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CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 ITS ESSENCE AND EVIDENCE 
 
 OR, 
 
 AN ANALYSIS. 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 HISTORICAL FACTS, DOCTRINES, OPINIONS, AND 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE W. BURNAP, D. D. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 
 
 111 'Washington Steeet. 
 
 1855. 
 
*$S 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 
 
 Crosby, Nichols, and Company. 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 The Library 
 of Congress 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 METCALP AND COMPANY. PRINTERS 10 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following work was projected and com- 
 menced more than twenty years ago. At that 
 time, German Rationalism had just begun to 
 agitate the minds of American theologians, 
 and disturb the peace of our churches. The 
 author was led to investigate the grounds of be- 
 lief in the supernatural origin and superhuman 
 authority of the Christian religion anew. 
 
 About that time, he fell in with a book of 
 a very interesting and extraordinary character, 
 written by the famous Jeremy Bentham, and 
 entitled, " Not Paul, but Jesus." In this work 
 that distinguished man attempted to show that 
 Paul had corrupted Christianity, and that the 
 Christianity of the Church had been anything 
 but Christian since his time. The works of 
 Jefferson were published almost contemporane- 
 ously, and they were found to contain nearly 
 the same sentiments. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 It began to be admitted, too, by Christian 
 theologians, snch as Stewart of Andover and 
 Neander of Germany, that there was such 
 an element in the New Testament as the 
 opinions of the Apostles, for which Chris- 
 tianity ought not to be made responsible. 
 Since that period, various hypotheses have 
 been started, varying from the concessions 
 made by Stewart and Neander, to the total 
 denial and unbelief of Strauss and the Tubingen 
 critics. 
 
 No theological scholar, if he is candid, the 
 author believes, will hesitate to admit that the 
 last twenty years have been a period of anx- 
 ious inquiry. He cannot have failed to per- 
 ceive, that most of the issues which have been 
 raised in the Christian Church have been false 
 and irrelevant. The controversies between Or- 
 thodoxy and Liberal Christianity have cleared 
 these false issues away, and, freeing the question 
 between belief and unbelief from the mists 
 which hung over it, have brought it to be dis- 
 cussed on its true merits. 
 
 Increasing difficulties arose in the way of 
 the defender of the authority of the New Tes- 
 tament, from the doctrines it was supposed to 
 teach. Many of them, as maintained by most 
 churches, came in direct conflict with that 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 sense of justice which makes an indestructible 
 part of our nature, and those moral feelings 
 which are the glory and crown of humanity. 
 Advancing Science, too, began to enter her pro- 
 test against certain opinions embodied in the 
 New Testament, which the Church had re- 
 ceived as of divine authority, and incorporated 
 with Christian dogmas. 
 
 In this state of things, it occurred to the 
 author that the time had come for a new anal- 
 ysis of the contents of the New Testament. 
 On the old hypothesis of making it a homo- 
 geneous book, all doctrine, all equally essential, 
 it must encounter such serious objections as 
 to overtask the faith of an enlightened age. 
 On this hypothesis the main objection of Gib- 
 bon never has been, and never can be, an- 
 swered. 
 
 After years of study and examination, the 
 following analysis suggested itself as satisfac- 
 tory. It seemed to the author to meet and 
 reconcile all the difficulties of the case. 
 
 Having thoroughly digested his plan, the 
 author began to carry it out in a course of Lec- 
 tures delivered in the winter of 1841-42, which 
 were afterwards published under the title of 
 " Lectures on the History of Christianity," and 
 which have been before the public for thirteen 
 
VI PREFACE. - 
 
 years. Those Lectures were intended merely as 
 an introduction to the present volume ; but be- 
 fore the author was aware, they had become a 
 volume themselves. It was only in the last 
 lecture that the present analysis was proposed. 
 
 Incessant professional occupation, and vari- 
 ous other literary enterprises, have suspended 
 the completion of the plan to the present time. 
 It is now offered to the Christian public as 
 the fruit of the toil and thought of thirty years. 
 
 The writer does not expect that his analysis 
 will be satisfactory to all, and perhaps it may 
 not commend itself fully to any mind ; but he 
 trusts that the necessity of some such classifi- 
 cation of the contents of the New Testament 
 will be seen and acknowledged, and that many 
 who are embarrassed by the commonly received 
 hypotheses may see their way clear to retain a 
 firm faith in Christianity as a religion of super- 
 natural origin and superhuman authority. 
 
 Baltimore, May, 1855. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 INTRODUCTORY .1 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST . . . . . .23 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 REALITT OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES .... 38 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST 53 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST 68 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 CHRIST WITHOUT SIN 85 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 FAITH OF THE APOSTLES . . 96 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL 113 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 PERSONALITY OF GOD 128 
 
 DISCOURSE X. 
 
 PATERNITY OF GOD 146 
 
 DISCOURSE XI. 
 
 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER 165 j 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 DISCOURSE XII. 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF SINS 179 
 
 DISCOURSE XIII. 
 
 IMMORTALITY 196 
 
 DISCOURSE XIV. 
 
 RETRIBUTION .211 
 
 DISCOURSE XV. 
 
 INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT .... 227 
 
 DISCOURSE XVI. 
 
 DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 248 
 
 DISCOURSE XVII. 
 
 A PERSONAL DEVIL 264 
 
 DISCOURSE XVIII. 
 
 THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH .... 281 
 
 DISCOURSE XIX. 
 
 THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH . . . 293 
 
 DISCOURSE XX. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD ..... . 311 
 
 DISCOURSE XXI. 
 
 CHRIST A KING 330 
 
 DISCOURSE XXII. 
 
 JESUS THE SON OF GOD 344 
 
 DISCOURSE XXIII. 
 
 PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST 361 
 
 DISCOURSE XXIV. 
 
 SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE 377 
 
 DISCOURSE XXV. 
 
 REGENERATION 398 
 
DISCOURSE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 BE IT KNOWN UNTO YOU ALL, AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF 
 ISRAEL, THAT BY THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZA- 
 RETH, WHOM YE CRUCIFIED, WHOM GOD HATH RAISED 
 FROM THE DEAD, EVEN BY HIM DOTH THIS MAN STAND 
 HERE BEFORE YOU ALL. THIS IS THE STONE WHICH WAS 
 SET AT NAUGHT OF YOU BUILDERS, WHICH IS BECOME 
 THE HEAD OF THE CORNER. NEITHER IS THERE SALVA- 
 TION IN ANY OTHER, FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME 
 UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN WHEREBY WE MUST 
 BE SAVED. — Acts iv. 10, 11, 12. 
 
 Nothing can be more certain, as an historical fact, 
 than that Christianity has been of vast advantage to 
 the world. It has become the basis of modern civili- 
 zation ; its spirit, diffused in society, has mitigated 
 the barbarism of ancient manners, its precepts have 
 entered into modern legislation, and rendered laws 
 more mild, equitable, and just/ It has freed the 
 human mind from a load of debasing superstitions. 
 It has purified religious rites from sanguinary usages 
 and shocking immoralities. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth was the corner-stone of Chris- 
 tianity. The world received its new impulse from 
 1 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 his personality, his history, his life, his precepts; 
 from all, in short, which is related of him in the 
 New Testament. It is certain, if anything can be 
 relied on as historical fact, that he extracted all that 
 was spiritual and universal in the religion of Moses, 
 and separated it from the ritual of that ancient insti- 
 tution, connected it with a new ritual, and made it 
 accessible to all mankind. He instituted an outward 
 organization, which he denominated his Church, 
 which had for its object the dissemination of his 
 religion and its transmission to the remotest ages. 
 The Church, which he instituted, has subsisted to 
 the present time. It has been continually spread- 
 ing wider and wider over the earth, and it has sur- 
 vived everything but Judaism which then existed 
 upon the earth. 
 
 The vital principle which brought the Church into 
 existence was faith in Christ, as an authorized and 
 authenticated Teacher sent by God. It was early 
 believed, that no one could speak as he spoke, and 
 teach as he taught, without supernatural aid. The 
 wisdom which he displayed in the enunciation and 
 combination of the truths of religion, and in con- 
 structing his Church, so far transcending the wis- 
 dom of any one man, and indeed of all the sages and 
 philosophers who have ever appeared upon the earth, 
 has driven men to suppose that it had a divine, and 
 not a merely human origin. 
 
 It has seemed, moreover, to thoughtful men, that 
 there are strong indications, not only of supernatural 
 interference, but of providential arrangement, in the 
 appearance of Christianity in the world; in the 
 succession of the religions preceding it, the Patri- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 archal and Mosaic, by which a portion of the hu- 
 man race had become prepared to receive a spiritual 
 and universal religion ; in the contemporaneous prep- 
 aration of the world to be approached by the propa- 
 gators of the new faith ; and in the diffusion of that 
 culture which rendered the reception of the doctrines 
 and institutions of Christianity a possibility. 
 
 The very structure of the Christian Church implies 
 and supposes a supernatural origin. Its two only 
 ordinances appeal to a superhuman authority. Bap- 
 tism, which we have every reason to believe prevailed 
 from the first, is a formal recognition of a supernat- 
 ural mission and authority in the person of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, the founder of the Church. The Supper 
 was a commemoration of the inauguration of Chris- 
 tianity as a religion specially given by God to man, 
 through the mediation of Jesus Christ. " This is the 
 new covenant in my blood." It derived its main 
 significance and moral power from the fact, that it 
 supposed the subsequent resurrection of Jesus, and 
 its celebration afterwards expressed the belief that 
 he had gone to heaven and to God, and still watched 
 over his Church, and was spiritually present with it. 
 
 The Church was founded on the belief in the 
 supernatural origin of the teaching of Christ, and the 
 miraculous attestations of it, which were supposed to 
 seal it as coming from God. If the Gospels are to 
 be trusted as history, the impression was deep and 
 extensive. Notwithstanding the humility of his ex- 
 terior, he was followed by multitudes. To them his 
 word was with power. They were astonished at his 
 doctrine. They bore testimony, that never man spake 
 like this man. Peter is related to have said, after 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 having been long his disciple, Lord, to whom shall 
 we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life. Those 
 teachings were committed by the disciples, his com- 
 panions, to writing, and although in their reports 
 they may have lost something of their original force, 
 they have made the same impression on all succeed- 
 ing ages. One of the greatest minds of modern 
 times, and indeed of all times, who has lately passed 
 away from this earth, has left his testimony to the 
 world on his tombstone, that the Sermon on the 
 Mount was to him the strongest evidence, not only 
 of the divine mission of Christ, but of the reality of 
 religion and the immortality of the soul. 
 
 It is easy for any person to compare the words of 
 Jesus with all other writings, and to judge by their 
 character whether it is most reasonable to attribute 
 them to unaided human reason, or divine inspira- 
 tion. The Church, I have said, was founded on a 
 belief in divine and miraculous interposition, au- 
 thenticating Christ as a divine teacher, and Chris- 
 tianity as a divine institution. The book of Acts, 
 which has every feature of an earnest and truthful 
 account of the very commencement of the Christian 
 Church, shows conclusively, that its foundation ivas 
 laid in the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, and its 
 growth was aided by the persuasion, that miraculous 
 powers were still continued to the Apostles during 
 their ministry. 
 
 The persuasion of the superhuman origin of the 
 doctrines of Christ, and their supernatural attestation 
 by his resurrection, was not only the foundation of 
 the Church, but was the source of its moral poiver,by 
 which its members were elevated so far above the level 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 of the world at large, both of contemporary Judaism 
 and surrounding idolatry. The Gospel, as far as we 
 can judge, came home to the consciences of men 
 with irresistible power, because it was a more perfect 
 embodiment and expression of moral truth than had 
 ever been presented to them before. The essential 
 truths of universal religion were exhibited in such a 
 form of beauty and power, as no human wisdom or 
 ingenuity had ever reached, and all the teachings of 
 the wisest philosophers sink into insignificance in 
 comparison with the teachings of Jesus, and seem 
 like the merest babblings of childhood. 
 
 The sanction and bond of all moral and religious 
 obligation is the doctrine of immortality, and its nat- 
 ural consequence, that there will be a future and 
 complete retribution. Without this, religion has no 
 vitality, and morality sinks to a mere worldly expe- 
 diency, and the noblest virtues subside into a fan- 
 tastic enthusiasm or a selfish caution. Human life, 
 confined within the narrow horizon of the present 
 world, is shorn of its glory, and becomes compara- 
 tively dishonored, mean, and valueless. Human 
 nature loses its sacredness, and human rights are 
 trodden under foot without scruple, without sympa* 
 thy, and without remorse. 
 
 The difference is almost infinite in the self-respect 
 that is begotten by the expectation of immortality, 
 and the persuasion that death puts a period to both 
 soul and body. He who expects to die the death of 
 a brute will feel little degradation in living the life 
 of a mere animal. The moral and religious nature of 
 man becomes an absurd superfluity. The natural hope 
 inspired by a life of integrity, of self-denial, of justice 
 1* 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 and benevolence, becomes a mere phantom of delu- 
 sion, and the fear, which oppresses a guilty con- 
 science, of what shall be after death, becomes the 
 weakest of superstitions. The solemnity of an oath, 
 which is at present the safeguard of life, liberty, and 
 property, is the idlest of mockeries. And were such 
 to be the universal conviction, the main-spring of the 
 order and progress of society would be broken, and 
 society itself would collapse into a state of complete 
 demoralization. 
 
 In the resurrection of Christ, those who believed 
 in it as an historical fact conceived themselves to 
 have received strong confirmation of the natural hope 
 of immortality. Through the risen Saviour, they had 
 received certain intelligence from the spiritual world, 
 which is veiled from the eye of sense, and the mem- 
 bers of the Christian Church which was first organ- 
 ized by a belief in the fact, were immediately ele- 
 vated by that belief to a level of moral purity, of 
 religious fervor, of mutual esteem and affection, of 
 spirituality and devotedness, that the world had 
 never seen before. 
 
 Faith in Christ, then, as an authenticated messenger 
 from God, as the founder of a religious society ',- and 
 as a risen, ever-living Saviour, ivas the foundation of 
 the Christian Church. Upon the strength of this 
 faith, his-fcreligion has spread over a large part of the 
 globe. Thus was Christ the corner-stone, and in 
 Divine Providence he has been the instrument, in 
 the hands of God, of effecting the moral regenera- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 But the reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the 
 corner-stone, as the moral power by which the world 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 was to be regenerated, was not unanimous. ' Accord- 
 ing to the history, at the age of about thirty, he 
 came forth into the world and assumed the position 
 of a supernatural mission from God; and of super- 
 human authority over men, as naturally flowing from 
 it. To that position his whole bearing and conduct 
 were adjusted. He demanded it as a right, he re- 
 quired submission to it as a duty. ' He bore witness 
 to it from his own consciousness. He appealed to 
 the spotless integrity of his whole character, and 
 defied his enemies to convict him of the slightest 
 moral obliquity. He appealed to the testimony of 
 John the Baptist, he appealed to his own miracles, 
 he alleged the transcendent wisdom of his doctrine, 
 as the accumulated proofs that he was what he 
 claimed to be, and finally staked his claim upon the 
 fulfilment of his prophecy of rising from the dead. 
 By the rulers of his nation he was rejected and put 
 to death. . By those whom he called about him, and 
 who were witnesses of his daily life, he was viewed 
 as a teacher sent from God, and as bearing the 
 words of eternal life. He was rejected by the rulers, 
 as an impostor, and put to death as a seditious per- 
 son and a disturber of the peace. 
 
 His disciples testified to the world that God raised 
 him from the dead, according to his own prediction, 
 and sent them abroad to propagate his religion over 
 the world. They recorded his history and teaching; 
 they left an account of their own doings as his 
 Apostles; and their correspondence is still extant, 
 while they were engaged in the establishment of the 
 Christian Church. And so both the Church and their 
 writings have come down to our day. 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 But there are some, as at first, who now reject 
 Christ as the corner-stone, and deny his claims to 
 all supernatural authority. They give a different 
 version to the whole account of the origin of Chris- 
 tianity. They repudiate the supernatural element 
 altogether. They allege that there has been some- 
 where a grand mistake. The rejection of the mi- 
 raculous has been the sum and substance of modern 
 unbelief. But all confess that it is in the New Tes- 
 tament. If it is an interpolation, some account must 
 be given of the way by which it got there. And 
 on this point there is the greatest possible variety of 
 opinion. Time would fail us to consider the various 
 hypotheses which have been started, all different, and 
 most of them contradictory to each other. 
 
 By some, miracles are set aside, as so improbable 
 in themselves as to be incapable of proof. They are 
 improbable, because it is not to be supposed that a 
 Being infinitely wise and powerful would, construct 
 the world, either of mind or matter, in such a way as 
 to need alteration or amendment. They are inca- 
 pable of proof, because they must rest on human 
 testimony, and human testimony is more likely to 
 be false than the laws of nature to be changed. 
 
 The miraculous, therefore, in Christianity, so far 
 from lending additional support to the doctrine of 
 immortality, is unable to bear its own weight. 
 Those, therefore, who hold the doctrine of immor- 
 tality to be naturally improbable, consider the at- 
 tempt to substantiate that doctrine by miraculous 
 evidence as an endeavor to corroborate one improb- 
 ability by another. They consider the doctrines of 
 the New Testament to be less likely to be true from 
 
INTRODUCTORY. V 
 
 the miraculous element there is in it, instead of more 
 so. All writings are rendered suspicious and unrelia- 
 ble by containing any recognition of the miraculous. 
 
 This objection, however confidently made, has 
 hitherto had but little weight with thinking men. It 
 seems idle to affirm what that omnipotent Power, 
 who made and sustains the world, can, or cannot, 
 do. These very unbelievers in revelation, because it 
 contains records of the miraculous, believe the geolo- 
 gist when he tells them that there was a time when 
 the race of man did not exist upon our earth. It is 
 undeniably certain, that the first pair were created 
 by miracle, and not according to any known law. 
 If miracles are impossible, then we must deny that 
 there is any such thing as the human race upon the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 Another undertakes to tell us how and when the 
 mistake of incorporating the miraculous with Chris- 
 tianity was committed. The New Testament was 
 not written by the Apostles, or their companions, or 
 by any original witnesses of the ministry of Jesus. 
 The life and history of Jesus subsisted in the form 
 of oral traditions. Jesus had been a remarkable 
 man, and a remarkable teacher. A religious sect 
 sprung up under his name, and was held together 
 by his doctrines. Veneration for his character, and 
 a love of the marvellous, interspersed the narrative 
 of his birth, his life, his death and burial, with va- 
 rious miracles and prodigies, which were thought to 
 correspond with his real greatness and his historical 
 importance. 
 
 Another admits that the documents which com- 
 pose the New Testament bear indisputable internal 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 evidence of being the production of the Apostolic 
 age. Some of them were written by the Apostles 
 themselves, the companions and contemporaries of 
 Jesus. Yet, connected with the reports of the sub- 
 lime discourses of Jesus, there are exhibitions of so 
 much ignorance, credulity, and superstition, that it is 
 rendered more probable that they were mistaken or 
 carried away by their enthusiasm, than that the 
 miracles they reported should have really taken 
 place. Miracles have been attested by eyewitnesses 
 in all ages of the world, and still wise and conscien- 
 tious men do not hesitate to reject such accounts as 
 intrinsically improbable. 
 
 Others carry the mistake still higher, and suppose 
 it to have originated with Jesus himself. A dis- 
 tinguished statesman of our own country has said of 
 him : " Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and 
 pure heart, conscious of the high strains of an elo- 
 quence which had not been taught him, he might 
 easily mistake the coruscations of his own fine 
 genius for inspiration of a higher order. This belief, 
 therefore, carried no more personal imputation than 
 the belief of Socrates, that himself was under the 
 care and admonitions of a guardian Daemon." 
 
 But this imputation, under the color of doing 
 honor to Christ and saving his personal character, 
 strikes a fatal blow to all reliance on his teachings. 
 In that case, what he has taught us on the subject 
 of immortality, as a certainty positively known to 
 himself, falls from that level to that of his individual 
 opinion, the suffrage of his judgment upon a disputed 
 matter of great uncertainty. And the weight of his 
 opinion upon this subject, instead of being greater 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 than that of other men, actually falls below it, 
 from the circumstance that it is the opinion or suf- 
 frage of a mind unhinged upon one point, and ca- 
 pable of being misled by the false judgment that he 
 was inspired by God. 
 
 Another explanation of the origin of Christianity 
 has been, that it was a pious fraud from the begin- 
 ning. Jesus of Nazareth was a transcendent religious 
 genius, and a zealous philanthropist and reformer. 
 He saw the world sunk in barbarism and idolatry, 
 and his own nation dwarfed and enslaved by igno- 
 rance and superstition, and knowing that his coun- 
 trymen expected about that time a great national 
 deliverer, and that there were passages in their sacred 
 writings which they deemed prophetical, he under- 
 took a moral and religious reformation upon the 
 basis of those prophecies and expectations. He 
 knowingly misrepresented the dictates of his own 
 powerful understanding, as the immediate inspira- 
 tion of God. He either pretended to work miracles, 
 or his followers pretended that he did. He com- 
 menced a public ministry, and committed himself 
 to the current of circumstances, to succeed or fail, 
 as fortune might direct. He was successful in rally- 
 ing around him a party, which formed the nucleus 
 of a Church, an extensive organization which perpet- 
 uated itself, and has continued to the present day ; 
 but in doing so he became involved with the civil 
 authorities, and lost his life. 
 
 Such are some of the hypotheses which have been 
 resorted to in order to account for the New Testa- 
 ment and the Christian Church as historical phenom- 
 ena, without admitting the supernatural element 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 which they involve. I do not pretend to have ex- 
 hausted them all. It may suffice to have given those 
 already mentioned as specimens of the whole. 
 
 Another class of unbelievers take another ground. 
 They do not consider themselves bound to account 
 for the New Testament or the Church at all. They 
 bring forward certain parts of the New Testament, 
 and certain things contained in it, as false or in- 
 credible, and on the strength of them reject the 
 whole book as fabulous and unreliable. 
 
 An unbeliever there is, now alive, who has at- 
 tempted to edify the world by detailing the process 
 of rejection which went on in his own mind, till, in 
 his own language, " Christ and the Devil faded out 
 of his spiritual vision, only to leave more vividly God 
 and Man." Such is his estimate of probabilities, 
 that he considers an abstract a priori argument suf- 
 ficient to refute the whole positive testimony of the 
 New Testament. " It is," says he, " an unplausible 
 opinion, that God would deviate from his ordinary 
 course in order to give us anything so undesirable 
 as an authoritative oracle would be, which would 
 paralzye our moral powers exactly as an infallible 
 Church does, in the very proportion to which we 
 succeed in eliciting answers from it." This objec- 
 tion has certainly the merit of originality to recom- 
 mend it, with this further advantage, that it gives us 
 the means of forming a judgment of the intellectual 
 calibre of one of the most zealous of modern assailants 
 of the divine origin and authority of Christianity. 
 
 Another class of unbelievers tell us, that the New 
 Testament is to be rejected as an authentic history 
 of past transactions, because of the discrepancies of 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 the different writers, and the variations of the testi- 
 mony of the different witnesses. One gives the 
 genealogy of Jesus as ascending through one line of 
 ancestry, and another through another. One tells 
 us that Judas, the traitor, died by his own hand in 
 one way, and another in another. One says, that 
 a certain field was bought by the rulers of the Jews 
 with the price of treachery, which Judas brought 
 back, and another, that it was bought by Judas him- 
 self; and two different reasons are given why it was 
 called « the field of blood." 
 
 One Evangelist relates, that Jesus, on a certain 
 occasion, in going out of Jericho, met tivo blind men, 
 who were importunate in their entreaties to him to 
 heal them, and he did so. Another, detailing the 
 same accompanying circumstances, says, that there 
 was one blind man, and gives his name as Bartimeus. 
 The four Gospels give four different inscriptions upon 
 the cross of Christ. It is naturally impossible that 
 more than one of these can be verbally correct, and 
 perhaps not one of them. 
 
 But what follows from this ? That Christ was never 
 crucified, and that no inscription was placed upon 
 his cross ? He who should draw such a conclusion 
 would outrage all reason and common sense. These 
 different inscriptions only prove that the testimony 
 is human, not that it is untrue. All human testi- 
 mony admits of verbal and immaterial variations, 
 without impairing its trustworthiness. It is so in 
 matters involving life and death. So the two different 
 genealogies of Jesus do not prove that there was no 
 such person, or that he was not a lineal descendant 
 of David. He might have been descended from the 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 royal stock by several lines, as we are all equally 
 descended from sixteen progenitors of the fourth de- 
 gree. Certain it is, that the genealogy of Christ 
 must have been satisfactory to his contemporaries ; 
 for no one would have been listened to a moment 
 who pretended to be the Messiah, unless he could 
 show his descent, by the public registers, from the 
 royal lineage of David and Solomon. 
 
 Others are scandalized by certain opinions, which 
 they allege were entertained by the writers of the 
 New Testament. It seems evident to them, that 
 the Apostles believed in a personal Devil, and in the 
 existence of wicked spirits, which had the power to 
 possess and torment mankind, — to inflict upon them 
 bodily diseases, and mental disorders; and that Jesus 
 actually drove them out, and delivered men from 
 their inflictions. Men entertaining such puerile su- 
 perstitions are not to be trusted as witnesses of 
 matters of fact, nor as historians of the events of 
 their own age. 
 
 But it maybe answered, that all history extending 
 back more than three hundred years, on this prin- 
 ciple, must be set aside as altogether uncertain, since 
 the belief in witchcraft was universal before that 
 period, and the wisest of men took part in putting 
 their fellow-creatures to death for the crime of witch- 
 craft. The origin of diseases was a matter of science, 
 and not of religion ; and a religious teacher, who 
 should have attempted to set the world right on all 
 matters of science collateral with religion, would 
 have accomplished nothing, and probably have fallen 
 a sacrifice to his philosophical doctrines quite as soon 
 as to his religious dogmas. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 The same is true of the geological opinions which 
 then prevailed of the structure of the earth. It was 
 thought to be a plain, instead of a globe, having be- 
 neath it a vast expanse, corresponding in depth and 
 extent to the height and breadth of heaven above. To 
 this world they seem to have supposed that all souls 
 descended when released from the body, not except- 
 ing the soul of Christ himself. Any- attempt to cor- 
 rect this universal opinion would have been useless, 
 and it was better left to the progress of science and 
 discovery. 
 
 Gibbon has made it the ground of profane scoff, 
 and, as he supposed, a triumphant reason for the 
 rejection of Christianity, that the Apostles seem to 
 have expected a personal return of Christ to the earth 
 during their own day, or at least at no distant period. 
 If this be admitted, what inference can be legiti- 
 mately drawn from it ? Does it affect their credibility 
 as witnesses ? — for this is the capacity in which they 
 stand between us and Christ. Not at all. It merely 
 concerns the extent of their inspiration. There is a 
 previous and very important question : Was it taught 
 by Christ, or was it a misinterpretation of his language, 
 which it required merely the lapse of time to correct? 
 Is it credible that he did teach such a doctrine, at the 
 same time that he professed to be promulgating a 
 universal religion, and the call of those very disciples 
 made a part of his arrangements for " teaching that 
 religion to all nations " ? He professed to be that 
 personage to whom Abraham and Moses and the 
 prophets looked forward, as ushering in a more im- 
 portant period of the world's history than had ever 
 occurred before ; when men should no longer wor- 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ship God in this locality or that, but the true and 
 spiritual worshippers should worship him acceptably 
 all over the earth. It is incredible that Jesus, while 
 utterring such predictions, and making such arrange- 
 ments, could have taught that the world was soon 
 coming to an end. The very enterprise of Chris- 
 tianizing the world must itself consume ages and 
 centuries. 
 
 Others have taken offence at the phraseology of 
 the New Testament, or rather at the doctrines which 
 have been drawn from certain expressions used by 
 Jesus and his Apostles. Jesus called himself the 
 Son of God. And upon this expression, and others 
 analogous to it, a most wonderful mythology has 
 been constructed. As a son ordinarily has the same 
 nature with his father, Jesus of Nazareth, besides his 
 human nature, was supposed to have had a divine 
 nature, derived immediately from the essence of God, 
 and partaking of all his attributes. An analysis of 
 the New Testament shows that this epithet had 
 originally no such signification. Christ himself ex- 
 plained his use of it to have reference, not to his 
 nature, but his mission, his having been " sanctified 
 and sent into the world by God." 
 
 The same is true with the sacrificial language of the 
 New Testament. At first sight it has the appearance 
 of teaching the transfer of human guilt from one per- 
 son to another, and, of course, the irrational doctrine 
 of suffering punishment by proxy, and acquiring right- 
 eousness in the same way. These things being 
 moral impossibilities, if really taught in the Scrip- 
 tures, would diminish, if not destroy, their credibility 
 as containing a revelation from God. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 It is the object of the following Discourses to meet 
 and obviate these various objections, to show, in op- 
 position to the unbeliever, that Christianity has a 
 solid basis of historical facts ; that the history of the 
 New Testament is an extract from the history of the 
 world, and not an interpolation into it; that the Apos- 
 tles were real men among the actors in the scenes of 
 the past ; that the variations of the Gospels are im- 
 material ; and that, admitting almost any hypothesis 
 of their origin, these compositions leave certain and 
 undeniable the unique and extraordinary personality 
 of Jesus Christ ; they make certain his appearance 
 among men, and the principal events of his life; 
 they make certain his agency in establishing the 
 Christian Church, in promulgating its doctrines and 
 precepts and establishing its rites and discipline, 
 and, moreover, his consciousness of a mission from 
 God to take the position he assumed, and to do the 
 work which he accomplished. 
 
 It will be the purpose of these Discourses to ana- 
 lyze the New Testament into its constituent ele- 
 ments ; to show that it is not a homogeneous book, 
 — that it contains various elements, such as His- 
 tory, Doctrines, Opinions, and Phraseology. 
 
 When thus sent into the world by God, and au- 
 thenticated as his Messenger, Christ taught certain 
 doctrines, which embrace all the fundamental princi- 
 ples of religion, and gave them in charge to his 
 disciples, to be perpetuated to the end of the world. 
 But in inculcating these doctrines he necessarily 
 used the language of the age and nation to which 
 he belonged. He alluded to opinions which were 
 then extant, without affirming or denying them. T 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 intend to show that it is highly improper and unjust 
 to make these floating opinions constituent elements 
 of Christianity, and then to set aside Christianity as 
 untrue, because the floating opinions of that age 
 were erroneous or superstitious. As well might it 
 be attempted to deny the truth of all the science of 
 this age, because scientific men still continue to 
 speak with the multitude of the sun's rising and set- 
 tings although it is a well-established fact, that the 
 sun neither rises nor sets, but the daily revolution of 
 the earth upon its axis gives rise to this optical de- 
 ception. 
 
 I intend, moreover, to demonstrate, that, of the 
 four elements I have enumerated, the fourth, Phrase- 
 ology, consisting of the mere modes of expression 
 belonging to the age and nation, is equally demon- 
 strable with the others. These were Judaisms and 
 Orientalisms, forms of speech highly figurative or 
 hyperbolic, which to our Occidental ears seem at 
 first sight to have an extraordinary meaning, but 
 on closer examination are found to relate to common 
 and familiar things. 
 
 When these distinctions are made, it will be seen 
 that the grounds of most of the controversies which 
 have prevailed in the Christian Church are taken 
 away. Many of them have arisen from pressing to 
 a literal meaning words and phrases originally 
 figurative. Many more have arisen from confound- 
 ing opinions alluded to with doctrines affirmed. 
 
 It will be seen, that the scope of these Discourses 
 is to remove the causes of scepticism and sectarianism^ 
 the great evils of the present age. It is to show, 
 that a thorough study of the New Testament, in- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 19 
 
 stead of revealing new and insurmountable difficul- 
 ty in the way of its reception as a revelation from 
 God, instead of showing that it is a dishonest record 
 made by contemporaries with an intent to deceive, or 
 a forgery of after times, palmed off upon the world 
 as the production of a former age, every feature bears 
 the impress and lineaments of its appropriate age, 
 and carries us back, with graphic and unmistakable 
 minuteness of particularity, to the interesting scenes 
 of the first planting of the Gospel in Judaea, eighteen 
 centuries ago. 
 
 The tendency of these Discourses will be to per- 
 suade the reader, that the account given in the New 
 Testament of the origin of the Gospel and of the 
 Christian Church is not only historically, but philo- 
 sophically, true. The New Testament and the Chris- 
 tian Church are phenomena now extant in the world. 
 Every thinking man must have some way of account- 
 ing for the manner in which they came into existence. 
 If the positions taken in the following Discourses 
 are just, the most obvious way is the true way. The 
 New Testament is what it is, the Church assumed 
 the form it took in the age of the Apostles, because 
 Jesus was what he assumed to be, a divinely inspired 
 and authenticated Messenger from God. Place him 
 in that position, and everything becomes natural 
 and consistent. Probable causes are assigned for 
 known effects. The language, the sentiments, and 
 the conduct of the Apostles and early Christians are 
 accounted for by the well-known laws of the human 
 mind. Place him in any other position, suppose 
 him to have been an enthusiast, mistaking the 
 promptings of a superior genius for Divine inspira- 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 tion, and his profound, calm, unerring, transcendent 
 wisdom becomes wholly irreconcilable with the 
 hypothesis. Such wisdom could not have inhabited 
 the same mind with such fundamental error and hal- 
 lucination. The supposition that he made claims 
 which he knew did not belong to him, is made 
 wholly impossible by an integrity which knew no 
 stain, and a piety that never lost communion with 
 God. 
 
 As little ground is there for the last refuge of un- 
 belief, that Christianity was the natural growth and 
 production of the age in which it sprang up ; that He- 
 brew theology, Greek philosophy, and Oriental the- 
 osophy, mingling together in Palestine, corrected each 
 other's errors, and combined the truth that was in all 
 into a new and sublimer system of faith, a more 
 perfect system of morality than the world had ever 
 known before. 
 
 It is sufficient simply to deny that any such ele- 
 ments were then in existence, and that Jesus ever 
 had access to them if there were. We know from 
 contemporary history and literature the whole com- 
 pass of Jewish thought. We know what were the 
 then predominant sects, the Pharisees, the Saddu- 
 cees, and the Essenes. We know that they, each and 
 all, had perverted and debased, instead of perfecting, 
 the religion of the Mosaic dispensation. The Mishna 
 and the Talmuds are all-sufficient documents to con- 
 vince us, that the pure religion of the New Testa- 
 ment could never have originated in the trifling 
 legends and the absurd puerilities of those deposito- 
 ries of superstition. Josephus tells us tales of the 
 practical morality of his countrymen, which make 
 
INTRODUCTORY. • 21 
 
 us agree with him in pronouncing that age and na- 
 tion the most corrupt and sinful that ever cumbered 
 the earth. 
 
 The records of Greek philosophy are open to us. 
 We know the varieties of opinion into which the 
 wise men of Greece were divided, and what great 
 uncertainty hung over all their speculations. We 
 know how imperfect were all their teachings upon 
 the subjects of morality and religion, and how ut- 
 terly impotent were they to produce a moral regen- 
 eration of society, or even to persuade men to lead 
 a discreet and well-ordered life. And the vices of the 
 period of the first Roman Emperors have left a dark 
 shadow on the history of the world. 
 
 Oriental theosophy, or the mythology of the East, 
 presents to the sober mind of the present day noth- 
 ing but a shadowy region of dreams, in which reason 
 wanders in vain to find an object which bears even 
 a remote resemblance to any known reality. 
 
 To say, then, that the religion of Jesus was merely 
 the culmination of the thought of the time, that 
 Jesus was simply the man of his age, the organ by 
 which was made articulate the truth which had been 
 evolved by the wisdom* and experience of preceding 
 ages, is making an assertion not only erroneous, but 
 extravagantly false. No ! Christianity was not the 
 convergency of rays of light already in the world, it 
 was new light from above, shining upon the world 
 through the mind of Jesus of Nazareth. It was not 
 a reform indicated by the wants of the time, and 
 precipitated by a simultaneous movement of inde- 
 pendent minds. It was an impulse from heaven, 
 which was felt first in the soul of Christ, was her- 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 aided by the voice in the wilderness, was inaugu- 
 rated by the baptism in the Jordan, and was au- 
 thenticated by miraculous powers, from the marriage 
 of Cana to the sepulchre and the Mount of Ascen- 
 sion. Nothing else can adequately account to my 
 mind for the origin of that revolution in human 
 affairs which then and there commenced. The son 
 of a carpenter, brought up in an obscure village of a 
 despised nation, without education, without wealth, 
 and without friends, could have no more accom- 
 plished it, without divine and superhuman aid, than 
 he could have created the world. 
 
DISCOURSE II. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 AND IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN, THEN IS GUR PREACHING VAIN, 
 AND YOUR FAITH IS ALSO VAIN. TEA, AND WE ARE FOUND 
 FALSE WITNESSES OF GOD ; BECAUSE WE HAVE TESTIFIED 
 OF GOD THAT HE RAISED UP CHRIST : WHOM HE RAISED 
 
 not up, if so be that the dead rise not. — 1 Corin- 
 thians xv. 14, 15. 
 
 Christianity is founded on historical facts. His- 
 torical facts are its first and fundamental element. 
 Take away these, and the whole superstructure falls 
 to the ground. Such was the opinion of Paul, after 
 having preached the Gospel for twenty years. Among 
 those fundamental facts he places the resurrection of 
 Christ as the chief corner-stone. He makes it in 
 fact to be the Gospel itself, the glad news which the 
 Apostles were commissioned to announce to the 
 world. Of this event the Apostles were the chief 
 witnesses, and the fact of having seen and conversed 
 with him alive after his resurrection was a necessary 
 qualification to make a person eligible as an Apostle. 
 When the eleven were about to fill the place of Judas 
 Iscariot, it was made a requisite in the candidate 
 that he should have been an eyewitness to the min- 
 
24 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 istry of Christ, and especially of his having risen from 
 the dead. Peter, in his speech upon the occasion, holds 
 the following language : " Wherefore, of these men 
 which have companied with us all the time that the 
 Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning 
 from the baptism of John unto that same day that he 
 was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a 
 witness with us of his resurrection" 
 
 Writing to the Corinthians, four-and-twenty years 
 after the event, Paul makes use of the following re- 
 markable language : " Moreover, brethren, I declare 
 unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, 
 which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, 
 by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory 
 what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed 
 in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that 
 which I also received, how that Christ died for our 
 sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was 
 buried, and that he rose again the third day according 
 to the Scriptures ; and that he was seen of Cephas, 
 then of the twelve. After that he was seen of above 
 five hundred brethren at once, of whom a greater 
 part remain unto this day, but some are fallen asleep. 
 After that he was seen of James ; then of all the 
 Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as 
 of one born out of due time." In this same Epistle, 
 in another place, he makes the fact of having seen 
 Christ after his resurrection a necessary qualification 
 for apostleship. " Am not I an Apostle ? have not I 
 seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? " 
 
 The historical basis of Christianity, and the pri- 
 mary importance of the resurrection, are testified by 
 Peter, in his speech to Cornelius and his companions. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 25 
 
 What is called by the Apostle Paul " the Gospel " 
 which he preached, is called by Peter " the word 
 which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching 
 peace by Jesus Christ ; (he is Lord of all ;) that word 
 ye know, which was published throughout all Judasa 
 and began from Galilee, after the baptism which 
 John preached : how God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
 reth with the Holy Ghost and with power ; who went 
 about doing good and healing all that were oppressed 
 with the devil : for God was with him. And we are 
 witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land 
 of the Jews, and in Jerusalem ; whom they slew and 
 hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, 
 and showed him openly, not to all the people, but 
 unto ivitnesses, chosen before of God, even to us 
 who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the 
 dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the 
 people, and to testify that it is he which was or- 
 dained to be Judge of quick and dead. To him give 
 all the prophets witness, that through his name who- 
 soever believeth in him shall receive remission of 
 sins." 
 
 The fundamental importance of the fact of the res- 
 urrection is declared often, and in many different ways, 
 in the New Testament. When Paul came to Athens, 
 and addressed the multitude on Mars' Hill, the bur- 
 den of his discourse was understood to be "Jesus and 
 the resurrection." His commission, as the Lawgiver 
 and Judge of mankind, according to that speech, was 
 sealed by that event : " Because he hath appointed 
 a day in the which he will judge the world in right- 
 eousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; where- 
 of he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he 
 3 
 
26 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 hath raised him from the dead." In the same strain 
 he commences his Epistle to the Romans : " Paul, a 
 servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, sep- 
 arated unto the Gospel of God, (which he had prom- 
 ised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) 
 concerning his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which 
 was made of the seed of David according to the 
 flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
 from the dead" Peter, in his First Epistle, expresses 
 in language still more emphatic the bearing which 
 the resurrection of Christ has on our hopes of im- 
 mortality : " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant 
 mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 
 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, from which 
 we have just quoted, goes on in the strongest lan- 
 guage to state the intimate connection which, to his 
 mind, subsisted between the resurrection of Christ 
 and the doctrine of immortality. " Now if Christ be 
 preached that he rose from the dead, how say some 
 among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? 
 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is 
 Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is 
 our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, 
 and ice are found false witnesses of God, because we 
 have testified of God that he raised up Christ ; whom 
 he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not." 
 
 It is not too much to say, from these various cita- 
 tions, that the Apostles, the writers of the New Tes- 
 tament, unanimously considered the resurrection of 
 Christ to be the main fact of the Gospel, the very 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 27 
 
 hinge upon which the whole enterprise turned. If 
 they were mistaken in this, it was all a delusion, and 
 they themselves the most miserable and unfortunate 
 of men. " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
 we are of all men most miserable." " Why stand we 
 in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing 
 which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily. If after 
 the manner of men I have fought with beasts at 
 Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not. 
 Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 
 
 To this testimony of the resurrection of Christ 
 the'se Apostles remained constant during their lives, 
 and for it they freely shed their blood and died. 
 
 But God so ordered the course of things, that 
 succeeding ages should not only have the best direct 
 testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, but the strong- 
 est indirect evidence. Great occurrences impress 
 themselves upon the times in which they happen. 
 Their actual occurrence is testified not only by words, 
 but by actions and events. The whole course of 
 things is influenced and shaped by them. As causes, 
 they produce effects, which remain to bear witness 
 of them, and are wholly unaccountable without them. 
 It was thus, I think, in an eminent degree, with the 
 resurrection of Christ. If any reliance is to be placed 
 on the narratives of the Evangelists, a most remark- 
 able change took place in the conduct and character, 
 the opinions, the feelings, and the purposes of the dis- 
 ciples about the time at which the resurrection is 
 said to have taken place, and just such a change as 
 such an event would naturally produce. That 
 Christ was crucified there can be no doubt. That 
 his followers were poor and illiterate men, natives of 
 
28 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 Galilee, and strangers at Jerusalem, there can be as 
 little reason to call in question. That they were 
 wholly destitute of resources is evident from the fact 
 that they were unable to give their deceased Master 
 the rites of sepulture. This was done by strangers, 
 Nicodemus the counsellor, and Joseph, a rich man of 
 Arimathea. Their hopes in their Master had been 
 utterly disappointed. They had come to Jerusalem 
 with the expectation of seeing him soon a king. 
 But instead of this he was crucified, and they were 
 scattered. They seem to have resumed their former 
 pursuits, and given over all expectations as the fol- 
 lowers of Jesus. But on a sudden they rally, they 
 come together, they deliberate in private, they act 
 together in public, they attract multitudes, they pro- 
 duce a deep impression, they testify that their Mas- 
 ter had risen from the dead. To that testimony they 
 were ready to sacrifice their lives. Thousands be- 
 lieved their testimony, for not only were they wit- 
 nesses, but there were in their midst the five hundred 
 who had seen him alive after his public execution. 
 Could such a change have taken place in the disci- 
 ples without an adequate cause ? Is it in human 
 nature to stand forth in the face of multitudes and 
 assert a falsehood, from which they could derive no 
 sort of advantage, and which subjected them to perse- 
 cution and death ? This of course is an argument 
 which addresses itself to the minds of men in all ages. 
 There are, moreover, in the narratives, traces of 
 great excitement produced by this event, precisely 
 such as would naturally be caused by an occurrence 
 of such magnitude, interest, and importance. On 
 the occurrence of an extraordinary event, it so ab- 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 29 
 
 sorbs men's minds that they become incapable of at- 
 tending to their ordinary employments. They are 
 seen collected in groups, exchanging their thoughts 
 and feelings. Sympathy becomes intense, and they 
 are unwilling to separate. We read in the Acts, that 
 immediately on the return of the disciples to Jeru- 
 salem from Mount Olivet, from which they had seen 
 Christ ascend, they came together. " And when they 
 were come in, they went up into an upper room, 
 where abode both Peter and James and John and 
 Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Mat- 
 thew, James the son of Alpheus and Simon Zelotes, 
 and Judas the brother of James. These all continued 
 with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
 women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his 
 brethren." These particulars of names and place and 
 time add greatly to the probability of the narrative. 
 Their employment, too, prayers and supplications, is 
 a very natural one for persons who had just witnessed 
 such a spectacle as seeing a beloved friend ascend to 
 heaven, and an exercise not at all likely to occupy a 
 band of false witnesses, conspiring to deceive the 
 world and delude all nations. In another place it is 
 said of them : " And they, continuing daily with one 
 accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house 
 to house, did eat their meat with gladness and sin- 
 gleness of heart, praising God and having favor with 
 all the people." Could anything be more natural 
 than this enthusiasm under the circumstances ? 
 
 There is another incident recorded, which furnishes 
 a still stronger proof that something extraordinary 
 had occurred. The last thing which men are dis- 
 posed to do is to relinquish their property. They 
 3* 
 
30 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 usually grasp it with tenacious hold till their hands 
 are unclasped by death. That must be a mighty 
 impulse which has power to overcome this attach- 
 ment. Iri these first days of the existence of the 
 Christian Church, the phenomenon was presented of 
 a community giving up their private property, their 
 own hard earnings and careful savings, and the in- 
 heritances transmitted to them by their fathers, and 
 throwing it into a common stock for the support of 
 all. The most rational explanation of this anoma- 
 lous fact is the mighty impression made by the res- 
 urrection of Jesus. "And all that believed were to- 
 gether, and had all things common, and sold their 
 possessions and goods, and parted them to all* men 
 as every man had need." In another place it is 
 said : " And the multitude of them that believed 
 were of one heart and one soul, neither said any of 
 them that aught of the things that he possessed was 
 his own, but they had all things common." The 
 reason of this, as it seems to me, is casually and 
 unconsciously thrown in by the historian himself: 
 11 And with great power gave the Apostles ivitness of 
 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace 
 was upon them all. Neither was there any among 
 them that lacked ; for as many as were possessors of 
 lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of 
 the things that were sold and laid them down at the 
 Apostles' feet ; and distribution was made unto every 
 man according as he had need." 
 
 These things, in my judgment, show a very great 
 disturbance of the ordinary condition of the human 
 mind in the first Christian community, and it can be 
 accounted for only on the supposition of the occur- 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 31 
 
 rence of an extraordinary event, and that event was 
 the resurrection of Jesus. The natural effect of it 
 would be, to turn the minds of those who believed 
 it, and especially those who witnessed it, most pow- 
 erfully to the spiritual world. The realities of that 
 world, instead of dwelling, as they had done, in a 
 dim and distant obscurity, were brought near, and 
 they nearly absorbed their attention. By a natural 
 revulsion, the things of this world, from having en- 
 grossed too much, occupied too little of their atten- 
 tion, and they adopted a mode of living, which, if it 
 had been continued, would have ultimately been de- 
 structive of society. 
 
 As striking, deep, and lasting an impression was 
 made upon the character, the sentiments, and the pur- 
 poses of the disciples. A total change took place in 
 them, corresponding to their new experience. Before 
 the resurrection of their Master, they appear worldly, 
 ambitious, narrow-minded. Afterwards they become 
 spiritual, disinterested, generous ; their thoughts and 
 purposes are turned to heaven and heavenly things. 
 A piety and a spirituality breathe through their writ- 
 ings and their conduct, which you search for in vain 
 among all the records of the human race. As we 
 read them, we find ourselves in the very presence of 
 heavenly things. They seem to " count all things 
 but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ their Lord." What could possibly make a 
 deeper impression upon any one of us, than repeated, 
 certain, sober, and assured interviews with a de- 
 parted friend, returned from the invisible world, thus 
 making immortality sure, changing faith into vision, 
 and hope into certainty ? To us it would be much, 
 
32 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 to the disciples it was more. It not only made them 
 certain of immortality, but it constituted them its 
 heralds and witnesses to the world. It was a seal at 
 once of Christ's mission and their own. It made 
 them the main agents in the mightiest enterprise 
 that was ever undertaken, the spiritual regeneration 
 of the world. They rose up at once, from timid, un- 
 cultivated fishermen and peasants, to magnanimous 
 heroes, apostles, martyrs, prepared to face a multi- 
 tude, and to stand unappalled before kings and mag- 
 istrates. And in Jerusalem, the very city where but 
 a few weeks ago they had slunk away from public 
 notice, on the crucifixion of their Master, utterly dis- 
 comfited and disheartened, they stand forth and ac- 
 cuse their countrymen and their rulers as being 
 guilty of an atrocious and malicious murder, and a 
 murder only extenuated by their ignorance of the 
 magnitude of the crime they were perpetrating. 
 
 Thus it is that succeeding ages have had, not only 
 direct, but circumstantial, proof of the resurrection of 
 Jesus. The Apostles and primitive disciples bore 
 witness, not only by words, but by deeds, of their 
 belief, at least, of the return of their Master to life, 
 after he had been consigned to the tomb. The gen- 
 eral tone of the whole record corroborates the fact, 
 from the commencement of the Acts to the end of 
 the Apocalypse. 
 
 This event, in fact, constituted a new era in the his- 
 tory of the world. Piety, from that moment, started 
 on a new and higher level. Eternity, thus revealed and 
 brought near, began to exert a constraining power 
 on the consciousness, the character, and the life of 
 man. The first day of the week was consecrated 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 33 
 
 for ever to be a day of commemoration, of religious 
 meditation, of public worship, of holy employment. 
 
 But the resurrection of Christ being thus estab- 
 lished by human testimony, and by circumstantial 
 evidence, what was its influence in the world ? It 
 was to give authority to the Gospel, and to establish 
 the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It authen- 
 ticated Christ as the Ambassador of God. It made 
 his word to be law, and his promises to be regarded 
 as the truth. It enthroned him in the reverence and 
 the confidence of mankind. As it is expressed in 
 the splendid, though somewhat indefinite, language 
 of Oriental hyperbole, by the Apostle- Paul, in his 
 Epistle to the Ephesians : " That the God of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give 
 unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding 
 being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope 
 of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of 
 his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceed- 
 ing greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, 
 according to the working of his mighty power, which 
 he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
 dead, and set him at his own right hand in the 
 heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, 
 and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
 named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
 is to come ; and hath put all things under his feet, 
 and gave him to be the head over all things to the 
 Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that 
 filleth all in all." 
 
 The same idea is expressed by the author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, in still more magnificent 
 
34 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 phraseology. The language is enriched by a greater 
 exuberance of metaphors, drawn from Christ's son- 
 ship and priesthood, by the force of one of which he 
 is made heir of all things, and of the other is said to 
 have expiated the sins of the world and "tasted 
 death for every man " : " God, who at sundry times 
 and in divers manners spake in time past unto the 
 fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spo- 
 ken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed 
 heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds ; 
 who being the brightness of his glory, and the ex- 
 press image of his person, and controlling all things 
 by his powerful word, when he had by himself 
 purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
 Majesty on high; being made so much better than 
 the angels, as he hath, by inheritance, obtained a 
 more excellent name than they." 
 
 Now, how infinitely absurd would such language 
 as this have appeared, had Christ never risen from 
 the dead ! But it was borne out and justified, in the 
 fervid imaginations of the Orientals, by the exalta- 
 tion which that event gave to his person and his re- 
 ligion. It established his Gospel to be God's word 
 and law, and therefore clothed Christ with God's 
 authority, which, in Eastern phrase, is being placed 
 at God's right hand, to share, as God's son, in his 
 dominion. The same fact made the spread of his 
 religion a necessity, and its universality inevitable. 
 Christ was, therefore, in a spiritual sense, the heir 
 of the world. "When here on earth, he appeared to 
 be clothed with miraculous power and with mirac- 
 ulous knowledge, the most resplendent of the Divine 
 attributes, and thus stood as God's image and rep- 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 
 
 35 
 
 resentative on earth. His mission constituted an 
 epoch in the history of the world and in the revolu- 
 tion of ages. To it the ages before looked forward, 
 to it the ages since have looked back. To all this 
 glory he ascended, and without the resurrection not 
 a whisper of all this exaltation would ever have been 
 heard on earth. It is the risen Saviour who is head 
 of the Church. It is this fact which gives the Com- 
 munion any rational significance or any moral power. 
 It is the spiritual presence of the risen Saviour which 
 gives that rite the power to pierce the veil which sep- 
 arates the visible from the invisible world, dispels 
 the fear of dissolution, and brings on earth the life 
 of heaven. 
 
 In conclusion, the resurrection of Christ established 
 the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and made 
 it an article, not only of speculative belief, but of 
 practical influence. It is in the way of God's provi- 
 dence, to teach by particular facts, and not by gen- 
 eral principles. It is the constitution of the human 
 mind, to be taught by ascending from particular facts 
 to general principles, and not by descending from 
 general principles to particular facts. One palpable 
 fact makes a stronger impression upon us than vol- 
 umes of speculation. God revealed himself to the 
 children of Israel, not as the God of the whole earth, 
 but as " the God who brought them out of the land 
 of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage," and, 
 having established this fact, left them to infer, by 
 the light of their own reason, if, having done this, he 
 could be any other than the God of the whole earth. 
 So, having raised Christ from the dead, who had 
 preached the doctrine of immortality, he left mankind 
 
36 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 to the conclusion of their own reason, whether death 
 were necessarily the destruction of our being, and 
 whether it were not the purpose of the Creator of 
 man to raise him to a new and immortal life. " As 
 by man came death, so by man came the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead." God knew the principles of the 
 human mind which he addressed, and he knew the 
 inference men would draw, that " as in Adam all die, 
 so in Christ shall all be made alive," and the result 
 has commended the wisdom of the arrangement. 
 Furnished with this single fact, the twelve Apostles, 
 obscure individuals of a despised race though they 
 were, and persecuted everywhere, accomplished more 
 in establishing the conviction of the immortality of 
 the soul, than all the philosophers of the heathen 
 world, though aided by the highest rank, the most 
 extensive learning, and consummate eloquence. The 
 private schools of the philosophers were forsaken for 
 the humble churches of the Apostles, for the simple 
 reason, that what was taught in one as a philosophic 
 probability was promulgated in the other as a posi- 
 tive, ascertained fact. Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, and 
 Epicurus had propounded many things that seemed 
 like truth, but they were all uncertain, and different 
 from each other. Truth is but one, and Christ 
 taught it without error and with satisfactory author- 
 ity. All those philosophers had yielded to the com- 
 mon lot of humanity, they had died like other men, 
 and their ashes had been blown about the earth, or 
 buried beneath it. Christ had not only taught, but 
 demonstrated, immortality. He had returned to life, 
 been conversant for forty days with his former com- 
 panions, and then ascended to heaven in their sight. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 37 
 
 Here, then, was something additional to the light of 
 nature, on a subject the most interesting of all others 
 to the human mind, and it quickened men's moral 
 and religious natures, and gave confidence to their 
 hopes of immortality, precisely in proportion to their 
 reliance on the original testimony of the Apostles. 
 
 Thus it is that Christianity is founded on histori- 
 cal facts, facts of such a nature as to be the proper 
 subjects of human testimony, submitted to the calm 
 scrutiny of the senses, showing themselves in the 
 conduct and sentiments to which they led, and im- 
 pressing themselves upon the age in which they hap- 
 pened. 
 
 Among them, and towering far above them all, is 
 the resurrection of Christ, It is the keystone of the 
 arch of Christian faith. Take this away, and it all 
 falls a heap of ruins. The Christian Church is a 
 building without a foundation, our preaching is vain, 
 and your faith is also vain. " But now is Christ 
 risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of 
 them that slept." " This corruptible must put on 
 incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
 tality." 
 
DISCOURSE III 
 
 REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 
 
 THE FORMER TREATISE HAVE I MADE, O THEOPHILUS, OP 
 ALL THAT JESUS BEGAN BOTH TO DO AND TEACH, UNTIL 
 THE DAY IN WHICH HE WAS TAKEN UP, AFTER THAT HE 
 THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST HAD GIVEN COMMANDMENTS 
 UNTO THE APOSTLES WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN: TO WHOM 
 ALSO HE SHOWED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS PASSION, BY 
 MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS, BEING SEEN OF THEM FORTY 
 DAYS, AND SPEAKING OF THE THINGS PERTAINLNG TO THE 
 KINGDOM OF GOD. — Acts i. 1 — 3. 
 
 Most persons, on reading the New Testament, 
 receive from it a strong impression of historic truth. 
 They feel that they are reading of real persons and 
 real transactions. It has been so from the beginning. 
 The bare reading of the record has generally pro- 
 duced faith. There have been millions and millions 
 of believers in Christianity, yet few of them have 
 read any treatise on the evidences of Christianity. 
 The bare, naked narrative, just as it stands on the 
 sacred pages, has been sufficient to produce belief. 
 Ninety-nine out of a hundred have believed the 
 whole, and the sceptical have been compelled to be- 
 lieve it up to the very borders of the supernatural. 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 39 
 
 It is next to impossible, for any person possessing 
 ordinary human faculties, to read the New Testa- 
 ment, and entertain a serious doubt that there was 
 such a person as Jesus Christ, or call in question the 
 reality of his ministry. The real existence of his 
 most prominent Apostles is no less unquestionable. 
 Peter, John, and Paul are as real to us as Caesar, An- 
 tony, and Cicero. There is the same difference to us 
 when we read of them and the imaginary beings of 
 romance, as there is when we see a real child beside 
 a lifeless doll, a living man beside a dead statue, a 
 cluster of natural flowers beside a bunch of painted 
 ribbons. The sceptic cannot deny this, as I have 
 already said, up to the very borders of the super- 
 natural. And then the supernatural is so interwoven 
 with the natural, they so interpenetrate each other, 
 they are so connected, as cause and effect, and so 
 grow out of each other and into each other, that they 
 cannot be separated without violence, and without 
 utter destruction to the whole tissue. This is the 
 strong ground of Christianity. This is the reason 
 why it has obtained so wide a reception in the world, 
 without any argumentation. It has all the marks of 
 simple nature so plainly, substance, form, complexion, 
 action, that it is as spontaneous to believe, as to be- 
 lieve in the existence of external nature, which daily 
 presents itself to our senses. 
 
 It is the purpose of this discourse to detect, ana- 
 lyze, define, and enumerate the causes which pro- 
 duce this almost universal belief in the historical 
 truth of the New Testament. Every historical trans- 
 action, real or fictitious, must have a time and a 
 place, must have actors, or persons concerned in it ; 
 
40 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 and, to be credible, must have consistency and rea- 
 sonableness, that is to say, the events must agree 
 with each other, the persons must act in character, 
 and the various movements must be capable of be- 
 ing accounted for by those motives which ordinarily 
 govern the conduct of human beings. All these 
 features of truth, I contend, are found in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 In the first place, the narrative of the New Testa- 
 ment has a time. It is not placed at a period ante- 
 historic or unhistoric. The time of the events related 
 by the Evangelists and Apostles is placed at a period 
 which embraces the reigns of four of the first five of 
 the Roman Emperors, a period when the civilization, 
 the literature, and intelligence of the ancient world 
 reached the highest point of development. They 
 were contemporary with three of the greatest Roman 
 historians, and with Josephus and Philo, almost the 
 only eminent writers in the Greek language which 
 the Jewish nation ever produced. The period, then, 
 was eminently historic. The eminent men and most 
 important transactions of that age are almost as 
 well known as the conspicuous events and characters 
 of England during the last century. The attempt 
 to interpolate a chapter into the history of the world 
 in such an age as that, which should introduce a 
 number of the most conspicuous individuals of the 
 time, would be utterly desperate ; as much so as for 
 a writer of the present day to forge a journal of 
 Franklin in Paris, during the Revolutionary war, and 
 introduce into it the names of the principal men then 
 upon the stage in such a way that the narrative 
 could possibly be true. No ingenuity can make his- 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 41 
 
 torical events contemporaneous which were not so, 
 and no care could prevent a fictitious narrative from 
 betraying itself in this particular. The birth of Christ, 
 the first event recorded, is represented to have taken 
 place during the reign of Augustus Caesar. The 
 time of his accession to the empire, and of his death, 
 are as well known as the commencement and termi- 
 nation of the French Revolution. One of the last 
 historical events is the trial of Paul before Nero, at 
 Rome. The time of his elevation to the empire, and 
 his suicide, are as well known as the career of Napo- 
 leon. Two intermediate Emperors are named in 
 their proper order, Tiberius and Claudius Caesar. 
 The crucifixion of Christ is said to have taken place 
 under the administration and by the agency of 
 Pontius Pilate, as Roman governor, and of Caia- 
 phas, the high-priest of the Jews. Roman history 
 informs us that Pilate was in fact governor of Judaea 
 from about the twenty-seventh to the thirty-seventh 
 year of the Christian era. That Caiaphas was high- 
 priest during the whole ministry of Jesus, appears 
 from the fact that Josephus mentions his having 
 been appointed to that office by the predecessor of 
 Pilate, and removed from office by the President of 
 Syria after he had sent Pilate home to Rome to be 
 tried for maleadministration. 
 
 Dates and periods are dangerous things to intro- 
 duce into a fictitious narrative. One of the opponents 
 of Jesus is made to say to him, near the commence- 
 ment of his ministry, " Forty and six years was this 
 temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three 
 days ? " This passage has given commentators some 
 difficulty. The first temple was built in seven years, 
 4* 
 
42 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 the second in twenty-one. The temple built by 
 Herod, and the one in which Jesus taught, was so 
 far completed as to be used within ten years from its 
 commencement. In what sense, then, could the Jew- 
 ish temple be said to have been forty-six years in 
 building? Josephus tells us, that in the reign of 
 Nero, more than twenty years after the ministry of 
 Christ, the temple was finished. The building must 
 have been going on then at the time of Christ, and 
 computing the time backwards to the time of its com- 
 mencement, as dated by the same Josephus, about 
 forty-six years must have elapsed. So that a date 
 which at first sight presents a difficulty becomes, 
 when explained, a means of ascertaining the period 
 of Christ's ministry, instead of overthrowing the 
 credibility of the narrative. 
 
 So much for the time when the events recorded in 
 the New Testament took place. Let us now look 
 at the circumstances ol place. The New Testament 
 is full of local allusions, which, if consistent with 
 facts, are strong features of historical reality. Judaea, 
 the scene of Christ's ministry, remains in its general 
 characteristics as it was in his age. The river Jor- 
 dan, the Sea of Galilee, the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, 
 are unchanged. Most of the towns and villages are 
 still recognized. Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, 
 are still extant. The identity of other and inferior 
 places is still preserved with greater or less accuracy. 
 There is enough of locality in the New Testament to 
 create a strong impression of reality, by a reference 
 to things as they now exist. He who now goes from 
 Galilee to Jerusalem must needs go through Sama- 
 ria. Jacob's well is still there, where the Saviour sat 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 43 
 
 and talked with the woman who came out to draw 
 water. He who goes from Galilee to Jerusalem 
 must go " up" and he who travels from Jerusalem to 
 Jericho, as did the man who fell among thieves, 
 must go " down." He who now visits Jerusalem, 
 and sees the elevation upon which the temple stood, 
 must perceive how truth manifests itself in little cir- 
 cumstances. " Two men," said the Saviour, " went 
 up into the temple to pray." Philip "went down 
 from Jerusalem to the city of Samaria " to preach 
 the Gospel after the ascension of Christ; and no 
 one can make the same journey now without 
 going down. What was once Bethany is now 
 about eight furlongs from Jerusalem, and a person 
 now travelling thence to Jerusalem would " descend " 
 the Mount of Olives, as Christ did when he was 
 met by the triumphal procession which conducted 
 him into Jerusalem a few days before his cruci- 
 fixion. 
 
 The journeys and voyages of Paul are strictly geo- 
 graphical, from the nightly expedition of the horse- 
 men who escorted him from Jerusalem to Csesarea, 
 to the last stage of his travels from the " Three 
 Taverns " to the city of Rome. His travels through 
 Asia Minor and Greece could not be more true to 
 times, distances, and position of places, if they were 
 made by mathematical calculation. In a true nar- 
 rative, such things are accurate without labor, but 
 in a fictitious one, no care can avoid errors and im- 
 probability. 
 
 I next proceed to speak of the persons introduced 
 as the actors who were concerned in the great enter- 
 prise of introducing and establishing Christianity in 
 
44 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 the world. I begin with Paul, and I know of no 
 person in all antiquity whose real existence is more 
 certain. His Epistles bear upon the face of them 
 the strongest marks of reality. These marks are 
 perhaps generally indefinable, but no less convincing, 
 and they leave no doubt that such a man as Paul 
 lived and acted as is there related, and that his whole 
 course of life was based on his belief in the divine 
 mission and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. This 
 is evident without any critical examination. But a 
 sagacious observer and acute reasoner, Archdeacon 
 Paley, has placed the genuineness and authenticity 
 of the Epistles of Paul entirely beyond question, by 
 comparing them with each other, and with the 
 sketches of Paul's history which are given by Luke 
 in the Acts of the Apostles. There are so many 
 cases of minute and evidently undesigned coin- 
 cidence between the two, that they do not leave a 
 shadow of a doubt that the enterprising and inde- 
 fatigable missionary of the one was the writer of the 
 other. In the narrative and the Epistles there are 
 introduced two Roman governors, Felix and Festus, 
 together with Agrippa and Berenice, grandchildren 
 of Herod the Great, and two Roman Emperors who 
 are known to us in profane history, Claudius and 
 Nero, and in accordance with it. 
 
 Next in distinctness to Paul comes Peter. We 
 may say of him, too, that his character and history 
 are singularly real. We have seen many ourselves 
 of the same type of temperament and disposition. 
 Ardent, impulsive, affectionate, but wanting in re- 
 flection, steadiness, and perseverance. He rushes 
 headlong into enterprise and danger, but has not 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 45 
 
 the coolness and firmness which are necessary to bear 
 himself well and wisely when overtaken by peril or 
 temptation. But if he sometimes does wrong, he 
 never sins by premeditation, and he is ever ready to 
 acknowledge and lament his aberrations. 
 
 Next among the Apostolic group comes John, the 
 deepest and most powerful character of them all, and 
 most nearly resembling the Saviour whom he loved. 
 Modest, retiring, contemplative, he makes us aware, 
 though we do not see him often, that there is in 
 him vast reach of mind and force of character. 
 
 We now turn from the disciples to the Master, 
 and we say, that, transcendent as was his character, 
 there is nothing in all history more real. No sus- 
 picion ever crosses the mind that it is fictitious. 
 Fictitious characters are usually mere imitations of 
 something in real life. They are at most a combi- 
 nation of qualities already exhibited in different in- 
 dividuals. But the character of Christ is wholly 
 original. It has no model in any person that ever 
 existed, nor can it be traced in any number of the 
 human race. The moral perfections of his character 
 could not have been created by any unassisted im- 
 agination. No such course of action could have 
 been invented as is attributed to him, no such dis- 
 courses could have been put into his mouth, except 
 by a wisdom as unequalled as his own. No human 
 genius could create an imaginary being like Christ, 
 and place him in the elevated position of the Light of 
 the world, the Lawgiver of the nations, the Redeemer 
 of the soul and spiritual Saviour of mankind, and 
 carry him through a ministry of three years, in which 
 he should be continually placed in the most trying 
 
46 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 and difficult circumstances, and make him act and 
 speak in character without a failure, and everywhere 
 with triumphant wisdom and consistency. To im- 
 agine such a life as Christ's, would be almost as 
 great a miracle as to live it. And this miracle must 
 have been performed by no less than four different 
 writers. And then the miracle is multiplied four- 
 fold, with this additional improbability, that four 
 writers should have happened to invent precisely the 
 same character. 
 
