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THE HUMANITY OF 
 THE CHRIST 
 
 And Other Essays 
 
 BY 
 
 GERRIT HUYSER 
 
 ii 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
Copyright, 19 19, by Gekrit Huyser 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 
 Made in the United States of America 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 "W 25 / 9/9 
 ©CI.A529830 
 
«<4 
 
 
JENNIE ABERNETHY 
 
 Born in the City of Detroit, 
 
 of Scotch-Irish parents, 
 
 (Robert Abernethy and Anna Farr) 
 
 November 26, 1840; 
 
 Married to the Rev. Gerrit Huyser, 
 
 December 7, 1871 ; 
 
 Fell sweetly asleep in Jesus 
 
 on the afternoon of Wednesday, 
 
 May 1, 1918. 
 
 The original photographs were 
 
 laboring with the Second 
 
 Pella, 
 
GERRIT HUYSER 
 
 Born in the Netherlands, 
 
 at Ridderkerk, 
 
 Province of South Holland, 
 
 February 28, 1838; 
 
 Came with his parents to Detroit, 
 
 May 31, 1851; 
 
 Entered upon the public work of the 
 
 Ministry, June 7, 1868; 
 
 Was duly licensed to preach the 
 
 Gospel in April, and ordained 
 
 in June, 1869. 
 
 taken in 1883, when we were 
 
 Reformed Church of 
 
 Iowa. 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 WHEN the publisher's kindly insistence finally induced 
 me to try and prepare a volume for publication, I 
 assured my dearly beloved life-companion that I would 
 dedicate it to her. 
 
 Now that she has gone to her eternal home, I can only 
 dedicate it to the blessed memory of one who, wherever 
 in these Northwestern States, her husband was called to 
 labor, was not only always his faithful and heroic fellow- 
 worker; but who did everything in her power to further 
 his usefulness, and who was ever the friend and helper of 
 the needy and the distressed. 
 
 In her going hence she illustrated in a wonderful way 
 that beautiful Oriental poem, translated by Sir William 
 Jones from the Sanscrit of Calidasa: 
 
 "On parents' knees, a naked, new-born child, 
 Weeping thou satst when all around thee smiled: 
 So live, that, sinking in thy last long sleep, 
 Thou then mayst smile while all around thee weep." 
 
 Deprived of the power of speech during the last few 
 weeks, because of a slight paralytic stroke, she literally 
 smiled her life away; smiling at those who waited on her, 
 smiling at the friends who came to see her, and smiling 
 at her husband as he tried, as best he might, to repeat 
 to her the precious promises of Holy Writ, and some of 
 those blessed hymns, that she had so long loved to sing; 
 and, lo, ere we knew, her gentle spirit had been wafted 
 away to that better country, where God Himself shall 
 wipe away every tear! 
 
 My darling wife, fare thee well! 
 
 Thou art gone from me, but not for ever. We shall 
 meet again, in the sweet by and by, on the evergreen 
 shore, where parting shall be no more! 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TN regard to the discourses contained in this vol- 
 ume the author simply wishes to say that it has 
 been his life-long endeavor to bear in mind that 
 Heaven's ambassador should ever and always hide 
 himself behind the cross, and that the salvation 
 of souls is the one supreme object of preaching. 
 And he makes humble and grateful acknowledg- 
 ment to the God of all grace, that the Holy Spirit, 
 whenever the people have had a mind to the work, 
 has most graciously, and at times in a wonderful 
 way, blessed the delivery of these and like sermons 
 to the comforting and upbuilding of believers, and 
 to the conversion of many that were without, both 
 old and young. 
 
 As to the many Scriptural quotations, it is proper 
 to state that, unless otherwise noted, these are in- 
 variably taken from the American Standard Edition 
 of the Revised English Bible. 
 
 The author takes for granted that the reader 
 has a right to know what version a writer follows. 
 It seems exceedingly strange that reputable writers 
 sometimes leave their readers entirely in the dark 
 
 5 
 
6 Preface 
 
 as to all that; quoting this or that translation, or 
 even giving their own version, without definite in- 
 formation in every case. But it seems to us a 
 thing far more unaccountable, that so many excel- 
 lent scholars, both in their preaching and in writ- 
 ing for the press, should, even at this late day, still 
 cling with such a strange tenacity to this miscalled 
 Authorized Version; which, notwithstanding its be- 
 ing a well-nigh undefiled well of noble English, is, 
 in many ways, altogether out of date. True it is 
 that our R. V. is not absolutely perfect, which 
 simply means, as says The Westminster Confession 
 of Faith, that the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, 
 "being immediately inspired of God, and by His 
 singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, 
 are therefore authentic, so as, in all controversies 
 of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto 
 them." Our American Revised Version is, how- 
 ever, far and away the most accurate and best trans- 
 lation in the possession of the English-speaking 
 world, and it does seem a great pity that the Prot- 
 estant Church has not long since unanimously 
 adopted it for all ordinary purposes. 
 
 To mention only a few out of a thousand and 
 one instances, and these are by no means always 
 among the most vital, surely no good reason can be 
 given why the common people should not be al- 
 
Preface ' 7 
 
 lowed to read, e. g., "In the beginning God cre- 
 ated," not, the heaven, but "the heavens and the 
 earth" (Gen. I:i). In Ex. III:i5, "Jehovah, the 
 God of your fathers." In Ex. VI :2 "I am Je- 
 hovah," and so elsewhere. In Ps. VIII "O Jeho- 
 vah, our Lord." And in Ps. CX:i, 
 
 "Jehovah saith unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My 
 right hand, 
 Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." 
 
 In Prov. IV: 1 8, 
 
 "But the path of the righteous is as the dawning 
 
 light, 
 That shineth more and more unto the perfect 
 
 day." 
 
 Nor is there any valid excuse for still telling us, 
 that our Lord bade us not to be careful about the 
 morrow, when what He did say was that .we are 
 not to be "anxious for the morrow (Matt. VI: 
 34). So should the apostle be allowed to exhort us, 
 "Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He 
 careth for you" (I. Pet. V:7). And to think of 
 continuing any longer to compel the evangelist to 
 make the utterly absurd statement, that Mary of 
 Bethany, when her sister Martha had gone out to 
 meet their anxiously looked-for Teacher, sat still, 
 
8 Preface 
 
 perfectly composed in body and mind, when what 
 he did say was simply this, "Mary still sat in the 
 house" (John XI:2o). There is, however, a far 
 more serious matter than any of these, which affects 
 the recognition of the personality of the Third 
 Person of the adorable Godhead. Even the learned 
 revisers have failed to fully rectify our noble Eng- 
 lish Bible in this respect, and yet we owe them 
 undying thanks, especially the British revisers, to 
 whom the change in this case is primarily due, for 
 having rid two memorable passages in the epistle 
 to the Romans of that utterly obnoxious term, 
 which the writer for one never allowed himself to 
 read in public, before ever there was a revision of 
 any sort, without solemn protest, viz., "itself," and 
 where we are now privileged to read, "The Spirit 
 Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we 
 are children of God; . . . And in like manner the 
 Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not 
 how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself 
 maketh intercession for us with groanings which 
 cannot be uttered" (Ch. VIII :i 6, 26). 
 
 The author can hardly expect, in spite of the 
 utmost care in revising these discourses for the 
 press, that he should entirely have escaped the com- 
 mon lot of man in making blunders; especially 
 when he had to do this work with an aching heart: 
 
Preface 9 
 
 but he humbly trusts that nothing of that will 
 have obscured the following pages; for it ill be- 
 comes one who has, for, lo, these many years, been 
 privileged to point the sorrowing and afflicted to 
 an elder Brother Who careth for us, to obtrude his 
 own sorrows upon his fellow-men, all of whom 
 have enough of their own to struggle under; and so 
 he has endeavored to bear in mind for himself, as 
 well as for his sorrow-laden brethren and sisters 
 in the Lord, that 
 
 "Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 So Jehovah pitieth them that fear Him. 
 For He knoweth our frame; 
 He remembereth that we are dust." 
 
 (Ps. CIII:i 3 -i4). 
 
 "For He doth not afflict willingly," in the He- 
 brew, "From His heart," "nor grieve the children 
 of men" (The Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ch. Ill: 
 33). 
 
 That He Who has so often blessed the spoken 
 word may, of His infinite goodness, use these pages 
 to the praise of His glory, is the sincere prayer of 
 one who, by His amazing mercy and favor, is now 
 eighty years young, with eyes undimmed and nat- 
 ural force unabated. 
 
 Detroit, 
 
 December, 191 8. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 The Humanity of the Christ 15 
 
 How God Reconciled the World unto Himself . . 40 
 
 The Need of Pressing Onward in the Divine Life 61 
 
 Satan's Great Masterpiece 81 
 
 Christian Lights in the World, and How They Are 
 
 to Hold Forth the Word of Life 101 
 
 Was There Only One Ascension? 120 
 
 The Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer . . 156 
 
 Christ's Invitation to the Burdened and Weary . 179 
 
 The Approaching Day 198 
 
 The Restoration and Redemption of Israel . . 216 
 
 A Twofold Cause of Error 243 
 
 The Fall of Man 261 
 
THE HUMANITY OF THE CHRIST 
 
THE HUMANITY OF 
 THE CHRIST 
 
 THE HUMANITY OF THE CHRIST 
 
 John XI: 35. "Jesus wept." 
 
 AMID the eminent characters, whose names are 
 enrolled upon the page of history; among 
 the many illustrious personages, who have indel- 
 ibly enstamped the impress of their lives upon hu- 
 man destiny, there stands forth in bold relief, and 
 in the solitary grandeur of a perfect manhood, 
 matchless and inimitable in all the lineaments of 
 His majestic glory, the Man Christ Jesus! 
 
 Oh! how the world's noblest characters dwin- 
 dle into utter insignificance, and how is their glory 
 obscured, when brought to the test of His spotless 
 life! How trivial and how inane do the moral 
 precepts of every ancient and modern philosopher 
 prove themselves, when tried by the standard of 
 His sublime teachings! 
 
 In the life of Jesus of Nazareth there is brought 
 
1 6 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 to view both the strength and the gentleness, the 
 majesty and the beauty of the perfect man. 
 
 What force of decision, what strength of purpose 
 is revealed in that matchless character which the 
 four evangelists have portrayed ! To every tempta- 
 tion of Satan, to every blandishment of His human 
 enemies, to every mistaken entreaty of His friends; 
 in a word, to every thing that might in any wise 
 have diverted Him from His chosen purpose, He 
 unhesitatingly turned a deaf ear. 
 
 His indignant, piercing look; His language of 
 scathing rebuke, and full of awful denunciation: 
 how they struck terror into the hearts of the 
 wicked! Where can be found more clearly than in 
 the words of Christ, a true and lifelike delinea- 
 tion of the folly and the guilt of hypocrisy? How 
 marked, how radical the distinction which is drawn 
 between a mere outward conformity to ceremonial 
 law, and a cordial obedience to all God's require- 
 ments, in these words of Christ, "Now ye the 
 Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the 
 platter: but your inward part is full of extortion 
 and wickedness. Ye foolish ones, did not He that 
 made the outside make the inside also? But woe 
 unto you Pharisees! for ye tithe mint, and rue, and 
 every herb, and pass over justice and the love of 
 God: but these ought ye to have done, and not to 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 17 
 
 leave the other undone" (Luke XI 139-40, 42). 
 Where was human pride ever more pointedly re- 
 buked? and when were self-righteous accusers of 
 their fellow-men more signally forced to condemn 
 themselves, than when, as He sat in His Father's 
 house, the Savior uttered that significant and heart- 
 searching command, "He that is without sin among 
 you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John VIII: 
 
 7)? 
 
 And yet the Man Christ Jesus, although thus 
 severe in His denunciation of a mock piety; and 
 though He indignantly unmasked the hypocrisy of 
 those who esteemed themselves more righteous than 
 others, while, in the sight of God, they were just 
 as bad, or even much worse: yet — and herein ap- 
 pear the beauty and charming symmetry of His 
 character — yet He was as quick to discern the least 
 indication of true penitence, and was ever ready 
 to throw the mantle of His abounding charity over 
 the misdeeds of such as honestly desired to turn 
 from their wicked ways. And so we find that no 
 sooner had the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, 
 who had brought to Him a woman taken in adul- 
 tery, one by one sneaked away from His presence, 
 having been convicted of their own inward deprav- 
 ity, but we hear Jesus utter those gracious words, so 
 full of sympathy as well as of warning for the fu- 
 
1 8 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ture, "Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; 
 from henceforth sin no more" (v. n). 
 
 The Savior's heart overflowed with sympathy for 
 human suffering and distress in every form. And 
 the genuineness and strength of His fellow-feeling 
 were clearly shown by this fact, so fully attested 
 by the record of His life from day to day, viz., that 
 He was always ready to raise up the fallen, to heal 
 the diseased, whether of body or of mind, to speak 
 the word of comfort to the sorrowing and the be- 
 reaved, and of encouragement to the faint-hearted 
 and the weary. 
 
 As it is in our Lord's intercourse with the wicked 
 spiritual rulers of the Jews, the scribes and Phari- 
 sees, that we behold in the strongest light the stern 
 and ever unyielding principles that controlled His 
 every act; as also His holy detestation of practical 
 ungodliness, however masked or overlaid with pious 
 pretensions: so it is in His intercourse with His 
 three intimate friends in Bethany — in whose peace- 
 ful home He so often found repose — that we may 
 see some of the most beautiful illustrations of all 
 that is lovely and attractive in His untarnished hu- 
 manity. 
 
 It is under the hospitable roof of Lazarus, 
 of Martha and Mary; in the bosom of this con- 
 genial household, where neither of those twin off- 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 19 
 
 spring of the pit, jealousy or envy, was on the alert 
 to whisper its foul and fiendish suspicions: but 
 where there was that undefinable something which 
 often draws pure souls, and that well-nigh invol- 
 untarily, into spontaneous sympathy with each 
 other; it is there where the social nature of the 
 Son of Man finds some of its freest, its most de- 
 lightful occasions for self-manifestation. 
 
 And in the narrative contained in the nth chap- 
 ter of the Gospel according to John, in which oc- 
 cur the words of the text, how many and how 
 varied are the glimpses given, how charming the 
 delineations which the pen of the beloved disciple 
 has portrayed, of the human character of our blessed 
 Lord. 
 
 At this time we view Him under circumstances 
 of strange and peculiar interest. On the other side 
 of the river Jordan He has received that brief and 
 touching message, so full of loving and confiding 
 expectation, "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is 
 sick" (v. 3). Seemingly unmoved He simply ut- 
 ters the mysterious declaration, "This sickness is 
 not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the 
 Son of God may be glorified thereby" (v. 4). 
 
 Yet the sick man dies, and now, after the body 
 of His friend Lazarus has already lain in the tomb 
 for four days, the Savior, accompanied by His 
 
20 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 twelve disciples, may once more be seen approach- 
 ing Bethany. 
 
 No sooner does Martha hear that Jesus is com- 
 ing but she runs out to meet Him, and pours into 
 His compassionate ear her plaintive, and almost re- 
 proachful, lamentation, "Lord, if Thou hadst been 
 here, my brother had not died!" (v. 21). 
 
 After a brief and wonderful interview, in which 
 He assures her that He Himself is "the resurrec- 
 tion and the life" (v. 25), she hastens back to the 
 house, and whispers into her sister's ear that hope- 
 inspiring message, "The Teacher is here, and call- 
 eth thee" (v. 28). And Mary rises up hastily to 
 meet the ever welcome Guest, and, falling down at 
 Jesus' feet, she too exclaims, "Lord, if Thou hadst 
 been here, my brother had not died!" 
 
 "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and 
 the Jews also weeping who came with her, He 
 groaned in the Spirit, and was troubled, and said, 
 Where have ye laid him? They say unto Him, 
 Lord, come and see" (v's 33-34). And as they 
 were leading Him to the tomb of His friend Laz- 
 arus "Jesus wept." 
 
 O what a scene was that! And how clearly 
 does this incident in the earthly life of the Re- 
 deemer attest the reality of His human nature! 
 What else could show us more conclusively, that the 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 21 
 
 Christ did not appear on earth, in what some have 
 termed "an unreal vail of sense"? What better 
 proof is needed that He did assuredly partake of 
 flesh and blood? 
 
 To the patriarch Abraham, and to other of the 
 saints during former dispensations, the Son of God 
 Himself and His celestial messengers had frequently 
 appeared in the likeness of our frail humanity. They 
 gave utterance to the commands of Heaven, reveal- 
 ing the will of Deity to mortal man, and then 
 quickly sped themselves back to their ethereal man- 
 sions. But Jesus of Nazareth had already spent 
 thirty years upon this earth, growing up from earli- 
 est infancy to manhood's prime, before entering 
 upon His public ministry. And now as that mar- 
 velous ministry of love and compassion is drawing 
 to a close, we see Him going to the tomb of His 
 friend Lazarus, His human soul moved at the sight 
 of the weeping sisters, and of their weeping friends, 
 and, lo, with their heart-breaking sobs are mingled 
 the tears of the Man Christ Jesus! 
 
 Ah! this is not at all like the angelic appearances 
 of any age. Nor is He Who goes weeping to 
 yonder tomb in Bethany of Judea, simply the Son 
 of God as once He stood with gracious condescen- 
 sion, yet with majestic mien, as "The Judge of all 
 the earth" (Gen. XVIII 125), listening to Abra- 
 
22 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ham's plea for the guilty cities of the plain, or as 
 He wrestled all night with Jacob by the brook 
 Jabboc. No, this indeed is the Son of God, yet 
 this is also the Son of Man. 
 
 When we behold the Savior mingling His tears 
 with those of the sorrowing company which is 
 slowly wending its way to the tomb of Lazarus, we 
 begin to realize somewhat the preciousness of that 
 truth, which is set forth by the apostle Paul, when 
 he declares concerning the only begotten Son of 
 God, "For verily not to angels doth He give help, 
 but He giveth help to the seed of Abraham" (Heb. 
 II:i6). Yes, Christ became truly man, and in 
 Him we perceive not only the sterner qualities of 
 our nature, but likewise all the more gentle and 
 winning graces of a sinless and perfect human char- 
 acter. 
 
 "Jesus wept." The absolute God, the all-creat- 
 ing, yet uncreated, Spirit, the Great Cause un- 
 caused, the incomprehensible and infinite One, eter- 
 nal and immutable in all the wonderful attributes 
 of His matchless being: the human mind staggers 
 at the very thought of God, and shrinks back with 
 amaze and awe from His unseen presence. Yet, 
 blessed be God! there is One Who, though He is 
 "the effulgence of His glory, and the very image 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 23 
 
 of His substance, . . . upholding all things by the 
 word of His power" (Heb. 1:3), Y et became for a 
 while "a little lower than the angels" (Ch. 11:7) ; 
 and Who, whereas man had "flesh and blood, . . . 
 also Himself in like manner partook of the same" 
 (v. 14) ; nay, "emptied Himself, taking the form 
 of a servant, being made in the likeness of man" 
 (Phil. 11:7); an d having thus veiled the dazzling 
 glory of Deity under gentlest aspect of human 
 form, He "went about doing good" (Acts X:38), 
 everywhere administering the abundant consolations 
 of His grace, healing the sick, giving hearing to 
 the deaf, sight to the blind, raising the dead to life 
 again, binding up every broken heart, and even 
 mingling His tears with those of the sorrowing and 
 the bereaved. 
 
 The perfect knowledge of God we cannot attain 
 unto, it is too high for our weak perceptions: but 
 the Son of God arrayed in human flesh and blood, 
 with His human heart palpitating to every human 
 woe, O here is something tangible! something that 
 our weak senses can grasp! Yes, in Jesus Christ 
 God has, in amazing condescension and love, let 
 Himself down as it were to the feebleness of our 
 comprehension! He is no longer a God afar off, 
 but in the person of the Son He has come very close 
 
24 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 to us, in having joined our frail human nature into 
 eternal union with the Divine essence. 
 
 An eternal union! Yes, and in that union is in- 
 cluded, not simply the soul, or spirit, but the whole 
 man. When the Savior expired on Calvary His 
 human spirit also descended to the abode of the 
 dead, and His body was laid in the new hewn 
 tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea; nevertheless the 
 Holy One saw no corruption, but on the morning 
 of the third day He broke asunder the bars of 
 death; during the space of forty days He again and 
 again showed Himself to His disciples in His 
 thenceforth incorruptible and immortal human 
 body; and then, as the heavens received Him out 
 of their sight, He, the God-Man, ascended up to 
 glory, far above all dominion, and power, and 
 every name that is named; and in that same human 
 body He shall yet again be seen, standing "upon the 
 mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the 
 east" (Zech. XIV 14), and, possessed of His glori- 
 fied human nature, He shall reign world without 
 end, King of kings and Lord of lords. 
 
 In view of all this we may well be astounded 
 at the honor which God has put upon the children 
 of men, in having thus gloriously exalted our na- 
 ture into everlasting union with the Divine. And 
 so we may say with an old English writer, 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 25 
 
 "Twas much, that man was made like God before; 
 But, that God should be made like man, much 
 
 There has, alas! grown up in the Christian 
 Church a strange, nay, even a contemptuous dis- 
 esteem of the body. In the minds of multitudes of 
 intelligent Christian people, the idea of the exist- 
 ence of a spirit in a physical organism seems to be 
 inseparably associated with the idea of sin and con- 
 sequent misery. And hence they suppose, when 
 once they have got rid of this cumbrous clay, that 
 then they will at once enter upon the fulness and 
 perfection of their bliss and glory. 
 
 Let us now briefly consider how little ground 
 there is, either in Scripture or in the nature of 
 things, for such a conclusion. 
 
 How was it in the case of our first parents? Did 
 not Jehovah God form the body of Adam first, 
 and afterwards create the living soul to inhabit 
 that tenement of clay? And were not Adam and 
 Eve both spotless as they came forth from the plas- 
 tic hand of Deity? Had not God made them in 
 such a way, that they were fitted to exercise all 
 the powers of their wonderfully composite being, 
 physical as well as intellectual and spiritual, in per- 
 
 ^ohn Donne, D.D. 
 
26 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 feet conformity to His will? Because God had 
 enclosed their ethereal spirits in bodies of an 
 earthly mold, had He thereby made it impossible 
 for them to live lives of holy obedience? 
 
 It is a matter of historic proof that this idea of 
 the inseparable connection between matter and sin, 
 like many an other delusion, found its way into the 
 theology of the Christian Church, as one of the 
 results of attempts, which but too often proved 
 successful, to mix in the vain and puerile philoso- 
 phies of heathenism with the eternal verities of the 
 Word of God. And when Christian theologians 
 allowed themselves to indulge in the dreamy specu- 
 lations of Oriental and Greek philosophy, about the 
 eternal conflict between the principles of light and 
 darkness, it is not strange that they divested the ac- 
 count of the trial and fall of our first parents of 
 all its grand and terrible significance, and turned it 
 into a meaningless, if not contemptible, fable! 
 
 The earthly life of the Man Christ Jesus, how- 
 ever, ought for ever to have kept His people from 
 supposing that life in the body and sin are neces- 
 sarily associated with each other. That life of 
 thirty-three years of sinless devotion to the will 
 of the Father, is in itself the best possible evi- 
 dence that the primary cause of the fall of man, 
 and of the consequent degradation and misery of 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 27 
 
 our race, is not to be found in the fact that man is 
 a physical and animal, as well as a spiritual, being. 
 
 But not this only. The forty days that followed 
 upon the Savior's resurrection, during which time 
 He gave His followers so many infallible proofs, 
 that He was indeed that very God-Man Who, in 
 the days of His humiliation, had so abundantly 
 demonstrated His thoroughly human sympathy, as 
 well as His divine power to succor them in the 
 hour of need; His ascension to glory, coupled with 
 the assurance of the angelic messengers, "This 
 Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, 
 shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him 
 going into heaven" (Acts I:n) : these things ought 
 likewise to have banished forever the supposition, 
 that the reunion of soul and body in the resurrec- 
 tion state will be at all incompatible with the high- 
 est possible degree of felicity which, through the 
 unending cycles of the eternal ages, the finite mind 
 will be able to attain unto! 
 
 It is indeed true that ever since the fall the chil- 
 dren of God have groaned in this sin-defiled taber- 
 nacle, and that many have longed with the apostle 
 Paul "to depart and be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). 
 Yet this apostle assures us, that that which he most 
 ardently longed for was fellowship with Christ in 
 suffering, and in "the power of His resurrection" 
 
28 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 (Ch. III:io). And when "Paul the aged" wrote 
 his last epistle to his son Timothy, and declared 
 that the time of his departure was at hand, what 
 were his expectations as to the immediate future? 
 Did he expect to receive the crown of victory the 
 very moment after he had been delivered from 
 the cross of conflict and of suffering? However 
 much it may accord with prevalent modern ideas 
 about the heavenly state to respond affirmatively 
 to the last question, nevertheless, bearing in mind his 
 other inspired teachings, we hesitate not to affirm 
 most emphatically, No! he expected nothing of the 
 sort. 
 
 Why just look for a moment at the language of 
 the apostle, as he sees the time approaching when 
 he too will have to seal his testimony with his 
 blood. And what does he say? "For I am already 
 being offered, and the time of my departure is come. 
 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the 
 course." The race was won! "I have kept the 
 faith" (II. Tim. IV 16-7). And what now? Does 
 he express his joyous assurance that the crown of 
 righteousness is awaiting the deliverance of his 
 spirit from the trammels of the flesh, and his exit 
 from this earth? Not at all. That that crown 
 will one day be his he now knows beyond the per- 
 adventure of a doubt, for he has faithfully per- 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 29 
 
 formed the task which his Master had put upon 
 him. 
 
 But when does he expect that the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the righteous Judge, will give him this sig- 
 nal and most glorious proof of His approbation? 
 "Henceforth there is laid up for me," kept in store, 
 "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day." And 
 to remove as it were all possibility of mistake, lest 
 any one should suppose that by the phrase, "at that 
 day," he refers to the day of his own death, he 
 adds in immediate, and one might suppose in alto- 
 gether unmistakable, connection, "and not to me 
 only, but also to all them that have loved His ap- 
 pearing" (v. 8). It was to the resurrection of the 
 just, to the day of the reunion of his spirit to 
 his resurrected body, that he looked forward with 
 eager and expectant eye, for the complete and glori- 
 ous fulfillment of all his ardent expectations. 
 
 And is it not in accordance with the nature of 
 things that it should be so? The spirit and the 
 body of man have been likened, and with beautiful 
 appropriateness, to a jewel and its setting. But 
 who will say that the jewel is just as valuable with- 
 out its setting as with it? Is not the value of 
 the precious diamond enhanced? Is not its glit- 
 tering splendor brought out into bolder relief, when 
 
30 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the skilful artisan has embedded it in a chastely- 
 wrought setting of fine gold? And is it not some- 
 what thus with the ethereal spirit of man and its 
 tenement of clay? The soul is indeed of first and 
 greatest importance; nevertheless the soul, or spirit, 
 is by no means the whole man. Man is a physical 
 as well as a spiritual being. And is it reasonable 
 to suppose that the spirit, while absent from the 
 body, is, or ever will be, adequate to all the grand 
 possibilities that the eternal future will unfold 
 to the redeemed from among men ? Is it not much 
 more in accordance with sound reason, as well as 
 with Scripture, to suppose that the saints cannot 
 enjoy all that fulness of bliss and glory which is in 
 store for them, until their spirits shall again have 
 put on their early, yet spiritualized and glorified, 
 garbs ? 
 
 And is there not great reason to fear, my breth- 
 ren, that the Church in these latter days does alto- 
 gether too generally ignore the resurrection of the 
 body? When, on that memorable day of Pente- 
 cost, the apostles began to fulfill their public min- 
 istry, did they preach Christ and death? Because 
 "it is appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. IX: 
 27), did they make use of that fact as the founda- 
 tion of all their arguments, to lead men to the 
 immediate exercise of repentance toward God, and 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 31 
 
 of faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ? What are 
 the facts in the case? When Peter stood up with 
 the eleven he spoke to the multitude of the resur- 
 rection of our Lord, and of His coming again to 
 execute judgment. Such too was most emphatically 
 the twofold burden of his other notable discourse. 
 And afterward, when the Sanhedrin had begun to 
 utter its threatenings against the disciples, forbid- 
 ding them "to speak at all," or to "teach in the 
 name of Jesus" (Acts IV:i8), it is recorded, as 
 the result of a renewed outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit, that "they spake the word of God with bold- 
 ness" (v. 31), the only particular subject of their 
 preaching, which the pen of inspiration even stops 
 to mention, being recorded in the emphatic state- 
 ment, that "the apostles with great power gave" 
 their testimony concerning "the resurrection of the 
 Lord Jesus" (v. 33). 
 
 But not only at the beginning of the proclama- 
 tion of the glad tidings of a now finished work of 
 atoning mercy, was the doctrine of the bodily resur- 
 rection of the ascended Redeemer made prominent: 
 everywhere throughout the book of the Acts, and 
 in the apostolic writings, we are told that "Christ 
 Jesus . . . died, yea rather . . . was raised from 
 the dead" (Rom. VIII 134). 
 
 "This event," says Bernard, "is presented by 
 
32 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 them, not simply as the seal of His teaching, or 
 more generally (to use the poor and shrunken 
 phrase of later times) as the proof of His divine 
 mission: but as itself the cause and the commence- 
 ment of that new world and eternal life, which 
 was consciously 'the hope of Israel,' and uncon- 
 sciously the hope of man." 2 
 
 This statement is especially, though by no means 
 singularly, true of the teachings of the great apostle 
 to the Gentiles. Standing before the Jewish coun- 
 cil "he cried out, Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son 
 of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of 
 the dead I am called in question" (Acts XXIII: 
 6). What else was the meaning of this utterance 
 of that fearless and peerless champion of the truth 
 of God, but that in so far as the sect of the Phari- 
 sees of his day, still continued orthodox in regard 
 to those great doctrines of the resurrection of the 
 body and the life everlasting, which underlie all 
 the teachings of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures 
 from Genesis to Malachi, he had never ceased to 
 be a Pharisee? At Antioch, in Pisidia, he declared 
 to his Hebrew brethren that God, in the raising 
 up again of the Lord Jesus, had fulfilled "the prom- 
 ise made unto the fathers" (Acts XIII :32). And in 
 his defense before king Agrippa he once more af- 
 2 Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, p. 137. 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 33 
 
 firmed the orthodoxy of his faith as to the Old 
 Testament Scriptures, and referring to "the prom- 
 ise made of God unto our fathers" (Ch. XXVI: 
 6), he adds, "Unto which promise our twelve 
 tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope 
 to attain. And concerning this hope I am accused 
 by the Jews, O king!" (v. 7). And then, appeal- 
 ing to the sober reason of his skeptical Roman 
 judges, he asks, "Why is it judged incredible with 
 you, if God doth raise the dead?" (v. 8). And 
 further on he declares that in his preaching he had 
 but reiterated the teachings of Moses and of the 
 prophets, viz., "that the Christ must suffer, and 
 . . . that He first by the resurrection of," i. e., 
 from among "the dead, should proclaim light both 
 to the people and to the Gentiles" (v. 23). 
 
 In the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians this same 
 apostle, in his great argument on the resurrection 
 of the body, places the vital importance of this doc- 
 trine before us in these forcible terms: "For if the 
 dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised : 
 and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is 
 vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also that 
 are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we 
 have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of 
 all men most pitiable" (v's 16-19). And in the 
 8th chapter of Romans, by a bold figure of speech, 
 
34 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 he represents the whole lower creation, both ani- 
 mate and inanimate, as groaning and travailing "in 
 pain together until now, . . . waiting for the adop- 
 tion" of the saints, "to wit, the redemption of our 
 body" (v's 22-23). To which we need but add 
 these words of "the disciple whom Jesus loved," in 
 regard to the coming again in glory of our adorable 
 Redeemer, "Beloved, now are we children of God, 
 and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. 
 We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall 
 be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is" 
 (I. John 111:2). 
 
 Yes, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, the res- 
 urrection of the Son of Man is the sure pledge of 
 the resurrection to immortal bliss and glory of all 
 His believing people. And "if the Spirit of Him 
 that raised up Jesus from the dead" indeed "dwell- 
 eth in you," then be assured on the testimony of 
 Him Who cannot lie, that having "raised up Christ 
 Jesus from the dead," He "shall give life also to 
 your mortal bodies" (Rom. VIII :n). 
 
 And when the bodies of the saints shall have been 
 raised from the dust of the earth, and reunited to 
 their immortal spirits, these glorified ones are by 
 no means to be confined to the limits of this little 
 globe; for they who shall have part "in the resur- 
 rection of the just" (Luke XIV 114), shall be "as 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 35 
 
 angels in heaven" (Matt. XXII 130), and with them 
 shall roam over all the vast universe, and shall ex- 
 plore with glad surprise the wonderful works of 
 God! 
 
 But chief among the joys of that heavenly state 
 will be this, — He, Whom having not seen, they 
 loved in their state of suffering and trial, the Man 
 Christ Jesus, their elder Brother, will walk in their 
 midst. And although even in glory the redeemed 
 may be still unable fully to fathom the mystery of 
 the Godhead, yet He Who first taught them by His 
 Spirit to see the Father in Himself, will for ever 
 remain — if we may thus speak — the link that shall 
 bind them to the throne. And thus the God-Man, 
 our adorable Redeemer, will be to all eternity the 
 blissful channel whereby "the general assembly and 
 Church of the firstborn" (Heb. XII 123), nay, all 
 the ransomed sons and daughters of Adam, may 
 draw near to the ineffable glory! 
 
 Impenitent friends, is there nothing for you in 
 all this? Are there no attractions for you in the 
 thought, that for you too it is possible to attain 
 "unto the resurrection of life"? (John V:29). 
 Would you not delight in the assurance, that you 
 shall forever enjoy the society of the wise and the 
 good of all ages? That angels and archangels, 
 those glorious beings, the sons of God, the morning 
 
36 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 stars of light, who, ere the dawn of this nether 
 creation, basked in the sunlight of God's counte- 
 nance, are to be your eternal, loved, and loving 
 companions? And that you too are to be among 
 that blessed number whom, in the ages to come, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ will honor with His own so- 
 ciety, and of whom He will say to the Father, 
 They are Mine, "Behold, I and the children" whom 
 Thou hast "given Me" (Heb. II:i 3 ) ? 
 
 And remember likewise, impenitent friends, that 
 there is also to be a "resurrection of judgment" 
 (John V:29) unto eternal condemnation, and that 
 even as the resurrected bodies of the redeemed will 
 fit them for greater glory, and for more intense 
 enjoyment, so it is no less certain that the resur- 
 rected bodies of the lost, will fit them for greater 
 shame, and for more intense suffering. 
 
 O behold the open door, and count not your- 
 selves unworthy of everlasting life, but enter while 
 yet the Master calleth for you. For, lo, "The 
 Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that is 
 athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take 
 the water of life freely" (Rev. XXII 117). 
 
 Before closing suffer us, for a few moments, to 
 advert to a strange misunderstanding, which is espe- 
 cially apt to prevail among the young. They are 
 afraid, should they become Christians, that they 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 37 
 
 will be compelled at once and for ever, to forego 
 all innocent hilarity, and that they must sternly 
 repress all exuberance of their youthful spirits. And 
 similar views have often been advanced by mature 
 Christian people. 
 
 The speaker once had the somewhat startling 
 question put to him by an excellent lady in his con- 
 gregation, "Does the Bible say that the Savior ever 
 laughed?" Suppose it does not, does that make it 
 a sin for you or me to laugh ? And has He not given 
 His people the joyous assurance, "Blessed are ye 
 that weep now, for ye shall laugh"? (Luke VI: 
 21). That was a conclusive, as well as "a very 
 pretty reply," which was made by a little girl, 
 to the statement that our Savior was never seen 
 to smile, "Didn't He say, 'Suffer little children to 
 come unto Me'? and they would not have come 
 unless He had smiled." 
 
 But after all what is it that is to constitute hu- 
 man perfection in the eternal world? Will it not 
 be the bringing into perfect exercise of all those 
 powers of body, as well as of mind and heart, with 
 which the all-wise Creator has endowed us? If so, 
 then let us not be afraid to give freest scope to all 
 the faculties of our wondrously composite being, 
 whose well-nigh infinite capabilities, it may be, we 
 scarce have begun as yet to dream of, in this in- 
 
38 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 cipient stage of our existence. And as to laughing, 
 there are different ways of doing that as well as 
 everything else. Says the wise Solomon, "As the 
 crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter 
 of the fool" (Eccle. VII :6); aye, sometimes there 
 is a very devil in its sarcastic, cutting tones. But 
 the laughter of the grateful, happy child of God, 
 hath oft a music in it, that is indeed "a good med- 
 icine" (Prov. XVII :22), and that breathes the 
 very atmosphere of heaven into the despondent 
 soul! 
 
 And who has a better right to be happy and full 
 of joy, than he who has "peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," and who can "rejoice in 
 hope of the glory of God"? (Rom. V:i, 2). Ah, 
 
 "Shout! oh, shout! ye heirs of glory; 
 You on Jesus' throne shall rest!" 
 
 O think, fellow Christian, of our elder Brother 
 as now in glory! O think how soon the day may 
 dawn, when we shall "awake" in the likeness 
 (Ps. XVII 115) of our glorified Redeemer, and 
 when we shall behold the King in His beauty! 
 
 Well has one sung, 
 
 "O blessed, O thrice blessed word! 
 To be 'for ever with the Lord,' 
 In heavenly beauty, fair! 
 
The Humanity of the Christ 39 
 
 Up! up! we long to hear the cry, 
 Up ! up ! our coming Lord draws nigh ! 
 Yes! 'in the twinkling of an eye,' 
 To meet Him 'in the air'!" 
 
 Aye! in these same bodies, wondrously spiritual- 
 ized and glorified, we shall yet see our blessed 
 Master face to face, and in that day we shall sit 
 down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 with all the saints and martyrs of our God, in the 
 kingdom of His glory! And the Lord Jesus will 
 be our eternal Companion, and He shall lead us 
 beside the "restful waters," 3 and into the green 
 pastures of His love! 
 
 "Jesus wept," and to His people this present evil 
 world but too often proves "a vale of tears": but, 
 blessed be Jehovah our God! the day is coming 
 when He "shall wipe away every tear from their 
 eyes"! (Rev. VII :i 7). 
 
 * A New Rendering of The Book of Psalms by John 
 De Witt, D.D., Ps., XXIII: 2. 
 
HOW GOD RECONCILED THE WORLD 
 UNTO HIMSELF 
 
 HIS PLEA FOR RECONCILIATION 
 
 II Cor. V:i8-2i. "But all things are of God, Who 
 reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto 
 us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in 
 Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckon- 
 ing unto them their trespasses, and having committed 
 unto us the word of reconciliation. 
 
 "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as 
 though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on 
 behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Him Who 
 knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we 
 might become the righteousness of God in Him." 
 
 TF persons need to be reconciled to each other, if 
 there is need of the establishment of peace and 
 harmony between them, if friendship and love need 
 to be restored; then the natural and inevitable con- 
 clusion is, that a state of things exists which is the 
 very opposite of all this. 
 
 The text evidently implies such a state of things, 
 where aversion and hatred prevail, rather than 
 40 
 
How God Reconciled the World 41 
 
 friendship and love; and where there is discord and 
 strife, rather than harmony and peace. 
 
 And the parties to this sad mutual dislike and 
 aversion, and between whom a ceaseless, and, in this 
 case, a most unequal contest is being waged, are 
 the holy God and man the sinner, the almighty 
 Ruler of heaven and earth, and a frail mortal, who 
 is but as a worm of the dust before Him. 
 
 Ever since the fall of our first parents the whole 
 race has been in this evil plight, and alas for us 
 all, if reconciliation were wholly out of the ques- 
 tion, for, as says the prophet, "Woe unto him that 
 striveth with his Maker" (Is. XLV:o,). 
 
 But, blessed be God! while our text clearly im- 
 plies the existence of an unfriendly and warlike 
 state of things, it does not simply imply, or give 
 us reason to infer or conclude, but speaks to us in 
 the clearest and most positive terms, of the fact 
 that steps have actually been taken to bring about 
 a reconciliation. 
 
 And which of the parties is seeking this recon- 
 ciliation? Which of them first set himself to work 
 to restore peace and harmony? 
 
 Did erring, sinful man first undertake this work? 
 And is he now everywhere earnestly striving to 
 make peace between God and himself? Did you 
 ever hear of anything of that sort? 
 
42 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Ah, no! Not the creature, but the Creator first 
 set about this stupendous work. And if He, the 
 all-wise, the all-holy One, were this day, this hour, 
 this moment to cease His efforts, not a single un- 
 converted man, woman, or child would henceforth 
 take even a single step, or make the slightest right 
 endeavor, in that direction. 
 
 God does not foreordain any one to damnation. 
 Alas! alas! fallen man ever and always consigns 
 himself to eternal death, save as Divine grace inter- 
 poses to save him from himself! 
 
 No! it is not man the sinner, but a holy and 
 justly offended God, of Whose efforts at recon- 
 ciliation the text speaks to us. As the Holy Spirit, 
 speaking through the mouth of the apostle, here 
 affirms, "All things" that are good and perfect, 
 whatever concerns man's present well-being and 
 his eternal salvation, they are all "of God." 
 
 Yes, and blessed be His holy name for ever! the 
 text does assure us that God has Himself entered 
 upon this great and stupendous undertaking; that 
 He has actually undertaken, not the work of stamp- 
 ing out rebellion by crushing His enemies, for with 
 a word He could hurl them every one to everlast- 
 ing, remediless destruction; but rather, that He 
 has imposed upon Himself the far more difficult 
 
How God Reconciled the World 43 
 
 task, of changing rebels into loyal and devoted sub- 
 jects, bitter enemies into loving friends. 
 
