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THE 
 
 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 LITl.Ly 
 
 REV. IENRY NORRIS BERNARD, M.A., LL.B. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLXXXVIIl. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The essays contained in the present volume were, 
 with one exception, originally written for the 
 Homiletic Magazine. Although from the neces- 
 sity of the mode of publication each essay had to 
 be in itself complete, the papers were intended 
 from the first to form a connected whole. Before 
 pen was put to paper, the plan on which it was 
 to be written was determined, and the result 
 aimed at was a book, and not a number of sepa- 
 rate and distinct magazine articles. 
 
 The object of the writer was to make such a 
 study of the mental characteristics of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ as to place before the mind of the 
 reader a true perception and clear idea of the 
 divine-human personality of the Saviour. Some- 
 times a single mental quality has been taken and 
 
 traced out in the Lord Jesus ; sometimes His 
 
 b 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 words or acts have been considered, as they threw 
 light upon the character of His mind ; an attempt 
 has been made to trace the motives which lay at 
 the root of the miracles of Christ, and their re- 
 action upon Himself; the temptations have been 
 studied, as they illustrated the principles which 
 guided, and the feelings which moved the Son 
 of Man. Christ has been regarded under the 
 influence of strong mental depression, because 
 mental depression is a malady to which high- 
 wrought and sensitive natures are peculiarly sus- 
 ceptible ; and a chapter has been added upon 
 the physical weariness of the Lord Jesus, inasmuch 
 as nervous exhaustion reacts upon the mind, and 
 the spiritual nature cannot be understood if the 
 physical condition be a sealed book. We have 
 watched the Saviour as He prayed to the God who 
 is His Father, as He is our Father, remembering 
 that the human need was strong in Him, as it is 
 in the men we know ; we have followed Him 
 to Gethsemane and Golgotha, because in the 
 agony of the garden, and in the passion of the 
 Cross, a study of character was afforded, which 
 could not be found elsewhere ; and we have not 
 failed to note that, after the Resurrection, it was 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 still the same Christ who manifested Himself to 
 the disciples, as it was the same Saviour, who, 
 at the Ascension, was exalted with great glory to 
 the right hand of the Father. 
 
 While these essays have had to do mainly with 
 the human side of Christ's character, the Divine 
 nature, which the flesh veiled, was never lost 
 sight of. To the writer Theism itself appears to 
 rest on the acceptance of the Divinity of Christ. 
 Science asks whether it is not as easy to believe 
 in an eternal something as in an eternal Person. 
 It inquires what proof there is, or indeed can be, 
 that, apart from the small sphere in which man 
 moves, purpose and will exist combined with 
 intelligence, and demands whether the idea of 
 God is not simply the projected shadow of man's 
 consciousness upon the cloudland of fancy. To 
 these questions many replies have been given ; but 
 I cannot but think that the best reply — certainly 
 the one which brings most assurance to my own 
 mind — is the life which Christ led upon earth. If 
 Christ — His person, His mission, His work — is 
 real ; if the story as it is told by the Evangelists is 
 substantially true ; then in it is found the best 
 evidence for the existence of God. The God, 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 whom science tells us is unknowable, is revealed 
 in Jesus Christ. Again, there is the doubt raised 
 by moral issues — the doubt of God's goodness. 
 The terrible facts which meet us in daily life, 
 and the apparently harsh laws which govern the 
 universe with pitiless insensibility to pain, are apt 
 to engender misgivings in the minds of those to 
 whom the very thought of scepticism is hateful. 
 But these misgivings are greatly laid to rest, when 
 we contemplate the goodness and mercy of Christ, 
 and call to mind that He is the express image of 
 the Father. Doubts and difficulties, we may be 
 sure, there will always be. The moral enigma, 
 and the intellectual puzzle, are alike hard to solve. 
 But while we cannot hope that the solution will 
 be complete, while indeed Scripture itself asserts 
 that belief is based on faith and not on knowledge, 
 we need not fear the attacks of scepticism. The 
 life of Christ is intellectually the greatest miracle ; 
 morally it is an enigma which neither rationalism, 
 nor mythical theories, can explain ; historically it 
 is a fact with which unbelief must reckon ; and 
 the life of Christ proves, that not chance, not 
 impersonal law, but a Divine Person, rules and 
 governs the universe. The proof that Christ's 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 nature was Divine lies, so it appears to me, in the 
 pages of the Gospels ; and did we regard it from 
 this point of view only, the life of Christ would 
 abundantly repay all the study that could be 
 bestowed upon it. 
 
 But to the Christian that Life means infinitely 
 more. In its study, nor argument, nor criticism, 
 nor controversy, can ever be the main purpose. 
 For Christ is the one centre of the Christian's 
 affections and the paramount object of his love. 
 He is the " chiefest among ten thousand." In 
 the name of Christ for the believer is summed up 
 all hope, all desire, all love. He is his sure 
 Friend ; his abiding Refuge ; his Redeemer from 
 every ill ; his Saviour from the power of sin. By 
 the grace of Christ he is enabled to overcome 
 evil ; in the strength of Christ he is strong to 
 conquer Satan. For him there is no question 
 whether life is worth living, for the life is lived in 
 Christ, and is consecrated, as a sacrifice, to His 
 service ; death is without terrors, for it is but 
 passing to be with Christ. For the believing 
 Christian Christ is all. Worship and adoration 
 are laid at His feet ; devotion and praise are 
 brought to do him homage. To magnify His 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 name, to set forth His glory, above all to be filled 
 with the fulness of His love, is of all existence the 
 great object. 
 
 If my book shall in any measure aid in accom- 
 plishing this ; if it shall lead any burdened soul 
 to Him who can give rest ; if it shall induce any 
 doubting soul to lay his doubts on Him who can 
 give faith ; if it shall cause any tempted soul to 
 seek strength from Him who suffered from the 
 tempter's power, or any sinful soul to fly to Him 
 who alone can give help and pardon; if, by its 
 means, those who read shall be brought into 
 closer sympathy with Christ, — then it shall abun- 
 dantly subserve its purpose. 
 
 HENRY N. BERNARD. 
 
 Ripple Rectory, January 1S88. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. THE CHRIST 
 
 II. THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LORD JESU 
 CHRIST 
 
 III. THE STYLE AND MANNER OF CHRIST'S TEACHING . 
 
 IV. THE TEMPTED CHRIST ...... 
 
 V. CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES 
 
 VI. THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST 
 VII. THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST 
 
 VIII. THE HOME LIFE OF CHRIST 
 
 IX. THE PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 
 X. THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST .... 
 XI. THE MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER 
 XII. CHRIST'S NEED OF SYMPATHY 
 
 XIII. THE AGONY OF GETHSEMANE, AND THE PASSION, AS A 
 
 STUDY OF CHARACTER 
 
 XIV. THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST . 
 XV. THE APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD . 
 
 XVI. CONCLUSION 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 17 
 36 
 
 52 
 76 
 
 99 
 119 
 141 
 160 
 186 
 21 1 
 231 
 
 252 
 272 
 290 
 3ii 
 
THE 
 
 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE CHRIST. 
 
 " The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God," are the words with which St. 
 Mark opens the book in which he gives us his 
 memoir of the Saviour. On each page of each 
 separate Gospel there rests the glory of the Divine 
 majesty of Christ. It is not that the Evangelists, 
 with the exception perhaps of St. John, wrote 
 with the express design of showing that Jesus of 
 Nazareth was indeed the Son of God, but that the 
 Divine effulgence of the Godhead is ever piercing 
 through the veil of the humanity which Christ 
 had adopted. There is scarcely a recorded action 
 of the Lord, which, all unconsciously as it were, 
 is not impressed with the divinity which dwelt 
 within Him. Formal proof, indeed, of Christ's 
 eternal Godhead is there. It can be gathered 
 
\ ' 
 
 2 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 from the pages of the Synoptists with as clear 
 distinctness as from the words of St. John, or 
 from the utterances of the Apostles in their 
 epistles. But it is not the formal proof which 
 carries conviction home to the heart of the reader. 
 It is the unconscious testimony which carries the 
 greater weight. It is that the portrait presented 
 is greater, nobler, more divine, than that of any 
 mortal man could be. Plato has swayed the 
 world of thought more than any other man, unless 
 it be his rival Aristotle ; but there is nothing 
 superhuman in the writings of Plato, nor is 
 Socrates presented to us in a godlike form. 
 Mohammed stands almost alone in the power 
 which a man has exercised over the religious 
 convictions of the world ; but there is nothing 
 divine about the prophet of Arabia. He who 
 more than others approaches to Christ in his 
 devotion and self-sacrifice, and who, like Christ, 
 appeals to our affections as none other ever has 
 done, is Gautama, the founder of Buddhism ; but 
 even the Buddha, incarnation of Deity as his 
 followers regard him, has not the stamp of divinity 
 about him which rests upon the brow of Christ. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ stands alone. He is 
 unique in history. No one can be compared to 
 Him. The very sceptics veil their faces before a 
 
THE CHRIST. 3 
 
 Divine glory, which, while they refuse to recognise, 
 they cannot prevent themselves from feeling. 
 
 It is on the Godhead of Christ that Christianity 
 rests as on its sure foundation. Not because He 
 is the greatest Teacher the world has ever heard ; 
 not because Pie was inspired with an " enthusiasm 
 of humanity " which no other had ever felt ; nor 
 because He propounded a system of morals such 
 as before Him men had never dreamed of; not 
 because He showed an utter devotion such as 
 never has been paralleled ; not because He 
 counted not His life dear to Him, and in His 
 self-sacrificing love offered it freely for mankind ; 
 not for reasons such as these, noble though they 
 be, has the doctrine of Christ become the religion 
 of the world ; but because, as the Son of God, He 
 is " God of God, Light of Light, very God of very 
 God," have churches been built to His praise, and 
 cathedrals been reared to His honour, and do we 
 this day call ourselves Christians. 
 
 It is not on the Divine nature of Christ that 
 our attention is to be fixed ; it is not with the 
 glory of the eternal Godhead that our thoughts 
 are to be occupied. The subject of these Essays 
 is the Human Nature of the Son of Man. We 
 are to look upon the Christ who emptied Himself 
 of His glory, and took upon Him the form of a 
 
4 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 servant, and was found in fashion as a man. and 
 humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the cross ; but whom, for His 
 very humility, God hath highly exalted, and given 
 unto Him a name which is above every name, 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
 of things in heaven, and things on earth, and 
 things under the earth, and that every tongue 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the 
 glory of God the Father. As before Him angels 
 veil their faces, as before His throne saints cast 
 their crowns in lowly adoration, so in profoundest 
 humility would we exalt and worship Him who is 
 above all thrones, and principalities, and powers, 
 ere we venture to turn our gaze upon the other 
 aspect of our dear Saviour, and contemplate Him 
 in the form which for our sake He was willing to 
 become — the Man Christ Jesus. 
 
 The divinity of Christ is all important to the 
 believer ; but the humanity of Christ is, if possible, 
 even more precious. Because Christ is God, we 
 can rely upon His power ; because Christ is man, 
 we can rest upon His sympathy. None but the 
 Lord Jesus Christ — the Son of God — could have 
 made the atonement for man's sin ; the Son of 
 God alone could by His one oblation of Himself 
 have offered a " full, perfect, and sufficient sacri- 
 
THE CHRIST. 5 
 
 fice " for the sin of the whole world ; the Sou 
 of God, the co-equal and co-eternal with the 
 Father, alone could give that complete security 
 of forgiveness and reconciliation on which man 
 can rest with perfect trust. But it is the Man 
 Christ Jesus, who, being " born of the Virgin 
 Mary," was made flesh ; and dwelling among us, 
 and as a man, shared in human pains and human 
 joys, and so appeals to our hearts. Not through 
 any exercise of the Divine omnipotence, not 
 through the power of the Godhead, but by His 
 own experience " He knows what man is like;" 
 and having been Himself tried in all points as we 
 are, He is able to succour those who are tempted. 
 The great High Priest, looking back upon His 
 own earthly life, and remembering His own sor- 
 rows and temptations, remembering even the sin 
 which was all around Him, though it could not 
 touch Him in His own person, liveth ever to inter- 
 cede for His people as no other could, because He 
 is touched with the feeling of their infirmities. 
 
 The Gospels present us with a perfect picture 
 of the Man Christ Jesus. Two of the Evangelists 
 have recorded events of His early life. It is 
 worth noting how true the incidents are to the 
 Divine idea of the Christ. The babe lying in the 
 manger-cradle at Bethlehem is but a babe. He 
 
6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 performs no wonders ; lie works no portents. In 
 the myth the infant Hercules forecasts his future 
 by strangling the snakes which invaded his cradle. 
 Christ is helpless as any other babe of earth. 
 There are portents. There are wonders. But 
 they lie outside His consciousness. They are 
 about Him and around Him, but in His own 
 person He has nothing to do with them. It is 
 the angels who are active and moved at that 
 unique time in which the Son of God is born 
 into the world. They announced the wonder of 
 the miraculous conception to the Virgin-Mother ; 
 they allayed Joseph's snrmisings, and silenced his 
 doubts ; they declared His office by enouncing 
 the name by which He shall be called ; they 
 proclaimed the glorious birth to the shepherds ; 
 they brought Him adoration, bursting into songs 
 of praise as they ascribe glory to God and peace 
 to men. But the babe is passive. Or, later in 
 the story, it is the marvellous appearance of the 
 star, which notify to men gazing from the watch- 
 towers of their observatory that some wondrous 
 child, different from other children of earth, had 
 seen the light. It is the adoration of the wise 
 men, coming from the far East, in order that they 
 may bring their symbolical gifts of gold, and 
 frankincense, and myrrh, to the new-born Christ. 
 
THE CHEIST. 7 
 
 It is the senseless rage of the cruel Herod, mad 
 with jealousy aud fear. These are the things 
 which gather round the cradle of the child, 
 pointing Him out as the Messiah. Kays of light 
 streaming in from the invisible world as harbingers 
 of the Light which should lighten the world ; 
 foreshadowings from the sensible creation of that 
 yearning after better things which should here- 
 after gather all longing and expectant souls be- 
 neath the shadow of the Cross. 
 
 So also with the one incident recorded of 
 Christ's boyhood. There are indications of the 
 Divine glory. For the most part they lie in the 
 external surroundings, but not entirely. The 
 boy of twelve years old is not unconscious as was 
 the new-born child. The efflux of the Godhead 
 is stirring within Him, though He knows it not. 
 The instinct of the relationship between Himself 
 and the Father is called into life by the Temple 
 and its worship. It is quite in accordance with 
 the recognised law of human development, that 
 an external circumstance should awaken with 
 apparent suddenness the revelation of His own 
 true being, for which the teaching He had up to 
 that time received had prepared the way. His 
 mother, as we know from the song of the Annun- 
 ciation, was well versed in the Old Testament 
 
8 MEXTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 scriptures, and her mind was well stored with the 
 poetry which was her people's heritage. She 
 could not have failed to be a wise, as well as 
 a loving, instructress to her boy, around whose 
 childhood so many memories were gathered. 
 From her lips, and at her knee, lie would have 
 heard of the hopes of His nation, and of that 
 kingdom of David which should one day fill all 
 the world with its spiritual domination. At the 
 synagogue school the Holy Child would hear 
 much that was puerile, and a mass of rabbinical 
 learning which was calculated to hide the Divine 
 truth ; but in those schools the basis of all teach- 
 ing was the law which God had revealed ; and 
 from that treasury of knowledge many a sentence, 
 many a precept, many a magnificent passage of 
 the prophets, would sink into the boy's heart — 
 precious seed waiting only till the fulness of the 
 time should come to germinate. And how many 
 thoughts would this, His first journey to Jeru- 
 salem, the Holy City, where was His Father's 
 House, raise in His mind ? He was passing out 
 of childhood into youth ; He was being made 
 " a son of the law ; " He was taking upon Him- 
 self those responsibilities to the requirements of 
 religion from which He had been up to this time 
 absolved. Such a time, such an occasion, could 
 
THE CHRIST. Q 
 
 but call forth in Him ideas which He had never 
 known before ; and could hardly fail to make 
 Him conscious of that divinity which dwelt, 
 veiled, within Him. Equally natural was it that 
 with the exciting cause the effect produced should 
 to a great extent disappear. The consciousness, 
 awakened for a moment, was for a time lost. He 
 became once more almost, and in all outward 
 appearance, the simple son of His reputed parents. 
 " He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, 
 and was subject unto them." 
 
 The account of the Lord's childhood and youth 
 is given by men who wrote " as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost." They wrote, not according 
 to their own ideas of fitness, but according to the 
 things which happened. One theory of Christi- 
 anity is that it is a myth which has arisen out of 
 the consciousness of good men and wise men as to 
 what should have been. Christianity, according 
 to this theory, is the developed wisdom and good- 
 ness of the world. The Apocryphal Gospels of 
 the infancy are very useful in showing what man's 
 imagination invented. The accounts given in 
 them are in singular contrast to the inspired 
 Evangelists. The comparison is very significant, 
 whether we regard the utterances or the silence 
 of St. Matthew and St. Luke. The childhood of 
 
IO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Christ was as the childhood of other children. 
 But in the Apocryphal Gospels it is full of wonders. 
 He is at play with His companions, and they are 
 modelling animals in clay ; but the animals which 
 the child Jesus makes are able to walk, and His 
 birds fly into the air. And some of the stories are 
 not so harmless. What a contrast to the uncon- 
 scious babe which St. Matthew portrays, or to the 
 boy, thirsting after the heavenly knowledge in 
 His Father's house, whom St. Luke describes ! 
 
 In making a study of the human nature of the 
 Lord Jesus, with all its human mental character- 
 istics, it is of importance to observe the lines on 
 which the story of His life is written, and to mark 
 the principle by which, under the guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit, the Evangelists were guided. And no- 
 where is this principle brought into such distinct 
 relief as in the account furnished of Christ's 
 infancy and youth. The two thoughts in the 
 minds of the writers, which are ever converging 
 and interlacing, are in this part of their narrative 
 kept more distinct. On the one hand the Word 
 made flesh — the human son of the human mother ; 
 and on the other the eternal Son of God, "not 
 made, nor created," but existent from all eternity, 
 the co-equal with the Father. In the man, 
 arrived at mature age, the union of the two 
 
THE CHRIST. I I 
 
 natures would so form one perfect personality, 
 that in every act or word the most human, there 
 would be found something of the Divine ; while, 
 on the other hand, in those deeds and utterances 
 which were most Divine, something of the human 
 would appear. But in the boy, and in the child, 
 the Divine Godhead was, as it were, latent. In 
 the early days of childhood there was no con- 
 sciousness whatever ; the glory of the Godhead 
 was confined entirely to external circumstances. 
 During the time of boyhood the internal testimony 
 to the inward light is suggested, rather than called 
 into actual being, in the mind of Jesus. 
 
 And one other point must not fail to be noticed. 
 The Evangelists themselves are unconscious. They 
 are troubled by no theories ; they have no special 
 doctrines to maintain ; they never give a thought 
 as to what impression they will leave upon the 
 reader's mind. They never invite attention to 
 the Divine being of Him whose portrait they were 
 drawing. It never seems to have entered their 
 ideas that any one could cavil or could doubt. 
 They seem to live and to move in an atmosphere 
 where controversy had no existence. Much of 
 this simplicity of spirit may, humanly speaking, 
 be traced to the simplicity of the faith in which 
 the very early Christians lived. They had not 
 
12 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 learned to analyse, or to question. God doubtless 
 ordered it so, in order that the legacy of Christ's 
 life should be handed down to the Clurch un- 
 warped by man's prejudices and discussions. But 
 whatever may have been the ccuse, the fact 
 remains. The Evangelists, especialy those whom 
 we call the Synoptists, describe Christ as He 
 actually appeared to them. He appeared to them 
 as a man. He was in form ana fashion as a man. 
 He spoke and acted as a man. He had man's 
 wants and necessities. He ate, He drank, He 
 became weary, He slept, He was sad, as men 
 sometimes are sad. Longings swept over His 
 soul, as men long sometimes. And appearing to 
 them as a man, they draw the picture of a man. 
 The traces of His divinity are incidental — I had 
 almost said accidental. They are there, because 
 they were in Him, and therefore they entered 
 into the picture. They were there, in Him ; and 
 the picture is true and faithful, and so the Divine 
 glory rests upon the page. But it is there without 
 conscious intention. I do not think that in any 
 miracle, the miracle itselfj as a sign of Christ's 
 Godhead, is dwelt on by the Evangelist, or made 
 the chief point. And if not' in the miracles, much 
 less in any other performance of Christ. It is no 
 mean proof of the GodJnead of the Lord Jesus 
 
THE CHEIST. 13 
 
 Christ, that so far as the Gospels — especially the 
 three first Gospels — are concerned, the proof is 
 incidental and indirect. The writers were not 
 careful to prove, or even to bring into prominence, 
 what in their minds was a matter of such perfect 
 belief that it never entered into their conception 
 that any reader of their memoirs could doubt. 
 
 These remarks apply, perhaps, only in part 
 to the Fourth Gospel. That was written later. 
 The age of controversy was beginning. Those 
 questions, which were afterwards to rend Christen- 
 dom, were beginning to make themselves heard. 
 There is every reason to believe that St. John 1 
 had seen the writings of St. Matthew, St. Mark, 
 and St. Luke; and that, to a certain extent, he 
 did write his Gospel as supplementary to theirs. 
 Accordingly in the Fourth Gospel the doctrine of 
 Christ's divinity is stated in a manner different 
 to that of the other three Gospels. In the pro- 
 logue it is stated doctrinally, with authority. 
 And throughout the whole of the Johannean 
 Gospel, the thought of Christ's divinity is con- 
 sciously present to the mind of the writer. He 
 
 1 Let me state once for all that I do not purpose to touch upon the 
 points which modern scepticism has raised, such as the authorship of 
 the Fourth Gospel, or the possibility of miracles. Let me say, once 
 for all, that, for the purpose of these studies, I assume the accepted 
 helief of Christianity as true. 
 
14 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 knows there are adversaries and disputants. He 
 is aware, to quote from the tradition which is 
 thoroughly in accordance with St. John's char- 
 acter, that there is an enemy of God, and that 
 he must hasten from the baths lest he be involved 
 in his destruction. Yet the same spirit animates 
 all the Gospels. Controversy never becomes 
 bitter, or personal, or even positive, as in the 
 epistles of St. Peter, or as in St. Paul's writings. 
 There is a check laid upon the fiery nature of 
 the son of thunder which restrains him. The 
 personality of the Lord Jesus, with its pervading 
 spirit, overrules His Apostle's proper bent. He 
 too spake as he was moved, may we not say as 
 he was restrained, by the Holy Ghost. And so it 
 comes to pass, that the picture of the Saviour 
 is as distinctly and beautifully human in the 
 Fourth Gospel as in the third. Even more may 
 be said. St. John carries to our hearts the com- 
 passion, and sympathy, and tenderness of the 
 human Saviour, even more forcibly than St. Luke 
 himself. The raising of Lazarus at Bethany is, 
 if possible, more full of tender pathos than the 
 revival of the young man, the only son of his 
 mother, at the gate of Nain. And what was said 
 just before of the miracles is true for the Fourth 
 Gospel as for the others. In the first miracle, it is 
 
THE CHRIST. I 5 
 
 not the narrative itself, but a note of the writer 
 of the Gospel, which draws special attention to 
 the fact that the turning the water into wine at 
 Cana was a manifestation of Christ's glory. 
 
 The Evangelists, then, in their Gospels give us 
 a perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. They 
 portrayed Him as they actually beheld Him. He 
 was to them one whom they had heard, whom 
 they had seen with their eyes, whom they had 
 looked upon, and their hands had handled. In 
 the case of St. Luke this hearing and beholding 
 would, in all probability, be mental only. But in 
 the case of all it was true. The early story would 
 be that of the Virgin-Mother, who kept all these 
 things of those young happy days with her First- 
 born, and treasured them in her heart. During 
 the days of His ministry, Matthew, and John, and 
 Peter (for St. Mark) were His constant associates 
 and companions, while St. Luke set in order a 
 declaration of the things delivered him by those 
 who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the 
 Word. And so it could not be but that the 
 picture presented to us should be indeed that of 
 the Saviour in the perfect oneness of His divine- 
 human personality; but also, inasmuch as He whom 
 they drew was living with them as their Master 
 and their Friend, it would also necessarily (as we 
 
I 6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHEIST. 
 
 speak) come to pass that the traits most promi- 
 nently brought into relief, and the acts most 
 strikingly set before ns, -would be those of the 
 Man Christ Jesus. God has so ordained in His 
 wisdom; and I think that in this we may under- 
 stand and recognise His -wisdom, and sec in it a 
 thing for which we may be infinitely thankful. 
 For by this means the Lord is brought into close 
 fellowship with us; lie becomes to ns, as of old 
 to His disciples, our Master and Friend, one in 
 whom we may confide, one to whom we may take 
 our sorrows and our tears, one in whom we may 
 trust wholly, without fear. 
 
 One additional word may be said about the 
 miracles of Christ. The miracles are to us more 
 suggestive of power than arc the ordinary acts 
 of life. One great writer made an attempt — 
 eminently successful in his day — to rest the truth 
 of Christianity upon the miracles. Time has 
 taught us greater wisdom. The truth of Chris- 
 tianity rests upon Christ, not upon the miracles 
 of Christ. The miracles, indeed, must ever 
 remain what the Evangelists call them — signs ; 
 the external manifestations of Christ's inherent 
 glory, lint they arc more than this. They are 
 manifestations of His pity and compassion ; of 
 11 is sorrow for man's sin; of His sympathy with 
 
THE CHRIST. I 7 
 
 man's sufferings. Through them all runs the 
 golden chord of that humanity the adoption of 
 which was the realisation of the Saviour's love. 
 That is something better than His glory. In this 
 sense we would read them. Of necessity they 
 must enter into any study of the life of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. They are very precious to the 
 Church as giving an insight into the mind and 
 character of the Saviour. They are truly signs of 
 the Divine glory ; but, although signs, they are 
 not more Divine than what we should call His 
 everyday actions ; they do not bear a greater 
 impress of the glory of the Godhead than His 
 words. The whole life of Christ — not any part of 
 it in particular — is stamped with the hall-mark of 
 His divinity. And, on the other hand, the whole 
 life of Christ — every part of it alike — is human to 
 the core. 
 
II. 
 
 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 The object of the present paper is an attempt 
 to spell out something of the grace and beauty of 
 the character and mental disposition of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 As St. Mark in the opening of his Gospel im- 
 presses upon his readers that his memoir is the 
 Evangel of the Son of God, so St. John reminds 
 those to whom he wrote that the glory which 
 men beheld in Christ, was the glory of the only- 
 begotten of the Father. But in fixing the atten- 
 tion on the character of Christ, it is with the 
 human nature, which the Son of Man adopted, 
 that we have more particularly to do. The 
 characteristics on which our thoughts arc to be 
 fixed are the human characteristics of the Lord. 
 In taking upon Him man's nature, Christ took 
 upon Him all that is human in man. In the 
 Lord Jesus Christ there was all that we think of, 
 
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS. 1 9 
 
 when, in its best sense, we use the word human. 
 Everything that is good, or praiseworthy, or noble, 
 or lovable in man, was found in its highest per- 
 fection in Jesus Christ. Think of all the persons 
 whose names history has handed down ; is there 
 any among them so human as was Christ ? Call 
 to mind all the heroes ever read of in romance ; 
 is there any that can for one moment be compared 
 with Christ ? There is no need to point out that 
 nearly all the goodness and virtue which ennobles 
 man at the present time, is due largely to the 
 example of Christ and to His teaching. If the 
 noblest of the old Greeks could be revived — men 
 such as Plato or Demosthenes — with their idea of 
 morality unchanged, they would not be tolerated 
 in our midst. Francis Newman once attempted 
 to draw a comparison between the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and Fletcher of Madeley. No one — not 
 the author himself — ever cared to revert to the 
 illustration. But even had any comparison been 
 possible, was not Christ the very source from 
 which the nobility and beauty of character of 
 such men as St. Francis Xavier, or Fletcher 
 of Madeley, was derived. It was because they 
 were disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 something of the glory and grace of His character 
 was reflected in them. 
 
20 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 If we regard the Lord from the human point 
 of view, His sinlessncss was the most marked 
 characteristic. It was the most marked, because 
 it was the one characteristic which is found in 
 no other child of Adam. History, experience, 
 and conscience alike bear witness to the truth 
 of the assertion of David, that there is none 
 righteous, no, not one, and to the testimony of 
 St. Paul, that all have sinned and come short 
 of the glory of God. Christ is the only excep- 
 tion. What man, standing front to front with 
 his virulent enemies, could venture to look them 
 boldly in the face, and demand: "Which of you 
 convinceth me of sin?" And it is not only to 
 the record that Christians can appeal. It is not 
 only that there are four memoirs of the Saviour's 
 life, in which His doings and sayings are re- 
 corded, and that in none of them is there any 
 trace of sin to be found. These records have 
 been examined with that scrupulous care which 
 only hostility can inspire, in the hope that some 
 flaw could be discovered. But the search has 
 been in vain. If any sin were discoverable in 
 Christ ; if in Him could be found any evil which 
 men could recognise ; if any acknowledged fault 
 could be traced in His life, — it would not be long 
 before the world heard of it. Such an imputation 
 
OF THE LOPJ) JESUS CHRIST. 2 1 
 
 on Christ's character would not long be confined 
 to the knowledge of either scholars or sceptics, 
 but the alleged discovery would be in all men's 
 mouths. The only thing I ever heard of was 
 Newman's famous discovery that Christ was too 
 hard on religious hypocrites ! l But it is not 
 only that the record represents Him as sinless. 
 We can go behind the record. How is it that 
 four persons, mentally very differently constituted, 
 were able to present us with the portrait of a 
 sinless Man ? Christ is portrayed in His public- 
 life, and He is shown to us in the privacy of 
 familiar intercourse with His friends. We see 
 Him in His home at Nazareth, and we are with 
 Him in the turbulent scenes of the capital. We 
 listen to the angry taunts of His adversaries, 
 and we view Him irritated by their cavils and 
 hardness beyond any endurance except His own. 
 We sail with Him on the still waters of the 
 Lake of Galilee, and we share His quiet rest 
 at Bethany, His scanty joys are told us. His 
 hours of" sorrow are laid bare. The moments 
 
 1 Sceptical literature cannot speak too highly of the character of 
 the Christ in which it refuses to believe. I speak of books by men 
 of learning and acknowledged repute. There are in the purlieus of 
 licentious literature, scurrilous publications which do not hesitate to 
 attack Christ's moral character. They are best left to the low dark- 
 ness to which they properly belong. 
 
2 2 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 of His deepest depression are unveiled. Yet 
 throughout the continuance of His troubled life 
 — in all circumstances, no matter how difficult, 
 under all trials, no matter how disturbing — these 
 four writers have contrived to present a portrait 
 untouched by sin. Had not Christ been without 
 sin, could any skill of the Evangelists have availed 
 to represent Him as sinless? 
 
 There is another point in connection with the 
 sinlessness of Jesus well worthy of notice. The 
 characters which pose as perfect arc not, as a 
 rule, those whom we like the most. Only too 
 often "he is all fault, who hath no fault at all." 
 For us, as for Guinevere, 
 
 The low sun makes the colour, 
 
 and those we love 
 
 Munt have a touch of earth. 
 
 Very good people arc apt to be repellent. Per- 
 haps it were not difficult to assign a reason. But 
 who would have Christ other than He is ? About 
 Him there is nothing repellent. His goodness 
 never makes us turn away impatiently. His sin- 
 lessness never provokes a feeling of irritation, nor 
 jars as with a discordant note. His perfection is 
 in the thought of all men perfect. His sinlessness 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 23 
 
 is a new charm added to the perfect grace of His 
 human character. Who can read the story of the 
 sinless Christ, and desire that anything should be 
 changed in act He ever did, or wish that anything 
 should be altered in word He ever spoke ! The 
 story of that life goes straight to our hearts. All 
 must recognise that here is One made to be loved. 
 