 Besides, the human mind, by a law of its nature, 
 finds itself compelled rationally to account for every 
 phenomenon which is presented to it. An effect must 
 have a cause, adequate to its production. They who 
 saw, this morning, the day spread itself over the 
 earth, knew that it was caused by the rising of the 
 sun, because it was dark before, but it has been light 
 ever since. Such an event was the advent of Christ. 
 His birth spontaneously bec'ame the greatest epoch 
 of the ages. From it the centuries preceding are 
 compelled to reckon backward, from it the ages 
 since are made to reckon downward. It is incon- 
 ceivable that a fictitious being, an imaginary creation 
 of the human brain, could produce such a revolution 
 in human affairs. The broad, long shadow of the 
 mountain demonstrates its vastness. We hear at a 
 distance the roar of the ocean, and we are filled with 
 astonishment and awe. We arrive at its shore, and 
 the mystery is all explained. Its mighty bulk, its 
 tall, tumbling waves, as they thunder upon the cliff 
 or break upon the beach, reveal to us the cause why 
 the atmosphere is jarred, and the earth is shaken by 
 the power of the ocean storm. So we are disposed 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 47 
 
 to wonder at the great changes produced by Chris- 
 tianity in the world. Nations which were Pagan 
 became the worshippers of the one true God. Tribes 
 which were savage became civilized. Religious 
 rites which were absurd or obscene were abandoned. 
 Amusements which were bloody, cruel, and indecent 
 were renounced. The frequency and the atrocity of 
 wars were mitigated. A gentleness and humanity 
 spread themselves over all the relations of life, which 
 poets had not imagined, and charitable institutions 
 sprang up, of which heathen philanthropy had 
 formed not the most distant conception. "Whence 
 did all these things come ? Open the New Testa- 
 ment and the mystery is revealed. Contemplate the 
 character, the doctrines, and the credentials of Jesus, 
 and you discover at a glance the adequate cause of 
 this mighty transformation. Look on Christ, the 
 spotless and undefiled. Behold the moral miracle of 
 one in human form treading all the paths of duty, 
 amidst trial and temptation before which every other 
 one of the millions of our race has fallen, yet without 
 sin. Hear him speak as never man spake, promul- 
 gating a doctrine which surpasses in wisdom all 
 that sages have ever uttered, and thus develop a re- 
 ligion which contradicts no law of human nature, 
 lays a solid basis for society, and corrects, so far as 
 they can be corrected, all the disorders to which hu- 
 manity is subjected. See him authenticate his mis- 
 sion from God by healing the sick, giving sight to 
 the blind, stilling the tempest, and raising the dead, 
 and, more than all, returning to life from the rocky 
 caverns of the guarded sepulchre, and conversing 
 forty days with his former friends and disciples, and 
 
48 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 you encounter a cause sufficiently powerful to account 
 for the mighty impulse which was given to the hu- 
 man race about the period of the Christian era. We 
 come to the stone which was cut out of the moun- 
 tain without hands, which has ever since been filling 
 the earth. No mere phantom of the human imagi- 
 nation could have done this. Nothing but a solid 
 reality could have done it. Nothing short of just 
 such a being as Christ could have done it. " The 
 stone which the builders rejected, the same has be- 
 come the head of the corner. This is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 The narrative of the Evangelists has been read 
 with immediate and spontaneous belief in all ages, 
 on account of its consistency. I mean by consist- 
 ency, its correspondence with what we know of hu- 
 man nature, and what we know of the persons with 
 whom Christ was brought in contact. Not only was 
 the character of Christ to be invented and sustained, 
 but the characters of all those with whom he had 
 intercourse. Not only was he to speak and act in 
 correspondence with his high claim as the Light of 
 the world, the Saviour of mankind, the Resurrection 
 and the Life ; but those with whom he associated, 
 his friends and his enemies, his family and his disci- 
 ples, must bear themselves in such a manner as 
 to correspond with their enmity or affection, their 
 hopes, fears, prejudices, and prepossessions. This is 
 done with such perfect success, that the thought 
 never crosses our minds of fiction or exaggeration. 
 
 In the Gospel of John we are presented with va- 
 rious persons, and groups of persons, in whose pres- 
 ence Christ is reported to have wrought miracles ; 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 49 
 
 and then the conversations are detailed which en- 
 sued. I venture to assert, that there are not more 
 lifelike pictures in the whole compass of literature. 
 
 I begin with the nocturnal interview with Nicode- 
 mus. Who does not see the wary old senator en- 
 countering the youthful Saviour, the one all caution 
 and prudence, yet on the whole disposed to be fair- 
 minded and conscientious ? The best part of him 
 spoke out in the candid confession : " Rabbi, we 
 know thou art a teacher come from God ; for no man 
 can do these miracles that thou doest,e xcept God 
 be with him." The worst part appeared in the fact 
 of his coming to Jesus by night, for fear of open dis- 
 grace, since he held a high office in the national 
 council. What more natural than that a candid 
 mind, unsupported by decisive character and a cour- 
 ageous heart, should thus have attempted to make 
 a compromise between his duty and his interest ? 
 What more natural than that there should have been 
 many among the higher classes precisely in that 
 predicament, — almost persuaded to be Christians, 
 but wanting the magnanimity to avow themselves ? 
 What could be more appropriate than the language 
 of Christ upon this occasion ? It was addressed to a 
 man of high culture, on a vital, and at the same time 
 delicate, subject. The language is sublimely figura- 
 tive, yet faithfully true. It mingles in due measure in- 
 struction with reproof. It is searching, yet respectful, 
 calculated to impress and overawe a mind prepared 
 by a refined culture to appreciate it. No human 
 being ever read this relation without the strongest 
 impression of truth and reality. 
 
 The woman of Samaria! Who that has read the 
 5 
 
50 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 story has ever failed to believe that there was such 
 a person, and that she spoke and acted as the Evan- 
 gelist describes ? How natural, under the circum- 
 stances, her wonder that there could be a Jew so 
 liberal and generous as even to speak to a Samari- 
 tan, and she a woman ! A circumstance is thrown 
 in which heightens the credibility, because it adds to 
 the naturalness of the scene, — the woman left her 
 water-pot, and hasted away to the city, and told the 
 people, with the natural exaggeration of astonish- 
 ment, " He told me all things that ever I did." How 
 perfectly in keeping the surprise of his disciples 
 to find him talking with a Samaritan woman, and 
 how expressive of the awful distance which the ex- 
 alted character of Christ had put between him and 
 his disciples, that they do not dare to express their 
 wonder by uttering a word ! The Gospel has every 
 appearance of having been written before the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem. What forger of fictions would 
 have dared, if he had had the genius to do it, to risk 
 his character and credit by uttering the sublime pre- 
 diction : " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
 when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at 
 Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour 
 cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers 
 shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for 
 the Father seeketh such to worship him." 
 
 The only other narrative of the Evangelist, which 
 I shall have space to notice, is that of the raising of 
 Lazarus. As this is the most stupendous miracle of 
 Christ, so the scenes and conversations which led 
 to it, accompanied, and followed it, are given with 
 the greatest minuteness and particularity ; and it is 
 
REALITY OF PERSONS, TIMES, AND PLACES. 51 
 
 not too much to say, that they produce the deepest 
 impressions of truth, — the news of the sickness of 
 the distant friend, the gloom which overshadowed 
 the house of mourning, the sorrow of the sisters, ex- 
 pressing itself in different ways, appropriate to the 
 character of each, the approach to the grave, the 
 paroxysm of grief which the sight of the spot occa- 
 sions, the groans and the weeping of Jesus himself, 
 the words by which the slumbers of the dead were 
 broken, the wrappings with which the buried man 
 came forth, the very prayer which Jesus uttered be- 
 fore he ventured to pronounce the most thrilling 
 command that was ever uttered by man, " Lazarus, 
 come forth ! " — all these things bespeak the accuracy 
 of an eyewitness, and, although connected with an 
 interruption of the ordinary course of nature, produce 
 upon us the strongest impression of truth and 
 reality. 
 
 I might go on to point out the marks of truth and 
 reality which occur in the minute details of circum- 
 stances attending the resurrection of Jesus, — the 
 particulars related by John as an eyewitness; the 
 going with Peter to the sepulchre ; the fact that they 
 both went into it, and had the most ample means of 
 ascertaining that the body of Jesus was not there ; 
 the interview in the upper chamber and at the sea- 
 side. 
 
 But I forbear, and merely observe, in conclusion, 
 that these things bring us to the margin of the su- 
 pernatural, and we step over it into the miraculous 
 without any severe shock to our faith. So inter- 
 woven and intermixed are the supernatural events 
 with those within the ordinary laws of nature, that 
 
52 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 we find it impossible to separate them, and we are 
 brought to debate the last question which embar- 
 rasses the full exercise of unlimited faith, the reason- 
 ableness of this especial providence by which Chris- 
 tianity has been introduced into the world. We are 
 naturally and justly cautious in the reception of the 
 supernatural. Under ordinary circumstances, it is 
 incredible. The reasons why God established and 
 upholds a fixed order of nature are obvious and co- 
 gent. There must be a sufficient ground of expec- 
 tation for the future, and of belief for the distant and 
 the past, or the mind, being unable to discriminate 
 between the probable and the improbable, would fall 
 a prey to superstition, or, being unable to count on a 
 fixed order of nature, would sink into utter imbe- 
 cility. But the moral dignity and spotless integrity 
 of Jesus exempt him from all suspicion of having 
 deceived the world, and his unapproachable wisdom 
 lifts him above all liability to the delusions of enthu- 
 siasm. The objects of his religion, the spiritual 
 enlightenment and salvation of the world, we pro- 
 nounce to be worthy the special interposition of the 
 God of nature and the Father of mankind. The 
 time and the place at which he appeared seem op- 
 portune for the dissemination of a positive doctrine 
 and a permanent form of administration over the 
 world. And the history of the world from that time 
 to this has borne witness, that Christianity, what- 
 ever may have been its origin, has been the greatest 
 boon that Providence ever conferred on man. 
 
DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 
 
 ALL THINGS ARE DELIVERED UNTO ME OF MY FATHER : AND 
 NO MAN KNOWETH THE SON BUT THE FATHER; NEITHER 
 KNOWETH ANY MAN THE FATHER, SAVE THE SON, AND HE 
 TO WHOMSOEVER THE SON WILL REVEAL HIM. — Matthew 
 
 xi. 27. 
 
 The life, the words, and actions of Jesus being 
 admitted as historical facts, they reveal and make 
 certain another historical fact, which is situated 
 near the very centre of the subject concerning 
 which we are treating, the consciousness of Jesus 
 himself of what he was. He must have known who 
 and what he was himself, whether he had or had 
 not supernatural communication with God, the 
 power of working miracles, and divine authority to 
 establish a new religion in the world, to proclaim its 
 laws and appoint its ritual. Is there evidence that 
 there was such a consciousness in him ? 
 
 In every intelligent being there is such a thing as 
 a consciousness. The thing which is signified by 
 this word is so simple, that it cannot be defined or 
 made more clear by the use of any other word. Other 
 terms may illustrate it, but they cannot make it more 
 5* 
 
54 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 plain. We may say, that it is the continued and 
 certain knowledge that we, each one of us, have, that 
 he is one individual being, and not two or three 
 beings, — that he is the same being to-day that he 
 was yesterday, and last year; the conviction that 
 we have certain powers of thought and will, — that 
 we sustain certain relations of brother, sister, son, 
 daughter, father, — certain offices of master, servant, 
 magistrate, teacher, — have the power to labor, suffer, 
 and enjoy. Concerning these things, while the mind 
 is sane, there can be no mistake. 
 
 Every human being has this consciousness. He not 
 only has it, but it becomes the basis of all his conduct. 
 The father daily exercises the authority which he is 
 conscious of rightfully possessing over his children. 
 The magistrate daily goes forth and takes his seat 
 on the bench of justice or in the chair of state. Were 
 one to take that seat who had not been appointed 
 to it, he could not act his part. He could not sus- 
 tain himself for any length of time. He would be 
 confused and discomfited, because there would be a 
 continual contradiction between his position and his 
 consciousness. The consciousness that he was acting 
 a part would throw him into utter confusion. Or if 
 he preserved his. gravity and persevered in his pre- 
 tensions, it would be certain that he was insane, that 
 his consciousness, or rather his mind, had become 
 diseased. 
 
 So, moreover, we cannot be long with any person, 
 without becoming aware of his consciousness, what 
 he conceives himself to be. It is asserted or implied 
 in every word, in every act, in every look. We need 
 only to listen for a short time to the conversation of 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 55 
 
 an utter stranger, to learn who he is, where he has 
 lived, what relations in life he has sustained. Of 
 these things we do not conceive it possible for him to 
 have a false impression. 
 
 The identity of another is marked by possession 
 of a certain species of knowledge. There have been 
 travellers who have visited regions unknown to any 
 other individual of the community to which they 
 belong. This knowledge distinguishes them from 
 every other, and enables them to speak with authority 
 on subjects upon which all others are silent. An- 
 other has pursued a science far beyond his associates. 
 He can converse with knowledge and certainty on 
 points on which they are in the dark. Individuals 
 of distinguished attainments have been recognized in 
 public conveyances by the fact that they displayed 
 knowledge of certain subjects wholly beyond the 
 measure of ordinary men, and known to be possessed 
 by them alone. 
 
 It is the purpose of this discourse to apply these 
 principles to Jesus Christ. What consciousness ex- 
 hibited itself in his thoughts, words, and actions, and 
 in the position he assumed in relation to God and to 
 mankind ? 
 
 In the first place, negatively, did he anywhere 
 exhibit the consciousness that he was God ? It is 
 maintained that he was both God and man. If he 
 was God, he must have been conscious that he was 
 God. Nothing can be more absurd than to assert 
 that he was God, and was not conscious that he 
 was God. If he was ever conscious that he was 
 God, he must at all times have been conscious that 
 he was God; for God is an unchangeable being, and 
 
56 
 
 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 must be always conscious that he is the same. He 
 could not have been conscious that he was God at 
 one time, and was not God at another time. Con- 
 sciousness is a thing which cannot be shifted from 
 one being to another. Identity of being is identity 
 of consciousness. It is a contradiction in terms to 
 assert that one being can be conscious of being two. 
 If Christ had had the consciousness that he was 
 God, the first duty he would have taught his disci- 
 ples would have been that of worshipping him. If 
 he had had this consciousness that he was the Sov- 
 ereign of the universe, and the Creator of all things, 
 could he have concealed this consciousness ? or if he 
 did, did he not live and act under a disguise ? 
 
 And then he did things which were wholly incon- 
 sistent with the consciousness that he was God. He 
 prayed, and often. He could not have prayed, if he 
 were conscious that he was God. It is no cure for 
 this difficulty to say, that he had two natures, and 
 prayed in his human nature. His consciousness must 
 have pervaded both natures, and could not have been 
 absent from either of them for a single moment. If 
 it could be withdrawn from either nature, that nature 
 did not make a part of his essential and permanent 
 being. He denied that he possessed omniscience. " Of 
 that day and hour knoweth not the Son, but the Fa- 
 ther only." This he could not have done, if he had 
 been conscious that he was God. The words of every 
 being are a revelation of his consciousness. When 
 God speaks, it is with the consciousness that he is 
 God, and it is generally to claim or declare some 
 divine attribute. As in the annunciation of the 
 Decalogue, he says, " I am the Lord thy God : thou 
 shalt have no other gods before me." 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 57 
 
 If he had been really the Almighty God, not only 
 ought the consciousness that he was God to have 
 incidentally revealed itself, but candor demanded that 
 it should be openly and perpetually declared. The 
 real ground of his claim to the obedience of man- 
 kind would have been that he was God. 
 
 The most direct way to secure that obedience 
 would have been to declare that he was God. Jesus, 
 when he sat down on the Mount, or in the ship, to 
 teach the multitude, should have prefaced his dis- 
 course with some such preamble as this : " I am 
 Jehovah, your God, who once gave your fathers the 
 law from Horeb, amid the flames, the thunder, and 
 the smoke. Therefore ye shall keep the command- 
 ments which I give you this day." If he was con- 
 scious that he was God, it is difficult to conceive 
 that he would have adopted any other phraseology. 
 It is true, that on one occasion he was accused of 
 making himself God by calling himself the Son of 
 God. If he had been conscious that he was God, it 
 is wholly impossible to suppose that he would have 
 shrunk from the charge. Integrity and self-respect 
 would have forbidden it. But he made no such 
 avowal. He declared that he called himself the Son 
 of God, not because he claimed to be God, but be- 
 cause God "had sanctified and sent him into the 
 world." 
 
 In the second place, negatively, does he manifest 
 the consciousness that he is a mere man ? By a 
 mere man, I mean one without supernatural endow- 
 ments, and without extraordinary relations to God 
 and the human race. I answer emphatically, No. 
 From his baptism to his crucifixion there was some- 
 
58 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 thing in his whole bearing which could spring from' 
 nothing but conscious elevation above the level of 
 unaided, uninspired humanity. 
 
 There is no law more universal, than that the 
 demeanor of men shall adjust itself to their position. 
 It is instinctive and spontaneous. There is a uni- 
 versal sense of propriety, which dictates and de- 
 mands it. 
 
 In those countries where the supreme power is he- 
 reditary, or descends to collateral branches of a royal 
 or imperial family, there are not seldom elevations 
 from a private station to supreme dignity and sover- 
 eign authority. The transfer is scarcely made before 
 its consequences are visible. An entire change is wit- 
 nessed in the deportment of the new occupant of the 
 throne. A new consciousness enters into him, and 
 pervades all his thoughts, words, and actions. There 
 is a new dignity, a new sense of authority, a spon- 
 taneous assumption of superiority, a serene magna- 
 nimity, which is undisturbed by the ordinary occur- 
 rences of life. 
 
 This conscious dignity of position, as it seems to 
 me, shone out in the whole demeanor of Jesus, after 
 his inauguration by John the Baptist and the descent 
 of the Holy Ghost. During the former part of his 
 life, he had occupied an humble sphere in the world. 
 The reputed son of a carpenter, he had lived in an 
 obscure village. But when he returned from the 
 Jordan "in the power of the Spirit," he was still just 
 as humble in external appearance, but a spontaneous 
 dignity rose up in him, un approached by any one 
 who ever wore the vestments of mortality. Time, as 
 it passed on, demonstrated that it was not assumed. 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 59 
 
 It was the natural expression of the consciousness of 
 the position he held in the Divine administration of 
 the world, as the promised Messiah who had a place 
 in the Divine counsels from the foundation of the 
 world, the great Shepherd, who was to gather into 
 one fold all the scattered tribes of the human race. 
 
 This conscious dignity never forsook him. It made 
 a part of him. It impressed his disciples with an 
 overpowering reverence. It filled the surrounding 
 multitudes with awe. We perceive it in every page 
 of the Gospels, and it strikes us as exhibiting a man- 
 ifest congruity. It is a strong corroboration of our 
 faith. It displays an exact coincidence between 
 internal consciousness and outward profession. It 
 makes the spontaneous demeanor and public claim 
 of Jesus harmonious, and each lends propriety to 
 the other. 
 
 In the third place, then, positively, he does manifest 
 the consciousness of immediate supernatural commu~ 
 nication with God. 
 
 He speaks of himself as having a knoivledge of 
 God and his counsels, which no one else possessed. 
 To Nicodemus he said, " Verily, verily, I say unto 
 thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we 
 have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have 
 told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall 
 ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things. And no 
 man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came 
 down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is 
 in heaven." Here he is speaking expressly concern- 
 ing the nature of the Christian religion, that it was 
 to be spiritual, and not national and external. Not 
 only did he know it, he affirms, supernaturally, but 
 
60 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 he was the only depositary at that moment of this 
 knowledge. Nearly the same sense is conveyed in 
 the passage from which the text is taken. It ex- 
 presses the fulness of knowledge of divine things 
 which was to be possessed under the new dispensa- 
 tion, so superior to that possessed by the wisest of 
 men under the Mosaic economy. " At that time 
 Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, 
 Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid 
 these things from the. wise and prudent, and hast 
 revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so 
 it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered 
 unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the 
 Son but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the 
 Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
 Son will reveal him." 
 
 Many persons suppose that there is a great mys- 
 tery here ; that Christ is speaking of his metaphysical 
 nature as known only to God, and so it must be the 
 metaphysical nature of God which is known to 
 Christ alone. But the connection does not point to 
 such a sense. Christ's metaphysical nature could not 
 have been made known by revelation to himself. 
 It must have been made known to him by sponta- 
 neous, original consciousness. One of the objects of 
 spontaneous consciousness is to inform us what we 
 are, and what we have done, and what we have 
 been doing ever since we have had a being. " Who 
 the Messiah is," must refer, then, to the purposes of 
 his mission and the nature of his religion. These 
 were the things which had been kept concealed from 
 the wise and prudent, but were now revealed unto 
 babes, — to men of ordinary attainments and under- 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 61 
 
 standing. All these tilings were delivered unto him 
 by his Heavenly Father. 
 
 This point of the consciousness of supernatural 
 knowledge receives further illustration from Christ's 
 last prayer with his disciples. This was one of the 
 most solemn acts of his life. In addressing the om- 
 niscient God, his inmost consciousness must of course 
 come out. " Father," said he, " the hour is come : 
 glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee : 
 as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he 
 should give eternal life to as many as thou hast 
 given him. And this is life eternal, that they might 
 know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 thou hast sent." 
 
 More solemn language than this cannot be found. 
 It was uttered in the presence of God, and to God, 
 and at the approach of death. It must therefore be 
 considered as expressing the inmost consciousness 
 of his soul. Its testimony is both negative and posi- 
 tive. He could not have been conscious that he 
 was God, as he calls the Being whom he addressed 
 as the only true God ; or rather, he must have been 
 conscious that he was not God. The testimony is 
 positive, that he felt himself to have received a divine 
 mission : u And Jesus Christ, ivhom thou hast senV 
 The object of that mission was revelation, the commu- 
 nication of a knowledge which he had received from 
 God. " That they might know thee, the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." It 
 was not the metaphysical nature of God that he 
 was to make known, for that is revealed through 
 his works, and is open to the investigations of phi- 
 losophy, but his moral nature, his paternal character, 
 6 
 
62 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 and his purposes concerning man. Neither was it 
 the metaphysical nature of Christ that he dwelt upon 
 in his teaching. Concerning this he is profoundly 
 silent. It is the purposes of his mission, the nature 
 of his kingdom, the essential character of his religion, 
 upon which he discourses. This is further evident 
 from the nature of the faith they were to cherish in 
 him. It was not that by nature he was this or that, 
 but that his doctrines were an express revelation 
 from God. " I have glorified thee on the earth ; 1 have 
 
 finished the work which thou gavest me to do 
 
 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou 
 
 hast given me Now they have known that 
 
 whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I 
 have given them the words which thou gavest me; and 
 they have received them, and have known surely 
 that I came out from thee, and they have believed 
 that thou didst send me" " Sanctify them through 
 thy truth : thy word is truth." 
 
 Now I know of no words in which Christ could 
 have expressed more fully, calmly, rationally, and 
 explicitly, the objects of his mission and ministry on 
 earth. There is not the least shadow of mysticism 
 or enthusiasm in this admirable prayer. The im- 
 pression is, in the first place, full and perfect on the 
 mind of the reader, that no human being that ever 
 lived could have fo?ged such a prayer and put it into 
 Christ's mouth. In the second place, it all evidently 
 flows out of a deep and solemn consciousness of a 
 mission from God, and of the reception of a super- 
 natural revelation from him. Concerning this mission 
 and this revelation, as it was a matter of conscious- 
 ness, supposing his mind to be rightly constituted 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 63 
 
 and in a healthy state, there could have been no 
 mistake. A supernatural connection with God is 
 asserted over and over again. On one occasion his 
 disciples demand, as a full and decisive proof of 
 his divine commission, that he should show them the 
 Father, not, as some might be led to think, as a mat- 
 ter of childish curiosity, but of certain assurance that 
 they were following one clothed with divine author- 
 ity. " Show us," said they, " the Father, and it suffi- 
 ceth us." It sufficeth not our curiosity, but our faith. 
 Show us some outward manifestation of God, or 
 of God's presence, such as Moses showed the Israel- 
 ites at Mount Sinai, and we shall no longer doubt 
 whether the Master we follow be sent of God. Jesus 
 answers, that in himself his disciples have had a 
 clear manifestation of God. " Hast thou been so 
 long time with me, and hast thou not known me, 
 Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; 
 and how sayest thou, then, Show us the Father?" 
 He then goes on to explain himself, — that his doc- 
 trines and his miracles are from God, and are of such 
 a nature as to convince the hearer and the beholder 
 that he could not have produced them unless God 
 were with him and in him. Belief in Christ was to 
 be grounded on his doctrines and on his miracles, 
 and not, as in the Mosaic religion, on any external 
 manifestation of God's presence. " Believest thou 
 not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? " 
 Of that indwelling of the Father he could only tes- 
 tify. He could not prove it, because it was a matter 
 of consciousness. The proof he offered to others 
 was his doctrines and his miracles, of which every 
 one was a competent judge. Could such words be 
 
64 — HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 uttered, could such miracles be wrought, by one who 
 had no miraculous connection with God ? li The 
 words that I speak unto you, I speak not of my- 
 self; but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth 
 the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and 
 the Father in me ; or else believe me for the very 
 works' sake." I, for one, cannot conceive of more 
 calm, clear, and definite language, in which Christ's 
 connection with God could have been expressed. 
 
 There seems to me to be in the whole demeanor 
 and language of Jesus a mingled tone of sadness 
 and sublimity, which corresponds to the conscious- 
 ness we must suppose him to have possessed of his 
 high destiny and relations, in contrast with that 
 tragical end which awaited his ministry on earth. 
 
 His peculiar relations to God and to mankind, as 
 the Mediator between God and man, the Founder 
 of a universal religion, the First that was to rise from 
 the dead, involving the bloody and cruel death he 
 was to suffer, which was fully foreseen in its minut- 
 est circumstances, — these things set him apart as 
 inaccessible to all human sympathy, and gave his 
 whole character an unearthly, anomalous, unap- 
 proachable cast, which has contributed much to that 
 cloud of mysticism the Church has thrown around 
 the person of Christ. This consciousness marked his 
 individuality, and it flowed out in his language and 
 bearing everywhere. We see it in his interview 
 with Nicodemus, and in comparative youth it baffles 
 and overpowers the grave, venerable, and wordly- 
 wise senator of Jerusalem. We see it in his con- 
 versation with the woman of Samaria, in which he 
 speaks of supplanting Judaism and establishing a 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 65 
 
 spiritual and universal religion, as a common and 
 familiar thought. 
 
 There is an instance more striking, in which this 
 consciousness of a world-wide mission flowed out 
 almost in the form of a soliloquy. It was when 
 certain Greeks desired to be introduced to him. We 
 immediately imagine the association of ideas by 
 which his subsequent language was suggested. It 
 would naturally lead him to think of the universality 
 of his mission, not yet fully disclosed to the world, 
 but as certain to him as his own existence. These 
 Greeks were, as it were, the first-fruits of an abun- 
 dant harvest, the first drops of a copious shower. 
 
 But he could become a universal Messiah only by 
 dying. As long as he lived, the Jews, even those 
 who believed on him, would appropriate him to 
 themselves, and imagine that he came to make Ju- 
 daism universal. His death was to destroy that 
 hope, and reveal the fact, that his kingdom was 
 spiritual, and destined to supersede, and not to per- 
 petuate, Judaism. He must die to the Jews, in order 
 to extend his religion to the Gentiles. 
 
 " And there were certain Greeks among them that 
 came up to worship at the feast. The same came 
 therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Gali- 
 lee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Je- 
 sus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew ; and again, 
 Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered 
 them, saying, Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
 ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it 
 bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life 
 shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world 
 shall keep it unto life eternal." 
 6* 
 
66 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 That this consciousness of a divine mission, and 
 of supernatural communication with God, was in 
 him, and in a manner made a part of his being, we 
 have not only the testimony of his express declara- 
 tion, but the constant and consistent testimony of 
 his whole conduct, after the commencement of his 
 public ministry. He assumed at once, humble as he 
 was in his outward appearance, to be the Founder of 
 a new religion, commensurate with the human race, 
 and as lasting as time. He laid down its essential 
 doctrines, he showed wherein it was coincident with 
 Judaism, which was the existing religion, and in 
 what it differed. He declared what part of the old 
 religion was retained, and what part was done away. 
 He appointed the ritual of the new religion, and 
 commenced its celebration. He appointed twelve 
 Apostles to be the constant attendants of his minis- 
 try, to receive his doctrines, to imbibe his spirit and 
 be the witnesses of his life and actions, and after his 
 resurrection he commissioned them to spread his 
 religion over the world. " Go," said he, " teach all 
 nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have 
 commanded you." On this clear, calm, consistent, 
 and unchanging consciousness of Jesus, revealed 
 through all his words and actions, has been mainly 
 based the faith of the Christian world in all ages. 
 They have regarded him as the faithful and true wit- 
 ness, and, dying as he did in testimony to this claim, 
 his death has been understood as a martyrdom to 
 this great fact. His mission was sealed by his 
 blood. 
 
 By placing this ground of faith at the head, I 
 would not be understood to exclude or disparage 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 67 
 
 other grounds of belief. Christ himself did not. He 
 gave his testimony, but he declared that his testi- 
 mony was corroborated by his supernatural words 
 and works. " It is written in your law," said he, 
 "that the testimony of two men is true. I am one 
 that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent 
 me beareth witness of me." 
 
 These different grounds of evidence remain to the 
 present day, not unchanged in relative strength, but 
 in substance essentially the same. The miracles 
 were conclusive to them who saw them, but they 
 come to us at second hand. As they are recorded 
 in the Gospels by the Evangelists, they are the testi- 
 mony of a testimony. The miraculousness of the 
 words of Christ consists in their essential wisdom 
 and spirituality. This is not only as manifest to 
 our minds as to those who first listened to them, but 
 more so. The mind of the world has made vast 
 progress, intellectually, since that time. Science and 
 experience have expanded it in every direction. 
 Christianity has developed the moral and spiritual 
 capacities of men, as they were never developed 
 before. Neither man's intellectual nor spiritual ad- 
 vancement has gone beyond Christianity. They are 
 still far behind it. But every step of their progress 
 makes men more sensible how great and wise a thing 
 Christianity is, how sublimely true are the words of 
 Jesus, how necessary it is to suppose them to have 
 come directly from the wisdom of the Omniscient 
 Mind. 
 
DISCOURSE V 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 
 
 THEN SPAKE JESUS AGAIN UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM THE 
 LIGHT OF THE WORLD : HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL 
 NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF 
 
 life. — Johnviii. 12. 
 
 If we may believe the history of the New Testa- 
 ment, Jesus was miraculously sent by God to set up 
 a new religion upon the earth, which was to embrace 
 the whole world and continue to the end of time. 
 But in order to do this, it was necessary that he 
 should possess certain endowments. He must pos- 
 sess superhuman knowledge^ and must know that he 
 possessed it, in order to have confidence in himself 
 and in his enterprise. No human wisdom was com- 
 petent to frame a religion for the world. Without 
 conscious inspiration from above, he could not have 
 assumed the position of authority which was neces- 
 sary to the character of the promulgator of a new 
 religion. The offices of prophet and philosopher 
 are totally different. The philosopher promulgates 
 truth upon the authority of reason and argumenta- 
 tion. He wins others to coincide with him in opinion 
 
THE CLAIMS -OF CHRIST. 69 
 
 by argument. The prophet promulgates truth on 
 the ground of certainty, and of course on the basis 
 of an authority which commands, not only assent, 
 but obedience. He who is sent by God has a right, 
 and feels that he has a right, to command. The phi- 
 losopher only persuades, and feels that he has only 
 a right to persuade. One establishes a religion, the 
 other a philosophical sect. 
 
 It may be objected, that the certainty from which 
 Christ spoke was only a higher degree of moral 
 conviction, which all men have in a degree. When 
 he said, " There is one God," he uttered only the 
 conviction which is inspired by the consentaneous 
 phenomena of the universe ; and when he said that 
 this and that was God's will and law, he only gave 
 utterance to the dictates of conscience, that universal 
 moral nature which God has given to all men; 
 when he said that God would reward the righteous 
 and punish the wicked, he only said what ought to 
 be, and, if God is just and omnipotent, what will 
 be ; and, of course, he only prophesied out of that 
 moral and spiritual nature which is common to all 
 men. In that case, he really knew no more than any 
 one else ; he had merely stronger moral convictions 
 than the rest of mankind. 
 
 This ground cannot be taken without questioning 
 his veracity and moral integrity. For he claims im- 
 mediate, conscious inspiration, direct communication 
 with God, and makes it the ground, not only of abso- 
 lute certainty, but of just authority over mankind. 
 
 Not only was there necessary to his enterprise 
 supernatural knowledge, and the consciousness of it, 
 but some supernatural seal from God, confirming and 
 
70 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 substantiating his assertion. This was indispensable 
 for two reasons. It was necessary for the establish- 
 ment of his claims to authority over mankind. It 
 performed the same office to them that the voice 
 from heaven did to his immediate followers : " This is 
 my beloved Son : hear ye him" Still more was it 
 necessary to his success with the Jews. Without it, 
 he could not have made a single convert. No Jew 
 would ever have forsaken a religion founded on the 
 evidence of miracle, for one sustained merely by phil- 
 osophical argument and logical demonstration. 
 
 Accordingly, the Jews make this continual demand 
 upon him, throughout his whole ministry. " A mir- 
 acle, a miracle ! " say they. " Give us a sign, a sign 
 from heaven. We know that God spake unto Mo- 
 ses, but as for this fellow, we know not whence he 
 is." Moses had shown them signs from heaven, that 
 is to say, the giving of the Law was accompanied by 
 thunder and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, from 
 the cloud on Sinai. Bread for their sustenance had 
 apparently fallen from the celestial regions for forty 
 years. A religion thus authenticated could not have 
 been superseded by philosophical argument, nor by 
 any revelation of spiritual truth, however clear and 
 demonstrative, unaccompanied by miraculous testi- 
 mony. Accordingly, this was the first instrument of 
 his success, before the excellence of his teaching was 
 developed. " Before that Philip called thee, when 
 thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel 
 answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son 
 of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered 
 and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, Isaiv thee 
 under the fig4ree,believestthou? Thou shalt see greater 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 71 
 
 things than these. Verily, verily , I say unto you, here- 
 after ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God 
 ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." 
 
 It is an historical fact, then, if the New Testament 
 is to be relied on, that Jesus, immediately after his 
 baptism, assumed the position of a prophet ; that is, he 
 claimed supernatural knowledge, a knowledge com- 
 municated to him immediately from God. We have 
 seen that he did so in the case of Nathaniel, and the 
 fact was recognized by Nathaniel himself. This 
 knowledge related to a contemporaneous event. In 
 his conversation with Nicodemus, he claimed super- 
 natural knowledge of another kind; that the religion 
 which God was about to set up was to be a new 
 and distinct religion, not a branch or modification of 
 Judaism. All must be bom again, the Jew as well 
 as the heathen, in order to enter into the kingdom of 
 God. This knowledge comes from God. It is not 
 an uncertain opinion, it is a certain truth. It is a 
 thing to which he testifies as a thing known, not as a 
 mere probability, as a thing believed. " Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, we speak that w r e do know, and tes- 
 tify that we have seen, and ye receive not our wit- 
 ness." This knowledge is confined to himself alone. 
 " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that 
 came down from heaven, even the Son of Man 
 which is in heaven." Heaven is the habitation of 
 God, and as those who know the counsels of kings 
 gain access to them by approaching the court where 
 they reside, so, by a figure of speech, to know the Di- 
 vine counsels is to be in heaven. He goes on to dis- 
 close a secret of the Divine purpose, known to none 
 at that moment but the Omniscient Mind, the cruci- 
 
72 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 fixion of the Messiah. "As Moses lifted up the ser- 
 pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man 
 be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have eternal life." 
 
 This supernatural knowledge of Jesus was one of 
 the main instruments of fixing the faith of his con- 
 temporaries. It produced a strong demonstration in 
 his favor among the Samaritans. The woman who 
 came to the well of Jacob is immediately arrested 
 and convinced by it. " Go, call thy husband, and 
 come hither. The woman answered and said, I 
 have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast 
 well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had 
 five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not 
 thy husband : in that saidst thou truly. The woman 
 saith unto him, Sir } I perceive that thou art a prophet" 
 
 That Jesus was conscious of possessing supernatu- 
 ral knowledge, communicated to him immediately 
 by God, we can have no higher evidence than that 
 he recognizes the fact in acts of solemn prayer to 
 God. " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
 earth, because thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
 babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
 thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my 
 Father : and no man knoweth the Son, but the 
 Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save 
 the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
 him." We cannot conceive of any sincere, not to 
 say sane, man, making use of such language as this, 
 in solemn prayer to God, without a consciousness of 
 supernatural communication from him. To the same 
 effect are the words of his last prayer with his disci- 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 73 
 
 pies : " For I have given unto them the words which 
 thou gavest me ; and they have received them, and 
 have known surely that I came out from thee, and 
 they have believed that thou didst send me." 
 
 His knowledge of God was not derived from phil- 
 osophical speculation, but from immediate inspira- 
 tion. That knowledge was to be to his disciples the 
 source or cause of eternal life. " As thou hast given 
 him power over all flesh, that he should give eter- 
 nal life to as many as thou hast given him. And 
 this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast 
 sent." 
 
 To the reception or rejection of those doctrines 
 which he promulgated on the ground of his super- 
 natural knowledge, he attached the most momentous 
 consequences. " He that keepeth my word shall 
 never see death." " I am the bread which came 
 down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he 
 shall live for ever." Could he have made such claims 
 had he not been conscious of communicating to the 
 world doctrines which he had derived immediately 
 from God ? 
 
 Christ claimed the possession of supernatural pow- 
 ers, the poiver of working miracles, and alleged them 
 as proofs of his mission from God. It is difficult to 
 conceive how he could have proceeded on his mis- 
 sion with confidence without them. They authen- 
 ticated himself to himself. How otherwise could he 
 distinguish the suggestions of the Spirit, which was 
 given him without measure, from the motions of his 
 own mind ? The inward mission must be corroborated 
 by outward sign, before he could assume the respon- 
 7 
 
74 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 sible position of the founder of a new divine dispen- 
 sation to mankind. The inauguration in the Jordan 
 seems to be the first event of that kind which fixed 
 the conviction in his own mind, that he was that 
 great prophet which was to come into the world. 
 For immediately afterward new temptations seem 
 to be suggested, natural to the consciousness of 
 standing in a new position, and receiving new and 
 untried powers. Human passions and appetites 
 were presented with new instruments, and tempted 
 with new opportunities. " If thou be the Son of 
 God" if thou art the Messiah, and possessest mi- 
 raculous powers, use them for the supply of thy 
 wants and the gratification of thine appetites, 
 " command these stones to be made bread." If 
 thou possessest miraculous powers, use them for the 
 gratification of ambition : become a temporal sover- 
 eign, and reign over all the kingdoms of the earth. 
 Or of thy vanity, and cast thyself from the pin- 
 nacle of the temple, in the presence of a multitude, 
 to excite their admiration and astonishment. 
 
 But for none of these purposes did he use them, 
 or attempt to use them. He made them always the 
 seals of his mission. Before the raising of Lazarus, 
 the most stupendous of all his miracles, he prayed 
 aloud : " Father, I thank thee, that thou hast heard 
 me. And I know that thou hearest me always ; but 
 because of the people which stand by I said it, that 
 they may believe that thou didst send me." This sin- 
 gle instance is a key to the bearing of all his miracles, 
 and the use which he made of them to authenticate 
 his mission. 
 
 On another occasion he said : " But I have greater 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 75 
 
 witness than that of John, for the works which the 
 Father hath given me to finish, the same works that 
 I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
 me." On another occasion he said : " It is written 
 in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 
 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father 
 that sent me beareth witness of me." Again : " The 
 works that I do in my Father's name, they bear wit- 
 ness of me." Again : " If I do not the works of my 
 Father, believe me not, but if I do, though ye believe 
 not me, believe the works, that ye may know and be- 
 lieve that I am in the Father and the Father in me." 
 
 Such were the frequent, explicit, and unequivocal 
 appeals of Jesus to his miracles as the evidence of 
 his mission from God. They were made at the 
 time, and in the presence of those who were the 
 witnesses of them. They were considered by his 
 contemporaries, who believed on him, as having that 
 bearing. Nicodemus, a Rabbi of ripe judgment, of 
 mature age and high intellectual culture, came to 
 him and said : " Rabbi, we know that thou art a 
 teacher come from God; for no man can do these mira- 
 cles that thou doest, except God be with him." Such 
 was the reasoning of the man born blind, whose eyes 
 Jesus had opened. " Why, herein is a marvellous 
 thing, that ye know not whence he is, and yet he hath 
 opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth 
 not sinners ; but if any man be a worshipper of God, 
 and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world 
 began was it not heard that any man opened the 
 eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were 
 not of God, he could do nothing." 
 
 The force of Christ's miracles was attempted to be 
 
76 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 evaded by his enemies, on the ground that they were 
 testimony to his divine mission, which, if not re- 
 butted, left them without excuse in their unbelief. 
 " Then was brought unto him one possessed with a 
 devil, blind and dumb ; and he healed him, insomuch 
 that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. " And 
 all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the 
 Son of David?" Is not this the Messiah? "But 
 when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow 
 doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of 
 the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said 
 unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is 
 brought to desolation, and every city or house di- 
 vided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan 
 cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how 
 shall then his kingdom stand ? If I by Beelzebub 
 cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them 
 
 out ? But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of 
 
 God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" 
 
 This testimony of miracles to the mission of Jesus 
 is the basis of the whole structure of the Gospel ac- 
 cording to John. John states the purpose of his 
 Gospel in the following verses : " And many other 
 signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, 
 which are not written in this book; but these are 
 written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
 the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have 
 life through his name." 
 
 The word in this passage rendered " sign" means 
 a mark or token, an evidence, a signature, a voucher. 
 As applied to the miracles of Christ, it means the 
 divine signature to his mission. Accordingly, if we 
 carefully examine the structure of the fourth Gospel, 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 77 
 
 we shall find that it is a selection of the most remark- 
 able of Christ 9 s miracles, those which conveyed the 
 strongest proof to the immediate spectators that Jesus 
 was the expected Messiah. First, the supernatural 
 knowledge he exhibited of the character and history of 
 Nathaniel ; then his miraculous penetration into the 
 purposes and thoughts of Nicodemus ; then his de- 
 tailed development of the condition and previous life 
 of the woman of Samaria ; then the feeding of the 
 multitude in the desert; then the raising of Lazarus; 
 then the cure of the blind man, which was legally in- 
 vestigated ; then of the lame man, who had been a 
 cripple eight-and-thirty years ; and finally his resur- 
 rection and repeated appearances to his disciples, 
 and his submitting himself to the test of their senses ; 
 — all these constitute a mass of miraculous events, 
 which, if admitted as historical facts, leave no doubt 
 of the divine mission of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Jesus claimed to possess superhuman ivisdom. There 
 is a difference between superhuman wisdom and su- 
 pernatural knowledge. The knowledge of future 
 events, of the thoughts of others, of things distant 
 and unseen, is one thing, and the knowledge of truth, 
 of human nature, human relations, duties, and respon- 
 sibilities, is another. They do not necessarily involve 
 each other. The prophets of old possessed a knowl- 
 edge often of the future and unseen, but, with the 
 exception of Moses, none of them possessed the wis- 
 dom which was necessary to the construction of a 
 religion. . That wisdom Jesus possessed, and we 
 have the proof of it in his religion itself, which has 
 borne the test of time and of human scrutiny for 
 more than eighteen hundred years. 
 7* 
 
78 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 This supernatural endowment is less palpable 
 than the other, because it lies in the direct line of 
 human faculties, while the other does not. It be- 
 comes demonstrably miraculous only when so far 
 transcending all human attainment as to leave all 
 human competition altogether behind. The pow T er 
 which made the blind to see, and the lame to walk, 
 was a matter of the senses. The wisdom which 
 spoke out in the Sermon on the Mount was a matter 
 of the judgment, though equally miraculous and 
 equally transcending all human unaided faculties 
 and endowments. 
 
 This of all the arguments for the divine mission 
 of Jesus has been the most convincing to some of 
 the greatest minds, and the most gifted of American 
 statesmen and jurists has left it inscribed upon his 
 tombstone, as we have already said, that this, above 
 all others, carried conviction to his mind that Chris- 
 tianity was of heavenly origin. 
 
 This wisdom Christ manifested from the com- 
 mencement of his ministry. Whenever he opened 
 his mouth, it flowed forth as if from an inexhaustible 
 fountain. Here Christ comes in contrast with the 
 wisest of the heathen philosophers, and he as far 
 transcends them all as the meridian sun the twink- 
 ling stars of night. The wisest of them uttered a 
 few wise sayings among a mass of errors and crudi- 
 ties and follies. Every part of Christ's discourses 
 surpasses the wisest things that the most eminent of 
 them ever uttered. God is revealed and brought 
 near, the human heart is searched to its utmost 
 recesses, all the relations of life laid open, and the 
 duties which grow out of them made clear as the 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 79 
 
 light of day, so that no man can resist the conviction 
 of duty which they carry home to his conscience. 
 
 Christ not only possessed this superhuman wis- 
 dom, this supernatural knowledge of truth, but he 
 was conscious of it, and spoke of it as the sceptre by, 
 which he was to rule the world. Pilate says to him, 
 " Art thou a king, then*? Jesus answered, Thou 
 sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, 
 and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
 should bear witness to the truth. Every one that is 
 of the truth heareth my voice." " Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." 
 
 The authority of which Christ here speaks is not 
 external, but internal ; not the authority of outward 
 miracle, but of inward conviction ; — the coincidence 
 between the outward word and the law written on 
 the heart of every human being. The existence of 
 that law, of that moral nature which God has given 
 us, and the assent which the heart gives to the words 
 of Christ, do not at all diminish the miraculousness 
 of the words of Christ. Its existence is necessary to 
 the religious and responsible nature of man. But 
 no unassisted mind has ever given that law a full 
 development and perfect expression with the excep- 
 tion of Christ, and this has been acknowledged by 
 believer and unbeliever from that time to this. This 
 was the reason why his hearers confessed that 
 " never man spake like this man." It was his confi- 
 dence in the perfection and power of this word which 
 led Jesus to say : " I am the bread of life, I am the 
 living bread which came down from heaven. If any 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." " It is 
 the Spirit that quickeneth ; the words that I speak 
 
80 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 unto you, they are spirit and they are UfeP It was 
 this confidence which led him to say to the woman 
 of Samaria : " Whosoever shall drink of the water 
 that I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the 
 water that I shall give him shall be in him a well 
 of water springing up into everlasting life." 
 
 Conscious of these endowments, and possessing 
 these powers, Jesus claimed authority to set up a 
 new religion in the world. There was a religion of 
 miraculous origin and of divine authority already in 
 existence. This, without scruple or hesitation, he 
 proceeded to modify, or set aside. " The law and the 
 prophets were until John ; since that time the king- 
 dom of God is preached, and every man presseth 
 into it." " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An 
 eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." This is 
 expressly the law of Moses. " But /say unto you, 
 that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 
 
 He omitted from his religion the ceremonies of the 
 law, and gave the reason why he did so, that those 
 ceremonies were unsuited to its nature. When he was 
 asked why he did not enjoin fasting upon his disciples, 
 he answered : " No man putteth a piece of new cloth 
 unto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill 
 it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made 
 worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bot- 
 tles ; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth 
 out, and the bottles perish : but they put new wine 
 in new bottles, and both are preserved." 
 
 He claimed authority to promulgate a new law 
 concerning divorce. Moses had permitted it for the 
 hardness of the people's hearts, on account of the 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 81 
 
 cruelty which a wife might suffer, if she were bound 
 indissolubly to a brutal husband. But now that the 
 barbarism of that age was past, Christ restricted the 
 license of divorce to a single cause. 
 
 Aware that his kingdom was to be spiritual, and 
 his dominion that of the truth, he proceeded to or- 
 ganize it accordingly. He chose twelve disciples, 
 whom he denominated Apostles, to be his constant 
 companions, to listen to his discourses, and to be 
 transformed into his moral image, that, when he 
 should be removed, from the earth, they might take 
 up the work where he laid it down, and perpetuate 
 his religion to the remotest times. 
 
 In making them his Apostles and ministers, he 
 explicitly told them that they had nothing earthly to 
 expect from their connection with him, or their labors 
 in his cause. " Whosoever cometh after me," said 
 he, " let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and 
 follow me." " Behold, I send you forth as sheep 
 among wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, 
 and harmless as doves." " My kingdom is not of 
 this world, else would my servants fight." 
 
 Before his ascension, he formally commissioned 
 his disciples to spread his religion over the w r orld. 
 " Go," said he, " and teach all nations." " Go, 
 .preach the Gospel to every creature." He prescribed 
 and limited the rites of his new religion, Baptism 
 and the Supper. " Baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 " This do," said he of the Supper, " in remembrance 
 of me." " Thus," says Paul, " do ye show forth the 
 Lord's death until he come." His relation to his 
 followers was not to cease when he left the world. 
 
82 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 His name was to be associated with that of God in 
 the form of baptism, and that formula was for ever to 
 claim for him the divine authority by which he pro- 
 fessed to act while here on earth. 
 
 Thus was the ministry of Christ a perfect whole, 
 its plan from the first comprehended and declared, 
 its purpose announced, its progress and termination 
 foreshown, and the fate and progress of his religion 
 in after ages predicted. It is not the shapeless and 
 casual production of accident, which unforeseen 
 events moulded into form and symmetry, and con- 
 curring minds helped to develop. It was perfect 
 at first in the mind of its Founder, and went forth, 
 not to be the sport of chance, but to shape the course 
 of events, and create the world anew. 
 
 Christ claimed to have a connection with his disci- 
 pies, which was not to cease when he was removed 
 from the earth. Just before his ascension, he prom- 
 ised : " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the 
 end of the world." The precise sense in which this 
 is to be interpreted, perhaps, we do not know, but 
 we have very remarkable facts which answer to this 
 promise. We have the miraculous events which 
 helped the Apostles to establish his religion in the 
 earth. We have the frequent personal appearance 
 of Christ to Paul, and those supernatural interposi- 
 tions which informed the Church that Christianity 
 was to be extended to the Gentiles. We have the 
 preservation of the Christian Church through ages of 
 ignorance, barbarism, and violence, when every other 
 institution was wrecked and obliterated from the 
 face of the earth. The Church survives, and is more 
 powerful, extensive, and vigorous than ever. Such 
 
THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 83 
 
 a preservation certainly argues an especial and con- 
 tinual interposition of Providence. Whether this is 
 all that is meant by Christ, we perhaps have no 
 means of determining. 
 
 Finally, Jesus claimed a relation to Ms followers 
 which was to be renewed in another life. He was to 
 recognize them as having been his disciples, in the 
 presence of that God who sent him to teach and 
 save mankind. " Whosoever shall confess me before 
 men, him will I confess also before my Father which 
 is in heaven. And whosoever shall deny me before 
 men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
 is in heaven." He represents himself likewise as 
 judging the nations. " When the Son of Man shall 
 come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
 then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and be- 
 fore him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall 
 separate them one from another, as the shepherd 
 divideth the sheep from the goats." 
 
 But the boldness of Oriental figure and of pro- 
 phetic representation permits us to interpret all this, 
 not of Christ's person, but of his doctrines. " If any 
 man hear my words and believe not, I judge him 
 not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save 
 the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not 
 my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that 
 I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last 
 day." How far he is personally concerned in this 
 may be inferred from his language in relation to 
 Moses. " Do not think that I will accuse you to the 
 Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, 
 in whom ye trust." 
 
 This would indicate, that those who enjoy the light 
 
84 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 of the Gospel are not to be judged personally by 
 Christ, but by the principles of his religion ; or, in 
 other words, all men must be judged by the light of 
 that religion which they possess ; and nothing can be 
 more just, and nothing more true. But, in saying 
 this, Christ makes the highest possible claim of di- 
 vine authority. He makes his doctrine nothing less 
 than the word of God, and the law of the universe. 
 
DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 
 
 WHO DID NO SIX, NEITHER WAS GUILE FOUND IN HIS MOUTH. 
 
 — 1 Peter ii. 22. 
 
 If we may believe the Apostles and Evangelists, 
 there appeared in Judaea, somewhat more than eigh- 
 teen centuries ago, a moral prodigy, — a man, or at 
 least one in human form, and born of woman, who 
 never sinned, who was absolutely perfect, was never 
 chargeable with error in judgment or delinquency 
 in action, never failed to do anything that he ought 
 to do, or did anything that was wrong, was subjected 
 to all the trials which are incident to our common 
 humanity, besides many and great temptations 
 which were peculiar to himself, and yet never did 
 amiss, — in the language of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, " was tempted in all points like as we are, 
 and yet without sin." 
 
 That such was the fact we have the testimony of 
 both friends and enemies. I have just read you that 
 of Peter, and he was one of the three most intimate 
 and most trusted of his disciples. The charges pre- 
 ferred against him at his trial were of the most frivo- 
 8 
 
86 hTstorical facts. 
 
 lous character, and Pilate, his judge, acquitted him 
 from all guilt, and said, " I find no fault in him." 
 
 We arrive at the same conclusion concerning him 
 in several ways. We have the direct testimony of 
 his companions expressly to the point, we have the 
 general portrait of his character as exhibited in his 
 daily life, in what he did, in what he said, in what 
 he forbore to do and say, and in what ■ he suffered. 
 When these things are exhibited to us in the sim- 
 ple, ingenuous, and artless narrative of the Evange- 
 lists, we are able to judge for ourselves, and form 
 an idea of his character almost as if we had been 
 present. We have another source of evidence in 
 the impression he made on those about him. We 
 judge of the dimensions and figure of an object, not 
 only by looking directly at it, but by observing the 
 shadow which it casts. We do not read far in the 
 Gospels, before we perceive with what profound ven- 
 eration Jesus was regarded by his disciples. This, 
 of course, was the natural effect of what he really 
 was. Wherever he went, a moral majesty surround- 
 ed him, which cast a spell of awe on friend and foe. 
 And when we see him presiding at the last supper, 
 and in prospect of an immediate and painful death, 
 instead of receiving strength and encouragement from 
 his disciples, rising above the horrors of that sombre 
 hour, and consoling and strengthening his disciples, 
 our souls are bowed before his exalted dignity, and 
 we acknowledge the towering grandeur of his char- 
 acter. That dignity, that calmness, that self-posses- 
 sion, were not assumed, strained, or artificial. They 
 were in him and of him. They were a part of his 
 permanent self, and when the hour of trial came, the 
 
CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 87 
 
 wrong of his unjust condemnation, his brutal scour- 
 ging, and his painful death upon the cross, he went 
 through it all with the sublimest fortitude and the 
 divinest patience ! He drank the bitter cup without 
 a murmuring word. 
 
 The impression left upon the mind, after a perusal 
 of the Gospels, is, that Jesus formed a class in the 
 moral world by himself. He ascended to a higher 
 sphere than had ever been reached by any who 
 had appeared in human form. To all others whom 
 our hearts reverence, we apply the terms goodness, 
 virtue, piety. To Jesus alone beside the Almighty, 
 we apply the term holiness. All the saints of old 
 were imperfect. We cannot conceive of their enter- 
 ing heaven by any other gate than that of repent- 
 ance. Jesus could enter it through the golden por- 
 tal of innocence. 
 
 But the holiness of God and the holiness of Jesus 
 we conceive of as specifically different. The holiness 
 of God is necessary, for God cannot be tempted. It 
 is inherent, constitutional, immutable. The holiness 
 of Christ was voluntary, the result of choice, the ha- 
 bitual preference of good, when evil was equally 
 presented and freely rejected. The holiness of God 
 is the spontaneous action of infinite wisdom and in- 
 finite goodness. The holiness of Christ was the 
 conformity of his will to the perfect will of God. 
 " Let this cup pass from me," said he in an hour of 
 human dread of pain and death ; " but not as I will," 
 he added, as his soul assumed the attitude of perfect 
 allegiance, — " not as I will, but as thou wilV 
 
 Again, the happiness of God is inherent, underived, 
 and indestructible, that of Christ was derivative and 
 
88 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 probationary. " It was for the joy that was set be- 
 fore him, that he endured the cross, despising the 
 shame." " To him that overcometh will I grant to 
 sit with me in my throne, even as i" also overcame, 
 and am set down with my Father in his throne." 
 
 I begin with Christ's piety. This was perfect. 
 His communion with God was constant, uninter- 
 rupted, full, serene, and unclouded. The piety of 
 the most perfect of the sons of men has never arrived 
 at this height. It is the nature of disobedience and 
 distrust, to beget coldness, fear, and estrangement. 
 Where is there a human being, who has not at times 
 waxed weary in well-doing ? Who is there that has 
 not been appalled by the mysteries and perplexities 
 of this life, the prosperity of the wicked and the 
 affliction of the righteous, and thus, for a season, 
 lost faith in God and goodness; and has then 
 found the prayer of trust and resignation utterly 
 impossible ? or, if he still continues to use the lan- 
 guage of devotion, does he not find the words of 
 his lips going far before the convictions of his mind 
 and the emotions of his heart ? 
 
 Who has not suffered from the estrangement of 
 disobedience ? The intercourse of a disobedient child 
 with the best of fathers can never be perfectly cordial 
 and happy. Nay, the disobedient child shrinks away 
 from the presence of his father. The relation be- 
 tween them is vitiated and poisoned by conscious 
 disobedience. And hence the lamentable failure in 
 devotion of the world at large. They do not live up 
 to the point of spontaneous and pleasurable communion 
 with God. They shrink from prayer as inconsistent 
 with the tenor of their daily life. And with the best 
 
CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 89 
 
 of men, those hours in which full and delightful com- 
 munion with God is possible are few and far be- 
 tween. With Christ that full communion with God 
 was constant, habitual, spontaneous, uninterrupted. 
 That estrangement which is the prevailing habit of 
 the world was never known to him. 
 
 In this habitual piety, Jesus lived and moved and 
 had his being. It constituted as it were an atmos- 
 phere about him. His immediate disciples felt its 
 influence, and they looked upon him with mingled 
 sentiments of reverence and awe. It transfigured 
 him before them, so that in a moral sense " his 
 countenance shone as the light, and his raiment was 
 white and glistering, and they felt it good for them 
 to be there." That presence transformed them into 
 new men, and breathed into them a new spirit, and 
 they went forth and communicated to the world 
 what they had received from him, so that the life of 
 Christ constituted a new era upon earth ; it was the 
 birth of a new spiritual force, which went forth to 
 regenerate mankind. 
 
 We cannot read the narratives of the Evangelists 
 without being struck with the spotless integrity 
 which was everywhere exhibited in the words and 
 in the deeds of the Saviour. If anything can be 
 learned from the accounts of the temptation, new 
 trials and responsibilities awaited him in conse- 
 quence of his official character, superadded to those 
 which are incident to our common nature. He was 
 to be exalted to a dignity unapproached by any of 
 our race, to be God's vicegerent on earth, to legislate 
 for nations and ages ; he was to command the ele- 
 ments, and raise the dead ; and yet he was to assume 
 8* 
 
90 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 none of the outward dignity which would correspond 
 to such an exaltation. Such an external pomp and 
 magnificence would have removed him from the 
 sympathy and affection of those whom he came to 
 seek, to elevate, to sanctify and save. It would have 
 weakened, instead of aiding, that purely spiritual 
 power which he came to exert. His mission was 
 not to seek his own glory, but " to bind up the bro- 
 ken-hearted, to preach the Gospel to the poor." And 
 therefore it was, that, entering fully into the spirit of 
 his mission, he everywhere forgot himself; he had 
 compassion on the multitude, who wandered like 
 sheep without a shepherd ; he taught them till he neg- 
 lected to take his necessary food, and his friends in- 
 terposed to save him, as they thought, from total self- 
 destruction. At the well of Samaria he felt weari- 
 ness, and his disciples went away to buy food. But 
 when the highways were filled with Samaritans 
 hastening to listen to his teaching, the desire of food 
 had departed. He has meat to eat that men know 
 not of. " His meat is to do the will of his Heavenly 
 Father, and to finish his work." This devoted 
 humility seems to have been precisely the trait 
 which was in the mind of the Apostle when he 
 wrote. " Let nothing be done through strife or vain- 
 glory ; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem 
 other better than himself. Look not every one on his 
 own things, but likewise at the things of others. Let 
 this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 
 who, being in the form of God, thought not a likeness 
 to God a thing eagerly to be grasped at, but made 
 himself of no reputation, and took upon him the 
 form of a servant ; and being in the likeness of man, 
 
CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 91 
 
 and formed in fashion as a man, he humbled himself 
 and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
 the cross." 
 
 With his disciples, he dealt with the most abso- 
 lute candor. He made them fully aware, from the 
 first, of the nature and consequences of their con- 
 nection with him. He told them that he called 
 them to a life of self-sacrifice. " He that will come 
 after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
 and follow me." And when two of them came to 
 ask to sit on his right hand and his left, he asked 
 them, " Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink 
 of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am 
 baptized with ? " referring, not to the glories they 
 must share, but to the sufferings they were to un- 
 dergo. Thus was fidelity stamped upon every act 
 of his life. 
 
 Next in the order of the virtues to piety and in- 
 tegrity comes benevolence. l1 Next to the love of God 
 comes the love of our neighbor. Benevolence is 
 not sensibility, though it includes it. Sensibility is 
 sometimes a passive emotion, and is purely consti- 
 tutional; and it not unfrequently relieves distress 
 merely to relieve itself. It is apt, too, to be capri- 
 cious and transitory. Benevolence is something 
 broader and deeper, more systematic and enduring. 
 It is intellectual and moral, as well as emotional. 
 It is based on principle as well as feeling. It influ- 
 ences every act, and controls the whole plan of life. 
 It is calm, far-seeing, self-possessed, and untiring. 
 It is impossible to define benevolence so well as in 
 the words of the Apostle. " It sufTereth long and is 
 kind; it envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 
 
92 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
 own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoi- 
 ceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; bear- 
 eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. Charity never faileth." It is 
 scarcely necessary to say, that this is a perfect por- 
 trait of but one person who ever bore the form of hu- 
 manity, and we can scarcely imagine that the Apos- 
 tle had not his Master in his mind when he wrote 
 down the characteristics of true benevolence. 
 
 His character shone out in his tenderness towards 
 his disciples. They were ignorant, weak, and erring. 
 They often tried his patience to the utmost. They 
 mistook his purposes, and misunderstood his char- 
 acter. But nothing could wean his love. They 
 disputed among themselves for rank and prece- 
 dence. He rebuked their ambition by setting be- 
 fore them a little child. During his agony. in the 
 garden, they fell asleep In the extremity of his 
 anguish, he uses no bitter reproaches, but only says, 
 "What! could ye not watch with me one hour?" 
 Peter denied him with an oath. At their first inter- 
 view after the resurrection, he dwells not on the 
 sad apostasy, but merely says, " Simon, son of 
 Jonas, lovest thou me ? " The pains of crucifixion 
 kindle no resentment. He curses not his enemies, 
 but he fulfils his own precept. He prays for his 
 betrayers and murderers, " Father, forgive them, 
 they know not what they do ! " 
 
 In expatiating upon the benevolence of Jesus, it 
 has been customary, as it seems to me, to overlook 
 or underrate another feature of his character no less 
 glorious and no less conspicuous, his magnanimity, his 
 
CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 93 
 
 energy, his strength of will, his decision of character, 
 his promptness to encounter violence and face the 
 terrors of death. This want of appreciation arises 
 from the fact, that active resistance to his persecu- 
 tors was forbidden him by the nature of his office. 
 He was " not to strive nor cry, nor cause his voice 
 to be heard in the streets." He was to conquer the 
 world, not by the sword, but by the might of a love 
 that was stronger than death. He was to be " a 
 martyr to the truth," " to draw all men unto him," 
 and reign in all hearts, by enduring the agonies of 
 the cross. 
 
 It may be said that there was a moment when 
 nature was overborne by the prospect of the unknown 
 torments of crucifixion, that "he began to be sore 
 amazed and very heavy," and he confessed that " his 
 soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." But 
 this scene, when rightly viewed, enhances instead of 
 diminishing the magnanimity of his final triumph ; 
 for it shows that the self-command which he finally 
 exhibited was moral, the result of will, and not of a 
 nature inaccessible to the dread of pain and death. 
 It was spiritual strength victorious over earthly in- 
 firmity. And the way in which it was attained is a 
 lesson to Christian piety throughout all ages. It 
 was by prayer. " And he went a little farther, and 
 fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, 
 if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; never- 
 theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And he 
 rose up from that prayer calm, resolved, self-pos- 
 sessed, undaunted ; for when the ruffian band arrived 
 he went forth to meet them, and voluntarily surren- 
 dered himself into their hands. 
 
94 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 Such were some, though but few, of the char- 
 acteristics of Jesus. The life of such a person itself 
 constitutes an era in the history of mankind. It 
 was no less wonderful than his miracles and his 
 precepts, and made an impression upon the world 
 no less profound. It was a corner-stone of the 
 Christian Church. It helped to lay a foundation 
 broad and large for that august structure, which is 
 to gather within its ample walls every nation and 
 kindred and tongue and people, and stand for ever. 
 It was a tower of strength to the cause of the Apos- 
 tles. It struck the world with moral conviction; 
 and it lay level with the most ordinary understand- 
 ing. Such a character, portrayed as an actual fact, 
 as a living reality, rose far above all previous con- 
 ceptions of attainable excellence. All the world 
 bowed down before it, for every one confessed to 
 himself how utterly impotent would have been his 
 own mightiest endeavors to approach a perfection 
 so spotless. Thus it was that Jesus, exalted to the 
 throne of spiritual power, went forth to judge and 
 rule the nations. 
 
 The miracles, the precepts, and the character of 
 Christ, and the power of them all to regenerate man, 
 — these were the four pillars of the Christian cause. 
 It was so at first, and it is so now. The character 
 of Christ, his sinless perfection, may be said, per- 
 haps, to be the most appreciable argument for the 
 Christian faith. Its exalted excellence renders it 
 wholly impossible to associate with him the idea of 
 enthusiasm or imposture. He who was wiser than 
 the wisest of our race could not have been deceived 
 concerning himself; and he whose whole soul was 
 
CHRIST WITHOUT SIN. 95 
 
 simplicity and candor, could not have deceived us 
 when he said, " I am the way, and the truth, and 
 the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by 
 me." 
 
 Hence the significancy of the Communion. It 
 brings up before the Church, in all ages, the person 
 and the character of Christ, one of the seals of 
 divinity which is stamped upon his mission, mak- 
 ing it to Christian faith a living, practical reality. 
 Not only his life, but his bloody sacrifice, was a 
 seal of its truth, and every Christian who receives 
 strength from it to walk in the steps of Jesus feels, 
 that to him, at least, his Gospel is the bread of life 
 which came down from heaven, for it giveth life to 
 the world. 
 
 They will recollect with gratitude that the Sav- 
 iour himself was fully aware of the vital power of 
 his perfect life when he said, " For their sakes I 
 sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified 
 through the truth." 
 
DISCOURSE VII 
 
 FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US, 
 AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF AN 
 ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON WITH HIS FATHER, FULL OF GRACE 
 
 and truth. — John i. 14. 
 
 A cardinal point in the evidences of Christianity 
 is the historical fact of the full, firm, and enduring 
 faith of Christ's Apostles. If the New Testament is 
 at all to be relied on as history, nothing can be more 
 certain than that the disciples, his intimate and 
 daily companions, had not been long in his soci- 
 ety before they became fully convinced of his divine 
 mission and authority, and their respect for him 
 deepened into veneration. The perfection of his 
 character, the profundity of his wisdom, the impres- 
 siveness of his miracles, and the intimacy of his 
 apparent communion with God, made them feel in 
 his presence a species of awe, which speaks out at 
 every turn. It increased during his ministry, and 
 was most distinctly manifested at the last supper. 
 It received only a partial and temporary shock at 
 his crucifixion, and broke forth anew, and rose to a 
 higher elevation, after his resurrection and ascension. 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 97 
 
 Not only so, we see this faith manifested by the 
 different Apostles in a different manner, according 
 to the temperament, natural endowment, and cir- 
 cumstances of each. Nathaniel, at the commence- 
 ment of Christ's ministry, — a plain, unsophisticated 
 Israelite, who expected the Messiah simply as a 
 national deliverer, — when Jesus gave him proof of 
 supernatural and prophetic knowledge, exclaimed, 
 " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King 
 of Israel" Peter, after many and more striking 
 evidences of a divine mission, declared, " Thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of the living God." But Peter 
 afterwards denied him, and perhaps, with the other 
 disciples, lost all faith in him at his crucifixion. Yet, 
 after the resurrection and ascension of his Master, 
 he was the boldest of them all. As one of the wit- 
 nesses of these decisive events, he confronted his 
 whole nation, and told the rulers to their face, that 
 they had been the betrayers and murderers of the 
 true Messiah. 
 
 But Peter proved his faith, not only by his words, 
 but by his deeds. He spent his life in preaching 
 Jesus as the true Messiah, first to the Jews, proba- 
 bly without a full comprehension of the extent of 
 his mission, and after the vision at Joppa, to both 
 Jews and Gentiles, as the great spiritual Teacher of 
 the world, and the pledge of immortality to all man- 
 kind. The Jewish fisherman, ignorant, narrow, rash, 
 and unstable, is in the course of years transformed 
 into the Christian sage, saint, and martyr, calm, 
 wise, deliberate, self-possessed, and immovable. In 
 old age, after having passed through every possible 
 trial of his faith, he writes a clear and undoubting 
 9 
 
98 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 declaration of his faith : " Blessed be the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to 
 his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a 
 lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
 the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for 
 you, who are kept by the power of God through 
 faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last 
 time." 
 
 Nothing can exceed the calm confidence here ex- 
 pressed in the resurrection of Christ, the cardinal 
 miracle of the Christian religion, and in that immor- 
 tality which was assured by it. And then, if we are 
 to receive the Second Epistle as Peter's, and the 
 critical objections to it are, in my judgment, very 
 slight, we have another most explicit declaration of 
 faith. " For we have not followed cunningly devised 
 fables, when we made known unto you the power 
 and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye- 
 witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God 
 the Father honor and glory, when there came such a 
 voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And 
 this voice which came from heaven we heard, when 
 we were with him in the holy mount." 
 
