Sill "I give theft Books fer the. founding cf a. Ccllegt in Ms. Colony" • oiBis^mr ¦ Gift of 19l£, THE EESUEEECTION OF OUE LOED THE CROALL LECTURE FOR 1879-80 THE EESUEEEOTION OF OUE LOED Br WILLIAM MILLIGAN, D.D. PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY AND BIBLICAI. CRITICISM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN SECOND THOUSAND ILonrjon MACMILLAN AND CO. 1884 Printed by R. & R. Clakk, Edinburgh. TO MY WIFE PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION. I eegeet much that the publication of the following Lectures has been so long delayed. Literary engage ments which it was impossible to lay aside rendered an earlier preparation of the Notes impossible ; and without them it seemed to me that the Lectures ought not to be given to the public. Considering the im portance of the subject, I could have wished to devote even much longer time to this part of the work than I have been able to secure for it. With some verbal alterations, and the insertion of a few passages omitted in their delivery, the Lectures are now published exactly as they were preached. I issue them under a deep sense of their deficiencies ; and my utmost hope is that they may help to direct the attention of others to the great subject of which they treat, so that it may be more thoroughly studied and more success fully unfolded. The field of thought embraced by the Eesurrection of our Lord, in the light in which it is PREFACE. on this point is, I trust, removed in the present volume. A very able critic in the Church Times complains that I have exhibited " a tendency to shift the centre of Christian dogma from the Incarnation to the Resurrection;" and he adds, "Such a view is possible only on the lines of the Thomist theology, according to which the Incarnation was designed solely to re pair the fall. In that case the Resurrection may be the central dogma of Christendom. But take what we hold to be the higher and truer view of the Scotists, that the Incarnation would have come even if man had not fallen, in order to bring about the union between God and mankind, and then there would have been no need of either Passion or Resur rection, which are therefore only accidents of the Incarnation." Without discussing at present the respective merits of the Thomist and Scotist theology, I may simply remark that, even if we adopt the views of the latter, we must regard that change which, at His Resurrection, took place in the humanity of the Incarnate Word as necessary to the accomplishment of the full " union between God and mankind " which the Scotist theology demands. It is the consummation of a process by which humanity reaches its perfection — the perfection originally in- PREFACE. tended for it by the great Author of our compound nature — and which no mere repair of the ruins of the fall would have been able to complete. View the Resurrection of Christ as a single and isolated fact ; still more, view it as a restoration of our Lord to the same condition of humanity as that in which He was before He died, and the complaint of my critic would be well founded. On the other hand, view the change made in our Lord by His Resurrection, as lying in the original design of His Incarnation, and as needful to the completing of that design both for Himself and us, and His Resurrection becomes, not an incident of His Incarnation, but the crowning part of one great whole. It is this view which I have tried, no doubt imperfectly, to present; and, so far as I have succeeded in doing so, it appears to me that I can hardly be said to shift the centre of Christian dogma from the Incarnation to the Resurrection, and that I am really working on lines more in harmony with the Scotist than with the Thomist theology. The same critic is of opinion that, through want of sufficient study of ancient liturgical language, I have done injustice to the Romish doctrine of the mass by the manner in which I have spoken of the "unbloody sacrifice." His criticism is here peculiarly acute and delicate ; and he may be right. Yet I am PREFACE. not sure that he meets the precise point which I had before me. After stating that " it is only the imper fection and early mutilation of the Roman Missal which creates the difficulty," he goes on to say : " For the witness of all other ancient liturgies is that Christ is not present in the Eucharist by ' first intention,' so to speak, but in virtue of the invocation and operation of the Holy Spirit, who makes that which was mere bread and wine to be the living body and blood of Christ;" and again, "It cannot fairly be said that the Missal teaches the presentation of a dead Christ." The first of these quotations clearly shows that my critic is less concerned to defend the Roman Missal — which indeed he describes as imper fect and mutilated— than to advocate the claims of "ancient liturgies," and against these I had said nothing. The second quotation, again, may be strictly correct in point of form; and yet may I not be justified in saying that, if the Roman Missal does not teach a dead Christ, it teaches a Christ who comes before the communicant only to die? More than this is not implied in any words that I had used. Catholic theology may not be affected by such a statement, but that theology and Romish teaching in regard to the Eucharist may differ widely from each other. The criticism of a singularly acute and yet friendly PREFACE. critic in the Church Quarterly Review (for October 1881) ought not to be overlooked, and I thankfully recognise in it a specimen of that theological criticism which is in a high degree calculated to conciliate divergent views and to advance the cause of truth. The critic will find that on some points I acknowledge the justice of his remarks by yielding to them. If on others I have been unable to change materially the language which I had used, it is not because I am unwilling to confess that I may be wrong, but simply because I do not yet see so clearly with my critic as to warrant my speaking as he would do. For his language in regard to the "other Advocate" I can only cordially thank him. That there is a difficulty here must, it appears to me, be allowed ; but I hardly see how the difficulty is to be met without a thorough re-nomination and re-working of that doctrine of the Holy Spirit which, hardly less than that of the Resurrection of our Lord, has been too much neglected in the theology of our time. It does not seem to me that the theory which this writer would suggest is more likely to be satisfactory than my own, and on a point of so great importance I can only take up the attitude of one who longs, and waits, for light. In compliance with the suggestions of friends I have made a slight addition to the third and fifth PREFACE. Lectures. That to the third consists of a few remarks upon Keim's theory which, although not, strictly speaking, a part of the theory of visions, possesses the deepest interest alike for its own and its author's sake. That to the fifth consists of a few practical re marks upon the work of the Church. However important the latter point, it was not possible to say much upon it without straying from the path natu rally before me in these Lectures. Let the Risen Christ be clearly before the mind of the Church, and human lips will not be able to speak a lesson so telling as the simple statement of the fact. These, with the correction of a few expressions and the addition of a few more notes for the elucida tion of the text, are the chief, if not the only, changes made in this edition. The changes are not very im portant ; but, such as they are, I make them in the hope that they will be felt to be improvements, and that they may help in some degree to render the book more worthy of its momentous theme. The University, Aberdeen. . November 1883. CONTENTS. LECTTJKE I. The Fact of the Resurrection of Our Lord. PAGES Principle and Aim of the Lectures . . . 1 — 2 I. — Preliminary Remarks. 1. A Belief in the Miraculous presupposed . 2 — 3 2. The Authenticity and Genuineness of the Books of Scripture assumed . . 3 — 6 II. — The Nature of the Fact. 1. Two Mistakes to be avoided — (1) That the Resurrection is to be regarded solely in a spiritual sense . . 7 — 8 (2) That Christ entirely, or in part, laid aside His material body, assuming it only at special times . . . 8 — 10 2. The nature of Christ's Resurrection-body — (1) In many respects similar to what it had been .... 10—12 (2) In many respects different from what it had been .... 12—14 3. Considerations confirming the view taken — (1) The Glorification of Jesus began at His Resurrection . 14 — 17 (2) The work of Redemption was then completed .... 17 — 18 (3) Our Lord's Resurrection is the type of our own .... 18 — 24 CONTENTS. III. — Objections Considered. 1. The view taken of our Lord's Resurrection- body is self-contradictory . . . 24 — 27 2. The instantaneousness of the change required is impossible .... 27 — 28 3. The change would destroy personal identity . 28 — 32 IV. — Consequences following from the Fact. 1. The Evidence is that of Believers only . 32 — 35 2. The Evidence can be fully appreciated only by Believers .... 35 — 38 LECTUEE II. The Evidence for the Resurrection of our Lord. I. — The Evidence of St. Paul. 1. St. Paul affirms that he had seen the Risen Lord ..... 39—41 2. The effect produced upon him by what he saw 41 42 3. The Risen Lord the centre of the Pauline Theology ..... 42—44 4. The weight to be attached to St. Paul's evi dence ..... 44—45 IL — The Evidence of others of the Apostles. 1. The Evidence of St. Peter and St. John. . 45—46 2. The effect of the Resurrection on the lives of the Apostles '. . . 4g *» 3. The connexion of the Apostolic Office with the Resurrection . . 47 40 III.— The Evidence of many of the first Disciples of Christ. 1. The variety of circumstances under which the Risen Lord appeared . . 49 g-. 2. The characteristics of the evidence afforded . 51—52 3. The evidence published where and when the event happened . . . 52 55 CONTENTS. 4. Alleged defects in the evidence — pages (1) There was no eye-witness of the Resur rection itself .... 55 — 56 (2) The different witnesses are inconsistent with each other . . . 56 — 62 IV. — The Evidence afforded by the Rise and Ex istence of the Christian Church. 1. Belief in the Resurrection necessary to account for the origin of the Church . . 62 — 65 2. The Church reconstructed on the basis of this belief 65—68 3. Facts in the life of the Early Church confir matory of this — (1) Institution of the Lord's Day . 68 — 69 (2) Institution of Easter Day . . 69—70 (3) Testimony of the early Liturgies, and even, of the language of common life 70 — 71 V. — The Evidence in relation to the other Facts of Christ's History. . . . 71 — 72 VI. — The Evidence afforded by the Empty Grave 72 — 73 The Place and Importance of the Historical Evi dence ..... 73—75 LECTURE III. Theories opposed to the Fact of the Resurrection of our Lord. I. — That oub, Lord did not really die . . 76 — 80 II.- — That the Disciples practised an Imposition on the World ..... 80 — 81 III. — The Vision Theory. Explanation of the Theory . . . 81 — 83 1. Theory tested in the case of St. Paul — (1) By the Apostle's own language . 84 — 88 CONTENTS. (2) By considerations connected with his character and work . . . 88 — 90 (3) By the circumstances attending his conversion .... 90 — 93 2. Theory tested in the case of the Early Church — (1) Inconsistent with the mental state of the Disciples previous to the mani festations .... 93—100 (2) Inconsistent with the nature of the manifestations themselves . . 100 — 102 (3) Inconsistent with the state of the Christian community after the mani festations .... 102—107 (4) Inconsistent with other circumstances marking the manifestations . . 108 — 114 (a) With the length of time often occupied by them . . 108 (6) With the fact of their having been witnessed by many per sons simultaneously . . 108 — 110 (c) With the scene of the chief mani festations . . . 110—112 (d) With their sudden cessation . 112 — 114 Modification of the theory by Keim . . 114 — 117 The theory interesting, but untenable . . 117 — 119 LECTURE IV. Bearing of the Resurrection of our Lord upon His Person and Work. The Christian consciousness not independent of the fact 120 — 121 The meaning of the fact not exhausted by the ordinary statements upon the point .... 121 — 123 Place assigned to it in the teaching of Scripture — 1. In particular passages . . . 123 — 127 2. In the general structure and tone of different Books of Scripture .... 127 — 129 CONTENTS. PAGES I.— Bearing of the Fact on the Person of ouk Lord. It marks an advance on our Lord's Person . 129 — 131 This advance in conformity with God's eternal plan ..... 131—133 Our Lord the Archetype in which the Divine idea is realised .... 133 — 134 Our Lord's human nature perfected by His Resur rection ..... 134 His Resurrection a part of the Redemptive process 135 II. — Beaeing of the Fact on the Work of our Lord. 1. The Resurrection was the first stage in the completing of His work — (1) Of His work as Priest— That work not completed by His death 136 — 137 Ritual of the Law in the case of the sin-offering . . . 137—140 Application to our Lord's Priestly work 140 — 142 (2) Of His work as Prophet — Without His Resurrection the Message of Salvation would have been in complete .... 143 The Ministry of the Spirit would have been wanting . . . 143 — 148 (3) Of His work as King . . 148—151 Our Lord's Resurrection thus the completion of the first stage of His whole work . 151 — 152 2. The Resurrection was the Divine attestation to the work — (1) To the manner in which the work had been accomplished . . 153 — 156 (2) To the fact that the end of the work had been attained . • 156 — 159 CONTENTS. LECTURE V. Bearing of the Resurrection of our Lord upon Christian Life and Hope. PAGES The union between Christ and His people . 160 — 163 I. — The Risen Lord the Source of the Christian Life of Union with God. (1) Teaching of Scripture on this point . 163 — 165 (2) Teaching of experience on this point . 165 — 166 An Incarnate Lord as necessary now as ever . 166 — 167 The teaching of Scripture with regard to the Second Adam .... 167 — 170 II. — From the Risen Lord the Christian Life derives its Character and Scope. Our Christian standard is that of the Divine and Heavenly Lord .... 170 — 176 There is implied in this — (1) Separation from the world . . 176 — 177 (2) Consecration to God . . . 177 — 179 (3) Freedom .... 179—181 General effect of thus looking at the Christian life— (1) In relation to work and suffering . 181 — 182 (2) In relation to the consecration of the body ..... 182—183 III. — From the Risen Lord the Christian Life derives its Nourishment and Strength. Our Christian communion is with a Present and Living Lord .... 183—186 But with a Lord Risen also in the body . . 186 188 IV.— In the Risen Lord the Christian Life has its consummation. The Risen Lord conveys to us the hope of im mortality ..... 189 With a personal individual existence . . 189 193 Christians made partakers of the Divine nature . 193 19 5 CONTENTS. LECTURE VI. Bearing of the Resurrection of our Lord upon the Church and the World. I. — Bearing of the Fact upon the Church. PAGES It was the purpose of our Lord to institute a Church on earth .... 196—198 The Church instituted by the Risen Lord . 198—199 The Disciples prepared for their work by the Risen Lord. .... 199—201 In the Risen Lord we read the true nature of the Church's Mission .... 201—203 It is to the Risen Lord that the Church bears witness ..... 203 Some characteristics of the Church resulting from this idea — (1) In her being — (a) The visible unity of the Church 203—207 (b) Her aspect as a suffering yet triumphant Church . . 207—212 (c) The worship of the Church 212—216 (2) In her action on the world — (a) The universality of her Mission flows from the Risen Lord . 216—217 (6) Her responsibility discharged through the Risen Lord . 217—224 II.— Bearing of the Fact upon the World . 224 — 227 Closing Observations .... 227 — 236 Notes ....•¦ 239 — 316 LECTURE I. "Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen." — Luke xxiv. 5, 6. These words were addressed by angels, on the morning of the Resurrection, to the first visitors at the tomb of Jesus ; and they may be fitly adopted to express at once the principle and the aim of the present course of Lectures. I have to speak of the Resurrection of our Lord, — perhaps to some who do not believe the fact, certainly to many who are not thoroughly persuaded of it, and'not less certainly to many more who, while they admit it, are very in sufficiently alive to its vast and far-reaching issues. Even the Church of Christ — and the remark applies more especially to our Scottish Churches — seems not yet to have realised the full importance of the truth with which we have to deal. Her faith may be as lively and her love as sincere as that of the women in the text ; but, when she comes with grateful offerings to the tomb of her Lord, she too often seeks the living among the dead, and the words spoken B 2 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i to these women have to be addressed to her, " He is not here, but is risen." Two preliminary remarks must be made, in order that the position which I am to occupy in connexion with the subject before us may be better under stood : — 1. It is not my intention to make any appeal to those whose views of God and His relation to the world exclude the possibility of miracles. We shall, indeed, see hereafter that the Resurrection of our Lord is not a single or isolated fact, — a miracle like that of the multiplying of the bread or the walking on the sea — the absence of which would not have materially affected the general character of His mission ; but that it is, in the highest sense, a natural and necessary part of that scheme of the Divine government by which man and nature are carried onward to the destiny awaiting them. Yet, in whatever light we look at it, its miraculous char acter is undeniable. It supposes a direct and im mediate interposition of Divine power. It cannot be resolved into any of those processes around us to which our own experience bears witness. It is not a step in the ordinary evolution of the human race. Though contemplated from the first in the plan of the Creator and Governor of the world, it was, when it took place, a new beginning, a new creation, in the strict sense of the word, a miracle. To argue, therefore, with those in whose eyes the lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. miraculous and the historical exclude each other, would be vain. No amount of proof can be sufficient to convince them. In their view a miracle is for bidden alike by the experience of the past and by the necessary laws of history. The evidence may be varied, and clear, and strong ; but somewhere or other there must be delusion or mistake. The weight of an alleged fact as it claims to be miraculous, or is believed to be so, may be estimated, and the influence exercised by the belief must be allowed for ; but the fact itself can only be set aside. With those who entertain such views, it is of no use to reason upon grounds of evidence. The principles from which we severally start are contradictory of each other. Till the controversy regarding them is settled no further progress can be made. To engage in any discussion of that kind would here, however, be out of place. I address those, and those alone, who believe in a personal and free Ruler of the Universe, and in whose eyes a miracle is not inconsistent with just conceptions of Divine wisdom and goodness. 2. It is not my intention to discuss the authen ticity or genuineness of any of those books of Scrip ture which contain a great part at least of the evidence of the fact before us. Individual passages may occasionally require to be defended, but the books themselves must be accepted in the form in which we have them. This remark applies not only to those Epistles of St. Paul which even the most THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. negative criticism accepts, but to the Acts of the Apostles, to the three earlier Gospels, and to the Gospel of St. John. It may indeed be said that I thus ignore the present state of criticism upon what must necessarily form the very foundation of the argument. But the course to be pursued is both justifiable and necessary. The criticism of the books of Scripture is a subject the details of which are far too minute for discussion in a public audience. Even were it otherwise, the discussion would occupy the whole time at our disposal. It is well, too, to remember that the assertion, so often and so confidently made, that modern inquiry has demonstrated the untrustworthi- ness of those books to which we appeal, may be met with as repeated and as confident a denial. It has done nothing of the kind. Although it has modified in various respects our conceptions of the different books of the New Testament, — of their origin, their structure, and their aim, — it has failed to establish in the case of any one of them the full extent of its negative conclusions. Even those who differ from us will admit that, were it not for the miracles related in them, they would be entitled to take their place as historical documents by the side of other documents of similar antiquity. Their relation of miracles cannot be allowed to disturb this conclusion. Were it otherwise, we should be at once compelled to bring argument lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. respecting any part of their contents to an end. If, at the bidding of some particular system of philo sophy, and without evidence on other grounds that a New Testament book is unworthy of trust, we reject its statements whenever it relates a miracle, we shall have no point at which to pause, and no principle upon which to accept its narratives, even when they have nothing to do with miracles. We shall find that it is not merely the force of a particular expres sion, or the correctness of a particular statement, which has been rendered uncertain, but the drift and tenor of each book as a whole. So essentially is the miraculous interwoven with the structure of each, that, when we remove it, the aspect of the history is completely changed. Except on our own notions of probability, no one portion will be able to claim more authority than another. All historical statement will be at an end ; and, so far as the New Testament is itself concerned, we may close inquiry into its facts, because there is nothing to inquire into. Once more, it is an important consideration upon this point, that for evidence of the miracle of the Resurrection we are not wholly dependent upon the direct statements of the New Testament. Other important lines of evidence come in, not indeed sufficient of themselves, but involving facts which can hardly be accounted for on any other supposition than that the Gospel narratives of the Resurrection are true. Thus the general trustworthiness of our THE RESURRECTION [™ot. i. records, provisionally assumed, may ultimately be confirmed by the extent to which they harmonize with the best explanation of a series of important and independent phenomena. We may not, indeed, fully comprehend them until we read them in this light. If the argument now to be urged for the Resurrection of our Lord can be made to shape itself into a whole, consistent not only with the special statements of certain books sought to be discredited, but with the general revelation of Scripture as to the purposes of God, and with undeniable facts of history, it is not too much to say that that alone will go far to dispel the doubts about our records, awakened by the bold language of some later inquirers. We need not therefore attempt to settle these questions of criticism before we proceed further, and we may, for the time at least, accept as generally credible the books that have come down to us with the most powerful evidence in their favour. With these two preliminary remarks let us turn directly to the subject before us,— the Resurrection of our Lord. The precise nature of the fact first demands our attention. Only when we have formed as distinct a conception of it as possible, shall we be able to judge aright of the evidence necessary to establish it, as well as of the relation in which it stands to the other points to which our attention must be directed. These points will be — the Person and Work of our Lord Himself; Christian Life and lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. Hope ; and the Mission and Functions of the Church. On the nature of the fact there are especially two mistakes to be avoided. 1. There is the view of those who, while they adopt the language of the New Testament, hold that the Resurrection of our Lord is to be understood in a spiritual, not in a literal sense. According to them, it took place only in the hearts of His disciples. No body capable of being recognised by the senses came forth from that tomb in the garden where it had been laid by loving friends. But these friends who had lost the bodily presence of their Master were still possessed by His spirit. He lived and worked in their hearts after His death, and this was His real Resurrection : the spiritual alone is real.1 It is not necessary to ask whether a clear and definite idea can be attached to this view. One thing is obvious — it is not that given us in Scripture. Words denoting material objects are often indeed used there, in a spiritual sense ; and, had we no more than the word "resurrection" and its cognates to consider, they might perhaps be treated in that way. But the act itself comes before us in so many connexions, both of word and thought, that, if it can be so disposed of, all fixed interpretation of Scripture becomes impos- 1 This, so far as I can understand the language, is the view of Dr. Abbott in his work entitled Through Nature to Christ. See especially chap. xxii. THE RESURRECTION [leot. i. sible. In particular, the Resurrection of Christ is constantly associated with His Death, as one of two truths which constitute a unity of the closest kind, so that if the former is to be thought of as only spiritual, the latter must equally be so ; and again, it is the pledge and earnest of our own resurrection, so that upon the same supposition the resurrection of Chris tians is " past already," and St. Paul was mistaken when, in his Second Epistle to Timothy, he declared that certain teachers of this doctrine had " erred con cerning the truth."1 J 2. There is the view of those who imagine that, at His Resurrection, our Lord either entirely laid aside the material body in which He had previously lived — thus becoming a purely spiritual Being ;2 or who so far modify this hypothesis as to allow that, while essentially or mainly spiritual, He yet assumed material substance and form at special moments and for special purposes.3 But again, this view is incon sistent with the whole tenor of Scripture upon the point. It is constantly implied there that the life of our Lord after He rose was that of the man Christ Jesus. Whatever difficulties may attend the recep tion of the fact, one thing is clear, that the Apostles and early disciples of Christ did not think of His resurrection -state as simply spiritual, but that the 1 2 Tim. ii. 18. 2 Such/ is the view of Keim in his History of Jesus of Nazareth. 3 This was the opinion of Rothe, as expressed by him in his Theological Ethics. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. very substance and essence and peculiarity of their faith was this, that the same Son of man with whom they had companied during the years of His ministry had been brought back by the glory of His Father from the grave. Nor was it otherwise with the enemies of Christ. They understood the doctrine of the Resurrection in this sense ; and it was because they did so that their opposition was excited to the keenest pitch against its preachers. There was no thing in the mere proclamation of a life continued after death thus to provoke their rage. It was the assertion that Jesus Christ had risen in the body which drew forth at one moment their ridicule, at another their persecuting spirit. Around that fact, in its plain and literal acceptation, the infant Church closed her ranks, struggled for existence, and ulti mately prevailed. The very word " resurrection," indeed, has no meaning if we do not understand it in this sense. It is the raising again of what has fallen, the setting up again of what has been broken down. If Jesus only lived in the spirit after death, it would be an abuse of language to call such an entirely new life a resurrection. These remarks apply in part to the modification of this theory already spoken of ; besides which, it too is destitute of all Scripture proof. We never read there of such transitions from one state to another as are supposed. What the Risen Lord is at one moment He always is. If the properties of His being at 10 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. times present phenomena incompatible with human experience, it is not because they belong now to a heavenly, and now again to an earthly, existence. What connects Him with heaven shines through the scenes that tell us most of His connexion with earth; what connects Him with earth appears in the scenes that are most closely associated with heaven. After, not less than before, His Resurrection, our Lord is one. We must dismiss, therefore, both these views of our Lord's resurrection-state, as well as every other sharing their fundamental principle, that His risen body, whatever its peculiar substance or form, was not a body in any true sense of the term. Upon this general point the whole New Testament teaches with a voice so definite and clear that it is unnecessary to appeal to particular passages ; and we shall hereafter see that with a bodily, not a merely spiritual, resur rection are connected the most elevating considera tions which it addresses to man in his relation both to the present and the future. The existence of this teaching is admitted. The opponents of the Resur rection for the most part simply contend either that there are ways of explaining it other than that of acknowledging the reality of the fact, or that the whole story is a fable. Thus far it is not difficult to come. It is much more difficult to proceed further, and to form any thing like a distinct conception of what the resurrec tion-body of our Lord really was. Were it possible, lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 11 indeed, to adopt the idea generally entertained, that " the very body which hung upon the cross and was laid in the grave, rose again from the dead,"1 it would be easy to conceive of it. But, in the light of the collected statements of Scripture upon the point, such a view cannot be successfully maintained. It is true that the body of the Risen Saviour was, in various important respects, similar to what it had been. Many passages, often quoted to establish a certain greatness of change which had come over it, are insufficient for the purpose ;2 others distinctly illustrate the similarity of its new to its old condition. It still retained the print of the wound inflicted by the spear of the Roman soldier, and the marks of the nails by which it had been fastened to the cross. Upon one occasion the Risen Jesus even appealed to Thomas, upon another to all the disciples gathered together at the time, to convince themselves by these proofs that it was no other than Himself who had appeared among them. He calmed their fears by the words, " A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have ;"3 and, when they believed not for joy and wondered, He asked if they had any meat, and ate a piece of a broiled fish before them.4 In addition to this, many little particulars, suggested rather than expressly mentioned in the narratives of the Gospels, lead us' to the same conclusion. Thus, for example, we are entitled to infer that the features of our Lord's 1 Note 1. 2 Note 2. 3 Note 3. 4 Note 4. 12 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. countenance conveyed to the beholder much the same impression as they had formerly done ; that the tones of His voice had not materially changed ; and that His general form did not contradict the recollec tions of it which His disciples cherished.1 All these things speak not only of a bodily and material struc ture, but of one closely corresponding to that which our Lord possessed before His crucifixion. Much of the manner of His intercourse with the disciples, after the great event, confirms what has been said. He was not a new Redeemer. He was their old Master and Friend. He reminded them of the words that He had spoken while yet present with them;2 He sent messages to them in which their former intercourse was implied;3 and He accepted their tokens of joyful homage, when they hailed Him as One who, although thought lost, had been restored.4 There can be no doubt that He Himself wished to be recognised by them as essentially the same as ever, and that they acknowledged Him to be so. While all this, however, was the case, it is im possible not to see that, whatever the amount of likeness, a marked change had taken place in our Lord's resurrection-body ; and the same narratives which tell us of the likeness tell us also of the change. Thus, not only on the day of His Resurrec- 1 John xxi. 2 L^e xxiv_ 44_ 3 Matthew xxviii. 10 ; John xx. 17. 4 Matthew xxviii. 9 ; John xx. 20. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 13 tion, but on the first day of the following week, — the very occasion, that is, when He invited Thomas to put his fingers into the prints of the nails, and his hand into His side, — we are told that he came and stood in the midst of the disciples although the doors were shut ; and, from the marked manner in which the Evangelist repeats the statement, it is clear that he regarded this mode of entrance as supernatural.1 At Emmaus He as suddenly vanished out of the sight of the two with whom He had sat down to eat.2 He seems to have passed from place to place with a rapidity beyond that of ordinary locomotion. We never read of His retiring as of old for rest or food to the homes of any of His disciples. -We hear nothing of His hunger, or thirst, or weariness. Even when He allayed the fears of His disciples by show ing them His hands and His side, He indicated that He was not exactly what He had been, by speaking not of His " flesh and blood," but of His " flesh and bones ; "3 while the fact of the Ascension, and every notion that we can form of the heavenly abode, are incompatible with the idea that His resurrection- body was subject to the same conditions of ponderable matter as before. Nor is this all, for the manner of our Lord's intercourse with His disciples after His Resurrection bears hardly fewer marks of change than the nature of His person. He no longer accom panied them, as He had been wont to do, upon their 1 Note 5. 2 Luke xxiv. 31. 3 Note 6. 14 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. journeys, but sent them forth alone, and met them at the close.1 When Mary Magdalene, in the first joy of her discovery that He was again before her, would have clung to Him, He said, " Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father ; 2 and, when He came in contact with the others, there was a mysteri- ousness in His bearing, and a reserve in His mani festations of Himself, very different from what had been exhibited by Him during His previous life. Facts like these undoubtedly lead us to infer that after His Resurrection our Lord was not the same as He had been before He died, and that the body with which He came forth from Joseph's tomb was different from that which had been laid in it, and was already glorified. There are other considerations tending in the same direction ; and, as the point with which we are now dealing is one of the most momentous in our whole inquiry ; as it has the closest bearing upon the evidence ; and as it alone makes unspeakably precious what would otherwise have little influence upon either our life or hope, it is necessary to examine them : — 1. First, then, it ought to be observed that the Glorification of Jesus began at His Resurrection, not at His Ascension. All allow that the Saviour, now exalted in the heavens, has a body different from that which He possessed on earth. When did He 1 Matt, xxviii. 10-17. 2 Note 7. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 15 assume it ? There is not a word in the New Testa ment to favour the idea entertained by many that He did so only at the moment when, on the Mount of Olives, He took His last farewell of His disciples, and returned to the immediate presence of the Father.1 Nay, more, it is impossible not to feel that this idea assigns to the Ascension an impor tance of an entirely different kind from that assigned to it in Scripture. August as the Ascension is, and infinitely precious to the Church as the manifest entrance of her Lord upon the High Priestly office which is continually discharged by Him in heaven, it is not regarded by the sacred writers as in itself one of the great redemptive acts of Jesus. They deal only with two such acts in the later period of His history — His death and His Resurrection.2 To the Ascension a different place and meaning are ascribed. Three of the four Evangelists do not even mention it ;3 while the words of one of the three, and the other acts recorded by him of his Risen Master, lead directly to the conclusion that he associated everything essential to the Glorification of Jesus with that moment when He left the " linen cloths lying " in the grave, and "the napkin that was about His head rolled up in a place by itself."4 It is the same 1 Note 8. " Luke xxiv. 26 ; Rom. x. 9 ; xiv. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 3-4 ; 1 Thess. iv. 14 ; 1 Peter i. 19-21 ; Rev. i. 18 ; John ii. 22, etc. 3 The words of Mark xvi. 19 do not belong to the true text of that Gospel. 4 Note 9. 16 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. with St. Peter and St. Paul in their discourses and their letters. The Resurrection is their central theme. Even when the former speaks of the ministry of Christ as extending from the baptism of John to the day that He was taken up, the event upon which he fixes as standing in need of "witnesses," is the Resurrection;1 and when the latter, in 1 Timothy iii. 16, gathers together six parts of "the mystery of godliness," he does not say " received up into glory," but "received up in glory," — the glory was already there. There is no better foundation for the still more prevalent idea that the change produced upon the body of our Lord was gradual, — that it began at His Resurrection, went on in a progressive course during the forty days that elapsed between the Resurrection and the Ascension, and was only completed at the latter.2 No evidence can be adduced in support of such a view. Scripture affords no trace of an advance from one stage of glorification to another. Some of the most marvellous appearances of the Risen Saviour, those removing Him furthest from the condition of ordinary humanity, belong to the very day of His Resurrection ; and the language of St. John, when he describes each of the appearances recorded by him as a "manifestation"3 of Jesus, implies more than that our Lord simply made Himself known to His disciples upon these occasions. At Cana of 1 Acts i. 22. 2 Note 10. 3 jofln xxi, 14 lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 17 Galilee, when He turned the water into wine, we are told that He " manifested " His glory, J that is, that He caused rays of His hidden glory to shine forth. In like manner He now " manifested " Himself, that is, He revealed Himself out of a hidden glory into which He had passed ; and this glory could only be the glory of His eternal, state, not waiting to be begun, but begun already. 2. The view now taken is further confirmed by the fact that the triumph of our Lord began at His Resurrection, and neither at His Ascension nor at any point intermediate between that event and His Resurrection. When He rose His work of redemp tion, in so far as it involved suffering, was complete. Nay, not only all positive suffering, but all humilia tion, the thought of which it is not possible to separate from that of suffering, then terminated for ever. Sorrow could no longer touch His soul, such sorrow at least as He had known when He was " the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He Himself had said to His disciples at the last supper, that "henceforth," from that moment onward, He should drink only the " new wine " of His Father's kingdom. When His soul was thus delivered, His body must have enjoyed a parallel and equal deliver ance. There could be no dualism in His resurrection- state even for forty days,— the spirit free, the body bound, the one drinking a full cup of gladness, the 1 John ii. 11. 2 Note 11. C 18 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. other still tasting the cup of woe. When the reward began, the glory in all its parts must have begun also ; and, if the latter was not perfect, neither was the former. Scripture says nothing in this matter of degrees of glory rising successively above each other. 3. A third point must still be noticed, the bearing of which upon the question before us cannot be overlooked. Our Lord's Resurrection is the type and model of our own. Through union with Him we live. In conformity to Him lie both our present and our future glory. Whatever is told us of our own destiny must have had its analogy in Him. Were it not so, the whole argument of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. xv., and other similar passages of his Epistles, would be undermined. It would be impossible to accept the doctrine of the Second Adam, or to behold in the Risen and Glorified Lord the "first fruits of them that sleep." But we are left in no doubt as to the teaching of Scripture with regard to the general nature of that body with which believers rise. Thus, in Matt. xxii. 30, our Lord Himself says that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." In 1 Cor. xv. 50 we read, " Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." In 1 Cor. vi. 13 we read again, with the same idea at the bottom of the words, " Meats for the belly, and the belly for lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 19 meats : but God shall bring to nought both it and them." Passages such as these, even if they stood alone, would be sufficient to show that the body with which the believer rises from the grave cannot be the same as it is now ; and that the heavenly world demands an organization and functions different from those possessed by us in our present state. " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."1 Before they are fitted for a world in which there is neither change nor death, they must be changed ; they must, in whatever way we endeavour to conceive of it, become different from what they are. The passages just quoted do not stand alone. There is another in which St. Paul expressly describes the change upon those who shall inherit the kingdom denied to " flesh and blood." " There is sown," he says, " a natural body ; there is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."2 By the first of these expressions we are not to understand something conformable to nature, but the psychical, the soulish, something adapted to the psychical, the soulish, life in man, — that life which is possessed by us in common with the lower animals, and as it is when viewed apart from the higher spiritual principle which fits us for communion and fellowship with God. By the second we are not to understand the thin, the ethereal, the ghostly, but the pneumatical, the 1 1 Cor. xv. 50. Note 12. 20 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. spiritual, something adapted to spiritual life in man, — that life possessed by us when God dwells in us, and we in Him. The words say nothing in either case of the material particles of our bodies. They do not describe them as being on this side the grave gross, sluggish, ponderable, as on the other side refined, quick, imponderable. For aught we know, the particles of the body in this dim spot of earth may be of the same nature as they shall be in the bright home of heaven. There is no need to imagine that they must differ in their essence ; they may be only subject to a different law. Modern science throws light upon this supposition ; and, by what it has revealed to us of the structure of the universe, may be even said to lend it a degree of probability which it might not otherwise possess. Spectral analysis favours the idea that, to the remotest systems of the infinite depths of space, the con stituent elements of all created bodies resemble one another ; while it has also shown that they are more or less the same as those of earth. Does any one suppose that, considering the different relations in which these bodies stand to the centre of their own systems, or to the systems rolling around them, the laws of relationship between them and all that moves upon their surface will also be the same ? This can not be. The particles constituting a livino- creature upon one planet may, when transferred to another, be themselves the same, but the laws under which lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 21 they repel or combine with one another, as well as their functions and powers, may be different. The amount of gravity, for example, at the surface of the various bodies of the solar system is very different. Thus also with our bodies. The laws of relation among their particles may change in the transition from the natural to the spiritual body ; but it does not follow that the particles themselves must so change their nature as not to deserve, the name of bodily particles at all. In its fundamental atoms the " spiritual " body may be as truly a body as the "natural" one. As, too, our experience affords an analogy to the nature of the change referred to, so also it helps us to comprehend the principle by the operation of which that change appears to be effected. Even in our present state we have well- authenti cated instances of the wonderful influence that can be exercised by the spirit over the body;1 and we have only to suppose, what we must suppose, that in the state of the redeemed the spirit shall be endowed with a glorious strength, far surpassing the highest measure attainable by it in this world, in order to feel that the body may then also be so changed as to be no longer involved in the same conditions as before. In this waythe "spiritual" bodyfor which we wait may still be a body, although its needs, its functions, and its powers may be wholly diverse from what they at present are. 1 Note 13. 22 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i But what befalls us must have befallen our Lord. As our great Forerunner in the way to heaven, as our Pattern and Exemplar within the veil, He did not take upon Him our nature only for the three and thirty years of His life on earth. He took it into union with His own Divine nature for ever. He formed with it an indissoluble tie. He bound it to Himself in such a way that it was necessary for Him to share its fortunes whatever they might be, whether of weakness or strength, of joy or sorrow, of fixity or change. To think that at any future time, or in any future circumstances, our body may be one thing, while our Lord's body was, in the same circumstances, a different thing, would be to deprive the Incarnation of its meaning, and to invalidate the force of the encouragement which it supplies. It follows from all this that the body with which Jesus rose was not the same as that with which He died. At one moment or another of those mysteri ous hours during which He lay in the tomb in the garden a great change took place: the "natural" became a " spiritual " body ; what was sown in " cor ruption," in this corruptible and mortal flesh, was raised in " incorruption ;" what was sown in "weak ness '' was raised in " power." The remarks now made would in all probability be more easily received were it not for the totally unfounded impression, that if the resurrection- body of our Lord was thus an already glorified body, the lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 23 change must have been such as would at once strike the eye with tokens of the unearthly or the heavenly. It is supposed that the words " glory " and " glorify " refer to an outer not an inner glory, to a glory like that which surrounded Jesus when He was trans figured ; and the idea takes firm possession of the mind that, when He rose in glory, His raiment and His countenance must have shone with a brightness at least equal to that which was exhibited on the Holy Mount. There is no ground for thinking so. Properly interpreted, "glory" and "glorify" speak neither of angelic brightness in the countenance, nor of rays of golden light encircling the brow. They speak of the glory of sonship, of the glory of the revelation of the Father's love in the suffering and sacrifice and death of His well-beloved Son, and of that glory at length owned and adored by an assem bled Universe.1 No statements of the condition of our Lord after His Resurrection speak of an outward glory. The opposite rather is implied when Mary Mag dalene believed Him to be the gardener ; and when His disciples, after He did make Himself known to them, experienced none of those emotions with which the three favoured Apostles were overwhelmed at the spectacle of the Transfiguration. Upon our Lord's body, as it came from the tomb, there may have been neither outward nor visible change. The change which it had undergone may have consisted i Note 14. 24 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. altogether in this, that it was now so plastic under the power of the Spirit that both spirit and body coalesced into. a perfect unity: the old struggle between the limitation of the one and the illimitableness of the other was entirely and for ever closed.1 To all that has now been said different objections may be offered. 1. The view taken of our Lord's resurrection-body may be said to be self-contradictory and impossible. The objection would have weight were it necessary to believe either that the personality of our Lord, in the apparently inconsistent acts related of Him, was really different, — in one, Divine, in another, human, — or that these acts, instead of being a natural expres sion of what He .was, were due to a special exercise of miraculous power. Both these suppositions are unnecessary. If we accept the doctrine of the Incar nation, if we believe that the Eternal Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, we must believe that our Lord, from that point onwards, always existed, not in one state or condition only, but simultaneously in two. The two indeed were combined into one united state; yet in such a manner that, at any instant, either of them might easily be more promi nent than the other, might easily manifest itself as His leading characteristic, because in closer corre spondence than the other with the particular stage of His history at the time. Thus, during His life on 1 Note 15. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 25 . * : earth, when He moved mainly amidst earthly things, what predominated in Him were the points of His connexion with earth : after His Resurrection, when He moved mainly amidst heavenly things, the points of His connexion with heaven came prominently for ward. In neither case was the less prominent nature laid aside. In the former He was still Divine, though constantly exerting, in order to maintain the limita tions of His human state, the same act of self-sacrifice as that made by Him when He assumed humanity. In the latter He was still human, though the limita tions of His humanity were, for the most part, swallowed up in the illimitableness of His heavenly condition. The more retired aspect, therefore, if we may so speak, of His compound nature might at any moment assert itself, without doing violence to the other. It might come forward in answer to the demands of surrounding circumstances : it might withdraw to a subordinate position when the demand passed away. In all this too, it will be observed, there is no miracle specially performed for the occasion. The personality as a whole remains the same : it does not change the completeness of its compound state; all that we can say is that, for adequate reasons, one part of it is for the time more prominent than the other. Illustrations of what has been said are afforded, during our Lord's life before the cross, by His walking on the Sea of Galilee, by His Transfiguration, by His slipping out of the hands of the mob at Nazareth, by 26 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. His sudden withdrawals from the crowds at Jerusalem when they threatened His life too soon.1 Why may not illustrations of the same general principle, al though from the opposite point of view, be afforded by His life after His Resurrection ? And, if He had not then completely laid aside His human nature, why may He not have shown by such proofs as men can best understand that His humanity was real? Unless, therefore, we either hold any union of the Divine and human to be impossible, or merge the two completely into one, making the Divine the human or the human the Divine, it seems not un reasonable to think that the one element might occasionally assert pre-eminence, even in the con dition in which the other generally ruled. Nor is it possible to say that in all this there is anything contradictory to the nature of matter. We know indeed too little of the essence of matter, too little of the laws which govern the movements of its infinites- inially minute molecules, too little of its relation to spirit, and of what may be the effect of its complete subserviency to spirit, to entitle us to assert that the existence of such a body as that now spoken of is impossible. Is it even more wonderful than the fact of which we are told by our physicists, that in the instant or half instant needed to flash the electric spark from Europe to America, the molecules not only of three thousand miles of wire, but of the sheathing 1 Note 16. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 27 in which the wire is enclosed, and of the water in its immediate neighbourhood, have either changed their place or been affected? There is undoubtedly the exertion of a new power ; but how innumerable are the powers in the universe of which we yet know nothing ! If we may not fully comprehend, the analogies around us may at least bid us be silent. 2. It may be urged that, even if the general idea of such a body as that of which we have spoken be admitted, it is difficult, if not impossible, to believe that the transition to it could have been effected in a moment. A gradual, not an instantaneous, change to the new body, it may be said, is alone intelligible. Even those who may adopt this view, however, Would be compelled to admit that the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension are the only period to which they can assign the change ; and that period is far too short to be of the slightest use for such a purpose. If the process of change is to be thought of as gradual, ages upon ages are too little for its completion. In this respect, therefore, the suddenness of the change is in its favour rather than the reverse; for such suddenness is not without analogy in other parts of the history both of our Lord Himself, and of His people. What was the Incarnation? Was not the light which from "the beginning" had been shining in the darkness then embodied in an instant ? Was not a " holy thing " then born into the world at once ? and, if the idea of 28 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. the perfect development of the race in its moral and spiritual aspects was thus suddenly realised, why may there not have been something equally sudden with the bodily development of Him who is the type of the race, not only in its inward and spiritual, but also in its outward and material, aspects I1 And then as to Christ's people. The Apostle Paul tells us of those who shall be alive upon the earth at the Lord's Second Coming, that they shall be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."2 What is possible in their case cannot have been impossible in their Lord's. The transition from one great stage of being to another, from unconsciousness to conscious ness, from death to life, must always be sudden. There may be long preparation ; the elements may be long ripening for what is to come; but, when the hour does come, it must be with the rapidity of an electric stroke ; the gulf between the past and the present must be crossed at one bound. 3. It may be objected that the change spoken of is inconsistent with the preservation of personal identity. If our Lord did not rise with the very body with which He died, was He still the same Lord ? The objection proceeds upon the supposition that personal identity depends upon the preservation of the same material and ponderable particles of the body, and that, too, in the same relation to each other. Such a supposition is at variance with facts. The particles of the human 1 Note 17- 2 1 Cor. xv. 52. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 29 body, it is well known, undergo such continual change, that, in the body of the youth, there is probably not one that belonged to the body of the child ; in the body of the old man not one that belonged to the body of the youth. Yet personal identity is preserved through these different periods of life. The youth is the same personal individual being as the child, the old man the same as the youth. They know them selves, and we know them, to be so. The experiences of the earlier stages of our lives are, in their later stages, as truly ours, and ours alone, as at the moment when they were made. The memories of any one period of our existence belong to no one but ourselves, and do what we like we cannot transfer them to an other. We are a part of all that we have seen, although now, when we look back, not one atom may be left of the old eye that saw. Nor is it thus only with man. It is the law of all existence. That which constitutes the identity of a grain of wheat is preserved, although the grain passes into the blade, the blade into the ear, the ear into the full corn in the ear. That which con stitutes the identity of an insect is preserved, although the changes that take place in it are often so great that long-continued and patient tracing of its growth is necessary to establish a conclusion which would be rejected by every ordinary observer as incredible. In neither of these cases is there the slightest resem blance between the beginning and the end ; not one 1 Note 18. 30 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. particle of matter is left in its old relations : yet identity is not destroyed. Upon what personal identity really depends is an altogether different question, and we are not called upon to answer it. We know too little either of the body or the soul, or of the particular law which, regulating their relation to one another, constitutes the personality of each individual, to be able to throw any light upon such a point. It is enough to urge that no change in the bodily frame, however sudden or complete, necessarily affects the identity of him in whom the change takes place. We can easily conceive our bodies to be endowed with properties altogether different from those which they now possess ; to be under laws of limitation from which they are now free ; to be free from laws of limitation by which they are now bound ; to be independent of the means of sustenance now absolutely indispensable to continued life ; to be possessed of organs of sensation elevated to a degree of accuracy and power of which we have no experi ence ; to be delivered from all that hinders them from accompanying the soul in its loftiest or most distant flights, — while yet we ourselves shall remain the same beings as we are, in everything that makes existence either personal to us or a worthy object of desire. Must it have been otherwise with Christ? We cannot too completely dispel the idea, ever apt to linger in the mind, that unless our Lord rose with the particles of His human body the same, and under OF OUR LORD. 31 the same laws, as when He died, He must be a different Lord, a different personality, from what He was. These objections, then, may be dismissed, and we may return to the fundamental proposition of the present Lectures, that the body with which our Lord rose from the grave, though still a true body, was not the same as that with which He died. If so, it cannot fail to be observed how absolutely unique is the fact with which we have to deal. Viewed even in its simplest form, indeed, the story of our Lord's Resurrection, as that of a rising from the grave, may justly be spoken of as unique. There have been stories of other so-called resurrections, when the popular mind, awed by the gigantic virtues or vices of heroes or of tyrants, has fancied to itself that those who had so deeply moved the world must return to this stage of life from which they had for the moment disappeared. But not one of whom such expectations were entertained was ever supposed to have actually died. It was not to death that the subjects of these popular legends succumbed ; it was to sleep, only sleep prolonged for years or centuries.1 If, however, even as compared with them, the Resur rection of our Lord, in any form in which it is possible to think of it, was unique, it possesses, when looked at in its true nature, a stamp of uniqueness wholly different and infinitely higher. They were, at the 1 Note 19. 