LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October,, 1894. 
 Accessions No,5^3(pQ . Class No. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arcliive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/eccedeusessaysonOOparkrich 
 
ECCE DEUS 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE 
 
 Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ. 
 
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 WITH CONTROVERSIAL -^N 
 
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 'ECCE HOMO." 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 
 1867. 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 A CAREFUL consideration of the various points 
 raised in Ecce Homo induced the present writer to 
 undertake a re-survey of the Life and Doctrine of 
 Jesus Christ. He found, however, that he could not 
 occupy the stand-point from which JEcce Hoino had 
 been written without, as it appeared to him, ignoring 
 the mystery of the Incarnation, and thus putting 
 himself into a false relation to all subsequent facts 
 in Christian history. The following pages will show 
 that on several points the writer finds himself in 
 perfect coincidence with the author of Ecce Ho7no ; 
 and he ventures to believe that on those points upon 
 which the differences are irreconcilable he has not 
 been betrayed into a tone which is inconsistent with 
 the respect due to the finest genius and the frankest 
 candor. In the following pages the writer proceeds 
 upon four convictions : — 
 
 First : That it is not merely difficult, but absolute- 
 ly impossible, rightly to survey the Life and Work 
 of Jesus Christ without distinctly acknowledging the 
 unprecedented conditions under which Jesus Christ 
 became Incarnate. 
 
 Second : That those conditions can alone account 
 for, and are essential to a true interpretation of, the 
 
 (5) 
 
b PREFACE. 
 
 entire doctrine and phenomena associated with the 
 name of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Third : That those conditions and the whole course 
 wdiich they inaugurated (the miraculous conception, 
 the doctrine, the miracle, the death and the resur- 
 rection), constitute a z^fzi'ty which, necessitates the con- 
 clusion that Jesus Christ was God Incarnate. And — 
 
 Fourth : That the author of Ecce Homo^ having 
 overlooked or ignored those conditions, has worked 
 from a wrong centre, and reached several sophistical 
 and untenable conclusions. 
 
 It appears from his Preface that the author of Ecce 
 Homo felt himself obliged to trace Christ's " biog- 
 raphy from point to point, and accept those conclu- 
 sions about him, not which Church doctors or even 
 apostles have sealed with their authority, but which 
 the facts themselves, critically weighed, appear to 
 warrant." The present writer does not undertake 
 to suggest that Church doctors and apostles did not 
 critically weigh the facts themselves ; but he does 
 undertake to say that no weighing of the facts can be 
 satisfactory which ignores the fact which lies at the 
 base of the Christian structure. Nor does he see how 
 the author of Ecce Homo can trace the biography of 
 Jesus Christ " from point to point," when he only 
 professes to " place himself in imagination at the time 
 when he whom we call Christ bore no such name, 
 but was simply .... a young man of promise, 
 popular with those w^ho knew him, and appearing to 
 enjoy the Divine favor." How can a biography be 
 traced "from point to point" when the "critical 
 weighing of the facts themselves" does not begin 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 until the subject of the biography has actually attained 
 a " promising" and "popular position"? If a biog- 
 raphy is to be traced from " point to point," how can 
 it be done without referring to the birth, if not to the 
 ancestry, of the person whose biography is traced? 
 Suppose that a writer should undertake to trace from 
 point to point the biography of the author of Ecce 
 Ho7no^ would the author, or would the public, be 
 satisfied if the writer did not open the narrative earlier 
 than the time of the appearance of that book? Yet 
 this is what the author of Ecce Homo does with the 
 biography of Jesus Christ, and with this disadvantage 
 on his part, that he overlooks a fact without which all 
 the succeeding facts never could have transpired. No 
 "young man of promise,' popular with those who 
 knew him, and appearing to enjoy the Divine favor " 
 (and there have been tens of thousands of such young 
 men), ever did what Jesus Christ did; a fact which, 
 " critically weighed," certainly suggests the necessity 
 of going farther back than the time of " promise " and 
 "popularity," in order to find out whether there was a 
 reason explanatory of the whole series of phenomena. 
 The embarrassment of the present writer was con- 
 siderably increased by another expression in the 
 Preface to Ecce Homo: — "After reading a good 
 many books on Christ, he felt still constrained to 
 confess that there was no historical character whose 
 motives, objects, and feelings remained so incompre- 
 hensible to him. The inquiry which has proved use- 
 ful to himself may chance to be useful to others." 
 How the author could diminish the incomprehensible- 
 ness of Christ's life by simply regarding Christ as " a 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 young man of promise, popular with those who knew 
 him, and appearing to enjoy the Divine favor," does 
 not appear. The present writer is " constrained to 
 confess " that, in proportion as he regards Jesus Christ 
 in this light merely, the Life as narrated in the New 
 Testament becomes utterly ^'incomprehensible. Not 
 until he realizes the fundamental fact of the Incarna- 
 tion does he understand the sense in which Jesus 
 Christ calls himself Son of God and Son of Man. 
 
 The present writer felt the difficulty of choosing a 
 title for his book. It seemed to him that if the author 
 of Ecce Homo intended to maintain the Godhead of 
 Jesus Christ, it would not be unnatural for him to 
 select the title o^ JBcce Deus; on this point, however, 
 he was of course not informed, and he adopted the 
 present name because it expresses most concisely the 
 doctrine which is taught in the book. 
 
 Ecce Deus is not a reply to Ecce Homo, It claims 
 to be an examination of the Life and Doctrine of 
 Jesus Christ conducted on independent ground. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. The Holy Thing 13 
 
 II. The Written Word 24 
 
 III. The Written Word {continued) . . 38 
 
 IV. The Inauguration 46 
 
 V. The Inauguration : the Diabolic 
 
 Phase 53 
 
 VI. The Mighty Works ^^ 
 
 VII. The Calling of Men 84 
 
 VIII. Christ rejecting Men 103 
 
 IX. The Church 119 
 
 X. The Church left in the World . 140 
 XI. Christ adjusting Human Relations 156 
 XII. Christ the Contemporary of all 
 
 Ages 173 
 
 XIII. These Sayings of mine 190 
 
 XIV. Eternal Punishments 207 
 
 XV. The Cross of Christ 228 
 
 (11) 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XVI. Relation of the Cross to the 
 
 Law . 250 
 
 XVII. Relation of the Cross to Prac- 
 tical Morals 271 
 
 XVIII. Tpie Posthumous Ministry of Jesus 
 
 Christ 306 
 
 XIX. Controversial Notes on " Ecce 
 
 Homo" 318 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HOLY THING. 
 
 MANY false Christs have gone out into the world. 
 The Christ that was born in Bethlehem has now 
 to compete with the Christ born in the poet's fancy, 
 carved out of an ideal humanity, or developed out of 
 a benevolent sentiment. The noble, simple Nazarene 
 has been left behind somewhere, probably in the Tem- 
 ple, or has passed through so many guises that the 
 characteristic lineaments have been lost. This cir- 
 cumstance is a significant feature of the spiritual civil- 
 ization of the day. Deepest and truest among its 
 lessons is the doctrine that men must have a Christ. 
 There has ever been a motion, a gravitation, more or 
 less palpable, towards a man who should be the com- 
 plement of every other man ; and who, by the perfect- 
 ness of his manhood, should be able to restore and 
 preserve the equipoise which universal consciousness 
 affirms to have been disturbed or lost. 
 
 The Incarnation is the radical mystery in the life of 
 the Christ accepted by the Church. Without follow- 
 ing the theologian into doctrine, we are bound to fol- 
 low the historian into matters of fact. The historian 
 
 (13) 
 
14 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 introduces a man, under the name of Jesus, who was 
 begotten as no other man was ever begotten. He does 
 not represent the usual conditions of human birth, but 
 stands alone among all men. The mysteriousness of 
 his origin, even if it be but a supposition, will supply 
 an easily available test of his entire life and teaching ; 
 the man who begins as no other man ever began, must 
 continue as no other man ever continued. 
 
 In other senses than that of the procreation of human 
 life, there have been miraculous conceptions in every 
 age — conceptions by the overshadowing of the Holy 
 Ghost too. Every foremost thought of God among 
 men, every struggle of the soul in the direction in which 
 God is supposed to have gone, has been an effect of 
 divine operation upon the mind. In Jesus Christ alone 
 have we a life which claims to have been produced 
 immediately by a superhuman relation to the human 
 body. Yet, though so produced, " the holy thing " 
 born of the Virgin did not collide with the human 
 race as an unexpected antagonistic element, but took 
 his place in the human family by a process which, on 
 one side, was fitted to awaken awe, and on the other, 
 to excite sympathy. The world of the East had been 
 accustomed to what may be termed miraculous con- 
 ceptions in the intellectual sphere, as the world of the 
 West has since become. Intellectual history presents 
 a succession of births quite, in their degree and ac- 
 cording to their nature, as inexplicable as any occur- 
 rence that could transpire in the merely material 
 sphere. " The Holy Ghost has come upon, and the 
 power of the Highest has overshadowed," all who 
 have wrought upon the springs of civilization and en- 
 
THE HOLY THING. 1 5 
 
 riched the resources of human life : poem and picture, 
 book and statue, that have touched the world's soul, 
 and given it any hint that there w^as a portion of the 
 universe beyond the narrow visual line, or a deeper 
 life in itself than could be sustained by bread alone, 
 have been, notwithstanding the apparent irreverence 
 of the expression, miraculous conceptions, fruits of 
 the Spirit's strife with the human mind. The Spirit 
 had to move upon intellectual chaos, and now all 
 orderliness, or beauty, or music, is attributable to his 
 power. The grim spectre of traditional orthodoxy 
 may shudder at the notion, yet rather than pronounce 
 the genius of civilization atheistic, it may be more 
 reverent to describe it as a conception and produc- 
 tion of the divine energy operating through human 
 instrumentalities. The excess of difficulty is on the 
 side of atheism, not of inspiration. On such a subject 
 men are not required to be more orthodox than the 
 Bible itself. Moses hesitated not to say that the Lord 
 had called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son 
 Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and had " filled him with 
 the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and 
 in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, and 
 to devise curious works ; to work in gold and in silver 
 and in brass, and in the cutting of stones to set them, 
 and in carving of wood to make any manner of cun- 
 ning work." Art is thus set among the miraculous 
 conceptions, and civilization is robed as a worshipper 
 in the outer court of the Temple. Still we have not a 
 vian who claims, in a peculiar sense, to have God's 
 life in his veins. We have seen God in art ; can we 
 see God in blood? 
 
l6 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 It is important to remember, jvhat one would have 
 thought could never have been forgotten, that there is 
 a document written by many scribes, which professes 
 to be an authentic history of a Man who openly 
 claimed to have been begotten by the Holy Ghost. 
 How can we test the validity of such a claim? With- 
 out inquiring whether there are any other ways, there 
 is certainly this simple and effectual plan : Is the mys- 
 tery of the life consistent with the alleged mystery of 
 the origin? Is the doctrine consistent with the birth? 
 If the man be found to be in perfect accord with the 
 mystery, — in proportion, so to speak, to it ; if there 
 be no break in the rhythm between the " sayings " of 
 the teacher and the alleged revelation of the angel who 
 foretold his birth, then this unity of mystery becomes 
 itself an argument which compels certain conclusions. 
 If, on the other hand, the phenomena of the birth and 
 the tone of the doctrine be discrepant ; if the cloud of 
 mystery has been employed to conceal defect of stat- 
 ure, then the claim to have been begotten by the Holy 
 Ghost is not only unsupported, but positively contra- 
 dicted. The present inquiry will revert again and 
 again to the consistency between the declared divinity 
 of the fatherhood and the teaching of Him who was 
 begotten. 
 
 Omnipotence covers the whole ground of difficulty 
 as to the possibility of such a conception as is claimed 
 on behalf of Jesus Christ. No argument, therefore, 
 need be started in defence of that side of the question. 
 Given the existence of God, and the power required 
 to bring out the alleged result will be granted too ; 
 defect of power would be defect of Godhead, and 
 
THE HOLY THING. 1 7 
 
 defect of Godhead is an absurdity. Yet the entire 
 Christ, so to speak, coming from God without human 
 interposition, would have increased the difficulty of 
 his acceptance among men. We can see how a union 
 between the divine and human would have many ad- 
 vantages. If the Man spoke the language of earth 
 with the accent of heaven ; if he encouraged men by 
 his common human nature to approach him, and then 
 gave them assurance that the human enshrined the 
 divine, he would complete by his power what he had 
 begun by his weakness. This much we can see merely 
 as an argument, without conceding that the facts w^hich 
 are yet to be collated bear it out. Are there any traces 
 of duality in Christ's life and teaching? Anything that 
 w^ould confirm his claim to have descended from 
 heaven? On the very face of the life there are many 
 such traces ; and in a more subtle and incidental way, 
 there are hints and testimonies which should be scru- 
 tinized and estimated. We find Christ in the midst 
 of a great multitude, and then he goes no man know- 
 ing whither ; he sends his disciples to buy food, and 
 then tells them that he has meat to eat which they 
 know not of; in the very act of talking to a man, he 
 says that he is in heaven ; he is willing to be identified 
 as the Son of Mary, 3^et never speaks of any father but 
 God ; he is known to have had no opportunities of 
 technical learning, yet his wisdom is acknowledged by 
 the doctors of the law ; he submits to the fury of the 
 ruffian band, yet talks of the legions of angels who 
 wait but his prayer. All through we have these dual- 
 istic turns of speech — one part of the sentence plain, 
 the other haloed with strange glory or lost in gloom. 
 
l8 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 This is a mere matter of fact, as found upon the face 
 of the document which professes to contain the life of 
 Jesus Christ. All this any sceptic would say, in com- 
 mon with any Christian. So far the matter is literary, 
 not theological. Still there is an outline of an argu- 
 ment shaping itself from this view. The argument 
 of consistency takes its inception at this point. 
 
 The so-called discrepancies on matters of fact, which 
 some readers have professed to find upon a collation 
 of the fourfold narrative, are less than nothing. His- 
 tory can never be written. It can only be hinted at, 
 and most dimly outlined from the particular stand-point 
 which the historian has chosen to occupy. It is only 
 by courtesy that any man can be called an historian. 
 Seldom do men so flatly contradict each other as upon 
 points of fact. Incompleteness marks all narrations. 
 No man can fully write even his own life. On re- 
 viewing the sheets which were to have told everything, 
 the autobiographer is struck with their reticence and 
 poverty. Two processes are synchronous in the act of 
 writing, the process of the pen, and the process of the 
 mind ; and because the mind sees the subject in all its 
 magnitude and bearings, it considers itself rather than 
 the reader, who approaches the question from an out- 
 side point. Men cannot print tones, glances, sighs, or 
 tears. The heart always suffers by being translated 
 into speech. Readers bring their own methods of 
 reading, and often the book which is essentially musi- 
 cal is dishonored by a vitiated articulation. The life 
 of Christ has suffered much in the same way. It suf- 
 fered by being written at all, and that it has outlived 
 its suffering is one of the firmest proofs that there is a 
 
THE HOLY THING. 1 9 
 
 divine spirit in the earthly words. The life is before 
 us in fragments only, and the most that we can do is to 
 inquire whether the fragments lie in one direction, 
 bear any evidence of having been cut out of the same 
 -^'ock, or testify to anything like unity of purpose. 
 
 It must be remembered that Jesus Christ had been 
 the absorbing theme of all ages prior to his advent. 
 This circumstance alone marks him off from all other 
 men. The hope of his coming had kept society to- 
 gether, preserving it from intellectual and moral anni- 
 hilation. When Christ came, long chapters of proph- 
 ecy were to be closed like gates through which a 
 king or conqueror had passed. In Christ the prayers 
 of many ages were to be answered. The prophecies 
 respecting him were marked by that strange dualism 
 which attached to his life : taken separately as mere 
 statements of fact they are contradictory, but looked at 
 in the light of the dual nature which he claimed there 
 is immediate and perfect reconciliation. The great 
 paradoxes of prophecy were harmonized in the greater 
 paradox of the life. Christ was " a root out of a dry 
 ground," yet he was " the flower of Jesse and the plant 
 of renown ; " he was " despised and rejected of men," 
 yet he was " the desire of all nations ; " he was " with- 
 out form and comeliness," yet he was " the fairest 
 among ten thousand, and altogether lovely ; " he was 
 "the Child," yet he was "the Ancient of Days." 
 Thus we are detained on the same line of mystery. 
 Prophecy and fulfilment are different phases of the 
 same' paradox. The range of evidence is thus ex- 
 tended, so that any man claiming to be Christ must be 
 brought for judgment to the standard of prophecy. 
 
20 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 This fact does much to clear the field of intruders, and 
 to narrow the ground of competition. Christ distinct- 
 ly threw himself upon prophecy, and challenged scribe 
 and doctor and rabbi to "search the Scriptures." 
 There was no wish to escape the test of written predic- 
 tion, but a determination to abide by a careful search 
 of the records which were regarded as having been 
 received immediately from God. He began at Moses 
 and all the prophets, and showed from all the Scrip- 
 tures the things concerning himself. No challenge 
 could be bolder. He stood at the close of the great 
 prophetic dispensation and said, " the prophets wrote 
 of me," and looking forward to the evolutions of time 
 and tracing the course of religious education and 
 development, he commanded that his name should be 
 taught in " all nations." It was not, then, on some 
 recondite and insignificant point that Christ claimed 
 his position in the world, but on the broad ground of 
 completed prophecy. He was the fruit which was to 
 be produced by the roots of promise and hope which 
 God had from the beginning put into the hearts of 
 men. He closed the troubled era of prophecy, and 
 opened a, most gorgeous apocalypse, which took its 
 power and glory entirely from his own name. If any 
 challenge could have developed a rival, or brought 
 into prominence the lawful heir of the heritage de- 
 scribed by the prophets, this would have done so. An 
 unlearned man addressing the sages of his time, who 
 held the first literature of the world — not only un- 
 learned but garbed as a peasant, poor in his known 
 ancestry, and unsupported by any visible authority — 
 said, ' Open your scrolls and read the prediction of my 
 
THE HOLY THING. 21 
 
 person and power ; consult the prophets, and see if I 
 bear not the hitherto mis-read signs of Messiahship ; 
 recall the music of the minstrels of Israel, and say 
 whether my heart be not in accord with their rhythm.' 
 This made it hard work for an impostor. The empiric 
 may have brilliant visions of the future, but it is peril- 
 ous for him to challenge his contemporaries to go far 
 back in search of his ancestral roots. The case as 
 laid down in the biographic document compels us to 
 go beyond Bethlehem if we would understand the 
 purpose of the birth. We have hardly turned the first 
 page of the Bible until we feel that a new and marvel- 
 lous element has been interjected into the history of 
 man, which gives life and tone and purpose to the 
 whole current of earthly affairs. The generations are 
 centralized in one idea. From Abraham to David, 
 from David to the carrying away into Babylon, and 
 from Babylon until Herod reigned in Judea, there is a 
 life far below the surface. From behind the prophetic 
 veil, or through it, there glows the image of a man, 
 stranger to everybody yet friendly to all. A marvel- 
 lous image it is, so indistinct yet so positive ; gentle, 
 yet carrying awful power, as the summer cloud carries 
 lightning ; very near, yet distant as the unseen God. 
 We feel this in coming along the biblical line ; feel 
 that almost at any moment a Man might stand up in 
 the very likeness and majesty of God ; and a strange, 
 fascinating spell binds the reader, until having passed 
 the prophecies he comes to the Star, and the Virgin, 
 and the Child. That Child had been the mystery of 
 all his reading ; there^ in infant life, lay the explana- 
 tion, itself a mystery, of all the tumultuous events and 
 
22 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 hopeful promises which made np the sum of prophetic 
 history. We cannot understand the Child without at 
 least recognizing that it is alleged that he came up 
 from unbeginning time to express, audibly and visibly, 
 what otherwise could never have been known of God. 
 
 The opening chapter of the Gospels is more than a 
 catalogue of names. It is the Old Testament sum- 
 marized ; it is human history in miniature ; an assem- 
 bly of the Past convened to witness the birth of " the 
 holy thing, called the Son of God." We go through 
 the list to the manger-cradle, and the heart saddens at 
 more than one point in this illustrious succession ; 
 strange threads have been woven into this web ; — the 
 patriarch is here, and the king ; the pure woman and 
 the dissolute man ; eldest sons, and sons younger than 
 their brethren ; names which make men proud of man- 
 kind, and names we would " willingly let die." Mar- 
 vellous pedigree, indeed ! It will surely be a great 
 risk to attempt to get out of this mass a Man who will 
 stand firm in all crises. The world has already lost 
 one Adam, may it not lose another? In the case of 
 the federal man the reading was brief and simple : we 
 had the Creator and the creature in one sentence ; we 
 moved at one step from God to Adam. In this second 
 case, we have to proceed from Adam to God. In 
 Genesis, the work was easy ; in Matthew, it seems as 
 if through such a mass we -could never find the prom- 
 ised Life. We wonder at what point of so desolate 
 a Horeb God will ^yi his tabernacle of fire. 
 
 We are bound to consider the value of the fact that 
 Clirist throws himself upon the past ; he chooses his 
 own tribunal, and it is one to which no Jew at least 
 
THE HOLY THING. 23 
 
 could object. Looking at the subject generally, this 
 much is clear — that the mystery of the birth is in 
 keeping with the mystery of the prophecy, and it now 
 remains to be seen whether the mystery of the doctrine 
 is in harmony with both. Whatever a fuller examina- 
 tion may disclose, there is before us, even so far, a 
 great breadth of homogeneous mystery, — unique, un- 
 broken, unparalleled. Any discrepancy here would 
 vitiate the whole succession. No lapse of time, no 
 combination of circumstances, can repair, an error at 
 this point. A well-known rule in law will hold good 
 here : " Qiiod initio vitiosum est, tractu temporis con- 
 valescere non potest." If Christ is to command our 
 confidence, he must continue to be what his claim to 
 the prophetic past, and the alleged preternatural con- 
 ditions of his incarnation, necessitate, A common 
 man cannot be tolerated after so uncommon a be- 
 ginning. If he be only a young man of high and most 
 ambitious spirit, he has chosen a most perilous course, 
 a course which must break down somewhere. It can- 
 not be an easy task hypocritically to represent God 
 upon the earth, without now and again letting the 
 mask slip aside. How can the finite steadily carry the 
 Infinite, when the Infinite is at war with him? Christ 
 must be more than a good man, or worse than the 
 worst man. If he be not God, he is the Devil. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WRITTEN WORD. 
 
 THERE is a document which alleges to be authen- 
 tic, and which certainly comes before the world 
 as no other book does. The Book claims to have had 
 an origin as mysterious as the birth of Christ, — com- 
 bining the human and divine. The hand is man's, the 
 voice is God's. While this Christian document is 
 before us, we are not called upon to write a life of 
 Christ, but to interpret a life that is written, or to show 
 cause for rejecting the document. Our relation to the 
 document should be first ascertained. Ai'e we to 
 reserve the right of discrimination in reading the 
 documentary evidence ? If so, by what law, or under 
 what conditions, is the discriminative faculty to be 
 regulated ? To receive the book just as it stands would 
 be simply an exercise of faith ; to adopt an eclectic 
 course, would involve the rendering of reasons for 
 abandoning the immemorial orthodoxy of the Church. 
 No doubt the Book is often thought of in a narrow 
 and even unreasoning way by its admirers. Certainly, 
 it is so sparing in details, as apparently to leave much 
 of life unprovided for. It does not occupy a tenth part 
 of the ground traversed by Plato, who, in connection 
 with many lofty speculations, discoursed concerning 
 lands and dwellings, hunting and fishing, cemeteries, 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 25 
 
 monuments, and epitaphs, family quarrels and injury 
 to property, rhetoric and geometry, with a thousand 
 other subjects. Compared with this elaborate treat- 
 ment of nearly all questions, the statements of the 
 Christian writings are exceedingly bald and poor ; yet 
 there may be more in those writings than in all the 
 tomes of philosophy. God's first book, the book of 
 nature, apparently leaves much of life unprovided for ; 
 yet as men acquire skill to turn over the ponderous 
 pages, they find that every want has been anticipated. 
 Adam would hardly know the world of which he was 
 the first occupant ; yet the primal forces and character- 
 istics of nature are just the same as when he kept 
 the garden of Eden. Modern civilization can hardly 
 understand how men could subsist in ancient times, 
 yet the earth abideth forever without appendix or 
 supplement. What was wanting, was the faculty of 
 interpretation. Men saw the water, but could not 
 interpret it into steam ; they saw the lightning, but 
 mistook it for an enemy ; they saw the sun, but could 
 not fully interpret all he signified by the eloquence of 
 light. The human power of interpretation grows ; 
 yet after it has grown, it often forgets both the process 
 and the fact. The volume of nature is precisely to- 
 day as God published it ; but the latter readers are 
 more sharp-sighted and inquisitive than the former. 
 Civilization becomes wiser, keener, more ambitious 
 and inclusive, year by year. Men were partly afraid, 
 partly unable, to decijDher the writing of nature ; they 
 read the illuminated title, and settled down into con- 
 tentment or indifference ; as if when " God finished the 
 heavens and the earth," he also finished all the uses 
 2 
 
26 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 and applications to which future ages would be dis- 
 posed to put them. 
 
 The Christian writings abound in seminal ideas ; 
 they are full of beginnings. The outlines are many, 
 but there are no finished pictures. The value of those 
 writings may be best represented by the term Life, 
 We know they are inspired, because they are inspiring. 
 The living man is the best confirmation of the living 
 book. This book is not a plumb-line by which to test 
 the perpendicularity of a wall ; it is a living spirit, 
 quickening and regulating spirits capable of illimitable 
 development. With infinite appropriateness, there- 
 fore, it closes with an apocalypse, — not with a final 
 line, but with prophecies of a future which shall 
 eclipse the splendor of all earlier light. The Old 
 Testament closed with a prophecy ; the New Testa- 
 ment culminates in a revelation. The New Testa- 
 ment is only the beginning of books ; not a finished 
 and sealed document, according to popular notions of 
 finality, but the beginning of a literature punctuated 
 and paragraphed by tears and laughter, by battle and 
 pestilence, and all the changes of a tumultuous yet 
 progressive civilization. The Apocalypse looks to- 
 wards the future with ten thousand eager and glowing 
 eyes. What if that apocalypse be fulfilling under our 
 own observation, and Christ be saying to us, " Ye 
 hypocrites, ye can discern the signs of the sky ; how is 
 it ye cannot discern the signs of the times '' ? 
 
 God is, so to speak, issuing ever-enlarging editions 
 of the New Testament — so rapidly, indeed, that the 
 world itself can hardly contain the books. Though 
 we no longer know Christ after the flesh, yet we walk 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 
 
 27 
 
 with him in the holy sanctuary of the spirit ; and from 
 among the golden candlesticks, he throws out all the 
 ra} s by which we read to-day's- story and to-morrow's 
 apocalypse. He is still " the light of the world," and 
 still there is about him all the mystery of light. The 
 light which reveals the landscape, needs itself to be 
 revealed ; so paradoxical is nature, like nature's God, 
 that we are dependent for revelation upon what is 
 itself a mystery I If we have ceased to know any of 
 the facts of the Book — its temples, sacrifices, wash- 
 ings, oblations, and miracles — it is because we have 
 come to a deeper sympathy with its spirit. We have 
 now transcended the use of the grammar and the lexi- 
 con, except for the most rudimentary and initial pur- 
 poses. We are not now dependent upon the scribe, 
 but by a divinely regulated instinct we know the hand 
 and the voice of God. Our faith cannot be broken 
 down by a misspelt word or a mistaken date ; the heart 
 is enthroned as arbiter, and it knows the " going" of 
 the divine step. 
 
 No doubt the Book does contain contradictions more 
 or less real. So does the book of nature. The desert 
 contradicts the garden ; the storm contradicts the calm ; 
 summer and winter are utterly discordant ; one plant 
 grows poison, another is impregnated with healing 
 juices; the savage beast and the creature of gentle 
 blood face each other in the contradictory book of 
 nature. The world is full of contradiction, and an 
 intolerably insipid world it would be but for its anom- 
 alies. Every man is his own contradiction. In ten 
 years, a growing man will throw off many tastes, 
 companionships, and habits, which to-day are pleasant 
 
28 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 to him. There is nothing without an element of con- 
 tradiction but death, and death itself is the great con- 
 tradiction of God. Human maxims and policies are 
 continually at strife. Out of contradiction comes educa- 
 tion. But what is contradiction? Not lying, neces- 
 sarily — not even opposition, absolutely ; contradiction 
 may simply mean incompleteness, or may arise from 
 ellipsis. Two gases may mutually antagonize, yet 
 may be held altogether by a third. Two statements 
 may be discrepant, until a missing link is supplied. 
 A man may pursue two divergent courses of conducl, 
 yet may hold his integrity without a breach ; when 
 smitten on one cheek he may turn the other, and yet 
 he may rebuke an offending brother ; he may judge no 
 man, yet he may refuse to cast his pearls before swine, 
 or give that which is holy unto the dogs : this sup- 
 posed contradictoriness he has learned of Jesus Christ, 
 who, though he had not where to lay his head, prom- 
 ised to those who foUovved him '' a hundredfold more 
 in the present world ; " who reproached men for not 
 coming to him, and then told them that no man came 
 unto him except the Father drew him, and afterwards 
 gave them to understand that they would be damned 
 if they did not come unto him ; who preached trust 
 concerning to-morrow, and then told men to make 
 unto themselves friends of the mammon of unright- 
 eousness. 
 
 All this appears to be most contradictory and per- 
 plexing, yet the same kind of contradiction marks the 
 whole life and speech of men. One book may be 
 many books, as the New Testament is literally. Its 
 chapters may be addressed to different men, or to the 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 29 
 
 same men under different circumstances ; or cautionary- 
 words may be interposed in anticipation of possible 
 abuse. One of the New Testament writers states plain- 
 ly that there are in the revelation two distinct kinds 
 of spiritual aliment, known respectively as "milk" 
 and " strong meat ; " one for babes, the other for men. 
 When babes eat men's food, what wonder if they suf- 
 fer from doctrinal dyspepsia^ and be excluded from the 
 Church as heretics ? And when men appropriate the 
 babes' milk, what wonder that the Church should 
 suffer in robustness and power? There is one remark- 
 able saying of Christ's which prepares us for ever- 
 widening revelations of his purpose in relation to 
 man : he said, " I have many things to tell you, but ye 
 cannot bear them now : howbeit when he, the Spirit 
 of Truth, is come, he will lead you into all truth." 
 Among the " many things " would be explanations of 
 hard sayings and complements of unfinished circles.. 
 The plan of revelation, too, hinted that man should 
 become more and more independent of the scribe, and 
 more and more reliant upon the Spirit. Writing is a 
 human contrivance, but thinking is a divine operation. 
 The scribe for the child, the Spirit for man. The 
 instructions of a parent or schoolmaster amply illus- 
 trate the whole case alike as to method, instrument, 
 and result. At one period, the child is addressed as 
 if he were irresponsible, and at another, as if every 
 deed would be brought under judgment. The school- 
 master first sets before the pupil the most detailed 
 methods of calculation, and insists upon every step 
 being taken ; afterwards he shows the pupil how to 
 abbreviate the processes of doing the very same work, 
 
30 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 and actually ridicules him if the calculation is carried 
 on in the detailed and minute method which at first 
 was affirmed to be right. So a man is educated in 
 proportion as he becomes able to group and sum- 
 marize details, and by scientific ellipses to pass rapidly 
 towards results. All this is part of a great movement 
 from the letter to the Spirit, from the symbol to the 
 life. This is man's upward course towards God ; a 
 deliverance from manual toil, and an entrance upon 
 the joys of a work which never satiates the appetite, 
 and never wearies the faculty. When we are " perfect 
 as our Father in heaven is perfect," we shall escape 
 the tedium of manual processes, and work from the 
 spiritual centre. 
 
 According to the processes, so may be the verdicts 
 which men may pass upon one another. The pupil 
 who is only able to do a sum in simple multiplication 
 would not be '' able to bear" a revelation respecting the 
 difierential calculus ; but in proportion as he was able 
 to acquit himself well in multiplication, the teacher 
 would be justified in saying that he was a good scholar, 
 and yet that he knew nothing ; — good, as far as he 
 had gone, yet ignorant in view of the vast region which 
 remained to be explored. 
 
 When Christ tells men to come unto him, he is 
 addressing them in their alienated condition ; when he 
 tells them that they will not come unless the Father 
 draw them, he is but cheering and confirming their 
 Christward desires. The statement is equivalent to 
 this : ' I am so unlike what all men have expected, and 
 I have commenced my work in so unlikely a manner, 
 that no man could possibly come unto such a poor, 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 3 1 
 
 friendless, homeless man, except my Father draw him ; 
 I present no external charms, I can appeal to no sordid 
 motives ; if any man, therefore, feels the slightest draw- 
 ing towards me, he may regard the inclination as di- 
 vinely inspired, for no man cometh unto such a person 
 as I am, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw 
 him.' In this view, we have the meaning of the ex- 
 pression, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 
 Men are moved by opposites. While there is a false- 
 hood in extremes, there is a moral leverage in |hem 
 also. The servant is on the road to mastery ; the 
 humble man is travelling to the throne ; decomposi- 
 tion is a step towards reproduction : so this lowly out- 
 cast Christ, by the very depth of his humiliation, lifts 
 society towards the altitude of heaven. He could not 
 have done his work at any of the intermediate points 
 of the social scale ; he must go down until there was 
 no man below him — until he was despised and re- 
 jected of men ; so that by an action on his part from 
 the depth, and a concurrent action on his Father's 
 part from heaven, he could say, " My Father worketh 
 hitherto, and I work ; no man cometh unto me except 
 the Father draw him." 
 
 But is it not declared, in other parts of the Christian 
 writings, that certain men are foreordained and pre- 
 destinated to eternal life ; that God is likened unto a 
 potter, who may fit one vessel unto honor and another 
 to dishonor ; that he hates one man and loves another ; 
 that he subdues and hardens whom he will? Is not 
 this contradictory of much that Christ said, and con- 
 firmatory of other of his sayings? In the interpreta- 
 tion of all such sayings, the heart is to be trusted 
 
32 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 before the dictionary. Christ often put the under- 
 standing of divine mysteries upon \he base of an anal- 
 ogy between fatherly and divine government : " If JK^, 
 . . . how much more your Father ?^^ This is a method 
 of interpretation which refers decisions to the natural 
 and universal instincts of man, and such a method is 
 absolutely essential where grammar and lexicon can- 
 not disclose the inner meaning of language. Christ 
 goes back to the interpretation of consciousness where 
 literal interpretation fails. Tried by this higher tribu- 
 nal of criticism, such meanings as have been attached 
 to the idea of predestination simply cannot be correct. 
 The heart repels them ; nature shudders with horror 
 when they are suggested. The fatherly instinct of the 
 human race, to which Christ himself appealed, in- 
 stantly, without flutter or misgiving, says, ' If God 
 calls all men, and yet determines that only a few shall 
 come ; if he mocks men by offering gifts which he has 
 rendered them powerless to accept ; if he makes some 
 men vessels of dishonor, and then breaks them to 
 pieces because they are not vessels of honor ; if he 
 can sit on his judgment-seat, and see men going down 
 to hell because he determined from all eternity that 
 they should not go to heaven ; if when he says ' who- 
 soever' he means but a few, — then let all honest 
 and noble men leave him alone in his hateful heaven, 
 and go down to hell in company with poor injured 
 creatures who have deserved better at his hands.' This 
 is the conclusion of that very instinct of parenthood 
 which Christ himself challenged in the interest of the 
 divine government. Nowhere in the sacred writings 
 is God represented as falling below the promptings of 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 33 
 
 that holy instinct, but everywhere as transcending them 
 in love and beneficence ; but the interpretation which 
 reprobates any portion of the human race shamefully 
 and cruelly dishonors all that is compassionate and 
 generous, not to say that all is equitable and just, in the 
 common nature of man. Christ's new canon of in- 
 terpretation renders men independent of . technical 
 criticism, and when the instinct upon which it is 
 founded is entirely purified, it will render men inde- 
 pendent of all written codes. So far, the parental 
 instinct enables men confidently to affirm, that what- 
 ever may be the meaning of predestination, it cannot 
 narrow the affections, or pervert the justice of God. 
 
 It has been suggested, by the narrowest and hardest 
 school of theologians, that God may, as a sovereign, 
 damn anybody without being held accountable, or 
 without giving any shadow of reason to his creatures. 
 This, however, is a notion which proceeds upon a 
 mistaken apprehension alike of divine and human 
 nature. There is not only a fallacy, but a falsehood, 
 in the very heart of such a representation. God him- 
 self cannot so act with moral beings. In proportion 
 as any creature is endowed with the moral element, in 
 that proportion is the sovereignty of God limited in 
 relation to that being when debated questions arise 
 between the creature and the Creator. It is by virtue 
 of the moral element that man stands upon a common 
 plane with God. Sovereignty is a matter of power 
 over forces and events which do not come within the 
 sphere of responsibility. The whole tenor of the 
 Christian writings goes to show, that as a sovereign 
 God could not even save man ; his sovereignty was 
 
 2* 
 
34 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 limited to the method by which salvation should be 
 offered ; on all questions of plan, time, and circum- 
 stances, God's sovereignty was absolute, but no man 
 could be saved apart from the exercise of his own 
 will ; the moment that force entered would be the 
 moment of his degradation as a man. If man could 
 have been saved simply by a volition of the sovereign, 
 then the humiliation and agony of Christ constituted a 
 circumlocution in the divine government which could 
 be accounted for only on the ground of the most wan- 
 ton cruelty on the part of God. Salvation and repro- 
 bation alike lie beyond the limits of sovereignty, except 
 in such points as have just been named. It is not our 
 business to enter upon an interpretation of such pas- 
 sages as are supposed to justify the theory of reproba- 
 tion ; but it is our business in thus canvassing the 
 Christian writings to point out the canon of construc- 
 tion which Christ himself appealed to in illustrating 
 the immeasurable bounty of God towards man. Christ 
 set up the human parent as the best representative of 
 the divine Father, and thereby elevated the parental 
 spirit into an interpreter of divine things. 
 
 With such real or apparent contradictions before us, 
 it becomes of the first importance to determine what 
 is to be done with the Christian writings? Are sophis- 
 ticated and foolhardy men to be turned into them in- 
 discriminately, and left without guidance as to their 
 divisions and applications? Is the Church an author- 
 ized and necessary interpreter of the written Word? 
 The determining distinction between a book that is 
 true and a book that is false is, that the true book, with 
 all its ellipses, brokenness, and literal discrepancies, 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 35 
 
 may be trusted anywhere, for the spirit that pervades 
 it will be its strong defence, and it will grow upon the 
 consciousness of men in proportion as they learn more 
 of the brokenness and ellipsis of life itself. The bad 
 book, on the other hand, with all its artistic consis- 
 tency, will cheat every promise it offers, and fail most 
 where it is needed most. The position which the 
 Christian writings have attained is the best vindication 
 of their claim to be the declarations which God has 
 authorized ; not a position of finality, or apprehension 
 as to encroachment, but one of inspiring and self- 
 spreading life, which encompasses all the wants of 
 man. 
 
 Words already cited from Christ's own lips show 
 that we are not living under a dispensation of the book, 
 but under the dispensation of the Spirit ; and this 
 fact harmonizes with the whole of God's educational 
 method so far as we have discovered it, that method 
 being one of continuous advance from the seen to the 
 unseen, from " beggarly elements " to all-subduing life. 
 Christ gave a very partial revelation of himself in the 
 days of his flesh. A few strong, startling, and revolu- 
 tionary words, with a chastened and persuasive tone 
 of consolation, sustained by many mighty works, was 
 all that he gave men, with one exception ; but that 
 exception was itself the chief hope of the Church, 
 being nothing less than a promise of the Spirit of 
 '].'ruth. That spirit was to be an indwelling presence 
 in the Church, inspiring and guiding the education 
 of the soul, interpreting the facts which the visible 
 Christ had created, and leading into the truths which 
 those facts dimly outlined. Truth is always deeper 
 
36 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 than fact. Christ had built up, by teaching and suf- 
 fering, the world's greatest, holiest fact ; but the Spirit 
 was promised to reveal the infinite truth which that 
 fact pointed out. The Christian writings without the 
 Christian Spirit would be a dead letter ; but the Spirit, 
 by daily interpretation and application of the written 
 Word, enlarges it so as to extend it over the whole 
 ground of life. Though this is the age of the Spirit, 
 it is appropriately termed the Christian era, for the 
 Spirit "takes of the things of Christ" alone; never 
 changes the theme, but continues to unfold " the un- 
 searchable riches." Christ's personal work was rudi- 
 mentary in a large sense ; he struck across the courses 
 of life in a manner which compelled attention ; his 
 words often flashed like lightning, and his step startled 
 like thunder at midnight ; but his work has all the ap- 
 pearance of a fragment about it. He has many things to 
 say, but forbears ; what men knew not in his lifetime, 
 they were to know afterwards ; his own works were 
 to be succeeded by greater, because he was going to 
 the Father. There was much abruptness about this. 
 He had roused the Jewish mind without tranquillizing 
 it again. He had started new conceptions, dismissed 
 old prejudices, removed traditional boundaries, trou- 
 bled the fountain of individual and national life, yet 
 things were left in a chaotic state : — 
 
 " Obstabatque aliis aliud : quia corpore in uno 
 Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis, 
 MoUia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus." 
 
 All this was to be settled, orbed, illuminated ; and 
 much time would be necessary before we could con- 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 37 
 
 tinue the poet's description of the metamorphosis, and 
 say, " Hanc Deus, et melior litem Natura diremit." 
 Christ's work, looked at entirely by itself, simply as a 
 three years' ministry, was certainly fragmentary, though 
 perfect so far as it went ; yet looked at in relation to 
 the whole width of human history, it was suggestive, 
 not exhaustive ; preliminary, not final ; vernal, not 
 autumnal. Throughout the whole of his work the 
 Spirit expounded simply the doctrines of Christ, not 
 any doctrines of his own : " He shall not speak of 
 himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he 
 speak ; and he will show you things to come. He 
 shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall 
 show it unto you." Here, then, we have the solution 
 of the difficulty as to the interpretation of the written 
 Word ; there is a Spirit whose particular function it is 
 to reveal the historic Christ more plainly, and so to 
 keep pace with the enlarging capacity and power of 
 the world. This Spirit operates upon a homogeneous 
 spirit in man himself, and thus a mutual " witness " is 
 established — a witness which in many cases tran- 
 scends the difficulties suggested by merely verbal 
 criticism. 
 
 
38 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE WRITTEN WORD continued. 
 
 WE have said that though this is the dispensation 
 of the Spirit, it is yet distinctively the Christian 
 dispensation. This circumstance may throw a side- 
 light upon one dark saying in the Christian w^ritings, 
 which relates to the unpardonable sin, the sin against 
 the Holy Ghost. Christ taught that a word spoken 
 against the Son of Man would be forgiven, but that 
 a word spoken against the Holy Ghost would not be 
 forgiven ; by w^hich he probably meant that in his 
 visible form there was so much that contravened the 
 expectations of the people, that they might, under the 
 mistaken guidance of their carnal feelings, speak 
 against One who had claimed kingly position under 
 a servant's form, but that in the course of events he 
 would appeal not to the eye, but to the consciousness 
 of men ; and that when he came by this higher min- 
 istry, refusal of his appeal would place man in an 
 unpardonable state. The vital principle would seem 
 to be, that vs^hen man denies his own consciousness, or 
 shuts himself up from such influences as would purify 
 and quicken his consciousness, he cuts himself off from 
 God, and becomes a " son of perdition." Speaking 
 against the Holy Ghost is speaking against the higher 
 and final revelation of the Son of Man : in this view 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 
 
 39 
 
 Christ's position in the Godhead is unimpaired ; but 
 if a sin against him were less than a sin against the 
 Holy Ghost, he could no longer retain divine equality. 
 According to the Christian writings, we know nothing 
 of tlie Holy Ghost except in connection with Jesus 
 Christ ; to speak, therefore, against the Holy Ghost is 
 to speak against Jesus Christ himself, not as he ap- 
 peared when he took upon him the form of a servant 
 (^/Liogcp^p dovlov)^ but as he was originally in the form 
 of God {iv l^ogq)i] deov). As we have already said, 
 truth is larger than fact, so the spiritual is larger than 
 the material, the Holy Spirit greater than any personal 
 manifestation possibly could be. The incarnate Christ 
 was local, the Holy Spirit is universal ; the fleshly 
 Christ was a Jew, the Spirit-revealed Christ is the 
 brother of every man ; the embodied Truth walked 
 within certain geographical limits, but the spiritual 
 Truth is unlimited in range and inexhaustible in 
 power. The Apostle says that " henceforth we know 
 not Christ after the flesh ; " now he is represented by 
 the Holy Ghost, still head over all, though unseen 
 by men. 
 
 With this as a start-point, why may not the men of 
 to-day know Christ more thoroughly than did the 
 original disciples and apostles ? They know everything 
 else better ; why make an exception of the great Life 
 which is giving such revelations of itself as cover all 
 the enlarging breadths of civilization, and fill plente- 
 ously, even to overflow, the expanding capacities of 
 manhood ? The foremost man in the original aposto- 
 late declared of himself that he had " not yet attained," 
 and exhorted others to " grow in the knowledge of our 
 
40 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ." There is no claim of finality in 
 the apostolic epistles. Everywhere the path of prog- 
 ress is not merely pointed out, but the most exciting 
 inducements to persevere are employed in the apostolic 
 appeals. The riches of Christ are declared to be " up- 
 searchable," and the peace of God is said to " pass 
 understanding." All the terms descriptive of Christ, 
 and of the courses of study w^hich may be entered upon 
 concerning him, suggest the impossibility of exhaus- 
 tion, and by implication suggest the greatness and rich- 
 ness of human nature. Stationariness in Christian 
 study is a sin against the subject, and an injustice to 
 the student. Not that fundamental and spiritual truths 
 can be changed. Nev^ton did not deny that two and 
 two are four when he promulgated the doctrine of 
 gravitation ; nor did Coulomb deny the diurnal rota- 
 tion of the earth when he improved the mariner's 
 compass. We go back to the Book for the primary 
 facts and outshadowings of truth ; throwing aside all 
 that was local and temporary, we discover the abiding 
 root of which came the leaves and the fruit which are 
 for the healing and sustenance of the nations. 
 
 This term "root" assigns to the Christian writings 
 their true position and value. There is all the differ- 
 ence between the Christianity of the apostolic day, and 
 the developed Christian idea of the present time, that 
 there is between an acorn and an oak. The essential 
 nature is unchanged, but the least of seeds has become 
 the greatest of trees. The Father is glorified when 
 the children " bear much fruit," and much fruit simply 
 means much Christ. When Christ said that he had 
 " finished his work," he spoke as an agriculturist 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 4I 
 
 might do when he had sown his entire field with seed, 
 not as the reaper would do when he garnered his 
 sheaves. The seed was small, the harvest is universal ; 
 the words were few, and often broken, but they have 
 roused the heart and shaped the course of the world-. 
 The tree is gigantic in stature, but it draws all its 
 vitality out of the one root which Christ planted. 
 
 It is certain that different men sustain different re- 
 lations to the first principles of arithmetic, geometry, 
 or any science. The skilled arithmetician does not 
 require continually to refer to tabulated data ; he could 
 carry on his calculations successfully, if all written 
 data were destroyed. They are now in him ; they are 
 part of his intellectual nature, so that he employs them 
 with the ease which comes of perfect familiarity.* All 
 men, however, are not advanced arithmeticians ; they 
 must have something to work at, something on which 
 the eye can rest, for they feel safe in their processes 
 only so far as an appeal is made to the eye. Numbers, 
 however, are dogmatic; they make no accomnftoda- 
 tions ; they ignore all varieties of temperament, faculty, 
 and circumstances, and by so much they differ from 
 the spiritual truths which are the subject of the Chris- 
 tian writings. Still the analogical point is vivid 
 enough for our purpose ; some students are yet at the 
 very beginning, wondering at the birth, or startled by 
 the works of Christ ; others have got beyond the nar- 
 row factual boundary, and are revelling in all spiritual 
 luxuriance. It would be as impertinent in the arith- 
 metician who has not yet mastered the first four rules 
 
 * Ecce Homo, 183, 4. 
 
42 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of his art, to rail against the learned algebraist, as for 
 the tyros in Christian literature to reproach men who 
 have the word of Christ dwelling in them richly, 
 having forgotten or left behind the elementary facts 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 Any survey of that portion of human society com- 
 prised within the limits of modern civilization which 
 ignored the practical power of the written Word, 
 would not only be partial, but unjust — openly and 
 scandalously wicked, indeed. By influencing society 
 at the vital centre, it touches the remotest angles of the 
 social idea. Its effect upon young life, upon all the 
 multitudinous aspects of human sorrow, upon the de- 
 velopment and consolidation of generous sentiment, is 
 written in living characters upon daily life. Even where 
 its dogmatic form is denied, its spiritual results are 
 evident ; and some, who find a thousand difficulties in 
 its letter, are penetrated and ennobled by its principles. 
 If a question of comparison between this book and any 
 othef" were started, Christ's own standard of judgment 
 would- best meet the case ; looking forward to the false 
 prophets who should seek to undo his work, he said, 
 '- By their fruits ye shall know them." Modern civil- 
 ization should be the field of research on both sides. 
 Which book has done most for liberty, justice, prog- 
 ress? Which book has most persistently branded, 
 defied, and threatened every form of tyranny? Which 
 book has spoken with the truest pathos to the wounded 
 and sorrowing heart ? Which book has done most for 
 the poor man? These inquiries may be put in no 
 declamatory spirit, buf simply with a view to the 
 discovery of facts. The test is fair. It is marked by 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 43 
 
 a high sense of honesty on the part of Jesus Christ. 
 He adopts no method of overriding human judgment, 
 but, on the contrary, elevates the discriminative faculty 
 of man, and in a manner throws the responsibility of 
 the conclusion upon men's own common sense. This 
 is not the plan of necromancers, soothsayers, and self- 
 elected prophets : Christ appeals to his own works 
 and the works of others, asking the verdict of the 
 world upon their respective claims to truth and vener- 
 ation. There is no cunning legerdemain, no rebuke 
 of human severity, in the examination, no indulgence 
 bespoken on behalf of the worker : the words and 
 works are before you — judge them, said Christ; and 
 " believe me for the very works' sake." 
 
 The important concession that different men may 
 sustain different relations to the Christian writings, 
 may provoke an inquiry, bearing upon some aspects 
 of church-life to-day : What of the consistency of 
 those who, being far advanced, having come into a 
 great liberty of faith, are still teachers in those churches 
 that are yet only in the rudiments, and whose published 
 dogmas give no hope of expansion? The answer to 
 this inquiry cannot be difficult. To the end of the 
 world churches, as promiscuous aggregates, inust be 
 in the rudiments only, and the teachers of such 
 churches must accommodate themselves to the ele- 
 mentary faith of their hearers. Often the teachers 
 will come to know what Christ meant, when he said, 
 " I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
 bear them now." The wisest teachers are the most 
 reticent men. They reserve all the deeper interpreta- 
 tions, knowing, from a wide observation of human 
 
44 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 nature, that many who have eyes, see not, and many 
 who have hearts, do not understand. Wise teachers 
 will speak in one set of terms to the great multitude, 
 and in another to the foremost men, when they can go 
 aside and commune secretly. They will often have to 
 hide their meaning under a parable, and give explana- 
 tions in an undertone. This is what Christ did. He 
 had special interviews with his disciples, in which he 
 spoke of the deeper things of his kingdom ; and when 
 one of his followers gave utterance to a testimony re- 
 specting his Messiahship, more full and emphatic than 
 had yet been rendered, he pronounced it an immediate 
 disclosure from heaven. Again and again, too, he 
 enjoined silence upon his disciples as to the higher 
 questions which had passed between them, as if reve- 
 lation was to be regulated by time, and to-morrow's 
 work was not to be dragged into to-day's service. 
 These graduated revelations are compatible with the 
 mystery of his own manifestation before men, and the 
 method by which he educated the disciples. His 
 representatives are right as they follow their master's 
 course. No man is bound to open all his heart to 
 unappreciative spectators. To the esoteric circle he 
 may fully reveal himself, but to the exoteric crowd his 
 demeanor may be reserved. He knows that to some 
 men he must not tell the dream, until he can also tell 
 the interpretation ; but that others can help him in the 
 changeful visions and tumultuous upheaving through 
 which the soul passes into the higher ranges and 
 sweeter experiences of truth. 
 
 It is to be remarked that Jesus Christ never wrote 
 anything, nor did he instruct his disciples to commit 
 
THE WRITTEN WORD. 45 
 
 anything to writing. We have broken reports of 
 many of his addresses, and very fragmentary memo- 
 randa of his conversations and disputes, but no pro- 
 vision of a literary kind seems to have been made to 
 secure permanence. Anything more fugitive, appar- 
 ently, than the words and works of Christ, it is impos- 
 sible to find : no hired scribes report the utterances or 
 chronicle the deeds of this wonderful Man ; he founds 
 no library, leaves no chronicles to be hidden in secure 
 places, but works out his twelve hours, and then passes 
 into rest. We come to no sign of permanence, until 
 we receive the promise of the Holy Ghost ; he was to 
 quicken the recollection, as well as to disclose further 
 aspects of the truth. The memory was not to be left 
 unaided ; a great light was to be held over all the way 
 in which the disciples had walked, so that they might 
 see the minutest detail, and tell or write their story 
 with all the clearness and certitude of personal obser- 
 vation. 
 
 The written Word is a repertory of facts, a revela- 
 tion of doctrines, and a standard of appeal upon all 
 questions to which it bears any relation. The only 
 interpreter of this Word is the Holy Ghost, and he 
 operates through the consciousness of the reader : it is 
 not a Word superimposed upon man, but a word in 
 harmony with all that is divine in human nature, and 
 therefore having power to carry the entire conviction 
 and sympathy of all who read without prejudice. 
 Upon these principles the subsequent inquiry will be 
 conducted. 
 
4-6 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INAUGURATION. 
 
 THE measure of consciousness is the measure of 
 life. The life of intelligent beings is not merely 
 a question of years ; lapse of time may not increase 
 vitality ; life is to be measured by the sensitiveness 
 and enlightenment of consciousness, so that over-con- 
 sciousness may be one meaning of precocity or prema- 
 turity of manhood. The first public intimation of 
 consciousness of his great position, on the part of 
 Christ, if we except the answer which he made to his 
 mother, is found in immediate connection with his 
 baptism. When John remonstrated with him, saying, 
 " I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou 
 to me?" he answered, "Suffer it to be so now." 
 There is here clearly personal consciousness of his 
 identity as the long-announced Man who was to be at 
 once Son and Lord of humankind. At that moment 
 he knew himself. The fire which had been in him 
 from the beginning shot up into a bright flame, which 
 John saw, and which all who were afar off were to 
 see. Up to that time, in all probability, Christ was 
 not fully conscious of his Messiahship. The poor 
 frail flesh which he had inherited from a depraved 
 race could not have borne the presence of full con- 
 sciousness for thirty years : when it did come, it con- 
 
THE INAUGURATION. 47 
 
 sumed him in as many months. He had but three 
 years of avowed battle. Such a man could never do his 
 M^ork with indifference. Every moment was a strain 
 upon his life. No man ever gave so much to time, or 
 ever exacted so much in return. To assume full con- 
 sciousness on the part of Christ during the years of 
 his obscurity seems to separate him too widely from 
 man, by reducing his humanity to a minimum ; but to 
 assume that he " grew " in consciousness, as he " grew 
 in favor with God and man," is to bring him into 
 close fellowship with the weakest of his followers. 
 We cannot afford to contract in the least degree the 
 amplitude of Christ's manhood ; it is upon that side 
 particularly that he belongs to us ; it is as the ladder 
 reaching unto heaven whereby men may ascend. By 
 so much as he was human he was limited, during his 
 obscurity, in consciousness ; by so much as he was 
 divine, his full consciousness overbore his humanity. 
 All men who have done any notable work in the world 
 have felt the consciousness of its importance, as a fire 
 in the bones. They could not languidly dream of it, 
 nor contemplate it from a hazy and mellowing dis- 
 tance. They have hasted unto the battle ; they have 
 said, " I am straitened until it be accomplished." Such 
 a consciousness makes men die young. It carries the 
 soul into an agony of passion. It drives the blood 
 along the channels with an urgency which greatly dis- 
 tresses nature, and strains the intellectual nerve until 
 the brain sees strange lights, and often trembles for its 
 own safety. Only men of strong natures know what 
 is meant by this lavish expenditure of life — this will- 
 ingness to taste death for every man. 
 
48 - ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Common life supplies the example of consciousness 
 in the matter of mutual affection. Wisely and merci- 
 fully, this has been made a matter of growth. Human 
 nature would be altogether overdriven did this con- 
 sciousness set in fully during the period of education 
 and discipline. From the general kindness and sim- 
 plicity of childhood we advance until the heart begins 
 to individualize its sentiments, to concentrate its ener- 
 gies ; by and by there seems to be but one life in all 
 the world, and then begins the consuming passion of 
 perfect love. Human lives grow gradually up to this. 
 To so great a passion they must have come by wisely 
 graduated degrees, or it would have rent and destroyed 
 them. Still, all through there has been a conscious- 
 ness of love, and in all the simple trust and generosity 
 of young affection there have been hints of a great 
 possibility, which only time and circumstances could 
 develop. And this full love means, if need be, sacri- 
 fice, cross, death ! All love is ready for the thorns 
 and prepared for the slaughter ; only by so much as it 
 is so ready is it worthy of the name of love. It may 
 not be driven so far along the line as these things 
 lie, but these things do lie in the line of pure, self- 
 oblivious affection. Man is never so near the cross as 
 when he is in the highest mood of love. To misan- 
 thropy, to all narrow-heartedness and self-worship, 
 the cross must be the sum of all horrors ; they stand 
 on different planes, they speak languages mutually 
 unknown ; but the cross is the very next thing to love : 
 there is but a step between them ! 
 
 This may illustrate in some degree the growth of 
 consciousness in Jesus Christ. The three years of his 
 
THE INAUGURATION. 49 
 
 heart-consuming ministry were backed by thirty years 
 of quiet and thoughtful life. In such backing lies the 
 strength of all great workers. Nothing consumes like 
 love ; how soon, then, must he be consumed who did 
 nothing but love ! The brevity of his life must have 
 some meaning. Three years as reckoned by human 
 tables are but a span ; there must have been in those 
 three years a fire which burned fiercely, and made 
 them unlike any other three years in all human 
 history. 
 
 This view of Christ's consciousness detracts in no 
 degree from Christ's deity ; rather it throws into bolder 
 and more peculiar relief the elements which contra- 
 distinguished him from all others, while it retains him 
 amongst us as the Man Christ Jesus. The horizon 
 seems gradually but surely to have widened, until he 
 who " came to his own " saw " all men coming to 
 him," and he who was " lifted up " drew all nations to 
 his cross. This might have been, would have been, 
 too much for the youth in his humble home at Naza- 
 reth. All was getting in readiness for the dove that 
 was to mark the opening of the new era. There was 
 to be a descent upon him — a special point of con- 
 currence which was to signalize the quickening of 
 perfect consciousness. It is to that concurrent point 
 that we have now to look. 
 
 Christ passed, so to speak, through two gates, the 
 one strait, the other straiter, respectively named 
 Baptism and Temptation. The inaugural processes 
 are characterized by the same mystery that has over- 
 shadowed us all along. They are congruous with all 
 tliat we have seen in the foretelling and in the birth. 
 3 
 
50 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 The duality remains without wrench or flaw. There 
 is an upward, there is also a downward side. There 
 had been, to us suddenly and most inexplicably, a 
 brief dispensation interposed between Christ and his 
 work — a dispensation embodied in one man, and that 
 man as little like Christ as the thunder-storm is like 
 the calm which it precedes. Other dispensations had 
 been long, this was brief; other prophets spake, but 
 saw not ; this prophet baptized the very man of whom 
 he prophesied. Never did divine processes seem to 
 hurry upon one another so urgently as about this time, 
 for from the Inauguration to the Ascension but three 
 summers shone ! The movement of events never 
 faltered for a moment. Jesus Christ, as he had been 
 the burden of other dispensations, was to be the burden 
 of this. He was to find his name on all other pages, 
 and now it was to be written on this rugged leaf 
 which tells the story of the " voice crying in the 
 wilderness." Men are valuable to us as teachers in 
 proportion as they represent a great compass of 
 history. When the aroma of all lands floats from 
 their robes, and the accents of all languages blend in 
 their speech, they have a right to speak with authority. 
 The world's Saviour must have come through the 
 world's great throng of hearts ; he had come through 
 Moses, the minstrels, the prophets, and on His way 
 he now takes up this transient dispensation of the 
 " voice." Thus Christ publicly identified himself 
 with the current of divine purposes as shown in hu- 
 man history. He worked with man as well as for 
 man, and was thus the contemporary of all ages. 
 Men should study the divine idea of each age, and 
 
THE INAUGURATION. 5 1 
 
 become intelligent co-workers with God. Christ's 
 example shows that obedience to the divine spirit of 
 the time ever brings fuller disclosures and attestations 
 of the divine blessing. The heavens are opened to 
 every obedient man, and the Spirit of God descends 
 on the last as on the first. John's baptism had gone 
 no farther than repentance, but Christ, standing with 
 the dove resting upon him, showed that there was a 
 baptism unto holiness. By John's baptism men were 
 put into a right relation to the past, but as they fol- 
 lowed Christ they were put into a right relation to the 
 future ; from the negative condition of repentance they 
 passed to the affirmative attitude of holiness. This is 
 the culmination of human history. We have come 
 through man, servant, prophet, messenger, up to Son, 
 The very nomenclature is pregnant with sublime 
 moral significance; we pass from ''made" to "be- 
 gotten," from " upright " to " beloved," from the " us " 
 of the creating Trinity to the " my" of the benignant 
 Father, from the " very good " of the first Adam to the 
 " well-pleased " of the second. " Olio^ loxiv 6 vlog [^ov 
 
 John's baptism looked towards repentance : why 
 then should Jesus Christ undergo it? To prove his 
 human nature, his vital connection on his mother's 
 side with tlie whole human state, and to supersede it 
 by fulfilment. The world could be taught only grad- 
 ually ; it needed "water" before "fire," the bodily 
 lustration before the spiritual fervor. The dispensa- 
 tions have all w^orked from the outward to the inward, 
 from the body to the soul ; but Christ inverted this 
 method, and established the only really spiritual dis- 
 
53 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 pensation. Did Christ, then, need to repent? No 
 more than he needed to pray, or to do any reh'gious 
 exercise that men do. In so far as he was human, it 
 became him to adopt the duties of each dispensation. 
 
