Jesus speaks:--and it is at one time with His disciples alone, at
another surrounded by eager, astonished multitudes; now from the
mount, now on the shore of the sea of Gennesareth, from a bark;
by the road side; in the house of the Pharisee, Simon, and the
toll-gatherer, Levi; in the synagogue of Nazareth, in the Temple
of Jerusalem:--Jesus speaks, "not like the scribes," not like
the philosophers; He expounds no system; He discusses no
question; He does not pace up and down like Socrates with his
learned friends in the gardens of the Academy, nor lose himself
in the mazes of the human understanding. Jesus speaks to men, to
all men without distinction; He speaks to them of man's life,
man's soul, man's destiny, of matters that touch all alike. And
He speaks to them "as one having authority."
{248}
What does He say to them? What teach, what command, in that
speech full of authority?
He teaches them, He enjoins them, to have faith, hope, charity:
those virtues which have now borne His name nineteen centuries,
those virtues which are essentially Christian.
Is it, then, in His own name that Jesus Christ teaches and
commands? By no means: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that
sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
"He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that
seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no
unrighteousness is in him. ... Then cried Jesus in the Temple as
he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: I am
not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know
not.
{249}
"But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me."
[Footnote 98]
[Footnote 98: John vii. 16-18, 28, 29.]
Whilst He refers everything to God, Jesus Christ seeks not to
define or explain Him; He affirms Him and demonstrates Him; God
is the first cause, the point from which all things spring; faith
in God is the paramount source of virtue, and of power, as well
as virtue, of hope and of resignation.
For Jesus Christ has not only a perfect faith in God, He has also
a profound knowledge of man: He knows that, unaided, man's soul
cannot, with out despair, without withering, bear the burthen
imposed by the injustice of the world and of life, of the
miseries and erroneous appreciation of mankind. To this injustice
and this wretchedness Jesus Christ never ceases to oppose God,
God's justice, God's benevolence, God's succour: He recommends to
Him all the forsaken, all the oppressed, all the wretched, all
the victims of society. He enjoins to these not resignation
alone, but Hope as the sister and companion of Faith.
{250}
Nor does He hold forth to those that suffer the realization of
earthly expectations, the restoration of worldly prosperity, as
their resource and their consolation. He has nothing to do with
remedies deceitful like these. He acts with the most perfect
truthfulness and sincerity towards mankind in general, as He also
does with His disciples: He only promises them the
re-establishment of justice, and the reward of virtue, in that
mysterious future where God alone reigns, and of which He
discloses to them the perspective without unfolding the secrets.
Nothing strikes me more in the Gospel than this double character
of austerity and of love, of severe purity and tender sympathy,
which constantly appears, which reigns in the actions and the
words of Jesus Christ in everything that touches the relation of
God and mankind.
{251}
To Jesus Christ the law of God is absolute, sacred; the violation
of the law, and sin, are odious to Him; but the sinner himself
irresistibly moves him and attracts him: "What man of you, having
an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the
ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is
lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it
on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice
with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto
you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which
need no repentance." [Footnote 99]
[Footnote 99: Luke xv. 4-7.]
Jesus said unto them, "They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. ... For I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance." [Footnote 100]
[Footnote 100: Matthew ix. 12, 13.]
What is the signification of this sublime fact; what the meaning
in Jesus of this union, this harmony of severity and of love, of
saint-like holiness and of human sympathy? It is Heaven's
revelation of the nature of Jesus him-self, of the God-man.
{252}
God, he made himself man. God is his father, men are his
brethren. He is pure and holy like God: He is accessible and
sensible to all that man feels. Thus the vital principles of the
Christian faith, the divine and the human nature united in Jesus,
start to evidence, in his sentiments and language respecting the
relations between God and man. The dogma is the foundation of the
principles.
Another fact is not less significant. At the same time that the
divine and mysterious character of Jesus Christ appears in the
Gospel, his acts and his words have a character essentially
simple and practical. He pursues no learned object, no scientific
plan; He develops no system; his object is something infinitely
grander than the triumph of any logical abstraction: it is to
pervade the human soul, to establish himself in it--to save it.
He speaks the language--He appeals to the ideas most calculated
to ensure Him success.
{253}
Sometimes He addresses himself to the task of inspiring in men
the most poignant disquietude as to their future destiny, if they
violate the laws of God; at other times He causes to shine before
their eyes the realisation of the most magnificent hopes, if with
sincerity they persist in faith. He knows the generation that He
is addressing; He knows human nature in its universality, and
what it will be in future generations: his object is to produce
upon it an effect at once positive, general, durable; He chooses
the ideas, He employs the images suitable to his design for the
regeneration and the salvation of all. God's Ambassador is the
most penetrating and able of human moralists.
More than once, the attempt has been made to find Him at fault,
to detect in his language exaggerations, contradictions,
incoherencies irreconcilable with his divine authority. Surprise,
for instance, has been expressed, that He should have one day
said, according to St. Matthew: "He that is not with me is
against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad;"
[Footnote 101] and that He should another day, according to St.
Mark, have used the expression, "For he that is not against us is
on our part." [Footnote 102]
[Footnote 101: Matthew xii. 30.]
[Footnote 102: Mark ix. 40.]
{254}
These two passages have been characterised as furnishing "two
rules of proselytism entirely opposed to each other, and as
involving a contradiction growing out of some impassioned
struggle." [Footnote 103]
[Footnote 103: Vie de Jesus, par M. Renan, p. 229.]
