a little later than Herod tha
Great, has much to say about thieves and their crucifixion.

349

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

words of St. Simeon to her in the temple when Jesus was a
babe, " a sword shall pierce through thine own soul." And
in that supreme moment Jesus remembered her tender
watch and care in his childhood, and asked John in his own
place to bestow watch and care upon the mother of Im-
manuel.

" By the cross, sad vigil keeping,
Stood the mournful mother weeping,

While on it the Saviour hung ;
In that hour of deep distress,
Pierced the sword of bitterness

Through her heart with sorrow wrung.

" Oh, how sad, how woe-begone,
Was that ever-blessed one,

Mother of the Son of God.
Oh, what bitter tears she shed
W^hilst, before her, Jesus bled

'Neath the Father's penal rod." *

And now the darkness was settling down, and Jesus
knew that the end could not be many hours away. In the
anticipation of a further indefinite period of physical an-
guish, with every nerve in torture, Jesus could not sleep, —
even although the earth had come to its nightfall at the
sixth hour.

Was it not written of old time : "I will clothe the
heaven with blackness," "The sun shall be dark." "And
from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land
unto the ninth hour" ? It was that darkness which preceded

* Stabat Mater. — Lord Lindsay's translation.

350

CALVARY.

the coming earthquake.* Did not the enemies of Jesus
cease to mock ? And did not the soldiers experience a sense
of unwonted awe ? The paschal festivities in the city,
feasting, song, and mirth, were shrouded in the gloom of
lowering skies f ; when the angelic mantle of darkness was
thrown over the earth like a burial pall, — as if to hide the
shuddering limbs upon the cross.

The cry, " I thirst," now broke out upon the still air.
It was uttered by him who, in the last great day of the
feast of tabernacles, had stood up, and cried, saying, "If
any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." He who
had dispensed the water of life at the well in Samaria, was
now " supplicating his executioners for a draught to miti-
gate his thirst." \

WITH the deepening shades, the silent Son of Man now
fell off into a mental stupor and desire to sleep, but
he was kept from it by sense of utter physical exhaustion,
and distress of his wounds. Then, too, the drapery of the
sky seemed to him to shut off his vision of God. Perhaps,
however, it was not so. In the agonized dreams of pro-
tracted hours of torture, the words of the holy hymns that

*" Examine your own annals," says Tertullian's Apology, "and
there you will find that in the days of Pilate, when Christ died, the sun
disappeared in full day, and the mid-day light was interrupted."

f This effect of the noonday nightfall upon Jerusalem has been
pictured in one of Dore's great paintings.

JThis is Tholuck's phrase.

" The vinegar and the gall were thine," says Flavel, "that the
honey and the sweet might be mine."

351

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he had learned at his mother's knee constantly recurred ;
and there came a time when he could not but cry out in the
language of the Messianic psalm, " My God, my God, why
hast THOU forsaken ME?"* It may not have been a
dream of despair, a sense of desertion, the bitterness of
woe ; yet the angels who heard it must for the moment
have rendered thanksgiving to God in an undertone, in
sympathy with that cry of desolation.

■ He who made no answer to the high priest, no answer
to Pilate, no answer to the sentence, no answer to those who
mocked him at the cross, — after his long hours of silence
before God, could but now expostulate with heaven. Never
a complaint had fallen from the lips of Jesus at the treachery
and cruelty of man, yet now in the thickening obscuration
of nature, now in the ordinary course of progressing death
by crucifixion, now when dizziness dimmed the clearness of
his mental operations, he could but have a sinking sense
that God's face was lost from sight in the murky skies of
Golgotha.

If we may not say, in this climax of the Saviour's suffer-
ing,—

" That on his sinless soul,

Our sins in all their guilt were laid,
That he might make us whole,"

yet we must say that all the waves of God had gone over
him ; and that he, who had called to himself the heavy

* Psalms xx : 1,2. Compare Matt, xxvii : 46. Dr. Jacob Mayer
says that the phraseology is that of the Targum Jonathan, an exact be-
ginning of that psalm so applicable to Jesus in the hour of his passion.

352

CALVARY.

laden, was now broken down by sorrow. God had said,
"This is my beloved Son, hear ye him." Did God himself
refuse to hear him in the last cry of his mortal agony ?
Did God forsake him, when darkness clothed the sun ?

WHEN Jesus " poured out his soul unto death," he was
made "an offering for sin," and "the chastisement
of our peace was upon him"; "he humbled himself, and
became obedient unto death;" he "died for our sins
according to the Scriptures."* We need not weigh all
these words, or try to find their exact import in connection
with the sufferings of the Paschal Lamb. Another voice
was heard from out the dusky cloud that had settled on
Calvary : "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit."

And now, from out the deep obscurity, again the dying
Saviour's voice was heard : "It is finished." And he
bowed his head, and dismissed his spirit. So Christ our
passover was sacrificed for us ; the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, f

Jesus died, it is said, of a broken heart ; J caused by
the agony of the garden and the cross. It was our sins

* Cited in a paragraph from an article upon the Passion of Christ in
the Independent, by S. T. Spear, D.D.

f John xix : 30. I. Cor. v : 7. Rev. xiii : 8.

That Jesus died so soon indicates great bodily sufferings ; and a body
weakened before he came to that hour ; and an impairment of his early
vigor, through his ministry.

The disciples made much of the fact that when Jesus was sacrificed
as the Paschal Lamb "not a bone was broken." John xix: 36. Ex.
xii: 46. Num. ix : 12. Ps. xxxiv : 20.

X Vide Lyman Abbott's Life of Christ, and recent authorities.

353 23

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

that slew him, not that spear by which the blood of the

true Vine was poured out for us.

" A thief upon My right hand and My left ;
Six hours alone, athirst, in misery :
At length in death one smote My heart, and cleft
A hiding place for thee." *

NATURE mourned when Jesus died. The sea had been
glad to obey him ; the sun had been glad to pour light
into the eyes he opened : the graves had been glad to
give up their dead. Nature had been glad even to curse a
barren fig-tree which offered him no fruit. When Jesus
died, Nature sought to hide the shame. In the darkness,
the body of Jesus hung upon the cross : his white dead face
was seen through the gloom ; men only dimly saw his
wounded side, and nailed hands and feet.

This preternatural darkness was the precursor of that
quaking of the earth, which rent the veil of the temple in
twain, as if the Lord of the temple would rend the garments
of his house ; and the rocks were rent, and the dead turned
out of their graves.

Are human hearts unmoved, and harder than the rocks ?

< ' The rocks were rent : their swift reply
To Thy wild words that rent the sky,
« Eli, Eli, Sabachthani, '

That rent the rocks."

1 < The rocks were rent : yet can I bear
To look on Christ without a tear,
And calmly see the nails and spear, —
Though rocks were rent? "

* Christina G. Rossetti.

354

CALVARY.

" *7T,LL the people that came together to that sight, be-
[\ holding the things which were done, smote their
breasts, and returned." Who can tell the disap-
pointment, the despair, of his followers, now that Jesus, by
his voluntary self-sacrifice, had frustrated the hopes they had
centered in him ? All his acquaintance, and the women
that followed him from Galilee, had stood afar off, beholding
these things ; and now they were heartbroken.

The preparations for the burial of Jesus had to be com-
pleted before five o'clock, since the Sabbath would begin

at six.

Sleep for trie Weary.

O heart of pity, cease to beat ;

To-day repose, O weary feet.

Thy lips are mute, — Thy words of peace ;

Thy folded hands, their blessing cease.

O Thou, who didst o'er sinners weep, —
Thine eyes are closed in blissful sleep ;
O Thou whose ears were anguish-torn, —
In silence deep, Thy corse is borne.

The Saviour rests from work to-day ;
In darkness dense, His form we lay.
The sun has set ; now falls the night,
And earth is shrouded from the Light.

Thy gates, O God, fling open wide, —
And haste, ye angels, to His side :
He is not dead, — He rests in sleep ;
In vigil watch, — His grave to keep.

O Light, come forth, to break the gloom :

Thy grave bereft, — a vacant room.

O Life, in triumph, live again ;

Thou Hope of earth, Thou Life of men.

355

BOOK EIGHT.

•-*W~#-fc$*«-

Our Risen Redeemer

■ ^^SUP*^ ■

Chapter 1. Page 357.

The Resurrection Morning.

Chapter 2. Page 364.

Where was His Abode?

Chapter 3. Page 374.

Opening the Heavenly Gates.

Chapter 4. Page 380.

Confident Witnesses.

Chapter 5. Page 394.

The Paschal Lamb.

CHAPTER ONE.

The Resurrection Morning.

MIGHTIER Power than Rome guarded the body
of Jesus ; and thirty-six hours after the earth-
quake shock on Friday afternoon, there was
another shock that rolled away the stone
from the sepulcher. For the angel of the Lord descended,
his countenance like lightning, and his raiment white as
snow ; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and be-
came as dead men.

" 'Twas night, still night :
A solemn silence hung upon the scene ;
The keen, bright stars shone with unclouded light,
Calm and serene.

1 ' Hushed was the tomb :
The heavy stone before its entrance lay ;
No light broke in upon its silent gloom ;
No starry ray.

1 • The moonlight beamed ;
It hung above the garden soft and clear ;
Around the guard its radiance gleamed
From helm and spear.
[Book VIII.] 357

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" The tomb was sealed ;
The watch patrolled before its entrance lone ;
The bright night every step revealed ;
None near the stone.

1 < An angel there
Descended from the calm and tranquil sky :
The glory of his presence filled the air,
All radiantly.

* ' He rolled away
From the still sepulcher the massive stone,
And watching silent till the risen day
He sat thereon.

'< < At break of day
The Saviour burst that cavern's stillness deep,
Rising in conquest from death's shattered sway
As from a sleep.

" He rose as God,
Rose as a mighty victor strong to save,
Breaking death's silent chain and unseen rod
There in the grave.

" He rose on high,
While angels hovered round on soaring wing,
Wresting from the dark grave its victory,
From death its sting." *

" I lay down my life," said Jesus, " that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again." " Whom God raised up, having loosed the

* Attributed to Cardinal Newman. I have not been able to verify

it.

358

THE MORNING OF THE RESURRECTION.

pains of death," is the testimony of the apostle Peter ; "be-
cause it was not possible that he should be hoiden of it."

It was but a sleep. He awaked, for the Lord sustained
him.* In the radiant peace of the morning, it was said,
" Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, 0 earth : and break forth
into singing, O mountains ; for the Lord hath comforted
his people."

" As the rising of the sun irradiates the landscape, pour-
ing the fresh matin splendor into each valley, wreathing
the mountain cliffs with smiles, turning the snowy crest to
chrysolite, while renewing the grace of every flower, and
charging the dewdrops with diamond lusters, so this su-
preme outburst of the Divine fullness of energy and sover-
eignty resident in the Lord interprets all his preceding
miracles, emphasizes all his recorded teachings, gives
superlative import and glory to his humility, and makes us
recognize the immensity of the sacrifice which to him was
involved in the long endurance of our mortal limitations." f

*TT.KD now the precious spicery, brought by the hands of

l\ love at day dawn, was reserved for the laying away

of domestic dear ones ; but henceforth, to the friends

of Jesus, death had lost its bitterness. Their perplexity as

* The orderly arrangement of the linen clothes and the disposition of
the napkin indicated to the beloved disciple no hasty removal of the
body; but rather the ordinary folding of garments used at night,
when there dawned upon the sleeper the jubilant hour of the resurrection.-
— John xx : 5-8.

f R. S. Storrs, D.D., LL.D.

359

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

to rolling away the great stone and seeking the living
among the dead, was solved by other friends of Jesus from
other realms where they had not thought to crucify their
King. Yet priceless was that human love which went so
early to the garden of burial.

' ' The friend of Christ from Magdala,
She hears the birds amid the palms, —
The early camels' bells afar :

She clasps the spices in her arms,
Her resinons treasures, gifts, and balms, —
With sighs, and broken chords of psalms."

They had taken away her Lord, and she knew not
where they had laid him : and through her tears, in the
early lights and shades, she believed that Jesus was the
gardener, — nor did he wear the garments she had seen.
She knew his voice.

The other women had held him by the feet, and wor-
shiped him. This Jesus disallowed in Mary* : he was so
soon to ascend to the Father, that she should make haste
with a message to those whose eyes were still red with
weeping ; and he would quickly gather the five hundred in
Galilee.

For her the Easter lilies were blooming ; and all her
tears were wiped away.

*" The day for personal physical presence, for merely human affec-
tion, for the grasp of human tenderness, was over. Henceforth he was
to be with his people more nearly, more intimately, — in spirit." —
Farrar.

" I am not risen from the dead, that I may again in body walk the
earth ; but in order that I may ascend to the Father." — Luther.

360

THE MORNING OF THE RESURRECTION.

"And Mary hastes the word to bear :
The brow of Olivet is fair,
The Levite rings the bells of prayer,
The new world wakes to light, —
It is a world divine.

" ' O Mary, woman never bore
Such tidings to the world as thine.'
'Twas Mary stood the cross before ;
And met the angels at the door
Of Jesus' tomb, — forevermore
Hope's messenger divine."*

After his sleep in the garden, the greetings of Jesus were
not different from those on some ordinary morning : "All
Hail;" "Mary." It was the calmness of one who knew
that death was an incident of uninterrupted life, — of one
alive forevermore. " He speaks out of his own deep tran-
quillity, and desires to impart it to their agitated spirits ; he
would calm their joy, that it may be the deeper, like his
own." f

* These lines and the quotation preceding, from the same poem, have
been adapted from lines by an unknown writer, appearing in Messiah's
Herald.

It should be here remarked that Mary of Magdala, a wealthy woman
who had been healed by our Lord, of a disease that we should call a form
of insanity (Mark xvi : 9), is not to be identified with the woman whose
name we do not know, " who was a sinner," and who anointed the feet
of Jesus (Luke vii : 37). The painters of the world, and certain charities
of the Church, have, however, confounded these two, as if they were the
same person. Curiously, too, the act referred to in Luke vii: 37, has
been sometimes confounded with that of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who
also anointed the feet of our Lord (John xii : 5). So these two Marys
have been confused with a nameless penitent, and made to bear her sins
as well as her assurance of pardon from the Saviour of men.

f Alexander McLaren, D.D.

361

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

OETER eager and early at the sepulcher had seen ; and
*T the swift running John had believed. Yet Jesus no
longer went forth to seek first the apostolic company,
but he searched for followers hitherto nameless. Had not
his secret disciples, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus,
come boldly to the front to challenge honors with the
eleven in caring for their Lord ? Now comes Cleophas and
his friend, with whom Jesus walked to Emmaus, seven
miles into the country from Jerusalem. They told Jesus,
as a stranger, "Our dream has passed away; and he
which should have redeemed Israel, has now sunk down
into a felon's grave."

As they approached Emmaus, they lingered along the
way, amid the olive groves, the lemon, or the orange ; their
path running near the gardens with frequent shade, or fol-
lowing a musical stream. And Jesus opened to them the
Scriptures : teaching them that the Messiah ought to have
suffered these things, and to enter into his glory.

Not before, had these two favored ones been present at
the breaking of bread, — " This is my body, broken for you."
They had, however, heard the story ; and now they knew
him.

THE Saviour's love survived the tomb into which men
had thrust him. Why, then, do we question whether
love survives the grave ? Did not Jesus comfort the mourn-
ing, the despairing ?

362

THE MORNING OF THE RESURRECTION.

" Christ is risen : then the world is beautiful, — at is not
a place of graves ; it is a place of graves that are to be
opened. It is not the city of the dead, it is a portal of para-
dise ; and there is light upon it every Easter morning, such
as never was before on sea or shore until the Master had
risen from the grave." *

*The Rev. R. S. Stores, D.D., pastor of the Church of the Pil-
grims, Brooklyn.

— eg

363

CHAPTER TWO.

Where was His Abode?
<s*s>

(5f|"~N the evening, Jesus appeared to ten of the apostles,
as they were all together, after Cleophas and his
friend had returned to Jerusalem. They had not
believed the uncertain inference of John that our
Lord must have risen, nor the words of Mary.* There
was some chance that they would not go into Galilee,
where they were to meet their Master. Joanna, and
Mary the mother of James, had confirmed to them the
words of Mary of Magdala ; but their words seemed to
them as idle tales, and they believed them not. f Yet some-
time during the day, Jesus had appeared to Peter j J and
now they said, "The Lord is risen indeed." Still, these
disciples, who were so soon to turn the world upside down,
were slow, and cautious. They would not be convinced
unless they themselves should become eye-witnesses. Some
hesitated even now, after they had heard the stories of the
embalming women, and the loving half-faith of John, —
and the stout ringing affirmation of Peter, whom they more

* John xx : 8. Mark xvi : 11. f Luke xxiv : 10, 11 . J I. Cor. xv : 5.
[Book VIII.] 364

THE FORTY DAYS.

or less doubted. Their faith was hot yet firmly settled.
And when the disciples from Emmaus came in,* "Neither
believed they them."

As they thus spake, came Jesus himself, as they sat at
meat, and stood in the midst of them. The doors were shut
for fear of the Jews, f They were terrified at the apparition
of their Master, supposing that they saw a spirit. He
saith unto them, " Peace be unto you." And when they were
still affrighted, they were convinced that it was a genuine
appearance of Jesus, by his upbraiding them with their
unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not
them which had seen him.

And then he said, Why are ye troubled ? Behold my
hands and my feet, that it is I myself : handle me, and see ;
for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands,
and his feet, and his side. Then were the disciples glad,
when they saw the Lord.

And yet they could not believe, for very joy. And while
they wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here meat ?
And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of a honey-
comb ; and he took it, and did eat before them.

These cautious, careful men, slow to believe, hard of
heart against mere idle tales, had those characteristics
which make good witnesses. And when they were once
convinced that Jesus had really arisen from the dead,
there was no power in the world that could s'hake their

* Luke xxiv : 35. f Luke xxiv : 36-43.

365

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

belief. They stood, they went, they flew, they filled the
world with their testimony every hour, " The Lord is
risen indeed."

It was not to be thought of, they said, that he would rise.
The centurion had been questioned, and Jesus had been
legally proved to be dead. And now he was alive. He had
laid down his life, and taken it again. Here was something
beyond the ken of Caiaphas, and of Pilate. There must be
a God in Israel. Their Messiah had come.

Jesus had great respect for the honest doubters. They
had perhaps understood and believed in the promises he
had made concerning his resurrection,* as well as they had
understood and believed many other affirmations of Jesus :
that is, they had not immediately believed them. They
were sayings that the disciples had laid up, to be pondered
over. The great ideas by which Jesus had set forth the
truth of the Incarnation, they were slow to understand and
believe. And when the doubters did believe them, no mor-
tal man could shake their testimony, f

St. Thomas is commonly slandered, as if he were a pre-
eminent doubter. The fact is that Jesus had already satis-

* Matt, xvi : 21 ; and xx : 19 ; John ii : 19.

f < < We must be careful to let nothing come between the doubter and
Christ. The mighty concession that Christ himself gives to a soul in
doubt is full of meaning : he did not allow Mary to touch his crucified
body, yet did not withhold it from doubting Thomas. Let us lead every
doubting soul straight to Christ, to his life, to his death, and, if need be, to
his crucified and risen body." — President W. J. Tucker, D.D.

366

THE FORTY DAYS.

fied ten of the apostles, by the same test that Thomas asked
for : by his feet, his hands, and his side.*

Or, if it be chronologically true that this occurred a
week or eight days later, and if Thomas had refused to be
satisfied with the testimony of ten apostles, as the ten had
been unwilling to credit others, — then this emphasizes the
more tne value of the Doubter's testimony, when he was
once convinced ; and it illustrates the wisdom of Jesus in
the choice of so cautious a disciple.

In laying the foundation for a kingdom to endure
throughout the ages, and in selecting eye-witnesses to testify
upon so important a fact as his own resurrection, it is much
to the point that Jesus picked out men of hard good sense.
They were not poets or enthusiasts, — not one of them.
They were men who could sleep soundly, even at critical
junctures ; f and who could not be imposed upon when
they were wide awake. Had it been otherwise, other men
would not have believed their testimony. They were
credible witnesses ; inspiring confidence in average men
like themselves.

Well did they repay the patience of the Master, who
surrounded them with the arms of his all-encircling love.
Bruised reeds, he forbore to break ; smoking flax, he never
quenched. He found the least sign of celestial fire. Having
loved his own, he loved them unto the end. J

* Luke xxiv : 39, 40 ; John xx : 24-28.

f As upon the mount of transfiguration, and at Gethsemane.

J John xiii : 1 .

367

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

WE come now to a strange part of this critical period in
the instruction given by our Saviour to the apostolic
college. He had to teach them, not too abruptly, a further
lesson as to the true relation between disciple and Master.
" Not one of them before his death," suggests Dr. William
Hanna, " had risen to any thought or belief in his Divinity.
They had to be raised to the belief, that it was the very
Lord of heaven and earth with whom they had been hold-
ing converse." Did not this, he asks, forbid " a return to
all the old familiarities of his former intercourse" ?

It has been suggested by others, that Jesus intended to
discipline the apostles in relying on themselves before his
ascension. This was exactly what he did not do. If he
had, — they would have gone a-flshing. He taught them,
rather, to rely on the Paraclete ; and to pray for the Para-
clete ; and to go forth to testify concerning himself, and to
disciple all nations, — when they were endued for this work
by the appearance of the Paraclete.

On the whole, perhaps, the suggestion of Dr. Hanna is
a good one. And it is certain that nothing could be better
fitted to the end sought than the course Jesus took. He no
longer '''abode" with his disciples, as to his physical pres-
ence. In forty days there are only six instances recorded
of his appearance, after the day of the resurrection ; and
all these interviews appear to have been brief. There is a
mystery about it ; as if he had no abode.* " We get from

* The one point proved is that he had the same body, now healed,
that had been crucified. Yet his mode of life was like a miracle. When

368

THE FORTY DAYS.

the New Testament," says Dr. Poswell D. Hitchcock, " in
regard to these forty days, an impression of unobtrusiveness
on the part of Christ, a certain reserve and remoteness,
almost semi-spiritual and shadowy, as evinced in sudden,
unexpected appearings and disappearing^, changes of foraij
and silent gliding in and out of secluded and fastened
chambers ; as if the feet, which were so soon to tread the
yielding air ascending to the Father, were already lighten-
ing their pressure upon the solid earth.*

3UCH a course as this, on the part of Jesus, had its
effect upon intensely practical men, like Peter,
Thomas, Nathanael, James, and John. Without su-
perstition as to the comings and goings of Jesus, thev
were competent men in a business way ; and if there wat
some uncertainty as to the course they should take as disci-
ples, they could at least return to their former calling, upon
the sea of Tiberias, f Peter seems to have been the leader
in this movement. He needed further instruction, and

he multiplied bread, the bread he made was substantial. When he con-
tinued his life, during forty days without apparent fixed abode, it was a
true carnal life. There was no spiritual body till the Ascension. " During
those forty days," says Farrar, "his body was not liable to merely
human laws."

*It is Tholuck who says : "He does not appear to be of the earth,
for he comes only ' many times ' to the disciples : and where is he when
not with them? The twilight envelops our Lord, but it is morning
twilight. The night lies behind him."

f John xxi : 1-14.

369 24

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

proof of the true character of Jesus. After the Ascension,
he fished no more, except for men.

After Jesus had dined with the seven upon the old
familiar shore, occurred that questioning of Peter * by our
Lord, which betokened his own confidence and love, and
indicated the work the apostle was to do in the place of
fishing.

" With the threefold denial," says Tholuck, " corre-
sponds, the triple hammer-stroke of this question on the
heart of Peter : " Lovest thou me?" It is but the same
searching question that anticipates the Judgment for every
man.

" Follow thou me," said Jesus to Peter, as his closing
injunction. And then, when Peter sought to make one
more diversion,! before implicitly following, our Lord re-
plied, "What is that to thee ? Follow thou me." A war-
rant, indeed, for every man to imitate Christ.

'Tf.GAESr Jesus met the apostles, upon some Galilean moun-
l\ tain, J by special appointment ; and here most likely
the five hundred brethren referred to by St. Paul,§ —
who affirmed that the greater part of the five hundred were
living and testifying twenty years after. Indeed, there
were so many witnesses, and the tests were so decisive as
to the reality of Jesus' bodily presence, and the reappear-
ances were so frequent during the forty days, that St. Luke

* John xxi : 15-23. f J°lm xxi : 19-22. J Matt, xxviii : 16.
§1. Cor. xv : 6.

370

THE FORTY DAYS.

has written that our Lord "showed himself alive after his
passion, by many infallible proofs." * The proof rested
upon men hard to be convinced, but who were convinced.

At this point, says St. Luke, f Jesus explained to the
eleven and to a large company of his followers the Mosaic,
lyric, and prophetic Scriptures that related to himself, and
that it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead
the third day, — as he had already spoken to the same point
in conversing with the disciples of Emmaus.

Either here upon the mountain, or at his subsequent
appearance to all the apostles, J Jesus commissioned his
disciples to go forth into all the world, preaching the
Gospel of repentance and remission of sins through his
name, teaching all nations to observe all things whatsoever
he had commanded, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. §

This startling mandate gave Peter other work than
fishing. Yet its performance was not to depend on poor
Peter. It was to depend upon the Paraclete. In leaving
his disciples, they were to tarry in Jerusalem until the
coming of the Paraclete. || They were not to be diverted,
the Master said, by curious questions as to Israel and a

*Actsi: 3.

f Compare Acts i : 3, with Luke xxiv : 44-48.

$ At about this time, Jesus was also seen of James, alone. I. Cor.
xv: 7.

§Matt. xxviii: 18-20. Luke xxiv: 47, 48. Acts i: 4-S. I. Cor.
xv : 7.

|| Luke xxiv : 49. Acts i : 4-8.

371

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

king ; but they were to await the coming of the Paraclete,
and then they were to go forth, witnessing what they had
seen and heard, testifying concerning his own life and
death and resurrection.

Henceforth, the discipling of the whole world was to be
the main business of the followers of Jesus, endued with
the power of the Holy Ghost. Henceforth, an angel was
to fly over the awakening earth, having the everlasting
Gospel, to preach in every nation and kindred, and tongue,
and people.* Henceforth, it would be seen and known that
the death of Jesus was really no interruption of his life
mission, and his ceaseless influence among men, till all
earthly empires should be included in his kingdom.

And now, in the baptismal formula, in what he had
said concerning the Holy Spirit in the hour before his
betrayal, and in what was said at this moment, he indicated
his own unity with the Power by which they were to be
endued, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world." f

Always ^vith. Us.

With us, when the storm is sweeping
O'er our pathway dark and drear ;

Waking hope within our bosoms,
Stilling every anxious fear."

* Rev. xiv : 6.

f Matt, xxviii : 19 ; John xiv : 16-18, 26 ; and xv : 26 ; and xvi : 7
13-15 ; Matt, xxviii : 20.

372

THE FORTY DAYS.

Forsake Nie Not.

Forsake me not, Thou life of life to me ;
Though death and sin
Attempt within
To chain and reign, and never set me free.
To Thee I ever cry,
To Thee I haste and fly ;
On high I mount in thought
While low I bend the knee, —
Forsake me not, forsake me not.

Forsake me not, Thou death of sin in me ;
Wilt Thou draw nigh
To crucify
My body's sin, of sinful soul the key?
I ask for nail and thorn, —
And resurrection morn ;
To die and live, my lot.
In both I cling to Thee, —
Forsake me not, forsake me not.

373

CHAPTER THREE.

Opening the Heavenly Gates.
• <&$• — ^x^ — -$$>

'PON the eighteenth of May, the apostolic company *
was led forth by their Master to the eastern slope
of Olivet, and there upon highlands above
Bethany, yet hidden from it by a ridge,
upon a site looking out far over the wilderness, within sight
of the Jordan and its southern sea, Jesus lifted up his hands
and blessed them ; and it came to pass, while he blessed
them, he was parted from them, and a cloud received him
out of their sight.

It is a mystery. He was changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye ; his corruptible put on incorruption,
his mortal put on immortality, mortality was swallowed up
of life, and alive he was caught up in the clouds, f " Jesus
moved upward, as if lifted from the earth by some celestial
attraction." | "As he floats upward through the yielding
air," says Dr. Hanna, "his eyes are bent on the uplook-
ing men ; his arms are stretched over them in the attitude

* Luke xxiv : 50, 51. Acts i : 9.

f I. Cor. xv : 51-53. II. Cor. v : 4. I. Thess. iv ; 17. Phil, iii : 21.
% Alexander B. Bruce, D.D.
[Book VIII.] 374

OPENING OF THE HEAVENLY GATES.

of benediction, his voice is heard dying away in blessings as
he ascends, till the cloud closes the earthly communion be-
tween Jesus and his disciples."*

From earth to sky, he upward soars ;

The host on high, in triumph waits ;

Lift up your heads, O heavenly gates ;
Swing back, O everlasting doors, f

"God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound
of a trumpet." He who bowed the heavens, and came
down, has now ascended up where he was before. " I am
he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forever-
more."

He hath ascended up to heaven, who came down from
heaven, the Son of Man which is in heaven ; and he is
there surrounded by a great multitude which no man can
number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

That body so worn by cares, so exhausted by bloody

* " Man in the form that rises, God in the power that bears Him to
his Father's throne." — Bishop Ellicott.

f " O thou Man of Sorrows — O Lord Jesus, thou who wert a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, we rejoice that thy sorrows are past.
All the privations of thy life on earth are past. The contradiction of
sinners against thyself, which thou didst endure, is past. Thine agony in
the garden, thy bloody sweat, thy sufferings on the cross, thy slumber in
the grave, — all are past. And thou hast ascended triumphantly, attended
by convoys of angels, and the heavenly gates were lifted up, and the ever-
lasting doors gave way, whilst thou, the King of Glory, didst enter and
take possession of thy throne, God over all, blessed forever." — Frag-
ment of a public x^rauer by Dr. Lyman Beecher, Boston, Oct., 1851.

375

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

sweat, so lashed by cruel blows, so bruised and speared be-
fore he died, is now adorned with the robe of heaven's
King.

Those feet that bore messages of peace over the moun-
tains of Israel, that walked on the sea to rescue his dis-
ciples, those feet that bore him to midnight prayers on the
hilltops, those weary feet that walked in the garden and
were torn by the spikes, those feet now have the earth for a
footstool and now bruise the head of the Serpent.

Those hands that broke bread for the famishing multi-
tude, that healed the eyes of the blind, that blessed little
children, that wielded the cords and scourged traders from
God's holy house, those hands that once took hold of the
cross and were too weak for the burden, that were stretched
and pierced on that cross, those hands now hold up the
heavens and to-day rescue the needy, and to-day bear the
scepter of the universe.

Those lips that hungered in the wilderness and were
parched on the cross, those lips that opened to bless the
multitudes and to curse hypocrites, those lips that were
pressed by traitorous Judas, and that tasted the vinegar
and the gall, those lips now give wisdom to the angels and
cheer the redeemed forever.

Those eyes that wept over Jerusalem, and that pitied
the multitude, and that closed in death, now shine clear as
the lights of heaven and gladden that world where there
is no need of the sun and where there is no night, where
the Lord is the light thereof.

Those ears that once heard the cry of the needy, and

376

OPENING OF THE HEAVENLY GATES.

listened to the complaints of disciples, and that were pierced
with the cry of the furious multitude, " Crucify him, crucify
him ! " now hear the praises of the angels and the new
song, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor,
and glory, and blessing."

That face which was so often charged with pity, or
righteous anger, or holy sorrow, that face which was spit
upon, is now radiant with the joy of heaven, and the per-
fect bliss of Infinite Holiness and Infinite Love. That head
on which the Dove of God descended, that head which had
no place of rest, which was smitten, and which wore thorns,
and hung helpless on the cross, now wears the crown of
everlasting joy.

" As this Man then," says the Bishop of Chartres, *
"Jesus Christ, restored to his country, returns, as it were,
by the right of recall, — the whole city, the heavenly Jeru-
salem, goes out to meet him with the Father ; the whole
multitude of angels, the thousand thousands that minister
to him, and the ten thousand times ten thousand that stand
before him, — they embrace his feet, and bear him up on
their shoulders to the throne of heaven. For thus it is
written in the Psalms, ' The chariots of God are twenty
thousand, even thousands of angels ' ; and the Lord is
among them as in the holy place of Sinai, O the joy, O the
solemnity, O the triumph, O the jubilation, O the exulta-
tion, O the everlasting gladness !

* At the beginning of the twelfth century.

377

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" Some exclaim, 'Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own

strength.' Others, ' Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place,
thou and the ark of thy strength.'

" Some, ' Who is the King of glory ? ' Others, ' The
Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty in battle.'

" Some, ' Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah ? ' Others, ' He that is glorious in
apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength.' "

And so the songs echo and re-echo throughout all the
heavenly country • and the most distant spheres are glad,
and the morning stars again sing together, and all crea-
tion rejoices, and triumphal hymns are resounding in all
parts of Christ's dominion.

Nor were these happy hymns of everlasting joy wanting
in the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, — for the apostolic
band first "worshiped him" who had been parted from
them, and then they "returned to Jerusalem with great
joy ; and were continually in the temple, praising and bless-
ing God." *

They kept no longer in hiding for fear of the Jews :
they had Jehovah at their back. They stood before him,
the representatives upon earth of his mercy in Jesus Christ.
Did not Moses and Elijah, too, stand by them ? " Two
men stood by them in white apparel, f From them, they
heard the proclamation of a second coming : and they at
once set about preparing the earth for their Lord, — creating
it anew through the power of the Paraclete. To this work

*Luke xxiv : 52, 53. f Acts i: 10, 11.

378

OPENING OF THE HEAVENLY GATES.

they went forth with exceeding joy, for they had seen the
hands of Jesus stretched out to bless them: "Wherever
they stood, wherever they went, the blessing hands were
before their eyes." *

Collect for Ascension Day.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that as we
believe thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart
and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, One
God, world without end. Amen."

* Tholuck.

379

CHAPTER FOUR.

Confident Witnesses.
<s><s>

[Introductory Note. — Although the preceding chapter closes the
story of the life of our Lord, it yet remains to allude to the connection
between the life and death and resurrection of Jesus and the beginnings of
Christianity as an organized force in the world, — a connection clear enough
when we know the views concerning Christ that were at once entertained
by his disciples after his resurrection.]

'T is apparent that the disciples did not anticipate the
resurrection of Christ. They had not understood his
allusions to it before it took place, nor did the Old Tes-
tament Scriptures seem to them to point to it. If they
had been expecting it, they would have been on the look-
out for it. Instead of that, they forsook Jesus, and fled ;
and if there had been no resurrection, their hope in him as
the Messiah would never have revived. " Without some
such event," says James Freeman Clarke, "Christianity
would have been buried forever in the Master's grave."

Instead, however, of giving it up, they began at once to
appear boldly, confronting all the foes of Jesus with the
proclamation that their Master had risen from the dead. In-
stead of it being sundown with them, it was sunrise ; in the
place of gloom was gladness ; hope rose in lieu of despair ;

[Book VII1.1 380

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

the weak became strong ; the mourners rejoiced ; those
crushed by the death of Jesus, changed their tone, — they
did not merely believe, but they were certain that their
Redeemer lived. They did not talk like men who had lost
their Lord.* There was in their testimony a cheerful, jubi-
lant proclamation. They had the ring of eternal victory in
their voices. They knew in whom they had believed.

IT is most to the point, that, from this time on, the apostles
made it their one business in life to testify concerning
Jesus Christ ; they became his witnesses.

It is impossible to find adequate terms in which to
express their consummate folly in doing this, if Jesus had
not risen from the dead. They had seen the entire ecclesi-
astical machinery of the Jewish church set to the work of
crushing Christ ; and they had seen the populace join the
priests, when there were more than two millions gathered
at their chief religious festival ; they had seen the power of
Rome crucify Jesus as a sham king. Should they, there-
fore, at once put aside all other business, and devote them-
selves to a scheme for getting themselves killed, by agree-
ing together, some five hundred of them, to lie, and to lie in
season and out of season by system, saying that Jesus had
risen from the dead and that they had seen him ? Would
they risk it for a lie, when the peril had been so great that

" The eleven grieved not for their Lord's disappearance. They had
gained, not lost, a friend." — The Rev. Alex. B. Bruce, D.D.

381

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Jesus scattered them upon his own arrest, and when they
gathered only in secret * for fear of the triumphant and
determined priests ?

It is not only morally impossible for those timid, despair-
ing, cautious disciples to have invented a falsehood which
would certainly insure their further persecution ; but from
their standpoint they would have had nothing to build to if
Jesus had not risen from the dead, — there being nothing in
their concept of the ancient Scriptures, or their apprehen-
sion of the words of Jesus, to warrant it. They would have
had to invent an unheard-of fact, that no one would credit.
And it would .falsify all our knowledge of the way men
actually do under such circumstances, to believe that they
first made an incredible lie that risked their own safety, and
then propagated it, — not only with an enthusiasm of self-
devotement, but with a purity of life so new to the world
that they have been the admiration of all subsequent ages.

WHEN ye have lifted up the Son of Man," said Jesus,
"then shall ye know that I am he." \ And in order
that they might know, he insisted upon it that his "wit-
nesses" should begin to testify immediately, while the
facts were fresh, and his opponents living ; J and to begin
at Jerusalem, the very spot where, if anywhere, it could be
told at once whether they told the truth ; and where, if
anywhere, it was for the interest of an acute, wily, and

* John xx : 19. f John viii : 28. \ Luke xxiv : 47. Acts i ■' 18.

382

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

powerful body of men, who malignantly slew Christ as a
blasphemer, to deny and disprove false statements, — since
if he had arisen it would settle all doubt of his Messiahship,
and convict them of his death. There were five hundred
professed witnesses all told, at least a hundred and twenty
of them living in Jerusalem ; if they had banded together
to forge a lie, the cunning, talented, learned seventy elders,
the lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees, with all their priestly
craft, and the Roman power to back them up, could have
found it out. With one half the zeal the foes of Jesus
manifested in killing him, they could have disproved a
lie agreed upon by hundreds of scattered witnesses. It
would have been easy if Jesus had not risen from the
grave, for his enemies to find and produce his body, and
disprove beyond all question those who testified falsely.*
If Pilate made sure that Jesus was dead, \ he could, if he
had been egged on by Caiaphas to do 'it, have found out
whether five hundred Jews were lying, in affirming that
Jesus was alive and that they had seen him, — thus so
greatly injuring Judaism as to threaten to destroy it. Yet
it was under these circumstances, that the testimony of the
disciples of Jesus to his resurrection gained such credit that
the believers were at once numbered by thousands. \

* The only serious attempt made to deny the resurrection was the
bribing of the guard to say that while they slept, the body was stolen. If
they were asleep, they could not know whether he arose, or whether he
had been removed. Before they were bribed, they evidently told the
story as St. Matthew did, — xxviii : 2-4.

f Mark xv : 44. John xix : 34.

X In preparing this paragraph, the Author is, in certain particulars,

383

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

The apostles were not men of the social and political
influence needful to establish a false doctrine, — they were
men who for the most part got their living by catching fish ;
if they had attempted the business of setting up a new
religion founded on a lie, and overturning Judaism by it,
and conquering Rome by it, they were not the kind of men
who could have succeeded. They were, however, of the
stuff that made good witnesses.* And St. Paul affirms f
that of the five hundred who saw Christ after his resurrec-
tion, the most were alive a score of years after the event.
This was a body of testimony steadfastly abiding for
twenty years, eye-witnesses who could not be got rid of.
It established the fact beyond all recall.

The apostles went forth, and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them by the power of the Holy One.
" We are witnesses," said Peter to Cornelius, " of all things
which Jesus did ; and he commanded us to preach and to
testify." t

Fifty days after the crucifixion, there were three
thousand Jews converted to the belief in the Messiahship

indebted to a Sermon upon the Resurrection, by Rev. Asa P. Tenney,
preached before the General Association of New Hampshire, 1855. Com-
pare pages 10-14.

*Prof. George P. Fisher has called attention to the slow and
sure formation of the faith of the apostles : « < The genius and growth of
John's faith was indissolubly connected with the teachings and miracles
which he records. How often after one of these records, it is added that
his disciples believed. He shows what it was, and why it was, that he
and his companions believed."

fl. Cor. xv : 6,7. JMarkxvi: 20. Acts x : 39, 42.