 Perhaps the reason of this exceeding lovableness $^ 
 in the Saviour lies in the second trait to which 
 attention may be directed — the sympathy of Jesus. 
 Sympathy means the power of putting oneself into 
 another's place in such a manner as to feel as 
 he feels. The Lord Jesus Christ understood all 
 human feelings. All human pain, all human 
 suffering, all human joy, was known to Him who 
 was tried and tempted in all points like as we are. 
 His perfect sympathy with the relations of life is 
 shown in His first miracle. Few men, certainly 
 no prophet of the Old Dispensation, and still more 
 certainly no heathen philosopher, would have con- 
 sidered the occasion worthy of a miracle. It was 
 only that the wine had run short at a marriage 
 feast. Yet our Lord worked the miracle — worked 
 on this occasion His first miracle. For He could 
 feel, as though it had been His own, the shame 
 and humiliation of the bridegroom ; and He could 
 enter into the disappointment and gloom which 
 
24 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 such an accident would have cast over the early 
 days of marriage. The lack of happy associations 
 at a thing so commonplace as a wedding, might 
 seem but of small importance to the philosopher 
 or to the stern religious reformer, but it did not 
 seem of small importance to Christ. lie thought 
 the occasion no unworthy one on which to mani- 
 fest His glory by the performance of His first 
 miracle. The same ready sympathy is shown in 
 the miracle which followed immediately upon the 
 Sermon on the Mount. The leper who came to 
 be healed did not doubt Christ's power. But he 
 was an outcast, a pariah, one whom all men 
 avoided. He did not feel sure of Christ's will- 
 ingness. Might not the Great Teacher feel 
 disgust at his unclean condition, and repulsion 
 at the sight of his loathsome sores ? And Christ 
 entered into the man's feelings, and was moved 
 with compassion. Careless of the ceremonial 
 defilement which the act involved, He put forth 
 His hand, and healed him by a touch. 
 «/ But the sympathy of Christ with all modes of 
 human sorrow, showed itself so continuously in 
 His every act and deed, that it is almost im- 
 possible to select illustrations. Every miracle 
 is an example of the fellow-feeling of the Lord 
 Jesus with man's pain. There are, however, 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 25 
 
 three miracles, similar in character, and manifest- 
 ing, as we think, the highest energy of the Divine 
 power, each of which brings into strong relief 
 the mental quality we are considering. Three 
 times our Lord recalled the life which had 
 departed ; and on each of these occasions the 
 sympathy of Christ is so marked, that we almost 
 lose sight of the miraculous power displayed in 
 admiration of the thoughtful compassion which 
 Christ showed. When Jairus came with his 
 pitiful prayer : " Master, my little daughter is 
 at the point of death, but lay Thine hands upon 
 her, and she shall live," a gaping crowd gathered 
 round, hoping to see a miracle. But Christ, over- 
 hearing the message that the child was dead, 
 arrests, by one of those words or gestures which 
 He used on more than one occasion, the curious 
 people ; and He suffered none to follow in the 
 wake of the stricken father except His three 
 chosen disciples. In the miracle by the gate 
 of Nain, St. Luke is careful to make us under- 
 stand, that sympathy for the childless widow is 
 the predominant feeling in the Saviour's heart ; 
 the revival of the dead man carried out to his 
 burial is almost a resulting: accident. And once 
 more. In reading the wonderful story -enacted 
 outside the little town of Bethany, has— net-every 
 
26 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 •mourner dwelt, with an ever-new sense of com- 
 fort, *«■ the sympathy with man's sorrow which 
 the Lord displayed, as, standing by the grave of 
 Lazarus, Jesus wept warm, human tears ! 
 
 The thought of Christ's love for children seems 
 so in accordance with His character, that we never 
 pause to think that it was anything unusual or 
 uncommon. But we do not find, as a rule, earth's 
 greatest men loving towards children. I do not 
 remember to have read that Caesar, or Charle- 
 magne, or Charles the Fifth, were much interested 
 in children. I never heard of Frederick the Great, 
 or Napoleon, or even Carlyle, dangling children 
 on their knees. I doubt if the widow's son was a 
 playmate for Elijah. I do not think that St. Paul 
 ever mentions children with any special tender- 
 ness. Luther, indeed, was an exception ; in this 
 he follows the Master whose honour he upheld so 
 bravely. Even to the disciples, who more than 
 others were acquainted with His ways and 
 thoughts, it seemed an act unworthy of the 
 Messiah's dignity that He should take the children 
 into His arms to bless them. It is a thing well 
 worthy of notice how often the Lord speaks of 
 little children. He cites them as types of those 
 worthy to enter into the kingdom of God. He 
 instances them as examples of guilelcssness. A 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 2J 
 
 child is taken, and set in the midst of the disciples, 
 in order to teach them humility. One of Christ's 
 solemn warnings is suggested by the sight of 
 children at their games. They are to be treated 
 with reverence, because their angels behold the 
 Father's face in heaven. Children's voices are 
 welcome to Christ, and must not be silenced, as, 
 attending His entry into Jerusalem, they shout 
 their glad hosannas. Nay, we are told that who- 
 soever receiveth the child in Christ's name, re- 
 ceiveth Christ Himself. If it had been otherwise : 
 if Christ had passed by the children as other men 
 pass them by, how much the world would have 
 missed ; how much of the exceeding beauty of 
 the Saviour's character would have been lost to 
 man. 
 
 The traits of our Lord's character on which we 
 love most to dwell are His pity and compassion. 
 These are never absent. They show themselves in 
 every act. To attempt to illustrate Christ's pity 
 would be but to repeat every detail of His life. 
 Notice the difference between the miracles recorded 
 in the Old Testament and those which Christ per- 
 formed. Under the Old Dispensation, as often as 
 not, they were punitive or vindictive. Miriam is 
 stricken with leprosy ; Elijah calls down heaven's 
 fire to destroy his enemies ; Elisha punishes his 
 
2 8 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 sonant by smiting him with disease ; even in the 
 New Testament, St. Paul uses his miraculous 
 power to confound an adversary. But all Christ's 
 miracles were works of pity and compassion. 
 There is no exception. / The fig-tree withered 
 away ; but its destruction was a sermon intended 
 to save the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the ruin 
 which would overtake them. The swine perished ; 
 but the miserable man possessed with the legion 
 of devils was saved. And as with our Lord's acts, 
 so with His spoken words, f What can exceed the 
 tender beauty of the parable of the sheep lost 
 upon the mountains, which the shepherd, with joy 
 at his heart, carries home on his weary shoulders ; 
 or the wonderful pathos of the story of the Pro- 
 digal Son, in which the interest is ever new, even 
 though we know every word by heart. 
 
 The pity and compassion of Christ were the 
 result of His unselfishness. In Christ there is no 
 trace of selfishness. Selfishness is the Nessus- 
 robe which clings to every human being. Christ 
 alone was free from it. He ever forgot Himself. 
 His own sufferings were forgotten in those of 
 others. His fatigue and weariness were put aside 
 for the sake of others. His own pain was not 
 thought of, if another's distress needed alleviation. 
 His own trials were lost sight of in the temptations 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 2Q 
 
 of His disciples. Let me take an example from 
 St. Luke. The sun had set, and evening had 
 fallen with its refreshing coolness. Then from 
 every quarter they brought to the wonderful 
 Healer the sick in order that He might cure their 
 diseases. It had been so easy to heal all by one 
 word of power. But a cure so wrought, whatever 
 material benefit it might have conferred, would 
 not have carried to the heart of these sick folk 
 that spiritual lesson which it was the Lord's chief 
 object to impart. So Christ has each case brought 
 to Him singly. For each He has the word which 
 He knew to be needed. To each individual 
 sufferer He applied His healing touch. The 
 Evangelist is careful to tell us that on that 
 evening, although there were so many, "He laid 
 His hand on every one of them." Or let St. 
 John tell the story of Christ's self-forgetfulness. 
 Weary and footsore, Christ had thrown Himself 
 down by the well of Samaria, longing for a 
 draught of the cool, refreshing water. But one 
 had need of Him, and the Saviour lays aside all 
 thought of Himself, in order that He may minister 
 to another's want. This time it is not material 
 benefit which is desired, but a soul, whose purity 
 sin had soiled, needed to be awakened. From 
 the neighbouring village a woman comes to draw. 
 
30 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 The first word is prompted by Christ's natural 
 want. He is thirsty after the long walk in the 
 hot sun. " Give me to drink." First in her 
 surprise, afterwards in the interest of the con- 
 versation, the woman passes by the request 
 unheeded ; and Christ will not interrupt the 
 current of her thoughts to press His want upon 
 her. His meat and drink were to do the will of 
 the Father that sent Him. So He bears, as best 
 He may, His thirst and weariness, and continues 
 patiently talking with her, until, by the power of 
 His word, He carries conviction to her heart. 
 
 But perhaps at no time was Christ's unselfish- 
 ness and thought for others shown so vividly as in 
 the last hours of His life. In the farewell words 
 He speaks to His disciples there is no mention of 
 His own coming pain, nor one single expression 
 of self-pity ; all His care is for them, — to give 
 them the courage needed to sustain their drooping 
 hearts, when their Master shall be taken from 
 them. In the Garden of Gethsemane, as the 
 traitor appears to apprehend Him, His first im- 
 pulse is to save His followers. The last miracle 
 of the Saviour's earthly life is to heal the ear 
 of Malchus. On the weary way to Golgotha He 
 finds His voice to comfort the women who bewail 
 His coming death. As He hangs on the very 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 3 I 
 
 cross His prayer is for His murderers, and He 
 promises salvation to the repentant thief. In 
 His dying moments He collects His remaining 
 strength in order to commend His mother to St. 
 John. 
 
 From the unselfishness of Christ on the one 
 side, flowed His pity and compassion ; from 
 another side, resulted the quietness and restfulness 
 which are marked characteristics of His mental 
 disposition. He was never flustered, never hasty, 
 never impatient. Tried as no other ever had 
 been tried, He never failed in calmness of spirit. 
 The inhabitants of Nazareth, in their spiteful 
 rage, would hurl Him headlong from the rock 
 on which their city was built ; Christ passes 
 through their midst. From angry words the 
 rabble at Jerusalem are proceeding to murderous 
 deeds, and already the deadly stones are in their 
 hands ; Christ, by a word of calmness, stays their 
 intent. He wakes from sleep to find the boister- 
 ous winds howling around Him, and the disciples 
 — hardy fishermen as they were — paralysed with 
 terror ; with quiet power Christ speaks, and wind 
 and wave hear and obey. Before the tribunal 
 of the High Priest He maintains an undisturbed 
 demeanour; before the judgment-seat of Pilate, 
 in the calmness of conscious strength, He points 
 
32 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 out to the arrogant judge that he is but the 
 steward of that power which belongeth unto 
 God. 
 
 Hitherto attention has been fixed on those 
 qualities which are passive and feminine. In 
 considering the mental attributes of the Saviour 
 there is, perhaps, less disposition to dwell on the 
 virile characteristics of His mind. But in these 
 sterner traits of character Christ was not deficient. 
 The Greeks long ago observed that the complete 
 man must be possessed of the masculine and 
 feminine qualities in due proportion ; and so, in 
 the Orphic hymn, Jupiter is represented as uniting 
 both sexes in his own person. Men may be 
 roughly divided into two types — the one repre- 
 sented typically by Elijah, the other by St. John. 
 But our Lord was of no type ; or rather, being 
 the perfect Man, He united in Himself all types 
 of men. We think of Him as of the St. John 
 type ; but it is not so ; He is equally of the 
 Elijah type ; for in Him all the qualities, mascu- 
 line and feminine, which go to make the complete 
 man, are found. Courage and daring, and, if 
 need were, sternness and indignant anger, showed 
 themselves as decidedly as the more winning and 
 loveable points of character. He could rebuke 
 vice as strongly as John the Baptist : He could 
 
OF THE LOED JESUS CHRIST. 33 
 
 convict of sin with a force as telling as that of 
 any Old Testament prophet ; and, in refraining 
 from pronouncing condemnation on one already 
 bowed down by shame, He could bid her sin no 
 more. He could denounce hardened formalists 
 and hypocrites with a severity which calls forth 
 the condemnation of a modern critic ; but when 
 His enemies had obtained their end, and supposed 
 that they had triumphed in His condemnation — 
 when, unstirred by pity and unmoved by remorse, 
 they stood beneath His cross gloating over the 
 sufferings their evil machinations had brought 
 about — then His only emotion was compassion 
 for their hardness and an intense pity for the 
 terrible doom impending over them. In the 
 supremest moment of His awful suffering He 
 forgets His own agony that He may pray for 
 those who crucified Him : " Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do." 
 
 The study of the mental characteristics of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ is of the deepest importance, 
 because the power of Christianity rests on the 
 person of Christ. The atonement is the voluntary 
 sacrifice of Christ. The Evangelists ever keep 
 before our view the personality of the Saviour. 
 The Gospels are memoirs of the person of the 
 Son of Man. We can see, touch, and handle 
 
34 THE MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 Him. We can hear His voice ; we can see, as 
 it were, His very gestures. The Gospel is not 
 the exposition of a doctrine, but the story of a 
 life. Christianity is based, not so much upon a ^ 
 system of doctrines, as upon the person of Christ. 
 The relationship between Christ and His people 
 is a personal relationship. If Christianity is 
 regarded as a system of doctrines, its doctrines, 
 glorious as they may be, are mere empty husks 
 unless there is in them the presence and power 
 of a living personal Saviour. If Christianity is 
 regarded as a great moral law — and what law 
 was ever so beautiful in its purity, or majestic 
 in its holiness as the Gospel — the moral law is 
 powerless, unless, by union with the person of 
 the Lawgiver, grace and strength is drawn to 
 enable men to keep it. If Christianity is viewed 
 as a means of redemption, the very object of 
 redemption is to unite man, by the removal of 
 sin, in living personal communion with God. 
 The morality of the stoic philosophers could not 
 regenerate the Roman Empire. The lofty ideals 
 of the Platonists failed equally. It was Chris- 
 tianity which saved the world. It was Christ 
 which saved the world. It was not the Sermon 
 on the Mount, however far-reaching to the heart's 
 lowest depths that sermon went. It was Christ, 
 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 35 
 
 the living, personal Saviour. His living influence, 
 gaining to Himself man's affections, subdued the 
 prevailing evils ; His personal presence, felt and 
 realised in men's hearts, regenerated society. 
 Infanticide, gladiatorial shows, unnatural vices, 
 slavery, torture, all the unutterable corruption of 
 heathenism, fell before the Saviour hanging on 
 the cross. And so St. Paul declares Christianity 
 to be faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and so St. 
 Peter declares that to the believer, the Christ, 
 whom he has not seen, is precious ; and so St. 
 John sums up all Christian experience in the one 
 word, "We love Him;" and so One greater than 
 St. John, greater than St. Peter, greater than 
 St. Paul, declares eternal life to be the knowledge 
 of Himself: "This is life eternal, that they might 
 know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom Thou hast sent." 
 
III. 
 
 THE STYLE AND MANNER OF CHRIST'S 
 TEACHING. 
 
 Many volumes have been written on the words 
 of Christ. But these many volumes have dealt 
 almost exclusively with the meaning of Christ's 
 utterances. Doubtless this is the main point. 
 To know what Christ taught ; to understand 
 what He said ; to search the significance of the 
 Lord's words : these things are all important. For 
 we must know the will of the Master before we 
 can perform that will ; and obedience to that will 
 is the Saviour's own test of the love we bear Him. 
 But in the words there is something besides 
 their actual meaning and significance ; or, per- 
 haps, I should say there is in them something by 
 which their meaning and significance is brought 
 home to us. One prophet of the older dispensa- 
 tion varies from another prophet. The style is 
 different, even though in all the origin of the 
 message, and the message itself, is one. From 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 27 
 
 Jeremiah the ready tears are never very far away ; 
 Isaiah delights in unfolding all the glories which 
 shall be when the Messiah's kingdom should be 
 manifested ; Ezekiel, with occasional outbursts of 
 soul-stirring tenderness, is as austere and gloomy 
 as the Greek zEschylus. And as each of these 
 prophets has his own style peculiar to himself, 
 so the Lord Jesus Christ, making use of human 
 language to express His thoughts, clothed those 
 thoughts in words which were peculiar to Him, 
 and in a style, which, insomuch that it is His 
 style, must be well worth considering. 
 
 The object, then, of this essay is to consider 
 the style and character of Christ's words — not 
 their meaning or significance, but the manner 
 in which Christ taught. 
 
 First of all may be noticed the sententious 
 brevity of many of our Lord's utterances, and the 
 profundity of thought which He enclosed in the 
 fewest possible words. This can hardly fail to 
 strike the most superficial reader of the Gospels. 
 There are a number of short sayings, embodying 
 in them great and universal truths, which have 
 become like household words. They come to our 
 minds like proverbs in daily use, or like the deep 
 saying of some great poet which has burnt itself 
 into the very being of the language. How we are 
 
38 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 struck with the truth of such a saying as " To him 
 that hath shall be given ! " How thoroughly it 
 answers to human experience ! The man who 
 has many friends is constantly gathering new 
 friends around him. The rich man, almost in his 
 own despite, is constantly adding to his wealth. 
 The learned man finds ever new sources of know- 
 ledge at his command. And how equally true 
 the saying is morally ! The large-hearted man 
 grows in kindness and benevolence. The chari- 
 table man finds his heart constantly expanding, 
 and at the same time the objects of his loving 
 solicitude make greater demands upon his liber- 
 ality. While, alas ! the converse also holds 
 good. The cruel man grows in cruelty, he be- 
 comes more callous, more hardened, more in- 
 different to others' pain. And the mean man, 
 or the sordid man, or the miser, are they not too 
 continually adding to, and increasing their vices ? 
 Many other such words rise almost instinctively 
 to the memory. " With what measure ye mete 
 it shall be measured to you again." " Out of the 
 abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 
 "Ye cannot serve two masters." "A man's life 
 consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
 which he possesscth." It is not the meaning of 
 the words to which it is desired to draw the 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 39 
 
 attention, but their sharp incisive comprehensive- 
 ness. How they, almost in a word, embody the 
 great principles of Christ's Kingdom. How they 
 are as goads and nails fastened by the master of 
 the assembly. As the panorama of life passes 
 before us, such words as these, remarkable equally 
 for their brevity and their truth, come continually 
 into our thoughts. 
 
 Next I would place the extreme simplicity of 
 our Lord's words. The teaching of it was alto- 
 gether new. The world had never heard any- 
 thing like it before. And the philosophy of the 
 Christian religion was the deepest that had ever 
 been proclaimed. How deep it was may be seen 
 in the fact, that the civilisation of the Western 
 World, which is the boast of this nineteenth 
 century, is its direct result. Yet this philosophy 
 was expounded in the simplest language. There 
 is scarcely a hard word in the Gospels. Not only 
 was the language such that the most uninstructed 
 could understand it, but the illustrations of the 
 new teaching were drawn from the commonest 
 objects. The flowers growing at the Saviour's 
 feet, the birds flying over His head, the plough- 
 man breaking up the clods of earth, the sower 
 putting in the seed — it was by such things as 
 these that Christ made His meaning clear. And 
 
40 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 at the same time each illustration was full of 
 beauty. It tended to raise and elevate the 
 thought, at the same time that it guided it in 
 a right direction. What can be more homely 
 than the picture of the woman hiding the leaven 
 in the flour, till the penetrating quality of the 
 yeast should make the bread light and whole- 
 some? And yet would not the very homeliness 
 of the picture raise pleasant thoughts of home, 
 with its quiet rest and peace, in the minds of the 
 common people who gathered round the Saviour 
 and heard Him gladly? The lilies, and the ripe 
 corn waving in the sunlight, and the red clouds 
 painted by the setting sun, are not all these 
 emblems of beauty as well as illustrations of 
 simplicity? Such was the teaching of Him, who, 
 considered merely from a human standpoint, was 
 the greatest teacher the world had ever seen. 
 
 In this connection the parables present them- 
 selves to the mind. At the moment, as it will be 
 remembered, the parables were used to conceal 
 the truth. It was on account of the hardness 
 of their hearts that Christ taught the people by 
 parables. But it was for the moment only. No 
 mode of instruction could be better conceived for 
 conveying information to the ignorant, and per- 
 haps, to the instructed as well as the ignorant. 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 4 1 
 
 The slight story, touching as it did on some com- 
 mon everyday occurrence, would fasten itself in the 
 memory. It would come back to the mind again 
 and again, as the recurring circumstance recalled 
 it to the recollection. Almost unconsciously, it 
 would be thought of and pondered over, and thus 
 truth, which is ever many-sided, would come to be 
 viewed in new and varying lights. And it must 
 not be lost sight of, that these parables, though for 
 the moment hidden from the understanding of 
 those who had not hearts to perceive, were 
 expounded in private to the considerable group 
 which formed the inner circle of Christ's adher- 
 ents, and whom the Evangelists call the disciples. 
 Even if at the time the meaning was not always 
 clear, these parables are an eternal possession, 
 the everlasting heritage of God's Church. We 
 have the parables, and we have the key to unlock 
 their signification. We know how the Greek 
 slave lives in every one's memory because he 
 invented the fable. But the parable is more 
 beautiful, because more congruous, than the fable. 
 Of course it is not pretended that our Lord in- 
 vented the parable. It had existed from the time 
 of which we have any record. It was in fact a 
 mode of instruction constantly used by the Jewish 
 Eabbis. But Christ made this style of teaching 
 
42 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 peculiarly His own. lie specially adopted it as 
 the vehicle in which to convey His instruction. 
 " Without a parable spake He not unto them." 
 And we may see how strong a hold the parable 
 has taken upon men's minds by the numberless 
 allegories and parables from nature which have 
 been written since Christ taught. The parable, 
 which charmed our childish fancy, contains in 
 itself deep stores of wisdom, now that in our 
 riper age we are better able to appreciate its 
 deeper meaning. 
 
 To simplicity of style Christ added simplicity 
 of matter. If you would form some idea of the 
 teaching of the period, read a page or two of the 
 Talmud. There you will find discussed how God 
 employs His time in heaven ; the answer being 
 that He is engaged in teaching young Jews to 
 read. There you will find it gravely argued how 
 much space an angel occupies ; one Rabbi de- 
 claring that ten thousand could dance on the 
 point of a needle. There you will find that a 
 llabbi imagined he was discussing a great moral 
 question, when he considered whether a man in 
 the desert might use sand for his ceremonial 
 ablutions. How different was the teaching of 
 Christ. We may well suppose, that, like all the 
 Jewish youths, He had attended the schools 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 43 
 
 attached to the synagogues. There He could 
 hardly fail to have been introduced to the casu- 
 istical questions which were the special feature 
 of the degenerate age in which He lived. Yet 
 they left scarcely an impression on His mind. 
 Except on special occasions, and for special pur- 
 poses, our Lord never adopted such a style of" 
 argumentation. He used it, as we shall see 
 presently, only as a weapon of defence against 
 His adversaries. In His usual teaching He puts 
 aside, with an almost contemptuous scorn, all the 
 puerilities in which the Jewish mind delighted, 
 and lays down great guiding principles of truth 
 and morality suited alike to all people and to all 
 time. To take a single instance as an example, 
 He sums up the Law in the single word of love 
 — love to God, and love to one's neighbour ; and 
 He comprehends all social virtues, and all social 
 duties, in the one single precept of doing unto 
 others as you would they should do unto you. 
 
 As our Lord taught simplicity of matter in 
 simplicity of style, so did He teach His heavenly 
 doctrines to simple minds. It was the common 
 people who heard Him gladly. Other teachers 
 addressed themselves almost exclusively to the 
 noble and the rich. The Jewish Rabbis collected 
 around them the young men of exclusive families 
 
44 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OP CHRIST. 
 
 as their scholars. The greatest of all the Greek 
 sages had for his pupils the principal youths 
 of Athens. But Christ addressed Himself to the 
 poor. When John the Baptist sent to inquire 
 whether He were the Messiah, to such Messianic 
 signs as healing the sick and raising the dead, 
 that of preaching to the poor is added : — "To the 
 poor the Gospel is preached." And so, while the 
 rich and happy passed Him by, the wretched, 
 and the miserable, and the fallen, and the sinful, 
 came to Him ; just as to-day, and in the days 
 of all time, the weary ones and heavy laden, the 
 troubled and the sorrowing, come to place them- 
 selves under the sheltering shadow of His cross. 
 To the simple His first words of blessing were 
 spoken : — " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven." On the ears 
 of the sad and unhappy, the words of benediction 
 fall as the tender dew: — "Blessed are they that 
 mourn, for they shall be comforted." 
 
 Another peculiarity of Christ's teaching is the 
 fewness .of the words He utters. Each word 
 which Christ pronounces has its distinct emphatic 
 meaning. And there is no word which has not 
 its meaning. There is no reiteration in our 
 Lord's teaching. He does not even, as human 
 teachers often find they must do, clothe His ideas 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 45 
 
 in different language, as if He would by that 
 means impress them upon the mind. But He 
 speaks once, with authority and power ; and then 
 He leaves the weighty word to produce the effect 
 He intended, and to fulfil the purpose He de- 
 signed it to accomplish. The Sermon on the 
 Mount was doubtless a long sermon, but how full 
 of significance is each word. In two or three 
 chapters of St. Matthew all the principles of 
 Christ's teaching are laid down. If you would 
 see how concise our Lord's teaching is, read a 
 single paragraph from this sermon ; rewrite it in 
 your own words, and then, counting the number 
 of words you have used, compare them with the 
 number in the text. So in all His miracles ; the 
 words actually needed are spoken ; no superfluous 
 words are added. So in all the parables ; by one 
 or two graphic touches the whole is presented 
 as a picture before our eyes. The parable of the 
 Sower is told in six short verses ; the beautiful 
 story of the healing of the Leper is contained in 
 three verses ; the whole history of the Prodigal 
 Son occupies but twenty-one. Where else shall 
 we find a teacher using so few words ? 
 
 One thing specially noteworthy in our Lord's 
 style is the absence of rhetorical language. Our 
 Lord never aimed at effect. He spoke with 
 
46 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 authority. lie never attempted to gain by graces 
 of diction that which lie never failed to obtain 
 by the power and force of thought which His 
 words possessed. With Him the thought is 
 everything ; the words arc nothing ; except that 
 there is ever, as must be necessarily, perfect con- 
 gruity between the idea and its expression. AVe 
 may compare the Lord Jesus Christ in this respect 
 with His servant St. Paul. In the Epistles of St. 
 Paul we have occasionally splendid flights of 
 rhetoric. It is enough to instance such passages 
 as i Cor. iv. 9-15, in which in strong satirical 
 language he describes his Apostolical position ; 
 or 1 Cor. xv. 42 seq., in which he describes the 
 glory of the resurrection. Such passages abound 
 in the Apostle's writings. But in the Lord's 
 words and discourses this element of rhetoric is 
 almost absolutely wanting. The nearest approach 
 to it is in Matt, xxiii. — the passage in which in 
 burning words of indignation He denounces the 
 formality, and lays bare the hypocrisy of the 
 religious cheat and pretender. When we come 
 to study the life of the Saviour, when we meditate 
 on His words in order to penetrate to the very 
 heart of the llcdeemer, how the peaceful calmness 
 of the nature, which manifests itself in the spoken 
 language, appeals to our minds, llow in the 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 47 
 
 repose of quiet strength, which pervades every 
 utterance, rest is given unto us ! The absence 
 of rhetoric is not only a distinguishing mark of 
 the words which have been preserved to us in the 
 Gospels ; it is much more than this. It is some- 
 thing which soothes the disturbed mind, or stills 
 the unquiet spirit, in a manner for which we may 
 rejoice and be thankful. Yet it could not be 
 otherwise. For must not the words of Christ be 
 the mirror reflecting the image and nature of 
 Christ ? Rhetoric could find no place in the pure 
 and holy calmness of His spirit. 
 
 In considering our Lord's style and manner 
 of speech, it must not be forgotten that Christ 
 did occasionally adopt the rabbinical custom of 
 casuistry, to which we have already referred. It 
 was His defensive weapon against His foes. 
 When His adversaries came with their subtle 
 questions, asked, so far as the people would com- 
 prehend, in good faith, and for information, but 
 in reality hiding a deadly purpose, He turned 
 their attack, and foiled them with their own 
 chosen armoury. lie answered the fool — the 
 word is used in its biblical sense, the wicked — 
 He answered the fool according to his folly. But, 
 unlike the Rabbis, the grave instruction of the 
 great Teacher was ever added on to the sophistry 
 
48 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the dialectician. Thus when the Pharisees 
 and Ilerodians entered on an unholy alliance, 
 either to ruin His reputation with the populace, 
 or to deliver Ilim to the judgment of the Eornan 
 Governor, after foiling their wicked attempt, He 
 adds the word which sums up religious politics 
 for all time: "Render therefore unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's, and unto God the 
 things which are God's." The insidious inquiry 
 concerning divorce is used as an occasion to 
 enforce the sanctity and permanence of the 
 marriage tie. The Sadducees, coming with a 
 question which to them appeared to show the 
 absurdity of a resurrection "and a future life, are 
 made use of to prove, in a manner which would 
 commend itself to the Rabbis themselves, the 
 truth of the doctrinfe they denied. But when a 
 lawyer, half to try^Him, but also half in earnest, 
 asks Him which is the greatest commandment, 
 He rises above all the quibbles of the schools, and 
 enforces the two great duties which include all 
 commandments, and are the fulfilment of alP7 
 obedience ; namely, love to God, and love to the ' 
 person with whom one is for the moment in con- 
 tact. Then at last He turns the tables upon His 
 adversaries, and, under the form of a rabbinical 
 discussion, asks the momentous question which 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 49 
 
 it is the object of Christianity itself to answer : 
 " What think ye of Christ ? " 
 
 Every critic has pointed out the difference of 
 style in the discourses preserved by the Synopti- 
 cal Evangelists, and those which St. John has 
 embalmed in his Gospel. For the most part the 
 occasions on which they were uttered were very 
 dissimilar. To Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, 
 our Lord would naturally speak in a manner very 
 different from that which He adopted in address- 
 ing the peasant crowds which gathered round Him 
 on the hillside, or on the borders of the Lake of 
 Gennesaret. Excepting that Christ spoke more 
 openly of His Divine mission, and that the con- 
 versation was of a personal character, the style in 
 which He addressed the woman of Samaria was in 
 entire accordance with that He used in Galilee. 
 From the outward and sensible He led her on to 
 consider the inward and spiritual. It must ever 
 be remembered that it was St. John's purpose to 
 supplement the Galilean Gospels ; and perhaps 
 from the bent of his own character the Apostle 
 would seize upon the deeper teaching of his 
 Master, and preserve those sayings which poured 
 light upon the person of Christ, His Divine mission 
 as the Son of God, and His spiritual work upon 
 the heart and conscience of the individual. The 
 
 D 
 
50 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 discourses, too, were spoken under peculiar con- 
 ditions. It was not simple minds listening re- 
 verently to the teaching of the Master, but a 
 turbulent crowd, ever breaking in with irrelevant 
 criticism and hostile interruptions, which did not 
 always confine themselves to words. In the first 
 three Gospels we are in face of Country simplicity ; 
 in St. John's Gospel we are confronted with the 
 rough sharpness and rudeness of the Town. But 
 under both conditions there is the still calmness 
 which no opposition can ruffle. We can see the 
 Lord passing through the midst of the infuriated 
 mob whom His demeanour has overawed. As the 
 terrible charge of blasphemy is raised, we are 
 struck with wonder at the presence of mind which 
 turns the edge of the accusation by one of those 
 rabbinical questions to which the Jew would 
 always listen. Amid the falling noise of the 
 murderous stones, we can hear the clear voice in 
 its quiet tones declaring that many good works 
 had He wrought among them, and demanding for 
 which of them they stoned Him. The farewell 
 discourses, followed by the High-priestly prayer, 
 stand alone in the sublimity of their Divine glory, 
 but they do not differ essentially from the other 
 words of Christ. They are but extended echoes 
 of that word which drew to His presence the 
 
CHRIST S TEACHING. 5 I 
 
 sorrowing and unhappy, or of that other word 
 which sent the repentant woman from the Phari- 
 see's dining-room forgiven and at peace. 
 
