CHAPTER II.

THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY-THE CHARACTER AND TEACHING OF CHRIST.

A

MONG the credentials of Christianity an important place

must be assigned to the character of its Founder,—a character which has called forth the admiration of many who have not submitted to His authority, and which cannot be accounted for by the circumstances which surrounded Him, and the influence of the age in which He lived on earth. On some of its leading features we may reverently dwell.

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One of the most striking was His profound devotion to the Father's will. His first recorded utterance embodied this principle; and in His public ministry He affirmed it, again and again, as the governing principle of His earthly course. 'My meat,' He said, 'is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work' (John iv. 34). I am come down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me' (John vi. 38). And as He stood on the verge of His deepest suffering, He addressed the Father in the words, I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do' (John xvii. 4).

Another feature of the character of the Lord Jesus was His self-denying benevolence. He submitted to a life of poverty and privation. He did not avail Himself of the devotion of His followers to secure a position of ease and worldly comfort. His own impressive declaration to one who wished to attend upon Him was, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to

lay His head' (Luke ix. 58). His boundless resources were never used by Him for His own advantage, or to promote His own enjoyment. But He was ever ready to relieve the distresses, and to promote the welfare, of others. He went about doing good.' He banished sickness from many a home which it had darkened; He comforted and healed many a sorrowful and broken heart. And at length, when His 'hour' arrived, He submitted, for our sakes, to the death of the cross.

Again, in contemplating the character of the Lord Jesus it becomes us to mark the union in Him of tenderness and condescension with firmness of principle and an intense hatred to everything that is evil. As we reflect upon His intercourse with His disciples and the devout family at Bethany, we perceive His tenderness and sympathy. The tears which He shed at the grave of Lazarus showed how deeply He felt the woes which the stern law of mortality has brought upon our race. The kind and condescending manner in which He welcomed returning sinners was a stumblingblock to some who valued themselves on their supposed sanctity. His own precious words come home even now to the hearts of the sinful and wretched,-those who are ready to sink and faint under the burden of conscious guilt. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke xix. 10). 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest' (Matt. xi. 28). But, on the other hand, this tenderness and condescension were combined with the greatest strength of character. No deviation from principle, no compromise with evil, tarnished His career. He reproved sin with unfaltering decision, and warned men of the fearful ruin in which persistence in it must issue.

Another striking feature of the character of our Lord was His meekness. No selfish irritation disturbed His spirit; no bursts of passion ruffled His mind, and impaired His influence. He manifested, indeed, a moral displeasure against sin, and that displeasure deep, settled, and intense; but He

did not resent with vehement passion the ingratitude with which He met during His earthly course, or the fierce insults, the cruel mockery, and the open violence which marked the close of that course. ‘When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously' (1 Peter ii. 23). Even as He hung upon the cross, He prayed, amidst His anguish, for those who nailed Him to that accursed tree; Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' Luke xxiii. 34). He bowed meekly to all this suffering and shame, as involved in the work which He was to accomplish, and which should be recompensed in the salvation of multitudes who should trust in Him alone.

The character of Christ thus embraced the most attractive human virtues. But as we follow His footsteps, and listen to His words, we are struck with the loftiness of the claims which He put forth,-claims which no mere man could make. He affirmed His own freedom from sin. While He inculcated repentance on all who listened to Him in the synagogues of Galilee and Judæa, enforcing it as a duty of universal obligation, and as a necessary preparation for the enjoyment of the privileges of 'the kingdom of God,' He never gave utterance to any feeling of repentance on His own part. He challenged His adversaries, 'Which of you convicteth Me of sin?' And drawing near to the crisis of His earthly history, He addressed the Father in terms which implied that His obedience to His will had been unfailing, and His accomplishment of His purposes perfect.

But this is not all. He claimed to be Himself more than man. He spoke of Himself as 'the Only-Begotten Son of God,' standing in a relation to the Father which no human mind can fully comprehend (John iii. 16—18; Matt. xi. 27). He affirmed that He had come down from heaven to give life unto the world. He declared that He had existed from eternity, and that He was possessed of an inherent life which no one, without His will, could take away. Verily, verily, I say unto

(John viii. 58). As the gave He to the Son also to

you, Before Abraham was, I am Father hath life in Himself, even so have life in Himself' (John v. 26). 'No man taketh My life away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again' (John x. 18). He affirmed that His own energy resembled the ceaseless, everactive energy of the Eternal Father. 'My Father worketh even until now, and I work' (John v. 17). He claimed to be the Arbiter of the eternal destinies of men. Referring to the great day of the final revelation of character, He declared, 'Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy Name, and by Thy Name cast out devils, and by Thy Name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity' (Matt. vii. 22-23).

The astounding spectacle is thus presented to us of One who was meek and gentle, who evinced in His life and death a selfsacrificing benevolence, who ever manifested tenderness and sympathy with human suffering, blended with the firmest maintenance of principle and an intense hatred of hypocrisy and iniquity,-One, too, who claimed to be sinless, and whose governing principle was devotion to the Father's will,—putting forth claims which could only be justified by the union in His Person of the Divine and human natures. We are awed into profound reverence as we contemplate Him, and trace His footsteps, and mark His works, and see Him suffer. Admitting His claim to be a Divine-human Person, all is consistent: on every other supposition the character and words of Christ are perplexing and inexplicable.

For let us mark, further, the general character of His teaching. It is not too much to affirm that no such teacher had ever appeared before. He spoke of spiritual and heavenly things, not in the language of mere conjecture or probable reasoning, but with the distinctness and certainty of One to whom the spiritual world was known and familiar. He declared God to men, shedding light on the principles of His government, and

especially revealing His fatherly interest in mankind, and His minute regard to the circumstances and wants of individual men. He unfolded the spirituality of the Divine precepts, showing that they reach to the state of the heart, and detecting the secret evils that vitiate many actions that are outwardly good. Some of His declarations were profound and mysterious, especially when He spoke of His own Person and work, and of the spiritual salvation which He came to bestow; but all these were suited to One whose personal claims were so peculiar and lofty. And while His discourses had a charm for the thoughtful and devout, they were marked by an authority which often impressed His hearers. Even now, as we listen to His recorded words, we are often constrained to exclaim, 'Never man spake like this Man;' and as we mark His whole bearing, and character, and teaching, we feel that we are in the presence of a more than human Prophet.