Li fe 3 I

°YALH°¥MT^IEII^rirY-

Gift of
Professor George Park Fisher
1907

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

THE
Problem of Jesus

BY
GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN

REVISED AND ENLARGED

PHILADELPHIA
A. J. ROWLAND— 1420 Chestnut Street
1897

Copyright 1891 by
George Dana Boardman
Copyright 1892 by
George Dana Boardman
Copyright 1897 by
George Dana Boardman

To A xcu ro J?

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

The problem of Jesus is twofold. First : a philosoph
ical pi oblem — How will you account for him ?
Secondly: a practical problem — What will you do
with him ? I.
1'lie Pliilosophical Problem : jlotf will you
account fon Jesus of jJazareth 7
Jesus the Nazarene is the most re
markable PHENOMENON IN HUMAN HIS
TORY. However much men may differ
about him iri other respects, they all agree
about him in this respect. Let us then
examine this matter with a carefulness
which a phenomenon so remarkable jus
tifies. fesus is a phenomenon in respect to his
personality. Glance first at the mental structure of
Jesus. There have been many men of gen-
7

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

ius in this world. But brilliant as these
men of genius were, they were more or less
unbalanced. On the other hand, Jesus held
his manifold gifts in perfect poise. For
example : Jesus was intellectual, yet not
frigid ; contemplative, yet not abstracted ;
subtle, yet not casuistical ; scrutinizing, yet
not morbid ; intuitive, yet not unreason
ing ; original, yet not oracular ; aphoristic,
yet not arid ; judicial, yet not portentous ;
assertive, yet not dogmatic ; piquant, yet
not mordant ; categorical, yet not brusque ;
didactic, yet not pedagogic ; Socratic, yet
not categorical ; luminous, yet not scintil-
lant ; parabolical, yet not nebulous ; para
doxical, yet not contradictory ; homely, yet
not vulgar ; humorous, yet not hilarious ;
practical, yet not pragmatical ; philosophical,
yet not dialectical ; telescopic, yet not hazy ;
miscroscopic, yet not rabbinic ; profound,
yet not abysmal ; broad, yet not vague ;
lofty, yet not airy ; idealistic, yet not quix
otic ; unique, yet not eccentric ; in brief, a
transcendent genius, yet not a transcen-

8

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

dental prodigy. Jesus of Nazareth is time's
intellectual phenomenon.
Glance now at the moral character of
Jesus. There have been many noble char
acters in this world — glorious heroes, pa
triots, philanthropists, reformers, martyrs —
men and women before whose names Chris
tendom bows, and bows justly. It is around
such transcendent characters as these, tow
ering like mountains above the plains of
common humanity, that the reverence of
the ages loves to wrap the robe of a spot
less purity, even as the virgin snow enwraps
the distant Alpine ranges. But as the ac
tual attempt to climb those snowy heights
discloses here and there huge gorges and
beetling precipices ; so, alas, does a nearer
inspection of these transcendent characters
disclose many a defect and deformity which
mars and sometimes almost hides the gen
eral beauty. Abraham, Moses, David, Soc
rates, Confucius, Cicero, Paul, Augustine,
Alfred, Luther, Cromwell, Washington, Lin
coln, were far from faultless, ' even in the
9

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

eyes of men. Only one Character in all
history has endured successfully all tests of
keenest scrutiny. For nearly nineteen hun
dred years that Character has been before
Christendom, occupying the most conspicu
ous niche in the temple of this world's heroes.
For nearly nineteen hundred years scholars,
skilled in all arts of searching criticism, have
scrutinized every detail of that Character, as
the sculptor searches for signs of flaw in the
marble block he proposes to chisel. And
what is the result ? After nearly two mil
lenniums of fiery criticism the character of
Jesus of Nazareth still shines as earth's
purest diamond. Not but there have been
and still are fierce assailants, who have
pointed out here and there what they choose
to style flaws. Nevertheless, even unbelief
itself assigns to the Man of Nazareth the
supremest post of honor among earth's he
roes, crowning him King of the kingliest.
Of course it is audacious in me to under
take a portraiture of this incomparable
Character. But it is one of the elements

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

in our problem, and therefore it must be
attempted. Only the swiftest outline can
be endeavored. Jesus of Nazareth was, for
example : faultless, without dullness ; altru
istic, without indiscriminateness ; construct
ive, without castle-building ; dignified, with
out stiffness ; delicate, without daintiness ;
enthusiastic, without fanaticism ; guileless,
without credulousness ; chivalrous, without
rashness ; aggressive, without pugnacity ;
conciliatory, without sycophancy ; prudent,
without opportunism ; modest, without self-
depreciation ; gracious, without condescen
sion ; just, without severity; lenient, with
out laxity ; flexible, without vacillation ; con
servative, without obstructiveness ; progres
sive, without precipitance ; patient, with
out stoicism ; persistent, without perverse
ness ; decisive, without bluntness ; impera
tive, without imperiousness ; heroic, without
coarseness ; independent, without self-insu
lation ; self-conscious, without self-conceit ;
optimistic, without dreaminess ; sad, without
gloom ; sympathetic, without mawkishness ;

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

generous, without prodigality ; frugal, with
out churlishness ; appreciative, without ef
fusiveness ; indignant, without bitterness ;
forgiving, without feebleness ; sociable, with
out familiarity ; reserved, without morose-
ness ; conscientious, without bigotry ; self-
denying, without asceticism ; unworldly,
without unwisdom; trustful,, without im
providence ; saintly, without unctuousness ;
virile, without fierceness ; diversified, with
out contrariety ; in a word, perfect, without
unnaturalness. Recall the countless tributes paid to
him, consciously and unconsciously, by the
annual commemorations of his birth, his
death, his resurrection ; by temples, prayers,
praises, sacraments, memoirs, commentaries,
creeds, missions, hospitals, paintings, mono
grams, poems, oratorios, novels, treatises,
periodicals, etc. ; especially by the endless
variety of assaults. Whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honorable, what
soever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what-