 I have left to the last to notice the exceeding 
 beauty and pathos of Christ's teaching. Miracles, 
 parables, exhortations, conversations, are all filled 
 to the full with the wonderful loveliness of the 
 Master's character. Whether He is attending the 
 sorrowing father to the bedside of his dying child ; 
 whether He is defending the stricken woman at 
 His feet from the hardness of the cruel Pharisee ; 
 whether He is inviting the weary and heavy-laden 
 to find their rest in Him ; whether He is com- 
 forting the weeping Mary by calling her by her 
 name ; — every word spoken is marked by a kind-\ 
 ness and tenderness which no mere human lips' 
 have ever reached. But this tenderness, and 
 beauty, and pathos of words, is more than mere 
 style or manner of expression. It is no grace of 
 diction. It is the outcome of the Saviour's heart ; | 
 it is the outward form in which the everflowing 
 love of Christ reveals itself to man. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 
 
 The life of the Lord Jesus Christ was a life of 
 temptation. Of His temptations several have been 
 recorded by the Evangelists. Before the com- 
 mencement of His ministry, Christ was tempted 
 in the Wilderness of Judea ; later the influence 
 of His mother and the taunts of His brethren 
 were used to tempt Him to withdraw from His 
 appointed work ; almost at the very moment that 
 His heart was gladdened by St. Peter's noble 
 confession, Satan used that apostle as a tempter ; 
 for Christ, who more than any other lost His 
 life that He might save it, there was the tempta- 
 tion to save His life by the refusal to bear the 
 cross ; the Pharisees were Satan's tools as in 
 hypocritical kindness they advised the Lord to 
 leave Galilee for fear of Herod ; heathen Greeks 
 were made to subserve the purpose of the Evil 
 One by presenting in vivid light the awful death 
 which awaited Him by the uplifting of the cross ; 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 53 
 
 the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is not 
 called a temptation, but what temptation was 
 more dreadful than that last conflict with the 
 powers of darkness. Common usage, I cannot r 
 but think, has fallen into a serious error in speak -^ 
 ing of the temptation in the wilderness. Men 
 speak, if they do not think, as if this temptation 
 stood alone in the life of Christ. Nothing can 
 be a greater mistake. Our Lord's whole life was 
 one continued temptation. We have but to read 
 the memoirs, which the Holy Ghost has caused 
 to be written for our learning, in order to recognise 
 in almost every page how the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was exposed to ceaseless temptations. He was 
 subjected to trials of temper, trials of character, 
 trials of principle ; He was harassed by tempta- 
 tions caused by nervous irritability, or want of 
 strength, or physical weakness, or bodily weari- 
 ness ; unfair opposition was constantly urging 
 Him to give way to undue anger and unrestrained 
 passion; or rejection and desertion would, had 
 it been possible, have betrayed Him into moodi- 
 ness or cynical despair. The machinations of His 
 foes, the fickleness of the mob, even the foolishness 
 of His disciples were scarcely ever wanting to 
 try His spirit, and would often goad Him beyond 
 endurance. All the continually recurring trials, 
 
54 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 which arc ever betraying man into faults he has 
 bitterly to deplore, and into sins of which he has 
 to repent in sorrow, were present in the life of 
 the Lord Jesns Christ. 
 
 From these temptations certain facts and in- 
 ferences bearing on our Lord's nature and mental 
 disposition may be adduced. 
 
 The temptations of Christ were real tempta- 
 tions. To say such a thing is almost like 
 repeating a truism ; but if it be a truism, it is 
 one we are not apt to realise, or to grasp in all 
 its significance. We are familiar with the suffer- 
 ing Christ, but I question if we are as familiar 
 with the tempted Christ. The very honour we 
 bear our Master prevents us from regarding Him 
 as actually struggling with sin. We are so afraid 
 of falling into humanitarian errors which detract 
 from the perfection of the Divine nature, that we 
 are prone to subtract somewhat from the perfect- 
 ness of His human nature. Forgetting that the 
 first heresy which invaded the Church was the 
 denial of the humanity of Christ by docetic errors, 
 we almost think in our heart of hearts that the 
 temptations of Christ were apparent and not real. 
 All such views of the Saviour are false and mis- 
 leading. Pain, struggle, and conflict attended 
 Christ's temptations, as they form part of the 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 55 
 
 temptations to which ordinary men are exposed. 
 There was a real contest and a real battle, as well 
 as a real victory. How it was we know not ; per- 
 haps it is not necessary that we should know ; 
 at the same time we have the distinct authority 
 of an inspired writer for the fact. " Our Lord," 
 writes the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 " hath been in aLLpjnnts tempted like as we are." 
 " It formed," as Neander well says, " part of the 
 trial and self-denial of Christ through His whole 
 life, that, together with the consciousness that He 
 was the Son of God, He joined the weakness and 
 dependence of humanity." Almost every form of 
 temptation to which man is liable may be resolved 
 into the exalting of the human will above the will 
 of God. Man commits sin because he cannot 
 submit himself to God's will. This may be traced 
 in the temptations of our Lord. The object of 
 Satan was to induce Christ to set up His own 
 human will above the purpose of His Father. 
 And the Lord's sufferings furnished the material 
 which gave substance to the temptation. In the 
 wilderness Christ was suffering hunger, and the 
 natural hunger was made the groundwork of the 
 insidious suggestion, " If thou be the Son of God, 
 command these stones to be made bread." So in 
 the other recorded temptations. The sufferings of 
 
56 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Christ were used as a means to shake His sub- 
 mission. The "hour he had to pass through," 
 and " the cup he had to drink," were presented to 
 His mind with terrible vividness, that so our Lord 
 might be induced to use the " save Me from this 
 hour," and the "let this cup pass from Me," 
 in murmuring insubmission disjointed from the 
 " Father, glorify Thy name," and " Thy will, not 
 Mine, be done." 
 
 But the Lord remained sinless. There was not 
 in Him any choice between good and evil. The 
 temptation, however real, was wholly external. 
 Satan found in Christ the natural human weak- 
 ness, which may exist without selfishness, and 
 which made the temptation possible ; but he could 
 not find in the pure and holy soul of Jesus any 
 actual selfishness on which to seize, by the power 
 of which the external temptation might have be- 
 come an internal seduction. Although all the 
 power and malignity of hell assailed His soul, 
 His soul remained pure. He was tempted in all 
 points like as we arc, but being tempted, He was 
 "yet without sin." 
 
 It was as man that Christ met and conquered 
 Satan. The tempter came with apparent acknow- 
 ledgment of the Godhead which dwelt within his 
 adversary: "If thou be the Son of God." But 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. $7 
 
 Christ passes by the lofty title, and answers the 
 temptation as the representative of the human 
 race : "It is written, man shall not live by bread 
 alone." It has been surmised that Satan was 
 ignorant whether the Messiah was indeed the Son 
 of God, and that he used the expression for the 
 purpose of discovering the true character of his 
 adversary. Another supposition is that the title 
 was itself part of the temptation ; either an in- 
 sidious flattery, suggesting to Christ that as the 
 Son of God He possessed the power, and could at 
 His choice use it for the relief of His pressing 
 necessity ; or that the expression was a taunt, 
 implying a doubt both of His Divine nature, and 
 of His ability to effect, as a proof of it, the trans- 
 formation of the stone into bread. But with 
 Satan's motives we have to do only so far as they 
 reacted upon our Lord. The point upon which 
 attention should be fixed is that Christ, designedly 
 and purposely, met Satan and defeated him as 
 man — as the Representative and Head of all 
 mankind. 
 
 Christ's temptations — especially the temptation 
 in the wilderness — were part of the training of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord, in taking upon 
 Himself man's nature, conformed Himself in all 
 points to the necessities and requirements of 
 
58 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 humanity. When God raises up a man for the 
 purpose of carrying out large designs and im- 
 portant work, lie first trains and disciplines the 
 mind for the future which lies before it. Before 
 Saul became the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 
 He had to spend three years in quiet and retire- 
 ment in Arabia. Before Luther could proclaim 
 the Eeformation, he had to have his own spirit 
 humbled and trained in the Augustinian convent. 
 And to this necessity for training, our Lord, 
 though He were the Son of God, submitted 
 Himself in obedience to His Father. As there 
 was a Patmos for St. John, and an Arabia for St. 
 Paul, so was there a wilderness for Christ. Even 
 He, the Highest, must learn the submission He 
 was to teach to others, and must carry the yoke 
 which His followers would have to bear. He 
 must wrestle with Satan before He could over- 
 throw Satan's kingdom ; He must, in His own 
 person, conquer the adversary before He could 
 commence His mission ; He must crush the ■ 
 serpent's head before He could proclaim the 
 kingdom of heaven to be at hand. 
 
 Nor was this preliminary preparation, a prepara- 
 tion in appearance only. However difficult it is 
 for us to understand the mystery, it is undoubtedly 
 Scripture truth that our Lord, in taking man's 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 59 
 
 nature upon Him, took upon Him man's needs 
 and wants, sin only excepted. The various in- 
 cidents which mark the life of the Son of Man, 
 are recorded not only for our example, but as so 
 many stages through which it was necessary for 
 Him to pass before He could perform the work 
 which He came to earth to accomplish. The 
 union of the two natures did not detract from the 
 perfectness of His humanity — a perfectness in the 
 necessities and weaknesses, as well as in the 
 higher qualities. Just as our Lord needed food 
 to satisfy His physical hunger, just as He needed 
 sleep to restore His bodily powers, just as He 
 needed prayer to strengthen His mental endur- 
 ance, so did He most truly need solitude, and 
 retirement, and conflict, to nerve Him for His 
 approaching ministry. We need never be afraid 
 of acknowledging the reality of our Lord's perfect 
 humanity ; by losing sight of it, we lose half the 
 beauty of His Divine life, and much more than 
 half the blessing to be derived from His example 
 and sympathy. 
 
 A parallel to the forty days' fast of Christ is 
 afforded by the fast of Moses in Mount Sinai, and 
 of Elijah on Mount Horeb. But there is another 
 event recorded in sacred history which presents a 
 far deeper parallelism than is to be found in the 
 
60 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 case either of Moses or Elijah. I allude to the 
 temptation of our first parents in paradise. There 
 is not here the same external numerical resem- 
 blance of the forty days ; but the temptation in 
 its inner import is the same in both cases, though 
 the result was so different. In paradise it was 
 Satan's design to frustrate the purpose of God ; 
 in the wilderness he had the same object in view. 
 In paradise it was the head of mankind who was 
 the object of his attack ; in the wilderness it is 
 also the new Head of humanity whom he opposed. 
 In paradise the issue of the struggle affected, not 
 the single person of Adam, but all his descendants 
 through him ; in the wilderness again Christ 
 fought and conquered not for Himself, but for all 
 mankind. Even the objective temptation is in 
 both instances similar. In paradise the serpent 
 points out to Eve that the fruit of the tree is 
 good for food ; in the wilderness the tempter says 
 to Christ, " Command these stones to be made 
 bread." 
 
 Even the very scene by which our Lord was 
 surrounded spoke in no indistinct terms of that 
 first conflict. Everywhere was there evidence of 
 the curse. The beautiful Garden of Eden has 
 given place to the wilderness ; the tame animals 
 subject to man, though preying upon each other, 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 6 1 
 
 have become changed, as St. Mark graphically 
 reminds us, into wild beasts. Yet how different 
 was the result of this solitary struggle in the 
 wilderness from that of the trial in paradise ! 
 By the first Adam all was lost ; by the second 
 Adam all is regained. By the first Adam a curse 
 was entailed upon all his posterity ; by the second 
 Adam that curse becomes changed into blessing. 
 This victory over Satan in the wilderness is the 
 first-fruits of the coming triumph ; an earnest 
 that the reign of Evil is wearing to its close ; 
 a pledge that the Kingdom of God is at hand. 
 Already by anticipation we seem to hear the 
 triumphant exclamation of St. Paul : " As in 
 Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made 
 alive." 
 
 The time of the temptation is chosen with 
 admirable skill. Christ has fasted forty days and 
 forty nights, and was an hungred. We know 
 how long-continued fasting acts on the human 
 frame, and, through the nervous system, f^ow it 
 affects the spiritual being. During those forty 
 days we may well believe that, notwithstanding 
 the temptations, the Son of God had been in 
 close communion with His Father. There is a 
 very strange law of human nature, which it would 
 be difficult to believe true, if unhappy experience 
 
02 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 had not again and again verified it. Spiritual 
 exaltation, like all other exaltation, is followed 
 by reaction. Intense spiritual movement is nearly 
 always succeeded by spiritual depression ; and it 
 is in these times of spiritual depression that Satan 
 is very apt to exert his power ; and in too many 
 cases he not only tempts men, but succeeds in 
 making them yield to his temptation. There 
 was, then, from Satan's point of view, singular 
 fitness that he should approach the Christ at the 
 moment when the Son of Man would have Ilis 
 nervous energy exhausted by want of food, and, 
 if we may say so, His spiritual force depressed 
 by the natural reaction succeeding to spiritual 
 exaltation. 
 
 The significations attached to the temptations 
 in the wilderness are very numerous. And this 
 is what might naturally be supposed would be 
 the case, for as the Lord's Prayer is the type of 
 every utterance of man to God, so are these 
 temptations of Christ the types of every conflict 
 which man has to wage with evil. They have 
 been shown to point to pleasure, by which the 
 young are seduced; to desire of applause and 
 glory, which influence middle life ; to love of 
 power, which characterises older men. Others 
 have traced in them self-will, longing for in- 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 63 
 
 dependence of all ordinances, whether parental, 
 governmental, or Divine ; carelessness and want of 
 forethought, both as regards things temporal and 
 spiritual ; worldly-rnindedness, which feigns to 
 do God's work by means which are evil. They 
 are indeed of infinite value as examples of the 
 temptations by which each individual man is 
 tried, and as pointing to the method by which he 
 may best conquer. But with the details of the 
 temptations I am not concerned, or at least only 
 so far as they acted upon the mind of Christ, and 
 affected Him. It should indeed be noted how 
 our Lord Himself, on declining to make the 
 stones into the bread He so sorely needed in His 
 hunger, learned the lesson against overthought- 
 fulness and anxiety which He taught afterwards 
 in His Sermon on the Mount. Or how Christ, 
 by refusing to cast Himself from the pinnacle of 
 the Temple, resisted in His own person that pre- 
 sumptuous craving for outward manifestations 
 of power which He was later on to combat in the 
 Jews, when they ever and again came to Him 
 with their demand for a sign from heaven. Or 
 again, how in casting from Him the profane 
 suggestion, that, by doing homage to Satan as a 
 suzerain, He might attain the desired end, and 
 establish without opposition the kingdom of 
 
64 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 heaven in the world, He applied to His own 
 heart the lesson of faith, and trust, and childlike 
 submission upon God, which is the reverse of 
 that spirit of worldliness lie so strongly and 
 persistently denounced. 
 
 Nor should the manner in which Christ resisted 
 the temptation be overlooked. This again contains 
 an important lesson which men may lay to heart ; 
 and, what is more to our present purpose, it affords 
 another insight into the working of the mind of 
 Christ. As Christ submitted Himself to tempta- 
 tion as the representative of humanity, so the 
 mode of the personal resistance of Christ to Satan 
 was the resistance of a man. He did not put 
 forth His Divine power. He did not attempt to 
 crush Satan by the force of the majesty which 
 dwelt within Him. As the temptation came to 
 Him as the Son of Man, so, as the Son of Man, 
 did He repel it. His appeal was to the law and 
 testimony. To Christ God's Word was the test of 
 right, and the matter, so far as right and wrong 
 were concerned, was at an end when the Scripture 
 had been appealed to. Christ did not enter into 
 casuistical questions. He might have argued that 
 He would break no commandment, and would do 
 nothing wrong in itself, if He made the stone 
 bread. He might have reasoned, that, as He 
 
THE TEMPTED CHEIST. 65 
 
 possessed the power of working miracles, He 
 might, for once, work a miracle for Himself and 
 in His own interests, and gain attention to His 
 Divine mission by descending unhurt from the 
 pinnacle of the Temple. But He did not do so. 
 He did not dally with the temptation. He sought 
 by no plausible reasoning to make evil appear 
 good. He simply quoted the Divine command. 
 The Spirit of the Word of God was opposed to all 
 self-seeking and presumption, and forbade with 
 clear distinctness every form of selfishness, even 
 though there were no positive command to inter- 
 dict the particular action. In the third temptation 
 Satan overstepped this seemingly neutral line, and 
 offered as his seduction a thing unlawful in itself. 
 Then Christ drives him from His presence. He 
 drives him from His presence, but His weapon 
 is still from the same armoury : " It is written, 
 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him 
 only shalt thou serve." 
 
 As the Synoptics have recorded the temptation 
 in the wilderness at the commencement of our 
 Lord's ministry, so St. John has preserved the 
 account of the temptation which came to Christ 
 at the close of His earthly career in the streets of 
 Jerusalem. Time, place, scene, surroundings, are 
 all different. It was the moment of the Lord's 
 
 E 
 
66 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 triumph. lie had just entered Jerusalem for the 
 last time. On other occasions He had come to 
 the city in quiet stillness, unrecognised and un- 
 observed. This, His final advent, had been with 
 pomp and majesty, as befitted Israel's theocratic 
 king. Only a short time before, death and Hades 
 had been forced to acknowledge the power of His 
 Divine word ; and the sepulchre had given up the 
 dead after four days of burial. The crowd, moved 
 by the report of the great miracle, had gone forth 
 to meet Him, and had spread their garments before 
 Him in the way, and had waved branches of palm 
 trees in His honour, and the shout had gone up to 
 heaven, " Blessed be the king that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord." 
 
 But all had not been triumphant. Forebodings 
 of coming evil had not been wanting. Mary, the 
 sister of the man who had been raised to life, had 
 taken ointment worth three hundred pence to 
 anoint the head and the feet of their honoured 
 guest. As she performs her work of thankfulness 
 and love, the words, which she had more than once 
 heard from her Master's lips of some terrible doom 
 awaiting Him, come over her heart with new 
 meaning, and give an undefined feeling of conse- 
 cration to her act. And the Lord Himself, in 
 answering the cavils some were disposed to make 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 6j 
 
 at the apparent waste, brings out the half uncon- 
 scious significance of the anointing into mournful 
 clearness, " Let her alone ; why trouble ye her ? 
 she hath wrought a good work on me ; for ye have 
 the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will 
 ye may do them good, but me ye have not always ; 
 she hath done what she could ; she is come afore- 
 hand to anoint my body to the burying." 
 
 Nor was this the only incident which seemed to 
 tell that the triumph was premature, and that not* 
 yet was David's greater Son about to restore the 
 kingdom of Israel to its pristine glory. Even at 
 the very moment that the air is ringing with the 
 hosannas of the thronging multitudes, a passionate 
 sadness comes over the soul of Christ. A bend of 
 the slope of the mount of Olives reveals to His 
 sight Jerusalem. There was the Temple lately 
 restored by Herod, resplendent in gorgeous mag- 
 nificence. There was the Palace of the Asmonean 
 princes rising proudly aloft. There was the 
 Palace of the High Priest, and of John Hyrcanus. 
 And above them and the Temple towered frown- 
 ingly the Roman Castle of Antonia. Gay and 
 busy crowds were moving along its streets, and 
 the city was decked out in holiday costume, for 
 within a few days the great national festival of 
 deliverance was to be celebrated. But to the 
 
68 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 inward vision of the Lord Jesus a far different 
 scene presents itself. Another and a fiercer 
 multitude has taken the place of those shouting 
 their hosannas. Another and a fiercer throng 
 than those unarmed worshippers parade the streets. 
 Another and more terrible cry than that of festive 
 guests rises to His ears. He sees the Roman 
 soldiery, maddened with conquest and resistance, 
 hewing down the defenceless citizens ; He sees 
 panic-stricken crowds flying in all directions ; He 
 sees the beautiful house, where the fathers wor- 
 shipped, a prey to flames ; He sees His countrymen, 
 in their despair and horror, flinging themselves 
 into the raging fire, or dashing themselves head- 
 long into the deep valley at His feet. And, as He 
 thus beholds its coming fall He w r eeps over the 
 doomed city : "If thou hadst known, even thou, 
 at least in this thy day, the things which belong 
 unto thy peace ! " 
 
 Amid this downfall of Jewish hopes and Jewish 
 expectations, St. John presents us with a type of 
 the ingathering of the Gentiles, as St. Matthew 
 had introduced the Wise Men approaching at the 
 birth of Christ. As the Eastern Magi came to the 
 cradle of Christ, so Western Greeks come to the 
 uplifting of His cross. Among the multitude 
 there were certain Greeks which had come up to 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 69 
 
 worship at the feast. These heathen come to the 
 Hellenist Philip, a native of the Greek- speaking 
 Bethsaida of Galilee, with a request that they 
 might see Jesus. Philip hesitates to introduce 
 the strangers, and tells Andrew of their desire ; 
 and then Philip and Andrew tell Jesus. The 
 Lord sees in this request the beginning of the 
 fulfilment of the promise that He should rule over 
 the Gentiles. "The hour is come that the Son of 
 Man should be glorified." But as He speaks a 
 foreshadowing of the death which awaited Him, 
 and through which He was to be glorified, comes 
 over Him : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except 
 a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it 
 abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit." Albeit the sensitive human soul shrank 
 from the shame and agony of death : " Now is 
 my soul troubled ; and what shall I say ? Father, 
 save Me from this hour. But for this cause came 
 I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." 
 
 Some would put a note of interrogation after 
 the word " hour," and read the passage thus : 
 " Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say? 
 shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour? 
 But for the sake of passing through this hour, 
 came I unto it. Let Me say rather, Father, 
 glorify Thy name." Even Neander understands it 
 
JO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 so. " In full consciousness He had looked 
 forward to it from the beginning as essential to 
 the ' fulfilment ' of His work; therefore all His 
 feelings and wishes are concentrated upon the one 
 central aim of His whole life, that God may be 
 glorified in mankind by His sufferings." But at 
 the same time there was the struggle and tempta- 
 tion. In the man Christ Jesus there was the 
 willing spirit, but there was also the weak flesh — 
 weak as far as it could be so without sin — and 
 shrinking with natural dread from all painful 
 suffering. It was this weakness of the flesh 
 which Satan uses as a means of temptation. The 
 words, then, which Christ uttered must be taken 
 as a veritable prayer. The " Save Me from this 
 hour" was as real a prayer as the "Let this cup 
 pass from Me " was a real prayer in Gethsemane. 
 At the same time it was only the flesh that was 
 weak ; it was only the sensitive soul that was 
 troubled. The spirit remained unflinchingly 
 serene ; its only utterance was " Father, glorify 
 Thy name." Rudolph Stier, in his words of Jesus, 
 puts it admirably: "To our feeling it is inhar- 
 monious to make a prayer, which springs from the 
 deepest impulse, begin with a question, Should I 
 so pray ? so speak ? Further, the Lord does not 
 speak in any doubt or uncertainty — What shall I 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. J I 
 
 choose ? but merely, What shall I say ? The two 
 opposites pressed hard upon Him in an infinitely 
 deeper and more actual sense than upon His 
 apostles afterwards — the cry for help, the sub- 
 mission to the Father's counsel. Human language 
 is not sufficient for the combined utterance of 
 both, as both were perfectly combined in Him — 
 hence the What shall I say ? Therefore He utters 
 them one after the other, the one being as earnest 
 and as solemnly intended as the other. First the 
 human dismay — Help Me ! Then immediately 
 the cry which coincides with the perfect sub- 
 mission of Gethsemane — " Glorify Thy name." 
 
 Our Lord was perfect man, and as man shrank 
 from suffering. Hence the possibility of the 
 temptation. The shrinking from suffering was 
 not sin ; an excess of shrinking, passing over into 
 insubmission to the Father's will, would have been 
 sin. " The life of God in Him did not exclude 
 the uprising of human feelings in view of the 
 death and conflict with evil which lay before 
 Him." " Not by unhumanising Himself, but by 
 subordinating the human to the Divine, was He 
 to realise the ideal of pure human virtue ; He 
 was to be a perfect example for us even in the 
 struggles of human weakness." Every cry of the 
 Psalms — Save me ! Help me ! Deliver me ! which 
 
72 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 men use in their sorest need, find their truest 
 expression in this word of Christ; every agony 
 and conflict of David but a type of the agony and 
 conflict of the Son of David. 
 
 The one expression is co-ordinate with the other, 
 and herein lies the victory over the temptation. 
 Within its inner depths the spirit remains un- 
 troubled. Even in view of His coming crucifixion, 
 and, what to His holy soul was far worse, the 
 becoming sin for us, His perfect and complete 
 dependence upon the Father's will remains un- 
 broken. Satan could play upon the weakness of 
 the flesh, but Satan could not find in Him, as 
 he can in us, any swerving of the spirit. Beyond 
 the agony, beyond the shame of the cross, the 
 Son of God looks calmly to the Divine will, and 
 despite all fleshly fears, and in spite of all dreadful 
 forebodings, in conscious strength He drives the 
 tempter from Him : "Father, glorify Thy name." 
 
 It must not be thought that our Lord was not 
 saved. He was most truly saved ; and the phrase, 
 "For this cause," points out the manner in which 
 His salvation was accomplished. And this manner 
 is doubly worth observing, because it is the mode 
 through which, in all ages, God has seen it best 
 to save His servants. "For this cause came I 
 unto this hour," to be saved from it by being 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 7$ 
 
 saved in it. Such was the manner in which the 
 Father saved His Son, and answered His prayer. 
 The very passing through the hour was being 
 saved from it. By receiving grace to bear, Christ 
 was saved, and the Father's name was glorified. 
 Our Lord's sufferings did not only result in 
 salvation and glorification ; the sufferings were 
 themselves part of the glorification and salvation. 
 This is no fanciful interpretation. It is the strict 
 meaning of the phrase. And the interpretation 
 is borne out by the comment of the author of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews in a passage on the 
 prayers of Christ. "Who in the days of His 
 flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications 
 with strong crying and tears unto Him that was 
 able to save Him from death," He was "heard 
 for His godly fear." 
 
 The day of judgment alone will disclose the 
 comfort and strength which God's tried children 
 in all ages have derived from this human utter- 
 ance of Christ. Aged Christians, as Polycarp, 
 on the eve of ascending to heaven in the fiery 
 chariot of the martyr ; delicate women, as Felicitas, 
 expecting to be torn limb from limb by the wild 
 beasts amid the gaze of unpitying thousands ; 
 lonely monks, as John Wezel, dying day by day 
 under the slow pangs of hunger in the pitiless 
 
74 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 prison of the convent ; some parched and suffo- 
 cating under the piombi of the cruel Venice ; some 
 perishing by cold in the damp cells by the frozen 
 Rhine ; some seeking a retreat among the stern 
 Alps from the sterner bigotry of their fellow-men ; 
 some lying with dislocated and broken limbs in 
 the secret dungeons of the Inquisition ; — oh, 
 among such men, and in such times, how must 
 these two words of Christ have striven for the 
 mastery ! at one time, as the sense of their 
 wretchedness and hopelessness weighed upon them, 
 ready to exclaim, almost in despair, "Father, save 
 me from this hour ; " at other times, when God 
 made His strength perfect in their weakness, able 
 to cry triumphantly, " Father, glorify Thy name." 
 And shall they not be a source of comfort and 
 strength to us in our lesser trials and tempta- 
 tions ? Shall not the sufferings which Jesus bore 
 be powerful to nerve our weak flesh to suffer 
 patiently for His sake ? Cannot we learn the 
 lesson which our Master's example sets before us, 
 not petulantly, nor despairingly, to use His words ; 
 but ever with the "Father, save me," to combine 
 the " Father, glorify Thy name ? " If thus in 
 waiting dependence, and in God-glorifying sub- 
 mission, we enter into the temptations with which 
 Satan shall tiy our fortitude and faith, as the Lord 
 
THE TEMPTED CHRIST. 75 
 
 was saved from His hour of suffering by being 
 saved in it, so shall we be delivered from every 
 evil which we fear by being safely brought through 
 it. Not only shall our patience and obedience 
 bring glory to God, but the trial bravely passed 
 shall bring a blessing to ourselves. For in medi- 
 tating upon the temptations of Christ we must 
 not fail to notice the grace which followed their 
 successful resistance. When in the wilderness, 
 Satan, baffled, left the Son of Man, the angels 
 of His Father came to minister unto Him ; when 
 in the streets of Jerusalem, Christ, in the spirit 
 of filial submission, foiled the endeavour of the 
 Evil One by His " Father, glorify Thy name," there 
 came a voice from heaven saying, " I have both 
 glorified it, and will glorify it again." 
 
V. 
 
 CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 
 
 I have no intention of adding another to the 
 thousand and one essays which have been written 
 to prove the possibility of the miracles of Christ, 
 or their truth. To all who believe that a personal 
 God, possessed of and exercising a personal will, 
 is beyond and over Nature, the argument which 
 the late Dean Mansel formulated is conclusive. 
 A stone, which was lying on the beach, is found 
 on the top of the cliff. The movement is beyond 
 the power of Nature, and contrary to the law of 
 gravitation. Personal will effected it. A man 
 carried the stone to the top of the cliff. Not 
 contrary to the working of natural law, but by 
 adapting those very laws to his own purpose, man, 
 by the exercise of will, overcame the force of 
 gravity and raised the stone. If we only knew 
 enough, might not all miracles be capable of as 
 simple an explanation ? The scientists of the 
 present day seem to have closed their senses to 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 77 
 
 one half of man's being. They lose themselves in 
 the study of phenonema — " the things which do 
 appear." In their essential existence these out- 
 ward forms of matter, of which they make so 
 much, are as hidden as the unseen God whom 
 they declare to be unknowable. Those other 
 facts — which are no less facts than the material 
 things of which they almost exclusively take 
 cognisance — relating to the spiritual world, in 
 which man has his higher and nobler life, they 
 ignore altogether. 
 
 To those, then, who believe in a personal God 
 guiding and directing the universe, the miracles 
 need present no insuperable difficulty. They are, 
 at least, possible. Our present purpose, however, 
 is not so much to consider the miracles of Christ, 
 as Christ working miracles. The object of Our 
 study is not the miracles as miracles, but the 
 miracles as incidents and events in the life of 
 Christ. We would inquire how they affected 
 Him ; the light they throw upon the workings 
 of His mind ; the revelation they afford as to His 
 character ; the lesson they teach as to His feelings 
 and ideas. 
 
 As to the miracles themselves, they fall naturally 
 into four groups. There are the miracles affecting 
 external Nature ; there are the miracles acting 
 
7 8 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 upon man's physical life ; there are the miracles 
 touching man's spiritual existence ; and there are 
 the miracles exercised over that unknown power 
 which we call death. In nearly all cases it is 
 possible to trace out an analogy between the 
 miracles and the ordinary operations of Nature. 
 The analogy is no explanation of the miracle, nor 
 does it point to its cause, but it gives the mind 
 some glimmer of an idea how the miracle might 
 be, and yet the natural laws of the universe remain 
 unbroken. 
 
 The Nature miracles are those affecting material 
 substances, and the elements. In turning the 
 water into wine the Lord Jesus acted on matter. 
 He performed an act similar to the process which 
 Nature herself carries on when she causes the 
 vine to sprout, its blossoms to appear, and its 
 fruit to ripen. In the two miracles of feeding 
 the multitudes there is an appearance of actual 
 increase of material substance ; I say an appear- 
 ance, because an actual creative increase of matter 
 not previously existing is so opposed to the law 
 of the fixed quantitative value of matter as to be 
 unthinkable. There is no natural process known 
 to us analogous to this increase of food, and these 
 two miracles present, perhaps, greater difficulties 
 than any other recorded. The stilling of the 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 79 
 
 storm is also a Nature miracle. It is analogous 
 to what we witness any time in the sudden cessa- 
 tion of the wind. But a lake will heave and swell 
 for many hours after the lulling of the wind, and 
 the instantaneous calmness of the water lies be- 
 yond any known natural explanation. 
 