 The place of baptism in the Christian system is one 
 of great simplicity. Men like — indeed require — 
 something objective. They cannot at one bound attain 
 that which is purely spiritual. C:5remonies, and all 
 ordinances, great or small, are only accommodations 
 to human weakness. Men require something to fall 
 back upon. Even a recollection may come up in the 
 soul with all the gracious power of inspiration : the 
 simple fact that we have done something, or that 
 something has been done for us, may save us from 
 despair and incite us to do more. Many a soul that 
 has sunk from God in higher things has been stayed in 
 its sinking by coming against the fact of its baptism in 
 its downward course. It was well, therefore, as an 
 accommodation to human weakness, to conjoin bap- 
 tism with faith in framing the evangelical commission. 
 If any man wishes to undergo the " baptism unto 
 repentance," it may be a question how far he is at 
 liberty to take a backward step in the dispensations ; 
 but to baptize children (who do not need repentance) 
 unto holiness is an act infinitely beautiful in simplicity 
 and infinitely charming in pathos. Baptism provides 
 for the lower and coarser part of human nature. It 
 associates in a very natural way fact with faith, some- 
 thing done with something yet to be done, and thus it 
 is made a help to us. To make anything more 
 important of it would be to abet the theological char- 
 latanry which has kept back many souls from the king- 
 dom of God. 
 
53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE inauguration: the diabolic phase. 
 
 THERE was another dispensation to pass through 
 — the dispensation of the devil. Human history 
 would not have been what it was But for the diabolic 
 element; it was impossible, consequently, for Jesus 
 Christ to enter upon his work without a very demon- 
 strative antagonism at the very beginning. With infi- 
 nite propriety does the temptation follow immediately 
 upon the baptism. The devil had been at work before, 
 in persecution by means of Herod, obliquely^ so as to 
 suit the less pronounced periods of the new life ; but 
 as soon as the Baptism had brought Christ the seal 
 from heaven, and proclaimed his true relation to God 
 and man, a more formal and critical contest became a 
 necessity. Christ could not have passed to his work 
 vvith a merely indirect recognition of the devil's exist- 
 ence ; the recognition must be full, emphatic, solemn. 
 Any man who proposed to himself the fabrication of 
 the story of the wilderness, entered upon a most peril- 
 ous task. It must be difficult for human genius to 
 contrive a consistent devil, or to maintain in dialogue 
 the conscious power of God. On the other hand, who 
 could historically write the account of the temptation? 
 No one was present with pen and ink. No one over- 
 heard the interlocution. How, then, does it find a 
 
54 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 place in history? It must have been outlined by 
 Christ himself in conversation with his disciples. 
 Many a time the conversation would turn upon the 
 devil and his kingdom, for the Christian monarchy 
 was set up to put the diabolic monarchy down. When 
 the conversation so turned, nothing would be more 
 natural than that Christ should relate his experience 
 in the wilderness, and found upon it many of his most 
 practical directions. The account is obviously frag- 
 mentary, and in one or two points must be read 
 figuratively, not literally. Temptations cannot be 
 written. The process is not conducted with all the 
 precision of a Socratic dialogue. The heart can give 
 but a meagre account of its spiritual conflicts ; its 
 wounds cannot be translated ; its triumphs are too 
 subtle for words. At the same time all Christian 
 hearts have, according to their capacity and suscep- 
 tibility, gone through the very course of temptation 
 given in the New Testament narrative. All such 
 hearts have been tempted to make bread' in an illegit- 
 imate and forbidden manner ; have been tempted to 
 risk their lives and their destinies presumptuously ; 
 and also tempted to offer the homage of the soul as 
 the price of secular aggrandizement. Upon such 
 points as these the whole world has become a wilder- 
 ness of temptation or a wilderness of discipline. To- 
 day the great strife of the world is proceeding upon 
 these very issues, — Bread, Desperation, Sovereignty. 
 Man has been victimized by the sophism that it is 
 necessary for him to live^ and therefore necessary that 
 he should make bread, either legitimately or dis- 
 honestly ; but Christ alone broke through this sophism 
 
THE INAUGURATION I THE DIABOLIC PHASE. 55 
 
 by showing from what the true life of man is derived, 
 that there is something deeper than the sensations of 
 the body, which cannot be a guest at men's tables, but 
 must feed on the very truth of God. Man has been 
 also tempted to risks that are unlawful, especially on 
 the pretence that he was but acting up to his faith ; 
 forgetting that there is a limit to human liberty, and 
 that a narrow boundary separates trust and presump- 
 tion. Man has further been tempted to bid for great 
 dominion, and in some cases under the glare of the 
 delusion he has bent his knee before the deceiver. So 
 man himself has passed through the series of tempta- 
 tions recorded in connection with the name of Christ, 
 and can understand what is meant by Christ having 
 been " tempted in all points like unto his brethren," 
 showing that Christ took up the very temptations 
 which had been plaguing the world for thousands of 
 years, and did not introduce a new and unfamiliar 
 class of temptations which had never troubled the life 
 of the world, and which, even when overcome, left 
 the common temptations of society untouched. This 
 view does two things : first, it shows the barrenness 
 and utter poverty of the devil's resources ; stripped of 
 all that is accidental, merely decorative or diplomatic, 
 they really consist of one thing, viz : the exaggeration 
 and idolatry of self; and second, this view brings 
 Jesus Christ into very close and tender sympathy with 
 every tempted man. They stand on the same line ; 
 they bear the same tremendous shocks ; they war with 
 the same weapons. Did Christ, then, merely suffer in 
 the wilderness as any other man has done? Sufferirig 
 is a question of nature. The educated man suffers 
 
56 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 more than the uneducated man : the poet probably 
 suffers more than the mathematician ; the command- 
 ing officer suffers more in a defeat than the common 
 soldier. The more life, the more suffering ; the billows 
 of sorrow being in proportion to the volume of our 
 manhood. Now Jesus Christ was not merely a man, 
 he was Man; and by the very compass of his man- 
 hood he suffered more than any mortal can endure. 
 The storm may pass as fiercely over the shallow lake 
 as over the Atlantic, but by its very volume the latter 
 is more terribly shaken. No other man had come 
 with Christ's ideas ; in no other man was the element 
 of self so entirely abnegated ; no other man had offered 
 such opposition to diabolic rule : all these circum- 
 stances combine to render Christ's temptation unique, 
 yet not one of them puts Christ so far away as to pre- 
 vent us finding in his temptation unfailing solace and 
 strength. 
 
 The temptation of the Beloved Son is important as 
 an historic fact, but infinitely more important as a doc- 
 trine giving hope to men who are tempted by the devil 
 to some degree of the same enormities. Could Christ 
 have been overthrown? Most certainly ; otherwise his 
 temptation has no message to man, except one of de- 
 spair. Whatever is less than infinite, is temptible and 
 peccable ; Christ's humanity was less than infinite, 
 therefore his humanity might have been overthrown. 
 Sympathy can proceed only from community of situa- 
 tion. To say that Christ could not have been success- 
 fully tempted, and that the result of his temptation 
 should comfort men, is equal to saying that, because 
 no man can blow out the sun, therefore no man can 
 
THE inauguration: the diabolic phase. 57 
 
 blow out a taper. The reeord of the temptation is an 
 act of cruelty, if it have no bearing on human strife ; 
 but an analysis of the temptation shows that the 
 methods of assault are fundamentally the same, and 
 that every answer is available for every tempted man. 
 
 When, however, it is affirmed that Christ could have 
 been successfully tempted, the words require to be care- 
 fully considered. The possibility relates, of course, en- 
 tirely to the human side of his nature. So far as the 
 weakness of the flesh was concerned, Christ was open 
 to all the results of diabolic seduction ; but there was 
 in him that spirit of perfect trust in God, which ren- 
 dered the fiercest assaults of the enemy simply futile. 
 He did not come upon the tempter as Eve did ; she 
 was necessarily inexperienced — she could not foresee 
 the result of disobedience ; Christ had the history of 
 the world as a living illustration of the course of 
 diabolic policy immediately before him, so that he 
 could give the lie to every diabolic suggestion. 
 
 A common illustration will simplify the idea that the 
 spirit of perfect trust which was in Christ, taken in 
 connection with the results of sin which abounded 
 everywhere, rendered temptation utterly futile. Take 
 the most respected man of a given neighborhood — 
 a man whose honor and integrity are known to be 
 above suspicion, and it may be affirmed of that man, 
 that it is impossible to persuade him to defraud his 
 neighbor of a penny. The idea of his doing so would 
 be regarded by those who knew him best as an impu- 
 tation not to be tolerated for a moment. But why? 
 The man is only human, like other men, why then this 
 indignation at the idea of fraud? Simply because the 
 3* 
 
58 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 spirit of honesty within him is too strong to succumb 
 to such a temptation. But increase the force of the 
 temptation ; raise it from a paltry penny to ten thou- 
 sand guineas, and multiply the ten by ten, and add the 
 assurance that no human being can ever be cognizant 
 of the fraudulent deed, and if that amount will not 
 reach to his full moral stature, add to it according to 
 his integrity ; and thus a tremendous rival force may 
 be set up, with which the man may find it difficult or 
 impossible to contend. In the case of Christ, the devil 
 pursued this climacteric course, rising from the mere 
 satisfaction of hunger to the rule of all kingdoms. 
 Still the Messianic spirit towered far beyond the pre- 
 tentious offer. The deceiver could not attain the over- 
 shadowing height ; other men had been measurable 
 and conquerable, but this man was of gigantic stature, 
 and his shield was impenetrable. While, then, look- 
 ing strictly to the human side of Christ, it may be 
 affirmed that he was exposed to all the risks of tempta- 
 tion, it may be affirmed with equal truth, looking at 
 his spirit, that it was impossible that Christ could fall. 
 There is a great truth in each representation, and the 
 combination of the two can alone give us the reality 
 of the case. One fact will show that the temptation 
 of Christ was designed to be a source of strength to 
 every tempted man : all the temptations are such as 
 might have been addressed to a merely human being 
 — not one of them was adapted to a being believed to 
 be divine. With a Socinian creed, the devil adopted 
 a Socinian policy. He assailed the man ; he aimed no 
 w^eapon at the God. He regarded him, indeed, as a 
 man of great name and bold pretension, but a man 
 
THE INAUGURATION I THE DIABOLIC PHASE. 59 
 
 still. The first temptation has an air of benevolence 
 about it, — " Thou art hungry : make bread ! " The 
 second is marked by a spirit of inquiry as to the reality 
 of creeds, — " It is written : prove the truth of the 
 w^riting ! " The third is an appeal to the senses, — 
 " All these will I give thee ! " Through this course 
 we ourselves have been taken, and it would be a poor 
 consolation to know that there was no point of sym- 
 pathy between Christ and our souls. 
 
 In further elucidation of Christ's spirit, showing 
 that it represented not only innocence but holiness, not 
 a negative but an affirmative condition of soul, one re- 
 markable circumstance should be noted. Eve and 
 Christ returned precisely the same answer to Satanic 
 suggestion. Eve referred to the word of God, so did 
 Christ ; Eve answered, " God hath said," Christ an- 
 swered, " It is written ; " yet Eve fell, and Christ 
 stood. The strength, therefore, was not in the mere 
 answer as containing a piece of information. Life is 
 greater than intelligence ; sympathy is profounder than 
 obedience. The world's first woman was necessarily 
 inexperienced ; she had no historic footprints to go by ; 
 she knew her instructions, but they were set on no 
 background of guilt and sorrow. The world's second 
 Man was rich in history ; he had no formal instruc- 
 tions, but brought with him the spirit of all caution 
 and strength. The divine word is potential only as it 
 represents the full consent of man's mind, soul, heart, 
 and will. Eve gave her answer simply without doubt ; 
 Christ gave his with perfect faith. 
 
 The temptation was a movement towards humanity 
 on the part of Christ. Men had lost sight of him for 
 
6o ECCE DEUS. 
 
 something like thirty years, with one exception. He 
 was near them at his birth, with all the promise and 
 hopefulness of morning twilight; and again he ap- 
 proached society when he was twelve years old ; but 
 now that he is in the wilderness, he seems nearer to 
 human hearts than before. From the baptism he went 
 up, as it were, towards God as the " Beloved Son," 
 but from the temptation, he comes earthward as the 
 Son of man. The Jordan lies on the heavenly, the 
 wilderness on the earthly side of Christ. There is a 
 " river," but there is no wilderness in heaven. 
 
 The particular manner of the inauguration, so far 
 as its demonstrativeness is concerned, seems to have 
 been required by the protracted seclusion of Jesus 
 Christ. It is not a little perplexing that one whose 
 birth had been attended by such marked, such unpar- 
 alleled circumstances, could have been allowed by his 
 contemporaries to subside into obscurity for a consid- 
 erable succession of years. In some respects it seems 
 impossible. Judging by the passionate urgency which 
 marks every great movement of to-day, we should 
 think that Nazareth would have been watched day 
 and night; that all the learning and religion of the 
 land w^ould have adjourned thither, and impatiently 
 demanded a decision respecting the destiny of the 
 Child. Instead of this, the most marvellous birth of 
 the ages is allowed to fall into partial, if not into 
 total oblivion. The demonstration attending the birth 
 makes this subsidence the more remarkable. The song 
 of angels, the homage of wise men, the sensation in 
 Jerusalem, all increase the wonder. It is to be borne 
 in mind, however, that by many the sword of Herod 
 
THE inauguration: the diabolic phase. 6i 
 
 was supposed to have taken away the Child of the 
 Star and the Song. When that Child reappeared at 
 the age of twelve years, he did so without any of those 
 demonstrations which had accompanied the birth, 
 simply exciting attention by his unusual sagacity. It 
 v/as a long way, too, in those days from Bethlehem to 
 Nazareth ; and in that contemned Galilean town, the 
 ear of corn could di^ before reappearing in its multi- 
 plied form. Strange, tumultuous years they must have 
 been for the mother, though. Her heart must have 
 been darkly overshadowed by that mysterious Son of 
 hers, and must have sunk under the great burden of 
 its own reflections, had not " the power of the High- 
 est " been her continual defence and rest. 
 - This long seclusion seemed to require an inaugura- 
 tion corresponding, in some degree, with the annun- 
 ciation. Instead of the Star we see the Dove ; instead 
 of the Song, we hear the Voice from heaven ; and in- 
 stead of the flight into Egypt, we have the withdrawal 
 into the wilderness. At this point, we get another 
 glance at the unity of the double mystery of Christ. 
 He took the dispensations as he found them ; he un- 
 derwent circumcision, and gave to the Lord a pair of 
 turtle-doves and two young pigeons ; long years after- 
 wards, he found God's purpose set forth in a particular 
 baptism, and openly identified himself with it ; then 
 he was taken into the wilderness, to be tempted of the 
 devil. Why hesitate to say so plainly, and believe so 
 literally? A man who had not been tempted would 
 have been of no use to men. He would have been a 
 stranger to their mental history ; only able to talk at^ 
 but never to their spirit : all his words, refined and 
 
62 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 lustrous, would never have penetrated into the deep 
 rips and wounds of human nature. There is no need 
 to gloss the bare and startling announcement that 
 Christ was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to 
 be tempted of the devil. It is better to put the fact 
 thus boldly before men. The weary, aching heart 
 cannot feed on metaphors, or the cunning sleights of 
 rhetoric ; give it a Christ tempted, yet victorious, and 
 the fact that one man has overcome the devil will sus- 
 tain its own endeavors in the same daily conflict. 
 
 The scene in the v*^ilderness illustrates the risks of 
 solitude. The self-diabolizing spirit of man always 
 reveals itself to the lonely contemplatist, either in 
 moments of vacancy, or under the stress of spiritual 
 crises. Eve was tempted when she was alone ; the 
 suicide succumbs when he is pushed into the last de- 
 gree of loneliness ; the darkest clouds of the conspir- 
 ator becloud the mind when he has most deeply cut 
 the social bond : when man is alone, he loses the 
 check of comparison with others ; he miscalculates 
 his force, and deems too little of the antagonisms 
 wdiich that force may excite. All these are among 
 the risks of solitude. The solitary man either degen- 
 erates into a misanthrope, and the tool of the diabo- 
 lizing spirit, or he enriches and strengthens his life by 
 reverent and subduing contemplation. Wherever we 
 can descry the course of the diabolic spirit, we are left 
 in no doubt as to the value which he sets upon the in- 
 dividual heart. He teaches a new doctrine in num- 
 bers. We calculate majorities by units ; he teaches 
 that the unit itself may be the majority ; he counts by 
 7nuch^ not many^ his majorities being measured not by 
 
THE INAUGURATION : THE DIABOLIC PHASE. 63 
 
 numbers, but by force. The minority may be the 
 majority. Caesar is more than all Caesar's legions. 
 When Eve was overthrown, a world was conquered. 
 The persons whom the devil has elected to high 
 offices in his government, have been strongly individ- 
 ual in character and faculty ; from Eve to Judas, the 
 succession has been marked by the coolest subtlety or 
 the intensest passion. As the devil won a world when 
 he won Eve, he knew that he would have won it twice, 
 and forever kept it, if he had subdued her Son. 
 
 But the risks of solitude, it should be added, are in 
 proportion to its value. Man cannot reach his full 
 stature in the market-place, or in association with the 
 excited throng. The wilderness must form the coun- 
 terpart of the thoroughfare, — great breadths of con- 
 templation alternating w^ith great breadths of service. 
 This was Christ's example, illustrated most vividly at 
 one exciting point in his history: the disciples of 
 John went and told Jesus that their master had been 
 murdered by Herod ; the intelligence seems to have 
 shocked his spirit with a terrible disappointment ; sick- 
 ened and saddened by this tale of blood, " he departed 
 thence by ship into a desert place apart," as if to 
 avenge the murder upon the diabolic instigator, or to 
 weep great drops of blood ; yet we are told in the 
 very next verse, that "Jesus went forth and saw a 
 great multitude, and was moved with compassion to- 
 wards them, and healed their sick." These were the 
 hemispheres of his life, — secrecy and publicity ; pray- 
 ing in the desert, and healing in the city ; weeping 
 alone, and working in the presence of many witnesses. 
 The desert was to Christ a holy place, after the initial 
 
64 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 battle ; the sight of the old footmarks inspired his de- 
 pressed heart ; the echoes of the victorious quotations 
 became as voices of promise. In the first instance, he 
 was l^d up of the Spirit to be tempted ; often after- 
 w^ards he w^as led up of the Spirit into the same 
 wilderness to be comforted. So all through human 
 life : recollection becomes inspiration, and Memory 
 speaks to the soul like a prophet of the Lord. 
 
 The answers which Christ returned to the tempter 
 illustrate the intensely spiritual nature of the tempta- 
 tion, and show how man is dependent upon an ob- 
 jective revelation in seasons of trial. Not one answer 
 was returned from within ; the soul looked out of it- 
 self for defence, yet gave the answers with the firm 
 emphasis of perfect trust, as if their doctrine carried 
 the entire conviction of the speaker. Man cannot do 
 things simply because they are " written." The action 
 comes from the harmony which is established between 
 what is felt, and what is '' written ; " consciousness 
 and revelation must be at one, and then the citation of 
 written authority is not a sign of personal weakness, 
 but a token of vital fellowship with God. If merely 
 to say " it is written " were enough, then no man would 
 fall ; the point of failure is where the written Word 
 and the life of the soul are not entirely at one. Men 
 are not kept by revelation, but by the acceptance of 
 the heart of that which is revealed. Yet objective 
 revelation is of the highest consequence in human life. 
 It stays the soul in special conflicts, and as men may 
 feel stronger and safer in company than in loneline'^'^, 
 so the heart feels braver by the very presence of a 
 written Word. A subjective revelation might have 
 
THE INAUGURATION : THE DIABOLIC PHASE. 65 
 
 been the only revelation given, and might have been 
 enough under primary conditions ; but by so much as 
 man fell from those conditions, he required a book as 
 well as a conscience. Nor does Christ's example 
 militate against this position, for throughout he com- 
 bated the diabolic spirit as a man; now^here did he 
 launch the lightnings of his proper divinity in reply, 
 but ever made the simple answ^er of a man who had 
 read the revelation of God. Other courses were open 
 to Christ. He could have recalled the tempter's own 
 memories of heaven, the ancient sentence, the terrible 
 deposition ; the indwelling God might have shone 
 through the human eyes, and abashed the Tempter by 
 the light from which he had been expelled ; yet all 
 this side of defence is untouched, and the tempted man 
 shelters himself behind the rampart of the written 
 Word. Every assault is encountered upon the human 
 side : to have met the Tempter otherwise, would have 
 been to deflect from the only course possible to man, 
 and to have divested the wilderness period of the 
 Incarnation of all the features which endear it to 
 probationary manhood. 
 
66 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MIGHTY WORKS. 
 
 THE baptized and tempted Son was now pre- 
 pared for his mission. There is a very striking 
 and suggestive consistency between the preparation 
 and the work. So much power had been held in 
 restraint for so long a time, that it was not to be won- 
 dered at that on its liberation " mighty deeds should 
 show forth themselves in him." One of his biogra- 
 phers, as if overpowered by the number and splendor 
 of his miracles, instead of introducing detailed state- 
 ments of supernatural cures, groups in one impressive 
 mass the beneficent works of many days ; and the 
 grouping is the more remarkable as coming at the 
 very beginning rather than at the end of the narrative. 
 If the miraculous mission had been opened leisurely, 
 with a cure here, and a storm quieted there, the nar- 
 rator would probably have given detailed accounts on 
 his first pages, and as the miracles increased, he would 
 have summarized towards the conclusion. Instead of 
 this leisurely introduction of the miraculous element, 
 we are startled very early with this announcement : 
 " They brought unto him all sick people that were 
 taken with divers diseases and torments, and those 
 which were possessed with devils, and those which 
 were lunatic, and those that had the palsy ; and he 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 67 
 
 healed them." All was as easy as bringing ice into 
 the presence of the summer sun, that it might be 
 melted. The unity of the mystery is again evident. 
 Even in this marvellous statement there is nothing out 
 of harmony with what has preceded. Is there any- 
 thing to be wondered at, with sceptical wonder, that 
 the Man who conquered the devil in the wilderness, 
 should conquer the devil's works in human nature? 
 The greater involves the less. All true conquest must 
 be fundamental, and to be fundamental it must be 
 moral. To the man who has conquered himself, all 
 other conquests must be easy. Only a man's bad 
 elements stand between him and the greatest achieve- 
 ments. If the prince of this world finds nothing in a 
 man, that man is free of the checks and impediments 
 which limit abnormal human nature. 
 
 Miracles can be difficult of credence only according 
 to the low spiritual altitude from which they are 
 viewed. As wonder is a sign of ignorance, so unbe- 
 lief is a sign of incompleteness. The unlettered man 
 is amazed at language which to the learned man is 
 perfectly simple, just because the learned man has 
 conquered himself *by bringing his powers under ade- 
 quate discipline, whereas the untaught man is ruled 
 by his own ignorance. The novice, in anything, is 
 necessarily impressed with the difficulty of a great- 
 work, whereas the adept has overcome all the dis- 
 turbing sensations which inevitably accompany in- 
 experience. The novice invariably first sees the 
 difficvilty ; he is conscious of a disparity between the 
 forces at his command, and the result to be attained, 
 and soon augments difficulty into impossibility. The 
 
6S ECCE DEUS. 
 
 man of diminutive faith, a man in whom the self- 
 element is uppermost, is astounded at the miracles of 
 Jesus Christ ; while the man of large faith, in whom 
 the self-element is stibordinated, accepts them with 
 composure. Christ himself taught the doctrine both 
 negatively and positively, and with incessant urgency, 
 that faith was the nexus binding the natural to the 
 supernatural. In proportion as any man has faith, is 
 he led away from himself; and this brings vis to the 
 point just stated, that self-conquest makes all other 
 conquests easy. Christ said that faith even so small 
 as a grain of mustard-seed was more than a match foi 
 mountains. Why not? Power is mental rather than 
 physical. It would be a poor thing to be a man, if 
 he could not make himself master of the dust on which 
 he lives. But the highest mastery is moral, and if 
 the moral element is wrong, his dominion is of course 
 abridged or upset. Wickedness is weakness. As the 
 intellectual man inhabits a wider region than the man 
 who is ignorant, so the good man has a power com- 
 pared with which the bad man's rulership is a pitiful 
 travesty of influence. The bad man has the power of 
 destruction, the good man of restoration. Any beast 
 can do mischief. But more on this point presently. 
 
 There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent 
 miracles being wrought to-day as well as they were 
 ever wrought. The Yogis among the Hindus believed 
 that they could acquire perfect mastery over elemen- 
 tary matter. They sought to effect a vital union be- 
 tween the spirit that was in the body, and the spirit 
 that was in nature, and having effected that mystic 
 union, the Yogi was master of the situation, traversing 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 69 
 
 space, raising the dead, rendering himself invisible, 
 and going up to Siva, the spirit and essence of all 
 creation. There is a good deal more in this philo- 
 sophic dreaming than our modern notions may be 
 prepared to allow. It was not the mere power of 
 the hand which the Yogi sought, but the wider and 
 grander empire of the spirit. What the Yogi sought 
 to effect was a union between spirit 'and spirit ; and 
 this was precisely vyhat Christ sought to effect when 
 he demanded faith as the condition of miraculous heal- 
 ing. Where this union was complete, the working of 
 miracles was as natural and easy as breathing. They 
 were miracles only to the observers, not to the workers, 
 for the workers stood on a moral elevation high above 
 them, and saw their exact relation to God and man. 
 It is not extraordinary that the faith v/hich is not 
 strong enough to work miracles should not be strong 
 enough to believe that miracles can be wrought, though 
 it may be narrow enough to brand him as a fanatic 
 who affirms their possibility. Man cannot advance to 
 the miracle except through the faith. There can be 
 no doubt that the faith of the world has gone down ; 
 and in part this may be accounted for by the intellectual 
 transition through w^hich we are being driven by re- 
 vived and ambitious science. We have come upon an 
 era which has hardly time to pause and add results ; in- 
 formation is arriving so quickly, the messengers throng 
 upon each other so tumultuously, that most of men 
 have taken upon themselves the duties of recorders ; 
 and if sometimes they are a little heedless of the punc- 
 tuation, and by mistaking a comma for a full stop they 
 do now and again speak too soon, the impatience or 
 
70 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the precipitancy is not difficult of explanation. In 
 fact, it is a hint that men are longing for the end. The 
 great, suffering, human world feels that its day must 
 be approaching sunset. It has been a long, troubled, 
 changeful day, and men are now sighing for release 
 and rest. The shaking and damaging of faith is a 
 hint of a crisis, and the old words, sad as a sigh from 
 the heart, come up v/ith great force — " When the Son 
 of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?" 
 There is a touching plaintiveness in the inquiry ; he 
 seems to have anticipated but a poor reception for 
 himself. Perhaps, however, as in the daj^s of his flesh, 
 the unfaith of those who ought to have been nearest 
 will be counterbalanced by the trust of men now sup- 
 posed to be afar off. 
 
 It is a mistake to imagine that faith has anything to 
 fear from science. Wherever science stops, faith must 
 begin. Science has in many things altered the stand- 
 point, or extended the domain of faith, but has never 
 rendered faith unnecessary. It has enlarged the faith 
 of childhood into the faith of manhood, but every hint 
 of light which it has discovered has pointed out a 
 great gloom beyond. It was intended that Credo 
 should be succeeded by Scio ; yet knowledge is val- 
 uable, not only for what is in itself, but as showing 
 how much there yet remains to be known, and by so 
 much as it does this it actually increases the sphere of 
 faith. 
 
 One of the most persuasive features of the Christian 
 miracles is that they were associated with a true human 
 compassion on the part of Jesus Christ. They were 
 not displays of mere power. They made a heavy 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 7I 
 
 drain upon his sympathy and love. When he saw 
 blind, deaf, insane, tormented men, he had compas- 
 sion on them. His emotional nature was profoundly 
 stirred. Christ's was not dry power — huge, unsym- 
 pathetic strength. As in all great characters there 
 was much womanliness in Christ. The tear was never 
 far to fetch. With one human parent only, it seems 
 as if the full force of his mother's tender nature was 
 reproduced in him. When Omnipotence weeps, we 
 should consider the meaning which lies behind the 
 tears. It has been pointed out that the Olympian gods 
 contrived to keep themselves free from the pains and 
 cares of the mortals whom they ruled. For them it 
 was enough to govern — it was too much to suffer. 
 In bitter accents did Achilles reproach the gods, as 
 he attempted to comfort the hoary Priam. , 
 
 wg ydiQ inexXwaaPTO OeoI dedoTao ^QOTolfjv 
 t,(i)6ip dc^^fufiivoig' aviol ds t' axijdisg sialv. 
 
 But Christ's life was not "griefless;" his word of 
 power was spoken with a tenderness which the world 
 will remember forever. It is not difficult to see the 
 consonance of the mystery here. The man who came 
 to be a Saviour, and to found a monarchy upon himself, 
 should be possessed of the finest and most accessible 
 sensibilities, for monarchs can be monarchs only so 
 long as they hold the hearts of men. Monarchy, in 
 its highest application, is really a double-sided term, 
 meaning not only rulership, but rulership by consent. 
 Men cannot be permanently held by mere power ; they 
 will fear it, admire it, and then throw it off. Every- 
 thing tires but love. Prophecies fail, tongues cease, 
 
72 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 love alone is immortal. The monarchy of Christ was 
 founded upon the heart, upon love, and therefore with 
 a consistency which is too profound to be accidental 
 he had compassion upon all who trustfully invoked his 
 power. He wanted the healed man afterwards. The 
 client was to become the ally. Gratitude was to be- 
 come loyalty, and on this deep base the world-wide 
 kingdom was to be established. 
 
 Another feature of the mighty works, coincident 
 with the compassion which they expressed, is their 
 unselfisJiness, The worker is everywhere not power- 
 ful only, but good. Once indeed he gave an intima- 
 tion, incidentally, of what would happen if he were 
 to let loose his power in all its terribleness ; the damn- 
 ing word fell upon a fruitless tree, and to the very 
 roots it withered away. What if the same annihi- 
 lating word had fallen upon useless men? It was well 
 no doubt to leave one such memorial of mere power, 
 that society might see how short a distance lay between 
 life and death. It has been pointed out by a recent 
 writer, as a curious circumstance, that men should 
 hazard so much open, contemptuous, and even violent 
 opposition to a man who carried such resources of 
 power. They did not stand in awe of him, but con- 
 tradicted him to his face, and took up stones to stone 
 him. This does seem contradictory to the general 
 expectation which such circumstances naturally excite. 
 Looked at from this distance of time, and under the 
 conditions of our ordinary life, it is impossible to be- 
 lieve that men should be so insane as to take up stones 
 against a man who had just shown that he could open 
 the eyes of .the blind, cleanse the virus from the blood 
 
TPIE MIGHTY WORKS. 
 
 of the leper, and reanimate the dead, 
 heard of his doing so, but had actually, seen hiri 
 they believed their own senses they could have n? 
 doubt about the fact of Christ's unexampled power, 
 yet they took up stones to stone him ; it was worse 
 than attempting to stone the lightning, — madder than 
 throwing dust in the face of a storm ! Yet they did it. 
 The explanation of this circumstance lies deeper, 
 probably, than has been recently suggested. In one 
 view of the case, the action of taking up stones to 
 stone such a man was on the part of the Jews not only 
 natural, but, considering their traditions and circum- 
 stances, rather admirable than othei*wise. They were 
 Old Testament men, and all Old Testament men be- 
 lieved in stones. They would in a moment answer an 
 idea with a stone, and cleave down erratic thinkers 
 with the edge of the sword. But the action of the 
 Jews was admirable rather than othei*wise, on the 
 ground that they showed how religious conviction lay 
 deeper than all fear of mere power. The Jews were 
 religious men ; they had sacred historic documents to 
 refer to, with many traditional legends ; the man be- 
 fore them laid claims to dignities which they could not 
 harmonize with interpretations of the oracles ; and 
 though he seemed to be able to do as he willed with 
 the universe, yet in the very face of his stupendous 
 and never-baffled power they took up stones to stone 
 him. Their action was really a grand tribute to the 
 force of religion in the heart of men. Their theism 
 was arrayed against this Christism, and with little of 
 physical power they opposed a man whom they be- 
 lieved to be a blasphemous and mendacious talker. 
 4 
 
74 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 This probably goes nearer to the reality of the case 
 than some recent theories, though they too are not 
 without value. It is quite true that Christ had always 
 used his power beneficently ; " not to destroy men's 
 lives, but to save them," was written on all he did; 
 the fear which his works were calculated to excite was 
 not alarm, but religious awe ; his power was construc- 
 tive, not destructive. This view was much strength- 
 ened by Christ's own method of meeting those who 
 took up stones to stone him, for in his turn he showed 
 the power of deep religious conviction on human life. 
 He did not lay them at his feet as dead men, nor did 
 he even send upon them temporary blindness, or any 
 kind of physical distress. What he could have done ! 
 When they stooped to take up stones he might have 
 fastened them in their stooping attitude, and left them 
 as warnings to the whole progeny of scoffers. Instead 
 of this he reasons with them, cites the good works he 
 has done, and asks them to point out the particular one 
 for which they stone him. He calls them to calm 
 consideration. He shows no fear of the stoning, does 
 not even care to condemn it — probably he was touched 
 by their zeal for God ; that was something to begin 
 with and to work upon, and he could not witness it 
 without feeling more and more the depth of human 
 nature and the importance of its restoration. They 
 believed in one side of his own nature, had they but 
 known it! "Ye believe in God, believe also in me," 
 — only an "also" between God and Christ! The 
 boldness of his scheme, too, considered in a purely 
 human view, is the more apparent by his first appear- 
 ing among a people who knew and revered the true 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 75 
 
 God. He did not try to impose upon an idolatrous or 
 ignorant people, but began under the very light of the 
 Shekinah, among the people whose prophets had 
 heard the voice of the Eternal. He operated upon 
 the oldest and ripest theism of the world. This was 
 dangerous work for a fanatic. He must be not an 
 impostor, but a madman, who challenges heaven and 
 earth in the interest of a lie. Having to encounter a 
 theism so advanced, because so true and simple, Christ 
 could well understand how the Jews would be indig- 
 nant at any dishonor put upon God ; and this indigna- 
 tion, which at first sight was a great hinderance, was 
 the natural expression of a fact which would one day 
 be turned to the best account. They seemed to feel 
 themselves safe from his power while they rested upon 
 the God of their fathers, and so made a claim upon the 
 practical resources of the pre-Christian theology which 
 would not shrink from comparison with the boldest 
 confidence which men can repose in Christ's own 
 promises. Fearing God, they were lifted above all 
 other fear. The ancient songs of trust were repeating 
 themselves in their souls — " God is our refuge and 
 strength ; " " The Lord is my light and my salvation : 
 whom shall I fear?" On the other hand, Christ also 
 showed the power of the divine element in man. He 
 was alone, or if not literally alone, his companionships 
 were such as to constitute a bitter satire upon his claims 
 to be considered Messiah, Redeemer, King. His com- 
 panions made him look ridiculous in the eyes of the 
 ruling classes. Yet with so little visible background, 
 he talked and worked with the consciousness of a man 
 who could not be put down, and could not even be 
 
76 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 stoned. As he could not Christianize men by mira- 
 cles, so he could not be deposed from the Messiahship 
 by stones. On both sides, mere power was shown to 
 be useless as a moral agent. The battle must be fought 
 wi*ii different weapons. Spiritual results must be at- 
 tained by spiritual processes. Still the mighty works, 
 bearing, as they did, a constructive aspect, were auxil- 
 iary to the main end. They certainly called attention 
 to the worker, and as certainly they made a powerful 
 appeal to the persons who were benefited by them. 
 One of those persons, for example, made a trenchant 
 and powerful defence of Christ before the Pharisees. 
 Like a common-sense man, he took his stand upon the 
 simple facts of the case ; despising all the cajolery of 
 the baffled and incredulous critics, he said, with the 
 charming and unanswerable frankness of an honest 
 and thankful man, " Whether he be a sinner or no, I 
 know not; one thing I know, that whereas I w^as 
 blind, now I see." Christ had thus, by his miraculous 
 power, made a marked advance upon the man's nature, 
 — he had established ''one thing" in his convictions, 
 and thus prepared the way for further conquest. Ac- 
 cordingly we find this to be the case, for the man after- 
 wards ''worshipped him." The mighty Worker was 
 admitted through the body to the soul. We have only 
 to take this instance as a specimen, and to multiply it 
 by the number of the mighty works, to obtain a com- 
 parative view of the value of constructive miracles in 
 the propagation of Christian faith. Not only upon the 
 clients themselves, but upon thoughtful observers, the 
 miracles produced very helpful impressions, as may be 
 seen from the confession of a ruler of the Jews, who 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 77 
 
 candidly said, " Rabbi, 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 the conclusion of a reasoner, who did not 
 examine effects in the light of religious prejudices, 
 but who considered them in relation to adequate 
 causes. He had seen displays of human power, and 
 he knew the general range of human ability, but these 
 particular miracles of the despised Rabbi went far 
 beyond all that he had seen, far beyond all he had 
 imagined, and compelled the conclusion, willing or 
 not willing, that this man was at least a co-worker with 
 God, carrying keys of power, such as he had never 
 seen on the girdle of the strongest man. 
 
 Then, too, as already hinted, the miracles bore a 
 special relation to the devil himself. The miracles 
 were polygonal ; one side looked towards suffering men, 
 another towards observers, a third towards doubters, 
 a fourth towards the devil, and so on. Christ's struggle 
 with the tempter was only begun in the wilderness ; it 
 was continued to the very end of his earthly course. 
 No devil, would have meant no Christ. Peter put the 
 case concisely and strikingly, when he talked to Cor- 
 nelius : speaking of Jesus Christ, he said, "He went 
 about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed 
 of the devil." The works of the enemy were on every 
 hand ; they must be thrown into contrast by the works 
 of the Son. They must be distinctly charged upon 
 the enem}^, and the responsibility must be publicly and 
 immovably fixed upon him. No doubt must be left 
 on men's minds as to the source of all evil and suffer- 
 ing. The tv^o workers were thus brought, as it were, 
 
78 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 face to face before society, and each was openly iden- 
 tified with a particular course. On the one hand there 
 was destruction, on the other restoration. Men thus 
 had an opportunity of seeing that Christ's opposition 
 to the devil was the controversial aspect of his love for 
 man ; an opportunity which owed much to the mirac- 
 ulous works which immediately appealed to the physi- 
 cal senses and the common instinct of the observers. 
 The opportunity would not have been marked by the 
 same commanding breadth, if Christ had confined him- 
 self entirely to teaching ; the cure of the body being 
 more easily appreciable as an introductory step, than a 
 direct attempt at the illumination of the mind. Every 
 miracle was a challenge to a comparison of powers. 
 Every healed man was Christ's living protest against 
 death. The mere fact of the miracle was but a sylla- 
 ble in Christ's magnificent doctrine of life, Christ's 
 mission may be summed up in the word Life ; the 
 devil's, in the word Death ; so that every recovered 
 limb, every opened eye, every purified leper, was a 
 confirmation of his statement, " I have come, that they 
 might have life." 
 
 The limitation of miraculous power was twofold. 
 There was, first, the limitation which came from the 
 unreceptive condition of the people ; and there was 
 the limitation necessitated by the difference between 
 the outward and the inward, the material and the 
 moral. At one place Christ could not do many 
 mighty works because of the unbelief of the people ; 
 the utmost he could do was to lay his hands upon a 
 few sick folks and heal them. The electric current 
 was incomplete. The inhabitants were self-involved ; 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. *jg 
 
 no tendril of the heart was putting itself forth in 
 search of protection ; all the fibres were knotted in 
 impenetrable selfishness : Christ himself had no power 
 there. He must have faith as a starting-point, other- 
 wise no miracles in harmony with his moral purpose 
 could be wrought. Miracles of mere power he could 
 have performed anywhere, but such miracles were not 
 included in his plan of life. His omnipotence was thej 
 agent of his mercy, and consequently it was the prov-. 
 ince of mercy to determine where the services of om-f 
 nipotence should be offered, and where mercy was 
 rejected omnipotence was held in abeyance. On onq 
 occasion, indeed, Christ's power operated in a direc- 
 tion that was merely destructive. A legion of devils 
 besought him to let them enter into a herd of swine 
 (a terrible illustration of the intolerableness of life in 
 hell), and on obtaining permission the whole herd, to» 
 the number of two thousand, ran into the sea and was. 
 destroyed. Much has been said against the peoplq 
 who besought Christ to leave their coasts on finding i 
 their swine destroyed ; they have been charged with 
 sordidness, selfishness, and low ideas of the value of 
 human amelioration : though we may steal a cheap 
 reputation for magnanimity at the expense of those 
 unfortunate people, yet they were right after all ii^ 
 desiring such a man as they took Christ to be to 
 depart from their midst. Their request was the^ 
 expression of a great principle in the human constitu- 
 tion, implanted there by the Creator. Men cannot be 
 benefited by mere power, but they are necessaril}^ 
 reduced to a meaner manhood by the presence of ^ 
 power that is destructive. The history of despotism 
 
8o ECCE DEUS. 
 
 proves this. To have In the city or nation a powder 
 that is incontroUably destructive is to live in perpetual 
 fear, and fear can never train a noble and generous 
 manhood. People never beg thunder and lightning 
 to continue amongst them, but they often w^ish that 
 summer vs^ould never go away. The Jews, therefore, 
 who lost their swine, showed what would have been 
 the result if Christ had given full scope to his power 
 of destruction ; men would have been overshadowed 
 by a great apprehension, and in the darkness of such 
 a horror would have dwindled into a pitiable dwarf- 
 ishness. Besides, as said before, there is nothing so 
 common and so vulgar as destructive power. The 
 meanest insect can destroy the loveliest flower : the 
 coarsest lips can utter defamatory and injurious words. 
 All destructiveness, individual, social, national, lies in 
 the same direction, and the beginning and end of that 
 direction is the devil. The constructiveness of the 
 Christian miracles is a most emphatic confirmation of 
 Christ's claim to be the Saviour of the world. They 
 are consonant with the natal song — "good will to 
 men ; " — they are opposed to the unchanging diabolic 
 policy under which the world has endured so much, 
 and they prepare men to accept the promise of a 
 higher salvation than that of the body. 
 
 We have said that there is nothing in the nature 
 of things to prevent miracles being wrought to-day. 
 This is true abstractly, yet miracles are practically 
 superseded by the dominion of the Spirit. The work- 
 ing of miracles in a purely spiritual dispensation 
 would be an anachronism. Miracles were quite in 
 accordance with the personal superintendence of the 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 8l; 
 
 visible Christ, but now that Christ is no more known 
 after the flesh the whole system of objective demon- 
 stration has gone up with him. What, then, is in 
 harmony w^ith the rulership of the Spirit? Not mira- 
 cles, certainly, but science probably. Intellect is now 
 summoned to a new and critical position. Creation 
 has apparently exhausted its period of reticence, and 
 seems now, using figurative language, to be prepared 
 for a frank communication of its secrets ; — or better, 
 man has been educated so far by Christian agencies 
 as now to be master of the right method of holding 
 intercourse with the laws which have been the prob- 
 lem and even the dread of many ages. Humanity 
 has been carried forward by the mystery which began 
 in Christ — forward from the material to the spiritual, 
 from the miraculous to the moral. Thus reason, 
 which has been so long reviled, is no longer neces- 
 sarily the corrupt and misleading agent that it was, 
 but an honorable, because divinely-appointed guide. 
 This is the inevitable result of a spiritual dispensation. 
 The visible Christ made appeals to the natural senses ; 
 the Spirit does the inward and vital work of convic- 
 tion. The Holy Spirit, as becomes his nature, stands 
 in the line of the intellectual faculties, elevating them, 
 purifying and strengthening them, and giving them 
 new power of investigation and appliance. Distinc- 
 tively, then, this is the dispensation of the Spirit, the 
 age of mind, the era of reason. It does not follow, 
 though, that Reason has completed her education ; 
 and by so much as Reason is incomplete it must be 
 carefully distinguished from Understanding. The 
 danger which some persons apprehend from what is 
 4* 
 
82 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 termed Rationalism arises from a confusion of terms. 
 Reason is an instrument, Understanding is a result. 
 In proportion as reason is educated, a prudent hesita- 
 tion marks all its processes. Philosophy is more 
 tolerant than ignorance. He who knows most of the 
 strength of the human mind, knows most of its weak- 
 ness. Truth has nothing to fear from rationalism, 
 but from irrationalism. The era of reason is prelim- 
 inary to the age of understanding. The greatest 
 reasoner in the apostolic church always kept this in 
 view: he said, "I know in part;" "I see through a 
 glass darkly ; '' afterwards, under the inspiration of a 
 splendid hope, he added, "but then shall I know,^' 
 The world never could have been reared by under- 
 standing, only by promise ; this is in keeping with the 
 whole constitution of things. The child of the phi- 
 losopher is not permitted to begin where his father 
 ended, but is driven back to start with the child of the 
 unlettered peasant, as if his father had not made one 
 attainment in learning. In this way society in all its 
 breadth is carried through the same experiences, and 
 educated to a common sympathy. Promise, then, not 
 knowledge, has been the great stimulant of human 
 education ; and as for understanding, that lies far 
 beyond this initial sphere. Early in the world's his- 
 tory it was shown that knowledge was out of place, 
 except under such conditions as required the presence 
 of hope to inspire and impel mankind. The knowing 
 man, consequently, was sent out of the sphere which 
 he had desecrated, and a flaming sword was made 
 to show that knowledge might be bought too dearly. 
 The Holy Spirit presides over the intellectual devel- 
 
THE MIGHTY WORKS. 83 
 
 opment of man, leading him, as Christ promised, into 
 all truth — the truth of the body, the truth of nature, 
 as well as the truth of religion specially so called. 
 The miraculous is now set back in distant history as 
 one phase of divine revelation, which may yet teach 
 us much of power combined with mercy ; but the 
 spiritual sheds its penetrating lustre over the future, 
 charming men into deeper investigation than was 
 possible to the ages which have been trained by 
 symbol, and enigma, and miracle. What function 
 Christ assigned to the Holy Spirit will, however, be 
 considered more in detail in another chapter. 
 
84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CALLING OF MEN. 
 
 HITHERTO the Beloved Son has been alone. In 
 his Baptism and Temptation no man stood with 
 him ; but shortly after, he began to move more con- 
 spicuously in society, and to clear for himself a space 
 in the world. Christ's call upon men to join him is, 
 perhaps, more astonishing than many of the miracles 
 which he wrought. First words are generally key- 
 words. They commit the speaker to a policy, and 
 when spoken to minds which have been excited by 
 great expectations are probably never forgotten. Look- 
 ing at Christ's moral work in the light of his miracles, 
 one cannot but wonder why such a man did not pros- 
 ecute his work single-handed. What need had he 
 for fellowship? how could men be associated with 
 him without feeling most oppressively the impassable 
 chasm which lay between him and themselves? 
 
 Christ used the imperative mood freely at the be- 
 ginning of his ministry ; " Repent," " Follow," were 
 among his earliest public words. In the wilderness 
 he had gradually risen to an imperative tone — from 
 a great principle which underlay all life to a written 
 revelation, and then to a moral indignation which could 
 not tolerate the presence of the enemy — "Get thee 
 hence, Satan." This seems to have been the process 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 85 
 
 through which he passed to the highest courage : it 
 was not at first that he commanded Satan to begone, 
 it was not until attack had followed attack that the 
 tone of personal supremacy penetrated the heart of 
 the tempter. On leaving the wilderness he brings 
 with him this noble courage, and opens his ministry 
 by calling upon men to repent and to follow him. 
 Had he left the wilderness other than as a conqueror, 
 his tone would at least have been hesitant ; but having 
 dealt the first shattering blow upon the diabolic head, 
 he follows it up by publicly drawing a line of separa- 
 tion between one class of men and another. The 
 subtle consistency between the tone of the victor and 
 the tone of the evangelist should not be lost sight of in 
 estimating the value of the Christian argument. The 
 quality of the voice is the same in both cases ; the 
 same firm emphasis ; the same direct appeal. The 
 postponement of the call, too, until the close of the 
 temptation, is a fact of supreme importance. What 
 confidence could an untried man have in himself? 
 The man who has no faith in himself is weak ; the 
 man who has a false faith in himself is deceptive ; the 
 man whose faith is founded upon the fact of a great 
 conquest is strong and honest in proportion to that 
 faith. The devil had never been ordered out of the 
 way so peremptorily before, and the utterance of such 
 an order, straining as it must have done all the forces 
 of the soul, was succeeded by a period of great pros- 
 tration. Angels came and ministered strength, and 
 then followed just what has followed •in all human 
 experience — a consciousness of tried power, a calm 
 but fervent determination to put the hard-gained in- 
 
86 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 * 
 
 fluence to further uses. He who had successfully 
 ordered off the devil must now do other work. The 
 great battle must be succeeded by a great construction. 
 Christ, claiming to be King and Ruler of men, began 
 his society with two obscure laborers. The narrative 
 gives no warrant for concluding that the men had 
 heard any private and special exposition of his views, 
 doctrines, or plans. In common with all Jews, they 
 might have had expectations and desires in reference 
 to a king, but there is no authority for saying that they 
 had had any preliminary intercourse with Jesus Christ. 
 The call met a deep craving of the heart, and at 
 once they joined Christ the Man, without knowing 
 anything of Christ the Doctrine. The heart wanted a 
 heart : life demanded life. The world had lived long 
 enough upon written promises ; the cold parchment 
 was becoming colder day by day. There was an 
 aching at the heart of society — a great trouble — an 
 exciting wonder. The call had a peculiar charm 
 about it in so far as it demanded attachment to a 
 visible person. Not a Creed but a Life bade them 
 " follow." The men who were called were not Hkely 
 to know much about doctrine. Who could at the 
 beginning? Life can be reared only by life. It is so 
 in the family, and must be so in the church. The last 
 thing that earnest inquirers care about is a written, 
 formal, dogmatic creed. Such a creed, in fact, is 
 simply a sign that there has been overbearing dicta- 
 tion on one hand, or hypocrisy on another. A written 
 creed is in the nature of things only an inconvenient 
 convenience. The heart can never write all that it 
 believes. What wonder then if, when a living and 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. S*/ 
 
 glowing love comes to read the tabulated doctrines of 
 the church, it should complain, hesitate, or rebel? It 
 has often been asserted that Christ did not set down in 
 sequential order what is known in these modern days 
 as a system of divinity. The assertion is not only 
 true as a matter of fact, but true as an evidence of his 
 Godhead. The divine, the immeasurable, the eternal, 
 cannot be formulated. Life cannot be systematized. 
 Architecture may, so may astronomy, botany, and all 
 other arts and sciences. But life is not a science : the 
 soul is not an art. Immediately that the scientific line 
 is crossed, the power of systematizing, if not lost, is so 
 crippled and deranged as to be but a poor accommoda- 
 tion. Language itself, as partaking of the nature of a 
 system, is often felt to be an inconvenience, useful for 
 expressing what is uppermost, but nearly powerless in 
 the articulation of what is deepest in the soul. Wisely, 
 therefore, Christ wrote nothing, for written language is 
 more difficult of interpretation than spoken language. 
 The eye, the tone, the smile, help words that are 
 spoken ; which is but another way of saying that life 
 is the only true interpreter. The moment that the 
 grammar and the lexicon are called in, strife begins, 
 and logomachy deposes wisdom. A tone would do 
 more than all syntax to give the meaning of some doc- 
 trines. The spoken word is life ; the written word is 
 statuary. To have come, therefore, with a written 
 creed in quest of signatures would have been a vain 
 errand. The world has differed more over the in- 
 terpretation of its own writing than over anything 
 else — so much so that the interpretation of writing 
 has become a profession, in which the directest con- 
 
88 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 tradictions are constantly maintained at the cost of 
 vindictive or credulous clients. Parliamentary debates 
 may be ambiguous, but Parliamentary Acts are in- 
 comprehensible. 
 
 Probably the greatest stumbling-block to the exten- 
 sion of Christ's influence is scholastic or formulated 
 theology. The world is now waiting for a voice cry- 
 ing in the wilderness that men are to be saved not by 
 theology but by Christ. The Church must go back 
 to Christ's own living and mighty way of talking to 
 craving and aching hearts. Men must behold the 
 Lamb, not the controversies which have raged about 
 him. Throughout his ministry the exaltation of him- 
 self was the most conspicuous feature: " follow me," 
 — " come unto me," — " he that believeth on me," — 
 '' he that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
 worthy of me," — this is the personal strain from be- 
 ginning to end, and it is the only strain adapted to the 
 capture and redemption of the world. It is often 
 possible to understand a man when it is difficult to 
 imderstand his creed. The author may be less a prob- 
 lem than his book. Christ calls men to himself with- 
 out first setting forth a list of points to be accepted ; 
 men go to the doctrine through the man, not to the 
 man through the doctrine. We dare not ask Christ 
 what he believes, or what we ourselves may have to 
 believe at some future time ; we have to believe in the 
 Revealer, and then we shall have no difficulty about 
 the revelation. In the first instance we go to the Man 
 Christ Jesus, and sit at his feet, waiting, wondering, 
 and loving much. We are touched by his love, sub- 
 dued by his tenderness, before we are enriched with 
 his doctrine. 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 89 
 
 The call of the Church often differs from the call 
 of Christ in being a call to theology. In some places 
 in modern Christendom it will be found that the 
 Lord's table is surrounded by theologians, persons who 
 have passed successfully through more or less of a 
 theological examination ; and that many feel them- 
 selves excluded from the memorial service because 
 though they love Christ and could die for him, yet 
 they cannot pronounce the doctrinal shibboleth. What 
 does a newly-quickened heart, coming up out of the 
 waters of penitence, and just about to move into the 
 wilderness of temptation, know about the Trinity in 
 Unity, the federal headship of Adam, the philosophy 
 of sacrifice, or the metaphysics of theology ? Probably 
 nothing. Yet such ignorance is not incompatible with 
 young life. Does the infant know the mystery of love i 
 when it is clasped in the parental breast? Do parentsr 
 insist that their children shall study agriculture before 
 they eat of the fruits of the earth ? When a man de- 
 clares that he loves Jesus Christ, he has a right to eat 
 of the bread and drink of the cup which the Lord 
 appointed. Love first, knowledge afterwards : with 
 love to begin with, all else will come quietly, " with- 
 out observation," yet with unspeakable joy. The heart 
 will build up a belief as it wants it, and wear it grace- 
 fully because it is its own. Sling or mail, no matter, 
 provided the man be a warrior cool and resolute. The 
 faith which Christ seeks is probably not to be found 
 in any one sect ; part of it is in all, and when it is 
 collated and arranged, it will be the best representa- 
 tive of national churchism. Uniformity of theological 
 creed is a simple impossibility, and as undesirable as 
 
 
90 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 it is impossible. The object is the same, yet the 
 views are different ; the foundation is the rock, yet 
 each man may adoj^t his own architectural style ; the 
 parents may be the same, yet in stature, form, faculty, 
 disposition, the children may be entirely different. 
 The sun brings all manner of flowers out of the earth, 
 varying endlessly in hue and fragrance ; what if the 
 light above the brightness of the sun bring a still 
 more varied summer out of the winter-bound heart 
 of man ? 
 
 This view does not diminish the influence of belief. 
 It merely points out that the man comes before the 
 creed, and that there is a difference of the gravest 
 importance between trust in the living Christ and the 
 acceptance of a few theological statements about him. 
 In the former case there is a full surrender of love, in 
 the latter a mere intellectual assent, unaccompanied 
 by moral enthusiasm. The one is necessarily as- 
 sociated with passion and demonstration, the other 
 may consist with the lowest indifference. 
 
 The manner of the Call was quite consonant with 
 the mystery of all that is summed up in the word 
 Christ. Its abruptness cannot be overlooked. The 
 ages had been undergoing a long and exciting prep- 
 aration, and by the very strain of eager watching 
 and listening had been educated to the finest sensibil- 
 ity. Otherwise how can the promptness and un- 
 studied grace of the fishermen's response be accounted 
 for? There was no personal intercourse, so far as 
 the narrative goes, no collusion, no pre-arrangement ; 
 yet at a word the lowly men abandon their vocation, 
 and assume a new attitude towards society. At once 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 9I 
 
 the Abrahamic call is suggested : * here is the same 
 abruptness, the same urgency, the same mystery of 
 the end. Men of quick ear have heard the same tone 
 in the second call as was heard in the first, and have 
 come tp know better what was meant by the bewilder- 
 ing statement, " Before Abraham was, I am." But 
 these men were not Abrahams. Though we make 
 their acquaintance somewhat abruptly, we do them 
 no injustice in saying that we do not see in them the 
 breadth and general vitality of manhood which were 
 so prominent in the father of the faithful. When we 
 first meet Simon and Andrew, they are but names to 
 us ; we have had no preparatory hint of the quality of 
 the men, and cannot therefore but hesitate before 
 coupling them in the same commendation with 
 Abraham. A man with an historic reputation is not 
 to be dwarfed into the stature of men whose world 
 hardly extended beyond the boats in which they spent 
 their unknown lives. We think we hear an earlier 
 call than that of Abraham ; this seems to be a call of 
 something beautiful out of something rude ; and 
 whether or not it does not accord with " Let us make 
 man," is a question which ought not to be left un- 
 considered. The material was low and rough ; if out 
 of such dust man could be rebuilt, the rebuilder must 
 surely be God. Another word on this presently. 
 
 In all revolutionary movements there have been 
 men who have heard nothing but " Follow," and 
 have gone bravely forward to what was mystery at 
 first, but what became familiar and venerated truth 
 at last. Such men cannot be accounted for. The 
 
 ♦ Ecce Homo, p. 40. 
 
92 
 
 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 common rules have no application to them. They 
 are the enigmas of history. We have seen them go, 
 and deemed them mad, but in the end have been 
 compelled to withdrav^^ the charge from them, and 
 fasten it on ourselves. They " saw^ a hand we did not 
 see, and heard a voice we did not hear." The pros- 
 pect before such men has generally been unalluring, 
 often most disheartening ; cloud and storm darkening 
 and streaming from the sky, bitter wind striking them 
 in the breast, and treacherous bogs lying between them 
 and the promised land. Still they heard the "Fol- 
 low" which was inaudible to duller ears, and weni 
 forward at the cost of their whole reputation for saga- 
 city. What had Simon and Andrew to "follow"^ 
 Looked at from the common point of view, their 
 decision was simple fanaticism. The man who had 
 invited them was nameless and powerless, according 
 to conventional notions of fame and influence, yet 
 they went with as prompt and complete a surrender 
 as if a king had offered them the riches of a kingdom. 
 It is true that the men were called to a higher voca- 
 tion ; they were to be not fishers only, but " fishers of 
 men ; " yet even this promised elevation does not 
 compass the mystery of the obedience, for multitudes 
 declined Christ's invitations, and unnumbered mil- 
 lions to-day hear his voice, and yet practically treat 
 his promises as they would treat so many lies. The 
 result of Christ's first call cannot but be interesting to 
 all students of his life. What if Simon and Andrew 
 had treated his appeal with contempt? What if 
 James and John had laughed in his face? What if 
 he who conquered the devil had been overmatched 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 93 
 
 by men? The experiment was most perilous for an 
 impostor, was impossible to a mere man, and could 
 have been undertaken by God only. An impostor 
 would have begun more warily ; a mere man would 
 have begun at another point ; only God would have 
 begun where Christ began. These little circum- 
 stances are great revelations. 
 
 The persons, then, who were called are not such as 
 might have been expected ; yet on examination it will 
 be found that they were the only persons who could 
 have been called, in harmony with the whole mystery 
 of Jesus Christ. The method of calling men which 
 Christ adopted is worth studying, if only to see how 
 statesmanlike, how philosophical, yet, on the face of 
 it, how absurd it was. He announces his purpose in 
 one concise sentence : "I came not to call the right- 
 eous, but sinners to repentance." This brings us to a 
 wider meaning of the term " call " than we have in the 
 word "follow ; " yet take the declaration as an author- 
 itative exposition of Christ's visit among men, and 
 examine it as a method of stating an object, and we 
 shall see how profound is the conception of human 
 want which it expresses. This is quite a new voice 
 on the earth. It had been understood up to this time 
 that " sinners" had to be " consumed," " destroyed," 
 " ashamed," " confounded," " desolate ; " their teeth 
 were to be "broken," and their soul was to be 
 " slain." Every man was apparently under the im- 
 pression that he praised God in proportion as he 
 cursed the sinner. The evangelical prophecies are no 
 exceptions to this rule, for they were, of course, one 
 with the spirit of him whom they announced. The 
 
94 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 rule relates to the general spirit of the world, to the 
 tone of government, even government as administered 
 by righteous njen. Jesus Christ propounds the star- 
 tling doctrine that he had come from heaven for the 
 express purpose of calling bad men to him. Could 
 any doctrine, abstractly considered, be more horrif}-- 
 ing? We have become accustomed to its repetition, 
 until w^e think nothing of it ; but put the shadov^ upon 
 the dial back eighteen hundred years, and say, how 
 should we like to put ourselves side by side in the 
 public streets with a man who had openly announced 
 that his sole business on earth was to hold intercourse 
 with bad hearts? The worse the man, the deeper 
 the interest Christ took in him. Polite society was 
 shocked, and " righteous " society horror-stricken : 
 still he held on his way, and still he graciously 
 answered (so graciously that one wonders that every 
 heart on hearing it does not instantly admit him as its 
 Lord), "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners 
 to repentance." It was a hard errand to come upon, 
 and only the Son of God could have undertaken it. 
 What eye that was merely human could see the 
 grandeur which was concealed under the ruins of 
 humanity ? 
 
