LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 
 
 Shelf 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 

 1tt,vi 
 
THE 
 THEOLOGY OF CHRIST 
 
THE 
 
 THEOLOGY OF CHRIST, 
 
 FROM HIS OWN WORDS. 
 
 A Deo docetur, Deum docet, et ad Deum ducit.— Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 By JOSEPH P, THOMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 PORSIEKLY PASTOR OP BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 By WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D., LLJGL 
 
 NEW YORK : ^^^Opwash^ 
 E B. TREAT, 757 BROADWAY, 
 
 OFFICE OF "THE PULPIT TREASURY." 
 
 1885. 
 
 PRICE $1.50. 
 
 \ 
 

 v ««^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 CHARLES SCKIBNER & CO., 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 
 Copyright, By E. B. Treat, 1884. 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 Eecent discussions of Christianity as a Faith 
 have revolved about Christ as a Person ; and the 
 Life of Christ, that formerly was shaped into biog- 
 raphy for the instruction of the young and the 
 edification of the devout, has become an effective 
 weapon of theological polemics. But while within 
 the sphere of theology this new significance has 
 been given to the Life of Christ, the Theology of 
 Christ Himself has hardly received the distinction 
 due to it as the formative power in the Christian 
 system both as to faith and to practice. The doc- 
 trine of Christ was of the very essence of His life, 
 and constitutes the true and vital Christianity. 
 " I am the light of the world ; he that followeth Me 
 shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light 
 of lifer 
 
 This book does not attempt to delineate the life 
 of Christ, but to evolve, directly and exclusively from 
 His own words, the Doctrine that He taught. The- 
 ology has been too much the name of speculative 
 systems, the product of philosophy applied to the 
 Scriptures, or of some spiritual experience evolved 
 from an individual soul and then supplemented 
 from the Scriptures. But in the teaching of Christ, 
 
IV 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 theology is declarative in its form, and directly 
 practical in its intent. He sets forth the truth of 
 God, and all things spiritual and divine, with a spe- 
 cific cast of doctrine, and a subjective relation of 
 system, yet without the formulas of logic or the 
 definitions of philosophy. Hence a truly Christian 
 theology must be derived from the interpretation 
 of His words by the laws of exegesis, and the colla- 
 tion of detached sayings in their relations to the 
 whole course of His teaching. This has been 
 attempted in the volume which is here given to 
 the public. 
 
 It is no easy task to withdraw one's mind from 
 the phrases and methods of theology with which 
 it has long been familiar, and to concentrate it upon 
 the interpretation of words spoken eighteen centu- 
 ries ago ; it is as difficult at least as to extract from 
 Plato and Xenophon the pure words of Socrates, 
 and to hold these apart from all later speculations, 
 for independent investigation. This, however, the 
 author has sought to do ; and he hopes that his 
 book will be found as free from any unconscious 
 bias of preconceived opinions or beliefs, as it is 
 from the terminology of any theological system or 
 school. 
 
 It is believed that such a development of the 
 Theology of Christ as is here attempted is new in 
 English literature : and only within a recent period 
 has Germany, so prolific in every form of Biblical 
 and Theological criticism, produced anything in 
 this distinct department of Christian science. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Among the most important of these recent works 
 are Dr. F. C. Baur, Vorlesungen ilber N. T. Theo- 
 logie — a work conceived in the spirit of the Tubin- 
 gen school of criticism; Drs. Schmid and Weizacker, 
 Bib. Theologie des Neuen Testaments; Dr. B. Weiss, 
 Lehrbuch tier blbllsclien Theologie des Neuen Testa- 
 ments : and Dr. J. J. Yan Oosterzee, Die Theologie 
 des Neuen Testaments, translated from the Dutch. 
 A particular account of the last two works will be 
 found in the Appendix. There are also isolated 
 comments and discussions upon the doctrines of 
 Christ in several of the recent works upon His life. 
 
 The author has assumed the genuineness of the 
 Gospel of St. John. This has not been done, how- 
 ever, without a careful study of the controversy 
 touching the fourth Gospel; and the reader who 
 cares to investigate that question will find mate- 
 rials in the Appendix. 
 
 It is hoped that this treatise will commend itself 
 to the Faith and Charity of the universal Church ; 
 and also that it will find a specific use as a text- 
 book for Bible Classes, and for classes in. the English 
 course in Theological Seminaries. 
 
 With the prayer that it may guide and help 
 some in the knowledge of the Truth as declared by 
 " the Teacher come from God," it is humbly offered 
 unto the Head of the Church, as the fruit of years 
 of study in His Word. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 One of the most wholesome and hopeful signs of our 
 times, is the reaction which has set in among us in the 
 direction of Biblical Theology. Instead of beginning 
 with a strictly formulated system, and proceeding to bring 
 every thing contained in the Scriptures in support of 
 that, students now are taking the much more philosoph- 
 ical and scientific method of examining the Scriptures 
 first, and seeking to deduce from them the doctrines 
 which they teach. Thus Systematic Theology becomes 
 the result at which Biblical Theology arrives, instead of 
 the guide under whose leadership the study of the Scrip- 
 tures is to be prosecuted. In saying this we do not mean 
 to depreciate Systematic Theology in its proper place, 
 but rather, by putting it into that place, to give it accuracy 
 and completeness. There is a System of Theology in 
 the Bible, but it is there as astronomy is in the stars, or 
 botany in the plants, or geology in the rocks. God is 
 not in his word, any more than in his works, the author 
 of confusion, but of order ; but he has left it to man to 
 discover and display that order for himself; and just as 
 in Science the true method is the inductive, which first 
 examines, verifies, and arranges facts, and then deduces 
 from them the inferences which they warrant ; so in The- 
 ology the true system is to be reached through the in- 
 ductive study of the Scriptures, whereby their statements 
 are collected, examined, interpreted and arranged, and the 
 net results are formulated as doctrines properly so called. 
 
 [vii] 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 The mere systematizer is always under the temptation 
 of trying to have Scripture on the side of his system ; 
 but the Biblical Theologian is most anxious to have his 
 system on the side of, or in harmony with the Scriptures. 
 The one is apt to deal with isolated passages, which he 
 quotes in support of his system ; the other seeks to bring 
 together all that the Bible contains on the matter in 
 hand, and then to find a result which shall express the 
 sum of their teaching. The one is prone to be most 
 anxious about the logical connection of the different 
 parts of his system with each other ; the other is most 
 eager to state with precision the sense of Scripture teach- 
 ing on the subject, and leaves the harmonizing of that 
 with other matters very largely out of the account, 
 believing that as in science there is no arguing against a 
 fact, so in theology there is no evading a plain, unmis- 
 takable and undeniable statement of the word of God. 
 
 Of these two methods, the Inductive is decidedly 
 the right one, and we may rely upon it that by its pros- 
 ecution in a reverent and prayerful spirit we shall reach 
 the surest and most satisfactory system. "We are not in- 
 sensible indeed to the value of already existing systems. 
 Some of the framers of these pursued the very method 
 which we now commend ; and their works will never 
 cease to be of service to the Christian Church. But each 
 generation must follow their example for itself ; and in- 
 stead of resting contentedly in what others have accom- 
 plished, must go to the fountain-head for its own satis- 
 faction and conviction. Whether anything new may be 
 discovered in the process, may be a fair question for 
 difference of opinion ; but there can be no doubt that the 
 very examination will result in deepening faith, and 
 stamping with the characteristics of the age the system 
 which is the out-come of the independent investigation. 
 The Bible is always the same, but there is always newness 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 in the times, arid each era has its "present truth " in the 
 light of which all others come to be read and readjusted. 
 As the charities of one age do not meet the necessi- 
 ties of another, but each generation has to make for 
 itself its own application of the precept " thou shalt love 
 thy neighbor as thyself ;" so the theology of one century 
 will not precisely meet the exigencies of another, but 
 each has to go back anew, and study in the light of its 
 own requirements those sacred books which are the 
 standards for all time, for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
 rection and for instruction in righteousness. Thus we 
 keep clear of the danger of losing the substance of truth 
 in the maintenance of a stereotyped phraseology, which, 
 though full of richest significance when first employed, 
 is apt, by the very frequency of its use as a watch-word, 
 to degenerate into a mere parrot-cry, out of which all 
 meaning has dropped. 
 
 For the prosecution of such inductive investigation of 
 the scriptures, many qualities are needed. There must 
 be competent scholarship to give a correct exegesis of the' 
 Scriptures themselves ; perfect candor to complete the 
 examination, including nothing that does not fairly be- 
 long to it, and excluding nothing that rightfully bears 
 upon it ; and strict integrity to draw only such inferences 
 as are fairly warranted by the premises, rejecting all mere 
 matters of speculation, and all hypotheses that cannot, in 
 the very nature of things, be verified. The Biblical The- 
 ologian must hold himself with unswerving loyalty to the 
 Scriptures, and must be ready to bow implicitly to their 
 authority. If anything is not treated of by the sacred 
 writers, concerning that, he, too, must be silent ; and no 
 preconceived opinions, whether they be drawn from an 
 imagined " Christian consciousness," or from mere indi- 
 vidual preference must be allowed to weigh in the least 
 degree against the words of the Bible fairly and honestly 
 
X P KEF ACE. 
 
 interpreted. But given these qualities, then we may 
 expect that the result will be Biblical, and in that, all 
 lovers of the Bible's Author will be prepared to ac- 
 quiesce. 
 
 In the " Theology of Christ " which we have been asked 
 to introduce to Biblical readers, theological students and 
 ministers of these days, we have one of the earliest, and 
 still one of the best, specimens of this Biblical Induction 
 which have been produced in our language. For such a 
 work my distinguished predecessor in the Broadway Tab- 
 ernacle possessed, in a high degree, all the qualities 
 which have just been enumerated. He has in this book 
 confined his range to the sayings of the Lord Himself, 
 not because he did not believe in the inspired authority 
 of the Apostles, but because he desired to show to the 
 men of his generation that they could not, consistently, 
 continue to regard Jesus with veneration, even as a man, 
 without also receiving from Him the doctrines which are 
 here deduced from his words. . The work is written in a 
 singularly calm and judicial spirit. No statement is over- 
 strained. Every portion of the Lord's teachings is laid 
 under tribute ; an unbiased interpretation of the meaning 
 of each is reached through scholarly exegesis, and a fair 
 inference is drawn from the whole. The method of the 
 book is excellent ; the style is lucid ; the spirit is rever- 
 ential ; and the result is satisfying. It was written by 
 the author in the full maturity of his powers, and shows 
 him at his best. We commend it to all Biblical stu- 
 dents, not only as a richly suggestive treatment of its 
 subject, but also as an excellent specimen of that Scrip- 
 tural Induction on which all true theology must rest. 
 
 Wm. M. Taylor. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Christ a Preacher. ....... 1-6 
 
 Preaching the chief function of His life. .... 1 
 
 He preached the Doctrines of a Positive Theology. . . 2 
 
 His Words the true Christianity. ..... 3 
 
 Doctrine necessary in "preaching Christ." . . . 4^6 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Quality of Christ's Preaching. .... 6-19 
 
 Impression of His preaching on contemporaries. . . 6-8 
 
 Not due to the extent nor profundity of His discourses. . . 8-9 
 
 His doctrine of God, of Man, and the Future State. . . 9-11 
 
 The depth, simplicity and fulness of His teachings. . . 11-15 
 
 Their influence upon human thought, character and society. . 15-17 
 
 The world cannot outgrow His teachings. . . 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Kingdom op God. ...... 19-32 
 
 Christ preached " the kingdom of God." ... 19 
 
 Jehovah the one Deliverer, as the germ of the Theocracy. . 20-25 
 
 Hence the kingdom was internal and spiritual. . . 25 
 
 Christ's Presence realizes the kingdom to the soul. . . 26 
 Its rewards and glories spiritual. ..... 27 
 
 The Church a form of the Kingdom. .... 29 
 
 Dr. van Oosterzee's views of this Kingdom. . . 30, 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The New Birth. ....... 32-49 
 
 A Gentile Proselyte was "born again." ... 33 
 
 The mistake of Nicodemus. ..... 34 
 
 The birth psychological and divine .... 35 
 
 An inward change required by the nature of the Kingdom. . 36 
 
 Also by the wickedness of the human heart. ... 38 
 
 Sin universal in the race. ..»..•. 40 
 
 Repentance and renunciation necessary. , 41 
 
 This effected through the divine Spirit. .... 42-45 
 
 The conversion of Paul. ..... 45-47 
 
 Sin made necessary the eoming of Christ. „ , . 47 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Salvation made possible through the Death of Christ. . 49-67 
 
 The Son of Man " lifted up ;" origin and meaning of the phrase. 49-52 
 
 This death the means of salvatioD. .... 53 
 
 The death in the plan of His mission. . . . 55-57 
 
 Analogy of the brazen serpent. .... 57 
 
 The plague of fiery serpents. .... 57-60 
 
 Moral lessons of the plague. ..... 60 
 
 The brazen serpent a type of mercy. ... 62 
 
 Christ's death a ransom. . .... 63 
 
 Meaning of \v T pov in the Greek classics and the Septuagint. 63 
 
 Christ died for our salvation. ..... 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Salvation limited only by Unbelief. .... 67-79 
 
 The provision of mercy unlimited. .... 07 
 
 Believing, the necessary condition. . . . .69 
 
 The " drawing " of the Father, not arbitrary but gracious. . 70-75 
 
 Men perish through unbelief and perversity of will. . . 75-78 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Nature of Religion. 
 
 Varieties of religious development. 
 
 The intellectual, formal, humanitary, imaginative, pietistic, all 
 
 tried before Christ. 
 Christ seated Religion in the heart. 
 All religious acts must be spiritual. 
 The Praying-machine of Thibet. 
 Religion a principle of holy living. 
 This the true theocracy. . . . 
 
 This Christ's rule of personal life. 
 An elective principle. ; 
 
 " G-ood works " attest it. . . . 
 
 All systems and lives to be brought to this test. 
 
 , 
 
 79-93 
 
 
 . 79 
 
 tic, all 
 
 
 
 80-83 
 
 
 83 
 
 . 
 
 . 84 
 
 
 85 
 
 , 
 
 . 86 
 
 
 87 
 
 , 
 
 . 88 
 
 
 89 
 
 . 
 
 . 90 
 
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Spirituality of Worship. 
 
 Our idea of spirit derived from consciousness. 
 
 God a personal spirit. .... 
 
 Chris*t did not abolish external worship. . 
 
 He made worship \he offering of the soul to its Father ; 
 
 Such worship is rational. . . • . 
 
 Opposed to ritualism and sentimentality. 
 
 Christian worship adapted to universal man. 
 
 93-104 
 
 94 
 
 95 
 
 96 
 
 97-99 
 
 99 
 
 100-102 
 
 102 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A Living Providence. 
 
 The faith of " Sojourner Truth." . 
 God's hand in the overthrow of Slavery. 
 Mr. Buckle's theory of events. 
 
 104-119 
 
 104, 117 
 
 105 
 
 106 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 Comte's view. 
 
 Positivism and Christianity irreconcilable. 
 
 God in the " course of Nature." 
 
 Providence universal and particular. 
 
 Special divine intervention. 
 
 Harmony of Providence with Reason. 
 
 " ' " with Free Will. 
 
 « " with General Laws. 
 
 107 
 
 107 
 
 108-110 
 
 111 
 
 113 
 114 
 115 
 116 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Op Prayer. 
 
 Prayer an Instinct. 
 Schleiermacher's definition. 
 Prayer based upon Providence. 
 A direct address to the Father. 
 Prayer for Temporal Things. 
 Prayer has positive influence with 
 Professor Tyndall's objection. 
 Conditions of successful prayer. 
 The Power of Prayer. 
 
 God. 
 
 119-133 
 119 
 119 
 
 120, 124 
 
 120-123 
 123 
 
 124-130 
 128 
 130 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Christ's Oneness with the Father. .... 
 
 Christ's self-Assertion. ...... 
 
 Mr. Liddon's view. ...... 
 
 Christ did not openly proclaim His divinity at first. 
 
 Meaning of the title " Son of God." .... 
 
 a, as used by demons, 138. b, by enemies 139. e, by the cen- 
 turion 139. d, by the High Priest 139. e, by the lisciples 140. 
 /, by Christ Himself 141. 
 
 The charge of " blasphemy " shows that Christ used this as a title 
 of divinity. ...... 
 
 His oneness with the Father not moral but essential. . . 
 
 Christ's divinity taught by Himself. .... 
 
 The testimony of Thomas. . . 
 
 133-150 
 
 133-136 
 
 134 
 
 137 
 
 138-146 
 
 143 
 146 
 148 
 148 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Comforter, the Holy Ghost. . . . . 150-160 
 
 The Holy Ghost the Revealer of Truth. . . . .150-153 
 
 " " Source of Supernatural gifts and powers. 153 
 
 He abides in the Church. ..... 154 
 
 The Spirit a divine person. ..... 155-157 
 
 The Gospels an insph-ed record. .... 157 
 
 Personal uses of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. . . 158 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Paradise. ....... 160-173 
 
 Prominence of Eschatology in Christ's Teachings. . . 160 
 
 His promise to the dying thief. .... 161 
 
 Views of early Fathers touching the state of departed spirits. 162 
 
 The Rabbis on Paradise . . . . . .163 
 
 Egyptian doctrine of the future State. . . . 164 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Dante's Paradiso. . 
 
 Paradise derived from the Sanscrit. 
 
 Its use in the Septuagint. . 
 
 The Primitive Paradise. 
 
 Christ's use of the term. 
 
 Elements of >.appiness in Paradise. 
 
 Biblical Psychology. 
 
 Paradise distinguished from Heaven. 
 
 The final consummation. 
 
 The grandeur of Redemption. 
 
 164 
 164 
 166 
 168 
 170 
 171 
 172 
 173 
 174 
 176 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Resurrection of the Bead. .... 
 
 Care of Christianity for the body. 
 
 Its sympathy with the heart. .... 
 
 Meaning of draoTaa-ts in the Greek classics, the Septuagint 
 the Apocrypha. ..... 
 
 The raising of Lazarus. ..... 
 
 Christ's answer to the Sadducees. 
 
 Hii discourse in John V. . . . 
 
 His conversation with Martha. 
 
 Christ Himself the Resurrection. . . . 
 
 Miracle of His own Resurrection. ... 
 
 Believers exempt from Death.. .... 
 
 The scope of Redemption. .... 
 
 The Christian faith a finality. .... 
 
 and 
 
 178-198 
 178 
 179 
 
 180-185 
 
 185, 191 
 186 
 187 
 189 
 190 
 192 
 
 . 194 
 195 
 
 . 196 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Final Judgment. 
 
 Christ's Prerogative of Judgment. 
 The Judgment public and formal. 
 Retribution taught in Nature. 
 Christ's Life and Word a present Judge. 
 The Judgment universal. 
 
 " at a set time — "that Day." 
 
 Our Humanity in the Judge. 
 Glory of the Incarnation. . . 
 
 198-211 
 198 
 199 
 200 
 201 
 204 
 206 
 207 
 
 208-210 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Blessedness of the Saints. ..... 211 
 
 Christ's promise of the " new wine." .... 211-215 
 
 Spiritual significance of this festival of love and joy. . , 214 
 
 Saints in heaven enjoy the near presence of their Lord. . 216 
 
 They are exalted in honor. > . . . .217 
 
 They have the approbation of the Father. . . . 218 
 
 The features of heavenly bliss. ..... 219 
 
 Conditions of admission to heaven. .... 219-221 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Future Punishment. .... 
 Christ preached the condemnation of unbelief. 
 His warnings. .... 
 
 222-237 
 222 
 223 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 Penal consequences in Nature. . . . 
 
 Christ taught a personal and positive retribution. 
 
 Penalty exists in fact. .... 
 
 Is recognized as just. .... 
 
 Natural evil is inflicted for moral offenses. 
 
 The higher claims of moral law. 
 
 The Justice of a personal reckoning. 
 
 Retribution due to the grandeur of virtue. 
 
 The dignity of man requires a moral law, with penalty. 
 
 Justice the strength of Society. 
 
 Christ's use of metaphor. .... 
 
 KoAao-is denotes a literal punishment. 
 
 Aiwuos means everlasting. . 
 
 224-225 
 226 
 227 
 227 
 
 228, 229 
 229 
 230 
 231 
 232 
 233 
 234 
 235 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Christ's Doctrine our Spiritual Sacrament. 
 Spirituality of Christ's teaching. 
 His use of strong sensible language. . 
 
 Neander on Eating His flesh. 
 Transubstantiation. . . . 
 
 The Friends' view of Sacraments. 
 Christ appointed Sacraments. , . 
 
 True Significance of the Supper. 
 
 237-248 
 237 
 238 
 240 
 
 241-243 
 243 
 243 
 
 245-247 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Doctrine of Christ Complete as a Revelation prom God. 
 Christ spake from the Father. 
 Yet as a self-revelation. ..... 
 
 Why did not Christ reveal more?. 
 
 He addressed Himself not to curiosity but to necessity. . 
 
 He sought to restore man to God. 
 
 For this His teaching was complete. 
 
 The vast range of His teaching, as to subjects and application. 
 
 A Revelation for Higher Truths. 
 
 His doctrine radical and revolutionary. . . 
 
 Summary of His Doctrine. ., 
 
 Christianity cannot be outgrown. . . 
 
 248 
 248 
 249 
 
 250-252 
 252 
 253 
 254 
 
 254-257 
 257 
 258 
 
 259-261 
 262 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 The Genuineness op the Gospel of John. . . 264-275 
 
 Characteristics of the fourth Gospel. . . • 264 
 
 Views of Strauss and Baur. . . . . 265 
 
 Internal evidences of genuineness. . . . 266 
 
 Agreements between the Synoptics and John. . . 267 
 
 The miracles in John's Gospel. . .... 268 
 
 The style of the Gospel. .... 269 
 
 Neander on John. . . 270 
 
 External evidences of genuineness. . . . 271 
 
 Testimony of Irenseus, Clement, Tertullian and Polyerates. . . 271 
 
 Testimony of Valentimis, Marcion, Basilides and Justin Martyr. 272 
 
 Bleek's Summary of the Argument. . . . 273-275 
 
XVI CONTENTS 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Dr. Van Oosterzee's Theology op the New Testament. 275-2S0 
 
 Science of Biblical Theology. . . . . . 276 
 
 Old Testament Foundations; Mosaism, Prophetism and Judaism. 276, 277 
 The kingdom of God, in its subjects, blessings and consummation. 278 
 The Theology of the fourth Gospel. ... . 279 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 CHRIST A PREACHER. 
 
 Christ was a Preacher. He began His public life by 
 preaching in the synagogues of Galilee; Pie closed it by 
 preaching in the porch of the Temple at Jerusalem. He 
 who was Himself the matter of the Gospel in the preaching 
 of the apostles, and is now the constant theme of evangelic 
 preaching, was the first preacher of His own Gospel, and 
 made preaching the chief function of His life. That He 
 manifested God by works of power, that He exhibited a 
 perfect Humanity through a sinless life of love, that He 
 constituted a new community to be known as His Church, 
 that He suffered and died for a testimony unto the truth 
 and for the redemption of mankind — all this does not 
 exhaust nor embody the story of the mission of Christ as 
 given in the Gospels. From first to last He is there the 
 Preacher. 
 
 Baptism was appointed by Him as the rite of initiation 
 into Plis kingdom ; but " Jesus himself baptized not." l 
 John had insisted hardly less upon baptism than upon 
 repentance ; but after that John was put in prison, Jesus, 
 taking up the work of reformation, came into Galilee, not 
 baptizing with water, but " preaching the Gospel of the 
 kingdom of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the 
 kingdom of God is at hand ; repent ye, and believe the 
 
 1 John iv. 2. 
 1 
 
2 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Gospel." l The priestly office was exalted by Him into a 
 spiritual mediatorship, when He made direct personal 
 intercession with the Father for His disciples/ yet He 
 neither offered sacrifices nor founded a priesthood, but 
 Himself preached and commissioned others to preadi, "the 
 Gospel of the kingdom." 3 A king He was, with authority 
 to give laws and to change customs and institutions in 
 religion, in society, in the state — in all this demanding 
 the homage of the souls of men, — yet He wore no semb- 
 lance of royalty, but rested the evidence of His kingship 
 in that He "came into the world that He should bear 
 witness unto the truth," 4 and the evidence of His Messiah- 
 ship upon the fact that "the poor have the Gospel preached 
 unto them." 5 While He founded a Church, and made 
 provision for its officers, its sacraments and its discipline, 6 
 He enjoined it upon His apostles to teach His command- 
 ments, and "that repentance and remission of sins should 
 be preached in His name among all nations." 7 
 
 Preaching being the characteristic feature of the life of 
 Christ, no true understanding of His mission can be had 
 without a knowledge of what He preached as the truth of 
 God. The Gospels which give us the record of His life 
 contain also a Gospel which He preached ; and this Gospel 
 comprises not only the rules of practical morality, the 
 lessons and precepts of humanity and religion, but the 
 Doctrines of a Positive Theology. It is sometimes alleged 
 that Christ taught personally none of those doctrines which 
 are commonly set forth by the Church in her creeds as 
 distinctive of the Christian faith, but directed His teachings 
 to practical life, inculcating the virtues, graces and charities 
 that would reform, adorn and bless society, and elevate 
 mankind : — that the doctrines of regeneration and atone- 
 
 1 Mark i. 14, 15. 2 John xiv. 16, and c. xvii. 3 Mat. ix. 35, x. 7, xi. L 
 * John xvii. 37. 5 Mat. xi. 5. 6 Mat. xvi. 18, 19. 
 
 7 Mat. xxviii. 20 ; Luke xxiv. 47. 
 
HIS WORDS THE TRUE CHRISTIANITY. 6 
 
 ment, of the divinity of Christ and the personality of the 
 Holy Spirit, were woven out of His sayings by speculative 
 minds among His followers, after Jesus had finished His 
 personal testimony of truth and goodness, — that such doc- 
 trines owe more to St. Paul and St. Augustine than to 
 Christ, and belong not to the original substance of the 
 Gospel, but to a philosophical theology that has grown up 
 around it. This notion is somewhat favored by a common 
 method of teaching theology — stating doctrines in technical 
 terms and with scientific nicety, tracing their development 
 in the history of the Church and of schools of philosophy, 
 and finally authenticating them by citations from the 
 Scriptures used mainly as proof-texts. For this purpose 
 the writings of Paul, as the logical expounder of the 
 Christian faith, are drawn upon more largely than other 
 portions of the New Testament ; — the Pauline conception 
 being taken as the basis of the Christian dogmatics, and 
 the words of Jesus being used to verify the statement 
 of His doctrines in the form of theological propositions. 
 To reverse this method is to derive the Christian Theology 
 primarily and directly from the words of Christ — a process 
 in which we have to do not with the creeds of the Church 
 nor the formulas of the theologians, but simply with the 
 principles of interpretation. So far as the very words of 
 Christ have been preserved, these form the essence of Chris- 
 tianity, just as the original sayings of Socrates as preserved 
 by his disciples are the substance of the Socratic wisdom. 
 To the first preacher of Christianity must we look for the 
 freshest, truest, best conception of the system. In His 
 words we find a proper theology — not formulated, indeed, 
 nor systematized, yet expressed in doctrines to be severally 
 believed, — doctrines set forth with a certain gradation of 
 time and thought, or in a certain order of development 
 — and these doctrines interwoven with the whole texture 
 of the precepts and promises of the Gospel. 
 
4 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 The study of the doctrines preached by Christ may 
 exhibit the Christian faith in a phase differing somewhat 
 from that presented through any sect or school ; especially 
 will it give to that faith a life and warmth, a power of 
 renewing and edifying, that is too much suppressed under 
 the technicalities of creeds. To many the very word 
 "doctrine" brings up reminiscences of the Catechism as a 
 school-boy task, or of a formal text-book in theology, of 
 dry, stiff propositions, having neither spiritual warmth nor 
 practical utility. But the doctrines that Christ preached 
 have as direct a bearing upon our lives as His precepts ; 
 and, if we will but suffer it, will come home to our hearts 
 with the emphasis of positive practical duties. Indeed the 
 duties of the Christian life derive their obligation from the 
 doctrines that make up the Christian faith. There is a 
 good deal of cant now-a-days about "preaching Christ." 
 In a great Christian Convention it was said lately, " the 
 churches are dying of Theology; ministers must preach 
 Christ," and the sentiment was received with applause. 
 But Christ Himself preached theology, and it is not possible 
 to preach Christ except one shall preach the doctrines that 
 He taught and that are the substance of His gospel. Shall 
 one preach that Jesus is the Saviour of mankind ? But this 
 is a doctrine, to be illustrated from His life and death, and 
 confirmed by His own words. Shall one preach that men 
 must repent and believe, that they may be saved ? But this 
 again is a doctrine, to be expounded, proved, enforced. 
 Shall the preacher, with Paul "determine not to know 
 anything, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified ?" l But the 
 relation of Christ's death to our salvation, of all doctrines 
 most requires clearness of statement and cogency of proof. 
 If the Church is languid and feeble in face of Bationalism, 
 Eitualism, and Materialism, it is for lack of a vigorous 
 grasp of the doctrines of the gospel. Preaching has run 
 
 i 1 Cor. ii i 2. 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST. 
 
 too much to the superficial, the fanciful, the sensational; 
 men go to Church that they may be pleased and excited 
 rather than instructed, for some transitory play upon the 
 imagination and emotions rather than the lasting conviction 
 of the understanding; whereas what most they need is 
 that the intellectual and- moral nature be lifted up to the 
 great thoughts of Christ, and so filled with His Spirit. 
 Christ is best preached in the grand doctrines whereby He 
 Himself preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. 1 
 
 1 On Christ as a teacher of Theology, see Dr. B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Biblis- 
 chen Thcologie des Ncnen Testaments ; and Dr. J. J. Van Oosterzee, Die The- 
 ologie dea Neuen Testaments. A good abstract of this latter work, with trans- 
 lations, is given in the American Presbyterian Review for July, 1870. This 
 author says, " To the teaching of the Lord we must ascribe a definite soterio- 
 logical character. In other words, all that the Lord announces respecting God 
 and man, sin and grace, the present and the future life, all, especially that He 
 testifies respecting Himself, stands in direct relation to the salvation that He 
 came to reveal and bestow. It is not so much religious truth in general as 
 specifically saving truth that is brought to light by Him. The possibility of 
 exhibiting the instruction of our Lord, with all its riches, as one whole lies just 
 here, that it manifests from beginning to end the character of Gospel. Luke 
 iv. 16, 22 ,• John vi. 68." 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE QUALITY OF CHRIST'S PREACHING. 
 
 " Never man spake like this man," x said the officers who 
 being sent to arrest Jesus were themselves arrested by the 
 spell of His words. This spontaneous testimony of His 
 contemporaries is also the deliberate verdict of history. 
 All the ages since have not produced a competitor nor even 
 a successor of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom and truth. 
 His preaching always made upon His hearers the impression 
 of something extraordinary in its character and peculiar to 
 Himself. At His first discourse at Nazareth, the home of 
 His youth, " all bare Him witness, and wondered at the 
 gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth." 2 Nor 
 was this the novelty of a first appearance, for the surprise 
 was none the less when, a year later, after His preaching 
 was widely known, He again taught at Nazareth " insomuch 
 that they were astonished and said, "Wnence hath this man 
 this wisdom and these mighty words? Is not this the 
 carpenter's son ? Whence hath this man all these things ?" 3 
 At Capernaum, where He preached so constantly, "they 
 were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with 
 power." 4 The same effect was produced by the sermon on 
 the mount, at the close of which it is said "the people 
 were astonished at His doctrine ; for He taught them as 
 one having authority, and not as the scribes." 5 
 
 Once, for the purpose of entrapping Jesus, the most 
 adroit and learned among the Jews concocted questions of 
 casuistry, touching politics, theology, and morality, to be 
 
 1 John vii. 46. 2 Luke iv. 22. 3 Matt. xiii. 54. 
 
 * Luke iv. 32. & Matt. vii. 28, 29. 
 
TESTIMONY OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 7 
 
 put to Him in presence of the people. First the politicians 
 tried Him with the question of paying tribute to Cesar ; 
 but when they got His answer, " they marvelled, and left 
 Him, and went their way." l Next, the Sadducees sought 
 to embarrass Him upon the doctrine of the resurrection, 
 but He put them also to silence, and the multitude, hearing 
 His reply, " were astonished at His teaching." 2 Last of 
 all, a lawyer demanded a categorical answer to the question 
 " Which is the great commandment," but after the reply of 
 Jesus, followed by His own questions touching the Messiah, 
 " no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst 
 any man from that day forth, ask Him any more questions." 8 
 When Jesus stood before Pilate, the Governor was so awed 
 by the words and bearing of his prisoner, that he sought to 
 escape the responsibility of condemning Him. Some such 
 impression of the extraordinary, the marvellous, and even 
 of the divine, was a common effect of the preaching of 
 Jesus among all classes of hearers. So strong was this 
 impression upon the disciples who heard Him in every 
 kind of address — parables, proverbs, set discourses, public 
 disputations — and also in the freedom of familiar conversa- 
 tion, that they said to Him, "Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life : and we believe and are sure that thou art that 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." i 
 
 What were the qualities of the preaching to which such 
 effects were ascribed by the contemporaries of Christ we 
 are not left to conjecture, since we can measure their 
 impressions by our own, and by the accumulated testimony 
 of the ages since. Of the eloquence of Pericles, who was 
 said to carry upon his tongue the thunderbolts of Jove, not 
 a fragment survives to certify his fame as the greatest of 
 Athenian orators. The fragmentary remains of other 
 orators of antiquity do not always sustain their reputation 
 in their time. There is in the printed page so little of 
 
 1 Matt. xxii. 22. 2 Matt. xxii. 33. 3 Matt. xxii. 46. 4 John vi. 63, 69. 
 
8 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 strength or fire that one marvels wherein lay the charm 
 that gave such effect to the spoken words, and feels that 
 much which is ascribed to the wisdom and eloquence of the 
 speaker lay in the feelings of the hearer, or the circum- 
 stances of the hour. A few, like Demosthenes and Cicero, 
 have left orations that justify their fame, and serve as 
 models for modern eloquence. And here and there, in the 
 literary history of the world, is one whose words of wisdom 
 and beauty have gathered fame with the ages, and are 
 even more appreciated now than they were in their time. 
 Plato and Shakespeare have a wider audience of mankind, 
 and a higher repute with men of thought and culture than 
 in their own generations ; — their penetrative and compre- 
 hensive wisdom is not dimmed by contrast with any of 
 their successors. Now in respect of the words of Jesus 
 Christ, which so wrought upon the minds of His contem- 
 poraries, and have so ruled the thought and life of after- 
 times, it is possible to measure and weigh their significance, 
 to compare them with the utterances of any other teacher, 
 and to analyze the sources of their power. His preaching 
 remains upon record to testify that " never man spake like 
 this man." 
 
 This impression of the transcendent worth of the sayings 
 of Christ does not arise in any degree from the extent of 
 His discourses. There are authors whose works are a 
 library of themselves; and as we look Upon the shelves 
 where twenty, thirty, forty volumes represent a Dickens, 
 a Scott, a Schiller, a Thiers, a Voltaire, an Owen, a Bacon, 
 we are amazed at the prolific genius, the patient industry, 
 or the vast erudition that such works display. But all 
 that is recorded of the sayings of Christ, together with 
 the history of His life, is contained in a duodecimo of 
 eighty pages;— less than one half of the New Testament 
 is the total of what Jesus said and did,— less than one 
 fourth is ail that is preserved of what He himself spake. 
 
9 
 
 Neither is the superiority of Jesus as a preacher due to 
 an air of learning or of profundity in His utterances. A 
 few names — but only the selectcst few — are accepted as 
 authorities in their several departments of literature or 
 science, because of the accuracy of their knowledge and 
 the solidity of their attainments; others, by an encyclo- 
 paedic acquaintance with the results of science, win a more 
 transient reputation of universal knowledge ; while others 
 — more commonly in schools of metaphysics — are taken to 
 be wise because they seem to be profound. But this New 
 Testament preacher makes no show of learning, and deals 
 with no subject that calls for book-knowledge. Science, 
 physical or metaphysical, He does not touch upon; political 
 and social questions He alludes to only incidentally or by 
 way of inference ; but of truths that concern one's spiritual 
 nature, and of duties between man and man and from man 
 toward God, He speaks as never man spake, before nor 
 since. This is true equally of the Matter of His speech, 
 of the Manner of it, and of its Effects upon human thought, 
 character, and society. 
 
 For the Matter of His teaching — to anticipate in part 
 what will be fully brought out in future chapters — take 
 for instance His doctrine of God : — a Spirit to be approached 
 with spiritual worship and with sincerity of heart; so pure, 
 so holy, so good, that absolute perfection is to be perfect as 
 our Father in heaven; governing the world with a Provi- 
 dence so minute that the hairs of our heads are numbered, 
 so gentle that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without 
 our Father; so kind that one can have no cause for anxiety 
 in temporal things, if he will but trust in God ; a Moral 
 Governor also, who makes the law of holy love the absolute 
 rule of life and blessedness, who searches the heart by this 
 law, who estimates character by its standard, and who will 
 hereafter judge all men by it in their motives and their 
 deeds;— but while thus supreme as Ruler and Judge, 
 
10 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 asserting over mankind His holy and universal authority, 
 yet compassionate toward the guilty, seeking to save them 
 from their sins and bring them into loving fellowship with 
 Himself as their Father: — a God whose holiness is love 
 and whose love would have men become perfect in holiness 
 that they may be perfect in blessedness. "Whoever will 
 compare this Theology of Jesus, item by item, and in its 
 grand totality, with the speculations of philosophers con- 
 cerning the essence and nature of the Supreme Being and 
 His agency in the world, and with the theories by which 
 moralists have sought to harmonize truth, justice, love, 
 holiness in the character of God, must confess that never 
 man spake like this man — never man formed a concep- 
 tion of the divine Being so clear, so positive, so complete, 
 so absolute in every perfection, and so beautiful in the 
 harmony of all, so majestic in character and sovereignty 
 yet so approachable by man, so lofty and glorious, yet so 
 gracious and so near! 
 
 The same transcendent quality appears in the substance 
 of Christ's doctrine of man: — a personal soul, a spiritual 
 being, and as such worth more to himself than the whole 
 world; a sinner whose heart is a fountain of evil, yet 
 capable of becoming pure and holy as a child of God; 
 an immortal spirit, who by virtue of his character, shall 
 hereafter take his place either with spirits of darkness or 
 with the angels that behold the face of God ; a moral being 
 created for love, and for whom the fellowship of human 
 love would make a perfect society and loving God a present 
 heaven. Whoever will take this anthropology of Christ 
 and compare it with scientific theories of the origin and 
 end of man, and metaphysical speculations touching his 
 nature, his capacity, and his future, must confess that never 
 man spake like this man : — never did philosopher form of 
 Humanity a picture so true, an ideal so high, suggest a 
 character so noble, and make this possible by living ex- 
 
11 
 
 ample, or open to the Race so grand and glorious a future; 
 and never did philanthropist kindle such enthusiasm of 
 love for Humanity itself. 
 
 This superhuman quality in the preaching of Christ is 
 even more impressive in His doctrine of the Resurrection. 
 A belief in the immortality of the soul — a belief that seems 
 rooted in the soul itself — was widely, though perhaps 
 vaguely entertained, long before the time of Christ; and 
 the practice of mummification among the Egyptians was 
 based upon the expectation of a return of the soul to the 
 body ; but he who will ponder Christ's assurance of a final 
 victory over death and the grave and of a personal identity 
 not only realized in consciousness but manifested in outward 
 appearance, and will reflect upon the dignity that such a 
 promise restores to our fallen nature, the consolation it 
 imparts to grief, the hope and solace to love, must acknow- 
 ledge that in the highest concernment of man — his existence 
 and condition after death — never man spake like this man 
 who said " I am the resurrection and the life : he that be- 
 lieveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 7 ' 1 
 
 Turning from {he Matter of Christ's preaching to the 
 Manner of it — from what He said to the way in which He 
 said it, one is impressed, first of all, with the calm spiritual 
 depth of His sayings. With no air of profundity, the 
 sayings of Jesus have a depth of meaning that no philoso- 
 phy has yet fathomed. But this depth is not obscurity, it 
 is simply deepness. Depth of reasoning sometimes leads 
 to obscurity of statement ; the intellectual process becomes 
 confused, or the listener loses the clue, or language furnishes 
 no terms for the more delicate shades of meaning. But an 
 intuition of the spiritual life — a truth the attestation of 
 which should be given directly by conscience or in 
 consciousness, however deep in meaning, may be always 
 clear in expression. Philosophers go to the bottom of 
 
 1 John xi. 25. 
 
12 THE THEOLOGY OP CHRIST. 
 
 * 
 
 their own thoughts, but Christ went to the bottom of 
 things; and one can see the truth as He states it, and feel 
 that it is the truth, though he may not at first measure its 
 whole depth, just as without diving to the bottom of the 
 ocean, one may see that the bottom is deep, and that pearls 
 are lying there. This profound clearness in the utterances 
 of Christ is due to His intuitive and absolute knowledge. 
 Where others seek after truth by long processes of investi- 
 gation, and find it only in fragments, Jesus saw truth 
 ensphered before Him like a crystal, and He so states the 
 truth that we see it and feel it, although not always able 
 fully to grasp it. Thus one may read metaphysical 
 philosophy from Plato to Kant without gaining a clear 
 positive conception of that Infinite Spirit in whose existence 
 all such philosophy must terminate. But when Christ 
 says, " God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth/' we feel that God is 
 a Personal Reality ; and though Christ does not define 
 the nature of spirit, yet when He speaks of God as thinking, 
 willing, loving — His Father and ours — we understand 
 Him better than the philosophers, though He penetrates to 
 the inmost depths of a nature which they had vainly 
 sought to define. His depth is clear and calm because He 
 speaks the words of everlasting truth. 
 
 The simplicity with which He utters the profoundest 
 truths distinguishes Jesus from all other teachers. It was 
 said of the orations of Demosthenes that they smelt of the 
 lamp, and the attention of the hearer was divided between 
 what was said and the labor bestowed in saying it well. 
 The elaborate finish of a Cicero, a Burke, an Everett, often 
 diverts the mind from the thought to the style. On the 
 other hand, the apothegms of some of the most renowned 
 sages are uttered with an air of wisdom that offends the 
 taste. But Jesus never labors to make an impression, nor 
 works up an effect with careful logic and rhetoric. " His 
 
Christ's preaching personal. 13 
 
 doctrine drops as the rain, and his speech distils as the 
 dew." 
 
 One reason of this clearness is itself a characteristic of 
 the sayings of Christ — their adaptation to the hearts and 
 lives of men. He is not like the chemist, who shuts 
 himself up in his laboratory to analyze substances and form 
 new compounds, and now and then gives to the world a 
 new discovery — a result without process; nor like the 
 philosopher who withdraws from common life into a region 
 of abstractions ; but His teaching is like the sunlight, for 
 every body's eyes, like the air, for every body's lungs. 
 The God whose infinity, spirituality, majesty, glory, holiness, 
 He sets forth in such pregnant words, is your Father and 
 mine; the soul whose salvation He weighs against the 
 whole world is your soul and mine ; the law of holy love, 
 not one jot or tittle of which shall fail, though heaven and 
 earth pass, is the rule for your life and mine ; the kingdom 
 of God is within us ; His Father's house is ours ; the most 
 sublime and oppressive truths of the spiritual world, the 
 most profound mysteries in the relations of the divine to 
 the human through creation, incarnation and redemption, 
 the most thrilling and exquisite discoveries of the future 
 life are brought home as present and personal to every 
 man. So personal are they, that to receive them into our 
 hearts makes them our own almost as much as if we had 
 originated them. On reading the declarations of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, we find them so simple as to seem 
 in a sense natural ; we wonder we had not thought of them 
 before; and yet, so deep and full are they that we can 
 never exhaust them. For instance, the saying " Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God " is so obvious, 
 so true to the nature of things, that it appeals to every one 
 as a direct personal summons to a holy life ; and yet the 
 most experienced Christian, the most profound theologian, 
 has not exhausted its meaning — not Baxter nor Edwards, 
 
] -i THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 not John nor Panl knew all that it is to be pure in heart, 
 nor could tell all that it will be to see God. Truth as 
 spoken by Christ belongs to us as the sky under which we 
 live : it is our heaven ; we drink its light, we breathe its 
 air, we grow familiar with its stars, we bathe our fancy in 
 its clear ether, and have a home-like feeling of possession — ■ 
 yet we can never reach its horizon nor climb to its zenith. 
 Never man spake like this man — bringing God and truth 
 and heaven so near, yet making all so vast and glorious. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the sayings of Christ is the sense 
 of fulness they carry with them, and of this fulness as 
 proceeding from Himself. One sometimes feels that a 
 teacher has not mastered his subject, or if at home upon 
 one subject he is not equally learned in all ; and when the 
 most learned have told all they know, there remains some- 
 thing more for themselves as well as their pupils to acquire. 
 But Jesus speaks with the composure and certainty that 
 fulness gives ; His words flow as from a fountain, and not 
 only so, but the truth He imparts becomes in those who 
 receive it " a well of living water, springing up into ever- 
 lasting life." x In listening to Him one never feels that 
 He has exhausted Himself while other truth remains to be 
 learned, but that He knows all truth, and contains it 
 within Himself. For truth as spoken by Christ carries 
 with it the conviction that what He utters is part of 
 Himself. It is not truth that He has studied and developed 
 as an intellectual system — as Copernicus the astronomical 
 and Cudworth the intellectual system of the universe ; it is 
 not a doctrine that He has derived from another, and 
 teaches with His own methods and illustrations — as Plato 
 expanded and formulated the doctrines of Socrates, — but the 
 Truth He speaks is in and of Himself. 
 
 We make such poor work of setting forth the truth, so 
 feeble an impression of its reality and power, because our 
 
 1 John iv. 14. 
 
CHRIST SPAKE AS THE TRUTH. 15 
 
 own experience of the truth is so limited and imperfect. 
 It does not come from the depth of our consciousness; it 
 is not incorporated with the life of our souls, so as to give 
 the impression that we are Truth itself; and we take up 
 with half-truths, or defective and distorted representations 
 in the place of Truth. Even the wisest men sometimes 
 put forth as profound ideas what to others seem like com- 
 mon-places ; and most men are themselves so very common- 
 place, of narrow views and narrow feelings, always in the 
 same ruts of trade or politics or opinion, bigoted, preju- 
 diced, self-willed, never rising to broad and generous views 
 — that they give to what little of truth they do receive 
 the complexion of their own minds, and make this com- 
 mon-place as themselves. 
 
 But Jesus stands before us as Himself the Truth, making 
 upon all that hear Him the impression that He knows that 
 of which He speaks, knows it truly, knows it deeply, 
 knows it fully, and utters it from His inmost soul. Hence 
 what He says is always fresh, and constant repetition 
 cannot make it old. If He speaks of purity of heart, we 
 know that He Himself is pure; if He commands us to 
 love one another, we feel that He Himself is love; if He 
 speaks of God, He produces the conviction that He knows 
 the Father as the Father knows Him. His very words 
 carry with them the assurance that He is the Truth. 
 Never man spake like this man. 
 
 The sayings of Christ, far more than those of any other 
 teacher, are certified by their effects, especially in the higher 
 spheres of human thought and feeling. Since the beginning 
 of the Christian era, how large a portion of the literature 
 of the world has been devoted to the exposition and illus- 
 tration of His words, or directly or indirectly has grown 
 out of them. What vast libraries and sections of libraries 
 in Europe and America are filled with books of Christian 
 theology, commentary, and history. Down to the time 
 
16 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the Reformation, how little literature was known to 
 Christendom that was not distinctively Christian, and since 
 then how largely has Christianity influenced the thought 
 and learning of the world. Strike out from the literature 
 of the Christian era all that is in any way derived from or 
 related to the sayings of Christ, and what would remain 
 in comparison worthy to influence the higher thought and 
 life of mankind? How little is there in the sayings of 
 other men that the world cherishes as life-words! How 
 many volumes have been made simply by commenting 
 upon the words of Christ ! 
 
 Every one is familiar with Sir Walter Scott's dying 
 testimony to the Book — "Need you ask? There is but 
 one ;" 1 and the great humorist of our time has left this 
 record of his obligations to the life of Christ — " I have 
 always striven in my writings to express veneration for 
 the life and lessons of our Saviour ; because I feci it, and 
 because I rewrote that history for my children ;" and in 
 his last will, he enjoined it upon his children to " try and 
 guide themselves by the teachings of the New Testament." 2 
 
 The power of Christ's doctrine has been equally apparent 
 upon human society. A new Society, altogether peculiar, 
 whose foundation is faith in Christ Himself, whose bond is 
 love to Him and His, whose aim is moral perfection, has 
 come into existence through His word, and to-day exists 
 over half the globe. The Church of Christ founded 
 without political purpose or physical power, upon a "Word, 
 an Idea, and expanding through the ages with an undying 
 spiritual life, witnesses that never man spake like this man. 
 Moreover, His words have penetrated civil society, have 
 infused into government the idea of justice, have redressed 
 social wrongs, have harmonized legislation, and lifted the 
 masses to a higher plane of thought and hope. 
 
 1 Life by Lockhart, vol. vii. chap. xi. 
 
 2 The will of Mr. Dickens as quoted by Dean Stanley in his funeral 
 discourse. 
 
CHRIST SPEAKS TO THE HEART. 17 
 
 But more than all is the power of Christ's doctrine 
 manifested in the history of the heart, under all the mani- 
 fold phases of human feeling. The heart in perplexity 
 needs not instruction so much as light, and the words of 
 Christ are like sunlight upon a mind in spiritual darkness. 
 The heart in trouble needs not teaching so much as 
 sympathy, and the words of Christ come to it in sorrow 
 with all the tenderness of the tears He wept with Martha 
 and Mary, with all the comfort of the promise "Thy 
 brother shall rise again ! " The heart that knows the 
 bitterness of sin wants not relief only but renewal, trans- 
 formation; not merely pardon but salvation through 
 recovery to purity and to a life in God, and the words of 
 Christ are pardon, ^>eace, purity, salvation, life. The 
 heart so deceived by the world, so misled by itself, needs 
 truth to rest upon and love to confide in ; and the words 
 of Christ invite us to lean upon Him as did John at the 
 supper. What myriads of hearts have been swayed, 
 molded, strengthened, comforted by His words ! 
 
 The world has not yet outgrown the teachings of Christ, 
 Great advances have been made in physical science since 
 His day, especially within our own times; but science has 
 discovered nothing more precious for the soul's culture than 
 the truths that Christ brought into the world. The Phi- 
 losophy of Humanity has grown to a science since Jesus 
 taught, but this has advanced no doctrine of development 
 or perfectibility more elevating or more encouraging than 
 His. Science dishonors itself when it affects to ignore the 
 teachings of Christ: for whatever else is true, His word is 
 Truth ; whatever else is brought to light, His word is both 
 Light and Life. 
 
 Was He then who uttered these marvelous, far-reaching, 
 unequaled words only a Man, of loftier genius or keener 
 insight than the rest of His race? Will this account for 
 those sayings of His that so distance all human wisdom 
 
 2 
 
 
18 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and so control the world? Must we not accept His own 
 explanation of this unparalleled phenomenon — " The words 
 that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, but the 
 Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." 1 Can 
 His other sayings be true, if that saying was false? In 
 view of the quality of Christ's preaching as tested by the 
 results of eighteen hundred years, must not we say with 
 even more than the confidence of the first disciples, " Thou 
 hast the words of eternal life ; and we believe and are sure 
 that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God?" 2 
 
 1 John xiv, 10. 2 John vi. 68, 69, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 The whole circle of doctrines taught by Christ revolves 
 about this central point — that He represented to men the 
 Kingdom of God. Jesus began His public life by 
 "preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God;" saying, 
 "the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe 
 the Gospel." l In the first commission that He gave to the 
 twelve disciples, Jesus "sent them to preach the kingdom 
 of God." 2 In His parables He spake continually of the 
 "kingdom of God" and the "kingdom of heaven." He 
 represented faith in Himself as the door of entrance into 
 the kingdom of God; He promised His followers the 
 highest honor and blessing in the kingdom of God. 
 
 What then is this kingdom of God which Jesus preached 
 as His Gospel? and how does the knowledge of this 
 Kingdom bring us under obligation to repent, and give us 
 encouragement to believe? The answer to these questions 
 must be sought in the meaning of this phrase as it required 
 to be understood by the Jews of Christ's own time. To 
 the men whom Christ addressed, the kingdom of God was 
 no new idea; or rather, it was no new phrase — but it can 
 hardly be said to have represented any definite idea to a 
 generation that had so far lost the meaning of their own 
 law and history. If we study closely the religion of the 
 Old Testament we shall find that all its doctrines, laws, 
 and institutions grow out of this fundamental thought — 
 that God who Himself is pure and spiritual, is the true 
 and only Redeemer of all those who desire to be no more 
 
 1 Mark i. 14, 15, 2 L u ^ e ix . 2 . 
 
 19 
 
20 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 estranged from Him; that God calls men to Himself and 
 seeks to deliver them from bondage : — this precious truth 
 was sealed by the deliverance in Egypt, and the won- 
 drous rescue at the Red Sea; and afterwards became the 
 foundation stone of the whole community of Israel, as 
 well as the sole vivifying impulse of all devotion. 1 The 
 grand thought that Moses brought to Israel was that 
 Jehovah, the living God, the spiritual and eternal God, 
 was the true Deliverer; that He desired men to come to 
 Him in spiritual trust and worship, and that to every one 
 who would so come to Him, this eternal God would be a 
 present help, a refuge from every trouble, care, and sorrow. 
 
 What the heathen had blindly struggled after in all the 
 multitude of their gods and religious forms, Jehovah had 
 brought to men in this Revelation of Himself; a God not 
 far off but nigh to every one of us; a God who is seeking 
 men and drawing them to Himself; a God who touches 
 the human spirit by His own infinite Spirit, that He may 
 awaken within it a childlike faith and love; a God 
 manifesting Himself to our consciousness as a Deliverer 
 from sin and evil and death. 
 
 This truth was formally embodied in the doctrine of 
 a Kingdom of God in this world, the nucleus of which was 
 His redeemed people of Israel. The political constitution 
 of Israel as a Nation was but a frame for this spiritual 
 kingdom. For a time Jehovah stood directly as the Head 
 of the Nation, declaring His will through the prophets, 
 and by extraordinary manifestations ; and when the people 
 so far declined from this vivid spiritual conception of 
 Jehovah as their deliverer that they desired an earthly 
 king, then the kingly office was made a type of the divine 
 authority that yet ruled in the hearts of the true Israel : 
 the prophets strove to hold the people as a nation to the 
 original spiritual idea of this divine kingdom, and pre- 
 
 1 Ewald, History of Israel, i. 533-36. 
 
THE "KINGDOM OF GOD" IN JEREMIAH. 21 
 
 dieted a time when the kingdom of spiritual life and power, 
 — a kingdom in which God Himself, the pure, the holy, the 
 spiritual, the eternal, should be acknowledged and served 
 as Redeemer and Lord — should be manifested not for 
 Israel only but to the whole world. This was the time of 
 promise that Jesus announced as fulfilled ; this the " good 
 news " He preached " of the kingdom of God." 
 
 The true conception of this kingdom stands out in the 
 predictions of Jeremiah concerning the days of the Messiah. 
 When this prophet wrote, the political kingdom had run 
 itself down into disgrace and bankruptcy, through the vices 
 of the kings, and the general wickedness of the people ; but 
 although the monarchy should be overthrown, and king 
 and people be carried away captive, the Kingdom of God 
 in the true Israel — as represented by the prophet and by 
 all believing souls — could not be destroyed. Indeed, 
 when armies should have failed and all earthly hopes have 
 perished, then would stand out more clearly than ever the 
 truth that Jehovah was the only Deliverer, that He who 
 delivered Israel out of Egypt, must now deliver them from 
 the oppression and captivity that threatened them and from 
 the sins that had brought them into such disaster and 
 perils ; then too would be revived the confidence of the 
 true Israel, through a humble, trustful submission to the 
 will of God — faith in Jehovah as a Deliverer. 
 
 This view of the kingdom of God may be interpreted to 
 us by our familiar conceptions of the national and historical 
 spirit in a people, as distinguished from the form of gov- 
 ernment and the practical administration of affairs. If, 
 for instance, one loses confidence in a President, or a 
 Ministry, he does not abandon constitutional government 
 as a failure, but the ideal of a good government then 
 stands out in bold relief. When the lawful government of 
 the United States was assailed by rebellion, and it was 
 attempted to disintegrate the Union by violence, then the 
 
22 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 spirit of law and order, the essence of government embodied 
 in the Constitution, came forth more vividly in the con- 
 sciousness of the people, and inspired them with new faith 
 and courage ; and more than all, the idea of God as the 
 Deliverer of the Nation in its past history, and as its 
 present dependence and hope, came into prominence, and 
 His kingdom was made manifest in the signal providences 
 of the War, and in the overthrow of Slavery. This near 
 experience may help us to understand what to the true 
 Israelite was the kingdom of God; — not simply His Provi- 
 dential government over the world at large ; nor His 
 universal government over this and all worlds; nor the 
 form of political constitution and laws given by Jehovah 
 to Israel ; nor the King and High Priest set up in His 
 name; but the presence and power of God felt and 
 acknowledged in the hearts of those that trusted in Him 
 and did His commandments. 
 
 It was this spiritual conception of a kingdom within 
 Israel itself, — that did not embrace all Israel, and yet was 
 greater than Israel, because it did possess and should 
 hereafter more and more possess souls outside the pale of 
 the Jewish commonwealth — that Jeremiah seized so vividly 
 at the very moment when the national monarchy was sinking 
 into nothingness. "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 .... 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." l Where Jehovah was sought and acknow- 
 ledged as the Saviour from sin, and His will was received 
 into the heart as its law, there was the kingdom of God. 
 Daniel, himself a captive, while Jerusalem lay waste and 
 her monarchy was overthrown, had a glorious vision of 
 
 1 Jeremiah xxxi. 33, 34. 
 
THE "KINGDOM OF GOIX IN EZEKIEL. 23 
 
 this spiritual kingdom, to be revived under Messiah the 
 Prince, and he even measured off by outward events the 
 time when His kingdom would be made manifest. Ezekiel 
 likened the manifestation of the true Israel to a resurrec- 
 tion of dry bones ; — " A new heart also will I give you, 
 and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take 
 away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you 
 a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, 
 and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep 
 my judgments, and do them." l Thus underlying the 
 whole history of Israel, and all the forms of the Jewish 
 state and religion, was the idea of a living present God 
 who dwelt in the hearts of all true worshipers, "as a 
 monarch living among his subjects ;" — the temple was His 
 visible house, a representative of His sacred majesty, and 
 its sacrifices showed how He was to be approached for the 
 forgiveness of sin; but His true abode was in hearts 
 delivered from sin, that honored and obeyed Him as the 
 Redeemer-God. 
 
 With this spiritual conception of the kingdom — the 
 presence of God as a Saviour realized to the soul — it is 
 easy to understand how Jesus " preached the Gospel of the 
 Kingdom of God." Coming at a time when the Jews 
 were vassals of the Roman power ; when deprived of every 
 symbol of their nationality save their temple and its wor- 
 ship, they were yearning for a Deliverer ; to the nominal 
 people of God thus subjugated by military rule, yet cling- 
 ing to the ancient promise of a Messiah who should restore 
 the glory of the theocracy, He said, " I bring to you the 
 good news of the kingdom of God; in Me Jehovah once 
 more comes to you as a Deliverer ; the time predicted by 
 Daniel is fulfilled ; the new covenant promised by Jeremiah 
 is brought to you in my gospel ; repent of the sins that 
 have humiliated and well-nigh destroyed you; renounce 
 your vain hopes of deliverance, and trust in Me as your 
 
 1 Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 2T, and Chap, xxxvii. 
 
24 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Saviour ; repent and believe the Gospel, for the kingdom 
 of God is at hand." The expectation of such a kingdom 
 already existed in the minds of the more devout and 
 spiritual among the Jews. Zacharias anticipated the 
 advent of the Messiah as the appearing of " the Day-spring 
 from on high," whose ways John was sent to prepare, " by 
 giving knowledge of salvation unto His people for the 
 remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our 
 God." l The aged Simeon waited for " the consolation of 
 Israel," and when the child Jesus was presented in the 
 temple, with prophetic insight he recognized in Him the 
 promised salvation — " a light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
 the glory of Israel." 2 Joseph of Arimathea was one who 
 in the same spirit " waited for the kingdom of God," and 
 he boldly identified himself with the name of Jesus, in 
 what seemed the darkest hour of His cause. 3 But though 
 this finer spiritual conception of the kingdom of God 
 existed in the minds of the more devout, the body of the 
 nation looked only for the restoration and perfection of the 
 Davidic theocracy in perpetuity. Because of this popular 
 expectation of the Messianic kingdom, which could easily 
 have been kindled into the fever of a revolution, Jesus 
 refrained from announcing Himself as the Messiah, until 
 by His teaching and works He had gained a footing for 
 that spiritual commonwealth which in reality He had come 
 to establish. This commonwealth began in the little 
 company of His personal disciples — a community brought 
 into existence not by any supernatural intervention in the 
 outward condition of the people, but through His own 
 spiritual efficiency ; and thus the very substance of the 
 kingdom of God was seen to be independent of its realiza- 
 tion in the form of the national Theocracy. 4 Yet even 
 
 1 Luke i. 76-79. 2 Luke ii. 25-33. 8 Mark xv. 43. 
 
 * See a fine analysis of the doctrine cf Jesus concerning the kingdom 
 of God in Weiss' Lehrbuch der BlhUschen Theolngie des N. TeMaments, pp. 
 49-57. Ft Van Oosterzee'a view see note at the end of this Chapter. 
 
THE KINGDOM IN AND OF THE HEART. 25 
 
 this community, though based upon the spiritual doctrine 
 of Christ and held together by a personal faith in Him, 
 did not constitute the kingdom of God in the most pure 
 and absolute sense. One of the primitive circle of twelve 
 was a devil, l a confederate of Satan, the grand enemy of 
 Christ, and of the kingdom that He had come to establish. 
 The true kingdom commences always in the hearts of 
 individuals, and spreads only by the communication of 
 spiritual life. In all His parables and discourses touching 
 the kingdom of God, Christ adhered to this spiritual con- 
 ception. The kingdom consists in doing the will of the 
 Father, and the perfection of the Theocracy will be realized 
 when that will shall be done by men on earth as it is done 
 by the angels in heaven — in a word, supreme love to God 
 is the consummation of the kingdom. 
 
 Hence the kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
 tion. 2 It has none of the outward pomp and circumstance 
 of royalty, but is the development of an internal power. 
 To find it one needs not to go to this place or that, to join 
 this organization or that, participate in this ceremony or 
 that ; — " The kingdom of God is within you." 3 One be- 
 comes a subject of it in his own consciousness ; when he, 
 by believing, receives Christ into his heart as his Saviour, 
 then does God as his Kedeemer, take charge of him, enter 
 into him to guide, keep, sanctify, and save him ; and this 
 coming to the realization of God in His supreme lordship 
 over the soul is the kingdom. 
 
 This kingdom has laws for the regulation of the life 
 through purifying and ennobling the heart. These laws, 
 as embodied in the sermon on the mount, though in 
 the form of simple maxims, strike down to the deepest 
 springs of thought and motive. They revolve about 
 two cognate ideas, Purity and Love: — "Blessed are the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see God :" 4 — " Be ye there- 
 
 1 John vi. 70. 2 Luke xvii. 20. 3 Luke xvii. 21. * Matt. v. 8. 
 
26 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 fore perfect [i. e., in love] even as your Father which is in 
 heaven is perfect : " l — a pure and holy love toward God 
 and man is the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 This kingdom has its privileges. Every subject is 
 treated as a son. There are no gradations of rank, no 
 intermediaries upon whose influence at court we must rely 
 for favor ; but the King himself comes by His Spirit to the 
 heart of each subject and there abides : " If any man love 
 Me, he will keep My words ; and My Father will love 
 him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode 
 with him. 7 ' 2 
 
 This presence of Christ in the soul imparts power 
 against all spiritual enemies; the very coming of the 
 kingdom is deliverance from condemnation and death. 
 The entering in of this kingdom is the casting out of 
 Satan ; — " When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, 
 his goods are in peace : But when a stronger than he shall 
 come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all 
 his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." 3 
 Jesus spake this to illustrate His power against Satan : " If 
 I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the 
 kingdom of God is come upon you ;" 4 the overthrow of 
 Satanic power in the world, the subjugation of the power 
 of evil in any form, the breaking of hostile power by a 
 power from above, marked the coming of the kingdom of 
 God. As the advance of the Union army into the Southern 
 States gave a sense of deliverance and safety to loyalists 
 who had been held in durance and terror by the Confeder- 
 ates — the very coming of the flag of the Union into a place 
 being the symbol of power and the pledge of emancipation 
 — so the entering of the Gospel into a heart to possess it 
 with its faith, its promises, and its hopes, is the signal of 
 deliverance from the bondage of Satan, and the coming in 
 
 i Matt. v. 48, and xxii. 37-41. 3 Luke xi. 21, 22. 
 
 2 John xiv. 23. 4 Luke xi. 20. 
 
REWARDS OF THE KINGDOM. 27 
 
 of the kingdom of God. The presence of Christ is the 
 subjugation of His enemies. 
 
 Through this presence the soul is sanctified and enno- 
 bled ; the reign of pure desires, devout affections, noble 
 purposes is established within. The principle of holy love 
 enthroned as the law of the mind, subjugates evil propen- 
 sities, eradicates wrong habits, and every such subjection of 
 the unholy is the dominion of the good and true. 
 
