Lees DE RRA a ree CE, tig ZA EZ tipo eee XA < ENN SA RN ys ‘ a ‘ \ \ \ \ b \ —— oh MS 0S God ine. a ga OF THE Theological Seminary, DISPUEE DS OUESTIONS BELIEF: / ‘DISPUTED OUES TIONS OF DE Ee ele: BEING Lectures to woung gwen, DELIVERED AT THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE, LONDON. WITH A PREFACE BY J. OSWALD DYKES, D.D. LONDON: Hop DER & STOUGHTON; 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. —— MDCCCLXXIV, ite ase Snes a Un hu oa Ai tn wh RRO GE URING the spring of last year a short series of lectures to young men was delivered at the College of the Presbyterian Church in England, and after- wards published under the title, “Present Difficulties in Theology.” The fact that a second edition of that volume has been called for and nearly exhausted within twelve months encourages the hope that it was found appropriate to the wants of the time, and of service to * London : Hodder and Stoughton. Second Edition. 1873. Vill Preface. the class for whom it was primarily designed. The present is, in a sense, a companion volume to the former one, for it contains a similar course of lectures, also four in number, which have this spring been addressed, at the same place, to audiences of the same description. The lecturers, however, as well as their subjects, are all different, so that the two books have little in common beyond the accident of their origin. It is earnestly desired that this year's publication may be found still more useful than its predecessor in promoting among Christians an intelligent faith in some of those fundamental verities of our holy religion which at this time are so persistently assailed. Various indications render it probable Preface. ix that we have already seen the tide of un- belief reach its high-water mark for the present, and that it may even be on the ebb. Such a turn of opinion was to be expected. So long as infidelity exists mainly as an intellectual tendency, a dis- position to doubt, or a prevalent feeling of uneasiness respecting the soundness of hereditary beliefs; so long it is sure to exert a charm over young, bold, and free minds, as well as over those who desire to be thought such. So long it will continue to fascinate many, simply by its claim to in- dependence of thought, its novelty, and a certain air of superiority to the common run of believers in those traditional dogmas which it presumes to canvass. With such readiness have people yielded to this temptation that, for some time past, 3 | Preface. it has almost needed more moral courage than most young men possess to dare to be conservative in religion. It is the intel- lectual mode to be sceptical, or at least uttdecided ; and while this “rage” for an attenuated creed lasts, comparatively few of those who like to be “abreast of the age” will care to be seen professing all the unfashionable articles of belief in which their fathers trusted. | But men cannot go on for ever question- ing and overthrowing. The tendency to interrogate every Christian doctrine with a suspicion that it will turn out false, may lead for a time to an attitude of mind which is merely negative, a simple suspen- sion of judgment ; but it cannot stop there. It must in the end work itself out to a flat denial of the faith, Then scepticism Preface. Xi begins to be itself dogmatic ; and when it has once passed from the negative into this positive stage, the constraints of logic will speedily urge it to ever more and more sweeping denials. All truths are members one of another; to deny one leads to the denial of more. Eminently disbelief, “der Geist der stets verneint,” is a monster that grows by what it feeds on. First, the supernatural in the history of revelation goes; next, the fact of revelation itself ; then, all that distinguishes Christianity from simple Deism ; lastly, even Deism is swallowed up, and God Himself and our own immortality denied. . When the teachers, whose early doubts proved so seductive, have landed themselves ina bare, blank renunciation of all that can sustain religious life or hope in man, it is not « Xi OS Lyeface. strange if their voice cease to attract—if it even begin to affright—many among their disciples. We have recently seen some signs which appear to say that such a reaction is at hand. The stark atheism of the late David Friedrick Strauss’ latest confession of faith in his “Old Faith and New,” startled a good many (as well it might) who had travelled a long way with him in the earlier stages of his wandering. Dr. Matthew Arnold’s most recent publications are not very far behind the famous German in the same fatal line of development. The dreary absence of all religion what- ever from Mr. Stuart Mill’s “ Autobio- graphy” is hardly calculated to commend his philosophy to men who want a faith to live by. Thus unbelief is provoking a re- Preface. X11 action. It is the natural history of every sceptical movement to breed alongside of itself misgrowths of superstition or abject credulity (like Spiritualism and Mormon- ism). But it isa gain which in this age sacred truth owes to the very sincerity and intel- lectual nobleness of those leaders of thought who have assailed her, that their fearless prosecution of denial to its consequences promises ere long to work its own cure in the restoration of a healthier faith. On the other hand, are tokens not a- wanting of a certain awaking in the national heart of that consciousness of ethical and spiritual need to which the Gospel ever makes its most confident appeal. Where- ever the sense of guilt, and the craving after direct intercourse with God, are aroused or deepened in the public mind X1V Preface. (as is happening in many parts of this country just now), there souls who will do the will of their Father come to know of His Son’s doctrine that it is true; and in the presence of eyes which once were blind but now see the true facts of Christ’s spiritual kingdom, you shall argue against the reality of these facts in vain. If it | please God to grantto ourage ample demon- stration through the actual experience of many living men that regeneration is a possibility, and prayer’a power, and the Gospel of pardon through Christ crucified an answer to the deepest requirements of conscience, then indeed, not only shall the tide of unbelief be on the-ebb, but a tide of returning faith will have begun to flow. J. OSWALD DYKES. 17, OAKLEY SQUARE, May 5, 1874. G ONENESS OuR LORD’s DIVINITY THE CENTRE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE. By THE REV. ADOLPH SAPHIR, B.A. THE ATONEMENT: ITS RELATION TO THE CONSCIENCE By THE REV. ROBERT TAYLOR. DR. STRAUSS AND HIS THEORY—A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF UNBELIEF . By THE REV. WM. DINWIDDIE, LL.B. EVOLUTION : AN EXPOSITION AND CRITIQUE By THE Rev. H.S. PATERSON, M.A., M.D. PAGE 61 Silt The Dibinity of Christ the Centre of Obristian Doctrine und Lite. BY THE rey eo bO Pere SAP it R.. BoA: iy THE DIVINIEY OF. CHRIST. THE CENTRES OF: CHRISPEANS DOC. TRINE AND LIFE. WOULD fain commence my remarks on the central doctrine of revelation by striking the same key-note of calm faith and jubilant thanksgiving which we hear in the apostolic declaration : “ Without con- troversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.” “Without controversy.” For since the incarnation of the Son of God, the dark- ness is past, the true light now shineth. Past is the winter with its gloom and cold; “the rain is over and gone; the 4 The Divinity of Chrast. flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” The mystery, which had been preached for ages, was at last unveiled ; the promise of centuries at last fulfilled. Then all the psalms of David, the sweet singer of Israel, all the chords of adoration and joyous faith which his many-stringed harp gave forth, were heard in fuller and more mys- terious melody in the Magnificat of Mary ; and Zechariah, the priest, blessed the Lord who had come and redeemed His people, and extolled the tender mercy of God, whereby the dayspring from on high had visited us. From that time forth began the hymn of praise, the melody of joy in the garden of God. John the Baptist, summing up all the teaching of Moses and the pro- phets, exclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God”; and testified of Him as the Son of God, the Lord, who is above all, the Bride- sroom of Israel. Nathanael no sooner sees Him, and hears the word of the heart-search- Lhe Divinity of Christ. 5 ing Lord, but he confesses: “Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the King of Israel.” Peter, in the name of the apostles, confesses: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The beloved disciple who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, declared: “This is the true God, and eternal life.’ Thomas, when the condescension of the risen Saviour had dissipated the clouds of unbelief and morose despondency, answered and _ said unto Him, “My Lord and my God”; all the believing disciples, when they saw Him ascending into heaven, worshipped Him with great joy. The Apostle Paul, latest-born, yet greatest, calls Him “God above all, blessed for ever.” All the saints of the apostolic age in every place called upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord ; that is, invoked and adored Him as Jehovah. All martyrs, beginning with Stephen of the angelic countenance, look unto the exalted Jesus as their strength and refuge, their joy and crown. To Him as Son of God, all childlike hearts sing Hosannah ; of 6 The Divinity of Christ. Him, the whole Church testifies that He is Lord to the glory of the Father. And He is the Centre also in heaven; for the many angels round the throne, and the four living beings, and the four-and-twenty elders worship Him, and ascribe unto Him, power, and honour, and glory.* When we enter into the region of Scripture, when we hear the testimony of prophets, apostles, and martyrs, when we listen to the voice of adoration in the heavenly sanctuary, we can well under- stand the tone of absolute certainty: “With- out controversy, great is the mystery of the godliness.” But is the church of Christ to speak in the same manner in this pre- sent day of doubt and unbelief, when so many objections and difficulties are brought forward against the declarations of Scrip- ture? If this age is one of doubt and unbelief, it does not differ from any of * Luke i.; John i. 49, iii. 29-30; Matt. xvi. 16; 1 John v.20; John exx..285 Rom." 5 = Acts avi. BOs 1 (Comme2e mhev. wv. The Divinity of Christ. 7 the centuries which preceded it. There never was a time when the God-sent prophets had not to complain: “ Who hath believed our report?” The flock of the Good Shepherd was always a little one. The gospel of Christ crucified was always foolishness to the wise, and a stumbling- block to the self-righteous. The spirit of the world was always opposed to the Spirit of God. If unbelief in our day is more decided, more logical, more radical ; if, instead of the insipid rationalism and inconsistent deism of former days, we have pantheism and materialism; if men who deny the Son are beginning to deny the Father the Creator, also, we cannot be astonished ; but, grieved and solemnized as we feel, recognise only the fulfilment-of Scripture, which has predicted this ulti- mate manifestation of the world’s spirit. The apostles have not left us in darkness as to their method of presenting truth to the world. They never concealed it, that their gospel was foolishness to the philo- 8 Lhe Divinity of Christ. sophers of the day. Thevery centre of the gospel, that is, the Divinity of Jesus and the expiatory death of the Cross, they always asserted, was the stumbling-block and rock of offence. And in this they did not see a peculiar weakness of their age, a temporary condition of things. They did not appeal from the reason and phi- losophy of their generation to the more enlightened and better informed reason of a subsequent day. But they recognised the absolute necessity of this opposition. The natural, merely psychical man, whe- ther he lives in the first or nineteenth cen- tury, cannot discern the things of God. No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. The religious Saul persecutes and blasphemes Jesus until it pleases God to reveal His Son unto him. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Holy Ghost, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned.” Scripture never says that the Lhe Divinity of Christ. "6 Gospel is contrary to reason. Reason does not mean my reason, or your reason, or even the reason of a whole nation, or of any special age of the world’s history. If you ask what is reason, pure reason, human reason, you must go back to its highest source, the Eternal Logos, the Wisdom, out of which all light and truth come. Christianity is not against reason; on the contrary, man’s reason, as well as his conscience and heart, find in revealed truth, and here only, rest and satisfaction. God only is light and in His light we see light.* But the natural man—that is, fallen man, separated and alienated from God, the Source and Fountain of all light—is not able to dis- cern the things of God. Now, what was the apostolic method? Their method was declaratory; they announced and testified. They believed in * I take the liberty of referring to a somewhat full exposition of this important point in my book (ine coran., ~ Christ, Crucified.” Lect: V. IO Lhe Divinity of Christ. the power of truth, in the entrance of the Word giving light, in the Holy Ghost show- ing to the souls of men the spiritual realities. They did not aim at an intel- lectual assent, based upon the evidence presented to natural reason. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, and the apostles in all their preaching, did not enter into circum- stantial and historical evidence of the resurrection of Christ. He declared the resurrection, and proved it from its har- mony with the Scripture predictions and the Scripture circle of doctrinal truths.* It was the Christians that Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, reminds of all the disciples that had seen the risen Jesus. The apostolic teaching was a testimony that Jesus is the Christ according to the Scriptures. It was the Scripture argument, the unity and power of the Scripture teaching, experienced in their hearts and lives, that they presented to unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. * Joel ii. ; Psalm xvi. and cx. Lhe Divinity of Christ. II For many centuries the Church has argued with unbelievers. She felt it her duty to adduce evidence, to enter into argument, _to answer objections, to show analogies between natural and revealed religion, to commend Divine truth to the reason, the conscience, and the esthetic sense of humanity. Sometimes it was necessary and kind to do so; but without entering into this question, let us ask, With what result has this apologetic treatment of truth been attended? Are we any nearer the end? Does Christ’s doctrine appear more reason- able, and is it more palatable to the wise and prudent? Are we not moving in a circle ? k The argument with unbelievers is end- less ; not because they have anything sub- stantial and weighty to bring forward against the evidence, but because they are continually shifting their ground, and be- cause the radical and ever fruitful and active source of unbelief is not touched by argument. 12 The Divinity of Chrast. For instance, for a long time men de- manded good, strong, convincing evidence that the miracles by which revelation is attested really happened. A great mass of evidence was presented—evidence so abun- dant, so luminous, so manifold and cumula- tive, that on any other subject it would have been deemed cogent and solid. Were men convinced ? They altered their tactics, and said that no amount of evidence or testimony was sufficient to prove a miracle, because a miracle was something which cannot be conceived ; and it was not possible, they maintained, for human reason to receive so contradictory an idea as a miracle ; so that it has become fashionable in our day to say, not merely that the miracles are no help, facilitating the reception of Christian- ity, but, on the contrary, that they are a very inconvenient burden and hindrance; and that it would be easier to receive Chris- tianity if not encumbered with the record of miraculous facts. The Divinity of Christ. 13 Take another change. For atime men believed in a personal God, but did not ac- cept the ideas of Mediation and Expiation, as obnoxious to their reason and moral sense. At another time the pantheistic current sets in, and we are told that if one can take in the contradictory idea of a Personal Infinite, the positive doctrines of Christianity would logically follow.* The same age that in its pantheistic intoxica- tion deifies man and speaks of God coming to consciousness in the human mind; the same age that denies man to be a creature, _and declares him to be the highest being, teaches us that man and the animals have the same source and origin. I spoke before of unbelief becoming more clearly defined. This is true. Not that the unbelievers possess clearness; only © on the territory of revelation is light, truth, firmness, and consistency. Only they who believe, see and are sure. (John vi. 69; 1 John i) The reason of this in- _ * J. S. Mill, for instance, in his Autobiography. 14 The Divinity of Christ. creasing clearness of unbelief is, that the spirit which worketh in them, the deep, underlying mystery of iniquity, is unfolding ; the apostacy of which we read in the Scrip- tures, and which culminates in the denial of God and the worship of Antichrist. The Church is virtually in the same position in which she was at the beginning. She possesses the truth. God was known in Juda, when the whole world was in dark- ness ; God is known and worshipped in the Church: by faith we declare the mystery of godliness: God manifest in the flesh. Let me draw your attention to a very striking circumstance—that at no time could it have been more difficult to declare the doctrine of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, than at the time when it was proclaimed with greatest earnestness and intensity, in the days of the apostles. Think of the Jews to whom they preached that Jesus is God. Remember that of all the commandments which God Himself The Divinity of Christ. 