32 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. most, only resurrections to the old conditions of life, to be followed in due time by death. Here there was not only no more death ; there was a total change. The Risen One was the same, yet not the same. A wonderful transition had taken place ; and, although in the root of His Being the Christ of the resurrection- morning was the same as formerly, His body was yet in many respects different from what it had been when He died on Calvary. The Lord Jesus rose, but not to His old condition — that is the teaching of the New Testament, and the whole value of Christ's Resurrection is involved in it. Such then is the fact with which we have to deal. Let us note two consequences which follow from it ; the first connected with the Evidence, the second with the Effect that the evidence ought to produce on us. 1. As to the Evidence, we cannot expect it to be in all respects similar to that which proves the reality of the life of Jesus before His crucifixion. In point of fact we know that it is not. It is the evidence of believers only ; and from the days of Celsus down wards it has been urged that the Christian cause is weakened by this fact. Even now there is an impression upon many minds that our evidence would have been much stronger and more irresistible than it is, had it also been borne by the world ; had Jesus showed Himself not to disciples only, witnesses chosen before of God, but to all the people — to Pharisees and Sadducees, to the judges who condemned Him, and to lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 33 the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross. What has been said ought completely to expose the fallacy of such reasoning. If our Lord's post-resurrection state was such as has been described, it was not possible for Him to come into contact with the world again. To have done so would have been to renew His Passion. That Passion consisted in other things besides sufferings deliberately inflicted upon Him by the world. Mere intercourse with the world caused no small part of it. To have His aims misunder stood, His motives misinterpreted, His invitations scorned ; to have the very works in which the glory of His Father most conspicuously appeared traced to a league on His part with Beelzebub ; to find that much of the Divine seed sown by Him fell upon the hard wayside, and was taken away before it could penetrate the heart ; to come into hourly contact with ignorance instead of knowledge, selfishness instead of love, oppression instead of justice, formalism instead of piety, truth perverted by its appointed guardians, His Father's house turned into a den of thieves, the wretched denied consolation, man living without God and dying without hope, — all this was suffering and sorrow ; it was His burden and His cup of woe. No approach even to a fresh experience of a like kind was possible after the burden had been borne and the cup drained to the dregs. From the very nature of the case, the Risen Lord could come in contact only with disciples,— with those in whom, instead of D 34 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. finding cause for a renewal of His pain, He might " see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied." If His Resurrection was the beginning of His glory, it would have been a reversal of the whole plan of our redemption, a confounding of the different steps of the economy of grace, had He "after His passion "* presented Himself alive to any but disciples. But that is not all. It was not only on His own account that our Lord, having now entered upon His Glorification, could no more show Himself to the world ; it was also because the world could neither have understood Him nor borne true witness to Him. The mere sensuous perceptions of men could not have appreciated what He was ; and the impressions of ordinary observers would have been false. Having known Him only as a man, with the limitations and wants of other men, what would they have thought when they saw Him unconfined by these limitations, unaffected by these wants, no longer dependent upon food, and suddenly appearing and disappearing as the inhabitant of some higher sphere, but either that He was a spirit or that He was not the same Jesus as before ? We have no right, therefore, to ask for evi dence from the world of the Resurrection of our Lord. It was not an arbitrary thing in the Almighty to reject such evidence, nor was it part of a judicial pro cess, in order that those who had not turned their eyes to the Christ in His humiliation might be deprived 1 Acts i. 3. lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 35 of the opportunity of beholding Him in His exalta tion. It was necessary : it was an essential part of that fitness of things which God never violates. The world could not have borne witness to what Jesus had become; and, because it could not, it had no opportunity of making the attempt. 2. As to the Effect which the evidence ought to have on us, it follows from what has been said that we cannot have a true view of the Resurrection of our Lord until we have come within the circle of Christian truth, and have been spiritually prepared to apprehend it. The Resurrection is more than an outward fact ; it has a transcendental meaning. Proof of the out ward fact men may have — such proof as has led many to believe that there is no fact of the past so well attested. But the fact alone is of comparatively small importance. It is a miracle ; so is the raising of Lazarus or of the widow's son at Nain. We cannot say of any one miracle that it is greater or smaller than another in respect of evidential power. It may be more or less striking, more or less calculated to impress the imagination or to touch the feelings — but what passes in the least degree beyond human capability brings us at once into the presence of the Divine. It is not wrong then to say that the mere fact of our Lord's rising again is of comparatively small importance. Had He returned to a human state altogether similar to His former one it would concern us little. Like any other miracle, it might THE RESURRECTION help to convince us that Christianity is from God, but it would have no organic connexion with our own Christian life ; it would neither satisfy our wants nor appease our longings. What we care to believe is that, after His Resurrection, our Lord entered on a new and spiritual stage of being ; that He moved in another region — in another world ; that He was no longer spirit dwelling in a tabernacle of clay, but spirit expressing itself in a form wholly suitable to its nature as pure spirit, and lifted above the conditions by which it had been formerly confined. This cannot be felt by those who are living outside the circle of Christian truth ; and only, therefore, when they come within that circle can they acknowledge the full power of the evidence of the Resurrection of Christ, because only then can they comprehend its meaning. It may indeed be said that the Apostles preached the Resurrection of their Lord to the Jews and to the world as a fundamental verity of the Christian faith, and that they expected the world to be convinced by the assertion that God had raised Him from the dead. Undoubtedly they did. But when they did so, they did not proclaim the Resurrection simply as a miracle. They proclaimed it in all the depth of its meaning, in all the vastness of its issues, as a part of the whole body of Christian truth, that it might thus touch the hearts of the susceptible, that it might stir the little spark of conscious relation to God which is by nature in the breast of every one, and which, when lect. i.] OF OUR LORD. 37 not suppressed or extinguished, is waiting to kindle into flame in the presence of the full brightness of the Truth. The preaching of the Resurrection of our Lord by His Apostles was not simply a display of evidence. It was that, but it was more. It was the assertion of a truth of Christianity, which, by its meaning, unified and irradiated all the other truths. The two things reacted on each other. The fact, resting on its appropriate evidence, invited to the consideration of its own transcendental meaning ; the transcendental meaning, showing the place of the fact in the Divine economy of grace, gave probability and even confirmation to the fact. This is the sacred circle of truth, the thought of whose completeness somewhere is suggested to every one by the intima tions of his own breast. When we catch a glimpse of the whole, we can best determine whether the small arc on which we are standing is a part of that whole, or whether it belongs to some other circle. In vain should we attempt to make the truth easier of accept ance by insisting only upon single parts of it for a time. It is not by a mutilated but by a whole gospel that we best win men to the faith of Christ. First one part of it attracts them, then a second part is seen, and perhaps a third ; as yet isolated, unconnected, but awakening the thought that there is the same measure of circularity in each ; until at last the con viction forces itself upon the mind that they are really parts of the same circle, and the circle itself stands 38 THE RESURRECTION [lect. i. before the view in all its completeness, around Him ¦as its centre who is the centre of all truth, the Life and the Light of men. Thus, then, we have suggested to us the course which ought to be taken in connexion with the sub ject of these Lectures. In the first instance we have to deal with history. The fact that the Lord did rise must rest upon a firm basis of historical evidence. No wants or longings of the heart of man, no moral or religious considerations of any kind whatever, can of themselves establish such a fact. The fact must precede the dogma, if dogma it can be called, not the dogma the fact. But we cannot pause there. We must try to ascertain the meaning of the fact, to assign to it its position in the arrangements of the Almighty for the human race, and to see if it be not a fitting step in some great process, a part of some great plan. Then we shall have fresh evidence con firmatory of the historical, and the historical evidence will possess fresh power. Until the whole case, there fore, has been looked at, those perplexed with diffi culties ought to suspend their judgment ; and let it be the earnest prayer of each of us that, upon a matter involving such momentous issues, we may all be guided into all the truth. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 39 LECTURE II. " This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." Acts ii. 32. From the general considerations mentioned in my last Lecture in connexion with the Resurrection of our Lord, I proceed to the evidence for the fact. Yet it is only a brief summary of this evidence that can now be attempted. We must hasten onwards, with as little delay as possible, to the theories which have been brought forward to weaken its force, and to the dogmatic and practical value of the fact itself. I begin with the evidence of St. Paul ; partly because of its clearness and the weight of the cir cumstances attending it ; partly because it is that of which we possess the earliest record ; for, to say nothing of its other sources, it is contained in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, written before either the Apocalypse or the Gospels. It is not necessary 40 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. to dwell in detail upon the particulars given us of that occasion on which St. Paul believed that he beheld the Risen Lord, and of which we have no fewer than three accounts in the Acts of the Apostles, — one by the author of that book, the other two from the lips of St. Paul himself.1 These particulars are familiar to every one. It has indeed been urged that variations in the narratives destroy their value, indicating for them either a mythical origin, or a tendency of the writer so to frame his story on each particular occasion as to adapt it to the circumstances in which he was introducing the Apostle at the time. But the differ ences are not greater than will always be found in accounts of the same event, given by different actors or even by the same actor at different periods of his life. Through them all the statement stands pro minently forth, that Saul, on his way to Damascus, and in the circumstances described, beheld the Risen and Glorified Lord. The passages, 1 Cor. ix. 1 and xv. 8, are to the same effect. The first of these, "Am I not an Apostle ? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord ?" 2 derives its whole force from the fact that St. Paul had actu ally seen the Lord after His Resurrection, and had received his apostolical commission from Him in the same way as his fellow -apostles. In the second, " And, last of all, as unto one born out of due time, 1 Acts ix. 1-30 ; xxii. 1-21 ; xxvi. 2-23. » Note 20. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 41 He appeared to me also," the thought of a bodily appearance of the Risen Saviour is rendered necessary by the whole argument of the chapter, which unques tionably refers to a bodily resurrection of believers. It is not enough, however, to dwell on passages such as these, in which St. Paul directly asserts that he had seen the Risen Lord. We have to remember the effect produced upon him by what he saw. That effect is indeed no sufficient proof that his impressions were well founded, but it is a proof how deeply he was himself convinced that the sight had been real and not imaginary. It changed the whole current of his life. It supplies the key at once to his labours and his system of Christian thought. His conception of the Christian life is founded on it.1 It moulded and fashioned him. It made him what he was. It filled his life with all that he felt to be worth living for. It stirred him with that zeal which never wearied. It led him to accept his sufferings hot merely with patience but with joy. It taught him to welcome the hour of his departure, though he expected it amidst the pains of martyrdom, as a king waiting to be crowned welcomes the approach of his coronation.2 To all this we have the most ample testimony from his own lips. In the case of the Gospel witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, we have for the most part nothing except brief statements of 1 Rom. vi. 3-6. 2 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. 42 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. what they saw of their Risen Master ; and we can only infer that that sight roused them from their despondency to the new and vigorous life of the early Church. In the case of St. Paul, upwards of twenty years of unparalleled labours are before us, with Epistles of his own, laying open, at every stage of that long period, the inmost feelings of his heart, revealing often in the most incidental manner the motives by which he was animated, enabling us to study him with the most minute analysis, showing us the whole secret of his life and work. And what was that secret ? It has been said by the great leader of the negative school of criticism on the Continent that it was the impressiveness with which the death of Jesus came all at once to stand before his soul, and that "from the moment of the revelation in which the Son of God was revealed in him, he lives only in the contemplation of the Crucified One ; his whole system of thought turns upon this one fact." x The same idea, though not used for the same purpose, probably prevails in much wider circles. But it is not correct. The importance attached by St. Paul to the death of Christ depends not simply on the fact that Jesus died, but on the fact that he who so died was afterwards the Risen One. It was not by the thought of the death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin that St. Paul was led to the thought of His Resurrec tion. The process in his mind was the reverse. It 1 Baur, History of the First Three Centuries, p. 47. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 43 was the thought of His Resurrection, the thought that by it He had been proved to be the Son of God with power, which showed the peculiarity and im portance of His death. Christ himself, the Second Adam, the " Man from heaven," is the centre of the Pauline Theology ; and it was as the Risen Lord that He appeared to him in that character. Even were we to accept Baur's view, we should still have to explain how that death upon the cross, which in the eyes of a Jew was fatal to Messianic claims, not only lost its shame to the Apostle, but became to him the germinating principle of a new order of things by which the world was to be transfigured and glorified. There would be only one solution of the difficulty, and that solution the Resurrection.1 Hence it is that in many a passage in which St. Paul speaks of Jesus, His Resurrection, although it may not be expressed, is implied. The title " Lord," in particular, so often used by him, always carries us to His heavenly not merely to His earthly glory ; 2 while the general tone of the Apostle's language, both in his addresses in the Acts and in his own letters, shows us that faith in a risen and living Christ is the undercurrent by the force of which he is irresistibly borne along, whatever at any particular moment are his feelings or pur poses or aims. It is not conceivable that so powerful an effect should have been produced upon him, had he not himself been thoroughly satisfied as to the fact 1 Note 21. 2 Note 22. 44 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. to which alone it can be traced. It is certainly out of a conviction as clearly formed and as firmly held as human conviction can be that he speaks. Let us suppose for a moment that he was wrong, it would evidently have been a hopeless task to try to convince him that he was so. We may listen to him or not ; his testimony will never change. All this is the more remarkable when we consider that St. Paul was thoroughly alive to the extra ordinary nature of the fact, and that he gives his testimony as one who is both aware that it needs confirmation by others, and that he is under a solemn sense of responsibility to be faithful. We see the first of these points in his summary of witnesses in the opening verses of 1 Cor. xv., and in the expres sion which comes in so incidentally at verse 6, when, mentioning the five hundred brethren, he adds, " of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." We see the second in verse 15 of the same chapter, in the horror with which he shrinks from being "found" a false witness of God, because he has " testified of God that He raised up Christ ;" for the word "found" shows us that he is thinking of Divine not human judgment, that he is witnessing at the bar of God and not of man.1 In circumstances such as these, St. Paul gives his testimony to the Resurrection of our Lord ; and he so gives it that the most skilful counsel in a modern 1 Note 23. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 45 court of law will scarcely venture to think that, were the Apostle now before him, it would be in his power to shake it by any cross-examination which he could conduct. Even Baur abandoned the attempt to explain it fully. " It is true," he says, " that no analysis, whether psychological or dialectical, can detect the inner secret of the act in which God revealed His Son in him;"1 in other words, the miracle being impossible, and the inner process in the Apostle's mind inexplicable, all that we can do is to ask as to any step which prepared the way for his transition to the Christian faith. Such a state ment cannot satisfy inquirers ; and it has not done so. Baur's own disciples have been dissatisfied, and have resorted to the theory of visions. The value of that theory must remain for consideration in my next Lecture. In the meantime it is clear that we have, in the Apostle of the Gentiles, not only a witness for a bodily Resurrection of our Lord, but one whose evidence is confirmed and strengthened by every consideration that can lend it weight. II. We have not only the evidence of St. Paul, but also that of others of the Apostles. It is true that writings of only two or three of their number have come down to us, so that we cannot, in the case of 1 u. s., p. 47. 46 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. all of them, refer to actual words which they em ployed. But, when we can do so, nothing can be more explicit than their statements. We have the witness of St. Peter, so often given both in the Acts of the Apostles and in his own First Epistle, that it seems hardly necessary to quote any special passage.1 St. John, in the Apocalypse, speaks of Jesus Christ as the "first born of the dead."2 And the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, while implying through-- out his whole argument as to the High Priesthood of Christ that the Lord is risen, draws his Epistle to a close with prayer, on behalf of his readers, to the God of peace " who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus."3 We are not, however, left to such words as these. Both in the case of those who wrote them, and in that of the other Apostles, we have something more powerful than words : we have their lives. We can compare what they were immediately after the Resur rection with what they were before it. The change is marked and striking. The men who, but a few days previously, had been so timorous that they had shut themselves up in an apartment with closed doors for fear of the Jews, now hasten to the most public places in Jerusalem, that they may testify to the innocence of their Master and to the guilt of 1 Actsi. 22; ii. 24-33; iii. 13-15; iv. 10; v. 81, 32; x. 40-42; 1 Peter i. 3-21; iii. 18-21. 2 Rev. i. 5. 3 Heb. xiii. 20. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 47 those who crucified Him. The men who had not only quailed before the authorities when their Lord was seized, but had forsaken Him in His hour of utmost need, now face without hesitation the highest tribunal of the land, and openly defy it. The men who shrank from suffering to such a degree that the boldest of them disowned his Master's allusion to its coming, now'glory in affliction, persecution, and death. Weakness has given place to strength, sadness to joy, despair to hope. Above all, the narrow prejudices of their time have been overcome ; and they rise to the thought of a whole world gathered into one family of God, each nation equally dear to Him, each equally fitted to serve Him in its own place. Things like these are the tokens of a change so great that we seem to move in a region of fiction when we speak of it. Yet it is not denied that it was real. How is it to be explained? It needs explanation, and no explanation is even attempted except one. The Apostles believed that they had seen the Risen and Glorified Lord : whether they deceived themselves is not the question now. It is enough for us at present that they did believe, and that these results can be traced to nothing but that faith. Nay, further, we ought not to overlook the fact that the very office of Apostle which they held, was much more intimately associated in their minds with the Resurrection of Christ than we commonly suppose. We have seen how closely the two things were con- 48 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. nected in the case of St. Paul. He felt that his apostleship depended on his having seen the Risen Lord. But this was not because to have seen Him was a mere matter of Christian privilege, by which he was placed upon an equality with the eleven who had been in Christ before him. Both in their case and his, the connexion with the Resurrection of Jesus was of a much deeper kind ; and it lay in the very nature of the apostolic office that the person clothed with it must be a " witness " of the truth out of which it sprang.1 Every apostolic work or suffer ing leads, therefore, directly to the thought of the Risen Saviour. The more faithfully the work was done, the more patiently the suffering was met, the more have we testimony to Jesus, not simply as He died, but as He rose again. III. In addition to the evidence of St. Paul and of other Apostles, we have also that of many of the first disciples of Christ. Putting out of view the appear ance to St. Paul, ten different appearances of the Risen Saviour are recorded in the New Testament.2 It is by no means certain, indeed, that even these are the only ones, for the language of St. Luke, when he says that " unto the apostles whom He had chosen 1 Acts i. 22. For a fuller statement on the point see Lecture VI. v Note 24. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. He showed himseK alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the king dom of God,"1 would seem to imply that there may have been other occasions when the Apostles enjoyed the opportunity of beholding and conversing with their Master. But, whether absolutely all or not, ten appearances are those of which alone we have positive information, and to them we must confine ourselves. Even the evidence connected with them, indeed, there is no time to consider in detail ; but it is so well impressed on every memory that, without attempting this, some of its general characteristics may be noted. Let us mark, — 1. The variety of circumstances under which the Risen Saviour appeared. It was not simply to one person or set of persons that He manifested Himself at different times ; nor was it only to persons whose frame of mind at the moment may be supposed to have been the same. The women in a company; the two disciples on the way to Emmaus ; the Apostles assembled without the doubting Thomas ; the same Apostles assembled with Thomas in their midst ; the five hundred brethren; the seven Apostles by the Sea of Tiberias ; the eleven who were present at the Ascension; Mary Magdalene, Peter, James, — each of these last alone,— how different are the groups which witnessed the stupendous fact ! Nor were the 1 Acts i. 3. E 50 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. feelings of these different groups, at the instant when the manifestations were made to them, less various than the groups themselves. The women departing quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy ; Mary Magdalene standing without the sepulchre weeping ; the two disciples talking in sadness of all the things that had happened ; the Apostles assembled with shut doors for fear of the Jews ; the same Apostles again assembled, with the addition of one who was resolved to put any appearance which they might witness to the strictest proof; the brethren in Galilee gathered together in obedience to Christ's command, and in wondering expectation of what was to happen ; the seven engaged in their old occupation as fishermen ; the eleven at Mount Olivet already convinced, their incredulity over, and rejoicing in the presence of their Lord with the full assurance that it was indeed Himself; — is it possible to conceive a greater variety of moods than those in which they were, to whom Christ showed Himself alive ? On many of these occasions, too, our Lord did not appear only for a moment, striking them with a sudden astonishment, and then disappearing from their sight. He spoke to them, and they were able to treasure up His words. He gave them in many particulars their commission to the world, and in the spirit of it they spent their whole future life. He encouraged them by His promises, and they found in them their stay amidst all the persecutions which they afterwards lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 51 endured. It is hardly possible to think of a greater variety of circumstances calculated to test the reality of the impression made on them. 2. While the opportunities of observation enjoyed by the Gospel witnesses were thus favourable, the characteristics of their evidence itself are not less worthy of our regard. It exhibits a minuteness and circumstantiality which it is difficult to connect with anything but the position of eyewitnesses in perfect possession of every faculty for forming a sound and healthy judgment ; with eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hands to handle ; able to give attention to whatever happened in their presence, and with the power of memory to retain it. It is distinguished by a simplicity which avoids all exaggeration, makes no boast of enthusiastic feeling, and frankly confesses a large measure of ignorance and blindness ; whereas, had it been the result of either conscious or uncon scious invention, it could hardly have failed to bear marks of the excitement which gave rise to it. At the same time it is presented with a gravity and seriousness showing how fully alive the witnesses are to the nature of the fact to which they testify. There is no lightness of sentiment in regard to it, but rather a deep and solemn sense of its supreme importance — such a sense as leads them to communi cate it with eager haste to one another, and not only to speak of it amongst themselves, but to proclaim it in the most public and open, in the boldest and most 52 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. decisive, manner, — in the Temple, in the synagogues, before the people, before their rulers, before Gentiles as well as Jews, " in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."1 The Resurrection of their Lord was the very kernel of their message to mankind — that without which it seemed to them that their preaching would have been vain, and the faith of their hearers also vain. We may sometimes think that even without it they had enough to tell the world. Could they not have spoken only of the love of Jesus, of His life for man, of His death upon the cross, of His holy example, of the good hope which He had given of a happier home than earth ? It is unnecessary to make such a supposition. The more we magnify the other truths of Christianity, the more must it seem strange to us that the Resurrec tion of our Lord should hold the place it does in the Christian testimony of the early disciples, unless they were convinced of its unparalleled importance. 3. We ought not to forget that the evidence was published to the world on the very spot where, and at the very time when, the event was said to have happened, and that no one was able to controvert it. Forty days indeed passed during which there was little occasion for contradiction, because the disciples, in obedience to their Master's own command,2 made no proclamation of the fact. Ten days more followed, while they waited in silence and seclusion for the 1 Acts i. 8. 2 Luke xxiv. 49 ; Acts i. 8. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 53 promised Spirit. During that period they had ample opportunity for reflection, alike upon what they were to preach, and upon the reception which,, in preaching it, would in all probability await them. We cannot suppose that they did not think of these things ; yet, no sooner were the ten days over, than they at once came forth announcing the Resurrection of Jesus as a leading part of their message to men.1 At a moment when it was yet possible to test every incident, to examine every witness, to expose every trace of fraud, — the Apostles openly and unhesitatingly pro claimed the fact.2 And all this liability to exposure, if the witness was false, continued upwards of twenty years, until at. least the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians was written.3 Nor does any serious effort seem to have been made by rulers or Pharisees to contradict the testimony. Among the people, in deed, the story — spread abroad at the first moment of alarm — that the disciples had stolen the body while the soldiers of the guard slept long continued to circulate.4 But no reliance appears to have been placed upon it by any in authority. In all the trials recorded in the Acts of the Apostles the charge was not once repeated by those who had the first preachers of the Gospel at their bar. Yet this could not have arisen from any idea that the story of the Resurrec tion was either unimportant or unworthy of refuta- 1 Acts ii. 24. 2 Acts iii. 15 ; iv. 10-33. * 1 Cor. xv. 6. 4 Matt, xxviii. 15. 54 THE RESURRECTION [lect. it. tion. The most striking proof of the contrary is indeed afforded by the singular contrast presented by the Sadducees in their eager opposition to the first preachers of the Gospel, and their general indifference to the preaching of our Lord Himself. The preaching of the Resurrection, not of the general resurrection, but of that of Jesus Himself as a thing which had actually taken place, roused within them a spirit of ' persecution from which they had hitherto been free.1 Even before the event happened, the chief priests had been desirous to anticipate it.2 It was indeed the most urgent interest of all, whether Pharisees or Sadducees, to refute the fact. The Church which they so much dreaded was rising around them by the preaching of the Resurrection of its Founder. Thousands were converted by the tidings that One whom they had crucified as a malefactor had been brought back by the Almighty from the grave. If this statement was true, they, and not the Christians, were in opposition to that God in the knowledge of whom they gloried, — they, and not their victims, were contending against the most signal manifestations of His will. They were certainly not blind to this ; their whole conduct proves the contrary. It is not that of men indifferent or scornful, but of men who, desirous to convict an adversary, have no argument sufficient for the purpose. They resort neither to evidence nor reason, but to violence — the last argu- 1 Note 25. 2 Matt, xxviii. 13-15. lect. n.] OF OUR LORD. 55 ment of despair. They threaten, they imprison, they rouse popular prejudice against the witnesses of the fact ; the fact itself they do not touch. Is there any defect in all this evidence ? We are told that there are two. 1. In the first place, it is said that we have no eye witness of the Resurrection itself ; no one beheld the Saviour rise.1 But what of that? A friend has been absent on a journey, and no one witnessed his return. Would any member of his family dream for a moment of urging, when he is found in his own room, that it was not himseK? There might be an emotion of joyful surprise, and an inquiry when and how he came ; but it would never occur even to the wildest scepticism to question his identity upon a ground so trifling as that he had not roused the household when he entered. So also in the case before us. The whole question turns upon the fact that our witnesses recognised their Lord after He rose to be the same Lord whom they had known before He died. They might have been mistaken; but that consideration the objection does not touch. It relates solely to the fact that they did not behold Him in the act of rising ; and, so far, it is absolutely valueless if they afterwards knew Him to be the same. He had died, He had been buried, He was now beside them ; and He could not have been so if He had not risen. Or suppose that they had actually seen Him come forth 1 Note 26. 56 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. from the tomb on the Resurrection morning, and had proclaimed to the world that they had done so, does any one imagine that their evidence would have been strengthened by such a statement? Their recogni tion of Him would have had no more legitimate grounds than those upon which it rested at a later date ; and theories to account for their delusion would have been as easily multiplied as they are now. 2. It is urged, as a second defect in our evidence, that our different witnesses are inconsistent with each other, thus confirming the suspicion that their accounts are not historical, but mythical or legendary. One or two general observations may be made on this. There must always be a certain allowance for divergences when we have before us narratives of the same event by different persons. No two men see the same thing exactly in the same way, or receive from it precisely similar impressions. If they are faithful to themselves, they must differ from one another, x and it is the province of the impartial judge to disentangle the different statements, and to deter mine whether the fact as a whole, or how much of it, is true. This general principle is as fully applicable to Scripture as it is to legal processes. However miraculous any fact there related may be, nothing is more certain than that the record is given us through the same laws as those which regulate all 1 Note 27. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 57 history ; and that we are thus entitled to apply this principle to it with the same precision, and to the same extent, as in every other case. Statements directly and positively contradictory as to the main point at issue would undoubtedly justify our reject ing it ; but where the main point is admitted by every witness, slighter differences are not only per fectly consistent with its truth, but are of the utmost importance for establishing it. This is precisely the state of matters with which we have now to deal. It is denied by no one that through all the evidence afforded by our witnesses there runs the one decided conviction that their Risen Lord had manifested Himself to them or others. They thoroughly believed that; they wished to give expression to their belief. Unless it can be shown that the differences are such as to lead us to the thought of mythical or legendary exaggeration, we are bound to give them the benefit of a principle of universal application. It is further to be observed, therefore, that the divergences of our Gospel narratives bespeak an origin wholly different from that of the legend or the myth. Accretions springing from such sources are unregulated and loose. They bear upon them the marks of the popular imagination, and they are con nected with hopes cherished by a united people, rather than with obligations to a moral and religious state, which different classes of a community must see in 58 THE RESURRECTION [lect. it. a light peculiar to themselves. It is with the latter that we have to do. In the case of our Evangelists we mark no working of a general fancy heaping up various particulars, but special aims in accordance with their special circumstances and work. We do the Evangelists injustice when we regard them as witnesses in a court of law, who have been summoned to prove a fact, and who have deliberately taken it in hand to do so. Such is not their position. In those days men did not need to have every great fact of the Christian faith proved to them by historical narra tive before they believed. They did not wait for one witness after another to come forward and demon strate the truth of the varied doings and sufferings of their Lord. The first stirrings of faith were awakened by the general tradition of the Church. Men were attracted to her by the sight of her blessed and glorious life ; and then they were gradually, within her bosom, made more and more acquainted with the fulness of the facts from which that life sprang, and by which it was sustained. So far as their faith was at first concerned they could have done, and they actually did, without the Gospels altogether. But they naturally desired to hear more of the life of Jesus ; those who had been eyewitnesses of His majesty were as eager to write what they had seen ; and thus, with a view mainly to the satisfaction of present wants, and with little, if any, thought of affording for the benefit of future generations a con- lect. n.] OF OUR LORD. 59 temporaneous history of events, our Gospels came into existence.1 If this be so, it will be at once seen that the point of view from which the different accounts of the life of Christ given in the Gospels, and, amongst others, the different accounts of His Resurrection, sprang, could not fail to exercise a material influence upon the structure of the narratives. It is not the relation of simple objective facts that will occupy the thoughts of the writers ; it is these facts in the light in which they are of special interest to themselves, and to those for whom they write. Each writer will select what is most appropriate to his object ; he will be to a certain extent indifferent to its bond of connexion with what he is not concerned to relate; he will pass suddenly into that for which he cares ; and, while he will not depart from historical truthfulness, he will yet so handle his materials, that in order to understand them we must keep distinctly before us his special aim. Godet, in a short essay on the Resurrection of Christ, has touched upon this point. He compares the different narratives of the Resurrection to the different pieces of a child's map which, when taken down, a little care can reconstruct.2 The comparison leads the reader to expect too much. We are not dealing with the solid pieces of a child's map, each of which fits in exactly to its proper place in the whole. 1 Note 28. 2 Conferences Apologitiaues, i. p. 15. 60 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. We are dealing with facts capable of being differently viewed, and certain to be so, when brought into contact with minds interested in different aspects of the truth. In point of fact, when we turn to the narratives of the Resurrection in the four Gospels, we find them distinguished in a marked degree by this character istic. The purpose of the different Evangelists is simply to present the Resurrection of their Lord in a light corresponding to that in which they had treated His whole previous life. Thus it is that St. Matthew, having been occupied with the Galilean ministry, as that in which he beheld the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy,1 and having throughout the whole of his Gospel set forth Jesus as the Bringer in of a true righteousness, as the great Lawgiver of the New Testament Economy, has these thoughts mainly in his mind when he comes to the Resurrec tion. The appearances in Galilee assume supreme importance in his eyes, and the idea of the Lawgiver may be traced in those words of the Risen Lord which He alone has preserved, " Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you."2 Thus it is that in the closing verses of St. Mark's Gospel, in which the early Christian Church recognised a nar rative corresponding to the Gospel to which they were added, we find particulars and words of the Risen Lord which at once recall to us that mighty march of His 1 Matt. iv. 12-17. 2 Matt, xxviii. 7, 10, 16-20. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 61 power with which we have been made familiar by the Gospel as a whole.1 Thus it is that St. Luke, who had especially set forth the human Saviour and the universality of His mission of forgiveness, seizes upon those things in connection with the Resurrection which illustrate the same points. He alone tells us2 of the broiled fish eaten by the Risen Jesus for the purpose of showing that He was still what He had always been, the human Friend.3 He alone speaks, not as St. Matthew, of teaching all the nations, but of repentance and remission of sins to be preached to all ;4 and he alone tells us of the consolatory blessing with which, lifting up His hands, the Lord blessed His disciples when He ascended to heaven.6 Finally, it is thus that St. John, to whom Jesus is the prophet not so much of Galilee as of Judea, and who had been occupied throughout all his Gospel with the manKestation of His glory, and with the triumph of faith over unbelief, fixes upon those particulars con nected with the Risen Lord which illustrate the same truths. The " manifestations " of which he speaks are. mainly those in Jerusalem; and even these are related, less for the purpose of convincing us that the Lord had risen than for the sake of pointing out the nature of His resurrection-state, and the manner in which the loftiest confession of the Gospel was drawn forth byit, " My Lord and my God." 1 Mark xvi. 9-20. 2 Luke xxiv. 41-43. 3 Note 29. 4 Luke xxiv. 47. 5 Note 30. 62 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. These differences not only presuppose the existence of the same belief ; they are inexplicable without it. The streams are slightly coloured by the different soils through which they have passed, but they con duct us to the same fountain-head ; and that is enough for our present purpose. The alleged defects in our evidence, therefore, fail to establish the point for the sake of which they are urged ; and we are entitled to fall back upon our early Christian witnesses, as witnesses whose evidence is marked by all the characteristics that can lend it force. rv. A fourth branch of direct evidence is to be found in the rise and continued existence of the Christian Church, with her life and institutions. It is admitted in the fullest manner by those who reject the fact of the Resurrection, that the belief of it was absolutely necessary to- disperse those doubts of the early fol lowers of Christ which had been occasioned by His death. 1 Let us consider for a moment the importance of this admission. The origin of the Christian Church cannot be explained without the belief in the Resur rection of her Head. Then it must be impossible to show that Christianity and the Church were a mere stage of human development, a mere product of natural forces working at the moment, unless it can 1 Note' 31. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. also be shown that not only the idea of a resurrec tion, but of such a resurrection as that of our Lord, was one of these forces, and that at least the germs of the belief already, existed in the preparatory stage. We must be able to educe from the ideas of the time preceding something that approaches to the concep tion of a risen and glorified human body. Natural development of ideas admits of no sudden break — of no introduction of anything entirely new. It may weU be doubted whether more is not lost than gained by the admission before us to the cause for which it is alleged. But, apart from that, it only throws us a step further back. If there was no Resurrection of our Lord, how did men come so to believe in it as to form themselves into a Christian Church ; to separate themselves at great cost from the community around them ; to constitute themselves into a distinct body, with rules, principles, aims, and hopes, which were both a new thing on the earth and peculiar to them selves ? Either the fact must have taken place by Divine interposition, or the culminating moment of a long process of preparation for it in the natural education of the world must have come. Our op ponents hardly meet us here in a perfectly straight forward spirit. When it is their object to discredit the testimony upon which we rest, all those expres sions of the Evangelists which illustrate the mysteri ous and apparently unnatural character of the body of the Risen Lord are brought prominently forward. 64 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. When it is their object to show that a conception of immortality, or even of a bodily resurrection, existed in the ideas of the age, the thought of these peculi arities is dropped, and Christ's resurrection-body is referred to as if it were simply the body which He had possessed before. Such a change of meaning is unfair. The peculiarities of the Lord's resurrection- body must be kept distinctly in view ; and when they are so, it is impossible to produce the faintest shadow of evidence that before the Christian Church came into existence there was any preparation for such an idea in the minds of men. Even after the idea was received, no attempt was made to bring into harmony its apparently discordant elements. St. Luke, by whom both classes of facts bearing on the nature of our Lord's resurrection-body are so distinctly mentioned in the twenty-fourth chapter of his Gospel, simply states them. The same remark is applicable to St. John in the twentieth chapter of his Gospel : and it is only in the writings of St. Paul that we meet with that conception of a " spiritual body " in which both are blended into one. Such, however, could not have been the case had the idea grown up gradually, and according to those laws of order which produce in the course of ages all the harmonious relations of the universe. Time smooths the edges of things that pass down its stream side by side. It mingles gently into one the waters that, flowing from different sources, were discordant at the first. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. - 65 Whence then, if the Resurrection of our Lord was not a fact, did the Church obtain a conception of it, which, while embracing such peculiar elements as those now spoken of, was at the same time so clear and powerful that by the confession of our adver saries, it alone accounts for her existence ? Baur says that we are not bound to answer such a question ; that it is unnecessary to account for the belief; that it is enough for us to know that it was there. But Strauss has justly rebuked his master for so far departing from the province of the historian j1 and Strauss is right. We must account for it. The Church of Christ has been too important an institu tion, and her beginning falls too much within historic times, to permit us to be indifferent to the rise of a belief without which she would have been extin guished at the moment of her birth. If, therefore, an ' account of this belief must be given, and if everything is against the supposition that it was simply due to the natural growth of thought, we are thrown back upon the only other explanation possible. _, The first Christians must have been satisfied that those who proclaimed the Resur rection of Jesus had ample evidence of ii They must have questioned them regarding it to' a much greater extent than has been told us. In Palestine beyond Jerusalem, still more in foreign cities, there must have been eager discussion concerning all the 1 Note 32. F 66 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. facts which constituted the substance of the first proclamation of the Gospel. Can we imagine that among these the Resurrection of Jesus would not be a main point of inquiry ? Would it be accepted more easily than the story of His life or of His death ? We are apt to think that we have the whole process that led to the formation of the Church set before us in the Acts of the Apostles, instead of which we have only the most meagre and imperfect outlines of it. Yet the disputings, the questionings, the long-con tinued meetings, that are there alluded to,1 are enough to show us how the first preachers of the Gospel would be examined and cross-examined as to what they related. If these things did not generally awaken faith, they were at least necessary to confirm it. The Church must have had, what she certainly supposed herself to have, intelligible reasons for her faith. Belief in the Resurrection of her Lord was no subordinate element in her views. The place occupied by it in the mind of St. Paul has its perfect parallel and analogue in the place which it occupied in her mind. The Epistles of the great Apostle, which testify to his own feelings, also testify to hers. He writes not only as a teacher, but as a partaker with the Church of a "mutual faith;"2 and as we often learn from a letter less of the writer than of his cor respondent, we can judge from the way in which the Apostle speaks of the Resurrection of his Lord, how 1 Note 33. 2 Rom. i. 12. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 67 deeply the life and mind of the Church also were penetrated and pervaded by it. The Church, in fact, was reconstructed on the basis of this belief.1 As it was the special fact to which the Apostles witnessed, so also it was the special point upon which the faith of their converts was fixed. It could hardly indeed have been otherwise. Let us place ourselves in the position of the early Christians, and we shall at once be satisfied that we could not possibly have believed in Jesus as Lord of the whole earth, as the Bestower of a complete and universal salvation, as the Source of our life, and as our final Judge, had we only known Him to be One who had ended His career upon the cross. All the most important elements of what we understand by faith, together with all that lends to it its elevation and its ¦ power, would in such a case have been awanting. It simply could not have existed, and the Christian community could never have been formed. We have a striking illustration of this in those members of the Corin thian Church with whom St. Paul reasons in the fifteenth chapter of his first Corinthian Epistle. They denied the possibility of their own resurrection. They did not deny the Resurrection of Christ. The whole argument of the Apostle proceeds on the supposition that they maintained it, and that to have abandoned the belief would have involved a denial 1 See this point fully brought out in Row's Bampton Lectures, p. 323 and elsewhere. 68 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. of their Christian calling, and a surrender of their Christian position. Nor is it any disparagement to the death of Christ to speak thus. That death is in reality the foundation of the whole Christian system, and it was not because the Resurrection was more important in itself that it received its prominence. We have to recall to mind the cir cumstances of the time. Men had not yet learned, like us, to glory in the cross of Christ. It was the main difficulty in their way. To the Jew it was a stumbling block, and to the Greek foolishness. The Resurrection dissipated the shame, and threw light on what was otherwise unintelligible. From the Exaltation, therefore, men were to reason back to the Humiliation, and in the Christ risen were to under stand the Christ crucified. Without the one, the other would simply have prostrated those who had been awakening to a sense of Christ's moral and spiritual power, and the smiting of the Shepherd would have been the scattering of the sheep. If we turn to other facts bearing upon the life of the early Church, we find all that has now been said confirmed. We have the institution of the Lord's day, of which there are traces within a week of the Resurrec tion, and which no one will dream of denying was ex pressly designed to commemorate that event. Surely there must have been a depth of conviction as well as an amount of power difficult to estimate, in a belief lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 69 that could lead to such an institution. Nor do we see the full force of this until we remember the totally different conceptions which the Sabbath and the Lord's day expressed, — the one the last day of the week, when man, weary of the work of the world, desired rest ; the other, the first day of the week, when, about to enter upon the work of the world, he sought the joyful strength of God in which to face it ; the one commemorating the close of the old creation, the other, the beginning of the new. A whole world of the most Divine ideas lies in our drawing aright the distinction between the Sabbath and the Lord's day ; and yet that great distinction came in a moment. How ? Because it was believed that Jesus rose from the grave on that first morning of the week. It was this fact that made the difference, and a more power ful testimony to men's conviction of the truth of the event within a week after it is said to have happened, it would be impossible to produce. Akin to the institution of the Lord's day was that of Easter day, — that one day in the year when, in the commemoration successively of the great facts of the Lord's life, the Church commemorated His Resurrection. That Easter feast was the culminating point in the series of festivals which expressed the truly Christian and exquisitely beautiful idea of the Christian year. It was styled the Queen of Days and the Festival of Festivals.1 To it all the months from 1 Bingham, Book XX. chap. v. 5. 70 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. Advent rolled on, gradually swelling up to Easter's burst of praise. For it the Church waited, that on that day she might break into all the heavenly joy of her new creation ; among the finest hymns of her poets are Easter hymns ; and so keenly did she feel in regard to it that a controversy in the second haK of the second century, as to the particular day on which Easter should be celebrated, nearly rent in twain the Eastern and Western Church, which took different views upon the point. The testimony of the institution of Easter is like that of the institution of Sunday, a testimony to the deep and powerful hold which the belief in the Resurrection of her Lord had over the Church's mind. We trace the same fact, further, in the Liturgies of the Church, for in the very earliest forms — handed down from still earlier times — they speak of our lift ing up our hearts unto the Lord, that is, unto the Risen, Living Lord. Once more, we have the language of secular as well as sacred life to appeal to, for it is a well-known fact that, in the first ages of the Church, a frequent salutation of Christians to one another, when they met, was " Christ is risen." It thus appears that from the dawn of her history the Christian Church not only believed in the Resur rection of her Lord, but that her belief upon the point was interwoven with her whole existence. Her institutions and forms of worship were moulded, the lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 71 very language of her daily life was coloured, by it. The stream leaps all at once, like the streams of Syria, from its fountain-head ; and that which lends to it its volume, its impetus, and its colour, is faith not in the death only, but in the Resurrection of the Christ. Whence came this faith, at once so powerful and uni versal, upon a point so hard to credit as the rising from the grave of one who had died and been buried? There is nothing to account for it except the fact that the Lord actually rose. V. While speaking of the positive evidence of the Resurrection of our Lord, it may be further urged that the fact, K true, harmonises all the other facts of His history. This argument, indeed, cannot be urged with those who deny at once His superhuman origin and His superhuman life ; but it may be urged with propriety in the case of aU who, admitting these, have doubts in regard to His Resurrection. If the latter be true, all else that is made known to us regarding Him falls into harmony and order. The light shed into the tomb when the stone was rolled away becomes an emblem of that light which is reflected along His whole previous life, with its mingled elements of greater than human grandeur, and yet greater than human sorrow. We can understand the miraculous conception, the God manifest in the flesh, the miracles 72 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. of Divine power and love, the teaching whose depth of meaning all the centuries that have passed since then have not been able to exhaust. We can under stand, also, the sufferings so much greater than those of ordinary men, — the sorrow of which it was said, " Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow ?" With the Resurrection of our Lord eveiything else that has been revealed of Him assumes proportion, order, harmony ; without it all is mystery, — a lock without a key, a labyrinth without a clue, a beginning with out a corresponding end. VI. There is yet another point to be spoken of for a moment, though the evidence afforded by it may be said to be rather negative than positive, — the empty grave. That on the Resurrection morning the grave was empty is hardly denied. Some even of the most zealous opponents of a bodily resurrection look upon the fact that the grave was empty as one of the most settled in connexion with this whole inquiry.1 But if it was so, while yet there was no Resurrection, the body must have been taken away either by friends or foes. Had it been taken by the latter, it would certainly have been produced as the most effectual way of silencing for ever those who roused so much indignation by their preaching of the Risen Lord. 1 See Schenkel in his Charakter-Bild Jesu, p. 331. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 73 Had it been taken by the former, the Church of Christ would have rested not so much upon delusion as upon fraud — upon fraud springing from motives perfectly inexplicable, and leading to results totally different from any that could have been either in tended or looked for. Nor can it be said that, with out inquiring into this particular point of all, we may easily regard it as one of the legendary accretions of a later date; for in that case our Gospels would surely have mentioned the appearances of the Risen Lord first, and the emptiness of the grave would have been noted only as a subsequent and subsidiary circumstance. But the singular thing is, that this procedure is reversed. In all our narratives the emptiness of the grave is mentioned first, and the appearances of the Risen One follow. Nothing could better establish the fact that the grave was empty when it was first visited on the Resurrection morning ; and if it was, we must either take refuge, like Strauss, in the wholly untenable idea that Jesus was never buried there, or we must find in the fact a strong corroborative testimony of the truth of His Resurrection. It is impossible to enter farther into the historical evidence for the Resurrection of our Lord, but one remark must still be made. The evidence hitherto adduced has been exclusively historical, and it was necessary that it should be so. Other evidence con nected with the meaning of the fact with which we 74 THE RESURRECTION [lect. ii. deal will meet us as we proceed. But it is in the fact first, in the idea afterwards, that the vast import ance of the Resurrection of our Lord is to be found. Before we can be influenced by it we must be con vinced by distinct historical evidence that it actually took place. It may have a deep foundation in human nature ; it may satisfy what seem to be inextinguish able longings and aspirations of the human heart ; it may be the end to which all other religions uncon sciously point that have exerted, or that still exert, sway over millions of our race ; it may reconcile the contradictions of these religions, and may blend into one harmonious whole the antitheses which they present. Considerations such as these can never be despised by one who would study the history of man ; and they may lend a powerful subsidiary weight to that evidence of the fact which we are able to pro duce.1 But unless the Resurrection of our Lord be first established as a historical fact, its value even for these purposes is destroyed. It then takes its place in a series of human speculations, which, though they may have been so far pervaded by the Divine Spirit, and may be " broken parts " of Him without whom " was not anything made," and in whom what " was made was life," 2 have yet nothing in them of 1 Comp. the valuable Essay byR. H. Hutton on "The Incarna tion and Principles of Evidence," in his volume of Theological Essays. 2 John i. 3, 4. For the rendering here adopted see the Com mentary on St. John spoken of in Note 5. lect. ii.] OF OUR LORD. 75 a definite or a final character. It becomes a specula tion, which, as it was the result only of a long evolu tion in the past, must be followed by a long and unknown evolution in the future. It can come to us with no force of certainty ; and though, even when it rests upon such grounds alone, we may not feel entitled to accept it or to dismiss it as we please, yet the considerations leading to its acceptance will come home to us with a much slighter sense of our responsibility to yield to them. The thoughts of the allegiance which we owe to the demands of our own nature does not effect us so powerfully as the thought of the allegiance which we owe to an external fact. Not that these demands are less important, but the difficulty often is to be so certain what they are as to feel that we are without excuse in resisting them. It is otherwise with an external fact. If we refuse to bow to it when sufficiently vouched for, we over turn the very foundation upon which our existence rests. Therefore it is that the historical evidence of the Resurrection of our Lord must hold the first place in our regard ; and it is because of my deliberate conviction that it ought to do so, that I have placed it first.1 ] Note 34. 76 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. LECTURE III. "But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus ; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness." — Acts xxvi. 25. If the evidence for the Resurrection of our Lord be such as we have seen it to be, the question immediately arises, By what means is the force of it evaded ? Is there any other reasonable explanation of that belief of the early Church which we have found to be not only so essential but so powerful an element of her life? Three theories of explanation require to be noticed, al though for the first two a very few sentences will suffice. 1. There is the theory of those who assert that our Lord did not really die upon the cross, that His supposed death was no more than a temporary swoon, and that His Resurrection was simply His return to consciousness.1 In defence of this theory are urged — the rapidity of His death, in contrast with the slowness with which death by crucifixion generally took place ;2 the fact that persons are known to have 1 Note 35. 2 An elaborate discussion upon this point will be found in Paulus, Exegetisches Handbuch, 1842, iii. p.. 929 lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 77 recovered who had been crucified and taken down from the cross as dead ; the effect that would be pro duced by the cool air of the rock-hewn sepulchre, as well as by the aromatic spices with which the body had been prepared for burial ; — and the conclusion is drawn that the apparent restoration to life is thus sufficiently and easily accounted for. To all this it is replied, and replied with force, that the impression produced upon the disciples by their Risen Lord was wholly different from what would have been the case in the circumstances supposed.1 When their first fears were dispelled they were full of joy, of boldness, and of enthusiasm ; we see none of those feelings of pity, of sympathy with suffering, of desire to render help, that must have been called forth by the appearance of a person who had swooned away through weariness and agony, who had continued in unconsciousness from a Friday afternoon to a Sunday morning, and who was now only in the first moments of recovery. The signs around us are not those of a sick chamber, but of health and strength and busy preparation for a great work to be immediately engaged in. Despondency has given place to hope, despair to triumph, prostration of all energy to sus tained and vigorous exertion. No wonder that later critics of the Resurrection, like Strauss, have heaped contempt upon the old theory of a swoon. Much more, however, may be said. Let us sup- 1 Note 36. 78 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. pose the theory to be correct, and how equivocal is the relation in which we place the Redeemer to His early followers. They thought that He had died : He knew that He had not, and that the ideas enter tained by them upon the point, — filling them with so much wonder, remoulding the whole character of their lives, supplying them with a chief part of the message with which they were to convert the world, — were nothing more than a delusion ; yet He did not interpose to save them from being the victims of their love and loyalty to Himself ! Surely such a supposition, looked at in the light of the whole life of Jesus, is too monstrous to be for a moment entertained. Again, What reason could our Lord have to expect that His disciples, when they made His Resurrection the foundation of their Gospel, would in such circum stances be listened to ? He must have seen that a message with no reality to rest on, centring in a state ment so incredible, and admitting of an explanation which would at once occur to any keen-eyed observer, would prove more a hindrance than a help to His cause. It is not consistent with His usual calmness of judgment, with His knowledge of men, with His expectations of universal empire, to think that He would have suffered His disciples to proclaim Him risen, when He had only swooned and recovered from His swoon. He knew too well the feelings both of Jews and Gentiles upon the point to have risked lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 79 everything upon such a chance. It would have proved Him to be simply an excited enthusiast if He had. Still further, if the Resurrection of our Lord was only recovery from a swoon, what became of Him for the remainder of His days ? There can be no more thought of Resurrection or Ascension into heaven. He must have retired to some solitary retreat un known even to the most attached of His disciples. While His Church was rising around Him, shaking the old world to its foundations, and introducing everywhere amidst many difficulties a new order of things — while it was torn by controversies, surrounded by temptations, exposed to trials, placed in short in the very circumstances that made it most dependent on His aid, — He was absent from it, and spending the remainder of His days, whether few or many, in what we can describe by no other term than ignoble solitude. And then at last He must have died — no one can say either where, or when, or how ! There is not a ray of light to penetrate the darkness ; and these early Christians, so fertile, we are told, in legends, have not a single legend to give us help. What has been said is a sufficient answer to the theory we are dealing with. But there is another still more conclusive. If the Risen Jesus was thus Jesus recovered from a swoon, He must have been exactly the same as He was before He died upon the cross, He must have had the same body of flesh and 80 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. blood, with members and limitations in every respect the same as then. But we have already seen that this was not the fact. It is neither what the Church believed, nor what is given us to contend for. Finally, it may be observed upon this point that the most determined modern opponents of the Resur rection of our Lord are those who most decidedly reject the theory we have been considering. It is essential to their treatment of the subject that the death upon the cross shall have been real. The idea of recovery from a swoon has been exploded quite as mnch by their efforts as by those of the defenders of our faith ; but it is not an unnatural explanation ; it is ever apt to rise before our minds when we doubt a real Resurrection, and it was therefore necessary to speak of it. 2. A second theory meets us. The disciples, it is said, practised a deliberate imposition on the world. They stole the body from the grave, and then pro claimed to men that their Lord had risen. The theory is an old one. It was anticipated by the Jews when "they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept."1 It was urged, though with some difference of detail, by Celsus.2 But by whom soever anticipated or urged, a more incredible sup position could not be made. To imagine that the 1 Matt, xxviii. 13. 2 Comp. Orig. Conl. Celsum, Book II. chap. lvi. lect. iii;] OF OUR LORD. 81 disciples of our Lord, with a burden of this kind upon their consciences, and with the dread, which it would have been impossible to escape, that some one of their number would certainly betray them, could have gone out into the world as they did— could have preached a kingdom of truth and righteousness as the one great effort of their lives — and that for the sake of that kingdom they could have suffered even unto death — is to imagine one of those moral impossibilities which may be accepted for a moment when men are hard- pressed in controversy, but which, in the cool hour of reflection, are at once dismissed. It is not necessary to discuss the theory. It has been abandoned by every inquirer to whom a moment's attention is due. Both these theories may be set aside ; and this much may be regarded as established — that the early disciples of our Lord were thoroughly and honestly convinced that their Master had risen from the dead. The Apostles and the whole Church believed that such was the fact, and the most determined opponents of the Resurrection make no attempt to deny the sin cerity of their belief. We are thus brought to the third theory to be considered ; and as upon it, in one or other of its forms, modern unbelief rests, it will be necessary to give it fuller consideration than was required by the other two. 3. The theory of visions. Let us understand distinctly what it means. Different ideas may be attached to it ; some inquirers being even disposed to G 82 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. allow that the visions of the Risen Saviour may have been real, and that they were actually vouchsafed by the Almighty in order to convince men of the con tinued life and glory of His Son.1 It may be doubted if anything is gained by this for the removal of diffi culties. We have in itimmediateDivineinterposition ; and, when once we accept such interposition, we need not hesitate to proceed further, so long as we do not ascribe to God anything inconsistent either with His character or with our own responsibilities. If we believe that the Almighty directly favoured the dis ciples with visions of the Glorified Lord, we may as well believe, so far as principles are concerned, that He raised Him from the dead. The ablest defenders of the vision theory are alive to this, and are reso lutely opposed to all modifications of the theory which admit the Divine interposition to any extent or in any form. The visions with which we have to do can only be the product of human agencies. Nor is it difficult, we are told, to discover in the present instance how a belief in visions originated and spread. The idea of a resurrection from the grave was already familiar to the disciples of Jesus in their Jewish faith ; their state of mind was one of great excitement ; they treasured the memory of their Master with a fondness which made it almost im possible for them to believe that He was gone. It was 1 See Keim's Jes. von Naz. This theory will be afterwards more particularly spoken of (p. 114). lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 83 one of those critical moments when decisive steps are taken ; when all our hopes and all the " fears that kindle hope " are either for ever extinguished, or when they burst forth to a height of daring of which they who have cherished them would be the last to think ; when faith must either give way to despair, or " must break through the barrier of death itself, and force its way from death to life."1 Then, too, they had vague intimations in the Old Testament to appeal to ; and the words of Jesus Himself, who had foretold His death but had always associated His Resurrection with it, must have returned to their minds with a new power. Their whole mental condition, in short, was such that it needed only the application of a spark to kindle the flame. That spark was applied by Mary Magdalene — a sensitive and nervous woman ; and no sooner was it applied than the flame was kindled. Her story that she had seen the Lord was eagerly embraced; it spread with the rapidity and force of an epidemic. As has happened on innumerable occasions of a like kind, what she believed that, she had seen others immediately believed that they too must see. Their expectations were fulfilled, and in a space of time by no means incredibly short the conviction seized all the members of the early Church that their Lord had really risen from the grave. Such is the theory. In considering how far it is 1 Baur, Hist, of First Three Centuries, p. 42. 84 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. applicable to our witnesses, we again begin with St. Paul. It is adduced in his case partly on the ground of certain expressions of his own, partly on account of the estimate which his writings in general teach us to form of his character. Let us first look at the particular expressions. The most important of them is Galatians i. 15, 16 ; "But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me even from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the Gentiles." It is urged that in these words St. Paul resolves the whole manifestation of the Risen Lord that had been granted him into an internal revelation, and that this meaning must, in consequence, be applied to all other passages in his writings where the point is spoken of. The argument is greatly relied on,1 and we must consider it for a moment. It might be enough to say that an internal does not exclude an external revelation; but more may be said. Two things are obviously mentioned by St. Paul as dis tinct and independent steps of a process which preceded the revelation in him of the Son of God — his " separation " from before his birth to the apostle- ship (for he is not speaking of Christian faith in general), and his " call " to it by the grace of God. This call can thus be no other than that on the way to Damascus, and it is distinguished from the inner 1 See Sehenkel in his Bibel- Lexicon, ' ' Auferstehung Jesu. " lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 85 revelation of the Son which followed it — a revelation by the contents of which, when given, he learned to know the Son as the Redeemer of Gentile as well as Jew.1 Nor is this all ; for it is impossible to think of the " Son " mentioned in the words as any other than that Son of the Father of whom we are told, in the first verse of the chapter, that the Father "raised Him from the dead." The thought of the Resurrection is thus included in the word " Son." " It pleased God to reveal in me His Son " is equivalent to — " It pleased God to reveal in me His Son whom He had raised from the dead," and in the internal revelation of the Son it is distinctly implied that the Son is contem plated as risen. The second passage to be spoken of is 2 Corinth ians xii. 1-3 — especially verses 2, 3 — in which St. Paul declares that he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body when, on one occasion, he was caught up into the third heaven. Here, it is said, we have the Apostle's own declaration that he was familiar with visions, and that he did not know the difference between a manifestation of the Lord to his senses and a vision presented to him when he was in an ecstatic state. But, if we attend to the first verse of the chapter, we shall at once see that the "visions and revelations" of this passage were of a character entirely different 1 Note 37. 86 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. from the manifestation near Damascus. The latter was a vision of the Lord, and it proved that He was exalted. The former were visions "from " Him (for that is the force of the original in verse l),1 and they presuppose His exaltation. However frequently, too, the Apostle had referred to the Damascus vision, he could never have said, as he says of his other visions in the eleventh verse, that by glorying in it he had "become foolish," for that vision constituted in his eyes the whole ground of his right to the apostolic office ; nor could he have imagined that " a thorn in the flesh" was needed to prevent his being exalted above measure by an occurrence, the thought of which, so far from exalting him, always filled him with humility and shame. It belonged, therefore, to a class of manifestations entirely different from those here referred to. Then, as to the statement that in the second and third verses of the chapter he confesses his inability to distinguish whether what was shown him was a vision or real, the words of these verses, when con trasted with his language upon other occasions, prove exactly the reverse. Let two things, which will be at once admitted, be kept in view — first, that the descrip tion here given us by the Apostle of his state is designed to magnify the greatness of the vision or revelation mentioned; and secondly, that if the manifestation at Damascus belonged to this class of 1 Comp. Hofmann in loc. lect. m.] OF OUR LORD. 87 visions at all, it was, as having produced the most wonderful results, the greatest that he ever had — the one that he would be most constrained to magnify. Does he then on any single occasion refer, to it in terms similar to those that he employs here? Not certainly in his address from the stairs of the castle at Jerusalem, when he details every particular of the scene with such minuteness, and even distinguishes it from another appearance of the same Lord with which he was shortly afterwards favoured as he prayed in the Temple, and was in a trance;1 not in his speech before Agrippa, when he introduces his account of it with the words, " Why is it judged in credible with you if God doth raise the dead?"2 and certainly not in any of his Epistles. Never once does he even hint at the idea that, at the time of this vision, he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body. He rather always speaks of it as one who felt that, when it occurred, he could both clearly note the circumstances, and appreciate their significance. His language in one passage, indeed, is absolutely conclusive upon the point that he drew the most de cided line of demarcation between his sight of the Risen Lord on the way to Damascus and every vision of Him, or from Him, at other times. In 1 Corinthi ans xv. 8, he says, " And last of all He appeared to me also." These words do not mean only that St. • l Acts xxii. 17, 2 Acts xxvi, 8, 88 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. Paul was the last of the particular series of persons named in the previous verses, leaving it possible to think that such appearances might have been after wards renewed to them or others. They imply also that this was the final appearance of the Risen Lord in the particular form and way that had just been spoken of. We know that St. Paul had many visions and revelations of the Lord after this j1 and he could not, therefore, tell us more distinctly than he does by this expression " last of all " how fully and clearly he distinguished between his Damascus vision and every other vision of the Risen Saviour that followed it.2 It is further alleged, however, that, apart from these particular expressions, his own writings as a whole lead us to think of him as a visionary, weak, even epileptic, unable to distinguish between facts and delusions springing from his own heated imagi nation. Little need be said to show how entirely mistaken is such an estimate of the great Apostle. Could he have toiled for upwards of twenty years as he did " in labours more abundant " than aH the other Apostles, if this were a true description ? Or let us look at even but a few of the qualities displayed by him in carrying on these labours — at his profound sense of his own weakness, and his absolute depend ence upon the grace of God;3 at his wonderful skill in the guidance of those controversies by which the 1 Comp. Acts xviii. 9 ; xxiii. 11. "> Note 38. 3 1 Cor. xv. 10. lect. hi.] OF OUR LORD 89 early Church was nearly torn asunder;1 at the wis dom of his rules for the regulation of those extra ordinary gifts of the Spirit, which, to a fanatic, would have seemed far beyond human control ; 2 at his large-hearted charity for those who differed from him ;3 at his respect for established customs ;4 at his faith in the general principles of order and propriety in the conduct of public worship ;5 at the manner in which he won the confidence of the Churches — a confidence which he met by taking upon himself all their cares :6 or let us further mark his practical work in founding and building up young Christian communities in different lands, and in so presenting to them the great facts of the Christian revelation, in a manner adapted to their particular necessities, as to lay the foundations of Christian theology in the true sense of the term ; — these and such-like qualities are not those of a visionary, but of a keen, clear intellect, accompanied by a knowledge of men and a sympathy with them such as no visionary has. Even St. Paul's enemies felt all this at the time. They never dreamt of trying to prove by a reference to his visions that he was a visionary in any sense in which the thought of weakness can be associated with the word. In this respect the passage already alluded to in 2 Corinthians xii. is full of interest, for 1 Rom. xiv ; 1 Cor. viii. 2 1 Cor. xii. xiv. 3 Rom. xiv. .3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 15. 4 1 Cor. xi. 16. 5 1 Cor. xiv. 40. 6 2 Cor. xi. 28. 90 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. it shows us that in Corinth the visions and revelations experienced by the Apostle were regarded as a proof of his Divine commission, and as a reproach to those who did not receive him as they ought. His enemies cannot have considered visions a proof of weakness. They must have remembered that under the Old Testament Dispensation it had been one of the signs of a prophet that the Lord should make Himself known to him by "visions and dreams."1 They could not have forgotten the promise fulfilled in the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit, that the Church's young men should see visions, and her old men dream dreams.2 They must, accordingly, have argued against St. Paul on the ground that he had too few rather than too many visions ; and they thus constrained him, however unwillingly, to show in self-defence that he was favoured with these manifestations of Divine countenance and support.3 There can be no doubt that St. Paul was regarded by adversaries who spared no reproach, or even calumny if it promised to be effective, as the very opposite of a visionary. If there be thus nothing either in particular ex pressions of the Apostle, or in the general strain of his writings, to favour the application of the vision theory to his case, the difficulty of doing so is in creased when we ask, When and how he obtained that faith in a Risen Lord which found expression in his Damascus vision. We are told that he had been 1 Numb. xii. 6, 2 Acts ii. 17. 3 Note 39, lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 91 passing through a mental conflict of the most painful kind ; that his heart had been tossed with anxious fears lest, in his enmity to the Christian cause, he might be found to be fighting against God ; that the simple faith and unresisting submission of the pious women whom he was haling to prison and to cruel judgment -seats had touched him with tenderness, even in the midst of his fierce intolerance ; above all, that the language and upward look of the dying martyr whose clothes were laid at his feet had created such a tumult in his. breast that before he set out on his memorable journey he was already more than half converted. It is difficult to speak positively upon these points, so little information has been given us as to the actual facts. St. Paul's own statement that, down to the time of his conversion, he " verily thought within himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth,"1 rather implies that the representation is not correct. Without, however, pressing such words too closely, one thing seems clear. If the peculiar mental condition thus attributed to the persecuting Saul would naturally lead to a vision of the Lord as Risen, we shall be compelled to go much further back than the moment now before us both for the spring ing up within him of such a result of Christian con viction, and for the struggle in his mind to put down his convictions by force. At the date of the journey 1 Acts xxvi. 9-12; comp. xxii. 4, 5, ; Gal. i. 13, 92 THE RESURRECTION [lect. in. to Damascus, a vision of the Risen Lord was not so simple and natural a consequence of being suddenly brought to believe in His Resurrection as we may at first suppose. Such manifestations had long ceased. Several years had passed since any Christian claimed to have beheld the Risen Christ. The state of the Church was in this respect very different from what it had been before the Ascension. If, therefore, Saul's mental struggle was recent, it is in the highest degree unlikely that it would have led to such a vision as he actually had — a vision expected by no Christian at the time. In order to lead to the result ascribed to it, the struggle must have begun when manifestations such as that now supposed to be granted were familiar to the mind. It must also have lasted during the whole interval between the first appearances of the Risen Lord and that which Saul imagined to be vouchsafed to him. Only a conviction deliberately resisted through that interval could have kept alive the thought of an appearance of Jesus which the expectations of the moment, taken by themselves, would never have suggested. There must have been in the persecutor's mind a deep sense of guilt long incurred, remonstrances of conscience long silenced, the thought of injury long done to the Redeemer against his own better judgment, before his revulsion from his former self could have produced the result which actually followed. But we are not left to conjecture here ; we know that there was nothing of lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 93 the kind. We have his own account of his feelings at the time when he was persecuting the Church ; he tells us that he obtained mercy because he did it "ignorantly in unbelief."1 Even if we admit, however, all that is said of the struggle in Saul's mind — and it is not at all impossible that there may have been some struggle — another question has to be answered : What becomes of the vision theory ? That theory has to account for the rise of Christianity by showing that visions of a Risen Saviour produced Christian faith. By its own confession this cannot be done in the case of that Apostle who played a more important part in estab lishing and propagating the Christian Church than any other member of the apostolic circle. He be lieved first, and saw afterwards. The vision which was to account for the faith has to discover the faith in order to be itself accounted for. We are as far as ever from clearly understanding the process by which one to whom we are told that Christianity owes more than it does to Jesus was led to Christian conviction. Whether applicable to others or not, the vision theory is certainly not applicable to St. Paul. Is it then applicable to others — to our other wit nesses — to the early Church at large ? We have to contend that it is not. 1. It is inconsistent with the mental state of the disciples previous to the manifestations. Before we 1 1 Tim. i. 13. 94 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. can account on natural principles for the occurrence of a vision, two things at least must mark the subject of it — belief in the idea that it expresses, and excited expectation that the idea will somehow be realised. The first is necessary, for a vision is simply a trans ference to supposed realities of what has already pos session of the mind. A particular idea so powerfully affects the visionary that it is constantly before him as a fact. He so sees it with the mental eye that all doubts as to the existence of a corresponding reality vanish. It becomes the centre of his thoughts, the light by which he reads both himself and the world. The second is not less necessary, for mere belief that an object exists will not of itself bring along with it a manifestation of that object to the eye. We believe in the existence of innumerable beings connected alike with this world and the next, whom we never see because we never expect to see them. There is no power even in the firmest faith, as faith alone, to trans late the unseen into the seen. Faith in its normal condition is rather the opposite of sight, and is accom panied by the conviction that while we live by faith we shall not see. It is only in cases where expectancy is awakened in the mind that the bodily senses cease to discharge their functions with sufficient accuracy to guide us, and that the expected object may sud denly take shape before them as one which they can recognise. Belief and Expectancy are thus two factors absolutely essential to the production of visions. lect. hi.] OF OUR LORD. 95 In the subject with which we are dealing both these factors are awanting. We know from the whole of the New Testament, as well as from every other source that throws light upon the feelings of the time, that there then existed no belief in the resurrection of any individual from the dead before the last great day, at which all should rise.1 The Old Testament had given no countenance to any such idea, for Enoch and Elijah had not died ; and even Martha, who believed that had Jesus been present during the last illness of her brother He would have warded off the stroke of death, could not at first allow the thought of a present resurrection to enter her mind. "Thy brother shall rise again," said the Redeemer to her, in tones, we may well be lieve, intended to convey an intimation that he might rise then. " I know that he shall rise again," was the reply, " in the resurrection at the last day." 2 Nor is it possible to show that prophecy supplied at once the fact and the details.3 There is nothing in it that could supply them. The fact is indicated ; but in such a way that only after it occurred could the predictions referring to it be understood;4 not one single part of the narratives can be shown to be taken from the Old Testament. Even our Lord's own inti mations that He would rise again, frequently as they 1 Note 40. 2 John xi. 23, 24. 3 Sup. Bel., iii. p. 486, etc. 4 Comp. on this point the words of the fourth Evangelist in John ii. 22. 96 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. were given,1 seem to have made no impression upon the disciples ; the thought was so strange to them that they were unable to take it in. With what has now been said the facts as related by the Evangelists strictly correspond. The women who went on the third morning to the tomb went to anoint a dead body, not to behold a Risen Lord ; and on the way they perplexed themselves with the ques tion, "Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?" Mary Magdalene came to the grave, and found not only that the stone had been rolled away but that the body was not there. Yet it never occurred to her that a resurrection had taken place; and the only tidings that she could bear to the two disciples to whom she desired to communicate what had happened were, " They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid Him." 2 Even when she returned to the sepulchre, and when Jesus first spoke to her, she was so far from having any idea that her Master could have risen, that she supposed Him to be the gardener ; and she needed all the power of the tender recollec tions awakened by His passing from the word " Wo man " to the word " Mary " to convince her that it was indeed her Lord. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus spoke to the stranger who joined them upon the road of nothing but disappointed hopes ; and there is a sad pathos in their last words, as they 1 Matt. xvi. 21 ; xvii. 9 ; xx. 19 ; xxvi. 32, etc. 2 John xx. 2. lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 97 described what had happened in the Christian com munity that morning, — "but Him they saw not."1 Finally, the eleven were gathered together in an upper room at Jerusalem, with no expectation that their Lord would appear to them again ; and, when He did appear, instead of eagerly grasping at the ful filment of hope, they were "terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a spirit."2 All this is incompatible with the vision theory. The visionary mind sees the object of its expectation at once, and the distinctness of its impression leaves no room for the slightest doubt. Its visions are the stamp of the soul upon the outward world. How can the soul, in the very moment of tracing the sharp lines of the stamp, hesitate to recognise them ? If it does — and it did so in the instances now men tioned — we have a proof that the state of mind out of which visions spring had no existence. But if there was then no thought of even an ordinary resurrection, how much less was there any thought of such a resurrection as our Lord's? There had been raisings to life in the Old Testament, and miracles of the same kind had been performed by Jesus ; but the peculiarity here is that the idea of the Resurrection of our Lord which took hold of the Church's mind had no one bond of connexion with these except that of death overcome. They were raisings of the man as he had been : this was the 1 Luke xxiv. 24. 2 Luke xxiv. 37. H 98 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. raising of One in an entirely different condition. In them, the dead came forth to an existence as much as ever subject to the law of mortality — " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;" in this, our Lord left behind Him in the grave all that connected Him with a passing world, and entered upon a state which was never again to know either interruption or end. Let it be granted that prophecy had so clearly taught the Resurrection of the Messiah as to lead to the expectation of it, it will hardly be denied that between the expectation and the event, in the light in which the latter must be viewed, there was as great a difference as that between the expectation of the first coming of our Lord and the occurrence itself. In both cases what happened was wholly different from what had been thought of. When it is urged, therefore, that the "strong subjective impression that Jesus would rise would create a vision of Him,"1 it is exactly this impression, so far at least as we must suppose a correspondence between it and the event, that is awanting.2 Nor is it possible to say that the idea of the glorified Lord was a later addition to the earlier and simpler form of the story; for, from first to last, the narratives in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, and the statements in the Epistles, have the same double colouring, — the Risen Lord is the same as He had been, yet He is glorified. The Christian 1 Sup. Bel., p. 545. * Note 41. lect. hi.] OF OUR LORD. 99 tradition could not have been moulded from fore gone conclusions which had no existence ; and, at a time when there was absolutely no idea such as that which found expression in the Resurrection, the Resurrection could not have been beheld in vision. What has now been said may be illustrated by the case of the Second Coming. Probably no belief was stronger in the early Church than that this event was immediately to take place, yet the belief led to no vision. No Christian, or company of Christians, ever proclaimed that the signs of the Lord's approach had either been heard or beheld by them in heaven. We have already seen, however, that it is not enough that the idea found in a vision shall have been firmly believed in ; the mind must have been excited by it, and so filled with expectation as to need only a favourable combination of circumstances in order to change the expectation into accomplish ment. Men do not see visions in calm moments, nor unless they are dwelling eagerly upon the truth which is thus to take shape before them. The op ponents of the Resurrection of Christ are thoroughly alive to this ; and they show their sense of it in their analysis of the mind of Saul of Tarsus at the moment when he was converted. But spiritual tension of the kind is wholly awanting in the case before us. There was no excitement. The Christian community was depressed rather than excited. The minds of its 1 Note 42. 100 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. members were in a great measure prostrated by the events of the last few days. In the words, " We hoped that it was He which should redeem Israel," J they bade farewell to all expectation of beholding their Lord again. The first imperative condition of the vision theory was wholly awanting in the early Christian community. 2. The vision theory is inconsistent with the nature of the manifestations themselves. Two sup positions are possible. Our Lord might have been thought of as One returning from a heavenly world, where He had spent the interval between His dying and rising again. In that case, there ought to have been about Him some symptom of that glorious light which filled the presence-chamber of the Most High, and the influence of which had once lightened with unearthly light the face of Moses when he spoke with God upon the Mount. Certainly there ought not to have been less of the light of heaven around Him than there was around Moses and Elias upon the Mount of Transfiguration ; for that scene, being also by the supposition the product of the imagina tion, shows us the manner in which they were thought to be changed who were admitted even to the outskirts of the " excellent glory." 2 But we have every reason to believe that there was nothing of the kind visible in the Risen Lord. There is no ground for thinking that His appearance 1 Luke xxiv. 21. 2 2 Peter i. 17. lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 101 after He rose was, to the outward eye, different from what it had been before. We do not even read such a statement as that made upon one occasion by St. Mark regarding Jesus during His earthly life, " And they were in the way, going up to Jerusalem ; and Jesus was going before them ; and they were amazed ; and they that followed were afraid. " 1 A state of excitement would certainly have produced traits of a more striking nature than those that we actually possess. On the other hand, if the imagination of the disciples did not lead them to think of a heavenly abode to which their Lord might have retired during the interval of three days, but simply of the fact that their beloved Master and Friend was again in the midst of them, would not that condition of excited and enthusiastic love which alone could produce a vision have made it necessary to imagine Jesus also meeting them with an eagerness and fondness equal to that with which they met Him ? But again there is nothing of the kind. There is rather something almost repellent in His words to Mary Magdalene, " Touch me not." At the very moment when the two disciples recognised Him at Emmaus, and would have their hearts most open to Him, He vanished out of their sight.2 When Peter was restored to the apostleship, it was only at the third question, " Lovest thou Me ? " that He met the Apostle's ex- 1 Mark x. 32. 2 Luke xxiv. 31. 102 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. pression of warm and friendly love, — such love as that with which he had loved his Master upon earth, — with the same word as that which St. Peter himself had used. When He asked the eleven on one occasion whether they had any meat, and having taken fish before them ate, there is no evidence that they were asked to join in the meal ; x and when, at the Sea of Galilee, He prepared a banquet for them on the shore, it does not appear that He partook of it. In all His manifestations of Himself, in short, which are said to be the mere reflection of the love and devotion of the disciples, He appears in quite an other character from that in which love and devotion would have fancied Him. He is distant, reserved, the Master and Teacher rather than the old familiar Friend. We can hardly think that Mary would now have had courage to sit at His feet, or that the beloved disciple would have ventured to lean upon His bosom. It was not thus that He would have appeared had He appeared in vision. 3. The vision theory is inconsistent with the state of matters in the Christian community after the mani festations. Had excited expectation led to these, the excitement could not fail to have been increased by their actual occurrence. A single visionary may per haps be calm and collected ; may perhaps, notwith standing his excitement, display a clear perception of the future, and make skilful preparation for its needs. 1 Luke xxiv. 43. lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 103 A community can hardly do so. The general feeling wiU be too high, too hopeful, and too daring. Having seen the fulfilment of its most extraordinary, even of its most extravagant, expectations, it will not be cool enough to anticipate difficulties, to calculate conse quences, to think of arrangements suitable for quick ening the ordinary slowness of human apprehension, and overcoming the ordinary stubbornness of the human will. Yet this was exactly what the Apostles, with the concurrence of the whole Christian com munity, did immediately after the manifestations of Himself by the Risen Lord, and during the very time that they were taking place. The history of the forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension is peculiarly interesting when considered in this point of view. Let us think of these days for an instant, and what should we naturally expect? Ever and again during their course the Risen Lord was reported to have shown Himself from time to time in the midst of His disciples — now to one, now to several, now for a moment only, and now for more lengthened inter course. In circumstances like these, is it not natural to think that the disciples would be unfit for all de liberate planning as to the future, for all dwelling on the task before them, for all thought of the best means of carrying home to others, by argument and reason, a conviction impressed upon themselves through the immediate interposition of God ? Is it not natural to think that they would rather live either 104 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. in constant expectation of some fresh manifestation of their Lord, or under the influence of the powerful emotions which those already given must have awakened ? Yet such an impression would be wholly incorrect. In point of fact, the forty days during which the manifestations are said to have continued seem to have been far less days of emotion than days of training and instruction for the hardest task ever undertaken by man. At first, no doubt, there was great emotion : — Mary " running to bring the disciples word ; " St. Peter and St. John " running " to the grave ; the two disciples at Emmaus " rising up the same hour" in which Jesus made Himself known to them, and returning " in haste " to Jerusalem ; while, amidst all the simplicity of the Gospel narrative, we hear the weeping and see the joy. But that time passes away ; and when St. Luke afterwards sums up thenature of the intercourse which the disciples, during that time, had with their Lord, he describes Jesus as " speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God," and as charging them not to depart from Jerusalem, but "to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard of Him."1 The greatest commissions given to the disciples were givenduring these days ; and among them was at least one commission — " that they should make disciples of all the nations," 2 — which they were not till a considerable time afterwards even able to comprehend, and which therefore could 1 Acts i. 3, 4. 2 Matt, xxviii. 19. lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 105 not possibly have proceeded from their own state of Christian feeling at the time. No sooner, too, were these days over than what seems to have been the whole number of disciples at Jerusalem met together in an upper room for prayer and supplication, and, as appears from the address of St. Peter on the occasion, for mutual counsel.1 Nor can we fail to be struck with the quiet wisdom of those words in which that Apostle pointed out the course that it seemed proper in the circumstances to pursue, as well as with the readiness with which his advice was adopted by the whole assembly. There is not the slightest trace of excitement in his language. Not the slightest indica tion is conveyed to us that we are in the midst of a company of visionaries who have wrought themselves up to such a pitch of expectation as to be able to persuade themselves that one of the wildest fancies ever entertained by men had been an actual reality. Even the Resurrection itself, though the. point most of all to be witnessed to, is on that occasion not the only object of the Apostle's thoughts. He goes back to the whole ministry of Christ, and advises that a witness of the Resurrection should be chosen from among those who had companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, " beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that He was received up from them." They aU gave heed to what was said, prayed to Him who 1 Acts i. 14. 106 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. knew the heart to point out which of the two named by them He had chosen, and determined the matter by the customary method of casting lots.1 Never did the infant Church display more of the spirit of a sound mind than at the very moment when, upon the theory of visions, she should have been least self- possessed and calm. It was the same in the years immediately follow ing, and before the enthusiastic impressions in which the theory of visions supposes the Church to have originated had had time to die away. Everything recorded of her at that time betokens a state of mind the very opposite of the unregulated or fanatical. She is deeply convined of the reality of her faith, desirous to enjoy it in peace, glad when others are persuaded to cast in their lot along with her. We read of her continuing in the "Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers." 2 Her members seem still to have combined the worship of the Temple and the synagogue with their own more peculiar rites, as if either they did not themselves see the issue involved in their new faith, or were desirous not to break hastily with the past. As necessity called for it, they appointed new offices in the Church ; and, with a singular delicacy of per ception as to what was fitting, they chose the first 1 Acts i. 21-26. 2 Acts ii. 42. On the state of the Church at this time compare Keim, Jesus von Nazara, iii. pp. 594-600. lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 107 deacons from among those who seem to have been Hellenistic Jews ; doubtless, because it was widows of that class who had complained that the widows of the Hebrew Jews were favoured in the daily minis trations. When they were persecuted, they bore their trials without a murmur. When they had rest, they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the com fort of the Holy Ghost. All this, too, is of the more avail for our present purpose when we bear in mind that the Christianis ing power of the early Christian Church lay not so much in teaching as in the transmission of a certain spirit from one generation or community or person to another. A convert was of course led to views of Divine truth which he did not previously hold ; but what especially made him a Christian was his imbib ing the spirit of the existing Church : and the spirit of the Church at any one point of her existence in these primitive times leads us back with much more confidence than would be the case now to what must have been her spirit in the immediately preceding stage of her history. When, accordingly, we find the Church of the latter half of the first century exhibit ing the calm, clear confidence in the power of her Risen Lord which actually distinguishes her, it is impossible to think that she could have sprung out of impressions which, K not correct, could only have been as wild a hallucination as ever occupied or excited the mind of man. 108 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. 4. The theory of visions is inconsistent with various subordinate circumstances marking the mani festations of Himself by the Risen Lord. (1.) It is inconsistent with the length of time during which the manKestations often lasted. It is true that they were occasionally brief, but they were very far from being always so. The walk to Emmaus must have occupied a considerable time, and during it there was not only conversation between Jesus and the two disciples, but a lengthened explanation from the lips of the former, when, " beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning HimseK."1 The appearances to the Apostles on two successive Sunday evenings were certainly not appearances lasting only for an instant ; and the teachings granted during the forty days concerning the kingdom of God undoubtedly imply not only long but patient intercourse on the part of Jesus. Visions, however, have never been known to last in this way. They are flashes of sudden conviction, and are over in a moment. (2.) The theory is not less inconsistent with the fact that the manifestations were made to numbers at the same ins.tant. There is indeed a kind of electric sympathy in numbers wrought up into the same state of lively expectation, by means of which an impression made on one is often conveyed with 1 Luke xxiv. 27. lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 109 remarkable rapidity to the rest. But such simultane- ousness of conviction is never produced at the very first. A point of departure must be afforded for it, and one alone must give the word, which may then pass with lightning speed throughout the company. We have nothing of this kind to deal with in the case before us. When the Risen Saviour appeared to the assembled Apostles, He addressed Himself immediately and directly to them all, " Peace be unto you." There was no cry on that occasion, as there was at the Sea of Galilee, on the part of any one of them, "It is the Lord." Our narratives bear dis tinctly on their face that the whole company was instantaneously affected in the same way.1 Similar observations apply still more to the number of "above five hundred brethren at once," spoken of by St. Paul.2 It is utterly impossible to think that upwards of five hundred persons could, without previous pre paration (and the word " appeared " implies that there was none), persuade themselves by the mere power of the visionary faculty that they beheld the Risen Lord before them when they did not ; or, if we imagine that they did, some of so large a number must afterwards, in cooler moments, have reflected upon what had passed, must have recalled the means by which their state of excitement was brought about, and must have suspected the reality of what they had seen. But no second thoughts of this kind can have 1 Luke xxiv. 37 ; John xx. 20. 2 1 Cor. xv. 6. 110 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. existed, or St. Paul would not have felt himself entitled to appeal so calmly to the impression pro duced upon that whole number, "of whom the greater part remained unto that present, but some were fallen asleep." (3.) The theory is inconsistent with the place where the chief manifestations were made. Later critics, such as Strauss and Keim, have endeavoured to discredit the appearances to the Apostles in Jerusalem,1 and have urged that they cannot have taken place there, because the first message of the angel to- the women was, " Lo, He goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see Him ;" 2 and because Jesus Himself in His first manifestation gave His sanction to the message, " Go tell My brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see Me."3 The purpose of these critics is an obvious one. Visionary appearances were much less likely to occur in Jerusalem than in Galilee. In the one the prevailing tone was selfishness, coldness, hard ness, bitter opposition to the claims of the Messiah, while the disciples were few in number and over whelmed with dread of the authorities of the land ; in the other there was a spirit freer, bolder, not so wedded by selfish interest to existing institutions, ever ready to catch at new and promising ideas ; while, at the same time, its lake, its towns, its hills 1 LebenJesuf. d. D. V., p. 313, etc. Keim, Jesus von Nazara, iii. 533. 2 Matt, xxviii. 7. 3 Matt, xxviii. 10. lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. Ill and fields had been far more associated with the life of Jesus than Jerusalem had been. There, therefore, was the natural soil for visions, and there the Gospel narrative itself leads us to believe that they were to take place. On grounds like these it is urged that we cannot attach value to the reported appearances in Jerusalem :• Galilee alone could be their scene. Let us not attach value to them : it is enough for our present purpose that they are related, and that, so related, they are to be regarded as the mere product of the visionary faculty. But, K so, how came the very same mental state of the early disciples to indicate, by means of the messages of the angels and of Jesus, that Galilee was to be the scene of the manifestations, and then to attach so many of them to Jerusalem ? These messages were of course parts of visions. There was certainly no more reality in them than in any special appearance of the Risen Lord. How came the early Church to be in such confusion and self-contradiction upon the point ? It was believed with a belief, the firmness and liveliness of which are the fundamental requisites of the vision theory, that the Risen Saviour was to be seen in Galilee ; yet, instead of being seen there either alone or first, the earliest and most important visions are connected with Jerusalem. On the third day after the crucifixion tidings pass like wildfire through the small Christian community of the capital: "An angel has appeared ; the Lord has appeared; and the message 112 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. of both is that if we go into Galilee we shall see our Master again, amidst the scenes where we have so often met Him ;" and lo ! that very night He makes Himself manifest at Jerusalem, — in that very place with which, according to the negative school of criti cism, He had no associations, where He had never laboured, which He had visited, after His ministry began, for the first time that very week in which He died. The vision theory must be more in harmony with itself before it can take the place of the Church's faith. (4.) Once more, the theory is inconsistent with the fact that the visions came so suddenly to an end.1 We have already seen cause to believe that during forty days appearances of the Risen Lord must have been more frequent than those actually recorded. The whole bearing, indeed, of the earlier verses of the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles would almost lead to the inference that a continual process of inter course had gone on, which, at the close of the forty days, came suddenly to an end. After that time no appearance of the Risen Lord is recorded except that to St. Paul, the circumstances and object of which were altogether exceptional. But it is not thus that enthusiasm works, and especially when all the inti mations given by the Lord Himself of His future 1 Comp. Keim, Jesus von Nazara, iii. p. 597,. "At the moment when the spirits of men, become fervid, are beginning to grow fanatical, the fanaticism is clean cut up by the very roots." lect. hi.] OF OUR LORD. 113 presence with His people had seemed to infer a con tinuous presence with them rather than one of such short duration. No promise of His rising again had been connected with the mention of forty days. On the contrary, in the Gospel of St. John He had spoken of seeing them after a little while, when their heart would rejoice with a joy that no man should take from them -,1 and in the Gospel of St. Matthew His promise had been, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the age."2 We can under stand words like these of the presence of His Spirit ; but the infant Church could hardly apply them in that way. It was much more natural for her to think of continually repeated manifestations, which should rather grow in brightness and in number in proportion as she needed them. These, however, did not take place ; and days of trial and persecution, when they came, did not witness even one example of a fresh manifestation of her Risen Lord. Nor is even this all that may be said. The vision theory supposes a high state of excitement and enthu siasm on the part of the disciples. That state reached its culminating point at Pentecost, when the gift of the Spirit put not only the Church but the whole city in a stir, and when St. Peter filled his first sermon to the people with thoughts of the Risen Lord. Still, there was no new manifestation of Him. Ten days before the manifestations had ceased ; and from that 1 John xvi. 22. 2 Matt, xxviii. 20. 114 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. moment onward there is not a whisper that any of them had been repeated. The fact is remarkable; and it helps to illustrate the imperfection of the theory we have been examining. Before passing altogether from the vision theory it seems desirable to say a few words upon that latest modification of it by Keim which has been already alluded to. Unable, on the one hand, to accept the historical faith of the Church in the Resurrection of our Lord, and yet equally unable, on the other, to regard as satisfactory any form of the vision theory hitherto offered, this distinguished historian of the life of Jesus is driven, with obviously saddened feel ings, to a conclusion of his own. He removes the whole matter from the realm of science to that of faith. History, he believes, leaves nothing unques tionable but the conviction of the Apostles that their Lord had risen, together with the immense result of that conviction — the Christianising of mankind. But faith does more. Moving within its own appropriate sphere, which is entirely different from that of science, and in which it is impossible for science to refute it, faith completes and illumines those limitations of knowledge to which science must submit. In the present instance it does so by inspiring us "not merely with the assurance that Jesus, whatever may be the manner in which He went away from the earth, took His course to the higher world of God and of spirits, in order to bless the region beyond the lect. iii.] OF OUR LORD. 115 grave and, by means of His work embodied in His Church, to build up into conformity with it this present scene," but also by giving us the conviction that " it was He, and no other, who, as one that died yet Mves again, as even if not the Risen One yet glori fied in heaven, granted visions to His disciples and revealed HimseK to His community."1 The word " visions," it will be observed, is used ; but they are quite different from those postulated in the vision theory. They are not the result of enthusiasm, of nervousness, of mental excitement, on the part of the disciples — solutions which Keim finds incapable of supplying a rational explanation of the facts. They are directly granted by " God and the glorified Christ." They may include even a " corporeal appearance " for those who fear that without this they would lose all. But, whatever they include, they are an objective reality, not a mere subjective impression ; and they come and go, not according to the condition of those who witness them, but according to the will of the operating power. Such is the theory of Keim. It is unnecessary to discuss it at any length. As it is unfolded by its author the reader is touched by the deep sincerity and the warm admiration of Jesus with which it is set forth. But it will satisfy no one — not the Church, for Keim abandons all the proofs of a bodily resur rection of Jesus upon which she rests ; and certainly 1 Keim, Jesus von Nazara, iii. p. 601. 