 This kingdom has its rewards, both present and pros- 
 pective. There is no higher joy in kind than the free 
 communion of the heart with one whom it thoroughly 
 admires, respects, and loves ; and the highest measure of 
 this joy is found in that endearing fellowship with the 
 Father into which the soul enters through its fellowship of 
 faith and love with Christ, and which Jesus promised to 
 His disciples as the compensation for His own withdrawal : 
 " He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father f ■ 
 " Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you ;" 2 
 "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might 
 remain in you, and that your joy might be full." 3 
 
 And this present joy, so rich and satisfactory, is but the 
 prelude to the rewards of the future of this kingdom. To 
 be pronounced the blessed of the Father, and publicly 
 welcomed to that sphere of light and glory where Jehovah 
 is enthroned ; to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
 in the kingdom of God; to be with Christ in person and 
 behold His glory, — these are but items in the rich roll of 
 blessings promised to the recipients of the Gospel. And 
 these rewards shall be eternal. A Messianic kingdom 
 reproducing the theocracy of David, would have been 
 subject to the incidents of all earthly governments and all 
 types of material organization. Limited in extent, confined 
 to the conditions of place, exposed to the conflicts of hostile 
 powers, it must eventually have shared the fate of other 
 
 1 John xiv. 21. 2 John xiv. 27. 3 John xv. 11. 
 
28 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 temporal governments ; or even had it outlasted these, it 
 must have been circumscribed in territorial dominion and 
 in the number of its immediate subjects. But lying 
 wholly within the spiritual, which is immortal, incorpo- 
 rated with the very life of the soul, not only will it survive 
 the destruction of all outward forms and of the world 
 itself, but it shall endure with the duration of being. 
 Divine forces are in it for its perpetual conservation ; it is 
 the kingdom of Christ and of God : the gates of hell can- 
 not prevail against it here ; in one feeble, praying, trusting 
 soul it is more than conqueror over death and hell ; and 
 when Time and Death shall have essayed in vain to touch 
 it, " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
 kingdom of their Father ;" 1 for " This is life eternal — to 
 know the only true God, and Jesus Christ." 2 
 
 That this spiritual, heavenly, eternal kingdom was at 
 hand, and with its inestimable privileges and rewards was 
 open to any man to enter in, was the Gospel that Jesus 
 preached. Of necessity the entrance into this kingdom 
 must be through certain mental acts and experiences which 
 Christ has set forth under the terms " Repent" and 
 " Believe;" for, the beginning of the kingdom being 
 deliverance from sin, one must needs repent, to be so de- 
 livered ; and the law of the kingdom being obedience to 
 Christ, one must have a sincere, implicit, submissive 
 confidence in Christ in order to such obedience; hence 
 faith in Jesus as the Deliverer. 
 
 The obligation to repent and believe was declared by 
 Jesus in express terms, and also under many parallel 
 forms. Thus He enjoined the renunciation of worldliness, 
 " How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into 
 the kingdom of God." 3 He enjoined humility as essential 
 to discipleship : " Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom 
 of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." 4 He 
 
 1 Matt. xiii. 43. 2 John xvii. 3. « Mark x. 24. * Mark x. 15. 
 
THE ADVANCING GLORY OF THE KINGDOM. 20 
 
 required implicit consecration, with no mental reservation, 
 no hankering after the old manner of life ; " No man having 
 put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the 
 kingdom of God." l The Head and Lord of the kingdom 
 of God and of heaven has declared that none can be 
 accounted within that kingdom except they repent and 
 believe. In what sense then, can one claim to be a disciple 
 of Christ, who does not comply with the uniform and ab- 
 solute prerequisites to membership in His spiritual com- 
 munity ? 
 
 That conception of the kingdom of God which Jesus 
 promulgated as His Gospel and sought to embody in His 
 Church, has been realized with increasing grandeur and 
 power through the ages, and awaits its complete develop- 
 ment in the perfected state of the righteous. How vast 
 and glorious is that kingdom which to-day embraces the 
 millions of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, 
 who coming to the Father by Jesus Christ, worship Him in 
 spirit and in truth ; a commonwealth of believing souls 
 owning allegiance to one Lord, and through all the diver- 
 sities of race, of language, of social, civil, and ecclesiastical 
 institutions, fraternizing in the love of Christ, their common 
 Head, and in prayers, labors and hopes for the elevation 
 of mankind through His gospel. And as other generations 
 shall believe through their word, the prayer of Jesus to 
 His Father shall be more and more fulfilled, "that they 
 may be made perfect in one," 2 until from the dissolving 
 elements of this material world, unwasted by time, un- 
 hurt of death, this spiritual kingdom shall come forth 
 in the glory of the Father and of His holy angels. 
 
 1 Luke ix. 62. 8 John xvii. 23. 
 
 y 
 
30 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 NOTE: VAN OOSTERZEE ON THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 3 Dr. van Oosterzee in his before-cited work, Die Theologie des Neuen Tes- 
 taments, has seized upon the idea of the kingdom of God as fundamental in the 
 Theology of Christ, hut though his delineation of that kingdom is in most 
 points admirable, he seems to have missed the primary spiritual conception of 
 the kingdom in the Old Testament, so finely brought out by Ewald. Van Oos- 
 terzee's characterization of the kingdom, (translated by Rev. J. P. Wester- 
 velt, in the American Presbyterian Rtvieio for July, 1870), is as follows: "The 
 Gospel that Jesus preached is a gospel of the kingdom, and that kingdom it- 
 self is a moral-religious institution, which, unlimited in extent, and eternal in 
 duration, in its tendency to unite, sanctify and save mankind, embraces heaven 
 
 and earth That kingdom is (a) something new. "Since it had first come 
 
 nigh in the fullness of time (Mat. iv. 17) it did not before exist on earth." It is 
 thus not merely the continuation }f the old line, but the beginning of an order 
 of things not previously seen (Luke x. 23, 24: comp. Mat. xxvi. 28). It is, 
 however, now (b) something really present. Where He comes, there it also ap- 
 pears with Him ; it is already in the midst of those who ask when it shall ap- 
 pear (Luke xvii. 20, 21). It is by no means the same as eternal bliss : there 
 consummated, it exists here in principle, and though not of the earth, yet esta- 
 blished on earth, though it came not with external noise or parade. It is 
 truly (c) something spiritual, that pertains to a higher domain of life than this 
 visible creation. Though not exclusively yet preeminently spiritual are the 
 privileges, duties and expectations of its subjects. What takes place here is 
 diametrically opposite to what usually occurs in other kingdoms (Mat. xx. 25, 
 28; comp. Luke xxii. 24-27), and the King declines all needless interference 
 with the civil jurisdiction (Luke xii. 13, 14). Even with the idea of the Chris- 
 tian church that of the kingdom of God must not be confounded. The church 
 is only the external form in which the kingdom of God appears (Mat. xiii. 24- 
 30; 47-50) ; that kingdom itself a spiritual society, personal membership 
 with which is absolutely impossible without a renewing of the mind (Mat. 
 xviii. 3). As such, it is also, as to its extent, (d) something unlimited. The 
 Lord is even much more than the old prophets (comp. Isaiah ii. 2-4), raised 
 above all contracted particularism, and not only at the end, but also in the 
 midst, and at the beginning of His course preached the universality of the 
 kingdom of God (Mat. v. 13, 14; viii. 11, 12.) Single utterances which seem 
 to breathe another spirit (Mat. x. 5; xv. 24) must be explained by particular 
 circumstances, and are abundantly outweighed by others (Mat. xxviii. 19; 
 Luke xxiv. 47; Acts i. 8.) Nor is this surprising, since the kingdom of God 
 is (e) something unending, bounded as little by time as by space. Did Moses 
 and the prophets constantly point to better days, Jesus knows nothing higher 
 than the kingdom which He comes to found, and predicts the complete triumph 
 of His cause (Mat. xxiv. 14; xxvi. 13), and promises to remain forever with 
 His disciples (xxviii.) What is thus destined for eternity is, however, devel- 
 oped in time. The kingdom of God is therefore (/) something growing, which, 
 in accordance with its spiritual nature, gradually works from within to its ex- 
 
VIEWS OF VAN OOSTERZEE. 31 
 
 ternal manifestation, from small beginnings and with the most surprising re- 
 sults (Mat. xiii. 31-33 ; Mark iv. 26-29). Therefore its servants must pray 
 (Mat. vi. 9), and work (Mat. ix. 37, 38). It is indeed possible that it be taken 
 away from those who ungratefully despise it (Mat. xxi. 43). Where it is, how- 
 ever, sought and found, there it is (g) something inestimably glorious and 
 blessed (Mat. xiii. 44-46; xxii. 2); a blessedness tne want of which cannot be 
 made good (Luke xiii. 25-30) but the possession of which is to be desired above 
 all things, as pledge of every other blessing (Mat. vi. 33)." 
 
 The points at which this otherwise complete synthesis of Christ's doctrine of 
 the Kingdom might be amended are a and c — so far as relates to the Church. 
 That the Kingdom of God as preached by Christ was new in respect of the 
 clearness, fulness, and intensity of spiritual manifestation, is undoubtedly true; 
 but that the devout recognition of God as the only Lord and Deliverer, and a 
 loyal devotion to Him in faith and love, were primary elements in the concep- 
 tion of that kingdom in the Old Testament, has been shown in pp. 20-23 of the 
 foregoing chapter. This view is necessary both to the unity of Biblical truth 
 and to the clear understanding of Christ's teaching. He used the phrase 
 "kingdom of God" without defining it; the language was familiar to every 
 Jew, but Jesus sought to revive and restore its true meaning, and this was the 
 tone of His parables and similes showing that the kingdom was not of this 
 world. He did not claim to set up a new kingdom — " Think not that I am 
 eome to destroy the law or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to ful- 
 fil, " ir\-qpSi<rai ) to fill up, to fill out, in their true meaning. 
 
 The very germ of the kingdom of God given in the covenant with Abraham, 
 contained this doctrine of Christ : not only should one " great and mighty na- 
 tion " spring from Abraham — thus giving to the covenant an outward symboli- 
 cal form — but " all the nations of the earth should be blessed in Him :" and for 
 the fulfilment of this, Abraham was required to walk before the Lord in per- 
 fectness or uprightness of soul, and to " command his children and his house- 
 hold after him, to keep the way of the Lord" (Gen. xvii. 1; xviii. 18, 19). 
 The coming of God as a Saviour to be received in trust and obedience, was 
 from the first the essential idea of the kingdom of God: and Christ's doctrine 
 of the kingdom was not "new" as to the conception of it. Dr. van Oosterzee 
 is nearer the truth when he says, " The word of Moses and the prophets is 
 taken up by Jesus, continued, supplemented, completed in such a manner, that 
 the old in His hand acquires a new aspect, and the new, rightly viewed, ap- 
 pears to be nothing else than the ripened fruit of the old." 
 
 Moreover, the true Church of Christ, one in Himself and in His Father, is 
 identical with the true kingdom of God. The external visible Church, like the 
 Jewish theocracy, may shadow forth that kingdom, yet representing i| jOnly im- 
 perfectly and in part : but the true Church of Christ is that " spiritual Society 
 personal membership with which is absolutely impossible without a renewing 
 of the mind :" it is the kingdom as Jeremiah and Ezekiel saw it, the members 
 of which all "know the Lord," and have His law "in their inward parts." This 
 primary conception of the kingdom is the key to the whole theology of Christ. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE NEW BIRTH. 
 
 Foe entering the kingdom of God, that which is 
 wanted is " not learning but life ; and life must begin by 
 birth" l This was the doctrine of Jesus in His reply to 
 Nicodemus, emphasized with a marked solemnity and 
 authority of utterance, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
 except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God.' 72 An earnest, devout Israelite, expecting the 
 Messiah, and impressed with the divine attestation of 
 Jesus through the miracles that He wrought, Nicodemus 
 sought instruction of this marvellous prophet, whom he 
 acknowledged as "a teacher come from God." Jesus, 
 anticipating his question concerning the signs and require- 
 ments of the Messiah's kingdom, went directly to the 
 topic that was in the mind of his visitor, though in a way 
 as startling as it was decisive. Nicodemus had said, 
 " Thou art a teacher come from God," and stood expecting 
 some new doctrine. Jesus said to him, " My teaching is 
 not of doing and leaving undone, but of becoming ; so 
 that it is not new works to be done, but a new man to do 
 them, not simply the living otherwise, but the being new- 
 born." 3 Here plainly was a doctrine of regeneration 
 taught by the founder of Christianity as fundamental to 
 His system. What does it signify? What did Christ 
 Himself intend by being born again ? The doctrine lies 
 in the exegesis of this single phrase. 
 
 At the outset Nicodemus mistook its meaning, and 
 
 1 Alford in loc. 2 Juhn iii. 3. 3 Luther, Gomm. in loc. 
 
 32 
 
THE PROSELYTE WAS "BORN AGAIN." 33 
 
 halted at the words in their literal physical sense. If his 
 reply to Jesus is to be taken seriously, one is amazed at 
 his dulness ; if he meant to cavil about the matter, one is 
 no less amazed at his frivolity. But neither stupidity nor 
 caviling can be fairly inferred from his question, " How 
 can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the 
 second time into his mother's womb, and be born ?" x Mco- 
 demus was a " master in Israel," a man of intelligence and 
 education, at least upon questions of religion, and there- 
 fore could not have put such a question literally. At 
 the same time, his whole manner in coming to Jesus, and 
 the tone of his conversation, showed that he was not a 
 caviler but a sincere seeker after truth. Not only did 
 he testify his respect for Jesus in coming to Him in this 
 manner for instruction, and addressing Him as a prophet, 
 but on subsequent occasions he used his official position 
 for His protection, and even exhibited the devotion of a 
 disciple. 2 His perplexity arose from his conceiving of 
 himself as already in the kingdom of God, by virtue of 
 his birth in the lineage of Abraham ; while, in common 
 with the body of his people, he looked to the coming of 
 the Messiah for a higher assertion of that kingdom and its 
 privileges for their benefit. How then could a son of 
 Abraham be born a second time into the kingdom of 
 God? 
 
 A Gentile who embraced the Jewish faith was admitted 
 into the Jewish commonwealth by baptism, and was said 
 to be born again. It was a phrase common among the 
 Rabbis, " The Gentile that is made a proselyte, and the 
 servant that is made free, behold he is like a child new- 
 born." The one explains the other; the servant made 
 free began a new kind of life, could use his powers and 
 time in a new way, was master of himself; and a heathen 
 brought to the knowledge of the true God and received 
 
 1 John iii. 4. 2 j h n v ji # 50 . x \ Xt 39. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 into the commonwealth of His worshipers, began a new 
 life, had new thoughts, new feelings, new principles, new 
 aims, new associations, new hopes, was like one born into 
 a new world. Such was the theory of the school of 
 doctors to which Mcodemus belonged, concerning the 
 receiving a Gentile into the household of Israel ; but for 
 themselves, they had so far lost the spiritual essence and 
 life of their religion as to have taken up the conceit that, 
 " it was enough for them to have been of the seed of 
 Abraham, or the stock of Israel, to make them fit subjects 
 for the kingdom of heaven." Nicodemus not only con- 
 sidered himself a member of that kingdom, but felt his 
 consequence as one of its chief men, a ruler and teacher, a 
 member of the Sanhedrim, the high court in the Jewish 
 kingdom of heaven. He had hoped to gain from Jesus 
 some new light touching 'the coming glories of that king- 
 dom under the reign of the Messiah. But when Jesus 
 laid down the broad proposition, that a new birth was 
 indispensable for every one, in order to enter the kingdom, 
 Nicodemus was utterly confounded. He a proud master 
 in that kingdom could understand how a poor, ignorant, 
 unholy dog of a Gentile would require to be made over 
 before he could aspire to the privileges of the Messiah's 
 kingdom; but for himself this seemed as incredible, almost 
 as impossible, as for an old man to be born a second time. 
 " How can I, who was born of the seed of Abraham, and 
 hence born into the kingdom of God, put myself outside 
 of that kingdom, into the position of a Gentile, and be 
 born again in order to get within the kingdom?" So 
 ignorant was he of that spiritual life which constitutes the 
 kingdom of God within the soul, that the requirements of 
 Jesus seemed to him as difficult to imagine as the physical 
 impossibility of a second birth. In this respect Nico- 
 demus was a type of those who place the seat of religion 
 in the physical nature — making it a quality or condition 
 
35 
 
 of the brain, the senses, the temperament, a result of 
 inheritance, dispositions and tastes, or a product of ma- 
 terial forms and observances. Such notions of religion 
 are completely dispelled by the answer of Christ, showing 
 that His meaning was not to be looked for in the region 
 of the physical. It is not man as a physiological subject 
 that requires to be born anew, but man in his spiritual 
 nature, his psychological frames and feelings ;— the new 
 birth is not of the flesh but of the Spirit. 
 
 Nevertheless this is a birth ; for though the change is 
 neither in the organic constitution of the man, nor in the 
 substance and powers of the soul, it is yet a change as 
 thorough and radical as if one were made over or born 
 again. In respect of that spiritual life, that life of obedi- 
 ence, faith and love which is the inner experience of the 
 kingdom of God, one must become altogether a new man. 
 This is the strict import of the phrase " born again." To 
 be literally born a second time would not fill out all its 
 meaning ; it denotes the complete renovation of the inner 
 man, and must be understood either as being renewed 
 from the very beginning, or as being born " from above," 
 by that influence from on high which is afterwards de- 
 scribed as being " born of the Spirit :" — rather, both these 
 ideas are combined in the one phrase, the former being 
 prominent in the first instance, and the latter brought in 
 for explanation. One must begin his life as altogether a 
 new thing, and this he will do only under an influence 
 " from above." 
 
 If the kingdom of heaven is realized through the 
 coming of God to the soul as its Deliverer, if the humble, 
 willing, grateful receiving of Christ by the soul as its 
 Saviour from sin and the Lord of its affections and desires 
 be the kingdom of heaven within that soul, then is it no 
 marvel that Jesus said " Ye must be born again ;" for be- 
 fore the consciousness of God's presence as its Saviour and 
 
36 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 the acceptance of God as its Sovereign can -spring up 
 within a heart which has been the home of evil thoughts 
 and the nursery of evil deeds, it must undergo a trans- 
 formation as wondrous and complete as a new birth. If 
 also the kingdom of heaven be that community of loving 
 souls which, with no worldly marks of distinction — blood, 
 wealth, race, rank — are joined in one through faith in 
 Christ as Saviour and obedience to Him as Lord, then is it 
 no marvel that for being registered in that kingdom, Jesus 
 said " Ye must be born again." The proud, self-willed, 
 self-righteous heart must be converted, — made over, as it 
 were — and become in submission, love, and obedience, 
 even as a little child. If, moreover, the kingdom of heav- 
 en in its final consummation, denotes the visible presence 
 and glory of Christ enthroned in the midst of those He has 
 recovered unto God, then can it be no marvel that, for 
 admission to that innumerable company of angels and 
 the spirits of just men made perfect, Jesus said " Ye 
 must be born again:" and, "Except your righteousness 
 shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." 1 
 
 In view of the coming of that Kingdom by and 
 through Himself, of its spiritual nature as a process or ex- 
 perience within the soul by which God is seen in Christ as 
 a present Saviour, and accepted as Lord of the conscience, 
 the will, and the affections, in view of the holy character 
 of this kingdom in its laws of purity and love, in its privi- 
 leges of fellowship with God, and the coming of the 
 Father and the Son to take up their abode with its true 
 subjects, Jesus called upon men to repent and believe the 
 gospel. And it was this same conception of the kingdom 
 as inward, spiritual, pure, — a holy kingdom in a holy 
 heart — that led Jesus to declare to Mcodemus, as the start- 
 
 1 Matt. v. 20. 
 
THE REQUIREMENT NATURAL. 3"f 
 
 ing point of His religious system, " Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God !" 
 
 This requirement answers to the personal wishes of 
 every man in his better moods. Could one live his life 
 over again in the light of his own experience, he would 
 guard against mistakes, improve opportunities, get advan- 
 tages, now all past beyond recall ! Every one sees how he 
 could make a better thing of life, if it were given him to 
 begin anew. In most cases, however, such fancied im- 
 provements would affect only the outward conditions and 
 circumstances of life; — one would obtain a better educa- 
 tion, another would improve his chances in business, or 
 make some lucrative speculation in real estate, another 
 would form a more advantageous or congenial alliance ; 
 and so, in one particular or other, most men would like to 
 live their lives over for the sake of bettering their condi- 
 tion ; would like to be " born again " with different sur- 
 roundings of culture, means, opportunities, so as to start in 
 life at a different level, with better light and guidance or 
 better prospects of success. Here and there some humble, 
 honest soul longs to live life over upon grounds of char- 
 acter — that he might make himself a better man. 
 
 Now what Christ requires as the condition of entering 
 into the kingdom of God is that we shall do thoroughly 
 this very thing for which we vaguely long; that we be- 
 gin new lives, not in respect of circumstances, but of char- 
 acter; that we make earnest work of this — not changing 
 our place and condition, nor simply changing our manners 
 or morals in the way of an outward reformation — but 
 that in this change we go to the very bottom of things, 
 and in the principles, motives, and aims that make up life 
 become altogether new, starting upon this new idea of 
 living from the very beginning, just as though we w T ere 
 born into another state of existence. This it is to be 
 born again — there is an inward, deep, radical change in 
 
38 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 the whole conception and spirit of life as toward both 
 God and man. 
 
 Christ based His requirement of the new birth upon the 
 wickedness of the human heart. Had condition and cir- 
 cumstances alone stood in the way of admicsion into the 
 kingdom of heaven, this teacher sent from God would 
 doubtless have shown how the difficulty could be removed 
 by education or the progress of society. Were admission 
 into that kingdom a question of morals alone — as these af- 
 fect society and the outer life — Christ would have preached 
 a reformation in manners. But as John the Baptist had 
 foretold of Him, He "laid the axe unto the root of the 
 trees, and every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit 
 must be hewn down and cast into the fire." x To Him who 
 knew what was in man, bad fruit was a sign of a corrupt 
 tree, bad morals or an evil life of a wicked heart; and 
 therefore, as He Himself preached, the tree must be made 
 good that the fruit may be good, the heart must be made 
 good that it may bring forth good things ; 2 and so because 
 of the wickedness of the heart, men must be born unto a 
 new life before they can see the kingdom of God. 
 
 The preaching of Christ dealt with men not simply as 
 ignorant and needing light, as erring and needing guid- 
 ance, but as sinful, and requiring to be made over anew 
 from the very foundation of character. "They that be 
 whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. . . 
 I am not come to. call the righteous but sinners to re- 
 pentance;" 3 that is, to such as deemed themselves good 
 enough by nature, or able to develop a righteous character 
 by methods of their own, Jesus had no mission ; He could be 
 of service only to those who were conscious that they were 
 sinners, and as such had need of salvation. The starting- 
 point in His whole work was the recognition of sin as 
 seated in the heart, and hence demanding a new beginning 
 
 1 Matt. iii. 10. 2 Matt. xii. 33, 35. 3 Matt. ix. 12, 13. 
 
ALL MEN ARE SINNERS. 3& 
 
 in respect of all that constitutes moral character. In the 
 externals of religion the Scribes and Pharisees were the 
 most religious of the Jews, — strict and scrupulous in 
 prayers, tithes and alms, and in all the services that the 
 law of Moses required of subjects of the kingdom of God; 
 yet Jesus did not recognize them as within that kingdom 
 or as having any sort of claim upon it. He charged them 
 with a corruption of heart for which no ceremonial right- 
 eousness could atone: "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
 which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full 
 of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness: — ye out- 
 wardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full 
 of hypocrisy and iniquity." l These were men of fair out- 
 ward morality and apparent righteousness — the best ave- 
 rage specimens of character among the Jews — yet because 
 of the wickedness of their heanrts they needed to be born 
 again. And the charge of inward depravity was by no 
 means confined to those whom Christ accused of hypocrisy 
 in religion. He brought this accusation against all alike. 
 The Jews, for instance, despised the Galileans as hardly 
 capable of being included within the theocratic family — 
 their very name was a term of opprobrium — and some of 
 this class having been put to death for crime or killed in a 
 riot near the temple, so that their blood was mingled with 
 the sacrifices, the people told Jesus of this as proof of a 
 divine judgment for their awful depravity. But He an- 
 swered, "Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners 
 above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? 
 I tell you Nay ; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
 perish." 2 A tower near the pool of Siloam fell and killed 
 eighteen persons, and the Jews interpreted this as a judg- 
 ment upon the victims for some extraordinary wickedness; 
 but Jesus said as before, "Think ye that they were sin- 
 ners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you 
 
 1 Matf. xxiii. 27, 28. 2 Luke xiii. 2, 3. 
 
40 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Nay : but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 1 
 He thus taught that, although particular calamities are not 
 to be taken as proof of special criminality on the part of 
 the sufferers, yet suffering stands so closely related to sin, 
 that all men are equally liable to suffer, because all are 
 alike involved in the habit of sinning, and are substan- 
 tially upon an equality with respect to that sinfulness of 
 heart which calls for repentance. To the Jews who boast- 
 ed that as the seed of Abraham they were the children of 
 God, Jesus said, "Ye are of your Father the devil, and 
 the lusts of your Father ye will do;" 2 thus charging them 
 with complete alienation of heart from God, and alliance 
 with the spirit of darkness and evil. And again, He de- 
 clared the source of all evil in the world to be the sinful 
 heart that is in man; "for from within, out of the heart of 
 men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, mur- 
 ders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, 
 an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil 
 things come from within, and defile the man." 3 Not only 
 do overt deeds of vice and crime proceed from an evil 
 heart, but together with the grossest outward acts, and as 
 included in the same condemnation, are enumerated pride, 
 envy, covetousness, evil thoughts; all these are hidden 
 within the heart, and these "defile the man" before God. 
 Manifold as are the forms of evil in the world, there is but 
 one common fountain of evil, and that is the heart of man. 
 There is no mistaking the judgment of Jesus Christ 
 upon that point: — the doctrine of the universal sinfulness 
 of mankind lay at the basis of His scheme of renovation, 
 and His doctrine of the necessity of a new birth grew logi- 
 cally out of that : — both are fundamental in His theology. 
 The terms of admission into the kingdom of heaven are 
 the same for all; the reformation that is demanded is not 
 renouncing one's more flagrant or conspicuous sins, lop- 
 
 1 Luke xiii. 4. 2 John viii. 44. » Mark vii. 21-23. 
 
THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE. 41 
 
 ping off individual vices or habits, but transforming the 
 sinful heart into a new and holy heart. " Now do ye 
 Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the plat- 
 ter ; but your inward part is full of ravening and wicked- 
 ness." 1 
 
 It is not with sins alone that the gospel of Christ has to 
 do, but with Sin, and directly with the seat and source of 
 sin, the Heart of Man. 2 
 
 Keeping in mind that the kingdom of God consists in 
 recognizing God as the Saviour and receiving Him into the 
 heart as its Lord, one can no longer marvel that whoever 
 would attain unto the consciousness of that kingdom with- 
 in himself must be born again; so changed in heart — 
 changed from an evil, sinful heart to a heart that loves 
 God and seeks after holiness — so changed in his fundamen- 
 tal conceptions and principles of life, and in all his several 
 purposes, motives, and actions, that he shall be throughout 
 another man. Such was the doctrine of Jesus ; the fair in- 
 terpretation of His sayings teaches nothing less than this. 
 To have the fruit good, the tree must first be made good. 
 
 Practically, as matter of experience, the new birth includes 
 and requires repentance and the renunciation of sin. John 
 the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Jesus by preaching 
 " Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand : and 
 many were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their 
 sins." 3 When Jesus began to preach He gave the same 
 exhortation : " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand." The repenting enjoined by the gospel is literally 
 to change one's mind — fierauoiire, review your course 
 and turn from it; — it implies reflection, compunction, 
 and regret in the review of the past, but these frames 
 and experiences do not constitute the fact of repent- 
 ance ; the essence of that is the change of mind to 
 which reflection and compunction lead — a change of the 
 
 1 Luke xi. 39. 2 Matt. xii. 33. s Matt. iii. 2, 6. 
 
42 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 whole mind, in desire, feeling, thought, purpose, action, a 
 change in the whole spirit and intent of life as toward 
 God and His truth, and all that aifects character ; and in- 
 asmuch as the heart has yielded itself to carnal, selfish, 
 worldly desires and aims — in a word, is sinful — it must 
 repent of this, renounce this way of life as the first step 
 toward the kingdom of God. Hence Christ insisted so 
 much that if any man would become His disciple, he 
 must begin by denying himself — must put self down in 
 order to set up Christ as his king.. " No man can serve 
 two masters : ye cannot serve God and mammon." l In 
 being born again one is not passive ; but in becoming 
 spiritually a new man, every one has this to do for him- 
 self — to repent of and renounce his own sin. 
 
 But the new birth is more than repenting. One may 
 have contrition for sin, be ashamed of it, resolve truly to 
 forsake it, and yet through habit or weakness return to it 
 again and again ; to be born anew implies that repentance is 
 confirmed and the renunciation of sin made sure by bring- 
 ing into the soul a new life-power from the Spirit of God. 
 To purify the heart from evil is the vital principle of the 
 new life, and its effectual operation will constitute the per- 
 fection of that life ; — " Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
 they shall see God." 2 Repentance alone does not purify. 
 To be sorry for sin is not in itself the same thing as to be- 
 come holy ; and since sinful desires have ruled the heart, 
 and sin has gained possession of the imagination, the 
 reason, the inclinations, the will, — of the whole man as a 
 thinking, feeling, acting soul — one's own resolution, how- 
 ever sincere, one's own decision, however earnest, proves 
 too weak to eradicate the propensity to evil. Therefore 
 must we be re-enforced from above ; we should never suc- 
 ceed in purifying ourselves — a for that which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh" — and our best purposes of amendment would 
 
 i Luke xvi. 13. 2 Matt. v. 8. 
 
BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 43 
 
 begin under the limitations of weakness and the taint of 
 old carnal habits. Spiritual life within us must be born of 
 the Spirit of God. Christ has taught us that one feature 
 of this new birth is humility — casting away pride and 
 self-will and taking a lowly place as a sinner before the 
 holy God; — " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven :" l " Except ye be converted, and be- 
 come as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven." 2 The Jewish Rabbis had a saying, "A 
 penitent man must be like one to-day new-born." 
 
 But Christ said further, " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God." 3 Now the humbling is our proper 
 act ; we can and must abase ourselves before God, confes- 
 sing our sins ; but for the purifying we need help from the 
 Spirit of all purity, the Holy Spirit. This Jesus taught 
 specifically as the being born from above, — the normal 
 signification of avivdsu, which is veiled under the idea of a 
 new birth. The two ideas are strictly correlative. 
 
 John had said, " I baptize you with water unto repent- 
 ance " 4 — the baptism being a symbol of the washing away 
 of sins, which they who came to be baptized professed to 
 have repented of and forsaken. Yet so far was John from 
 ascribing to baptism a regenerative virtue, that he spoke 
 of the repentance which it signified as but preparatory to a 
 work of divine purification within the soul, and added 
 that in order to the full realization of the kingdom, 
 through its power and majesty possessing the entire in- 
 tellectual and moral nature, Jesus must "baptize them 
 with the Holy Ghost and with fire " 5 — truly and ef- 
 fectually cleanse them by an inward process of purifying. 
 And so Christ Himself taught, " Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
 dom of God." By the act of baptism one professes him- 
 self new-born as to the purpose of" his heart, in renouncing 
 
 1 Matt. v. 3. * Matt, xviii. 3. 8 Mat. v. 8. 4 Matt. iii. 11. 5 Matt. iii. 11. 
 
44 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 his sins ; but unless that purpose has itself sprung from 
 the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, and is sustained 
 and energized by that, it will prove as evanescent as the 
 water applied in the outward rite. The real birth is of 
 the Spirit. 
 
 The complete doctrine of the Holy Spirit as taught by 
 Christ will be unfolded in a subsequent chapter. L Just here 
 we are concerned simply with His declaration of the neces- 
 sity of the Holy Spirit to the effective regeneration of the 
 soul. And the point of inquiry is not the mode of the Spirit's 
 operation in the new birth, which Christ did not explain, 
 and which philosophy can but conjecture ; but the necessity 
 of this supernatural work, which Jesus made fundamental 
 in His scheme of salvation. That necessity arises from the 
 fact that sin, having gained control over the moral powers 
 and affections of the man, holds him in subjection, like 
 " a strong man armed ; " conscience is dormant, religious 
 sensibility is sluggish, the will itself is chained by habit 
 to a course of evil, and paralyzed in its movements toward 
 the good ; but the Spirit of God convincing of sin, 
 awakening the sense of guilt in view of the righteousness 
 of God, and of condemnation in view of the coming judg- 
 ment, breaks the spell of evil, restores to their normal 
 action the moral faculties whose service of evil had become 
 a second nature, and by the power of truth renews and 
 sanctifies the soul. 2 This action of the divine Spirit upon 
 the human Christ likened to the wind, which is marked 
 by its effects. " The wind is the emblem of concealed " 
 power, perceptible to observation, but inscrutable to the 
 understanding:" 3 "The wind 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." 4 Nicodemus, again perplexed 
 
 1 See Chap. XII. 2 John xvi. 8, 13 ; xvii. 17. 3 Stier, " Words of Jesus," 
 in loc. * John iii. 8. 
 
PROFESSOR PHELPS ON SAUL ; S CONVERSION. 45 
 
 and confounded, exclaimed, " How can these things be ? " 
 But Jesus maintained a reserve that not even the eager 
 questioning of His own disciples could penetrate, concern- 
 ing those " heavenly things " that lie beyond human dis- 
 covery, and that philosophy of the supernatural which 
 the highest intellects have essayed in vain. * He held up 
 the fact of the new birth as proof of the working of 
 a divine power within the soul, which like the wind, is 
 invisible as a cause, yet recognized by the force, the sud- 
 denness, or the magnitude of its effects. " So is every one 
 that is born of the Spirit." 
 
 The doctrine of Jesus was that " the experience of the 
 new birth is suggestive of a supernatural cause. Take, for 
 example, the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Look at it 
 as a fact in the history of mind. Set aside, as irrelevant 
 to the object before us, whatever was miraculous in the 
 events of that journey to Damascus. Make no account of 
 the supernatural light, the voice from heaven, the shock 
 of blindness. Consider not the means, but the manner of 
 that change in the man. Mark its impetuosity. Note 
 the instantaneousness of that arrest of passion. It is like 
 a torrent frozen in mid-air. Observe the revulsion of 
 feeling. Threatening and slaughter give place to convic- 
 tion of sin. Malignity is supplanted by prayer. Perceive 
 the revolution of character in that instant of trembling 
 and astonishment. Call it regeneration, conversion, new 
 birth, or by titles more comely to philosophic taste ; call 
 it what you will, it is a change of character. The Phari- 
 see becomes a penitent. The persecutor becomes a 
 Christian. The murderer becomes a saint. For aught 
 that appears in the narrative, the change is almost like a 
 flash of lightning. How brief the colloquy which pro- 
 claims the whole of it ! " Who art thou, Lord ? " "I am 
 Jesus." " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " We 
 
 1 John iii. 12, Acts i. 7. 
 
46 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 do not know that mind can move more rapidly than this 
 in such a juncture of its history, and yet move intelli- 
 gently. Then put together the two lives of the man — 
 his life before, and his life after this convulsive crisis. 
 Saul and Paul join hands over this invisible gulf, as over 
 the river of death — the same being, yet two different men. 
 His character has experienced a change like the transmu- 
 tation of metals. Take these as facts of sober mental 
 history, and do they not seem to speak the presence of a 
 supernatural power? If the world could come to that 
 ninth chapter of the Acts as to a modern discovery in 
 psychology, philosophic systems would grow out of it; 
 all futile in explanation of the process, but all confessing 
 
 the reality and the divinity of the thirg The 
 
 world, from the beginning until now, has inferred the 
 presence of supernal agencies in the mental changes of 
 men, from less conclusive evidences than those furnished 
 by such a conversion. Socrates believed — and philosophy 
 has revered him for the faith — that an invisible spirit 
 swayed his thought, and he believed it on less evidence 
 than this. Napoleon believed and poetry has discovered 
 piety in the faith — that supernatural power intervened in 
 his destiny ; and he believed it on less evidence than this. 
 It has passed into the cant of literature to ascribe inspira- 
 tion, even divinity, to great minds on infinitely less 
 evidence than this." 1 
 
 That one must be born of the Spirit as Christ taught 
 this necessity, is a doctrine full of encouragement, since 
 what is presented is not a metaphysical abstraction, but 
 the fact of help, present help, efficient help, divine help in 
 becoming a new man. One who has been long becalmed 
 at sea, or driven by contrary winds, when at last a favor- 
 
 1 The New Birth, or the Work of the Holy Spirit, by Austin Phelps, D.D., Pro- 
 fessor in Andover Theological Seminary. The whole subject of regeneration 
 is here discussed in a masterly manner. 
 
need of Christ's coming. 47 
 
 ing gale springs up, makes haste to catch it, puts his helm 
 to the course indicated by the breeze and spreads his 
 canvass so as to secure the full benefit of the wind, with- 
 out once troubling himself with theories of meteorology, or 
 demanding how the wind is brought to act upon him. So 
 one driven to and fro by the passions of life, longing and 
 sighing for peace, may be suddenly conscious that some 
 heavenly breeze is floating over him, and if he will but 
 spread the wings of faith and prayer he shall catch its 
 gracious influence and be wafted into rest. What matters 
 it that he does not know how this strange new feeling has 
 come over him, nor why it so excites him to hope and 
 zeal? There are realities in the spiritual world whose 
 certainty is not impaired for lack of our philosophy, and 
 it is enough to know that the Holy Spirit comes from 
 God, and comes to him. Yielding his repentant, willing 
 soul to the renewing, sanctifying power of the truth, he is 
 "born of the Spirit," and that is salvation from sin and 
 death. 
 
 There was no need that Jesus should come from heaven 
 to teach us that we have sinned ; that, alas, we know, and 
 sometimes feel with bitter upbraiding. There was no 
 need that He should come from heaven to teach us that we 
 must repent ; this we know by the judgment and reproof 
 of our own moral sense. But when one as in the anguish 
 of despair cries out, How shall I change my will, break 
 off from sin, and truly become a better man ? — to answer 
 that question, it was needful that Jesus the Christ should 
 come from God and say, " Believe on Me ; receive the 
 Holy Ghost." The Spirit convinces of sin, and the very 
 conviction that prompts that almost despairing cry may be 
 the beginning of His work of renewal — that cry, the birth- 
 cry of that soul. The Spirit sanctifies through the truth ; 
 and this very truth of His own presence to convince, 
 renew, and help, He may be pressing upon the soul as its 
 
48 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 J 
 
 hope in the dark struggle with guilt and fear. If the 
 heart will but open to this higher influence, it shall be 
 lifted up to God, and sustained where all its own resolves 
 would fail. How shall one become a new man? How 
 find God and heaven as a reality, a possession ? Let him 
 do his known duty ; do that which he himself, and only 
 he, can do ; let him repent of his sins, and give up the 
 purpose of sinning ! Then in the spirit of a little child, 
 let him look to Christ for grace to help, to sanctify, and 
 save. In that moment of penitence and faith, casting 
 away his old self that he may cast himself wholly upon 
 Christ, he is born of the Spirit, and enters into the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 SALVATION MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE DEATH OF 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 One can certify himself of his repentance ; can he also 
 be certified that his repentance is accepted of God ? One 
 may be conscious of his dependence upon divine power to 
 strengthen him against the evil that is within him and 
 around him ; but how shall he make sure that this aid will 
 be given him in his extremity? Has God manifested a 
 concern for our salvation ? — promised anything, done any- 
 thing, to assure us that sin repented of shall be forgiven, 
 that the new life shall be inwrought and sustained in our 
 souls ? Upon the answer to these questions all hope and 
 courage for reformation must depend. The answer is 
 given in that thrilling, that sublime announcement: "God 
 so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believe th in Him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life/* l For this very purpose Jesus 
 Christ came into the world ; for this very purpose He lived 
 in the flesh ; for this very purpose He died upon the cross 
 — that through faith in the sinless man there lifted up in 
 triumph over sin and death, we might receive not new life 
 only, but life everlasting. All this did Christ Himself in- 
 clude in that saying to Nicodemus which linked the sym- 
 bolism of the Old Testament with His personal history : 
 r As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
 must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believ- 
 
 1 John iii. 16. For a oritioal discussion of this text see Chap. vi. 
 
 4 49 
 
50 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 eth in Hira should not perish, but have eternal life." 1 
 " Should not perish !" « Must be lifted up !" There was, 
 then, upon the whole race a liability to perish, which could 
 be averted only by the death of the Son of Man. Surely 
 these words of Jesus cannot mean less than this — that His 
 death upon the cross sustained a necessary and vital rela- 
 tion to the deliverance of men from a doom that is here 
 contrasted with everlasting life. The question is not one 
 of philosophy, but solely one of interpretation. 
 
 What, then, did Jesus intend by the " lifting up " of the 
 Son of Man ? Upon two other occasions He used the same 
 expression, and a comparison of these will furnish a key to 
 its meaning. In a dispute with the Pharisees concern- 
 ing His divine mission, Jesus, knowing their murderous in- 
 tent towards Him, said unto them, " When ye have lifted 
 up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He." 2 
 This could not have referred to the glorification of Christ, 
 His being received up into heaven after death, for the verb 
 is not passive, but denotes the act of the Jews in lifting 
 Him up — b(pd)orjze. Hence it can only refer to His being 
 crucified by their hands. That purpose to have His life, 
 which He knew was raging in their hearts, and which He 
 more than once referred to in this same discussion, would 
 be accomplished in lifting Him up upon the cross. 
 
 Again, as He drew near the close of life, in setting forth 
 the destined triumph of His gospel, He said : " And I, if I 
 be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." 3 
 The evangelist adds the comment, " This He said, signify- 
 ing what death He should die." That the interpretation 
 given by John was the true one is clear from the whole 
 argument of the context. Jesus had likened Himself to 
 the -corn of wheat cast into the ground, " which if it die, 
 
 1 John iii. 14, 15. 2 John viii. 28 : compare v. 37 : " Ye seek to kill me." 
 8 John xii. 32. 
 
THE MEANING OF "LIFTED UP." 51 
 
 bringeth forth much fruit f 1 iu like manner would the Son 
 of Man be glorified in the multitude of disciples that His 
 being lifted up would draw unto Him. The Jews clearly 
 understood Him by this to refer to His death, for they an- 
 swered with evident surprise, " We have heard out of the 
 law that Christ abideth forever" — their notion of the Mes- 
 siah was that He would live and reign uninterruptedly in 
 this world : — " how sayest Thou then, ' The Son of Man 
 must be lifted up ?' " The being lifted up is clearly 
 opposed to the idea of abiding forever, and hence it signi- 
 fies death as contrasted with an uninterrupted life. 
 
 The very manner of Christ's death is hinted by this 
 phrase: "If I be lifted up from the earth." There is 
 much plausibility in the suggestion that, as our Lord spoke 
 in the Aramaean tongue — then the dialect of the common 
 people in Israel —he used the Chaldee term z'Jcaph (Ezra 
 vi. 11) or tah-lah (Esther vii. 9, 10, ix. 13) which the 
 Jews would understand to mean to hang up a criminal on 
 a post, or adapting this to the Roman custom — to crucify. 2 
 Dr. E. Riggs, in his manual of the Chaldee language, de- 
 fines z'lzaph, " to suspend, as a malefactor on a gallows or 
 cross." Euerst gives the meaning — "to raise up, as a 
 cross, to hang up ;" and tah-ldh to hang up on a stake, 
 for capital punishment. Thus Haman was "lifted up" 
 upon the gallows ; and the same penalty was threatened by 
 Darius for mutilating a royal edict: ""Whosoever shall 
 alter this decree, let timber be pulled down from his house, 
 and being i set up ? let him be hanged thereon." 3 
 
 The Chaldee, which belonged to one of the three grand 
 divisions of the Shemitish languages, 4 was the language of 
 Babylonia in the time of the Jewish captivity. That the 
 Jews there acquired it, is evident from remains of the 
 
 1 John xii. 24. 2 Olshausen, Com. John, iii. 14. 
 
 3 Ezra vi. 11. 4 Aramaean, Hebrew, and Arabic ; the Chaldee and the Syriac 
 were sub-divisions of Aramaean, — East and West. 
 
52 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 dialect in the books of Ezra and Daniel • * and on their return 
 to Palestine they brought this with them as their vernacular 
 tongue. By degrees the name Hebrew was transferred to 
 this Babylonish dialect : but " in the time of Christ, the 
 popular speech of the Jews in Palestine was not pure 
 Hebrew, but Syro-Chaldaic. Accordingly, imitations and 
 literal translations of numerous ordinary expressions of 
 that language must have been introduced into Jewish 
 Greek/ 72 The Greek language which, from the time of 
 Alexander the Great, gradually won its way in the pro- 
 vinces of Asia and Africa that were subjected to Mace- 
 donian rule, so far as it was used by the Jews of Palestine, 
 was affected both in its idioms and in the meaning of par- 
 ticular words by the Chaldee dialect. That Christ habit- 
 ually used this dialect is highly probable ; at least, the fact 
 that in His death-agony upon the cross He cried out in 
 this tongue, 3 shows that it was most natural to Him. 
 Spoken in that tongue, the expression " to be lifted up " 
 could have no doubtful reference to the manner of His 
 death. 
 
 But this interpretation of the phrase does not depend 
 upon the supposition that it was originally uttered in the 
 Chaldee tongue. Both the Jews at large and the particu- 
 lar disciples of Jesus understood it in this sense : and their 
 enthusiastic dream of an immortal reign of the Messiah 
 upon earth was confounded by the declaration that the Son 
 of Man must be lifted up from the earth. And as this lift- 
 ing up would be compassed by the malicious machinations 
 of the Pharisees, who sought to kill Him, it could only 
 refer to the lifting up on the cross. 4 Thus from the very 
 opening of His ministry, Jesus knew not only that He 
 
 1 Ezra iv. 8 ; vi. 18 ; vii. 12, 26 ; Daniel ii. 4 ; vii. 28. 2 Winer, Gram- 
 mar of the New Testament Diction, See. Ill; also, Riggs, Manual of the 
 Chaldee Language, Sec. II. Bleek, Einleitung in das N. T. % 21-36. 
 
 8 Matthew xxvii. 4@. Eli, Eli, lama sabaehthani. * John viii. 28, 37. 
 
Christ's death the object of faith. 53 
 
 should die, but that He should be crucified; that His 
 death would not take place in the course of nature, but by 
 violence ; and this not by stoning, as Stephen afterwards 
 .was stoned by the mob, nor by beheading, as John the Bap- 
 tist suffered, but by being lifted up upon the cross. That 
 Jesus distinctly foreknew the manner of His death is plain 
 from His sayings to the disciples recorded by Matthew : 1 
 "From that time forth begaa Jesus to show unto His disci' 
 pies how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many 
 things of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and he 
 hilled, and raised again the third day." " Behold, we go 
 up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed 
 unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall 
 condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the 
 Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him." 
 
 But this death would possess a virtue that can be 
 affirmed of none other. Christ announced to Nicodemus 
 a mystery greater even than that of the new birth, when 
 He said that His crucifixion was appointed as necessary 
 to the salvation of mankind : — " The Son of Man must be 
 lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have eternal life." 2 The provision of sal- 
 vation was directly connected with, and vitally dependent 
 upon the crucifixion. 
 
 That salvation comes through believing in Christ, that 
 faith in the Son of Man is the condition of life, was taught 
 by Jesus under every possible form of expression. " He 
 that believeth on Me hath everlasting life." 3 " If ye be- 
 lieve not that I am He " — the Messiah, the sent of God, 
 " ye shall die in your sins." 4 " He that believeth and is 
 baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." 5 But the text under consideration goes beyond 
 the fact of believing to its ground, and connects the act of 
 
 1 Matthew xvi. 21 ; xx. 18. 2 John iii. 15. 3 John vi. 47. 4 John viii. 24. 
 5 Mark xvi. 16. 
 
54 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 faith directly with the death of Christ as a necessary pro- 
 vision for the salvation that comes by faith : — " The Son 
 of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish ;"-3et has here the force of a moral- 
 necessity ; — to meet the requirements of the case and to 
 fulfill the purpose of God, it was necessary that the Son 
 of Man be lifted up-: the iva has the telic sense, in order 
 that, to the end that, — so that this result might be secured. 
 Hence the death of Jesus upon the cross sustained a 
 necessary and vital relation to the salvation of mankind. 
 How else can we account for the emphasis that Christ 
 gave to His dying as the condition precedent to salvation 
 by faith ? One might believe that Jesus was the eternal 
 Son of God, that He became incarnate, that He lived a 
 holy life, that He did the works of God, that He taught 
 divine truth, that His teachings if followed would make 
 men wise and holy and happy — one might believe all 
 this irrespective of the question how this Jesus died, or 
 whether He died at all. Had the Son of Man been trans- 
 lated like Enoch and Elijah, without tasting death, or had 
 He died in the ordinary course of nature, one might still 
 to a certain extent have believed in His mission, His life, 
 and His teachings. But simply to believe in His super- 
 natural advent, His perfect character, His true and wise 
 sayings, does not reach the measure and quality of the 
 faith that Jesus Himself prescribed. Faith to that extent 
 was avowed by Nicodemus at the opening of his interview 
 with Christ : — " Eabbi, we know that thou art a teacher 
 come from God ; for no man can do these miracles that 
 thou doest, except God be with him." This was a con- 
 fession of the divine mission of Jesus, of His divine 
 works, and the divine authority of His teachings: a 
 faith so strong that it gave the conviction of certainty ; a 
 faith so sincere that he came to Jesus with a declaration 
 of confidence, and in the spirit of a disciple, to learn from 
 
Christ's death in the plan of his mission. 55 
 
 Him the higher signs and privileges of the kingdom of 
 God. Yet to this very master in Israel, who was thus 
 forward to acknowledge Him as a divine teacher, Jesus 
 prescribed quite another element of faith, and another 
 ground upon which faith in Himself should rest, a faith 
 conditioned upon His crucifixion, and to arise out of 
 that : — " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
 even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in Him should not perish." Believing unto 
 salvation, faith that would lead to eternal life, this must 
 arise from looking unto Christ as " lifted up " upon the 
 cross. 
 
 Christ taught this same doctrine when a little before 
 His death, with explicit reference to the salvation of the 
 world, He said, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto me." 1 Certain Greek proselytes had 
 expressed a desire to "see Jesus;" His disciples, who 
 looked upon Him as the Messiah to the Jews alone, 
 hesitated to present them, but brought the request to their 
 Lord. The answer of Jesus, instead of pronouncing 
 categorically upon the case presented, made this the occa- 
 sion of proclaiming the universality of His grace and the 
 cosmopolitan nature of His kingdom. 
 
 Hitherto He had seemed to limit His personal ministry 
 to the Jews. When He sent forth the twelve to announce 
 the kingdom of heaven, He commanded them saying, " Go 
 not into 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 ; " 2 and to the woman of Syrophe- 
 nicia who besought Him to heal her daughter, He said, 
 " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel." 3 But now He announces that all men shall be 
 drawn unto Him, and this as consequent upon His death. 
 The productive effect of His dying He sets forth under 
 
 1 John xii. 32. 2 Matt. x. 5, 6. 3 Matt. xv. 24. 
 
56 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 the analogy of the fructifying seed : " The hour is come 
 that the Son of Man should be glorified. Except a corn 
 of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; 
 but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." x Then as if 
 struggling in His own spirit with the impending sacrifice, 
 yet implicitly subjecting His own will to the will of His 
 Father, He said, " Now is my soul troubled ; and what 
 shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ? but for 
 this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy 
 name." 2 What was the hour that hung over Him with 
 such painful but momentous issues, but the hour appointed 
 for His sacrifice upon the cross ? " Now is the judgment 
 of this world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast 
 out;" 3 — the kingdom of darkness shall be broken down, 
 "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
 men unto Me." His death would be the seed-corn that 
 should bring forth a new life for all mankind — the 
 Gentile world as well as the people of Israel. 
 
 In the light of this usage in the phrase " to be lifted 
 up," it is most significant that, in His conversation with 
 Mcodemus, Jesus did not speak of death simply as an event 
 to be accepted by Him in the spirit of submission. He 
 did not merely avow His willingness to die — His readi- 
 ness, if need be, to suffer martyrdom, if by so doing, He 
 could benefit mankind ; nor did He simply prophesy that 
 after His death, His life and doctrine would be illuminated 
 by that event, and by the natural and progressive influence 
 of truth, light, and love, would become a means of salva- 
 tion to the world; — much more than this lay in His 
 thought. From the first He looked forward to His cruci- 
 fixion, His being " lifted up " as the appointed termination 
 of His life and ministry. His going out of the world in 
 that manner was included in the purpose of His coming into 
 the world. His dying upon the cross was no thing of acci- 
 
 l John xii. 23, 24. 2 John xii. 27. 3 John xii. 31. 
 
THE BEAZEN SEEPENT A SYMBOL. 57 
 
 dent, His being lifted up no mere incident of priestly hate 
 or popular excitement, — this was in the plan of His mis- 
 sion as truly as were His advent, His preaching, His 
 miracles, His life of truth and love. He announced to 
 Nicodemus as one of the truths He had brought down 
 from heaven, the necessary and vital relation of His death to 
 the salvation of mankind ; and for the key to this doctrine, 
 referred him to a memorable incident of Jewish history as 
 a type of the saving benefit to be derived from His cruci- 
 fixion. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
 even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever 
 belie veth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 
 That was a day of terror and agony in the wilderness 
 when fire-serpents 1 swarmed in the camp of Israel. This 
 venomous reptile, a mottled snake with fiery red spots upon 
 its head, abounds at certain seasons in the sandy wilder- 
 ness of Arabah, that skirts the western side of the moun- 
 tains of Edom, from the foot of the Dead Sea to the Gulf 
 of Akabah. It is the terror of fishermen along the Gulf, 
 and of the Bedouins when encamped in the neighboring 
 desert. 2 So inflammable is its bite that it is likened to fire 
 coursing through the veins ; so intense is its venom, and so 
 rapid in its action, that the bite is fatal within a few hours. 
 The body swells with a fiery eruption, the tongue is con- 
 
 1 Numbers xxi. 6, 8; Deut. viii. 15 : the term Nahash, the generic name for 
 serpent, is here qualified by the term Saraph, burning; which, by some, is 
 supposed to describe a fiery, inflammable bite, but by others the fiery-red ap- 
 pearance of the serpent itself, especially about the head. 
 
 2 Burckhardt, (Vol. II. p. 814) says, " The sand on the shore showed traces 
 of snakes on every hand. My guide told me that snakes were very common in 
 these regions, and that the fishermen were very much afraid of them, and put 
 out their fires at night before going to sleep, because the light was known to 
 attract them." Schubert, Journey from AJenbnJi to the Hor (ii. 406) states that 
 " in the afternoon a large and very mottled snake was brought to us, marked 
 yt'ith. fiery spots and spiral lines, which evidently belonged, from the formation 
 of its teeth, to one of the most poisonous species. The Bedouins say that these 
 snakes, of which they have great dread, are very numerous in this locality." 
 
58 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 sumed with thirst, and the poor wretch writhes in agony 
 till death brings relief. 
 
 This pest suddenly appeared in the camp of Israel in 
 prodigious numbers ; from crevices in the rocks, from holes 
 in the sand, swarmed these fiery-headed demons into every 
 tent. There was no running away from them, and killing 
 seemed hardly to diminish their numbers. On every side 
 there was a cry of anguish — men, women, children racked 
 with this fiery torture, none able to save or even help 
 another — " and much people of Israel died." 
 
 In this extremity the people came to Moses, and 
 besought him to pray the Lord to take away the serpents. 
 They came confessing their sin, and acknowledging that 
 the plague was a just retribution; for they had reviled 
 Moses as the cause of their disappointments and fatigues in 
 the desert, and had even reproached the name of God for 
 their lack of bread and water. Helpless, self-condemned, 
 in danger of perishing, they now felt that deliverance must 
 come from God, and could come from God only. " And 
 Moses prayed for the people." 1 The manner in which this 
 prayer was answered showed the hand of God even more 
 distinctly than had the appearance of the plague. For if 
 Jehovah were about to interfere, it would seem probable 
 that He would act upon the physical cause of the suffering, 
 either directly, by destroying or scattering the' serpents, or 
 indirectly, by guiding Moses to some healing herb or other 
 means of cure — thus providing a physical remedy for a 
 physical evil. But He chose to employ a moral remedy, 
 which by summoning the people to an act of faith, would 
 bring Jehovah Himself before them as the direct author of 
 their healing. "The Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a 
 fiery serpent and set it upon a pole ; and it shall come to 
 pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it 
 shall live:" 2 — and presently there was lifted up in the 
 
 1 Numbers xxi. 7. 2 v. 8. 
 
THE BRAZEN SERPENT A SYMBOL. 59 
 
 camp, high over all the tents, the image in brass of the 
 fiery destroyer ; and from every tent crawled forth the bit- 
 ten, dying men, or were carried forth by hands that now 
 had faith to minister — and they looked ; those eyes whose 
 life was burning out in the fire of fever, looked where the 
 great brazen serpent was all ablaze in the sun, (as if the 
 myriad fire-serpents were compressed into one burning 
 symbol) — looked, to behold the fierce destroyer nailed 
 harmless as dead metal to the tree ; looked, to learn that 
 Jehovah was in the camp as a Deliverer, and would destroy 
 death in victory ; looked, and with the look came healing ; 
 looked, and the eye lost its madness, and shone again with 
 the brightness of hope ; looked, and the fiery torrent of the 
 veins was calmed, and the pulse beat again with the even 
 flow of health ; looked, and he who just now stood a fiend 
 of despair within the jaws of hell came forth a new man, in 
 his right mind, and kissed his wife and children, and they 
 together worshiped God ; " For it came to pass that if a 
 serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of 
 brass, he lived." And as Moses lifted up that serpent in 
 the day of death and despair for Israel, even so — in like 
 manner, for a like purpose, with like significance, the Son 
 of Man was lifted up, and hung there upon the cross that 
 all Jerusalem then saw, that all the ages since have seen, 
 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but 
 have eternal life. 
 
 The force of this " even so " suggests in this symbol of 
 the serpent a significance of doctrine concerning Christ. 
 First of all, the plague of serpents was because of sin. 
 Though the agent of the divine displeasure was a natural 
 pest belonging to that locality, yet the visitation of the ser- 
 pents was a judgment from God. Ewald, who does not ques- 
 tion the authenticity or the antiquity of this narrative, ad- 
 mits this element in the case. "The people advancing to- 
 wards the Red Sea, weary of the hardships of the tedious 
 
60 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 march, and tired of the scanty nourishment afforded by the 
 manna of the desert, complained loudly to God and Moses 
 of the want of bread and water. Instead, however, of 
 obtaining relief, they thus incurred a much greater evil, 
 being furiously pursued by a multitude of large and veno- 
 mous serpents, from the bites of which many died. In 
 this they recognized God's righteous punishment for their 
 murmuring, and repentantly entreated Moses for his pro- 
 phetical interposition." x In the plague of the fiery ser- 
 pents, the sin of unbelief, ingratitude, rebellion against 
 God, was visited with condemnation and penalty. 
 
 Next,- the people terrified and humbled by the judgment, 
 and cut off from all human relief, looked to Jehovah for 
 deliverance, humbly confessing their sins. In this peni- 
 tent frame they came to Moses and said, "We have 
 sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against 
 thee ; pray unto the Lord, that He may take away the 
 serpents from us." 2 Here was acknowledged the necessity 
 of divine interposition to take away the penalty of sin. 
 God alone could stay the judgment. 
 
 Again, the brazen serpent was appointed by God ex- 
 pressly for a sign of His merciful interposition. This was 
 no device of human ingenuity; no experiment on the 
 part of Moses and the elders upon the imagination of the 
 people; between this and the cure there could be no 
 relation of cause and effect; simply as an exhibition or 
 demonstration it could have no efficacy ; — but it was 
 God's appointed sign of mercy. Here again Ewalcl is true 
 to the conception of the narrative : " Moses by divine 
 command fixed a serpent of brass upon an elevated banner, 
 that, gazing on it, those who were bitten might be healed ; 
 and this actually occurred. The meaning of the story is 
 certainly not that Moses set up the image of the serpent as 
 an object of adoration ; it was obviously only a sign that, 
 
 1 Ewald, Hist, of Israel, I, 599, English edition. 2 Num. xxi. 7- 
 
THE BRAZEN SERPENT A TYPE OF MERCY. 61 
 
 as by the command of Jahve this serpent was waved on 
 high, bound and harmless, so every one that looked upon 
 it with faith in the redeeming power of Jahve would be 
 preserved from evil. It was therefore a symbolic sign, 
 like that of St. George and the Dragon among ourselves, 
 or the Serpent itself among the heathen. As that creature, 
 by nature the most noxious, and yet supposed capable of 
 being tamed, became the image of remediable bodily ill, 
 and consequently the symbol of JEsculapius, so here we 
 have something of the same import, but with an element 
 of reality and practical necessity." l 
 
 But the point of supreme moment in the case is that 
 men looked to God for healing mercy through that sign; 
 not only did they look to God as the source whence 
 healing must come, but they looked through this par- 
 ticular sign, as representing the fact of healing — and none 
 in all the camp were healed except they looked upon the 
 serpent of brass. 
 
 Thus far the analogy is simple, obvious, perfect. It 
 was to counteract an evil consequence of sin, to remove 
 the penalty of a moral transgression, that the serpent 
 was lifted up ; and it was for men perishing in sin that 
 the Son of Man was lifted up; for men condemned 
 because of sin that He came with that healing of the soul 
 which is eternal life. The cure for the bite of the serpent 
 was appointed of God expressly for that end ; and so, in 
 His counsels of wisdom and mercy it was provided that 
 the Son of Man be lifted up — His crucifixion was ap- 
 pointed for our salvation. 
 
 The case of the bitten Israelite was hopeless without 
 the special intervention of Jehovah ; and the case of the 
 soul smitten with the plague of sin, stung with remorse 
 of conscience, condemned by the righteous law, doomed 
 to " perish " in its iniquities, were hopeless, had not God 
 sent His Son to be lifted up upon the cross. 
 
 1 Ewald, Hist, of Israel, 1, 599. 
 
62 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 The brazen serpent, though displayed in sight of all the 
 camp as the divine provision of healing, was made effica- 
 cious to any individual sufferer only by his looking, which 
 was the personal act of faith; and even so the Son of 
 Man was lifted up "that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish, but have eternal life." l As deliverance from 
 the condemnation of sin was possible only through the 
 love of God in giving His Son to be crucified, so there is 
 no actual deliverance to any sinner save through his own 
 act of faith in the Son of Man as lifted up. "He that 
 believeth on Him is not condemned; but He that be- 
 lieveth not is condemned already, because He hath not 
 believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." 2 
 
 There is yet another point in this analogy that comes, 
 if possible, still closer to the root both of the evil and its 
 remedy. As Alford describes it : 3 " The brazen serpent 
 was made in the likeness of the serpents which had bitten 
 them. It represented to them the poison which had gone 
 through their frames, and it was hung up there, on the 
 banner staff as a trophy, to show them that for the poison 
 there was healing, — that the plague had been overcome. 
 In it there was no poison, only the likeness of it. And 
 was not He who knew no sin made sin for us ? Were 
 not sin and Death and Satan crucified when He was 
 crucified ? " In a word, did not the dying of the Son of 
 Man upon the cross strike at the root of all human misery, 
 and destroy the destroyer ? Nothing less than this surely 
 could He have meant when He said, " My flesh will I 
 give for the life of the world ; " " The good shepherd 
 giveth his life for the sheep ; " 4 and in that most emphatic 
 declaration, " The Son of Man came not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
 many." 5 
 
 1 John iii. 15. 3 Comm. in loe. 5 Mark x. 45. 
 
 2 John iii. 18. * John vi. 51; x. 11. 
 
RANSOM OR REDEMPTION. 63 
 
 This word XuTpov, Ransom, admits of no ambiguity : it 
 means " purchase-money/ ' the price paid for the release 
 of any one from captivity, from prison, or from peril. 
 The Septuagint uses it for P™? and ^p3 — compensation, 
 redemption, satisfaction by a price. Thus, by the Leviti- 
 cal law, the owner of an unruly ox was responsible in 
 various penalties for the mischief done by the animal. 
 When liable to the penalty of death, he might redeem his 
 life by a fine, and this was the Xdvpov • " if there be laid 
 on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom 
 of his life whatsoever is laid upon him." 1 A universal 
 ransom-money was levied upon the people to avert a 
 judgment from Jehovah. "When thou takest the sum 
 of the children of Israel after their number, then shall 
 they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, 
 when thou numberest them; that there be no plague 
 among them when thou numberest them." 2 This same 
 redemption-tax is afterward spoken of as the " atonement 
 money." 3 
 
 This same term Xurpov is employed by the Septuagint 
 for the price of the redemption of a slave, and also of land 
 that had been alienated. " In all the land of your pos- 
 session ye shall grant a redemption for the land." 4 The 
 poor debtor who had sold himself into servitude could be 
 redeemed by his kinsman ; " according unto his years " 
 [of the unexpired term of his service] shall be " the price 
 of his redemption.^ 5 
 
 On the other hand, it was forbidden to accept a ransom 
 for a murderer : " Ye shall take no satisfaction (Xurpov) 
 for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death." 6 
 
 The verb-form of the same word is used for redeeming 
 by a substitute. " Every firstling of an ass thou shalt 
 redeem with a lamb ; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then 
 
 1 Ex. xxi. 30. 2 Ex. xxx. 12. 3 v. 16. 
 
 * Lev. xxv. 24. 6 Lev. xxv. 52. 6 Num. xxxv. 31. 
 
64 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 thou shalt break his neck ; and all the first-born of man 
 among thy children shalt thou redeem." 1 
 
 The same word, chiefly in the plural form Aurpa, is 
 common in classic Greek in the sense of ransom — a price 
 paid for redemption. Plato uses it in describing the rich 
 presents that Chryses brought to the Greeks for the ran- 
 som of his daughter. 2 Thucydides speaks of Hippocrates, 
 tyrant of Gela, having received the territory of Camarina 
 as a ransom for some Syracusan prisoners. 3 Herodotus, 
 describing the victory of the Athenians over the Chalci- 
 deans and the Boeotians, says, " All the Chalcidean 
 prisoners whom they took were put in irons, and kept for 
 a long time in close confinement, as likewise were the 
 Boeotians, until the ransom asked for them was paid. . . 
 The Athenians made an offering of a tenth part of the 
 ransom-money — zwv XurpcDv." 4 Demosthenes 5 and Xeno- 
 phon 6 used kurpov in the same sense of a price paid 
 for a ransom. In the great tragic poet iEschylus is a 
 striking instance of Xuzpov in the sense of an expiation or 
 atonement for murder. The chorus of mourning women 
 bewailing the untimely end of Agamemnon, exclaim, 
 " What atonement is there for blood that has fallen on the 
 
 ground ? 7 All the rivers moving in one channel 
 
 would flow in vain to purify murder." How admirably 
 comes in here the New Testament doctrine of an expiation, 
 a ransom, sufficient to atone for every crime. The Son of 
 Man gave His life " a ransom, Xvrpov, for many." 
 
