THE DIVINE LOGOS;
OR,
WONDERFUL WORD OF JOHN.
BY
PROF. H. T. JOHNSON,
Late President of West Tennessee University.
BOSTON:
Mcdonald, gill & co.
1890.
Copyright, 1890,
By H. T. Johnson.
Press of the christian Witness, Boston, Mass.
JDeMcateir
TO
Hon. Orlando B. Potter; Rt. Revs. Daniel A. Payne,
John M. Brown, Henry M. Turner, Benjamin
T. Tanner ; Profs. W. S. Scarborough,
T. McCants Stewart, J. C. Price,
and others among the living;
Bishops Wm. F. Dickerson, Richard H. Cain; Prof.
Lorenzo Westcott, Howard; Dr. E. R. Bower,
Lincoln; Dean J. T. Latimer, S.T.D.,
Boston University, among
the departed;
as a faint expression of gratitude for thejr devo¬
tion to the cause of humanity ; their sym¬
pathy for an unfortunate people; their
efforts in behalf of a higher stand¬
ard of learning, piety, and
usefulness among such.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Marked and diversified are the revelations
of the Godhead, both in degree and intensity,
whether considered from prophetic, gospel,
or epistolary points of view. While they all
happily converge in the same celestial focus,
and reflect the same rays of the divine na¬
ture and plans earthward, these rays are
striking, splendrous, and sublime in propor¬
tion as seer, evangelist, and teacher are illu¬
minated by the torch of inspiration or are
elevated toward the heavenly Ideal. That
ideal is Christ, the Divine Logos. In refer¬
ence to finite visions of Him, it cannot &e
affirmed that "distance lends enchantment
to the view," for He only appears as "the
fairest among ten thousand and the altogether
lovely" to those alone who, beholding Him
from the Mount of Love, confidently relate
the things they both see and hear. It must
follow, therefore, that the best and highest
vi
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
possible revelation of God is that given by
the Son of God. And again, it must as cer¬
tainly follow that the most complete and per¬
fect revelations of Christ are those, the result
of the most intimate intercourse and fellow¬
ship with Him.
While it is true that " the heavens declare
the glory of God," equally true is it that
" one star differeth from another in glory."
The most casual observer who scans never so
hurriedly the great volume of celestial nature,
cannot but be strikingly impressed with the
stupendous exhibition of variety amidst the
harmony which he finds there. When the
psalmist considered the heavens, the diver¬
sity of their revelation of combined wisdom
and power, and the reflection of creature im¬
age in this looking-glass of nature, it so be¬
wildered him that he stood speechless in the
presence of a self-instituted investigation.
So, too, with the contemplator of the Word
of God. In exploring the realms of sacred
truth, in reflecting the glories of Deity, in
revealing the wealth of Christologic naturev
and operations, in poring over the mysteries
of the eternal world, his is a task from which,
unaided, he would shrink in bewilderment.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
vii
Yet, though assisted by superhuman re¬
sources, and though elevated to the seventh
heaven upon wings of inspiration, what still
remains unseen or undiscoverable to his
vision is more unspeakable than the things
which, though experienced, cannot lawfully
be mentioned.
Every writer of religious prophecy, of sa¬
cred narrative, of inspired poetry, proverbs,
and allegories, of scriptural biographies or
gospel records, are like so many planets in
the infinite system of divine truth, all trans¬
mitting the glories of their central source
through their peculiar and varied constitu¬
tions. They all vary in relative bulk, density,
and distance, but are uniform in reflective
character, since they all emit their borrowed
lustres. Once more these human constella¬
tions vary in their intensity of glory or light
properties, and for this reason, also, in their
impressiveness upon far-off observers. In
the great system of revelation, each one has
his favorite light orb which he admires above
the rest for the possession of some striking
and pre-eminent excellence. Of these, none
is more conspicuous or distinguished in this
respect than Ezekiel and Isaiah in the Old,
Viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
and John and Paul in the New, Testament.
The Argus-eyed prophet of the former, whose
all-rotary vision enabled him to sweep the
circle of divine mysteries, is somewhat anal¬
ogous to the catholic-minded apostle of the
latter dispensation. Yet for loftiness and
definiteness of conceptions concerning the
person and office of incarnate Deity, Isaiah
and John present more of analogy than Paul
or Ezekiel.
Should we, then, confine our estimate to the
gospel era, and survey the entire array of
towering figures therein displayed, we know
of none who would stand higher or project
outward in bolder relief than the Evangelist
John. From the Mount of Love, this eagle-
eyed seer of the New Testament views our
Lord, and discloses such revelations of His
attributes and glories as we seek to find else¬
where in vain. It is because of their cath¬
olicity and uniqueness, their prbfundity as
well as loftiness, their ever-increasing expres¬
sions of Christologic wealth ; it is, withal, be¬
cause of their transcendent meritoriousness,
that we feel justified in venturing these rev¬
elations in the manner attempted.
While neither completeness nor originality
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
is claimed for this humble contribution to
Christian thought, while the expectation of
its hearty approval or general endorsement of
views advanced is not among the offerer's
slightly cherished feelings in this direction,
it is nevertheless his hope, for which he con¬
fidently prays, that it may prove serviceable
to some student of the Sacred Word, and that
it may inspire a deeper interest in the Great
Teacher, and tend to the glory of Him who
is able to make wise unto salvation.
H. T. JOHNSON.
CONTENTS.
Introduction.
Chapter I.
The Ideal Logos . . . i
Chapter II.
The Idea Developed . n
Chapter III.
Pre-existence . . 19
Chapter IV.
Life 29
Chapter V.
Incarnation 38
Chapter VI.
Works of the Logos Posited 46
Chapter VII.
Light 55
Chapter VIII.
Truth 68
xii
CONTENTS.
Chapter IX.
Love 78
Chapter X. t
Teacher 90
Chapter XI.
The Glorified Logos 98
Chapter XII.
The Indwelling Logos ....
112
INTRODUCTION.
The Gospel of John is the greatest book
ever written. Its subject is a unique Person.
Its delineation of that Person is a unique de¬
lineation. Jesus. Christ, like every human
being, lived a dual life — outward, related tp
humanity in general: inward, spiritual, re¬
lated to heavenly things, concerned with an
inner circle of intimate friends. This latter
sphere is the chief theme of the fourth Gos¬
pel. What sets it apart and above the other
books is, that it clearly and purposely reveals
not what Jesus did, but what He was — His
person, claims, and character. What they ac¬
complish indirectly, this book does directly.
It paints its portrait from life : they collect
their materials, and let their subject in His
real self shine through or be reflected in their
records of His objective activity. It is the
same portrait; there is no discordance.
The keenest of critical inquiries have failed
xiv
IN TROD UCTION.
to discover any difference, in the essential
elements, between the representation of Jesus
according to the three first Gospels and th^t
of the fourth. Still, if in so lofty a range of
literature there are loftier heights, the Gos¬
pel of John rises far above the others in the
majesty and mystery of its disclosures of the
person of Christ.
There can be no reasonable doubt that the
fourth Gospel is a trustworthy document.
The sharp controversy of the last fifty years
has left us in the position that here is a rec¬
ord which comes from the personal recollec¬
tions of the man whose name it bears. What,
then, may be said for its contents ? The rec¬
ollections of a disciple, — they are the recollec¬
tions of the disciple, of one who was pecul¬
iarly near the heart and life of Jesus,— he
seems to have been one who was more than
ordinarily gifted, mentally and spiritually, and
his gift of mind and soul more than ordinarily
developed. He was fitted — if anyone was
fitted, he above others,—to receive the
fullest and finest impressions of his Master's
character. On purely critical grounds alone
there is reason for maintaining that the
representation of Jesus Christ given in the
INTRO D UC TION.
XV
Gospel of John is the most trustworthy of
all.
What is the reflection with which these
marvellous recollections are concluded ? It
is this: "There are also many other things
which Jesus did." Like all other attempts to
picture the person and work of Jesus, this
book confesses itself to be totally inadequate
to compass the exceeding beauty and abun¬
dant activity of that Person concerning whose
words of love and grace, deeds of power,
intensity of suffering, and radiant glory,
character, and personality — the unknown and
unrecorded surpass all that the thought and
insight of the " beloved disciple " have discov¬
ered and recalled. do not now inquire
into the reason of this, though such an in¬
quiry would find itself partially answered in the
vitality of the method and the spiritual in¬
tensity of Jesus Christ. The fact is one be¬
fore which the student may well stand in
astonishment, not unmixed with awe.
It is with profound satisfaction that believ¬
ers in Christianity find the controversies of
the present day centreing about these records
of the person and work of its Founder. Is
the gospel account trustworthy? Did Jesus
xvi INTRODUCTION.
do and say what is here recorded ? These
are fundamental, vital questions, and these
are the living questions presented to the peo¬
ple on every hand. The literary problems
of these questions may never be grasped or
solved by any others than specialists. But
the portrait of Jesus which these contro¬
verted Gospels disclose, can be studied and
enjoyed by peasant and philosopher alike.
The portrait of that Person, in all the strength
and beauty of His character, is the authentica¬
tion of the books in which it stands. No nega¬
tive criticism can succeed in permanently
overthrowing the historical character of the
Gospel, because no negative criticism can
essentially weaken the unique character of
their representation of Jesus Christ. Con¬
troversies along this line can have but one
issue. If the Gospels are found wanting,
the want will not be in historical accuracy,
but in historical completeness. The monu¬
ment that marks the overthrow of such as¬
saults will bear the words already quoted,
"There are also many other things which
Jesus did."— " Old and New Testament Stu¬
dent." By permission of Dr. Wm. R. Harper,
editor, and professor in Yale University.
CHAPTER I
the ideal logos.
The wealth and force of the term " logos "
(Ao/of), is revealed so transcendently nowhere
as in its application to the Son of God.
As the word "book" (Bijftog), when applied to
the volume of revelation, the Holy Scriptures,
is lifted from its commonplace import, so the
term "logos," only a word, an ordinary one
in the original, in its specific and most ex¬
pressive application is fraught with all the
majesty of celestial speech. And as if
borrowed from the heavenly glossary, and
licensed for that peculiar service, it embraces
the idea of the divine unfolding through the
medium of revelation. In theological usage
it signifies the mediation and incarnation of
deity in the Son of God. The first thought
C13
2 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
involves the idea of Christ as Author of the
plan of salvation before the world, while the
second includes the scheme of redemption as
achieved in the flesh. Generically a word is
but an expression; then again, the sign or
medium by which one person's mind is re¬
vealed to another. Without a communicative
faculty, man would have little advantage over
matter. Unless this communication be by
means of articulate speech, he would be only
on a level with the brutes that perish. From
an otherwise solitary and degraded depth he
has been elevated by the magic influence of
articulate utterance into the divine dignity
of creation's monarch, " a little lower than the
angels."
Whenever and in what manner it pleased
the Father to manifest Himself, the Son was
chosen the medium of such manifestation.
This is true of men and angels alike. We
cannot wing our way sufficiently far into the
hidden recesses of anterior time to find no
movement of the divine thought in the Logos.
THE IDEAL LOGOS.
3
Nor can we conceive of any process of
the divine operation disconnected with the
agency or personage of the Eternal Logos.
Whether we emphasize the human or
divine aspect of the Logos, dazed and
obscure will be our conceptions, or vague and
misleading our doctrinal trend, unless supreme
consideration is given to the predominance
of the mysterious and inscrutable.
Whether we contemplate Deity in the
ineffable light of His sovereign and unre-
vealed character, or whether we study Jesus
of Nazareth as God manifest in the flesh,
ours is a problem as profound as the universe,
and as baffling to finite intelligence as " the
things the angels desire to look into."
Nevertheless, the fact of its inscrutability is
no formidable barrier in the way of a reverent
approach to a subject bearing so vital a rela¬
tion to humanity. Is this Logos the " He "
of whom Moses and the prophets did write ? is
" He " the Creator and Preserver of all things ?
is " He " the man Christ Jesus, who came from
4
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
the bosom of the Father ? is " He " the Friend
of publicans and sinners ? are all questions
which involve the peace, the well-being, the
salvation of mankind. But there are also
questions incidental and correlated to these,
fraught with the greatest significance to the
believer, as well as theologian. They do not
float upon the surface of the vast sea of the
God-thought or of divine revelation, but
underlie the substratum of the religious
feeling, and are interlinked to the mighty
system of faith in which towers all clear and
refreshing Christian thought.
Faith has sometimes been defined as pure
reason, the highest exercise of judgment in
the realm of truth. But even when it stands
on tiptoe it is unable to peer into the
mysteries of the unrevealed, or fathom the
deep things of God. However, predications
of the Unknown Being or state need not be
relegated to the sphere of speculation or
consigned to the ranks of agnosticism.
There is a natural tendency in all finite
THE IDEAL LOGOS.