In my turn I observe that it astonishes me how earnest men can
fall into any such error. Jesus does not lay down in these two
passages two contradictory rules of proselytism, He merely
observes and refers in turn to two different facts: who has not
learnt, in the course of actual life, that, according to the
difference of circumstances and persons, the man who abstains
from active concurrence, who keeps himself aloof, by that very
fact may at one time give support and strength, and at another
injure and impede? These two assertions, far from being in
contradiction, may be both true, and Jesus Christ, in uttering
them, spoke as a sagacious observer, not as a moralist who is
enunciating precepts.
{255}
I have heard other critics reproachfully regard another passage
as a sort of blasphemy. According to St Luke: "There was in a
city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: and
there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying,
Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but
afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor
regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." [Footnote 104]
[Footnote 104: Luke xviii. 1-5.]
Is it possible to infer from these words an intention on the part
of Jesus to liken God to an unjust judge, and to make the mere
importunate persistence in praying a claim to God's grace? He
only cited an occurrence which made noise in his time, in order
to instil a lively impression of the utility of perseverance. To
attain his end, He never makes use of out-of-the-way or impure
expedients; but He draws from the ordinary events of human life
examples and reasons to illustrate and render intelligible the
divine precepts, and to insure their acceptance. All the parables
have this meaning and object.
{256}
Next to the precepts which refer to the relations of man with God
come those which respect the relations of men with one another.
Whilst Faith and Hope regard God, Charity has man for its object.
Charity, it has often been repeated, is the great principle of
Jesus Christ, pre-eminently the Christian virtue. I know, not,
however, whether the source whence Christian charity derives its
character and grandeur has been adequately perceived or remarked.
In the different pagan religions, whether of character gross or
learned, we have deifications of the different forces of nature
or of men themselves. And even in those religions in which gods
in their turn are said to assume man's shape, it is man
particularly that is predominant, and that lives in the
incarnation of God.
{257}
Whereas in Christianity, it is not a god sprung from nature or of
human origin that becomes man, but the God self-existent,
anterior, and superior to all beings, the God, One, Eternal. The
Hebrew religion, alone of all religions, shows God essentially
and eternally distinct from the nature and the mankind that He
has created, and that He governs. The Christian Faith alone shows
God one and eternal; the God of Abraham and of Moses making
himself man, and the divine nature uniting itself to the human
nature in the person of Jesus. And in this union it is the divine
nature that shines forth, that speaks, that sets in movement. And
this incarnation is unparalleled like the God its author.
And why did God make himself man? "What is the object of this
unparalleled, this mysterious incarnation? It is God's purpose to
rescue man from the evil and the peril which have continued to
weigh upon him since the fault committed by his first progenitor.
It is God's purpose to ransom the human race from the sin of
Adam, the heritage of Adam's children, and to bring it back to
the ways of eternal life. These are the designs, loudly
proclaimed, of the divine incarnation in Jesus, and the price of
all the sufferings and agonies which He endured in its
accomplishment.
{258}
Need I say more? Who does not see how this sublime fact exalts
man's dignity at the same time that it illustrates the worth of
man's nature? By the mere fact of God having assumed his form is
man's nature glorified; and all men, so to say, have their share
of the honour done by God to humanity in uniting himself with it,
and in accepting, for a moment of time, all the conditions of
humanity. But as far as mankind is here concerned, it is far more
than a mere accession of an honour or a glorifying of his nature:
it is a striking manifestation of the value that all men have in
the eyes of God. For it is not for some of them only, for some
class or nation, or portion of humanity, it is for all humanity
that God became incarnate in Jesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ
has submitted to all human sufferings. Every human soul is the
object of this divine sacrifice, and called upon to gather the
fruit.
{259}
This is the source, this the privilege of Christian charity. The
dogma makes the force of the precept itself. Jesus crucified is
God's charity towards man. Impossible that men should not feel
themselves bound to act towards each other as God has done to
them; and towards what man is not charity a duty? Without the
divinity and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the value of man's soul,
if I may be pardoned the expression, sinks,--neither his
salvation nor the example of his Saviour is any longer the
question,--charity becomes nothing more than human goodness; a
sentiment, however noble and useful, still limited both in
impulsive energy and in efficacy; having its source in man alone,
it can but incompletely solace the unequally distributed
sufferings of mortality. It is not suited to inspire any long
effort or great sacrifice: it is not adequate to convert the
longing desire for the moral amendment, the physical relief of
humanity, into that inextinguishable sympathy and untiring and
impassioned emotion which really constitute charity, and which
the Christian Faith, in the history of the world, has alone been
able to inspire.
{260}
Thus the essential precepts of Jesus, the virtues which He
commands as the basis and source of all the others, have an
intimate connection with his doctrine, a doctrine "which is not,"
He tells us himself, "_his_, but of him that sent him;" that
is to say, they are connected with the fundamental dogmas of the
Christian religion. No one denies the perfection, the sublimity
of the Gospel morality; men indeed seem to feel a sort of
self-complacency, a satisfaction in celebrating it, with a view
to the conclusion, more or less explicitly stated, that that
morality constitutes the whole Gospel. This is, however, not less
than absolutely to mistake the bond which unites in man thought
with sentiment, and belief with action. Man is grander and less
easy to satisfy than superficial moralists pretend; the law of
his life is for him, in the profound instinct of his soul,
necessarily connected with the secret of his destiny; and it is
only the Christian dogma that gives to Christian ethics the Royal
authority of which they stand in need to govern and to regenerate
humanity.
{261}