THE SUPREMACY 
 OF JESUS 
 
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 JOSEPH H CROOKER 
 
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THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
V- {ft**. 
 
THE SUPREMACY 
 OF JESUS 
 
THE SUPREMACY 
 OF JESUS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH HENRY CROOKER 
 
 Author Of M RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICAN EDUCATION," 
 "PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY," 
 
 t< 
 
 tt 
 
 JESUS BROUGHT BACK, etc. 
 
 
 
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 1 IN-LUCE- 
 1 VERITATIS j 
 
 BOSTON 
 AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 
 
 1904 
 
Copyright igo4 
 American Unitarian Association 
 
 P ublished September IQ04 
 
BT32 3 
 
 Contents 
 
 I. The Historic Position of Jesus 9 
 
 II. Jesus and Gospel Criticism . 33 
 
 III. A New Appreciation of Jesus 85 
 
 IV. The Master of Inner Life . 119 
 
 V. The Authority of Jesus . . 159 
 
 M313787 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
THE MEASURE OF JE8U8 
 
 His life is the perpetual rebuke of all time since. 
 It condemns ancient civilization, it condemns modern 
 civilization. Wise men ice have since had, and good men; 
 but this Galilean youth strode before the world whole 
 thousands of years, so much of divinity was in him. 
 His words solve the questions of this present age. In 
 him the Godlike and the human met and embraced, and 
 a divine life was bom. Measure him by the world's 
 greatest sons — how poor they are! Try him by the best 
 of men — how little and low they appear! Exalt him as 
 much as we may, we shall yet perhaps come short of 
 the mark. But still was he not our brother; the son 
 of man, as we are; the son of God, like ourselves? His 
 excellence — was it not human excellence? His wisdom, 
 love t piety, — sweet and celestial as they were, — are they 
 not what we also may attain? In him, as in a mirror, 
 we may see the image of God, and go on from glory to 
 glory, till we are changed into the same image, led by 
 the spirit that enlightens the humble. Viewed in this 
 way, how beautiful is the life of Jesus! Heaven has 
 eome down to earth, or, rather, earth has become 
 heaven. The Son of God, come of age, has taken 
 possession of his birthright. The brightest revelation 
 is this of what is possible for all men, — if not now, 
 at least hereafter. 
 
 Theodore Parker. 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 The word, "Jesus," has more historic 
 significance than any other name in the 
 annals of the human race. No other name 
 has entered with such transforming and 
 sanctifying influence into the thoughts and 
 feelings of mankind. The words, Buddha 
 and Confucius, have been reverently spoken 
 by a greater number of human beings, but 
 the followers of these sages have been 
 comparatively monotonous masses without 
 large historic importance. Moreover, 
 while Buddha has been the centre of some 
 philosophical speculation, Confucius has 
 remained a prosaic figure inspiring neither 
 the artist nor the theologian. But how 
 remarkable are the creations that have 
 been built upon Jesus, in character, in 
 variety, and in number! 
 
 What literary activities have clustered 
 about the name of Jesus, to tell his story 
 and explain his mission ! And now, at the 
 
 9 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 end of the nineteen centuries since his 
 day, the freshest book from the press, 
 most eagerly sought by scholar and peas- 
 ant, finding its way into the heart of 
 Africa, through the jungles of India, into 
 the seaports of China, is one that robes 
 that figure in some new thought or senti- 
 ment. 
 
 Wherever the traveler goes among the 
 cities of Europe, he sees on every side, 
 rising over all other structures, the cathe- 
 drals, which in their massive grandeur, 
 are a most impressive and wonderful 
 testimony to the enduring influence of 
 that great life. And the cross, his instru- 
 ment of death, has become the supreme 
 symbol of immortal life in a universal lan- 
 guage of the heart. Few are the mountains 
 on whose bleak crags its shadow does not 
 fall ! Few are the cities over whose teeming 
 life its arms do not glisten! Few are the 
 isles of the sea where it is not planted at 
 the head of some grave ! When we visit any 
 art collection in the world, we find on every 
 hand that genius has striven to immortalize 
 the name of Jesus. The history of the 
 
 10 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 Christ of Art, tells the story of European 
 art for fifteen centuries. To portray his 
 features and to perpetuate the accents of 
 his ministry has been the inspiration of 
 painting and sculpture. 
 
 Who can number the theological systems 
 that have grown up about Jesus in these 
 threescore generations'? What labyrinths 
 of speculation! Libraries piled full of 
 books that attempt to explain the mysteries 
 of his being. Councils have been called 
 from the ends of the earth to decide certain 
 questions respecting his nature and mes- 
 sage. What infinite range of ideas has 
 that name signified! Men have read into 
 that word, "Jesus," everything from pure 
 humanity to absolute deity. 
 
 Some of the greatest political movements 
 of the race have been associated with the 
 name of Jesus. The Holy Roman empire, 
 the Crusades, the Saxon Eeformation, the 
 voyage of the Pilgrims to America to 
 secure in the wilderness of the new world 
 a peaceful home for their faith, — these 
 movements represent certain phases of the 
 historic significance of the Prophet of 
 
 11 
 
 ) 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 Nazareth. To-day, the pope rules at Eome 
 in the name of Jesus, over an ecclesiastical 
 order, which is the most marvelous system 
 of administration that has ever come into 
 existence. It is the supreme product of 
 man's creative genius in the direction of 
 polity and organization. It embraces in 
 its design the whole race, and touches by 
 its influence every land and people. It 
 promises an assured perpetuity, in strange 
 contrast to the fluctuating fortunes of 
 ordinary dynasties. It was to spread a 
 knowledge of the name of Jesus and to 
 extend the power of the papacy that a 
 queen bade Columbus pioneer a way to the 
 peoples far across the seas. 
 
 The civilization that now encircles the 
 globe ; that holds the unexhausted energies 
 and leavening powers of the race; that 
 surrounds barbarism and contracts its 
 limits; that fraternizes the nations; that 
 breaks the chains of the slave, levels the 
 walls of caste, and dissipates the darkness 
 of superstition, is christened in honor of 
 Jesus. We cannot say, as it was once 
 said, that the forces of civilization all flow 
 
 12 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 from Jesus as from a fountain — they must 
 be regarded as inherent in human nature 
 itself — yet it is a fact of history that where 
 that name has gone, there has been the 
 highway of humanity. 
 
 Socrates created an intellectual move- 
 ment which is to-day a living factor in the 
 world's progress, but no church has en- 
 shrined his memory in hymn and liturgy. 
 Art has not clustered its creations about 
 his name. The great sage of Athens 
 remains as the wise teacher of a few 
 students; the prophet of Nazareth abides 
 in the common heart as the inspiring and 
 comforting friend in every hour of need. 
 
 Mr. Froude instituted a comparison 
 between Jesus and Caesar. Caesar em- 
 bodied in admirably working institutions 
 a theory of statecraft, which placed Rome 
 on the way to those imperial achievements 
 which are the wonder of historians, and 
 which lifted humanity a long distance in 
 the line of progress. He put the stamp 
 of his genius upon the affairs of his 
 time, and upon the life of distant ages. 
 The imperial system which he founded 
 
 13 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 has fired the ambition, and directed the 
 energies of statesmen, while it has swayed 
 the destinies of nations. The thought 
 of Caesar still lives in the policies of 
 Europe. But no order like the Jesuits 
 make him their master and leader. No 
 churches, no paintings, no creeds have 
 been created to publish his ideas or honor 
 his character. No theologian has found 
 in him a key to the mysteries of life and 
 death. His name is not intoned in cathe- 
 dral, nor is it whispered in cottage to 
 cheer and to comfort. 
 
 Muhammed founded a religion, which 
 contains universal elements, and is en- 
 dowed with creative power. But the name 
 of Muhammed has not meant so much nor 
 has it created so much as the name of 
 Jesus. Under the influence of the great 
 Arab art blossomed in the Alhambra and 
 learning flourished in Bagdad. But these 
 were sporadic movements. Persian ethics, 
 Hebrew piety, Greek philosophy and 
 Roman civility have borne fruit in the 
 nations associated with the name of Jesus 
 and not with the name of Muhammed. 
 
 14 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 Whether we speak of art, of literature, of 
 philosophy, or of government, the vaster 
 systems cluster about Jesus. 
 
 The horoscope divides the nations of 
 the future between Muhammed and Jesus, 
 and while Islam can probably do more 
 at present for certain pagan races than 
 the church, yet the civilization connected 
 with the name of Jesus, will be dominant, 
 because Christianity has in him the incom- 
 parably greater teacher; and also because 
 it contains the garnered riches of the 
 centuries. Moreover its peoples possess 
 the maturer manhood. 
 
 To illustrate another phase of the 
 historic significance of the word "Jesus," 
 we may look at it in its relation to personal 
 religion. It is not alone, there are other 
 such names, yet it is preeminent. The 
 influence of Aristotle is scholastic. It 
 shapes the form of man's thought. The 
 influence of Muhammed is disciplinary, it 
 harnesses men into new habits. The 
 influence of Confucius is didactic, it 
 teaches people a formal system of conduct. 
 The influence of Buddha is exemplary, 
 
 15 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 illustrating an attitude of self-renuncia- 
 tion. 
 
 Now, the influence of Jesus is personal, 
 putting us into companionship with a great 
 life. Thus Christianity under all its 
 creeds and rituals has been a personal 
 religion. When men have been brought 
 into contact with Jesus, they have felt 
 themselves in the presence of a lovable 
 and loving person; a man of thought, but 
 something more than a teacher like 
 Aristotle; a master, but something more 
 than a disciplinarian like Muhammed; a 
 moral leader, but something more than a 
 tutor like Confucius; a perfect man, but 
 something more than the one type like 
 Buddha. 
 
 Jesus has stood for a tender intimacv 
 of fellowship which no other prophet has 
 ever inspired. There is loyalty to 
 Muhammed, respect for Confucius, imita- 
 tion of Buddha, but love for Jesus — men 
 have taken him into their hearts. Jesus 
 above all else has been a personal presence 
 building himself into the lives of men. 
 People have kept the wonderful Man who 
 
 16 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 walked through the fields of Galilee in 
 their most intimate and loving fellowship. 
 Nothing like this, to the same extent or 
 with equal spiritual power, has been 
 true of any other character in history. 
 
 In view of these facts, we may well 
 ask: In what did the preeminence of 
 Jesus exist? What has given him such 
 remarkable prominence in history; such 
 vast influence over human lives! It 
 explains nothing to say that he was God. 
 That is simply a confession of reverent 
 appreciation made by the adoring heart, 
 not an interpretation reached by the 
 exploring intellect. It is no explanation 
 to say that God makes the grass grow. 
 One does not explain the independence of 
 America by saying that Washington was 
 inspired. It is true that men sometimes 
 imagine that the assertion of the deity 
 of Jesus clears up the whole problem. 
 But that is as irrational as the conclusion 
 of the ancient Persians, who, when they 
 could no longer tell who wrote the Avesta, 
 asserted that God wrote it. 
 
 There are people who say that the 
 
 17 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 preeminence of Jesus was in what he did, 
 the works that he performed. But Jesus 
 was not an organizer like Caesar or 
 Muhammed. He formulated no plans. 
 He founded no ecclesiastical system. He 
 drilled no emissaries. He elaborated no 
 civic or religious machinery. His kingdom 
 of heaven had no official framework. His 
 movement was so destitute of organization 
 that it has been the wonder of the world 
 that it ever continued to exist. His 
 beatitudes and parables seem like precious 
 seeds carelessly scattered over the 
 unfenced fields of humanity. 
 
 Others assert that the work of Jesus 
 was the introduction of a new spiritual 
 economy into the universe: the presenta- 
 tion of his blood in heaven, acting as a 
 sedative, quieting God's anger; and oper- 
 ating on earth as a charm, recreating 
 man's nature. He effected, the old theo- 
 logians said, a supernatural reconciliation 
 between God and man. But this is a far- 
 fetched, cumbersome, materialistic scheme, 
 which presents more difficulties than it 
 solves. It has fortunately been abandoned 
 
 18 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 by progressive men almost everywhere. 
 
 The old view has been crowded aside 
 by the expulsive power of the truth itself. 
 The presence of such an economy is not 
 discoverable by psychologist or historian; 
 its existence would invalidate all their 
 scientific conclusions. The onward ways 
 of Providence are in the same stately 
 courses of law in Christendom as else- 
 where. The cross is no hiatus in history 
 between a natural and a mystical course 
 of events. The personal influence of 
 Jesus upon human life is an evident and 
 powerful historical factor. This we can 
 feel and understand. But the operation 
 of a sacrificial and atoning agency, which 
 is sometimes claimed for him, is not 
 discoverable. When we deal with the 
 vast and unquestioned power of Jesus in 
 the world, we deal with the dynamics of 
 a soul, not with the magic of an alien 
 visitant. 
 
 There are some who contend that the 
 source of Jesus 's power lay in his 
 message : he taught a new doctrine of life. 
 The sublimity of his teachings is evident. 
 
 19 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 But many of his beautiful precepts had 
 already been set forth by prophet or 
 psalmist. Jesus found much of the 
 material of his message at hand, as was 
 the case with Shakespere. What blossoms 
 in the Sermon on the Mount has its roots 
 in the Old Testament. But like the immor- 
 tal bard, Jesus reshaped the material 
 that he used; he gave it the touch of 
 genius, he breathed into it the breath of 
 life. 
 
 And yet, with all this in mind, we must 
 hold that even his " sayings" do not 
 describe or explain his preeminence. At 
 best, sayings are outward, partial, and 
 fragmentary. They can never serve as 
 adequate index or measure of life. As 
 John Morley so well says: "A man is 
 always so much more than his words." 
 There is an ideal of life, an aspiration of 
 soul, a fragrance of sanctity which no 
 words can express. There are riches of 
 character for which no tongue has a 
 language. The sayings of Jesus do much 
 to record, but little to explain, his power. 
 We must look behind the message to the 
 creative master. 
 
 20 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 Our key to the problem is this: The 
 power of Jesus was not in what he said, 
 but in what he was. It flowed from his 
 rich and noble personality. There is a 
 personal power, independent of deed or 
 word, which is an indescribable but effi- 
 cient ethical and historical force. It is 
 the dynamic energy which inheres in 
 character, as magnetism inheres in a load- 
 stone. Moral greatness is radiant; it 
 lights up dark places like a great sun. 
 We all remember, how as children, we 
 were thrilled with admiration that passed 
 into aspiration, warmed to noble senti- 
 ments that prompted action, by contact 
 with some saintly man or woman. We 
 cannot remember what was said or done, 
 but the proximity of a great personality 
 awakened impulses that have never died. 
 
 We admit this fact in the most common 
 remarks of every day life. When we say, 
 He is a fine speaker but what he says would 
 not amount to much if anyone else said 
 it, — we recognize how the riches of an 
 unusual personality flow out into the words 
 and give them special significance and 
 
 21 
 

 The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 peculiar power. It is said of Charming, 
 that when he read a passage of Scripture, 
 he infused into it a new meaning. When 
 he said "God" the hearer felt a thrill of 
 uplifting devotion. It was his abundance 
 of personal piety behind the words that 
 gave them new and larger influence. If 
 we examine our memory for the seasons 
 of regeneration, when a commanding pur- 
 pose was horn within us which has been 
 our banner in all our marches and battles, 
 we shall find, as a rule, that the occasion 
 was not an outlook upon Nature nor the 
 study of a precept, but communion with 
 a great character in real life, or in litera- 
 ture where real life is immortalized. 
 
 The importance of personality has been 
 eloquently described by Dr. Hedge: "It 
 depends, not so much on the clearness and 
 fullness of the revelation, as on the person- 
 ality with which it is associated, whether 
 or not the revelation shall become an 
 historic dispensation. The moral intu- 
 itions of Plato far transcended those of 
 Muhammed, but the moral force, the 
 momentum of personality, the quality of 
 
 22 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 soul in Muhammed exceeded the genius of 
 Plato. Adopted by Providence, the slen- 
 der thought and vast soul of the Arab 
 have rallied around them the fifth part 
 of the human race, whilst the fuller revela- 
 tion of the Greek could only modify 
 Gentile and Christian theology with its 
 intellectual leaven.' * This is simply to 
 state, in brief, that life is larger and 
 deeper than thought; and to move and 
 impress human beings profoundly a sub- 
 lime life will do what no mere theory or 
 doctrine can possibly accomplish. 
 
 It is the power of personality that 
 transforms and regenerates the world. It 
 is the manhood working in the deed and 
 speaking in the word that makes them 
 significant. A great character sheds 
 abroad an influence as cheering, as quick- 
 ening, and as luminous as sunlight. It is, 
 therefore, not what Jesus organized, not 
 what he suffered, not what he said: we 
 must look in the direction of his person- 
 ality for an explanation of his influence. 
 It was the sweet but strong majesty of 
 his manhood that moved the people. It 
 
 23 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 is said that the Gospels do not explain 
 the power of Jesus over men. Of course 
 they do not. They simply record the fact. 
 He explains them ; they do not explain him. 
 
 It was not because Jesus laid down the 
 Golden Eule that he taught the people "as 
 one having authority." It was because 
 he himself was a Golden Eule incarnate. 
 It was not because he spoke the Beatitudes 
 that they heard him gladly. It was because 
 his life was a Beatitude. It was not 
 because he taught in beautiful parables 
 that they loved him. It was because the 
 spirit of his life touched them with vital 
 inspiration. 
 
 It may well be doubted whether Jesus 
 told the Samaritan woman anything new. 
 It was a common saying "that God is a 
 spirit and must be worshipped in spirit." 
 But what thrilled her was his personality 
 (imagine Emerson talking to an eager 
 country lad!). She felt the sweetness of 
 spirit, the tenderness of look, the gracious- 
 ness of manner: no wonder she declared 
 that she had found the Messiah! As 
 Matthew Arnold stated: "What was 
 
 24 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 wanted was a fuller description of right- 
 eousness,' ' — an embodiment of spiritual 
 righteousness in an actual life. This "de- 
 scription of righteousness" Jesus pre- 
 sented to her in his own personality. 
 
 Thus, Jesus created a new era by 
 illustrating a new order of manhood. It 
 is not an impropriety that our calendar 
 commemmorates his name and fame. 
 Every great master founds a new type: 
 the dome of Brunelleschi in architecture, 
 the opulent genius of Raphael in painting, 
 Gutenberg with his first printed book, Pitt 
 by his official integrity creating a new era 
 in the civil service of England, John 
 Howard illustrating a new method of 
 philanthropy. The first railroad began 
 a revolution, not only in the traffic and 
 travel, but in the civilization of the world : 
 it was the application of a new motive 
 power to human affairs. So likewise, the 
 character of Jesus began a reorganization 
 of human life, individual and corporate, — ■ 
 it was the application to the springs and 
 sources of conduct of new motives: senti- 
 ments that easily move men along all the 
 
 25 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 pathways of service. Just because he 
 introduced into the world a new type of 
 moral architecture, a new agency for the 
 education and guidance of the soul, — a 
 character that was a masterpiece of moral 
 genius, — Jesus rebuilt the ideals and re- 
 created the motives of mankind. 
 
 Now, what were the essential and 
 distinguishing elements of the new order 
 of manhood which Jesus exemplified in 
 his personality? What was there in his 
 character that made him a creative histori- 
 cal influence? As near as we can com- 
 prehend it or describe it, the new order of 
 manhood which Jesus illustrated may be 
 briefly though inadequately defined in 
 \ these words: the all-sufficiency of Inner 
 Life. The Kingdom of God understood 
 as the life of the soul : purity its condition, 
 growth its method, love its motive, service 
 its expression, character its fruitage. 
 Heart-life issuing in helpfulness. This is 
 what Jesus actually realized in his own 
 personality; and because he realized it 
 supremely, he became the master of all 
 hearts, lifting them up to God and moving 
 them to godliness. 
 
 26 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 Jesus was artist of the Inner Life. He 
 looked in not out for strength ; and then he 
 went abroad to spend himself in service for 
 others. He built his kingdom, not on the 
 circumstantial, but on the spiritual, ele- 
 ments of life. Not the power of allies 
 but of his manhood must suffice. With 
 him everything was "as natural as life;" 
 about him a wilderness of artificial piety. 
 With him a desire to impart to others the 
 life which he possessed; about him men 
 sought to enrich themselves by impover- 
 ishing others. With him an all-embracing 
 love flowing out to the whole world in 
 an unrestricted brotherhood; about him 
 sympathy and kindness as narrow as 
 creed or race or clan. With him a supreme 
 reverence for the moral intuitions of his 
 own heart leading to spiritual worship of 
 the Father, over all and in all; about him 
 a reverence for names and places, forms 
 and traditions, bringing more tears than 
 smiles, more dread than joy. A new type 
 of character, indeed! 
 