 The text sets forth: 
 
 First: The way in which God laid the founda- 
 tion for this work: 
 
 Second: Reminds us of some most signal suc- 
 cesses that had already crowned the completion of 
 this wondrous scheme of 
 
 "Love Divine, all love excelling — " 
 
 and, Third: Directs our thoughts to the means 
 whereby He has in ages past, and is still continuing 
 to carry on, the mighty and self-imposed task. 
 
 "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses." 
 
 When? When the Son of God appeared in mor- 
 tal flesh, and especially from the very hour that our 
 blessed Redeemer publicly entered upon His great 
 work. 
 
 No sooner has He received His priestly baptism 
 at the hand of His forerunner, and been anointed 
 by the Holy Spirit, but He is led forth into the 
 wilderness, there to surfer the pangs of bodily hun- 
 ger, and for forty days to be tempted of the Devil. 
 
 And ever after, while going about on His er- 
 rands of love and mercy, and proclaiming salvation 
 to the lost, He was destitute and afflicted. While 
 
44 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the foxes had holes, and the birds of heaven had 
 their nests, He, the Son of Man, had not where to 
 lay His head. Nay, He was persecuted and tor- 
 mented by a world that He had come to save. Says 
 the apostle, "For ye know the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for 
 your sakes He became poor, that ye through His 
 poverty might become rich" (II. Cor. VIII 19). 
 
 We remark, in the next place, that He had 
 come to stand in the place of guilty man, and so 
 Justice treated Him as though He were the sinner. 
 "Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our 
 behalf; that we might become the righteousness of 
 God in Him." Says the prophet Isaiah, "He was 
 despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief: and, as one from whom 
 men hide their face, He was despised; and we es- 
 teemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, 
 and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him 
 stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He 
 was wounded for our transgressions, He was 
 bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we 
 are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; 
 we have turned every one to his own way; and 
 Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" 
 (CL LIII:3-6). 
 
How God Reconciled the World 45 
 
 This is the only possible explanation, consistent 
 with the Divine justice, not only of the agony of 
 Gethsemane, of the cruel scourging by the Roman 
 soldiery, and of the shameful death on the cross, but 
 of the whole earthly life of the sinless Son of Man. 
 
 The sufferings and persecutions so often endured 
 by the people of God, at the hands of the wicked, 
 are no just comparison whatever. Though of such 
 "the world was not worthy" (Heb. XI 138), yet 
 they had themselves all sinned against God, and the 
 worst that the world could do to them, is as noth- 
 ing compared to what eternal Justice would mete 
 out to them, had not Mercy found a Ransom. 
 
 But it is the sinless, the holy One, Who lives a 
 life of poverty, Who is despised and rejected of 
 men. He too it was Who took upon Himself the 
 form of a Servant, and Who became obedient unto 
 death, even unto the cruel and shameful death of 
 the cross! Why? and where is the justice of all 
 this? Our text gives the answer. "God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 
 
 He is the Gift of the Father. "For God so 
 loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not 
 His Son into the world to judge the world; but 
 
46 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 that the world should be saved through Him" 
 (John III :i6-i7). 
 
 For this very purpose was He sent, and came 
 He into the world. "I lay down My life for the 
 sheep. . . . Therefore doth the Father love Me, 
 because I lay down My life, that I may take it 
 again. No one taketh it away from Me, but 
 I lay it down of Myself. I have power," i. e., the 
 right or authority, "to lay it down, and I have 
 power," i. e., the right or authority, "to take it 
 again." Our Lord here twice uses the very same 
 word, which occurs in the Greek text of Matt. X:i, 
 and where we read in our Revised English Ver- 
 sions, that "He called unto Him His twelve dis- 
 ciples, and gave them authority over unclean spir- 
 its." And it is with these remarkably significant 
 words, that our Lord ends this declaration as to 
 His absolute power and authority over His own 
 earthly, human life: "This commandment received 
 I from My Father" (John X:i5, 17-18). And 
 the Holy Spirit caused the very same evangelist, 
 who wrote all this for the edification of the Church 
 in after ages, to give to the world the proof and 
 the demonstration that the Savior did have this 
 power and authority, as we find in Ch. XVIII 14-9, 
 where our Lord, by a mere word, first caused the 
 band that had come to take Him to fall to the 
 
How God Reconciled the World 47 
 
 ground, and then freely gave Himself into their 
 hands. "Again therefore He asked them, Whom 
 seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus 
 answered, I told you that I am He." And when 
 Simon Peter had drawn his sword, "and struck the 
 high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear," our 
 Lord said to him, "Put up the sword into the 
 sheath: the cup which the Father hath given Me, 
 shall I not drink it?" (v's io-ii). From Matt. 
 XXVI 153-54 we quote these additional words of 
 our Lord to this impetuous disciple, "Or thinkest 
 thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He 
 shall even now send Me more than twelve legions 
 of angels? How then should the Scriptures be ful- 
 filled, that thus it must be?" On the day of His 
 resurrection He said to the two, with whom He 
 walked on the way to Emmaus, "O foolish men, 
 and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets 
 have spoken! Behooved it not the Christ to suf- 
 fer these things, and to enter into His glory? And 
 beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, 
 He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the 
 things concerning Himself." And that same eve- 
 ning He said to the little company, that were 
 gathered in an upper room, "These are My words 
 which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, 
 that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are 
 
48 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and 
 the psalms, concerning Me" (Luke XXIV 125-27, 
 
 44)- 
 
 The common supposition that our Lord, in Geth- 
 semane, prayed to be delivered from the death of 
 the cross, we are fully persuaded, is entirely wrong. 
 That is a thought which surely never entered the 
 Savior's mind. It is not possible to enlarge on that 
 matter in this connection, but it does seem utterly 
 out of the question, in view of His oft repeated 
 declarations, that He had come for that very pur- 
 pose, that even amidst the unspeakable agony of 
 the garden, He should have asked to be delivered 
 from such a death, and surely He never would, 
 even for a single moment, have felt any fear of 
 physical death in any form whatever. But what 
 would have been the appalling result, if, as the 
 burden of a world's guilt rolled in upon His soul, 
 life had given way in Gethsemane? He would 
 have lived in vain! Such a death could never have 
 atoned for human guilt! 
 
 The following Scriptures furnish proof absolute 
 as to all that. "But when the fulness of the time 
 came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, 
 born under the law, that He might redeem them 
 that were under the law, that we might receive 
 the adoption of sons" (Gal. IV 14-5 ). "Knowing 
 
How God Reconciled the World 49 
 
 that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, 
 with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life 
 handed down from your fathers ; but with precious 
 blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without 
 spot, even the blood of Christ" (I. Pet. I:i8-ig). 
 "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
 having become a curse for us; for it is written, 
 Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 
 III:i3). And so our Lord prayed that His life 
 might be spared for the supreme agony of the cross ; 
 prayed, as we read in Heb. V:7, "with strong cry- 
 ing and tears unto Him that was able to save Him 
 from death!' A prayer which the Holy Spirit as- 
 sures us was "heard" 
 
 It ought to be scarce needful to remark that our 
 Lord was sent of the Father, and that He gladly 
 came upon His errand of love and mercy, because 
 there was no other possible way of escape for guilty 
 man. "And He saw that there was no man, and 
 wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore 
 His own arm brought salvation unto Him; and His 
 righteousness, it upheld Him" (Is. LIX:i6). "In 
 the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, . . . and 
 in none other is there salvation: for neither is there 
 any other name under heaven, that is given among 
 men, wherein we must be saved" (Acts IV:iO, 
 
 12). 
 
50 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 God's determination to vindicate His holy law, 
 and to punish the transgressor; this is not only 
 a tremendous truth for the persistent rebel; it is 
 also full of comfort and joy to all holy intelligences, 
 and to every pardoned sinner as well. Says an- 
 other, "God hates sin as much as His awful threat- 
 enings say He does; and they who deny it deny 
 the God of heaven. They deny His holiness, His 
 real abhorrence of sin. They exhibit a false god 
 to the human mind — a god without principle, a 
 god without character. Such a God on the throne 
 of the universe, and every angel would drop his 
 harp, every 'demon' shout in ecstasy. The bands 
 of God's moral dominion would be broken, the pil- 
 lars of eternal justice would fall, and heaven fall 
 with them ; the fires of hell burst forth unchecked, 
 and rebellion stand triumphant on the ruins. Such 
 is not the God of heaven !" x 
 
 And because sin might not, could not go unpun- 
 ished, therefore the love and wisdom of God de- 
 vised and carried out this wondrous scheme, 
 whereby man might be redeemed, while Justice re- 
 ceived her due. 
 
 In Gethsemane, before the Sanhedrin, at Pilate's 
 court, and especially on Golgotha, "God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 
 
 1 Nathaniel W. Taylor, D.D. 
 
How God Reconciled the World 51 
 
 In Gethsemane our Lord had, as it were, the 
 dreadful foretaste of the wrath of God against a 
 world that "lieth in the evil one" (I. John Vug). 
 Into the awful mystery of that agony and bloody 
 sweat we may not penetrate. But, dear hearer, if 
 an evil heart of unbelief, or the world, or Satan, 
 ever tempts you to cherish the fatal delusion that 
 sin is a trifling matter, then go to dark Gethsemane, 
 and look at the God-Man as He begins "to be 
 sorrowful," "greatly amazed, and sore troubled" 
 (Matt. XXVI 137; Mark XIV 133). Hear Him 
 say to His three favored disciples, "My soul is ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful, even unto death: abide ye here, 
 and watch with Me" (Matt. XXVI 138). Aye, 
 look at Him there, as He lies prostrate upon the 
 cold ground, and list to that earnest, piercing cry 
 which He sends up to heaven, "My Father! if it 
 be possible, let this cup pass away from Me: never- 
 theless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (v. 39). 
 Is that Life, upon Whose offering up on Golgotha's 
 cross depends the salvation of untold millions of 
 the human race, to come to an end with a mere 
 ordinary death in the garden of Gethsemane? No! 
 oh no! blessed be the God of our salvation, for 
 see, there comes "an angel from heaven, strengthen- 
 ing Him" (Luke XXII 143 ). And now again He 
 is "in an agony," and He prays yet "more earn- 
 
52 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 estly." And now the sweat that oozes from that 
 holy countenance, which has never been marked by 
 the faintest trace of a single sin-defiled emotion of 
 His pure soul; "His sweat" becomes "as it were 
 great drops of blood falling down upon the ground" 
 
 (v. 44). 
 
 But lo! the scene changes. The Son of Man 
 rises from the mysterious conflict, joins Himself 
 again to His bewildered and sorrow-stricken dis- 
 ciples, meets the traitor, Judas Iscariot, and the 
 band that comes out against Him with swords and 
 staves, as though He were a highway robber. 
 Freely He delivers Himself up that night into the 
 power of His deadly foes. And see how an un- 
 principled and infamous high priest, and his im- 
 pious fellow judges, trample upon law and justice, 
 in their mad haste to vilify and condemn the inno- 
 cent object of their envy and malice! 
 
 Follow these men, whom Satan is leading on; 
 follow them, as early in the morning they are hur- 
 rying their unresisting Captive through the streets 
 of Jerusalem, and drag Him before Pilate's judg- 
 ment-bar. Hear them clamoring for the judicial 
 murder of Him "Who went about doing good" 
 (Acts X:38). And see how they hurry hither and 
 thither, and everywhere, among the rabble, like so 
 many imps of darkness, goading them on in the 
 
How God Reconciled the World 53 
 
 mad cry, "Away with Him! away with Him! Cru- 
 cify Him! crucify Him!" O listen, if you can, as 
 the cruel lash is laid again and again upon those 
 bared shoulders. Look at that crown of thorns, 
 which is being pressed upon that sacred head! And 
 then see the mocked, beaten, bleeding Victim of 
 their rage, sinking under the weight of His cross, 
 as He is led forth to execution, as a lamb to the 
 slaughter! Look! they are binding Him to the 
 accursed tree, and the rude Roman soldiers are 
 driving the nails through His quivering flesh ! And 
 do you hear those fiendish taunts of His enemies? 
 But see how blackness gathers over all nature; 
 
 "How the sun in darkness hides, 
 And shuts his glories in, 
 While He, the mighty Maker, dies 
 For man, the creature's, sin !" 
 
 But hark! for there issues from the lips of the 
 dying Sufferer a cry of untold agony and woe, 
 "Eli! Eli! lama sabachthani! ... My God! My 
 God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?" 
 
 O! dear dying soul, 
 
 "Go to Golgotha, and tell 
 Why the scourge, the crown of thorns; 
 Why the powers of earth and hell 
 Join in deeds of hate and scorn; 
 
54 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Why such innocence in tears, 
 On the shameful cross appears. 
 
 Go to Golgotha, and learn 
 
 All the bitterness of sin; 
 
 In those scenes of wrath discern 
 
 What thine own desert hath been. 
 
 Thine the shame, reproach, and guilt; 
 
 'Twas for thee that blood was spilt." 
 
 Then and thus it was "that God was in Christ, 
 reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning 
 unto them their trespasses. ... Him Who knew 
 no sin He made to be sin on our behalf: that we 
 might become the righteousness of God in Him." 
 
 The righteousness here spoken of is, first of all, 
 a justifying righteousness. "There is therefore now 
 no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" 
 "For Christ is the end of the law unto righteous- 
 ness to every one that believeth" (Rom. VIII :i ; 
 X: 4 ). 
 
 "The moment a sinner believes, 
 And trusts in his crucified Lord, 
 His pardon at once he receives, 
 Redemption in full through His blood." 
 
 And this righteousness likewise assures us of 
 everything else that is needful, to insure the be- 
 liever's perfect sanctification, and his eternal 
 blessedness and glorification. 
 
How God Reconciled the World 55 
 
 The demands of the law having thus been fully 
 met, and eternal Justice having received its due, 
 being now fully satisfied, infinite Mercy would 
 have her share, and so God comes to us, in the 
 Gospel of His Son, assuring us that in Christ He is 
 fully reconciled, and so now He pleads with us to 
 be reconciled unto Him. 
 
 This is God's plea for reconciliation, not man's. 
 "But all things are of God." And He comes to 
 you, impenitent friends, with the evidence all about 
 you of the efficacy of this wondrous plan of re- 
 deeming love. "Who reconciled us to Himself 
 through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of 
 reconciliation ; . . . and having committed unto us 
 the word of reconciliation." 
 
 God does not send angels, but commissions re- 
 deemed sinners to proclaim the message of pardon 
 and of peace. "An angel of the Lord spake unto 
 Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, 
 unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto 
 Gaza: the same is desert. And he arose and went: 
 and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great 
 authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, 
 who was over all her treasure, who had come to 
 Jerusalem to worship; and he was returning and 
 sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet 
 Isaiah. And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go, near, 
 
56 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 and join thyself to this chariot" (Acts VIII :26- 
 29). And so it was not the angel, but Philip who 
 "preached Jesus" to the Ethiopian treasurer. And 
 when that fiery persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, was 
 arrested in his mad career, the Lord Jesus did not 
 again appear to him at Damascus, as He had shown 
 Himself to him on the way, but " there was a cer- 
 tain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and 
 the Lord said unto him in a vision, . . . Arise, and 
 go to the street which is called Straight, and in- 
 quire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, 
 a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth." And so 
 it was Ananias who, "laying his hands on him, said, 
 Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, Who appeared 
 unto thee in the way which thou earnest, hath sent 
 me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be 
 filled with the Holy Spirit" (Ch. IXnoii, 17). 
 
 The grace that has saved such as these, and the 
 multitudes who through the ages have come to 
 Christ, ought to satisfy you. And, whoever you 
 are, this grace of God is able to meet your case, 
 can save you. 
 
 "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of 
 Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we 
 beseech you on behalf of Christ; be ye reconciled 
 to God." 
 
 O remember, Christless soul, as we have thus 
 
How God Reconciled the World 57 
 
 endeavored to make plain to you the way of salva- 
 tion, that it is not simply an erring fellow-mortal, 
 but God Himself Who entreats you to be recon- 
 ciled to Him. 
 
 He gave the Son of His love unto the shameful 
 and cruel death of the cross, that you might be 
 saved from the death eternal of soul and body in 
 hell! And shall God plead with you in vain? 
 
 "Sinners! will ye scorn the message 
 Sent in mercy from above? 
 Every sentence, oh how tender! 
 Every line is full of love! 
 
 Listen to it — 
 Every line is full of love." 
 
 Do not, we pray you, let Satan, or your own 
 evil heart, delude you with the idea that you are to 
 prepare yourself in order to be saved. 
 
 "The carnal mind" (A.V.), "The mind," or 
 minding, "of the flesh, is enmity against God" 
 (Rom. VIII :']). Such are you. What now is to be 
 done first of all? Why, enmity must cease. You 
 must begin to love that Holy One Whom you have 
 hated hitherto. How? Not by means of cold, heart- 
 less reasoning. No amount of reasoning has ever 
 saved a soul from death. How then? By looking to 
 the cross. By taking God at His word. "He that 
 hath received His witness hath set his seal to this, 
 
58 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 that God is true" (John 111:33). "God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." "He 
 that believeth on the Son hath eternal life" (John 
 111:36), has it as an actual, present possession. "For 
 this is the will of My Father, that every one that 
 beholdeth the Son, and believeth on Him, should 
 have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the 
 last day" (Ch. VI .-40). Take God at His word, 
 and you are a saved soul; saved now, and saved 
 eternally ! 
 
 And now God beseeches, entreats you by us; and 
 we pray you "on behalf of Christ," and in His 
 stead, "be ye reconciled to God." And speaking 
 to you as in the sight of God and of Christ, we put 
 to each one of you the solemn question, Will you 
 leave tljis house to-day as a friend, or as an enemy, 
 of God and of Christ? 
 
 The Savior brings before our minds the appalling 
 destiny of the poor, deluded "rich man," who, after 
 a life of worldly ease, suddenly lifted up his eyes 
 in the regions of the damned, "being in torments." 
 To his plea for mercy, and for a little help, came 
 back the words of Abraham, "Son, remember" 
 (Luke XVI :i9, 23, 25). And what if even one 
 of you, beloved hearers, should, while out of Christ, 
 and unreconciled to God, suddenly be summoned 
 from the flitting scenes of time to the solemn, un- 
 
How God Reconciled the World 59 
 
 changing realities of eternity? Ah! this very hour 
 will rise up against you in judgment, and con- 
 demn you. And the remembrance of it will haunt 
 you for ever! Oh! we beseech you, to-day, even 
 now, "remember" the goodness, and mercy, and 
 grace of God in Christ. Now take to heart the 
 good, the blessed news of salvation, and "be ye 
 reconciled to God." 
 
 He is waiting to receive you, and to bless you. 
 
 "Heaven comes down our souls to greet, 
 And glory crowns the mercy-seat." 
 
 Would you not like to be forgiven? to be recon- 
 ciled to God? to have Him for your Friend? Re- 
 member that He does not need to be persuaded, 
 or to be made willing, to pardon your sins, and to 
 make you His son or daughter. In Christ He is 
 reconciled, and has been reconciled since the very 
 hour that the expiring Sufferer on the cross ut- 
 tered the triumphant shout, "It is finished!" (John 
 XIX : 3 o). 
 
 And the mercy of our God is infinite, yea, He 
 Himself beseeches and entreats you to accept a free, 
 full, and everlasting pardon at His hands. As says 
 the poet, 
 
 "Kind hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one 
 Have limits. God has none. 
 
60 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 And man's forgiveness may be true and sweet, 
 But yet he stoops to give it. More complete 
 Is love that lays forgiveness at thy feet, 
 And pleads with thee to raise it. Only heaven 
 Means crowned, not vanquished, when it says 
 'Forgiven.' " 2 
 The way is prepared. "Behold, all things are 
 ready" (Matt. XXII 4). "For by one offering He 
 hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" 
 (Heb. X:i4). "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
 ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come 
 ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
 without money and without price. . . . Seek ye Je- 
 hovah while He may be found; call ye upon Him 
 while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, 
 and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him 
 return unto Jehovah, and He will have mercy 
 upon him ; and to our God, for He will abundantly 
 pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways My ways, saith Jehovah. 
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so 
 are My ways higher than your ways, and My 
 thoughts than your thoughts" (Is. LV:i, 6-9). 
 
 O remember that it is God Who is "entreating 
 by us" this hour, and once again "we beseech you 
 on behalf of Christ," and in His stead, "be ye 
 reconciled to God!" 
 2 A. A. Procter in Christian Lyrics, page 358. 
 
THE NEED OF PRESSING ONWARD IN 
 THE DIVINE LIFE 
 
 Heb. VI 13. "And this will <we do, if God permit'* 
 
 TN the 5th chapter, at the ioth verse, the apostle 
 says that our Lord was "named of God," i. e., 
 called, addressed, entitled, "a High Priest after 
 the order of Melchizedek." He then declares that 
 he has "many things to say" in regard to that mys- 
 terious personage, but which are very difficult to 
 explain, "seeing" that those to whom he wrote had 
 "become dull of hearing." 
 
 Those Hebrew Christians had made no satisfac- 
 tory progress in the divine life. The apostle plainly 
 intimates that they had failed to make a proper 
 use of the opportunities which they had enjoyed, 
 and which ought to have made them thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the great doctrines of our holy re- 
 ligion, so as to have become skilful "teachers" of 
 "the word of righteousness." Men and women 
 whose spiritual discernment had become so keen, 
 that they could readily distinguish between the good 
 and the evil, the true and the false. Instead, how- 
 61 
 
62 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ever, of this proficiency in divine things, they were 
 in the condition of those who, like helpless babes, 
 needed to be fed on the simplest of spiritual diet, 
 rather than with that more substantial food, which 
 is fitted to nourish and strengthen the life of the 
 mature Christian. 
 
 Nevertheless, he immediately proceeds to exhort 
 them to bestir themselves, and no longer to be con- 
 tent with such mean attainments in the divine life. 
 
 "Therefore," he says, "leaving the principles of 
 the doctrine," or, as more accurately translated 
 in the Revised Version, "Wherefore leaving the 
 doctrine of the first principles of Christ," the literal 
 rendering being, the word of the beginning of 
 Christ, i. e., the rudiments, or elementary princi- 
 ples, of Christian truth, "let us press on unto per- 
 fection." 
 
 He then specifies the doctrines which he calls the 
 beginning of things for the believer in Christ. "Not 
 laying again a foundation of repentance from dead 
 works, and of faith toward God, of the teaching 
 of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of 
 resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." 
 All these things being settled, their minds having 
 been fully made up in regard to these fundamental 
 doctrines of our holy religion, they were to "press 
 on unto perfection;" they were henceforth to aim 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 63 
 
 at the "full growth" (Marg. R. V.) of the ma- 
 ture disciple. 
 
 From chapter V:n to the end of the following 
 chapter is, in fact, an interjected clause, or digres- 
 sion, in which the sacred writer, pausing in his pro- 
 found argument concerning the Melchizedekian 
 priesthood of Christ, seeks to arouse his fellow 
 believers to give earnest heed to the momentous 
 truths that he is endeavoring to unfold, by remind- 
 ing them, on the one hand, of the appalling destiny 
 of those who deliberately turn away from the light 
 of heaven, and, on the other, both of their own 
 loving toil for God and His saints, and of the 
 exceeding greatness and the certainty of His prom- 
 ises to the faithful. 
 
 "And this will we do, if God permit." 
 
 The main question which we would propound 
 here is this, Were those early Hebrew disciples, 
 or rather, are we all of us, to whom the Holy Spirit 
 speaks to-day, in these words of His revealed truth ; 
 is each one of us, my dear hearers, prepared to re- 
 spond to the entreaty and exhortation of the text, 
 so as to be able to say that we are in a proper state 
 of mind and heart to "press on unto perfection"? 
 
 And let us note, first of all, that neither the text, 
 nor yet the preceding context, furnishes the slight- 
 est warrant for treating with disdain all, or any 
 
64 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 one of, the doctrines here referred to, or indeed 
 any other doctrine taught in the Word of God. 
 Hosts of shallow-brained would-be philosophers of 
 our day are indeed ever ready to disparage the value 
 of the doctrines of our holy religion. But in their 
 mad haste to decry these doctrines, they show them- 
 selves either wilfully or stupidly ignorant of the 
 fact, that a system of doctrines is simply truth 
 formulated. They might as well tell us that a 
 man can be a believer in Christ without believing 
 anything, as to say that a Christian ought not to 
 disturb himself about doctrines. If they had either 
 themselves studied their mother-tongue long enough, 
 to know that the word "doctrine" simply means 
 something that is taught, or else did not presume 
 quite so much upon the ignorance of others, they 
 might perhaps stop insulting intelligent Christian 
 people with their flippant nonsense about doctrines. 
 What sane man would demand of the young astron- 
 omer, who is anxious to become proficient in his 
 noble science, that he treat with contempt the doc- 
 trines enunciated by a Galileo, a Kepler, or a New- 
 ton, in regard to the physical universe? And yet 
 when we seek to explore somewhat the fathomless 
 mine of revealed truth, where we learn of God, the 
 Creator of all things, and of His sovereign will; 
 of man the creature, of his guilt, of the possibility 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 65 
 
 of his being saved, and of his eternal destiny of 
 glory or despair: lo and behold, what a change! We 
 are not to trouble ourselves about doctrines! Do 
 such people really think that Christians are all 
 idiots? or does their wicked rage against the truth 
 of God lead them to make fools of themselves? 
 
 "Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first prin- 
 ciples of Christ, let us press on unto perfection." 
 
 The writer addresses himself, not to those who 
 openly despised, nor yet to such as foolishly ignored, 
 any fundamental truth of revelation: but rather 
 to such as were, or who ought to have been, rooted 
 and grounded in those great doctrines, that lie at 
 the very foundation of the temple of Christian 
 truth. It was not for such as they to be "laying 
 again a foundation of repentance from dead works, 
 and of faith toward God," and the like. Their 
 minds ought to have been made up long ago in re- 
 gard to these preliminary doctrines, so that they 
 might now bend their energies to the contemplation 
 of other truths, whose intelligent reception would 
 enrich their minds, and fit them for greater useful- 
 ness. 
 
 As the apostle wrote to Timothy, some people are 
 "ever learning, and" yet "never able to come to the 
 knowledge of the truth" (II. Tim. 111:7). And 
 so they for ever remain "children, tossed to and 
 
66 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, 
 by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles 
 of error" (Eph. IV:i 4 ). 
 
 But, alas! how many such overgrown children 
 there are in the Church to-day! How many, al- 
 though they have had the Bible within their reach 
 from very infancy, are yet wholly at sea in regard 
 to its every doctrine! They for ever dwell in 
 "doubting-castle," never excel, and are no comfort 
 to themselves, nor helpful to others. 
 
 Contrariwise the Scripture bids each one to "be 
 fully assured in his own mind" (Rom. XIV :5). 
 And while it doubtless is a mischievous thing for 
 a person to mistake falsehood for truth, error for 
 sound doctrine: yet it's better by far to believe 
 wrongly than not to believe at all. A persecuting 
 Saul of Tarsus is preferable to a Gallio, who cares 
 "for none of these things" (Acts XVIII 117). The 
 first is ever the more hopeful case. And the great 
 trouble, alas! with the mass of modern skeptics, and 
 that which renders their case generally so hopeless, 
 is their utter indifference to moral and religious 
 truth. They are not unbelievers because they have 
 carefully and honestly sought to investigate the 
 claims of Christ upon them, for their loving faith 
 and obedience, but because they have never earn- 
 estly heeded the Savior's voice, and don't care. And 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 67 
 
 so they are hard to reach, for, as Dean Swift has 
 aptly said, "It is useless to attempt to argue a man 
 out of a thing he was never reasoned into." 
 
 Let us, who are Christ's, beware lest we be 
 found guilty of like folly. 
 
 We may attain to a well-defined, a self-assuring, 
 and a settled conviction in regard to many of the 
 doctrines of revealed truth. Even to "little chil- 
 dren" the aged apostle John wrote, "Ye have an 
 anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all 
 things. I have not written unto you because ye 
 know not the truth, but because ye know it, and 
 because no lie is of the truth" (I. John II: 18, 20, 
 21). The Spirit of God had taught these children 
 every doctrine that was essential to their salvation. 
 And is not that blessed Spirit of all grace, the third 
 Person of the adorable Godhead, still as able and 
 as willing to help both the old and the young, to a 
 clear and definite understanding of the truth of 
 God ? And has not our Lord declared that he who 
 is willing to do the will of God, and to cast him- 
 self upon His mercy in Christ, "shall know of the 
 teaching," that "it is of God"? (John VII:i7). 
 Said the three-year-old daughter of a minister of 
 the Gospel, to a gentleman who called to see her 
 father, "No, papa is not in; but if it's about your 
 soul, I can tell you all about that." And why 
 
68 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 shouldn't that little child have been able to tell the 
 man all he needed to know about the love of God 
 in Christ? Many a learned theologian has been 
 utterly in the dark as to all that, but did not our 
 Lord say, in Matt. XI 125, "I thank Thee, O 
 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst 
 hide these things from the wise and understanding, 
 and didst reveal them unto babes"? 
 
 And this is the heaven-born privilege of each 
 one of us, to "be fully assured in his own mind." 
 The Bible was written for the common people; not 
 for the exclusive benefit of speculative philosophers, 
 or to become the special property of a tyrannical 
 and avaricious priesthood. God meant that the 
 common people should read, and study, and under- 
 stand it for themselves. The Thessalonians were 
 solemnly adjured to see to it, that a certain letter 
 of the apostle Paul "be read unto all the brethren" 
 (I. Thess. V:27), while the Colossian saints were 
 commanded, when they should have read his epistle, 
 to give the like opportunity to a neighboring church 
 (Col. IV: 16). And a crying shame it is, that in 
 these days of Gospel liberty and cheap Bibles, so 
 many so-called Protestants neglect and practically 
 despise their glorious heritage, to secure which, both 
 for themselves and for later generations, the men 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 69 
 
 and women of the Reformation struggled, suffered, 
 bled, and died! 
 
 It is, moreover, our solemn duty to become 
 "strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His 
 might" (Eph. VI:io), in order that we may be 
 "ready always," as the apostle Peter admonishes 
 us, "to give answer," "with meekness and fear," 
 "to every man that asketh you a reason concerning 
 the hope that is in you" (I. Pet. Ill 115). Said 
 that great German writer, Johann Wolfgang von 
 Goethe, "If I am to listen to the opinions of an- 
 other, they must be positively enunciated. I have 
 enough of the problematic within myself." Oh! 
 my brethren, let impenitent men know that you 
 believe something! They are often painfully anx- 
 ious to know. 
 
 And how else can we "press on unto perfection"? 
 How else can we ever attain to the "full growth" 
 of men and women in Christ Jesus ? To the Philip- 
 pians Paul wrote that he had as yet by no means 
 attained to perfection ; but he added, "Only, where- 
 unto we have attained, by that same rule let us 
 walk" (Ch. Ill: 16). And so he prayed for his 
 Ephesian brethren, "That He would grant you, ac- 
 cording to the riches of His glory, that ye may be 
 strengthened with power through His Spirit in the 
 inward man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
 
70 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 through faith ; to the end that ye, being rooted and 
 grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with 
 all the saints, what is the breadth and length and 
 height and depth, and to know the love of Christ 
 which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto 
 all the fulness of God" (Eph. III:i6-i9). 
 
 It is a trite saying, and a good one too, "Be sure 
 that you are right, and then go ahead." And let 
 us be sure, my brethren, that we are not building 
 our hopes for eternity upon the sand, but that our 
 feet are planted upon the solid rock, and then, in 
 the name of our God, let us press forward! 
 
 But why, we ask again, should the Christian be 
 "established in" the "faith"? (Col. 11:7). To re- 
 cline at his ease, and to take his comfort for the 
 rest of his days? A young lad one evening heard 
 his father and some of the neighbors talking about 
 certain members of the church, when some one 
 mentioned Deacon So-and-so, a man who was of 
 precious little use, either in the church or in the 
 community at large. O well, they said, "He's es- 
 tablished." The boy couldn't quite understand 
 what they meant, but a few days later he was with 
 his father on the road, with a one-horse team, and 
 when they got to a muddy place the animal all at 
 once stood stock-still, and simply wouldn't budge, 
 when his father turned to him with the question : 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 71 
 
 "Why won't the horse draw?" and the boy 
 thought he got some light on the subject: 
 
 "Well, I don't know, father; I guess he's estab- 
 lished." 
 
 "For it is good that the heart be established by 
 grace" (Heb. XIII 19). Yes! with "grace," grace 
 to dispel the mists of doubt that becloud the soul's 
 eternal prospects; grace to buckle on afresh the 
 Christian armor, and to fight with redoubled en- 
 ergy "the good fight" of "the faith" (II. Tim. 
 IV: 7 ). 
 
 That's a grand word of the aged apostle Paul, 
 "And, having done all, to stand" (Eph. VI 113). 
 Ah! that is a glorious thing to do, "to withstand in 
 the evil day, and" then, when the battle is over, and 
 the victory won, still to stand, facing the foe ! Mar- 
 tin Luther has not inaptly rendered the apostle's 
 language, when he bids us accomplish all things 
 well, and then hold the field. 
 
 Some very good people, who dream about having 
 become perfectly holy, talk about a "rest in faith," 
 as though the time had come, even while hosts of 
 wicked spirits, and godless men and women, are 
 still holding high carnival in the earth, for the 
 Lord's people to show how well they like to see 
 things go on as they are in this world, by just sit- 
 ting still, and letting the Devil have his own way! 
 
72 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 "Oh, no! we can't vote; our citizenship is in 
 heaven." Better for us all to try and give the 
 world a little taste of heaven before we get there! 
 
 We are to "rest" in Christ, indeed, for our per- 
 sonal salvation; not, however, to become loiterers 
 in the King's highway of holiness, but in order that 
 we may work with the more unremitting ardor, 
 and the more successfully, for the promotion of 
 His glory, for the salvation of a dying world. As 
 some one has beautifully said, 
 
 "Quiet from God, it cometh not to still 
 The vast and high aspirings of the soul, 
 The deep emotions that the spirit fill, 
 And speed its purpose onward to the goal. 
 
 It dims not youth's bright eye, 
 
 Bends not joy's lofty brow; 
 
 No guileless ecstasy 
 
 Need in its presence bow. 
 
 It comes not in a sullen form to place 
 Life's greatest good in an inglorious rest, 
 Through a dull beaten track its way to trace, 
 And to lethargic slumber lull the breast. 
 
 Action may be its sphere, 
 
 Mountain paths, boundless fields, 
 
 O'er billows its career; 
 
 This is the strength it yields. 
 
 To sojourn in the world, and yet apart, 
 
 To dwell with God, and yet with man to feel, 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 73 
 
 To bear about for ever in the heart 
 The gladness that His Spirit doth reveal. 
 
 Not to deem evil gone 
 
 From every earthly scene, 
 
 To see the storm come on, 
 
 But feel His shield between. 
 
 It giveth not a power to human kind 
 To lay all suffering powerless at His feet, 
 But keeps within the temple of the mind 
 A golden altar and a mercy seat, 
 
 A spiritual ark, 
 
 Bearing the peace of God 
 
 Above the waters dark 
 
 And o'er the desert-sod." 1 
 
 There is a passage in the 4th chapter of the Ephe- 
 sian epistle which, as it has generally been ren- 
 dered in most modern European translations of the 
 Bible, has given altogether too much aid and com- 
 fort, to the spiritual indolence that still so lament- 
 ably prevails in many of our churches. And so 
 the inspired Paul, whose own glowing zeal for the 
 Master never abated, and whose soul could have 
 no pleasure in those who shrank back in the hour 
 of conflict and of danger, has been made to teach 
 that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He "ascended 
 far above all the heavens, that He might fill all 
 things," at the first gave apostles and prophets, and 
 
 1 Christian Lyrics, page 407. 
 
74 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 then and now, "some evangelists; and some, pastors 
 and teachers," in order that they, and they only, 
 might labor "for the perfecting of the saints, . . . 
 for the edifying of the body of Christ" (verses 10, 
 II, 12). 
 
 The German translators seem alone to have ap- 
 prehended the meaning of the Spirit in this place; 
 a meaning which is now made sufficiently plain in 
 the Revised English New Testament, whence it ap- 
 pears that Christ gave both apostles and prophets, 
 evangelists, and pastors and teachers, i. e., teaching 
 pastors, in order that they might perfect "the saints 
 unto the work of ministering " that thus, by the 
 mutual and united labors of the ministry and the 
 laity, "the body of Christ" may be built up, "till 
 we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the 
 knowledge of the Son of God, unto" a perfect, "a 
 fullgrown, man, unto the measure of the stature 
 of the fulness of Christ" (verse 13). 
 
 "And this will we do." O, my hearers! there 
 are reasons the most solemn and awe-inspiring, why 
 we should press on to higher and more profound 
 conceptions of divine truth. "For as touching those 
 who were once enlightened and tasted of the heav- 
 enly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy 
 Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the 
 powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 75 
 
 is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; 
 seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God 
 afresh, and put Him to an open shame" (v's 4-6). 
 Ah ! it is dangerous to halt by the way. The ranks 
 of the apostates are not filled up from among the 
 earnest, working disciples, but from among the 
 idlers and the stragglers in the Lord's army. 
 
 Be afraid for yourself, if you make no progress 
 at all, and yet are perfectly satisfied with yourself. 
 You need not be discouraged simply because you 
 have made such slight attainments. The more your 
 knowledge of divine truth increases, the more the 
 grand doctrines of the Bible unfold themselves be- 
 fore your vision, the more you become conformed 
 in heart and life to the matchless example of the 
 Lord Jesus, the farther off the goal will seem to 
 you. Such has ever been the universal experience 
 of the wisest, the most eminent saints. The Rev. 
 Dr. Isaac Watts could say, "I bless God, I can lie 
 down with comfort to-night, not being anxious 
 whether I awake in this world or another." And 
 yet Dr. Watts also said, that there were three 
 things that he expected would surprise him when 
 he got to heaven; that he would miss many whom 
 he had expected to see there; that many would be 
 there whom he had not expected to find there; and 
 
76 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the greatest surprise of all would be to find himself 
 there. 
 
 But, my dear hearer, beware of being satisfied to 
 remain as you are. Over forty years ago we had 
 the privilege of hearing that noble-minded Chris- 
 tian merchant prince, the late John V. Farwell, of 
 Chicago, addressing the Presbyterian Synod of Wis- 
 consin. A story had been going round in the re- 
 ligious press, of a certain thankful church member. 
 He was reported to have got up in a class meeting 
 one day, saying, "I bless God for the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. I have been a member of it 
 for twenty-five years, and it has only cost me twen- 
 ty-five cents !" Mr. Farwell asked a Methodist min- 
 ister of his acquaintance, whom he met on the 
 train on his way to Synod, if that story was true. 
 "Yes," said the minister, "I was pastor of the 
 church, and I turned to him and said, 'God Al- 
 mighty have mercy on your stingy soul!' But to- 
 day," he added, "he is one of the most liberal men 
 in that church." 
 
 Ah ! we have something more to do, my brethren, 
 something higher to aim at, than simply to get to 
 heaven! We ought to seek to lay up greater treas- 
 ure for "the world to come" (Heb. 11:5) ; that our 
 joy may be the greater, our crown of righteousness 
 the more radiant with glory! 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 77 
 
 Our blessed Redeemer has promised large rewards 
 to those that serve Him faithfully. They that have 
 been "faithful over a few things," He will "set over 
 many things" (Matt. XXV 123). And to those, who 
 have used the unrighteous mammon for His glory, 
 and for the salvation of the perishing, He will ere- 
 long entrust the true and eternal riches. 
 
 Said the angel to the prophet Daniel, "And they 
 that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament; and they that turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars for ever and ever" (Ch. XII 13). 
 And even among these there will be degrees in bliss 
 and glory, even as "one star difrereth from another 
 star in glory" (I. Cor. XV 141). • 
 
 We may do damage, then, to our eternal heritage, 
 even though the soul be not lost. Thus we read in 
 I. Cor. Ill: 1 5, "If any man's work shall be burned, 
 he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; 
 yet so as through fire." And what of those pro- 
 fessing Christians, who have never even undertaken 
 to build anything upon the only true foundation, 
 "which is Jesus Christ" (v. n) ? 
 
 Yet how few think of these things. "If I am 
 only saved." Oh, that's a low view for a Chris- 
 tian to take! Even Moses chose "rather to share 
 ill treatment with the people of God, than to en- 
 joy the pleasures of sin for a season ; accounting the 
 
78 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
 of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of re- 
 * ward" (Heb. XI 125-26) . If Moses could thus fix 
 his eye on the promised reward; if "he endured as 
 seeing Him Who is invisible" (v. 27) ; shall not 
 each one of us emulate his noble example, and fix 
 our eyes on that "crown of righteousness, which the 
 Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give ... to all 
 them that have loved His appearing"? (II. Tim. 
 IV :8). 
 
 "And this will we do, if God permit." The com- 
 pound Greek particle, eavirep, here rendered by 
 "if," occurs in only two other places in the New 
 Testament, viz., in chapter 111:6 and 14, of this 
 same epistle; verses which deserve our most serious 
 attention in the present connection. "But Christ as 
 a Son, over His house; Whose house are we, if we 
 hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope 
 firm unto the end." "For we are become partakers 
 of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our con- 
 fidence firm unto the end." But, alas ! even as there 
 are said to be some animals who hibernate in sum- 
 mer, so there are not a few Christian people, who 
 are zealous as Jehu for two or three months in the 
 winter, and dead as a stone the rest of the year. Of 
 what value is that sort of piety? And is a "revival" 
 brought about by such people a blessing? Is it of 
 
 
Need of Pressing Onward in Divine Life 79 
 
 God? And what do men of the world think? 
 "And this will we do, if God permit." This then 
 is the test of the reality and genuineness of our 
 Christian experience hitherto, viz., that we "press 
 on unto perfection." And the solemn thought is 
 pressed home upon our minds and hearts, by the 
 closing words of the text, that we can do nothing, 
 cannot take a single step forward in the divine life, 
 without help from on high. For all needed strength 
 and opportunity we are wholly dependent upon the 
 sovereign Disposer of all things. So then we are to 
 "work out" our "own salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling; for it is God Who worketh in" us, "both to 
 will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Phil. 
 II:i2-i3). And knowing not how much, or rather, 
 how little of time may still be allotted to any one 
 of us, in this present evil world, let us be up and 
 doing, adopting for ourselves the language of the 
 poet: 
 
 "Onward! the goal thou seekest 
 Is worthy the quest of a life, 
 And love can give to the weakest 
 Courage and strength for the strife. 
 