5
judgment to sceptically estimate that which
it cannot comprehend. But such folly-
should not be exercised in our efforts to grasp
the contents of revelation or investigate the
hidden things of the supersensuous. To con¬
template the things above the reach of mortals
is as elevating to the intellect as it is gratify¬
ing and refreshing to the spiritual nature of
man. If we were inclined to accept only
that which we absolutely know, scant indeed
would be the store-house of our possessions,
as respects temporal as well as spiritual
matters. When knowledge totters, the help¬
ing hand of faith is extended. When sight is
dimmed in the mighty distance of futurity,
or is lost in the gaze of eternal problems, we
must either take the wings of faith and mount
aloft, or flutter in doubt and fear in reason's
selfish dungeon. While man may be non¬
plussed when challenged by the query, " Who,
by searching, can find out God? "yet it is
wonderfully consoling to the inquiring, long¬
ing soul, to be informed that " the only be-
6
THE DIVINE LOGOS,
gotten Son hath declared him." Not alone
the things necessary to " make wise unto sal¬
vation," are furnished us, but the things also
which religiously edify and gratify.
All this we find in inestimable amplitude
in Him whose self-revelation sets Him ever
before the eyes of a needy humanity as the
Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Who, then, is God, may be answered by
the Son of God Himself, as yet also by those
to whom He has given the most complete
revelations or self-manifestations. It were
forever a matter of impossibility for man to
even faintly apprehend the gracious attri¬
butes of Deity, much less draw near to the
awful brightness of His personality, had it
not been for the more subdued rays of a
glorious revelation, beheld in the face of the
Divine Logos.
An incontestable evidence of the dignity,
yea, divinity, of human nature is its deep
aspiration after the supernatural. This truth
ever finds a voluntary expression when man
THE IDEAL LOGOS. 7
is at peace with God and is a reflex of the
divine mind.
But even when the divine image is lost,
when the heart becomes " deceitful and des¬
perately wicked above all things," when men
are led captive by the devil at his will, there
is an unconscious yielding to the divine
impulse, a subjective struggle for mastery
over the forces of fallen human nature and
the acquisition of eternal truth and triumph.
In his primitive state, were Adam asked
for an expression of his ideal, he would tri¬
umphantly have pointed to the halo of heav¬
enly environment which encircled him. His
vision, as yet being undimmed by sin, would
permit him to take in the infinite expression
with spiritual transparency. He would gaze
upward, though infinite light bedazed his
sight. He could still gaze upward, even
when he fell.
If we follow him as he gropes his way
in darkness, we will find his head directed
heavenward, though his feet lay hold on
8 the divine logos.
the ways of hell. The avenue of inter¬
course between man and his Maker having
been closed by transgressions, and the
penalty of insulted justice having been
expressed by diluvian retribution, the dis- -
mayed posterity of Adam again sought pre¬
sumptuous intercourse with Heaven from
the plains of Shinar. The material monu¬
ment they attempted to rear was no less an
expression of their conception of the Al¬
mighty and His operations, than was it anal¬
ogous to the crude yet stubborn constructions
of humanity unsanctified toward the Infalli¬
ble Ideal.
The existence of these ideals may be dis¬
covered unconsciously breathing in every line
of heathen poetry, ancient and modern; in
their sculpture or paintings; in art, science}
philosophy, and religion, wherever existing
without the pales of the Christian system.
The Heavenly Standard was unrevealed, but
in the heart of humanity there was a con¬
sciousness of its existence somewhere and of
its attainableness somehow.
THE IDEAL LOGOS. 9
The ideal of ethics was met and vigorously
opposed by the Grecian sophists on the
ground that they were mere conventions.
To the gods, as the embodiment of these
ideals, the religionist would point, and predi¬
cate as a reason for loyalty to the same, that
"the gods made these distinctions." It was
not left for the true light from heaven to
show the fallacy of these ethical claims, but
the answer is forthcoming and silencing from
two young disciples of Socrates: "Granting
that the gods are disposed to enforce some
moral law, still, does that fact give any time
distinction between good and evil as such?
For whoever urges us to do right merely to
get the favor of the gods, urges us in reality
merely to do what is prudent." Such doc¬
trines make justice not desirable in itself, but
desirable for what it brings in its train.
Thus there would be no difference between
good and evil as such: only between what
brings reward and what brings punishment.
They finally appeal to Socrates for the best
10
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
exposition of the principles of ethics. The
shortcomings of the moral ideal was amply
seen in the answer given. The Platonic ideal
of justice was alike unsatisfying to the
earnest seeker after truth ; nor do the teach¬
ings of either Aristotle or the Stoics hit the
mark of humanity's deeply craved ideal. The
extension of the empire of reason to its ut¬
most range, or its elevation to the mind's
loftiest possibility, would alike leave the Logos
ideal ungrasped. That the various philo¬
sophic movements furnished antecedents or
afforded involuntary contributions to proper
conceptions of the transcendent Ideal Logos
is all that can be admitted. For it is not
until we contemplate the moral code in the
teachings of the Son of God and exemplified
in His life, and these alone, that the deepest
wants of the soul are met and the highest as¬
pirations of the mind honored.
CHAPTER II.
the idea developed.
"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy." Akin to this sublime utterance
is the conclusive verdict of our Lord Himself:
" Search the scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have eternal life : and they are they which
testify of me." The difference between the
Word "truth" from Genesis to Malachi, and
that from Matthew to Revelation, is the differ¬
ence only between evolutionary prophecy and
Christian doctrine. The Christ of Moses is
not the Christ of Matthew only as the seed
is not the flower or the blade is not the full
corn in the ear. The author of the Penta¬
teuch may be unlike the artists of the New
Testament in their representations of Christ.
The one beheld Him afar off, and as revealed
through the perspective of faith alone, while
cm
12 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
the others contemplated His personality with
natural eyes in the flesh. The former
waited long for Him, but died without the
sight, while these were privileged to thrust
their fingers in His wound prints, and ac¬
knowledge Him as "the Christ, the Son of
God."
It is not strange, then, that the synoptic
biographers should so far transcend the Old
Dispensation writer in their delineations of
the office and nature of the Son of Man ; and
yet the contrast between them is greater in
degree than in kind. Rather than presenting
the wide dissimilarity of shadow and sub¬
stance, the contrast suggests the harmony of
part and whole. Granting that with the writ¬
ings of Moses originated the Messianic idea,
the question is not how he came by it, nor yet
why did he not enlarge upon it, but rather,
what was its scope and how did he apply it ?
Whether it floated to him down the avenue of
tradition, or was unfolded to him through the
doors of his religious consciousness, matters
THE IDEA DEVELOPED. 13
little, since upon it he would found the world's
hope or predicate the faith of ages. The
germinal thought of his most notable proph¬
ecy, or rather the prediction he was inspired
to record, was first that the cause of universal
sin should be eradicated, and also that its in¬
strument of extirpation should be identical
with that of its occasion. All other ut¬
terances of inspiration, if prophetic or regal,
if patriarchal or sacerdotal, in complexion,
must be with an eye single to, and in strict
conformity with, this underlying, overtopping
promise.
This " seed of the woman " primarily, then,
referred to the human personality of Christ.
It would never do to circumscribe the notion
of the promise to either the divine or human
Redeemer, as apprehended by Moses, else
will be attached a sense never intended by the
great writer. A union of the two natures,
the humanity clothed with the divinity of
Christ, is a construction theologically neces¬
sary and actually sustained. The seed was
14
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
to germinate a plant of heavenly origin, yet
of earthly fruitage. It was to be planted by
the Divine Hand upon terrestrial soil, while
its leaves were to be for the healing of the
nations. Though the most miniature seed in
all the realm of vegetation, it embodied the
properties and involved the latitude of the
most adequate development. The most gi¬
gantic oak or most stately cedar of Lebanon
was to be compared to this Logos evolution
and expansion only as pigmies may be com¬
pared with giants or mole-hills bear semblance
to mountains. Its insignificant nature was
not to entitle it to contempt, because it would
yet afford a resting-place for both beast and
bird ; nor was its majesty or utility limited
to the farm and forest. Its horticultural
capacity is most strikingly manifest in its ser¬
vice to the sense of sight and the gratifica¬
tion of taste. Beauty and fragrance so
abounded in the lily and rose that they were
universally endorsed by ancient writers as
symbolic of the excellencies of the rose of
THE IDEA DEVELOPED. 15
Sharon and the heavenly lily. Scarcely can
one observe the trend of Messianic psalms and
prophecies, or follow the general current of
scriptural evolution along the line of pre-Chris¬
tian ages, without being struck with the beauty
and fitness of the tropes applied to Christ in an
evolutionary sense. According to prophetic
gauge, as a tender plant He was to grow up.
Not the stately aspect of the lordly cedar of
Lebanon is referred to, not the vast propor¬
tions of some mighty tree, that has reached
its maturity through instantaneous process,
but the mustard seed. As the tender plant
He should grow up.
To an adequate comprehension of the
Logos thought there were two antecedents.
The idea was capitalized and amplified by
John, but its conception and feeble expansion
might be traced to certain theological and
philosophical factors. Under the former the
teachings of Judaism might be summarized,
while Platonism, with its complex ideal color¬
ings, embraced the latter. Of these two fac-
16 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
tors, prime importance should be attached to
the theological, since not only in its very
nature it was constituted to strengthen a
more tangible form of theistic faith, but it
also formed an earlier basis for the evolution
of the Logos conception. Whatever the
occasion for the proper estimate and employ¬
ment of the term, it was already at hand in
the Old Testament when the apostle found it
necessary to use it. The thought points to
the personification of wisdom and a general
characterization of the term " Word of God."
In the books of Ecclesiasticus, Proverbs,
Sirach, and Wisdom, expressions are fre¬
quently employed which pointedly anticipate
the nature and functions of the Logos. To
quote only a few: " By the word of the Lord
were the heavens made" (Ps. 33: 6). "He
sent his word, and healed them" (Ps. 107: 20).
To the phraseology, "Word of God," the
Targum more strictly adheres. Personifi-
cally, the Word of God is introduced under
the similitude of wisdom. "I was set up
THE IDEA DEVELOPED. 17
from everlasting,.from the beginning, or ever
the earth was" (Prov. 8: 23). "He created
me from the beginning, before the world,
and I shall never fail" (Ecclus. 24:9). In
the Wisdom of Solomon this same divine
manifestation is styled as the " breath of the
power of God, and a pure influence flowing
from the Almighty."
Thus, without greater enlargements upon
its theological antecedents or further refer¬
ences to its philosophical anticipations, it
will be readily seen that throughout the various
periods and phases of Judaism, the idea not
only prevailed that God's revelation is a
mediate one, but that also the adequate and
exhaustive scheme was laid for the full de¬
velopment of the "doctrine of the creative
function, the enlightening office, and the
eternal generation of the Logos."
Yet more than this, since, beside the mis¬
cellaneous expansion of the Logos idea, the
fulness of time involved an expression of
the Logos as fact. For had He continued
18
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
to exist in Himself or in the mind of Deity or
man, the exigencies of the latter's condition
would never have been met. Without the
advent of the Eternal Logos in time to man,
the bridge of revelation had never been com¬
pleted,
CHAPTER III.
pre-existence.
Uplv ASpauu yeveodai kyu elfu.—John 8: 58.
If the prologue of John's biography of the
Logos, so beautifully portrayed, is lacking in
any one respect, it is the brevity of its allu¬
sion to the pre-existent state of the Son of
God.
He seems to halt long enough upon the
threshold of the sublime narrative merely to
make secure his pathway of movements,
meantime exciting in the beholder an inter¬
est in the revelation, only satisfied by sub¬
sequent though fragmentary references made
to it. He tells us that " In the beginning
was the Word " (John i : i).
At this pithy utterance there is a natural
temptation to demur, but upon second thought
C195
20 the divine logos.
it will be discovered that enough is contained
therein to make the most anxious wise, even
unto salvation. John has winged his way
sufficiently far into. the hidden recesses of
the past and has recorded enough to increase
the faith and confirm the hope of dying men
in Him who is the Life and Light of men.
(John i : 4.) And this seems adequate to
the situation, as it embraces both all that
was necessary and all that was possible. It
was necessary that the eternity of Christ
should be an established fact, in order to meet
the situation of fallen humanity, since belief
in Him is the prime condition of eternal
life. (John 3 : 15, 16; 1 John 5:11, 12.) As
a prominent evidence of the eternity of
Christ and of His consequent pre-existence
as to time and humanity, we have to refer
but the introductory phrase of the Johannic
Gospel.
The (Ev apxn) "in the beginning" here is
plainly antecedent to the "in the
beginning " in Genesis. With Moses, while
PRE-EXISTENCE. 21
the eternity of Deity is taken for granted,
the personality of the Son, nor yet the fact
of His being, was hinted at, to say nothing
of His already existent state. With these
data the Christology of John begins, since
they are absolutely fundamental to the estab¬
lishment of his profound discoveries and
predications respecting the Logos.