 These contrasts between the common 
 ambitions of men in the olden time and 
 
 27 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 the character of Jesus are numerous and 
 radical; and they explain his power and 
 prominence in history. Here a man trying 
 to be a saint by a dull monotony of formal 
 ceremonies. There Jesus, independent 
 of forms, but living a life grander than 
 any ideal of oriental priest or Greek 
 philosopher. Here a Eoman fired by the 
 passion for world-wide dominion. There 
 Jesus an incomparable character, satisfied 
 with the kingdom of God within his own 
 heart, and destined to rule the world from 
 his throne of love long after the last Eoman 
 had passed away. Here a rich young man 
 in the pride of his large possessions, that 
 after all never satisfied the yearning of 
 the spirit for eternal life. There Jesus 
 with a spiritual wealth incorruptible and 
 eternal, which did not enslave him and load 
 him with cares, but which enabled him to 
 win others to the good life, and in this 
 way multiplying their joys. Here a Phari- 
 see, learned in the lore of the schools and 
 trying to serve God by spinning a cobweb 
 of theological speculations remote from 
 the vital concerns of human life. There 
 
 28 
 
The Historic Position of Jesus 
 
 Jesus, with a wisdom that touches the 
 heart because drawn from the depths of 
 his own soul, and he proclaims a message 
 that gives infinite gladness because it 
 gives abundant life. 
 
 The Greeks had an order of manhood 
 that was the worship of Beauty. The 
 Eomans had an order of manhood that was 
 the worship of Power. The spirit of man 
 had sought its salvation among the 
 affairs of the world and the incidents of 
 material things. And the spirit of man 
 was not satisfied. In the personality of 
 Jesus was presented a new order of 
 manhood; the elaboration of Beauty and 
 Power within, the all- sufficiency of Inner 
 Life, 
 
 The common Jewish ideal had been a 
 somewhat external conformity of life to the 
 law of righteousness. Jesus presented to 
 the world a personality informed with the 
 spirit of love that made righteousness an 
 easy habit of life. Henceforth men 
 cherished a new ideal of excellence and 
 grew under the inspiration of his spirit 
 into a new service and a new peace. The 
 
 29 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 abundance of Inner Life makes all rules 
 and regulations unnecessary: Love is the 
 fulfilling of the law. Thus it was that 
 Jesus by the power of his personality 
 founded a new order of manhood among 
 men; and for this he must ever be held 
 in most grateful and loving reverence. 
 
 30 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 
TOPICS TREATED 
 
 1. Some Objections to these Claims. 
 
 2. Fears respecting Gospel Criticism. 
 
 3. Importance of the Problem. 
 
 4. What is Gospel Criticism? 
 
 5. Based on Facts in the Records. 
 
 6. Constructive, not Destructive. 
 
 7. Leads to better use of Gospels. 
 
 8. How the Story of Jesus began. 
 
 9. Growth and Character of the Synoptics. 
 
 10. The Fourth Gospel. 
 
 11. A Theological Treatise about Jesus. 
 
 12. Conclusions must be frankly accepted. 
 
 13. Some Negative Results. 
 
 14. Gains greater than losses. 
 
 15. Jesus less mystical but more Real. 
 
 16. New Beauty in the Birth Stories. 
 
 17. Accounts of the Resurrection. 
 
 18. How more Historical. 
 
 19. Greater Proofs of the Supremacy of Jesus. 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 It will doubtless be felt by some readers 
 that the views of Jesus just presented and 
 the claims in his behalf just made are 
 erroneous, because they assume that the 
 Gospels are precisely what the creeds of 
 the church have represented them to be, 
 whereas it has been discovered that the 
 creeds are at fault, and these writings are 
 not at all what theologians claimed them 
 to be. Indeed the objection is stoutly 
 urged by some scholars that, as the tradi- 
 tional belief respecting the Gospels as 
 absolutely accurate accounts is untrue, 
 therefore the estimate of Jesus just given 
 is unsound and unhistorical. These critics 
 contend that all such praise of Jesus is 
 mere pious sentiment, with no basis in 
 reality, because recent Biblical science 
 leaves the pages of the Gospels destitute 
 of historical authority. 
 
 This objection is sufficiently serious to 
 
 33 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 deserve examination, although it touches 
 only a part of the foregoing statement 
 respecting the historical significance of 
 Jesus. We must frankly consider this 
 problem. It is one that no intelligent 
 person can afford to ignore. If Gospel 
 Criticism has made Jesus a shadowy and 
 uncertain figure, the world of religion 
 ought at once to take account of such a 
 momentous fact. We cannot afford to 
 imperil our religious hopes and ideals by 
 closely associating them with mere fictions. 
 If the Gospels are so imperfect that they 
 afford no real historical material for a 
 veritable life of Jesus, the sooner we 
 adjust our religious faith to the fact the 
 better. If, on the other hand, these writ- 
 ings, when subjected to the most searching 
 scientific investigation, show themselves to 
 be of the very greatest historic worth, 
 though of a different quality than that 
 long attributed to them by creed makers, 
 this important fact we need as an aid, not 
 only to love of Jesus, but to faith in spirit- 
 ual verities. However unwelcome the task, 
 and however we may shrink from so seri- 
 
 34 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 ous an undertaking, nevertheless the ques- 
 tion must be faced and answered : In what 
 new light does modern Gospel Criticism 
 place Jesus? 
 
 It is clear enough, as all freely admit, 
 that the name, "Jesus," has played a 
 mighty part in the world's history for 
 nearly two thousand years. But today, 
 large numbers of earnest men and women 
 fear that, in spite of all this, the discov- 
 eries of recent years have cast so many 
 doubts upon the accuracy of the Gospels, 
 that we cannot be sure about the things, 
 until recently universally accepted. There 
 is a terrible dread gripping at the hearts 
 of many Christians in these days, through- 
 out the countries effected by modern cul- 
 ture. It is the apprehension that we may 
 have to give up our loved Master, and put 
 the story of his life away among the beau- 
 tiful but unreal creations of human fancy. 
 At least, it is feared that the character of 
 the man, who bore the name of Jesus, has 
 been so far moved from solid reality into 
 the realm of legend, and so immersed in 
 uncertainty, that he can no longer be to 
 
 35 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 us a real historical person, to love as a 
 friend and revere as a teacher. 
 
 The only satisfactory course for us to 
 pursue, in this time of bold inquiry, is to 
 examine carefully what has actually been 
 done to throw light upon the origin and 
 character of the Gospels. When we have 
 in hand all the discoveries that Gospel 
 Criticism can furnish us, then we must 
 address ourselves to the problem: Have 
 these writings become useless as reports 
 of the life of Jesus, now that they have 
 been subjected to the searching scrutiny 
 of scientific research ? Are our authorities 
 so imperfect that Jesus fades out of real 
 history into mere dreamland? This is not 
 a mere academic problem. It is vastly 
 more than a trivial matter of literary 
 criticism. The very basis of our Christian 
 life is involved in this discussion. As we 
 love the truth we must see what the facts 
 in this particular realm really are. As 
 we love Jesus, we must listen to the critics 
 to discover whether that love is justified 
 by the facts. Our appreciation of Jesus 
 must be an appreciation that can maintain 
 
 36 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 itself in the light of discovery. Now, the 
 only way to solve this momentous problem 
 is to lay hold of the facts. Let us then 
 look squarely and courageously at the 
 situation before us. 
 
 A careful application of the scientific 
 method of investigation to the Gospels has 
 led to certain discoveries of great impor- 
 tance respecting the processes by which 
 they were produced. And these discov- 
 eries in turn help us to understand in what 
 way and how far these writings are his- 
 torical. The scientific method is as appli- 
 cable to historical documents as to physi- 
 cal phenomena. It is simply an earnest 
 and exhaustive search for facts, and an 
 interpretation of facts to find causes and 
 ]aws. 
 
 Just as the physicist or biologist observes 
 and experiments to discover realities, not 
 imposing his opinions but allowing Nature 
 to tell its own story, so the scientific 
 student of the Gospels observes carefully 
 all the facts which they contain. He tries 
 to understand the meaning and relation of 
 these facts, so that he may gain an insight 
 
 37 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 into the laws underlying them. In this 
 way he learns the method by which they 
 were produced; he traces the influences 
 which worked to create them; and he dis- 
 covers the character which belongs to their 
 different parts. 
 
 In other words, the modern Biblical 
 student lets the Gospels tell their own 
 story. He abandons mere tradition; he 
 surrenders all prepossessions ; he represses 
 his own desires and wishes; he seeks the 
 exact facts; he stands aside that Eeality 
 may speak. If the conclusions reached dif- 
 fer from the teachings of ancient writers, 
 it is because the facts in the Gospels 
 themselves compel him to hold these con- 
 clusions. These modern views are not due 
 to the sympathy of the friends or the im- 
 agination of the foes of the Bible and reli- 
 gion. They are the discoveries reached 
 by a careful, prolonged, and reverent 
 study of the Gospel facts. They are the 
 conclusions of the exploring and interpret- 
 ing reason, scientific inductions which rest 
 upon the phenomena presented by these 
 documents themselves. 
 
 38 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 As might be expected, the scientific study 
 of these writings (aided by all the other 
 historical facts so far known that bear 
 upon this problem) has led to new theories 
 respecting their date, authorship, method 
 of production, and general character. 
 That important discoveries would be made 
 as soon as the Gospels were studied in the 
 scientific spirit is a result that might rea- 
 sonably have been anticipated. As scientific 
 research has revolutionized our ideas of 
 plant and animal, of star and rock; as scien- 
 tific historical investigations have changed 
 our views respecting many social and polit- 
 ical matters, extending our knowledge of 
 customs and institutions and giving us new 
 conceptions of the evolution of the human 
 race, it is evident that the same method, 
 when applied to the Gospels, would throw 
 a flood of light upon them, discrediting 
 many old notions about them and revealing 
 their true origin and character. 
 
 We must always bear in mind, what is 
 so often forgotten: — 
 
 (1) That these new conclusions are 
 based upon the facts that the Gospels 
 
 39 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 themselves furnish. The conservative 
 divine often meets the scientific student 
 with the objection: "What right have you 
 to set aside the ancient traditions of the 
 church? Who gave you authority to sit 
 in judgment upon the creed of Christen- 
 dom? Have you not spun these theories 
 out of your too ardent fancies f How absurd 
 for you to claim to have found these facts 
 in the Gospels, for thousands of scholars 
 as keen as you have read these pages for 
 centuries, and they have not seen what you 
 pretend to have discovered. Is it possible 
 that they have all been blind and that only 
 you have eyes to see the truth ? ' ■ 
 
 The reply which the scientific student 
 makes to this representative of tradition 
 is similar to that which the discoverer in 
 chemistry makes to those who deny his 
 report of what he has found in Nature. 
 As the chemist says: Nature furnishes in 
 the researches of my laboratory these facts 
 which warrant my conclusions; so the 
 student of the Gospels says: By paying 
 attention to the facts in these documents, 
 I arrive at my conclusions. The facts 
 
 40 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 themselves are more authoritative than 
 the mere opinions of the ancient church- 
 men. And it is no more remarkable that 
 men have read the Gospels for ages and 
 missed seeing many of the truths scattered 
 over their pages, than it is that other men 
 looked for ages at trees and stones but 
 never saw the plainest facts which they 
 contain ! 
 
 (2) It must also be borne in mind that 
 these new views are not really destructive 
 but constructive. They are not harmful 
 but helpful to the cause of piety. The 
 Gospels cannot be destroyed by their own 
 facts. Eeligion cannot be injured by the 
 truth. The sun is not dishonored by the 
 astronomer who looks into his face and 
 discovers the spots that mottle his counte- 
 nance! The great spiritual truths of the 
 Gospels cannot be discredited by the rever- 
 ent criticism that deals with their own 
 facts, even if human imperfection is traced 
 in those pages. The discoveries of Bibli- 
 cal scholars may set aside the erroneous 
 claims made by churchmen in behalf of the 
 evangelical records. But no harm can come 
 
 41 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 to them, to Jesus, or to the real cause of 
 piety from the facts which they contain or 
 from the scientific conclusions of scholars 
 based upon them. 
 
 Discoveries about the structure of the 
 Sermon on the Mount cannot set aside the 
 Beatitudes. If these Beatitudes were 
 spoken on different occasions rather than 
 at the same time, their truth and beauty 
 are not thereby impaired. A new view of 
 Jesus 's relation to the Messianic Hope 
 cannot lessen the purity of his life or the 
 pathos of his death. A fresh insight into 
 the poetical character of the stories that 
 cluster about his birth cannot weaken our 
 admiration for the teacher who showed 
 boundless sympathy for the weak and the 
 wayward, and intense severity toward the 
 hypocrites. 
 
 (3) However, we must bear in mind 
 another fact of prime importance. These 
 great discoveries do surely necessitate 
 important changes in our uses of the 
 Gospels. Whenever a large truth is dis- 
 covered, the method of life is revolution- 
 ized and mankind is blessed. When we are 
 
 42 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 given a great fact, new and central, then 
 the reorganization of civilization begins. 
 Sufficient knowledge to enable us to under- 
 stand and utilize electricity comes first; 
 and then homes are differently lighted, 
 methods of travel are changed, and the 
 habits of society are transformed. When 
 the relation of disease to germs is discov- 
 ered and the efficiency of the antiseptic 
 treatment of wounds is proved, then sur- 
 gery develops with wonderful rapidity. 
 
 Eespect for facts is the modern spirit. 
 Adjustment of life to reality is the present 
 ambition. Nothing is so beneficently revo- 
 lutionary as a great fact. Therefore, when 
 we discover just what the Gospel page 
 really is, then old uses of texts will stop, 
 while new and better uses will begin. When 
 guided by this new scholarship, we see at 
 a glance that they are not clubs by which to 
 beat back scientists, nor chains with which 
 to bind the free reason, nor materials of 
 which to build dogmatic creeds. All these 
 are misuses of texts which injure mankind, 
 while they misrepresent the true meaning 
 and real ministry of the Scriptures. 
 
 43 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 But on the other hand, new and better 
 uses of texts spring up as we more fully 
 understand the Gospels. We now find in 
 the great sayings which they contain, not 
 fetters for the mind, but fuel for the altar 
 fires of the heart ; not chains to bind opin- 
 ion, but wings to lift the soul ; not material 
 out of which to construct dogmas, but 
 prophecies of the heart that enrich the life. 
 We now study the parables for inspiration 
 rather than authority. We now read the 
 Gospels, not to prove miracles and dis- 
 credit science, but to warm our hearts to 
 heroism, mercy, and self-sacrifice; and so 
 this new use of the Gospels helps us to 
 equip ourselves with the motive power 
 of a nobler life. We discover in 
 these documents, not the report of 
 a mystical transaction that enables us 
 to settle with a Shylock in the skies, but 
 something infinitely better: the dynamic 
 record of a sublime life that purifies us and 
 makes us friends of God, the Father, by 
 making us helpful servants of man, our 
 brother. 
 
 The Gospels, when allowed to shine in 
 
 44 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 their own light, which is the light of truth 
 and love, lend themselves to a new and 
 higher ministry. We ought to handle them 
 rationally, but reverently, for increase of 
 Inner Life. These pages fire our hearts 
 with ennobling motives, the less we go to 
 them for dogma and the more we use them 
 for communion with One who went about 
 doing good, and who, by so living, showed 
 us the true way of life. 
 
 Let us now give attention to some of 
 the most important discoveries that have 
 been made respecting the origin, relation, 
 and character of the writings known to us 
 as the Gospels. This needs to be done that 
 we may prepare ourselves to answer the 
 deeper question : In what respect may we 
 consider the figure of Jesus really histori- 
 cal? We must always keep in mind, as has 
 been stated, that these discoveries have 
 been made by giving careful attention to 
 the facts which these documents themselves 
 contain. 
 
 A few of the most important and gener- 
 ally accepted conclusions are these: The 
 first three Gospels — the Synoptics — are the 
 
 45 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 outcome of a complex process that began 
 very soon after the crucifixion and con- 
 tinued during periods varying in length 
 for the different Gospels, from forty to 
 sixty years. An oral tradition giving the 
 life and teaching of Jesus, began to take 
 shape at once after his death. This was 
 the story of the Master as set forth by the 
 first preachers. It passed by word of 
 mouth from apostle to convert, from one 
 church to another. As the years went by 
 and this story was told and retold in differ- 
 ent places, the tradition assumed some- 
 what divergent forms in these separate 
 localities, certain parts grew dim, some 
 parts were modified and embellished, and 
 new elements were added, borrowed from 
 a fuller account. The followers of Jesus 
 did the best that they could, but even their 
 best efforts necessarily produced a story 
 with human limitations. 
 
 For a time, just these personal memories 
 and oral reports respecting Jesus and his 
 message were all that existed. A very 
 precious and carefully preserved tradition, 
 but yet a tradition, which, being held in 
 
 46 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 solution, as we may say, in the minds of 
 the early disciples, was constantly subject 
 to changes of various kinds. We must 
 remember, too, that this story was told, 
 not with a mere prosaic and historical 
 intent, but to win converts, to communicate 
 the spirit of Jesus, to make people believe 
 in him as the Messiah. 
 
 Then afterwards attempts were made 
 to commit this tradition to writing. One 
 of the first, probably the very first, to do 
 something of this sort was Matthew, whose 
 little work (which early disappeared, being 
 incorporated in more elaborate documents) 
 was chiefly composed of the ' ' Sayings ' | of 
 Jesus. It probably underlies the Sermon 
 on the Mount as given in our first canoni- 
 cal Gospel ; and in this way it served as the 
 nucleus of that Gospel, and so gave to the 
 fuller and later work that we have the 
 name of Matthew. Then Mark, a compan- 
 ion of Peter, wrote out his account of the 
 life of Jesus, paying little attention to the 
 teachings of Jesus, but relating chiefly the 
 incidents of his wonderful career. This 
 work was probably very nearly our second 
 
 47 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 Gospel, which bears the name of Mark. 
 But it is quite evident that this first draft 
 of the work lacked certain passages that 
 are now found near the beginning and at 
 the end. The date of this original Mark 
 is approximately the year 75 A. D. The 
 majority of scholars at the present day, 
 consider this the oldest of our four Gos- 
 pels. 
 
 A decade later, about 85 A. D., a man 
 of more literary genius and with wider 
 information, sat down and compiled, out 
 of all the materials at hand, another 
 Gospel document, what we know as the 
 Gospel of Luke. He fortunately describes 
 his aim and method at the very beginning 
 of his work: "Forasmuch as many have 
 taken in hand to draw up a narrative, con- 
 cerning those things which have been fully 
 established among us, even as they deliv- 
 ered them unto us, which from the begin- 
 ning were eye witnesses and ministers of 
 the word, it seemed good to me also, having 
 traced the course of all things accurately 
 from the first, to write unto thee in order, 
 most excellent Theophilus, that thou 
 
 48 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 mightest know the certainty of the things 
 that thou wast taught by word of mouth. ' ' 
 
 From this language it is evident that 
 written accounts of Jesus were numerous 
 when the Gospel of Luke was written. For 
 the author states: "Many have taken in 
 hand to draw up a narrative.' ' Among 
 these "many" were undoubtedly, Mat- 
 thew's "Collection of Sayings," and 
 Mark's "Narrative;" to which reference 
 has just been made. But there were cer- 
 tainly others, which early disappeared. The 
 writer of our Gospel of Luke probably 
 used the oldest of these, while he also 
 borrowed more or less from oral tradition. 
 
 Very near the close of the first century, 
 some other writer, following in the foot- 
 steps of Luke, constructed another docu- 
 ment. This document bears the name of 
 Matthew, because it contains a long col- 
 lection of Jesus 's Sayings, that probably 
 came chiefly from the little work, ' ' Oracles 
 of the Lord," which the apostle Matthew 
 wrote fully a generation before this final 
 edition, or finished narrative, was pro- 
 duced. This last editor also probably took 
 
 49 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 materials from Mark and Luke, and quite 
 likely borrowed some from other sources, 
 both oral and written. In this way, the 
 Gospel that stands first in the New Testa- 
 ment, our Matthew, came into its present 
 shape about the year 100 A. D. In it are 
 things that were probably written as ear]y 
 as 65 A. D., while there are others that 
 were not written until thirty years later. 
 
 These Gospels, having arisen in this man- 
 ner, naturally have very much in common ; 
 they rest largely upon common sources; 
 hence their remarkable similarities. But 
 there are also marked differences ; the same 
 incidents are often differently described, 
 while there are incidents and sayings that 
 are given in one and not in the others. 
 These facts show that the final editors used 
 different authorities, as well as common 
 sources of information. Where the same 
 incident is given in all three, the descrip- 
 tions often vary as we pass from the 
 earlier to the later document, showing how, 
 in the process of transmission, certain 
 matters grew more and more marvelous. 
 