384

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

of Jesus. In his sermon upon this occasion,* the apostle
Peter referred to the miracles wrought by Jesus, "as ye
yourselves also know " ; and to the death of Jesus, whom
" ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified " ; and
to the resurrection, "this Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we all are witnesses."

It is recorded,! that " the number of the disciples multi-
plied in Jerusalem greatly ; and a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith." And when J St. Paul
made a report of his work among the Gentiles to the
brethren in Jerusalem, they said, "Thou seest how many
thousands of Jews there are which believe." Dean Alford
cites the testimony of Hegesippus, an ancient Christian
writer, that at one time, from the number of rulers who be-
lieved, the scribes and Pharisees feared that the whole
nation would acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. A vast
number did so receive him, before the fall of Jerusalem.

We behold, then, that paradox alluded to by Ernest
Naville, "Under the government of Providence, the world
ends by following that which it begins by rejecting : by
the hands of the Jews, humanity nailed Jesus to a tree ;
then at the call of a few fishermen and of a tentmaker, it
relents, and follows him." This mighty moral miracle,
however, but shows the power of the Paraclete — the present
Christ unfolding his Kingdom upon the earth — with
which the disciples of Jesus were endued after their prayer-
ful tarrying in Jerusalem between the Ascension and Pen-

* Acts ii : 22-32. f Acts vi : 7. % Acts xxi : 20.

385 25

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

tecost.* It was to them the same as if Jesus triumphant
had remained with them. And their witness for him was
clear, and unmistakable: "That which we have heard,
which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have
looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of
life, declare we unto you."

THERE is no criticism in modern days that is of the
slightest pertinence, pertaining to the Gospel story,
unless it relates to the main proof of the mission of Jesus,
— his resurrection. If that be granted, everything else
goes with it ; if that be disproved, everything else goes
with it. This is the crucial point in respect to the main
question — the Incarnation. If Jesus was the Son of God,
all particulars of the Bible record are credible enough ; if
he was not, then nobody cares whether they are credible
or not.

"That Christ rose from the dead," says Canon Liddon,
"depends on the same sort of testimony as any event in
the life of Caesar ; with this difference, that no one ever
thought it worth while to risk his life in order to maintain
that Caasar defeated Vercingetorix or Pompey. . . If the
testimony which can be produced in proof of the Resurrec-
tion concerned only a political occurrence, or a fact of nat-
ural history witnessed eighteen centuries ago, nobody
would think of denying its cogency. Those who do reject

* Luke xxiv : 49. Acts i : 4, 5, 13, 14.

386

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

the truth of the Resurrection, quarrel, for the most part, not
with the proof that the Resurrection occurred, but with the
supposition that such a thing could happen in any circum-
stances."

This is, however, greatly understating the testimony.
The Hon. Edward J. Phelps, Kent Professor of Law, and
Lecturer on Equity and International Law, in Yale Uni-
versity, and late United States Minister to England, has
stated that " The title to most of the land in the world, and
to a large extent the facts of descent and legitimacy, the
validity of contracts, the existence of rights, and the deter-
mination of disputes," rest upon "the rules of evidence
established by the common law"; under which, "when
ancient facts which depend upon the personal knowledge
of witnesses are in question and need to be determined
long after the witnesses and the circumstances that at-
tended them have passed away, the lapse of time when ac-
companied by general acquiescence in the truth of the facts
on the part of those who would be interested to deny them
is taken as establishing a conclusive presumption that they
are true and not open to contradiction." "The substantial
facts upon which Christianity is founded are within the
scope and effect of this indispensable rule." "Time and
the general assent of humanity have thus established the
truth of the fundamental facts of Christianity. It is now
too late to deny them, or to controvert them by cavil or
criticism over evidence that so long passed beyond the
region of human scrutiny. And the faith, so far as it
depends upon the testimony of men, rests upon the same

387

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

foundation that justice, experience, and necessity concur in
according to all facts on which the rights of mankind re-
pose, after the witnesses are gone." *.

That is to say : any theorist, who undertakes seriously
to question the fact of our Lord's resurrection, is like one
who hopes to unsettle certain land titles and legal rights of
Europe which have been settled nearly two thousand years,
or to lead the scholarship of the world to seriously doubt
such historic facts as the mode of Csesar's death or that of
Leonidas. From a jurist's point of view, it is too late to
undertake it. Civilization would be overturned and man-
kind would return to barbarism, if the mode of reasoning
relied on to overturn belief in the resurrection of Jesus
were to be successfully applied to ancient facts that under-
lie the security of our modern civil and social life.

Yet, if our Lord rose from the dead, he was a Divine
messenger • and his affirmations concerning his own mission
are true ; and his lesser miracles are true ; and God has
certainly made known his love to man in the Incarnation.

As a matter of fact, all the Chief Justices of the United
States have been Christians, and have given in their testi-
mony to the fact of our Lord's resurrection, accepting it on
the legal evidence of its truth under the rules of evidence
established by the common law.

* Compare report of Professor Phelps' Address before the Divinity
School at Yale University, as published in the Author's Triumphs of the
Cross, pp. 200, 201, Boston, 1895.

388

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

THERE is, therefore, no more reason to doubt the princi-
pal facts which account for the existence of the Chris-
tian Church than those which account for popular liberty in
England and America. The change of day for Sabbath
observance which had been in vogue since the Mosaic era,
the introduction of baptism in the place of Abrahamic
custom, the observance of the Lord's Supper in the place
of the passover, are as truly based upon the resurrection of
Jesus as the observance of the Fourth of July is based upon
the accomplished fact of American independence ; neither
of these three monumental Christian customs would have
been possible, if our Lord had never risen from the dead.
They indicate a general acceptance of the fact, upon satis-
factory evidence at the time.

Another indication is that of the disappearance of the
expectation of a Messiah, and the final breaking away
from Judaism of a great body of Jews who accepted Jesus
on proof of his resurrection, and who were successful in
maintaining their position and making a constant gain in
the number of their adherents, until the Christians took
possession of the Roman empire. It was said by one of the
early church fathers that tradition nailed Christ to the
cross. This traditional system was thereafter preserved
only as a system of antiquated custom. The resurrection
of Jesus revolutionized the thought of a great multitude of
the Jewish people, and gave vitality to a new ideal of life
as it had been set forth in the life of Jesus, and adapted the

389

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

new ideal to the whole world instead of restricting it to
Palestine or an isolated people.*

"Nothing," says Ewald, "stands more historically cer-
tain than that Jesus rose from the dead, and appeared
again to his followers ; or than that their seeing him thus
again was the beginning of a higher faith, and of all their
Christian work in the world." " Without it," says Neander,
" they never could have had that inspiring assurance of
faith with which they everywhere testified of what they
had received, and joyfully submitted to tortures and to
death."

As a matter of history, the Church of Christ was founded
on the fact of the resurrection, in the sense that it could
not have come into existence after the death of our Lord, if
he had not risen from the dead. "It was erected upon his
empty tomb." f The achievement of popular liberty, in no
part of the globe, is more perfectly attested, by monumental
records and customs, than the triumph of Christ over the
ignominy of the cross and a grave.

The moral evidence is equivalent to a certainty for all
practical purposes, as tested by our mode of reasoning on
all ordinary matters ; there being an overwhelming balance
of probability of its truth, — and the conduct of life is based
upon probability. If probability is our guide in the affairs

*" From that day, place was nothing, form was nothing ; from that
day the only temple was the soul, the only ritual the offering of a free
heart." — C. J. Vaughan, D.D.

fPROF. Ciiristoph Ernst Luthardt, Ph.D., D.D., of the Uni-
versity of Leipsic.

390

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

of life, then our moral certainty of the truth of the resur-
rection of Jesus — carrying with it as it does the over-
whelming proof of the incarnation of the infinite love of
God to mankind — is our guide to eternal life.*

THE resurrection of Jesus transformed the cross from the
symbol of shame to a symbol of the character of
Christ. It was as great a change as it would be, if now the
gallows could be redeemed from its infamy and be sud-
denly invested with glory, and if the gallows were to become
henceforth the symbol most sacred to the entire civilized
world. This change could not have been effected if Jesus
had not risen from the dead. The triumph of the cross as a
symbol testifies to our Lord's resurrection.

*" Unless," says Dr. R. S. Storrs, in his Sermon upon An Unrisen
Christ, "unless all judicial processes of inquiry into alleged facts are mere
confusion and bewilderment, the fact of our Lord's resurrection is
established certainly, upon constant evidence, by a sufficient number of
unimpeachable witnesses. Something held the apostles together, gave
them continual inspiration ; something told them that the Church was to
live and be triumphant. Christendom never came from an unbroken
grave. It would have been buried in that grave, as Judas thought it was
going to be, and as the Jews thought it was going to be, except there had
been a resurrection from the dead. Our whole civilization rests on the
broken Cross of the Master, — and it is incredible that a civilization like
this, in a world advancing steadily for eighteen centuries, has been
founded on a lie. You impeach the sanity of the race in that statement.
"No, it is founded upon a rock, the faith of the Christian. God has built
the truth of the resurrection of Christ into the history of mankind. He
has made it as certain as if it were written on the arch of heaven. "

391

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" The sign of universal execration," says Chrysostom,
"the sign of extremest punishment, has now become the
object of universal longing and love. We see it every-
where triumphant : we find it in houses, on the roofs and
the walls ; in cities and villages ; on the market place, the
great roads, and in deserts ; on mountains and in valleys ;
on the sea, on ships ; on books and on weapons ; on wearing
apparel, in the marriage chamber, at banquets, on vessels of
gold and of silver, in pearls, in pictures on the walls, on
beds ; in the dances of those going to pleasure, and in the
associations of those that mortify their bodies."

" All the glory of Christ's example," says Orviile Dewey,
" all the graciousness of his purposes, shine most brightly
on the cross. The death of Jesus is the life of the world."
It is fitting then that the cross be exalted, that all men may
gaze on the dying Galilean. "How calmly yet mightily
has the cross preached through all time, in palace, cottage,
and cell."*

Upon Easter day, in the chapel erected over the tradi-
tional spot of our Saviour's crucifixion, it is said, that " across
the marble floor, hour after hour in endless succession,
pilgrims of many nations and of many tongues move
slowly on their knees, with streaming tears and every mani-
festation of deep and reverential devotion ; and when they
reach the sacred rock in which they believe that the cross
was fixed, they cover it with passionate kisses." f " I, if I
be lifted up," said our Lord, " will draw all men unto me."

* Tholuck. f The Rev. R. W. Dale, D.D.

392

APOSTOLIC WITNESSES.

To him are all men drawn most truly, when they are al-
ways bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest. So it
was said concerning our early apostle to the Indians, John
Eliot, that he " became so nailed to the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that the grandeurs of this world were unto
him just what they would be to a dying man."

" Live," cried Luther, " as though Christ had died yes-
terday, risen to-day, and were coming to-morrow."

393

CHAPTER FIVE.

The F'asch.al Lamb.

WHAT is faith's foundation strong?
What awakes my lips to song ?
He who bore my sinful load
Purchased for me peace with God,
Jesus Christ, the Crucified." *

HIS is an epitome of the Gospel, said Luther, that
God so loved the world that he gave his only begot-
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not
perish, but have everlasting life. The "witnesses" sent
forth by our Lord taught that he was a Saviour. It was
the presentation of a fact and not a theory : they made no
pretense to set forth the philosophy of the Atonement ; the
fact they insisted upon. The fact so stated, proved a great
power in propagating faith in a Risen Redeemer.

" If the death of Jesus was wholly voluntary/' says Dr.
R. S. Storrs, " then it was either a suicide or a sacrifice : a
suicide, unjustified to our minds by any sufficient resulting
benefit : or a sacrifice, made necessary to man's salvation

*B. H. Kennedy, D.D., Rector of West Felton, England.
[Book VIII.] 394

THE LAMB OF GOD.

by the evilness and the doom of sin, and by the wise right-
eousness of God."

Whatever the apostles taught they learned of the Mas-
ter. In Luke xxiv : 44-48, Jesus reminded them of what
he had previously taught concerning the fulfillment of
Scripture in himself, and he then further expounded the
ancient words, showing that it was needful for him to suffer
and to rise from the dead ; and he commanded them to
preach " repentance and remission of sins in his name
among all nations." The language of the fifty-third of
Isaiah is so remarkable* that St. Jerome once said, "Isa-
iah seems to me not to have composed a prophecy, but
the Gospel." It is to such passages that St. Peter refers ; \
and St. Paul, when he speaks of Jesus as " delivered up by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," and
that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures," \
and that " God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." § And
St. Peter, "filled with the Holy Ghost," said "Neither is
there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved."||

Dr. John Hall, of New York, has said that he did not
have to invent a plan of redemption but preach the one
God provided. " The power of the great sacrifice for the

* Isa. liii : 5, 8-12. f I. Pet. i: 11, % I. Cor. xv : 3. § Eph. iv : 32.

|| Acts iv : 8, 12. Compare the words of Peter to the high priest, Acts
v : 31 ; and to Cornelius, Acts x : 43.

395

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

sins of the world lies in itself," said Dr. R. W. Dale of
Birmingham, "and not in our explanation of it : even when
the doctrine of the Church has been most corrupt, the death
of Christ has continued to appeal to the hearts of men with
unique and all but irresistible force.*

It is like a little Gospel adapted to be carried to every
household, that all the families of the earth may be blessed
in Christ : —

God came in the flesh ; he told us about the Father,
revealing what we know of the moral character of the
Creator : this is his Book ; the substance of it, as to duty, is
to love God with all the heart, and your neighbor as your-
self,— if this you do, it is practical repentance, and you are
forgiven by God's mercy through Christ.

" You lie, you steal," said Russell the missionary in
Africa. He said it seven years, but no one repented. He
then told the pagans about the Atonement, and they re-
pented. John Paton in the New Hebrides, and Patteson
the martyr, preached positive truths, the love of God, and
choice of God. The miracle of the world's transformation
has been like that wrought in the early ages, by the apos-
tolic preaching of Christ and him crucified.

"Christ's whole life," says Thomas a Kempis, "was a
cross and a martyrdom ; and dost thou seek rest and joy
for thyself ? " The story is an unceasing appeal for living
an exalted life. " The Bridegroom," says Tauler, " suffered
shame, hunger, cold, thirst, heat, and bitter pains for three

* Consult Supplemental Note at the end of this chapter.

396

THE LAMB OF GOD.

and thirty years, and at last a bitter death, for the Bride's
sake, out of pure love." The whole life of Christ was an
expiation.* It was this which gave wings to the feet of the
apostles. There is no more astonishing story in the New
Testament than that of the transformation of St. Peter,
from an impulsive and sometimes craven disciple, fond of
fishing, to a man with a message, — who charged the high
priest to his face with having murdered the Messiah, and
who heeded no prison doors or stripes, but went into the
temple daily and into every house with his Gospel story, f
It was this which determined St. Paul to know nothing but
Christ and him crucified. J;

Are there not to-day many pearls in the deep ungath-

*This is what is meant by Padre Agostino da Montefeltro, when
he says, "As there are sins of the heart, sins of the spirit, and sins
of the body, the Lord Jesus chose to expiate the sins of the heart by his
agony in Gethsemane ; he chose to expiate the sins of the spirit by his
humiliation before the tribunals ; he chose to expiate the sins of the
flesh by the scourging which he willed to endure, by his bonds and im-
prisonment, by his crucifixion on the Mount of Calvary."

f Vide Acts v : verses 17, 18, 21, 27-33, 40-42.

Dr. John Watson (Ian Maclaren) has remarked upon the wisdom
of our Lord in selecting his disciples : "St. Peter would have appeared
to us rash and impulsive and unreliable, but beneath his variable nature
Jesus found the rock of devotion and stability. ' '

% " If I were to live to the end of the world," said St. Francis, " I
should need no other book than the record of the Passion of Christ."

"The Christ who is preached throughout the whole world," says
St. Augustine, "is not Christ adorned with an earthly crown, nor
Christ rich in earthly treasures, nor Christ illustrious for earthly pros-
perity, but Christ crucified."

397

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ered ? Are there not to-day many hills of gold unopened ?
Are there not to-day many flowers in the wilderness un-
plucked ? Are there not to-day many beneficent powers in
nature undiscovered and unused ? And is there not to-day
abundant virtue in the blood of Christ, enough for all the
world ? And will the world still refuse ?

Let me not then coolly count the five bleeding wounds
of Christ, without some sense of guilt. A thorn in his
crown was my sin. My sin was a nail in his cross ; my sin
a spear in his side.

" Seeking me, thy worn feet hasted,
In the cross thy soul death tasted,
Let not all these toils be wasted :
Think, O Jesus, for what reason
Thou endurest earth's spite and treason, —
Nor me lose in that dread season."

Supplemental Note :

Relating to Our Lord's Atonement.

IT is difficult to theorize concerning the grounds of the Scriptural doctrine
of the Atonement as it is in regard to the Trinity. We may say of
the Triunal name of God, that the Father stands for the creative, sover-
eign Power, as the Moral Governor of men, the Infinite Justice ; that the
Son sets forth the Love of God, his redemptive work ; and that the Holy
Spirit is God in his relation to the continuous conduct of His Kingdom
among moral beings ; and that these distinctions are eternal in their
nature. Having said so much, it is difficult so to state the philosophy of
the work of the Son of God, as to produce no confusion as to the nature
of the Tri-une Being. For the most part of mankind it is better, doubt-
less, to leave it where the Apostles do, — to state the fact without attempt-
ing to theorize.

" The very nature and essence of the sufferings and death of Christ
is, that they are an expiation of sin," says Professor H. B. Smith, in

398

THE LAMB OF GOD.

his Christian Theology: "We may form theories about its relations to
moral government, or the wants of the soul, but the essence of the thing
about which we are to form our theory is, that it was an expiation for sin.
. . . How can the sacrifice procure the pardon of sin? What are the
ultimate grounds? Here is where the theories of the atonement come in.
. . . To show precisely how God construes this greatest and most far-
reaching of transactions ... is a task we do not undertake."

" Christ," says Henry Ward Beecher, " is God revealed in mani-
festations suited to the weak and the wicked. That part of the divine
character which is adapted to perfection, is the Father s ; that part which
is adapted to imperfection is Jesus Christ. Men say they can apprehend
the Father, but that it is difficult to apprehend Christ. That part of God
that comes near to a fallen soul ; that expresses divine pity, love, and for-
giveness ; that view of God which makes Him a nurse, a mother, the
physician, and friend, is Christ, call it by what name you please."

This book is not a treatise on theology, yet, out of the vast number
of pertinent passages, a few may be referred to, in illustration of the
atoning work of Jesus, as it was conceived by the Apostles : I. Peter i :
19 ; Revelation v : 9, 12, 13 ; Romans v : 9, 10 ; II. Corinthians v : 18,
19 ; Ephesians i : 7, and ii : 13-17 ; Hebrews ii : 17, and ix : 26, 27.

Vide Article by Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, of New York, page
538, in which the theory of the Atonement is alluded to.

399

BOOK NINE.

.->£=H£^-.

Our Friend on High.

*®>#l&<sfr

Chapter l. Page 401.

Loving Kindness Personally
Administered.

Chapter 2. Page 412.

Mystery of the Two Natures.

Chapter 3. Page 419.

Contrasts in the Divine Self^Sacrifice

CHAPTER ONE.

Loving Kindness Personally
Administered.

^-Jfc^3*-

HETHER or not St. Thomas intended to give
their full import to the words, "My Lord and
my God," it is certain that the disciples of
Jesus and the apostolic Church interpreted the prophecy of
Isaiah concerning the Holy Child, quite literally : that he
should be called .the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, as
well as the Prince of Peace ; and that Jesus, as the Messiah,
was so far the great God as well as Saviour,* that it was
suitable to pray to him, and to worship him, who was to be
the omnipotent Judge of the Universe, f They reached this
conclusion from our Lord's exposition of the Messianic
Scriptures ; and from the affirmations made by Jesus, con-
cerning his own relation to the Father, and to the Holy
Spirit. In beginning the very first verse of his Gospel with
a divine personage, rather than a babe at Bethlehem as the
other evangelists did, the apostle John "opened his treatise
with a peal of thunder," as St. Augustine has said.

" So, through the thunder comes a human voice." %

* Titus ii : 13.

f Acts i : 24, and ix : 13, 14, 21, and xxii : 16 ; Romans x : 13 ; I.
Cor. i : 2 ; Heb. xiii : 21 ; II. Pet. iii : 18 ; Rev. v : 12, 13, and vii : 10 ;
Col. i : 16, 17 ; II. Tim. iv : 1 ; Romans xiv : 10 ; Acts xvii : 30, 31.

% Robert Browning.

[Book IX.] 401 26

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It is the voice of God's love, the Word, the expression of
God ; Christ being what God is, as to moral character. In
knowing Christ, we so far forth know God ; and that, too,
not only as an expression of God's love to man, but in some
proper sense as God himself, limited by human conditions.
The teaching of St. John, throughout his entire writings,
concerning Jesus as the Life, the Love, the Light, has been
emphasized and enlarged upon by Canon Liddon ; and he
has fortified his position by referring to more. than a score of
texts.* The New Testament indicates that the Incarnation,
or God in Christ, was the leading apostolic doctrine, and
that theological inquiry in regard to other points began
here, f

ONE of the most eminent of our novelists has written of
the "Blessed influence of one true loving human soul
on another. Not calculable by algebra, not deducible
by logic, but mysterious, effectual, mighty as the hidden

*I. John iv : 8 ; John iii : 35 ; and v : 20 ; and x : 17 ; and xv : 9 ; and
xvii : 24 ; and xiv : 23 ; and xvi : 27. I. John i : 5. John i : 7, 9 : and
viii : 12 ; and xiv: 6. I.John ii : 8. John xiv: 31. I. John iii : 16.
John xiv : 23 ; and xi : 25 ; and xvi : 6. I. John v : 20. John 5 : 26 ; and
i : 3,4. I. Johni:l.

f It has been remarked by Dean Faerar : ' < There is not one syl-
lable in the Gospels or in the Epistles respecting the appearance of
His form or face. Nor is there the vestige of any reference to it in the
literature of the first two centuries. The fact itself is deeply significant.
It is impossible that the earthly aspect of Christ should have been so
completely forgotten if the early Christians had centered their thoughts on
the Human Sufferer, the Man Christ Jesus, and not much more on the
Risen, the Ascended, the Glorified, the Eternal King, God of God, Light
of Light, Very God of Very God."

402

IMMANUEL.

process by which the living seed is .quickened, and bursts
forth into tall stem and broad leaf, and glowing tasseled
flower. Ideas .... pass athwart us in thin vapor,
and cannot make themselves felt ; but sometimes they are
made flesh, they breathe upon us with warm breath, they
touch us with soft responsive hands, they look at us with
sad, sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones, —
they are clothed in a living human soul, with all its
conflicts, its faith, and its love. Then their presence is
a power, then they shake us like a passion, and we are
drawn after them with gentle compulsion, as flame is
drawn to flame."

Is it not true that when we are most conscious of our
moral imperfections, we feel the need of an incarnation of
the Divine Love, a Divine Friendship in some historic mani-
festation ? It is so, even if we cannot easily analyze what
is wrought for us by a personal friendship which enshrines
the love of God, that cannot be wrought by love as an
abstract idea. Self-renunciation for others as an ideal of life
seems more practicable, when we see it in a person. Con-
scious of faculties in which we are morally constituted like
God, we can better develop the divine image in ourselves
by being intimate with Divinity limited by human condi-
tions, as in Christ, than by merely contemplating a list of
moral attributes. "Whenever," says Bishop Huntington,
"the soul is most deeply stirred by penitence, or strained
by agony, or kindled into holy aspiration, the spiritual na-
ture craves a more intimate communion with God than
would be possible if that God had not mysteriously mani-

403

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

f ested himself in the flesh ; not a Sovereign in the skies, but
a beating and friendly bosom in Bethany."

Our twofold nature is met and satisfied in its highest
longings only by a sympathizing God, — God with us. A
mortal immortal — a man on the earth who will soon die —
the man who will live forever — needs for a friend, not only
a mortal like himself and God in the skies, but he needs
Immanuel. Man is too spiritual to be satisfied with a
friendship that pertains to this earth alone : he is too
carnal to be satisfied with the friendship of a mysterious
Infinite Force, who has never actively sympathized with
the condition of man.* Behold then your needed Friend, —
God Himself descending.

IK the self -revelation of God, his moral attributes are re-
vealed to us in Christ, and in that course of history and
of literary production which are pertinent to Christ.
The Incarnation is not otherwise than a device of the All-
wise God to make finite beings understand His love, and

* " The glad tidings is not that a remarkable and unique man, named
Jesus, lived a holy life, realized the ideal man, and died a martyr in

Palestine eighteen hundred years ago It avails little for us

that one man in ancient times showed in his character all the rich and
beautiful humanities which can adorn a human life, all that can be
worthy and admirable in man. What we need to know is that these
beautiful humanities have their archetypes in God ; that he is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities ; that he has come to us in the beauty
and glory of the divine love drawing us to him to make us beautiful and
glorious in his likeness. And this is the glad tidings of great joy, that all in
Christ which is pure and strong in righteousness, which is tender and
sympathizing in compassion, which is beautiful, attractive, and winning

404

IMMANUEL.

lay hold upon it ; it is heaven bending to the earth, eternity
to time, God to man. We learn to think of God as the In-
finite, yet as a personal Friend. "We see the chasm be-
tween the finite and the Infinite bridged over by a member
of our human race " *

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He who
displays His glory in flowers on drear mountain sides, or
in the coral groves which grow beneath the salt sea waves,
has thought it not detracting from the dignity of His nature
to appear upon the earth, being made like unto those men
whom He would fain call brethren, that He may save them
from their sins. Forasmuch then, it is written, as the chil-
dren are flesh and blood, He — the Father through his Son
— also himself likewise took part of the same. The greater
part of mankind are poor and ignorant, and all are spiritu-
ally poor and spiritually ignorant ; and they cannot grasp
the Divine friendship as a practical thing unless that friend-
ship take the form of flesh and blood. We have, not so
much a system of truth to be believed, as a Person to be
loved ; and the truths are those which center in Him, which
lead us to Him, and which make us try to bring all the
world to Him.

in love, is the revelation of God Himself as he comes to seek and save the
lost." — Professor Samuel Harris, late of Yale University, in his work
upon God, the Creator and Lord of all.

* Frederick Godet.

John Calvin expressed the same thought, affirming that even if man
had not fallen, yet he could never have been united to God, so much above
him, without a mediator..

405

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

" CVERY revelation of God," says Dr. Samuel Harris,
1 " must necessarily be a hiding of him ; the only

way in which it is possible for God to manifest
himself is in circumscribing himself." Clearly this is so in
the material creation, — a singular limitation of Himself, if
it were to be thought that this were all. Yet the First
Cause is far more than a Chemist and a Mechanic. If the
Infinite will reveal himself to the finite mind of man — so
ignorant and low-conditioned, — it must be done by a finite
manifestation of His own mental and moral qualities in
circumstances that finite minds can apprehend. We can-
not know Infinite Perfection, but we can know what is
perfect within our sphere of human life. "The Incarna-
tion," says Drummond, "is God making himself accessible
to human thought." *

This point is well presented in two paragraphs from
Canon Liddon : —

" God willed in his condescending mercy to place him-
self within the reach of his creatures ; he willed to give a
palpable proof of the saying that ' His delights were with
the sons of men.' He, the Immaterial, became related inti-
mately and visibly to a material body ; he, the Infinite, con-
descended to take upon him a finite form ; he, the Creator,
entered into indissoluble alliance with the nature which
was the work of his hands ; and thus St. John writes in

* < ' The perfecting of the self -revelation of God is nothing other than
the Incarnation of God." — Dorner.

The anthropological representations of God in the Old Testament
accord with the Incarnation in the New.

406

IMMANUEL.

ecstasy of ' that which was from the beginning, that which
we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that
which we beheld and our hands handled, of the Word of
Life ; for the life was manifested, and we have seen, and
bear witness, and declare 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/*
And thus the remote, inaccessible God was really within
reach. ' The Word was made flesh ; ' he was seen and
handled ; he was laid in the manger of Bethlehem."

" Instead of presenting us with some fugitive abstraction
inaccessible to the intellect and disappointing to the heart,
the Incarnation points to Jesus. Jesus is the Almighty,
restraining his illimitable powers ; Jesus is the Incompre-
hensible, voluntarily submitting to bonds ; Jesus is Provi-
dence, clothed in our own flesh and blood ; Jesus is the
Infinite Christ, tending us with the kindly looks and tender
handling of a human love ; Jesus is the Eternal Wisdom,
speaking out of the depths of infinite thought in a human
language ; Jesus is God making himself, if I may dare so
to speak, our tangible possession ; He is God brought very
nigh to us, in our mouth, and in our heart : we behold him,
we touch him, we cling to him, — and, lo, we are partakers
of the nature of Deity through our actual membership of
his body,f — in his flesh, and in his bones : and we dwell, if
we will, evermore in him, and he in us."

Principal Caird has said in view of this self -revelation

* I. John i : 1. f IL Pet- i : 4- EPh- v : 30.

-107

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

of God in Christ : " No longer need the soul wander forth
through eternal solitudes, vainly longing amid the vastness
and the grandeur for the sound of some familiar voice to
break the stillness, or the sight of some sheltered spot in
which it may nestle with a sense of friendliness and se-
curity. No longer in our hidden joys and griefs, in our
gratitude and contrition, in our love and sorrow, when the
full heart longs for a heavenly confidant to whom, as to no
earthly friend, it may lay bare its want, — no longer need
we feel that God is too awful a being to obtrude upon him
our insignificance or to offer him our human tenderness or
human tears. i .Come unto me,' is the invitation of the
Blessed One, so intensely human though so gloriously di-
vine ; ' Unto me/ in whose arms little children were em-
braced, on whose bosom a frail mortal lay ; 'Unto me,' who
hungered, thirsted, fainted, sorrowed, wept, and yet whose
love and grief and pain and tears do but express emo-
tions which are felt in the heart of the Infinite God. ' Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.' "

IN the self-revelation of God in Christ, the Saviour is
spoken of as the image of the invisible God. " By him,"
says Clement of Rome, "we look up to the heights of
heaven ; by him we behold, as in a glass, the immaculate
and most excellent visage." "The unrepresented One per-
fectly represents himself, the imageless One takes an exact
image of himself in the Incarnation. The unapproachable
light of the Infinite One passing through the softening

408

IMMANUEL.

medium of our humanity, becomes bearable to human
eyes. While we accord him the reverence and adoration
which belongs to God, we have in him a tangible, material,
tender friend and Redeemer ; one we can actually ap-
proach, clearly know, understandingly trust and love." *
No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten
Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed
him. f

It is this popularization of the idea of God, — the God
who loves man and is lovable by man, and who commands
men to love him and to love each other, as the sum of reli-
gious duty, — which has changed the face of the world since
the era of the Incarnation. + It is this which led Lord
Macaulay to say, that " God the uncreated, the incompre-
hensible, the invisible, attracted few worshipers. . . .
It was before the Deity, embodied in a human form, walk-
ing among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning
on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in
the manger, bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of
the synagogue, and the doubts of the academy, and the
pride of the portico, and the fasces of the lictor, and the
swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust."

*The Rev. W. T. Chase, D.D., in The Watchman.

f John i : 18. "The divine justice, and mercy, and goodness, and
compassion, and truth, all the elements of holiness, all the qualities
which constitute moral perfection, are revealed to us in him, as they were
never revealed before." — R. W. Dale, D D.

% " It is the God incarnate, more than the God of the Jews or of na-
ture, who, being idealized, has taken so great and salutary a hold on the
modern mind." — John Stuart Mill.

409

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

THE Incarnation involves a purpose on the part of God,
to reveal his moral attributes to man in a Unique Per-
sonality— "the God-man/' or, more happily, "God in
Christ," and in Scriptures that pertain to him ; as truly so,
as he purposed to reveal other attributes in the material
creation. This has been admirably set forth by President
Francis L. Patton of Princeton University.*

The Incarnation is not to be thought of so much as a
theological tenet, as the unique expression of God's love to
mankind, for the purpose of developing their spiritual facul-
ties, so that those who are made a little lower than the
angels may become partakers of a divine life. The Old
Testament sets forth this yearning of a Father's heart.
And Jesus, who said, "the Father himself loveth you,"
is "the perfect representation of the Father's character,
of the Father's compassion for sinners, of his love for the
penitent and believing, of his patience, sympathy, and
eternal faithfulness in all his promises, f

Salvation from sin is made possible through the atone-
ment provided ; yet we are practically led to rely upon
Christ's atonement and to work out our own salvation in
connection with the intimate friendship we personally form
with Christ. By his love to us and our love to him, we are

* See page 601.

f Compare comments upon John xiv : 8, by Professor Henry
Cowles, of Oberlin.

410

IMMANUEL.

led to renounce a selfish life ; and to make God's will — an
unselfish love toward God and toward man — the supreme
choice of the soul. So it is that he saves his people from
their sins.

Loving-kindness, personally administered, is the hinge
of the door between God and man, — and it is God who
turns the hinge ; it is for man to walk through the open
door. If a man, like a penitent and pardoned criminal,
hesitates, he may know that the Moral Governor is his
Friend, and that he has made perfect provision for the
pardon of the penitent. It is actionable under human law
if a pardoned man is reproached for a crime that is for-
given ; and if a sinner attempts to lead a new life, the
Divine Friend stands by the penitent. This warm sympathy
between God and man is the means of spiritual salvation.
It is wrought through love, as the common factor ; and on
God's part, the Incarnation is the manifestation of this self-
sacrificing love. By it the Father and his erring children
are brought together : God's care and helpfulness ; man's
love and obedience.

Now this is the kind of friendship the world needs : In-
finite, Divine, yet thoroughly human ; a reconciling friend-
ship, the love of God so appearing that it can be taken hold
of by sinners, — so that they may thereby become sons and
daughters of the Almighty.

411

CHAPTER TWO.

Mystery of the Two Natures,

1TH0UT trenching upon the domain of a dog-
matic treatise, it is suitable, in the interests of
devotion, to make certain memoranda in re-
gard to the mysterious personality of him who united in
himself the human and the Divine.

^f TOW can these things be ? We do not know. Nor need
l\ we attempt to solve it, until we first solve other prob-
lems that are as mysterious : What is matter ?
What is gravitation ? What is the life principle in a grain
of growing corn ? Until these questions are answered, we
will accept the facts : — the growth of corn, — the existence
of gravitation, of matter, and of the Incarnation.

We pass through life with many problems unsolved, and
even if we share the exultant hope of the dying Melanch-
thon, "Now, I shall know the mystery of the two natures,"
yet Jesus has said, " No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father," and it is part of an old Hebrew song, "Thou art
a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour."
^book ix.] 412

THE TWO NATURES.

t^OR the purpose of illustration, the Incarnation may be,
|* in mode, conceived of as the omnipresence of God
manifest in Christ so far as this : that while Jesus was, in
the language of the Nicene symbol, Very God of Very God,
yet there was in no sense a vacating of the throne of the
universe, or any intermitting of the reign of the Highest.*

God. in Christ.

WE are not to say that there were two souls, a God-soul
and a man-soul, — not to say there were two personali-
ties in one body ; but two distinct natures, God's nature
and man's nature, mysteriously united without confusion
or mixture in one person, and losing by the union no
attribute of either nature, — forming a unique being who
may be most suitably called the God-man, or God in Christ.
Jesus Christ was the God-man : that is, God was in Christ
acting under the limitations of proper humanity.

To use the illustration of Lessius : — " Fire pierceth
through all the parts of iron, — it unites itself with every
particle, bestows a light, heat, purity, upon all of it ; you
cannot distinguish the iron from the fire, or the fire from
the iron, yet they are distinct natures ; so the Deity is
united to the whole humanity, seasons it, yet the natures
still remain distinct. And as during the union of fire with

*It is quaintly said by St. Augustine, « When Christ came forth
from the Father, he so came into the world as not to leave the Father ;
and he so left the world and went unto the Father as never to leave the
world."

413

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

iron, the iron is incapable of rust or blackness, so is the
humanity incapable of sin : and as the operation of fire is
attributed to the red hot iron (as the iron may be said to
heat, burn, and the fire may be said to cut and pierce), yet
the imperfections of the iron do not affect the fire ; so in
this mystery, those things which belong to the Divinity are
ascribed to the humanity, and those things which belong
to the humanity are ascribed to the Divinity, in regard of
the person in whom those natures are united."

The Highest Style of Man.

JESUS acted as the highest style of man would act,
thought as he would think, and yet was lifted above
his condition by virtue of his own Divinity, which
operated in a manner analogous to the action of the Holy
Spirit on prophets and good men in all ages.

This is the meaning of the prophecy, that "the Spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and un-
derstanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord " ; and also of the
assertions of John the Baptist, that " God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him " ; and also the saying of
the Evangelist, that "the grace of God was upon him."*

* I find in Professor Edwards A. Park's Discourses, references to
three classes of texts : —

I. The relation of the Divine nature to the human. John i : 1-18 ;
and iii : 11, 13. Hebrews i : 2-4 ; and ii : 1-4. John iii : 34 ; and vii : 16-18 ;
and viii : 26-29 ; and xii : 44-50 ; and xiv : 10, 24 ; and xviii : 8.

II. The influence of the Spirit, or the Divinity, upon the God-man.

414

THE TWO NATURES.

The Divine ISTa.tu.re.

THE Divine Nature of our Lord was so apprehended by
him that he could say, "Before Abraham was, I
am " ; and allude to his own former glory in the heavenly
state, as a matter familiar to him.* And sometimes his
manner awed men into standing apart for the time ; and
his life work as a whole was as solitary as if he had come
from some distant star, to touch for a moment upon this
planet, to set into motion certain divine plans which no dis-
ciple could then understand and which have not yet been
perfectly comprehended as they have unfolded age after
age. He it was " who being the holiest among the mighty,
and the mightiest among the holy, lifted with his pierced
hand empires off their hinges, turned the stream of the cen-
turies out of its channel, and who still governs the ages." f
Day by day he lived with no uncertain sense that this would
be so ; and that the ages would honor the Son even as they
honor the Father. "By Thee," says Saint Anselm, "the

Col. i : 19 ; and ii : 9. Luke iv : 1, 14. John i : 32. Luke ii : 40. Isa.
xi : 1-4 ; and xliii : 1-4.

III. The relation of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. Matt, iv: 1. Luke
iv : 1, 14. Isa. lxi : 1. John i : 1, 32, 33 ; and vi : 27. Acts i : 8 ; and
vi : 5-8 ; and x : 38. Rom. viii : 14. Phil, ii : 7. Col. ii : 9. II. Cor.
i: 21, 22. I. John ii: 27.

* " He speaks of saving and judging the world, of drawing all men
to himself, and of giving everlasting life, as we speak of the ordinary
powers which we exert. ' ' — William Ellery Channing.
|Jean Paul Richter.

415

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Seraphim burn, by Thee the Cherubim shine, by Thee the
Thrones judge."

ThLorotaghLly Human.
<f JE was, too, so thoroughly human, that in early life
l\ he learned for himself those virtues which mean so
much to us in our low estate, — and which, we think
with pride, may be of use to us in the world to which we
hasten, — such virtues as Temperance, Contentment, Can-
dor, Courage, Gratitude, Prudence, Fortitude, Economy ;
and Jesus as child, a youth, a young man, was content to
grow, — developing his faculties, and his consciousness of his
Messiahship, a little at a time ; and there was also a limita-
tion of his knowledge, — many things being known to the
Father only.* Welcome indeed must it have been to his
Divine Nature to be brought into sympathy with a well
proportioned human life, — whether to weep in the house of
sorrow, to appear as a happy wedding guest, or to be re-
proached for feasting. He who instructed men in the most
profound religious teachings, also taught Peter where to
catch fish. And he kindled a fire, and laid fish thereon, and
said to his disciples, "Come, and dine." Has it not been an
unspeakable boon to the Church universal, that the human
side of the life of Christ has been given more prominence
in recent generations, and that the modern disciples have
insisted upon the imitation of the human virtues of the man
Christ Jesus ?