 High is the prize above thee, 
 In the light of that golden sky; 
 The ladder's not all of sunshine, 
 Whereon thou must climb so high. 
 
8o The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Earth's shadows and griefs have darkened, 
 Earth's sorrows have shaded its light, 
 But rays from the sunshine of heaven 
 Each upward step make bright. 
 
 Sometimes the glory paleth, 
 And its brightness disappears; 
 'Tis only thy eye that faileth, 
 Or is dimmed by earth-born tears. 
 
 Onward! our cry for ever, 
 Till our glorious goal be won, 
 Mid the brightness failing never 
 Of the light-enshrouded sun." 2 
 
 *L. R. in Christian Lyrics, page 18. 
 
SATAN'S GREAT MASTERPIECE 
 
 THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTICHRIST 
 
 II Thess. 11:3-4, 8 > 9 -10 - "Let no man beguile 
 you in any wise: for it will not be, except the 
 falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, 
 the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth him- 
 self against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; 
 so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself 
 forth as God. . . . And then shall be revealed the law- 
 less one, . . . even he, whose coming is according to the 
 working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying 
 wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them 
 that perish; because they received not the love of the 
 truth, that they might be saved" 
 
 CATAN'S Great Masterpiece — who or what will 
 
 it be? Before the final consummation dawns 
 
 upon this sin-cursed earth, and the Lord Jesus 
 
 The above discourse was prepared, by request, for a 
 local Monthly Pre-Millennial Bible Conference, and de- 
 livered at St. Paul's German Evangelical Church, De- 
 troit, and published in The Christian Workers' Magazine, 
 81 
 
82 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Christ returns in His glory, and, as the Son of 
 Man, the predestined King of kings and Lord 
 of lords, inaugurates His benignant reign of per- 
 fect righteousness and everlasting peace over man 
 in the flesh, and restores all things to a more than 
 pristine beauty and loveliness; before all this be- 
 gins to come to pass, what are we to look for? 
 What will the archenemy of God and man, "the 
 
 organ of The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, for 
 August, 191 5. It was composed before the beginning of 
 the dreadful world war that is now raging. So many 
 things have happened in these last few years, that, to 
 bring it up to date, would make it altogether out of pro- 
 portion with the other parts of the present volume. It 
 is, therefore, given here exactly as published in said 
 Magazine. The author begs leave simply to add a few 
 words in this explanatory note. As the Scriptures plainly 
 inform us, the battle of Armageddon is not on as yet. 
 That can only take place after the Jews shall have come 
 into peaceful possession of the land of Palestine, and 
 after they shall have entered into a seven years' league, 
 or covenant, with the Antichrist, whom they will have 
 hailed as their Messiah. See John V:43; Dan. IX 127 ; 
 Ezekiel XXXVIII and XXXIX; Joel III:i-2, 9-13; Zech. 
 XIV:i-i5- As for this consummate egotist and ruthless 
 destroyer, Kaiser Wilhelm, of Germany, being the Anti- 
 christ: well, he is bad enough; but when Satan comes 
 to fairly outdo himself, he will produce a monster in 
 human form, that, intellectually as well as in every other 
 way, will far surpass this fiend of Potsdam. 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 83 
 
 great dragon . . . the old serpent, he that is called 
 the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole 
 world" (Rev. XII 19) ; what will he yet undertake 
 to do, as a last desperate attempt to thwart the 
 merciful designs of the Triune Jehovah for the 
 redemption of a lost race? 
 
 From the very day that Satan, as the old serpent, 
 succeeded in beguiling Eve in his craftiness (II. 
 Cor. XI :3), he has been "going to and fro in the 
 earth, and . . . walking up and down in it" (Job 
 1:7), seeking what he can do to hinder the work 
 of God, and to ruin the souls of men. 
 
 When the Son of God was manifested in 
 mortal flesh, and had come to give His life for our 
 salvation, how Satan roused "the principalities, 
 . . . the powers, . . . the world-rulers of this 
 darkness" (Eph. VI:i2), in order to frustrate the 
 Divine purposes of love and mercy, while he himself, 
 as "the prince of the world" (John XIV :3o), was 
 for ever dogging the footsteps of the lowly Naza- 
 rene, until, in that woeful "hour," when the Son 
 of Man was given over to "the power of darkness" 
 (Luke XXII :53), he at last succeeded in nailing 
 Him to the accursed tree. 
 
 But brief was Satan's triumph, for our blessed 
 Lord broke asunder the bars of death, "because 
 it was not possible that He should be holden of 
 
84 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 it" (Acts 11:24)., The enemy of all good, how- 
 ever, soon recovered from the chagrin of his dis- 
 mal failure, and so he himself, and all "the spiritual 
 hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 
 VI: 12), started in at once to persecute the Lord's 
 followers. As the Savior had foretold, the enemy 
 likewise soon began to sow tares among the wheat, 
 so that erelong the Church began to swarm with 
 teachers of error and delusion, while, in process of 
 time, hypocritical and fraudulent pretence of every 
 sort, almost wholly obscured "the faith which was 
 once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). 
 
 FALSE CHRISTS AND FALSE PROPHETS 
 
 Having found "nothing in" the Christ (John 
 XIV :3o), whereby he might hinder the full accom- 
 plishment of the Divine purpose, Satan soon began 
 to produce "false Christs, and false prophets" 
 (Matt. XXIV :24), and even antichrists. To the 
 elders of Ephesus, whom the apostle Paul had sum- 
 moned to meet him at Miletus, he declared, "I 
 know that after my departure grievous wolves shall 
 enter in among you, not sparing the flock ; and from 
 among your own selves shall men arise, speaking 
 perverse things, to draw away the disciples after 
 them" (Acts XX:2g). And toward the close of 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 85 
 
 the century, "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 
 XXI :2o) gave utterance to this pregnant prophecy, 
 "Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard 
 that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen 
 many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the 
 last hour" (I. John II:i8). 
 
 In a little more than five centuries after the 
 venerable apostle wrote these words the Papacy had 
 become fully established, and the bishop of Rome, 
 as the pretended and boastful successor of the apos- 
 tle Peter, had begun to assume the most horrible 
 and blasphemous titles, "not opposing, but assert- 
 ing an equality with God, . . . being not offend- 
 ed to be styled by his parasites, 'Our Lord God the 
 Pope, Another God on earth, King of Kings and 
 Lord of Lords, Our most holy Lord, the victorious 
 God and man in his See of Rome, God the best and 
 greatest, Vice-God, the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sins of the world, the Most Holy who 
 carrieth the Most Holy' " Duffield on the Prophe- 
 cies, page 282. The Prophetic Conference, Alle- 
 gheny, Penn., Dec, 1895, page 21. 
 
 In view of such awful assumptions, which papal 
 Rome has never been slow to enforce by cruel im- 
 prisonment, by inhuman tortures, and by its dia- 
 bolical autos da fe, it is little wonder that able 
 scholars, both premillenarians and postmillenarians, 
 
86 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 have long held that here we assuredly have the little 
 horn of Daniel's prophecy, who should "speak words 
 against the Most High" (Dan. VII 125), and like- 
 wise the scarlet woman, "The mother of the 
 
 HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE 
 
 earth," whom the aged revelator "saw . . . 
 drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the 
 blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev. XVII 15-6). 
 
 To quote Prof. W. G. Moorehead: "The marks 
 of correspondence between the prediction and the 
 Papacy are extraordinary, almost conclusive. In 
 its marvelous origin and history; in its near rela- 
 tion to the old Roman Empire as its heir and suc- 
 cessor — for, as Wylie says, 'the Papacy is the ghost 
 of Peter crowned with the shadowy diadem of the 
 old Caesars'; in its wide departure from the truth; 
 in its idolatry, persecuting spirit, daring assump- 
 tions, and blasphemous pretensions, the Papacy, it 
 must be confessed, strikingly resembles the Man of 
 Sin. No one can compare the two without feeling 
 the force of Richard Baxter's quaint remark, 'If 
 the Pope be not Antichrist, he has bad luck to be 
 so like him.' " 
 
 is the papacy antichrist? 
 
 Devout students of prophecy have, however, 
 more and more come to the same conclusion as Dr. 
 
Satan's Great Masterpiece 87 
 
 Moorehead, viz., that, "wonderful as the parallelism 
 is, and traceable to almost any length, nevertheless 
 the Papacy does not fill up nor complete the titanic 
 portrait of the final adversary which the prophetic 
 word furnishes us. Rather this system belongs to 
 the apostasy which precedes and issues in the reve- 
 lation of Antichrist, and is identified with Babylon 
 of the Apocalypse. That a revival of its influence 
 and power is now going on, Germany, Britain, and 
 the United States attest. And this is in exact ac- 
 cord with the predictions about its last days. The 
 final view which the Spirit of prophecy gives us of 
 Babylon the harlot, the apostate church, presents her 
 as throned upon the Seven Hills; as seated on the 
 Beast, controlling and using the world-power for 
 the accomplishment of her own purposes (Rev. 
 XVII). But she is not alone. Babylon is a mother, 
 Babylon has daughters. Who would venture to 
 deny that there are signs of a falling away from 
 the truth of God in Protestantism itself?" 
 
 To all of which it is, alas! altogether safe to add 
 that multitudes of so-called Protestants do not claim 
 to know anything whatever about personal conver- 
 sion or spiritual regeneration, or are ever earnestly 
 concerned about doing the will of God. Indeed, 
 "All his thoughts are, There is no God" (Ps. X:4). 
 
 Well may we expect that something even far 
 
88 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 worse than Popery, with all its frightful abomina- 
 tions, yet awaits a godless world and a dead church. 
 And Rome and all her daughters, for that is what 
 Protestant churches are, just in so far as they are 
 like her in their dead formalism, and in their prac- 
 tical denial of the Lord Who bought them ; they are 
 together to become the prey of "the Son of per- 
 dition," of "The beast that ... is about to come 
 up out of the abyss" (Rev. XVII :8). In other 
 words, Satan is yet going to fairly outdo himself ! 
 
 And now let us prayerfully inquire whether in- 
 deed Holy Scripture warrants and demands such a 
 belief, as to the Devil's last and supreme attempt to 
 overthrow the work of God, and to defy high 
 Heaven. Is that enemy of all righteousness, "the 
 deceiver of the whole world," when, after he and 
 his angels have been thrust out of heaven, and when 
 he has come down to this earth "having great wrath, 
 knowing that he hath but a short time" (Rev. XII: 
 12) ; is he yet going to produce a great masterpiece, 
 that will verily be his chef-d'oeuvre, by which, 
 at one swoop, he will bring, not simply the whole 
 of merely nominal Christendom, but all the inhab- 
 ited earth, to the feet of a pseudo-Christ, mocking 
 high Heaven, and deluding an apostate race, by pro- 
 ducing a blasphemous counterfeit of Him, Who 
 shall then speedily come to cast the archfiend "into 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 89 
 
 the abyss" (Rev. XX 13), "and to bring in everlast- 
 ing righteousness" (Dan. IX-24) ? Momentous 
 question! What Scriptural ground is there for all 
 that? 
 
 A TERRIBLE ONE TO ARISE 
 
 A terrible One is to arise, the like of whom the 
 world has never seen as yet. Let us briefly refer to 
 the way in which Holy Writ speaks of him. "Thou 
 shalt take up this parable against the king of Baby- 
 lon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the 
 golden city ceased! . . . How art thou fallen from 
 heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art 
 thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the 
 nations ! And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend 
 into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars 
 of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congre- 
 gation, in the remotest parts of the north ; I will 
 ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make 
 myself like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be 
 brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the 
 pit" (Is. XIV : 4) 12-15). 
 
 This language cannot possibly be ascribed to 
 Babylon's famous ancient king, for read Daniel 
 IV:37, and bear in mind that this is his last re- 
 corded utterance, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise 
 and extol and honor the King of heaven ; for all His 
 
go The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 works are truth, and His ways justice; and those 
 that walk in pride He is able to abase." Far less 
 can we apply this language of Isaiah's prophecy to 
 his grandson Belshazzar, with whose drunken feast 
 the Chaldean monarchy was suddenly brought to an 
 inglorious end. Daniel VII 17-8 speaks of "a fourth 
 beast, terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly ; 
 and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake 
 in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and 
 it was diverse from all the beasts that were before 
 it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, 
 and, behold, there came up among them another 
 horn, a little one, before which three of the first 
 horns were plucked up by the roots; and, behold, in 
 this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a 
 mouth speaking great things." Daniel VIII :g 
 speaks of "a little horn" which came forth out of 
 one of "four notable horns" (v. 8), that had come 
 up instead of "the he-goat," i.e., Alexander the 
 Great of Macedonia, and this "little horn . . . 
 waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and to- 
 ward the east, and toward the glorious land." 
 Verses 23-25 tell us of this same little horn, as "a 
 king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark 
 sentences," who "shall stand up. And his power 
 shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he 
 shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 91 
 
 his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones 
 and the holy people. And through his policy he shall 
 cause craft to prosper in his hand ; and he shall mag- 
 nify himself in his heart, and in their security shall 
 he destroy many; he shall also stand up against the 
 prince of princes; but he shall be broken without 
 hand." Chapter IX:26 mentions "the prince that 
 shall come." In chapter XI:2i we read of "a con- 
 temptible person," who "shall obtain the kingdom by 
 flatteries." And this is what is said of his bold career 
 in verse 36, "And the king shall do according to his 
 will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify him- 
 self above every god, and shall speak marvelous 
 things against the God of gods; and he shall pros- 
 per till the indignation be accomplished; for that 
 which is determined shall be done." In our text 
 he appears as "the Man of sin, the Son of perdi- 
 tion, the Lawless One." In I. John II :i8 as the 
 "Antichrist." And in Rev. XIII :i as "a beast com- 
 ing up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven 
 heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his 
 heads names of blasphemy." 
 
 One thing ought to be quite evident. This ter- 
 rible one, represented to us in these different ways, 
 surely does not stand for a long line of popes, or 
 any other succession of oppressors; nor for any sys- 
 tem of error, be it Roman Catholicism, Mohammed- 
 
Q2 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 anism, or any other false system of doctrine. Some 
 one individual is manifestly pointed out, who, when 
 he appears, will indeed do wonderful exploits. But 
 no such a frightful character, as here portrayed, ap- 
 peared before, or at the time of our Lord's first 
 advent, nor has he ever yet appeared. 
 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, 176 to 164 B.C., with his 
 overweening pride and appalling blasphemy, did 
 frightful things. That monster of history, the Em- 
 peror Nero, gave the world no slight intimation 
 of what the Antichrist will bring to pass one of 
 these days. That scourge of Europe, Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, went a long way toward realizing the 
 woeful picture: but Heaven's hour for letting loose 
 the powers of evil had not yet struck, and so the 
 haughty ruler of France had to meet his Waterloo, 
 and finally ended his days on the lonely rock of 
 St. Helena. 
 
 WHO IS THE MAN OF SIN? 
 
 Who then is to be the Man of Sin, whose mighty 
 deeds shall yet astound the world, so that "the whole 
 earth" shall wonder "after the beast" (Rev. XIII: 
 
 3)? _ 
 
 Without in any wise presuming to settle that 
 question, let us call your attention to one man's 
 observations on the subject. We refer to Joseph 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 93 
 
 Birkbeck Burroughs, M.D., of Oberlin, Ohio, and 
 his interesting volume, entitled, Titan, Son of Sat- 
 urn; The Coming World Emperor. 
 
 His conclusions may be summed up in few words. 
 Rev. XVII:g-u reads, "Here is the mind that 
 hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven moun- 
 tains, on which the woman sitteth: and they are 
 seven kings ; the five are fallen, the one is, the other 
 is not yet come ; and when he cometh, he must con- 
 tinue a little while. And the beast that was, and 
 is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven ; 
 and he goeth into perdition." Dr. Burroughs re- 
 minds us that "Before the Christian era there had 
 been five great persecuting kings. These five heads 
 and their kingdoms had all fallen. 
 
 "Pharaoh, the great head of Egypt. 
 
 "Sennacherib, the great head of Assyria. 
 
 "Nebuchadnezzar, the great head of Babylon. 
 
 "Ahasuerus, the great head of Medeo-Persia. 
 
 "Antiochus, the great head of Greek-Syria. 
 
 "The one who persecuted in John's day was Nero, 
 emperor of Rome. This makes six." Our author 
 does not inquire as to who was the seventh, who 
 came after John's day. But "After the seventh 
 there is to come an eighth, and this eighth crowned 
 persecutor is still in the future." 
 
 "This eight Devil-inspired ruler," he reminds us, 
 
94 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 "is not to be a new man on the world's stage. 
 John tells us that he is not to be an individual dis- 
 tinct and separate from the group of seven kings. 
 He is to be one of the seven, honored above the 
 others by being permitted to reign a second time 
 over the nations. 
 
 " 'He is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth 
 into perdition.' John not only has told that this 
 eighth king will be one of the first seven re-crowned, 
 but he also throws out the sixth and the seventh king 
 as possible candidates for this future honor. He 
 tells us that the eighth king will be one of the first 
 five who are dead. 'The beast that thou sawest, 
 was (alive), and is not (alive) ; and is about to 
 come up out of the abyss' (v. 8). (Codex Sinaiti- 
 cus, kai palin parestai, shall again be here.) 
 
 " 'And the beast that was, and is not, is himself 
 also an eighth, and is of the seven.' 
 
 "Thus," according to Dr. Burroughs, "this eighth 
 world monarch, John points out, is one of the first 
 five who will be restored to life. He who is coming 
 a second time is either Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Neb- 
 uchadnezzar, Ahasuerus, or Antiochus." 
 
 And Daniel, in chapter VIII :g, 23, 25, already 
 quoted, saw, as he maintains, "that the great Anti- 
 christ would, in a restored life, be Ba-sil-e-os An-ti- 
 o-chus The-os E-piph-an-es, which, being interpreted, 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 95 
 
 reads: The King — appearing — holds out against — 
 God." 
 
 WILL BABYLON BE REBUILT? 
 
 But we must hasten to briefly consider another 
 matter. The coming Antichrist, whoever he may 
 prove to be; where will he establish his royal 
 throne? From what great city will he issue those 
 fearful mandates that will appall the nations? We 
 verily believe that "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, 
 the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride" (Is. XIII 119), 
 will be rebuilt by him, and that he will make her, 
 as the restored capital of the nations, far more glo- 
 rious than of old, until the end come, when it "shall 
 be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." 
 
 At an international prophetic conference, held De- 
 cember 1 01 5, 1 90 1, in the Clarendon Street Baptist 
 Church, Boston, Massachusetts, the Rev. Sholto D. 
 C. Douglas, of Scotland, delivered an address on 
 "The Antichrist; His Character and History," 
 from which we quote the whole of this remarkable 
 paragraph: "It would appear," says Mr. Douglas, 
 "that Babylon mystical, of Revelation XVII, dif- 
 fers from Babylon literal (without the word 'mysti- 
 cal'). The characteristic of the destruction of this 
 Babylon is its suddenness, as mentioned four times 
 in Rev. XVIII :8, 9, 17, 19. I would ask you to 
 
96 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 read the whole of this chapter." And here comes 
 the really remarkable sentence, "A being so great 
 will not live in a borrowed capital, such as Babylon 
 mystical, or Rome, but in one which he will build 
 for himself. Now, where great cities have been, 
 they may be again, if the conditions which led to 
 their existence be restored. Only then let the coun- 
 try be irrigated as before, and its marvelous fer- 
 tility will be restored. The line for the much-talked- 
 of railway of the Euphrates Valley has already been 
 surveyed, and no one living in the present day of 
 great and rapid changes, would be bold enough to 
 say that such a means of communication cannot and 
 will not be constructed. Thus the great city will 
 have even greater facilities . . . than its prede- 
 cessor." 
 
 Thus declared this Scotch brother in the year of 
 grace 1901. And what now are the present day 
 facts? The Bagdad railway has not only been sur- 
 veyed, but the Porte has granted a concession for 
 99 years, and also a guaranty, and it is hastening 
 to its completion. The first section, the Konieh- 
 Eregh-Burgurlu line, extending eastward from Ko- 
 nieh (the ancient Iconium, 310 miles east of Smyr- 
 na, on the Mgean Sea (Acts XIV), was opened in 
 1904. The total length of the line will be 1,550 
 miles, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to 
 
 
Satan s Great Masterpiece 97 
 
 the Tigris River and will run through Aintab and 
 Berejik to Mosul, thence along the right bank of 
 the Tigris to Bagdad, i.e., within 60 miles of Baby- 
 lon! 
 
 Mr. William T. Ellis, Editor Afield of The Con- 
 tinent, of Chicago, speaking of the route of this 
 German Bagdad railway, says, "This newest inter- 
 national highway runs over the world's oldest and 
 most beaten paths. It stretches from the Hellespont 
 to the Persian Gulf. Its tracks already down, or 
 projected on surveyors' charts, overlie the footprints 
 of the apostle Paul, of Cyrus, Darius, Alexander 
 the Great, Constantine, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennache- 
 rib, Harun-al-Rashid, Saladin, Richard the Lion- 
 Hearted, Mahmud the Conqueror, and — well, a 
 ticket over the new Bagdad railway is equivalent to 
 a course in ancient history." 
 
 And here fits in the marvelous story of the irriga- 
 tion of ancient Mesopotamia. For ages the waters 
 of the Euphrates and the Tigris have run to waste 
 in the desert, or have accumulated in unwholesome 
 marshes, and the devastation and decay of centuries 
 have set their mark upon enormous areas, that in 
 ancient times, when well watered, were extraordi- 
 narily fertile. After lying dormant for ages, like 
 Palestine itself, as the result of devastating wars, 
 Tartar inroads, and Turkish apathy, fertility is 
 
98 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 about to be restored to these desolate regions as by 
 the wave of a magician's wand. In 1909 an Eng- 
 lish engineer, Sir William Willcocks, was com- 
 missioned by the Turkish government to prepare an 
 irrigation scheme. His plan entailed an expenditure 
 of $75,000,000. A part of this gigantic scheme has 
 already been completed. In December, 19 13, the 
 Hindiyeh barrage of the river Euphrates was inaug- 
 urated, and practical effect is thus being given to 
 this vast scheme of irrigation in Mesopotamia, 
 which, when completed, will entirely restore fertil- 
 ity to a sterile country, and instead of about one 
 and a half million of people getting a precarious 
 and inadequate livelihood, there will soon be, ac- 
 cording to Sir Willcocks, comfortable subsistence for 
 a population of eleven or twelve millions. 
 
 PROPRIETY OF CAUTION 
 
 Two or three cautionary remarks are in place 
 right here. Let us beware, on the one hand, of 
 being wise above what is written, and of making the 
 serious mistake of treating our surmises, however 
 plausible, as though they were already assured facts. 
 On the other hand, let us not fail to give most se- 
 rious consideration to what may prove to be one of 
 the most startling developments in the unfoldings of 
 
Satan 's Great Masterpiece 99 
 
 Providence. Babylon may rise again before our 
 very eyes, and may speedily attain to more than 
 its pristine glory! 
 
 Thus everything seems to be getting ready for the 
 appearance of "The Son of Perdition." One .of 
 these days war will be proclaimed in heaven. Satan 
 and his armies will be for ever thrust out from 
 those blessed regions, and will be "cast down to 
 the earth" (Rev. XII :g). And the Devil is com- 
 ing down "having great wrath, knowing that he 
 hath but a short time" (v. 12). 
 
 All that will then be needed will be for God to 
 withdraw Him "Who restraineth now" (II. Thess. 
 11:7), an d Satan's Great Masterpiece will soon ap- 
 pear, and then, alas! "Woe for the earth and for 
 the sea," and for those who dwell in them! 
 
 One word more and we must close. Two revela- 
 tions and two personal appearings are clearly fore- 
 told in the Book of God. "The Man of Sin, The 
 Son of Perdition, The Lawless One," will first be 
 revealed ; will personally appear to vent the rage of 
 Satan, "the god of this age" (II. Cor. IV 14 and 
 margin), "against the God of gods" (Dan. XI 136), 
 and against all who are His true worshipers; and 
 then also "shall appear the sign of The Son of Man 
 in heaven" (Matt. XXIV 130), Who "shall slay" 
 him "with the breath of His mouth, and bring" 
 
IOO The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 him "to nought by the manifestation of His com- 
 ing," of His parousia, His personal presence (II. 
 Thess. 11:8). 
 
 May the God of all grace help us all so to live, 
 that ere these mighty events "begin to come to pass," 
 we may all be "caught up to meet the Lord in the 
 air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Amen, 
 and Amen! 
 
 
CHRISTIAN LIGHTS IN THE WORLD, 
 
 AND HOW THEY ARE TO HOLD FORTH 
 
 THE WORD OF LIFE 
 
 Phil. II: 15-16. "Among whom ye are seen as lights 
 in the world, holding forth the word of life." 
 
 'HpHE terms light and darkness are frequently used 
 in Scripture as symbolic of good and evil, of 
 righteousness and iniquity. 
 
 This world is full of evil, of folly, of wickedness, 
 and of crime — darkness broods over the minds and 
 hearts of men, as once it did over primeval chaos. 
 And fallen man loves to have it so. Said our Lord 
 to Nicodemus, "And this is the judgment, that the 
 light is come into the world, and men loved the 
 darkness rather than the light ; for their works were 
 evil" (John Illrig). 
 
 But God is absolutely holy; perfect in all the 
 attributes of His matchless being, that is, to use the 
 figurative language of Holy Writ, "God is light, 
 and in Him is no darkness at all" (I. John 1:5). 
 
 Now these two, light and darkness, as we all know 
 to be true in nature, cannot abide each other. 
 101 
 
102 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Hence the Holy Spirit admonishes us, II. Cor. VI: 
 14-15, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: 
 for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity- 
 or what communion hath light with darkness ? And 
 what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what por- 
 tion hath a believer with an unbeliever?" 
 
 "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3), in the Hebrew, 
 "Light be!" said the voice omnipotent, "and there 
 was light. . . . And God divided the light from 
 the darkness" (v. 4), and thus began the work of 
 fitting up this globe, as an abode for a new race of 
 intelligent beings. And in allusion to this act of the 
 great Creator a holy apostle declares, II. Cor. 
 IV :6, "Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine 
 out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, to give 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 the face of Jesus Christ." And our Lord had, at 
 the very beginning of his notable career, commis- 
 sioned him to go to the people of Israel and to the 
 Gentiles, "to open their eyes, that they may turn 
 from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
 unto God" (Acts XXVI :i8). "Ye are the 
 light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot 
 be hid" (Matt. V:i4). It is thus that the 
 Savior characterizes His disciples. These, and 
 many like Scriptures, all positively declare, or as- 
 sume, that our fallen race is groping about in moral 
 
Christian Lights in the World 103 
 
 and spiritual darkness; or, in other words, that the 
 children of God, as we read in the context, are liv- 
 ing "in the midst of a crooked and perverse genera- 
 tion, among whom" says our text, "ye are seen as 
 lights in the world, holding forth the word of life" 
 
 "As lights," that is, as luminaries or illumina- 
 tors; or again, as openings for the light to shine 
 through, as doors or windows. 
 
 And so the Lord's people are to demonstrate to 
 the world that "lieth in the evil one" (I. John 
 V:i9), the fact that they are "children of God," 
 by the blamelessness, the unselfishness, and the 
 wholly unblemished character of their lives from 
 day to day. 
 
 Has God lit up your soul with the light of 
 heaven? O, then, let it shine forth! 
 
 The moon has no light of its own, but it is a 
 faithful reflector of the light of the sun. And in 
 winter, when we see so little of the king of day, 
 she shines much longer than in summer, and per- 
 forms her queenly task with all the more unweary- 
 ing faithfulness for the belated traveler. 
 
 Now the Lord Jesus Christ is declared to be 
 "The Sun of Righteousness" (Mai. IV :2), and 
 never before, in the history of our race, was He, 
 the Son of God, so long a time absent from this 
 dark world. 
 
104 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Some one has written an interesting work, en- 
 titled, The Ten Theophanies, 1 viz., the ten times 
 when our Lord, during previous dispensations of the 
 grace of God, manifested Himself to the children 
 of men. Let us, in passing, briefly refer to the more 
 memorable of those occasions, when He, the Son of 
 God, appeared in the likeness of man, to make 
 known and to execute the will and purpose of 
 Heaven. 
 
 He was "the Voice of Jehovah God, walking in 
 the garden in the cool of the day" ; Who proclaimed 
 the protevangelium in Eden, saying to the serpent, 
 who, "in his craftiness" (II. Cor. XI 13), had be- 
 guiled Eve, the mother of us all, "And I will put 
 enmity between thee and the woman, and between 
 thy seed and her seed : He shall bruise thy head, and 
 thou shalt bruise His heel" (Gen. 111:8, 15). 
 
 He was "the Judge of all the earth" (Gen. 
 XVIII :2$) with Whom the patriarch Abraham 
 plead in behalf of the guilty cities of the plain. 
 
 When Jacob fled to escape from his enraged 
 brother Esau, we are told that "he lighted upon a 
 certain place, and tarried there all night, . . . and 
 lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed ; 
 and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the 
 top of it reached to heaven ; and, behold, the angels 
 
 ^ev. William M. Baker, D.D. 
 
Christian Lights in the World 105 
 
 of God ascending and descending on it. And, be- 
 hold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jeho- 
 vah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God 
 of Isaac" (Gen. XXVIII ni-13). 
 
 To Moses, "in the land of Midian," He "ap- 
 peared" as "the Angel of Jehovah ... in a flame 
 of fire out of the midst of a bush. . . . Moreover 
 He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of 
 Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 
 . . . I AM THAT I AM" (Ex. 11:5; HI:2, 
 
 6, 14). 
 
 To Joshua He appeared "as Prince of the host of 
 Jehovah" (Joshua V:i4). 
 
 And when Babylon's haughty monarch had caused 
 Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abednego, to be "cast into the midst of the burning 
 fiery furnace. . . . Then Nebuchadnezzar the 
 king was astonished, and rose up in haste: he spake 
 and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three 
 men bound into the midst of the fire? They an- 
 swered and said unto the king, True, O king. He 
 answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walk- 
 ing in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; 
 and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the 
 gods. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the 
 mouth of the burning fiery furnace: he spake and 
 said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye serv- 
 
106 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ants of the Most High God, come forth, and come 
 hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego 
 came forth out of the midst of the fire" (Dan. Ill: 
 21, 24-26). 
 
 Thus, and in other ways, did the Son of God of 
 old manifest Himself unto the children of men, un- 
 til at length, "when the fulness of the time came" 
 (Gal. IV 14), "the Word became flesh, and dwelt 
 among us" (John 1 114). But now, what never hap- 
 pened before in the history of our race, He has been 
 absent from our earth for nearly quite nineteen cen- 
 turies, and a godless world fondly imagines, be- 
 cause of His long-continued absence, that He is 
 never again going to come back. Say they, * 'Where 
 is the promise of His coming? for, from the day 
 that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
 they were from the beginning of the creation" (II. 
 Pet. 111:4). 
 
 Dear hearer, are you like the moon in winter, all 
 the more faithful in reflecting His light and glory, 
 while He still delayeth His coming? 
 
 Suppose that during some dark time in winter, 
 when day after day, and week after week, the sun is 
 wholly hid from view, the clouds should regularly 
 clear away at night, and that then, not only once, 
 nor simply the moon ; but that night after night the 
 moon and all the planets should hang like black balls 
 
Christian Lights in the World 107 
 
 in the heavens. Would we not have reason to fear 
 that something far worse than an eclipse had hap- 
 pened? that the sun failed any longer to supply 
 the needed light? and that our whole solar system 
 was being enveloped in perpetual darkness? 
 
 Now this is precisely the way the world reasons 
 about Christ, when Christians fail to give forth 
 light. Just so long as the moon and the planets give 
 forth their light by night, we know that the sun is 
 behind the clouds by day. Just so does an unbeliev- 
 ing world instinctively feel about the absent Christ, 
 when His people let their light shine. It was so 
 with the Jewish rulers. "Now when they beheld 
 the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived 
 that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they 
 marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that 
 they had been with Jesus" (Acts IV:i3). And even 
 now men are often forced to say, "This is not of 
 earth" 
 
 But that isn't all by any means. Sun, moon, and 
 stars pour forth their light, not for their own glori- 
 fication; but to show forth the praises of their Cre- 
 ator. 
 
 "The heavens declare the glory of God; 
 And the firmament (the expanse) showeth His 
 handiwork. 
 
108 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Day unto day uttereth speech, 
 
 And night unto night showeth knowledge." 
 
 (Ps. XIX: i -2.) 
 
 Said our blessed Lord, "I seek not Mine own 
 glory" (John VIII :5o). "I have glorified Thee on 
 the earth" (Ch. XVII :i). And shall not the dis- 
 ciple do as did his elder Brother and Lord? 
 When the nations of old forgot God, Who made 
 them, they turned and worshipped the host of 
 heaven ; the creatures rather than the Creator, Who 
 is blessed for evermore! Let us not give ourselves 
 over to a like, aye, to a worse idolatry. 
 
 Not for the purpose of self-adulation, or for the 
 glorification of the Church: but to the glory of the 
 Triune Jehovah are we to let our light shine. 
 "Even so let your light shine before men" is the 
 Master's command, "that they may see your good 
 works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven" 
 (Matt. V:i6). As England's great dramatist has 
 said: 
 
 "Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, 
 Not light them for ourselves ; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
 As if we had them not." 2 
 
 "Holding forth the word of life." Without the 
 light of the sun, how all nature would pale, and 
 2 Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Act. I, scene i. 
 
Christian Lights in the World 109 
 
 sicken, and die! Everywhere light and life are al- 
 most inseparably connected with each other. What 
 a difference, for example, between plants in a dark, 
 damp cellar, and those in the open air and sunlight. 
 
 "In Him was life; and the life was the light of 
 men" (John 1:4). How now may every disciple of 
 Christ hold "forth the word of life"? Not neces- 
 sarily by trying to play the orator. Were that so 
 then, alas! many a modest and timid soul would 
 find it utterly impossible to obey our Lord's injunc- 
 tion. And then, too, many a humble-minded, faith- 
 ful Sabbath-school teacher might as well at once step 
 aside. And what a sudden collapse would befall 
 many a prayer-meeting, which is a perennial source 
 of blessing, if bereft of the moral and spiritual force 
 of those, whose voices are never raised in public, to 
 speak a word of exhortation, or even to lead in 
 prayer. 
 
 Every right-minded minister of the Gospel is 
 ready to say with Moses, when told that Eldad and 
 Medad prophesied in the camp, and when he was 
 urged to forbid them, "Art thou jealous for my 
 sake? would that all Jehovah's people were proph- 
 ets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon 
 them" (Num. XI 129). But God has not so or- 
 dered. And it is well, for the sake of the great body 
 of the Lord's people, that there are plenty of ways 
 
no The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 in which they can "hold forth the word of life," 
 without attempting the impossible. 
 
 Happily for us all, the humble, devoted child of 
 God may, in a thousand ways, let his or her light 
 shine into the moral and spiritual darkness of this 
 world, though knowing next to nothing of the graces 
 of rhetoric, and though slow of speech. As some 
 one has aptly said, "Christians are to be living 
 Bibles." "Ye are our epistle," we read in II. Cor. 
 111:2-3, "written in our hearts, known and read 
 of all men, being made manifest that ye are an epis- 
 tle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with 
 ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in 
 tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of 
 flesh." 
 
 This it was that strengthened the apostle's con- 
 fidence. And no minister of the Gospel need fear 
 that his labors will be in vain in the Lord, or that 
 souls will not be converted to God under his preach- 
 ing, when his church is made up of such "living 
 Bibles," even though nine-tenths of the communi- 
 cants were deaf-mutes! 
 
 And among such a people it will never be difficult 
 to find, or to train up, those whose natural talents, 
 as well as spiritual graces, will fit them to speak 
 the suitable word of exhortation in the prayer-meet- 
 ing, to aid in the religious instruction of the young, 
 
Christian Lights in the World ill 
 
 and to help in every Christian work; for God be- 
 stows all needed mental and spiritual gifts upon His 
 Church, when she is in a condition to make a good 
 use of these great blessings. It was not to a few iso- 
 lated individuals, but to the church at Philippi as a 
 whole, that the apostle Paul, under the guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit, addressed these precious and 
 all-comprehending words of promise, "And my God 
 shall supply every need of yours according to His 
 riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Ch. IV 119). 
 
 There was no lack of workers in apostolic times. 
 And there were among these very many noble-mind- 
 ed Christian women like Priscilla, the wife of 
 Aquila, with whom Paul engaged in tentmaking 
 when he first came to Corinth. They afterward 
 sailed with him for Syria. "And they came to Eph- 
 esus, and he left them there. . . . Now a certain 
 Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an 
 eloquent man, came to Ephesus ; and he was mighty 
 in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed 
 in the way of the Lord ; and being fervent in spirit, 
 he spake and taught accurately the things concern- 
 ing Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John: and 
 he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But 
 when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him 
 unto them, and expounded unto him the way of 
 God more accurately" (Acts XVIII 119, 24-26). It 
 
112 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 was in the home of these humble tentmakers that 
 this eloquent man learned to become a most effi- 
 cient preacher of the Gospel. Six times this godly 
 couple are mentioned in the Acts and in Paul's epis- 
 tles, always together, and three times the wife's 
 name precedes that of her husband. Then Paul 
 says, Rom. XVI :i, "I commend unto you Phoebe 
 our sister, who is a servant of the church that is 
 at Cenchreae." It is with her that he is supposed 
 to have sent this letter to the saints at Rome. In the 
 same chapter, at verse 12, he says, "Salute Try- 
 phaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord." 
 These godly women, and a host of others, were all 
 earnestly engaged in the work of the Lord. In this 
 last respect the Church of our own day has but just 
 begun fairly to imitate the example of the early 
 Church. And yet the Church of God, when at all 
 alive to her solemn responsibilities and wonderful 
 privileges, has never altogether lacked earnest la- 
 borers among the laity; men and women who have 
 been the faithful and zealous helpers of the ministry 
 of reconciliation. 
 
 But, as already intimated, the text does not sim- 
 ply, nor even specially, address itself to these. It 
 speaks to all the true children of God; to all such 
 it is a word of comfort and of exhortation. 
 
 Sun, moon, and stars; these have no audible 
 
Christian Lights in the World 113 
 
 "speech nor language." They do not address the 
 outward ear. Yet, without all this, "their voice 
 is . . . heard" (Ps. XIX 13). They "speak in 
 reason's ear," and tell us of the power and the wis- 
 dom, and the ever-watchful providence of Him Who 
 sitteth on the throne of universal empire. 
 
 Suppose, fellow-Christian, that you cannot do 
 what the world calls a great thing. Let not that 
 discourage you, as though, therefore, you could be 
 of no use whatever in the Master's vineyard. Aye, 
 beware lest you deceive yourself with the utterly 
 false idea, that that will excuse you if you do noth- 
 ing at all. 
 
 Well may we address every professed follower of 
 Christ in the language of a familiar hymn : 
 
 "Hark! the voice of Jesus crying, — 
 
 'Who will go and work to-day? 
 Fields are white and harvest waiting; 
 
 Who will bear the sheaves away?' 
 Loud and strong the Master calleth, 
 
 Rich reward He offers thee; 
 Who will answer, gladly saying, 
 
 'Here am I; send me, send me!' 
 
 If you cannot cross the ocean, 
 And the heathen lands explore, 
 
 You can find the heathen nearer, 
 You can help them at your door. 
 
H4 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 If you cannot give your thousands, 
 You can give the widow's mite; 
 
 And the least you do for Jesus, 
 Will be precious in His sight* 
 
 If you cannot speak like angels, 
 
 If you cannot preach like Paul, 
 You can tell the love of Jesus, 
 
 You can say He died for all. 
 If you cannot rouse the wicked 
 
 With the judgment's dread alarms, 
 You can lead the little children 
 
 To the Savior's waiting arms. 
 
 If you cannot be the watchman, 
 
 Standing high on Zion's wall, 
 Pointing out the path to heaven, 
 
 Offering life and peace to all; 
 With your prayers and with your bounties 
 
 You can do what Heaven demands; 
 You can be like faithful Aaron, 
 
 Holding up the prophet's hands. 
 
 If among the older people, 
 
 You may not be apt to teach; 
 Teed My lambs,' said Christ, our Shepherd, 
 
 'Place the food within their reach.' 
 And it may be that the children 
 
 You have led with trembling hand, 
 Will be found among your jewels, 
 
 When you reach the better land. 
 
Christian Lights in the World 115 
 
 Let none hear you idly saying, 
 
 'There is nothing I can do,' 
 While the souls of men are dying, 
 
 And the Master calls for you. 
 Take the task He gives you gladly, 
 
 Let His work your pleasure be; 
 Answer quickly when He calleth, 
 
 'Here am I ; send me, send me !' " 3 
 
 "Among whom ye are seen as lights in the world, 
 holding forth the word of life." Aye, do what you 
 can, and do all you can, by direct personal effort, by 
 giving of your time, your talents, your means, for 
 the cause of Christ, and for the salvation of the per- 
 ishing: but remember, we beseech you, that in no 
 other way can you so successfully hold "forth the 
 word of life," as by holy living! 
 