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

soever things are of good report — if there
be any virtue and if there be any praise —
all these and such as these are impersoned
in the Nazarene.
Aye, Jesus was more than the Nazarene,
more even than history's uniquest hero ;
Jesus was — to use his own favorite desig
nation of himself, recurring some eighty
times in the Gospels — "The Son of Man."
Observe : the designation is not " a son of
man" ; neither is it "a son of men" ; neither
is it "the son of men" ; but it is "The Son
of Man." As such the designation is abso
lutely unique. See how the Son of Man
illustrates in himself all essential human ca
pacities — for example, reason, imagination,
conscience, courage, patience, faith, hope,
love ; blending in his own pure whiteness
all colors of all manly virtues, all hues of
all womanly graces, as though he himself
were Eternal God's own infinite, ever-blessed
sunlight. In other words, Jesus is the uni
versal Homo ; blending in himself all races,
ages, capacities, temperaments, types. See
13

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

how he blends in himself, the race-marks of
the three sons of Noah — Shemitic reverence,
Hamitic force, Japhetic culture. Jesus is
the transcendent Vir, from the hem of
whose robe virtue is ever flowing ; himself
alike the radiating focus of all best impulses
and the converging focus of all best achieve
ments. Towering above all mankind, yet
permeating all mankind, Jesus is mankind's
one mighty archetypal, antitypal, consum
mate man; the symbol of perfected human
nature ; the Alpha and the Omega of un
folded, full-filled humanity. The Son of
Man, and none but he, realizes Auguste
Comte' s majestic dream of the Apotheosis
of Humanity ; the very refusal of the great
Positivist to enshrine Jesus in his own Pan
theon being his own possibly unconscious
but certainly transcendent tribute to the
Man of men. Jesus of Nazareth is time's
personal phenomenon.
Glance now at the prodigious personal
claims of this extraordinary Character.
Listen to some of his own declarations —
14

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

declarations intensely egoistic, yet so nat
ural and credible that we are neither
startled by them nor offended. For ex
ample :
" Ye have heard that it was said to them
of old time. . . But / say unto you" ; "He
that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of -me" ; " Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest " ; " Lo, / am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world" ; "/
am the bread of life ; he that cometh to me
shall not hunger, and he that believeth on
me shall never thirst"; "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of man and drink his blood, ye have
not life in yourselves ; he that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life ; and / will raise him up at the last
day " ; "/am the light of the world " ; " Be
fore Abraham was born, / am"; "Verily,
verily, / say unto you, / am the door of the
sheep ; all that came before me are thieves
and robbers" ; "/ and the Father are one" ;
" / am the resurrection and the life ; he that
believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he
live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on
me shall never die" ; "/am the way, and
the truth, and the life ; no one cometh to
15

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

the Father, but through me" \ "Because /
live, ye shall live also " ; " As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine ; so neither can ye, except ye abide
in me; for apart from me ye can do noth
ing" ; "/ am the Alpha and the Omega, the
first and the last, the beginning and the
end " ; etc.
Thus from first to last it is a very King
who speaks, conjugating all life in the
active voice, the imperative mood, the
present tense, the personal pronoun of the
first person, the singular number. If this
is not sovereignty, will you tell me what
you mean by sovereignty ? In fine, Jesus
the Nazarene is time's phenomenal per
sonality. Again, fesus is a phenomenon in respect to
his religion.
The religion of Jesus is phenomenal first,
in respect to its matter. That matter is
not an outward matter of ordinances — of
meats and drinks; of fast-days and feast-
days ; of penances and pilgrimages ; of ritu
als and rosaries; of canonicals and theolo-
16

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

gies. That matter is an inward matter of
character — of righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. Recall Christ's
doctrines ; for example, his doctrine of God
— God's spirituality, supremacy, righteous
ness, love, fatherhood. Recall Christ's doc
trine of man — man's condition as fallen, de
filed, lost, doomed ; man's possibility of
being born anew, forgiven, cleansed, recti
fied, transfigured, saved; man's duty of re
penting, believing, following, ministering,
glorifying, becoming perfect. Recall Christ's
doctrine of himself — his divine apostleship,
mediation, witnessing, interpreting, reveal
ing, emancipating, cleansing, recovering,
transfiguring, recreating. Recall Christ's
doctrine of discipleship — his requirement of
childlikeness, obedience, humility, purity,
self-denial, service, fruitage ; his two-fold test
of loving the Lord our God with all our hearts,
and loving our neighbors as ourselves ; in
one word, his doctrine of character. Recall
Christ's doctrine of the church — its spiritu
ality, co-membership, altruism, unity ; its
17 B

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

duty of loving, forgiving, non-resisting,
helping, evangelizing, witnessing, teaching,
shepherding, upbuilding, harvesting, saving.
Recall Christ's doctrine of last things —
his doctrine of resurrection, judgment, re
wards, heaven, hell, palingenesis. In short,
recall Christ's mighty doctrine of the king
dom of heaven, or God's reign in man's
soul. One of the best tests of a religion is
the character of the heaven it promises
its followers. Compare then, or rather con
trast, Christ's heaven of Perfected Character
with the heavens of other religions ; for ex
ample, the heaven of the Greek Elysium,
the Buddhistic Nirvana, the Scandinavian
Valhalla, the Moslem Paradise, the Indian
Hunting-ground, even the materialist's Ar
cadia of Perfected Environment. Their
rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges.
Again, the religion of Jesus is phenom
enal in respect to its manner. That man
ner was not by sword, not by legislation,

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

not by gold, not by lore, not by ritual,
not even by creed (that is, theology as a
philosophic system or scientific opinion).
But that manner was by character — by wit
nessing, by teaching, by living, by healing,
by self-denying, by helping, by loving, by
upbuilding; most of all, by dying. Lis
ten to Jesus' own pathetic yet confident
prophecy the Tuesday before he died :
The hour is come that the Son of man
should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into
the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone :
but if it die, it beareth much fruit. Now
is the judgment of this world : now shall
the prince of this world be cast out ; and I
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all unto myself.
And history is the eloquent record of the
fulfillment of this memorable prophecy.
Jesus on his cross is the magnet of man
kind. His crucifixion proved to be his
coronation. Napoleon Bonaparte was not
a good man — far, very far from it. But he
was a very great man, at least according to
19

