with a child and ending with her Son upon the cross--a galaxy of men and
women whose words and deeds have travelled into every land. One poor
widow with two mites, wisely invested, purchased more enduring fame than
any rich man was ever able to buy with all his money. Another, Tabitha,
by interpretation called Dorcas, drew forth as eloquent a tribute as was
ever paid. In the goodness of her heart she made garments for the poor,
and the recipients, exhibiting them at her death-bed, expressed their
gratitude in tears. The narrative suggests an epitaph which every
Christian can earn--and who could desire more? viz., the night is darker
because a life has gone out; the world is not so warm because a heart is
cold in death.
In John the Baptist, we have the forerunner--"the voice crying in the
wilderness." The Apostles, chosen from among the busy multitude, carried
their habits of industry into their new calling; some turned from
catching fish to become "fishers of men," while Matthew employed the
accuracy of a collector of customs in chronicling the life of the
Master. Even the weaknesses of men were utilized: Thomas consecrated his
doubts, and John, the disciple, baptized his ambition--each giving the
Great Teacher an opportunity to use a fault for the enlightening of
future generations. The latter became the most intimate companion of the
Saviour--"the disciple whom Jesus loved" and the one who most frequently
used the word love.
Peter and Paul stand out conspicuously among the exponents of early
Christianity. In the case of Peter, Christ brought an impulsive nature
into complete subjection and gave a steadying purpose to an emotional
follower. In Paul, we see a giant intellect aflame with a holy zeal.
Both were bold interpreters of Christ's mission and both urged upon
Christians the full gospel equipment.
In his second Epistle, chapter one, Peter exhorts:
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;
and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these
things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither
be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the sixth chapter of Ephesians, Paul pleads:
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having
on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God: Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints.
Peter was a rock, hewn into shape and polished by the divine hand; Paul
was a "chosen vessel" to bear the Redeemer's Name before "the Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel." Paul was an orator with a
purpose; he was a man with a message. He was eloquent because he knew
what he was talking about and meant what he said. No wonder, for he was
called to service by a summons so distinct and unmistakable that he
turned at once from persecuting to preaching. Paul is responsible for
one of the most inspiring sentences in the Bible--"I was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision." It was the key to his whole life.
Love is not blind, declares Tolstoy; it sees what ought to be done and
does it. So with Paul. His eyes were open to the truth and he saw it;
he was sensitive to the needs of the Church and his epistles are filled
with wise counsel. He encouraged the worthy, admonished the erring and
strengthened the weak. Paul knew well the secret of liberality, as shown
in 2 Corinthians 8: 5. The members of the Macedonian church "first gave
their own selves"; giving was easy after that. Paul's religion could not
be shaken; read his vow as recorded in the eighth chapter of Romans:
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
His sufferings developed patience and deepened devotion. They prepared
him to appreciate love and to define it as no other mortal has done.
His tribute to love, contained in the thirteenth chapter of 1
Corinthians, is not approached by any other utterance on this subject.
(I use the old version with the word charity changed to love.)
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and
is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things; Love never faileth: but
whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be
tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish
away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away
childish things; For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then
face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also
I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the
greatest of these is love.
I cannot leave the Book of Books without referring to one of the supreme
moments that it describes. The Bible is full of pictures; the painter
has found it an inexhaustible storehouse of suggestion. All the great
climaxes of sacred history speak to us from the canvas. Moses and
Pharaoh, Ruth and Naomi, Daniel at the Belshazzar Feast and in the
Lions' Den, Elijah at Mt. Carmel and before Ahab, Joseph and his
brethren, David and Goliath, Mary and the Child, Jesus, the Prodigal
Son, the Sower, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Young Man, the Wise and the
Foolish Virgins, Jesus in the Temple, Christ Entering Jerusalem, and in
the Garden of Gethsemane, and The Saviour on the Cross--these are but a
few of the word pictures that have inspired the artist's brush.
But there is another picture, unsurpassed in thrilling power
and permanent interest, namely, that presented by the trial of
Christ--tragedy of tragedies, triumph of triumphs!
Here, face to face, stood Pilate and Christ, the representatives of the
two opposing forces that have ever contended for dominion in the world.