 Dear Christian hearers, the world judges the 
 Gospel that is preached, aye, our blessed Lord Him- 
 self, by the daily lives of His professed disciples. 
 We read in Rom. 11:24, "For the name of God is 
 blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." 
 And as corrupt Jewish conduct stood in the way of 
 Paul's preaching, so now. How often do we hear 
 it said, "That man had better keep still, people have 
 no confidence in him." Or, "If somebody else had 
 said the same thing, they would have felt very dif- 
 ferently." Ah, yes! there is indeed a remarkable 
 3 Rev. Daniel March. 
 
n6 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 difference in the effect which one man or another 
 produces, even though they use almost the very same 
 words. Why is it so? How can the riddle be 
 solved? Well, that's easily done. It is the real or 
 supposed character that stands back of the words, 
 that endues them with power, or causes them to 
 fall upon listless ears! 
 
 Would you be really helpful, dear hearer, to the 
 cause of Christ, and in saving souls? Then we say 
 to you, first of all, Live the Gospel! And again 
 we say, Live it! Let your life from day to day, 
 in the family, in the social circle, in your worldly 
 affairs, yea, everywhere, be radiant with the light 
 of heaven. And thus you will, even in your silence, 
 point men heavenward! "A proud Indian nabob, 
 going along the streets one day, was attracted by 
 the sounds proceeding from a missionary school, and 
 he drew near to listen. The boys were reading the 
 fifth chapter of Matthew. The eyes of the prince 
 flashed with unwonted fire ; and when they had fin- 
 ished their lesson, he exclaimed, 'Well, if you only 
 live that chapter as well as you read it, I will never 
 say another word against Christianity!' " What a 
 striking comment on the apostolic exhortation, I. 
 Pet. II: 1 2, "Having your behavior seemly among 
 the Gentiles: that, wherein they speak against you 
 as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which 
 
Christian Lights in the World 117 
 
 they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." 
 Some one has well said, "Unless a man lives as high 
 as he shouts, the less noise he makes the better." 
 Ah ! the world has noise enough ; loud-mouthed pro- 
 fessions and all that: but it is perishing for lack of 
 light! 
 
 How often it is said of this or that community, 
 that the people have been preached to death. 
 Preached to death ! Not at all. No community has 
 ever been "preached to death," where the word 
 heard has been reduced to practice, by the men and 
 the women who received it as being in very deed the 
 word of the living God. No! but moral and spir- 
 itual stagnation and death have often been caused 
 by the sad fact, that many who say, "Lord, Lord," 
 have simply been hearers, and not doers, of the word. 
 
 "The keeper of the lighthouse of Calais, France, 
 was once boasting to a traveler of the brilliancy of 
 his lantern, which can be seen ten leagues, that is, 
 thirty miles, at sea, when the visitor said to him, 
 'What if one of the lights should chance to go out?' 
 'Never; impossible!' he cried, with a sort of conster- 
 nation at the bare hypothesis. 'Sir,' said he, point- 
 ing to the ocean, 'yonder, where nothing can be seen, 
 there are ships going by to all parts of the world. 
 If to-night one of my burners were out, within six 
 months would come a letter — perhaps from India, 
 
n8 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 perhaps from America, perhaps from some place I 
 never heard of — saying, that on such a night, at such 
 an hour, the light of Calais burned dim, the watch- 
 man neglected his post, and vessels were in danger. 
 Ah, sir, sometimes in the dark nights in stormy 
 weather I look out to sea, and I feel as if the eye of 
 the whole world were looking at my light. Go 
 out ? Burn dim ? Oh, never !' " Well has the nar- 
 rator added, "Was the keeper of this lighthouse so 
 vigilant; did he feel so deeply the importance of 
 his work and its responsibility; and shall Christians 
 neglect their light, and suffer it to grow dim — grow 
 dim when, for need of its bright shining, some poor 
 soul, struggling amid the waves of temptation, may 
 be dashed upon the rocks of destruction? No! 
 'Hold forth the word of life.' This is the way to 
 save souls. 'Holding forth the word of life/ says 
 the apostle. Why? 'That I may have whereof to 
 glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in 
 vain, neither labored in vain.' " 
 
 " 'For sadder sight the eye can know 
 Than proud bark lost, or seaman's woe — 
 The shipwreck of the soul!' " 
 
 Let us then never forget, fellow-Christians, what 
 that noble man of God of half a century ago, Philip 
 Paul Bliss, has so beautifully sung: 
 
 
Christian Lights in the World 119 
 
 'Brightly beams our Father's mercy 
 From Hfs lighthouse evermore; 
 
 But to us He gives the keeping 
 Of the lights along the shore. 
 
 Dark the night of sin has settled, 
 
 Loud the angry billows roar; 
 Eager eyes are watching, longing, 
 
 For the lights along the shore. 
 
 Trim your feeble lamp, my brother: 
 Some poor sailor tempest-tost, 
 
 Trying now to make the harbor, 
 In the darkness may be lost! 
 
 Let the lower lights be burning ! 
 
 Send a gleam across the wave! 
 Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, 
 
 You may rescue, you may save!" 
 
WAS THERE ONLY ONE ASCENSION? 1 
 
 \17"AS there only one ascension? And with well 
 nigh united voice modern commentators re- 
 spond, Certainly, only one. Well, if that be so, 
 then where did the risen Christ go every time that 
 He so mysteriously vanished from the sight of His 
 followers? Where did He spend the greater part 
 of His time, during those forty days that intervened 
 between His resurrection and the hour when, in the 
 full light of open day, He ascended in triumph from 
 the mount of Olives ? And where did He stay dur- 
 ing those forty nights? Not under the hospitable 
 roof of the dear friends in Bethany, who would so 
 gladly have sheltered that sacred form from the 
 chilly blast, as they had so often done aforetime, 
 when He had been wont to retire thither after the 
 weariness and vexation, and the heart-aches, occa- 
 sioned by the hardness of heart of scribe and Phari- 
 see. And surely not, as erstwhile, in the days of 
 His humiliation, did He spend His nights pleading 
 
 *This address was prepared for and read to The 
 Presbyterian Ministers' Association of Detroit and Vi- 
 cinity, January 28, 191 8. 
 
 120 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 121 
 
 with His heavenly Father for strength, to fulfill the 
 task that He had given Him to accomplish, when 
 
 "Cold mountains and the mid-night air 
 Witnessed the fervor of" His "prayer." 
 
 As it was manifestly not in the Divine purpose 
 that the Risen One should continuously abide, as 
 before, with man in the flesh, since He was no 
 longer of this world, the question still presses for 
 an answer, Where and with whom did He abide, 
 when absent from the sight and presence of His dis- 
 ciples ? Was there no region close at hand, to which 
 He might at any time withdraw? And were there 
 no suitable companions, to whose congenial society 
 He might betake Himself? who would rejoice to 
 flock around Him, to serve Him, and to adore Him 
 with unmingled feelings of joy and ecstasy? 
 
 When the son of Tolmai was first brought to 
 Him He had declared, "Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the an- 
 gels of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
 of Man" (John 1 151). All that is yet to be, but 
 the question certainly seems pertinent, Why may not 
 the resurrected Son of Man have done then, what 
 His angelic messengers will do by and by? That 
 "multitude of the heavenly host" who, in the vale 
 of Bethlehem, raised their hallelujah at the time of 
 
122 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 His human birth, "saying, Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace among men in whom 
 He is well pleased" (Luke II 114) ; that multitudi- 
 nous throng was never far away while He abode 
 among men; nor even now are they far removed 
 from our earth, since they are "all ministering spir- 
 its, sent forth to do service for the sake of them 
 that shall inherit salvation" (Heb. 1 114). And we 
 are assured by the Master Himself, that the little 
 ones that believe upon Him do all have their guard- 
 ian angels, who, "in heaven ... do always behold 
 the face of" His "Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. 
 XVIII :i 1 ). Five times in the epistle to the 
 Ephesians does the Holy Spirit speak to us of the 
 heavenly places, or regions, and that in such a way 
 as indicating, and in some cases positively asserting, 
 that they are thronged by angelic potencies of vari- 
 ous degrees of rank and power. And it is as plainly 
 implied, asserted indeed, that the resurrected and 
 glorified saints are likewise to become inhabitants of 
 those blissful regions. Nay more, it is even declared 
 that in spirit they are already as good as there. 
 "But God, being rich in mercy, . . . raised us up 
 with Him," i. e., "with Christ," "and made us to 
 sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus" 
 (Eph. 11:4, 6). And in full accord with all this 
 is the declaration of our Lord, that "they that are 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 123 
 
 accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the 
 resurrection from" among "the dead," will be "equal 
 unto the angels" (Luke XX .-35-36). 
 
 But it is high time that we turn to the few 
 passages of Scripture, which are the crucial texts in 
 the present discussion. Chiefly, of course, our at- 
 tention needs to be concentrated upon the interview 
 of our Lord with her "from whom seven demons 
 had gone out" (Luke VIII :2), and to whom, as 
 Mark informs us, "He appeared first" (Ch. XVI: 
 
 9). 
 
 In regard to the great masters of literature the 
 college student has been told to "verify his referen- 
 ces." Well, that advice is certainly infinitely more 
 in place in regard to the writings of men who spoke 
 as they were moved, as their minds were borne 
 along, by the Spirit of the living God. And is it not 
 a lamentable fact, that the ministry of the present 
 day, seems to a great extent supremely satisfied with 
 itself, even though untold numbers never make the 
 slightest effort to ascertain for themselves what is 
 the mind of the Spirit? And in regard to the mat- 
 ter in hand, when it becomes a simple duty to ex- 
 pose, what we believe to be the utterly erroneous 
 interpretations that have been put upon this, and 
 upon certain related passages — especially too when 
 one cannot but remember that these at times 
 
124 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 strangely absurd, and even grotesque interpretations, 
 have been foisted upon these Scriptures by men often 
 of the rarest excellence, whose learning and devout 
 spirit make one glad to sit at their feet — it is well to 
 bear in mind what the Rev. Edward Riches de Le- 
 vante says, in his Prolegomenon to that work of 
 rare excellence, his Biblia Hexaglotta, anent the 
 Greek text of the New Testament, "In these days 
 of earnest study, bold criticism, and wild specula- 
 tion, it behooves a man to look, pause, reflect, and 
 not to leap before he is tolerably sure of his ground; 
 not to jump at the conclusions of others, however 
 great and learned, before he himself, however hum- 
 ble and unlearned, has reflected and examined the 
 position." 
 
 Let us now turn to John XXm-13. "But Mary 
 was standing without at the tomb weeping: so, as 
 she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 
 and she beholdeth two angels in white sitting, one at 
 the head, and one at the feet, where the body of 
 Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, 
 why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because 
 they have taken away my Lord, and I know not 
 where they have laid Him." 
 
 Finely does the Rev. Henry Blunt, of the An- 
 glican Church, remark as to this interview between 
 Mary Magdalene and the angels, "What a remark- 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 125 
 
 able evidence of the intensity of Mary's grief is 
 afforded by the fact, that even a vision of angels 
 does not interrupt it! She is so completely absorbed 
 by this one feeling, that there is no surprise, no 
 symptom of astonishment; she answers the angelic 
 speaker as if she had conversed with angels all her 
 life." 2 
 
 "When she had thus said, she turned herself 
 back, and beholdeth Jesus standing, and knew not 
 that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, 
 why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, sup- 
 posing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, 
 if thou hast taken Him away, tell we where thou 
 hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus 
 saith unto her, Mary. She turneth herself, and 
 saith unto Him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to 
 say, Teacher. Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not: 
 for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go 
 unto My brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto 
 My Father and your Father, and My God and 
 your God. Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth 
 the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and that He 
 had said these things unto her" (v's 14-18). 
 
 Alas! that so much and such amazing ingenuity 
 should have been expended, not in elucidating and 
 clarifying for the beclouded minds of the children 
 
 a Lectures on the Life of Christ, p. 358. 
 
126 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 of men, this beautifully simple and charming ac- 
 count of so sublime and touching an interview, be- 
 tween the Conqueror of death and Hades, "the Liv- 
 ing One," Who could thenceforth say of Himself, 
 "I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore" 
 (Rev. I:i8), and this marvelous trophy of His vic- 
 torious grace. And that too when a rational ex- 
 planation lies close at hand; an explanation, more- 
 over, which at once removes from it all seeming 
 mysticism, and brings the whole scene before us in 
 all its native grandeur and loveliness. But, as has 
 so often happened, man is not prepared to accept 
 the Word of God with the simplicity of a little 
 child. He must needs philosophise, and search out 
 some fanciful and hidden meaning, quite foreign to 
 the plain, obvious import of the language, something 
 recondite and out of the way; and scarce anywhere 
 else is all this more signally exemplified than in re- 
 gard to the passage before us. 
 
 The excellent Bishop Ellicott, in his truly learned 
 "Hulsean Lectures for the Year 1859," presents 
 this extraordinary medley on the subject, "Amaze- 
 ment, hope, belief, conviction, all, in their fullest 
 measure, burst, as it were, upon her soul. With the 
 one word Rabboni, and, as the context leads us to 
 think, with some gesture of overwhelming and be- 
 wildered joy, she turns round, as if to satisfy her- 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 127 
 
 self, not only by the eye and ear, but by the touch 
 of the clasping hand, that it was indeed He Himself, 
 no mere heaven-sent form, but her Teacher and De- 
 liverer, Whose feet she had been permitted to fol- 
 low over the hills of Galilee, Whose power had res- 
 cued her, Whose redeeming blood she had seen fall- 
 ing on the very ground nigh to which she was then 
 standing. Yes, her outstretched hand shall assure 
 her that it is her Lord!" 
 
 Oh! good bishop do leave her alone with her 
 Lord! But no, not content to do that he goes 
 right on, "But it must not be; relations are now 
 solemnly changed. That holy body is the resurrec- 
 tion body of the ascending Lord ; the eager touch of 
 a merely earthly love is now more than ever un- 
 becoming and unmeet. With mysterious words, full 
 of holy dignity and majesty, yet at the same time 
 of most tenderly implied consolation, the Lord bids 
 her refrain. The time indeed will come when, 
 under higher relations, love eager and demonstrative 
 as that now shown to the risen, may hereafter un- 
 forbiddingly direct itself to the ascended Lord. But 
 that time is not now. Still love devoted and true as 
 that displayed by Mary of Magdala shall not be 
 left unblessed. To her is vouchsafed the privilege 
 of being the first mortal preacher of the risen Lord. 
 From her lips is it that even apostles are to learn, 
 
128 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 not only that the resurrection is past, but that the 
 ascension is begun, and that He, Who is not 
 ashamed to call them brethren, is now ascending to 
 His Father and to their Father, and to His God 
 and their God." And yet he adds, with almost the 
 very next breath, and that without a blush, or the 
 least indication of surprise, or even a word of ex- 
 planation, "Very shortly, perhaps, after Mary Mag- 
 dalene had left the apostles, the other ministering 
 women, who had brought the first tidings to the 
 apostles, are permitted to meet their Lord face to 
 face, yes, and to clasp the holy feet, before which 
 they had at once fallen in trembling and believing 
 adoration. They saw, they believed, they touched, 
 and they worshiped." In speaking of "the exact 
 feeling which led to their embracing the Lord's 
 feet," he rightly concludes that it proceeded "from 
 a reverential love that evinced itself in supplicating 
 adoration." 
 
 And it may well be asked, Was it because Mary's 
 love for the Master, though its manifestation would 
 be all right just as soon as He was safe in heaven, 
 was so ardent, that she alone of all His followers 
 must not be allowed to touch Him? Pitifully self- 
 contradictory reasoning! And one might almost in- 
 dignantly inquire, if that was the reward for those 
 years of faithful ministering to the daily wants of 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 129 
 
 Him, Who had declared that even the giving of a 
 cup of cold water in His name, and out of love for 
 Him, should "in no wise lose" its "reward" (Matt. 
 X:42) ? But by what authority does any one pre- 
 sume to say that the love of this noble, self-denying, 
 consecrated, holy woman, — upon whose pure and 
 spotless character none but the basest and most 
 groundless aspersions have ever been cast, — that her 
 love was of such a sort, so much more mixed with a 
 base earthly alloy, than that of any other follower 
 of the Savior, that she alone must not be allowed to 
 touch even the hem of His garment? 3 
 
 3 In The Christian Worker's Magazine for August, 1917, 
 there appeared an excellent article by the Rev. Dr. J. 
 Glentworth Butler, copied from The Herald and Pres- 
 byter, of Cincinnati, showing that the painters of the 
 Middle Ages are responsible for the attempt to try and 
 identify Mary Magdalene with the "woman who was 
 ... a sinner" (Luke VII 137), who anointed the Savior's 
 feet at the house of Simon the Pharisee. As Dr. Butler 
 clearly shows, the assumption is absolutely without foun- 
 dation. To persist, as so many do to this day, to call 
 these places of refuge for fallen women, Magdalen hos- 
 pitals, is a palpable outrage against one of the purest 
 characters mentioned in Holy Writ! 
 
 But, as it seems to us, another most remarkable fact 
 should be stated in this connection; a fact which serves 
 to show how our gracious God, Who loves unsullied 
 womanhood, has always sought to shield her from the 
 assaults of Satan, and from man's tyranny and scurrilous 
 
130 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Evidently Bishop Ellicott, like a host of other 
 writers, quite fails to understand the rationale of 
 this remarkable interview, for he continues, 
 "Though the use of the present anabaino may be 
 regarded as ethical } i. e., as indicating what was 
 soon and certainly to take place, it seems much more 
 simple to regard it as temporal, — as indicating a 
 process which had in fact already begun. The ex- 
 treme view of this text," he adds, "as indicating 
 that an ascension of our Lord took place on the 
 same day that He rose ( ... ), is, it is needless to 
 say, plainly to be rejected, as inconsistent with Acts 
 1:3, an d numerous other passages in all the four 
 Gospels." Perhaps, however, some Scripture evi- 
 dence may be adduced before this paper is con- 
 cluded, showing that the good Bishop had little 
 occasion to dismiss that idea so summarily. 
 
 abuse, namely this: — The three sinful women whom our 
 blessed Lord rescued from a life of shame, are every one 
 left nameless! The evangelists were kept from mention- 
 ing the name of any one of them. See Luke VII ; John 
 IV; John VIII. Among the redeemed, in "the general 
 assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled 
 in heaven, ... the spirits of just men made perfect" 
 (Heb. XII 123), they have doubtless long since had "a new 
 name" (Rev. II 117) : but the Spirit of God did not design 
 that their earthly names should be bandied about by the 
 vile and infamous! 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 131 
 
 It will not be out of place, before taking leave 
 of our noble friend, to quote what he feels forced 
 to admit anent the belated Festival of the Ascen- 
 sion, viz., to quote his exact language, "how com- 
 paratively little the ascension of our Lord is dwelt 
 upon by the early writers, compared with their ref- 
 erences to the resurrection. And it may also be ob- 
 served," he adds, "that the special festival, though 
 undoubtedly of great antiquity, . . . and certainly 
 regarded in the fourth century as one of the great 
 festivals, ... is still not alluded to by any of the 
 earliest writers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement 
 of Alexandria, and Cyprian, and is not included in 
 the list of festivals enumerated by Origin. . . . 
 The preaching of the apostles was pre-eminently the 
 resurrection of Christ (Acts 111:3, IV:33 et al.), 
 as that which included in it everything besides; it 
 was from this that the early Church derived all its 
 fullest grounds of assurance." * 
 
 It would have been well if the Church had always 
 followed that apostolic and primitive example! But, 
 alas! even so-called Protestantism has, in our day, 
 largely gone festival-mad; and, as a legitimate and 
 inevitable result, — as has always been the case in 
 Roman Catholic countries, — the Heaven-appointed 
 weekly day of rest is fast becoming a mere holiday, 
 
 * Historical Lectures, p. 338, note 1. 
 
132 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 and thus is human tradition once again making "void 
 the word of God" (Matt. XV :6). 
 
 But we must pass on. And so let us briefly note 
 certain other strange constructions that have been 
 put upon this remarkable interview. 
 
 Says that great German commentator, Johann 
 Peter Lange, "We can infer from that which fol- 
 lows that she meantime has fallen at His feet and 
 embraced them, like those women in Matt. 
 XXVIII :g, and the woman that was a sinner, Luke 
 VII :39." To this his American translator, the late 
 Prof. Philip Schaff, adds, that in explaining our 
 Lord's admonition that she must not touch Him, 
 we must have reference to His summons to Thomas 
 in verse 27, and to the disciples in Luke XXIV 139. 
 "It is therefore," he says, "not the act of touching 
 as such, which the Lord reproves, but the animus 
 or motive of Mary" (page 610). 
 
 According to many others it meant that "Jesus 
 demanded a greater reverence for His body, now 
 that it had become divine." — Chrysostom, Erasmus, 
 et al. 
 
 One writer (Amnon) says, "Jesus desired to 
 spare her the touching of one Levitically unclean." 
 Another (Paulus) "His wounds still pained Him, 
 therefore touching Him would have hurt Him." 
 And yet others, "Because the new, glorious cor- 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 133 
 
 poreality of Jesus was still so tender as to shun 
 every vigorous grasp" ( Schleiermacher, Olshausen). 
 Says Weisse, "He was still bodiless, a mere spiritual 
 apparition, a ghost." Hilgenfelt, "He as yet ap- 
 peared only as a mere man, being not yet reunited 
 to the Logos, and therefore adoration was unsea- 
 sonable." But, as has been well said, "afterwards 
 He allowed Himself to be called by Thomas, 'My 
 Lord and my God.' " 
 
 The illustrious John Calvin says that our Lord's 
 "state of resurrection would not be full and com- 
 plete, until He should sit down in heaven at the 
 right hand of the Father; and, therefore, that the 
 women did wrong in satisfying themselves with 
 nothing more than the half of His resurrection, 
 and desiring to enjoy His presence in the world." 
 Says Meyer, "Handle Me not for the purpose of 
 examining whether it be really Myself in the body, 
 or My glorified spirit." "Hold Me not as though 
 we were in the perfection of the existence of that 
 world beyond us, for I am not yet ascended, etc., 
 to say nothing of thyself" (Lange, Hofmann, Lut- 
 hardt, Tholuck, et al. ) . 
 
 "Tarry not with Me, but make haste and dis- 
 charge the message; time enough later for handling, 
 greeting, holding" (Beza, Calovius, Bengel). "Seek 
 not thy comfort in My present appearance by ter- 
 
134 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 restrial contact, but by spiritual communion" (Are- 
 tius, Grotius, Neander, and others). 
 
 Says the learned Dean Alford, "She believed 
 she had now gotten Him again, never to be parted 
 from Him. This gesture He reproved as unsuited 
 to the time, and the nature of His present appear- 
 ance. 'Do not thus — for I am not yet restored 
 fully to you in body — I have yet to ascend to the 
 Father.' This implies in the background another 
 and truer touching when He should have ascended 
 to the Father." Wordsworth would have us read, 
 "'Cleave not to Me in My bodily appearance; do 
 not touch Me carnally, but learn to touch Me spir- 
 itually.' When the power of the bodily touch ends, 
 then the spiritual touch begins, and that touch most 
 honors Christ and profits us." Hengstenberg con- 
 jectures that Mary, in the mistaken notion that the 
 partition wall between Christ and her had now 
 fallen, desired to embrace Him : this the Lord with- 
 stood, because the process of glorification was not 
 yet completed, and the separation still continued in 
 part." Says that eminent Swiss writer, Frederick 
 L. Godet, "To touch in order to enjoy, to attach 
 one's self to some one; this is not the moment to 
 attach yourself to Me, as I am before you in My 
 human individuality." 
 
 Dean Farrar tells us that Mary, having "appar- 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 135 
 
 ently tried to clasp His feet, or the hem of His 
 garment, . . . cried . . . 'Rabboni!' . . . and then 
 remained speechless with her transport." And then 
 the learned man proceeds, " 'Cling not to Me,' He 
 exclaimed, 'for not yet have I ascended to the 
 Father; but go,' etc. Awe-struck, she hasted to 
 obey. She repeated to them that solemn message 
 — and through all future ages has thrilled that first 
 utterance, which made on the minds of those who 
 heard it so indelible an impression — I have seen the 
 Lord." 
 
 "Nor was her testimony unsupported. Jesus met 
 the other women also, and said to them, 'All hail!' 
 Terror mingled with their emotion, as they clasped 
 His feet. 'Fear not,' He said to them; 'go, bid 
 My brethren that they depart into Galilee, and 
 there shall they see Me.' " {Life of Christ, pp. 
 
 456-4570 
 
 He seems utterly unconscious as to the strangely 
 self-contradictory treatment, from his point of view, 
 of Mary and of the other women by our Lord. 
 
 We quote from the Rev. Albert Barnes, "This 
 passage has given rise to a variety of interpreta- 
 tions. Jesus required from Thomas to touch Him, 
 . . . and it has been difficult to ascertain why He 
 forbids this now to Mary. The reason why He 
 directed Thomas to do this was, that He doubted 
 
136 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 whether He had been restored to life. Mary did 
 not doubt that. The reason why He forbade her 
 to touch Him now, is to be sought in the circum- 
 stances of the case." And again, " 'Do not delay 
 here. Other opportunities will yet be afforded to 
 see Me. I have not yet ascended, that is, I am not 
 about to ascend immediately, but shall remain yet 
 on earth to afford opportunity to My disciples to 
 enjoy My presence.' From Matt. XXVIII :g it 
 appears that the women when they met Jesus, held 
 Him by the feet and worshiped Him. This species 
 of adoration it was probably the intention of Mary 
 to offer, and this, at that time, Jesus forbade, and 
 directed her to go at once and give His disciples no- 
 tice that He had risen." (Notes on the Gospels, 
 
 P. 389.) 
 
 A former pastor of the First Congregational 
 church of Detroit, Zachary Eddy, D.D., in his ex- 
 cellent Life of Christ, says, at page 733, that the 
 words "All hail!" addressed to the other women, 
 "were His first words after His resurrection," and 
 adds that "they reverently approached Him; . . . 
 held Him by the feet; . . . worshiped Him." And 
 then he actually declares, on page 735, that when 
 Mary Magdalene, in the ecstasy of her love, faith, 
 and joy, "struggles to embrace His feet;" and 
 "would renew the former intercourse, . . . He 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 137 
 
 shrinks away from contact with her." But why? 
 Because, forsooth, "she clings to the humanity of 
 His humiliation." 
 
 Says Cunningham Geikie, D.D., " 'Rabboni,' 
 said she, in the country tongue they both loved so 
 well — My Teacher! and was about to fall on His 
 neck in uncontrollable emotion. 
 
 " 'Touch Me not,' said He, drawing back, 'for 
 I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to 
 My brethren, and say to them, I ascend.' . . . 
 
 "Meanwhile the other women had come near, and 
 hearing and seeing what had passed, kneeled in 
 lowly worship. As they approached, Jesus greeted 
 them with the salutation they had, doubtless, often 
 heard from His lips — 'All hail' — and the sight of 
 Mary adoring Him, left them no question of its 
 being their Lord. He had withheld Mary from 
 any approach to the tender freedom of former days, 
 but He now stood still while the lowly band, Mary 
 doubtless among them, held Him by the feet, and 
 did Him lowliest reverence. Then, as they kneeled, 
 came the words, grateful to their hearts, 'Be not 
 afraid! Go, tell My brethren to go into Galilee, 
 and they will see Me there.' 
 
 "So saying, He was gone." 
 
 A more pitiful and extraordinary intellectual 
 somersault, on the part of so excellent and able a 
 
138 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 scholar, is scarcely conceivable ! The thrilling mes- 
 sage, which our Lord entrusted to Mary Magda- 
 lene, is thus absolutely robbed of all its solemn im- 
 port. And what then becomes of the evangelist 
 Mark's explicit statement, that "He appeared first 
 to Mary Magdalene," if the other women were 
 there the very next minute? And what need was 
 there of commanding her to tell the disciples, that 
 one of these days He was going to return to the 
 Father, when, in the very next breath almost, He 
 ordered her and the other women to tell them to 
 meet Him in Galilee? If that were all, then one 
 might reverently wonder why the Savior did not de- 
 liver the earlier message Himself, rather than en- 
 trust it even to this devoted woman. 
 
 Isaac Da Costa, an eminent Dutch poet and theo- 
 logian, in his truly excellent Bijbellezingen, remarks 
 that, by saying, "For I have not yet ascended to 
 My Father," the Lord mollified and explained His 
 previous word, as meaning, Let it suffice you for 
 this time to have seen Me. I have not yet de- 
 parted for good, and for some time I am still com- 
 ing back to you. Forsooth, heaven and earth had 
 now become one realm, and unseen He ascended and 
 descended as often as it suited His purposes. (Ze- 
 vende Deel, pp. 363 and 365.) But even Da Costa 
 has not a word to say as to why the Lord thus came 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 139 
 
 and went, or whether He did immediately ascend 
 to the Father. 
 
 Suffer a brief remark in passing. To talk, as do 
 some of the writers above quoted, about a spiritual 
 touching by faith, after the Lord should have as- 
 cended to heaven, as of more importance, is, under 
 the circumstances, the sheerest nonsense, and is like 
 flying in the very face of Holy Writ. It was by 
 means of the most manifold, clear, and infallible 
 "proofs," and that "by the space of forty days" 
 (Acts 1:3), that our Lord demonstrated the ab- 
 solute certainty of His bodily resurrection, and so 
 He "was declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 according to the Spirit of holiness, by" His "resur- 
 rection from" among "the dead" (Rom. 1:4). The 
 aged apostle John glories in this thrice-blessed fact. 
 "That which we have heard, that which we have 
 seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our 
 hands handled, concerning the Word of life" (I. 
 John I:i). Everything was here at stake, and 
 hence Paul cries out, "If Christ hath not been 
 raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins!" 
 (I. Cor. XV:i7). Little wonder is it that the 
 enemies of the truth are for ever trying to get rid 
 of, or to obscure, this transcendently amazing fact 
 that our Lord rose bodily from the tomb! But, as 
 Da Costa has well said, In order that the apostles 
 
140 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 might be able to proclaim the Gospel to the na- 
 tions, it was absolutely needful that they be eye- 
 and ear-witnesses of the Lord's resurrection, by see- 
 ing Him, and communing with Him, after He had 
 risen. (Ibid., p. 346.) 
 
 "A Commentary on the Holy Bible by various 
 writers, edited by the Rev. J. R. Dummelow, M.A., 
 of Queen's College, Cambridge," published in 191 5 
 by the Macmillan Company, has the following, 
 " 'Touch Me not,' etc. I have not come to renew 
 the old intimacy, but am on the point of returning 
 to My Father. When I am enthroned in heaven, 
 you shall touch Me once more, not, however, with 
 the physical touch of your hands, but with the spir- 
 itual touch of a living faith. 'I ascend,' viz., after 
 forty days." This author adds, however, "But many 
 recent writers maintain that our Lord ascended im- 
 mediately after the Resurrection, that He was in 
 heaven during the forty days of earthly manifesta- 
 tion, and that the event called the Ascension (Acts. 
 I.) was only His final farewell to the disciples; 
 not His entry into glory." Who these "recent writ- 
 ers" are I have thus far tried in vain to discover. 
 
 As to the direction to Mary Magdalene to go to 
 His brethren, a very few additional quotations may 
 not be out of place. 
 
 "He means her to gather from this that His ap- 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 141 
 
 pearance is not as yet a super-terrestrial and glori- 
 fied one. Glorification, however, does not put an 
 end to the brotherly feeling" (Meyer). "The word 
 is designed to speak peace to the disciples concern- 
 ing their flight" (Bengel). "It is the intimation 
 of the relationship of reconciliation" (Apollinaris, 
 Luther, Bucer). 
 
 " 'I ascend' . . . The immanent ascension spoken 
 of as already present, since He even now finds Him- 
 self in the new heavenly state, or transition state, 
 which is the condition of ascension. . . . Thus is 
 Magdalene made the first Evangelist of the resur- 
 rection to the apostolic circle itself, the Lord having 
 also first appeared to her" (Lange, Commentary, 
 pp. 610-61 1 ). 
 
 But let this remarkably strange hotchpotch suf- 
 fice by way of introduction. 
 
 "Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned her- 
 self, and saith unto Him in Hebrew, Rabboni; 
 which is to say, Teacher!" Literally, My Teacher! 
 "Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not; for I am not 
 yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto My 
 brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My 
 Father and your Father, and My God and your 
 God. Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the dis- 
 ciples, I have seen the Lord; and that He had said 
 these things unto her" (John XX: 16-18). 
 
142 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 We remark, first of all, that the common inter- 
 pretation of our Lord's message to the disciples, as 
 given to Mary Magdalene, changes both the perfect 
 and the present tense of the Greek verb ANA- 
 BAINO into the future, and that too without the 
 slightest warrant from Scripture itself, and, as we 
 will venture to add, without any possible occasion 
 for so doing, since all that is needed to make the 
 Savior's meaning perfectly clear, and easily under- 
 stood as well, even by a little child, is for scholars 
 to cease trying to foist their vain conjectures upon 
 the plain and positive declarations of Holy Writ. 
 
 Another criticism should be added right here. 
 There is no warrant whatever for supposing that 
 the Greek verb APTOMAI means anything more 
 than simply to touch. Throughout the Gospels it 
 means just that and nothing more. See, for exam- 
 ple, such passages as Matt. VIII 13, 15; IX 129; 
 XVII:7; Mark III:io; V:27, 28, 30, 31; VI 156; 
 VII 133; Luke VII :i4. 
 
 Writes the apostle Paul to the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a 
 heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High 
 Priest of our confession, even Jesus" (Heb. Ill :i ). 
 He is not only our Prophet, and our coming King, 
 but also our eternal High Priest. Once a year, on 
 the great day of atonement, the high priest of the 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 143 
 
 Mosaic economy entered into the holy of holies in 
 the tabernacle, or rather, as our Revised Version 
 tells us, in the "Tent of Meeting," and from the 
 days of Solomon, into the most holy place in the 
 temple, there to meet with the God of Israel. (See 
 Lev. XVI :2, 34.) "But into the second the high 
 priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, 
 which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of 
 the people" (Heb. IX 7). 
 
 On that great day of expiation no one else, not 
 even of the house of Aaron, was allowed to enter 
 the tabernacle with him, until after he had pre- 
 sented himself, with the blood of atonement, in the 
 presence of Jehovah. See Lev. XVI: 17. 
 
 Even so our blessed Redeemer, as the great High 
 Priest of the people of God, must not only lay down 
 His life for the sheep that the Father had given 
 Him; but must, moreover, present the completed 
 offering in the presence of God the Father; not, as 
 the Holy Spirit expressly declares in Hebrews IX, 
 by entering "into a holy place made with hands, 
 . . . but into heaven itself, now to appear before 
 the face of God for us" (v. 24). "But Christ hav- 
 ing come a High Priest of the good things to come, 
 through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, 
 not made with hands, that is to say, not of this 
 creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and 
 
144 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 calves, but through His own blood, entered in once 
 for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal 
 redemption" (v's 11-12). 
 
 It was, as we believe, in fulfillment of His com- 
 mission as our great High Priest, of which the 
 Hebrew high priest of a dispensation which was 
 now to come to an end, was more especially a type 
 in the solemn transactions of the great day of atone- 
 ment, that the risen Christ must, first of all, present 
 the offering, which He had made for guilty man on 
 Golgotha's cross, to God the Father in the heavenly 
 tabernacle. 
 
 Until the sacrifice had first been presented to the 
 Father, sinful man must not touch that sacred body 
 which had been bruised for us. And yet, even as 
 the people of old, while standing in the outer courts, 
 may have caught some glimpse of the high priest ere 
 he entered the holiest of all, to appear in the im- 
 mediate presence of Jehovah, even so our Lord suf- 
 fered His people, in the person of Mary Magdalene, 
 to catch a momentary glimpse of Himself, ere He 
 ascended to His Father and to their Father, to His 
 God and to their God. 
 
 But why did He choose Mary Magdalene for so 
 exalted a privilege? We know not, and yet can- 
 not but believe that that profound scholar, Judge 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 145 
 
 Joel Jones, LL.D., is quite correct in supposing that 
 she was singled out for this purpose, because she 
 was such a signal proof of our Lord's complete mas- 
 tery, as the Son of Man, over the powers of dark- 
 ness. It is certainly noteworthy that the evangelists 
 always mention her by way of pre-eminence, when- 
 ever they speak of the women who so devotedly fol- 
 lowed the Savior, and ministered to His needs. Not 
 only so, but both Mark and Luke call special at- 
 tention to the fact, that it was out of her that the 
 Lord Jesus had cast seven demons. I. John 111:8 
 reads, "To this end was the Son of God manifested, 
 that He might destroy the works of the Devil." 
 And so we can but surmise, where positive asser- 
 tion would be altogether out of place, that it may 
 have been in the Divine purpose, that the risen 
 Christ, just as He was on the point of ascending, 
 to present to the Father the offering He had made 
 for "our sins, in His body upon the tree" (I. Pet. 
 11:24), should thus momentarily reveal Himself to 
 this extraordinary ensample of the power of that vic- 
 torious grace, that during all the ages would rescue 
 the lost children of men from the power of the 
 Devil. May be that was why He suffered one, 
 whom He had snatched from the very jaws of hell, 
 to see Him ere He presented the offering He had 
 
146 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 made on the cross in the holy of holies in the heav- 
 enly places. 5 
 
 On His return from the Father He was ready, 
 like the high priest of old, to show Himself openly 
 to His people, and ready as well to give them the 
 amplest proof, by being handled by them, and by 
 even eating and drinking in their presence, that He 
 was indeed the very same Jesus of Nazareth, Who 
 had gone "about doing good" (Acts X:38), to 
 Whose wonderful teachings they had so often lis- 
 tened, and of Whose marvelous signs and wonders 
 they had been eye-witnesses. 
 
 If the question be asked, How could all this have 
 taken place in the little space of time that inter- 
 vened between our Lord's interview with Mary 
 Magdalene and the meeting with the women men- 
 tioned in Matthew XXVIII, we may well ask, 
 What were earthly measurements of time and space 
 to Him, to Whose resurrected body barred and 
 bolted doors presented not the slightest hindrance, 
 whenever He chose to come in or to go out? The 
 prophet Daniel presented his prayers and supplica- 
 tions before Jehovah his God, and while he "was 
 speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel," who stands 
 "in the presence of God" (Luke I:ig), "being 
 
 6 Jesus and the Coming Glory; or, Notes on Scripture, 
 pp. 473-475- 
 
Was There Only One Ascentionf 147 
 
 caused to fly swiftly, touched" him "about the time 
 of the evening oblation" (Dan. IX:2i). How long 
 did it take the angel to descend from before the 
 throne of God to this earth? Let Gabriel himself 
 tell us. "At the beginning of thy supplication," 
 said he to Daniel, "the commandment went forth, 
 and I am come to tell thee" (v. 23). Says the 
 apostle, Heb. IV 114, "Having then a great High 
 Priest, Who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus 
 the Son of God." And how far was the distance 
 from earth to the highest heavens for Him, of 
 Whom the Father Almighty has said, "And let all 
 the angels of God worship Him" (Heb. 1:6) ? Alas 
 for us, blind mortals, when we undertake to meas- 
 ure heaven's latitudes and longitudes by the arith- 
 metic of earth! 
 
 That same evening, while the disciples were met 
 together behind doors carefully shut, "for fear of 
 the Jews" (John XX: 19), all of a sudden they be- 
 held their beloved Master standing in their midst. 
 And please note that He no longer addresses them 
 as an inhabitant of this earth, but as one Who, even 
 as Man, already belongs to another sphere. "And 
 He said unto them, These are My words which I 
 spake unto you, while I was yet with you" (Luke 
 XXIV 144). Put such language as that in the 
 mouth even of His friend Lazarus, who had "been 
 
148 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 dead four days" (John XI 129), and you perceive 
 at once how incongruous and absurd it would have 
 been for him to talk after that fashion. But the 
 Christ of God had ceased to have His permanent 
 abode on earth. Henceforth He simply came and 
 went as a Visitor to our globe, of which He will 
 only gain complete possession when He comes a 
 second time, in the glory of His Father, with the 
 angels of His power, and with His glorified saints, 
 
 "To proclaim ... the day of vengeance of our 
 
 God;" (Is. LXI:2.) 
 
 "To execute . . . the judgment written." 
 
 (Ps. CXLIX: 9 .) 
 
 But to resume. Our Lord had said to the Father, 
 on the night of His betrayal, "While I was with 
 them, I kept them in Thy name which Thou hast 
 given Me: and I guarded them" (John XVII :i2). 
 To His disciples He had said, that same evening, 
 "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
 another Comforter, that He may be with you for 
 ever" (Ch. XIV: 16). He, moreover, at the same 
 time assured them, that the blessed Comforter, the 
 Spirit of truth, could not come to do His special 
 work for them, until after He Himself had taken 
 His departure, and had returned to the Father. 
 Not only so, but He had likewise given them the 
 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 149 
 
 definite assurance, that while the world should be- 
 hold Him no more, they should see Him (v. 19). 
 "Now I go unto Him that sent Me" (Ch. XVI: 
 5). "I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no 
 more" (v. 10). "A little while, and ye behold Me 
 no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see 
 Me" (v. 16). "Do ye inquire among yourselves 
 concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye 
 behold Me not, and again a little while, and ye 
 shall see Me?" "Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, that ye shall weep and lament; ... ye 
 shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned 
 into joy. . . .Ye therefore now have sorrow: but I 
 will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and 
 your joy no one taketh away from you" (v's 19, 20, 
 22). Their sorrow was then already coming upon 
 them ; it absolutely overwhelmed them as their loved 
 Teacher was being crucified, like a common male- 
 factor, between two highway robbers. But the ful- 
 ness of their joy came to them on the very day 
 when He rose from among the dead, when they 
 saw Him again, and in times of peril, persecution, 
 or death, for Jesus' sake, it never left them! And 
 yet our Lord had told them that they should not 
 see Him, until after He had first gone to the 
 Father. What a joyous message then was it that 
 He sent to them, when about to ascend to the 
 
150 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Father, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father, 
 and My God and your God." It meant that very 
 soon He would return to them, when He would 
 banish for ever their sorrow of heart ! 
 