 Christ began at the lowest point in society. -The 
 kingdom which he came to establish was to be an 
 everlasting kingdom ; and everlasting kingdoms must 
 have adequate foundations. Christ recognized the 
 essential distinction between men and ?nan^ and this 
 fact gave him a reach and power over his work which 
 otherwise would have been unattainable. The worst 
 men make the best. A little nature could not accom- 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 95 
 
 modate a legion of devils — one man held more than 
 could be held by two thousand swine. By so much 
 as a man is diabolized may he be deified. It was, 
 therefore, a great tribute paid to the worth of human 
 nature when Christ spent his life in gathering and 
 rebuilding its very ruins. He " came not to call the 
 righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
 
 No statesman can afibrd to omit the common peo- 
 ple from his calculation. They are the very root 
 and core of society. Kings are only the blossomings 
 of the national tree. The roof is more dependent 
 upon the foundation than the foundation upon the 
 roof. Nearly all, if not quite all, the movenients 
 which have changed the thinking, and determined 
 the new courses of the world, have been upward, not 
 downward. The great revolutionists have generally 
 been cradled in mangers, and gone through rough 
 discipline in early life. Civilization is debtor to 
 lowly cradles ; and unknown mothers hold a heavy 
 account against the world. This is God's plan of 
 uniting all classes of the family of man. 
 
 Christ worked in harmony with the spirit of this 
 plan. People that were rejected on every side be- 
 came his servants, and brethren, and friends. Even 
 bad women (often so near being the best!) were 
 drawn towards him, as if they could get from him 
 " the piece that was lost." Some of the most touch- 
 ing scenes in his life relate to such women. One of 
 those scenes, if nothing else remained, is enough to 
 bind the world's heart to him forever. The occasion 
 was one which brought out the characteristics of the 
 interlocutors very sharply. A Pharisee had asked 
 
96 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Christ to break bread with him, and " a woman In 
 the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that 
 Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an 
 alabaster box of ointment" — probably all she had 
 in the world — "and stood at his feet behind him, 
 weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and 
 did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed 
 his feet, and anointed them with the ointment," — so 
 near being an angel was this poor sinning sister ! 
 Never was modesty so modest, — stood at his feet^ — 
 stood behind him, — stood behind him weeping: only 
 God can interpret the full meaning of such tears. 
 The cold-eyed Pharisee saw nothing in her but a 
 " sinner ; " Christ saw a woman^ flesh and blood of 
 his own mother, and his great gentle heart was 
 shaken with unutterable pity. The Pharisee saw his 
 opportunity ; like all little natures, he knew more 
 of logic than of philanthropy, and instantly he set up 
 this argument : " This man, if he were a prophet, 
 would have known who and what manner of woman 
 this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner." Men 
 are often the victims of their own logic, — always, 
 indeed, when logic leads away from love. The eye 
 that saw the " woman " under the " sinner," saw the 
 sneering sceptic under the observing but silent host. 
 That eye read the Pharisee through and through. 
 " Simon," said Jesus, " I have somewhat to say unto 
 thee. There was a certain creditor which had two 
 debtors ; the one owed five hundred pence, the other 
 fifty, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly 
 forgave them both : tell me, therefore, which of them 
 will love him most?" Simon liked a case of this 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 97 
 
 kind ; it was not above his intellectual stature, though 
 he little knew its moral compass. " I suppose," he 
 answered, " that he to whom he forgave most." The 
 answer was right ; the appeal was overwhelming. 
 " Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into 
 thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but 
 she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them 
 with the hairs of her head ; thou gavest me no kiss, 
 but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not 
 ceased to kiss my feet ; my head with oil thou didst 
 not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet 
 with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins, 
 which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much ; 
 but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 
 The man that spake these words ought to be dear 
 to the world's heart forever ! The calm tone, the 
 beaming eye, the inimitable pathos, all brought to 
 bear upon the stony Pharisee, with his paltry notions 
 of propriety ! It is truly better to fall into the hands 
 of God, than into the hands of men. A case like this 
 does more to confirm the Godhead of Jesus Christ, 
 than can be done by a sanhedrim of theologians, 
 armed with the genius and the lore of ages. We 
 have in it all the God we need. The Being that saw 
 the woman in the sinner, and the sinner in the wo- 
 man, that penetrated the dishonorable thoughts of the 
 haughty self-idolater, and pronounced the contrite 
 woman forgiven, comes before the world with claims 
 which God only could sustain. In the presence of 
 such an incident, all verbal criticism becomes con- 
 temptible ; the stormed and grateful heart exclaims, 
 Ecce homo ! Ecce Deus ! 
 5 
 
gS ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Multiply this simple story by the number of " sin- 
 ners " in the world ; let every one of those sinners love 
 as much as this poor woman loved, and then say if 
 ever king reigned over such an empire as that in which 
 Christ would be enthroned? The bond of union is es- 
 sentially personal. The love of each heart is lavished 
 upon him. All low motives are expelled by a pure, 
 intense, ever-deepening love. In this way, too, we see 
 light streaming upon an overshadowing and most ap- 
 palling mystery, viz., the comparative relation of sin 
 to the happiness of the universe, when the divine pur- 
 pose is completed. The principle laid down by Christ 
 is that they who have had much forgiven, love much, 
 and that there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth, 7?zore than over 
 ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. 
 Who can measure that " more*'? Sin is thus made to 
 have its compensations. The twice-born man shall 
 be a double joy in his Father's house. Sin shall not 
 be all loss. Even for sin's sake, heaven shall be filled 
 with a sweeter and gladder hallelujah. 
 
 By going to the lowest stratum of human nature 
 Christ gave a new idea of the value of man. He built 
 a kingdom out of the refuse of society. To compare 
 small things with great, it has been pointed out by 
 Lord Macaulay that in an English cathedi'al there is 
 an exquisite stained window which was made by an 
 apprentice out of the pieces of glass which had been 
 rejected by his master, and it was so far superior to 
 every other in the church that, according to tradition, 
 the envious artist killed himself with vexation. All 
 the builders of society had rejected the '^ sinners," and 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. 99 
 
 made the painted window of the " righteous." A new 
 builder came ; his plan was original, startling, revolu- 
 tionary ; his eye was upon the contemned material ; 
 he made the first last and the last first, and the stone 
 which the builders rejected he made the head stone of 
 the corner. He always specially cared for the rejected 
 stone. Men had always cared for the great, the beau- 
 tiful, the righteous ; it was left to Christ to care for 
 sinners. When Eumaeus was reproached with having 
 invited a beggar to the palace of Ulysses, he did not 
 care formally to deny the charge, but met it with 
 scorn, as if the very absurdity of the idea was its best 
 refutation — mcj/dv d' ovx ap ng xaliot^ tqI^ovtu b a^TOV ; 
 this inquiry showing that he did not rank himself with 
 fools. Even the gods were attracted by beauty, as in 
 the case of Ganymede — 
 
 " Fairest of mortals ; him the gods on score of beauty 
 crowned." 
 
 The general tone of history was such as to give Christ's 
 method an appearance of the most grotesque absurdity ; 
 he began where no other worker began ; precedent, the 
 terror of secondary men, was against him ; and his 
 contemporaries either pitied or despised, saying with 
 much bitter meaning in their tone, " This man re- 
 ceiveth sinners and eateth with them." The unity of 
 the mystery is here apparent. He himself, on the one 
 side, began at the highest, and on the other, at the low- 
 est, yet the Child of the manger came to be King of 
 the world. Society is moved by its extremes. Christ 
 showed the value of the extreme that from immemo- 
 rial time had been despised. 
 
lOO ECCE DEUS. 
 
 It is remarkable that Christ is never said to have 
 called a wroman to follow him as he called the disci- 
 ples ; and quite as remarkable that, so far as the evi- 
 j A ^dence goes, no w^oman ever spoke a v^ord against him, 
 j^ '^ while many v^omen were last at the cross, and earliest 
 f '^ at the sepulchre. It seems as though he had assumed 
 " aJ^ that the womanly side of human nature would not 
 ^ require any calling ; that the heart of woman would 
 instinctively welcome him as the solution of all diffi- 
 culties, the sum of all charms, the sovereign of frail 
 and needy creatures who have immense capacity of 
 suffering, but little satisfaction in the results of mere 
 logic. Christ was emphatically, uniquely, f/ie seed 
 \ of the wo?nan. What woman could reject her own 
 son ? Does not every woman look with intensely hope- 
 ful love upon the son of her womb ? He will be her 
 comfort, her song, her saviour ; she no longer lives but 
 in him and for him ; through him she interprets the 
 future, and for his sake takes a kinder view of all 
 mankind. Christ was born to every woman. Men 
 required to be called, women only to be attracted. 
 Women had but to see him in order to claim him as 
 the fairest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely ; 
 to recognize him as the tenderest and wisest friend of 
 womanhood. They needed no call. The dew waits 
 for no voice to call it to the sun. Few women ever go 
 to Christ through the medium of mere doctrine. They 
 •. live beyond the cold propositional region. The dew 
 ^iinds its way up to the sun without knowing anything 
 of the laws of motion or the mysteries of light, and 
 womanly hearts go up to Christ often knowing little 
 of objective theology, yet wise because inspired and 
 
THE CALLING OF MEN. lOI 
 
 guided by the love which is the elect interpreter of 
 God. God is love, and by her superior capacity of 
 love woman is so much nearer God than man can ever 
 be. It is hardly to be wondered at that millions of 
 Christians even now feel that heaven itself requires the 
 distinctive presence of the womanly element, and ex- 
 press the feeling by addressing Mary as the mother of 
 God. If Protestantism were less technical and more 
 human, it would hesitate before condemning the feel- 
 ing which dictates this startling appellation. The fact 
 may be that God is more human than traditional doc- 
 trinism has yet dared to conceive. We think of hu- 
 manity too exclusively by the flesh. It is to be remem- 
 bered that the body is the lesser portion of man, and 
 that we speak rightly of the human mind as well as 
 the human body. It is on the mind side that we ap- 
 proach God, through the mind side that we communi- 
 cate w^ith God, and on the mind side that we resemble 
 God. In this sense God is more human, or man more 
 divine, than has yet been authenticated by tlie councils 
 of Christendom. God is not declared to be power, 
 but he is declared to be love ; whoever, therefore, can 
 love most is most like God. It is not to the point to 
 argue that men excel women in pure intellectual force ; 
 even allowing as a conceit what we cannot concede as 
 a fact, it amounts to nothing in this case. A lion is 
 stronger, an eagle swifter, than man, yet it is not to 
 be inferred that they are nearer God than man is ; but 
 God is love, and nearness to him in soul-quality is a 
 question of love. Nor is it to the point that women 
 have fallen into great depths of sin ; the greater the 
 depth the greater the nature. If God himself could 
 
I02 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 sin, all other sinners would be forgotten in the dark- 
 ness of the stupendous apostasy. 
 
 Christ's tender recognition of little children was part 
 of his call. Little children are included in the king- 
 dom of heaven ; and- in this particular, Christ's idea 
 of the Church, which must be the true idea, is totally 
 different from current ecclesiastical notions. It is now 
 taught that children have to be converted ; but Christ 
 taught that men were to become converted, and to be 
 like little children — a direct inversion of narrow theo- 
 logical churchmanship. It is declared that children 
 are born corrupt, but where is Christ's authority for 
 saying so? Christ said, " Of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven." Whatever was of the nature of that kingdom 
 must go to Christ. As the founder of a permanent 
 monarchy, Christ knew the value of young life. When 
 the blood is fresh the enthusiasm is fervid ; and what 
 is a monarch if he be not supported by the passionate 
 love of the national heart? Passive allegiance is a 
 pompous circumlocution which signifies death. 
 
I03 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHRIST REJECTING MEN. 
 
 WHEN Christ said he came not to call the right- 
 eous, but sinners to repentance, there must have 
 been a strong ironical tone in his pronunciation of the 
 word " righteous." Most truly we cannot infer from 
 his reported words who the righteous were, if there 
 were such. Not the Pharisees certainly, as was most 
 impressively shown upon one memorable occasion. 
 A Pharisee had invited Christ to dinner, and when 
 the guests were ranged in order Christ openly said, 
 '^ Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the 
 cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of 
 ravening and wickedness ; ye fools, did not he that 
 made that which is without, make that which is 
 within also?" This sentence excludes the Pharisees 
 from the category of " the righteous." And the 
 Scribes were associated with them, for on the same 
 occasion, addressing them jointly, he said — "Woe 
 unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
 are as graves which appear not, and the men that 
 walk over them are not aware of them." This denun- 
 ciation, which in modern days and Western lands 
 would be deemed an unpardonable abuse of hospital- 
 ity, could not fail to make a deep impression upon the 
 minds of the guests ; this was clear from a singular 
 
I04 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 incident. One of the lawyers brought the matter to 
 an issue : " Master," said he, " thus speaking thou 
 reproachest us also." The answer was probably much 
 clearer and fuller than the lawyer expected ; the spirit 
 of judgment asserted itself in the boldest manner in 
 Jesus Christ : " Woe unto you also, ye lawyers ! for 
 ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and 
 ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your 
 fingers. Woe unto you ! for ye build the sepulchres 
 of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. . . . 
 Woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the 
 key of knowledge : ye entered not in yourselves, and 
 them that were entering in ye hindered." This exas- 
 perating talk produced a most singular effect upon the 
 guests. Probably they had never come so decidedly 
 in contact with this new spirit of judgment before, 
 and as they were all together at the time they felt the 
 stimulus of association, and being stung by the rebukes 
 of an uncourteous stranger, " they began to urge him 
 vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many 
 things : laying wait for him, and seeking to catch 
 something out of his mouth, that they might accuse 
 him." There is a good deal underlying all this. 
 They might think that they had caught Christ at a 
 disadvantage. Was he inflamed with wine? How 
 could he who came to call men to himself encounter 
 some of the leading classes of society with language 
 so repulsive? They could not comprehend this new 
 spirit of judgment which had come to hold its assize 
 among men, and in their ignorance they sought to 
 drive judgment into indiscrimination, and thus deprive 
 it of the moral element. They found nothing on the 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. IO5 
 
 side of his love, so the hungry wolves ran round to 
 the side of his anger, and waited savagely for prey. 
 
 Where, then, were the '' righteous " ? The fact is, 
 that a man was truly, not notionally or reputedly, 
 righteous just in proportion as he felt himself to be a 
 sinner. There is many a paradox in Christ's teach- 
 ing, and this is one of the number. He set forth this 
 doctrine most graphically by telling of two men who 
 went up, to the same temple, at the same hour, for the 
 same purpose. One was a conceited self-idolater, 
 appraising himself very highly, the other was a self- 
 abased and earnest suppliant, who could find no better 
 term for himself than "sinner," — no other term so 
 deeply probed his consciousness or expressed the tone 
 and spirit of his life. The sequel showed that in 
 God's view the " righteous " man was the " sinner," 
 and the "sinner" the "righteous" man. Such sin- 
 ners were the only men who could really hear Christ ; 
 the other were so impenetrably fortressed in their own 
 conceit that no call could be loud enough to be audi- 
 ble above the thunder of their self-applause. Their 
 sin was self-involution and self-satisfaction. They 
 were their own Alpha and Omega. There was no 
 way of moving them but by calling other men away 
 from them. They must be isolated until they felt 
 their position, and raised the signal of distress. 
 Christianity thus became indirectly a most powerful 
 appeal to the very men whom it had apparently left 
 in all the paltry splendor of an artificial righteousness. 
 By calling other men from them and leaving them 
 uttei;ly alone, their very selfishness became intolerable, 
 and through the mere stress of circumstances they 
 
 5* 
 
I06 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 were driven to inquiry and consideration. Extremes 
 are their own cure. 
 
 On another occasion Christ took an effectual 
 method of showing who the righteous were. A num- 
 ber of hollow-hearted men, who mistook an interest 
 in criminal statistics for philanthropy, as all hollow- 
 hearted men are prone to do, brought an unhappy 
 woman before him to be judged. They had witnessed 
 many displays of the new spirit of judgment in vari- 
 ous directions, but here was a case which would test 
 the moral quality of that spirit. With infinite delicacy 
 he said, " Let him that is without sin cast the first 
 stone." This was not only a new spirit of judgment, 
 but a new spirit of administration. The guardians 
 of virtue were henceforth to be virtuous. Judgment 
 was henceforth not to be learned from a statute-book, 
 but from the inspired heart. Penalty was to be an 
 outburst of moral indignation. Without repealing 
 the Mosaic law, or interfering with criminal prosecu- 
 tions, he threw the inquirers upon a principle which 
 carried its own justification. The answer fell upon 
 them like the fires of judgment, and man by man they 
 slunk from the place, until the sinner and the Saviour 
 were left alone. The difference between the woman 
 and the prosecutors was that her sin was known and 
 theirs was hidden, but the new spirit of judgment 
 showed that concealment was henceforth an impossi- 
 bility. The Saviour gave the "sinner" another 
 chance of life ; he called her to himself by kindling 
 a new hope in her despairing heart. A new hope is 
 equivalent to a new birth. 
 
 The " sinners" alone, we have said, could hear the 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. IO7 
 
 call of Christ. This is true in civilization as well as in 
 religion. Whoever has a new idea to propose will find 
 no disposition to listen to it on the part of those who 
 are satisfied with the old ideas or taken up with their 
 own notions. He must seek prepared men, and de- 
 liver his call to them. They are conscious of a want ; 
 they are dissatisfied with the past ; they look yearn- 
 ingly and wonderingly towards the future. Christ 
 came with the cry of repentance ; a cry which by its 
 very nature divided society and developed strong feel- 
 ing on both sides. The cry " Repent " was a call to 
 change the very springs of life. It implied — indeed 
 it expressed — a heavy charge against society. It • 
 simply meant — You are wrong — wrong in heart, 
 wrong in life — and you must change if you would 
 enter the kingdom which is at hand. Such a call of 
 necessity set men thinking as they had never thought 
 before. It put men on the defensive. It did not give 
 them an opportunity of saying guilty or not guilty, 
 but assumed the guilt and demanded penitence. In- 
 stantly the '' righteous " set themselves against it. 
 They massed themselves as an army, and obstinately 
 contested the revolutionary idea. Hardly any other 
 cry could have produced such an effect upon them ; it 
 was intended to work self-conviction, but failing in 
 this it necessarily consolidated the moral conservatism 
 of the unbelievers. It was to be expected that a great 
 division would follow the cry, and that henceforth a 
 marked line would show the space occupied by those 
 " which trusted in themselves that they were righteous 
 and despised others." The call of Christ was the 
 instrument of election, pointing out those upon whom 
 
I08 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 it could produce the intended effect. All calls to 
 other life, good or bad, have in them of necessity an 
 effective principle, simply because they separate and 
 classify men. Christ acted in this matter precisely as 
 sensible men act under similar conditions ; they turn 
 from those w^ho do not want them, and work with 
 those who appreciate their purpose. The nature of 
 the call determines the nature of the society that will 
 be summoned by it. Christ uttered a call which 
 plainly said that men needed to change their course, 
 and it was natural that such men alone should draw 
 around him, that they might learn all that he meant 
 .with reference to their future. To any man conscious 
 of want, or sin, or ignorance, the call to repentance is 
 the very call most suited to him. Instead of throwing 
 him into despair it gives him hope ; it shows that an 
 opportunity is still left, and that one man at least is 
 willing to point out how that opportunity may be 
 turned to advantage. The call of Jesus Christ means 
 that no man need sit shivering upon the ruin he has 
 wrought, but that he may arise and rebuild and enter 
 into rest. 
 
 Imagine the effect of a contrary cry. Instead of 
 " Repent," say " Be satisfied." Sides would then 
 have changed. The men who were consciously 
 wrong, or who had dreamed of a brighter day, could 
 not have accepted the words as expressing a right 
 direction, but the righteous would have pronounced 
 the speaker an " excellent Daniel." The call to 
 repent brought to the speaker exactly what he 
 wanted, — the most susceptible, self-distrustful, and 
 unsophisticated men of the time. When any of the 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. IO9 
 
 so-called "righteous" did hear his words, and were 
 disposed to inquire the terms of fellowship with him, 
 Christ was invariably severe in stating the conditions. 
 He did not by any means give them a cordial wel- 
 come. By any ordinary reformer they would have 
 been considered invaluable acquisitions ; having edu- 
 cation, money, influence, and all those advantages 
 which usually give a new idea a bold and command- 
 ing aspect. By Jesus Christ they were regarded in 
 no such light. He knew that they were but so many 
 flattering varieties of a man's self^ and by so much as 
 self was uppermost was a man unfit for the kingdom 
 of heaven. Consequently he was so cautious as to be 
 almost stern, so exacting as to be almost oppressive. 
 So, at least, it must have appeared to the righteous, as 
 they saw the "gate" narrowing as they approached 
 it, and heard his voice in its most incisive tone say- 
 ing, " Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way." So 
 strait was the gate that no man, could take any ap- 
 pendices with him ; all decorative matter was to be 
 left outside ; only the man, without background or 
 surrounding, could be admitted. One conspicuous 
 example will occur to all who have read the life. A 
 very " righteous " young man came to him with an 
 eager inquiry : the young man made out that he was 
 nothing less than an embodiment of the Decalogue, — 
 he had gathered the very elements of his life on the 
 rough and quaking slopes of Sinai. Surely Christ 
 could not resist this modern edition of the Ten Com- 
 mandments. They were written on tables of stone, 
 but here was a table of flesh. Christ was actually 
 more severe with this young man — required more of 
 
no ECCE DEUS. 
 
 him than he required of the publican, the adulteress, 
 and the thief. Why not? Tall men can reach 
 higher than short men. Others brought nothing but 
 sin, this man brought the Decalogue without (as he 
 imagined) a wrinkle or a stain. What wonder, then, 
 seeing that strait is^ the gate and narrow is the way, 
 that Christ should answer, " Go and sell all that thou 
 hast, and give it unto the poor, and follow me " ? 
 The man had grown prosperous, with all his com- 
 mandment-keeping, and now he required to be pulled 
 sharply up on the side of his wealth to see whether 
 the commandments or the money had the greater hold 
 upon him. There was no other method of meeting 
 the case. The fortress of self must be stormed. 
 Every prop must be struck down, every link broken, 
 or he must remain outside the strait gate. The 
 young man knew not that the gates to all great king- 
 doms are strait, and that the ways are narrow ; he 
 had thought much of the kingdom, but nothing of the 
 way. This instance certainly shows that Christ did 
 not care to give merely numerical strength to his 
 cause. With him, as with all true calculators, the 
 question was not one of numbers but of hearts. One 
 heart under the inspiration of love was of immeasu- 
 rably greater value than any number governed by the 
 shifting policy of the hour. The / am^ not the I 
 have^ was Christ's standard of valuation. How, then, 
 could any man who had "great possessions" recon- 
 cile himself to settlement in Christ's society? The 
 thing was impossible. The outside was greater than 
 the inside, so a catastrophe was inevitable. Manifest- 
 ly the young man could not move through riches to 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. Ill 
 
 Christ, though many a man has moved through Christ 
 to riches. There is nothing in Christ to prevent a 
 man having " a hundredfold more in the present life," 
 but much in the present life to hinder a man having 
 Christ. To-day this fact is illustrated on an extended 
 scale ; most of the rich men who are now in Christ's 
 society came to him when they were poor. It is 
 difficult, from so narrow an observation as one in- 
 dividual is able to make, to pronounce definitely upon 
 the subject, but the peril of censoriousness may be 
 escaped by merely putting a question, — How many 
 men having great possessions pass the strait gate set 
 before the kingdom of heaven ? Does the spiritual or 
 the material exercise the keener influence upon such 
 men? Is the expression " How hardly shall they that 
 have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven ! " with 
 or without application to the men of to-day ? There 
 is nothing in the constitution of the Christian king- 
 dom to prevent a man becoming rich, but there is 
 much in wealth to keep a man from thinking serious- 
 ly about the Christian kingdom. It alters a man's 
 whole relation to wealth, taking away the idea of 
 mastery, and substituting the idea of stewardship, dis- 
 placing the notion of carnal security by the spirit of 
 Christ-like bounty. This kingdom necessarily casts 
 out all other masteries, declaring to all men as they 
 seek admission, " Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
 mon." In Christ's day, too, expensive organizations 
 within the church were unknown. Christ wanted no 
 advances made on behalf of his " cause ; " he had no 
 long accounts to be audited, no begging-books to 
 distribute, no high-priced pews to let; as long as there 
 
112 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 was a Father in heaven nourishing the lily and keep- 
 ing the bird upon its wing, why should he fear about 
 storehouse or barn? He viewed all human necessity 
 in the light of God's immediate Fatherly goodness, so 
 that every want became as a holy place where the 
 Fatlier met the dependent child. Money, as a regula- 
 tive power in Christ's society, was not known. Christ 
 had no institutionalism to support. In his day men 
 gave themselves, not a guinea, when an appeal was 
 made. Love had not then found out that it could 
 buy itself off for an annual subscription ; it was mad 
 enough to toil and suffer in the very heat of the day. 
 Only spiritual insolvents think of compounding with 
 God for a guinea when they owe him their whole life. 
 When Echepolus bought himself off from the war by 
 giving Agamemnon a mare, probably Agamemnon 
 made a good bargain, for a mare might be more use- 
 ful at Troy than a rich and heartless poltroon ; but 
 proxies should not be allowed in the spiritual war. 
 In the "brave days" of the first disciples, things did 
 not shape themselves as they do now. 
 
 "Then none was for a party, 
 Then all were for the state, 
 Then the great man helped the poor, 
 And the poor man loved the great. 
 Then lands were fairly portioned, 
 Then spoils were fairly sold : 
 The Christians were like brothers, 
 In the brave days of old." 
 
 In giving the young man this view of money, Christ 
 sent him away " very sorrowful." This was not 
 without peril to the new government. The young 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. II3 
 
 man, in trying to reconcile himself to himself, would 
 have a narrow escape from underrating the zeal of 
 those who had fallen in with such apparently ex- 
 travagant notions ; and as no man in a low moral 
 condition finds it easy to forgive one who has shown 
 him that he is not so good as he supposed himself 
 to be, the young man might seek to exalt Moses at 
 the expense of Christ. It was necessary that Christ 
 should accept all such risks. He could not build, 
 with wood, hay, and stubble, as he was erecting a 
 kingdom which was to be tried with fire. Thus a 
 universal call came to have special bearings, accord- 
 ing to special circumstances, and out of this fact 
 rejected men began to weave the grossest doctrinal 
 slanders respecting the partiality of Jesus Christ — 
 slanders from which his name is still suffering. 
 
 This was natural. Rejected men felt themselves 
 called upon to set up a theory of rejection, and the 
 last thing which that theory would admit would be 
 error on the part of the individual himself. Take the 
 case of the young rich man : as he retired from Christ 
 he could hardly escape the tortures of the most pene- 
 trating and solemn reflection. " I have been practi- 
 cally rejected," he might say ; " what can be the 
 reason? From my youth my conduct has been irre- 
 proachable ; I have kept the law, and to-day I can 
 defy public criticism ; yet this man refuses me admis- 
 sion into his society except upon extreme and indeed 
 impracticable conditions : he must be mad or in- 
 sincere ; the fault is with him, not with me." The 
 man's mind was started on a course of speculation, 
 and all the probabilities are that his speculation could 
 
114 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 take no very favorable turn in regard to Christ. He 
 would have his own way of representing the case to 
 his friends and companions, so that, while Christ was 
 calling men to himself in one direction, the young 
 man would be at the head of a counter-movement in 
 another. His representations would acquire strength 
 from his well-known morality, and from the fact that 
 he had personally sought admission into Christ's king- 
 dom. In this w^ay the Christian idea has been im- 
 peded by misunderstanding and unworthy men. 
 
 Christ had different methods of calling men — al- 
 ways, however, making the gate straiter and straiter 
 as he was approached by the " righteous." To the 
 young man just spoken of he made the gate very strait 
 on the side of property ; to a certain lawyer he made 
 it strait on the side of the two great commandments ; 
 and when Nicodemus came to him, he made it almost 
 impassably strait by saying, " Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He 
 seems to have given three different answers to the 
 same question, while in reality he was but varying the 
 answer according to the circumstances of the inquirer. 
 Take the case of Nicodemus : to have said to him, 
 " Go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor," 
 would not have met the mood of the Rabbi's soul. 
 Probably he could have accepted this condition of 
 entrance without reducing the amount of self which 
 was in him ; his property might be small, or he might 
 hold it with a careless hand, so that its surrender 
 would not have made any drain upon his self-impor- 
 tance. So also to have said to the rich young man, 
 " Ye must be born again," would have bewildered a 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. II5 
 
 youth who knew little or nothing of such deep expres- 
 sions ; he must be moved from the side of his prop- 
 erty. The master in Israel must be met in his own 
 sphere, and talked to in his own language ; the world- 
 ling must be met in the midst of his estates, and talked 
 to in the language of the market-place. The conclu- 
 sion will be the same in both cases. Nicodemus, when 
 born again, will be willing to sell all that he has, and 
 the young man, when he has sold all his property, 
 will be born again. This circumstance shows the 
 necessity of discrimination in preaching the Gospel. 
 Christ addressed men in different ways ; the Church 
 has a few stereotyped directions for all. How many 
 of the Evangelical preachers in England dare tell a 
 rich young man that he must sell and distribute all his 
 property as the condition of his entrance into eternal 
 life? The man who did so would be marked as a 
 legalist, though he would be a most Christ-like preach- 
 er. There are some who aspire to be more orthodox 
 than Christ himself; who, by insisting upon one set 
 of technicalities, throw many inquirers into despair, 
 and clothe many a plain truth with mystery. 
 
 Take the matter of being " born again : " Christ did 
 not use such words to the common multitude, but 
 specially to " a master in Israel." He never used them 
 again, so far as we can learn from the narrative ; yet, 
 because he used them in such an exceptional case, 
 thousands of preachers perplex promiscuous congre- 
 gations with them every Sunday. To a master in 
 Israel they were precisely adapted, yet it does not 
 follow that a direction given to a learned man in a 
 private interview is to be proclaimed to the common 
 
Il6 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 multitude. Nicodemus was accustomed to metaphysi- 
 cal inquiry ; his faculties were trained to analysis ; and 
 though he might start at this profoundly spiritual 
 answer, given by a man whom he had distinctively 
 known as a mighty worker, yet he could meditate 
 upon it as in harmony with the genius and bent of his 
 w^hole intellectual life. That life it immediately as- 
 sailed — not the man's character, but the man's mental 
 habitudes and moral purposes. His inner life must 
 start from a new point ; so radical a change must he 
 undergo, that no figure can so expressively denote it 
 as a new birth. 
 
 This reference to regeneration opens the question of 
 original sin. Many inquirers find it difficult to believe 
 themselves innately bad, simply because they have been 
 told that such a belief is required of them. No man 
 taught the doctrine of original sin, commonly so called, 
 so impressively as Jesus Christ, and yet he never men- 
 tioned it ! His whole scheme was founded upon the 
 assumption that men were wrong. Every call to a 
 new point, every frown upon sin, every encourage- 
 ment of well-doing, meant that society needed regen- 
 eration. Men may come upon the doctrine of original 
 depravity in one of two different ways ; for example, 
 they may come upon it as a dogma in theology. The 
 first thing that some theologians do is to abuse human 
 nature, to describe it as being covered with wounds 
 and bruises and putrefying sores, and as deserving 
 nothing but eternal burning. Human nature resists 
 this as a slander : it says, " No ; I have good impulses, 
 upward desires, generous emotions towards my fellow- 
 creatures ; I resent your theological calumnies." So 
 
CHRIST REJECTING MEN. II7 
 
 much for the first method of approaching the doctrine. 
 The second is totally unlike it. A man, for example, 
 heartily accepts Jesus Christ, studies him with most 
 passionate devotion, and grows daily more like him in 
 all purity, gentleness, and self-oblivion. From this al- 
 titude he looks back upon his former self; he compares 
 the human nature with which he started, with the 
 human nature he has attained, and involuntarily, by 
 the sheer necessity of the contrast, he says, " I was 
 born in sin and shapen in iniquity." This conclusion 
 he comes to, not by dogmatic teaching, but by dog- 
 matic experience ; what he never could have under- 
 stood as an opinion he realizes as a fact. 
 
 Suppose a tree to be conscious, and let it illustrate 
 what is meant by growing into a right understanding 
 of this hard doctrine. Tell the tree in April that it is 
 bare and ungainly in appearance ; very barren and 
 naked altogether. The tree says, " Nay : I am rooted 
 in the earth ; my branches are strong ; I live in the 
 light ; I drink the dew ; and I am beautiful ; the winds 
 rock me, and many a bird twitters on my boughs." 
 This is its April creed. Go to the same tree after it 
 has had a summer's experience ; it has felt the quick- 
 ening penetration of the solar fire, quenched its thirst 
 in summer showers, felt the sap circulating through 
 its veins ; the leaves have come out on branch and 
 twig, the blossoms have blushed and bloomed through 
 long days of light ; fruit has been formed, and mel- 
 lowed into maturity. Now hear the tree ! " I am not 
 what I was in April ; my very identity seems to be 
 changed ; when men called me bare and rugged I did 
 not believe them a few months ago ; now I see what 
 
Il8 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 they meant — their verdict was sound: I thought the 
 April light very beautiful, but it is nothing to the blaz- 
 ing splendor of the later months ; I liked the twitter of 
 the spring birds, but it is poor compared with the song 
 of those that came in June : I feel as if I had been born 
 again." The parable is broad enough to cover this 
 bewildering, and at times horrifying, doctrine of hered- 
 itary depravity. Men cannot be in April what they 
 will be in September. Each year says to growing 
 hearts, " I have many things to say unto you, but ye 
 cannot bear them now." In old age men may accept 
 the rejected doctrines of their youth. Experience 
 brings us round many a rugged hill, and gives us 
 better views of condemned, because misunderstood, 
 opinions. The point to be observed by all teachers 
 of Jesus Christ's doctrine is, that it is unnecessary 
 to force recondite theological dogmas upon those 
 who approach the kingdom of heaven. Let them 
 enter the kingdom on the sole ground of their love to 
 the King, and their subsequent life may be devoted to 
 doctrinal study. Jesus Christ was constantly correct- 
 ing the errors of his immediate followers, yet they were 
 his followers, notwithstanding their errors. Where 
 love is ardent, knowledge will be attained by expe- 
 rience. 
 
 We have thus seen Christ calling men and Christ 
 rejecting men. This discrimination gives a hint of 
 the quality of the society which he aims to establish. 
 Can he ^eep those whom he has called? 
 
119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 FOR what purpose did Christ call men? Were 
 they to be his body-guard during his presence 
 upon earth, and to be disbanded after his ascension? 
 or were they to be confederated into a perpetual me- 
 morial of his earthly mission? This brings us to an 
 analysis of the ecclesiastical idea. 
 
 The men who obeyed the call were classified under 
 a special and most sacred designation. They were 
 first known as " My disciples ; " long afterwards " be- 
 lievers," " saints," " Christians " became synonymous 
 and interchangeable terms, the whole of them being 
 frequently expressed by one word, — church. This 
 was a confederation of hearts, founded on a purely 
 moral basis, subsisting continually upon a deep love 
 for the Christ who had called them to his fellowship. 
 The root idea of the church is that of a particular re- 
 lation of man to man, originated by a common relation 
 to Jesus Christ. When men are ardently attached to 
 their, native country, they are related to one another as 
 compatriots, though they may differ upon every ques- 
 tion in political science. It is the same in the church ; 
 attachment to Jesus Christ is everything ; the widest 
 differences upon theology may exist, but no doctrinal 
 heresy can break up the vital and eternal union of 
 
I20 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 souls which is brought about by an all-absorbing love 
 for Jesus Christ. 
 
 It may appear that faith is an almost insignificant 
 condition of membership in Christ's kingdom. Not 
 so, however, when the matter is carefully considered. 
 The word " belief" is not simple, but compound, — a 
 term most inclusive and exacting. Popularly under- 
 stood, " belief" is supposed to denote an act of the 
 mind in relation to statements which may be laid be- 
 fore it : as, for example, a man believes that Milton 
 wrote " Paradise Lost," that Columbus discovered 
 America, or that a ship will leave Britain for Africa 
 upon a given day. But such a belief may amount to 
 nothing more than that the man does not disbelieve 
 these statements ; or if it mean that he has examined 
 the evidence for himself, yet not one of the statements 
 itiay touch his deepest nature. It would give him no 
 concern to know that Milton wrote the " Iliad," and 
 that Homer wrote " Paradise Lost," or that the ship 
 in question is not going to Africa, but to Asia. The 
 man cannot be said to " believe," in any deep and true 
 sense of that term. Belief means more than any act 
 of the mere understanding can ever mean. * Religion 
 is not so much an appeal to the intellectual as to the 
 moral nature ; this is true of all religions, but pre- 
 eminently characteristic of Christianity. The intel- 
 lectual is to be affected through the moral ; the mind 
 is not to lie dormant, it is to be brought into the most . 
 active service ; but the law is, " Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy . . . mmd," Loviitg with 
 the mind is the idea ; the very intellect is to be turned 
 into an organ of affection, logic itself to be a-glow with 
 
THE CHURCH. 121 
 
 moral fire ; it is not, Thou shalt believe with thy mind, 
 but, Thou shalt love with thy mind : " with the heart 
 man believeth unto righteousness." Belief thus be- 
 comes more than an assent to a set of notions. It car- 
 ries with it the whole man, dominating over his entire 
 course; in fact, it is more even than this — it is life 
 itself. Whatever a man lives for is his faith. With- 
 out faith it is impossible to please God. What then? 
 Is this extraordinary ? It is one of the veriest com- 
 monplaces in life ! Without faith it is as impossible to 
 please man as to please God. Give any man to un- 
 derstand that he has lost the faith of his compeers, and 
 he will realize the most complete humiliation and im- 
 poverishment. In this vital sense the belief of man is 
 challenged by Jesus Christ : out of it is to come the 
 whole purpose and strength of life. Christ is to absorb ^ 
 affection, and his will is to be, not the arbitrary, but 
 the heart-elected Master everywhere. A man may 
 believe that a house has been robbed, but his belief is 
 altogether a deeper reality when he is given to under- 
 stand that the house which has been robbed is his own. 
 That which was merely a piece of information lodged 
 in the mind becomes a compelling and ruling power 
 in the life. So a man may say of Jesus Christ, " I 
 believe he lived, died, and rose again," and may yet 
 know nothing of the ruling force of these events in 
 his heart. The facts have not become truths to him ; 
 they are outside realities, not internal and undisputed 
 sovereignties. When he lives by them, he believes 
 them ; when he believes them, he lives by them ; when 
 belief and life are synonymous terms, the man is a 
 member of the church of Christ-— his name is written 
 6 
 
122 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 in heaven. He may hold the most extraordinary con- 
 clusions in speculative theology, but he cannot be 
 unchurched by metaphysics. Where the love is right, 
 the notion is of small consequence. A man may keep 
 his whole self and accept all technicalities in theology, 
 but a man cannot love vs^ithout giving up himself. He 
 must either " sell all he has and give it to the poor," 
 or he must be " born again " into a new spirit in which 
 there shall be no self, and then he is in the kingdom 
 of Christ. 
 
 This shows the inclusiveness of the church. The 
 sect can hold but a few, the church may comprehend 
 all. Christ established no sect ; he founded a church. 
 To be a Christian, it is not necessary to be a theologian ; 
 nor is it necessary to choose a sectarian appellation ; 
 nothing is necessary but perfect love of the " Beloved 
 Son." It is with Christianity as with patriotism, to 
 recur to an illustration : love of country is independent 
 of love of party ; a patriot might die for his sovereign 
 without knowing the subtle degrees of loyalty which 
 are indicated by party nomenclature. Entrance into 
 the church is a transaction between Jesus Christ and 
 the individual heart ; whoever has given his love to 
 God's Son is a member of the church : whether, for 
 the sake of convenience, or for purposes of evangeli- 
 zation, he may join a sect, it is for him to consider, but 
 most assuredly he is in Christ's church, by the inde- 
 feasible and all-comprehending right of love. The 
 immortality of love is the immortality of the church. 
 The small mud huts of bigotry will be submerged by 
 the mighty cataclysm of human progress, but the 
 church founded upon a rock will remain above the 
 floods. Love is the security of the church. 
 
THE CHURCH. 1 23 
 
 Horror at what is called heresy may be accounted 
 for on natural grounds. It is natural to venerate the 
 ancient ; it is natural, too, for the timid to dread what 
 is speculative or experimental. Men hesitate before 
 cutting down a bridge which bears the footprints of 
 many generations, though a better bridge may be 
 erected. Man cannot easily shake off the associations 
 of time, nor is it desirable that he should. The known 
 has certain advantages over the unknown. In business, 
 in politics, in medicine, in government, and most of 
 the concerns of common life, the same regard for the 
 past prevails. Changes, it is thought, always involve 
 more or less of risk ; and though results may be right, 
 processes may be hazardous and difficult. But by the 
 noble boldness of many recent inquirers, even change 
 itself is enriched with hallowed and inspiring associa- 
 tions. The heretics in civilization, not to speak of 
 theology, have done most for the world. Timid men 
 cringed, and selfish men denounced, when the heretics 
 struck openly at the old methods of doing things. They 
 dreaded changes as men might dread floods which 
 carry destruction everywhere : — 
 
 " Expatiata ruunt per apertos flumina campos ; 
 Cumque satis arbusta simul, pecudesque, virosque, 
 Tectaque, cumque suis rapiunt penetralia sacris." 
 
 Such swollen rivers as Ovid describes have been 
 greatly dreaded in the church, as if no promise lay 
 around that church as a perpetual defence. Poor but- 
 tresses can be made of paper ; but who can storm the 
 fortresses of love ? It is forgotten, besides, how great a 
 guarantee of security has been provided by Christ in 
 
124 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the condition requiring discipleship to be attested by 
 the most practical service. Jesus Christ and his disci- 
 ples were not a band of contemplative philosophers 
 preambulating in the cold grandeur of isolation from 
 all the rough world, in some charmed Lyceum ; they 
 threaded their enlightening and healing way through 
 the thronging multitudes ; and daily were the disciples 
 shown that love and work were the hemispheres of the 
 Christian life. Love was not a mere sentiment, a self- 
 considering and self-satisfying passion, but the spring 
 of an inclusive and intensely practical philanthropy. 
 Christ drilled his disciples in a reverent and generous 
 regard for the human body. He told them to divide 
 their small stock of provisions in the desert place with 
 the five thousand strangers, and when he sketched the 
 proceedings of the great judicial day he sent men to 
 heaven or to hell according as they had been philan- 
 thropic or misanthropic towards himself as atomized 
 by the least of his brethren. He asked no man what 
 he believed, but told every man how much he had 
 done to mitigate the sufferings of good men, or what 
 opportunities of such mitigation had been neglected. 
 Philanthropy was made the test of love towards God, 
 for who can love God without loving his brother also? 
 This is a valuable, and not less so because incidental, 
 illustration of the inseparableness of the two great 
 commandments of the law, — Love God and love thy 
 neighbor. The love of man comes from love of God, 
 and in the judgment love of God will be tried by love 
 of man. The apostle John, who is generally supposed 
 to have been incomparably amiable, said plainly, that 
 if any man says he loves God, and yet hates his brother, 
 
THE CHURCH. I 25 
 
 he is a liar; and no liar shall enter the church : he 
 may creep into the sect, but shall have his portion in 
 the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone. The 
 true church-member can never become a heretic in 
 any bad sense of the term : his love towards God and 
 his love towards man keep him perfectly balanced; 
 he has no time to go astray, as well as no will. The 
 priest and the Levite will probably be excommunicated, 
 but tlie philanthropist is too busy with wounded and 
 dying humanity to be in any danger from theological rid- 
 dles and metaphysical enigmas. From his continually 
 widening observation ot human nature, he may be 
 induced to ignore some of the faded nostrums of tra- 
 ditional quackery, but his heart will be sound and his 
 faith strong. Seeing far into man, he will see far into 
 God, and by loving his brother he will love his Maker 
 more. Christ seldom made inquiry into the opinions 
 of his disciples, but he never failed to keep them up 
 to a large-hearted practice. When he did inquire into 
 their opinions, it was always to know how they stood 
 in relation to himself; and just in proportion as the 
 disciples saw God in him, did he corroborate their 
 judgment by pronouncing it a divine revelation. The 
 education of the philanthropic element in his church- 
 members was Christ's main concern. We do not know 
 that he ever so much as named Adam and Eve, or that 
 he drew any subtle distinctions, or laid down any pre- 
 cise definitions in reference to supralapsarianism or 
 prevenient grace ; but we do know that he drew up 
 such a list of guests as probably never assembled at 
 any board before his time ; that he commended the 
 poor, the halt, the maimed, the blind, to the special 
 
126 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 care of his members ; that, with the most practical 
 saixasm, he measured the rich man by his clothes and 
 his dinner (" clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared 
 sumptuously every day"), and sent the angels to carry 
 the beggar to Abraham's bosom. Christ's philanthropy 
 never failed, it never yellovs^ed, or drooped as if vs^inter 
 w^ere approaching. He v^as the divive teacher of phi- 
 lanthropy ; by which is meant not official intermeddling 
 about poor-rates, prison-ventilation, and workhouse 
 discipline, but simple, hearty, brotherly love of man as 
 man, in all zones and all ages. As such a teacher, 
 Christ taught the doctrine of the Fall more fully than 
 if he had discussed it in daily discourses upon the 
 garden of Eden. He never said. Lift a man up, with- 
 out recognizing the Fall ; he never expatiated upon 
 " the lost " without going back to early events ; he said 
 nothing about the Adamic apostasy, but spent every 
 moment of his life in seeking to reclaim apostates. 
 This was the wisdom which cometh down from above. 
 Two settled and unchangeable principles thus come 
 up as including the idea of the church — love to Christ 
 and love to man. Whoever has experienced this love 
 is in Christ's kingdom a living member ; he hath eter- 
 nal life. This dual love is another illustration of the 
 dual life of Christ. As that life was divine and human, 
 the life of his members is divine and human also ; it is 
 not only purity of heart which sees God, but it is 
 mercy which pities men — not only poverty of spirit 
 which claims the kingdom of heaven, but meekness 
 which inherits the earth — not only the mourning 
 which is followed by rest in the soul, but peacemaking 
 which reconciles opposing hearts ; it is dual as Christ 
 
THE CHURCH. I 27 
 
 was dual — weak enough to be bruised on the cross, 
 strong enough to throw off the bondage of the grave. 
 That men who know the power of this love should 
 seek each other's fellowship is not merely natural, but 
 necessary. A common faith and a common philan- 
 thropy bring them into visible union ; mai'k them off 
 from all other men, giving them a lustre which makes 
 them the light of the world, a pungency which makes 
 them as the salt of the earth, an elevation best repre- 
 sented by " a city set on a hill." Their visible union 
 causes them to be known as " the church," in an infe- 
 rior sense to that already named, and those whom they 
 have left are known as " the world." Speaking of his 
 disciples in one of his prayers, Christ specially marks 
 this distinction : " They are not of the world, even as 
 I am not of the world ; " — in it, yet above it — in the 
 form of servants, yet in the spirit of mastery. In early 
 days the disciples were known to one another by 
 endearing terms which our materialistic civilization 
 can hardly use without a significant hesitation ; they 
 were " saints," " brethren," " sei*vants of Jesus Christ," 
 " beloved in the Lord ; " they were called a " royal 
 priesthood," a " peculiar people," " temples of the 
 Holy Ghost." What wonder, then, if visible union 
 should be a necessity? On lower conditions men enter 
 into organization ; artists unite ; merchants " do con- 
 gregate ; " philosophers shut out the common people ; 
 bankers have their guilds ; lawyers their inns ; and 
 savans their esoteric circles. Why should men with 
 a common faith and a common philanthropy remain 
 apart? When we have been in a foreign country, 
 unable to speak the language, ignorant of all the 
 
128 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 customs, and have incidentally heard a fellow-traveller 
 speak in our own tongue, has not the surprised and 
 thankful heart almost compelled us to claim acquaint- 
 ance on the common ground of nationality, or identity 
 of speech ? Some such feeling as this must have been 
 largely experienced by the first adherents of Christ ; 
 an accent might discover them, an allusion might bring 
 them into mutual embrace. If such unusual conditions 
 do not now elicit such warm demonstration, is it to 
 our credit if the deep emotion of genuine brotherly 
 affection has subsided ? 
 
 The church thus resting upon a basis so easily com- 
 prehensible, it may be interesting to inquire why all 
 who are avowedly ruled by the same faith and philan- 
 thropy do not meet as one church, without distinction 
 or difference of any kind whatever ? As the conditions 
 and credentials of membership are so simple, why 
 should there be anything sectarian amongst Christian 
 men ? This inquiry throws us back, not upon Christ, 
 but upon human nature : in human nature there are 
 endless varieties of temperament, capacity, culture, 
 susceptibility, and relationship. Besides this, two 
 things are to be taken into consideration : first, that 
 upon the two fundamental principles the church can 
 never be divided, for by the denial of either it loses 
 status, it ceases to be a church ; and second, that since 
 Christ's day we have had the Epistles, which discuss 
 some theological points and enter into various details, 
 on the interpretation of which readers may fairly differ. 
 Men are not saved by interpretations of apostolic 
 epistles. They have the common organs of criticism 
 at hand, and are responsible for their right use. A 
 
THE CHURCH. 1 29 
 
 number of men may gather around each verse in each 
 epistle, and found as many sects as there are verses, 
 and yet the church may be an unbroken whole. The 
 grandeur of Christ's work is seen in that it descends 
 below all possibility of difference or breach. The 
 differences occasioning denominationalism are but as 
 the variously formed members of the body, while the 
 church is as united and vital as the heart. 
 
 No doubt the Epistles have considerably divided 
 men upon various points ; still the church is so much 
 richer by the possession of these letters, so full of 
 mixed experience and so fervent with the passion of 
 an absorbing love. It is certainly better to have them 
 than to be without them, though they do furnish a 
 wide ground of controversy. It is impossible but that 
 Peter and Paul, James and John, should write many 
 things as coming immediately from the lips of the 
 Lord, and that, according to their various constitu- 
 tions of mind, they should present doctrines in more 
 or less of a characteristic manner. If the writers had 
 different methods, how can the readers fail to receive 
 different impressions? The only teacher who can 
 expect to preside over a united school is Euclid, but 
 even Euclid would soon find that, if there were two 
 methods of drawing a straight line, his school would 
 be broken up into parties. A question may be said to 
 be truly great in proportion as it admits of multitudi- 
 nous variations of opinion and expression, yet binds 
 men by a mastery at once irresistible and beneficent. 
 They differ about it, yet they love it ; they fight with 
 one another about it, and yet unite against any man 
 who would injure it. Little questions cannot per- 
 6* 
 
130 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 manently divide mankind ; great questions will al- 
 ways divide men, yet always unite them at some 
 point. Men would hardly fight about the best method 
 of going up a ladder, but a hundred battles have been 
 fought on the best method of training a child. So all 
 through life : the deeper the question, the deeper the 
 opposition ; men w^ho would only laugh at a magician 
 might crucify a Christ. 
 
 On the whole it may be doubted whether differ- 
 ences, properly argued, are not of advantage to reli- 
 gious progress. Now and again somewhat violent 
 attempts are made to bring about visible unity in the 
 Christian denominations, but they do more harm than 
 good by calling attention to differences which are not 
 vital, and giving what ought to be held quite seconda- 
 ry a factitious importance. All strained efforts after 
 denominational unity are by their very nature bad. 
 Unity must come, not through schemes, but through 
 vitality, and it would be well if the most zealous 
 charity would cease from its favorite pastime of setting 
 traps for the capture of denominationalists. What 
 is denominationalism but an inconvenient conven- 
 ience? Rise or fall, it does not affect the church as 
 we have ventured now to define it. It meets the tem- 
 porary peculiarities of human nature ; and if it be 
 reproduced in a higher form as principalities, thrones, 
 and denominations in the world to come, that will not 
 alter its relation to the sublime embodiment of tri- 
 iimphant Sorrow sitting in the midst of the throne. 
 As men reside in different houses and are yet inhabit- 
 ants of the same city, so Christians may worship 
 under different denominational politics and forms, and 
 
THE CHURCH. I3I 
 
 yet love the same Saviour. It would be as reasonable 
 to reduce all soldiers to the same stature in order to 
 present a commanding front of patriotism, as to bring 
 all denominations under one polity to exemplify 
 Christian unity. The v^orld is educated by opposi- 
 tion, and it is more than doubtful w^hether such a 
 world as it is could be educated in any other way. 
 Men may be '• provoked " even " to love and good 
 works." 
 
 Union will be best attested by charity — not charity 
 in any low sense, but charity as a phase of justice ; 
 not the charity that condescends, but the charity 
 which concedes on equal terms. Wherever infallibil- 
 ity is claimed, the possibility of union is a blank ; 
 where liberty is conceded, union is already a fact. 
 Christ is in all denominations where he is loved. 
 The Romanist feels that he needs the crucifix, the 
 penance, the Virgin Mother, the intermediate fire : let 
 him have them ; he will be saved, not by the alloy, 
 but by the fine gold. The Protestant offers a less 
 ornate worship : let him do so ; he will be heard, not 
 for his sternness, but for his sincerity. The Trini- 
 tarian firmly holds the doctrine of the triune Godhead, 
 and the reverent Unitarian (not the scoffing Socinian) 
 feels that if he has finished with Ecce Homo instead 
 of with Ecce Deus^ he will ultimately be led by 
 gentle chiding to exclaim, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 Men are saved by the crucified Christ, not by the 
 superscription which Pilate wrote. 
 
 We have endeavored broadly to mark the difference 
 between the church and a sect. By an undue (may 
 we not say criminal?) protrusion of the sectarian 
 
132 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 phase of religious life, a most erroneous idea respect- 
 ing the church has been encouraged. If a man has 
 not accepted a sect, it is often contended that he has 
 not entered the church. It has been said, the act of 
 joining the church has been regarded as a transaction 
 between man and man, whereas is it not entirely a 
 transaction between the spirit and Jesus Christ? 
 Take an illustration : in some places the approach 
 to the table of communion, or the Lord's Supper, is 
 considered as the sign of church-membership ; but 
 before that table can be approached, the intending 
 communicant must undergo some kind of official 
 examination as to his theological views. Where is 
 Christ's authority for this? Does not such an inquiry 
 proceed upon the principle that the Lord's Supper is 
 an administration rather than a communion — some- 
 thing to be dispensed by a superior hand rather than 
 taken with a trembling joy by the man himself? In 
 such a service who could be elevated to the dignity of 
 an administrator? For mere convenience the em- 
 blems may be carried round by the teacher or his 
 assistants ; but this is an arrangement required by 
 order, not a superiority conferred by God. Around 
 the cross all men are equal ; around the table, which 
 represents the cross, all men must be equal too. But 
 this equality cannot co-exist with the idea of dispensa- 
 tion. Men cannot meet in any official capacity what- 
 soever at the Lord's table ; there they may assemble 
 only as persons for whom the body was broken and 
 the blood shed. The clergyman is not a clergyman, 
 the officer is not an officer, when seated at the board 
 of communion ; the communicants are there as sinners 
 
THE CHURCH. 1 33 
 
 who have accepted salvation through Jesus Christ. 
 But is not examination needed ? Yes, but it must be 
 self-examination. Paul's words are explicit : " Let a 
 man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread 
 and drink of that cup." It is feared that an open 
 table might be taken advantage of by designing 
 persons. The answer to this is evident : no plan 
 will keep out designing persons ; they can accom- 
 modate themselves to any process ; if unworthy per- 
 sons do approach the table, they eat and drink to their 
 own condemnation, not to the condemnation of other 
 people. This is in striking accord with all that we 
 have seen in the life of Christ, who continually threw 
 men back upon their own consciousness, and com- 
 pelled them to judge their own actions ; it is, too, in 
 perfect harmony with the liberty which he came to 
 inaugurate and establish among men, purifying each 
 man's judicial faculty and giving him the highest 
 advantages with a view to self-rectification. 
 
 If men choose to build places of w^orship and to lay 
 down special regulations and conditions of attendance 
 or membership, they may be at liberty to do so ; but 
 no man can ever be at liberty to alter the terms upon 
 which salvation is offered to the world. He who 
 attempts to do so is guilty of the worst form of blas- 
 phemy. The sect which has perverted a communion 
 into a dispensation has interfered with the incom- 
 municable prerogative of Christ. No man can dis- 
 pense the light, or the wind, or the rain, or any of the 
 primary forces or gifts of God ; no more can any man 
 dispense, except in the way of mere order, the body 
 and blood of God's Son. In the widest sense, Christ 
 
134 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 gives himself; of such a gift there cannot be a sec- 
 ondary giver — hence communion alone can save the 
 dignity and value of the gift. 
 
 The place of the Lord's Supper in the church is a 
 subject on which diversity of opinion prevails. At 
 first sight the idea of eating and drinking together 
 suggests the socialism of fellov^ship in Christ, and 
 pleasing sentiments of equality before God, both of 
 which are perfectly true, and yet other and more may 
 be meant by this communion. It is pleasant to think 
 that in such common things as bread and wine Christ 
 found emblems of himself; pleasant also to think of a 
 whole community coming together from time to time 
 to ratify their bonds. But is not all this beside the 
 mark? With regard to the idea of hospitality, Paul 
 sharply reproved the Corinthians for their practice at 
 the table. " What," said he, " have ye not houses to 
 eat and to drink in? .... If any man hunger, let 
 him eat at home." The social idea, it would appear, 
 however pleasant in itself, was not the idea con- 
 templated in the establishment of the Communion. 
 Men could not be social around the broken body of 
 any man, specially of any man whom they had 
 accepted as their Lord. However sacredly some 
 persons may regard a club dinner,* it ought to be 
 borne in mind that bread and wine are not mere 
 viands for refreshment, but the emblems of Christ's 
 body and blood. Only cannibals could dine, in any 
 sense of a club dinner, oft' a crucified man. There 
 must, then, we think, be something more, something 
 deeper, too, than the idea of friendliness or fellowship. 
 
 ♦ See Ecce Homoy p. 187. 
 
THE CHURCH. I35 
 
 Christ's own explanation ought to be final : " Take, 
 eat," said he, " this is my body, broken for you ; " 
 " This cup is the new testament in my blood." The 
 author just referred to says, " A common meal is the 
 most natural and universal way of expressing, main- 
 taining, and, as it were, ratifying relations of friend- 
 ship." * This is true in itself, but the very idea of a 
 " meal " is foreign to the spirit of this communion. 
 As established by Christ, the Supper did not refer to 
 '' relations of friendship," but exclusively to himself. 
 Is it not so ? The terms of the service, as cited by the 
 New Testament writers, certainly imply it : " T/iz's do 
 in remembrance of me; " and again, " This do ye, as 
 oft as ye drink it, in rejne^nbrance of me" What is 
 there about "friendship" here? That "friendship" 
 would be purified and elevated by such an act is un- 
 doubted, but what was the primary idea of the Sup- 
 per? That idea is described as combining recollec- 
 tion and anticipation. Not only is it written, " This 
 do in remembrance of me," but also, " As often as ye 
 eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the 
 Lord's death till he come." And why retain the 
 memory of that event? Because it was '^for you:'* 
 " This is my body, which is given for you," — " This 
 cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed 
 for you." The personal interest of the communicant 
 in the sacrifice of Christ is the reason for preserving 
 the memory of " the Lorxi's death." The author of 
 £^cc6 Homo says, "It is precisely this intense per- 
 sonal devotion, this habitual feeding on the character 
 of Christ, so that the essential nature of the master 
 
 * See Ecce Homo, p. 187. 
 
136 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 seems to pass into and become the essential nature of 
 the servant — loyalty carried to the point of self- 
 annihilation — that is expressed by the words 'eating 
 the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ'" (p. 176). 
 We think there is some confusion of idea here. Men 
 could have "fed on the character of Christ" without 
 having a sacrament, so to speak, imposed on them ; 
 but they could not ''show forth" the Lord's death 
 without a sacrament, the very idea of " showing forth " 
 requiring visibility and symbolism. " Feeding on the 
 character of Christ " is purely a mental act, but a club 
 dinner is more. And, again, if eating the flesh and 
 drinking the blood of Christ expresses " intense per- 
 sonal devotion," where is the idea of " ratifying the 
 relations of friendship " ? It can only come in sec- 
 ondarily, not primarily, as it did in the first part of the 
 argument. 
 
 The Lord's Supper is a memorial. It does not 
 necessarily imply the joint act of a number of persons. 
 A single man may show forth his "Lord's death." 
 The club idea is not in the nature of the service at all. 
 Men stand in a personal, not in an associated relation 
 to that death, and the communion must be personal, 
 not one with another, but each with the Lord. The 
 club idea is more pertinent to the church coming to- 
 gether to feed on the divine Word as it may be read 
 and expounded publicly. In the Old and New Testa- 
 ment men are o'ften represented as eating and drinking 
 the word of God, and as speaking to one another about 
 the bounty and goodness of the feast. Job said, " I 
 have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my 
 necessary food." The Psalmist said, " How sweet are 
 
THE CHURCH. 1 37 
 
 thy words unto my taste ! Yea, sweeter than honey 
 to my mouth ;" and Jesus himself said, " My meat is 
 to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his 
 work." Men are invited to " eat and drink abundant- 
 ly," and to let their " soul delight itself in fatness," 
 and God is proclaimed as making " unto all people a 
 feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat 
 things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well re- 
 fined." There is much in this imagery to favor the 
 idea of a club dinner, and to give a meaning to the 
 expression, " feeding on the character of Christ." If 
 it be suggested that each man should partake of the 
 Lord's Supper privately, the suggestion would involve 
 the cessation of all public service ; men can pray alone, 
 sing alone, read alone ; but Christ called men to him- 
 self, constituted those who came into a church, and 
 that church is to-day his representative and the treas- 
 urer of his testimony. 
 