 The miracles affecting man's physical nature are 
 the miracles of healing. They have their analogy 
 in the healing art of the physician. Indeed to the 
 ignorant the effect of many drugs might easily 
 appear miraculous. Last century Dr. Chieselden 
 caused a boy who had been born blind to see. 
 The process was very simple, but it was the first 
 time it had ever been performed. It would not 
 in those days have been very difficult to have 
 persuaded the greater part of mankind that a 
 miracle had been wrought. There was no question 
 that the boy was blind, and had been born blind ; 
 there was equally no question that he had regained 
 his sight. Had Dr. Chieselden kept his method, 
 then tried for the first time, a secret, very many 
 would have believed that the recovery of the boy's 
 sight was a miracle. 
 
 The miracles affecting man's spiritual life are 
 those called in popular language demoniacal 
 possession. I say in popular language, because 
 the expression demoniacal possession does not 
 
8o MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 occur in the New Testament. Here again there 
 are analogies which occur in ordinary life. The 
 physician in a lunatic asylum exercises a power 
 over his patients which is almost marvellous. The 
 most unruly will often he quieted by the one 
 single look of his conscious authority. More than 
 one writer has spoken of the healing power of a 
 natural kind which seemed to be inherent in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. His quiet calmness especially 
 exercised a soothing influence over those afflicted 
 with nervous disorders. And it may well be 
 believed that our Lord, embodying in Himself the 
 perfection of human nature, possessed in the 
 highest degree all those qualities which are found 
 in the best type of men. Apart from any miracu- 
 lous interference, there is abundant evidence in 
 the Gospels, that, on more than one trying occasion, 
 the quiet determination of Christ, and His calm- 
 ness in the midst of angry mobs, exercised a re- 
 straining influence over the wild passion of violent 
 people. The raging inhabitants of Nazareth gave 
 way while He passed through their midst ; the 
 excited crowd in the streets of Jerusalem dared 
 not carry out their deadly purpose ; the armed 
 band sent to apprehend Ilini fell back abashed 
 before His presence as He fronted them in the 
 Garden of Gcthscmane. 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 8 I 
 
 Of death we know nothing. It is on the 
 authoritative declaration of Holy Scripture that 
 we believe that death is but the portal of life. 
 Apart from revelation all is a blank silence. No 
 one has ever returned to solve the mystery of life 
 and death. Sleep offers a kind of analogy ; but 
 in sleep all the involuntary processes of life proceed 
 with the same regularity as in the waking hours. 
 The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs 
 perform their offices, the process of digestion and 
 assimilation continues. Consciousness alone is 
 absent. Modern science has taught us that the 
 body is always dying; and that life is the recu- 
 perative power which resupplies that which 
 incipient death is destroying. In old age the 
 death of the body is gradual ; one part is dead 
 while another still lives. In a state of trance or 
 coma sometimes all the outward signs of death are 
 apparent, while a state of consciousness is retained; 
 and it is on record that persons in this condition 
 have been actually buried alive. When our Lord 
 raised the dead there is no need to suppose that 
 any law of Nature — that is to say, any law by 
 which God rules the universe — was violated. It 
 is only our ignorance which makes us think so. 
 The knowledge of civilised man transcends the 
 imagination of the savage ; is it unreasonable to 
 
 F 
 
82 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 believe that the knowledge of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and His consequent power to act through 
 natural law, transcended the mental horizon of the 
 scientist? To raise the dead, or restore departed 
 animation, is contrary to experience, argue the 
 philosophers ; may not the Christian retort that 
 the manifestation of the Son of God forms an 
 unique episode in history ] 
 
 The miracles of Christ were not miracles, in 
 the sense of wonders, to Himself. There is no 
 consciousness in Him that anything unusual was 
 taking place. This marks a point of difference 
 between Christ and all others who have claimed 
 to work miracles. The prophet of the old dispen- 
 sation was quite conscious that in raising a dead 
 child to life, or in feeding starving people with 
 insufficient means, he was doing something out 
 of the way of ordinary routine. The apostles of 
 New Testament times were also conscious of put- 
 ting forth a power which did not inherently belong 
 to them. They were but acting as the agents of a 
 higher authority. But there is no trace of such 
 a thought in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 In the Middle Ages men were possessed with an 
 overpowering thought of the constant presence of 
 God. They were always looking for supernatural 
 intervention ; or, to speak more precisely, they did 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 83 
 
 not accurately distinguish between God's ordinary 
 and extraordinary mode of acting. Now this 
 thought which pervaded the Middle Ages was an 
 actual fact in the life of Christ. " My Father 
 worketh hitherto ; " and in the mind of the Lord 
 Jesus there was absolutely no line of distinction 
 between the constant working of God through 
 laws known and recognised, and that unusual 
 working which we, in our ignorance, call miracu- 
 lous. Christ sees His disciples in their boat on 
 the Lake of Galilee. He desires to join them. 
 So He walks across the water, and thus gains the 
 ship. He meets a funeral procession, and is 
 touched with pity at the forlorn state of the 
 mother left childless and a widow. So with a 
 word He restores to her her son from the dead, 
 just as a skilful physician might through his 
 knowledge have arrested death at an earlier stage 
 by the administration of a healing drug. The Son 
 of God does the work which lies before Him ; and 
 in the simplicity of power He uses the means 
 which lie nearest at His disposal. 
 
 In accordance with this view we find that the 
 miracle was worked, because what we call a 
 miracle was the best and fittest means to accom- 
 plish the end which our Lord had in view. And 
 here again a difference is to be noted between the 
 
84 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 miracles of Christ and those recorded in the Old 
 Testament. It has been stated that God never 
 allows a miracle to be worked beyond its absolute 
 necessity. It is said that all that can be left to 
 man's effort is relegated to man, and that the 
 Divine power is put forth to accomplish only that 
 which lies beyond the scope of man. This con- 
 tention is in the main true, at least it is true so 
 far as the Old Testament is concerned. But it is 
 not true as regards the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ 
 again and again performed miracles for objects 
 which could have been attained with almost equal 
 ease by natural methods. Our Lord did not 
 hesitate to make use of the miraculous power 
 which dwelt within Him because it was miraculous. 
 The tribute money was demanded. The poverty 
 of our Lord was not so great but that He could 
 have obtained the half shekel. Nor was it, as 
 some have imagined, by way of protest that Christ 
 did not furnish the money in the ordinary way. 
 But Christ bids St. Peter to catch a fish in whose 
 mouth he would find the sum needed to satisfy 
 the demand. 
 
 Again, there is no premeditation about our 
 Lord's miracles. The Old Testament seer went 
 forth in conscious strength to do the mighty work 
 wherewith God had charged him. But in Christ 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 85 
 
 the consciousness of power is so complete that it 
 becomes almost unconscious. In Him it is like 
 one of those actions which a man performs as a 
 matter of course when the call for action moves 
 his will. The occasion of His first miracle would 
 have seemed altogether unworthy to a Jewish 
 rabbi, or a heathen philosopher. It was simply 
 to add to the pleasure of guests assembled at a 
 feast, or at most to save His host from some 
 passing humiliation. And not only was the 
 miracle the result of an accident (as we speak), 
 but it was performed so quietly, that those who 
 drank of the heaven-given wine hardly knew that 
 a wonder had taken place. The turning of the 
 water into wine is narrated by St. John alone. 
 The first miracle recorded by St. Matthew is 
 marked by the same simplicity. Descending 
 from the Mount of Beatitudes Christ meets a 
 wretched leper, and, moved by compassion, in 
 answer to the man's imploring cry, heals him with 
 a touch. And this character of unpremeditative- 
 ness marks all the miracles of Christ. A chance 
 meeting, or a movement of pity, or the need of 
 those with whom He happened to be at the 
 moment, furnished their occasion. The only 
 one that seems to form an exception is the rais- 
 ing of Lazarus. In this case the death had been 
 
86 MENTAL « HARA< TERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 foreseen, and the determination to recall him to 
 life had been taken. l>ut even here the miracle 
 amis duo to the natural causes which preceded it, 
 and to these causes the determination must be 
 referred. The illness of Lazarus, the absence of 
 Christ from Bethany, the deep sorrow of the 
 sisters, these were the moving impulses which 
 resulted in the stupendous display of power. 
 
 The miracles of Christ were never performed 
 for display, nor for effect, nor even, primarily, 
 for a sign. The narrative of the life of Christ 
 is so familiar that we often fail to perceive the 
 significance of the record. Any one, reading this 
 wonderful life for the first time, would be struck 
 with astonishment at the entire absence of all 
 straining after effect in the miracles which Christ 
 performed. Wherever Christ may chance to be, 
 there the miracle takes place. At the foot of a 
 hill, by the side of the lake, on the storm-tossed 
 sea, in some desolate region, in some country 
 road, on the highway, at the entrance to a town, 
 in the seclusion of a house, at the service of the 
 synagogue-worship, in the streets of Jerusalem, 
 during the dark stillness of the night, in the cool- 
 ness of the twilight, in the sight of the mid-day 
 sun, in the early hours of the morning. Place 
 or time make no difference. If people are con- 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. $7 
 
 gregated around, then they behold it. If no one 
 is present, then the wonder is wrought in soli- 
 tude. It was denied to idle curiosity. Herod 
 did not behold what the Galilean peasants and 
 Jewish populace often witnessed. It was not 
 granted to sceptical unbelief. When Pharisees, 
 devoid of faith, came to Christ praying that a 
 sign might be given them, our Lord refused. 
 
 The miracles were indeed signs ; but they were 
 signs for those who believed. At the marriage in 
 Cana of Galilee Christ manifested forth His glory, 
 and His disciples believed on Him. Their minds 
 had been prepared to receive and to understand. 
 The faith had been awakened in them, and so in 
 the act of Christ they could recognise the finger of 
 God. It is not recorded that those who did not 
 believe were convinced by any mighty work which 
 they beheld. Miracles did not produce faith in 
 sceptics, or doubters, or those hostile to Christ. 
 The opening of the eyes of the blind man did 
 not persuade the Jewish rulers of the Messianic 
 character of Christ's mission. When " the Jews " 
 had witnessed what we call the greatest of all our 
 Lord's signs, they went straight from the grave of 
 Lazarus to denounce Him to the Pharisees. The 
 words of Christ, His teaching, the actions of His 
 life, the compassion which caused the wonders, 
 
88 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 not the wonders themselves, were the things 
 which carried conviction. A word which Christ 
 uttered in a parable had a terrible meaning for 
 those who, crying out for a sign, rejected His 
 Divine teaching : " If they hear not Moses and\ 
 the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one \ 
 rise from the dead." 
 
 Our Lord was always careful to induce com- 
 munion between Himself and those whom He 
 healed by His miraculous power. Faith in His 
 power was the first essential condition. "Believe 
 ye that I am able to do this 1 " was the question 
 put to the two blind men to whom Christ gave 
 sight. " All things are possible to him that be- 
 lieveth," was the answer to the father of the 
 epileptic child. Again we are told that at 
 Nazareth He could not do many mighty works 
 on account of the lack of faith. But in addition 
 to the faith required, Christ established a personal 
 connection between Himself and the sick person. 
 On the evening of the day in which He healed 
 so many ailing, and cast out with His word the 
 spirits of many who were possessed, St. Luke is 
 careful to tell us that each cure was effected 
 separately, and that each diseased person was 
 brought into personal relationship with his Healer. 
 " He laid His hands upon every one of them." 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 89 
 
 We read continually that the attention of the 
 patient was arrested by some word spoken, as in 
 the case of the crippled man who had lain so 
 many years in hopeless suffering by the Pool of 
 Bethesda ; or we are reminded that He placed 
 His hands on the sightless eyes of the blind, and 
 that no fear of ceremonial defilement hindered 
 Him from touching the loathsome sores of the 
 lepers. 
 
 Nor were our Lord's miracles performed with- 
 out trouble or effort on His part. In the act of 
 healing, a certain healing power seems to have 
 passed from Christ to the person whom He cured. 
 A woman was suffering from an issue of blood ; 
 she had faith in Christ's power, she believed that 
 the mere touch of His clothes would suffice to 
 cure her. Not unnaturally she shrank from con- 
 fessing the nature of her malady. A crowd was 
 around the Saviour pressing Him on all sides. 
 Timidly she drew near, and with trembling hand 
 touched the border of His garment. Her faith 
 received its reward, and she was healed. It was 
 not by any superhuman knowledge that Christ 
 became aware of what had happened. It was 
 from the physical sensation of which He was 
 conscious. Strength had left Him, and He was 
 conscious of its loss. He " perceived that power 
 
90 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 had gone forth from Him." Accordingly St. 
 Matthew tells us that in healing the sick the 
 Saviour took Himself their infirmities. "We find 
 a certain analogy to this in mesmerism. Mesmer- 
 ism is one of those obscure influences of which 
 very little is known. So much, however, may be 
 conceded, that a certain power of will is exercised 
 by the mesmeriser over his subject ; and by the 
 effort required the physical strength is affected, 
 and bodily weakness is induced. Again, the 
 physiologists tell us that in sympathy the burden 
 of the pain or sorrow does actually, according to 
 its proportion, pass from the sufferer to the person 
 who gives the sympathy. And who is there of 
 ourselves who, when in the presence of the sorrow 
 of those dear to us, has not felt the exhaustive 
 strain on our physical being which has accom- 
 panied the endeavour to calm or to console. So 
 our blessed Lord, in His Divine compassion, did 
 Himself suffer, when He put forth His sympathy 
 to assuage the mourner's tears, or exerted His 
 power to bring life-giving health to the sick. 
 
 The miracles of Christ formed part of that 
 warfare which was ever waging between the Son 
 of God and the power of evil which He was 
 manifested to destroy. The rage of the elements, 
 the roaring wind, and the surging waves ever 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 9 I 
 
 seeking to engulph the fisher's boat ; the fell 
 sickness racking- with pain man's body ; the par- 
 alysis of the mental powers dethroning man's 
 intellect, and leaving him a prey to unreasoning 
 violence, or to unclean desires ; the death which 
 shrouded him in the unknown darkness of the 
 tomb ; — these things were to the Saviour's vision 
 but objective forms of the curse of sin which it 
 was His mission to remove. The kingdom of 
 God and the kingdom of Satan were brought 
 together in opposition. The battle between the 
 Lord's Christ and the great adversary was ever 
 going on. Man's infirmities, and his sicknesses, in 
 the eyes of Christ, were the outward symbols of 
 the sin which was their cause. So the inspired 
 writer, in the healing of the sick, and in the 
 casting out of devils, sees direct blows given, 
 which, in the end, shall cause Satan's empire to 
 totter to its fall. Every leper cleansed, every 
 blind man restored to sight, every helpless par- 
 alytic made to walk, every distracted man brought 
 back to the sweetness and light of reason, above 
 all the dead recalled to life — each, in the salvation 
 accorded them, furnished a proof that a greater 
 than Satan was here, and that the kingdom of 
 God was being manifested upon earth. 
 
 The value of the miracles in the present day 
 
92 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 consists mainly in the insight they afford to the 
 mind and the heart of the Saviour. In the first 
 place they were absolutely unselfish. To Christ 
 a miracle was no more than is an ordinary act 
 to ourselves. Christ seems to have drawn no 
 distinction between the natural and the (to us) 
 supernatural. Yet Christ never performed a 
 miracle for His own personal benefit. He did 
 not supply Himself miraculously with food. He 
 did not provide miraculously for any of His wants. 
 He did not in this manner ward off the pain, 
 and suffering, and injury, to which He was con- 
 stantly exposed. On one or two occasions He 
 did put forth power for purposes of His own. 
 He provided in this way for the tribute money ; 
 He walked by such means across the sea to His 
 disciples. But there is no instance in which by 
 a miracle He obtained gain to Himself. The 
 miracles of Christ were absolutely unselfish in their 
 character. 
 
 With two exceptions they were never destruc- 
 tive ; nor were they ever punitive, or vindictive. 
 The destruction of the swine in the lake at 
 Gadara, and the blasting of the unfruitful fig-tree 
 near to Bethany, have been alluded to in a former 
 essay. Here it may suffice to say that both these 
 acts, while to some extent in apparent contradic- 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 93 
 
 tion to the tenour of the Saviour's life, are not 
 contradictory to the ordinary working of Nature's 
 laws, which laws, it must be remembered, are 
 in reality the laws of God. The Old Testament 
 miracles were frequently punitive. The leprosy 
 of Gehazi furnishes an example. In more than 
 one instance they approach at least very near to 
 being vindictive. Perhaps it was this reason which 
 led the compilers of the new Lectionary to omit 
 the tearing in pieces of the " little children," or 
 "young lads," by the two she-bears. Similarly 
 the destruction of the unoffending soldiers of 
 Ahaziah by Elijah is not appointed to be read in 
 Divine service. Perhaps nothing shows more 
 clearly, what a noble idea of the beauty and 
 loveliness of Christ has formed itself in the 
 Christian consciousness, than the fact that it is 
 not possible to conceive that our dear Lord could 
 ever have performed a miracle out of vindictive- 
 ness. We understand fully how sorely Pie was 
 tried. We grasp fully how impossible it would 
 have been for us to have borne in silence without 
 retaliation the cruel sneers and bitter sarcasms 
 of His infuriated enemies. We have at times 
 felt our hearts beat more quickly, as, listening to 
 the cries beneath the cross, we have almost longed 
 to see the suffering and crucified Christ vindicate 
 
94 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 His majesty in the ruin and annihilation of the 
 taunting scoffers. But such a thought was foreign 
 to the mind of Christ. Disciples, jealous for their 
 Master's honour, might desire to call down fire 
 from heaven to burn up those who refused to 
 receive Him ; but the heart of the Son of Man 
 is laid bare in the word of rebuke, which, whether 
 authentic or not, has the ring of a genuine ex- 
 pression of Christ : ''The Son of Man is not come 
 to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Nor 
 were any of Christ's miracles of a punitive charac- 
 ter. Punitive miracles, if we understand punitive 
 in its highest sense as corrective, would stand 
 on a quite different footing to vindicate miracles. 
 They would not shock our moral sense. Even the 
 Son of God Himself was not without chastise- 
 ment, but " learned obedience by the things which 
 He suffered." For the moment, during Christ's 
 actual presence, the corrective element was allowed 
 to rest in abeyance. Judgment — decision of char- 
 acter — was deferred. The children of the bride- 
 chamber could not fast while the bridegroom was 
 with them. The one object of Christ was to draw 
 men to Himself by the loveliness of His own dis- 
 position, and by His revelation of the Fatherhood 
 of God. Hence the punitive element is not found 
 in the miracles of Christ. 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 
 
 In a positive sense the miracles are the revela- 
 tion of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer- 
 ing humanity. They are the objective expression 
 of the gracious words which proceed out of His 
 mouth. They teach in action how the Redeemer 
 was ever yearning to save those whose nature He 
 had adopted. They are the outward form of the 
 longing for reconciliation which existed in the 
 heart of the Father, and was made manifest in the 
 Son. They are the formal evidence of the love 
 which God bare towards the world which He sent 
 His Son to save. They are the symbols of His 
 sympathy with all human suffering. The miracles 
 are the answers to expressed, or unexpressed, 
 appeals to His compassion. It was His Divine 
 pity that caused them to be performed. It was in 
 His God-like compassion that they all originated. 
 It was suffering humanity which came to Christ. 
 Once and again, as in the case of Mary of Bethany, 
 men's joys were brought to Christ. But for the 
 most part it was the sorrows and griefs of man 
 which were laid as offerings at His feet. This is 
 the key to the right understanding of the miracles. 
 He took the sorrow and the pain from which He 
 gave relief. It was not out of superfluous abun- 
 dance that He gave without thought and without 
 care, as we too often dispense our charities. But 
 
MEXTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 the Evangelist tells us that He made the ills His 
 own. It is noteworthy that if we had only the 
 Gospel of St. Mark we might imagine that on a 
 certain evening the cures wrought, which were 
 many and of which no details are given, were 
 effected by one single word, without effort or 
 fatigue, on the part of Christ. But, as has 
 already been pointed out, it was not so. St. 
 Luke specifies the individual and personal nature 
 of the healing, and St. Matthew gives the words 
 which have been quoted. This is the type of all 
 our Lord's miracles of healing : " Himself bare 
 our sicknesses." 
 
 We must not forget to notice that the miracles 
 of Christ were at the disposal of all, who, needing 
 them, appealed to Him for help. The appeal was 
 never made in vain. No man ever brought his 
 grief into Christ's presence, and left that presence 
 unrelieved. The leper, the blind, the lame, the 
 deaf, the paralysed, the fever-stricken, the lunatic, 
 the epileptic, the demoniac, were all cleansed, or 
 healed, or made to walk, or blessed with sight, or 
 given back their reason. Not one was refused, 
 not one was forbidden, not one was sent away. 
 There is no single instance of rejection. Surely a 
 fact well worth remembering, worth placing in the 
 heart's inmost shrine with infinite gratitude and 
 
CHRIST WORKING MIRACLES. 97 
 
 satisfaction. If it had been otherwise ! If only 
 one had looked for help in vain, might not each 
 one, in his moments of despondency, be inclined 
 to think that he was the exception ? He helped 
 nearly all, but one was passed by : may not I be 
 that one now ? 
 
 There is no instance of rejection ; but there is 
 one instance of delay. That one instance is most 
 instructive of all. Lazarus — the friend whom 
 Christ loved — lay dying. And his sisters, whom 
 Christ also loved, one of whom He loved better 
 than others, sent a messenger to tell Him. Christ, 
 apparently unheedful, remained for two days 
 where He was, while the sisters sat weeping 
 over the body of their brother; for Lazarus had 
 died. Is there anything recorded in Holy Scrip- 
 ture more significant, or which carries with it a 
 deeper lesson to all sad, loving hearts, than that 
 Mary of Bethany sent to call Christ to her in 
 her sorrow, and that Christ waited and delayed 
 before He answered to her call ? And yet I think 
 I would rather have waited, notwithstanding all 
 the pain, with Mary of Bethany, in order in the 
 end to receive her full blessing, than have had 
 the help granted at once, as it was to so many 
 of the sick whom Christ healed, and who never 
 saw Him more. 
 
 G 
 
98 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 The supreme lesson of the miracles, then, is 
 this : That the Lord Jesus Christ is gracious, ' 
 and merciful, and compassionate. They are not 
 wonders, the possibility of which philosophers 
 may reject with scorn ; they are not marvels, 
 concerning the truth of which scientists may 
 doubt ; they are not supernatural facts, concern- 
 ing the causes of which theologians may wrangle ; 
 in the deepest sense they are not even mere signs 
 of the power which Christ inherently possessed 
 as the Son of God ; but they are evidences which 
 the most ignorant can understand, that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ has sympathy with man ; they are 
 the proof which the most unlettered can appre- 
 hend, that the great High Priest, who liveth ever 
 in the heavens to plead His people's cause, is 
 One who can be touched with the feeling of 
 man's infirmities. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Weariness is either physical or mental. Both 
 are very human. "The everlasting God, the 
 Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth 
 not, neither is weary." Men grow faint and weary, 
 and have need of kindly sleep to recuperate their 
 exhausted strength. An American author, who 
 has written a book upon the Waterloo Campaign, 
 tells us, that, at the time of his last struggle for 
 empire, Napoleon was suffering from illness, and 
 that his physical exhaustion was so great, that 
 he actually fell into repeated dozes while the 
 battle, on which everything depended, was being 
 fought ; and Mr. Gardner traces to this cause 
 the Emperor's defeat and Wellington's victory. 
 The story of the Due d'Enghien affords another 
 example of a man being utterly overcome with 
 weariness at a great crisis. So when the Lord 
 Jesus Christ is represented as tired and weary, 
 the picture offered for our contemplation is an 
 
IOO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 especially human one. All external signs of 
 His Divinity are laid aside : He sleeps, as a 
 tired child might sleep ; and to all outward 
 appearance He is but that Jesus of Nazareth of 
 whom His countrymen said scoffingly, " Is not 
 this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother 
 of James and Joses, and of Juda and Simon ? " 
 
 A striking scene, one chief feature of which 
 is Christ succumbing to physical weariness, has 
 been preserved in the Evangel. All the three 
 synoptical Evangelists have told the story, how, 
 on one occasion, as the Lord was passing across 
 the Lake of Galilee, He fell asleep. A miracle 
 followed upon His awakening, but I do not think 
 that the fact of Christ sleeping is introduced only 
 on account of the miracle. I do not think it is 
 told mainly on account of the miracle. In their 
 narrative the Evangelists are never over-impressed 
 with the wonder of the miracle. They narrate 
 how the multitude were astonished at the mighty 
 deed which was wrought before them, when some 
 paralysed man was restored to the use of his 
 limbs ; they tell how the people marvelled, when 
 some deaf man was made to speak, or some blind 
 man left Christ seeing. They even speak more 
 than once of the feeling of awe which came over 
 the disciples themselves at the manifestation of 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. IOI 
 
 this Divine power in their Master. But no one 
 can read their narrative without being struck 
 with the extreme simplicity with which the de- 
 tails of the miracles are told. To the Lord Him- 
 self, a miracle had no greater significance than 
 any other act which He did. The Divine power 
 answered to His call as in ordinary men the 
 physical effort answers to the requirement of the 
 will. He never braced Himself for the perfor- 
 mance of any mighty work. He is not like the 
 Old Testament saints, who recalled indeed the 
 dead to life, but did so with strong effort and 
 mighty endeavour. Nearly every miracle of 
 Christ arose out of the circumstance of His life, 
 and its occasion was, as we speak, accidental. 
 The wine fails at a feast, and He, supplying the 
 want, turns the water into wine. He is teaching 
 in a synagogue ; a woman bowed down by in- 
 firmity happens to be present, and Christ heals 
 her with a word. He meets a funeral procession, 
 and, touched by pity for the widowed mother, 
 restores to her her son alive. And the Evange- 
 lists have caught this quiet spirit, and narrate 
 with simple calmness what the Lord did without 
 mental disturbance. Therefore it would seem 
 that one detail of a miracle may be quite as im- 
 portant as another, and that the occasion which 
 
102 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 led to the miracle may contain as much instruc- 
 tion as the miracle itself; nay, even it may well 
 be, that sometimes the circumstances which pre- 
 ceded it, and the surroundings which gave it 
 colour, may be as much worthy of consideration 
 as the power displayed in the sign. In this 
 particular miracle of the stilling of the waters, 
 the physical fact of Christ sleeping — which, it 
 may be remarked in passing, is the only instance 
 recorded of Christ's sleeping — contains as deep 
 a lesson as the fears of the disciples, or their cry 
 for help, or the rebuke to wind and wave. 
 
 St. Matthew and St. Luke introduce the story 
 without any reference to what preceded. St. 
 Matthew says simply, " And when he was entered 
 into a ship, his disciples followed him." St. Luke 
 is equally vague: "Now it came to pass on a 
 certain day that He went into a ship with His 
 disciples." Neither give us any clue to His 
 weariness, nor explain its cause. But the ex- 
 planation is given by the Evangelist, who often, 
 by some graphic touch, throws new light upon the 
 incidents recorded. St. Mark specifies the day 
 on which the circumstance occurred, and its hour ; 
 he also shows that there was ample cause, why, 
 on this occasion, the Lord should be overcome 
 with physical weariness, and how it came to pass, 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. IO3 
 
 that, soothed by the quiet movement of the 
 rippling lake, as they sailed lie fell asleep. 
 
 For this was the day on which our Lord began 
 to teach in parables. It must have been a sad 
 day for Him. The people had rejected Him ; 
 they had refused to hear ; and now the power 
 of hearing, or at least of hearing with under- 
 standing, was to be taken from them. Christ 
 taught in parables, not, as so many seem to think, 
 in order to make the truth easy by clothing it in 
 a garb of beauty, but that those who hardened 
 themselves, seeing might not perceive, and hearing 
 might not understand. It is easy, then, to con- 
 ceive that the Lord Jesus, following a well-under- 
 stood law of mental action, had on this day put 
 forth His whole strength in His attempt to teach 
 the people. He had made four distinct efforts. 
 In the early morning He had spoken to the people 
 generally the Parable of the Sower. During the 
 noontide heat He had retired within doors for the 
 siesta in which all Southern people indulge. But 
 His mind was too eager to allow Him to rest. 
 Besides, the disciples had been much impressed 
 by the new style of teaching. They had not 
 understood ; and they gathered round Him with 
 many questions. They would know why He 
 taught in parables, and they asked to have the 
 
104 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 particular parable explained to them. And Christ, 
 ever forgetful of self when others needed Him, 
 explained the reason why He had adopted the 
 parable, and proceeded to make the meaning of 
 the one He had uttered clear to them. Then He 
 had gone forth again, and again the multitude 
 had gathered about Him, and again He had 
 taught them. Still by parables. At this time 
 three are spoken — the Parable of the Tares of 
 the Field, of the Grain of Mustard Seed, of the 
 Leaven. Once more He returns to the house, but 
 not to rest. The disciples, including probably 
 many besides the apostles, once more crowd 
 around Him, and He explains at least one parable, 
 and adds several more, giving the key to their 
 right understanding as He proceeds. It is no 
 wonder, therefore, that our Lord, at the close of 
 such a day, should be wearied out. Neither 
 Christ nor His friends were wealthy. The Eastern 
 homes of the lower classes were, as they still arc 
 to-day, mere mud hovels. We can well under- 
 stand that after the heat and glare and weariness 
 of the day, the cool water would appear tempting 
 in its refreshing stillness and quiet. There lie 
 would find the rest He needed. "The same day, 
 when the even was come, He saith unto them, Let 
 us pass over unto the other side." 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. I05 
 
 Tired nature then asserted herself. The Lord 
 of heaven and earth, who upholdeth and sustaineth 
 all things by the word of His power, being found 
 in fashion as a man, had to yield to the require- 
 ments of the nature He had adopted, and, as the 
 boat pursued its tranquil course across the smooth 
 water, the Saviour of the world slept. 
 
 In the meantime a change came over the scene. 
 The Lake of Gennesareth, about sixteen miles in 
 length, and seven miles in breadth, is not unlike 
 the Lake of Geneva. It covers the bottom of 
 a profound valley, and is environed on every 
 side by lofty and precipitous hills, except at the 
 narrow entrance and outlet of the Jordan at 
 each extremity. Like all mountain lakes, it is 
 liable to sudden tempests, the wind rushing down 
 with exceeding violence, and raising, almost in 
 an instant, a boisterous and most dangerous sea. 
 So it happened on the present occasion. A storm 
 arose all on a sudden, and so violent was the 
 squall, that the disciples, accustomed as they were 
 to the wild moods of the Sea of Galilee, were 
 paralysed with terror. The Lord, wearied out by 
 the fatigue He had undergone, slept calmly on. 
 The disciples awake Him with their despairing- 
 cry, " Save us, Lord, or we perish ! " Undisturbed 
 by the tumult roaring around Him, Christ rises 
 
106 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 from His slumber. He rebukes the wind, and 
 bids the sea be still ; and wind and wave hear, 
 and, recognising the voice of their Master, obey. 
 "There was a great calm." 
 
 Doubts have been thrown upon the reality of 
 the miracle by that school which holds that the 
 miracles were natural events which the desires, 
 or fears, or superstitions, or the ignorance of the 
 people or of the disciples, magnified into super- 
 human wonders. The wind, it is argued, falls 
 upon these mountain lakes as suddenly as it rises. 
 It was only a curious coincidence that the lull 
 happened just at the moment when Christ awoke. 
 The disciples, blinded by their fear, did not per- 
 ceive this, as they would have done had their 
 minds been less perturbed. And thus, without 
 any idea of falsehood or fraud, the coincidence 
 assumed the nature of a miracle. On being first 
 awakened, Christ had uttered some indistinct 
 words, which, in the confusion of the moment, 
 were thought to take the form of a positive 
 command to the wind and water ; and it got to be 
 the firm belief — a belief which incorporated itself 
 first in the traditional story of Christ's life, and 
 eventually into the Gospel narrative — that a 
 miracle, altogether out of Nature, and that may 
 be called almost monstrous, had been performed. 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEAKINESS OF CHRIST. 10 J 
 
 But while all schools of sceptics agree in denying 
 the fact of miracles, they have a curious tendency 
 to quarrel with each other, and to deny the force 
 of the explanations by which each attempt to 
 deprive the sign of its Divine validity. Thus an 
 opposing school of sceptics has shown that this 
 rational solution of the miracle is impossible. It 
 is true that sometimes in these mountainous regions 
 the wind will subside as suddenly as it rises, but 
 the subsidence of the wind does not produce 
 immediate subsidence of the waters. They will 
 heave and swell for hours after the exciting cause 
 has ceased. And the followers of Jesus were too 
 accustomed to their lake to be deceived on such 
 a point as this. They would not have been very 
 much struck by the fall of the wind ; they were, 
 if the story be true, very much struck by the 
 sudden calming of the angry sea. "The men 
 marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, 
 that even the wind and sea obey Him ? " The ob- 
 jections of the mythical school rest on more 
 general grounds. Those who adopt this theory 
 do not seek to explain any particular miracle, but 
 denying the historical story of the Gospel, attempt 
 to reduce the Avhole life of Christ to a conception 
 of the religious consciousness. Christians may be 
 content to let the two schools of unbelief mutually 
 
IOS MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 destroy each other. They will in faith believe 
 that He who has power over wind and sea, did 
 actually perform the miracle, and they will see the 
 proof of its reality in that which of old carried 
 conviction to the fishermen who knew their moun- 
 tain lake so well. Not only did the wind cease, 
 but the sea was calm. 
 