15 gave unto His people upon Mount Sinai, and which He afterwards confirmed by the mouth of His prophets, there was none that was so distinct and clear and empha- tic as that second commandment, “Thou shalt have no other God beside me. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any image.” Idolatry is the source of all sin and of all evil. It is the sum and substance of man’s departure from the living God. “ My glory will I not give unto another.” “Unto whom will you liken me?” Such are frequent exclamations of God by the mouth of the prophets. “Then shall all flesh know that I am the Lord, and that there is none beside me.” How strange, then, must it have appeared first unto the Jews to hear Peter and Paul, and all the apostles who were their brethren according to the flesh, saying that Jesus of Nazareth was Jehovah, Lord ; that unto Him was given all power in heaven and on earth; that every knee must bow before Him, and that every tongue must confess that He is above all, 16 The Divinity of Chrost. Lord, that He is God blessed for ever. The apostles always spoke of Jesus, as képtos, which was quite equivalent for Jehovah in the Old Testament. ° And while the apostles speak thus to the Jews of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not as if they had forgotten the law and the prophets ; but it is in the ful- ness of the theocratic consciousness ; it is in the very words of Scripture. Only think of such applications of Old Testament words to Jesus as we find in Hebrews 1. : “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteous- ness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands,” Strange and startling must such language have appeared to the Jews, who were already sinking into a lifeless Monotheism. Kn The Divinity of Christ. 17 Then again with regard to the idolaters, who worshipped many gods, and spoke of many “sons of God.” How easily might the apostolic declaration of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost have been misunderstood by them as Tritheism. Notice how, with this twofold difficulty besetting them, the apostles speak of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus so constantly, so freely, so spontaneously ; notice the perfect ease, consistency, and joyousness with which this fundamental fact is constantly alluded to, presupposed, announced. And as they believed that Jesus is God, and this not although, but because they were Jews, so they declared the Divinity of the Lord Jesus as the only real temedy by _which idolatry could be eradicated. For Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the true life and eternal life. When we adore Him, we keep ourselves from idols. Hence all are idolaters who do not worship God in the face of Jesus Christ ; 2 4 18 The Divinity of Christ. no man cometh unto the Father but by fio, Lhe evangelists and apostles teach clearly the real, true, and perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus. Born of a woman, He was helpless and dependent, like any other infant; He grew in stature ; He was found in fashion asa man. Scripture dwells on His coming in weakness (acGévea), in the likeness of sinful flesh. His body was a true human body; He was an hungered ; He felt thirst; He was exhausted by exertion, and needed sleep. His mind also was human. He grew in wisdom, He read the Scriptures, He observed nature and human life, He reasoned and remembered. As we see from His parables, He had a very profound and quick percep- tion of the beautiful; He beheld with joy the works of God, and read their deepest meaning. His feelings and affections are human. The love with which He regarded His disciples, and especially the Apostle John ; the tender friendship which He felt * Col.4..15; 1 John v. 20-21; John xiv. 6. The Divinity of Christ. 19g for Lazarus and Mary and Martha; the affection with which He looked on that young man, in whom He beheld a deeper longing than expressed itself in His words of self-righteousness,—bring before us the human heart of Jesus. He was filled with joy and astonishment at the great, strong faith of the centurion and of the Syro-Phe- nician woman. He felt heaviness of spirit, sorrow and grief at the hardness of heart which He encountered: He knew what it was to have fear and misgiving, to be over- ' whelmed in prospect of those waves and billows which He knew would go over Him. He became like unto us in all things. To go still deeper, look at Him in His spiritual life,—it is human. He prayed, He lived by faith, He leaned upon God: “I five by the Father.” He had to support the weakness of His soul by continual trust in Him. MHe prayed for guidance, light, strength. He was true and real man. . But when Scripture reminds us of His 20 }§=— The Divinity of Christ. humanity, it brings always before us His Divinity also. “He ‘ook upon Him the form of a servant.” But in taking upon Him the form of a servant, “ He humbled Himself.” He learned obedience by the things that He suffered; but, it is added, “though He were a Son.” The apostle _ dwells upon His poverty ; but “though He was rich, yet, for your sakes He be- came poor.’ He was the Son of Man; but in this very expression is implied that He was much more than man; and this is also manifest from the ques- tion “Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” In the weakness and lowliness of His humanity, we behold always His Divine majesty and glory. True, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and like any other babe depended on the love of His mother, and upon the guardianship of Joseph, her husband ;, but a multitude of angels come down from heaven, and declare, not that a babe, but that Christ the Lord (Jehovah) is born ; — The Divinity of Chrast. 21 and as all nature is obedient unto the Word, the star directs the wise men from the east to Bethlehem, and they fall down and worship the child, and are not guilty of idolatry, for this child is none other than Pine michty God, the Prince of Peace.” “The Word was made flesh.”* True, He grew in stature and in wisdom, like any other child; and when He was twelve years old, His parents took Him unto the feast in Jerusalem. But the boy is God; not that He gradually develops into God, but He who was God, and always must be God, became man, partaker of flesh and blood in all things like unto us. He says, “ How is it that ye‘have sought Me? Must I not be inthe things of My Father?” making a wonderful distinction between Himself and the most devoted and God- fearing Israelites. It is quite true He is brought up in Nazareth; but in this also is His Divinity, for all the prophets testified that the Messiah would be a Nazarene, growing up in obscurity. We 22 The Divinity of Christ. see Him on Jordan’s bank, coming unto the Baptist, and, like any other Israelite, in humility asking of him to be baptised ; Buteiic™as “God, for athe lather ssays Pei his 1s) my ‘son, Zand wthe alioly (Ghost Himself as a dove descends, announc- ing Him the Anointed. We see Him in the wilderness, tempted of the great adversary, laying aside all His Divine power and authority, and simply as a man born of a woman, and under the law, availing Himself only of the Scriptures as His weapon. But He is God. Immediately after He had conquered the enemy, the very angels of God came down and minis- tered unto Him. As man we see Him in the ship, laying His head upon the little pillow, for He was tired and overcome with sleep; but He is God, He arises and rebukes the storm; He is that Divine One of whom the prophet had written in the Book of Proverbs, that all the winds and waves are in His omnipotent hand. It@as strive Sle As * man, “and livesauo,, The Divinity of Christ. 22 faith, and prays unto God, and performs His very miracles simply by dependence upon the Father; but He is God, for no created being ever prayed unto the Father as He prayed, “ Father, I will”; and no created angel ever was able to say, “ My . Father worketh, and I also work”; and no prophet or angel was ever sent to show forth his own glory that men may believe in him. (John ii.) He is man in the garden of Gethse- mane, when, overwhelmed with the sense of that agony which was before Him upon the cross, He was praying unto God, and with strong crying and tears commended Himself unto the Father ; but conscious of His Divinity, knowing that He came from God and went again to God, and that the Father would send Him twelve legions of angels if He asked it; and such was His majesty that the men who came in order to take Him captive, fell back, awed by His presence. On the cross He opens the kingdom of heaven to the penitent 24 Lhe Divinity of Christ. thief in the words of Divine power and love: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, to- day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Behold His Divinity in His lowliness and humiliation; from the manger of Beth- ° lehem to Golgotha He is God. The very first thing we notice in His humanity is His sinlessness. This has per- plexed the critics; for a sinless man is unique. We are all conscious of sin, of faults, and of imperfections. The pheno- menon of a sinless man is astounding. They have tried to bring forward incon- sistencies in Christ’s life, but without the slightest success.