* This sentence is suggested by Bushxell's Sermon on " Our advan-
tages in being finite. "

416

THE TWO NATURES.

The Son. of Man.

WITH all his consciousness of a Nature Divine, Jesus
delighted to call himself "the Son of Man/' the term
used by the prophet Daniel. In John's Gospel, our Lord
calls himself upon four occasions,* the Son of God ; a term
not unknown to the Jewish books, f And there are thirteen
other passages in which Jesus speaks of himself as the Son
of God, without using the precise phrase. The three earlier
Evangelists all agree that Jesus acknowledged himself as
the Son of God, in reply to the question of Caiaphas, at his
trial.

Yet the term Son of Man, Jesus applies to himself eighty-
one times in the Gospels ; there being sometimes a dupli-
cate record. The Divinity of our Lord thus put honor upon
his humanity. The Divine Nature was united to man, to
human nature ; Jesus was the Son of Man, rather than a
son of Abraham. The heroes of the earth have been Jewish,
Greek, Roman, Anglo-Saxon ; but Christ belonged to all
the race, — standing related to the whole human family, in
all the ages of its history. Jesus was pre-eminently the Son
of Man, in the sense that in his character we find the essen-
tial elements of humanity in their perfection, and he stood
as a Man ; and we may use the words of Robertson that in
Christ " all the blood of all the nations ran."

*Johniii: 18; and ix : 35,37; and x : 36; and xi : 4.
f Enoch cv : 2. IV. Esdras xiii : 32 ; and xiv : 9.

417 27

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

So impressed were the disciples with this favorite phrase
of their Master, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke use the
term " Son of Man " altogether, in citing the words of Jesus,
— although they in no wise omit his claim to the Divine
Sonship, as expressed in other phrases, and emphasized be-
fore Caiaphas. To them, Jesus was first of all a man ; nor
did his Divine Sonship appear to them with overwhelming
evidence until he had risen from the dead. " In the Being,
so simple, lowly ; in that most gentle Companion, that kind,
ever accessible Friend ; who wandered by their sides in the
same daily journeys, and retired at night to the same
slumbers of exhausted nature ; who looked like themselves,
was hungry and weary like themselves, wore the same
raiment, partook of the same meals : in that intensely real
human nature, how almost impossible for them to realize
what a transcendent presence was ever near them. Death
must dissolve the illusion of familiarity, and gather around
the Man of Nazareth the mystery and awe of the world un-
seen, before they could rise to the apprehension of his
awful greatness, and see in him at once the Son of Man and
Son of God." * ______

*The Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, D.C.L.

■*|tf"

418

CHAPTER THREE.

Contrasts in trie Divine
Self-Sacrifice.

<^<s>^

IT was said that no man hath seen God at any time ;
yet the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath declared him. The glory which
Christ had with the Father before the world was, he
laid aside for his subordinate mediatorial service. The
scriptural contrasts in the story of the God-man relate to his
proper Divine Nature, and the experiences incident to the
earthly mission of our Lord. They illustrate the Divine
love as it is manifested in Jesus Christ, in whom the Divine
Will and the Divine Power so abode, that he constantly
represented himself as one with the Father, and so eternally
related to the First Cause of all things in essential life as
rightfully to apply to himself the Divine name, and claim
for himself the honor due to God.

He who in his low estate was ignorant of many things
relating to the future of the Jews, claimed to represent the
wisdom of God and to be the searcher of hearts. He who
made himself of no reputation, but took upon himself the

[Book IX.] 419

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man,
was yet in the form of God, and claimed to be his equal ;
and he said to those around him, "Ye are from beneath,
I am from above : I came forth from the Father."

vfJAD it not been asked of old time, "Will God indeed
* V_ dwell on the earth ? Behold the heaven and heaven
of heavens cannot contain Thee." Yet he who said, "I
am the beginning and the end, the first and the last," took
to himself the name, " Immanuel " ; and in him the An-
cient of Days became an infant of days. Is it possible in
the words of an old English preacher, "to contract divinity
to a span " ? * Yet he that built the heavens was now, as
the most lowly human child, born in a barn.

' < Firmitudo infirmatur ;
Parva fit immensitas,
Laboratur, alligatur ;
Nascitur aeternitas." f

That is : Eternity is born ; Immeasurableness becomes
small, and suffers, and is bound ; and Strength becomes
weakness.

He of whom it was written that the government shall be
upon his shoulder, the Counsellor, the Prince of Peace, was
also said to be born a child, — Unto us a Son is given. He,

* Bishop Jeremy Taylor.
| Christmas Carol, Luther.

420

CONTRASTS IN THE DIVINE SELF-SACRIFICE.

of whom it is written that he stretcheth out the heavens
like a curtain, that he layeth the beams of his chambers in
the waters, was now content as any child of humanity, with
a roof for housing wayfarers, man, and beast. The Desire
of all nations appeared in one of the cattle caves of Beth-
lehem. He who covereth himself with light as with a
garment, the Saviour, Christ the Lord, was wrapped in
swaddling bands. "Ye shall find a babe,"- it was said:
"He whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever-
lasting." He that sent forth stars, as seed from the hand
of a sower, now like a babe of every day stretched out a
tiny hand asking pity. But that babe arose from the man-
ger, and declared, Before Abraham was, I am : Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else.

He who was called the Power of God, was said to be sub-
ject to Joseph and Mary at Nazareth ; and he who was called
the Wisdom of God, was said as an earthly child to increase
in wisdom, — and he sought wisdom from earthly rabbis.

He who made the sea and the mountains and all the
glittering worlds that hang on high, who made all things,
neither without him was anything made that was made, he
who was appointed of God the heir of all things, now, as a
Nazarene Carpenter, took hold on the tools of a mechanic,
and handled the hammer and the plane, and men were
offended in him. Yet we hear the voice of the unpretend-
ing Jesus saying, Behold a greater than Solomon is here.
And the obscure Nazarene cried with a loud voice, so that
all men might hear him, "I am the Light of the world."

421

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

If I were hungry, quoth the Hebrew song, I would not
tell thee : yet it is recorded in the Gospel story, that the
hunger of Immanuel was known even to the great adver-
sary. God cannot be tempted of evil ; yet our Lord was
tempted in all points as we are.

\1TE to whom we make our prayers was himself often all
* V_ night praying, and, adds the commentator,* as he
was going to the mountains to pray, " The sparrow, not
knowing its Creator and Protector, flew away from his
coming. His form cast its shadow, as he passed, over bush,
and flower, and grass, and they knew not that their Maker
overshadowed them."

The High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose
name is Holy, that dwelleth in the high and holy place, said
to his disciples, "I am meek and lowly in heart." He
who built the many mansions of his Father's house, and
who prepares a place for every one of his people, had not
himself a place to lay his head. What house will ye build
me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my Test ; heaven
is my throne, and earth is my footstool : hath not my hands
made all these things ? Yet men turned the Son of God out
of their villages at nightfall, as an outcast. The Lord of
all the worlds has walked this globe ; and while his weary
feet moved through dusty Galilee, unseen angels bowed
before him,

* Henry Ward Beeciier.

422

CONTRASTS IN THE DIVINE SELF-SACRIFICE.

He who walked the waves of the sea, was fain to hide
himself near the shores of the sea, that he might rest from
the importunities of the thronging multitude. He who
quieted the storm on the lake, was just before asleep
through weariness.

The Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not,
neither is weary, who giveth power to the faint, was said
to be weary with his journey, and to sit in repose at a well-
side. He who meted out heaven with a span and measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand, he who had made the
rivers and the fountains, saith to a woman of Samaria,
" Give me to drink." And he who was athirst, now be-
stowed the living water.

He who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, who
dwelleth in the high and holy place, was said also, in tab-
ernacling with men, to receive sinners, and to eat with
them.

Who hath first given to God ? asks the Apostle. Yet it
was said by St. Luke, that when he who was called " God
with us " went preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom,
many persons ministered unto him of their substance.

Concerning the Ancient of Days it was said, that thou-
sand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him ; yet, on the earth, as
the Son of Man, he came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and he was among men as he that serveth. He
who knew that the Father had given all things into his
hands, laid aside his garments ; and he who knew that he
was come from God, and that he went to God, washed the

423

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

feet of his disciples, and wiped them with the towel where-
with he was girded.

He who commands the princes of heaven, now gathers
the outcasts of Israel. He who counts the numbers with-
out number of the hosts of heaven, now carefully enumer-
ates the hairs of our heads ; and cares for things minute,
which are of moment to his disciples.

It was said in Exodus, when the Lord came to Sinai :
Set bounds unto the people round about : take heed ; go not
up into the mount, or touch the border of it : whosoever
toucheth the mount shall surely be put to death ; there
shall not a hand -touch it. Yet it was said in the Gospel
story, that a woman which was a sinner, stood at the feet
of Immanuel, weeping, and washing his feet with tears,
and wiping them with the hairs of her head. Severe as
justice, he was yet gentle as a woman, and one disciple
dared lean his head on the bosom of the Incarnate Jehovah.

IN the words of the old Hebrew song, " The earth is the
Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that
dwell therein : but when he came unto his own, his
own received him not. Although the world was made by
him, yet when he was in the world, the world knew him
not.

"Who is this, asked the prophet, that cometh from Edom,
with dyed garments, glorious in his apparel ? It was he,
who became a proverb in the mouth of the Pharisees and
Sadducees, and who made sackcloth his garment. Isaiah,

424

CONTRASTS IN THE DIVINE SELF-SACRIFICE.

who is called the evangelistic prophet, saw in vision the
worship of the seraphims, who cried one unto another,
and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts ; the whole
earth is full of his glory. Yet John the Evangelist has
written that the Jews said, concerning the Representative
of the Highest, that he hath a devil.

God had said, " This is my beloved Son : hear ye him."
And Jesus said, " Thou lovedst me before the foundation
of the world; then, concerning the Jews, he said, "They
hated me without a cause."

Was there not a prophetic vision, of a certain man
whose loins were girded with fine gold, and his body, his
face, his eyes, his arms, his feet, brilliant with light and
precious stones and gleaming metal ? Yet there was
another vision, showing that men would despise him who
was the chiefest among ten thousand, as a root out of dry
ground, without form or comeliness or beauty that any
should desire him.

" Thou hast made him blessed forever," sang the
Psalmist : yet the Lord was rejected of men, and they
esteemed him not. " Thou hast made him exceeding glad
with thy countenance," sang the Psalmist : yet men hid
their faces from God's Anointed.

"I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,"
•said he who was the personification of the Divine Wisdom :
yet in Judea and Galilee, the Teacher of the world was but
a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief.

425

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

THE infinite pathos of the Divine self-renunciation appears
in the later story of our Saviour's life. Did not John
the Revelator see one sitting upon a great white throne,
before whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ?
Yet it is recorded that the face of our Lord was once so
agonized, that great drops of blood fell down to the ground.
He who had been called the Strength of Israel, needed at
Gethsemane an angel from heaven to strengthen him.

Before the day was, I am he ; and there is none, saith
the Lord of Israel, who can deliver out of my hand ; yet, in
the night, was the Lord of Israel delivered into the hands
of men. He that doeth according to his will in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that
none can stay his hand, was now taken by a band of Roman
soldiers, and bound as a captive.

He whom God had highly exalted, and given a name
above every name, was confronted by false witnesses, to
put him to death. It had been written of old, " Grace is
poured into thy lips ; therefore God hath blessed thee for-
ever : " yet he was accused by the high priest, of speaking
blasphemy. Then the Judge of the universe was haled as
a prisoner before Pilate's bar ; and for him whom God had
crowned with glory and honor, they platted a crown of
thorns, and put it on his head.

The darkness, it is said, hideth not from Thee, but the
night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are
both alike to thee : so runs the old Hebrew song. Yet, con-
cerning Immanuel, it was written, that when they had

426

CONTRASTS IN THE DIVINE SELF-SACRIFICE.

blindfolded him, they struck him in the face, and asked
him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee ? as if he
saw them not.

Concerning our Lord it was written, that as all things
were created by him, so all were created for him, — all
things that are in heaven, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers.
Yet concerning our Lord it is also written, that they stripped
him, and put on him a scarlet robe ; and put a reed in his
right hand ; and mocked him ; and they spit upon him ;
and they led him away to crucify him.

He who had said, " I am the Way," now weakly faltered
on the way to Calvary : and he who had said, "I am the
Life," was soon dead. Despairing men fled from the pres-
ence of him, who is called the Alpha and the Omega, when
he died ; and weeping women gathered round the tomb of
him who is the First and the Last.*

* I can but add a paragraph of contrasting phrases by Dr. R. S. Storrs,
in his introduction to Eddy's Immanuel : —

" In his meekness and his majesty, in his patience and his power,
tempted yet triumphant, insulted yet serene, scoffed at by men but wor-
shiped by angels, with the world at his disposal, yet making himself the
poorest in it, submitting to the crown of thorns the head which wore many
diadems, allowing the nails to be driven through the hands whose touch
had before unloosed for others the bars of death, — so comes before the
illumined thoughts this Son of the Eternal ; this Prince and King of the
kings of the earth."

427

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

f\ THE height and depth of this super-celestial mys-
\J , tery, that the infinite Deity and finite flesh should
meet in one subject, yet so as the humanity should
not be absorbed of the Godhead, nor the Godhead con-
tracted by the humanity, but both inseparably united : that
the Godhead is not humanized, the humanity not deified,
both are indivisibly conjoined ; yet so conjoined as to be
without confusion distinguished."*

Let us, therefore, day by day, join in the praises of
Jesus, — using the language of Milton, —

" Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss
Equal to God, and equally enjoying
God-like fruition, quitted all to save
A world from utter loss ; and hast been found
By merit more than birthright Son of God."

God with us, "Immanuel": This precious name we
will write upon the walls of our closets ; and we will in-
scribe it on our household furniture ; and we will wear it
on our garments, bearing it as the precious talisman, at
noonday or morning or evening or midnight, in childhood
and in old age, — " Immanuel, God with us," our life's motto
till we ourselves abide with God.

Trie Victor's Crown.

Lift up, lift up the golden gate ;
The Christ is here in regal state, —
Triumphal crown for Him doth wait :
Hallelujah.

* Bishop Joseph Hall.

428

CONTRASTS IN THE DIVINE SELF-SACRIFICE.

All kings lie low beneath His feet, —
All courtiers hasten Him to meet ;
All hosts prepare His glorious seat :
Hallelujah.

All earthly knees before Him bow, —
All earthly lips to Him make vow ; — ■
All place the crown upon His brow :
Hallelujah.

429

BOOK TEN.

-<S3-*-:=5*-

The Wonderful Name

*$&> ■&$?§&<$&-

Chapter 1. Page 431.

The Scriptural Symbols of Christ

Chapter 2. Page 435.

His Name Reflected, in Nature.

Chapter 3. Page 438.

Emblems in Human Life.

Chapter 4. Page 443.

The Mystical Union.

Chapter 5. Page 448.

Alpha and Omega.

Chapter 6. Page 452.

The Royal Diadem..

CHAPTER ONE.

Scriptt-iral Symbols of Christ,

-&& — ^X^ — •£©•-

7 _^ERTAIN heretics in the early church had a beauti-
■ Vr^ ful tradition that a cross of Light appeared in

^^~]s place of the body of Christ in the tomb after

his resurrection, and that a divine voice full
of sweetness issued from the cross, saying, " The cross
of Light is, for your sakes, called sometimes the Word,
sometimes Christ, sometimes the Door, sometimes the Way,
sometimes the Bread, sometimes the Sun, sometimes the
Eesurrection, sometimes Jesus, sometimes the Father,
sometimes the Spirit, sometimes the Life, sometimes the
Truth, sometimes Faith, and sometimes Grace."

Let us, for the hour, gaze on the cross of Light, and
listen to the heavenly voice which recites the Wonderful
Names of Jesus. And we are to remember that the Old
and the New Testaments are one in revealing God the
Redeemer • so that we may suitably give to Christ many
terms which are applied to " The Lord," as he is called in
the Old Testament.

[Book X.] 43 \

OUR ELDER BROTHER,

eTSIDER the relation in which Christ stands to God in
the work of Redemption.

The name of Christ is spoken of as the ineffable name of
the Lord. This is the name above every name, a tower
into which the righteous may run, the name through which
we are saved : God with us ; Messiah, the Gift of God, —
he is the perfect gift. He is God's Anointed, anointed with
the oil of gladness above his fellows. Christ is the elect of
God, in whom my soul delighteth. He is represented as the
Angel of the Covenant, a Messenger from God to men. He
is the Righteous Servant, among you as one that serveth, of
no reputation.

Christ is the Lamb of God, the Lamb that was slain,
Innocence atoning for guilt, the High God our Redeemer,
redeeming from the curse of the Law, — himself made,
as it is said, a curse for us. He is the Mediator ; he
is the Saviour, saving to the uttermost. He is Priest,
abiding continually. He is Prophet, declaring the mind
of God.

He is King, and King of kings ; a Shepherd King ; a
King with a reed for a scepter, and thorns for a crown, and
a cross for a throne ; reigning and prospering till all the
kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord.
Jehovah is our King,

Christ is revealed as the Arm of the Lord. All things
were created by him, as for him. By the work of his fingers
the heavens were made. His fingers touch the mountains
and they smoke. The Arm of the Lord reaches into the

432

THE SCRIPTURAL SYMBOLS OF CHRIST.

depths to rescue His chosen. That Arm upholds the faint.
That Arm is stretched on the cross, offering mercy. That
Arm is uplifted to crush foes. It is written, Awake, Arm
of the Lord, and put on thy strength. If I speak of strength,
lo, he is strong.

He is represented as the Almighty, which is, and which
was, and which is to come. Behold, I have given him
for a leader and commander to the people. He is the
Captain of our salvation. He stands for an Ensign of
the people. And he, too, is set forth as the Lion of the
tribe of Judah.

It is in respect to these regal and military qualities, that
he is also called the Lord of glory, the King of glory, in
whom God makes all His glory to pass before us.

*7T.GAIN let us consider the relation in which Christ stands
l\ to man.

He is not only the Head over all things to his
Church, and the Desire of all Nations, but as the Second
Adam he is the only real beginning of complete manhood
on the earth.* The first Adam failed of fulfilling the ideal
image of God ; and although men may develop many hu-
man faculties none will be perfected till they become new
creatures in Christ Jesus. God has therefore set forth
Christ as symbolized by various things in nature, and in the
different employments of men, and in the things men use ;

* It was a remark of St. Augustine that the whole history of the
world revolves around the first Adam and the Second.

433 28

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

and as the peculiar Friend of man ; and as related to man
in delivering from the power of sin ; and as standing near
at death and the judgment. Christ is thus represented as
in every way satisfying human wants : and all this variety
of imagery is used only the better to express the Infinite
Love of God to man, as it appears in the man Christ
Jesus.

434

CHAPTER TWO.

His Name Reflected in Nature.

EAR then the Wonderful Name of Jesus, as it is
uttered by the voice of Nature.

Do we gaze on rocks, or rivers, or growing
"^-"^ things, or raise our eyes to the sweet light of
morning, — we are always reading the choice names of our
Saviour. Christ is called the Rock ; a tried stone, a
precious corner stone, a sure foundation ; more unchange-
able than the everlasting hills and stronger than they. He
is the Rock of Refuge, a hiding place from the storm.

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee."

Christ is represented as the River of God, with which the
earth is visited, watered and greatly enriched ; a River
opened in a high place, that causes fountains to spring in
the midst of the valleys, that makes the wilderness a pool.
Christ is the true Wellspring from on High ; it is of un-
measured depth, forever flowing. Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. My soul thirsteth after
God, the living God. Go to drink at other waters ; they
are stagnant. Go to wash in other streams ; they do not
[Book X.] 435

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

cleanse the soul. But the voice of Jesus is heard, "I will
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean."

Again, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose, the Pearl, and
all things beautiful lend their names to Christ. Let the
Rose of Sharon adorn your houses : wear that Rose next
your breast.

Again, behold, there appears the Branch of the Lord,
beautiful and glorious.

Again, Christ is a Vine, rejected by some as if with un-
comely root out of dry ground, yet a Vine climbing over a
Cross, a Vine extending his branches far over the huts of
the poor and the gardens of the wealthy, a Vine shading
and feeding. Are we branches of that Vine, having life of
his life, and no life separated from him, having the same
spiritual affections and aspirations and purposes with the
Son of God ; living in him, crucified with him, dying with
him, buried with him, quickened with him, and rising with
him ; complete only in Christ ?•

Again, when we gaze on Christ, we behold him dawn-
ing upon us as the Sun of Righteousness, the Light of
the World, a Light to lighten the Gentiles, the true Light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.*
God said, Let there be light, and Christ was the Light
breaking in upon moral darkness ; the source of all move-
ment and all power, under which graces may bloom and

*" What the sun is to that flower, Jesus Christ is to my soul. Pie is
the sun of my soul." — Lord Tennyson: as reported by a friend with
whom the poet walked in his garden.

436

EMBLEMS IN NATURE.

virtues grow. He who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts by the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy
God thy glory. When will that Dayspring appear ? When
will that Morning Star ascend the heavens ?

When night doth round me close,
Ere eyelids seek repose —

I look to Thee afar :
When morning rises fair,
To Thee I lift my prayer, —

To Thee, my Morning Star.

437

CHAPTER THREE.

Emblems in Human Life.

^s>-^-^>

E behold Christ as a man among men ; figured as
taking part in our common avocations.

To the nomads of the East he appears as the
Shepherd, leading to good and fat pastures upon the moun-
tains of Israel ; Christ unwearied in gently bringing home
wanderers. He it is who leaves the ninety and nine, — in
the heat of the day or during the chill of the night, — to
search for the lost. He shall gather the lambs with his
arms, and carry them in his bosom.*

' ' Yet none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed ;
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,

Ere he found his sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert he heard its cry, —
Sick and helpless and ready to die."

The lamb torn and bleeding does not fling himself into
the arms of the Shepherd ; the Shepherd knows that the

*It is related of the Italian patriot Garibaldi, that he once searched all
night upon the mountains near his camp, to find a lamb lost by a Sardinian
shepherd. In the morning, he was found sleeping late in his tent, — with
the lamb in his bosom.

[Book X.j 438

EMBLEMS IN HUMAN LIFE.

lamb is wounded, he listens to his bleating, and takes him
in his arms. Trembling and powerless under the paw of
the roaring lion, the lamb has no strength to go to the Shep-
herd, but he who is mighty to save snatches him from the
power of the enemy.

He it is who layeth down his life for the sheep ; and they
shall never perish, — neither shall any pluck them out of his
hand.

His sheep he knoweth by name. To the common eye
there is no individuality in a flock. The shepherd knows
them, perhaps, by their defects. "You see that sheep toes
in a little," said one shepherd, "that other one has a
squint • one has a little piece of wool off ; another has
a black spot ; another has a piece out of its ear." The
Chief Shepherd must at least know the individual fail-
ings of his flock ; and his watch over them is with par-
ticularity, by a separate, discriminating love. He calleth
them by name, — your name, my name, as to our personal
needs.

This text, says Dr. William Hanna, indicates a living,
personal, peculiar interest : our Saviour, with infinite ten-
derness, watches each doubt, fear, trial, temptation, fall,
rising again, conflict, victory, defeat, — every movement
by which progress is advanced or retarded ; he watches
each and all, with a solicitude as special and particular as if
each were the object of the exclusive regard of the Saviour's
loving heart.

"The Christian soul lives on Christ; he is fed and
guarded, he is kept and made peaceful, he is safe and quiet,

439

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

as a trustful lamb under the faithful care of a kind shep-
herd." *

And the shepherd knoweth his own ; and he calleth
them by name, — since the sheep are all marked ; marked
in the ear, and in the foot, — they "hear" and they "fol-
low." f

" The calling and leading," J says Dr. Alex. Haleigh,
"are always united ; he calls that he may lead. The Shep-
herd is in movement ; he comes to abide with us, but not to
keep us abiding in the same states and circumstances."

Nor do the sheep, says the Kev. Hudson Taylor, tell the
Shepherd which' way they want to go, and get him to help
them ; but the Shepherd leads them.

" Like bells at evening pealing,
The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea ;
And laden souls by thousands meekly stealing,
Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to Thee."

Of all the titles of Christ, says Dean Stanley, this was
the most popular with the early Christians : their religion
was that of the Good Shepherd; "the kindness, the
courage, the love, the beauty, the grace, of the Good Shep-
herd, was to them, if we may so say, Prayer Book and
Articles, Creed and Canon, all in one ; they looked on that
figure, and it conveyed to them all they wanted." §

* Professor Henry Cowles.

f The comment made by an English preacher, upon John x : 27.

$ John x : 3.

§ It was written upon one of the early Christian tombs : " I, Abercius,
am a disciple of the Pure Shepherd ; whose eyes look on all sides, as he
feeds his flocks on the mountains and plains.* '

440

EMBLEMS IN HUMAN LIFE.

If Jesus appears as a Shepherd to the men of the Orient,
he appears as a Teacher to the cultivated men of the West ;
a Teacher, apt, attractive, tender, firm, thorough, earnest,
— training kings and priests unto God. Again, Christ
comes among men as a Refiner, purifying till his own image
is seen in the place of dross.

The compassionate Jesus is also the Great Physician,
himself without blemish, and healing the body and the
soul. Wherever feet are weary, Christ bears up the infirm
body. When the eyes are dim gazing on the earthly,
Christ reveals heaven to the soul. When Jesus walks the
earth, avenues of the wretched open before him : while be-
hind him stand those with eyes newly opened, gazing on
him ; tongues just loosed, speaking his name ; ears just
opened, hearing his praises ; arms lately withered, now
lifted to heaven in thanksgiving ; feet lately infirm, now
running after him. Bodies worn with disease, thrill with
new life at the words, " I will, be thou clean."

With balm, and with healing leaves from the tree of
life, he comes into the sick chamber : himself represented
as the sun to bring good cheer ; himself a fountain to cool
the air ; himself the lily and rose to bring beauty into the
presence of decay ; himself wine and bread and meat to
nourish the failing powers. We need no earthly physician
so much as we need Christ.

THE Saviour appears to us in connection with our com-
mon affairs, as if to serve us in the things we most
use and need.

441

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It is as if we were to find him in the path we daily tread,
seeing in him the new and living Way ; the way of life,
the way of truth, the way of holiness, the way of peace,
the way of salvation. So Christ is the Truth ; and he is
the Word, the expression of the truth. And if he is the
Way and the Truth he is also the Life ; we live in him, and
move in him, and have our being in him. He is the light
of Life, the breath of Life, Life from the dead. He is the
tree of Life, the water of Life, the bread of Life, the
Prince of Life. He that hath the Son hath Life.

And day by day, as we go in and out of our homes, let us
know that Christ is the Door, — the Door of heaven which
opens from within. And for the earth, the Door of the
coming Eden. When will the human race, trying for sixty
centuries to regain the joys of paradise, enter through that
Door ? * And if Christ is the Door he is also the Key, the
Key of David.

" Draw nigh, draw nigh, O David's Key,
The heavenly gate will ope to Thee.
Make safe the road that we must go,
And close the path that leads below, f

And if Christ is the Door and the Key, he has also been
our Dwelling Place in all generations. He opens to us a
Rest, a Home ; and calls into it all who labor and are heavy
laden.

*" Christ said himself , lam the door. What is the door for — to
look at? However exquisite its workmanship, when you have got through
looking at it, you push it open and go in. Christ is the door through
which God came in to the human race, through which the human race
comes in unto God." — Lyman Abbott, D.D.

f Mediaeval Advent Hymn.

442

CHAPTER FOUR.

The Mystical Union.

kOST wonderful yet, of all the wonderful names
of Jesus, we find Christ entering our homes to
abide with us as our most intimate Friend.
He comes in upon those sad days when
we bury our dead ; for he bears the name the Man of
Sorrows, and he is acquainted with grief. He stood as if
chief mourner at the grave of Lazarus; and — most com-
forting fact — his weeping was in mere sympathy with
sorrowing sisters, although he knew that the brother would
at once arise.

His heart of love beats therefore the more warmly
toward us, because we are sinners needing his love and
his friendship. He was called the Friend of Sinners. We
accept the charge, and make it our boast and glory. Christ
was the Friend of the vilest of men ; all men vile before
him, — and yet his love fastened to them all as if by the
nails of his crucifixion.

Are we prepared, therefore, to hear another name, and
to believe that Christ is also to us the Heavenly Guest,
promising to abide with his disciples ? He knocks at the

[Book X.] 443

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

door, and if any man opens, he will come in unto him and
sup with him. This man rejecteth — no receiveth — sin-
ners and eateth with them. Behold here the Hidden Manna,
the Bread which cometh down from heaven. * Coming from
his noble toils and high enterprises in saving a race, he
spreads a table under our lowly roof, and feasts with us
until we are ready to renounce the earth as a wilderness
and the things of the world as dreams and go forth to
follow Jesus only, and to go home with him at nightfall.

The Bible is full of this idea of a personal presence
abiding with us ; f and we open this Book in vain, till we
find Jesus coming to be our Guest, — abiding in us. He
enters our homes with a word of greeting, and interests
himself in our affairs, J and folds our children to his arms.

I need not wander over the mountains of Judea vainly
seeking the footsteps of the Lord ; Christ is within. Day
by day, therefore, I sing St. Bernard's Hymn : —

" I seek for Jesus in repose,
When round my heart its chambers close :
Abroad, and when I shut my door,
I long for Jesus evermore."

WHEN, however, we speak of the term Friend, as being
the most wonderful of the titles borne by the Saviour?
we ought to seek to sound its depths, and know what the

* " Without Thee, my table is unspread. " — Thomas A. Kempis.

f II. Cor. xiii : 15. Gal. iii : 20, 28. I. Cor. xi : 15, 19. Rom. viii :
9,10. Phil, iv: 13.

J "A rule, I have had for years, is to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a
personal Friend." — Dwight L. Moody.

444

THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM.

Scripture really means by it. How strange then are the
words we hear. Christ is to us not only a sympathizing
Friend, and the Friend of Sinners, and a Heavenly Guest,
but he enters our homes, claiming to be one of the members
of the family, nay, the very Head of the house.

Every gentle name Christ bears. Every name we love
Christ bears. Every kind relation he sustains to us. Who-
soever shall do the will of my Father which is heaven, the
same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. There is a
Friend that sticketh closer than a brother,* As one whom
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. As a father
pitieth his children, so this our Everlasting Father pities us,
and is delighted with the prattling of his children. He has
loved us with an everlasting love. And best of all, most
wonderful of all, it is written : Thy Maker is thine Husband ;
the Lord of Hosts is his name, f

The Heavenly Bridegroom left his Father's house, that
he might cleave to his bride, the Church. Is not this thy
Friend, O daughter of Jerusalem ? " Saw ye him whom
my soul loveth ? I sought him, but I found him not." Yet
even now I hear his voice calling : I " Behold, I have pre-
pared my dinner ; my oxen and my f atlings are killed, and
all things are ready : come unto the marriage." If human

*Prov. xviii : 24. It is this text that has given to our Lord the title Our
Elder Brother, so scriptural in its thought, if not in its words.

f Isa. liv : 5. Compare Hos. ii : 19, 20. I will betroth thee unto me
forever ; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment,
and in loving kindness, and in mercies.

X Matt, xxii : 4. Comp. Rev. xix : 7-9 ; xxi : 2? 9 ; xxii : 17t

445

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

love makes us so happy in our common life, how happy shall
we be if the Son of God loves us. With the joy of the bride-
groom, it is written, shall thy God rejoice over thee. The
strongest phrases known to human lips for the expression
of the heart's affection, are thus used in the Bible to set
forth the Divine love to man, — love before we were born,
from the foundation of the world. No bridegroom is so full
of joy as God rejoicing in his love for those who love him.
No bride is so joyous as that soul to whom God manifests
his love. Neither death nor life upon the earth, nor angels
and principalities in heaven, nor anything present or future,
in the heights above nor the depths below, can separate
Christ from His love to us.*

He is to us, therefore, the Fairest of the Sons of Men, the
Chief among Ten Thousand, and the one altogether lovely ;
whom not having seen we love, and in whom, though we
see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. It is written, thine eyes shall see the
King in his beauty : and we will take up the words of
Rutherford, " I want nothing now, but a further revela-
tion of the beauty of the unseen Son of God."

Yet what is this that St. Bernard is saying ? " O hard
and hardened sons of Adam, not to be softened by such
kindness, by such a flame, by such great ardor of love, by
so eager a Lover, who expends precious treasure for the

*Rom. viii: 38, 39. When a (tying soldier was asked by the chap-
lain, of what persuasion he was, he replied, " I am persuaded that neither
death nor life can separate me from the love of God, that is in Christ Jesus. "

446

THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM.

vilest wares." Is Christ the Beloved, and do you love him
not ? Who are they, amid all the votaries of this world's
fashions, who are preparing their wedding garments, and
making ready to sit down at the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb ? Have you a home ? It is no home, till Christ is in
it. Till you call God " Father," you are an orphan : till
you call Christ " Brother," you are friendless. You need
no love so much as you need the comforting love of Christ.

447

CHAPTER FIVE.

Alpha and Omega.

(5f|""N considering the relation in which Christ stands to
man, we find that in the Wonderful Name of Jesus
he is called the Intercessor. We hear therefore a
voice from heaven, the voice of prayer, Christ inter-
ceding for his people.

According to the Bible, Christ's present activity in be-
half of his people is of a twofold nature: He "abides
with" his disciples upon the earth, and he bears their names
before his Father's throne in heaven, interceding for them.
Or, to put it in another way : As God the Creator is now
engaged in sustaining, preserving, and governing the forces
of the universe, so God the Redeemer, the Incarnate God,
is still carrying on the work begun in the new creation.
Christ has explicitly told us that the Father himself loveth
us, and God in Christ is now carrying to completion the
work begun in his earthly mission. We may then take
great comfort with Paul in thinking of the present love of
Christ for his people, as set forth under the figure of one
ever living to make intercession for us.

As once upon the Judean hills, so now in the heavenly
hill country, he prays for all who shall believe on his name ;

[Book X.] 448

ALPHA AND OMEGA.

interceding for us, as really as if he had a closet in our
own house, into which he should go day by day to pray
for us.

When therefore we ask the relation which Christ bears
to man's salvation, we may believe with Origen, that Christ
becomes all things to all men, " according to the necessities
of the whole creation capable of being redeemed by him " ;
"Happy," therefore, "are they, who have advanced so far
as to need the Son of God no longer as a healing Physician,
no longer as a Shepherd, no longer as the Redemption ; but
who need him only as the Truth, the Word, the Sanctifica-
tion, and in whatever other relation he stands to those
whose maturity enables them to comprehend what is most
glorious in his character."

And in the relation which Jesus bears to man, he is set
forth as our Righteousness, through whom we are treated
as if we had never sinned. So that we hide behind Christ,
the expression of God's Mercy, and the Divine Justice looks
not upon us but upon the Lord our Righteousness.

Christ is therefore to us the true Passover, by which the
angel of spiritual death is made to pass by. And when we
come to the great change from life to life, Christ is the
Resurrection ■ and he shall change our vile body, that it
may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, when we
know him and the power of his resurrection. And when
we come to the Great Day of Trial, as Christ is the Coun-
selor of God, so he is the Advocate of man. Is he the
Wisdom of God, wonderful in counsel ? We therefore may
boldly put in our claim on that dread Day, " 0 Lord, under-

449 29

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

take for me." And when that Day dawns we shall behold
him, — our nearest Friend, our Heavenly Guest, our Bride-
groom, who is our own Advocate, sitting in the place of the
Supreme Judge of the assembled universe.*

THE Scriptures thus reveal Christ as all and in all to
the believer ; or, to put it in the words of the beloved
John, Christ is to us the Alpha and the Omega, the First
and the Last, the Beginning and the End : Christ, Alpha,

* " The moment- Christ appeared, he became a judgment, or a judge.
There was no visible bench, no formal sentence. He was ever anxious to
remove the impression that condemnation was his earthly errand. He
said, < I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.' Neverthe-
less the judgment comes, and by a law inwrought in all our souls. No
one of us can ever be as if Christ had not appeared on the earth. To
hear the name of Christ alters the relations of every human being to the
highest facts, — to God, to eternity. It was not so much any special say-
ing ; it was his character, his very nature, that was judicial. As soon as
he was manifest, the whole world of men about him fell apart, and souls
took their places, on the right hand and the left. It was as if that divine
presence located instantly every human life on earth. And so he added :
1 Though I came not into the world to judge it, though that is not my
special mission here in the body, but to manifest God to you ; yet after-
ward, in the world to come, and in consequence of that manifestation,
judgment will come, solemn, awful, inevitable, sudden as a thief in the
night. The word that I speak unto you, that shall judge you.'

"The question, then, for the individual is this: Do we see Christ?
Do we see and recognize our Lord? Whether he has come, where he is,
whether he can be found, is not the matter we have to consider ; nor
whether we belong to him. He has come : he lives : he is visible to the
eyes of faith : his life goes forth into the race forever, flowing into all
hearts that will open to receive it, making them sons and kings and priests
to God." — Bishop F. D. Huntington.

450

ALPHA AND OMEGA.

promised to the first family ; Christ, Omega, the Last, in
whom all the families of the world will be blessed : Christ
at first revealed as the Crusher of the Serpent, and at the
last revealed as having all things put under his feet : Christ,
Alpha, figured in the first sacrifice ; Christ, Omega, the last
Great Sacrifice : Christ at first driving guilty man from
Eden with a flaming sword ; Christ at last burning the
world, and by fire cleansing the foul places of sin : Christ
the Author, Christ the Finisher of faith : Christ the Alpha,
the name we utter in our prayer at the beginning of every
day ; Christ the Omega, the name in which we pray in the
evening of every day : Christ the name pronounced over
the newborn child, that the blessing of Alpha may be on
him ; Christ the name pronounced over the hoary man in
dying, that the blessing of Omega may be upon him. The
first voice of heaven is5 Blessed be Alpha ; and there will
never cease a voice in heaven crying, Blessed be Omega;
the Beginning and the End.

Omega, Alpha, First and Last,
Holy One in ages past,
God of cycles yet to come, —
Stones to praise Thee are not dumb ;
Stony heart Thy glory sings,
Broken heart with praises rings.

iEons old Thy mercy's birth,

Ere foundations of the earth

Rose from ancient gloom and night ;

Ages endless in their flight

Mark Thy love, Thou First and Last, —

Binding me secure and fast.

451

CHAPTER SIX.

The Royal Diadem,

■-se^.^3^-

tOU may learn Christ through and through from
Alpha to Omega, all his titles, all his honors, his
riches,- his powers, his praises, his countless
glories ; count up all his royal names ; deem him honorable.
You may gather his many crowns and royal gems, his
purple robes and the garment that was made red when he
trod the winepress alone. You may find all songs and every
kind of music, and praise him whose powers are without
limit, Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, from ever-
lasting to everlasting. "Bring," "Bring," said a dying
soldier. " Bring what, father ? " asked his daughter.

" < Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all. ' "

All these Scriptural Names of Christ are windows,
through which we gaze in, and see the beauty of Christ.
The character of Christ shines out through these names, —
a character of Infinite Love ; God rejoicing to display his
love to them who love him in the most varied phrases that
finite beings can comprehend, as if he were never weary of
[Bookx.] 452

THE ROYAL DIADEM.

inventing new forms in which to show forth Christ the
expression of the Divine Love to men. The variety of
character revealed in the Wonderful Name of Jesus is a
theme for never ceasing praises. As in every way we seek
to please those dear to us on earth, and satisfy all the long-
ings of human friendships, so our Saviour represents him-
self as seeking in every way to please those who have
committed themselves to him. The various names of Christ
are the different phases of his love to men. These are his
diadems : these are the many crowns he wears, each of
peculiar glory.

Yet the name which underlies them all is Love : God is
Love. All the colors of nature are resolvable into certain
primary colors ; and as the brilliant bow of promise, the
arch of glory, rising in the eastern sky after a shower upon
a summer's afternoon, is built by the mingling and blending
of the three primary colors, — so the resplendent beauty of
these names of Christ, arching our common life like a bow of
heavenly promise, is all built upon God's Love to man, that
love wearing an almost endless variety of form and color
and name. This, then, is what is meant by the voice of the
old Hebrew prophet, when he cried out concerning the
Messiah, " His Name shall be called Wonderful."