 In the Epistle of James, we see the same firm and 
 confident faith. But his Christianity and his faith in 
 Christ are of a different type, as became the pecu- 
 liarities of his temperament and circumstances. He 
 was a Jerusalem Jew, though converted to Chris- 
 tianity, and it is probable that he continued to con- 
 form himself to the law of Moses, as well as the 
 Gospel, as long as he lived. Confined, as it would 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 99 
 
 seem, to Jerusalem all his days, and mingling the 
 law of Moses with the Gospel, without the dialectic 
 learning of Paul, or the poetic and creative genius of 
 John, he seems to have regarded the new dispensa- 
 tion as merely supplementary to the old, and Chris- 
 tianity itself as only a more stringent and spiritual 
 law. There is nothing in him of the high ideality 
 which led John to personify the Word ; nor of that 
 broad conception of Christianity, which led the Apos- 
 tle of the Gentiles to speak of Jesus everywhere as the 
 world-redeeming Messiah. To him, the Calvinistic 
 abuse of the doctrine of justification by faith was in 
 the highest degree offensive. In one thing, however, 
 he coincides with his fellow- Apostles, in a firm and 
 undoubting faith, maintained in the face of a perse- 
 cuting world. It was a sufficient expression of his 
 faith, that he was willing to forsake his countrymen, 
 and preside over the Christian Church in the midst 
 of the betrayers and murderers of his Master. His 
 Epistle, short as it is, is his testimony to all succeed- 
 ing ages, and leaves his faith to be accounted for 
 by those who suppose that Christianity was first 
 founded on some grand deception or mistake. 
 
 I return to the Apostle John. In him we see, in 
 my judgment, not only the strongest marks of a 
 personal faith, but of a faith having passed through 
 the stage of mere belief, and arrived at the higher 
 one of sentiment and affection. We do not readily 
 give our affections, until our full confidence is won. 
 As long as any doubt remains, there is a fear of 
 the disappointment and mortification that always 
 follow the consciousness of having been deceived, 
 which forbids intimacy, and chills the current of 
 
100 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 affection. In the case of John, there is ample proof 
 that there was left in his mind no doubt of the per- 
 fect integrity of his Master. 
 
 His opportunities of full and accurate knowledge 
 were ample and satisfactory. He had been a dis- 
 ciple of John the Baptist, and was with Jesus from 
 the very commencement of his ministry. He was 
 the disciple whom Jesus loved, and on whose bosom 
 he leaned, or, in modern phrase, was his most inti- 
 mate companion. He.was one of the three who were 
 permitted by Jesus to behold the transfiguration. 
 He was one of the two who ran to the sepulchre, on 
 the morning of the resurrection, and ascertained, by 
 personal inspection, that the body of Jesus was not 
 there. To his care the mother of Jesus was intrusted 
 by his latest breath. From her he must have learned, 
 during the remainder of her life, everything in the 
 history of her son which could either confirm or 
 shake his faith. 
 
 It is the tradition of the Church, and his Gospel 
 bears the evidence, that it was written long' after the 
 others. The experiences of a long ministry must 
 have either corroborated or unsettled his faith. Je- 
 sus, during his life on earth, had made large prom- 
 ises of divine aid to his Apostles, when he should 
 have left the world; in the first place, to give them 
 assurance that he was still in being y in the second, to 
 give them guidance and direction as to what they 
 were to do in his cause, and in the third place, to 
 confer upon them those miraculous powers which 
 were necessary to confirm their faith in their Mas- 
 ter's mission, and the reality of their own. He must 
 have known whether those promises were ever ful- 
 filled. 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 101 
 
 If they were not fulfilled, it is impossible to con- 
 ceive that his confidence in his Master could have 
 been maintained, or that he and his fellow-disciples 
 could have gone forward to act in his cause. 
 
 Yet he did persevere. The whole course of his life 
 was changed by his faith in Jesus of Nazareth. His 
 youth was passed as a fisherman on the Lake of 
 Galilee. His middle life and old age, in foreign 
 lands, in a pursuit as diverse from his early occupa- 
 tion as can possibly be conceived, — as a teacher and 
 an apostle of a spiritual and universal religion. 
 
 He had not been entrapped and led into such a 
 course of life by any specious and deceitful promises. 
 There were no prospects of power, or wealth, or 
 honor held out to him, to induce him to abandon a 
 certainty for an uncertainty. When he left all to 
 follow Jesus, he was not induced to embrace his new 
 course of life with the delusive prospect of bettering 
 his worldly condition ; but he was told, on the con- 
 trary, at the outset, that he had nothing to expect, 
 from his connection with Jesus, but enmity and per- 
 secution. " Let him that cometh after me deny 
 himself, and take up his cross and follow me." There 
 was nothing left, then, but an unwavering 1 faith in 
 his Master, which could have operated to induce 
 John to adhere to the cause of Jesus, to the utter 
 neglect and forfeiture of every worldly interest. 
 
 We have his life, then, as the testimony of his 
 faith, the strongest that could possibly have been 
 given. We have, moreover, the testimony of his 
 Gospel, which is the spoken testimony of his heart 
 and mind. It is deliberate, cool, and careful, writ- 
 ten after the experience and reflection of a long life. 
 9* 
 
102 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 It is, as I have already said, the tradition of the 
 early Church, that the Gospel of John was written 
 long after the others, and at a distance from the 
 Holy Land. Everything about this Gospel corre- 
 sponds with this supposition. The circumstances of 
 the Church had wholly changed. The Gospel at 
 first was preached exclusively to the Jews. It was 
 necessary to their faith, that Jesus should have 
 sprung from the families of Abraham and David. 
 Hence the genealogies, and the early, personal his- 
 tory of Jesus. 
 
 When John wrote his Gospel, Christianity was 
 already established, foreigners had been converted 
 to it, and had begun to corrupt its doctrines by an 
 admixture of the Oriental philosophies. The hu- 
 manity of Christ was denied. The authority of the 
 Old Testament was disputed. The Jehovah of the 
 ancient dispensation was degraded into an inferior 
 and subordinate Deity. 
 
 To guard against the errors of the time, as well as 
 strengthen the true faith of the Church, seems to 
 have been the purpose which John had in view in 
 writing his Gospel. He begins, therefore, with the 
 origin, not of the person of Christ, but the origin of 
 his Gospel. It is the Word of God. It comes from 
 the very centre of the Divine Essence. It is one of a 
 series of revelations running back to the very begin- 
 ning of all created things. God made himself known 
 in the creation of the visible universe, when " he 
 spake, and it was done ; he commanded, and it 
 stood fast"; — in the creation of the human soul, 
 which is his brightest image that is seen below, since 
 it is God's inspiration which giveth man understand- 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 103 
 
 ing, and lighteneth every man that cometh into the 
 world. He made himself especially known to his an- 
 cient church. His word was spoken by the proph- 
 ets, " who spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 But in Jesus this Divine manifestation, this out- 
 speaking of the Divinity, shone out with an especial 
 lustre, and became still more distinct and articulate. 
 It dwelt in him, as it were in a tent. " The Word 
 was made flesh, and dwelt, tabernacled, among us, 
 and we beheld his glory, the glory as of an only son 
 with his father," as the text literally reads. The 
 man Jesus, body and soul, became merely the me- 
 dium, or instrument, of Divine manifestation. 
 
 "What that glory was with which Jesus was in- 
 vested in the eyes of his disciples appears as we 
 advance in the narrative. It was his superhuman 
 power and his supernatural knowledge. This is shown 
 in the account of the first miracle of changing the 
 water into wine, at the marriage feast in Cana of 
 Galilee. " This beginning of miracles did Jesus in 
 Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and 
 his disciples believed on himP 
 
 Now, whatever difficulties there may be in the 
 verbal interpretation of John's Gospel, there can be 
 no doubt that it was written from the highest point of 
 faith, that is of belief in the supernatural in Christ. 
 Indeed, this is the very key of the structure of the 
 whole Gospel. It is a narrative, as we have seen, of 
 some of the most remarkable manifestations of the 
 supernatural in Jesus, both in words and works. This 
 is the declared purpose for which it was written. 
 After relating the appearance of Jesus to his disciples 
 
104 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 subsequent to his resurrection, in which the doubts of 
 Thomas were removed by touching his body and feel- 
 ing his wounds, the writer adds : " And many other 
 signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, 
 which are not written in this book. But these are 
 written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
 the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have 
 life through his name." Now the specific meaning of 
 the word rendered "sign" here is a miraculous man- 
 ifestation of divine power, intended to authenticate 
 some prophet or divine messenger, and to assure the 
 world that he comes from that God who alone has 
 power to disturb the structure or change the order of 
 nature. 
 
 Review the whole Gospel, and you will find that 
 this sentence is an explanation of its whole plan. It 
 is, as I have before remarked, a selection from the 
 principal miracles of Christ, which were most calcu- 
 lated to arrest the attention and fix the faith of those 
 who witnessed them. The first is his supernatural 
 knowledge of the character and recent history of 
 Nathaniel, by which he was converted to belief in 
 Jesus as the Messiah. The next is the miracle of 
 changing the water into wine, at the marriage feast 
 in Cana. Then follows the exhibition of a miracu- 
 lous knowledge of the character, thoughts, and pur- 
 poses of Nicodemus, by which that cautious states- 
 man was baffled and overpowered. Next comes the 
 interview with the woman of Samaria, at the well of 
 Jacob, in which, by the minuteness of his acquaint- 
 ance with her present circumstances and former life, 
 he convinced her that he was the Messiah. The 
 next in order is the cure of the lame man at the pool 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 105 
 
 of Bethesda, who had been a notorious cripple for 
 eight and thirty years. This was done on the Sab- 
 bath, and was followed by a legal investigation. To 
 prove the breach of the Sabbath, of which Jesus was 
 accused, it was necessary to admit and establish the 
 miraculous cure. The narrator then passes on to the 
 feeding of five thousand men in a desert place, with 
 the five loaves and two small fishes. The miracle 
 so much resembled the feeding of Israelites in the 
 wilderness by Moses with manna from heaven, that 
 a temporary enthusiasm was created, and the mul- 
 titude were ready to take him by force and make 
 him a king. Then follows what is intended to be 
 an exhibition of miraculous knowledge of the secret 
 character and history of the accusers of the woman 
 taken in adultery, by which they were all, to a man, 
 convicted by their own consciences, and put to flight. 
 
 One of the most public and well authenticated of 
 Christ's miracles was giving sight to the man born 
 blind. This is related minutely, and dwelt on at 
 length. The impression is recorded, which was 
 made upon the spectators, that Jesus was sent of 
 God. 
 
 Greatest of all the divine attestations of the divine 
 mission of Jesus, except his own resurrection, was 
 the raising of Lazarus. This is narrated with the 
 greatest particularity. The conduct and sentiments 
 of the persons introduced are all in admirable keep- 
 ing, and bear all the marks and features of historic 
 truth. It was the turning-point of the fate of Jesus, 
 and raised such a tempest of persecution against 
 him, that it terminated in his death. 
 
 The Gospel of John is most full in relating the 
 
106 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 different appearances of Christ after his resurrection, 
 which were all, of course, supernatural. The tale is 
 told with the particularity of an eyewitness, and is 
 brought to bear on the great and fundamental article 
 of the Christian faith, the Messiahship of Jesus, and 
 his divine authority as the Sent of God. 
 
 Coincident with the Gospel of John, in its whole 
 tone and complexion, is his First Epistle. It is an 
 independent document, apparently drawn up in his 
 extreme old age, bearing the same firm and un- 
 wavering testimony to the supernatural in Jesus. 
 The first two verses are a recitation, and, in fact, a 
 key, to the introduction to his Gospel, otherwise 
 somewhat obscure in its peculiar phraseology. That 
 which was divine and superhuman in Jesus, that 
 which came from God and from heaven, and was 
 called " the Word " in the Gospel, is in the Epistle 
 called "the Word of Life," and in the second 
 verse " Eternal Life," thus neutralizing the con- 
 ception of the personality of the Word, which has 
 so extensively prevailed in the Christian Church. 
 That which the Gospel represents as masculine, the 
 Epistle expresses by words which are feminine and 
 neuter. " That which was from the beginning, which 
 we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
 which we have looked upon, and our hands have 
 handled, of the Word of Life. For the Life was 
 manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, 
 and show unto you that Eternal Life which was 
 with the Father, and was manifested unto us." 
 
 Not only does he cherish this faith himself, but he 
 makes it the instrument of salvation, the main foun- 
 tain of the Christian life. " And we have seen, and 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 107 
 
 do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the 
 Saviour of the world." " Whosoever shall confess 
 that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, 
 and he in God." To the same effect, " Whosoever 
 believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." 
 
 I now come to Paul. There are historical facts 
 connected with him of vital importance to the faith 
 of the Christian world. There is no person in all 
 antiquity whose real existence is more certain to us. 
 We have a sketch of his life in the Acts, and we 
 have his correspondence in his Epistles. The coin- 
 cidence between the two is so accurate and so mi- 
 nute, and at the same time so apparently undesigned, 
 that it leaves us in no doubt, that he who lived the 
 life was the author of the writings. 
 
 We have observed, that the view taken of Jesus 
 by the other Apostles had in each case something 
 peculiar, personal, and appropriate ; and therefore 
 the personal peculiarities of each, appearing in their 
 writings, constitute a distinct feature of truth and 
 probability. This is eminently the case with the 
 writings of Paul. 
 
 The history informs us, that he had never known 
 Jesus in the flesh. He was known to him only as a 
 spirit in the spiritual world. Not only as a spirit, 
 but as a powerful agent, watching over and promot- 
 ing the interests of the Christian Church. He him- 
 self was converted from a violent persecutor of the 
 Christians to a belief in Jesus as the Messiah, by a 
 personal appearance of the Crucified, with an over- 
 whelming manifestation of supernatural power, — 
 the flashing at noonday of a light from heaven so 
 bright as to cause him to fall prostrate to the earth, 
 
108 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 and to deprive him of his sight for a season. In the 
 midst of this manifestation of supernatural power, a 
 voice comes to him from Christ himself, expostulating 
 with him for his cruelty. " Saul, Saul, why perse- 
 cutest thou me ? " The consequence is, that Paul 
 is converted. He is informed in Damascus, by 
 Ananias, that God had chosen him as an apostle of 
 the new faith. " The God of our fathers hath chosen 
 thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that 
 Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 
 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men, of what 
 thou hast seen and heard." 
 
 After this, in a trance, while he prayed in the 
 temple at Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to him a second 
 time, and expressly sent him on a mission to the 
 Gentiles. We must likewise, I believe, regard as 
 an interview with Jesus the vision at Corinth, which 
 is narrated in the eighteenth chapter of Acts. Then 
 spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, " Be 
 not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace ; for 
 I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt 
 thee ; for I have much people in this city." 
 
 After such peculiar experience, such spiritual in- 
 tercourse with the Saviour, not, like that of the 
 other Apostles, here in the flesh, and at a period 
 now receding to a distance, we find him speaking 
 of him in a manner as peculiar as his experience. 
 In the commencement of his Epistles, he introduces 
 him, in connection with God, as exercising a con- 
 tinued agency in the care of the Church, whereas 
 none of the other Apostles do the same. In the 
 Epistle to the Romans, " Grace to you and peace, 
 from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 109 
 
 It is from no conception of his participating in the 
 divine nature, for the phrase for the Deity is " God 
 our Father." " God our Father," of course, repre- 
 sents and exhausts the whole divine essence. It is 
 not « God the Father," but " God our Father." In 
 the First Epistle to the Corinthians, " Grace be to 
 you and peace, from God our Father, and from the 
 Lord Jesus Christ" The same form occurs in the 
 Second Epistle, in Galatians, and the Epistles gen- 
 erally. I speak of this as an instance of conformity 
 of language to a peculiar experience, which is wor- 
 thy of notice, and a strong feature of reality. 
 
 But the characteristic of Paul's Epistles to which 
 I wish to devote especial attention is their exhibi- 
 tion of a strong abiding and unwavering faith in 
 Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah, and the Sent 
 of God. As abiding, as unwavering, was the con- 
 viction, the consciousness, we might rather say, that 
 he ivas an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Everywhere 
 he writes, without hesitation, doubt, or misgiving, 
 " Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ." It is very diffi- 
 cult to conceive that he did not know whether he 
 was an Apostle of Jesus Christ or not. That he be- 
 lieved himself to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ is 
 just as certain an historical fact, as it is that there 
 was such a person as Paul. 
 
 In these same Epistles, which we feel sure came 
 from his hand, we have the assertion over and over 
 again that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ. 
 There were occasions on which he was compelled 
 to vindicate his apostolic character and authority 
 against gainsayers. In writing to the church at 
 Corinth which he had founded, and to which he 
 10 
 
110 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 had ministered while he supported himself by man- 
 ual labor, but which had been disturbed in his 
 absence by some Judaizing teachers, who called 
 in question his standing as an Apostle, he says : " I 
 am become a fool in glorying ; ye have compelled 
 me, for I ought to have been commended of you ; 
 for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apos- 
 tles, though I be nothing. Truly, the signs of an 
 Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, 
 in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." " Are 
 they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool;) I am 
 more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above 
 measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 
 Of the Jews, five times I received forty stripes save 
 one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I 
 stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day 
 I have been in the deep ; in journeyings often, in 
 perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my 
 own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils 
 in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in 
 the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness 
 and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and 
 thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." 
 
 This account of himself is confirmed by the inde- 
 pendent testimony of Luke, who was for many 
 years his companion and fellow-sufferer. 
 
 Now all these things prove, if anything is capa- 
 ble of being proved, the historic fact, not only that 
 there was such a person as Paul, and that he did 
 and suffered the things which are related of him, 
 but that he believed that he was an Apostle of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Not only so, not only did Paul believe himself to 
 
FAITH OF THE APOSTLES. Ill 
 
 be an Apostle of Jesus Christ, but to have been 
 more enlightened on one point than the other Apos- 
 tles, by especial revelation from Christ himself. That 
 point was the extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles, 
 He thus speaks of it in his Epistle to the Galatians : 
 " But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which 
 was preached of me is not after man ; for I neither 
 received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by 
 the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard 
 of my conversation in time past in the Jews' re- 
 ligion, how, that beyond measure I persecuted the 
 Church of God and wasted it ; and profited in 
 the Jews' religion above my equals in mine own 
 nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tra- 
 ditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, 
 who separated me from my mother's womb, and 
 called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, 
 that I might preach him among the heathen, imme- 
 diately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither 
 went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apos- 
 tles before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned 
 again unto Damascus." 
 
 In his Epistle to the Ephesians he refers to the 
 same subject in similar language : " For this cause, 
 I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gen- 
 tiles, — if ye have heard of the dispensation of the 
 grace of God, which is given me to you-ward ; how 
 that by revelation he made known unto me the mys- 
 tery, .... which in other ages was not made known 
 unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the 
 holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the 
 Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same 
 
112 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by 
 the Gospel." 
 
 Now, no one can read this without feeling that 
 Paul believed what he wrote, and that to him it was 
 a solemn reality that he was an Apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, or that he labored for about thirty years 
 under a most astonishing hallucination. 
 
 Thus, the evidence of the New Testament is con- 
 clusive, that all the immediate disciples of Jesus, 
 and afterwards his Apostles, had the deepest convic- 
 tion of the divine mission and authority of their 
 Master. 
 
 Thus the faith of the world draws its nourish- 
 ment from the faith of the Apostles. It is a faith 
 of sympathy as well as of conviction. Belief is 
 generated in the mind, while the eyes take in the 
 simple, earnest testimony of the original witnesses. 
 There is such sincere conviction in their own 
 hearts, that the thought scarcely occurs to us to 
 doubt them, any more than to distrust the evi- 
 dence of our senses. 
 
DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE 
 PROPHETS : I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. 
 FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH 
 PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS 
 FROM THE LAW TILL ALL BE FULFILLED. WHOSOEVER, 
 THEREFORE, SHALL BREAK ONE OF THESE LEAST COM- 
 MANDMENTS, AND SHALL TEACH MEN SO, HE SHALL BE 
 CALLED THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN : BUT 
 WHOSOEVER SHALL DO AND TEACH THEM, THE SAME 
 SHALL BE CALLED GREAT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT EXCEPT YOUR RIGHTEOUS- 
 NESS EXCEED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND 
 PHARISEES, YE SHALL IN NO CASE ENTER INTO THE KING- 
 DOM of heaven. — Matthew v. 17 - 20. 
 
 It is a fact of no slight importance among the 
 historical evidences of Christianity, that Jesus incul- 
 cated the most stringent, uncompromising, and exacting 
 morality that was ever promulgated among men. It 
 is both minute and comprehensive. It is practical, 
 at the same time that it is spiritual. It is reasonable, 
 at the same time that it appeals to the highest and 
 purest motives that can be proposed to the human 
 mind. It neglects every worldly and inferior motive, 
 and refers to justice, to sympathy, and the will of God. 
 10* 
 
114 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 It passes over prudence and a worldly expediency, 
 and points to the All-seeing Eye and the retributions 
 of eternity. It will be the object of this discourse, 
 first to call attention to this feature of the teaching 
 of Jesus, and then to show its bearing on the great 
 question, whether his doctrine was of God or whether 
 he spoke of himself. 
 
 I shall first notice the fact of the stringent and un- 
 compromising morality of the teaching of Jesus. To 
 show this, it will not be necessary to go beyond the 
 Sermon on the Mount. I appeal to every reader to 
 say, if he is not struck with astonishment, and almost 
 filled with despair, as he reads sentence after sen- 
 tence of this most searching discourse. The field of 
 human duty becomes exceeding broad, the sphere of 
 conscience is extended to the minutest objects in it, 
 and we rise from the perusal, exclaiming, Who then 
 can be saved? He commences by declaring that 
 they are in error who imagine that he is to relax 
 the strictness of the Mosaic laws, or promulgate a 
 system which demands a less degree of moral excel- 
 lence. He who breaks one of the least of the Mosaic 
 precepts, or teaches others to do so, shall have no 
 claim to the name of a Christian. 
 
 But the Mosaic law had been corrupted and ex- 
 plained away. The Scribes and Pharisees, who 
 were the chief religious teachers of the time, had 
 weakened the force of the ancient commandments, 
 imperfect as they were. They had given men pre- 
 tences for the indulgence of their passions and ap- 
 petites, retaining still a claim to the religious char- 
 acter. Righteousness they made to consist in a scru- 
 pulous performance of the ceremonial law. They 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 115 
 
 paid to religious purposes a tenth part of their gar- 
 den herbs, but indulged in spiritual vices within the 
 secret recesses of their own minds, and gave way to 
 malice and all uncharitableness. 
 
 Jesus, in the very opening of his first discourse, cut 
 up this Pharisaical morality by the roots, and placed 
 the spiritual before the ceremonial. " Ye have heard 
 that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not 
 kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of 
 the judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever 
 is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in 
 danger of the judgment." And from this he goes on 
 to deduce the general principle of the worthlessness 
 of all ceremonial performances in comparison with 
 the spiritual virtues of the soul. " Therefore, if thou 
 bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember est that 
 thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy 
 gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be recon- 
 ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." 
 
 With what utter discouragement must this have 
 struck upon the ears of a Jew, who was accustomed 
 to believe that the very act of sacrifice was an atone- 
 ment for his moral delinquencies, and a substitute for 
 a scrupulous obedience to the Divine law ! 
 
 Next he proceeds to the government of the appetites, 
 and promulgates a law so stringent, that the wisest 
 of men have exclaimed against it as altogether too 
 severe for human infirmity. " Ye have heard that 
 it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery. But I say unto you, That who-, 
 soever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com- 
 mitted adultery with her already in his heart." But 
 this doctrine, though severe, is after all only reason- 
 
116 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 able and just. Of course, the possession of appetite 
 is not culpable, for if so, God would be the author 
 of sin ; but the will to indulge it in opposition to the 
 higher law of the mind. 
 
 He next proceeds to the law of divorce, and greatly 
 restricts the license which was given by the Mosaic 
 law in this respect. In that age the liberty of divorce 
 which had been allowed to husbands was carried to 
 the greatest excess. The happiness of wives and 
 families was sacrificed to the most trifling gratifica- 
 tion of ill-temper or caprice. How slight the mar- 
 riage vow was held was revealed by the result of 
 that searching proposition made by the prophetic 
 mind of Jesus, when the woman was brought before 
 him taken in adultery : " Let him that is without 
 sin among you cast the first stone." "And they that 
 heard it, being, convicted by their own conscience, 
 went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even 
 unto the last." How low must the condition of 
 morality have fallen, when of a group of men taken 
 indiscriminately from the community there was not 
 one who had not broken the seventh commandment ! 
 
 He proceeds to show that the laws of Moses, im- 
 perfect as they were, had not been carried out, but 
 had been nullified and explained away by the teach- 
 ings and traditions of men. The law of oaths and 
 the sin of profaneness received from him a more com- 
 prehensive and universal exposition. " Swear not 
 at all," said he. " Let your communication be Yea, 
 yea ; Nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than these 
 cometh of evil." 
 
 Next comes a total prohibition of revenge and 
 retaliation, which was thought allowable under the 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 117 
 
 elder dispensation, and esteemed even praiseworthy 
 and magnanimous among the heathen. Sylla, one 
 of the greatest among the Romans, caused it to be 
 engraved upon his tombstone as his highest glory, 
 that no one had ever outdone him in benefiting his 
 friends or in taking vengeance on his enemies. 
 
 The precept of Jesus was, " Resist not evil." 
 f Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
 do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
 which despitefully use you and persecute you ; that 
 ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
 heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
 on the unjust." 
 
 He next proceeds to draw a sharp line of distinc- 
 tion between true and false devotion, and sends his 
 disciple to the privacy of his own closet, and opens 
 his soul to the secret glance of the omniscient God. 
 To use the forms of devotion is not prayer. Prayer 
 is the sincere, the fervent communion of the soul with 
 God, and the publican who smote upon his breast 
 with the ejaculation, " God be merciful to me a 
 sinner!" " went down to his house justified,^ — with 
 that peace which true devotion never fails to bring 
 with it. 
 
 Then comes the duty of forgiveness ; a duty so 
 hard to the proud and haughty spirit, which so 
 easily springs up and nestles in the heart of man. 
 Yet it must be done, for it has an awful alternative 
 and penalty when unfulfilled. " For if ye forgive 
 men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will for- 
 give you. But if ye forgive not men their tres- 
 passes, neither will your Father forgive your tres- 
 passes." 
 
118 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 Next, he proceeds absolutely to forbid worldli- 
 ness and avarice^ the besetting sin of humanity. 
 * Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
 where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves break through and steal. But lay up for 
 yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
 nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
 break through nor steal." " Ye cannot serve God 
 and Mammon." 
 
 An eager pursuit of the things of this world he 
 counts a pagan vice, wholly unworthy of a people 
 who have received a revelation from God, and, of 
 course, are taught a higher object of being. " There- 
 fore take no thought, saying, "What shall we eat ? or, 
 What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal shall we be 
 clothed ? for after all these things do the Gentiles 
 seek; for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye 
 have need of all these things. But seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you." 
 
 "Where else can we find such severe morality as 
 this ? Wealth is forbidden to be sought as an end. 
 If it be, it is too apt to become an object of idola- 
 try. It enslaves the mind. An inordinate desire 
 of wealth degenerates into a worship of Mammon, 
 And then the very purpose of the possession of 
 wealth is defeated. 
 
 The first legitimate use of wealth is to free the 
 mind from anxiety. A multitude of wants is inevi- 
 table. They pursue us from the cradle to the grave. 
 To be freed from their importunities is certainly a 
 very natural object of desire. But when a man 
 passes on from this, and seeks wealth for its own 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 119 
 
 sake, for the mere pleasure of possessing riches, the 
 very care of it brings an anxiety of its own, and 
 too often it augments to an intolerable burden. 
 
 Such was the standard of morality set up by 
 Christ. It is an historical fact, if anything in the 
 New Testament is to be relied on as such, that 
 these were the requirements proposed by him to be 
 exacted of his followers. It is a genuine, thorough, 
 sincere, spiritual morality. It is not a mere pru- 
 dence, it is not based on a worldly expediency. It 
 appeals to no low or earthly motive. Its appeal is 
 to the all-seeing eye of the omniscient God. Its 
 requirements, therefore, and its motives, are far above 
 anything that had ever been taught before. 
 
 The Jews, we have already seen, had learned 
 nothing from their law so pure and exalted. The 
 teachings of Christ were a new revelation to them, 
 and we clearly see why " they were astonished at 
 his doctrine," and confessed that " never man spake 
 like this man." 
 
 If it was so with the Jews with regard to Jesus, 
 how much more must it have been with the heathen 
 with regard to his Apostles, when they went abroad 
 beyond the bounds of Judaea to propagate the Gos- 
 pel in foreign lands! The contrast between the 
 requirements of Christianity and the practices of 
 the purest pagan communities was wide. We 
 have reason to believe, from heathen testimonies, 
 that the descriptions given by Paul, who was him- 
 self a native of a pagan city, were not overcharged 
 when he declares that they were "filled with all 
 unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
 ness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, 
 
120 • HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of 
 God, despiteful ; proud, boasters, inventors of evil 
 things, disobedient to parents, without understand- 
 ing, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, im- 
 placable, unmerciful." 
 
 There was, in fact, among the heathen, nothing 
 to sustain morality. Morality has a natural depend- 
 ence on religion and theology. The religion of the 
 heathen was nothing but a mass of superstitious 
 observances, having very little connection with the 
 regulation of the heart, or the conduct of life. To 
 keep up the forms of external religion, the priest- 
 hood were compelled to make liberal compromises 
 with the vices of mankind. They bribed men to 
 sacrifice, by concluding the religious ceremonies 
 with a feast, in which the sensual propensities of 
 men were indulged with an almost unlimited license, 
 and the very temples of the gods were often the 
 fountain-head of impurity and licentiousness. 
 
 Their religious rites were for the most part idle 
 ceremonies, or pompous processions, or public games, 
 or hidden mysteries, which neither enlightened the 
 mind nor quickened the conscience. Their priests 
 were ordinary men, engaged in the common pursuits 
 of the world, lawyers, generals, politicians, with no 
 more than an average intellectual culture, or religious 
 experience, or sanctity of life. 
 
 The theology upon which their religion was 
 founded was, if possible, more imperfect and objec- 
 tionable still. The gods whom they worshipped, 
 instead of being models of character, were stained 
 with nearly all the vices which pollute and degrade 
 mankind. The thief and the robber had his patron 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 121 
 
 deity, to whom he prayed as fervently as the virtuous 
 man did to Jupiter himself. 
 
 Morality itself was studied as a science by a few 
 philosophers, some of whom went far in ascertaining 
 its principles and precepts. But the different schools 
 of philosophers differed from each other on the most 
 important matters of human duty. Everything was 
 thrown into a state of uncertainty. There was no 
 provision made for public instruction, or for commu- 
 nicating to the many the knowledge which was pos- 
 sessed by the few. 
 
 But it is an historical fact, that the Apostles went 
 forth ivith the simple power of the Gospel, and wrought a 
 moral revolution. They formed a Church on a higher 
 moral level than had ever been conceived of before. 
 They were not philosophers, nor highly educated 
 men, yet they promulgated a system of theological 
 doctrine, and of moral duty, such as all the philoso- 
 phers had been unable to invent. Mankind were 
 brought to submit to the great law of self denial, the 
 severest yoke that was ever imposed on man, the 
 indispensable condition and the most effectual disci- 
 pline of virtue. 
 
 What now are the inferences to be drawn from 
 these historical facts, as to the origin of Chris- 
 tianity ? 
 
 In the first place, the perfect morality of the Gos- 
 pel is a demonstration of the supernatural wisdom of 
 Jesus. To invent a code of morals which should be 
 perfect, exactly adjusted to human nature as it is, — 
 which should be adapted to man in every possible 
 condition, satisfy his reason and his conscience, and 
 at the same time impose no impracticable restraint 
 11 
 
122 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 upon his passions and appetites, steer a middle 
 course between ascetic self-denial and Epicurean 
 self-indulgence, neither sacrifice the individual to 
 society nor society to the individual, — which should 
 accompany man in every step of his development, 
 and make him prosperous and successful in all, — 
 requires a wisdom second only to that which was 
 necessary to create the world. It is this feature in 
 Christianity which has struck the profoundest minds 
 and the greatest statesmen with astonishment. 
 
 Its extreme difficulty has been manifested by the 
 utter failure of the greatest minds that have ever ap- 
 peared in the world, when they have attempted the 
 same. Lawgivers had tried it, philosophers had tried 
 it, and all had failed. The wise men of Greece had 
 enunciated a few propositions, and laid down a few 
 rules of life, which strike the mind, even of a Chris- 
 tian, as true and noble. But a few short sentences 
 were enough to make the reputation of a great man. 
 
 They acknowledged themselves involved in great 
 uncertainty, and that all were wrong in many things 
 was too clearly proved by the fact that they differed 
 from each other. Truth is one, and when different 
 minds discover it, it finds its strongest corroboration 
 in that coincidence. 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount contained within its 
 short compass more wisdom than all the philosophers 
 combined. And it is enunciated not as a matter of 
 opinion, as were the dogmas of the philosophers ; it 
 is promulgated upon authority, as a matter of cer- 
 tainty, as fixed as the universe itself. And when 
 Jesus left the earth, he commanded his disciples, 
 " Go, preach my Gospel to every creature." 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 123 
 
 Moreover, the wisdom of Jesus was crowned and 
 consummated by a faultless life, a deportment free 
 from every taint of eccentricity or extravagance. He 
 kept himself at an equal distance from affectation^ 
 asceticism, and sensuality. Whatever fanaticisms or 
 excesses have appeared in different ages among the 
 professed followers of Christ, none of them could 
 ever plead the shadow of a precedent or example in 
 their Master. He sat at feasts with the publican 
 and Pharisee, he ministered miraculously to the fes- 
 tivities of a marriage, yet he shunned alike the os- 
 tentatious sanctity of the Pharisee and the profane 
 license of the Sadducee. And the absurd seclusion 
 of the Essene, and his self-imposed abstinence from 
 every natural gratification, were equally alien to the 
 wise moderation of the Legislator of the world. 
 
 In the second place, the perfect morality of the 
 Gospel is a guaranty of the absolute integrity of Je- 
 sus. He professed to derive his doctrines immedi- 
 ately from God. " My doctrine is not mine, but his 
 that sent me." " I have given unto them the words 
 which thou gavest me," said he, in his last solemn 
 parting prayer with his disciples, "and they have 
 received them, and have known surely that I came 
 out from thee, and they have believed that thou 
 dost send me." 
 
 The perfection of his doctrine corresponded with 
 the source from which he professed to derive it. It 
 bore this evidence of a divine original, that not only 
 had no one ever devised so perfect a system, and 
 even no combination or succession of men been able 
 to do it, but it immediately began to be corrupted in 
 the hands of his successors. Not only was the whole 
 
124 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 world incapable of inventing' such a system, but 
 incapable of preserving it in its perfection when it 
 was invented. 
 
 Then we must consider that, if the mission of 
 Christ was not real, if he was conscious that he was 
 professing an intercourse with the Deity that had 
 really no existence, his pretension to it was a fraud 
 and a deception. Those who would be inclined to 
 think most favorably of such a proceeding would 
 call it a pious fraud. It was intended to deceive 
 mankind for their good. Was such an habitual 
 purpose consistent with the known facts of his char- 
 acter ? 
 
 Let us consider how this thing stands. The two 
 most prominent characteristics which we discover in 
 the history of Jesus are wisdom and piety. Nothing 
 is more abhorrent to true wisdom than deception. 
 True wisdom discerns that deception generally de- 
 feats its own end, if it be a bad one, and much more 
 so if the end be good. The benefit which he was to 
 confer upon the world was to depend on faith in 
 himself in the integrity of his character, and in his 
 mission from God. 
 
 What hope could he have of long deceiving the 
 world, if his mission was false ? He early rested 
 the proof of his mission on his resurrection from the 
 dead. If he was conscious that he was not what he 
 pretended to be, he must have known that the stone 
 would never be rolled from the door of the sepulchre, 
 and his enemies would exhibit his lifeless body in 
 triumph when the three days were past. 
 
 The supposition of an impostor teaching a perfect 
 system of religion and morality is one which strikes 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 125 
 
 us as an utter impossibility, and our minds refuse 
 to entertain it for a moment. The teaching of the 
 New Testament is not the mere exercise of the spec- 
 ulative intellect. The heart was in it, for it con- 
 tinually appeals to the heart of the reader, and he 
 says to himself, " If this does not emanate from per- 
 fect integrity, it is in vain to expect that the earth 
 will ever afford the spectacle of a man on whom we 
 can implicitly rely." 
 
 Thirdly and finally, I come to the main argument 
 of this Discourse : How could the world be brought to 
 submit to the strict morality of the Christian system ? 
 It is an historical fact, that a portion of mankind 
 were brought to submit to it. The Church has ever 
 maintained a morality far above the level of the 
 world. It is one thing to bring mankind to see what 
 is right, and quite another to induce them to do it. 
 There must have been, not only an increase of light, 
 but an increase of motive. There must have been a 
 moral cause equal to the effect produced. 
 
 I begin with the Apostles. We cannot read the 
 New Testament without perceiving a striking change 
 taking place in their characters. They were at first 
 narrow-minded, ambitious, selfish, and worldly. In 
 their writings, which compose the New Testament, 
 we have delineated what they became before they 
 left the world. We take, for instance, Peter, an 
 impulsive, rash, fickle man, who at one hour of 
 the day was ready to die for his Master, and at 
 another denied that he knew him, with an oath. 
 But take up his Epistle, and you find the un- 
 tutored, undisciplined fisherman of Galilee trans- 
 formed into a saint and a sage. Oracles of condensed 
 11* 
 
126 HISTORICAL FACTS. 
 
 wisdom and piety flow from his pen, which the 
 highest intellect and culture and religious experience 
 of after times cannot approach. Such attainments 
 could not have been reached without a moral control 
 and self-discipline of the most extraordinary char- 
 acter. That moral control and self-discipline must 
 have had a motive power. And what was it? It 
 was an overwhelming conviction of the supernatural 
 character and authority of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence 
 the phraseology is everywhere, " Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." There was a greatness in him, in his spot- 
 less character, in his unerring wisdom, his inviolable 
 dignity, his invincible meekness, his oceanic knowl- 
 edge, his control over nature, his triumph over 
 death, which enthroned him in the hearts of his 
 disciples, and made him King of kings and Lord of 
 lords. His very presence was a moral power, and 
 virtue went out of him continually, to strengthen 
 the pure, to reform the wicked, to raise the fallen, 
 and restore the lost. 
 
 Next, it is an historical fact, that a church was 
 formed at Jerusalem, from the midst of the Jewish 
 community, who had been believers in the divine 
 mission of Moses, and who were induced to become 
 the professed followers of Jesus, and to enter upon a 
 life of piety and self-denial far above the level of 
 their former discipline. Such a change of religion 
 involved sacrifice, social disadvantage, renunciation 
 of honor, pleasure, and comfort. What could have 
 been a sufficient motive for submission to the rigid 
 morality of the Gospel, except a thorough conviction 
 of the Divine mission and authority of Jesus and his 
 Apostles, who demanded this submission at their 
 
PERFECT MORALITY OF THE GOSPEL. 127 
 
 •hands? How can we account for such a moral 
 effect, except by supposing an adequate cause, in 
 the exhibition of those miraculous credentials which 
 the historical documents of Christianity record to 
 have been placed before the senses of that genera- 
 tion ? 
 
 The case is stronger with the heathen. The 
 change demanded in their daily life was still greater, 
 the yoke which they were called to take upon them- 
 selves was still heavier. Freedom of action is the 
 last thing that men are willing to surrender. Every 
 man loves to have his own way, or at least to be 
 left to judge for himself, as to what he is to do and 
 what he is to forbear ; and he scrutinizes very nar- 
 rowly the credentials of him who comes to him 
 and attempts to dictate to him his conduct, to lay 
 down his duties, and prescribe his indulgences. 
 And yet, in the midst of the most luxurious, corrupt, 
 and sensual capitals of the Roman empire, Antioch, 
 Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, Christian churches 
 were formed, large communities of men and women 
 submitted themselves to the pure morality of the 
 Gospel, and became worthy followers of the meek 
 and lowly Jesus. 
 
 There is no rational way, in my judgment, of ac- 
 counting for this historical fact, but by supposing 
 that the authority of Jesus and his Apostles ivas sub- 
 stantiated by miraculous testimonials, which left no 
 doubt that the law they promulgated came from 
 God, the only rightful Lord of conscience, and only 
 legitimate Legislator of mankind. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 PERSONALITY OF GOD. 
 
 JESUS CRIED AND SAID, HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, BE- 
 LIEVETH NOT ON ME, BUT ON HIM THAT SENT ME. — John 
 
 xii. 44. 
 
 In the seven preceding Discourses, I have dis- 
 cussed one of the constituent elements into which 
 I have analyzed the New Testament. I have given 
 what seemed to me to be the most prominent his- 
 torical facts upon which may be based a rational 
 conviction of the divine origin of Christianity. I 
 have merely indicated the classification, and enu- 
 merated those historical facts which are most con- 
 vincing to my own mind. I do not pretend to have 
 exhausted the subject. Other facts may be more 
 striking to other minds, and each new student of 
 the Evidences may be able to bring forth some- 
 thing unobserved or undeveloped before. 
 
 I now pass to the second element, the Doctrines 
 taught by Christ. Having established the authority 
 of Jesus, and exhibited the credentials with which 
 he came, it is next in order to ascertain the mes- 
 sage he brought, and consider the truths which he 
 communicated or confirmed. 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 129 
 
 The enumeration of these will not be exhaustive. 
 It will only embrace the most important. I shall 
 pass over the existence and the unity of God, which, 
 though clearly taught by Christ, were already in the 
 world, one by the teachings of nature, and the other 
 being the fundamental doctrine of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation. The providence of God is as clearly 
 taught in nature as his existence. . I shall pass, 
 therefore, to the Personality and the Paternity of 
 God. I shall dwell on the personality, because I 
 deem this truth fundamental to religion, and be- 
 cause I think the personal history of Christ has 
 bearings upon this vital subject, which are not 
 always, or perhaps readily, perceived. After these 
 will come the Efficacy of Prayer, the Forgiveness 
 of Sins, Immortality, and Retribution. 
 
 And first I shall call attention to the confirmation 
 which the ministry of Christ lends to the doctrine of 
 the Personality of God. 
 
 The power of Christianity in the world depends, 
 and always has depended, mainly on the clearer ap- 
 prehension and the stronger conviction it gives us of 
 the personality of God. It is through Christ chiefly 
 that we know God as a person, and thus he is 
 brought near to us, he makes real to us our personal 
 connection with him, and brings to bear the whole 
 infinity of his nature in the form of an ever-present 
 intelligence, mind, will, and affections, on our minds, 
 wills, and affections. To the extent of that realiza- 
 tion, the effect upon our conduct and characters is 
 inevitable, almost mechanical, to restrain, to console, 
 to awe, and to win us. It is the purpose of this Dis- 
 course to unfold this great truth, and to show how 
 
130 DOCTRINES. 
 
 much it explains of the spiritual life, as well as the 
 intellectual dogmatism, of the Church. 
 
 The connection in which this passage stands 
 throws much light on its meaning. Many of the 
 chief rulers were secretly persuaded that Jesus was 
 the true Messiah, yet dared not confess their convic- 
 tions, lest they should be expelled from the syna- 
 gogue. There was much inconvenience, as well as 
 terror and disgrace, in this punishment, and honor- 
 able men, as well as true Israelites, shrunk away 
 appalled from this kind of notoriety. They felt the 
 benefits of standing well with their friends and 
 neighbors, and were unwilling to forego them. 
 
 Jesus felt the bearing of these things on himself. 
 He felt that there was a prejudice against him per- 
 sonally. His humble exterior, his disclaimer of all 
 worldly honor and authority, his denial to his follow- 
 ers of all personal ambition, he saw were operating 
 against the popularity of his cause. Such a position 
 could not but have given him pain. 
 
 It was under the influence of these feelings, ap- 
 parently, that he exclaimed, in the words of our text, 
 " He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but 
 on him that sent me." I am nothing. God, who 
 acts in and through me, is all in all. I came not to 
 attract your notice, or arrogate your homage to my- 
 self. I am merely the means of making you sensible 
 of your allegiance to God. I do not ask you to fix 
 your faith on me, as if I were anything in and of my- 
 self. I do not wish to have you believe on me in 
 that sense. I wish you to fix your faith more vividly 
 and firmly on God, for the manifestations he is 
 making of himself through me. This last sentence, 
 
PERSONALITY -OF GOD. 
 
 131 
 
 as I believe, conveys precisely the sense of the words 
 of the Saviour. This, in my judgment, was the 
 great end and object of the mission of Christ, — to 
 fix the faith of mankind more firmly and vividly on 
 God as a personal agent, perpetually present to their 
 souls, — that infinite and all-pervading Essence, in 
 whom they not only live and move and have their 
 being, but who has spoken to them by the voice of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 No real relation of God to us has ever been 
 changed, or ever could be changed, by any inter- 
 vention. God is the Former of all bodies, and the 
 Father of all spirits. It is by his all-sustaining 
 energy that all souls are upheld in being, and in the 
 possession of every power that they enjoy. The 
 workings of reason and conscience are only his varied 
 agency, reason, which teaches us that God is, and 
 conscience, which informs us what he requires of us. 
 
 These are the postulates and necessary conditions 
 of all external revelation. If there were no common 
 revelation of God made by reason, there could be no 
 special one made by miraculous communication. 
 Were there no innate sense of right, no specific 
 revelation could create it. It is impossible, there- 
 fore, that supernatural revelation can be anything 
 more than supplementary to natural religion, and 
 confirmatory of it. 
 
 Let us then consider what natural religion is, 
 what are its capabilities, and what are its defects. 
 
 Let us cast books and tradition aside, and con- 
 sider what we are taught by what we see and ex- 
 perience. In the first place, reason makes us relig- 
 ious beings by suggesting to us the intuitive truth, 
 
132 DOCTRINES. 
 
 that there cannot be an effect without a cause, there 
 cannot be motion without a mover, there cannot be 
 a creature without a Creator. We are creatures, and 
 therefore we must have a Creator. That Creator 
 must be commensurate with the work he has made. 
 A Being who could create us, body and soul, must 
 have unbounded intelligence, must be, as far as we 
 can conceive, omniscient. 
 
 As reason reveals to us God as an intellectual 
 being, so conscience reveals to us God as a moral 
 being. We perceive some things to be right and 
 others to be wrong, and we are conscious of moral 
 freedom, and power to choose between them. When 
 we do right or wrong, we are so constituted as not 
 to regard it as a mere private transaction, in which 
 we alone are concerned ; but there is another party 
 related to it, God, who made and upholds us. We 
 have not only been imprudent as respects ourselves, 
 but we are guilty before God. Thus we are consti- 
 tuted religious beings by the primordial elements of 
 our nature. 
 
 But here the clear teachings of natural religion 
 stop. Of the nature of God we have only the most 
 shadowy conception ; whether he hears our prayers, 
 whether he will forgive the penitent, whether he in- 
 tends to continue our existence after death, is by the 
 light of nature a matter of conjecture, seeming more 
 or less probable, according to the state of our minds 
 or the presentation of evidence. 
 
 Hence the vast variety and diversity of pagan re- 
 ligions. They are the mere developments of natural 
 religion, the conclusions of human reason, the ex- 
 pressions of human reverence, the acknowledgments 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 133 
 
 of human guilt, the articulate voice of that universal 
 desire to propitiate the Power above, which is innate 
 in every human breast. The world would never 
 have seen anything better, had there not been some- 
 thing better offered in the shape of a revelation, or 
 what professed to be a revelation, from heaven, and 
 what was received by mankind as such. 
 
 Such was precisely the state of things, as we are 
 informed by the Sacred Scriptures, in the days of 
 Abraham. That patriarch, we are told, was born 
 and educated among idolaters ; and after wandering 
 among their doubts and uncertainties, God revealed 
 himself to him as a person, saying to him at one 
 time : " I am the Almighty God : walk before me, and 
 be thou perfect." At another : " Fear not, Abram : I 
 am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." 
 What an effect must such a communication as this 
 have had upon the human mind ! How many 
 doubts and uncertainties must have been removed 
 by it ! Before, it was a probability that God was a 
 person. Henceforward, it was a certainty. God him- 
 self had spoken out of the eternal silence. He, who 
 is a pure spirit, whose presence is everywhere dif- 
 fused, had condescended to accommodate himself to 
 man's finite nature and material organization, and to 
 assure man of the most important fact, that, though 
 infinite in being, he has the attributes of personality. 
 
 How changed must the universe have afterwards 
 seemed to the patriarch ! How much more real the 
 existence, the providence, and the presence of God ! 
 How much more close and personal the relation 
 which he himself sustained to the Author of his 
 being! 
 
 12 
 
134 DOCTRINES. 
 
 Pass on to Moses. Mature in years, wise by ex- 
 perience, and learned in all the science of Egypt, 
 still he knew God only by a dim and distant faith. 
 He had heard of the communications made to the 
 patriarchs, he had received the tradition of the prom- 
 ises. But since the fathers fell asleep, all things had 
 remained as they were from the beginning. The 
 seasons revolved, the Nile flowed on, generations 
 were born and died, and still the chosen people were 
 groaning under a cruel bondage. All nations, except 
 the descendants of Jacob, were idolaters. Which 
 was the true religion, or were they all uncertain 
 alike ? In exile, in a desert, where all hope seemed 
 to be extinct, he sees the burning bush, and hears 
 the voice of God, saying, " I am the God of thy 
 fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob. Go, redeem Israel from the 
 bondage of Egypt." 
 
 What an overwhelming, transforming power must 
 such an interview have exerted on mortal man ! 
 The realization of the personality of God, the cer- 
 tainty that he watches over the things of earth, and 
 takes an interest in the affairs and fortunes of indi- 
 viduals! 
 
 Reason, at first, revolts from such a representation, 
 that God should break the uniform order of his 
 works, and specially make known his will to any 
 individual of the human race, — that God who fills 
 immensity and inhabits eternity, and superintends 
 the millions of worlds which float in boundless space, 
 with all their countless inhabitants. This would 
 seem at first incredible, did we not find that he con- 
 descends still more, and creates and upholds crea- 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 135 
 
 tures innumerable in the air we breathe, and in the 
 drops of water which fall to our sight clear and un- 
 clouded as the light which streams in the sunbeam. 
 When we consider these indisputable facts, all our 
 presumptions against a divine revelation, a personal 
 communication of God to men, become inconclusive, 
 and are laid aside as wholly unreliable. 
 
 This conviction of the personality, and at the same 
 time of the spirituality of God, must have been com- 
 municated by Moses to the Israelites ; they must 
 have been confirmed in it by the plagues of Egypt, 
 by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by 
 night which led them through the wilderness, by the 
 daily manna, and by the thunders of Sinai. In the 
 tabernacle too, and afterwards in the temple, there 
 was some special manifestation of the Divine pres- 
 ence. "With a wise economy, the ark, containing the 
 tables of the Law and the five books of Moses, was 
 placed in the holy of holies, a place entered but once 
 a year, and only by the high-priest. Over the ark, 
 two cherubim spread out their overshadowing wings. 
 There is nothing said of God's personal presence 
 there, yet human imagination immediately associ- 
 ated him with that place, and the lid of the ark itself 
 was called the mercy-seat. Thus it is said in the 
 eightieth psalm : " Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, 
 thou that leadest Israel like a flock ; thou that 
 dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." And 
 in the ninety-ninth : " The Lord reigneth ; let the 
 people tremble; he sitteth between the cherubims ; let 
 the earth be moved." 
 
 All our ideas of personality being derived from 
 some manifestation confined to a definite space, and 
 
136 DOCTRINES. 
 
 some material organs, it is next to impossible to 
 conceive of the personality of God except under the 
 same conditions, either by the means of something 
 that strikes the eye or ear. It is next to impossible 
 to conceive of God as a spirit, everywhere present 
 alike. Hence the proneness of all ages to idolatry. 
 Human nature, in its weakness, has cried out for 
 some material representation of God, to fix thought, to 
 aid conception, and to awaken emotion. 
 
 And yet all such representations of God were 
 strictly forbidden, because, though they assisted hu- 
 man thought, conception, and emotion, they limited 
 and degraded God. Instead of elevating man to- 
 ward God, as devotion is designed to do, they 
 brought down God towards man, and thus neutral- 
 ized the most efficient means of his own exaltation. 
 
 God, in communicating with men, was compelled, 
 if we may so speak, to condescend to human imperfec- 
 tion, and to use material instruments, such as might 
 affect the senses of men, — the burning bush, the fire 
 of Sinai, — but with a caution that it should not lead 
 men into idolatry. Says Moses to the Israelites : 
 " And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of 
 the fire : ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no 
 
 similitude; only ye heard a voice Take ye 
 
 therefore good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no 
 manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake 
 unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest 
 ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, 
 the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or 
 female." 
 
 Such means were used in the old dispensation to 
 reveal the personality of God, to hold personal com- 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 137 
 
 munion with men, and to aid them in realizing their 
 personal relations to him, on which the very power 
 and vitality of religion depend. And such were, at 
 the same time, the precautions which were taken 
 against idolatry, the deification of those things 
 through which God held communication with men. 
 On the same principle it was, doubtless, that the 
 grave of Moses was concealed from the Israelites. It 
 was that they might be saved from the snare of ex- 
 aggerating their veneration for him into superstition 
 and idolatry. It is written of him, that when he 
 descended from the mountain, his face shone with a 
 preternatural light. What more natural than for the 
 ignorance and imagination of after ages to exalt him 
 into an incarnation of the Divinity, and pay divine 
 honors to him at his tomb ? 
 
 In the new dispensation, there was no burning 
 bush, no pillar of cloud and fire, no smoke and flame 
 like that of Sinai, with a voice coming out of the 
 brightness. There was no tabernacle or temple 
 with the glory of the Lord resting upon it, the 
 symbol of the Divine presence; no holy of holies 
 with its mercy-seat. 
 
 But in the place of all these was the person of 
 Jesus Christ. Through him was the new revelation 
 made to mankind. His person was the only shrine 
 of the Divinity, in which God made himself known 
 anew to the human race. We cannot read the New 
 Testament without becoming fully impressed with 
 the belief, that God revealed himself to Jesus as a 
 person, and that Jesus held personal communication 
 with God. At the grave of Lazarus, it is recorded 
 of him : " And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, 
 12* 
 
138 DOCTRINES. 
 
 Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I 
 knew that thou nearest me always ; but because of 
 the people which stand by, I said it, that they may 
 believe that thou hast sent me." 
 
 Now this language plainly implies, if it does not 
 expressly assert, that he had before prayed to God 
 for the power to work this miracle of the raising of 
 Lazarus, and in answer to his prayer God had given 
 him distinct^ intelligible assurance, that he would 
 perform the miracle. How this communication was 
 made, we do not know, nor perhaps can we know. 
 The prayer of Christ had been mental, and the an- 
 swer may have been so too. 
 
 But, on the other hand, that there was no commu- 
 nity of consciousness between God and Christ, we 
 know with the same certainty ; for, in that case, un- 
 der no circumstances would it have been possible, or 
 consistent, or truthful, for Christ to pray. And he 
 himself disclaims the knowledge of the time when 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the 
 Jewish dispensation, were to take place : " Of that 
 day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
 which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father 
 only." Both his supernatural knowledge and super- 
 natural powers were communicated to a limited ex- 
 tent. There was then no incarnation of God; the 
 very idea is pagan, not Christian. An infinite spirit 
 cannot become incarnate. An infinite God may 
 manifest his presence to a finite spirit, incarnate in 
 the flesh, so as to make that manifestation a matter 
 of certain knowledge. 
 
 This is the very thing which seems to have taken 
 place in regard to Jesus. How it was, we cannot 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 139 
 
 define ; we can judge of it only by its effects, and the 
 testimony of Jesus himself. The connection be- 
 tween God and Christ is expressed by John in this 
 phraseology : " He whom God hath sent speaketh 
 the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by 
 measure unto him." The gift of the Spirit, not by 
 measure, does not affirm, but denies, incarnation. 
 
 As far as we can judge from the history, that ful- 
 ness of the Spirit descended upon him at his baptism, 
 and from that moment there was manifested by him 
 an unapproachable dignity, a conscious authority, an 
 unerring wisdom, an oceanic knowledge, comprehen- 
 sive, penetrating, and profound, a sinless perfection, 
 and a self-command wholly transcending all human 
 attainment. To notify to the world this presence of 
 God in Christ, or rather, what amounts to the same 
 thing, the presence of the Spirit of God without meas- 
 ure, — besides its natural consequences, an inviolable 
 dignity, a sinless perfection, and a wisdom high as 
 heaven and deep as the sea, — external nature was 
 subjected to his command, diseases departed, the 
 dead were raised, and the storm was stilled. 
 
 But this is not the precise point which it is the 
 design of this Discourse to touch. There was, as the 
 consequence or the substance of all this, a conscious 
 communing' of Christ with God as a person, which was 
 peculiar and unexampled; and consequently a knowl- 
 edge of God and spiritual things, most intimate, 
 special, and precious to the world. It is professed 
 and expressed by him on various occasions and in 
 various ways. At one time he said : " I thank thee, 
 O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou 
 hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
 
140 DOCTRINES. 
 
 hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, 
 for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are 
 delivered unto me of my Father; and no man know- 
 eth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any 
 man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom- 
 soever the Son will reveal him." At another time : 
 "As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father." 
 At another : " And no man hath ascended up to 
 heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even 
 the Son of Man which is in heaven." This is a 
 figure of speech derived from the secrecy and seclu- 
 sion of Oriental courts, where all public counsels 
 were resolved on by the sovereign in the most pri- 
 vate apartment of his palace. To know the secret 
 counsels of God, therefore, was equivalent to having 
 been admitted into the court of heaven. That no 
 reference to place is intended, appears by the fact 
 that Jesus was then in heaven, in the sense there in- 
 tended, though he was locally upon earth. 
 
 By all this variety of language, a deep impression 
 is made upon our minds, not only of the divine mis- 
 sion of Jesus, but, what is still more important to our 
 faith and piety, of the personality of God. God is not, 
 as the pantheists represent, the totality of the universe, 
 and we ourselves a part of him or it. He is not, like 
 the deities of the ancient philosophers, far removed 
 from all concern in human affairs, too negligent or 
 too insensible to observe our individual condition, or 
 to listen to our prayers. He is an infinite spirit, but 
 at the same time a person. He revealed himself to 
 Jesus as a person. To Jesus that personality was 
 not a matter of faith, but of knowledge. He not only 
 believed in God, but he knew God, he held com- 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 141 
 
 munication with God, he received immediate proof 
 that his prayer was heard by God. 
 
 Our faith in God is lifted up from the level of 
 rational conviction to a higher bond of sympathy with 
 Christ's knowledge, and the personality of God be- 
 comes a reality to us. 
 
 We are now able to appreciate the force and 
 meaning of Christ's words in the text : " He that be- 
 lieveth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that 
 sent me." As if he said, I, personally, am nothing. 
 I ask no homage to myself except as the Sent of God, 
 by whom you are enabled to" cherish a more vivid 
 and influential faith in the unseen Deity. I come 
 not to interpose between you and God, or to inter- 
 cept one particle of that reverence which you are 
 bound to pay to him, but to strengthen your alle- 
 giance to the Infinite Father. 
 
 This measureless communication of the Holy 
 Spirit, or, as we may express it, this intimate and 
 conscious intercourse of Jesus with God, attracted 
 the attention of his Apostles, and made upon their 
 minds the profoundest impression, and they labor in 
 their language to convey their impression of it. 
 
 Not only did his character, his words and works, 
 produce this impression concerning him, but his own 
 language concerning himself. The Jews often de- 
 manded a sign from heaven, which was nothing 
 other than some manifestation of God's especial 
 presence, to authenticate Jesus as a divine lawgiver; 
 such as the fiery and cloudy pillars, the glories of 
 Sinai, or the manna which fell from heaven with the 
 dew for forty years. And there was one occasion on 
 which the disciples gave into the same idea, and ex- 
 
142 DOCTRINES. 
 
 pressed the same desire. " Show us the Father," 
 said they, " and it sufficeth us." It sufficeth, not our 
 curiosity, but our faith. Give us some sensible 
 manifestation of the presence of God, such as our 
 fathers received from Moses, and then our faith and 
 confidence will be full and complete. " Jesus an- 
 swered, Have I been so long with you, and yet hast 
 thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me, 
 hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then, 
 Show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am in 
 the Father, and the Father in me ? " He then goes 
 on to explain in what sense. " The words which I 
 speak, I speak not of myself ; the Father that d welleth 
 in me, he doeth the works." My miraculous words 
 and works are sufficient evidence of the special pres- 
 ence of God in me. I shall appeal to no burning 
 bush, or blazing mountain, or cloudy pillar, or visible 
 glory. My miraculous powers, my heavenly doc- 
 trines are sufficient. 
 
 Of this indwelling of God in Christ, notwithstand- 
 ing some passing doubts, the Apostles were fully 
 persuaded, and they express it, as I have already 
 said, in a great variety of ways. John, with his 
 warm heart and glowing imagination, leads off in 
 the commencement of his Gospel. He makes Jesus 
 to be an incarnation of God's Word, that revelation 
 which God had been making of himself since the 
 creation of the world. Such a strong impression 
 did that which was divine in Christ make upon 
 John, who was daily in his society and leaned on 
 his bosom, that to his thought it became personified, 
 and is represented as a person. Not only so, it ab- 
 sorbs into itself the personality of God on the one 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 143 
 
 hand, and of Christ on the other. The whole being 
 of God is absorbed into the Word. " The Word 
 was God," or, as it may be rendered, " God was the 
 Word." 
 
 On the other hand, the personality of Jesus, other- 
 wise so clearly asserted and implied, is lost sight of, 
 or more strictly, perhaps, made the tabernacle, or 
 dwelling-place, of the Divine Word. " The Word 
 was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And the 
 person thus endowed seemed so manifestly conver- 
 sant with God, and was so exalted in our sight by 
 that manifestation of God's presence, that he seemed 
 to be with God as an only son with his father. 
 
 In the same strain he says afterwards : " No man 
 hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, 
 which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de- 
 clared him." Here the degree of intimacy which 
 seemed to subsist between Jesus and God is ex- 
 pressed by an allusion to the manner in which the 
 Jews sat, or rather reclined, at table. Each leaned 
 over the bosom of him who was placed at his left 
 hand. To be in one's bosom, then, in Oriental 
 phrase, means to be on terms of the greatest inti- 
 macy. 
 
 From that intimacy came forth to mankind a 
 more perfect knowledge of God. " He who is in the 
 bosom of the Father hath declared him." From that 
 greater intimacy of Jesus with God, and greater 
 knowledge of him, his character, mind, and will, 
 came forth Christianity, as superior to Judaism as 
 was the knowledge of God possessed by Jesus 
 to that possessed by Moses. " And of his fulness 
 have all we received, and grace for grace. For the 
 
144 DOCTRINES. 
 
 law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 
 by Jesus Christ." 
 
 To the same effect he writes in his old age : " And 
 we know that the Son of God is come, and hath 
 given us understanding, that we might know him 
 that is true ; and we are in him that is true through 
 his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and 
 eternal life." Such is the function which John at- 
 tributes to Jesus as the Revealer of the true God. 
 To be in God, in the highly figurative language of 
 the Apostle, is to knoiv God, to believe in God, to 
 trust in God, to obey God. 
 
 In the same direction follows Paul. He compares 
 the knowledge we have of God, through Christ, and 
 God's presence in Christ, with the shining of the 
 face of Moses when he came down from the moun- 
 tain. " For God, who commanded the light to shine 
 out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 the face of Jesus Christ." As the light which first 
 shone out of darkness at God's command revealed 
 the Creator in his works, so he shone out a second 
 time to make a clearer revelation of himself through 
 the person of Christ, in his supernatural character, 
 words, and works. 
 
 Lastly, Peter, in his First Epistle, takes the same 
 view of Christ, as the means by which our faith in 
 God is strengthened and increased. " Who verily 
 was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 
 but appeared in these last times for you, who by him 
 do believe in God, who raised him from the dead, 
 and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might 
 be in God." 
 
PERSONALITY OF GOD. 145 
 
 Thus the writers of the New Testament are 
 unanimous in declaring, that faith in Christ has 
 nothing to do with his nature; it is faith in God 
 through Christ, — the more clear, definite, and effi- 
 cient revelation made of him by Jesus, than had 
 been made by nature or the Mosaic dispensation. 
 As Jesus said himself, " Verily, I say unto you, He 
 that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent 
 me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 
 condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." 
 
 13 
 
DISCOURSE X 
 
 PATERNITY OF GOD. 
 
 TAKE HEED THAT YE DESPISE NOT ONE OF THESE LITTLE 
 ONES ; FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT IN HEAVEN THEIR AN- 
 GELS DO ALWAYS BEHOLD THE FACE OF MY FATHER WHICH 
 IS IN HEAVEN. FOR THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SAVE 
 THAT WHICH WAS LOST. HOW THINK YE ? IF A MAN HAVE 
 A HUNDRED SHEEP, AND ONE OF THEM BE GONE ASTRAY, 
 DOTH HE NOT LEAVE THE NINETY AND NINE, AND GOETH 
 INTO THE MOUNTAINS, AND SEEKETH THAT WHICH IS GONE 
 ASTRAY ? AND IF SO BE THAT HE FIND IT, VERILY I SAY 
 UNTO YOU, HE REJOICETH MORE OVER THAT SHEEP, THAN 
 OF THE NINETY AND NINE WHICH WENT NOT ASTRAY. 
 EVEN SO, IT IS NOT THE WILL OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS 
 IN HEAVEN THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES SHOULD 
 
 perish. — Matthew xviii. 10 - 14. 
 
 Next to the personality of God, in importance 
 and moral power, among the doctrines taught or rec- 
 ognized by Christ, is the paternity of God, that God 
 is a Father. No words can measure the importance 
 of this doctrine to Christianity, either in modifying 
 our conceptions of the Divine character, or com- 
 manding our affections and obedience. The most 
 exalting and consoling truths are comprehended and 
 implied in this single appellation. 
 
 It implies the correlative truth, that we are the 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 147 
 
 children of God, not alone his creatures, for whose 
 physical wants he provides, but his children, for whose 
 moral welfare he is above all things solicitous. This 
 is a point upon which the human heart desires espe- 
 cially to be assured. God's physical providence is 
 demonstrable, plain, and undeniable. Man, as an 
 animal, is plainly under God's immediate care. Life 
 itself is sustained and prolonged by his immediate 
 agency. The fertility of the earth produces to man 
 his daily food, the sun gives him light by day, and 
 the silence and darkness of the night give him a 
 season of repose. But this physical care man shares 
 with the beasts that perish. 
 
 The animals have only one species of good and 
 evil, and that is a merely physical pleasure or dis- 
 comfort. That they are generally in a condition of 
 tranquillity and enjoyment, by the providence of 
 God, is one of the strongest evidences of the Divine 
 goodness. 
 
 But to man, there is good and evil of a higher de- 
 scription. Superadded to an animal organization, 
 instincts, and propensities, he has a moral nature. 
 To him there is a wrong- and a right, an honorable 
 and a dishonorable, a truth and a falsehood, a sense 
 of dignity, satisfaction, and desert, when he has done 
 right, and of humiliation, pain, and guilt, when he 
 has done wrong. This, of course, puts within the 
 power of man the attainment of a higher species and 
 degree of happiness than the lower animals, but at 
 the same time subjects him to tlfe danger of plun- 
 ging into a deeper woe. 
 
 These higher endowments ought to result in the 
 attainment of higher happiness. But they do not 
 
148 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 always arrive at this consummation. They some- 
 times lead to a depth of misery which casts all ani- 
 mal suffering into the shade. In all cases, the high 
 endowments of man are the cause of more or less 
 suffering. If it be true that God is the Father of 
 mankind, and is possessed at the same time of om- 
 niscience and omnipotence, why should the posses- 
 sion of a rational, a moral, and a voluntary nature 
 be the cause of suffering at all ? If they are neces- 
 sarily the cause of suffering, why are they conferred 
 on man ? 
 
 God, as a Father, is bound to consult the highest 
 moral good of his children. That human father is 
 thought to be wanting in the highest manifestation 
 of parental affection, who suffers his child to fall into 
 one sin which he can prevent, or fail to acquire a 
 single virtue which he can give him the means of 
 attaining. But what is the fact ? To the imperfect 
 vision of man, the moral world seems to be in the 
 greatest disorder. The moral welfare of each indi- 
 vidual does not seem to be cared for in the highest 
 possible manner. No inconsiderable part of the hu- 
 man race are seen to pass through life under condi- 
 tions most unfavorable to moral development and 
 perfection, — in barbarism, in slavery, in ignorance, 
 or in the very worst associations. Can the pater- 
 nal character of God be vindicated in so arranging 
 the world, that any portion of his children should 
 be exposed to moral trials so dangerous, and so 
 often fatal, to their*happiness ? 
 
 Or some might be disposed to go farther back, and 
 inquire, Why should human nature have been con- 
 stituted as it is ? Why should the passions and 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 149 
 
 appetites have been made so strong, and reason and 
 conscience so weak ? Why should the career of 
 humanity commence with infantile weakness and 
 ignorance, and wisdom and virtue be the purchase 
 of perilous experiment, of pain, regret, and remorse? 
 Indeed, so dark is the moral condition of the world, 
 so ineffectual the discipline which God has adopted 
 for the production of holiness and happiness, that va- 
 rious apologies have been thought necessary, in order 
 to explain the present state of things in consist- 
 ency with the paternal character of God. 
 