 A ransom from what? He did not give His life to 
 deliver the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke, for He 
 was never concerned in an insurrection, nor a political 
 
 1 Ex. xiii. 13. All these references are to the Septuagint version. 
 
 2 Eep. 39, 3 D. on j\\6zv 6 Xpvcnj? ttjs re flvyarpos Avrpa <f>epwv. 
 
 3 Thuc. vi. 5. AvVpa avSpiav Svpa/cocnW <uxju.aA.wTwv AajSwv t>jv yW T>jv nap.api,- 
 vaC(av. 
 
 * Herod v. 77. 6 1248, 25, 1250, 1. 6 Hell. 7, 2, 16. 
 
 T iEsch. Cho. 42. ri yap \vrpov neaovTOs ai/aaros weS<a ; 
 
CHRIST'S DEATH A RANSOM FOR SIN. 65 
 
 movement of any sort, and He was put to death at the 
 instigation of His own countrymen. He refused to place 
 Himself at the head of the populace when they sought to 
 make Him a king, and He declared that His kingdom 
 was not of this world. It was not simply to deliver the 
 poor and degraded from servitude, nor the ignorant and 
 lowly from their condition of debasement, that Jesus 
 gave His life a ransom ; for though He foresaw that such 
 deliverances would result from His doctrines, the social 
 emancipation of the poor was not the work to which He 
 devoted His life. " The Son of Man is come to save that 
 which is lost; " T and it was in fulfillment of that purpose 
 that " He gave His life a ransom for many." He might 
 have shunned death at the time and in the mode it came 
 to Him; but He put Himself in the way of it, and against 
 the remonstrance of His disciples went to Jerusalem, 
 knowing what would there befall Him — not calculating 
 chances, nor simply incurring a risk — but deliberately 
 accepting death. As He said to Pilate, He laid down 
 His life ; He came to do this ; it was in His plan to die 
 upon the cross as a ransom. He " must be lifted up " in 
 order that men "should not perish, but have eternal 
 life : " — to " perish," therefore, would be the opposite of 
 eternal life — the loss of that blessedness in God which is 
 the life of the soul. From that destruction Jesus has ran- 
 somed us by giving His own life. 
 
 Here then from the lips of Christ Himself is the 
 doctrine that He came into the world to die for the sal- 
 vation of the world ; and deliverance from that death 
 spiritual and eternal which is the consequence of sin, and 
 the securing eternal life to the soul, come by faith in the 
 Son of Man as lifted up to be a Saviour, — thus giving 
 His life for the redemption of mankind. This is the 
 Gospel of the kingdom. It goes through the plague- 
 
 1 Matt, xviii. 11. 
 5 
 
66 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 stricken world crying, O sin-smitten soul ! wouldst thou be 
 healed? look to Jesus lifted up for thy salvation. O 
 tormenting conscience ! wouldst thou be stilled ? look to 
 Jesus on the cross, lifted up for thy healing ! O soul 
 condemned and dying ! wouldst find again thy life ? look 
 to Jesus, and the condemnation shall be cancelled, thy 
 ransom accomplished, and the warrant given thee of life 
 purchased and sealed by His death. And whosoever 
 would not perish, let him look to Jesus and be saved ! 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SALVATION LIMITED ONLY BY UNBELIEF. 
 
 That the death of Christ had a remedial virtue and in- 
 tent, a pre-ordained and necessary relation to the life-heal- 
 ing of the soul ; that it was a price paid for our redemp- 
 tion, having therefore a proper vicarious import in respect 
 of the salvation of the world, has been established from 
 His own words. As in a day of dire extremity to Israel, 
 when the sin of the people was visited upon them by a 
 fearful and destructive plague, Moses, by command of 
 God, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to show that 
 Jehovah was present as a Saviour for every one that would 
 look to Him in faith ; in like manner, by appointment of 
 God, and for the manifestation of His present grace and 
 succor, the Son of Man was lifted up to the hope and faith 
 of a perishing world, " that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have eternal life." 1 This last 
 declaration announces, by authority of Christ, the practical 
 reach and application of the saving benefits of His death. 
 And this was followed by an utterance, if possible, still 
 more emphatic, setting forth the Salvation as provided in 
 the gift of God, and as realized through its acceptance 
 among men : " For God so loved the world that He gave 
 His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God 
 sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
 that the world through Him might be saved." 2 Here the 
 Whosoever points to an unlimited provision, the sufficiency 
 
 i John iii. 15. 2 John iii. 16, 17. 
 
 67 
 
68 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the gift of God for the whole world ; but the Believing, 
 which is the necessary and invariable condition, suggests 
 that the breadth of result in the numbers actually saved 
 may not equal the breadth of provision for salvation in the 
 death of Jesus upon the cross ; universality on the part of 
 God, the provider, limitation only by the act of Man, the 
 receiver. 
 
 Critical authorities are pretty evenly divided upon the 
 question whether these words were a part of our Lord's 
 discourse to Mcodemus, or an explanatory addition by the 
 Evangelist. 1 Though the change to the past tense 2 — 
 " God gave or sent His Son n — may give countenance to the 
 latter view, there is here no sign of a break in the dis- 
 course; and the statement of the origin and extent of the 
 redemptive mission of Christ follows naturally the -declara- 
 tion that the Son of Man " must be lifted up." The pur- 
 pose and reach of the divine sacrifice are logically con- 
 nected with the fact of the sacrifice and its necessity. 
 "Whatever was the ground of the necessity that Jesus 
 should die for our salvation, His coming into the world was 
 projected in the love of God, for that very end ; and that 
 love is pictured as self-sacrificing, wide-reaching, all- 
 embracing. 
 
 But inasmuch as the present line of discussion limits us 
 to the very words of Jesus, even should this particular 
 form of expression be doubtful, its sentiment is confirmed 
 by words of the same import that did certainly fall from 
 His lips. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hear- 
 eth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath 
 everlasting life." 3 " This is the will of Him that sent Me, 
 that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, 
 
 1 Among recent commentators, Tholuck, Olshausen and others take the for- 
 mer view; the latter is maintained hy Knapp, Meyer, Hug, Alford. 
 
 2 The Aorist sSukc, contemplates the action in the mind of the speaker, as 
 brought to pass. s John v. 24. 
 
NO LIMITATION IN THE PLAN. 69 
 
 may have everlasting life." 1 Add to these such declara- 
 tions as the following: "He that believeth shall be 
 saved/' 2 " Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast 
 out/' 3 and the testimony of Christ is clear, positive, and 
 ample to the point that through His death salvation is 
 provided for all mankind. 
 
 There are, however, other sayings of Christ that seem in 
 some sort to put a limitation upon the application of this 
 provision of grace, or at least upon its result in actual ex- 
 perience. In answer to the question " Lord, are there few 
 that be saved ?" Jesus said, " Strive to enter in at the 
 strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, 
 and shall not be able." 4 " Wide is the gate, and broad is 
 the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
 that go in thereat ; because strait is the gate, and narrow is 
 the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find 
 itP 5 Summing up these several sayings, we find that the 
 doctrine of Christ concerning salvation embraces the fol- 
 lowing points : 
 
 (a.) The fullness and freeness of the provision of salva- 
 tion for all mankind, upon just and simple conditions. 
 
 (b.) That none do really come to Christ for salvation, 
 except as they are influenced from the Father ; and 
 
 (c.) That by reason of unbelief or of misdirected en- 
 deavors, many will really fail of salvation at the last. 
 
 That there is a limitation somewhere upon the practical 
 working of the divine plan of salvation, or rather in the 
 actual results of that plan, is the obvious teaching of 
 Christ, in some of the passages cited above. But is this 
 limitation in the plan itself? or does it in any way detract 
 from the sufficiency of the atonement, or the fullness and 
 freeness of the offer of salvation on the part of God ? Is 
 such an inference warranted by the declaration of Christ 
 
 1 John vi. 40. 2 Mark xvi. 16. 3 John vi. 37. 
 
 * Luke xiii. 24. 6 Matt. vii. 13, 14. 
 
70 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 " No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath 
 sent Me draw him." 1 There is much to the same purport 
 in our Lord's discourse recorded in the sixth chapter of 
 John : — " All that the Father giveth Me, shall come to 
 Me." " This is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that 
 of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but 
 should raise it up again at the last day." 2 If these words 
 fairly imply that God has made an arbitrary selection of 
 the subjects of E-edemption, so that salvation is provided 
 for only a limited number to the purposed exclusion of all 
 others, then how can one fulfill the commission of Christ, 
 that authorizes and requires His disciples to "go into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature," upon the un- 
 qualified assurance that " he that belie veth shall be saved?" 3 
 
 The sayings of Christ touching the " drawing " of His 
 Father, the " giving " by His Father, must be interpreted 
 in accordance with these broad terms in which He himself 
 first announced the gospel, and at the last commissioned 
 His disciples to proclaim it to the world. " God so loved 
 the world " — not alone the Jewish people, nor any other 
 people of the world ; not a certain chosen portion of human 
 society ; not some one favored age of the world, but the 
 world of mankind, the human race in its totality: — God so 
 loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth — not whoever is selected and set apart 
 from the rest of his species, not those belonging to a favored 
 class, — but "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." 
 The love is equal toward all ; the salvation is open to all 
 upon the same simple and impartial condition ; and the 
 result in each and every case, hinges upon the Believing. 
 This declaration, so absolute and unequivocal, is borne out 
 by the uniform tenor of the invitations and commands of the 
 gospel, and is neither contradicted nor qualified by the state- 
 ment ; " All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me." 
 
 Who are the "All" here spoken of, but simply 
 * John vi. 44. « vr. 37-39. * Mark xvi. 16. 
 
THE COMING IN THROUGH FAITH. 71 
 
 believers ? The Father gave to His Son the whole world 
 of mankind as the field of His redemptive work, to the 
 intent that through Him the world might be saved ; the 
 provision, in its own nature, renders the salvation practica- 
 ble for all and possible to every man. But the very object 
 of this salvation, that which constitutes it a salvation in 
 reality, is deliverance from sin ; and for this there must be 
 repentance, and faith in the Saviour whom God hath sent ; 
 therefore, it was not certified that by the lifting up of the 
 Son of Man the whole world would in fact be saved ; but 
 that there should be gathered to Christ a multititude of be- 
 lieving souls, was made sure by the promise of the Father. 
 The discourse recorded in the sixth chapter of John was 
 addressed to a group of cavilers, who met the sayings of 
 Jesus concerning His Father with the demand, "What 
 sign shewest thou, that we may see and believe Thee ?" 
 
 Jesus announced Himself as the true sign — the bread 
 of life come down from heaven, — and added, " He that 
 cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that be- 
 lieveth on Me shall never thirst." Here was the same 
 breadth of promise to a sincere faith. "But," He con- 
 tinued, " ye also have seen Me, and believed not ;" there- 
 fore they did not come ; therefore they did not eat of the 
 bread of life; and therefore, practically, they were not 
 saved. Yet He comforted Himself with the thought that 
 His mission should not everywhere and always be frus- 
 trated by the unbelief of men. Some will believe ; many 
 will believe; and all these the Father has promised to Him 
 as His own ; and these coming, one by one, with the ex- 
 pression of a personal faith, would be thus made manifest 
 as of the All that are " given by the Father." Hence He 
 added (v. 40), " This is the will of Him that sent Me, that 
 every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may 
 have everlasting life." The believing is the coming, and 
 the fact of believing indicates each as one of the grand 
 
72 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 total given to Christ. Hence the statement in v. 44 does 
 not teach that God has made an arbitrary selection of cer- 
 tain persons to be saved, and given these to Christ, bnt 
 that He has given to Christ all who believe, that these may 
 be His peculiar people — and the believing is open to all. 
 The giving is not for the purpose of excluding any, but of 
 making sure the fruits of redemption ; not for narrowing 
 the basis, but for securing a result upon the basis and by 
 means of it. 
 
 What, then, is meant by that u drawing " of the Father, 
 without which Jesus declared that no man can come to 
 Him ? This also is interpreted by the act of faith, as He 
 described it at the conclusion of this same discourse, (verses 
 64, 65.) Having defined the spiritual significance of par- 
 taking of His own flesh and blood, and the consequent 
 need of a spiritual frame of mind in order to receive that 
 " hard saying," He charged some of His own disciples with 
 the want of this sincere spiritual faith : — " For Jesus knew 
 from the beginning who they were that believed not, and 
 who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore, 
 said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it 
 were given unto him of my Father ;" — which is neither 
 more nor less than the doctrine " that which is born of the 
 Spirit is spirit," and therefore must every one be born of 
 the Spirit, regenerated by a divine illumination. This, 
 then, is the drawing of the Father — a gracious influence 
 quickening the soul, and persuading it to believe. 
 
 Can any honest interpretation derive from this the 
 notion of an arbitrary selection on the part of God, limit- 
 ing the design and the application of the death of His Son, 
 selecting some and excluding others as the heirs of life, by 
 a bare determination of His own will ? 
 
 None, indeed, come to Christ, except the Father draw 
 them ; but how many does the Father draw, who yet refuse 
 to come ! For what is the manner and the purpose of this 
 
THE COMING A FREE ACT OF WILL. 73 
 
 drawing? And whence arises the necessity that the 
 Father should draw men to Christ ? Our Lord has given 
 the answer in that sentence of condemnation which lies 
 against the unbelieving world of to-day as justly and 
 forcibly as against the Jews who rejected Him to His face: 
 " Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." x 
 The coming is believing ; it is repenting, turning, trusting ; 
 and this is an act of will. The will of the man himself 
 must move, if ever he shall come to Christ, and if his will 
 does not move spontaneously, cordially, to accept Christ 
 when offered as a Saviour, then nothing further can be 
 done for his salvation except to draw him by some influ- 
 ence directed to incite the will. Coercion is impossible, 
 for the will cannot be forced ; — to force it by sheer power 
 were to destroy its very nature as the choosing, willing 
 faculty of the soul. Hardly can the will be reasoned with ; 
 for the fault commonly does not lie with the understanding 
 and the judgment, but in the choice being fixed already 
 upon the wrong — " Light has come into the world ;" the 
 truth is clear enough, the way is plain enough, the light 
 is sufficient for the understanding and the conscience ; but 
 " men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are 
 evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light ; neither 
 cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." 2 
 
 In this state of facts — the salvation provided for all and 
 freely offered to all; this salvation rendered availing as a de- 
 liverance from sin only through a personal repentance and 
 faith ; this again requiring a free act of will, and yet the 
 will halting, not accepting, not moving toward acceptance, 
 not " coming " — the only thing that can be done further is 
 to influence the will by some power of persuasion that 
 shall incite it to right action. That influence is what our 
 Lord has described as the operation of the Holy Spirit 
 upon the mind — no more to be defined than the coming 
 
 1 John v. 40. 2 j hn in. 19, 20. 
 
74 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and going of the wind, yet stirring the soul to its depths, 
 " convincing it of sin, of righteousnesss, and of judgment," 
 and so arousing and drawing it that the will does move, 
 does choose, does decide, does come. Yet not always ! 
 — for the will is an agent of such fearful, such stubborn 
 power, that it may even resist the Holy Ghost, resist the 
 drawing of the Father, as it does resist the invitations of 
 the Son. Hence while it is true that all who come to 
 Christ are drawn of the Father, it is still true that others 
 perish, not because they are hindered or neglected of God, 
 nor because they are not solicited by the Gospel and 
 wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, but because they will 
 not come. 
 
 The argument leads to this conclusion; that the draw- 
 ing of the soul to Christ by a special influence from the 
 Father, is directed solely to this end — to overcome the 
 reluctance, the indifference, or (to put it in the strongest 
 terms) the inertness and stagnation of the human will; 
 that the necessity for this divine influence in regeneration 
 does not arise from any limitation in the normal powers 
 of the human soul, nor any limitation in the provision of 
 salvation through Christ, nor any limitation nor discrimi- 
 nation in the love of God in planning for the salvation 
 of lost men ; — in a word, this " drawing" of the Father 
 does not proceed upon the basis of limitation or restriction, 
 in the provision of redemption or in the desire of God for 
 the recovery of sinners ; it cannot create, it does not imply 
 a hindrance to the salvation of any, nor the rejection ox 
 any, but is the reaching forth of the same love and mercy 
 that provided the redemption, to make sure, by all means, 
 of some actual fruit. There is nothing in any act or pur- 
 pose of God that limits salvation in respect either of its 
 adequacy as a provision or its amplitude as an offer : 
 neither has God imposed upon any mind any kind or de- 
 gree of restraint in respect to its accepting the salvation 
 
MAN'S WILL ALONE HINDERS SALVATION. 75 
 
 provided by Christ, and profiting to the full by its benefits. 
 When He commands all men to repent, He does not com- 
 mand an impossibility: when He requires them to believe 
 upon Christ, He means that every man should believe ; 
 when He promises salvation upon these simple and uni- 
 form term?, there are no drawbacks nor exceptions what- 
 ever. 1 
 
 And yet the final results of Redemption will not be 
 commensurate with the provision. The whole world might 
 be saved, but alas, not all the world will be saved ! Jesus 
 Christ, the Saviour of the world, has pictured the dread 
 and final separation of mankind into two classes at the last 
 judgment, and has declared that the wicked "shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life 
 eternal." 2 
 
 Here is a limitation in the actual results of salvation : — 
 but whence does this arise ? What is the turning-point, 
 the dividing line? Does Christ Himself desire to save 
 only one-tenth of the human race ? or one-fourth ? or one- 
 half? Did He not die for all ? Has not He invited all ? 
 
 Whence comes the difference? We are brought back 
 for an answer to that pivot of human character, the will, 
 as the turning-point of destiny. It is just the question of 
 believing or not believing. Believing on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as the Saviour from sin is the beginning of that new 
 life which is salvation. Without this free committal of 
 his soul to Christ one cannot so much as start in the new 
 life ; and therefore, if the man himself, under the light of 
 the gospel, the invitations of Christ, the drawing of the 
 Father, does not turn and believe, his deliverance from sin 
 is an impossibility. This is no arbitrary ruling of the 
 Creator ; it is the law under which the soul exists by the 
 
 1 For a full discussion of the relations of the Holy Spirit to human volition 
 see the author's volume on " the Holy Comforter." 
 
 2 Matt. xxv. 46. 
 
76 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 necessity of its moral constitution. It is not that God 
 created any soul with the intent that it should perish ; nor 
 that He either dooms or % leaves any to perish by limiting 
 or withholding on His part the provision of salvation; 
 for " God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through Him might be saved." 
 Why then is not the whole world ipso facto saved ? How 
 comes it that any are condemned ? The evangelist has 
 answered this question in terms which, if they be not the 
 very words of Christ, are the logical complement to His 
 own statement of the condition of salvation : " He that be- 
 lieveth on Him is not condemned ; but he that believeth 
 not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in 
 the name of the only-begotten Son of God." * His non-ac- 
 ceptance of the only possible deliverance from sin leaves 
 him to the consequences of sin, in condemnation and death. 
 The requirement of faith as a condition of salvation is 
 not arbitrary, but is necessary upon the highest moral 
 grounds. One cannot be saved except through being freed 
 from sin; and he cannot be freed from sin except by 
 repenting, and by forsaking sin through that divine 
 help which is brought him in the cross of Christ and 
 by the coming of the Holy Ghost. Believing on 
 Christ is a condition with which every one can comply ; 
 it is a just, necessary, and simple requirement, compliance 
 with which is salvation and life in the very act ; the one 
 sole limitation upon the final results of Christ's redeeming 
 sacrifice arises from the unbelief of men, which even the 
 drawing of the Father often fails to overcome. We 
 come back, therefore, to the doctrine of a full and free sal- 
 vation as declared by Christ without limitation — no limi- 
 tation on the part of God, neither in the magnitude of the 
 provision itself, nor in the scope of the offer of salvation, 
 nor in the intent with which that offer is made ; no limi- 
 
 1 John iii. 18. 
 
FULNESS AND FREENESS OF THE SALVATION. 77 
 
 tation upon the result save what the will of man imposes, 
 through unbelief. It is a full salvation, adequate to the 
 wants of the whole world ; it is a free salvation, offered 
 equally and impartially to whoever will accept it. 
 
 The gift of God proclaims this. " God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only-begotten Son : " — that single 
 fact carries with it the whole argument. He who sends 
 his only son to fight for his country couldadd nothing to 
 that proof of his devotion to the country in all its interests 
 — to its material prosperity, to its moral unity, to its gov- 
 ernment and laws, to the whole nation. The sending is 
 the final argument; and when He who sends is the 
 Almighty Father, whose one only Son represents the in- 
 finitude of His love, and that sending is grounded in His 
 love and pity for the world, that fact alone determines the 
 conclusion that He would have all men to be saved. 
 
 The sacrifice itself proclaims this; necessary in all its 
 fulness for one, adequate in its oneness for all. It was 
 not against sins numerically that Christ testified by His 
 cross, nor was it a certain form or number of transgres- 
 sions that called for His mediation ; but it was Sin that 
 He testified against as treason to the government of God, 
 and that required an expiation which by its virtue in re- 
 deeming one could equally avail for all. 
 
 The word of Christ proclaims this universal sufficiency 
 of His sacrifice both in scope and in availability : " Him 
 that cometh I will in no wise cast out " l — " that the 
 world through Him might be saved." 2 
 
 The testimony of myriads confirms this declaration. In 
 all the ages since, whosoever has applied by faith for this 
 salvation has found that it awaited him upon his simply 
 coming, and that it sufficed for his personal necessity as if 
 provided for him alone ; nor has any one ever failed of 
 salvation who would only believe. 
 
 1 John vi. 37. 2 John iii. 17. 
 
78 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 He, therefore, who refuses to come to Christ, does all 
 that lies in his power to hinder the consummation of the 
 world's deliverance. A universal deliverance from sin, 
 a universal consecration to a holy life in God, would 
 render this world as pure and blessed as heaven; but 
 every man that will not come to Christ for personal de- 
 liverance from sin, so far as in him lies, delays and frus- 
 trates that blessed consummation. The angels ushering 
 in the Son of Man sang, "Peace on earth, good-will 
 toward men ; " but unbelief breaks in upon that song with 
 the discord and strife of sin. 
 
 He that refuses to believe in Christ sets himself against 
 all the forces of love in the universe that are seeking his 
 good. God the Father has bent upon him His infinite 
 compassion ; the Son of God has given for him His life 
 upon the cross; the Holy Spirit has convinced, admonished, 
 entreated, drawn him; heaven and its holy inhabitants 
 have sought to welcome him to their joys ; but all this 
 potency of love fails to save him because of his unbelief! 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF RELIGION". 
 
 Religion in its broad acceptation — the obligation of 
 the Soul toward God, as the object of worship and obedi- 
 ence — i s the subject of supreme moment to mankind, and 
 that upon which in all ages mankind have bestowed their 
 chiefest care and thought. " Man is born with two needs, 
 at once distinct and inseparable, the moral and the re- 
 ligious instinct. Free, he yet feels that there exists a law 
 which should regulate his will. Capable of intelligence 
 and of love, his mind and his heart require an infinite ob- 
 ject. Every man possesses the instinct of the Good, and 
 the instinct of the Infinite, in a word, the instinct of the 
 Divine. He who can live without faith in the Divine, or 
 who has smothered that sublime faith within him, does 
 not belong to humanity." * Where this instinct has de- 
 veloped itself normally, the outward manifestation of 
 Religion has taken almost as many varieties as there are 
 differences of race, in mental characteristics, in domestic 
 habits, and in social and civil customs. And so compre- 
 hensive is the obligation of the religious feeling, that it 
 takes as many types as there are faculties and sentiments 
 of the soul, and modes of moral expression and action — 
 now the Reason giving to Religion its particular cast ; now 
 the Imagination; now the Senses and now the Tastes; 
 now the beautiful in Nature, now the hopeful in Fancy, 
 the pleasurable in Feeling; and now the gloomy, the 
 grotesque, the horrible ; — yet these diversified and even 
 
 1 Emile Saisset. Essais sur la Philosnphie et la Religion au xix. Siecle, p. 287. 
 
 79 
 
80 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 contradictory manifestations of the religious idea or the 
 religious feeling, are, for the most part, but exaggerations 
 of some one element or feature which the religious idea 
 properly includes, or which has a real basis in the reli- 
 gious feeling. 
 
 Difficult as it is to discriminate each and every phase of 
 Religion by a note or sign peculiar to itself, we may dis- 
 tribute the various types of Religion that have been de- 
 veloped among mankind apart from Christianity, into five 
 general classes ; — (a) the intellectual or speculative ; (b) the 
 formal or ceremonial; (c) the humanitary, or religions of 
 good works ; (d) the imaginative, or religions of supersti- 
 tion ; (e) and the spiritual or pietistic, in which the medi- 
 tative and emotional piety of the inner life is exalted above 
 all modes of intellectual statement, all outward forms of 
 worship, all practical works of beneficence. 
 
 In the time of Christ, these leading types of Religion 
 had all found expression in the world's history. Plato 
 had elaborated his monotheistic conception of God as the 
 all-comprehensive Idea ; while at the same time he had 
 exalted Virtue, Truth, and Beauty into a sort of intel- 
 lectual Triad — a Trinity not of hypostases but of pre- 
 dicates — allegiance to which was the very essence of 
 morality. With him Religion is the realization of the 
 idea of the good, through the Reason bringing all the 
 principles and actions of the soul into a perfect unison, and 
 so to an intellectual harmony with God. The highest 
 virtue is wisdom or absolute knowledge ; yet he said of 
 God, " It is hard to investigate and find the Framer and 
 Father of the universe ; and if one did find him, it were 
 impossible to express him in terms comprehensible by 
 all." l 
 
 Aristotle, who lacked the mystic, poetic temperament of 
 his great master, by the severity of his critical method 
 
 1 Tim. p. 28. 
 
ARISTOTLE AND HIS SCHOOL. 81 
 
 reduced the Deity to pure Intelligence, absorbed in self- 
 contemplation, subject and object in one, the final cause 
 of the world, x as the end of all its aspirations. To this 
 almost impersonal, self-quiescent, incorporeal substance, 
 Aristotle ascribed neither creative power nor morai 
 quality. With his disciples, Aristotle's conception of a 
 self-immanent Intelligence, dissociated from the world, 
 degenerated into bald materialism, under the two-fold 
 form of Atheism and Pantheism ; and so the Divinity that 
 to Plato was the highest intellectual conception, through 
 being contemplated solely with relation to the intellectual 
 system of the universe, was either retired to an infinite 
 distance and a state of absolute repose, or reduced to a 
 mere potency or energy in the kingdom of Nature. 
 Religion as pure intellectuality reached its highest de- 
 velopment in Plato, only to be marred and materialized 
 when handled by minds less delicate and pure than his 
 own. 
 
 The boast of modern Rationalism that in matters of 
 belief it has emancipated the human intellect by admitting 
 only that which is originated or established by Reason 
 itself, may well be confronted with the fact that the highest 
 product of Reason in the sphere of Religion was wrought 
 out, and had well-nigh run out, before Christ came, and 
 can be compared impartially with His teachings. It 
 pushed one factor in Religion to an extreme that well-nigh 
 destroyed the thing; for Religion and God as its object 
 were reasoned into nothingness. 
 
 While certain philosophers had thus refined Religion 
 into a speculative nonentity, the actual religions of the 
 pagan world at the time of Christ were full of superstition 
 
 1 His thinking is upon Thought; eo-riv ^ vdrjcris vorjerews royo-is (Metaphys. 
 xi. ix. 4) and sines He is the highest and best, His thinking is upon Himself. 
 He moves the world not by an energy proceeding from Himself, but by the 
 attraction that is in Himself, the power of the Beautiful or the Good. (De 
 Coel). ii. 10-12. 
 
82 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and sensuality — appealing to the Imagination by mystery, 
 by the fascinations of pleasure and the torments of pain, and 
 addressing the senses through forms of beauty, as in Greece, 
 or by objects of terror, as in Egypt, l and in the remoter 
 East. 
 
 The three remaining types of Religion were fully illus- 
 trated among the Jews of the time of Christ. Some made 
 the virtue of religion consist in the close adherence to 
 forms. To pay tithes of all that they possessed, even of 
 the farthing herbs in their gardens, to fast twice in the 
 week, to be careful even to scrupulosity in keeping the 
 Sabbath, to offer all the sacrifices and observe all the 
 sacred days prescribed by the law — such rigid Formalism 
 constituted their religion. Others laid stress upon their 
 good works; giving alms before men, and counting their 
 charities for piety. And there were various sects of Jews — 
 such as the Essenes and Therapeutse — who formed them- 
 selves into communities or brotherhoods, like later orders of 
 monks, for cultivating piety by seclusion from the world, 
 rigorous self-denial, and devout secret meditation. 
 
 Thus all the leading forms under which the religious 
 idea or the religious feeling has found expression in the 
 history of mankind, were in full development before the 
 time of Christ. And these characteristic types, the specula- 
 tive, the ceremonial, the superstitious, the humanitary, the 
 pietistic have continued to reproduce themselves in new 
 countries and among new peoples, and have even attempted 
 to run Christianity itself into their several modes. Yet 
 the Religion of Christ, Religion as taught by Him in its 
 principles and exemplified by Him in its spirit, is some- 
 thing apart from each and every one of these religious 
 types, — sublime in its simplicity, profound in its origin, 
 
 1 Some of the Egyptian divinities were spiritual in their nature and 
 beneficent in their attributes ; but others were grossly animal in their aspect, 
 or formidable, with the flail and scourge; and the Egyptian Hades was a 
 region of darkness and horrors. 
 
RELIGION SEATED IN THE HEART. 83 
 
 springing from the inmost depths of the soul, and universal 
 in its reach and application. From His teachings one 
 obtains quite another view of religion, in its nature, its 
 spirit, and its power. 
 
 First of all, Christ referred true religion to the heart as 
 the seat of its vitality. If we inquire after the nature of 
 Religion as Jesus presented it, we find that it was not a 
 something which a man took upon him from without — a 
 set of opinions that he espoused, a set of customs that he 
 adopted, a set of regulations that he conformed to; nor 
 was it a something which a man performed outside of 
 himself — a round of ceremonies that he fulfilled, a course 
 of devotions or of charities that he went through with : 
 but while it covered all these — beliefs, devotions, ob- 
 servances, charities, — and used them all as evidences of its 
 presence, Religion itself as to its essence, was within the 
 soul, and proceeded thence to the outer life. 
 
 This fundamental conception of religion Christ presented 
 under a variety of aspects. In the sermon on the mount, 
 he traced sin to the inmost recesses of the heart. Murder 
 is being angry with a brother without cause; adultery 
 is the unchaste look, imagination, desire ; swearing is the 
 profane thought, the irreverent feeling ; and so every sin is 
 traced to the heart, and if a sinful act is conceived and 
 purposed in the heart the man is guilty, even though he 
 does not commit the act in its outward form. " A corrupt 
 tree bringeth forth evil fruit ;" 1 and " an evil man, out of 
 the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is 
 evil." 2 Hence Religion, which is to rectify the mischief 
 of sin, must dispossess sin of the heart, and install itself 
 there, at the centre of the moral life. The process by 
 which this is effected is an interior spiritual work ; — re- 
 pentance is a sorrow of the heart, and a turning of the will 
 away from the sin ; to be " born again," is to be inwardly 
 *Matt. vii. 17. 2Lukevi. 45. 
 
84 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 renewed, so changed in heart as to be a new man in respect 
 of spiritual things ; to believe upon Christ is for the heart 
 to trust itself to Him ; " Blessed are the poor in spirit/' — 
 they that are humble and broken in heart — " for theirs is 
 the kingdom of heaven." And as with the beginning of 
 religious experience, so of its consummation : it is through- 
 out a spiritual work ; the process of renovation and sancti- 
 fication, in the perfecting of the religious life, is to go on 
 within the soul. " Blessed are the pure in heart" — those 
 made inwardly and spiritually pure — " for they shall see 
 God." 1 
 
 Nor is it in essence alone that Religion is thus intensely 
 spiritual and inward ; — religious acts, to have reality and 
 value, must proceed from the heart, and fairly represent 
 its spiritual frames. " 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 ; but when thou doest alms, let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms 
 may be in secret." 2 In deeds of charity, one must not 
 court the observation and applause of men, but act from 
 pure, unselfish motives, as under the eye of his Father, 
 which seeth in secret. 
 
 Like precepts are laid down concerning prayer. One 
 must not be ostentatious in his personal devotions : — 
 "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou 
 hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret." 3 
 Prayer is the communion of the heart with God. It does 
 not consist of words ; much less is it to be valued by the 
 multitude of words. 4 In Thibet, the Buddhists make use 
 of a prayer-cylinder, in which yards of petitions, written 
 upon narrow strips of paper, are wound like ribbon around 
 a wire that passes through the centre, and each revolution 
 of the cylinder upon this axis counts for a repetition of all 
 
 iMatt. t. 3, 9. 2 Matt. yi. 1-4. »Matt. vi. 6. * Matt. vi. 7. 
 
MECHANICAL PRAYING. 85 
 
 these prayers ; so that one needs only to keep twirling his 
 cylinder at intervals, and he will secure the benefit of 
 whole hours, and even miles of prayer ! Some economize 
 time by setting the cylinder at work by water-power, or 
 other mechanical contrivance, while their hands and feet 
 are busy in other matters. And this tendency to me- 
 chanicizing prayers is always found where the efficacy of 
 prayer is sought in the opus operation. But the doctrine 
 of Christ drives one back from all modes and forms, from 
 the surroundings and accessories of devotion, into the cita- 
 del of the soul, to find if he there possesses true religion. 
 The alms, the prayers, the offices of charity and devotion, 
 that are turned out upon dress parade, give no evidence of 
 true loyalty to God, or of real strength in religious charac- 
 ter. This must be found within where it exists at all, and 
 when prayers and almsgiving take a public form, pub- 
 licity must never be the end in view. As a matter of con- 
 sciousness, or of self-congratulation, the left hand must not 
 know what the right hand doeth ; * yet he who has this in- 
 ner spirit of devotion toward God and beneficence toward 
 man, is commanded to let his light so shine before men 
 that they may see his good works, and glorify his Father, 
 which is in heaven. 2 
 
 Christ declared that no amount of praying and prophe- 
 sying in His name, nor the multitude of wonderful and 
 practically useful works done in His name, will avail to 
 certify one as His disciple, nor commend him to favor at 
 the judgment, where the inward spirit of love and devotion 
 is wanting. 3 Thus by every form of presentation, for the 
 essence of Religion He sends us back to the inmost centre 
 of the soul. Religion is, first of all, a thing of the heart, 
 internal and spiritual — " a good man, out of the good trea- 
 sure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good." 
 
 What then is this good treasure of the heart — this inner 
 
 1 Matt. vi. 3. 2 Matt. -.16. ' Matt. vii. 22, 23. 
 
86 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 essence of Religion ? Is the heart mere feeling — the seat 
 of emotion only ? Modern physiology so distinguishes it 
 from the brain as the seat of thought ; but in the language 
 of the Hebrews the heart was also the seat of intelligence 
 and of the moral faculties and affections ; a man thought 
 in his heart, ] he purposed in his heart ; 2 he turned his 
 heart this way and that ; 3 and so the Understanding and 
 the "Will, as well as susceptibilities and emotions, were com- 
 prised in the heart ; this was the center of self-determina- 
 tion, and hence of moral character and spiritual life. In 
 the same sense the heart was spoken of by Christ as em- 
 bodying all the constituents of moral life ; and therefore, 
 the Religion that is in and of the heart must be conceived 
 of as a matter of intelligent principle, of voluntary de- 
 termination, and of devout feeling. These together con- 
 stitute the heart — the moral substance of the man — an- 
 swering to the stock and sap of the tree. An analysis of 
 His teaching on this point gives the following results : 
 
 True Religion is an inward principle of holy living, 
 through consecration to a holy God. This was the root- 
 idea of the law given at Sinai, underlying each particular 
 precept ; for the commandments that refer to specific out- 
 ward actions — enjoining particular duties and forbidding 
 particular sins — are all founded in and governed by the 
 preamble " I am the Lord thy God," and the first declara- 
 tion " Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." The 
 acknowledgment of this one only God — the Lord Jehovah, 
 the living one, thy God — the personal Spirit who is the 
 Creator and Lord of the human spirit, who has a right of 
 possession in every living soul, and who only should be 
 confessed as God and Lord ; who is set forth as the maker 
 of heaven and earth, and the giver of the earth to man for 
 his abode ; who is a holy and jealous God, visiting ini- 
 
 1 Is. x. 7 ; 1 Chron. xxix. 18 ; Is. xxxii. 4 ; Gen. xvii. 1-17 ; Job xii. 3. 
 3 1 Sam. xiv. 7 : Is. x. 7 : lxiii. 4. 3 Job xv. 12 j Is. xliv. 20. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT RELIGION SPIRITUAL. 87 
 
 quity, yet multiplying mercies to them that love Him, a 
 God whose very name must be had in reverence and never 
 lightly spoken — the acknowledgment of this one spiritual, 
 holy, supreme Lord, allegiance to His majesty, obedience 
 to His authority as holy, just and true — this principle lay 
 at the foundation of the decalogue, and of the whole 
 system of religion set forth in the Old Testament. The 
 Eternal, Almighty Holy Spirit, the Creator and Lord of 
 all, is here set before man not simply as an object of con- 
 templation, to be admired as the highest conception of the 
 Divinity that the intellect can attain to — but as having 
 direct personal relations with the human spirit as His own 
 image, as having a claim upon mankind severally for wor- 
 ship and allegiance, and as seeking to draw each indivi- 
 dual soul into the conscious, loving, faithful relationship 
 of a child of God. To recognize this spiritual and Holy 
 Being not simply as existing but existing in that relation, 
 to acknowledge His rightful authority, to accept His law, 
 and to devote the soul to Him in a holy, loving obedience 
 — this inner principle of serving God is the sum and sub- 
 stance of the Decalogue, and of the Religion of the Old 
 Testament. All offerings and sacrifices, all prayers and 
 alms, all Sabbaths and ceremonies were worse than worth- 
 less without this. 
 
 This fundamental principle of the Jewish theocracy had 
 become well nigh obsolete under the mass of forms and 
 traditions that men had heaped upon it; but Christ restored 
 this as the first commandment in the code of the kingdom 
 of God as His spiritual commonwealth. He did not abro- 
 gate nor in any wise modify this original conception of 
 Religion. To suppose that Christ relaxed the obligation 
 of this principle of spiritual consecration in favor of some 
 easier, lower type of piety expressed through faith as mere 
 feeling, is a spiritual conceit and doctrinal error of most 
 dangerous tendency. In the Christian system faith does 
 
88 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 not displace nor qualify the principle of holy obedience ; it 
 encourages us to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, 
 thus atoning for our lack of obedience in the past, and to 
 look to Christ for help in obedience for the future. Perfect 
 faith will conduce to perfect obedience; for the rule and 
 standard of Religion as presented in the words of Jesus, is 
 identical with that which underlies the Decalogue — an 
 inward principle of holy living through consecration to 
 the will of a holy God. 
 
 This was His own rule of life as the perfect man : " I 
 seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which 
 hath sent Me." 1 " I came down from heaven, not to do 
 Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." 2 " My 
 meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish 
 His work." 3 This was the deep, constant, controlling 
 principle in the active obedience of Jesus Christ, and on 
 the side of passive obedience it was the same : " Not My 
 will but Thine be done." And though He covers our 
 disobedience by His righteousness, and takes away our 
 sins by His cross, and offers to our weakness the helping- 
 hand of faith, He accords to His disciples no lower type 
 of Religion than that which He illustrated, no lower rule 
 of life than that which He observed. Nay rather did He 
 put new life and emphasis into the fundamental principle 
 of the decalogue as the law of His own kingdom : for He 
 compressed the ten commandments into that one rule of 
 holy obedience and consecration, and crowded this home 
 upon the heart, saying : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind." 4 We cannot go deeper than this for a founda- 
 tion of Religion, we cannot rise higher than this for a 
 standard of life, we can have nothing broader, fuller, more 
 complete and final as a spirit of consecration. It is the 
 most spiritual conception of Religion that the philosopher 
 l Matt, xxii, 3?, s John vi, 38, 8 j Q hn iy, 34. * Matt. xxii. 37. 
 
RELIGION THE ABIDING CHOICE OF GOD. 89 
 
 can form, and at the same time the most simple and practi- 
 cal rule of piety that can be given to a child. This princi- 
 ple settled within the soul as the one aim and law of its 
 life is the " good treasure of the heart/ 7 out of which all 
 good things are brought forth. 
 
 This principle supposes the free, intelligent choice of 
 God and His service as the soul's supreme delight: its 
 choice as an abiding state of preference, in distinction 
 from particular acts of volition, yet including these and 
 imparting to them a decisive character as acts of holy love. 
 
 Where true Religion is, there the soul has elected God 
 as its supreme good ; has accepted God as its ideal of ex- 
 cellence ; has enthroned God as the Sovereign of its acts, 
 its thoughts, and its desires ; and it abides in this its 
 supreme choice as its satisfying rest and portion. As a 
 state of preference this is the permanent choice of the soul, 
 that underlies, and with more or less of conscious de- 
 termination influences, all the choices and actions of the 
 mind, and so gives character to the whole man. 
 
 This elective principle carries along with it the feelings 
 of the heart. It is not a dry intellectual state, though it 
 may seem dry when analyzed for purposes of definition ; 
 neither is it a cold, stiff purpose of the will, though its 
 value and durability as a principle require that it shall 
 take the form of fixed rigid resolution ; but feeling enters 
 into the choice, animates the purpose, keeps the resolution 
 all aglow. For the choice which the soul makes in Re- 
 ligion is not simply a choice of opinions, nor a choice of 
 systems, nor a choice of ends personal to itself, but the 
 choice of an object of affection, even of its highest love : 
 the choice is itself affection going forth in the act of will, 
 as the dominant love of the heart. Not duty, nor fear as 
 toward God in His Majesty, nor simply approbation in the 
 contemplation of the divine excellence ; but love it is that 
 inspires the deep principle, the fixed purpose of the soul to 
 
90 THE THEOLOGY OF CHKIST. 
 
 serve and honor God in holy living. , Thus Religion ab- 
 sorbs all the powers and affections of the soul. 
 
 But that which gains this complete possession of the 
 man spiritually also controls him practically. This deep 
 inward principle, this sublime spiritual conception, this 
 supreme absorbing purpose, this one dominant engrossing 
 affection, is also a life-power. The soul does not shut 
 itself up within itself, as in a temple, to worship the Un- 
 seen, the Absolute, and keep its Religion as a thing sepa- 
 rate and sacred from the life ; but that which is rooted so 
 deep within and nourished with such warmth of love, 
 blossoms forth upon the world, sheds abroad its fragrance, 
 and drops upon every side its golden fruit. The good 
 tree, by the law of its nature — all the forces of its consti- 
 tution and its life conjoining — brings forth good fruit ; and 
 so the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, 
 bringeth forth good things ; and as the quality of the fruit 
 speaks for the tree, so the good deeds testify of the char- 
 acter. " By their fruits ye shall know them." * 
 
 This doctrine of good fruits does not at all conflict with 
 Christ's condemnation of ostentation in religion, in Matt, 
 vi. 1-7. What He there objected to was not the bare 
 publicity of the act, but publicity as a motive to the act ; — 
 praying " to be seen of men," giving alms " to be seen of 
 men " — performing the most sacred duties in a way to at- 
 tract attention, personating piety with a view to get a re- 
 putation for piety — this it was that Jesus condemned. 
 But the opposite of religious ostentation is not hiding one's 
 light under a bushel, concealing religious principle and 
 feeling so as not even to be suspected of it, avoiding reli- 
 gious conversation and whatever might bring the repute 
 of godliness. The command of Christ to His disciples is ; 
 " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
 your good works, and glorify your Father which is in 
 
 l Matt. vii. 16. 
 
RELIGION TESTED BY ITS FR¥ITS. 91 
 
 heaven." The shining is the beauty of a translucent char- 
 acter : the light shines through because it is within ; and 
 it shines simply because it is there. It is not a calcium 
 light hung out now and then to dazzle passers by — but 
 pure sunlight, which shines because it is. The religious 
 principle being seated within, and having control of the 
 understanding, the will, and the affections, is the life of 
 the whole man. The tree being of good stock, sound, 
 healthy, and well-nourished with sap, brings forth good 
 fruit ; and the true Religion is known, not by the profes- 
 sions it makes, nor the forms it adopts, but by the influ- 
 ence it has upon the spirit and conduct of the man, upon 
 his habits and actions, and by the positively good things 
 that he does, under its living inspiration, as naturally and 
 as regularly as the tree brings forth fruit — " his own 
 fruit," the fruit natural and proper to itself. " The good 
 man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth 
 that which is good." 
 
 The test that Christ applied to the religious professions 
 of individuals, may be applied with equal fairness to his 
 own system of Religion : — this also may be tested by its 
 fruits. We have seen how, under the power of the reli- 
 gious idea and the impulse of religious feeling, mankkid 
 distorted and exaggerated particular elements and features 
 of Religion, and produced a cold intellectual abstraction, 
 an ideal worship of fancy or taste, a pretentious self-right- 
 eous charity, an elaborate and cumbersome ritualism, a mon- 
 strosity of the imagination and the senses, a monastic and 
 ascetic pietism ; and how utterly human wisdom failed of 
 realizing to itself the conception of a spiritual and holy 
 God, and a spiritual and holy consecration, so as to render 
 this a controlling power in the life. But Religion as in- 
 terpreted by Christ fills the highest reach of Reason in re- 
 spect of the nature of God ; strips Imagination of uncouth 
 images and morbid fears, and adorns it with new beauties 
 
92 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and glories in the realm of the spiritual ; purifies the Af- 
 fections, consecrates the Will ; puts soul and unction into 
 every Form of worship, puts life and love into every 
 Charity ; makes the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, a 
 consecrated vessel of the divine grace, a consecrated dwell- 
 ing of the divine Spirit, a consecrated channel of the 
 divine will ; and this by bringing the man into such near 
 and loving relations with God, that this limited, depend- 
 ent, and imperfect human spirit is in accord with that 
 infinite, absolute, and perfect Spirit who fills immensity 
 with His presence, and makes heaven glorious and blessed 
 with His holy love. The Religion that so leads man up 
 to God, and so brings God into fellowship with man, must 
 have come down from heaven. By its fruits we know it 
 to be divine. 
 
CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 THE SPIRITUALITY OF WORSHIP. 
 
 From the interior essence of religion as a life we pass to 
 its outward expression in acts of reverence toward God. 
 Christ laid down a formula of worship based upon the true 
 conception of the divine being : — " The hour cometh, and 
 now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father 
 in spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to wor- 
 ship Him. God is a spirit ; and they that would worship 
 Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." x It is an 
 axiom of the Christian faith that the mode of worship 
 must correspond with the essence of God, which is spiritual, 
 and the feeling of the worshiper must correspond with the 
 character of God, which is paternal. What that essential 
 nature of God is which is declared by the term spirit, must 
 be denned largely by negatives. A spirit is not physical, 
 not corporeal, not tangible, not visible, as these properties 
 are attributed to forms of matter ; nevertheless, we conceive 
 of a spirit as a living substance, and as possessing both in- 
 telligence and personality. The term nvzhfia was applied 
 to the Father by Christ in the most absolute sense. The 
 Septuagint had made this word familiar to Jewish readers 
 as descriptive of the Spirit of God acfing in creation and 
 prophecy. But Jesus said God is spirit, pure spirit, thus 
 denning His essence in respect of its immateriality; and the 
 argument is, "God being pure spirit cannot dwell in parti- 
 cular spots or temples ; cannot require, nor be pleased with, 
 earthly material offering, nor ceremonies as such ; on the 
 
 1 John iv. 23, 24. 
 
 93 
 
94 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 other hand, is only to be approached in that part of our 
 being which is spirit, — and even there, inasmuch as He is 
 pure and holy, with no by-ends nor hypocritical regards, 
 but in truth and earnestness." * In the ever-memorable 
 words of Augustine, " If thou wouldst pray in the temple 
 pray within thyself: but first be thou the temple of 
 God." 2 
 
 God is spirit. Jesus announced this sublimest concep- 
 tion of the nature of God, without defining it; announced 
 it to a plain woman without simplifying it to her compre- 
 hension ; left it to go upon record without solving the mys- 
 tery that it contains. Yet as He was stating the funda- 
 mental principle of religious worship, to govern His fol- 
 lowers for all time, it is fair to assume that He used the 
 term spirit in a sense sufficiently intelligible to His hearers 
 for the practical application of His rule. He would 
 hardly have laid down for universal guidance in a matter 
 of universal obligation, a proposition that could not be 
 translated into the common ideas of men. 
 
 Our notion of spirit arises from our consciousness of 
 understanding, of personality, and of power — conceptions 
 that we attach to the Ego, the conscious self, in distinction 
 from the material body with which this is invested. The 
 Jewish scriptures had made familiar to the common mind 
 this conception of spirit as an immaterial substance, pos- 
 sessing consciousness, understanding, personality, will, 
 energy — for they ascribe to the nieufia all spiritual func- 
 tions, and distinguish it alike from the body, and from the 
 soul, the animating principle of the body. It is the spirit 
 in man that has understanding, that is capable of moral 
 affections, that is the image of God, the inspiration of the 
 Almighty, and this shall return unto the God who gave it, 
 
 i Alford on John iv. 23. 
 2 In templo vis orare, in te ora. Sed prius esto templum Dei, quia ille in 
 templo suo exaudiet orantem. 
 
SPIRIT REPRESENTS PERSONALITY. 95 
 
 when the dust shall return to the earth as it was. l The 
 same scriptures speak likewise of spirits as existing in a 
 higher condition than man, and possessing higher capaci- 
 ties than are given to man in his present state. These are 
 incorporeal, so far as cognizance of the senses goes ; yet 
 they are described under human modes of conception, as 
 possessing powers of vision, of motion, and of action, vastly 
 superior to any attainable by man. This idea of a spirit 
 as a higher order of being was common among the Jews in 
 the time of Christ. Philo believed in good and evil 
 angels, and that these were identical in substance with the 
 souls of men, though disconnected from bodies. 2 Jesus re- 
 cognized the common belief in an order of spirits, when He 
 said to His disciples after his crucifixion, — " A spirit hath 
 not flesh and bones as ye see me have." 3 
 
 In declaring that God was pure spirit Christ gave no 
 countenance to the pantheistic notion of the divinity as 
 diffused in space or as the soul of the universe. On the 
 contrary, He at the same time defined both the individual- 
 ity and the personality of God, in the formula of worship ; 
 — " they that worship Him" This infinite Sj)irit is to be 
 approached by the human spirit, as a personal Intelligence. 
 Moreover the name Father ascribes to God relations and 
 affections such as pertain only to personality. 
 
 Because God is spirit men must worship Him, and not 
 any material representation of Him ; must worship Him, 
 and not any place where He is supposed to be ; and they 
 must not even worship Him in any one place alone, as if 
 He were embodied or contained in that place, or were to be 
 found only there. This was the point of His reply to the 
 woman of Samaria : — " The hour cometh, when ye shall 
 neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship 
 the Father :" 4 — then true worshipers will not resort to 
 
 1 Ec. xii. 7. * Philo Judaeus on the Giants. 
 
 8 Luke xxiv. 39. * John iv. 21. 
 
96 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 either with the feeling that the place gives validity or 
 sanctity to the act of worship. This did not imply that 
 there had been no sincere, real worship at Jerusalem or 
 Gerizim ; for the contrast was not so much between the 
 true and the false, as between the perfect ideal and a 
 shadowy approximation. By the true worshipers are in- 
 tended not only such as worship in sincerity of spirit, but 
 those that worship according to the true and perfect ideal. 
 " The worship of God in its highest conception, is that 
 which is most homogeneous with the divine nature. Now 
 God is spirit, and as such, elevated above space and time ; 
 hence, the devotion which is in spirit, uttering itself in- 
 dependently of time and place, never ceasing, subject to no 
 external conditions, carried on in the inner sanctuary of 
 man, constitutes the only worship which corresponds to 
 its ideal." l 
 
 But was this saying of Christ concerning worship in 
 the spirit intended to disparage outward worship, and to 
 foreshadow its abolition under a higher purer conception of 
 Keligion ? The whole tenor of His life and doctrine for- 
 bids such an inference. Jesus Himself prayed openly and 
 audibly in the presence of His disciples. The prayer re- 
 corded at length in the seventeenth chapter of John's 
 gospel was an act of worship, and was rendered not in ac- 
 cordance with any Jewish form, but by Jesus as the 
 founder of the new dispensation about to be committed to 
 His disciples. He also taught His disciples to pray, and 
 how to pray ; and the brief form of prayer that He gave 
 to them was adapted to be used in a collective act of wor- 
 ship : " Our Father : give us our daily bread." And 
 moreover Christ gave the assurance of a special blessing to 
 those who should unite in worship, and meet for that pur- 
 pose in His name : " If two of you shall agree on earth as 
 touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
 
 1 ©lshausen, C©mm. in loc. 
 
THE USES OF OUTWARD WORSHIP. 97 
 
 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." l He also distinctly contemplated 
 and provided for the association of His disciples as a 
 Church, for worship and communion, and ordained sacra- 
 ments to be therein observed. After His resurrection, He 
 met with His disciples in what appears to have been a 
 stated assembly for religious worship upon the first day 
 of the week. 
 
 If outward worship is made an end in itself, if all 
 thought and care are concentrated upon the manner of the 
 outward act, with the feeling that when this is regularly 
 performed the worship is accomplished — this is wholly at 
 variance with Christ's doctrine of true spiritual worship. 
 
 If again, the outward worship is regarded as a means to 
 an end, if by the law of association, and by the suggestion 
 of spiritual truth through appropriate symbols, it serves to 
 educate the mind in religious thought and feeling — as was 
 the design of the Jewish ritual — these ends are legitimate 
 and valuable, though such a conception of worship falls 
 below the ideal enunciated by Christ. 
 
 In its highest and best relations, outward worship is the 
 GKpression and exponent of the inward frame and feeling 
 of the worshiper. The feeling of devotion gives to worship 
 an unlimited universality of utterance, and renders natural 
 and fit the outward form. 
 
 This feeling should lead one to approach God as a 
 Father. This name presents to the heart the moral and 
 sympathetic aspect of the divine Being, as the term spirit 
 presents to the understanding the conception of His essential 
 nature. This Spirit, though infinite in His own nature, is 
 not at an infinite remove from us in space nor in feeling, 
 but is a loving Father, who thinks upon us, cares for us, 
 and seeks us, desiring the communion of our spirits with 
 
 iMatt. xviii 19. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Himself. This enunciation meets the longing of the more 
 devout and spiritual minds of pagan antiquity for a near 
 and conscious intercourse with God. Said Dio Chrysostom, 
 " There exists in all men an eager longing to adore and 
 worship the gods as nigh. For as children, torn from 
 father and mother, feel a powerful and affectionate longing, 
 often stretch out their hands after their absent parents, and 
 often dream of them; so the man who heartily loves the 
 gods for their benevolence towards us and their relationship 
 with us, desires to be continually near them and to have 
 intercourse with them ; so that many barbarians, ignorant 
 of the arts, have called the very mountains and trees gods, 
 that they might recognize them as nearer to themselves." * 
 But Christ would bring God nearer than the mountain, 
 nearer than the temple, in the spiritual, living, reciprocal 
 intercourse of the father and the child. In its longing 
 to localize the Deity, Paganism materialized Him — first 
 personifying the powers and effects of nature as representa- 
 tives of the Divinity, and finally transferring to these its 
 whole conception of God. There is the same tendency in 
 the materialistic Pantheism of modern times — to resolve 
 the Divinity into a law, a force, a principle, an essence, or 
 at best a soul resident in nature; but this while bringing 
 God nigh, in a sense, yet takes away the value of the 
 nearness by robbing Him of personality, which alone 
 renders worship reasonable and communion possible. True 
 worship must be founded upon the spirituality of God. 
 "His being a spirit declares what He is; his other perfec- 
 tions declare what kind of spirit He is. All God's perfec- 
 tions suppose Him a spirit: all center in this: His wisdom 
 does not suppose Him merciful, or His mercy suppose Him 
 omniscient; there may be distinct notions of those attributes, 
 but all suppose Him to be of a spiritual nature. If we do 
 not render to God that spiritual worship which corresponds 
 
 1 Dio Chrysost. Orationes, xii. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF SPIRIT TO SPIRIT. 99 
 
 to His own nature, a statue upon a tomb with eyes and 
 hands lifted up, offers as good and true a service as we." l 
 
 In its conception of worship as a spiritual act addressed 
 to a spiritual being, Christianity puts into a simple and 
 universal formula the deepest conclusions of philosophy. 
 It assumes the great truth embodied in the organization of 
 matter under existing forms of order and beauty, and in 
 the arrangement of diverse and conflicting physical laws to 
 effect one common purpose — that a supreme intelligence, a 
 spiritual power, gave to the universe its existence and its 
 laws. What natural theology thus argues, Christ declared 
 as a first axiom of religion; — God is Spirit. Whence it 
 follows, since God is the Creator of the Universe, it is ab- 
 surd to suppose that His own essence can be bounded by a 
 temple, or ministered unto by material offerings; and since 
 God is the Father of all existing intelligences, it is absurd 
 to represent Him by any material image, or to worship Him 
 in any other way than by an intelligent homage, obedience 
 and love. " They that worship Him must worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth." 
 
 The nature of man requires this spiritual homage to the 
 Father of spirits. Reason and self-respect demand that man, 
 who is essentially a spiritual and not an animal being, 
 shall recognize the spirituality of his Creator, and worship 
 God with his rational and voluntary powers. 
 
 He degrades himself when he represents his Creator by 
 anything lower in the scale of existence than his own soul, 
 or renders to God a mere service of form. Worship is the 
 homage, the adoration, the reverent and loving devotion of 
 man as a free spiritual intelligence toward God as the 
 Father of Spirits, infinite in His nature and perfect in His 
 holiness. Such worship recognizes God's absolute inde- 
 pendence, His rightful sovereignty, His glorious moral 
 perfection ; and is rendered by one spiritual nature unto 
 
 J Charnock on the Divine Attributes. 
 
100 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 another spiritual nature that infinitely transcends it in 
 power and majesty, that infinitely excels it in purity and 
 virtue. Not hands but hearts must worship God ; not 
 wood and stone but living souls must furnish His abode. 
 This doctrine, however, must be taken in connection with 
 the doctrine of the new birth which underlies the whole 
 conception of the kingdom of God ; for " man is not born 
 as a temple of God, nor can he make himself one, but can 
 only be restored to that eminence by the Spirit, whom the 
 Son of God communicates to his soul." l 
 
 The formula of Jesus touching worship is a distinct pro- 
 test against Ritualism as claiming to represent the Chris- 
 tian idea of worship. I would not question the sincerity 
 of a worship rendered through elaborate forms; but. the 
 Ritual does not constitute either Christianity or worship, 
 and the bowings and genuflexions, the attitudes and cross- 
 ings, the vestments and candles, are not properly Christian 
 worship. True worship may use forms for its expression, 
 and indeed will naturally appropriate forms of some kind as 
 its language ; but by just as much as the place and the 
 form of worship come to be looked upon as essential to the 
 genuineness and acceptableness of the worship, by so much 
 does the form overlay and hinder the free action of the 
 soul toward God. If the form of worship appeals to the 
 senses more powerfully than the truth itself appeals to the 
 soul, if the studied artistic effect of the worship diverts the 
 feeling from spiritual emotion to aesthetic sentiment, then is 
 the form set above the spirit, and there is danger that the 
 living essence of worship will be wanting. The eye may 
 be charmed with the architecture of the cathedral, the ear 
 entranced with the music of the organ and the choir, the 
 very soul suffused with the perfume of incense, and yet 
 while every sense is thus wrapped in the outward similitude 
 of worship, there may be no true spirit of worship in the 
 
 1 Neander. 
 
 
SPIRITUALITY NOT SENTIMENTALISM. 101 
 
 heart. And if once the mind is imbued with the notion 
 that salvation depends upon the place or the form of wor- 
 ship, it will exaggerate the most insignificant incident of 
 that form into an essential of its own life. 
 
 But on the other hand the spirituality of worship must 
 be distinguished from mere sentimentality in religion. 
 The poetry of Byron abounds in apostrophes to nature in 
 the vein of worship. Novelists of the worst school of 
 French license, will pause in a tale of infamy to utter 
 some pious feeling touching the stars, the trees, the 
 flowers ; to invoke the sea, the breeze, the mountain, the 
 «loud, the moon — Nature in whole or in detail — as the 
 personification of the religious sentiment; and after this 
 ebullition of devotion, will proceed to deform virtue and 
 to glorify vice- Confucius teaches that by meditating in 
 the seclusion of the mountains and water-falls, man re- 
 turns to the primitive goodness of his nature ; and thus the 
 magnificent growths of the forests and the delicate beauties 
 of the garden and field become moral tonics to the soul. 
 Now no moralist has excelled Christ in lessons of wisdom 
 derived from nature, and no poet has surpassed Him in 
 delicacy of perception for the beauty of flowers, the waters, 
 the sky, and for the traits and habits of sentient creatures : 
 and therefore it is foreign to the genius of Christianity to 
 disparage a taste for the beautiful in the physical creation, 
 or to undervalue this as tributary to the religious senti- 
 ment. But that enthusiasm for nature which never speaks 
 the name of God, which expends itself upon effects without 
 thought of the First Cause of all, which even substitutes 
 an effect for the cause as an object of religious emotion, has 
 no one element in common with the spiritual devotion 
 that Christ declared to be the only true worship. It is at 
 best but a more refined idolatry, reproducing in the 
 mysticism of the pantheist and the dream-talk of the poet, 
 the homage of the ancient Greek and Roman, or of the 
 
102 THE THEOLOOY OF CHRIST. 
 
 modern Hindoo and Chinaman to material forms as repre- 
 senting some beneficent property or power in nature. 
 
 The* spirituality of worship set forth by Christ is a 
 feature of His religion that adapts it for universal diffu- 
 sion. Like the light Christianity can go anywhere ; like 
 the air men need only to breathe it. Its worship requires 
 but these two factors : — a spiritual and holy God revealed 
 as a loving Father, and an humble, loving, trusting mind, 
 that looks up to Him in reverence and obedience. The 
 Jew coming like Simeon in faith and holy expectation, to 
 sacrifice amid the splendor of the temple and the pomp of 
 its ritual ; the Gentile who, like the devout Cornelius, 
 amid the distractions of military life, without temple or 
 altar, yet feared God with all his house and prayed to 
 Him always ; the prisoner Paul in the guard-room of 
 Nero's palace; the exile John in the rocky solitudes of 
 Patmos ; the missionary apostle, a solitary witness for the 
 living God in face of the temples, shrines and divinities 
 of Athens ; the throng gathered at Troas to hear his fare- 
 well words, and break the bread of Christian fellowship ; 
 the martyrs who entered the arena to be devoured of wild 
 beasts, praying as they went ; the saints who hid them- 
 selves in the catacombs of Rome and worshiped by the 
 light of the sacred lamp ; Luther, in his monk-cell crying 
 to God from the depths of an awakened spirit ; Tauler, in 
 the grand cathedral of Strasbourg, in the midst of altars, 
 pictures, images, incense, and the pomp of a corrupted 
 worship, proclaiming the true light, love, and joy of the 
 Holy Ghost within the soul ; the Waldenses in the fast- 
 nesses of Piedmont ; the Huguenots in the caves of the 
 Pyrenees ; the Covenanters on the lonely heath or the 
 dreary shore ; the Pilgrims on the houseless island, keep- 
 ing the Sabbath in snow and sleet ; these all, and whoever 
 with singleness of devotion has worshiped the Father, 
 have kept up through the ages the undying succession of 
 
THE SOUL THE LIVING TEMPLE. 103 
 
 true worshipers. The proudest monument of pagan wor- 
 ship is a shattered ruin upon the Acropolis of Athens; 
 the temple at Jerusalem with its goodly stones is buried 
 under the Haram of the mosque of Omar ; the antiquarian 
 digs for its foundation; the Jews wail beside the tradi- 
 tional stones of its wall ; but He with whom there is 
 neither Greek nor Jew, who dwells in humble, believing 
 souls, seeks and owns as true worshipers all who, in what- 
 ever tongue, cry " Abba, Father." 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 A LIVING PROVIDENCE. 
 
 Years ago, when the cloud that hung over the African 
 race in the United States was so thick that there appeared 
 no possibility of deliverance, Mr. Frederick Douglas called 
 for a bloody insurrection as the only hope of liberty; and 
 even that seemed rather the frenzy of despair. Depicting 
 the wrongs of his people with an eloquence that awed his 
 hearers, telling tales of horror that made one's hair stand 
 on end, he cried for the retribution of blood. Friends, 
 counsels, measures, events had failed to further their cause, 
 or had been linked in connivance with the wrong; patience 
 and hope were utterly gone, and there remained only the 
 last struggle of desperation. When he ceased speaking, 
 there was a hush of horror and dread over the assembly, 
 that seemed to confirm his forebodings. Directly in front 
 of the platform sat a tall gaunt figure, black as the night 
 that Douglas had depicted: — a woman who, had she 
 lived in Africa, might have passed for a sorceress or a 
 sibyl, but who had won repute among her people as a 
 prophetess taught of God. Her very name she claimed to 
 have received by inspiration — Sojourner Truth — a type of 
 her mission : " Truth" because she was appointed to give 
 the Lord's testimony; "Sojourner" because she was to go 
 from place to place testifying as she went, and sojourning 
 only long enough to testify. Fastening upon the speaker 
 her keen black eye, now fired with a holy indignation, 
 and raising her finger as in prophetic admonition, she cried 
 in a voice that pierced every ear, "Frederick, is God deadf 
 104 
 
PROVIDENCE IN THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. 105 
 
 Like a flash of lightning that question scattered a darkness 
 that all had felt. Faith, patience, hope, courage came back 
 with the reviving of the thought of a living God. 
 