116 THE RESURRECTION [lect. hi. not her enemies, for he acknowledges the fact that, by whatever path He reached His exaltation, Jesus is now at the right hand of God, that thence He communicates with His people, and that He has for ever united in the closest spiritual bonds the world of superhuman realities and the world of sense. The theory really admits the ultimate contents of the Church's faith, although it denies the validity of the course by which she reaches them. If visions of Himself were granted by the " glorified Christ," then Christ is glorified. If these visions might include even a " corporeal appearance," then the glorified Christ must, unless we admit the horrible and utterly untenable idea of deception, have an appearance of that kind. If thus glorified with a corporeal appear ance He must either have risen from the grave or His Spirit must have been clothed with a new body. The latter supposition is not only in the highest degree improbable in itself, but is inconsistent with the whole teaching of those Scriptures to the general effect of which, however he may discard many of the particulars related by them, Keim looks with admira tion and love. Nor is this all. For, if we suppose that the visions of the Risen Lord were granted directly by the Father in order to lead to faith in the Son as risen, it will be impossible to deny that there must have been a close correspondence between the faith which God designed to implant in the mind of the Church and the faith lect. in.] OF OUR LORD. 117 which we know to have been actually exhibited by her. We are in no doubt, however, as to the latter, mistaken as we may think it to have been. And we are thus driven to the conclusion that by the visions which He granted of the glorified Son the Almighty designed to impress upon men what was not in ac cordance with the realities of the case — what was not the fact. Surely the faith of the Church is a far simpler and more natural explanation of the phenomenon with which we have to deal. It makes no higher demand upon that Divine interposition from the thought of which so many shrink, and it leaves us more rational grounds for the faith of the early Christians. Keim's elaborate argument goes no further than to supply another and conclusive proof that the vision theory, when examined as carefully as he has examined it, breaks down. Thus, then, it appears that the attempt to explain the alleged Resurrection of our Lord by the vision theory is attended with difficulties which may fairly be pronounced insuperable. There is no theory at the present time so confidently relied on by those who are unable to accept the Resurrection as a fact. It is in substance urged by Strauss 1 and Renan ;2 it is defended with great acuteness of investigation by Holsten ;3 it is accepted by the author of Supernatural 1 See Das Leben Jernf. d. D. V., p. 304. 2 Note 43. 3 See Holsten's work, Zum Evangelium des Paulus und Petrus. 118 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iii. Religion} Yet, from whatever point of view we look at the circumstances of the early Christian Church, at the same time taking into account weU-known laws of the human mind which must have been the same then as they are now, we find them incompatible with the supposition that the appearances of the Risen Saviour proceeded only from that excited and expectant imagination of His followers which might have given rise to visions. The theory is contradicted by the condition of our Lord's disciples at the moment of His death, by the nature of the manifestations themselves — even though they were no more than pictures of the fancy — by the after life of the Church, and by different subordinate circumstances, such as their duration, the numbers who witnessed them at the same instant, the place where they occurred, and their cessation when they might have been expected to increase. The vision theory is a deeply interest ing one. If true, it would undoubtedly overthrow the fact of a bodily Resurrection of our Lord, and with it the existence of the Christian faith in any sense worthy of the name. But it cannot for that reason alone be summarily dismissed. The chapter of human history involved in the literal Resurrection of our Lord is of unrivalled importance ; and we are bound to inquire with as much calmness as pos sible into both the fact and the objections to it. Of these objections the vision theory is undoubtedly the 1 Vol. III. p. 526. lect. hi.] OF OUR LORD. 119 most formidable ; but it, as well as the others that have been mentioned, fails to satisfy the indispensable conditions of inquiry.1 It also, therefore, must be rejected, and we have no legitimate resource but to accept the fact. We may be thankful that it should be so. We may believe that the Church of Christ has not grounded her life and hope for eighteen cen turies upon a delusion ; and, in the face of either denial or scorn, we may assert that our words are those of truth and soberness, when we proclaim that He who died upon the cross rose on the third morning from the grave. 1 Note 44. 120 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. LECTURE IV. ' ' Behold, I cast out devils and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." — Luke xiii. 32. " The Lord is risen indeed." We have satisfied our selves as to the fact that the Redeemer who died upon the cross, and was buried, came forth upon the third morning from the grave ; and that, after having for forty days from time to time appeared upon the earth, He ascended, in the glorified condition in which He rose, to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God. The fact is one of so stupendous a nature as to demand inquiry into its purpose and effect. The Almighty does nothing in vain ; He wastes no strength; His means are always in just proportion to His ends. A fact like this, therefore, can hardly fail to have an important place among the great facts belonging to the scheme of our redemption. Is it so ? and, if so, what is that place? are the questions that we have now to ask. It has indeed been alleged by one of the most eminent theologians of the Church of Christ, whose lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 121 labours contributed more than those of any other that can be named to the revival of religion in the early part of the present century — the distinguished Schlei- ermacher — that the Christian consciousness is wholly independent of the Resurrection of our Lord. That Resurrection is a matter of Scripture statement, and must be accepted by those who can satisfy themselves that the evidence is good ; but it is no part of the convictions that make the Christian what he is; and, altogether apart from it, we may have a complete impression of everything that Jesus was as our Re deemer, and a complete experience in ourselves of the blessings of His redemption.1 The same view has been advocated by theologians of later date;2 and there can be no doubt that at this moment it is more or less adopted by many members of the Christian Church. Important advantages are thought to be connected with it. It seems to leave us the sub stance of our faith, while at the same time it affords a means of escape from the reception of its greatest miracle. The life of our Lord is supposed to be untouched, except in so far as the view may affect the credibility of the Evangelists. We may still speak, it is imagined, of the risen life, of a life above the world, of a life to which we can apply the Apostle's words, "It is not I that live, but Christ liveth in me ;" and what more do we require ? Even in this country, where such an extreme 1 Glaubenslehre, Vol. II. § 99. 2 Note 45. 122 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. view is probably seldom adopted by professing Christians, there is a mode of looking at the Resur rection of our Lord which is hardly less fatal to what we have yet to speak of as its real place and power. It is regarded mainly in its evidential value. It is dwelt upon as a fulfilment of prophecies either found in the old Testament, or uttered by the lips of Jesus Himself; as an attestation of the truth of His doc trine and claims; as a solemn guarantee that His atonement has been accepted by the Father ; as the pledge and earnest of our own resurrection at the great day of account.1 It is treated less as an essential and integral part of the work which the Lord Jesus Christ had been sent into the world to accomplish, than as something following that work ; as the visible and glorious reward bestowed by the Father upon the Son of His love, who had been faith ful unto death and had finished the work given Him to do. This is the view of the Resurrection almost exclusively presented to us, both in the teaching of our pulpits, and in the writings of our divines. Few members of the Christian Church seem to think of more. It is certainly not without great value. The Resurrection of our Lord justifies alike the inferences that have been spoken of, and others of a similar kind; yet it is obvious that all of them may be accepted by us, without the Risen Lord having any immediate place in our Christian consciousness or 1 Note 46. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 123 any immediate influence on our Christian life. They may only lead us back again, though with quickened gratitude and deepened interest, to His death. The cross may still be in our eyes the grand termination of His redeeming work. But the view thus taken, even if so far correct, is as a whole in a high degree imperfect ; and the teaching of the New Testament distinctly shows us that it is so. Thus in John x. 17, 18 we read, " Therefore doth the Father love Me because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of MyseK. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father." It is the whole "commandment" of the Father, the whole charge or commission of the Father, as given to the Son in the counsels of eternity, that is here referred to ; and that commandment extends not only to the laying down of His life by the Son, but to His " taking it again." The latter, as weU as the former, was a part of that doing of the Father's will in which the free and perfect submission of the Son to the Father was so conspicuously exhibited as to form the very founda tion of the eternal love with which the Father loved the Son. The two parts of the statement cannot be separated from one another. Nay, not only so ; the taking of His life again is here spoken of by our Lord as the ultimate act in which both the will of the Father and the free adoption of that will by the Son 124 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. are manifested. It is not a mere consequence of His laying down His IKe : it is the end for which the life is laid down, — " Therefore do I lay down My life, that I may take it again." The words of our Lord Him self thus teach us that, in the original commandment of His Father, not death but resurrection from the power of death, together with the life which followed, was the true goal of that race which He was to run, the true completing of that obedience which in the scheme of redemption He was to render.1 Again, in John xii. 27 we have an expression of the feelings with which our Lord contemplated His own work in its most trying hour, " Now is My soul troubled ; and what shall I say? Father, save Me out of this hour : but for this cause came I unto this hour." The true rendering of this passage is not that of our English Bibles, Father, save Me "from" but Father, save Me "out of" this hour;2 and, when we observe this, the whole aspect of the prayer is changed. It is no longer a prayer on the part of Jesus that He may be spared the bitterness of drink ing to the very dregs the cup of wrath. We know indeed that He did shrink from the draught, although in a manner so entirely in submission to His Father's will that the shrinking cannot be associated with any thought of sin, " 0 My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me ; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."3 These words, however, do 1 Note 47. 2 Note 48. 3 Matt. xxvi. 39 ; Mark xiv. 35 ; Luke xxii. 42. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 125 not express the whole of His mental state ; and the record of St. John supplies what the earlier Evan gelists have left unnoticed. Our Lord prayed not merely that He might be saved from that hour, but out of that hour ; not merely that, if possible. He might escape suffering, but that, if it was impossible for Him to escape it, He might pass through it to a glorious deliverance, — that through death He might be conducted to that life beyond death in which the purpose of His coming was to be reached. At the moment when He uttered the prayer before us He felt that He was the corn of wheat about to be cast into the ground to die,1 but He did not think of dying as the end for which the great Sower scattered Him from His hand. Wheat is sown not for death but for the harvest ; and for the sake of the harvest, for the sake of the life through death, Jesus came to that hour. Again, it is upon this principle that we are to explain the remarkable word used by St. Luke in his account of the Transfiguration, when, telling us of the subject upon which Jesus then conversed with the representatives of the law and the prophets, he says that they spake of the exodus, not of the "decease," which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.2 Exodus is more than " decease ;" it is a going forth from a state of humiliation and suffering to a glorious rest.3 But it is not only in passages such as these, in 1 Verse 24. 2 Luke ix. 31. 3 Note 49. 126 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. which we have the words either of Jesus or of an Evangelist, that we find a pre-eminence attached to the Resurrection of our lord which the Church too often fails to recognise ; the same point is brought before us elsewhere in the New Testament, both in special texts and in the whole strain of the sacred writers' thoughts. Thus, in the Epistle to the Hebrews we find on one occasion words exactly similar to those that have already met us in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, although the sense of them is again marred in our English Bibles by the substitution of the preposition " from " for the preposition " out of : " " Who, in the days of His flesh, having with a strong cry and tears offered up prayers and supplications unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and having been heard for His reverent fear, though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered."1 In that prayer which he selects as the strongest evidence afforded in the IKe of Jesus of His reverent fear, the sacred writer tells us that He prayed not that He might be delivered " from " death, but that He might be delivered " out of " it. Or take such passages as the following from St. Paul : "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved ;"2 "Where fore God also highly exalted Him, and gave unto 1 Heb. v. 7. 2 Rom. x. 9. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 127 Him the name which is above every name : that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (that is, the Risen and Glorified Lord), "to the glory of God the Father;"1 "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life ;"2 "Who is he that shall condemn ? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us ;"3 while it is unnecessary to quote the many passages in which the Resurrection of our Lord is mentioned, along with His death, as one of the two great facts which are essentially and equally necessary to the accomplishment of our salvation.4 It is worthy of notice indeed that " salvation," in the full meaning of the word, is never connected in the New Testa ment with the death of Christ alone. Pardon of sin, redemption, and reconciliation are, but not salvation. Salvation includes life ; and, though the seed must be dissolved, it is from the living germ in the seed, and not from the surrounding death, that the IKe springs up.6 Once more, it will repay the attentive reader of the word of God to study in this point of view the combination of ideas presented to us in the Gospel of St. John, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He 1 Phil. ii. 9, 11. 2 Rom. v. 10. 8 Rom. viii. 34. 4 Note 50. 5 See further remarks on this point in Appendix to Note 56. 128 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. will find that the leading theme of the Gospel, — one appearing both in its general structure and in the structure of particular passages,1 both in the words of Jesus which it preserves, and in the scenes from His life which it describes,2 — is not suffering and death upon the one hand, or glory upon the other ; nor is it a theme with two separate parts, life and death, or death and life. The main thought of the Gospel is single, though compound. It is glory won through shame, triumph through apparent defeat, life through death. The two things come constantly together. Both are included in the remarkable ex pression, "lifted on high," so characteristic of St. John ;3 and we do not catch the idea contained in the expression by saying that Jesus dies and is glorified, but by saying that Jesus passes through death, the first stage of glory, to a still higher and more perfect stage of glory. The same thing is not less strikingly apparent in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Only one text in that Epistle makes direct mention of the Resurrection of our Lord,4 and even there it is incidentaUy intro duced ; but the whole Epistle presupposes His Resurrection. It is the Risen and Ascended Lord who is its great theme throughout, the High Priest after the order of Melchizedec, both Priest and King " for ever." 5 1 Note 51. 2 Note 52. s Note 53. 4 Heb. xiii. 20. 5 Note 54. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 129 The Resurrection of our Lord, in short, according to the invariable teaching, of Scripture, is not some thing consequent upon His redemptive work; it is a part of the work itself. It is not something merely designed to prove to us that that death upon the cross which the world scorned is " the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation." It is itseK " power " and " wisdom " ; it is one of the great redemptive acts of Jesus. Let us consider it, I. In relation to His own Person. It is un necessary to repeat what was said in a previous Lecture as to the condition of our Lord at the moment when He rose, or to dwell again upon the fact that what He was when He ascended to His Father in heaven, He was when He came forth from the tomb ; that what He is now in His glorified state, He was during the forty days when He showed Him self from time to time to His disciples. If the observations then made were correct, the point which now claims our attention is, that in our Lord's resur rection-state there was, so far as regarded the con stitution of His person, an advance upon what it had been during His previous life. The body now possessed by Him was not His old body, with what ever amount of outward glory we suppose it to have been glorified; but rather that old body changed, transfigured ffom within, so that it might be the fitting and perfectly adequate expression of pure 130 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. spirit. A body of that kind our Lord could not have possessed before. Not at the Incarnation ; for even in Paradise, before the Fall, man's body was " natural," not "spiritual;" and if our Lord's body, at the time when he became incarnate, had been the latter instead of the former, it would have been different from ours. He would not have been " made of the seed of David according to the flesh," and the assurance so necessary to faith would have been wanting, that " since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood He also Himself in like manner partook of the same." Nor could our Lord's body have become " spiritual " through the transforming influence of the Spirit at any stage of His earthly life subsequent to the Incarnation. All along, in deed, the Spirit in His fulness dwelt in Him. He was conceived in the Spirit's power j1 at His Baptism the Spirit not only descended, but " abode " upon Him ;2 and it was in the power of the Spirit that He began His ministry.3 But up to the time of the Resurrection He was not free to let the Spirit pro duce His natural and proper effects upon His bodily frame. He was still continuing, as it was necessary that he should continue, that " emptying Himself of His glory " which was essential to the carrying out .of His great work. The first purpose of His coming had not yet been answered. Standing in our room and stead, He had not yet wrought out, in the very 1 Matt. i. 18 2 John i. 32. 3 Luke iv. 14. leot. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 131 nature that had sinned, His victory of love. Had His body been changed before this was done, He would have failed to be our Representative at the very moment when that love had reached its point of highest intensity j1 when it was most pleasing to the Father ;2 and when it had achieved its most glorious results.3 At the Resurrection it was different. The suffering for our sake to which love led Him' to submit had culminated in death ; the sacrifice rendered necessary by the relations between a holy God and sinful man had been presented ; the corn of wheat, having fallen into the ground and died, was ready to produce much fruit. No hindrance existed now to the passing onward of our Lord's body to its perfection ; and in such a body — a distinct advance upon that with which He had formerly lived and died — Jesus rose. Not only so. It is of peculiar importance to observe that the advance thus made was in conform ity with principles which the Almighty had stamped upon the constitution of things, and with the design which He had originally formed. " Howbeit," says St. Paul, as he reasons on the subject, " that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy : the second man is of heaven."4 It is of no moment whether the Apostle is here 1 John xiii. 1. 2 John x. 17. 3 John xii. 32. 4 1 Cor. xv. 46, 47. Note 55. 132 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. thinking only of the two kinds of bodies of which he had just spoken, — the one so frail and corruptible, the other so powerful and incorruptible ; or whether he has in his eye a universal law of history. In either case the lesson for our present purpose is the same. We learn that, in the relation of the resurrec tion-body of our Lord to His body as it was before He died upon the cross, we have the operation of a great law which may be traced both in the record of creation and in God's providential dealings with our race. There is nothing final in the universe except God. Everything comes from Him ; everything tends to Him. There is a constant aspiration through the long ages on the part of all that exists towards something higher, better, nobler than itself, — towards something liker its source, — that is, liker God, liker spirit. This progress is, without doubt, through much humiliation and suffering, even through, an amount of sacrifice and death at the thought of which we often stand appalled. It would be foreign to our subject to show that here again the Lord Jesus Christ fulfils the great law of our humanity ; and it is enough to say that, however trying the means may be which are indispensable to purge us from the influences of sense, and to bring us under the one and absolute dominion of spirit, the latter is the end to which our nature points. To draw in definitely nearer God is the glorious destiny of man. But man cannot effect this by shaking off the body lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 133 altogether. He would then be no longer man. His body can never be wholly changed into spirit. Had we to think of a time when man shall be nothing but a Divine spirit, and when there shall be no outward expression of that spirit in what is perceptible to the senses, then man would be as God, instead of being only a manKestation of God. In this path of bodily change, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ precedes us. He is the Archetype in which the idea of the Divine mind is realised. In the two facts of His Incarnation and Resurrection He sums up the purpose of the great Creator. From the moment that He resolved to become our Leader and " Captain " in the path of life, it became necessary that the words should be fulfilled in Him as weU as us, " Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; then that which is spiritual." Keeping in view, then, the nature of that body with which our Lord rose, it follows, from all that has been said, that His Resurrection was the perfect ing in His Person — and that too according to God's own eternal plan — of a humanity which even our first parents had received only in its rudimentary and initial not its ultimate stage, and the upward pro gress of which had' been interrupted by the Fall. It was the culmination of a great development for which man was always destined, and which would have been accomplished for him in some other way, even 134 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. if he had never sinned. It was the bringing about of a result aimed at in fundamental and essential impulses of our nature, and towards which, therefore, that nature must always point, as what alone can satisfy its desires, fulfil its hopes, and complete its glory. Such is the perfecting of our Lord's Person by His Resurrection. Not as Divine only but as also human He was perfected. He did not return, when He rose, to absolute Divinity; He is not simply spirit now ; nor is He possessed of an angelic nature, although in that nature He might be exalted above the brightest angel that is before the face of the Most High.1 As man, He rose, ascended into heaven, sat down upon His throne, — as man, with our human nature not less real and true than ever because it has been perfected, — as man, with an eye to look in love upon His own ; with a voice to speak to them in its old tender tones ; with a hand to lay upon the heads of children taken away before their sorrowing parents to His own gentle presence. 0 glorious consummation of all His toils ! 0 meet reward of all His sufferings ! 0 happy tidings for those who know that what their Lord is they shall in due time be ! — that they shall be like Him who is not only true God but perfect man, no more needing to groan in this earthly house of their tabernacle being burdened, but being clothed upon, and with what is mortal swallowed up of IKe. 1 Heb. ii. 5-9. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 135 One remark may be permitted before we pass on. It will be seen that, looked at in this light, the Resurrection of our Lord is no longer an isolated miracle, no longer a fact which simply guarantees another fact embraced in the scheme of our redemp tion. It is taken up into the great redemptive pro cess. It is a step — the highest and the final step — in a grand development of humanity contemplated by the Creator from the very first. It is the crowning act of a series of events which was begun when all things " were created " in Christ ; was carried on when all things " consisted " in Him ; and was in its principle completed when He who had been "the first born of all creation " became again " the begin ning, the first born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." Then the human, not in " the likeness of sinful flesh," but in the con dition originally designed for it, was united to the Divine in one perfect unity for ever. Any one, therefore, who accepts the Incarnation ought to have no difficulty in accepting the Resurrection of our Lord. . The latter is only the completing of that humanity which had been assumed in the former ; the perfecting of a process which, without it, would have stopped short of the only goal that we can regard as final. II. From the Person of our Lord we have now to turn to His Work, that we may ask how His Resur- 136 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. rection bears on it? An answer to this question maybe given in two particulars. In His Resurrection the com pletion of His work began, and in it the Almighty gave attestation of His acceptance of all that He had done. 1. In it the completion of His work began. For we are not to imagine that that work was accom plished either by His life on earth, or by His death. It is true that the fundamental office which our Lord came into the world to discharge was that of Priest, and that His fundamental commission was to present the one perfect offering for sin by which God might be reconciled to man, and man to God. But the question immediately arises, How much did that priesthood and offering include ? We know that they included His humiliation, and sorrows, and sufferings, and death ; for these were not merely what a good man cannot escape in his conflict with the world. They were in their own nature expiatory, — a true and proper sacrifice for sin. Our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ ; " Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him ;" " In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses ;" " The blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin."1 But the point now before us is, whether our Lord's offer ing for sin did not go beyond His death, whether it did not also embrace His Resurrection and present- 1 1 Cor. v. 7 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 : Ephes. i. 7 ; 1 John i. 7. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 137 ation of HimseK to the Father in the heavenly Sanc tuary. In considering this it wiU be well to call to mind a part of the ritual of the law too frequently lost sight of, — the double procedure with the blood of the victim sacrificed ; for, upon the great Day of Atone ment (to say nothing at present of the ordinary sin- offerings), the High Priest's offering for sin was not completed by the mere slaughtering of the victim, and the pouring out of its blood at the bottom of the brazen altar in the Court. It was not when the High Priest hilled the bullock of the sin-offering, and the goat of the sin-offering, that the atonement was accomplished ; but then only when, putting some of the blood into a basin, he took it within the veil, and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat. There were thus two parts of the offering ; there was a double pro cedure with the blood; and the two parts in the double procedure were not a simple repetition of the same idea, — a symbolical setting forth of the same relation between the Almighty upon the one hand, and the sinner upon the other. Confusion seems to have been introduced into this subject by the failure of inquirers to observe that, in both parts of the ceremonial which, while distinct, were closely related to one another, the blood was still the same blood and that, considered simply by itself, it represented in both the same thing. In neither case was it dead; in both cases it was warm and living blood. The 138 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. language of Lev. xvii. 11 is express, " For the life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." It is the blood as life that is there " given upon the altar," not the blood as death. Throughout the whole ritual, therefore, up to the moment when all the actings with it were over, the blood of the victim was its life, as much alive when it was sprinkled (only that then it had passed through death) as when it was first drawn jforth by the knKe of the offerer. But while the blood was thus itself the same, the procedure with it seems to have had a different meaning at the two different stages of the offering. At the one it bore along with it the life of the offerer sacrificed in the person of the victim to Him who had said, " The soul that sinneth shall die." At the other it bore along with it the same life of the offerer saved in death and through death, and now surrendered upon that " Propitiatory " or Mercy Seat which God had Himself provided as the covering of the ark of His testimony. In the first act, that of the slaughter ing, there was death, although death only as the way to life. The people died in the sacrifice ; and the high priest, as their representative, acknowledged that they deserved to die. In the second act, that of the sprinkling, there was life. The people had accepted, and passed through, death ; and the high priest, as their representative, laid their IKe in its new aspect as an offering before God, expressing their reunion to lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 139 Him who had redeemed them, and their willing surrender of themselves in the bond and on the con ditions of His covenant. Then only, when all this had been done, could it be said that the covenant relation had been re-established between God and Israel. Then only was the high priest's work as the representative of Israel finished; and then only could he come forth from the inmost part of the sanctuary as the representative of God to proclaim that the offering was complete, that Israel was both a pardoned and a holy people, and that its sins might be sent away into that darkness and desolation to which sin belongs. B.ut before this proclamation could be made, both the actions with the blood that have been spoken of were necessary ; and, had the high priest, in addition to setting forth the death of Israel at the Altar in the Court, not also laid Israel in and for a new IKe upon the Mercy Seat, he would not have accomplished the service of the day. Still further, it can hardly fail to be seen that it was in the second part of the service that the whole ceremonial culminated. All inquirers are agreed upon this point, and it is unnecessary to discuss it. Life laid upon the altar of God, to be His for ever, must always be a higher thing than life yielded up to death because of sin ; and the words of the Al mighty by His prophet sounded throughout the whole of the Old Testament Dispensation, "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death 140 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, 0 house of Israel?"1 In the second part of the service the people were not only ransomed, but dedicated ; not only pardoned, but consecrated. A separation had been made between them and the power not less than the punishment of sin.2 Let us pass from the type to the Antitype. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has left us in no doubt as to the manner in which all this was fulfilled in our Lord. The lesson constantly enforced in that Epistle is that the high priesthood of Christ is "fulfilled" by His work in heaven; that only after His Resurrection is He in a position to exhaust the functions of that office ; and that His offering is not completed until, within the heavenly sanctuary, He presents Himself to the Father in aU that per fection of service which the Father claims. The meaning of our Lord's presentation of Himself in heaven is thus different from that of His death upon the cross. Both are indeed parts of one whole ; but they are not on that account to be confounded with one another, or to be regarded as the expression, in different ways, of one and the same thought. There is a distinct difference between them. In the one our great Representative bears the penalty of our sins, submitting Himself to death, the first demand 1 Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 2 Note 56_ lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 141 of the Divine law upon the sinner, — yet doing this, not simply that He may die, but that He may pass through death to life. In the other He who is still our Representative presents Himself to His Heavenly Father, as One who has passed through death to life, and whose IKe, redeemed from the power of death, is now to be presented for ever to the Father in joyful gratitude and praise. Were it not for the first act, our Lord, and we in Him, would approach into the Divine presence without that free acceptance of penalty which must be the very first step in our return from evil. Were it not for the second, actual return to God would not take place. Without the former, that death would be wanting out of which alone the corn of wheat can spring up in IKe.1 Without the latter, there would be no springing up of the corn of wheat at all. Neither act is sufficient without the other ; and both must be accomplished before the work of the Heavenly High Priest can be regarded as complete. It conveys, therefore, a false idea of the work of our Lord when we say that it was finished on the cross, and that His Glorification was only His reward, and the guarantee to us of His acceptance with God. He Himself indeed had cried on the cross, "It is finished." But what was finished ? His groans and tears, and agonies and cries ; His submission to the pains and sufferings and death appointed for Him ; 1 John xii. 24. 142 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. His struggle with the world and its prince ; — these were finished, but not His offering. That was not finished until, as One who had died and risen again, He went, perfected through death, into the Holiest of all, and there devoted Himself, and His people in Him, to the perpetual service of the Eternal Father. The Resurrection of our Lord, instead of being a mere consequence of His work, is thus a part of the work itself. Without it He would have left that work unfinished. As our Representative He might have led us to the sacrifice of death rendered neces sary by the fact that we had sinned. But He would not have led us into the higher IKe, — the life in God, — for which we were created, and in which the end of our existence is attained. It is only by the con tinued offering of Himself in the new life of His resurrection - state that His people are taken "in Him " beyond death into heavenly and eternal IKe. Two other parts of the priestly work of Christ might still have been spoken of had time permitted — Intercession and Benediction. It is enough to say that without our Lord's Resurrection neither of them could have been realised, and that He could not, in consequence, have been a perfect Priest. If the work of Christ as the High Priest of His people would thus have been unfinished without His Resurrection, the same thing may next be said of the other offices discharged by Him for His people's good. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 143 Thus the message of salvation which He re veals as Prophet would not have been complete. That message is founded upon what He has done as Priest. It is the glad tidings of an atoning work which is not only begun but finished, of a salvation which includes not only the death of the old man, but the quickening into life of the new man within us, of a change which involves our dying unto sin in order that we may live unto righteousness. This is "the will of God for our salvation," — not simply fresh discoveries of the power or wisdom or goodness of the great Creator; not simply the inculcation of moral precepts more comprehensive and beautiful than the world had yet possessed or could have reached by speculations of its own, but a union in love with the Father through the Son as Priest. Such a will ,of God could only be revealed after Christ had risen. His Resurrection was a part of the revelation ; and without it the very word to be proclaimed could not be perfected. But there is more than this to be said upon the point before us. To assert only that the Resurrection of our Lord is necessary to the fulfilment of His prophetical office, because His Resurrection is a necessary part of the revelation to be proclaimed, is to look at the matter in a more outward light than that in which it is presented to us in the word of God. There is not less an inner bond between the fact of the Resurrection of Christ and the execution 144 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. of His work as Prophet ; for, in that work, our Lord was to do more than simply reveal the truth once for all, and then leave it as a legacy to the world, in the fixed and definite form which is implied by its being written in a book. The Gospel message was not to be in word only but in " power," so that, in whatever age it might be proclaimed, it should bring with it the freshness of a new morning. In order to this, however, the word of life required to be accom panied by the quickening agency of a living person ality, from whom it might pass as a spirit into the spirits of its hearers. The word itself might be the same, but it was necessary that it should be seen in the new light which every generation needs, and that it should be adapted to the new experiences which every generation makes. This could only be done by the Living Spirit of the Lord ; and the gift of that Living Spirit could only be bestowed by a Living, and therefore a Risen, Saviour. If the Spirit is to bestow life, is to clothe the word with a present and a living energy, He must come to us from a Living Lord, and not from the mere recollection, however lively, of One who had lived and died. Such is the lesson taught us by our Lord Himself, in words which contain some of the deepest and most important truths of His kingdom. "I have yet many things," He said, "to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of the truth, is come, He shall guide you into lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 145 all the truth : for He shaU not speak from HimseK; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shaK declare unto you the things that are coming." And again, " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : the hour cometh when I shall no longer speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall tell you plainly concerning the Father."1 We must be careful not to mistake the meaning of these words. Our Lord neither refers in them to new truths to be taught after His departure to the disciples, in addition to those which they had been taught already ; nor has He in view a manner of teaching which, while it was formerly indirect and enigmatical, was now to become direct and clear. He had HimseK taught them " all things " necessary for the salvation of the world, and for the edification of His Church to the very end of time.2 Any idea of a development of truth, beyond what, was con tained in His own words, rests upon an exegetical misunderstanding of this great passage in His last discourse to His disciples. Again, He had taught with a simplicity and lucidity of statement that had nothing in common with the darker side of either parable or proverb ; and the effect had corresponded to his teaching, — "The multitudes were astonished at His teaching;" "All the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto Him for to hear Him ;" the officers sent to take Him exclaimed, — "Never man 1 John xvi. 12, 13, 25. 2 John xiv. 26. 146 THE RESURRECTION [lect. IV. so spake;" "Grace was poured into His lips."1 In the future, therefore, now stretching before His dis ciples, He was to teach them neither new truths nor old truths more plainly. He was to make them take up again the whole revelation which they had already received, and to learn it in a different way. Hitherto He had taught as a Master who moved in a sphere of thought superior to theirs : He had spoken of the " heavenly things " that He alone had seen ; and He had come before them as One, of the deep meaning of whose instructions they were only able from time to time to catch a distant glimpse. His lessons had been enforced by His outward au thority, and had been listened to with wondering awe. It was mainly because He spoke them that they were accepted as true. They had not yet commended themselves to the inward experience of the heart, nor had the full divineness of their wisdom been recognised by the spiritually enlightened mind. Now, however, all this was to be changed. With the Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord the ministry of the Spirit bestowed by Him was to begin. Up to that time " the Spirit," that is, the Spirit in His power, " was not."2 He had indeed existed from everlasting as one of the Persons of the Trinity : He had moved upon the face of the waters when order was produced out of chaos :3 He had "striven" with 1 Matt. vii. 28 ; Luke xv. 1 ; John vii. 46 ; Psalm xiv. 2. 2 John vii. 39. Note 57. 3 Gen. i. 2. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 147 men before the Flood ¦} and down to the moment of . the Resurrection He had more or less comforted the pious, and inspired the prophets, of Israel.2 But He had not yet become an indwelling power in man ; He had not yet been given "without measure ;"3 and our Lord testified, "It is expedient for you that I go away : for K I go not away, the Advocate will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will send him unto you."4 With the Resurrection, accordingly, the time for that sending came. One of the very first acts of the Risen Lord of which we read was that in which He " breathed on " His disciples and said unto them, "Receive ye the holy spirit;"5 and from that time onward — through Pentecost, through all the varied seasons, whether of depression or of triumph, that have marked the history of the Church, as well as through all the more private experiences of the people of God — that Spirit whom it is the province of the Glorified Redeemer to bestow has descended into believing hearts and dwelt there, to lead them into aH the truth in a manner in which they had not been led into it before. Enlightened by His influences ¦ they not only know what the truth is ; they learn also to know that it is the truth. It commends itself in the sight of God to their consciences and their hearts. It has its answer from within. The word itself is no doubt necessary, for the Spirit acts by and with i Gen. vi. 3. 2 Ps. Ii. 11, 12 ; 1 Peter i. 11. 3 John iii. 34. Note 58. 4 John xvi. 7. 6 John xx. 22. 148 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. the word. But the Spirit is also necessary, for without Him the word will be no more than a letter which kills. The word brought home to us by the Spirit is the end of the prophetic teaching of our Lord ; and inasmuch as He cbuld not bestow that Spirit when He was on earth, His prophetic office was not then "fulfilled ;" it is fulfilled only now when He is risen and glorified. Once more, similar remarks apply to our Lord's kingly office. No doubt, even during His IKe on earth, He gave occasional indications of His royal dignity. At the very time when He was despised and rejected of men He laid His commands upon the wind and the sea, and they obeyed Him ; disease of every kind yielded to His word ; the very demons were constrained to listen to Him. Nay, there was at least one occasion on which He Himself distinctly proclaimed that he was a King, though in a sense in which men had not yet learned to understand the word. " Pilate therefore said unto Him, A King art Thou, then ? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth : every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." x How strange a kingdom, yet how real in comparison with the kingdoms of this world ! The absolute kingdom at the bottom of all existence, and ruling all existence, is that of truth ; and the more we can witness as humble ministers to that truth, the 1 John xviii. 37. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 149 more does our power increase. He who in the king dom of nature is nature's most willing servant and most faithful interpreter has the highest rule. It is not otherwise in the kingdom of grace. Jesus, there fore, the only perfect witness to the eternal verities of that kingdom, was always by right the only King in it His work as a " witness " and His dignity as a "King" went hand in hand. But precisely because it was so He could not be fully King before His death; for the death upon the cross was the full witness to that truth of the love of God to sinful men, which it was His commission especially to proclaim. It is with His Resurrection, accordingly, that His Kingship is closely connected in the New Testament. Then the kingdom which had always been His by inheritance, but His own personal claim to which He had been working out during the whole course of His IKe, was actually received by Him. Thus it is that St. Peter, in his first sermon to the people, speaking of the fulfilment in Jesus of that prophecy which had said, " Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see cor ruption," connected it with His Kingship, and His Kingship with His Resurrection — " Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins He would set one upon His throne ; he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ." 1 Thus it is that St. 1 Acts ii. 30, 31. 150 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. Paul, in his address at Antioch in Pisidia, associates the same great event with God's setting His Son as King upon Zion His own holy hill — " God hath ful filled the promise made unto the fathers in that He raised up Jesus ; as also it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;"1 and that again, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, the same Apostle speaks of the working of the might of God's strength, "which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come;"2 while the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews sees the two Messianic predictions of Psalms ii. and ex. fulfilled in Him at the time when He " sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." 3 Nothing indeed can be clearer than the teaching of Scripture upon the point before us. The fulness of that kingly office which our Lord exercises on our behalf begins with His Resurrection. The kingly power which He exerts, the kingly protection which He affords, the kingly grace which He displays, the kingly honours which He bestows — all, in short, that most intimately affects the position and the most exalted privileges of the Christian — comes from Christ as the Risen Lord. It is on Him, too, in that capacity, that the 1 Acts xiii. 33. a Ephes. i. 20, 21. 3 Heb. viii. 1. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 151 great work of carrying on the contest with the world depends. The words spoken to Him were — "Sit Thou on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." The subduing of evil, and the estab lishing in its place of that righteousness and peace, the prospect of which constitutes to so large an extent the burden of ancient prophecy, is associated not with the thought only of a Saviour who died, but with that of One who reigns with a sceptre that is right. Hence the explanation of the. difficult words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians xv. — "Then cometh the end, when He shaU deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet." 1 The " kingdom " there is obviously the king dom wielded by the Risen and Exalted Lord for the purpose of establishing righteousness in the hearts of men, and of putting down all sin. That kingdom must close when its purpose is accomplished. In that sense, but in that only, in which a king puts down his enemies, and has then no more opposition to contend with, there is the prospect of a time when our Lord- can be no longer King. Thus, then, it appears that the Resurrection of our Lord brings His work to its first stage of com pletion ; for it perfects the different offices by which that work is accomplished. It is an essential part 1 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. 152 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. of the work which He left the mansions of His Father's glory to perform. If He did not rise from the dead and return to His Father, He is neither Priest, Prophet, nor King, in the full sense of any of these terms. He may present us along with Him self as a sacrifice when He dies upon the cross, but we shall have no part in that new life of dedication to the Father, for the sake of which it is well that the old man should die. He may teach us the letter of His word, but the Spirit will be wanting, through whom alone that word can be made " a fountain of springing water " " within ourselves." He may lead us onward in a path of " witnessing," but while we witness we shall be "of all men most miserable." His work without His Resurrection is an interrupted, broken work, with no result able to throw light upon its mystery, and with no termination sufficient to explain either its beginning, its course, or its close. Now, however, by His Resurrection, that work has been accomplished, and as Prophet, Priest, and King, He lives at the right hand of God, to provide for us the powerful and gracious influences of which we' stand in need, and which it is His in these offices to supply. In the unity of His Person is found every function needed for the guidance of His people through the different stages of their mortal pilgrim age ; in Him they have a Redeemer " mighty to save." What He laboured and died to purchase, He rose to complete, and is now living to bestow. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 153 2. The Resurrection of our Lord not only brings His work to the first stage of its completion ; it is God's own attestation of His acceptance of all that our Lord had done, and that in two respects, — (1), as to the manner in which it had been accom plished ; (2), as to the fact that by it sin had been for ever blotted out, and the foundation of the new life laid. Let us look at these two particulars for a moment. (1.) The Resurrection of Christ attested God's own approbation of the manner in which the previous stages of His work had been accomplished. In His Resurrection Christ was "justified." We have to bear in mind that the sacred writers draw no such distinction as is often drawn by theologians between the active and passive obedience of our Lord. To them His whole work is one. Hence His Resurrection is the Father's testimony to it all. In the Epistle to the Philippians His Exaltation is connected not only with His death upon the cross, but with His making Himself of no reputation, and taking upon him the form of a servant.1 In the Epistle to the Romans it is in contrast with His having been made of the seed of David according to the flesh, that He is said to have been declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.2 In the First Epistle to Timothy, in like manner, Christ's being justified in spirit is con- 1 Phil. ii. 6-11. 2 Rom. i. 4. 154 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. trasted with His having been manifested in flesh;1 and a similar lesson is conveyed by the words of Jesus HimseK in the Gospel of St. John, when He says that one of the three parts in which He sums up the work of the Advocate to be sent after His departure, shall be to convict the world of righteous ness, because He goes to the Father, and they behold Him no more.2 No one can doubt that these and other similar passages present the Resurrection of our Lord as a proof of the Father's approbation of His work in itself, and of the manner in which He had accomplished it. There is a great law written upon the very nature of things, although we con tinually rebel against it, — the law that self-sacrifice is the foundation of all right relations to God, and therefore the beginning of all good, the law of love declared by the Apostle to be the fulfilling of all law,3 the law of God Himself, for God is love. To that great law, Jesus, standing in our room and stead, had accommodated Himself. Men thought that when the Messiah came with a redemption that had formed the theme of type and prophecy for two thousand years, He would come with outward glory, with worldly pomp and power. He had come in a manner the very opposite. His life had been one of humiliation, of ministering, of self-denial, of suffer ing for the sake of others, — had been in short one continued sacrifice, — until at last the culminating 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 2 John xvi. 10. 3 Rom. xiii. 10. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 155 point of sacrifice was reached in death. We " glory " in this ; but, when the events actually occurred, the life was despised rather than honoured ; the death drew down scorn rather than applause. It is difficult for us even to conceive the facts when we read of them ; most difficult to ¦ think that the world mis apprehended and misinterpreted them as it did ; that it preferred a robber and a murderer to the holy Lord; and that, when at last it had what it deemed the false Preacher of righteousness within its power, it was roused into an agony of excitement to destroy Him. Jesus needed to be "justified ;" and His Resur rection was His justification. God Himself then came forth to vindicate the righteousness of One whom the world had rejected, and to show that the Searcher of hearts, who estimates all things as they reaHy are, and "who weighs the " works " of men in the balances of a perfectly righteous and unerring judgment, had another than the world's sentence to pronounce. Then it was seen that while the world had scorned the Son of God the Father had been watching over Him with unceasing love ; that while the world had placed Him at its bar as a malefactor and blasphemer the Father had been making ready a seat for Him at His own right hand ; that while the world nailed Him to the cross the Father had been preparing for Him "many crowns," and a name that is above every name ; that while the 156 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. world had gone to the grave in the garden, setting a watch and sealing the stone, and had then returned to its feasting and merriment because the Preacher of righteousness was no longer there to trouble it the Father had waited for the third morning in order to bring Him forth in triumph from the grave. The Resurrection of our Lord was a testimony to God's approbation of the whole course that had been pursued by Him, and of the whole spirit of His work. But in being this it was also more, for — (2.) It attested the fact that by it sin had been blotted out, and the foundation of the new life laid. There is one text upon this point so emphatic that it is unnecessary to quote others, while it is all the more proper to quote this one, because it seems to have been so often and so strangely misunderstood. The text is in Rom. iv. 25, where we read of Him " who was delivered up because of our trespasses, and raised because of our justification." It is not stated in these important words either that our salva tion begins in Christ's death but is perfected in His Resurrection, or that our offences were the ground on account of which Jesus was offered, but His Resurrection the end for which God raised Him from the dead. The object of the Apostle is to set forth in two contrasted but precisely parallel clauses the manifestation which God had made of Himself in Christ ; and in doing so he tells us that God had delivered Him up because of our offences, and had lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 157 raised Him because of our justification. In other words, God gave up His Son to death because we had sinned, and that pardon might be possible. He raised Him again because He had procured the par don of our sins, and had thus, by justifying us, made the new IKe possible. A work was to be done; Christ died and did it. The work was done ; Christ was raised, and His Resurrection established the fact that He had done it.1 In raising His Son from the dead the Father gave a decisive testimony to the fact that He was well pleased for His righteousness' sake, that He accepted the sacrifice that had been offered for sin, and that He rejoiced in beholding those great principles of law and justice and truth vindicated, which are essential to the order and happiness of His creatures. The Resurrection of our Lord is thus the assurance to us that in the plan of our redemption mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have embraced each other. The burden of sin which He bore has been cast off ; and He Himself, and we in Him, are free. Therefore it was that our Lord as He looked forward to His Resurrection, and to that Glorification which was then to begin, prayed, "Father, glorify Thy Son;" "And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."2 It was not for outward glory, such as a throne and a sceptre and i Note 59. 2 John xvii. 1, 5. 