 How thoroughly human were the antecedents 
 of the miracle. The natural laws which govern 
 the life of man had produced their natural effects. 
 Long-continued mental effort had been succeeded 
 by nervous exhaustion. Continuous talking had 
 produced physical lassitude. A general weariness 
 was the result. Christ was tired, as any mortal 
 man would have been tired who had answered 
 to the same call upon his strength and energy. 
 And, as any other man, Christ needed rest. The 
 close, stifling air of a small, ill-ventilated house 
 did not allure Him. But there, at His feet, came 
 the soft ripple of the lake breaking upon the 
 shore. It was the evening hour — still, serene, 
 peaceful. The water was tranquil, cool-looking, 
 and inviting to one weary. There, on its smooth 
 bosom, He would have quiet from all disturbance. 
 The multitude, which all day long had crowded 
 round Him, could not follow there with their 
 distracting questioning and noise. He proposed 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. IO9 
 
 to sail across the lake to the other side. At once, 
 as he was, without any special preparation, they 
 set forth. Then the Lord yielded to the feeling 
 of weariness which oppressed Him, and settling 
 Himself down in the hinder part of the ship, His 
 head resting upon some rough pillow, He fell 
 asleep. 
 
 How full of Divine power was the miracle itself ! 
 I think the calmness which our Lord showed was 
 human ; that it belonged to His human nature ; 
 that it was part of that disposition to which self- 
 repression had trained His character. But regard 
 this as we may, what a scene was it on which 
 Christ opened His eyes ! He is awoke suddenly 
 by the cries of frightened men. Before He can 
 collect Himself, their voices are ringing in His 
 ears praying for protection from death : " Lord, 
 save us, we perish." The soft evening on which 
 He had closed His eyes is vanished. Around 
 Him is murky darkness, illumined, possibly, by 
 the sultry glare of the lightning ; the winds, roar- 
 ing and bellowing, are rushing all around Him. 
 By the dim light can be seen the water, lashed 
 into angry waves, whose white crests were 
 breaking in fierce foam over the boat, threaten- 
 ing to engulf it. In the midst of the din and 
 tumult Christ rises and stands. Wind and waves 
 
IIO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 were alike His servants, the creatures of His 
 hand. They were His ministers to do His 
 pleasure, and to subserve His will. To them, in 
 tones of authority, He speaks. He rebuked, as 
 one bound to obey His behest, the wind ; He 
 bids, with the authority which belonged to the 
 Son of God, peace to the waves. 
 
 The story is not told by St. John. But as is so 
 often the case, the author of the Fourth Gospel 
 presents to our view the same phase of our Lord's 
 nature by an incident similar in its essential 
 character, though differing altogether in every 
 external circumstance. Just as St. John omits 
 from his Gospel the scene of the temptation in 
 the wilderness, and yet does not fail to show how 
 the Christ was exposed to the assaults of Satan ; 
 so, although he is silent concerning the sleep of 
 Christ previous to the miracle of the stilling of 
 the waters, he is not forgetful to pourtray the one 
 perfect Christ in His two natures. He too has 
 to tell of the physical weariness of Christ. And 
 while in the picture which the fourth Evangelist 
 has drawn, the Lord Jesus, in His weariness, is 
 altogether man, through the veil of the humanity 
 the Divine nature is apparent. It is not shown, 
 as in the storm, by an external sign of power ; 
 no outward manifestation of glory is given ; no 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. I I I 
 
 miracle is performed. The effect is outside Him- 
 self. The power lies in a word, spoken almost 
 in pain, by a worn, weary traveller, suffering from 
 thirst. Faith was produced by the inward power 
 of the Divinity, because the inward want of the 
 listener was satisfied. Immediately before St. 
 John had recorded the conversation at night with 
 Nicodemus. As the Evangelist wrote not merely 
 according to his own will, but as he was moved 
 by the Holy Spirit, one can but see a significance 
 in the grouping together these two testimonies 
 to the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ ; — one 
 shown in the word spoken concerning Himself, 
 the fruit of which was to be seen afterwards at 
 the very time when it might have been supposed 
 that all faith would have died out ; the other 
 proved by the conviction carried home to the 
 heart of a sinful woman, which again there is 
 every reason to believe was precious seed re- 
 sulting after the Lord's death in an abundant 
 harvest. 
 
 Christ was returning from Judaea to Galilee, 
 and He "must needs go through Samaria." 
 There was no physical need. It was quite open 
 to the Jew to cross the Jordan, and to travel 
 through Peraea. Indeed it would appear that 
 this circuitous route was at least as frequently 
 
I I 2 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 adopted. Not only did the Jew hate the Samari- 
 tan, and as far as possible avoid all contact with 
 him ; but a small body of Jews passing through 
 Samaria, was very likely to meet with insult, if 
 not with worse treatment. Nor does there appear 
 any special external circumstance pressing upon 
 our Lord. At this early stage of Christ's ministry 
 there could have been no political reasons for His 
 avoiding Penea. It will be remembered that it 
 was to Persea that He retired towards the close 
 of His life in order to avoid the enmity of the 
 Jews. Nor was there any cause for extraordinary 
 haste, as is proved by the fact that He stayed 
 two days in Sychar. The "must needs" of St. 
 John has a moral significance. It was an inward 
 call according to the counsel of God in order 
 that a soul might be saved, and seed, that should 
 hereafter bear fruit, should be planted. There 
 may be ground for saying that the expression 
 " excludes anything like a designed visitation of 
 Samaria," and for questioning whether the inward 
 call signified any " internal conscious impulse of 
 Christ's will." Although our Lord declared that 
 Be "was not sent but to the lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel," and even gave on one occasion 
 a charge to the disciples not " to enter into any 
 city of the Samaritans," He never treated the 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. I 1 3 
 
 Samaritans as heathen, nor did He exclude them 
 from the benefits of His ministry. Anyway it is 
 impossible not to see in the expression of St. 
 John an intimation of the Divine providence 
 which the whole narrative fully bears out. 
 
 Christ had to pass through Samaria. On the 
 way weariness overtook Him. Possibly faintness 
 from want of food might also have been present. 
 He had thrown Himself down exhausted by the 
 side of the well which was outside the town, while 
 the disciples, hardier and more inured to fatigue 
 than their Master, went to buy food. The time 
 was the sixth hour. There is a difficulty about 
 the way St. John is supposed to count time. 
 According to the ordinary calculation the sixth 
 hour would be reckoned from six o'clock in the 
 morning, and it would be noon. It has been 
 pointed out that the mid-day heat would be a 
 very unlikely time at which to travel, and also 
 that nobody would come at such an untoward 
 hour, according to Eastern ideas, to draw water 
 from the well. One attempt has been made to 
 turn this sixth hour into early morning on the 
 supposition that the band had travelled by night, 
 and another to make it to be six o'clock in 
 the evening, counting the hours from mid-day. 
 Townson has written an ingenious book on the 
 
 H 
 
I 1 4 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 computation of time by St. John, in which the 
 Evangelist is made to follow a reckoning which 
 obtained in Asia Minor, where the writer lived 
 when he wrote his Gospel ; but German scholars 
 maintain that this mode of reckoning time never 
 existed in Asia Minor, and that it is in fact 
 nothing more than a clever invention of the author. 
 Further, a careful writer like St. John would not, 
 had his time been so calculated, have failed to 
 denote whether it was morning or evening. It 
 being noon accounts for the presence of one 
 woman ; had it been the evening hour, groups of 
 women and of girls would have been trooping to 
 the well to provide for the wants of the ensuing 
 day ; although it must be stated that there was 
 another well on the east side of the little' town, 
 and nearer to Sychar than Jacob's well. The 
 noonday hour accounts also for the weariness 
 which is a special feature in the narrative. If the 
 Lord had been walking for any distance, and the 
 last part of the journey had been accomplished 
 in the heat of the sun, it is easy to understand 
 how weariness should have overtaken Him. 
 
 As the Lord sat thus by the well, a woman 
 came to draw. "Jesus saith unto her, Give me 
 to drink." There is no reason to look for any 
 ulterior motive in the request. There is no need 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. I I 5 
 
 to suppose that our Lord made the request in 
 order to lead to the conversation which followed. 
 Christ was weary, hot, and tired. He must have 
 been longing for the cool, refreshing water. But 
 the well was deep, and He had no means of 
 obtaining it. What more natural than as the 
 woman prepared to draw, Christ should say to 
 her : " Give me to drink ? " 
 
 But it must be noticed that the Lord did not 
 get the draught of water for which He craved. 
 The first feeling of the woman was sheer surprise ; 
 though not an ill-natured surprise. Every word 
 in her answer is emphatic. " How is it that thou, 
 being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman 
 of Samaria ? " She had no intention of refusing 
 the request ; but one surprise led on to another 
 until the request was altogether forgotten. It is 
 an error to say, as one expositor does, that Christ 
 asked for the water after she had drawn it up 
 from the well. She was preparing to draw, and 
 was arrested in the act by the strangeness, as it 
 seemed to her, of the request. One can see the 
 whole scene as if it were a picture. Christ is 
 seated, either on the brink of the well, or close 
 beside it. The woman has rested her waterpot 
 beside her, and forgets all about it, even though 
 her hand rested on it, as the interest of the con- 
 
Il6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 versation becomes more and more intense. The 
 arrival of the disciples is not sufficient to turn 
 her thoughts ; and full of Christ's words, Which 
 seem to her to have laid bare all the history of 
 her previous life, she runs back to the city, leaving 
 her empty waterpot behind her. Apart from every 
 other consideration, it is one of the most graphic 
 scenes in the New Testament. 
 
 The conversation itself is not the point with 
 which we are occupied, so it must be passed 
 over in comparative silence. It forms a striking 
 example of our Lord's method of teaching. There 
 is first of all the abrupt word designed to arrest 
 the attention. Then there is the leading up from 
 the material water to that which it spiritually 
 represents — the Holy Spirit. Next with unequal 
 tact the conversation is turned upon the woman's 
 own life ; the apparently unconnected word, " Go 
 call thy husband," being in reality a granting of 
 the woman's prayer, " Sir, give me this water that 
 I thirst not." How naturally, too, almost uncon- 
 sciously, does the woman attempt to turn the 
 conversation, which was becoming sufficiently per- 
 sonal to make her conscience uneasy, by introduc- 
 ing a disputed point of theology. And it is 
 noteworthy that our Lord speaks concerning Him- 
 self and His mission with a clearness and distinct- 
 
THE PHYSICAL WEARINESS OF CHRIST. I I 7 
 
 ness which we do not find in His discourses to 
 His own countrymen. In no ambiguous terms 
 He declares the cessation of the Jewish ritual, and 
 foreshadows a new worship which should embrace 
 all true worshippers of the Father; finally He 
 declares Himself to be the promised Messiah. 
 
 The matter which more immediately concerns 
 us is the weariness of Christ. He was tired from 
 His hot journey; He was athirst ; He was faint 
 for food. But hunger, weariness, and thirst are 
 all alike forgotten. A work had been given Him 
 to do, and to that work all else must be made 
 subservient. He puts aside weariness to enter 
 into the long conversation ; He foregoes the 
 draught of Water, because to draw attention to 
 His material want would have broken in upon the 
 current of the woman's thoughts ; and when the 
 disciples, who had obtained the food, bring it to 
 Him with the entreaty, "Master, eat," in the 
 exaltation of His spirit He puts the food aside : 
 " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, 
 and to finish His work." 
 
 These two incidents bring vividly before our 
 minds the reality of our Lord's humanity. He 
 shared with man all the wants, needs, and 
 requirements of human nature. Fatigue produced 
 weariness : weariness found surcease in kindly 
 
I 1 8 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 sleep. He longed for rest, as other men have 
 longed for it. The material food was necessaiy 
 to stay His hunger; the cold, refreshing water 
 from the well allayed His thirst. We may go 
 further. It was not only the want and needs and 
 requirements of human nature He shared with 
 man ; He took upon Him all the weaknesses of 
 the nature He had adopted, at least so far as 
 those weaknesses were inherent in it, and were 
 not of the nature of sin. It is this aspect of the 
 Saviour which endears Him to us. We have 
 fellow-feeling with One the all-tenor of whose 
 life proved Him to be like us. Who like us 
 needed food to sustain His body ; who like us 
 when athirst longed for water ; who like us knew 
 the meaning of the words fatigue and lassitude ; 
 and who, after the exertion of teaching irre- 
 sponsive men, or after the long tramp in the 
 noonday sun, succumbed to physical weariness. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 
 
 Mental depression is more human in its character, 
 perhaps, than physical weariness. For while 
 weariness is a feeling of the body, depression is 
 an emotion of the mind. Christ, clothed in a 
 human body, could not but experience the 
 exhaustion which necessarily attends action ; but 
 it is not so easy to understand how Christ — the 
 Divine Son — should have yielded to the mental 
 nervelessness, which, in us at least, is the result 
 either of unfaith in God, or of ignorance of God's 
 purposes. In a sphere which is ordered by Divine 
 wisdom and governed by Divine power, there is 
 no room for disappointment, because perfect 
 wisdom must ordain all things for the best, and 
 all-embracing power must provide for their due 
 accomplishment. Human nature feels disappoint- 
 ment and depression, because it sees only one or 
 two links in the chain of Divine government, and 
 cannot understand even what it sees. Man feels 
 
120 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 depression because his hopes — which were based 
 on folly — prove abortive. So we are once again 
 face to face with the problem which ever recurs 
 when wc fix our attention on the life of the Son 
 of Man — the reconciliation of Divine wisdom and 
 Divine insight, with the infirmities inherent in 
 the nature He had adopted. How could Christ, 
 possessing perfect faith in the Father's govern- 
 ance, feel discouragement? We can only answer 
 by another question — How could the beloved Son 
 increase in favour with God ? It is a mystery wo 
 shall never understand. But it is a mystery by 
 grasping which alone we can apprehend the hu- 
 man nature of Christ. These things must needs 
 be so, and they were. We can tell why they 
 were so. How they were so we cannot tell. 
 
 Mental depression is a human emotion. It 
 belongs inherently to the nature with which man is 
 endowed. Some temperaments are more liable to 
 its influence than others. But none are altogether 
 free from its black shadow. There are times 
 when the most sanguine succumb as completely 
 to this feeling of utter hopelessness as the man of 
 bilious or lymphatic temperament. Therefore the 
 Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer from this feeling 
 of depression, as He had to make the experience 
 of every other feeling common to the nature He 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 121 
 
 had assumed. He was tempted (tried) in all 
 points like as man is ; not only in order that 
 every individual of the human race might find in 
 the Saviour the special form of sympathy he 
 needs, but that He Himself might learn. 
 
 It is St. John who has given a vivid description 
 of an instance of mental depression, which, for the 
 moment, almost overwhelmed the Lord Jesus. A 
 long train of circumstances had tended to produce 
 it. Physical circumstances had combined with 
 moral influences to excite it. There had been 
 predisposing excitement ; there had been the 
 strong emotion caused by the electric influence 
 of large masses of people ; there had been the 
 powerful restraint which He had been obliged 
 to exert over His Apostles ; there had been the 
 intensity of prayer ; there had been consequent 
 exhaustion and weariness. Then there came 
 rejection. All these predisposing causes resulted 
 in a terrible access of discouragement and depres- 
 sion such as the Evangelist describes. 
 
 The occasion of the Lord finding Himself on 
 the eastern side of the lake in a desert place 
 belonging to Bethsaida Julias was a very sad one. 
 St. John introduces his narrative with the in- 
 definite "After these things" — an expression 
 which this Evangelist more than once uses, and 
 
122 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 which is intended to denote a certain interval 
 of time, and not an immediate succession of 
 events ; it never gives a fixed date. But what is 
 lacking in St. John is supplied by St. Matthew 
 and St. Luke. John the Baptist had been be- 
 headed in the fortress of Macherus by Herod's 
 orders. His death was a great blow to Christ. 
 John was the cousin of our Lord ; he had been 
 His precursor ; it was at his hands that He had 
 received baptism ; many of His Apostles had, in 
 the first instance, been disciples of the son of 
 Zachariah. The death of John would further 
 present to the mental eye of Christ His own 
 coming doom with a vividness which could but 
 deeply impress His imagination. There seems to 
 have been some idea that Herod might follow up 
 his deed of violence by an attempt to get Christ 
 into his power. This was one, if not the princi- 
 pal, motive which led the Lord Jesus to betake 
 Himself into the wilder regions of the lake district, 
 just as, at a later period of His ministry, the 
 hostility of the Jews caused Him to withdraw into 
 Perasa. St. Luke narrates the story of his retire- 
 ment in connection with the return of the twelve 
 from their mission. The harmony is not quite 
 clear. The sending forth of the Apostles took 
 place probably just about the time of the murder 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 23 
 
 of the Baptist. There would be a cross rumour. 
 The account of what the Apostles had done — the 
 devils they had cast out, the cures they had 
 effected — reached Herod magnified by exagge- 
 rated report ; and Herod, perceiving, as others 
 did, that these wonders were wrought in effect by 
 the power of their Master, had his conscience 
 roused, and, trembling, feared that the new 
 prophet must be John risen from the dead. 
 Almost at the same time the talk of the country 
 would inform the disciples of John's death, and of 
 Herod's surmisings thereupon. The news is so 
 full of importance that they hasten their return 
 in order to bring their Master the tidings ; and 
 Christ, partly to allay their excitement, partly to 
 afford them rest, and also in order to avoid giving 
 an unnecessary occasion for Herod's violence, 
 retires to the solitary wastes at the head of the 
 Lake of Galilee. 
 
 Two events conspired to deprive Christ of the 
 privacy He sought. The cures wrought by the 
 Apostles had spread His renown far and wide. 
 Crowds, some impelled by curiosity, some seeking 
 healing, some, as St. Mark hints, really desirous 
 of profiting from the teaching of so wonderful a 
 llabbi, gather round Him. St. John implies that 
 He had accidentally fallen in with one of the 
 
124 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 large pilgrim caravans, which was on its way to 
 Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover festival. Thus 
 a very large multitude, numbering more than five 
 thousand persons, had been collected together. 
 Moved with compassion towards them, because 
 they were as sheep not having a shepherd, Christ, 
 as was His wont, began to teach them many 
 things. The day was beginning to wear away, 
 but the great .Master, forgetting, as was His 
 wont, physical fatigue while engaged about His 
 Father's business, continued His discourse. His 
 disciples came to Him. They represented that it 
 was a desert place ; that the day was far spent ; 
 that the people had nothing to eat ; and suggested 
 that they should be sent away without delay to 
 the neighbouring villages in order that they might 
 buy themselves food. The Lord determined 
 otherwise. He bids them : " Give ye them to 
 cat." But the disciples themselves, intending 
 probably to return to Capernaum at night, appear 
 to have been without provisions. There chanced 
 to be a lad with five loaves and two fishes : these 
 are purchased. One, it was Philip, asks half in 
 surprise, half in irony," Shall we go and buy two 
 hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to 
 cat ? " Although they had had so many proofs 
 of our Lord's power, it never seems to have 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 25 
 
 entered the disciples' minds that He might exert 
 that power to feed this multitude. Christ com- 
 manded that the people should sit down on the 
 grass. lie blesseth and breaketh the bread, and 
 lo ! as He breaks, it multiplies under His hand, 
 so that the whole multitude eat and are filled. 
 
 The miracle made a deep impression upon the 
 minds of those who witnessed it, and profited by 
 it. To feed the hungry, this was indeed an office 
 worthy of the Messiah in the eyes of those whose 
 daily bread was not too well assured. They hail 
 Him as their theocratic King. The excitement 
 began to tell upon the disciples. Their reward, 
 they begin to think, is at hand. The kingdom 
 they had looked forward to was about to be estab- 
 lished, and hopes are rife that, as they had followed 
 their Lord in His humiliation, they should share 
 with Him the glory of His throne. Already dis- 
 tinctions and places of honour are rising before 
 their mental vision. Christ, perceiving the 
 dangerous tendency of their thoughts, constrained 
 them, as St. Matthew and St. Mark carefully 
 observe, to embark in their boat and pass over 
 to Capernaum. Having thus got rid of one dis- 
 turbing element, He proceeds to send the multi- 
 tude away. 
 
 But the prevailing excitement had not been 
 
126 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 without its influence on the mind of Christ Him- 
 self, lie was man, and no man could be subjected 
 to the movement of such a mass of men without 
 feeling its subtle effect. To tranquillise His 
 disturbed spirit, the Lord Jesus, now left in 
 solitude, ascends the hill in order to hold com- 
 munion with God. " He went up into a mountain 
 apart to pray." In the meantime a change had 
 come over the face of Nature. The weather, 
 which up to that time had been calm, became 
 stormy. The boat, by this time in the middle of 
 the lake, was tossed with waves. From the high 
 ground He occupied lie saw them, perhaps by the 
 flash of the lightning, perhaps by the light of the 
 moon, which may ever and again have shone 
 through the clouds which were flying across the 
 sky. It was about three o'clock in the morning, 
 but through the contrary winds they had not 
 succeeded in making more than twenty-five or 
 thirty stadia, and were still far from their destina- 
 tion. Coming across the water He approaches 
 them. At first they are terrified, thinking that 
 they see a spirit. Christ's voice reassures them : 
 "It is I, be not afraid." The episode of Peter 
 attempting to walk on the waves to meet Him 
 should be noticed, for the impulse which his faith 
 received from Christ's act and word of rebuke, 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. I 2 J 
 
 may in a measure account for the unswerving 
 confidence of the next day, and may have added 
 force to his declaration that of the twelve none 
 would forsake Him. Having received Him into 
 the boat, they quickly reached their destination. 
 There is no need to suppose a third miracle. The 
 wind ceased, falling as rapidly as it had risen ; 
 the sea would continue to heave and swell, for 
 there was no miraculous interference on this occa- 
 sion, as there was when Christ some time before 
 had stilled the waters, and all became calm ; and 
 the strong arms of these hardy fishermen, reassured 
 by the presence of the Master, and animated with 
 new courage, would " quickly " row the boat over 
 the few miles which lay between them and Caper- 
 naum. 
 
 As the sign given to St. Peter was specially 
 worthy of notice as a cause of his determination 
 to adhere to Christ though all others should leave 
 Ilim, so should the sign of Christ's power over 
 the ordinary forces of Nature be noted in con- 
 nection with the after depression of Christ's spirit, 
 because this manifestation of the Lord's glory 
 reacted upon the disciples at large. Their faith 
 was strengthened, so that when defection came 
 their love remained firm and constant. For the 
 disciples themselves, as many a word in the 
 
128 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Gospels proves, were but men ; and ambition and 
 a desire for great things was very present with 
 them. They followed Christ without wavering; 
 but up to the very last they looked forward to 
 the establishment of a temporal throne, and were 
 longing for an earthly kingdom in which they 
 should play exalted parts as ministers, and viziers, 
 and chief officers of state. To them, no less than 
 to the thronging multitude in the synagogue and 
 streets of Capernaum, it was a moment of dis- 
 illusion. 
 
 The morrow dawned. Many of the multitude 
 had, like Christ and His disciples, betaken them- 
 selves to Capernaum. The excitement was not 
 allayed. Flying rumours of the greatness of 
 the miracle, of the power which this wonderful 
 Teacher possessed of feeding hungry men, per- 
 vaded all the town. There was a general state 
 of expectancy ; what was to happen next ? The 
 first question put is one of curiosity. They had 
 observed that the disciples had left in their boat, 
 and had surmised that there were no other boats 
 at the place, although in this, as St. John care- 
 fully points out, they were mistaken. They 
 themselves had skirted the shore of the lake, and 
 so had arrived at Capernaum ; but they had seen 
 no trace of Christ by the way. and therefore they 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 29 
 
 doubted whether He had reached Capernaum in 
 that way. Consequently, they put their question : 
 llabbi, when earnest Thou hither? This question 
 the Lord does not answer. The miraculous cross- 
 ing of the lake was intended to assure the disciples 
 and strengthen their faith ; it was not designed as 
 a sign to these people, whose unspirituality of mind 
 would have resisted the evidence of any sign, as 
 they did in fact remain indifferent to the sign 
 which had been given them on the preceding day. 
 Miracles may awaken faith; they may strengthen 
 faith ; they do not bring conviction to the faith- 
 less. 
 
 It is difficult to decide how much of the dis- 
 course which followed took place in the open air, 
 and how much in the synagogue. It is not of 
 any importance. The discourse itself is of the 
 highest import. But it is not with the discourse 
 that we are immediately concerned. Our object 
 is rather to notice the impression it made upon 
 the hearers, and the effect which their consequent 
 conduct produced upon the mind of Christ. 
 
 The people had sought Christ. But the ques- 
 tion in the heart of the Saviour was, Why did 
 they seek Him ? And when they come to Him 
 with their idle interrogatory, as to the manner in 
 
 which He crossed the lake, it is to this unasked 
 
 1 
 
130 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 question that lie answers. I see here the first note 
 of the sadness which lay in the heart of Jesus, 
 and which was to find a deeper expression after- 
 wards. The words come as in music an unex- 
 pected minor chord, which henceforth shall give 
 a pervading tone to the whole symphony. Why 
 did they seek Him % lie had heen moved with 
 compassion towards them, because they were as 
 sheep not having a shepherd. The day before 
 His persuasive accents seem to have penetrated 
 to their souls. When they had grown hungry 
 and faint, He had put forth His Divine power 
 and had fed them. And now again they were 
 clustering round Him, seeking Him, pressing Him 
 with questions. It might have been a sight dear, 
 and full of holy joy, to the heart of Him whose 
 sole object and endeavour was to save men and 
 to win them for His Father's kingdom. Why 
 did they seek Him 1 If they had but sought Him 
 in sincerity, because they believed and were sure 
 that He had the words of eternal life ! Then 
 indeed might St. John have recorded, as St. 
 Matthew had done already, that Jesus rejoiced 
 in spirit, and that a great gladness had come to 
 illumine that life which was a life of sorrow. 
 But it might not be. In their seeking there was 
 no element of faith, there was no germ of love. 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 131 
 
 Their seeking was but self-seeking. A sensual 
 curiosity, a lust of marvel, a carnal desire to behold 
 more signs of wonder, which to them should be Vwo-^ 
 no signs at all, and the sole result of which 
 should be a sensation of gaping astonishment. 
 Therefore they sought Him ! A mere low crav- 
 ing for the satisfaction of their animal appetite, 
 whether of a new sensation, or of hunger to be 
 appeased in idle sloth without honest effort. As 
 He gazed over the rude, surging crowd, open- 
 mouthed with idiotic expectation, how depression 
 must have seized upon the heart of Jesus — a 
 depression which the events of that day should 
 deepen, till in any other but Him it would have 
 been absolute despair. 
 
 At first the crowd is good-humoured, respectful, 
 almost deferential. The memory of the miracle 
 is still with them. But as the words of Christ 
 fall upon their ears, these sentiments become 
 changed. To be fed when hungry is one thing, 
 to be rebuked for unspirituality of mind is quite 
 another. They begin to formulate captious 
 questions, not for the sake of learning from their 
 Teacher, but in that cavilling mood which was 
 never far from the Jewish mind. " What must 
 we do that we may work the works of God ? " 
 Then they hark back to the old demand for a 
 
132 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 sign. On this string the Jew was for ever 
 harping. He wanted a sign from heaven. They 
 appeal to the sign which Moses gave — the manna 
 in the wilderness. They had already forgotten 
 the bread which they ate but yesterday, or the 
 cures the report of which had brought them 
 together at that very time. The spiritual tone 
 which Christ adopts irritates them still further. 
 Angry murmurs are heard ; the opposition in- 
 creased ; there is contention, interruption, hot 
 words of anger ; and the very people who yester- 
 day would have crowned Him as their King, to- 
 day with swift fickleness hasten to dethrone 
 their idol. 
 
 It was our Lord's first rejection by the people. 
 Its bitterness was exceedingly great. If we 
 attempt to put ourselves into our Lord's place, 
 and think what our feelings would be under 
 similar circumstances, we shall realise, in a 
 degree, how keen was the disappointment and 
 depression. For He was as we are. The Divinity 
 which dwelt within Him did not in any way de- 
 tract from the reality of His human feelings, or 
 from their intensity. As we feel He felt. Only 
 in Him the sinlessness of His Being gave a sting 
 to the disappointment of which we can know 
 nothing. Ingratitude was not mainly a personal 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 33 
 
 failing towards Himself; it was a sin against the 
 Father. Rejection was not want of appreciation 
 of His goodness, but it was blinding the eyes 
 against the heavenly light. Going back from 
 following Him was not the defection from a wise 
 Teacher, but it was a turning away from good and 
 a return to evil. In the murmuring and opposi- 
 tion He would see the enmity of man to God ; in 
 the declension from the truth He would be aware 
 of the work of Satan. The personal feeling of 
 personal desertion, with all the humiliation and 
 sadness it involved, was there — was there as 
 strongly as it could be in the most sensitive of 
 men ; but over and above the personal feeling, 
 there was the terrible thought that these crowds, 
 whom in His compassion He longed to save, 
 were deliberately, and of set purpose, putting 
 salvation from them. In no less than three of 
 His parables Christ describes the joy that there is 
 in heaven over the repentant sinner; and the 
 only time in which the Lord Jesus Christ is said 
 to have rejoiced was when, after the return of 
 His disciples from their mission, looking forward 
 in His prophetic spirit He saw Satan as lightning 
 fall from heaven. One strong element, therefore, 
 in the Lord's mental depression was this know- 
 ledge, to His spirit so full of horror, that, in 
 
134 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 opposing and rejecting Him, these inhabitants of 
 Capernaum were rejecting their own salvation, 
 and were cutting themselves adrift from good and 
 from God. 
 
 The pain was not less because it happened at 
 His own city, at Capernaum. When the Nazarenes 
 had refused Him, and treated Him at first with 
 obloquy, and afterwards when their anger was 
 stirred with murderous hate, He had withdrawn 
 Himself from Nazareth, and settled at Capernaum. 
 It had become the home of His choice as far as 
 Christ had a home. From Capernaum many of 
 His disciples were drawn. The brothers, Simon 
 Peter and Andrew, originally of Bethsaida, seem 
 afterwards to have settled at Capernaum, and 
 probably James and John also lived there. It 
 was here, on the shore of the lake, that they 
 hoard that quiet call to follow the Lord Jesus, 
 which was to change them from simple fishermen 
 into fishers of men. Here, too, it was that the 
 future evangelist, St. Matthew, sitting at the 
 receipt of custom, hearing the voice of Jesus, left 
 all to become His Apostle. Capernaum, again, 
 had been the scene of many of Christ's miracles. 
 Here was spoken the word of power which healed 
 the servant of the centurion whose faith Christ 
 commended ; here resided the nobleman whose 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 35 
 
 son was healed by Christ by a word spoken at 
 Cana ; here, probably, lived Jairus the ruler 
 whose little daughter Christ restored to life ; here 
 occurred the healing of Peter's wife's mother, and 
 the cure of those many sick folk who gathered in 
 the cool of the evening round the door of Peter's 
 house. The paralysed man, whose bodily strength 
 the Saviour restored by giving him the forgiveness 
 of his sins, was an inhabitant of Capernaum ; it 
 was in the synagogue of Capernaum that the un- 
 clean spirit was cast out of the man, who, in his 
 double personality, acknowledged the Lord to be 
 the Holy One of God. But it is noteworthy, that 
 after this rejection by the people of Capernaum, 
 so far as we can gather from Scripture, no miracle 
 was again performed within its walls. He did 
 not quit Capernaum, as he had quitted Nazareth ; 
 but the grace which had been so abundantly 
 bestowed upon it was withdrawn, and its in- 
 habitants were left to that darkness of unbelief 
 which they had chosen in preference to the light. 
 There was pronounced upon Capernaum a curse, 
 destined in aftertimes to be fulfilled so completely, 
 that not even eccclesiastical tradition has ventured 
 to fix its site, and the endeavour to discover the 
 position which this once famous "city" — the 
 Liverpool of the Jewish nation — occupied, is per- 
 
I36 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Imps the most hopeless problem in sacred topo- 
 graphy. " Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted 
 unto heaven, shalt be. brought down to hell; for 
 if the mighty works, which have been done in 
 thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have 
 remained unto this day." 
 