 With regard to the expression " eat my flesh and 
 drink my blood," it should be noted that it was not 
 used in connection with the Supper. It forms part of 
 an appeal to the general multitude which pursued 
 Christ after the distribution of the loaves and fishes. 
 He knew that the people sought him because they 
 " did eat of the loaves and were filled," and thereupon 
 he discoursed concerning himself as " the living bread 
 which came down from heaven." His method of put- 
 ting the case was likely to create strife among the liter- 
 alists who heard him ; and as the Jews " strove among 
 themselves, saying. How can this man give us his flesh 
 to eat?" Jesus answered, '' Except ye eat the flesh of 
 the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life 
 
135 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 in you : whoso eateth my flesh and drlnketh my blood 
 dwelleth in me, and I in him." The circumstances 
 clearly show that the expression did not relate to the 
 Supper, but was part of what we should now regard 
 as a sermon or a religious address. In this sense there 
 is no incongruity in rendering it as equivalent to " feed- 
 ing on the character of Christ." The hearers had eaten 
 of the natural bread, and as usual Christ conducted 
 them to a spiritual interpretation of natural circum- 
 stances, and so put himself before them as the living 
 bread — a strong figurative representation of his per- 
 son and work. It is as though he had said, — You 
 have eaten of the bread that perisheth ; as that bread 
 nourishes the body, there is another bread which nour- 
 ishes the mind ; as the body could not exist without 
 the former, so the mind must die without the latter ; I 
 myself am the living bread, the mind must feed upon 
 me as specially provided for its quickening. In so 
 addressing the people, Christ elevated a fact into a 
 figure ; he took the circumstance of the hour and 
 hung upon it lessons of eternity ; he did not import 
 the figure as an original conception, but found it in 
 the passing event. To press the allegory further would 
 be unjust, and would bring other allegories under an 
 interpretation which would be absurd. Also to asso- 
 ciate the expression with the Supper is to put it out of 
 place, and to force upon the Supper violent and un- 
 tenable meanings. That points of analogy may be 
 discovered is clear enough, but what two things are 
 there in the world which do not bear some resemblance 
 and relation to one another? 
 
 The argument which we have sought to establish is, 
 
THE CHURCH. I39 
 
 that Christ founded his church upon a common faith 
 and a common philanthropy ; that the church is one 
 and indivisibfe ; that the sect is not to be confounded 
 with the church ; that the church is immortal, though 
 the sect is temporary ; that entrance into the church 
 is purely a transaction between Christ and the in- 
 dividual ; that within the church there is a sacra- 
 ment called the Lord's Supper, a sacrament which is 
 not a dispensation, but a communion ; a sacrament 
 which may be approached without official examina- 
 tion, but not without severe self-inquest ; that the Sup- 
 per is a memorial and a hope, — not a club dinner, 
 even in its most refined and legitimate sense, but a 
 special communion between the communicant and 
 his Lord. 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. 
 
 NOW that men have been called and united, it may 
 be time to inquire into the laws by which they 
 are to be personally and relatively governed. Life is 
 continually presenting new aspects ; and a widening 
 civilization is perpetually throwing up questions which 
 challenge the consideration of men who profess to go 
 beyond "the world" for their doctrine and policy. 
 Side by side with the Christian organization called 
 the church, many a powerful rivalry has been growing 
 up, so that a persistent competition has been brought 
 to bear upon the interests, real or supposed, of the 
 whole community. We have seen that Christ re- 
 garded his disciples as " not of the world," yet to-day 
 " the world " is setting up a claim for the suffrages of 
 the disciples. The line of separation is supposed by 
 some observers to have faded much. Is it so in reality ? 
 It may be worth while to inquire how Jesus Christ, 
 simply regarded as a bold and far-sighted propagand- 
 ist, proposed to keep vast masses of men in permanent 
 union — in other words, to consider how men can be 
 in the world, yet not of it ; can live in it, and yet 
 be above it ; can be united with one another, yet sepa- 
 rate from sinners. No hnfe^'ium in^ ifnperio is so 
 great a mystery as the church in the world. Christ 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. I4I 
 
 surely proposed a hard thing to his disciples when he 
 requii'ed them to remain in the world and yet to con- 
 tinue not only to be superior to its contaminations, but 
 to make daily encroachments upon its dominion until 
 its authority was completely upset. In one of his 
 prayers Christ said, " I pray not that thou shouldest 
 take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest 
 keep them from evil." Here is the difficulty. 
 
 In attempting the negative work of keeping men 
 from evil, it is customary to set down in systematic 
 order minute regulations and directions respecting 
 things which are to be avoided. Christ did not adopt 
 this plan. Rather by allusion than by detailed state- 
 ment, he indicated certain forbidden territory, and 
 then betook himself to the affirmative side of his plan. 
 He did not hope to keep men from evil by lecturing 
 about it, by elaborating a penal system, or by any appeal 
 to the lower instincts of human nature. His simple 
 plan was to counteract death by life. Thus, instead 
 of telling a man not to despond, he inspired him with 
 a new hope ; instead of telling a man to do no murder, 
 he gave him such notions of the sanctity of human 
 life as took away the very tendency to anger. This 
 was his fundamental plan. "Thou shalt not'' was 
 adapted to a ruder age of the world; "Thou shalt" 
 was now to take its place. The ineffectiveness of 
 merely negative instruction i& shown every day. Take 
 the case of the gambler : tell him that gambling will 
 bring him to ruin or inflict ruin on others ; insist upon 
 it that gambling is a perilous and mischievous prac- 
 tice, and not improbably the gambler will assent to 
 the doctrine: but will he abandon the habit? Go 
 
142 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 further: imprison the gambler; take from him all 
 gambling instruments, and condemn him to live in 
 penniless poverty all the rest of his days ; does he 
 cease to be a gambler ? Only in the lov^est sense ; he 
 is still a gambler in spirit ; the evil is untouched. 
 What does Christ propose in such a case ? He not 
 only casts out the devil, but he puts in the Holy Spirit. 
 He gives the gambler something better to do, and 
 proves his entire success by leaving the man in the 
 w^orld, yet keeping him from the evil. It w^ould be a 
 poor thing to take the man out of the world ; if he 
 required to be so taken, that very fact would prove 
 that he was not perfectly healed by Christ. The most 
 conclusive testimony which is afforded of the divine 
 force of truth is that men continue in the world, though 
 inhaling the atmosphere of heaven. Satan is put under 
 their feet. They are still in the region of war, but 
 protected by impenetrable armor. 
 
 The fact that life must have occupation, shows the 
 inutility of merely negative teaching. Life cannot 
 remain quiescent ; it has appropriative and distributive 
 functions, and must operate accordingly. If it be not 
 pursuing good, it must be doing mischief. How does 
 Christ propose to engage those functions ? 
 
 We may simplify the course of inquiry by confining 
 it to the subject of amusements. The mirthful side of 
 human nature must be provided for. The sects have 
 shut up the theatre, the race-course, and the . dancing- 
 saloon ; they have forbidden game after game ; the Ten 
 Commandments they have displaced by a hundred of 
 their own, each commencing with " Thou shalt not.^^ 
 Nothing was easier, and nothing was more useless. A 
 
it '''^^>k^^ 
 
 THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLlk^ "^^ %. 
 
 man loves the drama passionately; he sees ^^3^^411^ .. 
 ideal side of it ; the true interpretation of a great pLoem 
 is to him the most refined of luxuries ; he is entranc^^;^/^ 
 by the genius of art. The sects say to him, You must^^ 
 give up the drama, and he receives the intimation w^ith 
 great surprise, probably too with some disgust. The 
 intimation may be given to him by a man who hardly 
 knows the meaning of the word drama, who has no 
 soul for poetry, no eye for art — a man who would 
 throw jewels away because the casket had been spotted 
 with mud. Are the feelings of the dramatist not easily 
 conceivable, and do they not under such circumstances 
 call for sympathy? Christ never told his disciples not 
 to go to the theatre, the race-course, or the revel ; from 
 end to end of his teaching no such prohibition can be 
 found. What then did Christ do? He said, "Make 
 the tree good, and the fruit will be good ; " don't trim 
 the leaves, vitalize the root ; don't attach, but develop. 
 He opened, as we have seen, a wide field of philan- 
 thropic service, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, 
 clothing the naked, preaching liberty to the captive ; 
 he filled men with his own spirit, and then left them 
 to go whithersoever it would conduct them. Christ 
 did not teach from the outward to the inward, but from 
 the inward to the outward. It is better to give a man 
 a good principle than a good practice ; it is better to 
 be good than merely to behave well ; the one is char- 
 acter, the other is convenience. Christ's plan of meet- 
 ing the wants of all sides of human life was stated in 
 one sentence — " I have given the7n thy word, " He 
 had put a spirit and a standard within them. The law 
 was henceforth not an outside letter, but an internal 
 
144 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 voice. The holy Word gave place to the Holy Spirit. 
 It was as if a new sense had been added to the Chris- 
 tian nature — a sense of immediate and accurate moral 
 touch which instantly discovered the quality of every 
 doctrine or act. This is given to every man who is in 
 Christ ; who has eaten his flesh and drunk his blood, 
 and so become essentially one with him. 
 
 As to questions in casuistry which come up again 
 and again in practical life, one of the ablest reasoners 
 in the early church has laid down principles of univer- 
 sal and unerring application. Christ determined the 
 fundamental point, and Paul followed with special 
 illustrations. It may be well to spend a moment with 
 Paul, that we may see what his interpretation of 
 Christ's idea was. There had been a discussion in one 
 of the Christian communities respecting eating, which 
 was not unlikely to create a serious division. The 
 great apostolic casuist, who had* in him a volume of 
 humanity second only to the Son of Man, and who 
 could consequently see most sides of a controverted 
 subject, argued the cause with characteristic acumen 
 and cogency. " Let not him that eateth," said he, 
 '' despise him that eatetli not ; and let not him which 
 eateth not judge him that eateth : for God hath received 
 him." He insisted upon strict individuality of judg- 
 ment and conscience in the case, and became indignant 
 with all censoriousness of criticism : " Who art thou 
 that judgest another man's servant? To his own master 
 he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, 
 for God is able to make him stand." The spirit of 
 mastery must be put down in the Christian fellowship ; 
 there is one Master, and all judgment on ,the part of 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. I45 
 
 the servants is so much detraction from his supremacy 
 in the church. On matters of detail, then, there is no 
 common law in the Christian brotherhood ; no amuse- 
 ment is prescribed, no amusement is forbidden ; a man 
 may drink wine, or a man may abstain from wine ; a 
 man may eat meat, or he may subsist on herbs ; a man 
 may esteem one day above another, or he may esteem 
 every day alike. Let the indwelling Spirit determine. 
 " Why dost thou judge thy brother ? or why dost thou 
 set at nought thy brother ? for we shall all stand before 
 the judgment seat of Christ." The church is not con- 
 federated upon questions of casuistry ; it is founded on 
 a common faith and a common philanthropy. It may 
 be inquired — Since the Spirit is the same, ought not 
 the results to be the same? Certainly not. The re- 
 sults come through the idiosyncrasies of each man's 
 constitution. No two men are alike, though all men 
 are made by God. One man is naturally contempla- 
 tive, another active ; one melancholy, another mirthful ; 
 one enterprising, another conservative. Christianity 
 does not change the basis of a man's individuality, but 
 gives him a new spirit by which that individuality may 
 be properly trained. As to amusements or recreations, 
 most of which are supposed to lean towards the devil, 
 their election is an individual question. It is for Chris- 
 tians to say how far they can go into the world of 
 recreation. There is a solemnity which is more sinful 
 than laughter ; there is a laughter more acceptable to 
 God than solemnity. Some men never laughed, — 
 cannot laugh, but they have a ready talent for con- 
 demning laughter in others ; what is wanting in mirth 
 is made up in censoriousness. They have but a small 
 
 7 
 
146 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 endowment of life to answer for, and cannot, con- 
 sequently, comprehend the many-sided men who, 
 while open to all the influences of mirth, have their 
 holy hours of deep and probably agonizing devotion. 
 
 So much for the personal side of the question ; but 
 we are to consider the law which is to govern not 
 individual men only, but men who are organized into 
 a church. How is individuality to stand in relation to 
 community? While each man may be a law unto 
 himself, each man is not a church unto himself. We 
 may continue to argue the case, by still keeping to the 
 simple illustration of an amusement. Differences of 
 opinion do obtain as to amusements, but it should be 
 borne in mind that the church, as such, is never asked 
 to adopt any method of amusement or recreation ; it 
 is exclusively a personal matter, and can only relate 
 to the corporate body on the ground of influence or 
 example. The reputation of the whole may be com- 
 promised by the action of a part. Paul lays down 
 this doctrine : ''I know, and am persuaded by the 
 Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself; but 
 to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him 
 it is unclean." The important point of this statement 
 is, that it is given on Christ's own authority ; and it 
 certainly is of the utmost consequence to have it laid 
 down by Jesus Christ himself that " there is nothing 
 unclean of itself." But the question forced upon men 
 by their association is, how far private tastes are to be 
 controlled by the pubhc opinion of the body? Are 
 they to be controlled at all ? Paul says that some are 
 " weak in the faith," from which it may be inferred 
 that some are strong : how then ? Are the weak to 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. 1 47 
 
 consider the strong, or the strong to consider the 
 weak? If family life may afford a suggestion, noth- 
 ing can be clearer than that the strong are to con- 
 sider the weak ; the mother lives for the infant, not the 
 infant for the mother. The case is put in the clearest 
 light by Paul : " Let us not therefore judge one an- 
 other any more ; but judge this rather, that no man 
 put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his 
 brother's way." This is the very spirit of Christian 
 philanthropy, the considerations of self being sub- 
 ordinated to consideration of others. " What ! " some 
 one may exclaim, " am I to surrender my pleasures, 
 because there are persons called weak brethren in the 
 world? The pleasures are to me perfectly legitimate, 
 and I think it unreasonable that any man should be 
 offended by them." A strong case, indeed, when 
 viewed from any point but that of Christian philan- 
 thropy. It is just here, however, that the stress 
 comes upon that philanthropy, and tests it. The 
 philanthropy is not a mere sentiment, but a control- 
 ling power, having no self^ and knowing nothing but 
 iaan in the image of God. In proportion as a man 
 gives up the very smallest enjoyment for the sake of 
 his brother man, he comes to know what is meant by 
 sacrifice, by self-sacrifice, and gets at least a distant 
 glimpse of the Philanthropist who " pleased not him- 
 self." Why the shock at such a proposition as is 
 above suggested? The very principle is carried out 
 in family life. The parent denies himself many enjoy- 
 ments for the sake of his child : is not the church a 
 family? When the parent says, "I shall not do this, 
 because my child may get from it a wrong impression 
 
148 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of life ; the thing itself would be right enough to me, 
 but he cannot yet comprehend my reasons for doing 
 it : therefore, purely for his sake, I shall abstain ; " he 
 will see new and overpowering meanings in such 
 expressions as — " Christ pleased not himself; " 
 " Christ loved us, and gave himself for us ; " " For 
 their sakes, I sanctify myself; " " He took upon 
 him the form of a servant." These expressions can- 
 not be opened by the lexicographer ; they are known 
 only to the practical philanthropist. The heart re- 
 ceives the interpretation, while the head can but 
 wonder. A man has been heard to say, that never 
 until he saw his own little child in pain, did he know 
 what was meant by the words, " Like as a father 
 pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 him." His own nature became the interpreter of 
 God's. Through an analogous process we come to 
 understand somewhat of the mystery of Christ's sacri- 
 fice. As a written doctrine, it is little more than an 
 external beauty, thought to be too sacred for imitation 
 or reproduction in any degree ; but when once the 
 spirit of sacrifice has been developed, it brings with it 
 a sweetness beyond all other sweetness, and a con- 
 sciousness of spiritual dominion, kindred to being " ex- 
 alted to be a Prince and a Saviour." The range of 
 self-sacrifice is more extensive than is commonly sup- 
 posed. The child who sits silently in a sick room lest 
 a dying parent should be disturbed, is within that 
 range ; so is the mother who gives up her days and 
 nights to her sickening infant; so is the man who 
 divides his last loaf with his hungering neighbor ; 
 and so is the noble creature who denies himself a 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. 1 49 
 
 luxury, lest a weak brother should stumble. All this 
 is included in Christ's idea of sacrifice ; with this 
 difference, however, that while the parent* sacrifices 
 for his child, and the neighbor for a man of kindred 
 heart, Christ died for his enemies. This disclosed the 
 greatness of his nature. He saw in man what no 
 other eye could see. He did for his enemies what 
 few men would do for their friends, so that from his 
 lips as from no other could come the command, 
 " Love your enemies." 
 
 In this way Christ broke in upon the organized self- 
 ishness of the world, and " troubled" society with his 
 unearthly doctrine of self-abnegation. And in this 
 way he proposed to keep up eternally the distinction 
 between the church and the world, and so to preserve 
 his disciples from evil, while they continued more or 
 less in the very midst of their old associations. The 
 spirit of sacrifice is the best defence against evil ; not 
 the spirit of criticism, not the sharpness of wit, not 
 the resources of experience, but the spirit of self-sup- 
 pression as it was manifested by Jesus Christ in the 
 Temptation. Every temptation was an appeal to 
 self; every answer showed how self could be held in 
 perfect subjection. This was the root of his power ; it 
 came to fruition on the Cross. 
 
 Reverting to the church, we find a distinct law laid 
 down by Paul for the regulation of associated life : 
 "Ye have been called unto liberty; only use not 
 liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve 
 one another." We have still the same principle of 
 philanthropy called into exercise. It is perfectly true 
 that a man has liberty, but it is also true that liberty 
 
150 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 is to be the sei*vant of love. Liberty is consistent with 
 self, but love is not ; ther^re love is the final law. 
 The possessor of mere liberty (assuming that to be 
 possible) may take counsel with himself as to enjoy- 
 ment ; may write a detailed programme, and repel 
 dictation ; but the man whose liberty is controlled by 
 love will ask how this or that will affect the persons 
 who observe his conduct, or come under his influ- 
 ence. He will instantly explode the sophism that men 
 should come up to him rather than that he should go 
 down to them ; like his Master, he will take upon him 
 the form of a servant, that he may deliver those who 
 are in a low estate. 
 
 To those who have come into liberty, but have not 
 yet attained perfect love, it may be well to recall the 
 purpose of discipline. Every man should be king 
 over himself. Christ insists upon the supremacy of 
 the whole over the part, when he commands the 
 cutting off or plucking out of an offending member 
 of the body. To be able to look at a pleasure, yet to 
 keep it at arm's length for the sake of a brother, is the 
 highest attainment of discipline. The disciplined man 
 enjoys the spoils of a large conquest ; in conquering 
 himself he has conquered his principal foe. He can 
 look at the forbidden tree, acknowledge that it is 
 pleasant to the eyes, and, probably, a tree "to be 
 desired to make one wise," and yet tell the damning 
 serpent that there is no folly so great as the wisdom 
 which comes through violating love. The fear is that 
 the disciplinarian may become ungenial in judgment. 
 The man who has cut off his right hand may be 
 tempted to think that other men should- cut off their 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. I5I 
 
 right hands ; and the man with one eye may think it 
 hard that other people should have two. Christ fore- 
 saw this, and constantly turned men back upon them- 
 selves to consider what was wanted by their own pecu- 
 liar constitution, and he gave them the benefit of his 
 own prayers, as in the case of Simon Peter, for whom 
 he specially prayed that his faith might not fail. One 
 of the main purposes of discipline will be frustrated if 
 it fail to give men a firmer control over their critical 
 faculty when they institute a comparison between 
 themselves and others. Censure is inconsistent with 
 philanthropy, and philanthropy is the last result of a 
 perfect discipline. 
 
 The disciplined man will not keep men from evil 
 by shouting moral maxims at them, as the modern 
 church has been doing for a long series of years. 
 The great disciplinarian, who knew both how to 
 abound and how to be abased, who kept his body 
 under, and checked himself at every point, lest, after 
 having preached to others, he should become a cast- 
 away, adopted the only successful method of main- 
 taining a permanent hold upon men — a literal tran- 
 script of Christ's method, — " Though I be free from 
 all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that 
 I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became 
 as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are 
 under the law, as under the law, that I might gain 
 them that are under the law ; to them that are without 
 law, as without law (being not without law to God, 
 but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them 
 that are without law. To the weak became I as 
 weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all 
 
152 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 things to all men." This is the fruit of discipline. 
 Paul looked at things from every man's own particu- 
 lar stand-point. To each man he said, " I shall come 
 round to your point of view, put myself in your cir- 
 cumstances, establish a common sympathy, and so 
 work my way back to Jesus Christ." This gave him 
 a marvellous advantage. When a man goes down to 
 teach, he takes with him considerable overplusage of 
 power ; but when he goes up to teach, he goes in the 
 wrong direction, and strains himself greatly to the 
 disgust of those who are above him. The only true 
 way of getting up is by going down ; the way to gain 
 life is to lose it. " Thou fool, that which thou so west 
 is not quickened except it die." 
 
 The church (now understanding by that term the 
 organized sects) is not willing to "lose its life" that 
 it may " gain " others ; hence it is the weakest, and, 
 humanly speaking, the most despicable institution 
 which men are now tolerating. It is afraid of amuse- 
 ment ; it is afraid of heresy ; it is afraid of contamina- 
 tion ; it is afraid of sinners ; it is afraid of the devil. 
 All this must come from a low condition of vitality. 
 It shuts itself up within thick walls, sings its hymns, 
 hears its periodical platitudes, and then skulks into the 
 common streets, as if afraid lest the multitude should 
 know what it had been doing. Nothing can be more 
 un-Christlike that is not positively devilish. The 
 worst feature of this cowardly fear is that it is often 
 expressed in a bad spirit, venom being mistaken for 
 strength. The sin is not so much in the thing said, 
 as in the way of saying it. It is forgotten, too, by 
 the sect-church, that there are other sins than those 
 
THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. 153 
 
 which reel in the streets or swing on the gallows. 
 The man who makes a long prayer, and then op- 
 presses the hireling, is as an unclean beast in the sanc- 
 tuary ; so is the man who would not part with a leaf 
 from his catechism, yet makes his home a very hell by 
 a fiendish temper ; so is the man who spends his life 
 in scenting the heresies of doctrine, and yet cultivates 
 the blacker heresies of life. Such a course brings 
 Christ into disrepute. He is crucified by those who 
 bear his name. Christ's work must be done in 
 Christ's spirit, and in Christ's way. He went among 
 men turning the water into wine, and celebrating the 
 prodigal's return with music and dancing. The sect- 
 church has imagined that it must stand aloof from bad 
 men lest it should receive contamination. This is a 
 melancholy confession of weakness, bringing the most 
 undeserved and humiliating discredit upon the power 
 of the Holy Ghost in the human soul. It is as if the 
 salt should stand aloof from the flesh lest it should be 
 corrupted; or as if the light should stand aloof from 
 the darkness lest it should be obscured. Christ never 
 shut himself up from the wicked, and yet never 
 seemed to be so far from them as when in their very 
 midst. Other men's refinement became vulgarity 
 when contrasted with his gentleness ; their wisdom 
 became folly under the lustre of his revelations ; and 
 Solomon's grandeur faded beside the lily which Christ 
 pointed out. When bad men meet alone they lose 
 the advantage of moral contrast, and measuring them- 
 selves by themselves they commit the falsehood of 
 exaggeration. Christ saved men from this in his own 
 day, and would save them from it now, but for the 
 
154 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 narrowness of sects. The coarsest man feels a meas- 
 ure of restraint in the presence of a gentle, pure 
 woman ; what might not the evil sections of society 
 feel in the presence of the embodied holiness of the 
 Infinite God? "No man lighteth a candle to put it 
 under a bushel, but he setteth it on a candlestick, that 
 it may give light to all that are in the house." There 
 is a good deal in the setting, as well as in the candle ; 
 a few inches on this side or that may make all the 
 difference between usefulness and uselessness. 
 
 Thus we have incompletely sketched the position of 
 the church in the world, and shown how the church is 
 to be protected from the evils by which it is sur- 
 rounded. Evil is to be extinguished, not by mere 
 verbal denunciation, but by the spirit of goodness, the 
 Holy Spirit. Darkness will not be removed by 
 anathema, but by light. Individual liberty is to be 
 regulated by common philanthropy. The church is 
 to be kept from selfishness by sacrifice. This is 
 Christ's method, as illustrated in particular cases by 
 his great interpreter the apostle Paul. Christ gave his 
 followers power to go everywhere, and to take up 
 even deadly things without being hurt. He had no 
 fear of their being corrupted, but gave them energy 
 to save others from corruption ; his own Word dwell- 
 ing in them richly. He sent them as sheep among 
 wolves, with wisdom and gentleness as their defence. 
 They were to pursue evil persons in every direction, 
 and to "torment" them "before the time," by the 
 presence of an august yet genial purity. They were 
 safe, because their Lord was with them. Their 
 power was moral, — not the power of purse, or scrip, 
 
* THE CHURCH LEFT IN THE WORLD. 1 55 
 
 or sword, or many coats, which exercise so illegiti- 
 mate an influence in the world. Not what was on^ 
 but what was in^ was their strength. We look for 
 the same self-repression to-day, the same moral ma- 
 jesty, producing the same startling contrast. Where 
 is it? Hidden, no doubt, in some degree under the 
 folds of an elaborate civilization, but still, we doubt 
 not, in existence ; not all in this sect or in that, but 
 partly ; widely scattered, yet not beyond the call of the 
 Voice which brought order out of chaos. We cannot 
 take so discouraging a view of human society as to 
 believe that Christ's influence is diminishing. If it is 
 less demonstrative, it may not be less vital. His 
 church has not slipped out of the world into a secret 
 and nameless grave, though its original compactness 
 and accessibility are not what they were. The very 
 inquiry which men are now pressing with unexampled 
 urgency, is a good sign ; when the anxiety is extreme, 
 the satisfaction will not be long delayed. There may 
 be a law of subsidence or rest in the progression of 
 the Christian society. The tide may be advancing, 
 notwithstanding the refluent wave. There is, too, an 
 intensive as well as an extensive operation of life ; so 
 that what is wanting in demonstrativeness may be 
 made up in penetration. Anyhow, Christ's vitality 
 cannot be lost in the world ; the seed of the second 
 Adam shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore, in- 
 numerable. 
 
156 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 
 
 CHRIST prayed that his disciples might be kept 
 from evil, but he had also a work to accomplish 
 on a larger scale ; not only had he to keep the disci- 
 ples who were called by himself personally, but to 
 extend their numbers ; and we propose now to con- 
 sider how he intended to do this, grouping our sug- 
 gestions under the general title given above. To say 
 that Christ found human relations disorganized, would 
 be to put human history into the tritest form of ex- 
 pression ; yet that inclusive fact lies at the bottom of 
 his mission and plan among men. The man who was 
 made " upright," found out many " inventions," but 
 among them all was not that of regaining the equilib- 
 rium which he had lost. If man had not destroyed 
 his nature, he had disarranged his proportions. A 
 very subtle thing is the equipoise. An extra handful 
 of dust on the side of a planet might endanger the 
 universe. 
 
 At the risk of violating a strictly logical progression 
 (though not more so than Christ himself apparently 
 did), it may be useful to look at once at the work 
 which Christ accomplished in adjusting the relations 
 between man and man ; which will give us, from 
 another point, Christ's view of human nature, and 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 57 
 
 place something concrete and immediately appreciable 
 before us. It is of primary importance to remark 
 that Christ never depreciated manhood in any of its 
 forms or conditions, but, on the contrary, continually 
 spoke of man with reverence and affection ; not of the 
 Jew as a Jew, or the Roman as a Roman, but strictly 
 of man as man ; thus incidentally illustrating the 
 meaning and force of his own appellation, the Son of 
 Man. In one of his most touching parables, he re- 
 buked Jewish exclusiveness with great dignity, yet in 
 a manner which must have been most galling to the 
 haughty men who heard him. It was the priest who 
 passed by, and the Levite ; but it was a contemned 
 Samaritan who stopped and proved himself a practi- 
 cal philanthropist. Would any other Jew but Christ 
 have so introduced a Samaritan? And would Christ 
 himself, if he had not been more than a Jew? On 
 another occasion, he declared that the faith of a 
 heathen woman was greater than he had ever seen in 
 Israel ; and as he cast his eye over the nations of the 
 earth, taking in his comprehensive survey " regions 
 Caesar never knew," he boldly told the supposed favor- 
 ites of heaven that men should come from the east and 
 from the west, from the north and from the south, and 
 sit down in the kingdom of heaven. When his con- 
 temporaries called themselves the children of Abra- 
 ham, John struck the boast off their vaunting lips, by 
 telling them that God was able to raise up out of 
 the very stones children to Abraham. In the same 
 manner, Christ showed that manhood was not a 
 geographical term, having one meaning on this coast 
 and another on that, but that it was overflowing with. 
 
158 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 moral significance, and stood in very intimate relation 
 to God. 
 
 One of his longest discourses was delivered upon 
 the subject of the relations between man and man, 
 and man and his kingdom. The old and vexed ques- 
 tion of gradation came up among the disciples, and 
 was referred to the Master for decision. The disciples 
 would soon have rent the new kingdom by this ques- 
 tion of position, had their leader not quenched their 
 carnal aspirations, and showed them that they were 
 all equally wrong in their notions. Rulership has 
 always been one of the hardest problems which society 
 has had to solve, and to-day it lies at the root of all 
 war. How can there be a kingdom without ruler- 
 ship? The disciples naturally pondered the inquiry, 
 and entertained some exciting speculations on the 
 point. When the matter so agitated them that they 
 could no longer keep it to themselves, they abruptly 
 laid it before Christ ; whereupon he delivered a copi- 
 ous and impressive address on human nature. He 
 called a little child unto him and set him in the midst, 
 and said — You trouble yourselves a good deal about 
 greatness in my kingdom ; now let me tell you that 
 except ye be converted — that is to say, radically 
 changed in your self-estimation — and become as sim- 
 ple, trustful, and unconscious of your own importance 
 as this little child, you shall not so much as even enter 
 into that kingdom, much less have any distinguished 
 position in it : great, swollen, self-idolizing men cannot 
 be admitted ; the gate is strait ; only child-like men 
 may pass through. — Nothing could be more foreign 
 to the spirit of carnal ambition than such an answer. 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 59 
 
 It did not leave the subject open for discussion. No 
 craft could wriggle out of so positive a doctrine. But 
 the text was not exhausted. The little child was still 
 there, and Christ continued in the most sweet and 
 captivating manner to discourse respecting the great 
 value which he attached to manhood. In effect he 
 said — Human nature is not to be measured by what 
 is accidental, but by what is essential ; you must value 
 man as man, even though he be as low in the scale as 
 it is possible for any human creature to be. The 
 image of God, though much defaced, is upon the 
 lowest man ; if you despise him you despise me, for 
 the Son of Man is come to seek that which is lost ; he 
 will have to go a long way down for it, but it must be 
 found. If you undervalue man, you undervalue my 
 mission and reproach the wisdom of God ; but if you 
 value man as man, apart from all that is accidentally 
 repulsive, and receive him in my name, you receive 
 me ; and whoso receiveth me receiveth not me, but 
 him that sent me. We all go together, God, Christ, 
 and lowest man ; take one and you take all, reject one 
 and you reject all. Take heed that ye despise not one 
 of these little ones, for I say unto that in heaven their 
 angels do always behold the face of my Father which 
 is in heaven. Do not look high, as though men were 
 to be judged by their stature ; so important, so sublime, 
 is humanity, apart altogether from culture and devel- 
 opment, that whoso shall offend one of these little ones 
 that believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were 
 drowned in the depths of the sea. 
 
 Such talk about human nature was new. Up to 
 
l6o ECCE DEUS. 
 
 this time men had hardly advanced farther than to a 
 civil regard for those w^ho belonged to their own par- 
 ticular nation. But Christ set man above the nation , 
 the gold above the inscription v^hich had been stampedi 
 upon it. This one circumstance is a commanding 
 plea in support of the divine origin of the Christian 
 religion, and is in exquisite accord with the whole 
 mystery called Christ, so far as we have been able to 
 trace it. To reject Christ is, speaking merely in view 
 of his humanity, to reject the most consistent and 
 powerful vindicator of the dignity and value of human 
 nature that ever challenged the attention of the world. 
 If we cannot at once join him in some of the higher 
 ranges of his discourse, we may at least sit down at 
 this point, and learn his view of the capability and 
 worth of our own nature. It is, then, to be distinctly 
 recognized as a primary fact in Christ's teaching that 
 Christ will not allow any man, how sunken soever he 
 be, to be despised. No word of contempt can be per- 
 mitted ; not even a thought that tends in the direction 
 of scorn : " Whosoever shall say. Thou fool, shall be in 
 danger of hell fire." Not only were men to love those 
 who loved them, but to love their enemies, bless those 
 that cursed them, and pray for those that despitefully 
 used them ; and this they were to do for a most re- 
 markable and suggestive reason, " That ye may be the 
 children of your Father, who maketh his sun to rise on 
 the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain upon the 
 just and unjust." When men made a feast they were 
 to call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and 
 they would be blessed in so doing, for the guests could 
 not recompense them, but they should be recompensed 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. l6l 
 
 at the resurrection of the jUst. The words are now 
 so familiar, and have, indeed, produced so great an 
 effect upon modern society, that it is difficult to esti- 
 mate their influence upon the men to whom they were 
 addressed, or the moral courage which was required 
 to utter them in the presence of the most exclusive 
 social system in all civilization. The poor were not 
 to be talked about as a farmer would talk about bog 
 land, but to be treated as sharers with the greatest of 
 a common human nature ; and the divine element that 
 was in them was not only to save them from contempt, 
 but to bring them into brotherhood with the foremost 
 men. But brotherhood in its true sense cannot come 
 from the outside. There is a vital difference between 
 patronage and brotherhood. Nothing is easier than 
 for a man to conceal his pride under the forms of 
 humility ; actually never to stand so high in his own 
 estimation as when seen in the public highway arm 
 in arm with rags and wretchedness. He then says, 
 " Look at me ! this is humility ; I am not ashamed to 
 be seen thus." It requires less moral courage to pick 
 a beggar out of the ditch than to be seen on friendly 
 terms with an honest man who earns weekly wages. 
 In the one case the very extremity is its own defence ; 
 in the other there is room for several undesirable infer- 
 ences on the part of genteel observers. To-day the 
 sect-church has conceived an extraordinary liking for 
 institutions which touch the lowest strata of society ; 
 the nobility of the land refreshes itself by teaching the 
 ragged and homeless Arabs of England — a very 
 beautiful and even heavenly thing when done with a 
 pure motive, yet covering a most seductive temptation 
 
l63 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 to confound patronage with brotherhood. It Is pos- 
 sible to like the rags more than the human nature — 
 possible for the rich man to give Lazarus a coat, and 
 yet to grind the face of his own servants ; and by so 
 much as this is possible, society should drill itself in 
 the difficult doctrine that God hath made of one blood, 
 and will call to one judgment, all nations of men. 
 Society is very careful of its extremities, — its purple 
 and its rags, but midway is there not a great cemetery 
 filled with living hearts, whose only hope is death? 
 Is it, then, really human nature or human circum- 
 stances on which benevolence is operating? Society 
 has to be saved from mistaking patronage for philan- 
 thropy, and can only be so saved by a deep study of 
 the life of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Such a civilization as that of the nineteenth century 
 brings society very much under the influence of the 
 richest culture and refinement. The spirit of the age 
 is aesthetic. Even utility now goes abroad gilded and 
 brocaded most elaborately. The humblest industry has 
 been taught to aspire to a position in the temple of the 
 arts ; and nation challenges nation to a comparison 
 of handiwork. Under such circumstances there is a 
 special temptation to worship faculty, skill, or genius, 
 — the attributes rather than the nature of man. We 
 now ask for certificates of merit, and make manhood 
 prove itself by competitive examinations. And now 
 that certificates, medals, and titles are so plentiful, it is a 
 bare chance if the uncertificated man escape contempt. 
 Men are industriously trained to criticise the external ; 
 they are learned in all artificialism ; inexorably exact- 
 ing in matters of dress, posture, and pronunciation. 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 63 
 
 What, then, can the unconventional man do? What 
 if he still be "lost" ? Then the ministry of Christ 
 becomes his hope, for he never forgets the " lost " man, 
 but goes after him till he is found. Refinement brings 
 its own perils. When refinement boasts of itself, it 
 becomes vulgarity. True refinement is a question of 
 the heart, not an attainment of the schools ; under the 
 roughest exterior the most tender sensibilities may 
 throb, and under the finest there may be dross and 
 dust. After all, then, the question is fundamental : 
 man, not circumstances ; man as God made him, not 
 as he has made himself. 
 
 A true conception of the value of human nature lies 
 at the very foundation of Christ's earthly mission. 
 The term salvation is important only so far as human 
 nature is important. The Cross is the only adequate 
 interpretation of man. Would Christ, from all that 
 we have seen of him in this rapid examination only, 
 have died for a trifle? Gather a multitude of the 
 worst characters that can be found, and let the heart 
 say how much of its blood it would shed for their ele- 
 vation. Not a drop, probably. It cannot see far 
 enough. It sees the worst, not the best. Only God 
 can value man ; he knows how he made him ; what 
 music there is yet in the untouched chords of the 
 human soul ; he knows how terrible would be his own 
 loneliness if the child of his heart were lost. But 
 some men are vulgar : true, yet they are men still, but 
 must be refined. All the gifts of man are to have a 
 downward influence as v^ell as an upward tendency. 
 Reflnement is to refine others. Culture is to be an in- 
 spiration, not a terror to those who are still rude. The 
 
164 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 criminal is to see in the judge what he himself might 
 have been, and what even yet he may become. The 
 chaste woman is to be the hope, not the dread, of her 
 fallen sister. Education is not to enclose itself in an 
 unapproachable hermitage, but to move among the 
 rude humanities with a subduing and inspiring grace. 
 This is the very spirit of Jesus Christ. He said, " It 
 is more blessed to give than to receive," and that the 
 chief of his disciples was to be servant of all. Merely, 
 then, as a matter of argument, it must be allowed that 
 Jesus Christ, immeasurably beyond any other teacher, 
 recognized the greatness of human nature. How did 
 he come by this unparalleled estimate? Certainly he 
 had no inducement to flatter it in return for his per- 
 sonal reception on the earth. Sometimes pleasant cir- 
 cumstances force weak observers into an exaggeration 
 of praise ; but in spite of the harshest reception Christ 
 affirmed that God so loved the world that he gave his 
 only-begotten Son for its salvation. His verdict is thus 
 the more important by reason of the conditions under 
 which it was given. Had he been asked to give an 
 opinion of human nature before he assumed it, his 
 opinion might, on easily understood grounds, have 
 been favorable ; but after he has lain in the manger, 
 been exposed to hunger and thirst and cold, been 
 smitten on the face and condemned as a felon, when 
 he has been laughed at as a fanatic or shunned as a 
 madman, he speaks of human nature with the fond 
 tenderness and lofty reverence of one who was pre- 
 paring to die for it. Something more than human 
 must explain this humanness. Every other man falls 
 short of it : how came a Galilean peasant to have it 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 65 
 
 all? It is an afTront to common sense to say that it is 
 an imaginary sketch ; but even if it be, what then ? 
 The problem is not solved ; for as only a poet can 
 write a poem, so only a Christ could have conceived a 
 Christ. 
 
 The first thing, then, that is before us is Christ's ad- 
 justment of man's relation to man, giving us deeper 
 insight into humanity, inspiring mutual love, and 
 strengthening the common trust of society. There is 
 no phase of his adjustment of man which, though less 
 commanding, is yet one of great interest — than is his 
 way of setting them towards 7tature, Christ walked 
 much in the open country with his disciples, and gave 
 them a new method of reading the landscape and all 
 natural objects. He turned nature into a great book 
 of illustration ; he showed that every bush was aflame 
 with consuming fire and vocal with the utterances of 
 God. He made all nature preach the doctrine of trust 
 in the divine Fatherhood. He spoke of the lilies as 
 pledges of God's care, and pointed to the fowls as an 
 illustration of God's watchfulness over all life. He 
 bade his disciples consider these things, and lay them 
 to heart as defences against distrust or apprehension. 
 Who knows how much life there is in a lily? Who 
 can measure the distance between God and a flower 
 of the field? What connection there is between the 
 lily and the man we have not yet been sufficiently edu- 
 cated to discern, but Christ's lesson is pointless if there 
 is not a line common to all kinds of life, running 
 through and binding all. It would be useless to " con- 
 sider the lilies " if they and the considerers had no 
 point in common, though in the present state of our 
 
1 66 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 faculties it may be inappreciable ; as well might 
 the beggar say that he would "consider" the door- 
 plates of the city because the hands that burnished 
 them might feed him. The explanation is that the 
 universe is a series, and that he who cares for the least 
 will care for the greatest ; that simplicity and beauty 
 and fragrance and every form of life are all of God, and 
 that the Creator of all is also the servant of all. Christ 
 thus showed not only the refining and stimulating 
 power of nature, but the perfect unity of the Divine 
 government, by teaching that the God of the flowers 
 is the God of the human race, and that He who cared 
 for the ephemeral leaf could not forget the immortal 
 man. This lesson is invaluable not only for its imme- 
 diate practical comfort, but as warranting the applica- 
 tion of inductive reasoning to the Divine nature as 
 well as to Divine processes of education and govern- 
 ment. In syntax the grammarians have put as and so 
 in relation, but Christ teaches us to put them together 
 in the deepest questions of experimental religion and 
 speculative theology, and thus climb our way up to 
 the very seat of the Eternal. He brings men very 
 near to God when, in a parallel which would be blas- 
 phemous if it were not true, he says,- " If jj/^ . . . how 
 much more your Father? " — the plane is one, though 
 the intermediate points are immeasurably distant. 
 Christ says — Begin with the lily and reason upward 
 to the absolute, and then descend and teach lessons of 
 loving and reverent ti'ust in God to anxious men, who 
 are foolishly carrying all the weight of to-morrow on 
 shoulders already pressed by the burden of to-day. 
 But can the conscious learn from the unconscious? 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 67 
 
 Can the man learn anything from the lily? Enough, 
 to know that the lily and the man eat at the same 
 table, and quench their thirst at a common fountain. 
 We have no answer to enigmas respecting the con- 
 sciousness of nature ; but as Christ set men down by 
 the lily to consider it, they may justly feel that there is 
 a mystery in life of the lowest kinds which compels 
 the conclusion, solemn yet gladsome, that the whole 
 earth is sacred with the presence of God — the very 
 gate of heaven. 
 
 The third relation which Christ came to adjust (the 
 first, indeed, in order of importance) was the relation 
 of man to God ; and in the consideration of this point 
 we shall ascertain something of what may be distinc- 
 tively termed Christ's theology — Christ's view and 
 representation of God. Christ revealed God, not by 
 direct religious teaching alone, but by the whole tenor 
 of his course among men. It might have been sup- 
 posed, had the matter been submitted to conjecture, 
 that in the first instance Christ would have delivered 
 elaborate discourses concerning the Godhead, and, 
 by frank statements about heaven and his own pre- 
 incarnate position therein, have met and satisfied the 
 natural curiosity of his hearers. It does not appear 
 that Christ adopted the most likely means to accom- 
 plish his work ; on the contrary, he seems to have 
 done everything to excite sus^^icion and prejudice, to 
 have tantalized expectation, and mocked the efforts of 
 natural reasoning. We have now to deal with his 
 method of revealing God, and putting man in a right 
 relation to him ; and we venture to say that however 
 far conjecture may be disappointed in that method, it 
 
l68 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 will be allowed that no teacher ever represented God 
 in so pleasing and attractive a manner. There is 
 depth enough of solemnity, too. No hearer can feel 
 a disposition towards levity while listening to Christ's 
 expositions of God's nature. God, according to those 
 expositions, is not only unseen, but invisible ; no man 
 hath seen him, only the Son ; no man but the Son can 
 reveal him : here is majesty, — here a feeling of awe 
 steals over the listener. Assuming the truth of these 
 statements, one conclusion cannot be escaped, viz., 
 that all previous relations and all subsequent doctrines 
 respecting the Godhead must be judged by Christ's 
 words, and accepted only so far as they are consonant 
 with them. No greater claim could be asserted by 
 any teacher than to be the only revealer of God. This 
 point should be dwelt upon with most careful reflec- 
 tion. When a man separates himself from all other 
 men, and even confines God himself to one instrument 
 of revelation, he assumes a position dangerous by its 
 very extremity, unless the claim be upheld by irref- 
 ragable and universally appreciable proofs. 
 
 From Christ's teaching respecting God we learn, in 
 so many w^ords, that God is a Spirit, and that God is 
 a Father, — really the only two things that men 
 require to know about him, all else being involved 
 in those designations. In teaching these doctrines, 
 Christ said that spirit mu§t be met by spirit, and 
 therefore men must be born again ; and, secondly, that 
 fatherhood on the part of God must be met by sonship 
 on the part of man, and therefore that he had himself 
 come amongst men as God's Son. These high revela- 
 tions could not be understood at once, and therefore he 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 1 69 
 
 approached them from distant points, always, how- 
 ever, keeping his eye steadily upon them. Healing 
 the body was an alphabetic way of saying, " Ye must 
 be boi'n again ; " ministering to human want was the 
 same way of saying, "God is your Father." He 
 began at the lowest accessible point, and pursued his 
 way to the ultimate truths. An illustration of this 
 happy method of graduating philanthropic service is 
 given in one of the most dramatic and exciting 
 chapters in the New Testament. In that chapter 
 the hero says, " Whether he be a sinner or no I know 
 not ; one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I 
 see." This " one thing " was the rock from which the 
 man could not be displaced, and he was determined 
 to stand there until he should be called higher. Here 
 is Christ's plan of always being behind a man with a 
 fact, and in front of him with a doctrine. The church 
 is exposed to the peril of taking the doctrine into its 
 care and leaving the fact, — a plan of service as ill 
 adapted to the temper and condition of society now as 
 it was in the days of Christ. Men must be met at the 
 points where remedial ideas are most needed and will 
 be best understood. The blind man needs something 
 more than " the concord of sweet sounds ; " in his case 
 effort must be directed to the eye, not to the ear. The 
 man who is perishing of hunger needs bread most, 
 not doctrine or prayer. The soul that is possessed 
 with a devil must first be dispossessed, then taught 
 divine doctrines. Instrumentalities must be adapted 
 to circumstances. This was certainly Christ's plan 
 of movement — not in a sudden and startling manner, 
 bewildering the understanding with a recondite dog- 
 8 
 
170 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 ma, but quietly joining man at the most accessible 
 point, and charming him into deeper companionship, 
 until he who began as a needy client remained as a 
 consecrated disciple. Christ's skill in adaptation is 
 illustrated sharply by the answer which he returned to 
 John's inquiry : " The blind receive their sight, and 
 the lame walk ; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf 
 hear," — that is to say, every man found in Christ 
 " the piece which was lost : " the deaf were not 
 sharpened in vision, they received their hearing ; the 
 blind were not quickened in hearing, they received 
 their sight ; the leper was not heightened in stature, he 
 was cleansed of his leprosy. By so working, it was 
 indeed sometimes difficult to see the exact relation of 
 the physical deed to the spiritual purpose of Christ's 
 mission — viz., to reveal the Father. We are tempted 
 4;o become impatient with Christ as he devotes so 
 much attention to details : it seems almost a waste of 
 time for a man who came to save a world to-be linger- 
 ing over a special case of disease. Could the blind 
 man not have had his soul saved without first having 
 his eyes open? If not, what becomes of the blind 
 men of to-day? We think that we could have 
 hastened Christ's movements, especially in the physi- 
 cal department of his service. Why not speak one 
 healing word for all, so that throughout the land 
 every sick-bed might have been vacated at the same 
 hour? What a magnificent introduction to spiritual 
 labor this would have been ! How quickly he could 
 thus have come to his main point — the revelation of 
 God ! Yet he lingers over individual cases with a 
 calmness which baffles us, considering how much 
 
CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS. 17I 
 
 work lies before him. But is it not the same with 
 him whom we know as Creator? Does he not dally- 
 most vexatioLisly in physical processes? How long a 
 time he takes to mould an ear of corn ! And what a 
 waste of power it appears, that the earth should bring 
 forth but one harvest in the year ! In his physical 
 service Christ was strikingly like what we know of 
 the Creator. The meaning of this slowness may- 
 come to us in the higher spheres. In the mean time, 
 impatience is an infallible sign of weakness. 
 
 On the matter of setting man in a right relation to 
 God something further will be said in another chap- 
 ter : it is introduced here as completing the statement 
 that Christ undertook the adjustment of human rela- 
 tions ; and while it is thus before us it may be well 
 to repeat that there is nothing revolting in Christ's 
 representation of God, but everything that is pleasing 
 and satisfying to the tenderest instincts of human 
 nature. God is the Spirit ; God is the Father ; God 
 is revealed by the Son, and there is no way but 
 through the Son to the Father ; God loved the world, 
 and proved his love by the gift of his Son. This is 
 Christ's theology. In Christ's God there is nothing 
 to terrify the heart that yearns for him. He has no 
 thirst for revenge, no bloody decree to execute. He 
 is so tender that a heart-wish will move him ; so 
 generous, that he will withhold nothing from them 
 that are reconciled to him. His anger with the 
 wicked is only the recoil of his love of the good. 
 This being so, Christ says — Come to him ; be as he 
 is ; you misunderstand him if you think evil of him ; 
 
172 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 I know him better than any other being can ever 
 know him, and I declare unto you that his power 
 and wisdom are equalled by his love. A great 
 speech to make to the human world ! How sincere 
 it was we may see when we come to study the Cross 
 of Christ. 
 
173 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 
 
 T TAS the civilization of the nineteenth century 
 -■- -*- rendered Christianity obsolete, or has Jesus 
 Christ made any provision for the development of 
 humanity? Was Christ's merely a day's work done 
 in the usual order of things, or had he a reach over 
 the ages, controlling and moulding them to the very 
 end of the w^orld? Is the New Testament to be 
 shelved with '^The Republic " or " The Nicomachean 
 Ethics ; " or is it the life of the world that now is, 
 with its ever-varying phases and attitudes, its storms 
 of war, and its revolutions of thought? We may be 
 able to gather an answer from Christ's own words. 
 
 Christ repeatedly spoke of his own " hereafter," and 
 of the " hereafter " of the church. His criticisms and 
 instructions were by no means confined to the past 
 and the present ; they were full of anticipation, over- 
 flowing the hour in which they were spoken and 
 making for themselves a channel through all time. 
 There were terms in his speech which denoted great 
 purposes as to time, persons, and moral victories, — 
 such as " unto the end of the world," " forever," 
 " every creature," " all nations," " east, west, north, 
 and south." It seems to be necessary, therefore, to 
 preserve the logical consistency of Christ's method, 
 
174 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 that as it was "expedient" for the disciples that he 
 should "go away," that some provision should be 
 made for the expected development of human nature 
 and the requirements of the Attendant expansion and 
 refinement of general civilization. The world would 
 certainly become larger, could Christ occupy the 
 extended space? The harvest would be great, was 
 there root-room enough in Christ's heart? Christ 
 entirely reversed what we should have considered 
 the proper order of things, and thus gave another 
 check to anything like presumptuous criticism of his 
 method of redeeming and educating the world. The 
 common plan would probably have assumed some 
 such shape as this — Christ must abide personally 
 among men until the redemptive purpose be fully 
 accomplished, not only on his part, but also on the 
 part of the world ; it will be best for him to make 
 short work, and to break up the present economy as 
 soon as he has made clear what is meant by his having 
 been given to save men ; or, if he continue the present 
 rude structure of society, his disciples will necessarily 
 have many questions to ask and many difficulties to 
 overcome, and he must be continually at hand, so that 
 the reference may be instant and decisive : when the 
 last man is safe in heaven, and every possible spoil 
 has been recovered from the enemy, then let Christ 
 himself abandon the earth, and take the headship of 
 the glorified church. Instead of this, which looks so 
 feasible and tempting on paper, Christ was actually the 
 first to leave the scene of trial, and his disciples were 
 consequently deprived of the inspiration and comfort 
 of a visible Christ. The poor, simple men had been 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 75 
 
 called to a most trying prominence, and the man who 
 called them took the earliest opportunity of leaving 
 them alone in the world ! Under such circumstances, 
 how could the future be other than gloomy and por- 
 tentous ? The disciples were committed to an idea ; 
 they bore a name which had a bad repute among all 
 the ecclesiastical leaders and persons of social conse- 
 quence ; they were to carry the cross as their charac- 
 teristic badge, and to be hated of all men for their 
 Master's sake ; as sheep among wolves, they were to 
 make their perilous way. Knowing all this, Christ 
 left them. Would he abandon a half-built tower? 
 Did he leave because his resources were exhausted, 
 or because he could better move the ages from the 
 altitude of the heavens? 
 
 We may pause a moment to say, that men can be 
 trained to strength only by being thrown on their own 
 resources in certain determining crises. The parent 
 acts upon this doctrine when he sends his son to a 
 distant school, that he may be thrown into contact 
 with rivals and strengthened by daily contest with 
 eager competitors. There is an educational element 
 in opposition, in suftering, and in provocation, and it 
 is for very love of his child that the parent withdraws 
 the comforts of home and places him in circumstances 
 which will test his nerve and rouse his soul. The lad 
 carries with him all the mingled comfort and pain of 
 home associations, upon which his heart will draw 
 when the stress of events is heavy upon him ; in their 
 ver}^ absence his parents will be present to him with 
 intenser reality than ever, and the hiding of their face 
 will bring with it a deeper disclosure of their heart. 
 
176 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 In some such way, only with infinite expansions of 
 meaning, shall we come to know what was meant by 
 that blank dismay which the disciples must have felt 
 when their Master said he intended to leave them. 
 
 It is to be noted that in all Christ's teaching there 
 are manifold references to the future. Many a state- 
 ment was like a sealed letter, not to be broken but by 
 time. The life which Christ sketched was often an 
 ideal life — beginning in a grain of mustard-seed, end- 
 ing in a great tree. Again and again he hints at what 
 shall be, and from the dim " hereafter" draws motives 
 for immediate direction. Does not the parent help 
 his child over to-day by talking of to-morrow? It is 
 not upon a near future that Christ dwells, but upon 
 the most distant ranges of terrestrial experience, as 
 a father often tells his son what he shall have when 
 he is a man. With much detail Christ outlined the 
 final assize which he would hold upon " all nations," 
 and from the very evening of the world drew consid- 
 erations for the government of its morning hours. He 
 thus established a practical relation between the events 
 of all time, uniting human history by stretching the 
 cable of a common Judgment from shore to shore. 
 This was enough, meanwhile. He could not, consid- 
 ering the moral infancy of the disciples, describe every 
 line of latitude and longitude, though each was pres- 
 ent to his own mind, but he fixed their eye upon a 
 distant and most conspicuous object, nothing less than 
 himself enthroned in his glory and encircled by his 
 angels, and bade them strike their course over the 
 unknown but not ungoverned waters, so that they 
 might eventually reach it. The men who had been 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 7/ 
 
 with Christ three years, and heard from his own lips 
 a description of the Judgment day, could not go far 
 wrong in any question that might arise in their expe- 
 rience. The spirit of philanthropy was to be the 
 spirit of judgment. It is very remarkable that Christ 
 should have enabled men to bring the remotest fact 
 of time to bear upon the concerns of the passing 
 moment. We can now make every day a day of 
 Judgment ; we know the questions which will come 
 up ; we know the standard of appeal ; we can antici- 
 pate our individual colloquy with the Judge ; we can 
 hear his voice ; we can " go away into everlasting 
 punishment," or into life eternal. This was a most 
 practical provision which Christ made for the devel- 
 opment of humanity : by giving us a Judgment day, 
 he enabled us to try our deeds by the very fire of the 
 final conflagration. All nations were to come to the 
 same judgment, and all were to be tried by one Spirit. 
 It is then, to say the least of it, remarkable, consider- 
 ing how many questions Christ left unanswered, that 
 he should have set before men the transactions of the 
 final hour of human history. This he would not have 
 done had he not contemplated an educational effect. 
 
 As yet, however, we have but two points, the very 
 beginning and the very end — Christ's personal min- 
 istry and Christ's personal judgment : is there nothing 
 between ? Probably the strongest men might be able 
 to traverse the distance between those points, but the 
 strongest men are few in number ; what is to become 
 of the hosts who are to be watched and kept like chil- 
 dren ? — men of unsteady purpose, and perverted faculty 
 of self-judgment? Christ foresaw the difficulty, and 
 8* 
 
t7S ecce deus. 
 
 provided for it. He had given a personal ministry 
 and sketched the great judgment ; but how could he 
 cover the w^hole line of human history betvs^een ? This 
 inquiry he answered in a sentence : " When he the 
 Spirit of Truth is come, whom I will send unto you 
 from the Father, he will guide you unto all truth," 
 It may be convenient to say in detail what that Spirit 
 is, so far as we can gather from the Christian writings : 
 he is then (i) the Spirit of truth; (2) the Spirit of 
 comfort ; (3) the Spirit of liberty ; (4) the Spirit of 
 love ; (5) the Spirit of holiness, because the Spirit of 
 God. Now, assuming that these statements are true, 
 it is easy to see how Christ has provided for the mul- 
 tiplying wants of an expanding civilization. This 
 Spirit fills, overflows man's capacity, and meets, with 
 all God-like exuberance, every possible necessity of 
 human nature. So to speak, he surrounds man as 
 well as dwells in him, and according to the outward 
 circumstance as well as the inward condition his min- 
 istry is regulated. Thus in the order of revelation we 
 have had first that which is natural, afterwards that 
 which is spiritual ; first the sacred letter, then the 
 Holy Spirit. The ancient church was fed with the 
 milk of the Word, the modern church needs strong 
 meat : " strong meat belongeth to them that are full 
 of age, even those who by reason of use have their 
 senses exercised to discern good and evil." Instead 
 of burdening the memory with technicalities, Christ 
 provided for the quickening of the moral faculty in 
 man, and thus, in spiritual things, acted in relation 
 to the human soul as in temporal things God had 
 done. God gives man power to get products out of 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 79 
 
 the soil ; but instead of saying this must be eaten 
 and that must be refused, he gives the power, call it 
 instinct or reason, which saves him who rightly uses 
 it from noxious plants and animals. It was better to 
 give the faculty of discrimination than to label all the 
 products of the earth. A spirit is better than a cata- 
 logue. There are few things in the lower range of 
 life more remarkable than man's instinct by which he 
 discovers what to eat. Every day he is called upon 
 to choose, even so far as the body is concerned, 
 between life and death. The life of the body is 
 exposed to constant risk. In nearly every field there 
 are roots or leaves which might injure or even destroy 
 the health of the body ; yet man continues to make 
 a selection adapted to his nature. These poisonous 
 roots are like so many temptations ; they are to the 
 body what vices are to the soul ; yet speaking gen- 
 erally — for the exceptions only prove the rule — man 
 is superior to them, he refuses if not resists, and saves 
 himself. How is this? Is there not a spirit in man, 
 and doth not the inspiration of the Almighty give 
 him understanding? "This also cometh forth from 
 the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and 
 excellent in working." It may be asked. How has 
 God provided for material civilization? and the an- 
 swer is, By the spirit that is in man ; so it may be 
 asked, How has Christ provided for intellectual expan- 
 sion, and the corresponding claims which the intellect 
 would present? and the answer is substantially the 
 same. When Christ opened the eyes of the blind, he 
 did not require to create another universe that the 
 vision might have an object to rest upon ; the universe 
 
I So ECCE DEUS. 
 
 was there, waiting to be looked at. So the universe 
 of truth has existed from the beginning, and as there 
 are steep hills, perilous precipices, intricate winding 
 ways, and not a few tangled forest-paths, he has prom- 
 ised the Spirit to guide men into all truth ; emphati- 
 cally to guide men, the very word implying difficulty, 
 danger, and constantly new evolutions and combina- 
 tions ; not only to guide, but to guide into all truth ; 
 not into some departments, but into all ; not into ex- 
 ternal views of truth, but into its very essence, so that 
 men might know truth under every disguise, and be 
 able to eliminate it from every sophism and every 
 heresy. We know what it is to be so far in sympathy 
 with the spirit of a companion as to be able to pro- 
 nounce an opinion about any of his reputed actions ; 
 instantly we say such a charge or statement is true or 
 false ; so entire is our mutual accord, that judgment 
 of him is like judgment of our own heart. Our com- 
 panion, if of a strong character, has put his spirit 
 into us, and instinctively we have come to know 
 whether any report of him is likely to be true or 
 untrue ; we know so well his magnanimity that we 
 resent the imputation of any ignoble deed which 
 rumor may connect with his name, or accept with 
 thankfulness any report which details his excellences 
 — in this case our spirit witnesses with the spirit of 
 the report that it is true. In a modified degree this 
 represents the relation of Christians to Christ ; that 
 relation is so intimate, so vital indeed, nothing less 
 than consubstantiality having been effected by eating 
 his flesh and drinking his blood, that they can unhesi- 
 tatingly determine the truth or untruth of any propo- 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. l8l 
 
 sition concerning him, and infallibly distinguish be- 
 tween a legitimate expansion of his doctrines and a 
 distortion of them. 
 
 The intercommunion between the spirit of man and 
 the Spirit of God, an intercommunion re-established 
 and enlarged by Christ, is the guarantee of purity and 
 progress on the part of the church. By Christ's min- 
 istry we are now elevated to the highest plane, and 
 the words of John have a deep meaning : " The anoint- 
 ing which ye have received of him abideth in you, 
 and ye need not that any man teach you." The teach- 
 ing of the church does not now come from the outside ; 
 Christians have in them a well of water springing up 
 into eternal life. They judge the preacher and the 
 author by the anointing which they have received of 
 the Holy One, and by their own spirit are able to try 
 all other spirits, whether they are of God. The wit- 
 ness of the Spirit changes the aspect and meaning of 
 all outward things. The Christian writings them- 
 selves are valuable in proportion as the spirit of the 
 reader is enlightened by the Spirit that dictated them. 
 The dead man is heedless of the sumptuous banquet : 
 the dead soul is as heedless of the richei^banquet of 
 revelation. There must be two witnessing spirits. 
 The sun is nothing to the blind man : give him vision, 
 and the sun becomes his day. Christ thus provides 
 for details by providing for universals. He gives life, 
 and he gives the Holy Ghost to guide life ; and in these 
 two, yet indivisible gifts, all things necessary for human 
 cultivation are included. The world had no adequate 
 notion of life until Christ came ; in fact, so vast is the 
 volume of life which he offers, that it may be almost 
 
1 82 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 literally said that Christ brought life and immortality 
 to lights as things not known before ; not only life and 
 immortality as future blessings, but as present and 
 immediately available realities. 
 