 One of them is, that the world is in a state of ruin. 
 Human nature is not now in the condition in which 
 God created it, but in a state greatly deteriorated. 
 By the sin of our first parents, the balance of human 
 nature, equal before, between good and evil, received 
 a fatal bias to evil, irresistible except by divine inter- 
 position. But this explanation does not at all re- 
 lieve the character of God. It even casts a worse 
 imputation on him than to leave things entirely 
 without explanation. No such powers of ruining 
 the constitution of human nature could have been 
 possessed by the first pair, except by divine appoint- 
 ment. If the moral constitution of the posterity of 
 Adam is determined by his act, then they are de- 
 prived of a fair moral probation, a deprivation aris- 
 ing not from the difficulties of their outward circum- 
 stances, or the nature of free agency, but from the 
 ruin and disorganization of their moral constitution. 
 
 No worse imputation could rest on the character 
 
 of God, and, if this be true, it must be given up as 
 
 wholly indefensible. God is not a Father, if he 
 
 makes such arrangements as to suffer his children to 
 
 13* 
 
150 DOCTRINES. 
 
 be ruined for ever by an agency over which they have 
 not the slightest control. That human father would 
 be deemed a monster, who should be guilty of such 
 conduct towards his children. 
 
 Another explanation is, that all mankind have 
 pre-existed, and in a state of pre-existence have 
 fallen from their original integrity, and are now con- 
 sequently in a penal state, suffering the just conse- 
 quences of previous misconduct. This, however, 
 does not remove the difficulty. It only carries it 
 farther back. If all mankind are now in a penal 
 state, all must have sinned, and the experiment of 
 free agency was just as much a failure there as here. 
 Besides, all our ideas of justice demand that he who 
 is punished should know that he has offended, and 
 that he is suffering an appropriate punishment for 
 his transgression. But we have no consciousness of 
 having sinned in a previous state of existence, and, 
 of course, what we suffer can never seem to us to be 
 a just punishment, or a punishment at all. It must 
 seem to us, if we do not understand the grounds of 
 it, as an arbitrary, unjust infliction. 
 
 But there are two species of penal evils, which 
 are represented as being inflicted on mankind here ; 
 first, pain and sorrow, and, in the second place, moral 
 incapacity, an overpowering bias towards evil, a 
 disinclination and an inability to good, naturally in- 
 vincible. The integrity of God, and the equity of 
 his government, demand that human consciousness 
 should be conformed to things as they are, and should 
 truly report the conditions of our moral action. We 
 are conscious of possessing a just balance of moral 
 constitution. Our consciousness is the only means 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 151 
 
 which God has given us of coming at this species 
 of knowledge, and we cannot do otherwise than be- 
 lieve that our consciousness represents things as 
 they are. In this matter it is the only interpreter 
 between us and God. For its truth the Deity is 
 directly responsible, and if we are deceived here, all 
 ground of confidence in the Divine character is de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 This consciousness is profoundly silent as to any 
 previous existence, and as to any change in the 
 moral structure of the soul, by which it has received 
 a fatal bias to evil. 
 
 Large masses of mankind are taught that " Man, 
 in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to 
 will and to do that which is good and pleasing to 
 God, but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it. 
 Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost 
 all ability of will to any spiritual good accompany- 
 ing salvation." 
 
 Our consciousness, as at present constructed, is 
 adjusted to the former state of things, and reproaches 
 us, when we choose that which is evil, for having 
 refused the good, which was equally within our 
 power. If such a deterioration has taken place in 
 our nature, that good was not equally in our power, 
 then this consciousness is a deception. The change 
 in our constitution was not notified to our conscious- 
 ness, and therefore, if such a deterioration actually 
 took place, nothing can exceed the unfairness and 
 injustice with which we are treated by God. We 
 are in a worse condition than the Hebrew slaves 
 under their Egyptian taskmasters. The straw is 
 withheld, but the tale of brick is not diminished, and 
 
152 DOCTRINES. 
 
 we are punished by the reproaches of our own con- 
 science, without fault. Our condition is ivorse than 
 theirs, inasmuch as they were punished with the 
 consolation of knowing that they were not to blame, 
 and we are punished unjustly, with the additional 
 cruelty of feeling that we are to blame, when in fact 
 we are not. We are deceived by the delusive con- 
 sciousness of the possession of a power of which we 
 have been deprived ages ago by the act of another, 
 over which we had not the slightest control. 
 
 It is impossible for any one, sincerely entertaining 
 these opinions in regard to God's treatment of man- 
 kind, to believe in his paternal character, or to feel 
 towards him as a Father. The declaration of a 
 Being who has done such acts, even were we sure 
 that we had it, is not reliable, for a Being who had 
 deceived us in our consciousness, would not hesitate 
 to deceive us in a revelation. 
 
 The highest exhibition of parental love is the best 
 possible care of the moral welfare of its children. 
 The infliction of total moral incapacity on the unof- 
 fending is the strongest possible manifestation of 
 parental unkindness, and to an immortal being, who 
 must suffer for ever the penal consequences of una- 
 voidable transgression, renders all other good gifts 
 comparatively unimportant. Especially so is it, if 
 that moral incapacity is not notified to the conscious- 
 ness, and we are made just as unhappy by wrong- 
 doing as if the' moral balance of our constitution 
 had never been destroyed. 
 
 They cannot regard God as a Father, who believe 
 that he has exempted a part of the human race from 
 this moral incapacity by arbitrary election, and con- 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 153 
 
 ferred on them afresh the power to will and to do 
 that which is right and pleasing to God. A father, 
 who has the attributes of a father, cannot be partial, 
 cannot be arbitrary, cannot be unjust. These are 
 the attributes of a tyrant, and not of a father. He 
 who attributes such actions to God, makes him a 
 tyrant, and not a Father. It is possible for mankind 
 to entertain such opinions of God, and still worship 
 him as God. The heathen worshipped just such 
 gods. And their piety differed from true piety, just 
 as much as their gods differed from the true God. 
 Fear must predominate in all such worship. There 
 cannot be full confidence, and, of course, not entire 
 surrender of affection. 
 
 Our Saviour has given a form of prayer, to be used 
 indiscriminately by all mankind, which recognizes the 
 paternal character of God. All are taught to pray, 
 1 Our Father who art in heaven." Now this prayer, 
 to be sincerely used, must be accompanied by the 
 conviction that it corresponds to facts, and that God 
 is the Father of all, in the sense of making the best 
 possible provision for their moral welfare. 
 
 God is not a Father to the non-elect, from whom 
 he withholds that agency which is necessary to re- 
 store their nature to that condition in which it is 
 possible for them to will and to do that which is 
 pleasing to him. Those alone have a Father who 
 are reinstated in this condition. The rest are or- 
 phans and outcasts. They have a Creator and a 
 Sovereign, but not a Father. He has withheld from 
 them the highest manifestation of parental care, the 
 power to will and to do that which is right. 
 
 Those who maintain God's sovereignty, in this 
 
154 DOCTRINES. 
 
 sense of arbitrary election, must do so at the expense 
 of his paternal character, and render the use of the 
 Lord's prayer by the non-elect impossible or insin- 
 cere. A good father does nothing on the ground of 
 mere sovereignty and arbitrary will. He is always 
 moved by reason, by justice, and by love. 
 
 They cannot regard God as a Father, who believe 
 the heathen, from whom God has been pleased to 
 withhold a supernatural revelation, to be in a state of 
 inevitable perdition on account of this neglect. Their 
 ultimate moral welfare is of course wholly neglected. 
 No man can deny that God might have given all 
 mankind a miraculous revelation, if he had chosen to 
 do so. If a miraculous revelation were indispensable 
 to fit them for the happiness of the future world, they 
 could not be justly excluded from that happiness, be- 
 cause God neglected to give them a revelation. God 
 is not a Father to the heathen, in the highest sense, if 
 he withholds from them that which is indispensable 
 to their highest welfare. 
 
 It is not inconsistent with God's paternal char- 
 acter to give his children different degrees of light, 
 provided that each is held accountable only for the 
 light which he has, and provided, moreover, that all 
 have sufficient light and liberty to enable them to 
 secure the highest end of their being. But to create 
 beings immortal and responsible, and then withhold 
 from them the light and liberty which are necessary 
 to enable them to meet that responsibility, is wholly 
 inconsistent with the paternal character. 
 
 They cannot regard God as a Father, who main- 
 tain that the special influence of his Spirit is necessary 
 to fit the soul for future happiness, and that he with- 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 
 
 155 
 
 holds it from any individual of the human race. If 
 the theory of religion be true at all, then the highest 
 end of man is religious perfection, obedience to God, 
 virtue, holiness. God, as a Father, is bound to pro- 
 vide that the attainment of this perfection shall be 
 within the power of all. Human nature, just as God 
 makes it now, is capable of attaining this spiritual 
 perfection, or it is not. If it is not, then God has 
 not done a parent's part in the very construction of 
 our natures. He has not provided for our highest 
 welfare by making our faculties commensurate with 
 the highest end of our being. If by the superadded 
 influences of his Spirit, granted to a portion of man- 
 kind, he supplies this constitutional defect of our 
 nature, to them he is a Father, by doing precisely 
 what a fatherly care demands. But to the rest he is 
 not a Father. He has abandoned them to a spiritual 
 orphanage. They have a Creator, a Ruler, an arbi- 
 trary Sovereign, but not a Father. They cannot 
 pray, " Our Father who art in heaven." Their Father 
 has denied them those original endowments which 
 are the conditions and the instruments of their 
 highest welfare. Heaven, the home of God's chil- 
 dren, is shut against them for ever. 
 
 If human nature, just as God now makes it, is 
 capable of attaining that spiritual excellence which 
 fits it for heaven, the Spirit of God, or Divine in- 
 fluence, must be interpreted to mean something 
 which is granted to all, or is at least accessible to 
 all. It cannot be an arbitrary or a partial gift. 
 
 In opposition to all these inconsistent appearances, 
 in contradiction to all these hypotheses, Jesus uni- 
 formly inculcated the doctrine of the universal pater- 
 
156 DOCTRINES. 
 
 nity of God, — that he is a Father to all. To him, the 
 spiritual welfare of the humblest of the human race is 
 infinitely precious. " Their angels do always behold 
 the face of my Father which is in heaven." " Even 
 so, it is not the will of my Father which is in heaven, 
 that one of these little ones should perish." It is a 
 truth of unspeakable importance, but one which 
 mankind are exceedingly apt to distrust or forget. 
 The want of this conviction gives occasion to some 
 of arrogance and oppression, and to some of re- 
 pining and despair. It is necessary to all, as the 
 ground of confidence, of steadfastness, and fidelity. 
 
 In the parable of which the text makes a part, 
 there are clear implications which go far to obviate 
 and explain away the difficulties with which the 
 doctrine of God's paternal character has been en- 
 cumbered. 
 
 In the first place, in relation to free agency. The 
 phenomena which seem to be inconsistent with the 
 paternal character of God spring chiefly from the 
 endowment of free agency. There are reasons for 
 believing that the moral disorders of the world owe 
 their being not to any deficiency of power, wisdom, 
 or benevolence on the part of God, but arise from the 
 intrinsic nature of free agency itself This appears 
 from the fact, that, in the grand operations of physi- 
 cal causation, the results are unerring, and know no 
 miscarriage or defeat. The earth for countless ages 
 has revolved round the sun with mathematical pre- 
 cision. The seasons return in their primitive order, 
 the vegetable creation observes its original laws. 
 The irrational animals obey their instincts, by which 
 the individual and the species are preserved. 
 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 157 
 
 Disorder begins when we ascend to the sphere of 
 human beings, into which a new element is intro- 
 duced, that of free agency. There too we find law, 
 but likewise aberration from law; there we first 
 find sin, and suffering, which is the consequence of 
 sin. 
 
 Now since God is omnipotent, as well as omnis- 
 cient, we cannot suppose that it is in consequence 
 •of any want of power or wisdom on the part of God, 
 that there should be moral disorder in the life and 
 conduct of man. His omnipotence might have con- 
 trolled the human will, in all cases, as easily, to say 
 the least, as he controls the motions of the physical 
 universe. But that uniform control, producing uni- 
 formity of action, ivould, by the very conditions of 
 the case, have destroyed free will 
 
 Since, then, disorder begins when free agency is 
 introduced, we have reason to believe that this dis- 
 order is incidental to free agency, and to that lati- 
 tude of action which free agency requires. Virtue 
 consists in the free choice of good, when evil was 
 equally in our power. Where the balance must be 
 so exact between good and evil, it is to be expected 
 that a being of imperfect wisdom and self-control 
 will sometimes choose wrong. Any restraint which 
 would take away the possibility of sin would de- 
 stroy all merit in right choice. An immediate, 
 mechanical force, exerted on the will of man, such 
 as God exercises on the physical universe, would 
 destroy all moral character in the volition produced. 
 We have reason, then, to conclude that the moral ev i 
 there is in the universe is the price which moral beings 
 pay for the moral good, the virtue and holiness, there are 
 14 
 
158 DOCTRINES. 
 
 in it. We cannot have one without some measure 
 of the other. Man is made capable of sin, not that 
 he may sin, and, forming a habit of sin, may settle 
 down into a sinful character, but rather that his good 
 actions should have merit in them. Care is rather 
 taken that he should not settle into habits of sin, by 
 the suffering which follows, and he is induced to 
 settle in habits of virtue by the happiness it causes. 
 
 Although, then, God exercises no immediate or 
 mechanical control over the will of man, it does not 
 follow that he has left the human mind lawless and 
 uncontrolled. He governs it still, but by laws which 
 are adapted to its nature and are consistent with 
 moral freedom. The character is not fixed, either in 
 good or evil, by one act. It is capable of change, of 
 being warned by experience and encouraged by en- 
 joyment, or, in other words, capable of the discipline 
 of rewards and punishments. This is the very dis- 
 cipline which is going on in this life. 
 
 The existence, then, of moral evil in the world, is 
 not inconsistent with the paternal character of God. 
 It is incident to the freedom of the human will, to 
 that endowment by which man is raised above the 
 irrational animals and assimilated to God. And man 
 is made free, not that he may do evil, but that he 
 may freely and meritoriously do good. All that is 
 good in his choice is so much absolute gain, and the 
 evil is not without remedy, for God has made man 
 capable of repentance and reformation, and the chief 
 instrument in bringing about that repentance and 
 reformation is the suffering which he has made to 
 be consequent on sin. 
 
 The fundamental truths relating to this subject 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 159 
 
 are shadowed forth in the parable from which the 
 text is taken. A man has an hundred sheep, and one 
 of them wanders away. The wandering away is 
 incidental to the nature of a sheep. It is an animal, 
 and not a tree or a stone. It is capable of loco- 
 motion, but not endowed with mind and guided by 
 reason, and therefore liable to go astray. But there 
 is a Shepherd to seek it out and bring it back. So it 
 is incident to the free will of man, not being guided 
 by perfect wisdom and perfect self-control, to go 
 wrong. But the discipline is already appointed and 
 arranged by the great Shepherd to bring him back. 
 
 Bat it maybe said, Are not the heathen in a state 
 of orphanage? Is their moral welfare cared for? 
 Is the highest good of their being within their 
 power of attainment ? Our Saviour tells us, Yes. 
 " Many shall come from the East and from the 
 West, from the North and from the South, and sit 
 down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the 
 kingdom of heaven." And the reason is given by 
 Peter : " Of a truth I perceive that God is no re- 
 specter of persons, but in every nation he that fear- 
 eth God and worketh righteousness is accepted 
 with him." 
 
 The declaration of Christ is equivalent to the as- 
 sertion, that the happiness of the future world is 
 within the attainment of all mankind. In other 
 words, God is a Father to all, in providing for their 
 highest welfare. The sentence quoted from Peter's 
 speech to Cornelius involves the position, that the 
 difference between the condition of man with and 
 without a revelation is of the enjoyment of more or 
 less light, not of the possibility or impossibility of 
 
160 DOCTRINES. 
 
 final salvation. The difference between the light of 
 nature and revelation is in quantity, not quality ; the 
 truths made known by them are not different, but 
 the same, only with greater or less amount of clear- 
 ness and evidence. The heathen knows enough 
 of God to constitute a sufficient motive of moral 
 action, and of duty to know what is pleasing or 
 displeasing to God. In the language of Paul, " He 
 hath not left himself without witness to any nation." 
 " For the invisible things of him are clearly seen, 
 being understood by the things that are made, even 
 his eternal power and godhead." His will is made 
 known to them in the law of conscience. As the 
 same Apostle says, " For when the Gentiles, which 
 have not the law, do by nature the things contained 
 in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto 
 themselves; which show the work of the law written 
 in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
 and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else 
 excusing, one another." 
 
 It may be objected to this, that the heathen go 
 into a future state in a lower spiritual condition, on 
 an average, than those who have enjoyed a miracu- 
 lous revelation, and are of course prepared for a less 
 degree of enjoyment. It may be answered, that the 
 parable of the talents precisely covers the case. 
 " From those to whom much is given, much shall be 
 required." He who has gained two talents with the 
 original gift of two talents, is just as meritorious as 
 he who had received five talents and had gained five 
 talents more. Both are bidden welcome to the joy 
 of their Lord. 
 
 In estimating the prospects of the heathen in the 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 161 
 
 future world, we are to take into view the fact, that 
 the actual spiritual condition of the soul is not to be 
 taken as the measure of personal merit. Spiritual 
 condition is absolute, merit is relative, and is meas- 
 ured not by results alone, but by endowments and 
 opportunities. Endowments and opportunities dU 
 minish the merit of the very excellence they enable a 
 man to attain. In a heathen, a much lower degree 
 of excellence may be more meritorious than a much 
 higher one under Christian light and influences. Soc- 
 rates may have been more meritorious in the sight 
 of God than a majority of Christians, because he 
 reached a sublime height of virtue under the mere 
 light of nature. 
 
 So, on the same principle, God is our example, 
 and we are commanded to be " followers of God, as 
 dear children," and to "be perfect, as our Father 
 who is in heaven is perfect"; but he cannot justly 
 be made our measure, for he is infinite and we are 
 finite. He is omniscient and self-sufficient. He is 
 incapable of temptation. He cannot err and cannot 
 sin. We commence our career at nothing, in utter 
 weakness and ignorance, and let our progress be 
 never so direct and never so rapid, we cannot have 
 advanced far toward perfection before we are over- 
 taken by death. In the mean time, we are constantly 
 liable to error and sin. 
 
 So Christ is our pattern, and we are commanded 
 to walk in his footsteps, but he is not our measure. 
 If he were, as some suppose, an incarnate, pre-exist- 
 ent spirit, and brought to this world the experience 
 and the wisdom of other worlds and countless ages, 
 he was not in the category of humanity, and the 
 14* 
 
162 DOCTRINES. 
 
 temptations to which humanity is exposed were no 
 temptations to him. They were not proportioned to 
 his strength. If he were simply human at his birth, 
 the endowments he received at his baptism, to fit 
 him for his great office, lifted him out of the category 
 of mere humanity, in respect to temptation, just as 
 much as a pre-existence. If the words of the New 
 Testament' are reliable as history, after this period 
 he had a degree of knowledge which is incompatible 
 with the strength of temptation by which ordinary 
 men are beset. What to us, in regard to God, is 
 faith, to him was certainty. We believe in God ; he 
 knew God. To us God's presence is insensible ; to 
 him it was sensible. To us the existence of a spiritual 
 world is a matter of rational probability ; to him it 
 was a present reality. We cannot see into futurity. 
 A dark veil conceals from us all coming events, and 
 all beyond the grave is wrapt in impenetrable obscu- 
 rity. He saw into futurity and was aware of ap- 
 proaching events, and that tomb which is to our eye 
 an everlasting prison, when he was about to enter 
 it, was to surrender him on the third day to an im- 
 mortal life. 
 
 Possessing such knowledge, sustained by such 
 aids, and operated on by such motives, he lived a 
 life on earth more divine than human. But the 
 absolute merit of that life is a totally different thing 
 from its perfection. That none of his followers have 
 attained to it, does not exclude them from his king- 
 dom and a share in his glory, because they too may 
 have lived according to the measure of their light. 
 No more ought the deficiencies of the heathen world 
 to shut them out of the future happiness bestowed 
 
PATERNITY OF GOD. 163 
 
 on Christians, if those deficiencies have been occa- 
 sioned, not by their unfaithfulness to their light, but 
 the imperfection of the light itself. 
 
 Beware, then, how ye despise one of these little 
 ones, even the heathen, whom ye imagine to be the 
 orphans of God. " It is not the will of your Heav- 
 enly Father that one of these little ones should 
 perish." He who watches the sparrow's fall, and 
 clothes the lilies of the field, does not neglect the 
 spiritual interests of those whom he has made im- 
 mortal. There is a light, emanating from the very 
 centre of the Divinity, which enlighteneth every man 
 that cometh into the world. God has made every 
 human being in his own image ; that image makes 
 every human being a child of God, gives him spirit- 
 ual wants and interests, which he who created them 
 is bound by paternal obligations to supply. 
 
 To every human being God reveals himself in 
 his works, in the deductions of reason, in the admo- 
 nitions of conscience. Every human being feels him- 
 self to be in a state of probation. He who does what 
 he knows to be right, is as confident as he is of his 
 own existence that he secures the approbation of 
 God. And he who does wrong is equally impressed 
 with the conviction, that he did not escape the notice 
 of the All-seeing Eye, and somewhere, in time or 
 eternity, that wrong shall return to him, and no 
 power can deliver him from the dreadful expiation. 
 To lead him to good, and to restrain him from evil, 
 his first years are passed under the plastic discipline 
 of parental affection. A watchfulness grows out of 
 it, rendered more careful by the motives of interest, 
 because, if the child goes wrong, the parent is the 
 
164 DOCTRINES. 
 
 first to suffer. Then comes the influence of public 
 opinion, or the universal conscience of the whole 
 community; then comes the moral education of 
 universal language, which is the natural Scripture 
 of the human race, written by that universal inspira- 
 tion which has given all men understanding. These 
 are the indisputable evidences of God's parental care 
 of the obscurest individual of the human race. 
 
DISCOURSE XI. 
 
 THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 
 
 ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU ; SEEK, AND YE SHALL^IND ; 
 KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU ! FOR EVERY 
 ONE THAT ASKETH RECEIVETH ; AND HE THAT SEEKETH 
 FINDETH ; AND TO HIM THAT KNOCKETH, IT SHALL BE 
 OPENED. OR WHAT MAN IS THERE OF YOU, WHOM IF HIS 
 SON ASK BREAD, WILL HE GIVE HIM A STONE 1 OR IF HE ASK 
 A FISH, WILL HE GIVE HIM A SERPENT ? IF YE THEN, BEING 
 EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS UNTO YOUR CHIL- 
 DREN, HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN 
 HEAVEN GIVE GOOD THINGS TO THEM THAT ASK HIM 1 — 
 
 Matthew vii. 7-11. 
 
 In immediate connection with the paternity of 
 God, Jesus taught the doctrine of the duty and the 
 efficacy of prayer. One is the natural consequence 
 of the other. If we are the children of God, and God 
 has a Father's heart, he must hear and answer our 
 prayers. Christ did not stop here. He encourages 
 us to use importunity in our prayers. " And he spake 
 a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought 
 always to pray and not to faint ; saying, There was 
 in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither 
 regarded man. And there was a widow in that 
 city ; and she came to him, saying, Avenge me 
 of mine adversary. And he would not for a while ; 
 
166 DOCTRINES. 
 
 but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear 
 not God, nor regard man, yet, because this widow 
 troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual 
 coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear 
 what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God 
 avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto 
 him ? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily." 
 
 The facts here are specific, but the conclusions to 
 be derived from them are universal. The principle 
 involved in the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer is, 
 in philosophical language, this. Religion is a sub- 
 jective, as well as objective reality. Not only are 
 there objects out of us to which religion refers, but 
 there are faculties within us which correspond to 
 those outward objects, and those outward objects 
 are intended to bring into action those internal facul- 
 ties, and by their joint operation human happiness 
 and perfection are promoted. 
 
 In other words, God has given to man a peculiar 
 constitution; he has bestowed on him a religious 
 nature, which leads and enables him to recognize 
 the existence of God, to act with reference to him, and 
 to be benefited by such action. To the inferior ani- 
 mals, no such nature or faculties have been granted. 
 God takes care of them without their knowing it. 
 They know nothing of God, and are never called on 
 to act in reference to him. God gives them imme- 
 diately all the enjoyment of which their natures are 
 capable, and nothing that they can intelligently do 
 will add to their satisfaction. 
 
 But in the constitution of man, God has added to 
 a mere animal constitution an intellectual, a moral 
 and religious nature. God has so constituted man 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 167 
 
 as to have a conscious relation to himself. Reason 
 teaches every man that there is a God, for reason 
 teaches that there cannot be an effect without a 
 cause ; and as we are created, we must needs have a 
 Creator. Conscience makes us aware, not only that 
 there is a God, but that he sustains a near and per- 
 sonal relation to us. We could not distinguish good 
 from evil, did not God give us the faculty of per- 
 ceiving the difference, any more than we could dis- 
 tinguish colors without eyes. With the conscious- 
 ness of freedom, we feel bound to choose the good 
 and refuse the evil. If we do otherwise, we feel that 
 we are not only unwise and imprudent, but that 
 we are guilty in the sight of God. We cannot sep- 
 arate conscience from God. We cannot do right 
 without feeling that God approves us, nor wrong 
 without feeling that we have rendered ourselves ob- 
 noxious to his displeasure. 
 
 The persuasion that there is a God, is accompa- 
 nied by the conviction that he is a person, to whom 
 we sustain personal relations. Personal relations are 
 always attended by feeling and emotion. This is a 
 law of our nature. We cannot think on God, with- 
 out some degree of emotion. Emotion, when it 
 rises to a certain degree of intensity, demands ex- 
 pression, and breaks out into words and actions. 
 
 Hence the universality of worship. Hence the fact, 
 that there has been no tribe nor nation discovered 
 on the face of the earth, without some form of re- 
 ligion, without some mode of expressing their feelings 
 to that Power whom their reason compels them to 
 regard as the Author of all things. As it is beauti- 
 fully expressed by Paul, in his speech to the idola- 
 
168 DOCTRINES. 
 
 ters of Lycaonia, " He left not himself without wit- 
 ness, in that he did good, and gave them rain from 
 heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with 
 food and gladness." 
 
 Worship, then, is natural, instinctive, universal, 
 because God has made man a religious being, and 
 revealed himself to him through creation and provi- 
 dence. One branch of worship is prayer. And this 
 is just as instinctive as adoration and thanksgiving. 
 We naturally ask of God that which we intensely 
 desire. 
 
 There is a striking instance of this in the history 
 of Polybius, a Greek and a heathen, who lived 
 about two hundred years before Christ. He is 
 writing an account of the invasion of Italy by Han- 
 nibal. That general had passed the Alps, and was 
 wholly surrounded by his foes. Nothing remained 
 for him and his army but conquest or death. 
 
 In order to impress the fact upon his soldiers, and 
 to make them fight with desperation, he devised the 
 following contrivance, which was so shocking, so 
 cruel and barbarous, that it seems scarcely credible 
 in a Christian land, and in this age of comparative 
 civilization and humanity. 
 
 " But Hannibal and Publius, as they approached 
 each other, endeavored severally to animate their 
 troops by all the motives which the present conjunc- 
 ture suggested to them. Upon this occasion, Han- 
 nibal contrived the following expedient. Having 
 assembled all the forces, he brought before them the 
 young prisoners, whom he had taken among those 
 barbarians which had disturbed his march across the 
 Alps. With a view to the design which he now put 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 169 
 
 in practice, he had before given orders that these 
 wretches should be treated with the last severity. 
 They were loaded with heavy chains, their bodies 
 were emaciated with hunger, and mangled with 
 blows and stripes. In this condition he now placed 
 them in the midst of the assembly, and threw before 
 them some suits of Gallic armor, such as their kings 
 were accustomed to wear when they engaged in sin- 
 gle combat. He ordered some horses also to be set 
 before them, and military habits that were very rich 
 and splendid. He then demanded of the young 
 men, which of them were willing to try their fate 
 in arms against each other, on condition that the 
 conqueror should possess those spoils that were be- 
 fore their eyes, while the vanquished should be re- 
 leased by death from all his miseries. The captives 
 with one consent cried out, and testified the utmost 
 eagerness to engage. Hannibal then commanded 
 that lots should be cast among them, and that those 
 two upon whom the lot should fall should take the 
 arms that were before them, and begin the combat. 
 When the prisoners heard these orders, they extended 
 their hands towards the heavens, and every one most 
 fervently implored the gods that the lot to fight might 
 be his own" 
 
 Here was exhibited, by these poor savages, the 
 genuine, inherent, unsophisticated religious instinct 
 of human nature ; those outstretched arms, expressed 
 the conviction, first, that there is an intelligent Power 
 above us, by whom the universe is controlled, from 
 the greatest to the minutest events, and, secondly, that 
 that Power is accessible to prayer. The question is, 
 Does this universal instinct correspond to facts, or is 
 15 
 
170 DOCTRINES. 
 
 it a mere superstition, based on no solid facts of 
 God's government of the universe ? Do those who 
 pray obtain anything more than those who neglect 
 it altogether ? Jesus Christ, as our authoritative 
 teacher, has decided this in the affirmative. " He 
 that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; 
 and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 
 
 There is a natural probability that prayers are 
 availing, arising from the strength and universality 
 of the instinct of prayer. As God is the creator of 
 all things, he must have created this instinct in man. 
 All other instincts in man correspond to realities, A 
 God of truth could not have constituted the universe 
 in any other way than in correspondence with the 
 natural instincts of man. If prayers are unavailing, 
 then the instinct of prayer corresponds to no reality, 
 and is in its nature deceptive. It is at least wholly 
 useless, it is a superfluity, not to say a mockery of 
 human helplessness. It is a false representation of 
 man's relation to God, and the natural belief in the 
 efficacy of prayer, on which the act of prayer is 
 founded, is a misconception, of which God is the 
 author. 
 
 The ground upon which Christ himself puts it is 
 in itself a highly probable ground, independently of 
 his authority, and that is, God's paternal relation to 
 man. God is proved to be the Father, and man the 
 child, by the fact that everything in the world is 
 subordinated to human good. Human happiness is 
 the end, and all outward things and events are the 
 means. God., of course, must be predisposed to grant 
 the desires of his children, inasmuch as the gratifica- 
 tion of a desire produces happiness, and God desires 
 human happiness. 
 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 171 
 
 But then there must evidently be a limit to this, 
 for, man's knowledge being finite, he cannot know 
 what will be for his good on the whole. God must 
 refuse to grant man's requests sometimes, for his own 
 good, and hence the deficiency of evidence that pray- 
 ers are efficacious, arising from the necessity there is 
 of denying a large part, perhaps a great majority, of 
 human petitions. 
 
 Besides, each human being does not inhabit the 
 world alone. The granting of his petition may in- 
 jure another. The rain for which one man prays, 
 to perfect his harvest, may destroy the harvest of 
 another, which is ready to be gathered. It may still 
 be to him a religious and a beneficial act to pray for 
 rain, though his request be denied, if he subjoins, 
 as did the Saviour, on making a specific petition, 
 " Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." 
 
 Hence the necessity of general laws. God must 
 govern the universe by a plan, which is best on the 
 whole, and which adjusts conflicting interests as far 
 as they can be adjusted. The chance that any spe- 
 cific desire of man shall coincide with God's general 
 plan is small, and hence the apparent inefficacy of 
 specific petitions. 
 
 God governs the universe by fixed and uniform 
 laws, not only for the sake of order, but for human 
 good, to be the basis of human expectation and con- 
 duct. Uniformity of law is the ground of all human 
 action. It is the indispensable condition of all hu- 
 man plans, enterprises, and industry. The fulfilment 
 of every human desire would break up this order, and 
 bring everything into disorder and confusion. 
 
 We cannot have both uniform law and special in- 
 
172 DOCTRINES. 
 
 terposition, or, at any rate, special interposition must 
 intervene very rarely, or the general law will be de- 
 stroyed. But the doctrine of law carried to ex- 
 tremes, so as to exclude all special interposition, 
 ends in fatalism, chills all piety, and undermines 
 all religion. The doctrine of special interference, 
 on the other hand, when carried to extremes, ends 
 in the weakest and most debasing superstition. 
 
 But it does not follow that a prayer is lost, and 
 of none effect, because its petition is not granted. 
 It may be that God has so constituted us, that, even 
 when the request is denied, the very act of prayer 
 may beget in us resignation to his will, and fortitude 
 to bear the evil from which we pray to be delivered, 
 or the privation of the good we hoped to obtain. 
 
 Thus our Saviour himself, when his crucifixion 
 approached, prayed that the bitter cup might pass 
 from him. But that request could not be granted, 
 because it was a part of the Divine plan that the 
 Messiah should suffer and rise from the dead. Yet 
 the prayer in the garden was not lost. It contained 
 a petition for resignation, — " Nevertheless, not as I 
 will, but as thou wilt " ; and the prayer was an- 
 swered, the resignation came. He rose up from that 
 prayer changed, calmed, and strengthened. Before he 
 was in a state of consternation and distress. " He 
 was sore amazed and in an agony." After that 
 prayer, the distress and the consternation are mas- 
 tered, and from that moment till he expired upon 
 the cross he never faltered for an instant, or fell off 
 from that sublime self-possession which became the 
 martyr to the truth and the Saviour of the world. 
 
 This opens a wide sphere for the agency of 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 173 
 
 prayer, without interfering in the concatenation of 
 physical causes, in changing the spiritual condition of 
 the worshipper himself. Every human soul is in 
 itself a cause, an independent agent, capable of 
 originating a train of action, and a series of conse- 
 quences. It is capable, moreover, of determining the 
 moral character of that train of action. It is capable, 
 too, of exerting a transforming power over itself of 
 becoming pure in thought, word, and deed, or evil, 
 corrupt, and malignant. 
 
 As each human being is an original agent, and 
 puts in operation a wide-spreading combination and 
 series of causes, the difference of influence upon 
 human affairs exerted by one mind may be im- 
 mense, either for good or evil. It has been immense, 
 beyond thought or computation. 
 
 Now, by the constitution which God has given to 
 man, the most powerful spiritual influence which a 
 man can exert upon himself is by the very act of 
 prayer. An act of prayer is necessarily an act of 
 faith, " for he that cometh unto God must believe 
 that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that 
 diligently seek him." And that act strengthens the 
 principle from which it proceeds. In the act of 
 prayer, God becomes a present reality, just in pro- 
 portion to the fervor with which we call upon him. 
 It is a realization of the presence of God, and this 
 constitutes the chief difference between a religious 
 and an irreligious man. 
 
 The religious man does not confine his regard to 
 
 God to the act of prayer. It enters into other things. 
 
 The Father of spirits is not only the Father of the 
 
 soul, accessible to its approaches at all times, and 
 
 15* 
 
174 DOCTRINES. 
 
 ministering immediately to its spiritual wants, but 
 he is the physical and moral Governor of the uni- 
 verse, and he administers all things according to 
 that law which he has written on the soul of man. 
 Such is the harmonious structure of the universe, 
 that nothing can permanently prosper which breaks 
 God's fundamental laws. He who maintains com- 
 munion with God will maintain a sense of his pres- 
 ence, and a proportionate regard for his law. He 
 will be saved from those rash acts and enterprises 
 by which men bring ruin and destruction on them- 
 selves. He will choose such ends and objects as 
 are consistent with God's government, and of course 
 are attainable in the ordinary course of his provi- 
 dence, and will be productive of happiness. 
 
 Hence it is said in the Scriptures, " The fear of 
 the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and the con- 
 summation, as well as the cause, of the depravity 
 of the wicked man is, that God is not in all his 
 thoughts. 
 
 So that the profitableness of religious worship is 
 not only an ultimate spiritual fact, but it can be jus- 
 tified on philosophical principles. It is not only prac- 
 tically beneficial, but we can see the reason why it 
 is so. It is so because God has so willed it, and 
 made man by nature a religious being. 
 
 Another illustration which we have of the doctrine 
 of the efficacy of prayer, in the teachings of Jesus, 
 is in the parable of the Pharisee and publican. 
 " Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the 
 one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The 
 Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, 
 I thank thee that I am not as other men are 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 175 
 
 I fast twice in the week ; I give tithes of all that 
 I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 
 would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, 
 but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful 
 to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
 his house justified rather than the other" 
 
 Here, then, is a most important fact, bearing upon 
 the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer. The publican 
 went down to his house justified. From which the 
 general law is deduced, that the sincere and humble 
 prayer of the penitent brings justification, that is, 
 restores peace to the troubled conscience, and recon- 
 ciles the sinner to God, rekindles his hope of his 
 favor, and alienates the heart from sin and its temp- 
 tations. 
 
 There is no more important truth than this in the 
 whole compass of religious doctrine. Sinfulness is 
 universal. No man liveth and sinneth not. Is sin 
 an ultimate and irremediable fall ? Is there no re- 
 covery from its estrangement ? Is there no restora- 
 tion ? Is there nothing that man can do to regain 
 his lost tranquillity ? Must the future always be 
 clouded with gloomy anticipations? His case, 
 thank God, is not so desperate. A remedy is ap- 
 pointed in penitence and prayer. Sinful man can 
 be forgiven, and know that he is forgiven. If he 
 be truly penitent, and come to God in the true spirit 
 of the publican, " God be merciful to me a sinner," 
 he shall go down to his house justified, restored to 
 inward tranquillity and a sense of peace with God. 
 
 Such prayer is experimentally efficacious, and it 
 shows that religion is a subjective, as well as an ob- 
 jective reality. Man is made for religion, and relig- 
 
176 DOCTRINES. 
 
 ion is made for man. Such experience shows that 
 God is a merciful being. " He will not always chide, 
 neither will he keep his anger for ever. Like as a 
 father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
 that fear him ; for he knoweth our frame, and re- 
 membereth that we are dust." 
 
 The efficacy of prayer may be brought home to our 
 constant experience. The Saviour has promised the 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask him. This seems to be a 
 vague, mysterious, indefinite, and, to some, unintelli- 
 gible promise. But is it not interpreted to us every 
 Lord's day, when we assemble for worship? Those 
 who come here for religious purposes get the spirit- 
 ual blessing they seek. They go from this place in 
 a different frame of mind from that in which they 
 would have been if they had stayed away, or been 
 engaged in secular pursuits, in worldly literature, or 
 trifling conversation. Their souls have breathed a 
 freer, a more congenial, and a more invigorating at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 But suppose there were no voice of prayer, or 
 hymn of praise, alternating with the voice of instruc- 
 tion, and the service were to degenerate into a mere 
 theological lecture, or declamatory exhortation, would 
 not the service be bereaved of its unction, — its edi- 
 fying, consoling, and strengthening power? Would 
 not the most worldly and unspiritual person who 
 comes here go away unsatisfied, defrauded, disap- 
 pointed ? Behold, then, the efficacy of prayer, and 
 consider how true it is, that God always gives the 
 Holy Spirit to them who ask him. 
 
 There is another experimental proof, which is ex- 
 hibited in each passing generation of mankind. 
 
THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. 177 
 
 Worship takes place under even more impressive 
 circumstances than in the house of prayer. It is at 
 the domestic altar. There devotion is aided by the 
 sympathies of natural affection, and the alternations 
 of those joys and griefs, which the stranger inter- 
 meddleth not with. Those joys and sorrows lay 
 open the heart to good impressions, bring it into the 
 low depths of humiliation where the penitential 
 psalm finds a touching propriety, or elevates it to 
 that attitude of cheerfulness in which it responds to 
 the joyful summons, " Praise ye the Lord." 
 
 It is morally impossible that such religious culture 
 should fail of its object. We should scarcely believe 
 that there was a God, if he failed to pour down his 
 blessings where they are so constantly and so assid- 
 uously invoked. His promise never fails ; his word 
 that has gone forth shall never return to him void. 
 Nothing is more certain, than that such spiritual 
 sowing shall reap a harvest of an hundred fold. It is 
 thus, by long and patient years of waiting on God, 
 of continual and unwearied supplication, that piety 
 becomes hereditary, and whole families are gathered 
 into the household of Heaven. 
 
 Finally, we are directed and encouraged, not only 
 to pray, but to pray to God in the name of Christ. 
 " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, 
 he will give it unto you." Is not this fanciful or 
 fanatical? Was not God as accessible to prayer 
 before the advent of Christ as he has been since ? 
 Would he deny to a sincere prayer a petition not 
 made in the name of Christ, which he would have 
 granted if the request had been made in that name ? 
 What has praying in the name of Christ to do with 
 
178 DOCTRINES. 
 
 the efficacy of prayer ? Can any such distinction be 
 sustained on philosophical principles ? 
 
 This question finds its answer in the considera- 
 tions already brought forward. I have already said, 
 that those petitions only can be granted, which are 
 in accordance with the moral laws of God's universe. 
 The character, the teaching, and the whole purpose 
 of Christ and his religion, were in exact accordance 
 with the principles of God's administration of the 
 universe. While our petitions are within the scope 
 of Christ's spirit, they will be in coincidence with 
 God's purposes, and will be such as God can con- 
 sistently grant. 
 
 If they are asked in Christ's spirit, then the peti- 
 tioner is in a proper moral condition to receive them 
 without injury, if they are temporal blessings ; and if 
 they are spiritual blessings, they will be received of 
 course ; for the very fact that they are strongly de- 
 sired, and asked for in faith, will bring them in all 
 their abundance into the soul . 
 
 It is thus that the prayers of the Christian Church 
 have been availing in all ages, and brought down 
 the blessings of God upon the world. It is thus that 
 the promise of Christ has been realized, " If two of 
 you shall agree on earth as touching anything that 
 they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
 Father which is in heaven. For where two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them." 
 
DISCOURSE XII. 
 
 FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 
 
 AND HE AROSE, AND CAME TO HIS FATHER : BUT WHEN HE 
 WAS YET A GREAT WAY OFF, HIS FATHER SAW HIM, AND 
 HAD COMPASSION, AND' RAN, AND FELL ON HIS NECK, AND 
 
 kissed him. — Luke XV. 20. 
 
 One of the first facts with which consciousness 
 makes us acquainted is, that we are free agents liv- 
 ing' under law. Such is our imperfection, that almost 
 simultaneously with the knowledge of a law, and of 
 our own free agency, we become aware that we have 
 broken that laiv, and are sinners. That consciousness 
 is the source to us of unhappiness. It diminishes, 
 not only our enjoyment, but our capacity of enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 That law we do not conceive of as merely an ab- 
 straction, towards which we can have no other feel- 
 ing than simple regret. We instinctively refer the 
 law to a lawgiver, with whom we have a personal 
 relation. We have not only broken a law, but we 
 have offended a person. We feel that we are not 
 only chargeable with folly, but we are guilty in the 
 sight of God. Our feelings towards him are modi- 
 fied by a sense of guilt. We fear his displeasure. 
 
180 DOCTRINES. 
 
 We dread the penalty he may rightfully inflict. The 
 consciousness of sin is universal, and it is the great 
 evil of this world. Of all the causes of unhappiness, 
 this is the greatest. It weighs down the spirits, it 
 destroys the peace, it subdues the courage, it clouds 
 the prospects of mankind. 
 
 We are likewise conscious of penitence. We are 
 filled with humiliation and regret. We pray to God 
 to forgive us. But does he forgive us ? can he forgive 
 us ? When we offend a friend, and repent and ask 
 his forgiveness, we may receive from him personal 
 assurance that we are forgiven. Our minds are re- 
 lieved; our peace is restored ; the record is, as it 
 were, blotted out. 
 
 But how shall we receive such an assurance of 
 pardon from God, " whom no man hath seen or can 
 see," let our penitence have been never so sincere ? 
 God is not a visible person whom we may approach. 
 To our prayer he makes no audible response. There 
 is no visible smile, assuring us that we are restored. 
 There is no pressure of the hand, conveying to us the 
 persuasion, that there is harmony once more. I do 
 not say too much when I affirm that the assurance 
 of the Divine pardon is the deepest want of the 
 human heart. The Christian recites, perhaps, the 
 greatest article of his creed, when he says, " I believe 
 in the forgiveness of sins." The preciousness of the 
 Gospel is centred in this, that it professes to be a 
 message from that God whose form we have never 
 seen, whose voice we have never heard, assuring us 
 that the penitent are forgiven, their sins are blotted 
 out, and their transgressions are remembered no 
 more. 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 181 
 
 I propose to consider to-day what Christ has 
 taught us, first, concerning the certainty of the for- 
 giveness of sins ; secondly, the conditions of the Di- 
 vine pardon ; and, thirdly, its assurance. Can God 
 forgive us ? On what conditions will he forgive us ? 
 Can we have any assurance that he has forgiven us ? 
 
 I have already said, that the teachings of nature 
 on this subject are exceedingly obscure. Some inti- 
 mations are given us, perhaps, in our physical con- 
 stitution. We violate, through ignorance or perver- 
 sity, the laws of health. We wound or injure our 
 bodies. By our imprudence we bring on us diseases. 
 God's merciful character is certainly manifested 
 in the remedial and healing process which at once 
 commences. The broken bone immediately begins 
 a special and extraordinary action of reunion. It is 
 discovered by physiologists, that what appear to be 
 acute diseases are rather efforts of nature to throw 
 off some poison taken into the system, or to remedy 
 some action, which, if permitted to proceed, would 
 end in the destruction of life itself. 
 
 God has, in his infinite mercy, provided a restora- 
 tive power in nature itself, so that suffering is often 
 a warning as well as a remedy, to persuade us to 
 retrace our steps into the path of duty, when we 
 have forsaken it. Indeed, his patience and long- 
 suffering towards us are most affecting to contem- 
 plate. The deepest researches into physiology end 
 in adopting the language of the Psalmist : " The 
 Lord is good to all, his tender mercies are over all 
 his works. He will not always chide, neither will 
 he keep his anger for ever." 
 
 Again, we have some intimations of what God is, 
 16 
 
182 DOCTRINES. 
 
 in the structure of our own minds. It is the postulate 
 of the religion of nature, as well as revelation, that 
 " we are made in the image of God." We can con- 
 ceive of perfection in no other sense than that which 
 seems to us to be perfection. Mercy is a human 
 attribute, without which no exalted human excel- 
 lence can subsist. In man, it is considered not only 
 hard-hearted and cruel, but savage and inhuman, not 
 to forgive a penitent offender, when he asks our for- 
 giveness. And the reasonable ground of this is, our 
 common imperfection, our universal liability to err 
 and to do wrong. It is mainly the same reason 
 which in Scripture is said to prompt the Divine 
 compassion : " For he knoweth our frame, and re- 
 membereth that we are dust." 
 
 In the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the for- 
 giveness of sins is abundantly declared. Amidst the 
 fire and smoke of Sinai, the mercy of God is not 
 forgotten. " And the Lord passed by him and pro- 
 claimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness 
 and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
 iniquity and transgression and sin" The same doc- 
 trine is promulgated with greater emphasis in the 
 eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel. " But if the wicked 
 will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, 
 and keep all my statutes, and do that which is law- 
 ful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 
 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they 
 shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness 
 that he hath done shall he live. Have I any pleasure 
 at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord 
 God ; and not that he should return from his ways 
 and live ? " 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 183 
 
 No promise of pardon and remission could be 
 more full and absolute than this. "All his transgres- 
 sions that he hath committed, they shall not be men- 
 tioned unto him." They are wholly blotted out 
 for ever, and are as though they never had existed. 
 
 The same sentiment is found, with almost equal 
 strength of expression in the one hundred and third 
 Psalm : " The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow 
 to anger and of great mercy. He will not always 
 chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever. For 
 as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his 
 mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the 
 east is from the west, so far hath he removed our 
 transgressions from us." 
 
 Thus stood the doctrine of forgiveness at the ad- 
 vent of the Messiah. What modification did he 
 make in it? None certainly, to obscure its dis- 
 tinctness, and restrain its freedom and universality. 
 The parable of the Prodigal Son confirms it all, 
 and gives it the greatest emphasis. 
 
 No greater shipwreck of every virtue can be de- 
 scribed, than that which had been made by this 
 miserable sinner and wretched outcast. Almost 
 every virtue is described as having become extinct. 
 He has forsaken all that is good, and has fallen a 
 prey to all evil. He has wandered far from inno- 
 cence; he has become the companion of the vile, 
 and is polluted, moreover, with almost every vice. 
 
 But all good is not extinguished. All good can- 
 not be extinguished in any human bosom. Con- 
 science was not destroyed ; moral sensibility was 
 not dead. No man could feel the exceeding sinful- 
 ness of sin more keenly than the wretched prodigal. 
 
184 DOCTRINES. 
 
 No man was more fully aware of the excellence and 
 the happiness of virtue. 
 
 The freedom of the will was not lost. Not only 
 was the moral discernment left, to discover what was 
 good, but the power to choose it and to act in ac- 
 cordance with it, was retained. The change that 
 took place in him was a change of will. " I will 
 arise, and go to my father." That act of will was 
 decisive of his fate. 
 
 You observe that the Saviour does not go behind 
 the fact of the will. He does not say it was by the 
 grace of God ; nor does he bring in any foreign 
 agency. He simply says, " He came to himself." 
 That " himself," the man, the essential individual, 
 had always been on the side of right. His course 
 of profligacy had been a species of delirium, in 
 which that part of his nature had obtained the as- 
 cendency which was intended to be subordinate. 
 That " himself " had always been in harmony with 
 the father from whom he had wandered. And as 
 soon as he came to a himself," as soon as he began 
 to reflect, and his real self began to act, he said, " I 
 will arise, and go to my father." What he wanted 
 was not re-creation, but restoration. To say that he 
 wanted re-creation would have been a reproach to 
 his Maker. 
 
 The point, however, at which we are now aiming, 
 is the fact of forgiveness, that the father forgave him, 
 spontaneously, fully, and freely. The truth most in- 
 teresting to us, which is taught by this parable, is 
 the tenderness, the compassion, the generosity of the 
 father's heart. " When he was yet a great way off." 
 There could be no coldness, no sternness, no offended 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 185 
 
 dignity, no wounded pride, no apprehension of en- 
 dangered authority, but simply parental affection, 
 the yearnings of a father's heart. There are no 
 bitter reproaches ; for what father could reproach a 
 son who was already crushed by the reproaches of 
 his own conscience, tortured with a sense of his own 
 unworthiness, and humbled by the palpable fact, that 
 he was a total wreck, mind, body, and estate ? 
 
 Was not forgiveness under those circumstances 
 the least his father could do for him ? Pure be- 
 nevolence desires to see no greater penalty inflicted 
 on the sinner than the natural consequences of his 
 own misdeeds. There is no satisfaction in his suf- 
 ferings. The only solicitude in the parent's heart 
 is the welfare of the erring and repentant child. 
 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should 
 die ? saith the Lord God ; and not that he should re- 
 turn from his ways and live ? " 
 
 The doctrine of the parable of the Prodigal Son 
 covers the whole ground of this Discourse. It de- 
 clares, in the most unqualified manner, the readiness 
 of God to forgive the penitent. The remission of 
 their sins is full, free, and complete. What a pre- 
 cious doctrine is this to the sinful children of men, 
 to the conscience burdened with a sense of past 
 offences, and trembling under the apprehension of 
 the Divine displeasure ! Of all messengers he is the 
 most welcome who comes to us with the assurance 
 of pardon from God! 
 
 But at the same time it ought to be said, that it 
 
 is not the doctrine of this parable, that forgiveness 
 
 implies a restoration to as good a condition as if 
 
 there had never been a departure from rectitude; that 
 
 16* 
 
186 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 a sinful life, followed by repentance, is as good as a 
 life of uniform obedience. The sinner is simply for- 
 given. The prodigal does not stand, and he ought 
 not to stand, on the same level with the brother who 
 had never gone astray. The prodigal's patrimony is 
 gone, and there is no new division of the estate. 
 " Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is 
 thine." The prodigal has nothing, and he has sim- 
 ply to begin anew, and gradually build up a char- 
 acter, and by a holy life to lay up treasure in heaven. 
 
 We now come to the conditions of forgiveness. 
 These, according to the teachings of Christ, are two, 
 repentance, and the forgiveness of those who sin 
 against us. 
 
 Repentance is, in the nature of things, indispen- 
 sable to forgiveness. It must be remembered, that 
 the evil of sin consists not alone in the evil conse- 
 quences which must always follow the violation of 
 the wise laws of the Creator, the wreck of the phys- 
 ical constitution, and the confusion and disaster 
 which are introduced into human affairs. It consists 
 also, and chiefly, in alienation from God, a sense of 
 fear and a consciousness of estrangement. This is 
 a purely spiritual effect of sin, and it is perhaps the 
 saddest and most destructive of human happiness. 
 
 The soul of man is made for union and com- 
 munion with God, just as a human child is made to 
 love its human father, and to derive the most ex- 
 quisite enjoyment from that relation. This human 
 sentiment is purely spiritual. It is independent of 
 all material relations. The poorest man, when he 
 takes his child upon his knee, feels as true enjoyment 
 from the mere exercise of affection, though he is 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 187 
 
 only able to supply his daily bread, as the^ richest, 
 who is able to provide his offspring with every 
 luxury. And so the child, in the consciousness of 
 loving its parent, and receiving in turn his well- 
 merited affection, has a perennial source of enjoy- 
 ment, wholly independent of the physical aid it re- 
 ceives at his hand. The worst effect of the miscon- 
 duct of the child is the bereavement of this affection ; 
 and disobedience inevitably breaks it up. And there 
 can be no effectual relief except in reconciliation. 
 Forgiveness and remission of sin, on the part of the 
 parent, would avail little or nothing for the benefit of 
 the son. The main difficulty is the estrangement, 
 and the estrangement is the effect of character. 
 
 Hence the absolute necessity of repentance as a 
 condition of the pardon of sin. There must be a 
 change of mind and character ; there must be a con- 
 viction of error and unworthiness ; there must be a 
 restoration to the supreme love of goodness for its 
 own sake ; then there will be a capacity to love the 
 father again, and not before. 
 
 Thus Christianity rests on the most solid and sub- 
 stantial philosophical basis. It is not a fanaticism ; 
 it is not a mere enthusiasm. It is conformed to the 
 essential principles and the real condition and wants 
 of human nature. It is a message of mercy and rec- 
 onciliation from a holy God to sinful man. It finds 
 man estranged from God by disobedience, and en- 
 deavors to bring about a reconciliation upon the only 
 possible basis, that of repentance and reformation. 
 It has met the wants of man as a sinner, in all 
 ages since its promulgation. It has led men to re- 
 pentance, and in that repentance they have found 
 peace and reconciliation with God. 
 
188 DOCTRINES. 
 
 It may be added, that the Gospel offers no new 
 means of salvation unknown in former ages. The 
 only remedy for sin that ever was, or ever can be, 
 is repentance and reformation. That is a change 
 which must take place in us. Repentance itself rec- 
 onciles us to God, because by the exercise of it we 
 pass over from a love of sin to an abhorrence of it, 
 and from an indifference to goodness to a love of it. 
 We are thus restored to a communion with God, 
 and are reconciled to him. This is in the nature 
 of things, and remained unaffected by the advent 
 of Christ. 
 
 The only change that took place was, that Christ 
 was the especial ambassador of God's mercy. And 
 to this end the first doctrine he preached, the first 
 message he delivered, was a summons to repentance. 
 "And from that time Jesus began to preach, and to 
 say, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." 
 This was likewise the preaching of the Apostles 
 after his resurrection. " Repent and be converted, 
 that your sins may be blotted out." This was his 
 instruction to the two disciples on the way to Em- 
 maus. " And he said unto them, Thus it is written, 
 and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise 
 from the dead the third day, and that repentance 
 and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
 among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 It was this which constituted the Apostles the 
 ambassadors of God's mercy and the ministers of rec- 
 onciliation, according to the representation of Paul. 
 "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him- 
 self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 
 of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ, 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 189 
 
 reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing 
 their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed 
 unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, 
 we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God 
 did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's 
 stead, Be ye reconciled to God." 
 
 The only other condition that is mentioned by 
 Christ, on our part, for obtaining the Divine forgive- 
 ness, is that we freely and fully forgive those of our 
 fellow -men who have offended us. And it is remark- 
 able how strongly and frequently Christ has insisted 
 on this. 
 
 In the first place, it is made a part of the Lord's 
 prayer, that universal and perpetual manual of devo- 
 tion. " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
 debtors." And he immediately subjoins : " For if 
 ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly 
 Father also will forgive you. But if ye forgive not 
 men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive 
 your trespasses." He made this condition of the 
 Divine forgiveness the especial subject of a most 
 impressive parable. 
 
 " Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto 
 a certain king, which would take account of his ser- 
 vants. And when he began to reckon, one was 
 brought unto him which owed him ten thousand 
 talents ; but inasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord 
 commanded him to be sold, and his wife and chil- 
 dren, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 
 The servant, therefore, fell down and worshipped him, 
 saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay 
 thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved 
 with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the 
 
190 DOCTRINES. 
 
 debt. But the same servant went out, and found 
 one of his fellow-servants which owed him an hun- 
 dred pence ; and he laid hands on him, and took him 
 by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And 
 his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, saying, Have 
 patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he 
 would not, but went and cast him into prison till he 
 should pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants 
 saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came 
 and told unto their lord all that was done. Then 
 his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, 
 
 thou wicked servant, I forgave thee jail that debt, 
 because thou desiredest me : shouldest not thou also 
 have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as 
 
 1 had pity on thee ? And his lord was wroth, and 
 delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay 
 all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my 
 Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
 hearts forgive not every one his brother their treS' 
 passes" 
 
 Such, then, according to Christ, are the conditions 
 of the forgiveness of sins, — penitence, and the free 
 and hearty forgiveness of those who have offended us. 
 The terms are certainly reasonable. Pardon, without 
 repentance, could do us no good. The evil of sin is 
 subjective, and not objective alone. It is chiefly in 
 ourselves, in that hostility to God and goodness 
 which it produces in our own hearts. We want 
 reconciliation, as well as pardon, and that nothing 
 but true repentance can bring about. 
 
 In that humble state of mind which true penitence 
 produces, we are ready to forgive those who have 
 trespassed against us. And we are not in the re- 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 191 
 
 ligious, Christian attitude of mind, unless we are 
 ready to forgive those who have kindled our re- 
 sentment. 
 
 But it may be asked, Did not Christ teach that 
 there was some other condition of the Divine forgive- 
 ness ? Does he not connect the forgiveness of sins 
 with his own death in such a manner as to make 
 his death the procuring cause of the forgiveness of 
 sins ? Do not the New Testament writers make a 
 condition of the forgiveness of sins, a faith in the 
 efficacy of Christ's death to take away sin ? Did he 
 not say of the wine of the communion, " This is my 
 blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many 
 for the remission of sins " ? Does not John the 
 Baptist say of him, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of the world " ? Does not 
 the Apostle John say, " And the blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanseth us from all sin " ? Does not Paul 
 say, " For all have sinned and come short of the 
 glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, 
 through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus, 
 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, 
 through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- 
 ness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
 the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this 
 time, his righteousness, that he might be just and 
 the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus " ? 
 
 The key of all such language as this is found in 
 the application of certain phrases in these passages 
 to certain facts, usages, and ideas of the Jewish 
 ritual. "The blood of the new covenant" is an 
 allusion to the ceremonies with which the Mosaic 
 dispensation, which was called a covenant, was rati- 
 
192 DOCTRINES. 
 
 fied between God and the people of Israel. All pub- 
 lic compacts and contracts were ratified, in ancient 
 times, by a sacrifice, of which both parties partook. 
 Often blood was sprinkled on both parties, with the 
 same intention of signifying that the stipulation had 
 the assent of both parties. 
 
 The ratification of the Mosaic institute is de- 
 scribed in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, and 
 is thus epitomized by the author of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews : " For when Moses had spoken every 
 precept to all the people according to the law, he 
 took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and 
 scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book 
 and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the 
 covenant which God hath enjoined unto youP When, 
 in allusion to this transaction, Jesus says of the 
 wine of the communion, " Drink ye all of it: this is 
 the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for 
 many for the remission of sins" — he does not mean 
 to say that his blood procures the forgiveness of sins, 
 but ratifies the covenant, or dispensation of religion. 
 a prominent part of which is the commandment of 
 repentance, and the promise of forgiveness. 
 
 And precisely so is it in the other case, in which 
 Christ is called a propitiation. " Whom God hath set 
 forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood." 
 The word here rendered propitiation is mercy-seat. 
 Hence the use of the phrase " set forth." It is all 
 equivalent to saying, that " Christ is the mercy-seat 
 of the new dispensation," that is, the symbol and 
 pledge of God's mercy. 
 
 The origin of this allusion is, that on the great 
 day of atonement, while the people were afflicting 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 193 
 
 their souls and praying without, the high-priest took 
 a part of the blood of the sacrifice, and carried it into 
 the holy of holies, and sprinkled it on the lid of the 
 ark, as being the most sacred thing on earth, and 
 the nearest representative of God, who was one of 
 the parties to the transaction solemnized by sacrifice, 
 that is, the forgiveness of sins. The blood of the 
 sacrifice did not procure the forgiveness of sins. It 
 was the penitence of the people. The blood was 
 merely the symbol of that forgiveness. 
 
 And so it would not be agreeable to fact to repre- 
 sent that the blood of Christ was the procuring 
 cause of the forgiveness of mankind. It was the 
 seal of the mission of Christ as the ambassador of 
 God's mercy. It was a testimony that the summons 
 to repentance which Christ brought came from God, 
 and that it was accompanied by his promise of for- 
 giveness. 
 
 Finally, what was Christ's doctrine concerning 
 the assurance of forgiveness ? Can the penitent 
 know that God has forgiven him, or have such an 
 assurance of it as to give him peace ? It is his doc- 
 trine, as it seems to me, that the true penitent 
 always finds peace, just in proportion to the depth 
 and sincerity of his repentance. 
 
 This doctrine seems to me to be taught in the 
 parable of the Pharisee and publican, who wen 
 up into the temple to pray. According to that rep- 
 resentation, justification is an inward, and not an 
 outward fact. It arises from the nature of things, 
 and not from a conventional arrangement. True 
 repentance is a matter of individual, personal con- 
 sciousness. A man, if he knows anything, must 
 17 
 
194 DOCTRINES. 
 
 know his mental condition. He must know intui- 
 tively whether he is truly penitent. His restoration 
 to peace must depend on this consciousness. There 
 can be no self-deception in this. A proud man can- 
 not have the consciousness that he is an humble 
 man. An impenitent man cannot have the con- 
 sciousness that he is a penitent man. He cannot 
 have the consciousness that he is restored to peace. 
 He cannot, in the language of the Scriptures, feel 
 justified. 
 
 " Two men went up into the temple to pray, 
 the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The 
 Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: 
 God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
 lican. I fast twice in the week ; I give tithes of all 
 that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 
 would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, 
 but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful 
 to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
 his house justified, rather than the other." 
 
 Such, then, according to Christ, is the nature of 
 justification, such is the assurance of divine par- 
 don, which is consequent upon true repentance. 
 In addition to this, every Christian has the assu- 
 rance of Christ, as God's ambassador. Everything 
 miraculous about him confirms it, especially his 
 resurrection from the dead. As it is expressed by 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, " Who was de- 
 livered for our offences, and was raised again for our 
 justification." Our assurance of pardon, over and 
 above the peace which flows from sincere penitence, 
 is commensurate with our faith in the resurrection of 
 
FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 195 
 
 Jesus, by which his especial embassage of God's 
 mercy is confirmed. 
 
 Such was Christ's doctrine of the forgiveness of 
 sins. Such was its certainty, such were its condi- 
 tions, and such its assurance. It opens the way of 
 salvation to the very chiefest of sinners, and leaves 
 the disobedient and impenitent without excuse. 
 
DISCOURSE XIII. 
 
 IMMORTALITY. 
 
 AND AS TOUCHING THE DEAD, THAT THEY RISE, HAVE YE 
 NOT READ IN THE BOOK OF MOSES, HOW IN THE BUSH GOD 
 SPAKE UNTO HIM, SAYING, I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, 
 AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB ? HE IS 
 NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD, BUT THE GOD OF THE LIVING : 
 
 FOR all live unto him. — Mark xii. 26, 27. 
 
 The cardinal doctrine of Christ and the New Tes- 
 tament is the doctrine of immortality, that our being 
 is not extinguished at death, that the soul, the spirit- 
 ual part of man, on its separation from the body, 
 passes into the spiritual world, where it retains its 
 consciousness and its identity, and is for ever after- 
 wards incapable of extinction, and no more subject 
 to death. This doctrine is agreeable to the natural 
 convictions, impressions, and expectations of all 
 mankind. It is not only a natural conviction, but 
 a moral sentiment. There is an involuntary preju- 
 dice against that man who calls this doctrine in 
 question. It is felt concerning him, that he has ab- 
 dicated the highest honor of his being, and that for 
 some reason, discreditable to himself, he has re- 
 nounced the highest dignity of man. There must 
 
IMMORTALITY. 197 
 
 be some moral deficiency which leads a man to judge 
 himself unworthy of so high a destiny, or some 
 moral degradation or delinquency, which makes a 
 man afraid to meet the issues of a spiritual and im- 
 mortal life. In Jesus there was no such bias, and 
 no reason for it. His soul was ever in unison with 
 the harmonies of the unseen world, and therefore he 
 spoke of it with perfect serenity, as a fixed and as- 
 sured reality. 
 
 He placed the doctrine upon the ground of super- 
 natural knowledge, of argument, and of fact. On this 
 ground it has rested securely ever since. Promul- 
 gated on this new and higher evidence, it became 
 the main element of the moral power of the Gospel, 
 by which it created the world anew, gave the intel- 
 lectual, the moral, and the spiritual in man a more 
 fixed and decided supremacy over the animal than 
 they had ever attained before, and brought down to 
 earth the peace and the power of that heaven which 
 it promised. The great peculiarity of the Gospel 
 was, that " it brought life and immortality to light." 
 
 I purpose to-day to consider these three chief 
 grounds of the doctrine of immortality as laid down 
 by Jesus, his own supernatural knowledge, the argu- 
 ment derived from the religious nature of man, and 
 the fact of his own resurrection. 
 
 There is nothing plainer to my mind, in the record 
 of the New Testament, than the claim advanced 
 by Jesus to supernatural knowledge, and the con- 
 sciousness he displayed of possessing it. It is tes- 
 tified to by the Evangelists. " Before that Philip 
 called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw 
 thee." That this knowledge was miraculous, and 
 17* 
 
198 DOCTRINES. 
 
 was exhibited by Jesus as miraculous, and as an evi- 
 dence of his divine mission, appears from what im- 
 mediately follows : " Because I said unto thee, I saw 
 thee under the fig-tree, believest thou ? Thou shalt 
 
 see greater things than these Hereafter ye 
 
 shall see heaven open, and the angels of God as- 
 cending and descending upon the Son of Man." 
 
 To the woman of Samaria he said : " Thou hast 
 well said, I have no husband ; for thou hast had five 
 husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy hus- 
 band. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I 
 
 perceive that thou art a prophet." 
 
 " Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, 
 many believed in his name when they saw the mira- 
 cles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself 
 unto them, because he knew all men." As an instance 
 of this supernatural knowledge of the thoughts and 
 characters of men, his conversation with Nicodemus 
 is related, in which he speaks to his thoughts and 
 purposes rather than answers his words. 
 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may 
 awake him out of sleep." " Then said Jesus unto 
 them plainly, Lazarus is dead ; and I am glad for 
 your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye 
 may believe." Here was certainly supernatural 
 knowledge. 
 
 " This night," said he to Peter, " before the cock 
 crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." 
 
 Such are the claims which Jesus made to super- 
 natural knowledge, and, coinciding with facts, they 
 render probable the knowledge he claimed to possess 
 of the spiritual and unseen world, and of the destiny 
 of man after death. When he said to the thief upon 
 
IMMORTALITY. 199 
 
 the cross, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
 dise," we have reason to believe that he, who could 
 foreknow the time, manner, and circumstances of 
 his own death, and could foretell his resurrection 
 the third day, possessed a degree of supernatural 
 knowledge not inferior certainly to the cognizance of 
 that unseen state to which the soul of man passes 
 when it leaves its terrestrial abode. 
 
 I now come to the argument. The argument is* 
 based upon a quotation from the Old Testament. 
 It is there related, that Moses encountered a vision 
 of a burning bush, out of which a voice proceeded 
 which said, " I am the God of thy father, the God of 
 Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." 
 
 As these words stand in the original, they are only 
 the declaration by which Jehovah identifies himself 
 with that being who, almost four centuries before, 
 had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 In that sense, they would have no relation to the 
 doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and could 
 not logically be quoted as having any bearing upon 
 that subject. That he was the same God who had 
 once appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would 
 not prove that they were now in being. 
 
 The source of the argument, in my judgment, 
 lies deeper, and it seems to me to be this. In the 
 spiritual relation which is recognized between God 
 and the patriarchs, in virtue of which he was their 
 God, immortality is implied. It lies in this : "lam 
 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." In order 
 to have a God, in the sense here intended, a being 
 must possess a rational, moral, and spiritual nature, 
 so as to recognize God's existence. The dumb, ir- 
 
200 DOCTRINES. 
 
 rational animals have a God in the sense of having 
 a Creator, Provider, and Benefactor, but they know 
 nothing of it. They have no conscious relation to 
 him, and, in the sense in which the Saviour speaks, 
 they have no God. They can form no idea of him, 
 are incapable of receiving any revelation from him. 
 They therefore are incapable of religion. They have 
 no moral ideas, and are incapable of moral discipline. 
 T3eyond a certain limit, there is nothing in their 
 natures progressive, either in knowledge, character, 
 or enjoyment. The very absence, then, of a moral 
 . and spiritual nature, and any recognition of God, 
 makes their whole being commensurate with this 
 present life, and shuts out all expectation of immor- 
 tality from our minds, when we contemplate their 
 whole being and all its relations. We have no evi- 
 dence that such a conception ever enters into their 
 minds, or whatever in them takes the place of mind. 
 A continued existence, to a being so constituted, is 
 comparatively valueless. Their existence is not 
 cumulative in its nature, and when it ceases, there is 
 no reason to be given why it should be renewed, 
 rather than that another being of similar nature and 
 capacities should be called into existence in its 
 place. 
 