That the being of Christ was prior to, and
entirely independent of, all temporal consid¬
erations, is clearly manifest from the revela¬
tion He gives of Himself. To Abraham the
Jews accorded antecedence in time; but this
claim was abolished by the stronger revelation
that, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:
58). To the " Father of the faithful" the
Great Teacher attributed merely a temporal
existence (yeveadai), while of Himself eternal
being (elfri) is predicated. All humanity exists
or has come into being, but Divinity always
has been and will ever continue to be. It
is bounded on all sides by the infinite uni¬
verse of eternity.
22
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
" There is another view of the matter which
I never saw developed, but one which power¬
fully confirms my position. It is stated thus
in the catholic creed of Christendom: —
'And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only be¬
gotten Son of God, begotten of His Father
before all worlds, God of gods, Light of
light, very God of very God, begotten, not
made, being of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made.' The dis¬
tinction between ' created' and ' begotten' is
not only a proper one, but is one of infinite sig¬
nificance. God could beget but not create
the Lord Jesus Christ. He could 'make'
man, and make him in the image of this God-
man, but in no sense could He ' make' the
Lord Jesus Christ. Adam was made out of
a substance which the fiat of the Almighty
produced out of nothing. But no act of will
or power could produce the Person of the
Mediator of the nature of God, and, indeed,
'very God.'
"The Lord Christ was indeed 'begotten,'
PRE-EXISTENCE. 23
not ' created,' and this infinitely distinguishes
Him from all other beings, and exalts Him
infinitely above all other beings, notwithstand¬
ing the fact that the Father, in the act of be¬
getting the Son, saw fit to ally His divine
nature to an order in the rank of creation
lower than that of angels; hence the sig¬
nificance of the term so often used in the
Scriptures, 'the Son of God,' 'the only be¬
gotten Son of God,' His 'only,' His 'well
beloved Son.' But the common view strips
these terms of deep and wondrous meaning,
of all their beauty and appropriateness. The
Lord Jesus, in His origin and humanity, was
in no wise distinguished from any other man
created out of the dust of the earth, if the
common view is the true one " (" History of
the Cross ").
Anterior to the laying of earth's founda¬
tion or the appearance of the first speck of
shapeless matter in the world of chaos, the
Son of God dwelt in the mysterious folds of
His own personality or shared the glory of
24
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
a hypostatic trinity. Before a single star
twinkled in space, or the first atom evolved
from nonentity, in the bosom of the Almighty
Father rested the Eternal Logos. In the dis¬
tant, dateless aeons of eternity, there He
sat, Lord over all, God blessed forevermore.
Above all principalities and powers, higher
than heaven's highest hierarchies, His was
undisputed supremacy, His all power and
glory. When, as yet, angels were untold, or
ministrant spirits slumbered only in omnis¬
cient thought, this Ancient of Days did sit,
the only begotten Son of the Father, by
Divine degree, — was sovereign Lord of all
that was or was to be.
Among the order of created intelligences a
little higher than man, the angels rank first.
Greatest of all created beings, their prime
and chief duty was subjection to Christ.
Eternal allegiance was due to Him as Sov¬
ereign Lord and Maker; and this because
from Him their being and creation came.
"For by him were all things created, that are
PRE-EXISTENCE. 25
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or domin¬
ions, or principalities, or powers : all things
were created by him, and for him : and he is
before all things " (Col. r : 16, 17). Nor can
it be conceived but that to Him the most
willing ascription of universal majesty has
ever been accorded. Him the angels praised
and glorified ; Him they adored in the highest.
For countless ages, supreme homage was
yielded Him as the only begotten Son of the
Eternal Father. Throughout the intermina¬
ble plains of the upper world, harmony and
felicity reigned while the sceptre of sover¬
eignty was swayed by the Son.
His will was tfie supreme pleasure of the
entire angelic and celestial host. No ripple
was perceptible in the flow of heaven's service.
No unwelcome spot or speck could be dis¬
cerned in heaven's pure and spiritual atmos¬
phere, while yet the holy Son was awed by
all. How long the holy ranks of angels re¬
mained unbroken, no one can tell. It was un-
26
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
revealed to man when allegiance to high
heaven's appointed King was discontinued.
They might have kept their probationary state
through numberless cycles, much longer than
man kept his, most likely. Why they were
not willing as a whole to worship the Almighty
Prince throughout the eternities, can only be
surmised. The entire problem covers a field
of mystery inexplorable by creature capacity,
and will baffle all successful speculation
throughout all time. Waiving, then, all con-
jecture as to the cause of angelic disloyalty and
treason, the sequence and effect of their apos¬
tasy is accepted by every believer in a re-
vealed reference to the case.
Nor did the rebellion and fall of angels in
any wise affect the universality and omnipo-
tency of Christ's sovereign sway. For even
in the lake prepared for the devil and his
angels, confession is made that "Jesus is
Lord, and beside him there is no other."
The devils, though in hell, were as truly sub¬
jects of Christ's governmental control and su-
PRE-EXISTENCE.
27
premacy, as when they kept their first estate
in heaven. But all the angels did not sin.
It was only a fractional part of the armies of
heaven that withheld allegiance from their
Divine Chieftain. All the true followers of
the celestial standard continued their de¬
votion and worship of the Logos as if no
disturbing element had ever entered heaven's
plains, or as if the melody of celestial har¬
mony was never checked.
" The rebellion in heaven was waged against
the ' One Mediator,' and was put down and
checked .by Christ's kingly power. And the
confirmation of those who remained steadfast
in their allegiance was the official act of the
Great Daysman. He was the Judge who
experienced the awful prerogatives of eternal
justice in that supreme hour in heaven's his¬
tory, the same Judge who will sit on the
throne in the day of final judgment, and on
the same ground, and by virtue of the same
authority vested in Him frcrm the beginning,
will pronounce the sentence of life and of
28
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
death eternal, and separate forever the right¬
eous from the wicked. The wonderful ways
of providence also on this earthly theatre dur¬
ing four thousand years of eventful history,
were all ordered and shaped and controlled
and subserved by the same Hand that hurled
Satan from his seat, and exalted the angels
that kept their first estate, and that ever since
has been rolling on towards completion the
eternal purposes of the Godhead" (Sher¬
wood).
CHAPTER IV.
LIFE.
Ev avt(p guTj.—John i: 4.
As its Creator, the life of the world, in the
most universal sense, has its source and
fountain-head in the Logos. Before He put
forth 'His creative energies in space, or
brooded by His omnific spirit above the womb
of nonentity, no protoplastic motion stirred
chaotic stillness, nor anything breathed that
now breathes. The tiny plant hid yet its
spiral head, the snow-hued lily slept within
its latent couch, atomic insects sparkled not
in dusty regions or danced in nature's sun¬
beams. No daisy turned its velvet bosom
sunward, no perfumed dahlia filled the air
V
with incense. In unknown depths leviathan
gambolled and ichthyosaurus could not stir
[29]
30
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
a limb. Embryonic life slumbered in prim¬
ordial cells, and all nature slept the sleep of
universal death.
Step by step can we trace the progress of
life in nature, as we follow the light of revel¬
ation. Against such systematic organization
and development, science utters not a word
of protest; nor will it ever utter a syllable of
objection to the record of inspiration, since
its Author is one with the Author of revela¬
tion. It is only when science is falsely called
such, or when obscured by superficial investi¬
gations, or is hampered by the manacles of
creature bias and predilections ; in a word, it
is only when it sees through a glass darkly,
that it fails to see in every crevice and phase
of nature the mighty workings of nature's
God.
To confess that the Word of God is a being
of order, as of sovereign potency, one has
but to glance at the revelation of Moses be¬
fore turning to the testimony of John. Viewed
as the thought of God, the Logos is the most
LIFE. 31
glorious in majesty, when considered in the
plan of the universe. The pattern for all
things was either formed within Himself or
conceived in the mind of Deity. But not
only as the content of the Divine mind, but
by the expression of Divine activity also, the
Logos is most transcendently set forth in
the unfoldings of the Johannic revelations.
To His eternal omnipotent energy John
ascribes universal creation in the dictum,
"All things were made by him " (John i : 3).
between this utterance and the initial state¬
ment of Genesis, where Moses attributes creat¬
ive acts to God, there is no conflict, since the
same omniscient spirit dictated both. The
Logos was not the recipient of delegated
power from God, in any sense, since it would
be impossible for such to be, in the first place ;
and since, again, He was Himself the em¬
bodiment of divinity. (John 1 : 1.) The
Almighty God and the Eternal Logos must
therefore be one.
Our postulate, " In him was life," is suscep-
32
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
tible of infinite expansion and application.
Though not intended to be understood with
reference to natural life, yet no violence is
committed to the thought involved to admit
its applicability to the entire material fabric
of nature, with its varied phases of animation.
Nor does the idea embrace merely this. Its
scope includes not only every form of being,
but all shades of existence, every variety of
energy, every mode of material condition.
Superlatively it takes the angels, and man
next, a little lower than the angels. In the
Eternal Logos, the celestial intelligences, like
finite mortals, live and move and have their
being; but so also the speechless and thought¬
less creation.
The inhabitants of the atmosphere, the
cattle upon a thousand hills, the finny millions
of watery depths were all indebted to Him
for creation, as well as Providence. Yet not
only is Divine origin and superintendence
asserted respecting the beasts that perish or
falling sparrows, but even the grass of the
LIFE. S3
fields, which to-day flourishes and to-morrow
is cast into the oven, owe their beauty, their
verdure, their vitality to Him in whom was
life.
For if it be true that the Logos is not the
hypostasis of every type of creation, in what
sense could the apostle declare that "all
things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made"
(John i : 3) ? From the minutest dust particles
floating in the sunbeam, to the most stupen¬
dous world revolving in space; from insect
and angelic creation, emanates and perpetu¬
ates the divine virtue of Him whom the
evangelist most fittingly styles, " the Word of
life " (1 John 1 : 1).
Gaze whither we may, this Word of life is
most strikingly manifest in attributes in the
manifold works of creation. Here it is most
clearly revealed as both living and powerful.
Identically such was its nature from the in¬
cipient morn of creation. Then the Almighty
Logos spake, and it was done. He com-
34 THE DIVINE LOU OS.
manded, and His decrees stood immutably
fast. Hear Him as He speaks to the chaotic
depths of nonentity! See how the light
flashes outward from their gloomy dungeons
at the sound of His omnific fiat! Behold yon
monarch of nature as he rides forth in his
fiery chariot, darting his lurid looks on all be¬
neath ! Who bade him wake from his dun¬
geon of slumber and stare his eye-balls
through desolation vast ? Who bade the dry
land appear or to be clothed with grass and
plants, and fields and forests to be robed in
vernal glory ? Who halted the mighty waters
in their proud dominions, and commanded
them to yield to life their inanimate multi¬
tudes ? Heed not the answer which agnos¬
ticism may give nor that which scepticism
may insinuate. They who are ignorant of the
hand of God in nature, and they who deny
the display of His creative genius in the stu¬
pendous world-system, must merge forth from
the dominion of darkness and death ; must be¬
come like little children, or be born from
LIFE.
35
above, before they can accept the truth as ap¬
plied to the Logos that, " In him was life "
and that "all things were made by him."
(John 1:3, 4.)
But the Logos as Life is only superficially
comprehended, unless considered in the light
of His spiritual significance. The infinite
meaning encouched in the phrase can only
be discovered by that vision which, healed by
faith, is enabled to peer through this cosmic
curtain and revel amid the grandeurs of the
new creation. It is of those alone who have
or would experience the second birth, that
the Saviour directly proclaims Himself the
Life. (John 14: 6.) In harmony with the
same thought, the ideal revelator employs his
favorite expression, and speaks of the Logos
as the Word of life. (1 John 1 : 1.) The os¬
tensible meaning of the apostle's phraseol¬
ogy doubtless is, that aside from the Logos
there is no mediation.
In a similitudinous aspect the vitalizing
character of the Logos is also beautifully re-
36
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
fleeted. He declares Himself to be the Bread
of Life. (John 6:35.) For spiritual sustenta-
tion and immortality, food is as indispensable
to the soul as to the bodies of men. With¬
out it the world had already perished, and
would continue in its state of indigence and
death. But it is a happy revelation that its
salvation was secured by its appropriating life
from Him who, as living Bread, came down
from heaven. (John 6: 51.) The interrup¬
tions of spiritual death are not only neutral¬
ized by the impartation of this higher life,
but even physical death affords an inviting
channel for its perpetual outflow. (John
8: 51, 52.)
The wealth and grandeur of the life derived
from the great Author of life consists in its
endlessness. Its inception may indeed be
referred to time, but its culmination is reached
when eternity can be limited. Nor is its pos¬
session postponed to the hereafter. Here
and now everlasting life is the boon of the
believer. (John 6 : 47.) Everywhere this
LIFE.