 The speculative life of the church is marked by an 
 immense variety of I'esults. Hardly any tviro thinkers 
 have adapted precisely the same conclusions. How is 
 this to be accounted for, if they have been illuminated 
 and directed by the same Spirit? Easily and satis- 
 factorily. Life is not to be judged by formal logic. 
 Ask two travellers who have completed the same 
 journey to describe the course they have taken, with 
 all the incidents. They have traversed the same road, 
 on the same day, under the same conditions, yet the 
 statement of the one is meagre, the statement of the 
 other minute. How so ? They walked under the same 
 light, and the great volume of the landscape lay open 
 before them. The difference is in the mental habitudes 
 of the observers. The eye of the one was trained ; the 
 eye of the other was imeducated. The same thing is 
 illustrated in the reading of a book : one reader is in- 
 structed, another disappointed. And this diversity, 
 when the spj^rit of censoriousness is excluded, is fruit- 
 ful of good. It provokes to deeper and more con- 
 tinuous investigation ; it saves the intellectual world 
 from monotony, stagnation, and death ; it creates a gen- 
 erous interest in the gifts of fellow-inquirers. There 
 is even a higher benefit : it shows that no one man has 
 all the truth ; it breaks up monopoly, it destroys infal- 
 libility. There is a truth on every side of polemic 
 theology ; and just as men of every clime and race 
 are necessary to make up the entire of God's idea of 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 83 
 
 humanity, so every degree of truth, and every aspect 
 of truth, must be brought together, if we w^ould see 
 the totality of God's doctrine. One nation has caught 
 its poetry, another its logic ; one has condensed it into 
 maxims, another has elaborated it into most complex 
 philosophies ; no two of them are agreed as to nomen- 
 clature ; still the doctrine, like its author, is One, though 
 now it is as steady as a star, and anon it heaves like the 
 billows of the sea. 
 
 But these are speculative differences merely ; it still 
 remains to inquire how moral aberrations are to be 
 accounted for. The answer is, that they are to be ac- 
 counted for on moral grounds. Paul admonishes men 
 not to grieve the Spirit, and not to quench the Spirit. 
 The Spirit is a " guide," not a tyrant. The Spirit 
 remains with any man only so long as that man is a 
 consenting party. The Spirit may have taught the 
 right way, yet the heart may have rejected the teach- 
 ing. " Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor." 
 Christ said to the Pharisees, " If ye were blind, ye 
 should have no sin : but now ye say. We see ; there- 
 fore your sin remaineth." The same principle is 
 asserted by an apostle who lays down the doctrine : 
 " To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, 
 to him it is sin." So long as man is man, he must 
 have the power of resisting God ; and so long as God is 
 God, he must wait until the heart-door be opened from 
 the inside. Omnipotence itself cannot force hearts. 
 
 By laying down a few universal principles, sketch- 
 ing a kind of river-map, and giving the Spirit of 
 Truth to be a constant indwelling guest of the soul, 
 Christ is as truly, as potentially, present with this age 
 
184 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 as he was with his immediate followers in Judaea. 
 This, indeed, is not the whole of the fact. Of every 
 great man it may be justly said that he is more in- 
 fluentially present after his death than during his life. 
 Shakspeare exerts a wider influence to-day than in 
 the days of his flesh ; so does Milton ; so does Luther ; 
 but not so Hannibal, or Caesar in his military aspect, 
 for destroyers must decrease, but creators must in- 
 crease. Men's names are kept up with men's say- 
 ings. It is remarkable, as an eminent obsei*ver of 
 human nature has said, that the question is not 
 only what is said, but who said it? So that the say- 
 ing is associated with the person ; and if the saying 
 be strong enough to keep pace with the march of the 
 generations, its author may be said to be with men 
 " even unto the end of the world." What is true in 
 degree of thinkers is true, in an absolute sense, of the 
 man in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily. Notwithstanding the fierce iconoclasm of the 
 age, a hard statement bearing the name of Milton will 
 secure a more . reverent hearing than if it were pro- 
 nounced anonymously. This is right. In the heat 
 and prejudice of controverted times it is well to with- 
 hold the name, but whoever speaks a word that goes 
 to the world's heart will quicken an eager desire on 
 the part of those whom he has benefited to have his 
 personality identified. Christ will never be dissociated 
 from Christ's sayings, and in this way he will be with 
 his people unto the end of the world, but in a still 
 deeper way — deeper because the words will receive 
 continually broadening interpretations by the Holy 
 Ghost, and be more urgently and powerfully applied 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 85 
 
 to human experience. The first reading cannot bring 
 out all the meaning of the words. It flows like the 
 oil which the prophet blessed. The few words of 
 Christ have expanded into libraries ; the poet has sung 
 them, the painter has painted them ; and to-day un^ 
 numbered thousands are eating the bread which is dis- 
 tributed by his hand. Seminally, at least, everything 
 in morals can be found in Christ. No man has spoken 
 truths so deep, so far-reaching, and with this remarka- 
 ble circumstance in addition — he was the first speaker 
 upon the themes which he discussed, he borrowed 
 nothing, he created all. He outlined the most com- 
 prehensive theories ; sketched plots which poets might 
 work out ; gave rebukes which showed the distance 
 which lay between him and all hypocrites, oppressors, 
 and self-seekers ; and uttered promises which have 
 sunk into the sorrowing hearts of all subsequent gen- 
 erations. He is thus, and not thus only, with men 
 unto the end of the world. 
 
 Christ said that he came to give men life, and to 
 give it " more abundantly." In this latter expression 
 he hinted his relation to the gi^at question of human 
 development — showed that man would never outgrow 
 him, and, in fact, that there was no growth apart 
 from his own vitalizing energy. A generous sophism 
 lurks in the supposition that one man is as good as 
 another, or even that one man is as much a man as 
 another. Manhood varies — varies in volume and 
 purity. Man grows from his original condition — by 
 imperceptible increments, indeed — yet he still grows, 
 if the true life be in him, so that two becomes four, 
 and five ten ; and as certainly as he grows he becomes 
 
1 86 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 liberated from the obscurity and humiliation which 
 marked his starting-point. Human nature is, of 
 course, primordially the same, but its possible degrees 
 of development are infinite ; and it cannot but be a 
 fact of immense importance in this argument, that in 
 those countries where most about Christ is known, 
 every science and every art is most liberally patronized. 
 The light which Christ sheds upon the world has 
 never been proved to be unfavorable to the highest 
 intellectual cultivation, but has been proved — and, in 
 fact, is being proved every day — to be in the highest 
 degree favorable to all that can be legitimately classi- 
 fied under the term progress. As a simple matter of 
 fact, Christ is to-day increasing the life of the world. 
 Take a common case : An English Arab is taken off 
 the streets by a Christian philanthropist, and placed 
 under religious instruction ; he is taught, for the time, 
 something of his nature and something of his destiny ; 
 according to his capacity the instruction is continued 
 to him ; by and by he comes to feel that in some little 
 degree he is human, that he has wonderful powers, 
 that he may be good ^nd do good : so far the philan- 
 thropist has given him " life ; " — still the culture pro- 
 ceeds, ideas take a wider range ; the philanthropist 
 conducts him from point to point in the circumference 
 of knowledge, hoping to find the point most adapted 
 to the youth's capability. At length it is found, and 
 the quondam Arab becomes an explorer, or scientific 
 student, or a man of letters, and so has not only 
 "life," but "life more abundantly," — precisely as 
 Christ promised. Who called him from the dead, 
 and made him a revealer of life to others ? Can the 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 87 
 
 scantest justice hesitate as to an answer? There are, 
 however, we may probably be reminded, many men 
 illustrious in science who are not, in the generally ac- 
 cepted sense of the term, or perhaps in any sense of 
 the term, " followers of Christ ; " — in what relations 
 do they stand to the Life-giver? They may come 
 under Christ's own classification, " They that are not 
 against us are for us." But what if they are " against " 
 Christ? Then they certainly should not require to be 
 reminded that the whole atmosphere is, so to speak, 
 Christian. All the forces of modern civilization have 
 taken effect under decidedly Christianized conditions, 
 and the more truly scientific mind will be the last to 
 doubt the remote, subtle, and most penetrating in- 
 fluence of what may be termed moral climate. The 
 whole air in which the intellect moves is charged with 
 Christian elements ; and no scientific man would be 
 speaking secundum artem if he denied, at least, their 
 probable influence on the whole current of opinion 
 and practice. There may be a difliculty, in some 
 minds, in tracing the connection between Christian 
 thought and purely scientific pursuit ; even Aristotle 
 confesses that it is " difficult to say how a weaver or 
 carpenter would be benefited, with reference to his 
 own art, by knowing the self-good ; " yet reflection 
 may be able to trace even this apparently remote re- 
 lationship. Whatever liberates the mind from low 
 and self-seeking purposes, whatever brings it into more 
 intensely conscious contact with the absolute, gives the 
 whole man a wider and firmer mastery over all that is 
 below and around him. The idea is illustrated par- 
 tially by the admitted effect of high classical culture 
 
l88 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 upon the discussion of general questions of political 
 and literary life. The man who has been thoroughly 
 drilled in ancient literature will, other things being 
 equal, be better able to discuss subjects of common in- 
 terest, to trace their bearings and forecast their conse- 
 quences, than the unlettered man ; not that there may 
 be any very patent connection between philology and 
 politics, but because of the severe intellectual disci- 
 pline and consequent self-mastery which such drill 
 necessitates. Even allowing that Aristotle is right in 
 suggesting the difficulty of seeing how a weaver or 
 carpenter could be benefited in his own art by know- 
 ing the " self-good," it is obvious that the more any 
 man knows of any great subject, the less likelihood is 
 there of his continuing in the position of a weaver or 
 carpenter. Intellectual vitality signifies social eleva- 
 tion ; and though some may be disposed to raise the 
 grave question, " How could society dispense with its 
 weavers or carpenters ? " yet our business relates pri- 
 marily to the higher considerations, forasmuch as the 
 man is of more importance than the weaver. When 
 manhood rises, the industrial arts will feel the effect 
 of the elevation. 
 
 The inquiry is, " How did Christ propose to make 
 himself not only the contemporary, but the king of all 
 ages? " To this inquiry our answer has been, (i) By 
 a personal ministry ; (2) By a fully delineated Judg- 
 ment ; and (3) By the gift of the Spirit of Truth, 
 whose peculiar function it is to take of the things of 
 Christ, and show them unto the church. It has been 
 admitted by the latest writer on the life of Christ, that 
 Christ could, even after his personal withdrawment, 
 
CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES. 1 89 
 
 visit his people '^ in refreshing inspirations and great 
 acts of providential justice"; " this admission really 
 covers the whole question of Christ's contempora- 
 neousness with all ages, for if he can visit his people 
 at all in " refreshing inspirations and great acts of 
 providential justice," he is necessarily (if faithful to 
 himself) the chief factor in human development on the 
 Christian side. 
 
190 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 
 
 CHRIST was pre-eminently a talker. " Never man 
 spake like this man/' was the testimony of his 
 enemies. After reading the doctrines of Plato, Soc- 
 rates, or Aristotle, we feel that the specific difference 
 between their words and Christ's is the difference be- 
 tween an Inquiry and a Revelation. We feel as if at 
 any moment they might push a speculation too far, or 
 suddenly turn off at a wrong angle — as if they were 
 groping their way along dim and perilous paths, 
 throwing gossamers over the dark rivers, and tempt- 
 ing men to walk over the unsubstantial bridge ; again 
 and again they run the risk of exalting a riddle into a 
 problem, or settling a definition into a law. With 
 this the method of Jesus Christ most strikingly con- 
 trasts. There is, account for it as men please, an 
 authority in every tone ; his language is clear, and if 
 short, it is final ; it never betrays the faintest sign of 
 hesitancy on the part of the speaker ; if it were an 
 immediate revelation from Heaven, there could not be 
 a sharper outline or a firmer emphasis. Thus much 
 may be said simply as ^ matter of criticism, without 
 any prejudgment of the doctrine. It has been sug- 
 gested that he spoke with " the authoritative tone and 
 earnestness of a Jew," but this suggestion, if meant for 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. I9I 
 
 an explanation, is pointless : Christ was not the only 
 Jew who had spoken ; and if " authoritativeness of 
 tone " be characteristic of Jewish teaching, it should 
 be borne in mind that Christ was openly and repeat- 
 edly contradicted by men who spoke with " the au- 
 thoritative tone and earnestness of a Jew," — by the 
 doctors of the law, by the teachers and leaders of the 
 people, by men who held the historic parchments of 
 the land ; so that in all fairness " tone " should be set 
 against " tone," and it should then be explained how 
 the " tone " of the peasant overpowered the " tone '* 
 of great councils or solemn sanhedrims. The case, 
 too, is more strongly in favor of Christ, when it is 
 remembered that he abrogated institutions which had 
 existed for ages under the special sanction of God. 
 Moses, it will be allowed, spoke with "the authorita- 
 tive tone and earnestness of a Jew," yet Christ abol- 
 ished much that Moses had inaugurated. Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah, and Daniel spoke with " the authoritative 
 tone and earnestness of a Jew," yet they spoke of 
 another, not of themselves ; but Christ was his own 
 theme and his own expositor. His immediate disci- 
 ples would not be wanting in " the authoritative tone 
 and earnestness of a Jew," yet every one of them did 
 his wonderful works, not in his own name, but in the 
 name of Christ. Looking, therefore, simply at the 
 facts, it must be admitted, even in a fuller sense than 
 that conveyed by his enemies, that " never man spake 
 like this man," — not even Moses, not the great seers 
 of Israel, not Elijah on Carmel, not John in the wil- 
 derness, nor the contemporary disciples ; — he was 
 what he distinctly claimed to be, — separate from all, 
 because greater than all. 
 
192 * ECCE DEUS. 
 
 The manner in which Chrisfs followers have re- 
 ported him is truly marvellous, — a point which calls 
 for serious thought on the part of all who wish to go 
 carefully through the incidental and tributary evi- 
 dence. In our own day it is so common to have 
 reports of speeches, that we think little of them ; 
 though in many cases so wonderful, yet they have 
 come to be regarded as matters of course. But the 
 disciples were not shorthand writers ; we do not find 
 that one of them was elected clerk, and that in the 
 evening of each day he made entries in a common 
 journal which all could read and revise ; yet they 
 report his discourses often in the first person, and pre- 
 serve all the sharpness and vivacity of dialogue, re- 
 tort, extemporaneous definition, and appeal. We feel 
 throughout that we are reading the words of a talker, 
 not of an author ; all the sharp edge of free speech is 
 singularly preserved ; so much so that with the least 
 effort of imagination, we can be present at the deliv- 
 ery of every discourse, or at every passage at arms, 
 between Christ and his opponents. A strange, yet 
 pleasant feeling of nearness to the event steals over 
 every reader of the evangelic story ; no lengthening 
 shadows of distance diminish the reader's interest ; 
 everything is at hand ! In reading The Laws we are 
 always conscious of the presence of an artist. Plato 
 has, indeed, arranged all the parts taken by the Guest, 
 Clinias, and Megillus with great skill, determining the 
 proportions and balancing the conversation with a 
 very fine appreciation of the requirements of the dia- 
 logue ; yet throughout the elaborate production, we 
 feel that it is all art^ all the work of one master, who 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 1 93 
 
 in the retirement of his home apportioned and decided 
 everything so as to work out the particular object he 
 intended to compass. On the other hand, in reading 
 the Gospels we feel that everything is life-like, spon- 
 taneous, and unfinished, yet suggestive and provoca- 
 tive of thought beyond anything that has ever come 
 from the tongue or pen of man. Yet these Gospels 
 contain no prepared speeches, no formal compositions 
 — nothing but "sayings," often jagged, broken, un- 
 connected, yet singularly full of life. The youngest 
 jauthor could make a better mechanical arrangement, 
 but the oldest could utter no such electric words. 
 Plato's Definitions are practically forgotten, but the 
 Nazarene's words intermingle with universal civiliza- 
 tion ; and this is the more remarkable as they were 
 not formally arranged. A great composer said that 
 he was spending a long time over his work because 
 he intended it to live long, but this Galilean peasant 
 talks extemporaneously, as if simply answering the 
 question of the hour ; yet his words float over all gen- 
 erations, and are prized by men to-day as if they had 
 been addressed exclusively to themselves. This is, 
 perhaps, the most wonderful characteristic of the 
 words of Jesus. Can this be accounted for by '' the 
 authoritative tone and earnestness of a Jew " ? Is it 
 not rather to be accounted for by '^ the authoritative 
 tone and earnestness" of the Son of Man? These 
 "sayings" are not local lamps, but suns set in the 
 firmament commanding the range of all nations. The 
 Nicomachean Ethics are certainly distinguished by a 
 marvellous comprehension of the peculiarities of hu- 
 man nature ; yet whQ will say that the words of Aris- 
 9 
 
194 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 totle are quick with the same intensity of life that is 
 characteristic of the '' sayings'* of Christ? They are, 
 no doubt, wise, critical, and often most practical ; yet 
 the minuteness of definition and the tedious redun- 
 dancy of detail give them a scholastic air which is lit- 
 tle adapted to the tumultuous life of all nations. The 
 best philosophies of the ancient civilization descend 
 so much into detail as to leave no scope for the play 
 of life on the part of the reader. Everything is num- 
 bered, labelled, docketed, — there it is, take it, or be a 
 fool. Plato, as before pointed out, was so voluminous 
 in his details, going from statesmanship, philosophy, 
 science, and rhetoric to early rising, hunting, dancing, 
 money-lending, and Sicilian cookery, as to give one 
 the idea that he undertook to do the work of a domes- 
 tic gasfitter rather than to bring men into the light of 
 the sun. He is so minute as to place a lamp at the 
 corner of every street, at the entrance of every house, 
 and in every room of every habitation. He was a 
 very skilful gasfitter, and very careful ; he ran his trial- 
 light over every tube and every tap, but it may be 
 doubted whether, after all, he was more than a pains- 
 taking gasfitter, — a high character, too, considering 
 the general darkness of his time. Now, Christ, instead 
 of intermeddling with artificial or secondary light, at 
 once, with something more than " the authoritative 
 tone and earnestness of a Jew," announced himself as 
 " the Light of the world," — not Holman Hunt's 
 " Light of the World," who resembles a belated and 
 forlorn traveller carrying a lantern, but a man who 
 had the light in him, and through whom it gleamed 
 like the sun through a summer cloud. Plato lighted 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 
 
 195 
 
 his age with gas, Christ lighted the world with the 
 sun ; the one was local, the other universal ; the one 
 changeable, the other permanent. The heathen phi- 
 losophers gave directions, Christ gave life, Aristotle 
 expounded diametrical conjunction ; Christ said, " A^ 
 ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so 
 unto them." Cicero wrote excellent advices on friend- 
 ship ; Christ said, " Love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 Plato wrote wise prescriptions for particular diseases ; 
 Christ infused his own life into men. The Pythago- 
 reans wrote for favorite circles ; Christ sent his gospel 
 to " all nations." Aristotle quotes from Plato, Plato 
 refers to Homer, and the pages of Cicero abound with 
 quotations and allusions ; but Christ quotes immedi- 
 ately from the Father, and by so much speaks the 
 universal language. 
 
 Chi'ist does not appeal to men as the heathen phi- 
 losophers did. They ask opinions, court criticism, and 
 even the wily and garrulous Socrates gives men an 
 opportunity of differing from him ; but Christ, with 
 " the authoritative tone and earnestness " of the Son 
 of God, says, " This is absolute ; believe it and be 
 saved, or reject it and be damned." He says that he 
 came from the Father, that he speaks the word of the 
 Father, and that he is returning to the Father. So 
 there is nothing between him and God ; immediately 
 behind him, though invisible, lies infinitude, and he 
 sets himself up as the medium on which the voice of 
 the Infinite is broken into human sounds. When a 
 man says, " I came forth from the Father, and am 
 come into the world ; again I leave the world, and go 
 unto the Father," he simply excludes controversy ; 
 
ig6 ECCE^DEUS. 
 
 there is no common ground between him and his 
 interlocutors ; and, when his words are sustained by 
 such mighty deeds as abound in the hfe of Christ, one 
 of two conclusions is inevitable — either the man is 
 speaking the most sublime truth or he is uttering the 
 most awful falsehoods. He cannot occupy any mid- 
 dle position. No man may make himself " equal 
 with God," and yet pass in society merely as a good 
 man. The morality of language would be violated. 
 All human relations would be disorganized. The 
 term "God" might be used to palm off the most 
 infamous charlatanism, and all exactness of language 
 would be supplanted by the exaggerations of an 
 inflamed and incoherent ideality. 
 
 At the risk of speaking paradoxically, it may be 
 said that the sayings of Christ are divine because they 
 are so human, and are human because they are so 
 divine. " He knew what was in man," and this 
 knowledge of human nature was his great weapon 
 alike of attack and defence. The intense humanness 
 of Christ's life is perhaps most seen and felt in his 
 never-failing sympathy with all the conditions of hu- 
 man experience. When he tells men not to think 
 about what they are to eat, it is because he himself is 
 thinking about that subject for them, and is prepared 
 to feed them with his own hand : when he calls men 
 to courage, he means them to draw upon his own 
 power : when he says, " Seek first the kingdom of 
 God," he is prepared to make up all that is wanting 
 for the daily life. He repeatedly referred to his 
 miracles in order to stimulate the faith of his fol- 
 lowers ; — " How many baskets full of fragments took 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 1 97 
 
 ye up?" He thus made recollection the ground of 
 hope by teaching that divine power was not exhausted 
 by the performance of a single miracle. There is a 
 kind of power which exhausts itself in one great 
 effort, but it is not living power ; it is mechanical, not 
 dynamical ; and, though it be seen in human history, 
 it is a spasm of weakness, not the throb of a healthy 
 heart. Christ told men that the power which had 
 worked one miracle could work another, and that 
 what was given was but a hint of the resources that 
 were untouched. This could not but substantially aid 
 the effect of his teaching respecting that all-exciting 
 and ever-pressing subject — to-morrow. To most 
 men " to-morrow " had been a spectre, but Christ 
 showed how it might be an angel. When men looked 
 forward to it with fear, Christ inquired, with the 
 slightest tremor of reproach in his tone, " How many 
 baskets full of fragments took ye up ? " Christ never 
 held history in contempt. He made yesterday the 
 prophet of to-morrow. All this personality of appeal, 
 combined with all this practical demonstration of care- 
 fulness for human comfort, showed that Christ never 
 talked at men, but always to them. His humanness 
 was his power. Apart from it he never could have 
 been so great a talker. Men would have become 
 weary, but in his company they were insensible of the 
 flight of time. Men that heard him only on one set 
 of subjects left him, but those who had heard him on 
 the deepest questions said, "To whom can we go? 
 Thou hast the words of eternal life." The heart lived 
 on such music. 
 
 There is one peculiarity about the " sayings " of 
 
198 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Christ which is not claimed by the great philosophers, 
 and which cannot be accounted for by " the authorita- 
 tive tone and earnestness of a Jew ; " that is to say, 
 Christ's " sayings " determined the destiny of all who 
 heard them, and this peculiarity he specially pointed 
 out as enduring forever. To have heard these " say- 
 ings " is to have incurred the gravest responsibility. 
 A man may read the Ethics of Aristotle, and treat the 
 reasoning with contempt without endangering his 
 fate ; but no man can read Christ's " sayings" without 
 finding " saved " upon one side and " damned " upon 
 the other. Is this dogmatism on the part of Christ? 
 Undoubtedly. God must be dogmatic. If God could 
 hesitate, he would not be God. Do we stumble at the 
 solemn words, " He that believeth shall be saved ; he 
 that believeth not shall be damned"? Why should 
 we? An agriculturist says practically, "Go ye into 
 all the world, and say to every creature that there is a 
 particular season for sowing seed : he that believeth 
 shall be saved — shall have a harvest ; he that be- 
 lieveth not shall be lost — shall have no harvest." 
 There is thus a gospel of agriculture : why not a 
 gospel of salvation? Men's disbelief of God will 
 damn them in farming ; why not in religion ? Does 
 God speak decisively in the one case and hesitatingly 
 in the other? There must be a climacteric point — a 
 point of saving or damning — in all the declarations 
 of God, because he has spoken the ultimate word on 
 all the subjects which he has disclosed. The truth 
 upon* any matter, high or low, is the point of salva- 
 tion or damnation. The man who merely points out 
 the right road to a traveller is in a position (with 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 1 99 
 
 proper modification of the terms) to say to that 
 traveller, '' He that believeth shall be saved ; he that 
 believeth not shall be damned : '' in other w^ords, " Go 
 thus and you w^ill reach the object of your journey, but 
 go so and you will never reach it." This is the posi- 
 tion which Christ assumes, " He that believeth me 
 hath life ; he that believeth not me hath not life." Is 
 such a projection of his personality consistent with his 
 being simply one who spoke with " the authoritative 
 tone and earnestness of a Jew " ? 
 
 In the " sayings " of Christ special prominence is 
 given to a peculiar form of teaching known as Para- 
 bles. The entire history of religious thought might be 
 written under the twofold division of Dogma and 
 Parable. We are passing through what may be 
 emphatically characterized as the parabolic era^ 
 taking its tone and order of procession from the 
 transitional and most excited state of the intellec- 
 tual world. In periods of intellectual quiescence, 
 it is found that the religious world is settled firmly 
 upon theological dogma ; but, in periods of great 
 intellectual agitation in scientific and philosophical 
 inquiry, the religious idea passes into what may be 
 called the parabolic phase; not that dogma is, or can 
 be, destroyed, but -that the mental nature is engaged 
 upon problems rich, truly or deceitfully, in their 
 promise of results. This is illustrated vividly in 
 Christ's own method of teaching. First he gave 
 doctrine, then he gave parable ; the first met the posi- 
 tive want of the religious nature, and the second 
 stimulated all that was best on the ideal side of the 
 intellectual nature. In this manner Christ escaped 
 
2CX) ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the stern and cold finality which is characteristic not 
 only of all exclusively dogmatic teaching, but of all 
 teaching that is narrow, shallow, and vulgar. In 
 Christ's "sayings" there was always something be- 
 yond, — a quickening sense that the words were but 
 the surface of the thought ; there was nothing to 
 betoken conclusion, much less exhaustion ; there was 
 ever a luminous opening even on the clouds that lay 
 deepest along the horizon, which invited the spectator 
 to advance and behold yet fuller visions. The dogma 
 was decisive ; but the parable set the heart longing for 
 closer intercourse with the parabolist. The dogma 
 marked the distance which had been travelled ; the 
 parable pointed to the distance which lay far ahead ; 
 dogma was finished like yesterday^ parable had about 
 it all the haze, yet all the promise and allurement, of 
 morrow. It was thus that in a unique sense Christ 
 brought out of his treasure " things new^' and main- 
 tained his hold upon the ages, filling and satisfying 
 their entire capacity of vision and desire. The para- 
 ble takes the inquirer farther along the line of truth 
 than the dogma does. It stands in relation to dogma 
 as poetry to prose. Even the dogmatic arithmetician 
 calls in the aid of the parabolic algebraist at a certain 
 point in the science of numbers ; aitd, from what may 
 be described as the parabolic side of truth, pushes 
 his inquiries farther than he could have done by 
 the narrow dogmas of simple arithmetic. He is car- 
 ried forward by symbolism which is founded on 
 dogma, yet which reaches, ideally, farther than 
 dogma ; and, when the symbolic arithmetician says, 
 '' Let X represent the unknown quantity," he says in 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 20I 
 
 his own special sphere of inquiry what Christ says in 
 his loftiest region of research when he says, " The 
 kingdom of heaven is like unto — ." The kingdom of 
 heaven is the " unknown quantity " which Christ 
 came to reveal, and he helped men to follow him in 
 his wonderful processes by saying, " Let a grain of 
 mustard seed, let a costly pearl, let a man sowing 
 good seed in his field, let leaven, which a woman 
 cast into three measures of meal, let a net cast into 
 the sea, represent the unknown quantity." Religious 
 symbolism gives scope for all that is most profitable 
 in fancy, speculation, or the great dramatic element 
 which is in every man. It provides for the enthu- 
 siasm of the renewed nature, for that " madness " 
 which Plato declares to be essential to poet and 
 prophet. It gives such an idea of the unexplained 
 range of thought and the possibilities of mind, as goes 
 far to explain and justify the bold saying of the 
 ancient Sophists, that " probabilities were more to be 
 valued than truths." 
 
 " True fiction hath in it a higher end 
 Than fact ; it is the possible compared 
 With what is merely positive, and gives 
 To the conceptive soul an inner world, 
 A higher, ampler heaven than that wherein 
 The nations sun themselves." 
 
 In connection with his parabolic teaching Christ 
 uttered one most remarkable " saying " to his disciples. 
 He had been indulging in most varied and vivid 
 symbolism, and as he concluded he said, '' Have ye 
 understood all these things? They say unto him, 
 Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore 
 9* 
 
202 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom 
 of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, 
 which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new 
 and old." Here is the liberty of the Christian teacher : 
 can any charter be more comprehensive? It com- 
 prehends all that is past and all that is to come ; it is 
 as old as time, yet new as summer. Thus interpreted, 
 Christ becomes, as w^as said in the last chapter, not 
 only the contemporary, but the leader of every age. 
 He has the old truth for the heart, and the new phase 
 for the eye. He meets the simple and trustful with 
 " old things," and encounters the doctors of all 
 temples with questions they cannot answer, and 
 symbolism which, while it challenges their admira- 
 tion, puts to the severest test their genius for the 
 interpretation of signs. Christ proceeds upon the 
 principle that the world must be educated by enigmas, 
 pictures, and problems, and he has commissioned his 
 Church to educate it on this basis. He shows that all 
 human life is a parable, and that to understand it men 
 must follow him now as his disciples did aforetime, 
 and ask him to " declare unto them the parable." 
 The difficulty of our agitated time is to find men who 
 combine the dogmatist with the parabolist ; the chasm 
 has occasioned very urgent, ungenerous, and bitter 
 strife. It is forgotten that the Dogmatist may be right 
 so far as he goes, and that the Parabolist may be 
 equally right ; what is wanted is completion by amal- 
 gamation ; but where, in the present chaos of religious 
 questions, can we hope to find a perfect education? 
 The reverent inquirer, though he be a sceptic (not 
 a derisive and self-idolatrous buffoon), may after 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. \%^%^ ^^ 
 
 all be a brother who has, by the very bent of nis 
 mental constitution, begun his studies rather on the 
 parabolic than on the dogmatic side of truth, and 
 who yet will descend from the quaking and light- 
 ning-girt hill of symbolism with two tables of very 
 stern and decisive dogma. 
 
 This recalls the fact that men proceed even in re- 
 ligious inquiry according to the base of their intel- 
 lectual nature. Some men are prepared for dogma at 
 once, and beyond dogma they can never move. To 
 them. Christian theology (we will not say Christian 
 ethics) is little better than an embalmed mummy hid- 
 den in the solemn pyramid of the past, to be visited 
 on Sabbatic occasions, looked at, admired, and left in 
 awful solitude and silence until the next visit. To 
 men of another and better mould, " the kingdom of 
 heaven is like unto " all that is elevating in life, or 
 permanent in beauty, or pure in love, or satisfying in 
 truth. What wonder if such men fail to understand 
 one another, or if the word of strife be heard in the 
 discussion of subjects which belong to the innermost 
 shrine of the Temple of Peace ? The cause of such 
 strife is not so much to be found on the side of re- 
 ligious inquiry as on the side of human nature. Man 
 does not understand man when separated by one de- 
 gree of latitude ; nay, man may speak a foreign lan- 
 guage even to his own brother. Now it is distinctly 
 stated that Jesus " knew all men, and needed not that 
 any should testify of man, for he knew what was in 
 man ; " that is to say, he had a perfect knowledge of 
 human nature, and in his teaching he set " the king- 
 dom of heaven '' at every variety of angle, so that all 
 
204 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 men might get that particular vie\v of it which would 
 most successfully meet their wants. This could be 
 done only by a teacher who had a perfect knowledge 
 of the nature which he undertook to educate. No 
 mental characteristic escaped him. Every mood of 
 the soul elicited from him the proper response. The 
 consequence was, that he was not followed by any 
 particular class of men, but all men went after him — 
 the multitude after the multitudinous man. His dis- 
 ciples are of course but fractional men, and the power 
 of the Christian ministry is proportionately impaired. 
 The preacher's accent often makes him a stranger to 
 his hearers. He is of course limited by his own indi- 
 viduality, and how can the shallow river of his thought 
 carry the merchandise of the world ? The preacher's 
 power must always be in the ratio of his knowledge 
 of human nature. The more of man he has in him, 
 the more he will command the attention and homage 
 of men. He is but a learned fool who knows every- 
 thing but himself. His teaching will be confined to a 
 few self-contained dogmas ; it will never give signs of 
 that prophetic fire which shrines itself in poesy or 
 parable. In discoursing upon rhetoric, Socrates wise- 
 ly touches upon this subject of human nature. He 
 tells Phaedrus that, " since the power of speech is that 
 of leading the soul, it is necessary that he who means 
 to be an orator should know how many kinds of soul 
 there are." And again he says, " Unless a man has 
 reckoned up the different natures of those who will 
 have to hear him, and is able to divide things them- 
 selves into species, and to comprehend the several 
 particulars under one general idea, he will never be 
 
THESE SAYINGS OF MINE. 205 
 
 skilled in the art of speaking so far as it is possible for 
 a man to be so ; " a most marvellous illustration of the 
 power of him who spake as never man spake, who 
 needed not that any should testify of men, for he knew 
 what was in man. He varied the prescription accord- 
 ing to the diagnosis. To one man he said, " Sell all 
 thou hast ; *^ to another, " Ye must be born again ; " to 
 a third, " Keep the two commandments of the law : " 
 he took the wise in their own craftiness, and upon 
 the vision of the dreamer he opened such glories as 
 had never shone from the artificial heavens of the 
 poets. 
 
 We may claim for Christ's " sayings " an originality, 
 a compass, and living energy such as have not been 
 rivalled by any speaker. This would probably be 
 admitted even by the more self-controlled class of 
 sceptics. Assuming this to be so, we are thrown back 
 upon an old inquiry, " Whence hath this man this 
 wisdom and these mighty works ? Is not this the car- 
 penter's son ? Is not his mother called Mary, and his 
 brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 
 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence, 
 then, hath this man all these things ? " That question 
 remains to be answered by those who deny his God- 
 head. Viewed from the human stand-point, how could 
 Christ's contemporaries be other than confounded by 
 Christ's wisdom? Can any man rise above the nor- 
 mal conditions of his race? Is there a secret way 
 from the nethermost stratum of society up to the emi- 
 nence of superhuman wisdom ? How is it that only 
 one man has ventured on the giddy ascent? His 
 
2o6 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 " sayings '' have no charm of style; poetic surprises 
 are never attempted ; nearly eveiy thing is curt, abrupt, 
 and barely allusive, yet to-day, as in the days of his 
 flesh, all who weigh his words come to the conclusion 
 that " never man spake like this man." Is there no 
 argument in this? 
 
207 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 IT is held by many to be a hard thing that any man 
 should be damned for not believing " these sayings 
 of mine." This conclusion must have been reached 
 through a most incomplete apprehension of the term 
 " belief." In the course of this argument, we have 
 had repeated occasion to state that a man's belief is 
 that by which his whole life is governed, — the foun- 
 dation of his character, the very vitality of his man- 
 hood. It can hardly be repeated too often, that belief 
 is not a mere mental assent to a proposition, but the 
 resting and consequent risking of the whole life upon 
 the truth of that proposition. 
 
 By setting aside, for the moment, the term "belief" 
 on account of the narrow theological associations 
 which have been unjustly gathered around it, the 
 point may to some extent be elucidated by another 
 word which has no such associations attaching to it, — 
 that word is character. Now, as we have found our- 
 selves at liberty, on the authority of Christ himself, to 
 reason from the human towards the divine, let us in a 
 familiar manner try what can be done by an analogi- 
 cal process. Is there anything in the constitution of 
 human society which will throw at least an edge of 
 light around the awful mystery of endless punishment? 
 
2o8 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 It will not be denied, at the onset, that there are 
 many persons whom a virtuous man would not admit 
 to his confidence or hospitality. Ask the reason, and 
 the answer will be, " The person's have lost their 
 good character, — they are dissipated, vicious, and 
 altogether unworthy of respect or confidence." Here, 
 then, is a point to begin at. It is conceded by this 
 answer that purity of character is the indispensable 
 qualification for admission into virtuous society, and 
 by so much it is^shown that a bad man is " damned," 
 ostracized (or soften it into unrecognized), solely on 
 the ground of vice. But what is vice ? Is it not the 
 practical side of belief? The man believes in vice as 
 a principle, or a policy, or an enjoyment, and there- 
 fore he pursues it. But by pursuing it he becomes 
 socially a condemned man ; he that believeth not (he 
 that is not virtuous) is damned. It may be urged that 
 a man may have many heterodox notions about religion, 
 and yet his social repute may be irreproachable ; and on 
 the other hand, that a man's notions about religion may 
 be orthodox, while his life is sinful. This is true, but 
 it merely throws us back upon a definition already laid 
 down, viz., that belief is not intellectual, but moral : 
 " with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; " 
 so that religion is not a question of mere notions, but 
 the expression of the entire spiritual life. It would be 
 as logical to contend that a man is going a journey 
 because he can explain the construction of an engine 
 as to contend that a man is going to heaven because 
 he can correctly answer theological questions. Salva- 
 tion turns upon spiritual vitality, and spiritual vitality 
 is represented by the right use of the term faith. It 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 209 
 
 must never be absent from the mind that religion is 
 not a set of opinions, but life in Jesus Christ. So far, 
 then, we find society doing precisely what God does, 
 viz., drawing a broad line of demarcation between the 
 virtuous and the vicious, — in other words, establish- 
 ing a system of rewards and punishments based ex- 
 clusively on morals. Society has found this to be 
 necessary to its own preservation and prosperity, for 
 all history has gone to show that, apart from every ' 
 theological system, the moral element has always de- 
 termined the true value of civilization. Virtue has 
 meant safety ; vice has meant danger. This is a fact 
 of. immense value in an inductive inquiry respecting 
 rewards and punishments. 
 
 It is now proposed to show that, in the matter of 
 endless punishment for sin, society does, in its degree, 
 precisely what Almighty God is declared in the Chris- 
 tian writings to do. If God punishes the finally im- 
 penitent forever, man does the same thing, and does 
 it necessarily — necessarily because of the demands 
 of the moral universe without, as well as the exactions 
 of the moral principle within. In other words, the 
 very constitution of the moral universe demands and 
 necessitates the endless punishment of the impenitent. 
 How we may work our way to this conclusion will 
 now appear. 
 
 It is objected that there is no proportion between 
 time and eternity, and, consequently, that to punish 
 man eternally for doing wrong in his short lifetime is 
 inequitable. While it is not denied that punishment 
 is merited, it is contended that there should be some 
 proportion between the crime and the penalty. 
 
2IO ECCE DEUS. 
 
 In answer to this objection, let us examine the law 
 of proportion in the light of social laws. Does the 
 idea of proportion amount roughly to this, that a day's 
 crime should be met by a day's punishment ; that a 
 man who does wrong to-day should be punished to- 
 morrow, and restored to confidence the day after? 
 The objector will probably say, " No, not exactly that ; 
 but say that a day's crime should be met by a month's 
 punishment, or a year's ; only let there be some pro- 
 portion between the crime and the penalty." The 
 answer does not relieve the difficulty. What is the 
 moral proportion between one day and a month, or 
 one day and a year? Does nothing depend on the 
 nature of the crime ? For example : a man commits 
 a petty larceny ; would the objector say that a month's 
 imprisonment would be enough ? Another man, say, 
 commits murder ; would the objector say that a year's 
 punishment would suffice? But why should the one 
 criminal be punished a month and the other a year? 
 It is urged that the nature of the crime determines 
 that. Let this be granted ; then it will appear that 
 the proportion is really not one of time, but of turpi- 
 tude. In reality society proceeds upon the principle 
 that the extent of time occupied in the perpetration 
 of a criminal act is not to be taken into account in 
 considering the punishment which is to be awarded. 
 Nor ought it to be accounted of. Less time may be 
 occupied in taking away a life than in committing a 
 burglary ; but, on the principle of strict proportion 
 (which sophistically proceeds on the idea of mere 
 duration), the burglar should undergo a longer pun- 
 ishment than the murderer. But society will not 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 211 
 
 allow this ; its moral instincts overrule its sentimen- 
 talities, and demand that the gravity of the crime 
 should determine the gravity of the punishment. 
 
 An illustration may be useful here. Thirty years 
 ago, let it be supposed, a criminal forged the reader's 
 name to a check for a thousand guineas. He did it 
 in a few moments ; a stroke or two of the skilled pen, 
 and the deed was done. The criminal never confessed 
 the act ; never uttered a penitential word ; he suffered 
 imprisonment for ten years ; and now for twenty years 
 he has been at large. Has the reader forgiven him ? 
 Has he restored him to confidence? Has he invited 
 the offender into his family circle? Has he replaced 
 him at the commercial desk? The reader says, " No." 
 But what becomes of the argument of proportion? 
 Let it be remembered that the criminal was impris- 
 oned ten years for a crime committed in less than ten 
 minutes. Was not the punishment sufficient? Think 
 of ten minutes being multiplied ^into ten years, and 
 then say whether more can be reasonably demanded. 
 But it may be urged that the criminal is impenitent ; 
 he never owns his sin, never asks forgiveness, and 
 treats the injured man as if he himself had been 
 injured. The injured man is so far philanthropic as 
 to say that he will meet the criminal on the first sign 
 of contrition — he only waits an acknowledgment of 
 the guilt and promise of better behavior. Nothing 
 can be more humane, — nothing more reasonable ; 
 and the point to be specially remarked is, that this is 
 the very principle upon which the divine government 
 in relation to sin proceeds : " If we confess our sins, 
 he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Man's 
 
212 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 own heart being witness, he proceeds upon the very- 
 principle of adjudication which he condemns in the 
 government of God. 
 
 The sum of the answer is this : if a criminal con- 
 tinue to be impenitent respecting any crime, he is as 
 guilty of that crime on the last day of his life as he 
 was in the very hour of its committal, though he may 
 have survived that hour fifty years. Time has no miti- 
 gating influence upon guilt. The question between 
 the criminal and society is not one of time^ but of 
 fenitence^ and, so long as he is impenitent, society 
 must, by a compulsion deeper than all formal law, 
 mark and avoid him. Society does this. If particular 
 members of society do not do so, they are immoral — 
 connivance with unrepented guilt being an affront to 
 the spirit of virtue. Society punishes (more or less 
 lightly, more or less directly) all iinpenitent offenders 
 against its laws, and punishes them throughout their 
 whole lifetime^ which is as much of eternity as its 
 retributive influence can encompass. In very grave 
 cases, indeed, society will not allow the penal shadow 
 to pass from the reputation even after death ; so truly 
 is this the case that there are names which cannot now 
 be pronounced, though they represent long extinct 
 lives, without bringing a frown upon the countenances 
 of all who hear them. Is this eternal punishment, or 
 is it not? 
 
 The question of proportion may be looked at in 
 another light. A citizen who has maintained a good 
 reputation for half a century as a pure, upright, noble 
 man ; who has figured on subscription lists as a gen- 
 erous benefactor of the poor ; whose name obtained 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 21 3 
 
 the highest credit on the Exchange, — has been proved 
 guilty of a crime : the crime was being perpetrated in 
 imagined secrecy ; the criminal had no idea that any 
 eye was upon him ; the fact, however, becomes known ; 
 and the question is, how does society treat the tower 
 which was fifty years in building? Society razes the 
 very foundations, and forgets half a century of un- 
 challenged life in one day's discovered villany. But 
 where is the law of proportion ? Why not deduct one 
 day from the fifty years' reputation, or regard the crime 
 but as a spot on the disk of a brilliant life ? The law 
 of proportion founded on mere duration would, if 
 strictly interpreted, require this deduction ; but society 
 happily forgets its formal logic when under the influ- 
 ence of high moral inspiration, and in its own arbitra- 
 ments reproduces the government of God. 
 
 The argument of proportion as to time is obviously 
 fallacious. No crime is self-contained. All actions 
 are influential. What is done in an hour may aflect 
 society through many generations. Long after the 
 pebble is at the bottom of the lake, the circles multiply 
 and expand on the surface. The lifting of a hand 
 sends a vibration to the stars. 
 
 A second objection will afford an opportunity of 
 still further exposing the fallacy of the argument of 
 proportion. It has been urged that, as virtue is its 
 own reward, and vice its own punishment, the crimi- 
 nal is sufficiently punished while upon earth, and need 
 not, therefore, have hell superadded. The argument, 
 if valid in relation to hell, is equally valid in relation^ 
 to heaven ; hence, as virtue is its own reward, the 
 virtuous man is suflSciently rewarded on earth, and 
 
214 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 needs not a superadded heaven. By parity of reason- 
 ing this latter position is impregnable. The logic 
 which closes hell annihilates heaven. Without, how- 
 ever, pressing the sophist too severely to accept the 
 results of his premises, the whole answer may be in- 
 cluded in one fundamental and fully-illustrated prin- 
 ciple — viz., that punishment is not regenerative. 
 All penalty is negative. It may appease the more 
 public demands of society without making any good 
 impression on the moral nature of the criminal. Take 
 an instance : a felon who has undergone a term of 
 imprisonment may leave the prison as great a criminal 
 as he entered it. The mere fact of having been in 
 jail for a series of months or years does not make 
 the criminal an honest man. The law could touch 
 his body only ; so that at the very moment of his 
 keenest smarting under the penal rod he might be 
 plotting deeper schemes of crime. Punishment per 
 se is not a regenerator. Hell itself, if intermediate 
 instead of final, could not convert men to Christianity. 
 It might terrify them ; it might impose strong re- 
 straints upon them, originating in the lowest and most 
 uncertain motives ; but, as to regeneration, it might 
 be as impotent as a passing storm. Virtue founded 
 on fear is only vice in a fit of dejection. 
 
 Does not the objector himself proceed upon the 
 principle that punishment is not regenerative? 
 Imagine the objector seated in a public vehicle. He 
 is holding pleasant intercourse with a fellow-traveller ; 
 *he likes the man, is pleased with his intelligence, 
 frankness, and civility : at one point of the journey, 
 however, he is given to understand that his interlocutor 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 21 5 
 
 is a ticket-of-leave man ; does he during the remainder 
 of the journey feel as comfortable as he did at the 
 beginning? Does he, or does he not, involuntarily 
 lay his hand upon his property? Is there, or is there 
 not, a development of suspicion? But why? The 
 criminal has, indeed, broken the law^s of his country, 
 but he has suffered the legal penalty, or escaped a 
 portion of it by his creditable conduct ; why, then, 
 should not the objector invite the well-behaved con- 
 vict home, and introduce him to the confidence of 
 his sons and daughters ? Why should the convict be 
 punished forever? Where is the proportion between 
 a day's crime and life-long infamy? The objector's 
 philosophy succumbs to his moral instincts. He be- 
 gins to think of contamination, and mentally to run 
 over all the possibilities of his having had something 
 like friendly intercourse with a returned convict. Yet 
 he would have God's infinite holiness do what his own 
 faded morality cannot do. He would have the sun 
 overlook defects which his own rushlight brings into 
 startling prominence. He fails to see that the case 
 appeals not to benevolence, not to philosophy, but 
 strictly to the moral sense ; and if man, whose moral 
 faculty is so liable to perversion, recoils from the idea 
 of confiding in an impenitent convict, how can God 
 look with complaisance on an unclean heart? Does 
 the objector say that, if he knew the returned convict 
 to be a truly penitent man, he would give him another 
 chance in life? Then let him recall the words just 
 quoted — " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins." 
 The objector seems forgetful of the fact, that the 
 
2l6 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 doctrine of vice being its own punishment is neces- 
 sarily overridden in all the penal arrangements of 
 society, otherwise society would be insecurely guarded 
 against outrage. If vice be its own punishment (not 
 only individually, but socially^ in a full degree), why 
 should the thief be imprisoned or the murderer exe- 
 cuted? Why not leave each to the tormenting remorse 
 of his own conscience ? Why not be satisfied with the 
 scorpion sting of memory? The fact is, that there is 
 a practical sophism in the doctrine that vice is its own 
 punishment in an imperfect state of society. By repe- 
 tition of crime conscience is hardened, so that actually 
 he who has done most is punished least. The young 
 thief, trembling in inexperience, hesitates as he ap- 
 proaches the lock at midnight, but the veteran burglar 
 is as steady in darkness as at noonday. The criminal, 
 therefore, would have merely to repeat his crimes to 
 escape their punishment ; for he who now blushes in 
 anger may one day be calm in murder ! Vice is its 
 own punishment only when all alleviating circum- 
 stances are removed, as will be the case in the next 
 world. There nature will be so quickened, and so 
 thoroughly thrown back upon itself, that vice will in 
 the fullest sense of the term be its own tormentor ; but, 
 as earthly society is now constituted, there would be so 
 many counterbalancing influences brought to bear upon 
 the criminal that his reflections might be modified or 
 entirely overpowered. The same principle has its 
 obvious bearings on the doctrine that virtue is its own 
 reward. 
 
 A third objection urges that God should issue a 
 universal amnesty, — open every prison door in the 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 21 7 
 
 universe, — say to devils, '' You are forgiven," and to 
 lost men, " Be free." This v^ould be considered so 
 magnanimous as to be worthy of God. The objection 
 is not without plausibility. Two things, however, 
 appear to be forgotten, (i) That an amnesty could 
 not, in itself, work any moral change. Look at the 
 case from a national point of view. Suppose that the 
 monarch were to proclaim a universal amnesty : would 
 the thief, the murderer, the incendiary, or any other 
 criminal, be thereby constituted a virtuous member of 
 society ? Such an amnesty, instead of being a bless- 
 ing, would be a curse ; liberty would degenerate into 
 licentiousness. If the insane idea of a universal am- 
 nesty were seriously proposed, all virtuous men would 
 protest against throwing back the flood-gates and lib- 
 erating torrents of crime. What, then, would God's 
 amnesty do? Would a demon be less a demon on one 
 side of a prison door than on another? Does the door 
 make the demon ? The second thing that is forgotten 
 by the objector is, (2) That forgiveness requires the 
 consent of two parties. The term '' forgiveness " is 
 often used with a most inadequate conception of its 
 meaning. An enemy cannot by any act of so-called 
 forgiveness be turned into a friend. The philanthropic 
 man may even love his enemies, bless them that curse 
 him, and pray for them that despitefully iise him and 
 persecute him, and yet not forgive them in the right 
 sense of that term. The man may excuse an offence 
 against himself, but he has no power to excuse an 
 offence against righteousness ; that is to say, he may 
 rise superior to the mere personal consideration, and 
 no doubt w^ill do so ; but, if he trifle with the demands 
 10 
 
2l8 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of morality, which alone can make personal considera- 
 tions of any consequence, his so-called forgiveness is a 
 sin, and his supposed magnanimity is a violation of 
 God's prerogative. It comes to this, then, that even 
 God himself cannot forgive a sinner apart from certain 
 conditions, which the sinner himself must supply. Is 
 it (if the supposition may be allowed) anything merely 
 personal which God condemns in the action of the 
 sinner against himself? Can the sinner do God any 
 harm? Can the mightiest chief in all the armies of 
 hell pluck one star from the sky, or keep back the light 
 of the sun, or bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, 
 or loose the bands of Orion ? God is not, so to speak, 
 alarmed for his personal government. The offences 
 against \i\^fower cost him no concern, but the offences 
 against his holiness afflict him with great sorrow. 
 The parent cares nothing for the mere blow of the 
 child's tiny fist, but the passion which prompted it 
 breaks his heart. God has to maintain the public 
 virtue and order of the universe. He fears no stroke 
 of power ; but if, for mere convenience of expression, 
 we may distinguish between his personality and his 
 attributes, we may say that offences against his person 
 are forgiven, but offences against his attributes cannot 
 be forgiven apart from confession and repentance on 
 the side of the criminal. 
 
 It has been suggested that annihilation would better 
 harmonize with the divine attributes than the infliction 
 of eternal misery. This, however, is a sentiment 
 rather than an argument. God does not inflict the 
 eternal misery ; he simply points it out as the resultant 
 of certain courses. Men often complain as if the 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 219 
 
 misery were superimposed by God : it is not ; it comes 
 out of the man, not from God. God says to his moral 
 creatures, "You are immortal : right means immortal 
 glory : wrong means immortal infamy." In this rep- 
 resentation on the part of God there is nothing arbi- 
 trary — it simply points out the inevitable operation of 
 cause and effect. When a parent warns a child to 
 beware of the fire, he does so in love, not in anger : 
 he does not inflict the pain of burning ; he merely 
 points out that such pain will be the result of diso- 
 bedience. So with God : he does not inflict the pun- 
 ishment ; the punishment is the effect of a cause. It 
 is easy to pronounce the word annihilation^ but has 
 its meaning been fully considered ? There need not be 
 any hesitation in reverently declaring that God cannot 
 annihilate a moral agent. If he could, would he not 
 have annihilated the devil that vexed his beloved Son in 
 the wilderness ? So far as we can gather from the sacred 
 writings, what has been the attitude of God in relation 
 to the devil? He has degraded his position in the 
 universe ; he has taken away the lustrous robe with 
 which he was originally clothed ; he has caused him 
 to wither into the most awful and repulsive deformity ; 
 on every side the most tremendous pressure has been 
 brought to bear upon him ; but no force can touch the 
 life; diabolism is nothing but abused divinity, and can 
 God be annihilated ? All moral creatures are such by 
 virtue of a divine element in their nature. But cannot 
 God withdraw that divine element? Let us pause. 
 What would he make of it after he had withdrawn it? 
 Could he absorb the poisoned element which for a life- 
 time had been given up to the devil ? 
 
220 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that there is a broad dis- 
 tinction between a penalty and a consequence, as those 
 terms are commonly understood. When Christ said, 
 " He that believeth not shall be damned,'* he announced 
 a consequence, he did not threaten a penalty in the 
 usual acceptation of the term. A consequence is the 
 direct and inevitable result of certain processes, par- 
 taking of their very nature, and inseparable from 
 them ; but a penalty may possibly be something dif- 
 ferent, something arbitrarily superadded, regardless of 
 adaptation or measure. Being chilled is a consequence 
 of exposure to cold air ; but being flogged for such 
 exposure is a penalty. Eternal punishment is the con- 
 sequence of rejecting the Gospel, not a penalty (in the 
 low sense of revenge) attached to a crime. 
 
 In the Phsedo, and also in the Gorgias, we find a 
 "theory which seems to meet some of the difficulties, 
 but which in reality meets some at the expense of 
 others. It appears, according to the Platonic dream, 
 that persons who have passed through life without 
 bringing any special disgrace upon themselves suffer 
 for their evil deeds, and are then rewarded for their 
 good works. On the other hand, those who are in- 
 curable are cast into Tartarus, w^here they remain 
 forever. The class lying between receive different 
 treatment. In the first instance, they are cast into 
 Tartarus ; but, after remaining there a year, they are 
 cast forth, the homicides into Cocytus, the parricides 
 and matricides into Pyriphlegethon. With a most 
 singular accuracy, the very principle of confession 
 being the basis of pardon, and the consent of two 
 parties being required in order to an act of complete 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 221 
 
 forgiveness, it is declared in the Phasdo, that when the 
 members of this intermediate class are borne along to 
 the Acherusian lake, they invoke those whom they 
 murdered or injured ; and, if the aggrieved parties 
 relent, the sufferers are permitted to go out into the 
 lake, and thus to escape further suffering ; but, if the 
 aggrieved parties do not relent, the sufferers are re- 
 manded to Tartarus. The same doctrine is taught in 
 the Gorgias. Rhadamanthus examines the souls, with- 
 out knowing anything of their identity, and according 
 to their nature he dismisses them either to Tartarus or 
 to the isles of the blessed. The points common to the 
 Platonic and Evangelic theories are (i) that there are 
 two conditions after death, and (2) that eternal pun- 
 ishment is the consequence of unpardoned guilt. In 
 the " beautiful fable " related by Socrates in the Phaedo, 
 we have the principle of a purgatory affirmed ; that is 
 to say, some sinners are punished for a time and then 
 sent forward to everlasting rewards. The Christian 
 doctrine is opposed to this ; it knows nothing of inter- 
 mediate distinctions ; its classification is dual ; in 
 referring to destiny, it recognizes two terms only, — 
 heaven and hell. 
 
 The moral effect is higher than that of the Socratic 
 fable. No license is given to the criminal ; no un- 
 certainty beclouds the anticipations of the good man. 
 Virtue is recognized as a principle, not judged by 
 deceptive shades. Socrates, in concluding his fable, 
 well said that it would not become any man of sense 
 to affirm positively that the things were exactly as the 
 fabulist had pictured them. But Christ makes no 
 such reservations ; he speaks with the authority of one 
 
222 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 before whose eyes all things stood in the clearest 
 light : it is a revealer, not an inquirer, who sees that 
 the bad man cannot rise and the good man cannot fall 
 in the day of judgment. Why be startled by the 
 announcement that the bad man shall " go away into 
 everlasting punishment"? Society has actually af- 
 firmed the principle in its own penal arrangements ; 
 why, then, be shocked at its own moral instincts? 
 The shock is occasioned by the word "eternal" rather 
 than the word " punishment ; " yet why so? If pun- 
 ishment can be endured at all, why not forever? 
 Beings can suffer only according to their capacity. 
 The suffering will be mental, not physical, — an 
 eternal self-reproach for having given God the lie. 
 
 This gives us a view of the redemptive work of 
 Christ which could not have been otherwise obtained. 
 It presents, too, an impressive aspect of human digni- 
 ty. To save man from such consequences, Christ 
 undertook the work of mediation, — would Christ 
 have died to save an insect which could be crushed 
 into nothingness? According to the Christian writ- 
 ings, man stands in a salvable relation to Christ's 
 work only during his continuance on earth ; through- 
 out the whole of that period he is importuned by the 
 most earnest persuasions to avail himself of the 
 benefits of Christ's mediation ; and if, in defiance 
 of all such importunity, he determinedly persists in 
 a criminal course, how can he possibly escape the 
 eflects of that course? The question is, how can he? 
 If punishment is not regenerative ; if selfish fear is not 
 a moral agent; if a moral creature cannot be an- 
 nihilated; — then how can the criminal cheat God, 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 223 
 
 and find a way into heaven? Is it suggested that a 
 second probation might meet the case? A second 
 frohation is an impossibihty ; but even assuming the 
 possibility, where would be the equity? Give men 
 to know that there would be a second probation, and 
 how many of them would care for the first? And if 
 they neglect the first, they are so much weaker in 
 moral nerve to encounter the discipline of the second. 
 And if there should be two probations, why not 
 three ? 
 
 " But say I could repent, and could obtain 
 By act of grace my former state ; how soon 
 Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unsay 
 What feigned submission swore ! ease would recant 
 Vows made in pain, as violent and void." 
 
 How do men regard this probationary idea as it 
 comes up in the concerns of daily life? There is one 
 seed-time in the year ; an indolent farmer neglects it, 
 and then sets up the theory that to have only an 
 annual seed-time is ridiculous ! When poverty comes 
 as " an armed man," does society pity or reproach 
 him? It may be suggested that possibly the suffer- 
 ings might have a good effect upon the lost ; it might 
 cause them to reflect ; it might bring them to repent- 
 ance. It is forgotten, however, that everything has 
 been done for them which even God could do : they 
 have resisted the whole system of redeeming love ; 
 thrust away the bleeding and dying Christ ; and, if 
 mere suffering will save any man, God has made 
 a stupendous mistake in sending his Son to save 
 sinners. Hell would then be more successful than 
 the Son of God. 
 
324 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 In the most appalling of his parables Christ repre- 
 sents a rich man as lifting up his eyes in hell, being in 
 torment. Parables are not always to be pressed into 
 literal evidence, but this parable is absolutely point- 
 less if it does not teach (i) that there is a hell, and 
 (2) that those who are in hell are conscious of their 
 position. This parable contains an incidental con- 
 firmation of Christ's picture of the judgment. The 
 rich man neglected Lazarus, — that is the principal 
 fact we know respecting his outside relations : the 
 next thing heard of him is, that he is " in hell." So 
 in the judgment the goats go away into everlasting 
 punishment because they have neglected the hungry, 
 the thirsty, and the sick, — that is positively the only 
 charge brought against them. But what are the 
 terms of the preaching commission? Not he that 
 \% philanthropic^ but — "He that believeth shall be 
 saved." Are the terms, then, altered? The altera- 
 tion is nominal, not essential. No man can believe 
 without being a philanthropist ; no man can be a 
 philanthropist without believing, — that is, without 
 going out of himself, resting on something better than 
 the pivot of individualism. Philanthropy is the man- 
 ward aspect of faith in Christ. " Pure religion and 
 undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit 
 the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to 
 keep himself unspotted from the world." The basis 
 of arbitrament, then, is not changed, but an enlarged 
 conception of faith is given, and by so much is dis- 
 closed a fuller view of the enormity which brings upon 
 itself " everlasting punishment ; " for it appears by this 
 definition of faith (a point often overlooked in the dis- 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 225 
 
 cussion of the subject), that the criminal outrages alike 
 theology and humanity, — God and man. Those who 
 " go away into everlasting punishment" are expressly 
 said to have neglected their fellow-creatures ; they 
 are condemned on human grounds, — not because 
 they had an heretical creed, but because they had no 
 love towards vian^ — " and if a man love not his 
 brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God 
 whom he hath not seen ? " Misanthropy alone neces- 
 sitates hell. 
 