I ONCE saw a little model of ancient Jerusalem a few feet
square ; but however accurate the measurements and
exact the imitation in miniature, I could never feel that I
had seen the City of the Great King. So the glory of Christ,

453

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

as it is, can never be set forth even by the delineation of
his character in the very words of Holy Writ. But such
hints as we get, are to be used ; that we ourselves may be
conformed to his image. The Bible gives us no hint of
Christ's physical features, but we have a portrait of his
soul ; and this is to stand before us, the ideal character, like
the divine pattern for Hebrew building once shown in the
mount of God. "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of
the heavenly calling, consider Christ Jesus." " Consider,"
"intently gaze," as one who seeks to copy. We are changed
in beholding him : as it is written, " But we all with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as
by the spirit of the Lord." As we intently gaze on Christ,
seeking to copy his character, the Spirit gives us first one
glory, then another, till we become like him — when we
shall see him as he is.

Imitation of Christ is in no way so successful as when it
is pursued with a passion of love to Christ. We cry in the
words of St. Francis, " Let me die of love for Thee, O God
of Charity, who hast expired for love of me." We love him
because he first loved us.

How, then, shall the love of Christ constrain us, that we
may willingly toil in weary service, and all the years seem
as nothing to us for the love we bear our Saviour ? * It is

*<<Love lightens the heaviest burdens, makes difficulties easy, and
smooths the rugged ways of duty, and takes out the bitterness of suffer-
ing."— Thomas a Kempis.

454

THE ROYAL DIADEM.

the love of Christ which constrains us. We serve, says St.
Bernard, " in that love which casteth out fear, feels no toils,
thinks of no merit, asks no reward, and yet carries with it
a mightier restraint than all things else. ~No terror so
spurs one on, no reward so strongly attracts, no demand of
a due so pressingly urges."

Let us, therefore, see to it that we love Christ more than
everything else. Let us for the moment cease to talk and
think of duties done, or work to do. Let us become ab-
sorbed in simply loving Christ. Thus we shall gain the
greatest possible motive-power to impel us in leading a
successful Christian, Christlike, life. Since Christ is all
and in all to us, let us, like the disciples after the trans-
figuration, lift up our eyes and see no man save Jesus only.

We will with joy adopt for ourselves the words of John,
the forerunner of Christ, and delight in bearing for our
name the sweetest of earthly titles, "The friend of the=
Bridegroom." We will take up the words of the Apostle
and make them our own, and whatsoever we do in word or
deed, we will do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. In the
wakeful hours of the night we will sing the words of the
old Hebrew songs : With my soul have I desired Thee in
the night ; and when I awake I am still with Thee. And
in all the hours of the day we will bear about with us
Christ.

" If," says Gregory Nazianzen, " I have any possession,
health, credit, learning, — this is all the contentment I have
of them : that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ,
who is the all-desirable one." And we hear the voice of

455

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

St. Augustine, saying, "My origin is Christ, my root is
Christ, my head is Christ." And we see one of the old
martyrs raising his flaming hands to heaven shouting,
" None but Christ ! None but Christ ! " *

Is Christ all and in all to us ? Do we see Jesus only ?
Do we ourselves day by day seek to live the very life of
Christ ? Can we lay aside our prejudices, and even many
of our friends, and enter into that strange and solitary kind
of life which he led, and learn to look on this world and all
its maxims as he did ? If Christ is to us all that we need,
and if we love him with a passion of devotion, we shall be
approaching, little by little, the life he led in the flesh, be-
coming more and more like our Lord. And this is the only

* " The name of Jesus," says St. Bernard, " is not only light, but
also food ; it is likewise oil, without which all the food of the soul is dry ;
it is salt, unseasoned by which, whatever is presented to us is insipid ; it
is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, joy in the heart, medicine to
the soul ; and there is no charm in any discourse, in which his name is
not heard."

The Prayer of St. Patrick, as he was going to Tara to preach before
the king and nobles when he feared lest he be killed at Tara, is called, St.
Patrick's Armor or Breastplate : —

" At Tara, to-day, the strength of God pilot me, the power of God
preserve me ; may the wisdom of God instruct me, the eye of God watch
over me, the ear of God hear me, the word of God give me sweet talk, the
hand of God defend me, the way of God guide me : Christ be with me,
Christ before me, Christ after me, Christ in me, Christ under me, Christ
over me, Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ on this
side, Christ on that side, Christ at my back ; Christ in the heart of every
person to whom I speak — Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks to
me — Christ in the eye of every person who looks upon me — Christ in
the ear of every person who hears me at Tara to-day."

456

THE ROYAL DIADEM.

thing worth living for. Vain is it that Christ has appeared
upon the earth with Wonderful Name and Infinite Love,
unless we are drawn by his love, and run after him, seek-
ing to make his life our life, a life of service to God in self-
sacrifice for man.*

* See special Articles by Evangelist D. L. Moody, page 54,2;
Rev. H. M. Wharton, D.D., page 545 ; Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler, D.D.,
page 548 ; and Rev. F. A. Noble, D.D., page 559.

457

BOOK ELEVEN

5-&-S

The Master and His
Message.

Contributed Chapters.

Introductory Note by tine -Aju.th.or.
In the interest of the reader it has seemed better to separate these contributed
chapters from the narrative of our Lord's life by the Author, giving them suitable
prominence in special books.

•«$•-&-•$»-

As a Lad. in the Temple. Chapter i. Page 459.

By E. R. Hendrix, LL.D., Bishop of the M. E. Church, South.

A.s a Pattern of To=day. Chapter 2. page 463.

By J. H. Vincent, D.D., Bishop of the M. E. Church.

The Guide of Life. Chapter 3. page 466.

By E. H. Capen, LL.D., Pres. Tufts College.

Our Imitation of the Master. Chapter 4. page 472.

By Geo. E. Horr, Jr., Editor " The Watchman," Boston.

The Church in Samaria. Chapter 5. Page 475.

By Edward Everett Hale, D.D., Boston.

A. Story of Skzill. Chapter 6. Page 480.

By President W. M. Barbour, D.D., LL.D., Montreal.

The Democracy of Jesus. Chapter 7. Page 486.

By William Herridge, B.D., Ottawa, Ont.

Character of His Teaching and Work.

Chapter 8. Page 492.
By Geo. P. Fisher, LL.D., Prof. Yale University.

The Master, the Message. Chapter 9. Page 506.

By Augustus H. Strong, D.D. LL.D., President of

Rochester Theological Seminary.

Not Law, hut Love, Chapter 10. Page 512.

By John S. Sewall, M.A., D.D., Professor Bangor Theological

Seminary and late Professor B^wdoin College.

CHAPTER ONE.

A.S a. Lad at ttie Temple.

By Rev. E. R. Hendrix, S.T.D., LL.D., Bishop M. E. Church, South.

o. GN^&£ -K->-

■ ■ -feT* c^^o ^^

NE of the felicities of the Revised Version is the
making clear what our Lord meant in his reply to
his mother after her anxious search everywhere
else but in the temple, for her missing son. A
sword pierced through the heart of the virgin mother as it
had not done since she heard of Herod's slaughter of the
children of Bethlehem in his mad effort to slay her first
born. As Joseph and Mary missed the boy Jesus, they left
the caravan which had protected them both in their ap-
proach to Jerusalem and thus far on their return journey.
They now began to experience some of the difficulties to
which Jesus might have been exposed, during his separa-
tion among "the wild elements of the warring nationalities
which at such a moment were assembled about the walls of
Jerusalem," due to a revolt against the Romans which had
begun only two years before under Judas of Gamala.
Their mental agony increased with every hour of their
fruitless search.

Like all large cities, Jerusalem had its snares for youth-

[ Book XI.] 459

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ful and unwary feet. Would the lad, if otherwise safe, be
drawn by idle curiosity to those quarters of the city where
human nature was to be seen most in ruins and daily be-
coming more bestial ? What evil associations might leave
their scars upon the very soul of the boy Jesus if he unwit-
tingly wandered near scenes of vice? Is the promise to
be made of none effect after all, through the carelessness of
the mother of Jesus ? "A wounded spirit who can bear ? "
So the very power of thought seemed suspended amid her
self-reproaches, and the place which Mary should have
searched first of all was the last to be visited. " Wist ye not
that I must be in my Father's house ? "

How much the Lord's house must have been a theme of
conversation between Mary and Jesus. From her lips he
had doubtless learned those hymns of ascent which he was
to sing with the multitude, when, from the slopes of Olivet,
the temple should burst full upon his youthful vision : "I
was glad when they said unto me, let us go up to the house
of the Lord ;•" "I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains
whence cometh my help ;" " My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth." How the story of the
royal builders had been told to this Son of David, and how
must his wondering eyes have sought every expression in
those maternal eyes which looked into his again, as she
pondered anew these things in her heart. Had she not
taught him reverence for his Father's house, and explained
to him the meaning of every court and altar, and the sym-
bolism of every vestment and of every sacrifice ? How he
must have asked about the Holy of Holies, and the blood

4G0

BY BISHOP E. R. HENDRIX.

with which the High Priest sprinkled the mercy seat, ere he
knew that He was the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world.

O Virgin Mother, where couldst thou expect to find thy
son but in the temple, whose courts he had already learned
to love and which he first began to tread but a few brief days
ago ? It is here where his first recorded words are to be ut-
tered, " Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house ? "
What other place could have charms to win him from such
a mother's side ? Was not this the place, of all others, which
she had taught him to love, and had she so little faith as to
doubt that henceforth he would show a passion for his
Father's house ? Through its stately courts he was to move
once at the beginning, and then again at the close of his
public ministry — with scourge of plaited cords to drive out
those buyers and sellers and money changers who had made
of his Father's house a house of merchandise and a den of
thieves. " The zeal of thine house had eaten me up."

We lay much stress upon last words, though they be
spoken in weakness and pain and are scarcely intelligible.
We still think them characteristic, and cherish them. But
not more characteristic were Christ's last words, tenderly
caring for his mother or praying for his murderers, than
these first words, showing his passion for his Father's
house. What questions had not been answered for him
there, in that atmosphere where moral and religious ques-
tions are always best settled for souls bent on having them
settled right? Reverence is the basis of true character.
The youth of our Lord, with all the temptations to indolence

461

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

and self-assertion which mark that critical period of life,
was kept pure and unmarred, and was stimulated into holy
activity, by his reverence for sacred things.

While religion is not free from the law of habit, so that
what passes for religious conduct may be due to the force
of habit and need not be the expression of a deep personal
conviction, let us note that with the help of the grooves of
habit our very minds and hearts may be kept where gra-
cious influences may mould them aright. Our divine
Exemplar nowhere sets us a more helpful example than
when in youth he preferred the house of God above his
chief joy.

462

CHAPTER TWO.

As a Pattern of To-Day.

By Rev. John H. Vincent, D.D., LL.D., Bishop M. E. Church.

■ 4MjsgM§^ •

(5j*|""F Jesus of Nazareth were to appear in any of our
American cities in this good year One thousand, eight
hundred and ninety-seven, one wonders what impres-
sion he would make. One need not wonder. First of
all, he would not come in oriental garb, with long hair and
with flowing robes after the manner of the Orient, and as
he probably appeared in the first century of the era which
bears his name. His wisdom is too great, his knowledge
of human nature too thorough, his reverence for the law of
adaptation too profound to justify the eccentricities of a
costume entirely foreign to the age which he might come to
influence. We know too well the value of complete adjust-
ment to environment in order to the right control of that
environment in the higher interests of life, to imagine
Christ as coming in any fashion which might excite preju-
dice or mainly attract attention. Therefore, if Christ were
to come to us in this nineteenth century, we might expect

[Book XL] 463

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

to find him dressed as other men dressed, living as other
men lived, and mingling with the people of this age in
business and society as he did in the age to which he his-
torically belongs. I doubt exceedingly whether he would
come even in clerical costume. Our friend, Mr. Dwight L.
Moody, who so worthily represents the Christ he serves, in
his love of righteousness and in his loyalty to the Christian
faith, would furnish a much more probable model of cos-
tume for the living Christ in the nineteenth or twentieth
century than would any clergyman or priest of any Chris-
tian church.

The imitation of Christ in the nineteenth century must
be an imitation in quality of character, in aim of life, and
in method and spirit of service. As it is not necessary that
Christ should come in the flesh again in order to do his
work in the world, it is sufficient that his followers possess
his spirit, hold his truth, love with his love, help as he
helped, and order their lives by the standards which he set
up both by teaching and example.

The larger control, the wider sphere of influence char-
acterizing the modern Christian, extends very widely the
field of his activity. In the day of Christ neither the
Master nor his disciples could have any immediate influence
upon the social and political conditions of the world. To-
day matters are very different. The Christian stands at
the very center of civilization. He helps to make the
forces which control political life. He has his hand on the
social activities of the times. The opportunity is to-day
a Christian opportunity, — to edit papers, write books, deposit

464

BY BISHOP J. H. VINCENT.

ballots, control public sentiment, promote righteousness.
He is not under a scepter which he cannot influence. He
himself holds the scepter that represents all the power the
world has. Therefore, the field of his activity is wholly
different from that occupied by the Christ in the days of
his incarnation, and all this is because of what Christ did
during his incarnation and what he continues to do through
the means of his truth and spirit in the world.

With this conception of the Christian's responsibility,
how important it is that children and adults should be
taught the nature of Christian life, and the necessity of
imitating Christ, not by the life of the hermit, not by ec-
clesiastical symbolism and ceremony, not by anachronistic
eccentricity, but by conformity in aim, motive, spirit, and
methods adapted to the age, a conformity calculated to im-
press society with the value of righteousness, self-sacrifice,
unselfishness, and faith in eternal things. How important
it is to build up the "Kingdom of God" as more than an
outward kingdom, rather as a family united by regenerative
power, gracious adoption, and the indwelling, witnessing,
victorious spirit which is revealed in the four Gospels as
the spirit of Christ. To imitate Christ in this age, each
Christian believer must in this age be like Christ in personal
character.

465

CHAPTER THREE.

The Quiide of Life.

By Rev. Elmer II. Capen, D.D., LL.D., President of Tufts College.

-%y©^

NE of the most instructive phases of our religion is
its universal, perennial, human interest. The
Bible makes its appeal to living men in every age
and under every conceivable condition. The
characters of the Old Testament, Abraham, Jacob, David,
Solomon, become our teachers because they are so like our-
selves : we are interested in reading the story of their lives,
because we see not only our own frailties reflected, but our
possibilities of high thinking and noble action. And when
we open the pages of the New Testament, we find in Jesus
a spotless character, yet he is human at every point ; and
his perfection is not an impossible perfection. He does
nothing which we do not feel that we could do, if our wills
were strong enough and our feeling of self-interest were
sufficiently in check. So that Jesus becomes the object for
imitation in every life.

One indeed may say, when he is casting about for the
true standard of human conduct: "My life is American,
and it is in the nineteenth century ; how then can Jesus,

[Book XI.] 466

BY PRESIDENT E. H. CAPEN.

whose life was in the midst of a Jewish and Greco-Roman
civilization, furnish any criterion for me ? " The guidance,
however, which we are seeking pertains to the spirit. It is
the teaching of the New Testament that we should walk
according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. It is
the spirit of Jesus with which we have to do. We are to
meet life's duties in the spirit of the Master.

JESUS is the guide as to the aims of life. All human life
must have an aim to be significant. If there are any
with a disposition to drift about and take what comes,
if they have no set purpose and only live from day to day,
they do not follow the method of the Master. "Wist ye
not that I must be about my Father's business ? " was the
all searching question which he put to his mother even in
boyhood ; and from that hour to the moment when he
bowed his head on Calvary and said, "It is finished," there
was not the slightest deviation from his purpose to fulfill
the will of God. It is possible, in this respect, for every
person to walk in the steps of Jesus : and to determine,
through careful consideration, by what course he can best
accomplish the demands of the Creator upon him ; and then
to pursue it steadfastly and unfalteringly to the end.

And in making this decision, if we would follow Jesus,
our aims must be pure. They must not end in temporali-
ties. If, for example, a man seeks wealth, or fame, or
power for its own sake he is certainly not in the way of
Christ. Jesus sought simply to do the will of God as it

467

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

was disclosed to him in Galilee and Judea in the time of
Tiberius Cassar. In the same way men may find out here
and now what God wants and proceed to do it. In doing
it, they may, indeed, acquire wealth, honor, and the mas-
tery of the world, — this, perhaps, because they are obedient
to the will of God ; but if these things captivate the heart
or serve in any way to obscure the clear vision of the divine
will, to that extent they obstruct and defeat the ends of a
true life. A pure purpose is what Jesus teaches ; and if
that be attained, outward conditions do not count.

JESUS may be a guide also in our conduct, as to the
common everyday life which often seems dull and
petty. In great crises, men of common mould often
rise to sublimity of action ; the circumstances in which they
are placed stimulating them, and calling forth their best
powers. Many of us feel that if we were on a platform
broad enough and high enough so that we could stand
in the public gaze, and that if we could perceive the far
reaching consequences of our efforts, we could then avoid
meanness and servility, and really do great things. So we
find it hard to obey the highest law in things petty, common-
place, trivial, and unnoticed. Yet, if we turn to the great
Example, we find obedience possible, even in this lower
way. Men may ask themselves, in the humblest form of
service they are called on to render, however obscure and
ordinary the duty : " What would Jesus do if he were in

468

BY PRESIDENT E. H. CAPEN.

my place ? " And the answer will come with convincing
certainty to the inner consciousness, If we are candid with
ourselves we can never be in doubt as to the way in which
we ought to walk.

It is Jesus who discloses the spirit for the right discharge
of daily duty, so that it will no longer be deemed mere
drudgery, so that those who are punctilious, and conscien-
tiously faithful in performing homely duties, may find their
souls uplifted and strengthened by the service. The only
way to bring heaven down to earth, the only way to trans-
figure toil, the only way to convert the world into the king-
dom of God, is to carry the spirit of devotion into that which
is trivial as well as that which is exalted. In this way the
sordid work of sweeping and dusting, sowing and reaping,
selling merchandise and casting accounts, is glorified, not
less than leading an army to battle, or swaying a senate,
or preaching the Gospel to the poor.

O UT above all Jesus is the guide of men in the varied
| ) relations which they sustain to their fellows. No
man can hold his life in isolation. We touch human-
ity at every point. Our duties are not single but involved.
Environment is often the determining factor in conduct.
The withdrawal of men from contact with the world, which
has been practiced under every religion, finds no real war-
rant in Christianity. Every person is a member of the
family into which he is born, of the social circle where
his work lies, and of the state to which his allegiance

. 469

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

is due. His duty, therefore, is not necessarily what he
may desire within himself. His inclinations and tastes,
nay, his aspirations and longings, may point unmis-
takably in certain directions. Yet he may be withheld
from the realization of his inward purpose, because the
circumstances in which he finds himself, and which he
cannot control, absolutely forbid. He must remember
therefore that this is the law of nature. It is likewise the
law of Christ. His life was amongst men. He was no
ascetic, but " came eating and drinking," and he was the
"friend of publicans and sinners." In other words he met
every class in- the community and discharged his full
obligation towards them. No man who calls him Lord can
do otherwise than to meet the complete demand of domestic
and social and civic duties.

So, too, Jesus teaches the spirit that must pervade all
human relationships before his kingdom can prevail. It is
not what we do with and for men, but the motive from
which we do it, that determines whether we are the
disciples of Christ or not. "He went about doing good."
He did good to all classes of people, and kept right
on doing it, though he said that his fidelity must end
in his crucifixion. The example of Jesus, then, teaches
us not to do this particular thing or that particular
thing, but to forget ourselves in what we do. Self-
denial must be our attitude in all our relations with the
world. It may be very gratifying to those who have per-
formed heroic deeds to have the adoration and applause of
countless hosts. But the real test comes, when to do the

470

BY PRESIDENT E. H. CAPEN.

right involves hatred and contumely. This is Christ's law.
Do for men what ought to be done for them, and never
falter whether such action brings applause or scorn. This
law changes not with the lapse of time. It is just as per-
tinent in the nineteenth century as it was in the first cen-
tury ; and when all the centuries shall have been counted
up, it will still remain the law of human life.

471

CHAPTER FOUR.

Omr Imitation of the Master,

By Rev. George E. Horr, D.D., Editor of The Watchman.

TRICTLY speaking, the Christian is to be a dis-
ciple rather than an imitator of Christ. He is
not to seek slavishly to copy the acts of Jesus,
but to take the Master's principles and temper
and apply them in a great variety of circumstances in
which Jesus himself was not placed. Paul clearly suggests
this when he exhorts the Philippian Christians : " Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." And he
proceeds to show how the self-denial which actuated our
Lord in his mission should prompt the conduct of his disci-
ples. The Christian resembles the navigator who, under
some instructor, has thoroughly mastered the principles
of navigation. The instructor does not describe every
possible combination of circumstances in which the master
of a ship may be called to act, but he gives him sound
principles which will lead the pupil to act wisely in any
circumstances.

But Christ is not simply an instructor, or an historical
and external model. The New Testament teaches that he
[book XL] 472

BY EDITOR G. E. HORR.

is a vital force in the souls of those who have spiritually
responded to him. In the written Word we see the out-
ward ideal ; but when the Christian looks within his own
soul he discerns the present example of Christ. The impulse
towards goodness, the conviction as to the course of duty,
the aspiration toward God, indicate what we should do to
follow Christ. "Work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling," says Paul, "for it is God which worketh
in you." The reason for " the fear and trembling " is that
in our own souls we are touching the Divine life.

We need not be in doubt as to what we are to do to
follow Christ. In the written Word we have the external
model ; in the impulses and promptings of the Christian
heart the special and definite directions. If we implicitly
follow this inner leadership, in subordination to the written
Word, we shall find practical guidance for the imitation of
Christ in everyday life.

Far more than a new theology the world to-day needs
fresh and noble conceptions of Christian character such
as come from the submission of personal life to these
principles. One of the urgent questions of the time is
what manner of man would Christ be if he to-day were
a statesman, an employer or employee, a professional
man, an artist, a mechanic, or farmer. The man who, in
his calling and circumstances, is acting as Christ would
act, is rendering most effective service by illustrating the
Christian life. Too many of our ideals of Christian char-
acter have been derived from the mediaeval monasteries, or
the intense language of the prayer meeting or the revival

473

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

service. There is no greater need than for practical illus-
trations of the imitation of Christ in the homely ways of
daily life.*

* Note added by the Author. I can but add to the three preceding
Articles, and to what has been said in earlier pages of this volume, a
brief extract from Dr. Samuel Harris' book, "God the Creator and
Lord of all," relating to the Imitation of Christ: - —

' < We do not properly say that in any given case we are to do just
what Christ would have done in the same circumstances. As the Divine
Redeemer of men his action in many particulars must be different from
that of ordinary men. Living in a distant country and age, with a becom-
ing conformity to peculiar customs, he would do what it would not be
becoming to do now."

The reader who studies carefully the preceding three chapters, and
what was said by the Author, particularly in Book ii., Chapters 1 and 2,
and in Book iv., will conclude that we best imitate our Lord by conform-
ing our lives to the spirit of the Master.

474

CHAPTER FIVE.

Ttie Ctiurch. in Samaria.

By Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., LL.D.

i&(§ 10? SO? €? ^£Sr~ • ■

(^ I HIS woman of Sychar has the half-heathen idea of
t I her Messiah as of a messenger sent from a far-off
— E— king on a distant throne. He is to come with
heralds and body-guards ; he is to prostrate Rome, and he
is to tell us all things. " He is coming, and he will tell us
all things, — he, the anointed."

"Woman, he has come. I who am talking to you am
he. Dusty and tired with my journey, with no herald be-
fore me and no train behind me, glad to drink from your
pitcher because I am faint, — all the same, I am the child
of God, and his present messenger to you. I who speak
unto you am he."

I do not wonder that the painters are so fond of the
subject. But one wishes that they did not care so much
for the mountains and the well, and cared more for him
and for her. That he should have swept away all her prej-
udices — prejudices born from twenty centuries ; that he, a
dusty, tired, lonely wayfarer, should in five minutes make
her know that he is God's son, and is speaking God's word to

[Book XI.] 475

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

her, — this shows what manner of man he was, and what it
is in him which makes him Saviour of the world.

And she, on her side ? That in those five minutes every
cloud should have rolled away from her heaven ; that all
dust of man's travel, and all smoke from the sacrifices of
priests, should have been cleared away, so that she can see
that her God visits her and helps her, and that she is a
child of God. Let the artist express that emancipation,
and we shall know what is meant when they say, "All
things are become new."' This is what the words "New
Testament " mean.

In a word, -she saw what Nicodemus could not see.
When this same word had come to him, — "You must
be born again"; "I don't think we can," was his reply.
But she went up into the village, and told her people that
this man had told her everything.

His other disciples join him and the Samaritans from
the village. He stays two days in this Sychar, — the typical
city of the Gentile, to the eye of a bigoted Jew. And here
he establishes the first church in the world. Many of the
Samaritans believe on him, because they have seen him
and heard him. " We have heard him ourselves, and know
that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." What they
heard in those two days we cannot tell ; but the central
thing in it — to be remembered when all this was written
down at the end of threescore years or more — was this :
" My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to
finish His work." "The fields are white to the harvest,
though it is early springtime." The doctrine of this gospel

476

BY DR. E. E. HALE.

to the Samaritans is that man is of God's nature, and that
he is a fellow-worker together with God.

In one and another mood of meditation — looking back-
ward and looking forward — we ask ourselves what Jesus
Christ would do for us to-day. I dare say this no-named
woman of Sychar had asked herself the same question that
morning.

This is sure, that our answer would come as hers did.
Perhaps our surprise would be as great as hers. Let us
hope our eyes would open as quickly as hers. It is not in a
chariot of fire descending from the clouds that her Saviour
comes. It is not with legions of white-winged angels, or
the clarion tones of cherubim before him and behind him,
that he comes. It is a lonely, tired man, — dusty with travel,
and sitting on the wellside, — whom she finds, and who is to
tell her all things. So you and I will hear our gospel, not
in any voice from the sky, and not in any legend written
among the stars, but in the midst of the dust, and sweat,
and travail of to-day. Pure religion and undefiled is for
everybody, — black, white, gray, red, and brown.

Now, as then, whoever Jesus met would most likely put
the old question : " Please, where should you like to have
me go to church ? " After eighteen or nineteen centuries the
reply is just what it was. Woman, it is not here, it is not
there. It is not the place of worship : it is the quality of
worship. " God is a spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth."

And how shall we worship ? With this prayer or that
hymn ? With these articles or that creed ? Answers now

477

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

as then : Look on the fields. They are white to harvest,

— January, March, July, or November, it is all one, they
are always white to harvest. God 'did not finish his world.
He is here now. He is in and with his children now — that
with him his children may go harvesting now. Those
join in worship of him rightly, who rightly and bravely go
to work with him. They show they are truly his, if they
go about their Father's business. And this is the sum and
substance of pure religion.

If the world seeks a monument of the place where was
first proclaimed the truth which has made the world of
today, that monument exists already in the old well at
Sychar. "Jesus spoke here," says Renan, "for the first
time, the word on which will stand the building of the
eternal religion. Here and then he founded the pure wor-
ship, without date and without country, which will be the
religion of all noble souls to the end of time. The religion
of that word and that day is not only the religion good
for humanity, it is absolute religion. And if other planets
have inhabitants endowed with reason and the sense of
right, their religion cannot differ from this of Jacob's well.
Grant that men fall back from it ; that they only cling to
the ideal for an instant. It was a flash — this word of his

— in the thick darkness ; and in eighteen hundred years
the eyes of mankind (alas, of an infinitely small fraction
of mankind) are used to it. All the same, full light will
come ; and after the full circle of wandering, man will
come back to this word as to the immortal expression of its
faith and its hope."

478

BY DR. E. E. HALE.

The four mottoes for the new frieze of a new church of
the Good Samaritan might well be these four texts : —

" Not in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem," because ours
is a universal religion :

" God is a spirit," — this for its statement of God :

"I who speak to you am he," — this for its statement of
Christ, — that he is a weary wayfarer, sitting thirsty in the
midst of his day's work :

" My meat is to finish God's work, and I send you to the
harvest," — this for man's place and duty, because man is a
child of God.

But you and I can do better things than to design mottoes
for the walls of a church at home. Paul's word is as true
as it ever was, " Know ye not that the temple of God is
holy, which temple ye are ? " These texts are not for one
place or another place. They are truths for you and me to
carry wherever we go. This title-page to the gospel is not
illustrated when we go on a pilgrimage to the vale of
Sychar ; it is when we lift up our eyes and look upon these
fields that we illustrate it. It is when we go to work to
accomplish our Father's work. It is when we thus bring to
the Life of Lives, to the God who is the spirit of all life,
the only worship, which is the worship of spirit and of
truth. Then and only, we know what these words mean,
" I that speak unto thee am he." They will speak in the
midst of daily duty. He who speaks will be dusty and
travel-worn ; but when we have heard him for ourselves,
we too shall know that this, indeed, is the Saviour of the
world.

479

CHAPTER SIX.

A. Story of Skill.

By the Rev W. M. Barbour, D.D.,

Principal of the Congregational College of Canada, and Late

Chittendon Professor of Divinity, Yale University.

OW can the incarnation of Infinite Purity deal
with one who is a voluntary transgressor in per-
sonal impurity ?

Note the skill of Jesus in dealing with the
sinner of Sychar.'

3 HE was a Samaritan, outside the revealed law, outside
the covenants and promises, and he did not open
Moses and the prophets to her as he did to others. He
first drew near her as a human being conscious of an inner
need, one corresponding to the physical thirst they had in
common, — suggesting in a delicate way and by a fitting
form the attractiveness of a spiritual satisfaction. Not on
Mount Sinai did he stand, hurling the law down upon his
lowly hearer, as some suppose the first position of a
preacher ought invariably to be ; but by the well of the
Water of Life he stood, inviting one in the thirst and stain
of sin to partake and be blest.

[Book XI. J 480

BY PRINCIPAL BARBOUR.

At first his hearer did not understand him, and so he
wisely tried to reach her in another way. He thrust one
of the sharp arrows of the mighty into her conscience.

"Your husband," he said, "call him hither."

" Husband, I have no husband," was her reply.

"Five thou hast had," — what an accurate tale of her
life he could read — "and the sixth, he is no husband."
And yet, with a candor becoming the Incarnate Truth, he
gave her credit for a confession to the literal side of a fact,
— "In that, saidst thou truly."

And now that he had her attention and her interest so
far as to stir her to the owning of his power, he unfolded
what in her condition she ought to know, — deepening and
widening his truth, till she could receive no more, but must
run with what she had to her friends and neighbors.

He took this woman as she was ; he plied her with what
she could understand ; he set no impossibilities before her :
what he said of God and the better life he expected her to
act upon, as readily as she might feel thirst and quench it
with water from the well ; he expected her to know God as
one might know a parent who desires a wandering child's
return ; he expected her to judge for herself of her welcome
by such a Father — the God who is a spirit, if in her own
heart she returned, no matter what she had been, no mat-
ter where she had heard of God, — the temple and the
holy mountain were both pushed out of sight in that glad
Gospel.

481 si

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

IN this, Jesus recognized a spiritual need in the human
heart, which he alone could supply by gift, — " Whoso-
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall
never thirst."

This same truth he preached to the crowds in the temple,
assembled at the feasts. He assumed it in all his inter-
course with his fellow men : "I am the light of the world ; "
"I am the bread of life;" "I am the giver of the living
water." These sayings indicate his idea of man, as in need
of something to enlighten, sustain, and refresh him. Ice
cannot melt itself : nor darkness enlighten itself : nor thirst
quench itself : nor can the dead raise themselves into life.
Our Lord presented himself to be to man, and to do for man,
what man could neither be nor do for himself.

In this incident at the well side, he acted upon the princi-
ple that wherever a human soul is met, it can be challenged
for its sins. In our Lord's idea of conscience, we find him
assuming its existence, its validity, its accessibility to ap-
peal upon personal conduct.

This woman had partial and distorted views of revela-
tion : as a Samaritan, she was partly of heathen origin ; and
by religion of an unsettled faith ; yet as a subject of moral
government our Lord addressed her, knowing that she had
a memory, a conscience, a spirit that could meet a spiritual
God, and a filial relationship to God, by which she could be
found of him as his child, and as his lowly worshiper in
her heart.

In order to lead to her reclamation to the Father who

482

BY PRINCIPAL BARBOUR.

was seeking her, Jesus convinced her of sin, not in the
abstract as a defect, a disease, an excrescence, a develop-
ment, or an heredity, but of sin as an actual recurring,
intentional doing of wrong, for which she must feel herself
personally responsible. This direct appeal to the woman's
conscience on her present sin touched her to the quick ;
which might not have been done by the most weighty con-
straint to study the sinfulness of mankind, or to prepare for
a future judgment on her conduct.

The Master, moreover, taught the woman in regard to
worship or approach to God : that a Spirit should be wor-
shiped in spirit and in truth ; that the nature of God calls
for more than form, and is contented with less than display.
In substance he said : " Externals are not of necessary
account, now that the Messiah has made access free to the
Father of the soul ; it is a service of love, and not a service
of instruments, that can be acceptable to him." It is clear,
too, that he held that the woman was on the right track of
thought in turning her mind towards a mediator. It was
when he had his inquirer really awakened to her need,
when she was convinced of sin, in view of the spiritual
Jehovah, and when she said, " There is a Messiah to come,
and when he is here he will tell us what we need to know,"
then came that saving word, "I that speak unto thee, am
he."

483

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

IT is of interest to watch the variety of feelings evidently
stirred in his hearer, by our Lord's courteous and skillful

treatment. She who is not skilled in reasoning nor in-
ferring, nor in judging of cumulative evidence, who could
not explain to herself perhaps what a ground of belief
meant, she knows but one thing out of the many which
might help her to a knowledge of Christ : that one thing is
his power to know her heart, and his authority to condemn
her life. By the manifestation of that truth, he com-
mended himself to her conscience. For as he held the
lamp of truth in upon her moral sense, she not only saw
herself but himself also, — and the man who told her what
she was, she knew could not be trifled with.

This truth of a bad life made way for the truth about
the revealed God and the promised salvation. The truth
had time to do a great deal in her mind between Jacob's
well and the village of Sychar. There was time for a
thought upon the fact that she still had a memory record-
ing the past, and a conscience that could be quickened
to a new condemnation of that past. There was time for a
thought upon what she was, and one upon what she might
have been. She had just left one pure presence, one weary
and in need of rest ; one ready to accept even her atten-
tion ; and yet what tokens of purity of heart and spotless-
ness of life were in his manners, what an " air to command "
in words without sternness was about him. And had she
remained pure, could she ever have been like him ? But
even he, in his gentleness, had spoken kindly to her, though

484

BY PRINCIPAL BARBOUR.

all her life was in his keeping. Bad though her past had
been, yet he bore with her ; had told her of God ; had spoken
of salvation : can she yet have hope, since he said, " I that
speak unto thee am he," — can she yet have any prospect
of deliverance from her bad past ? If on those things she
thought, as most likely she did, yet they did not move her
as did the revelation of her own searched heart. In that
she could have no surmise, no supposition, no doubt : this
searcher of the heart must have the truth. And her con-
clusion was that he ought to be listened to.

485

CHAPTER SEVEN".

The Democracy of Jesus.

By William T. Herridge, B.D., Ottawa, Ontario.

E who is our Saviour approaches through the door
of seeming common place, and meets us on the
broad thoroughfares of daily experience so
that no one need feel strange in his gracious
company. We can scarcely wonder, therefore, that the
world was slow to reach a true perspective of his great-
ness. The simple ISTazarenes. are not alone in vulgarizing
what is near at hand, and reserving their admiration for
some hero whose dim outline looms up in the haze of dis-
tance. It has seemed impossible to many that the son of
the carpenter should be also the Son of God.

Yet in this contradiction lies the unique value of the
Epiphany. Christ might have appeared as a priest of the
royal line, clothed in the sacredness of his office and in
the divinity which cloth hedge a king ; or as the great poet
of the ideal, raying forth on all sides the flash of genius ; or
as the profound philosopher who had studied the problems
of life and was prepared to offer a final solution of them.
But in either of these cases he would have been more or
less estranged from the mass of men. It requires a peculiar
type of mind to be attracted by the excellence of mere
ecclesiasticism. The poet lies " hidden in the light of

[Book XI.] 4gg

BY REV. WILLIAM T. HERRIDGE.

thought," and only a few will enter and share his solitude.
The philosopher, weaving- his abstractions, often impresses
the multitude with a sense of coldness, and seems to point
the way to heights which are inaccessible. So that while
Christ unites in himself all these functions, they are held
in solution by his broad and universal humanity. He is
not like some actor heralded by fame, and greeted with the
applause of a fastidious audience. He enters the drama of
life along with the tumultuous chorus, not distinguishable
at first from the others, and thus in close contact with all
sorts and conditions of men fulfills his mission, not as a
tribal Messiah, but as the world's Redeemer.

We cannot well overestimate the significance of this
humiliation, especially when we remember that it never
stripped him of his real divinity. In thus becoming a
man of the people, he presents a much needed object
lesson in regard to relative values, and stamps human life
with a dignity which had never been dreamed of before.
He proves that the begger may be a prince in disguise, that
honest toil prosecuted in the right spirit is itself a patent of
nobility, that humble service, so far from being little more
than a modified form of disgrace and bondage, is life's
crowning merit, and the only means of its full and harmo-
nious development. Apocryphal legends have credited his
earlier career with absurd and useless miracles. But he
needed no trick of magic to transmute everything he
touched into gold. He revealed the unsuspected glory of
familiar affairs. The common things he did, never made
him common. Bending over the unheroic tasks of youth,

487

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

he kept his head among the stars. His pure soul supplied
its own invisible pageantry, and no scion of the house of
David ever so truly sat upon the throne, judging the tribes
of Israel.

And thus he was the first to discover the worth of the
individual. Coming into a world which was held in the
chains of a pitiless imperialism, his advent raised the toc-
sin of liberty from the citadel of Mansoul, and earth began
to date its years afresh from the solemn Anno Domini.
The humblest listener to his words must have gone away
haunted by a strange and inspiring vision of the possible
grandeur of life, and filled with new ideas as to the method
of reaching the goal. For Christ was no demagogue stir-
ring up the baser passions of the reckless crowd. The
rebellion which he leads is not primarily against injustice
endured at the hands of others, but against the insidious
evils which war within ourselves. Many of his friends
were disappointed because he steadily refused to become a
political agitator. But while he was by no means indif-
ferent to anything affecting human happiness, his reform
begins at the beginning. It is at once too radical and too
comprehensive to exhaust its strength upon externals.
The fountain must be pure, or it will be waste of time to
meddle with the streams which flow from it. And, there-
fore, Christ seeks, first of all, not a change of conditions
but a regeneration of character.

It requires an aristocrat of the right sort to establish the
best democracy. The true friend of the people will guide
their half -formed desires into the proper channel, and stir

488

BY REV. WILLIAM T. HERRIDGE.

up that " divine discontent" which, in spite of the ravages
made by sin, still gives proof of our essential nobility.
Though Christ consorted with the poorest specimens of
mankind, and embraced them all in the arms of his great
benevolence, there can be no doubt that he was the ideal
gentleman, and that he sought to develop in others that
mingled humility and self-respect which results in spiritual
freedom. He exchanges the government of outward com-
mands and prohibitions for that of inward principles. He
rivets our gaze upon the soul's achievements, and clearly
distinguishes between what a man has and what he is. To
his thought, no one should clamor for " rights " unless he
is at the same time prepared to recognize responsibilities.
For rights, whatever their precise mode of emergence, have
their original basis in the moral nature of man, who is
framed for the discharge of duties and wins his rights in
no other way than by honest effort to fulfill them.