 In some cases we can easily trace this 
 
 50 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 poetic enlargement in obedience to the 
 legendary impulse. One example is suffi- 
 cient illustration: In Mark iii. 10, we 
 read that people pressed upon Jesus to 
 touch him in order to be healed, an impulse 
 not difficult to understand. There is here 
 however no record of cures. But in Mat- 
 thew ix. 20, the miracle has taken shape: 
 a woman is healed by touching the hem 
 of his garment. While in Luke vi. 19, 
 (Matthew xiv. 36,) the poetic impulse has 
 so expanded the incident that all who touch 
 him are healed! Here we can plainly see 
 the miracle grow from a nucleus of fact. 
 These three Gospels, we must therefore 
 remember, are not biographies that were 
 at once written on the spot by eye wit- 
 nesses; but they are rather composite 
 memoirs which grew out of the life of the 
 primitive church in its efforts to report 
 the character and enforce the message of 
 Jesus. All the materials in them were first 
 carried for at least twenty or thirty years 
 in memory, and passed by word of mouth 
 as oral tradition from teacher to learner. 
 Certain brief writings by the apostles, or 
 
 51 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 those near the Twelve^ came later into 
 existence. Just when these appeared, and 
 how many were produced, we cannot tell. 
 Then other more elaborate productions, 
 like Luke and our Matthew (there were 
 probably still others similar to these, such 
 as the lost Gospel of the Hebrews,) grew 
 up under the shaping hands of later edi- 
 tors. This final editorial work was done 
 in the last quarter of the first century, 
 some two generations after the death of 
 Jesus. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel, bearing the name of 
 John, stands somewhat by itself. Modern 
 scholars more and more unite in the con- 
 clusion that it was not written by the Apos- 
 tle John, but by some unknown author as 
 late as the year 115 A. D. In the first 
 three Gospels, beside the general purpose 
 to tell the story of Jesus and report his 
 teaching, the special aim is to show that 
 Jesus was the Messiah, and this intent 
 somehow colors much of the material, as 
 in many passages like those in Matthew, 
 where we read : ' i That it might be fulfilled 
 
 52 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 which was spoken by the prophet." 1 In 
 the Fourth Gospel, the purpose is radically 
 different and distinctly narrower . Of 
 incidents there are few and of parables 
 none. The special aim is to show that 
 Jesus is the incarnation of the Logos, or 
 Word f a term of Alexandrian philosophy, 
 widely popular in the eastern countries of 
 the Roman Empire during the first century 
 of the Christian era. This term, Logos, 
 meant an intermediate divine Principle, or 
 Being, operating between Nature and God, 
 and carrying out the creative purpose. 
 The aim of this philosophical writer not 
 only caused him to reshape his historical 
 material somewhat, but it also led him 
 to add his own speculations with a free 
 hand. And this association of Jesus with 
 the theory of the Logos, of which the 
 Fourth Gospel was one literary expression, 
 was the beginning of the movement which 
 ended in the deification of Jesus. 
 
 The difference in purpose, just noted, 
 
 1 Matthew I. 22; II. 15; VIII. 17; XII. 17; XIII. 
 35; XXI. 4. 
 
 53 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 may be briefly illustrated by reference to a 
 single point: In the first three Gospels, 
 we start among men, and Jesus is never 
 brought into association with deity as a 
 part of the Godhead. However intimate 
 his fellowship with the Father, Jesus 
 always remains on the human level, con- 
 scious of his place among men and of his 
 dependence upon God. In the Fourth 
 Gospel, we start from the depths of the 
 Divine Nature, Jesus is represented as the 
 manifestation of the Logos, or creative 
 agent of the universe, and his self-asser- 
 tion is here as marked as his humility in 
 the other Gospels. From the miraculous 
 birth of Jesus, as a man to fulfil the Mes- 
 sianic Hope — the position of the Synoptics, 
 to Jesus as the Logos issuing out of the 
 inner being of God in order to recreate the 
 universe — the central proposition of the 
 Fourth Gospel, is a long step, and it 
 represents a radical movement away from 
 the original views of the first disciples: 
 a complete philosophical transformation 
 of Christianity. 
 
 SI 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 But the Fourth Gospel is not all of one 
 piece : two currents run through its pages : 
 
 1. The fundamental historical tradi- 
 tion, the larger part of which is peculiar 
 to this document, and some of it contradic- 
 tory to the parallel accounts in the Synop- 
 tics. These differences are marked in its 
 descriptions of the call of the apostles, 
 the Last Supper, the trial and crucifixion 
 of Jesus. 1 It is comparatively easy to 
 separate this older historical material 
 from the philosophical additions made to 
 it. If we set aside the passages that refer 
 directly or by implication to the Logos or 
 Word, especially the opening paragraph, 
 also the passages that present Jesus in 
 the attitude of self-assertion (the "I" 
 passages 2 ), and the long addresses in 
 Chaps, xiv.-xvii., what remains probably 
 constitutes the document (so far as here 
 preserved), which the final writer had in 
 
 1 Compare John I. 35-42 with Matthew IV. 18-22. 
 Also, John XIV. 9-31 with Matthew XXVI. 36-46. 
 
 2 Such as John V. 19-26; VI. 35-40; VIII. 12-23; 
 XII. 46-50. 
 
 55 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 hand and enlarged. This may have come, 
 or a large part of it, from the Apostle 
 John ; and so in this way his name passed 
 to the later work which we possess. We 
 find also that, in this fundamental docu- 
 ment underlying our present Gospel, the 
 figure portrayed is very nearly the human 
 Jesus of the Synoptics. 
 
 2. But the philosophical writer, to 
 whom we owe the Gospel of John in its 
 present shape, set the person of Jesus, as 
 described by the older tradition which he 
 used, in the frame of his philosophical 
 doctrine of the Logos. He made what he 
 felt was a true representation of Jesus, 
 for he believed Jesus to be the manifesta- 
 tion in the flesh of the Logos; but in the 
 words of Reuss, his work is "history 
 transmuted into dogma ;" a speculative 
 treatise about Jesus, not a portraiture of 
 Jesus. In other words, there are two 
 figures here; the historical Jesus, some- 
 what dimmed by legend, in the older 
 passages; and over and about this human 
 figure is imposed the form of the Logos, 
 superhuman, mystical, colossal. The intro- 
 
 m 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 duction, the ^ve verses at the beginning, 
 plainly describe the writer's purpose. He 
 does not start out to write the history of 
 a man. He frankly announces that he 
 proposes to describe a philosophy of 
 creation; and he elevates Jesus to the 
 chief place of activity, not in a human 
 ministry, but in a cosmical drama. So that, 
 as Schiirer put it: This Gospel "is far 
 more like the drama of a poet than the 
 work of an historian." 
 
 The transitions in the Fourth Gospel 
 from the historical tradition to the theo- 
 sophical speculation are so abrupt, and 
 the two portions are so unlike in quality, 
 that it is easy to distinguish them and 
 separate the two classes of material. The 
 long addresses, in Chaps, xiv.-xvii., 
 have no place in the narrative; they are 
 in form (and largely in quality) unlike 
 the teachings of Jesus as given in the 
 Synoptics. They are not the intuitions of 
 a prophet, but the mystical speculations 
 of a philosopher. These discourses con- 
 tain many noble sentences, and the author 
 aimed to reproduce the story and spirit of 
 
 ; 57i 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 Jesus with perfect honesty. He wrote 
 what he felt to be true. But we do not 
 deal here at first hand with the mind of 
 Jesus. There are undoubtedly many true 
 glimpses of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, 
 but we must not go to it for an accurate 
 account of his life and teachings. As a 
 whole, it is not the history of a human 
 being, but the dramatization of a philoso- 
 phy of redemption with Jesus acting the 
 part of the Logos. 
 
 This view has now become a widely 
 accepted conclusion of modern scholarship. 
 The gains to religion from it are many. 
 But chief among them is what it does to 
 restore the historical Jesus to us. It 
 enables us to strip off from his figure the 
 obscuring theosophical vestments: the 
 Logos mask that disguised the actual 
 Jesus. Having discovered the true charac- 
 ter of this Gospel, we now easily distin- 
 guish between its mystical notions and 
 its historical elements, and the real man 
 Jesus is seen in new light. He gains in 
 reality and attractiveness. We no longer 
 hold him responsible for the mysticisms of 
 
 58 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 the long addresses. We cease our vain 
 endeavors to establish a harmony between 
 them and the Sermon on the Mount. Gos- 
 pel Criticism, therefore, helps us to a 
 clearer historical appreciation of Jesus 
 by removing this mask and showing us the 
 true character behind. 
 
 Now, what bearing have these numerous 
 and radical discoveries respecting the real 
 character of the Gospels upon our views of 
 Jesus? No treatment of Jesus has 
 scientific validity or spiritual cogency 
 except as these facts are taken into 
 account. We must make our conception of 
 Jesus square with the facts. Our uses of 
 the Gospels must be adjusted to their true 
 character. The physicist who should 
 ignore the correlation of energy, and 
 the biologist who should ignore the 
 law of evolution, would be doing just 
 what religious teachers are now doing 
 who treat the Gospels as though nothing 
 had recently been discovered about them. 
 We must manfully face the facts in reli- 
 gion as everywhere else. We must dis- 
 criminate our sources of information 
 
 59 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 respecting Jesus and use these documents 
 for what they really are. 
 
 The preacher, the parent and the Sun- 
 day-school teacher must not ignore these 
 recent and important discoveries about 
 the Gospels. If they do, serious injury 
 will be done to religion. A false dogma 
 about Jesus cannot honor him or help man- 
 kind. Our interpretation of that great 
 life, to carry comfort and inspiration, 
 must issue from a rational use of these 
 writings. If we attribute to them a 
 fictitious character, if we assume that they 
 are more than what they are and so use 
 them, we shall be following "a false 
 Christ." Religious teaching has already 
 lost the note of reality to a large extent 
 from this cause. 
 
 Nothing will drive young people away 
 from the church or foster indifference to 
 religion more effectually than the suspic- 
 ion that they are being trifled with; that 
 ministers are hedging; that they are not 
 frankly telling their congregation what 
 they have discovered. This suspicion is 
 even now at work to the great injury of 
 
 60 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 the church. There is no safety except in 
 facing the situation. No possible change 
 in our conception of Jesus can work such 
 havoc to piety as disloyalty to truth and 
 resort to duplicity. We must not ignore 
 the crucial questions: Have these dis- 
 coveries made the figure of Jesus more 
 dim and shadowy? Do they leave any 
 basis for a historical Jesus, or do they 
 make Jesus more real and attractive? 
 What changes do they make necessary in 
 our views of Jesus and in our uses of the 
 Gospels themselves? 
 
 One thing is certain, and it really repre- 
 sents a gain. It is this : Documents such 
 as reverent scholarship has shown these 
 Gospels to be, are not adequate proofs of 
 miracles, and they do not provide materials 
 for dogma. The reports which they pre- 
 sent, however precious and however 
 valuable for certain purposes, are not the 
 testimonies of eyewitnesses written down 
 at once as the events occurred. Many 
 influences were active in those days to 
 color, enlarge, and distort the tradition, 
 and among them these : (1) An ardent Mes- 
 
 61 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 sianic Hope which led people to think that 
 certain things had actually happened 
 because it was supposed that they had been 
 predicted by the ancient Hebrew prophets. 
 (2) A warmth of affection for Jesus 
 which inevitably tended to magnify his 
 acts and glorify his character. (3) A 
 homiletical tendency that freely created 
 parables about him to illustrate his spirit 
 and convey his message, even as he had 
 created parables to set forth his doctrine 
 respecting the Kingdom of God. 
 
 This picture-making of the friends of 
 Jesus, who were wonder-loving orientals, 
 worked with honest intent, when, at times, 
 it led them to weave the then current 
 reports of Jesus 's life into poetical 
 stories in order to make that life seem more 
 vivid and impressive. We must not look 
 upon the writers and editors of the Gos- 
 pels as exact annalists ; we must not spurn 
 them as falsifiers; we must read their 
 pages with poetic insight, warmed by their 
 ardent love for their Master, although not 
 necessarily accepting all the details of their 
 story. We must remember that the story 
 
 62 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 was told, not for its details but for its 
 general impression. 
 
 There were other changes introduced 
 into these records through various mis- 
 takes: lapses of memory and dullness of 
 mind on the part of hearer and reporter — 
 the gross ear sometimes missing the spirit- 
 ual meaning. There were also errors that 
 arose through translation from one lan- 
 guage to another. Jesus spoke in the pop- 
 ular tongue of his people — Aramaic; we 
 have his story in Greek. All these and other 
 facts respecting the process by which these 
 documents were produced make it clear 
 that we do not have in them evidence ade- 
 quate to prove the supernatural. And 
 surely what was freely and poetically set 
 forth, in symbol and simile, as a teaching 
 of life, should not be used to construct 
 an elaborate creed to be imposed as a 
 finality upon the human mind. To 
 approach the Gospels for this purpose is 
 to misuse them. 
 
 So much for the negative side, and all 
 this seems very destructive at first sight. 
 The problem still presses for some more 
 
 63 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 positive solution: In the light of this 
 new truth about the Gospels, does the 
 figure of Jesus grow brighter or become 
 dimmer? Do the Gospels, as at present 
 understood, help us to a clearer view of 
 Jesus as a real historical character? Is 
 there anything more than shadows and 
 superstitions really left ! The true answer, 
 stated in briefest terms, seems to be this: 
 The Gospels do become, in the hands of 
 modern scholars, in spite of all apparent 
 losses, both more interesting and more 
 instructive ; and in a very true sense more 
 historical. 
 
 The figure of Jesus becomes less mysti- 
 cal, but more real. We may not be so sure 
 as our fathers were of some details, but we 
 are more certain of the large and heroic 
 outline. The Gospels, which have indeed 
 become new because seen in a new light, 
 really help us to a fuller understanding 
 and a warmer admiration of Jesus. We 
 are using them to-day more in harmony 
 with the purpose for which they were 
 written, — namely, to communicate his spirit 
 and report his message. They did not 
 
 64 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 create Christianity. They were created 
 by the church to perpetuate the image and 
 embody the spirit of its founder. 
 
 When we cease to insist upon the infall- 
 ibility of details, and also cease to quote 
 the texts of the Gospels as absolute 
 authority for dogma, and when we use 
 these writings solely for the great ethical 
 truths which they contain and for the 
 inspiration of the wonderful life which 
 they describe, willing that small matters 
 remain uncertain so long as the central 
 facts shine clear, — then we shall use them 
 aright, and then they will become more 
 fruitful means of grace to us than when 
 they were read in the old spirit. 
 
 After destructive criticism has done all 
 that it can, the greatness of Jesus in char- 
 acter and message, not only remains 
 untouched, but the loving appreciation of 
 him as guide and helper to the divine life 
 grows stronger. And this is the one point 
 of importance to religion. The relief of 
 all anxious hearts, who may have feared 
 the results of scientific investigation, is 
 near at hand in the discovery that our 
 
 .65 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 gains are after all greater than our losses. 
 Some things that once seemed essential, 
 we do lose — legendary incidents respecting 
 marvels or miracles ; but the central things 
 remain — the supreme excellence of his 
 life and the sublime quality of his teach- 
 ings ; and these come into new prominence 
 and larger power. For a conclusion, 
 something like this is warranted: Uncer- 
 tainty increases respecting some incidents 
 of Jesus '& life as reported in the Gospels, 
 but the essential quality of his character 
 shines in clearer light and exerts upon us 
 a more helpful influence. We can now 
 make fewer positive assertions about 
 some of the details of his career, but we 
 can assert more confidently and positively 
 than ever before his transcendent great- 
 ness as a religious genius. This important 
 proposition will be set forth more in 
 detail in the following chapter. 
 
 The general conclusion just stated may 
 not confirm some of our theological opin- 
 ions: this is however of no great impor- 
 tance. But it does bring Jesus nearer to 
 us as a helpful personal influence; and 
 
 66 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 this is the essential element in Christian- 
 ity. The mystical halo about him may 
 fade, being no more a part of him than is 
 the halo in the sky a part of the sun, but 
 the spiritual beauty of his character 
 increases and his power over our hearts 
 in behalf of righteousness deepens. 
 
 Before we make a general application 
 of these principles, let us briefly consider 
 what help they afford us respecting two 
 of the most difficult problems in this con- 
 nection: the birth stories and the accounts 
 of the resurrection. The conclusions of 
 Gospel Criticism respecting these two sub- 
 jects when first stated, seem painfully 
 destructive to many people; especially 
 when they are applied to these matters in 
 a cold and negative spirit. When it is 
 said, to discuss the birth stories first, that 
 we cannot now accept as a literal record 
 of historical facts the accounts in Matthew 
 and Luke, which tell of a special star, the 
 visits of angels, and the strange birth; 
 when we are told that this is poetry, beau- 
 tiful and interesting poetry, but no more 
 than poetry, — then many a heart feels 
 
 67 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 chilled and from many a life the light of 
 heaven seems to fade. But a little calm 
 reflection will show us that what we gain 
 by this conclusion is vastly greater than 
 what is lost. 
 
 As strange as the statement may seem 
 to some when it is first heard, it is never- 
 theless true that only as we admit the poet- 
 ical character of these stories do they 
 become of greatest historic value to us. 
 They most fully reveal the real Jesus when 
 freely read as legends. They most truly 
 demonstrate his greatness as a historical 
 figure, when we interpret them as products 
 of the loving appreciation of his friends, 
 as it sought to express itself in poetic 
 symbols. 
 
 What do we really lose and what do we 
 really gain? Let us see. We lose the 
 wonder child as a physical marvel impossi- 
 ble for science to accept; we gain fresh 
 insight into the spiritual influence of 
 Jesus. Eeligion escapes from the bondage 
 of miracle and enters into new moral 
 power. We lose the outward prodigies 
 that violate natural law; we gain a better 
 
 68 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 understanding of the essential quality of 
 the Master's life which gave him, and which 
 continues to give him, marvelous power 
 over human hearts. Eeligion escapes from 
 the necessity of apology, and it is now able 
 to appeal to the consciences of men free 
 from the handicap of superstition. We 
 lose the song of goodwill as sung by 
 angels in whom the modern mind has 
 ceased to believe; we gain a clear view of 
 the impression which the Prophet of Naz- 
 areth made upon his friends. He inspired 
 them to live in the spirit of goodwill. 
 Jesus himself was the supreme choir-mas- 
 ter who taught them to sing to the wide 
 world the angelic song of peace through 
 goodwill. Religion escapes from the wor- 
 ship of the mere letter and lays hold of 
 the moral power which the poem sym- 
 bolizes. And are there not great gains in 
 this change in our point of view and in our 
 use of the Gospel story? 
 
 Let us go a little more into particulars. 
 The birth-stories, at the beginning of the 
 Gospels of Matthew and Luke, were created 
 by an impulse like that which has produced 
 
 69 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 many similar poetical creations, which 
 have grown up around great men; and 
 those that cluster about the name of 
 Buddha especially illustrate this fact. 
 They are attempts to explain, in the sym- 
 bolism of the age, the origin of a life that 
 seemed to transcend the limits of human 
 nature. They are trustworthy testimo- 
 nies, not to the reality of certain incidents, 
 but to the quality and magnitude of Jesus *s 
 character. His followers saw the beauty 
 and felt the power of his life. They were 
 so greatly helped by him that they felt 
 sure that he had a divine origin. As there 
 were no records to guide them, they freely 
 created incidents to describe what they 
 felt must have been the origin of this 
 extraordinary man. 
 
 The incidents that were naturally and 
 honestly invented by their warm oriental 
 hearts, to explain what they felt respect- 
 ing Jesus, reflected the spirit of his life: 
 this is everywhere the law of the growth 
 of legends. These poetical incidents testify 
 to the profound impression which Jesus 
 made upon them and upon the world. 
 
 70 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 These stories contain the explanation which 
 his friends gave to an immense and obvious 
 fact : his wonderful life and influence. They 
 are inadequate as an explanation, but 
 they are invaluable as a revelation of his 
 character, and also as evidence of their 
 loving appreciation. They are not records 
 of his childhood, but products of his life; 
 not the history of his birth, but symbols 
 of the quality of his ministry. They are 
 the reflections of the spirit of the words 
 and deeds of his manhood thrown by the 
 ardent fancy of his loving followers on 
 the mists of uncertainty enveloping his 
 childhood 
 
 The reader of the Gospels is indeed 
 dull of heart who does not feel the glow 
 of the reverence of Jesus 's disciples, and 
 the warmth of their love, expressing them- 
 selves through these wonder tales. But 
 duller of mind is he who goes so far astray 
 as to use this poetry for prose, insisting 
 that these particular incidents really hap- 
 pened, and so missing the precious lessons 
 which these stories do contain. They do 
 not really tell the history of Jesus 's birth, 
 
 71 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 as has just been stated, but they do describe 
 the impression which he made upon the 
 disciples, and the affection which he 
 aroused in them. 
 
 What is the story of the virgin birth but 
 a report of the popular feeling in the 
 apostolic time that Jesus was a man so 
 supremely pure that he must have had an 
 unusual origin? What is the story that 
 attributes his paternity to the Holy Spirit 
 but the testimony of his disciples to the 
 spirituality of his life, — an obvious fact 
 which they tried in this way to explain? 
 What is the story of the guiding star but 
 an embodiment of their confidence in him 
 as heaven-sent, because his life was so 
 heavenly? What is the story of the Magi 
 with their gifts but their public declara- 
 tion of an appreciation so large and tender 
 that they, too, would give all that they 
 possessed to do him honor? What is the 
 story of the angelic chorus heard by the 
 watching shepherds, — " Glory to God in 
 the Highest and Peace on Earth to Men of 
 Goodwill," — but the description of the 
 blessed ministry which Jesus has actually 
 
 72 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 performed for mankind ; what the disciples 
 themselves had heard sung on the heights 
 of their own being as they commnned with 
 Jesus and grew into his spirit? 
 
 The life of Jesus had been preeminently 
 a life of goodwill. Just because this was 
 true, the song of goodwill grew up sponta- 
 neously in their hearts and was attributed 
 to the angels. We have here an explana- 
 tion of the origin and character of Jesus ; 
 but it is an explanation made by reverent 
 love, not in logical statements, but in 
 poetical symbols. We are not obliged to 
 accept their explanation. Indeed, we can- 
 not. But their poem is first-class historical 
 material, if rightly used, being complete 
 proof of the quality and extent of Jesus 's 
 influence upon them. This is surely a more 
 spiritual and a more scientific use of these 
 birth-stories than the old dogmatists made 
 of them. 
 