 So much for an outline of argument. We are not 
 unaware of the pleadings of mere sentiment. All 
 good men would unite in the expression of generous 
 hopes were they at liberty to deal with the sentimental- 
 ism of the subject ; but, as all the arrangements of 
 society show, the moral instincts of the w^orld protest 
 against a forgiveness of the criminal apart from suf- 
 fering and contrition. If temporary punishment in 
 hell will bring men to God, why send Jesus Christ to 
 die a sacrificial death, or any death at all ? Why not 
 put all men into hell at once, and save by fear those 
 who refuse to be saved by love? Is it because we 
 have pleasure in contemplating the suffering of crimi- 
 nals that we have spoken thus urgently of future 
 punishments? We know that we subject ourselves to 
 such a taunt ; it may be, however, that a frank state- 
 ment on the affirmative side of the question may be 
 conceived in a more delicate and tremulous tender- 
 ness than the utterance of vapid generalities of hope. 
 We are bound to point out that nowhere in the 
 sacred writings is hell referred to as exerting a 
 remedial influence on the criminal ; if it does exert 
 10* 
 
236 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 such an influence, it was an inexcusable oversight not 
 to dwell upon the fact specifically. On the other 
 hand, it is distinctly taught by Jesus Christ, that, if 
 men will not avail themselves of such moral advan- 
 tages as are at their disposal, they would not "' be 
 persuaded though one rose from the dead." Men 
 are apt to think that something which has not been 
 tried, specially something startling and sensational, 
 would succeed in saving the obstinate. Are they 
 wiser than God, or tenderer than Christ? Others, 
 again, refer to the heathen, and to those within our 
 own civilization who have never heard the Gospel, 
 and they ask, " Are such to be eternally punished?" 
 This horror is uninformed and unreasoning. No man 
 will be condemned for not believing what he never 
 heard. It is the man who helieveth not that is to be 
 condemned, and the very terms imply that the case 
 has been laid before him. As for others, they are in 
 the hands of God, and will be adjudged righteously. 
 "It is better to fall into the hands of God than into 
 the hands of men." Why preach the Gospel at all 
 then? some may say. The answer is, (i) Christ com- 
 manded it to be preached, and (2) the very nature of 
 the Gospel demands proclamation ; the truth will not 
 be silent. The appeal which most concerns us is 
 addressed immediately to those who have heard the 
 Gospel, seen Christ in his word and works, and had 
 an opportunity of accepting eternal life. If men have 
 insulted God, poured contempt upon his Son, counted 
 the blood of the covenant as an unworthy thing, grieved 
 and quenched the Holy Spirit, what can possibly 
 remain of a remedial kind? The inquiry is one on 
 
ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. 22/ 
 
 which reason may expend its powers. What remains 
 after God has been exhausted? Those who plead 
 against eternal punishment often talk as though no 
 mercy had been shown to the sinner ; as if mercy were 
 an orb reserved to shine upon the uttermost darkness 
 to show the way to heaven. Such a suggestion is a 
 grave reflection upon the plan of salvation ; it plainly, 
 though indirectly, charges that plan with incomplete- 
 ness, and violently enlarges the period of human pro- 
 bation. As if God's mercy were less than man's pity ! 
 We attempt not to read the unpublished decrees of 
 God ; in our present sphere, with our present means 
 of judging, reason itself binds us to accept the con- 
 clusions of consciousness and revelation in preference 
 to the plausibilities of mere sentiment. 
 
228 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 
 
 THE Cross is the culmination of the mystery. It 
 is now proposed to view it not so much in its 
 place in systematic theology as in its relation to Christ's 
 personal history. Pilate's superscription is easily read, 
 but there is another writing more difficult of interpre- 
 tation. The one word which we have succeeded in 
 deciphering is love^ and we have ventured on the not 
 improbable inference that such a word must have kin- 
 dred words around it. 
 
 The death, and its attendant circumstances, was not 
 an unexpected event to Jesus Christ, — it was preceded 
 by many demonstrations of ill-regulated excitement on 
 the part of the people, plainly showing unsteadiness 
 of aim on their side ; but the heart of Jesus Christ was 
 fixed by a great design. He had been living the kind 
 of life which, viewed from the outside, seemed inevita- 
 bly to lead to a violent death ; yet his control of the 
 element of time in the completion of his purposes is 
 most significant. The baffled revolutionist, whose 
 schemes have overweighted his resources, has no power 
 over the apportionment of his time ; but Jesus Christ 
 spoke of his " hour" with the precision and calmness 
 of conscious mastery. It seemed as tliough he would 
 not allow history to be made immaturely, — as if there 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 229 
 
 was a law by which events come to a crisis, and which 
 could not be accelerated by the wildest impatience or 
 the most violent determination. Early in public life 
 he began to talk of his " hour ; " repeatedly he said 
 that his hour was " not yet ; " and not until he offered 
 his intercessory prayer, which escaped from his break- 
 ing heart like a long sigh of sorrowing love, did he 
 plainly say, " The hour is come." There were two 
 forces in operation ; the force of a malign intent on the 
 part of the Jews, and the force of a control which 
 times all events to a moment. Passions cannot hasten 
 the time of heaven. Every hour has its work, and 
 every work its hour. There was no reader of the 
 signs of the times so quick and so correct as Jesus 
 Christ. He sav/ the fields " white unto the harvest " 
 sooner than his nearest followers did ; and while super- 
 ficial men were reading the skies he chided them for 
 dulness in reading the more important tokens of the 
 world's condition. All this is in harmony with his 
 anticipation of his " hour." He knew the laws which 
 regulate the tides ; he was not misled by the foam with 
 which the winds bespattered him ; he knew that not 
 the winds but the worlds touch the tidal springs. He 
 foresaw the last swell of the great deep, and encoun- 
 tered it in an attitude of prayer. 
 
 This anticipation of his ''hour" is noticeable as a 
 side-illustration of the purpose which ran through the 
 life of Jesus Christ. The cross was not an accident. 
 The cross was not an after-thought ; its shadow came 
 up from eternity, and was first visible to men in the 
 manger of Bethlehem. The most cursory view of the 
 powers which he wielded during his life is sufficient 
 
230 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 to show that JesL s Christ was perfectly able to repel 
 the ruffians who undertook to compass his death. He 
 was no weakened Samson who had given up the secret 
 of his power ; he was still the wonderful man whom 
 the winds and the sea obeyed ; yet he consented to be 
 led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
 her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 
 He had been accustomed to the idea from before the 
 foundation of the world. Even in his earthly course 
 he was never separated from the cross ; it varied in 
 form, never in nature ; it was only less prominent, not 
 less real, at Bethlehem than at Calvary. The cross 
 was never dissociated from the life ; he brought it with 
 him ; he carried it in his heart long before the mob 
 laid it on his shoulder, and had suffered all its agonies 
 before the nail was driven into his flesh. But the 
 gross-minded world could never have known this apart 
 from the sight ; it measures the sorrow of the soul by 
 the suffering of the flesh ; it weighs the tears that it 
 may know the weight of the woe, as if all w^oes could 
 make their way through the eyes. The giving up of 
 the flesh was nothing ; external force could have over- 
 come any mere bodily resistance ; the concurrence of 
 the spirit was essential to the value of the offering in 
 the sight of God. The poverty which is caused by 
 irresistible forces is one thing, the poverty which comes 
 of self-sacrifice for the good of others is another. 
 
 The cross means love, but what does love mean? 
 Can lexicography explain that word? We must go 
 back to the life for hints of interpretation. Jesus Christ 
 is the answer as well as the enigma. In no case did 
 Jesus Christ work for himself. He only received that 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 23 1 
 
 he might give ; he only asked that he might distribute. 
 As he did not live for himself, so he did not die for 
 himself. That melancholy cross must bear other stains 
 than those of murder ; he w^ho might have turned it 
 into a throne, and waved from it the sceptre of the 
 world's dominion, must have had some object in view 
 worthy of the generous life which preceded it. The 
 course of beneficence would not be broken off just be- 
 fore the end. Jesus Christ will be consistent through- 
 out ; for yozc^ not for me^ will be his watchword to the 
 end. How can a good man make death give the lie 
 to his life? 
 
 The method, too, of leaving the world is consistent 
 with his method of living in the world. The cross is 
 a wonderful counterpart of the manger. There were 
 no violent discrepancies in the life ; only once, and 
 that on the top of a mountain, did the Godhead visibly 
 burn in the poor shrine of his flesh, — a sight which 
 Moses had seen prefigured at Horeb. From beginning 
 to end there was one line of humiliation. The child 
 of the manger is the man of the cross ; the youth who 
 was about his Father's business in the Temple was do- 
 ing his Father's will on Calvary. There were other 
 plans of leaving the world than that of crucifixion. 
 Why not go up into the skies at midday, amid a. great 
 lustre, welcomed by the voices of angels, and the peal 
 of trumpets? Why not make a great demonstration 
 of power rather than a saddening spectacle of weak- 
 ness? Think of what might have been done! Yet 
 he was numbered with the transgressors ; his name 
 was pronounced as a felon's ; and even they who knew 
 him best left him as if he had wronged their souls. 
 
232 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 The very method of departure is fraught with deep 
 significance. The suffering itself must have had a 
 meaning. When he could have taken the wrings of 
 the morning, or called around him the angels that ex- 
 cel in strength, or gone up from Calvary as he ascended 
 from Olivet, and yet became obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross, the very manner of the dying 
 must have interpretations which separate it from all 
 other deaths. 
 
 Now, we may approach the cross without any light 
 except that of natural reason, or we may avail our- 
 selves of the suggestions of the sacred writings. Be- 
 fore we attempt to interpret, let us come to some 
 understanding as to canons and standards. With re- 
 gard, first of all, to natural reason, it may be enough 
 to remind ourselves that the whole history of Jesus 
 Christ removes itself as far as possible from the court 
 in which natural reason presides. We have had occa- 
 sion to point this out incidentally in former chapters ; 
 let us now stand and calmly look at it as a fact likely 
 to help our further inquiries. Is there any point in 
 the whole development of Christ's person and ministry 
 at which we can say, " This is just as we thought it 
 would be " ? Or is there not everywhere something 
 like a studied upsetting of foregone conclusions and 
 logically-arranged anticipations ? Given a world that 
 has lost its moral standing, to know how God would 
 recover it ; and we venture to say that the New Testa- 
 ment answer would never suggest itself to natural reason. 
 That answer, then, stands by so much at a disadvan- 
 tage ; the whole stress of reason is against it ; it has 
 every inch of ground to make for itself, for reason will 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 233 
 
 not allow it so much as a foothold. Reason, on being 
 pressed for an answer, would probably betake itself to 
 elaborate demonstration ; its customary notions of the 
 proportions which means should bear to ends would 
 force it to set up a most imposing breastwork of su- 
 perhuman appearances and interpositions. Probably 
 some such plan as this would be accounted reason- 
 able : — The world having lost its moral standing, 
 God himself, in undisguised personality, must speak 
 to it from the heavens with a voice of awful power ; 
 the guilty world must see him robed with fire, crowned 
 with a diadem in which a thousand suns flash their 
 conniiingling glories, and encircled by unnumbered 
 squadrons of the seraphim ; all men must hear him 
 lamenting the apostasy, and offering instantaneous and 
 universal pardon ; the great Deceiver must be publicly 
 destroyed, and his track obliterated from the face of 
 the earth ; and, to prevent the possibility of further 
 falling, the w^hole family of man must be translated to 
 heaven. — This would suit the reason that is fond of 
 demonstrativeness. Other forms might be suggested 
 that would suit the reason that is prone to philosophi- 
 cal speculation. But among them all the New Testa- 
 ment idea v^ould never come up. Pain, sorrow, humil- 
 iation, death, resurrection, stand off' beyond the reach of 
 natural reason. It is not saying too much to say that 
 such a process is offensive ; it is foolishness ; it is a 
 stumbling-block. What we have to suggest is this : 
 that by so much as the Gospel method is removed from 
 the probabilities which natural reason would affirm, 
 it is unlikely that natural reason conceived it. That 
 method is not merely here and there contrary to expec- 
 
234 KCCE DEUS. 
 
 tation, but throughout, from end to end, there is not 
 a solitary point which satisfies natural reason. Was 
 ever reason so unreasoning? Did reason ever so far 
 exceed the limit of probability? A partial excess 
 might have been understood, an occasional obscurity 
 might have been accounted for ; but the mystery is 
 unbroken, the lamp of reason nowhere touches the 
 great darkness. Instead of foreclosing the inquiry, 
 this should quicken reverent investigation. Original- 
 ity is not madness. What if God should be greater 
 than man has thought him to be ? What if the Infinite 
 cannot be measured by the finite? We are thrown 
 back upon analogous inquiry respecting God — his 
 universe is around us; how does he work in that? 
 History is at hand ; how has he mingled with men ? 
 Man's own personality is a witness. How has God 
 created it, individualized it, kept it from absorption in 
 the boundless ocean of contemporaneous life ? Is God 
 easily understood everywhere but at the cross ? Is he 
 a common riddle which any child can guess? Or is 
 he still an unsolved problem — the problem of all 
 problems? Is he an exhausted theme; or does he 
 enlarge before our reverent and wondering vision? 
 These collateral inquiries may help to set reason in its 
 proper attitude before the cross. The sight which 
 Moses saw at Horeb may be reversed at Calvary ; 
 Moses saw the God of Abraham in the God of nature 
 — what if we see the God of nature in the God of 
 Abraham? Nature itself offers a thousand perplex- 
 ities to reason ; out of the whirlwind God has rebuked 
 the complaining and dissatisfied Jobs of the race : 
 " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 235 
 
 earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. . . . Hast 
 thou commanded the morning since thy days, and 
 caused the dayspring to know his place? . . . Hast 
 thou entered into the springs of the sea ; or hast thou 
 walked in the search of the depth ? . . . Gavest thou 
 the goodly wings unto the peacocks ; or wings and 
 feathers unto the ostrich ? " With a peremptory voice 
 God thus shuts out human wisdom and power from 
 nature ; what wonder if the same voice should chide 
 self-sufficiency when it pronounces on " the mystery 
 of godliness"? As the very impossibility of man 
 making any one thing in nature is regarded as a 
 proof of God's power, why should the utter impos- 
 sibility of man conceiving the New Testament idea of 
 salvation not be regarded as a proof of God's wisdom? 
 There is a point at which reason leaves nature, unable 
 to make further way ; it does not consequently deny 
 the universe : why not treat with the same trust the 
 greater mystery of which the most mysterious nature 
 is but the background? 
 
 The Scriptures are not silent respecting the meaning 
 of the cross. If we credit the Scriptures as to the fact 
 of the cross, why doubt them as to its meaning? Do 
 they tell the truth in history, and tell lies in doctrine? 
 We put it thus frankly, because, if the professedly 
 divine word is modified, he who modifies it must be 
 wiser than God, or it bears itself a forged signature. 
 What, then, do the Scriptures say respecting the cross? 
 To the inquiry. Why was Jesus Christ given up ? they 
 answer : " He was delivered for our offences." To 
 the inquiry. Why did he suffer? they reply: "Christ 
 hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, 
 
336 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 that he might bring us to God." We inquire for what 
 purpose he suffered, and they answer: "He gave 
 himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from 
 this present evil world, according to the will of God 
 and our Father." If we ask what practical effect the 
 offering of Jesus Christ should have upon us, the 
 Scriptures reply : " Who his own self bare our sins 
 in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
 should live unto righteousness." When we ask, Did 
 he die for himself or for others? we are told, with the 
 utmost precision, that " Christ died for the ungodly." 
 This is the testimony of Scripture. We get the doc- 
 trine where we get the fact. Can we obtain better 
 answers elsewhere? The responsibility of rejection 
 lies with the reader. It is easier to blow out a light 
 than to create one. Here is a great historic event 
 which is to be explained; we may exercise the spec- 
 ulative faculty in balancing guess after guess, or accept 
 the testimony which is avowedly of God. Let us see 
 in which direction this testimony goes. 
 
 The Scriptures declare plainly that the cross stands 
 in direct relation to sin. Sin necessitated a condition 
 which love alone could meet. Holiness never caused 
 death. All that comes within what may be called the 
 sphere of death (pain, misery, disappointment, tears) 
 is due immediately to moral decay. Throughout the 
 Scriptures this principle is constantly affirmed, but 
 nowhere is it seen in full force of demonstration but 
 on the cross. It could not have been a trifle which 
 started the great drops of blood from the body of 
 Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, or that caused him his 
 exceeding sorrow on the tree. Great natures cannot 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 237 
 
 weep blood but on great occasions. There must, then, 
 have been something terrible about this moral putres- 
 cence which is called sin. It was no speck on the 
 surface ; it was poison in the blood. The tones heard 
 at Golgotha are not the harsh tones of vengeance ; 
 there is no scream of fury ; no thunder of cursing : 
 there is a wail of sorrow, deep, loud, long, as if the 
 very heart of God had broken. It is the agony of 
 love ; it is the paroxysm of a lacerated and dying 
 spirit. It was love that had failed in life, determined 
 to succeed in death. It was dying innocence strug- 
 gling with dead guilt. And does not every man repeat 
 in his low degree the same great tragedy? Can any 
 man forgive without suffering? Can a man take back 
 even his own wicked son without first stretching his 
 fatherly heart on the cross? When a father sheds 
 tears over his rebellious child he carries his anger to 
 the sublimest point. God's hatred of sin is best seen, 
 not in his frowns, but in his tears. Hell does not af- 
 ford the most impressive view of God's estimate of 
 sin. When Christ said, " My soul is exceeding sor- 
 rowful, even unto death," he did more to show the 
 horror in which he held sin than could have been 
 shown in all the fire that glows and blazes through- 
 out the universe. We best know the intensity of hu- 
 man anger when it settles into deep human sorrow ; 
 so we see God's hatred of sin more in the storm of 
 grief which Christ endured than if the angry heavens 
 had shot lightning into every point of space. God 
 suffered more than the sinner can ever suffer on ac- 
 count of sin. Does not the parent suffer more than 
 the sinning child? The sinner by his very sinfulness 
 
238 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 lessens his own capacity of suffering, while virtue is 
 shocked through every sensibility. 
 
 What, then, w^as the relation of the cross to sin? 
 It meant more than condemnation. The mere con- 
 demnation of sin was not worth all this expenditure 
 of the finest fibre of life. The thunder or the whirl- 
 wind might have sufficed for anathema, had that been 
 all that the case required. There was, however, not 
 only a curse to pronounce, but a blessing to offer ; — 
 not only was the devouring beast that had committed 
 such havoc in the flock of God to be destroyed, but 
 that flock was to be protected, saved ! This could not 
 be done by mere power. The hand of the Lord is 
 omnipotent, but omnipotence can work upon the heart 
 only with the heart's consent. We say reverently, but 
 with deep conviction, that when omnipotence is weak, 
 then it is strong ; broken, bleeding, dying on the cross, 
 Jesus Christ is mightier than if the armies of heaven 
 had fought in his name. In the hour of its majesty 
 omnipotence may strike terror into human hearts ; but 
 w^hen omnipotence allows itself to be mocked, defied, 
 wounded, and broken on the cross, it gets hold upon 
 the heart deep as the roots of life. The cross, be it 
 repeated, goes deeper than mere condemnation ; it 
 shows how the holiest suffer most, and how without 
 suffering even the holiest cannot forgive. It shows 
 the tenderness of God. He cannot look with indif- 
 ference u^n fallen humanity ; he suffers with it, that 
 through suTffering he may renew his hold upon it, and 
 recover it to himself. So the cross comes to have a 
 great power in interpreting the essential dignity and 
 value of human nature. In God's suffering we see 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 239 
 
 man's worth. Man was cut out of the very heart of 
 God. His erectness, faculty of speech, dominion over 
 inferior life, and power of reasoning upon the future, 
 have a strange light of divinity lingering upon them 
 even now. Man is as a fallen god upon the earth. 
 In his wildest talk there are accents and snatches of 
 expression which must have come from heaven ; his 
 magistracy is a blurred reprint of an ancient charter ; 
 his thinking is the dim light which struggles through 
 an eclipsed genius. He does not know himself as a 
 fallen member of the heavenly hierarchy : he gropes 
 and flounders as though he had lost something ; and 
 now and again there come through his daily life gushes 
 of tenderness and glitterings of mind which have a 
 deep meaning, a meaning which makes the heart sore 
 and sad as it vainly tries to piece itself into wholeness 
 and render the ciphers into intelligible language. 
 I The cross tells man what he is, and what he may 
 i be. It tells him what a sinner he is, and what a son 
 of God he may become. All that^ look at it ! to lift 
 man up, a cleansed, pardoned rebel ! Tears could not 
 reach his case, only blood could ; — " without shed- 
 ding of blood there is no remission of sins." Only 
 life could reach death. Only God can sound the 
 depths of the human fall. Christ said he would draw 
 all men unto him when he was " lifted up from the 
 earth ; " they would see what he was, and what they 
 are, and the revelation would have a resurrectional 
 effect upon them. Not that they would escape suffei*- 
 ing on that account, but rather that they would sufler 
 more when they saw what he suffered for them. In 
 the midst of his sin, man does not see the enormity 
 
240 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of his own guilt ; in the midnight revel, in the eager 
 \ pursuit of forbidden pleasure, in the whirl and thun- 
 1 der of excitement, he does not see the case as it is ; 
 but, when he sees the agony of a holy woman as she 
 1 pours her burning tears over the recollection of his 
 I misdeeds, he begins to feel how great must have been 
 / the sin w^hich has wrought such sorrow, and learns 
 I from a broken heart how far he has gone astray. In 
 I some such manner, with infinite extension of the pro- 
 / portions, men see their history best at the cross ; on 
 / the background of Christ's innocence, as he hangs 
 \ there in mortal pain, they see how black, how ulcer- 
 ! ous, how deadly is their own sin. They never could 
 ' have seen it otherwise. No man could have shown it 
 / to them. Only Jesus Christ could reveal the exceed- 
 ing sinfulness of sin. 
 
 There is still more in the cross than God's view of 
 human guilt. There is all that is meant by a word 
 which is almost over-familiarized — salvatio7i. It 
 shows not only what man is, but what man may 
 be ; not only the w^ithered and decrepit rebel, but 
 the robed and crowned saint. There are y^t giipnt 
 possibili ties in ^pf^ phoo d. The sun was a finished 
 creation, as large and bright on the first morning as 
 he is to-day ; but primaeval man was a germ, — little 
 as a grain of mustard seed, compared with a gigantic 
 and overshadowing tree. The worm laid hold of the 
 root, and all the juices were so poisoned that no sum- 
 mer dew or light can expel the corruption. Christ 
 did what was required, and now every fibre feels the 
 energy of his life. As out of the dead Christ upon the 
 cross came the Mediator who is now in heaven, so 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 24I 
 
 out of all who die with him shall come a renewed 
 and glorified manhood. 
 
 The cross was an expression of God's love to the 
 human family, — not his justice, or vengeance, or 
 wrath : these are but fractional words — the integral 
 w^ord is love. " God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only-begotten Son." All love must give. Only one 
 love rose to the highest point of sacrifice. The cross 
 means justice, law, and satisfaction, only as elements 
 or aspects of love. Yet sacrifice, we have said, is 
 in the very nature of love : it is the last expression 
 of love ; we only love any being in proportion as we 
 are prepared to suffer for his sake, — not one whit 
 more ; we may never be called upon to undergo the 
 suffering, still the willingness to sufler is the precise 
 measure of the love. If love be represented by a 
 straight line, sacrifice is the last point -of it, — not 
 something beyond it, but something in it, something 
 of it. All love, then, is strictly sacrifice, — counting 
 nothing its own while its object is unattained. We 
 thus get a glimpse of God's love towards man ; he 
 loved him to the shedding of blood — not the blood 
 of inferior life, but the blood of his only-begotten 
 Son. The point of sacrifice is indicated by the word 
 only^ — a word which intimates that there was noth- 
 ing left behind, no spared treasure, — all w^as given ; 
 not the hand only, but the heart, — not the heart's 
 sigh, but the heart's blood. He who gave this might 
 well say that he loved the world. To give one out 
 of many would have been nothing ; to have only one, 
 and to give it, was as much as even God could do. 
 Out of all this comes once more the idea of the value 
 
242 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of human nature. The ideas of Christ's life and man's 
 worth are inseparable ; they so interpenetrate as to 
 explain the apparent contradiction that Jesus Christ 
 was alike Son of God and Son of man. What was to 
 prevent God allowing the human family to fall into 
 utter darkness, and to be forgotten forever? Nothing 
 but love. He had made man in his own image : how 
 could he withhold from him his own Son ? 
 
 But is there not a great practical difficulty? Man's 
 relation to the cross is a different thing to the relation 
 of the cross to man. In the latter we have God's 
 declaration; what have we in the former? Man has 
 the power (necessary indeed to being a man) to treat 
 the cross with indifference, to join those who wagged 
 their heads, and uttered taunting words, and to see in 
 the cross nothing but an ignominious failure. God 
 did not set up the cross merely that he might win a 
 victory, but that he might express a sorrow. If not 
 a man be moved by the display of affection and grief, 
 the cross has not failed altogether of its purpose. The 
 parent weeps even over the child that will not be re- 
 covered, and the weeping shows at once the agony 
 and the love. It relieves him even to open the door 
 which may never be entered by the wanderer. What 
 if this be a hint of the feeling that is in God? What 
 if his great sorrow must have an outlet, and if that 
 outlet be the cross? 
 
 It is not uncommon to represent the sacrifice of 
 Jesus Christ as being a satisfaction to divine justice, 
 an appeasing of the divine anger, a quenching of the 
 fire that is in God. There is a sense in which these 
 terms are true, but the terms have been most foully 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 243 
 
 abused and most disastrously applied. The cross was 
 not a satisfaction to divine justice as if that were a 
 special kind of justice ; it was quite as much a satis- 
 faction to what may be termed human justice, — to 
 justice itself, whether in God or in man. Human 
 nature, quickened into perfect consciousness, would 
 itself affirm the necessity of a basis upon which one 
 attribute would not be upheld at the expense of 
 another. If it was simply the fenal side of justice 
 that required to be satisfied, then the cross did not 
 meet the case, and nothing could have met it but the 
 instant and utter destruction of the human family. 
 For God to take mere vengeance upon his Son on 
 account of a race that had sinned, would have been 
 entirely inconsistent with his nature. It is an unjust 
 justice that is satisfied with the suffering of an inno- 
 cent being ; but a most holy and righteous justice that 
 cannot pardon sin without the humiliation of confession 
 and the sorrow of penitence on the part of the ofTender. 
 Christ's sacrifice, consequently, was a satisfaction to 
 the spirit of justice alike in God and in man ; it pro- 
 tested that the original law was right ; it guarded the 
 divine wisdom from the charge of having laid dowm a 
 wrong law ; it made the law honorable, and so pre- 
 served the consistency and majesty of God's moral 
 government. See what would have been the eflect if 
 no such sacrifice had been offered : let it be supposed 
 that God could have indifferently regarded every vio- 
 lation of his law, and that he had virtually said, " If 
 you don't like this law, try another, — if my require- 
 ments are too exacting, modify them." In that case, 
 he would have simply surrendered his Godhead, for 
 
244 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 no moral law can be modified — to break a letter of it 
 is to break it ail ; right can never be less than right, 
 wrong can never be more than wrong ; and the moral 
 law was not a law superimposed upon moral beings 
 without any regard to their own nature. On the con- 
 trary, it was in perfect harmony with man's moral 
 constitution ; so that when man offended the justice of 
 God, he also offended his own, and no sacrifice could 
 avail that did not satisfy the whole claim of abstract 
 justice. This case could be met only by an uncor- 
 rupted Being, — a Lamb without blemish and without 
 spot ; and such a Lamb was found in the only-begot- 
 ten Son of God. The mere afnrmation of the sanctity 
 of justice would not have been sufficient ; it might 
 have been enough for God himself to have thundered 
 through the universe that he hated sin and still main- 
 tained his law ; but it would have left man where he 
 was, for no man can repair his yesterdays, or pay the 
 arrears of his life. The crisis was met by the gift of 
 the Son ; so that not only may God be just, and yet 
 the justifier of the ungodly, but man can receive the 
 justification without feeling that his innate sense of 
 justice is dishonored. He can truly say that the law 
 was good and right ; that from the beginning God was 
 just, and that he alone was guilty and helpless before 
 the Most High. He feels that God has not trifled 
 with law, but that mercy itself is an aspect of justice. 
 The human is satisfied as well as the divine. Was, 
 then, the punishment all Christ's, and the favor all 
 man's ? Certainly not. Man's punishment is even 
 now according to his sensitiveness ; not only at the 
 crisis which is popularly designated his repentance, 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 245 
 
 but throughout his life he suffers on account of his 
 sins. The good man's life is one unbroken repentance ; 
 repentance is not the act of an hour, — it is the constant 
 experience of the soul. What, then, of joy? It is 
 contemporaneous with repentance. It is inseparable 
 from it. The joy that is born of sorrow is the only 
 joy that is enduring ; not a transient gleam, but life- 
 long light. 
 
 We have not followed the analysis of the scientific 
 theologian, but have rather come abruptly upon such 
 points as have been thrown up by the biographers of 
 Jesus Christ. Our purpose may not lose anything by 
 this, as the plan of this work does not admit of much 
 regard being paid to Polemical Divinity, to whose 
 mischievous course we can never refer without a feel- 
 ing of intense dissatisfaction. We have the Cross be- 
 fore us as the chief fact in all known history ; and as 
 there is suspended upon it a Man with whose life we 
 have now become reverently familiar, we wish to 
 know the exact relation which subsists between the 
 life as a whole and this its final and most melancholy 
 act. Throughout the life we have constantly seen an 
 endeavor to save men ; never to destroy them. Is the 
 cross in keeping with this noble aim ! We have, too, 
 seen the most perfect unselfishness. Does the cross 
 sustain the impression which such unselfishness has 
 made upon the heart? Does the cross start a new and 
 unexpected chapter in Christ's life, or is it of a piece 
 with all that has gone before ? By so much as it is 
 accordant with the tenor of the antecedent course, it 
 is a purpose, not an accident ; — by so much does it 
 represent a sacrifice, not a martyrdom ; an atonement, 
 
246 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 not a murder. If Jesus Christ had no power to resist 
 the cross, then he was a mere martyr ; but if he could 
 have overturned the purpose of the Jews, he was enti- 
 tled to say of his life, " No man taketh it from me, but 
 I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, 
 and I have power to take it again." There is here 
 the authority which was present in the working of 
 miracles. What if all the other miracles were about 
 to be eclipsed in the miracle which he wrought upon 
 himself? Was not the Resurrection a gathering up 
 and reproduction of the miraculous element which 
 pervaded Christ's whole life? Was it not a healing 
 of the diseased, an opening of blind eyes, an unstop- 
 ping of deaf ears, a strengthening of withered limbs, 
 — in short, a magnificent recapitulation of the elo- 
 quent argument of miracles? 
 
 So far as God the Father was concerned, what did 
 the cross signify ? It signified all that can be compre- 
 hended under the term love. So far as Jesus Christ 
 was concerned, what did the cross signify? Its inter- 
 pretation runs thus : I die that men may live ; I en- 
 counter the storm of sin that men may live in the calm 
 of holiness ; I show how submission may be conquest ; 
 I show the utmost verge and boundary of love; I honor 
 a broken law and establish a basis of gracious com- 
 munication between God and man. He makes all 
 other woes light. Men forget their miseries in the 
 sob of his overwhelming sorrow. So far as man was 
 concerned, what did the cross signify? It signified 
 his guilt, his self-helplessness, his entire dependence 
 upon God for pardon, purity, and all the blessings of 
 salvation. It was the return-way to God ; too strait 
 
THE CROSS OP^ CHRIST. 247 
 
 for selfishness, but wide enough for penitence and 
 trust. 
 
 Are sacrifice and atonement equivalent terms? Not 
 necessarily. Atonement is the possible result of sac- 
 rifice, when looked at from the human side. The 
 atonement, practically considered, may be regarded as 
 the application which the sinner himself makes of the 
 sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This may be illustrated by 
 a reference to the typical ritual : " Aaron shall bring 
 the bullock of the sin-oftering which is for himself and 
 for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin- 
 offering which is for himself. Then shall he kill the 
 goat of the sin-offering that is for the people, and 
 bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood 
 as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle 
 it upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. 
 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to 
 make an atonement for the children of Israel for all 
 their sins once a year." The sinner is not saved sim- 
 ply because Jesus Christ died upon the cross, but be- 
 cause he accepted that death as his own expression of 
 the necessity of sacrifice for the pardon of guilt. He 
 thus becomes, in a secondary though most practical 
 sense, his own priest ; so to speak, he offers Christ 
 continually as his sacrifice ; he confesses his poverty, 
 and pleads the worthiness of the Lamb. This is not 
 inconsistent with the scriptural doctrine of Christ's 
 priesthood, for we find that Jesus Christ was both 
 priest and sacrifice, — '^ once in the end of the world 
 hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
 himself," — and thus the marvellous duality which we 
 have traced through the whole argument is present at 
 
248 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the very end of the life. The sinner can only offer 
 himself as a //t;/;?^ sacrifice, after he has partaken of 
 the benefits of Christ's offering ; but a living sacrifice 
 does not meet the necessities of the case, for " without 
 shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." A 
 man might offer himself, but suicide is not sacrifice. 
 He must go out of himself for help ; and if he go else- 
 where than to Jesus Christ, he incurs the responsibil- 
 ity of counting the blood of the covenant an unholy 
 thing. He impugns the wisdom of God. " He that 
 despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or 
 three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, sup- 
 jDOse ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trod- 
 den under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
 blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
 an unholy thing {^oiv6v^ a common thing, the blood 
 of a common man), and hath done despite unto the 
 Spirit of grace ? " The Lamb of God has been offered 
 for the sins of the world, and thus an atonement has 
 been made ; yet, unless every man accept that offering 
 on his own account, and, as it were, present it in his 
 own name, it will be no atonement for him, — rather 
 a witness against him, and a most sure ground of con- 
 demnation. If the sacrifice of Jesus Christ were to 
 take saving effect without an appropriating action on 
 the part of man, the moral constitution of the universe 
 would be overridden ; man would be saved apart 
 from his own will, and thus his moral liberty would 
 be mocked and set at nought. Jesus Christ distinctly 
 proceeds on a different principle ; in working out the 
 basis of man's salvation, he respects the fundamental 
 conditions of manhood, leaving it perfectly possible for 
 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 249 
 
 his cross to be misunderstood and despised. " If we 
 sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge 
 of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for 
 sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment 
 and fiery indignation which shall devour the adver- 
 
 II 
 
250 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 
 
 THE Cross, which we have just been studying, 
 must have produced many deep moral effects. 
 It is proposed now to look at its relation to the prin- 
 cipal educational agent which had been operating in 
 society until the time of its appearance. That educa- 
 tional agent was Law; a term, however, which has 
 been used in so many senses, that it may be necessary 
 first of all to fix the meaning which we attach to it in 
 this chapter with some approach to precision. Even 
 in the sacred writings the term " law*' is employed in 
 various senses : for example, it sometimes compre- 
 hends the whole doctrine of revelation, — thus, the 
 " delight " of the "blessed man" is in "the law of 
 the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and 
 night." Sometimes it is limited to the Ten Com- 
 mandments, thus, " I had not known lust, except the 
 law had said. Thou shalt not covet." Sometimes it 
 describes the principle or tendency within men which 
 is known as " the law of their being ; " thus, " I see 
 another law in my members, warring against the law 
 of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the 
 law of sin which is in my members." Occasionally, 
 / it is used to signify the sense of right and wrong which 
 is in every man, apart altogether from written statutes 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 25 1 
 
 and formal sanctions : thus — " When the Gentiles, 
 which have not the law, do by nature the things con- 
 tained in the law, these, having not the law, are a 
 law unto themselves : which show the work of the 
 law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear- 
 ing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accus- 
 ing or else excusing one another." This is the innate 
 law to which every other law, either of God or man, 
 must make its appeal, — a law without which even 
 the commandment of God would be a dead letter ; it 
 is as the eye of the soul, apart from which all light 
 would be shed upon the moral nature in vain. Tl\en 
 there is what has been termed the law of love ; that 
 sublime concentration and urgency of the soul in all 
 loving homage and service, which cannot be regulated 
 by written orders, or formal stipulations, but is a de- 
 light, a holy rapture, a hallowed, self-forgetful, and all- 
 surrendering passion. This is the law of the unfallen 
 angels, and the spirits of the just. They serve with 
 an ardor which can never be enkindled by any stat- 
 utes which could be written with ink, or engraven 
 on stones. There are several other, perhaps minor, 
 senses in which the term " law " is employed, but 
 the main use is that which Paul makes of it, when 
 he includes under it all the outward system of com- 
 mands, prohibitions, checks, rewards, and penalties 
 which was divinely established to meet the apostasy 
 of the race. Now, in relation to this system of im- 
 perative edicts, the author of Ecce Homo well says 
 that the work of Jesus Christ operates in a manner 
 at once of ratification and abolition. Paul says we 
 are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein 
 
252 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 we were held ; that we should serve in newness of 
 the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Paul 
 is most precise and clear upon this point ; he never 
 hesitates about it; anticipating anything like objec- 
 tion to the width of liberty which he claimed, he 
 said, " The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
 hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'* 
 He stood in a new relation towards God and man ; 
 he was no longer pressed and checked, like an un- 
 disciplined child, but had entered into what in one 
 of his exultant moods he called the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God. How has he attained this 
 freedom ? What is the signature, and what the date 
 of his charter? In prosecuting the inquiry, we hope 
 to come upon the meaning of the words, " The law 
 came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ." 
 Man must stand in one of two relations to law ; 
 either to law as an outward declaration of divine 
 authority in a rebellious sphere, or to law as an in- 
 ward principle of love, trust, and self-surrender to 
 the divine Father. Take the principle into the 
 family for practical elucidation. Law, as an out- 
 ward authority, is established in the family, to meet 
 ignorance on the one hand, or disorder on the other. 
 So long as the household has worked harmoniously, 
 the head of the house does not feel called upon to 
 4vrite commandments, and publish edicts ; he truly 
 says, '^ It is better to have spontaneous expressions 
 of interest and love, than forced submission ; " but 
 when family order has been set aside, he feels that 
 where Jove has been defective, law must be made 
 stringent ; as the moral impulse is weak, the outward 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 253 
 
 prohibition mus,t be emphatic. Legal restriction is 
 in proportion to moral feebleness. The stronger the 
 written law, the weaker the unwritten dictate of love. 
 The ignorant or self-opinionated man, especially the 
 guilty man, must have law thrust upon his notice, 
 thundered into his ear, sometimes, indeed, scourged 
 into his flesh. By an inverse process we may read 
 a nation's (or a man's) moral history by studying its 
 penal code. The legislators and magistrates are con- 
 stantly, though it may be unconsciously, writing the 
 spiritual history of the country. Many criminal laws 
 simpl}^ mean much crime. So with the family, — 
 where there are many commandments, there is moral 
 incapacity, or moral turpitude, on the part of the 
 household, or a miserable littleness, and pitiful conceit 
 of authority, on the part of the domestic legislator. 
 
 Outward law is necessarily consequent upon tainted 
 or defective loyalty. God owed it to his own perfec- 
 tions, at least to publish what was due from the crea- 
 ture to the Creator. Silence on his part would be 
 tantamount almost to connivance, and would certainly 
 have degraded the dignity and authority of right. He 
 can, up to a given point, only meet defection on the 
 part of moral agents by an instant, emphatic, and 
 universal proclamation of what is due to himself. It 
 is the same in the family ; in the case of domestic 
 insubordination, either the rebellion must be ignored, 
 or a stern commandment, adequate to the occasion, 
 must be proclaimed ; but God cannot, by his very 
 nature, connive at rebellion : he must therefore de- 
 clare and establish a law. A cultivated man knows 
 what it is to be driven to tell certain insensate people 
 
254 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 what is due to himself or to his position ; actually to 
 put it into plain words : the coarse-grained cannot see 
 it without a law of common courtesy be laid before 
 them in letters of the most demonstrative magnitude, 
 and the refined man is pained at being driven to do 
 what natural sensitiveness ought not to have required. 
 All outward law, then, except such as shall be pres- 
 ently explained, is a reflection upon man's incon- 
 stancy of homage and love. Thus the Decalogue 
 itself is a history of man's deep shame. Every one 
 of the commandments is really an indictment against 
 the human family. To think that such things as are 
 named in the Decalogue should have been forced into 
 human speech ! Such things as idolatry, unnatural- 
 ness, adultery, theft, covetousness ! Such words could 
 only have been extorted from the lips of the Holy 
 God under a tremendous pressure. That ever he 
 should have been driven to say to the very being 
 whom he fashioned in his own likeness, " Thou shalt 
 have no other gods before me ; " or to say to a being 
 that was once lustrous with his own purity, "Thou 
 shall not commit adultery"! How it must have tor- 
 tured him — how necessary that at the time of saying 
 it he should be encircled with flames of fire ! He 
 was not so encircled in Eden ; there he smiled, but 
 on Sinai he blushed. 
 
 A distinction must be made between a regulation 
 and a law, and between a consequence and a threat- 
 ening. Take the terms on which Adam began life — 
 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of 
 every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat ; but 
 of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 255 
 
 shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest 
 thereof thou shalt surely die." This, we have said, 
 is a regulation or stipulation, simply pointing out 
 cause and effect, and is therefore a display of grace 
 rather than a formal legal appointment. Everything 
 was new ; as the finite is necessarily limited, God 
 graciously pointed out the limit ; did not make the 
 limit in an arbitrary spirit, but pointed it out as the 
 simple necessity of all created or conditioned life, and 
 this he did in full recognition of Adam's integrity. 
 
 Law, then, may be looked at in relation to the 
 human constitution generally, and so far may be 
 described as educational, regulative, and disciplinary ; 
 or, viewed historically, it may be regarded as a moral 
 protest, a declaration of affronted righteousness, a 
 demand of dishonored justice, and so far it is penal, 
 coercive, and retributional. The law of Eden was 
 informational and regulative ; the law of Sinai was 
 retrospective and penal. By considering the law 
 given in Eden as purely regulative, we get a new and 
 satisfactory view of the so-called probation of Adam. 
 The terms of interdict were not threatening, but ex- 
 planatory ; they contained simpl}^ an announcement 
 of consequences, • — "in the day thou eatest thereof 
 thou shalt surely die." God did not threaten man 
 with death as an arbitrary punishment; it was not 
 a matter of graduated offence and penalty, otherwise 
 death would have been an excessive punishment for 
 a first offence, — it was an inevitable consequence, 
 spoken of and warned against, in no spirit of threat- 
 ening, but with all the care and tenderness becoming 
 the divine Father. Why, Adam could not have under- 
 
256 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 stood threatening I Think of it ! We know the mean- 
 ing of angry tones and menacing gestures, but what 
 could Adam know of them ? Threatening in the very 
 first conversation with God would have been the most 
 self-evident anachronism ! When a parent says to a 
 child, " In the day that thou takest poison thou shalt 
 surely die," he does not mean that death is a punish- 
 ment, but a consequence ; hence his statement is not 
 severe, but merciful — not a threatening, but a reve- 
 lation. Nor can the child complain of disproportion 
 between the act and the effect as an arbitrary appoint- 
 ment : it is the outworking and inevitable result of 
 a natural law. This gives what we conceive to be 
 the right view of Adam's probation. It is not uncom- 
 mon to represent that probation as being arranged 
 upon arbitrary conditions, as if God had set a snare 
 for the being on whom he had left the impress of 
 his own image ; it is entirely forgotten in such a 
 representation that there cannot be two infinities, 
 that the finite must be limited at some point, and 
 that trespass upon God's province is necessarily fol- 
 lowed by death. We re-state this view because it is 
 important in the present connection. 
 
 To show that something more than a system of 
 mere restraints and penalties was necessary to meet 
 the wants of fallen men, it is only requisite to look 
 for a moment at the necessary limitation and weak- 
 ness of all outward law, whether indeed it be educa- 
 tional or penal. The householder may compel every 
 member of his family to be present at the hour of 
 domestic worship, but he cannot compel one of them 
 to pray. He may be so infatuated as to make a law 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 257 
 
 that they shall pray, but they can in the very attitude 
 of prayer mock the law and the lawgiver. The con- 
 verse of this is also true : he may make a law that his 
 children shall not pray, yet while his frown is darken- 
 ing upon them their souls may be holding fellowship 
 with God. How inoperative, then, is formal law I 
 Its words are high-swelling, but the heart is its own 
 master ; it may threaten much, but the soul shuts 
 itself in from the storm. The Legislature may re- 
 strain men from stealing, but the Legislature cannot 
 make men honest. Law may compel men to close 
 places of business on Sunday, but law cannot compel 
 men to keep holy the Sabbath day. Law may im- 
 prison rebels, but law cannot raise rebels into patriots. 
 We thus get, again and again, a glimpse of what is 
 meant by the scriptural expression, " What the law 
 could not do in that it was weak." It has no mastery 
 over the heart. It sets up prisons, penal settlements, 
 instruments of vengeance, and writes an elaborate 
 code ; but, after all its efforts to encompass a great 
 result, it is confessedly " weak." Law had long ages 
 in which to show what it could do ; under its stern 
 and righteous rule the earth never became much 
 brighter than a prison-house, and human life had a 
 deep melancholy gloom of conscious servitude about 
 it. Law stood at the outside. Its balance was fault- 
 less, its sword was strong and sharp ; no felon could 
 escape it, no casuist could outwit it, no hypocrite 
 could cheat it with empty promises ; yet it was 
 '•'- weak," there was always something beyond which 
 baffled, or mocked or despised, its propositions and 
 its penalties. 
 
258 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 The powerlessness of penal law as a morally resur- 
 rectional and regenerative agent may be seen from a 
 detail of personal experience given by the Apostle 
 Paul, in the seventh chapter of his Epistle to the 
 Romans : " But sin, taking occasion by the command- 
 ment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ; 
 for without the law sin was dead." The man was 
 living in a kind of moral chaos ; but in proportion 
 as law was set up in the chaotic state, he was not 
 merely put on the defensive in an argument, but the 
 worst passions of his nature took arms against the 
 invader. The Milanese hermit is reported to have 
 boasted that he had not travelled beyond the city 
 walls for sixty years ; but immediately that a royal 
 order was given that he should not go beyond the 
 boundary of the city, he was seized with an irrepres- 
 sible desire to extend his travels. The child is often 
 most strongly tempted to open gates which have been 
 specially interdicted. If nothing had been said about 
 them, probably he would not have cared to open 
 them. " Thou shalt not " often quickens what it was 
 meant to allay or restrain ; so that again and again 
 we are thrown upon the expression — " What the law 
 could not do in that it was weak." Why then have 
 any law? Because without it chaos and death are 
 inevitable ; but with it, notwithstanding the strife 
 which it necessitates, there may come a moral quick- 
 ening which may lead to the restoration of men. To 
 save one man from death is a victory worth all the 
 battles which God has fought. Any movement to- 
 wards life is better than the miscalled peace of death. 
 Miscalled, indeed ; peace is a compound term, includ- 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 259 
 
 ing intelligence, purity, order, moral satisfaction, not 
 one of which is found in death. 
 
 Milton puts the case graphically : — 
 
 " Therefore was law given them to evince 
 Their natural pravitj, by stirring up 
 Sin against law to fight ; but when they see 
 Law can discover sin, but not remove, 
 Save bj those shadowy expiations weak, 
 The blood of bulls and goats, they m&y conclude 
 Some blood more precious must be paid for man, 
 Just for unjust, that in such righteousness, 
 To them by faith imputed, they may find 
 Justification towards God, and peace 
 Of conscience, which the law by ceremonies 
 Cannot appease, nor man the moral part 
 Perform ; and, not performing, cannot live. 
 So law appears imperfect, and but given 
 With purpose to resign them in full time 
 Up to a better covenant ; disciplined 
 From shadowy types to truth ; from flesh to spirit; 
 From imposition of strict laws to free 
 Acceptance of large grace ; from servile fear 
 To filial; works of law to works of faith." 
 
 Now all this weakness and failure of outward law 
 goes to show that, if ever the world is to be lifted up, 
 the elevation must be wrought by a higher force than 
 written statutes. The law has been doing a kind of 
 vexatious work ; there has been a good deal of school- 
 mastering about its tone and method ; everywhere 
 there has been pressure, or correction, or sharp hu- 
 miliation ; nothing genial, sympathetic, or alluring, 
 has appeared in its whole course. What was to 
 follow? Law had long carried its codes in one hand 
 and its iron rod in the other ; what should displace it? 
 
26o ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Paul answers, — " What the law could not do in that 
 it was weak, God sending his own Son in the likeness 
 of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, 
 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in 
 us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." 
 Law was to give place to Life. " God sent forth his 
 Son, made of a woman, made xuider the law, to 
 redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
 receive the adoption of sons." Law could not re- 
 establish the filial relation between God and men ; it 
 could at best only put men in the position of scholars 
 and servants. " For the law made nothing perfect, 
 but the bringing in of a better hope did ; by the which 
 we draw nigh to God." Sonship, then, was the 
 divine idea in starting the corrective remedial meas- 
 ures which are classed under the respective designa- 
 tions Law and Gospel ; not mere servitude ; not mere 
 innocence ; but a holy, hearty love of God as the 
 Father of mankind. If man could have been made by 
 law as undeviating in his course as the star in its orbit, 
 such constancy would have been a failure, unless it 
 had been the result of an intelligent and enthusiastic 
 love of God, — such a love as law can never inspire, 
 — a love which could be born only of a greater love. 
 
 This throws us back upon the weakness of law : 
 God has had no trouble with the worlds, but his 
 children have cursed him to his face ! Was it not a 
 great risk (we put the inquiry with trembling rever- 
 ence) to create any existences that came so entirely 
 within the conditions of God's essential nature? In 
 fashioning planets, in quickening vegetation, in creat- 
 ing brutes more or less bright in instinct, he was, so 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 261 
 
 to speak, a long way from himself — far out of the 
 awful circle which is specifically divine ; but, when he 
 set his hand to the fashioning of 77ia7i^ a creature that 
 should be distinctively in his ow7z image and likeness^ 
 he confined himself within the interior of that circle ! 
 Think of what he proposed in making man : the 
 creature was to be made in his own image, inspired 
 with his own breath, and admitted to his very pres- 
 ence for fellowship. Now came the awful problem, — 
 How fuuch can man contain of God without seeking 
 to contain more? The sun could not seek to extend 
 his empire ; the stars never mutinied against their 
 King ; in all the uproar of the seas there was no tone 
 of discontent : but this creature, this God in miniature 
 — will he ever plot against his Maker, will he make 
 confusion amid the peaceful order of the universe? 
 The higher the life, the higher the difficulty. Ascen- 
 sion means complication. Man has less difficulty 
 with dead wood than with living wood ; less difficulty 
 with vegetable life than with animal life ; less dif- 
 ficulty with a beast of burden than with the child that 
 reflects his own image. So with God. His difficulty, 
 so to speak, was at the top, not at the bottom of crea- 
 tion. It was a child, not a beast, that broke the 
 boundary. What was to be done, then ? In the first 
 instance, prior to the trespass, while the glory of the 
 Divine image lingered on the human countenance, 
 there was law regulative and educational, — law that 
 would have been a defence of liberty, and would have 
 promoted a continual and blessed growth in divine 
 strength, favor, and honor, — law that would have re- 
 strained only as a father's loving grasp would restrain 
 
262 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 from the edge of the chasm, or the nest of the serpent. 
 After this came law- judicial and penal. God said in 
 deeds what he said in the first commandment from 
 Sinai. He showed that there could be but one God, 
 and taught the ambitious rival that the power which 
 created him could limit his functions, and burn him in 
 unquenchable fire. It must have been hard for God 
 to say this to his human child ; the words aflect us as 
 we see them on the page — what must their utterance 
 have cost the heart of God ? It was necessary to say 
 them. God could not vacate the throne, and leave 
 the universe to be overrun by the anarchic spirit. A 
 protest must be forthcoming. Hence came all that 
 elaborate, stern, magisterial law^ back of which lies 
 the never-dying worm. 
 
 The history of ages is at hand, so that no difficulty 
 need be felt in estimating the effect of this law upon 
 the moral growth of man. To do this, in outline, will 
 help to illustrate the value of the cross, and to dispel 
 illusions respecting a merely legal service. The ques- 
 tion resolves itself into one of evidence. How does 
 the testimony of the acutest students of human nature 
 tend ? A citation or two from the Christian writings 
 will answer the inquiry : " By the deeds of the law 
 there shall no flesh be justified in his sight ; " " The 
 law having a shadow of good things to come, and not 
 the very image of the things, can never, with those 
 sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, 
 make the comers thereunto perfect ; " " If there had 
 been a law given which could have given life, verily 
 righteousness should have been by the law." What is 
 this but a repetition of the expression, " What the law 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 263 
 
 could not do in that it was weak"? Is any man at 
 liberty to treat the verdicts of history with contempt, 
 and to try to live by the law as if its weakness had 
 never been proved ? 
 
 Now arises the important question hinted in the 
 title of this chapter — What is the Relation of Christ's 
 Cross to the Law? Have those who have put their 
 faith in Christ no more to do with law of any kind ? 
 Is the Christian life anarchic ? This class of inquiry 
 seems to have occupied the attention of Paul a good 
 deal, and while discussing the subject he makes copi- 
 ous citations from his own experience : thus he tells 
 the Romans — " The law of the spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
 death." There are two laws here spoken of, — the 
 one is said to make free from the other, — the law of 
 life liberates from the law of death. The same writer 
 speaks of two services, respectively termed " the old- 
 ness of the letter" and "the newness of the spirit," 
 and rejoices that he is an able minister of the New 
 Testament, " not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the 
 letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." This shows 
 somewhat of the new relation in which Christ's cross 
 has set Christians towards law. They no longer work 
 from the outward commandment, but from the inward 
 impulse ; the sMll of law gives way to the must of 
 love, — a mightier tyranny, mightier because making 
 no pretensions to might. The difference between the 
 letter and the spirit as regulating service is seen in 
 common life ; the hireling says, "It is my duty" the 
 child says, " It is my delight; " the hireling asks, " Is 
 it so nominated in the bond?" the child says, "It is 
 
264 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 more blessed to give than to receive." Duty weighs 
 and measures all its services ; love can never do 
 enough, — it know^s nothing of quantity ; it proceeds 
 upon the principle that nothing has been given where 
 aught has been withheld. 
 
 What, then, is meant by being delivered from the 
 law? Take one of the commandments, say — " Thou 
 shalt not steal : " — is the Christian delivered from that, 
 — is it no longer binding upon him? Certainly he is 
 delivered from it in the sense of not keeping it " in the 
 oldness of the letter," but he can never cease to keep 
 it " in the newness of the spirit." Obviously, this 
 command, in its literal expression, could apply only 
 to such as are in the very lowest moral condition ; it 
 goes as low down in the moral scale as possible, — 
 down to the elemental line. So with all the other com- 
 mandments. " These laws (against robbery and mur- 
 der), to be sure, were not obsolete, but the better class 
 of men had been raised to an elevation of goodness at 
 which they were absolutely unassailable by temptations 
 to commit them." *' Christ's cross delivers Christians 
 from what may be termed moral drudgery ; they are 
 not oppressed and pined serfs, but freemen and fellow- 
 heirs, serving their Lord Christ with all gladness of 
 heart. Let a Christian be told as he is proceeding 
 wuth the business of the day that he must not steals and 
 at once he will regard the remark as an affront or a 
 pleasantry. His soul is honest; not honest merely in 
 the rough sense of not picking pockets, but in all the 
 finest shades of that honesty which will not withhold a 
 good opinion where it is due, which will not strain a 
 
 *Ecce Homo, p. 200. 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 265 
 
 word to the injury of any human creature, which will 
 not steal any man's reputation, or plunder any man of 
 his righteous claims to consideration and honor. The 
 man who is truly possessor of " the spirit of life in 
 Christ Jesus" cannot have any other gods but his 
 Father in heaven ; ca7znot commit adultery ; cannot 
 bear false witness ; cannot kill ; cannot steal. Such a 
 man comes down upon all the exercises and avocations 
 of life from a high altitude of wise and loving homage 
 to the Son of God, and expounds practically the say- 
 ing of an apostle — "Whosoever is born of God sin- 
 neth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth him- 
 self, and that wicked one toucheth him not." If it be 
 urged that many professing Christians do break the 
 Commandments, notwithstanding high public preten- 
 sions, the apostle just quoted gives the only true answer 
 — "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, 
 he is a liar," — and there is an end of that hypocrisy. 
 Paul, too, designates such professors " enemies of the 
 cross of Christ," and " weeps " as he writes of them in 
 his letter to the Philippians. 
 
 The meaning of Christian freedom from " the law 
 of sin and death," can be approached only when the 
 heart is in the highest ecstasy of love, when the soul 
 rises into the unclouded light of full communion with 
 God, and forgets all other boasting in glorying in the 
 cross. Such experiences are rare, by reason of the 
 weakness of the flesh ; the body could not long endure 
 such a strain as the highest joy puts upon it ; yet, in 
 the moment of passionate love, when the soul is at its 
 full stretch of rapture, we feel how chilling and inade- 
 quate is the service required by written statutes : the 
 12 
 
266 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 heart spurns the niggardly dole, and cries, with no 
 poetic license, but with literal simplicity of meaning, 
 " I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowl- 
 edge of Christ Jesus my Lord." It does not require to 
 be taken to " the mount that might be touched " that 
 it may learn its duty towards God ; it has condensed 
 the Ten Commandments into one word, and that word 
 itself but a syllable, " Love is the fulfilling of the 
 law." This love, which subdues and tones the whole 
 life, nevei could have been inspired by law. Legal 
 enactments leave no scope for the play of the affec- 
 tions ; they show the particulars and the aggregate, 
 and demand payment to the uttermost farthing. Love 
 comes from personal contact with the all-loving Christ, 
 who gave himself a sacrifice unto God for man's sake. 
 Love can be learned only at the Cross. Strange as it 
 may appear, the loving apostle has marked this love 
 as a corollary. He says, " We love him because he 
 first loved us : " how delicate is that logical form ! 
 Does this love, then, exempt us from keeping com- 
 mandments ? By no means. But now we come upon 
 the commandments in another spirit and from another 
 point. " This is the love of God ; that we keep his 
 commandments, and his commandments are not griev- 
 ous ; " they demand no servile obedience, they are done 
 by the heart and not merely by the hand. " If a 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." Amid such love how can it be 
 otherwise than that the yoke should be easy and the 
 burden light? Under the inspiration of such love, in- 
 stead of avoiding commandments we inquire diligently 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 267 
 
 for them ; constantly the heart is asking, " Lord, what 
 wilt thou have me to do ? " " And whatsoever we ask, 
 we receive of him, because we keep his command- 
 ments, and do those things that are pleasing in his 
 sight." 
 
 Law regulative and educational, and law judicial 
 and penal, is an expression of the divine purpose ac- 
 commodated to human limitation and human guilt. 
 All incomplete life must be placed under tutors and 
 governors, under formal statutes and decrees. Young 
 life lives by the senses, and must, therefore, have cor- 
 responding arrangements made for its defence and edi- 
 fication ; appeals must be made to the eye and the ear, 
 and, if need be, the flesh must feel the sharpness of the 
 penal rod. All this comes of incompleteness. Life is 
 not spheral ; at first it is but an arc, and law assists in 
 the extension of the periphery, and corrects, sometimes 
 severely, every aberration of the unsteady or unwilling 
 hand. This external adaptation to human incom- 
 pleteness is not required by those who are in Christ, 
 for in him " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily," and we " are complete in him," complete in 
 every sense ; complete beyond the small entirety which 
 the dreams of technical theology have comprehended. 
 This is what Jesus Christ came to fulfil. " I am come 
 that they might have life, and that they might have it 
 more abundantly ; " might have it completely ; might 
 so have it as to be beyond the reach of death ; might 
 so have it as to bring " the power of an endless life " 
 to bear upon " the things which are seen and tem- 
 poral." This great bestowment of life — in other 
 words, this vast increase of manhood — was rendered 
 
268 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 possible only by the cross of Christ, and the cruci- 
 fixion which we endure upon it : " Our old man is 
 crucified with him, that the body of sin might be de- 
 stroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." 
 Christ said that he would " draw all men to him," " if 
 he was lifted up from the earth ; " draw all men to 
 him to be crucified with him, for men cannot be men 
 in the highest sense until they have undergone cruci- 
 fixion. Paul said : " I am crucified with Christ." 
 No man can be morally crucified without Christ ; he 
 alone made crucifixion possible ; and only by joint 
 crucifixion with him are we made free from " the law 
 of sin and death," and from that " other law warring 
 in our members," for " they that are Christ's have cru- 
 cified the flesh with the affections and lusts," and can 
 understand the apostle when he inquires, with some- 
 what of amazement if not of anger in his tone, " If 
 ye be dead with Christ in the rudiments of the world, 
 why, as though living in the world, are ye subject 
 to ordinances?" He means that, if they had been 
 " planted together in the likeness of his death," they 
 would have been planted " also in the likeness of his 
 resurrection," and so have had much life, which means 
 much liberty. The whole is a question of ///*^, — the 
 vitality of man had run down to a minimum, and 
 could be increased only by the infusion of Jesus Christ's 
 life ; and as that began to operate each could say, " I 
 live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." •' I can do all 
 things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
 
 Here, then, we obtain an idea of the influence of 
 Christ's cross upon the law which God gave to the 
 earlier generations. It magnifies that law and makes 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO THE LAW. 269 
 
 it honorable, yet delivers those who accept Jesus Christ 
 as their Saviour from the bondage of the letter. The 
 law of Sinai, comprehending, as it did, worship, nat- 
 ural affection, self-discipline, and all social virtues, 
 received a deeper and wider interpretation from the 
 work of Christ. It ceased, in the case of the true 
 Christian, to be a formal externalism, and became a 
 living and gracious power in the heart. It so far, too, 
 quickened and strengthened man's power of under- 
 standing the nature of God, that man needed not to 
 study the letter with painful desire to reduce its mean- 
 ing to the utmost so as to accommodate his own weak- 
 ness, but inspired him with a heroic and unconquerable 
 determination to " know nothing among men but Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified," and to " spend and be spent " 
 in the service of the Son of God. Instead of throw- 
 ing the commandments into contempt, it gave them a 
 higher moral status, and even Sinai itself was shorn 
 of its greatest terrors when viewed from the elevation 
 of the cross. Love was really the reason of the law, 
 though the law looked like an expression of anger. 
 We see this, now that we love more ; love is the best 
 interpreter of God, for '' God is love." 
 
 A practical point arises here : the cynic hears of an 
 ideal, and contemptuously contrasts it with the actual 
 life of Christians. With the scorn which only cynical 
 natures can feel or simulate, he points to the errors 
 and weakness of men who profess to be in Christ, and 
 asks if these are the fruits of the law of the Spirit of 
 Christ Jesus. It is the inquiry of a man who mistakes 
 an atom for a globe. The experience of Paul is the 
 best reply ; "I delight in the law oif God after the 
 
270 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 inward man, but I see another law in my members, 
 warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me 
 into captivity to the law of sin which is in my mem- 
 bers," A distinction must be made between the sins 
 which have the full consent of the mind and those 
 which arise from the weakness of the flesh ; these will 
 be conquered as the spirit becomes stronger. Paul 
 anticipates the possible use which cynics and hypo- 
 crites may make of his reasoning, and inquires, " Shall 
 we sin because we are not under the law, but under 
 grace?" If any objector should imagine that Paul 
 grants liberty to sin, let him ponder Paul's words : 
 " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that 
 ye should obey it in the lusts thereof, neither yield ye 
 your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 
 sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are 
 alive from the dead, and your members as instruments 
 of righteousness unto God." Thus liberty is guarded ; 
 thus an unholy use of privilege is forbidden, and the 
 libertine must go elsewhere than to Christ's Gospel if 
 he would bow down to the bad sovereignty of his own 
 passions. 
 