* “Which of you * T did not think it necessary to enumerate these objections (preferred by Strauss, Rénan,and Pecaut), because they are very insignificant and shallow, and easily refuted by the simple Gospel narrative. That Jesus honoured His mother, although at the marriage in Cana He clearly defined her relation to Him, as Messiah and Lord; that His zeal for God’s house was pure and holy, when He drove out those that made merchandise in the Temple ; that in cursing the fig-tree He performed a symbolic action, prefiguring the judgment of God on Israel, The Divinity of Christ. 25 convinceth me of sin?” The Pharisees, His most determined enemies, could bring no accusation against Him except this: “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” In the eyes of God and angels it was His greatest eulogy. Judas, who betrayed Him, after being His companion for three years, declared, “I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood.” Pontius Pilate said, “I find no fault with this.man.” The mysterious vision which in the stillness of night appeared unto the wife of Pilate, bore witness that Jesus was a just man. The centurion that stood by under the cross called Him a “ righteous man,” and “the Son of God.” But more important than the testimony of man, is His own testimony. And for this among other reasons : Jesus was an Israel- having the form, but denying the power of godli- hess, such points,:I think, are very obvious to a candid reader of Scripture ; and I believe young men especially will feel the animus and morbid bias which brought forward objections so artificial and hollow. 26 The Divinity of Christ. ite, made under the law. The whole aim and purpose of the law was to convince of sin. It was spiritual, good, and holy. It demanded perfection. It embraced the whole life of man: “ Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Now, when the law ful- filled its end and object, it revealed to man his true character and state in the sight of a holy God. Hence for an Israelite to say that he was without sin, would either argue the most intense hardness of heart and obtuseness of vision, out-Phariseeing all Pharisaism ; or if a man, in the clear and bright light of the Divine law, can say: “Which of you, which part of the law, convinceth me of sin?” it is some- thing marvellous and beyond explanation on natural principles. That man is a miracle, an exceptional and unaccountable - phenomenon. Now remember the profound view of the law, which Jesus propounded in all His teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, He The Divinity of Christ. 47 shows the spiritual character of the law; He fulfils it; He fills up the whole outline, stretching it to its full extent; nay, He enters into the very root and depth of the commandments. Envy and anger He shows to be murder; impurity of thought, adultery. The perfect, holy, and bountiful character ‘of God, He declares the only standard and model. Jesus is sinless, not merely in our estimation, but in His own per- fectly pure and enlightened consciousness. But go still farther. Look at His rela- tion to God; look at the way in which He speaks both of Godand zo God. Here His sinlessness appears in a more striking light still. You remember the prayers of Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel,—full of faith and love; but who ever prayed like Jesus? Without consciousness of any transgression, without the need of confess- ing any fault or neglect; with perfect peace and calmness, with the love of an equal, and the perfect submission of a son, He addressed the Father. 28 The Divinity of Christ. I ascend a step higher. God chargeth even His angels with folly ; even the sera- phim veil their faces when they ,worship God. But this Man lifts His eyes to heaven and saith ‘Father,’ ‘with the perfect calmness and home-feeling of the Son, equal in majesty and glory. His sinless- | ness, His purity, betokens something above all creaturely innocence and spotlessness. Intimately connected with the sinless- ness of Jesus is His perfection. He is the Man Christ Jesus. Who else could be called The Man? He is perfect, represen- tative, universal Man. He possesses all ex- cellences and virtues, all gifts and powers which can be found in humanity; in Him they exist in fulnessand harmony. Virtues and gifts, which we behold nowhere else co-existing, meet in Him, whether it be the active qualities of courage, zeal, strength, love, or the passive virtues of meekness, patience, and endurance. He is contemplative and a lover of solitude; The Divinity of Christ. ~ 29 yet eminently social and accessible, with the largest and most tender sympathies. Zealous, stern, and uncompromising when God’s honour is concerned, He is full of pity and gentleness towards the weak and erring, the sorrowful and afflicted; with love and joy He lays His hands on little children to bless them. Wherever we be- hold Him, we see perfection. In His life everything is beautiful and great. We can- not speak of Christ’s character and temper- ament, because He is perfect, all-sided, harmonious. His strength is equalled by His gentleness; in Him, love, sympathy, zeal, courage, meekness, all that is lovely, pure, good, strong, co-exists, and that because the fountain and centre of His life is holy: ‘“ Thy law have I hid in my heart.’ In Him, thought, imagination, will, all poWers and energies of the soul and spirit are in perfect harmony ; as the Psalm- ist prayed, “ Unite my heart.’ He is Man, according to the idea of God. It has been said by Strauss, and truly, 30 The Divinity of Christ. that it is not in accordance with the method of nature to concentrate all her gifts in one individual, and to bestow on him all the excellences of the species. It is true; and if Jesus is a member of humanity only, if our race has produced Him, if He be merely the Son of Man, and not the Lord from above, it would be impossible to account for the perfection of the Man Christ Jesus. But Jesus is the Son of Man, because He is more than man. He is from above. This was felt more or less by His con- temporaries. The Jews felt that never man spake like this man. His words were the words of the monarch, the king, with au- thority. His works were the manifesta- tions of Divine power and glory. He combined the various gifts of all previous messengers; in Him the Jews beheld the zeal of Elijah and the tenderness of Jere- miah. His words, though concrete and born of the actual circumstances, possessed a uni- versality and inexhaustible depth, that men Lhe Divinity of Christ. 31 felt them to be eternal. His horizon is not bounded by the limitation of race or age; He sees from eternity to eternity: hence _ all His sayings and all His doings have a catholic and eternal significance. And in all His life shines forth only one motive, one aim: the glory of God in the salvation of man; and this through His obedience and suffering. Who is like Jesus? What parallel can you find in the history of our race ? He is sinless and perfect man; but He is more than the perfect and all-comprehen- sive representative of humanity. Heis God manifest in the flesh. The humanity of Christ is both the climax of God’s creation, and of Fis self-revelation. Jesus is the Head of humanity, because He is from above, the Son of God. When we behold Jesus, we see the Father. In Jesus, all that is Divine is revealed and fully wrought out into all that is sinlessly human. Herein is the mar- vellous love of the Father, that He has given unto us His Son, to be the true Mediator, 32 The Divinity of Christ. our Lord, that in Him we might become partakers of the Divine Nature. Having thus glanced at the facts of Christ’s sinlessness and perfection, we are better prepared to consider the declaration of Jesus concerning Himself. The Lord Jesus speaks throughout of Himself as ’ Jehovah, God manifest. First, look at the position He takes re- ‘ specting the Scriptures. “Think not,’ He says, “that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; Iam not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Only fancy any human being utter- ing such expressions, and that in the midst of the Jewish people. What man or angel could either destroy or fulfil the law or pro- phets? “/ am come.” That expression alone would convey to the Jews that He was the Great Redeemer and Deliverer. “ Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” But He puts Himself as the Lord and Mas- ter of Moses and the prophets. The whole Scripture was to be fulfilled in Him—Moses The Divinity of Christ. 