 We may apply the same method of 
 interpretation to the accounts of the resur- 
 rection. But only a hint can here be given 
 of the new meaning which Gospel Criticism 
 finds in the Christophanies, or stories of 
 
 73 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 his reappearance after the crucifixion, 
 and only a bare reference can be made to 
 the more spiritual uses to which we may 
 now put these passages. Every year the 
 conclusion gains a wider acceptance among 
 religious scholars that these divergent 
 statements cannot be harmonized; that 
 they do not afford an adequate demonstra- 
 tion of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. 1 
 Historical science and physical science 
 compel us to surrender the old belief that 
 Jesus 's body actually came out of the tomb 
 and that he lived again in the flesh among 
 his friends. All this is evident. But the 
 very fact that the disciples did come to 
 believe in Jesus as risen from the Under- 
 world (not the grave but the abode 
 of departed spirits — "raised from the 
 dead") and alive at God's right hand is 
 the best possible evidence, not only of the 
 grandeur of his character, but of the 
 immortality of the soul. 
 What survives all critical analysis and 
 
 1 See Article on "Resurrection" in Encyclopaedia 
 Biblica, vol. IV. 
 
 74 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 scientific objection is the fact that Jesus 
 so lived that he made his friends absolutely 
 sure of his immortality and their immor- 
 tality. This is historical. We make the 
 best use of the story of the resurrection 
 when we find in it the illustration of that 
 spirituality of life which is the root and 
 spring of our hope of heaven. 
 
 The positive gains from Gospel Criti- 
 cism, making these writings more valuable 
 as evidences of Jesus 's spiritual greatness 
 and contributing to a clearer appreciation 
 of him as a historical character, have not 
 received the attention that they deserve. 
 A general discussion of certain phases of 
 this great problem will be given, as has 
 already been stated, in the next chapter, 
 but two important facts will here be 
 briefly presented. 
 
 The Messianic intent of the first three 
 Gospels is evident. They were written to 
 prove that Jesus was the promised Mes- 
 siah, and the incidents of his life were 
 poetically enlarged in this direction by 
 ardent belief in him as the chosen Servant 
 of God. Gospel Criticism by pointing out 
 
 75 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 this tendency and by designating just what 
 embellishments in the records are due to 
 it, enables us to put aside these elements. 
 And as we remove these disguising vest- 
 ments from the figure of Jesus, we are able 
 to see him more nearly as he was. We 
 gain a more accurate historical view of 
 Jesus as we set aside the less trustworthy 
 parts in these documents. This is precisely 
 what historical science does in its treat- 
 ment of all the great characters of the 
 race. The figure of King Alfred gains in 
 historical reality and our appreciation of 
 him increases, as historical students sepa- 
 rate fact from fiction in our sources of 
 information. 
 
 What is true of the first three is equally 
 true of the Fourth Gospel. Indeed, it was 
 written with a more conscious and delib- 
 erate purpose to prove a thesis: That 
 Jesus is the Logos incarnate in the flesh 
 for the redemption of man. When we 
 recognize this dogmatic purpose at work 
 in its pages, and when we understand just 
 what the philosophy of the Logos was, 
 which the writer was imposing upon Jesus, 
 
 76 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 then it is easy to lay our hands upon this 
 and that statement in the Fourth Gospel, 
 and say: This is not a description of 
 Jesus, but only a description of the sincere 
 belief of the author about Jesus. This 
 separation between what is historical fact 
 and what is speculative addition is the 
 object of Gospel Criticism. The Gospel 
 is not discredited by the procedure, but 
 simply better understood. What is done 
 is not destructive but constructive. The 
 result achieved represents a gain rather 
 than a loss. Jesus becomes more real, 
 more lovable, and more helpful, as these 
 obscuring notions about him are put in 
 their proper place. 
 
 But there is a greater gain here than 
 the mere rescuing of the figure of Jesus 
 from the obscuring vestments of Messianic 
 Hope and Logos philosophy, by which he 
 was clothed, and to that extent misrepre- 
 sented. Gospel Criticism shows us how 
 these tendencies worked and what parts 
 of the story as we have it were produced 
 by these forces. But beyond this there is 
 a still more important truth. Jesus was 
 
 77 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 not the Messiah foretold by the Hebrew 
 prophets, but the fact that the disciples 
 believed in him as such is the greatest 
 possible evidence of his spiritual greatness. 
 We cannot accept all that their earnest 
 faith in him as the Messiah came to ascribe 
 to him, but that faith as it shines across 
 the Gospel page is a fact of supreme 
 significance. We can account for it, and 
 for the moral revolution which it produced 
 in their lives, for it lifted them toward 
 what he was, only as we assume the sub- 
 lime magnitude and spirituality of the 
 character of Jesus. 
 
 Here is a flash of light by which Gospel 
 Criticism illuminates the person of Jesus, 
 bringing him into clearer view as a 
 supremely great and inspiring character. 
 Their faith in him as the Messiah demon- 
 strates his messianic proportions. And 
 the quality of that faith, what it enabled 
 them to be and do (all these things stand 
 out clear in the light of history), — reveals 
 the quality and spirit of Jesus, their 
 beloved Master. So that, while Gospel 
 Criticism points here and there and says: 
 
 78 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 These things are legendary additions due 
 to a strong belief in his Messiahship; it 
 does not stop here, but it goes on to show 
 that this very belief and the poetic embel- 
 lishments which it created, prove, not only 
 the greatness of Jesus, but also reveal the 
 quality of his greatness. There must have 
 been something supremely attractive in 
 Jesus or men never would have come to 
 believe in him as the Messiah, especially 
 as he disappointed all the popular and 
 worldly expectations respecting the coming 
 Servant of God. Moreover, their love for 
 him as the Messiah would never have 
 refined and ennobled their own hearts, as 
 we know that it did, had not Jesus himself 
 been a refining and ennobling personality. 
 What is true of the belief in Jesus as 
 the Messiah is also true of the effort of 
 philosophy, as displayed in the Fourth 
 Gospel, to make him the manifestation 
 of the Logos among men. That theory of 
 the Logos cannot be made to harmonize 
 with the real universe as revealed by mod- 
 ern science. We cannot for a moment 
 accept the statement that Jesus was the 
 
 79 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 Logos made flesh. It is perfectly clear 
 that in the Fourth Gospel we have a dog- 
 matic setting of the life of Jesus which is 
 not historical, and which we cannot 
 accept as real. 
 
 But what then! Shall we stop at this 
 conclusion? If we do, we shall miss the 
 chief lesson of Gospel Criticism and the 
 supreme truth of greatest spiritual value 
 to us. And what is that truth? Just this : 
 The fact that philosophers felt impelled 
 to call Jesus the Logos is the very highest 
 tribute to his character. The theory of the 
 Logos implies divine proportions; that 
 men invested Jesus with this theory, proves 
 that to them he seemed to have these divine 
 proportions. When they said: Jesus is 
 that Logos, — they paid him superlative 
 honors. Their theory of the universe may 
 be erroneous, but their act reveals a loving 
 reverence which has great historic value. 
 It does not prove Jesus to be the Logos, 
 but it does reveal and demonstrate the 
 impression that he had made upon the 
 world. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel, is, therefore, of 
 
 80 
 
Jesus and Gospel Criticism 
 
 immense importance, not because it gives 
 us a photographic or phonographic repro- 
 duction of the career and message of 
 Jesus, what it does not do, but because it 
 shows both the magnitude and the quality 
 of his life. The author would not have put 
 Jesus on this high throne of creativeness, 
 had he not found in the story of his life 
 spiritual attributes which made him seem 
 worthy of the part in creation assigned to 
 the Logos. The estimate may have been 
 unwarranted, but it was an estimate which 
 did exist. This is the important contribu- 
 tion of Gospel Criticism: It does not con- 
 firm all the details of the document before 
 us; it decisively attributes some to mere 
 speculation ; but it goes back of the Gospel 
 page to the motive of the author who 
 wrote it; and in this way it finds new and 
 irresistible proof of the spiritual greatness 
 of the Master. 
 
 81 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
TEE SUPREME LOVE OF JE8U8 
 
 This was the greatness of Jesus Christ. Re felt, 
 as no other felt, a union of mind with the human race, 
 felt that all had a spark of that same intellectual and 
 immortal flame which dwelt in him. I insist on this 
 view of his character, not only to encourage us to aspire 
 after a likeness to Jesus, I consider it as peculiarly 
 fitted to call forth love toward him. If I regard Jesus 
 as an august stranger, belonging to an entirely different 
 class of existence from myself, having no common 
 thoughts or feelings with me, and looking down upon 
 me with only such a sympathy as I have with an 
 inferior animal, I should regard him with a vague 
 awe; but the immeasurable space between us would 
 place him beyond friendship and affection. But when 
 I feel that all minds form one family, that I have the 
 same nature with Jesus, and that he came to communi- 
 cate to me, by his teaching, example, and intercession, 
 his own mind, to bring me into communion with what 
 was sublimest, purest, happiest in himself, then I can 
 love him as I love no other being, excepting only him 
 who is the Father alike of Christ and of the Christian. 
 
 William Ellery Channing. 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 During the past few years the scientific 
 investigations of many Biblical scholars 
 have led to the discovery of the true char- 
 acter of the Gospels; and some of these 
 important facts have been stated in the 
 previous chapter. During the next few 
 years a scientific appreciation of these 
 facts will lead us to a clearer understand- 
 ing of the character of Jesus and a more 
 spiritual use of the story of his life. At 
 present there is much neglect of the Gos- 
 pels and much confusion respecting the 
 person and ministry of Jesus. 
 
 These statements may seem strange and 
 untrue to many persons. And in opposi- 
 tion it may be asked: Are not millions 
 of children and young people studying the 
 New Testament literature in our Sunday- 
 schools? Very true. But all thoughtful 
 educators testify that young people are 
 becoming more and more ignorant of the 
 
 85 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 Bible. And even if Scripture is extensive- 
 ly studied, in a way, these conclusions of 
 Gospel Criticism are, unfortunately, gen- 
 erally ignored in the work of religious 
 education. The church is far more willing 
 to accept modern views of the Old Testa- 
 ment than of the New Testament. It is 
 common also to find the minister in the 
 pulpit advocating modern views of the 
 Bible while the Sunday-school of the same 
 church is given over to traditional dogma- 
 tism. Moreover, those who accept these 
 discoveries of Biblical science are very 
 slow to apply them and make the necessary 
 reconstruction of religious thought, espec- 
 ially in the training of the young. 
 
 As long as this condition lasts the new 
 interest in Jesus will not appear. And 
 deep, vital interest in Jesus is far less 
 common than many suppose. It will not 
 grow into a commanding enthusiasm until 
 the church takes a more scientific attitude 
 toward the Gospels. Not until a more 
 rational attitude is taken toward Jesus. 
 Then a rebirth of Christianity will come. 
 There are some hopeful signs which indi- 
 cate the approach of this great event! 
 
 86 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 We may therefore confidently expect 
 that in time, we shall reinterpret the 
 evangelical material and reapply it to 
 human life. We shall find new instruction 
 in that material and new inspiration in 
 the life of Jesus. It is certain that Jesus 
 will not fade from history nor will he cease 
 to influence the world; but he will become 
 historical in a new and grander sense, 
 while his influence will become more per- 
 sonal and more ethical. 
 
 Let us briefly consider the direction and 
 method of that progress in religious 
 thought which will issue from a new inter- 
 pretation of the Gospels. We may well 
 begin with a reference to the " cures' ' re- 
 ported to have been performed by Jesus. 
 The one fact which shines through all the 
 pages of the Gospels is this, the curative 
 influence of Jesus ; this fact is fundamental 
 in these records. However criticism may 
 cast doubt upon the accounts of particular 
 "miracles of healing ;" whatever position 
 we may take under the leadership of science 
 in opposition to ' ' supernatural cures, ' ' still 
 it is evident that Jesus did exercise a 
 
 87 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 wonderful healing power upon persons sick 
 in hody and morbid in mind. It is not 
 strange that he should have done this. It 
 is just what we might expect. When we 
 call to mind what constantly happens about 
 us; when we consider the mechanism and 
 relation of body and soul; and when we 
 remember what peculiar conditions then 
 existed, it is entirely rational to assume 
 that a great spiritual genius would work 
 cures upon the sick people about him. 
 
 The Gospels do not enable us to tell just 
 what did really happen in certain cases, — 
 the original fact is beyond recovery, for 
 the record is, in many instances, very brief 
 and imperfect, while the enlargement of 
 legend often obscures the actual occur- 
 rence. But an immense personality shines 
 through, even if the incidents are dim. The 
 effects produced, however enlarged by 
 legend, report and reveal a great character. 
 And the moral quality of that character 
 is more evident than the details of the 
 cures. The ethical superiority is revealed 
 in the restraint which Jesus put upon these 
 "powers" which he possessed. He did not 
 
 88 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 use them to secure compensation, to obtain 
 notoriety, to enforce his claims, to give 
 authority to his message, or to win dis- 
 ciples. ' ' Go tell no man, ' ' was his frequent 
 command. He also seemed to understand 
 that the curative influence was as much 
 in the psychic condition, in the expectancy 
 of the patient, as in himself, for he said 
 to the woman : " Thy faith (not my power) 
 hath made thee whole." 
 
 The general conclusion which we reach 
 is this: We to-day admit frankly that we 
 cannot tell just what actually happened in 
 many of these cases, and what seems 
 miraculous is evidently due to legend or 
 would be easily explained if we had a 
 complete account. And yet, the facts all 
 point to a character of supreme sanity and 
 vast spiritual nobility. 
 
 One needs a clear eye and a firm hand 
 in order wisely to treat this difficult and 
 delicate subject. It is easy to overlook the 
 central truth and miss the spiritual inspira- 
 tion. The dogmatist aggressively contends 
 for the supernaturalism apparently re- 
 corded in these accounts, seeing nothing 
 
 89 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 of the character shining through and 
 alienating all men of scientific spirit who 
 listen. On the other hand, it is easy to say 
 that Jesus was merely another healer. But 
 this view stops short with one of the minor 
 incidents of his career upon which he him- 
 self laid no emphasis. If he had been just 
 this and nothing more, no great spiritual 
 movement would have flowed from his 
 word and work. If this had been all, he 
 would have been the sensation of the day. 
 He would not have been the Master of the 
 ages. 
 
 Some dismiss the problem by saying: 
 These are only legends to which sensible 
 men need give no attention. But the halo 
 in the sky means a great sun beyond. 
 Legendary accounts? Yes to some extent. 
 But such poetry only concerns itself with 
 very great personages. Moreover, the 
 ethical spirit working in the legend reveals 
 the sublime character behind. So that if 
 rightly handled these stories of healing, 
 historical after all in a very real sense, 
 demonstrate the magnitude and quality of 
 Jesus 's manhood, although they do not, 
 
 90 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 with fulness or accuracy, narrate the pre- 
 cise incidents of his life. 
 
 The attitude of Jesus to the Messianic 
 Hope illustrates the same important truth. 
 This Hope was, in his day, a varied, fluct- 
 uating, but ardent political passion with 
 marked religious elements. It was the 
 Time-Spirit of the Jews of that age. It is 
 always true that a man to become an 
 inspiring leader must be the oracle or agent 
 of a powerful popular sentiment. It is 
 some such widespread enthusiasm that is 
 the throne from which he exercises author- 
 ity. Whoever should be able to impress 
 and liberate the Jews in that age would 
 have to relate himself to this ideal and 
 utilize the power at work in the hearts of 
 the people under the banner of this great 
 expectation. 
 
 A great man could no more arise and 
 labor successfully in Palestine two thou- 
 sand years ago and ignore the Messianic 
 Hope than could a Lincoln ignore the anti- 
 slavery sentiment of his day. In both cases 
 the overmastering popular sentiment pro- 
 vided the platform on which to stand and 
 
 91 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 the motive power hy which to conquer. 
 It was inevitable that Jesus should asso- 
 ciate himself with the popular desire for 
 a Deliverer. That he felt himself to be the 
 Messiah of Israel is evident. We frankly 
 acknowledge that we cannot trace the 
 origin and growth of this conviction in his 
 mind. We cannot explain all that he meant 
 by the term or describe all that he believed 
 about himself in this connection. The 
 modern scholar cannot indulge, like his 
 predecessors, in definite assertions and 
 precise descriptions at this point. The 
 records are so imperfect that great uncer- 
 tainty will always surround the matter. 
 
 But about one thing — and that is the one 
 thing of most importance — there is no 
 uncertainty : Jesus reinterpreted the Mes- 
 sianic Hope, and gave it a supremely ethical 
 character. He touched what was a tempo- 
 rary political passion, and it became a 
 permanent spiritual influence. He had the 
 genius and ability to lay hold of this 
 popular sentiment, and reshape, refine, and 
 reapply it. He claimed to be the Messiah, 
 but in a new: and higher sense. He purified 
 
 92 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 the Hope and gave it a spiritual quality 
 and a universal application. He did not 
 fulfill the old Hebrew predictions — (about 
 which great misconceptions still survive in 
 the popular mind) ; he transcended them, 
 being a Messiah after a new and original 
 pattern. 
 
 The divinity of Jesus is not to be proved, 
 after the fashion of the old apologists, by 
 showing that he was just what Isaiah and 
 the other Hebrew prophets had foretold 
 respecting a future Messiah. His real 
 divinity is revealed in the fact that he was 
 vastly superior to the ancient ideals. He 
 said in substance: "I am your Messiah, 
 not to drive out the Eomans from the land, 
 but to drive out sins from your hearts; 
 not to establish a political organization, but 
 to spread abroad a new spirit of life; not 
 to subjugate your enemies, but to teach the 
 forgiveness of enemies; not to enable you 
 to rule, but to teach you to serve. I am 
 the Messiah, but my mission is to show 
 you by my own death how to save your life 
 by losing it! I bring you a cross, not a 
 sceptre; a yoke to bear, not a throne to 
 
 93 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 occupy. I come to establish an eternal 
 kingdom of love." However scant and 
 imperfect the records, this doctrine of 
 Jesus respecting his mission is perfectly 
 clear and historical, and just this is all that 
 is really valuable and essential. 
 
 The important contribution of Gospel 
 Criticism to vital Christianity lies in the 
 fact that it makes us surer than ever before 
 of the great central truth just stated, while 
 it relieves us at the same time of many 
 perplexities inherent in the old view of 
 verbal infallibility. We cease to care for 
 accuracy of mere details, because we hold 
 firmly in hand the supreme moral excel- 
 lence of Jesus. 
 
 Moreover, if it be true that Jesus really 
 expected to return in a short time after his 
 death to set up a new and holy form of 
 society, his mistake about this matter does 
 not discredit his moral teaching. The ethics 
 of Plato are not discredited by his erro- 
 neous views about the solar system. The 
 Gospels fail to make entirely clear Jesus 's 
 position at this point, but it is clear 
 that he did not lose his hold, whatever his 
 
 94 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 opinion on this subject may have been, 
 upon the great central truths of the 
 spiritual life. His authority respecting 
 the cosmos may fade, but his authority 
 respecting the primacy of love does not 
 lessen ! 
 
 The world is fortunately growing into a 
 keener appreciation of the intellectual 
 greatness of Jesus. But here, as elsewhere, 
 there is great uncertainty respecting some 
 matters, together with a certainty equally 
 great respecting others. How Jesus 
 obtained his education, how much Jewish 
 "learning' ' he possessed, whether he really 
 held the popular views of his time about 
 disease and demoniacal possession, — on 
 these and other similar subjects it is im- 
 possible to reach any clear and positive 
 conclusions. 
 
 There is, however, abundant evidence 
 to show that Jesus was a man of remark- 
 able mental powers. He certainly knew 
 the Hebrew Scriptures thoroughly. He 
 could not only quote the Old Testament 
 freely, but he could use its texts with great 
 insight and independence. His method of 
 
 95 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 handling Scripture was masterful. He was 
 familiar with its words, but he was a free 
 interpreter of them; reverent toward its 
 teachings, but no slave to its texts; never 
 indulging in fanciful allegory and never 
 resorting to mere verbal dogmatism; find- 
 ing in these writings illustration and inspi- 
 ration, but never allowing them to over- 
 master his own reason and conscience. 
 
 With the genius of a poet and the insight 
 of a philosopher, Jesus distinguished be- 
 tween kernel and husk in the precepts of 
 the Law and the pleadings of the Prophets ; 
 and by an interpretation all his own, he set 
 forth with beauty and power the essential 
 spiritual truths of Scripture. His vast 
 superiority as an interpreter, his intel- 
 lectual greatness as a teacher, are convinc- 
 ingly shown when we turn from him to the 
 work of the rabbis as seen in the Talmud; 
 or even to the labored arguments of the 
 Apostle Paul. 
 