271 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 
 
 ARE men at liberty to live as though the cross of 
 Jesus Christ had never been introduced into 
 human history? Or does the very fact of the exist- 
 ence of that cross involve responsibility on the part of 
 men? This inquiry leads to the consideration of the 
 practical aspects of Christ's vsrork. 
 
 We have said that Christ's morality was the active 
 side of his theology ; — not something added to it, or 
 made to be collateral w^ith it, but essentially part of it, 
 so essentially as to have no existence without it. This 
 position is amply sustained by the Sermon on the 
 Mount. One expression in that sermon seems to 
 govern the whole doctrine ; the expression occurs 
 again and again, with so much gravity that the hear- 
 ers must have felt themselves in immediate contact 
 with the divine mind : the words are — " Father which 
 is in heaven." It is interesting to mark with what 
 ease Jesus Christ finds his way from the commonest 
 subjects of his discourse to his Father, and how he 
 varies the expression from my Father to your Father, 
 as if he were addressing his younger brothers. For 
 example, when he teaches the love of enemies, he 
 gives as the reason — " That ye may be the children 
 of your Father which is in heaven ; " — when he refers 
 
272 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 to the dispositions and courtesies of the Christian life, 
 inculcating a deeper love and a wider salutation than 
 the publicans exemplified, he says, "Be ye therefore 
 perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect ; " — when he teaches respecting alms, and 
 fasting, and prayer, he warns his disciples against so 
 acting as to " have no reward of your Father which is 
 in heaven ; " — and when he refers to the conditions 
 of entrance into the heavenly kingdom, he states ex- 
 plicitly that " not every one that saith. Lord, Lord, 
 shall enter, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven." This lofty expression can alone 
 interpret the morality of the Sermon pn the Mount ; 
 it is a heavenly morality ; the sources of its inspiration 
 and the rewards of its practice are divine. There is 
 nothing earthly in the tone ; there is nothing earthly 
 in the motive ; there is nothing earthly in the result. 
 
 Look for a moment at the complete unselfishness of 
 the manhood that would be trained by such doctrine. 
 From beginning to end, the discourse leads man away 
 from himself; and to what does it lead him? It leads 
 him to the cross: throughout we have discipline, 
 self-denial, crucifixion. The cross of Christ was as 
 truly, though not as visibly, set up on this mountain 
 as on Calvary. Christ graduated the revelation of the 
 cross so wisely that at first men did not see it, but after 
 the full revelation came, every introductory word ac- 
 quired its true meaning, and was seen in its relation 
 towards the great end. A few references will show 
 how the cross was to be the agent in discipline, and 
 how the whole life of man was to be constantly tried 
 by the test of crucifixion. The oflfending right eye is 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 273 
 
 to be plucked out ; the offending hand is to be cut off; 
 the man is to go to the offended brother, not to wait for 
 the offended brother to come to him ; the natural love 
 of display is to be mortified, so that giving, fasting, and 
 praying may be done in secret ; thought of life is to be 
 given up ; perishable treasures are not to be amassed ; 
 and men are to prepare for a strait gate and a narrow- 
 way. What is all this but the cross? What but the 
 spirit of crucifixion can bring a man to unresisting 
 suffering, to give his cloak as well as his coat, to go 
 two miles instead of one, to give and lend to those 
 who ask and borrow? These "sayings" cannot be 
 understood until crucifixion has been endured. They 
 were, therefore, hard words with which to open a 
 mission among selfish men, and their utterance at an 
 early period in his ministry instead of its close shows 
 incidentally how Christ came to put the first last and 
 the last first. It has been said that what is known as 
 the evangelical element is absent from the Sermon on 
 the Mount; but no misconception can be greater. 
 Let any mere theorist attempt to '-'- do these sayings of 
 mine," and he will find that through every step of the 
 process he will require the help of Jesus Christ, and 
 to feel that is to be conscious of the necessity of the 
 evangelical element. At this point of consciousness 
 the dominion of self is broken up ; the theorist feels 
 his weakness, and reaches the crisis when his destiny 
 is determined, — he must then build his house either 
 on the rock or on the sand. It is to be observed that 
 Jesus Christ does not offer his sermon as a theory of 
 morals, but as a moral code which is to be embodied 
 in actual life ; so long as men look at it as a theory, 
 12* 
 
274 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 they will expose themselves to all the dangers of par- 
 tial and misguided speculation, but when they attempt 
 to do it, they will be driven to ask the speaker himself 
 how it is to be done, for he only can show how a man 
 can conquer his own nature and set at defiance the 
 bad influences of unchristian society. The first thing, 
 therefore, that is done in any honest attempt to carry 
 Christ's doctrines into practice is to fight a decisive 
 battle with one's own selfishness. We begin where 
 Christ began ; he began at the cross, and, from that 
 eminence of suffering love, taught that self-denial was 
 the indispensable condition of membership in his so- 
 ciety. 
 
 But is the motive suggested by Jesus Christ suffi- 
 cient to enable a man to overcome opposing forces? — 
 or is man called to an impracticable morality? Christ 
 suggests one motive, — the reproduction of the nature 
 of God: " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
 in heaven is perfect ; " " that ye may be the children 
 of your Father which is in heaven." He thus says 
 that the man who attempts to carry out his morality 
 will be moving towards God, will be getting away 
 from the earthly and advancing towards th-e heavenly ; 
 and lest the man should fail as he thinks of his own 
 ignorance and weakness, Jesus Christ tells him that 
 all the resources of God are at his disposal ; he has 
 but to ask, that he may receive, — but to seek, that he 
 may find ; and if any misgiving should arise as to the 
 willingness of God to help him by heavenly gifts, he 
 is chided by these words : " If ye then, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 
^^ 
 
 RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 275 
 
 Spirit to them that ask him?" Now, is it worth >^^, 
 while to be like God ? The great issue wh\ch Jesus 
 Christ puts before men is, go higher, or go lower ; be 
 the children of your Father which is in heaven, or 
 grow away from him into more and more hideou^^^^^^ 
 moral decrepitude ; — if you do these sayings of mine, 
 you shall be like God ; if you do them not, you shall 
 be carried away by the floods and the storm. 
 
 In general terms, the case may be put thus : In the 
 Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ lays down the doc- 
 trine of complete unselfishness as the cardinal doctrine 
 of his kingdom, and assures all who wish to learn that 
 doctrine that they may look to God for every help they 
 can ever require. The term unselfishness, as here 
 employed, is used in the inclusive sense of mortifying 
 bad personal instincts and extending to others the 
 most magnanimous and beneficent consideration. 
 Man comes to the latter through the former. God 
 has no occasion to do the former ; his nature is love, 
 and every motion towards love is consequently a mo- 
 tion towards himself. This is a general view of the 
 Sermon on the Mount ; it may be useful to sustain it 
 by going a little into detail. 
 
 The description of the " blessed " with which the 
 sermon opens is a magnificent display of conquest 
 over self. The "poor in spirit" are first blessed; 
 they are empty of pride, of self-defence, of self-satis- 
 faction ; they see themselves in their precise relation 
 to God, and before him they utter no boast: the 
 mourners, the meek, and the merciful are entirely 
 unoccupied with self. When a man is his own god, 
 why should he moiirn? When a man is sovereign, 
 
276 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 why should he be meek? When a man is self-en- 
 closed, why should he be merciful? They who hun- 
 ger and thirst after righteousness plainly declare that 
 they drink not of their own well, but go out of them- 
 selves for spiritual satisfaction : the pure in heart and 
 the peacemakers happily combine reverence for God 
 with goodwill towards men, both of which are incom- 
 patible with self-idolatry ; and " they which are perse- 
 cuted for righteousness' sake " are evidently superior 
 to selfish indulgence and comfort. Meekness, mercy, 
 purity, and peace ; self-poverty, mourning, desire after 
 righteousness, and uncomplaining suffering for Christ's 
 sake, — all lie quite beyond the sphere of common at- 
 tainment ; yet Christ calls them, so to speak, and them 
 alone, around him, to be crowned openly with his 
 blessing. Is there a single stain of selfishness in any 
 one of them ? All the blessed men are good men ; all 
 the good men partake of the very nature of him who 
 blesses them. The Beatitudes constitute a complete 
 delineation of Jesus Christ himself: he was poor in 
 spirit ; he mourned ; he was meek, merciful, pure in 
 heart, and peaceful : his meat and his drink were to 
 do his Father's will ; and he was pre-eminent among 
 those who were persecuted for righteousness' sake. 
 His power was thus derived from his own enjoyment 
 of blessing, so that he could, in the deepest sense, say, 
 " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, 
 and they are life." The blessed man himself told how 
 other men might be blessed. He preached, not a ser- 
 mon that he had learned, but a sermon that he had 
 lived. What would be the effect if society were com- 
 posed of such men as are described in the Beatitudes? 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 277 
 
 This is Christ's aim, and its loftiness warrants his fol- 
 lowers in claiming for Jesus Christ's doctrine the most 
 practical moral design. 
 
 The manner in which he calls his disciples to the 
 accomplishment of this design is marked by the high- 
 est wisdom. With what appears to us as a most 
 startling abruptness, he tells them that they are the 
 salt of the earth, and the light of the world ; what 
 more, then, could be required of them? Instead of 
 abusing them, he told them what high things were 
 expected of them, and by so much he gave them 
 power to achieve them. He first recognized the dig- 
 nity and force of manhood, and then with inimitable 
 grace remarked upon the uses to which high powers 
 might be put. He said, " Ye are the salt of the earth, 
 but remember that salt may lose its savor ; ye are the 
 light of the world, but remember that a candle may 
 be put under a bushel." Here is a beautiful distinc- 
 tion between the essential and the accidental, — 
 between the capacities of human nature and the uses 
 to which those capacities may be put. Men are first 
 to be encouraged, then to be directed ; their native 
 dignity is to be saved from bad applications ; and they 
 are to feel the responsibility of possessing a great na- 
 ture. Men are not to be trained by being scoffed at, 
 nor are they to be stimulated by any attack confined 
 merely to their practical abuses. Christ begins with 
 the word of honor, and then passes to the word of 
 caution : he says, " You are great, don't prostitute 
 your greatness ; you are influential, don't lose your 
 influence." What would be the effect of such teach- 
 ing upon the moral development of society ? It would 
 
278 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 give men a right conception of their powers, and pre- 
 pare them for divine counsels as to their occupation. 
 This is wrhat Jesus Christ himself proposes to do. He 
 saves the savor of the salt, and puts the light wrhere it 
 can give light to all that are in the house. Do the 
 non -Christian moralists purpose any higher work? It 
 can only be for want of careful examination of his 
 purposes and methods, that they hesitate to take their 
 places in the school of Jesus Christ. It should be 
 remembered, too, that Christ does not throw discredit 
 upon the dispensations which he came to fulfil and 
 supersede. He would not have it thought that he 
 came to destroy the law or the prophets, nor would 
 he have one of the least of these commandments set 
 at nought. Still, the righteousness of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees was to be exceeded, otherwise the kingdom of 
 heaven could not be entered. In this twofold represen- 
 tation, Jesus Christ honored human nature, and hon- 
 ored the means of educating it, which had prevailed 
 from the giving of the law and the ministry of the 
 prophets. He did not accuse them of error ; he 
 pointed out their incompleteness. He would not 
 allow men to start off on the plea that if the law had 
 been better they would have been better too : the law 
 was held in its integrity ; it was good for the whole 
 period in which God designed it to be operative ; still 
 it was only a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ, and 
 now the higher teacher began the higher education. 
 
 The base of that education was intensely spiritual ; 
 — uncaused anger he declared to be murder, lustful 
 desires he set down as adultery. He gave, too, deeper 
 interpretations of the maxims and laws on which 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 279 
 
 human intercourse had hitherto proceeded ; and the 
 noticeable feature throughout is that of elevation^ — 
 nothing is relaxed, nothing diminished, the whole 
 scheme of training is raised to the highest level ; not 
 only are the hands to be clean, but the heart is to be 
 without a stain ; not only must outward law be satis- 
 fied, but spiritual law must be honored. The stream 
 was to be cleansed by the purification of the fountain. 
 The fruit was to be made good by first making the 
 tree good. Can the non-Christian moralists excel this 
 idea of the reformation and advancement of human 
 society and human interests? If men please, they may 
 attempt to make a watch keep time by altering the 
 hands, but the only wise plan is to correct the internal 
 action. Jesus Christ went to the mainspring of human 
 life ; while the Pharisees washed their hands, he sought 
 to cleanse men's hearts ; while others criticised the 
 action, he pronounced upon the motive. 
 
 The results of this spiritual education were to be 
 seen in the entire course of life ; to be seen, for exam- 
 ple, in the common use of language ; words were to 
 be the truthful expression of the heart. " Let your 
 communication be Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatso- 
 ever is more than these cometh of evil." Men had so 
 distrusted one another that only an oath could be ac- 
 cepted as a pledge of sincerity — 
 
 " Kneel with me — swear it — 'tis not in words I trust, 
 Save when they're fenced with an appeal to heaven," 
 
 was the rough creed of nearly every class of society. 
 This was to be thrown away, and men were to hold 
 frank, unselfish, and reliable intercourse with each 
 
28o ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Other. No mental reservations, or Jesuitical subtle* 
 ties, were allowed by Christ ; words had a moral 
 value assigned them, so that by his speech a man was 
 to be justified or condemned. In perfect accordance 
 with this simplicity of fellowship are the directions 
 respecting secret almsgiving, secret fasting, and secret 
 prayer. The processes are to be marked by the most 
 intense sincerity, so much so that even God's eye may 
 not see wrinkle or flaw upon them. Can the non- 
 Christian moralists excel this Idea of purity of social 
 honor, — this test of homage and service? These di- 
 rections upset all that Is false In speech, and all that 
 is Insincere in action ; and set men In a right attitude 
 towards each other and towards God. They are 
 fundamental in spirit, and consequently universal In 
 application, and by so much they prove themselves to 
 have come from one who spake with " authority, and 
 not as the Scribes." 
 
 All the objections which have been urged against 
 Christian morality proceed, apparently, upon a very 
 partial collation or a strange misunderstanding of 
 scriptural statements. An eminent political economist 
 has expressed himself in terms of no ordinary strin- 
 gency ; and, if his Indictment be valid, an instant re- 
 vision of Christian ethics would take place. He says, 
 " Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of 
 a reaction ; it is, in great part, a protest against pagan- 
 ism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive ; passive 
 rather than active ; innocence rather than nobleness ; 
 abstinence from evil rather than energetic pursuit of 
 good. In its precepts (as has been well said), ' Thou 
 shalt not ' predominates unduly over ' Thou shalt.' 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 281 
 
 In its horror of sensuality it has made an idol of 
 asceticism, which has been gradually compromised 
 away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of 
 heaven, and the threat of hell, as the appointed and 
 appropriate motives to a virtuous life ; in this falling 
 far beyond the best of the ancients, and doing what 
 lies in it to give to human morality an essentially 
 selfish character, by disconnecting each man's feelings 
 of duty from the interests of his fellow-creatures, 
 except so far as a self-interested inducement is offered 
 to him for consulting them." How much latitude 
 may be claimed for the parenthetic " so called " is not 
 stated, but, unless it saves the moral reputation of 
 Jesus Christ and all the Christian writers, who alone 
 could teach Christian morality, the description is a 
 caricature and a lie. If men persist in accepting as 
 Christian morality what was never taught by Christ 
 and his apostles, they simply prove themselves im- 
 moral. We submit, too, that it would be fair in 
 impeaching Christian morality to cite the particular 
 passages to which objection is taken. A general 
 charge cannot be grappled with, and if a parenthesis 
 be skilfully thrown into that general charge the dif- 
 ficulty is increased to an impossibility. In the quota- 
 tion just given it is alleged that the ideal of Christian 
 morality is " negative rather than positive, passive 
 rather than active." Then what is the meaning of 
 such words as " Let your light so shine before men, 
 that they may see your good works; " " Whosoever 
 shall do and teach these commandments, the same 
 shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven ; " 
 " But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
 
282 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 deceiving your own selves ; " " What doth it profit, 
 my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and 
 have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother 
 or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one 
 of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed 
 and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those 
 things that are needful to the body ; what doth it 
 profit? " Is this negative rather than positive, passi\ e 
 rather than active? It is further charged that "its 
 ideal is innocence rather than nobleness." Is this 
 true of the morality taught by Christ and his apostles ? 
 " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
 good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
 despitefully use you and persecute you ; " " If thine 
 enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; 
 for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his 
 head." Is this innocence rather than nobleness? 
 Christian morality is further charged with inculcating 
 " abstinence from evil rather than energetic pursuit 
 of good." How do the Christian writings testify on 
 this point? " Prove all things ; hold fast that which 
 is good ; " " Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits 
 whether they are of God ; " " To the law and to the 
 testimony ; if they speak not according to this law, 
 it is because there is no light in them ; " " Abhor that 
 which is evil ; cleave to that which is good ;" " Hold 
 that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
 crown." Is this a " mere abstinence from evil " ? It 
 is further charged that " 'Thou shalt not' predom- 
 inates unduly over ' Thou shalt.' " This complaint is 
 unjust. Christian morality legislates for society as it 
 is, and not for society as it might have been, — for 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 283 
 
 real, not ideal man. Christian morality had not only 
 to enlighten ignorance, but to restrain evil. We 
 venture to say that, in family training, " Thou shalt 
 not " occupies a larger share of the daily instruc- 
 tion than " Thou shalt," according to the age of 
 the children. It should be remembered, too, that 
 Almighty God himself pronounced the "shalt" and 
 " shalt not " of the Decalogue ; and if he gave the 
 one " undue" prominence over the other, he was un- 
 qualified to give any moral commandments. In con- 
 nection with the moral legislation of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures, it cannot be too clearly remembered that it was 
 addressed to a fallen race, consequently there was a 
 great negative work to be done ; and if " Thou shalt 
 not" was much required, the objector should blame 
 the immorality which necessitated it, and not the 
 morality which it was intended to recover. This 
 allegation against the negative aspect of Christian 
 morality can be accounted for only on two grounds : 
 first, upon an ignorance of human nature, which 
 reflects not that legislation should be adapted to the 
 age and capacity of those who need the law ; and 
 secondly, an ignorance of the fact that, though the 
 form of the legislation is negative, the reasons of the 
 legislation are positive. The objector may forbid his 
 child to enter a certain house : the child sees only the 
 negative aspect of the command, not the positive 
 reason of the commander ; nor could he understand 
 that reason, however the parent might attempt to 
 explain it. The first thing to do is not to quarrel with 
 the legislation, but to have faith in the Legislator ; and 
 then his word, how difficult soever of explanation, 
 
284 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 will be received with confidence and honor, and the 
 time of interpretation be waited for with patience. 
 
 An objection has been taken to Christian morality 
 from the purely political side. It has been said by the 
 writer already quoted, that "while in the morality of 
 the best Pagan nations, duty to the State holds a dis- 
 proportionate place, infringing on the just liberty of 
 the individual, in purely Christian ethics that grand 
 department of duty is scarcely noticed or acknowl- 
 edged." If we mistake not — and we have read the 
 purely Cliristian ethics with some care — this is a 
 superficial and unjust opinion. It should be borne in 
 mind that " the State " is an expression which means 
 different things in different countries ; or, if it means 
 the same thing substantially, there are endless modifi- 
 cations in the practical use of the term. Purely Chris- 
 tian ethics have a deeper application than the political 
 codes of particular countries ; and probably, while 
 saying less about the State than Plato does, they are 
 all the while affecting State life more powerfully than 
 all the formal political treatises that could be written. 
 The "purely Christian ethics" address themselves to 
 man, and not to particular nationalities ; when men 
 reduce the purely Christian ethics to practice, their 
 political relations will feel the advantage. Purely 
 Christian ethics say, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
 as thyself: " " Honor all men ; love the brotherhood ; 
 fear God ; honor the king : " " Husbands, love your 
 wives ; wives, be in subjection to your husbands : " 
 " Render unto all their dues, tribute to whom tribute 
 is due, custom to. whom custom, fear to whom fear, 
 honor to whom honor ; " " Render under Caesar the 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 285 
 
 things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things 
 which are God's." The vital operation of these prin- 
 ciples in the intelligence and conduct of any commu- 
 nity, would inaugurate a healthier political era than 
 could be introduced by the most exact statistical tables, 
 and the most elaborately detailed political creed. They 
 leave all variations of the State just as the genius 
 of statesmen may determine ; but they go to the 
 heart of the people, and give its impulses and resolu- 
 tions the highest and purest tone. What if purely 
 Christian ethics had been occupied in advocating one 
 form of government against another, in putting mon- 
 archy against democracy, or despotism against consti- 
 tutionalism? The influence of purely Christian ethics 
 would have been limited, and limitation in moral ad- 
 vantage is essentially opposed to the bounty of the 
 grace of God. We take this political objection to be 
 rather a commendation than a reproach. Politics may 
 be local, but ethics must be universal : a man may be 
 a democrat or a king, a Czar or a serf; he may follow 
 Caesar or Brutus, without endangering his destiny by 
 bad character ; but the moment a man attempts to ac- 
 commodate ethics to personal prejudice or passion, he 
 is dangerous to any State. Jesus Christ commanded 
 his disciples to preach the Gospel in " all nations," — 
 a thing which would have been impossible had the Gos- 
 pel embodied a special political creed ; but wherever 
 the Gospel is received, the less is comprehended in 
 the greater ; better men become better politicians ; 
 larger hearts conceive larger measures ; holier con- 
 sciences call for purer statutes ; and as kings and citi- 
 zens are drawn toward the Great Ruler, a new vitality 
 
286 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 and wider freedom characterize statesmanship and all 
 the relations of public life. 
 
 The same writer expresses himself in language more 
 decisive still, if possible ; he says, " I am as far as any 
 one from pretending that these defects are necessari- 
 ly inherent in the Christian ethics, in every manner in 
 which it can be conceived, or that the many requisites 
 of a complete moral doctrine, which it does not con- 
 tain, do not admit of being reconciled with it. Far 
 less would I insinuate this of the doctrines and pre- 
 cepts of Christ himself. . . . But it is quite consistent 
 with this to believe that they contain, and were meant 
 to contain, only a part of the truth ; that many es- 
 sential elements of the highest inorality [the italics 
 are the transcriber's] are among the things which are 
 not provided for in the recorded deliverances of 
 the Founder of Christianity. ... I believe that other 
 ethics than any which can be evolved from exclu- 
 sively Christian sources must exist side by side with 
 Christian ethics, to produce the moral regeneration 
 of mankind, ... It can do . no service to blink the 
 fact, known to all who have the most ordinary ac- 
 quaintance with human history, that a large portion 
 ol the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has 
 been the work, not only of men who did not know, but 
 of men who knew and rejected, the Christian faith." * 
 A little more precision in the use of words would 
 have been useful in enabling the reader to understand 
 this doctrine. If, as the writer distinctly allows, 
 " the many requisites of a complete moral doctrine" 
 " admit of being reconciled with " the Christian ethics, 
 
 ♦ Mill, On Liberty, 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 287 
 
 it does not quite appear how " many of the essential 
 elements of the highest morality" are not provided 
 for by the Founder of Christianity. How can the 
 " complete " be " reconciled " with the " not provided 
 for " ? When ^' many essential elements of the highest 
 morality " are wanting, how ■ can there be a " recon- 
 ciliation " between such a deficiency and " the many 
 requisites of a complete moral doctrine " ? At best, 
 the reconciliation can only be partial ; partialness is 
 incompleteness ; and incompleteness in moral teaching 
 is a grave charge to bring against Jesus Christ ; it is 
 not incompleteness in merely theoretical or doctrinal 
 teaching, but incompleteness in moral comprehension. 
 Look at the possible consequences of such incom- 
 pleteness. Those who listened to Jesus Christ received 
 from him an incomplete morality ; by so much as their 
 morality was incomplete their lives might be immoral ; 
 by so much as their lives were immoral responsibility 
 must be fastened on their teacher. If they had known 
 better, they might have done better ; Jesus Christ did 
 not teach them better, and upon Jesus Christ the 
 responsibility must rest. If it be contended that the 
 incompleteness was merely in statement, not in prin- 
 ciple, the plea cannot be accepted, because it is dis- 
 tinctly alleged by the objector that " many essential 
 elements of the highest morality are not provided for 
 in the recorded deliverances of the Founder of Chris- 
 tianity." Suppose, then, to apply the case to the 
 present time, that any man should accept Jesus Christ 
 as his only moral teacher ; that his whole life should 
 be built upon the sayings of Jesus Christ: it must 
 follow, since he has nothing but " the recorded 
 
288 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 deliverances of the Founder of Christianity " to go by, 
 that his life will be destitute of " many of the essen- 
 tial elements of the highest morality ; " yet Jesus Christ 
 promises that those who '' do" his " sayings" shall be 
 saved, and declares that those who "do them not" 
 shall be lost : but if " men who knew and rejected the 
 Christian faith " have favored the w^orld with " a large 
 portion of the noblest and most valuable moral teach- 
 ing," where is the equity of saving men who are des- 
 titute of " many essential elements of the highest 
 morality," and condemning men who have given 
 society " the noblest and most valuable moral teach- 
 ing"? And if the equity be challenged, what does 
 there remain in the teaching of Jesus Christ? The 
 men who have "rejected the Christian faith" must 
 (i) have had access to higher moral sources than 
 were available to the Founder of the Christian faith ; or 
 (2) have had finer and larger moral capacity than Jesus 
 Christ ; or (3) must have been endowed with what for 
 want of a better term may be called a more powerful 
 faculty of moral statesmanship so as to enable them to 
 legislate more comprehensively than the Founder of 
 Christianity. Under any of these assumptions it is 
 clear, from the objector's point of view, that Jesus 
 Christ is superseded by a higher order of teachers, 
 and that his morality must go down with other narrow 
 dogmas which were adapted to semi-barbarous ages. 
 
 But is it true that " many essential elements of the 
 highest morality are among the things which are not 
 provided for in the recorded deliverances of the Found- 
 er of Christianity " ? What are the essential elements 
 of the highest morality ? Would intelligent and loving 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 289 
 
 reverence for God be admitted to be one of them? If 
 so, it is provided for in the recorded deh'verances of 
 the Founder of Christianity. Is the highest venera- 
 tion of human nature worthy to be ranked as one of 
 them ? If so, it is provided for in the recorded deliv- 
 erances of the Founder of Christianity. Is the loftiest 
 disinterestedness, or the most generous magnanimity, 
 an essential element of the highest morality? If so, 
 it is provided for in the recorded deliverances of the 
 Founder of Christianity. Do justice, mercy, forgive- 
 ness, and peace, find any place among the essential 
 elements of the highest morality? If so, they are pro- 
 vided for in the recorded deliverances of the Founder 
 of Christianity. Is philanthropy, as shown in loving 
 care for all men, alike as regards the body and the 
 soul, in any way related to the highest morality ? If so, 
 it is provided for in the recorded deliverances of the 
 Founder of Christianity. We have not been able to 
 discover one essential element of the highest morality 
 w^hich is not provided for in those deliverances, and 
 we have waited with unrequited patience for specific 
 references on the part of the objector. In a general 
 way the author says, " It is in many points incomplete 
 and one-sided ; and unless ideas and feelings not sanc- 
 tioned by it had contributed to the formation of Euro- 
 pean life and character, human affairs would have been 
 in a worse condition than they now are." As not 
 one of these " many points " is given, we have no case 
 before us. We know not to what " ideas and feelings " 
 not sanctioned by Christian morality European ideas 
 are indebted for not being '' in a worse condition than 
 they now are," but our conviction is strong that if 
 13 
 
290 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Europeans had done unto others as they would that 
 others should do unto them ; if they had fed their hun- 
 gering enemies, and overcome evil with good ; if they 
 had done justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly 
 with God ; if they had abhorred evil, and cleaved to 
 that which is good ; if they had not believed every 
 spirit, but tried the spirits whether they were of God, 
 — that their ''affairs" would have been so much the 
 less voluminous by the absence of every knavish in- 
 trigue and every unrighteous war. We cannot see 
 what is meant by calling upon Christian morality to 
 interfere in European affairs in any other manner than 
 that in which it interferes with the affairs of the whole 
 world. On this point we have already expressed an 
 opinion. Christian morality is not elaborated like a 
 table of statistics or an Act of Parliament ; it gives the 
 moral spirit, and in that it gives everything that can be 
 required. The sun will not do any gardening, but 
 without it no gardening could be done. The dew will 
 sow no seed, but without it seed would be sown in 
 vain. The greater the agent, the less of detail will it 
 attempt ; the greater the spirit, the less of literal law 
 will it dictate. So it will be found, that where the 
 Spirit of Jesus Christ is, the morality of Jesus Christ 
 will follow : that Spirit determines the whole course 
 of life ; and it should be remembered by all who repre- 
 sent the Christian ethics, that, if any man have not 
 the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. It is, therefore, 
 positively immoral on the part of objectors to drag in 
 Christ's name as responsible for all moral systems 
 which ignorant men may set up. 
 
 The author now under consideration can hardly 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 29I 
 
 escape this charge. He occasionally confounds the 
 teaching of Jesus Christ with " religious education/' 
 and the " Calvinistic theory." For example, he affirms 
 that " in the morality of private life, whatever exists 
 of magnanimity, high-mindedness, personal dignity, 
 even the sense of honor, is derived from the purely 
 human, not from the religious, part of an education, 
 and never could have grown out of a standard of ethics 
 in which the only worth professedly recognized is that 
 of obedience." This may be a serious charge against 
 the "religious education" that was inflicted on the 
 objector ; but it is not therefore a true charge against 
 Christian morality. We have no intention to be flip- 
 pant when we say tliat we accept the objector's own 
 account of the "religious education" which he re- 
 ceived, for most truly he has done his utmost to bring 
 dishonor upon the morality which would have had a 
 happier effect upon him than the dogmas which he 
 has mistaken for Christian ethics. Does the objector 
 know where " the purely human " part of education 
 ends, and where the "religious" part begins? Can 
 he inform us what would have been the condition of 
 mankind, not to speak merely of European affairs, if 
 Jesus Christ had never appeared on the earth ? Does 
 " the purely human part of our education" itself owe 
 nothing to the inspiring and expansive genius of Chris- 
 tianity? Has Christianity done nothing to promote 
 the intellectual culture of mankind ? Has the voice of 
 Christianity never been heard pleading for liberty, de- 
 fending weakness, and assailing despotism ? Is Chris- 
 tianity altogether a dumb morality? Is it mere decla- 
 mation that has represented that her trumpet rang the 
 
292 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 clearest and loudest blast in every call to war for truth 
 and virtue ; that her hand w^as the strongest and stead- 
 iest in all conflicts; and that her white banner was 
 never borne off the field in shame? Is there any truth 
 in all this, or is it but a frenzied imagining on the 
 part of Christ's dupes ? No wonder that the objector 
 should have come to some such conclusion respecting 
 Christian morality when we find him confounding it 
 with " the Calvinistic theory," which he thus desc5ribes : 
 " According to that the one great offence of man is 
 self-will. All the good of which humanity is capable 
 is comprised in obedience. You have no choice ; thus 
 you must do, and no otherwise : ' whatever is not a 
 duty is a sin.' Human nature being radically corrupt, 
 there is no redemption for any one until human nature 
 is killed within him. To one holding this theory of 
 life, crushing out any of the human faculties, capaci- 
 ties, and capabilities, is no evil : man needs no capa- 
 city but that of surrendering himself to the will of 
 God ; and if he uses any of his faculties for any other 
 purpose but to do that supposed will more effectually, 
 he is better without them." We may leave Calvinists 
 to deal with this passage, as we cannot profess to know 
 their case so well as they may know it themselves. 
 We venture, however, to suggest that the term '' hu- 
 man nature," as employed in this quotation, is proba- 
 bly used in a different sense to that in which Calvin 
 employed it, and therefore the sanguinary representa- 
 tion of ^''killing human nature" is by no means the 
 murderous deed which the objector would have his 
 readers suppose. We know not how weak may have 
 been the Calvinists with whom the objector may have 
 
RELAl ION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 293 
 
 come in contact, but we own to certain recollections, 
 not quite so distinct indeed as we could wish them to 
 be, of periods in European history in which Calvinists 
 have not shrunk from battle, or prison, or hunger, or 
 death, that they might break the sway of oppressors 
 and enthrone Liberty in her rightful elevation. All 
 this, however, is of comparatively small concern to us. 
 We are more careful to point out the slanderous re- 
 marks which the author has inferentially, we hope not 
 intentionally, made respecting the character of God. 
 Even allowing the '' Calvinistic theory" to be exactly 
 as he puts it, his view of God is most degrading, not 
 to say blasphemous. The author speaks of " the will 
 of God " in a manner which shows that he entertains 
 a doubtful opinion of that will. Practically he con- 
 temns the idea of that will being the rule of human 
 life. We can conceive of one ground only upon which 
 such contempt can be sustained, and that is, the ground 
 of imperfection on the part of God. The writing of 
 these words costs us no little feeling, yet they are not 
 too strong to express the simple fact of the case. If 
 God is an imperfect Being, submission to his will may 
 be a profound mistake ; but if he is infinite in wisdom, 
 infinite in holiness, infinite in love, then submission to 
 his will must be the brightest and noblest end of life. 
 The decision turns wholly on the character of God ; 
 and that being determined, we shall have a correct 
 interpretation of " obedience," a term which is appar- 
 ently an insuperable stumbling-block in the author's 
 way. What is obedience as viewed in the light of the 
 true character of God? The objector clearly regards 
 it as implying an afiront to human reason, and indeed 
 
294 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 to all the attributes which are characteristic of man- 
 hood. He imagines obedience to be equivalent to a 
 renunciation of personal thought and a surrendering 
 of personal liberty. He would be right if the obe- 
 dience were demanded to any being in the universe 
 but God. The finite can never be humbled in accept- 
 ing the will of the Infinite ; indeed, all human life, 
 if properly directed, is spent in one continuous effort 
 to reach a higher standard than it has yet attained ; 
 what if that effort be called obedience^ and that 
 standard be called God? It sounds very arbitrary to 
 say, " You have no choice ; thus you must do, and 
 no otherwise : " but the fact is that every man has 
 a choice ; every man may walk in the light of his 
 own wisdom ; every man may shut out the sun and 
 light his own torch ; or, any man recognizing the 
 uncertain, the ever-changing conditions of human life, 
 may seek the wisdom which is divine, a wisdom 
 which rouses the intellect into fuller vitality, and 
 leaves unimpaired every faculty of manhood. 
 
 Let us, however, suppose a state from which " the 
 religious part of our education" is totally excluded. 
 Great care must be taken in this supposition, for, to 
 make the case effective, every trace of God and Jesus 
 Christ must be entirely avoided. We cannot allow 
 the objector to avail himself even of incidental obli- 
 gations to the Divine or Christian element, because 
 his declarations upon the general question necessitate 
 a choice between positive Divine government and 
 practical atheism. He has said that " many essential 
 elements of the highest morality " are wanting in 
 Christianity ; that " a large portion of the noblest and 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 295 
 
 most valuable moral teaching has been the work not 
 only of men who did not know, but of men who 
 knew and rejected, the Christian faith ; " that " in the 
 morality of private life, whatever exists of magna- 
 nimit} , high-mindedness, personal dignity, even the 
 sense of honor, is derived from the purely human, 
 not from the religious, part of our education ; " that 
 "while in the morality of the best Pagan nations, 
 duty to the State holds a disproportionate place . . . 
 in purely Christian ethics that grand department of 
 duty is scarcely noticed or acknowledged ; " that " it 
 is in the Koran, not in the New Testament, that we 
 read the maxim, ' A ruler who appoints any man to 
 an office, when there is in his dominions another 
 man better qualified for it, sins against God and 
 against the State ; ' " and, above all, he deprecates 
 the idea of man surrendering himself entirely to the 
 will of God.* Let us, then, accepting these state- 
 ments for the sake of argument, exclude the religious 
 element entirely from the State. No God of any kind 
 can be allowed ; no authoritative standard of morals 
 can be acknowledged ; every man must be his own 
 god and his own lawgiver ; the sanctions of the future 
 life must be ignored as fictions ; the idea of a final 
 and public judgment must be treated as a delusion ; 
 veneration, which we have been accustomed to recog- 
 nize as lying at the base of all great character, must be 
 annihilated ; every instinct or recollection that relates 
 to divine things must be destroyed or forgotten. All 
 this being done, we have to fabricate a theory of 
 statesmanship, and to supply bonds of nationality; 
 
 ♦ Mill, On Liberty. 
 
296 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 we have to establish bases of domestic and commer- 
 cial relationship, and to start the whole machinery of 
 confederated life and activity. We have no sugges- 
 tion to offer as to how all this could be done in the 
 proposed atheistic state ; but we fear that, having got 
 rid of " the religious part of his education," the diffi- 
 culties of the atheistic politician would be greater than 
 he had anticipated. From one or two hints which we 
 find in the work On Liberty we infer that even athe- 
 ism itself could not quite escape some of the perils 
 which attend society as it is now constituted, — even 
 utilitarianism would occasionally get entangled in the 
 meshes of speculation. For example, Mr. Mill says, 
 " I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical 
 questions," and yet a few pages afterwards he says, 
 '' The usefulness of an opinion is itself matter of 
 opinion ; as disputable, as open to discussion, and 
 requiring discussion as much, as the opinion itself." 
 What, then, becomes of Mr. Mill's " ultimate appeal " ? 
 Utility is the ultimate appeal, but utility itself is dis- 
 putable ; what, then, is the value of a disputable ulti- 
 mate appeal? Two combatants agree to remit the 
 question in debate to the ultimate appeal of utility ; 
 but, on approaching the tribunal, they are informed 
 that the controversy may be continued, because " the 
 usefulness of an opinion is itself matter of opinion." 
 The difficulty is not much relieved by another dictum 
 of the utilitarian author ; he says, " We can never be 
 sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is 
 a false opinion ; and if we were sure, stifling it would 
 be an evil still." It would follow, then, that if we 
 can never be sure that an opinion is false, we can 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 297 
 
 never be sure that an opinion is right ; and if we can 
 never be sure that an opinion is right, we can never 
 be sure that an action is right (for all intelligent action 
 must be founded on opinion) ; and if we can never be 
 sure that an action is either right or wrong, then law 
 is a conjecture and justice is an impossibility. Will 
 it be answered that there are certain opinions and 
 courses of action settled as good and useful, or useful 
 and therefore good? We may ask, Who settled them? 
 Who had any right to settle them ? It must be borne 
 in mind that we are conducting the inquiry on the 
 understanding that " the religious part of our educa- 
 tion " has been strictly excluded from society ; hence 
 the appositeness, and hence the necessity, of asking, 
 Who settled that any opinion or any course of life is 
 useful and good? Mr. Mill gives what is apparently 
 intended as a solution of this difficulty ; he says, 
 '' Complete liberty of contradicting and disapproving 
 our opinion is the very condition which justifies us in 
 assuming its truth for purposes of action ; and on no 
 other terms can a being with human faculties have 
 any rational assurance of being right." This is some- 
 what firm for a man who has just laid down the doc- 
 trine that we " can never be sure that the opinion we 
 are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion." Even 
 after it is "completely contradicted," what then? 
 Contradiction simply amounts to setting one opinion 
 against another ; and, if the appeal be made to 
 " utility," we are told by the author that " the use- 
 fulness of an opinion is itself matter of opinion." 
 The subject is not much illuminated by another de- 
 liverance : '' The cessation, on one question after 
 13* 
 
298 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 another, of serious controversy is one of the necessary 
 incidents of the consolidation of opinion ; a consolida- 
 tion as salutary in the case of true opinions^ as it is 
 dangerous and noxious when t7ie opinions are erro^ 
 neousJ^ We use italics, because we are somewhat 
 startled to find so broad a distinction drawn between 
 opinions that are true and opinions that are erroneous, 
 when we have just been told that " we can never be 
 sure " that any opinion is false ! 
 
 The practical difficulties' in carrying out Mr. Mill's 
 ideas are hardly less than those of accepting his the- 
 ories. When opinion is formed, it may, of course, 
 become an active agent ; Mr. Mill anticipates this, 
 and lays down the following illustrated doctrine : "An 
 opinion that corndealers are starvers of the poor, or 
 that private property is robbery, ought to be unmo- 
 lested when simply circulated through the press, but 
 may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to 
 an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn- 
 dealer, or when handed about among the same mob 
 in the form of a placard." What is the object of an 
 opinion being " simply circulated through the press "? 
 Is it not to create public opinion ? Who is responsi- 
 ble for the excitement of a mob ? Can those persons 
 be held guiltless of the excitement (supposing it to 
 take an insurrectionary turn) who have simply circu- 
 lated through the press the doctrine that private prop- 
 erty is robbery? Which are the more guilty, the men 
 who taught the lesson or the men who carried the 
 lesson into effect? If the opinion did not lead to 
 action, the doctrine would be harmless ; but opinions 
 do lead to action, and the serious question is, Who 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORA.LS. 299 
 
 are responsible in cases of insurrection, the teachers 
 or the taught? The teacher may be less inflammable 
 than the man who receives his instructions ; but it 
 seems, from our point of view, just as dangerous to 
 teach the doctrine that private property is robbery 
 as to throw a spark upon a powder magazine. Mr. 
 Mill, as it appears to us, in constructing his atheistic 
 or, if he so please, utilitarian scheme of society, has 
 overlooked the practical aspect of opinion. He ap- 
 parently forgets that opinions express themselves in 
 action, and that the mental life (except in cases of 
 the grossest hypocrisy) determines social action and 
 influence. Mr. Mill apprehends no more evil from 
 the advocacy of any opinion than from the recitation 
 of the letters of the alphabet or the enumeration of 
 a list of adverbs, provided that advocacy be not asso- 
 ciated with such a powerful temptation as that of 
 speaking against corndealers before the house of a 
 corndealer.* If a " placard " against corndealers be 
 given away at the door of a blacksmith the circum- 
 stance may not be criminal, but if at the door of a 
 corn-merchant it becomes an indictable offence, though 
 the blacksmith may live immediately opposite the corn- 
 merchant ; so great a difference may ten yards of 
 pavement make ! Yet Mr. Mill does now and again 
 turn to practical matters ; he says that " the liberty 
 of the individual must be thus far limited : he must 
 not make himself a nuisance to other people." What 
 is a nuisance? The man who "circulates through 
 the press the doctrine that private property is rob- 
 bery" may be making himself a nuisance to his 
 
 * On Liberty^ p. 22. 
 
300 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 honest neighbors ; the man who sets up utility as the 
 ultimate appeal on all ethical questions may be making 
 himself a nuisance to other people ; the man who 
 " simply circulates through the press " the statement 
 that Calvinism " kills human nature " may be making 
 himself a nuisance to other people : it is necessary, 
 consequently, to have a definition of a nuisance before 
 we can limit the liberty of the individual who makes 
 himself a nuisance to other people. The utilitarian 
 must give his opinion of a nuisance, and when he has 
 done so we may remind him that we " can never be 
 sure " whether an opinion is either true or false. 
 
 These are some of the difficulties that we have found 
 in the working of the Atheistic Constitution. In the 
 absence of an absolute standard of morals, we have 
 felt it impossible to decide anything. What one of 
 the utilitarians said yesterday is contradicted by anoth- 
 er to-day. That which was harmless on a placard has 
 become treasonable in a speech. Utility itself has 
 been pronounced useless, and every opinion has been 
 charged with uncertainty. It may be an excellent 
 constitution for atheists ; it may be very satisfactory to 
 men who wish to disclaim personal responsibility ; but 
 we confess to a consciousness of deep want which can- 
 not be satisfied with the sophisms of utilitarianism. 
 The quotations which we have made from one utilita- 
 rian would seem to justify the opinions which Lord 
 Macaulay pronounced on utilitarians as a body : " We 
 cannot say that we think the logic on which they pride 
 themselves likely to improve their heads, or the scheme 
 of morality which they have adopted likely to improve 
 their hearts ; " and again, " The utilitarians have some- 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS.' 3OI 
 
 times been abused as intolerant, arrogant, irreligious ; 
 as enemies of literature, of the fine arts, and of the 
 domestic charities. . . . But scarcely anybody seems 
 to have perceived that almost all their peculiar faults 
 arise from the utter want both of comprehensiveness 
 and precision in their mode of reasoning." 
 
 From utilitarianism we turn to Christianity with a 
 most grateful sense of relief. Whatever mysteries be- 
 cloud some sides of it, we can at least comprehend its 
 sublime morality founded upon a right idea of God. 
 It descends into no such details as have just been dis- 
 cussed ; it simply raises the whole nature of man to 
 its proper elevation, and gives human reason the ad- 
 vantage of Divine guidance. Its teachings are enforced 
 by the highest sanctions ; the dignity of manhood is 
 constantly recognized ; and the doctrine of responsi- 
 bility constantly enforced. The greatest mind may 
 reflect with satisfaction and delight on its great prin- 
 ciples, while the simplest mind may comprehend its 
 practical directions. Every heart know^s the meaning 
 of love, and Jesus Christ makes his appeal to love 
 alike in the name of God and of man. Christianity 
 is addressed to all that is fundamental in human na- 
 ture ; it needs no accommodations to accidental circum- 
 stances, any more than the sun needs to adapt himself 
 to the various features of the landscape, or the atmos- 
 phere to the changing dialects of the nations. 
 
 The words of Lord Macaulay are, to our thinking, 
 so just and forcible that we gratefully avail ourselves 
 of his testimony. Omitting proper names as far as 
 possible, for the sake of brevity, we quote as follows : 
 " The ' greatest-happiness principle ' is included in 
 
302 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the Christian morality ; and, to our thinking, it is 
 there exhibited in an infinitely more sound and philo- 
 sophical form than in the utilitarian speculations. For 
 in the New Testament it is neither an identical propo- 
 sition, nor a contradiction in terms. . . . ' Do as you 
 would be done by,' ' Love your neighbor as yourself,' 
 — these are the precepts of Jesus Christ. Understood 
 in an enlarged sense, these precepts are, in fact, a 
 direction to everj^ man to promote the greatest happi- 
 ness of the greatest number. But this direction would 
 be utterly unmeaning, as it actually is in Mr. Ben- 
 tham's philosophy, unless it were accompanied by a 
 sanction. In the Christian scheme, accordingly, it is 
 accompanied by a sanction of immense force. To a 
 man whose greatest happiness in this world is incon- 
 sistent with the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number is held out the prospect of an infinite happi- 
 ness hereafter, from which he excludes himself by 
 wronging his fellow-creatures here. This is practical 
 philosophy, as practical as that on which penal legis- 
 lation is founded. A man is told to do something 
 which otherwise he would not do, and is furnished 
 with a new motive for doing it. Mr. Bentham has no 
 new motive to furnish his disciples with. . . . To induce 
 men to act without an inducement is too much even 
 for him. He should reflect that the whole vast world 
 of morals cannot be moved unless the mover can 
 obtain some stand for his engines beyond it. He acts 
 as Archimedes would have done, if he had attempted 
 to move the earth by a lever fixed on the earth. The 
 action and re-action neutralize each other. The artist 
 labors, and the world remains at rest. Mr. Bentham 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 303 
 
 can only tell us to do something which we have 
 always been doing, and should still have continued to 
 do, if we had never heard of the ' greatest-happiness 
 principle ; ' or else to do something which we have no 
 conceivable motive for doing, and therefore shall not 
 do. Mr. Bentham's principle is at best no more tlian 
 the golden rule of the Gospel, without its sanction. 
 Whatever evils, therefore, have existed in societies in 
 which the authority of the Gospel is recognized, may, 
 a fortiori^ as it appears to us, exist in societies in 
 which the utilitarian principle is recognized. We do 
 not apprehend that it is more difficult for a tyrant or a 
 persecutor to persuade himself and others that, in put- 
 ting to death those who oppose his power or differ 
 from his opinions, he is pursuing ' the greatest happi- 
 ness,' than that he is doing as he would be done by. 
 But religion gives him a motive for doing as he would 
 be done by ; and Mr. Bentham furnishes him no 
 motive to induce him to promote the general hap- 
 piness." 
 
 The Ptolemaic theory of morals is superseded by 
 the morality of Jesus Christ. The earth is not the 
 centre of the universe ; self is not the centre of life. 
 God is the sun : around him life should constantly 
 revolve, drawing from him light, warmth, beauty, 
 and fruitfulness. A motion round its own axis alone, 
 would mean night, winter, death ; but the revolution 
 round the sun means day, summer, immortality. The 
 utilitarian morality is to be classified with the Ptole- 
 maic astronomy. Both have a wrong centre ; a centre 
 which necessitates a delusive survey and an incorrect 
 
304 ' ECCE DEUS. 
 
 calculation. It may seem a small thing to the hardy 
 utilitarians that Christians should be passive, innocent, 
 and negative ; but perhaps the utilitarians consider too 
 little the severity of the process through w^hich Chris- 
 tians have come into the character which is held in 
 such philosophical contempt, and forget that what is 
 now negative may be preparatory to what is affirma- 
 tive. Jesus Christ himself, looked at on the cross, 
 presents a spectacle of extreme weakness and humilia- 
 tion ; nothing could more effectually excite the scorn 
 of strong-minded utilitarians ; yet his weakness may 
 be succeeded by strength ; the ear of corn may be 
 dying that it may bring forth a fuller life ; so that 
 judgment upon the case may be premature. Does it 
 ever occur to the robust mind of the utilitarian that he 
 may be reasoning upon an incomplete induction? We 
 venture to think that he is never troubled with self- 
 convictions upon this point. But is he not aware 
 that self-restraint is a clearer proof of strength than 
 self-gratification? Who is the strong man: he who 
 seeing luxuries must sate his appetite, or he who can 
 look at them and hold his desires in moderation, — 
 nay, further, who can deny himself of every one that 
 he may dispose of them for the benefit of others? 
 Who is the strong man : he who instantly repays the 
 slights and hurts which have been inflicted upon him, 
 or he who is willing to forgive even where he is able 
 to destroy ? Who is the strong man : he who will 
 live so as to gratify every lust, or he who says that, if 
 eating flesh cause his brother to offend, he will eat no 
 more while the world stands ? At this point we see 
 
RELATION OF THE CROSS TO PRACTICAL MORALS. 305 
 
 what the utilitarians may regard as the weakness of 
 the cross ; so far they are partially right ; it now 
 remains to show them that crucifixion is to be suc- 
 ceeded by resurrection ; that the man who has cruci- 
 fied himself ma}^ come to have a rulership wide as the 
 world and lasting as time. 
 
3o6 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE POSTHUMOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 THE resurrection of Jesus Christ will not be called 
 in question by any who pay the slightest regard 
 to the authority of the Christian writings. On this 
 point there is entire consistency and unanimity on the 
 part of the witnesses ; and so important is the fact of 
 the resurrection that the stupendous fabric of the 
 Church has been built upon it : " for if Christ be not 
 risen from the dead, then is our preaching vain, and 
 your faith is also vain." It is not proposed, then, to 
 go into the evidence respecting the resurrection, but 
 to inquire. What effect, if any, did the resurrection 
 produce on the spirit and ministry of Jesus Christ? 
 Moments of triumph put a man's spirit to the test. 
 Many men appear to be humble so long as all weap- 
 ons of war or resources of defence are beyond their 
 reach, who become inspired with desire for revenge 
 when circumstances combine in their favor. How 
 was it with Jesus Christ? Did the voice which 
 sounded over the open grave correspond with the 
 music which announced the lowly birth in Bethlehem ? 
 The angels sang of " good will towards men : " did 
 Jesus Christ, after the resurrection, contradict or fulfil 
 their song? 
 
 The writer of the first Gospel enables us to answer 
 
THE POSTHl/'MOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 307 
 
 these inquiries. The eleven disciples met their Master 
 by appointment upon a mountain in Galilee ; their 
 emotions were not unnaturally conflicting, — " they 
 worshipped him, but some doubted." Jesus Christ's 
 first word to them, as recorded by Matthew, reveals 
 the spirit of the Gospel in a most graphic and impres- 
 sive manner : "All power is given unto me in heaven 
 and in earth" — what then? We thought he had "all 
 power " before, when he wrought his mighty works, 
 — to what use, however, did he put his power? 
 When " all power" is given into the hands of a man 
 who has been exposed to the highest indignities which 
 society can inflict upon him, it may be expected that 
 his enemies will not escape judgment. It is not only 
 interesting, but most exciting, to pause at the expres- 
 sion " all power is given unto me in heaven and in 
 earth," and to conjecture how the sentence will be 
 finished. We know how it is finished, yet so far as 
 it is possible to move the mind back to the critical 
 point the excitement is most intense. The language 
 of doom might come after such an announcement ; the 
 " power " might express itself in forms of vengeance, 
 in the overturning of the Roman rule, in the expul- 
 sion of every priest who had given his voice for the 
 cross, or in the calling down of fire upon all his ene- 
 mies. Such are some of the possible uses of power ; 
 what is the use which Jesus Christ makes of his 
 omnipotence ? Having asserted his possession of all 
 power, he adds, " Go ye therefore, and teach all na- 
 tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Jesus Christ 
 thus taught the true use of all power. Power is only 
 
308 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 used truly as it is used educationally^ — " Go ye there- 
 fore and teackJ^ They who have must give. No man 
 is at liberty, according to the lavs^s of the kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ, to turn his power to merely personal 
 or selfish uses. His power must be expended for the 
 world's advantage, otherwise Jesus Christ will dis- 
 claim, his professions of discipleship. The measure 
 of any man's power is the measure of his obligation 
 to educate society, — the power may be intellectual, 
 commercial, social ; that is to say, the man may have 
 great thinking powers of his own, or great pecuniary 
 resources, or great influence arising from a lofty repu- 
 tation ; and Jesus Christ claims that " all nations " 
 shall have the advantage of his ability. As he was, 
 so his disciples are to be in the world according to 
 their measure, for it is plainly declared that " if any 
 man have not the spirit of Christ, he is noner of his." 
 The spirit of Christ is educational, and therefore will- 
 ingness to educate is the test of life in Christ. When 
 Paul addressed the elders of the Church of Ephesus, 
 he said, " I kept back nothing that was profitable 
 unto you,'* plainly showing that he had deeply entered 
 into the spirit of Jesus Christ. This idea of " keeping 
 back " is most expressive. Ananias and Sapphira 
 " kept back part of the price," and we know their 
 fate ; Paul " kept back nothing," and we know with 
 what exultancy he looked forward to his " crown ; " 
 the goats kept back the bread and water, and they 
 went away into everlasting punishment ; the sheep 
 kept nothing back, and they entered into life eternal. 
 
 The comprehensiveness of this educational charter 
 is most suggestive. There is the grandeur of the 
 
THE POSTHUMOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 3O9 
 
 conception ; standing with eleven men, poor and unlet- 
 tered men, upon a mountain in Galilee, Jesus Christ 
 turns the world into a great school, and elects teachers 
 who may constantly draw upon himself for instruction 
 and inspiration. He refers to no difficulties, never 
 provides for surrender or withdrawment, describes no 
 boundaries ; but speaks of the world as a unit, of all 
 nations as scholars, and of his Gospel as the theme of 
 every teacher. Before the magnificence of this con- 
 ception even the miracles dwindle into insignificance. 
 Then there is the implied adaptation of the Gospel to. 
 human nature universally. There are no modifica- 
 tions of the subject ; the Gospel is one just as the sun 
 is one ; and human nature is as essentially one as is 
 the Divine nature. Then there is the determination 
 of destiny, — he that believeth shall be saved, he that 
 believeth not shall be damned. No statesman ever 
 spoke of the affairs of state with so much ease, confi- 
 dence, and comprehensiveness as Jesus Christ spoke 
 of the world. He looked with the eye and spoke with 
 the voice of the Universal Prince, yet the marks of 
 recent wounds were on his hands and his feet, and no 
 man was ever more unprincely in his visible resources. 
 This must be accounted for by those who deny his 
 Godhead ; to those who believe in his Godhead the 
 case presents no difficulty. They would rather ac- 
 cept the mystery of God becoming man than the 
 impossibility of man becoming God. 
 
 So far the spirit of Jesus Christ after the resurrection 
 is entirely accordant with all that we have seen in 
 him up to the time of the crucifixion ; what difference 
 there may be is not one of nature, but of application ; 
 
3IO ECCE DEUS. 
 
 the benevolence is the same, though the commission 
 now includes the whole world, as well as the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel. There remain two 
 instances of Christ's posthumous spirit yet to be 
 looked at, in which the world can never cease to be 
 interested. They relate to individuals, it is true, yet 
 those individuals may be regarded as representative so 
 long as doubters and backsliders are to be found in 
 society. Happily, the disciples represented various 
 temperaments, and various intellectual capacities. 
 Had they been elected upon some special principle 
 of inclusion, that circumstance would have excited 
 suspicion ; as it was, however, the most opposite 
 characteristics were represented by the eleven dis- 
 ciples, so that the teaching of Jesus Christ had to 
 commend itself to what was essential, and not to what 
 was accidental, in human nature, and this is the more 
 remarkable when it is considered that nearly every- 
 thing he said seemed to be entirely opposed to the 
 main conditions of human nature generally, and of 
 Jewish society particularly. The two instances re- 
 ferred to are singularly pathetic. The first is that of 
 Didymus. He was absent when Jesus Christ appeared 
 to the disciples on the evening after the resurrec- 
 tion, and when the appearance was reported to him 
 he met the statement with the most resolute scepti- 
 cism : " Except," said he, " I shall see in his hands 
 the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print 
 of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will 
 not believe." To see his general appearance would 
 not be enough ; to hear his voice (which sufficed for 
 Mary Magdalene) would not be enough ; he must 
 
THE POSTHUMOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 3II 
 
 descend into particulars, and elect his own standards 
 of judgment. How will Jesus Christ treat the doubt- 
 er? A question of transcendent import ! The doubter 
 will come upon every age : on what principle shall he 
 be encountered? After eight days Jesus Christ made 
 a second appearance to his disciples, and the doubter 
 was present ; as soon as he repeated EigriPTj {>fiTv^ Jesus 
 passed at once to the sceptical Didymus, and said, 
 " Reach hither thy linger, and behold my hands ; and 
 reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and 
 be not faithless, but believing." Instead of resenting 
 the slight which had been cast upon the veracity 
 of his disciples, instead of rebuking an occasional 
 absence from the Christian fellowship, Jesus Christ 
 actually submitted to the very tests which the doubter 
 himself had elected ! He was greater in that hour 
 than when he wrought the chief of his miracles. He 
 gave, however, a gentle hint that the time of personal, 
 sensuous revelation was just closing, and that the 
 spiritual era was about to open. He said, " Thomas, 
 because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed ; blessed 
 are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." 
 It was an appropriate close of the physical dispensa- 
 tion, a powerful and convincing climax ! Any other 
 climax would have been a failure. A hand thrust 
 into the wound finishes with most tragic effect what 
 Simeon so well began when he* took the child in his 
 arms and sighed for rest. Thomas Didymus was the 
 first doubter that entered into peace through the 
 wounded Christ, and to-day there is no other plan by 
 which the soul can steady itself but by resting on the 
 same wounds, though in a higher and nobler sense. 
 
312 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Not only was this an appropriate conclusion of the 
 physical testimony, but a most gracious introduction 
 to the spiritual age : " Blessed are they that have not 
 seen, and yet have believed." It vs^as the old v^ord. 
 We heard it first on the Mount of Beatitudes, w^e hear 
 it last on the v^ay to Olivet, the Mount of Ascension ; 
 it was " blessed " at the beginning, it was " blessed " 
 at the close ; the changeful anthem, varying from the 
 whisper of a breeze to the noise of a storm, began and 
 ended on the same note. The last man who believed 
 by sight, was not so blessed as the first man who 
 believed on testimony. Each age has been offered 
 a larger blessing than that which was offered to its 
 predecessor. 
 
 The second instance is still more deeply interesting 
 than the first. All the disciples forsook Jesus Christ 
 and fled about the time of the crucifixion. The case 
 of Peter was one of special aggravation. He denied 
 his discipleship with an oath. The first to accept 
 Christ's call, he was the most resolute in disclaiming 
 his Master. Can a crime like this be forgiven? Is 
 there compass enough in Christ's love to get round a 
 treason so black, an apostasy so complete? When 
 the sovereign and the traitor meet, what will happen ? 
 They did meet. Early in the morning Jesus Christ 
 appeared on the shore of Tiberias, and accosted seven 
 or eight of his disciples, who had been fishing all 
 night without success. With the keen instinct of love, 
 John was the first to identify the Master. Turning to 
 Peter, he said, "It is the Lord." That was enough 
 for the man who carried an intolerable burden on his 
 heart ; when he heard it was the Lord, " he girt his 
 
THE POSTHUMOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 313 
 
 fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast 
 himself into the sea." We know not what happened 
 in the private interview which succeeded, the inter- 
 view between the great sinner and the greater Saviour. 
 It is better that we do not know ; better that the heart 
 should have its own sweet and secret memories of 
 intercourse with Jesus Christ, — something that should 
 be quite the heart's own treasure. Perhaps no words 
 passed ; perhaps only a look ; perhaps only a grasp 
 of the wounded Hand ! We know the effect of one 
 look ; it broke Simon Peter's heart : perhaps the look 
 of the eyes which had slept in death, healed it again. 
 We cannot tell ; we wish to know, yet we would not 
 inquire, lest we profane the sanctuary of the soul. 
 Part of the story is told. The risen Saviour dined 
 with the disciples. After dinner Jesus saith to Simon 
 Peter, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more 
 than these?" He was once boisterous in his demon- 
 strativeness, — ready for prison, prepared for death, — 
 yet he was convicted of falsehood and profanity ! 
 How would he answer now? "He saith unto him, 
 Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee." Again 
 the question, and again the answer ; and yet once 
 more ; the three denials were lost in the three con- 
 fessions ; and the thrice plighted backslider was thrice 
 charged to feed the flock, — to feed the lambs, and to 
 feed the sheep ; no partial ministry ; no sign of hu- 
 miliation attached to the service ; the forgiveness was 
 complete, the restoration was vital. In the beginning 
 of his ministry Jesus Christ had said to Simon Peter, 
 '^ Follow me ; " the old words precisely were repeated 
 on this occasion, Jesus foretold the circumstances of 
 14 
 
314 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Peter's death, and then said, '' Follow me." The 
 broken link was taken out, and this new one put in 
 its place. We know what a strong man Peter be- 
 came after his restoration, — how he excelled all the 
 New Testament writers in richness of pathos, and 
 how he rivalled even Paul in catholicity and labor. 
 The heart is enriched by its sorrows. Restored men, 
 so often looked upon with suspicion, ought to be the 
 wisest of Christian teachers : v/ise to guide the sheep, 
 and strong to carry the lambs. 
 