Pilate was the personification of force; behind him was the Roman
government, undisputed ruler of the then known world, supported by
its invincible legions. Before Pilate stood Christ, the embodiment of
love--unarmed, alone. And force triumphed; they nailed Him to the cross,
and the mob that had assembled to witness His sufferings, mocked and
jeered and said: "He is dead." But from that day the power of Caesar
waned and the power of Christ increased. In a few centuries the Roman
government was gone and its legions forgotten, while the Apostle of Love
has become the greatest fact in history and the growing figure of all
time.
Who will estimate the Bible's value to society? It is our only guide. It
contains milk for the young and nourishing food for every year of life's
journey; it is manna for those who travel in the wilderness; and it
provides a staff for those who are weary with age. It satisfies the
heart's longings for a knowledge of God; it gives a meaning to existence
and supplies a working plan to each human being.
It holds up before us ideals that are within sight of the weakest and
the lowliest, and yet so high that the best and the noblest are kept
with their faces turned ever upward. It carries the call of the Saviour
to the remotest corners of the earth; on its pages are written the
assurances of the present and our hopes for the future.
There are three verses in the first chapter of Genesis which mean
more to man than all other books outside the Bible. First; the
verse, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,"
gives us the only account of the beginning of all things, including
life. Many substitutes have been proposed for this verse but none
that can be so easily understood, explained and defended.
Second: the 24th verse gives us the only law governing the
continuity of life on earth. If life is to continue, reproduction
must be according to law or lawless. _Reproduction according to
kind_ is the basic scientific fact in the world; all the books on
science combined do not state as much that is of value to man as
this one verse--it is the foundation of family life and of all human
calculations. No living thing has ever violated this law; even man
with all his power has never been able to persuade or compel that
intangible, invisible thing that we call life to cross the line of
species.
Third: the 26th verse--"Let us make man in our image"--gives us the
only explanation of man's presence on earth. Without revelation no
one has been able to explain the riddle of life. Man comes into the
world without his own volition; he has no choice as to the age,
nation, race, or family environment into which he shall be born. So
far as he is concerned, he comes by chance; he goes he knows not
when, and cannot insure himself for a single hour against accident,
disease or death; and yet, he is supreme above all other things.
The 26th verse reveals a truth of inestimable value. When man
knows that he is "the child of a King," with the earth for an
inheritance--that the Creator, after bringing all other things into
existence, made him, not as other things were made, but in the
image of God, and placed him here as commander-in-chief of all that
is--when he understands that he is part of God's plan and here for a
purpose he finds himself. To do God's will becomes his highest duty
as well as his greatest pleasure and he learns that obedience links
happiness to virtue, success to righteousness, and makes it possible
for him to rise to the high plane that a loving Heavenly Father has
put within the reach of man.
Where in all the books in all the libraries can one find as much
that affects the welfare of man as is condensed into these three
verses?
III
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?
The question, What think ye of Christ? propounded to the Pharisees by
the Saviour Himself, demands an answer from an increasing number as each
year the circle of the Gospel's influence widens. It is a question that
cannot be evaded. In every civilized land an answer is made, by word or
act, by each individual who is confronted by the facts of His life.
It is in the hope that I may be able to assist some in answering this
question that I devote this hour to the inquiry.
Was Christ an impostor? Or was He deluded? Or was He the promised
Messiah, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," as He declared Himself to
be?
Few have dared to accuse Him of attempting a deliberate fraud upon the
public. Impostors sometimes kill others in carrying out their plans, or
to escape detection, but they do not offer themselves as a sacrifice
for others. Christ's whole life gives the lie to the charge that He
practiced deception. One recorded act would be sufficient to establish
His honesty of purpose. In the nineteenth chapter of Matthew we read:
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good
thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto
him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is,
God; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He
saith unto him, which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou
shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear
false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these
things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said
unto him. If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come
and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went
away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
If Christ had been an adventurer or was interested only in gaining a
following He would have welcomed this young man, who was not only rich,
but, according to Luke, a ruler. And what a splendid recommendation the
young man gave himself; all of the commandments he had kept from his
youth up. How could one ambitious for worldly success afford to reject
such an applicant? But Christ would not lower the standard a hair's
breadth even to secure the support of a rich young ruler who had led
a blameless life. He demanded the _first place_ in the heart--a very
reasonable demand--and, seeing in the young man's heart the first place
occupied by love of money, He demanded the throne. The young
man, unwilling to purchase eternal life at that price, went away
sorrowing--his heart still centered on his great possessions. Of whom
but an honest person could such a story be told?