 But how did He make sure to them the perpe- 
 tuity of their joy from that day on? The only ra- 
 tional answer, we submit, is that He at once com- 
 mitted them to the keeping power of the Holy 
 Spirit, Whose coming as their perpetual Comforter 
 he had told them, could not take place until He 
 Himself had first gone to the Father. He had now 
 returned from the Father, and therefore, on the 
 very evening of His resurrection, "He breathed on 
 them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
 Spirit." But let us refresh our minds by giving this 
 word of committal its proper setting. "When there- 
 fore it was evening, on that day, the first day of 
 the week, and when the doors were shut where the 
 disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and 
 stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be 
 unto you. And when He had said this, He showed 
 unto them His hands and His side. The disciples 
 therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. Jesus 
 therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: 
 as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. 
 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, 
 and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: 
 
Was There Only One Ascention? 15 1 
 
 whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto 
 them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" 
 (John XX 119-23). True it is that He did not 
 then impart to them the Spirit's wonder-working 
 powers, which were to be conferred upon them 
 publicly, when "the day of Pentecost" should have 
 "fully come" (Acts II :i). Still they would no 
 longer be dependent upon Christ's personal, bodily 
 presence. 
 
 A very few words must suffice, in conclusion, in 
 regard to the other accounts given us, in the synop- 
 tical Gospels and elsewhere, relating to the ascen- 
 sion of the Redeemer. And first of all, to quote 
 the language of Prof. Johann Gottfried Kinkel, of 
 the University of Bonn, in his Theologische Studien 
 und Kritiken, "We must presuppose . . . that the 
 notices which the New Testament furnishes us on 
 the ascension of Christ, in respect to the time, place, 
 and circumstances, are wholly inconsistent with 
 each other." {Heidelberg, Vol. XIV, 1841, trans- 
 lated by Prof. B. B. Edwards, Andover, in Biblio- 
 theca Sacra, Vol. I, No. 1, 1844.) 
 
 Brethren, there is not a shred of internal evidence 
 that Luke XXIV is not absolutely continuous ! And 
 no other argument has ever been produced, to prove 
 that there was an interval of forty days between 
 the main part of the chapter and the four closing 
 
152 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 verses. Had it not been for the fact that scholars 
 were somehow or other possessed with the idea, that 
 there could have been only one ascension, no one 
 might ever have tried to break up the historic con- 
 tinuity of the evangelist's account of the transactions 
 of the first Lord's Day. 
 
 As to the place whence He ascended, we read in 
 verses 50 and 51, "And he led them out until they 
 were over against Bethany: and He lifted up His 
 hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, 
 while He blessed them, He parted from them, and 
 was carried up into heaven." How far were they 
 from Jerusalem? "About fifteen furlongs off," as 
 John XI:i8 informs us. In Acts 1: 12 the same 
 writer, i. e., Luke, declares that the apostles re- 
 turned from the place where they had seen their 
 Lord ascend, viz., "From the mount called Olivet, 
 which is nigh unto Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's 
 journey off," five, or possibly, six, furlongs distant. 
 Let those who will, try to make it appear that the 
 sacred writer meant to say that those two localities 
 were one and the same. We are sincerely sorry for 
 those who feel compelled to make such a futile at- 
 tempt. 
 
 And what of Matthew's account of the Savior's 
 interview with the disciples after His resurrection, 
 which took place neither in Jerusalem, nor yet near 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 153 
 
 Bethany, or anywhere on the mount of Olives, but 
 in Galilee, on "the mountain where Jesus had ap- 
 pointed them" (Ch. XXVIII :i6)? And whither 
 did the Lord betake Himself, after He had then 
 and there commissioned them to go and disciple "all 
 the nations" (v. 19) ? Where else did He go but 
 to those heavenly regions, where, and not on earth, 
 was now his proper abode? Matthew indeed says 
 nothing as to the manner of His ascent, but that, 
 as Kinkel suggests, "can be explained in part . . . 
 from the rhetorical nature of the composition: he 
 would close with a sublime word. And yet," as this 
 writer adds, "it seems impossible that a fact so 
 slightly noticed, should be the same with that glori- 
 ous ascension Luke has described in the Acts." 
 
 Finally, it is certainly remarkable how that exact 
 and matchless logician, the apostle Paul, in I. Cor. 
 XV:5-8, uses the words EITA or EPEITA and 
 E2XAT0N, "then" and "last," the first term four 
 times; evidently wishing to be understood as speak- 
 ing of a definite historical sequence of events. It 
 is also noteworthy that he uses the very same Greek 
 verb, OPHTHAY, in describing the Savior's ap- 
 pearance to himself, as when he speaks of His 
 being seen by Cephas and the rest. 
 
 And are we quite sure that the appearance to 
 "above five hundred brethren at once," took place 
 
154 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 before the scene described in Acts I, or even before 
 Pentecost? If so, then how did it happen that only 
 "about a hundred and twenty" men and women 
 were "gathered together" (Acts 1 115) in Jerusalem, 
 waiting, in obedience to the Lord's command, for 
 the enduement from on high? After Pentecost, 
 when thousands had been "added to the Lord" 
 (Acts II:4i ; IV 14; V 114), the bringing together of 
 over "five hundred" men presents, of course, no diffi- 
 culty whatever; especially when we bear in mind 
 that Paul says nothing as to the place where Christ 
 revealed Himself to them. And such a post-Pente- 
 costal revelation would have been as much in har- 
 mony with our Lord's conduct, and that of the 
 holy angels, towards His Church at that day, as 
 were His different appearances to the apostle him- 
 self. And if this appearance "to above five hundred 
 brethren at once" was post-Pentecostal, then we 
 must likewise conclude, according to I. Cor. XV, 
 that our Lord did not take final leave of "the 
 apostles whom He had chosen" (Acts 1:2) ten days 
 before Pentecost, but that He met with them, in 
 a body, at least once again after that notable day. 
 
 If this paper shall lead any of you to conclude that 
 our Lord's permanent place of abode, during the 
 forty days that intervened between His resurrec- 
 tion and His triumphal ascent "from the mount 
 
Was There Only One Ascension? 155 
 
 called Olivet," was not on earth, but "in the heav- 
 enly places," surrounded by the angels of His power, 
 then it may also lead you to consider whether this 
 does not at least give us some slight intimation, as 
 to where will be the habitation, or, if you please, 
 the more usual abiding place, of Christ and of His 
 joint-heirs, in the coming kingdom of God, when, 
 as we are assured in Hebrews II, they are to take 
 the place of the angelic hosts in administering the 
 affairs of this world, and when, as kings and priests 
 "unto our God," "they" shall "reign upon the 
 earth" (Rev. V:io). 
 
THE EFFICACY AND PROFITABLENESS 
 OF PRAYER 
 
 ANSWERS TO CERTAIN OBJECTIONS OF MODERN 
 SKEPTICISM 
 
 Job XXI: 14-15. 
 "Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; 
 For we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. 
 What is the Almighty that ive should serve Him? 
 And what profit should we have, if we pray unto 
 Him?" 
 
 HE Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer: — such 
 is the twofold subject, as suggested by these 
 words of Holy Writ, to which your attention is now 
 invited. 
 
 It is of the wicked who prospered in his day that 
 Job tells us, 
 
 ''Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, 
 For we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." 
 
 The very blessings which God bestowed upon 
 them made them lose sight of the bountiful Giver, 
 and filled them with a spirit of pride and self-suffi- 
 156 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 157 
 
 ciency. And hence too they cried out, in words of 
 daring impiety, 
 
 "What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? 
 And what profit should we have, if we pray unto 
 Him?" 
 
 It is indeed a bold, bald sort of atheism that con- 
 fronts us, in this language of Job's godless contem- 
 poraries. And yet,, my hearers, let us not seek to 
 disguise the painful fact; if this is not always the 
 language, yet it is ever the spirit, of the unbelieving 
 heart of the natural man. And however much our 
 modern objectors to the efficacy of prayer may 
 squirm beneath the odium of the ugly charge of 
 atheism, yet it is justly preferred against them; for 
 he who scouts the very idea of prayer, whatever his 
 professions may be, does in fact deny the very exist- 
 ence of the only living and true God. 
 
 Let us look the question squarely, honestly in the 
 face, — Is prayer a mere empty, profitless, meaning- 
 less superstition? or is it that which brings the soul 
 of man into a living, blessed communion with the 
 great and august Ruler of the universe? Is it a 
 useless, needless waste of breath? or has it really 
 power to move the arm that moves the world? 
 
 Our remarks will necessarily be confined pretty 
 much to a single point of view, viz., to suggest an- 
 
158 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 swers to certain objections of modern skepticism. 
 
 The question has often been raised, Why should 
 men pray at all? "What profit should we have, if 
 we pray unto Him?" The answer to this and like 
 queries will be best gained in the light of certain 
 other and more specific questions. 
 
 Are we sinners? or is man a pure, spotless being, 
 who has never in a single instance violated any law 
 of God? Will you ask that criminal, as he stands 
 trembling at the bar of human justice, why he trou- 
 bles himself to plead with his judge for pardon, or 
 for the mitigation of his sentence, when a felon's 
 death may await him on the morrow? And do you 
 suppose that the angels in glory deem it a strange 
 or preposterous thing, when they see a member of 
 our fallen race, "every imagination of the thoughts 
 of" whose "heart" has been "only evil continually" 
 (Gen. VI 15), crying to God for mercy the moment 
 he comes to his right mind, and realizes that aveng- 
 ing justice is on his track? Ah! my impenitent 
 hearer, if you only knew that that self-righteousness 
 of which you boast, is no better in the estimation of 
 high Heaven, than the most abominably filthy rags 
 in which squalid poverty arrays itself, you too would 
 at once raise the cry of the publican, "God, be Thou 
 merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke XVIII 113). May 
 the Lord in mercy open your eyes! 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 159 
 
 But again — Are we weak and helpless? Is it rea- 
 sonable for the little child, that has but barely 
 learned to walk, as it stumbles along the rough 
 and stony road, to ask its earthly father for the 
 needed assistance? And if he be a man, and not a 
 monster, will he turn a deaf ear to the cry of the 
 little one ? Saith the Scripture, 
 
 "Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 So Jehovah pitieth them that fear Him. 
 For He knoweth our frame; 
 He remembereth that we are dust." 
 
 (Ps. CIII:i 3 -i4.) 
 
 The Christian has indeed secured the vantage- 
 ground, being no longer under condemnation. Still 
 he is at first but a babe in Christ, and ever after, 
 as long as he abides in this mortal flesh, he has to 
 contend with the inherent corruption of his fallen 
 nature, and against a host of mighty spiritual foes 
 from without. Must he then go forth to battle 
 upon his own charges, in his own unaided strength, 
 against the world, the flesh, and the Devil? When 
 he cries to God for help, will the heavens mock his 
 hopes, and be as brass over his head? It is not thus 
 that the inspired Word speaks. When the Ephe- 
 sian disciples were urged to put on "the whole armor 
 of God," that thus they might be enabled to resist 
 
160 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 manfully the onslaughts of the powers of darkness, 
 there follows the emphatic exhortation, "With all 
 prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in 
 the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perse- 
 verance and supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 
 VI: 1 3, 18). In the XLVI Psalm the ransomed, 
 persecuted, struggling Church joyfully exclaims: 
 
 "God is our refuge and strength, 
 A very present help in trouble. 
 
 Jehovah of hosts is with us; 
 The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." 
 
 (v's i, 7.) 
 
 Language which Martin Luther loved to repeat to 
 himself in his hours of despondency, and which sug- 
 gested that noble hymn, which did so much to help 
 on the cause of the Reformation, and the singing of 
 which has so greatly encouraged the people of God 
 from that day to this: 
 
 "A mighty Fortress is our God, 
 A Bulwark never failing, 
 Our Helper He amid the flood 
 Of mortal ills prevailing." 
 
 "Again I say unto you," is the explicit declara- 
 tion of our Redeemer, "that if two of you shall 
 agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 161 
 
 ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who 
 is in heaven" (Matt. XVIII 119). And the writer 
 to the Hebrews, in view of the fact that "the Son 
 of God," our Lord Jesus Christ, is both a great 
 High Priest, and One Who can have a fellow- 
 feeling with us in our every weakness, exclaims, 
 "Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto 
 the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and 
 may find grace to help us in time of need" (Ch. 
 IV:i 4 , 16). 
 
 But how, it is asked, can prayer alter the fixed 
 laws of the universe? 
 
 That is an old question, and a capital one, and 
 a question too which many a blind devotee of the 
 physical sciences loves to make use of. 
 
 Now let it be noticed, first of all, that this sort of 
 reasoning is based upon a very sandy foundation. 
 The major premise of the objector's argument, if 
 not utterly false, is very far from being proven. 
 Who can tell us what laws, especially of the physical 
 universe, are absolutely fixed? And indeed it mat- 
 ters little whether you refer to the universe of mat- 
 ter or of mind. 
 
 Certain moral laws are fixed beyond all possibil- 
 ity of change. But why? Simply because they 
 have their source in the unalterable holiness, and in 
 the inflexible justice and truth, of Him Who inhab- 
 
1 62 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 iteth the praises of eternity, and Who is "the same 
 yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever" (Heb. 
 XIII :8), and "with Whom can be no variation, 
 neither shadow that is cast by turning" (James I: 
 17). Were He man, and not God, who could tell 
 but falsehood might be truth to-morrow, and truth 
 falsehood ; for how often has not man succeeded in 
 making "the worse appear the better reason" ? Nay, 
 in how many cases has not men's faithlessness to 
 the dictates of their consciences, at length utterly 
 disqualified them to distinguish between truth and 
 error, between right and wrong? Because our God 
 is the God of truth, therefore we know that truth 
 shall abide ; in no other way could we be absolutely 
 certain of it. 
 
 In regard to the physical universe it may be re- 
 marked that no law, so far as is known to man, 
 is more universal in its application than the law of 
 gravitation, according to which a larger body at- 
 tracts a smaller one. And yet every school-boy acts 
 in utter defiance of that law, every time that he 
 tosses a ball, or puffs a soap-bubble, into the air. 
 And in whatever way that stupendous miracle was 
 performed, when "the sun stayed in the midst of 
 heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole 
 day" (Jos X:i3) ; yet is it anything else save the 
 most arrant presumption, to maintain that, in an- 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 163 
 
 swer to Joshua's prayer, God could not have ar- 
 rested, for even a single day, the action of this law? 
 Or are we to come to the pitiable conclusion, that 
 He Who created and Who upholds all things by 
 the word of His power, has no control over a law 
 which He Himself has ordained, and which a little 
 child may daily violate with impunity? 
 
 As another has suggested, it is indeed a question 
 as to what was really most miraculous in the life 
 of our Lord upon earth, the mighty works by means 
 of which He demonstrated His Messiahship and Di- 
 vine glory, or that "hiding of His power" (Hab. 
 111:4), which at other times so effectually veiled 
 the Godhead, that even the favored twelve were 
 scarce aware of His true character. 
 
 Furthermore, it may be that, in the life to come, 
 the things which now we deem miraculous will then 
 be common, while what is now esteemed common 
 will then be accounted miraculous. 
 
 And who will tell us what laws are most essen- 
 tial? How often does not man, in making use of 
 one physical law, utterly disregard another law? 
 May not the great Lawmaker do as much Himself? 
 And how do we know but that every seeming viola- 
 tion, or setting aside, of known laws, is itself but 
 the carrying out of some higher law, undiscovered 
 as yet by man? 
 
164 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 But again. God is the Being of absolute perfec- 
 tion. He has promised to answer prayer. Is it not 
 worth while then that this or that physical law 
 should be set aside, if need be, in order that His 
 word may remain inviolate? And which is the. 
 greater, the higher law? Is it the physical, or the 
 moral? Are the Divine modes of operation in the 
 material universe of more, or of less, importance 
 than the attributes of His spotless moral excellence? 
 
 His truth and His mercy stand pledged to secure 
 the ultimate and complete salvation of every one 
 who repents of his sins. And the double question 
 of our blessed Redeemer, "For what shall a man 
 be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and 
 forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange 
 for his life?" (Matt. XVI 126), fully warrants us 
 in saying, that a single human soul is of more value 
 than this whole terrestrial globe, yes, than all the 
 material universe combined. And little would we 
 ever hear in the way of objection to the need and 
 the power of prayer, if men realized, on the one 
 hand, the worth of the undying soul, and, on the 
 other, the unspeakable and endless woe to which 
 guilt exposes it! But, alas! many a modern hero- 
 worshiper, though ready enough to turn his fellow- 
 man, or even himself, into a god, has not the faint- 
 est conception of the true dignity of man, as a crea- 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 165 
 
 ture come from God, and whose existence is to run 
 parallel with the endless years of the Eternal ! Nor 
 can they have any just apprehension of the terrors 
 of Divine wrath, whose proud and stubborn unbelief 
 closes their eyes against the righteous demands of 
 His moral law. 
 
 But we must turn from this seeming digression. 
 
 A certain class of physical scientists, like the late 
 Prof. John Tyndall, may undertake to treat with 
 supercilious contempt the supposition, 1 "that the 
 Builder and Sustainer of" the myriad worlds that 
 revolve throughout immensity, "should contract 
 Himself to a burning bush, or behave in other fa- 
 miliar ways ascribed to Him" in the Scriptures. Of 
 course, if Professor Tyndall had read his Bible with 
 a little more care, he would have known better than 
 to talk about God as "contracting Himself." But 
 are these men after all really the grossest of mate- 
 rialists and pantheists, so that they cannot even con- 
 ceive of the Godhead except as an immense body? 
 And, notwithstanding all their fine talk, how much 
 better, for any practical purpose, is their faith than 
 that of the most out-and-out atheist? 
 
 These wise men of the world may talk of all the 
 truly amazing ways, in which Jehovah has come 
 down to our human frailty, as things that appear 
 1 Tyndall's Fragments of Science, p. 420. 
 
1 66 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 like "astounding incongruities to the scientific man" : 
 but, while even such as they hardly dare to say that 
 these "incongruities," as they presume to call them, 
 are impossible, and while they often feel forced to 
 confess their utter ignorance in regard to the ways 
 of God, even in the domain of nature ; we, who have 
 an open Bible before us, and who can confidently 
 affirm with the apostle Paul, "He that spared not 
 His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, 
 how shall He not also with Him freely give us all 
 things?" (Rom. VIII 132); we, who know from 
 this same blessed volume of truth, that the angelic 
 hosts are "all ministering spirits, sent forth to do 
 service for the sake of them that shall inherit salva- 
 tion"; we, who can recall the comparative value 
 which our Lord has put upon the soul of man, and 
 who know how He gave Himself unto the cruel 
 and shameful death of the cross for its redemption; 
 surely, my brethren, no one of us need stagger 
 through unbelief, either at the promises of Him, 
 Who has declared that He will heed the cry of 
 the humble, giving "good things to them that ask 
 Him" (Matt. VII :n), nor yet at the testimony 
 of His people, when they tell us how they cried 
 "unto Jehovah in their trouble, and" how He has 
 brought "them out of their distresses" (Ps. CVII: 
 28). 
 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 167 
 
 Another consideration should be added right here. 
 What are these so-called fixed and eternal laws of 
 nature? When "Jehovah answered Job out of the 
 whirlwind," He put to him these among many other 
 like questions — questions before which even modern 
 physical science, with all its truly wonderful re- 
 searches and discoveries, must yet stand abashed, 
 confessing its utter impotency — 
 
 "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of 
 
 the earth ? 
 Declare, if thou hast understanding. 
 Who determined the measures thereof, if thou 
 
 knowest ? 
 Or who stretched the line upon it? 
 Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? 
 Or who laid the corner-stone thereof? 
 When the morning stars sang together, 
 And all the sons of God shouted for joy?" 
 
 "Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 
 
 Or loose the bands of Orion? 
 
 Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their sea- 
 son? 
 
 Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train ? 
 
 Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? 
 
 Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the 
 earth ? 
 
 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, 
 
 That abundance of waters may cover thee? 
 
1 68 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Canst thou send forth the lightnings, that they may 
 
 go, 
 And say unto thee, Here we are? 
 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? 
 Or who hath given understanding to the mind?" 
 (Job XXXVIII :i, 4-7, 31-36.) 
 
 And the truly wise man, who has become aware 
 of the limitations of human knowledge, will be 
 ready to confess with Job as to all that, that they 
 are 
 
 "Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." 
 
 (Ch. XLII:3.) 
 
 After all man's attempts to unravel the mysteries 
 that everywhere environ him, the final and the only 
 reasonable explanation will ever remain the same; 
 and that explanation, the only one in which the ra- 
 tional mind can fully rest, refers all to "The ever- 
 lasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of 
 the earth," Who "fainteth not, neither is weary; 
 there is no searching of His understanding" (Is. 
 XL:28). 
 
 These so-called fixed and eternal laws of nature 
 are simply "the ordinances of the heavens"; God's 
 methods of regulating the worlds that He has made. 
 Were there no system, no regularity, no harmony 
 about the movements of the material universe, then 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 169 
 
 all man's plans and labors would be subject to end- 
 less confusion. "Seedtime and harvest, and cold 
 and heat, and summer and winter, and day and 
 night shall not cease" (Gen. VIII 122), even as 
 Jehovah promised to Noah when he came out of 
 the ark. And yet, with all this general certainty, 
 is not God continually teaching us, by the very un- 
 certainty which encompasses all these, never to lose 
 sight of Himself, as not only having established 
 the seasons with their laws, but likewise as being 
 the ever-living Administrator of His own govern- 
 ment, enforcing, or setting aside, according to His 
 sovereign good-pleasure, the laws which He has or- 
 dained and established? 
 
 To claim that God is utterly powerless to 
 change the mode of His administration, is in effect 
 to tell us that He is after all but the slave of a 
 blind, resistless fatalism; and that, having once es- 
 tablished certain laws, they are thenceforth for ever 
 beyond His control. And what is this to all in- 
 tents and purposes; what else but practical athe- 
 ism? For whatever professions such people may 
 make, they evidently have no faith in, but abso- 
 lutely deny, the only living and true God, Who re- 
 veals Himself in His Word as that glorious, that 
 everywhere present Being, Who "doeth according 
 to His will in the army of heaven, and among the 
 
170 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 inhabitants of the earth" (Dan. IV 135) ; and hence, 
 if they worship, or adore, any other god but self, 
 or a fellow-creature, it can only be the unsubstan- 
 tial product of an unsanctifled imagination. 
 
 From all such vagaries of unbelief, however, let 
 us turn to the noble declarations of that greatest 
 perhaps of mathematicians and natural philosophers, 
 Sir Isaac Newton, who, at the end of "a large vol- 
 ume all bristling with figures and calculations," in 
 which he "set forth his discoveries," says, "The 
 Master of the heavens governs all things, not as 
 being the soul of the world, but as being the Sov- 
 ereign of the universe. It is on account of His sov- 
 ereignty that we call Him the Sovereign God. He 
 governs all things, those which are, and those which 
 may be. He is the one God, and the same God, 
 everywhere and always. We admire Him because 
 of His perfections, we reverence and adore Him be- 
 cause of His sovereignty. A God without sov- 
 ereignty, without providence, and without object in 
 His works, would be only destiny or nature. Now, 
 from a blind metaphysical necessity, everywhere and 
 always the same, could arise no variety; all that 
 diversity of created things according to places and 
 times (which constitutes the order and life of the 
 universe) could only have been produced by the 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 171 
 
 thought and will of a Being Who is the Being, ex- 
 isting by Himself and necessarily." 2 
 
 As some of you may recall, not a little noise was 
 once made, in this country as well as in the British 
 Isles, by what was known as Professor Tyndall's 
 prayer gauge. Two wards were to be selected in a 
 certain hospital ; for the sick and the wounded in one 
 of these wards Christians everywhere were to pray, 
 while for those in the other no prayer was to be 
 offered up; and the result was to demonstrate to 
 the scientific world, and to the rest of mankind, 
 whether or no God hears and answers prayer. 
 
 It were a waste of time, perhaps, at this late day, 
 to show the heartlessness of such a proposition; to 
 point out the utter absurdity, impossibility, and 
 worthlessness of such a test; or to characterize fitly 
 so daring an insult against high Heaven, which 
 would have put to the blush many an ancient Greek 
 and Roman pagan, with his deference and piety 
 towards the gods whom he ignorantly worshiped. 
 
 We refer to it mainly as furnishing a pertinent 
 illustration of what our Lord told Nicodemus, that 
 "men loved the darkness rather than the light" 
 (John III:i9) >' and to point out the fact, that how- 
 ever zealous men may be in their scientific or his- 
 
 a See Newton's Principia, or Naville's The Heavenly 
 Father, pp. 181-182. 
 
172 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 torical researches, their minds may yet remain her- 
 metically sealed against the reception of the most 
 obvious truths, if the heart is at enmity with God. 
 For what could well be more perfectly amazing, 
 than such stark blindness on the part of an emi- 
 nent scientist, to the actual results of prayer? At 
 one time, when our noted American evangelist, 
 Dwight L. Moody, labored in the cities of New 
 York and Philadelphia, 3 in the one case two hun- 
 dred, and in the other one hundred drunkards, were 
 hopefully converted to God. After about a year 
 it was ascertained that out of the two hundred only 
 one, while out of the one hundred not even one, 
 had gone back to his cups! And the history of the 
 Church of God in our own day, and in all the ages 
 of the past, teems with facts illustrative of the power 
 of prayer to move the arm that moves the world, 
 and to draw fallen man upward toward heaven and 
 toward God! And yet these men, who are con- 
 stantly sounding a trumpet before them, in proof 
 of their zeal in search of truth, deliberately turn 
 their back upon all this multiform and ever increas- 
 ing mass of evidence, and, like the unbelieving Phari- 
 sees of old, seek after a sign from heaven ; and thus, 
 as Cowper has so well said, does 
 
 "In the winter of 1875-1876. 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 173 
 
 "Blind unbelief" ever "err, 
 And scan" God's "work in vain." 
 
 While the world now, as in apostolic times, 
 through its vaunted wisdom, fails to know God, 
 yet we may rejoice to know that even in our own 
 day, the really great masters in the domain of phys- 
 ical science are, in very many cases, devout dis- 
 ciples of the despised Nazarene. 
 
 Professor Tyndall is himself forced to give this 
 testimony, in regard to the childlike faith of Michael 
 Faraday, whose discoveries 1 "in nearly every branch 
 of physics," have given him a world-wide fame, and 
 who passed from earth August 25, 1867, in 
 the faith of that Redeemer, Whose humble, loving 
 disciple he had ever been. 2 "He said grace," 3 — 
 Tyndall is describing a visit which, while a young 
 man he enjoyed at Faraday's — "He said grace. I am 
 almost ashamed to call his prayer a 'saying' of grace. 
 In the language of Scripture, it might be described 
 as the petition of a son, into whose heart God had 
 sent the Spirit of His Son, and who with absolute 
 trust asked a blessing from his Father." A leading 
 man of science, of whom Prof. Ernest Naville, of 
 
 1 Chambers's Encyclopaedia. 
 
 2 See The Life and Letters of Faraday by Dr. Bence 
 Jones, Vol. II, pp. 428-486, passim. 
 
 * Fragments of Science, p. 350. 
 
174 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the University of Geneva, inquired as to his esti- 
 mate of Faraday, returned this answer, 4 "You may 
 boldly say that, by the unanimous consent of men 
 of science, Mr. Faraday, in regard both to the great- 
 ness and range of his discoveries, is the first natural 
 philosopher living." And only a few years before 
 his death, Faraday reaffirmed his conviction, 5 "that 
 he has never recognized any incompatibility between 
 science and faith, and makes the following declara- 
 tion: Even in earthly matters I reckon that 'the 
 invisible things of God, from the creation of the 
 world, are clearly seen, being understood by the 
 things that are made, even His eternal power and 
 Godhead.' " 
 
 To pray, my dear hearers, is simply to act in ac- 
 cordance with the nature God has given us. As 
 says another, "So far from being below human dig- 
 nity, prayer is the highest assertion of human dig- 
 nity. It proclaims that man was made for God, 
 and cannot live without Him." In proof of this 
 we need but refer you to the well-known fact that 
 all men everywhere, and in all ages of the world, 
 have prayed in some way or other, whenever trou- 
 ble and distress have suddenly overwhelmed them. 
 
 *Naville's The Heavenly Father, Lectures on Modern 
 Atheism. Downton's translation, p. 198. 
 6 Ibid., pp. 199-200. 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 175 
 
 At such times prayer has ever sprung spontaneously 
 from the heaving breast of affrighted humanity. 
 
 Lactantius, a writer of the fourth century, speak- 
 ing of the pagans of his day, says, "In their pros- 
 perity . . . then most of all does God escape the 
 memory of men, when in the enjoyment of His bene- 
 fits they ought to honor His divine beneficence. But 
 if any weighty necessity shall press them, then they 
 remember God. If the terror of war shall have re- 
 sounded, if the pestilential force of diseases shall 
 have overhung them, if long-continued drought shall 
 have denied nourishment to the crops, if a violent 
 tempest or hail shall have assailed them, they be- 
 take themselves to God, aid is implored from God, 
 God is entreated to succor them. If any one is 
 tossed about on the sea, the wind being furious, it 
 is this God Whom he invokes. If any one is har- 
 assed by any violence, he implores His aid. If any 
 one, reduced to the last extremity of poverty, begs 
 for food, he appeals to God alone, and by His di- 
 vine and matchless name alone he seeks to gain the 
 compassion of men. Thus they never remember 
 God, unless it be while they are in trouble. When 
 fear has left them, and the dangers have withdrawn, 
 then in truth they quickly hasten to the temples of 
 the gods: they pour libations to them, they sacri- 
 fice to them, they crown them with garlands. But 
 
176 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 to God, Whom they called upon in their necessity 
 itself, they do not give thanks even in word. Thus 
 from prosperity arises luxury; and from luxury, 
 together with all other voices, there arises impiety 
 towards God." * 
 
 A friend of ours was one day conversing with 
 some one in this city, who declared that religion 
 was all a humbug, and that man was no more than 
 any other animal; when he died, that was the end 
 of him. One morning, not long after this, that 
 same professed atheist awoke from his slumbers. He 
 spoke to his wife, who lay at his side, telling her 
 that it was time for them to arise; but she did not 
 answer him. Then he reached out his hand to 
 awaken her, when he was horrified to find her cold 
 in death ! What did he do ? Bury her, as he would 
 have buried a cow or a dog ? No ! the very first thing 
 he did was to send for a minister of religion, thus 
 giving the lie to his pretended atheism ! 
 
 The late somewhat notorious Bradlaugh, having 
 delivered a lecture in a certain English town in 
 favor of infidelity, called upon any of his audience 
 to reply to his argument, when a collier arose and 
 spoke somewhat as follows: — "Maister Bradlaugh, 
 me and my mate Jim were both Methodys, till one 
 of these infidel chaps cam' this way. Jim turned 
 
 4 The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII, pp. 40-41. 
 
Efficacy and Profitableness of Prayer 177 
 
 infidel, and used to badger me about attending class- 
 meetings and prayer-meetings. But one day in the 
 pit a large cob of coal came down upon Jim's head. 
 Jim thought he was killed, and, ah, mon! how he 
 did holler." Then turning to Mr. Bradlaugh with 
 a very knowing look, he said, "Young man, there's 
 naught like cobs of coal for knocking infidelity out 
 of a man." 
 
 Let us hold fast, my brethren, to our faith in 
 God. What Jehovah hath said, shall not that come 
 to pass? He has promised to hear and to answer 
 the prayer of faith ; shall He not perform it ? Asks 
 one: 
 
 "Say what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed? 
 The mighty utterance of a mighty need. 
 The man is praying, who doth press with might 
 Out of his darkness into God's own light." 5 
 
 And having yourselves come into that glorious 
 light of life, will you not plead earnestly with God, 
 that He may bestow a like priceless boon upon those 
 who know Him not? 
 
 And what shall we say to you who are still out 
 
 of Christ, "having no hope, and without God in 
 
 the world" (Eph. 11:2), to whom the future is all 
 
 dark and dismal? "Are you afraid of God!" asks 
 
 'Archbishop Trench, in Christian Lyrics, p. 6. 
 
178 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the great Augustine. "Run to His arms!" Yes, 
 sinner, to-day to the mercy-seat for shelter fly: 
 
 " 'Tis there thy soul shall find a safe retreat 
 When storms and tempests rise." 
 
CHRIST'S INVITATION TO THE 
 BURDENED AND WEARY 
 
 Matt. XI:28-3o. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
 My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." 
 
 TN undertaking to discourse upon this wonderful 
 invitation of our adorable Redeemer, it may not 
 be out of place to offer, by way of preface, a brief 
 exegetical criticism. 
 
 According to our English Bible this invitation is 
 addressed to such as "labor and are heavy laden." 
 The word "labor," however, fails to give full ex- 
 pression to the real import of the Savior's language. 
 There is indeed no single English term that can 
 adequately express the meaning of the original. The 
 Dutch translators have rendered the Greek verb by 
 a word that signifies being tired out, which cer- 
 tainly corresponds more exactly with the inspired 
 text. But the German Bible uses a word, which 
 is not only exceedingly expressive, but is also one 
 which seems to convey the precise thought that was 
 179 
 
180 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 in our Lord's mind, when He extended this gra- 
 cious invitation. The German word here used is 
 "Miihselig," a compound term, the first part of 
 which signifies toil, trouble, pains; the latter denot- 
 ing happiness, bliss, salvation. And thus, while the 
 proper signification of the word is, to be full of 
 pain, and to feel weary, miserable, and wretched, 
 because of long continued and fruitless toil, its 
 etymological import is, to have become weary and 
 exhausted in the vain endeavor to secure present 
 happiness, or eternal salvation. 
 
 These various, though analogous, significations, 
 we doubt not, are all implied in the language of 
 our Lord. 
 
 In confirmation of this definition of the term "la- 
 bor," as found in the text, it may be remarked, fur- 
 ther, that the same Greek verb which the Savior 
 employed on this occasion, is used by the apostle 
 John, where he tells us that the Lord Jesus sat on 
 Jacob's well, because He was "wearied with His 
 journey" (John IV :6). And it occurs likewise in 
 Rev. II :3, where He commends the saints at Ephe- 
 sus, because they had "not grown weary." 
 
 As to the phrase "heavy laden," as found in verse 
 28, it may suffice to remark that the Greek verb is 
 analogous to the noun which is rendered "burden" 
 in the 30th verse, and that both verb and noun 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 181 
 
 are used by our Lord, in denouncing the expositors 
 and teachers of the Mosaic law, as when we read, 
 Luke XI 146, "Woe unto you lawyers also! for 
 ye load men with burdens grievous to be borne, and 
 ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of 
 your fingers." 
 
 As another has remarked, 1 "The expressions la- 
 bor and are heavy laden, in the first verse, answer 
 exactly to yoke and burden in the last; and the two 
 ideas comprehend all the modes in which working 
 animals can be employed. They either draw or 
 carry; in the former case they wear a yoke; in the 
 latter, they bear a burden. There is then a beau- 
 tiful contrast between the ideas in the first verse 
 and those in the last. The bondage of the world 
 and the flesh in the one is opposed to the happy 
 enfranchisement implied in the service of Christ in 
 the other." 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that the Savior's invita- 
 tion to come to Him, is addressed to such as have 
 become wearied and exhausted, in the vain and 
 fruitless endeavor to find peace and rest for their 
 afflicted souls, and who still continue to groan un- 
 der a galling yoke, or an oppressive burden, of which 
 they can by no means rid themselves; nay, whose 
 
 1 Rev. Alexander Knox. 
 
1 82 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 heavy weight they are as utterly powerless to 
 lighten. 
 
 We need scarcely remind you, beloved hearers, 
 that our Lord here addresses Himself to those who 
 have, to some extent at least, become conscious of 
 the fearful load of personal guilt that is resting upon 
 them, and whose every attempt to cast it from them, 
 or even to ease the oppressiveness of the burden, has 
 only ended in bitter disappointment, and in more 
 intense and poignant grief and suffering. It should, 
 however, also be borne in mind that this is the only 
 class to whom the invitation of the text is addressed. 
 
 The Bible affirms of all unregenerate men, that 
 they are guilty before God, and that they are ex- 
 posed to His wrath. But multitudes either make a 
 mock at sin, or vainly imagine that no burden is rest- 
 ing upon them ; while there is another class, who are 
 painfully conscious of their sad condition, though 
 ignorant as to the means of relief. 
 
 Not that these last are in reality greater sinners 
 than other men. Indeed this is not even a question 
 of comparative degrees of guilt. The question is 
 simply whether or no the sinner is ready to make 
 a straightforward, an honest, and a frank confession 
 of the real facts in his case. King David did not 
 all of a sudden become a great sinner when, after 
 that stern rebuke of the prophet Nathan, "Thou 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 183 
 
 art the man!" (II. Sam. XII 7), He uttered the 
 penitential Psalm of the ages. His soul was no 
 less blood-stained while, a moment before, with 
 seemingly righteous indignation, he presumed to 
 pronounce sentence of condemnation upon the rich 
 man, who had stolen the one little ewe lamb of his 
 poor neighbor. 
 
 In fact a sinner can hardly be in a more perilous 
 position than to suppose that he is good enough as 
 he is. There were many such when Christ was here 
 among men, who could boast of their morality, their 
 good deeds, their conformity to the outward forms 
 of religion: yet He, Who knew what was in their 
 hearts, so thoroughly exposed their folly, hypocrisy, 
 and wickedness, that the very term Pharisee, which 
 was then pre-eminently a title of respectability, of 
 honor, and of piety, has come to signify all that is 
 base and loathsome in the sight of God and man ! 
 
 The name, Pharisee, is indeed no longer claimed 
 by the proud and self-righteous : but, alas ! the spirit 
 of the Pharisees of old still lives. Men still boast of 
 their honesty, their sincerity, their deeds of charity, 
 as though these things would surely open to them 
 the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem ! How securely 
 many rest in the fact that they were baptized in in- 
 fancy, even though during their whole lives they 
 have practically denied Him, to Whose service their 
 
184 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 parents consecrated them! Or how they glory in 
 having been dipped in some flowing stream, wholly 
 ignorant meanwhile of this other fact, that not all 
 the waters of the Atlantic Ocean can wash away 
 their guilt, when there is neither repentance toward 
 God, nor faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ! Alas! 
 alas! that such multitudes should pride themselves 
 in "a form of godliness" (II. Tim. 111:5), while 
 utterly destitute of its transforming and sanctifying 
 power ! Or, if such people have no connection what- 
 ever with the visible Church, how ready are they 
 then to console themselves with the thought, "I 
 am just as good as these church members." Well, 
 Heaven have mercy on you, if you are no better 
 than lots of them! But God tells us in regard to 
 all such, whether they are in the church, or outside 
 of its pale, though they may say to themselves, "I 
 am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of 
 nothing" ; that they are in very deed "wretched, and 
 miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 
 III:i7). 
 
 My dear hearer! do you belong to any one of 
 these classes? Alas! if you do, then this gracious 
 invitation of our adorable Redeemer is not addressed 
 to you. If you are well, then you have no need of 
 a physician. But, oh! if still out of Christ, then 
 you are not well! You are a poor, sin-sick soul! 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 185 
 
 You do need salvation ! You need to be saved from 
 yourself! And your persistent denial of the truth, 
 as to your sad moral and spiritual condition, does 
 not, cannot do away with the appalling fact that you 
 are a sinner before God, deservedly doomed to ever- 
 lasting woe, from which naught save the blood and 
 intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ can save you! 
 
 We are not discussing a question of mere proba- 
 bilities. As God's word is true, aye, as your own 
 prayerless, thankless life proves, you are verily guilty 
 before God. A fearful burden is resting upon you, 
 and the danger is imminent that it will sink your 
 poor soul into perdition ! Oh ! why so blind? Why 
 will you not acknowledge that God is true, and that 
 without His pardoning and saving mercy you are 
 undone for ever? 
 
 "Sinners Jesus came to call," and if you are not 
 ready to acknowledge yourself as such, then you 
 can have neither part nor lot in His salvation. You 
 must then be your own advocate in that day of 
 awful solemnity, "when God shall judge the se- 
 crets of men, according to" our "Gospel, by Jesus 
 Christ" (Rom. II: 16), and when He "will make 
 justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; 
 and" when "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of 
 lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place" 
 (Is. XXVIII :i7). 
 
1 86 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 But we appeal to your conscience before God, is 
 it true, my hearer, however much you may seek to 
 hide it from others, and even from yourself; is it 
 true that you feel no burden resting upon you ? Are 
 you altogether free from a sense of guilt? Do you 
 never have any fearful apprehensions whatever, as 
 you look death and the judgment in the face? Ah! 
 you scarce dare think of these things! And yet you 
 have never humbled yourself before your Maker, or 
 implored His pardoning mercy in Jesus Christ! Oh! 
 if such is really your condition, may a merciful God 
 open your eyes before your steps take hold on hell! 
 