158 THE RESURRECTION [lect. iv. crowds of ministering angels, that He thus prayed. He prayed for a glory which should consist in a demonstration to the world, first, that He whom the world had persecuted to death because of His meek ness and lowliness and self-denying love, was the object of the highest approbation and love of God Himself ; and secondly, that the lowly and crucified Redeemer was, in His one perfect offering for sin, the sure foundation of our peace and joy and hope and life. And God heard the prayer. He glorified His Son Jesus ; and in that Glorification we now rejoice, not simply for the sake of what it brings to us, but for the sake of what it brought to Him, and because it is the Divine testimony to an order of things which the world scorns, but which we know to be the order of eternal truth and righteousness. . Therefore we follow the Risen Lord; and, dismissing every thought of sacrifice accepted or atonement made for us, we cry, — " Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, 0 Most Mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty. And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. . . . Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wicked ness : therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows;"1 "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye ever- 1 Ps. xiv. 3, 4, 6, 7. lect. iv.] OF OUR LORD. 159 lasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory;"1 "Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts ; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion : bless the Lord, 0 my soul."2 1 Ps. xxiv. 7-10. 2 Ps. ciii. 20-22. 160 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. LECTURE V. " That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection." Philipp. iii. 10. We have considered the bearing of the Resurrection of our Lord upon His own Person and Work ; and we proceed now to the bearing of the same great fact upon ourselves. In no part of His work does the Lord Jesus Christ stand alone ; and in His Resur rection, therefore, as well as in all its other parts, He takes along with Him the members of His body. Here, as elsewhere, He is the head of that new humanity which He has formed for HimseK. He is the Representative and Life of His people ; and what He is determines the nature of their position, and duties, and privileges. He is not merely the object of their faith ; in that faith they are one with Him. He is more than their type and model ; in Him they inhere as living stones of the temple of which He is the foundation — as branches of the vine of which He is the stem — as members of the body of which He is the head. Whatever befalls Him befalls them. They lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 16 live in His life ; they work His work ; they suffer in His sufferings ; they die in His death ; they rise in His Resurrection ; they ascend to the heavenly places in His Ascension ; they sit with Him upon His throne; they accompany Him as His assessors when He comes to judge the world at the last day ; they reign there after as kings and priests with Him, the King and Priest of the new creation, for ever and ever. This doctrine of the union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people is the central doctrine of the New Testament. It may well be doubted whether it is as much before the mind of the Church in our day as it ought to be. Our forefathers dwelt more upon it than we do. The mystical union, as they called it, held a far more prominent place in their thoughts than it holds in ours. We speak in popular language of justification, adoption, and sanctification, together with the benefits that accompany or flow from them, as if these were the several parts of a process by which we are brought near to Christ, and in which we are united to Him. That is not the order of things either in Scripture or in the Standards of our own Church. In the former Christ comes first, and the blessings enumerated follow. They are not steps that lead us to Him ; they are deductions from what we have in Him. " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ;" " This is the eternal IKe, that they may learn to know Thee the only true God and Him whom Thou didst send, M 162 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. Jesus, as Christ."1 In. that eternal life we possess all ; we only do not know what we possess until we have analysed its parts, traced their relation to one another, and distinguished them by their different names. Such, indeed, is the character of all the doctrinal teaching of the New Testament. It comes after, and not before, a Divine IKe already in existence. But union with Christ is not only the centre of the New Testament ; it occupies the same position in the authoritative teaching of our Church. When the questions of our Shorter Catechism relating to the work of Christ are finished, and those relating to the application of His redemption begin, we are at once told that "the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us, and there by uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling." After this, effectual calling is itseK explained as a persuading and enabling us "to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel." Then follow the questions re lating to Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, and their benefits ; and they describe, not the path by which we come to Jesus, but the blessings which we enjoy in Him. Such is the true order of Christian experience. To make us one with Himself, and in Himself one with the Father, is the supreme and final purpose of our Lord's work. And He HimseK, in His own words, expressed that purpose both in its char- 1 Matt. xi. 28 ; John xvii. 3. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 163 acter and extent, when He prayed on behalf of all who should yet believe in His name, " that they all may be one ; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us : that the world may be lieve that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them ; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one ; that the world may learn to know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them even as Thou lovedst Me."1 Our union to the Son, in the Son to the Father, in the Son and in the Father to one another, and all in the love which is at once the fundamental element of the Divine existence and the most essential constituent of human happiness, — that is the end of our Lord's work, and the glorious hope in which we are saved. What we have now to do, therefore, is to examine the bearing of the Resurrec tion of our Lord upon that new life, the most impor tant conception of which is, that it is union with Christ, that it is life given to believers not so much by Him as in Him. It will be well also, in doing this, to keep distinctly in view the light in which we learned to look at the Resurrection of our Lord when we considered its bearing on His own Person and Work : it is the complement, the filling up, of His Incarnation. 1. In the Risen Lord we have the source of that 1 John xvii. 21-23. Note 60. 164 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. new IKe of union with God which Christians are to lead. It is in Him as Risen that the Almighty con tinues that revelation of Himself to us as a Father, upon which the life of sonship rests. To make such a revelation at the first was the great aim of the Incarnation. It was not merely that He might be in a position to fulfil the law or to endure its penalty, to yield a perfect obedience to His Father's will, or to die upon the cross, that the eternal Son of God became the Son of man. These purposes were no doubt also contemplated by our Lord, — they may even be said to have been the first steps in the course which it was necessary for Him to take ; but the main purpose of His coming lay much deeper. It was so to bring the Divine and the human into union with one another — two distinct natures into one Person for ever — that the closest possible connexion might be established between them. It was to bridge over that gulf between the Almighty on the one hand and His creatures on the other, which all religions and all philosophies had tried, but had failed, to bridge over. It was to reveal a fact fundamental to the very con ception of a religious life in human beings, — that there is in a certain sense a community of nature between God and us, the human in the Divine and the Divine in the human.1 Were it not so, it would be vain to speak of union on our part with God, There must be some community of nature between 1 Note 61. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 165 two beings who are to be united. Love is otherwise impossible ; and it is in love that the union between God and man is formed. The Incarnation effected this union ; and it was because it effected it in the most perfect way, that the religion of Christ is the most perfect conceivable religion ; that it is the fulness of a light which, however it might have shone partially in the world before, only reached its greatest brightness when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Then He who " by divers portions and in divers manners had of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets, spoke unto us in a Son," who was " the radiance of His glory and the very image of His substance."1 The absolute Divinity of that Son was as necessary to His effecting the end He had in view as His perfect humanity : — "No man hath seen God at any time ; an only begotten God, which is in the bosom of the Father " — that is, one who is only begotten, who is God, who is in the bosom of the Father,— "He hath declared Him."2 Again, His perfect humanity was as necessary as His absolute Divinity: — "The law was given through Moses ; the grace and the truth came through Jesus Christ."3 Had not the union of the two been found in our Lord, He would have lived and died in vain. Such is the teaching of the Bible, but not of the Bible only. Universal experience shows that man cannot hold close and affectionate intercourse with 1 Heb. i. 1, 3. 2 John i. 18. Note 62. 3 John i. 17. 166 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. pure spirit ; and that when we try to direct our thoughts to One of whom we know only that He fills all space with His presence — that He is motionless, passionless, alone, — we are lost in a sphere to which we have no sufficient bond. The Incarnation of Christ was therefore necessary, if a true basis was to be laid for that fellowship between God and us in which the essence of religion lies. But if the Incarnation was necessary at the moment when it took place, its continuance is not less neces sary now. It would not be enough to tell us that at one time the Son of God became incarnate, if after a short sojourn of three and thirty years here below He laid aside His humanity and returned to that con dition in which He existed before He came into the world. No revelation which the Almighty makes of Himself can be thus fleeting, if any permanent result is to be effected by it. He may indeed gradually reveal Himself, because men may not be able to bear at first the full brightness of His light. The partial revelation given at one stage may be taken up and absorbed into the fuller revelation given at another ; but what God has once revealed of Himself can never pass away or be destroyed, without confounding all our notions of the Divine, without extinguishing that very adaptation between it and its effect which He intended to produce. The spirit of the Christian life, therefore, cannot spring from the thought of any merely past Incarnation of God. The Incarnation lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 167 must be continued. If it was ever necessary, it is necessary now. For all ages a Personal Incarnate Lord is the only " way " to the Father ; and for us an Incarnate Lord must be a Risen Lord. Take away His Resurrection, and the very, foundation of our spiritual life is removed. In strict accordance with this is the teaching of Scripture with regard to the Second Adam. No one will doubt for a moment that it is through the Second Adam that the new life comes to us. The question thus immediately arises, At what point of His history did our Lord assume that relation to man which these words imply ? In 1 Cor. xv. St. Paul has given us a full and clear answer to the question. The two Adams are in that chapter contrasted with one another ; and the whole argument of the Apostle is based upon the view that our Lord, instead of being the Second Adam during His earthly life, then possessed (sin, which does not belong to our true nature, of course excepted) the nature of the first Adam as well as we. He had taken . to Him a true body and a reasonable soul like ours. He had identified Himself with our position, and had entered into our circumstances, that, bearing the penalty of the law which we had incurred, and fulfill ing the righteousness of which we had fallen short, He might afford a new starting-point for the human race, at which and from which men might share with Him the glorious results of His mission. That was the beginning of His work, but the work was not 168 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. completed until His Resurrection. Therefore it was not at His Incarnation, when He only took the first step in the course by which we were to be redeemed, but at His Resurrection, when He had yielded His obedience, offered His sacrifice, and gained His victory, that He was really constituted the Second Adam. Hence such words of the chapter as these, — "If Christ hath not been raised, then is our proclamation (the subject of our teaching) vain, your faith is also vain j"1 " If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins ;"2 " Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."3 Hence also the sowing and the raising up that are spoken of, for in these words the "sowing" is not the burial, and the " raising up " the bringing forth from the grave, of the same human body. The sow ing has its primary reference to the body bestowed upon our first parent at his creation, and in due time assumed by our Lord ; the raising up refers to the body bestowed upon our Lord at His Resurrection. Hence, finally, the fact that the words of verse 47, "the second man is of heaven," apply not to the Christ on earth, but to the Christ in heaven, from which He will come at last, bringing all His people with Him.4 The whole chapter, in short, is full of the Risen Lord, and of him alone ; and He, therefore, as Risen, is the Second Adam. 1 Ver. 14. 2 Ver. 17. 3 Ver. 21. " Note 63. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 169 Nor does the Apostle merely state the fact ; he shows us also that it could not be otherwise when, in direct connexion with what he had asserted of the corruptible and the incorruptible, of the natural and the spiritual body, he says, " the first man Adam be came a living soul. The last Adam became a life- giving spirit." 1 These words can have no meaning except one — that it was only when our Lord's body passed into its final, its heavenly stage, that He could communicate to us out of His own fulness that power of the Spirit without which no child of the first Adam is born again. The whole application of redemption thus belongs to our Lord in His ascended state. " The God of our Fathers," said the Apostles Peter and John before the council, "raised up Jesus. . . . Him did God exalt at His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins ;" 2 and on the day of Pentecost, when the Church was constituted by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, St. Peter cried before the people, " This Jesus did God raise up, of whom we all are witnesses. Being there fore at the right hand, of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, . He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear." 3 Everywhere the lesson is the same. When, therefore, we apprehend in faith that Second Adam from whom the new IKe comes, it is with the Redeemer as One 1 1 Cor. xv. 45. 2 Acts v. 30, 31. 3 Acts ii. 32, 33. 170 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. who not only died but who rose again that we have to do ; and the Church of Christ felt this with that wonderful instinct of which it is difficult to speak as if it were less than inspiration. Why did her weekly day of worship not commemorate the Incarnation or the death upon the cross ? Because neither was the beginning of her life. At neither of these points of His history was her Lord in a position to give her life. It was at His Resurrection that He became a "life-giving spirit" — a spirit clothed with a body entirely conformed to His spiritual state, and able without let or hindrance to dispense itself to man in all the fulness of its heavenly power. In the Risen Christ, therefore, the new life of believers has its source. But not only so, — 2. From Christ as thus risen it also derives its character and scope. It will be at once admitted by every Christian that the Lord Jesus Christ is HimseK the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Type and Model of that life which His fol lowers are to lead in a present world. Yet it is poss ible to speak of this in a manner that falls short of what is really contemplated in the New Testament. We may take our standard from the human and earthly aspect of our Lord, instead of fixing our eyes mainly upon what He is as Divine and Heavenly. One of the strongest and most alluring tendencies of our time is, indeed, to do so. Everywhere there are many who will consent to recognise in Jesus of lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 171 Nazareth the fairest and the noblest member of the human family. They will compare Him with the heroes of the past, only to show how far these have fallen short of Him. They will even kindle into enthusiasm as they gather together the varied traits of that wonderful life which has for centuries so powerfully influenced the history of the world. One thing only they will demand, that we shall banish from our conception of Him everything supernatural and heavenly, all thought of God in Him, of a Divine Spirit resting upon Him, ruling in Him — all, in short, that lies beyond the compass of our natural powers, or to which a simply natural development might not attain. It may be said that this is an extreme case ; but the tendency is natural. It takes away from the life of Christ what at first sight seems its single and isolated grandeur. It may be urged that it brings it more within the sphere of our knowledge and the reach of our imitation. It includes it in a series of the lives of men who are only like ourselves ; and it may even nourish a lofty pride that, by faithful and persistent effort, we may become the Christs that are to be. Other and more worthy considerations often lead practically to the same result. Most men who are advanced in life, and who have paid attention to these subjects, can remember the time when, after the formalism which ruled under the great name of Theology in the earlier part of this century, and the 172 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. extravagant supernaturalism of the Evangelical School which was produced by the reaction, the doctrine of the human Jesus came upon them almost like a reve lation. There was something in that human IKe so beautiful and tender that it filled their hearts with emotions of loving wonder. They could hang upon the words of One who spake as never man spake ; they could linger around the footsteps of One who wrought as never man wrought ; they, could cling to the side of One who was such a friend as the world had never seen ; and yet, all the time, they might be swayed by nothing higher than mere natural feeling. Oh ! they cried, let us only think of Jesus as the perfect, as the pattern man, as the great Head of our humanity — wise where we are ignorant, holy where we are sinful, perfect where we are imperfect, yet nothing more than man ; then we can understand and love and cleave to Him ; then we can take Him to be our Guide, Companion, and Friend. Otherwise He is too far away from us, too unknown, too unearthly, too mysterious. We are men, and only of things human can we say that they are not strange to us. Feelings such as these have been extremely com mon of late years ; they are extremely common now ; and the whole tone of our Christian life is affected by them. What is more common than to hear Christian men in all sincerity defending, nay even urging, from the recollection of what Jesus was, a certain accommo dation to the world ? To be too separate from it, lect. v.] OF OUR LOED. 173 they exclaim, is not only to put an undue strain upon humanity ; it is to awaken needless prejudice, and to excite a degree of opposition which, for the sake of all parties, had better be avoided. To stoop to the world is part of the wisdom that would raise it to our own higher level. Let us show the world that we can come down to it as our Master, did, without being affected by its sinfulness ; that we can adopt its manners and its ways without sacrificing our Christian character. The Lord whom we serve came "eating and drinking"; let us not forget that the Son of God was also the Son of man. Now, whatever be the. effect of this, and without asking at present whether the results aimed at are obtained or not, it is sufficient to observe that the New Testament presents a different teaching, and that the Lord in communion with whom it bids us find the standard of our Christian life is the Risen Lord. Thus it is that St. Paul speaks in one of the most remarkable passages of his writings, when his mind was full of the thought of that Redeemer' who not only died for us but rose again : " Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh ; even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more. Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."1 We cannot imagine for a moment that the Apostle means by 1 2 Cor. v. 16, 17. 174 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. these words that a time has come when he will forget the friends whom, in Epistles written long afterwards, he mentions in such loving terms. He means only that, much as he valued them, he will " henceforth " not be influenced by them as men alone. He will feel that they and he are to have views and aims and principles of judgment different from those of mere earthly friendship ; that they are no longer natural but spiritual men ; and that they are to know each other, not after the flesh but after the spirit. Thus also, when he says that henceforth he will not know Christ after the flesh, no one will imagine for a mo ment that he undervalued the human IKe of Jesus. But he felt that, whatever amount of power or beauty might have marked it, it did not express the full ideal to which Christians were to be raised. Such an ideal was to be found only in that glory of the Risen Lord which Christians, like a mirror, were to reflect, and into a full conformity with which they were to be changed from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.1 What St. Paul thus says with regard to himself, he often says substantially, although in more general terms, with regard to all Christian men : — In the Epistle to the Ephesians, "But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye, 1 2 Cor. iii. 18. Note 64. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 175 — saved men), and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus."1 Again to a similar effect in the Epistle to the Colossians, " If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your IKe is hid with Christ in God."2 And once more in the Epistle to the Romans, "We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with the likeness of His death, we shall be also with the likeness of His Resurrection."3 In passages such as these the life of Christians is distinctly set before us as life in a Risen Saviour, as IKe deriving its character and colour not merely from what Jesus was, but from what He is — as life per vaded by the spirit of an entirely new world, and not by the spirit of the old world, however elevated and improved through the influence of the Christian faith. It is true indeed that the individual graces of the Christian life can hardly differ in their essence, what ever be the aspect of our Lord from which we draw them. Even K formed in us after what they were in the Christ on earth, they must still, in their substance 1 Ephes. ii. 4-7. 2 Col. iii. 1-3. 3 Rom. vi. 4, 5. 176 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. and main features, be the same as when formed in us after the Christ in heaven. He is the same " yester day, and to-day, and for ever." Humility, gentleness, meekness, patience, forgiveness of injuries, and such like, cannot be imagined more Divine than they were in the human life of Him who " did no sin, and in whose mouth there was found no guile." The differ ence lies less in these graces considered individually than in the tone and spirit of the Christian life con sidered as a whole. But there the difference is great ; and it seems to show itself chiefly in the three ideas of Separation from the world, Consecration to God, and Freedom. (1.) In Separation from the world : for in His Resurrection our Lord separated Himself for ever from the things of earth ; and, in token that He did so, He left behind Him in the grave the linen cloths and the napkin in which He had been wrapped. He rose as one who had entered a higher world, which was thenceforward to be His only home. In like manner a life in the Risen Lord is a life of separation from the world. It may appear hard to say so, but the words do not mean that we are to withdraw our selves from all concern in the affairs of earth, to dis own its relationships, and to take up our abode in some wilderness or monastic cell to which no sound of busy life can penetrate. We, as well as others, have to act our part amidst our fellows, and to dis charge the duties upon which our own existence and lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 177 that of many dear to us depends. We have to oc cupy the position of husbands and wives, parents and children, sons and daughters, friends and neighbours, members of society and citizens of the State. Nor is an interest forbidden us either in nature or in art. We may still admire the beauty of creation, and rejoice in the light that is upon the land and upon the sea. The treasures of human genius may enrich us more than they enrich those whose circle of thought is bounded by them alone. Christian sepa ration from the world does not mean that we have nothing further to do with these things. We still mingle with them as before; but we discover beneath their outward forms what tells us of a higher world than the present ; they have a voice which speaks of loftier aims than any suggested by the passing shadows around us ; they have their part not in any mere music of the spheres, which must be as fleeting as all created things, but in the melody of an ever lasting chime. That is true separation from the world, — to be in the world and yet not of the world, — to work and suffer and rejoice as members of a body whose ruling Head is a spiritual and heavenly Lord.1 (2.) In Consecration to God : for we have already seen that this is the grand meaning of that Resur rection of our Lord which is to be viewed as the completion of the first stage of His offering rather 1 Note 65. N 178 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. than as a reward for death endured, — as that step in which, taking with Him those for whom He died, He presents them in Himself to the Eternal Father, that they may serve Him in cheerful obedience and in joyful submission of their wills to His will for ever and ever. Out of this idea comes the whole conse cration of the Christian life to God, — the consecration of those who are at once priests and offerings. They accept the consecration of the great High Priest as their own, and in Him they become priests. They accept His offering as their own, and in Him they offer up "a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to His name."1 And all this they do, and can do, only in the power of the Holy Spirit whom the Lord is exalted to bestow ; and whom He does bestow, that, like the kings and priests of Israel — like the taber nacle and all the vessels of the sanctuary — they may be .set apart from common to holy uses. It is greatly to be lamented that, except in two places to neither of which it properly belongs, this word " consecrate " does not occur in our English New Testament, though it occurs in the original Greek.2 The word is more than to dedicate, for dedication does not bring out the sacred change upon the object dedicated ; and it is more than to sanctify, for sanctification connects our thoughts with the human subject, instead of lead ing us straight to the Divine Person to whom we are 1 Heb. xiii. 15. s Note 66, lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 179 devoted. Perhaps it is because we have lost the word from our religious life, that we have so greatly lost what is represented by it. We speak of ourselves as men more or less sanctified — how seldom do we speak of ourselves as men consecrated ! We miss this con secration in the lives of many Christians. Even when they are separated from the world, it does not always appear that they are consecrated to God. They do not always bear about with them a fragrant " unction from the Holy One ;" they are not always " altogether lovely." (3.) In Freedom : for it was when He entered on His heavenly life that our Lord, as not only Divine but human, was for the first time free. Here on earth He was restrained by limitations inseparable from our humanity. He is delivered from all restrictions and limitations now. Here He was bowed down by the thought of the heavy burden He had undertaken in bearing the sins of men : " I have a baptism," He said, " to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished." That baptism has been accomplished, and He has risen out of it into a new and glorious life, over which death has no more dominion. Here the cup of His Father's wrath was put into His hands, the cup of which He said, " Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." It has now been drained to the very dregs, and instead of it He has received a cup full of the new wine of the kingdom of God.- Here He was 180 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. under the curse of the law — that law which to Him was so spiritual and just and good. The curse has now been endured, and the honour of the law has been for ever vindicated. Here He was oppressed by the sufferings and the sorrows which He had come to heal. He has now healed His people by His stripes, and He continually presents Himself along with them before the throne of God, saying, "Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given Me." What a mighty and glorious change is there in the freedom of His spirit when His work is over and His suffer ing borne, — when He has returned to His Father's presence, and has been welcomed with all the halle lujahs of heaven ! In Him therefore, as the Risen Lord, we are free. It is true that we have not yet attained to the full measure of our freedom. But even now in Him there is a freedom wherewith He maketh His people free. " Ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear ; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ;" " The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death." x We are free from the curse of the law, for He has borne it ; from its condemn ing power, for He has fulfilled all righteousness ; from the restraints of the letter, for the spirit of love is in our hearts, which knows no limit to its exertions, and is hemmed in by no restraint upon 1 Rom. viii. 15, 2. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 181 its energies. Even now we are the sons of God, no longer under a " schoolmaster," or under " tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father ; " but sons who have obtained access by faith into the grace wherein they stand, who are filled with the " law of liberty," and who know that the boundless love of God is the only measure of their happiness. Such then is the character and scope of the new life given us in the Risen Lord ; and we cannot fail to observe how great is the difference between that IKe thus looked at as flowing from Him in His exalted state in heaven, and what it would be, could we regard it only as the reproduction in us of the life which He lived on earth. If this last were all that, in communicating Himself, our Lord communicated to the members of His body, they would receive their new life only in the spirit in which it was led by the Redeemer during the days of His humiliation, and with the restrictions with which His own higher life was then restrained in Him. The conflicts and suffer ings of His condition in His earthly body would then be a necessary part of the communication, for as the vine is so must the branches be. As it is, these are not directly communicated to us by the Risen "Lord. No doubt they cannot be escaped, for they spring from weakness of the flesh, from which we are not yet delivered ; from influences of a world in which we must still move ; from the nature of our work, the time of resting from which has not yet come. But 182 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. they do not belong to the idea of that position in which we are placed. The Head of the body is in heaven; and what we experience in virtue of our union with that Head is, not troubles of the world, but peace in the midst of them;1 not tribulations like His own, but the cheerfulness with which, since they must be met, they may be faced and overcome ;2 not the toil of the seed-time, but the joy of the harvest field.3 The whole character of the new life into which we are born would be changed if our Lord's earthly life alone, instead of His life in heaven, were made ours when we believe. More particularly, it is here that the great New Testament doctrine of the consecration of the body finds its place. That our Lord did not simply live in the spirit after death, but that He rose from the grave in a human body, is the truth which most of all reminds us of the high destiny of our bodies, and most of all impresses upon us the importance of seeing that we discipline and train them now. Were it not in this respect for the lessons of the Resurrection of Christ, we should be involved in the same round of perplexity which has always marked men when they have either had no special revelation, or when revela tion has been misunderstood. Every religion and every philosophy has tried, in its own way, to heal the breach which was felt to be in existence between the body and the soul. Of old, men sacrificed the 1 John xiv. 27. 2 John xvi. 33. 3 John iv. 38. Note 67. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 183 body to the soul ; now, they sacrifice the soul to the body ; and at the end they are as far as ever from having solved the problem. The Resurrection of our Lord alone gives us the solution, teaching us, as it does, the sacredness of both. No mere doctrine of the immortality of the soul could do this ; and no belief that the Lord Jesus Christ now reigns in a disembodied state upon the throne of universal empire could do it. It is done by the doctrine of the Risen Lord alone, — by that doctrine which tells us that He has still a body, but a body glorified. Animated by this thought, we learn to discipline not only the spirit but the body, and to train the one as we train the other for the time when He who has HimseK been fashioned anew shall also fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto HimseK.1 3. In the Risen Lord the new life has its nourish ment and strength. That life is a life of communion and -fellowship with the Father through the Son ; and in Scripture it is represented as led by the in dwelling of the Son in us; "who," says St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, and referring to our Lord, " to youward is not weak but is powerful in you : for He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth through the power of God ; " 2 and again, writing to 1 Phil. iii. 21. 2 2 Cor xiii. 3, 4. 184 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. the Galatians, and speaking of himself, " I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth inme;"1 while the short and expressive formula used by our Lord Him self is, "Ye in Me, and I in you." 2 In the first two passages it is at once clear that the Apostle has in view the Risen Lord ; and attention to the context of the third will show that it is in the thought of Himself as glorified that Jesus speaks. How indeed can it be otherwise? Living, present communion can only be maintained with One who is Himself present and living ; it would otherwise be no more than a recollection of the past. We may thus re member the great men of history, or the friends now taken away who were wont to guide us amidst the perplexities, and to comfort us amidst the sorrows, of the world. We may recall their virtues, or may dwell in thought upon what was" noble or pleasing in their characters. Although dead they may speak to us, and not a few of our most wholesome and touching memories may be kept green upon their graves. But all this is very different from that communion with Christ by which the spiritual life is maintained in vigour. It was not by recollection of what He had been during those eternal ages when He was the Father's delight, rejoicing always before Him, that our Lord Himself lived when He was on earth ; it was by a present and uninterrupted communion with the Father. By a similar communion with Himself 1 Gal. ii. 20. »- John xiv. 20. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 185 He teaches us that we must live, — " As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father : so he that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me." 1 In other parts of the same discourse He employs the strongest expressions to point out the need of our continual dependence upon HimseK for life. He tells us that He is " the living bread which came down out of heaven," and that "except we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, we have no IKe in ourselves :" 2 while these expressions are so brought into connexion with the words " What then, if ye should behold the Son of man ascending up where He was before," 3 as to show that, even after He had returned to His Father, the very same sus tenance must be still partaken of by His people. It is by no mere imitation of our Lord's example when He was on earth, by no mere listening to the teach ing that then fell from His lips, by no mere trust in anything then accomplished by Him, that we live, but it is by abiding in Him, as the vine is in the branches and the branches are in the vine. We live in a Risen Saviour, His life in us is our life, and in Him our IKe is a risen life. We have neither to travel back over many centuries, that in a distant past we may hold communion with Him as He was on earth ; nor forward through an equally long period that, in a glorious future, we may realise the hope of such communion re-established for ever with Him 1 John vi. 57. 2 John vi. 51, 53. * Verse 62. 186 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. as He is in heaven. He is not less than He ever was, or will be, the present nourishment of His people. He is with them and in them even now, communicating Himself to them by means of that "other Advocate" through whom He comes to them. Not only, however, is this the case. It is neces sary, in connexion with our present subject, to go further, and to add that the nourishment thus given to the spiritual life and the bodily Resurrection of our Lord have the closest relation to one another. For it will be at once admitted that the spirit bestowed by our Lord is His own Spirit, who is not merely given as a rich and powerful friend might give us something external to himself. He is sent by the exalted Redeemer as the expression of His own Per sonality. He is that Spirit who, according to the vital doctrine of the Western Church, proceedeth from the Son as well as from the Father, and who comes into our souls laden with the very breath of the quarter from which He comes. The peace that our Lord gives is His own peace ; the joy that He gives is His own joy ; — the very peace, the very joy, with which His own breast is filled. So here. The Spirit that He gives is the Spirit of His own being ; and He must, accordingly, bear the peculiar impress of what that being is. But, again, this Spirit is to become our spirit ; and we are men with a complex nature, with bodies as well as souls. Unless, there fore, He be the Spirit of one with a similar complex lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 187 nature, He will not be completely and thoroughly adapted to us. There will be a want of fitting in to the peculiarities of our state. May not this, or something like this, be one of the reasons why, in the ages previous to the Incarnation, the Spirit was not given to be an indwelling spirit in man ? He would not have been the spirit of one possessed of a human as well as of a Divine nature ; and thus He would not have had that entire correspondence with our human necessities through which alone He can be really ours in the deepest and most intimate sense, — ours not simply as an outward gKt bestowed upon us, but as a part of our regenerated "selves."1 Whether this be the case or not, what has been said may help to show us that the Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord in the body were needed before He could so dwell in us by His Spirit as to satisfy every want of our compound nature. There is indeed a large and devoted section of the Christian Church which, going still further than this, maintains that our Lord actually communicates His glorified humanity to His people. It is supposed that in some mysterious way, and especially in the sacra ment of the Eucharist, His humanity, though locally present in heaven, is also present with believers, and that they actually eat His flesh and drink His blood in that holy ordinance. It is not easy to attach a definite idea to this language ; and so far as it is 1 Note 68. 188 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. possible to do so, it seems difficult to reconcile it with those words of our Lord's parting discourses to His disciples, in which He told them that He was going away, and that what he would send was " another " Advocate to be their strength. It seems enough to think that the "other" Advocate comes from that Glorified Redeemer who is still possessed of a body as well as of a soul. Because this is the source from which the Spirit comes, He is able to communicate to us who are in the body the things that we require in a way in which they could not be given were our Lord only exalted spirit. Even if we rest here, what a truth is this, and how little does it enter into our ordinary thoughts ! We think of the exalted body of the Lord as a part of His reward, and as a pledge of what is prepared for us. We lose sight of the fact that it is by means of a Spirit coming from One who is not only spirit, but who has at the same time an exalted body, that we live. We have communications from Him not as One who is spirit only, but as One who is still pos sessed of real and complete humanity. In a glorified humanity He not only lives HimseK, but He binds us to Himself as one living in that state. The very power that comes to us from heaven is pervaded by human elements. It comes to us as men from One who is not less truly man than we are, that it may nourish us into the blessed life of the perfectly human united to the perfectly Divine. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 189 4. In the Risen Lord the new life has its consum mation. For it is the Risen Lord who conveys to us the blessed assurance, not only that the life now implanted in the soul shall never die, but that we ourselves, in our individual personal existence, shall survive the shock of death, and shall pass in triumph through that dissolution of the grave from which all the feelings of our nature shrink. " If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit that dwelleth in you;" "If we died with Christ, we believe that we shaU also live with Him : knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over Him."1 There is more than the hope of immortality set before us in such words. There is the hope that we, even as we are, with our present powers and faculties and affections, with our present complex nature, with our bodies as well as our souls, shall pass, like Israel of old, through the swellings of Jordan into the land of promise. We shall not, indeed, be exactly what we are now. When the Lord Himself arose, "the first fruits of them that sleep," He was not the same as when com mitted to the grave. Yet the change produced on Him, however great, did not destroy His personality, nor did it affect the individuality of that life with 1 Rom. viii. 11 ; vi. 8, 9. 190 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. which, during the' years of His earthly ministry, He had lived among His disciples. He was still the same Lord to them that He had always been, — not a shadowy spirit, but the man Christ Jesus. His form stood before them in all the old clearness of its out line ; they could touch His person and recognise His voice. It is in a similar manner that our Resur rection shall be perfected. We cannot, indeed, form to ourselves a complete picture of the details, but we can have no difficulty in accepting the general idea. Even now we often behold gradual approaches to it. The beauty of the inner life may change the very features of the countenance. The thought of the lofty destiny awaiting us may impart something of its nobility to the outward frame. The voice, often lifted up in private praise and prayer, may come to speak in softer and more touching tones than those in which it would otherwise find utterance. And thus we have only to imagine our whole man penetrated and pervaded by the Spirit of God, in order to believe that all about us may be changed, yet so changed that the essence of our personality and our difference from other men shall be as distinct as ever. Nor need any question be raised about the possibility of the mutual recognition of the redeemed in the resur rection-state. The one fact that the Risen Lord, the type of our own resurrection, was recognised by His disciples, dispels all hesitation or doubt upon the point. While, however, our individuality shall be con- lect. v.] OF OUE LORD. 191 tinued in the future world, the Resurrection of our Lord is not less the pledge of a great and glorious change that we shall then experience. Here, at the very best, the body comes far short of answering the demands made upon it by one who would walk worthy of the kingdom and glory to which he is called. He would wish to serve God day and night in His temple, but the very alternations of day and night impose upon Him the necessity of sleep. Like his Divine Master he would wish to go about continually doing good, but the feet refuse to carry him, and the hands that were raised to bless fall powerless by his side. At every step of his progress he would lift up his heart into the presence-chamber of the Great King, but the deeper the intensity of his feelings the sooner does the bodily constitution decline to endure the strain. Down to the last moment of our earthly existence we bear about with us a body which hampers the soul in its aspirations ; and often, when the visions of heaven are just about to burst upon the eye and the ear, the one is blind to every sight and the other deaf to every sound. " There is a law in the members that warreth with the law of the mind ;" "0 wretched men that we are ! who shall deliver us out of this body of death?" x The Resurrection of our Lord supplies the answer to the Apostle's question. It is the earnest of a time when the conflict between the soul and the body shall 1 Rom. vii. 23, 24. 192 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. be for ever at an end ; when the two parts of man's nature shall be in perfect accord and harmony with one another ; when the flesh shall no longer struggle against the spirit or the spirit against the flesh ; but when the body shall be a willing instrument in the service of the Spirit for that unchecked and uninter rupted performance of the will of God in which the blessedness and glory of our nature must be found, if they are found at all. It entirely dissipates the idea that, through the earthly resurrection of our bodies, the continued life and development of our disem bodied spirits must suffer an endless suspension.1 To the whole man, possessed of body as well as spirit, it opens up the prospect of that unlimited advance in which the limitations of the former shall no longer check the progress of the latter. Through the light cast by it, and by it alone, upon our future state, we anticipate a life in which we shall no more groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body ; but, when, as we follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, we shall send forth one song of praise, — "We thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The whole revela tion of the New Testament breaks down if that union of believers with their Lord which is its cen tral principle is interrupted at any stage whatever of the future. "Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth Me no more ; but ye behold Me because 2 Comp. Keim, Jesus von Nazara, iii. p. 584. lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 193 I shall live, and ye shall live."1 Our union with Him is not for a time only, but for ever. Therefore it is that, in the hope of a full, personal, undivided life beyond the grave, we lift up our heads as the hour of our redemption draweth nigh. By the great fact that Christ is risen the New Testament teaches us that, if there be a future IKe at all, it is we ourselves who live, not vapours, not ghosts, but in our present compound being, with our individual personal lives, recognisable by others and recognising them. We may dismiss the whole doctrine ; but to do so we must first get rid of the Resurrection of our Lord. If we accept that fact, we must accept the doctrine of our own resurrection in this form, for it is the only form in which it is taught in Scripture. What was the case with our Lord must be the case with all His people. In the great day of account no vast array of shadowy figures will issue from the tombs, with nothing to distinguish them from one another. Separated by distinct individualities in this world, they will be not less separated in the next ; and, as the Risen Lord was known and clung to by His disciples who had followed Him upon earth, so every member of His mystical body shall be known and clung to in the unity of love by those who, side by side with them, ran His race and fought His fight before they died. It may be thought by some that it is too much to 1 John xiv. 19. 0 194 THE RESURRECTION [lect. v. anticipate such results, and that this spiritualising of man, — this penetrating his whole frame with the power of the Divine Spirit, — this making him a " partaker of the Divine nature," is either inconceiv able or that it is at once a humiliation of the Divine and an undue exaltation of the human. But philosophy, in the most aspiring of its modern developments, rejects such a conclusion, and seeks rather to show that humanity itself is God. Religion no less rejects it. The lesson of Scripture is that, if it is the property of our human nature to seek after the Divine, it is also a property of the Divine nature to communicate itself to the human ; that neither is satisfied in itself alone ; and that, to the full attain ment of their mutual desires, each must find itself in the other. Thus it is that, on the one side, St. Paul teaches us that in every age and nation there is an impulse in man to " seek after God, if haply he may find Him -,"1 and thus it is that, on the other side, our Lord Himself used these remarkable words to the woman of Samaria, "An hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth : for the Father also is seeking such, even them that worship Him."2 Man is seeking after God : God is seeking after man ; and the union of the two is the highest revelation both of the Divine and of the human.3 If this be so, it follows that that penetrating of 1 Acts xvii. 27. 2 John iv. 23. 3 Note 69, lect. v.] OF OUR LORD. 195 man by the Divine spirit which we have seen to be the great lesson of the Resurrection of our Lord, ought not to startle us ; and when it does not, what a high and glorious hope does it present ! How lofty is that conception of man's destiny which it unfolds ! how exalted the result at which it bids us aim ! We are often told that the Gospel of Christ fails to do honour to the capabilities of man's nature ; that it is unable to stimulate his powers ; and that, by its lessons on human corruption and human weakness, it tends to sink him in degradation and hopelessness. How utterly false and groundless is the charge ! No where else has so noble an ideal been presented for man to aim at. To be united to the " only God " ; to be brought into harmony with the love which is the foundation of all being; to have every jarring element in ourselves for ever done away ; to become in character as well as privilege the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty ; and to look down ward through eternal ages when, with bodies wholly adapted to our spirits, we shall rejoice in the reign and in the service of perfect righteousness, — that, and nothing less than that, is what the Resurrection of our Lord both foreshadows and secures. 196 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. LECTURE VI. "And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead ; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." — Col. i. 18. We have considered the Resurrection of our Lord in its bearing upon Christian life and hope, but it is im possible to rest there. The Christian does not stand alone. He is not merely an individual, nourishing the hidden life in the secret of his own heart, and walking above the world even while he is in it. He is a member of that community which we name the Church. He stands in the closest relation to that system of things which, using the word in its widest sense, we name the World ; and the question there fore meets us, Does the Resurrection of our Lord affect these two great wholes ? and if so, How ? In the first place, as to the Church. The slighest glance at the New Testament is sufficient to show lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 197 that, in founding what He called the "kingdom of God " or the " kingdom of heaven " in the world, our Lord contemplated more than dealing with men as individuals. He did not think that the object of His Mission would be accomplished by simply implanting in scattered members of the communiby that new and higher life which should fill them with its influence as members of the family, of society, and of the State. He aimed also at constituting a community, a Church. He described the relation of His disciples to one another by figures which implied that they con stituted a new organization. He pointed out to them the nature of the duties to which mutual fellowship introduced and bound them. He encouraged them by promises peculiarly applicable to their condition when thus combined. Let us suppose that at any particular period in the history of the past the number of believers in the world had been exactly what it was ; that their faith and hope and love had corresponded with the highest demands of Chris tianity; that their general walk in life had been thoroughly leavened by the heavenly leaven ; that in every public and private relation they had been made new creatures in Christ Jesus; — even then the end which our Lord proposed to accomplish would not have been fully reached. In the want of cohesion which would have marked His followers, in their want of union, in their failing to gather themselves together into one Body for common work and mutual 198 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. strength, there would have been something wanting. As private Christians they might have been all that could be wished ; but they would not have been the Church. Had our Lord not intended to institute a Church which should represent Him after He had gone away, much of His own teaching, as well as of that of His Apostles, would have been meaningless ; and " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church " would never have found a place in that Creed which has been the chief symbol of the Christian faith in every age and land. We have not now, however, to defend the idea of the Church as a Body which our Lord designed to establish upon earth. However various the senses in which they use the word, all Christians allosr that the Church does exist, that she ought to exist, and that her existence will never end. What we have at present to do with is the relation in which the Resur rection of our Lord stands to her, and more especially to her Institution and her Mission in the world. The subject is one which seems to have been hardly, if at all, dealt with in the theology of our Presbyterian Churches. Yet it occupies a most important place in the teaching of the New Testament, — a place in deed not less remarkable than we have already found to be that of the Resurrection of our Lord in relation to Christian life and hope. 1. It was by the Risen Lord that the Church was instituted. Except in so far as she was summed up lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 199 in Himself, she was called into existence, not during His earthly ministry but after His Resurrection. Two great epochs may here be distinguished from each other; but both of them belong to the period after Jesus rose from the dead. The first is that of which the third and fourth Gospels give us the account, when the Risen Lord appeared for the first time in the midst of the disciples.1 The second is that men tioned in the Acts of the Apostles in connexion with the day of Pentecost.2 We need not enter here upon the distinction between the two.3 It is enough to notice that, be the distinction what it may, it was only after He rose from the dead that our Lord sent forth His disciples on their mission ; that, after that event, we read for the first time of "the Church."4 The nature of the case indeed forbade that it should be otherwise, for it was in the power of the Spirit that the Church was instituted, and the power of the Spirit " was not " before Jesus was glorified.5 2. Not only, however, was the Church thus in stituted by the Risen Lord, it was from Him when risen that the disciples received full instructions for her work. They had, no doubt, been instructed by their Lord and Master all along ; and in particular the last discourses, recorded in John xiv. xv. xvi, have a special bearing upon Christian work rather than upon general Christian IKe ;6 but there seems to 1 Luke xxiv. 36 ; John xx. 19-23. 2 Acts ii. 3 Note 70. 4 Acts v. 11. Note 71. 5 John vii. 39. 6 Note 72 200 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. have been a teaching of a higher kind during the forty days spent by our Lord upon the earth between His Resurrection and Ascension. It is a mistake to think that His object in then meeting with the dis ciples so frequently as He did was to convince them that it was indeed Himself: the events of the day of the Resurrection had already satisfied all of them, except Thomas, upon that point. It was rather to instruct them in the nature of the work upon which they were to enter. " Speaking to them of the king dom of God " is the description given us by St. Luke of the manner in which He spent the time :a and when we gather together His various topics of in struction during these days, as they are scattered throughout the different Evangelists, we find that they refer to the most important lessons and the highest gifts by which the Church was to influence the world.2 This consideration, indeed in all prob ability explains the fact that the interval between the Resurrection and the Ascension was exactly what it was ; and that the latter event took place ten days before the day of Pentecost rather than upon the very eve of that festival. Our Lord's own temptation in the wilderness had extended over forty days ; and we know, from the special nature of the temptations recorded, that the purpose of that time was to pre pare Him for the ministry on which He was immedi ately to enter. A similar period of preparation, 1 Acts i. 3. 2 Note 73. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 201 though filled, in a way corresponding to the change of circumstances, with wholly different events, was now given to the disciples. That was the prepara tion ; and then came the work.1 3. In the Risen Lord the Church reads the true nature of her Mission. It wiU hardly be denied that, considered in its first and greatest aspect, that Mission is to be rather than to do. Life itself must precede the exercise of the powers of life ; and it lies in the very nature of the Church's work that every effort to perform it must, in order to be successful, breathe the Divine spirit by which she herself is animated. To win the world to faith Jesus set before it what He was rather than what He did ; and in this, as in all else, He has left us the pattern which the Church must imitate. But if so, the chief element of the Church's being, as pointed out to us in the New Testament, is that which makes her a witness to men of the fulness of heavenly life in her Exalted Lord. The teaching of the fourth Gospel, in particular, upon this point is not less striking than clear. It can only be summarised at present in the briefest possible manner, but its general purport is as follows : — The Lord Jesus Christ is no more in the world. He is gone to the Father. The heavens have received Him until the restitution of all things. We cannot hear His voice, or see our children folded in His arms, or behold such a look of tender expostulation as that 1 Note 74. 202 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. which sent a pang to the Apostle Peter's heart, and made him go out and weep bitterly. Is there nothing to supply the want ? or to let the world see that there is still in the midst of it a " witness " to the immediate presence of the Divine ? It is not enough to say, There is the Bible, of which the Church is the guardian and keeper. The Bible is a book. It is not in itself a living thing : it is words, and all words are mean ingless until the reader is able to put their meaning into them. And again it is not enough to say, There is the work that the Church does. She cannot do more than " compass sea and land to make one proselyte," and we know of whom these words were spoken.1 The Church might map out the whole world into parishes; she might have a church and a minister in each ; she might preach the truth, administer the sacraments, maintain a discipline of morals, and yet she might be what she was in the days of degenerate Israel, what she has again and again been in Christian history, — a selfish, worldly institution, seeking the glory that cometh from man, and not from the only God.2 The Church has committed to her a higher task than even that of converting the world. She has to do that by which alone the world can be con verted. She has to declare Christ as He declared the Father. She is the " sent " of Christ as He was the " sent " of the Father.3 And just as our Lord Him self said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the 1 Matt, xxiii. 15. 2 John v. 44. 3 John xx. 21. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 203 Father,"1 so, when the Church at any time reviews her manifestation of herself, she ought to be able to say, He that hath seen me hath seen my Lord. The point, however, to be especially noticed now is this, that the witness which the Church is to bear to her Lord is to be borne to Him as not only the crucified but the Risen Lord. It is not enough for her to witness to Him as He was on earth ; she must witness to Him as He is in heaven. " Verily, verily, I say unto you," are Christ's own words, "he that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto the Father."2 Greater works than those of Jesus upon earth ! The words admit of no other interpre tation, and they could not be more definite than they are. Greater works than the Lord Jesus did shall His people do ! Why ? Because He will HimseK be greater ; He will have gone unto the Father, who is greater than He.3 He will be one with the greater Father, and in that oneness both the Father and the Son will come unto them, and make Their abode with them, and fill them with Their spirit, and endow them with Their power. In other words, the Church of Christ is the organ not simply of a humbled and an earthly, but of an exalted and a heavenly Lord. "As He is," says St. John in his first Epistle, in words full of meaning, — " As He is " (not as He was), "so are we in this world."4 John xiv. 9. 2 John xiv. 12. 3 John xiv. 28. * 1 John iv. 17. 204 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. Out of this idea flows all that is most characteristic of the Church, all that is peculiarly to distinguish her in the execution of her Divine commission. Let us advert to one or two of these characteristics for a moment ; and, as it is impossible to notice all of them, it may be well simply to mention three which seem to be most frequently forgotten. (1.) From the idea of the Church now before us, we gather the most powerful impression of that visible unity which ought to bind all her members into one great whole. The life of the Risen and Glorified Lord is not a life in spirit only, but in an exalted and glorified body ; and, so lived, it is at the same time alike one and visible. It exhibits no discordant elements ; its different sides or aspects present no hindrances to the accomplishing of the common end. The Divine does not obliterate the human; the human does not limit the Divine. The body of the Risen Lord is not lost in His spiritual existence ; the mani fold operations of His spirit find their appropriate expression through the different members of His body. In the perfect harmony of both body and spirit He is one. But He is not only one. He is also visible both to His angels and to His saints. To the former He "appeared" after His resurrec tion ; 1 the latter " follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." 2 If, therefore, it be the duty of the Church to 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Rev. xiv. 4. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 205 represent her Lord among men, and if she faithfully perform that duty, it follows by an absolutely irre sistible necessity that the unity exhibited in His person must appear in her. She must not only be one, but visibly one in some distinct and appreciable sense — in such a sense that men shall not need to be told of it, but shall themselves see and acknowledge that her unity is real. No doubt such unity may be, and is, consistent with great variety — with variety in the dogmatic expression of Christian truth, in regula tions for Christian government, in forms of Christian worship, and in the exhibition of Christian life. It is unnecessary to speak of these things now. Variety and the right to differ have many advocates. We have rather at present to think of unity and the obligation to agree. As regards these, it can hardly be denied that the Church of our time is flagrantly and disastrously at fault. The spectacle presented by her to the world is in direct and palpable contradic tion to the unity of the person of her Lord ; and she would at once discover its sinfulness were she not too exclusively occupied with the thought of positive action on the world, instead of remembering that her primary and most important duty is to afford to the world a visible representation of her Exalted Head. In all her branches, indeed, the beauty of unity is enthusiastically talked of by her members, and not a few are never weary of describing the precious oint ment in which the Psalmist beheld a symbol of the 206 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. nnity of Israel.1 Others, again, alive to the useless- ness of talking where there is.no corresponding real ity, seek comfort in the thought that beneath all the divisions of the Church there is a unity which she did not make, and which she cannot unmake. Yet, surely, in the light of the truth now before us, we may well ask whether either the talking or the suggested comfort brings us nearer a solution of our difficulties. The one is so meaningless that the very lips which utter it might be expected to refuse their office. The other is true, although, according as it is used, it may either be a stimulus to amendment or a pious plati tude ; and generally it is the latter. But neither words about the beauty of unity nor the fact of an invisible unity avail to help us. What the Church ought to possess is a unity which the eye can see. If she is to be a witness to her Risen Lord, she must do more than talk of unity, more than console herself with the hope that the world will not forget the invisible bond by which it is pleaded that all her members are bound together into one. Visible unity in one form or an other is an essential mark of her faithfulness. Let it be allowed that differently organised branches of the one Church of Christ may exist in different lands, or even in the same land, they must occupy such a rela tion to each other that their unity shall be manifest to the world. There must be intercommunion, mutual helpfulness — even to a certain extent confederation — 1 Psalm cxxxiii. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 207 among them. Unless it be so, the unity of the Church of Christ is destroyed, and without it she cannot fulfil her mission. Nay, the very aim, in the thought of which she finds consolation for the loss of unity, will be itself defeated. The world will never be converted by a disunited Church. Even Bible circulation and missionary exertion upon the largest scale will be powerless to convert it, unless they are accompanied by the strength which unity alone can give. Let the Church of Christ once feel, in any measure corre sponding to its importance, that she is the represen tative of the Risen Lord and she will no longer be satisfied with mere outward action. She will see that her first and most imperative duty is to heal herself, that she may be able to heal others. (2.) From the idea of the Church now before us, we learn the nature of that aspect in which she must present herseK to the world. Would she fulfil her mission, she must be recognised by the world as a Church suffering, yet triumphant over suffering. Such is the life of Him to whom she witnesses. He bears the marks alike of suffering and of triumph. Both are manifest, both are visible, in Him. Amidst all the glories of His heavenly abode He exhibits the tokens of His sufferings on earth, and the song of His redeemed is " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." Throughout everlasting ages these tokens of suffering will continue to be visible, and that . song will never change. It follows, therefore, that the Church, which is His re- 208 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. presentative on earth, must be seen both to suffer and to triumph over suffering. It is not merely that she must suffer. No one denies that in the case of every follower of Jesus the cross must precede the crown. The point to be at present particularly noticed is, that the Church must be known, that she must appear, to suffer ; and that she can no more produce her legiti mate effect upon the world without such a manifesta tion of herself than our Lord could have produced His effect, had His sufferings not been as visible as they were real. We are prone to forget this, and to think that the impression produced by our Lord when He was on earth depended chiefly upon His miracles. It may well be doubted if we are correct in thinking so. When the Jews beheld Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus, and Mary weeping at His feet, they said, " Behold, how He loved him." These are the same Jews of whom we are told at a later point in the narrative, that, having " come to Mary," and having seen the " things " which He did, they believed in Him.1 Of all that had passed, what, we may ask, had most to do in thus bringing them to faith ? It may have been the miracle, although they had before resisted many miracles, although our Lord Himself had said, " If they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead." 2 But the special mention of them in connexion with Mary, and the use of the word 1 John xi. 45. 2 Luke xvi. 31. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 209 " things," instead of "thing," appear to say that it was quite as much the tears, — the tokens of the suffering love of Jesus, — that produced the effect, as the ma jestic word instantly obeyed, "Lazarus, come forth." The power of Christ's mission upon earth depended not merely on suffering but on suffering seen. It is not otherwise in heaven, where the garment that He wears, as He is followed by the armies of the re deemed, is said to be. a "garment sprinkled with blood." x • Again, therefore, it must be with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as it is with the Lord Himself; and K she is not seen both to accept suffering and, in accepting it, to triumph over it, she is deprived of one of the main elements of her strength. It would of course be utterly wrong in her to make suffering for herself ; and it may be urged that there come times when the providence of God does not send suffering, and when, therefore, owing to no fault of her own, she cannot be seen to suffer. The reply is easy. It lies in the very nature of the case that the Church's testi mony must always be offensive to, the world. She speaks of things seen and temporal in a light the very- opposite of that in which the world is accustomed to regard them. She calls to a separation from ends to which the world is devoted. She enjoins the exercise of virtues which the world does not appreciate. The very existence of the Church, when exhibiting her 1 Rev. xix. 13. p 210 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. true spirit and leading her true life, is a protest against the spirit and life of the world. " Woe unto you," said our Lord, " when all men shall speak well of you ; " 1 " I came not to send peace, but a sword. " £ On the other hand, there will always be sin and sor row in the world. But sin can only be healed by our stooping to its misery ; sorrow can only be healed by our pouring human words into its ear, and wiping away its tears with human hands ; and works like these can never be accomplished without pain. The Son of God HimseK, " In doing good, "Was fain to look to heaven, and sigh." The Church, therefore, does not require to make suffering for herself. Simple faithfulness will do it. Neither the rich nor the poor, when wicked or worldly, will tolerate those who are true to the teaching and life of their great Master. But, if so, the inquiry can hardly fail to force itself upon us, whether the position occupied by the Church in our own day in respect to suffering is such as to entitle her to think that she is a true witness to her Lord, and a true exhibiter of His life. Are her labours, pains, self-denials, suffer ings, self-sacrifices, the marks by which the poor, the worldly, and the criminal, chiefly know her? Are they not more likely to think of ministers, elders, and multitudes of Christian men and women, living at ease, not unfrequently in luxury, with little hardship 1 Luke vi. 26. 2 Matt. x. 34. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 211 and little toil ? When they thought of our Lord in the days of His earthly ministry, they thought of one who had not where to lay His head. They would hardly think thus of His representative now. The Church of Christ rides too much, and not too little, on the high places of the earth ; and the world's first impression of her not unfrequently is, that it has only to offer her more purple and fine linen and sumptu ous fare, in order to secure her co-operation for the accomplishment of its own selfish purposes. She would need more, not less, of her Master's cup put into her hands, and more, not less, of His cross to ' bear, before the world will acknowledge her spiritual power. After all, however, it must always be remembered that, just as suffering is not the only, or even the chief, mark of the Risen Lord, so it is not that which only or even chiefly, distinguishes the Church. Her most characteristic feature is rather triumph over suffering, light springing out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, and life out of death. " We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened ; perplexed, yet not unto despair ; pursued, yet not forsaken ; smitten down yet not destroyed ; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." x Such is the true spirit of the Church's life ; not despondency, or mourning, or sighs " even when thanking God ; " but the voice of 1 2 Cor. iv. 8-10. 212 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. praise, the shout of victory, the confidence and hope of men who are even now seated with their Lord in the " heavenly places." It is not merely a crucified but a Risen Lord that we proclaim. (3.) Once more, from the idea of the Church now before us, we learn that she is not only to develop her inner life, but that she is to find for it an outward and appropriate expression. This expression, when we think of the- Church's being rather than of her doing, is her worship, — those rites, or forms, or ceremonies in which she utters to the eye and to the ear of others the emotions of her heavenly life. The Church can no more live without a worship than thought can live without words to fix it and to lend it permanence. Spirituality is indeed the deepest and most fundamental element of her existence. The Risen Lord is spiritual. Even the very body which He possesses in heaven is so penetrated and pervaded by the spirit that it may be spoken of as a " spiritual body," and that He Himself may be described as "spirit."1 The Church, therefore, which represents Him must first of all be spiritual. By whatever marks, whether of doctrine, or worship, or government, we endeavour to distinguish her, there is one that she must possess, and to which all her other gifts must minister even when they have been bestowed upon her in their most perfect form, — she must present to the world a manifestation of spiritual life. Without 1 Comp. Note 15. lect. vi.] OJ OUR LORD. 213 this, she would fail to manifest her Lord in the most essential characteristic of His being. No outward worship can supply its place. The Risen Lord, it cannot be too frequently repeated, is essentially spiritual, and it is in the spiritual life of humanity that He lays the foundation of His Church. To Him all is nothing that is not spiritual ; and outward rites, however well-ordered, or beautiful, or magnificent, — however venerable with age, or rich with the pious associations of the past, — have value only when they express spiritual realities, or promote the growth of spiritual feelings and purposes and aims. Christ's kingdom is first in the soul of man. All holy thoughts, all heavenly aspirations, all sighs of contri tion, all tears of penitence, all faith and hope and love, all that is meek and gentle, and lowly and self- sacrificing, and patient and forgiving, — all these are the main elements of His kingdom ; and if they do not speak to the world in the Church's life, the most imposing ceremonial will be nothing but the cere ments of death. Considerations such as these, however, lend no support to the conclusion that in the thought of the Church's spirituality we may neglect her worship; for the Risen Lord is not simply spirit. He has a body, and He included the perfecting of the body in His perfecting of human nature as a whole. The moment the Church grasps this truth, her outward not less than her inward worship must assume that 214 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. importance in her eyes, the denial of which will always be found fatal to healthy spiritual life. To tell her that she has only to do with spirit is to lead the way to the practical denial of her Lord's Resur rection in the body. It is to introduce a false anti thesis between spirit and body, whereas the true antithesis is between spirit and flesh. And it is to undervalue one of the essential verities connected with Him whose personality in its completeness is the Church's life. We violate, therefore, the truth of our Lord's human nature, as weU as of our own, when we allege that our worship may be independent of the outward, — of the day of rest, of the sanctuary, of an appointed ministry, of united praise and prayer, and of the Sacraments. By such reasoning we do more than sin against ourselves. We sin against Him whom we worship, not simply that we may derive benefit from doing so, but that in our worship we may show forth His praise. The worship that truly performs its part of witnessing must include bodily as well as spiritual service ; and these, so far from being inconsistent, are necessary to each other. The doc trine of the Risen Lord, in whom spirit and body are bound together in perfect and endless unity, conse crates them both. It follows, too, that the outward service of the Church, if thus essential to her work of witnessing, ought to be unfolded and beautified to the highest degree consistent with maintaining the supremacy of lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 215 the spirit. Nothing is more foolish if not more selfish, than to plead that we may be indifferent to outward worship because God is spirit. At the very time when the Psalmist celebrates the king's daughter as "all glorious within" he immediately adds that " her clothing is of wrought gold." x In the Revela tion of St. John, the most precious stones, the most costly metals, and the richest dyes, are employed to set forth the splendour of the bride, the Lamb's wKe ; and surely, if Mary expressed by a lavish gift her homage to her Lord when He was preparing for His burial, much more may we be lavish in our gifts when we follow in the train of One who has ascended up on high in all His royal dignity. The thought of danger to which we are thus exposed may make us careful how far we go, but is no argument against a course- of conduct rooted in the conception of the Church's being. Such danger is simply that which must be met on every side so long as the flesh lust- eth against the spirit; and the only way to avoid it is to see that the worship of the Church be a witness to her Risen Lord in the completeness of His exalted state. Let her express as far as possible in her worship what He is, and her path is sure. We have considered several leading characteristics of the Church, dwelling especially upon such as in this land are peculiarly apt to be forgotten, and we have seen that they flow directly from that concep- 1 Ps. xiv. 13. 216 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. tion of the Church which teaches us to regard her as the manifestation upon earth of the Risen Lord. The characteristics which have been spoken of relate especially to the Church's being in the world, — to her unity, her triumph over suffering, and her wor ship. The thought of the Risen Lord is, however, not less applicable to the Church's field of action than it is to her sphere of being, and it throws as bright a light on the former as on the latter. The fact that the Lord is risen is that upon which Scripture rests the universality of the Gospel message, and by which it most of all impresses on the Church her responsi bility to plant everywhere the kingdom which that message brings with it. (1.) The New- Testament constantly reminds us how close the connexion is between the Resurrection of our Lord and the evangelisation, not of any one portion of the human race, but of the whole. Upon this point the words of our Lord Himself are pecu liarly instructive, "And I, if I be lifted on high out of the earth, will draw all men unto me." 1 From the expression " lifted on high" it is impossible to separate the Resurrection of Jesus and the glory fol lowing it ; and when the Evangelist, immediately after he has recorded these words of his Divine Master, adds, " This He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die," 2 his object is to include the lifting up upon the cross in the "lifting on high," not 1 John xii. 32. 2 yer, 33 lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 217 to exclude the Resurrection and the Ascension from it.1 Here, therefore, our Lord Himself distinctly teaches us that with His being " lifted on high out of the earth," with His being separated from the limita tions of His earthly state, is associated the drawing of " all " men unto Him. Thus also, when we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews " But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man," 2 we cannot dis sociate the last clause of the verse from the clause immediately preceding it. In other words, the lesson of the passage is, that it is through His being " crowned with glory and honour " that our Lord is in a position to apply the benefit of His death to "every" man.3 Scripture, in short, always teaches that the universality of the application of the Gospel is to be traced to the action of the Risen Lord. Only when He burst the bonds of death did He pass from the limited to the unlimited, and from the local to the universal. But, because He has now done so aild is seated at the right hand of God, " there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman ; but Christ is all, and in all."4 The universality of the ap plication of the Gospel depends upon our Lord's Resurrection, and not merely on His death. 1 Note 75. 2 Heb. ii. 9. 3 Note 76. 4 Col. iii. 1, 11. 218 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. (2.) Not only, however, is this the case, the teach ing of Scripture leads also to the conclusion that the responsibility of the Church to spread the Gospel thus universally depends upon the fact that to her, and to her alone, as the representative of the Risen Lord, is the power entrusted by which the work may be suc cessfully accomplished. We know that this can be done by no other means than the agency of the Spirit; and it would seem that the gift of the Spirit is be stowed only through the Church as the organ upon earth of the Risen and Glorified Lord in heaven. We dare not indeed restrain the power of the Almighty ; but what we have to do with is His plan ; and of that plan what has now been said appears to be one of the most striking characteristics. There is a want of all proof that the Spirit in His fulness is ever given directly to the world ; or that, apart from the medium of those whom He has called to a knowledge of HimseK, the Almighty sends down His influences, now here, now there, upon such as He would awaken to a sense of sin and lead to righteousness. On the contrary, it appears to be the teaching of the New Testament that, as it is the prerogative of Christ in His glorified humanity to bestow the Spirit, so it is only through the Church, as the representative of that glorified humanity, that the influences of the Spirit are communicated to the world. There is no separate witnessing on the Spirit's part. Through men He witnesses to men. Through the Church alone lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 219 is He brought to bear upon those who are without her pale.1 The lesson is a solemn one ; and it places the Church as the body of Christ, and every part of the Church as a part of the body, in a position of peculiar responsibility. It reminds us of what we constantly forget. We look abroad upon the world — upon what it is and upon what it ought to be. We dwell upon its evil, and upon the manner in which it resists all argument and entreaty to lead it to the knowledge of the truth. We feel our own weakness, as if nothing that we can do will be of the least avail. Then we cry in our despondency, God Himself will interpose ; He will accomplish by the power of His Spirit what we are unable to effect ; let Him break these hard hearts, and bend these stubborn wills ; let Him take His own work in hand ; and let it be ours to stand by, like Moses on the shores of the Red Sea, looking in awe and wonder upon Israel saved, and the enemies of God overwhelmed in the mighty waters. There seems to be no foundation in Scripture for language such as this — no ground to think that the Spirit of God is ever given except through the instru mentality of those who are the members of Christ's body. The Glorified Redeemer acts through them. They are the channel by which He sends His all- powerful Spirit down to make the wilderness a garden of the Lord. ' Note 77. 220 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. The truth, therefore, that we are now considering is of the highest value, not only for the comfort and hope of believers, as they look forward to the end of their pilgrimage, but for the practical work to which they are called while their day of working lasts. No doubt, even as they contemplate the death of Him who loved them and gave Himself for them, they are constrained by the most powerful arguments to con fess that they are not their own, to labour for the good of others, and to imitate Him who came " not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Even then they may feel that they are " priests unto their God and Father " ; and that from the idea of the priesthood it is impossible to separate the thought of mediating between God and man, of appearing before men as the representa tives of the love of God, of " bearing gently with the ignorant and erring,"1 of having compassion on the sinful, of reclaiming the wanderer, of carrying a message of light and peace to every troubled heart into which their words can penetrate. But our Lord Himself connected both the obligation and the en couragement of Christian work with the thought of His condition now, when after His Resurrection He said to the disciples, "All authority hath been given unto Me both in heaven and on earth. Go ye there fore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and 1 Heb. v. 2. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 221 of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 1 Once before He had sent them forth, but it was in other terms, " Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans ; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 2 The time had not yet come, for the practical work of the Church to be presented to her in all its extent. He who had belonged to the seed of David according to the flesh had not yet thrown off those limitations of His humanity which confined both Himself and His work to Israel. Now it has come, and every limitation has disappeared. The " Kingdom of God" no longer realised, though imperfectly, in one nation is to be realised in its highest perfection among all nations. The love of God is revealed in its fulness in a Redeemer who, exalted in spiritual glory, is equally near to men, whatever be the clime or the age in which they live. His eye travels to every corner of the world — no spot so remote but He is there ; no labourer so apparently unnoticed amidst the throng of universal life but He is beside him ; no home so poor but He is ready, in the power of His Spirit, to illuminate its darkness and to heal its sorrows. " Lo, I am with you alway" is His language — I, to whom all authority has been given both in heaven and on earth, who have alike the power and the right to rule, whose 1 Matt, xxviii.' 18-20. 2 Matt. x. 5, 6. 222 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. grace shall be sufficient for thee, and whose strength shall be perfected in weakness. In fulfilling His great commission we need have no fear that we may be nut of harmony with God's eternal plan, and none that our task may prove too much for us to accomplish. The Living Lord is with us, who once knew every such disappointment as we experience, and every such cause of despondency as weakens us ; who once sighed over the stubbornness of men more deeply than we can sigh, and shed more bitter tears for those who refused to listen to Him than we can weep. Yet He tri umphed; and He comes to us now that He may communicate to us His joy of victory, and that, in doing so, He may afford us an earnest of our own. Thus it is, then, that everything most distinctive of the Church of Christ, alike in her inward and outward life, in her relation to her various members and to the world, flows out of the fact that she is the representative not only of the humbled and suffering but of the Exalted and Glorified Lord. The Church has often been spoken of as a kind of continuation of the Incarnation ; but there is a sense in which she may be spoken of as more. The great Head from whom she draws all that is most characteristic of her being and her duties is no longer upon earth; He is in heaven, — His humiliation over, His cup of sorrow drained, His eternal and glorious reign begun.' To that Head the Church is united in the bonds of closest fellowship. She is one with Him who in all lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 223 His Divine majesty, in all His heavenly power, with all the influences of His Spirit, is at the right hand of the Father, that she may dwell in Him, and may produce even here below the fruits of that tree of life which grows by the river of the water of life, which bears its fruits throughout the year, and the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. The Church of Christ is not an institution of this world's policy, nor does she exist for this world's ends. It is presumption on the part of men clothed with mere worldly power to think that they can lend her strength, or that they can save her when she is in danger. She can lend strength to them and save them ; they can do none of these things for her. Her spirit, her strength, her life are from above. She is the child of heaven upon earth, that she may witness to the heaven which she now partially introduces, and for the full manifestation of which she prepares and waits. Did the Church of Christ only realise more fully than she does what is thus her true position and char acter and power, how different would she be from what she often is ! How different would be her tone, her life, her work ! Instead of contention amidst her various branches, she would exhibit unity; instead of simple freedom from outward trouble, the joy that rises superior to aU trouble ; and instead of a worship in which the form not unfrequently restrains the spirit, a spiritual worship shaping itself into forms of appropriate and natural expression. She would not 224 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. only acknowledge that her mission-field was "the world," but would see the principle by which she is encouraged in every part of it to expect success; and she would advance to her work as alone in possession of the true remedy for the world's ills. Glorious things would again be spoken of her ; and the time would not be distant when both Jew and Gentile should be gathered into her fold. : II. If such is the bearing of the Resurrection of our Lord upon the Church, the bearing of the same great fact upon the World is not less worthy of our notice. The Church and the world indeed cannot stand wholly apart from one another, and Scripture often reminds us of those secret and mysterious links which bind man and nature together, and which make nature follow man, whether in his fall or in his rising. She followed him at the first, when the ground was cursed for man's sake, and when it brought forth thorns and briers instead of nothing but what was pleasant to the eye and good for food. She follows him now, when she has risen with his progress : and with the Resurrection of our Lord there is held out to her the hope of a more complete deliverance ; " For the earnest expec tation of the creation waiteth for the revealino- of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who sub- lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 225 jected it in hope; because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." 1 Looked at in the light of the Resurrection of our Lord, what a prospect even for nature opens on the view ! It is true that in one aspect there is decay. The mountains are gradually crumbling into the val leys ; " the waters wear the stones ;" and different species both of animals and plants have passed and are passing away. Sin, too, with its dissolving power, has still a terrible intensity of existence around us, and forces are at work threatening to break up the very foundations of society, and filling the heart with dismay. Neither the philosopher nor the poet can give us hope. The Resurrection of our Lord, which derives its greatest value from this, that it is not a mere miracle of the past but is full of the promise of the future, alone can do so. In its light not decay but advance, not pulling down but building up, not- falling back but reaching forward, become the main characteristics both of nature and of human history. Once the earth was without form and void ; scientific men tell us that in still remoter ages it existed only in the shape of endlessly-multiplied particles of mat ter, which swept through" space without having been as yet gathered together into a mass. Be it so. At 1 Rom. viii. 19-22. 226 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. all events the earth passed through that stage. Then came successive stages of its history, during which plants covered its surface, and animals in ever-rising forms of existence appeared to live upon the plants. Each stage gave way to another, not lower but higher than what went before it. Last of all, man came upon the scene, the highest and fairest of the Creator's works ; but the progress did not stop. Even the Fall did not stop it, for through the Fall, however disas trous it was in some respects, men became as gods, knowing good and evil.1 Then came the remedial process, — first darkly hinted at, afterwards revealed in ever-brightening light until it was fulfilled in Christ. Still the progress did not stop. -It has not stopped now. The purpose of the ages was an in creasing purpose as the world hastened onward to the Resurrection of our Lord ; and looking back upon that event, we read in it not something peculiar to Him, but the token of a higher destiny towards which both the spiritual and the material creation are moving on. We cannot therefore join either philo sopher or poet in their desponding moods. The culminating point of the world's progress has not yet been reached. But in due time it will be reached ; and, in sharing the "liberty of the glory of the chil dren of God," whatever be the way in which we endeavour to conceive of it, its final purpose will at last be gained ; " The mountains and the hills will 1 Note 78. ' lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 227 break forth into singing, and all the trees of the forest will clap their hands." 1 I must bring these Lectures to a close. We have been dealing with a question upon which it is no exaggeration to say that Christianity, in everything peculiarly distinctive of it among the religions of the world, depends. Such facts as the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord are either true or false ; and the Christian faith is so intimately bound up with them that, K they are false, the only alternative left us is to abandon it, and to seek in some other way satisfaction for our religious needs and guidance in our religious life. It is impossible to enter into the language of those who urge that, altogether apart from the supernatural foundation upon which it rests, Christianity ought to be preserved for the sake of the moral system which it inculcates, or of the natural piety which it promotes. That moral system and that natural piety are not so exclusively dependent upon the revelation of the Bible as to justify our seeking them in a book, much of which we have come to think false, and which we believe, alike from past history and present experience, to be the source of a very large amount of mental anxiety and pain and terror. Could we indeed eliminate from the Christian system all that is directly supernatural or Divine, and yet leave men those other parts in which alone, it is pled, there is eternal value, we might at least 1 Isa. Iv. 12. 228 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. listen to the arguments employed in favour of the propriety of doing so. But to eliminate the one and to retain the other is impossible. A teacher who should feel himseK constantly called upon to explain away the Divine facts of Scripture, and to show that, while a precious kernel was enclosed in them, they were themselves no more than the fruit of ignorant superstition or poetic fancy, would soon discover that he was weakening the respect of his hearers for it all. He would find that the only course open to him was to teach it as it is ; and, although he might hope that advancing knowledge would gradually expose the fallacies of the pulpit, he would be constrained to leave the furthering of this advance to others. He dare not startle too suddenly the mass of common minds. He dare not insinuate to the many what he may .whisper to the few. In his public position he must teach the whole word of God, or at least much of it belonging to another department than that of morals or natural piety ; and his sole consolation, while he speaks, will be that he is yielding to a necessity which, in a happier future, will have van ished away. In such circumstances, however, it is surely worth while to consider whether the good to be gained from this temporary honour to the Divine word is not purchased at an enormous price. There are two sides to the picture of results to be anticipated from such teaching, and both ought to be looked at. Let lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 229 us suppose that the preaching of natural religion and morals produces its beneficial effect. What are we to expect from those other truths which, far more than moral precepts or lessons of natural piety, not only permeate the Bible, but penetrate every confes sion of the Church, are breathed forth in every prayer, are sounded aloud in every psalm or hymn of praise? Let those who, under the pressure of necessity, teach these things while they would fain eliminate them, trace back the history of eighteen centuries, or even consider what is passing around them now. Do they not see results of a very dif ferent kind from those which they desire to produce, and which may well make them doubtful as to the course they are pursuing ? Have they no compas sion for the millions of human hearts that Christi anity, on their supposition, has torn with anguish as causeless as it was unutterable? Have they no sympathy with the countless multitudes whom it has driven to despair through a revelation of God thought to be Divine, when their teachers knew that it was really human ? — no pity for the alarms of conscience, or the agonies of remorse, that have needlessly embit tered so many lives ? — no feeling for the pangs of unnumbered loving spirits who have lived in per petual self-reproach because they thought that they were not loving God enough? — no sense of shame when they have seen how often a revolt against the terrors of hell has made wicked men only more 230 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. wicked than they would otherwise have been ? All these things, they must allow, might have been saved had they, or those who before them have entertained the same views, not thought, or rather pretended to think, that for the unenlightened the morals of Christianity were necessary, and that as they were inseparable from its doctrines, the preaching of the doctrines ought to be countenanced for the sake of the morals. Or, if they are not ashamed, do they never mourn over the loss to society and the world occasioned by what they must consider the diver sion of so many minds from the real to the delusive, from the substantial to the shadowy, — by this stand ing face to face with fancies instead of things? They tell us of a gain to morals ; but, upon their own showing, we may tell them of thoughts turned aside from the useful to the useless, of strength wasted, of souls harassed by problems that ought never to have been raised, of tears poured forth without measure in silent chambers, of minds in which reason even threatens to desert her seat; — and, when we set the one picture over against the other, can they honestly say that such results ought to be endured for the sake of benefits that may be gained by other means ? In the finer class of spirits it is a strange hallucina tion and one-sidedness that leads to such a conclusion. More common men are led to it by their own selfish interests, by their love of position, or honour, or gain. lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 231 Mental anxieties like those now spoken of ought to be endured, although with increasing effort on the Church's part to mitigate them, if the supernatural facts of Christianity are true; for in that case we must give account of ourselves to God, and eternity is in the balance. But certainly they ought not to be endured for any prudential reason which it is possible to assign. The man who tolerates them for the sake of the moral precepts of our Lord, or of natural piety, is not only false to what he thinks the cause of truth, but to the very humanity which he professes to reve rence and love. Let it not be said that faith is cowardly when the cowardice of unbelief is so much more marked. Once more, it may be said that it is possible to re tain the idea of our Lord's Resurrection while we give up the fact ; and that the story of it is one of those beneficent illusions by which the human race is edu cated, and which it is the part of wisdom to encourage for the sake of infant nations or of children. Suppos ing that it were so, it is nevertheless incontrovertible that it is the duty of every man to dispel these illu sions at the earliest possible moment. To substitute for them the reality, though it may be the far sterner reality, of truth, is the education which a generous mind must desire both for. itself and for all in whom it feels an interest. Truth is the best educator of man. In the Providence of God it was not all revealed at once, because men would have been 232 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. unable to comprehend it. . There was a growth of revelation as there was a growth of man ; and the Redeemer of the world did not come until the times were full. But it is our duty to use for ourselves, and to impress on others, any measure of positive en lightenment we may enjoy. We may be taught by illusions, but we cannot acquiesce in them. They are " childish things " ; and when we become men we put them away. Our nobility lies in being witnesses to truth. On the other hand, if the Resurrection of our Lord be a fact, it is undeniable that it ought to occupy a far more important place than it generally does, alike in our theological systems and in our religious life. The Romish Church has practically expelled it by making the mass the centre of her worship. The Protestant Church has done the same by the almost exclusive attention which she has directed to the death of Christ, and by her utterly inadequate teaching, that the Resurrection of our Lord is the guarantee of the acceptance of His work, instead of the culminating part of the work itself. To the neglect of the great fact with which we have been dealing are to be largely traced those defects in the Christian life of the members of our Churches which it is impossible not to observe and to lament. .Take all classes of society among us, from the highest to the lowest, and we cannot deny that, even where Christianity is professed, and where the ordinances of the Church are faithfully lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 233 used, there is yet, with many honourable exceptions, a worldly tone of life, — a life of worldly luxury in some, of worldly aims in others, — affording a melancholy contrast to the life of Christ, whether in earth or in heaven. There is no want of evangelical preaching, as it is called, and no want of admiration for it. Nay, the most thoroughly selfish members of our Churches, the most thoroughly immersed in all the frivolities of fashionable life, are often the greatest admirers of that preaching. Preach the death of Christ, they cry to us. We do preach it. To preach it is to preach one of the fundamental doctrines of the New Testament. But to preach the death of Christ alone does not seem to disturb the selfish heart of man. It often flatters him with the thought of what was endured for his sake. It makes a free offer of forgiveness, which it pleases him to hear of, — always supposing that he needs it. It tells him that he has nothing to " do" to be saved. It even frowns upon self-sacrifice, as if it were the same thing as self-righteousness; and the popular preacher is not unfrequently most successful when, discrediting the self-chosen poverty and the severe seK-discipline of members of the Romish Church, he shows to the gratified self-satisfaction of his hearers that they who choose such unpleasant paths are simply working out a salvation for them selves, which will fail them in the great day of account. What is known as evangelical preaching may have saved many souls, but it has not succeeded 234 THE RESURRECTION [lect. vi. in raising the tone of our Christian life in such a way as to make the world " marvel." The Church must teach the whole truth if she would effect this. She must teach the Resurrection of her Lord as well as His death ; and she must teach it, not as a reward for His work, but as a part of the work itself, — as a part that, not less than His death, is to be "fufilled" in us. This will lead us beyond the thought of dying to sin to the thought of living in righteousness ; this, and this alone, will bring the raising up of the new man within us into inseparable connexion with the death and burial of the old man. Then too will the Church exert her due power upon the world. We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that the fact most of all proclaimed by the first teachers of the Gospel was the Resurrection of their Lord ; and the proclamation appears to have gone home with singular power to the hearts of those who heard. Yet it may be inferred from different passages, both of the same book and of the Epistles of St Paul, that the success of the Apostles in gather ing their numerous converts into the Church was in no small degree owing, not to the mere preaching of the fact, but to the life of the Christian community as it was moulded by it. The early Christians lived in the thought of their Risen Lord ; and this so lifted them above a present world as to bring near that better world to which every labouring and heavy- laden heart is drawn. A similar power ought always lect. vi.] OF OUR LORD. 235 to go forth from the Church of Christ ; and it can go forth from her only when her IKe, — life in a Risen and Living Lord, — is a light of men. I cannot close these Lectures without expressing the earnest hope that, notwithstanding their manifold deficiencies, they may, by the blessing of God, be the means of directing the thoughts of those who have heard them to the vast importance of the subject with which they have been occupied. Christ has died ; and we cannot too frequently, too earnestly, or too lovingly, visit the grave where He who gave his life for us was laid. But when we go there to weep, let us see that we listen also to the voice which says to us, " He is not here, but is risen." " Weeping may endure for a night, but joy," — both for ourselves and the world, — " cometh in the morning." And the morning has come ; the dawn has broken ; and we who believe in the Risen Lord have passed out of the valley of the shadow of death into unclouded light and IKe for ever. I say to all men, far and near, That He is risen again ; That He is with us now and here, And ever shall remain. And what I say, let each this morn, Go tell it to his friend, That soon in every place shall dawn His kingdom without end. 236 THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. [lect. vi. Now first to souls who thus awake Seems earth a fatherland, A new and endless life they take With rapture from His hand. The fears of death and of the grave Are whelm'd beneath the sea, And every heart now light and brave, May face the things to be. The way of darkness that He trod To heaven at last shall come, And he who hearkens to His word Shall reach His Father's home. Now let the mourner grieve no more, Though his beloved sleep, A happier meeting shall restore Their light to eyes that weep. Now every heart each noble deed With new resolve may dare, A glorious harvest shall the seed In happier regions bear. He lives, His presence hath not ceased, Though foes and fears be rife ; And thus we hail in Easter's feast A world renew'd to life ! Lyra. Germanica. NOTES NOTES. Note 1, p. 11. Even Dr. Hodge of Princeton (" System. Theol." iii. p. 775), from whom th» words quoted in the text are taken, declares that there "can be no doubt that it was so," and that " otherwise there would have been no Resurrection." In this Dr. Hodge expresses the general opinion of at least all the Presbyterian Churches. An elaborate discussion on the point, by Professor Eobinson of New York, will be found in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" for May 1845, reprinted in "Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature" for July 1852, p. 341. He takes the same view as Dr. Hodge. Note 2, p. 11. Thus, when Mary Magdalene, standing weeping by the empty grave, turned suddenly round and saw Jesus beside her, but supposed Him to be the gardener (John xx. 15), her mistake in all probability arose as much from her eyes being blinded with her tears, and her mind preoccupied with her grief, as from any change in Him. When the two disciples on the way to Emmaus not only walked but con versed with Him for a considerable space of time, we are expressly told that " their eyes were holden that they should not know Him" (Luke xxiv. 16); and that language leads directly to the inference that, had their eyes not been holden, they would have known Him. Once more, if the seven dis- 240 NOTES. ciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee did not at once recognise Jesus on the shore, the words of the Evangelist, "when morning was now coming" (John xxi. 4), almost force on us the conclusion that daylight had not yet broken, and that, in that Eastern land, there would be no small amount of darkness in the sky. Note 3, p. 11.— See Note 6. Note 4, p. 11. The " honeycomb " mentioned in the Authorised Version has no place in the best -attested reading of the original. We may here take the opportunity of remarking that the difficulty occasioned by this text to the view of our Lord's resurrection-body advocated in these Lectures is at least a solitary one. Acts x. 41 may indeed seem, at first sight, to imply the contrary ; but, whether or not we adopt the idea of Bengel that all the words from oij wavrl to airS are parenthetical, it is most probable that the last clause of verse 41, " after He rose from the dead," is to be connected with the clause "gave Him to be made manifest" of verse 40. Certainly there is no instance recorded in the Gospel of our Lord's eating and drinking with "His disciples after His Resurrection. At Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 30, 31) such an idea is rather expressly excluded by the language of the Evangelist. At John xxi. 13 we read only, "Jesus cometh and taketh the bread, and giveth.them, and the fish likewise:" it is not said that Jesus Himself ate. At Luke xxiv. 43 there is no common eating, " He took it and did eat before them." Comp. Kriiger ("Die Auferst. d. H.," p. 30, note) who, however, attaches undue importance to our Lord's own words in Luke xxii. 18. The language there is too figurative to be relied on for the determination of a fact ; and it is possible that, according to our Lord's meaning, the Kingdom of God came with His Resurrection. The view of Luke xxiv. 43 commonly taken by commentators, both ancient and modern, is that the eating was designed as a proof by our Lord that His form was no phantom of the imagination (see NOTES. 241 Plumptre, Wordsworth, Denton, Gloag, etc., on Acts x. 41)- This, however, does not even touch the difficulty of the verse- It seems better to say that I neither know nor can offer any satisfactory solution of this act of our Lord's eating, than to profess acceptance of solutions which only evade the difficulty. Note 5, p. 13. For a fuller description of the remarkable incidents re corded in John xx. 19, 26, I may be allowed to refer to the Commentary on St. John's Gospel by Milligan and Moulton, in the Commentary on the New Testament edited by Pro fessor Schaff. In addition to what is there said, it may only be remarked that Calvin has rightly styled all the remarks that had been made in his day, and that have been repeated by so many down to the present hour, as to our Lord's entering the room through the pores of the wood of the closed doors, pueriles argutice. Such a thought, obvi ously, never entered the Evangelist's mind. At the same time, Calvin's own explanation, though adopted by Beyschlag, ("Die Auferstehung Christi," p. 24), that the doors opened of their own accord, is equally untenable. Not less to be at once rejected is the idea that Jesus knocked at the door of the room and was admitted in the usual way; or that adopted by Michaelis ("On the Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ," p. 255, Translation), that Jesus Himself opened the doors miraculously without noise, and entered the room unpereeived, the minds of the disciples being too much pre occupied to notice Him. Note 6, p. 13. The words used by our Lord when He says, " A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have," are undoubtedly attended with great difficulty. It may be well to make a few observations upon them in a note. One thing is clear, that " flesh and bones " is not synonymous with " flesh and blood." The latter expression, either in the form " flesh and blood," or in the form " blood and flesh," occurs frequently R 242 NOTES. in the New Testament (Matt, xvi 1 7 ; 1 Cor. xv. 50 ; Gal. i. 16; Heb. ii. 14; Eph. vi. 12); the former is found only once, for in Eph. v. 30 the words " of his flesh and of his bones " ought to be omitted from the text. In these cir cumstances no careful interpreter will doubt for a moment that " flesh and bones " are here deliberately spoken of by our Lord, and that they express a different idea from that conveyed by "flesh and blood." The late Dr. Candlish, in his "Life in a Risen Saviour" (Discourse XV.), has argued, with no small measure of acuteness, that, while " flesh and blood " denotes community in the lower animal life, " flesh and bones " denotes community, kinship, close personal union, and relationship, — the analogy of a kinship like that of Gen. ii. 23, and illustrated by such passages as Genesis xxix. 14; Judges ix. 2; 2 Samuel v. 1, xix. 12, 13. If this explana tion be accepted, it is obvious that our Lord, by the words which He here used, intended to express two things, — ¦ (1) That His state was not the same as that of His disciples, or as it had been before; (2) that He was yet one with them — their human companion and friend. It was necessary to express the latter point In some way, for the disciples had imagined that He was a mere formless spirit (verse 37), what we should call a ghost. But to have said that He was "flesh and blood" would have misled them into the idea that He was exactly what He had been. He therefore says that He has "flesh and bones," in proof that, while He had undergone a change, that change still left Him truly human. The conclusion often drawn from the words, when compared with 1 Cor. xv. 50, that the Lord's resurrection-body was bloodless, seems somewhat precarious, unless we are careful to explain that our only meaning is that the blood was not in the same condition as that in which it had previously been. There seems no reason for saying that the blood might not be glorified in the same way as the more sohd portions of the earthly body. Note 7, p. 14. John xx. 17. — The difficulty occasioned by the compari son of these words with those of John xx, 27 will at once NOTES. 