 The freedom with which Jesus moved 
 among men and handled deep and difficult 
 subjects, his surprising readiness on all 
 occasions, and his mastery of every prob- 
 
 96 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 lem of practical ethics presented, — all these 
 things reveal an acuteness and comprehen- 
 siveness of thought to which the world as 
 yet has given but inadequate recognition. 
 He illustrates independence without singu- 
 larity, force without arrogance, originality 
 without exaggeration, capacity of defense 
 without petulence, a popular gift free from 
 artifice. He moves among enemies without 
 fear, and handles difficulties without effort 
 as one conscious of abundant strength. 
 He holds an even balance in conduct and 
 teaching, as only a giant can do ; unworldly 
 but not an ascetic; a lightning flash that 
 withers sin, and a boundless sympathy that 
 wins sinners; an undying enthusiasm, but 
 never running to waste in foolish and 
 visionary enterprise. 
 
 The intellectual greatness of Jesus is 
 also clearly seen in two sets of circum- 
 stances. (1) The way in which he meets 
 his enemies; the quick penetration to the 
 working of their minds, the clear compre- 
 hension of the problem at issue, the firm 
 grasp upon the whole situation before him ; 
 the rapidity of decision respecting his own 
 
 97 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 defense, the effective popular quality of his 
 treatment of the matter in dispute, the high 
 level upon which he always plants himself. 
 
 (2) Jesus was equally remarkable in 
 another direction. The casual remarks 
 which he dropped on apparently trivial 
 occasions, he made so weighty with the 
 wisdom of life that they remain influential 
 guides to conduct. Taken all in all, we 
 to-day can find or make no better rules of 
 life than those described in his teachings. 
 He laid hold of the universal element in the 
 passing incident. What he said to the rich 
 young man: "One thing thou lackest," 
 and to the accusers of the wayward woman : 
 "He that is without sin let him cast the 
 first stone ;" his reference to the children, 
 and to the widow and her offering — these 
 illustrate his wonderful superiority in this 
 respect. Here we deal with transcendent 
 intellectual ability as well as remarkable 
 moral insight. 
 
 We have in the Gospels some two hundred 
 "sayings," and about twenty-five " para- 
 bles.' ' Gospel Criticism shows us that, in 
 all probability, some of these teachings 
 
 ,98. 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 have undergone certain modifications, and 
 a few have been so changed that the 
 thought of Jesus is probably obscured or 
 lost. In the process of oral transmission 
 and editorial revision some misunderstand- 
 ings naturally arose. But the record is 
 undoubtedly substantially accurate. 
 
 The significant fact is that we have this 
 large body of teachings at all. It is often 
 said, in a tone that implies discredit or 
 uncertainty : Jesus himself wrote nothing. 
 Very true ; he wrote nothing on parchment. 
 But to have done that would have been an 
 easy matter. What he did accomplish was 
 vastly greater and incomparably more 
 significant. He impressed these spiritual 
 truths so powerfully upon the hearts of 
 
 men that they fixed themselves there as 
 seeds of life. It is easy enough simply to 
 say things, but to say things so that people 
 make our words a rule of life, — that is the 
 evidence and test of greatness. The say- 
 ings set forth by Jesus were indeed seeds 
 of life, so vital with truth, and planted with 
 such dynamic power in the hearts of 
 people, that they became authoritative com- 
 
 99 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 mandments. They not only stuck in mem- 
 ory, they became sources of a new life. 
 
 Here is the remarkable fact: That his 
 teachings touch the centers of life and 
 remain there with permanent regenerative 
 power. They were treasured by people in 
 their hearts as a precious and persuasive 
 guide to conduct. Jesus put them into the 
 human soul in such a way that the hearers 
 said : This is what I must be ! Each word 
 has been a storage battery of inexhaustible 
 spiritual vitality. This could be possible 
 only as these teachings were set forth by 
 a transcendent personality. They were 
 first lived out in the lives of his disciples 
 and then written out in the Gospels. They 
 do not make clear the incidents of his daily 
 life, but they do make clear the quality and 
 spirit and power of that life. 
 
 If anyone doubts the truth of this argu- 
 ment, let him go out some morning and see 
 if he can say one word to his friends that 
 will be so strong, so pure, so noble, that 
 they will enshrine it in their hearts and 
 make it a rule of life ! He will soon realize 
 the difficulty of saying anything that will 
 
 100 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 even be remembered, much less put into 
 life. 
 
 The arrow deeply imbedded in the forest 
 tree proves the strength of the arm which 
 drew the bow that put it there. So the 
 many sayings of Jesus, imbedded in the 
 hearts of men and abiding there as ideals 
 and motives of life, prove the vast spiritual 
 power of the teacher who spoke them. 
 They were, indeed, like winged arrows 
 dipped in love, flying forth from a heart 
 of love, and piercing other hearts to make 
 them loving. 
 
 The French voyageurs who first ascended 
 the St. Lawrence River had a remarkably 
 interesting experience. The unbroken 
 forest came down to the water's edge on 
 both sides. Every stroke of their oars 
 carried them near to dangerous rocks 
 hidden in the stream or to more dangerous 
 savages lurking in the underbrush. Every 
 mile laboriously gained against the swift 
 current opened before them a new land- 
 scape. What charm of discovery! What 
 excitement of constant peril ! What allur- 
 ing prospects far ahead ! What fascinating 
 
 101 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 anticipation respecting the unexplored 
 regions at the head waters of the mighty 
 River ! 
 
 And yet, though their eyes had not seen 
 that country and no satisfactory descrip- 
 tion of it had been given them, they could 
 be sure of some of its important features 
 and characteristics. There must be a far- 
 spread watershed to make such a river 
 possible. It must be forest-clad because 
 the water was clear and fresh. There must 
 be a great lake, or several lakes, to serve 
 as equalizing reservoirs, because the banks 
 indicated little variation in the volume of 
 the stream. All this and more was perfect- 
 ly evident. 
 
 If we locate ourselves anywhere in the 
 old Roman empire during the second quar- 
 ter of the second century, we shall realize 
 that a spiritual stream is sweeping past 
 us. It runs through the home and puri- 
 fies and blesses it, by bringing parents 
 into nobler relations with each other and 
 children under a tender watch-care. It 
 runs through the neighborhood, and human 
 lives are knit together in a new brother- 
 
 102 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 hood of service. It runs through the 
 market place, and buyer and seller treat 
 each other with new consideration. It runs 
 through the temples of the old gods, and 
 it sweeps people away from the bloody 
 altars ; they drop their sacrifices and group 
 themselves in a new worship, where men 
 and women, bound in the bonds of a com- 
 mon love, praise a Father who is love. It 
 runs through shop and field, and leads to 
 a new conduct between master and slave. 
 It runs through the great company gath- 
 ered to witness the cruelties of the arena, 
 and here and there men rise up and go 
 out, vowing never again to look upon such 
 a brutal show. It runs through the schools 
 of the philosophers, and speculation cen- 
 ters on a new object and gives a more 
 spiritual interpretation to the universe. 
 Wherever it runs through human hearts, 
 it emancipates from selfishness and enrich- 
 es with holier ideals and brighter hopes. 
 The stream is there in the clear light 
 of history; a powerful and purifying cur- 
 rent. It is a tidal wave of personal influ- 
 ence. Other such streams have swept 
 
 103 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 through human society, but this is pecu- 
 liarly powerful and regenerative. Not 
 everything in it comes from Jesus of Naz- 
 areth; tributaries have flowed in by the 
 way. But Jesus really created the current, 
 he gave it momentum and character. 
 
 We may set aside the Gospels, and yet 
 the wide spread and wonderful phenome- 
 non here described is itself enough to con- 
 vince us that back there in Galilee a 
 supreme life was lived that stirred men 
 with love and hope as no one else has done. 
 
 Just as the explorers of the St. Lawrence 
 river could be absolutely sure of many 
 features of the inland region, so we may 
 be absolutely sure of the spiritual quality 
 and vast personality of Jesus from the 
 vital currents at work in that old world 
 and associated with his name. While some 
 details of the life story have become in 
 recent years less certain, Jesus himself 
 becomes really more historical than ever 
 before. Though less sure of some incidents 
 of the story, we are a hundredfold more 
 sure of the ethical quality and spiritual 
 grandeur of his character. Any scientific 
 
 104 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 explanation of the facts necessitates this 
 conclusion. And this is the only vital con- 
 cern of religion. 
 
 But here an objection is raised by some 
 persons to the views just presented. We 
 are told, by many earnest but conservative 
 people, that the merely Historical Jesus 
 is too vague and distant a figure to give 
 mankind the spiritual help that is needed. 
 These persons admit that it is well to pay 
 some attention to the facts of his human 
 career and to trace his influence in history 
 as a great character; but this alone is not 
 sufficient. They insist that religion must 
 have a Celestial Christ, not only as a per- 
 sonal friend who is constantly present to 
 guide, inspire, and comfort, but as a media- 
 tor who supernaturally and instantaneous- 
 ly rescues the sinner from damnation and 
 opens before him the door of heaven. The 
 Jesus of Gospel Criticism, however inter- 
 esting as a human being, is nevertheless a 
 mere man; and as a mere man he can never 
 redeem a sinful world. The Historical 
 Jesus is, they contend, a shadowy figure, 
 who cannot stir the heart to repentance or 
 
 105 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 equip the soul with saving faith. To ignore 
 the celestial ministry of Jesus in mediat- 
 ing between offended Justice and fallen 
 man, to leave out the sacrificial element, 
 is to rob the story of Christ of all redemp- 
 tive power. 
 
 The sacrificial interpretation of Jesus 's 
 life, has, indeed, occupied a prominent 
 place in Christian theology. The thoughts 
 of many even now never go beyond "the 
 sacrificial Christ." That the Son of God 
 should come down from heaven and die to 
 rescue sinners from eternal misery, that 
 he should suffer infinite agony on the cross 
 "to enable God to be just and justify the 
 ungodly," this is certainly a story that 
 appeals powerfully to human hearts. This 
 doctrine of the cross, from one point of 
 view flashes with the wrath of God and 
 strikes terror to the hearts of sinners, but 
 from the other side it shines with infinite 
 pity and opens to terrified sinners a 
 glorious highway into heaven. 
 
 The attractiveness of this doctrine to 
 many minds is evident. But earnest souls 
 are asking: Is this the story of Jesus 
 
 106 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 which the Gospels actually tell when illumi- 
 nated by the discoveries of modern scholar- 
 ship? Is this the view of Jesus that fits 
 into the universe that science reveals! Is 
 this the thought of Jesus that brings him 
 most powerfully into human life as a 
 creative ethical influence! In fact, is this 
 the true appreciation of the actual Jesus 
 in the light of the discoveries made respect- 
 ing Nature and the Gospels? These deep 
 questions are now up for discussion. They 
 must be treated with tender reverence, 
 perfect sincerity, and scientific precision. 
 
 It goes without saying that our apprecia- 
 tion of Jesus must conform to the facts of 
 the universe ; for these are more authorita- 
 tive than statements in the Gospels. It is 
 not too much to say that this sacrificial 
 interpretation of Jesus implies views of 
 nature and humanity which are unthinkable 
 by a mind informed and trained in modern 
 science. We cannot fit such a picture of 
 Jesus into the cosmos which science re- 
 veals. The processes of human evolution, 
 the methods of history, the laws of psychol- 
 ogy stand squarely against the traditional 
 
 107 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 dogma. The wrath of God, the eternity 
 of punishment, the transfer of guilt and 
 merit, the efficacy of faith to remove the 
 consequences of sin, the necessity of pro- 
 pitiating God, the escape from the penal- 
 ties of wrong doing under cover of the 
 merits of another, — nothing could be more 
 foreign to cosmic order or more contrary 
 to ethical law, as now understood, than 
 these assumptions, which are central in the 
 traditional, or sacrificial interpretation of 
 Jesus. 
 
 But the chief objection to the sacrificial 
 interpretation of Jesus 's life comes from 
 the direction of Biblical scholarship. The 
 traditional doctrine is not an appreciation 
 of Jesus based upon the language of the 
 Gospels. The more fully we understand 
 the facts to which attention has just been 
 drawn, the more we are impressed with 
 the genuine but exalted humanity of Jesus : 
 his real sympathy and tenderness; his 
 actual reverence and prayerf ulness ; his 
 moral and intellectual power, his strength 
 and nobility of will; his clear spiritual 
 insight; his immense and gracious person- 
 
 108 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 ality which made it possible for him to heal 
 and to inspire the people about him. It 
 was his exalted humanity that enabled him 
 to become a vast historical influence. 
 
 When we leave the plain facts of the 
 Gospels for a celestial court with its trans- 
 fer of merit, we cease to walk in Galilee 
 with Jesus. The Son of Man as the sublime 
 person to love and emulate vanishes when 
 we begin to think of the Assize in the sky 
 where sinners who simply believe certain 
 things about him are released from endless 
 torment. An appreciation of the Histor- 
 ical Jesus must not depart from the facts 
 of the Gospels; and only the Historical 
 Jesus can have a place in the universe of 
 God that science discloses. 
 
 But more than this: Our appreciation 
 of Jesus must certainly honor his own 
 teachings. And those teachings all 
 point in one direction: away from 
 the sacrificial and toward an ethical 
 interpretation of life. Make the tour of 
 the parables : Everywhere the assumption 
 of God's immediate, constant, and univer- 
 sal providence of love. No mediator be- 
 
 109 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 tween father and prodigal son; the Good 
 King welcomes and blesses the servants of 
 love for what they had done, not for what 
 they had believed. Pass down the glowing 
 line of the Beatitudes; all blessings upon 
 personal righteousness, without any refer- 
 ence to himself. The Golden Rule a guide 
 to personal conduct, not a measure of theo- 
 logical opinion. The forgiveness of God 
 always issuing from the forgiving spirit 
 which man himself exercises : forgiven not 
 because we believe in him but because we 
 are ourselves forgiving. The Fatherhood 
 of God as inclusive, immediate, and impar- 
 tial as the sunlight: no place there for 
 sacrificial mediation. The way of salvation 
 the appropriation, not the propitiation, of 
 God. Destiny shaped by Inner Life. These 
 are the doctrines of Jesus: they are also 
 spiritual doctrines in harmony with the 
 latest and best science. They are doctrines 
 that the psychologist approves and the 
 educator puts in practice. If we are to 
 appreciate the Historical Jesus, we must 
 not wander off into speculative mysticism, 
 but keep close to these great facts that con- 
 stitute his message and create his influence. 
 
 110 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 Is it true that to leave out the sacrificial 
 element is to destroy the power and beauty 
 of the gospel of Jesus'? Let us see. Is 
 there any sacrificial element in the parable 
 of the Samaritan? Certainly not! And 
 yet it has power and beauty. Is there any 
 sacrificial element in the parable of the 
 Prodigal ! Certainly not ! And yet it has 
 power and beauty. Is there any sacrificial 
 element in the parables of the Talents, the 
 Leaven, the Lost Sheep? Certainly not! 
 And yet they have power and beauty. The 
 command of Jesus to the rich young man, 
 seeking the way to eternal life, contains no 
 sacrificial element; but it has had marvel- 
 ous influence upon human life. The re- 
 mark of Jesus to the degraded woman — 
 ' ' Go and sin no more, ' ' — has no sacrificial 
 element; but it has had great authority 
 over human hearts. Shall we then leave 
 out the sacrificial element from the gospel 
 of Jesus? No, indeed! We only need to 
 keep it out, for it is not in the teaching 
 of Jesus. His life was a supreme illustra- 
 tion of the spirit of self-sacrifice, — living 
 to bless others ; but of sacrifice as a judicial 
 
 111 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 and supernatural arrangement to satisfy 
 the wrath of God and enable sinners to 
 escape punishment: of this there is noth- 
 ing in his great and authentic teachings. 
 
 Now, what shall we reply to those who 
 press the objection that the Historical 
 Jesus has no power to move, chasten, and 
 enrich the common human heart? This 
 demand for heart-life, and for a view of 
 Jesus that will increase our heart-life, is 
 sound and reasonable. But is it true that 
 the new appreciation of Jesus leaves us 
 cold and lifeless f Is it true that there are 
 no sources of emotional power except in 
 the traditional view of the cross? Is it 
 true that sinners can only be brought to 
 repentance by the story of vicarious suf- 
 ferings ? 
 
 This is our reply to these very important 
 questions. It is certainly reasonable to 
 hold that what was sufficient for Jesus him- 
 self as means and methods of piety is also 
 adequate for us. Jesus found inspiration, 
 comfort, courage, hope, and trust, sufficient 
 for his sublime life, by going directly to 
 God, the Father. May we not do the same?, 
 
 112 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 If this was all that he needed to do, need 
 we do any more? Moreover, Jesus asked 
 men to do nothing more ; these sources of 
 life within the soul, to which he resorted, 
 are those which he commended to us as 
 sufficient ; he described no others ! 
 
 The heart of Jesus was adequately 
 equipped for all his great tasks by immedi- 
 ate communion with God. Surely what 
 was sufficient for him is sufficient for us. 
 And it was to this spiritual communion 
 with God that he commanded all men to 
 resort. His was not a cold or feeble piety : 
 its sources in God are open to us; and to 
 them he asked us to go. Jesus brought 
 sinners to repentance, not by telling the 
 story of vicarious suffering but by appeals 
 to their hearts in terms of human experi- 
 ence. When he commanded: "Follow 
 me," he certainly meant that we use his 
 method in dealing with sinners. 
 
 Jesus nourished his love by direct resort 
 to the Infinite Love. It was his plea that 
 we do the same. What prepared him for 
 his wonderful life of love ought to be suf- 
 ficient for us. We need not feel poor, 
 
 113 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 lonely, or helpless, when, according to his 
 teachings, all the spiritual riches and re- 
 sources to which he had access, are also 
 ours! This is just what obedience to the 
 spirit of Jesus means; and this is the heart 
 of Christianity. 
 
 We need not fear that this new apprecia- 
 tion of the Historical Jesus will leave our 
 hearts cold and our hands powerless. 
 Hearts cold, when we can go in his foot- 
 steps directly to God? Nothing left to 
 inspire or to comfort us ! Do we not have 
 God, whom Jesus called his Father and 
 our Father! The Divine Love not only 
 remains, but it remains undimmed by the 
 shadow of Hate and the smoke of Torment. 
 We trace it in the story of Jesus; but 
 wider also in the evolution of humanity. 
 An immediate love of the immanent God 
 to share and to spread. 
 
 The new appreciation of the Historical 
 Jesus, does not leave him without power 
 and man without motive. It brings Jesus 
 close to us to rebuke our sin, to heal our 
 wounds, to strengthen us against tempta- 
 tion, to move us to service. We have no 
 
 114 
 
A New Appreciation of Jesus 
 
 4 * dead Christ," but a real Heart of Love, 
 who shows us the open way to the 
 Heart of God. We most truly appre- 
 ciate Jesus when we make the spirit 
 and method of his life the spirit and 
 method of our own life. Only in this way 
 can he be most historical and also most 
 helpful to us. 
 
 115 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS 
 
 It is the singleness of this "life in God" that gave 
 its uniqueness to the personality of Jesus; referring 
 hack all his experiences to the infinitely Perfect, all his 
 sorrows to the eternal blessedness, all his disappoint- 
 ments to the living Fountain of hope. The deluding 
 impressions of a drudging and suffering world were 
 habitually checked and transcended by a recovered 
 contact with the one and only Good. 
 
 In completely realizing the filial relation to God, 
 he at once glorified the dependent, obedient, suffering life 
 which is assigned to us; and rose to the height of that 
 divine kinship which makes the affections of heaven 
 and earth reciprocal, and identifies the essence of moral 
 perfection in both spheres. The Man of Sorrows is 
 our personal exemplar; the Son of God is our spiritual 
 ideal, in whose harmonious and majestic soul, imper- 
 turbable in justice, tender in mercy, stainless in purity, 
 and bending in protection over all guileless truth, an 
 objective reflection of the Divine holiness is given us, 
 answering and interpreting the subjective revelation 
 of the conscience. 
 
 James Martineau. 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 As we look back through the mists of the 
 centuries to that distant time when there 
 were no crosses glittering above city or 
 hamlet, when Eome ruled the world by her 
 legions and not, as since, by her priests, 
 we see in Nazareth, a little village nestling 
 among the hills of Galilee, a young man, 
 whose radiant presence, sweet, strong 
 words, and noble deeds have made all those 
 by-paths and hill-tops forever dear and 
 sacred to mankind. Clad in the garments 
 of a peasant, Jesus goes to his humble 
 labor in the simple, earnest manner of a 
 common workman. His morning greeting 
 is as quiet and human as that of any fel- 
 low-toiler. But in his deep, penetrating 
 mind great thoughts are crystallizing; in 
 his pure, fresh heart great aspirations are 
 growing. 
 
 When we see Jesus standing on the 
 threshold of his wonderful career, and 
 
 119 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 remember what he said and what he did 
 in that short ministry that changed the 
 course of history and transformed the 
 quality of human life, we may well exclaim : 
 Would that we were able to lift the veil 
 so that we might trace the evolution of 
 his soul! Would that we might discover 
 the processes by which his character grew : 
 How his mind was trained; how his heart 
 was cultivated; how he reached the 
 supreme excellencies of his manhood and 
 the sublime principles of his gospel. What 
 a satisfaction it would be, if we could look 
 into the home that sheltered him and 
 become acquainted with the family that 
 nurtured him ! 
 