 The possession of these very faculties and endow- 
 ments, of which the brutes are destitute, constitutes 
 the natural probability of the immortality of man. The 
 gift of reason reveals to man a God, the things that 
 are made make necessary the conception of a Creator 
 and a belief in his existence. The knowledge of 
 right and wrong is itself a perpetual revelation. 
 Those qualities of actions reveal themselves to my 
 
IMMORTALITY. 201 
 
 mind, not only without my volition, but against my 
 will. I am conscious of possessing, by divine en- 
 dowment, the power of choosing between right and 
 wrong. I feel bound, by an obligation which I can- 
 not explain and cannot resist, to choose the right 
 and to reject the wrong. This sense of obligation 
 is a law imposed upon me by the Author of my 
 being. I cannot, therefore, avoid investing him with 
 another character besides that of Creator. He is to 
 me a Lawgiver, and I cannot avoid feeling my re- 
 sponsibility to him as such. 
 
 This responsibility is spiritual. It is independent 
 of time and space, for God is a spiritual being, eter- 
 nal and unchangeable. Our souls are spiritual, or 
 they would not be able to apprehend God's spirit- 
 uality. Our relations to God, being spiritual and 
 independent of time and space, naturally lead to the 
 conclusion that our existence, as it resembles God's in 
 its intelligence and spirituality, so it will be parallel to 
 his in duration. Its endowments certainly point to 
 such a destination. 
 
 A being, then, who is capable of having a God, 
 that is, of sustaining a conscious relation to him, is 
 formed for immortality in the very structure of his 
 nature, has indications of a destiny not to close with 
 a few short years of an earthly and material exist- 
 ence, but to live on in a spiritual state, when all 
 connection with the material world shall have been 
 dissolved. 
 
 We are now able to perceive the force and per- 
 tinency of Christ's argument, that Abraham's ca- 
 pacity of consciously having a God was a reason 
 for believing in his immortality, thatlis, his having 
 
202 DOCTRINES. 
 
 a religious nature was an argument for his immor- 
 tality. God would not endow a being so highly, 
 whom he had created to perish at death. If man 
 were destined to perish with the brutes, he would 
 have been created like the brutes. 
 
 Moreover, God had had special communication 
 with Abraham. He had said to him, " Walk before 
 me, and be thou perfect." At another time, " Fear 
 not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding 
 great reward." Was there anything in Abraham's 
 earthly life to correspond to this great and unlimited 
 promise ? and if not, can the Divine veracity be vin- 
 dicated unless we suppose another and a spiritual 
 life ? 
 
 " Walk before me and be thou perfect." Here is 
 a recognition of Abraham as a subject of law and 
 obligation. He was bound to be perfect, cost what 
 it might, not to seek for any present pleasure or ad- 
 vantage, but to seek to be perfect, to the sacrifice of 
 everything else. Moral perfection has no immediate 
 respect to any of the good things of this life, and 
 though it generally leads to all good, yet it some- 
 times compels a man to renounce everything, even 
 life itself, rather than prove false to duty. This 
 command to seek for perfection was not confined to 
 Abraham, but is the essential law of our moral na- 
 ture all over the world. Its obligations are every- 
 where equally imperative. It extends up to the hour 
 of death, and our last act may be to surrender life 
 rather than prove false to duty. 
 
 If this life be all, what becomes of God's prom- 
 ise, " I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great re- 
 ward"? If Abraham ceases to exist, the promise 
 
IMMORTALITY. 
 
 203 
 
 fails, and Abraham has sacrificed everything, even 
 life itself, to a mere phantom of delusive expectation. 
 The fact, then, that Abraham is capable of having 
 a God, that is, of being conscious of his relation to 
 God, of acting with reference to the will of God, 
 points him out as a being of a nobler nature than 
 the beasts which perish* makes his nature incom- 
 mensurate with the narrow confines of this present 
 world, and makes the supposition of another neces- 
 sary to restore the proportion between man's en- 
 dowments and his condition. 
 
 So, on the other hand, that man has a God is a 
 pledge that nothing will be left undone by that God 
 which is becoming to his character as God ; that he 
 will bestow the reward he has promised, and there- 
 fore, as death sometimes intervenes, or is the conse- 
 quence of a faithful adherence to duty, omnipotence 
 and perfect justice are arguments for believing that 
 the spiritual existence of man will be continued be- 
 yond the present life. 
 
 This, as I apprehend, is precisely the force of the 
 phrase, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
 living." It is as easy for God to preserve as to 
 create. God would not suffer a being which he had 
 made capable of having a God to perish, that is to 
 say, the capacity of religion is >a pledge of immor- 
 tality. 
 
 This is a great truth, and it appeals to the reason 
 of universal humanity, and in my judgment is the 
 real ground of that firm persuasion of another life, 
 which has pervaded all nations and prevailed in all 
 ages. The question recurs at once, and is to my 
 mind unanswerable, Why should God have created 
 
204 DOCTRINES. 
 
 man a religious being at all, if he had not destined 
 him to immortality ? The religious part of man's 
 nature is incommensurate with our present state of 
 existence, and with our present life. 
 
 The first quality which makes man a religious 
 being is his capacity of knowledge, his intelligence. 
 Without this, religion would be impossible, and im- 
 mortality improbable. Man's intellect makes him 
 a religious being, because it leads directly to the 
 knowledge and recognition of a God. It leaves 
 him no choice whether he will be a religious being 
 or not. The world as it exists forces upon the mind 
 the belief in a God. In the language of the Apos- 
 tle Paul, " For the invisible things of him from the 
 creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
 stood by the things that are made, even his eternal 
 power and Godhead ; so that they are without ex- 
 cuse." Now this capacity of knowledge is abso- 
 lutely without limits. In the short life of man, it 
 merely begins the career of expansion and enlarge- 
 ment. The object of that knowledge is the universe, 
 which to us is infinite. The impediment which in- 
 tervenes between the capacity of knowledge in man, 
 and its object, is death. If death be literally extinc- 
 tion, then is that divorce final and complete. Human 
 existence, so far as its capacities of knowledge are 
 concerned, is an abortion. It is a bud which ripens 
 into no fruit. It is a spring which is followed by no 
 summer. It is a morning which opens to no day. 
 
 Hence the presence of a great and cultivated mind 
 is felt to be a strong argument for immortality. It 
 is a demonstration of the dignity of human nature, 
 and of course of its preciousness in the sight of God. 
 
IMMORTALITY. 205 
 
 Its destiny ought to correspond to its dignity, and 
 the narrow bounds of this present short and imper- 
 fect life become too contracted to measure and con- 
 fine its existence and capacities. And the multitudes 
 who resort from age to age to the truly great man's 
 grave nowhere feel on earth a greater confidence in 
 the immortal destiny of man, or a stronger repug- 
 nance to the atheistic and irreligious thought, that 
 such a mind has been extinguished in eternal night. 
 They exclaim, in the words of Christ, " God is not 
 the God of the dead, but of the living." 
 
 Again, man, of all terrestrial animals, is created 
 with a sense of duty. Nay, duty is the highest law 
 of his being. So strong is the feeling of obligation 
 to do the thing that is right, that it is more impor- 
 tant to his peace and happiness than anything else. 
 It is this which constitutes man a religious being. 
 This is the very meaning of the word religious, 
 that is to say, bound by a sense of obligation. Bat 
 in order to be bound, there must be something 
 external to ourselves to which we are bound. Obe- 
 dience to the law of duty is not merely an act of 
 prudence, and its violation a thing to be regretted, 
 like an event over which we had no control. There 
 is a universal feeling, that we have not only been 
 unfortunate, but criminal. We have not only broken 
 a law, but offended a person. We have not only 
 made a mistake, but have contracted guilt. So 
 strong is our natural conviction of the personality of 
 God. The law written on our hearts, and on all 
 hearts, makes us believe in the existence of a Law- 
 giver. 
 
 We do not look alone at the immediate, the nat- 
 18 
 
206 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 ural, and material consequences of our actions. We 
 believe that our actions are written in the records of 
 eternal justice, and, however long retribution may be 
 delayed, it must overtake us at last. Much of the 
 punishment of our evil deeds is purely spiritual, and 
 has no reference to time and place. Retribution, in 
 that case, implies and requires merely a continuance 
 of being. A complete retribution requires immor- 
 tality. 
 
 On the other hand, fidelity to a sense of duty im- 
 plies a continued existence. From the very nature 
 of the case, it involves self-denial and self-sacrifice. 
 If it were a mere compliance with present inclina- 
 tion, it would not be compliance with a sense of 
 duty. We comply with the requisitions of duty, 
 not because we believe it will be self-denial in the 
 end, but will be an infinite gain. And why do we 
 believe this ? Because we believe in God, an infi.-. 
 nite, omnipotent, and eternal Being, who has pledged 
 himself in the very structure of our nature to the 
 remuneration of those who, in obedience to him, 
 sacrifice inclination to duty. 
 
 But all this supposes that our own existence shall 
 continue until this compensation shall take effect. 
 The pledges implied in our moral nature would not 
 be redeemed, if we were to make the sacrifices and 
 then cease to exist before we could receive our 
 promised reward. Such would be the condition of 
 all good men in reference to the present life, if there 
 were no hereafter. If death closes man's existence 
 for ever, then the pledges of man's moral nature must 
 remain for ever unredeemed. The sense of duty 
 must be pronounced to be incommensurate with the 
 
IMMORTALITY. 
 
 207 
 
 duration of man's being. The life of every good 
 man, then, is an argument for immortality. That 
 there is such a thing as pure, disinterested virtue in 
 the world, is a strong reason for believing that there 
 is a heaven prepared by God which shall be its ap- 
 propriate reward. God, we are certain, cannot be 
 the God of the dead. If he has suffered good men 
 to die and to cease to be, he has abdicated the 
 throne of God, he has failed to dispense justice, he 
 has neglected to perform his promise, he has falsified 
 the pledges of man's moral constitution, and the 
 final refuge of man is in scepticism and despair. 
 "God is the God of the living." All live to 
 him, and all must live to him, whom he has 
 made capable of complying with the requisitions 
 of duty. 
 
 But man is not only a creature of intellect and of 
 conscience, but likewise of affections. We have al- 
 ready shown that intellect and conscience are both 
 incommensurate with the narrow limits of this mor- 
 tal life. I shall now proceed to show, that the af- 
 fections are no less so. The affections have for their 
 object the preservation of our being, and the promo- 
 tion of our own happiness while we are in posses- 
 sion of it. The first of the affections, whose effects 
 we experience on coming into this life, is the pa- 
 rental. This is necessary for the preservation of our 
 being, for we are born utterly helpless. It is the 
 strongest proof of God's care for us. It is antece- 
 dent to any merit on our part. We are able at that 
 period to give nothing but trouble and anxiety. 
 Were it not for this spontaneous and unbought af- 
 fection, we should perish in our very cradles. That 
 
208 DOCTRINES. 
 
 it is in the hearts of our parents, we owe to the 
 special provision of God. And it is one of the 
 strongest evidences that we have a God, and do not 
 owe our existence to chance. 
 
 The existence of these affections, however, is not 
 a valid argument for immortality, for they are shared 
 by man with the brutes, for which there is no hope 
 after death. There is one class of affections, not- 
 withstanding, with respect to which the case is dif- 
 ferent, — those which spring up between the truly 
 good. They have for their object a spiritual, an en- 
 during and illimitable happiness, a happiness which 
 grows with years, with experience, with the disci- 
 pline of the joys and sorrows of life. It becomes 
 most intense in the purest and most refined, and 
 unites them together by such tender ties, that they 
 make up the best part of existence itself. Those 
 affections are the very life of life, and their loss con- 
 stitutes the bitterest part of death itself. 
 
 These same affections, having embraced all good 
 men on earth, mount upward to God, who is good- 
 ness itself, pure, unmixed, unchangeable, eternal. 
 The happiness of a holy man comes at last to con- 
 sist in a great measure in loving God. The highest 
 language of devotion is to him no exaggeration. 
 He says to God, with the profoundest sincerity and 
 the deepest joy : " Thou art my rock, my confidence, 
 my hope! In thee do I put my trust! Thy pres- 
 ence is the light of the world." " Though I walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 fear no evil, for thou art with me. In thy presence 
 is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures 
 for evermore." 
 
IMMORTALITY. 209 
 
 Are these affections mortal, and destined to perish 
 for ever in the grave ? God would not be God to 
 those in whose bosoms he had bidden such affec- 
 tions to spring, and then defrauded them of their 
 object by annihilating them for ever. " God is not 
 the God of the dead, but of the living" The spiritual 
 nature and religious capacities of man, his intellect, 
 his conscience, and his affections, are altogether in- 
 commensurate with this short and uncertain life. 
 His nature corresponds to immensity and eternity. 
 The law of adaptation intimates immortality to 
 man. The Saviour, then, in his discussion with the 
 Sadducees, appeals to the universal argument which 
 pervades all minds, and, though it fails to express it- 
 self in words, underlies and sustains those convic- 
 tions of a destiny stretching beyond this present life, 
 which seem to constitute a species of universal, un- 
 written, unquestionable revelation. 
 
 The last ground upon which Christ rested the 
 doctrine of immortality was that of actual and 
 palpable fact, — "I am the resurrection and the 
 life." 
 
 Facts have much greater power than arguments 
 over the human mind. The natural course of rea- 
 son is to generalize, to deduce general truths and 
 principles from particular facts, and not to infer 
 particular facts from general principles. Accordingly, 
 the world was startled from its delusion of selfish- 
 ness and its delirium of sensuality, not by the teach- 
 ing, but by the resurrection of Jesus. It set Jerusalem 
 in an uproar, which had been quiet under his preach- 
 ing for three years. To have been witnesses of it 
 18* 
 
210 DOCTRINES. 
 
 set the Apostles on high in the regard and the rev- 
 erence of mankind. It clothed them with author- 
 ity which men had never possessed before, and ena- 
 bled them to convert, regenerate, and sanctify the 
 world. 
 
 
DISCOURSE XIV 
 
 RETRIBUTION. 
 
 MARVEL NOT AT THIS: FOR THE HOUR IS COMING, IN THE 
 WHICH ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES 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 RESURRECTION OF 
 
 damnation. — John v. 28, 29. 
 
 In connection with the doctrine of immortality, 
 Christ taught distinctly and emphatically the doc- 
 trine of retribution ; that those v\ ho have done good 
 shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and those 
 who have done evil, to the resurrection of condem- 
 nation. 
 
 All terms, of course, in the New Testament, which 
 speak of judgment, acquittal, condemnation, &c, are 
 figurative and analogical. They are taken from 
 human modes of administering justice, of convict- 
 ing the guilty and discharging the innocent. 
 
 The Divine government is differently administered. 
 A system of retribution is interwoven into the nature 
 of things. The laws of God are spiritual, and exe- 
 cute themselves. To be vicious is to be miser- 
 able. To be virtuous is measurably to be happy. 
 
212 DOCTRINES. 
 
 There are, of course, impediments to each ; there are 
 hindrances to a perfect retribution in the present 
 life. Death will remove those impediments, and a 
 continued spiritual existence will necessarily bring 
 about a complete retribution. Hence it is, that death 
 and the day of judgment are spoken of in such 
 close connection. The true character then will be- 
 come known, the ties which connected the good 
 and the bad will be dissolved. The good will no 
 longer suffer with the bad the consequences of their 
 vices, nor the vicious be sheltered from the conse- 
 quences of their misdeeds by the society and com- 
 passion of the virtuous. 
 
 In announcing and establishing the doctrine of 
 rm mortality, Christ at the same time announced and 
 established the doctrine of retribution. But neither 
 did the doctrine of a resurrection or a retribution 
 originate in the teaching of Jesus. They were doc- 
 trines common among the Jews at the time of 
 Christ, and for many ages before. Martha says to 
 Jesus, of her brother Lazarus, " I know that he shall 
 rise again in the resurrection at the last day." This 
 doctrine she did not first learn from Jesus, but had 
 received it as a common doctrine of religion current 
 among the Jews. Such a doctrine had prevailed as 
 early at least as the writing of the book of Daniel. 
 In that, it is said, " And many of them that sleep in 
 the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast- 
 ing life, and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt." And it is remarkable how spiritual are the 
 instruments of future punishment which are intro- 
 duced into this early announcement. The punish- 
 ment by hell-fire, which our Saviour adopts, was an 
 
RETRIBUTION. 213 
 
 image introduced in an after age. The images of 
 that early day were "everlasting life," and "shame 
 and everlasting contempt." One of the young men 
 immolated by Antiochus Epiphanes, as related in 
 the Second Book of Maccabees, for his adherence to 
 the Mosaic religion, addressed to him the following 
 speech : " Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this 
 present life ; but the King of the world shall raise us 
 up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting 
 life." 
 
 But Christ taught as a doctrine of revelation that 
 which before had prevailed as an opinion. " And 
 this is the will of him that sent me, that every one 
 that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have 
 everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last 
 day." He announces this in his prophetic character. 
 " This is the will of God." 
 
 But the Jews had held the opinions of immortality 
 and retribution in connection with fundamental 
 error. It was a saying among their Rabbins, which 
 everywhere occurs in their writings, " There is a 
 part for all Israel in the world to come." All Israel 
 are sure of future happiness, let their individual and 
 private character be what it may. But there was 
 no salvation for a heathen, no portion in future bless- 
 edness, let his virtues be never so eminent. This 
 grand error both Jesus and John the Baptist set 
 themselves immediately to correct. It stood in the 
 way of the preliminary message of John, " Repent, 
 for the kingdom of God is at hand." The Jews, in 
 their conceit, imagined that they had no need of re- 
 pentance. They were of the holy seed of Abraham, 
 and therefore they could not be lost. This mistake 
 
214 DOCTRINES. 
 
 he at once cut up by the roots, and admonished the 
 scribes and Pharisees, Jews though they might be, 
 " O generation of vipers ! who hath warned you to 
 flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, 
 fruits meet for repentance; and begin not to say 
 within yourselves, We have Abraham for our Father; 
 for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones 
 to raise up children unto Abraham." And he closes 
 with announcing the opposite doctrine of personal, 
 individual responsibility. " And now, also, the axe 
 lieth at the root of the trees; therefore every tree 
 which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down 
 and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with 
 water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me 
 is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
 bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and 
 with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
 thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into 
 the garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with un- 
 quenchable fire." 
 
 There is nothing, perhaps, in the New Testament 
 which bears a greater verisimilitude than this passage. 
 The images are rural, and appropriate to him who 
 appeared in the desert, and was clothed with camel's 
 hair, and fed on locusts and wild honey. The axe 
 and the threshing-floor were the most familiar things 
 to the inhabitants of the country, the barren and the 
 fruitful tree, the wheat and the chaff, were the most 
 impressive symbols of the righteous and the wicked, 
 to an agricultural people, and the power and glory 
 of the approaching Messiah are well set forth by 
 him who has the power to baptize with the Holy 
 Ghost and with fire, and to separate the chaff from 
 
RETRIBUTION. 215 
 
 the wheat, to confer upon mankind new and higher 
 degrees of spirituality and happiness, or to involve 
 them in a misery more complete. In this new dis- 
 pensation, no regard will be paid to race or nation ; 
 the personal and individual character will be all that 
 will be considered. Retribution, then, was the main 
 feature of the Gospel from the beginning, from its 
 first annunciation in the wilderness by John the 
 Baptist. 
 
 The doctrine of retribution is the main burden of 
 Christ's Sermon on the Mount. It is so in the largest 
 and most generous sense. It dwells chiefly on re- 
 wards. It begins with large, affectionate, and liberal 
 promises of reward. Christ preached no one-sided 
 Gospel. He did not regard it as a mere instrument 
 of police, or represent the main object of God's gov- 
 ernment to be to keep people in order. There was 
 no ecclesiasticism in his exhibition of Gospel truth. 
 Retribution was not a thing to be addressed exclu- 
 sively to the sense of guilt, to the fears and appre- 
 hensions of mankind. According to him, it is God's 
 pleasure to bestow happiness on his children, as far 
 as they have fitted themselves to receive it. Pun- 
 ishment is his strange work. 
 
 Accordingly, he commences his preaching with 
 the announcement of blessings, instead of the denun- 
 ciation of punishments. " Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
 are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 
 ..... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be 
 called the children of God. Blessed are they which 
 
216 
 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall 
 revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all man- 
 ner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice 
 and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in 
 heaven" Here, then, the Gospel commences with 
 the promise of a glorious reward in heaven. Retri- 
 bution there is, not in the sense of threatening and 
 terror, but of consolation, hope, and encouragement. 
 And this is precisely what the toiling, suffering, frail, 
 and tempted children of earth need, to sustain them 
 in their daily trials, and to nerve them to their daily 
 duties. 
 
 But as the discourse proceeds, a higher law of ret- 
 ribution is set up. Men are not to be rewarded for 
 their good deeds unless the motive has been pure. 
 Here is a distinction which the Mosaic code did not 
 make, and which had never been insisted on by the 
 saints and sages of the olden dispensation. " Take 
 heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen 
 of them ; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father 
 which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest 
 thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as 
 the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, 
 that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto 
 you, they have their reward. But when thou doest 
 alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand 
 doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy 
 Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee 
 openly." 
 
 Here is the doctrine of retribution declared in a 
 most stringent and impressive form. It lays the 
 foundation of a thorough and spiritual virtue, of a 
 
RETRIBUTION. 217 
 
 divine and not a mere human and ostensible morality. 
 It proclaims a retribution as eternal as God, and as 
 universal as his omnipresence ; as certain as his all- 
 pervading agency, and as secret as the consciousness 
 of the soul. 
 
 The discourse winds up with a broader, though 
 milder, statement of the doctrine of retribution. It 
 is such a retribution as may extend no further than 
 the operation of natural causes. " Therefore, who- 
 soever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 
 I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his 
 house upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and 
 the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon 
 that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a 
 rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of 
 mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a 
 foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; 
 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
 the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it 
 fell, and great was the fall of it." 
 
 In this view of things, no change in the succession 
 of events is supposed to take place in order to bring 
 about a retribution, but natural causes are supposed 
 to proceed according to the established order of the 
 universe, and in that order virtue is rewarded and 
 vice is punished. 
 
 As all causes contain the seeds of all effects, he 
 who thoroughly knows all causes can infallibly pre- 
 dict all effects ; so that the annunciation of laws and 
 the foretelling of events become at last identical. All 
 preaching is reduced to the one simple message of 
 the ancient prophet : " Say ye to the righteous that 
 it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit 
 19 
 
218 DOCTRINES. 
 
 of their doings. Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be 
 ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be 
 given him." 
 
 The images, in that case, in which future retribu- 
 tory suffering is bodied forth, become accidental and 
 conventional. In the book of Daniel, the future hap- 
 piness of the righteous is symbolized by the bright- 
 ness of heaven and the celestial luminaries. " And 
 they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
 firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, 
 as the stars, for ever and ever." The misery of the 
 wicked is condensed into the significant expression of 
 " shame and everlasting contempt." In after ages, 
 the symbol of future misery became hell-fire, from a 
 valley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the 
 offal of the city was thrown and consumed by a per- 
 petual fire. The flames of this fire, gleaming through 
 the darkness of the night, became a most impres- 
 sive image of terror to those who beheld it. Jesus 
 availed himself of these images, then familiar among 
 the people, to impress upon them the spiritual reali- 
 ties of the future retribution. Hence " the fire that 
 never shall be quenched," and " the worm that never 
 dies." 
 
 In another part of the Gospel, Jesus draws still 
 closer the bonds of obligation, and announces a 
 more stringent rule of retribution. We are liable to 
 be called to account, not only for what we do, but 
 for what we leave undone. It is in the parable of the 
 talents. There we are taught, that not only is a life 
 of positive transgression sinful, but a life of mere 
 uselessness and self-indulgence. We must diligently 
 cultivate our faculties, and we must do good to 
 
RETRIBUTION. 219 
 
 others. We are sent into the world for this purpose. 
 We can do much good, both to ourselves and others. 
 Not only can those do this who are highly endowed, 
 but those of the humblest capacity; not only those 
 who have five talents, but he who has two, and he 
 who has one. Not only is this announced in the 
 teaching of Jesus, but it takes hold on the human 
 conscience as equitable and obligatory. 
 
 Life and faculties and the power of action are 
 given us, not that we may idle away our earthly ex- 
 istence, not that we may immerse ourselves in pleas- 
 ure, or take advantage of those around us, but to be 
 up and doing while the sun of our day is above the 
 horizon, to exercise and thus improve our faculties, 
 and help those who stand in need of our aid. There 
 is no human mind or heart that does not assent to 
 these propositions as reasonable and just, and which 
 does not acknowledge that, if man be a responsible 
 being at all, there may be sins of omission as well 
 as of commission. 
 
 " For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travel- 
 ling into a far country, who called his own servants, 
 and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one 
 he gave five talents, to another two, and to another 
 one, to every man according to his several ability, and 
 straightway took his journey. Then he that had re- 
 ceived the five talents went and traded with the same, 
 and made them other five talents. And likewise he 
 that had received two, he also gained other two. But 
 he that had received one went and digged in the 
 earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time 
 the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth 
 with them. And so he that had received five talents 
 
220 DOCTRINES. 
 
 came, and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, 
 thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have 
 gained besides them five talents more. His lord 
 said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful 
 servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, 
 I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou 
 into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received 
 two talents came, and said, Lord, thou deliveredst 
 unto me two talents ; behold, I have gained two other 
 talents besides them; His lord said unto him, Well 
 done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been 
 faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler 
 over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy 
 lord. 
 
 " Then he which had received the one talent came, 
 and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard 
 man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gather- 
 ing where thou hast riot strawed ; and I was afraid, 
 and went and hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there 
 thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and 
 said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, 
 thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and 
 gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest, 
 therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, 
 and then at my coming I should have received 
 mine own with usury. Take, therefore, the talent 
 from him, and give it unto him which hath ten 
 
 talents And cast ye the unprofitable servant 
 
 into outer darkness : there shall be weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth." 
 
 Such is the retribution which is to overtake mere 
 unprofitableness. The law, at first sight, seems to 
 be severe. But no one can complain of it as unjust 
 
RETRIBUTION. 221 
 
 or unreasonable. Why should man be endowed 
 like God, with God's own attributes of intelligence, 
 will, freedom, activity, except that he may imitate 
 God's beneficence in diffusing good and happiness 
 on every side ? It is the natural judgment of the 
 human mind, " He that knoweth to do good, and 
 doeth it not, to him it is sin." 
 
 But the law of retribution, as promulgated by 
 Christ, is still more strict and exacting. Not only 
 are we responsible for our actions, for what we do 
 or leave undone, but for our words, for the mere ut- 
 terances of our lips, which are but fleeting breath, an 
 impulse upon the universal air, which dies almost as 
 soon as it is born. " But I say unto you, that every 
 idle word that men shall speak, they shall give ac- 
 count thereof in the day of judgment." This is cer- 
 tainly carrying the doctrine of responsibility to a 
 fearful extent. But can we reasonably object to it ? 
 Are not words equally the means of good and evil 
 with actions? Can we not blaspheme God and 
 slander men? Can we not propagate falsehood? 
 Can we not with the tongue defraud men of their 
 property, sap their principles, pollute their imagina- 
 tions, and lead them on to sin and ruin? How 
 much of the social evil which afflicts society is prop- 
 agated by the tongue ! And yet the tongue is under 
 our control, and we are justly responsible for its 
 use. 
 
 Not only so. Our Saviour has told us, that we are 
 responsible for our thovghts. The voluntary indul- 
 gence of the appetites and passions to that extent, 
 that we are hindered from their gratification by out- 
 ward impediments instead of inward scruples, makes 
 19* 
 
222 DOCTRINES. 
 
 us guilty in the sight of God. The will is as the 
 deed. 
 
 Such is the stringency of the law of retribution 
 laid down in the Gospel of Christ. And it might 
 well fill us with despair, and lead us to cry out, 
 " "Who then can be saved ? " The Gospel as law 
 is more strict than the Law itself. It was in this 
 sense, doubtless, that Jesus said of himself, that " he 
 came not to destroy the Law and the prophets, but 
 to fulfil," and to produce a practical righteousness 
 more thorough and spiritual than Judaism had ever 
 exhibited, or the world had ever seen. 
 
 And yet the Gospel is not mere law, a system of 
 bare coercion, intended to keep mankind in order 
 and secure the peace of the world. Such are the 
 laws which human governments enact, to guard the 
 community against the wrongs of the individual, and 
 the individual against the oppression of the com- 
 munity. Such were mainly the Mosaic laws. " The 
 Law," says the Apostle, " was given by Moses, but 
 grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The Gospel 
 is a mingled system of mercy and spiritual truth. 
 Into it the paternal principle is introduced, which 
 tempers justice with love, which makes law not a 
 stern necessity so much as a wise expedient, and its 
 administration not so much an ultimate retribution 
 as a remedial discipline. There is all the difference 
 between the Law and the Gospel that there is be- 
 tween the magistrate and the father. And nothing 
 in the New Testament is to be interpreted in such 
 a manner as to conflict with the Fatherhood of 
 God. 
 
 The overruling truth of the New Dispensation is 
 
RETRIBUTION. 223 
 
 that God is our Father, and our Father is love. If 
 this be true, law is made for man, and not man for 
 law. Law has no further sacredness than as it pro- 
 motes human good and human happiness. It is a 
 rule of action dictated by the nature of things. It is 
 not enacted to show God's authority, nor is it exe- 
 cuted to vindicate his honor. It is addressed as a 
 motive to influence the human will, to guide man 
 along the path of safety to everlasting peace. Jus~ 
 tice, as it is used as a theological term, is ambiguous 
 and deceptive. It is said that God is a God of jus- 
 tice, and therefore he is compelled, in order to sustain 
 that character, to punish every sin. Who or what 
 compels him ? Law is a means to an end, and is, 
 of course, subordinated to that end. Human happi- 
 ness can never be sacrificed to a law, without making 
 the Deity the slave of an abstraction. 
 
 It would be injustice to withhold from a free 
 agent the reward which has been promised to his 
 obedience or his endurance. There would be a 
 breach of faith, and a disappointment of just expec- 
 tation. But there is no injustice in remitting a 
 penalty. No person is injured by it. A good being 
 will always remit the penalty, whenever the happi- 
 ness of the transgressor will be promoted by it. 
 
 The justice of God, then, is the justice of a Father, 
 and therefore all law and all punishment must be 
 disciplinary. If God be a Father, and punishment 
 be disciplinary, the consequence follows, that pun- 
 ishment must be limited in duration. Punishment, 
 in that case, is not an end in itself, it is a means to a 
 further end. Punishment must likewise be limited 
 by the justice, as well as the benevolence, of God. 
 
224 DOCTRINES. 
 
 Guilt itself is finite, and admits of degrees. If the 
 guilt of a small offence has a limit, as it must have 
 to admit of one greater, then the great must have a 
 limit too, and therefore cannot be infinite. Man is 
 a finite being, and his faculties are finite. While 
 here, he is in a state of comparative infancy. Noth- 
 ing that he can do can merit an infinite punish- 
 ment on the score of justice. Neither justice nor 
 mercy can for a moment tolerate the idea of eternal, 
 endless punishment. . The most fiendish heart that 
 ever beat in a human bosom could not demand or 
 witness it. Accordingly, Christ taught, that " that 
 servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not 
 himself, neither did according to his will, shall be 
 beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, 
 and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be 
 beaten with few stripes." Many stripes must have 
 an end as well as few stripes, or there can be no 
 proportion between them. This passage, of course, 
 is to be permitted to modify others, in which great 
 length of punishment seems to be intimated, such as 
 the following : " And if thy hand cause thee to offend, 
 cut it off, and cast it from thee ; it is better for thee 
 to enter into life maimed, than, having two hands, to 
 be cast into hell-fire, that never shall be quenched; 
 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
 quenched." 
 
 In the parable of the lost sheep, it is said of the 
 shepherd, who represents God, " If a man have an 
 hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth 
 he not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, 
 and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" 
 God is omnipotent, and can accomplish what he 
 
RETRIBUTION. 225 
 
 pleases, and he is infinitely wise to select means 
 which will carry out his purposes. 
 
 In making up our individual minds upon this sub- 
 ject, and individual opinion is as far as we can go, 
 all the elements which relate to it must be taken 
 into account. One of these elements is the character 
 of God, which is fully revealed. God is our Father, 
 and God is love, or is infinitely benevolent. He is om- 
 niscient and omnipotent, and has an eternity in which 
 to accomplish his purpose. Man is finite and im- 
 perfect, and therefore cannot contract infinite guilt. 
 Man is the child of God, and therefore God can 
 never cease to desire his welfare, and pursue it. We 
 have many passages of the Scriptures, which seem 
 clearly to intimate, that all punishment, whether in 
 this world or the next, has for its object the reforma- 
 tion of the offender. The mind of man is essentially 
 and unalterably free ; the only hindrance to its free- 
 dom is the slavery of evil habit. It must, therefore, 
 ever be accessible to motives, and capable of re- 
 pentance. 
 
 On the other hand, we have the capacity of man 
 for sinfulness, corruption, and degradation. No hu- 
 man eye has ever seen the bottom of this gulf. Free- 
 dom being essential to the human mind, and, as far 
 as we know, left inviolable by God, there is no cal- 
 culating the orbit of its aberrations. The most un- 
 favorable element in the estimate of the prospect of 
 the speedy restoration of the wicked in a future 
 world to purity and happiness, is the average result 
 of earthly probation, and the general failure of the 
 reformatory discipline of the present life to restore 
 the vicious to stable virtue. There is certainly great 
 
226 DOCTRINES. 
 
 difficulty in curing a single bad habit. " Can the 
 Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? 
 then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do 
 evil." " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither will they be persuaded though one rose from 
 the deadP 
 
 Least of all is there any prospect in the sinner's 
 path of expiating his sins by suffering, which ought 
 to weigh a feather in relaxing the bonds of morality, 
 or weakening the motives for seeking immediate sal- 
 vation. 
 
 I cannot better conclude this discussion, than in the 
 words of South wood Smith, in his admirable trea- 
 tise on the Divine Government: — "But it has been 
 already shown, that the present system is adopted 
 because it is on the whole the wisest and best. Fu- 
 ture punishment is a necessary part of that system. 
 What the actual amount and duration of it will be, 
 we do not know. With undoubting confidence we 
 may leave it to the determination of that wisdom 
 which is absolute, and that goodness which is per- 
 fect." 
 
DISCOURSE XV 
 
 INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, THESE ARE THE WORDS WHICH I 
 SPAKE UNTO YOU, WHILE I WAS YET WITH YOU, THAT ALL 
 THINGS MUST BE FULFILLED WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN 
 THE LAW OF MOSES, AND IN THE PROPHETS, AND IN THE 
 PSALMS, CONCERNING ME. THEN OPENED HE THEIR UN- 
 DERSTANDING, THAT THEY MIGHT UNDERSTAND THE SCRIP- 
 TURES, AND SAID UNTO THEM, THUS IT IS WRITTEN, AND 
 THUS IT BEHOOVED CHRIST TO SUFFER, AND TO RISE FROM 
 THE DEAD THE THIRD DAY : AND THAT REPENTANCE AND 
 REMISSION OF SINS SHOULD BE PREACHED IN HIS NAME 
 AMONG ALL NATIONS, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM. AND 
 YE ARE WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS. — Luke Xxiv. 44-48. 
 
 I have enumerated in the Discourses immediately 
 preceding some of the principal doctrines taught by 
 Christ. I have not, of course, exhausted this ele- 
 ment of the New Testament, but merely shown that 
 such an element exists. Next to doctrines, in the 
 analysis which I have attempted to make, comes 
 the element of Opinions. 
 
 By opinions I mean the impressions and habits of 
 thought which were current at the time of Christ, 
 upon subjects collateral to religion, which he did not 
 
228 opinions. 
 
 deem it expedient to criticise. Concerning these 
 matters he did not consider it the dictate of wis- 
 dom to make issue with his contemporaries. 
 
 This distinction between doctrines and opinions is 
 all-important, and must be made by the candid de- 
 fender of the divine origin and authority of Chris- 
 tianity. In speaking of these matters, as they often 
 came in his way,three methods of procedure lay before 
 the Saviour, — to forbear all allusion to them, to at- 
 tempt to correct the popular opinions, or to adopt 
 the common modes of speech in relation to them 
 without remark or comment. The first would have 
 been impossible, as they came up every day and 
 hour. The second would have involved him in per- 
 petual disputes, and nullified the force of his other 
 teaching. There was nothing left but to do as he did, 
 — to use the common language of his countrymen, 
 and leave to time and science the correction of those 
 errors which were merely scientific. 
 
 This distinction becomes vital, when we apply it 
 to the interpretation of the Old Testament. The Old 
 Testament was almost the only literature which the 
 Jews possessed. They were familiar with it, and 
 could recite much of it from memory. The conse- 
 quence was, that it came up to their recollection on 
 all occasions, and was quoted on all occasions, with 
 the remark that " the Scripture is fulfilled " by this 
 and that event, meaning that there is a coincidence 
 between them. There were likewise prophecies in the 
 ' old dispensation of the new. But the Jews did not 
 confine themselves to these. They interpreted many 
 passages as prophetic which were not so. In reason- 
 ing with them, and endeavoring to give them truer 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 229 
 
 ideas, Jesus sometimes takes them on their own 
 ground, and shows them what would follow on their 
 own premises. He likewise quotes the Old Testa- 
 ment by way of coincidence. No fair-minded ex- 
 positor of the New Testament will hesitate to make 
 these concessions ; and if he insists on classing such 
 expositions under the category of Doctrine, he be- 
 trays his cause. 
 
 Much light, as it seems to me, is thrown upon 
 Christianity, by considering it as one of a series of 
 Divine revelations, progressive in their nature, and 
 calculated to meet the wants of mankind in the suc- 
 cessive stages of their advancement. First came the 
 Patriarchal, then the Jewish, then the Christian; and 
 each was so contrived as to be not only introductory, 
 but preparatory, to the next. Each was an enlarge- 
 ment of the last, till Christianity, completing the 
 series, was calculated to be universal and perpetual, 
 to be coextensive with mankind, and to endure as 
 long as time itself. 
 
 First came the Patriarchal. It was brief and sim- 
 ple, and adapted to a single family, or at most that 
 family expanded to a tribe. The world was then in 
 the pastoral state. It is very uncertain whether there 
 were any cities of considerable size. The antiquity 
 claimed for Egypt, when closely scrutinized, seems to 
 me exceedingly apocryphal ; and the king of Egypt 
 with whom Abraham held intercourse seems much 
 more like a petty chieftain than the lord of untold 
 millions. The revelations made to Abraham were 
 very short, but exceedingly sublime and comprehen- 
 sive. "After these things, the word of the Lord 
 came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, 
 20 
 
230 OPINIONS. 
 
 Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
 reward." On another occasion : " I am the Almighty 
 God : walk before me, and be thou perfect." It wants 
 but a few moments' reflection to realize how impres- 
 sive and comprehensive these oracles were. They 
 embraced, in few words, all the essential elements of 
 religious faith and duty, — the existence, the person- 
 ality, the providence, and the moral government of 
 God, the moral nature, the freedom, and the account- 
 ability of man. This w r as accompanied by the insti- 
 tution of circumcision, as a national characteristic, 
 the command to give his offspring a religious educa- 
 tion, the promise that his posterity should possess 
 the land of Canaan, and that " in him and in his 
 seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed." 
 The only social religious rite then was sacrifice ; but 
 that was not new in the days of Abraham. It ran 
 back to the very beginning of the world. 
 
 And this revelation, this religion, this ritual, was 
 ample for its purpose. Human relations, duties, and 
 rights were then few, simple, and intelligible. No 
 complicated system of laws was necessary, no ex- 
 tensive organization of magistracy and priesthood. 
 Such was the patriarchal religion, and it continued 
 from Abraham to Moses, a period of more than four 
 hundred years. Its practical working, its literature, 
 its theology, are portrayed in the book of Job. His- 
 torically, Job, as it seems to me, ought to come in 
 between the books of Genesis and Exodus. Few 
 are aware of the wide gap which intervenes between 
 the last chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of 
 Exodus, a period nearly or quite as long as inter- 
 venes between the last chapter in Malachi and the 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 231 
 
 first of Matthew, a period longer tfian has elapsed 
 since the discovery of America. 
 
 During that period, vast changes took place in the 
 condition of the world. Mankind passed from the 
 pastoral to the agricultural state. The land of Ca- 
 naan, over which Abraham had wandered almost 
 at will, was appropriated by seven different nations. 
 Cities were built in all directions, and population be- 
 came comparatively dense. Egypt grew to a great 
 nation, rich and powerful, and the invention of al- 
 phabetic writing put a new face upon society and 
 the whole condition of man upon the earth. It made 
 possible a fixed and permanent system of laws, and 
 of course gave stability to all civil institutions. It 
 gave man the power to record, preserve, and verify a 
 revelation from God. No extensive revelation could 
 precede the invention of writing, for tradition would 
 soon so distort and interpolate any revelation, that 
 it would no longer represent the primitive truth. 
 
 In those intervening centuries, the condition of the 
 descendants of the patriarchs had changed as much 
 as that of the world at large. They had increased 
 from seventy persons to more than a million, from a 
 family to a nation. In what intellectual, moral, and 
 religious condition they subsisted through that long 
 tract of time, we have no means of knowing. Their 
 breadth of religious knowledge must have been very 
 narrow, their rites very few, and their expectations 
 for the future confined chiefly to the promise which 
 God had. made their fathers, that at some future 
 period their descendants should possess the land of 
 Canaan, and should be the instruments in the hands 
 of Providence of blessing all the nations of the earth. 
 
232 opinions. 
 
 As to the person who was to be raised up to con- 
 duct them to such prosperity and happiness, they 
 seem to have been left entirely in the dark. In the 
 mean time, they were enslaved, and thus put in the 
 way, not only to become physically strong and nu- 
 merically powerful, but prepared, by a hearty dis- 
 gust for the land of their bondage, to comply with 
 the first intimation of Divine Providence that the 
 day of their emancipation had arrived. 
 
 The instrument of their deliverance at length ap- 
 pears in Moses. And not only does God make him 
 their leader, but their lawgiver and prophet, to teach 
 them the principles of their religion, to institute their 
 ritual, and establish the form of their civil government. 
 
 When it was completed, to what did the Mosaic 
 dispensation amount? Merely to the expansion of 
 the patriarchal religion from the conditions of a 
 family to the exigencies of a nation. The theology 
 was the same, the principles of human duty were 
 the same. Religion must be essentially the same 
 in all dispensations. It is to love God with all 
 the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. 
 
 The change introduced by Moses was mainly that 
 of outward organization. Under the patriarchal form, 
 the head of a family or tribe was magistrate and 
 priest. He administered justice and performed sa- 
 cred rites. The change introduced by Moses was, 
 that the sacerdotal functions were delegated to one 
 family, and the administration of ecclesiastical affairs 
 to one tribe. Church and state were separated, and 
 not suffered, as in Egypt and other countries, to 
 coalesce into a crushing despotism. Idolatry was 
 forbidden under the penalty of death, and various 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 233 
 
 articles of food were prohibited which were freely 
 used by the heathen, in order to prevent the Israel- 
 ites from mingling in the licentious festivities which 
 always accompanied idolatrous worship. 
 
 The most material and significant institution or- 
 dained or received in the wilderness was the Sab- 
 bath. It is difficult to conceive how the Sabbath 
 could have been of much use, or even have been ob- 
 served, in the patriarchal religion, in which there 
 were no temples, no synagogues, no law to medi- 
 tate upon and teach to others, and no common rite, 
 except sacrifice, in which to participate. But to the 
 nation established in Canaan, the Sabbath was es- 
 sential. It was a weekly homage to their heaven- 
 derived law. It gave them leisure to acquaint them- 
 selves with their history, their traditions, and their 
 religion. It gave them, above all things, an oppor- 
 tunity to give their children a religious education, 
 and make them acquainted with all the minutice of 
 their law. 
 
 For about fifteen hundred years that institution 
 endured. It wrought its work, it accomplished its 
 end. One nation was redeemed from idolatry and 
 thoroughly imbued with the principles of the true 
 religion. But Judaism of course could not be ulti- 
 mate. It could never be the design of the Universal 
 Father to confine the true religion to one nation. It 
 must, of course, have been the design of God to im- 
 part this religion to the world, when the world was 
 ready to receive it. And the promise from the be- 
 ginning was, " In. thy seed shall all the families of 
 the earth be blessed" The fulness of time at length 
 arrived. 
 
 20* 
 
234 opinions. 
 
 Between the closing of the Old Testament and 
 the opening of the New, a great change took place 
 in the condition of the world ; as great as had oc- 
 curred between the closing of the book of Genesis 
 and the opening of the book of Exodus. All the 
 civilized world was united under one government, 
 that of the Romans, and the Greeks had diffused 
 their language, their literature, their philosophy, al- 
 most as widely, so that a spiritual religion might 
 be propagated without let or hindrance from the 
 Euphrates to the Atlantic. 
 
 When the time had come for the diffusion of the 
 true religion over the earth, the instrument was pro- 
 vided to accomplish it ; and that instrument was Je- 
 sus Christ. In that mainly consisted his great office 
 and mission to mankind. Of that sublime function 
 he seems to have been conscious from the com- 
 mencement of his ministry, and he always alludes 
 to it in the language of the loftiest emotion. The 
 declaration of this divine purpose is connected with 
 his first public and open avowal of his Messiahship. 
 It occurred on the journey in his return from his first 
 visit to Jerusalem. He paused for rest and refresh- 
 ment at Jacob's well, near Sychar, a city of the 
 Samaritans. A woman came out to draw water, 
 and he accosted her and drew her into conversation. 
 In the course of it he discloses to her his prophetic 
 powers, and she takes the opportunity to propose to 
 him the great question between the Jews and the 
 Samaritans as to the right place of worship. He set- 
 tles the question in favor of the Jews, but announces 
 the fact, that the importance of that question was 
 now at an end ; for the worship of God, instead of 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 235 
 
 being confined, as it had been, to one place and 
 nation, was about to be spread over the whole earth. 
 " Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye 
 shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, 
 worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what : 
 we know what we worship, for salvation is of the 
 Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the 
 true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit 
 and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship 
 him." The woman, hearing him thus discoursing 
 of such high matters, and announcing in terms 
 scarcely ambiguous the advent of a universal relig- 
 ion, is reminded of the Messianic expectations of 
 the times, which were shared alike by the Jews and 
 the Samaritans. " The woman saith unto him, I 
 know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ ; 
 when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus 
 saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." 
 
 The consequence of this conversation was, that 
 multitudes of the Samaritans thronged around him. 
 At their invitation he remained with them two days, 
 and many of them believed on him as the Christ. 
 To the narrow prejudices of the disciples, this act 
 must have seemed almost to be the extension of 
 the Messiah's kingdom to the Gentiles, for not only 
 had the Jews no dealings with the Samaritans, but 
 they were more odious to them than even the hea- 
 then themselves. 
 
 That the extension of the true religion to the 
 Gentiles dwelt much on the mind of Christ, would 
 appear from the reflections which were suggested to 
 him by the request of certain Greeks who were come 
 to Jerusalem, at one of the feasts, to be introduced 
 
236 opinions. 
 
 to him. " And there were certain Greeks among 
 them, that came up to worship at the feast. The 
 same came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Gali- 
 lee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Je- 
 sus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew ; and again, 
 Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered 
 them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of 
 Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
 die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
 much fruit." The presence of these foreigners seems 
 to have suggested to him the thought, that the hour 
 was now approaching for the great purpose of his 
 mission to be accomplished, the extension of his 
 religion to the Gentiles. And that could take place 
 by no other means than his death. As long as he 
 lived, he could be the Messiah of the Jews only. 
 They could conceive of him in no other light than 
 as the instrument of their worldly ambition, the 
 means of spreading their theocracy over the world, 
 with all its peculiar rites and ceremonies. The 
 Jews, in crucifying Christ, then, may be said to have 
 disappointed their own national hope. As he was 
 no longer upon earth, he could not carry out their 
 expectations. He was crucified as the Jewish Mes- 
 siah to those who believed on him before. But he 
 rose from the dead the Messiah of the world. He 
 had promulgated his religion. It was purely spirit- 
 ual. He had left out of it the whole ritual of the 
 Jews. His resurrection was the ratification of the 
 religion he had taught. His crucifixion was his own 
 highest testimony to it as the faithful and true wit- 
 ness. His resurrection was the conclusive and un- 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 237 
 
 answerable testimony of God. Judaism, in the res- 
 urrection and ascension of Christ, was abolished 
 by the authority of God, the same authority which 
 had established it. 
 
 The functions, then, of Moses and Christ, though 
 in some respects coincident, were in others diamet- 
 rically opposed to each other. Much of the ritual 
 of Moses Avas intended to raise up a middle wall 
 of partition between Jews and Pagans, in order to 
 fence out idolatry, and prevent it from overwhelm- 
 ing and destroying the true religion. But that wall, 
 while it kept out idolatry, kept in the true religion, 
 and prevented it from spreading over the earth. 
 After the danger of idolatry was over, and the world 
 was prepared to receive the spiritual principles of 
 the true religion, then Christ broke down the wall, 
 by abolishing the rites and ceremonies of Judaism, 
 that the true religion might pervade the world. In 
 other words, he preached the essential principles of 
 Judaism, that is, of all true religion, without its 
 rites and ceremonies. And this was the most es- 
 sential part of his mission. 
 
 By these considerations we are enabled to under- 
 stand some of the phraseology of Paul, which is 
 otherwise exceedingly obscure. To the Ephesians 
 he writes : " Wherefore remember, that ye being in 
 time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncir- 
 cumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in 
 the flesh made by hands ; that at that time ye were 
 without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth 
 of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of prom- 
 ise, having no hope, and without God in the world ; 
 but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were 
 
238 opinions. 
 
 far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For 
 he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath 
 broken down the middle wall of partition between 
 us ; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even 
 the law of commandments contained in ordinances, 
 for to make in himself of twain one new man, so 
 making peace, and that he might reconcile both 
 unto God in one body by the cross, having slain 
 the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace 
 to you which were afar off and to them that were 
 nigh." 
 
 This extension of the true religion through Christ 
 to the Gentiles was the theme of Paul's perpetual 
 wonder, admiration, and gratitude. It was the 
 grand secret of Divine Providence existing in the 
 mind of God, but concealed from mankind from 
 the beginning of the world. Paul, as the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles, was especially intrusted with the 
 secret, as he writes to these same Ephesians. " For 
 this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for 
 you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation 
 of the grace of God, which is given unto me to you- 
 ward, how that by revelation he made known unto 
 me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, 
 whereby when ye read, ye may understand my 
 knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other 
 ages was not made known unto the sons of men, 
 as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and 
 prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be 
 fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of 
 his promise in Christ by the Gospel, whereof I was 
 made a minister, according to the gift of the grace 
 of God given unto me by the effectual working of 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 239 
 
 his power, — unto me, who am less than the least of 
 all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ, and to make all men see what is the com- 
 munication of the mystery, which from the begin- 
 ning of the world hath been hid in God, who cre- 
 ated all things, according to the eternal pur- 
 pose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 There seems, at first sight, to be a discrepance 
 between the language of Paul and the language of 
 Christ, in relation to the extension of his kingdom 
 to the Gentiles. Paul speaks of it as a mystery, a 
 secret which had been hidden in God from the 
 beginning of the world, and Christ is represented 
 as explaining to his disciples, after his resurrection, 
 the prophecies or the revelation of the fact in the 
 Old Testament, that "it was necessary that Christ 
 should suffer death and rise from the dead, and that 
 repentance and remission of sins should be preached 
 in his name among' all nations" 
 
 This brings up a most interesting, but difficult 
 subject, the subject of prophecy, the Messianic ex- 
 pectations of the Jews, and the quotations from the 
 Old Testament in the New. 
 
 On taking up the New Testament, the ordinary 
 reader immediately encounters quotations from the 
 Old. Many of them are cited as prophetic, and are 
 said to be fulfilled in events which then took place. 
 On a recurrence to the passages in the Old Testament 
 from which they are taken, there is often no appear- 
 ance of anything prophetic about them. Some are 
 historical, some devotional, and some are mere re- 
 flections suggested by passing events. The number 
 
240 OPINIONS. 
 
 of these quotations is very large. In all, they are 
 above two hundred and fifty, and, if placed together, 
 would fill ten or fifteen pages of our common Bibles. 
 Some of them seem to be quoted as proofs of the 
 Messiahship of Jesus, which in their original con- 
 nection can be made to bear that meaning only by 
 the most forced and unnatural construction. The 
 quotations are made, not by original translations 
 from the Hebrew, but from the version then in com- 
 mon use, called the Septuagint, made into the Greek 
 some two centuries before, and then well known 
 among the Jews. And what increases the difficulty 
 is, that wrong translations are sometimes quoted, 
 and reasoned from as if they were the true sense. 
 What are we to say to these things ? Are they not 
 enough to shake our faith in the New Testament 
 as containing a revelation from God, an infallible 
 rule of faith and practice ? I answer these ques- 
 tions by saying, that the interpretation of the Old 
 Testament in the New may be removed from the 
 sphere of immediate inspiration and implicit faith, 
 and placed in that of opinion, custom, reasoning', and 
 illustration. I say, moreover, that it might be dan- 
 gerous to place them in any other. No defender of 
 the Bible gains anything by denying facts, or by 
 giving such explanations of them as are wholly 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 Let us then consider what are the facts of the 
 case. There are many passages in the New Testa- 
 ment quoted from the Old, with the introduction, 
 " that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by 
 the prophet," which in their original connection are 
 not prophecies, and are not even put in the form of 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 241 
 
 prophecy. For instance, Jesus says of Judas Is- 
 cariot : " I speak not concerning you all ; I know 
 those whom I have chosen ; but that the Scripture 
 may be fulfilled, He that hath eaten bread with me 
 hath lifted up his heel against me." Now if we 
 recur to the ninth verse of the forty-first Psalm, from 
 which this is quoted, we find that it makes a part 
 of a complaint of David of the treachery of some 
 near friend. It would seem to be either a member 
 of his family, or a frequent guest at his table, for he 
 says : " Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I 
 trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up 
 his heel against me." This is no prophecy in its 
 original connection; it is a simple declaration of an 
 historical fact. It is not a prophecy, it is not even 
 in all respects a coincidence. There is a circum- 
 stance thrown in which prevents its being even a 
 coincidence. It was David's familiar friend, in 
 whom he trusted, who betrayed him. But Jesus 
 never put any trust in Judas Iscariot. He says in 
 this very connection, " I know those whom I have 
 chosen." And one of the Evangelists testifies that 
 " Jesus knew from the beginning who should be- 
 tray him." How then did Jesus quote these words ? 
 They were evidently suggested to his mind by simi- 
 larity of circumstances. 
 
 The Jews, and especially those who were relig- 
 iously educated by pious parents, were thoroughly 
 acquainted with the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, 
 they were almost the only literature they had. Jo- 
 seph us tells us, that a Jew could repeat his sacred 
 books almost as readily as he could tell his own 
 name. By the similarity of the experience of life 
 21 
 
242 opinions. 
 
 in all ages, it was inevitable that the laws of the 
 human mind should suggest, on the occurrence of 
 any remarkable event, some corresponding event or 
 sentiment recorded in the Bible. That the mind of 
 Christ acted in this respect by the natural law of 
 association, would appear from the history of the 
 Temptation. On the occurrence of the various sug- 
 gestions of evil, those passages of the Old Testament 
 occur to his mind which are calculated to meet and 
 defeat the temptation. , 
 
 The very general manner in which Christ quotes 
 the Old Testament may be learned from his conver- 
 sation with the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, 
 recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew. " Ye 
 hypocrites," said he, " well did Isaiah prophesy of 
 you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me 
 with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, 
 but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they 
 worship me, teaching for doctrines the command- 
 ments of men." This is' a quotation from the thirty- 
 ninth chapter of Isaiah, and is an address to the 
 people of his own day. It is a prophecy in no other 
 sense than that the scribes and Pharisees were the 
 descendants of those ancient Israelites, and what 
 was declared of them as an historical fact precisely 
 fitted the case of their descendants hundreds of years 
 afterwards. 
 
 The same remarks are applicable to the quotation 
 in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, made from the 
 sixth of Isaiah. " And in them is fulfilled the proph- 
 ecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall 
 hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall 
 see, and shall not perceive; for this people's heart is 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 243 
 
 waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
 their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they 
 should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
 and should understand with their heart, and should 
 be converted, and I should heal them." 
 
 In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, this is a special 
 and direct message of God to the Israelites of that 
 day, for the prophet begins by telling how he came 
 to be specially charged with it. " Also I heard the 
 voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and 
 who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I, send 
 me. And he said, Go and tell this people." 
 
 It is only by the most liberal construction of 
 Christ's language in regard to prophecy, that we 
 are able to escape palpable contradiction. We are 
 told by John, that, soon after John the Baptist com- 
 menced his ministry, the Jews of Jerusalem sent 
 priests and Levites to him, to inquire who he was. 
 " And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, 
 I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What 
 then? Art thou Elias ? And he saith, I am not." 
 Matthew tells us, that on a certain occasion, the 
 disciples said to Christ, " Why then say the scribes, 
 that Elias must first come ? And Jesus answered 
 and said unto them, Elias truly shall come and re- 
 store all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is 
 come already, and they have done unto him whatso- 
 ever they listed." This would seem to be a palpa- 
 ble contradiction. But in another place, Matthew 
 relates Jesus to have said something which goes far 
 to reconcile these two apparently contradictory pas- 
 sages. " For all the prophets and the law prophe- 
 sied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is 
 
244 
 
 OPINIONS. 
 
 Elias which was for to come." The explanation 
 lies in the words, " if ye will receive it," showing 
 that he is speaking of prophecy in a conventional, 
 and not in an absolute sense. As much as if he had 
 said, If you choose to interpret the prophecy, in the 
 latter part of Malachi, of the coming of Elias as the 
 forerunner of the Messiah, then John the Baptist is 
 the person alluded to. 
 
 There is another instance, as it would seem, of 
 Christ's accommodating his mode of teaching to a 
 conventional interpretation of the Old Testament, in 
 the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. " While the 
 Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 
 saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? 
 They say unto him, The son of David. He saith 
 unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him 
 Lord? saying, The Lord said unto my lord, Sit thou 
 on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy foot- 
 stool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his 
 son ? " This is taken from the hundred and tenth 
 Psalm. Now there are strong objections to making 
 this Psalm a prophecy of the true Messiah. The 
 fifth and sixth verses contain such language as this: 
 " The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through 
 kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge 
 among the heathen ; he shall fill the places with 
 the dead bodies." Christ is the Prince of Peace, 
 and no such language is applicable to him. 
 
 The only explanation that is left is, that Christ 
 adopted hypothetically the interpretation which the 
 Jews put upon the hundred and tenth Psalm, in 
 order, by reasoning with them upon their own prin- 
 ciples, to lead them to conceive justly of the spirit- 
 ual exaltation and dignity of the true Messiah. 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 245 
 
 Such are some of the facts in relation to the quo- 
 tations from the Old Testament in the New. They 
 must be admitted as facts by every candid expositor 
 of the Bible, whatever may be the consequences to 
 which they lead. What are these consequences ? 
 Ought they to shake our faith in the Divine origin 
 of the Christian religion ? I answer, No. The cre- 
 dentials of Christ and the interpretation of prophecy 
 are two different things. The credentials to which 
 Christ appealed were the testimony of John the 
 Baptist, his own miracles, and his doctrine. Jesus 
 was the Messiah, if he was the Messiah at all, inde- 
 pendently of prophecy; that is to say, he was made 
 so not by prophecy, but by his mission and endow- 
 ments. The prophecies were intended merely to 
 connect the old dispensation with the new, to show 
 that they are parts of one consistent scheme of 
 Providence, which from the beginning has been pre- 
 paring the way for the onward progress of the race 
 by successive revelations, adapted to the different 
 stages of advancement through which mankind were 
 destined to pass. 
 
 Two points were actually accomplished by the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament, in the expecta- 
 tions of the Jewish nation : the persuasion that their 
 religion was one day to be extended to all the na- 
 tions of the earth, and that this great achievement 
 was to be brought about by an individual of exalted 
 character and endowments. The predictions of the 
 extension of the true religion to the Gentiles are 
 frequent and full, but those relating to the person 
 and office of the Messiah are comparatively few and 
 indefinite. The consequence was, that, while the 
 21* 
 
246 opinions. 
 
 Jews looked forward to the universality of their 
 religion, their expectations relating to their Messiah 
 were exceedingly erroneous. The only way then 
 known or conceived of among men of extending the 
 influence of one nation over another was by con- 
 guest. And hence the Jews supposed that their 
 Messiah was to be a temporal king, and by arms 
 and warfare was to extend his dominion over the 
 earth. Their Messiah was to be a Messiah of con- 
 quest. This, of course, from the nature of things, 
 was impossible. True religion cannot be propa- 
 gated by conquest. Invasion and violence are the 
 last things to produce conviction. True religion 
 can be propagated only by conversion, by moral 
 means, by testimony, by example. The only Mes- 
 siah that was possible was a Messiah of conver- 
 sion. The only way in which the true religion, 
 which was that of the Jews, could be spread over 
 the earth, was by divesting it of its Jewish rites 
 and ceremonies, and commending it to the accept- 
 ance of the nations by arguments addressed to their 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature. 
 
 To accomplish this high purpose, for which the 
 world had been preparing from the beginning, noth- 
 ing can be conceived more precisely calculated than 
 the mission, the character, the life, the teaching, the 
 death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 His life was perfect, his credentials sure, his doc- 
 trines effectually extracted the pure essence of true 
 religion from the rites and ceremonies, the narrow- 
 ness and prejudices, of Judaism, and cast it in such 
 a form, and connected it with such a simple ritual, 
 that it might become the religion of the world. It 
 
INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 247 
 
 was in this sense that he came, " not to destroy the 
 Law and the prophets, but to fulfil." 
 
 The words then of Paul and of Christ may be rec- 
 onciled. The prophecies of the Messiah and his 
 kingdom had existed since Abraham, but had not 
 been understood. Paul had been ignorant of their 
 true meaning, because he had adopted the expecta- 
 tions of his countrymen of a conquering Messiah. 
 His own conversion, and his mission to the Gentiles 
 as a preacher, and not as a military commander, 
 revealed the whole, and his life was consumed in 
 the endeavor to carry out the great purpose of 
 Providence, and his mind was filled with wonder, 
 and his lips with praise, at the contemplation of the 
 grand design. 
 
 This, then, was probably the nature of Christ's 
 conversations with his disciples after his resurrec- 
 tion, the explanation of those prophecies, which 
 they as Jews had misunderstood, — that it was 
 necessary, not only according to Scripture, but the 
 nature of things, that the Messiah, instead of con- 
 quering the world, must die to the earthly hope 
 of his countrymen, and, by rising from the dead, 
 bring life and immortality to light, and thus become 
 the Messiah of the world. 
 
DISCOURSE XVI 
 
 DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 
 
 I HAVE YET MANY THINGS TO SAY UNTO YOU, BUT YE CAN- 
 NOT bear them now. — John xvi. 12. 
 
 Christ here states a principle of wide application 
 to divine revelation, that it is imparted, not fully and 
 all at once, but gradually, in measures suited to the 
 present enlightenment of the human understanding. 
 This is a very important principle in the interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture, and becomes more and more im- 
 portant with the increasing light of science and 
 general intelligence. It is the object of revelation 
 to give mankind a knowledge of theology and re- 
 ligion which they could not have obtained by the 
 unaided use of their natural powers. It was impor- 
 tant to human welfare that such aid should have 
 been given to man in the earlier ages of the world. 
 But it was not the purpose of revelation to give to 
 mankind supernatural knowledge of physical science. 
 That was left to the natural progress of the human 
 mind, to the gradual developments of experiment 
 and investigation. 
 
 This fact, however, gives rise to no little embarrass- 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 249 
 
 merit in the interpretation of the Bible. Religion 
 cannot stand alone. It has innumerable relations to 
 physical science. A book treating of religion must 
 often mention matters relating to the natural universe. 
 In the absence of true knowledge,there must of course 
 be extant a variety of floating opinions upon scien- 
 tific subjects, some true and some false. In teaching 
 the truths of religion, the prophet has before him two 
 ways of proceeding : either to use the common modes 
 of speech on scientific subjects, without affirming 
 them to be either true or erroneous, or he must set 
 men right on scientific subjects before he can begin 
 to teach them on religion. If he were to teach them 
 true science first, he would exhaust his time and 
 strength before he could begin to enlighten them on 
 his real mission. And such is the strength of human 
 prejudice on merely scientific subjects, that a prophet 
 who taught true philosophy would be almost as 
 likely to die a martyr's death, as the inspired teacher 
 who should attempt to promulgate a better knowl- 
 edge of God and the nature and destiny of the soul. 
 At any rate, the union of scientific and religious prej- 
 udices would be sufficient to crush any revelation 
 of religious truth not upheld by perpetual miracle. 
 
 Accordingly, the prophets who have been commis- 
 sioned by Almighty God to enlighten the human 
 mind upon the subject of religion, have left human 
 science untouched; they used the common language, 
 and even conformed their teaching to the common 
 apprehension ; they have been contented to teach 
 true religion, and leave science to the care of human 
 and uninspired intelligence. 
 
 Accordingly, when we open the Bible, we find the 
 
250 OPINIONS. 
 
 sublimest and truest ideas of God in connection 
 with the crudest and most erroneous conceptions of 
 geology, astronomy, and even geography. The 
 science of the first chapters of Genesis is that of 
 the earliest infancy of mankind; but its ethical and 
 theological doctrines are most profound, — infinitely 
 superior to the best conceptions of the wisest of the 
 heathen sages. We have the doctrines of one spirit- 
 ual God, the almighty, all-wise, and immutable Cre- 
 ator and Governor of the world, the spirituality, the 
 freedom, the accountability of the soul, taught in 
 connection with the representation of the sun and 
 moon as lamps, fixed in the ceiling of the sky, at no 
 very great distance from the earth, instead of being, 
 as they are, vast bodies, almost inconceivably re- 
 mote ; and heaven itself is called a solid partition, 
 dividing the waters of the earth from the waters 
 which are above the earth, and which sometimes 
 descend in rain. 
 
 Just so it is when we open the New Testament. 
 We find the same accommodation to the scientific 
 ideas of the time. We find a higher and more per- 
 fect revelation of religious truth, many express im- 
 provements and amendments of the old doctrines, 
 but connected with language implying the truth 
 of opinions on the nature of diseases, the physical 
 structure of the world, and the interpretation of the 
 language of the Old Testament, which the light of 
 modern science rejects and places among the opin- 
 ions of the time, and which Divine Providence did 
 not see fit to correct, but left to the gradual amend- 
 ment of human investigation. 
 
 It was the universal opinion in the time of Christ, 
 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 251 
 
 that certain diseases, especially those affecting the 
 mind, were caused by the possession of devils, or 
 demons, the departed spirits of wicked men. The 
 phenomena of lunacy were especially calculated to 
 seize upon the superstitious element of human na- 
 ture. The understanding and consciousness them- 
 selves becoming diseased, the person sometimes 
 seemed to lose his personal identity, passions were 
 developed which had hitherto been repressed or un- 
 developed, and he seemed to be animated by another 
 soul. Hence the popular superstition, that lunatics 
 were possessed by evil spirits. In the cure of such 
 persons, they were treated not only medically, but 
 magically. Not only were medicines given them, 
 but incantations and exorcisms were pronounced 
 over them, to dislodge the evil spirits which had ob- 
 tained possession. Who these demons were, we are 
 told by Josephus in his Jewish Wars, where he is 
 describing the virtues of a certain plant. " Yet after 
 this pains in getting," says he, " it is only valua- 
 ble on account of one virtue it has, that if it be 
 only brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away 
 those called demons, which are no other than the 
 spirits of the wicked that enter intp men that are 
 alive, and kill them, unless they can obtain some 
 help against them." Josephus tells us concerning 
 Solomon, that " he left behind him the manner of 
 using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, 
 so that they never return ; and the method of cure is 
 of great force unto this day, for I have seen a certain 
 man of my own country, whose name was Eleazer, 
 releasing people who were demoniacal, in the pres- 
 ence of Vespasian and his sons and his captains 
 
252 opinions. 
 
 and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The man- 
 ner of cure was this : he put a ring, that had a root 
 of one of those sorts mentioned by Solomon, to the 
 nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out the 
 demon through his nostrils ; and when the man fell 
 down immediately, he adjured him to return into 
 him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and 
 reciting the incantations which he had composed. 
 And when Eleazer would persuade and demonstrate 
 to the spectators that he had such a power, he set a 
 little way off a cup or basin full of water, and com- 
 manded the demon as he went out of the man to 
 overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know 
 that he had left the man." Such is the account 
 which is given by Josephus — who was nearly a con- 
 temporary of Christ, and was so of his Apostles — 
 of the superstitions which then prevailed concerning 
 the causes and cure of lunacy. 
 