37
sublime doctrine receives fresh confirmation
from the Saviour. He taught it during the
midnight interviews with Nicodemus and
preached it in His noon-day discourses to the
woman of Samaria. (John 3:4; 4 :14.)
Again and again did He endeavor to force
His convictions home to those who clamored
for His blood, but seemingly without avail.
(John 5: 24; 6: 40; 8: 51.) Because He
demonstrated His life-giving power, the Jews
sought to put Him to death ; but He gave
them to understand that the offering of His
life was not compulsory: that He had power
to lay it down and to take it up. (John 11:
33 5 10: 7> 8.)
CHAPTER V.
incarnation.
Kat 6 Tioyoc Gap!; hyeveTO. — John I: 14.
While the Johannic revelation reflects the
Divinity, it no less certainly emphasizes the
assumed humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Desiring to introduce the transcendent Per¬
sonage in a practical manner, the glory-vis-
ioned seer at once presents the Author of life
to a perishing world. Marvellous is the tran¬
sition he makes from eternity to time, from
heaven to earth, and from Deity to man.
But lest the revelations overtax our faith, and
the cords of our sympathies become severed
in efforts to grasp the Infinite, he simplifies
the sublime, retrenches the mystic, and, in
a word, makes a long story short by present¬
ing man to his Elder Brother. God thus
[383
INC A RATA TION. 39
manifest in the flesh, pictorialized in human
nature, and radiating in matchless speech, act,
and life, became the greatest possible expres¬
sion of heavenly thought, the most ample
confirmation of infinite love.
The appearance of Christ in the flesh was
not the first instance of Divine assumption of
man on record. Greek and Roman divinities
were represented with human embodiments
and as exercising human functions ; neverthe¬
less, such representations were invariably-
coupled with human weaknesses. Even such
notorious potentates as Domitian, Caligula,
and Diocletian claimed divine honors, and ar¬
rogated to themselves divine character.
But whenever men or gods attempt to im¬
personate the true God, such efforts not only
proclaim rank sacrilege, but exhibit their sui¬
cidal character in revelations derogatory to
both divine and human claims. In such
cases the gods are no better than men and
men are analogous to devils.
In speaking of an incarnate being, the idea
40 the divine logos.
of the condescension of one of a wholly supe¬
rior order is pre-supposed. So when John
speaks of the Divine Logos appearing in the
flesh, we shall expect of the narrative com¬
plete compatibility with all the preceding and
subsequent claims characterizing it; also, cor¬
respondence with the highest manifestations
of the most refined humanity.
This remarkable account declares that the
Word was made flesh. (John i: 14.) While
the pre-existence and divinity of the Word is
here conceded, it is not implied that God was
changed to man, but that He became united
to man. To do this He did not make Him¬
self of no reputation so much as that He
emptied or divested Himself of divine dig¬
nity, according to the idea in the original.
The veritableness of our Lord's humanity
radiated from His every earthly act and ut¬
terance. Though presented to human view
by John at a stage of achieved manhood, He
was still formed and fashioned as a man, hav¬
ing a human body and soul. His childhood
INCARNA TION. 41
was analogous to that of Adam's posterity
generally, save in its environments and ex¬
traordinary features. As a child, He prob¬
ably wept and smiled, as cloud and sunshine
marked His early life. As a child, He was
subject to His parents, gladly doing their
bidding, cheerfully consulting their will. As
a child, He increased in favor with God and
man, until, achieving Divine consciousness,
He set about His Father's business. The
intermediate scenes of His career are not
revealed. At thirty, however, the character¬
istic age for the assumption of priestly func¬
tions, the curtain is drawn, and what do we
see ? We see the Lamb of God, which tak-
eth away the sin of the world. (John i : 39.)
In other words, we have in this spectacle the
atonement pre-figured, personified. In tran¬
scendent beams, here streams His glory, the
glory of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and of truth. (John 1 : 14.)
In the history of the functional life of the
Logos, what a beautiful blending of the ordi-
42
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
nary and extraordinary, the natural and pre¬
ternatural. As a man, He arrests us by His
social and sociable instincts. He converses
with men and takes them into His fellowship.
At another moment, His social nature is ex¬
pressed at the marriage festival; in His en¬
tertainment of Nicodemus; in His discourse
with the woman of Samaria. (John 2 : 7; 3 :
154: 10.)
But man is sympathetic as well as social,
so He not only commingles with men, but
feels with and for them. And so we see in
the God-man the full play of those acts of
benevolence, the outcome of this feeling. He
listened to the nobleman's tale of grief, and
healed his son; His heart was touched with
pity for the impotent man at the pool, and He
restored him ; the sight of the hungry multi¬
tudes moved Him, and He satisfied their
needs; in the darkness, upon the turbulent
waters, He quells the fears of the disciples.
(John 4: 50; 5: 1556: 11 ; 6: 20.)
As benevolence is a higher office of sym-
INCARNA TION.
43
pathy, we see this virtue beaming again and
again from His gracious acts. Take the case
of the accused adulteress submitted to Him
for adjustment. The charge seems well sus¬
tained in matter, if not in manner. But He
tempers judgment with mercy, and dismisses
her in peace. (John 8 : 14.) The expression
of this heavenly trait of our Lord is strikingly
attested in the presence of the bereaved fam¬
ily, when He groans in troubled spirits and
weeps at the grave of Lazarus. (John 11 :
33, 35-)
But as sympathy is much beneath its
mark, and benevolence below its climax, until
it glows and shines in love, so of this match¬
less Personage, John testifies that, " Having
loved his own which were in the world, he
loved them unto the end" (John 13 : 1).
The incarnation of the Logos, then, is as
real and indisputable as the personality of
Hannibal or Shakespere. The scepticism
which now questions His divine union with
humanity once admitted that union only in a
44
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
specific sense. It acknowledged the divine
factor then in conjunction with the human
thought at the expense of the divine. Now
the tendency is to emphasize and exalt the
human by discountenancing the divine alto¬
gether.
Then the evidences of the supernatural were
so glaring and stubborn, that even the blind
by prejudice admitted them, though they
found them stones of offence. Some were
honest in their scepticism, as St. Thomas
the doubter and St. Paul the persecutor.
To all such now, as then, the truth, when
accepted, will display the glory of God re¬
vealed in Jesus Christ. If we accept Him
only as man, the most perfect of men simply,
only in this life may we hope in Him. Around
the nucleus of this faith a new brotherhood
may cluster ; but for the lack of the life of a
higher faith, its works will die and leave us
of all men most miserable. If, on the other
hand, we appropriate Him as the best human
expression of the Divine; if upon the wings
INCARNA TION.
45
of a sanctified faith we betake ourselves
above the dark regions of unbelief, through
the unclear atmosphere of rationalism into
the lofty realm of infinite love and truth, we
will both see Him who is invisible and know
hereafter what is now not known.
CHAPTER VI.
WORKS OF THE LOGOS POSITED.
To substantiate the authority of a visible
or invisible God to finite conception, natural
evidences are ever feasible, ever admissible.
Than both dogma and doctrine, they occupy
a higher place in the scale of religious import¬
ance, a loftier rank in the systems of divine
truth. As products of human judgment
they may both err, while the voice of God in
nature, like His unerring hand, is capable of
no variableness nor shadow of turning from
the truth. Should the atheist insist that
there is no God, or the agnostic doubt that
He can be known, natural evidences, with
protesting tongue, will assert that God is true
though every man be false. Paul was right,
then, when he capitalized in the material
fabric of nature, decisive arguments of the
C46]
WORKS OF THE LOGOS POSITED. 47
eternal power and Godhead as against unbe¬
lief and wickedness. Nor was John wrong
when, upon His mastery of the forces of
nature, he discovers the manifest glory of the
Son of God, and posits upon the genuineness
of miracles the evangelical faith of the early
Church.
Whatever else may be alleged in behalf of
miracles and the propriety of their use on
the part of the Founder of the Christian
religion, it cannot be denied but that they
were beyond satanic manipulation, and sup¬
ported the mission of truth. If it be true
that they alone attest the truth, it is only
reasonable that we should expect their em¬
ployment by Him whom revelation styles the
Truth. Upon such instrumentalities Heaven
has placed a patent right, and all reproduc¬
tions in the name or bearing the semblance of
them are lying wonders, merely intended to
vindicate the cause of error in opposition to
that of truth. If it be no marvel that Satan
transforms himself into an angel of light,
48
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
it is not surprising at times to find him usurp¬
ing the livery of heaven in which to do the
service of hell. With what ingenuity does he
set about, through Jannes and Jambres, to
duplicate and weaken the intervention of
divine power in the Mosaic ministry! But
while his machinations were apparently suc¬
cessful with the ancient leader of Israel, so
successfully foiled he was in his first engage¬
ment with the Captain of our salvation, or so
thoroughly assured of His heaven-born su¬
premacy, that he neither imitated nor tempted
Him thenceforth.
Clear, then, is the gospel track for the
triumphant movement of miracles when the
Word of God begins His ministerial course
in the flesh. In adopting miracles for the
expression of momentous realities, He neither
violated the laws of nature nor contradicted
Himself. As its monarch, He knew infinitely
more about nature than man, and simply
utilized the latter's ignorance to his eternal
profit.
WORKS OF THE LOGOS POSITED. 49
Somewhere in Farrar's "Life of Christ," it
is intimated that everywhere in nature the
philosophy of the supernatural may be dis¬
covered. Instead of accounting for mysteri¬
ous physical manifestations on the ground of
a sovereign mediation, that writer resolves
the most striking phenomena to the influence
and sequence of natural operations. He also
intimates that what we style supernatural
is only natural, and that the mysterious are
only reflections of our obscure discriminations.
He further ventures the suggestion that the
incomprehensibility of the so-called miracu¬
lous readily disappears at the touch of knowl¬
edge, love, and faith.
He who would master nature's secrets must
first of all convince her of his love. In her
friendliness he must confide, to her gentlest
whispers must ever lend a sensitive ear. No
earnest, truth-loving votary of nature is ever
turned aside. To all such she is ever ready
*-
to unbosom her secrets or unlock her treas-
ures. No sooner is ,her spirit imbibed, than
50
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
the enamoured devotee becomes elevated to a
plane from which streams transcendent floods
of light. From this lofty point, in looking
upwards, his healed vision is bathed in the
effulgent streams of wisdom, so that, in look¬
ing downwards, light also springs up from
the most darksome corner of nature. It was
from this eminence that Newton espied his
secret of universal affinity; here Franklin
saw how the lightning could be tamed; and
Watt, how the most inimical forces in nature
might be unified and made obedient to the
behest of science and human will.
It is simply because man knows so much
and loves nature so well that the natural ele¬
ments are so beautifully blended and are
affectionately responsive to his every call.
The water hears him, and straightway makes
obeisance. He speaks to the air, and pos¬
terity will awake from its slumber to give
audience. The strong heart of the earth is
touched by the wooing of his voice, and at
once she unbosoms a thousand unrevealed
WORKS OF THE LOGOS POSITED. 51
mysteries. With lips no longer mute, she
speaks through her rocks and trees and
metals ; and man, her listening disciple, soon
becomes enriched with the hidden bounties
of the past or present.
Among the recorded miracles of our Lord,
none excites human wonder more than His
raising the dead. But what is it to be dead ?
If it be only a disorganization and dissolution
of the ties of nature, then, given an adequate
knowledge of the relations and operations of
nature and competent power to reconstruct
and revive its disintegrated fabric (admitting
the analogy between natural and spiritual
factors) and the resurrectionary claim of our
Saviour, " I am the resurrection, and the life "
(John II : 25), is at once simplified.
Never man spake like Christ nor performed
the miracles that He did, chiefly because
that of human nature no man possessed so
varied and profound a knowledge; because
toward its laws no one ever sustained so har¬
monious a relation. Of humanity He must
52
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
have sounded the core, for He knew what was
in man and knew all men. (John 2: 24,
25.) His diagnosis of humanity was so
transcendently adequate that by way of pre¬
eminence He is accepted as the Great Physi¬
cian. Even the fearful revelation of universal
condition need not be despaired of, since He
is able to save to the uttermost, and will in
no wise cast out those coming to Him,
though they be covered with wounds, bruises,
and putrifying sores.
As a master de facto in the realms of
thought and being, that the Son of Man
should hold undisputed empire over human
and demoniacal spirits might be consistently
expected. To be unable to uplift the curtains
of ignorance from man's eyesight, or remove
the film of sin from his spiritual vision, were
to degrade the office of the Almighty Logos,
and construe His plenipotentiary claims as
mere verbiage, intended to delude the simple
or captivate the weak.