 In this charge to Simon Peter, Jesus Christ gives 
 no instruction as to theology or morals. Nothing ap- 
 proaching the nature of a formal creed is hinted at. 
 Yet this would have been the time above all other 
 times, had such a creed been necessary, to enter into 
 details ; specially so with Simon Peter, who had fallen 
 into shame. On what, then, was the great mission 
 founded? Simply on love. Where there is intense 
 love of Jesus Christ, there is capacity to feed the flock ; 
 where this love is wanting, all other capacity is use- 
 less. Love is the security of the Christian life, and 
 of the Christian apostleship. Love is the guarantee 
 of morality, for love is the fulfilling of the law. God 
 so loved that he gave; man, too, must so love as to 
 give. He is not to be drawn with chains of iron ; he 
 is to be impelled by love. Consider what love is, and 
 see its sufficiency and power. Love is the term which 
 expresses the purest and intensest enthusiasm of the 
 soul. When that purest and intensest enthusiasm is 
 directed towards Jesus Christ, love attains its noblest 
 development. The whole man is aglow with an ardor 
 wliich nothing that is unholy can touch and live ! The 
 
THE POSTHUMOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 315 
 
 man's vitality is at its highest point ; every sensibility 
 is as keen as it can be ; every faculty is under pledge 
 to suffering or service. This was all that Jesus Christ 
 required even of the man w^ho had fallen so foully, and 
 shown himself so helpless under pressure. Before the 
 crucifixion he had trusted in himself: the very last ele- 
 ment of self-conceit was to be destroyed in him, and 
 henceforth he was to live under the inspiration and 
 guardianship of perfect love. There is no faculty of 
 interpretation equal to love ; it has access, so to speak, 
 to every chamber of God's heart, and can speak all 
 languages : nor is there any capacity of suffering equal 
 to it ; it accepts suffering as a trial of reality and 
 strength, and wrings great spoil from its unwilling 
 grasp. This we had known before; but Jesus Christ 
 employs a word which calls us to consideration ;• on 
 being assured of Simon Peter's love, he tells him to 
 feed the flock. How can. love feed? We know how 
 love can stimulate, defend, or soothe ; but this new 
 word startles us somewhat. Yet it need not. Love 
 delights in the satisfaction of others. It does not care 
 in any low sense to feed itself; it thrives best when it 
 gives most, and does most for the lambs and the sheep. 
 But which lambs and sheep? Is the fold defined? 
 Yes: Feed fny lambs — feed my sheep — was the 
 command of Jesus Christ : the love was Christ's, the 
 service was Christ's ; nor does Simon Peter appear to 
 have forgotten the charge, or the metaphor by which 
 it was expressed, for long after he wrote, — '' Feed the 
 flock of God which is among you, taking the over- 
 sight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly ; not for 
 filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; . . . and when the 
 
3l6 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 chief Shepherd shall appear,.ye shall receive a crown 
 of glory that fadeth not away." Love must, by the 
 force of its own nature, feed others, — study them, 
 comprehend their capacity ; and satisfy them when 
 
 they feel 
 
 " The curse of a high spirit famishing 
 Because all earth but sickens it." 
 
 Jesus Christ dealt thus with the doubter and the apos- 
 tate, — gently, instructively, and forgivingly. Not a 
 harsh word was said to either of them : let the church 
 recollect this, and consider how far the servant has 
 followed the Master's example. There may be some 
 standing without who should be called within. 
 
 Jesus Christ made a remarkable posthumous appear- 
 ance to two of his disciples, as they walked to Em- 
 maus. They may be regarded as representing men 
 who have taken an incomplete view of the facts which 
 relate to Christ. If their collation of evidence had 
 been fuller, they would have had less trouble. They 
 saw but a "fragment" of the case; "and as they 
 communed one with another, they were sad." (Luke 
 xxiv. 17.) The interview between Jesus Christ and 
 them was remarkable chiefly for the full exposition of 
 the case which Christ gave from what may be termed 
 the documentary side : " Beginning at Moses and all 
 the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the 
 Scriptures the things concerning himself." This puts 
 the Old Testament in its right position. It is a Chris- 
 tian document. From the beginning of revelation to 
 its close, Christ is the main subject : without him there 
 was nothing to be revealed. 
 
 At the close of all, he breathed upon his disciples 
 
THE POSTHUAIOUS MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST. 317 
 
 the Holy Ghost. This, however, was but preparatory 
 to the full gift which was shortly afterwards received. 
 They were to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they 
 were endued with power from on high. Thus the 
 epochs merged into one another. John pointed to 
 Jesus, Jesus promised to send the Comforter, and so, 
 after long ages, we have come to the rule of the Spirit. 
 He works deeply though silently. His " going " is 
 not heard in the thunder, or earthquake, or whirlwind. 
 He comes as quietly as the morning, and while un- 
 observing men are exclaiming, " Where is the promise 
 of his coming? " he is actually filling the heavens with 
 light and renewing the face of the earth. Of him it 
 may be' said, as was said of Jesus Christ, "There 
 standeth one among you, whom ye know not ; he 
 it is"! 
 
3i8 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON ' 
 
 *" I ^HE most cursory observation cannot fail to no- 
 tice the innumerable beauties of this publication. 
 The writer has rendered inexpressible service to the 
 cause of free religious inquiry by his magnificently 
 intellectual discussions of fundamental truth, and has 
 given views of Jesus Christ's Life and Work which 
 must be most useful in many ways. The present 
 writer cannot but thank the author of Ecce Homo 
 for the intellectual stimulus and moral inspiration 
 which he has derived from a repeated perusal of its 
 instructive and stimulating pages. It is in no cap- 
 tious spirit, therefore, that the following Notes are 
 submitted to the respectful consideration of the author 
 and readers of Ecce Homo, The writer is most 
 anxious that the truth should be vindicated, at what 
 risk soever to all minor considerations. The term 
 "Notes" is employed because what follows is little 
 more than an arrangement of mere marginalia ; the 
 subjects themselves have been discussed, more or 
 less, in preceding chapters ; what remains is a series 
 of running criticisms or suggestive inquiries. 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON *' ECCE HOMO. 319 
 
 I. Page 25. 
 
 " The conception of a kingdom of God was no 
 new one, but was familiar to every Jew." 
 
 True ; but Christ came to give that conception a 
 profounder interpretation, and a more intensely spirit- 
 ual bearing. The Jew had a carnal idea of a spiritual 
 fact. 
 
 II. Page 26. 
 
 John and Christ " revived the obsolete function 
 of the prophet, and did for their generation what a 
 Samuel and an Elijah had done for theirs." 
 
 This is too narrow an interpretation of the term 
 " prophet," and too limited as applied to Christ. A 
 prophet may teach as well as merely predict. — 
 Samuel and Elijah spoke of another, Christ spoke 
 of himself. — Christ did not work for a " generation," 
 but for all men through all time. Christ did not " re- 
 vive an obsolete function," he consummated the pur- 
 pose of a prefigurative office. 
 
 III. Page 31. 
 
 " Now under which form did Christ propose to 
 revive it (the ancient theocracy) ? The vision of 
 universal monarchy which he saw in the desert 
 suggests the answer. He conceived the theocracy 
 restored as it had been in the time of David, with 
 a visible monarch at its head, and that monarch 
 himself." 
 
320 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Was it merely a conception ("he conceived"), or 
 was it the carrying out of an eternal purpose? Did 
 Christ come with a plan or without a plan ? If with 
 a plan, when was that plan formed ? This brings up 
 the mystery of the incarnation, the non-recognition of 
 which is the cardinal error of the book. Is there not 
 some confusion of terms in the latter part of the sen- 
 tence just cited ? How can a man be at the head of 
 a GodocrsLcy? The word " representatively" may be 
 suggested ; but in so far as there is any distinctive 
 value in a theocracy, that value is diminished by any 
 qualifying term whatsoever. The Jewish world had 
 already passed through what may be designated a 
 representative theocracy ; and if Christ came merely 
 to reproduce this idea (which the perversity of the 
 Jews caused to be a failure) , replacing David's name 
 with his own, wherein was the value of his service? 
 When the author of JScce Homo speaks of Christ's 
 being the visible head of the theocracy, has he suf- 
 ficiently considered the meaning of Jesus Christ's 
 declaration to Philip, '' He that hath seen me hath 
 seen the Father"? 
 
 IV. Page 33. 
 
 " He saw that he must lead a life altogether dif- 
 ferent from that of David ; that the pictures drawn 
 by the prophets of an ideal Jewish king were col- 
 ored by the manners of the times in which they had 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 321 
 
 lived ; that those pictures bore indeed a certain 
 resemblance to the truth, but that the work before 
 him was far more complicated and more delicate 
 than the wisest prophet had suspected." 
 
 From this representation it might be inferred that 
 Christ began his work in a kind of mental vacancy, 
 and waited to observe the current of thoughts and 
 events around him before committing himself to any 
 publicly avowed policy. He came, it would appear, 
 to this conclusion while " meditating upon his mission 
 in the desert." This view of the case is irreconcila- 
 bly inconsistent with the mystery of the incarnation. 
 It would suit very well the case of a fanatic who had 
 suddenly conceived the insane idea of embodying the 
 features of the predicted " ideal Jewish king," and 
 who was watching an opportunity for self-disclosure 
 in this novel and critical character ; but it signally 
 fails to meet the necessary idea of the incarnation, — 
 namely, the idea of anterior purpose and arrangement. 
 Could a man begotten of the Holy Ghost find himself 
 in the dubiety necessitated by the above suggestion ? 
 Again it may be asked. Did Jesus Christ come with a 
 plan or without a plan ? 
 
 V. Page 34. 
 
 "It is said that when Jc«^us Christ called himself 
 a King, he was speaking figuratively, and that by 
 'King' he meant, as some say, God, as others, a 
 14* 
 
322 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 wise man and teacher of morality, but that the 
 Jews persisted in understanding the expression 
 literally." 
 
 Christ employed the term "King" in its right 
 sense. If the Jews by virtually deposing God had 
 come to have low and vicious, or carnal and grovel- 
 ling notions of royalty, that was no reason why Christ 
 should not restore an abused term to its right appli- 
 cation ; on the other hand, it was in perfect harmony 
 with the genius of his mission that he should recover 
 perverted terms to right uses as well as restore fallen 
 men. He came to seek and to save all that was lost. 
 — King is a divine designation, and can be employed 
 among men only as a convenient accommodation of 
 what does not belong to them. 
 
 VI. Pages 38, 39. 
 
 " Christ announced the restoration of the Davidic 
 monarchy, and presented himself to the nation as 
 their King, yet, when we compare the position he 
 assumed with that of an ancient Jewish king, we 
 fail to find any point of resemblance." 
 
 Did Jesus Christ announce the restoration of the 
 Davidic monarchy? Was not the Davidic monarchy, 
 so far as it was untainted by human guilt, or unen- 
 feebled by human infirmity, the prefiguration — very 
 shadowy and incomplete, indeed — of one aspect of 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO. 323 
 
 his own? The author seems to have inverted the 
 relation betv^een David and Christ, and to have over- 
 looked the typical aspect of pre-Christian history. 
 The very fact that "we fail to find any point of 
 resemblance " between Christ and an ancient Jewish 
 king, throws us back for our analogies beyond the 
 olde) royalty, and compels us to find them in traits 
 of government and purpose which lie beyond the 
 merely political horizon. Christ took the appellation 
 " King," not from the man, but from the function. 
 When did Christ announce the restoration of tlie 
 Davidic monarchy? If the facts contradict the theo- 
 ry, what confidence can be placed in the theorist? 
 
 VII. Page 50. 
 
 Christ " did not work his way to royalty, but 
 simply said to all men, ' I am your King.* He did 
 not struggle forward to a position in which he 
 could found a new state, but simply founded it." 
 
 This ignores the doctrine of Jesus Christ's pre- 
 existence. He had been working his way by all 
 preliminary dispensations. Aught of suddenness or 
 unpreparedness which appears in the life of Christ 
 must be accounted for on the people's side, and not 
 by immaturity of plan or vacillation of purpose on 
 the part of Christ. — " Simply founded it ; " — quite 
 so; but why do not other men "simply found" a 
 
324 ECCE DEJS. 
 
 monarchy with the same ease? God " simply" made 
 the heavens and the earth ; " simply " said, " Let 
 there be light ; '* in the same way, did not Jesus 
 Christ " simply found " his monarchy? 
 
 VIII. Page 55. 
 "Men could approach near to him, could eat 
 and drink with him, could listen to his talk, and 
 ask him questions ; and they found him not acces- 
 sible only, but warm-hearted, and not occupied so 
 much with his own plans that he could not attend 
 to a case of distress or mental perplexity." 
 
 To " attend to a case of distress or . mental per- 
 plexity" was an essential part of "his own plans." 
 He came for the very purpose. He had no " plans " 
 inconsistent with such attention. Attending to a case 
 of distress or mental perplexity is not a circumstance 
 to be separated from his plans, or to be regarded as 
 merely collateral, but as being the great object of his 
 incarnation. It is to be particularly noted that while 
 every man's "distress or mental perplexity" came 
 within the range of his power, his own " distress and 
 perplexity" were beyond the reach of all human sym- 
 pathy and aid. He suffered alone, trod the wine- 
 press alone. 
 
 IX. Page 55. 
 
 " This temperance in the use of supernatural 
 power is the masterpiece of Christ." 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 325- 
 
 The Jews had long and justly suffered from super- 
 natural power. Not to speak of anything further, 
 their political position in the days of Jesus Christ 
 was one of deep dishonor and shame. They required, 
 had they but known the day of their visitation, the 
 very aspect of divine power which Christ distinc- 
 tively revealed, as has been shown in the preceding 
 pages, power not destructive, but constructive. " To 
 save," was Christ's object. 
 
 X. Page 61. 
 
 " As the new theocracy was to be the counter- 
 part of the old," &c. 
 
 Another inversion of relations. The old theocratic 
 form was a prefiguration of the new, not the new a 
 mere counterpart of the old. There had been a 
 prophetic element in all history, a typical element in 
 all teaching, and an acknowledged incompleteness in 
 all legislation : what was the meaning of symbol and 
 fragment? The law came by the servant, grace and 
 truth could come only by the Son. 
 
 XL Page 64. 
 
 " We arrive, therefore, at the first distinguishing 
 characteristic of the society into which Christ called 
 men. It was a society whose rules were enforced 
 by no punishments. The ancient Israelite who 
 practised idolatry was stoned to death, but the 
 
326 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 Christian who sacrificed to the genius of Caesar 
 could suffer nothing but exclusion from the society, 
 and this in times of persecution was in its im- 
 mediate effects of the nature rather of a reward 
 than of a punishment" 
 
 Punishment is to be estimated by the nature of 
 the society from which the offender has been ex- 
 cluded. Exclusion from a mere political union may 
 be a very trivial affair. But as, according to the 
 author's own showing, Christ's society was a the- 
 ocracy^ how could any punishment be greater than 
 the very punishment which he describes as being, 
 under certain circumstances, somewhat of the nature 
 of a reward? To be excluded from the Godocracyy 
 how tremendous a punishment ! A punishment, too, 
 singularly in harmony with the spiritual character 
 of the society. What is a storm of mere thunder 
 and lightning, compared with the faintest frown 
 that darkens the brow of troubled love? We find 
 precisely the same principle in the Judgment. There 
 are no such external forms of punishment as we as- 
 sociate with the infliction of penalty, — simply a 
 "going away," a turning of the back on the light, 
 an exclusion from the theocracy ! The author's 
 argument, moreover, is limited to " the immediate 
 effects" of this exclusion, a most unsatisfactory 
 method of stating the case ; for in all moral transac- 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON ^' ECCE HOMO." 327 
 
 tions the consequences are co-ordinate with the dura- 
 tion of the actor. We are not sure either, that the 
 word " immediate '* is well chosen ; if it is intended 
 to mean external^ it may be appropriate, but surely 
 the heart of the excluded man would feel an '' im- 
 mediate" vacancy, an indescribable poverty, and a 
 terrible sense of loneliness. 
 
 XII. Page es^ 
 
 " Christ himself never ceased to feel keenly as a 
 patriot." 
 
 Where is the proof that he ever felt " keenly as a 
 patriot"? Whatever may have been his personal 
 patriotism, he obliterated, in view of the highest 
 purposes, all ethnic distinctions. Without destroying 
 the special characteristics of patriotism, he carried 
 patriotic heroism up to philanthropy. Jesus Christ 
 aimed at the enlargement, as well as the purification, 
 of human ideas, so that the man who began with a 
 city ended with the world. Apart from the Cross, 
 old nationalities remain ; but when men are crucified 
 with Christ, they are denizens of all nations. When 
 they are " lifted up " with him, " all men come " unto 
 them. " Strangers and foreigners " are absorbed in 
 *' the whole family " named in and centralized by 
 " the Son in tlie Father's house." 
 
328 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 XIII. Page 69. 
 
 " To obey John's call was easy ; it involved noth- 
 ing beyond submission to a ceremony ; and when 
 tlie prophet had acquired a certain amount of 
 credit, no doubt it became the fashion to receive 
 baptism from him." 
 
 To " obey " mzy call requires faith ; and to sub- 
 mit to any ceremony implies want. This, notwith- 
 standing hypocrites who make an investment of 
 their so-called obediences and submissions. 
 
 XIV. Page 82. 
 
 " We ought to be just as tolerant of an imperfect 
 creed as we are of an imperfect practice." 
 
 The author, as we have read him, here does him- 
 self an injustice. The term "imperfect" seems to 
 be used in this sentence and in the context in two 
 senses : imperfection of creed may mean simply in- 
 completeness, but an " imperfect practice " may mean 
 viciousness. This latter seems to be the author's 
 meaning, for he has just been writing of " some very 
 unchristian vices." Now we may be tolerant of in- 
 completeness and weakness (seeing we are all in- 
 complete and weak), yet we are not called upon to 
 be tolerant to vice, — a fact we need not have pointed 
 out but for the ambiguity of the term " imperfect." 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 329 
 
 XV. Pages 86, 87. 
 
 " Now of these prophets Christ was distinctly 
 one and the greatest of all." 
 
 Say rather that as they all prophesied of him, they 
 are not to be mentioned comparatively with him. 
 " Greatest" indicates degree, but what of the nature? 
 Christ was not a prophet in the same sense that Eli- 
 jah and Ezekiel and Daniel were prophets. As the 
 author himself has well said — " How the truth came 
 to the prophet he himself knew not ; " but Jesus 
 Christ was the inspirer and the inspiration of the 
 prophets: "they wrote of me;" — he was himself 
 the message, not merely a messenger. The monarch 
 is never one of the heralds. 
 
 XVI. Page 89. 
 
 " We conclude that though it is always easy for 
 thoughtless men to be orthodox, yet to grasp with 
 any strong practical apprehension the theology of 
 Christ is a thing as hard to practise as his moral 
 law." 
 
 We cannot see the particular pertinence of the 
 opinion that "it is always easy for thoughtless men 
 to be orthodox ; " all things are equally easy to 
 " thoughtless men ; " still it ought to be known that 
 though some " thoughtless men " may be orthodox, 
 yet all who are orthodox are not necessarily thought- 
 
330 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 less men. Is it not unworthy of the subject to throw 
 out insinuations as to the capacity or morality of 
 opponents r Then as to the doctrine : Why is the 
 moral law of Jesus Christ hard to practise ? Is it 
 not because the heart is out of sympathy with his 
 purposes ? The light is not distressing to the healthy 
 eye. Why should it be harder to do right than to 
 do wrong? Jesus Christ says that his "yoke is 
 easy and his burden is light." We cannot admit 
 the difference which the author assumes between 
 Christ's theology and Christ's moral law. Christ's 
 moral law has no existence apart from his theology. 
 The theology of Jesus Christ was the Fatherhood of 
 God, and out of that great doctrine came all the prac- 
 tical life which Christ preached and exemplified. 
 
 XVII. Page I02. 
 
 " It may seem to us that Socrates and Christ 
 were in fact occupied in the same way ; certainly 
 both lived in the midst of admiring disciples, whose 
 minds and characters were formed by their words ; 
 both discussed moral questions, the one with me- 
 thodical reasoning as a Greek addressing Greeks, 
 the other with the authoritative tone and earnestness 
 of a Jew." 
 
 In the twelfth chapter we have already adverted 
 to the value of " the authoritative tone and earnest- 
 ness of a Jew." If the author's judgment be correct, 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 33 1 
 
 then we may well prefer "methodical reasoning'' to 
 an " authoritative tone." To put Socrates and Christ 
 together in this manner is simply to ignore Christ's 
 own declaration of divine origin and power. The 
 words of Jesus Christ, as reported by those who 
 heard them, are before us, and they profess to be 
 marked, not by the authoritative tone and earnest- 
 ness of a Jew, but by the authoritative tone and 
 earnestness of the Son of Man and Son of God. 
 This is their own distinct profession, — not matter 
 of inference, but of positive and literal claim. The 
 author either believes Christ's words or he does not 
 believe them ; if he believes them, then he ought 
 not to put Socrates and Christ together as he has 
 done ; if he does not believe them, then Christ is 
 not the good man whom he has endeavored to 
 make him out to be. From our point of view, it 
 is a poor and dishonoring thing to say of the Son 
 of God that he spoke with "the authoritative tone 
 and earnestness of a Jew." His enemies, who had 
 daily opportunity of listening to the most authorita- 
 tive and dogmatic teachers in the world, confessed 
 that " never man spake like this man," a circum- 
 stance which alone would warrant the inference that 
 there was a life and a power in his communica- 
 tions which could not be accounted for by " the 
 authoritative tone and earnestness of a Jew." 
 
332 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 XVIII. Page 107. 
 " Socrates holds his place in history by his 
 thoughts and not by his life, Christ by his life 
 and not by his thoughts." 
 
 In reply we venture to say — incorrect* The vital 
 difference between Christ and all other teachers is 
 this — the perfect identity of his life and thoughts. 
 This consistency alone puts him beyond the range 
 of comparison with any other man. We often find 
 noble thoughts associated with imperfect morality, 
 and spotless morality may be found detached from 
 any marked power of thought ; but in Christ the 
 consistency was perfect — a consistency which is it- 
 self one of the clearest arguments in favor of his 
 Godhead. All men are self-discrepant ; Jesus Christ 
 was self-consistent. 
 
 XIX. Page 119. 
 " This monarchy was essentially despotic, and 
 might, in spite of the goodness of the sovereign, 
 have had some mischievous consequences, if he had 
 remained too long among his subjects, and if his 
 dictation had descended too much into particulars." 
 
 A theocracy must be despotic. The sovereign and 
 the monarchy in such a case are inseparable. The 
 sovereign of a theocracy must be good — ("in spite 
 of the goodness of the sovereign ") — but how he 
 can " remain too long among his subjects " does not 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO. 333 
 
 appear. The author's view represents Christ rather 
 as a shrewd propagandist than as the Son of God. 
 In all these remarks the author appears to have 
 overlooked the fact that Christ came not for a plan, 
 but with a plan. If he came without a plan, his 
 " authoritative tone" would hardly stand him in good 
 stead ; and if he came with a plan, he must have 
 had something more than the " earnestness of a 
 Jew." With respect to the possibility of his " re- 
 maining too long," it is forgotten, apparently, that 
 from the beginning he spoke of his " hour." The 
 time was fixed. 
 
 XX. Page 167. 
 
 " This third feeling is the love, not of the race 
 nor of the individual ; it is the love, not of all men, 
 nor yet of every man, but of t/ie man in every 
 man." 
 
 Say, rather, of the God in every man. The author 
 has well pointed out on another page that the normal 
 condition of society in the earliest ages was that of 
 mutual enmity. We honor man most when we see 
 most of God in him. The author has forcibly shown 
 that the idea of immortality gave a new view of 
 injustice and suffering by opening up possibilities 
 of retribution which could not have existed in the 
 limited term of human life on the earth ; so, on the 
 same principle, it may be pointed out that in pro- 
 
334 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 portion as man recognizes the divine image in man, 
 will he take an enlightened interest in himself and 
 in the destinies of the race. Man has everything to 
 fear from an atheistic view of his own personality 
 and destiny. It is the divine element that gives man 
 his right position. 
 
 XXI. Pagei68. 
 '' We save a man from drowning, whether he is 
 amiable or the contrary, and we should consider it 
 right to do so, even though we knew him to be a 
 very great criminal, simply because he is a man." 
 
 True ; but is not this a commonplace ? And in so 
 far as it is valuable, is it not valuable by reason of 
 something deeper than is expressed? We save a 
 horse from drowning, whether he is vicious, or the 
 contrary, and we should consider it right to do so 
 even though we knew him to have thrown his last 
 rider (and even though that rider be our best friend), 
 simply because he is a horse. What then? Evi- 
 dently there is a law of salvation among men. 
 Anything is saved in proportion to its real or sup- 
 posed value to man. Who would care to save a 
 straw in comparison to saving a letter? Who would 
 risk his life for a floating chip, yet who would not 
 make strenuous endeavors to recover a note-book 
 which had dropped into the river? If we had to 
 make our choice between saving a man or a horse 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 335 
 
 from drowning, we should of course elect to save the 
 man, because of his rank in creation. But take the 
 question upon practical grounds. It is observed that 
 two human beings are drowning ; the obsersxr in- 
 stantly desires their salvation on the simple ground 
 of common humanity ; but tell the observer that one 
 of the human beings is his own brother, and instantly 
 we shall have a modification of the principle laid 
 down in quotation 2ist. But tell the observer that 
 it is not his brother^ but his own child^ and then 
 say for whom he will make the most perilous and 
 costly attempts at restoration? The observer would 
 have done much to rescue another man's child, but 
 what effort would he spare when his own son was 
 in question? This may be called selfishness, yet 
 there may not be a particle of selfishness in it. Men 
 would miss the deepest and grandest views of human 
 nature if it were not for the love they bear to their 
 own offspring. When the parent sees his own child 
 drowning he comes to know something of God's feel- 
 ing in respect to the salvation of man. Man is 
 God's child, and " like as a father pitieth his chil- 
 dren, so the Lord pitieth " his suffering child. While, 
 therefore, the above quotation is literally correct in 
 principle, it gives a very inadequate view of the doc- 
 trine of human salvation. 
 
33^ ECCE DEUS. 
 
 XXII. Page 182. 
 
 The author represents " the intellectual man " as 
 asking, " What has Christianity added to our theo- 
 retic knowledge of morality? It may have made 
 men practically more moral, but has it added any- 
 thing to Aristotle's ethics ? " 
 
 • Yes; it may be repHed in addition to the answer 
 which the author himself has given. It has added 
 God to them. Morality is no longer philosophical, 
 it is theological. Aristotle regarded ethics as a sub- 
 division of political science ; but in the very midst 
 of his great Ethical Discourse, Jesus Christ said, " Be 
 ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is per- 
 fect." Aristotle conducted his ethical student from 
 delvoii]g to q)Q6p7]aig ; Christ leads his disciples from 
 calculation of chances to fellowship with the very 
 nature of God. In his ethical discussions Aristotle 
 ignores any connection between his subject and an 
 ideal or absolute Good ; he rather seems to proceed 
 upon the principle laid down by Meno, " that a 
 man's virtue consists in his being competent to man- 
 age the affairs of the state, and, managing them, to 
 do good to its friends, evil to its enemies, and to 
 take care that he suffers himself nothing of that 
 kind ; " on the other hand, as we have pointed out 
 before, Christ makes morality the practical side of 
 theology : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON '' ECCE HOMO." 337 
 
 and thou shalt love thy neighbor." Aristotle's mas- 
 ter discussed the question of virtue on a much higher 
 basis. Plato lays it dow^n that virtue cannot be 
 taught, and argues that it is not hereditary, else 
 Themistocles, Thucydides, and other virtuous men, 
 would have had sons w^orthy of themselves ; and 
 adopts the conclusion, that as virtue can neither come 
 by nature nor be taught, that it is bestow^ed upon cer- 
 tain men by " divine fate." This is good so far, at 
 least, as it recognizes a divine element in virtue, for 
 atheism is corrupt throughout — a fool's theology — 
 a madman's morality ! We cannot see the appropri- 
 ateness of the author's remark, that '• Christianity has 
 no ambition to invade the provinces of the moralist 
 or the casuist." (P. 182.) Christianity not only in- 
 vades them, but revolutionizes them, breaks up their 
 very foundations, and consumes their sophistical quib- 
 bling and refinements. Bad morality or casuistry 
 cannot be tolerated by Jesus Christ ; how, then, 
 can Christianity be said not to invade the province 
 of either? If it gives no systematic form,, it gives the ? 
 inspiring life. ; . . ^^>^^ 
 
 XXIII. Page 198. ^^^ ^"^S 
 
 " It was the inspiration, the law-making power, ^^ ^ 
 that gave Christ and his disciples courage to shake " ^ a^. 
 themselves free from the fetters even of a divine -^^^ 
 law." 
 
 IS 
 
338 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 This " law-making power *' is to be guarded very 
 watchfully. Though every man may be a law unto 
 himself, yet there must be a common law to which 
 individual legislators should appeal. Euthyphron de 
 fined holiness to be " that which is pleasing to tin.* 
 gods," but Socrates soon brought him to confess that 
 the gods themselves were divided about " things pleas- 
 ing " and " things not pleasing ; " that what was pleas- 
 ing to Jupiter might be odious to Saturn, what was 
 pleasing to Vulcan might be odious to Juno. We 
 should find much of the same difficulty among the 
 law-makers that Plato thus found among the gods, 
 in the absence of common law. We understand that 
 law to be given in the Christian writings. On all 
 questions in casuistry the utmost freedom of personal 
 legislation is allowed ; but on all questions of prin- 
 ciple the words of the Son of God are final. This 
 is the generally-accepted creed of the orthodox : are 
 they " thoughtless men"? With regard to " shaking 
 themselves free from the fetters even of a divine law," 
 it may be well to note that even in matters of tem- 
 porary regulation men no more " shake themselves 
 free from the fetters of divine law " than a man shakes 
 himse'f free from the fetters of his first garments. 
 The man grows out of them ; but because he has 
 become too large for a particular set of garments, 
 it does not follow that therefore he must remain 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 339 
 
 naked ever after. It should be noted, too, that he 
 who gave the law gave also the capacity of growth ; 
 and as men grow by the favor of the legislator, it 
 may be possible to find some more grateful, not to 
 say more accurate, expression than " shaking them- 
 selves free from the fetters even of a divine law." 
 The expression gives the idea of bondage, not of 
 adaptation ; of despotism on the part of God, not 
 of temporary incapacity on the part of man. 
 
 XXIV. Pages 202, 203. 
 
 " It may sometimes strike us that the time which 
 he devoted to acts of beneficence and the relief of 
 ordinary physical evils might have been given to 
 works more permanently beneficial to the race. . . . 
 He might have left to all subsequent ages more 
 instruction if he had bestowed less time upon di- 
 minishing slightly the mass of evil around him, and 
 lengthening by a span the short lives of the genera- 
 tion in the midst of which he lived." 
 
 There is more in this, we imagine, than, as the 
 author suggests, " that Christ merely reduced to 
 practice his own principle" " of a positive rather 
 than a negative service of man" (p. 203). Jesus 
 Christ never relieved physical diseases without point- 
 ing out, by the very condition required, that they 
 were the result of moral causes. He saw more than 
 the leprosy on the body ; he saw the deadly ulcer 
 
340. ECCE DEUS. 
 
 on the soul. Not only so, he had readier access to 
 the body than to the spirit, and so, as we have had 
 repeated occasion to say, he began at the most ac- 
 cessible point, and worked into the deeper nature. 
 We conceive, therefore, that the author's argument 
 is untenable. As to the value of affirmative service 
 there cannot be two opinions, but affirmative service 
 is not confined to the body ; an idea is certainly of 
 greater value than a restored hand, but if the suf- 
 ferer refused permission to his soul, and could barely 
 exercise faith enough to bring his body into a right 
 relation to Jesus Christ, the Healer could begin only 
 on the offered terms, yet with the hope that the 
 healed hand might prepare the way for the healing 
 of the moral nature. We do not consider the au- 
 thor as suggesting to Jesus Christ that he did not 
 make the best use of his time ; the author would 
 undoubtedly shrink from so immodest (not to say 
 profane) a protrusion of his own wisdom ; he is, as 
 we take it, simply expressing the feeling of a reader 
 who looks at Christ's life from a purely human 
 
 stand-point. 
 
 XXV. Page 207. 
 " The enthusiasm of humanity in Christians is not 
 only their supreme, but their only law." 
 
 This is bold, certainly ; on what proof does it rest? 
 Allowing this to be precisely as the author puts it, 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON ^' ECCE HOMO." 34I 
 
 why should the effect be dissociated from the cause ? 
 Love of man is put by Jesus Christ as the conse- 
 quent of love of God — the enthusiasm of God first, 
 then the enthusiasm of humanity. Who ever knew 
 anything of the enthusiasm of humanity, in its true 
 sense, until Christ revealed the Father? Through- 
 out the teaching of Jesus Christ the paternal idea 
 runs as a stream of life ; it is because men are the 
 children of one Father that they are related to one 
 another. The Christian writings on this subject seem 
 to reveal two things: (i) That there is a spurious 
 enthusiasm of humanity, and (2) that the true en- 
 thusiasm of humanity is inseparable from a filial 
 love of God. There is not only an enthusiasm of 
 humanity, but there is a fanaticism of humanity. 
 Sympathy with God is the life of the former. Jesus 
 Christ never could have been Son of Man if he had 
 not first been Son of God; — why should we not 
 follow his law and development of enthusiasm? 
 He proceeded from the divine to the human; can 
 we proceed by a better way? It is affecting, and 
 not a little instructive, to watch how he retires 
 again and again from the multitude, that he may 
 renew his enthusiasm of humanity by secret com- 
 munion with God. It will be admitted that the 
 enthusiasm of humanity never reached such perfect- 
 ness and intensity as in Jesus Christ ; but how did 
 
342 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 he repair the daily exhaustion which it involved?. 
 Do not his nights of prayer best explain his days 
 of toil? Does not his constant reference to his 
 Father's will show that the law-making power in 
 man is truthful and safe only so long as it renews 
 itself at the divine source? 
 
 XXVI. Page 211. 
 
 " Prevention is better than cure, and it is now 
 clear to all that a large part of human suffering is 
 preventible by improved social arrangements." 
 
 True ; but this is in perfect harmony with the 
 morality of Christ. Is there not, however, a good 
 deal of confusion in the use of the terms " preven- 
 tion" and "preventible"? We cannot "prevent" 
 the great fundamental fact in human history, viz., 
 the Fall. We have to work upon a "lost" human- 
 ity, therefore " prevention " has no part whatever 
 in the business of salvation. Prevention can be ap- 
 plied only to details, and so far its application is 
 undoubtedly useful. Had we to map out a course 
 for pristine man, we should probably be no wiser 
 than God himself, but begin precisely where he be- 
 gan ; that is to say, at prevention. It is a fact not 
 sufficiently considered, that prevention was actually 
 tried in Eden, and failed ; yet moralists and econo- 
 mists bring up the idea of prevention as if it had not 
 dawned on mortal genius until these latter days ! 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 343 
 
 XXVII. Page 218. 
 
 " And if the progress of science and civilization 
 has put into our hands the means of benefiting our 
 kind more and more comprehensively than the first 
 Christians could hope to do — if, instead of undoing 
 a little harm, and comforting a few unfortunates, v^e 
 have the means of averting countless misfortunes 
 and raising, by the right employment of our knowl- 
 edge and power of contrivance, the general standard 
 of happiness — we are not to inquire whether the 
 New Testament commands us to use these means, 
 but whether the spirit of humanity commands it." 
 
 The great, the inexcusable error in this statement 
 is the implication, that possibly the New Testament 
 may be less philanthropic than " the spirit of human- 
 ity," and this we take to be an insult to the Son of 
 man. The author apparently ignores the fact that 
 Christianity proposes to deal with a sick man, not 
 with a healthy man ; " they that be whole need not 
 a physician ; " Jesus Christ repeatedly said that he 
 came to call shiners^ and not the righteous, to repent- 
 ance — that he came to seek and to save that which 
 was lost. He did not come with a theory of preven- 
 tion, but with a scheme of salvation ; he did not 
 propose to " comfort a few unfortunates," but to save 
 the world. What is the use of a theory of prevention 
 in a churchyard, so far as the dead are concerned? 
 Weeds may be prevented growing on the graves, but 
 
344 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 of what advantage is this to those who are in the 
 graves? Resurrection, not prevention, alone can 
 benefit the dead. The author appears to ignore 
 not only the statements of revelation, but the testi- 
 mony of consciousness as to the moral condition of 
 human nature, and to be more concerned for a law 
 of philanthropy which will " avert countless misfor- 
 tunes" than for a salvation which encompasses the 
 whole case. The physician is not called upon to 
 decide between prevention and cure ; the patient is 
 sick, and must be cured if possible. Jesus Christ 
 had not to consider the case of unfallen beings, but 
 of men who had lost their moral status. " Science 
 and civilization" have enabled us to decorate the 
 sick man's room," and to make all outward circum- 
 stances more pleasant to him, but not to touch his 
 disease. If the New Testament, recognizing the 
 urgency of the case, does not dwell upon mere pre- 
 ventives, but points at once to the seat of the mal- 
 ady, and indicates the only possible restoratives, who 
 shall say that it is deficient in " the spirit of hu- 
 manity " ? 
 
 It would be a great mistake to imagine that the 
 pre-Christian philosophies troubled themselves even 
 to " undo a little harm and comfort a few unfortu- 
 nates," much less to " avert countless misfortunes." 
 On this point the words of Baron Macaulay are well 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 345 
 
 worth repeated perusal. " The ancient philosophy 
 disdained to be useful, and was content to be sta- 
 tionary. It dealt largely in theories of moral per- 
 fection, which were so sublime that they never could 
 be more than theories ; in attempts to solve insoluble 
 enigmas; in exhortations to the attainment of unat- 
 tainable frames of mind. It could not condescend 
 to the humble office of ministering to the comfort 
 of human beings. All the schools contemned that 
 office as degrading, some censured it as immoral. 
 Once, indeed, Posidonius, a distinguished writer of 
 the age of Cicero and Caesar, so far forgot himself as 
 to enumerate, among the humbler blessings which 
 mankind owed to philosophy, the discovery of the 
 principle of the arch, and the introduction of the use 
 of metals. This eulogy was considered as an affiront, 
 and was taken up with proper spirit. Seneca vehe- 
 mently disclaims these insulting compliments. Phi- 
 losophy, according to him, has nothing to do with 
 teaching men to rear arched roofs over their heads. 
 The true philosopher does not care whether he has 
 an arched roof or any roof. Philosophy has nothing 
 to do with teaching men the uses of metals. She 
 teaches us to be independent of all material sub- 
 stances, of all mechanical contrivances. The wise 
 man lives according to nature. Instead of attempt- 
 ing to add to the physical comforts of his species, he 
 
 15* 
 
34^ ECCE DEUS. 
 
 regrets that his lot was not cast in that golden age 
 when the human race had no protection against- the 
 cold but the skins of wild beasts, no screen from the 
 sun but a cavern. To impute to such a man any 
 share in the invention or improvement of a plough, a 
 ship, or a mill, is an insult. ' In my own time,' 
 says Seneca, ' there have been inventions of this 
 sort, transparent windows, tubes for diffusing warmth 
 equally through all parts of a building, short-hand 
 which has been carried to such perfection, that a 
 writer can keep pace with the most rapid speaker. 
 But the inventing of such things is drudgery for the 
 lowest slaves ; philosophy lies deeper. It is not her 
 office to teach men how to use their hands ; the object 
 of her lessons is to form the soul. Non est, inquam, 
 instrumentorum ad usus necessarios opifex.' " * So 
 much for the ancient philosophy, and we very much 
 doubt whether what the author of JBcce Homo calls 
 " the blessed light of science " (p. 353) is not likely, 
 if left to itself, to do as much to favor a gross and 
 atheistic materialism as the philosophy of Seneca 
 favored the cant of a useless and selfish sentimental- 
 ity. Christianity occupies an independent position. 
 Its watchwords are Glory to God and Good-will 
 towards men — the^ devotional and the useful — the 
 highest love of the soul turned to the most practical 
 service of man. 
 
 * Essay on Lord Bacon, 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO.'* 34/ 
 
 In reading JEcce Homo our chief dissatisfactidi 
 arose from the fact that the author did not recognize 
 the mystery of the Incarnation. Although he speaks 
 on the second page of " the predestined Founder," 
 yet the whole argument of the book is constructed 
 without any reference to the pre-incarnate life of 
 Christ, a life to which Christ himself makes repeated 
 allusion, in his prayers especially. The first sentence 
 in Ecce Homo illustrates this — "The Christian 
 Church sprang from a movement which was not 
 begun by Christ." In the very lowest and weakest 
 possible sense, if in any sense at all, can this be true, 
 but according to a complete collation of the facts it is 
 false. The Christian writings give us to understand 
 that before the world began God had a great purpose 
 in relation to the history of man, and that the out- 
 working of that purpose underlay and interpenetrated 
 all human history. There may be influence without 
 manifestation. Christ was as able to conduct the 
 movement anterior to his Incarnation, as he is now 
 able (in the author's own words) to " visit his people 
 for the future only in refreshing inspirations and great 
 acts of providential justice" (p. 119). If he can 
 return, could he not precede? By regarding the 
 Incarnation as part of a continuous development of 
 a divine purpose we are saved from the unprofitable 
 task of studying an unconnected page or a detached 
 
34^ ECCE DEUS. 
 
 limb, and are also saved from the perils of detail by 
 having to work on a vast body of evidence which is 
 homogeneous, cumulative, and self-explanatory. From 
 this point of view we escape the pain of regarding 
 Christ as being hesitant or uncertain in his move- 
 ments ; and the words and actions which transcend 
 our plane of criticism or comprehension are referable 
 to the mysteriousness Of his descent or the vastness 
 of a design which can be only fractionally disclosed. 
 It may be answered that the author did riot intend to 
 traverse so wide a ground as that which is opened by 
 the question of Jesus Christ's pre-existence : this plea, 
 however, is futile, for though he might not be pre- 
 pared to traverse the ground, he was not at liberty to 
 ignore the fact. He was not called upon to write a 
 theological treatise, but he was called upon to recog- 
 nize the clear and repeated declarations of Jesus 
 Christ as to his procession from the Father. Given a 
 Jew who unexpectedly took upon himself to do what 
 Christ did, and we shall have one line of interpreta- 
 tion and judgment ; but given the Son of God who 
 from unbeginning time determined to do a certain 
 work upon the earth, and we shall have a line of 
 interpretation and judgment peculiar to itself. Is 
 there no difference between the start-points? No 
 author is at liberty to join Christ as " simply a young 
 man of promise, popular with those who knew him, 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 349 
 
 and appearing to enjoy the Divine favor." If he does 
 SO '' place himself in imagination," he v^ill be in 
 danger of bending the facts to the theory, instead of 
 taking the mould of the theory from the facts. We 
 submit vv^ith all due deference that w^hile the author 
 of Ecce Homo was at liberty to determine the point 
 from which his " survey " should be taken, he was 
 bound to remember that there were circumstances 
 narrated in the very documents out of which he gets 
 his facts which give significance to every phase of 
 Christ's life, and without which that life is incongru- 
 ous as a narrative, and powerless as a redemption. 
 The gardener is at liberty to view the earth in patches 
 and neatly enclosed fractions, but the astronomer must 
 view it as part of a system ; and the danger to which 
 some inquirers are exposed, and into which we believe 
 the author of Ecce Homo has fallen, is that of mis- 
 taking gardening for astronomy. Look at Christ as 
 '' simply a young man of promise," and then regard 
 him as begotten of the Holy Ghost, and the most 
 contrary conclusions will be reached. In the one 
 case, he will come up out of the earth with all its 
 ignorance and imperfection ; in the other, he will 
 descend upon it from heaven with a divine purpose to 
 reveal and establish. Now what is Christ's own testi- 
 mony ? — "I proceeded forth and came from God ; 
 neither came I of myself, but he sent me." We are 
 
350 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 therefore not at liberty to examine the life of such a 
 speaker-, as though he had appeared under the usual 
 conditions of human existence. Accepting this ac- 
 count as correct, the mission of such a man must be 
 fundamental ; his most emphatic words will be une- 
 qual to the expression of all his thought, and his 
 morality will be marked by characteristics of its own. 
 Critics who have been able to hold equal fellowship 
 with Plato and Aristotle, Socrates and Cicero, will 
 realize the impassable distance which separates the 
 earthly from the heavenly ; they will feel the '' aston- 
 ishment " which filled the doctors in the Temple, and 
 even when unwilling to submit they will feel unable 
 to reply. 
 
 It may be suggested that the author does not accept 
 the Christian writings in their entirety. Then he was 
 bound, we submit,* to indicate his principle of eclec- 
 ticism. He quotes largely from the first three Gos- 
 pels, and makes one or two reserved references to the 
 fourth. Now by what law does he make choice ? If 
 the writings are authoritative on points of fact, wherein 
 are they defective on points of doctrine? Without 
 pressing him to an answer, we do protest against 
 being invited to conduct an inquiry upon unequal 
 terms. Before we start we must know each other's 
 canons of criticism, and be agreed on common prin- 
 ciples of interpretation ; at all events we must know 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 35I 
 
 the precise sphere of inquiry — how much is included, 
 how much is rejected. We cannot, if the investiga- 
 tion is to be mutual, allow the author to indorse or 
 invalidate documents without distinctly telling us on 
 what principle he is proceeding. 
 
 The author's proposal to discuss the morality in 
 contradistinction to the theology of Jesus Christ, we 
 cannot but regard as unsatisfactory. Are the morality 
 and the theology separable? If for the sake of con- 
 venience a division be made, we submit that the 
 theology should stand first, for the sufficient reason 
 that it lies at the basis of the morality. By theology, 
 as used in this connection, cannot of course be meant 
 the formal science which now passes under that 
 name (a science which has probably originated three 
 fourths of the speculative scepticism of the age), but 
 the idea of the Father which was ever present to 
 the mind of Jesus Christ, and which regulated the 
 whole course and tone of his teaching. Morality was 
 not discussed by Jesus Christ as it was discussed by 
 Aristotle, and we still maintain, as was stated in the 
 thirteenth chapter, that the difference between Aris- 
 totle's teaching and Christ's teaching is the difference 
 between an Investigation and a Revelation. By re- 
 garding Jesus Christ's morality as the practical side of 
 his theology, we escape the errors into which, as it 
 appears to us, the author has fallen respecting the 
 
352 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 incompleteness of Christ's moral teaching. When 
 man's ideas of God are rectified and enlarged, his ideas 
 of practical life will become correspondingly pure and 
 noble. In other words, w^ien a man loves God, he 
 will love his brother also, but not until then : as Christ 
 puts it. the question is one of cause and effect ; and 
 though he might have made a more imposing exhibi- 
 tion of ethical speculation and instruction, so far as 
 mere words are concerned, yet, according to his idea 
 of the Father, he would have been working at the 
 wrong end, coloring the fruit from the outside instead 
 of renewing and strengthening the root, merely re- 
 moving withered leaves instead of vitalizing the 
 juices. According to the nature of the fall must be 
 the nature of the restoration : the fall was between 
 man and God, not between man and man ; so the 
 restoration must be towards God, and the best proof 
 of its reality will be found in constant exhibitions of 
 good-will towards men. It may be true, as the author 
 oi JBcce Homo forcibly says, that " the most lost cynic 
 will get a new heart by learning thoroughly to believe 
 in the virtue of one man" (p. 177), but, if compari- 
 sons in truth be allowed, it is more deeply and sub- 
 limely true that man can never become a cynic until 
 he has lost the right idea of God. The Fatherhood 
 of God is the strongest defence againt cynicism. Re- 
 verting to the Fall, as the true start-point from which 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON *' ECCE HOMO." 353 
 
 to view all proposed remedial systems, it is to be noted 
 as a singular fact that the Fall did not take place in 
 an advanced condition of society, when civilization 
 had effeminated manhood, or w^hen bad management ' 
 had disorganized social relations ; it took place before 
 a single city was built, before human society, as it is 
 now understood, was founded ; it w^as not a failure in 
 speculative ethics, it was simply a misunderstanding 
 of God — a lowering of his authority — a miscon- 
 ception of his natiu'e — and thus a terrible immoral- 
 ity. It is important to remember this, because from 
 the prevention theory it might be inferred that human 
 depravity was simply a question of adulterated food, 
 bad drainage, overcrowded dwellings, and impure air. 
 It is forgotten that not one of these unfavorable condi- 
 tions existed in the days of Adam and Eve. Nature 
 was in its purest state, and yet, unless we throw the 
 sacred writings out of court, the Fall took place amid 
 the very brightness and beauty of the garden of Eden. 
 So that, if the prevention theorists were so far to suc- 
 ceed in their work as actually to get back to the pure 
 food, the pure air, and the pure light of Paradise, they 
 would still have to grapple with a deeper problem 
 than can be solved by negative philosophy. That 
 problem is the moral nature of man. How can he 
 retain his power to commit sin, but lose the disposi- 
 tion? Does he need restraint or regeneration? We 
 
354 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 are aware that these inquiries open upon a sphere of 
 impenetrable mystery ; but we are also aware that to 
 shirk them is not to escape difficulty. The choice is 
 between the mystery of light and the mystery of dark- 
 ness. Immediately before us is the fact that man is 
 not at rest; how can he recover his balance? By 
 pure air, by good food, by ample dwelling-room? 
 Where is the congruity between the question and the 
 answer? 
 
 It has been urged that Ecce Ho7no is a fragment. 
 A fragment of what? It may be a fragment of a 
 larger work, but is not therefore of necessity a frag- 
 ment of the life of Jesus Christ. If it has ignored, 
 for all practical purposes, the interpretative value of 
 the Incarnation, it is not a fragment ; it may be an 
 unfinished theory, but not being of the nature of the 
 integer, it is not, it cannot be, in the proper sense of 
 the term, a fragment of the life of Christ. A man 
 might write a treatise on astronomy, but if he began 
 by declaring that the earth was the centre of the uni- 
 verse, or that it described no orbit round the sun, he 
 would not be allowed to shelter himself under the 
 plea that his work was a fragment ; it might be a 
 fragment of his manuscript, but viewed in the light 
 of facts, it would not be, nor could it ever be made, a 
 fragment of the geometry of creation. Ecce Homo 
 treats Christ as if he had no ancestry ; fails to take 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON '' ECCE HOMO." 355 
 
 any account of Christ's own claim to pre-incarnate 
 life, and ignores those peculiar conditions which are 
 themselves the best explanation of the mysteries of 
 his doctrine, and which, we venture to think, cannot 
 be ignored without moving the whole life out of its 
 plane, and so mistaking its fundamental and sovereign 
 purpose. 
 
 Not until the present writer had written thus far 
 had he an opportunity of reading the Preface to the 
 fifth edition of Ecce Ho77io, It is to be regretted, 
 he ventures to think, that a portion of it w^as not 
 given in the original Preface, particularly the follow- 
 ing paragraph : " He was concerned with four writers 
 who, in nearness to the events they record, and prob- 
 able means of acquiring information, belong to the 
 better class of historical witnesses, but whose veracity 
 has been strongly impeached by critics, both on the 
 ground of internal discrepancies, and of the intrinsic 
 improbability of their story. Out of these four writers 
 he desired, not to extract a life of Christ, not to find 
 out all that can be known about him, but to form 
 such a rudimentary conception of his general char- 
 acter and objects as it may be possible to form while 
 the vexed critical questions remain in abeyance. The 
 detection of discrepancies in the documents establishes 
 a certain degree of independence in them, and thus 
 gives weight to their agreements ; in particular, the 
 
35^ ECCE DEUS. 
 
 wide divergence in tone and subject-matter of the 
 fourth Gospel from thfe other three, affords a strong 
 presumption in favor of all statements in vsrhich it 
 coincides with them. The rudiment of certainty 
 which the writer sought, he accordingly expected 
 to find in the consent of all the witnesses. If the 
 statements unanimously attested should prove numer- 
 ous enough to afford any outline of Christ's life, how- 
 ever meagre, he proposed to rest content with this." 
 It is due to the author of Ecce Homo that he should 
 thus be allowed, on the pages of his critic, to put his 
 own case in his own way. No doubt a literary man 
 may be at liberty to select a criterion by which to 
 guide his inquiries, but how far he is at liberty to 
 describe a book written on the above principle as 
 "a Survey of the Life and Work of Jesus Christ," 
 may be a question on which the author and the 
 reader might differ. It would appear, too, that the 
 author must have exceeded his own design, for 
 certainly the twenty propositions which he deduces 
 from Mark's Gospel include many of the "vexed 
 critical questions" and "intrinsic improbabilities" 
 which he wished to remain in abeyance, such as the 
 power of forgiving sins, the working of miracles, the 
 claim to be the Messiah, and the promise of the Holy 
 Ghost. The author conceives himself to have found 
 " the rudiment of certainty " when all the four 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON *' ECCE HOMO.'* 357 
 
 evangelists agree in the same statement; that is to 
 say, if any incident or doctrine be found in all the 
 four Gospels it may be accepted as a basis of argu- 
 ment. This is an extraordinary canon in scriptural 
 criticism ; it at once throws a degree of discredit upon 
 each of the witnesses ; his testimony is not accepted 
 until it is confirmed ; if one evangelist confirms it, it 
 is not enough ; if two confirm the statement, the 
 evidence is still incomplete ; all the four must agree, 
 without "discrepancy" or "improbability," other- 
 wise, "the rudiment of certainty" is not found. But 
 this rule of criticism is either too great or too small. 
 Why should four be the number of witnesses selected ? 
 What answer could be returned to the objector who 
 carried the author's rule a little farther by rejecting 
 the testimony of four writers, on the ground that all 
 the eleven disciples should have written independent 
 histories? If the question turn upon the number of 
 witnesses, it is clear that after all we must get " the 
 rudiment of certainty" out of the testimony of the 
 minority ; and if out of the minority at all, why not 
 out of the minority of those who* have written, allow- 
 ing for such differences as must attach to individu- 
 ality of mind and habits of observation? And if the 
 four witnesses agree in the twenty comprehensive 
 propositions which have been deduced from Mark's 
 Gospel, so comprehensive as to include almost the 
 
35^ ECCE DEUS. 
 
 whole of Christianity, why may they not have ar- 
 ranged to palm off the story upon the world? But 
 if it was impossible for them to have so agreed, why 
 should their points of difference be points of doubt? 
 On the author's principle, any four men may combine 
 in the production of a book, and if they only take care 
 to agree in their statements they may rely upon a 
 general acceptance of their testimony. Is " the rudi- 
 ment of certainty " not to be found by a higher 
 method? Is the higher appeal not to what is known 
 of God, to human consciousness, and to the " fruits " 
 of that which is spoken? And when these methods 
 of judgment are exhausted, what if the supernatural 
 should transcend reason and appeal to faith? What 
 if the universe be larger than we had conceived? 
 Four men undertake to write a life ; we are not aware 
 who appointed them, or to what secret resource, if 
 any, they had access ; we have the results of their 
 labor before us ; shall we reject one because he is a 
 little more or less minute than the others? The 
 author himself, under the influence of some such con- 
 sideration as this inquiry suggests, seems to have 
 modified the plan which he laid down with such 
 precision, for he allows that " evidence inferior to the 
 best may have very great probability, and there are 
 certain obvious criteria by which this probability may 
 be estimated." Certainly ; but if we accept a man's 
 
CONT««!)VERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 359 
 
 testimony when it agrees with the testimony of an- 
 other man, is that not a reason for accepting it when 
 he speaks upon subjects to which the other man does 
 not refer? But we need not all this pleading on be- 
 half of the Gospels : their spirit is one ; the whole 
 tone is self-consistent ; and the moral energy of the 
 doctrine renders it an easy responsibility to accept 
 all the statements which relate to matters of fact. 
 
 i^Jl that the author has said does not touch the 
 staring-point, viz., the Incarnation. Even on his 
 own principle of accrediting evidence it is not easy 
 to see how he has overlooked this fact, for three out 
 of four of the evangelists distinctly point out the 
 supernatural descent of Jesus Christ, and Mark him- 
 self introduces him at once as " the Son of God." 
 The " rudiment of certainty" is surely here, even upon 
 the author's own showing ; so that, without imputing 
 any intentions to the author, we cannot but feel sur- 
 prised that he has not found in Christ's Incarnation 
 some explanation of Christ's life and work. We feel 
 this the more because the writer has not been faithful 
 to his own principle of interpretation. On the twelfth 
 page of his Preface he speaks of himself as " resting 
 upon a basis of absolutely uniform testimony," yet in 
 the course of his work he reverts again and again, 
 either by elaborate statement or distinct allusion, to 
 cases which are not supported by any such testimony. 
 
360 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 He lays down a principle, and immediately departs 
 from it. For example, he refers to the Sermon on the 
 Mount ; but where is the " basis of absolutely uniform 
 testimony" in this case? The Sermon is reported by 
 two only of the four evangelists. The author draws 
 a beautiful picture of the circumstances connected 
 with the woman taken in adultery ; but where is the 
 "basis of absolutely uniform testimony" in her case? 
 The instance is related by one only of the four evan- 
 gelists. So also in the case of Zaccheus, which the 
 author brings into special prominence, we have the 
 testimony of one evangelist only ; yet the author speaks 
 of " resting upon a basis of absolutely uniform testi- 
 mony." The same remark applies to Nicodemus, on 
 whose case the author remarks. What we have to 
 complain of is, that the writer of Ecce Homo has laid 
 down a principle and then practically abandoned it. 
 He has, indeed, referred to what he terms " inferior 
 evidence," but this does not touch the ground of com- 
 plaint. For example, he says that " the account of 
 the woman taken in adultery has scarcely any external 
 authority, but it seems to derive great probability from 
 the fact that the conduct attributed to Christ in it is 
 left half explained, so that, as it stands, it does not 
 satisfy the impulses which lead to the invention and 
 reception of fictitious stories." It would seem, then, 
 that a case needs only to be " half explained " in order 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON '' ECCE HOMO." 361 
 
 to get credit for " great probability/' and if the invent- 
 or be unable to finish his fiction, so much more likely 
 is he to be accepted as an honest man. If the author's 
 principle of eclecticism was sound, he ought not to 
 have departed from it ; if he departed from it at all, he 
 should have given preference to the greater, and not 
 to the minuter incidents, — to such an event as the 
 Incarnation in preference to the invitation which the 
 guests refused ; but his principle failed in its practi- 
 cal application, so that " absolutely uniform testi- 
 mony" has been supplemented by cases which rest 
 upon individual authority. 
 
 No formal epilogue is attempted. We thought that 
 the dual element that was in Jesus Christ was of great 
 significance ; so great, indeed, that apart from it his 
 life could not be interpreted. Throughout the whole 
 inquiry this has been kept steadily in view ; with what 
 advantage it is for others to determine. We have 
 endeavored to find out God, through a study of his 
 Son. We understand what this means in human life ; 
 if we would know any man of deep character, who is 
 not immediately self-revealing, we shall make the 
 surest progress by carefully studying the disposition 
 and habits of the child who most resembles him. To 
 study the father through the child is like studying a 
 foreign language alphabetically, grammatically, and 
 analytically, — not catching it in common conversa- 
 16 
 
362 ECCE DEUS. 
 
 tion so as to be able merely to express an opinion or a 
 want, but penetrating it philosophically, and so be- 
 coming master of it. To get through the wrinkles 
 and folds of the father's mature character may be im- 
 possible, but the child is open, simple, legible in every 
 letter ; — from him we get the father's own start-point, 
 and from the father we get the other extreme point. 
 With the extremes before us, we may proceed to 
 analysis and interpretation. Is it not much the same 
 with Jesus Christ? Emphatically, he was the bright- 
 ness of the Father's glory and the express image of 
 his person ; he was the Son only-begotten and well- 
 beloved. To study him is to study God in his most 
 legible aspect ; so to speak, the letters are large, and 
 so formed as to arrest untrained eyes ; — mighty deeds, 
 mightier words, and still mightier prayers. We see 
 there how far God can come down on the human side, 
 — how far he can be man without ceasing to be God ; 
 and it was so far, that he who had seen the Son had 
 actually seen the Father ! 
 
 To-day the great question that is stirring men's 
 hearts to their very depths is, Who is this Jesus Christ? 
 His life is becoming to us a new life, as if we had 
 never seen a word of it. There is round about us an 
 influence so strange, so penetrating, so subtle, yet so 
 mighty, that we are obliged to ask the great heaving 
 world of time to be silent for a while, that we may 
 see just what we are and where we are. That in- 
 fluence is the life of Jesus Christ. We cannot get 
 clear of it ; we hear it in the tones of joy, we feel 
 it stealing across the darkness of sorrow, — we see it 
 where we least expect it, — even men who have trav- 
 
CONTROVERSIAL NOTES ON " ECCE HOMO." 363 
 
 elled farthest from it seem only to have come round 
 to it again ; and while they have been undervaluing 
 the inner worth of Jesus Christ, they have actually 
 been living on the virtue which came out of his 
 garment's hem. Yes ; it seems we must touch him 
 either at the hem or the heart, — if we willnot have 
 him for the soul, we must have him for the body. 
 What if men rejfect him altogether? Then, as of old, 
 there is no choice for them but Barabbas, and Barab- 
 bas is a robber. We see the alternative. Pilate still 
 puts the question — "Whom will ye that I release 
 unto you ? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ ? " 
 The voice of the people was once for^he robber; it 
 w^ill yet be lifted up, never more to change, for the 
 Son of God. 
 
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