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

this world's standard of greatness. It is
this intellectual greatness, coupled with his
own intense egotism, which makes his trib
ute at St. Helena to the supremacy of Jesus'
empire so striking :
" Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and my
self founded great empires : but upon what
did the creations of our genius depend ?
Upon force. Jesus alone founded his empire
upon love, and to this very day millions
would die for him." — Bertrand's Memoirs.
Now it is this spirituality of Christ's re
ligion, alike in respect to matter and to
manner, which makes Christ himself the
inhabitant of all lands, the contemporary
of all ages, the exemplar of all ideals.
Glance for a moment at the universality
of Christ's religion. All other religions are,
comparatively speaking, more or less topo
graphical ; for example, there is the Insti
tute religion of Sinai ; the Priest religion of
Egypt ; the Hero religion of Greece ; the
Empire religion of Rome ; the Brahma re
ligion of India ; the Buddha religion of

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Ceylon ; the Valhalla religion of Scandinavia ;
the Islam religion of Arabia ; the Spirit
religion of our aboriginal America. But
Christianity is the religion of mankind.
Baal was Phoenician ; Osiris was Egyptian ;
Apollo was Greek ; Mars was Roman ; Zo
roaster was Persian ; Confucius was Chin
ese ; Gautama was Indian ; Odin was Norse ;
Mohammed was Arabian. But Jesus is
the Son of Man. And therefore his re
ligion is the religion of the sons of men ;
equally suited to black and white, moun
taineers and lowlanders, landmen and sea
men, philosophers and catechumens, patri
archs and children. See how he absorbs
and assimilates into his own perfect religion
all that is good in other religions — the
symbolism of Judea; the aspiration of
Egypt; the sestheticism of Greece; the
loyalty of Rome ; the hopefulness of Persia ;
the conservatism of China ; the mysticism
of India ; the enthusiasm of Arabia ; the
energy of Teutonia ; the versatilities of
Christendom. Like the great sea, his re-

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

ligion keeps fiowingly conterminous with
the ever-changing shore-line of every con
tinent, every island, every promontory, every
estuary. And this because he is the Son
of Man, in whom there is and can be
neither Jew nor non-Jew, neither Greek nor
Scythian, neither Asiatic nor American,
neither male nor female ; but all are one
new man in him, and he is all in all.
Again, glance at the immortality of
Christ's religion. Other religions, so far as
we can see, have had their day. The relig
ions of Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome,
Scandinavia, have gone. The civilized
world has long since outgrown the Koran
of Mohammed, the Apothegms of Seneca,
the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, the Analects
of Confucius, the Tripitakas of Buddha,
the Vedas of Brahma, even many of the in
stitutes of Moses. But the civilized world
has not outgrown, hardly even approxima
ted, the teachings of Jesus ; we still call
many of them, for instance his doctrine of
non-resistance, Utopian. True, the vast

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

majority of mankind still cling to ancestral
forms of religion ; for example : Fetichism,
Animism, Brahmanism, Zoroastrianism, Con
fucianism, Buddhism, etc. Little inspira
tion, however, do these religions give to
the living, little comfort to the dying, lit
tle grasp on the hereafter. Their gaze is
backward rather than forward ; deathward
rather than lifeward. For example : the
followers of Buddha, claim that Nirvana
— that state of existence so nebulous it
cannot be affirmed whether it means simple
unconsciousness or total extinction — is the
supremest goal of aspiration ; and that
even Buddha himself is no longer, if in
deed he ever was, a self-conscious person,
but has himself attained Buddhahood or
Nirvana. On the other hand, the fol
lowers of Jesus believe that though he
was crucified and buried, he has burst the
bars of death and is alive forevermore,
holding in his own grasp the keys of death
and hades, sitting on the right hand of
the Majesty in the heavens, from hence-
23

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

forth expecting till he make his foes his
footstool. Believing that they hold per
sonal communion with this risen, ifnmortal,
triumphant Nazarene, his followers are ever
feeling the inspiration of his life-giving
touch, and are therefore ever waking to
broader thoughts and diviner catholicities.
And so the religion of Jesus Christ is as
everlasting as it is universal.
Thus the religion of Jesus Christ, alike
in its matter, in its manner, in its univer
sality, in its immortality, is an absolutely
phenomenal religion.
Once more, fesus is a phenomenon in re
spect to his influence.
Observe first his influence over individu
als. Out of untold myriads who have felt
more or less directly his sway, I can of
course mention but a few, and these few
only as typical examples, and of these typi
cal examples, only such as have depai'ted
this life (l8g6). Not that all these whom I
shall mention were what we call " Chris
tians " ; nevertheless, Jesus manifestly influ-
24

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

enced them either in their character or in
their work ; he stood among them, even
though they knew him not. And in men
tioning the following names, it is my pur
pose to mention no one of them but once ;
except in those few cases where the person
mentioned answered markedly to more than
one type ; for example, Martin Luther was
not only a great reformer — he was also con
spicuous as a commentator, a theologian, a
preacher, a hymnist, a musician, a translator,
a hero. See first of all how Jesus influenced
his own contemporaries : for instance, his
blessed mother, his forerunner, his apostles,
his evangelists, his ministering women, Nico
demus of Jerusalem, the woman of Samaria,
the centurion of Capernaum, the penitent
woman of Simon's feast, Zacchaeus of Jeri
cho, the Greek proselytes, the dying robber,
Joseph of Arimathea, Saul of Tarsus as one
born out of due time. See how Jesus influ
enced even those who were not his follow
ers ; as when sacrilegious traders fled before
25

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

him ; Roman soldiers fell prostrate at sight
of him ; heathen Pilate tried to release him ;
pagan centurion confessed his divinity ; re
morseful Judas hanged himself ; conscience-
smitten Sanhedrin bribed Roman sentry.
Even the demons felt his power and trem
bled. See how Jesus has been influencing men
and women ever since.
See for example, how Jesus has influenced
apologists (not apologizers for Christianity,
but defenders of Jesus) : for instance, such
ancient apologists as Justin of Shechem,
Athenagoras of Athens, Origen of Alexan
dria, Tertullian of Carthage, Lactantius of
Nicomedia, etc. ; such modern apologists as
Auberlen of Germany, Chateaubriand of
France, Grundtvig of Denmark, Liddon of
England, Hopkins of America, etc.
* * *