 While we cannot penetrate these myster- 
 ies, still we may be sure that his was not 
 a squalid or a wretched home, but the realm 
 of eloquent peace and noble simplicity, 
 where the divine influence impinged forci- 
 bly yet graciously upon the human spirit, 
 A humble, obscure family, and yet, all the 
 essentials of human life were there. The 
 field was broad enough for training in 
 patience, and for the development of 
 
 120 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 virtue; ample enough for the display of 
 pride and indolence. Great holiness or 
 hideous vice is often sheltered by a very 
 small roof. The dwellers in such cottages 
 have to decide between thrift and idleness, 
 between self-control and passion, between 
 chastity and sensuality; and to make the 
 right decision is that which constitutes real 
 greatness and true nobility, there and also 
 everywhere. Temptations bear down with 
 just as fierce onsets in such places as in 
 palaces, and the disciplines of love and 
 sorrow carve out just as beautiful features 
 and heroic characters there as in high 
 official stations. Providence, like the 
 atmosphere, rests with equal pressure upon 
 the hut and the mansion. All the elements 
 of the moral economy were present in that 
 artisan family of Nazareth town. 
 
 But our supreme interest is not in that 
 obscure house nor in the glowing horizon 
 that frames it round about. The facts and 
 fancies out of which our gladness and 
 inspiration are woven when we think of 
 the "Christ child, " radiate about a divinely 
 human figure. Going in and out of the 
 
 121 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 doorway, and carrying tender words and 
 sweet smiles to and fro between Joseph 
 and Mary, is the child Jesus — a child 
 nourished by a love, which, surely, was far 
 greater than that which children in general 
 have known. Every day's unfolding life 
 was closed with the music of a mother's 
 tenderness ; every morning was ushered in 
 with the caresses of a father's watch-care. 
 The hand of violence was never laid upon 
 his tender body; the eye of angry passion 
 was never turned upon his sensitive soul 
 to create tears and heartaches. 
 
 More than this, it seems evident from the 
 quality of his own life, that Jesus never 
 heard an unkind word pass between his 
 father and mother. He saw neither frowns, 
 nor strife, nor bitterness, but mutual affec- 
 tion and helpfulness — a true home, which 
 is man's paradise and woman's kingdom. 
 So that, folded in the arms of an abundant 
 love, Jesus passed his early days amidst 
 a domestic peace, unbroken by discords; 
 and he grew to manhood, unscarred by the 
 sight of hatred and unburdened by the 
 sense of fear, so far as his own family 
 experience was concerned. 
 
 122 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 But with older years Jesus went about 
 the village, meeting other children and 
 seeing other homes. In this way he learned 
 what fear is, what sorrow is, and what 
 anger is. He saw homes in which faces 
 were dark with frowns and eyes were full 
 of tears. Budding reflection called atten- 
 tion to the great difference between his own 
 home and those other homes; between his 
 parents and their neighbors; between his 
 lot aud the sad fortunes of other children. 
 He could not help asking the question: 
 Why these differences ! In our family such 
 unbroken joy, in the neighboring families 
 so many angry turmoils ; in my heart such 
 undisturbed peace, in these playmates so 
 many fears and hatreds. Why these dif- 
 ferences 1 
 
 How long the study, we cannot tell ; but 
 that Jesus discovered the true cause we 
 know. By his personal experience, he found 
 that love made all these immense differ- 
 ences. There was joy in his heart and 
 home, because love was there supreme. 
 Those neighboring homes were dark and 
 sorrowful, because destitute of love. And 
 
 123 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 never did any son of man make a greater 
 discovery than when Jesus learned by 
 actual experience the divine power of love, 
 which is also the secret of holiness— a dis- 
 covery more useful to human life than 
 anything revealed by telescope or micro- 
 scope : 
 
 "For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, 
 And hope and fear, — believe the aged friend, — 
 Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love, 
 How love might be, hath been, indeed, and is, 
 And that we hold thenceforth to the uttermost 
 Such prize despite the envy of the world, 
 And, having gained truth, keep truth — that is all!'* 
 
 In after years, when Jesus became a 
 great prophet, this experience of his child- 
 hood uttered itself in that wonderful gos- 
 pel of love, which has had such remarkable 
 power over human hearts and human his- 
 tory. He learned in the sacred realm of 
 his own home from Joseph and Mary that 
 love is the principal thing. There he dis- 
 covered that society may and must be 
 reorganized by love and self-sacrifice ; for 
 that which is the true spirit for the family 
 is also the beneficent policy for the state. 
 
 124 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 When he began to unfold his ideal respect- 
 ing the kingdom of heaven, he showed peo- 
 ple that only a pure, authoritative love can 
 create it. In discovering by experience the 
 power and office of this imperial sentiment, 
 Jesus solved the problem of human life. 
 It only remains for science to lend the 
 assistance of truth, and for education to 
 incarnate and organize both in personal 
 character and civic affairs. The tender 
 affection which he felt in the stone cottage 
 of Nazareth town disclosed itself after- 
 wards in the Beatitudes and the Golden 
 Rule, and these are still the seeds of the 
 heavenly life. 
 
 May we not also reasonably infer that 
 in company with brothers and sisters, 
 Jesus discovered the mysteries and glories 
 of child-nature. He watched with wonder- 
 ing eyes the processes by which the soul 
 is unfolded and built up in strength and 
 beauty. He saw how the infinite Father 
 has planted a witness of himself in the 
 conscience. He saw how character is 
 unfolded from within. He saw that the 
 method of the divine life is growth; a 
 
 125 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 truth to which he gave wings in his para- 
 bles of the mustard seed, the leaven, and 
 the growth of the corn. He learned 
 through those early experiences to appre- 
 ciate the child, to understand the essential 
 goodness of the child's nature, to trace 
 the large outline of its possibilities, to see 
 its imperative need of loving nurture. And 
 out of these experiences issued, later in 
 life, that memorable saying, which has 
 helped us all toward simplicity of heart 
 and tenderness of spirit, and which has 
 made the world a better place for children 
 ever since: "Whosoever shall not receive 
 the kingdom of heaven as a little child 
 shall in no wise enter therein; for of such 
 is the kingdom of God. ' • 
 
 Therefore, we may well imagine, that 
 in years now long past, in the humble 
 home in Nazareth town, the boy Jesus 
 grew to that sweet, strong, manhood, which 
 has powerfully inspired and nobly enriched 
 all hearts and lives through the many 
 centuries since his day. Thus it was that 
 he learned to crown childhood itself with 
 an act so gracious that all children have 
 
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The Master of Inner Life 
 
 seemed more precious ever since ; while the 
 kingdom of heaven, set forth in those 
 symbols of innocence and simplicity, has 
 had a new meaning. For he extended the 
 affectionate sanctity which the child feels 
 for the home to field and sky, which he 
 made the mansion of the heavenly Father ; 
 and the love, trust and obedience, which 
 mark the perfect child, he made the atti- 
 tudes and affections that constitute man 
 a heavenly citizen, joyful in the divine 
 presence, and glad in obeying the divine 
 will and sharing the divine life, — 
 
 "Whose litanies, sweet offices 
 Of love and gratitude: 
 Whose sacramental liturgies, 
 The joy of doing good." 
 
 There are other things that seem quite 
 clear respecting the growth of Jesus to 
 self-mastery, and so to the exalted posi- 
 tion as spiritual master of the world, 
 which he soon gained and which he still 
 retains. We have no annals descriptive of 
 his early manhood ; but we have the mature 
 man himself; and as we know the general 
 
 127 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 laws of human life that govern the evolu- 
 tion of character, we may legitimately 
 infer that back of the mature man, who is 
 visible, lay certain great experiences and 
 ethical disciplines. This inference is as 
 rational as our conclusion that the superb 
 picture, or the remarkable musical compo- 
 sition, was produced by a great creative 
 genius. 
 
 As we follow this line of interpretation, 
 may we not find a world of deep and illum- 
 inating meaning in the brief but suggestive 
 statement in the Gospel that Jesus was 
 obedient unto his father? It was needful 
 that he should learn to obey in order that 
 he might, later in life, be able to command 
 with wisdom. Who can doubt but that 
 Jesus in the days of his youth was per- 
 fected by the parental companionship and 
 appreciation that alone make the atmos- 
 phere in which young life ripens into noble 
 maturity. And so we read: " Jesus 
 increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
 favor with God and man." 
 
 Thus Jesus came to appreciate his 
 father, and instead of feeling restive under 
 
 128 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 his rule, it became his greatest delight to 
 conform to the paternal will. Jesus 
 learned through this ever enriching com- 
 panionship how much the word " father' ' 
 means. And when the abundant life of 
 mature manhood came into his soul, illum- 
 inating his features from within, the fresh 
 consciousness of the encompassing divine- 
 ness, freighted with solemn awe and sweet 
 mystery, found expression in the term, 
 "Our Father in Heaven." As he had 
 found greatest joy in doing Joseph's will, 
 he now found divinest peace in yielding 
 to the heavenly Father's will, as spoken 
 through the oracles of his own soul. So 
 that when Jesus in later life called God, 
 1 l Our Father, ' ' he thrilled people, because 
 the word, by domestic associations of love, 
 trust, and gratitude, had come to mean so 
 much to him. The universal prayer and 
 the parables are loaded with the power of 
 an infinite tenderness that was nourished 
 into activity by the loving kindness of his 
 father. And it was into the symbolism of 
 that tenderness that he translated the law 
 of the universe. 
 
 129 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 When we read the story of the Good 
 Samaritan are we not in touch with one 
 who himself knew by experience what it 
 means to serve the sufferer, whoever he 
 may be, and to befriend the stranger 
 though he may belong to some race hated 
 by his own people? Only an experience 
 in kindness could have created this divine 
 lesson in universal sympathy. When our 
 hearts are melted to pitying tenderness by 
 the parable of the Lost Sheep, we yield 
 ourselves to the compassion of a man who 
 knew how to picture the shepherding love, 
 because he himself had exercised it. When 
 Jesus commanded forgiveness with an elo- 
 quence and an authority which made the 
 grace a peculiarly, though not exclusively, 
 Christian attribute, was it not because he 
 himself had learned by personal experience 
 the necessity and the glory of the forgiving 
 spirit? 
 
 If the veil were lifted, we should see 
 Jesus pouring over the Hebrew Script- 
 ures: studying the great precepts of the 
 Law and learning to separate kernel from 
 husk; meditating on the sublime declara- 
 
 130 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 tions of the Prophets and unfolding them 
 to higher spiritual applications; and 
 brooding over the wonderful imagery of 
 the Psalms that deeply stirred his religious 
 emotions and quickened his poetic impulses. 
 Surely back of his remarkable use 
 of texts, in exposition of Inner Life as the 
 kingdom of heaven, lay long years of inti- 
 mate acquaintance with those writings and 
 final spiritual mastery of their contents. 
 
 If the veil were lifted and we could 
 follow Jesus through the fields and up the 
 mountain side, what a wonderful student 
 of nature we should find him to be ! What 
 a quick eye for all the varied details of 
 sky and landscape ! What a keen interest 
 in everything beautiful, — bird, flower, and 
 tree! What a marvelous gift in using 
 natural phenomena as symbols of spiritual 
 truth! Only by long and loving observa- 
 tion could he have gained the familiarity 
 with nature which his teachings reveal. 
 
 And now that we are able to read the 
 stories of Jesus 's Temptation with free 
 reason and fluent fancy in a natural and 
 human way, they assume fresh significance, 
 
 131 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 and they acquire a historical meaning of 
 a new and higher character. They lie 
 before us, not as prosaic annals to be used 
 in the making of dogma ; they are instead 
 beautiful poems which grew out of the 
 warm reverence of friendly hearts in order 
 to describe certain great experiences 
 through which Jesus did undoubtedly pass 
 on his way to mastery of himself and the 
 world. 
 
 In the loneliness of some wilderness 
 with great wrestlings of spirit, Jesus had 
 to learn that the needs of the soul are 
 greater than the wants of the body. Who- 
 ever saves humanity must do something 
 greater than turn stones into bread; he 
 must satisfy the hunger of the human soul 
 for love and purity. On some mountain 
 height with the glories and luxuries of the 
 world spread out before him to allure and 
 entice, Jesus had to discover that Inner 
 Life is the one imperishable wealth that 
 neither moth nor rust can corrupt ; the one 
 enduring power and immortal joy. Who- 
 ever redeems human hearts must do it, 
 not with gold but with love. And aloft on 
 
 132 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 some pinnacle of the temple, representing 
 the old order deep rooted in tradition, 
 Jesus had to conquer all his distrusts of 
 himself and all his fears of the world, by 
 coming to realize that truth alone is infinite 
 in power and glory. Whoever brings in 
 the Kingdom of God must do so by the 
 truth of God. 
 
 Who can tell out of what lonely vigils, 
 by what heart searchings, with what 
 experiences among the deep things of the 
 soul, Jesus came to see the central truth 
 of his gospel: Inner Life is salvation! 
 That he made the great discovery we know. 
 In these legends of the Temptation we have 
 glimpses into the heart struggles by which 
 he made it. And at last, he stands in the 
 clear light of history with this principle 
 in his heart and this message on his lips. 
 
 The proposition for which we contend 
 is this : In studying the life of Jesus, we 
 are dealing with a historical character. 
 His life, if a real life with any helpfulness 
 to us, must have arisen out of an actual 
 human and historical experience. The 
 quality of his message and ministry as 
 
 133 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 clearly reveal the general elements of that 
 experience, as the finished building reveals 
 the plan of the architect. The spirituality 
 of his manhood, so evident and so impres- 
 sive, proves a spiritual evolution out of 
 which it came. The ethical quality of the 
 personality before us makes it easy for 
 imagination to describe the general line of 
 growth followed during his youth and 
 early manhood. If the naturalist can 
 reproduce the form of an extinct animal 
 from a few fossil bones, we may surely 
 outline with some approximate accuracy 
 the growth of soul that led up to the 
 Sermon on the Mount and the Victory on 
 Calvary. 
 
 In the fullness of time, therefore, Jesus 
 became master of himself: master also of 
 the sublime doctrine of Inner Life. Dur- 
 ing the brief period of his public ministry, 
 we may follow him more clearly, as he 
 applies this doctrine in his varied teach- 
 ings and numerous experiences among 
 men. Jesus is not lost in the mere circum- 
 stances of his lowly life. While his hands 
 are busy at the bench by his side, his 
 
 134 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 mind broods in the solicitude of an infinite 
 love over the fortunes of the people who 
 surround him. But he is no idle dreamer, 
 no mere enthusiast, no visionary theorist. 
 His fingers are not listless. One command- 
 ing object and theme, "Man," more and 
 more engages his attention and affection. 
 The kingdom of the Spirit does not sup- 
 plant, but to him it overarches and pene- 
 trates, illuminates and sanctifies all the 
 trivial details of his outward and physical 
 life. 
 
 Jesus hears the village politician bemoan 
 and denounce the Roman supremacy. Wild, 
 startling rumors of cruelty come to his 
 ears. He sees the excitement ferment and 
 spread as these stories are told and retold 
 among his neighbors. He listens to accounts 
 of uprisings among his people against 
 Rome before his day. Whisperings of 
 another bloody revolt circulate. In all 
 this, to his clear insight, one thing is evi- 
 dent. His people attribute all their 
 troubles to the fact that the Roman tyrant 
 rules in Jerusalem. Whatever sorrow 
 befalls, whatever misfortune overtakes, 
 
 135 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 they all cry out: That comes from the 
 hateful and hated Gentile. 
 
 But there is another voice that Jesus 
 hears. The old men put their heads togeth- 
 er as they meet on the corner; and, with 
 a flash of vengeance in their eye, they speak 
 in bated breath of the expected Messiah. 
 They whisper to each other : These cruel- 
 ties will not last forever. The promise 
 made to his prophets, Jehovah will surely 
 keep. The Son of Man will soon come 
 from heaven in clouds of fiery glory ! Then 
 Roman legions shall lie under our feet; 
 the proud and wicked Gentile shall be 
 humbled. We, the Lord's faithful but per- 
 secuted people, shall tread upon our 
 oppressors. Israel shall occupy the land 
 in peace, and all sorrows shall have an 
 end. 
 
 Jesus noticed that whenever a traveler, 
 bringing some tale of fresh cruelty, came to 
 the village, the curious and excited people 
 gathered around him, and there was first 
 a feeling of dismay and horror that found 
 vent in execrations upon Eome. Then, as 
 the Messianic Hope came to mind, and they 
 
 136 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 talked over the recent signs and wonders 
 that were supposed to herald the Deliv- 
 erer's approach, a savage gleam lighted 
 up their faces; and their voices became 
 husky with passion as they spoke of the 
 time, surely near at hand, when they would 
 tread their enemies into the dust. 
 
 From such crowds Jesus turned away 
 in deep sorrow and with painful amaze- 
 ment. And when he went into the village 
 synagogue expecting to find there spiritual 
 wisdom and helpfulness for his troubled 
 and misguided people, his sorrow and 
 amazement deepened. The rabbis, as a 
 rule, spoke of tithes and offerings, and 
 simply expounded and elaborated the law 
 for Levitical purity. There was no word 
 that went with power into the soul, sooth- 
 ing the heart and enlightening the mind. 
 For then, much as now, those who asked 
 for emancipating truths were bidden study 
 a text ; those who craved bread were given 
 a stone; those who were perishing from 
 lack of sympathy were commanded to offer 
 a sacrifice; and those ready to engage in 
 heroic deeds were asked to believe mere 
 
 137 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 speculations about trivial subjects. The 
 teachings were mere commentary and idle 
 casuistry, with no direct contact with 
 divine realities, and no fresh, inspiring 
 view of life. All seemed confused and 
 blind. The secret of that deliverance, for 
 which they were so anxiously awaiting, and 
 which was within reach of everyone, 
 dawned not upon the mind of teacher or 
 worshiper. 
 
 The keen appreciation of the sorrows 
 of his people and the vivid consciousness 
 of their great mistake respecting the way 
 of deliverance, were indeed a growing 
 burden that weighed more and more heavi- 
 ly upon Jesus. There were, in truth, griefs 
 and burdens and wrongs on every side, as 
 there are all about us today. Children 
 were neglected; homes were broken up; 
 family feuds abounded; neighbors quar- 
 relled; young people were reckless and 
 sensual; the poor were vicious, the rich 
 were corrupt; leaders were cruel, officials 
 took bribes, the people were sordid; and 
 so, tears were a flood and groans a mighty 
 chorus. And, saddest of all, the people 
 
 138 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 were mistaken about the cause of their 
 troubles. They saw the tax gatherer or 
 the centurion, and said, "He is the cause 
 of all our misfortunes. If we could only 
 destroy him we should be perfectly 
 happy ! ' ' 
 
 But Jesus had an eye for the deeper 
 things of the soul. He saw that the root 
 of the difficulty was in their own being, that 
 it was poverty and perversity of spirit, 
 leanness and meanness of the soul. This 
 does not signify that conditions are unim- 
 portant, but that the creative impulse is 
 most important; not that circumstances 
 have no value but that a supreme enthusi- 
 asm is Lord over all ; not that environment 
 is to be ignored, but that it is the soul which 
 shapes and utilizes environment. 
 
 The Jews of Palestine at that time 
 anxiously scanned the heavens for signs 
 of the advent of the Promised One of God. 
 They questioned every stranger to learn, 
 if possible, that the Messiah had been born. 
 But to Jesus this waiting for outward help 
 was a sad delusion. The salvation they 
 sought could never come. He saw that the 
 
 139 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 deliverance must come within every soul. 
 The divine emancipation must unfold from 
 within; it is in the great thought that illu- 
 minates and the noble sentiment that stirs 
 to action. What they needed was Inner 
 Life, — more truth to guide, more love to 
 sanctify, more hope to uplift, more sympa- 
 thy to quicken. 
 
 Jesus understood with perfect clearness 
 the true character of man's need; not 
 freedom from Eome, not the Lord from 
 heaven, but freedom from sin, and the Lord 
 within. Should Rome fall and the skies 
 let down a wondrous king, the dark minds 
 and warring hearts of the people would 
 continue, and the bondage would be as 
 great as ever. Nothing that might trans- 
 pire without them as a mere political event 
 or social revolution could place them 
 within the gates of paradise. The leaven 
 of love must work within the soul before 
 heaven could be reached. First the heav- 
 enly spirit in the heart and then the king- 
 dom of heaven in the world. Let Rome, 
 then, rule on, and the firmament stand; 
 they could all, then and there, make of 
 
 140 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 themselves a kingdom of heaven by growth 
 and purity of sonl ! Have that Inner Life, 
 then the soul is a kingdom at peace, the 
 home is a paradise, the neighborhood is 
 a sanctuary, and the whole universe is an 
 embodied smile of God! This was the 
 gospel that Jesus went forth to teach, in 
 order that his people might have eternal 
 life, not as a future purchase, but as a 
 present reality. 
 
 This was the "good news' ' that Jesus 
 proclaimed: That goodwill toward one 
 another is what God, who is good, asks of 
 everyone. This is all that heaven demands 
 and all that the world needs. The good 
 news is the discovery that goodwill itself 
 is the kingdom of heaven. Just because 
 Jesus made people feel all this supremely, 
 the statement respecting goodwill among 
 men became the theme of the angels who 
 welcomed him to the earth. It was a true 
 instinct that created the poem, as has 
 already been stated. A song of goodwill 
 in the skies, because his good news, or 
 gospel, had made goodness more plentiful 
 and more powerful among men. 
 