 But if, as we trust, your conscience has been 
 troubling you; if the truth has at all shaken you 
 out of the listlessness of your self-confidence ; if the 
 Spirit of God has even begun to strive with you ; if 
 only that awful lethargy, which so often foretokens 
 the death eternal, has been disturbed and broken; 
 then we pray God that you may find no peace or 
 rest till you find them in Jesus ; then we have blessed 
 tidings for you to-day, for these gracious words of 
 the Master are for just such tempest-tossed souls 
 as yours. 
 
 "As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, 
 That fluttereth over her young, 
 He spread abroad His wings, He took them, 
 He bare them on His pinions" Deut. XXXII :i i ). 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 187 
 
 As Jehovah thus dealt with Israel of old, so He 
 even yet often stirs up the nest of pride and self- 
 righteousness, in which the deluded sinner reclines 
 at his ease, tosses him out upon the stormy billows 
 of doubt and dismay; and then, when the poor soul 
 cries out, "I am a wretch undone! I shall surely 
 perish!" even then, in His infinite mercy, 
 
 "He spreads abroad His wings, takes him, 
 Bears him on His pinions." 
 
 O ! ye burdened and weary ones, hear the voice of 
 Jesus, as He says to each one of you to-day, "Come 
 unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest." 
 
 Do not try, my dying hearer, to carry that heavy 
 burden alone. Why labor, why strive, why weary 
 and distress yourself any longer, in vainly seeking 
 to rid yourself of the oppressive load? You have 
 yourself largely to blame for it. And every day 
 and every hour that you continue to reject the 
 mercy of God in Christ, you are making matters 
 worse and worse. 
 
 The Lord Jesus, in His wondrous compassion and 
 love, has come to you by His word and Spirit, and 
 has simply made you conscious of your guilt, of the 
 fact that a burden is resting upon you. And you, 
 with your eyes but half opened as yet, like the man 
 in the Gospel who at first saw men "as trees, walk- 
 
1 88 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ing" (Mark VIII 124), you blame Him, or, it may 
 be, the servant whom He has employed in this thing, 
 for the unrest and the anxiety that trouble you. 
 But, dear hearer, may your eyes but be fully opened, 
 and how you will bless God that your guilty peace 
 was disturbed betimes ! Yes ! our Lord does use the 
 moral law, even as the oriental plowman uses the 
 sharp pointed ox-goad, that He may drive men out 
 of their self-righteous nests and fastnesses; shows 
 them their moral and spiritual deformity in the sight 
 of God; and then He shows them yet again those 
 pierced hands and that bleeding side, which, in the 
 days of their carnal security, they had despised and 
 treated with scorn, and once more He says to them, 
 — All this I bore for your sake; give Me your loving 
 service, and all that I possess shall be yours. 
 
 "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest. Take My ' yoke 
 upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is 
 light." 
 
 Oh! you who for these weeks, or months, or 
 years past, have sought and striven, and have sought 
 and striven in vain, to get rid of the heavy burden 
 of your sins, with what gladness and joy should 
 you accept this most loving invitation. Here is a 
 
Chrisfs Invitation to the Burdened 189 
 
 promise of rest for you, and it meets your case ex- 
 actly. Christ does not simply consent to bear little 
 burdens; no! the greater your burden with the 
 greater confidence may you come to Him. 
 
 But perhaps you are saying, How will Christ give 
 me rest, when He commands me to take His yoke 
 upon my weary shoulders? The yoke that I have 
 thus far been compelled to wear is heavy and galling. 
 What I now need is not another yoke, but entire 
 freedom and rest. All this, in the highest and best 
 sense, is what the Savior designs, and what He will 
 assuredly accomplish for all who come to Him; for 
 he, whom the Son makes free, "shall be free indeed" 
 (John 111:36), yea, eternally free! But no one of 
 us is ready for such absolute liberty in this present 
 imperfect state. Of this, however, He assures you ; 
 the yoke which He bids you take upon you is easy, 
 and it is but a light burden which He bids you 
 carry. Says an old writer, "It is difficult, and yet 
 not difficult, to be a Christian. Only be in earnest, 
 and take not up the Gospel as a trivial thing, but 
 upon both thy shoulders. Make not light of thy 
 load for Christ, and Christ will make it light for 
 thee." And here remember two things. First, that 
 a yoke is designed to help one to do his work, not 
 to be a hindrance to it. Secondly, that the Savior 
 says, "My yoke," which implies fellowship in toil, 
 
190 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 and that He will bear the heavy end of it Himself. 
 Consider again Who it is that extends this gra- 
 cious and loving invitation. These are not the 
 words of a mere man. What folly and presump- 
 tion it would be for any mere creature, even though 
 he were an angel or an archangel, to extend such an 
 invitation as this of our text. Says the psalmist, 
 
 "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and He will sus- 
 tain thee: 
 He will never suffer the righteous to be moved." 
 
 (Ps. LV:22.) 
 And again, 
 
 "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, 
 And mine iniquity did I not hide : 
 I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Je- 
 
 hovah ; 
 And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. 
 
 Thou art my hiding place ; Thou wilt preserve me 
 from trouble; 
 
 Thou wilt compass me about with songs of deliv- 
 erance. Selah!" (Ps. XXXII :5, 7.) 
 
 Ah! this is the call of the God-Man, Jehovah- 
 Jesus! Why, the very fact that the holy Jesus has 
 extended such an invitation to all the burdened and 
 weary of earth, would alone suffice to prove His 
 almighty power and Godhead. 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 191 
 
 Nor must we forget that — to quote the language 
 of the Rev. Dr. William Hanna — "This invitation 
 loses half its meaning, taken out of the connection 
 in which it was spoken. We understand and ap- 
 preciate its significance only by looking upon it as 
 grounded on and flowing out of what Christ had 
 the moment before been saying, 'All things have 
 been delivered unto Me of My Father' (v. 27). 
 Simply that they might so freely, fully come unto 
 us, He has all, holds all as the Treasurer of the 
 kingdom, the Steward of the divine mercies. And 
 He holds all under the condition that there shall be 
 the freest, most gracious dispensing of all, that who- 
 soever asks shall get, that no needy one shall ever 
 come to Him and be sent unrelieved away." 
 
 Say you, I am guilty and vile? Behold, He is 
 "Jehovah our Righteousness" (Jer. XXIII :6). 
 
 He bids you, moreover, to come and learn of 
 Him. Sin terrifies. Satan, when no longer able 
 to quiet the sinner's fears, seeks to persuade him 
 that God will not heed his cries for mercy. But the 
 Gospel, my friend, is a message of glad tidings of 
 great joy. It is true indeed that even this later por- 
 tion of revealed truth contains some most terrible 
 denunciations: but not one of these — what is true 
 likewise of all Scripture — not one of these is di- 
 rected against the truly penitent soul. God's wrath 
 
192 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 awaits the stubborn rebel; not those who humble 
 themselves before Him. 
 
 Burdened, weary, sin-sick souls, such Jesus came 
 to call, and such He evermore delights to bless. 
 
 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for 
 I am meek and lowly in heart." O for the trum- 
 pet-tongue of an angel, or archangel, that we might 
 be able to set forth the full meaning of this astound- 
 ing declaration! Did you hear it, sinner? O open 
 wide your sluggish ears. Yes ! fling wide open upon 
 its rusty, creaking hinges the door of your heart, 
 and listen while the Lord Jesus, Whose "name" is 
 "called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Ever- 
 lasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Is. IX :6), stoops 
 down from the throne of His glory, and says to you ; 
 to you, a creature of yesterday; to you, a worm of 
 the dust ; to you, a rebel against His righteous sway ; 
 "Come unto Me, . . . learn of Me; for I am 
 meek and lowly in heart." And will you, dare you 
 refuse to humble yourself, so that you may walk 
 with Him, and that He may make you wise unto 
 salvation ? 
 
 A missionary, while on a preaching tour in India, 
 stopped at a Buddhist temple, and the priests, old 
 and young, gathered around him. He told them the 
 "old, old story" of Jesus and His love, from begin- 
 ning to end, and made everything so plain and 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 193 
 
 practical that they could not but understand it all, 
 and then an old, decrepit priest got up and walked 
 off, saying, "I won't have it — I won't have it. If 
 I cannot save myself I am willing to go to hell!" 
 And is this to be the awful, the appalling choice of 
 any one of you, beloved hearers? When the Bible 
 tells you so plainly, what your own sober reason 
 cannot but reaffirm, that all your attempts to merit 
 heaven are a delusion and a lie, are you going to 
 make your bed in hell, rather than humble yourself 
 to accept salvation as the free gift of God? 
 
 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for 
 I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest 
 unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My bur- 
 den is light." Do you say that you are not fit for 
 such lofty companionship? 
 
 "All the fitness He requireth 
 Is to feel your need of Him. 
 
 This He gives you; 
 'Tis the Spirit's rising beam!" 
 
 In the beautiful language of another we would 
 ask thee, O sinner, 
 
 "Art thou weary, art thou languid, 
 
 Art thou sore distrest? 
 'Come to Me' — saith One — 'and, coming, 
 Be at rest!' 
 
194 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Hath He marks to lead me to Him, 
 
 If He be my Guide?' 
 In His feet and hands are wound-prints, 
 And His side. 5 
 
 Is there diadem, as Monarch, 
 That His brow adorns?' 
 Yea, a crown, in very surety, 
 But of thorns!' 
 
 If I find Him, if I follow, 
 What His guerdon here?' 
 Many a sorrow, many a labor, 
 Many a tear.' 
 
 If I still hold closely to Him, 
 
 What hath He at last?' 
 Sorrow vanquished, labor ended, 
 Jordan passed!' 
 
 If I ask Him to receive me, 
 
 Will He say me nay?' 
 Not till earth and not till heaven 
 Pass away!' 
 
 Finding, following, keeping, struggling, 
 
 Is He sure to bless?' 
 'Angels, Martyrs, Prophets, Virgins, 
 Answer, Yes!'" 2 
 
 2 St. Stephen the Sabaite, 725-794. A.D. Freely trans- 
 lated from the original Greek by John Mason Neale, D.D. 
 

 Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 195 
 
 Why, our blessed Redeemer did not even rest 
 content with having made this gracious offer while 
 on earth, and so He repeats it from heaven. "Be- 
 hold," He says, "I stand at the door, and knock: 
 if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I 
 will come in to him, and will sup with him, and 
 he with Me" (Rev. III:2o). And the very last 
 page of revealed truth sends back the glad refrain, 
 "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And he 
 that heareth, let him say, Come! And he that is 
 athirst, let him come: he that will," whosoever it 
 be, though without feeling, though scarcely con- 
 scious of any hungering and thirsting in his soul 
 after God and holiness, if he is but willing to ac- 
 cept of salvation as a free gift, "let him take the 
 water of life freely!" (Rev. XXII:i7). 
 
 A learned German theologian, Rudolph Ewald 
 Stier, speaking of our text and the immediate con- 
 text, says, "The whole of this comprehensive con- 
 clusion of the discourse is an inexhaustible text, 
 which can never be preached out! Who is it that 
 invites, beseeches, and calls? The eternal Son of 
 the eternal Father, for us become the Son of Man. 
 Whom does He call? All who will know them- 
 selves to be what they are, weary and heavy laden. 
 What does He promise them? Refreshment and 
 rest for their souls. What does He require as the 
 
196 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 conditions? Nothing, absolutely nothing, but com- 
 ing; and when they are come, and have already 
 received His consolation, only the abiding with 
 Him, learning of Him." 
 
 "In a little church at Newport, in the Isle of 
 Wight, there is a beautiful marble monument, erect- 
 ed by Her Majesty," the late Queen Victoria. 
 "It represents a young girl reclining with her head 
 on an open Bible ; and on the marble page you read 
 the words, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' It rep- 
 resents the young princess Elizabeth, who, 'during 
 the wars of the Commonwealth, languished in Car- 
 isbrook Castle, and was found by her jailer lying 
 dead on the floor, with her cheek upon the open 
 page" of her Bible, "and just at this particular 
 text." There, in her prison solitude and loneliness, 
 she had found rest in the bosom of her Savior. And 
 that same loving Savior is ready to bless even you, 
 my hearer. O ! come to Jesus ! and come just now ! 
 Come just as you are, with the whole burden of 
 your guilt and shame, and He will cast over you 
 the mantle of infinite charity, and clothe you in the 
 garb of His perfect righteousness. Come with this 
 only plea, that His blood was shed for you. Come! 
 and with a glad heart you will be able to exclaim 
 with the Rev. Horatius Bonar: 
 
Christ's Invitation to the Burdened 197 
 
 'I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 
 The spotless Lamb of God; 
 He bears them all, and frees us 
 
 From the accursed load. 
 I bring my guilt to Jesus, 
 
 To wash my crimson stains 
 White, in His blood most precious, 
 
 Till not a spot remains. 
 
 I lay my wants on Jesus; 
 
 All fulness dwells in Him; 
 He heals all my diseases, 
 
 He doth my soul redeem: 
 I lay my griefs on Jesus, 
 
 My burdens and my cares; 
 He from them all releases, 
 
 He all my sorrows shares. 
 
 I rest my soul on Jesus, 
 
 This weary soul of mine; 
 His right hand me embraces, 
 
 I on His breast recline. 
 I love the Name of Jesus, 
 
 Emmanuel, Christ, the Lord; 
 Like fragrance on the breezes 
 
 His Name abroad is poured. 
 
 I long to be like Jesus, 
 
 Meek, loving, lowly, mild; 
 I long to be like Jesus, 
 
 The Father's holy Child: 
 I long to be with Jesus 
 
 Amid the heavenly throng, 
 To sing with saints His praises, 
 
 To learn the angels' song." 
 
THE APPROACHING DAY 
 
 Heb. X:25. "And so much the more, as ye see the 
 day drawing nigh." 
 
 *fTPHE prayer-meeting is an institution of the 
 past." That was the declaration, at a meet- 
 ing of evangelical ministers, of the pastor of an 
 Eastern church of over two thousand communicants. 
 Twenty odd years before, when not much more 
 than half as large, that church had hundreds at its 
 mid-week devotional gatherings. But times have 
 changed, so that, a few years ago, a friend of ours 
 found only about thirty-five in attendance. In the 
 earlier days there were plenty of men ready to take 
 part; now, as is true of many another congregation, 
 the pastor has to take up pretty much the whole 
 hour with a lecture. The Methodist Episcopal 
 Church used to require, of all its members, attend- 
 ance at the class-meeting: but the General Confer- 
 ence long since changed the Discipline, to suit the 
 demands of the times, i.e., the growing worldly 
 spirit of the age. Yes, alas! the pastor was right. 
 So far as the mass of the members of our so-called 
 198 
 
The Approaching Day 199 
 
 Protestant churches are concerned, the prayer-meet- 
 ing has indeed become "an institution of the past." 
 But let us not lose sight of the fact that, wherever 
 that is the case, genuine revivals of religion have 
 likewise necessarily become "an institution of the 
 past." The newly inducted pastor of a Congrega- 
 tional church in Illinois was taken greatly by sur- 
 prise one evening. "Will Mr. So-and-So please 
 lead in prayer? But instead of the man, it was 
 his wife who rose to her feet and led in prayer, her 
 husband at the time being still unconverted. The 
 man's early Scotch training, however, stayed by him, 
 and so he always went with his Christian wife, not 
 only to church, but to the prayer-meeting as well. 
 It is almost needless to add, that he afterwards be- 
 came a consistent disciple of our Lord. But the pas- 
 tor evidently did not suppose that a man, who was 
 not a Christian, would ever show himself in the 
 prayer-meeting, unless something very unusual was 
 going on. 
 
 Although in these terrible times in which we live, 
 there has doubtless been, in very many cases, a de- 
 cided change for the better, yet it is to be feared 
 that in a great many homes there is no family altar, 
 and that not even a blessing is asked at the table, 
 unless the minister happens to be present, to dis- 
 charge the duty that properly devolves upon the 
 
200 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 head of the household. And when so many homes 
 are almost prayerless, how can we expect a different 
 state of things in our churches? Nevertheless the 
 infallible Word of God solemnly warns us, in the 
 very verse from which the text is taken, not to fol- 
 low in the wake of the thoughtless multitude. "Not 
 forsaking our own assembling together, as the cus- 
 tom of some is, but exhorting one another." And 
 the special reason which the Holy Spirit here gives 
 us, why we should be faithful and diligent in this 
 matter, is thus set forth in the words of the text, 
 "And so much the more, as ve see the day drawing 
 nigh." 
 
 In order to be able to appreciate somewhat, the 
 urgency with which this solemn exhortation comes 
 to us, it is of the first importance that we inquire 
 as to the import of the "day" here spoken of, and 
 as to how we may "see" it "drawing nigh." 
 
 In speaking of coming events both Old and New 
 Testament writers frequently make use of the term 
 "day." "A day of Jehovah of hosts" (Is. II:i2). 
 "The day of vengeance of our God" (Is. LXI:2). 
 "The day cometh, it burneth as a furnace" (Mai. 
 IV:i). "The last day" (John VI :39, 40). "The 
 day of wrath" (Rom. 11:5). "The day of salva- 
 tion" (II. Cor. VI :a). "The day of judgment" 
 (II. Pet. 111:7). "The day of God" (v. 12). 
 
The Approaching Day 201 
 
 And now does the immediate context give us any 
 clue, as to what "day" is particularly referred to 
 in our text? At verses 12 and 13 of this tenth 
 chapter, we read concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 our great High Priest, "But He, when He had of- 
 fered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the 
 right hand of God; henceforth expecting till His 
 enemies be made the footstool of His feet." In 
 verses 26 to 31, immediately following upon the 
 words of the text, the certain and awful doom is 
 foretold of him "who hath trodden under foot the 
 Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the 
 covenant, wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy 
 thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of 
 grace," concluding with these words of solemn im- 
 port, "For we know Him that said, Vengeance be- 
 longeth unto Me, I will recompense. And again, 
 The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful 
 thing to fall into the hands of the living God." To 
 which must be added verses 36 and 37. "For ye 
 have need of patience, that, having done the will 
 of God, ye may receive the promise. 
 
 For yet a very little while, 
 
 He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry." 
 
 But the apostle, when he wrote this letter to the 
 Hebrew Christians, did not divide it into chapters 
 and verses; he wrote as any one else would write 
 
202 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 a letter, and to be fully understood it should be 
 read right through from beginning to end. And so 
 we may well look through the whole of it for a defi- 
 nite answer to our query. 
 
 The epistle begins, as you are aware, by setting 
 forth the infinite superiority of our Lord over the 
 angelic hosts. Right after this, at the beginning 
 of chapter two, he declares the utter impossibility 
 of escape of the neglecter of "so great a salvation" 
 (v. 3), now that it has been proclaimed by the Lord 
 Himself personally, with the added confirmation 
 of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Upon this follows the statement, in verse 5, that 
 God has not put "the world to come," namely 
 this earth, as it shall yet be inhabited by teeming, 
 happy multitudes, during the coming millennial era, 
 "subject unto angels." Contrarywise, he asserts, 
 in the verses that immediately follow, that God has 
 put absolutely "all things in subjection under" the 
 Savior's "feet." And so, were there time, one might 
 go through the whole of this truly wonderful epis- 
 tle, which is so full of the past and yet future 
 achievements of our adorable Redeemer, "The 
 Apostle and High Priest of our confession" (Ch. 
 Ill :i ) . We can, however, stop only to note two 
 other passages. 
 
 At chapter IX 127-28, i.e., right after the state- 
 
The Approaching Day 203 
 
 ment that our Lord "now once at the end of the 
 ages hath . . . been manifested to put away sin by 
 the sacrifice of Himself," it is added, "And inasmuch 
 as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after 
 this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been 
 once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear 
 a second time, apart from sin," that is, without a 
 sin-offering, "unto salvation." 
 
 In chapter two, from which we have already 
 quoted, it is plainly intimated, what Scripture else- 
 where so fully affirms, namely, that the redeemed 
 are to be partakers with Christ in His coming do- 
 minion and glory, and that all others will be rigidly 
 excluded from participation in their blessedness. 
 And so we read in chapter XII 128-29, "Wherefore, 
 receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us 
 have grace, whereby," or, as in the margin to the 
 old Version, "let us hold fast," in order that "we 
 may offer service well-pleasing to God with rever- 
 ence and awe : for our God is a consuming fire." 
 
 We are thus inevitably brought to the conclusion 
 that the "day" mentioned in the text must, in some 
 way or other, refer to our Lord's future advent in 
 glory, and to His coming millennial reign. And 
 with this conclusion accords the entire New Testa- 
 ment, from the beginning of the Gospel according 
 to Matthew, to the very close of the Revelation 
 
204 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 given to the beloved disciple "in the isle that is 
 called Patmos." Indeed the word "day," in these 
 inspired writings, when applied to future events, al- 
 most invariably refers to the coming again, and the 
 beatific reign, of Him Who shall yet be crowned 
 "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords" (Rev. 
 XIX:i6). 
 
 His coming again is expressly spoken of as His 
 "day," as in I. Cor. 1 17-8, "So that ye come behind 
 in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ; Who shall also confirm you unto the 
 end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." In chapter V:5, "That the spirit may 
 be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." In II. 
 Cor. 1: 14, "As also ye did acknowledge us in part, 
 that we are your glorying, even as ye also are ours, 
 in the day of our Lord Jesus." In Phil. 1:6, "Be- 
 ing confident of this very thing, that He Who began 
 a good work in you, will perfect it until the day 
 of Jesus Christ." And in verse 10, "So that ye may 
 approve the things that are excellent; that ye may 
 be sincere and void of offence unto the day of 
 Christ." In II. Thess. II :2, "To the end that ye 
 be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be 
 troubled, ... as that the day of the Lord is just 
 at hand." The Greek verb here used evkcrTrjicev, 
 it should be observed, is altogether different in 
 
The Approaching Day 205 
 
 meaning from rjjyLKev found in Matt. 111:2, and 
 IV: 1 7, which means that the kingdom of heaven 
 might come very soon, or be deferred for centuries 
 to come. In Phil. II 115-16 we read, "That ye may 
 become blameless and harmless, children of God 
 without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and 
 perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as 
 lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; 
 that I may have whereof to glory in the day of 
 Christ, that I did not run in vain, neither labored 
 in vain." 
 
 To such as had but lately been converted to God 
 from the darkness, the superstition, and the abom- 
 inable idolatry of heathenism, the apostle writes, 
 in I. Thess. I:8-io, "For from you hath sounded 
 forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia 
 and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God- 
 ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak 
 anything. For they themselves report concerning 
 us what manner of entering in we had unto you; 
 and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a 
 living and true God ; and to wait for His Son from 
 heaven, Whom He raised from the dead," i.e., from 
 among the dead, "even Jesus, Who delivereth us 
 from the wrath to come." 
 
 With our sadly perverted and wholly unscrip- 
 tural notions about this much-vaunted, but utterly 
 
206 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 unreal, moral and spiritual progress of the race, and 
 as to this so-called modern civilization and enlight- 
 enment, we have almost wholly lost sight of the 
 fact, that the object of the present Gospel dispen- 
 sation, as here set forth by the great apostle of the 
 Gentiles, is just two-fold, viz., to turn men from 
 the worship of dumb idols unto "a living and true 
 God," and that they may turn their hearts and their 
 eyes longingly toward heaven, for the return of the 
 ascended Redeemer, i.e., "to wait for His Son from 
 heaven." 
 
 So thoroughly were the early disciples, Gentiles 
 as well as Jews, instructed in regard to all this; so 
 well did they understand that it was at the revela- 
 tion, the coming again in power and great glory, of 
 the Savior Whom they had learned to love and 
 adore, that all their brightest hopes were to be real- 
 ized, that the apostolic writers often refer to our 
 Lord's second coming, without even mentioning 
 His name ; simply referring to that blessed and glor- 
 ious event, and all its attendant scenes of surpass- 
 ing grandeur and glory, as "The day of redemp- 
 tion," "That day," or simply, "The day." So we 
 read in Eph. IV 130, "And grieve not the Holy 
 Spirit of God, in Whom ye were sealed unto the 
 day of redemption." It is to this "day of redemp- 
 tion" that the apostle refers, in that wonderful out- 
 
The Approaching Day 207 
 
 burst of sacred eloquence, in Rom. VIII: 18-25, 
 where he exclaims, "For I reckon that the suffer- 
 ings of this present time are not worthy to be com- 
 pared with the glory which shall be revealed to us- 
 ward." And then he tells us that the whole nether 
 creation, which "groaneth and travaileth in pain 
 together until now," as well as we ourselves, "who 
 have the first-fruits of the Spirit," "itself also shall 
 be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into' 
 the liberty of the glory of the children of God." 
 And it is expressly declared, in verse 23, that the 
 redemption here spoken of, is not simply that of 
 the soul, or spirit, which indeed is redeemed the 
 moment the sinner turns to God in Christ, but "the 
 redemption of our body," which can mean nothing 
 less, and nothing else, than the bodily resurrection 
 of the saints, when they shall appear perfect and 
 glorified, in body, soul, and spirit, and worthy of 
 full "adoption" (v. 15), and formal introduction, 
 as children into the family of God! 
 
 But to proceed. In many other places Holy Writ 
 evidently refers to the day of Christ, the day of our 
 redemption, in an offhand, matter-of-fact way, 
 which takes for granted that those who are ad- 
 dressed are perfectly familiar with the subject, 
 e.g., II. Tim. 1: 12, "For which cause I suffer also 
 these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know 
 
208 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Him Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded 
 that He is able to guard that which I have com- 
 mitted unto Him against that day" In verse 1 8, 
 "The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the 
 Lord in that day" Ch. IV :8, "Henceforth there 
 is laid up for me," kept in store, "the crown of 
 righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
 shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but 
 also to all them that have loved His appearing." 
 In II. Thess. 1 7-8, it is declared that "the Lord 
 Jesus" shall be revealed "from heaven with the an- 
 gels of His power in flaming fire, rendering ven- 
 geance to them that know not God, and to them 
 that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus" ; 
 "when," as we are told in verse 10, "He shall 
 come to be glorified in His saints, and to be mar- 
 velled at in all them that believed ... in that 
 day!' Rom. XIII:ii-I2, "And this, knowing the 
 season, that already it is time for you to awake out 
 of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us," that 
 is, its completion in the bliss and glory of the res- 
 urrection morning, "for now is salvation nearer to 
 us than when we first believed," namely, when first 
 we gave ourselves to Christ. "The night is far 
 spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast 
 off the works of darkness, and let us put on the 
 armor of light." 
 
The Approaching Day 209 
 
 In John VI:39, 40, 44, and 54 our Lord reiter- 
 ates the promise of a glorious resurrection "at" or 
 "in the last day." We quote verse 54, "He that 
 eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eter- 
 nal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" 
 In Acts 11:20 that coming day of wonders is spoken 
 of after this manner, 
 
 "The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 And the moon into blood, 
 Before the day of the Lord come, 
 That great and notable day." 
 
 "And so much the more, as ye see the day draw- 
 ing nigh." Surely we are not left in uncertainty 
 as to what day is here referred to. Of one thing, 
 however, we know absolutely nothing at all. "But 
 of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even 
 the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father 
 only" (Matt. XXIV 136). And at the close of the 
 parable of the virgins our Lord adds the solemn 
 admonition, "Watch therefore, for ye know not the 
 day nor the hour" (Matt. XXV:i3). 
 
 "Not forsaking our own assembling together, as 
 the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; 
 and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing 
 nigh." 
 
 Some one has given eleven excellent scriptural 
 
210 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 reasons for attending the weekly prayer-meeting: 
 but, strange to say, the reason here given us by the 
 Holy Spirit was entirely lost sight of. And yet 
 surely, my brethren, we can "see the day drawing 
 nigh" It does indeed seem that this is the very 
 "last hour of the world's Saturday night." While 
 we should beware that we do not undertake to set 
 the exact time of the Lord's return, yet it is both 
 our solemn duty, and our privilege as well, to try 
 to "discern the signs of the times" (Matt. XVI 13), 
 for our Lord of old rebuked the unbelieving Jews 
 for failing to do that very thing. And these "signs 
 of the times" are to be seen everywhere about us. 
 Matt. XXIV 15-14. "For many shall come in My 
 name, saying, I am the Christ ; and shall lead many 
 astray. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of 
 wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these things 
 must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. 
 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom; and there shall be famines and 
 earthquakes in divers places. But all these things 
 are the beginning of travail. Then shall they de- 
 liver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you ; and 
 ye shall be hated of all the nations for My name's 
 sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall de- 
 liver up one another, and shall hate one another. 
 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead 
 
The Approaching Day 211 
 
 many astray. And because iniquity shall be multi- 
 plied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he 
 that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. 
 And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
 in the whole world for a testimony unto all the na- 
 tions; and then shall the end come." Let this be 
 distinctly understood. Neither here, in Matt. 
 XXIV: 14, nor elsewhere, does our Lord ever say a 
 word as to the end of the world. As you will find 
 in the margin to Matt. XXVIII 120, the only 
 proper translation of that phrase is, "The consum- 
 mation of the age." He ever and always speaks of 
 the end of the present dispensation, or economy, of 
 Divine grace, which began with His first coming, 
 when the Mosaic dispensation ended, and will itself 
 come to an end when He returns in glory to inaugu- 
 rate His millennial kingdom. Luke XXI :g, 25-26. 
 "And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be 
 not terrified: for these things must needs come to 
 pass first; but the end is not immediately. . . . 
 And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; 
 and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity 
 for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men 
 fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things 
 which are coming on the world: for the powers of 
 the heavens shall be shaken." II. Tim. Ill n-5. 
 "But know this, that in the last days grievous times 
 
212 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers 
 of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to 
 parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affec- 
 tion, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, 
 fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed 
 up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; 
 holding a form of godliness, but having denied the 
 power thereof." Verses 12-13. "Yea, and all that 
 would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer perse- 
 cution. But evil men and impostors shall wax worse 
 and worse, deceiving and being deceived." II. Pet. 
 111:3-4. "Knowing this first, that in the last days 
 mockers shall come with mockery, walking after 
 their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of 
 His coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell 
 asleep, all things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation." 
 
 Are you still out of Christ? O turn to Him, 
 while yet it is a day of grace! To-morrow it may 
 be too late! 
 
 Fellow-Christians, listen to the comforting, the 
 blessed assurance of our adorable Redeemer. "But 
 when these things begin to come to pass, look up, 
 and lift up your heads; because your redemption 
 draweth nigh" (Luke XXI 128). Oh! let us not 
 be discouraged, however dark the world about us 
 may be. We serve an almighty Savior, and He will 
 
The Approaching Day 213 
 
 yet ride forth gloriously, conquering and to con- 
 quer. 
 
 This is a sad, and yet also a glorious era, for it 
 is the harbinger of the coming of the King of day, 
 at Whose appearing the gloom and the darkness of 
 earth, its ignorance and its superstition, its folly and 
 its crime, shall for ever pass away, and when "all 
 the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah" 
 (Num. XIV :2i). This is "the day of His prepa- 
 ration" (Nah. 11:3). The railroad, the steam- 
 boat, the electric car, the telegraph, the telephone, 
 the automobile, the aeroplane, the thousand and one 
 inventions and discoveries of these latter days, show 
 us what a paradisiacal state this world will be in, 
 when once Satan and his accursed hordes have been 
 cast out, and when the nations "shall . . . learn 
 war" no "more." And when "they shall sit every 
 man under his vine and under his fig-tree ; and none 
 shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah 
 of hosts hath spoken it" (Mic. IV:3-4). 
 
 And you and I, dear hearer, if we are faithful 
 unto the end, are then to reign with Christ over the 
 nations in the flesh! While the Bridegroom tar- 
 rieth, we are left here for yet a little season, to do 
 what we may for the glory of God, and for the good 
 of our fellow-men. Let us then be up and doing, 
 "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil" 
 
214 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 (Eph. V:i6). "The Lord is at hand. In nothing 
 be anxious; but in everything by prayer and sup- 
 plication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be 
 made known unto God" (Phil. IV 15-6). As says 
 the poet: 
 
 "We are living, we are dwelling, 
 In a grand and awful time; 
 In an age on ages telling; 
 To be living is sublime!" 
 
 "But watch ye at every season, making suppli- 
 cation, that ye may prevail to escape all these 
 things that shall come to pass, and to stand before 
 the Son of Man" (Luke XXI 136). Beloved hear- 
 ers, while yet the Lord delayeth His coming, let us 
 this hour highly and solemnly resolve, that we will 
 no longer treat our mid-week meeting for^ confer- 
 ence and prayer as though it were a matter of little 
 concern, whether we or our children attend it or 
 not. For little reason have we to expect that souls 
 will continue to be converted under the preaching 
 of the Word, and by all the means of grace that 
 we here enjoy, if we turn our backs upon the prayer- 
 meeting, which is in very deed the spiritual ther- 
 mometer of the church; and which should ever be, 
 for every congregation of believers, a joyous, blessed 
 weekly family gathering of both old and young. In 
 
The Approaching Day 215 
 
 many a church, where that is the case, they never, 
 or scarce ever, have a communion season, without 
 some one or more souls being added to them of 
 ''those that were saved" (Acts 11:47). May God 
 of His infinite mercy grant that from now on such 
 may be the case among us, and then we'll have a 
 revival the whole year round! 
 
THE RESTORATION AND REDEMPTION 
 OF ISRAEL 
 
 Ps. CII:ii-i8. 
 
 My days are like a shadow that declineth; 
 And I am withered like grass. 
 But Thou, O Jehovah, wilt abide for ever; 
 And Thy memorial name unto all generations. 
 Thou wilt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; 
 For it is time to have pity upon her, 
 Yea, the set time is come. 
 For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, 
 And have pity upon her dust. 
 So the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah, 
 And all the kings of the earth Thy glory. 
 For Jehovah hath built up Zion; 
 He hath appeared in His glory. 
 He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, 
 And hath not despised their prayer. 
 This shall be written for the generation to come; 
 And a people which shall be created shall praise 
 Jehovah." 
 
 'TPHAT notorious unbeliever, Frederick the Great 
 
 of Prussia, once asked his pious chaplain for the 
 
 evidence, in few words, of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 The chaplain answered in one word : — "Sire, Israel." 
 
 216 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 217 
 
 Marvelous has been Israel's history. "And thou 
 shalt answer and say before Jehovah thy God," 
 that is, as the pious Israelite brought an offering of 
 the first fruits of the ground unto Jehovah, "A 
 Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went 
 down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in num- 
 ber; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, 
 and populous" (Deut. XXVI .*5). Exclaimed that 
 false-hearted prophet Balaam, when the Spirit of 
 God compelled him to bless the nation whom he had 
 been hired to curse, 
 
 "From Aram hath Balak brought me, 
 
 The king of Moab from the mountains of the 
 
 East: 
 Come, curse me Jacob, 
 And come, defy Israel. 
 
 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? 
 And how shall I defy, whom Jehovah hath not 
 
 defied ? 
 For from the top of the rocks I see him, 
 And from the hills I behold him: 
 ho, it is a people that dwelleth alone, 
 And shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
 Who can count the dust of Jacob, 
 Or number the fourth part of Israel? 
 Let me die the death of the righteous, 
 And let my last end be like his!" 
 
 (Num. XXIII :7-io.) 
 
218 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Israel's very existence to this day is in itself the 
 most wonderful corroboration of the Pentateuch, 
 and indeed of all Scripture. 
 
 And yet very much depends upon our interpret- 
 ing Scripture consistently. 
 
 Let it be said, first of all, that there is no warrant 
 whatever for allegorizing such plain geographical 
 terms as Judah, Ephraim, Gilead, Lebanon, the 
 mountains of Israel, etc. The New Testament 
 never allegorizes or spiritualizes a single one of 
 them. 
 
 Said a Jew, "You Christians are willing enough 
 to let us have the curses, but you want all the bless- 
 ings yourselves." The charge was but too true, 
 alas! And it is the very way too to countenance 
 these infidel vagaries that the Bible does not mean 
 just exactly what it says. 
 
 Let it be added right here that the whole argu- 
 ment against the plain, grammatical, and historical 
 interpretation of prophecy is absolutely groundless. 
 Why did the Jews allegorize Isaiah LIII? Had they 
 accepted that wonderful chapter, and other like 
 Scriptures, in their plain, obvious meaning, they 
 would have been compelled to acknowledge that 
 Jesus of Nazareth was indeed their Heaven-sent 
 Messiah. Multitudes of Christian people seem just 
 about as anxious to get rid of the blessed doctrine 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 219 
 
 of our Lord's ever imminent advent, and so they 
 treat the prophecies that relate to His second com- 
 ing in precisely the same way, e.g., Matt. XXIV 144, 
 "Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that 
 ye think not the Son of Man cometh." "Oh, that 
 means when a person dies." No, it means noth- 
 ing of the sort. Dan. VII 113-14 tells us about the 
 coming of the Son of Man. "I saw in the night 
 visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of 
 heaven one like unto a Son of Man, and He came 
 even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought 
 Him near before Him. And there was given Him 
 dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the 
 peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: 
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
 shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which 
 shall not be destroyed." In Matt. XXVI '.63 -64 we 
 find our Lord's own interpretation of what He 
 meant when He spoke about His coming as the Son 
 of Man. Standing before the high court of the 
 Jews, and to compel Him, as it were, to tell those 
 unscrupulous Jewish rulers, who were vainly try- 
 ing to find some pretext to put Him to an ignomin- 
 ious death, who He was, "the high priest" finally 
 "said unto Him, I adjure Thee by the living God, 
 that Thou tell us whether Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of God." Now mark our Lord's answer, in 
 
220 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 which He not only admitted that He was the Son 
 of God; but, moreover, by His direct reference to 
 the prophecy of Daniel, which we have just quoted, 
 gave them, as they well understood, what would one 
 day be proof positive to all the world, that He was 
 indeed the Christ of God. "Jesus saith unto him, 
 Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you, Hence- 
 forth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right 
 hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of 
 heaven." "The Son of Man came," first of all, 
 "to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. XX: 
 28). Where is there the slightest proof, from Holy 
 Writ, that He has been journeying to and fro be- 
 tween this earth and the highest heavens during all 
 these centuries, to convoy the spirits of believers 
 from earth to the realms of bliss? Oh, no, that is 
 the work of His angelic messengers, even as of old 
 they carried the beggar Lazarus, when he died, "into 
 Abraham's bosom" (Luke XVI 122). He Himself 
 has been sitting meanwhile "on the right hand of 
 God" the Father Almighty, "henceforth expecting 
 till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet" 
 (Heb. X:i2, 13); and then, and not until then, 
 shall He "appear a second time, apart from sin," 
 that is, without a sin-offering, "to them that wait 
 for Him, unto salvation" (Ch. IX:28). 
 
 Providence has in our day again utterly upset 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 221 
 
 many of these fine-spun theories. What has become 
 of our peace societies and schemes of arbitration, 
 conceived often from the noblest of motives? Just 
 think of the two Peace Conferences, held at The 
 Hague in 1899 an d hi J 907> an °\ by wa Y of con ~ 
 trast, of the present state of Europe and of the 
 world at large. It isn't so many years ago that we 
 were all horrified by the tales of woe that reached 
 us from far off Armenia; when not one of the 
 Great Powers of Europe seemingly dared to attempt 
 to put an effectual stop to the outrageous acts of the 
 unspeakable Turk. And since the outbreak of the 
 great war, now at last brought to a sudden close, 
 the world has stood aghast at the way in which the 
 present Turkish government — with the evident con- 
 sent of Germany, if indeed the infamous Kaiser and 
 his accursed military satellites did not set them on 
 — how it set deliberately at work to exterminate 
 both the Armenians and the Syrians. What, alas! 
 has been going on in the world since that first fa- 
 mous Conference at The Hague ended its deliber- 
 ations? For these past four years and more the 
 great nations of Europe, and latterly even our own 
 beloved Republic, and pretty nearly all the rest of 
 mankind, have been engaged in a life and death 
 struggle between the spirit of Democracy, and one 
 of the most ruthless and demoniac attempts the 
 
222 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 world has ever witnessed to throttle the liberties of 
 mankind. Let us devoutly thank God that this 
 awful agony is at an end ! But no one knows as yet 
 what will be the final outcome of it all. Ah! it is 
 vain, dear hearers, to look for abiding peace on the 
 earth, until Satan and his wicked hordes shall have 
 been banished from the abodes of men, when "The 
 kingdom of the world" shall have "become the king- 
 dom of our Lord, and of His Christ ; and He shall 
 reign for ever and ever," i.e., as in the Greek, "unto 
 the ages of the ages" (Rev. XI:i5). 
 
 If we are not to be all at sea in regard to the 
 things that are coming upon the earth, then we must 
 learn to interpret prophecy by the very same rules 
 that everybody applies to all other parts of Scrip- 
 ture, or to any other writing. 
 
 And no one can possibly gain an intelligent under- 
 standing of the future history of our race, and of 
 this globe, who presumes to leave the descendants 
 of God's ancient covenant people out of the account. 
 But in considering the future destiny of the He- 
 brew nation, we must by no means lose sight of 
 the definite and sweeping terms of the Abrahamic 
 covenant. It included both temporal and spiritual 
 blessings for the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and for their lineal descendants to the re- 
 motest generation, just as well, or rather, far more 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 223 
 
 expressly than spiritual blessings for the Gentile 
 nations. These latter were indeed included, and 
 very definitely too; still they were, and are to this 
 day, not primary, but secondary. "Salvation is from 
 the Jews" (John IV:22). "Who are Israelites; 
 whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the cove- 
 nants, and the giving of the law, and the service of 
 God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and 
 of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, Who is 
 over all, God blessed for ever. Amen" (Rom. 
 1X14-5). "Know therefore that they that are of 
 faith, the same are sons of Abraham. And the 
 Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the 
 Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand 
 unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations 
 be blessed. So then they that are of faith are 
 blessed with the faithful Abraham. . . . That upon 
 the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham 
 in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise 
 of the Spirit through faith. . . . And if ye are 
 Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs accord- 
 ing to promise" (Gal. 111:7-9, 14, 29). 
 