243 disappear, if it be observed that the expression used in the original does not indicate a momentary touch, but is equivalent to " Handle me not," " Cling not to me." It is addressed to a state of mind wholly different from that of Thomas, and is intended to point out to Mary that the old relations between her Lord and her were changed. She may no longer cling to Him with the grasp of earthly friendship and love, as if she could apprehend Him by the senses. The relation between them must henceforward be entirely spiritual. Had Thomas attempted thus to " touch " Jesus after he had uttered his confession " My Lord and my God," he too would have been addressed in the same way. In conformity with this, it ought to be particularly observed that the message committed to Mary has reference not merely to our Lord's Resurrection, but to His resurrection-state, — a state which was not the same as it had been, and which could not be known by the disciples until they received the truth that He was in the condition of One " ascending to the Father." Then they may all touch Him, cling to Him, but not till then. Note 8, p. 15. [It is probable that this idea is very commonly entertained. It was that of the late Dr. Wardlaw (" System. Theology," ii^p. 620); of the late Dr. Hodge of Princeton, who, allowing that there was some change at the Resurrection, and making no mention of development during the forty days, says distinctly that it was at the end of these days that the body of our Lord "passed into its glorified state" ("System. Theology," ii. p. 628). See also Dr. Robinson in "Journal of Sacred Lit.," July 1852, p. 352. Comp. for the view taken in the text Westcott, " The Revelation of the Risen Lord," pp. 7-10. Note 9, p. 15. John xx 6, 7. — It seems probable that the circumstances thus noted by the Evangelist are designed to do more than to give "proof of a thoroughly tranquil occurrence in contrast to a tumultuous ravishment " (Lange in loc.) They indicate 244 NOTES. also that the Risen Lord had left behind Him, when He rose, the last traces of His connexion with this mortal scene. Note 10, p. 16. Among the number of eminent theologians who have held this view the following may be mentioned : — Julius Muller, "Die Lehre von der Siinde," ii. p. 396; Schmid, "Die BibL Theol," i. p. 118; Martensen, " Dogmatik," p. 364; Beyschlag, "Die Auferstehung Christi," p. 26; Pressens^, " Jesus Christ," p. 545 ; Godet on Luke xxiv. 28 and elsewhere. Meyer, on Luke xxiv. 51, holds that the body of our Lord was not yet glorified, but in an intermediate condition between its earthly and its glorified state. On the other hand, Hofmann (" Schriftbeweis," vol. ii. p. 523) denies the gradual transfiguration of Jesus. Compare also Kruger, "Die Auf. d. H.," pp. 22-37; and Weiss' remarks on Luke xxiv. in his edition of Meyer on Mark and Luke. Compare also Weiss' " Leben Jesu," p. 606. Note 11, p. 17. On the force of the word "manifested," in John xxi., compare the Commentary above referred to on the Gospel of St. John, by Milligan and Moulton, and especially the comments on John xxi. 1, 14. It is peculiarly important to observe that the word means much more than that Jesus made Himself known or displayed Himself to His disciples. Nor is it possible to avoid observing that it is the purpose of the Evangelist to draw a marked contrast between the appearance to Mary Magdalene and the three " manifesta tions " following it. The contrast would seem even to justify the conclusion that between the appearance to the Magdalene and the next following manifestation, Jesus had already ascended to His Father, and that out of the glory there surrounding Him He subsequently manifested Himself. If this be the case, we shall also be better able to explain the dva^atvo) of chap. xx. 17, both in itself, and in its contrast with the dva^e^rjKa of the earlier part of the same NOTES. 245 verse. It ought to be hardly necessary to say that the notion of a return of Jesus to His Heavenly Father immedi ately after His Resurrection is by no means inconsistent with the Church doctrine of His Ascension at the end of the forty days. The full meaning of this last great act, the solemn investiture of our Lord with the offices fulfilled by Him in heaven, may still belong to it; but that meaning cannot be discussed here. Note 12, p. 19. 1 Cor. xv. 44. — It will hardly be denied that the trans lation given is the true translation of the text. With the rendering of the English version, whether Authorised or Revised, there is nothing for the "it" to refer to. The only subject capable of supplying a nominative to the verb is the rj av&o-rao-is rwv veKpoiv of ver. 42, which cannot be said to be sown in " corruption " or " weakness." The importance of marking the correct translation may be seen in the argument drawn from the passage, among others, by Hodge ("Systematic Theology," iii. p. 775), that "it is the same body that rises." The real argument of the Apostle is that, at the Resurrection, the body which rises, if in one sense, because our body, the same, is, in another and most important sense, a different body. Were it not different, we should have to suppose that the same change will take place on it after its resurrection, as that described by the Apostle in 1 Cor. xv. 52, and there confined by him to those who have not "fallen asleep." A double change would await believers who have died, — a resurrection to their old con dition, and then a change to a new condition. Scripture knows nothing of this double change. Note 13, p. 21. Compare Carpenter's "Mental Physiology," especially chap. xix. Dr. Carpenter finds nothing improbable in the remarkable, and at first sight almost incredible, case of Louise Lateau. For an interesting account of this case see "Macmillan's Magazine" for April 1871. 246 NOTES. Note 14, p. 23. It is not denied in the remarks made in the text, that there is a vast difference between the glory of Sonship as it belongs to Jesus before His death and after His Resurrection. In both cases, indeed, the Sonship is itself the same, and its glory is essentially the same ; but in the one state it is hidden from the eye. None but the few who are one with their Lord can see it. The world scorns it. In the other case the world, even though not submissive, is compelled to own it. The bringing out of this glory of Sonship is the point of the word " glorify," and we cannot too completely dismiss from our minds the impression that outward light or brightness is necessarily implied. Even Keim can think only of a " dazzling disclosure " of the Lord (" Jes. von Naz.," Translation, vi. p. 290). Note 15, p. 24. In connexion with the important subject thus alluded to, it is the aim of this Note to submit to students of the New Testament a brief examination of several difficult texts, which seem to show that the condition of our Lord after His Resurrection was viewed by the sacred writers as essentially a state of Trvev/xa. Not indeed that our Lord had then no body, for it is the constant lesson of Scripture that a body was possessed by Him ; but that the deepest, the funda mental characteristic of His state, interpenetrating even the body, and moulding it into a complete adaptation to and harmony with His spurt, was Trvevfm. In other words, it is proposed to inquire whether the word wvevfta in the New Testament is not used as a short description of what our Lord was after His Resurrection, in contrast with what He was during the days of His humiliation upon earth. Such a supposition, it appears to us, will be found to afford a satisfactory explanation of statements to which it is other wise difficult to attach a clear meaning. One caution only it may be well to interpose at the very outset. We do not for a moment mean to deny that in our Lord, even during His sojourn upon earth, there was the very same condition NOTES. 247 and state of highest life, of spirit, which there was after He rose from the dead. Nay, further, we should even be disposed to urge that this state of spirit-existence, of spirit- life in Himself, continued even in the very article of death, rendering it impossible that His body should see corruption. But previous to His resurrection-state this spirit-existence was so fettered by the limitations of the o-ap£, that it could not be spoken of as the absolutely ruling element in His being, as the one and complete master of the field. At His Resurrection these limitations were broken through ; and hence, in a sense peculiar to itself, our Lord's state after that event may be described as irvevfjux. The question is, Is this description of it actually given in the New Testament 1 Or are there passages in which, by so understanding the word Trvevfia when applied to our Lord, we are able to- throw light on what is otherwise dark 1 We must indicate what we mean by brief hints, having no space to attempt afull discussion. 1 Cor. vi. 17. — "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." There can be no doubt that by " the Lord " in this text we are to understand the Risen Lord, for the Apostle himself distinctly tells us that it is of the Risen Lord that he speaks, " And God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through His power," (ver. 14). The argument is, he that is joined to a harlot is one flesh with her, — is lowering the members of his body to union with a person acknowledged even in Corinth to be sinful and degraded ; but he that is joined to the Risen Lord is one spirit, i.e. is one spirit with Him. The argument, therefore, proceeds on the supposition that the Risen Lord is essentially and characteristically spirit — that " spirit " is a correct description of His present con dition or state. It is the ruling element in His heavenly existence : His resurrection-state is irvevfta. 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18. — "Now the Lord is the Spirit : and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." There is, however, no article before the last mentioned, although there is before the first mentioned, " Spirit ; " and it may be questioned, therefore, whether the closing words of ver. 18 ought not 248 NOTES. to be translated "from the Lord, who is spirit." Apart from the general usage of the Apostle, it will hardly be denied that the whole context and argument of the chapter compel us to understand by the words "the Lord" the Risen Lord. It is " the glory of the Lord " in His heavenly condition that we behold, as Moses beheld the glory of God upon the mount ; and, as we behold it, gazing upon it with ever increasing love and fervour, we are enabled to reflect it better, until we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Here then the Risen Lord is expressly described as irvevpa, not as the personal Holy Spirit, but as Himself in that condition of spirit by which he is enabled to shine upon us " all " with His glory, and to transform us into a likeness with Himself. 1 Tim. iii. 16. — "And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : He who was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit." We forbear from any attempt to discuss the different modes in which commentators have proposed to arrange the six clauses of this verse expressive of the "mystery of godliness." It is enough to say that it seems best to take them in three groups of two each, the two members of each group being successive to each other both in time and thought ; and each of the two last groups being equally successive both in time and thought to the statement or statements by which it is preceded. In the first group we shall thus find Christ, as He is in Himself, described in two particulars ; in the second, Christ now considered as being what He has been shown to be, proclaimed to angels and men ; in the third, Christ, now thought of as thus proclaimed, acknowledged and owned by the earthly and the heavenly worlds. The contrast between the two particulars of the first group will not then lie, as is often supposed, between the lowliness of our Lord's human life and that power of spirit ual life which He exhibited in the midst of it, but between His state of humiliation here when He was manifested in flesh, and His state of exaltation now when He has been "justified in spirit," when he has been gloriously vindicated before the universe by His Father in heaven through His Resurrection from the grave (comp. John xvi. 10). The word 7rvev/j.a, therefore, here again expresses the uncontrolled NOTES. 249 dominion of that spirit which our Lord indeed possessed even on earth, though then in a manner limited by other conditions of His earthly existence, but which, after His Resurrection, was wholly free. In other words, Trvevfm is a short expression for our Lord's resurrection-state. This view is confirmed by one or two considerations which it may be well to notice. 1. The use of the word &cf>0T] in the first particular of the second group. That word cannot refer to those occasions on which angels ministered to our Lord during His earthly life. It cannot be said that He then " appeared " to them : they came to Him. On the other hand, the word is continually used in the New Testament of our Lord's appearances after His Resurrection. 2. The connexion between our Lord's resurrection -state and the universality of His mission. This universality is the point of the second member of the second group, "preached among Gentiles" (for, if among them, then among all);- and it is important to remember, what we shall have further occasion to dwell upon in these Lectures, that, according to the teaching of the sacred writers, it was the Resurrection of our Lord which opened up to Him this new and unbounded field of labour. 3. Who, we may ask, was thus preached to Gentiles ? Surely Christ as risen, and not simply as He lived on earth. We expect, therefore, in a short summary oi doctrine such as this, some allusion to the Resurrection, and we have it in the mention of ¦n-vevp.a. It may be objected that the last clause of the third group is opposed to the principle of interpretation upon which we have proceeded. Did that clause simply refer to the fact of the Ascension, the objection might have force. But to give the words such a reference alone is incompatible with any interpretation whatever that can be applied to the verse as a whole. In no way can the five points mentioned before the last be made to precede the instant of time at which the Ascension took place. We must regard the words as a kind of constructio pregnans. Christ " believed on in the world " evidently implies continued faith in Him, the world's being brought to rest on Him in faith. So Christ " received up in glory " implies the continued glory of His resurrection-state. He was "in glory" when He ascended; He ascended "in 250 NOTES. glory;" in the same "glory" He continues for ever. The words are an abbreviated form of Ephesians i. 20-23 ; and thus they constitute most appropriately the culminating point of that " mystery of godliness " of which Christ is both the beginning and the end. Looked at in] this light, the last clause of the verse leaves ample scope for that succession both in time and thought of which we have spoken. Rom. i. 3, 4. — " Concerning His Son, who was born oi (out of) the seed of David, according to the flesh ; who was established as the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, out of the resurrection of the dead, — even Jesus Christ our Lord." It will be at once admitted by every one that the Apostle deals here with the Risen Lord. His allusion to the " resurrection of the dead " proves it, to say nothing of the fact that the connexion between verses 4 and 5 renders such a view absolutely necessary. It is through the Risen Lord that the limitation of the Messianic kingdom to the Jewish people is brought to a close, and that the Mission of Christ, and of His Apostles in Him, assumes its universality. Of the numerous attempts to discover the relation in which the different clauses of this passage stand to one another, or of the interpretations of these clauses which have been given by others, we say nothing. It seems clear that we have before us two contrasted aspects of One Person, God's Son ; the first point of the first side of the contrast being His birth into this world ; the last point of the second side of the contrast being that state of resurrection-glory from which (ver. 5) He commissions St. Paul to be the Apostle of the Gentiles. Between these two points the con trasts lie, and the particulars of them are so many as to make it reasonable to think that each will be carefully set over against another corresponding to it. These particulars are — " His Son " "Born, "Established,1 Son of God in weakness (im- Son of God in Power, plied in yevo/ih>ov), Out of the resurrection of the Out of the seed of David, dead, According to the flesh." According to the spirit of holi ness. " 1 The rendering of the original word here used by "declared" is NOTES. 251 The fact that the " resurrection of the dead " holds the last place in St. Paul's enumeration of the terms of his second series, while, strictly speaking, it corresponds to the third term of the first series, is easily explained. It was of importance to bring the Resurrection of Jesus into the closest possible connection with the Gentile mission. If, as will not be denied, "born" is in contrast with "established;' " according to the flesh " in contrast with " according to the spirit of holiness " (as shown by the double Kara) ; and the thought of " the Son of God in weakness "1 in contrast with that of " the Son of God in power," there remains nothing for " out of the seed of David " to be in contrast with, except "out of the resurrection of the dead." The use of the same preposition in the two last-quoted clauses confirms this view. The one clause marks the source, earthly and limited, out of which the Son of God sprang when He assumed humanity ; the other the source, heavenly and un limited, out of which He sprang when He entered on the glorious condition in which He is " the Son of God in power." These things being so, it will follow that the words " accord ing to the flesh " describe our Lord's earthly state, that the words " according to the spirit of holiness " describe His state after He rose from the grave. All through His earthly life Jesus was Son of God, but not " Son of God in power," extremely insufficient. In addition to the fact that the proper mean ing of opifw is to constitute, to fix by decree (which is something very different from declaring), we urge only that ' ' declared " supplies no proper contrast to " born. " An act is referred to in the one case ; we look for an act in the other. 1 The danger of misinterpreting the passage before us, if we do not supply the whole clause now spoken of, is illustrated in the case of Godet, who (Comm. in loc. ) maintains that Jesus at His Incarnation renounced the position of Son of God, recovering it only at His Resur rection. " Jesus was restored," he says, " and restored wholly, — that is to say, with His human nature, — to the position of Son of God, which He had renounced on becoming incarnate. " Godet has failed to observe that the words " His Son " belong to all the terms of both series of contrasts. The difference, as regarded Sonship, between the two states of Jesus was, that in the first, though still Son of God, He was so in weakness, that in the second He was so "in power." It ought not to'be necessary to prove that the word yevofie'vov, the same as that used in John i. 14, in implying transition, change, implies change to weakness. 252 NOTES. — His. power being checked by the restraints to which He had voluntarily submitted ; only after His Resurrection did He resume the fulness of that power of which He had once "emptied" Himself. All through His earthly life His spirit was limited because His state was one " according to the flesh;" only after His Resurrection was His spirit un fettered, because His state was one " according to the spirit." The apprehension of what has been said will be rendered easier if we observe that no article is used with either "flesh" or " spirit," and if, therefore, for the moment we translate, in unidiomatic English, "according to flesh" "according to spirit." The latter expression thus denotes neither the per sonal Holy Spirit, nor the sacred human spirit of Christ, nor His Deity regarded as spirit. It denotes His resurrection- state as contrasted with His state of humiliation upon earth. Let us look at the passage in this light, and it assumes in its well-balanced clauses a meaning that is both clear and in harmony with the whole range of New Testament teach ing upon the truths expressed in it. There is a difficulty, no doubt, connected with the use of the word dyiwo-iJVTjs. Why is it added 1 and why does not the Apostle content himself with simply saying "according to spirit"? The answer may depend upon the real, meaning of ayiwo-ivq. That word occurs three times in the LXX., in two of which (Ps. cxlv. 5, and xcvii. 12, A. V.) it is applied to the glorious holiness of God, in the third (Ps. xcvi. 6), to the holiness of His Sanctuary. In the New Testament it is found only twice in addition to the passage before us. In one of these (1 Thess. iii. 13) it is to be connected closely with "at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints," and it points therefore to the holiness of the perfected kingdom of God. In the other (2 Cor. vii. 1) it is connected with a verb (" perfecting ") which in the original («rn-eA.eiv) does not so much describe the process of improvement as the bringing improvement to its perfect end, — adfinem perduco (Grimm). The word aymo-dvrj thus expresses not the progressive sanctification of earth, but the fully and gloriously accom plished holiness of heaven, the holiness of God and of His heavenly abode. It is, accordingly, quite in place here. The idea of the post-resurrection glory of Jesus might have NOTES. 253 been expressed without it by the simple phrase " according to spirit;" but the addition of the words "of holiness" magnifies the thought, and brings out more fully the Divine and glorious elements which characterised the condition of the Risen Lord. 1 Peter iii. 18. — " Being put to death in flesh, but quickened in spirit." These words appear to confirm what has been said. How much of the doctrine of the Descensus ad inferos they include in them we shall not enquire. A discussion upon that point would be attended with great difficulties and, as unnecessary, would be here out of place. We urge only that " flesh " and " spirit " in the verse before us cannot mean "body" and "soul," as if the Apostle's object were to tell us in the first clause that Christ was put to death in the body, in the second that, notwithstanding this, He lived on in the soul. It is our Lord's mortal life as a whole that is thought of under " flesh," the life in which He endured those sufferings on our behalf which at length culminated on the cross of Calvary. The proper contrast to this is not any disembodied life between His death and His Resurrection, but is that quickened life upon which He entered in all probability at the moment when His mortal life ended, and which was manifested to believers at His Resurrection. The mere surviving of our Lord's soul in death was not the reward bestowed upon Him by the Father, but the glory of a new state which then began, and which was afterwards exhibited, first in the Resurrection and then in the Ascension. The only true contrast to our Lord's life in " flesh " is the life which followed it, which He leads now, and which He shall lead throughout eternity. Whether, therefore, we think of a Descensus ad inferos, and of a work of preaching connected with it, or of some other way in which the interval between death and the Resurrection was employed (comp. Note 11), or of both, it seems clear that by the words faoTroirjdeh 8e irvevp-art we must understand a new stage of life and glory, which, in the case of Jesus, followed the close of His Passion. What has been said will be made still clearer if we observe that the word "quickened" in ver. 18 must express more than mere sur vival, and must point to the beginning of a new life; so 254 NOTES. that, as "flesh" denotes the earthly state, the humiliation, the weakness of Jesus, so in the same verse " spirit " denotes His exalted state, the main element of that strength and glory which He "had with the Father before the world was," and which is again His at the Father's right hand in heaven. Heb. ix. 14. — " How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through eternal spirit, offered Himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God V This verse must be taken in. connexion with verse 12, of which, as appears by the "for" of verse 13, it is explicative, "nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, Christ (verse 11) entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." The words are not so directly to our purpose as those of the texts already considered, but [they have a certain bearing on it. In the first place, it is neces sary to observe that the aorist participle of verse 12 " having obtained" is contemporaneous with, not precedent in time to, " entered " of the same verse (see Delitzsch in loc. and on Heb. ii. 10), so that the "offered" of verse 14 must be referred to the same period of Christ's work. If so, it will follow, in the second place, that the offering thus spoken of is not so much Christ's oblation of Himself upon the cross, as His offering of Himself in heaven. This, though denied by many eminent commentators, is allowed by Bleek (in loc), and seems to be admitted, at least in part, by Dr. Moulton, who says, "He who was typified in every high priest and in every victim, ' through an eternal spirit,' of Himself laid down His life (John x. 18), offering Himself to God in the moment and article of death, — offered Himself in His constant presence in the holiest place" (verse 24). (See Moulton in loc. in the "Commentary on the New Testament," edited by Bishop Ellicott). If then it be so, we can now mark the course of thought in the writer's mind. It appears to be as follows :— Christ has obtained eternal redemption, so that, purged from dead works, we can serve the living God. But He can obtain nothing for us which He has not Himself, for all our blessings are summed up in Him. He, therefore, must not only be in that state of NOTES. 255 " spirit," in which alone it is possible to serve God fully, but in that state of spirit which is " eternal," at once without limitation and without end. It is through His being so that He is able to complete our redemption. Therefore may it be said that, " through eternal spirit," He offered Himself to God when he entered into the holiest place. " Eternal spirit " is not therefore the Divine inward being of Christ, so called here because "absolute, Divine, and purely self- determined " (Delitzsch), and in which Christ offered Him self to death ; it is rather the state of unlimited, absolute, Divine spirit in which He presented Himself to His Father when He entered within the veil.1 Even Delitzsch, who contends strongly for the view commonly received, is com pelled, apparently without noticing the effect upon his general argument, to interpose a clause in his explanation of the words, " eternal spirit," which coincides with all that we need contend for. " By Sta ttv. alinv." he says, " I understand the whole Divine human, but more particularly the Divine inward being of Christ, that Divine personality which, at the Resurrection, interpenetrated, and, as it were, absorbed, the o-ap£, so that He is now altogether irvev/m." The passages now considered appear thus to find their best explanation if we understand the Trvevfm spoken of in them to be a short description of that mode of existence upon which our Lord entered after His Resurrection. On earth His state could not be so described — "The word became flesh " (John i. 14). He was then subject to all the limita tions and weaknesses of the flesh. The TrveiJ/m was, no doubt, the foundation of His Being even then, but in His great act of self-denial and self-sacrifice, He had taken into union with it our "flesh." That flesh He had to inter penetrate and to transfigure by its power, completing the work of doing so at His Resurrection. He then entered on the full condition of irvevpa in which He had existed before all time, but with this change, that transfigured human nature was now a part of His Being or mode of existence. 1 It seems not improbable that the preposition 5id in Heb. ix. 14 is employed in the sense explained and illustrated by Winer when he says, " More loosely used, this preposition donotes that with which some one is furnished, the circumstances and relations amid which he does something " (Moulton 's Winer, p. 474). 256 NOTES. And thus it is that He effects our redemption from the power of the crdpg. By that faith which is^ communion with Him we are made partakers of His Trvevfm, and are thus gradually raised more and more above the limitations and sufferings of our natural condition. The work in us, however, is not completed here. The "Spirit" of Christ has first to take full possession of our spirits, and then, at the resurrection, to effect that work upon our bodies which was effected on Christ's body at His Resurrection. " But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. viii. 11). An element of confusion is introduced into all our thoughts upon this subject by the ambiguity of such words as "spirit" and "spiritual." We are apt to think of them as anti thetical to "body" and "bodily." How far this is from the view of the New Testament the single passage, 1 Cor. xv. 44, is sufficient to prove. The antithesis of Scripture is not that of the spiritual and the bodily, but that of the spiritual and the carnal. Note 16, p. 26. May the suggestion be offered, that the Evangelist John seems to have looked at what we would call miraculous acts on the part of our Lord in the light in which they are presented in the text? Students of his Gospel must be struck with the fact that the miracle of the walking on the sea, in chap. vi. 15-21, appears to occupy a position wholly peculiar to itself among the miracles of the fourth Gospel. It is not called a " sign ; " it has no discourse connected with it ; there is nothing in the narrative to suggest that it was intended symbolically to teach some deeper truth. Besides which, it gives us one more miracle than the sacred number seven, which the peculiar structure of that Gospel would lead us to expect. How is all this to be explained? The answer seems to be that St. John would not have spoken of it as a miracle. In his eyes it was only a part of the natural working of Him who was quite as much above NOTES. 257 as within those laws which regulate the lives and acts of ordinary men. Note 17, p. 28. The use of the word "man" in John xvi. 21, possesses in this point of . view a peculiar interest. Our Lord is alluding to the joy which His disciples should experience when they should " see Him again." It would be like the joy of a mother when she is told that she is safely delivered of a son. But our Lord does not use either the word son or child. He uses the word " man," — " for joy that a man is born into the world." It can hardly be doubted that the reference is to the Resurrection of Jesus, when, not after a slow growth, but instantaneously, in the full glory of that Resurrection in which He lives His new life and upon which His Church for ever rests, He should be born into the world. Note 18, p. 29. Two small books in the "Nature Series," entitled "Trans formation of Insects," and "What is a Frog?" may be re ferred to for highly interesting illustrations of what has been said. They are easily accessible to all. Note 19, p. 31. " The Roman world might live in the fear that the terrible Nero was yet to return to vex and disturb it. Mediaeval Germany might believe that Barbarossa was asleep in his mountain cave, and would yet awake and come forth to restore the glories of the Empire, and the House of Hohenstaufen. Our own legends might tell how Arthur had sailed away to his island home of Avilion, whence, when happier days dawned, he would come to erect his table round, and open his chaste and chivalrous court. But all these rest on similar ideas, speak of the mythical imagination, as they speak to it. Death is in each case denied ; the men can return because they have escaped death, and are only absent or asleep." — Principal Fairbairn's "Studies in the Life of Christ," p. 345. S 258 NOTES. Note 20, p. 40. Such is without doubt the true order of these clauses in the original. The clause "Am I not free?" then stands first, and the two here quoted are' brought into immediate contiguity and forcible connexion with each other. Note 21, p. 43. Principal Barry (General Introd. to the Epistles of St. Paul's First Captivity, in the Commentary on the New Testa ment, edited by Bishop EHicott) has some interesting remarks on the order of St. Paul's preaching, which may be quoted to illustrate what has been said. Among other things he says, " It may be noted that as, when we dig through the strata of the earth, we uncover first what is latest, and come only at last to what is earliest in deposition, so in the realisation of Gospel truth the order of preaching is the reverse of the order of actual occurrence of the great facts of the Divine manifestation." Principal, now Bishop, Barry has since brought out this point more fully in his " Manifold Witness to Christ," Part i. chap. 79. Note 22, p. 43. Not that the term Kvpws may not be applied to our Lord in circumstances where the thought of His life on earth may seem to be prominent, as at John iv. 1, 1 Cor. ix. 5, etc., yet even then His higher, His Divine nature is in the writer's mind. While He tabernacled here Jesus was Divine as well as human, and a term expressive of this is therefore with all propriety applied to Him during the time of His humiliation, But a careful consideration of the very numerous passages in which our Lord is spoken of as Kvpios, will show that in the minds of the sacred writers it is especially as the Risen Lord, returned to the presence of His Father, and clothed with all authority and power, that He is so thought of. Comp. among many others that might be mentioned, Acts iv. 33 ; Rom. i. 4 ; iv. 24 ; viii. 34-39 ; NOTES. 259 1 Cor. iv. 5; vi. 14, 17; ix. 1; xi. 23; xv. 47. By keeping this constantly in mind, instead of thinking of " the Lord" as applying mainly to what Jesus was on earth, it. will be found that the spirituality and heavenliness of view which mark the New Testament are immeasurably heightened. Note 23, p. 44. It is painful to find Keim, after saying on one page of his treatment of this question, " Paul wishes in pious earnestness to give the truth," afterwards adding, in his anxiety to show that the appearance of the Risen Lord could only have been visionary and unaccompanied by any words, "But no one will fail to see that Paul would necessarily have made use of such words, when the Jewish Christians made it a special charge against him, that the Lord had not spoken with him, had held no intercourse with him (comp. 2 Cor. v. 13 ; xiii. 3; Clem. Horn. 17, 19)." In other words, this man, so piously earnest to state truth alone, deliberately fabricates a falsehood in order to establish his Divine commission. It is just possible that Keim means to ascribe the words used in the Acts of the Apostles, not to St. Paul himself, but to the Editor of that book. His words in the original are, "Man wird am wenigsten unterschatzen, wie nothwendig Paulus von solchen Reden hatte Gebrauch machen miissen, wenn doch das Judenchristenthum ihm vorzugsweise vorwarf: der Herr hat nicht ¦ mit ihm geredet, hat nicht mit ihm Umgang gepflogen. — "Jes. von Naz.," iii. 542, note 1. I have adopted Ransom's translation. Note 24, p. 48. The most probable enumeration of the different ap pearances of Christ, after His Resurrection, seems to be as follows : — (1.) To certain women, "the other Mary," Salome, Joanna, and others, as they returned from the sepulchre, after having seen the angel who told them that the crucified Saviour was risen. Of this appearance St. Matthew alone 260 NOTES. gives us the account, chapter xxviii. 1-10 ; but some details of the company and of the visit, not given by St. Matthew, are to be found in St. Mark xvi. 1-8, and St. Luke xxiv. 1-11. (2.) To Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre, in all prob ability upon her second visit to it that morning, and after she had run to tell Peter and John, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him." This appearance is recorded at length by St. John alone, chapter xx. 11-18, although it is also alluded to in St. Mark xvi. 9-11. (3.) To the Apostle Peter, under circumstances of which we have no particular account. It must, however, have taken place on the day of the Resurrection, and before evening. It is alluded to by St. Luke, xxiv. 34, and by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 5. (4.) To the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. This appearance is spoken of in St. Mark, chapter xvi. 12-13; but a full account of it is given by St. Luke alone, chapter xxiv. 13-35. It took place, like the preceding, on the day of the Resurrection, but later in the day. (5.) To the ten Apostles (Thomas being absent) and others " with them " (Luke xxiv. 33), whose names are not given, when they were assembled together on the evening of the day of the Resurrection, and at their evening meal. Of this appearance we have an account in each of the Evan gelists, except St. Matthew, whose place, however, is here taken by St. Paul (Mark xvi. 14-18; Luke xxiv. 36-40; John xx. 19-23 ; 1 Cor. xv. 5). (6.) To the eleven Apostles, Thomas being now one of the company, when Jesus permits the latter to put his hand into the prints of the nails and of the spear, and draws from him the confession " My Lord and my God." Of this appearance St. John alone gives us the account, chapter xx. 26-28. It took place also at Jerusalem, and most probably in the same apartment as the last. (7.) To several of the disciples, of whom four at least were certainly, the rest probably, Apostles, at the Sea of Galilee when they were fishing. Again St. John is the sole recorder of this appearance, chap. xxi. 1-23. (8.) To the Apostles and about five hundred brethren at NOTES. 261 once, upon an appointed mountain in Galilee. Of this appearance we seem to have an account by St. Matthew, xxviii. 16-20. It is mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 6. (9.) To James, under circumstances of which we have no information. The fact is mentioned by St. Paul alone, 1 Cor. xv. 7. (10.) To the Apostles at Jerusalem, immediately before the Ascension, when they accompanied their Lord from the city to Mount Olivet, and there beheld Him ascend to heaven, till a cloud received Him out of their sight. Of this appearance several particulars are furnished us by St. Mark, xvi. 19 ; and others by St. Luke, xxiv. 50-52 ; Acts i. 3-8. (11.) To the Apostle Paul on his way to Damascus. St. Paul claims this as a special manifestation to him of the Risen Saviour, Acts ix. 3-9, 17 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8, ix. 1. Note 25, p. 54. Comp. Acts iv. 2, where the Authorised Version unfor tunately conveys an entirely false idea of the situation. They " came upon them," we are told, " being sore troubled because they taught the people, and proclaimed " (not "through Jesus," but) "in Jesus" (that is, in the person of Jesus) "the resurrection from the dead." Note 26, p. 55. I should certainly hesitate to refer seriously to such an objection, were it not that so much has been and is still made of it by the opponents of the Resurrection of our Lord. Comp. Strauss, "Das Leben Jesu, f. d. D. Volk," p. 287; "Supernatural Religion," iii. 449, 524. Weiss, in his "Leben Jesu," p. 611, finds a remarkable confirmation of the gospel history in the fact that the tradition of the Church abstained from doing what, had it been false, lay so ready to its hand, depicting the Resurrection, and the victorious issuing of Jesus from the grave. Note 27, p. 56. " I know not a more rash or unphilosophical conduct of 262 NOTES. the understanding than to reject the substance of a story, by reason of some diversity in the circumstances with which it is related. The usual character of human testimony is substantial truth under circumstantial variety. This is what the daily experience of courts of justice teaches. When accounts of a transaction come from the mouths of different witnesses, it is seldom that it is not possible to pick out apparent or real inconsistencies between them. These inconsistencies are studiously displayed by an adverse pleader, but oftentimes with little impression upon the minds of the judges. On the contrary, a close and minute agreement induces the suspicion of confederacy and fraud." — Paley, "Evidences of Christianity," Part iii. chap. 1. Note 28, p. 59. " The men who were enabled to penetrate most deeply into the mysteries of the new revelation, and to apprehend with the most vigorous energy the change which it was destined to make in the world, seem to have placed little value upon the written witness to words and acts, which still, as it were, lived among them. . . . But while every thing shows that the Apostles made no conscious provision for the requirements of after times, in which the life of the Lord would be the subject of remote tradition, they were enabled to satisfy a want which they did not anticipate. . . . That which was in origin most casual became in effect most permanent by the presence of a Divine energy; and the most striking marvel in the scattered writings of the New Testament is the perfect fitness which they exhibit for ful filling an office of which their authors appear themselves to have had no conception." — Westcott, "Introd. to the Gospels," First Edit., p. 150. Note 29, p. 61. The precise object which our Lord had in view in thus asking for something to eat has been mistaken by the com mentators. It was not to give proof of the reality of His human body. This proof had been already given at verses NOTES. 263 39, 40. A second demonstration upon the same point was unnecessary. The unbelief still resting in the minds of the disciples (verse 41), was not unbehef in the strict sense of the word ; it was the unbehef of Mark ix. 24, which Jesus recognised as faith. The object of our Lord's eating was to illustrate His fellowship and sympathy with His disciples. The expression used in the original seems to indicate this, — not "food" or "meat," but anything "that may be eaten," the emphasis lying not on the idea of nourishment, but on the act of eating. Note 30, p. 61. A comparison of the accounts of the Ascension in Luke xxiv. and Acts i. will confirm what has been said in the above note on the object of the third Evangelist in this part of his narrative. It is in the Gospel account only that he mentions that Jesus lifted up His hands and blessed the disciples, and that he parted from them while engaged in doing so. Note 31, p. 62. The following are the words of Baur, "The Church History of the First Three Centuries," i. p. 42 :— "The question as to the nature- and the reality of the Resurrection lies outside the sphere of historical inquiry. History must be content with the simple fact that, in the faith of the disciples, the Resurrection of Jesus came to be regarded as a sohd and unquestionable fact. It was in this faith that Christianity acquired a firm basis for its historical develop ment. What history requires as the necessary antecedent of all that is to follow, is not so much the fact of the Resur rection of Jesus as the belief that it was a fact." The view of Baur is fully adopted by Strauss (" Das Leben Jesu, f. d. D. Volk," pp. 2.88, 289), although he feels that he cannot dispense with inquiry into the origin of the belief. Note 32, p. 65. See Strauss, " Leben Jesu, f. d. D. V." p. 288. 264 NOTES. Note 33, p. 66. An interesting example of this will be found in Acts xx. 7, where the sense is obscured by the translation of the A. V., "Paul preached unto them." The true rendering is rather " discoursed with them," and the compound verb in the original implies distinctly that the discoursing or* the conversation was not all on one side. Comp. Grimm in his " Clavis N. T." under the words SiaAaAico and Sia. He explains the preposition as denoting in compound words id quod alternalim vel utrinque fit. Note 34, p. 75. In connexion with this part of the subject of these Lectures, the writer may be allowed to commend to students a book which has been perhaps less read than the work of its able and conscientious author deserves, "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ," by the late Robert Macpherson, D.D., Professor of Theology, Aberdeen. Note 35, p. 76. The theory was adopted by Paulus, and became the favourite explanation of all the Continental writers belonging to the school known as that of the Rationalismus Vulgaris. It is more remarkable that it should have been countenanced iu later times by Hase ("Geschichte Jesu," § 112). The latter writer is disposed to ascribe the Resurrection to the wonderfully healing or restorative powers which resided in Jesus, and which, as they had often been exerted on others, so now were exerted on Himself. Note 36, p. 77. No more is necessary upon this point than to quote the word of Strauss ("Leben Jesu," u.s., p. 298), — "It is im possible that one who had just come forth from the grave half dead, who crept about weak and ill, who stood in need of medical treatment, of bandaging, strengthening, and tender NOTES. 265 care, and who at last succumbed to suffering, could ever have given to the disciples that impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave, — that he was the Prince of life, — which lay at the bottom of their future ministry. Such a resuscitation could only have weakened the impression which he had made upon them in life and in death, — or at the most could have given it an elegiac voice, — but could, by no possibility, have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm, or elevated their reverence into worship." Note 37, p. 85. Attention does not seem to have been sufficiently drawn to the fact that the words of Gal. i. 16, "that I might preach Him among the Gentiles," really express the contents of the inner revelation to which St. Paul had just referred. The statement, too, that the giving of this inner revelation was subsequent to the outward manifestation of the Risen Lord, is in strict accordance with the narratives of St. Paul's con version in the Acts of the Apostles (chaps, ix. 15; xxii. 15; in this last mark the " all men "). We shall also afterwards see how close is the connexion between the truth that the gospel is designed for " all men," and the fact that Christ is the Risen Lord. This is precisely the order of ' thought in the passage before us, and it shows clearly that the inner revelation is not the manifestation itself, but something that followed it. Note 38, p. 88. It is at once to be admitted that the verb, &9t), in 1 Cor. xv. 6-8, is to be understood always in the same sense. What the manifestation spoken of in verse 8 was to St. Paul, it was to all the others mentioned in the 6 th and 7th verses, and vice versa. It can hardly admit of dispute, however, that in their case a personal manifestation of the Risen Lord Himself, and not a mere appearance in a vision, is expressed. The constant use of the verb in the New Testament connects it with persons or things either seen or supposed to be seen in their reality, and not thought of as visionary appearances. In Acts xvi. 9, indeed, it is employed with reference to a 266 NOTES. vision, but there the word "vision" is introduced by the writer along with it, so as to prevent what would have other wise been the conclusion of the reader. The use of the word in 1 Tim. iii. 16 is peculiarly instructive, — "appeared to angels." Have angels visions ? How Keim, in these cir cumstances, can say "It is the same expression which Paul and the New Testament generally use for visions that have nothing else in common with the resurrection appearances of Jesus " (" Jes. von Naz.," Translation, vi. p. 289), I am simply unable to conceive. It may be well to notice that the appearance to St. Paul, mentioned in 1 Cor. xv. 8, cannot be assigned to any period after his call to the apostleship. The article before kurptofxan forbids any such supposition ; compare Hofmann in loc. in his work "Die Heilige Schrift Neuen Testaments." The present may be a fitting oppor tunity for observing that the value of the evidence contained in 1 Cor. xv. 6-8 is not in the least degree affected, although we may not be able to discover the principle upon which St. Paul makes his selection of witnesses there mentioned. We know that a Jew did not write history upon exactly the same principles as a modern historian, and that he was often guided in his selection of particulars by some idea dominating his mind at the moment. The genealogy of our Lord, as given in Matt, i., affords a striking example of this. Thus, in the present instance, it is perfectly evident that the list of witnesses is given neither upon chronological grounds, nor because of any superior importance due to these appearances, as appearances, above those with which others were favoured. The mention of "all the apostles " in verse 7, after that of "the twelve" in verse 5, is conclusive upon this point. Perhaps, following out a hint of Luthardt, in his note on John xxi. 14, we may suggest that the whole number is divided into two groups of three each. If it be so, the first group will then have special relation to Christ's disciples in their own home life, and that in three rising gradations — Peter, the twelve, the five hundred, all of these being viewed in their personal relation to Jesus ; the second, to Christ's disciples looked at in their action on the world, again in three rising gradations — James, the head of the Church in Jerusalem, all the Apostles (viewed as sent out with their NOTES. 267 commission), the Apostle of the Gentiles. It may only further be noted that should the correctness of the hint thrown out in Note 11 be admitted, the similarity of the successive manifestations here recorded will be still more marked. All of them will then be manifestations of One who had already ascended to His Father, and who revealed Himself from His beavenly abode. Note 39, p. 90. The unwillingness of St. Paul to give an account of the vision related by him in 2 Cor. xii. is particularly worthy of notice, as it appears alike in verse 1, and afterwards in his speaking of himself in the third person. How strikingly do his words here contrast in this respect with the manner in which he is wont to refer to the manifestation near Damascus. Note 40, p. 95. The author of "Supernatural Rehgion" (iii. p. 479, etc.) has indeed endeavoured to show that the words of Herod with regard to John the Baptist in Matt. xiv. 2, illustrate the " familiarity of the age with the idea of the resurrection of the dead," and show " how common was the belief in a bodily resurrection." Yet it is obvious that this case is far too isolated, and that the words of Herod were spoken in circumstances far too peculiar, to afford a good foundation for so wide an inference. It is much more probable, especi ally when we take into account the statement of Luke ix. 7 (Herod was "much perplexed"), that we are to see, with almost all commentators, in the language of the crafty and cruel king, simply the terrors of a guilty conscience. A still more entire failure is the same author's disingenuous attempt to show, from the accounts of the raisings of the widow's son at Nain and of the daughter of Jairus, that " such a miracle as the resurrection was commonplace enough in the view of these (the Gospel) writers" (p. 478). A single glance at the narratives is sufficient to show in what a solemn and imposing light these raisings were regarded by their reporters; while the popular feeling is strikingly expressed in the nar- 268 NOTES. rative of St. Mark, who tells us that when the daughter of Jairus was raised "they were amazed straightway with a great amazement " (Mark v. 42). Note 41, p. 98. Dr. Westcott has justly called attention to the fact, that, instead of there being any popular expectation of the rising of Jesus in the form in which it actually occurred, " as a matter of experience, the popular conceptions of a carnal resurrection very speedily overpowered the teaching of the New Testament in the early Church." — "Gospel of the Resurrection," 4th Edition, Appendix, p. 287. Note 42, p. 99. It is extremely doubtful, indeed, whether there were not many in the early Christian Church who maintained that the day of the Lord was actually come. The verb iveo-rajKev in 2 Thess. ii. 2, can hardly be translated by "is at hand." In the New Testament it is uniformly employed to denote what has already happened, or what is now in existence around us. The Revised Version, accordingly, properly renders the Greek here, " as that the day of the Lord is now present." Yet, even if thought of as present, the day of the Lord was not accompanied with visions of Him who, it was believed, would then take unto Him His great power and reign. Note 43, p. 117. " Les ApStres," Ch. I. Dr. Fairbairn, in the work for merly spoken of, has distinguished between the theory of Renan and the ordinary visional theory, calling the former the Phantasmal, p. 341. That there is such a distinction may be allowed, in so far as the immediate origin of the belief is concerned. But, whatever may have been the state of Mary's own mind, it was still upon supposed visions, seen by themselves, that the belief of the other disciples rested. It is not necessary, therefore, for my purpose to draw the NOTES. 269 above distinction, and to treat the phantasmal and visional theories as distinct. Note 44, p. 119. The words of Keim ("Jesus von Nazara," iii. p. 600), at the close of his valuable discussion on the Resurrection of Christ, ought to be quoted : — " After all that has been said it must be allowed that the theory (that, viz., of visions) which has of late become so popular, is only a hypothesis ; that, while it explains some things, it fails to explain the main substance of the narrations to be dealt with ; nay, that it leads us to look at facts historically attested from a dis torted and untenable point of view." Note 45, p. 121. Mr. Prudot, in his work " La Resurrection de J^sus Christ," p. 299, gives a Declaration signed at a General Conference of Pastors and Elders of the French Protestant Church held in Paris, a.d. 1865, which contains the follow ing statement : — " The undersigned Pastors and Laymen, considering that the modern rehgious conscience instructed in the school of Jesus Christ Himself, and slowly developed by eighteen centuries of Christian education, has learned, on the one side, not to make the divinity of the Master's teaching depend upon His bodily reappearances ; on the other, to consider as independent of this fact the certainty of eternal life, in such a manner that faith rests henceforth not upon the perilous arguments of critical erudition unapproachable to simple believers, but upon the evidence of truth itself : "Declare that, divided as they are among themselves upon the historical question, they frankly acknowledge the right of distinguishing between this question and Christianity itself, and of founding the simple and living demonstration of. faith upon the agreement of the Holy Word of Jesus Christ with the principles and the needs of the human soul." 270 NOTES. Note 46, p. 122. It is hardly necessary to name particular persons for views expressed by almost all writers on the subject. The follow ing may, however, be mentioned : — Horsley, " Nine Ser mons," p. 124; Dr. A. A. Hodge, "Commentary on the Confession of Faith," p. 147 ; Bishop Ellicott, " Lectures on the Life of Christ," p. 367 ; Hodge, " Syst. Theol," ii. p. 627. Note 47, p. 124. The fact stated in the text, that our Lord's work is not completed in His Resurrection as a single act, but in the whole after life which was only begun in that act, seems to be distinctly implied by the use of the aorists, Xa/3pk ^eoC- But we shall not now attempt to defend a reading so universally rejected. NOTES. 295 (ver. 18); they are thus in commimion and fellowship with God, and all is "in the blood of Christ." They are, in short, "in" the blood as sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat, and not merely as poured out in the Slaughtering, and with their being so are connected all the advanced privileges of their Christian condition. Heb. x. 19-22. — "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place, in the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a great Priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart," etc. Here the " blood " is so obviously and closely connected with more than the forgiveness of sin, viz. with entering into the immediate presence of God in His inmost Sanctuary, and with the positive dedication of our selves to Him, that it is not necessary to dwell upon the words. Again, also, it may be noticed that it is not " by," or "through," but "in" the blood of Jesus that we thus enter. His life is in the place of our life, His blood in that of our blood ; we are surrounded, as it were, with His blood, we are included in it, at the moment when we enter into the Holiest of all. Heb. xiii. II, 12. — " For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the holy place through the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suf fered without the gate." The sanctification, the consecration, not only outwardly but inwardly, of the people is here before the writer's eye, and he associates this great result with the "blood" of Christ as it is presented in the Most Holy Place. Similar teaching to that which we have now met is found in the writings of St. Peter and St. John. Thus, when St. Peter tells his readers that they have been redeemed from their " vain manner of life handed down from their fathers," he declares that this redemption has been effected with " precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. i. 19) ; and when St. John says that we are " cleansed" from all sin, in a sense which certainly includes the bestowal of the new life as well as pardon, he brings distinctly forward the men- 296 NOTES. tion of the "blood," — "and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i. 7). Upon this last passage the following words of Haupt deserve quotation : — " It is undoubtedly biblical doctrine that Christ in His death has borne the penalty of our sin, and therefore released us from its punishment. But the power of the blood of Christ is not limited to this. The fundamental passage as to the question is the sixth of St. John. There the drinking of the blood of Christ is presented as the means of procuring eternal life. As the shedding of that blood brought about the death of redemption, so also it rendered it possible that the blood should be an open fountain which might overflow upon others : the death of the corn of wheat illustrates its effect — that of life passing over as a power to others. Blood and life are, in the Scriptures, equivalent terms. Where that is, there is this, for the life is in the blood according to Old Testament language. Thus, then, the Ka0apurp2>ovo-6e. Notwithstanding the opinion of many, commentators to the contrary, the meaning of these two words is by no means the same, and St. Paul, using them here in their strict and proper sense, lends by doing so great force to his exhortation. The former denotes " Be not fashioned according to," " Take not your attitude or model from," a world which has no real and lasting existence. Do not seek what you are to copy in any of its fleeting "fashions." It is a world the "fashion" (o-x^/ia) of which is passing away. The latter denotes " Be transformed." Put yourselves under the influence of a power, an organic principle of hfe, which works not, like the other, from without inwards, but from within outwards, and which will gradually and necessarily transform you by its own inherent working (comp. the use of the words in Phil. ii. 6-8, and Lightfoot's notes on that passage). It is somewhat surpris ing to find Canon Cook correcting the Authorised Version of 1 Peter i. 14, (retained in the Revised Version), "not fashion ing yourselves" (prj o-iJvo-x^aTi^dyaevoi) into "not conforming yourselves," with allusion to Rom. xii. 2 ; that is, changing a correct translation into conformity with a translation which ought to have been corrected, and which is corrected by the author of the notes on the Epistle to the Romans in the same commentary. Note 66, p. 178. The two places referred to are Heb. vii. 28 and x. 20, in the first of which for the word " consecrated" of the A. V. we ought to read "perfected," and in the second "dedicated." On the other hand, there are not a few passages in which the substitution of " consecrate " for " sanctify " would bring out the meaning intended with new clearness and power. Comp. John x. 36; xvii. 17, 19; Heb. ii. 11; ix. 13; x. 10, 14, 29 ; xiii 12. Dr. Moulton, on Heb. ii. 11, remarks most appropriately, " The special meaning of ' sanctify ' in 310 NOTES. this Epistle seems to be bringing into fellowship with God, the Holy One." Note 67, p. 182. An attentive consideration of the texts here referred to will at once bear out what has been said. It is only indeed in the case of John iv. 38, that any doubt upon the point for the sake of which they are quoted can be entertained. Yet the context in that case shows that, throughout the whole passage in which the text occurs, our Lord speaks of Himself (together, perhaps, with those who had gone before Him) as the only sower, and that He regards His disciples, not as men sent out to sow in a cold and ungenial Spring, but as men sent out to reap amidst the fruitfulness and joy of harvest. There can be no doubt as to the self-denial and suffering which are necessary in the Hving of the Christian life ; but the pain of these, as they are rendered necessary by the prevalence of sin both without us and within us, is transformed in the service of Christ into an easy yoke and light burden. It is the world which presents a conflict : what Christ gives is victory ; " This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith " (1 John v. 4). Note 68, p. 187. An expression occurs occasionaUy in the Gospel of St. John to which less attention than it deserves seems to have been paid. It is the expression iv eavrots, in circumstances where we should rather expect to meet iv vp.iv — Chaps, v. 42, vi. 53. Comp. 1 John hi. 15, v. 10, though the reading in these two passages is somewhat doubtful The emphasis belonging to this expression, which is very inadequately rendered " in you," may be best seen by comparing other passages of the same Gospel, where our Lord is spoken of in a precisely similiar way — Chaps, v. 26, vi. 61. The words seem designed to bring out in a forcible manner that lesson of the personal individuality and moral freedom of the believer which is so strikingly characteristic of a Gospel often thought to teach the very contrary. It ought hardly to be necessary to say that "in himself" conveys a very different meaning from " of himself." NOTES. 