Was Christ deceived? That is the theory set forth in a little volume
entitled "A Jewish View of Jesus" (published recently by the Macmillan
Company). The author, H.G. Emelow, pays the following high tribute to
"Jesus the Jew" (and it is the most charitable view an orthodox Jew can
hold):
"Yet, these things apart, who can compute all that Jesus has meant
to humanity? The love He has inspired, the solace He has given, the
good He has engendered, the hope and joy He has kindled--all that is
unequalled in human history. Among the great and good that the human
race has produced, none has even approached Jesus in universality
of appeal and sway. He has become the most fascinating figure in
history. In Him is combined what is best and most enchanting and
most mysterious in Israel--the eternal people whose child He was.
The Jew cannot help glorying in what Jesus thus has meant to the
world; nor can he help hoping that Jesus may yet serve as a bond of
union between Jew and Christian, once His teaching is better known
and the bane of misunderstanding is at last removed from His words
and His ideal."
But could honest delusion produce a character who, in "the love He has
inspired," "the solace He has given," and "the hope and joy He has
kindled" is "unequalled in human history"? Is it not impossible that
under a _delusion_ one could (as Emelow says Jesus did) become "the most
fascinating figure in history"--unapproachable in the "universality of
appeal and sway"? The world has been full of delusions: have any of them
produced a character like Christ? Tolstoy says that the words of Christ
to His friends and pupils have had a hundred thousand times more
influence over the people than all the poems, odes, elegies and elegant
epistles of the authors of that age. Lecky, the historian, says that
"the three short years of the active life of Jesus have done more
to regenerate and soften mankind than all of the disquisitions of
philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists." Could this be said
of a man labouring under a delusion as to his real character?
What Christ _said_ and _did_ and _was_ establishes His claims. In a
conversation with Peter (Matt. 16: 16), He approved that Apostle's
answer which ascribed to Him the title of "Christ" (the Greek equivalent
for Messiah) "the Son of the living God." He not only approved of the
answer bestowing the title but
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven." In John 10, verse 30, He declares, "I and my Father are
one"; in verse 36, same chapter, He denies that it was blasphemy to call
Himself the Son of God. In the presence of death He refused to deny the
claim (Matt. 26: 63-64).
The deity of Christ is proven in many ways; some offering one line of
proof and some another. Some are convinced by the prophecies that found
their fulfillment in Christ; some give greatest weight to the manner of
His birth and His resurrection. Still others lay special emphasis upon
the miracles performed by Him. There is no need of comparison; all the
proofs stand together and bear joint testimony to His supernatural
character, but I find myself inclined to use the method of reasoning
adopted by Carnegie Simpson in his book entitled, "The Fact of Christ."
Those who reject Christ reject also the miraculous proofs offered in
support of His divine character, but the _fact_ of Christ cannot be
denied. Christ lived; that is admitted. He taught; we have His words.
He died upon the cross; that we know; and we can trace His blood by its
cleansing power as it flows through the centuries. Judged by His life,
His teachings, and His death, and the impression they have made upon the
human race, we conclude that He was divine and that He has justified the
titles bestowed upon Him. No other explanations can account for Him.
Born in a manger; reared in a carpenter shop; with no access to sages
living and no knowledge of the wisdom of sages dead, except as that
wisdom was recorded in the Old Testament, and yet when only about thirty
years of age He gave to the world a code of morality the like of which
the world had never known before and has not known since. He preached a
short time, gathered around Him a few disciples and was crucified; His
followers were scattered and nearly all of the conspicuous ones put to
death--and yet from this beginning His religion spread until thousands
of millions have taken His name upon them and millions have been ready
to die rather than surrender the faith that He put into their hearts.
How can you explain Christ? It is easier to believe Him to be the Christ
whose coming was foretold, the Jesus who was to save the people from
their sins--the Son of God and Saviour of the World--than to account for
Him in any other way.
To those who try to measure Him by the rules that apply to man He is
incomprehensible; but take Him out of the man class and put Him in the
God class and you can understand Him. He also can be measured by the
work He came to perform; it was more than a man's task. No man aspiring
to be a God could have done what He did; it required a God condescending
to be a man.
When once His divine character is admitted we have an explanation that
clears away all the perplexities. We can believe that He was conceived
of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. We can believe that He
opened the eyes of the blind when among men--we see Him to-day giving a
spiritual vision of life to those who have known only the flesh and the
pleasures that come through the flesh. We can believe that He wrought
miracles when upon earth--we see Him so changing hearts to-day that they
love the things they used to hate and hate the things they used to love.