26

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

See how Jesus has influenced artists : for
instance, such architects as the designers of
the abbeys of Westminster, Fountains, Tin-
tern, Glastonbury, Caen, etc., and the ca
thedrals of Amiens, Canterbury, Chartres,
Cologne, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Florence,
Gloucester, Lincoln, Notre Dame, Peter
borough, Pisa, Rheims, Rouen, Salisbury,
St. Paul's, St. Peter's, Strasburg, Winches
ter, Worcester, York, etc. ; such musicians
as Ambrose, Gregory, Luther, Tallis, Pales-
trina, Purcell, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Men
delssohn, Spohr, Gounod, Croft, Dykes,
Barnby, Mason, etc. ; such painters as Ci-
mabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Angelico, Bellini,
Bartolommeo, Correggio, Holbein, Titian,
Tintoretto, Domenichino, Guido, Rembrandt,
Murillo, West, Blake, AUston, Delaroche,
Scheffer, Overbeck, Millet, Dore, Bida, etc. ;
such engravers as Diirer, Miiller, Longhi,
Morghen, etc. ; such sculptors as Pisano,
Ghiberti, Donatello, Vischer, Thorwaldsen,
etc. ; such all-comprehending artists (archi
tectural, musical, pictorial, sculptural) as
27

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael ; to say
nothing of such writers on sacred art as
Anna Jameson, John Ruskin, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced biblicists :
for instance, such archaeologists as Reland,
Bingham, Winer, Smith, etc. ; such com
mentators as Origen the Greek, Augustine
the Latin, Calvin the Frenchman, Grotius
the Dutchman, Meyer the German, Godet
the Swiss, Lightfoot the Englishman,
Hackett the American, etc. ; such cyclo-
pedists as Fairbairn, Herzog, Eadie, Kitto,
Smith, etc. ; such geographers as Burckhardt,
Palmer, Ritter, Thomson, etc. ; such lexi
cographers as Cremer, Girdlestone, Grimm,
Trench, etc.; such textuaries ("critics" if
you prefer) as Erasmus, Bengel, Griesbach,
Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Abbot,
Hort, etc. ; such translators as Jerome
(Latin), Wycliffe (English), Luther (Ger-
28

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

man), Segond (French), etc. ; such writers
of analyses, concordances, introductions,
etc., as Barth, Cruden, Hitchcock, Home,
Young, etc. ; in sum, such a manysided
biblicist (archaeologist, explorer, harmonist,
lexicographer, etc.) as Edward Robinson.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced biographers
(I mean only those who have written more
or less complete memoirs of him) : for in
stance, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; An
drews, Baumgarten, Beecher, Bonaventura,
Caspari, Crosby, De Pressense, Dupanloup,
Ebrard, Edersheim, Ewald, Fleetwood,
Hanna, Hase, Herder, Keim, Klopstock,
Lange, Mercier, Monod, Neander, Plumptre,
Schaff, Schleiermacher, Seely, Sepp, Taylor,
Weiss, Wittichen, etc. ; to say nothing of
such harmonists (chronological arrangers of
the gospel-biographies) as Tatian, Greswell,
Lightfoot, Robinson, Strong, etc. Even
29

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Strauss and Renan, in their Lives of Jesus,
do him the homage of their elaborate doubts.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced colonists :
for instance, Robinson of Leyden, Bradford
of Massachusetts, Williams of Rhode Island,
Bogardus of New York, Penn of Pennsyl
vania, Calvert of Maryland, Raleigh of Vir
ginia, Marion of the Carolinas, Oglethorpe
of Georgia, Hughes of Tennessee, Zinzen-
ford of Herrnhut, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced educators:
for instance, Benedict of Nursia, Alcuin of
York, Ascham of London, Sturm of Stras
burg, Comenius of Moravia, Raikes of Glou
cester, Pestalozzi of Zurich, Bell of St. An
drews, Lancaster of London, Arnold of
3°

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Rugby, Mary Lyon of Mount Holyoke,
Froebel of Oberweissbach, Wayland of
Providence, Duff of Calcutta, Hopkins of
Williamstown, etc., to say nothing of the
many Christian founders of various kinds of
institutions (academic, philanthropic, reform
atory, etc.), or of the multitudes of Chris
tian teachers in schools of all sorts, Sunday
and week-day. * * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced heroes : for
instance, Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred of
Galilee, Robert the Bruce, Joan of Arc,
Bayard the chevalier, Columbus of Genoa,
Raleigh of London, Sidney of Penshurst,
Gustavus of Sweden, Havelock of Luck
now, Lee of Manassas, Grant of Appomat
tox, Livingstone of Chitambo, Gordon of
Khartum, etc. : to say nothing of the count
less ungazetted heroes and heroines who
31

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

have for Jesus' sake endured every form of
trial in the home and in the shop.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced historians
(to mention only ecclesiastical) : for instance,
Luke, Eusebius, Bede, Bossuet, Mosheim,
Schrockh, Gieseler, Neander, Ranke, Baur,
Hagenbach, Kurtz, Muller, Bunsen, Burnett,
Milman, Montalembert, D'Aubignd, Schaff,
Robertson, Smith, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced lawyers:
for instance, Tertullian the champion, Sel
den the scholar, Hale the jurist, Blackstone
the commentator, Mansfield the statesman,
Marshall the constitutionalist, Jay the phil-
32

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

anthropist, Kent the chancellor, Webster
the orator, Maine the antiquarian, etc.
* * *

See how Jesus has influenced linguists (to
speak only of missionary translators of the
Bible) : for instance, Eli Smith into Arabic,
William Goodell into Armeno-Turkish, Wil
liam Carey into Bengali, Robert Morrison
into Chinese, Henry Martyn into Persian, etc.,
to say nothing of the multitudes of mission
aries who have translated Scriptures into
hundreds of heathen tongues and dialects,
in many cases even inventing alphabets, and
so laying for their converts the very founda
tions of the only literature they possess.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced martyrs:
for instance, Stephen of Jerusalem, Antipas
33 c

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

of Pergamum, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp
of Smyrna, Irenaeus of Lyons, Perpetua and
Felicitas of Carthage, Sebastian of Nar
bonne, Albanus of Verulam, Boniface of
Friesland, Bruno of Brauenburg, Huss and
Jerome of Prague, Latimer and Ridley of
Oxford, Tyndale of Vilvorde, Rogers of
Smithfield, Margaret of Wigtonshire, the
Gordons of Erromanga, Hannington of
Uganda, the Stewarts of Ku Cheng, etc. ; to
say nothing of the anonymous thousands
and probably millions who have fallen by
organized persecutions, as under the Roman
emperors, among the Lollards of England,
the Waldenses of the Alps, the adherents
to the Reformation, the early converts in
many mission fields, the Armenian Chris
tians in Turkey, etc. ; or of the countless
saints who have bravely suffered practical
martyrdom for Jesus in daily life in their
own obscure homes.
* * *