33 wrote of Him. Is not the Scripture the revelation of Ged? Did not Moses write of Jehovah? Were not the prophets sent to declare Jehovah? What man or angel can say the Scriptures testify of him, centre in him, and are fulfilled in him? Who is this Lord of Scripture unless it be Jehovah ? So again with regard to His position in relation to Abraham and David. He speaks of Himself as the Son of Abraham; but He says also, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He speaks not as if it were His glory to be descended from Abraham, but His words show, that it was Abraham’s glory that Jesus was descended from him, even as it was his joy to behold - Christ’s day. He calls Himself the Son of David, but He asks, “ How is it then that David in the Spirit calls Him Lord?” Notice again what He asserts of Him- self, and see how the position He takes is the position assigned to Jehovah in the Old Testament. Jehovah says, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgres- 3 34 Lhe Divinity of Christ. _ sions, and will not remember thy sins.” Jesus says, “Go in peace, thy sins be for- given thee.” Jehovah says, “My people have committed a twofold evil: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jesus says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, ‘Give Me to drink,’ thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” Jehovah says, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of Ohne Hearth 7 Jesus says, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jehovah says, “T will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” Jesus says, “I will baptise you with the Holy Ghost.” Jehovah says, “Thy Maker is thy husband. As a bridegroom re- joiceth over his bride, so the Lord will delight in thee.” Jesus says, “ How can the children of the bridechamber fast, The Divinity of Christ. 35 while the bridegroom is with them?” Whatever Jehovah promises and declares of Himself Jesus declares and promises. Look again at the commands of God. Jehovah says, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.” Jesus says, “If any man hate not his father, and mother, and wife, for My sake, he is not worthy of Mer Jehovah says that He is to be honoured ; that every knee is to bow to Him. Jesus says that every one that honoureth the Father is to honour the Son _ likewise. Jehovah commends Joshua and Caleb, because they followed Him fully; Jesus says to His disciples, “ Follow Me.” Yes, if we have given Jesus the confidence of the heart, the homage and _ obedience which He demands, we have given unto Him all that is commanded of Jehovah, the Lord God Supreme, who will not give His glory to another. We have made Jesus our God. . 36 Lhe Divinity of Christ. If time permitted, it would be delightful to remind you of the more direct asser- tions of Christ’s Divinity, and of His eternal and filial relation to the Father, which all the evangelists attribute to the Son of Man, who was meek and lowly in heart, and never sought His own honour. The disciple who leaned on His bosom, and who was nearest and dearest to Him in His humanity, testifies most clearly and abundantly that Jesus is the Son of God : and in the last and culminating book of Scripture, the Apocalypse, the Divine glory of Jesus shines forth most brightly. As in the gospel of John, Jesus frequently speaks of Himself, as the I AM (John vi, viii, x., xi., Xiv., etc.), so in the Revelation He is ate emphatically the First and the Last, the Aimighty, who was, and is, and is to come. He is represented as the Searcher of hearts, the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, the Lord ; adored by angels and saints, the Judge of all men, and the glory and light of the heavenly Jerusalem. The Divinity of Christ. 37 He is from everlasting to everlasting. His is the Book of Life, and His love is the joy of God's elect throughout eternity.* As He spake He acted. There is no evil that He does not meet as a conqueror. Is it sickness? He heals it. The storm and tempest He rebukes. He conquers death by resurrection. He delivered men possessed by demons,—He came to destroy the works of the devil. All power is given unto Him. He is none other than the Son of God, who came to deliver us from all evil. When the Lord Jesus Christ had ful- * Passages, sometimes quoted as conflicting with the Catholic doctrine of Christ’s Divinity, wzthout exception only confirm it. As for instance, “‘ The Father is greater than I,” “ None is good but God,” etc. The former would be the most superficial and unmeaning assertion in the mouth of a creature. The latter puts the deniers of Christ’s Divinity in this dilemma : either Jesusis good; then, according to His own assertion, He is God. If Jesus is not God, then, according to His own assertion, Heis not good. He is absolutely good, and He is true and very God. 38 Lhe Divinity of Christ. filled His life and course upon the earth, and looked back upon the ‘past, different from any other human being that had ever been here below, He was able to say, “Ihave finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” There was not a single word that He wished unuttered; or a single step retraced ; or a single duty that had been omitted. He was the only man that had ever lived upon earth, who walked with a firm, steady, and rhythmic step; never faltering, never erring, but going on from strength to strength; He was the just man, whose path was as the shining light, which shineth more and more, unto the perfect day. But now, when He came to die, in His very death He manifested His Divinity and His glory. Unto this death He had been looking forward from the very commence- ment of His life upon earth. The very first time He appeared at the Passover, He spoke about the temple of His body, that it would be broken ; He stedfastly set His face The Divinity of Chrost. 39 to go to Jerusalem, to suffer and die there. He was not like other men, who speak of the work and mission of their life as finished at death. Christ looked upon His death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem as His great work, nay, as the commence- ment of His true and real life. He knew that “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” Thus He went to death, as His great work; the Son of Man was to be glorified. Of His own free will, in perfect liberty, He laid down His life. His death was an act in which the greatest energy was manifested ; it was the offering up of Himself by the concen- trated energy of His holy and loving spirit. In the garden of Gethsemane, He felt over- whelmed with the prospect of that cup; yet after His Father had heard His prayer, He went forward as a strong man, and never: altered. From the garden of Gethsemane to His last moments on the cross, all be- tokens infinite strength and majesty, as well 40 The Divinity of Christ. as love. He forgave His enemies, He opened the kingdom of heaven to the penitent thief. He commended His mother Mary to the care of His beloved disciple ; and then entered with perfect strength into that unuttered and unfathomable agony, in which He was forsaken by the Father. And here notice His Divinity. If He were not the Son of God,—but only a mere man, a prophet and witness, sealing His testimony with His death, suffering for the sake of righteousness, truth, and purity,— all the tenderness of God would have de- scended to embrace and support Him ; all the consolations of a faithful and loving God would have streamed from heaven into his heart and soul. But because, as Zechariah tells us, He was the man that was God’s equal, therefore did the sword of punitive justice awake against Him, and ‘smite the Shepherd. Hence His agony. He is the Lamb of God, God of God, the Son of the Father, clinging with perfect faith unto God, and acknowledging the The Divinity of Christ. 