 Many causes, then, united together to make 
 this rejection peculiarly full of pain, and to render 
 the consequent mental depression severe. The 
 depression was terrible. How keenly our Lord 
 felt it may be easily gathered from the narrative 
 of St. John. He was vexed, troubled, saddened, 
 disappointed. For the moment His hopes were 
 shattered ; His spirit was bowed down utterly ; 
 or as utterly as it could be in Him whose will was 
 ever at one with the will of the Father. He 
 recognised it as a precursor of every rejection 
 which should follow, and which should culminate 
 in His final rejection and crucifixion. I think 
 even that there is a trace of permanent change 
 in the spirit of Christ's teaching. The buoyancy 
 of His temperament seems to have been crushed 
 out by it. The hopefulness of tone, which 
 may be felt in His earlier discourses, seems to 
 have fallen from Him. He is graver, sadder, at 
 times even sterner. There had been partial 
 rejection before ; but it then had been the Scribes, 
 
TIIE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 37 
 
 and the Kabbis, and the Pharisees — persons whom 
 Christ did not hold in high esteem — who had 
 refused Him. Now it was the people themselves. 
 Those from whom He had sprung ; whom He 
 had ever befriended ; whose cause He had ever 
 pleaded ; whose good He had ever sought ; whom 
 He had taught, healed, fed. The blow was very 
 bitter. Can we wonder that He was deeply 
 wounded and sore troubled ? 
 
 In His human distress the Lord Jesus Christ 
 turns, on this occasion, as He should again more 
 than once, to the band of faithful companions 
 whom He had chosen as His friends. At the 
 moment of desertion He would seek comfort in 
 their attachment and devotion. The form in 
 which He puts the question marks the intensity 
 of feeling — "Will ye also go away?" It is an 
 exegesis as false as shallow which would read in 
 this question an actual interrogation, implying a 
 deliberate choice. It is not conformable with our 
 Lord's meaning to suppose that He put something 
 before His disciples concerning which they were 
 to choose. Our Lord does not intend to say : the 
 people who have heard me are offended ; do you, 
 my Apostles, consider well the spiritual meaning 
 of my words, and the spiritual requirements of my 
 service ; and then, after due deliberation, decide 
 
I38 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 whether you too will follow their example and 
 leave me. The words are a wail of agony to those 
 who can understand. The people have forsaken 
 Me ; I am sore distressed ; are there none faithful 
 to Me ? none whom I can trust ? cannot I count 
 on you ? or would ye also go away? To any one 
 who can understand the mind of Christ, the Avoids 
 in their bitterness of disappointment are more 
 than plain. The warm-hearted, impulsive Peter 
 at least understood them. " Lord, to whom shall 
 we 12,0 ? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and 
 we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, 
 the Son of the living God." Peter, as is evident 
 from the words of the Evangelist, " Jesus answered 
 them," was but the spokesman giving expression 
 to the sentiment they all, with one exception 
 perhaps, entertained. And the words must have 
 fallen like balm on the sore heart of Christ. But 
 His depression was terrible. For the moment 
 even these brave words fail to give Him comfort. 
 The thought of His coming doom, which since 
 the news of the Baptist's death had been very 
 present with Him, rises before His imagination. 
 A scene glides across His mental vision in which 
 one of those very twelve is the chief actor. His 
 answer must have sounded strange and harsh. 
 
THE MENTAL DEPRESSION OF CHRIST. 1 39 
 
 In what in other men would have been irrita- 
 tion, but in Him was only sorrowful sadness, 
 Christ gives utterance to the words : " Have I 
 not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a 
 devil?" 
 
 This is no isolated instance of mental depression 
 in our Lord's life. There are several others 
 recorded ; there must have been many more which 
 the evangelists have passed over in silence. But 
 this one is narrated with a circumstantiality which 
 is wanting in other cases. We can trace each 
 separate detail step by step, from its first sug- 
 gestion through the death of John to its climax 
 in the synagogue of Capernaum. It presents a 
 most vivid picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was content to suffer for man's sake. And I 
 hardly think it ends here. St. John was a very 
 old man when he wrote his Gospel. But the 
 disciple w T hom Jesus loved had not forgotten 
 the impression which this incident, with its last 
 prophetic words, had stamped upon his remem- 
 brance. May not this scene at Capernaum — 
 Christ's own city — have been present to the mind 
 of the Apostle, when, in his magnificent pro- 
 logue, he breaks off to declare, "He came unto 
 His own, and His own received Him not;" and 
 
140 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 may not the noble words of Peter's answer also 
 have been ringing in the ears of his memory, 
 causing him to add immediately " But as many 
 as received Him, to them gave He power to become 
 the sons of God"? 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Tee very existence of man is dependent upon 
 that home-life which has its root in the marriage 
 state. Before the era of history, marriage 
 existed. In the early ages of the race, the only 
 record of which is to be found in some bone-cave 
 or kitchen-midden, traces of marriage and of 
 family-life are to be found. To be unmarried, 
 among the Romans, was considered almost dis- 
 graceful. Among the Jews the highest import- 
 ance was attached to marriage. But shortly 
 before the time of Christ a spirit of asceticism, 
 wholly foreign to Jewish ideas, had begun to 
 show itself among them. The Essenes and 
 Therapeutse both avoided marriage. St. Paul 
 alludes to this growing custom in the Epistle to 
 the Colossians. The ascetic sects are not men- 
 tioned in the Gospels, but perhaps some trace of 
 their influence may be discovered in John the 
 Baptist. Undoubtedly, apart from the peculiar 
 
142 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 office which he was designed to fill, there was a 
 tendency to an isolated and self-contained life in 
 the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah. 
 
 To any such tendency our Lord was directly 
 opposed. Shorn of its malicious exaggeration, 
 the insinuation of His enemies described truly 
 the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. With slan- 
 derous lips they framed their accusation : " A 
 gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publi- 
 cans and sinners." The words were a lie of the 
 worst species, because a substratum of truth 
 underlay it. Christ " was no hermit spirit, 
 dwelling in mysterious solitariness apart from His 
 fellows," but He was open to all the influences 
 which move men's hearts and stir men's emotions. 
 The natural joyousness, which would have always 
 belonged to man had he but remained sinless and 
 at peace with God, was a very distinct character- 
 istic of the God-man. The circumstances in 
 which He was placed soon crushed out this 
 natural joy. All around Him was sorrow, and at 
 the root of sorrow lay sin. Sin was the terrible 
 burden He was ever bearing. Sin, which was 
 the opposition to the Father's will ; sin, which 
 was the abnegation of all good. To Him it was 
 something foul and loathsome beyond our con- 
 ception. And it was everywhere. Among the 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 
 
 disciples whom He had chosen ; among the friends 
 who were to Him most dear ; in the mother who 
 had borne Him ; in His family and home ; equally . 
 as among the adversaries who hated Him, and 
 the enemies who compassed His death. With 
 this dark thing ever with Him, He could not in 
 Himself be joyous. But He entered keenly into 
 the joys of others. Nothing was further from 
 Him than moroseness or gloom. When we think 
 of the feast in the house of Zacchseus, or when 
 we picture to ourselves the joyous gathering of 
 publicans and such like persons that Levi col- 
 lected to show his gladness, we may be sure that 
 the happy joyousness was increased tenfold, be- 
 cause the Lord was present as a guest. A village 
 wedding was the scene of His first miracle — the 
 sign which He performed as the credentials of 
 His mission : and it was wrought, not for what 
 we should consider any great end, but to gratify 
 a social want, and to minister to the gaiety of the 
 assembled company. To His contemporaries it 
 must have seemed utterly beneath the dignity of 
 the Messiah. But to us, who have learned the 
 full beauty of Christ's religion, how full it is of 
 instruction, and in what complete harmony with 
 the whole tenor of His life and revelation ! For 
 by it He proclaims His oneness with the humanity 
 
144 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 which was around Him, and which He had 
 adopted. By mingling in the social life of men, 
 and by entering into human interests, He shows 
 how He shares all human feelings. By His 
 presence at this wedding He sanctifies human 
 connections and human joys. By His consecra- 
 tion of marriage He consecrates all family ties, 
 and hallows all the sweet delights of home. As 
 we so often find it in the course of Christ's life, 
 He makes concrete by an act the doctrine which 
 He preached by word. Home-life was blessed 
 upon earth, because it was the symbol of that 
 perfect unity which would be revealed in heaven 
 under the universal Fatherhood of God. 
 
 There is another miracle which has a bearing 
 upon home-life — the healing of Peter's wife's 
 mother. The Gospels are very reticent upon all 
 personal matters. It is only by this incident that 
 we learn that the Apostle Peter was a married 
 man. The miracle is noteworthy, because, with 
 the exception of the raising of Lazarus, which 
 stands in a category of its own, it is the only 
 miracle of healing that our Lord performed for 
 the benefit of His own immediate circle. More 
 than this, it is the only miracle, except perhaps 
 that of the stater, mentioned in the New Testa- 
 ment, that was wrought directly in aid of those 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 1 45 
 
 connected by private ties. It comes out quite 
 undesignedly that the Apostles could not use 
 their gift of healing for their own purposes. St. 
 Paul, who performed many miracles of healing, 
 could not, i.e., was not permitted to cure his 
 personal friend Epaphroditus, although his illness 
 was a cause of much trouble and distress to the 
 Apostle. How earnestly the Apostle desired to 
 use the power he possessed is evidenced by the 
 fervent expression of gratitude in which he speaks 
 of his recovery. With regard to our Lord there 
 is no such record to guide us, but in this matter, 
 as always, the silence of Scripture is most sugges- 
 tive, and there is more than one word of Christ 
 which implies that the same restraining influence, 
 which prevented St. Paul from healing Epaphro- 
 ditus, was present with the Lord Himself. The 
 exception is, therefore, all the more worthy of our 
 notice. There must have been some special reason 
 in the mind of Christ which led to the healing of 
 this fevered woman. It is narrated by all the 
 three synoptical Evangelists, but the narrative in 
 each is extremely short and concise. I do not 
 think we can find in the story itself the clue to 
 its right understanding. The key must rather be 
 sought in the general plan of Christ's teaching. 
 As the turning the water into wine was the 
 
 K 
 
146 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 sanctification and blessing of all home-life, so it 
 would appear, that, in this case, the Lord departed 
 from His usual custom, in order to give an ob- 
 jective manifestation of the high honour He 
 placed upon family affection, and to show the 
 exalted place which all such ties of human love 
 were to hold in the kingdom He was founding 
 upon earth. 
 
 To turn to the home-life of the Lord Jesus 
 Himself. The early life of Christ in His own 
 home at Nazareth must be remembered in con- 
 nection with these two miracles. If any home 
 has ever been a happy one, if in any family peace 
 and harmony obtained, surely, we should think, 
 it would be in that home where Mary of Nazareth 
 was the mother, and Christ was the elder brother. 
 The reverse was the case. Once more Scripture 
 meets us with silence. We know nothing of what 
 passed during the early life of Christ in His home. 
 His brothers' (whether they were actual brothers 
 is in so far of no consequence) behaviour towards 
 Him is not recorded. We are not told that, as 
 is so often the case in home-life, some sister clung 
 to her elder brother with a reverent and absorbing 
 love. There is no word recorded. Yet we are 
 not left in doubt. We can judge what the earlier 
 years must have been from our knowledge of what 
 
THE HOME- LIFE OF CHRIST. 1 47 
 
 the later years were. And the story implied by 
 those later years is a very sad one. Mary, not- 
 withstanding the wonderful revelation made to 
 her by the angel Gabriel, notwithstanding all the 
 wondrous circumstances which had attended the 
 birth of her Firstborn, notwithstanding that word 
 which her Son had spoken to her in the Temple, 
 had forgotten. In the quite early days she had 
 kept all the marvels of His birth, and all the 
 mysterious circumstances and sayings which at- 
 tended it, and pondered them in her heart ; but 
 as time went on, she had forgotten. Possibly left 
 widowed, with many children dependent upon her 
 thought, the care and trouble of this world had 
 overclouded the faith which once shone so brightly; 
 possibly — for such is woman's nature — the very 
 goodness of the child who was never naughty, or 
 the sinlessness of the youth who never needed a 
 rebuking word, estranged her affection, and led 
 her to give her sympathy more to those other who 
 assuredly often made her heart ache. There is a 
 trace, though it may be but slight, of some such 
 feeling in the account St. John gives of the first 
 miracle. And it was to rise into much stronger 
 relief, when she, who more than any other should 
 have known that He must be about His Father's 
 business, could be persuaded that He was beside 
 
148 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Himself. It needed all the bitterness of the cross 
 to recall Mary's lost faith, and reawaken that love 
 which it is almost inconceivable that she should 
 have ever lost. 
 
 How contrary and opposed His brothers were 
 is told us with great bitterness by the Apostle 
 who was ever ready to resent any slight upon the 
 Master whom he loved. St. John has recorded 
 the sneering taunt of these unbelieving brothers, 
 and he does not fail to add his own emphatic 
 word of condemnation. Christ's sisters are never 
 mentioned in connection with His life. We know 
 He had sisters. We do not know how many ; 
 the name of none has been preserved to us. But 
 we know that in the faithful band, which with 
 untiring fidelity followed Him from Galilee to 
 Judea, or from Jerusalem to Samaria, or into the 
 retired parts of Penea, not one of Christ's sisters 
 had enrolled herself. It was not their sympathy 
 which supported Him ; it was not their love which 
 ministered to His wants. They left all that to 
 the hands of strangers. " He came unto His own," 
 says the same Evangelist, looking back upon this 
 history, " and His own received Him not." One 
 of the bitterest ingredients in the earthly cup of 
 Christ's sorrow must .have been the want of kind- 
 ness among the members of His own family, and 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 1 49 
 
 the lack of appreciation in His own home. The 
 saddening fact that mother, brother, sister, all 
 alike failed to understand Him, and refused to give 
 Him the love and affection for which He yearned, 
 must have exercised no small influence in darken- 
 ing the life of Christ. 
 
 That this sorrow should have formed part of the 
 daily cross which it was the Lord's lot to carry 
 has its own lesson. 
 
 After all, the homes of this earth are not 
 superlatively happy. Impatience and irritability, 
 jealousy, ill-humour, and cross-grainedness, are 
 almost inseparable from the human nature we 
 know ; and these give rise to constant recurring 
 trials of temper. There are few homes in which 
 differences do not occur, and in which diverse 
 wills are not found in opposition ; and there are 
 too many, alas ! in which the kindness and 
 affection which should cluster round the hearth 
 are displaced by jealous rivalry or actual hostility. 
 The father makes an atmosphere of discomfort by 
 giving way to outbursts of passion ; the mother 
 raises envy and disaffection by a foolish partiality 
 for her favourite ; in a word, that selfishness 
 which is at the root of all evil, and which lurks in 
 every human being, shows itself in the family as 
 elsewhere, and creates dissension and dislike 
 
15O MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 where God intended that concord and peace 
 should dwell. These things being so, it was well 
 that they should enter into the life of Christ, and 
 that He should have to bear with them. It is 
 man's special comfort that the Saviour was tried 
 in all points like as he is. No child of earth can 
 ever say, I have something to bear which my 
 Saviour did not suffer. If Christ's home had 
 been peaceful and serene, as, at first sight, we 
 think it should have been, then those who have 
 unhappy homes could not take their burden to 
 Him with a perfect feeling of satisfaction. But 
 as it is, every child who feels the sting of un- 
 kindness, every brother who is aggrieved by a 
 slight put upon him, every sister who thinks she 
 does not meet with due appreciation, can go with 
 their sore hearts to Christ, and can plead with 
 Him in confidence, because, in the experience of 
 His own early life, the Saviour passed through 
 the very same trial which is now galling His 
 young disciple. 
 
 There is another side to this picture on which the 
 eyes of our mental vision are fixed. Christ, living 
 as He did for the sake of men, dying as He did for 
 them, had yet His own proper life. A life very 
 real for Him ; as real as the life we are living is 
 real to us. For Him there were hopes and sorrows, 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 151 
 
 fears and joys, expectation and disappointment. 
 For Him too, as for ns, there was disillusion. 
 Because He came to be the Saviour of the world, 
 the years which He passed on earth were not the 
 less for Himself crowded with feeling and emotion. 
 Regarded in this light a deep pathos gathers round 
 those incidents which specially touch the inner life 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. The healing of Peter's 
 wife's mother, or the marriage in Cana, would be 
 the cause of thoughts in Him which would not 
 rise readily to the surface, and which would re- 
 main unspoken. Home was for others. For 
 Chhst there was no home-life. Peter might give 
 Him shelter ; Zacchseus might receive Him as his 
 guest ; Martha might with gladness welcome Him 
 to lier house ; some disciple at Jerusalem might 
 proiide an upper chamber for the Passover; but 
 Christ had no home. "The foxes had holes, and 
 the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of 
 Man had not where to lay His head." Doubtless 
 there were causes which accounted for the home- 
 lessness of Christ. The nature of the work in 
 which He was engaged precluded any settled 
 home. He who was ever going from one town to 
 another, who to-day was in Galilee, and to- 
 morrow in Judaea, could have no settled place of 
 abode. In this respect the Lord Jesus Christ 
 
152 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CIIRIST. 
 
 only shared a hardship which eveiy itinerant 
 missionary has to put up with. But the home- 
 lessness of Christ did not consist in this. It was 
 a much deeper feeling that called forth His 
 sorrowful exclamation, that He had not where He 
 could lay His head. It was that He was set 
 apart ; that He was alone ; that He was isolated ; 
 that, independently of any external accident of 
 life, He could have no home ; that by the very 
 nature of the sacrifice He had to offer, He was 
 shut out from that rest and sympathy which all 
 men hope may one day be theirs. 
 
 Yet not altogether shut out from sympathy. 
 The human life of the Son of Man was not wholly 
 devoid of human joy. Home He might not have ; 
 but friends were not wanting. In that band He 
 had gathered round Him there were many who 
 gave Him all the devotion of their hearts. 
 Thomas, doubting, gloomy, ever ready to look 
 on the dark side of things, yet willing for the 
 Master's sake to brave the dangers of Jerusalem ; 
 Peter, headstrong, rash, impetuous, hurried even 
 into denial, yet willing to lay down his life ; 
 John, who in his old age never tired of telling 
 that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved. And 
 outside the immediate circle of the disciples there 
 were true-hearted men who were ready to do Him 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. I S3 
 
 service. Nicodernus, who came to Hirn by night ; 
 Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead ; Joseph 
 of Arimathea, who dared to enter Pilate's presence 
 to beg His body. Nor were women wanting. 
 Women are ever ready to acknowledge what is 
 good and great. In the lives of God's saints 
 women have had their part, and often a very 
 noble part. In the rugged life of the unloveable 
 Benedict of Nursia the human affection of his 
 twin sister Scholastica, struggling against the 
 uncongenial spirit of monasticism, forms a very 
 beautiful episode ; the stern Hildebrand was feign 
 to seek support and sympathy from Matilda of 
 Tuscany ; Macrine was the guiding star of Basil ; 
 the name of Monica is inseparable from St. 
 Augustine, as [that of Nonna is bound up with 
 Gregory of Nazianzus. So it was in the life of 
 Christ. Women, attracted by His absolute good- 
 ness, lay their loving homage at His feet. Like 
 the wife of Chuza, they ministered to Him of their 
 substance ; like Martha, they opened to Him the 
 doors of their houses ; like the woman in the 
 Pharisee's dining-hall, they sought from His grace 
 the pardon of their sins. They followed Him, 
 weeping, on the road to Golgotha ; they stood 
 beneath His cross ; they were present at His 
 burial ; they were the first at the empty sepulchre ; 
 
154 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Mary of Magdala, forgetting her own lack of 
 strength, will bear away His corpse ; Mary of 
 Bethany, unconscious in her love, brings precious 
 ointment to anoint His body for the burial ; Mary 
 of Nazareth, taught by the bitter sword which 
 pierced her mother's heart, remembers as she sees 
 Him die. And the Lord Jesus Christ, hanging in 
 His last agon}', bethinks Him again of the sacred 
 tenderness of love which should surround the 
 home, and to which His first miracle had been 
 a witness, as He collects His last strength to 
 place His mother in the charge of the disciple 
 whom He loved. 
 
 But when we think of the home-life of Christ, 
 the place which before all others comes to our 
 memory is the little village of Bethany. Bethany 
 lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives 
 on the road to Jericho. The spot is a woody 
 hollow, embowered among fruit trees, such as the 
 olive, almond, fig and date-palm, and is surrounded 
 by oaks and carobs. It occupies the extreme 
 border of verdure, and " forms the last cluster of 
 human habitations, before that strange succession 
 of weird, featureless hills begins which terminate 
 in the deep depression of the Jordan Valley and 
 the Asphaltile Lake, the wall of the Moab and 
 Peraean Mountains, with their ever varying hues, 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 155 
 
 bounding the distance." "It seems like a watch- 
 tower set in the outermost fringe of life, over- 
 looking the region of the shadow of death." Bonar 
 speaks of the spot as remarkably beautiful ; he 
 describes in glowing language its calm and sweet 
 repose, and represents it as the perfection of 
 seclusion and lovely peace. Perhaps Dr. Bonar 
 saw somewhat with the eyes of an imagination 
 saturated with the beauty of the Gospel narrative, 
 for neither Stanley nor Grove are enthusiastic in 
 describing the beauties of Bethany. There is no 
 mention of it either in the Old Testament or in 
 the Apocrypha ; and the modern village is ruinous 
 and wretched, a wild mountain hamlet of some 
 twenty families, the inhabitants of which compare 
 unfavourably even with the general squalor and 
 unthriftiness which is characteristic of the East. 
 But to all readers of the Gospel story the place is 
 still fragrant with the presence of Him who loved 
 its seclusion, and the echoes of His voice still 
 linger round it. Other spots are hallowed by the 
 sufferings of the Son of Man ; Bethany is sacred 
 to the still gladness of Christ, and, though wet 
 with the human tears of His sympathy, is as an 
 oasis "bathed in light." 
 
 Here it was that a woman, named Martha, re- 
 ceived Him into her house. 
 
I56 MENTAL CHARACTERISTIC* OF CHRIST. 
 
 Once more Scripture is silent as to the details. 
 We do not know how Martha became acquainted 
 with Christ. She may herself have by some 
 accident (as we speak) heard Him on one of His 
 not rare visits to the capital, as He was preaching 
 in the Temple-courts, or carrying on some dis- 
 course in the streets of Jerusalem. Or she may 
 have had friends in the distant Galilee, and 
 through their instrumentality may have learned 
 to know Him. Or it may be that her brother 
 Lazarus may have been attracted by the fame of 
 the new Teacher, and may have joined himself to 
 His company, and afterwards introduced Him to 
 his sister's home. A casual expression of St. 
 John leads us to suppose that this family, like so 
 many others, had received signal benefit from the 
 presence of Christ, and that a miracle had been 
 wrought in their behalf. The terrible leprosy, so 
 prevalent in the East, had, it is conjectured, laid 
 its fell hand upon the master of the house. For 
 apparently the same abode, which St. Luke calls 
 the house of Martha, is called by St. Jolrn the 
 house of Simon : and, consequently, it has been 
 argued with great probability that Simon was the 
 husband of Martha. She ever speaks with the 
 air and conscious dignity of a married woman. 
 This Simon, St. John informs us, was, that is to 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. I 57 
 
 say, had been, a leper. One reason, then, of the 
 deep veneration and affection, with which the 
 family at Bethany regarded the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 may have been that the desolate home, isolated 
 and darkened by the awful curse of leprosy, was 
 restored again to health and civil life by the inter- 
 position of the Saviour. 
 
 Just as concerning the relationship between 
 Simon and Martha we can only make guesses 
 more or less probable, so about the personal history 
 of Lazarus we know absolutely nothing. Con- 
 jecture tries to eke out the details, and ecclesias- 
 tical tradition supplements the story with a 
 quantity of irrelevant and foolish additions, but 
 of real knowledge there is none. Of the external 
 circumstances of the two sisters we know scarcely 
 more. The characters, however, of the two women 
 stand out in great clearness. A word or two of 
 St. Luke, and the vivid narrative of St. John, has 
 made them to us as household words. Martha, 
 the bustling housewife, full of anxious care for 
 the gilest she has welcomed to her house, and 
 somewhat burdened with her work, is not without 
 a touch of natural irritability and pardonable 
 impatience. Mary is still and quiet ; her attitude 
 at the feet of Jesus betokens a mind calm and 
 peaceful ; but she is keenly sensitive in feeling, 
 
158 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 and on more than one occasion we see her yielding 
 to the passionate emotions of an impulsive but 
 restrained nature. 
 
 Such was the family in which the Lord Jesus 
 was received, and in which, more than elsewhere, 
 it was given Him to enjoy the quiet pleasure of 
 home-life. There are many indications which 
 show how keenly our Lord appreciated it. The 
 "memories of Bethany " have left a very decided 
 impression upon the Gospel histories — an impres- 
 sion due to the deep influence they exercised upon 
 the human heart of Christ. Details of that sweet, 
 restful home-life there are none, or almost none. 
 St. Luke has preserved a word which Christ spoke. 
 St. John narrates, with more fulness than is the 
 wont of the Evangelists, the great miracle of which 
 the little village was the scene. The other two — 
 St. Matthew and St. Mark — as well as St. John, 
 tell the story of the anointing, which is the sequel 
 to the miracle. There are, besides, one or two 
 allusions to Bethany, which, were it not that we 
 know of the intimate connection of the spot with 
 the dearest and happiest associations of Christ, 
 would be passed over as mere geographical notes 
 of the narrators. It is from these scattered hints 
 that we learn all that can be known of those 
 things which made Christ's home-life at Bethany 
 
THE HOME-LIFE OF CHRIST. 1 59 
 
 so beautiful. With zealous service Martha minis- 
 tered to His physical necessities ; with the docile 
 love of the pupil for the Master, Mary sat at His 
 feet and listened to His word. Lazarus is not 
 mentioned ; but we may be sure that he regarded 
 Christ with the enthusiastic devotion which the 
 young are ever ready to bring to those who have 
 won their admiration and reverent esteem. 
 
 I said that little was known about this home- 
 life of Christ at Bethany. But one thing is known, 
 and that one thing is of more value than all else 
 besides. The heartfelt affection with which the 
 brother and the sisters looked upon Christ was 
 returned to the full by the Lord Jesus. The 
 Evangelist has recorded that " Jesus loved Martha, 
 and her sister, and Lazarus ; " and it was this 
 human affection which caused Bethany to be in 
 an especial sense "the home" of Christ; which 
 made it His quiet retreat during the troublous 
 days which closed His earthly life ; which led 
 Him to choose it as the last spot His feet should 
 touch at the time o£ His ascension ; and which, 
 in the future, marks it as the first spot on which 
 His foot shall stand when He comes again in 
 glory. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS 
 CHRIST* 
 
 A mystery hangs round every prayer of the 
 Saviour. Whether we follow Him in the early 
 morning to the solitary place ; or whether we 
 watch with Him through the eastern night on the 
 lonely mountain top ; or whether we hear the 
 invocation to His father burst from His lips at 
 the grave of Lazarus ; or whether we witness His 
 last agony of prayer amid the shade of the olive 
 trees in Gethsemane — wonder and awe take posses- 
 sion of our minds. That the Son in the days of 
 His incarnation should long for intercourse with 
 His Father; that He should often seek silence 
 and retirement for the purpose of communion with 
 Him, can easily be understood. But that the 
 Lord, even in His humiliation, should have positive 
 need of prayer for grace and strength is a mystery 
 beyond our comprehension. That the body should 
 
 * This essay originally appeared in the Journal of Sacred Literature; 
 it has been revised, and is reprinted with considerable alteration*. 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. l6l 
 
 grow weary; that the flesh should succumb to 
 wants and necessities inherent in its nature ; that 
 the human frame should assert its rights, and send 
 Him athirst to the woman of Samaria, or rock Him 
 to sleep on the sea of Galilee ; these things neither 
 surprise nor startle us. But that the soul of the 
 Lord Jesus should become faint ; that it should 
 show sympathy with the weakness of the body and 
 share in its imperfections, is a fact well calculated 
 to fill us with astonishment. 
 
 It might be naturally supposed that the prayer 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ was only communion 
 with His Father. If there were no express testi- 
 mony of revelation on the subject, it would reason- 
 ably be surmised that nothing beyond this was 
 thought of; and that the Lord Jesus sought the 
 presence of God as we might seek the presence of 
 those we love. But such is not the fact. The 
 prayer of Christ involves much more than this ; it 
 is the expression of His want ; it arose out of His 
 sense of need, as truly as the prayer of the believer 
 arises out of his sense of need. The prayer of 
 Christ is the earnest supplication for guidance ; it 
 is the seeking for assistance ; it is the cry of dis- 
 tress ; it is the outpouring of His soul in trouble ; 
 it is the heartfelt entreaty for strength to enable 
 Him to bear up under the pressure of physical 
 
1 62 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 pain and mental horror. We see the Man Christ 
 Jesus, in all the weakness of His manhood, 
 looking for aid and help from His God. And 
 this must be so because of our Lord's true 
 humanity. However much the divinity and 
 humanity blended in Ilim, the Divine never 
 interfered with the working of the human nature. 
 He was perfect man ; He shared all the want and 
 need of man's nature ; He felt all its weaknesses. 
 The Divine which existed within Him never raised 
 Him above and beyond the humanity He had con- 
 descended to assume ; it never exalted Him into 
 a sphere freed from the struggle and conflict to 
 which flesh is heir, or prevented Him from shar- 
 ing with men their frailties and their cares : He 
 was constrained with men to seek for the strength 
 necessaiy to bear them in the lowly attitude of 
 prayer. Perhaps nowhere does the humanity of 
 the Lord Jesus shine forth more clearly and con- 
 spicuously, than when bowed in heart and troubled 
 in soul, in all the consciousness of human weak- 
 ness, He pours out His supplications before His 
 God. 
 
 It is the object of this essay to illustrate the 
 human characteristics of Christ by contemplating 
 1 1 i mi in the attitude of prayer We would attempt 
 to read the mystery of the incarnation by gazing 
 
PEAYEES OF THE LOED JESUS CHRIST. 1 6 
 
 o 
 
 on the rnind of Jesus as it lies unveiled before His 
 Father in the act of prayer. A few passages of 
 Scripture have been handed down to us, in which 
 the heart of the praying Saviour is thus presented 
 to our scrutiny. Such passages can never fail to 
 be of inestimable preciousness to the Church at 
 large ; but they possess a double value to those 
 who love to explore the heights and depths of that 
 humanity of our Lord, which, assumed once in 
 humility, shall be His triumphant crown of glory 
 throughout the ages of eternity. May we draw 
 nigh in lowliness and reverence, looking for 
 the gracious assistance of His good Spirit to 
 teach us. 
 
 The first recorded instance from which we can 
 gather anything of the nature of our Lord's prayer, 
 is in Luke vi. 12. 
 