 141 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 To the wayside group that had come up 
 from the hamlet nestling at the foot of the 
 hill, Jesus spoke the great truths of the 
 spiritual life in simple words that befitted 
 their majesty. To their wan, restless 
 unbelief, that found no divineness in their 
 present life, he revealed the Father. He 
 made the trees, the flowers, the birds, the 
 clouds serve as symbols of Providence. 
 He made them see the Infinite Beauty rest- 
 ing on field and sky. He made them share 
 his feeling that he was indeed a child lying 
 in the lap of Infinite Love. He aroused 
 in them the consciousness of God as In- 
 dwelling Life. 
 
 Jesus told the people about the wonder- 
 ful things of love ; how love for each other 
 would give them a new life; how it would 
 sweeten all occasions and rectify all 
 wrongs; how it would make woman pure 
 and high-minded, and man peaceful and 
 clean-hearted; how it would do away with 
 strife, and sorrow, and cruelty; how it 
 would set the solitary together in families, 
 restrain the wayward, and establish justice 
 and mercy throughout the world ! He dis- 
 
 148 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 covered to them the sphere of the Spirit 
 and its marvelous riches of joy and peace. 
 He told them how, if they took this sense 
 of God as the Supreme Goodness and this 
 holy love as a rule of life .back with them 
 into the hamlet, its sorrows and evils would 
 cease and each one would become a king- 
 dom of heaven. The person who should 
 thus rule his own soul and serve his brother 
 would be greater than the man who should 
 drive the Romans out of Jerusalem. Every 
 one who grows into an abundance of Inner 
 Life reaches what the Son of Man could 
 not bestow. Salvation is not what is put 
 on, but what is inwrought ; not what exists 
 without but what grows within; not what 
 transpires but what inspires. 
 
 We see Jesus trying to save his people 
 by teaching them a new ideal or doctrine 
 of salvation and by leading them along a 
 new way of life. He endeavored to recreate 
 society by leading the people to begin with 
 the soul and work out from the primary 
 sources of life in it. He showed them how 
 they might make themselves a kingdom of 
 heaven, no matter how humble or oppres- 
 
 143 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 sive their external conditions. Jesus was 
 not indifferent to public righteousness and 
 social conditions; his condemnation fell 
 swift and severe upon unjust judge and 
 unmerciful master; but he went into the 
 very depths of the heart for the recreative 
 energies and supreme sources of a new 
 humanity. These teachings of his respect- 
 ing Inner Life were as "gentle and beauti- 
 ful as the light of a star. ' ' The smile that 
 they created still lingers on the human 
 face. The enthusiasm that they kindled is 
 still a mighty power among men. They are 
 still a glorious and gladsome gospel of the 
 blessed God! 
 
 When we see that lovely figure moving 
 across the hillsides of Galilee and along the 
 shores of Tiberias, and when we also hear 
 these teachings, so spiritual and sublime, 
 our hearts also burn within us. We feel 
 that we there touch human nature in its 
 ripened purity and full-grown nobility. 
 Jesus seems a wondrously gentle and 
 humane man, of whom we love to think, 
 with whom it is refreshing to hold com- 
 munion. He illustrates "the ascendency 
 
 144 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 of man, as spirit, over the physical world." 
 We find in him "preeminent susceptibility 
 to the divine side of present realities. ,, 
 There is a ' ' rare and gracious quality in his 
 personality' ' that gives him great spiritual 
 attractiveness and wonderful human inter- 
 est. We find that "his words stir the soul 
 as summer dews call up the faint and sickly 
 grass.' ' We most gladly own that he is 
 "the dearest and divinest appearance in 
 human form that ever beamed on earthly 
 scenes. ' ' 
 
 As thought and love take hold of that 
 sublime personality, standing not in mirac- 
 ulous and spectral isolation, but within the 
 realm of humanity, we find our life growing 
 sweeter and tenderer. We see no halo of 
 mystical light about his head, but whenever 
 we turn from his presence to the world we 
 see all men robed in a new sanctity; so that 
 we restrain our anger, when tempted, while 
 we multiply our services of love to those 
 in need. He is unto us a sublime example 
 and a powerful encouragement. The 
 human nature that blossomed in him into 
 such moral and spiritual beauty is ours 
 
 145 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 also, to blossom likewise, if we but give it 
 the warmth of love and the light of truth. 
 
 We see Jesus again. He has become 
 famous. The people crowd around him 
 in superstitious awe or in officious famil- 
 iarity. The women also come, bringing 
 their unawed and ill-kept children. But 
 children were then of little account to many 
 grown people. That sad depreciation has 
 not yet been half outgrown. "This is no 
 place to bring children," say the rough 
 men; and they begin to chide the timid 
 women and tell them that they ought to 
 be ashamed to come there and take up the 
 Master's time! 
 
 But Jesus, unsoiled by ambition and 
 unspoiled by success, free from pride and 
 self -consciousness, beams upon the mothers 
 and their children ineffable sympathy, and 
 beckons them to come near to him. He 
 then lays his hand lovingly on the children, 
 speaks noble words that soften and hallow 
 all hearts, and puts a child in their midst 
 as symbol of the purity of which the king- 
 dom of heaven must be built. What 
 modesty! What tenderness ! What human- 
 
 146 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 ity I That, indeed, is a lovely picture ; and 
 we dwell upon it with ever-growing delight. 
 Whether we are Jews or Christians, ration- 
 alists or conservatives, there indeed is 
 something that appeals to us as pre- 
 eminently and perennially beautiful be- 
 cause nobly human! We, too, will have 
 kinder words for the children. That Jewish 
 youth was tenderer than a mother! He 
 bows us all in reverence before the child, 
 where we cannot too long linger or too 
 devotedly minister! 
 
 Again we look. Clouds, dark and omin- 
 ous, have gathered. The rulers have heard 
 of Jesus, and fear his power over the 
 lower classes ; for, in their dull minds, they 
 suppose that he, too, ]ike many social 
 agitators and revolutionists of the time, is 
 aiming at political mischief. He suffers 
 the misfortune of being misunderstood. 
 Jesus, moreover, may have allowed the 
 enthusiasm of his followers to lead him to 
 undertake too great a task. However this 
 may have been, he finds difficult and thorny 
 the path of the social reformer — for he 
 aimed at a new society founded upon a new 
 
 147 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 order of manhood ; not political revolution, 
 but spiritual evolution. 
 
 At last Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to 
 teach there the gospel, received as so 
 blessed in Galilee. But the rulers say: 
 "This man is dangerous; he must be put 
 out of the way ! ' ' Jesus now sees that the 
 end is near. The shadow falls ; the darkness 
 deepens! How terrible was the grief of 
 his great heart over his unfulfilled ideal, 
 the scene in Gethsemane, over which 
 nations have wept, reveals ! That was real 
 grief; real disappointment. He cannot 
 cause deaf ears to hear or blind eyes to see. 
 His doctrine of Inner Life has no charms 
 for the coarse and the venal. His kingdom 
 of heaven seems too vague and theoretical 
 for the practical politician. He cannot win 
 them as he would ; but he can die as he had 
 lived — calm, meek, self -poised. And so he 
 meets his fate, with neither wrath nor fear ; 
 with neither despair nor disloyalty. Suffi- 
 ciency and sovereignty of the soul — the 
 supremacy of the moral ideal — must find 
 in him a glorious witness and standard 
 bearer even in death ! 
 
 148 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 We stand at the foot of the cross, and 
 behold with reverent hearts the supreme 
 illustration of constancy to moral senti- 
 ment and religious aspiration. It is not 
 the flowing blood or the darkened heavens 
 that we 1 see, but a brother man, who proves 
 that the human soul is mightier than the 
 world. That cross is but the revelation of 
 human nature; there the preeminence of 
 Inner Life was revealed and authenticated. 
 Jesus, in that supreme hour, was not the 
 evidence of a reconciliation between God 
 and man; for, in all his teachings he 
 implied the Father's infinite love, not as a 
 future but as a present reality, not as a 
 purchase, but as a gift, which men need 
 only open their hearts to understand and 
 receive. 
 
 Jesus, in that garden of agony and on 
 that cruel cross, is witness to his imperial 
 doctrine of Inner Life and illustration of 
 man's spiritual possibility. The cross is 
 not a blood-signed pardon, but a divinely 
 illuminated lesson. Jesus did not bear our 
 cross; that we ourselves must do, as he 
 himself taught, but he made our tasks of 
 
 149 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 cross-bearing easier. Within the influence 
 of that serene heroism of the spirit, 
 patience, fidelity, self-sacrifice, are easy 
 graces. We linger there, because we find 
 a great soul proving what our life ought 
 to be; and as we linger we find ourselves 
 growing heavenward toward the heroic 
 possibility there actually realized. 
 
 This is the Jesus that we know, study, 
 love, and follow: master of the spirit; 
 creator of a new order of manhood ; artist 
 of the Inner Life ; a " sublime genius ' ' who 
 rightfully became the center of the world's 
 hope and love. He is to us revelation and 
 inspiration, not by any strange and super- 
 natural performance, but because in him 
 "the moral perfection of man stands forth 
 in its root and unity.' p We do not care to 
 insist dogmatically on the absolute sinless- 
 ness of Jesus. This seems to us a barren 
 abstraction and a fruitless discussion. 
 What does seem clear and helpful is the 
 fact that the spirit of Jesus represents the 
 essential element of man's divinest life. 
 
 With all his humility and tenderness, 
 there is in Jesus unparalleled purity, 
 
 150 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 strength, and manliness of character; a 
 prophet of the soul, who pours out "a 
 doctrine as beautiful as light, as sublime 
 as heaven, and as true as God." He has 
 blessings for us in all the circumstances 
 of life, " light for the chamber of grief, 
 power of endurance amid the struggles of 
 suffering nature,' ' and yet companion 
 meet in times of joy and peace. There is 
 no darkness so intense but that his Beati- 
 tudes will bring some illumination. There 
 is no occasion so gloomy and cruel but that 
 the mention of his name will bring some 
 sweet and helpful memories ! 
 
 For some years, Jesus, as a sublime 
 character, expressive of Inner Life, ap- 
 peared to men in the glory of his humanity, 
 and their affection for him operated in 
 their hearts as a saving moral power. 
 They had great love for Jesus, but practi- 
 cally no theology about him. But soon 
 there were those who began to be dissatis- 
 fied with his spiritual leadership and his 
 purely historical character; for they 
 imagined that to think of him in that 
 fashion lowered his dignity and cheapened 
 
 151 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 his gospel. Also, Jesus the historical 
 character necessarily came into contact 
 with the speculations of the philosophers. 
 The thinkers of the time naturally found 
 in him the solution of their philosophical 
 problems: a fact which was in itself a 
 tribute to his greatness. An inevitable 
 transformation of Christianity followed, 
 but it was a transformation that carried 
 the world far away from the spirit and 
 gospel of Jesus himself. Then the human 
 Jesus disappeared, crowded aside by theo- 
 logical doctrines respecting a creative being 
 called the "Logos" (translated "Word" 
 in the Fourth Gospel), a monstrosity in the 
 household of philosophy, born of the union 
 of Greek speculation and oriental mysti- 
 cism. The very word ' ' Jesus ' ' disappeared 
 from the Christian literature of the third 
 and fourth centuries, and we find every- 
 where nothing but the dogmatic term, 
 "Logos," or its equivalent, the Son. 
 
 As we run over the mystical phrases 
 respecting the theological Christ, with! 
 which all are so familiar, our hearts cry 
 out : Where is that sweet human face, that 
 
 152 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 heroic man, whom we saw sowing gladness 
 among the simple folk of Galilee? The 
 dogmatists buried him ont of sight under 
 a mass of theological rubbish. They took 
 away our loving and lovable Jesus and 
 gave us a lifeless abstraction, as cheerless 
 as the grave and as spectral as a ghost. 
 They obscured his smile by a terrible 
 frown. They sealed the lips that told the 
 story of the Samaritan, and they opened, 
 instead, an oracle of unreason. They 
 erased the Beatitudes and wrote in their 
 place obscure mysteries. 
 
 The cross, which ought to be to us a 
 lesson of heroism, marking the height to 
 which human nature can rise, became a 
 scene of judicial penalty and painful propi- 
 tiation. Jesus, the moral teacher, vanished. 
 The mystical Logos advanced; but his 
 lips are dumb respecting human duties; 
 his mission is supernatural and his minis- 
 try is judicial; while he is too exalted to 
 be an example and too remote to be an 
 inspiration. Jesus, the brother, friend, 
 and master to love, disappeared largely 
 from human minds. Instead, people were 
 
 153 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 given a theory about him in which to 
 believe. The gospel of Inner Life was laid 
 aside. Instead, our fathers were presented 
 with a pretentious chart of infinite being 
 to try to trace. That plea for growth of 
 soul in likeness to his life was hushed. 
 Instead, the world was commanded to 
 accept, on faith, a mysterious dogma about 
 Jesus. And history abundantly shows how 
 impossible it has been to unite in one 
 conception the Historical Jesus and that 
 theological fiction. Just so far as that 
 dogma is emphasized, that far the spirit- 
 ual supremacy of Jesus is obscured and his 
 religious helpfulness is lessened. 
 
 And yet we must remember that in all 
 the churches that have put the theological 
 Christ foremost in their creeds, and in all 
 ages, the spirit of Jesus has been present. 
 For no weather chart, however false, can 
 shut out the sunshine from the earth. 
 Everywhere there have been devout souls 
 who have known and loved the real Jesus, 
 just as true hearts everywhere beat under 
 the most barbaric costumes. One may 
 have a great many superstitions and still 
 
 154 
 
The Master of Inner Life 
 
 live a sweet and noble life. So, also, one 
 may hold a great many erroneous notions 
 respecting the character of Jesus 's mission 
 and yet be deeply penetrated by the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount. Nevertheless, these 
 erroneous notions are burdensome and 
 harmful. 
 
 O Church! bring back the real Jesus, 
 the Jesus who walked in Galilee and 
 blessed the children ; who taught so grand- 
 ly and lived so divinely; who died on the 
 cross a death as heroic as his life had been 
 pure ! So long ecclesiastics have kept him 
 buried beneath dogmas that obscure the 
 beauty of his life and hidden behind sacra- 
 ments that divert attention from his spirit 
 to his blood! For how many years did 
 Christians speculate about him, fight for 
 his sepulchre, and persecute in his name! 
 Dogmatists for centuries have said " be- 
 lieve' ' where he said "do." They have 
 said "fear" where he said "love." They 
 have frowned on human nature where he 
 smiled. They have taught creeds where 
 he spoke parables. The morality affirmed 
 by him as sufficient they have put aside 
 
 155 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 as inadequate. Church! no longer feed 
 us on dogmatic mysteries; no longer 
 imprison his spirit; no longer neglect his 
 gospel! We are weak, wayward and 
 weary ; give us back Jesus to be our friend, 
 exampler, teacher and inspirer. 
 
 156 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
THE GREATNESS OF JESUS 
 
 Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. 
 He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn 
 by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he 
 lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all 
 history, he estimated the greatness of man. One man 
 was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God 
 incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth 
 anew to take possession of his world. 
 
 The excellence of Jesus, and of every true teacher, 
 is, that he affirms the Divinity in him and in us, — not 
 thrusts himself between it and us. 
 
 Jesus speaks always from within, and in a degree 
 that transcends all others. In that is the miracle. I 
 believe beforehand that it ought to be so. All men stand 
 continually in the expectation of the appearance of 
 such a teacher. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 Authority is inherent and organic in the 
 universe. The authority of God is imma- 
 nent in every molecule of which the cosmos 
 is builded, in every creature by whom it 
 is inhabited. God dwells in every particle 
 and spirit, and there is no possibility of 
 permanent revolt or complete chaos. If 
 some bad men seem to take a straight 
 tangent of wilfulness, uninfluenced by any 
 divine attraction, it is because the orbit 
 to which God holds them is so large that 
 we do not notice its curvature. But they 
 are not beyond the reach of his power or 
 the ministry of his love. There is no abso- 
 lutely tangent motion among men any more 
 than among comets. The human will, with 
 all its freedom, operates under the con- 
 ditions of an omnipotent law that is omni- 
 present love. The long-armed gravity that 
 reaches through the immensities, the phys- 
 ical energy that builds crystals with perfect 
 
 159 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 mathematical precision, the chemical affin- 
 ity that celebrates microscopic weddings 
 between atoms, the organic impulse that 
 builds a tree or weaves the gossamer wings 
 of insects, the manifold creativeness that 
 endows the bee with instinct and man with 
 intelligence — these are mandates of a 
 throne that pervades all space. 
 
 It is by authority of God that hills and 
 valleys are clothed and unclothed at the 
 changing of the seasons. The river seems 
 to wind here and there at its own sweet 
 will ; but in reality, it is the earth through 
 the sleepless force of gravity that leads it 
 all the way from mountain to ocean. The 
 waters follow the line that the finger of 
 the Lord draws across the face of the 
 earth. The acorn bears within itself the 
 authority of a thousand oaks. Its artistic 
 and organic impulse is constrained to build 
 an oak. The pebble is held to its bed on 
 the mountain side by the authority of the 
 whole round world. The invisible fingers 
 that cover the winter windows with crystal 
 ferns do not work unauthorized. A divine 
 command sends the eagle into the upper 
 
 160 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 air. It is by authority that skylark and 
 oriole sing. The lily is compelled by an 
 imperative commission to lift aloft its 
 immaculate lips to be kissed by dew and 
 sunshine. 
 
 Divine authority is not centralized in 
 distant isolation or committed to a special 
 hierarchy, but it is diffused everywhere. 
 The providence of the living God is not 
 an infrequent gust from some heavenly 
 shore, but a vital breath that blows perpet- 
 ually. We do not have to migrate to find 
 God. We have simply to become conscious 
 of what is eternally present. Every atom, 
 every seed, every spirit has an inherent 
 authority, behind which and in which God 
 forever stands. Divine authority is 
 
 "This shaping potency behind the egg, 
 This circulation swift of deity, 
 Where suns and systems inconspicuous float 
 As the poor blood-disks in our mortal veins." 
 
 God has more especially poured himself 
 into humanity. Here we find the highest 
 types of life and the most marvelous dis- 
 plays of creativeness. Progress in organ- 
 
 161 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 ization marks the ascending scale of the 
 divine incarnation, which reaches from 
 crystal to brain cell, from the dim yearn- 
 ing of the savage to Buddha's pity and 
 "Lord Christ's heart." Thus it is that 
 God distills his own authority into man 
 through the ages, in the growth of his 
 brain in extent, in complexity, in delicacy. 
 Every added brain cell gives the soul 
 another window for the vision of truth. 
 Every coordination of nerve tissues by 
 discipline and training, as with musician, 
 artist, or linguist, opens a new channel 
 for the influx of higher life. There is 
 more divinity in some men and women, 
 because they are more highly organized; 
 they are the outcome of a longer and more 
 active brain-growth and soul-building. 
 
 There are many degrees of authority 
 among men, but the saintly spirit has 
 superlative influence. The merchant prince 
 is known in all the markets and the world 
 is full of his glory, — a useful man to his 
 age; but he dies and in a few years no 
 one knows where he was buried. The 
 warrior makes and unmakes the map of the 
 
 162 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 world and all men tremble at the glance 
 of his eye, — he too may bear a divine 
 commission; but he dies and clowns make 
 a jest of his name. The scholar hives the 
 honey of his life in a book that soon grows 
 dingy in the obscure corner of the library, 
 — a faithful servant of the ideal; but he 
 dies and only a few students bless his 
 memory as they enjoy the fruits of his 
 labors. Some man of superior goodness 
 actually lives the moral law, doing a 
 monumental service of goodwill. He is 
 immortal ; he tents within the lonely heart ; 
 he calls to self-sacrifice the sleeping soul 
 and raises to life those dead in sin. Where- 
 ever his name is spoken the "Real Pres- 
 ence" abides. The torch of truth which 
 we hold aloft lights the pathway of a fel- 
 low traveler for a time; but our torch of 
 love kindles in his heart a sacred flame 
 that will never go out. 
 
 We turn to a person of transcendent pur- 
 ity for spiritual authority. His character 
 is an argument that texts, statistics, and 
 statutes can neither improve nor invali- 
 date. Moral law incarnate in a gracious 
 
 163 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 and heroic personality has an authority 
 that no official ordination can infer, nor 
 is it dimmed by the lapse of ages. "We 
 believe that holiness confers a certain 
 insight, ' ' wrote our great American proph- 
 et. Beauty pleases us, truth strengthens 
 us, the good commands us. A genius 
 charms us, a philosopher instructs us, the 
 saint leads us. Art embellishes life and 
 makes the world more attractive ; learning 
 trains and enriches the mind and makes 
 life more dignified; religion, the artist of 
 the good ideal, regenerates the soul and 
 brings in a new kingdom of love. 
 
 Religious authority has been and always 
 will be a supreme influence in the world: 
 the influence of those who have a genius 
 for holiness and helpfulness. The imperi- 
 al Augustus is a vague form to all but 
 a few; the learned men of his time are 
 barely known to the antiquarian ; the mer- 
 chants who supplied the wants of that gor- 
 geous age are forgotten; but the Man of 
 Nazareth, whose personality was a diviner 
 parable than any that he spoke, has to-day 
 supreme authority and creative power in 
 cottage and in palace! 
 