 What now are some of the predictions of Holy 
 Writ in regard to this chosen people of God ? While 
 the earth abides Israel can never cease to exist as 
 a distinct people. "Shall not be reckoned among 
 the nations" (Num. XXIII 19). "Therefore fear 
 
224 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 thou not, O Jacob My servant, saith Jehovah; 
 neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save 
 thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their 
 captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet 
 and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. For 
 I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for 
 I will make a full end of all the nations whither 
 I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full 
 end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, 
 and will in no wise leave thee unpunished" (Jer. 
 XXX:ioii). All of this is repeated in Ch. 
 XLVI :27-28. "Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jeho- 
 vah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy 
 it from off the face of the earth ; save that I will not 
 utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah. 
 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of 
 Israel among all the nations, like as grain is sifted 
 in a sieve, yet shall not the least kernel fall upon 
 the earth. . . . And I will bring back the captivity 
 of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste 
 cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vine- 
 yards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also 
 make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I 
 will plant them upon their land, and they shall no 
 more be plucked up out of their land which I have 
 given them, saith Jehovah thy God" (Amos IX :8- 
 9, 14-15). It is as a separate nation that Israel 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 225 
 
 shall yet again possess the land of their fathers. 
 "Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: 
 Whereas I have removed them far off among the 
 nations, and whereas I have scattered them among 
 the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for 
 a little while in the countries whither they are come. 
 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : I will 
 gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out 
 of the countries where ye have been scattered, and 
 I will give you the land of Israel" (Eze. XI: 16- 
 
 17). 
 
 This is to be an altogether different return from 
 that from Babylon under Zerubbabel and the high 
 priest Joshua, and those that followed in after years 
 with Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the governor, 
 for then they shall come, not from any one par- 
 ticular city or country, but from all the ends of the 
 earth. The present Zionist movement is doubtless 
 designed to be preparatory to the great consumma- 
 tion, though far from being any part of the final 
 and triumphant ingathering of Israel; for they are 
 now going back in their unbelief and impenitence, 
 whereas in the end they will return with renewed 
 hearts and in the triumph of faith. "And it shall 
 come to pass in that day, that the Lord will set 
 His hand again the second time to recover the rem- 
 nant of His people, that shall remain, from Assyria, 
 
226 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, 
 and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Ha- 
 math, and from the islands of the sea. And He 
 will set up an ensign for the nations, and will as- 
 semble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together 
 the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the 
 earth. . . . And Jehovah will utterly destroy the 
 tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His scorching 
 wind will He wave His hand over the River," i.e., 
 the Euphrates, "and will smite it into seven streams, 
 and cause men to march over dryshod. And there 
 shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, 
 that shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was 
 for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land 
 of Egypt" (Is. XI:n-i2, 15-16). "And they shall 
 come thither, and they shall take away all the de- 
 testable things thereof and all the abominations 
 thereof from thence. And I will give them one 
 heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and 
 I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and 
 will give them a heart of flesh ; that they may walk 
 in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do 
 them: and they shall be My people, and I will be 
 their God" (Eze. XI: 18-20). "And in that day 
 thou shalt say, I will give thanks unto Thee, O Je- 
 hovah ; for though Thou wast angry with me, Thine 
 anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 227 
 
 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will 
 not be afraid: for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my 
 strength and song; and He is become my salvation" 
 (Is. XII: 1-2). As appears from Isaiah XI, quoted 
 above, Israel's final return to the land of promise 
 will be no less miraculous than their deliverance 
 from Egyptian bondage. 
 
 But something else is going to happen, even in 
 connection with this prospective preliminary and 
 partial return, which will be like to their going 
 up out of the land of Egypt. When God com- 
 manded Moses, at the burning bush, to go and de- 
 liver His people, He said to him, "And I will give 
 this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and 
 it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not 
 go empty : but every woman shall ask of her neigh- 
 bor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels 
 of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye 
 shall put them upon your sons, and upon your 
 daughters; and ye shall despoil the Egyptians" (Ex. 
 111:21-22). They did not "borrow," as the old 
 English version has it; but, as God commanded 
 them to do, "They asked of the Egyptians jewels of 
 silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and Jeho- 
 vah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyp- 
 tians, so that they let them have what they asked. 
 And they despoiled the Egyptians" (Ex. XII :35- 
 
228 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 36). For generations the Jewish people were 
 trampled upon, pillaged, and brutally slaughtered 
 almost everywhere the wide world over. During 
 the past century, however, they have in many coun- 
 tries enjoyed comparative immunity from wanton 
 insult and injury, and of late they are largely amass- 
 ing the wealth of the nations. When once a goodly 
 portion of them are fairly settled in Palestine, they 
 will soon become immensely wealthy, so that, when 
 the Antichrist appears, it will only be a matter of 
 a few years before he fixes his evil eye on them, and 
 when he will gather the nations against them, "to 
 take the prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take 
 away cattle and goods, to take great spoil" (Eze. 
 XXXVIII 113). 
 
 Now, as the time of Israel's redemption is mani- 
 festly drawing nigh, God is, in His overruling provi- 
 dence, stirring up the hearts of His ancient covenant 
 people with an intense longing for the land of their 
 fathers. The editor of a Jewish journal published 
 in England, though personally opposed to the return 
 of his people to Palestine, yet frankly admitted, many 
 years ago, that "You might as well try to stem the 
 Atlantic Ocean," as to undertake to keep them from 
 going back when once the way is fairly open. And 
 millions of dollars are being raised by them, in this 
 and other lands, to aid those who desire to go. Now 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 229 
 
 that the abominable Turk has at length been driven 
 out, the Jews will soon be going there en masse. 
 Many prosperous Jewish farming colonies were got 
 under way before the outbreak of the late gigantic 
 struggle, Hebrew schools of various grades were also 
 started ; and in the month of October, in this year of 
 grace 19 18, the corner-stone of the prospective He- 
 brew University of Jerusalem, was laid on the 
 Mount of Olives, consisting of twelve stones, repre- 
 senting the twelve tribes of Israel, and the v ancient 
 Hebrew will soon again be the every-day spoken lan- 
 guage of Palestine! 
 
 We are wont to talk of the ten "lost tribes" ; but 
 they were never altogether lost. After the seces- 
 sion of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, we learn that, 
 at different times, there were many who gave up 
 the inheritance of their fathers, and resorted to the 
 house of David. This exodus began from the very 
 start. "And the priests and the Levites that were 
 in all Israel resorted to him," that is, to Rehoboam, 
 "out of all their border. For the Levites left their 
 suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah 
 and Jerusalem : for Jeroboam and his sons cast them 
 off, that they should not execute the priest's office 
 unto Jehovah. . . . And after them, out of all the 
 tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek Je- 
 hovah, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sac- 
 
230 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 rifice unto Jehovah, the God of their fathers. So 
 they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made 
 Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong. . . . And 
 he," i.e., Asa, king of Judah, "gathered all Judah 
 and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them 
 out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: 
 for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when 
 they saw that Jehovah his God was with him. . . . 
 So they established a decree to make proclamation 
 throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, 
 that they should come to keep the passover unto 
 Jehovah, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they 
 had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is 
 written. ... So the posts" of king Hezekiah 
 "passed from city to city through the country of 
 Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but 
 they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. 
 Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh, 
 and of Zebulun, humbled themselves, and came to 
 Jerusalem. . . . For a multitude of the people, even 
 many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zeb- 
 ulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat 
 the passover otherwise than it is written. For 
 Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good 
 Jehovah pardon every one that setteth his heart to 
 seek God, Jehovah, the God of his fathers, though 
 he be not cleansed according to the purification of 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 231 
 
 the sanctuary. And Jehovah hearkened to Heze- 
 kiah, and healed the people" (II. Chron. XI 113-14, 
 16-17; XV :g; XXX -.5, 10-11, 18-20). And who 
 was that aged widow, who, "coming up at that very- 
 hour," when the child Jesus was brought into the 
 temple, "gave thanks unto God, and spake of Him 
 to all them that were looking for the redemption of 
 Jerusalem"? She "was Anna, a prophetess, the 
 daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher" (Luke 
 11:38, 36). Some years ago there were represen- 
 tatives of at least five tribes in the holy land. And 
 they will all get there in God's own good time. In 
 1899 a remarkable delegate appeared at the Zionist 
 Congress at Basle. He came from Russia, and was 
 a representative of the Caucasian Jewish Kubans, 
 inhabitants of the high Caucasian mountains, re- 
 nowned for their great strength. They are terrible 
 in war on horseback. The Cossacks are even afraid 
 of these Jewish heroes. They do not know much 
 of Judaism, only their hearts are Jewish. They 
 believe that they belong to the ten tribes. Their 
 love for Zion has not been extinguished during near- 
 ly three thousand years. They still want to go to 
 the land of Israel. On the isle of Cyprus, in the 
 Mediterranean Sea, to which the apostle Paul and 
 his companions went from Antioch, in Syria, as they 
 started on their first foreign missionary tour, which 
 
232 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 island the Turkish government ceded to England 
 in 1878, many Jews are waiting for a fair oppor- 
 tunity to go in and possess the land of promise. 
 Tens of thousands had already gone back from dif- 
 ferent parts of Europe, and had formed settlements 
 here and there, before this dreadful war suddenly 
 brought matters to a halt. 
 
 For their last loan to the Turkish government 
 the Rothschilds were reported at the time to have 
 taken a mortgage on the whole of Palestine. We 
 have all heard of the present Zionist movement, 
 already referred to, which has aroused the enthu- 
 siasm, and engaged the active interest, of the ortho- 
 dox Jews throughout the world. For a good many 
 years an annual conference of these Zionists — 
 Israelites who are endeavoring to regain possession 
 of Palestine for their own people — has been held in 
 Europe. Large gatherings have likewise been held 
 in the city of Chicago, in Boston, and elsewhere, one 
 of them with representatives from every State in the 
 Union, many from Canada, and even a special dele- 
 gate from South Africa. Our self-styled liberal, 
 or modern, Jews, who have practically renounced 
 the faith of their fathers, have been bitterly opposed 
 to this movement. The United Hebrew Congre- 
 gations of Richmond, Virginia, in December, 1899, 
 declared themselves unalterably opposed to Zionism. 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 233 
 
 "The Jews," said they, "are not a nation; they are 
 a religious community. America is our Zion." And 
 their Cincinnati organ, The American Israelite ', in 
 its issue of August 10, 1899, contained the follow- 
 ing editorial note, "The next, and we hope and 
 almost believe, the last, Zionist Congress will meet 
 in Basle, Switzerland, next Tuesday." But this 
 work is evidently of God, and these modern Saddu- 
 cees will find that, with all their opposition and 
 ridicule, they "will not be able to overthrow" it 
 (Acts V:39). 
 
 The Jews have often sought to regain possession 
 of the holy city. The Roman emperor, Julian the 
 Apostate, who reigned from 361 to 363 A.D., even 
 ordered them to rebuild the temple: but, though 
 backed up by the authority and power of the em- 
 pire, the attempt miserably failed. Our Lord had 
 declared that Jerusalem would "be trodden down of 
 the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be ful- 
 filled" (Luke XXI 124). Julian thought that he 
 could set aside and undo that prophetic declaration 
 of the world's Redeemer, by helping the Jews to 
 rebuild their temple; but fire leaped out of the 
 ground, and compelled the workmen to desist. 
 
 "The times of the Gentiles" began with the over- 
 throw of the Jewish State by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
 they are to continue until Israel takes her Heaven- 
 
234 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 appointed place as the leader of the nations, a po- 
 sition which God promised to that people, on condi- 
 tion of their absolute loyalty and obedience, when 
 He entered into covenant with them at mount 
 Sinai. "And Moses went up unto God, and Jeho- 
 vah called unto him out of the mountain, saying, 
 Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and 
 tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I 
 did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on 
 eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now 
 therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep 
 My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession 
 from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine: 
 and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and 
 a holy nation" (Ex. XIX:3-6). These "times" 
 of Gentile dominion may soon come to an end. And 
 if that be so, then Israel's wanderings are also about 
 to come to an end. 
 
 It should be borne in mind, indeed, in this con- 
 nection, that the present movement, like all previous 
 attempts to regain possession of Jerusalem and of 
 all the land of Canaan, is being undertaken in a 
 spirit of unbelief; for these orthodox Jews are by no 
 means ready to acknowledge our blessed Redeemer 
 as their Lord and King. They are still looking for 
 a Messiah Who has never yet appeared in the flesh. 
 Nevertheless it is to a remnant of these returning 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 235 
 
 Jews, who are even now .so steadfastly setting their 
 faces Zionward, that our Lord and Savior Jesus 
 Christ will yet show Himself, in the hour of their 
 sore distress, for their deliverance and salvation. 
 "For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me hence- 
 forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord" (Matt. XXIII 139). 
 "And I will pour upon the house of David, and 
 upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of 
 grace and of supplication ; and they shall look upon 
 Me Whom they have pierced ; and they shall mourn 
 for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and 
 shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bit- 
 terness for his first-born. . . . Then shall Jehovah 
 go forth, and fight against those nations, as when 
 He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall 
 stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which 
 is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of 
 Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the 
 east and toward the west, and there shall be a very 
 great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove 
 toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 
 And ye shall flee by the valley of My mountains; 
 for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto 
 Azel; yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before 
 the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah, king of Ju- 
 dah; and Jehovah my God shall come, and all the 
 
236 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 holy ones with Thee" (Zech. XII: 10; XIV:3-5>. 
 
 And Israel's final and complete restoration, and 
 the conversion of the world, need not be looked 
 for until after all that has come to pass. See Is. 
 II:i- 4 ; Micah IV:i- 4 ; Zech. XII and XIV; Rom. 
 XI, etc. 
 
 There is yet another respect in which history will 
 again repeat itself. Ancient Egypt at last became 
 envious of Israel's growth, and so they afflicted the 
 people with cruel bondage, and even tried to kill off 
 their male infants. See Ex. I. So too will the na- 
 tions envy Israel, when the people shall have become 
 re-established in Palestine, as is clearly foretold in 
 Joel III and Zech. XIV, but especially in Eze. 
 XXXVIII. Surprising premonitions of all that 
 we have had in recent years, in the bitter enmity 
 against the Jews, that has shown itself in France 
 and Germany, as well as in the appalling persecu- 
 tions to which they have been subjected in Russia 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 After a partial restoration, which it would seem 
 will now soon be brought about, there will come 
 suffering and despair, such as they have never yet 
 had to endure, to be followed by a sudden and 
 marvelous deliverance, as we read in Jer. XXX 17. 
 — "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like 
 it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 237 
 
 shall be saved out of it." And thus will Israel 
 at last be brought to repentance. See Eze. XX 133- 
 44; XXXVI :32; Zech. X:6-io; XII 19-14; Joel 
 III 119-21. And compare Eze. XVI 162-63 with Ps. 
 CXXX 13-4. They have had the curses, alas ! See 
 Deut. XXVIII. They shall also have the blessings. 
 "And so all Israel shall be saved : even as it is writ- 
 ten: 
 
 There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer: 
 He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 
 And this is My covenant unto them, 
 When I shall take away their sins." 
 
 (Rom. XI 126-27.) 
 
 "My days are like a shadow that declineth; 
 And I am withered like grass." 
 
 Such is the instability and brevity of man's earth- 
 ly estate, as the psalmist humbly confesses in our 
 text. But he turns his eyes heavenward, and ex- 
 claims : 
 
 "But Thou, O Jehovah, wilt abide for ever; 
 And Thy memorial name unto all generations." 
 
 And then the Holy Spirit leads him to look down 
 along the vista of time, and beyond the ages of his 
 people's waywardness and wanderings, to that 
 blessed epoch for which all nature sighs, when 
 
238 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Jehovah, the God of Israel, will indeed prove Him- 
 self to be "The faithful God, Who keepeth cove- 
 nant and lovingkindness with them that love Him 
 and keep His commandments to a thousand genera- 
 tions" (Deut. VII :g). And he as confidently af- 
 firms, as though it were already a matter of history: 
 
 "Thou wilt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; 
 For it is time to have pity upon her, 
 Yea, the set time is come." 
 
 And the prophet-psalmist adds a reason for, as 
 well as a sign of, that coming day of wonders, — 
 
 "For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, 
 And have pity upon her dust." 
 
 Previous to the last century very little was done 
 by the Lord's people for the salvation of Israel, and 
 little concerned were they in the re-establishment 
 of the Hebrew commonwealth. But all this has 
 greatly changed. Christian people are now, in many 
 ways, seeking to promote the present and eternal 
 well-being of the once almost universally despised 
 and persecuted nation. Tens of thousands of Jews 
 have, moreover, been savingly converted to God, in- 
 dicating what a marvelous change will come over 
 that people, when the Spirit of God shall come upon 
 them in the plenitude of His power. 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 239 
 
 "So the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah, 
 And all the kings of the earth Thy glory. 
 For Jehovah hath built up Zion; 
 He hath appeared in His glory. 
 He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, 
 And hath not despised their prayer. 
 This shall be written for the generation to come; 
 And a people which shall be created shall praise 
 Jehovah." 
 
 As said London's great preacher, the Rev. Charles 
 Haddon Spurgeon, Jerusalem's "ultimate resurrec- 
 tion . . . will be one of the prodigies of history." * 
 In a marvelous way will our God yet prove His 
 faithfulness, and that in the sight of all the nations 
 of the earth, to the covenant into which He so gra- 
 ciously entered with Abraham, with Isaac, and with 
 Jacob, and through them with their posterity to the 
 latest generation. An aged Jewish rabbi, at Grand 
 Rapids, Michigan, was once spoken to in disparage- 
 ment of some good people, who were holding some 
 rather noisy meetings. "Don't say anything against 
 these people," he said; "if I believed that Jesus of 
 Nazareth was the Messiah, I'd go shouting up and 
 down these streets day and night!" Ah! how that 
 terrified, despairing remnant of Hebrews, for whose 
 deliverance from the crushing power of the Anti- 
 
 1 The Treasury of David, by C. H. Spurgeon, Vol. IV, 
 page 423. 
 
240 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 christ, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will vis- 
 ibly descend to this earth, accompanied by His 
 glorified saints ; how, like that suddenly startled and 
 converted persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, will they 
 hasten to all the ends of the earth, with the blessed 
 and joyful tidings, that they themselves have looked 
 upon Him Whom they had pierced, and that Jesus 
 of Nazareth is in very deed their Messiah, the King 
 of Israel, the Savior of the world! And with what 
 glad acclaim will both people and rulers of every 
 clime and nation, aid their Jewish friends and 
 neighbors to return with these messengers of peace 
 and salvation, to the land of their fathers, as is so 
 graphically foretold in the nth and 49th chapters 
 of Isaiah. "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, 
 that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, 
 and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and 
 shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 
 In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall 
 dwell safely ; and this is His name whereby He shall 
 be called : Jehovah our righteousness. Therefore, be- 
 hold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall 
 no more say, As Jehovah liveth, Who brought up 
 the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; but, 
 As Jehovah liveth, Who brought up and Who led 
 the seed of the house of Israel out of the north 
 country, and from all the countries whither I had 
 
Restoration and Redemption of Israel 241 
 
 driven them. And they shall dwell in their own 
 land" (Jer. XXIII :5-8). 
 
 And thus will Israel's final redemption, as we 
 read in Rom. XI 115, be as "life from the dead" to 
 this sin-sick and sin-cursed race of ours, for then 
 "many nations," as both Isaiah and Micah declare, 
 "shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
 mountains of Jehovah, and to the house of the God 
 of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and 
 we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall 
 go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from 
 Jerusalem: and He will judge between many peo- 
 ples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar 
 off: and they shall beat their swords into plow- 
 shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation 
 shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
 they learn war any more. But they shall sit every 
 man under his vine and under his jig-tree; and none 
 shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah 
 of hosts hath spoken it" (Micah IV:2~4). 
 
 Oh ! how solemn and how pressing the obligation, 
 that is thus brought home to the Christian Church 
 of to-day, to hasten with the message of life and 
 salvation to the ends of the earth, and especially 
 too to tell the story of redeeming love to the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel! 
 
 And oh, my Christless hearer! can you not trust 
 
242 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 yourself to the fatherly care and keeping of this Be- 
 ing of infinite mercy and faithfulness? And will 
 you not, this day and hour, consecrate yourself to 
 the service of His only begotten and well beloved 
 Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Friend of sinners, 
 the only Savior of the lost? 
 
A TWOFOLD CAUSE OF ERROR 
 
 IGNORANCE OF THE SCRIPTURES AND OF THE 
 POWER OF GOD 
 
 Matt. XXII 129-32. "But Jesus answered and said unto 
 them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the 
 Power of God. For in the resurrection they neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in 
 heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, 
 have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by 
 God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of 
 Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the 
 dead, but of the living." 
 
 ^\UR Lord gives us here, for our prayerful medi- 
 tation, a twofold cause of error, viz., ignorance 
 of the Scriptures and of the power of God. 
 
 A primal cause of men's delusions, He assures us, 
 is their ignorance of the Scriptures. 
 
 A notable instance of this sort of ignorance is 
 furnished in the case of these Sadducees, who, while 
 professing to accept their Hebrew Scriptures, at the 
 same time claimed "that there is no resurrection, 
 neither angel, nor spirit" (Acts XXIII :8). A 
 strange paradox! Many a plain and explicit state- 
 243 
 
244 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 ment, of course, had to be explained away. But then 
 there is nothing singular about that, for has not the 
 world been trying, during all these succeeding cen- 
 turies, to explain away the New Testament as well 
 as the Old? 
 
 Only last year there appeared, in a leading maga- 
 zine for ministers of the Gospel, a most pitiful il- 
 lustration of the extent to which men will go in 
 perverting the Scriptures of truth. 
 
 God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, 
 for the very purpose of raising up a holy nation, 
 and gave him the most solemn assurance, that in 
 him and in his seed all the nations of the earth should 
 be blessed. Through the prophet Isaiah He cries 
 out, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else" 
 (Ch. XLV:22). And in Rom. XI:i5 it is express- 
 ly declared, that the spiritual redemption of Israel 
 will be as "life from the dead" to the rest of the 
 world. 
 
 And yet this learned doctor of divinity, who is a 
 professor in a noted theological school in the State 
 of Massachusetts, in addressing the graduates of a 
 similar institution, had the moral hardihood to say, 
 that the Jewish doctrine of the Messianic kingdom 
 virtually meant the extermination of all other na- 
 tions. One can scarcely conceive of a more brazen- 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 245 
 
 faced attempt to turn the truth of God into a lie! 
 
 The case these Sadducees brought forward may 
 have been a real, but more likely, was a purely imag- 
 inary one. That, however, is a matter of no impor- 
 tance. We are not concerned with their pretended 
 difficulty, but rather with their amazing intellectual, 
 moral, and spiritual stupidity. 
 
 The heaven of their imaginings was that of a de- 
 graded, brutalized paganism; not the pure and holy 
 Paradise of God. "To the law and to the testi- 
 mony! if they speak not according to this word, 
 surely there is no morning for them" (Is. VIII :2o). 
 
 "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are 
 given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." 
 Even the holiest of earthly relations is but for this 
 present life. The earthly family is but the blessed 
 antetype of the family of God, which is being gath- 
 ered out of all nations under heaven; whose mem- 
 bers are all to be raised, or translated, to immortal 
 bliss and glory, in the day of the appearing of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ; and of whom He shall say to 
 the attendant and admiring hosts of heaven, "Be- 
 hold, I and the children whom God hath given 
 Me" (Heb. II:i3). 
 
 O yes, blessed be God! there have already been 
 myriads of family reunions in heaven, and there 
 will be myriads more; but the most beatific and 
 
246 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 joyful reunion will be that, when the saints of all 
 ages, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation, shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, 
 and Jacob, at the marriage supper of the Lamb! 
 And whether at midnight, at early dawn, or in the 
 full light of day, may we all be ready, dear friends, 
 when the cry shall be heard, "Behold, the Bride- 
 groom! Come ye forth to meet Him!" (Matt. 
 XXV :6). 
 
 "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, 
 have ye not read that which was spoken unto you 
 by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and 
 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is 
 not the God of the dead, but of the living." The 
 living God is far more than simply the God of 
 inert, lifeless matter; of bodies that have moldered 
 back to dust. He is, in a far higher, more exalted 
 sense, the God of the undying soul. "And Jehovah 
 God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man 
 became a living soul" (Gen. 11:7). And thus man 
 became an emanation of Deity, created "in" the 
 "image," and "after" the "likeness" of God (Gen- 
 1 :26). And so we are told that, at his death, "The 
 dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit 
 returneth unto God Who gave it" (Eccle. XII :j). 
 When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 247 
 
 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had already been dead 
 and buried for centuries, and yet He said to him, 
 not that He had at one time been their God: but 
 this is what He said, "I am the God of Abraham, 
 and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 
 
 What was the trouble with those Sadducees? 
 First of all, just what ails multitudes in our own 
 day. While doubtless quite familiar with the writ- 
 ten Word of God, they were yet utterly, amazingly 
 ignorant as to its true import. And, alas! many a 
 modern theologian scarce dreams of what may be 
 found on almost any page of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures; nay, he does not even comprehend the 
 New Testament. And why? Because "the natural 
 man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: 
 for they are foolishness unto him ; and he cannot 
 know them, because they are spiritually judged" 
 (I. Cor. II:i4). And unless fallen man is taught 
 and guided by the Spirit of truth, he is very apt 
 to misread the Book of God; yea, he is certain to 
 pervert it to his own eternal undoing ! 
 
 A once noted writer, in a magazine article, pub- 
 lished in 1895, and entitled, "Christianity's Mill- 
 stone," affirmed that the Old Testament is that 
 millstone. The New Testament, it seems, must be 
 separated from the Old; the two should not be 
 
248 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 bound up in the same volume. 1 "The time," he 
 says, "has surely come when, as a supernatural reve- 
 lation, the Old Testament should frankly, though 
 reverently, be laid aside, and nevermore allowed to 
 cloud the vision of free enquiry, or to cast the 
 shadow of primal religion on our modern life." 
 Oh, yes! these folks are really willing to allow the 
 Bible a place in our institutions of learning as a 
 book for literary study. Says another writer, "Who 
 shall say that it is not to be included in the curric- 
 ulum of polite learning, perhaps of equal moment 
 with Shakespeare?" And the poor souls imagine, 
 in so saying, that they do the Bible high honor! 
 Of course, they will have nothing to do with it as 
 a revelation from heaven, concerning the character 
 of God, or of His plan of redeeming love for our 
 guilty race. 
 
 "In the beginning God created the heavens and 
 the earth." That opening sentence of the book of 
 Genesis tells us more about the origin of the mate- 
 rial universe than all the ancient heathen cosmogo- 
 nies and all the vain imaginings of these modern 
 speculators put together! And have they devised 
 something more perfect, as a code of morals, than 
 the ten immortal words which Jehovah uttered from 
 
 1 The King's Business, Los Angeles, Cal., May, 191 6, 
 page 417. 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 249 
 
 the top of Mount Sinai ? Think too of the untold 
 myriads of the Lord's people in every age, who, on 
 their dying beds, have found sweet consolation in 
 many a precious psalm ! 
 
 But whence did they imbibe most of these pervert- 
 ed notions as to the infallible Book of God? From 
 the very country whose leaders have appalled the 
 whole world during these last few years, by the 
 way in which they have openly and defiantly tram- 
 pled on every dictate of humanity? Spurgeon, Lon- 
 don's famous preacher, said once upon a time, "A 
 German professor smokes his dirty pipe till he 
 doesn't know which is Moses and which is Bis- 
 marck." Says Canon Dyson Hague, "In one word, 
 the formative forces of the Higher Critical move- 
 ment were rationalistic forces, and the men who 
 were its chief authors and expositors, who 'on ac- 
 count of purely philological criticism have acquired 
 an appalling authority,' were men who had dis- 
 carded belief in God and Jesus Christ Whom He 
 had sent." 2 Some months ago this amazing state- 
 ment, by a professor in the University of Munich, 
 appeared in one of our American magazines, 
 "Thirty years ago Germany eliminated Christianity 
 from its theology, and substituted a religion suit- 
 able to its Kultur." Oh, no, they didn't tell the Ger- 
 
 2 The Fundamentals, Vol. I, page 98. 
 
250 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 man people all that, those consummate hypocrites; 
 they simply camouflaged. First they disposed of the 
 five books of Moses, next they got rid of Isaiah, 
 Ezekiel and Daniel, then of the apostolic writers, 
 and then they went to work to try to prove that 
 the four Gospels were a mere tissue of idle fabrica- 
 tions. And at last they have not hesitated to be- 
 smirch the character of the Man of Nazareth! 
 Well, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt. 
 VII:i6). 
 
 And the hideous exhibitions which the world has 
 had of late, of the depths of infamy and fiendish 
 brutality to which the modern Hun can sink, ought 
 to convince any sane man or woman, of the folly 
 and danger of turning one's back upon the only 
 Book which, from beginning to end, proves itself 
 to be a revelation from the living God; the only 
 Book that has ever shown man the way from this 
 sin-cursed earth to a heaven of unsullied purity and 
 everlasting bliss! 
 
 To prove that the declaration at the burning 
 bush, quoted by our Lord, was by no means either 
 solitary or singular, let us look at certain other most 
 significant statements. "But thou shalt go to thy 
 fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old 
 age." "Abraham . . . died . . . and was gathered 
 to his people" (Gen. XV:i5; XXV :8). And yet 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 251 
 
 his father Terah was buried in Haran, situated on 
 one of the northern affluents of the Euphrates, and 
 his brother Haran, as well as their forefathers, in 
 Ur of the Chaldees, a country bordering on the same 
 mighty river, near its southern terminus, while the 
 patriarch himself was buried in the land of Canaan. 
 Isaac, like his father, was buried in the cave of 
 Machpelah, and yet we are told, when he died, not 
 simply that he was gathered to his father and 
 mother; but this, "Isaac died, and was gathered 
 unto his people" (Gen. XXXV 129). The very 
 same fact is affirmed concerning the patriarch Jacob, 
 not weeks after his death, when his sons had 
 brought his embalmed body from Egypt, and had 
 entombed it in the cave of Machpelah, but imme- 
 diately upon his decease. "And when Jacob made 
 an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet 
 into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was 
 gathered unto his people" (Gen. XLIX:33). God 
 assured Moses, "Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers," 
 and yet He buried his body "in the valley in the 
 land of Moab, . . . but," adds the historian, "no 
 man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deut. 
 XXXI : 1 6 ; XXXIV :6 ) . When the prophet Nathan 
 was sent to tell king David that not he, but his son, 
 should build a house for Jehovah, he was, as we read 
 in II. Sam. VII: 12, addressed in these words, 
 
252 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 "When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep 
 with thy fathers." In I. Chron. XVII :n it reads, 
 "And it shall come to pass, when thy days are ful- 
 filled that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that 
 I will set up thy seed after thee, who shall be of thy 
 sons; and I will establish his kingdom." And yet 
 David was buried at Jerusalem, while the sepulchre 
 of his fathers was at Bethlehem. This being gath- 
 ered to their people, or to their fathers, cannot there- 
 fore, in any of these cases, refer to the places where 
 their bodies were laid to rest : but, in every case, can 
 only refer to a gathering together of their undying 
 souls. 
 
 This is how the Old Testament speaks of the 
 continued conscious existence of the spirit of man. 
 Does it also foretell the resurrection of the body? 
 
 Already before the flood we read of Enoch, "the 
 seventh from Adam" (Jude 14), that he "walked 
 with God . . . three hundred years: . . . and he 
 was not; for God took him" (Gen. V:22, 24). And 
 the famous prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, in the broad 
 light of day, and in the sight of his servant and 
 successor, Elisha, "went up," with "a chariot of 
 fire, and horses of fire," "by a whirlwind into 
 heaven" (II. Kings II:n). And did not the angel 
 tell the prophet Daniel of the "many," the vast 
 multitudes, "that sleep in the dust of the earth," 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 253 
 
 that "shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
 to shame and everlasting contempt"? (Dan. XII: 
 
 2). 
 
 What clear, reiterated proofs of the continuous, 
 separate, and intelligent existence of man, after the 
 hour and article of death! What positive declara- 
 tion, what wonderful, what visible demonstration of 
 the coming rejuvenescence and glorification of the 
 bodies of all the true people of God, and of the 
 ultimate resurrection of all the race! 
 
 A second cause of error is here indicated, viz., 
 Ignorance of the power of God. "Ye do err, not 
 knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." 
 
 He Who could, in the twinkling of an eye, catch 
 Enoch and Elijah up into heaven, has He not also 
 the power to raise again the sleeping dust of all His 
 saints of every age? And having then already, 
 when our Lord uttered these words, by the space of 
 four thousand years, sent forth those swift-winged 
 messengers of light, the angels of His power, "to 
 do service for the sake of them that shall inherit 
 salvation" (Heb. 1 114), is He not just as able to 
 do on a grand and majestic scale, in the day of the 
 resurrection of the just, for the believers then alive 
 upon the earth, what He did do in the individual 
 cases of Enoch and Elijah, viz., to instantaneously 
 transform and etherealize these gross bodies of ours, 
 
254 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 to remove from man every animal passion and 
 desire, and to make him in all respects the equal of 
 the holy inhabitants of heaven? Why nature itself, 
 especially in the days of early spring, continually 
 speaks to us of the resurrecting power of the great 
 Creator. 
 
 While it was in the life and death of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the God-Man, that the Divine love 
 was fully manifested, nevertheless the love of God 
 to fallen man was taught throughout the entire He- 
 brew Scriptures. And we have now seen, while, 
 as says an apostle, our adorable Redeemer "abol- 
 ished death, and brought life and immortality to 
 light through the Gospel" (II. Tim. I:io) in all 
 their glorious fulness, that yet the olden Scriptures 
 were by no means silent in regard to these grand 
 doctrines, that lie at the very foundation of all 
 true religion. 
 
 It is indeed preposterous to suppose that the God 
 of love should have left His intelligent earthly crea- 
 tures, and even such as His Holy Spirit had led to 
 repentance, had sanctified, and had "made . . . 
 meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light" (Col. I:i2), "who through faith subdued 
 kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained prom- 
 ises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power 
 of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weak- 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 255 
 
 ness were made strong, . . . received their dead by 
 a resurrection," while "others were tortured," or, 
 as the margin has it, "beaten to death," "not accept- 
 ing their deliverance ; that they might obtain a bet- 
 ter resurrection" (Heb. XI 133-35 ): it is utterly 
 preposterous to suppose that He would have left the 
 world, and even His praying, struggling, persecuted 
 saints, for full four thousand years in utter, abso- 
 lute ignorance as to their eternal state, or whether 
 indeed there was a hereafter at all ! Away with the 
 detestable idea! Why, every orthodox Jew in our 
 Lord's day knew better than that, and that alto- 
 gether apart from His own blessed teachings. When 
 He said to Martha of Bethany, "Thy brother shall 
 rise again," she at once returned the confident an- 
 swer, "I know that he shall rise again in the resur- 
 rection at the last day" (John XI 123, 24). The 
 apostle Paul assured king Agrippa, that all the 
 twelve tribes of Israel were living in hope of a glori- 
 ous resurrection, in accordance with "the promise 
 made of God unto" their "fathers" (Acts XXVI: 
 6). And what of those ancient Hebrew worthies, 
 already referred to, who would not accept "their 
 deliverance" from a martyr's death, assured that 
 by surrendering life itself, they would become heirs 
 to "a better resurrection"? 
 
 Ah ! let us see to it, dear hearers, that we study, 
 
256 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 diligently and prayerfully, the whole revealed will 
 of God. As we cannot gain a full understanding 
 of the Old Testament, without a thorough acquaint- 
 ance with the New, neither can we understand the 
 New Testament Scriptures, if we altogether neglect 
 the Old. And we do ourselves great wrong, if we 
 fail to familiarize ourselves with these more ancient 
 sacred oracles, "For," as we read in Rom. XV 14, 
 "whatsoever things were written aforetime were 
 written for our learning, that through patience and 
 through comfort of the Scriptures we might have 
 hope." 
 
 How our blessed Redeemer loved to recall these 
 Old Testament Scriptures, and to dwell upon them. 
 How ardently His followers ought likewise to love 
 them, were it only for His sake. And how His 
 unerring example should spur us on, and convince 
 us of their inestimable value to each one of us! 
 
 "Never man so spake," said the officers who had 
 been sent "to take Him," and so overawed were 
 they, that they did not venture to lay "hands on 
 Him" (John VII 146, 32, 44). Astounded as were 
 His hearers at His direct utterances, they were no 
 less so at the way in which He quoted Moses and 
 the prophets. 
 
 But how came it to pass that Christ quoted Scrip- 
 ture so aptly? The answer is plain enough. The 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 257 
 
 Lord Jesus, as the late Joseph Parker, of London, 
 has well said, "Himself wrote them. The Scrip- 
 tures were quoted from Him, He did not quote 
 from the Scriptures. He only quotes Himself, and 
 quotes Himself with the emphasis which the writer 
 of any deep literature alone can give to his own 
 words." 3 
 
 But what Scriptural warrant had this writer for 
 these statements? Is the Old Testament really 
 Christ's own word to us? In the prologue to the 
 Gospel according to John it is declared, at verse 18, 
 "No man hath seen God at any time; the only be- 
 gotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He 
 hath declared Him." Who then was "the Voice of 
 Jehovah God" (Gen. 111:8) ? Who "the Judge of 
 all the earth," with Whom Abraham plead on be- 
 half of the cities of the plain (Gen. XVIII 125)? 
 Who the Jehovah Who "stood above" the ladder of 
 Jacob's vision (Ch. XXVIII 113)? Who the "I 
 AM THAT I AM" of "the bush" that "burned 
 with fire, and" that "was not consumed" (Ex. Ill: 
 14, 2) ? For answer let us attend to the opening 
 words of the Gospel just quoted, "In the beginning 
 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
 the Word was God. The same was in the begin- 
 ning with God. All things were made through 
 * The Inner Life of Christ, Vol. Ill, page 143. 
 
258 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Him ; and without Him was not anything made that 
 hath been made" (John 1: 1-3). 
 
 Our Lord said to the unbelieving Jews, "Verily, 
 verily, I saw unto you, Before Abraham was born, 
 I am" (John VIII 158). And elsewhere He de- 
 clared, "All things have been delivered unto Me of 
 My Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the 
 Father; neither doth any know the Father, save 
 the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to 
 reveal Him" (Matt. XI 127). Of the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures He said, "These are they which 
 bear witness of Me" (John V:39). And the aged 
 revelator was told that "The testimony of Jesus is 
 the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. XIX: 10). 
 
 Verily our blessed Lord, by His Spirit, does Him- 
 self speak to us in all Scripture. And let us never 
 forget that it is only in so far as we are guided 
 by this same Spirit of truth, that we shall be able 
 to take in the blessed truths of this Book of books. 
 
 Having quoted His own declaration at the burn- 
 ing bush, our Lord, in His answer to the Saddu- 
 cees, added these pregnant words of vast and sol- 
 emn import, "God is not the God of the dead, but 
 of the living." The immortal spirits of the patri- 
 archs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in that unseen 
 world, whither the angels had convoyed them at 
 death, were still enjoying the favor of God in the 
 
A Twofold Cause of Error 259 
 
 days of Moses, nor less when our Lord first uttered 
 these words. And to this very hour He is still their 
 God. 
 
 My dear hearer, is He your God? Are you living 
 a life of faith upon the Son of God? or are you 
 still dead in "trespasses and sins" (Eph. II :i ) ? 
 Says the Savior, John V 124-25, "Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, He that heareth My word, and be- 
 lieveth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and 
 cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of 
 death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that 
 hear shall live." The reference is here evidently 
 to the spiritual awakening, i. e., the conversion and 
 regeneration of sinners. This is made still clearer 
 by what almost immediately follows, in verses 28 
 and 29, where our Lord, in speaking of the ultimate 
 resurrection of the body, says, "Marvel not at this: 
 for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the 
 tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; 
 they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
 life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
 tion of judgment." 
 
 "God is not the God of the dead, but of the, 
 living." Beloved hearer, has your life hitherto been 
 evil in the sight of that Holy One, Who cannot look 
 
260 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 upon sin but with abhorrence? In other words, 
 Are you dead to God and to holiness? Man be- 
 came spiritually dead when first he fell away from 
 his allegiance to God. And Holy Writ admonishes 
 us that by and by there is to be a "second death" 
 (Rev. XX 114), i. e., the finally lost will be eter- 
 nally separated from the favor of God, and from 
 the fellowship of all the holy on earth and in heaven. 
 Oh! we beseech you, to-day, this very hour, listen 
 to the voice of the Son of God! "They that hear 
 shall live." "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from" among "the dead, and Christ shall shine upon 
 thee!" (Eph. V:i4). Turn even now from your 
 evil ways, and accept of the mercy so freely offered 
 to you in Christ, lest perchance you too be undone 
 for ever! 
 
THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 PARADISE BESTOWED, LOST, AND REGAINED 
 
 Rom. V:i2, 20-21. "Therefore, as through one man 
 sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so 
 death passed unto all men, for that all sinned. . . .And 
 the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; 
 but where sin abounded, grace did abound more ex- 
 ceedingly: that, as sin reigned in death, even so might 
 grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord'* 
 
 ENGLAND'S blind bard has sung in majestic 
 strain : 
 
 "Of man's first disobedience and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world and all our woe, 
 With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat:" 
 
 and even so does Holy Writ speak to us of a three- 
 fold Paradise, viz., 
 
 A Paradise Bestowed, 
 
 A Paradise Lost, and 
 
 A Paradise Regained. 
 