 O o o 
 
 The years have confirmed Sojourner's faith. When the 
 national government had surrendered itself in every de- 
 partment to the intrigues or the assumptions of the slave- 
 power; when Congress had enacted the Fugitive-Slave 
 law, and the President had made haste to enforce it by 
 Marshals, Commissioners and United States troops; when 
 the Missouri Compromise was repealed, and the Supreme 
 Court decided that slaves could be held as property in the 
 territories of the United States, and the Chief Justice gave 
 the sanction of his office to the stigma that "black men 
 had no rights which white men were bound to respect;" it 
 seemed indeed that the cause of the slave was hopeless, and 
 that nothing remained to him but the recklessness of des- 
 peration. But God was not "dead." The very audacity 
 that sought first to control the general government and 
 then to subvert it, overreached itself; and we have seen 
 slavery abolished by proclamation of the President, and 
 the army of the United States employed for its over- 
 throw; Congress that had been the tool of the Slave- 
 power, dictating to the States of the Slave Confederacy 
 measures of justice to the freed men ; those States recognizing 
 the political equality of the blacks as the condition of their 
 own restoration to political privileges in the Union; the 
 Constitution that had been made a shield for slavery, 
 amended so as to prohibit the exclusion of any citizen from 
 the polls by reason of race, color, or former state of servi- 
 tude; the President congratulating the country upon this 
 momentous change of policy as the most important event 
 since the foundation of the government, and taking pains 
 to efface the stigma that the Supreme Court had affixed to 
 the black race. * A retribution so thorough and particular, 
 
 1 President Grant's proclamation of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend' 
 stent. 
 
106 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 a revolution so complete and circumstantial, effected by 
 means above human foresight or control, gives emphasis to 
 the faith of the sable prophetess in the living God. 
 
 Yet there are those who style themselves "friends of 
 progress/' and assume even the ambitious role of the priest- 
 hood of Humanity, who would deprive the poor and op- 
 pressed of this kindling thought, this great and blessed 
 hope, and would make God dead alike to good or evil in 
 the world. Not content to reduce all physical phenomena 
 to a system of fixed laws, which admit of no superintend- 
 ing Power, and with which no volitions, either natural or 
 supernatural, interfere, they would bring human society 
 and history into the same category, concluding all the 
 phases of national growth and decay, and the actions of in- 
 dividuals in all the varieties of human conduct, by physi- 
 cal conditions that determine the development of individu- 
 als, of nations, and of races according to certain subtile, 
 perhaps uninterpretable, but nevertheless uniform and all- 
 controlling laws. This was the theory upon which Mr. 
 Buckle projected his History of Civilization: — that "the 
 actions of men, being determined solely by their antece- 
 dents, must have a character of uniformity, that is to say, 
 must, under precisely the same circumstances, always issue 
 in precisely the same results." So strong was his convic- 
 tion that all human actions, including those that seem to be 
 prompted by personal feelings — even marriages on the one 
 hand, and crimes on the other — are determined by general 
 laws, that he expressed his belief that "before another cen- 
 tury the chain of evidence will be complete, and it will be 
 as rare to find an historian who denies the undeviating regu- 
 larity of the moral world, as it is now to find a philosopher 
 who denies the regularity of the material world." 1 This 
 moral order, however, in Mr. Buckle's meaning, is not the 
 Providential ruling of the world according to a divine plan, 
 
 1 Hhtory of Civilization in England, I. pp. 14, 24. 
 
POSITIVISM AT ISSUE WITH CHRIST. 107 
 
 but the development of mind and of Nature, eaeh by the 
 laws of its own organization, and with " a reciprocal modifi- 
 cation from which all events must necessarily spring.'' Mr. 
 Buckle's admirers have sought to relieve him of the charge 
 of Fatalism; yet when this school of Positivists speak of 
 " the Infinite " and " the Absolute/' it is the infinite and 
 absolute in Idea or in Law — some vast generalization of the 
 phenomena of the universe under a law of correlation — and 
 not an infinite Spirit, who created the universe, and now 
 upholds and governs it through laws that are the mute ex- 
 pressions of His own will and power. Either the Person- 
 ality of God is denied altogether, and the Deity is only the 
 highest formula for the generalization of existing laws, or 
 if His personality is admitted, He is conceived of as 
 separated from the actual course of affairs, and existing if 
 not in the state of inactivity attributed to Buddha, at least 
 in the attitude of non-intervention by any volition or act 
 of His, direct or indirect, in the ongoing sequence of 
 events. Thus Comte speaks of the doctrine of Providence 
 as a transient theory, a makeshift of ignorance, which in 
 the progress of science has been displaced by the discovery 
 and the systematizing of laws. 
 
 It is impossible to harmonize this world-scheme of the 
 Positivists with the teachings of Christ. The displace- 
 ment of Providence from the world, the denial of God's 
 personal interest in His creatures and His superintendence 
 over them as a present reality, is directly at variance with 
 the doctrine of Jesus, who taught that His Father watches 
 over all creatures and events, and is concerned in the 
 affairs of men both individually and collectively. Upon 
 most points it is easy to reconcile alleged differences 
 between science and revelation ; and it may be assumed 
 that there is no fact of science fairly proved that may not 
 be reconciled with the Scriptures fairly interpreted. But 
 the denial of a divine Providence in the world, present, 
 
108 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 personal, particular, cannot be reconciled with the teach- 
 ings of Jesus ; and hence if He taught herein the truth of 
 God, that materialistic theory which has no place for God 
 in the ordering of affairs, must be false. It is of the first 
 importance, therefore, to determine from the collation of 
 His own words, what Christ did teach concerning Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 First Those physical phenomena which are commonly 
 described as the course of nature, Christ represented as 
 being under the direction and control of God, and as ex- 
 pressing His purpose and will. "Love your enemies, 
 bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 
 and pray for them which despitefully use you and perse- 
 cute 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." x Now the sun rises with undeviating regu- 
 larity — the diurnal revolution of the earth upon its axis 
 causing that appearing and disappearing of the sun which 
 we call sunrise and sunset. These laws are fixed and as- 
 certained : and although the laws by which the rain falls 
 are less definitely understood, the showers come not by 
 chance, nor by miracle, but by law. And yet Jesus traced 
 the rising of the sun and the falling of the rain, in the 
 universality of their beneficence, to the purpose of God in 
 so ordering them for the good of His creatures ; and He 
 pointed to the uniformity of these events as an expression 
 of the impartial goodness of our Heavenly Father, to be 
 followed by us as an example. Now there is no force in 
 the argument drawn from this illustration — that, by the 
 impartiality of love, we should be perfect in the same way 
 as our Father in Heaven is perfect — if the sun rises or the 
 rain falls by laws of its own producing, or by eternal 
 
 1 Matt. v. 44, 45. 
 
REGULAR SEQUENCE NOT EFFICIENT CAUSE. IOC 
 
 laws, or by purely mechanical law, from which all idea of 
 a designing will is shut out. 
 
 In the phenomena of Nature we must be careful not to 
 confound regularity of sequence with causation, or to mis- 
 take uniformity for efficiency. Where one event invariably 
 follows another in the same circumstances, we say there 
 is a law of succession ; but it does not follow that the event 
 next preceding is the efficient cause of its successor. Mere 
 phenomena cannot be perpetually adduced to explain phe- 
 nomena. The conception of causality requires an active 
 will-power somewhere back of the apparent physical law. 
 To Christ that will was ever present and ever active in all 
 the ordinances of Nature. 
 
 This He assumed when He taught us to pray to our 
 Father in heaven, saying "Give us this day our daily 
 bread." Now bread is procured by processes that obey es- 
 tablished chemical, vital, and mechanical laws, both sepa- 
 rately and in combination — the growth of the wheat, the 
 harvesting, threshing, and winnowing, the grinding of the 
 flour, the mixing of the dough, the baking of the bread — 
 the agency of Nature uniting throughout with the agency 
 of Man; and there is nothing apparent in the process of 
 bread-making that cannot be referred to one or the other 
 of these visible agents. But whence comes the power of 
 heat and moisture, acting upon the soil and the seed to 
 produce the living growth? whence the principle of fer- 
 mentation? and whence the power of heat to convert the 
 paste into bread? 
 
 In looking at a grist-mill, the wheels, the gearing, the 
 hopper, the stones, the bolter, one remarks the ingenuity 
 of man in this machinery for grinding his flour; but the 
 wood and iron of which the watar-wheel is made, the water 
 that turns it, the stones that grind the meal, these are no 
 more of man's providing than are his own mind and muscle 
 that appropriate such materials to his use. Arid after all, 
 
110 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 that which grinds his flour is the sun: for the sun perpetu- 
 ally gathers the moisture that forms the clouds, whose 
 showers feed the stream that turns the mill. And so, back 
 of all the ingenuity of man, and of all visible agencies of 
 Nature, the doctrine of Christ refers us to our Heavenly 
 Father as the giver of our bread, and bids us ask Him for 
 it day by day. But one could not thus ash Nature for 
 daily bread; since Nature has no intelligence nor will, nor 
 conscious power of adaptation, in the processes by which 
 she ministers to the sustenance of man. One can not pray 
 to a law of physics or of chemistry as to a Father! The 
 laws of Nature remove further back the point at which 
 the will of God touches the whole process of providing 
 our food, but these do not disconnect that process from the 
 divine will and reduce it to a function of Nature. A father 
 who grows his own grain and grinds his own wheat, liter- 
 ally provides bread for his children; but one who does 
 other business, is a merchant, a banker, a doctor, a lawyer, 
 and buys all his bread of the baker, is none the less the 
 giver of the daily bread of his household. A little boy 
 lost in the streets of New York, and unable to tell where 
 he lived, gave his father's name and said that he made 
 bread. After a fruitless search among the bakers, it was 
 discovered that the child's father was a merchant, -but was 
 accustomed on leaving home for his business to say play- 
 fully to the little fellow, "Now I must go and make some 
 more bread for you." Yet he did make bread for his child 
 as truly as if he had baked it. When a father goes away 
 from home and leaves an order with the baker to supply 
 the family during his absence, he still provides their daily 
 bread ; and if he should prolong his absence for years, and 
 simply send remittances to meet the necessities of his family, 
 these intervening processes would not sever nor even sus- 
 pend his personal agency as the provider. 
 
 Now God is our Father; and the far-reaching arrange- 
 
PROVIDENCE UNIVERSAL AND PARTICULAR. Ill 
 
 merits He has made through which we obtain our daily 
 bread, cannot dissociate the provision for our wants from 
 His loving thought and care. Both the constitution of 
 man and the circumstances in which he acts are fairly 
 included within the providential purposes of God. Man 
 acts either from his own nature, or from the influence of 
 circumstances, or from a combination of these two factors ; 
 and He who created both man and nature with their 
 mutual adaptations, can also bring them together in special 
 adaptations, through His familiar and constant supervision 
 of their several laws. And the fact of this personal divine 
 agency in and through the ordinary phenomena of life, 
 is fundamental in the doctrine of Christ concerning Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 Christ also taught the universality of this Providence 
 over the kingdoms of Nature and of life. It is God who 
 clothes the grass of the field, and gives to the lilies their 
 beauty, though they toil not, neither do they spin. It is 
 our heavenly Father who feedeth the ravens and the fowls 
 of the air, though they sow not, neither do they reap nor 
 gather into barns. 1 God gave to the birds their free un- 
 caring nature, and the instinct by which they seek their 
 food; and in the diversities of food made ready for the 
 diversities of creatures are manifested a forethought and 
 plan that argue an intelligent providence. The uniformity 
 of this adaptation cannot account for the fact of the adap- 
 tation ; and when we inquire why each bird and each beast 
 seeks always and finds its own kind of food, there can be 
 no better answer than that which Christ has given, " Your 
 heavenly Father feedeth them." 
 
 In discoursing of Providence, Jesus instanced the par- 
 ticular care of God toward those that love Him and trust 
 in His will. His argument from the universal care of 
 God for the lower orders of creatures, the raven, the spar- 
 
 i Matt. vi. 26-31. 
 
112 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 row, was that the children of God should so much the more 
 trust in Him for all the wants of the body, and devote them- 
 selves spiritually to His holy kingdom and will. "Are ye 
 not much better than they? shall He not much more clothe 
 you, O ye of little faith?" 1 The argument is from the 
 less to the greater; — "therefore take no thought" — be 
 not anxious about the necessaries of life, — "saying What 
 shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal 
 shall we be clothed? for your heavenly Father knoweth 
 that ye have need of all these things." 2 To have any 
 validity in logic, to give any encouragement to faith, this 
 argument must proceed on the assumption that God takes 
 immediate cognizance of the condition and wants of those 
 who look to Him in trust, and arranges outward circum- 
 stances for their advantage: for the counsel "Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of God and His righteousness," is followed 
 with the unqualified assurance "and all these things shall 
 be added to you;" 3 — an assurance grounded in the fact 
 that "your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of 
 all these things" — "therefore take no thought for the 
 morrow." 
 
 The counsel that Jesus gave His disciples touching 
 their deportment under danger, was based upon the same 
 doctrine of God's personal care over His children. They 
 were charged not to fear human enemies who could do 
 them no real harm, and whose apparent power of mischief 
 was under the restraint of their heavenly Father: — not 
 even a sparrow is forgotten before God; and "the very 
 hairs of your head are all numbered." 4 This same argu- 
 ment Christ applied to Himself. When tempted of the 
 devil, in the extremity of hunger, He refused to turn 
 stones into bread, and confided in the loving care of His 
 
 i Mat. vi. 30. 2 Mat. vi. 31, 32. 
 
 3 Mat. vi. 32, 33. * Luke xii. 6, 7. 
 
NO FAVORITISM IN PROVIDENCE. 113 
 
 Fatlier for the relief of His necessities. 1 Again, when 
 Pilate sought to intimidate Him, saying, "Knowcst thou 
 not that I have power to crucify thee," Jesus answered, 
 " Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it 
 were given thee from above." 2 By this He meant not 
 simply that the power of earthly rulers is derived from 
 God as the supreme disposer of events ; but that Pilate 
 had no present power of proceeding against Himself, 
 except by the permission of His heavenly Father. His 
 meaning was precisely the same as in that saying to Peter 
 a few hours before, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now 
 pray to my Father, and He shall presently give Me more 
 than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the 
 Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be ? " 3 Jesus 
 believed in the constant superintendence of His heavenly 
 Father over all the events of His life : — constant, as opera- 
 ting through the common established order of things, and 
 particular, as adapting events to occasions, means to ends. 
 
 What is sometimes called "special providence" may be 
 special only in our recognition of it — special because the 
 importance of the event to ourselves leads us to notice it 
 as something extraordinary; but Christ taught that the 
 Providence of God is not something occasional and excep- 
 tional, but is as constant and particular as tlte care of a 
 Father over his children : — special, therefore, only as 
 being personal and particular. 
 
 But Jesus did also include in His doctrine of Provi- 
 dence the fact that, to accomplish particular ends, God does 
 sometimes put -forth direct acts of control or intervention in 
 human affairs. In view of the small number of preachers 
 of the Gospel as compared with the work of evangeliza- 
 tion, He instructed His disciples to " pray the Lord of the 
 harvest that He would send forth laborers into the har- 
 
 1 Matt. iv. 3, 4, 11. 2 j h n xix. 10, 11. 
 
 3 Matt. xxri. 53, 54. 
 8 
 
114 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 vest." 1 Now such a prayer could have force only upon 
 the assumption that God does act directly in the affairs of 
 this world, for particular interests, and shape men and 
 means toward given ends. Again, in predicting the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, Christ announced that as His 
 own coming to judgment, and indicated to His disciples 
 what would be the signs of that coming — directly connect- 
 ing the war, famine and pestilence that did actually 
 attend that terrible siege, with a divine retribution for the 
 sins of the nation. He promised also safety and protec- 
 tion to His own disciples, and declared that for their sakes 
 the days of tribulation should be shortened. 2 All this 
 came to pass by means apparently natural, but under the 
 guidance of a supernatural power. 
 
 The whole doctrine of Christ concerning the Providence 
 of God teaches that this is a living reality, present, constant, 
 universal, and particular, both mediate and immediate. 
 
 This doctrine accords with the highest Reason, and gives 
 a key to the course of Nature itself. For either we must 
 believe in a Providence over the world that extends to the 
 particular while it controls the universal, or allow the athe- 
 istic notion of chance, or say that events can come to pass 
 by laws or agencies beyond His knowledge or control, and 
 therefore that His whole purpose of wisdom and beneficence 
 in the creation is liable to be frustrated through causes out 
 of sight or out of reach — that a broken rail may throw the 
 train off the track, or a tiny borer under the keel may sink 
 the ship. But in face of the evidence of final causes, 
 strengthening the native belief in an intelligent Creator, it 
 is impossible to refer the origin of the world to chance; 
 and if chance did not produce the world, it cannot come in 
 at this late day to divide its events with the Supreme 
 Intelligence that shaped these at the first. To withdraw 
 any class of events from the knowledge or the power of 
 
 1 Matt is. 37, 3SL 2 Matt. xxiv. 22. 
 
LAWS NEED TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. 115 
 
 God, and declare these absolutely independent of His con- 
 trol, would be to say that He had made a world He could 
 not manage; and moreover, such is the inter-dependence 
 of events, both great and small, and, on the broad scale of 
 things, adverse and hostile events, permitted for awhile, 
 are so often made to contribute to the very end they threat- 
 ened to frustrate, or are overridden by some sublime and 
 comprehensive movement — that the logical principles in- 
 volved in creation, and the course of affairs in human 
 history, shut us up to a belief in the providence of God as 
 extending to all actual events. 
 
 It does not relieve this necessity to deny a personal 
 Providence, and fall back upon a system of general laws. 
 These laws, incapable of originating themselves, can find 
 the reason of their own existence only in the will of the 
 all-wise and almighty Creator, who set them in order fore- 
 seeing and including their working and results. Climb 
 we never so high the ladder of second causes, at the top 
 we find the Infinite stretching above and around us: the 
 ladder is supported not by its own strength nor by the 
 solidity of its foundation, but by an invisible hand from 
 above; it is only by looking up that we can climb with 
 safety, and if we take out a pin here and a rung there as 
 insignificant or unnecessary, we shall break through and 
 fall over into the abyss of Atheism. The doctrine of Provi- 
 dence as taught by Christ differs equally from Fatalism 
 and from Pantheism. It recognizes the personal care of 
 our Heavenly Father, acting both through the laws that 
 He has impressed upon Nature and apart from these, and 
 thus it keeps Him in a constant connection of thought, 
 feeling and will with the creatures of His hand. 
 
 This doctrine of Providence harmonizes perfectly with 
 our consciousness of free-will. Free-will is a fact of con- 
 sciousness, and we can neither go back of the testimony of 
 consciousness nor explain that away. We know that we 
 
116 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 have the power of choice, and that in moral action we 
 might choose otherwise than as we do. Yet our free choice 
 and action in any given case do not exclude this from the 
 divine prevision as an event, since the certainty of an event 
 as matter-of-fact to the mind of God cannot conflict with 
 the free-agency of man in bringing to pass that event. 
 Certainty and Freedom are not irreconcilable factors in the 
 problem of life. The time and place of my birth, for in- 
 stance, were determined in the Providence of God without 
 my agency or even my consciousness. It was by His will 
 that I began to live. But when I began to move by my 
 own volition did I cease to sustain any relation to the will 
 of God? Were the boundaries of His Providence limited 
 by the nursery ? — and did I pass out from under the Provi- 
 dential government of God the moment I began to act by 
 my own will? That were absurd. But on the other hand, 
 did God compel my actions, and above all compel my sin- 
 ful actions? I know better; since consciousness assures me 
 of my freedom, while common-sense instructs me as to His 
 Providence. It is equally true that I am free and that 
 God reigns. 
 
 The doctrine of Providence taught by Christ harmon- 
 izes also with the general laws of the physical world. The 
 laws under which we generalize the orderly sequences of 
 phenomena are thoughts or purposes of the Creator wrought 
 into permanent links of succession ; — a stereotyped edition 
 of certain divine ideas, continually renewed from the same 
 plates. But is the whole of the divine nature bound up in 
 these, and imprisoned by them ? These laws are the per- 
 manent base for the operations of His Providence : as 
 proofs of divine forethought for our welfare, they tend to 
 give stability and confidence to our dependence upon 
 Providence. To lay in fuel for the winter in the summer 
 is to provide for the daily wants of one's family as really as 
 by marketing every day ; — the one form of Providence does 
 
PROVIDENCE GIVES COURAGE TO FAITH. 117 
 
 not preclude the other. Because God ministers to our ne- 
 cessities so largely through a system of general laws, He is 
 not thereby cut off from a living sympathy and care for us. 
 It is still our Father in Heaven who gives us day by day 
 our daily bread, and who delivers us from evil. 
 
 The doctrine of Christ concerning the Providence of 
 God furnishes a rational ground and motive for prayer. 
 Under stress of want or danger it is an instinct of the soul 
 to pray. But prayer is the merest superstition if there is 
 no personal, acting, guiding Providence. Only in the be- 
 lief that we have a Father who knows our wants and can 
 relieve them, who thinks upon us, and will hear us, can 
 we pray in faith. 
 
 This doctrine encourages us to trust in God with child- 
 like confidence and affection. Such a faith will lift the 
 soul to the sublimity of absolute repose : not the repose of 
 inaction or of indifference, but of that confidence in God's 
 presence, power, wisdom, love, that frees the mind from 
 all uneasiness or concern in respect to either the wants of 
 the body or its own future. u Fear ye not, ye are of more 
 value than many sparrows." This very confidence begets 
 its own triumph. The faith of Sojourner Truth was as 
 ready for her own necessities as for the sorrows of her peo- 
 ple. Her child had been stolen and sold into slavery ; and 
 she knew only in a vague, general way, that she must seek 
 redress at the Court-house, and that for this money was 
 required. She thought within herself, "God has money," 
 and she made her application directly to Him. In her 
 own graphic and pathetic story, "I didn't rightly know 
 which way to turn ; but I went to the Lord, and I said to 
 Him, l O Lord, ef I was as rich as you be, an' you was as 
 poor as I be, I'd help you, you know I would ; an' oh ! do 
 help me.' An' I felt sure that He would, an' He did." 
 
 A man seeing her writhing in agony before the Court 
 House, asked what was the matter, and directed her to 
 
118 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 friends who took up her case and pressed it until her child 
 was recovered. This child-like simplicity of trust in the 
 providence of God is authorized by the teachings of Christ. 
 One may be too wise to admit a ground for it in his phil- 
 osophy, too proud to admit a place for it in his own spirit ; 
 one may love the world too much to be willing to relin- 
 quish that, and making the kingdom of God his supreme 
 desire, to trust his heavenly Father for his daily bread ; 
 one may be so bent upon plans of his own that he cares 
 nothing for Providence unless that can be enlisted in these ; 
 but he that really believes what Christ has taught concern- 
 ing our Father in heaven, he that exercises a true Chris- 
 tian faith, will so trust in the Lord at all times, as to 
 live without solicitude, in the constant exercise of gratitude 
 and devotion. And how little should we know of grief if 
 we had more of gratitude ! how little should we know of 
 despondency, if we had more of devotion ! When we shall 
 fully love, then only will we fully trust. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF PRAYER. 
 
 As the instinct of prayer is an argument for a Provi- 
 dence — since every aptitude of man's nature finds some 
 corresponding adaptation in the system of things with 
 which he is connected — so also is the fact of Providence 
 the decisive warrant for prayer. The spontaneous impulse 
 of the soul in peril, want, or fear, to invoke the aid of an 
 unseen Power — that is to pray — encourages the belief that, 
 distinct from physical laws and phenomena, there is a 
 spiritual Power, able to modify or shape the course of 
 things for our advantage, or to interpose His will in some 
 direct counteraction to apparent evil. Why is man so 
 constituted that in his helplessness he flies to the Infinite 
 for succor, if all things move forward by inexorable law, 
 and God has abandoned the world to fate ? Then prayer 
 were but a mockery of human misery — the wounded, terri- 
 fied bird, seeing the serpent about to spring upon it, and 
 beating its breast wildly against the bars that shut it in. 
 That very principle of relation by which science links 
 events to their antecedents, and means to ends, should find 
 in this normal tendency of the soul to look to a higher 
 Power, a law of interaction by which prayer links the soul 
 to God by the feeling of dependence, and brings God to 
 the soul in the bestowal of help. > 
 
 That devout philosopher, Schleiermacher, defined religion 
 as the feeling of dependence upon the Absolute. When 
 physical science has formulated all the known phenomena 
 of Nature under invariable laws, and metaphysical science 
 
 119 
 
120 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 has systematized all the known phenomena of mind under 
 categories of its own, and materialists have sought, by a 
 process of mental physiology, to reduce the manifestations 
 of intelligence to mere functions of the brain, there yet re- 
 mains within the consciousness — to be called out upon 
 emergencies of ignorance, of danger, of trouble, of want — 
 the feeling of dependence upon a Something somewhere 
 that is Absolute, that is above want, danger, or necessity, 
 that is dependent upon nothing outside of itself, but can 
 take upon itself the support of needy, dependent creatures. 
 That feeling prompts to prayer, and prayer points to Pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 And so, upon the other hand, the fact of a Providence — 
 the active guidance and superintendence of persons and 
 events by a Spirit of infinite wisdom, power and bene- 
 ficence, — gives a perfect warrant for prayer, makes it rea- 
 sonable to pray, makes it hopeful to pray, makes prayer a 
 reality, as the address of one conscious spirit to another 
 conscious spirit, who knows the needs of the suppliant ; 
 makes prayer a power, as the appeal of a dependent spirit 
 to the Almighty Spirit who will help the needy when he 
 crieth. Such was the doctrine of prayer that Christ taught 
 to His disciples, and that He himself put in practice upon 
 memorable occasions of His earthly life. 
 
 At the foundation of His teaching on this subject was 
 the conception of prayer as the direct address of the soul to 
 God as its Father. " After this manner pray ye : Our 
 Father which art in heaven." 1 " Enter into thy closet 
 and pray to thy Father which is in secret." 2 As an en- 
 couragement to prayer Christ referred to the readiness with 
 which parents regard the requests of their children, and 
 said, " If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts 
 unto your children, how much more shall your Father 
 
 i Matt. vi. 9. 2 Matt. vi. 6. 
 
PRAYER ADDRESSES A LIVING PERSON. 121 
 
 which is in heaven give good things to them that ask 
 Him." 1 
 
 The prayers of Jesus Himself were direct addresses to 
 His Father. " 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." 2 
 " What shall I say ? Father, save me from this hour ? 
 Father, glorify Thy name." 3 
 
 The last prayer of Jesus for His disciples, was the audi- 
 ble communion of His soul with His Father, whom He 
 invoked by name, at each petition : 4 " Father, the hour is 
 come :" " O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self." 
 " Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom 
 Thou hast given Me." " O righteous Father, the world 
 hath not known Thee." In the extremity of His anguish 
 in the garden, He prayed, " O my Father, if it be possible 
 let this cup pass from Me :" 5 and from the cross He cried, 
 " Father, forgive them." 6 This direct address to God as 
 Father is a striking characteristic of Christian prayer. 
 Human language cannot express all that this mode of ad- 
 dress implies. 
 
 "The Father" is a living person; the Father of our 
 spirits a living Spirit; the Father of all, the living pos- 
 sessor of all, who as the Creator has control over all beings 
 and events. Therefore to pray to God as a Father is to 
 recognize Him as in immediate relations to us personally, 
 and to all that concerns us. One loses sight for the moment 
 of all calculation of means and agencies, of secondary causes 
 and intermediate laws, and sees only the great preponder- 
 ating truth of the living Spirit, infinite in presence and 
 power, who is above every law and nigh to every soul. 
 
 But the mind does not rest in this conception. Prayer 
 is more than imagining what God is ; more than meditating 
 
 iMatt. vii. 11. 2 Matt. xi. 25. 3j h n x ii. 27,28. * John xrii. 
 5 Matt. xxvi. 39. 6 Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
122 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 upon God; more than any subjective state or feeling pro- 
 duced in us as the reflex influence of divine contemplation. 
 In prayer the soul goes out to God ; it addresses God as 
 one that can be reached by its supplications. The Father 
 being not a principle nor a law, not an abstraction nor a 
 poetic name, but a living person, is one who can be spoken 
 to — yes, this Infinite Spirit, this Maker and Lord of all 
 things can be spoken to by you and me, for He is our 
 Father ; and in teaching us to open our petitions with this 
 endearing name, Christ taught us to come to God through 
 no intervening agency, but making as it were our con- 
 sciousness directly audible to His. 
 
 Moreover, the name by which we address God in prayer 
 implies that He has personal relations to our interests, and 
 is personally interested in whatever affects our welfare. 
 " The Father " concerns Himself personally, directly, con- 
 stantly, in and for the happiness of His children. The 
 name signifies a mutual relationship, an endearing sympa- 
 thy ; it warrants us in appropriating to ourselves the divine 
 personality by a filial affection that identifies this with our 
 very life : " When thou hast entered into thy closet, and 
 hast shut to the door" — shutting out the while even the 
 nearest of earthly friends — then canst thou, for the moment 
 as it were, have God unto thyself, and " pray to thy Father 
 who seeth in secret." 
 
 Still further, the name by which Jesus taught us to ad- 
 dress God in prayer is a name that pledges to us His pres- 
 ence and His love. The instinct of prayer was not given 
 to mock us with vain aspirations and unsatisfied longings ; 
 neither has God required us to pray simply in acknow- 
 ledgment of our own dependence, and of His power and 
 majesty. He is our Father ; and the one Father who loves 
 us with a love that is always wise, pure, unselfish, perfect. 
 " What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, 
 will he give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he give 
 
PRAYER FOR TEMPORAL THINGS. 123 
 
 him a serpent? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
 Father which is in heaven give good things to them that 
 ask Him." x The conception that underlies all true prayer 
 is that of a direct address to God as a Father. 
 
 The teaching and example of Christ authorize us to in- 
 clude in the subject matter of prayer, our physical necessities 
 and our temporal interests in general. Some would restrict 
 prayer to themes and objects purely spiritual — thinking 
 thus to avoid the speculative difficulties of the Christian 
 doctrine of Providence, and yet keep up a living connec- 
 tion between God and the human soul. But the essential 
 difficulty in expounding Providence is not got rid of by 
 transferring it from the sphere of matter to that of mind, 
 since the mind also has laws of its own. Many of the 
 phenomena of thought, memory, association, feeling, can 
 be reduced to that observed regularity of sequence which 
 indicates a law of action or manifestation, and it is no easier 
 to conceive or explain how a distinct personal Power could 
 move harmoniously amid the laws of such a sphere than 
 amid the laws of matter. Indeed, seeing that mind pos- 
 sesses the faculty of free will, and therefore can oppose it- 
 self to the will of God, it may even be more difficult to 
 give a philosophy of divine action within the sphere of 
 mind than in that of matter. 
 
 The validity of prayer is given in the argument hereto- 
 fore adduced for a personal Providence. That argument 
 rests substantially upon the same grounds with the argu- 
 ment for a personal God — the apparent ordering or purpos- 
 ing of events with reference to foreseen ends ; the combina- 
 tion of different and even opposite laws or phenomena so as 
 to produce some special and beneficial result ; the manifold 
 adaptations of things to persons and of persons to things — 
 all this, wherever discerned, gives intuitively the convic- 
 
 1 Matt. vii. 9, 12. 
 
lzJ4 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 tion of a planning and over-ruling mind ; and that con- 
 viction utters itself in the spontaneousness of prayer for 
 what lies beyond the compass of our own will. A French 
 philosopher at dinner with tne keen-witted Sidney Smith 
 declaimed against the notion of Providence as contrary to 
 the laws of things. The beautiful workings of cause and 
 effect in Nature he used to illustrate the glory of Science, 
 while denying the existence of God. Changing the subject 
 Smith observed : " How skilfully this pastry has been pre- 
 pared. " "Admirable," rejoined the philosopher, "it 
 could not have been better made in France." "Well, 
 then, " said Smith, " from the skill shown in compounding 
 this dish to our taste, we must infer the non-existence of 
 the cook" 
 
 The logic that denies a Providence in a world so full of 
 the wise and careful adaptation of means to ends, must 
 land at last in this absurdity. The mind intuitively as- 
 serts an intelligent cause wherever it perceives such adapta- 
 tion. And the universality and particularity of Provi- 
 dence in the affairs of life was used by Christ as the argu- 
 ment for making our temporal concerns the subject-mat- 
 ter of prayer. The petition " Give us this day our daily 
 bread," is not to be reserved for some extremity when one 
 is in danger of starving, but is a daily prayer for God's 
 blessing upon our industry, for the means of temporal sup- 
 port ; and while we thus look to God for daily food, we 
 are encouraged not to suffer temporalities to become too 
 engrossing, since our Heavenly Father knows what we 
 have need of, and Himself will care for us. 
 
 Christ taught that prayer has a positive influence with 
 God. With some truly devout persons it is a notion that 
 " God's end in requiring prayer is solely that it may be a 
 means to work in the petitioner a suitable frame of mind;" 
 that its influence is wholly subjective ; that the feelings of 
 veneration, dependence, humility, gratitude, trust, which it 
 
PRAYER NOT MERELY SUBJECTIVE. Vlt 
 
 calls into exercise are the substantial benefits of prayer, 
 its real efficacy ; while its true answer is found in the 
 frame of submission and peace that it induces in the sup- 
 pliant. A familiar illustration of this view likens prayer 
 to a a man in a small boat laying hold of a large ship : 
 who, if he does not move the large vessel, at least moves 
 the small vessel towards the large one." 
 
 That the frames and feelings proper to prayer form no 
 small part of its beneficial influence, and contribute much 
 to the spiritual growth of one who rightly cultivates them, 
 all must agree. But could one cultivate these, would it be 
 possible to cherish such frames and feelings for any length 
 of time, if he regarded prayer simply as a kind of spiritual 
 gymnastics to be practised upon himself for the sake of 
 these effects ? Suppose him to say, ' I cannot see how there 
 can be a Providence, for every thing moves on by fixed 
 laws : I do not imagine that prayer has any influence upon 
 God, that my asking for a thing has any connection what- 
 ever with my receiving it; indeed, I believe that every 
 thing comes to me or befalls me in the regular course of 
 nature ; nevertheless, I will pray for the sake of cultivating 
 the feelings of dependence and gratitude, and of improving 
 my own spiritual state ;' — how long would one holding such 
 a philosophy be likely to keep up his unmeaning and ino- 
 perative petitions for the sake of their reflex influence upon 
 himself? or how long could he cherish a lively interest in 
 that which at heart he did not believe in? Those spiritual 
 frames which are most important to the soul's culture, are 
 best developed through faith in the efficacy of prayer as a 
 direct address to our Father in heaven ; and Christ con- 
 stantly declared the prevailing influence of prayer with 
 God Himself as the incentive to its exercise. " Ash and it 
 shall be given you;" — the asking precedes and influences 
 the giving — "seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you : for every one that asketh, receiveth : 
 
126 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and he that seeketh, findeth : and to him that knoeketh, 
 it shall be opened." 1 
 
 The effect of united, consentaneous prayer to secure some 
 specific object of faith, in the sphere of spiritual influences, 
 is set forth in the declaration, " 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." 2 
 After Jesus had confounded His disciples by His power in 
 withering the barren fig tree, He made this an argument 
 with them for faith in prayer: "Have faith in God — for 
 verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this 
 mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, 
 and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that 
 those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall 
 have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, 
 What things soever ye desire when ye pray., believe that 
 ye receive them, and ye shall have them." 3 Though thip 
 may not be construed as a literal promise of power to work 
 miracles, yet under the figure of removing a mountain, it 
 sets forth this substantial truth — that earnest, believing 
 prayer is directly efficacious with God for removing great 
 difficulties and achieving great works in connection with 
 His cause. 
 
 Luke records the parable of the unjust judge, to show 
 that " men ought ahvays to pray, and not to faint" 4 — that 
 favors are granted to persistent importunity which might 
 be withheld from a weaker petition ; and the same thing is 
 taught by the parable of the man who went to his friend 
 at midnight, and importuned him for bread. 5 Where 
 there is a Will to be influenced, a Heart to be affected by 
 entreaty, one can understand how perseverance in prayer 
 may be an element of success ; but of what use were im- 
 portunity in a world from which the personal superinten- 
 
 l Mat. vii. 7. 2 Mat. xviii. 19. 3 Mark xi. 22, 25. 
 
 * Luke xviii. 1-9. 6 Luke xi. 5-9. 
 
GOD ENGAGES TO ANSWER PRAYER. 127 
 
 dence of God had been ruled out by inexorable laws ? 
 Our reiterated crying would avail no more than that of 
 the priests of Baal, when they cried all day long " O Baal, 
 hear us,*' and cut themselves with knives in the frenzy of 
 their importunity. A thousand cries could not move Laws 
 to sympathy ; Fate cannot be melted by importunity ; but 
 belief in the personal care of God over the world warrants 
 persistency in prayer. 
 
 The assurance that God is influenced by prayer is 
 rendered more personal and practical through the relations 
 of Christ to the Father on the one hand and to the dis- 
 ciples on the other. With a view to comfort His disciples 
 upon the eve of His departure, He said, " Whatsoever ye 
 shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may 
 be glorified in the Son." l " If ye abide in Me, and My 
 words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall 
 be done unto you :" 2 — and again, " Whatsoever ye shall 
 ask the Father in My name He will give it you." 3 Here 
 the efficacy of prayer is grounded in the argument of love. 
 And all the instructions and promises concerning prayer 
 given by Christ rest the motive and encouragement to 
 pray, not in its effect upon our own hearts, but in its posi- 
 tive influence with God to procure the object of our hearts' 
 desire. It is what our heavenly Father engages to do that 
 is held up to our faith in asking. 
 
 If it be asked, How can God be influenced by our 
 prayer ? — it is a sufficient answer, that He says He is so 
 influenced. And if it be asked again, How can God an- 
 swer a particular prayer in a world of general laws ? it is 
 a sufficient reply that He is God. Such questions lead to 
 an enticing field of speculation ; but whatever theory we 
 may invent to explain the manner in which God may an- 
 swer prayer in harmony with the laws of matter and of 
 mind, Ave should remember that this is purely a specula- 
 
 1 John xiv. 13. 'John xv. 7. s John xvi. 23. 
 
128 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 tion, and not to be put forth as a fact, either discovered or 
 revealed. 
 
 Since the Bible does not teach that prayer is commonly 
 answered by miracle, we are not at liberty to introduce the 
 miraculous to support our theory of prayer. But it is a 
 prerogative of Spirit to direct, adapt, and combine the 
 properties and laws of Matter for its own ends. And 
 since this is done even under the limitations of the human 
 spirit, much more must God — a Spirit of unlimited know- 
 ledge, wisdom and power — be able to bring His will to 
 bear upon the laws and conditions of Matter and Mind so 
 as to direct and develop what He desires to bring to pass, 
 without impairing that orderly constitution of things which 
 He has established. 
 
 Professor Tyndall has said, " The ideas of prayer and of 
 a change in the course of natural phenomena refuse to be 
 connected in thought ;" but this is only when thought nar- 
 rows itself and narrows all the powers of the universe to 
 the groove of physical uniformity ; when thought denies 
 the spirituality of its own parentage, and its affinity with a 
 world of spiritual intelligences. The separate properties 
 of nitrogen and oxygen were fixed unchangeably from the 
 moment of their creation ; nor could it have been possible 
 to conceive beforehand how these two alien inorganic sub- 
 stances could be made to support the life of organized 
 beings; but now that so great a marvel has been ac- 
 complished by intelligent adaptation, it is conceivable that 
 He who has combined the deadly nitrogen and the con- 
 suming oxygen so as to produce the life-giving atmosphere, 
 can also combine, direct, or control laws, properties, 
 tendencies of diverse and seemingly contrary natures, so as 
 to bring forth new results of beneficence. He is at home 
 in the laboratory of Nature, and equally at home in the 
 processes of Mind. 
 
 Moreover, it is a groundless assumption that the course 
 
LAWS PROVE AN INTELLIGENCE. 129 
 
 of tilings must be changed in order that prayer may be 
 answered. No science can claim that all phenomena are 
 included within its categories ; above the laws of phenomena 
 that we do see may be other and more subtile laws beyond 
 our ken ; and in the working of those higher spiritual laws, 
 prayer may enter within the plane of physical phenomena 
 like an eccentric chuck, which shifts the centre without 
 impeding the motion or changing its general direction or 
 area. 
 
 Illustrations of spiritual powers and operations derived 
 from mechanical instruments, are necessarily coarse and 
 imperfect ; yet even these may serve to render abstruse sub- 
 jects more intelligible. Connected with the spinning-jenny 
 is an alarm-bell that rings a moment before the receiving 
 spool is filled with the twist, signaling to the operator at 
 the opposite side of the machine to come and set an empty 
 spool in the order of succession; the next moment the 
 machinery itself cuts the thread, drops the full spool into a 
 basket, drops the new spool into its place, and begins to 
 wind as before. By this contrivance the attendance of one 
 hand is dispensed with, but the contrivance which lifts the 
 mechanism one grade nearer to the plane of intelligence, 
 does not thereby merge itself into the mechanism, nor dis- 
 pense with its own superintendence and its power of occa- 
 sional intervention. That signal-bell answers to prayer, 
 invoking the great Architect of Nature to adapt His own 
 laws and combinations to some impending necessity. 
 
 God, in His forethought of events, may have assigned 
 to prayer the place of a condition precedent to particular 
 results, so that this also enters into some law of phenomena 
 higher than our sciences can reach. Or there may even be 
 in believing prayer, some subtile power of causation over 
 events themselves ; the true odic, or odyllic force, may be 
 centered here. But all theorizing upon the subject must 
 
130 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 end at last in this bare statement ; that God has declared 
 that He is, and will be, influenced by the prayer of faith. 
 But though Jesus taught that prayer is influential, as a 
 direct appeal to our Father in heaven, He also announced 
 certain conditions upon which prayer, to be efficacious, must 
 proceed. These are as follows, 
 
 a. The object prayed for must be in harmony with the 
 divine Wisdom as seeing, and the divine Love as choosing 
 always that which is best for the suppliant. Mere impor- 
 tunity ought not to procure for us anything which upon the 
 whole is not for our good. u Thy will be done " is there- 
 fore the governing clause in every petition, and prayer 
 should always be offered in humble submission to the will 
 of God. " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy 
 sight." l "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou 
 wilt." 2 
 
 b. Prayer must be offered in faith ; not as an experi- 
 mental essay with Providence, nor for the manipulation of 
 our own feelings ; but with the earnest conviction that the 
 thing we pray for will be bestowed, if, on the whole, this 
 is best for us, and if, under all the circumstances, this is 
 wisely possible. " All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in 
 prayer, believing, ye shall receive." 3 
 
 c. In order to successful prayer the tone of our desires 
 should be supremely spiritual. In praying for temporal 
 benefits we should have in view chiefly the spiritual benefit 
 to be attained through freedom from earthly anxieties. 
 " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; 
 and all these things shall be added unto you." 4 
 
 d. Christ taught us to pray in His name. That name 
 at once expresses the love of God to man, and denotes the 
 nearness of our humanity to God. " Whatsoever ye 
 shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you." 5 
 
 * Matt. xi. 26. * Matt. xxvi. 39, * Matt. xxi. 22. 
 
 * Matt. vl. 33L * John xvi. 23L 
 
PRAYER RULES THE WORLD. 131 
 
 The influence that Christ has ascribed to prayer exalts 
 man to the dignity of a spiritual Power. Materialism 
 would degrade man to a slave of physical laws ; atheism 
 would make him the creature of accidents and circum- 
 stances ; but Christianity enthrones man as a co-worker 
 with God in the realm of spiritual agencies. Man's feeling 
 of dependence upon God is the avenue to his power with 
 God. This lifts him into the line of those Providential 
 forces that rule the world. Thus it is that "the kingdom 
 and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
 whole heaven, are given to the people of the saints of the 
 Most High." 1 
 
 Am I truly a man of prayer ? of earnest, believing 
 prayer ? Then am I more the ruler of the world than 
 Alexander or Napoleon. Then nothing shall stand before 
 my power. Do the wicked heap up oppression, and frame 
 iniquity by a law ? I go into my closet and cry, " Arise, 
 O Lord, " and presently the earth shakes, the heavens 
 smoke, and Slavery goes down in a sea of fire and blood. 
 It is I who have overthrown it, working up yonder above 
 the clouds, where God meets my prayers. They who sit 
 in Paris, in London, in Berlin, holding royal or diplomat- 
 ic conferences to settle the future of Europe and the East, 
 they who devise wars of dynasty, of ambition and conquest, 
 must take the man of prayer into their counsels ; for if 
 they plot iniquity, he will go up into the King's chamber 
 and overthrow it : he will reach forth his hands and 
 touch the springs that are behind their armies and be- 
 neath their thrones. When the church shall fully use her 
 prerogative of prayer the kingdom of God will come in 
 the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 
 
 By the virtue that is lodged in the prayer of faith, who- 
 soever will may approximate himself to God in character. 
 " This is the will of God, even your sanctification ; " and 
 
 1 Daniel -ii. 27. 
 
132 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 he who would be holy knows assuredly that, in every pe- 
 tition for a pure heart, he prays for that which God would 
 have him above all things to possess. Such a longing 
 opens the heart to the life-forces of the divine Spirit, and 
 moves the soul upward toward God; yea, let one but utter 
 that first lisping cry " God be merciful to me a sinner/' and 
 no mountains can shut in that cry, no clouds weigh it down, 
 no laws restrain it : — that yearning of the soul after God 
 shall bring God to the soul as its Father, its Saviour, its 
 Comforter. " Lord, teach us how to pray. " 
 
CHAPTEK XL 
 
 No teacher ever set forth himself so constantly, so promi- 
 nently, so imperatively as did Jesus Christ. It is offensive 
 to taste, and savors of vanity or presumption, when a 
 teacher continually claims the merit of originality or of 
 discovery, and exacts of his disciples homage to his person, 
 his wisdom, or his opinions. Yet with Christ, "I say 
 unto you/' was the preface to every discourse, sometimes 
 to almost every sentence; " believe Me," " receive Me," the 
 demand made upon the hearer not only as a test of dis~ 
 cipleship, but as the evidence of love for truth and for God, 
 and the necessary condition of eternal life. He summed 
 up His whole teaching in that memorable saying, "I 
 am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life :" 1 — not I 
 show the way, but I Myself am the way ; not I teach the 
 Truth, but I am Myself the truth ; not I give or promise 
 life, or will lead My followers unto life, but I am the life : — 
 and though God requires all men to come unto Him, and 
 is seeking and calling them by all the methods of His 
 providence and His grace, "no man cometh unto the 
 Father, but by Me." 
 
 But the marvel of His character is, that with all this 
 preaching of Himself, this constant repeating of I and Me, 
 there is in the sayings of Jesus no tone of egotism, no air 
 of presumption, no trace of that form of self-assertion which 
 suggests pride or vanity in the speaker, or offends the 
 taste or judgment of the hearer. As a psychological phe- 
 
 1 John xiv. 6. 
 
 132 
 
134 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 nomenon this calls for explanation. Why is it that we not 
 only tolerate from the lips of Jesus, but receive with rever- 
 ence, assertions and demands concerning Himself that in 
 any other would be an offensive arrogance ? 
 
 This is not simply because of the force and moment of 
 the truth He utters ; for though one who announces a new 
 and important truth is entitled to have his name stand in 
 honorable association with that truth, yet we could not 
 endure that he should be always setting himself before the 
 truth and demanding that it should be received in hi;? 
 name. Had Newton insisted upon the perpetual recogni- 
 tion of himself as the discoverer of the law of gravitation, 
 his vanity would have detracted from his fame. Truth is 
 greater than any man. Yet Jesus said " / am the Truth," 
 and men are not staggered by even so bold a form of self- 
 assertion. 
 
 Mr. Liddon, in his Bampton lectures, has grouped to- 
 gether in a striking manner these personal assertions and 
 claims of Jesus in His teachings. " He distinctly, repeated- 
 ly, energetically preaches Himself. He is the Bread of 
 life. He is the living Bread that came down from heaven : 
 believers in Him will feed on Him and will have eternal 
 life. He points to a living water of the Spirit, which He 
 can give, and which will quench the thirst of souls that 
 drink it. All who came before Him He characterizes as 
 having been by comparison with Himself, the thieves and 
 robbers of mankind. He is Himself the one Good Shep- 
 herd of the souls of men. He knows and He is known of 
 His true sheep. Not only is He the Shepherd, He is the 
 very door of the sheepfold. To enter through Him is to 
 be safe. He is the Vine, the Life-tree of regenerate hu- 
 manity. All that is truly fruitful and lovely in the human 
 family must branch forth from Him ; all spiritual life 
 must wither and die if it be severed from His. He stands 
 consciously between earth and heaven. He claims to be 
 
Christ's personal demands. 135 
 
 the One Means of a real approach to the invisible God : 
 no soul of man can come to the Father but through Him, 
 He promises that all prayers offered in His name shall be 
 answered ; if ye ask anything in my name, /will do it. . 
 He claims to be the Lord of the realm of death ; He will 
 Himself awake the sleeping dead 5 all that are in their 
 graves shall hear His voice* He will raise Himself from 
 the dead* He proclaims, 1 1 am the Resurrection and the 
 Life.' He encourages men to trust in Him as they trust 
 in God : to make Him an object of faith just as they be- 
 lieve in God ; to honor Him as they honor the Father. 
 To love Him is a necessary mark of the children of God ; 
 if God were your Father, ye would have loved Me. It is 
 not possible to love God, and yet to hate Himself. He 
 that hatethMe, hateth My Father also. The proof of a true 
 love to Him lies in doing His bidding : if ye love Me 
 keep My commandments. . . All radiates from Himself, 
 all converges toward Himself. .... He commands, He 
 does not invite discipleship. . . . His message is to be re- 
 ceived upon pain of eternal loss, and in receiving it men 
 are to give themselves up to Him simply and unreservedly. 
 No rival claim, however strong, no natural affection, how- 
 ever legitimate and sacred, may interpose between Him- 
 self and the soul of His follower. He that loveth father 
 or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. How can 
 Christ thus bid men live for Himself as for the very end 
 of their existence ? How can He rightly draw toward 
 Himself the whole thought and love even of one single 
 human being, with this imperious urgency, if He be any- 
 thing else or less than the Supreme Lcrd of life. " l 
 
 This manner of Christ, is an index to His doctrine con- 
 cerning Himself. If He had nothing back of a human 
 consciousness upon which to base such assertions, was He 
 
 1 This same thought is admirably presented by Rev. T. Binney, of London, 
 in his " Sermons of Forty Years. " 
 
136 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 not more visionary than wise ? So far from being the way 
 and the truth, was He not either misled or misleading? 
 Underlying His whole teaching there is a claim of per- 
 sonal supremacy, of absolute authority, of perfection in 
 knowledge and truth, of lordship over the soul, of dominion 
 over life and death — a tone of self-assertion in respect to 
 things upon which no man has a right to be confident of 
 his own wisdom and power, which can not be reconciled 
 with modesty, with truth, or with soundness of judgment, 
 if He who thus proclaimed Himself the Way, the Truth 
 and the Life, was simply a wiser and better sort of man 
 than His fellows. Separated from Himself His words lose 
 their meaning. The subject of His preaching was Himself 
 to such a degree that neither doctrine nor life remains in 
 His words apart from His own personality. But the 
 words of Jesus are pervaded with the consciousness of His 
 divine Sonship which gives Him right to speak with abso- 
 lute confidence and authority. 
 
 This doctrine, however, is not a mere inference from the 
 manner in which Christ summoned the people to trust in 
 Himself. He distinctly taught that He was the Son of 
 God. the representative of the Father upon earth, His 
 associate and equal in heaven. He allowed Himself to be 
 addressed by this title without objection or qualification of 
 any kind. At the opening of His ministry, when Jesus 
 was calling disciples one by one, Nathanael, struck with 
 His knowledge of the heart, exclaimed, " Rabbi, Thou art 
 the Son of God," l In the hearing of the rest, Jesus suf- 
 fered this title to pass unchallenged, and not only so, but 
 He assured Nathanael, who had confessed this faith from 
 his own inward conviction, that he should hereafter behold 
 the outward visible confirmation of it, in the heavens 
 opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
 Upon Him who there stood in the garb of the Son of Man. 
 
 1 John i. 49. 
 
CHRIST REVEALED HIMSELF GRADUALLY. 137 
 
 Thus the seeming contrast of the two titles, " Son of 
 God " and " Son of Man," points to the real unity of their 
 subject — the true Humanity and the divine Sonship being 
 offset in terms or titles only, as two diverse aspects of the 
 same person. Jesus did not disclaim the title, " Son of 
 God " which Nathanael gave, and employ the phrase " Son 
 of Man " as a substitute for that ; on the contrary, He ac- 
 cepted this, and virtually approved it, as a declaration of 
 faith from His new disciple : " Because I said unto thee, I 
 saw thee under the fig tree, belie vest thou?" This mirac- 
 ulous vision, with the attendant knowledge of his heart 
 and life on the part of an utter stranger, had impressed 
 Nathanael with the conviction that this new prophet was 
 the Son of God. Nathanael may have had only the vague 
 Jewish notion touching the Messiah as the Son of God ; 
 yet his acknowledgment being based upon the supernatural 
 knowledge that Jesus had shown, pointed to something 
 deeper than an official title ; and the answer was, " Thou 
 shalt see greater things than these " — shalt even have the 
 witness of angels from heaven that I am He. 
 
 It was not, however, the plan of Jesus to proclaim His 
 divinity openly at the first. He sought to put Himself 
 into thorough sympathy with mankind and to draw them 
 into confidential relations through His own hearty human- 
 ity ; and He desired also to test the sincerity of men in 
 spiritual things by opening His divinity to the discovery 
 of their faith. He did not first approach them upon the 
 side of wonder and awe by declaring His Godhead, nor by 
 manifesting it through marvels addressed to the senses; 
 but upon the side of love and compassion, through the 
 lowliness and tenderness of a common humanity, from 
 which by degrees He lifted them up to discern in His 
 own works and words the tokens of His divine Sonship/ 
 
 A mode of revealing Himself so wisely adapted for test- 
 ing His true character and also for educating the faith of 
 
138 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 His followers, led Jesus at the first to speak of Himself as 
 the " Son of Man " instead of openly proclaiming Himself 
 the "Son of God." But if the latter title were not His 
 by the same right as the former, how can we reconcile His 
 accepting this from others, with the modesty of using the 
 inferior title, and with the honesty that marks His whole 
 speech and life ? He permitted Himself to be called the 
 " Son of God " well knowing that this was intended to be 
 an ascription of divinity, and under circumstances that 
 were equivalent to His proclaiming His divinity. It is 
 not claimed that the appellation " Son of God " is itself 
 decisive of the divinity of Christ — for this was a Jewish 
 title of the Messiah, the Anointed ; but it was given to 
 Jesus and accepted by Him as a token of Divinity. The 
 question is purely one of exegesis, to be determined by a 
 careful annotation of the passages in which the title occurs. 
 It is applied to Jesus twenty-five times in the four Gospels, 
 several of these, however, being but repetitions of the same 
 cases or incidents. 
 
 a. Jesus was accosted as " the Son of God " by Satan 
 and by other inferior demons. l Perhaps in these cases the 
 conception of the Messiah as the King of the Jews, 
 anointed of God as His vicegerent in the world, will ex- 
 haust the meaning. In Luke iv. 41, for instance, the 
 name Christ is given as the equivalent of this epithet; 
 " Devils came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou 
 art Christ, the Son of God. And He rebuking them, suf- 
 fered them not to speak: for they knew that He was 
 Christ." But on the other hand, the exclamation of the 
 demons in the country of the Gergesenes, " Art thou come 
 hither to torment us before the time ?" seems to imply a 
 recognition of His divine power and authority. They ap- 
 prehended banishment from earth to hell, from opportuni- 
 ties of mischief to the unmitigated endurance of punish- 
 
 i Matt. iv. 3, 6 ; viii. 29 ; Mark iii. 11 ; v. 7 ; Luke iv. 3, 9, 41 ; viii. 28. 
 
MEANING OF " SON OF GOD." 139 
 
 ment, before the final judgment; and they ascribed to Jesus 
 the power so to order their destiny. 
 
 b. In a few instances this title was used by the enemies 
 of Jesus, by way of taunt or sneer; — as for instance when 
 passers by reviled Him as He hung upon the cross, wag- 
 ging their heads, and saying, " If Thou be the Son of God, 
 come down from the cross." 1 The full force of such a 
 taunt, and the miraculous power of self-preservation which 
 the challenge implied, would seem to attach the notion of 
 divinity to the epithet " Son of God." 
 
 c. The same interpretation must be put upon the excla- 
 mation of the centurion and his brother soldiers, " Truly 
 this was the Son of God." 2 A Koman soldier accustomed 
 to despise the Jews, could have no sympathy with their 
 expectation of a Messiah, and if he had heard from the lips 
 of Jews the title "Son of God," he could hardly have 
 attached to it their peculiar theocratic signification. But a 
 Koman of that time, and a soldier withal, would be suscep- 
 tible to superstitious fears touching the gods as manifesting 
 themselves in supernatural phenomena ; and when he saw 
 the earthquake, the resurrection of the dead, and the other 
 marvels that attended the death of Jesus, filled with awe 
 of these miraculous signs, he cried out, " Truly this was the 
 Son of God." That title had j ust fallen upon his ears in 
 the taunts of passers by ; he takes it up with the emphasis 
 of truth, and gives it not their meaning but his own; and 
 from his point of view it would signify a divine person. 
 
 d. The High Priest used this title in the Messianic sense 
 when he said to Jesus, " I adjure Thee by the living God, 
 that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of 
 God." 3 This was a title of honor based upon the usage 
 of the Old Testament touching the ideal theocratic king 
 as the anointed Son of God. Thus the Lord promised to 
 David concerning Solomon, " I will be his Father and he 
 
 1 Mat. xxvii. 40, 43. 2 Mat. xxvii. 54; Mark xv. 39. 8 Mat. xxvi. 6a 
 
140 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 shall be My son." 1 And in the second Psalm the anointed 
 of the Lord is exalted above all kings and peoples : " I 
 have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion. Thou art 
 My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." 2 This usage of 
 the Old Testament interprets the current language of the 
 Jews in the time of Jesus, concerning the Christ as the 
 Son of God ; — He was the ideal theocratic king. Yet even 
 in the second Psalm, He is not declared a Son simply by 
 virtue of His being constituted a king, but is anointed 
 king because upon other grounds of divine favor He was 
 already the chosen Son : — the Sonship preceded the King- 
 ship. It is evident from the narrative as given with so 
 much detail by John, that the blind man to whom Jesus 
 gave sight had only the current Jewish conception of the 
 Son of God as the Christ. 3 
 
 e. We come now to the use of this title by the disciples 
 of Jesus, as an index to their conception of His character. 
 Though Nathanael may have used the titles " Son of God " 
 and "King of Israel" as equivalent, John the Baptist at- 
 tached to the former a deeper meaning, when he saw and 
 bare record that "this is the Son of God." 4 John ac- 
 knowledged the pre-existence of Jesus as the warrant of 
 His pre-eminence ; "He that cometh after Me, is preferred 
 before Me; for He wets before Me;" 5 and as "the only 
 begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He de- 
 clared God, whom no man at any time hath seen." 6 The 
 title " Son of God, " based upon this recognition of His 
 origin and functions, denotes something higher than an 
 honorary distinction of office — some relation to God Him- 
 self that was peculiar and pre-eminent. The deep signifi- 
 cance of this relation appears in that tender reference to the 
 " only-begotten " which closes the discourse with Nicode- 
 mus ; — " For God so loved the world that He gave His 
 
 1 2 Saml. vii. 14. * Ps . ii# 6> 7. 3 John ix . 35j 36 . 
 * John i. 34. 5 John i. 15. 6 John i. 18. 
 
JESUS CLAIMED DIVINE POWERS. 141 
 
 only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should 
 not perish but have everlasting life." 1 
 
 The disciples on board the ship in the tempestuous night, 
 when they saw Jesus walking on the sea ; 2 Martha in her 
 confidence that Jesus might have saved her brother, and 
 her wondering hope of his resurrection; 3 Peter asserting 
 the constancy of the twelve after the multitude of disciples 
 had turned back; 4 — these all rested their confession of 
 Jesus as "the Son of God" upon some token of divinity 
 that gleamed through His words or acts ; — the winds and 
 the waves obeyed Him, He had power over diseases and 
 death, He had the words of eternal life. Thus the disci- 
 ples, Jews though they were, and imbued with the Jewish 
 doctrine of the Messiah, appear to have attached to the 
 name "Son of God" a meaning higher than any official 
 title would convey. 
 
 /. It only remains that we consider the cases in which 
 Jesus spoke of Himself as the Son of God, and of His one- 
 ness with the Father. There were undoubted instances in 
 which He used this name not as designating His official 
 calling, but as expressing an unparalleled personal relation 
 with God. 5 "Verily, verily, I say unto you the hour is 
 coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall live. For 
 as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to 
 the Son to have life in Himself." 6 Jesus here claimed for 
 Himself the most essential property of divinity — life in 
 self-possession and the power and prerogative of impart- 
 ing life to others. This power He put forth in raising 
 Lazarus from the grave, when He purposely kept aloof 
 until Lazarus was dead, saying, "This sickness is not 
 unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of 
 God might be glorified thereby." 7 Here He associated 
 
 1 John iii. 16. 2 Matt. x iv. 33. 3 John xi. 27. * John vi. 69. 
 •Matt. xxi. 37. 6 John v. 25, 26. » John xi. 4. 
 
142 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Himself with the Father in the glory that would ensue 
 from a miracle evidencing the highest property of divinity 
 to be vested in Himself. 
 
 In the parable of the wicked husbandmen He separated 
 Himself from all the servants of God who had been sent 
 before, as the son and heir, who, because of this immediate 
 relationship to the householder, was deserving of a peculiar 
 reverence. 1 Again, in speaking of His second Advent, He 
 contrasted the Son of God with both men and angels: "Of 
 that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
 which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." 2 
 Whoever the Son was, He was distinct from men, and 
 above the angels ; for He was clearly and absotutely con- 
 trasted with both, not here in respect of knowledge, but in 
 degree as a being. The gradation is, " no man" no " an- 
 gel" not even the Son. Who then was He ? 
 
 The Jews of that time understood Jesus to claim equali- 
 ty with God by His manner of speaking of His Father. 
 After He had healed the impotent man at the pool of 
 Bethesda, the Jews sought to slay Him, because He had 
 done these things on the Sabbath-day. Jesus answered 
 them " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." God 
 Himself, who has proclaimed the Sabbath as a hallowed 
 rest, though He has ceased from His work of creation, con- 
 tinues, nevertheless, His work of beneficence, in caring for 
 the world ; and I do as my Father does. Now if Jesus 
 were only man, this same argument would have exonerated 
 every pious Jew from keeping the Sabbath according to 
 the law of Moses ; but as, on another occasion, He declared 
 that " the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day," 3 
 so here He associated Himself with God in the right and 
 reason of His action, and rested His authority to "work" 
 upon the Sabbath-day on His prerogative as the Son of 
 God. His accusers resented this as a claim of divinity, 
 
 1 Matt. xxi. 37. 2 Mark xiii. 32. 3 Matt. xii. 8. 
 
143 
 
 and "they sought the more to kill Him, because He not 
 only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God -was 
 His Father, making Himself equal with God." l 
 
 Though in common speech they may have used the title 
 Son of God to designate the Messiah in His official charac- 
 ter, yet they understood Jesus to use it as denoting sonship 
 in essence and in dignity — equality with God in being and 
 in power. If in this charge His accusers were perverting 
 His meaning, Jesus had every reason, personal and public, 
 for correcting the misunderstanding. His life was in dan- 
 ger, and He could have pacified His enemies by denying 
 their construction of His words : He desired a hearing for 
 His message, and this He might have hoped for by allay- 
 ing such a blind and passionate prejudice. But instead of 
 rejecting their interpretation of His words and disclaiming 
 the thought of equality with God, He went on to say that 
 as the Son of God His thoughts and actions were identical 
 with those of the Father ; that He possessed the power of 
 the Father, even to raising the dead and judging the 
 world; that even as the Father, He had life in Himself; 
 and He summed up the discourse with the demand " that 
 all men should honor the Son even as they honor the 
 Father." The logic of this whole argument depends upon 
 the fact that Jesus admitted and justified the claim of 
 equality with God which the Jews had attached to His 
 words. 
 
 For a man to put forth such a pretension was blas- 
 phemy ; and the Jews more than once accused Jesus of this 
 crime, and sought to stone Him to death. On one occa- 
 sion, at the feast of the dedication, the Jews said to Him, 
 " If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." To this H« an- 
 swered, " The works I do in my Father's name, they bear 
 witness of Me." 2 In so far as the title " Son of God " 
 was an equivalent for " the Christ," this answer could not 
 
 1 John v. 18. * John x. 24, 25. 
 
 
144 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 have exposed Him to the charge of blasphemy. That the 
 Christ should speak of God as the Father whom He repre- 
 sented in His official character, and should appeal to works 
 done in the Father's name, was legitimate, and in accord- 
 ance with the Jewish notion of the Messiah. But Jesus 
 went farther than this, and having declared His own abso- 
 lute power over His sheep, even to the giving them eternal 
 life, He rose to the sublime assertion, " I and my Father 
 are One." * At this the Jews took up stones to stone Him 
 for blasphemy, " because/' said they, " that Thou being a 
 man, makest Thyself God." The gravamen of the offense 
 was that " being a man " He made Himself God, by assert- 
 ing that He and Plis Father were one; but there would 
 have been no blasphemy in claiming a moral unity with 
 the Father through His representative character and com- 
 mission as the Christ. 
 
 Jesus might have refuted the charge of blasphemy in 
 either of two ways : — by showing that His words did not 
 admit of the construction that His accusers had put upon 
 them ; or by declaring that He was truly divine, and there- 
 fore not guilty of blasphemy in making Himself God. He 
 did not seek to parry their construction, but proceeded to 
 justify His words by an argument from the less to the 
 greater. Reminding them that in their Scriptures judges 
 were called " gods " as the organs of the divine word and 
 will, He claimed that He could literally appropriate the 
 title " Son of God " in its full meaning, because the Father 
 had sanctified Him and sent Him into the world. Then 
 once more appealing to His works, He reiterated the asser- 
 tion of oneness with God — " the Father in Me, and I in 
 Him." So far were the Jews from being convinced or 
 pacified by His answer, that they sought again to take Him, 
 that they might visit upon Him the punishment of blas- 
 phemy. 
 
