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to see also that from the beginning until now He has been in His world, guiding the process with intelligent purpose.

Now, if the Christian doctrine of the atonement is to get access to the modern mind, it must be expressed in such a way as to fit into the thought-scheme above described. People must see, in harmony with their notion of the unity of the universe, that the atonement is not a disjointed and academic affair of cloistered doctors of divinity, but a cosmic fact. In harmony with notions of evolution, it must be shown to modern folks that the cross of Christ is the completion of a cosmic law having its manifestations not only in one event of history, but also in the ordinary human world and even in the sub-human world; that it is the culmination of something that has gone before. To satisfy the humanitarian spirit of the age, the doctrine of the atonement, as well as all theology, must be built on the doctrine of God as Father-such a Father as Jesus revealed. Can the Christian doctrine of atonement be so related without doing violence to the plain facts of the Christian Scriptures? That is the task before us.

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CHAPTER III

The Christ of the New Testament

"His name shall be called Wonderful."

-Isa. 9:6.

at Bethlehem. Of His childhood little is known except the circumstances of His birth, the brief sojourn in Egypt in order to escape bloodthirsty Herod, and His subsequent residence in Nazareth with His mother and her husband, Joseph, a carpenter. One incident only is given of His youth: His visit to Jerusalem at the age of twelve with His parents, and His conversation with the scribes in the temple. The simple, unaffected accounts of His childhood and youth by the evangelists are remarkable for what they omit. If His later alleged miracles have no foundation in fact except the mythological tendencies of the Gospel writers, as some critics aver, how shall we account for the total abstinence, after the events connected with His birth, of any narrative of wonderful doings of this supernatural Boy? This absence of myth is strong evidence of the veracity of the writers.

About the age of thirty He was baptized by John Baptist at the Jordan. Very soon afterward He went into a few weeks' retirement in the lonely wilderness, where He suffered three kinds of temptation, but yielded to none. This

uninterrupted victory over strong appeals of evil was an outstanding feature of His life. He is portrayed as the Sinless Man, and all subsequent generations have approved the portrait. He Himself challenged His enemies to convict Him of sin, and the only charges they made were to His advantage: "He eateth with publicans and sinners," and "He made Himself the Son of God." True or false, the portrait is a miracle. If it is true, it is a perpetual wonder eliciting the adoration of all people; if it be false, it is equally hard to explain where the four evangelists got their model. Certainly not out of their own imaginations. Possibly one

lofty genius might have hit upon such a conception-though that is not probable; but how could four contemporaries, writing apart, have hit upon so uniform and unique a picture? There is only one reasonable explanation: they knew the Original.

This Man, after His retreat into the wilds, emerged to begin a remarkable career. He went from place to place, followed by a few disciples, teaching people of all classes concerning the

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