41 righteousness and justice of His holy wrath; clinging with perfect love to us, for whose salvation He had come to die on the accursed tree. From His resurrection begins a new phase in the life of Christ, which extends to His second coming. During this period the world does not see Him; only by faith and the energy of the Holy Ghost, His chosen people realize His presence, and feel His love and power. This period of the absence of Jesus, this parenthesis shall be terminated by the coming or personal re-appearing, the Parousia, of the God-Man, Jesus, in His glorified humanity. But throughout this age our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, is the Source and Centre of the believer's lifes” ble represents us above, as our Righteousness, and from Him descend all the blessings of the new covenant into our hearts. He will come again, then His glory shall be seez, He shall be admired in 42 Lhe Divinity of Christ. His saints, and acknowledged by Israel and all nations—Jehovah, the Lord. The Divinity of Jesus is the centre of Christian doctrine and life, because in Jesus, the Son incarnate— I. God reveals Himself. II. God reconciles sinners. ITI. God renews and sanctifies, IV. God glorifies believers. So simple are God’s ways: He does all things by Christ ; all circles have the same centre. No prophet, no combination of the prophets that ever lived, not all the angels whom God has created, are able to be full, adequate, and perfect revealers of the character of God—of God Himself There is none adequate, either to under- stand or reflect God; none able to be a witness, and to testify of the fulness in God, except He who was from eternity the uncreated and self-subsisting Word ; the Son, who is in the bosom of the F ather, He hath declared Him. The Son is the The Divinity of Christ. 43 Word; none but the Son can be the Word, the manifestation of the infinite and eternal. Only He who can say of Him- self that none knoweth the Son but the Father, can fully and truly reveal Him who is incomprehensible. It is because Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person, because the worlds were made by and for Him, that God speaks to us in and by Him.* Coleridge said, that if a conscientious man were to read the Old Testament, and to mark every passage in which the name Jehovah is used; and then to read the New Testament, and mark where Christ is spoken of, he would see the identity of the two. It is perfectly true, with one modi- fication. In the Old Testament, Jehovah means two things: either the God that reveals Himself in covenant-relation with His people; or else Christ Himself. Jehovah is, in New Testament lan- guage, either the God and Father of our * Heb. i.; Johni. 44 Lhe Divinity of Christ. Lord Jesus Christ, God in Christ, or Jesus Himself. | “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself”; this isthe Old Testa- ment Jehovah,—God, who hath made heaven and earth, loving, redeeming, and sanctifying Israel. The mystery of the Incarnation was prepared by different lines of history and prediction. First, the Theophanies ; God appearing; the angel or messenger who appeared unto Hagar, unto Abraham, before whom Abraham stood interceding in behalf of Sodom, of whom Jacob speaks as his Guide and Deliverer, is called Jehovah. This is the messenger of the covenant, in whom is God’s face, the representative, the pre- sence of God, who went with the children of Israel through the wilderness. Isaiah saw the glory of Jehovah, even Christ. In the Psalms and the Prophets we are told Jehovah shall come and give salva- tion and glory to Israel; and the Gentiles shall also know and love Him; they shall The Divinity of Christ. 45 learn war no more, and the Lord shall reign in righteousness and peace. Both these lines are combined in a mys- terious way, which must have been very diffh- cult to understand before the fulfilment. For weread in Daniel of the Son of Man coming in the clouds—(how did He ascend thither ?) —and that there shall be given unto Him glory and an everlasting kingdom. In Zechariah we read of the Man whose feet shall stand upon the Mount of Oliv ; and as He is spoken of as Jehovah pouring His Spirit upon Jerusalem, the people are . represented as looking upon Jehovah, whom they have pierced,—a pierced Man de- scending from heaven, the King of all the earth. Another preparatory line was the doc- trine of the Word of God, or Wisdom of God, who was with God and His delight from eternity; by whom all things were made, and by whom all things consist. (Prov. viii.) God revealed Himself to Israel; they 46 The Divinity of Christ. knew Him as God and Redeemer; they knew of a perfect Revealer, Messenger of the Covenant, Restorer; they knew the promise of God, bringing peace and the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the prophets: God manifest in the flesh, Immanuel.* . 2. Notice in the second place that the Divinity of Christ is the foundation of the Redemption. The two ideas of Revela- tion and Redemption are co-relative. Without and apart from Redemption, there would be no Revelation; the source and object of Revelation is Redemption. If God did not love us, and purpose to bring us to Himself, He would never have spoken tous. The basis of Revelation is Redemp- tion. When God sends His Son, it is only for one purpose; when God sends His own and only Son, it caz only be for one * T venture to refer to my remarks on the doctrine of the Trinity, as contained in the historical and prophetic books of the Old as well as in those of the New Covenant, in my work,“ Christ and the Church,” on Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Lec. v. and vi. The Divinity of Christ. 47 object—to save or to redeem us, and to bring us unto Himself. And therefore the Di- vinity of the Lord Jesus, and His expiatory death upon the cross, are intimately con- - mected.\ The: Word: isthe: Atoner, » “Be- cause the Lamb was slain in the eternal purpose of God, the Lord spake. None but the Son could redeem us. Hence the apostles always speak of Christ’s Divinity when they speak of expiation. The blood of the Son of God cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John i.) The Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood. (Col. i.13.) The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal. ii.) Christ’s Divinity and the expiatory charac- ter of His death stand and fall together. We cannot hold one without the other. Blessed be God, that He, who is one with the Father, laid down His life for the sheep, and died instead of us, the just for the unjust. The Gospels never taught, nor did any Christian ever believe, that the death of 48 The Divinity of Christ. Christ altered or changed the mind of God the Father towards us, or rendered Him now more inclined and propitious to sin- ’ ners. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” Not because Christ died did God love us, but because God loved us Christ died. In Jesus the love of God reached and rescued us. Because Jesus is Jehovah, God of God, because He and the Father are one, therefore God com- mendeth A7zs love, in that Christ died for the sinner. It is our glory and strength that in the death of our blessed Lord we behold and we receive the eternal Father- love of God. The knowledge and the love of God come by the Divine Saviour. Re- velation can only be in the Son of God: Redemption can only be by the Son of God. 3. That insipid thing which the world calls the “Christian religion,” would cer- tainly bear no proportion to the stupendous miracle of condescension and the astounding sacrifice of Jesus. Why did Christ die? The Divinity of Christ. 49 Here again His Divinity is brought out prominently. Did Moses ever say we were to believe zz him? Can such an expres- sion be applied to any creature? “Jesus dwells in the heart by faith.” Ae zs $eho- vah. For this is the New Covenant of Fehovah : “T will dwell in them and walk in them, and they shall be My people.” Only fancy such an expression as, Moses or the angel Gabriel dwell in our hearts! Because Jesus is God, therefore is He the Vine, and we can be grafted into Him ; thereforeis He the Bridegroom, and we by the Spirit are one with Him. If Christ is not Divine, how can He be our life? If Fesus ts only man, fle Himself belongs to the Bride. How then does He call Himself the Bridegroom ? The ultimate object of the Incarnation is the manifestation of God’s glory in the Church, that is, inthe Body, of which Christ is Head, and believers, by the Spirit, are members. The Holy Ghost is given unto us through the glorified humanity of Jesus. Only the Son of God can say, “I in them, 4. 50 The Divinity of Christ. and Thou in me.” (John xvii.) Thus Christianity is not anew system of doctrine or of ethic. It is a new creation, it is resur- | rection-life, it is our grafting into Christ, and becoming partakers of the Divine life. (2ePetay- Eph 1. ee om, will.) ae ebaive, Ct not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Is He not Jehovah? “I will dwell in them.” Men say, Christianity is love. They say so truly. But what is the motive of this love? The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. What is its stan- dard.?.// «As J shave Joved “you... And what is its essence, origin, and substance ? It is God's love, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; it is not our natural affection, but the affection of a new heart, in which Christ dwells by faith. The union which subsists by the Spirit between Christ who died and believers who put their trust in Him is real ;* and this is the great difference * By real I mean substantial; not merely ethical, a harmony of view and purpose, but,if I may so say, using the word in its strict etymological sense, physical. We are by regeneration the sons of Lhe Divinity of Christ. 