 The charge of blasphemy became a conclusive proof that 
 
 1 John x. 22 seq. 
 
CHRIST ONE IN ESSENCE WITH GOD. 145 
 
 He meant to assert His own divinity, when, at His trial, 
 He not only suffered this charge to be revived without 
 contradicting or explaining it, but re-affirmed His Sonship 
 under that construction of His meaning. When Pilate 
 declared that he found Jesus guilty of no offense against 
 Roman law, the Jews cried out, " We have a law, and by 
 our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the 
 Son of God." L The law referred to was that against blas- 
 phemy. 2 A claim to be the Christ would not have been 
 blasphemy, but only imposture or enthusiasm ; to have 
 rendered it blasphemous to assume the title " Son of God," 
 that title must have signified divinity itself. But Jesus 
 declined to vindicate Himself from this charge. Now 
 there was no humility in remaining quiet under so horrible 
 an accusation, when by a word He could have denied the 
 intention of blasphemy in His use of the phrase Son of 
 God ; yet, when He stood before the Sanhedrim, the High 
 Priest adjured Him by the living God to answer whether 
 He was the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus not only an- 
 swered affirmatively, " Thou hast said," but went on to 
 proclaim His " coming in the clouds of heaven, sitting on 
 the right hand of power." 3 Thereupon the High Priest 
 rent his clothes, saying, " He hath spoken blasphemy," and 
 for blasphemy they found Him " guilty of death." 
 
 Clearly the title Son of God was understood to denote 
 participation in the divine nature, and equality of essence 
 with God ; and Jesus, knowing that this title was so under- 
 stood, consented to receive it, and used it of Himself; and 
 when charged with blasphemy for making Himself equal 
 with God, He did not deny that He claimed equality with 
 God, but did deny that this was blasphemy or presumption, 
 and insisted that He and His Father were one. Either 
 then He had within Him the consciousness of divinity, or 
 He was a demented enthusiast. 
 
 1 John xix. 7. 2 Lev. xxiv. 16. » Matt. xxvi. 63-ftft. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 This oneness with the Father which Jesus constantly 
 affirmed as the testimony of His own consciousness, was 
 not merely a moral unity — oneness in spirit and feeling, 
 or unity of action, for the same object, upon the same 
 plan — but a oneness that made it impossible for Him to 
 act as in any way separate from God. " The Son can do 
 nothing of Himself." * This, says Bangel, 2 " is a feature 
 of glory, not of imperfection ; such declarations proceeded 
 from His intimate sense of unity, by nature and by love, 
 with the Father." The Son can do nothing of Himself, 
 not because He is wanting in power, or inferior and de- 
 pendent in His nature, but because His Being is insepar- 
 able from that of the Father. The " can do nothing" is a 
 moral inability based in the will of the Son. 3 Whatever 
 the Father does, that the Son does, with the same power 
 and the same intent. His sheep shall never perish, for 
 none shall pluck them out of His hand, — no more than 
 they would be able to pluck them out of His Father's hand. 
 Having thus asserted His own omnipotence, in the same 
 terms in which He declared the omnipotence of the Father, 
 He added " I and my Father are one :" — one, not merely 
 in agreement of will, but in unity of power, and so of 
 nature ; for omnipotence is an attribute of the nature of 
 God. 4 It was for this that the Jews said " Thou mahest 
 thyself God!" The Father is in the Son; the Father 
 worketh in the Son ; and this with a unity so perfect and 
 continuous that the Son who puts forth divine power in the 
 view of men, is not a being extraneous to God, but in essen- 
 tial nature, the source of working power, is One with God. 
 His sonship was a relation to the Father that could be 
 shared by no other. " 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." 5 
 
 1 John v. 19. 3 "Hoc glorise est, non imperfectionis." Bengel, Gnomon in loo, 
 3 Tholuek, in foe. * Bengel, Gnomon, John x. 30. * Mat. xi. 27. 
 
JESUS A DIVINE INCARNATION. 147 
 
 " If a man love Me, My Father will love him, and we 
 will come unto him, and make our abode with him." l 
 
 In answer to Philip's desire to behold a theophany after 
 the manner of the Old Testament, Jesus said, " He that 
 hath seen Me hath seen the Father," 2 — " by reason of the 
 consummate unity which subsists between us, just as the 
 soul, in itself invisible, is seen by what it does through the 
 body." 3 
 
 The prayer of Jesus, "O Father, glorify Thou Me with 
 Thine own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee be- 
 fore the world was" — expresses the consciousness that Jesus 
 had of Himself as an incarnation, and of His eternal pre- 
 existence with the Father. He does not say, the glory 
 that I received from Thee, by promise, at My coming into 
 the world, but the glory which I had, ec%ov, with Thine 
 own Self, in a unity of participation with the Godhead, 
 before that the world was. "He always was having it, 
 was in possession of it; He never began to have it." 4 In 
 this utterance, surely, He made Himself God. 
 
 The testimony of Jesus concerning Himself, though it 
 nowhere gives us the doctrine of His divinity in the form 
 of a philosophical concept, nevertheless makes it clear that 
 the doctrine of a divine consciousness in Christ was not the 
 invention of a later philosophy in the Church, but is given 
 in the synoptical Gospels, as well as in the more dialectical 
 Gospel of John, as it fell from the lips of Christ ; so that 
 we must agree with Dorner, that " all genuine historical 
 investigation presses to the result that the founder of our 
 religion was Himself, through His own Self-consciousness, 
 and the utterance of that to others, the cause at once of. the 
 introduction into the minds of men of the Christian idea 
 of the God-man, and of the attribution of that to Him." 5 
 
 1 John xiv. 23. 2 John xiv. 9. 3 Bengel, Gnomon, John xiv. 9. 
 4 Bengel, John xvii. 5. 6 Dorner, Doctrine of the Person of Christ. Intn. p. 45. 
 
J 48 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 The apostles did not invent this doctrine to magnify their 
 Lord after His decease ; they were slow at first in coming 
 to the recognition of His divinity under the veil of His 
 humiliation ; though they confessed Him to be the Son of 
 God, this faith was shaken for a time by His yielding 
 Himself to death ; yet it came back, after His resurrection, 
 and then Jesus sealed it by accepting the homage of 
 Thomas, who atoned for his momentary unbelief by the 
 full glowing confession " My Lord and My God." x By 
 consenting to receive that declaration, Jesus warranted 
 our implicit belief in the divinity of His person. 
 
 The question here is not at all whether Thomas, by the 
 elasticity of an enthusiastic nature, had vibrated from the 
 extreme of skepticism to that of credulity. If Thomas 
 was deluded into such a confession, what shall we say of 
 Jesus, who not only did not disclaim it, but openly re- 
 ceived it as His due, and pronounced those blessed who 
 should come to Him with the same faith in His Sovereign- 
 ty and His Divinity? Was He deluded? Or did He 
 sanction a delusion ? Or was He not both Lord and God ? 
 
 This divinity of His person gives to the words of Christ 
 supreme authority over the souls of men. He is Lord of 
 the conscience, Lord of the affections, Lord of the will; 
 His doctrine is Truth, His command is Law, His promise 
 is Life. The soul that would live must obey Christ, must 
 trust Him, must serve Him. The soul that would come 
 to God as the Father must come by Christ. 
 
 The divinity of His person imparts to His sufferings 
 and death a majesty and a tenderness that should draw 
 men to Him in the most reverent and grateful devotion. 
 That Jesus should die a witness for His principles and 
 teachings, and in testimony of His love to man, was heroic, 
 was pathetic, was inspiring. But when we bring into our 
 
 i John xx. 28. 
 
JESUS A DIVINE INCARNATION. 149 
 
 conception of Jesus this* divine Sonship, and consider of 
 what ineffable dignity and majesty was He who thus suf- 
 fered, there comes over the soul an awe and reverence 
 which not all the martyrdoms of history could inspire ; 
 and when we reflect that this Son of God gave Himself to 
 this shame and suffering for us, is there any tie or claim 
 of earth that can so move our souls to gratitude and devo- 
 tion ? Consecration — the giving up all, body, soul and 
 spirit to such a Saviour, — is the least to be thought of by 
 one who believes upon the only-begotten Son of God. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE COMFORTER — THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 The Mission of Christ was begun, consecrated and ended 
 by the intervention of the Holy Ghost. He was begotten 
 of the Holy Ghost; 1 at His baptism the heaven was 
 opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape 
 like a dove upon Him ; 2 after His resurrection, Jesus met 
 with His disciples, and having identified Himself to them 
 as their crucified Lord, " He breathed on them, and said 
 unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" 3 and on the eve 
 of His ascension He bade His disciples await the baptism 
 of the Holy Ghost, 4 whose coming into the Church He 
 had already promised as a permanent substitute for His 
 own withdrawal from the world. 5 Since Jesus gave such 
 prominence and significance to the Comforter in the ad- 
 ministration of His kingdom upon earth, it is important 
 to fix with definiteness His doctrine of the Holy Ghost, 
 and the place of that doctrine in His scheme of theological 
 thought. An induction of particulars upon this question 
 gives the following results. 
 
 First. Christ taught that the Holy Ghost was the Re- 
 vealer of Truth from God to the souls of men. In quoting 
 against the Scribes the prediction of David concerning 
 Himself as the Son of God, He invested this with the 
 authority of divine inspiration ; " For David himself said 
 by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to My Lord, Sit thou on 
 My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." 6 
 
 1 Mat. i. 20; Luke i. 35. 2 Luke iii. 21, 22; Mat, iii. 13; John i. 32. 
 
 * John xx. 22. 4 Acts i. 5, 8. 5 John xiv. 16, 26; xvi. 7. 6 Mark xii. 36. 
 
 150 
 
RELATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THE TRUTH. 151 
 
 This prevision of the Messiah's exaltation was above the 
 range of David's imagination as a poet, and was imparted 
 by the Holy Ghost. Jesus constantly appealed to the 
 Old Testament as " the word of God/' — thus recognizing 
 in it the voice of divine inspiration. * 
 
 He instructed His disciples to look directly to the Holy 
 Ghost for the suggestion of Truth adapted to their neces- 
 sities. " When they shall lead you and deliver you up, take 
 no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye 
 premeditate, but whatsoever shall be given you in that 
 hour, that speak ye ; for it is not ye that speak but the 
 Holy Ghost" 2 This was an assurance of immediate in- 
 spiration, to the extent certainly of guidance in vindicating 
 their faith under circumstances of difficulty, responsibility, 
 and danger. This special guidance of the Holy Spirit in 
 the perception and adaptation of Truth was the compensa- 
 tion that Jesus promised to His disciples for the loss of 
 His personal teaching. " When He, the Spirit of Truth 
 is come, He will guide you into all Truth ; for He shall 
 not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear [i. e. 
 from the Father] that shall He speak ; and He will show 
 you things to come." 3 The " Spirit of Truth " embodies 
 in Himself the very principle of Truth and the knowledge 
 of all Truth ; and His power is directed to bring the human 
 mind into harmony with that higher sphere of spiritual 
 thought and life where Truth is the bond of unity. As 
 the absolute possessor of Truth, He also imparts Truth in 
 its highest, purest forms ; and by both these methods, the 
 ennobling and the illuminating, He would guide the apos- 
 tles into all truth. 
 
 Christ had manifested the truth from His own conscious- 
 ness, and as a teacher had opened the way into the highest 
 domain of knowledge ; but the spiritual meaning of mu h 
 that He uttered was at first only imperfectly apprehended 
 
 1 Luke iv. 4; John x. 35. * Mark xiii. 11. * John xvi. 13. 
 
152 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 by His disciples. More than once did He reprove their 
 slowness of heart to believe. And indeed, the disciples 
 trained in the sensuous conceptions of the Jews touching 
 the Messianic kingdom, could not fully comprehend the 
 sacrificial bearing of the death of Christ, until after His 
 resurrection and ascension. Hence it would be the office 
 of the Holy Spirit to bring this and kindred truths, as 
 Jesus had Himself declared them, into vivid remembrance, 
 to give them definite form, to illuminate their meaning, to 
 guide the apostles to a right understanding of them, and 
 also to open new reaches and applications of the Truth — 
 showing "things to come." "The Comforter, which is the 
 Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He 
 shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your re- 
 membrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. "* " When 
 the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from 
 the Father, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall 
 testify of me." 2 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall 
 receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 3 
 
 These several declarations set forth the Holy Spirit un- 
 der every possible relation to the Truth; as revealing 
 truth under new phases; as announcing prophetically 
 facts to be accomplished in the kingdom of God ; as inter- 
 preting truths already proclaimed by Christ; as guiding 
 sincere minds into the clear and full knowledge of truth. 
 But the highest function assigned to the Spirit of Truth is 
 that of employing the truth as a power of sanctification 
 upon the hearts of men — not a power for the intellect 
 merely, but for the feelings and the will also. The prayer 
 of Jesus for His disciples, " Sanctify them through Thy 
 Truth; Thy word is truth," 4 would have its fulfilment 
 when the Holy Spirit should guide them into all truth. 
 Christ announced that the Holy Spirit would exert upon 
 the minds even of sinful men a direct power of conviction 
 
 1 John xiv. 26. 2 John xv. 26. 'John xvi. 14. *John xvii. 17. 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 153 
 
 and rebuke through the doctrine of Christ : " When He is 
 come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness^ 
 and of judgment : " l by making manifest the innocence 
 and holiness of Christ, the sinful unbelief that had re- 
 jected Him, and His assured triumph over all the powers 
 of evil, and thereby working in the minds of such as had 
 rejected Him, a humiliating and self-reproving conviction 
 of their guilt, the Holy Spirit would vindicate the Truth 
 embodied in the life and death of Jesus, and would secure 
 to His Gospel a triumphant efficacy. 
 
 That which the Holy Ghost thus effectively presents to 
 the minds of men is the truths of Religion, especially as 
 these are embodied in the Holy Scriptures. Christ did 
 not promise that He should enlighten us in the science of 
 nature, of history, of government, or make new discover- 
 ies of the mysteries of creation ; — but that He should con- 
 vince men of sin and lead them to faith in Christ Himself 
 — a work having immediate reference to the extension of 
 the Kingdom of God. 
 
 A second point in Christ's doctrine of the Holy Spirit 
 was that He was the source of the supernatural gifts and 
 'powers imparted to the first disciples for the furtherance of 
 the Gospel 
 
 When Jesus commissioned the apostles to go into all the 
 world and preach the Gospel to every creature, He prom- 
 ised that these signs should follow them that believe: "In 
 My name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak 
 with new tongues, they shall take up serpents; and if 
 they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; 
 they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall re- 
 cover." 2 The fulfilment of this promise is recorded by 
 Luke in the following words, uttered by our Lord just be- 
 fore His ascension : " Ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost not many days hence ; and ye shall receive power 
 after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" 3 — or ye shall 
 
 1 JohnxvL8. 2 Markxvi. 17. 3 Acts i. 5, seq. 
 
154 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you : — 
 the spiritual endowment of the apostles for their work, and 
 supernatural powers to certify their calling and to con- 
 vince the world of the divine warrant of the Gospel. 
 
 Even His own miracles — though these proceeded from 
 the power that dwelt always in Himself — Jesus referred to 
 the Spirit of God. The Pharisees accused Him of being in 
 league with Beelzebub, the prince of the devils ; but Jesus 
 answered them : " If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, 
 then the Kingdom of God has come unto you. " l Had 
 His reply ended with these words, we might have taken 
 the expression " Spirit of God" for an influence upon Him- 
 self, emanating from the Father ; but He added, " All 
 manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, 
 but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be 
 forgiven unto them. " 2 From this it is evident that Jesus 
 intended by the " Spirit of God," that same " Spirit of 
 Truth" of whom He afterwards spake as " the Comforter," 
 for blasphemy could not be uttered against an unconscious 
 influence, but only against a divine Person. 
 
 It was, further, the doctrine of Christ that the Holy 
 Spirit would abide in the hearts of believers, and with 
 the Church, collectively, for guidance, comfort, encourage- 
 ment, support. To prepare His disciples for His departure 
 He gave them two topics of consolation : — first His own 
 temporary return : — " A little while, and ye shall see me 
 ... I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." 3 
 But His resurrection, while it would revive their hopes of 
 His kingdom, 4 and give them the most absolute confidence 
 in His promises, would nevertheless be followed by a sec- 
 ond and lasting bereavement of His presence, through His 
 ascension to the Father. For this bereavement there 
 was provided a second and permanent consolation, in the 
 
 l Matt. xii. 28. 2 Matt. xii. 31. 3 John xvi. 16, 22. 4 Acts i. 6. 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT A DIVINE PERSON. 155 
 
 coining of the Comforter : "I will pray the Father, and* 
 He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide 
 with you forever " — a Helper ever within call ; an Advo- 
 cate always at command. This Comforter would even be 
 nearer to them and more constantly with them than Christ 
 had been in His bodily presence. " He dwelleth with you 
 and shall be in you." He would come in a manner in- 
 visible to the world, and that the worldly mind could not 
 comprehend: come through the quickening of the con- 
 sciousness to a realization of higher spiritual truths ; come 
 as a gracious, soothing, healing influence upon the mind 
 itself in the deepest concernments of the soul ; come in the 
 experiences of the inner life in the love of Christ, in the 
 sense of the forgiveness of sin and of fellowship with God, 
 in the feelings of hope, comfort, peace, joy, in all that per- 
 tains to our relations with our Heavenly Father and to 
 our final salvation. As Christ became incarnate in Hu- 
 manity for its redemption, so is the Holy Spirit perpetually 
 incarnate in the Church for its sanctification. 
 
 All the teaching of Christ concerning the Holy Ghost 
 assumes or implies both the divinity of the Spirit and His 
 distinct personality. He spake of the Spirit not as a thing, 
 an attribute, an influence, a property, but as a person ; He 
 ascribed to the Spirit such acts and offices as can be af- 
 firmed only of a person ; had He said " I will send My 
 spirit or My Father will send His spirit," this might have 
 meant nothing more than that He would cause them to 
 feel an influence from Himself, or that an influence pro- 
 ceeding from God would bring their feelings and actions 
 into accord with the spirit of Christ. Had He promised 
 to His disciples specifically a spirit of wisdom or a spirit of 
 power, this might have signified nothing more than .a guid- 
 ance or an efficiency imparted by divine influence. But 
 He spake of the Spirit, — thus defining one distinct Spirit ; 
 the Holy Spirit, designating the Spirit by a personal and 
 
156 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 moral characteristic ; and He used the personal pronoun — 
 " the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name ; 
 whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, 
 neither knoweth Him." l This constant use of " He " and 
 " Him " denotes personality ; it would be a solecism thus 
 to speak of an unconscious influence. 
 
 Jesus said, also, of the Holy Spirit, He shall abide with 
 you ; He shall teach you ; He shall guide you ; He shall 
 hear and shall speak; He shall glorify Me ; He shall tes- 
 tify of Me ; — all which are personal acts, which no stretch 
 of metaphor could predicate of an unconscious influence. 
 
 Moreover, a personality is attributed to the Holy Spirit 
 as distinct from the Father and the Son : " I will pray the 
 Father ;" now prayer is the act of one personal conscious- 
 ness addressing itself to .another : " I " and " the Father ;" 
 and He, i. e., the Father, " shall give you another Com- 
 forter " — a Helper in the stead of Jesus ;— that He, this 
 Comforter thus distinguished from both the Father and 
 the Son, may " abide with you forever." Leaving all meta- 
 physical refinements about personality, in the doctrine of 
 Jesus, the Holy Spirit is so far distinct from the Father 
 and the Son that the pronouns in the first, second, and 
 third persons may be applied to them separately, and to 
 describe their relations and actions one toward another. 
 
 At the same time, His doctrine ascribes to the Holy 
 Spirit a true and proper -divinity ; — the acts and attributes 
 of divinity, absolute knowledge, foresight of things to come, 
 power over the memory, the thoughts, and the wills of 
 men, and power to impart miraculous gifts. In the form- 
 ula of baptism, the sacrament by which disciples are ini- 
 tiated into the kingdom of Christ, the name of the Holy 
 Spirit is linked upon equal terms with the names of Christ 
 and of the Father : — " baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 2 Here 
 
 1 John xiv. 17. 2 Matt. xxviii. 19. 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT A DIVINE PERSON. 157 
 
 the "Name" denotes personality ; and in the solemn con- 
 secration of a soul to its Creator and Lord, it is not credi- 
 ble that anything lower than Divinity would be associated 
 with the Name that is above every name, as worthy of like 
 homage and devotion. But it was in condemning the 
 blasphemy of the Pharisees that Jesus set forth in the 
 strongest terms the divine personality of the Holy Ghost. 
 While His own divinity was veiled under the humiliation 
 of the flesh, men might impugn His acts and oe pardoned; 
 but so clear and strong is the proof of divine power in acts 
 performed by the Spirit of God, that to contemn Him is 
 an unpardonable sin. " Whosoever speaketh a word 
 against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but 
 whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not 
 be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the 
 world to come." 
 
 This doctrine of Jesus is a warrant for faith in the Gospels 
 as a divinely inspired record of Himself. Since the Holy 
 Spirit quickened and guided the apostles in the recollection, 
 the conception, and the statement of truth as uttered by 
 Christ Himself, the record of the words of Jesus in the 
 Gospels is authenticated by divine authority ; and should 
 therefore be received with loving reverence and obedience. 
 Like a great poem or symphony it carries within itself the 
 tokens of the Master. And He who is perpetually in the 
 Truth, quickening the letter into life, is also in the world 
 convincing men of this same truth ; convincing them of 
 their sin and their need of a Saviour ; convincing them of 
 the righteousness of Christ, and His power as the Holy Son 
 of God to save them from their sin ; convincing them of 
 judgment, the condemnation under which every sinner 
 lies, the condemnation that is upon the world, and the 
 judgment to come : and so the Spirit who is in the truth, 
 is also by the truth speaking to the hearts of men with 
 conviction. 
 
158 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 How full of responsibility is the hearing of the Gospel, 
 seeing that in it God speaks to every man, as He spake to 
 Israel face to face ! How full of peril is it to disobey the 
 Gospel, seeing that he who resists this truth resists the 
 Holy Ghost. But how full of encouragement also, to all 
 who proclaim the Gospel is the assurance that the Spirit of 
 God who inspired it at the first, still lives in it and speaks 
 through it. To human view the conversion of a soul that 
 is committed to selfishness by force of will, by pride and 
 habit, or that is steeped in iniquity and hemmed round 
 with evil associations, may appear not only difficult but 
 hopeless. But when Jesus commanded His disciples to go 
 into all the world and preach the Gospel to eveiy creature, 
 He appointed the divine word as the instrument and prom- 
 ised the divine Spirit as the power, and with these all 
 things are possible to him that belie veth. 
 
 The personal bearings of Christ's doctrine of the Holy 
 Spirit are of inestimable value. His predominant thought 
 in the promise of the Spirit to His disciples was their com- 
 fort under bereavement and their endowment for the labors 
 and conflicts of His service. So far from promising them 
 exemption from trials, He forewarned them of tribulations 
 that would arise out of the very fact of their discipleship ; l 
 but in the sore bereavement of His absence, the Comforter, 
 the Helper would be ever within call. Every word of this 
 precious promise stands good for every disciple and for all 
 time ; to every bereaved and sorrowing but trusting heart 
 the Comforter comes; to every burdened, struggling, but 
 praying and believing soul, the Helper is nigh. Men 
 often proffer sympathy without help or help without sym- 
 pathy ; but in the coming of the Holy Ghost are pledged 
 both comfort and help, available and satisfying. 
 
 And in that coming, moreover, is our grandest incite- 
 ment and hope for the endeavor of holy living. To attain 
 
 J John xvi. 33. 
 
THE HOLY GHOST A HELPER. 159 
 
 moral perfection is, at times at least, the aspiration of every 
 true soul. No one of the beatitudes so thrills the heart 
 with longings for its own disenthralment from evil, as this ; 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see God." l 
 That beatific vision has been the dream of poetry and 
 philosophy, that likeness to God the longing of devotion. 
 But what poetry and philosophy have depicted in the in- 
 finite distance, and devotion has sighed for with wingless 
 and baffled desires, finding still 
 
 " Somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become," 
 
 is brought within reach, made possible, made actual, when 
 the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in our hearts, to 
 teach us all things, to guide us into all truth and show us 
 things to come. Renovated through the virtue of this Holy 
 Presence, and illuminated with this inward guidance, the 
 soul may see God. 2 
 
 1 Mat. v. 8. 
 1 For a fuller discussion of the New Testament doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 
 see the author's volume on " The Holy Comforter." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PARADISE. 
 
 The Theology of Christ has always a background of 
 Eschatology ; and His doctrine of the Last Things is one 
 of the most distinctive features of His system. All His 
 teachings point to His second coming, and to the marvel- 
 lous events which shall attend that both to the living and 
 the dead. The Kingdom of Heaven shall then be per- 
 fected ; the Son of Man shall appear in power and glory, 
 and the issues of the present life shall be made up in the 
 unchanging conditions of the Hereafter. 
 
 But until that great consummation what and where shall 
 be the state of the dead ? Do they sleep in unconscious- 
 ness? Do they enter at once upon their final state of 
 award ? Or do they linger in some intermediate state of 
 uncertainty, of imperfection, possibly of purgatory ? 
 
 The reticence of Jesus upon such points as these is in 
 marked contrast with His pronounced utterances concern- 
 ing the finalities of the future state, and with the eagerness 
 of the human mind, and especially of human affection, to 
 withdraw the veil from what directly follows death. The 
 poet l has well expressed both the longing and the mys- 
 tery, " when Lazarus left his enamel-cave." 
 
 " Where wert thou, brother, those four days ?" 
 
 There lives no record of reply, 
 
 Which, telling what it is to die, 
 Had surely added praise to praise. 
 
 Behold a man raised up by Christ ! 
 
 The rest remaineth unrevealed. 
 
 He told it not ; or something sealed 
 The lips of that Evangelist. 
 
 1 Tennyson, In Memoriam, xxxi. 
 
 160 
 
PARADISE. 161 
 
 Upon all that concerns the state of the departed Christ 
 addressed Himself not to curiosity but to faith ; not to the 
 speculative fancy but to the moral feelings, and this by 
 setting up character rather than condition as the object of 
 attainment. Unless the parable of Dives and Lazarus be 
 understood of a scene in Hades, there is hardly anything 
 in the teachings of Christ concerning the state of the soul 
 between death and the judgment. Yet by one brief word 
 uttered just as He was expiring on the cross, Jesus lifted 
 the veil from untold possibilities of life and felicity to the 
 soul after death. One of the malefactors at His side said 
 unto Him, " Lord, remember me when Thou comest into 
 Thy kingdom." " And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say 
 unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. " ! 
 
 What mysterious questionings start up at the reading of 
 these words. They were the promise of the dying Saviour 
 to the penitent transgressor. They were the answer to the 
 prayer of a public criminal, who confessed the justice of 
 his condemnation for his deeds ; but who, amid the agony 
 of a lingering death, turned to Jesus with the homage of 
 his soul, and the prayer of adoration and trust. Most sug- 
 gestive are they of the compassion and grace of the Re- 
 deemer, and of the certainty of salvation to every true 
 penitent. 
 
 But our inquiry is now directed to the terms and con- 
 tents of the promise. Where did Jesus promise to convey 
 the spirit of the dying thief? To Paradise. When f To- 
 day. In what society would he there be ? With Christ 
 Himself. To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. 
 
 What, then, and where is Paradise ? Is this only an- 
 other term for heaven ? Does it signify the final blessed- 
 ness of the righteous? or does it apply to some state interme- 
 diate between death and the judgment, in which the soul 
 
 1 Luke xxiii. 42, 43. 
 11 
 
162 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 awaits the resurrection of the body, before entering into its 
 final abode? 
 
 The state of departed saints directly after death has 
 been the subject of wide speculation in the Church from 
 the earliest times; and the most opposite theories have 
 been broached according to the prevalence of a more 
 sensuous or a more spiritual philosophy, of a more literal 
 or a more fanciful interpretation of the Scriptures. Justin 
 Martyr, who lived in the first half of the second century, 
 denounced as a heresy the doctrine that souls are immedi- 
 ately received into heaven at death, and maintained that 
 the souls of the righteous depart to a temporary but hap- 
 py place — an intermediate state. On the other hand, 
 (Jyprian, bishop of Carthage about the middle of the third 
 century, held that those dying in the Lord were taken im- 
 mediately to His presence. Again : Tertullian, at the be- 
 ginning of the third century, believed that Martyrs went 
 immediately to heaven, but that for believers in general^ 
 there was a delay in some intermediate state, before arriv- 
 ing at the heavenly glory ; whereas Origen, who flou- 
 rished at Alexandria at about the same period, taught that 
 immediately after death believers go first to Paradise, 
 which he imagined to be a happy island ; as they grow in 
 knowledge and piety, they proceed on their journey from 
 Paradise to higher regions, and having passed through 
 various mansions which the Scriptures call heavens, they 
 arrive at last at the kingdom of heaven, properly so called. 
 The perfection of blessedness ensues only after the general 
 judgment. l 
 
 In later times the doctrine of purgatory was added to 
 that of the intermediate state by the Latin Church, though 
 never accepted by the Greek Church. At the Reforma- 
 tion, many Protestant theologians in rejecting a purgatory, 
 rejected also the notion of an intermediate state, while 
 
 1 See citations in Hagenbaoh, History of Doctrines, $ 77, 78. 
 
VIEWS OF THE EARLY FATHERS. 163 
 
 others retained the doctrine that the souls of the righteous 
 linger in some vestibule of the heavenly kingdom until 
 the last judgment. The former view is well-expressed in 
 the burial service of the Church of England for the dead : 
 " Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those 
 that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls 
 of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of 
 the flesh, are in joy and felicity." 
 
 The belief in an intermediate state for the righteous, in 
 which they await the consummation of all things before be- 
 ing presented at the throne of the Father, obtains especially 
 in the Lutheran communion, but has able advocates as well 
 in other communions ; so that from the earliest times till 
 now, this has been a subject upon which great latitude of* 
 opinion and great diversity of theory have been admitted 
 within the range of Orthodoxy. 
 
 The notions of some of the early Fathers were in- 
 fluenced by the pagan philosophy in which they had been 
 trained before their conversion, and which instead of being 
 wholly discarded was applied, sometimes unconsciously, to 
 the interpretation of Christian doctrines. Thus the specu- 
 lations of Persia and Greece concerning the transportation 
 of the soul through a series of abodes up toward the dwell- 
 ing-place of the gods, found their way under modified 
 forms into Christian theology. The Jewish Rabbis had 
 long been addicted to fanciful allegories concerning the 
 kingdom of the Messiah ; in His reign the garden of Eden 
 was to be restored, and the righteous would dwell in Para- 
 dise, with royal apparel, in palaces of gold, amid groves and 
 fountains and flowers of wondrous fragrance .and healing 
 virtue. Such Scriptures as the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah 
 were taken as a literal picture of the abundance of sensu- 
 ous delights in this Messianic Paradise ; and the apocry- 
 phal book of Esdras promises to the children of God a 
 dwelling in a beautiful garden, where are streams of milk 
 
164 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 and honey, and mountains covered with lilies and roses. 
 Such views tinctured the popular belief of the Jews con- 
 cerning the future abode of the righteous, and we trace 
 their influence also in some of the early Christian writings. 
 
 But the great storehouse or rather university of ideas 
 concerning the future state was Egypt — from which the 
 Greeks and Romans derived their most impressive notions 
 of the experiences of the soul after death. The book of 
 prayers and forms which the Egyptians deposited in the 
 tomb as a sort of guide and passport for the departed spirit 
 through the world of the dead, teaches that the soul con- 
 tinues conscious after death ; that it enters into Hades, a 
 gloomy region under the earth ; that if already pure it 
 passes safely through this dismal abode ; but if impure or 
 defective is subjected to discipline ; that on emerging from 
 Hades it is judged, and having passed this ordeal it 
 advances through seven distinct halls up to as many pal- 
 aces, till it arrives at last at the chief dwelling of the gods. 
 Prominent in this conception of the Future State was the 
 notion of a detention after death in a sort of border-land, 
 before reaching the highest blessedness, and of a gradation 
 through which the soul must pass in its ascent to the Ely- 
 sian fields — which answered to Paradise. 1 
 
 We trace this general conception down through the lit- 
 erature of later nations, and find it culminating at last in 
 the magnificent poem of Dante. In his Paradise are 
 ten heavens, nine of which revolve about the earth as a 
 common center, each filling the sphere of a planet, and the 
 tenth or highest is motionless, and encircles and contains 
 all the rest. Each of these heavens contains spirits in dif- 
 ferent degrees of advancement toward perfection ; in the 
 
 1 For a complete view of the Egyptian doctrine of a future state, see the 
 " Book of the Dead, " translated by Dr. Birch, in Egypt's Place in Universal 
 History, vol. v. ; also an analysis of the same by the author of this volume, in 
 the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1868, pp. 69-112. 
 
MEANING OF PARADISE. 165 
 
 ninth are the Orders of Angels, and in the tenth is the 
 visible presence of God. 
 
 Thus in all ages and among all people have contempla- 
 tive and imaginative minds — philosophers, poets, theologi- 
 ans, — been exercised upon the state of the soul after death, 
 and especially whether it is in a condition of immediate 
 consciousness and blessedness ; or for a time unconscious or 
 asleep — to be hereafter vivified ; or, if conscious, whether 
 at once made perfect in bliss, or subjected to intermediate 
 delays and changes in its progress towards the highest 
 phase of its existence. Hardly any question has for the 
 human mind such a universal power of fascination. Yet 
 in comparison with the fundamental fact of a future state of 
 rewards and punishments to become at some time the 
 experience of every human soul, these details of time and 
 mode are more curious than momentous, and are treated in 
 the sacred Scriptures with a discreet silence. Only hints 
 are given, where our instinct of immortality craves minute 
 and copious information ; and the best Biblical students are 
 far from agreed in their interpretation of these hints, or 
 in the doctrines they would base upon them. Still 
 the field is open for ever-new inquiry, and by comparing 
 spiritual things with spiritual we may get at least an ink- 
 ling of the truth. 
 
 What did our Lord intend by Paradise ? This was the 
 only instance in which He used the word, except as John 
 cites it from His lips, in the Apocalypse ; l and it occurs 
 but once besides in the New Testament. 2 It is a word of 
 Eastern origin which the Greeks borrowed to describe an 
 oriental park — such for instance as the Greek general 
 Xenophon saw on his famous march into the interior of 
 Asia — and which is described as " a wide park enclosed 
 against injury, yet with its natural beauty unspoiled, with 
 stately forest trees, many of them bearing fruit, watered by 
 
 1 Rev. ii. 7. 2 2 Cor. xii. 4. 
 
166 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 clear streams, on whose banks roved large herds of ante- 
 lopes or sheep." l For this feature of Easte: 2 scenery — re- 
 sembling somewhat the forest of Fontainebleau in France, 
 though more rich and luxuriant — the Greeks adopted from 
 the Sanscrit the name Paradise. 
 
 This word came into the New Testament through the 
 Septuagint ; for the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures, made three centuries before Christ, was widely in use 
 among the Jews in His time, and many of the quotations 
 from the Old Testament in the New are made from that 
 version. In the Septuagint Paradise is used for Eden, 
 wherever that word occurs in the English version, and 
 a^so for garden. Thus where Solomon says " I made me 
 gardens and orchards," 2 the Septuagint reads, " Paradises." 
 In the prophecy of Balaam : " How goodly are thy tents, 
 O Jacob ; as the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens 
 {Paradises) by the river side." 3 In the book of Nehemiah 
 is a curious instance of the same meaning that Xenophon 
 gave to the word. Nehemiah who lived at the court of 
 Babylon, says " The king gave me a letter to Asaph, the 
 keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to 
 make beams for the gates of the palace." 4 The word 
 " forest " here the Septuagint gives Paradise — a pleasure- 
 forest or preserve. The first notion of Paradise to a Jew 
 therefore, was a royal garden like Eden ; indeed the gar- 
 den in which our first parents were placed was " the Para- 
 dise of God." 
 
 But Paradise was not simply a remembered name ; it 
 was a word of promise and hope as well : for in the pro- 
 phet Isaiah, it is a frequent type of the future blessedness 
 and glory of the people of God. " The Lord shall com- 
 fort Zion : He will comfort all her waste places : and He 
 will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like 
 the garden of the Lord." 5 Paradise was the word adopted 
 
 i Smith's Diet, of Bible. 2 Eccles. ii. 5. 3 Num. xxiv. 6. * Neh. ii. 8. Hi. 3. 
 
JEWISH VIEWS OF PARADISE. 167 
 
 by the Septuagint to describe this scene of beauty — "joy 
 and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the 
 voice of melody." 
 
 Such being the idea of Paradise in that version of the 
 Scriptures then widely used among the Jews, and which 
 Christ Himself probably read from in the synagogues, 
 what promise did He intend to convey to the thief at his 
 side when He said, " To-day Thou shalt be with Me in 
 Paradise ?" He did not explain the term ; He would not 
 tantalize His fellow-sufferer with an unintelligible reply ; 
 it must have had a satisfying meaning to the mind of a 
 common Jew. 
 
 We have seen that the Jewish Rabbis had gone beyond 
 the Biblical idea of the term, and had pictured Paradise as 
 either a place of sensuous delights in the Messiah's king- 
 dom upon earth, or an intermediate place of blessedness 
 after death ; and some of the more intellectual among them, 
 such as Philo, had made Paradise a mere symbol of the 
 happiness to be derived from wisdom. But shall we there- 
 fore attach to the word Paradise as used by Christ 
 the popular notion of " a fair land cooled by ocean breezes 
 and watered by limpid streams, where the souls of the 
 righteous would tarry awhile on their way to heaven : or 
 a region in the upper part of Sheol, somehow divided from 
 the place of the wicked, but not the final resting-place of 
 the good ?" Surely Christ's method of teaching forbids us 
 to assume that, by using a term of common speech, He 
 would countenance the erroneous notions which the popu- 
 lar imagination had attached to that word. The Jewish 
 popular belief was full of errors concerning the Messiah, 
 and the kingdom of heaven ; but Jesus neither refrained 
 from using these terms, nor by using them did He sanc- 
 tion the erroneous notions which attached to them in the 
 popular mind. Rather, He sought to reclaim such words 
 to their proper significance. Hence inasmuch as the term 
 
168 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Paradise was essentially a Bible-word through its frequent 
 use in a translation as widely read as the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures — we must look for the meaning of Paradise, not to 
 the popular belief nor the fancies of the Rabbis, not to the 
 speculative Philo nor the credulous Josephus, but to 
 the fundamental idea of the first Paiadise in the Old Testa- 
 ment, as this was illustrated by the spiritual teaching of 
 our Lord. It were easy to poetize or philosophize here ; 
 but the question is one of interpretation. 
 
 The primitive Paradise — the first abode of man — em- 
 braced these elements ; a state of purity or innocence ; a 
 place of beauty, abundance and delight, or a condition of 
 peaceful, and entire satisfaction ; the nearness of God as 
 the loving Father : and an implied pledge of immortality. 
 The true life in Paradise was without sin — for when man 
 sinned he was cast out from the garden ; life in Paradise 
 was free from want and care — for toil and pain came as the 
 curse of sin : life in Paradise was one of plenty and de- 
 light — for the garden was planted with " every tree that 
 was pleasant to the sight and good for food ;" 1 life in 
 Paradise was favored with frequent manifestations of the 
 presence of God — for the Lord God walked in the garden, 
 He talked with Adam, instructed and blessed him, making 
 every provision for his happiness as an expression of his 
 Maker's love. And this life carried with it the presump- 
 tion of its immortality — for the symbolic tree of life stood 
 in the midst of the garden, like a covenant in perpetuity, 
 and death was threatened as a consequence of sin. Such a 
 Life, pure, peaceful, satisfying, blessed with the presence 
 of God and the promise of immortality, was the Eden of the 
 Hebrew Scriptures, which in popular language, long before 
 the time of Christ, had come to be familiarly known as 
 Paradise* And the restoration of this Paradise w&> looked 
 
 iGen. ii. 9. 
 
PARADISE WITH CHRIST. 169 
 
 for under the reign of the Messiah, whose coming would 
 make the desert like the Paradise of God. 
 
 In the popular belief this would be a state of felicity 
 such as poets have pictured in the golden age; but it 
 would supercede the present condition of things, this dis- 
 ordered world of sin, pain, and sorrow, and would over-lap 
 into the future state ; and so the word Paradise came to 
 signify some serene and blissful state of being, this side of 
 heaven in the order of time and space, but conducting to 
 heaven as a sort of middle-way. 
 
 Jesus took this word, Paradise, as the equivalent of 
 Eden, and announced the realization of that state of 
 primitive blessedness in the spirit- world which He would 
 open to all believers. It is quite evident that Christ used 
 the word to denote a condition after death. Both He and 
 the sufferer at His side were presently to have done with 
 this world ; and Jesus intended to give to the penitent 
 thief a promise of hope and encouragement concerning 
 that which should survive the cross. There was for him 
 somewhere a better world to which Christ would conduct 
 him after death ; for wherever Jesus Himself w r ould be 
 after the dissolution of the body, there should this believ- 
 ing penitent also be. Surely the promise contemplated a 
 state of consciousness, and a desirable state ; since going 
 into some gloomy house of detention or limbo, — there to 
 be kept in uncertainty till the end of the world — could 
 have offered small encouragement as the boon of the 
 Saviour to one who offered such a prayer with such a faith. 
 The prayer was remarkable as acknowledging the suprem- 
 acy of Christ, and the spirituality of His kingdom; 
 " Lord, remember me when thou comest into Thy king- 
 dom." Here was a soul touched with the sense of its own 
 guilt, discerning the real majesty of Jesus through the suf- 
 ferings of the cross, and anticipating for this despised 
 King of the Jews, a kingdom of power and glory in that 
 
170 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 invisible state to which they both were now departing. 
 The petition referred to a future and spiritual kingdom — 
 a sphere of glory awaiting the Redeemer after death ; and 
 the answer of Christ to such a petition must be interpreted 
 in the same spirit. 
 
 The parallel expression in the Apocalypse furnishes a 
 key in part to this answer of our Lord. As there quoted 
 by John, in promising rewards to those who shall continue 
 faithful in His service, Christ said, " To him that over- 
 cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the 
 midst of the Paradise of God." * To eat of the tree of Life 
 is to partake of immortal bliss ; the Paradise of God is the 
 Paradise that God delights in and blesses with His pre- 
 sence; — the promise means that all of communion with 
 God, all of spiritual delight, and all of immortal hope, 
 life, and bliss that were lost by the fall, shall be realized 
 in the spirit-world where Christ now lives and reigns. 
 
 If we inquire more particularly after the location of 
 Paradise and the phases of existence and enjoyment there, 
 we find little to enlighten us in the New Testament Scrip- 
 tures. Paul, in describing a frame of supernatural illumi- 
 nation by the Spirit of God, says that he was " caught up 
 into Paradise, and heard unspeakable w r ords which it is 
 not possible for a man to utter ;" 2 and this Paradise he 
 speaks of again as " the third heaven " — a phrase denoting 
 " an exalted region of light and blessedness, or the imme- 
 diate presence of God." But where and what this was is 
 precisely what the Apostle has omitted to inform us ; and 
 no speculation on our part can supply these omissions of 
 the Revelation. 
 
 This much then — neither more nor less — do we learn 
 from the word Paradise itself as interpreted by Biblical 
 usage: — a state of peace, security, holiness, satisfaction, bles- 
 sedness, where the presence of God is more immediately 
 
 1 Rev. ii. 7. a 2 Cor. xii. 4. 
 
SCRIPTURAL MEANING OF PARADISE. 171 
 
 manifested. But there are other facts or hints in the words 
 of Christ touching the condition of departed saints immedi- 
 ately after death, which may here be grouped together for 
 their combined light upon the question. 
 
 First, Christ clearly taught that the personality of the 
 soul remains in conscious exercise. The parable of Laza- 
 rus and Dives shows this; so does the appearing of Moses 
 and Elias on the Mount: so do the words of our Lord con- 
 cerning the patriarchs : " He is not a God of the dead, but 
 of the living : for all live unto Him." l 
 
 Again, the language of Christ to His disciples, in view 
 of His own departure, implies that directly after death be- 
 lievers enter into a closer union with their Lord. We may 
 fairly assume that the felicity promised to the dying male- 
 factor was not exceptional ; that such a one as he had been 
 was not singled out for a favor that would not be accorded 
 to disciples who had given proof of their devotion in their 
 lives. This presumption becomes certainty in view of the 
 assurance of Jesus to His disciples : " I go to prepare a 
 place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I 
 will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where 
 I am, there ye may be also." 2 This promise did not re- 
 late to that final Advent when Christ will gather around 
 His person the collective host of His Eedeemed ; it was 
 spoken to the eleven disciples as individuals, for whom 
 severally a place should be prepared in the " many man- 
 sions " of His " Father's house." The consciousness of the 
 presence of Christ, and a participation in His glory, would 
 be the experience of these disciples when they should fol- 
 low their Lord to the unseen world. 3 
 
 From these sayings, brief and fragmentary as they are, we 
 may gather that they who die in the Lord become imme- 
 diately conscious of a nearer union with Christ than they 
 had ever attained to in the most devout and extatic com- 
 
 1 Luke xx. 38. a John xiv. 2, 3. 3 John xvii. 24. 
 
172 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 runnings of this life ; that after they are delivered from the 
 burden of the flesh they do live unto God and are in joy 
 and felicity ; that dying is only the birth of the soul into a 
 higher existence for which its qualities and powers of in- 
 telligent moral 'personality are at once an adaptation and a 
 prophecy ; and for which also, it is prepared in character 
 by the grace of God, — so that to be " absent from the body" 
 is to be " present with the Lord," consciously in the satis- 
 fying presence of Christ. 
 
 According to the psychology cf the Bible, after the death 
 of the animal part of man, there survive both the spiritual 
 essence, which is the proper personality, and the principle 
 of vitality, and this last enters into union with some form 
 adapted to this higher state of being, some kind of vesture — 
 though it may have no more material substance than the 
 invisible ether. The Bible holds fast by Personality ; the 
 human spirit is not absorbed into the divine ; neither does 
 it float vaguely into space ; it has positiveness, definiteness, 
 is somehow circumscribed ; or in common speech, it must 
 have a body ; not flesh and blood, for this is forever put 
 away ; not yet the spiritual body — for that comes after the 
 resurrection ; but a vesture fitted to a spiritual existence ; 
 so that "being clothed we shall not be found naked." 1 
 After the dissolution of our earthly house, which is only a 
 tabernacle — a temporary abode — and which is a burden, 
 both through its infirmities and by its inability to carry 
 out all the aspirations of the spirit — we shall be " clothed 
 upon with our house which is from heaven" — a form adapt- 
 ed to the region of spiritual life. 2 Death will only strip us 
 of our mortality ; it is not we that die, but our mortality; 
 and then the soul, freed from the body of death, will be 
 " clothed upon," clad in its proper vesture as a spiritual 
 creature — no longer of the earth earthy — all trace of mor- 
 
 i 2 Cor. v. 1-5. 
 J For views of Delitzsch and others on this intermediate body, see Appendix. 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE SOUL. 173 
 
 tality swallowed up of life — the very soil and smell of 
 earth gone from the shimmering gossamer, in which it 
 floats or flies through the boundless scope of heaven. 1 
 
 The Egyptians symbolized the departure of the soul by 
 a bird quitting the breast of the mummy to fly away 
 toward the Sun. When purified it returns to its mummy 
 with the kiss of peace. In the great picture of the Com- 
 munion of St. Jerome, while the expiring Saint is making 
 his last Confession of Christ, one sees above him a bevy 
 of cherubs fairly capering with joy as they drop their 
 golden canopy of cloud to embrace the soul at the moment 
 of its exit — that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 
 
 But while each departing saint, his personality unchang- 
 ed, his spiritual vitality untouched by death, enters with an 
 exalted consciousness of life and of spiritual powers, into a 
 blissful fellowship with Christ in Paradise — there will re- 
 main for him some more glorious consummation at the 
 resurrection of the dead. The Paradise to which he goes 
 may be as the park that surrounds the palace of the king ; 
 he may have the freest range of the park and the gardens, 
 and may look through the paling upon the golden House 
 of Beauty, and behold at times the face of the King, and 
 
 1 Dante has beautifully pictured this ethereal body as investing the soul when, 
 at death, 
 
 It separates from the flesh, and virtually 
 
 Bears with itself the human and divine ; 
 The other faculties are voiceless allj 
 
 The memory, the intelligence, and the will 
 
 In action far more vigorous than before. 
 And even as the air, when full of rain, 
 
 By alien rays that are therein reflected, 
 
 With divers colors shows itself adorned, 
 So there the neighboring air doth shape itself 
 
 Into that form which doth impress upon it 
 
 Virtually the Soul that has stood still. 
 And then in manner of the little flame, 
 
 Which followeth the fire where'er it shifts, 
 
 After the Spirit followeth its new Form. 
 
 Purgaiorin. xxv. 80-100. Longfellow's Translation. 
 
174 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 hear the praises of the cherubim — but he must wait for 
 the gathering of the whole company from earth, and the 
 endowment of the spiritual body before the gates that 
 divide the palace from the park shall be thrown open that 
 he may enter in. His blessedness from the first will be 
 full even to the measure of his capacity, but the resurrection 
 and his transformation into the likeness of Christ's glorious 
 body will augment both his capacity and his means of 
 blessedness. 
 
 The distinction is well taken here by Nitzsch, between 
 the believer's entering into bliss and his consummation in 
 and with the whole body of the Redeemed. " The mere 
 duration and immortality of the soul, or the bare deliver- 
 ance from its earthly habitation, does not complete Chris- 
 tian hope ; for the consummation of the individual is by no 
 means perfect, so long as the entire creation and church 
 are not consummated with him and he with them." l Many 
 Scriptures point to the general resurrection as the enfran- 
 chisement of the creation itself — which now waits and 
 groans for that manifestation of the sons of God which 
 shall come through the redemption of the body. The 
 completeness of man in Christ will not be accomplished 
 till, by the resurrection, death shall be vanquished in our 
 bodies as it was in His. That event is set before us as the 
 consummation of the whole work of Redemption ; and the 
 period between our departure and that Day will be for us 
 an intermediate state — but a Paradise of intense delights 
 and of conscious nearness and fellowship with Christ. 
 But the crowning bliss shall not be till the resurrection : 
 " Then cometh the end ; when the Son shall deliver up 
 the kingdom to God, even the Father, and God shall be 
 all in all." 2 
 
 In that august day " the Lord Himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
 
 1 System of Christian Doctrine g 217. 2 1 Cor. xv. 24. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE CATACOMBS. 175 
 
 and the trump of God; arid the dead in- Christ shall rise 
 first, then believers yet living on the earth shall be caught 
 up together with them in the clouds ;" l then shall go up 
 the grand procession to the gates of the New Jerusalem 
 swung open in mid-air — the trumpets sounding, the vast 
 ether palpitating with harmonic symphonies ; the sons of 
 God shouting for joy, the very stars, ringing out silvery 
 chimes for the marriage of the Lamb — the final consum- 
 mation of all things terrestrial and celestial in the union 
 of Christ and His church in everlasting joy. 2 
 
 This view of the state of departed saints may well 
 encourage cheerfulness and thanksgiving on behalf of 
 those whom Christ has taken to Himself. No need 
 have we to pray for them, seeing they are already with 
 Christ: no cause have we to mourn for them, seeing trat 
 directly they are absent from the body they are present 
 with the Lord ; — " Now that he is dead, wherefore should 
 I fast? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to 
 me." 3 
 
 To the primitive Christians all this was reality. They 
 have left their faith and hope recorded upon the tombs 
 which they constructed in their hiding-places in the sub- 
 terranean excavations or quarries of the city of Rome. 
 In those long galleries of catacombs, where the bodies of 
 martyrs and persecuted saints were laid to rest, there is not 
 one trace of despondency or gloom. It is written over one 
 
 1 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. 
 
 2 Although the details of this description are borrowed from the Apostolic 
 writings, the germs of the whole conception are found in the teachings of 
 Christ ; and the words of Paul are not here cited as authoritative — for we are 
 concerned solely with Christ's own words as the source of authoritative belief 
 --but as illustrating the meaning of Christ from the point of a scholar and 
 disciple who was versed both in the Jewish and the Pagan notions of Hades, 
 and who has embodied in one proportionate form the fragmentary hints of his 
 Lord touching the future state. 
 
 8 2 Samuel xii. 23. 
 
 
176 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST, 
 
 and another " She sleeps ;" " In peace ;" « With Christ." 
 The anchor, the cross, the crown, the symbols of the resur- 
 rection and immortality make those dark galleries bright 
 with the presence of the Eternal Life. 
 
 This doctrine should inspire the Christian disciple with 
 the glad consciousness of the nearness of his Lord at death. 
 The effort to find for heaven a locality commonly results 
 in placing it at an immense remove in space and time ; the 
 attempt to define its features and occupations results in 
 vague imaginings ; meantime Paradise comes floating 
 down to us, and Jesus steps to the bedside of one whom 
 we think dying, and says " I come to receive thee to My- 
 salf; To-day sh alt thou be with Me in Paradise ;" and 
 could our vision be purged, like that of the prophet, we 
 might see the mountains full of chariots of fire. Heaven 
 is around us ; if we are Christ's, one step and we are there ! 
 Then why let earth trouble, delude, engross, or detain us ? 
 And why should death intimidate us ? 
 
 Christ's doctrine of the future opens before us the gran- 
 deur of the moral universe and of the work of Redemption. 
 The science of astronomy has revealed to us somewhat of 
 the stupendous scale of the physical creation ; worlds cir- 
 cling about worlds, systems circling about systems, through 
 millions of leagues of space ; light traversing immensity 
 with its ever-repeating waves ; the laws of attraction and 
 gravitation ruling the hosts of heaven without voice or 
 speech ; and all this ordered beauty and grandeur obedient 
 to one Infinite and Invisible Power. But this material 
 creation is only the theater of the moral universe ; these 
 innumerable worlds are but the many mansions in the 
 vast house of our Father, for the home of His children ; 
 this illimitable space is but the field of their activities and 
 joys! The physical may change and pass away ; the hea- 
 vens depart as a scroll ; but the moral universe shall then 
 " grow resplendent more and more ;" — as we 
 
GRANDEUR OF REDEMPTION. 177 
 
 " behold the hours 
 Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit 
 Harvested by the rollipg of these spheres." 1 
 
 Then to every one who is found faithful to Christ, will 
 it be given to " eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst 
 of the Paradise of God." 
 
 1 Dante, Paradiso. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 
 
 Christianity concerns itself for the restoration of the 
 Body as well as for the redemption of the Soul. To re- 
 deem and sanctify the Soul is its first office and endeavor ; 
 but it also cherishes and honors the body as the workman- 
 ship of God and as the habitation of the soul, and the me- 
 dium through which it acts upon the outer world, and 
 receives from that impressions the most quickening, sug- 
 gestive and controlling. 
 
 The natural science of the Bible finds no link of develop- 
 ment from the monkey to the man, but the first man was 
 formed by the direct act of God, who " breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life." 1 The philosophy of the Bible 
 is not that of the Stoics, who regarded the body as the 
 antagonist of the soul, and its suppression or destruction 
 as necessary to the soul's perfection — for the divine Word 
 was made flesh and exhibited the true harmony of the body 
 with the soul ; nor is it the philosophy of the Epicureans, 
 that made pleasure consist in gratifying and pampering 
 the flesh — for it teaches that " the body is for the Lord," even 
 "the temple of the Holy Ghost." 2 And this Religion 
 which so honors the body in its origin and seeks to ennoble 
 it with all care and culture for the present life, does not 
 cease to regard the Body when death and the grave have 
 claimed it. The consolation it offers as supreme is not that 
 the soul is freed from its burden and clog, that the lower 
 nature is dropped for the freer development of the higher ; 
 
 l Chen. ii. 7. 2 1 Cor. vi. 13, 19. 
 
 178 
 
VALUE OF THE BODY. 179 
 
 but Christianity promises to cherish the buried dust as 
 God's seed-corn, and to give this back again in the beauty 
 and vigor of an incorruptible life. Over against the grave 
 it writes the Resurrection; over against Death the Life 
 Everlasting ; and Jesus surrenders His own sinless body to 
 the demand of our common mortality; yields up the 
 ghost, is dead and buried ; then comes forth in the victori- 
 ous assertion of that undying Personality which unbars for 
 us the gates of death and the grave : " I am the Resurrec- 
 tion and the Life." 1 
 
 And herein Christianity shows itself in wondrous sym- 
 pathy with the human heart : for much as we are taught 
 that the true life and beauty and love are belongings of the 
 soul, how do we cherish the body from first to last. How 
 dear to the mother is the babe that gives as yet no sign of 
 thought or speech; how every tiny member of that tiny 
 form is written in her heart ; what beauty she discovers in 
 just the ordinary beginnings of a human life; and even if 
 her child lacks physical perfection, how does the very in- 
 firmity cause it to be cherished the more tenderly ! In 
 riper years, though what we prize as our possession in a 
 friend is the soul — the mind and heart in sympathy with 
 our own — yet we are forever longing for the presence, the 
 word, the look that continually reassure us that we do 
 possess the soul. When sickness comes, how fondly do we 
 cling to the wasting form: and when death has snatched 
 it, though faith assures us that the soul has gone to live 
 above, and reason teaches that the body without the soul is 
 nothing, yet do we count each hour precious that we may 
 keep that body near us, and the last tie is not severed till 
 it is taken away ; then comes the " sorrowing most of all, 
 that we shall see the face no more ;" 2 and then too come the 
 full sympathy and power of the Gospel in the assurance of 
 the divine Redeemer, the risen Lord, who stands weeping 
 
 1 John xi. 25. 2 Acts xx. 38. 
 
180 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 at our side, and speaks the undying consolation " Thy 
 Brother shall Rise again." l 
 
 The beauty, the force, the value of this assurance are 
 utterly broken by two modes of interpretation that are 
 sometimes applied to the subject ; the one makes the 
 declaration " The Son quickeneth whom He will," 2 a 
 figure of speech to describe the quickening of the soul into 
 spiritual life; the other makes the promise "He that 
 believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," 3 
 refer only to the continued life of the soul after death has 
 terminated the life of the body * making the resurrection 
 coincident with death, — the rising of the spirit into a 
 higher sphere of existence, where death can never come. 
 They who hold such views, like Swedenborg for instance, 
 believe neither in a general resurrection of the dead ap- 
 pointed for some remote period, nor in any resurrection or 
 re-habilitation of the present body ; but give to all the 
 language of the New Testament concerning the rising of 
 the dead, a symbolic meaning, applying it either to a 
 moral renovation in this life, or to the spiritual emancipa- 
 tion and development of the righteous at death. 
 
 We must, therefore, settle distinctly the meaning of 
 words — if we would understand the doctrine of Jesus 
 touching the resurrection. The word He used, avdazaat^ 
 was applied to the act of raising up or restoring that 
 which had fallen or lay prostrate. Thus the rebuilding of 
 the walls of a city thrown down by war was an anastasis 
 or resurrection. The wall stood in the same place, and 
 was built in whole or in part of the same materials ; so 
 that it was the same wall restored ; and this word anastasis 
 is used by Homer and others for the act of rising from 
 bed, especially after sickness. It is applied also to the 
 lifting up of suppliants who were lying prostrate before a 
 
 1 John xi. 23. 2 John v. 21. s John xi. 25. 
 
ANASTASIS A LITERAL RESURRECTION. 181 
 
 templec Nor are there wanting instances in classic writers 
 where anastasis, or a form of the same word, is directly 
 applied to a rising from the dead. In the Iliad of 
 Homer, Achilles driving the Trojans before him into the 
 river Xanthus, sees coming up the bank, as if out of the 
 stream itself, a son of Priam whom once before he had 
 taken prisoner, had carried away in his own ship and sold 
 into distant slavery. Startled by this apparition, as if a 
 dead man had come to life, Achilles exclaims : — 
 
 " strange ! my eyes behold a miracle. 
 Sure the brave sons of Troy whom I have slain 
 Will rise up from the nether darkness yet." 1 
 
 This would be a literal anastasis of the dead. Again in 
 that touching scene where the aged Priam, having heard 
 that his only surviving son Hector had been wounded, 
 ventures alone to the camp of Achilles to beg for the re- 
 lease of his boy ; (alas, he is already dead !) and the stern 
 warrior replies : — 2 
 
 u Sorrow for thy son 
 Will profit nought ; it cannot bring the dead 
 To life again." 
 
 Here the anastasis would be literally restoring the dead 
 body to life, which Achilles declares to be impossible. A like 
 example occurs in a tragedy of JEschylus, where, in de- 
 scribing a murder, he says, 3 " When the dust has drunk 
 up the blood of a man once dead, there is no raising it up " 
 — no anastasis. 
 
 This word then had no doubtful meaning; it was 
 jfroperly applied to the lifting up, the restoring, the setting 
 back in its place of a person or thing that had fallen or 
 disappeared. As applied to the dead it would naturally 
 denote a visible restoring of the body — such a raising up 
 that it would be felt to be the same. 
 
 1 xxi. 56, Mr. Bryant's version. 2 xxiv. 557, Mr. Bryant's version. 
 3 Furies, 664. 
 
182 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 A belief in such a resurrection, pronounced by these 
 Greek poets a thing impossible, had found a lodgment in 
 some religions of antiquity. The ancient Egyptians be- 
 stowed far more care upon their tombs than upon their 
 houses; they called the abodes of the living inns, because 
 these were occupied only for a limited period ; but the sepul- 
 chres of the dead they called eternal habitations. Great 
 pains were taken to preserve the body from corruption in 
 order that it might again become the habitation of the 
 soul. This is the most satisfactory explanation of the 
 custom of embalming and the care taken to deposit the 
 mummy in a secret and durable sepulchre. Upon some of 
 the mummy-cases the soul is painted as a bird revisiting 
 its former home ; and the Book of the Dead, 1 a kind of 
 sacred hymn which was deposited with the mummy, re- 
 presents the body as at last awaking to the light of the 
 sun, and exclaiming, " Hail, O my Father ; I have come ; 
 I prepare this my body ; I am not corrupted nor wasted 
 away ; I am not suffocated ; I live, I grow, I wake in 
 peace." 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is found 
 also among the Persians, as far back as the third or fourth 
 century B. C. in a sect of Magians " who taught that man 
 would revive and become immortal with a fine ethereal 
 body, and would lead a life of bliss upon an earth forever 
 freed from the corrupting influence of evil." In their 
 sacred books a great prophet is predicted to arise toward 
 the expiration of this world's course ; who will appear as 
 "The conqueror of death and the judge of the world." In 
 the might of Ormuzd the chief divinity of the Parsee re- 
 ligion, this prophet will awaken the dead. An objector is 
 represented as asking, " Since wind and water carry off 
 the remains of the body, how shall it be restored again ? " 
 
 1 See an analysis of the Egyptian doctrine of the Future State, by the 
 author in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1868, p. 69. 
 
THE RESURRECTION A JEWISH BELIEF. 3.83 
 
 But in reply, Ormuzd, the divinity, points to his almighty 
 powers of creation ; and as he is the creator of the grain 
 of corn, which after corruption springs up afresh, so by 
 his power also shall the resurrection take place, and but 
 once in truth, and not a second time." x It would be a 
 curious inquiry whether this clear and striking statement 
 of the resurrection crept into the religion of the Magians 
 from the same source as the doctrine of Daniel, who lived 
 in the land of the Chaldees when he wrote : " Many of 
 them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ; some 
 to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
 contempt." 2 
 
 The belief in the immortality of the soul had slowly 
 unfolded itself among the Hebrews from a very early 
 period. Job and David had also foreshadowed a resurrec- 
 tion of the body ; 3 but Daniel was the first to give this 
 doctrine such a positive form, and after his time it was the 
 commonly received belief of the Jews. 
 
 The Apocrypha, though not entitled to the place of 
 Biblical authority, is nevertheless valuable as a testimony 
 to events and opinions among the Jews of its time. We 
 read in the books of Maccabees 4 of one who when put to 
 death exclaimed to his executioner, " 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." Again it is recorded, that after a great 
 victory, Judas Maccabeus offered prayers and sacrifices for 
 the dead ; upon which the historian comments, " doing 
 well therein, in that he was mindful of the resurrection : 
 for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should 
 have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray 
 for the dead." 5 This testimony is complete upon the 
 
 1 Dollinger, Judenthum und Heidenthum, i. 411. 2 Daniel xii. 2. 
 3 Ps. xvi. 9 ; Job xix. 26. (?) 4 Mac. ii. 7, 14. 
 
 6 Mac. xii. 45. 
 
184 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 point that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was 
 commonly held among the Jews before the time of Christ ; 
 it appears distinctly in their literature of the second cen- 
 tury B. C, and in the Greek version of the Apocrypha 
 the literal resurrection of the body is described by the term 
 (Diastasis. 
 
 The Pharisees, who were accounted the Orthodox of the 
 nation, and who represented the popular belief, held to the 
 doctrine of the resurrection of the dead : while the Saddu- 
 cees, a much smaller sect, regarded as heretical, denied it. 
 Martha's confidence that her brother would rise again at 
 the last day, shows how common was this belief among the 
 Jews. 
 
 This history of the word anastasls and of the popular 
 belief in the Resurrection, has an important bearing upon 
 the case in hand. That Jesus taught a doctrine of the 
 Resurrection all agree ; but some say that He spoke figura- 
 tively, of a spiritual renovation, or of the rising of the soul 
 from the body into a higher region of life. 
 