 261 
 
262 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 The historians and poets of ancient pagan na- 
 tions delighted to dwell upon the felicity of man- 
 kind during that golden age in which, as they fondly 
 dreamed, all was peace and harmony among men. 
 The sure Word of God, however, informs us that 
 that happy time passed away very quickly, as it 
 was only a little while after his creation, when man 
 forsook his allegiance to Jehovah, and when he was 
 exiled from the abodes of bliss. 
 
 The answer to the 20th question of the Larger 
 Westminister Catechism is as follows: "The provi- 
 dence of God toward man, in the estate in which he 
 was created, was, the placing him in Paradise, ap- 
 pointing him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat 
 of the fruit of the earth, putting the creatures un- 
 der his dominion, and ordaining marriage for his 
 help; affording him communion with Himself, in- 
 stituting the Sabbath, entering into a covenant of 
 life with him, upon condition of personal, perfect, 
 and perpetual obedience, of which the tree of life 
 was a pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree 
 of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of 
 death." 
 
 This comprehensive statement of the Westminster 
 divines is far from overdrawn, as we shall find in 
 seeking, first of all, to establish and ponder this fact, 
 viz., God bestowed a Paradise upon man. 
 
The Fall of Man 263 
 
 And this is, dear hearers, a matter of immense 
 importance. It has to do with the very founda- 
 tions of our holy religion. Our enemies understand 
 this very well, and that is why modern unbelief, 
 though in the very teeth, not only of the positive 
 declarations of Holy Scripture, but also of the uni- 
 form testimony of all antiquity, is constantly seeking 
 to belie this fundamental fact. Alas! that so many 
 have been led astray by these pitiful delusions, so 
 dishonoring to God, and which have done such in- 
 calculable harm to the souls of men. 
 
 What now has the scientific world to say to-day, 
 as to all these wretched attempts to unsettle our 
 faith in the Bible as a direct revelation from God? 
 "Evolution is bankrupt." 1 We are invited to The 
 Death-Bed of Darwinism. 2 "Natural Selection," 
 "The Transmission of Species," "The Survival of 
 the Fittest." All these have been "swept away," 
 are "absolutely gone," and may be safely consigned 
 to the limbo of things forgotten. Biologists are 
 
 1 Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation, 
 by George McCready Price, Professor of Chemistry and 
 Physics, Lodi Academy, California, 1917, passim. See 
 also A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. Lectures 
 delivered in 191 6 at Princeton University by Prof. Thomas 
 Hunt Morgan of Columbia University. 
 
 2 Title of a book published in Germany a few years 
 ago. 
 
264 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 compelled to confess that they are entirely ignorant 
 as to the origin of either plant or animal life. And 
 even geology, according to some of its leading ex- 
 ponents, must for ever stop talking about those sup- 
 posedly vast ages during which, as we were once 
 so dogmatically assured, the various strata of the 
 rocks were in process of formation ; for we are now 
 told that that was all moonshine, because there are 
 no fossils older than man, all fossiliferous rocks being 
 of about the same age! And, to think of it, there 
 may even have been a universal deluge, at which 
 time, for aught that science can now show to the 
 contrary, those mighty upheavals may have taken 
 place, which account for the way in which the rocks 
 are found topsy-turvy all over our globe. 
 
 The fittest "surviving." Not at all. "Not the 
 evolution of matter, but the degeneration of matter, 
 is the plain and unescapable lesson to be drawn from 
 these facts." 3 And again, "It is a universal law 
 of living things that all forms left to themselves 
 tend to degenerate." 4 Oh, yes ! come to think of 
 it, that's what the good old Book tells us in regard 
 to our race, that we are fallen beings, whose moral 
 and spiritual tendency is for ever downward, save 
 as the renewing and sanctifying grace of God inter- 
 
 8 Q. E. D:, p. 24. 
 4 Ibid., p. 94. 
 
The Fall of Man 265 
 
 venes, which alone can fit us both for this world 
 and the next. 
 
 Certainly believers in a living, omnipresent, and 
 omniscient God have no cause for alarm. On the 
 contrary, we do have abundant reason to protest 
 against having this wretched stuff, now so utterly 
 exploded, still largely doled out by the public press, 
 and, what is far worse, in the class-room, by those 
 who are seemingly too indolent, or who lack suffi- 
 cient intellectual independence, to inquire for them- 
 selves as to what are the actual, present-day teach- 
 ings of the leaders in scientific inquiry. "The science 
 of geology as commonly taught," we are told, "is 
 truly in a most astonishing condition, and doubtless 
 presents the most peculiar mixture of fact and non- 
 sense to be found in the whole range of our mod- 
 ern knowledge. . . . That most educated people 
 still believe its main theses of a definite age for each 
 particular kind of fossil is a sad but instructive ex- 
 ample of the effects of mental inertia." 5 
 
 And now science is actually bringing us back to 
 the opening chapter of the book of Genesis, for it 
 also reaffirms the teachings of Holy Writ, in telling 
 us that "every seed," whether of herb, or beast, or 
 bird, or of the fishes of the sea, can only bring forth 
 "after its kind." And that brings us to the con- 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 1 18. 
 
266 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 sideration of a matter vitally connected with the 
 subject now before us. 
 
 The late Professor Alexander Winchell, in 1880, 
 published his once famous work, entitled, "Pre- 
 Adamites; or a demonstration of the existence of 
 Men before Adam: together with a study of their 
 Condition, Antiquity, Racial Affinities, and Pro- 
 gressive Dispersion over the earth." And here is a 
 specimen of how the learned man demonstrated; or 
 rather, it shows what wild, often self-contradictory, 
 guesses many of these physical scientists indulge in, 
 and they really seem to expect that the common 
 man, overawed by their superior wisdom, will aban- 
 don his common horse-sense, and swallow the 
 wretched stuff! We quote from pages 349 and 350 
 of this large and pretentious volume. "Dr. John 
 Davy, after describing a fine albino girl of Ceylon, 
 adds, 'It is easy to conceive that an accidental va- 
 riety of the kind might propagate, and that the 
 White race of mankind is sprung from such an 
 accidental variety. The (East) Indians are of this 
 opinion; and there is a tradition or story among 
 them, in which this origin is assigned to us.' " After 
 giving some one else's testimony as to the noble 
 character of the aborigines of India, he adds, "On 
 the whole, I think the Dravidian presents rather 
 the most probable point of connection between the 
 
The Fall of Man 267 
 
 Adamites and the other races." But there never 
 were any other races of men, before or after Adam ; 
 no proof of that sort has ever yet been produced ! 
 
 How many a physical scientist, in the excess of 
 his moral and mental idiocy, has actually sought to 
 trace his own genealogy and family relationship, 
 and that of the race, up, or rather down to, the 
 chattering, grinning baboon, or some other species 
 of pure bestiality ! Quite recently they are swinging 
 clear around, and tell us that the monkey has sprung 
 from some degenerate specimen of the genus homo! 
 The one theory is just about as worthless as the 
 other. As for man having descended from some 
 lower animal, the missing link, however diligently 
 sought, has never been found. 6 "The late Robert 
 Etheridge of the British Museum, head of the geo- 
 logical department, and one of the ablest of British 
 paleontologists, has said, 'In all that great museum 
 there is not a particle of evidence of transmutation 
 of species. Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists 
 is not founded on observation, and is usually wholly 
 unsupported by facts.' " Says another, "Neither on 
 the earth, nor under the earth, is any trace of an 
 ape ancestry discoverable." 7 "Professor Virchow, 
 
 8 See The Fundamentals, Vol. VIII, p. 83. 
 7 Scientific Sophisms, by Samuel Wainwright, D.D., p. 
 239. 
 
268 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 of Berlin, admittedly the ablest anthropologist of 
 modern times . . . declared: 'In vain have the 
 links, which should bind man to the monkey, been 
 sought ; not a single one is there to show.' " 8 And 
 he is said to have declared with vehemence, "on an- 
 other occasion, regarding evolution, 'It's all non- 
 sense. You are as far as ever you were from estab- 
 lishing any connection between man and the ape.' " 9 
 
 There is one thing which does demand our most 
 serious attention. Have we not all heard time and 
 again that primeval man was little or nothing more 
 than a rude, ignorant savage? We have no hesita- 
 tion at all to denounce that assumption as wholly 
 gratuitous, a libel against Heaven, and contrary to 
 all the teachings of history, both sacred and profane. 
 The folly of it will, as we trust, appear fully as 
 we proceed. 
 
 In Col. III:io it is declared that "the new man 
 ... is being renewed unto knowledge, after the 
 image of Him that created him"; and in Eph. IV: 
 23-24 the apostle writes, "And that ye be renewed 
 in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, 
 that after God hath been created in righteousness 
 and holiness of truth." These Scriptures clearly 
 imply that God did not send forth the last and 
 
 s The Fundamentals, Vol. VIII, p. 28. 
 9 Ibid., p. 83. 
 
The Fall of Man 269 
 
 noblest of His creatures in a state of utter ignorance 
 and abject helplessness: but, contrariwise, that He 
 endowed the first pair with "knowledge, righteous- 
 ness, and holiness," and that this is precisely what is 
 meant by the declaration, in the opening chapter of 
 Genesis, that God created man in His "image," and 
 "after" His "likeness" (v. 26). As says the wise 
 Solomon, "God made man upright" (Eccle. VII: 
 29) ; not only erect in form, but likewise pure, 
 stainless in intellect, heart, and will. Not only was 
 he free from all moral taint; but he was likewise 
 far removed from the condition of an untutored 
 savage. 
 
 "A man is known by the company he keeps," says 
 the old adage, and it is a universally acknowledged 
 fact, that no educational force is equal to familiar 
 and daily communion with the great and good, the 
 wise and the noble of earth, either by personal inter- 
 course, or by means of the printed page. 
 
 What now are the facts in the case of our first 
 parents? Adam is no sooner created but he comes 
 into immediate personal contact and fellowship with 
 his Maker; and, what is really an immense factor 
 in the problem before us, he proves himself both 
 morally and intellectually fit to hold converse and 
 communion with his Father and his God, as being 
 indeed a being of kindred spirit, however infinite 
 
270 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 the distance that separates the creature from the 
 Creator. 
 
 As has been so ably argued by that eloquent 
 writer of a century and a half ago, the Rev. Dr. Pat- 
 rick Delany, 10 of Dublin, Ireland. God endowed 
 Adam and Eve with a remarkable amount of knowl- 
 edge, and that from the very day and hour of their 
 creation; knowledge too which could have come to, 
 or been gained by, them only through direct revela- 
 tion from, or impartation by, Deity. 
 
 It was God Who bestowed upon Adam and Eve 
 the power of articulate, intelligible speech, which of 
 itself differentiates man from all the other creatures 
 of earth. And it was God Who, moreover, at once 
 gave them a vocabulary, a list or stock of words, 
 amply sufficient to enable them to hold intelligent 
 converse with each other and with the Author of 
 their being. And all this, as the whole history of 
 the race has abundantly proved, they never could 
 have secured in any other way. Imagine, if you 
 choose, "a gradual conversion of brute howlings into 
 articulate speech," but please bear in mind that 
 even Professor Huxley felt compelled to make this 
 remarkable admission: "Believing as I do, with 
 Cuvier," he says, "that the possession of articulate 
 speech is the grand distinctive character of man, 
 
 10 Revelation Examined with Candour. Vols. I and III. 
 
The Fall of Man 271 
 
 . . . the primary cause of the IMMEASURABLE 
 and practically infinite divergence of the Human 
 from the Simian stirps." 
 
 However diverse the dialects and languages of 
 mankind have been, since God confounded their 
 speech at Babel, and although living languages are 
 constantly undergoing various changes, yet to this 
 very day man has never discovered the first syllable 
 of human speech. As says Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
 speaking of the origin of language, "It must have 
 come by inspiration. A thousand — nay, a million 
 of children could not invent a language. While the 
 organs are pliable, there is not understanding enough 
 to form a language ; by the time that there is under- 
 standing enough, the organs are become stiff. No 
 foreigner who comes to England when advanced in 
 life ever pronounces English tolerably well ; at least 
 such instances are very rare. When I maintain that 
 language must have come by inspiration, I do not 
 mean that inspiration is required for rhetoric, and 
 all the beauties of language; for when once man 
 has language, we can conceive that he may grad- 
 ually form modifications of it. I mean only that 
 inspiration seems to me to be necessary to give man 
 the faculty of speech; to inform him that he may 
 have speech; which I think he could no more find 
 
272 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 out without inspiration than cows or hogs would 
 think of such a faculty." 
 
 To this conclusive reasoning of the famous lexi- 
 cographer it may be added, that the extent and 
 marvelous accuracy of this revelation of language 
 appears most clearly from the fact that Adam, on 
 the very day of his creation, "gave" appropriate 
 "names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, 
 and to every beast of the field" (Gen. II:2o). 
 
 And modern philology, in showing more and more 
 conclusively, that the multiform tongues and dia- 
 lects of the tribes and kindreds of earth, do all point 
 back to one common origin, is proclaiming anew, 
 and with an ever-increasing emphasis, the inspired 
 declaration, that God "made of one every nation of 
 men, to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 
 XVII :26). 
 
 Time will not allow us to more than mention 
 the other revelations, which were made to man on 
 the day in which he was created. 
 
 God assured man, and inspired him with the un- 
 doubted conviction, that he, the last product of 
 Jehovah's handiwork, was His vice-gerent on earth, 
 the absolute lord over all the lower animal creation. 
 And in order that man's sway over these multiform 
 creatures might be an intelligent one, he was at the 
 same time given a wonderful knowledge in regard 
 
The Fall of Man 273 
 
 to their widely varying capabilities and powers. A 
 revelation but for which, in the presence of beast, 
 and bird, and creeping thing, weak, defenceless man 
 would at once have been plunged into helpless mis- 
 ery and hopeless despair. 
 
 A beneficent Creator both provided most abun- 
 dantly for man's bodily sustenance, and imparted 
 to him all needed information as to how and when 
 he should make use of these herbs and fruits. 
 
 God likewise gave the first pair immediate, clear 
 knowledge in regard to the institution of marriage, 
 and as to all that is holy and blessed in the Heaven- 
 ordained relations of the sexes to one another. 
 
 Adam and Eve were also at once made acquainted 
 with the law of the Sabbath, or weekly day of rest. 
 And that the week, with its six days of toil, and a 
 seventh for worship, dates, not from the Divine ut- 
 terance of those ten immortal words, spoken with 
 audible voice from the top of Mt. Sinai, but is 
 coeval with the birth of the race, is incidentally 
 proved by the tenor of the whole book of Genesis, 
 and of that marvelous work of patriarchal times, the 
 book of Job. 
 
 What then, in brief, was the condition of the 
 first pair? and what of that paradisaic state into 
 which they were ushered by the all-wise and benefi- 
 cent Creator? They came forth from the plastic 
 
274 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 hand of Deity, with every faculty of body and 
 mind perfect after its kind, perfectly fitted to do 
 their bidding, and perfectly adapted to yield them 
 unalloyed happiness in their mutual intercourse, in 
 the worship and service of their heavenly Father, 
 and in the devout and admiring contemplation of 
 His wondrous works. And in entire harmony with 
 all this, and in order that they might intelligently 
 serve God, and be truly helpful to each other, and 
 that they and their immediate posterity might, so 
 to speak, have a fair start in life, they were, at the 
 very beginning of their career, endowed with all 
 needful knowledge, whence they might press on 
 unto perfection. 
 
 And then Jehovah placed the happy pair in a 
 garden of delights, a Paradise, fitted up expressly 
 to be their abode, where every prospect pleased and 
 delighted the eye, and where their every want was 
 provided for with a most royal bounty! Says the 
 sacred historian, "And Jehovah God planted a gar- 
 den eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man 
 whom He had formed, ... to dress it, and to keep 
 it" (Gen. 11:8, 15). "And out of the ground made 
 Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to 
 the sight, and good for food" (v. 9). 
 
 Such the Paradise, and such the paradisaic state 
 of peace and joy, full too of the brightest pros- 
 
The Fall of Man 275 
 
 pects in an altogether unclouded future, which "the 
 Father of lights" (James 1 117) had bestowed upon 
 the primogenitors of the human race. 
 
 We pass on to notice the deplorable fact that 
 this Paradise was lost. 
 
 The text tells us how this grievous loss came 
 about. "Through one man sin entered into the 
 world, and death through sin." God had created 
 man in His "image," and "after" His "likeness," 
 which means, as we have already learned from the 
 writings of the apostle Paul, and from the remark- 
 able revelations which Jehovah made to them, that 
 intellectually, morally, and spiritually our first pa- 
 rents were, in their measure, a true reflection and 
 image of the great Creator. 
 
 If the question is asked, How it was possible that 
 evil should find an entrance into minds and hearts 
 so altogether pure and stainless, we can only answer 
 in the language of one of the fathers of the Primitive 
 Church, "The demand to fully explain the origin of 
 evil in the heart not hitherto depraved, is as unrea- 
 sonable as would be the demand to see the darkness 
 and to hear silence." Mere speculations as to the 
 origin of evil, it may be added, are utterly vain and 
 unprofitable. The Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher once 
 gave this homely bit of advice to his son Edward, 
 which we may all of us take to heart, "If the Al- 
 
276 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 mighty has got into trouble about the origin of sin, 
 don't you try to help Him out." The business of 
 the Christian pulpit is of far too solemn import, that 
 the ambassador of the court of heaven should stoop 
 to pander to men of dishonest minds, who have itch- 
 ing ears, but no sincere desire to know and to do 
 the will of God. And let the caviler show, first of 
 all, how the creation of an intelligent and morally 
 accountable being, whether angel or man, is possible, 
 without endowing him with the power of choice be- 
 tween good and evil. 
 
 Let us, dear hearers, the rather turn our prayerful 
 attention to those sad and appalling facts, which the 
 Word of God reveals to us, and whose frightful 
 consequences everywhere stare us in the face, in the 
 history of our sin-burdened and sin-cursed race. 
 
 "In the midst of" that primeval Paradise, the 
 ancestral home of mankind, stood "the tree of life," 
 and near by "the tree of the knowledge of good and 
 evil." Concerning this last tree Jehovah had issued 
 the inexorable decree, "Thou shalt not eat of it: 
 for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
 surely die" (Gen. II 117). And thus God had put 
 the first pair immediately under the binding power, 
 and had thrown around them, the protecting aegis, 
 of a most positive and solemn moral enactment. 
 Other laws were given, as we have seen, in relation 
 
The Fall of Man 277 
 
 to marriage, the weekly day of rest, and so on: but 
 this was the only interdictory, prohibitory command 
 given to the human family. Everything else was 
 theirs, theirs to gratify their tastes, to use, and to 
 enjoy; everything save only the fruit of this one 
 tree; that they must leave uneaten, untouched. 
 
 How the blind dupes of Satan have sneered at all 
 this; how ready the vicious and profane still are to 
 ridicule this simple command of Jehovah. But in 
 so doing they but advertise their own ignorance and 
 moral baseness. 
 
 Ushered as Adam and Eve at once were into a 
 world of abundance, where everything was placed 
 at their beck, might not God set a bound, in this 
 one particular, to their otherwise absolute domin- 
 ion? Surely all the malign and fiendish ingenuity 
 of infidels and scoffers never will be able to prove 
 that this was aught else than a most wise and 
 beneficent enactment. 
 
 This command was God-like in its simplicity, and 
 for that very reason eminently suited to the inex- 
 perience of the first pair. The thing interdicted 
 was something that stood forth in the open light of 
 day ; and if they laid their hands upon it, they would 
 sin, as it were, in the sight of earth and heaven. It 
 served too as a constant reminder of Him, to Whom 
 they owed life itself, and from Whose bountiful 
 
278 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 hand came every blessing which they enjoyed. And 
 was not this the best possible safeguard, to secure 
 their continuance in the way of obedience? What 
 could better have served to constantly remind them 
 of their obligation to serve, worship, and adore the 
 sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth? 
 
 Of course we have all along taken for granted 
 that the sacred writer, guided by the unerring Spirit 
 of God, is narrating real historical facts, and not 
 mere myths or allegorical fancies. And this Biblical 
 account of the trial and fall of our first parents 
 is either veritable history, or else the whole account 
 of the creation of man, and of the divine origin of 
 our race, is but a fable, and the whole Bible little 
 more than an idle and a worthless tale, good enough 
 to indulge the speculative fancy of philosophical 
 dreamers, but altogether powerless to speak with 
 divine and commanding authority to the human con- 
 science, to restore "the soul," and make "wise the 
 simple" (Ps. XIX 17). 
 
 No, my brethren, this modern elective process will 
 not answer ! The militant Church of God, nay, our 
 fallen humanity, needs a whole Bible; not a frag- 
 mentary scroll, placed at the mercy of a vain and 
 godless philosophy, and of a boastful, but falsely 
 so-called science! As said the late Rev. George 
 W. Bethune, D.D., "If part be allegory, the whole 
 
The Fall of Man 279 
 
 is allegory; the account of creation is allegory, man' 
 is but an allegorical being, and all human beings, 
 you and I and the rest of our race, are mere figments 
 of a poetical description." 11 
 
 The all-wise God put man's loyalty and fealty 
 to the test; the trial was made under circumstances 
 the most favorable; man was tempted by Satan, 
 yielded in an evil hour, and fell from his high estate, 
 and "hence our nature has become so corrupt, that 
 we are all conceived and born in sin." 12 
 
 Of the temptation itself, and of the means which 
 the great adversary employed, and whereby he suc- 
 ceeded, alas! in deceiving the mother of us all, we 
 should like to speak at length, did not the wide 
 scope of the present subject forbid it, lest we alto- 
 gether weary your patience. 
 
 A few words must suffice, and we pass on. Let 
 it be remarked, first of all, that there is nothing in- 
 congruous, or irrational, in this whole transaction, 
 as reported by Moses. On the contrary, every word 
 proves the primeval innocence of the first pair, and 
 the consummate skill of Satan, which at last enabled 
 him to compass their ruin. Eve at first defends the 
 goodness of God. She did not, like too many of 
 
 11 Expository Lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism, 
 Vol. I, p. 66. 
 
 12 Heidelberg Catechism, Answer to Question 7. 
 
280 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 her descendants, court temptation; yet, alas, she 
 stopped to parley with the tempter, and that proved 
 her ruin! 
 
 That the archfiend should have used a serpent — 
 the very creature too that was best adapted to ac- 
 complish his diabolical purpose — in order to be- 
 guile the mother of us all, is not a whit more incred- 
 ible than that the Angel of Jehovah employed the 
 dumb ass to rebuke the prophet Balaam. And cer- 
 tainly Holy Writ does not leave us in doubt as to 
 the direct agency of the chief of the fallen angels 
 in this matter, for, in John VIII 144, our Lord speaks 
 of him as having been "a murderer from the begin- 
 ning, and" one who "standeth not in the truth, be- 
 cause there is no truth in him. ... A liar, and the 
 father thereof." And in Revelation XII 19 "the 
 great dragon ... is called the Devil and Satan, 
 the deceiver of the whole world," and is expressly 
 styled "the old serpent." If any one innocently 
 imagines that that fallen angel wasn't bad enough 
 deliberately to plot the ruin of the innocent pair, 
 then we simply want to ask this one question, What 
 of these men and women, veritable imps of Satan, 
 who are found in almost every community, and 
 whose main object in life seems to be to damn the 
 souls of their fellow-men? 
 
 But again, the adversary approached Eve through 
 
The Fall of Man 281 
 
 the only channel by means of which he could invade 
 the citadel of her soul. As creatures come from 
 God she and her husband had not only been en- 
 dowed with knowledge, as we have already seen, 
 but, as rational intelligences, they were destined to 
 grow in knowledge; their minds and hearts were to 
 expand, and to go on expanding eternally. Well, 
 said the serpent, here is a tree — the very name that 
 God has given it proves it — that will make you and 
 Adam wondrously wise. It has given me, until now 
 a dumb brute, the speech and intelligence of man; 
 eat of it, and "your eyes shall be opened, and ye 
 shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when 
 the woman saw," or rather, imagined that she saw, 
 "that the tree was good for food, and that it was a 
 delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be 
 desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit 
 thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her 
 husband with her, and he did eat" (Gen. 111:5-6). 
 Of this whole account of the temptation and fall 
 we unhesitatingly affirm, that it bears upon its very 
 face every mark of historic accuracy and truthful- 
 ness, and that a more wonderfully concise, and yet 
 clear and simple statement of facts that actually 
 took place, cannot be found in the writings of men. 
 
 What happened that day and hour 
 When man by disobedience fell? 
 
282 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 Says a holy apostle, "The serpent beguiled Eve 
 in his craftiness" (II. Cor. XI 13). And Adam 
 took from her hand, and, following his wife's de- 
 plorable example, he also ate of the forbidden fruit, 
 as says Bickersteth, in his devout epic, entitled Yes- 
 terday, To-Day and For Ever, — 
 
 "Not circumscribed by the serpent's fraud, 
 But blindly overcome by human love, 
 Love's semblance, which belied its name, denying 
 The Great Creator for the creature's sake." 13 
 
 What did they do? They turned their backs upon 
 the Author of their being, the bountiful Giver of 
 every comfort and blessing which they enjoyed; in 
 a word, they rebelled against His righteous and 
 universal sway, and trampled on His "command- 
 ment," which was "holy, and righteous, and good" 
 (Rom. VII :i2). 
 
 What has been the result ? To answer that ques- 
 tion fully one would need to be able to marshal 
 before us the story of the race from that very hour 
 until now, with all its dread array of acts of wan- 
 ton disobedience and open transgression; of conse- 
 quent shame, sorrow, and remorse ; of foulest fraud, 
 cruelty, and oppression, and of crimes of deepest 
 dye. Nay, one would need to look with the eye of 
 
 18 Book 5, lines 527-530. 
 
The Fall of Man 283 
 
 omniscience into limitless futurity, to understand the 
 tremendous and appalling import of the inspired af- 
 firmation, that "sin entered into the world, and 
 death through sin." 
 
 But what of the dread sentence, "For in the day 
 that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" ? Ah ! 
 its execution did not have to wait upon the hour 
 when "they heard the Voice of Jehovah God, walk- 
 ing in the garden in the cool of the day," coming 
 to pronounce their doom, and to send them forth 
 beyond the gates of bliss. No sooner had they eaten 
 of the forbidden fruit, but "the eyes of them both 
 were opened, and they knew that they were naked" 
 (Gen. 111:7, 8). Conscience, God's vicegerent in 
 the breast of all His intelligent creatures, at once 
 asserted itself, and Adam and Eve stood condemned 
 at its bar. The death spiritual had already be- 
 numbed their guilty souls, and the seeds of physical 
 death had now also been sown; nor less certainly 
 would the death eternal of soul and body in hell 
 have been their everlasting portion, and that of all 
 their descendants to the remotest generation, had 
 not the infinite wisdom and mercy of God devised 
 and carried out a wondrous plan of redemption. 
 
 To the query as to who are directly involved in 
 the sin and fall of our first parents, the text makes 
 the definite answer. "And so death passed unto all 
 
284 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 men, for that all sinned" ; or, as the margin of our 
 old English Bible renders the last clause, in full 
 accord with the best of ancient and modern Con- 
 tinental European versions, "In whom all have 
 sinned," i. e., "death passed upon all men through 
 him in whom all have sinned." 14 
 
 The representative character of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is gladly acknowledged by the devout be- 
 liever. Every one who comes to God by Him, and 
 finds pardon and peace in believing, rejoices in the 
 blessed assurance that Christ represented him when 
 He suffered upon the accursed tree. Well, our 
 Lord, the great Head of the Church of God, is ex- 
 pressly termed "The second Man," "The last 
 Adam" (I. Cor. XV 147, 45). Christ is the federal 
 Head, the official Representative of the redeemed 
 of all ages, and because He lives they shall live 
 also. "They that received the abundance of grace, 
 and of the gift of righteousness," shall "reign in 
 life through the one, even Jesus Christ" (Rom. 
 
 V:i7). 
 
 Jehovah's plan of redeeming love provided sim- 
 ply and alone for the trial of one, not of many, in 
 and through whom should be made the sublime at- 
 tempt to rescue fallen man. Our blessed Redeemer, 
 
 14 Rev. Willis Lord's Tract, The Federal Character of 
 Adam, p. 9. 
 
The Fall of Man 285 
 
 the God-Man, stood the test! He endured unto 
 the end, and brought in everlasting righteousness. 
 That ensures the eternal safety and happiness of all 
 who come unto God by Him. 
 
 Even so was it with "the first man Adam." The 
 race was to stand or fall in him, its federal head. 
 Notice the emphasis which the Scriptures of truth 
 place upon the one offence of the one man Adam. 
 "Through one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death through sin. ... By the trespass of the one 
 the many died. . . . The judgment came of one 
 unto condemnation. ... By the trespass of the 
 one," i. e., by the one offence of the one man, "death 
 reigned through the one. . . . Through one tres- 
 pass the judgment came unto all men to condemna- 
 tion. . . . Through the one man's disobedience the 
 many were made sinners" (Rom. V:i2, 15, 16, 17, 
 18, 19). Can language possibly be more emphatic? 
 It is the one offence of the one man that has 
 
 "Brought death into the world and all our woe." 
 
 And when we consider all the favoring circum- 
 stances, under which the trial of man's fealty was 
 made, have we not reason to bless God for having, 
 in His all-wise providence, suffered the trial to be 
 speedily made? Where could have been found a 
 better place for man than Paradise? When a time 
 
286 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 for him more favorable, in which to withstand 
 Satan's wiles, than while still so fully conscious of 
 the wonderful beneficence of his Creator God? 
 
 And who will presume to say, that had he been 
 in Adam or Eve's place, he would not have fallen? 
 Have we not all of us stumbled and fallen times 
 without number? Aye, the history of our race 
 from that day on proves to a demonstration, that not 
 a single mere man has ever lived upon this globe, 
 but what, had he been in Adam's place, he would 
 have fallen, even as he fell. 
 
 And to "the fall and disobedience of our first pa- 
 rents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise," it is, alas! so 
 perfectly easy to trace the moral and spiritual cor- 
 ruption of our nature, for, as in the case of Seth, 
 we are all begotten in the "likeness" and "after" the 
 "image" of our great forefather Adam (Gen. V:3). 
 
 We do all of us, beloved hearers, verily belong 
 by nature to a fallen race. Well may we confess 
 with the fathers of the Reformation, 15 "Man . . . 
 being in honor, he understood it not, neither knew 
 his excellency, but wilfully subjected himself to 
 sin, and consequently to death and the curse, giving 
 ear to the words of the Devil. . . . And being thus 
 become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all his 
 ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he 
 
 18 Belgic Confession, Art. 14. 
 
The Fall of Man 287 
 
 had received from God, and only retained a few 
 remains thereof, which, however, are sufficient to 
 leave man without excuse . . . All the light which 
 is in us is changed into darkness, as the Scriptures 
 teach us, saying, "The light shineth in the darkness, 
 and the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1:5), 
 where St. John calleth men darkness. Therefore 
 we reject all that is taught repugnant to this, con- 
 cerning the free will of man, since man is but a 
 slave to sin; and has nothing of himself, unless it 
 is given him from heaven. For who may presume 
 to boast, that he of himself can do any good, since 
 Christ saith, "No man can come to Me, except the 
 Father, that sent Me, draw him"? (Jbhn VI:44). 
 Who will glory in his own will, who understands 
 that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God"? 
 (Rom. VIII 17). Who can speak of his knowledge, 
 since "the natural man receiveth not the things of 
 the Spirit of God"? (I. Cor. II 114). In short, 
 who dare suggest any thoughts, since he knows that 
 we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything 
 as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God? 
 And therefore what the apostle saith ought justly 
 to be held sure and firm, that "it is God Who 
 worketh in us both to will and to work, for His 
 good pleasure" (Phil. II :i3). For there is no will 
 nor understanding, conformable to the Divine will 
 
288 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 and understanding, but what Christ hath wrought 
 in man ; which He teaches us when He saith, "Apart 
 from Me ye can do nothing" (John XV :5). 
 
 Sin, my hearers, is an actual, a dreadful fact in 
 the history of our race, and in the life of every indi- 
 vidual soul. "For all have sinned, and fall short 
 of the glory of God" (Rom. 111:23). Says that 
 eminent English Puritan, Thomas Manton, "Our 
 sin is charged upon us collectively in common: we 
 have all gone astray. Distributively : every one to 
 his own way. We all agree in turning aside from 
 the right way of pleasing and enjoying . . . God; 
 and we disagree, as each one hath a by-path of his 
 own, some running after this lust, some after that, 
 and so are not only divided from God, but divided 
 from one another, while every one maketh his will 
 his law." 
 
 Men may. rave at all this; they may utter their 
 flippant sneers at the idea that Adam and Eve, for 
 so trifling an offence, as they ignorantly and reck- 
 lessly presume to call it, should be turned out of 
 Paradise. They may, in their folly and moral mad- 
 ness, make a mock at sin, and even presume to 
 charge the Most High with folly, and try to hold 
 their Maker responsible for their wickedness, saying, 
 like some of old, who complained that "The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are 
 
The Fall of Man 289 
 
 set on edge" (Eze. XVIII 12), "We can't help our- 
 selves; its our temperament; we are just what God 
 made us," and then rush blindly and madly on in 
 the service of the world, the flesh, and the Devil: 
 but we solemnly warn you, beloved hearer, if you 
 have ever cherished such like thoughts, to remember 
 the apostle's indignant remonstrance, "Let God be 
 found true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 111:4). 
 
 As for this phrenological humbuggery of hunting 
 for the bumps in a man's head, and that not for the 
 purpose of revealing to himself his besetting sins, 
 that he may flee to God for mercy, and for grace 
 to help him in every time of need: but in order to 
 palliate his wickedness, to console him in the midst 
 of his moral pollution, and to stifle the voice of con- 
 science; it is, from first to last, a veritable Devil's 
 trap to catch souls, that he may the more readily 
 drag them down to bottomless perdition ! 
 
 No! sin is not of God, but of the Devil, and of 
 human depravity, instigated and allured by the evil 
 one. Hence the words of "the Preacher," "Behold, 
 this only have I found; that God made man up- 
 right; but they have sought out many inventions" 
 (Eccle. VII :2g). And the apostle James writes, 
 "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted 
 of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and 
 He Himself tempteth no man; but each man is 
 
290 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, 
 and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, 
 beareth sin; and the sin, when it is fullgrown, 
 bringeth forth death." Again, speaking of that 
 wondrous gift of God, the power of human speech, 
 and of the oft frightful perversion of so great a 
 blessing, he exclaims, "And the tongue is a fire: 
 the world of iniquity among our members is the 
 tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth 
 on fire the wheel of nature; and is set on fire by 
 hell!" (James 1:13-15; HI:6). 
 
 But though our race is in such a deplorable and 
 frightful plight, and though the earth itself was 
 cursed for man's sake, and has ever since proved a 
 vale of tears, and to vast multitudes the scene of 
 unutterable anguish and despair; yet, blessed be 
 God! His holy Word speaks to us of a Paradise 
 Regained. 
 
 Said the dying Christ to the penitent on the cross, 
 "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with 
 Me in Paradise" (Luke XXIII .-43). Ere yet our 
 first parents were sent forth from the garden of 
 Eden, as we have seen, Jehovah proclaimed the 
 protevangelium, viz., that the seed of the woman 
 should bruise the serpent's head. And our blessed 
 Redeemer has "become the Surety of a better cove- 
 nant" (Heb. VII :22). 
 
The Fall of Man 291 
 
 "In Him the sons of Adam boast 
 More blessings than their father lost." 
 
 Regenerated by the Spirit of God man can and 
 does rise again toward heaven and toward God. 
 
 This matter of the origin of evil furnishes a prob- 
 lem that man will never be able to wholly solve 
 in this life. Why a holy God permitted sin to enter 
 our fair world, and rob it of its glory; or why He 
 has tolerated it anywhere, who can fully explain ? 
 
 "Canst thou by searching find out God? 
 Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfec- 
 tion?" (Job XI 17.) 
 
 "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His 
 ways past tracing out!" 
 
 (Rom. XI : 3 3.) 
 
 But this much we do know, "To this end was 
 the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy 
 the works of the Devil" (I. John 111:8). Out of 
 all this wreck and ruin that sin has produced, He 
 will yet bring forth glory eternal to the Triune 
 Jehovah, and endless joy and blessedness to untold 
 millions that have been, and who are yet to be, 
 saved from among the children of men. 
 
 Nay more ; for by reason of this wondrous scheme 
 of redeeming love, for which there had been no 
 
292 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 occasion had not man fallen, the amazing long-suf- 
 fering, compassion, and boundless love of God, have 
 been displayed before all the universe of being, and 
 in all coming ages Jehovah will show forth, before 
 the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 
 "the exceeding riches of His grace, in kindness 
 toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 11:7). And thus 
 will the melting story of Calvary serve to bind both 
 angels and men in everlasting loyalty, love, and 
 adoration to that marvelous Being of beings, Whose 
 very name is Love. 
 
 Nor is even this all. As God did not abandon 
 man hopelessly to the dominion of Satan, neither 
 will He suffer the archfiend to retain his grasp upon 
 this globe, the scene of these millenniums of fierce 
 contention between heaven and hell for the pos- 
 session of the castle of Mansoul; but He will re- 
 deem it gloriously! As the poet has sung, so we 
 need but wait, 
 
 "Till one greater Man 
 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat," 
 
 and then, as Jehovah Himself so solemnly protested 
 to His servant Moses, "all the earth shall be filled 
 with His glory" (Num. XIV :2i). 
 
 Let us briefly turn to "the word of prophecy" 
 (II. Pet. I:i9). 
 
The Fall of Man 293 
 
 "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the founda- 
 tion of the earth; 
 And the heavens are the works of Thy hands: 
 They shall perish; but Thou continuest: 
 And they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 
 And as a mantle shalt Thou roll them up, 
 As a garment, and they shall be changed." 
 
 (Heb. I. 10-12.) 
 
 "Looking for and earnestly desiring the coming 
 of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens," 
 i. e., the circumambient atmosphere, not surely the 
 vast sidereal universe, "being on fire shall be dis- 
 solved, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat. But, according to His promise, we look for 
 new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness" (II. Pet. Ill 112-13). 
 
 "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for 
 Thine inheritance, 
 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy pos- 
 session. 
 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; 
 
 Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's ves- 
 sel." (Ps. 11:8-9.) 
 
 "And there was given Him," i. e., the "Son of 
 Man," "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that 
 all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve 
 Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
 
294 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that 
 which shall not be destroyed" (Dan. VII :i3, 14). 
 "For the earnest expectation of the creation," i. e., 
 of this whole lower creation, animate and inanimate, 
 "waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God, . . . 
 waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of 
 our body" (Rom. VIII :igr, 23). "And I saw a new 
 heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and 
 the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no 
 more. And I saw the holy city, new Jeru- 
 salem," the abode of the triumphant hosts of God's 
 elect, "coming down out of heaven from God, made 
 ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 
 XXI: 1 -2). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye 
 shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God 
 ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" 
 (John I:5i). "And He that sitteth on the throne 
 said, Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. XXI: 
 
 5). 
 
 Could language declare more emphatically that 
 man's personal salvation is not only to be complete, 
 but also that his erstwhile lost Paradise shall yet be 
 gloriously restored? Says Scotland's great preacher, 
 Thomas Chalmers, "Though a Paradise of sense, it 
 will not be a Paradise of sensuality. ... It is not 
 the entire substitution of spirit for matter that will 
 distinguish the future economy from the present. 
 
The Fall of Man 295 
 
 But it will be the entire substitution of righteous- 
 ness for sin. . . . There will be a firm earth, as 
 we have at present, and a heaven stretched over it, 
 as we have at present, and it is not by the absence 
 of these, but by the absence of sin, that the abodes 
 of immortality will be characterized." 16 
 
 Well may we cry out with the beloved disciple, in 
 answer to the Master's blessed assurance, "Yea: I 
 come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev. 
 XXII :2o). Oh! let us pray and labor for the 
 "return 
 
 Of Him, . . . 
 
 The woman's Seed, . . . 
 
 Last, in the clouds, from heaven to be revealed, 
 
 In glory of the Father, to dissolve 
 
 Satan with his perverted world; then raise 
 
 From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, 
 
 New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date, 
 
 Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love; 
 
 To bring forth fruits, joy, and eternal bliss." 17 
 
 Dear hearer, how many times have you been 
 born? By natural descent, and also, alas! by the 
 actual consent of your own will, and by your every 
 sinful thought and act, you are a child of the first 
 Adam, an outcast from Paradise, and an heir of 
 wrath. Have you been born a second time? Are 
 
 "Sermon on II. Pet. III:i3. 
 
 " Paradise Lost, Book XII, lines 541-551. 
 
296 The Humanity of the Christ 
 
 you a new creature in Christ Jesus? regenerated by 
 the Holy Spirit? Have you exercised repentance 
 toward God, and have you been joined to Christ 
 by a living faith? Has He, "The last Adam," given 
 you personally a title to the new heavenly Paradise? 
 Are you sealed by the Spirit of the living God until 
 the day of the redemption of our bodies (Eph. IV: 
 30; Rom. VIII 123), that you may then also go in 
 unto "the marriage supper of the Lamb"? (Rev. 
 XIX :g). 
 
 As a child of Adam you are exposed to everlast- 
 ing woe. Are you then also a child of God in 
 Christ Jesus, saved by His blood, and sanctified by 
 His Spirit, "made meet to be" a partaker "of the 
 inheritance of the saints in light"? (Col. 1: 12). 
 Oh! how many times have you been born? Only 
 once, or twice? Remember, we beseech you, this 
 word of Scripture, "As many as received Him, to 
 them gave He the right," the authority, "to become 
 children of God, even to them that believe on His 
 name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the 
 will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God" (John 1:12-13). 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: May 2006 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
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