51 between the Law and the Gospel. Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the law of God written on tables of stone; between God, between the law and the people, there was a great distance. Israel had rebelled against God, and had fallen into idolatry; the law was broken. There was no true mediation, redemption, and union in the law, But Jesus, after He died, does not come with the law engraven on tables of stone, but with the fiery stream of the Holy Ghost; and therefore between God and us there is perfect mediation, for, by the Spirit, Father and Son dwell in us, and the law is written in our hearts. Only the Son of God could reveal the Father ; only the Son of God could reconcile us, and bring us unto the Father; only the Son of God could send the Spirit into our hearts and become one withus. Reve- lation, redemption, renewal, centre in Jesus. God in Christ Jesus. The doctrine of sonship (viodeova) is perhaps the doctrine in which the peculiar distinctive glory of the New Covenant is seen most clearly. 52 The Divinity of Christ. 4. The Divinity of Christ is also the cen- tre of our Hope. If Jesus is not God, how idolatrous would it be for the Church to wait for His coming and to look forward to His Parousia, or manifested presence, as the great Redemption, the Adoption, the Salvation. (Luke x1 28s Omi: wittnos:, 1 Pet. i. 9-13.) It is not merely that Jesus promises to raise the dead, that He an- nounces that all judgment is committed unto Him, and that on our relation to His Person depends our future destiny, that His royal and Divine word, “Come,” or “Depart,” will be the ultimate and eternal decision. Clearly as His Divinity is pre- supposed in these solemn declarations, it is still more emphatic that Jesus Himself is our glory and eternal reward. When He returns His saints shall meet Him in the air, and so shall we “ever be with the Lord.” Is it eternal blessedness and glory to be for ever with a creature, however glorious and exalted? Weare to be glorified to- gether with Christ. Lhe Divinity of Christ. 53 Jesus is the First and the Last, the AlI- mighty, who was, and is, and is to come. In the Book of Revelation the Divinity of the Lord shines forth most luminously, for He is Jehovah, the Covenant God, whose eternal love fills all ages, the same yester- day, to-day, and for ever. He, by whom all things are made, is also the End and Consummation. TeréXeoras is the word of the dying Lamb; rerédeoras is the word of the Lord, who makes all things new. (Rev. xxi. 6.) As Israel waited for Jehovah, the Church waits for Jesus. Jehovah is to come to redeem and glorify Israel, to establish His kingdom on earth, to destroy all idols, to make wars to cease, to swallow up death in victory, to rule in peace and righteousness. Jesus is to come to glorify the saints, to convert and exalt Israel, to bind Satan, to renew the earth, and to reign with the Church. Christ Himself is our Hope, and if so we acknowledge Him to be God the Son of the Most High. We wait for the Lord Jesus from heaven, for the 54 The Divinity of Christ. glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 1. 10; Titus ii. 13.) To see Jesus and to be like Him is our heaven. None but God can satisfy the heart; in none but God is infinite life, eternal joy. Thus the faith, love, and “hope Fot sthe Church centre in Jesus. Not merely in her creeds, butin her heart of hearts,in her every prayer and work, in every pulsation of her life, does the Church call Jesus, Lord and God,—the Light, the Love, the Power, and the Glory of God. Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption come to us in Him who is the Son of God, the Lord from heaven. The two doctrines which are most opposed by human reason are the doc- trines of the Incarnation and the Expiation. Is it not strange that the doctrines which show most clearly the love of God, the marvellous, inconceivable, infinite love of God to poor, sinful humanity, should be the very doctrines rejected by men? The Divinity of Chrost. 55 Oh adorable mystery of love, that the Son of God became Man, and died in the stead of sinners ; and that by faith through - the indwelling of the Holy Ghost we are one with Him, in whom dwelleth the ful- ness of the Godhead bodily! Is the love of God not believed because its greatness is so inconceivable? It is the infinite God who is Love; and it is infinite Jove which in Jesus redeems and glorifies believers. I conclude with a more personal testimony. Perhaps none of you know from experience what it is to live without the knowledge of the Incarnation; what it is to endeavour to realize the incomprehensible, infinite God, without the light and the comfort of the Mediator, and how joyous and self- evidencing is the peaceful brightness when Jesus is revealed as the Son of God, declar- ing the Father. I was brought up in my childhood in the synagogue, and was taught that there was One God, infinite, incomprehensible, holy—Spirit; high above us, and omnipresent. Much stress was laid 56 Lhe Divinity of Christ. on the unity and unicity of God. But this bare, vague, and abstract Monotheism leaves the mind in darkness, while the heart is chilly and desolate. There was another and a better current which then influenced me. It was the national history as recorded in the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and commemorated in the festivals. There I was met by no abstract idea of unicity, but by a loving God, who appeared unto Abraham, and spoke to him ; who led Israel through the wilderness, and dwelt among them ; and often, when I thought of the friendly, kind, concrete, and Auman way in which the Lord God then appeared unto His people and dealt with them, I won- dered why He was not now with us, known, loved, and followed. One day I was look- ing at some books, and the title of one arrested my eye. It was “Die Mensch- werdung Gottes.” God becoming Man. The thought went through my mind like a flash of lightning ; it thrilled my soul with a | The Divinity of Christ. 57 most joyous solemnity. “Ah,” I said, “this would be the most beautiful thing, if God were to become man, and visit us!” Not many years after I heard about Jesus, and read the Gospels. I felt here the same presence, the same loving, condescending, redeeming, and sanctifying God, that ap- peared unto the Fathers. I felt that here was Jehovah; only that all darkness had disappeared, and that the grand but incon- ceivable glory here shone upon us in the perfect, peaceful, and holy countenance of the Man Christ Jesus. Peniel! I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. When Simon confessed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus replied, “Flesh and blood have not re- vealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Our Lord attributes the faith of Peter, not to his deep insight and to his correct reasoning, or even to his accurate interpretation of Scripture. It is the gift of God, the teaching of the Spirit, when we call Jesus Lord. 58 Lhe Divinity of Christ. “He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (i John.) To believe in Jesus, the Son of God, is not an abstract dogma, or a theosophic speculation, but a soul-experi- ence, a new heart-life. It is the mystery of godliness. May the result of all we learn and experience on earth be summed up in this: By God’s Spirit I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Dhe Atonement: Gis Belation to the CGonsctence, . BY THE REV ROBBER le TAYLOR: II. THE ATONEMENT: ITS RELATION TO THE CONSCIENCE, T is not our purpose in the present lecture to investigate and argue the question of the nature of the Atonement,* —or the precise relation of the sufferings and death of our blessed Lord to the moral nature and government of God, on the one hand, and to the salvation of man, on the other. Accepting the evangelical or catholic doctrine that Christ offered up Himself a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice, and to reconcile guilty man to a righteous God, we shall endeavour to ascertain and define the relations of the doctrine thus * This subject is treated with admirable clear- ness, fairness, and force in one of the lectures of last year by the Rev. Professor Chalmers, D.D. 62 Lhe Atonement: formulated to the human conscience, con- ducting our investigation under these two divisions, viz., /zrs¢, whether, and how far, the moral sense can appreciate the princi- ple which requires satisfaction by the suffering of a Surety in order to the par- don of sin; and Second, whether this doc- trine when duly apprehended and applied is fitted to furnish a true and noble ideal of religious and moral duty, and to supply the motive force under the influence of which that ideal may be realised. I. The inquiry in which we invite you to join us ought to be conducted in a spirit of reverence, and with due regard to the Holy Scriptures as supplying the only authorita- tive information on the deep things of God. We enter on it not as judges of God’s ways, nor as critics of His Word, but as disciples, who desire to receive, with meekness indeed, but also with intelligence, the instruction which it has pleased Him to give. The “subject of the death: of our Lord is of deepest interest to USS wOULIt Its Relation to the Conscience. 