 But in order to know the true doctrine of Jesus we must 
 ascertain the meaning of His words in the circumstances in 
 which He used them. We have taken the word He used, — 
 or, if He spoke in Aramaic, we have its Greek equivalent 
 — anastasis, and have shown that the great masters of the 
 Greek tongue before His time used this term for the raising 
 up or restoring a person or thing that had fallen or was 
 prostrate or helpless — the object raised up being the same 
 that had fallen : we have seen that Greek writers used this 
 very word to describe the revivifying a corpse, the anastasis 
 of a dead body ; we have seen moreover that a belief in 
 such a resurrection was extant in the world ; that the Egyp- 
 tians had it dimly, the Persians of a later period perhaps 
 more clearly ; that it was foreshadowed by Job and David, 
 and distinctly announced by Daniel; that it became an 
 article of popular belief among the Jews, and that the 
 
JESUS PROCLAIMED HIMSELF THE RESURRECTION. 185 
 
 Greek-Jews in their version expressed it by the word anas- 
 tasls. Thus the natural obvious meaning of this word as 
 applied to a dead person is established by usage and history. 
 The circumstances in which our Lord proclaimed Him- 
 self the Resurrection and the Life leave no doubt that He 
 had this same meaning. Lazarus was dead : that was a fact ; 
 he had been sick for a good while ; so sick that his sisters 
 had sent a messenger to Jesus — then some days' journey dis- 
 tant — but Jesus did not come. Lazarus died ; all the 
 village knew that: he was buried, and all the neighbors 
 were at the funeral : he was bound hand and foot with 
 grave clothes and laid in a cave, and a stone covered the 
 mouth of it. When Jesus arrived Lazarus had been already 
 dead four days, and for some time buried. 1 Jesus said to 
 Martha, "Thy brother shall rise again." Martha said 
 unto Him, " I know that he shall rise again in the resur- 
 rection at the last day." She here expressed what was the 
 common belief of the Jews — that at the end of the world 
 the dead would be raised from their graves. Martha did 
 not intend simply to assert her belief that the soul of her 
 brother still lived, nor that he would rise spiritually to a 
 higher state of existence ; — all this she believed ; but it 
 was the bodily presence of Lazarus she so missed and longed 
 for, and her faith taught her that the self-same brother 
 who lay dead in the sepulchre would come to life again — 
 but not till that far-distant day of the general rising of the 
 dead. In answer to that faith, and to confirm it, Jesus 
 said unto her, " I am the resurrection and the Life ;" the 
 Resurrection is made certain in and through Me : as I am 
 the Life, having in Myself the gift of life, there is vested 
 in Me power to raise the dead. Therefore He would have 
 her not only believe in the possibility of the Resurrection, 
 and look forward to receiving back her brother in the last 
 
 1 It was the Jewish custom to bury very soon after death. 
 
188 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 day, but believe in Himself as having power over death 
 and the grave, and able to give back her brother by His 
 word. The principle of Anastasis was in His life. After 
 this Jesus went to the grave, and " cried with a loud voice 
 Lazarus, come forth ; and he that was dead came forth." 
 There was the anastasis — the raising up of a dead body, 
 by giving it life again. The Resurrection that Martha 
 believed in, that she hoped for in the far-off future, was 
 made present and palpable to her senses. The event in- 
 terprets the meaning of Christ. The thing done shows 
 what He intended when He said " I am the Resurrection :" 
 I the source and giver of life will raise the dead. 
 
 Some will say, however, This was a miracle, like His 
 own resurrection, for a particular purpose — to show forth 
 His divine power and glory, — and not to be taken as 
 proof of a future resurrection. But the very end for which 
 the miracle was wrought was to confirm Martha's belief in 
 the resurrection at the last day, by showing that Jesus had 
 power to raise the dead, and would accomplish it. 
 
 His other statements upon this doctrine confirm this 
 view ; as a running commentary upon them will show. 
 First we have the argument recorded by Matthew, Mark, 
 and Luke, in reply to the Sadducees. This sect denied 
 the common Jewish doctrine of the resurrection, and they 
 thought to confound Jesus, or at least to embarrass Him 
 by their famous case of the seven brothers who had mar- 
 ried in turn the same wife. They put the doctrine of the 
 resurrection in this bald literal form, and asked Jesus to 
 dispose of their -objection. It would have met their dif- 
 ficulty to have replied that the Resurrection must not be 
 taken literally but figuratively and spiritually, as meaning 
 the translation of the soul to a higher sphere, — for spirits 
 could not be supposed to enter into a literal marriage. 
 But Jesus did not take that ground : He held fast by the 
 common Jewish belief of a resurrection, and declared that 
 
THE RESURRECTION TAUGHT IN JOHN V. 25. 187 
 
 " in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven ;" l that 
 is He affirmed the resurrection of the body, but with such 
 a transformation in respect of physical conditions, as will 
 adapt it to the state in which angels live, a condition of 
 existence in which the formal relations of this life, while 
 remembered with joy, shall be no more necessary and no 
 more desired. Then He went on to assert the Resurrec- 
 tion as set forth by Moses in the fact that Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob would ever have a recognized identity in the 
 kingdom of God. Thus did Jesus maintain against 
 gainsayers the doctrine of a proper anastasis of the dead. 
 
 In a discourse recorded by John 2 He makes this doc- 
 trine of a bodily resurrection, if possible, even more dis- 
 tinct and emphatic by contrasting it with a spiritual 
 awakening from sin and its condemnation. " 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:" L e. "by means of 
 faith he receives a principle of life which cannot be im- 
 paired by death." This obviously is said of the spiritual 
 life, the renovation of the soul : for it is a process now 
 going forward, and its effect is seen in those who believe : 
 " Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and 
 now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
 of God;" this awakening of men dead in trespasses and 
 sins is now taking place : "and they that hear shall live ;" 
 all who obey the gospel shall come to a new life in Christ. 
 
 He then goes on to speak of His quickening power upon 
 the literally dead; and this with reference to the final judg- 
 ment. "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming" — He 
 does not here say and now is — He is looking forward to 
 the last day; "in the which all" — not as before "they 
 that hear " — but " all that are in their graves" and hence 
 
 1 Matt. xxii. 30. 1 John v. 25, seq. 
 
188 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 literally dead, " 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 damna- 
 tion." 1 Now 7 whoso will hear has life spiritual ; then, all 
 shall hear. Jesus is expounding His life-power as the Son 
 of Man. He who now gives life to the soul by faith, will 
 hereafter restore life to the body by His power. This 
 covers the whole ground. Jesus Himself distinguishes 
 between the spiritual and the bodily Resurrection and 
 teaches both ; one now is, the other is coming. 
 
 Again Jesus specifies particularly the spiritual life and 
 the resurrection as gifts to believers. " This is the will of 
 Him that sent Me ; that every one which seeth the Son 
 and believeth on Him may have everlasting life ; and I 
 will raise him up at the last day" 2 
 
 Christ's doctrine of the Resurrection was illustrated and 
 verified by His own resurrection. For the vague conjec- 
 tures of the ancients touching the possibility of such an 
 event, He substituted the certainty of the fact ; and while 
 philosophy was, and ever will be, at fault concerning the 
 mode of a resurrection, Jesus furnished the key to the fact 
 in His proper personality. This is the feature that char- 
 acterizes His doctrine, and removes it from the category of 
 speculative beliefs to that of tangible facts. 
 
 Had Jesus merely given certainty to the belief in the 
 resurrection as already held by the devout among the 
 Jews, this had been a contribution to faith worthy of such 
 a Teacher. Had He added to this assurance of the fact 
 some explanation of the manner in which so great a mar- 
 vel will be effected, He would have brought philosophy as 
 well as faith under the highest obligations. Had He only 
 repeated the declaration made in His discourse of the true 
 
 1 Here is named a set time for the resurrection as an event distinct from all 
 moral and spiritual changes. 
 
 2 John vi. 40. 
 
Christ's resurrection proves the doctrine. 18$ 
 
 bread : " No man can come to Me, except the Father 
 which hath sent Me draw him ; and I will raise him up at 
 the last day;" 1 this pledge to use His -personal power in 
 restoring the dead to life, would have been a satisfying 
 assurance to believers, of their victory over death. But 
 He went far beyond this, and centering in Himself the 
 fact, the doctrine, and the assurance of this stupendous 
 miracle, He said, " I am the Resurrection and the Life," 
 both are linked together, both emanate from Me, both 
 center in Me; the Resurrection is Life in victory over 
 death ; and the Resurrection that rescues from death unto 
 life again shall issue in the Life Everlasting. 
 
 What a wealth of meaning is hidden in those words ! 
 Jesus had said to Martha, " Thy brother shall rise again." 
 By this assurance He sought to test her faith in the resur- 
 rection as held by the Jews, without, as yet, announcing 
 His intention to restore Lazarus to life. For this she 
 must be prepared through the development of her faith in 
 the possibility of a resurrection ; and this belief Jesus made 
 definite and positive, by making it individual, and meeting 
 that question of personal identity which the heart yearns 
 over by every open grave. "Thy brother shall rise 
 again ;" rise as thy brother to be known and loved. " I 
 Jenoiv" said the half-believing, half-wondering woman, 
 " that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last 
 day :" but that is a long, long way off, and by his grave it 
 seems so distant, so strange, so misty, that faith almost 
 loses its hold upon it ; and in wondering how it can be, I 
 hardly keep the confidence that it shall be, — the resurrec- 
 tion — what f how is it ? — at the last day — when shall that 
 be? Then said Jesus, "I am the resurrection and the 
 life ; he that belie veth in Me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live." The creative power that gave life at the 
 first proceeded from Me ; the power of resurrection that 
 
 1 John vi. 44. 
 
19 J THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 shall bring back life from the grave centers in Me ; and it 
 needs only that you believe in ME, and distance and im- 
 possibility vanish in presence of the Life. 
 
 " I am the Resurrection." This announcement makes 
 real and positive that which had before been a matter of 
 speculative faith. What life is we know no better than 
 before ; but we do know whence life comes, and who im- 
 parts it. How life can be renewed in dead, buried and 
 perished clay we do not know, any more than we know 
 how life is given to the new-born babe or to the seed long 
 buried under ground ; but we do know who can give life 
 to the dead and make that life indissoluble and perpetual. 
 Instead of speculating how this thing can be, or searching 
 after a principle, law, or process through which it can be 
 accomplished, we look upon a person who can cause it to 
 be, and who centers it in Himself as a reality. The Re- 
 surrection is not merely an event, it is a power ; it is life 
 reviving and asserting itself again where death had for a 
 time suspended its manifestations ; and this Life is not 
 simply a fact, a phenomenon, it inheres in a Person and 
 proceeds from a Person, so that He not only gives life, 
 but is the life that He gives — He imparts somewhat of 
 that which characterizes and constitutes Himself; He not 
 only causes the resurrection to come to pass in another, 
 He is the Resurrection, and as He raised himself by His 
 own energy, so He enters by His own life-energy into the 
 sleeping dust and raises that. The resurrection is but the 
 application of life to that which had been dead, and He is 
 the life. " As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath 
 He given to the Son to have life in Himself; " 1 — a life 
 that sustains itself, and can impart life to others ; and so 
 " The Son quickeneth whom He will." 2 The life is the 
 quickening power ; the raising up is but one mode of ex- 
 ercising that power upon a passive subject. And when 
 
 1 Jobn v. 26. 2 John v. 21. 
 
RAISING OF LAZARUS. 191 
 
 we have formed the idea of one who has life in Himself 
 the resurrection ceases to be so great a marvel ; it is no 
 greater marvel than the first creation, or the original 
 giving of life to any creature ; the Life is the real wonder. 
 
 The declaration of Christ that He is the Resurrection 
 was borne out by two marvellous acts of life-power — first 
 the raising of Lazarus, and second the raising up of His 
 own body. Twice before He had raised the dead : — the 
 daughter of Jairus from the bed on which she died, the 
 son of the widow from the bier on which he was being 
 carried out of the gates of Nain. The knowledge of these 
 and of other miracles of Christ upon infirmities and 
 diseases of the body, had led Martha to feel and say, 
 "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," 
 and had encouraged her half-formed hope ; u , , / that 
 even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give 
 it Thee." How feeble, unformed, unreal that hope was 
 appeared in her remonstrating at the grave against remov- 
 ing the stone, because Lazarus had been dead four days 
 and must have fallen into corruption — so does intensity of 
 grief vibrate between hope and despair. Jesus had sought 
 to educate her to the point of implicit faith in Himself; 
 and the circumstantiality of these details prepared the way 
 for this crowning lesson. Let us recapitulate the inci- 
 dents. 
 
 We know that Lazarus was dead ; that he was buried ; 
 that his friends were mourning him ; that he had been 
 dead four days ; that the sister who so yearned after him 
 that she almost hoped for his recall, was yet unwilling 
 that his grave should be disturbed ; and when under these 
 conditions of seeming impossibility, Jesus standing by the 
 grave cried, " Lazarus come forth," and " He that was 
 dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes, 
 and the napkin yet tied about his face," — as if startled 
 from a sleep — we feel that He who spake was the Resur- 
 
192 THE THEOLOGY OF CHKIST. 
 
 rection and the life. Lazarus was raised, but Jesus was 
 the Resurrection ; the wonder of the Power is greater far 
 than the wonder that it wrought. The people who heard 
 of the miracle made this distinction. Multitudes resorted 
 to Bethany from curiosity, that they might see Lazarus ; 
 but their wonder and faith were turned from the man who 
 had been raised from the dead to the Man who had raised 
 him ; and so many became His disciples that the chief 
 priests " consulted that they might put Lazarus also to 
 death ; because that by reason of him many of the Jews 
 went away and believed on Jesus : " — so much greater was 
 the author of the resurrection than the event itself. 
 
 But above all, Jesus showed that He was the Resurrec- 
 tion by raising Himself from the dead. As, to the com- 
 mon people, the bringing up of Lazarus from the grave 
 where he had lain four days seemed a greater marvel than 
 raising the young man from his bier at JNain, so the rais- 
 ing Himself seemed a yet greater wonder than to raise 
 another. There were two reasons for this ; First, upon the 
 cross Jesus had succumbed to death ; and by thus yielding 
 in His own person to the enemy from whom He had res- 
 cued Lazarus, He had seemed to vacate His power or 
 prerogative of life. In the presence of a vast concourse of 
 approving spectators, He had been nailed to the cross and 
 lifted up : He had expired of exhaustion and agony : the 
 executioners on guard had pronounced Him dead; a 
 soldier had thrust a spear into His heart : and His death 
 being certified, by the authority of the governor, He had 
 been taken down from the cross by His sorrowing dis- 
 ciples, buried in a new tomb, and the stone sealed and a 
 guard set over it. Thus whatever power of resisting and 
 overcoming death Jesus had shown in healing the sick 
 and recalling the dead, seemed to have forsaken Him in 
 His own extremity. Therefore that He should rise again 
 was the greater marvel. 
 
MIRACLE OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. 193 
 
 And there was a second reason for this, in the fact that 
 death seemed to separate from Him that mysterious power 
 by which He had restored others from death. When 
 Jesus brought back Lazarus to life, He invoked His 
 Father ; He put forth His own will ; He used some energy 
 or efficiency residing in Himself: He was the power that 
 acted upon another. But now He was undoubtedly dead 
 — a lifeless body laid away in the tomb — with no power 
 of motion or of feeling, and no symptom of vitality. That 
 spirit-power that had broken the hold of death upon 
 Lazarus, to human view had utterly departed when on the 
 cross He yielded up the ghost. It seemed therefore a 
 greater miracle that He should raise Himself than that He 
 had raised another. And when on the third day He stood 
 in the midst of His disciples, the same Jesus with the print 
 of the nails in His hands and His feet, and the marks of 
 the wound in His side, this was the sublime, the invinci- 
 ble testimony that He, in, by, and of Himself, was the 
 Resurrection and the Life. This it is that gives to the 
 Christian faith in the Resurrection the freshness and life 
 that always attach to a Person ; this is not an abstract 
 dogma, nor a theory that might tantalize and bewilder but 
 could never satisfy ; — it is confidence in a Person who has 
 done in and for Himself that which He promises to do for 
 every disciple. 
 
 " He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live." l This saying applied to Lazarus in the first in- 
 stance, as a type of true believers who had died before the 
 redeeming work of Christ was wrought out to its visible 
 completion. Although Christ had not been revealed to 
 such as the giver of life from the dead, nevertheless they 
 having had that spiritual faith which is the key to all 
 restoration, shall partake of this benefit of Christ's coming: 
 such an one, though like Lazarus he have died without the 
 
 1 John xi. 25. 
 18 
 
194 THE THEOLOGY OE CHRIST . 
 
 demonstration of the resurrection that I will give in My 
 person, yet shall he live — come to life again through Me : 
 and this promise, as affecting believers who had already 
 died, was at once confirmed by bringing up Lazarus from 
 the dead. 
 
 But there followed a far-reaching, all-embracing promise 
 for believers from among all coming generations of men ; 
 " Whosoever liveth, and believedi in Me, shall never die." T 
 This declaration has so staggered some in its literalness 
 that they have construed it of spiritual living and dying 
 — the life of the soul, in its felicity being secured by faith 
 in Christ as its Redeemer. But there is nothing in the 
 construction to indicate a change from a literal resur- 
 rection in the first clause of the sentence, to a spiritual life 
 in the second ; and if we take this last saying as meaning 
 a spiritual life, must we not follow Swedenborg in spirit- 
 ualizing the resurrection also ? But our Lord applied and 
 confirmed His declaration by raising Lazarus from the grave, 
 thus showing that He was speaking throughout of a physi- 
 cal, literal resurrection, a coming back to life with personal 
 identity. 
 
 Others have understood Him to refer to believers who 
 shall be living on the earth at the time of His coming, — 
 concerning whom it was a current belief that they shall be 
 glorified or transfigured, without the process of dying. 
 But it seems a straining of the sense to carry it forward to 
 that distant future, when there is nothing in the context 
 that refers to the end of the world. 
 
 Christ made a promise of universal application to those 
 that should believe in Him. He had just spoken of true 
 believers who were already dead ; these He would redeem 
 from the possession of death, and they as to their persons 
 shall live again. He then spoke of all living disciples ; 
 all that then were, and all who should afterwards become 
 
 i John xi. 26. 
 
NO DEATH FOR THE BELIEVER. 195 
 
 disciples : " Whosoever liveth ;" every believer who is yet 
 living shall be exempt from death through faith in Me. 
 The interpretation lies in the meaning and effect of death 
 as changed by Christ's coming and by faith in Him. " He 
 that believeth shall never die;" for 
 
 (a). To the believer in Christ death has no power of evil 
 either through fear or through suffering. All mental dis- 
 quietude is removed, and death as a process of nature 
 taking effect in the body, is a falling asleep, a rest. 
 
 (b). The process of dying liberates the spirit from its 
 mortal appendages, that it may enter upon felicity unquali- 
 fied and unending. The physiological process of dying is 
 the enfranchisement of the spirit, a triumph of the life- 
 principle over that which is mortal. Life in this stage of 
 existence is a perpetual struggle with opposing forces ; the 
 elements that compose our bodies tend continually to dis- 
 solution and decay. Even when no disease invades, and 
 no accident threatens, there is a constant waste of tissue 
 that calls for incessant repairs ; and in the healthiest condi- 
 tion, how is the hidden vitality that we feel throbbing and 
 yearning within us, hampered by physical conditions or 
 fatigue. But Christ has taught that death is the liberation 
 and expansion of the life. It is the mortal that dies ; the 
 spirit lives ; and, moreover, shall never die — death has no 
 more dominion. The believer will be restored from the pos- 
 session of death as to the body, raised up and glorified, so 
 that death in the sense of destruction shall never be accom- 
 plished upon anything that pertained to him. Here the ques- 
 tion of time is nothing upon the scale of the infinite future. 
 
 How grand the scope given to Christ's work of re- 
 demption by His doctrine of the Resurrection ! For that 
 work the Son of God came into the world where sin had 
 reigned through all the generations of men ; entered into 
 that humanity which sin had made its own ; redeemed and 
 sanctified this; went into personal conflict with Satan in the 
 
196 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 field of his most successful temptations, and openly tri- 
 umphed over him ; invaded the realm of darkness and cast 
 out devils by His word; went down into the grave to meet 
 death in the field of his unbroken possession, and there 
 trampled under foot death, the grave, and Hades, and rose 
 in the might of victory. Sending forth His Spirit, He has 
 continued the triumphs of redemption in the world of 
 human thought and will, and He shall come once more to 
 perfect His victory by redeeming the body from the grave. 
 All earth and time form one grand symphony of redemption. 
 The world is yet in the andante movement, but a melody 
 of hope runs through the solemn tones, and the time is 
 already quickening ; the final movement shall open with 
 the trump that wakes the dead, and with hallelujahs that 
 sweep the skies. 
 
 Hence the Christian faith is a finality in religion; 
 in respect of the restoration of man, his development, his 
 blessedness, it leaves nothing to be desired, nothing to be 
 thought of. It redeems man from sin, and will lead him 
 to perfection of character; it fortifies him against trial 
 and makes him the conqueror of death ; it recovers him 
 from the grave and clothes him with a spiritual and glo- 
 rious body like unto Christ's ; it introduces him to fellow- 
 ship with God and the society of all the holy and bless- 
 ed. Thus linking man to the spiritual and eternal life, 
 the Christian faith gives dignity to his present and glory to 
 his future. The necessities of man's present condition bind 
 him much to the material things around him, while it is 
 the tendency of his appetites and passions to seek their grat- 
 ification in the earthly and sensual. Yet he is conscious of 
 intellectual wants, of spiritual yearnings and aptitudes that 
 show his affinity for a higher life. These the Christian 
 faith meets with its twin doctrines of redemption and resur- 
 rection. Redemption delivers the spirit while yet in the 
 body, from the dominion of the flesh, so that believers are 
 
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH A FINALITY. 197 
 
 no longer " of the world." 1 Resurrection asserts the final 
 dominion of the spirit in the body itself; He that believeth, 
 by that act of faith is born again, and by virtue of this 
 life he shall never die. 
 
 1 John xv. 19 ; xvii. 14. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 To the power of Resurrection Jesus linked the preroga- 
 tive of Judgment. The same Son whose spirit now quick- 
 eneth the soul to a new and everlasting life, and whose 
 voice shall hereafter quicken all the dead, will come to 
 judge the world ; for the Father " hath given Him au- 
 thority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of 
 Man." x 
 
 In His life-time Jesus declined to act as judge in cases 
 brought to Him, 2 and He disavowed any judicial purpose 
 in His mission; "For God sent not His Son into the 
 world to condemn the world, but that the world through 
 Him might be saved." 3 The ruling purpose in the mission 
 of Christ was to deliver man from condemnation — for " He 
 that believeth on Him is not condemned," — no longer 
 lies under judicial condemnation as a sinner, and shall not 
 hereafter fall under penalty : — " Verily, 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." 4 
 Even to those who openly rejected Him, Jesus said, " 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." 5 
 
 The purpose of Christ's mission was salvation, and the 
 whole tone of His life was as far as possible removed from 
 the spirit of judgment. But although Jesus so emphati- 
 cally disavowed both the act and the spirit of judgment in 
 
 1 John v. 27. 2 Luke xii. 14. 3 John Hi. 17. 
 
 4 John v. 24. 5 John xii. 47. 
 
 198 
 
THE JUDGMENT PUBLIC AND FORMAL. 199 
 
 His personal life upon earth, He as distinctly proclaimed 
 Himself the judge of mankind, and His purpose of coming 
 again in that character, at the end of the world. " When 
 the Son of man shall come in His glory and all 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." * 
 
 This scene represents a public and general judgment, at 
 a fixed time, presided over in person by the Son of Man, 
 whose decisions will finally determine the condition of all 
 mankind according to character. Other declarations set 
 forth a special fitness in the designation of Christ to the 
 office of judge, " because He is the Son of man." 2 These 
 several points cover the teaching of Jesus upon the mo- 
 mentous doctrine of the final judgment. In the scheme of 
 Redemption proclaimed by Christ, the Judgment is kept 
 ever in view, as a motive for accepting the Gospel, as a 
 warning against rejecting it, as the fitting termination of 
 the great drama of human life, and the final vindication of 
 the righteousness and the authority of God before the uni- 
 verse — an event of everlasting moment to the moral his- 
 tory of our race and to the government of God. Hence all 
 that can be known concerning the Judgment from the lips 
 of the Son of Man, has a direct bearing upon every indi- 
 vidual not only in his relations to that distant future, but 
 in his present personal relations to Christ and the Gospel. 
 
 First. It was taught by Christ that there will be a 
 "public and formal act of judgment concerning every indivi- 
 dual of our race. There have been attempts to explain 
 away His teaching in this particular. They who deny 
 that the Resurrection signifies the raising of the body with 
 a substantial identity, though with refined adaptations to a 
 
 1 Matt. xxv. 31. 2 John v. 27. 
 
200 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 spiritual life — who would make of the Anastasls nothing 
 more than a moral renovation here, and the liberation of 
 the soul by death into a higher spiritual life, — equally 
 deny a formal declarative Judgment, and would make the 
 judgment consist in the division of character effected by 
 Christ's word in this life, and in the natural progress of 
 the soul into a corresponding condition after death : in 
 other words, such interpreters hold, that the judgment 
 begins in this world in the separation of good and evil 
 which the word of God pronounces and the course of Pro- 
 vidence effects, and then that this goes on, as a natural law 
 of progress, into the future world, there keeping separate 
 the good and the evil from the moment of death. Thus 
 death itself becomes, as it were, an event of a judicial and 
 retributive character; and there is no need of further judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Beyond a question these ideas of Judgment are not only 
 founded in Reason and in Nature, but are brought out in 
 the teachings of Christ. But in addition to these obvious 
 and natural processes of judgment, He taught that there 
 will be a positive act of Judgment proceeding from Him- 
 self in a formal and conspicuous manner. His word truly 
 does judge men day by day. This Jesus Himself stated to 
 be an inevitable consequence of His own preaching, 
 though He had not come into the world for the purpose 
 of judgment. The clear strong light of truth as He pre- 
 sented it, made more palpable the darkness of sin and un- 
 belief, and the perversity and wickedness of such as would 
 not come to the light. This is the condemnation, the 
 xpitTcc, the separation, the decisive event, the turning point 
 of character — "that light is come into the world, and men 
 loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were 
 evil." 1 Hence while he who believes on the Son of God 
 and comes to the light is freed from condemnation, " he 
 
 l John iii, 19, 
 
201 
 
 that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath 
 not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of 
 God." x This process of moral judgment, making plain 
 distinctions of character by the test of truth, is going on 
 continually and necessarily, as often as the Gospel is 
 preached. It is a judgment that no man can escape : the 
 Truth pronounces it by shining over against his character 
 and life, and the man pronounces it upon himself by his 
 own deportment toward the Truth. There comes a new 
 krisis to every soul so often as it confronts the word of 
 Christ. Every word of His Truth judges the soul and 
 compels the soul to judge itself. When Christ says " Be 
 ye perfect as your Father," His word judges us as sinful. 
 When He says " Repent and believe the Gospel," His 
 word judges our impenitence and unbelief; the light makes 
 the shadows stand out. When He teaches us to pray, His 
 word condemns a prayerless life. When He commands us 
 to love God with all the heart, He judges our love of 
 self and the world. 
 
 As with the word of Jesus, so also with His life. The 
 manifestation that Jesus made of perfect holiness and of 
 divine power and glory, brought into bolder relief the sin- 
 fulness of those that rejected Him, and showed that what- 
 ever their pretensions to piety they were radically defective 
 at heart; for in refusing His teachings and rejecting the 
 evidences of His divine purity and power, they showed 
 that in heart they had really no love for holiness nor for 
 God. " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they 
 had not had sin." Their aversion to what is truly goo 1 
 and divine would not have stood out as it then did in their 
 consciousness and to the view of others, and because of 
 ignorance they would have been less culpable ; " but now 
 they have no cloak for their sin." 2 "If I had not done 
 among them the works which none other man did, thev 
 
 1 John rii. 18. 2 John xv. 22. 
 
202 THE THEOLOGY OF CHKIST. 
 
 had not had sin ; " l had not Christ appeared with His 
 wonderful works of divine power and love attesting the 
 truth, there had been some comparative excuse for men 
 living in ignorance and unbelief: " But now have they 
 both seen and hated both Me and my Father." The same 
 principle of judgment was again enunciated to the Phari- 
 sees who sought to condemn Jesus for giving sight to a 
 blind man on the Sabbath day. They professed to have 
 the true law of religion and refused to be convinced by the 
 miracle. Jesus said, " For judgment I am come into this 
 world, that they which see not might see ; and they which 
 see might be made blind." 2 His coming into the world, 
 His being in the world, by the normal effect of light and 
 truth made a judicial discrimination among men as to the 
 honesty of their feelings and the sincerity of their profes- 
 sions toward Truth and God. " If ye were blind, ye could 
 have no sin ; but now ye say We see, therefore your sin 
 remaineth." 3 This judicial process — a judgment in fact 
 though not inform — a moral judgment, goes forward day 
 by day. 
 
 Men profess a regard for principle, for morality, for re- 
 ligion, — pride themselves upon their virtues ; — yet when 
 Christ appears before them the embodiment of every virtue, 
 the manifestation of true goodness, the exponent of true re- 
 ligion, they render Him no homage, give Him no love, fol- 
 low Him with no obedience, and so by His Presence their 
 pretensions are judged. But this searching, discriminating 
 effect of truth and holiness was not the whole of the judg- 
 ment meant by Christ, as is plain from His own words; for 
 He teaches that the self-same Truth which now reveals 
 the characters of men and so far judges them, will also judge 
 them hereafter. " 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 in the last dayT 4 
 
 i John xv. 24. 2 John ix. 39. 3 John ix. 41. 4 John xii. 48. 
 
A SEPARATION OF GOOD AND EVIL AT DEATH. 203 
 
 The notion of a judgment immediately after death, a 
 judgment which consists simply in allotting the spirit, as 
 by a law of its own being, to a condition corresponding to 
 its moral state, finds some warrant in our Lord's parable of 
 Dives and Lazarus. There Lazarus is pictured in a state 
 of felicity after death, reposing " in Abraham's bosom/' 
 and Dives in a place of torment, whose pains he endures 
 while his five brethren are yet alive in this world. This 
 parable clearly teaches these two things — that immediately 
 after death the soul is found existing in a state of con- 
 sciousness ; and that in the state next following upon death, 
 there is a wide distinction in the conditions of the departed 
 which answers to the differences in their characters in this 
 world. This is virtually a judgment; whether we regard 
 it as the formal act of God, or the working out in their 
 natural effects upon the frames and feelings of the soul of 
 the dispositions formed and the habits indulged in the pre- 
 sent life. To the extent of separating the good and the 
 bad into distinct abodes of happiness and misery, the effect 
 of death is judicial and retributive. What the very laws 
 of nature in respect of all tendencies and developments, 
 and the laws of the human mind in respect of memory, 
 association, and conscience so obviously teach, is herein the 
 law of God, and the rewards and punishments which take 
 effect directly after death are of the nature of a judgment 
 upon each soul in particular. 
 
 But in addition to this our Lord has set before us the 
 picture of a public and formal judgment at which He will 
 preside, and pronounce judgment in person. "The Son of 
 Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with 
 Him ; and He shall sit upon the throne of His glory." 
 Now it is true that great providential judgments in the 
 course of human history were sometimes prefigured by 
 Christ as the coming of the Son of Man. Such was the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, and the final subversion of the 
 
204 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Jewish polity and faith, concerning which Jesus said: 
 " Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaveu ; 
 and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
 shall see the Son of Man coining in the clouds of heaven 
 with power and great glory." l There were no supernatural 
 portents of that event; its immediate effects were limited to 
 a small territory, and after Titus had wiped out the capital 
 of a rebellious province, the aifairs of the world went on as 
 before; yet in its moral bearings upon the kingdom of 
 God, this was one of the great way-marks of human his- 
 tory. And this pictorial " coming " of the Son of Man is 
 used only of certain signal and majestic events in history 
 which the minds of men instinctively recognize as the judg- 
 ments of God. The grandeur of the event in its moral 
 relations justifies the boldness of the figure. 
 
 Again, the event of death is sometimes spoken of under 
 the figure of a master coming to reckon with his ser- 
 vants ; 2 for to each individual the time of death is the 
 winding up of his earthly aifairs, and a summons from his 
 Lord to render up his account. But to represent the com- 
 mon event of mortality that occurs at every moment of 
 every day as the coming of Christ with great power and 
 glory, with His holy angels, the sounding of a trumpet and 
 the setting up a throne, would be a rhetorical extravagance 
 that no Biblical writer ever dreamed of. And however 
 each individual may be practically judged at death, such a 
 description as our Lord has given of His own coming in 
 the character of Judge can mean nothing less than a public 
 and formal act of judgment. 
 
 In the same language He teaches that this judgment will 
 be universal in respect of the human race. " Before Him 
 ^hall be gathered all nations" 3 — all the families of men in 
 all their generations. This positive, formal and universal 
 
 1 Matt. xxiv. 30. 2 Matt. xxv. 19. 3 Matt. xxv. 32. 
 
THE JUDGMENT UNIVERSAL. 205 
 
 judgment is most clearly set. forth in the following words : 
 " The Father hath given Him authority to execute judg- 
 ment, because He is the Son of Man. 1 Marvel not at 
 this," said Jesus, and entering somewhat into detail, He 
 proceeded to describe what manner of judgment this shall 
 j )e . — no t a judgment in this life, separating His friends 
 from His enemies : not a judging of souls one by one, by 
 assigning them their portion at death ; but a simultaneous 
 judging of all mankind, to follow upon the Eesurrection — 
 " The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves 
 shall hear His voice :" 2 that voice is elsewhere likened to 
 the sounding of a trumpet, the signal for decampment, 
 which wakes the sleepers for a battle or a march — " the 
 intimation of some grand catastrophe " at hand ; " 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." 3 Thus mankind will be judged as in the 
 body for the deeds done in the body. God's dealings with 
 men in this world will then be unveiled in a convincing 
 revelation of His righteousness. The interlaced influences 
 of society will then be untwined, and each character be 
 brought out according to its deserts. " For there is nothing 
 covered that shall not be revealed : neither hid that shall 
 not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in 
 darkness, shall be heard in the light ; and that which ye 
 have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon 
 the house-tops." 4 How much greater moment will the 
 public exposition of character, followed by appropriate 
 awards, impart to the judicial verdict of the divine govern- 
 ment, than would the silent dropping of each individual at 
 death into his appointed place ! 
 
 Christ taught further that there will be a set time for 
 
 1 John v. 27. 2 John v. 28. 8 John v. 28, 29. * Luke xii. 3. 
 
206 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 this general judgment This belongs to the very idea of it 
 as public and universal. 
 
 In the order of events Christ placed the Judgment after 
 the Resurrection. He spoke of it as that day, — an ex- 
 pression which in New Testament usage denotes the closing 
 up of this dispensation and the ushering in of a new order 
 of things. There is something that awakens awe in this 
 emphatic designation of " that Day :" — " Of thai Day and 
 hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven ; V1 "It 
 shall be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for 
 Chorazin ;" 2 " Take heed to yourselves lest that Day come 
 upon you unawares ;" 3 — a Day selected, marked, appointed, 
 a Day which like the first day of creation, the day of the 
 crucifixion, the day of the Lord's resurrection, shall be re- 
 membered when all other days of human history are for- 
 gotten. For this shall mark indelibly the calendar of our 
 race, as it passes over from the doings of time into the issues 
 of eternity — a Day so grand, so bright, so glorious, so 
 terrible, that in all the ages after it shall be remembered as 
 That Day ! 
 
 Christ announced the judgment to follow the end of the 
 world. " In the end of the world, the Son of Man shall 
 send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His 
 kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, 
 and shall cast them into a furnace of fire;" 4 and again He 
 said, " At the end of the world the angels shall come forth, 
 and sever the wicked from among the just." 5 
 
 To sum up the doctrine of Jesus concerning the Judg- 
 ment ; at a fixed period in the future, marking so high and 
 solemn an occasion as " that Day," at the close of the present 
 order of things, the end of the world, and after the resur- 
 rection, there will be a public and general judgment of 
 mankind which shall finally divide them into two great 
 
 1 Mat. xxiv. 36. 2 Luke x. 12. 3 Luke xxi. 34. 
 
 4 Mat. xiii. 41, 42. 5 x iii. 49. 
 
OUR HUMANITY IN THE JUDGE. 207 
 
 classes, and shall apportion these according to their charac- 
 ter, to a state of happiness or a state of misery. It will be 
 a crowning characteristic of the Judgment that the Lord 
 Jesus in person, as the Son of Man, will preside at that 
 august solemnity, and will utter the decisions that shall fix 
 forever the destiny of each and all of mankind. The 
 Son of Man shall come in His glory, and shall sit upon 
 the throne of His glory : all nations shall be gathered be- 
 fore Him for their final award : He shall separate them 
 one from another ; He shall set the sheep on His right hand, 
 but the goats on the left. 1 The judging shall be His; 
 the decision shall be His ; the welcome to the righteous, 
 the sentence upon the wicked shall proceed from His lips : — 
 "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
 ment unto the Son." 2 
 
 The Humanity of Christ is made prominent in this refer- 
 ence to the judgment, as His Divinity was made prominent 
 in reference to the resurrection. The dead shall hear the 
 voice of " the Son of God " — the divine power and majesty 
 will be most strikingly expressed through the voice that 
 shall raise the dead; but "the Son of Man," our represent- 
 ative and glorified humanity in Christ, shall come into 
 view in the solemnities of the judgment. It is easy to 
 imagine the moral significance of this exaltation of the 
 Christ as the Judge. His personal connection with human- 
 ity, JJis experience of its trials and temptations, His sympa- 
 thy with its sufferings and sorrows, will throw an air of 
 benignity and tenderness over a scene that must of itself 
 possess so much of majesty and awe. As one has said, 
 "Man shall be judged by his fellow, by the most gracious 
 and the meekest man, by man who hath borne the sins of 
 mankind, and can have compassion upon his brethren — so 
 that it is Mercy itself that judgeth." — One mav well con- 
 ceive that the same sympathetic experience with our human- 
 
 1 Mat. xxv. 33. 2 John v. 22. 
 
208 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 ity that qualified J esus to be " a merciful and faithful High 
 Priest/' would have some corresponding relation to His 
 office as Judge, bringing Him near to the arraigned in a 
 compassionate consideration of ignorance and infirmi- 
 ties. 
 
 Moreover, as the truth of Jesus was the closest test of 
 character, the life of Jesus the perfect model of humanity, 
 the death of Jesus the highest expression of love, it is fit- 
 ting that they who have had knowledge of Him should 
 be brought to trial at the last before Him, and be judged 
 by their feelings and actions toward Himself. Surely 
 every complaint or even suspicion of severity must be 
 silenced, when He who showed His anxiety to save men 
 by dying for them, and who promised forgiveness to them 
 that hated Him, shall remand unto condemnation for their 
 sins those who would not come unto Him that they might 
 have life. l Their sinful unbelief will itself be their con- 
 demnation, in the light of the character and mission of 
 Christ, and especially in the light of the mercy that has 
 saved others and would equally have saved them. 2 There 
 will be a fitness also in the judgment being rendered by 
 Him who as the Messiah appeared on earth to manifest 
 and perfect the kingdom of God in opposition to the king- 
 dom of darkness and evil. The judicial function of 
 Christ will set forth His divine royalty. 3 
 
 Back of all these considerations, as exalting and enforc- 
 ing them, is the fact that God was revealed to men in His 
 paternal love and grace through the Incarnation of Christ. 
 It was through our human nature as the medium, that 
 Jehovah manifested Himself to men as the Father ; and so 
 wondrously was the love of God in giving His Son to 
 save the world identified with the grace of Christ in being 
 " lifted up " for that end, so entirely were the thoughts and 
 
 1 John viii. 21, 24. 2 Matt. xi. 20-25. 3 Matt. xxv. 34. 
 
THE INCARNATION A REVELATION. 209 
 
 purposes of the Father reflected in the Son, that Jesus 
 could say "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." l 
 The being and attributes of God had been matter of 
 devout contemplation in the creation; had been to phil- 
 osophic minds a subject of speculative thought ; had been 
 impressed upon the Jewish people by occasional appear- 
 ances of celestial glory, and special acts of divine power ; 
 but when Christ came, men saw this power over nature, 
 over diseases, over the dead, over the world of spirits, pro- 
 ceeding from a personal will, and so felt the presence of 
 God as a living, acting personality; they saw this power 
 put forth for most beneficent ends ; and so, that goodness 
 which they had inferred from creation and providence, 
 they saw to be the living activity of the love of God : the 
 truth which they had spelled out upon the pages of nature 
 and of the human mind, or heard from the lips of pro- 
 phets, they now heard in the clearness, the fulness, the 
 majesty of the voice of God. That holiness which Reason 
 and Revelation had alike proclaimed as the sum of the 
 divine character, and conscience and the word of God had 
 required as the condition of divine favor, they saw before 
 them, a living example, in Him who was without sin, 
 and full of every grace : — but most of all, that mercy, 
 which nature but obscurely hinted, and reason hardly 
 dared to guess, and the law had only shadowed through 
 its sacrifices, was here manifested in words of tenderness 
 and compassion, in the offer of salvation, and in the for- 
 giveness of sins : it was in view of this intelligible and 
 completed exhibition of the character of God, that Jesus 
 said, " He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father" 
 
 The Incarnation was the most stupendous moral pheno- 
 menon in the history of this world, and so far as we can 
 imagine, in the history of the universe. The physical fact 
 
 1 John xiv. 9. 
 14 
 
210 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the Incarnation was the least part of the miracle : for, 
 that the Creator of all substances and forms could adapt 
 Himself to any, were no marvel. But the purpose of the 
 Incarnation is the moral wonder of earth and heaven, — 
 that God entered into humanity to redeem, ennoble, en- 
 throne it : and this sublime wonder of the Incarnation will 
 stand out in Jesus the appointed Judge, because He is the 
 Son of Man. In that Day when all nations shall be 
 gathered before Him, the surpassing wonder shall be the 
 unveiling of that awful mystery, the Incarnate God, the 
 Redeeming Man ; all angels His servants ; principalities, 
 powers, and dominions gathered beneath His throne ! 
 
CHAPTER XVL 
 
 THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 In the dramatic representation of the Judgment recorded 
 by Matthew, the scene opens with words of congratulation 
 from the enthroned Son of Man to His loyal and faithful 
 disciples: "Then shall the King say unto them on His 
 right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world." l A state of eternal felicity awaits the close of the 
 believer's life as its appropriate consummation. " He that 
 believeth on Me hath everlasting life/' 2 — the life of faith 
 sustained upon earth by the " bread of God," at death will 
 emerge from all the limitations of the flesh into the life of 
 perfect satisfaction in heaven ; — a continuous Life — here 
 an immanent principle, there an immanent Power " equal 
 unto the angels ; " 3 " He that eateth of this bread shall 
 live forever." 4 This promise of a perfected and glorified 
 life with Himself our Lord associated with the commemo- 
 rative supper, embodying it with the most expressive 
 symbol of His love, that as often as we remember Him in 
 His death, we may revive the assurance that we shall be 
 with Him in His glory. The sacrament which He insti- 
 tuted at the first as a memorial, He declared also to be a 
 prophecy ; jt was designed to link together in the thought 
 of 'His disciples His departure and His coming; to connect 
 His dying upon the cross with their living forever in the 
 kingdom of His Father. In the anguish of parting He 
 said to His disciples " Believe in Me ; I go to prepare a 
 place for you ; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I 
 
 * Matt. xxv. 34. 2 j h n vi. 47. 3 Luke xx. 36. * John vi. 58. 
 
 211 
 
212 THE THEOLOGY OP* CHRIST. 
 
 will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where 
 I am, there ye may be also." l And the going and the 
 coming He linked together in this prophetical memorial — 
 the memorial " This d9 in remembrance of Me," 2 the pro- 
 pheey, " I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine 
 until that day when I drink it new with you in My 
 Father's kingdom." 3 
 
 To drink together of the wine-cup at the Table signifies 
 social communion — participation in a common festival of 
 love : the promise of Jesus that He will hereafter drink 
 of the same cup with His disciples, is an assurance that 
 they shall then be admitted to a visible fellowship and en- 
 joyment with their Lord — that He who is now felt to be 
 present at this sacrament, through the spiritual perception of 
 faith, will then be seen in the midst of His Redeemed, 
 welcoming them as His brethren, and diffusing over them 
 the glory of His presence and the joy of His own blessedness. 
 
 The sphere of this joyous communion will be the perfect- 
 ed state of the Redeemed in heaven. "In my Father's 
 kingdom," was the time and place indicated by our Lord 
 for the fulfilling of this promise. The " kingdom of heaven," 
 the " kingdom of God," as we have seen, 4 began to be mani- 
 fested upon earth when souls, brought into a personal 
 allegiance to Truth and Holiness, were united in a fellow- 
 ship of spiritual love and obedience to their common Lord. 
 Wherever such souls are found there is the kingdom of 
 heaven already within them : and wherever such souls are 
 joined together in some visible bond of recognition and 
 fellowship, there is the kingdom of heaven made manifest. 
 As yet, however, the kingdom of heaven is but imperfectly 
 established in respect of its authority in the hearts of those 
 who have received it, and imperfectly manifested through 
 any communion of Christians by which it is represented to 
 
 1 John xiv. 1-4. 2 Luke xxii. 19. s Matt. xxvi. 29. 
 
 4 Chap. iii. 
 
THE KINGDOM MADE PERFECT. 213 
 
 the world. The kingdom in its highest sense — as de- 
 noting the perfect rule of the divine will in a perfect com- 
 munity — will not appear until the final coming of the 
 Son of Man. 
 
 It is of a time after the end of the world, after death, 
 and the resurrection and the judgment — the time when 
 " the Son of man shall send forth his angels to gather out 
 of His kingdom all things that offend " 1 — that Jesus has 
 declared, " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 
 in the kingdom of their Father." 2 The Master of the 
 house shall " thrust out all workers of iniquity," separat- 
 ing the false from the true, and then shall Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets abide in the king- 
 dom of God 3 — in a state of purity and felicity that no sin 
 nor trouble shall ever invade : the kingdom of God puri- 
 fied of all the accidents of evil that have attached them- 
 selves to its external development in this world, shall then 
 stand forth in its essential beauty and glory. That state 
 of perfected character and beatified existence which the 
 Scriptures describe as Heaven, our Lord here styles His 
 Father's kingdom. It will be the crowning honor and 
 felicity of the saints in heaven, that the Lord Jesus will 
 then make Himself known as their friend and companion, 
 receiving them into a personal fellowship, and sharing 
 with them as at a high festival, His peculiar glory as the 
 Son of Man. In that richness of immediate personal in- 
 tercourse, in that fulness of love made visible by the shar- 
 ing of all its gifts, will Jesus fulfill His parting word to 
 His disciples, " I will drink new wine with you in my 
 Father's kingdom." 
 
 The cup of communion at that feast will have a new 
 flavor, and will sparkle with fresh delights — a flavor that 
 will not as now reach the soul through the senses, but 
 shall convey direct from soul to soul the very essence of 
 
 i Matt. xiii. 41 . 2 Matt. xiii. 43. 3 Luke xiii. 25, 30. 
 
214 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST, 
 
 love and bliss ; — the wine of life pressed from immortal 
 fruits, and imparting the purity, tone, and freshness of 
 celestial joy. It will be a " new " and more exalted mode 
 of spiritual intercourse ; — where now this cup, as a symbol, 
 addresses the imagination and helps us to conceive of Jesus 
 as spiritually communing with us, there Jesus will give us 
 in His own person the tokens of fellowship that shall 
 cause us to realize that we are with Him and possess 
 Him forever. 
 
 It will be new, also, as the cup of greeting differs from 
 the cup of parting. In the cup of parting we give all 
 good wishes, all kindly feelings, and pledge ourselves to 
 mutual remembrance, and to sympathetic, spiritual com- 
 muning ; yet with all this there is blended a feeling of 
 sadness at the separation. But in the cup of greeting, we 
 cannot stay to speak of good wishes and good feelings, and 
 promises of fidelity, for the joy we have in coming to- 
 gether face to face. The new wine will beam with the re- 
 flection of that joy. 
 
 And this parting promise seems to foreshadow a pecu- 
 liar joy of Christ in the fellowship of His redeemed held 
 in reserve, as it were, until that day of reunion. This cup 
 of blessing He does not share with the angels. There are 
 sympathies and communings, tender and inexpressible 
 blendings of soul between Jesus and His disciples, which 
 only the Humanity that He redeemed can know. Hence 
 the significance of the negative as well as the positive 
 terms of the promise ; " I will not drink henceforth of 
 this fruit of the vine, until that Day when I drink it new 
 with you in My Father's kingdom." 
 
 And there is another deep spiritual meaning here : 
 namely that the saints in heaven shall forever refer their feli- 
 city to the Redemption wrought for them by Jesus through 
 His death upon the cross. Upon the eve of offering Him- 
 self up for their redemption, Christ gave to all who should 
 
THE FESTIVAL OF REDEMPTION. 215 
 
 believe on His name, this cup as the symbol and memorial 
 of His blood " shed for the remission of sins." With the 
 parting injunction " This do in remembrance of Me," He 
 coupled the promise of meeting them again in the higher 
 fellowship of heaven. But there too, the joy of meeting 
 their Lord, the bliss of being saved, would be presented 
 under the symbol of a cup ; and though the wine would be 
 new — the first interview there in w T onderful contrast with 
 the parting here — yet would the wine, the cup, link all 
 the blessedness of that reunion in heaven, to the tender 
 memories of the sacrifice on earth — link the salvation 
 yonder to the Redemption here ; and so, in the long in- 
 terval Jesus Himself will not partake of the cup, until the 
 memorial of suffering shall be transformed into the greet- 
 ing of reunion, with all " the travail of His soul " 1 gath- 
 ered about Him in His Father's kingdom. 
 
 Under this exquisite figure of a festival of love begun 
 on earth to be renewed and perfected in heaven, did the 
 Lord Jesus set forth the fruits of His redemption to all 
 believers. His doctrine of the Final State of the Right- 
 eous is that, after the Resurrection and the Judgment, they 
 shall dwell in perfect bliss and glory, amid the constant 
 tokens of His presence and love. However high their 
 joys in the intervening Paradise, there must come to them 
 some wondrous augmentation when the Son of Man sit- 
 ting on the Throne of His glory, with all nations gath- 
 ered before Him, — shall say unto them upon His right 
 hand, " Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the king- 
 dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" 2 
 — blessed with the Saviour's welcome, blessed with His 
 immediate presence, blessed of His Father, possessors of 
 that " kingdom " for which they were created at the first 
 in the divine image ; and were renewed as the spiritual 
 sons of God. 
 
 1 Isaiah liii. 11. 2 Matt. xxv. 34. 
 
216 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 A collocation of the words of Christ touching the final 
 state of all believers teaches as the sum of His doctrine: 
 
 (a). That one element in that state of blessedness which 
 is promised them hereafter will be the near Presence of the 
 Lord of their life and love. " I go," said He, " to prepare a 
 place for you, and I will come again and receive you unto 
 Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." 1 In His 
 last prayer for His disciples Jesus anticipated their coming 
 to be with Himself, and His desire for this breathed to 
 the Father was also the determination of that will which 
 was always the will of God. He was about to return to 
 that visible glory and blessedness in the heavenly man- 
 sions, which He had with the Father before the world 
 was ; but that glory would henceforth be brightened by 
 His work of Redemption, and by the participation of His 
 followers in the triumphs of His Resurrection : " Father, I 
 will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me 
 where I am ; that they may behold My glory which Thou 
 hast given Me." 2 
 
 The victorious leader of the American army, the second 
 saviour of his country, with an honest pride summoned his 
 son from West Point to witness his inauguration as Presi- 
 dent, that he might behold and enjoy his father's honor; 
 yet the son of the President could share the glory of his 
 father only through its reflection upon him morally; 
 nothing of the military renown, nor of the political distinc- 
 tion was his ; and when the father's term of office shall 
 expire, the son will be of no more consequence in Wash- 
 ington than any other man. But the beholding of Christ's 
 glory promised to His disciples is a sharing as well as a 
 seeing; for Jesus has so identified Himself with His 
 Church that His glory will pervade His people as being 
 identified with Himself. "I am glorified in them;" 3 "I in 
 them and Thou in Me." 4 
 
 1 John xiv. 3. 2 John xvii. 24. 
 
 3 John xvii. 10. * John xvii. 23. 
 
FREEDOM AND POWER OF THE REDEEMED. 217 
 
 (6). A second element in this coming blessedness will be 
 the exaltation of believers in honor, through their union with 
 Christ. They shall " inherit a kingdom ; " not only shall 
 they find themselves amid the visible splendors of the 
 kingdom of God, bathing in the light and glory of His 
 presence; out they shall know that all this is theirs for an 
 eternal possession. All that God can communicate to 
 them of honor and blessing, filling their nature to reple- 
 tion, shall be theirs. He made man at the beginning to 
 have dominion over other works of His hands : He 
 crowned him with glory and honor and put all things 
 under his feet. 1 But man uncrowned himself by sin — 
 subjecting his soul with its divine instincts of knowledge 
 and spiritual power, to the dictation of the body and its 
 appetites, he cast away his lordship over nature, and be- 
 came its servant. By redeeming man from sin, Christ has 
 restored him to that spiritual power and dominion which 
 from the foundation of the world were designed to be his ; 
 and into the fulness of that kingdom the Redeemed shall 
 enter in the heavenly state ; dominion over the powers of 
 nature, so that nothing shall harm them ; dominion over 
 evil spirits so that these shall no more tempt them ; do- 
 minion over time and space through the powers of an 
 unwearying and unending life. 
 
 "Kingdom" is not mere position and sphere of action, 
 but the consciousness of power, of capacity and exaltation ; 
 ft The kingdom of God is within you." Could we for 
 instance, transport ourselves, without external helps, at our 
 own will, from star to star, we should have the kingdom 
 over space ; the spirit-power would control distance, gravi- 
 tation, all that pertains to motion and place. Some such 
 joyous freedom of conscious power in respect of nature and 
 her laws, may be a portion of the kingdom of the saints. 
 
 (c). Another element of the final state of the righteous 
 as promised by Christ is, that they shall have the approving 
 
 1 Ps. viii. 6. 
 
218 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 benediction of His Father, and so shall dwell in conscious 
 fellowship with God. " Come, ye blessed of my Father." 1 
 "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
 kingdom of their Father." 2 To be acknowledged as chil- 
 dren of God denotes the completeness of the restoration 
 which Christ has accomplished in believers. Sin severed 
 the spiritual union of the soul with God and effaced His 
 spiritual likeness ; sin made man no longer a child of God 
 save in origin and name; and so completely does a moral 
 resemblance set aside all resemblance by mere derivation or 
 title, that to the Jews who, while calling themselves the 
 children of God, denied the truth and the Son of God, Jesus 
 said " Ye are of your Father, the devil" 3 But to them that 
 believed on His name, Jesus imparted the glory of a 
 sonship in privilege and promise analogous to His own : 
 " The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them ; 
 that they may be one, even as we are one." l This filial 
 relationship will be acknowledged and crowned with open 
 benediction in that heavenly home. Then shall be ful- 
 filled in its highest meaning that declaration of Christ, " He 
 that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father." 5 " For the 
 Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and 
 believed that I came out from God." 6 As one has said, 
 " God neither hopes nor believes, but knows and loves ;" 
 therefore love is greater than faith or hope, because it does 
 not 5 like these, only relate to God as an object, but belongs 
 to God as a nature, so that in loving Him we share Him 
 also. That beatific union Christ will proclaim at " that 
 Day ;" saying, " Come, blessed of My Father." 
 
 And His Father is their Father also. While they were 
 yet in this world, if we may so speak, He had appropriated 
 them as children; they had come to Him because the 
 Father drew them ; receiving the Spirit of Christ they had 
 
 1 Matt. xxv. 34. 2 Matt. xiii. 43. 
 
 3 John viii. 44. 4 John xvii. 22. 
 
 5 John xiv. 21. 6 John xvi. 27. 
 
THE FEATURES OF HEAVENLY BLISS. 219 
 
 become "the children of the Highest," 1 and now the un- 
 speakable blessedness of heaven, in the reciprocative love 
 of God, shall be theirs by the gift of the Father. 
 
 Other elements of heavenly felicity are set forth in the 
 writings of the apostles, especially by Paul and John ; buv 
 the plan of this treatise restricts us to the personal teachings 
 of our Lord, and therefore we enumerate only those features 
 of heaven which Jesus Himself has delineated. For the 
 same reason we refrain from all speculation upon the nature 
 of existence in the heavenly state and its modes of occupa- 
 tion and enjoyment. We would not introduce one breath 
 of mere conjecture to mar the serene beauty and dignity of 
 the declarations of Christ. Yet few and brief as those 
 declarations are, what higher heaven can we conceive than 
 Jesus has promised, in a perpetual feast of love and joy, 
 under new conditions of existence, not subject to partings 
 and sorrows ; in His own near and abiding Presence ; in 
 the sharing of His glory ; in the honor of a kingdom ; in 
 the blessing of His Father, and a welcome to all the good 
 His love can provide and all the joy that it can bring. 
 
 This blessedness is traced directly to His Eedemption. 
 This cup — the New Testament in His blood shed for the 
 remission of sins — will be brought into remembrance at 
 the threshold of that heavenly festival, because only by 
 that blood could we have remission, and only through re- 
 mission of sins can we have life and heaven. " As Moses 
 lifted up the serpent 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." 2 
 
 But though Christ Himself is the only door into heaven, 
 and no man cometh to the Father but by Him, 3 yet there 
 are conditions of mind and of action to be fulfilled on our 
 part, in order that we may be numbered with the saved. 
 Two such conditions Christ Himself laid down with empha- 
 
 1 Luke vi. 35. 2 John iii. 14, 15. 3 John xiv. 6. 
 
220 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 sis in His solemn description of the last Judgment and the 
 awards that shall follow it ; these are, confessing the name 
 of Christ, and acting from the love of Christ. " Whoso- 
 ever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also 
 before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever 
 shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My 
 Father which is in heaven." * This confessing may take 
 many different forms, and it is not the form of it that is es- 
 sential as a condition, but the thing itself as truly and heartily 
 done — not making a confession, but confessing Christ. 
 To confess Christ is first of all to acknowledge Him in the 
 soul as Redeemer and Lord ; to confess one's need of Him 
 to take away sin ; to confess one's dependence upon Him 
 for salvation ; to confess one's admiration of Him and 
 homage toward Him ; to confess Him with the full sur- 
 render of heart and life to His service. And one must 
 likewise confess Him before men ; by a Christian tone and 
 spirit in the family and in society ; by Christian principles 
 in business and a Christian deportment in the common 
 life. And in addition to these modes of confessing Christ, 
 one should honor Him by some sort of public acknowledg- 
 ment and testimony. The obvious way of making such 
 confession is to join His Church ; and if one's reason for 
 not doing this is an unwillingness to confess Christ, how 
 can such an one hope that Christ will confess him ? 
 
 The other condition of admission to the heavenly blessed- 
 ness is a life of active benevolence prompted by love to 
 Christ. In the commendation bestowed upon the right- 
 eous in the day of judgment, their welcome to the kingdom 
 seems to proceed upon the ground of the good works they 
 had done. 2 Did our Lord then teach or imply a doctrine 
 of salvation by works, or of merit ? The very statement 
 contradicts that supposition ; for they who do such works 
 have no thought of merit in them ; they are astonished and 
 
 i Mat. x. 32, 33. 2 Matt. xxv. 34-37. 
 
RELATION OF WORKS TO SALVATION. 221 
 
 overwhelmed at the enumeration ; " Lord, when saw we 
 Thee an hungered and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave 
 Thee drink." l What they did was not in the endeavor to 
 merit heaven, or to work out or work up a salvation, but 
 was the acting out of a true love to Christ in dependence 
 upon Him. These good works were not meritorious but 
 evidential : " The works of love performed by the righteous 
 are the proofs by which they evince their calling to the 
 kingdom of God. As works of true love these presuppose 
 living faith : faith and love are as inseparable as fire and 
 warmth : the one cannot exist in its real nature without the 
 other. External actions of charity may be dead works ; 
 but our Lord speaks of the affluence of the inward tide of 
 love in acts of holy charity." "Ye have done it unto 
 Me :" — without thought of personal reward, without a cal- 
 culation of merit, under the promptings of the Saviour's 
 love, they had carried out His spirit in ministering to 
 others. To act in all things from love to Christ denotes 
 that vital union with Christ which qualifies the participant 
 for the felicity of heaven. And since heaven consists more 
 in spirit than in place, more in character than in condi- 
 tion, this doing the will of Christ in the daily life is not 
 so much a formal preparation for the life to come, as it is 
 the present experience of that principle of holy living 
 which shall find its proper consummation in the Life Ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 i Matt. xxv. 37. 
 
CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 "We have traced the doctrine of Christ step by step from 
 His first preaching of the necessity of repentance and the 
 new birth, and His promise of eternal life to all who 
 should believe upon the Son of Man as lifted up upon the 
 cross, to the announcement of the day in which He will 
 come again to judge the quick and the dead ; and pausing 
 as it were at the threshold of the eternal state, we have 
 heard the words of final greeting, " Come, ye blessed of 
 My Father, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from 
 the foundation of the world." 1 Would that we might close 
 our contemplation of that scene Avith these thrilling words 
 of invitation! — that there were no alternative to be looked 
 upon, no contrast to the picture that Christ has given of 
 Himself embosomed in the midst of His glorified disciples 
 at the festival of the new wine, the feast of immortal life 
 and love in His Father's kingdom. But since He has 
 stated the alternative and drawn the contrast, we must fol- 
 low His teachings in all fidelity to the end. Already at 
 the beginning of His ministry, in the first proclamation of 
 the Gospel, the alternative was presented, the contrast was 
 foreshadowed. He came that "whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have eternal life ; " and this 
 clearly implies that they who would not believe must 
 perish ; which, indeed, was expressly declared in that " he 
 that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that be^ 
 lieveth not is condemned already." 2 And the contrast 
 
 1 Matt. xxr. 34. 2 John iii. 18. 
 
 222 
 
THE WARNINGS OF CHRIST. 223 
 
 which was thus pointedly stated at the beginning of the 
 Gospel, runs through our Lord's discourses and parables to 
 the close ; and is there drawn out in the form of results 
 that are positive, visible, and unchangeable. 
 
 The issue of life or death, salvation or condemnation, 
 was always present to the mind of Jesus in preaching the 
 Gospel. A future state of rewards and punishments formed 
 a back-ground of motive and warning in every discourse, 
 and in some discourses was brought most impressively into 
 the foreground. Self-denial, the renouncing of besetting 
 sin was urged for the reason that " It is better to enter into 
 life halt or maimed, than that the whole body should be 
 cast into hell." l Courage in acknowledging Christ was 
 urged by this plea : " Fear not them which kill the body, 
 but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear Him who 
 is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." 2 His 
 hearers were exhorted to " enter in at the strait gate, for 
 wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to de- 
 struction, and many there be which go in thereat." 3 They 
 were exhorted to " make the tree good," the heart right, 
 because " every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is 
 hewn down and cast into the fire." 4 They were warned 
 that mere professions could not save them, for even " chil- 
 dren of the kingdom," born of the seed of Abraham — for 
 not receiving Christ, shall be " cast out into outer dark- 
 ness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;" 5 for 
 while in this world much that is evil is gathered into the 
 visible church,*" at the end of the world the angels shall 
 come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and 
 shall cast them into the furnace of fire." 6 The Pharisees 
 and all hypocrites were warned of "the damnation of 
 hell." 7 Dives having lived a sensual, worldly life, on 
 dying went to a place of misery, and " was in torments ; " 8 
 
 1 Matt, xviii. 8. " Matt. x. 28. 3 Matt. vii. 13. 4 Matt. vii. 19. 5 Matt. viii. 12 
 6 Matt. xiii. 42. 1 Matt, xxiii. 33. 8 Luke xvi. 23. 
 
224 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 " What then is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
 world, and lose his own soul?" 1 The foolish virgins, 
 having no oil of grace in their lamps, shall knock and cry 
 in vain at the door of heaven, forever shut against them. 2 
 " Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we 
 not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast 
 out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful 
 works ? And then will I profess unto them I never knew 
 you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." 3 "All 
 that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 Man, 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." * " These shall go 
 away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
 life eternal." 5 " For the Son of Man shall come in the 
 glory of His Father, with His angels ; and then He shall 
 reward every man according to his works." 6 
 
 All these are the very words of Christ. The doctrine of 
 a coming judgment, at which a direct recompense from 
 God shall be rendered to men individually according to 
 character, is not an invention of a malignant theology. It 
 was the constant teaching of Jesus Christ, and distin- 
 guishes Christianity as a moral system, with positive 
 awards, from systems that refer all evils to purely natural 
 causes. 
 
 That penal consequences follow upon the transgression 
 of physical laws, and that these are intended to have a 
 moral effect in restraining transgression, is* written in the 
 whole constitution of Nature and of Man. Some main- 
 tain, however, that the penalties of transgression are lim- 
 ited to the operation of natural laws ; that these may be 
 retrieved at any time in the future by a change of conduct 
 on the part of the sufferer ; or will work themselves out at 
 
 1 Matt. xvi. 26. 2 Matt. xxv. 1 seq. 8 Matt. vii. 22. 
 
 4 John v. 28. 5 Matt. xxv. 46. 6 Matt. xvi. 27. 
 
NATURAL SEQUENCES OF SIN. 225 
 
 last iii his atonement and purification. In other words, 
 by the doctrine of natural consequences, sin and its effects 
 are simply a question between man and the general system 
 of laws within which he exists. Certain actions are fol- 
 lowed by certain effects. Whoever therefore, transgresses 
 the laws of his being or the laws of the universe must ex- 
 pect to take the consequences. This doctrine of natural 
 consequences is true so fax as it goes; and this alone should 
 suffice to deter men from transgressing the laws of their 
 being. But Christ taught that the punishment of sin will 
 embody the additional element of a positive retribution 
 from His hand as the righteous Judge of the world ; — that 
 He Himself will reward every man according to His 
 works; and that these awards will be final and everlasting. 
 
 Exception is taken to this doctrine of a direct and posi- 
 tive retribution as inconsistent with the wisdom and good- 
 ness of God, and with the plan of salvation ; it is styled a 
 dogma of a hard and arbitrary theology. But since this 
 feature is made so prominent in the Gospel, since it is a 
 doctrine most emphatically pronounced by Jesus Christ 
 Himself, it cannot be set aside except by setting aside the 
 whole of Christianity ; it is linked with the doctrine of 
 Jesus from first to last ; and it must be in harmony with 
 the divine justice and love that beam from ^very page of 
 His Gospel. 
 
 Our Lord's doctrine of retribution differs from the doc- 
 trine of natural sequences in two material points. First, in 
 place of a natural law of cause and effect, it sets before us 
 a personal judge whose word declares the penalty; and 
 secondly it makes that penalty a positive infliction upon 
 moral grounds, because of character and not the mere issue 
 of a natural law. We have already in part discussed this 
 distinction, l but it is so striking and momentous that it 
 
 1 See Chap. xr. 
 15 
 
226 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 deserves a further consideration. It marks the difference 
 between a machine-world in which things move on by 
 mere natural routine, and a moral government in which 
 the Creator and Head of the universe maintains His au- 
 thority over intelligent creatures by moral laws with their 
 proper sanctions. 
 