 It was the commencement of His ministry. He 
 was about to choose from the general gathering of 
 His disciples certain men, who were to form an 
 inner circle, and enter into closer communion and 
 relationship with Himself. Much, as we judge, 
 depended on the choice. The men now selected 
 were to be specially taught and trained under His 
 own eye. It was to them that the mission of up- 
 holding His teaching was to be committed when 
 He should be removed. Whether His doctrine 
 
164 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 should be strangled at its birth, or whether it 
 should be propagated throughout the world, 
 depended (humanly speaking) on the wisdom of 
 His choice. And more than this, these men were 
 to be His companions and associates. On their 
 faithfulness, on their friendship, on their power of 
 understanding Him, His own happiness must in a 
 great measure depend. When the world scoffed, 
 and Pharisees taunted, and His usual followers 
 were offended, it is to them lie must have recourse. 
 With them His chafed spirit must find calm and 
 repose ; from them He must look for all the 
 sympathy He could hope to obtain. Whether He 
 thought of the future prospects of the religion He 
 came to found, or whether He had regard to His 
 own comfort and well-being, the choice was alike 
 momentous. St. Luke informs us what means 
 were taken to insure the most fitting persons. 
 " And it came to pass in those days, that He went 
 up into a mountain to pray, and continued all 
 night in prayer to God." We here see the Lord 
 Jesus offering a prayer for guidance at a critical 
 point of His career. He did not exert the in- 
 fallible virtue of the divinity which dwelt within 
 Him ; He did not at once proceed in the power of 
 the Godhead, without hesitation or deliberation, 
 to make choice of the most suitable instruments 
 
PEAYEES OF THE LOED JESUS CHEIST. 1 65 
 
 for His purpose ; He did not exercise the exalted 
 prerogative of reading men's hearts, and laying 
 bare by His omnipotence their past and future 
 before His eyes ; but He watches their conduct, 
 He converses with them, He frequents their society, 
 He draws His conclusions from their words and 
 actions, He marks their characters, and finally, at 
 once acting like man, and giving to man an 
 example to follow, He lays the matter before God. 
 Then He chooses. 
 
 How far in this matter the human instinct was 
 corrected and controlled by the divine intuition, 
 must ever be unknown. The conclusion arrived 
 at will vary according to the peculiar cast of 
 mind of the inquirer. Those who are accustomed 
 to regard our Lord chiefly on the divine side of 
 His character, will make the divine element pre- 
 dominate largely in the reasons which influenced 
 the choice ; those who contemplate the Saviour 
 principally from the human aspect, will refer the 
 decision in the main to the insight into character 
 which Christ possessed as man. There is, of 
 course, no question as to the capability of the 
 Redeemer to exercise supernatural power ; the 
 point is, did He do so ? and in what measure ? 
 In the case of Peter and Nathanael (John i. 42 ; 
 i. 47) He undoubtedly read their character by 
 
1 66 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 divine penetration without previous knowledge ; 
 and the words of St. John (vi. 64) incline us to 
 believe the same of Judas. The hypothesis of 
 some German theologians that the words are not 
 to be interpreted strictly, but that St. John, writing 
 after the event, imputed a knowledge to Christ 
 which He really did not possess, cannot be 
 received by those who believe in the plenary 
 inspiration of Scripture. The name of Boanerges, 
 though according to St. Mark (iii. 17) given to 
 the sons of Zebedee upon the call to the Aposto- 
 late, and after an opportunity had been afforded 
 of tracing their characters, might have been pre- 
 viously added, as in the case of Simon Peter. 
 The fact, however, that He did not choose them 
 at once, nor until by personal intercourse He had 
 been able to judge of their dispositions of fitness 
 for their office, and still more the prayer for 
 guidance and direction, proves to demonstration, 
 that on this occasion our Lord was not wholly 
 guided by the divine omniscience which dwelt 
 within Him. The incident shows us the man 
 Christ Jesus acting as a man ; it holds Him up 
 as a model which we may follow ; it gives us a 
 beautiful picture of His perfect humanity ; and 
 it exhibits Him coming as a member of the 
 human family to seek for aid and counsel from 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHEIST. l6^ 
 
 the great Hearer of prayer, to whom all flesh 
 shall come. 
 
 The next prayer of our Lord that we shall 
 bring forward is the one pronounced at the grave 
 of Lazarus. It is a prayer for assistance in work- 
 ing a miracle ; or rather it is a thanksgiving for 
 the assistance which had been given Him. The 
 expressed thanksgiving includes the unuttered 
 prayer. Our Lord on His approach to Bethany 
 had been met by Martha, and joined a little later 
 by Mary, and the Jews who had come to comfort 
 her. In a series of broken, dark, and enigmatical 
 utterances, He had raised the expectations of those 
 who were susceptible to His teaching for some 
 mighty display of the divine power. It was a 
 presentiment rather .than a definite idea ; and 
 none, unless perhaps we except Mary who had 
 been accustomed to penetrate deeper into her 
 Lord's mind than the rest, seem to have looked 
 for the actual resurrection of Lazarus from the 
 dead. Amid the tears of the mourning followers, 
 and even of Christ Himself, they reached the 
 tomb. Silencing Martha by a word, He com- 
 mands to take away the stone. Then, before the 
 open grave and in presence of the dead, "Jesus 
 lifted up His eyes and said : Father, I thank Thee 
 that Thou hast heard Me ; and I knew that Thou 
 
1 68 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 hcarcst Me always, but because of the people 
 which stood by I said it, that they may believe 
 that Thou hast sent Me." 
 
 These words furnish us with the materials for 
 tracing out the means by which Christ wrought 
 His miracles. It teaches that they were not 
 accomplished by the inherent power of the divinity 
 which dwelt within Him, but followed as the result 
 of faith and prayer. The power of working 
 miracles was given to the Son. It was a power 
 given in answer to prayer ; a testimony in some 
 degree to Himself, but in a much greater degree 
 to the people, that the Father heard and acknow- 
 ledged Him. In His filial relation all that He 
 had was not His own, but was bestowed upon Him 
 by the Father. During His humiliation upon 
 earth, the acts of power which He manifested were 
 not done in virtue of the glory which He possessed 
 as the Son of God from all eternity. That glory 
 He had laid aside when He became the Son of 
 Man. The grace, and truth, and power which 
 beamed forth in Him during the period of His 
 earthly life was the fulness of the Father within ; 
 the fruit of that abiding Spirit which Mas given to 
 Him without measure. It is the express testimony 
 of Jesus (John v. 19), that the Son can do nothing 
 of Himself, and that His power is a derived power 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 69 
 
 drawn from the Father. The works of Christ did 
 not proceed from His own will, but from the will 
 of the Father ; and in like manner the energy 
 by which the will is inspired does not proceed 
 immediately from the Son, but only mediately, 
 having its source in the Father who is the 
 fountain (dpxv) of all life an d power. 
 
 There is a very noticeable distinction between 
 the prayers of the Godman, and the prayers 
 which proceed from all others of the human race. 
 There was always harmony between the mind of 
 Christ and the mind of God. We know that 
 God hears and answers the prayers of all who 
 cry unto Him ; but these are answered, not 
 according to the letter of the petition, but in 
 such a way as God sees most fitting. No man 
 can ever say — at least in the same sense as the 
 Lord Jesus — I know that Thou nearest me always, 
 because in no man is there perfect oneness of 
 will with the Divine will. Our faith is as a grain 
 of mustard seed, the faith of the Son was whole 
 and perfect. His own word so often repeated, 
 and which holds good of all, is equally appli- 
 cable to Himself in His human relationship, 
 "According unto thy faith be it unto thee." 
 
 While, however, we admit fully the subordina- 
 tion of the Son to the Father, it must not be 
 
170 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 forgotten that the Son is very God, of the same 
 essence and substance with the Father. His 
 miracles were performed by faith and prayer 
 only because He willed that they should be so 
 performed. None could take from Him that 
 divinity which was intrinsically His own ; but 
 it was the good pleasure of the Son to veil 
 that inherent glory which He possessed in the 
 bosom of the Father before the world was. Nor 
 has this subordination any tendency to uphold 
 Arian or Socinian errors. It only exists when 
 we view our Lord from the side of His humanity. 
 When we pass over to the other side, and con- 
 sider Him in His Divine relationship, it ceases 
 altogether. If one discourse (John v.) declares 
 most plainly that the Son can do nothing of 
 Himself, another (John" x.) most emphatically 
 vindicates His Godhead. However much later 
 sceptics may endeavour to explain away the ev 
 ea/xev of Christ, contemporary Jews understood it 
 rightly enough as claiming equality with Jehovah. 
 They sought to stone the speaker as being guilty 
 of blasphemy. The line separating the Divinity 
 from the humanity is vague and indistinct. In 
 almost every recorded instance it is impossible 
 to define exactly how much is to be set down to 
 the human nature, how much is to be attributed 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. IJl 
 
 to the Divine. I think we shall best arrive at 
 a correct interpretation of Scripture, and best be 
 able to appreciate the character of our Lord, by 
 attributing to the humanity all which seems to 
 belong to the humanity, and to the Divinity all 
 which seems to belong to the Divinity; without 
 being too careful to harmonize results, which, 
 inasmuch as they spring from a union to our 
 capacities unfathomable, must be necessarily 
 marvellous and mysterious. 
 
 Some have supposed that the raising of Lazarus 
 was essentially different from the other miracles 
 of Christ. Believing that other miracles were 
 wrought by Christ's indwelling Divine power, 
 they regard this as accomplished by God for 
 Him, and class it among answers to prayer. 
 But as this is the only miracle in which we are 
 told anything of the means by which Christ per- 
 formed them, it seems much more reasonable to 
 take it as a type than as an exception. It is 
 more reasonable to suppose that all the miracles 
 of our Lord were dependent upon the power given 
 to Him — were, in fact, answers to prayer, than 
 that the raising of Lazarus was a solitary instance. 
 This conclusion is strengthened, we may say 
 proved, by two considerations : the dependence 
 of the Son upon the Father, of which we have 
 
172 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 already spoken ; and the fact that as prayer and 
 thanksgiving were not isolated fragments in 
 Christ's life, He could have expressed Himself 
 in like terms in regard to any of His miracles. 
 
 We proceed to the Lord's agony of prayer in 
 Gethsemane. " O my Father, if it he possible, 
 let this cup pass from Me ! nevertheless, not as I 
 will, but as Thou wilt." Nowhere, perhaps, is the 
 manhood of Christ seen so plainly as here. Appre- 
 hension, trouble, dismay, anguish of soul, shrink- 
 ing from death, and dread at the more fearful 
 conflict with sin and hell, stir His being to its 
 depths. " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
 unto death." Every feeling, which naturally 
 Mould arise in our hearts at the contemplation of 
 a prospect so terrible, exercise their full force in 
 Him. It is the Man of Sorrows going forth in 
 all the weakness of man's nature to suffering and 
 death. It is the son of the human mother, in all 
 the abasement of the inferior nature, about to 
 drink the cup of anguish to the dregs. It is 
 Jesus " in the days of His flesh " carrying the 
 pent-up agony of His life before His Father, at 
 the moment that He is about to consummate His 
 self-surrender by His death. But the divinity is 
 only veiled, not concealed. Ever and anon it 
 flashes forth in brightness all the more intense for 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 73 
 
 the darkness which surrounds it. The calm, 
 sorrowful rebuke to the sleeping disciples, the 
 unmoved steadfastness of the divine will, the 
 falling backward of the armed multitude at His 
 word of power, the stern command to the too 
 impetuous Peter, the lofty tone in which He 
 declares that more than twelve legions of angels 
 are only waiting a nod to hasten to His rescue, 
 the healing of the stricken servant's ear — these 
 things proclaim to all who possess hearing ears, 
 that a greater than any mere child of Adam is 
 here. If the humanity is most prominent, we 
 have not to look far for manifest tokens of the 
 divine within Him. In the agony of Gethsemane, 
 as in every other incident of His mysterious life, 
 the humanity and divinity find in Him their 
 meeting-place. 
 
 Our present object, however, is with the human 
 side of this wonderful event, and to that we will 
 turn our attention. 
 
 He had risen from the sacramental table ; He 
 had pronounced those beautiful farewell discourses 
 which St. John has recorded for the everlasting 
 benefit of the Church ; He had given utterance 
 to that inimitable prayer, in which, viewing all 
 things as already accomplished, He enters pro- 
 leptically on His mediatorial and high -priestly 
 
I 74 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 office. They sing a hymn, and go to the Mount 
 of Olives. A change comes over Him. One of 
 those sudden transitions, to which the mind is 
 liable in seasons of great emotion and excitement, 
 seizes on Him. The quiet, Godlike calm which 
 He had preserved while comforting His disciples, 
 and while engaged in prayer for them, passes 
 away, and gives place to an agony of feeling. 
 The human soul gives way before the pressure of 
 that hour. He is sore amazed. 
 
 The garden of Gethsemane was a place to which 
 the Lord often resorted. He had often been 
 accustomed to cross the brook Cedron, and lead 
 His disciples into the quiet retirement of the 
 olive-trees which grew around. It had many 
 times before seen the Saviour bending in prayer, 
 or pouring out thanksgiving or adoration before 
 His Father. But it is different to-night. It is 
 now to witness His last agony of prayer. The 
 great sacrifice is to be completed. The last con- 
 flict is to be fought and won. Satan is to be 
 crushed and vanquished. The sinless Lamb of 
 God tastes death for eveiy man. He bears the 
 curse of sin. He makes atonement for His 
 people. But even the God-man staggers beneath 
 the load ; even lie can scarce sustain the burden 
 of a world's iniquity. In conquering He grows 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 75 
 
 faint. Nature can endure no longer. His sweat 
 is as great drops of blood falling to the ground. 
 
 In the midst of this anguish a little trait brings 
 home to our hearts the reality of the manhood of 
 Christ. In this hour of weakness and abasement 
 He longs for human sympathy and fellowship. 
 He would not be alone at the last trying time. 
 As stay after stay broke from Him, as the last final 
 conflict comes nigher and nigher, as the reality 
 of fearful death — doubly fearful to the Sinless 
 One — rose before His view, as sin embracing Him 
 in her shadow overwhelmed Him with unutterable 
 horror, He clings almost convulsively to the last 
 earthly support left Him. He falls back on the 
 love and faithfulness of His chosen companions. 
 Charging them to tarry in wakefulness and prayer, 
 He leaves the greater part of His disciples at a 
 little distance. But He chooses three of their 
 number to watch and pray close beside Him in 
 His temptation. As in His glorification on the 
 mount He had willed to have sharers in His 
 triumph, so now in His agony shall these same 
 three favoured followers share His humiliation 
 and support Him under it. There is something 
 exquisitely beautiful in this human craving of 
 the Saviour for companionship in His anguish ; 
 something which enables us at once to recognize 
 
I 76 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Him as one who is our brother-man; something 
 which proves to us intuitively, that, in taking upon 
 Himself our likeness and our flesh, the Eedeemer 
 assumed all the inward feelings and longings to 
 which our nature is subject. And at the same 
 time He blesses and hallows the interchange of 
 love and the reliance upon fellowship. If the 
 Son of God would not forego the solace and aid 
 of those He loved, how shall we, in our despair, 
 affect to despise the sympathy of friendship which 
 He has hallowed to us by His example ? 
 
 Lastly, His prayer was heard. He was saved 
 in that last hour of darkness. This is not only 
 to be inferred from analogy ; it is not only to be 
 deduced from the word of the Lord, that the 
 Father always heard Him ; it is distinctly asserted 
 by inspired authority. The author of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews tells us (v. 7) that in the days 
 of His flesh when He offered up prayers and 
 supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto 
 Him that was able to save Him from death, He 
 was heard on account of His religious resignation 
 (utto t>]? evXafieias). Already does glory begin to 
 illumine the darkness of that night. The angel 
 descends to strengthen Him, His enemies fall 
 backward at His word, His accusers are con- 
 founded in His presence, and, if He dies, that 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. I 77 
 
 very death is His glory and triumphant crown. 
 
 "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many 
 
 angels round about the throne, and the beasts, 
 
 and the elders ; and the number of them was ten 
 
 thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
 
 thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is 
 
 the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and 
 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, 
 
 and glory, and blessing. And every creature 
 
 which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under 
 
 the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
 
 are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honour, 
 
 and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth 
 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever 
 
 and ever." 
 
 We must not enter on the other recorded 
 
 prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of the terrible 
 
 cry to the Father for help, followed almost 
 
 synchronously by the expression of submission 
 
 to the Father's will (John xii. 27, 28), we have 
 
 already spoken when we considered our Lord's 
 
 temptations ; of the high-priestly prayer I hardly 
 
 dare to speak. Any brief comment on such a 
 
 prayer would be unsatisfactory and incomplete ; 
 
 and secondly, though like every other word of 
 
 Christ it bears the impress of the nature He had 
 
 adopted, it is rather that glorified humanity with 
 
 M 
 
178 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 which our Lord is now clothed in the kingdom 
 of His Father, than the humanity in which Jesus 
 trod our earth as the meek and lowly Son of Man. 
 Let us sum up briefly what has been said, and 
 endeavour to see the inferences which are to be 
 deduced from it. 
 
 1. The prayers of Jesus prove His dependence 
 upon the Father. The mere fact that Christ 
 offered up veritable prayer to God ; that He sought 
 from Him strength and assistance, guidance and 
 support ; that in the time of His trouble, and in 
 the agony of Llis temptation, He had recourse 
 to Him, prove that in Himself — that is, in His 
 human nature — He had neither strength nor 
 power independent of the Father. Before choos- 
 ing Llis apostles He seeks by prayer the divine 
 guidance and direction ; before working the most 
 stupendous miracle that He wrought while on 
 earth, He obtains the power by which He per- 
 formed it by prayer ; when the first presentiment 
 of horror and trouble overshadows His soul, He 
 cries out in His distress to God to save Him ; 
 and when the time of the last agony has come, 
 and He stands face to face with all the powers 
 of death and hell, He nerves Himself for the 
 conflict by supplication, and is strengthened by 
 the angel sent to succour Iliin. We see, then, 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 79 
 
 that the Lord Jesus in His human capacity does 
 not look within for strength, but raises His eyes 
 to Heaven and looks for help from thence. We 
 do not see Him asserting His own independent 
 and underived power; we do not find Him 
 claiming that equality with God which He might 
 rightfully have demanded ; we do not observe 
 Him exacting the worship due to Deity, nor 
 arrogating to Himself openly the attributes of 
 the Godhead. All that would have been incom- 
 patible with the obedience that He came to fulfil. 
 But we see Him in lowliness and humility ; we 
 behold Him in the form of a servant ; we view 
 Him meek in heart and gentle in spirit, referring 
 everything to His Father, submitting in all things 
 His own will to God, careless of His own glory 
 and estimation, showing the constant feeling of 
 resignation and dependence that ever dwelt in 
 His heart by His once outspoken word : " Even 
 so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." 
 
 2. The prayers of Jesus prove His inferiority 
 to the Father. Dependence of itself implies in- 
 feriority. The inferior is succoured and assisted 
 by the superior. The inferior prays to, and sup- 
 plicates the superior. As inherent possessor of the 
 Godhead, and as of one substance with the Father, 
 Christ is equal with Jehovah ; but in His filial 
 
I So MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 relationship as the Son, and in His Messianic 
 relationship as the Sent, the Lord Jesns Christ 
 is the inferior of the Father. Equal to the Father 
 as the only-begotten, born before creation ; in- 
 ferior to the Father as the human Son of the 
 human mother. Nor need we fear to acknow- 
 ledge this inferiority of the Son, as if it detracted 
 in any way from the glory of Christ. Those who 
 entertain such a thought can know little of the 
 glory which lies in humility, and the honour 
 which is hidden in submission. There is no 
 brighter jewel in the crown of the Lord's humanity 
 than His willingness to become lowly. The very 
 cause of His present glory in the kingdom of 
 heaven is that He was content to empty Himself 
 of His glory. Because He made Himself of no 
 reputation, and took upon Him the form of a 
 servant, and was made in the likeness and fashion 
 of men ; therefore hath God highly exalted Him, 
 and given Him a name that is above every name ; 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
 of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
 things under the earth ; and that every tongue 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
 glory of God the Father. 
 
 3. The prayers of Jesus show the perfectnoss 
 of His humanity. They are especially precious 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. l8l 
 
 to us on this account. The infinite, absolute, 
 pure, sole, essential Spirit, dwelling in the loneli- 
 ness of inaccessible light, dazzles our finite com- 
 prehension. Such a God is to us an unknown 
 God. But we are at no loss to understand a 
 praying Saviour. The very act of prayer speaks 
 to us of wants and need, of hesitation and doubt, 
 of weakness and infirmity, of conflict and struggle, 
 of sorrow and suffering, of temptation and sin ; 
 and these things need no explanation. We know 
 them, each one for himself, only too well ; and 
 we are at once disposed to give our confidence 
 to one who, since He knows them also, can feel 
 for us, as we suffer under them. The weakest, 
 the most ignorant, and the most sinful, feel that 
 they may without misgiving approach a praying 
 Saviour. They know that if He has Himself 
 felt the need of prayer, He is not likely to 
 refuse those who come unto Him by prayer. 
 The agony, of Christ, the human craving for 
 sympathy of Christ, the human tears of Christ, 
 the human supplications of Christ for help under 
 the pressure of His anguish, the human troubling 
 of the soul of Christ, have strange power to touch 
 the deepest chords in the heart of man. Time 
 takes from them nothing of their power ; distance 
 deprives them nothing of their strength. The 
 
1 82 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 scene is all as present with us, as if we ourselves 
 beheld it. The story is as fresh and heart-stirring 
 as if it occurred but yesterday. 
 
 The prayers of the Lord Jesus were doubtless 
 of service to Himself in calling down from Heaven 
 the strength which He needed. But their use- 
 fulness does not end here. From the time they 
 first were uttered, the prayers of Jesus have been 
 an estimable blessing to every man, or woman, or 
 little child, who has ever heard them ; for the 
 prayers of the suffering Saviour are, as it were, 
 an irresistible magnet to draw into union and 
 fellowship with Himself, the hearts of all who 
 in their trouble and distress have felt their own 
 need of prayer. 
 
 4. The prayers of Jesus differ from the prayers 
 of ordinary men. The prayers of Jesus were 
 always heard and answered in exact accordance 
 with their intention. As He possessed the 
 Spirit without measure, and as His will was 
 always one with the Father in the ground of the 
 divine unity, it is impossible that He could ever 
 offer a prayer which was not in strict accordance 
 with the mind of God. But as the minds of men 
 — even of the best men — are only imperfectly 
 taught by the Divine Spirit, they are continually 
 offering up prayers which arc incompatible with 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 8 
 
 o 
 
 the will of God ; and such prayers cannot be 
 granted. At least they cannot be granted accord- 
 ing to their literal intention, but only according 
 to their spirit. The prayers of Jesus are also 
 marked by another difference. In virtue of His 
 oneness with the Father, Christ could use language 
 which would be unbecoming in the mouth of man. 
 We find, accordingly, that He demands as a right, 
 rather than supplicates as a favour. This is con- 
 spicuous in the prayer at the grave of Lazarus, 
 where the supplication is altogether unuttered, 
 and takes the form of a thanksgiving for the 
 answer given ; and it is still more prominent in 
 the high-priestly prayer, where the authoritative 
 6ikw (I will) of the Mediator assumes actual 
 equality with God. 
 
 5. The prayers of Jesus uttered upon earth en- 
 able us to understand the intercessory prayers, 
 which He now offers in heaven for His people, 
 as their mediatorial High Priest. Without the 
 prayers of Jesus, or without the knowledge that 
 He uttered prayers out of His own sense of need, 
 we could not find much comfort in His inter- 
 cessions for us. That He learned to pray while on 
 earth on account of the trouble and sorrow which 
 He Himself felt, is the sure proof we possess, that 
 He can rightly pray for us according to our need. 
 
184 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 " We have not a high priest who cannot be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but 
 was in all points tempted like as we are," there- 
 fore we can " come boldly unto the throne of 
 grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace 
 to help in time of need." When any sorrowing, 
 broken-hearted child of earth comes to the 
 mediating Saviour with his tale of grief, the Lord 
 Jesus is able to look back upon His own earthly 
 life and traces out the sorrow in His own ex- 
 perience. There is no fear of His misunderstand- 
 ing the sorrow, as earthly friends are so apt to do. 
 He sees the whole heart ; He knows every bitter 
 feeling ; He counts every tear ; and, what is more, 
 He sympathises with it in all the overflowing 
 compassion of His divine human heart. Care 
 may be soothed ; anxiety may be relieved ; every 
 morbid feeling hushed to rest by being placed on 
 Him, who not in vain experienced every human 
 ill ; or if in His loving wisdom He should see 
 that the thorn in the flesh is doing His work ; 
 that it is making us more humble, more prayerful, 
 more reliant upon Him and more Christ-like, 
 and so should not intercede for its removal, He 
 will still present our "Save me from this hour," 
 before His Father's throne, and send us away 
 strengthened by His might. 
 
PRAYERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1 85 
 
 6. Lastly, the prayers of Jesus are an example 
 for us. Oh ! if He needed prayer, how much 
 more must we need prayer. If He had recourse 
 to prayer in the days of His humiliation and 
 trial, how much more cause is there for us to be 
 found instant in prayer. As sorrows pressed on 
 Him, so will they press on us ; as trouble of soul 
 overwhelmed Him, so will trouble of soul, and 
 weakness of spirit also, overwhelm us ; as tempta- 
 tion tried Him sorely, so will temptation try us 
 sorely ; as Satan fought with Him, so will Satan 
 fight with us. Christ conquered by the intense- 
 ness of His earnest prayer. Let us tread in His 
 steps. We shall find that prayer has not lost 
 its power; as it availed to "save" Him, so shall 
 it surely avail to save us. 
 
X. 
 
 THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 
 
 There is a much shorter word than that chosen 
 for the title of this essay that, perhaps, more 
 exactly describes the mental quality which it is 
 its object to discuss. This word is tact. Tact, as 
 everybody knows, is derived from a Latin word 
 signifying touch ; and it represents that instinct 
 which places one man in touch with another. It 
 differs from sympathy in so much that it does not 
 necessarily mean feeling another's pain, or even 
 bearing another's sorrow. It is a quality which 
 enables a man to do or say the right thing at the 
 right time, and, negatively, to avoid those irritating 
 blunders of which persons devoid of tact are so often 
 guilty. It tends to make the wheels of life run 
 smoothly more even than do those higher qualities 
 which are more useful in action, and which make 
 greater demands upon our admiration. Tact does 
 not mean kindness, or good feeling, or forbearance, 
 although it will rarely be largely present in those 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 87 
 
 persons who are deficient in these attributes. Tact 
 is an understanding insight, the result usually of 
 thoughtful consideration for others. 
 
 Tact is an essentially human quality. It is 
 something by which man regulates his conduct 
 towards his fellow-man. It does not belong to 
 God ; and it does not belong to the divine side 
 of our Lord's character. When our thoughts turn 
 to Him who by His almighty power ruleth and 
 upholdeth all things, the care and thoughtfulness 
 He showeth for the beings whom His hand has 
 fashioned must be expressed by other words than 
 tact. Our ideas run in a different and a higher 
 channel. The humility which veils the face, and 
 the lowliness which bow the knee in the presence 
 of the Highest and the Holiest, prevent anything 
 like a sense of touch between man and God. 
 Mercy and compassion, goodness and loving kind- 
 ness, forbearance and justice and truth, these are 
 the words we use when we represent to our minds 
 as best we may the motives which regulate the 
 conduct of the Creator towards His creatures. 
 
 But the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect man. 
 He moved among men as one among his fellows. 
 No sinless human quality could be wanting in 
 Him ; and in Him all men's best instincts were 
 present. With the profoundest reverence we may 
 
iSS MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 say without misgiving that the man Christ Jesus 
 was in perfect touch with the nature He had made 
 His own, that is to say, with man. One, whose 
 every word was prompted by goodness, and whose 
 every act was the result of unselfish desire for the 
 welfare of others, could not be wanting in that 
 thoughtfulncss which gives birth to the highest 
 tact. Consequently it is a marked character- 
 istic in the Saviour's mental disposition. The 
 difficulty is not to find instances in which the 
 Lord Jesus Christ showed tact ; the hard matter 
 would be to find actions in which tact cannot be 
 traced. 
 
 In considering the life of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 the student of Scripture cannot fail to be struck 
 with the exceeding richness and many-sidedness 
 of every event recorded. The simple fact means 
 so much. The side-lights and cross-lights are as 
 full of meaning and instruction as the front view 
 on which the direct sunlight falls. The raising of 
 a dead man may be to us a sign of power ; it may 
 be an evidence of the Godhead of the Eternal 
 Son ; it may be the wonder of a dead man recalled 
 to life ; it may be a symbol of the resurrection ; 
 it may be an act of pity for a mother's sorrow ; 
 it may be the expression of the tenderness and 
 kindness of Christ. We may regard it as it 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 89 
 
 affected the dead man himself ; we may think of 
 it as touching the dead man's relatives ; we may 
 consider the effect upon those who witnessed it ; 
 we may try and spell out the motives in the mind 
 of Christ which led to its performance ; or we may 
 endeavour to trace the impression which it pro- 
 duced upon the Lord Himself. The combinations 
 and permutations are almost endless ; and each 
 carries its own special lesson. In trying, there- 
 fore, to study out the Lord's character we have 
 continually to refer to the same incident, or to go 
 back to the same miracle, or to quote the same 
 word, in order to obtain an insight into its signi- 
 ficance as it bears upon the matter which is im- 
 mediately under our notice. 
 
 To turn to particular instances in which the 
 thoughtful consideration of Christ for the feelings 
 of others is evidenced. 
 
 What wonderful tact our Lord showed in His 
 conversation with the woman at the well in 
 Samaria ! She was a sinner. Even allowing for 
 the latitude which the Jewish law of divorce 
 authorised, it could not have been easy for one 
 woman to have had five husbands without con- 
 siderable moral blame attaching to her. But there 
 was actual and positive sin. " He whom thou 
 now hast is not thy husband." Yet our Lord has 
 
190 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 no direct word of rebuke. He had asked a favour 
 of her. In a sense He was under obligation to 
 her, if only because she had not refused His re- 
 quest. And Christ was not forgetful of the laws 
 of courtesy. So when the woman, to hide her 
 conscious shame, tries to give a turn to the con- 
 versation by touching on a controverted point of 
 theology, our Lord follows her lead. lie docs not 
 improve the occasion as some in these modern 
 times, with more ardour than discretion, would 
 have done. lie did not warn her of the punish- 
 ment sin would entail. He did not threaten her 
 with future vengeance if she remained impenitent. 
 But He let the one word He had spoken remain 
 to do its work, and he talks on calmly and quietly 
 about the difference existing between the ritual 
 of Samaria and Judea. Warnings and threats 
 would probably have produced the same results 
 which they are very apt to produce to-day. They 
 would have excited her anger, and made her in- 
 dignant, and left her callous and hardened. But 
 the tact of the Lord Jesus worked far otherwise. 
 The one word spoken made her think, and thought 
 brought conviction. lie had told her one single 
 fact ; but the impression left upon her mind was 
 so strong that He seemed to have laid her whole 
 life bare. " Come," she cries, upon her return 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 191 
 
 to the city, " come, see a man who told me all 
 things that ever I did." 
 
 The marriage scene in Cana, with its many- 
 sided teachings, has been so often referred to in 
 these essays that it may suffice to point the tact 
 with which our Lord avoided even the appearance 
 of any shame falling upon the bridegroom. The 
 servants who had been the actual agents were 
 aware of what had occurred. For that there was 
 no help. But beyond them none knew. The 
 governor of the feast supposed it to be wine which 
 the bridegroom had specially reserved to the last. 
 And although the Evangelist is silent, we may 
 well suppose that it was the gratitude of the 
 bridegroom himself which caused the miracle to 
 be known among the guests. Christ wrought the 
 miracle silently, as it were in secret, in order that 
 by His thoughtful consideration the giver of the 
 feast might be saved from the shame which even 
 an accidental neglect of the stringent laws of 
 hospitality would entail. 
 