 It would seem by the narratives of the New Testa- 
 ment, that at that time the lunatics themselves par- 
 took of the superstition, and^ attributing their mental 
 alienation to the same cause with the superstition of 
 the multitude, supposed themselves to be inhabited 
 and actuated by. demons. In the case of the lunatic 
 of Gadara, Jesus asked him his name, and instead 
 of giving his own name, he said, " My name is Le- 
 gion ; for we are many. And he besought him 
 much, that he would not send them away out of the 
 country." 
 
 Now it is certain that Christ did not attempt to 
 correct this superstition. He used no language 
 which implied that it was a superstition, and, if the 
 narrative from which we have made this extract be 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 253 
 
 hot colored by the same superstition, he used lan- 
 guage which seems to confirm and authenticate the 
 superstition. For the narrative proceeds : " Now 
 there was there, nigh unto the mountains, a great 
 herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought 
 him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may 
 enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them 
 leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered 
 into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a 
 steep place into the sea, (they were about two thou- 
 sand,) and were choked in the sea." 
 
 Here, then, is one of the floating opinions or su- 
 perstitions of the age, apparently recognized and 
 sanctioned by Christ. That superstition has been 
 corrected by the progress of science. Lunacy is 
 the same thing now that it was then, and pro- 
 ceeds from the same mental and physical causes. 
 Its phenomena are nearly the same, differing in this 
 indeed, that the lunatics themselves no longer, in 
 accordance with a once popular superstition, imag- 
 ine themselves to be possessed of demons. 
 
 The question is, How could Christ treat this sub- 
 ject as he did ? How could he, as a religious 
 teacher, forbear to correct an erroneous opinion, and 
 set people right as to the conceptions they were to 
 entertain with regard to the spiritual agencies which 
 God permitted to be exercised in the world ? And 
 still more, How could he use language which seemed 
 to recognize and confirm an erroneous opinion ? 
 
 This question finds its solution, as it seems to 
 me, in the following considerations. It was the dic- 
 tate of the highest wisdom in Christ, to raise no 
 questions between himself and the Jews except the 
 22 
 
254 opinions. 
 
 main one, whether he were or were not the true, 
 expected Messiah. The demoniacs were cases of 
 disease presented for cure, and they became the 
 tests of his possessing miraculous powers. The 
 only point in their cure in which his mission or 
 his honor was concerned was that they were really 
 cured, and that they were cured by miraculous pow- 
 er, the power of God, exercised through Christ, in 
 attestation of his divine mission and authority. 
 
 His adversaries tried to avoid the force of this 
 testimony, not by denying the reality of the cures, 
 but by attributing them to magic, and by saying 
 that he cast out demons through power derived 
 from the prince of demons. These very cures did 
 produce upon the minds of the people the effect that 
 was intended. " Then was brought unto him one 
 possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, and he 
 healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both 
 spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, 
 and said, Is not this the son of David ? But when 
 the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth 
 not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of 
 the devils." The Pharisees saw the point of the 
 argument, they perceived that the people drew the 
 right inference from the facts, if they were clearly 
 made out, and therefore attempted to turn it aside, 
 not by denying the fact, but by pretending that he 
 was in league with the evil spirits themselves. 
 
 Jesus immediately answers their objections. " And 
 Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, 
 Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to 
 desolation ; and every city or house divided against 
 itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, 
 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 255 
 
 he is divided against himself; how shall then his 
 kingdom stand ? And if I by Beelzebub cast out 
 devils, by whom do your children cast them out? 
 Therefore they shall be your judges." They pre- 
 tended to cast out demons, and he admits, for the 
 sake of argument, that the exorcism was real and 
 efficacious ; and, upon the bare facts of the case, he 
 had as much reason to accuse them of demoniacal 
 conspiracy as they had to accuse him. But my 
 agency, says he, is not pretended, it is real, and it is 
 a strong proof that I am what I claim to be. "But 
 if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the 
 kingdom of God is come unto you." 
 
 An occasion had occurred, which afforded him an 
 opportunity of removing from himself an unjust 
 imputation, merely by enlightening his audience on 
 a point of physical science. He might have told 
 them, that an alliance with evil spirits was impos- 
 sible, because there were no such things in the uni- 
 verse, and the diseases thought to proceed from their 
 agency were cases of lunacy, and proceeded from 
 physical or moral causes. But had he done so, 
 what would have been the consequence ? He would 
 have raised between himself and the Jews a point 
 of physical science, upon which the prejudices, the 
 opinions, and superstitions of all mankind would 
 have been arrayed against him. He could not have 
 convinced them by any physical or physiological 
 arguments, and no other effect would have followed, 
 than an empty dispute upon a subject foreign to 
 his mission, and ending in nothing but alienation 
 and resentment, and the cause of religious truth 
 would have been embarrassed by an unnecessary 
 alliance with a question of physical science. 
 
256 opinions. 
 
 But it is not probable that the thing would have 
 stopped there. It had to do with the superstitions 
 of mankind, and all history bears witness, that 
 nothing is more dangerous than to come in conflict 
 with a popular superstition. Men are much more 
 patient when their honesty is called in question, than 
 their understandings. He who attacks a popular 
 superstition is always accused of impiety, and his 
 persecutors imagine that they are doing God ser- 
 vice. The human mind has shown itself on no 
 subject so liable to complete infatuation, as this 
 very subject of demoniacal possession. It is com- 
 puted that thirty thousand human beings lost their 
 lives on the gallows and at the stake in Europe, in 
 the space of a hundred and fifty years previous to 
 the commencement of the eighteenth century, for 
 the impossible crime of witchcraft. But a little 
 more than a hundred and fifty years ago, twenty 
 persons were executed as witches and wizards in 
 the moral, enlightened, and religious community of 
 the Colony of Massachusetts. A clergyman of un- 
 blemished reputation, apparent piety, and great use- 
 fulness, was torn from his pulpit and his people, 
 hung up as a wizard, and his body thrown into a 
 hole, like a beast, under the absurd accusation that 
 he had sold himself to the Devil ! 
 
 It is impossible for us to say, with certainty, at 
 this distance of time, what would have been the 
 consequences had Christ denied the reality of de- 
 moniacal possession ; but it is not at all improbable 
 that it would have led to immediate persecution 
 and death. Christ's martyrdom was intended to be 
 of another kind. It was reserved for a higher pur- 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 257 
 
 pose. It was intended to relate to things exclusively 
 religious, his own mission to the world as a teacher 
 of religion and spiritual Saviour. It was necessary 
 that it should be put out of the power of objectors 
 to the end of time to say, that he perished in con- 
 troversy which he had raised with the age as to 
 the nature of a physical disease. It would have 
 been a hindrance, instead of a help, to Christianity, 
 to have laid down dogmatically even the truth upon 
 the subject of demoniacal possession, until the sci- 
 ence of the world had arrived at its recognition. 
 More than seventeen centuries passed away before 
 this was accomplished anywhere, and but a small 
 part of the world is emancipated from the old su- 
 perstition to this day. 
 
 There is another opinion, which has largely col- 
 ored the language of the New Testament, and which 
 was universal at the time of Christ, that concerning 
 the localities of heaven and hell. It was the universal 
 opinion of mankind at the time of Christ, that the 
 world is what it seems to be, a vast plain of indefi- 
 nite extent. Heaven stretches out above it with 
 equal dimensions. Of its extension upwards, their 
 ideas were very obscure. At any rate, they con- 
 ceived of God as indeed omnipresent, but especially 
 dwelling in heaven, surrounded by hosts of holy 
 angels. But being unacquainted with the spherical 
 form of the globe, they imagined the plain of the 
 earth to be of no great thickness, and under it to be a 
 vast space of corresponding dimensions with heaven 
 above. It was broad and deep, and comparatively 
 dark and unknown. To this place the souls of the 
 22* 
 
258 OPINIONS. 
 
 departed descended, through a path which no human 
 eye had seen. 
 
 Although the words which are used to indicate 
 this place, both in the Old Testament and the New, 
 are rendered in our version hell, they do not corre- 
 spond to the ideas which we attach to that word. 
 By us it is imagined as exclusively a place of pun- 
 ishment. To the ancients, both Jews and heathens, 
 it was a common receptacle for the souls of all men, 
 both good and bad.. To the heathen, it seems to 
 have been the place of their everlasting dwelling. 
 To the Jews it was only a temporary abode, from 
 which they were to ascend at the general resur- 
 rection. This structure of heaven, earth, and hell, 
 or the under-world, is shown to be a current belief 
 as early as the time of Job. Speaking of the knowl- 
 edge of God, he says : " It is high as heaven, what 
 canst thou do ? it is deeper than hell, what canst 
 thou know ? " To this vast region, the souls of all 
 the departed descended. Isaiah speaks of the king 
 of Babylon as going down into this place, and as 
 he was a mighty conqueror, and overran many na- 
 tions and destroyed many kings, his coming is rep- 
 resented as producing a great sensation among the 
 inhabitants of that subterranean world, who had 
 known him as a mighty monarch and terrific con- 
 queror on earth. " Hell from beneath is moved for 
 thee to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up the 
 dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth ; 
 it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of 
 the nations. All they shall speak and say unto 
 thee, Art thou also become weak as we ? art thou 
 become like unto us ? " 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 259 
 
 Ezekiel also speaks in nearly the same language 
 of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who came forth from 
 that country with an immense army on an expedi- 
 tion of conquest. " Son of Man, wail for the mul- 
 titude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, 
 and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the 
 nether parts of the earth, with them that go down 
 to the pit." " The strong among the mighty shall 
 speak to him out of the midst of hell, with them 
 that help him." 
 
 After the intimate intercourse which the Hebrews 
 had with the Greeks, although they did not con- 
 ceive the general judgment to have taken place, 
 they nevertheless seem to have considered the under- 
 world to be a state of partial retribution. As the 
 Greeks considered Elysium to be divided from Tar- 
 tarus by the river Acheron, so the Hebrews repre- 
 sented Paradise and Gehenna to be divided by a 
 great gulf, but still to be within sight of each other. 
 How far these things in the minds of the people 
 were literal, and how far only symbolical, it is im- 
 possible for us at this distance of time to determine. 
 The word Gehenna, which is used for the place of 
 torment in the under-world, was the name of a val- 
 ley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, where the 
 offal of the city was thrown and consumed by a 
 perpetual fire. It is hardly possible to suppose that 
 the Jews could have imagined that the same name 
 should have been applied to two places, one in the 
 upper and the other in the under world. 
 
 These ideas of the infernal regions continued to 
 make an integral part of the actual belief of man- 
 kind, Christians as well as heathens, for many ages 
 
260 OPINIONS. 
 
 after Christ, and they were corrected only by the 
 geographical discovery that the earth is a sphere, 
 and not a plain, its body is solid, and has no such 
 cavity as the ancients supposed. And astronomy 
 has ascertained the fact, that the point of space 
 which is at this moment vertical to us, and must 
 have represented heaven to the ancients, in twelve 
 hours will be precisely beneath our feet, and take 
 the place of the ancient hell. 
 
 Christ taught no doctrine as to the structure of 
 the earth, or the physical conditions of the future 
 life. It made no part of his mission to do so. As 
 we know nothing of the mode of being which the 
 disembodied spirit assumes, there is no human lan- 
 guage in which such a revelation could be made. 
 No language could be adequate or accurate, and 
 therefore, in speaking of them, the highest inspira- 
 tion could use only similitudes and symbols, not to 
 communicate accurate knowledge, for that would 
 be impossible, but to suggest an approximate appre- 
 hension. The symbols then in use among the Jews 
 would be abstractly just as appropriate as any other, 
 and in fact were altogether preferable, as having 
 been already appropriated to this purpose, and so 
 universally understood. 
 
 When, therefore, it came in Christ's way to speak 
 of the spiritual realities of the unseen world, the 
 future and deserved misery of a selfish, heartless, 
 Epicurean, and the compensation which a just God 
 will render to the patient sufferer under his myste- 
 rious but undeserved afflictions, whom he represents 
 under the persons of Dives and Lazarus, he resorts 
 for imagery, for locality and circumstances, to the 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 261 
 
 universal conceptions of an under-world. Lazarus is 
 borne by angels to Abraham's bosom. Dives awakes 
 after death in the midst of flames, and sees Lazarus 
 afar off in happiness. The rich man, convinced of 
 the folly of his sinful life, wishes to warn his sur- 
 viving brothers, and to be relieved from his torments 
 with a drop of water by Lazarus. But there is a 
 great gulf fixed between them, so that the wicked 
 can no longer be aided by the benevolence of the 
 righteous. 
 
 To the people of that age such language con- 
 veyed a spiritual truth, at the same time that it 
 conformed to what they supposed to be physical 
 realities. To us it conveys the same spiritual truth, 
 though the images in which it is embodied, and 
 through which it is communicated, are no longer be- 
 lieved to correspond to physical reality. 
 
 Here, then, is the distinction which I am en- 
 deavoring to inculcate between doctrines and opin- 
 ions, fully exemplified and brought out. The future 
 misery of a selfish, hard-hearted sensualist, and the 
 future happiness of a patient, resigned, and uncom- 
 plaining child of affliction, are positive doctrines, true 
 then and true for ever. The circumstances, the lo- 
 calities, Abraham's bosom and the tormenting flames, 
 are images conformed to the floating' opinions of the 
 times. Ages went on believing them literally, and 
 they would have done so at any rate. Science at 
 last undermined the opinion, but it left the doctrine 
 standing forth in all its original prominence and 
 impressiveness ; for the same intellectual enlighten- 
 ment which outgrew the opinion enabled men to 
 distinguish between form and substance, between 
 
262 opinions. 
 
 the illustration and the principle illustrated. It was 
 no more necessary that the circumstances and lo- 
 calities in the parable of Dives and Lazarus should 
 have been literal realities, in order to establish the 
 doctrine of future rewards and punishments, than 
 that a traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
 and falling among thieves, should have actually 
 experienced kindness from a Samaritan, to establish 
 the duty of universal kindness to the unfortunate. 
 
 Yet the inveterate propensity of mankind to 
 petrify everything into a dogma led the Church to 
 involve itself in considerable doctrinal difficulty, by 
 converting this ancient opinion in relation to an 
 under-world into an article of Christian faith. On 
 the cross, our Lord said to the penitent thief: " To- 
 day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This Para- 
 dise was a locality in the subterranean world, — the 
 receptacle of the souls of the good, — and was con- 
 trasted with Gehenna, the place of torment for the 
 wicked. The purpose of Christ in using this phra- 
 seology was undoubtedly to give the dying man an 
 assurance that his penitence was acceptable in the 
 sight of God, and that he would be happy in a 
 future life. He made use of such language as would 
 be most intelligible and striking to a man entertain- 
 ing the common opinions of the time. But upon 
 this address of Christ, and an obscure passage in 
 the First Epistle of Peter, the ancient Church 
 founded a clause in what has since been called 
 the Apostles' Creed, — " He descended into hell." 
 But the progress of science, revealing the true struc- 
 ture of the earth, has gradually dispelled the belief 
 upon which the clause was founded. And it is 
 
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 263 
 
 now discarded from the copies used in most of the 
 Protestant churches. 
 
 Such, then, is the legitimate distinction, which is 
 ever to be kept in view in reading the New Tes- 
 tament, between the doctrines taught and the opin- 
 ions alluded to. One is matter of faith, to be re- 
 ceived as fact, the other is to be regarded as an 
 accidental appendage, used only for illustration and 
 impression. 
 
DISCOURSE XVII. 
 
 A PERSONAL DEVIL. 
 
 YE ARE Or YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND THE LUSTS OF 
 YOUR FATHER YE WILL DO. HE WAS A MURDERER FROM 
 THE BEGINNING, AND ABODE NOT IN THE TRUTH, BE- 
 CAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE SPEAKETH 
 A LIE, HE SPEAKETH OF HIS OWN: FOR HE IS A LIAR, 
 
 and the father of it. — John viii. 44. 
 
 Among the opinions entertained by the Jews in 
 the time of Christ and his Apostles, which are al- 
 luded to in the New Testament, is that concerning 
 the existence and agency of an evil being called 
 "Satan," or "the Devil," or "the Evil One," or 
 " the Prince of the power of the air." 
 
 The allusions to this being, though frequent, are 
 of so general and indefinite a character, that it is 
 difficult to make out from them all what the con- 
 ceptions of that age concerning his nature, history, 
 and employments were. They have, however, been 
 gathered up by an English poet, a man as wonder- 
 ful for his learning as for his genius, and wrought 
 into a poem, one of the most marvellous produc- 
 tions of all time. Milton, by his Rabbinical as 
 well as Biblical learning, and his profound ac- 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 265 
 
 quaintance with Oriental literature, has gathered 
 into the " Paradise Lost" the whole history of that 
 being whom the Jews considered as the father of 
 evil. 
 
 He was considered as the head and leader of a 
 legion of fallen angels. They were once holy and 
 pure, but rebelled against God, and were banished 
 from heaven, and confined, for the most part, to 
 those dark, subterraneous regions which the an- 
 cients imagined to lie under the earth, to an equal 
 length, breadth, and depth as the heavens above. 
 This opinion is referred to in the Epistle of Jude : 
 "And the angels which kept not their first estate, 
 but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
 everlasting chains, under darkness, against the judg- 
 ment of the great day." 
 
 Another part of this opinion was, with about as 
 much consistency as usually pertains to popular 
 superstitions, that they were permitted to inhabit 
 that part of the atmosphere which is nearest our 
 earth. Paul writes to the Ephesians: "And you 
 hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and 
 sins, wherein in time past ye walked, according to 
 the course of this world, according- to the Prince of 
 the poiver of the air, the spirit that now worketh in 
 the children of disobedience." Philo, a Jewish 
 writer, contemporary with Jesus and his Apostles, 
 speaks of the whole region of the atmosphere as 
 being " filled with spirits both good and bad, called 
 by the Jews angels, but by the Greeks demons, some 
 tempting men to evil, others prompting them to 
 good." Hence the phrase of the Apostle, "that 
 now worketh in the children of disobedience." 
 23 
 
266 opinions. 
 
 This function of Satan as the tempter of man- 
 kind is frequently alluded to in the New Testament. 
 Peter, in his First Epistle, writes on this wise : " Be 
 sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the Devil, as a 
 roaring lion, walketh about, seeking- whom he may de- 
 vour ; whom resist steadfast in the faith." James 
 writes : " Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." 
 Peter says to Ananias : " Why hath Satan filled thine 
 heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost?" Jesus says to 
 Peter, just before his fall : " Simon, Simon, Satan 
 hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
 wheat." 
 
 In accordance with this idea, the wicked of this 
 world, especially the Gentiles, are said to be under 
 the dominion of Satan. Said Jesus to Paul : " De- 
 livering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, 
 to whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to 
 turn them from darkness to light, and from the power 
 of Satan unto God." 
 
 Not only was Satan supposed to be at work to do 
 evil, but to prevent good. In the parable of the 
 sower, Christ says : " These are they by the way- 
 side, where the word is sown ; but when they have 
 heard, then cometh Satan immediately, and taketh 
 away the seed that was sown in their hearts." 
 
 Not only had Satan the power of enticing men 
 to moral evil, but of inflicting upon them physical 
 evil, diseases, infirmities, madness. 
 
 Of the woman whom Christ healed of some bodily 
 infirmity, under which she had been laboring for 
 eighteen years, he said, " And ought not this wo- 
 man, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan 
 hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed 
 from this bond on the Sabbath day ? " 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 267 
 
 To the same effect Peter preaches to Cornelius 
 and his friends: " How God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
 reth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went 
 about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed 
 of the Devil, for God was with him." 
 
 Such were the opinions which were current at the 
 time of Christ and his Apostles, concerning* the 
 Devil. When and where they sprang up, we are 
 unable to ascertain. We can trace them to no reve- 
 lation. No revelation is made concerning the Devil 
 in the New Testament or the Old, nor is there any 
 direct teaching concerning him in either. We are 
 able to go back, however, to a time when there was 
 no such superstition in the world. It arose, we have 
 every reason to believe, at a period subsequent to the 
 composition of the Pentateuch. There is no allusion 
 to any such being in the writings of Moses. 
 
 It does not occur in the place where we should 
 have expected to find it if it had been then in exist- 
 ence, in the account of the fall of man, the Devil 
 being supposed to be the author of all evil, especially 
 of its introduction into the world. Indeed, the in- 
 vention of the person of Satan, we have every reason 
 to believe, had a pious purpose, to account for the 
 existence of evil, without any imputation upon the 
 character of God. 
 
 Moses resorts to another expedient. Instead of 
 saying that Adam, or the first man, being left to the 
 freedom of his own will, sinned against God, he at- 
 tributes the first conception of sin to the cunning of 
 the serpent, the most subtle of all the beasts of the 
 field. No mention whatever is made of Satan in the 
 history of the transaction. The reason is given vj/ty 
 
268 opinions. 
 
 the serpent did it. It was not because he was ani- 
 mated or inspired by the Devil, but because of his 
 subtlety. By giving as the cause the natural cunning 
 of the serpent, he not only omits, but denies, the 
 other. The conception that a fallen angel had any- 
 thing to do in this transaction belongs to a subse- 
 quent age. We have no evidence whatever that 
 the superstition of the Devil had then come into 
 existence. 
 
 Had there been such a real transaction as the 
 temptation of Eve by the Devil, it would have been 
 perfectly easy for Moses to have so expressed it. He 
 could have said, explicitly, that the Devil, a fallen 
 angel, being prompted by his natural malignity, in 
 the shape of a serpent, or through the agency of a 
 serpent, persuaded the woman to violate the com- 
 mandment of God. But failing to make the slight- 
 est allusion to the Devil, and attributing the first 
 temptation fo the cunning of the serpent, we are jus- 
 tified in saying that the agency of Satan is not only 
 omitted, but denied. 
 
 Moreover, the allegorical nature of the whole nar- 
 rative is more than intimated by the selection of the 
 serpent. The serpent has no organs of speech. He 
 could not speak without a miraculous transforma- 
 tion. God alone can change the structure of the 
 animals he has made. And Satan, without the help 
 of God, could not perform a physical impossibility. 
 And after all, the admission that Satan was permit- 
 ted to use the serpent would involve the miraculous 
 interposition of God to tempt two immortal beings 
 to ruin themselves and their whole posterity. 
 
 There is no other resort, then, than to an allegori- 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 269 
 
 cal interpretation. The tree of knowledge and the 
 tempting serpent must be considered as an Oriental 
 allegory, — a method of describing the introduction 
 of physical and moral evil into the world with the 
 least possible imputation upon the character of the 
 Supreme Being. 
 
 Such seem to have been the views entertained 
 upon this matter by Josephus, the famous Jewish 
 historian, contemporary with the Apostles. In his 
 paraphrase of the first chapter of Genesis, he says 
 not one word of the agency or the being of a Devil. 
 The serpent is the only agent of which he speaks. 
 Moreover, he says in his preface : " Our Legislator 
 speaks some things wisely, but enigmatically, and 
 others under a decent allegory, but still explains such 
 things as required a direct explanation plainly and 
 expressly." If the account of the temptation and 
 fall of man be not alluded to here, we are at a loss 
 to conjecture to what part of the writings of Moses 
 he can refer, for he soon enters upon a literal, his- 
 torical narrative. 
 
 There is no reference in any part of the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament to ajiy agency of Satan in the 
 temptation of our first parents. The first allusion 
 to such an opinion is found in the Apocrypha, in 
 the second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon, a 
 book written within a hundred and fifty years of the 
 Christian era. " For God created man to be im- 
 mortal, and made him to be an image of his own 
 eternity. Nevertheless, through the envy of the 
 Devil came death into the world ; and they that do 
 hold of his side do find it so." So far, then, as we 
 are able to conjecture, as this idea is not found in 
 23* 
 
270 OPINIONS. 
 
 the Old Testament, and is found in the book of the 
 Wisdom of Solomon, this interpretation of the fall 
 must have sprung up some time between the closing 
 of the Old Testament and the opening of the New. 
 
 The personality, however, and the function of Sa- 
 tan, had become defined as early as the writing of 
 the book of Job. In the commencement of that 
 book, Satan is represented as presenting himself be- 
 fore God among the angels. " There was a day 
 when the sons of God came to present themselves 
 before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. 
 And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest 
 thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 
 From going to and fro in the earth, and from walk- 
 ing up and down in it." 
 
 There is a marked difference, however, between 
 the Satan here introduced and the Devil of the New 
 Testament. He acts as a calumniator, and this is 
 the literal meaning of the word Devil. This is com- 
 mon to both. He inflicts diseases and calamities on 
 men, and so has the Devil the power to do the same. 
 But there is this clear distinction between them. 
 The Satan of the book of Job has no power to tempt 
 man to evil in the way of allurement and persuasion. 
 The Devil of the New Testament has. The Satan 
 of the book of Job has no power to inflict diseases 
 and calamities, except by God's permission. " Doth 
 Job," said he, " fear God for naught ? Hast thou 
 not made an hedge about him and all that he hath." 
 That hedge Satan himself could not pass to do him 
 wrong. He then goes on to speak of God as alone 
 having power to afflict him : " But put forth thy hand 
 now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 
 
 271 
 
 thee to thy face." Satan can do nothing against 
 him until he is permitted and commissioned by God. 
 " And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he 
 hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth 
 thine hand." 
 
 Various calamities befell Job, it is intimated, by 
 the instrumentality of Satan. He is stripped of all, 
 yet maintains his integrity. Satan is baffled, and 
 again presents himself with the angels before God 
 and confesses his ill success, but suggests that Job 
 will be overcome by some bodily infliction in the 
 shape of disease. " But put forth thine hand now, 
 and touch his bone and his fleshy and he will curse 
 thee to thy face." Again, he receives permission to 
 afflict him, and with bodily disease. "And the 
 Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, 
 but spare his life." . 
 
 The Devil of the New Testament is represented 
 in a different light. He has the power to tempt men 
 directly in the way of allurement and persuasion, 
 and he acts independently of the Divine permission ; 
 he inflicts diseases at his own pleasure, irrespective 
 of the Divine leave, and is subject only to be ar- 
 rested in his operations by the power of God. 
 
 I recur thus to the introduction of Satan into the 
 book of Job, to illustrate the history of an opinion, 
 but not to imply that the author entertained any 
 real belief in his existence and agency. There are 
 strong reasons for believing that he did not. How- 
 ever real may have been the personal history of Job, 
 the form into which that history is thrown in the 
 Old Testament is that of a poem. All poems, both 
 sacred and profane, have their machinery, drawn 
 
272 opinions. 
 
 usually from the current opinions of the times as to 
 supernatual agency. The object of the poem is to 
 exhibit and celebrate the triumph of a truly good 
 and holy man over trial and temptation. He is to 
 be tried, not that he may fall, but that he may stand, 
 and appear the more illustrious for having been tried. 
 But here occurs a difficulty, on the very threshold of 
 the undertaking. Who is to be represented as tempt- 
 ing' Job ? Would it be in keeping to represent God 
 as tempting him directly ? If God were made the 
 immediate agent, then there would seem to be an 
 inconsistency, a sort of insincerity, on the part of 
 God. On the one hand, he tempts Job to do 
 wrong, and on the other, he forbids him to comply 
 with the temptation, which he himself places before 
 him. Besides, Job is a perfect and upright man. 
 Does it seem consistent with perfect justice and per- 
 fect goodness to afflict an innocent man, to subject 
 him to suffering and loss, merely by way of experi- 
 ment? Therefore is Satan introduced, to do that 
 which seems, at first sight, to be unworthy of God. 
 It is merely an evasion of the old difficulty of the 
 origin of evil. And after all, it is only an evasion. 
 The causes which Satan puts in operation to try 
 Job are all material agents, belonging to God's uni- 
 verse, of which he possesses the entire control ; and 
 indeed their operation in one case in the narrative 
 is attributed immediately to Divine agency. " The 
 fire of God has fallen from heaven, and has burned 
 up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them." 
 It would hardly be consistent to represent the fire of 
 God as sent by the Devil. So that, after all, the 
 agency of Satan is merely scenic^ and evidently not 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 
 
 273 
 
 intended to be literal, and to be a matter of religious 
 faith or doctrinal inculcation. 
 
 This leads me to say, that, as far as my investi- 
 gations have gone, Satan, or the Devil, from the first 
 mention made of him in the Bible, has always been, 
 very much as he is now, a real person to the unin- 
 formed, and a personification to the intelligent. And 
 therefore the language concerning him, according to 
 the analysis we are pursuing of the New Testament, 
 wavers between opinion and mere phraseology, some- 
 times arranging itself under one, and sometimes 
 under the other. 
 
 That it was at first a mere personification, appears 
 from the fact that Satan neither in Hebrew nor in 
 Greek has any proper name. There is nothing re- 
 vealed concerning him, and he has no history. His 
 name in Hebrew was a word signifying an adversary , 
 and was long applied to man before it was applied 
 to the personification or the author of evil. In the 
 Greek it was an accuser or calumniator, and is ap- 
 plied to human beings in the New Testament no 
 less than to the Prince of Darkness. 
 
 That it was at first used for a mere personification 
 of the principle of evil, just as it is now, may be 
 made evident by a few quotations. In the Second 
 Book of Samuel it is said : "And again, the anger of 
 the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved 
 David against them to say, Go, number Israel and 
 Judah." In the First Book of Chronicles, the same 
 transaction is thus related : "And Satan stood up 
 against Israel, and he provoked David to number 
 Israel.'* 
 
 This difference of representation is very significant. 
 
274 +■ opinions. 
 
 The book of Chronicles was written many ages 
 after the book of Samuel, probably after the return 
 of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, whereas 
 the book of Samuel was written near the time when 
 the events it relates took place. The book of Samuel 
 is the original document, and it represents the Lord 
 as having moved David to number Israel. This ac- 
 count speaks of David as the instrument in the hands 
 of Providence of punishing Israel. This was true at 
 all events. God uses the wickedness of one man to 
 scourge the vices of another. But then this mode of 
 representation lies open to the objection, that it 
 makes God the author of sin, and then the punisher 
 of the very sin which he himself has caused. 
 
 In escaping this imputation, the author of the book 
 of Chronicles, who was of the sacerdotal order, and 
 a strenuous supporter of the theocracy in the royal 
 line of David, must have given as the true cause the 
 ambition and presumption of that revered monarchy 
 had he not gone behind his agency, and attributed 
 this act of disobedience to the instigation of Satan. 
 
 Under such circumstances, it is impossible for us 
 to say how far the writer himself had any distinct, 
 affirmative idea of the agency of Satan in the 
 breach of God's commandment, that Israel should 
 not be numbered. To my mind, it has the appear- 
 ance of being a mere conventionalism^ the use of a 
 common and popular mode of speech, by which the 
 origin of all evil is referred to the Devil, or by 
 which evil itself is personified and embodied in one 
 universal and omnipresent agent, the foe of God 
 and man and goodness. 
 
 Some such floating idea as this has prevailed in 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 275 
 
 many, I might say almost all, nations and ages of the 
 world. It is a convenient mode of speech to those 
 who do not believe in any real being of this nature, 
 as well as to those who do. The phraseology with 
 regard to the Devil may never die out. At any rate, 
 it will long survive every vestige of actual belief. 
 
 There are many passages of the New Testament, 
 in which the use of the words Devil and Satan is 
 evidently merely conventional, and is nothing but 
 mere phraseology. 
 
 At one period of his ministry, Jesus sent out 
 his disciples to preach by themselves. At their re- 
 turn, they report their success. They say, moreover, 
 " Lord, even the devils [demons] are subject unto 
 us through thy name. And he said unto them, I 
 beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." This, 
 of course, is a figurative expression. No personal 
 Satan can be meant here, but only the downfall of 
 the kingdom of Satan, which is the kingdom of 
 evil. It might seem, at first sight, that Satan is 
 here referred to as the head and chief of the devils 
 or demons which were cast out. But he goes on 
 to say, " Behold, I give unto you power to tread on 
 serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of 
 the enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt 
 you." The enemy and Satan are evidently intended 
 to be synonymous. " Serpents," then, and " scor- 
 pions," and "all the power of the enemy," must be a 
 universal and comprehensive expression for all evil, 
 and the enemy, Satan, is its symbolic head. The 
 causes of evil in this world are not under the con- 
 trol of the Devil, but under the control of God ; and 
 the production of evil is attributed to Satan to 
 
276 opinions. 
 
 avoid the apparent impiety of attributing the origin 
 of evil to God. 
 
 The like principles are applicable to the interpre- 
 tation of the words of the text : " Ye are of your 
 father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will 
 do. He was a mu^j^rer from the beginning, and 
 abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in 
 him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his 
 own : for he is a liar, and the father of it." 
 
 Here are all the forms of reference to a real per- 
 son. But if we make the latter part literal, we 
 must make the first part so too. Then we shall 
 make Christ assert that the Devil was literally the 
 father of those Jews with whom he was then con- 
 versing. If the first was a figure of speech, we have 
 as much reason to believe that the last is so too, 
 and that the whole address is a reference, not to an 
 historical transaction, but to a popular superstition, 
 and was intended to be understood as such. 
 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, writes : " And 
 the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
 shortly." This of course can be no other than a 
 figurative and symbolic expression, by which Satan 
 is put for all evil. It is merely equivalent to saying, 
 " God shall soon give you to triumph over all the 
 evils you feel or fear." 
 
 The loose and general way in which the person- 
 ality and agency of the Devil are spoken of in the 
 New Testament is illustrated in the First Epistle of 
 John. " He that committeth sin is of the Devil ; for 
 the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this pur- 
 pose the Son of God was manifested, that he might 
 destroy the works of the Devil In this the 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 277 
 
 children of God are manifest, and the children of the 
 Devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not 
 of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." To 
 be " of God," to be " a child of God," and " to do 
 righteousness," mean all the same thing. " Not to 
 do righteousness," to be "a sinner" and " a child 
 of the Devil," have likewise all the same significa- 
 tion. On both sides, this phraseology has reference 
 not to origin, but to character. To destroy the 
 work of the Devil is to convert men from sin to 
 holiness. Here is the same reference to the intro- 
 duction of sin into the world by the instrumentality 
 of Satan, which we have seen is not found in the 
 first chapters of Genesis, but was an invention of 
 a later age. 
 
 It is difficult to decide, in such cases as this, 
 whether to set such language down to the account 
 of mere phraseology, or to consider it as a reference 
 to an opinion then extant in the world. There are 
 some cases in which the use of the expressions 
 Satan and Devil, for the principle of evil, seems 
 to be that figurative mode of speech which is spon- 
 taneous under the prompting of strong emotion. 
 
 This seems especially to be the case with refer- 
 ence to Judas Iscariot. His treachery was so base, 
 his ingratitude so revolting, that to Jesus and his 
 Apostles it seemed incommensurate with any com- 
 mon epithets of reproach, and utterly unaccountable 
 on the supposition of any ordinary motives of con- 
 duct. Hence he is introduced as having been in- 
 stigated, or rather possessed, by the Devil, and is 
 actually called a Devil by Christ himself. 
 
 Luke says of him, when he first conceives the 
 24 
 
278 opinions. 
 
 idea of betraying Jesus : " And the chief priests and 
 scribes sought how they might kill him ; for they 
 feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas 
 surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the 
 twelve. And he went his way, and communed with 
 the chief priests and captains, how he might betray 
 him unto them." 
 
 John coincides with Luke in representing the be- 
 trayal of Jesus to have been brought about by dia- 
 bolical agency, but he represents the Devil as hav- 
 ing entered into him at another time ; not when he 
 first determined to betray Jesus, but when he went 
 from the table of the Passover to perpetrate the act. 
 Jesus is related to have pointed him out to the other 
 disciples by giving him a sop, that is, a piece of 
 bread dipped in some species of liquid. " He it is," 
 said Jesus, "to whom I shall give a sop, when I 
 have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, 
 he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And 
 after the sop, Satan entered into him." 
 
 This diversity of representation shows that there 
 was literally no Devil in the case. It is not histor- 
 ical verity which the Evangelists aim to give, for 
 then they would have agreed as to the time when 
 the possession took place. Their different mode of 
 representing it shows that, in both cases, it is a 
 figure of speech for the access of those diabolical 
 passions, which led one of the companions and dis- 
 ciples of the blessed Saviour to betray him to con- 
 demnation and death. 
 
 I have now made it evident, I trust, to all who 
 have listened to me attentively, that the existence, 
 the personality, and the agency of Satan, or the 
 
A PERSONAL DEVIL. 
 
 279 
 
 Devil, are not doctrines of the New Testament. 
 They are nowhere revealed, they are nowhere di- 
 rectly taught. They were opinions which sprung up 
 among the Jews, just as similar opinions sprung up 
 among other nations, in the endeavor to account for 
 the origin of evil generally, and especially without 
 involving the character of God in its introduction 
 into the world. And they are referred to by Christ 
 and his Apostles, not to affirm them and fix them 
 in the faith of the world, but as the common modes 
 of speech upon certain subjects then in use among 
 those whom they addressed. 
 
 As philosophical causes, they utterly fail of ac- 
 counting for the phenomena in question, and as an 
 apology for the existence of evil under the Divine 
 government, they subvert^ instead of establishing, 
 the equity of God's dealings with men. 
 
 Indeed, the moral argument against them seems 
 to me conclusive. One part of the punishment 
 which God inflicts upon us for doing wrong is the 
 remorse we feel for having violated God's law under 
 the impulse of appetites and passions whose strength 
 we know, and the allurement of temptations whose 
 force we can weigh against the moral power with 
 which God has endowed us. If there is another 
 agent in the transaction, Satan, an invisible and 
 powerful being, with the extent of whose influence 
 we are wholly unacquainted, then the torments of 
 remorse may be wholly unjust, or at least altogether 
 disproportionate to our real guilt. 
 
 It is far more honorable to the Divine government 
 to believe that we can know all our spiritual foes, 
 and be conscious when we fall through our own 
 
280 OPINIONS. 
 
 fault, or are borne down by enemies unappreciated 
 and unseen. It is more honorable to God to believe, 
 with the Apostle James, that, "when a man is 
 tempted, he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
 enticed " ; and with the Son of Sirach, that " when 
 the ungodly curseth Satan, he curseth his own soul." 
 
DISCOURSE XVIII. 
 
 THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 
 
 KNOWING THIS FIRST, THAT THERE SHALL COME IN THE LAST 
 DAYS SCOFFERS, WALKING AFTER THEIR OWN LUSTS, AND 
 SAYING, WHERE IS THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING? FOR 
 SINCE THE FATHERS FELL ASLEEP, ALL THINGS CON- 
 TINUE AS THEY WERE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 
 
 creation. — 2 Peter iii. 3, 4. 
 
 Among the opinions which existed among the 
 Apostles and early Christians, traces of which ap- 
 pear in the New Testament, is the expectation that 
 Christ was to return personally to the earth during 
 the lives of the first propagators of Christianity. This, 
 of course, cannot be placed among the positive doc- 
 trines of Christianity, as no such event ever took 
 place. I propose in the two following Discourses to 
 consider this whole subject. It is one of great in- 
 terest. Gibbon has made it the occasion of one 
 of his solemn sneers at the origin and propagation 
 of the Christian faith. " In the primitive Church," 
 says he, " the influence of truth was very power- 
 fully strengthened by an opinion which, however it 
 may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, 
 has not been found agreeable to experience. It was 
 24* 
 
282 opinions. 
 
 universally believed that the end of the world and 
 the kingdom of heaven were at hand. The near ap- 
 proach of this wonderful event had been predicted 
 by the Apostles, the tradition of it was preserved 
 by their earliest disciples, and those who understood 
 in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself 
 were obliged to expect the second and glorious coming 
 of the Son of Man in the clouds, before the generation 
 was totally extinguished which had beheld his hum- 
 ble condition on earth, and which might still be 
 witness of the calamities of the Jews under Ves- 
 pasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen 
 centuries has instructed us not to press too closely 
 the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation ; 
 but as long as for wise purposes this error was per- 
 mitted to subsist in the Church, it was productive 
 of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice 
 of Christians, who lived in the awful expectation of 
 that moment when the globe itself, and all the vari- 
 ous races of mankind, should tremble at the appear- 
 ance of their divine judge." 
 
 In treating of this subject, I shall first inquire, 
 Are there traces of such an expectation in the New 
 Testament ? Was such a doctrine taught by Christ ? 
 How came the Apostles to entertain it ? Did they 
 teach it as a positive doctrine, — a part and parcel 
 of Christianity ; or did they refer to it as an opinion, 
 concerning which they themselves were by no means 
 certain ? 
 
 That the Apostles themselves cherished such an 
 expectation cannot, I think, well be denied. I begin 
 with Paul. To the Corinthians he writes : " So that 
 ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 
 
 283 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." Now the most obvious 
 construction of this passage is that which makes it 
 refer to an event which was to take place in that 
 age, within the lifetime of at least some who then 
 belonged to the Christian Church. 
 
 To Titus he writes: "For the grace of God that 
 bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teach- 
 ing us, that, denying all ungodliness and worldly 
 lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, 
 in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, 
 and the glorious appearing of the great God and 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ" This certainly describes 
 an event which was expected to take place at any 
 time, and might even be daily looked for. The con- 
 nection of the appearance of God with the appear- 
 ance of Christ has a bearing which is important, 
 but which I cannot now stop to develop. 
 
 To Timothy he writes: "I charge thee therefore 
 before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his 
 kingdom, preach the word; be instant in season, out 
 
 of season For I am now ready to be offered, 
 
 and the time of my departure is at hand. I have 
 fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I 
 have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
 the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and 
 not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
 appearing." This was written when Paul was now 
 an old man, and did not expect to live long ; and 
 although it seems to express a doubt whether he 
 should live to see the second coming of Christ, he 
 seems to speak of other Christians, his contempora- 
 
284 opinions. 
 
 ries, who would still live on in the constant expecta- 
 tion of that joyful event. 
 
 To the Philippians he writes : " For our conversa- 
 tion is in heaven, from whence we look for the Sav- 
 iour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our 
 vile body, that it may be fashioned like his glorious 
 body, according to the working whereby he is able 
 even to subdue all things unto himself." 
 
 Who they were to whom the Apostle refers as 
 destined to be changed, we may learn by reference 
 to the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. There 
 it is said : " Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall 
 not ail sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a mo- 
 ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump ; 
 for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
 raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" 
 There is a passage to the same effect in the First 
 Epistle to the Thessalonians. " For the Lord him- 
 self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
 voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; 
 and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we 
 which are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
 gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
 in the air ; and so shall we be ever with the Lord." 
 
 Language could scarcely be stronger to prove that 
 Paul anticipated the return of Christ to the earth in 
 his own day, or at least within the lifetime of some 
 who then composed the Christian Church. 
 
 Let us now see what were the sentiments of the 
 other writers of the New Testament. Of them, take 
 first the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In 
 the tenth chapter he says to the Hebrews : " For ye 
 have need of patience, that, after ye have done the 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 285 
 
 will of God, ye might receive the promise ; for yet a 
 little while, and he that shall come will come, and 
 will not tarry. 1, In the same chapter he likewise 
 says : " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
 together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one 
 another; and so much the more as ye see the day 
 approaching? 
 
 A day which they saw approaching could not be 
 far off, and that coming must be near for which they 
 were exhorted to wait with patience. 
 
 Let us examine the writings of Peter, that we 
 may learn what were his expectations. He exhorts 
 the Christians to whom he writes : " Wherefore gird 
 up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the 
 end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the 
 revelation of Jesus Christ? In another place he 
 says : " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the 
 fiery trial which is to try you, as though some 
 strange thing had happened unto you; but rejoice, 
 inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; 
 that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad 
 also with exceeding joy." The revelation of Christ's 
 glory does not seem to be a thing to be made known 
 to them at death, but during their natural lives. 
 
 But there is a passage still more decisive : " But 
 the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, 
 and watch unto prayer." An event for which they 
 were continually to watch, could not have been any 
 other than one which was expected to take place, at 
 least, in that age. 
 
 Let us now turn to the Apostle John. In his First 
 Epistle he says : " And now, little children, abide in 
 him ; that, when he shall appear, we may have confi- 
 
286 opinions. 
 
 dence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." 
 In another place, u Beloved, now are we the sons of 
 God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; 
 but we know that, when he shall appea?", we shall be 
 like him; for ice shall see him as he is." This coin- 
 cides with the quotation which we made from Paul, 
 in which he speaks of Christ's appearing and chan- 
 ging our vile body, and making it like his own glo- 
 rious body. 
 
 There remain but three writers more concerning 
 the affairs of the Christians after the resurrection of 
 Christ, — James, Jude, and the author of the Book of 
 Revelation. The sentiments of the last two are ob- 
 vious, and it remains only to make an extract from 
 James. " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the 
 coming- of the Lord. Behold the husbandman wait- 
 eth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 
 patience for it, until he receive the early and the 
 latter rain. Be ye also patient, for the coming of the 
 Lord draweth nigh." 
 
 It is needless to multiply further quotations from 
 the New Testament, in order to show that it was 
 the unanimous expectation of the writers of the 
 apostolic age, that Christ was to return to the earth 
 at least before all that generation should have gone 
 down to the grave. It is needless, likewise, to add, 
 that no such event really took place. That genera- 
 tion all passed away, many of the Christians by an 
 awful exit from this world, — the cross, the axe, and 
 flames. Still the Saviour came not. That century 
 elapsed, and there was no appearance of Christ 
 " from heaven with flaming fire, taking vengeance 
 on them that knew not God and obeyed not the 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 287 
 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ." Time has rolled on, and 
 eighteen centuries have passed, without that dis- 
 closure which seems to be so clearly predicted. 
 
 And what are we to say ? Are we to confess what 
 Gibbon insinuates, that the non-fulfilment of this 
 expectation is fatal to Christianity as a revelation 
 from God ? It would be so, if we were to consider 
 the Scriptures, as they have generally been consid- 
 ered, a homogeneous whole, every part of which is to 
 be considered as doctrine, for which immediate in- 
 spiration is responsible. 
 
 Hence the necessity of the distinction which in 
 these Discourses we are attempting to establish, be- 
 tween the doctrines of the Gospel and the opinions 
 of the Apostles and of the age. I say, then, that 
 Christ never taught such a doctrine, and if the Apos- 
 tles derived it from his language, it was a misappre- 
 hension. And more than this, I say, if their lan- 
 guage is minutely examined, they do not make it a 
 positive prophecy or prediction, that Christ was to 
 return to the earth in their day, but only mention it 
 as an expectation, a probability, whose speedy oc- 
 currence they judged to be consequent on certain 
 other facts, which were sure, and really existed. 
 
 In order to form a determinate and satisfactory 
 judgment of this matter, it will be necessary to ex- 
 amine minutely the prophetic language of Christ. 
 Not only did Christ fill the office of a teacher, a law- 
 giver, the founder of a new and universal religion, 
 but he likewise acted as a prophet in the strictest 
 sense of the term. He predicted future events, which 
 could be anticipated by no human foresight. The 
 purpose for which he did so is expressly declared. 
 
288 opinions. 
 
 " Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come 
 to pass, ye may believe that I am he." It was that 
 his disciples might have not only the evidence of his 
 superhuman doctrines and his miraculous works, 
 but his fulfilled predictions, to establish their faith in 
 him as the Messiah, in that and all succeeding ages. 
 
 The first that occur are his predictions concerning 
 his death, and its attending circumstances of time, 
 place, and manner. Had he not done so, it would 
 have seemed to his. disciples, that he was overtaken 
 by an untimely and unexpected catastrophe. His 
 ministry might have seemed incomplete and termi- 
 nated by disappointment. But since it w T as foretold, 
 it appears as a part of the Divine plan, not only fore- 
 seen, but a necessary element of his mission upon 
 the earth. 
 
 Just before he left them, his soul seems to have 
 been wrapt in visions of futurity. As he glanced 
 his prophetic eye along the vista of coming ages 
 and the boundless expanse of infinite duration, 
 three events especially attracted his notice ; the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish religion 
 and nation, the establishment and universal spread 
 of his own religion, and the retributions of eternity. 
 In describing these, he uses mainly the language of 
 prophecy, which is the language, not of literal de- 
 scription, but of symbols. 
 
 There is a close analogy, in respect of structure, 
 between the close of the old dispensation and the 
 new ; and one may be profitably studied in illustra- 
 tion of the other. After Moses had promulgated 
 and recorded the law, and had established the civil 
 and ecclesiastical constitution of the nation of Israel, 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 289 
 
 just before he left them, he assumed the attitude of 
 a prophet. His mind passes down through the ages 
 to come, and delineates rapidly, but with a wonder- 
 fully graphic power, the chief events of the history 
 of a people who had not yet been established in 
 their destined seats. He describes their declensions 
 from the worship of the true God, and the punish- 
 ments which he was to inflict upon them in conse- 
 quence. He goes so minutely into their history, as 
 to describe their invasion by cruel and unknown for- 
 eigners, and their being led away into captivity. He 
 describes their penitence and their restoration, with 
 an exact correspondence with their real history. 
 
 From this he ascends, by language highly poetic 
 and symbolic, to assert God's general providence, 
 and to foreshow his acts as the Judge and Re- 
 warder of men. 
 
 " To me belongeth vengeance and recompense ; 
 their foot shall slide in due time ; for the day of 
 their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall 
 come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall 
 judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, 
 when he seeth that their power is gone and there 
 is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where 
 are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 
 which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank 
 the wine of their drink-offerings? Let them rise and 
 help you, and be your protection. See now that I, 
 even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill 
 and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is 
 there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I 
 lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. 
 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take 
 25 
 
290 OPINIONS. 
 
 hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine 
 enemies, and will reward them that hate me." 
 
 Here, you perceive, is an ascent from specifics to 
 generals ; from the special providences of God to- 
 ward the nation of Israel, to the general and all- 
 comprehending idea of his universal government, in 
 which God is presented as the sole, supreme, un- 
 equalled and unapproachable Jehovah, the Law- 
 giver, the Judge and Rewarder of men, but dis- 
 pensing his retributions with rigor, especially with 
 reference to the Mosaic institute, which forbids the 
 worship of other gods, and confines it solely to him- 
 self. 
 
 In a like manner, Christ, after having promulgated 
 the New Dispensation, assumes, among the last acts 
 of his public ministry, the attitude of a prophet, and 
 foreshows the future fortunes of his religion in the 
 world ; first, his own death, resurrection, and ascen- 
 sion, and the bearing which these events will have 
 upon the reception and power of his religion in the 
 world; then its promulgation among all nations; 
 then its final establishment by the destruction of 
 Judaism, its only rival ; and, finally, the future retri- 
 butions of eternity, which were to take place ac- 
 cording to the principles of his religion. 
 
 Concerning events which were immediately to 
 take place, and on which the faith and conduct of 
 his disciples at the outset of their enterprise were to 
 depend, he is full and explicit. Concerning events 
 of a remoter period, he is more figurative and ob- 
 scure. On the evening of his apprehension, and not 
 a day before his death, he said to his disciples : " All 
 ye shall be offended because of me this night ; 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 291 
 
 for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and 
 the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. 
 But after I am risen again, I will go before you 
 into Galilee." In a solemn prayer to God, he pre- 
 dicts his own death as a thing immediately to take 
 place. " Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, 
 that thy Son may glorify thee." " And now i" am 
 no more in the ivorld, but these are in the world, and 
 I come to thee" 
 
 He foretold the effect which his death, his resur- 
 rection, and ascension would produce upon his fol- 
 lowers. His. death would make them profoundly 
 sad, and humble them before a scoffing and tri- 
 umphant world. " Verily, verily I say unto you, that 
 ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall re- 
 joice." But his resurrection was to reanimate and 
 reassure them. " And ye shall be sorrowful, but 
 your sorrow shall be turned into joy." " And ye 
 now, therefore, have sorrow ; but I will see you 
 again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no 
 man taketh from you." 
 
 He told them that it was necessary that he should 
 go away, and be removed from the earth, for till he 
 was taken away from their earthly hopes, they could 
 not understand his religion nor their own mission; 
 or, in his phraseology, receive " the Spirit of truth." 
 " It is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go 
 not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
 
 but if I depart, I will send him unto you 
 
 When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
 you into all the truth." 
 
 This prophecy was literally and immediately ful- 
 filled. Fifty days from Christ's crucifixion saw an 
 
292 opinions. 
 
 entire change in his disciples. Truth bursting upon 
 their minds from the cross, the tomb, the resurrec- 
 tion, and ascension of Christ, transformed them 
 from worldly, ambitious, timid, unintellectual, and 
 obscure men, into courageous, firm, energetic teach- 
 ers of a spiritual faith, and from the selfish seekers 
 of earthly power to the founders of the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 
DISCOURSE XIX 
 
 THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 
 
 NOW WE BESEECH YOU, BRETHREN, BY THE COMING OF OUR 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND BY OUR GATHERING TOGETHER 
 UNTO HIM, THAT YE BE NOT SOON SHAKEN IN MIND, OR BE 
 TROUBLED, NEITHER BY SPIRIT, NOR BY WORD, NOR BY 
 LETTER, AS FROM US, AS THAT THE DAY OF CHRIST IS AT 
 HAND. LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU BY ANY MEANS : FOR 
 THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME, EXCEPT THERE COME A FALL- 
 ING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SEN BE REVEALED, 
 
 the son OF perdition. — 2 Thessalonians ii. 1-3. 
 
 The next prophecy of Christ, in trie order of time, 
 after those relating to his death, his resurrection and 
 ascension, and the commencement of the preaching 
 of his religion by his Apostles, was his prediction of 
 its extension to the Gentiles. This is the more re- 
 markable, as it was wholly contradictory to the deep- 
 seated prejudices of the Jewish nation, and the ex- 
 pectations of the Apostles themselves concerning the 
 kingdom of the Messiah. They had been educated 
 to expect a Messiah who should conquer, but not one 
 who should convert, the world. So wholly averse 
 were their minds from this arrangement, that, not- 
 withstanding Christ's final commission to them was, 
 25* 
 
294 opinions. 
 
 " Go, teach all nations" nothing of the kind was done 
 or attempted by them for the first ten years. The bit- 
 terness of the Jewish feeling upon this point may be 
 learned from Paul's defence of himself at Jerusalem, 
 when he was apprehended under suspicion of intro- 
 ducing heathens into the temple. He tells them that 
 Christ sent him to preach to the heathen : " And he 
 said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence 
 unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience 
 unto this word, and .then lifted up their voices and 
 said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it 
 is not fit that he should live." 
 
 That the contempt of the Pagans for the Jews did 
 not fall behind the hatred of the Jews for the Pa- 
 gans, all contemporaneous literature bears witness. 
 It was quite as improbable that a Jew should have 
 been willing to impart the blessings of the Messiah's 
 kingdom to the Gentiles, as that the Gentiles should 
 have been willing to receive a religion from the 
 Jews. And yet, under these circumstances, Christ 
 prophesies, " And this Gospel of the kingdom shall 
 be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all 
 nations ; and then shall the end come." Nearly ten 
 years passed away before the Gospel was preached 
 to the heathen at all, and then it required a special 
 miracle to instruct Peter, that he was no longer to 
 call any man common or unclean, and the Holy 
 Ghost poured out on Cornelius and his companions 
 was the only thing which could convince him that 
 God was no respecter of persons. The miraculous 
 conversion of Paul, and his mission to the Gentiles, 
 settled the question, and fulfilled the prophecy of 
 Christ ; for he himself preached the Gospel in nearly 
 all the principal cities of the Roman empire. 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 295 
 
 Next are Christ's prophecies of the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the 
 close of the Mosaic dispensation as the religion rec- 
 ognized by God. The principal predictions relating 
 to this event were uttered during his last visit to Je- 
 rusalem, and many of them within sight of the tem- 
 ple. " And Jesus went out, and departed from the 
 temple: and nis disciples came to him for to show 
 him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said 
 unto them, See ye not all these things ? ' Verily I 
 say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone 
 upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And 
 as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples 
 came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall 
 these things be ? And what shall be the sign of thy 
 coming, and of the end of the world? " 
 
 This question indicates the origin of the misappre- 
 hension under which the disciples afterwards labored 
 as to futurity through their whole ministry. It con- 
 tains two phrases which were equivocal, "the coming 
 of Christ," and " the end of the world." The word 
 here rendered " world " had two meanings, as like- 
 wise the Hebrew word to which it corresponds. It 
 means sometimes the material universe, but more 
 often an age or a dispensation of religion. And the 
 coming of Christ is used to indicate no less than four 
 different epochs in the New Testament, — his assump- 
 tion of his office, the preaching and establishment of 
 his religion in the world, the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, and the final consummation of all things, end- 
 ing in the general judgment. 
 
 The establishment of Christ's religion in the world 
 is called by him " his coming." When Jesus was 
 
296 opinions. 
 
 arraigned before the Sanhedrim, the supreme coun- 
 cil of the Jewish nation, at the head of which sat 
 the high -priest, he was solemnly interrogated, — in 
 fact, in modern phraseology, put on oath, — to say, 
 whether he were the true Messiah. "Under the so- 
 lemnity of an oath, he answers in the affirmative. 
 " And the high-priest answered and said unto him, 
 I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
 whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Je- 
 sus saith unto him, Thou hast said : nevertheless, 
 I say unto you, From this time shall ye see the 
 Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, 
 and coming in the clouds of heaven." To our cold 
 Occidental imaginations this seems to be the lan- 
 guage of ecstasy or enthusiasm. Who ever saw 
 Christ, either in that or any other age, literally sit- 
 ting on the right hand of power, and coming with 
 the clouds of heaven ? What did Christ mean by 
 it ? He was speaking to highly educated Jews, who 
 were familiar with Oriental imagery, and the highly 
 symbolic language of prophecy. He adopted the 
 most impressive- way of saying, " I affirm under 
 oath that I am the Messiah ; and not only so, the 
 proof does not depend on my word. From this time 
 you shall see my cause and religion so owned and 
 aided by God, that it shall be as evident to you that 
 I am the Messiah, as it would be were you to see 
 me sitting on God's right hand, and coming in the 
 clouds of heaven." 
 
 Such figures of speech are not stronger than he 
 used on other and similar occasions. When Na- 
 thaniel declared himself convinced that Jesus was 
 the Messiah, by the fact that he was able to tell him 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 297 
 
 where he had been, when it was a physical impossi- 
 bility that he could have seen him with his bodily 
 eyes, Jesus answered him, " Because I said unto 
 thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? 
 Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he 
 saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 Hereafter," or, as in the other case, " From this 
 time ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of 
 God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
 Man." Did Christ's disciples ever see this predic- 
 tion literally fulfilled ? Did they ever see the heav- 
 ens literally opened, and the angels passing and 
 repassing from heaven to Christ, and from Christ to 
 heaven ? They saw no such thing. But they did 
 see such a succession of miracles, of interruptions 
 of the ordinary laws and course of nature, wrought 
 by the power of God in attestation of Christ's 
 divine mission, that his being the Messiah was just 
 as manifest to them, as if they saw a constant 
 stream of angels sent down by God to Christ, and 
 returning again from him to heaven. 
 
 When the seventy returned and announced their 
 success as the preachers of the Gospel, Christ is re- 
 ported by Luke to have said, " i" beheld Satan as 
 lightning fall from heaven" Do we believe that 
 Christ intended this language to be interpreted as a 
 literal representation ? None but the most ignorant 
 can do so. What, then, do we consider it ? We 
 interpret it as a strong figure, representing the 
 downfall of evil under the influence of the Gospel 
 now beginning to exert its redeeming and renovat- 
 ing power. 
 
 After considering Christ's use of such bold figures 
 
298 opinions. 
 
 as the descent of angels from heaven in the sight of 
 men, and of Satan's being seen to fall like light- 
 ning from heaven, we learn to judge how- far he is 
 to be taken literally when he tells the Sanhedrim 
 that they shall see him seated on the right hand of 
 power, and coming- in the clouds of heaven. If one 
 may be interpreted by a succession of miracles, and 
 the other of the destruction of the kingdom of evil, 
 then may the third be interpreted to mean the spirit- 
 ual coming of Christ's kingdom upon earth, and the 
 testimony of God's ordinary and miraculous provi- 
 dence to its truth. 
 
 Especially is this the case, when we may con- 
 sider the language of Christ as combining both a 
 prophecy and a claim. Almost all the language 
 which was extant in the time of Christ in relation 
 to the new dispensation, then shortly expected to 
 appear, was derived from the Old Testament. The 
 portion of it which had the most influence in form- 
 ing that phraseology, and was most often quoted, 
 was the seventh chapter of Daniel. In that there oc- 
 curs this passage : " And I saw in the night visions, 
 and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
 clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
 and they brought him near before him. And there 
 iv as given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
 that all people, 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." When Christ quoted the 
 language of this passage, and applied it to himself, 
 he claimed to be the Messiah, as well as prophesied 
 that he would be recognized as such. 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 299 
 
 Christ had come in a literal sense already, for he 
 was then upon the earth. He often speaks of him- 
 self as having done so. " The Son of Man came 
 eating and drinking." The coming of which he 
 spoke to the Sanhedrim was metaphorical, in the 
 sense of identifying himself with his religion. That 
 made very little progress before his resurrection and 
 ascension. Indeed, previously to that time, his own 
 disciples did not understand it. His ascension was 
 immediately followed by the conversion of three 
 thousand. The supper, the grand rite of Christi- 
 anity, the bond of Christian union, being the com- 
 memoration of Christ's death, could not be cele- 
 brated before that event had taken place. Then, 
 in fact, the Christian Church, which is the true king- 
 dom of God, began to exist. Christ risen and as- 
 cended was more powerful here upon the earth 
 than he had been daring the days of his flesh. It 
 was to this, probably, that he alluded on the even- 
 ing before his crucifixion, when Judas had gone out 
 to betray him. " Now is the Son of Man glorified." 
 It was this exaltation of Christ of which Paul 
 spoke when he wrote to the Ephesians : " Which he 
 wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the 
 dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heav- 
 enly places, far above all principality, and power, 
 and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
 named, not only in this world, but in that which is 
 to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and 
 gave him to be head over all things to the church." 
 This corresponds almost in expression to one clause 
 of Christ's prediction to the Sanhedrim : " From 
 this time, ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the 
 
300 OPINIONS. 
 
 right hand of power." And in all these cases it is 
 merely a figurative expression for being exalted to 
 great authority. 
 
 It was to this coming that Christ referred when 
 he sent out his disciples to preaoh in the different 
 cities of Judaea, during his own ministry. " These 
 twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, say- 
 ing, Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any 
 city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather 
 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." " But 
 when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into 
 another; for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have 
 gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be 
 come." The coming of the Son of Man here re- 
 ferred to must have been his resurrection and ascen- 
 sion, because these events terminated this first com- 
 mission. This first commission was restricted to 
 the land of Palestine and the Jews. The Gentiles 
 were especially excluded. After his resurrection he 
 commissioned them anew. " Go, and teach all na- 
 tions." 
 
 Another epoch in the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
 final dispersion of the Jewish nation. Without 
 this event Christianity could not have been estab- 
 lished at all. Christianity was intended to super- 
 sede Judaism. " The Law and the prophets were 
 until John; since that, the kingdom of God is 
 preached." If Judaism bad not passed away, 
 Christianity could not have come ; for it was 
 plainly irrational to suppose that God could have 
 two recognized religions on earth at the same time. 
 As long as the temple stood, and its rites were 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 301 
 
 daily celebrated as of old, the converts from Judaism 
 were only half Christians. It was only the converts 
 from Paganism who were Christians in full, who 
 observed and practised the rites of Christianity, and 
 nothing else. The converted Jews who dwelt in 
 Palestine went on to observe the Mosaic law, cir- 
 cumcised their children, and kept the seventh day 
 as a Sabbath. Not only so, not only were they 
 zealous observers of the Law themselves, but they 
 were bent on bringing all the converts from Pagan- 
 ism under the same yoke. As long as the temple 
 stood, although Christianity was established by its 
 own independent evidence, Judaism was not abol- 
 ished. It apparently enjoyed the Divine sanction. 
 
 The Jews had rejected Christ as the Messiah 
 pointed out in their sacred Scriptures. The highest 
 authority, the grand council of their nation, had de- 
 cided against his claims. Their decision was a mat- 
 ter of record. The controversy, so to speak, between 
 God and the Jews then was, whether he were the 
 true Messiah or not. It was partially decided by 
 his resurrection, ascension, and the miraculous aid 
 granted to his Apostles. But to put the thing be- 
 yond all dispute, it was necessary that Judaism itself 
 should be destroyed by the entire destruction of the 
 temple of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the na- 
 tion, never more to be re-established in their native 
 seats. Then Christianity reigned alone, the claims 
 of Christ were vindicated, and his kingdom came 
 with power and great glory. 
 
 Let us recur to his prophecies of that event. It 
 is recorded of him, that at his last visit to Jerusa- 
 lem, as he approached within sight of the city, " he 
 26 
 
302 OPINIONS. 
 
 wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, 
 at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto 
 thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. 
 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine ene- 
 mies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
 thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall 
 lay thee even with the ground, and thy children 
 within thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one 
 stone upon another ; because thou knewest not the 
 time of thy visitation." 
 
 Afterwards, from the Mount of Olives, he por- 
 trayed at large the destruction of the city, and the 
 distress of the nation. " And when ye shall see 
 Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that 
 the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
 are in Judaea flee to the mountains ; and let them 
 which are in the midst of it depart out; and let 
 not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 
 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things 
 
 which are written may be fulfilled For there 
 
 shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon 
 this people ! And they shall fall by the edge of the 
 sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- 
 tions ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 
 Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 
 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
 and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of na- 
 tions, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 
 men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
 after those things which are coming on the earth ; 
 for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then 
 shall they see the Son of Man coming- in a cloud with 
 power and great glory" 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 303 
 
 This is from the Gospel of Luke. Matthew and 
 Mark report him to have said also, " And the stars 
 shall fall from heaven." All report him to have sub- 
 joined, " Verily I say unto you, This generation shall 
 not pass away till all these things shall be ful- 
 filled." Of course they must have seen " the Son 
 of Man coming in a cloud with power and great 
 glory," in the sense here intended. It was probably 
 to this coming that Christ alluded when he said, on 
 a certain occasion, " Verily I say unto you, There 
 be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
 death till they see the Son of Man coming in his 
 kingdom." I say it is probable that it is to the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem that he here alludes, for the 
 coming which followed his death and resurrection 
 took place within two months, and it would not 
 have been spoken of as a thing to be noticed, that 
 some standing there should live two months. It 
 applies more naturally to the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, which took place about thirty-seven years 
 afterwards; and John, of all the disciples, was the 
 only one who lived to see it It may have been to 
 the protracted life of John, and his living to see 
 Jerusalem destroyed, that Christ alluded, when he 
 said of him to Peter, when he inquired what was 
 to become of John, " If I will that he tarry till I 
 come, what is that to thee ? " 
 
 If John was the person alluded to on the former 
 of these occasions, and his living to see Jerusalem 
 destroyed on the latter, what coming of Christ did he 
 witness ? Did he see him coming in a cloud ? No 
 such historical event is recorded. What did he see, 
 then? He saw Christianity propagated far and 
 
304 OPINIONS. 
 
 wide, from the remote East to Western Europe. 
 He saw the only impediment to its firm establish- 
 ment overcome, in the final overthrow of Judaism, 
 its only formidable rival in the. world. In that he 
 saw the prophecies of Christ fulfilled, he saw his 
 claims to the Messiahship vindicated by the destruc- 
 tion of the nation which had denied and crucified 
 him. He saw that admixture of Judaism with Chris- 
 tianity, which was caused, upheld, and perpetuated 
 by the continuance of the temple and the temple 
 service, in the process of being purged away. He 
 saw, in fact, the establishment of Christianity as 
 God's only recognized religion upon earth. 
 
 How came the disciples, then, to make the double 
 mistake, that Christ was to come in person, and 
 that the world should be destroyed within the life- 
 time of that generation? The answer is, that it 
 was by too literal an interpretation of the highly 
 figurative and symbolic language of prophecy. The 
 war of the elements, the darkening of the sun and 
 moon, the falling of the stars, the shaking of the 
 powers of heaven, portended, not physical destruction, 
 but moral and civil revolutions. And so they had 
 done in the prophecies of the Old Testament. There 
 was no destruction of the physical world predicted. 
 The very opposite, the long continuance of the world, 
 would naturally be inferred from the fact, that Christ 
 professed to be promulgating a religion which was 
 the destined possession of all nations. Nothing 
 could be morally more improbable, than that this 
 religion should be made universal, and the world be 
 destroyed in the same age. Christ had said to his 
 disciples concerning the woman who anointed his 
 
 ' 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 305 
 
 head with the precious ointment, " Wheresoever this 
 Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there 
 shall also this which this woman hath done be told 
 for a memorial of her." Such language as this does 
 not intimate the approaching destruction of the 
 world, but rather its long continuance. 
 
 There is, moreover, in this very prophecy, a clause 
 which might have set them right as to the approach- 
 ing end of the world, and plainly indicates that the 
 present order of things was to remain for ages to 
 come. Instead of the world's coming to an end 
 when Jerusalem was to be destroyed, Christ says, 
 "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gen- 
 tiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" If 
 the world itself was to come to an end in the catas- 
 trophe spoken of in the twenty-fourth chapter of 
 Matthew, then there would be no Jerusalem to be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, and no Gentiles to 
 tread down Jerusalem. Periods of no less duration 
 are here alluded to than those which measure a 
 nation's existence. 
 