Thus the keynote of Christ's Democracy is unselfish-
ness. We must learn by experience the meaning of his
strange paradox that he who loses his life shall really find
it. Egotism can never exhaust the whole content of man-
hood. He whose. aims are confined within the narrow circle
of personal interests maybe called " successful " by some
beholders, but he is drying up his vitality at the root. It
is only through sympathetic participation in the world's
changeful drama that we attain our own highest individual-
ity. Christ was perfectly conscious of the alternative pre-
sented before Him. He might have had kingly pomp in the
city of Jerusalem instead of social ostracism and cruel

489

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

persecution and shocking death. He deliberately chose
that career of self-forgetfulness which has made his name
immortal, and every one who aspires to serve his genera-
tion well must follow in his train.

Every important problem of life is in its last analysis a
purely ethical one. Unless we cleanse the fountain, it will
do little good to meddle with the streams which flow from
it. The true reform is at once more radical and more com-
prehensive than some seem to imagine. It behooves us to
study the social and economic conditions of our time, and
to weigh the merits of every theory offered as a panacea
for existing evils. But many of them are vitiated by funda-
mental fallacies. The earthly Paradise is not a machine-
like realm which changes men into automata, but a realm
throughout which justice and love are so diffused that they
necessitate the gradual elimination of everything which op-
poses them. Christian Democracy is not set upon over-
throwing the powers that be simply for the sake of doing
so. But it will raise the question whether the powers that
be are the powers that ought to be, and, if they are not,
the awakened conscience of mankind must yet sweep away
whatever prevents freedom of self-government according
to the will of God.

We are often told that this is a transitional epoch in his-
tory ; but is not every epoch transitional ? There is far
more to fear from stagnation than from earnest thought
on the practical matters which confront us. Each genera-
tion has its special opportunity which cannot be discerned
without intelligent reading of the signs of the times. But

490

BY REV. WILLIAM T. HERRIDGE.

the most advanced opinion has discovered no new Gospel
for mankind. The democracy which aspires to perma-
nence, instead of repeating the specious sophism that, all
men are equal, must seek rather to give each one a fair
chance to develop his own life in beneficent contact with
the lives of others. Whatever it has to say in regard to
the readjustment of economic relationships, it must not
demand the entire abolition of property, because the best
property that anyone can have is himself. It must not hide
behind abstractions, since the final issue lies not with ma-
terials but with human souls. The cry of our day, "Back
to Christ ! " if it is to have any adequate meaning, must be
followed by another cry, "Forward to Christ!" to the
Christ who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and
whose laws, fearlessly applied and followed, will answer
the questions and inspire the hopes and guide the footsteps
of modern civilization.*

* The topic of this Article by Dr. Herridge is in accord with pages
106, Jesus' sympathy with the poor; 108, his leadership; 261, 262, the rela-
tion of Jesus to the political world; also page Jfi9 in Professor Fisher's
Article, which follows. — Author.

491

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Seed=Like Character
Of His Teaching and Work.

By Rev. George P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Yale University.

ESUS described the nature and influence of his
teaching under the symbol of a sower, who went
forth to sow. His repeated use of the same figure
shows how true an image he felt it to be of the
whole work in which he was engaged. He compares him-
self, in relation to the kingdom which he was founding, to
a man who " should cast seed into the ground, and should
sleep and rise, night and day " : that is, should leave the
seed to take care of itself, — "and the seed should spring
and grow up, he knoweth not how." " For," it is added,
" the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself " : that is to say,
the seed, when dropped in the soil, shoots forth by a power
within itself , "first the blade, then the ear, after that the
full corn in the ear." Once more, he compared his king-
dom to a grain of mustard seed, the most minute of all
seeds, but which grows into a tree whose branches give
shelter to the birds of the air. The parable of the leaven
contains, under another symbol, an idea as to the character

[Book XI.] 492

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

and progress of the Gospel, closely akin. That idea may
be expressed as follows : —

" This work which I am doing now may seem insignif-
icant ; it fills no space in the eyes of men ; its immediate
effect is small ; but there abides in it a living imperishable
power, the measure of which time will reveal in a degree
beyond all present anticipation. It will be a gradual ef-
fect ; gradual in the heart and mind of the individual, and
in society."

This germinal quality belonged, as Jesus declared, even
to his death. Shortly before his death, he said — (I quote
from the Revised Version): " Except a grain of wheat fall
into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it
die, it beareth much fruit." A harvest should spring out of
the sepulcher.

I wish now to bring forward some illustrations of the
seed-like, the seminal, character of the teaching and the
work of Jesus. In so broad a field, it is only glimpses that
we can hope to gain.

ONE striking fact respecting Christ is that he wrote
nothing. He left no writings to serve as an enduring
record of his doctrine. In this respect he contented
himself with scattering seed along his daily path. The
same thing is true, to be sure, of the noblest of the Gentile
teachers, Socrates. But Socrates did not aspire to be the
founder even of a school ; much less to be the author and
head of a spiritual kingdom, destined to spread over the

493

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

earth. Jesus, on the other hand, not only claimed for his
doctrine a divine sanction, but he set about the work of
founding a new community, into which was eventually to
be gathered the race of mankind. He came to bear wit-
ness to the truth ; the progress of his cause was to be
wholly dependent on the willing reception of the truth.
Every other means of advancing his cause, he abjured.
How sublime, and yet how strange, then, was the con-
fidence which he felt in the power of what he taught to
perpetuate itself. The oral utterance of it was enough.
There was no need that he should write it down ; no need
to lay it up in- manuscripts, like the Koran, to be preserved
and transmitted as a sacred treasure by appointed guard-
ians.

'TTjNOTHER fact pertinent to the subject is, that Jesus
k V left the separation of Christianity from the Jewish
religion, to be effected, not by formal decree, but by
the silent energy of the truth.

Few things are more remarkable in the history of reli-
gion than the broad distinction between Christianity and
Judaism, effected however, without any repudiation of the
parent on the part of the child. The religion of a nation
was converted into a religion for mankind. A religion
abounding in forms and ceremonials was exalted into a
religion of the spirit, in which rites are few and simple,
and quite subordinate.

This great transition did not take place in an instant.

494

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

The ferment which it occasioned extends through the apos-
tolic age to the end of the first century. The final result
was slowly reached : yet that result Christ had prepared
when he said that nothing which goeth into the mouth de-
fileth a man ; that he was the Lord of the Sabbath ; that
one stood there among them, who was greater than the
temple ; that God is a Spirit and calls for spiritual worship ;
that blessedness springs out of tempers of heart, meekness,
purity, and the like ; that nothing is requisite for salvation
but faith in him. When he said these things, he sowed
seed that could not fail in time to supplant the Old Testa-
ment system. This effect, be it observed, did not follow
from teaching alone, or chiefly. The death of Jesus was a
prime condition on which the result depended. The cross
superseded the sacrifice of the altar. The higher, heavenly
life into which he entered, as soon as its meaning was dis-
cerned, must needs give a spiritual and universal character
to religion. It broke down the wall of partition between Jew
and Gentile. Hence it was on the occasion when the Greeks
sought an interview with him, that he uttered the mem-
orable saying ■ " Except a grain of wheat fall into the
ground, it abideth alone." But the perception of what his
death involved, in this relation, was gradual. Upon the
apostles even, the light slowly dawned. By degrees they
recalled his words, and saw what they contained. How,
indeed, could so fundamental a change in religion, a change
intelligent and rational in its very nature, come to pass, in
any other way ? In our Bibles, the Old Testament and the
New are bound up together. They stand in friendly alli-

495

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ance. The New is not the antagonist of the Old ; yet the
points of difference and of contrast are not less striking than
the points of agreement. What power was stored up in the
simple teaching of Jesus — when his death had opened up
its meaning — that a transformation so marvelous should
grow out of them.

'TESUS framed no organization for his followers. He
J established no polity for the order and discipline of
the church. His allusions to the church as an exter-
nal body are very few in number. We might have ex-
pected that if he did not put his doctrines and precepts into
a permanent written form, he would at least guard against
disintegration on the one hand, and despotism on the other,
by defining somewhat in detail a form of church polity.
History bears ample witness to the force that lies in organ-
ization. Founders of the famous monastic orders in the
church of Rome, of fraternities like the order of the Jesuits,
and the authors of great religious movements like Metho-
dism within the Protestant lines, have well understood the
value of a compact discipline. It is felt that the highest
force is attained when a host can be combined to move as
one man. But in this matter also, Jesus manifested a like
serene confidence, — noble carelessness, one is tempted to
call it, — as in regard to the preservation and dissemination
of truth. He impressed upon his disciples the fraternal re-
lation in which they stood to one another, and the obligation
of mutual care and service and self-sacrifice growing out of
it. He taught them that they had but one Lord and Master,

496

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

and that they were all brethren. He told them that he
should be first among them who made himself the servant
of all. And he made this teaching impressive by his own
daily example. He made them feel that purity and kind-
ness should reign among them. In this way he sowed the
seed out of which forms of polity and rules of ecclesiastical
intercourse might naturally spring up. He left it for time
to unfold these germs, to develop types of polity suited to
the varying circumstances of his followers in different ages
and countries. He trusted to the force of the truth which
he planted in the minds of those who heard him and to the
impressions made on their hearts, to regulate the details of
government in the church and to beat down or undermine
whatever institutions might arise at war with the genius of
the Gospel.

The same remarkable forbearance he exercised in respect
to the seasons and rites of worship. In answer to a request
he gave a single, brief form of prayer. He composed no
liturgy. He said nothing about the buildings in which his
followers were to assemble for worship ; nothing about the
method, but much in regard to the spirit, of their devotions.
Out of the seed which he scattered have sprung up, either
by normal development, or as an excrescence or corruption,
all the fabrics of polity which have ever existed in the
church, from the most imposing hierarchy, to the simplest
forms of Christian association. Out of them have sprung
the litanies and the hymns, the lofty cathedrals, and the
meeting houses of the plainest structure, and the countless
instruments and expressions of Christian devotion.

497

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

eHIST did not reduce his teaching to a systematic or
scientific form. If he was not to write down the
truth which he had to communicate, it would be natural to
expect that he would formulate it, — that is, give it a pre-
cise, logical, coherent statement. It might naturally be
expected that he would lay down philosophical premises as
a basis for his theology, and provide concise and accurate
definitions for the purpose of keeping out error. The
Jewish rabbis whose copious teaching was orally transmit-
ted, afforded an example of definite prosaic instruction.
But from allthis kind of work Christ constantly abstained.
He taught in parables. He presented religious truth in the
moulds of the imagination. He drew illustrations from
objects and scenes familiar to the eye. He uttered pithy
sayings, often in a figurative style. He took no special
pains to qualify his doctrine in order to guard against mis-
interpretation. The truth that he taught was seed-truth.
From it have grown up the different systems of Christian
theology, the creeds and catechisms, which have appeared
from age to age in the church. Leaders in thought, like
Athanasius, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Edwards, have
labored to extract the precise content of his teaching, and
to arrange it in a systematic form. In human systems, as
in the company of the professed followers of Christ, tares
will mingle with the wheat, but all that is true and valu-
able, and abiding in Christian theology has been derived
from the germs of truth which Christ left in the memory of
his disciples.

498

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

HRIST did not undertake to determine the constitution
V^_ of civil government, to delineate the ideal state.
The subject is one that belongs in the domain of ethics. It
has a most important bearing on human welfare. Yet he
left it untouched. He recognized human government as
having a divine sanction. He inculcated, by precept and
example, the obligation to obey the magistrate unless his
decrees clash with the laws of God. But what particular
form government should take, whether it should be re-
public or monarchy or aristocracy, — the rule of one, of the
many, or of the few ; how the functions of government
should be divided and distributed ; how far the jurisdiction
of the state should extend, and where it should terminate :
on these and kindred questions, he was silent. The reli-
gious and ethical truth which he taught, by entering into
the minds and hearts of men, has leavened the political life
of nations. It has gone far towards determining the views
of men concerning the true design of government, and the
proper bounds of its authority. It has modified essentially
the character of legislation. It has made political action
more just and more humane. But all this effect is the prod-
uct, not of any direct enactment, but of the slow opera-
tion of the moral and religious truth which he deposited in
human souls.

CVEN with respect to the conduct of individuals and to

I social relations, the instruction given by Christ is

far from covering the ground of practical conduct.

He made no attempt to abolish by a decree many an un-

* 499

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

righteous custom and institution. He did not seek to define
the relation between servant and employer ; nor, at a time
when slavery was universal, did he issue an edict of eman-
cipation.. He refused to pronounce a verdict in the case of
one who complained that he had been defrauded by his
brother. " Who made me," he said, "a judge or a divider
over you ? " But if he was thus reserved as to giving ex-
plicit law for practical conduct, there was no want of defi-
niteness and earnestness in setting forth the principles by
which men are bound to be actuated in all the relations of
life. The tempers of feeling which man should cherish
towards his neighbor, be that neighbor a kinsman or a
foreigner or an enemy, are most impressively described.
The golden rule is given for the curbing of inordinate self-
love. An appeal is made to the example of God in his deal-
ings with sinful men as a motive to mercy and forbearance.
No effort is spared in commending the spirit of truth and
the spirit of love. The value of the soul ; the sacredness
that belongs to the humblest man, even to the little child ;
the guilt incurred by the practice of injustice and cruelty ;
the sin of selfishness, are insisted on with all urgency. The
spirit that shone forth from his life was in keeping with
his words. In this truth and in the life in which it was
embodied, are contained the seed of that advancement of
mankind in righteousness and benevolence which has taken
place since the beginning of the Christian era. One iniqui-
tous institution after another has been uprooted by the force
of Christian truth. Fraud and injustice have found an in-
cessant rebuke in the conscience of men who have been en-

500

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

lightened by Christian teaching. Kindness to the poor, to
the friendless and the ignorant, to enemies even, has re-
ceived a constant stimulus from words that fell from the
lips of Jesus and from the narratives of his conduct, and,
above all, from the pathetic record of his sufferings and
death. Charity, in every sense of the term, has acquired a
prevalence of which the world, before Christ came into it,
had no experience.

THE energy that belongs to the seed has enabled it to
burst through a crust of perverted doctrine and of
burdensome ceremony, which for ages had been gathering
over it. Religion in the middle ages was burdened with
notions and with rites some of which had been caught up
by the church in its passage through ancient heathenism,
but most of which were due to a revival of Old Testament
ideas and usages, a return to the point of view of the earlier
and obsolete dispensation. This was the prevailing char-
acter of mediaeval Christianity ; but underneath the rubbish
of mistaken doctrine and oppressive ceremonies was the
living seed of the true Gospel. The struggle of the truth to
burst through the integuments that were bound around it,
is discerned from time to time along the course of many
centuries. The Waldenses in Southern Europe, the Friends
of God in the Low Countries, Wycliffe, Huss, and Savona-
rola, are a few signs among many, which betray the pres-
ence of a power imprisoned, but striving, in a dim light, to
shake off its fetters. At length the Reformation came.

501

OUR E-LDER BROTHER.

The seed long hidden from view came forth in luxuriant
freshness and vigor.

I MIGHT speak also of the power of the Gospel, of the seed
sown by Christ — to subvert forms of civil polity of long
continuance and to create widespread commotion in the
world at large. Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword.
The ideas which the Gospel has introduced, stir the minds
of men with a new consciousness of personal rights, with
new aspirations, and a deep discontent. The result has
been civil revolutions involving a struggle for liberty and
equality. There may enter into these movements a large
alloy of unwholesome passion. Disorder, violence, even
anarchy, may be the immediate consequence. But in the
civil and social convulsions which have taken place during
the Christian ages, or which may now be witnessed or
threatened, there is plainly to be discerned the energetic
action of that truth which Christ sowed on the earth, by his
teaching, — but not by that alone but by his life, and yet
more by the great testimony to the worth and equality of
men, given by his death, for the world of mankind.

IF we inquire into the secret of the incalculable power
exerted by Christ, we shall find that, as regards his
teaching, it resides largely in this radical or fundamental
character of the truth which he uttered. It was all seed-
truth. It unveiled man to himself. It brought home to
him the ideal of his own nature. It revealed to the individ-

502

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

ual his relation to his fellow men — to the race of which he
is a member. It poured light upon human nature, human
obligation, and human destiny, by revealing God in his
perfection to the soul. It set before the eyes of all, the
learned and the ignorant, the high and the low, a worthy
goal to pursue and a goal that all might hope to attain.

This method, ill-adapted as it might seem to so great an
end as he had in view, proved itself to be most effectual.
He spent his strength largely in training a little band of
chosen disciples. He wrote no book. The book in which
he wrote was their hearts and minds. He stamped upon
their souls living, indelible impressions. He made each of
them a center of power for the propagation of the influences
which he had brought into the world. Hence, although at
his death the results of his teaching appeared small — a little
company of intimate followers, a few hundred simple
people who believed in him — nevertheless, in this infant
church there existed a power adequate to the ultimate
conquest of the world.

Yet these explanations do not suffice. It was not the
seed alone, or chiefly — if by seed we mean instruction
simply — to which the effect is due. That which made the
seed so fruitful was the Sower, — what he was, what he did,
what he suffered. Above all, his death, — not regarded
as the seal given to a martyr's testimony and teaching,
although it had this character also, but his death for the
reconciliation of the world to God, — his death as the ground
of forgiveness, and the spring of hope and peace for the
sinful heart, — this it was in the early ages of Christianity,

503

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

this it has been in all ages, which has lain back of his teach-
ing, as the condition of his quickening power. This is not
to subtract anything from the inherent worth and latent
efficacy of his words. It is simply to remind you again,
where the power of Christianity ultimately resides. It is
in the Redeemer himself, dying, and rising, a victor over
death ; thus abolishing death and bringing life and immor-
tality to light. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men with
me." When thus drawn, the treasures that are imbedded
in his teaching are discerned and appreciated, by the disci-
ple ; and the world opens its eyes to the precious contents
of that teaching.

NOT to go farther in enumerating the products of the
teaching and work of Christ, has not enough been said
to impress us with the conviction that in him there
dwelt the wisdom of God ? Take the most cursory glance
at the progress of his kingdom. The downfall of ancient
paganism with all the oracles, and altars and fanes ; the
conversion of the Roman Empire to the Christian faith ;
the conversion of the Germanic nations by whom the
dominion of Rome was overthrown ; the spread of the
Gospel in every continent and among the islands of the sea ;
Christianity, outliving the rise and fall of kingdoms, the
mutations of ecclesiastical polity and of theological sys-
tems ; the transforming influence of Christianity upon leg-
islation, literature, art, domestic and social intercourse ;
the building up of numberless hospitals and schools wher-

504

BY PROFESSOR G. P. FISHER.

ever Christianity has taken root — to attempt merely to
name the multiform effects of Christianity, even the effects
of a general character without descending to minor partic-
ulars, would be to present a confused and crowded picture ■.
the material is too vast to be compassed in any brief de-
lineation. Now go back to the origin of all this : go back
in imagination to some synagogue or hillside of Galilee,
and behold the youthful teacher, untrained in the lore of
any school, brought up in the house of a village carpenter
— the youthful teacher from whose discourse and way-side
conversation so vast an effect has proceeded ; go back to
that day when, after so short a ministry, detested and de-
spised by the ruling forces in society, forsaken by the people
who had drawn some comfort from his words, betrayed and
deserted by his followers, he hung upon the cross, the
Roman gibbet, between the two thieves : yet the labors and
teaching of the apostles, and the New Testament scriptures,
and the labors and teaching of all Christian people since,
with whatever has given a distinctive character to Chris-
tendom, may be traced back to Jesus the Christ, who as a
sower went forth to sow.

505

CHAPTER NINE.

The Master, trie Message

" I am the Truth."

By Augustus H. Strong, D.D., LL.D.
President of Rochester Theological Seminary.

■£.>■ V^: &g i<^»

HEIST is the truth, and the whole truth of God ;
and apart from him no complete or perfect truth
exists or is attainable. Truth is not an ab-
straction, but a person. God is truth, and
truth is God. Why do two and two make four ? Why are
all the radii of a circle equal to each other ? Because these
statements represent eternal facts in the nature of God.
Why is moral law unchangeable ? Why is vice condem-
nable ? Because God is holy, and these propositions are
reflections and revelations of his essential being. What
we call separate truths are only partial manifestations of
the God whose nature is truth. A given truth in mathe-
matics or in morals is incompletely seen, and just so far is
falsely seen, until it is seen as related to God, from whom
it sprang. The scattered lights of truths are comprehensi-
ble only when they are regarded as parts of one whole, and
as proceeding from one original and eternal source of truth
and righteousness.

[Book XI.] 506

BY DR. A. H. STRONG.

And here we see the relation of truth to Christ. As
God the Father is the source of truth, so Christ the Son is
the revealer of it. So no man hath seen God at any time :
the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him. Christ is the truth in manifestation,
even as God is the truth manifested. Separate statements
of truth are like the separate lights at the corners of the
streets ; they are but partial manifestations of Christ, the
all-encircling current of truth ; God himself is the dynamo,
the truth that otherwise would be hid, but which now
reveals itself through the omnipresent activity of Christ.
Christ, then, is the truth, and the only truth, because he is
the only revealer of God. In him the whole physical and
mental and spiritual universe " consists," or holds together,
even as he is the creative power through which it was fash-
ioned, and the ultimate end for which it was made.

So we cannot limit the teachings of Christ to Christen-
dom. He is " the light that lighteth every man," Jew or
Gentile, heathen or Christian. Even before Christ came in
the flesh, every ray of conscience or aspiration that ever
illuminated mankind proceeded from him, though "the
light shined in the midst of darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not." Special revelation brings us in con-
tact with the personal source of truth, and so opens our
eyes to see the living essence of truth. In Christ's holy life,
and in his sacrificial death, we see more clearly the mean-
ing of the revelation in nature which went before. So, too,
theology is not the only truth which Christ has been teach-
ing the world. All truth in physics, psychology, ethics,

507

OUR ELDER BROTHER. .

history, is a part of his revelation of God. When we say-
that separate truths cannot be comprehended except in their
relation to God, we virtually say that no single truth is
rightly understood except in its relation to Christ, who is
the only God with whom we have to do — God unveiled
and active in the universe. We have reached no real,
essential truth in science or religion, until we have found
"the truth as it is in Jesus." And since this truth is a per-
son, and is inseparable from the Teacher, we "take his
yoke" upon us, in order that we may "learn of him." In
the words of Robert Browning :

" I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee
All questions in the world and out of it,
And hath so far advanced thee to be wise."

IF all truth is a revelation of Christ, and there is no truth
without him, then it follows, with the certainty of mathe-
matical demonstration, that, other things being equal,
only Christians can be the best teachers of the world in
science, literature, philosophy, and art, as well as in religion.
Not the moral law alone, but the laws of nature as well,
can receive proper exposition only from those who see in
them the habits of God and the methods of Christ. The
natural and the spiritual are only parts of the one Kingdom
over which Christ reigns. We must set forth not only
Christ's relations to the church, but his relations to the uni-
verse ; must show that he "upholds all things by the word
of his power," and " fills all in all " — the universe in all its

508

BY DR. A. H. STRONG.

parts, with all that it contains of reality and truth and life.
It is the mission of Christianity then to educate the world —
to influence and control all the springs and channels of
human thought. And the church, the exponent of Chris-
tianity, must make all truth her subject of instruction,
simply in order that she may set forth the greatness and
glory of Christ, the Lord of the Universe, and the living
head of the church herself.

Christianity must take possession of all the culture of
the world, or she must utterly give up claim to be divine.
She must appropriate and disseminate all knowledge, or she
must confess that she is the child of ignorance and fanat-
icism. She must conquer all good learning or she must
herself be conquered. When the church fully recognizes
that in order to bear witness to Christ it must bear witness
to all truth, and that in order to bear witness to all truth it
must bear witness to Christ, all danger will cease, either of
an ignorant Christianity, or of an unspiritual education.
The church can be delivered from ignorance only by remem-
bering that Christ is the truth, and the church can be deliv-
ered from unspirituality only by remembering that the
truth is Christ.

The progress of science and philosophy has by many
Christian thinkers been regarded as diverting attention
from the affairs of the soul, even if it did not directly antag-
onize the Gospel. Sociology and reform in politics have
been sometimes frowned upon by Christian preachers be-
cause they were considered rivals of Christianity in the
thoughts of men. The error and harmf ulness of such esti-

509

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

mates is apparent : the dark and threatening form that has
loomed up in the distance, and has rilled our hearts with
fear as we have sailed over the stormy sea, may be only
the form of Christ coming to us over the waves to rescue
us. Christ and his truth are larger and more comprehen-
sive than we have imagined, and the movements of human
thought which agitate the world may be ways in which he
goes forth, conquering and to conquer.

THROUGH all our modern literature and life Christ is
working, gradually making all things new. The
manifold societies and organizations that are formed
within the church, are only means of drawing out unused
resources and of inaugurating new aggressions upon the
kingdom of evil. And the great efforts outside the church
to improve government, to right social wrongs, to diffuse
the spirit of kindness between employers and employed,
are many of them efforts in which Christ himself is the
moving power, even though those moved by him are uncon-
scious of his influence. All power in heaven and earth is
even now given to Christ, and in view of these great civil
and social movements, we are bound to lift up our hearts,
because the day of our redemption draweth nigh.

This larger view of Christ as comprehending all truth is
greatly needed in order to prevent us from becoming illib-
eral in our estimates of work done by Christians of other
names, and even by those who have no connection with
any Christian organization. All Christian denominations,

510

BY DR. A. H. STRONG.

just so far as they preach Christ, are helping the cause of
truth, and we rejoice in their work.

One of the conditions of progress is freedom. Discus-
sion elicits truth. Imperfect and even erroneous statement
is often the germ from which truth is sifted and evolved.
And though now and then we may hear that new and
strange doctrine has been taught, let us not on that account
alone condemn it — this is better than that Christian liberty
should be unduly curtailed. Such things right themselves
in time. Christ reigns, and he who is the truth will see to
it that the kings of science shall be made to serve him, and
all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms
of our God and of his Christ.

511

CHAPTER TEN.

Not Law t>mt Love.

By John S. Sewall, D.D.,
Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Bangor Theological Seminary.

HEN Pilate asked Jesus whether he was a king,
Jesus replied, " My kingdom is not of this
world." This was an idea strongly in contrast
with anything Pilate knew or dreamed. To him, there was
no kingdom but Rome, and no king but Caesar. To Jesus
kingdom and kingship meant something else than the
pageantry and glare of any earthly state. To Pilate a
kingdom was a theater for ambition, a scepter of power, a
victorious army, and obsequious provinces. The kingdom
Jesus meant was not of this world. Its crown was a
crown of thorns, its signs of royalty a reed, a purple robe,
and a cross. Its armies would shed their blood not on
battlefields, but at the stake, on the scaffold, in the
dungeon. Its subjects, though few then, would finally
become a great multitude which no man could number,
of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues.

It was to be a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly empire ;
and therefore not gathered by conquest, not enlarged by

[Book XL] 512

BY PROFESSOR SEW ALL.

force, not ruled by law. There were to be no liveried
legions, no central throne, no royal pomp. Whatever it
was to do in man or for man, whatever it was to be in his-
tory, was to be accomplished by invisible influences, by
the power of the Spirit working in the human mind. It
was a strange experiment ; a sort of supernatural Utopia ;
on earth, yet not earthly ; human, yet divine ; visible, yet
spiritual ; temporal, yet eternal.

THE citizens of this kingdom were not to be drawn from
any one nation, but gathered from all. Never in
any period of its history has it been confined to any one
country or to any one people. It has chosen its subjects
from every clime and upon every shore. Its first large
conquest was on the day of Pentecost ; and tlu>» it took
not the representatives of any one province alone, buu
" Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and
Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of
Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and prose-
lytes, Cretes and Arabians " : they were all there, and the
Spirit chose them for the first members of the new king-
dom, as if to show that God is no respecter of persons, but
in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteous-
ness is accepted with him. Thus the Church first gathered
in Jerusalem became a type of the future history of
Christ's kingdom.

What was the harmonizing power, which could thus

513

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

fuse men into one great spiritual republic ; men, too, so
diverse, in every possible condition of life and character ?
Whatever it might be, it was a new principle to the world.
It had never been witnessed before. Separate nations had
often been gathered under one scepter, nations that were
wholly unlike ; and, fettered together in the chains of one
common conqueror, they had sometimes become lost in the
great mass, had lost their identity and even their name.
But it was not a harmony. It was not a union. Those
discordant peoples were only put together and held together
by force. The great Roman Empire had driven under its
yoke such distant and different peoples as Greeks and
Gauls, Syrians and Spaniards, Germans and Egyptians.
But there was no common interest among them. There was
no common sympathy. Greek still remained Greek, and
Spaniard, Spaniard. They were not united, but manacled
together by an iron despotism : and when Rome grew
dissolute and decrepit, they dropped apart by their own
incongruity.

The world had often seen such artificial empires. But it
had never dreamed of a bond that should bind together
different nationalities, not with armies and fleets, not with
deputies and laws, not even with the mutual ties of com-
merce, and yet should bind them closely and intimately. In
this the kingdom of Christ would be a paradox among the
empires of this world. His subjects were to come from the
east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down
together in the kingdom of God. Members of many races,
and citizens of many states, they were to find their chief

514

BY PROFESSOR SEW ALL.

citizenship and their only real union here. This they have
done, from the first century until now ; and the kingdom has
been recruited with the picked men of all the continents and
every age. All over the world nations that are ignorant of
each others' language are holding converse in the common
speech of heaven, and are united by a tie which supersedes
the bounds of empire or party or sect. The Name which is
above every name is the countersign that admits them to
the great brotherhood of the redeemed. The kingdom is
one, pervaded by one spirit, animated by one purpose, and
loyal to one King.

IF we look for the aim of this unique dominion, we shall
find that it was not intended for political purposes, but
was wholly spiritual. This would have seemed strange
indeed to the Roman governor before whom Jesus was
arraigned. It was as if the prisoner had said, <CI do not
institute a grand pageant for elevating and deifying its
earthly rulers. I do not receive kingship from it even my-
self. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto."
Not honor but service was to be the rule of fellowship.
Jesus did not aim at the security of his disciples, but their
reformation. He gathered them around him not to guard
their lives, but to purify their hearts. And no project
could have been more unlike the maxims of other empires,
or more foreign to the spirit of human history. With an
intractable race, which had never yet been successfully
managed by all the forces of civil law and military power
combined, Jesus attempted to put into operation a spiritual

515

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

idea, which proposed to go farther and accomplish more
than the most extravagant ambition had ever dreamed. To
human thought, a hopeless chimera. Here is mankind
sunk in paganism, ignorant and sensual ; its governments
paralyzed by debauchery and conquest, wielding a power
over their helpless subjects that was always despotic, and
oftentimes ferocious, and yet unable to check the savage
drift of society or even direct its course. Into the field of
these disorders comes Jesus, with no sword or mace of
authority, no royal aspect, no scepter or retinue or kingly
parade. He proposes to reduce this chaos to order. He
marshals no armies for the purpose ; he uses none of the
grim weapons of human commanders ; he does not even
enact a code of laws. And yet, with no instrumentalities,
with no helpers, with not a soul on earth that understood
him, this solitary Man sets up his kingdom alone ; a king-
dom which shall gather its subjects from all other empires
under the sun, and shall lift them up out of the mire of
paganism and make them "new men in Christ Jesus," re-
generated and redeemed. This was, as it has well been
called by an American historian, " a colossal idea."

^f TOW was this kingdom to be ruled? One might well
11 have doubted beforehand whether a kingdom like
this could be gathered and molded into one single
harmony out of such a mob of diverse elements. But Jesus
did it. One might have refused to believe that such an em-
pire could be kept together without the machinery of gov-
ernment, without army or navy, without kings or courts.

516

BY PROFESSOR SEWALL.

But Jesus did that. One might ridicule as the greatest ab-
surdity of all, the proposal to rule such a vast heterogeneous
medley of men, not by law, but by love. Yet Jesus does that
also. The cord which binds his kingdom together is not law,
dictated by the Master and obeyed by the subject. It is love,
mutually given and mutually accepted. And we can easily
see how it is that he establishes such a subtle, invisible,
intangible, and yet adamantine link between his kingdom
and himself. He pours out upon us his love. He fills our
hearts with it ; floods our homes with it ; lightens the daily
burden with it ; sweetens the bitter cup with it ; makes the
commonest drudgery and the hardest lot luminous with it.
In return for his love he asks for ours. He himself inspires
it within us. And if upon earthly objects, imperfect as they
often are, the soul can fasten itself with such tenacity of
passion, how much more can it love when it learns to love
Christ, who stands so immeasurably beyond any ideal the
imagination can picture ! How grand, how holy, how
supreme love becomes, when it springs from a heart that
has been redeemed, and when its object is no less than the
radiant Jesus himself !

This is the secret of the kingdom, not law, but love ; per-
sonal love to and from a personal Saviour. This is the
power which is making conquest of the world. It is this
that unites all Christians, however unlike, into one great
fellowship of the saints. It is this that inspires to Christian
heroism and self-devotion. It is this that lifts the soul into
higher and higher reaches of spiritual life, and at last into
heaven.

517

BOOK TWELVE.

<m~J£"$&

The Voice and the Life.

Contributed Chapters.

-^4=®*^

John's Voice and. Christ's Life. Chapter i. Page 519.

By Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, S.T.D., L.H.D., LL.D.,

Bishop of Central New York.

Trie Transfiguration. Chapter 2. Page 532.

By Edward Abbott, D.D.,

Rector of St. James, Cambridge, and Editor Literary World, Boston.

Trie Door of Salvation. Chapter 3. Page 538.

By C. H. Parkhurst, D.D., New York City.

Our Lord. Jesus Christ. Chapter 4. Page 542.

By the Evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

Nly Personal Friend. Chapter 5. Page 545.

By the Evangelist H. M. Wharton, D.D., Baltimore.

Our Sympathizing Friend. Chapter g. Page 548.

By Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn.

Love as a Clock^Weight. Chapter 7. Page 552.

By A. H. Currier, D.D.,

Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Oberlin College.

Trie Name Above Every Name, chapters, page 559.
By F. A. Noble, D.D., Pastor Union Park Church, Chicago.

Christ Our Authority. Chapter 9. Page 566.

By Daniel Dorchester, Ph.D.,

Pastor of Christ M. E. Church, Pittsburg, and late Professor of English

Literature, Boston University.

Christ in the Old Testament. Chapter 10. Page 574.

By Alexander McKenzie, D.D.,

Pastor First Congregational Church, Cambridge.

CHAPTER ONE.

John's Voice and. Christ's Life

By Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, D.D., LL.D.,

Bishop of Central New York.

«Mf$^

H ATEVER our place or calling, whatever faculty
we were born with and whatever education
and experience have done for it, everywhere,
from first to last, the chief business of each of us is to grow
into the best that each can be. The hour when that is
found out, seen, and realized, is the grand hour in any life.
We call it commonly the formation of character. Character
never forms itself. It is assisted, influenced, quickened,
and fashioned, from beyond ourselves. In all natural con-
ditions the children of men are twofold, individual and
social. Declare as you will that you are your " own man,"
you belong to the race. The tie to other people, the depend-
ence upon them, is not an accidental or occasional or ex-
ternal thing, sometimes added on upon the original con-
stitution and sometimes not. It is inborn, essential, uni-
versal. A human life alone on a tropical island, with
ample nourishment at hand for the body, would shrink
into a savage abortion. We speak, inaccurately, of " self-
[Book xii.] 519

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

made men." Whatever the quality of the workmanship
or the product, there are no such men. Men differ
otherwise, — in the manner and the degree and the oppor-
tunity with which they choose, appropriate, and assimilate
those materials, or forces, that enter into character and
build it, as light and air and the juices of the earth unbidden
build the body or the tree. But in our intellectual and
spiritual growth alike this mutual influence is law. While
we make ourselves we make one another, and are made.
The responsibility is tremendous, and the judgment is sure.
s On this solemn and yet joyful plan of God, he has set the
unity and mutual relationship of his world-wide family.
With it and out of it comes the moral no less than the polit-
ical economy, the ethical half of the Gospel, the tender
blessedness of sympathy, the glory of sacrifice, and the
brotherhood of the church. By the individualistic theo-
ries of Hobbes and Rousseau, which a few frigid specula-
tors are now trying to revive, these gracious fruits of a
Christian civilization would be as impossible as a garden
on an iceberg. The Bible sees the social principle working,
proclaims it over and over, and warns us of the wretched
ruin wrought always and everywhere by its violation.
"Cain, where is thy brother ? Thy hand is red with thy
brother's blood." It was just as clear to St. Paul the Apos-
tle of Christ that "no man liveth to himself," or " dieth,"
as it was to one of the two great Greek minds of antiquity,
Aristotle, that man apart from his fellows is but half a
man, — that "one man is no man." From Eden to the
American Republic the three social types in which the com-

520

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

mon human stock throws itself out in history, in widening
circles, are the household, the state or commonwealth, and
the church : that is, the family, the nation, and the king-
dom of humanity, or the brotherhood of men under the
fatherhood of God. So we must learn by others' voices,
" Take heed how ye hear ; " -and we live by others' lives,
"members one of another."

When John says he is a Voice, he speaks under that
same law. He is contrasting himself most humbly with
the Son of Man and Son of God coming after him. " I am
not that Christ, not the bridegroom, not worthy to loose
the latchet of his sandals, not the Second Adam regenerat-
ing and restoring the lost life of mankind." This is the
more striking because of the real grandeur, purity, and
beauty of John's manhood. Begotten and born of the best
blood of his time, kindred human-wise to Jesus himself,
son of a consecrated, priestly father and — as reformers
have so often been — of a lofty-minded mother, having his
strength nurtured in the city of the Great King and hard-
ened in the wilderness, he comes out of that rough seminary
to prepare a way and a people for the new Dayspring from
on high, to lighten the nations. The Master gives him his
place : "What went ye out into the wilderness for to see ?
A prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater than John the baptizer." On
the river bank the Voice calls "repent," summons a false
and frivolous society to the mightier Reaper " whose fan is
in his hand," sifting out chaff from wheat and casting it

521

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

into the fire, bidding an unclean nation to come and be
washed in Jordan. That the men and women of luxury
and vanity may not misunderstand him, his leathern girdle
and camel's hair tunic symbolize his sincerity. Dried
locusts of the desert and honey got by climbing the rocks
witness that there is a life for man which is not lived "by
bread alone." For such a manliness the wrath and sword
of an adulterous queen and king have no terrors. "It is
not lawful for thee to have her," is the sentence of the
Voice. The alarm is in the palace, at the guilty feast. Ten
months in the castle dungeon at Machserus ; then the heads-
man ; and the Voice ceases. It is no wonder that for al-
most two thousand years the church has honored the
martyr who was before Stephen, and that twice every year
she reconfirms herself by his testimony "constantly to
speak the truth, boldly rebuke sin, or patiently suffer for
the truth's sake." She remembers and still hears the
"Voice."

But great and lasting as this power is, there is another
greater and more enduring. It is not in any voice, — any
sound that is heard, any language that is spoken, any words
that are written, however eloquent, or brilliant, or even
true the speech may be. Discourse may be one of its signs
or expressions, but only one. The book, treatise, lesson,
poem, biography, fiction, all that is in the literature of all
lands in all its departments, all that is stored in libraries,
all that flies from the press, whatever the tongue utters,
tongue of orator, prophet, preacher, pleader, exhorter,
singer, is but the manifold instrument of this other power ;

522

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

not its substance, or its secret, or its source. Not through
any of the senses, by sight or hearing, primarily or chiefly,
does it manifest its presence, or uncover its hidden beauty,
or demonstrate its reality. We know it by another faculty.
We believe in it on other evidence. We feel it by an invis-
ible but irresistible conviction. Our Lord declares it of
himself again and again that he has it, and he alone in its
fullness and perfection. Take three of these affirmations :
" I am come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly ; " " They will not come to me that
they might have life ; " " Because I live ye shall live also."