311 Note 69, p. 194. The rendering of John iv. 23 adopted in this Lecture has not, so far as the writer knows, been before proposed by any commentator. He may, therefore, be aHowed to refer to the Commentary on the Gospel of St. John already spoken of, where it is defended at some length. The defence need not be repeated here. Note 70, p. 199. The relation in which the gift of the Holy Spirit spoken of in John xx. 22 stands to that of Pentecost is not easily determined. In the first place, it may be observed that it is hardly possible to draw any broad line of demarcation between them, as if the latter alone were, strictly speaking, the bestowal of the Spirit, the former that of the breath of our Lord's glorified humanity. It is true that at John xiv. 16 our Lord says, " I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Advocate, that He may abide with you for ever;" that at Chap. xiv. 26 He speaks of "the Advocate, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father wiU send " in His name ; and that at Chap. xv. 26 the Advocate is described as " the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father." These passages may appear to connect the gift of the Spirit with the time when Jesus should have already ascended to " His Father and our Father, to His God and our God." But, on the other hand, we have seen in these Lectures that the Session at the right hand of God is only a part of our Lord's general Glorification, not a new stage of being, to be distinguished from that upon which He entered when He came forth from the grave ; and in ver. 17 of this chapter Jesus had said to Mary Magdalene, not, "I will ascend unto My Father," but "I ascend ;" "I am even now in the act of ascending — My Ascension is begun" (comp. EUicott, " Life of Christ," p. 387). The circumstances of our Lord in John xx. and on the day of Pentecost are not so different as to lead to the idea that the gift bestowed on the two occasions was different. On both occasions our Lord's position was substantially the same. 312 NOTES. In the second place, it hardly seems as if we were to seek the relation of the two gifts to one another in this, — that in the first we are to find only an initial fulfilment of what was afterwards perfectly accomphshed, a first-fruits of the coming harvest; in the second the harvest itself. There is nothing in the words of Scripture to indicate that in the one case the gift was partial, in the other complete. It would rather appear as if the gift bestowed in John xx. were the more perfect, the more comprehensive, of the two. It is more immediately connected with the Person of the glorified Redeemer : — " He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye holy spirit." At Acts ii. 2, again, we are simply told that " suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind And they were aU filled with holy spirit, and began to speak with new tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." While thus more immediately con nected with Jesus as its source, the gift in John xx. is also associated with functions of a deeper and more intimate kind than belong to any miraculous agency whatever. In the one case it is breathed into, in the other it is poured upon, the disciples ; and life itself is a greater gift than any of the powers of life. In the third place, therefore, it would seem as if we were to seek the difference between the two gifts not so much in the kind or degree of either as in its purpose and application. The first had relation to the inner training of the disciples, the second to their more outward equipment for their work ; the first to the enlightening and quickening of their own souls, the second to the furnishing them with what was needed to enable them to produce an effect on others ; the first to the Church in her private chamber, the second to the Church as she is introduced to her mission in the world. At the baptism of our Lord the Spirit descended and abode upon Him ; but He waited for a time before He entered " in the power of the Spirit " upon His public ministry. In like manner the disciples were made ready for their work at the time when their Risen Lord breathed on them ; but they had to wait, before entering on their work, for the appointed hour when, at the great feast which had long foreshadowed the event, they were to offer up, not merely ripening ears of NOTES. 313 corn, but loaves baked and ready, the first-fruits of the new age. Note 71, p. 199. It may seem as if Matt. xvi. 18 and xviii. 17 were at variance with the statements here made. But further con sideration of these passages will show that in both our Lord has His future Church in view — certainly neither the Jewish Synagogue nor" the Christian Hierarchy in any form. The words of Matt, xviii. 20 are sufficient to decide the question, where our Lord in close connexion with what He had been saying, adds, " For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." (Comp. the remarks of Stier upon this passage in his " Reden Jesu," Part ii. p. 283.) Note 72, p. 199. We beheve that it will be found, upon careful examina tion of John xiv. xv. xvi., that these chapters do not refer to living, personal union with Christ considered in itself, so much as to the active Christian work which proceeds from such union, and is maintained in vigour by its means alone. This appears especially in the general contrast of Chap. xiv. with Chaps, xv. and xvi. The former exhibits the prepar ation of the disciples for their work; they "are" in Christ, and He in them. The two latter exhibit the disciples in their work itself, as they struggle, suffer, bear fruit, and triumph in it. They now " abide " in Christ ; and abiding presupposes difficulty and trial. Note 73, p. 200. Reference may be made to the valuable work of Bishop Moberly, "The Sayings of the Forty Days;" and also to Dr. Hanna's interesting volume, " The Forty Days after our Lord's Resurrection." 314 NOTES. Note 74, p. 201. Comp. Steinmeyer, " The Passion and Resurrection His tory," Clark's Translation, pp. 313, 337. Note 75, p. 217. Comp. the Comment, of Dr. Westcott on John xii. 32, — "The phrase by which the Lord indicates His death (be lifted up, iii. 14, viii. 28; comp. Acts ii. 32, v. 11) is characteristic of the view under which St. John represents the Passion. He does not ever, like St. Paul (e.g. Phil. ii. 8, 9) separate it as a crisis of humiliation from the glory which followed. The " lifting up " includes death and the victory over death. In this aspect the crisis of the Passion itself is regarded as a glorification (xiii. -31) ; and St. John sees the Lord's triumph in this rather than in the return (comp. 1 John v. 4-6)." See also Note 50, p. 272. Note 76, p. 217. On Hebrews ii. 9 comp. the valuable note of Dr. Moulton (in loc.) Speaking of the last clause, Dr. Moulton says, " We cannot doubt that these words depend on those which immediately precede." Comp. also the following remarks of Godet on Rom. i. 3, 4, which, always excepting his erroneous view that Jesus, while on earth, was only Son of David, not Son of God, deserve consideration: — "He (Jesus) has left in the tomb His particular relation to the Jewish nation and the family of David, and has appeared, through His Resur rection, freed from those wrappings which He had humbly worn during His earthly life; comp. the remarkable expression, Minister of the circumcision, xv. 8. Thus it is that in virtue of His Resurrection, and as the Son of God, He was able henceforth to enter into connexion with aH mankind, which He could not do so long as He was acting only as the Son of David ; comp. Matt. xv. 24 ; 'I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' " NOTES. 315 Note 77, p. 219. The statement made in the text is mainly grounded upon the general teaching of our Lord in the Gospel of St. John. There is one passage in that Gospel (Chap. xv. 26, 27) which at first sight may seem to lead to an opposite conclusion, but which, on further consideration, appears rather to confirm it. The words of this passage are, — " When the Advocate is come, whom I wiH send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth, which goeth forth from the Father, He will bear witness concerning Me ; and ye also bear witness, because from the beginning ye are with Me." These words are so important, that I venture to quote the following remarks on them from the Commentary on the fourth Gospel already more than once referred to in these Notes: — "The Advocate shall be with them, and with them in a manner adapted to that stage of progress which they are thought of as having reached. In the promise of the Advocate here given there is an advance upon that of Chap. xiv. 16, 26. In the latter passage the promise had been connected with the training of the disciples for their work ; in the present it is connected with the execution of the work. First of all, the Advocate 'will bear witness ' concerning Jesus, wiU perform that work of witnessing which belongs to heralds of the Cross. But He will do this in them. We are not to imagine that His is an independent work, carried on directly in the world, and apart from the instrumentaHty of the disciples. It is true that there is a general influence of the Holy Spirit by which He prepares the ear to hear and the eye to see — such an influence as that with which He wrought in Judaism, and even in heathenism; but that is not the influence of which Jesus speaks in the words before us. It is a specific influence, the power of the Spirit, to which He refers, — that influence which, exerted through Himself when He was upon the earth, is now exerted through the members of His Body. In the two last verses of this chapter, therefore, we have not two works of witnessing, the first that of the Advocate, the second that of the disciples. We have only 316 NOTES. one, — outwardly that of the disciples, inwardly that of the Advocate. Hence the change of tense from the future to the present, when Jesus speaks of 'ye' — the Advocate ' will bear witness,' ye 'bear witness.' The two witnessings are not on parallel Hnes, but on the same line, the former coming to view only in and by the latter, into which the power of the former is introduced. Hence, also, the force of the emphatic ' Ye.' The personality and freedom of the disciples does not disappear under this operation of the Advocate; they do not become mechanical agents, they retain their individual standing; they are still men, only higher than they could otherwise have been." Note 78, p. 226. "They lost Eden and they gained a conscience" (New man, "Works," vhi. 258). Comp. also Laidlaw's "Bible Doctrine of Man" p. 148. Dods " On Genesis," c. iii. TEXTS MORE OR LESS DISCUSSED IN THE LECTURES AND NOTES. Leviticus xvii. 11, pp. 138, 278. Matthew xiv. 2, p. 267. „ xvi. 18, p. 313. „ xviii. 17, p. 313. „ xxviii. 7, 10, p. 110. Luke ix. 7, p. 267. „ 31, pp. 125, 271. xxiv. 16, p. 239. „ 39, p. 241. „ 41, p. 262. „ 43, p. 240. John i. 18, p. 165. „ iii. 34, p. 147. „ iv. 23, pp. 194, 311. „ ,,"38, p. 810. „ v. 42, p. 310. „ vi. 15-21, p. 256. „ „ 53, p. 310. „ „ 54, 60, p. 297. „ „ 62, p. 185. „ vii. 39, p. 146. „ x. 17, 18, p. 123. „ xi. 45, p. 208. „ xii. p. 273. „ „ 24, p. 141. „ „ 27, pp. 124, 271. „ „ 32, pp. 216, 273, 314. ,, xiv. 12, p. 203. „ xiv. 28, p. 203. „ xiv. -xvi. pp. 199, 313. „ xv. 26, 27, p. 315. ,, xvi. 12, p. 145. John xvi. 21, p. 257. ,, xvii. 1, 5, p. 157. „ „ 21, p. 307. ,, xviii. -xx. p. 273. „ xx. 6, 7, p. 243. „ „ 15, p. 239. „ „ 17, p. 242. ,, „ 19, 26, p. 241. „ „ 22, p. 311. „ „ 27, p. 242. „ xxi. 1, 14, p. 242. „ „ 4, p. 240. ,, „ 13, p. 240. Acts ii. 2, p. 312. ,, iv. 2, p. 261. „ x. 41, p. 240. „ xiii. 24, 271. „ xx. 7, p. 264. „ „ 28, p. 294. Romans i. 3, 4, p. 250. „ iv. 25, pp. 156, 305. v. 8-10, p. 291. viii. 19-22, p. 225. 1 Corinthians ii. 2, p. 272. vi. 17, p. 247. ix. 1, pp. 40, 259. x. 15, 16, p. 301. xi. 25, 26, p. 298. xv. 6-8, p. 265. „ 8, pp. 40, 265. „ 8, p. 87. „ 15, p. 44. 318 TEXTS DISCUSSED IN LECTURES AND NOTES. 1 Corinthians xv. 24, 25, p. 151. ,, 44, pp. 19, 245. „ 45, p. 169. „ 46, 47, p. 131. „ 47, pp. 274, 308. „ 50, p. 19. 2 Corinthians iii. 17, 18, p. 247. ,, 18, p. 308. v. 14, 15, p. 297. „ 16, 17, p. 173. xii. 1-3, p. 85.. Galatians i. 15, 16, p. 84. „ „ 16, p. 265. Ephesians i. 7, p. 298. „ ii. 13, p. 294. Colossians i. 20, p. 298. 1 Thessalonians v. 9, 10, p. 297. 2 Thessalonians ii. 2, p. 268. 1 Timothy iii. 16, p. 248. Hebrews ii. 9, pp. 217, 314. ,, 14, 15, p. 294. v. 7, p. 126. vi. 20, p. 274. vii. 28, p. 309. ix. 12, p. 283. ,, 14, p. 254. ,, 15, p. 293. x. 19-22, p. 295. „ 20, p. 309. xii. 24, p. 284. xiii. 11, 12, p. 295. 1 Peter i. 19, p. 295. „ iii. 18, p. 253. 1 John i. 7. p. 296. ,, iv. 17, p. 203. „ v. 4, p. 310. Revelation i. 5, p. 296. „ v. 9, 10, p. 296. ,, vii. 14, p, 296. xii. 11, p. 297. THE END. Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Professor Flint, D.D. Note in Sermon preached before the Lord Sigh Commissioner at Edinburgh, May 1881. " Since this Discourse was delivered, the Croall Lecture of Pro fessor Milligan — The Besurrection of our Lord — has come into my hands. It seems to me to be a most valuable addition to the literature of our Scottish theology ; just the book which was needed on the great theme of which it treats. " Spectator. "The argument is put with brevity and force by Dr. Milligan, and every page of it bears witness that be has mastered the literature of the subject, and has made a special study of the more recent discussions on this aspect of the question. . . . The remaining lectures are more theological. They abound in striking views, in fresh and vigorous exegesis, and manifest a keen apprehension of the bearing of the fact of the Resurrection on many important questions of theology. The notes are able and scholarly, and elucidate the teaching of the text. . . . Dr: Milligan has written on the subject which he has made bis own, and these Lectures are the outcome of- years of study on the part of an able and scholarly man. " Scotsman. "It is written in pure and graceful English. It shows wide and accurate scholarship, extensive acquaintance with theological literature in general, and careful study of everything important . that has been written on the particular question treated of. Dr. Milligan states concisely, but -clearly, the main evidence for the Besurrection. He examines acutely, but calmly and candidly, the objections that have been urged against that evidence ; and in the second half of bis book he discusses at considerable length, and in a very forcible and interesting way, the bearing of the Resurrection on Christian thought and life." The English Churchman and Clerical Review. "It is with very considerable satisfaction we welcome the singularly able and well-reasoned volume before us, in which Pro fessor Milligan discusses from every conceivable standpoint the great and vital doctrine of the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord. . . . "We nave only to add that the volume is concluded with a series of notes of the highest critical and exegetical value ; and the work is further enhanced by the clearness, force, and simplicity of the style of the Author, who was a member of the Revised New Testament Company." OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Church Times. "This volume, a solid contribution to apologetic and doctrinal theology, consists of six Lectures with an appendix of critical notes, and is in some respects akin to Professor westcott's Gospel of the Besurrection in its mode of presenting and handling its topics. But this likeness is confined for the most part to the Lectures on the external evidence for the fact of the Resurrection, and on its relation to the Christian Church ; and for the remainder Professor Milligan has followed a line of bis own. . . . Lecture IV. , on the bearing of the Resurrection upon the person and work of Christ, opens that which is the really distinctive part of Dr. Milligan's work. Hitherto he has been merely doing what several other apologists have done before him, though doing it very well, but now he comes forward to press the importance of certain great Christian truths and doctrines which have been long and completely thrust out of sight in Presbyterian theology, leaving it as a dog matic system, markedly imperfect in one special direction. And it is the definitely Catholic tendency of what he has got to say which makes his words most noteworthy. " Church Quarterly Keview. " "We most thankfully welcome these lucid and vigorous Lectures by Professor Milligan. Not only have we learned much from them on the subject of which they profess to treat, but we see in them an almost startling promise for the future of thp Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It is a hopeful sign indeed, when a Scotch Divinity Professor, publicly lecturing on the Croall foundation to a general audience of Scotchmen, can boldly assert such truths as we find here stated, and reinforce his assertions in print by the help of such fearless notes. . . . We would gladly have extended our notice of this remarkable volume. "We cordially hope that it may prove a real aid in promoting that reunion of the Church upon which the Author insists with such earnestness, as indispensable to a belief in the Resurrection of our Lord." The Churchman (American Paper). " "We wish to say here, at the outset, that this volume is, on the whole, the best and the most satisfactory treatise on the nature and meaning of Christ's Resurrection that we have ever seen. The Author shows a most thorough acquaintance with the deeper teach ings of Scripture on this subject. . . . "We have quoted enough to show that the Author has given to the world a remarkable book. 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"Earnest, practical, and extremely simple." — Literary Churchman. "Good specimens of his simple and earnest eloquence. The Gospel inci dents are realized with a vividness which we can well believe made the common people hear him gladly; Moreover, they are sermons which must have done the hearers good. "—John Bull. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 23 Milligan.— THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD. The Croall Lecture for 1879—80. By the Rev. Professor Milli gan, D.D, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen. 8vo. gs. Moorhouse. — Works by James Moorhouse, M.A, Bishop of Melbourne : SOME MODERN DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING the FACTS OF NATURE AND REVELATION. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. JACOB. Three Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in Lent, 1870. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Natural Religion.— By the Author of "Ecce Homo." Second Edition. Third Thousand, with New Preface. 8vo. gs. " This is one of those rare things in our modern literature— a really speculative book ; and the speculation, whatever else we may think of it, is both ingenious and serious. It is work in the region not of dogmas or controversies, but of ideas. — Pall ^Mall Gazette. " The wider problem of the present day is dealt with here with more originality, and at least as much force, as the narrower one was in ' Ecce Homo,' it may be even thought that the steps taken here towards a solution are of more solid and permanent value. " — Academy. O'Brien. — PRAYER. Five Sermons preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. By James Thomas O'Brien, D.D., Bishop of Ossory and Ferns. 8vo. 6s. Onesimus.— MEMOIRS OF A DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. By the Author of " Philochristus." Demy 8vo. io*. 6d. Palgrave. — HYMNS. By Francis Turner Palgrave. Third Edition, enlarged. i8mo. is. 6d. This is a collection of twenty original Hymns, which the Literary Churchman speaks of as ." so choice, so perfect, and so refined, — so tender in feeling, and so scholarly in expression." Paul of Tarsus. An Inquiry into the Times and the Gospel of the Apostle of the Gentiles. By a Graduate. 8vo. ioj. 6d. "No thoughtful reader will rise front its perusal without a real and lasting profit to himself, and a sense of permanent addition to the cause of truth. " — Standard. 24 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. Philochristus.— MEMOIRS OF A DISCIPLE OF THE LORD. Second Edition. 8vo. 12s. ' ' The winning beauty of this book and the fascinating power with which the subject of it appeals to all English minds will secure for it many readers." — Contemporary Review. Philpott.— A POCKET OF PEBBLES WITH A FEW SHELLS. Being Fragments of Reflection, now and then with Cadence, made up mostly by the Sea Shore. By the Rev. William B. Philpott. Second Edition. Picked, Sorted, Polished anew. With Two Illustrations by George Smith. Fcap. 8vo. $s. Picton.— THE MYSTERY OF MATTER; and other Essays. By J. Allanson Picton, Author of ' New Theories and the Old Faith.'- Cheaper Edition. With New Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s. Plumptre.— MOVEMENTS in RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, Lent Term, 1879. By E. H. Plumptre, D.D, Professor of "Divinity, King's College, London, Prebendary of St. Paul's, etc. Fcap. 8vo. %s. 6d. Prescott — THE THREEFOLD CORD. Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. By J. E. Prescott, B.D! Fcap. 8vo. 3/. 6d. Procter.— A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER : With a Rationale of its Offices. By Francis Procter, M. A. Eighteenth Edition, revised and enlarged. Cr. 8vo. . iosv 63. The Athenaeum says — "The origin of evety part of tlie Prayer-book has been diligently investigated, — and there are few questions or facts con nected with it which are not either sufficiently explained, or so referred to that persons interested may work out the truth for themselves." Procter and Maclear.— AN ELEMENTARY INTRO DUCTION TO THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Re-arranged and Supplemented by an Explanation of the Morning and Evening Prayer and the Litany. By F. Procter, M.A, and G.F. Maclear, D.D. New Edition. Enlarged by the addition of the Communion Service and the Baptismal and Confirmation Offices. l8mo. 2s. 6d. The Literary Churchman characterises it as " by far the completest and. most satisfactory book of its kind we know. We wish it were in the hands of every schoolboy and every schoolmaster in the kingdom." Psalms of David CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical Introductions and Ex planatory Notes. By Four Friends. Second and Cheaper Edition, much enlarged. Crown 8vo. &r. 6d. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 25 The Spectator calls it "one of the most instructive and valuable books'that have been published for many years." Psalter (Golden Treasury).— the Student's Edition. Being an Edition of the above with briefer Notes. i8mo. 3-f. 6d. The aim of this edition is simply to put the reader as far as possible in possession of the plain meaning of the writer. " It is a gem," the Non conformist says. Pulsford.— SERMONS PREACHED IN TRINITY CHURCH, GLASGOW. By William Pulsford, D.D. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 4s.-6d. Ramsay.— THE CATECHISER'S MANUAL; or, the Church Catechism Illustrated and Explained, for the, Use of Clergymen, Schoolmasters, and Teachers. By Arthur Ramsay, M.A. Second Edition. i8mo. is. 6d. Rays of Sunlight for Dark Days. A Book of Selec tions for the Suffering. With a Preface by C. J. Vaughan, D.D. l8mo. Ninth Edition. 3-r. 6d. Also in morocco, old style. Dr. Vaughan says in the Preface, after speaking of the general run of Books of Comfort for Mourners — "It is because I think that the little volume now offered to the Christian sufferer is one of greater wisdom and of deeper experience, that I have readily consented to the request that I would introduce it by a few words of Preface." ' The book consists of a series of very brief extracts from a gi-eat variety of authors, in prose and poetry, suited to tlie many moods of a mourning or suffering mind. "Mostly gems of the first water." — Clerical Journal. Rendall.— THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IN GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Critical and Explanatory Notes. By Rev. Frederic Rendall, A.M,formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Assistant Master of Harrow School. Crown 8vo. 6s. Reynolds.— NOTES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. A Selection of Sermons by Henry Robert Reynolds, B.A, President of Cheshunt College, and Fellow of University College, London. Crown 8vo. 7s- 6a\ Roberts.— DISCUSSIONS ON THE GOSPELS. By the Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo. 16s. Robinson.— MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD ; and other Sermons preached in the Chapel of the Magdalen Streatham, 1874—76. ByH. G. Robinson, M.A., late Prebendary of York. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 26 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. Romanes.— CHRISTIAN PRAYER AND GENERAL LAWS, being the Burney Prize Essay for 1873. With an Ap pendix, examining the views of Messrs. Knight, Robertson, Brooke, Tyndall, and Galton. By George J. Romanes, M.A. Crown 8vo. 5j. Rushbrooke.— SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the Common Matter of the Synoptic Gospels. By W. G. Rushbrooke, M. L. , Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Printed in colours. In Six Parts and Appendices. 4to. Part I. 3-y. 6d. Parts II. and III. 7s. Parts IV. V. and VI. With Indices. IOj. 6d. Ap pendices, ios. 6d., or the complete work, in one vol. cloth, 35J. Salmon.— NON-MIRACULOUS CHRISTIANITY, and other Sermons, preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. By George Salmon, D.D, Chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathe dral, and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin. Crown 8vo. 6s. Scotch Sermons, 1880. — By Principal Caird; Rev. J. Cunningham, D.D. ; Rev. D. J. Ferguson, B.D. ; Professor Wm. Knight, LL.D. ; Rev. W. Mackintosh, D.D. ; Rev. W. L. M'Farlan; Rev. Allan Menzies, B.D. ; Rev. T. Nicoll; Rev. T. Rain, M.A. ; Rev. A. Semple, B.D. ; Rev. J. Stevenson ; Rev. Patrick Stevenson ; Rev. R. H. Story, D.D. Third Edition. 8vo. ios. 6d. The Pall Mall Gazette says — " The publication of a volume of Scotch Sermons, contributed by members of the Established Church, seems likely to cause as much commotion in that body as ' Essays and Reviews ' did in the Church of England." Selborne.— THE BOOK OF PRAISE: From the Best English Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by the Right Hon. the Earl of Selborne, Viscount Wolmer. With Vignette by T. Woolner, R.A. i8mo. 4s. 6d. It has been the Editor's desire and aim to adhere strictly, in all cases in which it could be ascertained, to the genuine uncorrupted text of the authors themselves. The names of the authors and date of composition of the hymns, when known, are affixed, while notes are added to the volume, giving further details. The Hymns are arranged according to subjects. ' ' There is not room for two opinions as to the value of the 'Book of Praise. ' " — Guardian. "Approaches as nearly as one can conceive to perfection. " — Nonconformist. BOOK OF PRAISE HYMNAL. See end of this Catalogue. Sermons out of Church. By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 27 Speaking of this volume the Reviewers remark: " We have read this book with no small pleasure. The author is well entitled to speak on many of the questions she has raised here. In many ways her book is timely." — British Quarterly Review. " We may fairly advise young housekeepers especially diligently to study the pages devoted to the Seivant question — but called 'My, Brother's Keeper' — a simple, -practical, wise treatise on a difficult subject." — Spectator. Service. — SALVATION HERE AND HEREAFTER. Sermons and Essays. By the Rev. John Service, D.D, Minister of Inch. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. "We have enjoyed to-day a rare pleasure, having just closed a volume of sermons which rings true metal from title page to finis, and proves that another and very powerful recruit has been added to that small band of ministers of the Gospel who are not only abreast of the religious thought of their time, but have faith enough and courage enough to handle the questions which are the most critical, and stir men's -minds most deeply, with frankness and thoroughness. " — Spectator. Shipley. — A THEORY ABOUT SIN, in relation to some Facts of Daily Life. Lent Lectures on the Seven Deadly Sins. By the Rev. Orby Shipley, M.A. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Smith.— PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST. Eight Lectures preached before the University of Oxford, being the Bampton Lectures for 1869. By R. Payne Smith, D.D, Dean of Canterbury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. Smith.— CHRISTIAN FAITH. Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. By W. Saumarez Smith, M.A., Principal of St. Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Fcap. 8vo. 3-r. 6d. Stanley.— Works by the Very Rev. A. P. Stanley, D.D, late Dean of Westminster : THE ATHANASIAN CREED, with a Preface on the General Recommendations of the Ritual Commission. Cr. 8vo. 2S. "Dr Stanley puts with admirable force the objections which maybe made to the Creed; equally admirable, we think, is his statement of its advantages"— Spectator. ' THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached in Westminster Abbey. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. ADDRESSES AND SERMONS AT ST. ANDREW'S in 1872, 187S and 1876. Crown 8vo. 5* 28 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. STANLEY (Very Rev. A. P .)— continued. ADDRESSES AND SERMONS. Delivered during a Visit to the United States and Canada, in 1878. Crown 8vo. 6s. Steel.— SERMONS PREACHED IN the CHAPEL OF HARROW SCHOOL and ELSEWHERE. By the late Rev. T. H. Steel, M.A, Assistant Master at Harrow, and formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. With a Memoir by Prof. Nettleship. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Stewart and Tait.— THE UNSEEN UNIVERSE ; or, Physical Speculations on a Future State. ' By Professors Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait. Tenth Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Crown 8vo. 6s. "A most remarkable and most interesting volume, which, probably more than any that has appeared in modern times, will affect religious thought on many momentous questions — insensibly it may be, but very largely and very beneficially." — Church Quarterly. " This book is one which well deserves the attention of thoughtful and religious readers It is a perfectly safe enquiry, on scientific grounds, into the possibilities of a future existence. " — Guardian. Stubbs. — Works by Rev. Charles William Stubbs, M.A, Vicar of Granborough, Bucks. : VILLAGE POLITICS. Addresses and Sermons on the Labour Question. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3.J. 6d. " The sermons in this book are all worth reading. .... They are full of warm sympathy for the labourers and sound practical advice to all classes concerned in the struggle. ' WGuardian. THE MYTHE OF LIFE, and other Sermons, with an Introduction on the Social Mission of the Church. Extra fcap. Svo. y. 6d. Taylor.— THE RESTORATION OF BELIEF. New and Revised Edition. By Isaac Taylor, Esq. Crown 8vo. Ss. 6d. Temple.— SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL of RUGBY SCHOOL. By F. Temple, D.D, Bishop of Exeter. New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap; 8vo. 4s. 6d. This volume contains Thirty-five Sermons on topics more or less inti mately connected with every-day life. ' The following are a few of the subjects discoursed upon : — "Love and Duty ;" "Coming to Christ;" "Great Men;" "Faith;" "Doubts;" " Scruples ;"" Original Sin ;" "Friendship;" "Helping Others;" "The Discipline of Temptation;" "Strength a Duty;" " Worldliness ;" "III Temper;" "The Burial of the Past." THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 29 TEMPLE (Dr.)— continued. A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. This Second Series of Forty-two brief, pointed, practical Sermons, on topics intimately connected with the every-day life of young and old, will be acceptable to all who are acquainted with the First Series. The folloioing are a few of the subjects treated of: — "Disobedience," "Almsgiving," "The Unknown Guidance of God," "Apathy one of our Trials," "High Aims in Leaders," "Doing our Best," " The Use of Knowledge," "Use of Observances," "Martha and Mary," "John the Baptist," "Severity before Mercy ;" "Even Mistakes Punished," "Morality and Religion," "Children," "Action the Test of Spiritual Life," "Self-Respect," "Too Late," " The Tercentenary." A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL in 1867— 1869. Extra fcap. Svo. 6s. This Third Series of Bishop Temple' s Rugby Sermons, contains thirty -six brief discourses, including the " Good-bye" sermon preached on his leaving Rugby to enter on the office he now holds. Thornely.— THE ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECT OF HABITUAL CONFESSION TO A PRIEST. By Thomas Thornely, B.A, LL.M, Lightfoot and Whewell Scholar in the University of Cambridge, Law Student at Trinity Hall and Inns of Court, Student in Jurisprudence and Roman Law. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. " The calm and judicial spirit in which the inquiry is conducted is in keeping with the aim of the writer, and we are heartily in sympathy with him in his conclusions as far as he goes."— London Quarterly. ' " It is marked by an evident desire to avoid over-statement, and to be strictly impartial." — Cambridge Review. Thring.— THOUGHTS ON LIFE-SCIENCE. By Rev. Edward Thring, M.A. New Edition, enlarged and revised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Thrupp.— AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY AND USE OF THE PSALMS. By the Rev. J. F. Thrupp, M.A, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. New Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 2$s. Trench.— Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D, Arch- bishop of Dublin : NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD. Fourteenth Edition. 8vo. 12s. 30 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. TRENCH (Archbishop)— continued. This work has taken its place as a standard exposition and interpreta tion of Christ's Parables. The book is prefaced by an Introductory Essay in four chapters : — /. On the definition of the Parable. II. On Teach ing by Parables. III. On the Interpretation of the Parables. IV. On other Parables besides those in the Scriptures. The author then proceeds to take up the Parables one by one, and by the aid of philology, history, antiquities, and the researches of travellers, shews forth the significance, beauty, and applicability of each, concluding with what he deems its true moral interpretation. In the numerous Notes are many valuable references, illustrative quotations, critical and philological annotations, etc. , and ap pended to the volume is a classified list of fifty-six works on the Parables. NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD. Eleventh Edition, revised. 8vo. 12s. In the 'Preliminary Essay' to this work, all the ¦momentous and in teresting questions that have been raised in connection with Miracles, are discussed with -considerable fulness. The Essay consists of six chapters : — /. On the Names of Miracles, i.e. the Greek words by which they are designated in the New Testament. II. The Miracles and Nature — What is the difference between a Miracle and any event in tke ordinary course of Nature? III. The Authority of Miracles — Is the Miracle to command absolute obedience ? IV. The Evangelical, compared with the other cycles of Miracles. V. The Assaults on the Miracles — I. The Jewish. 2. The Heathen (Celsus, etc.). 3. The Pantheistic (Spinosa, etc.). 4. The Sceptical (Hume). 5. The Miracles only relatively miraculous (Schleier- macher). 6. The Rationalistic (Paulus). 7. The Historico- Critical (Woolston, Strauss). VI. The Apologetic Worth of the Miracles. The author then treats the separate Miracles as he does the Parables. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ninth Edition, enlarged. Svo. I2J. This Edition has been carefully revised, and a considerable number of new Synonyms added. Appended is an Index to the Synonyms, and an Index to many other words alluded to or explained throughout the work. "Heis," the Athenseum says, " a guide in this department of knowledge to whom his readers may intrust themselves with confidence. His sober judgment and sound sense are barriers against tlie misleading influence of arbitrary hypotheses. " ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Second Edition. 8vo. 7*. After some Introductory Remarks, in which the propriety of a revision is briefly discussed, the whole question of the merits if the present version is gone into in detail, in eleven chapters. Appended is d chronological list of works bearing on the subject, an Index of the principal Texts con- THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 31 TRENCH (Archbishop)— continued. sidered, an Index of Greek Words, and an Index of other 'Words re ferred to throughout the book. STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. Fourth Edition, revised. 8vo. ioj-. 6d. This book is published under the conviction that the assertion often made is untrue, — viz. that the Gospels are in the main plain and easy, and that all the chief difficulties of the New Testament are to be found in the Epistles. These 'Studies,' sixteen in number, are the fruit of a much larger scheme, and each Study deals with some important episode mentioned in the Gospels, in a critical, philosophical, and practical man ner. Many references and quotations are added to the Notes. Among the subjects treated are: — The Temptation; Christ and the Samaritan Woman; The Three Aspirants ; The Transfiguration; Zacchaus; The True Vine; The Penitent Malefactor; Christ and the Two Disciples on the way to Emmaus. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES to the SEVEN CHURCHES IN ASIA. Fourth Edition, revised. 8vo. 8s. 6d. The present work consists of an Introduction, being a commentary on Rev. i. 4 — 20, a detailed examination of each of the Seven Epistles, in all its bearings, and an Excursus on the Historico-Prophetical Interpreta tion of the Epistles. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. An Exposition drawn from the writings of St. Augustine, with an Essay on his merits as an Interpreter of Holy Scripture. Fourth Edition, en larged. 8vo. iar. 6d. The first half of the present work consists of a dissertation in eight chapters on ' Augustine as an Interpreter of Scripture, ' the titles of the several chapters being as follow : — I. Augustine's General Views of Scrip ture and its Interpretation. II. The External Helps for the Interpreta tion of Scripture possessed by Augustine. III. Augustine's Principles and Canons of Interpretation. IV. Augustine's Allegorical Interpretation of Scripture. V. Illustrations of Augustine's Skill as an Interprets- of Scripture. VI. Augustine on John the Baptist and on St. Stephen. VII. Augustine on the Epistle to the Romans. VIII. Miscellaneous Examples of Augustine' s Interpretation of Scripture. The latter half of the work consuls of Augustine's Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, not however a mere series of quotations from Augustine but a connected account of his sentiments on the various passages of that Sermon, inter spersed with criticisms by Archbishop Trench. SHIPWRECKS OF FAITH. Three Sermons preached teforethVun^ersity of Cambridge in May, 1867. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. 32 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. TRENCH (Archbishop)— continued. These Sermons are especially addressed to young men. The subjects are "Balaam," "Saul," and "Judas Iscariot," These lives are set forth as beacon-lights, "to warn us off from perilous reefs and quick sands, which have been the destruction of many, and which might only too easily be ours." The John Bull says— "they are, like all he writes, af fectionate and earnest discourses." SERMONS Preached for the most part in Ireland. Svo"; icy. 6d. This volume consists of 7'hirty-two Sermons, the greater part of which were preached in Ireland ; the subjects are as follow : — Jacob, a Prince with God and with Men — Agrippa — The Woman that was a Sinner — Secret Faults— The Seven Worse Spirits — Freedom in the Truth — Joseph and his Brethren — Bearing one another's Burdens — Christ's Challenge to the World— The Love of Money — The Salt of the Earth — The A rmour of God — Light in the Lord — The Jailer ofPhilippi — The Thorn in the Flesh — Isaiah's Vision — Selfishness— Abraham interceding for Sodom — Vain Thoughts — Pontius Pilate— The Brazen Serpent — The Death and Burial of Moses — A Word from the Cross — The Church's Worship in the Beauty of Holiness — Every Good Gift from Above — On the Hearing of Prayer — The Kingdom which cometh not with Observation — TPressing towards the Mark — Saul — The Good Shepherd — The Valley of Dry Bones — Alt Saints. LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY. Being the Substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College, London. -Second Edition, revised. 8vo. I2j. Contents: — The Middle Ages Beginning — The Conversion of Eng land — Islam — The Conversion of ' Germany — The Iconoclasts — The Crusades — The Papacy at its Height — The Sects of the Middle Ages — 77;* Mendicant Orders — The Waldenses — The Revival of Learning — Christian Art in the Middle Ages, &*c. &°c. THE HULSEAN LECTURES, 1845-1S46. Fifth Edition, revised. 8vo. 7s. 6d. This volume consists of Sixteen Sermons, eight being on ' Tlie Fitness of Holy Scripture for unfolding the Spiritual Life of Men, ' the others 011 ' Christ, the Desire of all Nations ; or, the unconscious Prophecies: of Heathendom. ' Tulloch.— THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS AND THE CHRIST OF MODERN CRITICISM. Lectures on M. Renan's 'Vie de Jesus.' By John Tulloch, .D.D.,. Principal of the College of St. Mary, in tlie University of St. Andrew's. Extra fcap. 8vd. 4s. 6d. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 33 Vaughan . — Works by the very Rev. Charles John Vaughan, D.D, Dean of Llandaff and Master of the Temple.: CHRIST SATISFYING THE INSTINCTS OF HU MANITY. Eight Lectures delivered in the Temple Church. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d. "We are convinced that there are congregations, in number unmistakably increasing, to whom such Essays as these, full of thought and learning, are infinitely more beneficial, for they are more acceptable, than the recog nised type of sermons. " — John' BuH. THE BOOK AND THE LIFE, and other Sermon's, preached before the University of Cambridge. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. TWELVE DISCOURSES on SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE LITURGY and WORSHIP of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 6s. LESSONS OF LIFE AND GODLINESS. A Selection of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. This volume consists of Nineteen Sermons, mostly on subjects connected with the every-day walk and conversation of Christians. The Spectator styles them "earnest and human. They are adapted to every class and order in the social system, and will be read with wakeful interest by all who seek to amend whatever may be amiss in their natural disposition or in their acquired habits. " WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS. A Second Selection of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. The Nonconformist characterises these Sermons as ' ' of practical earnest ness, of a thoughtfulness that penetrates the common conditions and ex periences of life, . and brings the tiuths and examples of Scripture to bear on them with singular force, and of a style that owes its real elegance to the simplicity and directness which have fine*culture for their roots." LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. Three Sermons. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST. Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in November, 1866. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. Dr. Vaughan uses the word "Wholesome" here in its literal and original sJse, the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as meaning healthy s j ™L'„s„_ tci riaht livinz: and iH these Sermons he points out sound "j^XHtow" characteristics of tie Gospel, MtheaZhlXw^known vigour of thought w* richness of expression." 34 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. VAUGHAN (Dr. C. J.)— continued. FOES OF FAITH. Sermons preached before the Uni versity of Cambridge in November, 1868. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. $s. 6d. The "Foes of Faith" preached against in these Four Sermons are: — /. "Unreality.'" II. "Indolence." III. "Irreverence." IV. "Incon sistency. " LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE to the PHILIPPIANS. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. Each Lecture is prefaced by a literal translation from the Greek of the paragraph which forms its subject, contains first a minute explanation of the passage on which it is based, and then a practical application of the verse or clause selected as its text. LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. ios.'6d. In this Edition of these Lectures, the literal translations of the passages expounded will be found interwoven in the body of the Lectures themselves. "Dr. Vaughan' s Sermons," the Spectator says, "are the most prac tical discourses on the Apocalypse with which we are acquainted. " Pre fixed is a Synopsis of the Book of Revelation, and appended is an Index of passages illustrating the language of the Book. EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER. A Selection of Expository Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. ioj. 6d. THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. Part I, containing the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. Second Edition. Svo. is. 6d. It is the object of this work to enable English readers, unacquainted ¦ with Greek, to enter with intelligence into the meaning, connexion, and phraseology of the writings of the great Apostle. ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek Text, with English Notes. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. The Guardian says of the Work — "For educated young men his com mentary seems to fill a gap hitherto unfilled. . . . Asa whole, Dr. Vaughan appears to us to have given to the world a valuable book of original and careful and earnest thought bestowed on the accomplishment of a work which will be of much service and which is much needed." THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. Series I. The Church of Jerusalem. Third Edition. „ II. The Church of the Gentiles. Third Edition. „ III. The Church of the World. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. each. The British Quarterly says— " These Sermons are worthy of all praise, and are models of pulpit teaching." THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 35 VAUGHAN (Dr. C. y\— continued. COUNSELS for YOUNG STUDENTS. Three Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge at the Opening of the Academical Year 1870-71. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION, with suitable Prayers. Eleventh Edition. Fcap. 8vo. is. 6d. THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. The Tempta tion of Man, and the Temptation of Christ. Lectures dehvered in the Temple Church, Lent 1872. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. WORDS FROM THE CROSS : Lent Lectures, 1875 ; and Thoughts for these Times : University Sermons, 1874. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. ADDRESSES TO YOUNG CLERGYMEN, delivered at Salisbury in September and October, 1875. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4s. 6d. HEROES OF FAITH : Lectures on Hebrews xi. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. THE YOUNG LIFE EQUIPPING ITSELF FOR GOD'S SERVICE : Sermons before the University of Cambridge. Sixth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. %s. 6d. THE SOLIDITY OF TRUE RELIGION ; and other Sermons. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. y. 6d. MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. A Selection of Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harrow School. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL (1847). 8vo. ios. 6d. NINE SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL (1849). Fcap. 8vo. 5s. "MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART;" Sermons preached before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 1876 —78. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. THE LORD'S PRAYER. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3-r. 6d. REST AWHILE : Addresses to Toilers in the Ministry. Extra fcap. 8vo. Ss. TEMPLE SERMONS. Crown 8vo. ior. 6d. This volume contains a selection of the Sermons preached by Dr. Vaughan in the Temple Church during the twelve years that he has held the dignity of Master. AUTHORISED OR REVISED ? Sermons on some of the Texts in which the Revised Version differs from the Authorised. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 36 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. Vaughan (E. T.)— SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIST IAN HOPE. Hulsean Lectures for 1875. By E. T. Vaughan, M.A, Rector of Harpenden. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. Vaughan ( D . J .)— Works by Canon Vaughan, of Leicester : SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, LEICESTER, during the Years 1855 and 1856. Cr. 8vo. 5*. 6d. CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND THE BIBLE. New Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. $s. 6d. THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Sermons preached in St. Martin's Church, Leicester. Crown 8vo. gs. Venn.— ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS ,OF BELIEF, Scientific and Religious. Being the Hulsean Lectures for 1869. By the Rev. J. Venn, M.A. 8vo. 6s. 6d. Vita.-^-LINKS AND CLUES. By Vita. Crown 8vo. 6s. " It is a long time since we have read a book so full of the life of a true spiritual mind. . . . Indeed, it is not so much a book to read through, as ¦ to read and return to as you do to the Bible itself, from which its whole significance is derived, in passages Suited to the chief interest and difficulties of the moment. .... We cannot too cordially recommend a book which awakens the spirit, as hardly any book of the last few years has awakened it, to the real meaning of the Christian life." — Spectator. Warington.— THE WEEK OF CREATION ; or, The Cosmogony of Genesis considered in its Relation to Modern Sci ence. By George Warington, Author of 'The Historic Character of the Pentateuch vindicated. ' Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. Westcott. — Works by Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge ; Canon ¦ of Peterborough : The London Quarterly, speaking of Dr. Westcott, says — "To a learn ing and accuracy which command respect and confidence, he unites what are not always to be found in union with these qualities, the no less valuable faculties of lucid ai~rangement and graceful and facile expression." AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. The author's chief object in this work has been to shew that there is a true mean between the idea of a formal harmonization of the Gospels and the abandonment of t/ieir absolute truth. After an Introduction on the General Effects of the course of Modern Philosophy on the popular views of Christianity, he proceeds to determine in what way the principles therein indicated may be applied to the study of the Gospels. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 37 WESTCOTT (Dr.)— continued. A GENERAL" SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT during the First Four Centuries. Fifth Edition, revised, with a Preface on 'Super natural Religion.' Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. The object of this treatise is to deal with the New Testament as a whole, and that on purely historical grounds. The separate books of which it is composed are considered not individually, but as claiming to be parts of the apostolic heritage of Christians. ' ' The treatise," says the British Quarterly, "is a scholarly performance, learned, dispassionate, discriminating, worthy of his subject and of the present state of Christian literature in relation to it." THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. A Popular Account of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Churches. Seventh Edition. i8mo. 4s. 6d. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. The Pall Mall Gazette calls the work "A brief, scholarly, and, to a great extent, an original contribution to theological literature." THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, MANIFOLD AND ONE. Six Sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. Thoughts on its Relation to Reason and History. Fourth Edition, revised. Crown 8vo. 6s. ON THE RELIGIOUS OFFICE OF THE UNIVER SITIES. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. " There is wisdom, and truth, and thought enough, and a harmony and mutual connexion sunning through them all, which makes the collection of more real value than many an ambitious treatise." — Literary Churchman. THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD. Second Edition, with a new Preface. Crown 8vo. 6s. THE HISTORIC FAITH : Short Lectures on The Apostles' Creed. Crown 8vo. 6s. Westcott— Hort.— THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE ORIGINAL GREEK. The Text Revised by B. F. Westcott D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Canon of Peterborough, and F T A HORT, D.D, Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Fellow ot Emmanuel College, Cambridge; late Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. ios. 6d. each. Vol I Text. Vol. II. Introduction and Appendix. 38 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. WESTCOTT-HORT-cm4«!«/. " The Greek Testament as printed by the two Professors must in future rank as one of the highest critical authorities amongst English scholars. -—Guardian. " It is probably the most important contribution to Biblical learning tn our generation." — Saturday Review. " The object in view is to present the original words of the New Testa ment as nearly as they can be determined at the present time, to arrive at the texts of the autographs themselves so far as it is possible to obtain it by the help of existing materials We attach much excellence to this manual edition of the Greek Testament, because it is the best contribution which England has made in modern times towards the production of a pure text. . . . It bears on its face evidences of calm judgment and com mendable candour. The student may avail himself of its aid with much confidence. The Introduction and Appendix specially deserve minute attention. " — Athenseum. Wilkins.— THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. An Essay, by A. S. Wilkins, M.A, Professor of Latin in Owens College, Manchester. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. "It would be difficult to praise too highly the spirit, the burden, the conclusions, or the scholarly finish df this beautiful Essay." — British Quar terly Review. Wilson.— THE BIBLE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE MORE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of the ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, by Reference to the Original Hebrew. By William Wilson, D.D, Canon of Winchester. Second Edition, carefully revised. _4to. 25 s. The author believes that the present work is the nearest a-bproach to a complete Concordance of every word in the original that has yet been made; and as a Concordance it may be found of great use to the Bible student, while at the same time it serves the important object of furnishing , the means of comparing synonymous words and of eliciting their precise and distinctive meaning. The knowledge of the Hebrew language is not absolutely necessary to the profitable use of the work. Worship (The) of God and Fellowship among Men. Sermons on Pubhc Worship. By Professor Maurice, and others. Fcap. 8vo. $s. 6d. Yonge (Charlotte M.)— Works by Charlotte M.Yonge, Author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe ': SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FA MILIES. 5 vols. Globe 8vo. is. 6d. With Comments, 3-r. 6d. each. First Series. Genesis to Deuteronomy. Second Series. From Joshua to Solomon. THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 3g YONGE (Charlotte M.)— continued. Third Series. The Kings and Prophets. Fourth Series. The Gospel Times. Fifth Series. Apostolic Times. Actual need has led the author to endeavour to prepare a reading book convenient for study with children, containing the very words of the Bible wuh only a few expedient omissions, and arranged in Lessons ot such length as by experience she has found to suit with children's ordinary power of accurate attentive interest. The verse form has been retained be cause of tts convenience for children reading in class, and as more re sembling their Bibles; but the poetical portions have been given in their lines. Professor Huxley at a meeting of the London School-board, tar- ticularly mentioned the Selection made by Miss Yonge, as an example of how selections might be made for School reading. " Her Comments are models of their kind." — Literary Churchman. THE PUPILS OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. " Young and old will be equally refreshed and taught by these pages in which nothing is dull, and nothing is far-fetched. "—Churchman ' PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS ; or, Recent Workers in the Mission Field. With Frontispiece and Vignette Portrait of Bishop Heber. Crown 8vo. 6s. The missionaries whose biographies are here given, are — John Eliot the Apostle of the Red Indians ; David Brainerd, the Enthusiast; Christ ian F. Schwartz, the Councillor of Tanjore; Henry Martyn, the Scholar- Missionary; William Carey and Joshua Marshman, the Serampore Mis sionaries; the Judson Family; the Bishops of Calcutta — Thomas Middleton, Reginald Heber, Daniel Wilson; Samuel Marsden, the Aus tralian Chaplain and Friend of the Maori; John Williams, the Martyr of Erromango; Allen Gardener, the Sailor Martyr; Charles I'rederick Mackenzie, the Martyr of Zambesi. Zechariah, Hebrew, and LXX., The Hebrew Student's Commentary on. With Excursus on several Grammatical Subjects. By W. H. Lowe, M.A., Hebrew Lecturer at Christ's College, Cambridge. Demy 8vo. I or. 6d. " This is a useful and scholarly work. The notes are intended to in clude the wants of comparative beginners in Hebrew, but they contain much also that will be of value to those who are more advanced ; they are always sound, and direct the students attention to just such points of impm-tance as he is likely to overlook. The volume abounds with suggestions and cautions, for which every diligent reader of Hebrew will be grateful ; and those who desire to strengthen and increase their knowledge of the language cannot do better than peruse it attentively . . . Altogether we welcome Mr. ' Lowe's volume as a real help to the study of Hebrew in this country," -~ Academy. THE "BOOK OF PRAISE" HYMNAL, COMPILED and arranged by THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF SELBORNE, VISCOUNT WOLMER. In the following four forms : — A. Beautifully printed in Royal 32mo., limp cloth, price 6d. B. „ ,, Small 18mo., larger type, cloth limp, Is. C. Same edition on fine paper, cloth, Is. 6d. Also an edition with Music, selected, harmonized, and composed by JOHN HTJI1T1AW, in square 18mo., cloth, 3s. 6d. The large acceptance which has been given to " The Book of Praise" by all classes of Christian people encourages the Publishers in entertaining the hope that this Hymnal, which is mainly selected from it, may be ex tensively used in Congregations, and in some degree at least meet the ¦ desires of those who seek uniformity in common worship as a means towards that unity which pious souls yearn after, and which our Lord prayed for in behalf of his Church. "The office of -a hymn is not to teach controversial Theology, but to give the voice of song to practical religion. No doubt, to do this, it must embody sound doctrine ; but it ought to do so, not after the manner of the schools, but with the breadth, freedom,- and simplicity of the Fountain-head." On this principle has Sir R. Palmer proceeded in the preparation of this book. The arrangement adopted is the following : — Part I. consists of Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the Creed— "God the Creator," "Christ Incarnate," "Christ Crucified," "Christ Risen," "Christ Ascended," "Christ's Kingdom and Judg ment," etc. Part II. comprises Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the Lords Prayer. Part III. Hymns for natural and sacred seasons. There are 320 Hymns in all. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. PALMER, YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01348 7476