34

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

See how Jesus has influenced merchants :
for instance, Samuel Budget t, Nathaniel R.
Cobb, the Lawrences, Peter Cooper, George
Peabody, William E. Dodge, Samuel Morley,
George H. Stuart, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced mission
aries: for instance, Paul the apostle to the
Gentiles, Irenaeus the apostle to the Gauls,
Denis the apostle to the Franks, Gregory
the apostle to the Armenians, Ulfilas the
apostle to the Goths, Patrick the apostle to
the Irish, Columba the apostle to the Cale
donians, Augustine the apostle to the Eng
lish, Boniface the apostle to the Germans,
Anskar the apostle to the Scandinavians,
Cyril the apostle to the Bohemians, Meth
odius the apostle to the Moravians, Gall the
apostle to the Swiss, Bruner the apostle to
the Prussians, Xavier the apostle to the
Japanese, Eliot the apostle to the Indians,
35

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Egede the apostle to the Greenlanders,
Schwartz the apostle to the Tamils, Carey
the apostle to the Hindus, Judson the apos
tle to the Burmans, Morrison the apostle to
the Chinese, Wolff the apostle to the Jews,
Williams the apostle to the South Sea
Islanders, Boardman the apostle to the Ka
rens, Moffatt the apostle to the Bechuanas,
Ellis the apostle to the Polynesians, Patteson
the apostle to the Melanesians, Mackay the
apostle to the Bugandas, McAll the apostle
to the French, Jewett the apostle to the
Telugus, etc.
* * * * * *
See how Jesus has influenced novelists:
for instance, Walter Scott, George Borrow,
Elizabeth R. Charles, Charles Dickens,
Georg Ebers, Victor Hugo, Charles Kings-
ley, Charles Reade, Robert L. B. Stevenson,
Harriet B. Stowe, etc.
* * *

36

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

See how Jesus has influenced philanthro
pists : for instance, Dorcas of Joppa, Vin
cent de Paul, St. Bernard, the Buxtons,
Thomas Clarkson, Joseph G. Gurney, John
Howard, Granville Sharp, William Wilber
force, Jean F. Oberlin, Felix Neff, Theo
dore Fliedner, Hermann Francke, Mary
Carpenter, Elizabeth Fry, Dorothea Dix,
Sister Dora, John Woolman, Samuel G.
Howe, Wendell Phillips, the Gallaudets,
Henry Berg, Charles L. Brace, George W.
Childs, Samuel C. Armstrong, Earl Shaftes
bury, etc. ; to say nothing of the many
Christian founders of hospitals, asylums,
orphanages, orders of charity, homes, insti
tutes, schools (academies, colleges, semi
naries), settlements, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced philoso
phers : for instance, Justin of Shechem,
Bacon of Oxford, Bacon of Verulam, Des-
37

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

cartes of Touraine, Pascal of Port Royal,
Locke of Wrington, Cudworth of Cambridge,
Berkeley of Cloyne, Leibnitz of Leipsic,
Clarke of Norwich, Reid of Glasgow, Kant
of Konigsberg, Schleiermacher of Berlin,
Coleridge of Highgate, Schelling of Stutt
gart, Cousin of Paris, Hamilton of Edin
burgh, Delitzsch of Berlin, Whewell of
Cambridge, Lotze of Bautzen, McCosh of
Princeton, etc.
* * * * * *
See how Jesus has influenced physicians :
for instance, Luke the Beloved, William
Harvey, Sir Thomas Browne, Hermann
Boerhaave, Albrecht von Haller, Benjamin
Rush, John Abercrombie, Sir Charles Bell,
Sir Henry Holland, Sir Andrew Clarke, Sir
James Y. Simpson, D. Hayes Agnew, Ben
jamin W. Richardson, etc.
* * *

38

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

See how Jesus has influenced poets: for
instance, Caedmon the Northumbrian, Dante
Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, Torquato Tas-
so, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare,
Giles Fletcher, George Herbert, Francis
Quarles, John Milton, Henry Vaughan, Jo
seph Addison, Edward Young, Henry Kirke
White, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert
Southey, William Wordsworth, John Keble,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
James Russell Lowell, Alfred Tennyson,
John Greenleaf Whittier, etc. ; see how
Jesus has influenced hymnists ; for instance,
such Greek hymnists as Anatolius of Con
stantinople (" Zoiptpdz rpixufiap'), John of
Damascus ("'Avaordoecot; tfjuepa"), Stephen
of Sabas (pKoizbv re xai xdfiarov "), etc. ; such
Latin hymnists as Bernard of Clairvaux
("Jesu, dulcis memoria"), Bernard of Cluny
("Urbs Syon aurea"), Thomas of Celano
("Dies irae, dies ilia"), etc.; such German
hymnists as Martin Luther ("Ein' feste
Burg ist unser Gott"), Paul Gerhardt ("O
39

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Haupt voll Blut und Wunden"), Philip Nic
olai ("Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"),
etc.; such translators of hymns as Edward
Caswall, John M. Neale, Catharine Wink-
worth, etc. ; such English hymnists as
Sarah F. Adams ("Nearer, my God, to
thee "), Sir John Bowring (" In the cross of
Christ I glory"), William Cowper ("There
is a fountain filled with blood"), Philip
Doddridge ("Jesus, I love thy charming
name"), Charlotte Elliott ("Just as I am,
without one plea"), Frederick W. Faber
("There's a wideness in God's mercy"),
John Fawcett (" Blest be the tie that binds "),
Reginald Heber ("From Greenland's icy
mountains"), Thomas Ken ("Praise God,
from whom all blessings flow"), Henry F.
Lyte ("Abide with me; fast falls the even
tide"), Samuel Medley ("Oh, could I speak
the matchless worth "), James Montgomery
("Hail to the Lord's Anointed"), John H.
Newman ("Lead, kindly Light! amid the
encircling gloom"), John Newton ("How
sweet the name of Jesus sounds"), Edward
40