'7T.MONG late proposals, under new scientific terms, there
i\ is a study called Comparative Theology. It goes on
the idea that as there have been known in different
periods and peoples several system of religion, or worship,
ten of them, at least, with unequal mixtures of fact and
superstition, the truth respecting God and our relations
with him is to be found out by comparing these several re-
ligions with one another, striking a balance of credibility or
rational probability between them, and so accepting Chris-
tianity or Mahometanism or Brahminism or Buddhism, or
the Greek mythology, as the result might be. What stands
fatally in the way of that kind of splitting differences, in
order to reach a faith, is that one of these religions differs
from all the others radically, and cannot be classed among
them, in this, — that in the faith of Jesus Christ alone does
the Author or Founder or Revealer go on beyond the descrip-

523

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

tion of the true life, or the picture of it, or the motives to
It, or the appeal for it, to give, in his own person, the power
of living it : that is, from being a voice coming from without
to impart the life created within. Here the Word made flesh,
Emmanuel, living out his divinity, and inwardly received as
the Life-Giver, stands solitary, singular, and unapproach-
able. Almost everybody has some notion of what is meant
by what are called the "evidences of Christianity." So far
as a life of observation and reflection may warrant it, I ques-
tion whether there is any of these so decisive and so conclu-
sive as this marvelous supremacy of a spiritual fact, that
Christ in his divine humanity imparts his own life to his
followers by an unseen but ready communication, of which
the name is faith. Without this, a mere assent of the mind
to every article of the creed will fail to bring any soul into
a real and hearty discipleship to the Saviour, or stamp his
likeness upon it, or "save it with his salvation." Where
this comes, creed and sacrament and obedience will come
as freely as you trust and seek and save the friend you love.
Christ takes to himself, it is true, other titles than this
of the Giver of Life ; they are names that he shares with
other benefactors, with human reformers and earthly lead-
ers ; but, remember, they can never share this one with
him. Each of those names has its own significance, be-
cause each points to one or another of his gracious helps to
us, — ministers to our weak will, or sinking heart, or falter-
ing feet. So he is a Teacher, the Teacher of the world's
wisest teachers, but he is more than that. For what teach-
ing gives is knowledge, and knowledge, with its largest

524

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

gains, never comforts a mourner, or forgives a penitent, or
answers a prayer, or braces the conscience for temptation.
He too has a "voice" like John, but within it is what no
tongue of John could utter. "Never man spake like this
man." His speech itself is surcharged and vitalized with a
breath that is divine. " The very words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are life." Teaching educates
the understanding ; but there are unholy understandings in
the highest seats of learning, and education of itself sancti-
fies no saint. Again Christ, in things human, is our Pat-
tern ; but even there, the copying of an example never
creates the loftier styles of character— magnanimity, or aspi-
ration, or enthusiasm, or fervent devotion. Even in the finer
arts imitation is not inspiration. No "life" passes between
the pencil and the canvas, the chisel and the marble. Again,
Christ is the Shepherd, but more ; for while the pastor may
give his life for thn sheep, he cannot breathe it into them ;
sheep and shepherd are of two unlike orders. He is the
" Door." The door of the fold lets in and guards the flock.
But he who seeks and gathers the lost in all the mountains
and valleys of the earth regenerates them by his life into
sons and daughters of God. Once he is called the " Captain "
of the hosts he saves ; but no military commander was ever
to his army what the Conqueror on the cross is to every
sinner for whom his blood was shed. Or if that blood was
only a ransom paid for our safety centuries ago, the Church
would praise its Deliverer still, but the atonement would
not to be at-one-ment, and the Eucharist would not be a
thanksgiving that " He lives in us, and we in him."

525

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

These are outlines of Christian doctrine. They mark
plainly the impassable partition between man at his best
and the Man who is the Son of God, — not apart in affection,
or purpose, or sympathy, or the spiritual heart, but in their
nature, in power, in the two orders, that which comes from
above — the heavenly — and that which is of human capacity
in earthen vessels. It is the difference which many plausi-
ble dispositions and popular ambitions of these times try
impatiently to hide or forget : between John and Jesus, —
between him who was greatest of prophets and him whom
all the prophets foretold, and now adore ; between the
" Voice " speaking, and then silent, and the " Eternal Life "
given ; between the Saviour worshiped and us, the saved,
who so faintly worship and so feebly follow him.

OASS, then, from this contrast between two persons
'X standing together before our eyes on the heights, at
the birth of our Christian faith and the beginning
of the Church, down to the common level, the everyday
world, where we ourselves have to work our salvation out.
Every doctrine of Christ fails to fulfill its purpose, and is
like a foreign curiosity or a dream, unless it touches our
motives, changes our conduct, and makes us, — us who are
sons and daughters of God, — less selfish, less sordid and
frivolous and more like our Lord ; — less of the earth
and more of Heaven, less in danger of wreck and ruin and
eternal death, and more sure of eternal life. We are far
enough in moral courage from John ; and farther still in

526

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

spiritual power from the Son of Man, who by his living and
cross taketh away the sin of the world : and yet we shall
mistake completely the whole object of his coming into the
world, the meaning of his Gospel, and what the Kingdom
of Heaven comes into the world to do, unless we see that
we ourselves, just in the measure of our capacity, are to
share his life, and live it out like him. It was wonderful
in him ; it will be less wonderful in us, but not less actual
or less acceptable. He took it and brought it directly
among men, from his Father in Heaven ; so he said and
proved. We can take it as directly from him walking at
our side, a workman tempted as we are, hungering, pray-
ing, dying, as we do. This is why he says, ''Come unto
Me." Not come away from your everyday work into a
separate profession, or from society into solitude, or from
human interests into fine sentiments, but from your low life
to a higher one, from a shallow life to a deeper one, from
calculating and plotting for yourself to royal and free will
service to people least privileged and least agreeable. You
say you are weak ; you are : this is the energy, in heart
and will, to make you strong. " They that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength." You say you are of no
account ; this makes you kindred with the nobility of the
race, one in dignity and honor and inheritance with the
royal family whose title will outlast all the crests, escutch-
eons, blue-books and monuments. You say you have tried
and failed, which is very likely : did you try of your own
trying, or with a conscious trust and prayer toward him in
whom your life is hid,— and if so are you sure you really

527

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

failed ? Observe precisely what he wants us to believe
when he says : " Ye will not come to me that ye might
have life ; " "I am come that ye might have life, and have
it more abundantly ;" ■" The glory which thou gavest unto
me I have given unto them;" "As thou, Father, art in
me, and I in them, that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me." " To as many as received him, to them gave
he power," whoever they are, leading citizens, servants,
merchants and their clerks, scholars, housewives, young
women of no calling, children untaught in any school — to
them gives he power, " to become the sons " and daughters
"of God." Precisely that is St. Paul's grand summing up
where he turns from his inspired demonstration of the
central doctrine of the faith to the practical and per-
sonal appeal: "I beseech you therefore, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service."

The point is, that as we get so we give ; as we take in,
so we send out. It is the life more than the voice, Christ's
gift more than John's gift, that tells, and quickens, and
saves. Not so much what we say, still less what we have,
not even what we do, is the greatest thing before God.
Character is supreme, and nothing else is eternal. Those
other things, the havings, the sayings, the doings, how
perishable they are ! the richest havings, the brightest say-
ings, the most conspicuous doings. The men that have, and
the men that speak, and the men that act, have their sev-
eral places, honors, reputations, and memorials. There is

528

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

another proof of what is everlasting ; another criterion of
immortality.

But that is not all. There is a very blessed comfort here
for the majority, — those whom our Lord sought out first,
treated most tenderly, and among whom he dwelt, — those
who never have a great deal, or speak in commanding voices,
or accomplish memorable enterprises, not rich, not very
gifted, not thought to be very successful. The great possi-
bility for them all is the life they can live. The property,
the wealth, within their reach is character. The genius
they are gifted with, whether in huts or mansions, is the
genius of self-denying and therefore lovable goodness.
Their success is the success of those who humble themselves
and are exalted, who lift a cross to find it lifts them, of him
who died poor that the world through him might be rich.

IT has been answered : this is only mysticism ; you take
us away from the solid, tangible, hard-fact world into
a realm of mystery. When you tell us of the voice,
speaking, articulate sounds striking on the sense of hearing
and sending their message to the brain, that we understand ;
that burden of the prophet our science verifies. But this
life in us which was not our life, — an unseen gift from an
unseen Christ recreating us and making us over, strengthen-
ing us and comforting us, the image of the heavenly formed
by faith in a heart that was earthly before, — "He in us
and we in him," — that is mystery; you bring us not a
revelation but a riddle.

529

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Unbelief makes then its humiliating confession. Can it
be, and is it so acknowledged, that a materialistic age,
commercial competition, and the vanity of knowledge, have
drifted us so far from our noblest heritage that the heavens
have shut down, — suns and stars eclipsed by the lamps that
we have lighted ? Has the second witness in the threefold
order of our nature, the mind, silenced and smitten blind
the first, which is the spirit ? Born out of one mystery and
dying into another, knowing as you do that no observer or
discoverer pretends to have penetrated the secret of the
beginning of that "life which now is," in anything that
ever lived, — standing on the mystery of an unsupported
world, looking up into the million fold mysteries of the
night sky, stumbling at every step over five times more
mysteries than you have senses, — dare you make what you
understand to be the compass and limit of your possession
or your power ?

Tell yourself what makes you love your friend, or your
friend love you, why you forgive your child, how you admire
magnanimity or pity an orphan, or how aspiration lifts
you above the brute, or who persuaded you that the face of
the Virgin Mother is beautiful, or that honor is better than
shame. No, the saddest and meanest of all economies is to
be sparing and grudging of your faith. Be sure of more
than you can see, and thankful for more than you can com-
prehend. Welcome the spiritual vision, and let the inter-
pretation come when it will. Very likely it will come,
when you live up to it. Encourage the larger confidence.
Rejoice in the heights where no foot can climb, and glories

530

BY REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON.

that eye hath not seen. Hearken to the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand " ; but remember that the kingdom of heaven on
the earth came when he came who is more than the Way,
higher than the Truth, who is the Life. God grant you not
to be of that far-off company hiding their faces at the most
pathetic of all the sorrowful sentences that fell from the
lips of the Lord of love, — " Ye will not come to me that ye
might have life ! "

531

CHAPTER TWO.

The Tra.nsfigvira.tion,

By the Rev. Edward Abbott, D.D.,

Rector of St. James, Cambridge.

-lezyfytyot.-

fa I HE Transfiguration was certainly a remarkable occur-
4 I rence, and one full of deep spiritual meaning. It
?l I takes its place along with the Nativity, the Epiph-
any, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension as
one of the great landmarks in our Saviour's earthly life. It
is the subject of one of Raphael's greatest paintings, his last
work, now in the Vatican at Rome, one of the greatest
which the world contains, than which indeed scarcely any
other painting is more celebrated. And there is an un-
earthly aspect to it, a glory and a splendor not of this world,
which lend to it a surpassing interest.

The Transfiguration belongs, in a certain sort of way, out-
side of our Lord's common earthly experiences. It showed
him united with his heavenly glory, and surrounded with
heavenly associations ; as he was before his Incarnation, or
as he would be after. A supernatural and striking change
took place in his personal appearance, both in his face and
his clothing. The "form of God" began to shine through
the "form of the servant," as alight shines through the
thin wall of the porcelain vase. His face first broke out in

[Book XII.] 532

BY DR. EDWARD ABBOTT.

a gleam as with the intense radiance of the sun, all the
brighter against the darkness of the night which enveloped
him. And then his flowing garments caught the trans-
figuring light, and put on a whiteness and a luster in the
deep shadows of that lonely mountain top, which found no
fitter comparison than the glistening snow that clothed the
higher slopes and peaks above them. It was a truly
wonderful transformation, this change from the dull colors
of the earthly humanity to the intense effulgence of the
spiritual, the heavenly, and the divine. But all this was
only the beginning of the Transfiguration, the portal so to
speak of the Temple.

One of the incidents that followed was the passing of a
great cloud across the mountain, a cloud that brightened
and glowed with the heavenly radiance that streamed
from the Saviour's figure as it overshadowed his disciples ;
a cloud whose strange, unearthly brightness was like one
of those majestic piles of vapor which lift themselves far
up in the heaven on a summer's day, and glow in the sun-
light. Well might they be awed who entered into such a
cloud as this, and found themselves enveloped by its glit-
tering folds. And then out of that cloud there came a
voice: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased, hear ye him." It was the same voice which had
spoken, and the same utterance which had been made, at
the Saviour's baptism. And so it was, that on this moun-
tain top, on this Mount of Transfiguration, the Divine Wit-
ness once more bore testimony to the Divine Son, and
confirmed his mission and his ministry to men.

533

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

ONE of the incidents of the Transfiguration was the ap-
pearance of Moses and Elijah, carrying with it a cer-
tain lesson.

As a flash of lightning on a summer's night opens the
dark world to sight, and then leaves it to be enveloped in
oblivion again ; or as sometimes at sea the dense and
impenetrable fog suddenly lifts for a moment, and reveals
a ship under full sail or a towering iceberg, then quickly
settling down again to leave everything as blank and vague
as it was before ; so in the Transfiguration the coming of
Moses and Elijah opens to us a sudden and momentary
vision of human immortality. For an instant, the flash
bursts, the fog lifts, the curtain is drawn aside, and we see
two lives that have been known upon earth continuing
their existence in another world. What we call death is
not an end to life ; it is but a door to a life beyond, — a step
higher out of mortal and material conditions into condi-
tions immortal and immaterial.

And Moses and Elijah were seen to be Moses and Elijah
still. Immortality is not some vast, vague, all obliterating
term of being, into which departed souls pass to be ab-
sorbed as rivers lose themselves in the sea into which
they empty. Immortality is only the projection of personal
identity on into the other world ; the preservation of indi-
viduality, in all its varieties of intellect, toil, and aptitude.

What is the language of heaven ? What was the
language of Moses and Elias ? Their spiritual bodies had
minds within them which thought, and tongues and lips

534

BY DR. EDWARD ABBOTT.

that uttered words. What vividness, what realism, does
this circumstance give to the ideas we are to form of the
heavenly world !

What those heavenly beings talked of with the Saviour
were not heavenly things but earthly. They spoke of the
decease which the Saviour should accomplish at Jerusa-
lem. Their minds were full not of what was happening up
above, but of what was happening down below. We are to
think of the windows of heaven as standing open toward
the earth, and of the heavenly spirits as looking down with
intense interest on what is passing here. This is God's
world, and there is the liveliest interest in heaven as to all
the concerns of God's world. The great cloud of witnesses
by which we are surrounded bend over us, as we strive
against sin and bear up under disappointment and sorrow;
we are in close, loving, heart-beating contact with those
who have entered into the joy of their Lord. Let us not
feel deserted. Heaven's eyes are all wide open, and
heaven's ears are all unstopped, toward the earth, where
God's great work of redemption is going on, and where the
Saviour is steadily reaping the fruits of his sowing of sac-
rifice and suffering.

How real it all is — this meeting place of two worlds :
this point on the Mount of Transfiguration, where for an
instant we get a glimpse of the glory that shall be
revealed.

535

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

fyOR another lesson of the Transfiguration, I ask : Is not
1 every Christian life more or less a transfiguration, as
it comes into union and sympathy with the Divine Life ?
Christ is in us, who is the light of men, shedding abroad
light into the minds and hearts and lives and homes
around us, — shining like the figure of our blessed Lord
upon the mountain top in the darkness of the Galilean
night. " Among whom ye shine as lights in the world,"
said the Saviour. To have Christ formed in us, the hope
of glory, what is this but a transfiguration ?

What are all the holy days in the Saviour's life but types
and prophecies of our own advancement in the Christian
life ; a Nativity, or a new birth into the kingdom of God ;
an Epiphany, or the manifestation of our faith, by its
confession, to the world ; a Transfiguration, or the shining
forth of the True Light that is in us by the radiance of a
regenerated character and a renovated life ; a Good Friday,
or the crucifixion of self, and the daily death to sin ; an
Easter, or Resurrection through the Power of God to the
Life Eternal ; an Ascension, or the perpetual dwelling of
the soul in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ?

Think of that grand and lonely mountain in Galilee ; of
the Saviour and the chosen three, as they toiled up the
steep and ravined sides in the evening twilight to the
destined place of prayer, the place which was itself to be
transfigured with heavenly presences and glory : and of that
still and hallowed midnight hour, of the irradiated face and
glowing raiment of the Saviour, of the Heavenly Visitors

536

BY DR. EDWARD ABBOTT.

in their companion splendor, and of the Voice that spoke
out of the passing cloud — ''This is my beloved Son."
Think how all these features, in a spiritual sense, may be
repeated here with us, as we speak not of the decease
which our blessed Lord is to accomplish, but of that which
he has accomplished, and of the benefits wrought for us,
of our own spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. It is this
which lifts us to the mountain top of communion with him.
It is this which opens to us glimpses of heavenly things,
assurances of spiritual relation ; which prepares us to come
down from the mount, to take new part in the work of life
around us, in imitation of the self-sacrificing earthly life of
our Transfigured and Transfiguring Lord.

537

CHAPTER THREE.

The Door of Salvation.

By Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D.
Pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New York.

^S>-^£^

ERE we do not want to be dogmatic. By which all
that I mean is, that we do not want to practice
any nice phrasing on so inexpressible a
"^*— ^ matter or to be guilty of making the truth
of Atonement seem small by affecting to make a little doc-
trinal parcel of it, knotted with threads spun either from
our inner consciousness or from the catechism. I venture
to think that Calvary itself with the scene that transpired
upon it is a fairer, truer, and more moving presentation of
the doctrine of the Atonement than anything that anybody
inspired or uninspired ever said about it. Naturally enough,
and with rather a delicate instinct perhaps, we shrink from
the cold, calculating, commercial view of the Atonement,
wherein the sufferings of Christ are represented as thrown
into one arm of the scales to balance the weight of human
desert cast into the other. That is simple, and has there-
fore a natural congeniality for minds who want to say the
whole that is to be said, and think themselves able to, and

[Book XII.] 538

BY DR. C. H. PARKHURST.

who make no scruple of constructing their Christian system
quite as a carpenter would put up a building, by cutting up
his joints and girders into convenient lengths, and framing
them into each other in a way that would render it least
possible that they would fall out of plumb.

Criticising however that " steelyard " method of inter-
preting the Atonement, is an entirely different thing from
saying that the guilt of our sins, yours and mine, does not
need in some way to be compensated for. The theory that
if a man does wrong, all that is necessary in order to have
the case made good is that he should repent of the wrong,
is demoralizing, it would be fatal to the administration of
civil government, and is just as certain to blur, in men's
estimate, the dignity of the divine government. It cheapens
holiness, and keeps iniquity in good spirits. It is a thought
ingrained in the human mind, history through, that sin is
stamped with a cost mark. The doctrine of sacrifice for
sin has always kept pace with the keenness of the sense of
sin. That is to say, it is universally the fact that the more
conscious a man is of the wickedness of his evil doing, the
clearer is his presentiment that requital of one kind or
another must be made before the wrongdoer can be rein-
stated and the thing made good.

There is almost nothing that we need more to feel than
that sin is bad, and the more feeling we do have of that, the
clearer it becomes to us that sin needs to have some sort of
notice taken of it, and that pain is its natural sequence.
Now Atonement fits that fact ; I do not know how ; I
have no particular desire to understand how. The matter

539

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

is so great a one and the beginnings of it so deep and so far
away, that thought at its best has probably never done
more than graze its nearer edge. But there is the cross.
Sin needs to have some notice taken of it, and sin has there
had some notice taken of it. And by accepting as my
Saviour the Lamb of God, who on the cross was made a
sacrifice for sin, I become participant in the purposed bene-
fits of that sacrifice. It becomes mine by my penitently
making it mine.

The particular theory a man may have as to the way by
which Atonement becomes efficacious, has very little to do
with it. We are saved not by our theory of the Atonement,
but by the Atonement. Sometimes I have one theory of it,
and sometimes I have another theory of it, and more com-
monly I haven't any theory of it, but that does not inter-
rupt its efficacy, any more than having no theory in regard
to light prevents the daylight from coming in at my win-
dows. " God so loved the world that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." That obviates the neces-
sity for any more philosophy than you happen to feel like
employing upon it. The theologian who spends forty years
trying to construe the cross and interpret the Atonement, is
saved in no other, or wider, or profounder way than the
little child-Christian is, who is sorry for her sins and trusts
in the Christ who died for her.

May it be a part of the daily peace of us, his disciples
and believers, that our penitence for sin is so sincere, and
our acceptance of him as a friend, so hearty and entire,

540

BY DR. C. H. PARKHURST.

that we shall be kept from any kind of intellectual fret
about the problems of the matter ; that we shall walk with
a steadiness of step, begotten of confidence in his wisdom
to guide and power to sustain ; and that we shall be able to
go forward to the end and on into the world unseen, undis-
mayed by any ill foreboding, comforted by his rod and
staff, and hidden in the rock that has been cleft for us.

541

CHAPTER FOUR.

Our Lord Jestis Christ.

By the Evangelist D wight L. Moody.

[wj OD first came down to create, then to save. To
create, God had only to speak ; to redeem, he
had to suffer. He made man by his breath ; he
saved him by his blood."

The Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles
typify a completed redemption.

The cities of refuge are a type of Christ, and their names
are significant in that connection. Kadesh means holy,
and our refuge is in the holy Jesus ; Shechem, a shoulder,
and " the government is upon his shoulder " ; Hebron,
fellowship, and believers are called into the fellowship of
Christ Jesus our Lord ; Bezer, a fortification, for he is a
stronghold to all them that trust in him ; Rainoth, high, 01
exalted, " for him hath God exalted with his own right
hand " ; Golan, joy, or exaltation, for in him all the saints
are justified and shall glory. As the cities of refuge were
so situated as to be accessible from every part of the land,
so Christ is ever accessible to needy sinners.

How many men and women who were doomed to a life

[Book xn.] 54.3

BY MR. D. L. MOODY.

of poverty, monotony, and toil which almost amounts to
slavery, have been translated by experience of the love of
Christ out of darkness into wondrous light. How many
men and women, themselves apparently lost and dragging
others to ruin, have been arrested and converted and trans-
figured by " the Sun of righteousness with healing in his
wings."

It is remarkable that Christ declares the need of an en-
tire change of heart and nature to a man of the highest
honor, an eminent teacher, and a sincere inquirer ; while
he speaks the sublime truth, " God is a Spirit," to an igno-
rant and abandoned woman. This woman was not inter-
ested in the gospel, but she was interested in the water
business ; so Christ spoke to her about that.

Christ sends none empty away but those who are full of
themselves.

It will not take an anxious sinner long to meet an anx-
ious Saviour.

The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. If I am sheltered behind the blood, there is no con-
demnation for me. Wherever blood was upon the door
post in Goshen, death passed over ; and a little child be-
hind the blood was as safe as Moses. It is not " When I
see how holy you are," but " When I see the blood."

" In Christ's hand, — safety : |

At his feet, — learning :
At his side, — fellowship :
Between his shoulders, — power :
In his arms, — rest."

543

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Christ said, " You take my life, and I will take your
sins."

God loves us in our sins, saves us from our sins, and
washes us and clothes us with his own garment ; and then
we are able to have communion with him.

The people of God are marked (Lev. viii : 23) : The blood
upon the ear, that a man may hear the voice of God ; the
blood upon the hand, that a man may work for God.

Rutherford speaks of the sweet burdensomeness of
Christ's cross : it is such a burden as wings to a bird or
sails to a ship, — it carries one forward to the desired haven.

< < The light of heaven is the face of Jesus ;
The joy of heaven is the presence of Jesus ;
The melody of heaven is the name of Jesus ;
The harmony of heaven is the praise of Jesus ;
The theme of heaven is the work of Jesus ;
The employment of heaven is the service of Jesus.
The fullness of heaven is Jesus himself ;
The duration of heaven is the eternity of Jesus.'' *

* The Author has been desired by Mr. Moody to state that some
paragraphs of this Article have also appeared in his < « Notes from my
Bible," being quoted from writers unknown to him.

544

CHAPTER FIVE.

My Personal Friend.

By the Evangelist Rev. H. M. Wharton, D.D., Baltimore.

(5pf N twenty-three years' service — through storm and sun-
shine — Jesus has become to me a real Person, ever
present and always helpful, who never forsakes
me.
If in loneliness of heart I have cried for him, he has
been always within hearing and has hastened to my side.
He has taught me to look to him to lay out my work for
me, and to look to him for its accomplishment, — yielding
myself into his hands as a willing instrument. Brought to
the feet of Jesus, he has bidden me arise and go, — "I am
with you even unto the end." He has been so constantly
present by his Spirit, that what was once to me faith has
now passed into the realm of knowledge. With Jesus him-
self in my heart, his word on my lips, and his Spirit to
give power to the word, I have no fear of failure or
defeat. In my peculiar work, he has been my firm and
helpful Friend.

[book xii.] 545

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

In my own spiritual life I have found Jesus to be my Friend
in the hour of temptation. If, in the peace and ecstasy of
a changed heart and life, I have been sometimes overcon-
fident and careless, Jesus has never left me. In my humilia-
tion or spiritual disaster, I have seen my Lord following on,
and watching my return. If I have stood like Mary, look-
ing into the grave of my buried hopes, the Blessed One
was standing near, waiting for me to look to him. With
aching heart I have fallen on my knees before him, only
to see his smile and hear his words of forgiveness. As
my personal Friend, he has made it his business to
watch over me in my weakness, to see that I walk safely,
that I may stand at last victorious in the presence of the
Father.

Jesus, too, has been my personal Friend in business.
Often in strange and unlooked-for ways, he has come to my
help. Sometimes my morning mail has brought me the
needful help for the day. In nothing has Jesus been more
real to me than in taking away my cares and secular bur-
dens.

In all troubles, he has been to me my personal Friend :
when I have stood at the grave to see the casket disappear
with my heart's best treasure, or when I have suffered dis-
appointment through those whom I had thought to be my
friends, or when I have been misunderstood and wrongly
accused, and when I have mourned that my love and my
service are so poorly rendered to my Saviour ; in all my
sorrows I have found the support of the Everlasting Arms,
and that my griefs have been borne by my sympathizing,

546

BY DR. H. M. WHARTON.

omnipotent, loving Friend, who knows them all and takes
them upon himself.

It cannot be long before I shall see him face to face, and
tell him all my love, in return for his saving grace and
loving care.

547

CHAPTER SIX.

Our Sympathizing Friend.

By Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., Brooklyn.

HEBE is no place in which human sorrows are felt
as they are felt in the heart of Jesus. No one
knows human weakness as he knows it, or pities
as he can pity. Every suffering of body is known to our
sympathizing Lord, and every grief that makes the heart
ache. Human pity is often worn out from over-use. It
impatiently mutters, " Is that poor creature here again? I
have helped him a dozen times already." Or it says :
" That miserable fellow has taken to drink again, has he?
I am done trying to save him. He makes himself a brute ;
let him die like the brutes ! " Human pity often gives way
just when it should stand the heaviest strain.

Compassion dwells in the heart of Christ, as inexhausti-
ble as the sunlight. Our tears hang heavier on that heart
than the planets which his divine hand holds in their orbits ;
our sighs are more audible to his ear than the blasts of to-
day's wintry wind are to us. When we pray aright, we are
reaching up and taking hold on that compassion. The peni-
tent publican was laying hold of it when he cried out of
[book xii.] 548

BY DR. T. L. CUYLER.

that broken heart, " Be merciful to me, a sinner !" It is
his sublime pity that listens to our prayers and hears our
cries, and grants us what we want. Therefore let us come
boldly to the throne of grace and make our weakness, our
guiltiness, and our griefs to be their own pleas to him who
is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. One of the
most characteristic stories of Abraham Lincoln is that a
poor soldier's wife came to the White House, with her infant
in her arms, and asked admission to the President. She
came to beg him to grant a pardon to her husband, who was
under a military sentence. " Be sure and take the baby up
with you," said the Irish porter at the White House door.
At length the woman descended the stairway, weeping for
joy; and the Irishman exclaimed, "Ah, mum, it was the
baby that did it ! "

So doth our weakness appeal to the compassionate heart
of our Redeemer. There is no more exquisite description
of him than in this touch : " He shall feed his flock like a
shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm and
carry them in his bosom ; he shall gently lead those that
are with young." Such is our blessed Master's tender
mercy to the weak. It is tender because it never breaks
the bruised reed or quenches the feeblest spark. This
world of ours contains vastly more weak things than strong
things. Here and there towers a mountain pine or stalwart
oak ; but the frail reeds and rushes are innumerable. Even
in the Bible-gallery of characters how few. are strong ; yea,
none but had some weakness. Abraham's tongue is once
twisted to a falsehood ; the temper of Moses is not always

549

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

proof against provocation ; Elijah loses heart under the
juniper tree, and boastful Peter turns poltroon under the
taunts of a servant-maid. But evermore there waits and
watches over us that infinite compassion that knows what
is in poor man, and remembereth that we are but dust. For
our want-book he has an infinitely larger supply-book. The
same sympathizing Jesus who raised the Jewish maiden
from her bed of death, who rescued sinking Peter, and
pitied a hungry multitude, and wept with the sisters of
Bethany ere he raised a dead brother to life, is living yet.
His love, as old Rutherford said, "hath neither brim nor
bottom."

THIS compassionate Jesus ought to be living also in the
persons of those whom he makes his representatives.
"Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of
Christ." That law is love. This law of Christian sympa-
thy works in two ways : it either helps our fellow creatures
get rid of their burdens, or, if failing in that, it helps them
to carry the load more lightly. We that are strong ought
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our-
selves. Here, for example, is a strong, rich, well-manned
church : some of its members are dying of dignity, and
others are debilitated with indolence. Yonder is a feeble
church in numbers and in money. Let the man who counts
one in the strong church go where he can count ten in the
weak church. If the compassionate Christ should come
into some of our city churches, I suspect that he would

550

BY DR. T. L. CUYLER.

order more than one rich, well-fed member off his damask
cushion, and send him to work in some mission-school or
struggling young enterprise.

What does the Lord make some of his servants rich and
strong for except that they may lend a helping hand to the
weak ? I wish we knew the name of the Good Samaritan ;
we might clap the word " Saint " to his name as soon as to
Saint John or Saint Andrew. When he found the bleeding
Jew by the roadside, he did not say, "You fool ! why did
you come on this dangerous road alone and unarmed ?"
He picks up the wounded sufferer, and when he reaches the
khan he slips the shilling into the innkeeper's hands, and
whispers in his ear, " If thou spendest more on him, when
I come this way again I will repay thee."

The early church was saturated with the compassionate
spirit of their Lord. They fulfilled the "law of Christ."
The only genuine successors of those apostles are the load-
lifters. The second coming of Christ in these days must be
in the persons of those who bear the burdens of the weak,
condescend to men of low estate, and seek out and save the
lost. One great need of the times is for rich people and cul-
tured people to understand their duty and do it ; otherwise
wealth and culture is a snare and a curse. Jesus Christ
exerted his divine might and infinite love in bearing the
load of man's sins and sorrows. Consecration means copy-
ing the compassionate Christ. Power means debt — the debt
we owe to the poor, the feeble, the sick, the ignorant, the
fallen, the guilty, and the perishing. May God inspire us,
and help us to pay that debt !

551

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Love as a. Clock> Weight.

By A. H. Currier, D.D., Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Oberlin College.

^ £$,T2 ~

(^ HE old-fashioned eight day clocks, with swinging
pendulums, are kept in motion by a slowly falling
weight that requires to be wound up once a week ;
the weight is the motive power that keeps the hands of the
clock in regular movement. The motive power that secures
a regular movement in unselfish living, is the personal love
which every true disciple entertains toward the Master.
This love, inspired by Christ in the hearts of his disciples,
has been, throughout the ages, in all lands, the chief source
of impulse to generous and Christlike deeds.

HI* BEAUTIFUL illustration of the love inspired by Jesus
i\ is found in the story of Mary's anointing the head and
feet of her Master, at the hour when his feet were
hastening toward the cross. So costly was this offering of
ointment of spikenard, that its value was equal to the wages
of a laboring man in Bethany, for a whole year, or if given
to the poor it would have fed as great a multitude as were
satisfied through the miracle of the loaves and fishes. It
[book xii.] 552

BY PROFESSOR CURRIER.

was enough for more than a score of anointings, yet she
poured it out like water in princely liberality not only upon
the head of Jesus but his feet. If she had been a queen
with the revenues of a kingdom at command, she could
scarcely have given more magnificent and expensive proof
of her regard. To this she was impelled by her love ; eager,
transporting love, which would fain express itself regard-
less of cost, and under the impulse of which her sole con-
cern was, how to do him fitting honor to whom she owed so
much ; a love so grateful as not to permit her to reckon the
cost of the offering, or, if she thought of it, it was with a
feeling of joy that she could lavish it upon him who had
awakened her spiritual nature, and who had brought back
her brother to life.

And concerning this gift, which some thought extrava-
gant and wasteful, Jesus said that she had wrought a good
work, although it was what some might call a mere gift of
sentiment, a sentimental gift that expressed the love of the
giver and was well pleasing to the recipient. The fra-
grance of this ointment, diffused through the house and
regaling the senses of the guests and attendants, imparted
an additional and more exquisite delight to the occasion
and converted what might have been only a common meal
into a heavenly feast. All this did Mary of Bethany, not
knowing that Jesus was about to die, and that his body
would be laid in the sepulcher ere the perfume of her oint-
ment would be gone from his locks.

553

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

WHO then can believe that it was not equally pleasing
to the Master, when Sally Thomas of Cornish, in the
old Granite state, gave to the American Board between two
and three hundred dollars, which represented her entire
lifetime saving by domestic service at fifty cents a week ;
this being the first legacy this mission enterprise ever
received, and used by the Board in sending out their first
missionaries.

Nor is the name of Mary of Bethany, whose deed was to
be held in everlasting remembrance wherever the Gospel is
preached, a name more worthy of a memorial than that
of Sarah Hosmer of Lowell, who supported herself by her
needle, yet who, in her love for Christ and her desire to
spread the knowledge of him in the earth, devoted her
frugal earnings to educating six young men, who went
forth to preach the Gospel in the Orient.

Nor is her name more worthy of a memorial to be per-
petuated throughout all ages than that of either one of a
great number of noble, highly educated men and women,
who have consecrated all the promise of their lives to pro-
claim to far away nations the glory and the saving power
of the cross ; gladly forsaking the delights of congenial
society and high civilization, going forth

' < For that dear Name
Through every form of danger, death, and shame,"

in their uncalculating devotion to the Christ of their love,
— so fulfilling his unfinished mission of love to mankind.

554

BY PROFESSOR CURRIER.

r\0 we speak about gifts of sentiment ? Jesus Christ

1/ believed in them and valued them. The seamless

robe which he wore, may have been one of them.

He once declared that " man shall not live by bread alone."

Man in his highest nature is but a bundle of sentiments.
He has mental and spiritual cravings which it is as impor-
tant to minister unto as those of hunger, thirst, and cold.
He has a mind eager for knowledge, aesthetic tastes that
delight in beauty and refined enjoyments ; he needs schools,
books, music, works of art, and flowers. He craves love
and sympathy. He needs tokens of affection, the sweet
endearments and discipline of family life. He has spiritual
wants that thirst after the knowledge of God ; and his
happiness and destiny depend upon his knowing God and
his love. Man needs the Gospel, he needs the ministry of
Jesus Christ. Yet this blessing is a gift of sentiment.

Is it not as truly a good work, a proof of the disciples'
love to their Master, to send flowers to gladden with their
fragrance and beauty the hearts of the sick, as to send
provisions to the hungry, and coal to the needy in days of
frost ? It is like ointment poured out, if we send the Gos-
pel good news to the spiritually destitute : it is as truly an
act of love as if we sought to relieve famine. Whatever
makes man morally better, this it is good to give him : it
may be a church, it may be the opening of treasures of wis-
dom and knowledge that give him a higher ideal of charac-
ter and life, a wider outlook and nobler motives of conduct.

What is needed is to do deeds for the love of Christ,

555

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

that have a large personal element in them, that take time
and loving thought, the best thought one has to give, to
perform them. They imply friendship and solicitude for
individual welfare, carrying the assurance of that affection
which is the best thing this world can give, gladdening
human existence and filling it with sweetness and joy.

It is this personal service in spiritual ministration that
is always upspringing in the heart that overflows with love
to Christ, which is a perennial source of moral elevation to
men.

IT is one characteristic of the love which Jesus inspires in
the hearts of his disciples that it is an increasing, absorb-
ing love, which demands new ways for expressing relig-
ious devotion ; it is an ardor of love that is sometimes im-
patient with stereotyped forms. The glowing heart craves
and invents for itself new methods for honoring its divine
Lord. It is like the sudden breaking of a costly alabaster
box that shocks cold blooded disciples at first, but it per-
fumes the robes of the Church of God.

This is illustrated by the great religious movements and
new Christian enterprises of recent centuries. The rise
and spread of Methodism, the origin and growth of Sunday
schools, the modern missionary enterprises so vast and far
reaching, the great religious revivals, the efforts for the
better religious training of the young in social Christian
service, the princely gifts for new schemes, the education
of the children of the poor in kindergarten or industrial or

556

BY PROFESSOR CURRIER.

manual training, and the new charities which have sprung
into existence in such variety amid dense populations, —
all illustrate the inventive quickness of Christian love
to devise new methods of sacrifice and religious activity to
meet the exigencies of the times, and more effectively
accomplish the work our Lord has given us to do.

Christian love, too, has the courage of its convictions,
and an intrepid creative energy, so needful in encountering
adverse criticism and opposition. It is an epoch-making
force, that affords the best proof of the divine character
of our Christian faith and love, and its undecaying vigor
in the lapse of centuries.

IT is, too, one of the characteristics of the love that Christ
inspires in the bosoms of his disciples, that other hearts
catch the fire. The knowledge of their deeds of love is
spread abroad in the earth, and kept alive through long
stretches of time, to inspire men to unselfish deeds and
more generous sacrifices in honor of our Lord. They are
indissolubly associated with the everlasting Gospel, to
share its glory and triumph as it advances through the
world.

There is no motive so mighty as love to Christ, when it
is felt in all its force. Thence comes the heavenly fire by
which our sacrifices are kindled. If our lives are scant of
good, it is because our hearts are scant of love : but if we
surrender ourselves to the full sway of this divine love, it
will make us great hearted, ill-content with narrow schemes

557

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

for good, so that we shall constantly widen the range of
our effort, and venture upon what love prompts and Provi-
dence directs and favors. Nor is there any other meed of
earthly fame so great as the approval of Him who said,
" She hath wrought a good work, she hath done what she
could. "

558

CHAPTER EIGHT.

The Name Above Every Name.

By Rev. F. A. Noble, D.D., Chicago.
eft^

(*^ I HE pages of our human history are luminous with
4 1 names of the first magnitude. It is impossible to
^Ll— go back and follow down on the lines of religious
experience and life ; of poetry, and oratory and art ; of
statesmanship ; of war and conquest ; of ethics and philos-
ophy ; of science, and discovery, and inventions ; of great
moral reforms, and not encounter, all along the way and in
all these departments, names marvelously rich in sugges-
tions of devotion, and knowledge, and skill, and foresight,
and efficient energy. Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed,
Moses, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Paul, Julius Caesar, Augus-
tine, Charlemagne, Columbus, Raphael, Cromwell, Shake-
speare, Copernicus, Newton, Washington, Wilberforce,
Darwin, Livingstone, leap at once into mind ; and we bow
in reverence at thought of the exceptional abilities these
men possessed, or the magnificent ends they cherished, or
the measureless volumes of influence they set in motion.
But while these names are great, there is one other Name
[book xii.] 559

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

which is greater. While these names will shine on resplen-
dent from century to century in the firmament of the
world's large and heroic souls, there is one other Name
whose shining is with a light unborrowed, original, and
eternal. Before that Name all other names grow dim, as
the stars, though still burning on with their unquenched
fires, lose their brightness and retreat into obscurity when
the sun mounts the sky, and fills all the wide space with
the radiance of his beams. In moral purity, in spiritual in-
sight, in capacity to reveal men to themselves, and to dis-
close God to the world, in wisdom, in wealth of love, in
power to cleanse defiled hearts and advance souls in right-
eousness, and mould society after an ideal standard, Jesus of
Nazareth stands out by himself alone. These others were
human ; Jesus was also human — perfectly human ; but
he was likewise Divine.

IN a sense, and in a measure beyond all others, Jesus Christ
has brought God home to the apprehension of human
souls. To know Christ is to know God. " If ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also." He was Em-
manuel.