We can even believe that at His touch life was called back to the body
from which it had taken its flight--we have seen Him take men who had
fallen so low that their own flesh and blood had deserted them, lift
them up, wash them and fill their hearts with a passion for service. A
Christ who can do that _now_ could have broken the bonds of the tomb.
Volumes innumerable have been written on theological distinctions, some
of which have been made the basis of sects. The doctrine of the Trinity
has been one of the storm centers of discussion for centuries. It is not
difficult for me to believe in the Trinity when I see three distinct
entities in each human being--a physical man, a mental man and a moral
man. They are so inseparable that one cannot exist here without the
other, and yet they are so separate and distinct that one can be
developed and the others left undeveloped. Who has not seen a splendidly
developed body with an ignorant brain to think for it and a puny
spiritual life within? A weak body and an impoverished soul are
sometimes linked to a highly trained mind: and an exalted character is
sometimes found in a frail body, and even associated with a neglected
intellect. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three in one, present no
problem that need perplex either the learned or the unlearned. We have
the evidence of the Father on every hand; the proof of the Son's growing
influence is indisputable; the witness of the Holy Ghost is to be found
in the heart of every believer. The three act in unison.
The fall of man is disputed by some who seem to find more satisfaction
in the belief that they have risen from the brute and, therefore, are
superior to their ancestors, than they do in the thought that man has
fallen from a higher estate. But the facts do not support the brute
theory. Even if the "missing links" could be found, it would be as
reasonable--though not so flattering to man's pride--to believe that the
monkey is a degenerate man as that man is an improved monkey.
It has often been pointed out as evidence of man's fall that he is the
only created thing that does not live up to his possibilities. In plant
and bird and beast there is no disobedience--all fulfill the purpose of
their creation, from the flower, that puts forth its bloom as perfectly
when it "wastes its sweetness on the desert air" as when in the garden
its beauty calls forth expressions of delight, to the bird that wakes
the echoes of trackless forests with its melody. Man, only man, mocks
his Maker by prostituting to evil the powers that might lift him within
sight of the throne of God.
If so many men and women fall _now_, in spite of light and love and all
the incentives to noble living, is it incredible that the first pair
should have fallen when the race was young? Possibility becomes
probability when we remember that the conflict that rages between the
mind and the heart is the one real conflict in every life. Reason versus
faith is the great issue to-day as in Eden. Faith says obey; reason
asks, Why? The one looks up confidingly to a Power above; the other
relies on self and rejects even the authority of Jehovah unless the
finite mind can comprehend the plan of the Infinite.
No one will doubt the doctrine of original sin if he will study nature
and then analyze himself. In the plant, in the animal and in the
physical man, the invisible thing which we call life is the only
sustaining force; when it takes its flight, that which remains falls
back to the earth and becomes dust. And so the spiritual in man is the
only force that can give him a moral nature and preserve it from decay;
when his spiritual life departs the mind as well as the body rots.
Some find a stumbling block in the doctrine of the Atonement. That one
should suffer for others, shocks their sense of justice, they say, and
yet that is the law of life. Each generation borrows from generations
past and pays the debt to the generations that follow. A certain
percentage of the mothers die in childbirth--evidence that they are
God's handiwork is found in the fact they so willingly enter the valley
of the shadow of death to attain to motherhood. Many a boy has been won
back to rectitude by the sorrows of a parent; we are not infrequently
healed by the stripes that fall on others. In fact, great wrongs are
seldom righted without the shedding of innocent blood--one dies and a
multitude are saved. These do not always illustrate the voluntary laying
down of life but there are enough cases of noble surrender of self for a
friend or for the public to make it easy for any one to understand how
Christ could take upon Himself the sins of the world and become man's
intercessor with the Father. Winning hearts through love expressed in
sacrifice, is that strange? On the contrary, it is the only way. It is
because the story of Jesus is a natural one that it has touched mankind.
Hearts understand each other. The heart, says Pascal, has reasons that
the mind does not understand because the heart is of an infinitely
higher character.
The sacrificial character of Christ's death and the atoning power of His
blood are the basis of the New Testament. To discard this doctrine is to
reject the plainest teachings of the Apostles and the words of Christ
Himself.