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Perronet ("All hail the power of Jesus'
name"), Robert Robinson ("Come, thou
Fount of every blessing"), Anne Steele
(" Father ! whate'er of earthly bliss "), Samuel
Stennett ("Majestic sweetness sits en
throned"), Augustus Toplady ("Rock of
Ages, cleft for me"), Isaac Watts ("When
I s'urvey the wondrous cross"), Charles
Wesley ("Jesus, lover of my soul"), etc.;
such American hymnists as Phoebe H.
Brown ("I love to steal awhile away"),
Phoebe Cary (" One sweetly solemn
thought"), Arthur C. Coxe ("Oh, where
are kings and empires now"), George Duf
field ("Stand up! stand up! for Jesus"),
Timothy Dwight ("I love thy kingdom,
Lord"), Edward Hopper ("Jesus, Saviour,
pilot me"), John Leland ("The day is past
and gone"), Ray Palmer ("My faith looks
up to thee"), Edmund H. Sears (" It came
upon the midnight clear "), Samuel F. Smith
(" My country, 'tis of thee "), etc. ; to say
nothing of converted hymnists, for instance,
Krishnu Pal (" O thou, my soul, forget no
41

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

more "), etc. Jesus is the real motif (con
scious or unconscious) of all true poetry and
song. # * #

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced preachers:
for instance, Apollos the Alexandrian, Basil
the Great, Gregory the Nazianzen, John the
golden-mouthed, Bernard the enthusiastic,
Tauler the mystical, Fletcher the blameless,
Baxter the saintly, Massillon the oratorical,
Whitefield the impassioned, Wesley the
zealous, Hall the eloquent, Herder the
versatile, Evans the dramatic, Channing
the philanthropic, Simeon the evangelical,
Schleiermacher the many-sided, Irving the
eccentric, Alexander the scholarly, Finney
the searching, Tholuck the sympathetic,
Lacordaire the intense, Monod the devout,
Robertson the chivalric, Beecher the pro-
42

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

gressive, Spurgeon the conservative, Brooks
the manly, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced publicists :
for instance, Grotius the accomplished, Puf-
endorf the historian, Vattel the jurist, Whea
ton the diplomatist, Lieber the scholar,
Woolsey the educator, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced reformers:
for instance, such ecclesiastical reformers
as Hildebrand of Italy, Wycliffe of England,
Huss of Bohemia, Luther of Germany,
Zwingli of Switzerland, Groat of Holland,
Farel of France, Knox of Scotland, Hooper
the Puritan, Fox the Quaker, Wesley the
Methodist, Zinzendorf the Moravian, Dol-
linger the Old Catholic, etc. ; such political
43

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

reformers as Arnold of Brescia, Savonarola
of Florence, Cobden of London, Curtis of
New York, etc. ; such sociological reformers
as Thomas Chalmers, Frederick D. Maurice,
Charles Kingsley, Louis Blanc, Cardinal
Manning, etc. ; such temperance reformers
as Beecher of Connecticut, Mathew of Ire
land, Gough of Massachusetts, etc.
* * *

* * *
See how Jesus has influenced scientists
(you tell me that the Academy is skeptical ;
let me then appeal both to numbers and to
weight) : see, for instance, how Jesus has
influenced such astronomers as Nicholas
Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, John Flamsteed,
the Herschels, Jeremiah Horrocks, Johann
Kepler, etc. ; such chemists as Robert
Boyle, John Dalton, Sir Humphrey Davy,
Louis Pasteur, Justus von Liebig, etc. ; such
geologists as William Buckland, the Cony-
beares, James D. Dana, Edward Hitchcock,
44

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Hugh Miller, Alexander Winchell, etc. ; such
inventors as Richard Arkwright, Samuel F.
B. Morse, Eli Whitney, etc. ; such mathe
maticians as Isaac Barrow, Thomas Brad-
wardine, Rene Descartes, Leonard Euler,
the Gregories, Thomas Hill, Gottfried W.
von Leibnitz, John Napier, Isaac Newton,
Blaise Pascal, Benjamin Pierce, Mary Somer
ville, Emanuel Swedenborg, William Whew
ell, William Whiston, Matthew Young,
etc. ; such naturalists as Louis Agassiz,
John Bachman, George Cuvier, Asa Gray,
George J. Romanes, Henry Drummond,
etc. ; such physicists as Roger Bacon, David
Brewster, Ebenezer Kinnersley, the Silli-
mans, Joseph Henry, James Clerk-Maxwell,
Michael Faraday, etc.
* * * * * *
See how Jesus has influenced statesmen :
for instance, Alfred the Great, Coligny
the hero, William the Silent, Mornay the
Huguenot, Cromwell the protector, Chatham
45

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

the commoner, Burke the thinker, Wash
ington the patriot, Mackintosh the scholar,
Guizot the historian, Peel the reformer, Lin
coln the martyr, Bright the orator, etc.1
* * * * * *
See how Jesus has influenced" theologi
ans : for instance, Paul the forensic, Ori
gen the exegetical, Athanasius the Christo
logical, Gregory the profound, Hilary the
acute, Augustine the comprehensive, An
selm the scholastic, Bernard the mellifluous,
Bonaventura the seraphic, Aquinas the an
gelic, Scotus the subtle, Luther the impet
uous, Melancthon the gentle, Calvin the sys
tematic, Butler the apologetic, Edwards the
metaphysical, Swedenborg the apocalyptic,
Ullmann the devout, Rothe the harmonious,
Miiller the modest, Ritschl the orthodOx-
heterodox, Martensen the spiritual, Lim-
1 William Ewart Gladstone is such a conspicuous in
stance of Christian statesmanship, oratory, and society
building, that, though still living, I depart in his case from
the chronological limitation stated on p. 24.
46

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

borch the Arminian, Mohler the Roman
Catholic, Hooker the Episcopalian, Barclay
the Quaker, Molinos the Quietist, Fuller
the Baptist, Bushnell the Congregationalist,
Hodge the Presbyterian, Watson the Metho
dist, Twesten the Lutheran, Dorner the
Reformed, Ballou the Universalist, etc.
* * * * * *
See how Jesus has influenced writers:
they are as countless " as autumnal leaves
that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa " ; let
me mention but one name ; his genius shall
represent them all — -fohn Bunyan.
See how Jesus has influenced even skep
tics themselves : I might make many cita
tions ; let the following from John Stuart
Mill stand as a sample :
About the life and sayings of Jesus, there
is a stamp of personal originality combined
with profundity of insight which, if we
abandon the idle expectations of finding
scientific precision where something very dif
ferent wasnaimed at, must place the Prophet
47