 There were, likewise, many analogous passages 
 in the Old Testament, with which the Jews were 
 familiar, whicl^ might have served to interpret 
 Christ's language in the New, — passages which de- 
 scribe the coming of God with awful commotions 
 of external nature, where nothing is meant but 
 the common course of his providence, vindicating 
 the innocent and punishing the guilty; and a great 
 disturbance, a total overthrow and destruction of 
 physical nature, often means nothing more than 
 great social and political changes and calamities, 
 or personal deliverance. 
 26* 
 
306 OPINIONS. 
 
 In the eighteenth Psalm, David describes in highly- 
 poetical language his deliverance from some great 
 danger or calamity. " The sorrows of death com- 
 passed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me 
 afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about ; 
 the snares of death prevented me. In my distress 
 I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God ; he 
 heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came 
 before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook 
 and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved 
 and were shaken, because he was wroth. There 
 went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of 
 his mouth devoured ; coals were kindled by it. He 
 bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness 
 was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and 
 did fly, yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 
 He made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round 
 about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the 
 
 skies The Lord also thundered in the heavens, 
 
 and the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals 
 of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered 
 them ; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited 
 them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and 
 the foundations of the world were discovered at thy 
 rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy 
 nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he 
 drew me out of many waters. He delivered me 
 from my strong enemy, and from them which hated 
 me ; for they were too strong for me." 
 
 Now we have no reason to believe that this 
 material description is anything other than a highly 
 poetic representation of some remarkable deliver- 
 ance of David by the ordinary providence of God, 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 307 
 
 nor is it intended to be. David did not actually 
 see God coming in cloud and tempest, with thunder 
 and lightning, to his deliverance. The mountains 
 were not moved, nor the waves of the sea so divided 
 that the interior of the solid earth was seen. But 
 because his deliverance was providential, he chose 
 to describe God as the agent with such poetic em- 
 bellishments as befitted the subject. 
 
 There is in the prophet Isaiah the same use of the 
 images of the destruction and change of the mate- 
 rial creation to symbolize great national calamities. 
 Edom was to be devastated by an invading army, 
 many were to be slain, the cities were to be burned, 
 and the land made desolate. Bat it is described 
 in images highly poetical. " The mountains shall 
 be melted with their blood. And all the host of 
 heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be 
 rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall 
 down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a 
 falling fig from the fig-tree. For my sword shall be 
 bathed in heaven ; behold, it shall come down upon 
 Idumaea, upon the people of my curse, to judgment." 
 "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, 
 and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land 
 thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be 
 quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up 
 for everP And yet, no such physical changes ever 
 took place. It is all figurative, and symbolically rep- 
 resents the destruction of a country by an invading 
 army. 
 
 Accustomed to such prophetic language as this, 
 there is no good reason why the disciples should 
 have interpreted Christ's coming to the destruction 
 
308 
 
 OPINIONS. 
 
 of Jerusalem of his personal appearance, or the fall- 
 ing of the stars and the shaking of the powers of 
 heaven as an actual and literal dissolution of the 
 earth and the physical universe. We are justified, 
 then, I think, in saying, that Christ predicted no such 
 thing, and its non-fulfilment is no argument against 
 the truth of Christianity. 
 
 Finally, the Apostles themselves did not teach the 
 personal return of Christ to the earth in their own 
 day as a positive doctrine of Christianity. On the 
 contrary, they propose it as an opinion or judgment 
 of their own, grounded on the language of Christ. 
 Christ himself declared that he was ignorant of the 
 precise time when Jerusalem was to be destroyed. 
 " Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, 
 not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, 
 but the Father." He moreover asserts, that it was 
 not the intention of God to give the Apostles any 
 accurate information as to the events of futurity. 
 After his resurrection, they ask him, " Wilt thou at 
 this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? And 
 he said unto them, It is not for you to know the 
 times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his 
 own power." 
 
 Accordingly, Peter, in his second speech to the 
 Jews, a few weeks after this, when Christ had gone 
 to heaven, puts an indefinite period between the as- 
 cension of Christ and his return to the earth : " Re- 
 pent ye, therefore, that your sins may be blotted out, 
 when the times of refreshing shall come from the 
 presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, 
 which before was preached unto you; whom the heav- 
 en must receive until the times of the restitution of all 
 
THE RETURN OF CHRIST TO THE EARTH. 309 
 
 things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all 
 his holy prophets since the world began." The lan- 
 guage is sufficiently indefinite here, you perceive, to 
 extend over ages, and even to the consummation of 
 the history of the world. And in his old age he writes 
 to his converts, in answer to those who objected that 
 the Divine promise had failed, and began to inquire, 
 " Where is the promise of his coming? " — " But, be- 
 loved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day 
 with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
 years as one day? According to this mode of reckon- 
 ing, thousands of years might elapse before the event 
 predicted should take place. 
 
 John gives it as his judgment, not as a prophecy 
 of his own or of Christ, that the world was draw- 
 ing to an end, because something else had taken 
 place which it was generally understood was to 
 precede the end which Christ had foretold. " Little 
 children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard 
 that Antichrist shall come, even now there are 
 many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the 
 last time." Paul, in that passage of his Epistle to 
 the Thessalonians selected as the text of this Dis- 
 course, warns them not to be disturbed by any 
 alarm propagated among their brethren, that the 
 coming of Christ was near at hand. " Now we be- 
 seech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto 
 him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be 
 troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by let- 
 ter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 
 Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that day 
 shall not come, except there come a falling away 
 
310 
 
 OPINIONS. 
 
 first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 
 perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above 
 all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that 
 he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
 himself that he is God." 
 
 This prophecy has not yet been understood, — a 
 plain proof that it has not yet been fulfilled. 
 
 I trust I have said enough to show that the 
 personal appearance of Christ in the age of the 
 Apostles was not a. doctrine of Christ, nor was it 
 prophecy ; but only a vague expectation of the 
 Apostles, an opinion founded on his language. 
 
DISCOURSE XX. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 FROM THAT TIME JESUS BEGAN TO PREACH, AND TO SAY, 
 REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. — 
 
 Matthew iv. 17. 
 
 In the analysis of the New Testament in which 
 we have been engaged, three elements have already- 
 been discussed, — historical facts, doctrines, opin- 
 ions. There remains a fourth element, Phraseol- 
 ogy, — modes of speech belonging to the language, 
 the nation, and the age. These are carefully to be 
 observed, as they have been a fruitful source of 
 error and misapprehension in other nations and 
 other times. 
 
 Much of the language of Christ and his Apostles 
 was conventional. That is to say, it was not in- 
 vented and introduced by Christ for the first time. 
 It was adopted by Christ, because it was already in 
 use, and applied to purposes for which he used it. 
 It was better and more to his purpose, therefore, 
 than a language altogether new. But he often 
 took the liberty of using the old language with a 
 new signification, corresponding to the facts of the 
 case. 
 
312 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 Christ's mission, or the New Dispensation, was 
 not a sudden, unanticipated phenomenon upon the 
 earth. The world had been preparing for it from 
 the beginning. The whole Jewish religion had 
 been introductory to it. Judaism was the stock 
 upon which Christianity was engrafted, and the 
 previous existence of Judaism made Christianity 
 possible. Had Christ gone into any heathen nation, 
 and attempted to set up his religion, the attempt 
 would have been wholly abortive. He would have 
 been obliged to have gone back and begun at the 
 beginning, by laying again the foundation of the 
 patriarchal and Mosaic religions. He would have 
 been obliged first to destroy and root up idolatry, 
 and establish the knowledge and worship of the 
 true God. Otherwise, when he told them that he 
 brought them a message from Jehovah, they would 
 have been obliged to ask him who the God was 
 from whom he professed to come. His phraseology 
 would have been altogether new, and he would 
 have been compelled to interpret and explain almost 
 every sentence he uttered. I do not say too much, 
 then, when I affirm that, without the basis of Juda- 
 ism, the establishment of Christianity would have 
 been impossible. It is true, the Gospel was propa- 
 gated in heathen lands, but it was at first only 
 through the synagogue. In every considerable city 
 of the Roman empire, the Jews had established their 
 synagogues, and it was into them that the Apostles 
 first entered to preach Christ and Christianity. The 
 Jews first listened, then the proselytes, then the 
 heathen. What would have taken place everywhere 
 without the preface of Judaism, we see by what 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 313 
 
 happened when Paul accidentally found himself 
 called upon to preach on Mars' Hill, at Athens, to 
 an audience of idolaters and polytheists, unenlight- 
 ened by one ray of supernatural revelation, though 
 the most intellectual and literary people upon earth. 
 His eloquent discourse, instead of producing convic- 
 tion, excited nothing but wonder and ridicule and 
 scorn, and he barely escaped a civil prosecution as a 
 setter forth of strange gods. 
 
 The Jews were prepared for the mission of Christ, 
 not only by previous knowledge and culture, but by 
 previous expectation. They had been expecting a 
 new order of things for centuries. That new order 
 of things they had denominated " the kingdom of 
 God," or "the kingdom of Heaven," Heaven being 
 put for God. This phraseology was founded mainly 
 on two passages of the book of Daniel, the first of 
 which is found in the second chapter: " And in the 
 days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
 kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the 
 kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it 
 shall break in pieces and consume all these king- 
 doms, and shall stand for ever." The other is found 
 in the seventh chapter : " I saw in the night vis- 
 ions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came 
 with the clouds of heaven, and came 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 peoples, nations, and languages 
 should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting 
 dominion, which shall not pass away, and his king- 
 dom that which shall not be destroyed." The book 
 of Daniel embodies and represents the Messianic 
 27 
 
314 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 expectations of the Jews, and most of the language 
 current at the time of Christ, concerning the Mes- 
 siah and his kingdom, is taken from it. 
 
 This expectation had become so intense in the 
 time of Christ, that it frequently gave rise to politi- 
 cal commotions. The nation was then in a state of 
 bondage, being a conquered province of the Roman 
 Empire. The Jews had lost their independence, and 
 were subjected to the most grinding oppression. 
 Their cities and fortresses were garrisoned by Roman 
 armies, their citizens were subjected to enormous 
 taxation, their temple and their sacred rites were ex- 
 posed to wanton insult, and the Roman eagles, 
 everywhere conspicuous, were at once the symbols 
 of their national degradation, and of the idolatry 
 which their national religion taught them to hold in 
 utter abomination. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the Messiah was ex- 
 pected both as a religious reformer and a temporal 
 monarch. But the pressing evils and calamities of 
 the times led the Jews to fix their hopes on their 
 expected Messiah chiefly in his temporal relations, as 
 a king: He was not only to deliver his countrymen 
 from a foreign yoke, but was to carry conquest into 
 foreign lands. It was with this expectation, prob- 
 ably, that the disciples at first followed Christ and 
 attached themselves to his cause. It was evidently 
 with this hope, that Salome, the mother of James 
 and John, during his last journey to Jerusalem, re- 
 quested of him "that her two sons might sit the one 
 on his right hand, and the other on his left, when he 
 came to the kingdom." And even after his resur- 
 rection, his disciples inquired of him, "if he were 
 now about to restore the kingdom to Israel." 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 315 
 
 The ideas of the Jews in relation to their expected 
 Messiah were theocratical. They looked upon their 
 own nation as under the especial providence and 
 government of God. God had been their Lawgiver 
 at first, and so he was their invisible Sovereign and 
 Ruler perpetually. Their kings ruled only under 
 him. Saul and David were chosen, not by popular 
 election, but by God. God, by his prophet Samuel, 
 anointed them both. When Samuel went to the 
 family of Jesse to choose a king from among his 
 sons, Eliab, his eldest, was first brought before the 
 prophet, and, seeing his commanding appearance, he 
 said: " Surely the Lord's Anointed," in Hebrew, the 
 Lord's Messiah, "is before him." This, in the Greek 
 translation, which had been chiefly in use among 
 the Jews for two hundred years before the time of 
 the Saviour, is rendered Christos or Christ. So 
 Samuel in that translation is made to say, " Surely 
 the Lord's Christ is before him." 
 
 So, in the second Psalm, one of the kings of Israel 
 seems to be addressed as God's Messiah ; in the 
 Greek, Christos , or Christ. " Why do the heathen 
 rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The 
 kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take 
 counsel together, against the Lord and against his 
 Anointed," his Messiah, or Christ, " saying, Let us 
 break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
 from us." That this was spoken primarily of one of 
 the kings of Israel appears clearly from the manner in 
 which he is to maintain his authority over the nations. 
 " Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." But 
 this king is spoken of in the same Psalm as not only 
 
316 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 God's Anointed, but as God's Son. God was the 
 supreme King of Israel, and all the human kings of 
 that nation were said to reign under him. As an 
 earthly monarch exalts to the throrte his eldest son, 
 and makes him partner of the power while he yet 
 lives, that he may establish his authority while his 
 own is still vigorous, so is Jehovah represented as 
 raising a king of Israel to the throne, as it were, to 
 sit at his right hand. It is not at all improbable, 
 that the oracle contained in this psalm is alluded to 
 in the one hundred and tenth : " Jehovah said unto 
 my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make 
 thine enemies thy footstool." 
 
 In after ages, as the expectation of the Messiah 
 grew more and more intense, these two Psalms were 
 interpreted as prophecies of him. Especially were 
 they so interpreted after the nation was conquered, 
 and groaned under a foreign yoke, for they seemed 
 to promise deliverance from their enemies and ven- 
 geance against their oppressors. In the second 
 Psalm, too, the Jews found a strong reason for their 
 expectation of a conquering Messiah, in the sentence, 
 " Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for 
 thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for a possession." 
 
 That such expectations were cherished by the 
 Jews concerning their expected Messiah, and that 
 such epithets were applied to him, we have abundant 
 evidence in what was said and done to him at the 
 commencement of his ministry, before his language 
 could have produced any influence on public opin- 
 ion and popular phraseology. When Nathaniel had 
 been introduced to him as the Messiah, but as the 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 317 
 
 son of Joseph, and perceived in him the evidence of 
 the possession of miraculous powers, he exclaims : 
 " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King 
 of Israel." He was to be the king, under God, of 
 the kingdom of heaven. He was to reign first over 
 the Jews, and then, by conquest, over all the nations 
 of the earth. 
 
 These preconceived opinions were in great degree 
 erroneous, the meanings attached to this various 
 phraseology were false, and Christ might have re- 
 pudiated them all, and adopted other modes of 
 speech which were literally and philosophically cor- 
 rect. He was not literally to be a king. He was 
 not to live in a splendid palace, but, while the foxes 
 had holes and the birds had nests, he was not to 
 have where to lay his head. He was to be clothed 
 in no royal robes, his vesture was to be of the plain- 
 est material, and the only crown he was to wear 
 was to be a crown of thorns. He was to have no 
 gorgeous court, composed of the rich, the beautiful, 
 and the gifted, no officers partaking of his splendor 
 and participating in his power, but he was to be 
 surrounded by a few fishermen and peasants, unedu- 
 cated and unrefined, as poor and humble as himself. 
 But had he rejected the current phraseology, he 
 would have thrown away the only means of con- 
 necting the old religion with the new, the only ma- 
 terial for bridging over the chasm which must inter- 
 vene between Judaism and Christianity. 
 
 He adopted the current phraseology of his country- 
 men in relation to himself and his mission, and ac- 
 commodated to it much of his own mode of repre- 
 sentation. He spoke of the new dispensation as 
 27* 
 
318 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 "the kingdom of Heaven," and himself as " a king," 
 and some of his most impressive discourses derive 
 no small part of their power to awe the mind from 
 the regal drapery with which they are clothed. But 
 as the old conceptions were erroneous, it became 
 necessary for him to clothe the old language with 
 new ideas. He announced that " the kingdom of 
 God was at hand," but then in his first discourse he 
 immediately proceeded to rectify the popular error, 
 and to describe the kingdom of God as something 
 entirely different from what his countrymen had 
 expected. 
 
 They expected that their Messiah was to appear 
 as a king, and immediately put himself at the head 
 of the nation, mount the throne of David, fix his 
 court at Jerusalem, re-establish the Jewish religion 
 and theocracy, reform the morals of the nation, drive 
 out the Romans, and conquer and rule the world, as 
 the Romans had done before him ; and compel man- 
 kind either to adopt the Mosaic religion and become 
 Jews, or to live in a state of subjugation and de- 
 pendence. In this kingdom, all Jews, from the very 
 nature of the case, were, by right of birth and na- 
 tionality, to participate. The task of Jesus was to 
 disabuse them of their errors in the use of the old 
 phraseology, and gradually to insinuate the truth in 
 their place. 
 
 John the Baptist had already begun this work of 
 correction. He had commenced his ministry by 
 proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand." He told his countrymen, by his rustic 
 imagery, that as Jews they had nothing to expect in 
 the new dispensation. The qualifications for the 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 319 
 
 Messiah's kingdom were personal, not national. 
 u Bring forth fruits meet for repentance. And think 
 not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to 
 our Father; for I say unto you, that God is able of 
 these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And 
 now the axe lieth at the root of the trees ; therefore 
 every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is 
 
 hewn down and cast into the fire Whose fan 
 
 is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his 
 floor, and gather the wheat into the garner, but he 
 will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 
 
 These instructions were followed up by the first 
 discourses of Christ, looking in the same direction. 
 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. 
 Blessed are the meek, the peace-makers, the mer- 
 ciful. Blessed are they which are persecuted for 
 righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of 
 God." The whole discourse delineates a spiritual 
 religion within the soul of man, not the outward or- 
 ganization of a national government. 
 
 Nothing could have been more different than the 
 kingdom of God which the Jews had in their hearts, 
 and that which Christ described and which he came 
 to establish. Their expectations were almost wholly 
 false. Yet nothing could have been more unwise 
 than it would have been for him to have told 
 them so directly. It was the part of wisdom to in- 
 form them by degrees, and indirectly by implication. 
 Hence his frequent use of parables. Through them 
 he might indirectly insinuate the truth into their 
 minds, without shocking their prejudices or pro- 
 voking their resentment. Thus his own disciples, 
 
320 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 who originally came to him with ambitious views 
 and purposes, were gradually transformed into spirit- 
 ual and religious men, and prepared to be the heralds 
 to the world of a pure and spiritual religion ; and the 
 crowd who came about him, and from time to time 
 desired to crown him as their king and make him a 
 political adventurer, remained to be edified by his 
 instructions, and to confess that " his word was with 
 power," and that " never man spake like this man." 
 This was his meaning when he explained to his dis- 
 ciples the reason why he spoke to the people in 
 parables. It is not, as it might at first seem, that 
 they might not understand him, for in that case he 
 would not have spoken at all. But it was because 
 they could not bear the direct statement of the 
 naked truth. It was that they might receive the 
 truth without offence, that seeing they might see 
 and not perceive, that hearing they might hear and 
 not understand, any further than their prejudices 
 would permit for the time being. Such were his in- 
 structions to the plain, rural population of Galilee. 
 When he went up to Jerusalem, he encountered per- 
 sons of a different stamp, men of learning and cul- 
 ture and intellectual acuteness, such as Nicodemus 
 and the Pharisees. 
 
 Nicodemus comes to him, and avows his belief in 
 him as a distinguished prophet. But he comes in 
 the night, and evidently with the idea that he might 
 still remain a Jew and a Jewish magistrate, and yet 
 become a member of the new dispensation, or a 
 subject of " the kingdom of God," if he were not 
 already so by virtue of his birth as a Jew. 
 
 He is informed at once, not rudely, coarsely, and 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 321 
 
 categorically, but gently, delicately, and by impli- 
 cation, that his expectations are erroneous. He is 
 not in the kingdom of God, as he might suppose, 
 by virtue of his birth as a Jew, of the seed of Abra- 
 ham, nor does the kingdom of God belong to the 
 Jews as a nation. He must be born into it by out- 
 ward profession and by spiritual renovation. He 
 must be born of water and spirit. The kingdom 
 of God is as invisible as the wind. It is of the 
 mind. It is coincident with no outward, visible or- 
 ganization. It consists not of the seed of Abraham, 
 but of God's spiritual children. And he then goes 
 on to tell the astonished Rabbi, that the Messiah, 
 so far from reigning on earth as a temporal king, is 
 to be "lifted up," like the serpent in the wilderness, 
 to be crucified, and to save men, not by the arm of 
 physical strength, but by the power of faith. And 
 more than all this, the true Messiah is not to be a 
 Messiah of conquest; he does not come " to condemn 
 the world," to conquer and destroy the nations, but 
 that the nations may believe on him and be saved. 
 
 As the ministry of Jesus advanced, he proceeded 
 gradually, but steadily, to undermine those expecta- 
 tions which the ambition and worldliness of the 
 Jews had led them to fix upon their Messiah, and 
 which they hoped to realize in him. By his teach- 
 ing, and especially his parables, he opened to their 
 minds the fact, that what they looked for as an out- 
 ward kingdom was in fact to be a spiritual religion. 
 The kingdom of God was to be established, not by 
 violence, by revolution, or by conquest, but by 
 moral means. It was to grow as the grain of mus- 
 tard seed grows, from being the smallest of all seeds, 
 
322 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 to become a tree, so that the fowls of heaven come 
 and lodge in the branches of it. It was to spread 
 abroad, not with force and noise and commotion, 
 but as a little leaven, which a woman took and 
 hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was 
 leavened. 
 
 Towards the latter end of his ministry, it was in- 
 quired of him directly when the kingdom whose 
 advent he proclaimed should come, when it should 
 assume an outward form and manifestation; and he 
 plainly told the inquirers, that there was to be noth- 
 ing of the kind; that his kingdom was to have noth- 
 ing of a temporal, worldly, or material character, 
 but related entirely to the hidden man of the heart. 
 There was to be no gathering together to him as to 
 a military leader or worldly monarch, and he cau- 
 tions his followers against those false Christs who 
 should attempt to make such a demonstration. 
 " And when he was demanded of the Pharisees 
 when the kingdom of God should come, he answered 
 them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with 
 observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, 
 Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
 you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will 
 come when ye shall desire to see one of the days 
 of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it." When 
 these political troubles should come on, which 
 were to end in the destruction of the Jewish people, 
 they would earnestly desire the personal presence, 
 guidance, and protection of the Messiah, and they 
 would be tempted to run after this impostor and 
 that, who should give out that he was the expected 
 deliverer ; but they were to giye no heed, for there 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 323 
 
 was to be no personal, local manifestation, but the 
 coming of the Son of Man was to be like the light- 
 ning, undoubted in its certainty, not local in its 
 manifestation, but illuminating equally a wide ex- 
 tent of country, and shining around the whole hori- 
 zon. " And they shall say to you, See here ! or, 
 See there! go not after them nor follow them. For 
 as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part 
 under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under 
 heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day." 
 The time at length came, however, when he was 
 compelled to be more explicit. The national disap- 
 pointment of the Jews in Jesus as their expected 
 Messiah led to his rejection, and persecution as an 
 impostor. His spiritual teaching, his open rebukes 
 of the vices of the age, and his denunciation of 
 those in power, stirred up an enmity to him that 
 could be appeased only with his blood. It was 
 easy enough to obtain his condemnation before the 
 Jewish council, for most of them hated him cor- 
 dially. But they had not the power of life and 
 death, and it was necessary, in order to destroy him, 
 to obtain the concurrence of the Roman governor. 
 There was some difficulty in doing this, for the 
 Roman governor knew little or nothing of the pe- 
 culiarities of their religion, or of their private griev- 
 ances against Jesus. It was necessary to convict 
 him of a capital offence against the Roman Empire. 
 The readiest way to do this was to prove that he 
 had pretended to be a king, and thus had been 
 guilty of treason. This accusation of sedition they 
 did not hesitate to make, though they knew it to be 
 utterly groundless, — though they knew that he had 
 
324 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 repeatedly refused to be made a king, when he might 
 have done so. In this accusation they had a double 
 purpose. They intended to bring Christ into an in- 
 extricable dilemma. In professing to be the Messiah 
 according to the Jewish conceptions, he had claimed 
 to be " King of Israel," which was one of the titles 
 of the Messiah. If, to escape the accusation of se- 
 dition against the Romans, he had denied that he 
 was a king, then the Jews would have had it to say, 
 that, when brought to the test, and in peril of his 
 life, he renounced the very claim he had set up, and 
 was, after all, not the Messiah he had professed to be. 
 
 This ensnaring accusation was made against 
 Christ, not in his presence, but in his absence. 
 When brought before Pilate, he was taken into 
 the judgment-hall, but his accusers could not enter, 
 for fear of being denied. Pilate therefore went out 
 to them, in order to learn the charges brought against 
 the prisoner. The accusation was, " We found this 
 fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give 
 tribute to Caesar, saying, that he himself is Christ, a 
 MngP "Then Pilate entered into the judgment-hall 
 again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou 
 the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest 
 thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of 
 me ? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew ? Thine own 
 nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto 
 me. What hast thou done?" 
 
 From the avowal that he was a king, though 
 wholly untrue in the sense of the accusation, Jesus 
 could not shrink, without apparent contradiction, 
 without abandoning the position he had assumed. 
 He therefore explained himself, by declaring what 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 325 
 
 his kingdom was not. "Jesus answered, My king- 
 dom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this 
 world, then would my servants fight, that I should 
 not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my king- 
 dom not from hence." 
 
 This would have been sufficient in justice to escape 
 the charge of sedition, and here the matter might-have 
 rested. But Pilate goes on to inquire how he could 
 be a king, and still have no earthly kingdom. " Pi- 
 late therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? " 
 The answer of Christ is sublimely wise and sub- 
 limely true, and furnishes the key to all the regal 
 phraseology which Jesus applied to himself, from the 
 beginning of the Gospel to the end. " Thou sayest 
 well that I am a king. To this end was I born, and 
 for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
 bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the 
 truth heareth my voice" As much as if he had said : 
 " Truth is the true sovereign of the human mind and 
 the true ruler of mankind. It is irresistible, it is uni- 
 versal. Every good and true man obeys it, and pre- 
 cisely to the measure of his goodness and truth. I 
 am the organ and the instrument of establishing the 
 truth in the earth. I am its witness, and shall be its 
 martyr. It transcends the limits of time and space. 
 Its empire extends wherever man is man. Its do- 
 minion, therefore, may spread from sea to sea, and 
 from shore to shore. Its dominion may be universal 
 and perpetual; for truth is as eternal as the soul of 
 man." 
 
 Finally, the figure of the new dispensation as the 
 kingdom of heaven, and himself as its king under 
 God, becomes the source of the scenic sublimity of 
 28 
 
326 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 Christ's description of the final judgment. In Ori- 
 ental countries, at the time of Christ, the institution 
 of civil government had never advanced beyond its 
 primitive, simple, patriarchal form. There was no 
 division, as there has been in the western world, in 
 more advanced stages of culture and civilization, of 
 the functions of government into the legislative, the 
 judicial, and executive. The sovereign was every- 
 thing, lawgiver, judge, and executive. All these 
 functions were implied and comprehended in the 
 very name of king. Christ, while on earth, as the 
 king and head of the kingdom of Heaven, promul- 
 gated his laws : he laid down the principles of his 
 government. It was necessary, in order to complete 
 the functions of a king, that he should represent 
 himself as a judge. He had declared what actions 
 should be rewarded and what punished, what dispo- 
 sitions should prepare the soul for the society of 
 himself and the saints in light, and what must ne- 
 cessarily banish their possessor into the companion- 
 ship of the vile. He therefore proceeds to predict 
 the final issue of things under various figures. At 
 one time, the kingdom of Heaven is a. feast, at which 
 the faithful shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac 
 and Jacob, but the unworthy shall be shut out in 
 outer darkness. At another time it is a bridal sup- 
 per, to which the watchful and diligent came early 
 and were admitted, but the negligent and the sloth- 
 ful came late, and were excluded. At another, it is 
 a wedding feast, to which one came without a wed- 
 ding garment, and was cast out. To sum up all in 
 one tremendous scene, and set forth by the most 
 impressive representation the winding up of this 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 327 
 
 world's probation, he represents himself to be, as 
 he had been the lawgiver, so likewise the judge of 
 mankind. He selects one virtue as the representa- 
 tive of the whole character, one grace as the pledge 
 of the existence of all the rest ; that love which is the 
 fulfilling of the Law, that regarding of our neighbor 
 as ourselves, which is more than all burnt-offerings 
 and sacrifices, as the criterion of fitness for heavenly 
 
 " When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, 
 and *ill the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
 upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall 
 be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them 
 one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
 from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his 
 right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall 
 the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, 
 ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
 pared for you from the foundation of the world. 
 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I 
 was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stran- 
 ger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed 
 me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, 
 and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous 
 answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an 
 hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee 
 drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took 
 thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw 
 we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 
 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Ver- 
 ily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them 
 
328 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his an- 
 gels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
 meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked, and 
 ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye vis- 
 ited me not. Then shall they also answer him, 
 saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or 
 athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, 
 and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he 
 answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, 'Inas- 
 much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, 
 ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into 
 everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life 
 eternal." 
 
 I ought, perhaps, in conclusion, to say, that there 
 is a diversity of opinion as to the meaning of this 
 scenic representation. By most interpreters, it has 
 been made to refer to the final judgment of all 
 mankind. In that case, it must include those who 
 had lived and died before Christianity was intro- 
 duced, and the stress of the thought turns on the 
 assembling of the whole human race before the 
 throne of the Judge. 
 
 There are strong objections, it is said, to this 
 view of things. It involves the conception, either of 
 the sleep of the soul for ages and centuries, or its 
 conscious existence in the unseen world for an equal 
 length of time, unjudged and uncertain of its final 
 condition. Either of these suppositions is naturally 
 improbable. 
 
 Then it is to be observed, that the condition of 
 the persons judged is made to turn on the manner 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 329 
 
 in which they have received and treated Christ's 
 disciples, who seem to be introduced under the 
 designation of " these my brethren." It is therefore 
 thought by many, that Christ refers in this dra- 
 matic prophecy to the results which will attend the 
 reception or the rejection of his religion in the 
 world, and the good or ill treatment of those whom 
 he sends forth to teach it to the nations. Those 
 who receive his Apostles, and the glorious religion 
 they teach, shall be for ever blessed and happy, and 
 those nations or individuals who reject the Gospel, 
 and maltreat its ministers, shall suffer untold mis- 
 eries, here and "hereafter. 
 
 These diversities of opinion, however, do not affect 
 the subject of this Discourse, the figure of speech by 
 which Christ denominates himself a King. It is as 
 the Promulgator of the Truth and Law of God, by 
 which mankind ought to be governed, and by which 
 they are hereafter to be judged. 
 
 28 
 
DISCOURSE XXL 
 
 CHRIST A KING. 
 
 JESUS ANSWERED, MY KINGDOM IS NOT, OF THIS WORLD: 
 IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF THIS WORLD,- THEN WOULD MY 
 SERVANTS FIGHT, THAT I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO 
 THE JEWS: BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM NOT FROM HENCE. 
 PILATE THEREFORE SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU A KING 
 THEN? JESUS ANSWERED, THOU SAYEST WELL THAT I AM 
 A KING. TO THIS END WAS I BORN, AND FOR THIS CAUSE 
 CAME I INTO THE WORLD, THAT I SHOULD BEAR WITNESS 
 UNTO THE TRUTH. EVERY ONE THAT IS OF THE TRUTH 
 
 heareth my voice. — John xviii. 36, 37. 
 
 I gave, in one of the preceding Discourses, some 
 remarks on the relation of Moses and the Jewish 
 dispensation to the age. I endeavored to show that 
 the Mosaic institutions were shaped to meet the 
 condition and the wants of the infancy of the world. 
 Religion has no necessary connection with any form 
 of civil government. Yet Moses, when he estab- 
 lished a religion, established a government, not be- 
 cause there is any necessary connection between 
 the two, but because the Israelites, having been 
 slaves, had no nationality and no civil government, 
 and were about, for religion's sake, to commence a 
 
CHRIST A KING. 331 
 
 national existence. It was a rude and barbarous 
 age, and therefore sacrifices were adopted or re- 
 tained. Church and state were united, because 
 neither of them was strong enough to stand alone. 
 
 The rites of that religion were imposing, gor- 
 geous, magnificent, because nothing else could com- 
 mand the reverence of barbarians, nothing else could 
 impress a coarse, uncultivated people. A taber- 
 nacle glittering with gold, an altar consuming a 
 sacrifice with sacred fire, kindled miraculously from 
 heaven, or rolling up a cloud of incense towards 
 heaven, while the assembled multitude prostrated 
 themselves on the ground, and offered up their de- 
 votions with the consuming sacrifice, might be best 
 calculated to kindle the enthusiasm and engage the 
 affections of a people without intellectual culture, 
 and unaccustomed to thought and reflection. A 
 national feast, in which provision was made for 
 social and physical gratification, might be necessary 
 to secure the allegiance of a people incapable of re- 
 fined, intellectual, and spiritual enjoyment. 
 
 But in the natural and providential advancement 
 of the world, the time must come when all these 
 things would be outgrown. " When I was a child, 
 I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought 
 as a child ; but when I became a man, I put away- 
 childish things." Fifteen hundred years intervened 
 between Moses and Christ, and in the mean time 
 the world was making constant progress. Great 
 empires had arisen, the Babylonian, the Persian, 
 the Grecian, the Roman, and had invented a com- 
 plete system of jurisprudence. The whole civilized 
 world was at the time of Christ under the govern- 
 
332 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 ment of the Romans. They had a code of laws 
 and a system of government which had been in the 
 process of formation seven hundred and fifty years. 
 Some ages after, it was reduced to a systematic 
 form, it has been preserved, and now exerts a great 
 influence upon the legislation of the world. It was 
 based on natural right, and grew out of actual ex- 
 perience. To have enacted civil laws in connection 
 with the Christian religion would have been super- 
 fluouSy as well as impracticable. Christ then, in 
 promulgating a new religion, was able to separate 
 it entirely from the state. He himself assumed no 
 civil function, and when appealed to to decide a 
 matter of property, he promptly declined the office, 
 saying, " Who made me a ruler and divider over 
 you ? " At another, when called on to determine 
 a political question, whether it were lawful to pay 
 tribute to Caesar, involving the right and the duty of 
 preserving their nationality as Jews, at all hazards, 
 he gave the memorable response: "Render unto 
 Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 
 the things that are God's." 
 
 This answer shows, that, in his exalted wisdom, 
 he now perceived that the time had at length come 
 when church and state might be safely separated. 
 The objects of the Jewish nationality were now ac- 
 complished, Judaism itself would soon be done away, 
 and his own religion, which was purely spiritual, was 
 about to be ushered in, which could live and sanctify 
 mankind under all forms of civil government. 
 
 Indeed, this severance of religion from secular af- 
 fairs was absolutely necessary to Christianity as a 
 universal religion. Christ himself claimed to be 
 
 i 
 
CHRIST A KING. 333 
 
 " the Light of the world." There was to be nothing 
 local or national in his institutions. To the woman 
 of Samaria he said : " Woman, believe me, the hour 
 cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor 
 
 yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father But the 
 
 hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers 
 shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for 
 the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a 
 spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him 
 in spirit and in truth." On another occasion he 
 said : " And other sheep I have, which are not of this 
 fold: them also must I bring, and they shall hear my 
 voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" 
 We see often in his teaching, that he bore about 
 with him the consciousness that his mission was 
 universal, and that his Gospel should be diffused all 
 over the earth. Of the woman who poured the pre- 
 cious ointment on his head, he said : " Verily I say 
 unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached 
 in the whole world, there shall also this which this 
 woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." 
 By this we perceive that he carried with him the 
 anticipation, or rather the consciousness, that his 
 religion was to be preached in the whole world. It 
 was to have no Jerusalem, no Gerizim, no nation- 
 ality ; its centre was to be everywhere, and its cir- 
 cumference nowhere. There was to be in it no cen- 
 tral temple, as in Judaism. Every place where God 
 was worshipped was a consecrated spot, throughout 
 the earth. 
 
 The altered condition of the world, then, enabled 
 Christ to omit everything of a secular, a local, and a 
 civil character, and promulgate a purely spiritual 
 
334 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 and a universal religion. But if Christ refused the 
 seat of a civil magistrate, it was only to ascend a 
 higher throne. He who shapes the civil institutions 
 of a nation may do much for their good. Numa, 
 Solon, Draco, Lycurgus, did this for the Romans, 
 the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians. Their individual 
 and national character was for ages influenced by 
 these institutions. The mission and the destiny of 
 these nations on earth was, in a manner, fixed by 
 the arbitrary arrangements of one man. 
 
 This is unquestionably a great power, through 
 outward circumstances to shape and control the in- 
 ward man, to make a nation literary or uncultivated, 
 fond of war or peace, given to ambition or pleasure, 
 preparing them to be the conquerors of the world 
 or the quiet and gentle cultivators of the soil. This 
 has often been done, in no small degree, by one 
 man. The action of one mind has often given ob- 
 ject and direction to the minds of millions through 
 long centuries. 
 
 But there is a power greater than this, that which 
 addresses itself immediately to the soul itself, and 
 through the soul controls and shapes all outward 
 things. This is the power of moral and spiritual 
 truth. To this power the soul owes an immediate 
 and unconditional allegiance. I cannot resist it any 
 more than I can the overpowering light of the sun. 
 Before it, I am dumb and submissive. I feel that it 
 is the natural sovereign of the world. It commands 
 my assent. If I am a rational being, it controls my 
 actions. To gainsay it is folly, to rebel against it is 
 madness. No weapon formed against it can pros- 
 per. A life not conformed to it must end in utter 
 
CHRIST A KING. 335 
 
 discomfiture, and a single action which sets it at de- 
 fiance is so much subtracted from the sum total of 
 our happiness. 
 
 To this throne of truth, Christ ascended when he 
 became the teacher of the world. " Thou sayest 
 well that I am a king. To this end was I born, and 
 for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
 bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
 the truth heareth my voice." 
 
 When he commenced his ministry, and multi- 
 tudes began to gather about him from all parts of 
 Judaea, so that the synagogues could no longer con- 
 tain them, and he began to preach in the open air ; 
 when he went up into a mountain, that a greater 
 assembly might hear his voice ; when he opened his 
 mouth and taught them, delivering that wonderful 
 discourse, which is denominated " the Sermon on the 
 Mount," — he began to exert, on a grand scale, his 
 kingly power. The force of those words was resist- 
 less. " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for 
 they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, the 
 peacemakers, the merciful, the pure in heart. Blessed 
 are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
 ness. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
 you, do ye even so to them." Though every word 
 was death to their Jewish hopes and their worldly 
 expectations, that vast multitude bowed down before 
 the simple majesty of truth, and confessed that " his 
 word was with power" ; they found the simple teacher 
 of Nazareth, when seated in the chair of instruction, 
 to be clothed with an authority infinitely higher and 
 deeper and broader than he could have derived from 
 
336 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 a kingly throne and surrounding hosts of rrmed 
 men. The words he uttered did not set armies in 
 motion, did not direct the physical energies of men, 
 and send them forth to conquer nations, to build 
 cities, to extend commerce, to establish governments, 
 to cultivate the arts, but they had power to penetrate, 
 convict, and regenerate the soul. That voice had 
 power to convert the sinful and raise the spiritually 
 dead, to pierce the sepulchre, where virtue had lain 
 in the sleep of oblivion, incrusted with a load of 
 worldliness and depravity, and waken man to a new 
 and better life. 
 
 To all, those words were irresistible, but to those 
 who came with fair minds and right moral disposi- 
 tions they carried internal proof of coming from 
 God. They appealed to what is best and highest 
 and holiest in our nature. As Christ himself de- 
 clared, " He that will do his will shall know of the 
 doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of 
 myself." 
 
 Once uttered, those words could never die. Christ 
 did not write them down, nor did he take any care 
 that they should be immediately recorded. But he 
 truly said, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
 my word shall not pass away." The truths he 
 taught are spiritual and universal. Wherever man 
 is man, they apply to his mind, his heart, his life. 
 They are indeed differently reported by different 
 Evangelists, but still in substance they are the same 
 in all. And when committed to writing, they are 
 the same to the end of time, their authority is unex- 
 hausted, because they are the truth, to which the 
 human mind owes a natural and unalienable alle- 
 giance. 
 
CHRIST A KING. 337 
 
 Moses, in order to introduce the true religion into 
 the world and maintain it there, was compelled to 
 commit it to the guardianship of one peculiar peo- 
 ple. He was obliged to provide for their national 
 existence, to have bounds and limits and a common 
 centre, where all religious influences should converge 
 as if to a focus, and from which they might radiate 
 as from a common centre. He was compelled to 
 enact corresponding civil laws and institutions. He 
 found it necessary to enforce religious duties by 
 civil penalties. But when the fulness of time had 
 come, and the world had been advancing for fifteen 
 hundred years, it became possible for Christ to es- 
 tablish a purely spiritual kingdom, the empire of 
 truth. His sceptre was his word, his ministers were 
 his Apostles, and wherever they spread his Gospel, 
 they spread his power. Commanding thus the souls 
 and the spiritual nature of men, Christ was placed 
 at the very fountain-head of power, and mounted a 
 throne higher than the kings of the earth. Then he 
 sat on the throne of his glory, and before him were 
 assembled all nations, and, as the King of truth, he 
 distributed happiness or woe to them as they obeyed 
 or disobeyed his commandments. Ever since, Christ 
 has in this sense been ruling the world, he has 
 been exalted to be King of kings and Lord of lords. 
 Wherever his Gospel is preached, it asserts the same 
 authority and exerts the same power. The highest 
 and the lowest are equally subjected to his do- 
 minion. 
 
 The outward humility of Christ was no obstruc- 
 tion to his spiritual power, and he exercised an im- 
 measurable sway during his short ministry, though 
 29 
 
338 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 he traversed the plains of Judeea as a wayfaring man, 
 and had not where to lay his head. So at the pres- 
 ent hour, the humblest teacher who preaches the 
 true Gospel, in the right spirit, partakes of his au- 
 thority, and perpetuates his power. 
 
 I come, in the last place, to speak of the change 
 in the condition of the world, which made such a 
 spiritual kingdom possible. In the days of Moses 
 it would have been wholly impracticable. Men be- 
 come capable of different species of government as 
 they emerge from barbarism, and advance in civili- 
 zation and refinement, — as their moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual faculties become developed. In a state 
 of barbarism, physical force and fear are the only 
 motives by which men can be governed. Immedi- 
 ate physical suffering is the only penalty which can 
 deter men from transgression. Even God's law 
 must be clothed with terror, and must be promul- 
 gated amidst consuming flames and rolling thunders. 
 God's presence is symbolized by a cloud by day, and 
 a pillar of fire by night ; and his especial dwelling 
 is in the dark apartment and amidst the mysterious 
 silence of the Holy of Holies. 
 
 As man advances, other principles are developed 
 and made predominant, and he becomes capable of 
 being governed by other and higher motives. A 
 broader comprehension of human relations and hu- 
 man rights induces him to appreciate and reverence 
 the majesty of justice, and feel the moral enormity 
 of violence and wrong. A progressive refinement 
 creates an abhorrence of the degradation of sensu- 
 ality. A cultivated sensibility generates the feeling 
 of human brotherhood, and leads men away from 
 
 
CHRIST A KING. 339 
 
 self, and teaches them " to rejoice with them that 
 do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep." A 
 higher intellectual culture enables men to compre- 
 hend and apply general principles, as well as par- 
 ticular precepts; then the whole law, originally 
 spread out into specific enactments and minute de- 
 tails, may be summed in a few comprehensive com- 
 mandments ; such as, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself" ; 
 " Do unto others as you would that others should 
 do unto you." 
 
 Above all, as mankind advance in intellectual, 
 moral, and spiritual culture, power is transferred 
 from physical force to moral excellence, and a wise 
 and good man rises to his rightful dominion. To a 
 certain extent, his word becomes law, his opinion is 
 authority, his example the ideal of humanity. In 
 such an age appeared Jesus Christ, and concen- 
 trated in himself all the elements of moral and spir- 
 itual power, — a wisdom such as all the sages of the 
 earth had never approached, which looked through 
 heaven above and earth beneath, which penetrated 
 alike the future and the past, which comprehended 
 and laid open all the relations of man to God, to 
 himself, and his fellow-man. 
 
 With prophetic eye he saw the seats of blessed- 
 ness and the regions of despair. In himself he ex- 
 hibited the moral miracle of a sinless life. One 
 appeared in human form, whose word was infallible, 
 and his every act without stain. It was without 
 presumption that he ascended the throne of uni- 
 versal dominion, that he assumed to be the law- 
 giver of the nations, and the oracle of all time. 
 
340 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 His claim was sealed by miraculous attestation, 
 and men learned to look on him as the shrine of 
 indwelling Divinity ; and the Apostle John spoke 
 the reverence of his heart when he called him the 
 incarnate Word of God. The world acquiesced in 
 his authority when he rose from the dead, and, be- 
 fore he ascended to heaven, commissioned his Apos- 
 tles to go and teach all nations, enjoining upon them 
 whatsoever he had commanded them. " And lo," 
 said he, " I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of the world." 
 
 How well Jesus understood the nature of his 
 kingly power, appears from his language on several 
 occasions. At one time he said to his disciples, 
 " Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed 
 me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall 
 sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 
 twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
 Consider how wonderfully this promise was ful- 
 filled. How marvellously were these disciples ele- 
 vated by their connection with Jesus ! Had they 
 never seen him, they w^ould have passed their lives 
 in the obscure towns of Galilee, known to few, 
 having little power over any, and exerting very 
 little influence in the world, and their names, when 
 a few years had passed, would have been lost from 
 the history of the world. 
 
 Bat in consequence of their few years of disciple- 
 ship to Jesus, and those powers with which they 
 were intrusted from on high, they went out into the 
 world men of might. They produced at once a 
 great sensation. Peter's first discourse converts three 
 thousand, induces them to forsake Judaism, the cher- 
 
 
CHRIST A KING. 341 
 
 ished religion of their fathers, and commence a new 
 and more spiritual life. This is perhaps the highest 
 influence that one human being can exert upon 
 another, — to induce him to change his character and 
 his habits. Royal power cannot accomplish this. 
 An earthly monarch exerts great sway in the earth, 
 but it is merely superficial. He controls men's ex- 
 ternal actions. He does not alter their convictions, 
 he does not induce them to act from new motives. 
 He soon passes away. The peculiar institutions he 
 has founded fall to decay, for another king reigns in 
 his place, and claims the right of moulding the 
 world according to his ideas. 
 
 Not so with the Apostles. They exercised the 
 power through the Gospel of spiritual regeneration. 
 They formed churches, which were collections of 
 men and women whose object of association was 
 the attainment of a divine and holy life. The words 
 of these Apostles were committed to writing, and 
 they have been the law of the world ever since. 
 Through the records of the New Testament, the 
 Apostles sit on Christ's throne, judging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. 
 
 And no otherwise is it now. The Christian min- 
 istry is the greatest power on earth. I do not mean 
 the Church as an outward institution. I do not 
 mean that vast hierarchy, which came into existence 
 in the Middle Ages, and built itself a worldly throne 
 higher than the kings of the earth. 1 mean the 
 power of the pulpit and Christian ordinances in 
 Protestant countries. 
 
 A majority of the population attend church on 
 the Sabbath, many from childhood to old age. There 
 29* 
 
342 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 they are instructed under the most favorable aus- 
 pices. The rest of the Sabbath frees their hands 
 from toil, and their minds in a great measure from 
 care. They come to listen to the Gospel, at the 
 same time that they worship God ; and the Gospel 
 teaches them to know the God whom they worship. 
 
 Such perpetual inculcation, in the course of 
 years, makes them acquainted with the whole round 
 of their duty; it forms their opinions, even on sub- 
 jects not immediately connected with religion ; it 
 shapes their sentiments ; it settles their principles of 
 action. In short, what is done on the Sabbath in 
 Christian churches makes Christendom what it is. 
 All those who faithfully preach the Gospel in Chris- 
 tian lands may be said to sit with Christ on his 
 throne, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; they par- 
 take of Christ's power, and spread it abroad. 
 
 All this is direct and immediate. There is another 
 power of Christ, which is indirect and incidental. 
 It is exerted through literature. There is in every 
 civilized community a certain class of intellectual 
 and literary men, whose employment it is to operate 
 immediately upon the public mind through their 
 writings. The power of this class of men increases 
 as literature and intelligence become more diffused. 
 There is scarcely a limit to be set to their influence. 
 
 In a Christian country, the minds of these men, 
 whether they are sensible of it or not, become 
 imbued with Christian principles and sentiments, 
 though they may not be religious men. In fact, 
 the very language in which they write has become 
 pervaded, we may say saturated, with Christianity. 
 That language was born and baptized into Chris- 
 
CHRIST A KING. 343 
 
 tianity ; its very words have derived their meaning 
 from the precepts and the spirit of Christ. He who 
 uses them, though without any theological intention, 
 preaches a species of Gospel, which commands the 
 conscience and controls the actions of mankind. 
 
 Thus it is that Christ is King of the world, through 
 the truth he uttered, by the precepts he gave, by the 
 life he led, by the sufferings he endured, by the cre- 
 dentials he brought. 
 
DISCOURSE XXII 
 
 JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 
 
 AND DECLARED TO BE THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER, AC- 
 CORDING TO THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS, BY THE RESUR- 
 RECTION from the dead. — Romans i. 4. 
 
 In the phraseology of the New Testament there 
 is nothing more important, or which has had a 
 greater influence upon the opinions of Christendom, 
 than the epithet " Son of God," when applied to 
 Jesus of Nazareth. It is the purpose of this Dis- 
 course to consider its import. In doing so I shall 
 first investigate the matter historically; I shall first 
 examine what was the meaning of this epithet be- 
 fore and at the advent of Christ. Secondly, What 
 was it during the ministry of Christ and his Apos- 
 tles ? And thirdly, What has it been in after ages ? 
 
 The introduction which we have in the New 
 Testament to the state of things which existed in 
 Judaea at the appearance of Jesus Christ, is exceed- 
 ingly abrupt. Nearly four hundred years elapsed 
 unrecorded between the close of the book of Mala- 
 chi and the opening of the Gospel of Matthew. 
 What took place in that long period is recorded 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 345 
 
 only by profane historians, and in them we have 
 very little relating to the religious opinions or ex- 
 pectations of the Jews. 
 
 We do know that a strong expectation of a Mes- 
 siah had been formed, and about the period of the 
 birth of Jesu§ had become intense. A peculiar phra- 
 seology in relation to the expected one had been adopt- 
 ed. Epithets derived from various passages in the Old 
 Testament had been applied to him. With them 
 we meet almost as soon as we open the Evangelical 
 narrative. He was called before his advent " the 
 Son of David," "the King of Israel," " the Messiah," 
 " the Christ" or the Anointed, "the Son of Man," and 
 "the Son of God." All these phrases are synony- 
 mous and are Judaic, derived from the condition 
 and relations of the Jewish people as under a the- 
 ocracy, the immediate government of God, through 
 kings and priests, who were consecrated to office by 
 being anointed, according to divine direction, with 
 oil. 
 
 The Jews were led to expect their Messiah mainly 
 in the capacity of a king. Among the Jews, and 
 all Oriental nations, kings were considered as sus- 
 taining a peculiar .relation to God. There were 
 many reasons for this. They were exalted by God's 
 providence to a station of great power and influence. 
 They were the instruments of God of great good or 
 evil to mankind. In the possession of great power, 
 for good or for evil, they resembled God. Hence 
 they are called not only " sons of God," but " gods," 
 as in the eighty-second Psalm. " God standeth in 
 the congregation of the mighty ; he judgeth among 
 the gods " ; that is, kings or magistrates. " How long 
 
346 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the 
 wicked ? I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you 
 children," literally sons, " of the Most High ; but ye 
 shall die like men, and perish as one of the people." 
 
 In the eighty-ninth Psalm, David, in his capacity 
 of the king of Israel, is thus spoken of in his rela- 
 tion to God : " I have found David my servant ; 
 with my holy oil have I anointed him; with whom 
 my hand shall be established ; mine arm also shall 
 
 strengthen him He shall cry unto me, Thou art 
 
 my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. 
 Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the 
 kings of the earth." 
 
 Here it is readily perceived that all kings are 
 considered, by their office, to be " sons of God," and 
 David has a pre-eminence over them in God's re- 
 gard, as the first-born son has in those countries 
 where the rights of primogeniture are maintained. 
 
 After this explanation, it is easy to see the bear- 
 ing of the second Psalm, as having been composed 
 primarily concerning David in relation to surround- 
 ing kings. " Why do the heathen rage, and the 
 people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the 
 earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel to- 
 gether, against the Lord, and against his anointed, 
 saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast 
 
 away their cords from us Yet have I set my 
 
 king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the 
 decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my 
 Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and 
 I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and 
 the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 
 
 Such is the phraseology of the Old Testament in 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 347 
 
 relation to kings, and the kings of Israel especially. 
 In after ages, this Psalm was interpreted to relate 
 to the expected Messiah, and hence he was called, 
 previous to his advent, not only " King of Israel," but 
 " Son of God," in virtue of being king of Israel. 
 In this relation, it had no reference to the metaphys- 
 ical rank or nature of the person to whom it was ap- 
 plied, but it only related to the kingly office. The 
 same species of phraseology is used by the prophet 
 Nathan to David, concerning Solomon. David de- 
 sired to build a temple to God, but was forbidden 
 by the prophet Nathan, with a promise that his son 
 should accomplish what he was not allowed to un- 
 dertake. " And when thy days be fulfilled, and 
 thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy 
 seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bow- 
 els, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall 
 build an house for my name, and I will stablish 
 his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he 
 shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chas- 
 ten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes 
 of the children of men ; but my mercy shall not 
 depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, 
 whom I put away before me." Thus we perceive, 
 that the title M Son of God " is applied both to 
 David and Solomon, in virtue of their being kings 
 of Israel. 
 
 With these facts, we come down to the actual 
 history of the New Testament. Immediately after 
 the inauguration of Jesus as the Messiah by John, 
 in the Jordan, by his baptism and the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost, Jesus commenced his ministry by call- 
 ing his disciples. The call of Philip is thus recorded : 
 
348 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 " The day following, Jesus would go forth into 
 Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, 
 Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city 
 of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel, 
 and saith unto him, We have found him of whom 
 Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said 
 unto him, Can there any good thing come out of 
 Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 
 Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of 
 him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no 
 guile! Nathaniel saith unto him, Whence knowest 
 thou me ? Jesus answered and said unto him, 
 Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
 the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and 
 said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou 
 art the King- of Israel. Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, Because I said, I saw thee under the fig- 
 tree, believest thou ? Thou shalt see greater things 
 than these. And he saith unto him, Hereafter ye 
 shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God as- 
 cending and descending upon the Son of Man." 
 
 It is easy to perceive from this extract, that the 
 Jews of that age expected a Messiah; that Philip, 
 after he had been called by Jesus, considered him to 
 be that personage, still supposing him to be the son 
 of Joseph; and that two of the epithets applied to 
 him were " Son of God " and " King of Israel," and 
 that in the mind of Nathaniel the epithet " Son of 
 God " had no relation to Christ's metaphysical na- 
 ture. 
 
 During the ministry of Christ and his Apostles, 
 the same views seem to have been entertained. 
 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 349 
 
 After Christ had exercised his ministry for a consid- 
 erable time, and had exhibited to his disciples and 
 to the world his credentials, he one day asked them 
 whom they took him to be. Peter answered, " Thou 
 art the Christ, the Son of the living God." That 
 these phrases are synonymous, and both were epi- 
 thets of the Messiah and nothing more, is evident 
 from the manner in which the same declaration is 
 recorded by the other two Evangelists, Mark and 
 Luke, who have likewise introduced it. They have 
 both omitted the phrase " Son of God " altogether. 
 Mark reports that he simply said, " Thou art the 
 Christ," and Luke, " Thou art the Christ of God." 
 Now, if these phrases had not been synonymous, 
 and especially if the epithet " Son of God " had 
 added anything, or contained a meaning not ex- 
 pressed in the other epithet, "the Christ," or " the 
 Christ of God," Mark and Luke would certainly 
 not have omitted it. The Gospels were used at 
 first by different churches, and it was long before 
 they were collected into a volume. If there were 
 any difference in the meaning of these phrases, 
 there would have been a difference of doctrine in 
 the different churches. One would have been 
 taught that Jesus was simply the Messiah, and 
 the other, that he was something more. 
 
 The same conclusion is to be drawn from the 
 account which Luke gives of the trial of Jesus 
 before the Sanhedrim. " And as soon as it was 
 day, the elders of the people and the chief priests 
 and the scribes came together, and led him into 
 their council, saying, Art thou the Christ ? tell us. 
 And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not be- 
 30 
 
350 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 lieve ; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, 
 nor let me go. Hereafter shall the S071 of Man sit on 
 the right hand of the power of God." The phrase 
 " Son of Man " was likewise an epithet of the Mes- 
 siah, derived from the seventh chapter of Daniel, 
 in which it is said : " I saw in the night visions, 
 and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
 clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
 and they brought him near before him ; and there 
 was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- 
 dom," &c. To this passage, which was interpreted 
 by the Jews of their expected Messiah, Christ in- 
 tended to allude, and to apply it to himself. He 
 was understood to do so by the council, as will 
 appear by what follows. " Then said they all, Art 
 thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, 
 Ye say truth, for I am." 
 
 On one occasion he was accused of applying 
 this epithet to himself on other grounds, grounds 
 touching his metaphysical nature. He repudiated 
 the idea, and placed the use of the term on the 
 basis of his official character, and not of his essen- 
 tial nature. " The Jews answered him, saying, For a 
 good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and 
 because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 
 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I 
 said, Ye are gods ? If he called them gods unto 
 
 whom the word of God came, say ye of him 
 
 whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the ivorld, 
 Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of 
 God ? If I do not the works of my Father, believe 
 me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, 
 believe the works ; that ye may know and believe 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 351 
 
 that the Father is in me and I in him." The 
 ground upon which he here puts the application of 
 the epithet " Son of God " to himself, is not his 
 nature, but his mission, his having been "sanctified 
 and sent into the world," of which mission his mira- 
 cles were the appropriate and satisfactory proof; 
 and the point of belief in him as the Son of God 
 is not the relation of having been derived from the 
 divine essence in a peculiar manner, but of God's 
 dwelling in him and acting through him. 
 
 Apposite to our subject is Christ's last prayer 
 with his disciples. In it he applies the title " Son 
 of God " to himself, and it is very easy to perceive 
 in what sense. It is that of his Messianic dignity, 
 his universal commission and authority. That com- 
 mission was spiritual, and it consisted in giving 
 eternal life or happiness to all mankind. The in- 
 strument of that power and the means of that 
 blessing were the knowledge of the true God, and 
 himself as the revealer of God's will. " Father, the 
 hour is come : glorify thy Son, that thy Son may 
 also glorify thee." What the glory was to which 
 he here alludes, may be learned from another pas- 
 sage. It is the extension of his spiritual kingdom 
 to all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, as is 
 seen in the following passage. 
 
 On one occasion certain Greeks desired to be 
 introduced to Jesus. "When informed of it he said, 
 " The hour is come when the Son of Man should be 
 glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a 
 corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abid- 
 eth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit." As long as Christ lived, the universality of 
 
352 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 his mission could not be understood. He would 
 be received only by his countrymen, and by them 
 as merely a Jewish Messiah, come for the purpose 
 of establishing a universal Jewish monarchy. His 
 death dissipated that hope, and his resurrection 
 and ascension revealed the fact that his kingdom 
 was not of this world, — that it was spiritual and 
 universal, belonging alike to Jew and Gentile. 
 
 Hence the significance of the next expression of 
 his prayer : " As thou hast given him power over 
 all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many 
 as thou hast given him." As my kingdom is uni- 
 versal, so let my nominal subjects be my subjects 
 indeed. " As thou hast given me the world for my 
 kingdom, so let my spiritual kingdom be coexten- 
 sive with the world." This petition carries us back 
 to the second Psalm, universally interpreted by the 
 Jews of the Messiah : " Ask of me, and I shall give 
 thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for thy possession." 
 
 " And this is life eternal, that they might know 
 thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
 thou hast sent." And what else is Christianity it- 
 self, as it has been promulgated among the nations, 
 but the knowledge of the true God, taught in the 
 name and by the authority of Jesus Christ, as his 
 authenticated messenger? 
 
 " I have glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished 
 the work which thou gavest me to do." "What that 
 work was, he proceeds to define in the next verse 
 but one : " I have manifested thy name unto the 
 men which thou gavest me out of the world." I 
 have made thee known to my disciples, that they 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 353 
 
 may impart the same knowledge to others. " For I 
 have given unto them the words which thou gavest 
 me; and they have received them, and have known 
 surely that I came out from thee, and they have 
 believed that thou didst send me." 
 
 " And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine 
 own self, with the glory which I had with thee before 
 the world was." This is often interpreted to mean : 
 " Restore me to the glory which I had in thy pres- 
 ence in a pre-existent state." But this sense does not 
 suit the connection, and, besides, would be a selfish, 
 ambitious prayer, entirely foreign to the character of 
 Christ. Moreover, he afterwards says: "And the 
 glory which thou gavest me, i" have given them" 
 This could not be a glory which he had had in the 
 presence of God in a pre-existent state. The glory, 
 therefore, for which he prays, it seems more ration- 
 al to suppose, was the glory of success in his mission, 
 which was the salvation of the world. The mission 
 and kingdom of Christ had been a prominent purpose 
 of God from the beginning, from the ages of eternity, 
 according to the Jewish conceptions. Paul speaks of 
 it in terms like these : " Having made known unto us 
 the mystery of his will, according to his good pleas- 
 ure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the 
 dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather 
 
 together in one all things in Christ Wherefore 
 
 remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the 
 flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which 
 is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by 
 hands ; that at that time ye were without Christ, 
 being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and 
 strangers from the covenants of promise, having no 
 30* 
 
354 • PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 hope, and without God in the world ; but now, in 
 Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are 
 made nigh by the blood of Christ." In another 
 place : " How that by revelation he made known 
 unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, 
 
 which in other ages was not made known unto 
 
 the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy 
 apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles 
 should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and 
 partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel, 
 according to the eternal purpose which he pur- 
 posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 This is the glory, as it would seem according to 
 the connection, which Christ had with God before 
 the foundation of the world ; this purpose that he 
 should be the instrument of promulgating a universal 
 religion, which should embrace both Jews and Gen- 
 tiles, and make them one body, and the members of 
 one Church. This was the power which God had 
 given him over all flesh. This glory he communi- 
 cated to his disciples by teaching them his doctrines, 
 and by associating them with himself as the found- 
 ers of this universal religion, — by giving them the 
 words which God had given him. 
 
 Such, as it would seem, is the force of the epithet 
 " Son of God," when appropriated by Christ to him- 
 self. It refers not at all to his metaphysical nature, 
 but to his office as the Messiah. It is accommo- 
 dated to the Jewish ideas of their theocracy, in 
 which the Messiah was to reign as God's vicegerent. 
 
 To this view of things corresponds precisely the 
 introduction of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, from 
 which the text is taken. " Paul, a servant of Jesus 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 355 
 
 Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the 
 Gospel of God, which he had promised afore by 
 his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning 
 his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made 
 of the seed of David according to the flesh, and 
 declared to be the Son of God with power, accord- 
 ing to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
 from the dead." 
 
 His resurrection demonstrated his office as the 
 Messiah, for his mission was finally staked on the 
 occurrence of that fact. It did not demonstrate his 
 metaphysical nature to be this or that. If it had 
 any bearing upon that matter, it showed him to be 
 human ; for the capacity of dying is one of the 
 marks of mortal man, and his resurrection is ap- 
 pealed to as the evidence of a universal resurrec- 
 tion ; and this same Apostle affirms : " As by man 
 came death, so by man came the resurrection of 
 the dead." 
 
 In an address made at Antioch in Pisidia, Paul 
 develops his conception of the manner in which the 
 resurrection of Christ was a demonstration of his 
 sonship. " But God raised him from the dead ; and 
 he was seen many days of them which came up 
 with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his 
 witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto 
 you glad tidings, how that the promise which was 
 made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same 
 unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Je- 
 sus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 
 Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 
 
 The begetting and the sonship here spoken of can 
 have no reference to Christ's essential nature, for 
 
356 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 Christ did not begin to exist when he rose from the 
 dead. But his resurrection did, in a measure, inau- 
 gurate him as the Messiah ; it demonstrated him to 
 be that great personage which the Jews expected. 
 From that moment his kingdom began to be estab- 
 lished, a kingdom not confined to the Jews, but ex- 
 tending to every land, embracing every tribe and 
 nation upon earth. 
 
 Such was the meaning of the epithet " Son of 
 God," when applied to Jesus of Nazareth, in the 
 days of Christ and his Apostles. It was a synonyme 
 for Messiah, and nothing more. It had no reference 
 whatever to Christ's metaphysical nature. It is true, 
 that John in his Gospel added another idea, that of 
 nearness, confidence, and endearment. He calls Christ 
 the " only-begotten Son of God." At first sight this 
 would seem to indicate a peculiar and especial deri- 
 vation from God. But the ground of such a conclu- 
 sion vanishes, when we examine the contempora- 
 neous use of the word rendered only-begotten. Its 
 primary meaning was the literal one, that of an only 
 son of a human father. But, like many, nay, most 
 words, it acquired a secondary and figurative signi- 
 fication. An only son usually becomes an object 
 of intense and peculiar affection. An only son was 
 naturally, and almost necessarily, a well-beloved son. 
 Hence " only-begotten " became an epithet of en- 
 dearment. In the time of Christ, for one person to 
 call another " his son " was a title of endearment, 
 but to call him " his only son " was a title of intense 
 affection. Thus Paul calls Timothy, not only his 
 son, but his genuine or true son. The same lan- 
 guage he likewise uses of Titus. This, of course, 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 357 
 
 indicates no natural relation between the parties, 
 but only of affection, obligation, confidence. 
 
 That it was a phrase of endearment appears from 
 the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. There the writer 
 says : u By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered 
 up Isaac, and he that had received the promises 
 offered up his only-begotten son. 11 Isaac was not 
 his only-begotten son. He had another son, Ish- 
 mael, who was just as much his son as Isaac. That 
 it was considered as a term of endearment by the 
 Jews who spoke the Greek language appears from 
 the fact, that, in the translation of the Old Testament 
 into Greek made by the Jews themselves, the same 
 word rendered by the author of the Hebrews only- 
 begotten is translated iv ell-beloved. 
 
 No ideas involving sex can have any application 
 to God, and all language derived from sexual rela- 
 tions can be only metaphorical. God is a spirit, 
 and when he is called Father, it is only in an ana- 
 logical sense. The only derivation from God is by 
 creation, and all literal application of human rela- 
 tions to him leads the human mind into the most 
 serious misapprehension. 
 
 Had the administration of Christianity remained 
 in the hands of Jews or converts from Judaism, their 
 Hebrew education, their strict ideas of the unity and 
 spirituality of God, and their knowledge of the force 
 of Hebrew phraseology, would have prevented them 
 from receiving from the epithet " Son of God " any 
 other than its Jewish significance, as a designation 
 of the Messiah. 
 
 But Christianity did not long remain under the 
 administration of Jews. It soon fell into the hands 
 
358 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 of converted Pagans. Jerusalem and the Jewish 
 nation were destroyed about the close of the apos- 
 tolic age. The Jewish branch of the Church lost its 
 standing and influence, and its pure theology lost 
 ground in a corresponding degree. 
 
 The fathers of the Church in the succeeding ages 
 were Greeks and Romans by extraction and educa- 
 tion. Few of them could even read the Hebrew 
 language, and of course were strangers to Hebrew 
 ideas, idioms, and phraseology. 
 
 They had no strict ideas of the unity of God, their 
 minds were clouded by Oriental speculations of 
 Divine emanations, which preceded the creation of 
 the world, and with the Platonic notion of a division 
 of God into various attributes and manifestations ; 
 and, making a complete shipwreck of the Divine 
 unity, they put heathen meanings upon Jewish 
 phraseology, and interpreted the epithet " Son of 
 God " of Christ's metaphysical nature. 
 
 In the Old Testament Wisdom is spoken of as a 
 person, and as having existed With God before the 
 creation of the world. In the book of Proverbs, 
 Wisdom is introduced as speaking : " The Lord 
 possessed me in the beginning of his way, before 
 his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, 
 from the beginning or ever the earth was. When 
 there were no depths, I was brought forth ; when 
 there were no fountains abounding with water, 
 then was I by him, as one brought up with him ; 
 and I w r as daily his delight, rejoicing always before 
 him." 
 
 No personification could be stronger than this, 
 and yet no real person was intended. So in the 
 
 
JESUS THE SON OF GOD. 359 
 
 New Testament that divine wisdom and power 
 which were manifested in Jesus were denominated 
 the Word, or the Word of God. In the first chapter 
 of John's Gospel, he says: "In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
 Word was God " ; not a person with God, but an 
 attribute personified, which was nothing else than 
 God himself. But putting these four expressions 
 together, " wisdom," " brought forth," " Word," and 
 " Son," the early Christian Fathers, who were all 
 converts from heathenism, and who knew no bet- 
 ter than to suppose that one Deity might be derived 
 from another, fabricated the strange doctrine, that 
 the sonship of Christ, instead of being the title of 
 an office, was the name of the divine nature of 
 Christ, which was derived from God before the cre- 
 ation of the world. 
 
 At the time of Justin Martyr, one hundred and 
 forty years after Christ, the doctrine concerning 
 Christ's sonship had assumed this shape. " God," 
 says he, "in the beginning, before anything was 
 created, begat a Rational Power from himself 
 which is called by the Holy Ghost, Glory of the 
 Lord, and sometimes Son, Wisdom, Angel, Lord, 
 Logos ; sometimes also he calls him Leader. In 
 the form of a man he appeared unto Joshua, the 
 son of Nun. All the above names he bears, be- 
 cause he ministers to the will of the Father, and 
 was begotten by the will of the Father." 
 