Let the sceptic, then, deny the place or pos-
WORKS OF THE LOGOS POSITED. 53
sibility of a violation or suspension of nature's
operation in all the life and utterances of the
God-man, and we are with him. But if such be
his idea of the miraculous or of what is the prin¬
ciple and sum of the life of Christ, we are not
with him. That life, from its auspicious dawn
to its mature decline, wore a benediction of
light and coronation of matchless beauty and
magnificence. In its varied and mysterious
trend, it was clothed with the majesty of the
rainbow, which overtops yet smiles on all
beneath. In its simplicity it was profound;
yet in that simplicity was perfect power, and
the profundity it embodied touched the root
of all things. While, upon the natural side,
and with reference to its human origin, the
lights and shadows giving color and form to
other lives, mark this also, yet these were to
this as is shadow to substance, hill to moun¬
tain, or part to entirety. Zoroaster, Confu¬
cius, and Socrates charmed their respective
votaries with the musical accents of their
striking lives; but as the procession of pos-
54
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
terity would come along, instead of finding
impetus in the anthem of these lives, inhar¬
monious notes and discordant sounds so mar
their movements, that ever and anon they
turn aside, and await the calling or seek the
footprints of some safer guide. No doubt
but that had these mighty religious teachers
lived with Christ in the flesh, and seen His
wondrous works and heard the musical
cadence of His sayings and felt the magnet¬
ism of His unique life, no doubt but that they,
like Peter and James and John and Paul,
would have left all and followed Him.
CHAPTER VII.
light.
'eyCt slut rb <j>i5f tov koo/uov. — john 8: 12.
Painfully is it true that ever since the
advent of sin in Eden, the whole world lieth
in darkness until now. Of its true character
and intensity there can be no finite concep¬
tion. Not merely is the negation of light
or predication of immoral delusion meant,
when darkness is asserted as the natural
state of the world, but, ostensibly, the
thought refers to the moral pall cast upon
the race by the invasion of sin, and the
withdrawal of the reconciled countenance of
Heaven from earth. Yet this was not all;
for since man was unable to comprehend
the light that shone even in the darkness,
for him was reserved the blackness of dark¬
ness forever, had not the Dayspring from
[553
56
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
on high visited us, and the Eternal Logos
appeared as the Life and Light of the
world. (John i.) Impenetrably thick was
the deadly gloom which settled in forebod¬
ing heaviness in the spiritual atmosphere,
but not so that it could not be pierced by
the Sun of Righteousness. The heavenly
Logos was able to proclaim Himself, above
every disastrous mist of sin or appalling cloud
of human guilt or shadowy confines of moral
death,—above the fading lights of reason
or the flickering rays of philosophy, — "the
light of the world" (John 8 : 12). The eagle-
piercing eye of John enabled him, while
upon the mount of vision, to determine
with equal accuracy concerning the Logos,
that He was "the true Light," since He
"lighteth every man that cometh into the
world " (John 1 : 9).
Light is but another expression for knowl¬
edge or truth. It also symbolizes the high¬
est moral excellence or spiritual perfection.
As the embodiment of very truth itself (John
LIGHT 57
14 : 6), Christ came into the world to impart
a true knowledge of God. To all men He
is the manifestation of light. Not simply is
He such to those from whose eyes the
" scales of darkness" are fallen, and who
walk in the light as He is in the light, but
even those held in the bonds of iniquity
acknowledge and feel the unique perfection
and excellence of the Incarnate Logos.
Even the notorious Rosseau observed, "that
if Jesus had not really lived, the conception
of such a character as drawn in the narrative
of the gospel, that narrative would itself be
a miracle, a psychological problem, difficult
to solve." The thought is yet more forcibly
expressed and more clearly brought out by
Paul Richter: "There appeared once upon
earth an individual, who, by moral omnip¬
otence only, conquered far-off ages, and
founded an eternity of His own; who shone
and attracted like a sun; who moved nations
and centuries round the eternal and universal
centre. It is the quiet Spiril^ whom we call
58
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
Jesus Christ. If He was, there is Providence,
or He Himself is that Providence. Only-
gentle teaching and dying were the notes
whereby this higher Orpheus tamed human
beasts and turned rocks into cities. He,
the purest among the mighty, the mighti¬
est among the pure, lifted, with His pierced
hands, empires out of grooves, the stream of
centuries out of its bed, and is still the Lord
of the ages."
Never more literally exemplified were infal¬
lible claims than the Great Teacher declared,
that as long as He was in the world He was
its light. (John 9: 5.) Through His entire
life's work and words beamed a transparent
clearness. " In Him we find strength and
gentleness, meekness and zeal, wisdom and
simplicity, courage and patience, indomitable
purpose, inflexible firmness, and the most
delicate sensitiveness — all masculine and
feminine excellencies perfectly blended; and
that not by any effort, but as the outflow
of one deep, central fountain of perfect holi-
LIGHT.
59
ness and uninterrupted communion with the
Father" (Saphir).
As already intimated, light is symbolic of
holiness. Hence, when Christ was called the
Righteous (i John 2: 1) and the Holy One
(1 John 2: 20), it was only in accord with
what was acknowledged concerning Him by
the world. There were some who, more
wicked than certain devils even, branded
Him as a deceiver; but by far the greater
portion of humanity agreed that He was
a good man. (John 7:12.) And though the
adverse judgment of the minority con¬
demned Him to death, the acquittal verdict
of the highest judgment was, that no fault
was found in the man. (John 18 : 38.) For
righteousness sake was He persecuted, even
to death. He not only claimed to be the
Son of God (John 19: 7), but was the Son
of God. Though Heaven attested the claim
in audible utterance (John 12: 28, 29), yet
men rejected it in unbelief. Here we have
in the rankest intensity the opposition of
60
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
darkness to light, of sin to holiness. Here,
through the midnight of the moral universe,
flashes the lumination of eternal life, the
lustre of which is prolonged sufficiently to
insure a passage to the world of light. It is
neither fleeting nor flickering, but its steady
radiance bears down upon their deluded
course. It would seem that, in the midst of
such awe-inspiring revelations, even those in
the jaws of death might look and live. But
not so. For it is said, "The light shineth
in darkness ; and the darkness comprehended
it not" (John I : 5).
The doctrines and doings of Jesus will
ever baffle the natural understanding of men.
Did the Sun of Righteousness never shine, or
did He hasten to withdraw His glorious pres¬
ence from sin-enfeebled human nature? Had
He not risen, or, like some impatient meteor,
darted through the moral void, closing the ave¬
nues of light behind Him, then might linger
in mercy's heaven some faint ray of hope on
which the doomed of sin might hang their
LIGHT. 61
fears. Our cosmic orb is eager to forsake
the western plains at summer's height, as
compared to • the missionary season of
heaven's visitant to earth. Joshua was no
more a type of Jesus than was the sun of his
faith symbolic of Him who " lighteth every
man that cometh into the world " (John i: 9).
As the Lord's people of old, under that de¬
vout chieftain, had the light of heaven de¬
layed for a season in their behalf, even so were
men permitted to enjoy the prolonged light
of the truth as it is in Jesus. As the revela¬
tion of God, however, the Logos informed
the world of the impermanence of His light-
giving presence, and gives warning of the
danger of not improving the opportunity of
seeing. " Yet a little while fs the light with
you. Walk while ye have the light, lest dark¬
ness come upon you : for he that walketh
in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
While ye have light, believe in the light. . . .
I am come a light into the world, that who¬
soever believeth on me should not abide in
darkness" (John 12 : 35, 36, 46). ^
62
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
Before the advent of our Lord into the
world, no subject was shrouded in greater
mystery or enveloped in more intense dark¬
ness than that which related to man in the
unseen world. Many notes of prophecies
were heard echoing along the lines of the Old
Dispensation; but in reference to the old un¬
opened volume of eschatological bearing, they
gave only indistinct utterances or uncertain
sounds.' Seer after seer had parted clouds
or rent veils that barred the sight of mortals
from the great unknown. But neither tel¬
escopic sight of faith or ken of poets had re¬
moved the pall or pierced the gloom or
quelled the doubts over setting this all-mo¬
mentous, vitally solemn subject. Here and
there, now and anon, above the religious
horizon, and amid the celestial firmament,
would float, with momentary transiency, some
emitted ray from the luminary of eternal
truth, conveying slight tokens of hope to a
benighted world, or signifying scintillations
ambiguous in response to the universally re-
LIGHT.
63
sounding query, " If a man die shall he live
again ? " The burial of the great Jewish law¬
giver at the hand of the Almighty, the super¬
natural translation of Elijah, Ezekiel's vision
of a revived valley of dry bones, King David's
grief-feccasioned solace that he could go to
the death-sundered human tie that could
never return unto him, indicated the cer¬
tainty of death and the powerful reality of
the preternatural world, while they dast no
light upon its true character nor helped to
draw the curtain that draped its ominous
phenomena.
If these thoughts justly apply to the feeble
rays of revelation before the all-luminous
blaze of the Sun of Righteousness, what a
world of darkness would they render the fox¬
fire glare of philosophy as applied to death
arid its contingent issues! While the relig¬
ious world lingered jipon the brinks of uncer¬
tainty, while they waited for some light from
the upper world, the intellectual world either
groped in darkness or slept in blissful igno-
64
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
ranee over the mightiest problem that could
concern humanity or interest the angelic
sphere of thought.
In enumerating the radiating aspects of
the Logos, one cannot fail to consider the
original and sublime doctrines He taught and
the fresh revelations of truths which He fur¬
nished the religious world. To the intellect¬
ual, moral, and religious nature of man, these
truths and doctrines were forever hermeti¬
cally sealed, had they not been opened by the
King of Glory. Through them, Divinity
shone with the transparency of a sunbeam.
To catch a glimpse of the ineffable influ¬
ence of the Logos as earth's most majestic
luminary, one need not confine his gaze .to
those streams of lustre which flowed from
the glory-crowned face of Him who beamed
forth from the Mount of Transfiguration, but
let him look steadfastly upon the course and
character signified by the "star in the east."
The horoscope of his vision will then extend
beyond the radius of the halo of smiles about
LIGHT. 65
the babe in the manger, to the circle of
brightness circumscribing the acts and say¬
ings of "the fairest of the sons of men."
No such light ever dawned upon the spirit¬
ual: consciousness of man or greeted his relig¬
ious eyesight, as that which shone from the
doctrine of the new birth as taught by the
world's Redeemer. As the Great Teacher
came from God (John 3 : 2), He soon unfet¬
tered human vision, and enabled it to take in
a ray of spiritual truth respecting the celes¬
tial kingdom. Before this, regeneration as a
fundamental pre-requisite to a proper concep¬
tion of divine things had never been taught ;
nay, had not even been known to mortals ;
nay, more, such a truth seems to have been
shut out from even religious guides them¬
selves : " Art thou a master of Israel, and
knowest not these things" (John 3 : 10) ?
Not only was the subject shrouded in mys¬
tery or even mantled in impenetrable dark¬
ness, but it was even more than this; for so
far as a consciousness of its reality was con-
66
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
cerned, it was a mere blank or nonentity. If
this be true, it is not strange or striking that
its annunciation should have elicited such as¬
tonishment from Nicodemus. " Marvel not
that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again " (John 3 : 7).
Also upon salvation, its nature and modus
operandi, was great light thrown by the all-
illuminating Logos. In the highest sense
truly did He bring life and immortality to
light, when He answered by precept, as well
as example, the questions of infinite merit,
How and why are men saved ? Salvation
had ever been possible, yea, even an accom¬
plished fact, since the achievement of its plan
in the heavenly counsel; yet how it was to be
appropriated by helpless and lost humanity,
or what was involved in its security, no angel
whispered, no priest uttered, no prophet
knew.
There was, indeed, a historical revelation of
salvation, but only as the Logos manifested
Himself through the medium of prophecy
LIGHT. 67
and law. Isaiah spoke of Christ as the
Author of salvation, and saw His glory.
(John 12 : 41.) The psalmist also gave ut¬
terances which found fitting' application in
the facts of His enthusiasm and opposition.
"And his disciples remembered that it was
written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up " (John 2:17). "I speak not of you
all: I know whom I have chosen : but that
the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth
bread with me hath lifted up his heel against
me" (John 13: 18). Finally the Baptist
appears as the last prophet and the immediate
pioneer of the Logos. Though clearer in his
conceptions and more definite in his prophe¬
cies concerning the true Light of the world,
it was said of John, he "was sent to bear
witness of that Light" (John 1: 8). "He
was a star like that which guided the wise
men to Christ; a morning star; but he was
not the Sun; not the Bridegroom, but a
friend of the Bridegroom; not the Prince,
but His harbinger."
CHAPTER VIII.
truth.
'Ey« elfu rj ultjdeia. — John 14: 6.