 Recalling for a moment the scene of the final judgment, 
 as portrayed by Christ, we there behold Himself sitting 
 upon the throne of His glory, and all nations gathered 
 before Him; He separates mankind into two classes by 
 the test of character, and He Himself pronounces the final 
 award; He addresses the one class as "Blessed of His 
 Father/' and welcomes them to " the kingdom " reserved 
 for them ; this He does as King and Judge, with an 
 authority whose effect is immediate and final; then this 
 same judicial authoritative voice says to those upon the left 
 hand, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." 
 And the result of this solemn proceeding is summed up in 
 the words — " These shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment, but the righteous into life eternal." 1 Now it may 
 be said this scene is pictorial, and that much of the language 
 is the drapery of a poetic description. Grant this, but of 
 what is it a picture ? and what instruction is it designed to 
 convey ? Does it picture the mere working of natural laws, 
 by which at death men one by one drop into their respective 
 places in a future state of existence? Can this vivid and 
 impressive picture be reduced to a mere parable of natural 
 distinctions and natural sequences? How then shall we 
 dispose of the central figure — the living personal Christ? 
 How dwindle down the collective multitudes, divided by 
 character, into a mere succession of individuals passing off 
 the stage each in his own time and way ? This is a picture 
 indeed, but a picture whose corresponding reality is a formal, 
 definitive judgment which the Saviour in person will pro- 
 
 1 Mat. xxv. 46. 
 
NATURAL LAWS HAVE PENALTIES. 227 
 
 nounce upon men according to their deeds. 1 — This certainly 
 is the doctrine of Christ concerning the future retribution ; 
 and if we compare this in detail with the doctrine that all 
 punishment is the result of natural causes, we shall find it 
 more than that in accordance with the reason of things. 
 
 (a). Both views agree as to the fact of penalty. Strictly 
 speaking there is no sect in religion nor school of philosophy 
 that absolutely denies that sin incurs penalty. Those who 
 hold that there is no retribution after death — if there are 
 any such — argue that sin receives its whole punishment 
 through the evils of the present life, or that Christ has 
 cancelled these indiscriminately for all ; and those who hold 
 to the final restoration of the wicked to holiness and heaven, 
 admit that there will be a future retribution, but argue 
 that this will at length satisfy itself, or will work the refor- 
 mation of the offender. In either case then it is admitted 
 that law has a penalty for transgression ; and the difference 
 between all these schemes of natural sequence and Christ's 
 doctrine of retribution lies in the form of the penalty and 
 the manner of inflicting it. 
 
 The fact that penalty is affixed to the laws of nature is 
 too obvious to require proof. He who violates the laws of 
 health, in respect of air, of food, of sleep, of exposure, of 
 labor, must take the consequences in suffering, in debility, 
 in premature death. He who disregards the known proper- 
 ties and effects of the substances and elements of nature, 
 who puts hfe hand into melted lead or takes strychnine 
 into his stomach, must suffer in consequence. Every child 
 knows that a world of laws must be also a world of penal- 
 ties. In the fact of penalty, therefore, all theories agree. 
 
 (b). It is agreed also, upon both theories — the natural 
 and the Christian — that penalty for the violation of law is 
 just; — that is just in the principle of it, for we are not here 
 speaking of manner or degree. Those who accept Christ's 
 
 1 See Cbap. xv. 
 
228 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 teaching of course believe this, for they believe in the 
 righteousness of God. And those who regard all suffering 
 as simply the consequence of violating natural law, do not 
 accuse nature of injustice or cruelty because of the suffer- 
 ing that follows disobedience. Now the benevolence of 
 God might just as well be impeached because of these 
 penalties of natural law, as for a positive retribu- 
 tion. But how absurd we should think it, if a man who 
 <had burnt his hand by his own carelessness, should go up 
 and down in a raging passion against the cruelty of nature 
 in making fire burn. We use all the great agents of 
 nature, fire, steam, chemical forces, subject to the risk and 
 the penalty of violating or abusing them ; and the penalty 
 of disobedience or disregard which all men see to be a 
 fact, men also admit to be just. "You should have 
 known better/' "You should have taken care," — these 
 and like phrases impute the evil not to the law but to the 
 transgressor. The pain which is incidental to the viola- 
 tion of the law renders even physical law a means of moral 
 discipline. 
 
 (c). Both theories — the natural and the Christian — agree 
 that natural evil may be fitly made a penalty for moral 
 disobedience. When the mother warns her child not. to go 
 near the fire, and lays her strict commands upon him, if 
 he goes and burns himself, she teaches him that his suffer- 
 ing comes not only from disregarding the properties of fire, 
 but from disobeying her command. A drunkard violates 
 not only the laws of his physical constitution, but the laws 
 of reason and of conscience, the laws of good society, the 
 moral law of God ; and though the penalty comes chiefly 
 in the form of physical suffering and degradation, we yet 
 attach this to moral* as well as to physical law. 
 
 Human laws annex physical penalties to moral offences. 
 Theft, though committed upon inanimate things is a 
 breach of morality ; murder, though committed upon the 
 
SUPERIORITY OP MORAL LAW. 229 
 
 physical body, is a crime of deepest moral die. The law 
 punishes these crimes with physical pains and privations 
 that have no connection with the physical objects violated. 
 Hence it is absurd to say that all penalty comes merely in 
 the way of natural sequence from natural laws ; it attaches 
 itself also to the great principles of moral law. 
 
 Thus far, then, the theory that penalty comes in due 
 course of nature, and the doctrine of Christ that it is in- 
 flicted by God as a righteous governor for the infraction 
 of His laws agree in these successive steps: — (d). that 
 there is penalty, as a matter of fact, in the system under 
 which we live, whether we call this nature or providence ; 
 (e). that as a principle, the infliction of penalty for trans- 
 gression is wise and just; (/). and that penalty, though 
 coming in the form of natural evil, often stands visibly 
 connected with the infraction of moral law. But from this 
 point the doctrine of Christ goes farther, and teaches 
 that penalty shall be pronounced directly from Himself 
 as Judge, aside from or in addition to the natural course 
 of things, and as the fit and just conclusion of this very 
 dispensation of grace. The rule or principle here laid 
 down for the infliction of penalty is the rule of absolute 
 justice. Each man shall be judged according to what he 
 has or has not done ; and " that servant which knew his 
 Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did accor- 
 ding to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes." l 
 
 Man's relations to the moral law, and to all law in his 
 character as a moral being are far superior to his relations 
 to physical law. The soul no less than the body has its 
 own laws. In his own free actions, his moral conduct, man 
 is bound to do right by an obligation as strong surely as 
 that which binds him to observe the laws of nature in the 
 oare of his body ; and as a moral being he must be amen- 
 able to moral law. This law has certain penalties that 
 
 1 Luke xii. 4,7. 
 
230 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 come as matter of course, as certainly as the sequences of 
 physical laws — such as remorse of conscience ; the loss of 
 self-respect ; a sense of unhappiness ; the apprehension of 
 evil. The principle of penalty for disobedience here dis- 
 tinctly applies. 
 
 In threatening to inflict a direct positive penalty for 
 sin, in distinction from its natural sequences, Christ an- 
 nounced beforehand a rule of perfect justice. It is that He 
 will try men solely by their own actions, and will recom- 
 pense them according to the tenor of their spirit and con- 
 duct. This is a rule of perfect equity. If any have 
 obeyed the law, they could desire no more favorable rule 
 than to be rewarded according to their deeds. And for 
 such as have broken the law there could be no rule more 
 just and equal than that they shall be dealt with exactly 
 according to their conduct ; that they should receive sim- 
 ply that which is their due. The Judge of infinite right- 
 eousness, of perfect knowledge, goodness, and truth, will 
 do right in dealing with men according to their deeds. 
 And if, moreover, they have had opportunity given them 
 to escape penalty by repentance, and have refused this, it 
 will be perfect justice to deal with them upon their own 
 ground. 
 
 Hence the rule of personal reckoning here laid down is 
 proper and equitable. Men are not to be judged collec- 
 tively or in classes, by some general sweeping act, but 
 each and every man according to that which he hath done. 
 The' formative influences of society upon personal char- 
 acter, the circumstances in which a life was molded, the 
 relative degrees of darkness and light in each individual 
 case, the temptations to sin, the allurements to virtue, all 
 that affected the man in the course of his earthly conduct, 
 will enter into the judgment upon that conduct ; and in 
 the light of all these conditions and circumstances, each in- 
 dividual case will be made up for its own issue. This is 
 
THE GRANDEUR OF VIRTUE. 231 
 
 the fairest rule of judgment that can be imagined. What 
 could any man ask for himself, or what could he conceive 
 of as a principle of judgment, more scrupulously just than 
 this — that each and every man be judged according to his 
 personal conduct? 
 
 We now come to the gist of Christ's doctrine of punish- 
 ment. The fact of penalty and its justice being recognized, 
 it being also established that natural evil may proper- 
 ly be used as a penalty for moral transgression ; and the 
 rule of judgment by personal conduct being absolutely 
 just, it remains only to consider the reasons for a positive 
 judgment and retribution in distinction from the natural 
 consequences of violated law. Such a judgment is due to 
 the transcendent worth and dignity of moral interests in 
 the universe, and to the claims of public justice and right 
 in a moral government. Man's highest dignity and worth 
 is in the sphere of morality. Here it is, as a being capa- 
 ble of moral choice, of knowing truth and obeying virtue, 
 capable of principles of action as lofty as the mind of God 
 and enduring as His throne, in a word capable of holiness 
 and its immeasurable blessedness, it is in this that man is 
 allied to angels and to God. Build one broad and stable 
 pyramid of physical laws ; if it were possible heap into one 
 stupendous mass all the matter now shaped and distributed 
 into ten thousand worlds ; above this place again the no- 
 blest powers and attainments of intellectual life— indeed, 
 if this were possible, the accumulated powers and products 
 of mind in its highest spheres ; still above these must we 
 place in sublime pre-eminence a pure and perfect moral 
 character, as the crown of all excellence, the height of all 
 dignity, the seat of all true power and grandeur, the nearest 
 approach to the divine. " Man partakes of all that is be- 
 low him, and becomes man by the addition of something 
 higher : this is, the rational and moral life by which man 
 is made in the image of God. For in man, as thus con- 
 
232 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 stituted, we first find a being who is capable of choosing 
 his own end; or rather, of choosing or rejecting the end 
 indicated by his whole nature. Up to man every thing is 
 driven to its end by a force working from without, or from 
 behind ; but for him the pillar of cloud and of fire puts 
 itself in front, and he follows it or not, as he chooses." x 
 
 And now for a being with these majestic endowments, 
 with these sublime possibilities, has the Creator no recog- 
 nition, no rule, no administration higher than the laws of 
 the physical creation ? Has this rational image of God, 
 laws of digestion, and laws of locomotion, but no laws of 
 moral action ? Shall a stone give him pain if he strike 
 his foot against it, shall his body surfer for any infraction 
 of mere physical law, and shall there be for his soul, with 
 its voluntary powers, no moral government of the Creator 
 having sanctions commensurate with the interests of a 
 moral universe? Is this soul, by "which alone man is 
 man, governed down at the low level of the animal nature 
 with which it is associated — subject to law and amenable 
 to penalty only so far as it comes into contact with the 
 physical creation ? Has the wise and good God committed 
 such a solecism in government, that He has made every- 
 thing subject to law except that which alone is great 
 enough to comprehend law and intelligently obey it ? — that 
 the lowest animal, the meanest plant, the very stones 
 beneath our feet have laws corresponding with their 
 nature, but the soul of man has no government appropriate 
 to itself? Is it credible that there is no moral government 
 over the universe of intelligent beings ? Nothing but a 
 machinery of physical law ? Is it credible that God has 
 not made known to man the law that should govern his 
 higher nature, or that He will not show His regard for 
 that law by sanctions conformed to its worth and proceed- 
 ing from Himself? Surely as God is great, as the soul is 
 
 1 Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D. 
 
JUSTICE THE STRENGTH OF SOCIETY. 233 
 
 great in His image, as a universe of moral beings is great 
 above all the greatness of God's other works, there is 
 a government based upon the grandeur of virtue, there is 
 a law embodying holiness as the rule of man, and there 
 are penalties answering to the greatness of these parties 
 and the grandeur of these interests. 
 
 Moreover, the claims of public justice and security in a 
 moral government demand that there be a positive retribu- 
 tion upon sin from the Ruler Himself. Society recognizes 
 this principle in all criminal law. Doubtless the criminal 
 suffers certain natural consequences of his crime, in remorse 
 of conscience, in terrors of imagination, in the conscious- 
 ness of social ignominy. But he stands not alone ; he is 
 related to society as a whole; and justice is the strength of 
 the social organism. The criminal owes therefore a debt 
 to public justice as well as to natural law. If a man 
 poisons his wife that he may be free to live a life of shame, 
 is that a private affair of his own household? Society 
 takes notice of it as a crime against itself, and law has a 
 penalty. We measure the moral tone of society by the 
 sure and impartial justice it metes out to such a crime. If 
 to evade legal penalty the criminal poisons himself, should 
 this be accepted as making the account square with justice ? 
 Is the moral law satisfied by another crime ? Would the 
 social law of the universe be satisfied by the transportation 
 of the criminal to heaven ? When we read that " the Son 
 of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather 
 out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which 
 do iniquity," l we feel that the mercy that offers salvation 
 to all who in faith and holy love will seek the kingdom of 
 God is enhanced by that righteousness which shall here- 
 after separate the evil from the good. 
 
 But it is objected that the doctrine of eternal punish^ 
 ment cannot be reconciled with the goodness of God. We, 
 however, are not here in a position to judge of the relation 
 
 1 Matt. xiii. 41. 
 
234 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 of sin to the whole moral universe, nor of what the equi- 
 librium of mercy and justice — which is essential to the re- 
 storation of a moral system once disordered by sin — may 
 require alike of the wisdom, the goodness, and the right- 
 eousness of God. And the only question now before us is, 
 what did Christ teach? If He distinctly taught the 
 eternal punishment of the wicked, then if upon specula- 
 tive grounds we reject that doctrine, we cannot with 
 propriety claim to be His disciples. 
 
 Much that Christ said concerning future punishment 
 was in the form either of metaphor or of parable ; and it 
 has been aptly said, " If we are to turn rhetoric into logic, 
 and build a dogma on every metaphor, our belief will be 
 of a vague and contradictory character. " But the meta- 
 phors and parables of Christ were intended to convey some 
 substantial truth — the metaphor represented a correspond- 
 ing reality, the figure had a basis of fact. Taken literally, 
 His metaphors would neutralize one another ; — "the outer 
 darkness" and " the everlasting fire ; " " the fire that 
 never shall be quenched," would seem to mark the utter 
 destruction of sentient being ; while the " torments " of 
 Dives, and the " worm that dieth not," suggest the con- 
 sciousness of suffering. But shall we, therefore, infer that 
 " hell " is altogether a figure of speech, and that these 
 vivid pictures have no corresponding reality ? The laws 
 of language require us to understand from these very 
 metaphors, that the future state of the ungodly will be one 
 of conscious and irremediable misery — the " darkness " of 
 banishment from God, the " unquenchable fires " of mem- 
 ory, the " undying worm " of remorse — a state of mental 
 anguish pre-figured by physical emblems, which neither 
 the imagination of Dante nor of Milton could fully inter- 
 pret, neither the pencil of Tintoretto, of Michael Angelo, nor 
 of Dore could worthily represent. The emblems of future 
 punishment used by Christ were not like the material 
 
MEANING OF PUNISHMENT. 235 
 
 images that painters and poets have addressed to the eye 
 and the imagination, bufc were designed to suggest realities 
 in spiritual experience too awful for fancy to dwell upon. 
 These address themselves to the soberest judgment, and 
 with a higher solemnity as proceeding from the lips of the 
 compassionate Son of God. 
 
 Moreover, Christ did not always speak of future punish- 
 ment in words of metaphor. He used no figure of 
 speech, no terms of rhetoric, when in closing His descrip- 
 tion of the last judgment, He said with the simple direct- 
 ness of a judicial sentence — "These shall go away into 
 everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into life eter- 
 nal:" l — Fac, xbXaoiv olcbviov on the one hand, e«V £ coy v 
 aitbvtov on the other. The term xoXaat? means strictly not 
 destruction, annihilation, but chastisement or punishment ; 
 thus the Sanhedrim threatened Peter and John, and let 
 them go, "finding nothing how they might punish them," 2 
 xoldaajvTfM : it sometimes denotes the apprehension of pain 
 and suffering ; — thus " fear hath torment" 3 xbXaalv. The 
 Septuagint uses this word to describe a variety of punish- 
 ments inflicted upon the wicked, both individually, and as 
 communities or nations. Thus, to the house of Israel it 
 was said " Repent ; so iniquity shall not be your ruin " — 
 xoXaacv : * and again, to be " tormented by beasts " was a 
 xoXacrcc. 5 Plato in his Gorgias uses the word in its primi- 
 tive sense of pruning or restraining ; thus — " Is not to 
 restrain one from what he desires to punish him ?" 
 xoXd^eev, and " to punish the soul (xoXa^sadac) is therefore 
 better than unrestrained indulgence." 6 Again, he says, 
 " no one punishes (xoXd^w) the unjust because he has been 
 unjust, but for the sake of the future, that he may not 
 again do unjustly." 7 It is plain from both Biblical and 
 Classical usage that xbXaatz, has no affinity with annihila- 
 
 1 Matt xxv. 4<?. 2 Acts iv. 21. 3 1 John iv. 13. 4 Ezek. xviii. 30. 
 
 5 Wisdom xvi. 2. 6 Gorgias 505 B., and C. 7 Protagoras, 324, B. 
 
236 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 tion, but denotes a punishment the subject of which con- 
 tinues conscious under its infliction. 
 
 Will then the punishment inflicted upon the ungodly at 
 the last judgment be of a disciplinary nature, having in 
 view their reformation and their final restoration to the 
 estate of the good? This view is precluded by the term 
 accbwov — the punishment will be "eternal." This word, 
 indeed, is sometimes used vaguely for " duration," whether 
 indefinite or limited • an -ZEon however protracted may 
 still have a definite end. But the Greek language has no 
 other word that so fully and properly expresses that which 
 is unlimited as to duration ; it is used by Plato for the 
 ceaseless course of things as contrasted with the limitations 
 of time ; and in the New Testament aicovtoz is the word 
 that expresses the eternity of God's being and the everlast- 
 ing felicity of the righteous. And in the words now under 
 consideration, the two states of " life " and " punishment " 
 are made to run parallel in an endless duration; "these 
 shall go away into punishment alcovcou, but the righteous 
 into life aicoviov. It is impossible here to limit in the one 
 case that whHi is unlimited in the other. If we believe 
 that the life promised by Christ to the righteous shall last 
 forever, then are we shut up to the literal meaning of His 
 alternative words; and when we consider what it must be 
 to go away from Christ, to go away from His love, His 
 glory, His blessed presence ; to go away under His con- 
 demnation ; all His dread imagery of wo — the " fire," the 
 " darkness," the " tormenting flame," the " undying worm" 
 — is justified by this final sentence, " These shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment." * 
 
 1 See the Author's Love and Penalty ; also Appendix iii. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Christ's Doctrine our spiritual sacrament. 
 
 Many a reader of the last chapter may be ready to say 
 " this is an hard saying, who can hear it." But Jesus ut- 
 tered many sayings that seemed hard to minds but little 
 exercised in spiritual things ; and of just such hard un- 
 bearable words He said, " They are spirit and they are 
 life." l 
 
 All the teachings of Christ were spiritual in their in- 
 tent, and as such were a life-power to the soul. Never 
 touching upon philosophy, physics, or political econ- 
 omy, He addressed Himself throughout to the spiritual 
 nature of man, with a view to reviving, ennobling, sancti- 
 fying this, and hence His words were not merely instruc- 
 tion, counsel, knowledge, doctrine, but Life. Christ was 
 the most spiritual of teachers, and His doctrine both has 
 vitality in itself and gives life to them that receive it. 
 
 The same is true of the Sacrament that He instituted to 
 perpetuate Himself in the memory of His disciples ; this is 
 the embodiment of a Truth that is Life in proportion as it 
 is spiritually received — " The words that I speak unto you 
 are spirit and are life." This was said of the words He 
 hid. just spoken concerning eating His flesh and drinking 
 His blood, as the means of dwelling in Him, and of ob- 
 taining spiritual and eternal life. He had described Him- 
 self as the "bread of God," 2 the "bread of life," 3 the 
 "true bread from heaven," 4 "the living bread which came 
 down from heaven ;" 5 and had said, " If any man eat of 
 
 iJohnvi. 63. 2 John vi. 33. 3 v. 35. 4 v . 32. 5 v . 51. 
 
 237 
 
238 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 this bread, he shall live forever." l The bread He then 
 denned more literally as His flesh, which He would give 
 for the life of the world. 
 
 These sayings caused much perplexity to the Jews, who 
 at length broke out into a strife about His doctrine as un- 
 natural and absurd, saying " How can this man give us 
 His flesh to eat ?" 2 But instead of toning down or ex- 
 plaining away His words, Jesus made them even more 
 literally sensuous than before : saying " Except ye eat the 
 flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no 
 life in you ; whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My 
 blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last 
 day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink 
 indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, 
 dwelleth in Me and I in him :" 3 and then as if to chal- 
 lenge their captious criticism to the utmost, He put the 
 doctrine in this bald statement, " He that eateth Me, even 
 He shall live by Me." 4 
 
 Even His disciples were troubled by such words ; and 
 " many said, this is a hard saying, "Who can' hear it ?" 5 
 Jesus perceiving their murmurings, said, " Doth this of- 
 fend you ? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man as- 
 cend up where He was before ?" 6 The resurrection and 
 ascension of Christ would confirm His statement that He 
 came down from heaven, and would show also that He 
 had within Himself the power of life ; the witnesses of 
 those events would understand the spiritual meaning of 
 His words and the spiritual value of his death. And 
 hence there was a life-power in the words He had just 
 spoken, when they were spiritually apprehended. 
 
 It will be easier to understand His use of this bald, almost 
 sensuous literalism about eating His flesh and drinking His 
 blood, if we bear in mind how extensively the language of 
 spiritual ideas is based upon sensible objects, and how 
 
 i John vi. 51. 2 vi. 52. 3 vi. 53, 57. 4 vi. 57. 6 vi. 60. ^vi. 62. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL TAUGHT BY THE PHYSICAL. 239 
 
 naturally the mind when seeking a strong expression for 
 a spiritual truth, in order to present it more vividly and 
 effectively, seizes upon something in nature as its symbol, 
 and teaches the inward by the outward. " Words are signs 
 of natural facts. The outer creation gives us language for 
 the beings and changes of the inward creation. Every 
 word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, 
 if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some 
 material appearance. Right means straight; wrong means 
 twisted. We say the heart to express emotion, the head to 
 denote thought. An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man 
 is a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man is a torch. 
 A lamb is innocence : a snake is subtile spite. Light and 
 darkness are our familiar expression for knowledge and 
 ignorance, and heart for love. Thus words are fastened to 
 visible things ; and the moment our discourse rises above 
 the ground line of familiar facts, and is inflamed with 
 passion or exalted by thought, jt clothes itself in images 
 taken from nature." * 
 
 In this view our Lord's saying, so far from being hard 
 and mysterious was as natural as it was forcible. He was 
 dealing with men who were carnal in their feelings and 
 desires ; who followed Him for the excitement of seeing 
 His miracles and for the present benefit they hoped to 
 receive from these. "Ye seek Me, because ye did eat 
 of the loaves and were filled." It was in vain to talk 
 to such men about the superiority of spiritual ideas and 
 aims to carnal desires, or of the spiritual design of His 
 mission, the thing must be put before them baldly at their 
 own level ; and the spiritual conveyed to them in the form 
 of bodily figures. And so Jesus said to them, You must eat 
 the true bread ; it is not enough that you see what I do 
 and hear what I say ; you are to be saved by receiving 
 Me ; you must take Me as I am, you must eat Me. 
 
 1 R. W. Emerson, Essay on Language. 
 
240 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 Neander has given an interpretation of these words 
 which accords equally well with the uses of metaphor by 
 Christ, and with the spiritual philosophy that pervaded 
 His teaching. " Jesus tells the Jews that He would give 
 them a bread which was to impart life to the world ; hence 
 that the bread which He was about to give was, in a certain 
 sense, different from the bread which He was ; different, 
 that is, from His whole self-communication. And the 
 bread which I will give is my flesh. This bread was to be 
 the self-sacrifice of His bodily life for the salvation of man- 
 kind. The life-giving power, as such, was His Divine- 
 human existence ; the life-giving power, in its special act y 
 was His self-sacrifice. The two are inseparable ; the lat- 
 ter being the essential means of realizing the former; only 
 by His self-sacrifice could His Divine-human life become 
 the bread of life for men. 
 
 " The Jews wilfully perverted these words of Christ into 
 a carnal meaning; and therefore He repeated and strength- 
 ened them : Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man : — 
 ' except ye receive My Divine-human life within you, 
 make it as your own flesh and blood, and become tho- 
 roughly penetrated by the Divine principle of life, which 
 Christ has imparted to human nature and Himself realized 
 in it, ye cannot partake of eternal life.' 
 
 " When He had left the synagogue, and was standing 
 among persons who, up to that time, had been His constant 
 attendants, He said, * I have spoken to you of eating My 
 flesh; doth this offend you? What then will you say 
 when the Son of Man will ascend into heaven ? Xou will 
 then see Me no more with your bodily eyes ;, but yet it 
 will be necessary for you to eat my flesh and drink my 
 blood, which then, in a carnal sense, will be plainly impos- 
 sible/ It is obvious, therefore, that Christ meant no 
 material participation in His flesh and blood, but one 
 
TRANSUBSTANTJATION. 241 
 
 which would have its fullest import and extent at the time 
 specified. 
 
 " He then naturally passes on to explain the spiritual 
 import of His life-streaming words. It is the spirit that 
 giveth life ; the flesh is nothing ; hence I could not have 
 meant a sensible eating of My flesh and blood, but the ap- 
 propriation of My spirit, as the life-giving principle, as 
 this communicates itself through My manifestation in flesh 
 and blood. As My words are only the medium through 
 which the Spirit of life that gushes forth from Me is im- 
 parted, they can be rightly understood only so far as the 
 Spirit is perceived in them." l Such is the true signifi- 
 cance of eating the flesh of Christ, and drinking His 
 blood. 
 
 These words do not countenance that literal sensuous 
 view of the Sacrament which is given in the notion of the 
 real presence or transubstantiation taught by the Roman 
 Catholic Church. That doctrine is that " our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and substan- 
 tially contained in the sacrament of the holy eucharist 
 after the consecration of the bread and wine, and under the 
 form of these sensible objects." By the priestly act of con- 
 secration, or by some miraculous influence which attends 
 that act, it is claimed that " the whole substance of the 
 bread is converted into the substance of the body of Christ 
 our Lord, and the whole substance of the wine into the 
 substance of His blood." 2 
 
 1 Life of Jesus Christ, by Augustus Neander, Am. Ed. pp. 267-269. 
 
 3 The Council of Trent, in the Decree of Session xiii. Be sanctissimo Etichar- 
 ixtioz Sacramento, has declared it to be the binding faith of the Church, " that 
 immediately after the consecration, the true body of our Lord, and His true 
 blood, together with His soul and divinity, do exist under the species of bread 
 and wine; His body under the species of bread, and His blood under the 
 species of wine, by virtue of the words of consecration ; His body also under 
 the species of wine, and His blood under the species of bread, and His soul 
 under each species, (through that natural connection and concomitance by 
 which all the parts of Christ our Lord, who has risen from the dead, no 
 16 
 
242 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 This notion is based upon a literal interpretation of 
 such sayings as these : " This is My body, which is broken 
 for you ;" " This cup is the New Testament in My blood ;" 
 and again, "My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is 
 drink indeed." But such an interpretation supposes phy- 
 sical impossibilities and absurdities which would make 
 nonsense of the words of Christ ; such as that, He while 
 sitting before them a living man in His proper flesh and 
 blood, was at the same instant present as to His body in 
 the bread, and as to His blood in the wine ; or that He 
 who is now absent as to His body in heaven is yet present 
 in body in the sacrament, so that His body yet remaining 
 in heaven is at the same moment created anew in ten thou- 
 sand places upon earth, or wherever the sacrament is ob- 
 served. It is idle to class this pretense among miracles, 
 for no miracle of oar Lord ever involved a contradiction 
 in the nature of things. His language does not call for 
 any such interpretation. He said, " I am the door." " I 
 am the light of the world." "I am the true vine;" and 
 pre-Raphaelites have attempted to depict Him under these 
 various symbols; yet no one dreams of taking such expres- 
 
 more to die, are closely joined together) ; — and even His divinity is there 
 also, through the wonderful and hypostatieal union thereof with His body 
 and soul." Cap. iii. 
 
 By this it is taught that the substance of the bread and the wine completely 
 disappear — only the species or appearance of either remaining — and that under 
 this is the real substance of the Lord Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul and 
 divinity. Whoever shall deny this, or shall affirm that Christ is present, "only 
 in a sign and figure, or by His power " is declared accursed. 
 
 Dr. Moehler, one of the most able and judicious expounders of the Roman 
 Catholic faith, says, " Catholics firmly hold that Almighty God who was 
 pleased at Cana, in Galilee, to convert water into wine, changes the inward 
 substance of the consecrated bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. 
 This belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, forms the basis of 
 our whole conception of the mass. Without that presence, the solemnity of 
 the Lord's Supper is a mere reminiscence of the sacrifice of Christ, exactly in 
 the same way as the celebration by any society, of the anniversary of some 
 esteemed individual, whose image it exhibits to view, or some other symbol, 
 recalls tojmnd his beneficent actions." SymbolUm, $ xxxiv. 
 
SACRAMENTS APPOINTED BY CHRIST. 243 
 
 sions literally. The Church is His body ; do we, then, eat 
 the Church in the sacrament? 
 
 The Jews rebelled against Christ's doctrine of His flesh 
 and blood, because they insisted on taking it literally and 
 making it absurd. But Jesus said of these very words, 
 They are spirit and life ; you must look beneath the form 
 for the meaning. 
 
 But they should not be pressed so far in the opposite 
 direction as to take away from the sacrament its real basis 
 and force as a symbol. A highly respectable body of 
 Christians — the Society of Friends — reject altogether the 
 outward sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
 and regard the baptism of the Spirit, and a spiritual com- 
 muning with Christ by meditation, as all that Jesus in- 
 tended to be preserved among His disciples. But how 
 shall we then account for the solemnity with which, at the 
 last Passover, He took the bread and the cup, and with 
 prayer and thanksgiving set these forth as symbols and 
 memorials of His body and blood, and said to His disci- 
 ples, " This do in remembrance of me. 7 ' l This surely 
 meant that they should go on to do as He then did ; that 
 is, should set apart bread and wine as a memorial. 
 
 The disciples acted upon this from the day of the Lord's 
 death ; and the Apostle Paul, while correcting some 
 abuses that had crept into the observance of the Supper, 
 recognizes the sacrament itself as appointed by Christ to 
 be perpetual in the outward form of it, and not simply a 
 spiritual communion. He recalls the formula by which 
 our Lord instituted the Supper, and repeats with emphasis 
 His injunction, "This do in remembrance of Me." 2 Clear- 
 ly then what Jesus said concerning the spiritual meaning 
 of His words was not meant to supersede a service which 
 He established with so much solemnity in the form of it. 
 That were to spiritualize into nonentity. There are other 
 
 1 Luke xxii. 19. 2 1 Cor. xi. 24. 
 
244 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 bodies of Christians, who while they keep up the observ- 
 ance of the Lord's Supper, make this simply a memorial 
 of the fact of His dying, and attach no sacrificial meaning 
 to the death. These understand His reply to the Jews as 
 refining the whole transaction of the cross into an heroic 
 martyrdom for the truth, which was destined to exert a 
 spiritual influence upon mankind, but had nothing of the 
 sacramental or redemptive quality which belonged to the 
 sacrifice under the Old Testament. This view takes the 
 extreme point of opposition to the Eoman Catholic doc- 
 trine of sacrifice, as the view of the Friends is at the 
 extreme of opposition to form. 
 
 These three views have points of analogy as well as of 
 contrast. That of the Roman Catholic Church makes 
 much of the form, because the purport of the sacrament 
 is to transform the bread and wine into the body and 
 blood of Christ. Opposed to this is the view which— to 
 get rid of so gross a superstition — does away with the form 
 altogether, and would trust the remembrance of Christ 
 entirely to the heart without external signs, and would 
 seek communion with Christ solely in and through the spirit. 
 
 Again, the Roman Catholic view makes the sacrament a 
 literal repetition of the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross, 
 and therefore holds up the consecrated wafer for adoration. 
 Protesting against this idolatry, the third view mentioned 
 goes to the extent of denying any sacrificial meaning to 
 the sacrament, and keeps it up in form only as a memorial, 
 just as one observes a birth-day festival, or any other form 
 of commemoration. It is a memorial but not a symbol. 
 
 Now each of these views results from pressing to an ex- 
 treme particular words or phrases uttered by Christ, with- 
 out regard to other expressions which have equal authority 
 and significance, and which must be considered in making 
 up a complete view of His doctrine of the sacrament. He 
 did say, " Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man 
 
THE LIFE IN THE WORDS. 245 
 
 and drink His blood, ye have no life in you, for My flesh 
 is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed ;" and 
 directly after, He said, " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; 
 the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak unto 
 you, they are spirit, and they are life." These two sayings 
 qualify and interpret each other. The second does not 
 annul the first by depriving it of all meaning ; Jesus did 
 not intend by this, You must take my words entirely in a 
 spiritual sense, and thus attach no significance to the terms 
 flesh and blood. Why did He repeat these words so often, 
 and with such solemnity of impression, if they were to be set 
 aside as absolutely of no account ? What He said was, 
 " There is a spiritual life in these words that I have 
 spoken;" and therefore we should neither take them 
 grossly as a literal eating of flesh and blood, nor set them 
 aside for some refined spiritual conception which has no 
 relation to such eating and drinking ; but we must get out 
 of these very words the spiritual life that is in them ; these 
 very words that speak of eating His flesh, and drinking 
 His blood, are " spirit and life," when one takes them 
 rightly. They teach that the Lord Jesus gave His flesh, 
 His life for the life of the world ; His death was a sacrifice 
 as the means of life and salvation. 1 But this sacrifice does 
 not take effect for any individual from the mere fact of its 
 having been offered ; it does not stand simply as an event 
 of history, to exert a moral influence upon mankind : but 
 it gives life to him who eats and drinks it ; — that is, to 
 him who appropriates it to his own case as the provision 
 upon which the life of his soul depends — -just as the life of 
 the body depends upon food and drink. He who so re- 
 ceives the death of Christ — makes this application of that 
 death as the necessary means of his soul's life — will find 
 that Christ becomes to him as his very flesh and blood. 
 The death of Christ was a literal, physical event: there 
 
 1 See Chan. V. 
 
246 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 is no doubting that fact, and the glorious truth of the re- 
 surrection depends upon it. But this death did not come 
 in the course of nature, nor merely as a consequence of nat- 
 ural laws; neither was it simply an effect of human vio- 
 lence : for Jesus laid down his life: l suffered Himself to 
 be put to death; and in the discourse under review He 
 said, "The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will 
 give for the life of the world." This made His death a 
 sacrifice. He gave His life, and by that giving brought 
 life to the world. But the practical benefit of the sacrifice 
 can be had only by accepting it as a sacrifice in our stead; 
 by appropriating it with a full heart as the means of life; 
 and this it is to eat Christ, so that His life becomes ours. 
 Hence the stress laid upon receiving the life of His sacri- 
 fice. "The flesh profiteth nothing." It is of no avail to 
 belong to the body of Christ — the church — unless the 
 soul is a partaker of His life. There are benefits from 
 church membership to one who is truly a disciple; but 
 membership in the church gives no warrant of salvation, 
 and will rather be a hindrance if made, in any wise, a sub- 
 stitute for Christ. "He that eateth Me shall live by Me." 
 Hence the virtue of the sacrament is found only in feeding 
 upon Christ. It is not "he that eateth this material 
 bread," but "he that eateth Me;" not eateth Me in the bread 
 but who in the act of eating the bread brings Me home to his 
 soul as his food, his life, his portion, his salvation. Hence 
 the very essence of the sacrament consists in the doctrine 
 of Christ that it embodies, and which through an expres- 
 sive sign -language, it brings to the soul as its spiritual life. 
 The Doctrine is the true Sacrament. 
 
 If in coming to this sacrament we realize through it the 
 nearness and the fulness of Christ, if we thereby receive 
 afresh into our hearts His living truth and grace, then do 
 we feed upon Him. As we speak of devouring a book 
 
 1 John x. 15, 17, 18. 
 
CHRIST SATISFIES THE SOUL. 247 
 
 whose thoughts please us, devouring the letter of a friend, 
 devouring that friend himself in an extasy of love, so we 
 take Christ into our hearts and feed upon Him and there- 
 by receive new strength of spiritual life. 
 
 Food and drink fill and satisfy. They make blood and 
 tissue ; they sustain life, and fill our corporeal nature with 
 the sense of satisfaction. So the doctrine of redemption 
 embodied in the sacrament fills our souls with life from 
 Christ. He is the life ; He gave Himself to be our life ; 
 and so completely does His life enter into us by faith, that 
 it becomes to us the eternal life, swallowing up death itself 
 in the fulness of His resurrection. He who has ascended 
 up where He was before — the living, reigning Son of Man — 
 will lift us up to the same life and glory, if we will truly 
 keep His sacraments. The words that He speaks unto us 
 are Spirit and are Life. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF CHEIST COMPLETE AS A REVELATION 
 FROM GOD. 
 
 " 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." l Such was the testimony of 
 Christ to the source of His doctrine and to the quality of 
 discipleship. " The Words which Thou gavest Me." So 
 Jesus constantly affirmed that His teaching was an express 
 communication from God, to be therefore received as hav- 
 ing divine authority. He did not evolve from His own 
 brain a system of doctrine, and after thirty years of re- 
 flection in His quiet village home — in communion neither 
 with books nor men, but with His own soul, with nature, 
 and with God — announce this as a new theology for the 
 world : but from the beginning of His teaching He said, 
 " My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me." " If 
 any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
 whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." 2 
 While He spake only that which He Himself -knew to be 
 the truth, this knowledge was not the mere conviction of 
 logic, nor simply the intuition of His human conscious- 
 ness, but " as My Father hath taught Me," He said, " I 
 speak these things." 3 " I have not spoken of Myself, 
 but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a com- 
 mandment, what I should say and what I should speak: 
 and I know that His commandment is life everlasting : 
 
 ijohnxvii. 8. 2 John vii. 17. 3 John viii. 28. 
 
 248 
 
JESUS THE INFALLIBLE TKUTH. 249 
 
 whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto 
 Me, so I speak." * In thus claiming to speak the mind 
 of God, Jesus asserted much more than the general ac- 
 cordance of His teaching with divine truth — such an ac- 
 cordance as might be shown by comparison and inference 
 — He meant that He spake directly as the mouth of God ; 
 not commissioned, merely, to deliver a message, nor in- 
 spired to perceive and utter certain truths, but having such 
 a union with God and such a knowledge of God, that the 
 mind of God found expression through His words, the 
 voice of God uttered itself through His lips. " The words 
 that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the 
 Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. The 
 word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which 
 sent Me." 2 " The peculiar import of His doctrine/ 7 says 
 Neander, "consists in its relations to Himself as a part of 
 His self-revelation, an image of His unoriginated and in- 
 herent life. His power lay in the impression which His 
 manifestation and life as the incarnate God produced; and 
 this could never have been derived from without." 
 
 What Jesus constantly declared to men concerning 
 the source of His teachings,- He reaffirmed when sum- 
 ming up His life in the solemn act of prayer to the 
 Father. "I have manifested Thy Name unto the men 
 whom Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, 
 and Thou gavest them Me ; and they have kept Thy 
 word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever 
 Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto 
 them the words which Thou gavest Me ;" 3 and again, " I 
 have given them Thy word" 4 What Jesus taught was 
 the absolute, the infallible, the authoritative truth of God 
 — this, and nothing short of this ; this, and nothing else 
 than this. 
 
 But the question here arises, How fully did Christ present 
 
 1 John xii. 49. 2 John xiv. 10, 24. s John xvii. 6, 7. * John xvii. 14. 
 
250 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 the truth of God ? To what extent did He convey to men 
 the truth that God would have them to know, for the 
 right improvement of the present life, and for salvation in 
 the life to come ? That He omitted to speak of many sub- 
 jects concerning which we are curious and anxious to be 
 informed, the heart knows too well which has gone to His 
 word with troubled questionings about its future, only to 
 meet there a new demand upon its faith. But was this 
 omission of accident or of design ? Was it owing to some 
 limitation upon His knowledge, or to the brevity of His 
 life, or the lack of opportunity? or was it a purposed 
 withholding according to the will of God ? Had Jesus 
 lived say ten or twenty years longer, may we infer that 
 He would have thought out some subjects more fully and 
 have expanded these in His discourses ? or that occasion 
 would have arisen for discoursing upon topics now left un- 
 touched ? or that in any way He would have added to the 
 sum and substance of the truth that He actually declared? 
 In other words, did He die before He had communicated 
 everything to mankind that the Father intended to reveal 
 by Him when He brought His first-begotten into the 
 world ? Would the prolongation of the life and ministry of 
 Christ have afforded any solution of problems and mys- 
 teries now left unsolved ? 
 
 Take for instance three questions, — which perhaps more 
 than any others have occupied the speculative theology of 
 the Church, and tasked the- faith of individual believers. 
 
 (a.) What is the nature of God and how stand the 
 Father and the Son related to this nature in common ? 
 Jesus coming from the bosom of the Father declared Him, 
 " manifested " Him, and taught the oneness of the Father 
 and the Son: — but the metaphysical conception of the 
 divine essence and unity He never touched upon, nor 
 would He have enlightened us in that direction had He 
 continued to preach for thirty years. " All things," said 
 
THE SILENCE OF CHRIST. 251 
 
 He, " 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." l But while Jesus did reveal the 
 Father morally and spiritually, He gave no answer to the 
 questions which metaphysical theology is evermore raising 
 concerning the essence of God and the consubstantiality of 
 the Son with the Father : and this because such questions 
 did not lie within the purport of the mission for which 
 God sent Him into the world. 
 
 (6.) Take next the question of Christ's second coming — 
 the time of it and the manner of His kingdom — questions 
 which in every succeeding age have agitated the Church, 
 and divided its faith. Such questions our Lord expressly 
 declined to answer ; saying to His over-curious disciples, 
 " It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which 
 the Father hath put in His own power." 2 
 
 (c) And once more, how reticent He was upon the 
 whole class of questions that come thronging into the mind, 
 in view of death and the hereafter — those exciting, perplex- 
 ing, agonizing questions : Where is the spirit ? Does it 
 yet know me ? Shall we meet, and know, and love again ? 
 How naturally could all such questions have been an- 
 swered by our Lord as He conversed of the death of Laza- 
 rus, and when He stood by his grave ; but concerning the 
 physical or metaphysical conditions of existence after death 
 both His lips and the lips of Lazarus were sealed, while yet 
 He proclaimed to the whole dying race of man, "lam 
 the resurrection and the life — he that believeth in me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live." 3 
 
 The revelation of Christ then was not abbreviated by His 
 opportunities, by His death, nor by any known limitation 
 whatsoever. The Scriptural view of His mission gives no 
 reason to suspect that He failed to communicate any part of 
 
 i Matt. xi. 27. 2 Acts i. 7. 3 John xi. 25. 
 
252 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 that truth of God which it had seemed good in the sight of 
 the Father should be revealed ; but on the contrary we are 
 told that the Lord Jesus did make known all that the Father 
 would communicate to mankind with respect to their salva- 
 tion from ruin unto life eternal. The revelation was per- 
 fected and completed in Him, and He could say, " all things 
 that I have heard of my Father, I ha*ve made known unto 
 you ;" and in His last prayer, Jesus, addressing His Father 
 said, " I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to 
 do." 1 
 
 Prominent among the elements of His work was, pro- 
 claiming the truth of God, and bringing men into the 
 kingdom of God through allegiance to that Truth. This 
 is the undertone of that wonderful prayer 2 in which our 
 Lord uttered His own conception of His mission, and — in 
 what He had accomplished for His disciples, and what He 
 supplicated on their behalf — declared He had finished 
 the work that His Father had given Him to do. He had 
 come into the world that He might recover men to God ; — 
 the work of reconciliation, as to the form of it, would be 
 consummated by His death : — this He had foreshadowed 
 in His discourse to His disciples, and this finishing stroke 
 was about to be given to the life and doctrine of the Son 
 of God. But while His death is present in His own 
 thought as the finishing act by which the Son of man 
 shall be glorified, and God shall be glorified in Him, that 
 which Jesus makes prominent in His prayer is the doc- 
 trine of divine love and restoration, by whose renovating 
 and sanctifying power He had gathered and yet would gather 
 His Church into a blissful oneness of life, in Himself and 
 the Father. 
 
 He had glorified the Father by bringing men out of the 
 power of the world, sin and death, into that true spiritual 
 life which shall be eternal ; but this He now defines to be — 
 
 1 John xvii. 4. 2 John xvii. 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS LIFE. 253 
 
 knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ — knowing 
 with that knowledge which makes its object real, and re- 
 ceives it into the life as a possession and a power. This 
 knowledge Jesus had imparted by manifesting the Father 
 to His disciples; giving unto them the words that the 
 Father had given Him; and the proof of the divine life in 
 them was, that they had received this word of God and 
 kept it. He prayed that they might be sanctified and per- 
 fected through this same word of truth ; and closed His 
 petition with the words, " O righteous Father the world 
 hath not known Thee ; but I have known Thee, and these 
 have known that Thou hast sent me : and I have declared 
 unto them Thy name, and will declare it i that the love 
 wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in 
 them." 
 
 This declaring the truth from God in such wise as to 
 bring men into a true life in the knowledge and the love 
 of God, was so integral and vital in the work of Christ 
 that He gave it to Pilate in evidence of His royal com- 
 mission : " Art thou 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 ;" l and having set up the 
 kingdom of truth in believing souls, to be perpetuated 
 through their testimony, and by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, Jesus could say to His Father, " I have glorified 
 Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou 
 gavest Me to do." 
 
 The comprehensive completeness of the doctrine of 
 Christ in all that concerns the restoration of man to God, 
 his spiritual well-being and his eternal life, assures us 
 that as the Son of God sent to give light to the world, He 
 finished His work in His personal ministry upon earth. 
 All that the apostles did afterwards, under the guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit, all that the Church has since accom- 
 
 1 John xviii. 37. 
 
254 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 plished through her teaching ministry and her schools of 
 theology, has been simply in the way of interpreting, un- 
 folding, and applying that which Jesus Christ Himself 
 gave in its substance, and with a germinating power capa- 
 ble of such expansion to the thought, and such application 
 to the life of all after ages. " The teaching of Christ pre- 
 sented seeds and stimulants of thought. It must, therefore, 
 by no means surprise us to find that the full import of most 
 of His words was not comprehended by His contempora- 
 ries; such a result, indeed, was just what we might expect. 
 He would not have been Son of God and Son of man, had 
 not His words, like His works, with all their adaptation to 
 the circumstances of the times, contained some things that 
 were inexplicable ; had they not borne concealed within them 
 the germ of an infinite development, reserved for future 
 ages to unfold. It is this feature which distinguishes Christ 
 from all other teachers of men. Advance as they may, they 
 can never reach Him ; their only task need be, by taking 
 Him more and more into their life and thought, to learn 
 better how to bring forth the treasures that lie concealed in 
 Him." 1 The study we have devoted to the doctrines 
 of Christ, one by one, has prepared us to appreciate this, 
 by now grouping these doctrines in various lights for a 
 general survey of their range and bearing, their significance 
 and moment, their thoroughness and depth, their practical 
 scope and influence. 
 
 How comprehensive was the doctrine of Christ in the 
 range of topics which it embraced, and in the bearing of 
 these upon the supreme end of His mission — the recovery 
 of man to holiness. All intelligent beings of whose exist- 
 ence we have any knowledge, or whose existence, had been 
 shadowed in the creations of poetry and philosophy — 
 wherever found in the peopled realms of space — were 
 brought within the range of His doctrine, in their rela- 
 
 1 Neander : Life of Jesus Christ, $ 65. 
 
THE VAST RANGE OF CHRIST'S DOCTRINE. 255 
 
 tion to man's spiritual condition, whether of sin and its 
 conflicts, or of salvation and its hopes. Man himself in 
 his personal character, his condition, his wants, his desires, 
 his aims, his temptations, his perils, his possibilities ; man 
 in his relations to his fellows, to the community, to the 
 race ; the angels as messengers of love, rejoicing over the 
 returning prodigal, witnessing the confession of the peni- 
 tent, representing little children before the face of God in 
 heaven, bearing the child of God from want and wretched- 
 ness here to Abraham's bosom, attending upon the solem- 
 nities of the last judgment and welcoming the redeemed to 
 the glory of the Father ; the devil and his angels cast out 
 from heaven, infesting the earth to possess the bodies and 
 the souls of men, and awaiting their malignant triumph in 
 the condemned of the last day ; — God in His supremacy 
 as Creator, Lord and Judge of all ; in the infinitude of 
 His presence and the plenitude of His power ; in His spir- 
 itual nature as the object of worship ; in His holiness to 
 be revered, in His paternal bounty to be praised and loved ; 
 in His gracious nearness as the hearer of prayer : in the 
 habitation of His glory, prepared for the home of His 
 children ; — God in the mysterious unfolding of Himself 
 through the only begotten Son, and the Holy Comforter, 
 while yet He retains the ineffable oneness of His being — 
 this immense scale of existence from lowest to highest, and 
 from worst to best, was all covered by the doctrine of 
 Christ, bringing the whole moral universe into relations of 
 good or evil with mankind. And as all beings, so too 
 all worlds were brought within the compass of His doc-; 
 trine ; — this world with all its creatures, as under God's 
 providential care ; the world of spirits, subject to His con- 
 trol ; the world of the dead, obedient to His voice ; and 
 that yet more intangible, impenetrable sphere, where spirit- 
 ual influences act upon the thoughts and the hearts of 
 men, to enlighten and sanctify, or to delude and destroy. 
 
256 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 And as with all beings and all worlds, so with all 
 periods of duration — these were brought into the doctrine 
 of Christ so far as related to the main question of human 
 redemption. The history of this world as a preparation 
 for Him of whom Moses and the prophets did testify ; the 
 unwritten history of that kingdom prepared before the 
 foundation of the world, known to Him whose conscious- 
 ness went back to the glory of the Father before the world 
 was ; the coming ages to be illumined by His gospel, the 
 nations to be made His disciples, the end of the world, the 
 raising of the dead, the judgment, and the eternal state and 
 destinies beyond, these all were brought in line within the 
 doctrine of Christ. What other teacher — even though en- 
 lightened by His guidance — has taken such a grasp upon 
 all being, all time, all worlds, and gathering within His 
 thought all things visible and invisible — heaven, earth, 
 hades, hell, the eternity before the world was, the ages 
 gone, the ages to come, and the eternity beyond — -has con- 
 verged and concentrated all upon the focus of man's resto- 
 ration to his true position in this vast circle of beings, 
 powers, ages, worlds? 
 
 The completeness of the Revelation in Christ appears 
 also in the significance and moment of His doctrines. All 
 truth is important to be known ; all knowledge has some 
 value and use for its possessor ; and he who makes any 
 discovery, settles any fact, establishes any principle, not 
 only enriches himself, but is in some particular a bene- 
 factor of mankind ; and the reward of discovering truth, 
 the advantage of acquiring knowledge, is a stimulus to 
 that application of the mental powers which is itself a 
 benefit of no mean value. But were the question one of 
 sending a messenger from heaven clothed with divine wis- 
 dom and authority, to communicate to men a knowledge 
 of truth as known absolutely to God, there would be a 
 choice among truths, in respect both of subjects and the 
 
A REVELATION FOR HIGHER TRUTH. 257 
 
 manner of imparting knowledge. Were one invited to an 
 evening with a distinguished scholar, poet, artist, he would 
 not care to hear him talk of the weather, of the Pacific 
 Rail-road, the Cabinet, or the financial policy of the 
 country, but would crave to hear from him something 
 upon that which he knew so much better than any one 
 else. One would not wish Plato to talk about the climate, 
 nor Shakspeare about the crops, nor Raphael about the 
 currency, nor would it be worth while an angel's coming 
 to converse for an hour upon any problem of physical or 
 mental science — the squaring of the circle or the law of 
 the association of ideas. There are things of so much 
 higher moment upon which he might enlighten us from a 
 knowledge unattainable by man, that to occupy his dis- 
 course with our human science and affairs were below the 
 dignity of his mission. The value of truth is relative in 
 respect to the subjects, the occasion, the opportunity ; and 
 that which for the moment seems of absorbing interest^ 
 may dwindle to nothingness in presence of some illus- 
 trious person about to speak upon the highest themes. 
 Suppose now the Son of God, having in full, clear vision, 
 all truth, all knowledge, all wisdom, to have come into the 
 world for the purpose of giving light to men : — of what 
 should He speak? What themes, what doctrines and 
 lessons, would be worthy of so stupendous a miracle, so 
 ineffable a mystery as this divine incarnation? Should 
 He speak of the destruction of that Roman Empire that 
 then ruled the world? of the rising in after times of 
 another empire whose victorious Caesar should sweep the 
 fields of conquest from the Tagus to the Tiber, from the 
 Rhine to the Moskwa? Should He announce the dis- 
 covery of America, the invention of printing, the rail -way, 
 the telegraph ? Should He lay down a science of govern- 
 ment and of political economy for the regulation of human 
 society, or a philosophy of the mind in respect to sensation, 
 
258 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 reflection, consciousness, intuition? But knowledge such 
 as this, so important and useful in regard to earthly in- 
 terests, was sure to come, in the progress of events, under 
 the stimulus of necessity or the opportunity of research, 
 bringing with it a healthful development of the race by 
 the very act of investigation and discovery. 
 
 There were questions deeper, broader, higher, for the so- 
 lution of which the wisdom of ages was unequal, but which 
 the Son of God could illumine with a word. With what 
 feeling does God look upon man a sinner ? How can the 
 just and holy God, offended in His justice and holiness by 
 the impiety of men, be approached with hope of favor ? 
 How can a man be just with God ? How rise to intercourse 
 with the Father of his spirit ? How escape the condem- 
 nation that he knows is over him, that he feels within 
 him ? How find entrance to the paradise of purity, peace, 
 and love which is still the dream and hope of a fallen 
 world ? How meet death and that which is after death ? 
 
 Questions such as these, of the restoring and perfecting 
 of the soul that shall outlast all empires and all ages, were 
 the questions to be answered when the Son of God stood 
 face to face with a sinful dying world, to speak the words 
 that had been given Him of the Father. And questions 
 of such infinite moment filled the thought of Christ and 
 imparted to His discourses a fulness of significance and 
 value that can pertain to no wisdom of man. In the 
 supreme matter of man's recovery to God, to holiness and 
 heaven, no point is left untouched, no question unsolved. 
 
 The completeness of Christ's teaching appears further, 
 in the thoroughness and depth of His doctrines. He laid 
 the axe at the root of the tree : He drove the plowshare 
 down under the soil. He did not talk of the overturning 
 of the Roman empire ; He overturned it by the principles 
 which He set in motion against its oppressions, its vices, 
 its crimes. He did not furnish a philosophy of social 
 
SUMMARY OF CHRIST'S WORDS. 259 
 
 order; He reconstructed society by a few simple truths 
 concerning the individual, the family, the neighbor, the 
 state, the Church. He did not deliver a treatise on trade 
 or political economy, but He gave rules that rendered in- 
 justice, fraud, dishonesty impossible within His kingdom 
 and disgraceful outside of it. What He taught took hold 
 upon the innermost thoughts, feelings, passions, motives, 
 imaginations of the human heart to work there a revolu- 
 tion deep and radical. And His doctrines still confront 
 the soul as a finality in respect to its character, its needs, 
 its duties and its hopes. These words of Christ strike the 
 soul with awe, for by them it shall be judged. Not all 
 the volumes of moral science written since His days, not 
 all the legislation of united Christendom, could weigh 
 upon us with so much of authority as we feel in the few 
 little sentences of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 From the survey we have now taken, how comprehen- 
 sive is the doctrine of Christ. The word of Christ is that 
 God is a Spirit — to be worshipped therefore in spirit and 
 in truth ; that He is holy — and therefore to be glorified by 
 the fruits of holiness in the lives of men ; that He is a 
 Father, and therefore to be approached with filial faith in 
 prayer, to be acknowledged with filial gratitude in all the 
 blessings of life, and to be trusted, with a filial confidence, 
 under all trials and cares. 
 
 The word of Christ is that the heart of man is sinful ; 
 that out of it as from a fountain flow all corrupt and bitter 
 streams ; that from it as a root proceed all evil and bitter 
 fruits : and, therefore, that man must be born again, and 
 made pure from within or he cannot see God. 
 
 The word of Christ is that He was with the Father in 
 His glory before the world was ; that He and the Father 
 are one ; that by virtue of His original divine nature, He 
 has all power in heaven and in earth, the power of life and 
 of death, power to forgive' sins. The word of Christ is 
 
260 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 that this eternal Son of God, came into the world to seek 
 and to save that which was lost ; — came, sent by the 
 Father's love ; came^ not to condemn the world but that 
 the world through Him might be saved. The word of 
 Christ is that He draws men to Himself by being lifted up 
 upon the cross ; that He gave His flesh, that is His life, 
 for the life of the world ; that, like the corn of wheat, He 
 must die in order that the fruit of His coming might ap- 
 pear. 
 
 The word of Christ is that He is the resurrection and 
 the life ; and that whoso believeth on Him shall not perish 
 but have everlasting life, and shall be raised up at the last 
 day. The word of Christ is that He, the Son of Man, 
 shall come again in the glory of the Father, to judge the 
 world ; that He will raise the dead ; that He will separate 
 the sheep from the goats ; that they who by faith have 
 lived righteously, shall be blessed of His Father and wel- 
 comed to His kingdom ; but they who have been un- 
 believing and unrighteous shall go away into everlasting 
 punishment. All this body of truth is the word of Christ. 
 
 If we formulate Christ's teachings as doctrines ; we find 
 here the doctrine of God's spiritual essence, of His abso- 
 lute perfection, of His infinite love ; the doctrine of the 
 divine personality of Christ Himself; the doctrine of 
 man's sinful and lost condition : the doctrine of the re- 
 demptive sacrifice of Jesus for the sin of the world ; the 
 doctrine of the new birth or regeneration by the Holy 
 Spirit, as indispensable to our admission into the kingdom 
 of heaven ; the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, of 
 the general judgment and of the awards of life and of 
 death, alike final and eternal. All the great doctrines 
 known in theology as the doctrines of grace, — doctrines 
 that revolve around the central truth of man's deliverance 
 from sin and death and hell through the sacrifice of the 
 Son of God — the doctrines of sin and reconciliation, of re- 
 
pentance and faith, of pardon and salvation through the 
 cross of Jesus, of regeneration and sanctification through 
 the Spirit, of the resurrection of the dead and eternal judg- 
 ment — these doctrines, stripped of technical phraseology 
 and of human philosophy, are the word of Christ. 
 
 The word of Christ is preceptive as well as doctrinal ; 
 it is His word that we be humble and meek, merciful and 
 pure, peaceable and holy, prayerful and charitable ; it is 
 the word of Christ that we seek righteousness and the 
 kingdom of God; it is the word of Christ that we love 
 one another, and do good unto all men ; it is the word of 
 Christ that we glorify our Father in heaven through the 
 abounding fruits of righteousness. 
 
 The word of Christ is a word of promise also. It is 
 the word of Christ that He will send the Comforter to 
 teach, enlighten, console, and sanctify us : it is the word 
 of Christ that He and the Father will abide in the believ- 
 ing, gentle, loving soul ; it is the word of Christ that in. 
 the work of saving men through His gospel, He will be 
 with us alway even to the end of the world ; it is the 
 word of Christ that whatsoever we ask the Father in His 
 name He will give it us : it is the word of Christ that 
 . His peace shall be ours, and His joy shall be fulfilled in 
 us ; it is the word of Christ that He will prepare a place 
 for us in His Father's house, and will come again and re- 
 ceive us to Himself. 
 
 All that the Gospel contains for our instruction in right- 
 eousness ; for our elevation in character ; for our consola- 
 tion under trial ; for our hope in the future ; for our joy 
 and peace on earth, and our final felicity in heaven, is the 
 word of Christ. 
 
 The completeness of the revelation by Christ appears in 
 the practical scope and influence of His doctrines. In the 
 vast range covered by His teachings, while these touch at 
 intervals upon themes of thought the most abstruse and 
 
262 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 matters most remote from human experience, there is yet 
 nothing mystical, nothing speculative, nothing for mere 
 abstract contemplation; but every doctrine, whether con- 
 cerning man, angels, God, this world or that to come, takes 
 right hold upon human life and character, upon duty here 
 and destiny hereafter. Beginning with the heart, the per- 
 sonal soul, the individual life, the truth as Christ gave it 
 works out into all the lines of human action, into all phases 
 and conditions of society, into all business, all pleasure, all 
 intercourse, all official place, all relationships, all plans 
 and all obligations — past, present and to come. One can 
 be nothing, do nothing, speak nothing, think nothing, to 
 which this truth does not apply, with a commanding, a 
 controlling power. 
 
 It is this comprehensive completeness of Christ's teach- 
 ing in the essential point of character, that makes Him 
 indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life. As He came 
 from God to lead us to God, and has pointed the way fully 
 and clearly, nothing outside of Him can be the way. As 
 He brought to us the words of the Father to light us up 
 to God, there can be no truth proper or needful or useful 
 for salvation, that is not embraced in His teachings. And 
 as His light was the life of men, there can be no life apart 
 from Him. To receive Christ as teacher is to receive Him 
 in His fulness as the law of life, the way of salvation. 
 
 " This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom 
 He hath sent f 9 1 — this is the sum of faith and of duty. "I 
 know not," says Schleiermacher, " where we can find any 
 passage, even in the writings of the Apostles, which says so 
 clearly and significantly, that all eternal life in men pro- 
 ceeds from nothing else than faith in Christ." 
 
 There can be no improvement upon Christianity as this 
 was presented at the first by Christ. To say that theology, 
 in the meaning of a human science of interpretation, and of 
 
 1 John vi. 29. 
 
Christ's teaching for all ages. 263 
 
 logical definition and construction applied to the doctrines 
 of Christianity, can be improved, is only to say that human 
 imperfection, which mars whatever it touches, attaches to 
 any system that man can frame, even though the materials 
 furnished him be perfect and divine. But when men 
 speak of outgrowing Christianity, of finding a truth more 
 perfect, a way more simple, a salvation more complete, 
 they might as well talk of dispensing with sunlight by 
 some new patent of science for consuming the oils, gases or 
 metals of the earth. The very truths purporting to be in- 
 tuitions of consciousness, that are brought forth to supplant 
 Christianity, are either unconsciously derived from Chris- 
 tianity, or find in it full recognition and confirmation. 
 As the strokes of the hammer that bound to its bed the 
 last link of the Pacific Rail-road rang clear and musical 
 upon the telegraphic bells all over the continent, proclaim- 
 ing the way opened from sea to sea, so the words of Jesus, 
 proceeding from the central point of human history — 
 where this world was linked once more to heaven — vibrate 
 through the ages, in every clime and tongue, making mu- 
 sical the soul that listens for their coming. The words 
 that the beloved disciple caught and treasured for such as 
 had not seen the Lord and yet had believed, were written 
 for us also, that we might believe that Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing we might 
 have life through His name. l 
 
 * John xxL 31. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE GENUINENESS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHCT. 
 
 I. CHAEACTEEIST1CS OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 
 
 The Theology of Christ is largely derived from the Fourth Gospel, 
 commonly known as the Gospel of John. This Gospel has certain 
 peculiarities that distinguish it in a marked manner from the other 
 three, commonly called the Synoptics. In the duration it assigns to 
 the ministry of Jesus, in the number of His recorded visits to Jeru- 
 salem, in the date of the Last Supper, and in other minor points of 
 detail, there are differences between the fourth Gospel and the 
 Synoptics that have tasked the ingenuity of critics in arranging a 
 harmony of the Gospels. These points are discussed at length in 
 recent critical commentaries on John, and in learned and able mono- 
 graphs upon the genuineness of the fourth Gospel, but they are only 
 incidental to the line of inquiry pursued in this volume. 1 
 
 A more important distinction between the Fourth Gospel and the 
 Synoptics is found in the style and subjects of the teaching of Christ, 
 and in the representation of His person and character. In the Syn- 
 optics Jesus appears mainly as the Son of Man, who teaches moral 
 truths and practical virtues by parables and sententious sayings. 
 Even the sermon on the mount, though linked together by a subtile 
 law of association and development, is a series of apothegms rather 
 than a consecutive unfolding of doctrine. But in the Fourth Gospel, 
 which opens with the doctrine of the Logos, Jesus appears more com- 
 monlv as the Son of God, declaring and vindicating His Messiahship 
 and His personal relations to the Father, and in extended discourses 
 
 1 See Alford, Cam. on John; Meyer's K»m. uh»r das Evar,a. Je* Johanwn. 
 De Wette's Kom. fiber das Evang. des Johannes. Weiss, Lehrb»ch der Bib. 
 Theologie des JT. Testaments. Bleek's Einleitnng in das N. T. This standard 
 work is now accessible in English, through Clark's "Foreign Theological 
 Library;" it is distinguished by candor, learning and ability. Pe Groot, 
 Basilides ah erster Zeuge fur alter nnd avtoritat NentestamevtHcher Schriften, 
 inbesondere des Johannesevangelivms ; and the Essays of Prof. George P. 
 Fisher, D. D. on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity. — To these Essavs. as 
 well as to BV-pk's Einleitung, I have been specially indebted in preparing this 
 Appendix. 
 