63 lies beyond the range of our unaided vision; and it would have remained for ever far above, out of our sight, had God not revealed it to us by His Spirit. But the fact that He has revealed it to us implies a capacity on our part both to appre- hend what He says, and to appreciate what He has done. The fundamental postulate of religion, as a vital bond between man and God, and of revelation, as a real com- munication from God to man, is the corres- pondence between the nature of man and the nature of God. The human nature has been cast in the mould of the divine nature ; or to use the grand words which at once describe the origin and define the characteristic of our species, “God created man in His own image, after His own likeness.” In this likeness the mutual relations between God and manare rooted: We are like God in knowledge. The intel- lect, which observes and compares, ascend- ing from the particular to the general, from phenomena to principles, from effects to causes, isa miniature of His mighty mind 64. The Atonement: whose thoughts are expressed in the worlds. The zesthetic in our nature, in like manner —the taste which perceives what is fitting and fair, which appreciates and delights in the beautiful—answers to the quality in the Divine mind indicated by the words, “ And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good.” - But the likeness does not stop here. A communion based exclusively on common intelligence and taste would be cold and cheerless. And accordingly we have a moral sense which takes us into a new sphere, and leaving the true to the intellect and the beautiful to the taste, claims the good as its special and exclusive domain. This moral faculty deals with the actions and conduct of ourselves and others, or rather, with the active principles from which these spring ; characterising them as good or bad, right or wrong, and adjudging them to be worthy of praise or blame, of reward or punishment. As the understanding ap- prehends God’s thoughts, and God Himself lis Relation to the Conscience. 6 5 the ultimate object and resting-place of thought, and the taste perceives the beauty of His works, the moral sense or conscience appreciates the perfection of His charac- ter and the righteousness of His govern- ment, and thus fits us for entering into relations with Him as His servants or His children. Matter is ruled and moulded by the forces of nature; the lower animals are guided by instinct, controlled by appetite, or subdued by superior strength or wisdom; but man, intelligent, responsible, and free, is subject to a law, or rather to a Will, which commands him by commending itself to his moral nature as holy, just, and good. These elementary and axiomatic moral truths, so familiar as to sound common- place, are recalled here because they fur- nish a key to the solution of some of the difficulties connected with the moral rela- tions of the Atonement. They help us to understand and appreciate the anger of God against man, as a transgressor of His law, to which the sufferings and death of 5 ep AN The Atonement: our Divine Redeemer, considered as an expiatory sacrifice, give such emphatic and awful expression. It is not needful for me to give specific quotations from Scripture in order to bring before you a vivid impres- sion of those terrible words and figures by which God shows forth, on the one hand, the real evil of man’s sin, and on the other, the flaming fire of His own pure anger. The sin which overcomes our moral nature may pervert but does not destroy it. Con- science condemns when it can no longer command, Continuing to be judge when it has ceased to be sovereign, it pursues with reproaches those whom its remonstrances could not restrain. In the.calm that follows the excitement of some great transgression, when passion has spent its force, andthe lying sophistry that lured us on deceivesus ° ~ no longer, how we abhor and condemn ourselves! We writhe under the remorse that, like the undying worm, gnaws within; or agonize in the flaming fire of our own fierce indignation against our own sins. It is lis Relation to the Conscience. 67 not God only who is angry with the wicked, Men are angry with their own and with each other’s wickedness every day. And this anger becomes more intense and more uniform in proportien to the moral purity of the nature in which it burns. For the force of our recoil from any par- ticular form of evil, and of our displeasure against it, is the measure of our apprecia- tion of the special excellence to which the evil isopposed. An affectionate and sym- pathetic nature is attracted by those of kindred character, while it recoils, with instinctive dislike, from such as are hard and cold. The generous man, whose heart thrills at the tale of sorrow, and whose hand is ever open to help the needy, abhors grasping and greedy selfishness. The chaste Spirit is shocked by grossness and impu- rity; the refined shrink from coarseness ; the devout recoil from profanity ; and the upright and honourable from whatever is crooked or cunning, dishonest. or mean, The nature and degree of the disapproba- 68 The Atonement: tion and displeasure excited by that which is opposed to what we approve and esteem, depends on the sensitiveness of our test or standard of judging; and that again on the elevation and purity of our own moral nature. The good conscience must there- fore condemn,and the pure heart resent and abhor all evil; and the better and purer the character the hotter will be that altar fire of holy anger that consumes whatever is corrupt and vile, and cleanses and conse- crates all that is worthy to be offered to God, or that is fit to be employed for the good of man. It would be easy, and might be interesting, to trace the influence of this sacred fire of moral anger against evil, as it is expressed in our legislation, or in that unwritten code which, as public opinion, is more potent than statutes; or its educational action in our domestic life, when it is present in the pure sentiment and the wise discipline of a well- ordered Christian home. But I must con- tent myself with this mere reference, as fitted ts Relation to the Conscience. 69 to illustrate and vindicate the place which we claim for anger against evil among the ultimate sentiments of our moral nature. This moral anger is just and discriminat- ing, constant, and calm; and should never be confounded with the selfish, blind, and fitful passion that too often rages in our sinful human hearts. But it is anger—trea]l dislike of what is evil and real displeasure against it. It is not love in disguise. It may exist side by side with love ; it may be made to subserve the purposes of love; but it is distinct from it, and may, in some circumstances, be superior to it, setting aside love’s pleas, and asserting its supreme right to visit evil on the transeressor’s head. When a child has been found cover- ing some misdeed, or concocting some plan of forbidden enjoyment, by the help of falsehood, his father’s feeling towards the offence, and his treatment of the offender, will be deeply influenced by his parental love. But his displeasure against lying, and his moral hatred of liars, will remain, 70 The Atonement : and will express itself in fitting words, or in righteous chastisement, though the trans- gressor be his own son. The value of chastisement, indeed, as an instrument of moral education, depends on the strength and purity of the moral anger against evil- doing with which it is charged. So far there is a punitive or penal element in chastisement. It is the expression of the displeasure which the evil provokes, and of the treatment which it deserves. It is punishment, but with a view to reformation. But if reformation has become hopeless, and the evil.proves at once inveterate and intolerable, the deepest relations of love, and the closest bonds of friendship, must yield to the holy displeasure that drives from our presence one who has become only and continually evil. There are acts, and still more states of evil, that break the very bonds of fellowship, and which cannot be condoned or compromised without mora! degradation or moral agony, such as no pure heart could lawfully accept or be Lis Relation to the Conscience. 71 righteously required to endure. A friend esteemed and trusted proves false and treacherous, mean and base. Shocked by the discovery of what he is, we withdraw from him, or drive him from our presence, with a sternness of condemnation proportioned to the strength and cordiality of the rela- tions which subsisted between us, and which have been so rudely sundered.