The sublimity of the character and office
of the Logos is imperfectly manifested, until
seen in the light of the highest office of rev¬
elation, as well as in the light of the highest
claim of all His earthly utterances. As else¬
where and previously observed, it is the office
of speech to reveal thought. But this may
be done without regard to the character of
the revelation, for within its scope and ac¬
tivity is extended the bordering line between
the domains of truth and error. And while
it is the chief and highest prerogative of
speech or revelation to discover the relation
and distinction between the two, yet its duty
may be performed and it may rest in content-
[68]
TRUTH. 69
ment when it has delivered itself of the bur¬
den of its mission by making known the will,
thought, or feeling of the one in whose ser¬
vice it is employed.
But more than this is to be affirmed of the
nature and mission of the Word of God.
The object of His entrance and career in the
world was to impart a knowledge of the
truth on the one hand — " And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free "
(John 8: 32) — and to afford testimony to
the truth on the other — "To this end was I
born, and for this cause came I into the world,
that I should bear witness unto the truth"
(John 18: 37). So lofty and infinite is the
sphere of truth, so weighty its eternal respon¬
sibilities, that none dared to assume its high
errand or meet its grave and varied implica¬
tions other than the self-volunteered, divinely-
chosen Mediator.
When heaven found it necessary to vindi¬
cate its righteousness, it was done through
angelic instrumentalities. When it would
70
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
make known its laws, it deputized human
agency. But when it would have truth look
down from its glorious habitations or spring
up from the earth, the Son of God became
its embassador and embodiment. "For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ" (John i: 17).
Still all this may be so, and yet men may
remain as distant in conception from the
truth as ere its dawn first gilded these
earthly plains. To catch a glimpse of its
eternal sunlight, one need not climb the tow¬
ering height of intellectual vision. Genius
and greatness must stand in its presence
with uncovered heads; yea, even pause at its
feet, in humble posture, if they even would
learn what truth is. Before we are prepared
to institute a search for this celestial visitant
to earth, let us forsake the proud stand of
the proud ruler of old. Not with haughty
spirit nor with a self-satisfied air would it do
to seek its person or palace. If we know the
truth or feel its power, we must leave all
TRUTH. 71
else with Pilate, but keep his query. Then,
too, let us ask, "What is truth?" (John 18:
38) and consider some of its incidental fea¬
tures.
At times, the negative definition of a thing
is much more convenient and feasible than
the positive. It is much easier to say what a
thing is not than to define what it is. Such
is the case when one begins to inquire into
the nature of truth. In dealing with it, in¬
stinctively will the mind begin to institute a
series of comparisons from contrasts, and
employ illustrations world without end, and
in the main leave the matter just where it
was found — involved in obscurity. So that,
after all, we must incline somewhat sympa¬
thetically toward unfortunate Pilate in his
method of settling the mightiest of all ques¬
tions, while we think his treatment of its
value highly censurable. For while he in¬
quired what truth was, he is to be condemned
for not pausing sufficiently long for an
answer.
72
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
Had his bearing been less haughty and his
conduct yet more manly in the presence of
the great Person of Truth, the fetters, which
held him fast bound in error's slavery, might
have yielded; and he, poor, time-serving, vac¬
illating mortal, might have been able to step
forth as a son of Light.
Yet he advances one step in the direction
of freedom. He makes a slight movement
toward the Empire of Truth, though uncon¬
sciously, when he shows up its negative side ;
or, perhaps, more charitably, when he re¬
vealed its positive character: " I find in him no
fault" (John 18 : 38). If the Person of Truth
is to be sought, here must the start begin.
Its faultlessness implies its perfectness.
Truth is as much the opposite of faultiness
and error, as light is of darkness. It is per¬
fect in its individual parts and in its entirety.
Truth suffers no admixture with error, be¬
cause it is inseparable from itself. Fact may
resemble it, but it is infinitely higher than
fact. The latter may be hopelessly dis-
TRUTH. 73
jointed and so perverted that it may have
only the current value of fiction : but
" Truth crushed to earth will rise again.
The eternal years of God are hers."
Confronting the universe of truth, and re¬
sisting the Logos on every side, was the
world of stubborn facts and nurtured error.
The chief design and crowning point of His
earthly career was to meet, combat, and con¬
quer these, and, having spoiled them, to make
a public show of them. Of the two forces of
opposition, facts were less insidious and in¬
veterate than fiction, because no one would
object to them because they were the foun¬
dation stones of all moral, social, and civil
institutions. Facts were stubborn things to
confront, and not easily silenced; and hence
those who knew not the truth, and who op¬
posed it through ignorance, were usually well
armed with and intrenched in facts. Never¬
theless, in contradistinction to these and in
opposition to them, in so far as they were in¬
adequate to promote His cause, the Logos
74
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
erects a sky-kissing platform upon which He
rests not as transcendent fact, but as infinite
truth.
To vanquish error, the creature of darkness,
and to destroy the works of Satan, was the
Logos manifested. "For this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil " (i John 3 :
8). And since this phase of His career was
more conspicuous, it deserves more than a
passing notice; for, observe that conflict
with error and its destruction was the para¬
mount object of the mediatorial scheme and
the sum total of our Logos business on earth >
hence the consistency of the embittered hos¬
tility against Him and the Truth He would
establish in the hearts of men. The plot of
that nefarious tyrant to destroy the infant
Logos, was but one of an innumerable series
of blows aimed at the Head of the kingdom
of light by the prince of darkness.
The Logos asserts Himself to be, not 'only
the living way to God, but the true way (John
TRUTH. 75
15 : 1) ; yea, even truth itself. " I am the
way, the truth, and the life" (John 14: 6).
In ignorance of this superlative fact, how
lamentable is the thought that the world was
dungeoned for ages. Since light may be
synonymous with truth, the idea of the
apostle may be better understood when ap¬
plied to the Logos under the former dispen¬
sation, to whose unperceived activities he
dQubtlessly alluded in the expression, " The
light shineth in darkness ; and the dark¬
ness comprehended it not" (John 1 : 5).
Not only to Jehovistic revelations and theo-
phanistic manifestations everywhere promi¬
nent prior to the earthly movements of the
Logos does he refer, but the persistent
obliviousness of the world to the presence
and power of truth personified, he summarizes
in the phase, "He was in the world . . . and
the world knew him not" (John 1 : 10). How
glaring is this fact in the face of our Lord's
conflict with unbelief and error in all their
hydra forms!
76
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
He charged the world as being under alle¬
giance to Satan — " Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him " (John 8 : 44) — and in subjection
to error and sin, as accounting for its ethical
obtuseness and deficiency in point of spirit¬
ual intuitiveness. But from this bondage
there is hope in the promise of effectual
emancipation. It is to be brought about not
through the triumphant march of civilization,
nor by the conquest of thought or culture.
The disciples of Plato might not see it, nor
obstinate subjects, nor devotees of worldly
wisdom ever greet its unfolding presence,
but its majestic power is to begin, and its
disenthralling character become manifest,
when the hinges of unbelief give way to the
authoritative tread and divine entrance of the
Teacher of men. Ere this knowledge is pos.
sessed, the Logos must be accepted as the
Word of God, and His doctrine loved and
TRUTH.
77
observed. However, continuance therein
alone gives assurance of religious liberty.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free " (John 8 : 32).
CHAPTER IX.
love.
Kaduc riyanrjOEV fie o narr/p, nayu i}(iag rtyarcrjaa. — John 15:9.
Contemplated in any light whatever, the
subject of divine love is one fraught with
ever increasing interest and wonder. Nor is
its significance and intrinsic value ever to be
comprehended by finite capacities. Yet, not
only does it present to all human intelligence
"a problem that passeth understanding," but
its solution or investigation challenges even
supernatural wisdom, and may be ranked
chiefly among the things " angels desire to
look into."
This is none the less true in whatsoever
aspect or "bearing the theme may be conned.
Take it in its barest abstraction, and con¬
sider the love of Deity per se. Upon its re-
[78]
LOVE.
79
motest border the philosopher must ever
linger, while upon its infinite, thought-sea
the child of fancy may only make superficial
plunges or flights. Without the pales of revel¬
ation, the problem of God's love is surrounded
by the boundless fields of speculation. Out¬
side of what is revealed, no one can tell what
it is or naught else concerning it; for, not to
begin with what is uttered through inspira¬
tion respecting it, what could be the starting
point of finite judgment about it, or in what
manner would it proceed, or where would be
its egress, having already started ? If upon
the fact in nature the reality of the divine
love should be postulated, could anything be
ascertained definitely of its character, appli¬
cation, or scope ? Suppose from the babbling
brooks, the singing birds, the refreshing at¬
mosphere, and invigorating sunlight, should
be proclaimed the truth that " God is love;"
suppose the same sublime sentiment should
find expression in the fragrance of the flow¬
ers, in the beautiful tints of the rainbow, in
80
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
the appetizing bounties of the fields and for¬
est, in the touch of friendship, and in melli¬
fluous strains of music ; suppose these same
evangels should wing the air, and reverberate
throughout the universe that " God is love,"
would not another and higher interpreter be
needed to give meaning and adequacy to the
truth? That interpreter could be found in
man only in part. Not in man in his activity
so much as in man in his passivity. He
alone of all mundane intelligences can read
the sentiment of divine love in its self-human
reflection. But as an exponent of this truth,
in a still higher sense man is much inferior
to the angels, since the latter are so much
more exalted both in scale of being and intel¬
lectual endowment. Than man they know
vastly more of their Divine Creator, occupy¬
ing so approximate a relation to Him in vir¬
tue of their constitution and occupation.
From the standpoint of their superior
eminence, both of native merit and acquisi¬
tion, certainly above other beings, they seem
LOVE.
81
best qualified to attest the chief expression of
divine goodness. But while they may know
more of this infinite attribute than man, even
to their knowledge and possible attainments
there is set a bound. In their untiring study
of the divine nature, they are none the less
absorbed in admiration and praise than lost
in love and wonder.
Revelling in seas of unrippled happiness,
though swallowed up in love, they know only
of its source, but can neither measure its
height nor fathom its depth. To compre¬
hend its loftiness, intensity, or profundity,
they must not only soar to heaven's climax,
but delve to misery's lowest vortex. They
must be able to sound the core of Eternal
Being, must compass the borders of infinite
holiness, must span the distance between
justice and mercy, or bridge the gulf out¬
stretched from law to grace, ere they can
enter into the mysteries of divine love or
vibrate the chords of its feeblest notes.
Not nature, then, nor man, nor yet the
82
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
angels, are sufficient factors in the solution
of the stupendous problem of divine love.
Deity Himself, and He alone, must express
and make it clear, since God alone is truth
and God alone is love.
Among the manifold implications of love,
none occupy a higher place or are entitled to
more marked consideration than its correla¬
tives, union and communion. This is none
the less true of finite than infinite love. To
suppose the lack of union between subject
and object, is to suppose not only the non¬
existence of love, but the contagions of dis¬
sension and hate. Between the lover and the
one loved, the union must be almost undistin-
guishable from oneness or identity; and the
communion obtaining between them must
not be mere association, but vital affiliation
and fellowship.
It is when we estimate the Logos in the
light of these implications, that the initiatory
claims of John's revelation regarding Him
seem most strikingly sustained. His one-
LOVE.
83
ness and co-equality with God are pellucidly
brought out in the statement that the Word
was God (John i : i).
In the same breath we also have the fact
of the Son and Father's co-operation, one of
the holy offices of love, a thought we shall
amplify in the order succeeding this.
Not more allied is human speech to human
personality, than the bond of unity that
relates conjointly the Son of God with His
Heavenly Father. In the bosom of the
Father the Son has ever occupied the sover¬
eign seat, and from the morning of eternity
has reigned as " King of kings and Lord of
lords." If the universal supremacy exer¬
cised by Christ were not of His own con¬
stitution, it was bestowed upon Him as the
only begotten Son of God. The Father was
pleased to glorify the Son, and it was no
usurpation on the part of the latter to claim
equality with the Father. Nevertheless, the
greatness of Christ was as derived and con¬
ferred, in a sense, as it was inherent or the
84
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
result of His divine nature. To this let us
see more directly. As Son of God, the
Logos became heir to divine sovereignty in
all things. High above all principalities,
thrones, and powers, God appointed Him
heir of all things. Not in the least was His
sphere or glory to be compared with those
of angels, He being made so much "bet¬
ter than the angels, as he hath by inher¬
itance obtained a more excellent name than
they."
It was not, then, until the First Begotten
was brought into the world, that all the
angels were to worship Him. If the annals
of eternity could be explored, it would be
found that many and unbounded were the
ascriptions of sovereignty to Christ before
the foundations of the earth were laid. The
homage and worship of angels were, beyond
doubt, among the expressions of glory He
enjoyed with the Father before the crea¬
tion. That He was invested with supreme
glory, He reminds His Father, as it were,
LOVE.
85
in that wonderful intercessory supplication
made just before He was offered up on
Calvary.