 264 
 
VIEWS OF STRAUSS AND BAUR. 265 
 
 and dialogues setting forth the deepest doctrines of the spiritual life. 
 This last feature has given rise to the theory that the author of the« 
 fourth Gospel was a Hellenic Christian, of the Alexandrine school, 
 who constructed a fictitious life of Christ under the name of John, 
 in order to give to his theological scheme the semblance of apostolical 
 authority. A candid survey of the whole range of evidences, both 
 internal and external, will, we think, show the falsity of this theory, 
 and result in the conviction that the fourth Gospel was the work of 
 the apostle John. 
 
 II. THE VIEW OP STRAUSS. 
 
 Strauss maintains that it is impossible to deduce the faith of Jesus 
 from the fourth Gospel : — the tone of dogmatic assertion and of self- 
 glorification in which Jesus there speaks of ITimself and His relations 
 to the Father, is incompatible with the historical representation of 
 His characfer given by the Synoptics, and must have proceeded from 
 an enthusiastic and posthumous worshiper of Jesus, who put his own 
 Gnostic conceptions of the " Word " into the mouth of his divinized 
 Master. l 
 
 From an examination of the external evidences relating to the first 
 three Gospels, it results that, a little after the commencement of the 
 second century, one finds certain traces, if not of their existence 
 under their present form, at least of the existence of a great part of 
 the materials that entered into their composition ; and moreover, the 
 more ancient narratives had their origin in the very country which 
 was the theater of the events which they recount. As to the fourth 
 Gospel the results are far less favorable. This did not begin to be 
 known until after the middle of the second century, and everything 
 indicates that it had its origin in a foreign country, and under the 
 influence of a philosophy unknown in the primitive Christian society. 
 In the first three, in view of the interval of several generations 
 between the events that they narrate and their definitive composition, 
 the possibility of the addition of legendary and fabulous traits must 
 be admitted ; in the fourth the alloy of philosophical speculation and 
 meditative fiction is more than possible — it is probable. 2 
 
 III. view OP BAUR. 
 
 The strength of the negative criticism upon the fourth Gospel is 
 concentrated in Dr. F. C. Baur, the acknowledged leader of the 
 Ta i ;ingen School. Baur's conception is that the fundamental idea of 
 
 1 Strauss Baa Leben Jesu (1864) g 33. 3 Leben Jesu (1864) § 13. 
 
266 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 this Gospel, in the mind of its author, was to portray the unbelief of 
 the Jews, as the principle of darkness, opposing itself to the divine 
 principle of light and of life, incarnate in Jesue; and that its plan is 
 to follow out step by step the conflict of these two principles under 
 the form of an historical drama. He assigns its composition to the 
 epoch when Gnosticism and Montanism flourished, when the Church 
 attempted to defend herself at once from these two extreme tendencies, 
 and was agitated as to dogma, by the application of the idea of the 
 word to the person of Christ, and as to discipline, by the question of 
 the celebration of the Passover. Without any positive leanings, the 
 Gospel concluded within itself all the contrasts of its time, in one 
 central and higher conception, and hence was received with universal 
 favor by all parties. It was written about A. D. 160-170. 
 
 The author of this Gospel, strong in his own convictions, persuaded 
 that he knew better than the primitive evangelists — who were still 
 held in the prejudices of Judaism — the true spirit of Christianity and 
 of Christ, with entire good faith modified the evangelistic history, 
 accommodated it to the spirit of the time, and placed in the mouth of 
 Jesus discourses that corresponded with the evolution of the Christian 
 ideas ; and confident of having penetrated and revealed to the world 
 the inner glory of Christ, he felt authorized, if not to declare it in 
 express terms, at least to let it be understood with sufficient clearness, 
 that he was the beloved disciple of Jesus. 1 
 
 To sum up briefly the view of Baur, it is that "the fourth Gospel 
 was not written with an historical aim, but in advocacy of certain 
 doctrinal ideas ; and the writer made use of the Gospel tradition 
 already before him, especially in the first three Gospels, in a very 
 free and arbitrary way. The author, who was not certainly a Jew 
 by birth, lived in Asia Minor, or more probably in Alexandria, in 
 the second century, at a time when the Church was agitated and 
 divided by conflicting parties, by the Gnostic controversies, by that 
 concerning the doctrine of the Logos, by that concerning Easter, and 
 by those of Montanism." 2 
 
 IV. INTERNAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 Both Strauss and Baur have admitted the clearness, consistency, 
 and unity of the Fourth Gospel — that it is true to its own conception 
 
 1 Krit. Untersuehungen uber die kanon. Evangelien 1847, and Theol. Jahr- 
 bucher 1844, 1847, 1851, 1854. 
 
 2 Condensed by Bleek. Int. § 63. 
 
INTERNAL MARKS OF GENUINENESS. 267 
 
 of Jesus and His mission — though they deny that either its doctrines 
 or its miracles could be imputed to the Jesus of the Synoptical Gos- 
 pels. But this denial is in both instances based upon a dogmatic 
 assumption. It is assumed that the " Son of Man," who appears in 
 the Synoptics setting forth in simple parables the practical relations 
 of the kingdom of God to this world, could not also have uttered the 
 lofty and somewhat mystical doctrines of the Fourth Gospel concerning 
 the Son of God. Not to dwell here upon the marked diversity of 
 method often found in the same teacher — which will be considered 
 under the head of " style " — this assumption is set aside by the 
 simple fact that " declarations of Christ are recorded in the Synoptics 
 perfectly corresponding with what we find in John concerning the 
 divine dignity of the Son of God, and His relation to the Father.'' 
 Thus Matthew and Luke declare the intimate union of the Son with 
 the Father in language exactly parallel to the type of such declarations 
 in John : "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." 1 In showing how David had called Him Lord. He declared 
 His pre-eminence and His pre-existence. 2 In giving His last com- 
 mission to His disciples, He asserted the plenitude of His power and 
 the perpetuity of His being; and at the same time conjoined Himself 
 with the Father, upon equal terms, in the formula of baptism. 3 Be- 
 fore the Sanhedrim, in answer to the demand, " Tell us whether thou 
 be the Christ, the Son of God," He acknowledged the title, and said 
 "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of' 
 power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." 4 For this assertion of 
 divine attributes He was charged with blasphemy and adjudged 
 "guilty of death." The relation of His death to the life of the world 
 was clearly announced in that saying, recorded by Matthew and Mark, 
 "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
 and to give His life a ransom for many." 5 Thus the germs of the 
 most important doctrines of Christology embodied in the Fourth 
 Gospel are found in the Synoptics ; and that John, writing his Gospel 
 at a later date, should have given greater prominence and amplitude 
 to this class of Christ's sayings, was in accordance with that divine 
 wisdom that evolves life in its highest organization from the simplest 
 germ-cell. 
 
 1 Mat. xi. 27, Luke x. 22, comp. John vi. 46 and x. 15. 2 Mat. xxii. 41. 
 Mark xii. 35. Luke xx. 41. 3 Mat. xxviii. 18. 4 Mat. xxvi. 63, 64. 
 5 Mat. xx. 28 : Mark x. 45. 
 
268 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 The objection to the genuineness of the fourth Gospel from the 
 miracles that it records, brings into a question of pure criticism a 
 foreign element of dogmatic speculation, and is well met by Bleek. 1 
 " We must be content not to determine lor ourselves beforehand, ol 
 d, priori, how far the influence of God's Spirit may extend, or how 
 far not ; we must admit that it may operate not only on animate and 
 human nature, but upon inanimate nature likewise. It is only self- 
 deception to think that we can set up a barrier or line of demarca- 
 tion, determining what miracles are possible and what impossible, or 
 that it is by no means necessary to infer this from the character of 
 the miracles themselves, trustworthily attested and recorded. It is 
 quite unreasonable, on the ground merely that St. John's Gospel 
 records miracles as wrought by Jesus, which do not come within our 
 arbitrarily pre conceived notion of a possible miracle, to deny to it 
 that trustworthiness and historical genuineness which it so evidently 
 possesses in so many points. It is not unimportant to observe that 
 the accounts given of miracles in the fourth Gospel are comparatively 
 rare, and by no means so frequent as in the Synoptics ; and this 
 should awaken in the minds of persons who so argue a pre judgment 
 in favor of St. John. In those cases, moreover, wherein a compari- 
 son can be instituted, the account given by St. John is much simpler 
 than that in the Synoptics ; and bearing in mind the comparatively 
 late composition of the Gospel, this tells all the more in favor of the 
 opinion that the writer was himself an eye-witness and partici- 
 pator." 2 
 
 Robert Browning has well hit this nice balance in John's narrative 
 between the faith that springs from love and the faith that comes 
 only of miracles. 
 
 " I fed the babe whether it would or no ; 
 
 I bid the boy or feed himself or starve. 
 
 I cried once, ' That ye may believe in Christ, 
 
 Behold, this blind man shall receive his sight!' 
 ' Repeat that miracle and take my faith ?' 
 
 I say, that miracle was duly wrought 
 
 When, save for it, no faith was possible. 
 
 So faith grew, making void more miracles 
 
 Because too much : they would compel, not help. 
 
 I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ 
 
 Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
 
 1 Tntrod. % 79. 
 2 See the account of the walking on the sea, John v. 15 ; Matt. xiv. 22 ; 
 Mark vi. 45 ; and of the voice from heaven, John xii. 24. 
 
SOCEATES AND CHRIST COMPARED AS TEACHERS. 26£ 
 
 All questions in the earth and out of it, 
 And has so far advanced thee to be wise. l 
 
 The perfect accord between the doctrines and the miracles — the 
 word of Jesus and His works — in the fourth Gospel, and the natu- 
 ralness with which they supplement each other, is an evidence of the 
 historical character of the Gospel. 
 
 The question of style in this Gospel as compared with the 
 Synoptics need occasion no difficulty when we reflect how the same 
 author or teacher may vary his style for different hearers or objects. 
 The Synoptics testify that Jesus discoursed with His disciples in a 
 style different from that which He used before the people. 2 " It is 
 well known," says Bleek, "how widely the representations differ 
 that are given us of the person and teaching of Socrates in Plato and 
 Xenophon respectively. Some, supposing these irreconcilable, have 
 held Xenophon's account only to be historically true, and have de- 
 clared the Platonic Socrates to have been the creation of Plato him- 
 self. The narrowness and erroneousness of this opinion is now 
 acknowledged ; for if Socrates were a teacher only, as Xenophon de- 
 scribes him, if he was not also the speculatist and philosopher that 
 Plato describes, we could not explain how so many schools of specu- 
 lative philosophy sprang from his teaching and influence. Both de- 
 scriptions of Socrates are true, and are only different aspects of one 
 and the same character. Now, if a wise man, who was merely 
 human like Socrates, could thus present such manifoldness in unity 
 that two of his pupils could give such contrasted yet true pictures 
 of his teaching, surely the same is possible in the case of Christ — in 
 the case of Him whose office and work was to be the Redeemer of 
 men of all shades of character and life ; surely in His person and life 
 there must necessarily have been a far richer fullness." 3 
 
 The prevailing similarity of style in the discourses of Jesus and the 
 narrative of the evangelist, may be accounted for quite naturally by 
 the overmastering influence of the thought of Jesus upon the mind 
 of the susceptible and loving John. Such unconscious influence, 
 where there is neither imitation nor invention, is by no means un- 
 common between master and disciple. 
 
 Indeed, the reporting of an oral discourse may depend as much upon 
 the receptivity of the hearer as upon the phraseology of the speaker. 
 
 1 A Death, in the Desert — a fictitious representation of John vindicating lv'a 
 gospel on his death-bed. 
 
 2 Matt. xiii. 10., 34. Mark iv. 11, 33, 34. Luke viii. 10. 
 » Introd. Z 76. 
 
270 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Two reporters of different temperaments and different degrees of cul- 
 ture may present quite different phases of the same speech ; each 
 correct as far as it goes, each incomplete as an embodiment of the 
 thought of the speaker, yet each important for the impression it will 
 make upon its own circle of readers, while both are necessary to a 
 philosophical estimate of the speaker and his discourse. John 
 appears to have fed upon certain phases of Christ's doctrine till these 
 not only possessed his soul as a personal faith, but pervaded his 
 thought and style. 
 
 " Let any only yield himself," says Neander, " to the impression 
 of the Sermon on the Mount, and then ask himself whether it be 
 probable that a mind of the loftiness, depth, and power which that 
 discourse evinces, could have employed only one mode of teaching? 
 A mind which swayed not only simple and practical souls, but also 
 so profoundly speculative an intellect as that of Paul, could not but 
 have scattered the elements of such a tendency from the very first. 
 We cannot but infer, from the irresistible power which Christianity 
 exerted upon minds so diversely constituted and cultivated, that the 
 sources of that power lay combined in Him whose self-revelation was 
 the origin of Christianity itself. Moreover, the other Go?pels are not 
 wanting in apparently paradoxical expressions akin to the peculiar 
 tone of John's Gospel, i. e. Let the dead bury their dead. Nor will 
 the attentive observer find in John alone expressions of Christ in- 
 tended to increase, instead of to remove, the offence which carnal 
 minds took at His doctrine. 
 
 " Still it is true, that such passages are given by John much more 
 abundantly than the other Evangelists. But there is nothing in 
 his Gospel purely metaphysical or impractical ; none of the spirit of 
 the Alexandrian- Jewish theology ; but everywhere a direct bearing 
 upon the inner life, the Divine communion which Christ came to 
 establish. Its form would have been altogether different had it been 
 composed, as some suppose in the second century, to support the 
 Alexandrian doctrine of the Logos, as will be plain to any one who 
 takes the trouble to compare it with the writings of that age that 
 have come down to us. The discourses given in the first three Gospels 
 mostly composed of separate maxims, precepts, and parables, all in 
 the popular forms of speech, were better fitted to be handed down 
 by tradition than the more profound discussions which have been 
 recorded by the beloved disciple who hung with fond affection upon 
 the lips of Jesus, treasured His revelations in a congenial mind, and. 
 poured them forth to fill up the gaps of the popular narrative. And 
 although it is true that the image of Christ given to us in this Gospel 
 
EXTERNAL PROOFS OF GENUINENESS. 271 
 
 is the reflection of Christ's impression upon John's peculiar mind and 
 feelings, it is to be remembered that these very peculiarities were 
 obtained by his intercourse with, and vivid apprehension of, Christ 
 himself. His susceptible nature appropriated Christ's life, and in- 
 corporated it with His own.'' 1 
 
 As to the names Son of Man and Son of God, Neander shows that 
 Christ employed these antithetically : " they contain correlative ideas, 
 and cannot be thoroughly understood apart from their reciprocal 
 relation." 
 
 The fourth Gospel exhibits throughout intrinsic evidences of being 
 the production of an eye-witness. The minute yet unstudied descrip- 
 tion of persons, places, events, the natural and life-like manner in 
 which the story is told, are marks not only of the historical character of 
 the narrative, but also of the interest of the writer in all that he nar- 
 rates, as a matter of personal testimony. These characteristics are very 
 striking in the account of the closing scenes of the life of Jesus : — the 
 manner of the disciples when Jesus announced at the Supper that one 
 of them should betray Him: the fact that John, being "known unto 
 the high priest" went into his palace, while Peter remained without, 
 until John came and brought him in ; the circumstantiality of the 
 details about the weather, the fire, and what was transpiring in the 
 judgment hall and in the outer court ; these are marks of personal 
 recollection. The same characteristic appears in the account of the 
 visit of Peter and John to the Sepulcher.* 
 
 V. EXTEKNAL EVIDENCES. 
 
 It is admitted by all parties, that before thfe close of the second 
 century the fourth Gospel had come to be acknowledged as a canonical 
 work, and was by many accepted as a work of the Apostle John. 
 Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian of pro- 
 consular Africa, and Poly crates of Ephesus are conclusive witnesses 
 to this fact. Irenaeus argues the necessity for four Gospels from the 
 mystical analogy of the four divisions of the world, the foui winds, 
 the four cherubims : 8 Clement speaks of " the four Gospels which 
 have been handed down to us;"* Tertullian enumerates the four;* 
 Polycrates names John as "he who leaned upon the bosom of the 
 Lord." 6 These witnesses prove that in the last third of the second 
 century the fourth Gospel was acknowledged in all the churches as 
 
 * Life of Jeans Christ, Am. edition, § 71. 
 2 Prof. Fisher has grouped together very effectively many passages in John's 
 Gospel that exhibit "the air and manner of an eye-witness and participant in 
 the scenes recorded." The Supernatural Origin of Christianity, pp. 84-95. 
 8 Hcer. iii. 11. 4 Strom, iii. 13. & Mircion, ir. 2. e Evsebius, r. 24. 
 
272 THE THEOLOGY OF CHEIST. 
 
 the work of the apostle John. Going back a step further in the 
 literature of the primitive Church, we find conclusive evidence of the 
 existence of the fourth Gospel in the first half of the second century. 
 According to Hippolytus, Valentinus, the founder of a Gnostic sect, 
 quoted from this Gospel as the saying of Christ, ,l All that came be- 
 fore Me are thieves and robbers ;" 1 and also applied to Satan the 
 title " Prince of this world." Marcion rejected the Gospel of John, 
 as he also mutilated Luke's Gospel, because he thought it inconsisteni 
 with the doctrines of Paul ; 2 but his rejection of it as not favoring 
 his theological scheme, shows that it was already current m the 
 Church as the work of the apostle John. 
 
 We are indebted to Hippolytus for the resuscitation of another 
 witness— Basilides 3 a Gnostic leader who flourished at Alexandria 
 in tne fore part of the second century. In his discussions Basilides 
 says, " Thus it is said in the Gospel ; This was the true light that 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world :" 4 and again, " The 
 Saviour said, My hour is not yet come." 5 It is impossible to doubt 
 that Basilides had before him the Gospel of John, and regarded it as 
 of apostolical authority. 
 
 A yet earlier and more important witness is Justin Martyr, who 
 lived between A. D. 89 and 160. Justin speaks of the Gospels col- 
 lectively as " the authoritative memoirs of the Apostles ; " he declares 
 that Christ was "the only -begotten of the Father of all things, 
 being properly begotten by Him as His Word and Power " — a con- 
 ception apparently founded upon John ; and he uses the language of 
 John's Gospel, with only such slight verbal variations as would 
 occur in quotations from memor}^. In particular in his account of 
 baptism, Justin says, 6 " For indeed Christ also said : ' Except ye be 
 born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' And 
 that it is impossible for those who are once born to enter into their 
 mother's womb, is plain to all." Such an approximation to the lan- 
 guage of John can hardly be accounted for by a current tradition of 
 Christ's conversation with Nicodemus ; and, moreover, such a tradi- 
 tion would go to confirm the Gospel narrative as a history, for the 
 Gospel reports with a matter-of-fact particularity the interview of 
 the Master in Israel with the Teacher come from God. 
 
 VI. CONCLUSION. 
 
 The whole argument is well summed up in the following extracts 
 from Bleek : 
 
 1 Hippol. vi. 35. 2 Tertullian, arlv. Marcion iv. 3. » Hippol. vii. 22, 27. 
 4 John i. 9. 5 John ii. 4. 6 Apol. i. 61. 
 
GENUINENESS OF JOHN'S GOSPEL. 273 
 
 " We have now to consider the design and occasion of this Gospel. 
 The former John himself seems to tell us in his closing words. l 
 What he here declares to be his object in writing, viz., to further 
 faith in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God, and everlasting life 
 in those who believe, may, as thus generally stated, be regarded as 
 the highest object of the other evangelists, and indeed of all Christian 
 teachers whether writers or speakers. But it is one thing to awaken 
 faith, another to confirm and guard it against error on all sides. 
 Accordingly the authors of the Gospels might have different points 
 of view, and give to their works a correspondingly different form. 
 Their purpose might have been either the furtherance of faith in the 
 Son of God — and this would influence them more or less in their 
 
 selection of facts, and in the characteristic execution of their task 
 
 or they might content themselves simply with the trustworthy re- 
 lation of occurrences just as they happened. Among the Synopses, 
 the latter character seems to belong more to Luke and Mark, the 
 former more to Matthew. But unquestionably this former character 
 belongs in a far higher degree to John, and certainly not simply 
 through pointed references in him to the fulfilment of Old Testament 
 expressions and in virtue of his own remarks and observations, but 
 also through his selection of matter for record, especially such as the 
 discourses of the Lord, which refers far more than those in the Syn- 
 optics to the person of Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah. 
 More than any other of the evangelists might John have declared it 
 to be Jthe simple purpose of his writing, that his readers might be- 
 lieve Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. Still it would be a 
 very great mistake to argue from this manifest intention in the Gos- 
 pel against its historical reality and purpose, and to speak of it as 
 purely dogmatic and apologetic, as has so often been done even by 
 the latest interpreters and critics. So far is this from the truth, that 
 if we may treat any one of our Gospels as an historical work, we may 
 emphatically so treat the Gospel of John. In the statement of 
 external facts, John is frequently more exact than the Synoptics. 
 Not less is his account of events recorded by himself alone distin- 
 guished by great precision and clearness, even when he gives promi- 
 nence to what has manifestly no direct dogmatic significance ; e. g. 
 the conversation with the Samaritan woman, the healing of the 
 man born blind at Jerusalem, the raising of Lazarus, etc Espe- 
 cially is the historical character of his Gospel proved by the clear- 
 ness with which it unfolds, in its gradual development, the catas- 
 
 18 1 John xx. 31. 
 
274 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 trophe which terminated in the death of Jesus the Redeemer. 
 Here pre-eminently, from the very beginning of the Lord's public 
 life onwards, care is taken to show how by His deeds and words the 
 Jewish feeling concerning Him was formed, alternating for a long 
 time between approval and dislike, until at last it took such a course 
 as to give up even eagerly to crucifixion Him on whom but a short 
 time before it had joyfully fixed its expectations. 
 
 " The whole Gospel shows us how the popular opinion respecting 
 Jesus was formed ; how, for a long time, it swung between approval 
 and dislike ; how the people, entirely filled with the Jewish notions 
 respecting the Messiah, sometimes thought He was the One for 
 whom they were waiting, and then again became determined and 
 bitter against Him ; how the Sanhedrim resolved to make away with 
 Him, and how this resolution was affected by a real or pretended fear 
 of the Romans. Especially is it from. John that we learn how it 
 came to pass (a) that the people greeted Jesus on His entrance into 
 Jerusalem with such rejoicings, (the fact itself is recorded by the 
 Synoptics ; but it is only in this Gospel that we learn its motive, in 
 the raising of Lazarus shortly before) ; and yet (b) that their feeling so 
 quickly altered respecting Him, through the discourse following the 
 entry, from which it could be seen how little He thought of being a 
 Messiah m the Jewish sense of the word. This change of feeling is 
 also related by the Synoptics, but not so as to show very clearly how 
 it was brought about. 1 
 
 " We need not be surprised at finding no quotations from St. 
 John's Gospel in the apostolic fathers ; for they do not usually make 
 any quotations from the Gospels, though they certainly must have 
 known them. There are indeed some passages which seem indi- 
 rectly to refer to sayings in our Gospel, but we cannot affirm this 
 
 with certainty My conviction is that an unprejudiced 
 
 consideration of the external testimonies leads to the certain conclu- 
 sion that our fourth Gospel was recognized as a trustworthy author- 
 ity, and a genuine work, in the various churches of Christendom 
 ■before the middle of the second century. 
 
 " It must, as we have seen, have existed and been known in the 
 church (a) before the Easter controversies; {b) before the appear- 
 ance of the Valentinian Gnosis in Egypt and elsewhere; (c) before the 
 rise of Montanism in Asia Minor ; (d) before the time of Marcion 
 himself. The position which the contending parties in all these con- 
 troversies allowed to our Gospel, can be historically explained only 
 
 i Bleek, Int. \ 115. 
 
VAN OOSTERZEE'S NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY. 275 
 
 upon the supposition that it was known and recognized in the 
 Church at large some decades of years before the middle of the second 
 century, if not from the very beginning of it ; and this fact, in turn, 
 can only be explained upon the supposition that it is a genuine and 
 apostolic work. Whatever may be difficult and strange in the his- 
 tory of this Gospel in the Church, in its contents or in its exposition, 
 is only of such a nature as to become tenfold more difficult and more 
 strange upon the supposition of a later and non-apostolic author- 
 ship. Our investigation has confirmed us in the steadfast conviction, 
 which is irresistibly urged upon us ever and anon from different con- 
 siderations, that this fourth Gospel is really the work of St. John, the 
 trusted and beloved disciple of the Lord" l 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 DR. J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE'S THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 The most judicious and satisfactory treatise that has yet appeared 
 in the recent science of Biblical Theology, is the Manual of the The- 
 ology of the New Testament by Dr. Van Oosterzee, Professor m the 
 University of Utrecht, Holland. This was first published in Dutch 
 in 1867, and a second edition appeared in 1869. A German trans- 
 lation, made under the author's sanction, was published at Barmen 
 in 1868 ; 2 a full account of the work, with a translation of several 
 sections appeared in the American Presbyterian Review for July, 
 1870 ; 3 and a translation of the entire work is in course of publication 
 in the Theological Eclectic. 4 This translation, by Prof. George E. 
 Day, D. D., is made directly from the Dutch, and promises to be 
 both precise and elegant ; when completed, it will be published as a 
 distinct volume, and will form a useful text-book for Bible-classes. 
 
 For convenience of reference I have here compiled from the Ger- 
 man edition an abstract of that portion of Van Oosterzee's work 
 which treats specificially of the Theology of Christ. 
 
 1 Bleek, Intro. £ 89. 
 
 2 Die Theologie des Wenen Testaments. Ein Hand-buch fiir academischo 
 Vorlesungen und zum Selbst-studium. Von J. J. Van Osterzee. pp. 268. 
 
 3 Vol. ii. New Series, pp. 434-459. * Published by Judd & White, New- 
 Haven. 
 
276 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 Section first, in the form of an introduction, defines the Biblicai 
 Theology of the New Testament as a science, carefully distinguishing 
 it from Christian Dogmatics. The latter inquires, not only what the 
 Christian Church in general or any one of its branches confesses as 
 truth, but above all, what within the domain of Christian faith one 
 really should or should not hold as truth. The former, on 
 the contrary, asks only what is set forth as truth by the writers of 
 the New Testament. From its point of view, it has to do, not with 
 the correctness, but only with the import of the ideas which it finis 
 in the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. Elle ne d£montre pas, 
 die raconte. As for the exegete, so for the Biblical theologian, the 
 main question is, How readest thou ? 
 
 | 2, treats of the history of this science, showing that it arose at a 
 comparatively recent period — largely under the impulse of rational- 
 istic investigation — and is "distinctively Protestant" in its origin and 
 methods of inquiry, making the Bible its sole text-book and 
 authority. 
 
 | 3, points out the method to be pursued in this study. The The- 
 ology of the Lord Jesus Christ must be distinguished from that of 
 the Apostolic writers, and the former discussed before the latter. 
 Here, too, the difference between the sayings of the Lord in the Syn- 
 optics and in the fourth Gospel comes before us. The apostolic 
 writings should receive a like discriminating treatment— bringing 
 out in succession the theology of Peter, of Paul, and of John. And, 
 moreover, since the doctrine of Christ and His apostles grew like a plant 
 out of the soil of the Old Testament, as a preparation for understand- 
 ing that doctrine, we must acquaint ourselves with the religion out 
 of whioh Christianity sprang, with the expectations which it realized, . 
 and with the condition, the ideas and the wants of the age in which 
 Christ and His apostles lived. These points, Mosaism, Prophetism, 
 and Judaism, as distinguished from the earlier Hebraism, Dr. 
 Oosterzee groups together under the name of " Old Testament foun- 
 dation.'' 
 
 The treatise proper opens with a chapter on this " Old Testament 
 Foundation/' under which I 4 treats of Mosaism— the religious-po- 
 litical constitution 1 for which the people of Israel were indebted to 
 Moses ; its foundation, a special revelation, its character monothe- 
 
 1 " Die religios-politische Einrichtung ; " a constitution which did not simply 
 combine within itself ecclesiastical and civil institutions, but in which the re- 
 ligious idea was the key of the civil polity, and the whole political structure 
 was based upon religious truths and erected for a religious end :— not " re- 
 ligious and civil," but "religious-political." 
 
OLD TESTAMENT FOUNDATIONS OE CHEISTIANITY. 277 
 
 istic, its form theocratic, its worship symbolico- typical, its tendency 
 purely moral, its standpoint that of external authority — though at 
 the same time it is thoroughly conscious that it is a preparation for 
 a higher development. Blending the religious and the ethical, the 
 Mosaic economy is founded not in legalism but in morality ; the ab- 
 solute holiness of the king is the ideal of the subject ; the love of 
 Jehovah is ever in the foreground, and religion is most intimately 
 united with the life. Yet the law could not itself produce the 
 holiness that it required. 
 
 Prophetism, \ 5, which can as little be accounted for on the ration- 
 alistic theory as on that of magic, was both the support and the ful- 
 fillment of the earlier revelation. It built the way for the Gospel of 
 the New Testament, exerted an important influence upon the matter 
 and form of its preaching, and exalted its high worth above all reason- 
 able doubt. It insisted upon the spiritual nature of the law and the 
 necessity of spiritual consecration ; it proclaimed the universality of 
 the kingdom of God, a golden age upon earth, and the resurrection 
 and the judgment after death. By upholding Monotheism, by quick- 
 ening and sharpening the sense of sin, and thus awakening the long- 
 ing for redemption, by setting over against the terrors of the law the 
 consolation of promise and hope, it prepared the way for the Gospel. 
 
 Judaism, \ 6, describes the moral and religious state of the Israel- 
 ites after the Babylonian captivity— a state of degeneracy from the 
 original Hebraism, when speculation, legalism, and formalism had 
 supplanted the early enthusiasm for spiritual truth. Although in 
 this period there was a general expectation of the Messiah, yet there 
 was nothing in Judaism from which the personal character of Christ 
 or the matter of His Gospel could have been developed. 
 
 Part Second brings us directly to the Theology of Jesus Christ :— 
 the essence of the doctrine of God and divine things as given by 
 Christ during His earthly life. While Jesus drew much from nature 
 and from the Old Testament, His personality, more than anything 
 else, was the source of His doctrine, and determined both the form 
 and the matter of His teaching. The remainder of this chapter, 
 from § 10 to § 17, is devoted to the conception of the Kingdom of 
 God as found in the Synoptical Gospels. The several topics are, the 
 kingdom itself, its founder, the King of kings, the subjects of the 
 kingdom, salvation, the way of salvation, the consummation. 
 
 I 10, on the Kingdom, has already been given in the note on p. 30. 
 The founder of this kingdom Dr. van Oosterzee regards as none other . 
 
278 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 than Christ Himself, * who even in the Synoptical Gospels, appears 
 as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and as such is not only a 
 true and spotless man, but is also a partaker of a super-human 
 nature and dignity which no creature in heaven or earth can lay 
 claim to. At the same time, \ 12, He proclaims the Father as the 
 Only true, the personally living and continually acting God, who re- 
 veals Himself especially through the Son to men, and through the 
 Holy Spirit produces in them every really gool thing. 
 
 |" 13. Men only are the proper subjects of this kingdom — the holy 
 angels being its servants, and the spirits of darkness its enemies. 
 Christ teaches the personality of Satan, the Evil one, assumes the 
 universality of sin in the hearts of men, and sets forth the guilt and 
 ruin of the transgressor. 
 
 $ 14. Salvation consists in the enjoyment of temporal and spiritual 
 blessings, which begins here, and shall be perfected in the hereafter. 
 The earthly appearing, the active life, the redemptive death and the 
 heavenly glory of Jesus Christ, together had this distinct purpose — 
 to bring this salvation to all. 
 
 § 15. Though all are invited to the salvation of the kingdom of 
 God, yet sinners can partake of it only through repentance, faith, and 
 a renewal of heart which manifests itself in the rectitude of the whole 
 life. All who enter upon this way constitute together a spiritual 
 community, which on account of its peculiar constitution, but above 
 all on account ot its character and tendency is high above every 
 other, and shall extend and endure till the end of the world. 
 
 $ 16. Then shall come the consummation. The salvation of the 
 subjects of the kingdom of God survives their death, but will first 
 reach its consummation at the Advent of the Lord, at which the 
 glory of the King shall be manifested, and those of His subjects who 
 have been found faithful shall be rewarded with the full rewards of 
 grace. This Advent will be ushered in by impressive signs, accom- 
 panied with stupendous changes in the cosmical and moral spheres, 
 
 1 That Christ did not really found the kingdom of God, but revived the 
 normal conception of that kingdom in the Old Testament, and filled out the 
 prophetic ideal, I have already shown at p. 31. This view of the original 
 spirituality of the Old Testament kingdom is essential to a true understanding 
 of the preaching of Christ. The apostasy of the Jews from their primitive 
 Theocracy, and their glorification of the forms of the law in place of the spirit 
 of allegiance, rendered necessary the removal of their system, in order to the 
 re-establishment and glorification of the true Theocracy. " The kingdom of 
 God " says Neander, "could not be founded from without. It needed first a 
 proper material ; and this could not be found in human nature, estranged from 
 God by sin." 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF JOHN'S GOSPEL. 279 
 
 and followed by the definitive separation of the good and the bad 
 which shall put an irrevocable end to the present state of things. 
 
 Thus far the elements of the Theology of Christ as given in the 
 Synoptical Gospels. His words in the fourth Gospel exhibit a char- 
 acter so entirely peculiar, as to require a separate treatment. It is 
 important also to distinguish as far as possible the utterances of the 
 Johannean Christ from those of the Christian John. Here, in the 
 words of Christ Himself, we move in quite another sphere of thought. 
 In the Synoptics it is the kingdom of heaven that is prominent, 
 here the King Himself; there, the human, here the divine side of the 
 Person of the Redeemer; there, the blessedness of redemption beyond 
 the grave, here, upon this side of the grave. This is the theme of 
 \ 17, which op-ens the second part of the Theology of Christ. 
 
 I 18, treats of the Son of God in the flesh The self consciousness 
 which utters itself in the fourth Gospel is that of the onlv Son of God 
 who appears as true and sinless man, to be the Messiah of Israel 
 and the Saviour of the world, but who at the same time, during His 
 stay on earth stands personally in a relation to heaven altogether 
 peculiar. 
 
 \ 19. As the Son of God the Lord declared that He was from 
 eternity, was the constant object of the Jove of 'the Father, and the 
 sharer of His nature, majesty and power, who had in the Father the 
 ground and the end of His life, who revealed His name in the fullest 
 degree, and by consequence could lay claim to a homage and dignity 
 which could not be accorded to a creature without blasphemy 
 
 I 20. The name of the Father was revealed by the Son to a world 
 which through sin and the powers of evil was under the dominion of 
 darkness, but which received from God in Christ new light and life. 
 He imparted this light and life through His coming and all His 
 works, but especially through His sufferings and death. Yet in 
 order personally to enjoy their benefits, a heart-faith is indispensable, 
 and this though required upon sufficient grounds, nevertheless for 
 moral reasons will by no means be found in all. 
 
 \ 21. They who are given to the Son by the Father, and by con- 
 sequence have come to the Father through the Son, are united with 
 the Son, and through Him with one another in a living Communion, 
 whose peculiar character can be understood only by means of a 
 spiritual experience, and whose benign effects are manifested in the 
 whole course of their inner and outer life. 
 
 | 22. That eternal life, which already here is a fruit of personal 
 abiding fellowship with Christ, survives death and passes over into 
 unending felicity. Also according to the Johannean Christ we must 
 
280 THE THEOLOGY OF CHRIST. 
 
 look for a resurrection of the dead, a general judgment, and an 
 irrevocable separation at the last day. The discussion of these rela- 
 tions of the Son of God to the Father, to the world, to His Disciples, 
 and to the Future, completes the second division of Van Oosterzee's 
 treatise on the Theology of Christ. 
 
 The third part considers the apparent differences between the 
 Synoptics and John's Gospel, in their reports of Christ's teachings, 
 as really conducting to a higher unity. His doctrine is communicated 
 by the four evangelists in an harmonious many-sidedness, and is on 
 the one hand the unfolding, amplification and fulfilment of the word 
 of God spoken by Moses and the prophets, and on the other the foun- 
 dation and starting point of a series of Apostolic declarations in re- 
 spect to the way of salvation, which under various modifications, in 
 turn embody, interpret and strengthen the doctrine of Christ. 
 
 The Petrine, Pauline, and Johannean theologies are severally dis- 
 cussed, and the work closes with a chapter upon the agreement of 
 the apostles with one another, the agreement of the apostles with 
 their Lord, and the agreement of Christ and His apostles with the 
 writings of the Old Testament. 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCKIPTUEE. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Gen. ii. 7 178 
 
 " 9 168 
 
 " xvii.1-17 86 
 
 Ex. xiii. 13 64 
 
 " xxi.30 63 
 
 " xxx. 12 63 
 
 " " 16 63 
 
 Lev. xxiv. 16 145 
 
 " xxv. 24 63 
 
 " " 52 63 
 
 Num. xxi. 6 57 
 
 " 7 58,60 
 
 " " 8 57,58 
 
 " xxiv. 6 166 
 
 " xxxv. 31 63 
 
 Deut. viii. 15 57 
 
 1 Sam.xiv. 7. 86 
 
 2 Sam. vii. 14 140 
 
 " xii. 23 175 
 
 2 Kings xxiii.10 282 
 
 1 Chron. xxix. 18 86 
 
 Ez. iv. 8 52 
 
 " vi.ll 51 
 
 " " 18 52 
 
 " vii. 12 52 
 
 «* " 26 52 
 
 Neh. ii. 8 166 
 
 Job xii. 3 86 
 
 " xv. 12 86 
 
 " xix. 26 183 
 
 " xxx. 26 282 
 
 Ps. ii. 6 140 
 
 " " 7 140 
 
 " viii. 6 217 
 
 " xvi. 9 183 
 
 Eccl. ii. 5 166 
 
 " xii. 7 95 
 
 Is. v. 20 282 
 
 "viii. 22 282 
 
 " ix. 2 282 
 
 " x. 7 86 
 
 " xvi. 24 282 
 
 " xxxii. 4 86 
 
 " xliv. 20 86 
 
 " 1.10 282 
 
 " li. 3 166 
 
 " liii. 11 215 
 
 " lxiii. 4 86 
 
 Jer. vii. 31 282 
 
 " " 32, 33 282 
 
 " xxxi. 33 22 
 
 " 34 22 
 
 Ez. xviii. 30 235 
 
 " xxxvi. 26 23 
 
 " " 27 23 
 
 il xxxvii 23 
 
 Dan. ii. 4 52 
 
 * vii. 27 , 131 
 
 Page. 
 
 Dan. vii. 28 52 
 
 " xii. 2 183 
 
 Mac. ii. 7 183 
 
 " " 14 183 
 
 " xii. 45 183 
 
 Wisd. xvi. 2 235 
 
 Matt. i. 20 150 
 
 " ii. 13 281 
 
 " iii. 2 41 
 
 " " 6 41 
 
 •« " 10 38 
 
 " " 11 43,282 
 
 " " 13 150 
 
 " iv. 3 113,138 
 
 " " 4 113 
 
 " " 6.... 138 
 
 " " 11 113 
 
 " v. 3 43,84,85 
 
 " " 8 25, 42, 43, 159 
 
 " " 9 84 
 
 " " 16 85 
 
 " " 20 36 
 
 " " 22 282 
 
 " " 29 28.2 
 
 " " 44 108 
 
 " " 45 108 
 
 " » 48 26 
 
 " vi. 1-4 84 
 
 " " 6 84,120 
 
 " " 7 84 
 
 " " 9 120 
 
 " " 26 Ill 
 
 " " 30 112 
 
 " " 31 Ill, 112 
 
 " " 32 : 112 
 
 " " 33 112, 130 
 
 " vii. 7 126 
 
 " " 9 123 
 
 " " 11 121 
 
 " " 12 123 
 
 " " 13 69, 223, 28t 
 
 " " 14 69 
 
 " " 16 90 
 
 " " 17 83 
 
 " " 19., 223 
 
 " " 22 85, 224 
 
 " " 23 85 
 
 " " 28 6 
 
 " " 29 6 
 
 " viii. 12 223, 282, 283 
 
 " " 29 138, 283 
 
 " ix. 12 38 
 
 " " 13 38 
 
 " " 85 2 
 
 " " 37 114 
 
 " " 38 114 
 
 " x. 5 55 
 
 55 
 
 <( u 
 
 [The sixteen pages of Introductory matter are here added.] 
 
298 
 
 INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Matt. x. 7 2 
 
 " " 22 282 
 
 " " 28 223,281,282 
 
 " " 32 220 
 
 " " 33 220 
 
 " " 39 281 
 
 " xi. 1 2 
 
 " •' 5 2 
 
 " "2\ 2") 208 
 
 " " 23 281 
 
 " " 24 282 
 
 " " 25 121 
 
 " " 26 130 
 
 " " 27 146,251,267 
 
 " xii. 8 142 
 
 " " 28 154 
 
 " " 31 154 
 
 " " 32 283 
 
 " ■' 33 38,41 
 
 " " 35 38 
 
 " xii. 10 269 
 
 " " 34 269 
 
 " " 41 20G, 213, 233 
 
 " " 42 206, 223 
 
 " " 43 28,213,218 
 
 " " 49 206 
 
 " " 54 6 
 
 " xiv. 22 268 
 
 " " 33 14L 
 
 " xv. 24 55 
 
 " xvi. 18 2,280 
 
 " li 19 2 
 
 " " 21 53 
 
 " u 26 224 
 
 " " 27 224 
 
 " xviii. 3 43 
 
 " " 6 28? 
 
 " " 8 223 
 
 " " 11 63 
 
 " " 19 97,123 
 
 " xx. 18 53 
 
 " " 28 267 
 
 " xxi. 22 130 
 
 " " 37 141,142 
 
 " " 41 281 
 
 " xxii. 7 281 
 
 " " 22 7 
 
 " " 30 187 
 
 " " 33 7 
 
 " " 37 26, 88 
 
 " " 41 26,267 
 
 " " 46 7 
 
 " xxiii. 15 282 
 
 ' " 27 39 
 
 " " 28 39 
 
 " 33 223, 282 
 
 " xxiv. 22 114, 282 
 
 " " 30 204 
 
 M " 36 „ 206 
 
 " xxt. 1 224 
 
 " " 19 204 
 
 " " 31 199 
 
 " " 32 204 
 
 " " 33 207 
 
 " " 34 208, 211. 215, 218, 220, 222 
 
 " " 37 221 
 
 " " 41 282,283 
 
 " " 46 75,224,226,235,281 
 
 " xxvi 29 212 
 
 " " 39 121,130 
 
 " " 62 281 
 
 " " £-3 113 
 
 Page. 
 
 Matt. xxvi. 54 113 
 
 " " 63 139,145,267 
 
 " xxvii. 20 281 
 
 " " 40 139 
 
 " " 43 139 
 
 " " 46 52 
 
 " " 51 284 
 
 " " 54 139 
 
 " xxvii. 18 267 
 
 " " 19 156 
 
 " " 20 2 
 
 Mark i. 14 2, 19 
 
 " " 15 2,19 
 
 " " 24 281 
 
 " iii. 7 138 
 
 " u 11 138 
 
 " iv. 11 269- 
 
 " " 33 269 
 
 " " 38 281 
 
 " vi. 45 268 
 
 " vii. 21-J3 40 
 
 " viii. 36 281 
 
 " ix. 43 282,283 
 
 " " 47 282 
 
 " " 48 283 
 
 " x. 15 28 
 
 " " 24 28 
 
 " " 26 282 
 
 " " 45 62,267 
 
 " xi. 22 126 
 
 " " 25 126 
 
 " " 27 251 
 
 " xii. 25 282 
 
 " " 35 267 
 
 " " 36 150 
 
 " xiii. 11 151 
 
 " " 32 142 
 
 " xiv 21 282,283 
 
 " xv. 39 139 
 
 " " 43 24 
 
 " xvi. 16 53,69,70 
 
 " " 17 153 
 
 Luke i. 35 150 
 
 " " 76-79 24 
 
 " ii. 25-33 24 
 
 " iii. 21 l. r 
 
 " " 22 150 
 
 " iv. 3 138 
 
 " " 4 151 
 
 " " 9 138 
 
 " " 16 5 
 
 " " 22 5,6 
 
 " " 32 6 
 
 " " 41 138 
 
 " vi. 35 219 
 
 " " 45 83 
 
 " viii. 10 269 
 
 " " 28 138 
 
 " ix. 2 19 
 
 " " 62 29 
 
 " x. 12 206,282 
 
 " « 22 267 
 
 " xi. 5-9 126 
 
 " " 20.. . v 26 
 
 » " 21 26 
 
 " " 22 26 
 
 " " 39 41 
 
 " xii. 6 112 
 
 « » 7 112 
 
 " " 14 198 
 
 " " 23 205 
 
 " « 47 229 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCKIPTURE. 
 
 299 
 
 Page. 
 
 Luke xiii, 23 127, 130 
 
 2 39 
 
 3 39, 281 
 
 " 4 40 
 
 " " 23 282 
 
 « " 24 69 
 
 " 25 213 
 
 " " 30 213 
 
 " xvi. 13 42 
 
 " " 19-31 281 
 
 23 223 
 
 " xvii. 2 282 
 
 ' " " 20 25 
 
 21 25 
 
 " 27 281 
 
 " " 29 281 
 
 " xviii. 1-9 126 
 
 " xx. 36 211 
 
 38 171 
 
 41 267 
 
 " xxi. 34 206 
 
 « xxh. 19 212, 243 
 
 " xxiii. 34 121 
 
 42 161 
 
 43 161, 281 
 
 " xxiv. 15-22 281 
 
 " " 39 95 
 
 47 2 
 
 John i. 9 272 
 
 15 140 
 
 " " 18 140 
 
 " " 32 150 
 
 « 34 140 
 
 49 136 
 
 " ii. 4 272 
 
 " iii. 3 32 
 
 4 33 
 
 8 44 
 
 « « 12 45 
 
 " " 14 50, 51, 219 
 
 " 15 50, 53, 62, 67, 219 
 
 « " 16 49,67,141 
 
 " 17 67, 77, 198 
 
 " 18 62, 76, 201, 222 
 
 19 73, 200 
 
 20 73 
 
 " iv. 2 1 
 
 14 14 
 
 " " 21 95 
 
 23 93, 94 
 
 " 24 93 
 
 " v. 15 268 
 
 18 143 
 
 " " 19 146 
 
 " " 21 180, 190 
 
 « 22 207 
 
 24 67, 198 
 
 " " 25 141, 187 
 
 26 141, 190 
 
 " 27 198, 199, 205 
 
 " 28 205, 224 
 
 " " 29 205 
 
 « " 40 73 
 
 vi. 32 237 
 
 33 237 
 
 " " 34 88 
 
 " " 35 237 
 
 " 37 69, 70, 77 
 
 " " 38 88 
 
 " 39 70 
 
 " 40 69. 188 
 
 44 70, 189 
 
 19 
 
 Page. 
 John vi. 46 267 
 
 47 53, 211 
 
 " " 51 62, 237, 238 
 
 " " 52 238 
 
 " " 53 238 
 
 " " 57 238 
 
 " " 58 211 
 
 60 238 
 
 " " 62 238 
 
 " " 63 237 
 
 " 68 5, 7, 18 
 
 " 69 7, 18, 141 
 
 70 25 
 
 " vii. 17 248 
 
 46 6 
 
 " " 50 S3 
 
 " viii. 21 208 
 
 " " 24 53, 208 
 
 " " 28 50, 52, 248 
 
 " 37 52 
 
 " " 44 40, 218 
 
 " ix. 35 140 
 
 " " 36 140 
 
 " " 39 202 
 
 41 202 
 
 " x. 11 62 
 
 " " 15 246, 267 
 
 " " 17 246 
 
 " " 18 246 
 
 " " 22 144 
 
 " " 24 143 
 
 25 143 
 
 " " 30 146 
 
 " " 35 151 
 
 " xi. 4 K'. 
 
 " " 23 180 
 
 " « 25 11, 179, 180, 193, 251 
 
 " " 26 194 
 
 27 141 
 
 " xii. 23 5f 
 
 " " 24 51, 56, 268 
 
 " " 27 56, 121 
 
 " " 28 121 
 
 " " 31 56 
 
 " " 32 50, 55 
 
 " " 47 198 
 
 « " 48 202 
 
 " " 49 249 
 
 " xiv. 1-4 212 
 
 " " 2 171 
 
 " " 3 171, 216 
 
 " " 6 133, 219 
 
 " " 9 1*7,209 
 
 " " 10 „„ 18, 249 
 
 " " 13 127 
 
 " " 16 2, 150 
 
 17 156 
 
 " 21 27, 218 
 
 " 23 26, 147 
 
 " 24 249 
 
 " 26 150,152 
 
 " xv. 7 127 
 
 11 27 
 
 19 197 
 
 " 22 201 
 
 " " 24 202 
 
 26 152 
 
 " xvi. 7 150 
 
 " " 8 44 
 
 " 13 44, 151 
 
 " " 14 152 
 
 " " 16 154 
 
300 
 
 INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 John xvi. 
 
 Page. 
 
 154 
 
 218 
 
 158 
 
 .2, 121, 252 
 
 252 
 
 147 
 
 249 
 
 249 
 
 248 
 
 216 
 
 .197 249 
 
 « 
 
 37. 
 
 xviii. 
 
 27. 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 10. 
 
 ;" 
 
 11. 
 
 a 
 
 39. 
 
 XX. 
 
 22. 
 
 " 
 
 :X 
 
 17 44,152 
 
 22 218 
 
 23 29,216 
 
 24 171,216 
 
 2 
 
 253 
 
 145 
 
 113 
 
 113 
 
 33 
 
 150 
 
 148 
 
 Page. 
 
 John xx. 31 273 
 
 Acts i. 5 150,153 
 
 " " 6 154 
 
 " " 7 45,251 
 
 " " 8 150 
 
 " iv. 21 235 
 
 " xx. 38 179 
 
 ICor. ii. 2 4 
 
 " vi. 13 178 
 
 " " 19 178 
 
 " xv. 24 174 
 
 2 Cor. v. 1-5 172 
 
 " xi. 24 243 
 
 " xii. 4 165,170,284 
 
 Eph. iv. 8 28t 
 
 • ol. ii. 15 284 
 
 Heb. x. 19 285 
 
 lThess. iv. 16 175 
 
 " 17 175 
 
 IPet. iii. 19 284 
 
 " iv. 6 284 
 
 Uohniv. 18 235 
 
 Rev. ii. 7 170 
 
 " ii. 17 165 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 ABSOLUTE belief in the, 90, 120. 
 
 JESCHYLUS on Resurrection, 181. 
 
 /ESTHETIC the in worship, 100. - 
 
 Atoivio? eternal, 236. 
 
 'Avaorao-is meaning of in Classic Greek, 180; in the Septuagint, 183. A« 
 taught by Christ, 184. 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGY of Christ, 10. 
 
 ARISTOTLE, theology of, 80. 
 
 ATHEISM denies Providence, 115. 
 
 BAPTISM, significance of, 1, 43. 
 
 BAUR on John's gospel, 265. 
 
 BELIEVERS exempt from death, 194; their union with Christ, 171, 217. 
 
 BIRTH, the new, 30 j Nicodemus on, 33, 35. Phrase of the Rabbis, 34. A 
 spiritual renewal, 35. Men desire a new life, 37. New birth neces- 
 sitated by sin, 38. Yet is more than repenting, 42. From above, 
 43. No greater mystery than the wind, 46. 
 
 BLASPHEMY, Christ charged with, 143. 
 
 BLESSEDNESS of Saints, 211. Of Heaven, 212. 
 
 BLEEK on the genuineness of John's Gospel, 273. 
 
 BODY, Christianity cares for the, 178. Resurrection of the, 178, 184. Taught 
 by Egyptians and Persians, 182. Belief among the Jews, 183-186. 
 Basis of identity, 187. The intermediate, 285. 
 
 "BORN AGAIN," see BIRTH. 
 
 BROWNING, 268. 
 
 BUCKLE, Theory of, 106. 
 
 BUDDHISTS, 84, 107. 
 
 CiESAR, tribute to, 7; triumphs of Roman and French, 257. 
 
 CATACOMBS, Church in the, 175. 
 
 CERTAINTY and Freedom harmonized, 116. 
 
 CHALDEE, influence of, on New Testament, 52, 184. 
 
 CHRIST a Preacher, 1. His doctrines, 2, 4 ; and Socrates compared, 3, 269. 
 Quality of His Preaching, 6, 18. Brevity, 8. Simplicity, 9, 12. 
 Matter of, 9. Manner of, II. Its depth, 11. Clearness, 12. Full- 
 ness, 249. Presence of Christ is the Kingdom, 27. " Lifted up," 
 50. Virtue of His death, 53. His rule of Life, 88. Love of Na- 
 ture, 101. One with Father, 133, 146. The Son of God, 136. 
 Preached Himself, 134, 265. Silence of, 1 60, 250. Judge, 199. As 
 Man, 207. Presence in Heaven, 216, 219. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY, literature of, 15. For universal diffusion, 102. A finality 
 in Religion, 196. 
 
 CHRISTIANS, Faith of primitive, 175. 
 
 CHURCH, a symbol of the kingdom, 29. Founded on Christ, 46. Holy 
 Spirit dwells in, 154. In the Catacombs, 175. 
 
 CICERO, orations of, 8, 12. 
 
 COMFORTER, 150. 
 
 COMMUNION of Saint Jerome, 173. Of the Saints, 212. 
 
 301 
 
302 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 COMTE, Philosophy of, 107. 
 
 CONDEMNATION, danger of, 50. Present, 200. Final, 200. Deliverance 
 from, 200. 
 
 CONDITIONS of Prayer, 130. Of Salvation, 219. 
 
 CONFESSING- Christ, 220. 
 
 CONFUCIUS, His doctrine of piety, 101. 
 
 DANTE, 164, 173, 177, 234. 
 
 DEAD, Resurrection of the, 178. 
 
 DEATH, Christ's necessary to salvation, 54. For the whole world, 56. Pre- 
 determined, 57. A ransom, 63, 65, 67. Destroyed for believers, 194. 
 
 DELITZSCH, on the Intermediate state, 284; on Biblical psychology, 285. 
 
 DEMOSTHENES, orations of, 8, 12. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT, doctrine of, 17. 
 
 DICKENS, works of, 8; testimony to Christianity, 16. 
 
 DIVINITY, Christ's not at first declared, 137. Claimed in the title Son of God, 
 145. In His self-consciousness, 147. Of Holy Spirit, 155. 
 
 DOCTRINE, need of, 4. Christ's doctrine of God, 9, 12-14. Of Man, 10. 
 Of the resurrection, 11. Power of Christ's in Society, 16. Upon 
 the heart, 17. • 
 
 DORE, 234. 
 
 DRAWING- of the Father, 71, 72, 74. 
 
 EGYPTIAN doctrine of Immortality, II, 164. Of Resurrection, 182. 
 
 ESSENES, 82. 
 
 ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, 236. 
 
 EWALD. history of Israel, 20, 60. 
 
 EZEKIEL, his spiritual kingdom, 25. 
 
 FAITH, preached by Christ, 28, 53. A looking, 59, 62. Its obligation, 70. 
 
 Its necessity, 75, 76. Its relation to works, 88, 90. Of primitive 
 
 Christians, 175. 
 FATALISM denies Providence, 115. 
 FATHER, drawing of, 71, 72, 74. God as, 97, 110, 112. Prayer to the, 120, 
 
 122. A living spirit, 121. Christ one with, 133, 146. Father in 
 
 Heaven, 218. 
 FATHERS CHUftCH, doctrine of Paradise, 162. Testimony to John's Gos- 
 pel, 271. 
 FREEDOM and Certainty harmonized, 116, see WILL. 
 FRUITS good, 90, 221. Christianity tested by, 91. 
 FUTURE STATE, Punishment, 222. Christ's doctrine of, 231. 
 G-HOST HOLY, see Holy Spirit. 
 GNOSTICISM in John's Gospel, 265. 
 GOD, kingdom of, 19. Its consummation, 213. A Father, 97, 110, 112. A 
 
 personal spirit, 94. Answers prayer, 127. The Son of, 136, seq. 
 GOSPEL, as Christ preached it, 19. 
 GOSPEL OF JOHN, 68. Characteristics of, 264. Strauss and Baur on, 265. 
 
 Internal evidences of genuineness, 266. External do., 271. Bleek 
 
 on, 273. Theology of, 279. 
 GOSPELS, inspiration of, 159. The Synoptical, 264. 
 GRANT, General, 105, 216. 
 
 HADES, 164, 196, 280. Christ's visit to, 284. Bronzino's Picture of, 284. 
 HEART, wickedness of, 38, 40, 83. Treasure of, 85. The Heart defined, 86. 
 HOLY SPIRIT, The, 150. Revealer of Truth, 150. Source of miracles, 153. 
 
 Abides in the Church, 154. A divine person, 156. 
 HOMER, « Resurrection " in the Iliad, 181. 
 IMMORTALITY, belief in, among the Egyptians, 11. 164; among the Jews, 
 
 163 ; as taught by Christ, 171. 
 INCARNATION of Christ, 208. 
 INFALLIBLE. Jesus the infallible Truth, 249. 
 INSPIRATION of Gospels, 157. 
 INTERMEDIATE state, 161, 284. Delitzsch on the, 284. Lange, 285. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 303 
 
 JEREMIAH, his spiritual prophecies, 21. 
 
 JOHN, see GOSPEL of. 
 
 JUDAI3M, 277. 
 
 JUDGMENT, 198. Public, 199. At death, 203. Universal, 201. Formal, 
 206. Final, 207. 
 
 KINGDOM OF GOD, in Old Testament, 19. A spiritual redemption, 20. 
 Described by Jeremiah, 21. A kingdom within Israel, 22. Devel- 
 oped by Christ, 23. Laws of purity and love, 25. Privileges of 
 the kingdom, 26. Its rewards and joys, 27. Must be entered by 
 faith, 28. Van Oosterzee's views of, 30, 31. Consummation of 
 kingdom, 213. In the hereafter, 217. 
 
 KdAao-is, meaning in classic writers, 235. In the Scriptures, 235. 
 
 LAW in Nature, 224, 227. Moral, 229, 231. 
 
 LANGE, on the intermediate state, 285. 
 
 LAZARUS, resurrection of, 185, 191. 
 
 LIFE, a new, desired by all, 37. The new, in Heaven, 214. Everlasting, 179;, 
 221. The knowledge of God, 253. 
 
 LUTHER, 102. 
 
 Avrpov, meaning of, 63. 
 
 MAN, his sinfulness, 38, '83. Longs for God, 98. Dignity of his nature, 99, 
 A spiritual power, 131. ''Son of, " 199. Subject of moral law, 
 229 231. 
 
 MATERIALISM, 4. 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO, 234. 
 
 MILTON, 234. 
 
 MIRACLES, from the Holy Ghost, 153. In John's Gospel, 268. 
 
 MO 3AISM, 276. 
 
 MOSES, the brazen serpent, 57, seq. 67. 
 
 NAPOLEON, 131, 257. 
 
 NATHAN AEL, 137, 140. 
 
 NATURE, worship of, 101. Christ's love of, 101. Course of, 108, 114, 128. 
 Judgment in, 200. Laws of, 224, 227. Penalties in, 224, 226. 
 
 NEANDER, 240, 241, 25 4, 270. 
 
 NICODEMUS, 32, 34, 36, 44, 49, 54, 68, 140. 
 
 NITZSCH, 174. 
 
 ODIC force the, 129. 
 
 PACIFIC RAILROAD, 257, 263. 
 
 PANTHEISM denies Providence 115. 
 
 PARADISE, 160. Not identical with Heaven, 161. Early fathers on, 162. 
 Reformers on, 162. Dante's, 164. Sanscrit derivation of the word, 
 165. Septuagint. 166. Rabbis, 167. Christ's meaning, 168. The 
 primitive, 168. Paradise defined, 169. 
 
 PAUL, conversion of, 45. In prison, 102. In Paradise, 170. 
 
 PERICLES, eloquence of, 7. 
 
 PHARISEES, 59, 1 4, 223. 
 
 PHILO, doctrine of Angels 95. 
 
 PLATO, 2, 14, 80, 257, 269. 
 
 POSITIVISM, 107. 
 
 PRAYER, 119. An instinct of the soul, 119. Schleiermacher's definition, 119. 
 Warranted by Providence, 120, 123. The address of the soul to 
 its Father, 120. Christ's manner in, 121. For physical necessities, 
 123. Has positive influence with God, 124. Perseverance in 
 prayer, 126. Prof. Tyndall's objection 128. Conditions of, 130. 
 Power of prayer, 131. 
 
 PREACHING Christ. 4, 6. Need of doctrinal, 4. Christ's own, 2. At 
 Nazareth 6. Effects of,6, 15, 18. Its brevity, 8. Simplicity of, 9, 
 12. Matter of, 9. Manner of, 11. Its depth, 11. Clearness, 12. 
 Grandeur of its range, 255. Summary of His doctrine, 253. 
 
 PRESENCE, Christ's in the soul, 27. In Heaven, 216. The -'Real/' 242, 246. 
 
 PROGRESS, friends of, 100. Proves Providence, 106. * " 
 
304 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 PROPHETISM, 277. 
 
 PROVIDENCE, 104. Irreconcilable with Positivism, 108. In the "course 
 of Nature," 108, 115. Universal, and particular, 111. Direct in- 
 tervention of, or "special," 113. And free-will, 115. General laws, 
 116. Warrants Prayer, 123. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY of the Bible, 172. Delitzsch on the, 284. 
 
 PUNISHMENT, Future, 222. Positive and personal, 230. Christ's doctrine 
 of, 231. Eternal, 233. Weiss on, 280. 
 
 RANSOM, Christ's death a, 63. 
 
 RAPHAEL, 257. 
 
 RATIONALISM, 4, 81. 
 
 REASON AND RELIGION, 91, 114, 117, 200. 
 
 REDEEMER, Jehovah a, 20, 22, 23, 41. Jesus a, 28, 65, 194. 
 
 REDEMPTION, not arbitrary, 70. Grandeur of, 176, and Resurrection, 195, 
 and Heaven, 219. 
 
 RELIGION, nature of, 79. An Instinct of man, 79. Types of before Christ, 
 79, 82. In the heart, 83. Must be spiritual, 84. A holy prin- 
 ciple, 86. An elective principle, 89. Rational, 91 
 
 REPENTANCE, required for entering the kingdom of God, 28, 41. Mean- 
 ing of, 42, 73. 
 
 RESURRECTION, 178. Egyptian belief in, 182. Persian notion of, 18fc. 
 Apocryphal doctrine of, 183. Jewish belief in, 183-186. Of Laz>- 
 rus, 185, 190. Of Christ, 188, 192. Jesus, the Resurrection, 190, 
 192. None fop the wicked, 283. 
 
 RETRIBUTION, in Nature, 225. In Society, 228, 233. Christ's doctrine 
 of, 225. Justice of, 227. 
 
 REVELATION in the Theocracy, 20 ; Complete in Christ, 248, 250, 256. 
 
 RITUALISM, 4, 91, 100. 
 
 SACRAMENT, of the supper, 211. In the doctrine, 237. Neander on the, 
 240. Council of Trent, 241. Moehler, 242. Friends' view of, 
 243. Appointed by Christ, 243, 245. Virtue of the, 246, 
 
 SADDUCEES, Christ's answers to, 7, 186. 
 
 SAINTS, blessedness of, 211. Union with Christ, 217. 
 
 SALVATION, how made possible, 49. Provided for all, 67, 69. No limita- 
 tion in plan, 69. Limited by unbelief, 76. Free to all, 71. Not 
 universal in fact, 75. 
 
 SAUL, conversion of, 45. 
 
 SCHLEIERMACIIER, 119. 
 
 SCOTT, SIR WALTER, works of, 8. Testimony to the Bible, 16. 
 
 SCRIBES, 39. ^ 
 
 SEPTUAGINT, 63, 166, 183. 
 
 SERPENTS, in the wilderness, 57. The brazen, 58. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE, 257. 
 
 SIN, universality of, 38-40. Requires the " New Birth," 38. Proceeds from 
 the heart, 40, 83. 
 
 SILENCE of Christ, 160, 250. 
 
 SLAVERY, Horrors of, 104. Destruction of, 105. 
 
 SMITH, Sidney, 124. 
 
 SOCRATES, compared wUh Christ, 3, 14, 269. 
 
 SOJOURNER TRUTH, 104, 117. 
 
 SON OF GOD, 136-145. A title of Divinity, 145. 
 
 SON of MAN, 199, 207. 
 
 SPIRIT, Nature of, 94. God a, 94. Triumph of, 196. 
 
 SPIRIT HOLY, see HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 STATE, intermediate, 162. 
 
 STRAUSS on John's Gospel, 265. 
 
 SUPPER, the Lords, 211, 240-247. 
 
 SWEDENBORG, 194. 
 
 SYMBOL, the Brazen Serpent, 5*8. Healing by the sign, 61. Christ's use of, 
 242. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 305 
 
 TAULER, 102. 
 
 TENNYSON, 160. 
 
 THEOCRACY, Spiritual, 87. See, KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 THEOLOGY, the Christian and the dogmatic contrasted, 3. Christ's our Sac- 
 rament, 237. Christ's doctrine complete, 248. Neander on, 254. 
 Vast range of Christ's, 254. Of John's Gospel, 279. 
 
 THERAPEUM, 82. 
 
 THIBET, prayer-cylinder, 84. 
 
 THOMAS, Confession of 148. 
 
 TINTORETTO, 234. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION, 241. 
 
 TRUTH, "Sojourner," 104, 117. Revealed by the Spirit, 153. As Judge, 201. 
 
 TUBINGEN SCHOOL, 265. 
 
 TYNDALL, PROP., his objection to prayer, 128. 
 
 VAN OOSTERZEE, Theology of the New Testament, 30, 275. 
 
 WARNINGS of Christ, 223. 
 
 WEISS on Future Punishment, 280. 
 
 WILL, free, 74, 89, 15, 123. 
 
 WINE, the new, 214. 
 
 WORKS, good, 88, 90, 221. 
 
 WORSHIP, spiritual, 93. Must be addressed to God, 95. 
 
 Outward, its uses, 96. The aesthetic, 100. Sentimental, 101. 
 
 WORSHIPPERS, the true, 102. 
 
 XENOPHON, 165. 
 
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