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those
who have no belief in his inspiration, in
the very first rank of the men of sublime
genius of whom our species can boast.
When this pre-eminent genius is combined
with the qualities of probably the greatest
moral reformer and martyr to that mission
who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot
be said to have made a bad choice in pitch
ing on this man as the ideal representative
and guide of humanity ; nor even now would
it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a
better translation of the rule of virtue from
the abstract into the concrete than the en
deavor so to live that Christ would approve
our life. — Essays on Religion, p. 254.
See how Jesus is still influencing men
and women to this very day, still transfig
uring into his own likeness Jews and non-
Jews, savages and sages, profligates and
pharisees. In fact, there has never been an
age in the Christian era, not even in the apos
tolic, when Jesus, practically speaking, in
fluenced so many persons, or influenced
them so profoundly, as in this nineteenth
century of his grace. For it must be ad
mitted that in addition to the millions who
48

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

openly confess him there are all through
Christendom unknown multitudes of latent
confessors who, repelled by present eccle
siastical tests, have never joined any earthly
church, but who, if the crisis should de
mand, would boldly come forth, not indeed
to entomb him, but to enthrone him.
Hitherto I have spoken of the personal
influence of Jesus over individuals. Let
me now speak of the general influence of
Jesus over society at large. See, for in
stance, how it is Jesus himself who, in vir
tue of his own personality and character, is
making the difference between Christendom
and heathendom. See how the spirit of
Jesus is permeating, like a healing elixir,
the disordered framework of society ; open;
ing its clogged veins, expelling its morbid hu
mors, touching its springs of health, restor
ing it to the image of God. See how under
his influence, or the sense of his constrain
ing love, Christian missionaries are giving
to pagans the boons of regeneration, liberty,
industries, property, peace, education, chas-
49 D

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

tity, temperance, virtues, amenities, home.
See how his influence is softening the bar
barism of the world's customs ; abolishing
its pitiless suicides and infanticides and sut
tees, its horrible self-mutilations, its brutal
wars, its cruel slaveries, its private duels,
its loose divorces, its filthy imprisonments,
its scaffold shames, its murderous dram
shops, its secret seraglios, its satanic gos
sips. See how his influence is reconstruct
ing human society : founding missions, asy
lums, hospitals, orphanages, schools, univer
sities, institutes for heart and mind and
body; ameliorating the condition of ani
mals ; exalting ideals ; transfiguring child
hood ; uplifting woman; ennobling juris
prudence ; establishing and maintaining
rights of labor, of property, of person, of
name, of conscience, of manhood ; rearing
courts of arbitration — personal, corpora-
tional, national, international ; exalting the
individual by making him feel that he is a
corporate member of human society ; exalt
ing human society by making its members
5°

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

feel that they are members one of another;
equipoising mankind into one corporate
unity ; in brief ushering in the Kingdom
of God.
See how the Nazarene has influenced
chronology itself. Why is it, O Christian,
that you do not observe the Mosaic Sabbath
by worshiping in the synagogue on Satur
days ? It is because you believe that Jesus
rose from the dead on Sunday, and you revere
him so much that you prefer his resurrec
tion-day as your Sabbath. How, O skeptic,
do you date your letters ? It may be that
on last Christmas-day you wrote one of spe
cial importance. In dating it, why did you
not reckon from the Greek Olympiad ? from
Rome's Foundation ? from Mohammed's
Flight ? from Buddha's Birth ? from Comte' s
Calendar ? Why did you date it, December
twenty-fifth, 1896? Because, according to
the common chronology, Jesus of Bethle
hem was born 1 896 years ago ; this is why
atheists and believers alike say, Anno
Domini — In the Year of Our Lord,
5i

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

1897. Every almanac in Christendom is a
tribute to Jesus.
See how the Man of Nazareth has con
secrated the commonest things : transfigur
ing water into baptism, eating and drinking
into holy communion, society into church,
cross into throne, etc.
In sum, see how the Lamb of Calvary is
reorganizing human chaos, reversing human
instincts, revolutionizing human tendencies,
co-ordinating human faculties, transfiguring
human sensibilities, marshaling human pow
ers, disclosing human potentialities, celes-
tializing human character, upreanng the
temple of the New Mankind, transforming
earth's Babylons into heaven's Jerusalem.
The Nazarene Teacher is himself the uni
versal Seminary, at whose feet mankind is
evermore learning whatsoever things are
true in theology, in philosophy, in science,
in history, in poetry, in art, in ethics, in re
ligion. The Babe of Bethlehem is the con
temporary of all times ; the Man of Calvary
is the inhabitant of all lands. In short,
52

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Jesus the Christ is the watershed of human
history — all yonder side of him flowing into
comparative oblivion, all the hither side of
him flowing into certain immortality — him
self the august Lever to uplift the earth,
Arid roll it in another course.
— In Memoriam.
And Jesus Christ has never been so in
fluential as he is at this very hour. In vain
have the kings of the earth set themselves
in array against Jehovah, in vain have the
rulers of the world taken counsel against
Jehovah's Christ, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us.—Ps. 2.
Time has proved that Julian the apostate
was no match for Matthew the publican;
that Hume the philosopher was no match
for Mark the evangelist; that Gibbon the
historian was no match for Luke the physi-
53

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

cian ; that Voltaire the scoffer was no
match for John the exile ; that Strauss the
professor was no match for Peter the fisher
man ; that Renan the scholar was no match
for Paul the tentmaker; that Satan the
destroyer is no match for Jesus the up-
builder. Do you talk about a waning Chris
tianity? You might as well talk about a
waning Deity!
Thus Jesus' personality, Jesus' religion,
Jesus' influence, is time's overshadowing
phenomenon. And so emerges our philosophical prob
lem —
How will you account for this un
paralleled PHENOMENON  JESUS TIJE
Nazarene ?
It is a fair question to ask. A phenom
enon so stupendous demands explanation.
Among the axioms of reasoning are these :
" From nothing, nothing comes " ; " every
effect must have a cause " ; " every effect
must have an adequate cause," etc. Here
54