Inquirers put their questions to him and he answered
them. He told them of God, his nature, his character,
his thought, his wish. He told them of the human soul,
its value, its possibilities, its destiny. He told them of the
great moral law under which every human life is cast ;
what it requires, how it may be broken, and what will

560

BY DR. F. A. NOBLE.

come of it when men deliberately disregard duty and
smother conscience and go on just as though there were no
distinction of right and wrong and no such word as
"ought" in the universe. He told them of a Divine love
brooding over mankind, so rich, and full, and free that no-
body need be without experience of it. He spoke the
clearest, loftiest word which has ever had voicing among
men on all the verities of God and the soul. He brought
life and immortality to light.

< < The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin,
The light of the world is Jesus ;
Like sunshine at noonday His glory shone in,
The light of the world is Jesus."

Other men open the way to Jesus. They unfold his
truth. They guide erring, or stumbling, or reluctant feet
along the path which leads to the acknowledgment of his
claims and submission to his will. They catch up the loving
invitation, they repeat the great and precious promises, they
utter the warnings of Jesus, and they do this over and over
again. They try to give to souls some suitable understand-
ing of their need of him, and of his willingness, and more
than willingness, and ability to help them. This is their
merit, and it is a large merit. On this earth men do no
grander service than practically acquainting their fellows
with Jesus Christ. But when men have succeeded in open-
ing the way to Jesus, and getting other men up face to face
with him, so that they see him, and see themselves in his
light, and realize what he can do for them, and what they
need to have him do for them, their services are exhausted.

561

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

It is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who saves, or can save. It is
Jesus alone who has the power to save.

JESUS CHRIST has been the inspiration of the great
advances which have been made in the last eighteen
hundred years, whereby mankind has been blessed. He
has supplied the motive power under which individuals and
communities have registered moral conquests. We praise
the Apostles and the Fathers for what they accomplished.
Jesus was behind them ; they did their work in his name.
We see a certain good which was secured by Constantine.
Jesus was behind him ; and it was in the sign of the cross
that he marched to victory. We exalt Charlemagne, and
are never weary of acknowledging the indebtedness of the
nations of Western Europe to his organizing skill and re-
markable foresight. Jesus was behind him ; and he got his
ideas and ideals largely from the men who were in close
touch with their Divine Lord. We honor the Mediaeval
Church for the high service it rendered to mankind in sub-
duing rude foresters and soldiers to the faith, and promot-
ing learning and order through the long, dismal period
which has come to be known as the Dark Ages. Jesus was
behind the church and in the church, the Leader of the
leaders, the Light in their minds, and the Strength in their
hearts. We magnify the Reformation, and cherish with a
peculiar tenderness the memories of the stalwart souls who
precipitated this contest with ecclesiastical wrongs and cor-
ruptions, and fought the contest through to a successful

5G2

BY DR. F. A. NOBLE.

issue. Jesus was behind Martin Luther and all his brave
associates ; and the struggles and tears and sacrifices and
agonies of the mighty upheavals which marked the dawn
of a new era for liberty and learning and righteousness in
the world were only so many tokens of his presence in their
resolute hearts. We pay such tributes as are found in lofty
orations, and exquisite poems, and the cunning chisel of the
sculptor, and the painter's brush, and proud monuments to
the little band of Pilgrims, and the kindred bands of Puri-
tans whose opinions and actions gave such a new turn to
affairs in England, and scored so deep a story into the pages
of early American history, and imparted such an impulse
to American life. Jesus was behind these illustrious exiles,
and they came hither in his name, to do his will, and to
plant homes and churches and schools, and to live a life
which should be to his glory.

THE most positive, most forceful, most determinative
of the influences set in motion since the morning
of the resurrection of the crucified Christ is this which
has emanated from the Lord of light and life. Jesus
Christ has made and he has unmade governments. He has
set up kings and he has overturned kings. He has cut
channels for the free flowing of the currents of civiliza-
tion. He has forced man to think. He has moulded institu-
tions. He has entered into laws and customs. He has
given a new turn to art. It is in virtue of what Jesus has
done for human thought and human life, and human as-

S63

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

piration, and the elevation of humanity in intelligence and
virtue that we have our wonderful achievements in science.
Science often assumes to be infidel and atheistic, but
science, so long as it consents to be scientific, can never
throw off its obligations to Jesus Christ.

Were these specifications to be multiplied until they
should include all Christian projects, the amelioration of
laws, the planting and endowing of schools, the found-
ing of hospitals and asylums, the promotion of the cause
of temperance, improvement in prison discipline, the
change in attitude towards the poor and wretched and
wandering, it would be seen that present activity in these
beneficent directions is due to the same influences and mo-
tives which have wrought so helpfully in the past. The
Christian faith, in which the foundations of the great pub-
lic institutions of Europe and America were laid, is the
propulsive energy under which society is still moving for-
ward to the realization of the noblest ends and aims. The
source of all these upward movements is Jesus. The light,
the cheer, the blessings which go into the wretched hearts
and homes of perverse men and degraded men, go because
there is a Christ behind to press them forward. The in-
stitutions which are rising into place and power all up and
down the lands, and which have so much promise in them
for the future of the race, are but expressions of the life of
the ever-living and ever-active Son of God.

Is it not therefore — indeed can it be other than — a
blessed thing to acknowledge this Name which is above
every name, and to come into hearty loyalty to the love

564

BY DR. F. A. NOBLE.

and gracious power for which it stands ? Earth has many
great names, and many precious names, and we love to
cherish them. But the Name of Jesus is the one name
which sets forth the highest reaches of spiritual knowledge,
and gives assurance of deliverance from sin, and pledges
Divine help in realizing fitness for the heavenly life. In
Jesus we have God reconciling the world unto himself.

565

CHAPTER NINE.

Christ Our Authority.

By Daniel Dorchester, Ph.D.,

Pastor of Christ M. E. Church, Pittsburg, and late Professor of

English Literature, Boston University.

E are taught very early to respect authority. It
is, perhaps, the most important principle of
education and training. First our parents and
schoolmasters rule us ; then in the various departments of
commercial, political, and intellectual life, the wise man
rules us, or one that we think to be wise. It matters not
how democratic we may be, and how firmly we may believe
that all men know more than one man, that the voice of the
people rather than the voice of the king is the voice of
God, — the need for some authority is clearly recognized.
Every science, every branch of learning, every art, has its
master spirits, its laws and standards ; every stock ex-
change, every financial center, has its great names ; every
business house, every organization, has its presiding genius ;
every society its leaders, every home its head ; even the
fashion of dress, capricious as it is, rules with despotic
power.

[book xii.] 56G

BY PROFESSOR DORCHESTER.

Still greater is the need for authority in spiritual matters,
and there was never such a demand for it as in this skep-
tical, restless, critical age of ours. Everything is being
tested to-day. The more the race progresses, the more does
it insist upon truth and purity. It asks for a pure politics that
shall reflect without taint or bias the will of the people ; it
requires that history shall be written without any distortion
by passion or ignorance ; the old histories are restudied and
corrected in accordance with this modern requirement. All
forms of religious faith, too, are being subjected to a process
as searching and purifying as that employed in a blast
furnace. The fire of criticism is 'seeking to drive out of
religion whatever may be false ; we behold the sparks of
error continually flying about the white light of truth.
What am I to believe ? How much am I to believe ? Whom
am I to believe ? These are questions that in a greater or
less degree are agitating all minds. The soul that Jias
never doubted does not really believe ; but the soul that
continually doubts renders itself incapable of belief. We
all doubt more or less ; like the dragon beneath the foot of
St. George, doubt may be overcome, but we feel it writhe.
We, however, crave certainty ; we are ill at ease so long as
we doubt. The strongest of us, the clearest-headed, the
most believing, finds himself unable to solve many prob-
lems of life and destiny.

Carlyle, with all his seer-like vision and confident dog-
matism, in the agony of his soul cried out, " Oh, that I had
faith : oh, that I had it ! " Darwin, with all his splendid
researches into the mystery of life, spoke of himself as

567

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

hopelessly perplexed in face of the vague possibilities of
immortality ; and Huxley, tired with his mental struggles,
said, that if he could find anyone who could wind up his
nature like a clock, and guarantee that it should always act
rightly, he would gladly give up his soul to such a beautiful
custody and control. Now each of these men, to use Hux-
ley's fine phrase, "is a thought- worn chieftain of the
mind" ; yet each confesses his need of "one who speaks
with authority," upon the great problems of the human soul.
There is only one supreme authority for the soul that can
stand a moment's examination, and that is Jesus Christ.
Grant for the time being and throw aside in the Bible
everything that any respectable critic of to-day claims to
be spurious, yet there remains a nucleus of sayings and
doings in the Gospels including some of Christ's statements
about his own personality and power, that every scholar
admits. Out of these simple elements alone, — without any
aid from the rest of the Bible, without any aid from the
Church, or any theological systems, — could be constructed
a working theory of life and salvation that would satisfy
the deepest needs of the soul. Apart from this Gospel story,
there is no seat of authority in religion that is so universally
satisfactory.

•YESUS has been the light of the world for nineteen hun-
I dred years ; millions have been energized and trans-
formed by his life ; he has been water to the thirsty,
food to the hungry, truth to the seeker, a way to the lost,
and salvation to the sinful. Other men have charmed, but

568

BY PROFESSOR DORCHESTER.

this Jesus has changed human nature ; other men have
imparted messages from their minds, but Jesus has given
us himself, the quickening of his own Spirit, the glow of
his own spiritual vitality.

Why were Peter and John so transformed ? The enemies
of Jesus were so confounded, that they could Vouchsafe no
other explanation than that these disciples " had been with
Jesus." What was the secret of the marvelous change that
took place in Paul's life ? He tells us that it was the power
of his crucified Lord. From Paul to the present day there
has been an apostolic succession, an innumerable multi-
tude of witnesses that have told the same story. Look for
a moment at the mountain peaks of this glorious suc-
cession:—

Augustine in the fourth century ; Gregory in the sixth ;
Bernard of Clairvaux in the twelfth ; Francis of Assisi
in the thirteenth ; Luther in the sixteenth ; Wesley in the
eighteenth ; Frederic Denison Maurice in the nineteenth ;
all bathed in the light that is " the life of men."

Christianity is a unique effect in the history of the world
and demands a sufficient explanation. If Christ is not the
cause, who is ? By what process of reasoning, by what
method of criticism, can he ever be eliminated from the
moral consciousness of humanity ? There are persons in this
world in whom we instinctively have confidence. Children
naturally gravitate to some persons and shrink from others.
Children of larger growth do not lose altogether these in-
stincts ; there are those to whom we confide our dearest
secrets ; there are those who impress us with having at-

569

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

tained such a mastery in certain subjects, that we accept
their judgment without question and act upon it. Jesus was
such a person. How the multitudes hung upon his words,
until the priests poisoned them against him ! How they
poured out their griefs, confessed their sins, and laid bare the
secrets of their hearts ! " Never man spake like this man."

That was the universal testimony. That was the im-
pression made from the first. We have the same impression
from reading his words to-day. He does not argue or reason
as other teachers do. Though meek and lowly, he simply
asserts and declares what has been well termed "the
mother-speech of religion." Truth in its fullness seems to
be under his control and waiting for his voice to enter the
world ; the reverberation of that voice is heard to-day in
every enlightened conscience.

There are those, too, in this weary world who rest us,
who impart strength. In their presence the discords of the
world die away, the doubts and troubles of life do not
appear so formidable, our feverishness ceases, and we go
from them cheered and strengthened. Jesus was such a
person. He breathed around him the atmosphere of peace
and love. Nothing could disturb his serenity. Neither
abuse, nor betrayal, nor mockery, nor crucifixion, not all
combined could break into his peace. His was the con-
fidence that comes from perfect knowledge, the calm that
springs from self-conquest and a conscious union with God.

We feel, too, that the peace of Jesus is not the peace of
innocence, the calm of a lake that has never been stirred
by the storm ; it is not a mere endowment, but something

570

BY PROFESSOR DORCHESTER.

that he has won, and won, too, against the same foes that
plague our aspiring, troubled souls. He was tempted to be
what all the people wanted him to be, a worldly Messiah ;
but with all their hosannas sounding in his ears he turned
away from that little capering devil of vanity that so often
fascinates men and women, and chose the rugged glory
of the cross with its larger, purer aims and visions. He
drank the cup of bitterness that we taste ; he felt the
agony that struggling, aspiring humanity everywhere feels
over the great problems of life and destiny. He knew how
profoundly and passionately men in all ages had asked :
"Is there a God?" "Where is he?" " Is there a hereafter ?"
"Is the grave a final separation?" These questions are
the very Himalayas of human thought, they underlie all
human welfare, all civilization.

It was in the darkest hours of his life, when such ques-
tions were pressed upon him most earnestly, that Jesus
seems most sublimely sincere, most triumphant and im-
pressive. Let us look in upon that last Supper. The
soul of the Master is exceeding sorrowful. The shadow
of the Cross falls upon that little company as the Master
talks of his approaching death. The hearts of the dis-
ciples are very heavy ; they had been strangely stirred by
this Jesus ; their aspirations and hopes had been wonder-
fully kindled, but now the bright dream of their life is fad-
ing ; they feel that with his departure every certainty of
the present and future is to slip away. Judas has gone out
to betray him, and "it was dark." Jesus divines their
thoughts and fears, and says consolingly : " Let not your

571

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
" He recalls to their minds the common Jewish idea that
there was another world, that those in glory there occupied
different abodes, corresponding to their ranks." He con-
firms whatever of truth there was in this idea ; he assures
them, and through them every one in all the world, that
such a glowing expectation will be met by an eternal
reality. " If it were not so," he says, "I would have told
you." Jesus was too sublimely candid and truthful to
leave them chasing a pleasing delusion and at last be bitterly
disappointed. He had sorrowfully rebuked their earthly
expectations, would he not as strenuously have corrected
their heavenly aspirations, if they had not been true ?
Would Jesus have taught those disciples to love him, and
held out to them the hope of following him into his
Father's presence and receiving God's eternal favor, if
such an expectation were not to be realized ? His very in-
tegrity is involved in fulfilling such an expectation. The
same is true of those hopes and aspirations his words beget
in every reader. If whatever blossoms out of his words
is not to fruit here or hereafter, he would have told us.
The Christian consciousness feels, as James Smetham
says, "This must be true. It is impossible that either fool or
rascal could have invented the fourteenth chapter of John
or the twelfth of Romans. They are honest to the bone."

Jesus is the truth so far as it is essential to human sal-
vation, and so far as it can be expressed in terms of human

572

BY PROFESSOR DORCHESTER.

life. He is the one complete incarnation, the one perfect
image of the truth. Just as the truth of physical science
puts us into intelligent relation with the world of nature,
just as the truth of history puts us into intelligent relation
with the growth of civilization, so the truth as it is in Jesus
puts us into intelligent relation with God and the spiritual
universe. All opinions of God and of the spiritual world
outside of Jesus are guesswork. Christ is the language
by which God becomes known to us and by which we come
to him ; Christ is the vernacular that needs no translation,
being spoken freely in heaven and in earth. Whatever is
essential for us to know, he knows with absolute certainty.
He never hesitates, as all great and wise men do whose
knowledge is incomplete, but he speaks with the assurance
of one who stands under the full noon of truth and sees the
utmost bound of reality.

Thomas a Kempis in his "Imitation of Christ" has a
beautiful paraphrase of this passage, " I am the way, the
truth, and the life," that sets Christ's life in its proper re-
lation : "Without the way thou canst not go, without the
truth thou canst not know, without the life thou canst not
live. lam the Way which thou oughtest to. follow; the
Truth which thou oughtest to believe ; the Life which thou
oughtest to hope for. I am the Way unchangeable ; the
Truth infallible ; the Life everlasting. I am the Way alto-
gether straight, the Truth supreme, the true Life, the blessed
Life, the uncreated Life. If thou remain in my way, thou
shalt know the Truth, and the Truth shall make thee free,
and thou shalt lay hold of eternal life."

573

CHAPTER TEN.

Christ in the Old Testament.

Alexander McKenzie, D.D.,

Pastor First Congregational Church, Cambridge.

fN the Gospels we come frequently upon the expression,
that the word of the prophet was fulfilled in that
which was done. It had been announced because it
was to be done. We find our Lord himself stating
in earnest words : " Think not that I came to destroy the
law or the prophets : I came not to destroy, but to fulfill."
This gives to the ancient scripture an interest only less than
that with which we read those which followed, and make
with them one Book of many books. It is a saying with
authority that the Old Testament lies open in the new, and
the new hidden in the old. Indeed the facts of Christ's life,
except in regard to names and dates, are given almost as
clearly in the old as in the new, though we do not under-
stand the old until we read it in the light of the new.

Our Lord threw back his life into the purpose of God

made known to men of the former time, while he sought to

have men believe him because they believed those who

had written of him. He said to the Jews, "Ye search the

[book xii.] 574

BY DR. ALEXANDER M'KENZIE.

scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal
life : and these are they which bear witness of me. . . .
If ye believe Moses, ye would believe me ; for he wrote of
me."

It is a strange comment which the wise Selden makes
upon this passage: " Scrutamini Scripturas. These two
words have undone the world. Because Christ spake it to
his disciples, therefore we must all, men, women, and
children, read and interpret the scripture." It is this
which all are to do, that we may know the truths of the
divine life.

It was an impressive scene when Jesus himself opened
the scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth. There he
had been brought up and thence he had gone out a year
before to begin his ministry as the Messiah. He had been
at the wedding at Cana, where he befriended the bride
when the wine of her wedding feast had failed, and then
had gone to Jerusalem, where he drove the traders from his
Father's house, and taught the Jewish ruler the way into
the kingdom of heaven. He returned through Samaria,
where, at the well of his ancestor, he talked with the wo-
man who had come to draw water, and proffered the water
of life, and declared himself the Messiah. There it was
that he said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent
me, and to accomplish his work." Then he taught in Gali-
lee, preaching in the synagogues, and calling the people to
repentance, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand,
"being glorified of all." He came again to Cana, where he
healed a nobleman's son who was sick at Capernaum.

575

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

Then he returned to his old home. His fame had gone be-
fore him and the villagers had talked among themselves
of the things which he had done. It is always with a pecul-
iar interest that one who has been successful abroad comes
back where he has been known from his youth up. When
on the Sabbath day Jesus went into the village church as
he had done all his life, men looked upon him as they had
never done before. He was a man now and he could bear
his part in the Sabbath service. He " stood up to read."
They gave him the roll of the prophet Isaiah, and he found
the place where it was written : —

" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the

poor :
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

These words were familiar, but they had never been
read as he read them. We may believe that his voice,
with an unwonted emphasis, rested upon the word which
denoted himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me."
When he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant,
all eyes were fastened on him. He said what men had
never heard before : " To-day hath this scripture been ful-
filled in your ears." They knew him. He had grown up
among them, quiet, respectful, reverent. As he had grown
in stature, so he had advanced in favor with them. They

576

BY DR. ALEXANDER M KENZIE.

were not startled, therefore, as they heard him. But they
listened eagerly to him, for he had always told the truth ;
yet "they wondered at the words of grace which proceeded
out of his mouth." They said, " Is not this Joseph's son ? "
What they did when his words had offended them does not
concern us now.

But this concerns us, that Jesus read his biography out
of the roll of the prophet, which had been written seven
hundred years before. The words which he read he ful-
filled. This is the Gospel, with its message to the poor, its
freedom for captives, its light for the blind, its liberty for
the bruised, its good news for all men. How he was to do
that for which the Spirit rested upon him, and at what cost,
even to the laying down of his life that he might take it
again, this, too, is the Gospel. It is of especial moment that
he found this record of his life in the sacred scriptures of
his people. This raises his life from the plane of other
lives. We should expect it to stand alone, even as it does.
Once to grasp this thought is to touch the heart of the Gos-
pel.

At other times Jesus referred men to the old scriptures
for the understanding of his life. When after his resurrec-
tion he walked with two men on their way to Emmaus,
and they were sad at heart because they had been dis-
appointed in their hope that he was to redeem Israel, he
began from Moses and all the prophets and "interpreted
to them in all the scriptures the things concerning him-
self."

On the evening of that first day, when he came to his

577

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

disciples, and they were troubled because of all which had
bafned their hope, " He said unto them, these are my words
which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, how that
all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the
law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning
me. Then opened he their mind that they might under-
stand the scriptures."

If we but knew what he said ! An inestimable treasure
it would have been, — his own explanation of his life, as it
lay within the purpose of God, and had been placed on
record by men appointed to the service. Yet it is not diffi-
cult for us, with the old scriptures in our hands, with our
Lord's use of them at other times, with the explanation
given by the writers of the New Testament, and the con-
nection which they assert between the old and the new, —
it is not difficult to ascertain, with reasonable assurance,
the nature of the things which he said. He made three
divisions of the records : Moses, and the prophets, and the
psalms. We will take them in their order. The connection
of Moses with our Lord was intimate. We find them as-
sociated in the work of redemption. " The law was given
through Moses ; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
" The law hath been our tutor to bring us unto Christ."
When our Lord was transfigured, Moses was present, with
Elijah, and they "spake of his decease, which he was
about to accomplish at Jerusalem."

In the work of the great lawgiver there was the antici-
pation of the Redeemer's work. "As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be

578

BY DR. ALEXANDER M'KENZIE.

lifted up ; that whosoever believeth may in him have
eternal life." Again Jesus connected Moses with himself
when he said : " It was not Moses that gave you the bread
out of heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread out
of heaven." Again he represents Abraham as replying to
the rich man who asked that one might be sent to warn his
five brethren before they should die : " They have Moses
and the prophets ; let them hear them. ... If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per-
suaded, if one rise from the dead." Jesus taught more
clearly than any one the resurrection of the dead ; yet he
said, " that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the
place concerning the bush."

Philip saw the words of Moses fulfilled when he told
Nathanael : "We have found him of whom Moses in the
law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth."
Peter knew this when he justified himself in preaching
Christ; saying, "Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the
Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like
unto me ; to him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever
he shall speak unto you."

It is evident that Jesus would readily point out the fore-
telling of his own life. When we reflect upon the position
which Moses held in relation to the old covenant, the rela-
tion of Jesus in the new covenant is most impressive. To
the Jew who reverenced Moses this was especially true.

We can be more definite than this. We have in the
Epistle to the Hebrews an explicit setting forth of the rela-
tion of the Christ to the religious system which was in-

579 ■

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

augurated through Moses, and with which the Hebrews
were familiar from a lifelong usage. The whole Epistle
should be read if we would feel its meaning. Read the in-
troduction, to see how the divine purpose advances from
the prophets of the old time to the Son who is the effulgence
of the divine glory ; who "made purification of sins," and
" sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." In
the spirit of this beginning bring forward the old into the
new ; look upon the tabernacle and temple, the priesthood,
the sacrifice, and see that Jesus is the one High Priest, who
has " through his own blood, entered in once for all into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption," so that in
heaven he is the mediator of a new covenant, who " put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Christ, " having
been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a
second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him,
unto salvation."

The Christian who wrote this Epistle is not known
by name. But his words have illumined with a wondrous
light the scriptures which Jesus knew and would have men
search if they would know Him. Such things as are
here written we may believe that Jesus said when, on the
road to Emmaus and in the room where his disciples were
gathered, he began with Moses and interpreted the things
concerning himself.

He spoke also of the prophets. He had done this before,
in the synagogue at Nazareth. Their words were continu-
ally in his mind, even from his boyhood. Frequently he
referred to them in explanation of his life. One of the

580

BY DR. ALEXANDER M'KENZIE.

most striking representations which he gave of himself
was as a shepherd guarding his flock, leading them out,
seeking even one sheep which was lost, giving his life for
the sheep, intrusting them to the care of a friend who loved
him, bringing them at last into one flock under one shep-
herd. But this was the imagery of the prophets. Isaiah
said of the Messiah, " He shall feed his flock like a shep-
herd, he shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them
in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that give suck."
Ezekiel is more explicit : ''For thus saith the Lord God :
Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and
will seek them out. . . I myself will feed my sheep, and
I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will
seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which
was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken,
and will strengthen that which was sick." It was in doing
this that the good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep. Per-
haps he talked of these things as they drew near to Emmaus.
We may be almost certain that he reminded his despondent
friends of that which Isaiah had written. Upon one pas-
sage of the prophet we have the comment of Philip the
Evangelist. He found the treasurer of the Candace of
Ethiopia reading as he rode homeward, and unable to un-
derstand the words. He was reading from Isaiah, and in
this place : —

" He was led as a sheep to the slaughter :
And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb,
So he openeth not his mouth :
581

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away :
His generation who shall declare ?
For his life is taken from the earth."

He called Philip into the chariot, and as they rode he
said : " I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this ?
Of himself, or of some other ? And Philip opened his
mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto
him Jesus."

With this distinct portrayal of the Messiah's life in their
minds, what was more simple than for his disciples to see
that it behooved the Christ to suffer as he had done ? That
which had removed their hope and weakened their faith,
should be, rather, the confirmation of their faith, and the
enlargement of their hope. He told them, also, we must
believe, that the prophet who had thus presented the suffer-
ing Messiah had announced the glory which should follow.
He was to die, as Jesus had done, — " despised and rejected
of men," bearing their griefs and carrying their sorrows,
making his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death. But he should bring to his people renown and bless-
ing when he came to them again. "Arise, shine ; for thy
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee. . . . The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting
light, and thy God thy glory. I the Lord will hasten it in
his time." More than ever was it true, that which Jesus
had said, "I am the Light of the world." He had come
through the darkness, and life and immortality were
brought to light. When he said this to the friends of the

582

BY DR. ALEXANDER M KENZIE.

sad hearts, and they saw him, with opened eyes and freed
spirits, how quickly they went back to Jerusalem with the
good news to find the eleven disciples risen from despair
and saying, " The Lord is risen indeed." The fact was
evident. To see that in this was the fulfillment of their own
scriptures gave clearness and assurance to their thought.
His death was not his defeat. It was the way to his vic-
tory. He must pass through the gates of death if he would
give life and light to the world. St. John writes that Isaiah
" saw his glory ; and he spake of him." If he did not
expressly mention the resurrection, he said that which in-
cluded it, and made it needful.

Jesus spoke also of the things which were written in the
Psalms. Did he refer to the twenty-third Psalm, "The
Lord is my shepherd " ? Did he recall the fifty-first, that
they might see in his dying and rising the answer to its
Miserere ?

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving
kindness.
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot
out my transgressions."

It is probable that he brought to their minds the twenty-
second Psalm, for it is the psalm of the crucifixion. What-
ever other application it may have had, whatever thought
was in the heart of the writer, — it is called a psalm of
David, — it describes wonderfully the hours upon the cross.
The first verse was the cry out of the darkness : " My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! "

583

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

We seem almost to be reading the words of the disciple,
and the centurion, when Jesus was seen bruised and
athirst.

"lam poured out like water, and all my bones are

out of joint : . . .
My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my

tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; and thou hast brought

me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me : the assembly of evil-
doers have inclosed me ; they pierced my hands and

my feet.
I may tell all my bones ; They look and stare upon

me.
They part my garments among them, and upon my

vesture do they cast lots."

Even in this experience of death was the certainty of
the triumph which would follow : —

" I will declare thy name unto my brethren :
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee."

On the day of Pentecost Saint Peter quoted at length
from the sixteenth Psalm, and in the synagogue at Antioch
in Pisidia, Saint Paul repeated one verse. Both asserted
that the Psalm had its fulfillment in Jesus and his resurrec-
tion.

" Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced.
Moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope :

584

BY DR. ALEXANDER M'KENZIE.

Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither
wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption.

Thou madest known unto me the ways of life : thou
shalt make me full of gladness with thy counte-
nance."

With such words as these Jesus instructed and encour-
aged his friends when they were cast down by reason of
his death, and their hope had been entombed with him.
He showed them that Moses and the prophets and the
psalmists had foretold this which had come to pass, and
had given the meaning of it. He led them to see that his
death should have been expected by them, as it had been
always in his own mind. He showed them that it be-
hooved him in this way to enter into his glory. He pre-
sented himself to them as he who had been dead and was
alive again.

As we come forward with our Lord to his cross, and be-
hold him offering himself as the Lamb of God, as he was
named at the beginning ; as we see him when he has risen
from the dead and is once more with his friends, that he
may illumine their minds and send them forth into the
world with the good news which he had brought from hea-
ven,— the good news which he was, living, dyiug, risen :
our minds run back through the centuries, where we find
the promise of his coming, and the prefiguring of his life ;
in the visions of the seers, in the songs of the psalmists, in
the ministries of grace around the mercy seat. We discern
the thought of God, the purpose which was before the world

585

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

was made, seen dimly at the first, becoming more and more
plain in the process of the years, till at length the star of
the primal promise stands over the open sepulcher of the
Son of God. The intent of God is clear and its movement
in the course of history, in the career of the people whom
he chose as the guardians of his name and his thought.
The Messianic spirit breathes in the words of prophets
and psalmists, till it is incarnate in him whose works
many prophets and righteous men had desired to see ; who
said in the consciousness of his own being, "Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it, and was
glad."

"The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou art not yet
fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? "

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am."

Our minds run forward also where we see "the throne
of God and of the Lamb," — "I saw in the midst of the
throne ... a Lamb standing, as though it had been
slain." There is the " great multitude which no man could
number, out of every nation, and of all tribes and peoples
and tongues, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands ;
and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our
God which sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb." The
psalms have entered into heaven. " And they sing the song
of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."

To Saint John, in his vision from Patmos, the angel of
the Apocalypse, before whom he had fallen, turned his

586

BY DR. ALEXANDER M KENZIE.

homage to the throne, saying, "I am a fellow servant with
thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them
which keep the words of this book : worship God." The
witness is on high, — Moses and the prophets and the
psalms. From everlasting to everlasting is the Love of
God, and the Love of God is the Redeemer of the world.

" The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The Holy Church throughout all the world doth ac-
knowledge thee
The Father of an infinite Majesty ;
Thine adorable, true, and only Son.

Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ,
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father."

587

SUPPLEMENTARY BOOK.

-<Sfr-#~

Selected Chapters.

^^m^x^

His Characteristics as a Preacher. Chapteri. Page
By Prof. Wm. C. Wilkinson, University of Chicago.
Condensed from the " Biblical World " with the writer's consent.

In Remembrance of IVte. Chapter 2. Page 594.

By Rt. Rev. J. C. Kyle, D.D., Lord Bishop of Liverpool.
■ An excerpt from an Address delivered to the Clergy.

Two Sayings from the Cross. Chapter 3. page 597.

By Rev. Alexander McLaren, D.D., Fallowfield, Manchester, England.

Compiled from an Article originally published in the Sunday School Times by
favor of the publishers.

God's IvOve in Scripture. Chapter 4. Page 601.

By Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D., Pres. Princeton University.

Reported from an Address and verified by President Patton, who has assented to its
use in this volume.

The Redemption of Humanity. Chapter 5. Page 604.
By Rt. Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone.

Compiled from Mr. Gladstone's writings : showing his attitude towards Christ and
Christianity.

CHAPTER ONE.

His Characteristics as a Preacher,

By Professor William C. Wilkinson, A.M.,

University of Chicago.

E might say that Jesus spoke like a seer, like a
prophet, like an oracle. But that would very
imperfectly, indeed it would somewhat mis-
leadingly, express the fact. He is nowhere in the records
that we have of him, exhibited to us as going through any
of those intellectual processes by which men in general
arrive at their results in conviction, true or false. He was
not a seeker of truth. So far as appears he did not reason, in-
stitute inductions, draw inferences. He saw without effort.
He did not explore and discover. He saw and announced.
He spoke indeed from God, but it was in the character of a
person at the same time consciously one with God.

There is in his utterances, no doubt, no faltering, no
wavering, no slightest possibility admitted, however re-
motely, of the speaker's being mistaken. Christ's charac-
teristic formula of preface, "Verily, verily," was but a
kind of spontaneous, inevitable notice and sign given to

[Supplementary Book.] 5g9

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

hearers, of the ultimate, the absolute, character of certainty
inhering in that which was to follow from his lips.

Jesus held toward the Old Testament Scriptures a double
attitude. On the one side, he treated them with the utmost
reverence. He said, or implied, that their sentence on any
point which they touched, was final and irreversible. It is,
however, to be noted that this accent of reverence on
Christ's part for the Old Testament Scriptures, very singu-
larly involves also a tacit assumption on his part of author-
ity belonging to himself, coequal with their own, nay, even
transcending it.

One noteworthy feature in Christ's preaching is this, that
the ultimate subject and object of his preaching was him-
self : — " I say unto you ; " " These sayings of mine ; " " If
I then, your Lord and Master ; " " One is your Master, even
Christ ;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest ;" "Ye will not come unto
me that ye might have life;" "I am the way, and the
truth, and the life;" "No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me." The Christ or Messiah of the Old Testament
had for ages been preached or predicted in virtually equiv-
alent terms.

It is noticeable in the preaching of Jesus that he took
advantage of the incalculable oratorio reinforcement to
be drawn from fit opportunity. He hinged and jointed his
instructions into particular occasions suggesting them, or
at least making them at a given moment especially appo-
site. And in the same wise spirit of thrifty self -adjustment
to occasion, Jesus, where occasion did not offer itself ready -

590

BY PROF. W. C. WILKINSON.

made to his hand, would say something introductory to
serve the purpose of an occasion. For instance, he would
rouse attention and expectation, by providing beforehand,
over against what he had to say, some antithesis to it, real
or apparent. " Ye have heard that it was said An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you Resist
not him that is evil," is an illustration of this method on the
part of Jesus. For we have here simply a rhetorical device
for commanding attention and strengthening impression.
Paradox was with Jesus a favorite expedient in teaching ;
perhaps no other teacher ever made proportionately more
use of it than he did. You cannot understand Jesus
without often making allowance for paradox in his form
of expression.

Hyperbole is yet another rhetorical expedient freely used
by Jesus in his discourse. Consider the following: "If
any man hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple." The vast, the immeas-
urable claim on his own behalf which Jesus habitually
makes does not itself admit of overstatement ; but the just
statement of it here made is made by means of overstate-
ment the most extraordinary. It is a case of hyberbole
rendered more hyperbolic through accumulation and cli-
max. We must beware, in the case of Jesus, as theologians
long ago ought to have done in the case of the apostle Paul,
not to make dogma out of mere rhetoric.

Another point to be noted is the even-handed justice
with which Jesus metes out his awards of praise and of

591

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

blame. There is, however, — and it could not be other
wise if justice prevailed, — a very noticeable predominance
of blame over praise in the sentences from his lips. The
note of rebuke, nay, even of heavy-shotted denunciation,
is very strong (and this note not infrequently recurs) in the
discourses of Jesus. Nothing could exceed the unrelieved,
the red-hot, the white-hot, indignation and damnation
launched by Jesus against certain classes and certain indi-
viduals among his hearers. The fierceness, indeed, is such
that it is plainly beyond the mark of what could properly
be drawn into precedent for any other preacher. Jesus is
hardly in anything else more entirely put outside the possi-
bility of classification with his human brethren, than in the
article now spoken of. One thing, however, we instinct-
ively feel to be certain, that even in his most terrible in-
vectives there was no violence of tone, of gesture, or of
manner. If fidelity would not permit him to appear relent-
ing, the quality of love in him would not permit him to
appear vindictive.

An observation which may seem to some a disparage-
ment of the office of preacher in Jesus is here required by
truth. It must be said that Jesus as a preacher was, in his
own view, nothing whatever in importance as compared
with Jesus the suffering Saviour. " I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me/' he said, near the end, with a depth
of meaning and pathos beyond the reach of human plum-
met to sound ; and at the very last, "This is my blood of
the covenant, which is shed for many." What his preach-
ing had failed to effect, it remained for his obedience unto

592

BY PROF. W. C. WILKINSON.

death, the death of the cross, to accomplish. His preaching
thus acknowledged that preaching alone was in vain : Jesus
preached Jesus as a Eedeemer by blood. He set herein an
example which every faithful minister of the Gospel, to the
end of the age, must follow.

593

CHAPTER TWO.

In Remembrance of Me.

By the Right Reverend John Charles Ryle, D.D., D.C.L.,

Lord Bishop of Liverpool.

HAT was the object and purpose for which our
Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Sup-
per ? What does the New Testament teach us ?

The best answer to that question is to be found in the
remarkable words which St. Luke and St. Paul alone were
inspired to record, " This do in remembrance of Me." There
is a grand simplicity and pathos about the expression " In
remembrance of Me."

The best comment on this deep phrase is to be found in
the words of our Church Catechism : " For the continual
remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and
of the benefits which we receive thereby."

The Lord Jesus Christ intended the Lord's Supper to be
a continual remembrancer to the Church of his atoning
death on the cross. The bread broken, given, and eaten,
was intended to remind Christians of his body given for
our sins. The wine poured out, and received with our lips,
was intended to remind Christians of his blood shed for
our sins.

[Supplementary Book.] 594

BY RT. REV. J. C. RYLE.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew what was in man. He
knew full well the darkness, slowness, coldness, hardness,
stupidity, pride, self-conceit, self-righteousness, slothful-
ness, of human nature in spiritual things. Therefore he
took care that his vicarious death for sinners should not be
merely written in the Bible — for then it might have been
locked up in libraries, or left to the ministry to proclaim in
the pulpit — for then it might soon have been kept back
by false teachers — but that it should be exhibited in visible
signs and emblems, even in bread and wine at a special
ordinance. The Lord's Supper was a standing provision
against man's forgetfulness. So long as the world stands
in its present order, the thing which is done at the Lord's
table "shows forth the Lord's death till he come."

The Lord Jesus Christ knew full well the unspeakable
importance of his own death for sin, as the great corner
stone of Scriptural religion. He knew that his own satis-
faction for siri as our substitute — his suffering for sin, the
just for the unjust — his payment of our mighty debt in
his own person — his complete redemption of us by his
blood — he knew that this was the very root of soul-saving
and soul-satisfying Christianity. Without this he knew
that his incarnation, miracles, teaching, example, and
ascension could do no good to man : without this, there could
be no justification, no reconciliation, no hope, no peace be-
tween God and man. Knowing all this, he took care that
his death, at any rate, should never be forgotten. He care-
fully appointed an ordinance in which, by lively figures, his
sacrifice on the cross should be kept in perpetual remem-

595

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

brance, and the souls of believers might feed on it, as a
body feeds on bread and wine.

The Lord Jesus Christ well knew the weakness and
infirmity even of the holiest believers. He knew the ab-
solute necessity of keeping them in intimate communion
with his own vicarious sacrifice, as the fountain of their
inward and spiritual life. Therefore, he did not merely
leave them promises on which their memories might feed,
and words which they might call to mind. He mercifully
provided an ordinance in which true faith might be
quickened by seeing lively emblems of his body and blood,
and in the use of which true Christians might be " strength-
ened and refreshed," as the Catechism says, and realize
close communion with their Saviour in heaven. The
strengthening of the faith of believers in Christ's atone-
ment was one great purpose of the Lord's Supper.*

* The following extract from Archbishop Cranmer's writings de-
serves attention : —

" The first Catholic Christian faith is most plain, clear, and comfort-
able, without any difficulty, scruple, or doubt : that is to say, that our
Saviour Christ, although he be sitting in heaven, in equality with his
Father, is our life, strength, food, and sustenance, who by his death de-
livered us from death, and daily nourishes and increases us to eternal life.
And in token hereof, he hath prepared bread to be eaten, and wine to be
drunk for us in his Holy Supper, to put us in remembrance of his said
death, and of the celestial feeding, nourishing, increasing, and of all the
benefits which we have thereby ; which benefits, through faith and the
Holy Ghost, are exhibited and given unto all that worthily receive the
said Holy Supper. This the husbandman at his plough, the weaver at
his loom, and the wife at her rocking cradle, can remember, and give
thanks unto God for the same."

596

CHAPTER THREE.

Two Sa.yin.gs from the Cross.*

By Alexander McLaren, D.D.,

Fallowfield, Manchester, England.

■ *^#gl#^

(^ HE calm tone of all the narratives of the crucifixion
4 is very remarkable. Each evangelist limits him-

^lM— self to bare recording of facts, without a trace of
emotion. They felt too deeply to show feeling. It was
fitting that the story which, till the end of time, was to
move hearts to a passion of love and devotion, should be
told without any coloring. But a reverent word or two is
permissible.