The full sense in which the Logos shared
association with the Father can never be
answered. Suffice it to say that a result
of the affiliation obtained was fellowship
and counsel with reference to the plans of
creation and .redemption. A thought in
reference to each of these plans: —
In reference to creation, it is the express
teaching of John that all things were made
by the Logos: " All things were made by
him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made" (John 1:3). This
must include every species of creation, every
variety of existence, since without Him
"was not any thing made that was made."
Especially is the creation of this planet to be
applied to Him, since the world was made by
Him. (John 1 : 10.) Said Philo in his "Alle¬
gories," " The Word of God is over all the
world, and is the most universal of all things
86
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
that are created." Again, in his " Questions
and Solutions," the Word of God is "the
first beginning of all things, the original
species of the archetypal idea, the first
measure of the universe." Yet vague and
misty is the sublimest theory of heathen
philosophy by the side of the most practical
and fundamental datum of Christianity.
That the Logos is the Alpha and Omega
of the system of providence as of the plan of
creation, is too patent from Scripture to admit
of questioning. He who is the Beginning
of eternal things must be the Author and
Finisher of temporal matters. As this truth
is applicable to the Father, in whom we "live,
and move, and have our being," it is true
of the Son, " by whom all things consist."
Inseparable from the believer are the links
in the chain of divine providence. He is
"kept by the power of God . . . unto sal¬
vation," while "underneath are the ever¬
lasting arms."
He knoweth the frame and uniform
LOVE.
87
thoughts of His subjects, and exerciseth His
providential regard toward them by number¬
ing the very hairs of their heads and caring
for them. But herein is also beautifully
blended the divine co-operation of the Son
and the Father, in the guidance and well-
being of the believer. He has not only
granted a dispensation of the Spirit, but has
vouchsafed His eternal presence and grace
to His confident followers.
But above all else in the divine affections
and thought, was the plan of redemption.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son." Yet succeeding the
consummation of the divine will and pleasure
in this vital line, both preparatory steps and
stages of development were involved. A
covenant between the Word and Father was
therefore entered into the remote councils of
eternity, the subject-matter of which was the
redemption of humanity from the ban of the
broken law. Only could this be effected by
the terms of the inimitable covenant being
88
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
met. Its exactments, though superlatively
rigid, were met in the sacrifice of the " un¬
speakable gift" of God.
Had the Son interposed the slightest ob¬
jection, its wholesome promises would have
fallen, its eternal provisions forever forestalled.
But as He delighted to do the will of His
Father, He readily acquiesced in the divine
plan respecting man.
As the Father loved the Son and the Son
the Father, what the Father loved the Son
also loved. Also, while it is true that God
sent His Son, it is even true that the Son
freely and cheerfully came. Love was the
inspiration that moved and the celestial wings
that bore Him to earth. It was the golden
circle in which His forces played on earth,
the golden chain that still linked His life to
heaven.
Thus the chief and most normal impulse of
love is the sacrifice of self for its object. It
seeks not its own interest or happiness, but
spurns every phase of selfishness. Its min-
LOVE.
89
istry is that of benevolence and complacency.
This ideal love has its abode and culminating
point in the heart of Divinity alone. On the
part of the Infinite it became manifest in the
inestimable Logos gift. (John 3 : 16.) The
value of this priceless legacy is only the more
enhanced because of its conferment upon an
undeserving and unappreciating world. (John
3 : 17.) All other love is but dross as com¬
pared to this. Creature love or angelic love
may be imperfect, since it tends again toward
self; but " herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins " (1 John
4: 10).
CHAPTER X.
teacher.
OiSa.fj.ev on inrb deov i"kr)7a>9aq didaaKalog. — John 3: 2.
In the light of all the learning of which
the world boasted for ages,—that which
beamed from Akkadian myths and lore or
streamed from the mathematical systems of
Egypt or gilded the dicta of Indian savants
or penetrated the body of Grecian meta¬
physics, that found liberty in prophetic
schools or remained pent up in Alexandrian
academies,—yet still it was that the world at
large and in particular needed a teacher from
God. Neither Istarian legends nor Hindoo
philosophy nor Chinese research nor Assyrian
science nor Grecian poetry nor Roman
theology could furnish aught of security
beyond the comfortless pales of their own
structures. They carried with them no
C90]
TEACHER.
91
internal evidence of vital worth; they bore
no credentials of supreme authority. They
were either vague or misleading, else dis¬
satisfied or unsatisfying. They bred anxieties
among their devotees and cynicism among
themselves. Their priests set up universal
wails of discontent, and the people in lugu¬
brious echoes answered back. Men con¬
cerned themselves very little with the
problem, What is truth ? but tried to solve
its sensuous side, What is life and is it worth
living ? Its origin, all said, was agnosticism;
its aim, knowledge and happiness; its philo¬
sophic teachings, the avoidance of misery;
its inevitable, disappointment.
Upon the threshold of the Christian era,
just before the Great Teacher appeared, the
essence of all true wisdom, it was taught, was
to regard life with supreme indifference.
Empedocles and Heraclitus, Plato and
Hegesias, all regarded death as the chief
benefactor of humanity.
Thus the darkness and degeneracy which
92
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
enveloped and pervaded the world with
regard to its creed and character prior to the
appearance of the Logos, can at once be
seen. Therefore its need of a Teacher wiser
and greater than Moses, or more authoritative
and perfect than Socrates, must be readily
perceived in the universal condition referred
to. The most lamentable feature of this
wide-spread and appalling cloud of ignorance
is again perceptible, in that it obscured the
spiritual sense or curtained the intellect or
begloomed the moral consciousness of priest
as well as credulous followers. In the main
and in a word, the entire situation may be
reduced to this : The blind were leading the
sightless. They stood alike upon the brink
of destruction, when the word and works of
the Guide from heaven called back their ill-
starred footsteps. Surely He who was able
to proclaim Himself the Way, the Truth, and
the Life, was worthy of universal confidence
as the infallible Teacher of a world of
mortals.
TEACHER.
93
The authority of the Logos as a divinely
delegated teacher, rested not upon human
discovery of that fact, nor upon human con¬
fession and testimony to the same. Though
a thousand Nicodemuses had affirmed or
denied His official rank as the heavenly lega-
cied Teacher, it would not have weakened nor
strengthened the fact in the least. Had the
acknowledgment of Nicodemus — " We know
that thou art a teacher come from God"
(John 3:2) — met with universal endorsement,
it would have been summarily dismissed by
the Great Teacher as inadequate and im¬
material. Alike valueless were the witnesses
of Nicodemus and John, of Thomas and
Bartimaeus, of sceptical Pharisee or credulous
devotee, as he received not the testimony
of man. " I receive not testimony from man "
(John 5 : 34). Independent of and infinitely
above every human agency, there were incon¬
testable claims of the incarnate Logos.
Regarded objectively, these may be found
underlying and crowning all the acts and
94
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
achievements of the Word of God. To these
He Himself attached an importance over¬
shadowing all others, and to these He could
boldly appeal in proof of His divine mission
and omnipotent character. " But I have
greater witness than that of John : for the
works which the Father hath given me to fin¬
ish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me, that the Father hath sent me. And
the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath
borne witness of me " (John 5 : 36, 37).
By no means, however, is it understood
that human testimony or discipleship was in
any sense discarded by the Divine Teacher^
for He Himself recognized its place and fore¬
told its appointment. " And ye also shall
bear witness, because ye have been with me
from the beginning" (John 15 : 27). The
infallible test the world was to apply to the
messengers of truth, — " By their fruits ye
shall know them," — Incarnate Truth would
have applied to Himself.
Since, then, by their fruits the former were
TEACHER.
95
to be known, even so was the latter to be
proclaimed to the world by the tongue of
good works. It was through these that He
would have His claim to infallibility discovered
and His right to the confidence of men rec¬
ognized. Hence He could stoutly challenge
the blind and obstinate Jews, and say, "If I
do not the works of my Father, believe me
not. But if I do, though ye believe not me,
believe the works: that ye may know, and
believe, that the Father is in me, and I in
him" (John 10: 37, 38).
The rejection of Christ as the heaven¬
sent Teacher of men, in the face of His stu¬
pendous and overwhelming work-evidences,
is made the proof of human guilt and
the occasion of human condemnation. It
scarcely seems possible that the many mighty
works He did only won for their Author, in
the estimation of man, the opprobrious title
of an impostor. Is the human heart so de¬
ceitful and vile as to suppose that the divine
resources could be so easily commanded by
96 the divine logos.
one whose sinister errand was to deceive
humanity ? Had Christ mocked the anguish
of men, had he scorned the appeal of the
weeping sisters, had he taken food from the
needy or sight from the seeing, had he done
evil instead of good, or embassied the cause
of darkness instead of the kingdom of light,
those who spurned His teachings or sought
His life might have been credited with some
consistency at least. But since never man
spake like Him; since never was guile found
in His mouth; since grace was ever found in
His lips; since the dews of kindness were
distilled from His every utterance ; since the
honey of love flowed from His every act;
since He was the anointed of heaven, in
whom the Father was well pleased, surely sin
reached its most daring climax, and infernal
wickedness its most blazen depths, when they
impugned His holy motives and piled infamy
on His sovereign claims. No wonder that, as
He was about to place His cause in His
Father's hands, and lay down His life for
TEACHER.
97
the world, wiping the blood of His enemies
from His holy garb, He could kindly say,
"If I had not done among them the works
which none other man did, they had not had
sin" (John 15 : 24).
CHAPTER XI.
the glorified logos.
Kat dedot;ao/j.ai kv avron. — John 17 : 10.
Of unpardonable shortcoming must the
account of the Divine Word be judged,
which from a religious standpoint does not
unreservedly surrender to His claim as the
Lord of glory. Concession to this truth
is the pillar and capstone of all trustworthy
revelation, the Aleph and Tau of all adequate
salvation. As a golden thread, this sublime
admission should penetrate every sacred ac¬
count of the Son of God; as a crowning
point it should adorn our views regarding
Him. The initiatory accordance of John,
that men attested this glory and the self-
testimony of the sacred Hero also, but too
truly substantiates the narrative. He refers
to some dateless era of eternity when He en-
[98J
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. 99
joyed this glory in union with the Father.
(John 17 : 5.) The most exalted sphere of
celestial felicity and happiness was enjoyed
by Him ere He commenced His career in the
flesh.
But We here find ourselves upon the
threshold of one of the most stupendous
problems in the divine volume, and there we
must content ourselves. And yet, because
the Lord did become as a servant, and the ac¬
knowledged sovereign as a menial subject,
we should mingle our wonder with praise,
since He disrobed Himself of ineffable glory,
despising the shame and humiliation, and
freely kissing the rod of the divine vengeance
in order to secure our deliverance from
death. By acceptance of and loyalty to His
mandates, we should replace the diadem of
infinite splendor upon Him, and again crown
Him Lord of all.
During the darkness of His earthly pil¬
grimage, while, as it were, treading the wine¬
press alone, it is refreshing to contemplate
100 the divine logos.
the beams of glory that often brightened the
pathway and gilded the sorrows of our Lord.
The evidence of His being the only begotten
and divinely-endorsed Son of Heaven, no doubt
sent shafts of light through the midnight of
His solitariness, and aided His passage across
the steep and rugged ways of His earthly
toils. Of the thick clouds that gathered about
the "Man of Sorrows," most melancholy
nature is not faintly suggestive, nor can
human sympathy, by sheer force of feeling,
estimate — clouds occasioned from a keen
sense of man's spiritual need and his ignor¬
ance thereof; clouds from the hostile ele¬
ments of a sinful world in which He was a
stranger; clouds arising from the gulf of
misery below, into which He must plunge in
order to rescue man ; clouds of divine ven¬
geance from above, which must eclipse His
life ere He effect the sinners' atonement.
Amid such excruciating realities, might we
expect other than the divine confession,
"Now i§ my soul troubled" (John 12: 27)?
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. 101
Nevertheless, this dire humiliation of Christ
cannot be contemplated aside from the glory
it involved. As in the deep shadows of
evening clusters of brilliant tints combine,
so in the darkening shades of the divine
earthly life, celestial halos always dispelled
the gloom. From vale to highland, in humili¬
ation and then in glory, we characterize our
Lord's tabernacling among men. Depres¬
sions and elevations are. the threads and
texture which interwove the incarnate life;
its darkest gloom bore its related sunshine,
its deepest struggles issued in signal tri¬
umphs. His was not the case of the chieftain
who awaits victorious returns from the field
of engagement to be covered with honor, but
that of the hero of successive struggles, who
wears his glory alike contending with the foe
as while enjoying the shouts of admirers.
This glory, although veiled, was as real in
Gethsemaneas at the Jordan at His baptism;
on Calvary when crucified, as on the mount
when transfigured. The wise men discerned
102
THE DIVINE LOGOS.
it in the star that heralded His advent.