 164 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 The office of Jesus 's authority is to make 
 men like himself, so far as he stood for 
 the essential truths of the spiritual life. 
 In order that this result may follow, how- 
 ever, men must come into rational, sym- 
 pathetic relation with his character. They 
 must feed upon his spirit rather than recite 
 dogmas that relate to his origin and rank. 
 Belief in the miraculous birth of Jesus 
 will no more make us like him than belief 
 in the potency of the planetary influences 
 at the birth of Angelo will make us master 
 artists. The true authority of Jesus, like 
 all spiritual influences, is not magisterial 
 dictation, but personal inspiration and 
 dynamic disclosure of truth. 
 
 The churches have often destroyed the 
 religious authority of Jesus by the unnat- 
 ural and irrational use made of his name. 
 They have appealed to him to silence 
 reason and tyrannize over the sentiments. 
 They have demanded assent to dogmas 
 about him instead of cultivating a loving 
 appreciation of his life. They have failed 
 to see that if Jesus 's authority acts on 
 men at all, it must act through their reason 
 
 165 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 and their conscience. They must see and 
 feel that Jesus has authority because he 
 had a divine experience. Not until the 
 truth of the gospel has been passed upon 
 and taken up into one 's life, has the author- 
 ity of Jesus been perfected. His helpful- 
 ness to us is seen, not in the orthodoxy of 
 our opinions, but in the divinity of our 
 lives. Our salvation does not consist in 
 our assertion that he was the Son of God, 
 but in being ourselves true sons of God. 
 The authority of Jesus is not illustrated 
 by believing that it was the Messiah who 
 said, ' ' Father, forgive them, ' ' but in being 
 able to say out of our own actual heart- 
 life, when we are buffeted by enemies, 
 "Father, forgive them." It is not shown 
 by holding that he miraculously raised 
 Lazarus, but in tenderly nursing the Laz- 
 arus suffering at our door. It is not dis- 
 played by saying, "Our Father," because 
 he so spoke, but in being able to stand 
 on the mount of vision and affirm out 
 our serene and joyous experience, "Our 
 Father," as the expression of the loving 
 reverence that we actually feel. In the 
 
 166 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 time of trial and danger we are saved by 
 the weapon sheathed in our own soul, and 
 not by one hung up in some far-off 
 armory. 
 
 An eminent American divine used these 
 words not long since when speaking on a 
 notable occasion: " Authority is not in 
 the church as Catholics say; not in reason 
 as rationalists say ; not in Scripture as the 
 Reformers said; but in God speaking in 
 the soul through Christ ! ' ' Such language 
 as this tempts one into hot protest. We 
 are prompted to exclaim: "Poor God, so 
 impotent that he can only reach his own 
 child by way of Nazareth! Poor man, so 
 destitute of the bread of life that he starves 
 until a Gospel page flutters his way!" 
 This teaching is a practical denial of the 
 Fatherhood of God; central in the gospel 
 of Jesus himself. A doctrine like this, 
 that makes orphans of the vast majority 
 of the human race, is in no sense a gospel, 
 or good news. It is a denial of the Eternal 
 Goodness. 
 
 No divine authority except in the words 
 of Christ? Where indeed does God oper- 
 
 167 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 ate if not in all souls? How does man 
 exist at all, if not through the influence of 
 the heavenly tides of life sweeping every 
 moment into receptive hearts'? By what 
 power did the Parthenon rise, Buddha heal 
 human sorrows, and Socrates triumph in 
 death, if not by authority of him who shep- 
 herds every soul? To preserve our faith 
 in the love and mercy and justice of the 
 Almighty, to have a God worthy of our 
 worship, we must think of him as passing 
 by no lonely soul but spreading a provi- 
 dence of light and love wherever a heart 
 beats. We do not honor Jesus by making 
 such extravagant and unreasonable claims 
 for him. He made no such claims for 
 himself. This doctrine alienates men from 
 Jesus and greatly lessens his real author- 
 ity over human hearts. 
 
 The world begins to take a fresh interest 
 in the problem presented by the topic, 
 " The authority of Jesus." There is a 
 tendency abroad to question all kinds of 
 authority. The influence of science disin- 
 tegrates dogmas and dethrones author- 
 itative personages. All orthodoxies have 
 
 168 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 been shattered by modern thought. To 
 many the destructive side of Gospel Crit- 
 icism has left the message of Jesus without 
 certainty or impressiveness. One thing is 
 clear, whatever the authority of Jesus may 
 be, it must be in line with the universal 
 laws of human life. Let us see whether we 
 can bring a new sense of reality into this 
 realm, so that we may keep both the free- 
 dom of reason and the authority of Jesus. 
 To do this, let us first briefly trace the 
 wide sweep of authoritative acts and facts. 
 In the distant past, some man discovered 
 how to build an arch by tying his material 
 together with a keystone. This builder's 
 act was authoritative because it was the 
 discovery and embodiment of an essential 
 truth of Nature. He found the way to do 
 something which is of great importance 
 to mankind. Every one who builds takes 
 advantage of his discovery. The arch with 
 a keystone is now an important factor in 
 all building enterprises. The authority of 
 the principle of mechanics which that crea- 
 tive act revealed shapes the labor of every 
 hand. The engineer who recently threw 
 
 169 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 a bridge with a single span across the 
 Niagara river was obedient to the author- 
 ity of that original discovery. 
 
 But there are things in life besides gate- 
 ways and bridges — things more precious 
 than stone arches and vaulted roofs. 
 There are spiritual characters that must 
 be securely based and solidly constructed. 
 The varied materials of our daily life must 
 be compacted and tied together by a spirit- 
 ual purpose that shall act as a keystone. 
 We must protect our heart treasures, the 
 immortal harvests of our affections, by an 
 architecture of the spirit which shall be 
 so strongly builded that no storm can beat 
 down the temple of our life and no flood 
 sweep away the riches of the soul. 
 
 To a little company of people Jesus 
 spoke, out of his experience, one of his 
 discoveries respecting the spiritual life: 
 "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and 
 there rememberest that thy brother hath 
 aught against thee: leave there thy gift 
 before the altar and go thy way: first be 
 reconciled to thy brother and then come 
 and offer thy gift." What is the truth 
 
 170 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 here disclosed? That to be forgiven we 
 must first be forgiving; that the essence 
 of piety is not outward form, but inward 
 feeling: that we cannot be at peace with 
 God while at enmity with our neighbor; 
 that the way of salvation lies through the 
 heart, not through an external rite; that 
 in the sight of God our rank is determined, 
 not by our altar offerings, but by our 
 love for man, and that our real blessedness 
 consists in service rather than in sacrifice. 
 Here Jesus set forth a fundamental princi- 
 ple of spiritual architecture which he had 
 discovered in his own experience. He had 
 lived the truth in his own life, and the 
 result had proved it to be a supreme fact 
 in the spiritual universe. 
 
 All this was said in an obscure corner 
 by a man without position or following. 
 But the question of authority is not deter- 
 mined by artificial rank or social condition. 
 It hinges solely here: Is this an essential 
 fact? Is it true to the constitution of 
 things! Here lay the authority of the 
 builder of the first arch; here also is the 
 authority of Jesus. This truth respecting 
 
 171 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 forgiveness represents the absolute science 
 of life, because a fundamental principle 
 of the moral order. It also represents the 
 supreme art of life, because whoever puts 
 it into practice finds his act justified by a 
 permanence, beauty and blessedness of 
 existence which he can reach in no other 
 way. 
 
 The fact also that Jesus had made this 
 discovery in his own experience and proved 
 it true by putting it into his own life gave 
 superlative authority to his teaching. He 
 had tested the proposition, "Forgive and 
 you shall be forgiven, ' ' so that like the man 
 who built the first arch he could say : * ' This 
 is not guesswork or theory, but a primary 
 principle of human life. If you will make 
 the experiment, forgive your enemy, you 
 will find in the result wrought out in your 
 own life the complete demonstration of the 
 spiritual law." 
 
 This is just what people have been doing 
 for two thousand years. They have been 
 taking the teaching of Jesus, made vital 
 and commanding by his example, and put- 
 ting it into life. Whoever has done this 
 
 172 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 has found by experience just what Jesus 
 discovered: This law of forgiveness, — a 
 principle of spirituality productive of joy, 
 a sentiment of love supremely beneficent, — 
 is true. The appeal to life demonstrates 
 the gospel. Here is the spiritual keystone 
 that ties together and makes firm and 
 strong the arch of life. Here is the 
 gracious workmanship that makes beauti- 
 ful and permanent the structure of charac- 
 ter. Here is a supreme law which, if 
 a man live, he shall have eternal life, not 
 as a future reward, but as a present pos- 
 session. 
 
 The authority of Jesus is in the fact 
 that he made clear a better way of life, 
 as the builder of the first arch made plain 
 a better method of handicraft. Jesus 
 published and demonstrated in himself an 
 essential fact, eternal in the constitution 
 of the moral order. Whoever has tried to 
 put his teaching into practice has found 
 it to be the pathway to blessedness. Mil- 
 lions of men have made the experiment 
 and reached the result. The world has 
 moved steadily toward this point since his 
 
 173 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 day. Here is his influence and authority. 
 All this was felt at the beginning. At the 
 end of the Sermon on the Mount it is 
 recorded that Jesus "taught them as one 
 having authority.' ' He made this impres- 
 sion because he spoke out of his own 
 experience directly to the hearts of his 
 hearers. He spoke with power, because 
 he spoke with simplicity and earnestness 
 about great truths that were to him a 
 personal discovery. 
 
 Jesus 's use of the Law and the Prophets 
 illustrates the quality and method of his 
 authority, as just described. He used 
 Scripture for illustration, but not as a 
 dictum to overawe those who listened. 
 His appeal to texts was spiritual and edu- 
 cational, always with due respect for the 
 reason and conscience of his hearers. It 
 was never dogmatic, with the implication 
 that the verbal statement is a final rule 
 overriding mind and heart. He never 
 said: Believe this just because it is so 
 written. His habit was to plead: "Hold 
 this saying like a torch out into life and 
 see how far it will light up your pathway. ' ' 
 
 174 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 Jesus 's method of handling Scripture 
 shows a deep insight into the true nature of 
 both text and human soul, and it affords us 
 a wise example which we may well follow. 
 
 The movement toward spirituality in 
 religion, — toward forgiveness that over- 
 comes hatred and toward service as better 
 than sacrifice, — which Jesus created, has 
 been as irresistible as the flow of the moun- 
 tain waters to the sea, because the author- 
 ity of the facts which he revealed is as 
 supreme as the law of gravitation. This 
 influence is not, however, something super- 
 natural and apart from our common 
 experience. The gospel is authoritative 
 because natural and human, and therefore 
 most truly divine. 
 
 The authority of Jesus comes into line 
 with countless other experiences. Show 
 the world, as some far-off Egyptian did, 
 how to care for the sick poor, making plain 
 the joy and nobility of that service of 
 mercy, and under the authority of that 
 love hospitals will be set up all over the 
 world. Likewise, when Jesus told the 
 story of the Samaritan, he described a way 
 
 175 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 of life that appeals to the reason and con- 
 science as true and beautiful. The act of 
 kindness there pictured is authoritative 
 because in harmony with the moral con- 
 stitution of human society, and therefore 
 fruitful of infinite joy. The discovery hav- 
 ing been made that this is the better way of 
 life, multitudes walk in it. 
 
 The world is full of similar illustra- 
 tions. Show how to treat wounds by a new 
 method as Dr. Lister did, and this heal- 
 ing wisdom will fly round the globe as on 
 wings of angels. His discovery will be 
 authoritative wherever a surgeon operates 
 upon a patient. Likewise when Jesus found 
 a wounded, but repentant, publican, and 
 warmed him into new life by his great love, 
 that act also became authoritative. The 
 sympathy shown Zaccheus revealed the 
 constitution of the soul and demonstrated 
 the way of helpfulness. The friendly deed 
 showed how the spiritually wounded may 
 be healed. It revealed the power of sympa- 
 thy and defined the source of gladness. 
 Under the authority of that loving act, as 
 under the authority of Lister's skill, mill- 
 
 176 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 ions of men and women have reclaimed the 
 wayward and healed the sick in spirit. 
 
 And all this has come about, not because 
 Jesus was the promised Messiah, not be- 
 cause he was the mediatorial God-Man, 
 not because he was the mystical second 
 person of the Trinity, but because by his 
 spiritual experience he was able to set 
 forth a supreme fact of life with power, 
 which, when set forth, is evidently as 
 superior to the old way of life as the arch 
 to the former style of building. The 
 authority of Jesus, therefore, does not lie 
 in the fact that he had a supernatural rank 
 or a superhuman experience (this would 
 have destroyed his authority), but rather 
 in the fact that he had a strictly human 
 experience, so that what he discovered in 
 his own life is applicable to ours. 
 
 The authority of Jesus is, then, the 
 authority of a remarkable religious experi- 
 ence, in which he laid hold of the primary 
 and essential facts and laws of the spiritual 
 life. This interpretation sets him in the 
 clear light of truth, free from mysticism, 
 on a throne of power which physical science 
 
 m 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 cannot overthrow, with a sceptre of influ- 
 ence which textual criticism cannot striker 
 from his hand. 
 
 Two advantages issue from this inter- 
 pretation: (1) We will no longer go to 
 Jesus for authority outside the circle of his 
 experience. Upon all such matters as the 
 authorship of the Pentateuch and the 
 Psalms, the credibility of the story of the 
 fall of Adam, and kindred topics, he had 
 no special experience and shed no light. 
 (2) The fact that he probably shared some 
 of the erroneous notions of his time, that 
 lay quite apart from his special experience, 
 does not invalidate his ethical authority. 
 The propositions of Euclid are not set 
 aside by the fact that Euclid believed the 
 earth flat. But in reference to matters 
 of greatest moment and most frequent 
 urgency, matters of conduct upon which 
 our happiness and the happiness of others 
 most depend, here Jesus had a remarkable 
 experience, and his words on these prob- 
 lems are authoritative. Not in the sense of 
 final dogma to be blindly accepted, but as 
 great truths to be freely, though reverently, 
 studied and applied. 
 
 178 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 When we count the many vital points of 
 human life on which Jesus spoke, the many- 
 phases of duty made clear, the many prob- 
 lems illustrated, the many paths to joy and 
 blessing described, the multitude of pri- 
 mary spiritual truths which go right home 
 to the center of our common life and 
 demonstrate themselves when we apply 
 them, — this fact alone proves the large 
 proportions of his religious genius, while 
 it reveals a wonderful experience in 
 spiritual things which we may well trust. 
 The validity of the teachings which came 
 out of that experience is shown by their 
 fruitage. When men have lived them there 
 have been joys innumerable and excel- 
 lencies indescribable. 
 
 As we look along the centuries in Chris- 
 tian lands from the time of Jesus to the 
 present, we see that human life has every- 
 where moved up toward the ideals set forth 
 in the Gospels. Often slowly, never 
 uniformly, but from age to age there has 
 been some onward movement. In spite of 
 certain apparent retrogressions, the centu- 
 ries show a decided progress. Cruelties 
 
 179 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 have vanished and gracious humanities 
 have multiplied. Evils have withered, while 
 purity, mercy, justice, and forgiveness 
 abound more and more. The worship of 
 God becomes more spiritual; the service 
 of man more general. There is an increas- 
 ing realization, in home and church, in 
 school and state, of those moral principles 
 which Jesus taught and lived. So much 
 still to be done: battles for the right 
 unfinished, the mountain heights of love 
 and purity unreached by many; and yet, 
 there really have been substantial gains ! 
 
 Wherever men have put the teachings 
 oi Jesus into practice, the individual and 
 social results justify the effort. Wherever 
 men have tried to do by others as they 
 would have others do by them, joy has 
 come on all sides; and human life has 
 moved upward in this direction. Wherever 
 men have made love the master motive, 
 there blessedness has followed; and this 
 divine sentiment more and more rules 
 human hearts everywhere. Wherever the 
 self-sacrificing spirit of the cross has been 
 obeyed, there the desert has blossomed as 
 
 180 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 the rose ; and this loving service for others 
 continually spreads. We do not credit all 
 this to Jesus; God and man unceasingly 
 work for these high ends. But what we do 
 claim is this: The results illustrate the 
 spiritual authority of Jesus. The princi- 
 ples which he taught for the guidance of 
 human life have, in the great sweep of 
 history, been proved supremely good and 
 true. 
 
 We do not hold that Jesus touched all 
 points of human duty, illustrated all forms 
 of excellence, and exhausted the treasury 
 of spiritual wisdom, so that there are no 
 more discoveries to be made in the realm 
 of ethics. But it is a conservative claim 
 that he did make clear and powerful certain 
 supreme facts of our moral life that can 
 never be outgrown, and that must have a 
 high place in the greatest character and the 
 noblest civilization. 
 
 There is one other point of supreme 
 interest in this connection, which must be 
 briefly stated, although its great impor- 
 tance makes it deserving of extended dis- 
 cussion. It is this: Besides these truths 
 
 181 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 respecting conduct and character, which 
 Jesus affirmed and which the ages have 
 confirmed, he also set forth two great con- 
 victions : The Fatherhood of God and the 
 Hope of Immortality, not original with 
 him, but affirmed by him with great power 
 and clearness. In the gospel of Jesus, 
 these two spiritual convictions are inex- 
 tricably bound up with his more distinctly 
 ethical teachings. They came out of the 
 same experience; they seemed to him 
 equally clear and authoritative ; they are so 
 interwoven with his ethical judgments that 
 both go together, each in turn leaning upon 
 and supporting the other; and to him 
 evidently the more distinctly religious 
 seemed as necessary to a complete human 
 life as the more distinctly moral. 
 
 We cannot conceive of Jesus 's morality 
 apart from its theistic basis, and we cannot 
 conceive of his theism apart from its prac- 
 tical fruitage in a good life. The nobility, 
 beauty and authority of Jesus would be 
 swept away should we fail to listen to 
 both "Thy will be done," in the garden, 
 and to the "Go, sin no more," spoken to 
 
 182 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 the woman. Out of the same great life- 
 experience came Jesus 's strong hold upon 
 love as the master motive of life, and upon 
 love also as the law of the universe. 
 
 Now, the point which needs to be urged 
 with all possible emphasis, is this: Shall 
 we accept the authority of Jesus respecting 
 our human relations and reject what he 
 says about our spiritual relations? The 
 reasonable conclusion certainly is that one 
 who went so deeply into life that he laid 
 hold of primary and fundamental truths 
 on the side of morality in a most remark- 
 able manner, must also by the same expe- 
 rience have grasped with equal vigor and 
 clearness the primary and fundamental 
 facts of our being as they relate to Provi- 
 dence and Destiny. To go far enough to 
 see what is eternally right between man 
 and man is to go far enough to see the 
 bonds that bind us to the Infinite. The 
 lamp of experience bright enough to reveal 
 the quality of our human brotherhood is 
 also bright enough to make clear the 
 quality of our divine sonship. 
 
 Jesus, speaking out of his experience, 
 
 183 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 set forth a hundred commands of life which 
 touch the wide circle of our human rela- 
 tions. So powerful and comprehensive was 
 his grasp upon the deep things of character 
 that he spoke with supreme authority. The 
 ages have steadily moved toward this ideal, 
 and as humanity has moved onward toward 
 him, the world has grown more noble, 
 attractive, and gladsome. The best that 
 we can dream of human happiness to-day 
 is that his gospel be lived by all. If that 
 were done, heaven would be here. 
 
 If therefore the centuries demonstrate 
 in this large and wonderful way the truth 
 of his central and essential teachings in 
 this realm of human conduct, with what 
 confidence may we accept the message that 
 he, speaking out of the same experience, 
 brings us about the love of God and the 
 immortality of the soul? There can be no 
 greater authority for the hopes and trusts 
 of the pious heart than the affirmations of 
 one whose teachings upon the practical side 
 of life have been demonstrated to be true, 
 beautiful, and good by millions of men 
 during some two thousand years. If the 
 
 184; 
 
The Authority of Jesus 
 
 best in the world to-day comes from putting 
 his gospel into practice, we may be 
 supremely confident that what he says of 
 the love of God is also true. 
 
 Moreover, the fruitage of these ethical 
 principles of the gospel is largest and 
 richest only as ripened in the sunshine of 
 his teachings about the Fatherhood of God. 
 We reach the widest human good only as 
 we walk by faith in the divine love. Our 
 confidence in the Fatherhood of God and 
 the eternal life is a vast help to our ethical 
 life. To get the best out of the ethics of 
 Jesus, we must also go with him in his 
 spiritual convictions. And as there can 
 be no schism or duplicity in Nature, the 
 fact that this practical ethical fruitage does 
 follow the spiritual convictions respecting 
 God and Immortality justifies the conclu- 
 sion that the more distinctly religious 
 teachings of Jesus, which are also the 
 affirmations of the soul, are true. Here 
 again we see that the authority of Jesus 
 is the authority inherent in human experi- 
 ence. His gospel can be incarnated in 
 our life because it came out of a kindred 
 
 185 
 
The Supremacy of Jesus 
 
 life, and when put into life it fruits in 
 supreme blessedness. Nothing can go 
 deeper or reach higher than this appeal 
 to life. 
 
 186 
 

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