3URR0UNDED by a whirlwind of abuse, contempt,
and ferocious glee at his sufferings, he gave back no
taunt, nor uttered any cry of pain, nor was moved
to the faintest anger, but let his heart go out in pity for all
who took part in that wicked tragedy; and, while "he
opened not his mouth '* in complaint or reviling, he did open

* This article is a part of a paper originally published in the Sunday
School Times, and reproduced by favor of the publishers.
[Supplementary Book.] 597

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

it in intercession. But the wonderful prayer smote no
heart with compunction, and, after it, the storm of mock-
ing and savage triumph hurtled on as before.

Luke gathers all the details together in summary fashion,
and piles them on one another without enlarging on any.
The effect produced is like that of a succession of breakers
beating on some lonely rock, or of blows struck by a batter-
ing-ram on a fortress.

"They crucified him," — there is no need to say who
" they " were. Others than the soldiers who did the work,
did the deed. Contempt gave him two malefactors for
companions, and hung the King of the Jews in the place of
honor in the midst. Did John remember what his brother
and he had asked ? Matter-of-fact indifference as to a piece
of military duty, and shameless greed, impelled the legion-
aries to cast lots for the clothes stripped from a living man.
What did the crucifying of another Jew or two matter to
them ? Gaping curiosity, and the strange love of the horri-
ble, so strong in the vulgar mind, led the people, who had
been shouting Hosanna, less than a week ago, to stand
gazing on the sight without pity but in a few hearts.

The bitter hatred of the rulers, and their inhuman glee
at getting rid of a heretic, gave them bad pre-eminence in
sin. Their scoff acknowledged that he had "saved others,"
and their hate had so blinded their eyes that they could
not see how manifestly his refusal to use his power to save
himself proved him the Son of God. He could not save
himself, just because he would save these scoffing rabbis
and all the world. The rough soldiers knew little about

598

BY ALEXANDER MCLAREN.

him, but they followed suit, and thought it an excellent
jest to bring the " vinegar," provided in kindness, to Jesus
with a mockery of reverence as to a king.

And to all this, Christ's sole answer was the ever-memo-
rable prayer. One of the women who bravely stood at the
cross must have caught the perhaps low-voiced supplication
and it breathed so much of the aspect of Christ's character
in which Luke especially delights that he could not leave
it out. It opens many large questions which cannot be
dealt with here. All sin has in it an element of ignorance,
but it is not wholly ignorance, as some modern teachers
affirm. If the ignorance were complete, the sin would be
non-existent. The persons covered by the ample folds of
this prayer were ignorant in very different degrees ; the
soldiers and the rulers were in different positions in that
respect. In the prayer of Jesus we learn, not only his in-
finite f orgivingness for insults and unbelief leveled at him-
self, but his exaltation as the Intercessor, whom the Father
heareth always. The dying Christ prayed for his enemies ;
the glorified Christ lives to make intercession for us.

IN the one malefactor, physical agony and despair found
momentary, relief in taunts, flung from lips dry with
torture, at the fellow-sufferer whose very innocence pro-
voked hatred from the guilty heart. The other had been
led by punishment to recognize in it the due reward of his
deeds, and, thus softened, had been moved by Christ's prayer,
and by his knowledge of Christ's innocence, to hope that

599

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

the same mercy which had been lavished on the inflicters
of his sufferings, might stretch to enfold the partakers in it.

At that moment the dying thief had clearer faith in
Christ's coming in his kingdom than any of the disciples had.
Their hopes were crumbling as they watched him hanging
unresisting and gradually dying. But this man looked
beyond the death so near for both Jesus and himself, and
believed that, after it, he would come to reign. We may
call him the only disciple that Christ then had.

How pathetic is that petition, "Remember me"! It
builds the hope of sharing in Christ's royalty on the fact of
having shared in his cross. " Thou wilt not forget thy
companion in that black hour, which will then lie behind
us." Such trust and clinging, joined with such penitence
and submission, could not go unrewarded.

From his cross Jesus speaks in royal style, as monarch
of that dim world. His promise is sealed with his own sign-
manual, " Yerily I say." It claims to have not only the
clear vision of, but the authority to determine, the future.
It declares the unbroken continuance of personal existence,
tmd the reality of a state of conscious blessedness, in which
men are aware of their union with him, the Lord of the
realm and the life of its inhabitants. It graciously accepts
the penitent's petition, and assures him that the companion-
ship, begun on the cross, will be continued there. " With
me " makes " Paradise " wherever a soul is.

600

CHAPTER FOUR.

God's Love in Scripture,

By Rev. Francis L. Patton, D.D., LL.D.,

President of Princeton University.

PPLYING to Scripture the argument of design, we
say that it was constructed upon a plan which
must have existed in a single mind before it
was executed in the progressive publication
of the separate books of the Bible. The Incarnation is a
hypothesis which gives unity to the Bible, which reveals the
fact that through the volume, from Genesis to Revelation,
" the same increasing purpose runs."

The Old Testament is a congruous body of doctrine cul-
minating in Christ ; the New Testament is a coherent body
of doctrine crystallizing around the person of Christ. * What

*Note by the Author. The underlying thought in President
Patton's paper, that the Incarnation, as the leading idea of the Bible, is
to be accounted for by the intelligent design and choice of God as truly as
the physical creation is to be traced to the First Cause of all things, accords
with what has been so admirably said by Professor Samuel Harris,
of Yale University, concerning the holy, loving, manlike nature of God
as the ground of the revelation of Jesus Christ, — since it is no more true

[Supplementary Book.] QQ1

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

is the Incarnation but the synthesis of the teaching of the
Old Testament ? And what is the New Testament but an
unfolding of the ideas which are wrapped up in the doc-
trine of the Incarnation ? How did this happen ? The
doctrine of the Incarnation is not a patch put into the web
of the Old Testament by human hands : if it had been, it
would have been so palpable that no one would ever have
denied that the Bible contains it. But it is woven so
delicately into the structure of the sacred books, that though
you see the Incarnate Christ as the central figure of the
Bible, it requires patient study and profound thought to

that man was made in the moral image of God, than that God is the
prototype of man in his essential character : —

' < All science rests on the postulate that the universe is constituted in
accordance with the principles and laws of reason, the same in kind with
the reason of man. The progress of physical science is simply the exposi-
tion of this fact. . . . The science both of nature and of man is a
continuous demonstration of the likeness of man as a rational and moral
being to God who created and constituted the universe. In Christ, God
comes into humanity and reveals himself in the likeness of man, and man
in the likeness of God. God's likeness to man in these attributes and
elements is a fundamental reality of the universe underlying all physical
science and all knowledge of the moral constitution and ordering of
society." — God the Creator. Vol. i, pp. 418, 419.

' ' As rational and personal . . . there is eternal in God a like-
ness to man, which he has revealed to men in Christ, through whom
they have their highest and most complete knowledge of him." — Ibid.
p. 412.

Christ again is spoken of as " revealing the human side of God and
his affinity for all his rational creatures " — " God in the likeness of the
finite spirit, and effulgent with divine and Christlike love." — Ibid. p.
420.

602

BY DR. F. L PATTON.

see how this idea runs through and gives unity to the
whole.

The reasons which lead us to believe that God made
the world should lead us just as well to the conclusion
that God made the Bible. There is design in history, and
free intelligences are blind weavers of the great web of
human destiny ; but we must believe that these intelli-
gences are controlled by the directing mind of God, or there
is no explanation of the plan which history reveals. We may
believe that the testimony to Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy,
and that the prophet was a blind worker in the develop-
ment of a plan to which so many workers contributed ; but
behind the prophet we must place the inspiration of the
prophet, and superior to the prophet, the Spirit who shaped
his visions, and whose word was on his tongue.

603

CHAPTER FIVE.

The Redemption of Humanity.

By Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, D.C.L., LL.D.

^s>^$^s>

(5f|^F we survey with care and candor the present wealth
of the world — I mean its wealth intellectual, moral,
and spiritual — we find that Christianity has not only
contributed to the patrimony of man its brightest and
most precious jewels, but has likewise been what our Sav-
iour pronounced it, the salt or preserving principle of all the
residue, and has maintained its health, so far as it has been
maintained at all, against corrupting agencies.*

This gift of God to our race was made through Jesus
Christ, of the seed of Abraham. \ The Jew had the oracles
of God : he had the custody of the promises : he was the
steward of the great and fundamental conception of the
unity of God, the sole and absolute condition under which
the Divine idea could be upheld among men at its just
elevation. No poetry, no philosophy, no art of Greece, ever
embraced, in its most soaring and widest conceptions, that

* Essay upon the Place of Ancient Greece in the Providential Order.
Gleanings of Past Years. By W. E. Gladstone. Vol. vii, p. 78 ; para-
graph 79. London, 1879.

f This connective sentence has been supplied by the Author : all else
in this article being in the words of Mr. Gladstone.
[Supplementary Book.] gQ4_

BY RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE.

simple law of love towards God and towards our neighbor,
on whicji "two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets," and which supplied the moral basis of the new
dispensation.

There is one history, and that the most touching and
most profound of all, for which we should search in vain
through all the pages of the classics, — I mean the history
of the human soul in its relations with its Maker ; the his-
tory of its sin, and grief, and death, and of the way of its
recovery to hope and life, and to enduring joy. For the
exercises of strength and skill, for the achievements and for
the enchantments of wit, of eloquence, of art, of genius, for
the imperial games of politics and war — let us seek them
on the shores of Greece. But if the first among the prob-
lems of life be how to establish the peace, and restore the
balance of our inward being ; if the highest of all conditions
in the existence of the creature be his aspect towards the
God to whom he owes his being, and in whose great hand
he stands ; then let us make our search elsewhere. All the
wonders of the Greek civilization heaped together are less
wonderful than is the single Book of Psalms.

Palestine was weak and despised, always obscure, often-
times and long trodden down beneath the feet of imperious
masters. On the other hand, Greece, for a thousand years,

" Confident from foreign purposes,"

repelled every invader from her shores. Fostering her
strength in the keen air of freedom, she defied, and at
length overthrew, the mightiest of existing empires ; and

605

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

when finally she felt the resistless grasp of the masters of all
the world, them, too, at the very moment of her subjuga-
tion, she herself subdued to her literature, language, arts,
and manners. Palestine, in a word, has no share of the
glories of our race ; while they blaze on every page of the
history of Greece with an overpowering splendor. Greece
had valor, policy, renown, genius, wisdom, wit ; she had all,
in a word, that this world could give her ; but the flowers of
Paradise, which bloom at the best but thinly, blossomed in
Palestine alone.*

TT> SCHEME came eighteen hundred years ago to the
/ V world, which has banished from the earth, or fright-
ened into the darkness, many of the foulest mon-
sters that laid waste humanity ; which has restored woman
to her place in the natural order ; which has set up the
law of right against the rule of force ; which has pro-
claimed, and in many great particulars enforced, the canon
of mutual love ; which has opened from within sources of
strength for poverty and weakness, and put a bit in the
mouth and a bridle on the neck of pride, f

The Christian thought, the Christian tradition, the Chris-
tian society, are the great, the imperial thought, the tradi-
tion, the society of this earth. |

* This paragraph and the two preceding are found in the Essay upon
Ancient Greece, etc., pp. 79, 80 ; being paragraphs 81, 82, 83.

f Essay on the Courses of Religious Thought. Gleanings of Past
Years. Vol. iii, p. 124 ; paragraph 45.

%Ibid. p. 97 ; paragraph 4.

606

BY RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE.

IT is no paradox to suggest that a religion which purports
to open the means of reunion with God and to restore
the eternal life which we have lost, by means of a spiritual
process wrought upon us, should propound as essential
constituents of that process a faith to be held concerning
the nature and attributes of him whose image we are to
bear ; concerning the dispensation of time for forming our
union with him, and the dispensation of eternity in which
the union with him becomes consummate and imperishable.
Christianity is the religion of the person of Christ, and the
creeds only tell us from whom he came, and how he came
and went, by what agent we are to be incorporated into
him, and what is the manner of his appointed agency, and
the seal of its accomplishment.*

NOT at a venture but with strict reason, the assertion has
been made that the question, whether Christianity be
true or false, is the most practical of all questions : be-
cause it is that question of practice which incloses in itself,
and implicitly determines, every other : it supplies the
fundamental rule or principle of every decision in detail, f

Whether we refer to the Scriptures, or to the collateral
evidence of history and of the Church, we find it to be un-
deniable as a fact that Christianity purports to be not a

* Essay on Probability as the Guide of Conduct. Gleanings, Vol. vii,
p. 185 ; paragraph 48.

f Ibid. p. 183 ; paragraph 46.

607

OUR ELDER BROTHER.

system of moral teaching only, but, in vital union there-
with, a system of revealed facts concerning the nature of
God, and his dispensations towards mankind. Upon these
facts, which center in our Lord and Saviour, moral teach-
ing is to rest, and to these it is to be indissolubly attached.
Thus the part of Christianity called doctrinal has that claim
to enter into our affirmative or negative decision, which
belongs to a question strictly practical. It is, therefore,
one to which we inevitably must daily and hourly say
Aye or No by our actions, even if we have given no specu-
lative reply upon it.*

* Ibid. p. 184; paragraph 47.

608

Appendix:.
Reference Authors.

HE Author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness
to the writers of many books, a part of whom are
enumerated in the following list, which comprises
those who have prepared the Bible Dictionaries, Commen-
taries, books upon Antiquities, Geography and Topog-
raphy of the Holy Land, books of Travel and popular de-
scription, Sacred History, Lives of Christ, volumes upon
particular phases of the life of Jesus, treatises upon the
theology of Christ's work, and Lectures or Sermons relating
to our Lord, that have been the most helpful in preparing
this volume. There are among these titles about a score of
books— transferred from the footnotes— from which the
Author has directly quoted even when his studies have not
led him to peruse them at length.

Nehemiah Adams, D.D.

Christ a Friend. Boston. 1876.

Friends of Christ in the New Testament. Boston. 1853.

Communion Sabbath. Boston. 1858.

Rev. Jacob Abbott.

The Corner Stone. New York. 1855.

609

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Lyman Abbott, D.D., Pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.

Life of Jesus of Nazareth. New York. 1869.

Padre Agostino da Montefeltro.

Sermons. Second Series — at Rome. New York.

J. Addison Alexander, D.D., Professor in Princeton College.

Commentary on Isaiah. New York. 1851. 2 Vols.

Henry Mills Alden, A.M., Managing Editor of Harper's Maga-
zine.
God in his World. New York. 1890.

Very Rev. Henry Alford, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.

Greek Testament. London. 1854.

How to Study the New Testament. New York. 1866.

Rev. Samuel J. Andrews.

The Life of our Lord upon Earth, considered in its Historical,
Chronological, and Geographical Relations. New York. 1863.

Thomas Armitage, D.D., LL.D.

Christ ; His Nature and Work. New York.

Saint Augustine.

Homilies on the Gospel of St. John. Oxford. 1848.
Confessions, Pusey's Translation. Oxford. 1840.

James T. Barclay.

The City of the Great King ; or Jerusalem as it was, as it is, and
as it should be. Philadelphia. 1857.

Rev. Albert Barnes.

Notes on the Gospels. New York. 2 Yols.

Lecture on the Evidences of Christianity in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury. New York. 1868.

610

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Henry Ward Beecher.

Life of Christ. New York. Vol. I., 1871 ; Vol. II., 1891.

J. A. Bengel, D.D., Consistorial Counselor and Prelate of
Alpirsbach.
Gnomon, or Exegetical Annotations on the New Testament.
Edinburgh. 1860.

Henry Norris Bernard, M.A., LL.B.

The Mental Characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ. London.

1888.

Rev. Thomas D. Bernard, Chancellor of Wells Cathedral.

The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. (Bampton Lec-
tures for 1865.) Boston. 1867.

Rev. Charles Loring Brace.

Gesta Christi ; or a History of Human Progress under Christianity.
New York. 1882.

Stopford A. Brooke, M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen.

Christ in Modern Life : Sermons preached in St. James Chapel.
London. 1872.

Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts.

The Influence of Jesus. (Bohlen Lectures for 1879.) New York.

George Dana Boardman, D.D.

The Divine Man. New York. 1887.

Alexander B. Bruce, D.D.

The Training of the Twelve. Edinburgh. 1871.

Horace Bushnell, D.D., LL.D.

Christ and his Salvation. New York. 1864.
God in Christ. New York. 1849.
Nature and the Supernatural. New York. 1858.
The Vicarious Sacrifice. New York. 1866.
Forgiveness and Law. New York. 1874.

611

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

J. Glentworth Butler, D.D.

The Bible-work : the Fourfold Gospels. New York. 1889.

Rev. Principal Cairns, D.D.

Christ the Central Evidence of Christianity. (The Cunningham
Lecture for 1880.) London.

E. H. Chapin, D.D.

Characters in the Gospels. New York.

Stephen Charnock.

Discourses on the Attributes. Bohn's Edition. London.

Christianity and Skepticism : Lectures. Boston. 1871.

Saint Chrysostom.

Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Oxford. 1848.

James Freeman Clarke, D.D.

Legend of Thomas Didymus, the Jewish Skeptic. Boston. 1881.

Clement of Rome.

Epistles.

Frances Power Cobbe.

Broken Lights. Boston. 1864.

Rt. Rev. J. W. Colenso, Bishop of Natal.

Natal Sermons. London. 1866.

R. W. Dale, D.D., LL.D.

The Atonement. London. 1874.

Edmond De Pressense, D.D.

Jesus Christ, his Times, Life, and Work. London. 1866.

Orville Dewey, D.D.

Works. Boston. 1883.

612

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

William Hepworth Dixon, F.G.S., F.S.A.

The Holy Land. Leipsic. 1865. 2 Vols.

Marcus Dods, D.D.

Essay upon the Trustworthiness of the Gospels.

I. August Dorner, D.D., Professor in the University of Berlin.
Doctrine of the Person of Christ. Edinburgh. 1878.

Zachary Eddy, D.D.

Immanuel ; or the Life of Jesus Christ our Lord. Springfield.

1868.

Alfred Edersheim, D.D., Ph.D., Grinfield Lecturer at Oxford.

The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah. London. 1883. 2

Vols.
Sketch of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ. Boston.

1876.

Rt. Rev. C. J. Ellicott, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.

Historical Lectures on the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Boston.
1862.

Heinrich Georg August von Ewald, Professor at Tubingen.

Life of Christ. London. 1865.

Frederick W. Faber, D.D., Head of the London Oratory.

Bethlehem. London. 1860.

Very Rev. F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., Dean of Canterbury.

Life of Christ. London. 1874. 2 Vols.

The Witness of History to Christ : Five Sermons. (The Hulsean

Lectures for 1870.) London. 1871.
The Life of Christ as represented in Art. New York. 1894.
Saintly Workers. London. 1878.

Cyrus D. Foss, D.D.

Christ and His Work. New York. 1878.

613

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Rev. Andrew Fuller.

Works : The Atonement. Philadelphia.

Rev. W. L. Gage, M.A.

Studies in Bible Lands. Boston. 1869.

J. Cunningham Geikie, D.D.

Life and Words of Christ. London. 1878. 2 Vols.

Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, D.C.L., LL.D.

Review of Ecce Homo. London. 18G6.

Frederick L. Godet, D.D., Professor of Theology at Neuchatel.

Studies in the New Testament. New York. 1877.

Rev. Henry M. Goodwin.

Christ and Humanity: with a Review of the Doctrine of Christ's
Person. London. 1875.

Simon Greenleaf, LL.D., Professor in the Dane Law School.

Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by Rules of
Evidence administered in Courts of Justice. With an account
of the Trial of Jesus. Boston. 1846.

Thomas Guthrie, D.D.

The Parables read in the Light of the Present Day. London.

1SGG.

Horatio B. Hackett, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Newton
Theological Institution.
Illustrations of Scripture, suggested by a Tour in the Holy Land.
Boston. 1855.

William Hanna, D.D., LL.D.

The Last Days of our Lord's Passion. Edinburgh. 1862.

The Forty Days after our Lord's Resurrection. London. 1863.

614

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Ven. Charles Hardwick, M.A., Archdeacon of Ely.

Christ and other Masters : an Inquiry into some of the Parallelisms
and Contrasts between Christianity and the Religious Systems of
the Ancient World. London. 1855. 4 parts.

Very Rev. Julius Charles Hare.

Mission of the Comforter. London. 1892.

John Harris, D.D., Principal of New College.
The Great Teacher. London. 1835.

Samuel Harris, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Yale University.
Kingdom of Christ on Earth. Andover. 1874.
The Self Revelation of God. New York. 1887.
God the Creator and Lord of all. New York. 1896. 2 Vols,

James Augustus Hessey, D.C.L.

Sunday. (Bampton Lectures of 1860.) London.

Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Union
Theological Seminary.
Eternal Atonement. New York. 1888.

Charles Hodge, D.D., Professor in Princeton Theological Sem-
inary.

Systematic Theology. New York. 1872.

Mark Hopkins, D.D., LL.D., President of Williams College.

Evidences of Christianity. Boston. 1863.

Thomas Hartwell Home, D.D.

Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures. London. 1856. 4 Vols.

Thomas Hughes, F.S.A., Q.C.

The Manliness of Christ. London. 1879.

615

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Rt. Rev. F. D. Huntington, S.T.D., LL.D., Bishop of Cen-
tral New York.
Christ in the Christian Year and in the Life of Man : Sermons.

New York. 1878.
Second Series. 1881.
Forty Days Avith the Master.

Rev. Edward Irving.

Lectures on John the Baptist. London. 1864.

Johann Jahn, Professor of Oriental Languages in The University

of Vienna.
Biblical Archaeology. New York. 1832.

Mrs. Anna Jameson.

Sacred and Legendary Art. London. 1850.

Legends of the Madonna as represented in the Fine Arts. Lon-
don. 1852.

Flavius Josephus.

Antiquities of the Jews, translated by William Whiston, M.A.
London. 1852.

Rev. Charles Kingsley, F.L.S., F.G.S., Regius Professor of
Modern History at Cambridge.
The Gospel of the Pentateuch : a set of Parish Sermons. London.
1863.

John Kitto, D.D.

Daily Bible Illustrations. New York. 1857.

Cyclopedia of Bible Literature. Edinburgh. 1862. 3 Vols.

Friedrich W. Krummachar, Court Preacher at Potsdam.

The Suffering Saviour. Boston. 1856.

The Rev. Pere Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire.

Jesus Christ ; Conferences at Notre Dame. New York. 1872.

616

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Henry Parry Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., Prof essor in the Univer-
sity of Oxford.
The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (Bampton
Lectures.) London. 1867.

Rev. Friedrich Gustav Lisco, Minister of St. Gertraud, Berlin.

The Parables of Jesus explained and illustrated. Boston.
1846.

Rev. John M. Lowrie.

A Week with Jesus. Philadelphia. 1866.

Commander W. F. Lynch, United States Navy.

Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan and
the Dead Sea. Philadelphia. 1849.

George Macdonald, LL.D.

The Miracles of our Lord. New York. 1871.

The Rev. John Ross MacDuff, D.D.

Memories of Gennesaret. New York. 1858.
Cities of Refuge ; or the Name of Jesus. New York. 1860.
Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains. New York. 1862.
Memories of Olivet. New York. 1867.

Daniel March, D.D.

Night Scenes in the Bible. Philadelphia.
Home Life in the Bible. Philadelphia.

James Martineau, D.D., LL.D., Th.D.

Hours of Thought on Sacred Things. Boston. 1876.

Frederick D. Maurice, D.D.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God. London. 1866.

Selah Merrill, D.D., LL.D.

Galilee in the Time of Christ. Boston. 1881.

617

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Professor J. D. Michaelis, of the University of Gottingen.
On the Laws of Moses. London. 1814. 4 Vols.

John Stuart Mill.

Three Essays on Religion. New York. 1874.

William Hodge Mill, D.D.

Sermons before the University of Cambridge, Lent, 1844, On the
Temptation of Christ. London.

Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's.

The History of the Jews. London. 1835. 3 Vols.

The History of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Aboli-
tion of Paganism in the Roman Empire. New York. 1861.
3 Yols.

Rev. A. J. Morris.

Christ the Spirit of Christianity. London.

Protup Chunder Mozoomdar.

The Oriental Christ. Boston. 1883.

Jules Ernest Naville, Professor in the University of Geneva.

The Christ. Edinburgh. 1880.

Augustus Neander, D.D., Professor in the University of Berlin.

The Life of Jesus Christ. London. 1857.

Universal History of the Christian Religion and Church. Boston.
1847.

Andrews Norton, D.D., Professor in Harvard Divinity School.
Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels. Boston. 1871.

Hermann Olshausen, D.D., Professor of Theology at Konigs-
berg.
Biblical Commentary on the Gospels. Edinburgh. 1854. 3 Yols.
The Last Days of our Saviour.

G18

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

J. J. Oosterzee, DoD., Professor of Divinity at Utrecht.
Christian Dogmatics. New York. 1874.

Edwards A. Park, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Andover Theo-
logical Seminary.
The Atonement ; Discourses and Treatises by Edwards, Griffin,

et al. Boston. 1859.
Discourses on Theological Doctrines as related to the Religious
Character. Andover. 1885.

Joseph Parker, D.D.

Ecce Deus : Essays on the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ. Bos-
ton. 1867.
Inner Life of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. New York. 1883.

A. P. Peabody, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Harvard University.

Christianity and Science. New York. 1875.

Rt. Rev. J. J. Stewart Perowne, D.D., Bishop of Worcester.

Immortality. (Hulsean Lectures for 1868.) London. 1869.

James Allanson Picton, M.A., M.P.

The Mystery of Matter. London. 1873.

George Putnam, D.D.

Sermons Preached in the Church of the First Religious Society in
Roxbury. Boston. 1S78.

Joseph Erneste Renan.

The Life of Jesus Christ. Boston. 1896.

Karl Ritter, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin.

Comparative Geography of Palestine. Translated by W. L. Gage,
M.A. Edinburgh. 1866. 4 Vols.

619

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Edward Robinson, D.D., S.T.D., LL.D., Professor in Union
Theological Seminary, New York.
A Harmony of the Gospels in Greek. Andover. 1834.
Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petraea.
Boston. 1841. 3 Yols.

Rev. Frederick W. Robertson, M.A.

Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton.
First and Second Series. London. 1855.
Third Series. Boston. 1857.
Fourth Series. Boston. 1860.
Fifth Series. Boston. 1864.

Charles A. Row, M.A., Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Christian Evidences viewed in relation to Modern Thought. (Bamp-

ton Lectures.) London. 1877.
The Historical Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from

the Dead. London.

Rt. Rev. John C. Ryle, D.D., D.C.L., Bishop of Liverpool.
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. London. 1856.

Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D.

The Person of Christ. Boston. 1865.
Christ in Song. New York, 1871.

William Gottlieb Schauffler, D.D., LL.D.

Meditations on the Last Days of Christ. Boston. 1853.

John Robert Seeley, M. A., Professor in the University of Cam-
bridge.
Ecce Homo : the Life and Work of Jesus Christ. Boston. 1866.

William Smith, Ph.D., LL.D., D.C.L.

Dictionary of the Bible ; Comprising its Antiquities, Biography,
Geography, and Natural History. London. 1863. 3 Yols.

620

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Goldwin Smith, LL.D.

Lectures on the Study of History. Oxford. 1865.

Henry B. Smith, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Union Theological
Seminary.
Faith and Philosophy. New York. 1877.

J. V. C. Smith, M.D.

Pilgrimage to Palestine. Boston. 1851.

Very Rev. Robert Payne Smith, M.A., Dean of Canterbury.

Prophecy a Preparation for Christ. (Bampton Lectures.) London.

1870.

Rev. Charles Spear.

Names and Titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Boston. 1841.

Samuel Thayer Spear, D.D.

Life of Christ, published in the Independent. New York.

Rev. James, Stalker, D.D.

Imago Christi. New York. 1890.

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster.

Sinai and Palestine in Connection with their History. London.

1856.
Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church. New York. 1866.

Two Parts.

John Lloyd Stephens.

Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petrsea, and the Holy Land.
New York. 1837. 2 Vols.

Rudolph Stier, D.D.

The Words of the Lord Jesus. Edinburgh. 1865. 8 Vols.

621

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Richard Salter Storrs, D.D., LL.D.

The Divine Origin of Christianity indicated by its Historical
Effects. New York. 1884.

Calvin E. Stowe, D.D., Professor in Andover Theological Semi-
nary.

Origin and History of the Books of the New Testament. Hart-
ford. 1867.

David Friedrich Strauss.

Life of Jesus. London. 1866.

William Stroud, M.D.

Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ. London.

1847.

Christopher Sutton, D.D.

Disce Mori. London. 1848.

Jeremy Taylor, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor, 1661.

The Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Phila-
delphia. 1832.

F. Augustus Tholuck, D.D., Professor in the University at Halle.

Commentary on St. John. Boston. 1836.

Light from the Cross. Philadelphia. 1858.

Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. Philadelphia. 1858.

Thomas a Kempis.

The Imitation of Christ.

Joseph P. Thompson, D.D., LL.D.

Theology of Christ from his own Words. New York. 1870.

Rev. W. M. Thomson, D.D.

The Land and the Book ; or Biblical Illustrations drawn from the
Manners and Customs, the Scenes and the Scenery, of the Holy
Land. New York. 1859. 2 Vols.

622

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Constantine Tischendorf, Professor in the University at Leipsic.
When were our Gospels Written? New York. 1867.

Most Rev. R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin.

Studies in the Gospels. New York. 1867.
Synonyms of the New Testament. New York. 1864.
Notes on the Parables of our Lord. London. 1860.
Notes on the Miracles of our Lord. London. 1856.
Christ the Desire of the Nations. Philadelphia. 1854.

Henry B. Tristram, D.D., LL.D., Canon of Durham.

The Topography of the Holy Land : A Succinct Account of all the
Places, Rivers, and Mountains of the Land of Israel mentioned
in the Bible. London. 1872.

The Land of Moab : Travels and Discoveries on the East Side of
the Dead Sea and the Jordan. London. 1873.

Joshua T. Tucker, D.D.

The Sinless One. Boston. 1855.

Professor Karl Ullmann, of the University at Halle.

The Sinlessness of Jesus ; an Evidence for Christianity. Edin-
burgh. 1870.

C. W. M. Van der Velde, Lieutenant in the Dutch Royal Navy.

Journey through Syria and Palestine. Edinburgh. 1854.

Rev. H. J. Van Lennep.

Bible Lands : their Modern Customs and Manners, Illustrative of

Scripture. New York. 1876. 2 Vols.

J. B. Walker, D.D.

The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation. Boston. 1855.

William Warburton, D.D.

The Divine Legation of Moses. London. 1846. 3 Vols.

623

REFERENCE AUTHORS.

Professor Gustav Weil, of the University of Heidelberg.

The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud, or Biblical Legends. Lon-
don. 1846.

Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., D.C.L., Regius Professor of
Divinity, Cambridge.
Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. London. 1860.
The Revelation of the Risen Lord. London. 1881.

Rev. James Herman Whitmore.

Testimony of Nineteen Centuries to Jesus of Nazareth. Norwich
1889.

Rev. Thomas Wickes.

The Son of Man. New York.

E. C. Wines, D.D., LL.D.

Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews. New York.
1853.

John Young, LL.D.

The Christ of History : an Argument grounded on the Facts of his
Life on Earth. New York. 1856.

tft

PSS^;

624

INDEX.

The proper names in this Index indicate quotations.

Abbott, Jacob, 108

Abbott, Lyman, 353, 442

Agostino da Montefeltro, 339, 397

Alden, H. M., 182

Alexander, Cecil Frances, 236

Alford, Dean, 385

Allen, F. H., 110

Andrews, Bishop, 140

Anselm, Saint, 278, 415

Aquinas, Thomas, 277

Armitage, Thomas, 222

Augustine, Saint, ....... 173, 243, 278, 397, 401, 413, 433

Bacon, Lord, 331

Barnes, Albert, 113

Beecner, Henry Ward, 105,219, 399,422

Beecher, Lyman, 375, 379

Bengel, J. A., 150, 167, 292

Bernard, Saint, 181, 236, 322, 444, 446, 455, 456

Bonaventura, 91, 277

Bossuet, 307

Breviary, 29

Brydges, ' . . 63

Brooks, Rt. Rev. Phillips, .-,... ....'. . 234, 285

Brooke, Stopford A., . . , 85

Browning, Mrs. E. B., 88, 318, 323, 345, 348

Browning, Robert, 401, 508

Bruce, Alex. B., 374,381

Bushnell, Horace, 85, 135, 173, 174, 312, 416

Caird, Principal, 407, 408

Galvin, 304, 405

625

INDEX.

Cawood, John, 72

Chartres, Bishop of, 377, 378

Channing, William Ellery, ' . . 121, 415

Chase, W. T., , . 409

Chrysostom, Saint, 165, 194, 254, 294, 295, 392

Clarke, J. P., 380

Clement of Alexandria, 226

Clement of Rome, 408

Clovis, . . 347

Cobbe, Frances P., 284

Conder, 110

Coquerel, A., .... 114

Colenso, Bishop 123

Cowles, 440

Coxe, A. C, 65

Cranmer, Archbishop, 596

Cuyler, T. L., 61

Cyprian, Saint, 300

Cyril, 194

Dale, R. W., .392,396,409

Dante, 330

D'Aubigne, 69

De Pressense, 285

Dewey, Orville, 392

Dods, Marcus 251

Dorner, 406

Drummond, 406

Dwight, President, 311, 320

Edersheim, Alfred, ..... 126, 159, 166, 302, 305, 319, 321, 330

Ellicott, Bishop, 375

Ewald, ' . . 390

Faber, 11, 69, 277

Farrar, Archdeacon, 27, 47, 187, 207, 208, 274, 294, 315, 322, 323,

360, 369, 402

Fisher, Professor George P., 384

Flarel, . 351

626

INDEX.

Flight into Egypt, 80

Foss, C. D., Bishop, 280

Francis, Saint, , 397

Gannett, E. S., 286

Gerhardt, Paul, . 74, 298

Geikie, Cunningham, 25. 78, 296

Godet, Frederick, 405

Goodwin, H. M., 90

Griffin, E.D., 341

Guevara, Antonio de, . 343

Hall, Bishop, 428

Hall, John, 395

Hall, Newman, 313

Hanna, William, 294, 368, 374, 439

Harris, Professor Samuel, 140, 182, 286, 306, 404, 405, 406, 601, 602

Hastings, H. L., . 340

Herder, 67

Herrick, S. E., 186, 187

Hitchcock, R. D., 134, 369

Hodge, Professor Charles, 136

Hopkins, President Mark, Ill, 250

Howells, W. D., 285

Hughes, Thomas, 94

Humbert, de Romanis, 228

Huntington, Rt. Rev. F. D., . . . 43, 172, 180, 226, 403, 418, 450

Incarnation, The, ' 69

Irenaeus, 93

Irving, Edward, 172, 329

James, J. A., 300

Jameson, Mrs., 31

Jenyn, 121, 122

Jerome, Saint, 45, 395

Jerusalem, Journey to, 92, 93

Jesus of Nazareth, adaptation of his words, . . 196, 199-204

beneficence, - 160-163

627

INDEX.

Jesus of Nazareth, boyhood, 89, 90, 91

character, inconceivable unless real, ....... 121, 122

symmetry of his, 109-14

conversations, 195-199

dignity, 205-209

eyes, his use of, 206, 209,211

Helper, the Spiritual, 109

gentleness, 269

humility, 105

ideals of, 178, 180

imitation of, 123, 124, 463-474

knowledge of men, 108, 109

Leader, the, 108

life, perfect in faithfulness, love, magnanimity, patience, purity,

universal sympathy, 115-124

love of, disinterested, personal, 182, 231

mental growth, 94, 95

modesty, 101

Morning Star, the, 99

organizing force of, 158

parables, 218

patience, 104, 262, 267

Patriot, the, 109

prayer, early habit, ... 97-99

Scripture, early knowledge of, 95, 96

self-sacrifice, 171, 177

serenity, 107

sinless, 115-119

severity of, !...,....'. 269, 274

social nature, 107

sympathy, 106, 197

Teacher, the Divine, 193, 195, 217, 223, 225, 227,259,269,279,287

tempted in all points, 132, 141

trade, learning a, .... 102-104

transformation of human life by, 185-187

vitalizing force of, 238

works of, . . . 149, 151, 155, 156, 158, 160, 164, 165, 292, 325

John the Baptist, character of, 126, 269

Josephus, 145, 146, 346, 349

6^8

INDEX.

Keble, John, 75

Keim, 208

Kennedy, B. H., 394

Ker, John, 294

Kingsley, Charles, . . . • 295

Knox, John, 307

Krummacher, 37

Lacordaire, Rev. Pere, 140, 141

Lange, 219, 319

Leighton, Archbishop, 291

Lessing, 248

Lessius, 413, 414

Liddon, Canon H. P., 85, 386, 406, 407

Lightfoot, Bishop, 311

Longfellow, H. W., 23, 35, 49, 53, 138

Lowell, J. R., 72

Lowrie, J. M., 258

Lyra Catholica, 29, 37, 59

Lyte, Henry Francis, . 237

Luther, 255, 306, 360, 393, 394, 420

Magi, the 77

Martineau, James, 113

Mary, the mother, 31, 85-88, 89

Mary of Magdala, 361

M'Cosh, President, 217

McLaren, Alexander, 216, 232, 344, 361

Melanchthon, 412

Mill, John Stuart, 114, 121, 409

Milton, 428

Moody, DwightL., 21,341,342,348,444

Morris, A. J., 130, 155

Naville, Ernest, 385

Nazareth, 83, 84, 91, 97, 98

Nazianzen, Gregory, 455

Neander 390

Newman, Cardinal, 357, 358

Norton, Andrews, 285

629

INDEX.

Oosterzee, 117

Origen, ..-,-...... 449

Palestine, description of, 81, 82, 101, 126, 134, 144, 147, 153, 154, 189,

190, 293, 294, 296, 299, 310

Park, Prof. E. A., 311, 414, 415

Parker, Joseph, 158, 248

Pascal, Blaise, 222, 250

Patrick, Saint, 456

Peabody, Prof. A. P., Ill

Pentecost, George F., . 162

Perowne, Bishop, 116

Peter, Saint, character of , 226, 320, 323

Phelps, Hon. Edward J., 387,388

Pone luctnm, Magdalena, 59

Poor, Christ's sympathy for the, 106

Putnam, George, . 281

Quesnel, 294, 301

Raleigh, Alex., 440

Remy, Saint, . . . 347

Renan, Erneste, 153, 285

Resurrection, proofs of, .... 357, 393

Richter, 415

Robertson, F. W., 41, 117, 184, 337

Rossetti, Christina G., 354

Rousseau, 327, 343

Row, C. A,, . : 121, 241

Schaff, Philip, 1.10,121,239,247,286

Sears, E. H., 19, 71, 73

Seeley, J. R., 234, 249,250 332

Shepard, George, 154, 155

Smith, Goldwin, 120, 286

Smith, Henry B., 285, 398

Spear, Samuel T., 312, 353

Spurgeon, 33, 39

Stabat Mater, 57, 350

Stanley, Dean, . . . 269, 281, 440

630

INDEX.

Storrs, RichardS., 51,68,182,359,363,391,394,427

Sunday School Times, . 311,320,344,597

Sutton, Christopher, 278

Talcott, Prof. D. S., 246, 24S, 249, 283, 284

Talmud, 102, 274

Tappan, W. B., 309

Tauler, 396

Taylor, Hudson, 440

Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, . 296, 322, 420

Tenney, A. P., 383

Tennyson, . , . 436

Tertuliian, 351

Tholuck, 346, 351, 369, 370, 379, 392

Thomas a Kempis, . 348, 396, 444, 454

Thompson, J. P., 268

Thomson, William, ; 303

Trench, Archbishop, . 119,120,292

Tucker, President, 366

Vaughan, C. J., 178,390

Voltaire, 313

Watson, John, 397

Watts, Isaac, 74

Weissel, Georg, 295

Wesley, Charles, 71 , 72

Whately, Archbishop, . 160

Whitfield, Frederick, 169

Whittier, 19

Whitmore, Testimonies by, . . 123

Willard, Frances E., . . 281

Withrow, J. L., 317,322

Woolsey, President, « . 232

Young, John, 112

York, Archbishop of, 334, 335

Zinzendorf, Count, 25

631

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