Angelic notes attuned it to a sleeping world
and to waiting shepherds. Costly treasures
at His cradle and enriching fragrance at His
tomb, most eloquently attested the genuine¬
ness of the glory due the Prince of Peace and
Saviour of men. In being able to complete
His life's work, in the openly given divine
„ acknowledgments to His sonship, in His
resurrection from the dead and reception
into heaven, we have the highest earthly
expressions of the Lord of glory.
But what was all this compared with the
glory that was revealed thereafter, or by
the side of the supernatural honors He en¬
joyed with the Father ere the morning stars
sang together or the sons of God shouted for
joy ? Then angels worshipped: now saints
unite in adorations. Then the incense of
heavenly harps was scattered: now victori¬
ous palms are flourished. Then the chorus
was "Old Hundred " : now they sing a "new
song." Then the heavens declared the
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. 103
glory of God : now heaven and nature echo
the "song of Moses and the Lamb." Its
apocalyptic refrain, floating from heaven to
earth, caught the spiritualized ear of Him
who, though really elevated to the highest
peak of divine love on earth, apparently is
deserted upon the precipice of human extrem*
ity. But since the extremity of mortals is
often the divine opportunity, the darkness
of His human trial is only a medium through
which the beloved John experiences more of
the grandeur of infinite love. The sublimest
splendors of heaven are presented to his
glorified vision, but their central figure is the
victorious Word. Coronated throngs, bril¬
liant multitudes, dazzling thrones, stupendous
celestial grandeurs attract his beatific eye in
panoramic succession, but his spiritual gaze is
ever steadied upon the "Altogether Lovely."
Whatever else of glorious rapture stirred his
soul, naught else excited his ecstasy so much
as the universal homage yielded Him who sat
upon the throne. Blessing and glory and
104 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might are the salient features
of the spontaneous worship ascribed by the
unisoned tongues of heaven.
"The purely spiritual glory of God in
heaven is, no doubt, that which excelleth ; it
more immediately radiates from Him as a
spirit, and belongs to His nature and image.
Its perfect manifestation is the unveiled
vision of His face, and must afford the
highest bliss to the spiritual nature of crea¬
tures in the highest state of advancement.
It satisfies its longings, it bows reverently
before the vastness which is set before it;
it asks no more. It would be the height of
rashness, if not sacrilegious, to attempt to
describe the glory. It has not and cannot
enter into the heart of man to conceive of it.
And there are words which are unspeakable,
and things which are unhearable and unbear¬
able, even as there are things which are
inconceivable by men. Ah! how can we,
who are of the earth, comprehend the pure,
THE GLORIFIED- LOGOS. 105
spiritual glory of the Godhead ? God has
proclaimed His name in His Word, and in
His works demonstrated the glorious attri¬
butes of His character; but still, how little
we know of Him! How feeble and imperfect
are our conceptions, not only of His character
as a whole, but of any one of its individual
attributes! How vain, then, to attempt to
describe, or even to comprehend, that spirit¬
ual glory, which will forever attract and fill
the most enlarged contemplative power of an
immortal spirit! All that we can say is, that
the perfections of the divine character will be
unveiled to the contemplation of the re¬
deemed. They shall see Him as He is;
they shall know even as also they are
known." " Conceive one glory resulting from
substantial wisdom, goodness, power, truth,
justice, holiness; that is, beaming forth from
Him who is all these by His very essence,
necessarily, originally, infinitely, eternally,
with whatsoever else is truly a perfection.
This is the glory blessed souls shall behold
106 the divine logos.
forever." " They shall see the beauty of His
person; the splendor and brightness of His
understanding; the largeness of His love;
His uncorrupted justice; His unexhausted
goodness; His immovable truth ; His uncon¬
trollable power; His vast dominions, which
yet He fills with His presence, and adminis¬
ters their affairs with ease, and is magnified
and praised in them by the throng of all His
creatures."
But may not the Divine Being, by some
sensible glory not belonging to His essence,
and which it would be too much for man,
while in the flesh, to behold, manifest Him¬
self to the redeemed in tfeaven? To see
what angels and the glorified in heaven look
upon with steady gaze and joyful exultation,
would rend the veil of the flesh and cause
our present tabernacles to break in pieces.
Is it wholly inconceivable that the Most High
should grant to them some adumbration of
Himself? some symbol as the sign of His
presence? John, however, maintains that
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. 107
there may be in heaven some such "um¬
brage," or " shadowy representations," as an
object to the proper sensitive powers and
organs of the resurrection body. Archbishop
Tillotson, on the other hand, thinks that the
expression, "seeing God," is to be taken
strictly in a spiritual sense. "We are not to
dream that we are to see God," he says, "with
our bodily eyes; for being a pure spirit, He can¬
not be the object of any corporeal sense; but
we shall have such a sight of Him as a pure
spirit is capable of,—we shall see Him with
the eyes of our minds and understandings.
And in this sense we do, in some degree,
see God in this life by faith and knowledge,
but it is but darkly. When we come to
heaven, our understandings shall be raised
and cleared to such a degree of strength
and perfection that we shall know God after
a more perfect manner than we are capable
of in this state of mortality. And this per¬
fect knowledge of Him, together with the
happy effects of it; those affections which it
108 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
shall raise in us, and that blessed enjoyment
of the chief good which we are not able to
express, is that which is called the sight of
God."
But whatever may be true as to the figur¬
ative or literal sense of the beatific vision, as
commonly understood, the subject seems to
be relieved of all difficulty when we consider
that the Shekinah, or visible symbol of the
Divine presence, will be seen in the glorified
humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. God was
"manifest in the flesh " by that material body
of Christ, which men saw with their eyes and
which their hands handled; which they had no
power to destroy without His permission;
through which His disciples saw the rays of
His divinity stream forth, changing the fash¬
ion of His countenance until it shone above
the brightness of the sun, and imparting to
His garments a lustrous whiteness as "no
fuller on earth could whiten them " ; which
was suspended on the cross ; which the tomb
could not confine ; and was seen and handled
by them after His resurrection.
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. 109
This very body they saw go up into
heaven ; and there glorified, it still manifests
God—manifests Him as He could not be
manifested to mortal eyes. The Deity took
our nature that He might suffer therein, and
might converse with, finite creatures on earth.
He therefore took a body which did not seem
to differ from their bodies. He still wears
our nature in heaven, that creatures who are
still finite, and who could not sustain the
dread presence of God and live, may enjoy
communion with Him there : but oh, how
glorious! The transfiguration glories may
have been, in part, designed to give us some
conception of His body of glory. His people,
too, shall be around Him, with their vile
bodies fashioned like unto His glorious body.
And this humanity, shared alike by the
Redeemer and the redeemed, this communion,
this vision of God manifest in the mediatorial
King, will be eternal. The tabernacle of God
will be with men forever, in the sense that
the glorified humanity of our Lord will be the
110 the divine logos.
tent or tabernacle in which the glory of His
divinity will reside, and through which its
splendor will shine forth, with a brightness
which shall fill all heaven with unspeakable
joy.
The saints in heaven will behold the once
crucified but now exalted and reigning
Saviour, every one exclaiming, " He loved me
and gave Himself for me! ' Thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation !' " Christ will not lay aside His
glorified humanity where He lays aside His
mediatorial kingdom. He will never cease to
reign : He will only cease to mediate for the
redeemed, made perfect and confirmed in ho¬
liness forever, beyond the peradventure of a
fall. But His kingdom is an everlasting king¬
dom, and to His dominion there shall be no
end. As the Father did not cease to reign
when He delivered the mediatorial kingdom
to the Son, so the Son will not cease to reign
when He delivers back the mediatorial king-
THE GLORIFIED LOGOS. HI
dom to the Father. He will stand at the
head of His redeemed Church, and in His
glorified body be the great object of homage
to the members of that Church. He will
smile on them, He will welcome them, He
will love them; and every perfection and
every excellence that can be named in all the
beauty of holiness, will shine forth from
Him and attract every eye. They will know
that they are looking upon Him, who atoned
for their sins from His death on Calvary,
who interceded for them in the presence of
the Father, who gave them His spirit to
renew and sanctify their hearts, who succored
them in temptation, who supported them in
death, and crowned them with eternal glory;
and as they behold His complacent and
gracious smiles, their souls will be filled with
rapturous delight.
CHAPTER XII.
the indwelling logos.
6 fievuv bv kfiol itayd tv airu. — John 15: 5.
The perpetual manifestation of Christ in
the flesh is symbolized in the simile of vine
and branches, and most strikingly exempli¬
fied by the living members of His Church.
Paul could no more strongly point to the
apostolic ministry as his epistles, known and
read of men, than can faithful believers in
all Christendom be pointed as reproductions
of Christ in humanity. As Christ is not
only the Word, but the Ever-living Word, so
man, too, possessing the divine life, cannot
live by the Word alone, but must abide in the
Word. He does not simply sustain a rela¬
tion of a remote kind to the High Pfiest
above, but an intimate union of a vital Char-
Cm]
THE INDWELLING LOGOS. 113
acter to the life-sustaining Word that is
near. Let the spiritual mind discover the
vitality actuating between a vine and its
branches, between the body and its members,
and quite readily will it discover the place
the believer occupies as a branch in the vine
of Christ, as a member in His mystic body.
It will then be seen that the relation is
not figurative, but literal; not metaphorical,
but real; not temporal, but eternal. If the
literal Word conveys to us the Spirit, the
spiritual Logos communicates to us the
divine life. The injunction to abide in
Christ indicates the necessity of divine
communion in order to Christian life and
its fruitfulness; apart from the vine, the
branch cannot exist, much less evince its
fruit-bearing nature. So man cannot do
without God, nor the child of God without
his Saviour. " The sap flows from the vine
to branch and tendril and leaf and fruit.
The branch of itself is a lifeless organ, and
only fulfils its function when it is connected
114 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
with the vine. Thus, in the spiritual life,
men apart from Christ have no original source
of life and fruitfulness. The true life flows
from Christ to every branch that abides in
Him, quickening, by its power, the whole man,
and making him fruitful in good." Verily
did the apostle attest and amplify this truth
to the subjects of his epistle when he affirmed,
" If these things be in you, and abound . . .
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful."
The fructifying character of true disciple-
ship is not only indicated in the Johannic
writings, but most strikingly illustrated in
the life of those figuring faithfully in the
drama of Christian endeavors. Take the
chief among the apostles, and that one than
whom the least in the kingdom of heaven
was greater. The giant faith and Herculean
works of both are posited as much upon the
sense of personal inadequacy. Paul con¬
fessed his unworthiness of an exalted place
upon the roll of discipleship, yet, though weak,
felt strong and able to do all things through
THE INDWELLING LOGOS. ±1$
Christ his source of strength. The Baptist,
less and greater than a disciple, divine har¬
binger though he was, acknowledged publicly
his decreasing importance, while he declared
the increasing power and eclipsing magnifi¬
cence of his Master.
So, too, with the evangelist, whose transcen¬
dent gospel and revelation we have been
considering. Throughout his general career,
not only does he betray a loving dependence
upon his loving Master, but, amid the stu¬
pendous rewards of grace and fidelity, shrinks
into a self-abasement from which divine in-
terposition alone could rescue him. Deserted
by man and exiled from the truth, when God
appears to rescue him, he falls as one smitten
with judgment. Yet the strength of the
vital bond linking the believer to Christ, and
the activity of grace, with its ever precious
results, are ever perceptible in the life of him
whom Jesus loved. After he is revived from
the swoon of grace, delivered from the adverse
powers, and enabled to renew his testimony
116 THE DIVINE LOGOS.
to the truth, the evangelist, wearing him¬
self out in the services of righteousness,
still attested the triumph of divine truth
by bringing forth fruit in his old age. Even
when cruel time arrested his footsteps,
and its iron hand enfeebled his speech and
hampered his movements, near the door of
God's temple he would often lean, and from
his quivering lips, let fall the holy accents,
" Little children, love one another."
Finally, it being seen that what is true
in reference to the unity of the Father and
Son is also true as regards Christ and the
believer, it is reasonable to infer some in¬
disputable evidence of an existing bond
between the latter. This evidence is obe¬
dience; which, though subjective and spirit¬
ual, presents its practical and objective side
in the believer's life. "If ye keep my com¬
mandments, ye shall abide in my love"
(John 15: 10). In the absence of such
evidence, the divine indwelling has no
favorable test, since such test alone can be
THE INDWELLING LOGOS. 117
instanced in the obedience of the believer,
which culminates into the higher state of
adhesion. In his life -of fidelity and obedi¬
ence he is not to be left alone, since he has
in the instance of his Lord and Master
abundant encouragement. Of this organic
union the Holy Spirit is the perpetual life.
(John 14: 6.) "As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have -I also sent them into the
world" (John 17: 18). And he shall glorify
Christ. (John 16 : 14).