 But the word " Logos " not only means speech, 
 but reason ; and thus, though the Word became 
 the Son of God, when God created the universe 
 by his word, still as his reason he was always in 
 
360 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 him, and of course was coeternal. Thus we see a 
 title gradually transformed by the human" imagina- 
 tion into a person, and that person conceived of as 
 dating his being before the foundation of the world, 
 and as having been derived from the very substance 
 of the Deity. 
 
DISCOURSE XXIII 
 
 PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 AND THEY TRULY WERE MANY PRIESTS, BECAUSE THEY 
 WERE NOT SUFFERED TO CONTINUE BY REASON OF 
 DEATH : BUT THIS MAN, BECAUSE HE CONTINUETH EVER, 
 HATH AN UNCHANGEABLE PRIESTHOOD. WHEREFORE HE 
 IS ABLE ALSO TO SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST THAT 
 COME UNTO GOD BY HIM, SEELNG HE EVER LIVETH TO 
 MAKE INTERCESSION FOR THEM. FOR SUCH AN HIGH- 
 PRIEST BECAME US, WHO IS HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDE- 
 FILED, SEPARATE FROM SINNERS, AND MADE HIGHER 
 THAN THE HEAVENS ; WHO NEEDETH NOT DAILY, AS 
 THOSE HIGH-PRIESTS, TO OFFER UP SACRIFICE, FIRST 
 FOR HIS OWN SINS, AND THEN FOR THE PEOPLE'S: FOR 
 THIS HE DID ONCE, WHEN HE OFFERED UP HIMSELF. — 
 
 Hebrews vii. 23 - 27. 
 
 We are accustomed to hear much in Christian 
 teaching of the priesthood of Christ, and it is repre- 
 sented as being one of the fundamental doctrines of 
 Christianity. It is the purpose of this Discourse to 
 inquire on what language of the New Testament 
 this impression is founded. Is that language literal 
 or figurative, primary or analogical, declaratory or 
 illustrative ? Is it found in the Gospels, and is it 
 the language of Christ himself? or is it found in 
 31 
 
362 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 the Epistles, or a single Epistle ? Is it addressed 
 to all Christians, or only to a single class of them ? 
 
 Let any person who wishes to examine this sub- 
 ject take up a common concordance, and he will 
 find that Christ is spoken of as a priest only in one 
 portion of the New Testament, and that is the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews. In other parts of the New 
 Testament he is called a sacrifice^ but nowhere else 
 is he called a priest and a sacrifice too, by virtue of 
 the fact that he sacrificed himself. The question 
 arises, Why is he called a priest, or a high-priest, in 
 that Epistle, and nowhere else ? 
 
 In order satisfactorily to answer this question, we 
 shall inquire, in the first place, What was priest- 
 hood, and what was a high-priest, in the minds of 
 those to whom this Epistle was addressed? In the 
 early ages of the world, public religious services 
 consisted mainly of sacrifices. Religious teaching 
 made no part of them. There was, then, no Bible 
 to teach from; the Law of Moses even was not 
 given. There was no written revelation, and prob- 
 ably no writing of any kind. The only ceremonies 
 by which men expressed and cherished their devo- 
 tional sentiments were by sacrifice. An animal 
 was slain after some religious forms, or some of 
 the fruits of the earth were set apart. A portion 
 of the sacrifice was burnt, and thus considered as 
 having been offered to God. On the remainder the 
 assembled company feasted, and those who partook 
 were counted to have been participants in the act 
 of worship. The office of offering the sacrifice was 
 usually performed by the master of a family, the 
 patriarch of a household, or the acknowledged head 
 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 363 
 
 of a tribe. Such was the case with Abraham and 
 his posterity. When his offspring became a great 
 people, and Moses was sent to organize them as a 
 nation, he delegated the sacerdotal function to the 
 tribe of Levi, and the high-priesthood to his brother 
 Aaron and his eldest male descendants. 
 
 The high-priest was the ecclesiastical head of the 
 nation, and nothing was omitted which could secure 
 to him reverence and respect. His person was held 
 especially sacred, and he was not permitted to sully 
 his dignity by any badge of mourning, even under 
 the suffering of the severest bereavement. He was 
 clad in gorgeous vestments, and on his breast he 
 wore the sacred Urim and Thummim, the mysteri- 
 ous oracle by which Jehovah was accustomed to 
 make known his will. 
 
 One ceremony, in which he alone was permitted 
 to officiate, conferred upon him peculiar sacredness. 
 He alone was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, 
 the inmost recess of the sanctuary, where were de- 
 posited the sacred Ark, the Book of the Law, and 
 the Tables of the Covenant. This he did every 
 year, on the day of expiation, when the whole peo- 
 ple afflicted their souls. He took with him a part 
 of the blood of the sacrifice, and sprinkled it on the 
 lid of the Ark, as being the nearest representative of 
 God, who was one of the parties concerned in the 
 forgiveness of sinners. 
 
 In this ceremony every Jew took the profoundest 
 interest, and the day of Atonement was the most 
 solemn day of the year ; for who was there of all 
 the millions of the nation that was not conscious of 
 sin, and felt not the need of pardon? That cere- 
 
364 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 mony answered to one of the most universal wants 
 of human nature, — the assurance that God is merci- 
 ful and ready to pardon the contrite sinner. How 
 could the Jew be persuaded to let go his hold on a 
 religion which gave him so comfortable an assur- 
 ance ? There was something, too, fascinating and 
 imposing in the whole temple service, — the vast 
 assemblages which were collected three times a 
 year, the beauty of the temple itself, the costliness 
 of its ornaments, the constancy, the uniformity, the 
 antiquity of the celebration of its rites, the awe of 
 the Divine presence, which was thought to be vouch- 
 safed to its inner sanctuary. 
 
 This service, at the time of the writing of this 
 Epistle, was yet uninterrupted, still unabolished ; 
 nor was there any outward sign that it was soon 
 coming to an end. This service, the converts to 
 Christianity, to whom this Epistle was addressed, 
 had forsaken. They had embraced a religion of far 
 less outward show. Moses, the founder of Juda- 
 ism, had been brought up in the court of Egypt, 
 and though in his infancy he had been exposed in 
 an ark of bulrushes, he had been the companion 
 of kings and princes. Jesus, born in a manger, had 
 been brought up in the humble village of Nazareth, 
 and, till his showing to Israel, had moved in the 
 humblest sphere. Moses, for forty years, had been 
 the honored head of his nation, and when he died 
 God had wisely hid his sepulchre from the supersti- 
 tious reverence of his countrymen. Jesus, during 
 his life, had been an humble, persecuted man, and 
 had died upon a cross. The Law had been given 
 from heaven, as the Jew believed, by the ministry of 
 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 365 
 
 angels. The Mosaic religion had been inaugurated 
 on Sinai, amid thunder and smoke. Christianity 
 had been established by the personal ministry of 
 Christ, journeying like a pilgrim from village to vil- 
 lage. No glory had surrounded his person, no court 
 had sustained his dignity, and his only attendants, 
 his disciples, were persons still humbler than himself. 
 How could this vast disparity be counterbalanced, 
 and the converted Jew be assured and made con- 
 tented in his new faith ? 
 
 The Jews, moreover, had a superstitious belief 
 concerning the origin of their temple, which greatly 
 increased its value in their estimation. By a fan- 
 ciful interpretation of some passages in the Old 
 Testament, they drew from it the doctrine that their 
 temple was constructed after the model of heaven 
 itself. This belief is dimly shadowed forth in the 
 following passage : " Now of the things which we 
 have spoken, this is the sum : We have such an 
 high-priest, who is set on the right hand of the 
 throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of 
 the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the 
 Lord pitched, and not man. For every high-priest 
 is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ; wherefore it 
 is of necessity that this man have somewhat also 
 to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be 
 a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts 
 according to the law; who serve unto the example 
 and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was ad- 
 monished of God when he was about to make the 
 tabernacle, for, See, saith he, that thou make all 
 things according to the pattern showed to thee in 
 31* 
 
366 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 the mount." This pattern the Jews imagined to 
 be nothing less than heaven itself. 
 
 Jesus had risen and ascended, he had gone to 
 heaven, and of course had entered this august tem- 
 ple to be for ever there. The way was thus pre- 
 pared for a parallelism between Judaism and Chris- 
 tianity, between the temple on earth and the temple 
 in heaven. 
 
 The thesis of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews 
 is to show that Christianity is superior to Judaism, 
 even in those points on which Judaism most valued 
 itself. It is so, first, in the manner of its promulgate, 
 tion. The Jews considered their law to have been 
 given through the intervention of angels. To this 
 opinion Stephen appeals in his speech to his coun- 
 trymen : " "Who have received the law by the dispo- 
 sition of angels, and have not kept it." 
 
 Christ is superior to the angels, because he is 
 called God's son, whereas the angels are only called 
 God's messengers. Winds and lightnings are called 
 God's messengers, which are not even persons, but 
 only unintelligent, material things. He is superior 
 in the permanence of his dignity and being. Jesus 
 is the Messiah, and God has promised that his 
 throne shall be stable and eternal, whereas the 
 heavens, the very habitation of the angels, shall 
 wax old as doth a garment, shall be folded to- 
 gether and pass away. 
 
 Jesus was superior to Moses, because, notwith- 
 standing his admission to an intimate communica- 
 tion with God, he is only called God's servant. A 
 servant has little rank or authority in a household. 
 Indeed, he has no authority, and his highest attribute 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 367 
 
 is fidelity. Jesus, as the Messiah, is called God's 
 son. A son has rank and authority in a household. 
 That household is the Christian Church. 
 
 The next point to show, in order to prove the su- 
 periority of Christianity to Judaism, was that Jesus 
 ivas greater than the Levitical priesthood, that he 
 performed a function more august than that of the 
 high-priest himself. 
 
 The proof of this latter proposition was surround- 
 ed with no inconsiderable difficulties. Jesus when 
 on earth was not a priest in any possible sense 
 whatever. He never performed any priestly office. 
 He was not of the sacerdotal lineage. He was of 
 the tribe of Judah. No man could be priest, accord- 
 ing to the Mosaic institute, who was not of the tribe 
 of Levi. Besides, the real priesthood were then in 
 office, and daily celebrating the prescribed ritual in 
 the temple at Jerusalem. How then could Jesus be 
 a priest ? He proves this out of the (Tews' own in- 
 terpretation of the Old Testament. It would seem, 
 from Christ's conversation with the Jews, recorded 
 in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, that they 
 were accustomed to interpret the one hundred and 
 tenth Psalm of their expected Messiah. In that 
 Psalm there occurs this passage : " Thou art a priest 
 for ever after the order of MelchisedekP If he was 
 a high-priest for ever, he had a perpetual priesthood. 
 
 The materials then for the writer's argument were 
 all prepared to his hand, in the previous opinions of 
 the Jews, for whose especial edification the whole 
 Epistle to the Hebrews was composed. Christ was 
 a priest, the hundred and tenth Psalm said so. He 
 had risen, and ascended, and gone into heaven. 
 
368 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 Heaven, in the Jewish conception, was a vast tem- 
 ple, the original pattern of the temple at Jerusalem. 
 He had entered into a state of immortality, and if a 
 priest at all, he must have a perpetual priesthood, he 
 must be a priest for ever. 
 
 To show that Jesus was of the order of Mel- 
 chisedek, besides the declaration of the hundred and 
 tenth Psalm, various circumstances of resemblance 
 are thrown in. They lived far apart, but were in 
 some respects alike. Melchisedek had no recorded 
 predecessor, and no immediate successor in office. 
 No mention is made in the Scripture of his father, 
 or mother, or of his children. It is not said when he 
 was born, or when he died, or whether he was born 
 or died at all. By a figure of speech, then, he may 
 be said not to have been born or to have died at all, 
 and to have a species of perpetuity, and thus to have 
 resembled Jesus in his real immortality. 
 
 But what direct argument was there to show that 
 the order of priesthood of Melchisedek was superior 
 to that of Aaron ? Abraham, the honored patriarch 
 of the Jews, paid tithes to him, thereby acknowledg- 
 ing his superior dignity and sanctity. Besides, Levi, 
 the father of the sacerdotal tribe, was a descendant 
 of Abraham, and therefore might be said to be in 
 him at the time, and thus, through Abraham, to have 
 paid tithes to Melchisedek. 
 
 The priesthood of Jesus was superior to the Levit- 
 ical priesthood, because it was an eternal priesthood. 
 The incumbents of the Levitical priesthood were 
 mortal men. Each one lived but a short time, and 
 then was succeeded by another. Jesus has passed 
 into a state of immortality, and therefore has a per- 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 369 
 
 petnal priesthood. The Jewish high-priest offered 
 the great sacrifice of atonement once every year, and 
 that sacrifice was continually repeated. Jesus of- 
 fered his sacrifice but once, and it never nseded to 
 be, and never was, repeated. " But Christ being 
 come an high-priest of good things to come, by a 
 greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with 
 hands, that is to say, not of this creation, neither by 
 the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, 
 he entered in once into the holy place, having ob- 
 tained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood 
 of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
 sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of 
 the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, 
 who by his immortal spirit offered himself without 
 spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works 
 to serve the living God ? " 
 
 The practical conclusion drawn from all this is : 
 " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
 the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way which he hath consecrated for us through 
 the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high- 
 priest over the house of God, let us draw near with 
 a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our 
 hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our 
 bodies washed with pure water ; let us hold fast the 
 profession of our faith without wavering." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say, that all this com- 
 parison of Judaism with Christianity, considered as 
 logical reasoning, has no validity. Nothing what- 
 ever is proved by it. Considered as an allegory, or 
 a series of comparisons, it is a splendid composition. 
 As a rhetorical address, it is affecting and persuasive, 
 
370 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 most admirably adapted to give the converted Jew 
 a high appreciation of his new faith, and to make 
 him contented as the follower of Jesus, although he 
 had forsaken the more splendid ritual of Moses ; for 
 he was informed that the spiritual significance of the 
 work of Christ tended to loftier and more permanent 
 issues, as being more effectual and universal. 
 
 As a logical argument, the conclusiveness of the 
 whole Epistle must depend on the soundness of the 
 premises which are laid down as the foundation. It 
 does not appear by the record of the Old Testament 
 that there was any intimation of the intervention of 
 angels in giving the Law. The ten commandments 
 are introduced with the following preface : " And God 
 spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, 
 which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out 
 of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other 
 gods before me." The later Jews, as their theological 
 ideas became more refined, shrunk from so material 
 a representation of God, and maintained that the 
 giving of the Law was through the medium of an- 
 gels. That such an opinion prevailed, we have the 
 evidence of Stephen, of Paul, and of Josephus, as 
 well as the writings of the Jewish Rabbins. So 
 strong was this impression in the Apostolic age, that 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in estab- 
 lishing the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, 
 thought it necessary to frame an argument to prove 
 the superiority of Jesus the Messiah to the angels. 
 But the very opinion which that argument was in- 
 tended to meet has no legitimate historical foun- 
 dation. 
 
 The second argument to show the superiority of 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 371 
 
 Christianity to Judaism, by proving the superiority 
 of Jesus to Moses, is exceedingly ingenious ; but, 
 logically considered, must be confessed to have but 
 little force. It turns upon the distinction between 
 son and servant, and between being in and over a 
 household. No difference of nature is asserted or 
 intended in the argument. Both were what they 
 were, not by nature, but by divine appointment. 
 " Wherefore, brethren, partakers of the heavenly 
 calling, consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our 
 profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that 
 appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his 
 house." " And Moses, verily, was faithful in all his 
 house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things 
 which were to be spoken after ; but Christ, as a son 
 over his own house ; whose house are we, if we hold 
 fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope 
 firm unto the end." A son over a household has a 
 higher dignity than a servant in a household, though 
 of the same nature. But God calls Moses his ser- 
 vant ; Jesus he calls his son. Moses did not found 
 Judaism, he only reformed and remodelled it from 
 the patriarchal religion. Jesus founded Christianity, 
 and the Christian Church proceeds from him person- 
 ally as its head. " For this man was counted wor- 
 thy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who 
 hath builded the house hath more glory than the 
 house." House and household are expressed by the 
 same word in Greek. This argument turns, you 
 perceive, upon the double sense of a single word, 
 house, a building, and house, a family, and there- 
 fore is merely verbal and rhetorical. 
 
 We now come to the examination of the third 
 
372 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 argument, which is the main subject of this Dis- 
 course ; that by which Jesus as a priest is proved to 
 be superior to the Levitical priesthood. Christ, as 
 we have already seen, was not a priest while here on 
 earth, in the literal sense of the term. This is ad- 
 mitted in so many words : " For if he were on earth, 
 he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests 
 that offer gifts according to the law." " For he of 
 whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another 
 tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. 
 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda, 
 of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the 
 priesthood" His priesthood began when he was 
 removed from earth and entered the heavenly world. 
 His priestly office was exercised only in the temple 
 of heaven itself. He entered that temple only when 
 he died, for he entered it with his own blood. But 
 no part of his blood could by any possibility be 
 transported to heaven, and really enter this spiritual 
 and immaterial temple. 
 
 The question whether the priesthood of Christ is 
 real and literal, or only analogical and rhetorical, 
 turns mainly upon the facts, whether there was any 
 original reference to Christ in that clause of the hun- 
 dred and tenth Psalm, " Thou art a priest for ever 
 after the order of Melchisedek," and whether there is 
 in reality any such temple in the heavenly world as 
 the Jews imagined to have been the prototype of 
 their temple in Jerusalem. 
 
 It is nowhere asserted in the Bible, that the hun- 
 dred and tenth Psalm related primarily to the Mes- 
 siah. Christ does not assert it in the twenty-second 
 chapter of Matthew. He merely reasons with the 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 373 
 
 Jews upon their own premises, and asks them, if 
 they make that Psalm prophetic of the Messiah, 
 how they will explain a certain part of it. 
 
 Now there is no reason in the Psalm itself for ap- 
 plying it to " the Prince of Peace," but many strong 
 reasons against it. The last three verses are wholly 
 inapplicable to the true Messiah. 
 
 " The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through 
 kings in the day of his wrath ; he shall judge among 
 the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead 
 bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many coun- 
 tries ; he shall drink of the brook in the way : there- 
 fore shall be lift up the head." 
 
 There is no straining, either by figurative or spir- 
 itual interpretation, by which such language as this 
 can be made to apply to any part of the history of 
 the person or the religion of Christ. It must pri- 
 marily have referred to some other person, probably 
 some warrior king of the olden time. The most 
 rational interpretation is, that the whole Psalm was 
 composed in honor of David, after taking the fortress 
 and site of Jerusalem from the Jebusites. 
 
 With regard to the second fact, the existence of 
 a real temple in the heavens, which is assumed as 
 the basis of the priesthood of Christ, it is sufficient 
 to say, that it has no foundation in the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament, nor in the physical or spirit- 
 ual universe, as we are made acquainted with them 
 from other sources. It is simply a Jewish or Rab- 
 binical fancy, which originated a long time after 
 the closing of the Old Testament, probably from 
 the superstitious reverence which gradually grew up 
 about that edifice, which the Jew regarded as the most 
 32 
 
374 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 sacred of anything on this globe. Having been 
 constructed by divine direction, he imagined that it 
 could have no other original than heaven itself. 
 Hence there was a peculiar significance in the lan- 
 guage of Moses, when he relates that he was ordered 
 " to make all things according to the pattern shown 
 him in the mount." The literal acceptance of this 
 idea would involve nothing less than the materiality 
 of heaven, and of God himself. 
 
 It is hardly possible, therefore, to believe that the 
 writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews himself in- 
 tended his composition as a logical argument. It 
 seems more probable, to me at least, that it was 
 written as a sort of allegorical exhortation, in which, 
 by an ingenious parallelism between Judaism and 
 Christianity, he might more effectually • commend 
 the great spiritual truths of the Gospel to his coun- 
 trymen by clothing them in the costume of Judaic 
 idealism. 
 
 What are those truths ? They are these. The 
 Jewish Messiah, to whom the prophets had pointed, 
 and for whom all former ages and dispensations had 
 prepared the way, has come in the person of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. He is the most exalted personage 
 next to God that we know, and he has founded a 
 religion which is destined to be universal, and to last 
 as long as time itself. Jesus and his religion meet 
 the religious wants of man better than Judaism itself, 
 even in those points where Judaism was strongest 
 and most satisfactory. The ancient sacrifices were 
 intended to assure men of God's readiness to par- 
 don the sins of the penitent. Christ has done more. 
 By his death, he sealed the new covenant with his 
 
 
PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 375 
 
 blood, which covenant contains the promise of for- 
 giveness to the penitent. Not only so, not only has 
 he assured us of forgiveness, but of immortality. He 
 has tasted death for every man ; he has overcome 
 death, and triumphantly entered heaven itself, as 
 our forerunner, and thus become the certain pledge 
 to us of a better life. 
 
 These are the simple and glorious truths which 
 constitute the very essence and substance of Chris- 
 tianity under any and every mode of exhibition. 
 They were made to assume this outward dress, to 
 commend them to the affections and acceptance of 
 the Jews. 
 
 The literal priesthood of Christ, then, is not to be 
 placed among- the doctrines of Christianity, but is to 
 be put in the category of the phraseology of the New 
 Testament It is not found in the Gospels, the fun- 
 damental records, but only in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, written to a peculiar people for a special 
 purpose. It was instructive, persuasive, and edify- 
 ing to those who had been educated under the ritual 
 of Judaism, and to us is it so as far as we have been 
 made to sympathize with the Jews by a constant 
 reading of the Old Testament from our earliest 
 years. 
 
 Priesthood, in the literal sense, is not a Christian 
 idea ; neither is sacrifice. They belonged to Juda- 
 ism, which Christianity was intended to supersede. 
 Christ performed no such office. The business of 
 his mission was teaching, and his commission to 
 his disciples was, " Go, teach all nations." 
 
 But sacrifice and priesthood did correspond to a 
 want in human nature, which is perennial and uni- 
 
376 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 versal, the sense of guilt and need of pardon. The 
 death of Christ, connected with his resurrection and 
 ascension, since he came as the ambassador of 
 God's mercy, answered the same purpose in the 
 New Dispensation. The death of Christ then, by 
 figure of speech, might be called a perpetual sacri- 
 fice.^ 
 
 Another office of priesthood is intercession, and 
 Christ, being raised to immortality, is our per- 
 petual Intercessor. The crucifixion, the resurrec- 
 tion, and the ascension of Christ are the main facts 
 in the Christian history. They are the keystones of 
 Christian faith. Take them out of the arch, and 
 the whole structure tumbles to ruins. 
 
 The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives 
 them their due pre-eminence. And although, in 
 writing to the ancient people of God, he gives them 
 a Jewish costume, we see that they were to his 
 mind, as they are to ours, the anchor of hope, 
 which entereth within the veil, and brings us near 
 to the glorious realities of the eternal world. 
 
DISCOURSE XXIV. 
 
 SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 AND HE TOOK THE CUP, AND GAVE THANKS, AND GAVE IT 
 TO THEM, SAYING, DRINK YE ALL OF IT : FOR THIS IS MY 
 BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT, WHICH IS SHED FOR 
 
 many for the remission of sins. — Matthew xxvi. 27, 28. 
 
 The subject of this Discourse is the sacrificial 
 language of the New Testament, when applied to 
 the death of Christ. It is, as is acknowledged on all 
 hands, of very frequent occurrence. The question 
 concerning it is, Is it literal or is it figurative ? Do 
 the sacred writers mean to assert, that Christ's death 
 was literally a propitiatory sacrifice, offered to God 
 to atone for the sins of mankind, or do they mean to 
 say that it is analogous to a sacrifice, or may be com- 
 pared to the various sacrifices which constituted 
 so large a part of the ceremonial of the Mosaic re- 
 ligion ? 
 
 In my judgment, the latter representation is the 
 true one, — that the death of Christ was analogous 
 to a sacrifice ; and therefore I place the sacrificial 
 language of the writers of the New Testament in 
 the category of phraseology. If it were otherwise, I 
 32* 
 
378 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 should have placed the atonement among the doc- 
 trines of Christianity. 
 
 The common and popular doctrine upon this sub- 
 ject has been, that Christ's death was a real propiti- 
 atory sacrifice. Not only so, it was the only true 
 and efficacious sacrifice that has ever been offered. 
 All other sacrifices, ordained under the old dispen- 
 sation, were only types and foreshadowings of this. 
 They had no efficacy in themselves, but only as 
 they pointed the faith of the offerer forward to the 
 only real atonement, in the blood of Christ. 
 
 In corroboration of this apprehension, various 
 passages of the New Testament are appealed to, 
 but especially the Epistle to the Hebrews. " Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God," says John the Baptist, 
 " that taketh away the sin of the world." Paul says : 
 " Christ hath loved us and hath given himself for us, 
 an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smell- 
 ing savor." In another place : " Being justified 
 freely by his grace, through the redemption there is 
 in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a pro- 
 pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his 
 righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
 through the forbearance of God." Peter says : 
 " Who his own self bare our sins in his own body 
 on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should 
 live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were 
 healed." In another place : " For Christ also hath 
 once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
 he might bring us unto God." John declares : " If 
 any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is a propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins 
 of the whole world." 
 
 I 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 379 
 
 In the institution of the supper, Christ himself 
 said of the vine, " Drink ye all of it : for this is my 
 blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many 
 for the remission of sins" 
 
 On the strength of these and similar passages, it 
 is affirmed that the death of Christ was a real sacri- 
 fice to God, the means of procuring God's forgive- 
 ness, the indispensable condition of God's pardon of 
 any sin of any individual of the human race. No 
 matter how penitent any individual might have 
 been, however thoroughly he might have reformed, 
 or how holy he might have become, God could not 
 have forgiven him, and he must have been con- 
 signed to everlasting burnings. 
 
 Such was the strictness of God's law; and so 
 necessary was it to maintain its honor, that its au- 
 thority would have been annulled, its force would 
 have been broken, had not the punishment it 
 threatens, and the penalty it exacts, been suffered 
 by Christ. 
 
 Not only so, it has been maintained that the 
 guilt of the sinner is taken from him and trans- 
 ferred to Christ, and thus is expiated and blotted 
 out, and the righteousness of Christ is transferred 
 to the sinner, so that he becomes righteous as Christ 
 was, and as deserving of everlasting happiness. 
 
 To these views of the death of Christ the most 
 weighty and insurmountable objections may be 
 urged. 
 
 And, first, the death of Christ was not a literal 
 sacrifice ; it wanted the conditions and circum- 
 stances of a sacrifice. A sin-offering, and it is in 
 this sense that Christ's death is said to be a sacri- 
 
380 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 fice, luas an offering brought by a penitent person in 
 token of his contrition. If a victim, it was slain by 
 a priest, a consecrated official person, set apart for 
 this especial function. Some part of it at least was 
 placed upon an altar and burnt. Who brought 
 about the death of Christ? Were they penitent 
 persons ? The Apostles, immediately after the res- 
 urrection of Jesus, accuse the Jews of his death as 
 a murder. " Ye men of Israel, hear these words : 
 Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 
 you by miracles and wonders and signs, which 
 God did, by him, in the midst of you, as ye your- 
 selves also know, him being delivered by the deter- 
 minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have 
 taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." 
 If there were any offerers of Christ as a sin-offering, 
 it must have been these Jews. And yet, on their 
 part, so far from being an offering of penitence was 
 it, that the Apostles characterize it as a guilty mur- 
 der. No thought of a penitential offering ever en- 
 tered into their minds. 
 
 If there were any priests in this sacrifice, they 
 must have been the soldiers who crucified him. 
 But they were Romans, and we have no evidence 
 that they ever knew or recognized the true God. 
 As far as they were concerned, Christ was on a 
 level with the two thieves who were crucified at 
 his side. To them the act was a matter of official 
 duty, and we have no reason to suppose that any 
 thought of offering any species of a sacrifice ever 
 entered their minds. 
 
 The victim, according to the Mosaic ritual, was 
 laid, in part, upon an altar. There was no altar in 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 381 
 
 this case, but Christ expired upon a cross. The 
 manner of his death was determined by the circum- 
 stance that Judaea was then in the possession of the 
 Romans, whose manner of execution for the lowest 
 criminals was by crucifixion. The common mode of 
 putting criminals to death in Judaea, according to 
 the Mosaic institute, was stoning. 
 
 We next inquire, Did Christ sacrifice himself in a 
 literal sense ? If he did, then he died for the sake 
 of dying ; he voluntarily put an end to his life, when 
 he might have avoided it. Or, to speak in plain but 
 repulsive language, he destroyed himself. And can 
 we suppose a holy God to have been pleased with 
 such an act, in itself considered ? In this considera- 
 tion, we must abstract this act from everything else, 
 and isolate it from every other part of his mission 
 and ministry. 
 
 Human sacrifices were among the worst abomi- 
 nations of the heathen religions, and one of the 
 severest reproaches which were ever cast upon the 
 heathen deities was the supposition that they could 
 be pleased with such offerings. 
 
 But Christ did not die for the sake of dying, nor 
 did he take his own life. He died to sustain his 
 claim to be the promised Messiah. He was tried by 
 the public authorities of his country as an impostor. 
 He was solemnly interrogated by the chief priest : 
 " I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us 
 whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus 
 saith unto him, Thou hast said " ; or, as another 
 Evangelist reports, " I am." The consequence of that 
 avowal was an immediate condemnation to death. 
 
 If we may credit the plain historic statement of 
 
382 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 facts, the purpose of his death was not to appease 
 God's wrath, or to be a sacrifice for sin, but to bear 
 testimony to a truth, which was vital to the world's 
 salvation, that he was the true Messiah, and his 
 Gospel an authentic revelation from God. He sac- 
 rificed his life to the success of his mission. 
 
 We say, then, from these considerations, that the 
 death of Christ was not a literal sacrifice. It had 
 not a single circumstance of a literal sacrifice, — no 
 penitent offerer, no priest, no altar ; nor did Christ 
 offer himself in any other literal sense than by dying 
 as a martyr to the truth. 
 
 There is another consideration, which ought to 
 go far in determining our judgment in this matter. 
 When we consider the sacrifices of the old dispen- 
 sation, we find, on a more careful examination, that 
 they were not all of one kind. There were many 
 species, all differing from each other in their nature, 
 their purpose, and their import. Sacrifices, among 
 all nations, made a part of divine worship, from the 
 earliest ages. Before the invention of books, and 
 the institution of public religious instruction, sacri- 
 fices were almost the only purpose of a religious 
 nature for which men came together. 
 
 One species of sacrifice was the eucharistical, as 
 it is called, whose simple and exclusive use was the 
 expression of gratitude to God, as the Giver of all 
 good. It had nothing to do with sin, or penitence, 
 or God's forgiveness. Such were the first sacrifices 
 of which we read in the Bible, the offerings brought 
 by Cain and Abel of the first-fruits of the earth 
 and the offspring of the flocks. Such were the 
 offerings directed by Moses to be made at the in- 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 383 
 
 coming of the harvest. The institution of this sac- 
 rifice is mentioned in the twenty-third chapter of 
 Leviticus. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
 them, When ye be come into the land which I give 
 you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall 
 bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest 
 unto the priest ; and he shall wave the sheaf before 
 the Lord, to be accepted for you. And ye shall 
 offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf, an he-lamb 
 without blemish of the first year, for a burnt-offer- 
 ing unto the Lord." 
 
 The whole purpose of this was the expression of 
 religious gratitude to God as the Giver of the har- 
 vest, and thus to make the common blessings of 
 life to be the means of spiritual improvement. No 
 ideas of penitence or forgiveness entered into this 
 sacrifice. The only and exclusive sentiment which 
 it was intended to express was gratitude. Peni- 
 tence and forgiveness were signified by another and 
 distinct sacrifice, called the sin-offering. That it 
 was distinct is shown by the fact that a sin-offer- 
 ing was made during this very festival, and called a 
 sin-offering. " Then shall ye sacrifice one kid of the 
 goats for a sin-offering." 
 
 Then there was the sacrifice of commemoration, 
 with which sin and its forgiveness had nothing to 
 do. Such was the sacrifice of the Passover. It was 
 simply a domestic supper with religious rites, to 
 remind the Israelites of their deliverance from Egypt. 
 In its institution, there is nothing said of sin or its 
 forgiveness, nor that the lamb, which was killed on 
 this occasion, had anything to do with human guilt. 
 
384 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 It was killed for no purpose of expiation, but to fur- 
 nish the supper, which commemorated the last meal 
 which the Israelites took in haste at their departure 
 from the house of bondage. It commemorated no 
 man's deliverance from sin, but only Israel's deliv- 
 erance from Egypt. 
 
 There is another species of sacrifice, which comes 
 still nearer our subject, the sacrifice of ratification. 
 It was customary among ancient nations, Hebrews 
 as well as others, to solemnize the ratification of 
 treaties and compacts by the ceremony of sacrifice, 
 in which both parties united, and by which they 
 recognized that they were bound to the performance 
 of their stipulations, not only by an honorable, but 
 by a religious obligation. 
 
 In conformity to this custom, God was pleased 
 to confirm to Abraham the promise of giving to his 
 posterity the land of Canaan, by a sacrifice of ratifi- 
 cation. The ceremony is detailed in the fifteenth 
 chapter of Genesis. " And he said unto him, I am 
 the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chal- 
 dees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he 
 said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall in- 
 herit it ? And he said unto him, Take me an heifer 
 of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, 
 and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and 
 a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and 
 divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one 
 against another ; but the birds divided he not. And 
 when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell 
 upon Abram ; and, lo, an horror of great darkness 
 fell upon him." The promise is then repeated, with 
 minuter circumstances. " And it came to pass, that, 
 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 385 
 
 when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, 
 a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed 
 between those pieces. In that same day the Lord 
 made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed 
 have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto 
 the great river, the river Euphrates." 
 
 A sacrifice of ratification is described by Homer 
 to have been celebrated by Priam and his sons on 
 the one part, and the Greek generals on the other, 
 at the siege of Troy, which is among the most an- 
 cient events related in Grecian history. The sub- 
 ject of covenant was, that the Greeks and Trojans 
 agreed to decide their contest by a single combat 
 between Paris and Menelaus. Three lambs are 
 brought before the assembled hosts. 
 
 " Two lambs devoted by your country's rite, 
 To earth a sable, to the. sun a white, 
 Prepare, ye Trojans. Then a third we bring, 
 Select to Jove the inviolable king. 
 On either side, a sacred herald stands : 
 The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands 
 Pour the full urn, then draws the Grecian lord, 
 His cutlass sheathed beneath, his ponderous sword, 
 From the signed victims crops the curling hair, 
 The heralds part it, and the princes share." 
 
 One of the heralds then utters a solemn prayer, 
 and administers the oath of fidelity to the covenant. 
 The victims are then slain. 
 
 11 With that the chief the tender victims slew, 
 And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw. 
 The vital spirit issued at the wound, 
 And left the members quivering on the ground. 
 From the same urn they drink the mingled wine, 
 And add libations to the powers divine, 
 33 
 
386 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 While thus their prayers united mount the sky : 
 Hear, mighty Jove, and hear, ye gods, on high ! 
 And may their blood who first the league confound, 
 Shed like this wine, distain the thirsty ground." 
 
 Such, then, was the sacrifice of ratification among 
 the heathen, contemporary with the existence of the 
 Hebrew commonwealth. 
 
 Another instance, still nearer to our purpose, is 
 the ceremony by which the Mosaic institute was 
 recognized and established between God and the 
 nation of Israel. " Arid Moses wrote all the words 
 of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and 
 builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, 
 according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he 
 sent young men of the children of Israel, which 
 offered burnt- offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings 
 of oxen unto the Lord. Arid Moses took half of the 
 blood, and put it in basins ; and half of the blood he 
 sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of 
 the covenant, and read in the audience of the peo- 
 ple ; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will 
 we do, and be obedient. Now Moses took the 
 blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 
 Behold the blood of the covenant, lohich the Lord 
 hath made with you concerning 1 all these wordsP 
 
 The sacrifice of these oxen had nothing to do 
 with the pardon of sin, or with sin at all. It was 
 simply a sacrifice of ratification. The blood sprin- 
 kled on the people had no reference to the forgive- 
 ness of transgression, but only signified that the 
 people on whom it was sprinkled were parties to 
 the covenant. 
 
 There was another species of sacrifice, — the sin- 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 387 
 
 r 
 
 offering. Every religion, in order to meet all the 
 religious wants of mankind, must make provision 
 for the pardon of sin ; for every man feels him- 
 self a sinner, and that he needs forgiveness. I do 
 not mean that every religion must provide the 
 means of appeasing God or making him merciful, 
 but of symbolizing God's clemency and assuring 
 it to man, and of expressing man's penitence and 
 contrition, without which no sin can be forgiven. 
 
 There was such a provision in the law of Moses. 
 A man on becoming sensible of some offence which 
 he had committed, in token of his penitence, was 
 directed to bring a sacrifice to the priest. The use- 
 less parts of it were burnt, and the remainder went 
 to the support of the priesthood. 
 
 There was, moreover, one day of the year ap- 
 pointed to commemorate the sinfulness and express 
 the penitence, of the whole nation. The priest 
 made a sacrifice, and carried some of the blood 
 of the sacrifice into the holy of holies, and sprin- 
 kled some of it upon the lid of the ark, which was 
 the nearest representative of God in the transaction, 
 in which God, the Lawgiver, was to forgive man, 
 the transgressor. But then we have every reason 
 to believe that there was no efficacy in the sacrifice 
 itself. It was only symbolic, and the thing signified 
 by the symbol was the penitence of the people. For, 
 says Moses, " This shall be a statute for ever unto 
 you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of 
 the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work 
 at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a 
 stranger that sojourneth among you. For on that 
 day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to 
 
388 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins 
 before the Lord. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto 
 you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for 
 ever." 
 
 That is to say, " One day of the year shall be given 
 wholly to the duty of meditating on your sins, and 
 humbling yourselves in deep contrition before God." 
 And simultaneously with this universal penitence, 
 humiliation, and contrition, an appropriate sacrifice 
 shall be offered by the high-priest at Jerusalem, to 
 aid and symbolize this national and universal peni- 
 tence. But no man in his senses can suppose that 
 there was any efficacy in that sacrifice to take away 
 sin, apart from the repentance which it symbolized 
 and commemorated. If no heart had been penitent, 
 no sin could have been forgiven. And it is equally 
 absurd to suppose that, if all hearts had been peni- 
 tent, all sins would not have been forgiven, whether 
 any sacrifice had been offered or not. 
 
 There was another species of sacrifice still, the 
 sacrifice of simple worship, a simple offering to God 
 as an act of homage and worship. This had no 
 respect to sin or offence of any kind. It might be 
 offered even by a stranger, and was merely an 
 acknowledgment of Jehovah as the true God. It 
 was intended to propitiate God's favor, instead of 
 obtaining the forgiveness of sins. Such was the 
 morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb, made 
 daily at the temple at Jerusalem. That hour was 
 selected by the Jews, not only at Jerusalem and in 
 Judaea, but throughout the world, as the hour of 
 prayer. And doubtless their devotions were aided 
 and kindled by the consciousness that, while they 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 389 
 
 were praying, the smoke of the morning and even- 
 ing sacrifice at Jerusalem was ascending towards 
 heaven. 
 
 Such were the various kinds of sacrifice which 
 existed among the Jews, and so totally different 
 were they from each other in their nature and pur- 
 pose. Now if the death of Christ had been a real 
 and literal sacrifice, it must have been some one of 
 these, and but one; it could not have been all at 
 once. We have already enumerated five distinct 
 species; the eucharistic or thank-offering, the sacrifice 
 of commemoration, the sacrifice of ratification, the sin- 
 offering, and the sacrifice of worship. 
 
 Had the death of Christ been literally any one of 
 these, the language of that sacrifice would have been 
 used concerning it exclusively. But the language 
 of all is applied to it alternately, which shows that it 
 was literally neither, and that in all cases it is figura- 
 tive and analogical, and not literal and primary. His 
 death was not a literal sacrifice in any sense, but 
 bore some resemblance or analogy to them all, and 
 therefore the relations of his death are illustrated by 
 them all. 
 
 He is spoken of as a common sacrifice of worship. 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, says : "Walk 
 in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given 
 himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for 
 a sweet-smelling savor." No rational being supposes 
 that the death of Christ, an atrocious and cruel mur- 
 der as it was, was in itself pleasing to God. What 
 then does he mean to say ? He means to compare 
 the advantages we receive through Christ with the 
 advantages which the Jew derived from his sacrifices, 
 33* 
 
390 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 when sincerely offered. They brought him near to 
 God, by spiritual renovation and reconciliation. And 
 that is precisely the benefit we derive from the whole 
 mission of Christ, his life and teaching, as well as 
 his sufferings and death. 
 
 In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the same 
 Apostle says : " Even Christ, our Passover, is sacri- 
 ficed for us." The Passover ivas not a sin-offering 
 in any sense. It had no reference to sin. It was 
 merely a sacrifice of commemoration. It was insti- 
 tuted to commemorate the deliverance of the Israel- 
 ites from Egypt. So the death of Christ is our de- 
 liverance, just so far as it delivers us from sin. And 
 it delivers us from sin only so far as it is instrumen- 
 tal in bringing us to repentance and reformation. It 
 is efficacious, not in making God merciful, but us 
 penitent. 
 
 The death of Christ is called a sin-offering, but 
 the careful reader of the New Testament will be 
 astonished to find in how few instances. He is 
 often spoken of as dying for our benefit, but very sel- 
 dom as dying for our sins. He says of himself: " I 
 lay down my life for the sheepP He dies for their 
 benefit and defence. And the figure is taken, not 
 from sacrifice, but from the office of a shepherd, who 
 sometimes sacrifices his life in defence of his flock 
 from the incursions of wild beasts. 
 
 In a very few passages, Christ's death is called a 
 sacrifice for sin. John says of him : " "Who is a 
 propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but 
 for the sins of the whole world." Paul says; " How 
 that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scrip- 
 tures." In another place : " Who gave himself for 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 391 
 
 Peter thus speaks of his death : " Who, 
 his own self, bare our sins in his own body on the 
 'tree." 
 
 Here is evidently a reference to a symbolical 
 transaction under the Law. One of the victims on 
 the day of atonement was not slain at all, but by a 
 symbolical ceremony was made to bear away, or take 
 upon itself, the sins of the people. " But the goat 
 upon which the lot fell to be the scape-goat shall be 
 presented alive before the Lord, to make an atone- 
 ment with him, and to let him, go for a scape-goat 
 
 into the wilderness And Aaron shall' lay both 
 
 his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess 
 over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, 
 and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting 
 them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him 
 away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. 
 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities 
 unto a land not inhabited ; and he shall let go the 
 goat in the wilderness." 
 
 Now no man with common understanding can 
 imagine that this was any other than a ritual, figu- 
 rative, and symbolic transaction. No man believes 
 that a goat actually bore the sins of a man, was con- 
 scious of their guilt, or suffered their punishment. 
 And yet the record says, that the priest actually put 
 the iniquities of the people on the head of the goat, 
 and that he bore them away into the wilderness. 
 
 So where Peter speaks of Christ's bearing our sins 
 in his own body on the tree, we are no more com- 
 pelled to take the language literally than in the 
 other case; for the language is equally strong and 
 positive in both. It is only necessary for us to rec- 
 
392 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 ognize in it the assertion, that the death of Christ 
 is made instrumental in bringing about our penitence 
 and forgiveness. 
 
 When, in the institution of the Supper, our Sav- 
 iour spoke of his death as a sacrifice, the predomi- 
 nant idea is that of a sacrifice of ratification. Tak- 
 ing the cup he said, " Drink ye all of it, for this is 
 my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for 
 many for the remission of sins." As if he had said : 
 " As when Moses proposed the Law to the people, 
 and they promised to obey it, he sprinkled the blood 
 of the victim upon them in token of ratification, so is 
 the new covenant about to be ratified by my blood, 
 of which the wine is the symbol." 
 
 In that covenant there is a stipulation for the for- 
 giveness of the sins of the penitent. " Behold, the 
 days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
 covenant with the house of Israel, and with the 
 house of Judah ; not according to the covenant that 
 I made with their fathers, in the day that I took 
 them by the hand to lead them out of the land of 
 
 Egypt; but this shall be the covenant that I 
 
 will make with the house of Israel ; after those days, 
 saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and write it in their hearts ; and will be their 
 God, and they shall be my people. And they shall 
 teach no more every man his neighbor, and every 
 man his brother, saying, Know the Lord ; for they 
 shall all know me, from the least of them unto the 
 greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive 
 their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." 
 
 He assumed authority on earth to forgive sins. 
 The proof of that authority was his resurrection, to 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 393 
 
 which his crucifixion led the way. And says Paul: 
 " If Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins" So 
 that the death of Christ did not procure nor assure 
 the forgiveness of sins. It was his resurrection 
 which demonstrated his mission, and guaranteed his 
 promise of forgiveness to the penitent. Had the in- 
 strumentality of his death in procuring the forgive- 
 ness of sin been simply expiation, then it would 
 have been equally efficacious whether he had risen 
 from the dead or not. 
 
 The fact, then, that the death of Christ is com- 
 pared to all the different kinds of sacrifice, is evi- 
 dence, is a proof, that it was literally none of them, 
 and not a literal sacrifice at all, but is compared 
 to them all from some point of resemblance to 
 each. 
 
 Nothing then could be more contrary to fact, than 
 to say that the death of Christ was the real sacrifice, 
 and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament merely 
 types and shadows, prefiguring it and looking for- 
 ward to it. On the contrary, the only reason why 
 the death of Christ was called a sacrifice at all, was 
 the fact that the Christian religion was first promul- 
 gated among the Jews, who were a sacrificial people, 
 and full of the ideas and the language of sacrifice. 
 It was perfectly natural that Christ and his Apostles, 
 in establishing a purely spiritual religion, in which 
 there were no sacrifices, and by which sacrifices 
 were done away, should use language in illustration 
 borrowed from the old ritual and its sacred associ- 
 ations. 
 
 But to represent the sacrifices as the figures, and 
 the death of Christ as the reality, is a complete in- 
 
394 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 version of facts ; as much as to dig up a tree by the 
 roots, and plant the branches in the earth, and rear 
 the roots in the air, would be an inversion of the 
 order of nature. 
 
 Christ's great work was to establish his truth in 
 the earth, not to expiate men's sins. " The flesh," 
 says he, " profiteth nothing. The vjords that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit and they are life." This is 
 made most evident when we come to his last prayer 
 with his disciples. When he was about to leave the 
 earth, he lifted up his- soul in prayer for the success 
 of his mission. On that solemn occasion, he would 
 naturally lay stress upon that part of it which was 
 really most important. If his expiatory death had 
 been the main purpose of his mission, he would 
 have addressed God in such language as this : " I 
 am now approaching the most important part of 
 my office. I am about to offer myself in sacrifice. 
 Receive, O Father, this propitiation for the sins of 
 mankind. Let it appease thy displeasure, and sat- 
 isfy thy justice." 
 
 But he says nothing of this. He makes the great 
 purpose of his mission to be something of a very dif- 
 erent nature. " I have finished the work" says he, 
 " which thou gavest me to do. I have given them 
 the words which thou gavest me." This was his 
 great work, and it was finished ; and his death was 
 merely incidental, his testimony to the truth of what 
 he had taught. " And now come I to thee." 
 
 He prayed for their sanctification. But by what 
 means ? That their sins might be expiated by his 
 death, that their transgressions might be imputed to 
 him, and his righteousness imputed to them ? No. 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 395 
 
 But by means most natural and rational. " Sanc- 
 tify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." 
 
 Here, then, according to Christ's last solemn pray- 
 er, are the whole force and power and moral efficacy 
 of the Gospel, centred in its truth, what it teaches 
 mankind, what it makes men receive as truth and act 
 upon as such. This is the only salvation for man. 
 And the death of Christ has the most immediate 
 bearing upon it. He declared that the truths he 
 taught came immediately from God, and were deci- 
 sive of men's future destiny. He was accused as an 
 impostor, pretending to a revelation Avhich he had 
 never received. Had he refused to die a martyr to 
 the truth, there would have been an end to his relig- 
 ion ; it would have had no power, and the millions 
 who have been redeemed by it from sin and moral 
 death would have been left to perish. 
 
 His crucifixion, instead of crushing his cause, 
 was indirectly the means of arming his Apostles 
 with new power. It made his death a tragedy, the 
 deepest, most solemn, and most moving, that was 
 ever enacted upon earth. Kings, governors, and 
 senates were the actors in it, — a whole city was its 
 theatre, and a whole nation its spectators. The 
 most careless eye has seen in it the triumph of 
 malice and falsehood over truth and innocence, 
 and the injustice of that trial, the indignity of those 
 stripes, and the agonies of that unmerited death 
 upon the cross, have fulfilled his own prophecy: 
 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto me." They have fixed upon him the 
 spmpathies of all mankind to the end of time. Men 
 have hearts as well as understandings, sensibility as 
 
 
396 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 well as intellect, and thus Christ addressed all the 
 principles of human nature at once, and made con- 
 quest of them all. The inauguration of Christianity 
 as the religion of the world was taken out of the 
 obscure localities of Nazareth, Capernaum, and the 
 shores of the Galilean lake, and transferred to the 
 capital of Judaea, there to be publicly performed by 
 unwitting actors, and witnessed by multitudes who 
 knew not the use which God was making of their 
 obstinacy, prejudices, and blindness. That death in 
 the sight of thousands, officially procured and offi- 
 cially ascertained, that rocky sepulchre, watched 
 over by a guard of armed soldiers, only increased 
 the wonder of the awe-struck world, when the sep- 
 ulchre was opened and the Crucified re-appeared. 
 That* event clothed its witnesses with new power, 
 and conferred upon them an authority which men 
 had never possessed before. To the treasures of 
 spiritual truth which they had derived from the 
 teaching of Christ, they now added a message from 
 the spiritual world ; they became the ambassadors of 
 a risen Saviour. The power of moral conviction, 
 which their discourses ever carried with them, was 
 henceforth deepened and confirmed by the powers 
 of the world to come. 
 
 The Gospel, thus corroborated from earth beneath 
 and from heaven above, went on conquering and to 
 conquer. It took a deeper hold on humanity than 
 anything had ever done before ; it was found to pos- 
 sess the power of spiritual renovation ; it created men 
 anew in the moral image of Christ; the evil passions 
 of men were curbed and subdued, and reason and 
 conscience were enthroned in their stead. A com- 
 
SACRIFICIAL LANGUAGE. 397 
 
 munity rose up, such as the world had never seen, 
 such as no laws, no philosophy, no education could 
 ever produce, and Paul the Apostle, the despised 
 son of a persecuted race, by a few months' labor in 
 the various cities of the Roman empire, through the 
 spiritual power of the Gospel, accomplished a reno- 
 vation of society which sages and lawgivers had for 
 ages attempted in vain. 
 
 The blood of Christ, then, is the seal of the truth 
 of his religion. By that religion, its teachings and 
 moral influences, mankind are saved. And it is a 
 true representation, though not in the common, 
 material sense, where the Apocalyptist makes the 
 multitude of the saints in light to celebrate his 
 praise. " Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
 kings and priests unto his God and Father, to him 
 be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 34 
 
 / 
 
DISCOURSE XXV. 
 
 REGENERATION. 
 
 MARVEL NOT THAT I SAID UNTO THEE, YE MUST BE BORN 
 AGAIN. THE WLND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH, AND 
 THOU HEAREST THE SOUND THEREOF, BUT CANST NOT 
 TELL WHENCE IT COMETH, AND WHITHER IT GOETH : SO 
 IS EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. — John 
 
 iii. 7, 8. 
 
 The importance of making a distinction be- 
 tween Doctrine and Phraseology is nowhere, per- 
 haps, more conspicuous than in the language which 
 is used in the New Testament concerning spiritual 
 renovation, that change which Christianity is de- 
 signed to bring about in the soul of man. Make it 
 a figure of speech, as it was in the mouth of Christ, 
 a phraseology in common use among the Jews 
 and well understood by them, and it is reasonable 
 and consistent ; and it harmonizes with experience, 
 justice, the nature of man, and the Divine character. 
 But make it a doctrine, the very sum and essence 
 of Christianity, and it arrays itself against reason, 
 justice, and morality, and makes Christianity itself 
 the revelation of unspeakable wrong. 
 
 Its original meaning is sufficiently explained 
 
REGENERATION. 399 
 
 when we consider the manner in which it was 
 introduced by Jesus in his conversation with Nico- 
 demus. It is not brought forward as anything new, 
 but as a thing with which Nicodemus, as a Rabbi, 
 ought to be well acquainted. " Art thou a master 
 of Israel, and knowest not these things ? " Nicode- 
 mus, as a Jewish Rabbi, well knew that the incor- 
 poration of a convert from Paganism into the Jewish 
 nation was called a new birth, not because there was 
 any change of personal identity, not because there 
 was any change of nature or constitution, but because 
 there was a change of religion, a change of faith, of 
 habits, of association, — there was, in fact, the com- 
 mencement of a new life. If the conversion were 
 sincere, there was a change of character. Out- 
 wardly, the convert became by adoption a child of 
 Abraham, and an heir of the promises made to him. 
 Inwardly he became the spiritual child of Abraham, 
 by faith in God and obedience to his laws. It was 
 a saying among the Jews, " If any one become a 
 proselyte, he is like a child new born." And again, 
 " The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and the ser- 
 vant that is made free, behold, he is like a child new 
 born." 
 
 Christ asserts, greatly to the surprise of Nicode- 
 mus, that just such a change is necessary in order 
 that a Jew may become a Christian. The heathen 
 proselyte became a Jew by circumcision. The Jew 
 must become a Christian by baptism, and thus 
 incorporate himself with the new Church which is 
 now being established under the Messiah. 
 
 But this was not all. All Jews were not the spir- 
 itual children of Abraham. Those only were such 
 who resembled him in character. As Paul after- 
 
400 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 wards beautifully expressed the same truth, " For 
 he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is 
 that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. 
 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circum- 
 cision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in 
 the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God." 
 Christianity has to do with the soul, with the spirit- 
 ual part of man. It has to do with character as 
 well as profession. The soul of man is free, and is 
 not controlled by the outward lineage of the body, 
 nor yet by forms and ceremonies. Baptism itself is 
 no certain guaranty of the Christian character. It 
 still leaves the soul free to choose its own actions 
 and form its own character. The soul is free as the 
 wind that blows. Allegiance to the Gospel must 
 be spontaneous, and the process of spiritual renova- 
 tion must be wrought out in the secret recesses of 
 the mind. Can any thing be more true, rational, 
 and practical than this ? 
 
 Interpreted as phraseology, it stands on the same . 
 ground with other figures of speech used in the 
 New Testament. A state of sin is called death, 
 and a recovery to virtue a resurrection, or a passing 
 from death unto life. A state of moral degrada- 
 tion is called blindness, and redemption from it is 
 called restoration to sight. Jesus carried the figure 
 of spiritual death so far, as to call his Gospel his 
 voice, by which he summons those who lie in the 
 graves of moral debasement to spiritual life. Such 
 figures mislead no one, while they are interpreted as 
 figures. They add vivacity and force to the teach- 
 ings of the Saviour, and generally to the language 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 So long as the principle is kept in view, that 
 
REGENERATION. 401 
 
 comparisons and similitudes are to be expected to 
 hold in a few particulars only, and that the thing 
 illustrated remains unchanged, and retains its own 
 nature and laws, and is to be judged of by that 
 nature and those laws, and not by the qualities or 
 circumstances of the thing to which it is compared, 
 there is no serious misapprehension. 
 
 But all minds are not satisfied with this. Prompted 
 by various motives, they proceed to transform phrase- 
 ology into doctrine, to petrify a figure into a dogma, 
 and Regeneration becomes the very sum and essence 
 of Christianity. Instead of considering spiritual 
 renovation as illustrated by natural truth, the laws 
 and conditions of natural birth are transferred to 
 spiritual renovation. Whole treatises are written to 
 carry out this idea, not to make Christianity reason- 
 able, plain, and practical, but to involve it in a cloud 
 of mysticism. 
 
 The fruit of this transformation of phraseology 
 into doctrine is first the implication, and then the 
 outright assertion, that regeneration is a change of 
 nature instead of a change of character. What fol- 
 lows from this ? Inferences most dishonorable to 
 God, and most discouraging and disheartening to 
 men, — doctrines which seriously derange and em- 
 barrass the whole administration of Christianity. 
 
 The clearest and most indisputable dictate of 
 natural justice is, that law should be adapted to the 
 subject, that requirements should be commensurate 
 with endowments and capacities. To require im- 
 possibilities is the very essence of a tyranny. If 
 God makes man, I mean each man, now and here, 
 with a nature incapable of complying with his 
 34* 
 
402 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 requirements, incapable of religion, and it is neces- 
 sary that his nature should be changed by the same 
 power that created it before he can do anything ac- 
 ceptable to God, then is the government of God 
 wholly indefensible, and it is impossible to regard 
 his character as worthy of our homage and affec- 
 tion, and there is at once an end of religion. 
 
 Burdened with regeneration as a doctrine con- 
 cerning the nature of man, the preaching of the 
 Gospel becomes anything rather than the annun- 
 ciation of glad tidings to mankind. The teacher of 
 Christianity, when he delivers his message, is com- 
 pelled to say to men that their sinfulness is owing 
 to defect of nature, and not to perversity of will ; 
 that they are created without the capacity of religion, 
 and that capacity they cannot acquire, and yet are 
 they subject to the direst penalties for the want of 
 its possession. 
 
 But such is the direct contradiction between these 
 two statements, that it is impossible for mankind to 
 believe but one. And they will probably accept 
 that which will involve the least responsibility and 
 require the least exertion ; and that will be to take 
 the preacher at his word, when he tells them of 
 their inability to do anything for themselves. 
 
 But what words can express the moral desolation 
 which must be produced by that doctrine which 
 takes from the great mass of mankind the sense of 
 spiritual capacity and responsibility ; which teaches 
 that by nature they are not within the conditions of 
 probation, and that they cannot be placed within 
 those conditions except by an act of almighty 
 power ? 
 
REGENERATION. 403 
 
 Sometimes this doctrine is carried so far that the 
 unregenerate, as they are called, are treated as if 
 they were incapable of any religious act or exercise. 
 In the house of God they are spoken of as mere spec- 
 tators, as incapable of taking a part in the devo- 
 tions, and as being there not to pray, but that the 
 regenerate may pray for them. It is even main- 
 tained that the prayers of the unregenerate are sin. 
 
 What position could possibly be taken more inju- 
 rious to the religious welfare of much the larger 
 majority of mankind, than to teach them that they 
 are not religious beings, and, until their natures are 
 changed, can have no part nor lot in religion ? 
 What presumption, even were this distinction found- 
 ed in fact, for a part of mankind to assume that they 
 are regenerated, and the rest are not! The good 
 deeds of all on one side of a certain line are to 
 be denied as worthless, and of no account in the 
 sight of God ; and the evil deeds of all those on the 
 other side, to be regarded as venial, and not endan- 
 gering their salvation. 
 
 This representation of mankind as separated into 
 two grand divisions by the line of regeneration is 
 essentially false. It does not correspond to facts, 
 either historically or theoretically. The religious life 
 is historically progressive. " The path of the just is 
 as the shining light, which shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day." Those instances are excep- 
 tions in which a sudden and great change takes 
 place in the character. Christ has well compared 
 the progress of the religious life to the growth of 
 grain out of the earth. " So is the kingdom of God, 
 as if a man should cast seed into the ground ; and 
 
404 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed 
 should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 
 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself ; first the 
 blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
 
 The history of every human life is made up of lit- 
 tle things, none of which exerts a very powerful influ- 
 ence on the character, but all together, and in the 
 aggregate, they make us what we are when we leave 
 this world. Great events do not often happen, and 
 it would be unsafe in spiritual matters to wait for 
 their occurrence. 
 
 The spiritual renovation which is figuratively called 
 Regeneration in the New Testament, is a voluntary 
 change of character. "When preached as a dogma, 
 it becomes a passive change of constitution, and thus 
 virtually takes the spiritual destiny of man out of 
 his hands. In this shape it usually connects itself 
 with the doctrine of Original Sin, which is in itself 
 the most atrocious imputation on God and man. 
 It supposes that God suffered the first parents of our 
 race to decide by their own act the eternal destiny 
 of all their posterity, and incapacitate them for vir- 
 tue and holiness. In this condition of things, their 
 posterity have no probation. They are lost before 
 they have done a single act of their own. They 
 have no moral freedom, and yet are made liable to 
 all the penalties of transgression just as much as if 
 they were. 
 
 The selection of any part of them becomes a mat- 
 ter of mere arbitrary will. An act of almighty 
 power is necessary to make them free moral agents. 
 Hence then follows the doctrine of Election, a doc- 
 trine as abhorrent to every sentiment of justice in the 
 human bosom as the doctrine of Original Sin. 
 
REGENERATION. 405 
 
 Another doctrine has sprung out of it quite as in- 
 consistent with reason and justice, — the doctrine 
 of Baptismal Regeneration. This doctrine teaches 
 that baptism, administered by consecrated hands, 
 is accompanied by an act of God's power, supernat- 
 urally exerted, to change the nature of the child to 
 which it is administered, to restore the ruin of the 
 Fall, and place the child in the condition in which 
 Adam was before he sinned. 
 
 What valid objection can be made to this doc- 
 trine, if the principle involved in the doctrine of 
 Original Sin be admitted ? Is it said, that it is 
 partial and unjust, on the part of God, to bestow 
 this favor on one human being before he has ar- 
 rived at an age of moral and responsible action, and 
 withhold it from another no better and no worse ? 
 It may be answered, that it is quite as just as to 
 suffer one being to ruin the nature and blast the 
 prospects of another, without any community of ac- 
 tion between the two. And if there be no moral 
 or metaphysical objection to this use of almighty 
 power in the case of a few, why, we solemnly ask? 
 is it not extended to all ? Do not the plainest dic- 
 tates of justice demand that it should be extended 
 to all ? They were ruined by an agency over which 
 they had no control ; why should they not be re- 
 stored by an agency equally foreign and indepen- 
 dent of themselves ? 
 
 The figure of regeneration, petrified into a dogma, 
 reverses the order of spiritual renovation as laid down 
 in the Scriptures. It is the uniform representation 
 of the sacred writers, that the first step towards sal- 
 vation is taken by man in the exercise of his free and 
 
406 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 unbiased will ; and so salvation is sincerely offered 
 to all to whom the Gospel is preached. " Whoso- 
 ever will, let him come and take the waters of 
 life freely." But if the doctrine of Regeneration in 
 the sense of a passive change of constitution be true, 
 there is no sincerity in this invitation, or any other 
 invitation recorded in the Bible. The will is not free 
 in the direction indicated. It has no power in that 
 direction, until subjected to an act of almighty trans- 
 formation. 
 
 Those passages which seem to favor this system, 
 when closely examined, are found to teach the very 
 opposite ; as, for instance, that remarkable one in the 
 first chapter of the Gospel of John : " Which were 
 born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
 the will of man, but of God." Here it would seem, 
 at first sight, that the spiritual birth took place by 
 the immediate agency of God, without the co-oper- 
 ation of the human will, and almost in opposition 
 to it. But if we go back to the preceding verse, we 
 find that it is all explained. There we find that there 
 is a free act of the human will, which precedes the 
 adoption of the sons of God. " But as many as 
 received him, to them gave he power to become the 
 sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." 
 The act of receiving Christ was man's act, done in 
 the exercise of his free, unbiased will, and what God 
 does is consequent upon it. And we learn to inter- 
 pret the act of God's will by which Christians be- 
 come the sons of God, not of his influencing the 
 human will, but of his providing through faith in 
 Christ another way for men to become his spiritual 
 children, besides being descended by birth from the 
 
REGENERATION. 
 
 407 
 
 stock of Abraham, or being adopted into the Israel- 
 itish nation by proselytism. 
 
 Regeneration preached as a doctrine generally 
 misrepresents the nature of spiritual influences, that 
 action of God upon the soul of man which is repre- 
 sented in the New Testament as accompanying the 
 administration of Christianity. It is nowhere repre- 
 sented as changing the essential elements of human 
 nature, as making men incapable of sin, or securing 
 them against it, except by a continuance of their 
 own exertions. Such a change would be inconsist- 
 ent with the continuance of a state of probation. 
 The Spirit is represented as aiding men, not as doing 
 their work for them and superseding their own 
 agency. " The Spirit helpeth our infirmities." 
 
 It is given, according to the representations of the 
 word of God, in answer to prayer. " If ye, then, be- 
 ing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your chil- 
 dren, how much more shall your Heavenly Father 
 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? " If so 
 indefinite and mysterious a subject is capable of defi- 
 nition, perhaps the nearest approach we can make 
 to a logical definition of spiritual influences as ap- 
 plicable to Christian experience, is this. It is the 
 natural influence upon the soul of man which is ex- 
 erted by true prayer to the true God. It is the pow- 
 erful and transforming force that is thus brought to 
 operate upon the human soul. It is felt by every hu- 
 man being who intelligently and fervently prays to 
 the Father of spirits. It is the grand instrument of 
 the sanctification of the soul. But it produces no 
 change in the essential nature of man. It does not 
 make salvation sure, nor secure to any an immunity 
 
408 
 
 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 from subsequent temptation, declension, and fall. 
 Paul himself, with all the aid he received from the 
 ordinary and supernatural influence of the Spirit of 
 God, was conscious that he still was in danger of 
 spiritual disaster, and, after having preached to oth- 
 ers, himself might become a castaway. 
 
 It has been the pressing of the figure of regenera- 
 tion to a positive doctrine, affecting the essential na- 
 ture of man, which in different ages has produced the 
 fatal Antinomian error of the Saint's Perseverance, a 
 doctrine which has disturbed the peace of so many 
 churches, and put a period to the growth of so many 
 Christians. It is impossible to prevent the belief 
 which a man cherishes in a supernatural change in 
 his nature, wrought by God's immediate interposi- 
 tion, from begetting a false confidence in himself, and 
 a spiritual arrogance towards others. There are no 
 distinctions so sure to be the foundation of pride and 
 assumption, as those which are attainable by no hu- 
 man effort. They are secured by a monopoly with 
 which nothing can interfere. 
 
 And so we see, in Protestant churches, the same 
 use made of the dogma of Regeneration, that is 
 made of the doctrine of Infallibility by the Church of 
 Rome. It is made the instrument of ecclesiastical 
 domination. Those who profess to have been regen- 
 erated assume to themselves the whole management 
 of ecclesiastical affairs by divine right. They make 
 it the ground of disfranchising all who do not make 
 the same pretension. Their religious experience they 
 consider to amount to a divine sanction of their re- 
 ligious opinions, and upon the strength of this supe- 
 rior illumination they claim the power, not only to 
 
REGENERATION. 409 
 
 judge of their own state, but of the religious condi- 
 tion and opinions of others. They undertake to 
 decide who are and who are not prepared to ap- 
 proach the table of communion, and to shut out, on 
 grounds of mere opinion, those who exhibit in their 
 daily life quite as strong evidence of sincere alle- 
 giance to the Saviour as themselves. 
 
 Thus Protestant churches attempt to govern the 
 world by ideas, precisely as the Catholic Church gov- 
 erned it by institutions ; and the infallibility of hav- 
 ing been born again is found quite as useful an in- 
 strument of spiritual domination, as the infallibility 
 of belonging to the Holy Catholic Church, derived 
 by unbroken succession from the Apostles. 
 
 But the most pernicious consequence of preaching 
 Regeneration as a doctrine is, that it underrates the 
 power of the human will as an instrument of spiritual 
 renovation. Our characters are formed by what 
 we do. The best and most efficient means of relig- 
 ious improvement is action. Form a good purpose 
 and execute it immediately, and it is a giant stride 
 towards the excellence we seek. It is a good thing 
 to pray, and systematically to use the means of 
 grace, as they are called. But there is something 
 better still. Do with zeal and energy the first duty 
 which presents itself, overcome the first temptation 
 which besets you, and the soul shall wax strong in 
 virtue by the simple exercise of its own powers. 
 
 Hence the barrenness of worship, and the use of 
 the instrumental duties of religion in Christian 
 lands. The divine order of spiritual renovation is 
 overlooked. It begins with an act of the will, and 
 Christ's first message to the world was, " Repent, 
 25 
 
410 PHRASEOLOGY. 
 
 for the kingdom of God is at hand." Men worship 
 in vain, because they neglect the conditions of ac- 
 ceptable worship, which are to do your duty as far 
 as you know it before you attempt to worship. " If 
 thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember- 
 est that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave 
 there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first 
 be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer 
 thy gift." That act shall profit thee more than to 
 listen for months to solemn liturgies and eloquent 
 discourses, without the serious purpose or the earnest 
 effort to do thy daily duty. Man's order is, Worship 
 that you may be clean. The Divine order is, Be clean 
 that you may worship. " Who shall ascend the hill 
 of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place ? 
 He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ! " 
 
 This is a representation of things totally different 
 from passive, constitutional regeneration, in which 
 God must take the initiative step, and man must 
 wait for a divine impulse. Every suggestion of 
 duty, every admonition of conscience, is a divine 
 impulse, not withheld from any individual of the 
 human race. There is no such sharp dividing-line 
 between the natural and the supernatural as narrow 
 theologians represent. It is the same God who acts 
 through both for the accomplishment of the same 
 purpose. The highest species of self-culture is not 
 spiritual exercises, but action, prompt, resolute, per- 
 severing action. It is not to go into God's temples 
 and cry, Lord, Lord ! but to do the things which he 
 hath commanded. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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