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

is a colossal effect ; what caused it ? We
are living in an age of scientific inquiry,
inductive sciences, philosophical generaliza
tions. I have brought before you a vast
mass of material, mental and moral — some
of it labeled, much of it only suggested.
Gathering typical samples from almost every
variety of best human thought, emotion,
activity, character, I have shown you that
Jesus of Nazareth canopies all these varie
ties of best human achievements and possi
bilities, even as God's own sky canopies all
varieties of earth's phenomena — lands, seas,
forests, mountains, structures, possibilities.
And now my question is : How will you
account for this unparalleled phenomenon ?
It is a question alike momentous, philosoph
ical, scientific, pertinent.
How will you account for the personal
ity of fesusf Recall the age in which he
lived — an age of Caesarean imperialism,
selfishness, debauchery, brutality, atheism;
an age of Jewish traditionalism, conceit,
bigotry. Yet, despite all this, Jesus of

55

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

Nazareth is earth's solitary ideal, time's
transcendent miracle. Instead of Christ's
character having been the product of his
age, that character was an absolute anach
ronism. Instead of Christ's personality
having been an evolution, that personality
was a cataclysm of graciousness, as though
himself had come down from heaven a
parentless Melchizedek, without biographical
father or mother, without historic beginning
of days or prophetic end of time. How
then will you account for this unique break
in the law of heredity, this tremendous
exception to the law of environment ? You
can account for Plato — he sat at the feet of
Socrates. You can account for Cicero — he
was trained in the statutes of the Twelve
Tables. You can account for Newton — he
pondered in the cloisters of Cambridge.
But how will you account for Jesus, who
never argued with Socrates by whispering
Ilissus, or strode along with Cicero by golden
Tiber, or meditated with Newton by rippling
Cam ? How happens it that Jerusalem with
56

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

her Temple, Egypt with her Heliopolis,
Athens with her Academy, Rome with her
Forum, France with her Sorbonne, Germany
with her Heidelberg, England with her
Oxford, America with her Harvard — how
happens it that these, and all such as these,
have never produced the peer, at best only
dim hints, of the Nazarene? How then
will you account for the personality of
Jesus ? It is a fair question to ask : Whose
Son is he?
Again, how will you account for the re
ligion of fesus f Recall again his envi
ronment- — his dwarfing surroundings of
rabbinism, traditionalism, trivialities. Yet,
despite that unfortunate heredity, that dis
astrous environment, this obscure Galilean,
this young, unlored, despised, crucified car
penter founded a religion so seminal and
prophetic that even now, after nearly nine
teen hundred years, there are many good
people who still call it Utopian — a religion
supremely fresh, pure, lofty, profound, cath
olic, controlling, immortal. How then will
57

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

you account for this most remarkable moral
phenomenon — the religion of Jesus Christ —
in one mighty word, Christianity? Whose
Son is this Founder of it ?
Once more, how will you account for the
influence of fesus f Ponder his boundless
personal sway over men. Recall the tre
mendous hold he has had on mankind from
the beginning, and never so tremendous
as to-day. Recall the sweeping victories
of the early church, and this in spite of
dreadful imperial persecutions ; the homage
implied in the simple initials, b. c. and
a. d. ; the many and enormous differences
between Christendom and pagandom ; the
wonderful transformations of personal char
acter ; the mysterious help that comes to
his followers in time of trouble ; the sense
of communion with him that his people have ;
the readiness with which, were it needful,
millions would die for him. How then will
you account for this influence of Jesus — an
influence so personal, so continuous, so in
tense, so all-dominating ? Again, I declare,
58

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

it is a fair question to ask : Whose Son is
he? Here then is our philosophical problem :
How will you account for this most amazing
phenomenon, Jesus Christ — a phenom
enon absolutely unparalleled in human
space and time ? Once more I assert, it is
a fair question to ask : Whose Son is this
Jesus Christ ? We all admit that he was
David's son. How is it that, as history
proves, he is also humanity's Lord ?
II.
And so we pass from the philosophical
problem, How will you account for Jesus
of Nazareth ? to
1'lie Practical Problem : V/hat Will you
do With this Jesus?
First, It is a Momentous Question.
Recall his stupendous claims. He declared
that he was a teacher sent from God ; he
taught that he is the sole deliverer of man
kind; he claims that he is still alive,, and
59

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

from his throne in the heavens demands
earth's allegiance and adoration ; he an
nounces that he is to be the final judge of
mankind. These are tremendous claims.
Hence the question, What will you do with
him ? is a tremendous question. If he is to
be believed, our treatment of him is decisive
of our own destinies. What then will you
do with Jesus of Nazareth?
Again, It is an Executive Question.
It is not a question of theory — it is a ques
tion of practice; not a question of creed,
but a question of deed; not a question of
church, but a question of life ; not a ques
tion of opinion, but a question of obedience.
What then will you do with Jesus of Naza
reth? Again, It is a Personal Question.
Practically speaking, you cannot separate
Christianity from Christ. If there is any
Christianity it is because there is a Christ.
And this Christ demands a personal corona
tion at our hands. Neutrality at this point
is impossible. Neutrality ? — neutrality is
60

THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

itself hostility. What then -will you do with
Jesus of Nazareth ?
Once more, It is a Pressing Question.
Recall Pilate's dilemma in his own Praeto-
rium, "What then shall I do with Jesus,
who is called the Christ?" But Pilate was
not the only man who has been summoned
to ask this tremendous question. There is
a profound sense in which it is awfully true
that Jesus of Nazareth is still on our hands,
still awaiting our decision concerning him —
whether to deny him or to confess him.
Pilate's question is an immortal question,
which you and I, not less than Pilate him
self, must answer. Scripture asks the
question ; so does history ; so does litera
ture; so does art; so does philosophy; so
does science ; so does civilization ; so does
morality ; so does conscience ; so does prov
idence ; so do I. As it was in the days of
his flesh, so it is to-day — Jesus can in no
wise be hid. What then will you now do
with Jesus of Nazareth ?
How long then, O friend, will you halt
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THE PROBLEM OF JESUS

between two opinions in this stupendous
matter? What will you do now with the
Man of men ? Do not answer as Pontius
Pilate answered. Be true to your diviner
instincts. With the once doubting but
finally believing and adoring Thomas, ex
claim —
" my lord and my god ! "

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