Character of Christ. 475 When, further, it is considered that the Book is one; yet the product of many men in many ages; by writers-neither conscious nor capable of co-operating; a portion now, and a part then; dreams, centuries separating, yet dreams strangely finding realization; disclosures made piecemeal, but so adjusted that grandest results are obtained from minutest beginnings; the proof of Divinity amounts to demonstration. The cylinder of the world's history-as it unrolls, art and science as they advance, are found inscribed with hieroglyphics; and in the Bible are corresponding shadows, and depths, and enigmas; we have chosen for verification specially those by which Creation is made part of Revelation: if our proof is adequate the Book is shewn to be of God, who sent forth His Holy Men to be as levers to move the world, and His Holy Book, for a marvellous operation in establishing His kingdom. When we consider Christ-as the Founder, Exemplar and King of our Faith; and as the Messiah, now refused, but to be accepted of the Jews; the originality and power of His character raise it above the plane of human nature—and yet, how human is it! Not in Roman, Greek, or Jew, can we discover the elements of so rare a creation. The Holy Personality was not the slow combined production of a worldmoving spirit stirring a highly-gifted race; nor a moral development equipped in the school and cultured in the palace. The Child of poor parents, educated as a carpenter's son, nurtured in Nazareth, of almost homeless poverty was it possible for such a child, if but a child, to become that Godman of work so mighty? Contrast His humility with Jewish pride, His charity with their fanaticism, His expansiveness and their narrowness, and you will say that He is of a nature whom they could neither produce nor invent. For nineteen. hundred years He has been the centre and cause of all moral and spiritual development amongst the wisest nations; and outside of these nations exists little real knowledge. Around His life, work, death, the whole world gathers. His profound acquaintance with the human heart, His grand morality, His wonderful knowledge, yet He never stepped beyond the confines of Palestine, render Him the greatest of men. He declared that the world should bow down to Him, the nations worship Him, that He should judge quick and dead. Are they pretensions of a straw-crowned Bedlam monarch? are they declarations of impious ambition, or midsummer madness? No, beautiful in humility, a little child is symbol of those who enter His kingdom. His bitterest enemies could not convince Him of sin. Around the Nazarene of obscurity, of poverty, of suffering, gathers a halo of glory which no hero, nor history, nor romance, can pretend to. He lived in holiness that knew no frailty, but conciliated human infirmity with heavenly sympathy. With courage that no fear could daunt, and no death dismay, He endured all horrors. His gentleness bound up the broken heart, and poured consolation for every mourner. "If the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God." At no other time, by no other man, was so supreme a start from low degree to higher life: none but Jesus could be Jesus. Some thousand workers come up in this century to be forgotten in the next; but the silver cord of Christ is not loosed, nor the golden bowl of His doctrine broken. Time sits as a refiner, the dross is cast away and the pure gold preserved; Time chronicles his centuries, and myriads die; Jesus, imperishable as gold, lives for ever. He binds the heart of the world to Himself with electric chain. He tells how the soul, weak and wandering like a storm-driven bird, may nestle in the bosom of our Holy Father. In the spirits of men, where sin has opened an unfathomable depth of anguish, He causes streams of consolation to flow and fill that depth. His loving touch causes the eye to sparkle with light, and our cheek to glow with the strangely sweet aspect of those who look into far-off worlds and gladly hasten thither. We have not reasoned as to the evidences of Christ's Deity, nor attempted to unfold the proofs which shew Him to be in a higher sense than science can reveal, the Life of the World. We have been dealing with the erroneous reasonings and false conclusions which would overthrow the foundations of all Religion; which would take from life Continual and Ever-Growing Power. 477 everything worth living for, by banishing God from the world; and, in denying the Supernatural, would deprive man of his hope of immortality and lower him in his aims and aspirations to a level with the brutes that perish. We have thought it well not to confine ourselves to arguments against the Naturalist, but to set forth at some length the physical phenomena which science has investigated, that these marvels and glories of Nature may bear witness to Infinite Wisdom and Power. We have not fully realised our mental conception, but we take courage in the thought that the Eternal Truths do not rest for their support on human championship; they are God Himself speaking to the minds and hearts and consciences of men. Generation after generation passes away, but Revealed Truth shines from age to age with ever brightening flame. Philosophers, many shallow, but some of them profound, follow one upon another; every one of them in turn dazzling men for a moment, and then departing in the long procession of dead creeds to a common grave. Christianity alone has the power of an endless life. At those moments in history, when men have predicted the end, its youth has been renewed; and at this very time when its dissolution is confidently foretold, it is arming itself for new victories and is going forth to conquer the world. The kingdom of God thus contains in itself the evidence that it is the kingdom of God; and Supernaturalism is vindicated not by the arguments however conclusive of its defenders, but by its own continual and ever-growing power over men. Of philosophers and philosophies, falsely so-called, it may truly be said "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn." Verbum domini manet in æternum, and blessed are all who know it to be the Word of the Lord. Those whom we have been refuting may not join in our prayer, but they may believe in its sincerity when we implore of the Infinite Unseen Power to reveal to them also the undying truths, and to lead them into the Peace of God. INDEX. Actinia, 386. Adam, 272; the first man, 292. Ether, 147; waves, action of, 163. Age of the Earth, 77; no divine record of, 417. Alcyone, 217. Allotropic forms, 71. Amia, the grunting fish, 384. Animals an advance on plants, 249; na- Anomalies, physical, 387; chemical, 396, Ants, 389; red, 390; some use aphidæ Ascidian, blood circulation of, 383. Æthalium septicum, 386. Atheism incapable of proof, 27. to suspend water, 156; primeval, 157, Atomic theory no explanation of the Atoms, theory of ultimate, 69; no ex- Beetle philosophy, 239. Beetles, viviparous, 393. Beginning, the, 48; meaning 60; "in point to a, 432. Bible, contains the highest and best men, 475. Birds, 235; classification, 236; of pas- Blood circulation, an exceptional case of, 338. Cain, 291. |