 Perhaps in no miracle is the ready tact of Christ 
 shown more than in the raising of the daughter of 
 Jairus. He was surrounded by people when the 
 stricken father came with his pitiful prayer. 
 Naturally these people followed. Upon the way 
 occurred the episode of the healing of the woman 
 
192 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 with the issue of blood. During the halt which 
 this occasioned, tidings came that the sick girl 
 had died. Doubtlessly it appeared to Jairus that 
 our Lord delayed heartlessly, as He stood there 
 speaking words which might well seem unneces- 
 sary when every moment was precious. And 
 the delay had been fatal. The few minutes 
 occupied had been sufficient to take away all 
 hope, for in them his child had died. Jairus saw 
 afterwards, what we see in reading the story, how 
 this incident, so trying then to his patience, was 
 in reality designed to strengthen his faith, and 
 unconsciously to prepare his mind for the greater 
 blessing which was to be accorded to him. He 
 understood in the end that there was no heart- 
 lessness in Christ. But this is hardly the special 
 point to which attention should be directed in 
 connection with the subject we are considering. 
 The Lord Jesus showed His tact by checking the 
 advance of the multitude. Jairus had just heard 
 of the death of the child whom he had hoped to 
 save. Around him was a crowd, doubtless to some 
 extent sympathising with his grief, but still a 
 crowd of strangers more intent upon the wonder 
 it hoped to witness than caring for the sorrow of 
 the hapless ruler. This crowd Christ holds back 
 by a word. " He suffered no man to follow Him, 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 93 
 
 but Peter, and James, and John the brother of 
 James." Our Lord more than once showed this 
 power of staying people when their curiosity was 
 raised, or their anger excited. Probably it was by 
 a power residing in the Man, and not any super- 
 natural influence exercised by the Son of God, that 
 the Lord Jesus was able to produce this effect. 
 That, however, is not the present point. What 
 we have to notice is the tact — tact born of kind- 
 ness and good feeling and sympathy — which the 
 Lord displayed. By its exercise He saved Jairus 
 from a surrounding which in the first bitter 
 moments of his grief must have been unbearable. 
 
 In the miracle of the paralysed man, borne of 
 four, and let down into His presence through the 
 roof, our Lord showed something higher than 
 any human tact. The insight, which led Him to 
 observe in this case, and as far as we know in 
 this case only, that the sufferer was ready to see 
 that something worse than any physical evil lay 
 behind the bodily pain which he endured, be- 
 longed to the divine, rather than to the human 
 side of Christ's character. But it was the same 
 kind of mental touch which in man enables one 
 person to read the thought in another's mind, and 
 the same thoughtfulness which leads to its due 
 answering. Man may " minister to a mind dis- 
 
 N 
 
194 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 eased," and may point to the one Saviour from 
 whom all can obtain pardon ; but none other than 
 the Son of Man could have pronounced the autho- 
 ritative " thy sins be forgiven thee," and only He, 
 by healing the spiritual nature, could at the same 
 time have cured the bodily infirmity which was 
 its external expression. So again in the healing 
 of the man by the pool of Bethesda. He had lain 
 there crippled for thirty-eight years. What tact 
 the Lord showed in inspiriting hope into one in 
 whom all hope had died qut, and in infusing 
 energy into a mind in which energy had been 
 well nigh killed by despair ! He had lain there 
 so long that the very wish of being healed had 
 ceased with the hope of healing. We can imagine 
 the uprising of new desire, which must have 
 dawned in the lack-lustre eyes, as the stranger 
 suggested the possibility that the withered limbs 
 might attain new vigour. And we can follow 
 almost step by step, as, with infinite gentleness 
 and tact, the Saviour leads on the wretched man 
 from the lethargy of despair to renewed life. One 
 less wise, with less understanding, and less in- 
 sight, would, in their very anxiety, have hurried 
 on the cure. But the Lord Jesus Christ with 
 untiring patience prepares for the blessing He 
 purposes to confer, and so enhances the value of 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 95 
 
 the benefit. Here, too, as in the man with the 
 paralytic stroke, the spiritual healing is brought 
 into prominence. There is doubtless some con- 
 nection between the Lord's words which reawoke 
 the activities of his soul, and the man's presence 
 in the Temple. And it is also surely not without 
 its significance, that the full benefit of healing is 
 conferred, and a desire after the good called forth, 
 before Christ utters that word of warning so full 
 of deep and awful solemnity: "Behold thou art 
 made whole ; sin no more, lest a worse thing come 
 unto thee." 
 
 The way in which the Lord Jesus acted 
 with regard to St. Peter affords an excellent 
 illustration of Christ's sense of touch. Peter was 
 warm-hearted and faithful, but impetuous and 
 irresolute, and ever acting on the spur of the 
 moment. In consequence of this excitable tem- 
 perament he was continually doing or saying 
 something unadvised or ill-considered. On such 
 occasions Christ never met him with direct con- 
 tradiction. The Lord is walking across the water. 
 The waves are high ; the wind is tempestuous. 
 " Lord, bid me come unto Thee," says the apostle. 
 Christ asks no questions, suggests no doubts, 
 offers no warning. He simply bids him come. 
 Brought face to face with the danger, Peter's faith 
 
196 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 and courage, as on many another occasion, failed. 
 By allowing him to have his own way, and suffer- 
 ing him to take his own course, Christ read him a 
 lesson on the danger of self-confidence. It was 
 a lesson not easily learned by one of St. Peter's 
 unstable disposition. So _ it. hnrl tn hp rppp.n.tp rl . 
 And it is repeated much in the same way. Strong 
 in his undoubted affection, the Apostle, setting 
 himself before the others his companions, had de- 
 clared loudly that, though all should be offended, 
 yet would he be offended never. Christ there- 
 upon gave him a warning : " Verily I say unto 
 thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou 
 shalt deny Me thrice." Peter is louder than ever 
 in his self-confident protestations. Christ passed 
 by the words as if He heard them not. He gave 
 no further warning ; He did not point out the 
 danger of this over-confidence, but he left Peter 
 to learn for himself the sharp lesson he would not 
 J fail this time to lay to heart. So long as the ex- 
 citement lasted, St. Peter was the foremost and 
 the bravest. It is his sword that flashes from its 
 scabbard ; it is his hand that strikes the blow in 
 his Master's defence. Nay, more, when the first 
 panic was over, it was still this faithful apostle 
 alone, with the exception of St. John whom love 
 made brave, who dared to follow to the High 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 97 
 
 Priest's palace. Here he is alone. There are no 
 companions whose presence shall help to keep up 
 his courage. John has penetrated far in and is 
 out of sight. All around are faces unsympathetic 
 or hostile. His Galilean accent is derided. His 
 presence with Christ in the garden is remembered. 
 The daring which animated him in Gethsemane 
 in the face of active foes oozes away before this 
 jeering tribe of serving-men and serving- women, 
 xlnd so the word of Christ, which when spoken 
 seemed utterly impossible, was fulfilled, and ere 
 the cock crew, Peter had thrice denied his 
 Lord. Happily for all erring men the story ends 
 not here. First there was a look turned upon 
 Peter by his Master, Himself in the hands of His 
 enemies ; and in the story of the resurrection there 
 is one little verse very pregnant with meaning to 
 all those who have eyes and hearts to read between 
 the lines. On the first day of the resurrection 
 Christ appeared alone to Peter ; only now we find, 
 as so often in the life of the Son of Man, that 
 what we have called tact is changed into some- 
 thing higher. It was not tact which led the Lord 
 Jesus to manifest Himself to His erring Apostle, 
 but that deep pity which Christ ever felt for the 
 repentant sinner. The thougl it fulness of Christ 
 made Him understand how to deal with His 
 
I9S MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 rash Apostle ; but it was the love of Christ 
 which consecrated the first day of Resurrection 
 by the forgiveness of the Simon who had be- 
 lied so terribly the title of honour given to the 
 Peter. 
 
 Both the anointings are excellent illustrations 
 of the tact of the Lord Jesus. Take the pathetic 
 story which St. Luke tells. The woman was a 
 sinner, known and recognised as such. The last 
 tiling she would desire was to have attention 
 called to her, or to her penitence. The Lord 
 sits through the meal apparently unheedful. His 
 feet are bathed in tears, and touched by kisses ; 
 they are swathed gently in the long tresses of 
 luxuriant hair ; they are refreshed by the soft 
 emollient of the ointment. But He sits there 
 still and impassive. He makes no sign. At last 
 the meal is ended, and the right time has come. 
 But even then the conversation is not directed to 
 the woman. It is to His host that the word of 
 Christ is addressed : " Simon, I have somewhat 
 to say unto thee." Then followed one of those 
 allegorical questions such as the Rabbis were 
 accustomed to put before their scholars, and in 
 which the Jews took special delight. Which 
 would love most ? The debtor, whose debt in 
 his own eyes at least was small, and caused him 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 1 99 
 
 neither thought or anxiety, or the debtor, who 
 knew that his debt was such as he could never 
 pay, and which was a continual fear and burden 
 to him? The Pharisee did not at first see the 
 drift of Christ's interrogation ; but the woman 
 would understand. On her heart the words 
 would fall as balm. Her debt was great and was 
 a burden. She had sinned much ; she longed to 
 be forgiven ; did she not love more than that 
 proud man who sat there at the table scorning 
 her in his contempt ? Saving thus, according to 
 a custom He was often wont to pursue, prepared 
 her mind to receive the precious gift of pardon, 
 Christ, for the first time, turned to the woman. 
 But not yet was His word spoken to her. It is 
 still the Pharisee He addresses. This woman, 
 whom he saw there, whom in his heart he had 
 despised, was indeed a sinner. Yet what a con- 
 trast did her conduct afford to him, the man 
 who had bidden Him to his house as his guest ! 
 No water had been ready for the soiled feet ; no 
 perfumed ointment had been prepared for the 
 head ; no kiss of salutation had been offered. 
 The heart of the repentant sinner was whiter than 
 the heart of the self-satisfied Pharisee who had 
 so loftily sat in judgment over her. She loved 
 much. Therefore her sins were forgiven. At 
 
200 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 last He speaks to the penitent herself: "Thy 
 faith hath saved thee, go in peace." 
 
 The anointing by Mary at Bethany gave rise to 
 a scene very similar. Only this time it was 
 Christ's own disciples who were at fault. John 
 is careful to point out that it was Judas, the thief, 
 whose baneful influence carried away the others. 
 The moment must have been a very painful one. 
 Mary had come in her loving gratitude to render 
 an act of homage to Him whom she revered as 
 her great Master, and to offer her thanksgiving 
 to the great Restorer who had given her brother 
 back from the grave. There is even in her mind 
 an unconscious echo of words she has heard 
 uttered of some terrible doom which threatened 
 Him, and this gives a consecration that she feels 
 dimly to her action. It was such a pure act of 
 love. And the very disciples, those who must 
 know Him best, and can best understand His 
 thoughts, misunderstand her offering. They call 
 her deed a foolish waste, and hint at its being a 
 very robbery of the poor. Christ, reading all the 
 feelings of her heart, and sympathising in her 
 disappointment, comes to her relief. As in the 
 former instance He does not address Himself to 
 her directly. Indeed from first to last He uttered 
 no word to Mary. All was said to the disciples. 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 201 
 
 They are rebuked for their uncharitable surmises. 
 Love to His person is put before any fancied 
 benefits to the poor. While praise and thanks, 
 such as we find nowhere else, is given to the 
 woman whose loving act has thus proved her 
 devotion, no word of direct praise or thanks is 
 spoken to her. The attention was directed en- 
 tirely to the disciples whose lack of appreciation 
 he blamed, or to Himself to whom honour had 
 been rendered : " Why trouble ye the woman ? 
 for she hath wrought a good work upon Me ; for 
 ye have the poor always with you ; but Me ye 
 have not always ; for in that she poured this 
 ointment upon My body, she did it to prepare Me 
 for burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever 
 this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, 
 that also which this woman hath done, shall be 
 spoken of for a memorial of her." A little trait 
 shows how strong was the influence which these 
 words of the Master produced. St John, an old 
 man living at Ephesus, was writing his gospel. 
 He is describing the scene of the anointing at 
 Bethany. His sympathies had not been with the 
 traitor whom he stigmatises as the thief, nor with 
 those who had been influenced by his plausible 
 words. A recollection flashes across his mind. 
 It is but a little thing ; but it emphasises the 
 
202 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 impression which the incident had printed on his 
 memory. In the spirit of His Master's word he 
 stays for a moment his narrative to record his 
 remembrance that " the house was filled with 
 the odour of the ointment." 
 
 It is not foreign to the spirit of this essay to 
 notice the skill, which may almost be called tact, 
 with which the Lord Jesus Christ foiled the designs 
 of His adversaries during the last days of His 
 sojourn in Jerusalem. Their purpose was fixed. 
 Christ seemed to them so dangerous that nothing 
 would content them but His death. No doubt 
 there was envy and malice in their hearts, but 
 there was also fear. The people were excitable ; 
 violence might take place at any moment ; an 
 insurrection, the only result of which would be 
 new oppression on the part of the Eomans, and 
 new degradation for the Jewish nation, might 
 occur any day. It was better that one man, 
 rather than the whole nation, should perish. But 
 there was danger for themselves. They feared the 
 people. The event indeed proved that these rulers 
 and scribes had exaggerated the attachment of the 
 crowd to Christ. For the moment, however, they 
 did not know how little real hold the Lord had on 
 this fickle multitude, who, welcoming Him with 
 Hosannas one day, were ready to shout " crucify 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 203 
 
 Him " the day after. So they feared the people. 
 Hence they greatly desired to humiliate Him be- 
 fore the people. To this end three subtle questions 
 were framed. The question as to His authority ; 
 the question concerning the resurrection ; the 
 question about tribute. In His answers He must, 
 so it seemed to them, run counter to the prejudices 
 of the people ; or alienate powerful sects ; or, what 
 perhaps would be best of all, give occasion for an 
 accusation before the governor of treason against 
 the majesty of Rome. The skill with which the 
 Lord Jesus foiled their designs is wonderful. Not 
 only did He give them no handle for an accusation 
 either before the popular conscience, or the Roman 
 judgment seat; not only did He silence these 
 adversaries so effectually that they dared not put 
 another question ; not only did He give them no 
 handle against Himself; but each answer con- 
 tained in itself a deep truth exactly suited to 
 awaken repentance, contrition, and amendment 
 in the hearts of these men, had repentance and 
 amendment been possible to them. lie foiled 
 them the first time by an appeal to John the 
 Baptist. He was dead ; he had probably been 
 dead some considerable time ; but the people had 
 not forgotten him and venerated his memory 7 . 
 These priests did not dare to disclaim his divine 
 
20J r MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 authority for fear of being stoned. And the word of 
 Christ had awakened another fear in them, faint 
 and slight and to be too easily extinguished, a fear 
 in their own conscience, that, after all, the baptism 
 of John might have been from heaven and of God, 
 and his denunciation of themselves a prophetic 
 judgment. It is easy to see that the question 
 concerning marriage in a future state of existence 
 might have afforded a means of insinuating to an 
 unthinking populace that the Lord Jesus Christ 
 held low views on the subject of morality. Such 
 an idea would, it is true, have been utterly contrary 
 and opposed to every word which Christ had ever 
 uttered ; but that would not have been of much 
 consequence with an unreasoning and excitable 
 multitude. The answer of Christ is remarkable, 
 not only because it defeats His questioners' object, 
 but because it is an absolute revelation. He 
 affirms it to be an error to suppose that the forms 
 and relationships of the present sensible life, in 
 their physical connection, would be transferred 
 to the future spiritual state. He then proceeds, 
 as in the former case, to teach the Sadducees a 
 lesson. Quoting from Exodus, a book whose 
 authority they acknowledged, He shows that God 
 could not be styled the God of Abraham, and 
 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, if those 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 205 
 
 patriarchs had perished, for "He is not the God 
 of the dead, but of the living." Well may the 
 Evangelist add that " when the multitude heard it, 
 they were astonished at His teaching." But the 
 question concerning tribute was the most captious 
 of all. We know how the Jews hated the Eoman 
 tax-gatherers. They were a constant reminder of 
 their country's degradation, and they affected them 
 in their material interests. Thus the two most 
 potent factors in the Jewish mind were enlisted 
 against them — their patriotism, which was but 
 another name for their religious fervour, and their 
 love of money. No wonder that they classed the 
 publicans with sinners and harlots in their detes- 
 tation. Of this feeling the Pharisees, leagued 
 with the Herodians, took advantage. Introducing 
 their question with a sneering compliment about 
 Christ's honesty of purpose, they inquired whether 
 it was lawful to give tribute to Csesar. He must 
 be pierced, they felt sure, by one of the horns of 
 this dilemma ! To say " yes " meant ruin with the 
 populace ; to say " no " meant death as a traitor to 
 the Roman authority. Our Lord did not answer 
 the question ; He made His enemies answer it 
 themselves. " Show me the tribute money ! " A 
 Roman denarius was produced. " Whose image 
 and superscription hath it ? " We can almost 
 
206 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 hear the pause which followed. What were they 
 to answer ? The coin was there, before their very 
 faces, in full view of all who cared to see it. 
 What were they to answer? Their own Rabbis 
 had declared, " wherever any king's money is 
 current there that king is lord." The currency of 
 the denarius implied an acknowledgment of the 
 dependence of Judea upon the Roman Empire, 
 and involved all the obligations that flowed 
 from such dependence. No evasion was possible. 
 "Whose image and superscription hath it?" 
 They answered, " Caesar's." Then the Lord once 
 again reminded them of their moral obligation : 
 " Render therefore unto Caesar the things that 
 are Caesar's ; and unto God the things that are 
 God's." They can only leave Him, marvelling. 
 
 Great tact — none the less because it was dis- 
 played in a different manner — was shown by Christ 
 when He stood before Pilate. The Evangelists 
 pourtray the character of Pilate in pretty clear 
 outlines. A weak man, deficient in moral fibre, 
 not daring to act for himself, but shifting hither 
 and thither as varying opinions swayed him. 
 Above all a coward, and, as cowards almost are, 
 a cruel man. Our Lord's answers instinctivelv 
 adapted themselves to this character. At first 
 there was silence before the unjust judge, who, 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 207 
 
 caring little about the guilt or innocence of the 
 prisoner, sought only to gain the suffrages of those 
 who might do him an injury at Eome. But as 
 Christ watched the internal struggle between 
 an impulse to do right and a desire to avoid 
 offending the chief priests, a pity, which in One 
 who had been only human would have been 
 contempt, overshadowed the mind of the Lord 
 Jesus. So in answer to the question : " Speakest 
 thou not unto me ? knowest thou not that I have 
 power to crucify thee, and power to release thee? " 
 Christ spoke a word pregnant with a truth that 
 Pilate had little heeded, and yet a word which 
 would influence the governor strongly in his 
 Captive's favour, and did in fact influence him to 
 make an effort, such as it was, to obtain His 
 release : " Thou couldest have no power at all 
 against Me except it were given thee from above." 
 Pilate, like most of the higher classes of the time, 
 had no religion. Religion was a convenient 
 weakness which influenced the common herd, and 
 made them more amenable to government. But 
 absence of religion by no means argues absence 
 of superstition. One fear was rarely absence from 
 the mind of a heathen — the fear of Nemesis. And 
 so, as he listened to the word of the Captive 
 standing impotent before him, there would arise 
 
2o8 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 in the judge's mind a presentiment of fate. The 
 deed he was about to do might be made to recoil 
 on his own head. And while, as is evident from 
 the narrative, some such thought was passing 
 through the mind of Pilate, the Lord added another 
 word which would bias him still more in his 
 prisoner's favour: "Therefore he who hath de- 
 livered Me unto thee hath the greater sin." The 
 word spoken in reply to Pilate's second question 
 concerning the nature of His kingdom was as full 
 of significance as the former answer. What was 
 the truth to Pilate but an expression over which 
 men who called themselves philosophers might 
 wrangle ; and what an enthusiast must this peasant 
 from Galilee be, who, at such a moment, could 
 speak of truth, and be content to die for it. What 
 pity to crucify a man, full of noble thoughts, 
 whose only fault was that by his foolish preaching 
 He had aroused the malice and envy of priests 
 and scribes, and rabbis, and pharisees, all of whom 
 Pilate hated with a hatred born of fear. And, to 
 look at the matter from a higher point of view, 
 may we not think that these two words — the one 
 reminding him that a higher power than that of 
 the redoubtable Tiberias ruled over the world of 
 men, the other making him perceive that there 
 did exist somewhere in the universe truth for 
 
THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF CHRIST. 200. 
 
 which men could die — may we not with good 
 reason think that these two words may have often 
 crowded back upon Pilate's recollection, when the 
 irony of events had proved to him that wrong- 
 doing could not save him, and he sat in lonely 
 exile by the blue waters of Helvetia's most lovely 
 lake whose beauty, far from Rome and Rome's 
 ambitions, had for him no charm ? 
 
 The form in which the Evangelists present to 
 us the Son of God is that of the Man Christ 
 Jesus. He whom imagination pictures to the 
 mind's gaze as we read is a Man. He -wanders 
 through the towns of Galilee, or passes through 
 Samaria with His disciples, in outward form 
 scarcely distinguishable from them. He preaches 
 in Jerusalem, and the voice is human, and the 
 accents such as we are familiar with. Children 
 run fearlessly to meet Him, and nestle confidingly 
 in His arms. He is faint with hunger ; His 
 throat is parched with thirst ; He is wearied 
 with fatigue ; or, exhausted and worn out, He 
 sleeps. His manner, His conversation, His speech, 
 His gestures, are all those of man. Yet who can 
 read any incident recorded in that wonderful life, 
 I had almost said who can listen to any word 
 uttered by His lips, without recognising that the 
 
 history is not that of one of the sons of men. 
 
 o 
 
2IO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Through every action the glory of the divine 
 majesty flashes. He passes by, and lo ! a blind 
 man sees ; He puts forth his hand, and lo ! a sick 
 man is healed ; He touches the leper, and the 
 touch has made him clean ; He wakes from sleep, 
 and the sea becomes calm in his presence ; He 
 meets a funeral procession, and pausing for a 
 moment speaks a word, and lo ! the dead revive. 
 Truly might St. Mark call his Evangel the Gospel 
 of the Son of God. The scenes on which our 
 thoughts have been fixed in this essay have been 
 considered especially as they had to do with 
 Christ's human nature ; the sayings we have been 
 pondering are for the most part such as a man, 
 very good and very wise, very kindly and with 
 large insight, might perhaps have spoken ; but 
 the words written must have been poor and weak 
 indeed, if, beyond the human picture, they have 
 not brought conviction to the reader's heart, that 
 He who thus spoke and acted was in very truth, 
 " God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very 
 God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the 
 Father." 
 
XI. 
 
 THE MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST'S 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 There is one quality which men are apt to lose 
 sight of in summing up the mental characteristics 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pity and tender- 
 ness of Christ's disposition are the most attractive 
 parts of His nature ; they appeal most to our 
 sympathies ; they call forth the quickest response 
 to our own feelings ; and thus there is a tendency 
 to dwell on these to the exclusion of the sterner 
 qualities of the Saviour. When we follow with 
 the crowd in the wake of Jairus, whose little 
 daughter Christ is about to restore to life ; or 
 when, mingling our tears with the tears of Jesus, 
 we walk up the slopes of Bethany to the sepulchre 
 of Lazarus ; or when we stand and watch the 
 funeral procession arrested by the words of pity 
 uttered to the widowed mother who has lost her 
 son, — all the best emotions of heart and imagina- 
 
212 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 tion are stirred to their depths, and the scenes are 
 impressed upon our memory with a sharp defmite- 
 ness of outline which no time can weaken. Or 
 to turn to the life of the Saviour Himself, and 
 those events which affected Him personally. It 
 is the pathetic incidents, and those marked by 
 suffering or sorrow, which we most easily call to 
 mind and most quickly remember. His hunger 
 after long fasting in the wilderness, His thirst 
 after the hot journey to the well of Sychar, His 
 despair in the synagogue of Capernaum, the dis- 
 appointment and rejection which led Him to 
 teach in parables, the trouble of His soul at 
 Jerusalem as the coming doom rose on His mental 
 vision, the pathos of the Last Supper in the upper 
 chamber, the agony of Gethsemane, the death- 
 struggle at Golgotha — these are the things we 
 think of when we would picture to ourselves the 
 life of the Son of Man. 
 
 There is another side to this picture, if we care 
 to see and recognise it. The strength of Christ 
 is as conspicuous as any other quality in His 
 character. A writer once attempted to show that 
 Christ belonged to the type of humanity which is 
 represented by St. John, rather than to that of 
 which Elijah may be taken as the exponent. It 
 was entirely a mistake. Men may, perhaps, be 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 213 
 
 roughly divided into two classes, one of which is 
 characterised by strength, daring, and possibly a 
 touch of brutality; the other of which is ruled 
 rather by tenderness, gentleness, and thoughtful- 
 ness for others. The men who have done the 
 work of the world, which is usually very rough 
 work — the Csesars, the Charlemagnes, the St. 
 Pauls, the Luthers, the Napoleons — belong to the 
 first class ; the men who have taught the world to 
 think, who have shown it the virtues of endurance 
 and made it see the beauty of self-sacrifice — the 
 St. Johns, the St. Francis d'Assisis, the Melanc- 
 thons — represent the last. Possibly every one 
 inclines to the one or the other of these types. 
 But Christ, the perfect Man, the representative 
 Man, belongs to no type, because He belongs to 
 all, and unites in His own person every type. 
 The Orphic hymn describes Jupiter — the Supreme 
 God — as of no sex, but as enfolding in his person- 
 ality both sexes, by which the poet intended to 
 represent that the perfect man possessed all 
 qualities, feminine and masculine alike. So 
 Christ belonged to no type of man, but contained 
 within Himself everything that was typical in 
 man, possessing fully and completely all the 
 strong and manly characteristics of the human 
 race by which the world is made to serve, as well 
 
2T4 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 as the softer and more loveable qualities which 
 appeal to our affections. 
 
 The moral strength of Christ is shown pre- 
 eminently in the ascendency He acquired over 
 His disciples. He was their Master, wielding 
 over them undisputed authority. We take this 
 for granted, and look on it as a matter of course. 
 It occasions no surprise in us ; we do not discover 
 in it any special mark of character. Christ is to 
 us the Eternal Son, the Co-equal with the Father, 
 very God of very God, and, therefore, His authority 
 cannot be questioned or disputed. But this truth, 
 so clear and indisputable to us, was not self- 
 evident to the disciples. At first Christ Mas to 
 them but a teacher, not differing very much from 
 any other Rabbi ; only by the slowest degrees 
 would the fact of His Divine nature dawn upon 
 their minds. Even if they were ready to acknow- 
 ledge Him as Messiah, the Messiah was not, 
 according to Jewish ideas, the co-equal with the 
 Eternal God. The confession of Peter, noble as 
 it was, did not imply to the apostles all that it 
 implies to us, who possess the after-teaching which 
 Peter had not then acquired. They saw the 
 miracles ; the miracles confirmed their faith, and 
 they believed on Him ; but the miracles did not 
 carry to the mind of a Jew the same weight, or 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER. 2 1 j 
 
 even the same kind, of evidence, which, if we 
 believe in their real occurrence, they bring to our 
 intelligence. Miracles were wonders which might 
 happen any day, and might be expected at any 
 time ; they were not the tremendous signs they 
 must be to those who understand the permanency 
 of the fixed laws of nature. The ascendency of 
 Christ over His apostles was a moral ascendency. 
 He gained it by strength of character, and He 
 retained it by the same influence. The power of 
 the ascendency may be measured by its complete- 
 ness. Here were twelve men, differing in tempera- 
 ment, in disposition, in character ; with varying 
 hopes and diverse aspirations, — impulsive, lethargic, 
 passionate, or sullen, — animated, indeed, by an 
 ambition ruling alike in all, but nearly in each 
 taking a somewhat different form ; and these men 
 all bent, with scarcely a dissenting murmur, to 
 one will. Murmurs were heard now and then, 
 but they were instantly suppressed. Sometimes 
 by an appeal to the apostles' feelings. They 
 hesitated to follow to the unknown but certain 
 dangers of Jerusalem. Christ tells them that 
 His presence is needed there ; the opposition fades 
 away in resignation: "Let us also go, that we 
 may die with Him." Sometimes by a sharp 
 rebuke. Led on by Judas, the dishonest bearer 
 
rjl6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the common purse, they murmured at the waste 
 of the ointment with which the Lord is anointed. 
 " Let her alone ; why trouble ye her ? she hath 
 done a good work on Me." Silence at once fell 
 upon the fault-finders. The ascendency was not 
 a matter of course. There were plenty of persons 
 who did not yield to it. The sight of miracles 
 did not produce it. Those who had actually 
 eaten of the bread miraculously provided to save 
 them from the faintness of hunger rejected Him 
 the next day. The Jews who had seen the man 
 born blind restored to sight were ready to stone 
 Him immediately afterwards. The Scribes attri- 
 buted the miracles He wrought to a league with 
 the Evil One. It was not any external act which 
 gained for Christ the power He exercised over His 
 apostles ; it was entirely moral strength — force 
 and determination of will. They yielded them- 
 selves in subordination to a will-power stronger 
 than their own. It was the same kind of power 
 as that which made his associates give way before 
 St. Paul, and induced the tenth legion to follow 
 Coesar, and gave Napoleon ascendency over the 
 Directory, and unbounded influence over his Old 
 Guard. We recognise it instantly in the men who 
 have left their mark upon the world's history ; but 
 we do not recognise it so immediately in the case 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 21 7 
 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Him it was 
 joined with other and opposite qualities, which 
 Charlemagne, and Luther, and their compeers did 
 not, and indeed could not, possess. 
 
 There are many incidents in the life of Christ 
 which show that the manliness of Christ's charac- 
 ter (if such a word may be applied to the Lord 
 Jesus) was not neutralised or weakened by the 
 softer and opposite qualities of pity, or humility, 
 or self-forgetfulness. 
 
 Perhaps nothing marks so strikingly the strength 
 of Christ's character as His calmness in sudden 
 emergencies. It is not very difficult to encounter 
 with undisturbed resolution events for which we 
 are prepared ; but nature asserts herself, and the 
 1 real character is evidenced when we are suddenly, 
 without warning, brought face to face with some 
 unexpected danger or catastrophe. Such an event 
 in the life of Christ was His awakening on the 
 night of the storm. Wearied with long speaking, 
 and with all the confusion attendant upon the 
 crowding together of many persons, He had sought 
 quiet and surcease in the boat of Peter. The 
 evening was calm, and the throbbing water of the 
 lake lapping idly against the boat had soothed the 
 Saviour's tired nerves, and lulled Him into peace- 
 ful slumber. And then the scene had changed. 
 
2 iS MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 A storm had suddenly arisen, and the disciples, 
 fearing for their lives, had awoke Him with the 
 cry, — "Master, save us; we perish." What an 
 awakening! yet the Christ is serene and tranquil 
 as if all around Him had been still as when He 
 started. In the quiet consciousness of power He 
 arises, rebukes the wind, bids the waves be still, 
 and there is calm. 
 
 As the fierce warring of the elements could not 
 disturb the equanimity of Christ, so, somewhat 
 similarly, the moral strength of the Lord Jesus is 
 shown in the dauntlessness with which he could 
 face and subdue angry crowds of men. We are 
 impressed chiefly with the beauty of Christ's teach- 
 ing, with its serene gentleness, with the attractive 
 form in which He knew how to clothe His precepts, 
 with the winning words by which He sought to 
 gain the hearts and affections of men. But all 
 our Lord's teaching was not of this gentle charac- 
 ter. When the occasion called for it He could 
 speak words of anger. He could rebuke vice with 
 sternness ; He could unmask hypocrisy with sharp- 
 ness ; He could put self-seeking to shame ; He 
 could expose formalism with scornful contempt '> 
 He could strip off the disguise from pretended 
 sanctity, which hid itself beneath a garb of piety, 
 with relentless severity. His outspoken words 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 2 1 9 
 
 gave offence. Now it would be an angry mob, 
 which, mad with preaching which had wounded 
 its pride, sought to dash Him headlong down 
 from the steep rocks on which the city stood, as 
 at Nazareth ; or it would be disappointed zealots, 
 whose carnal enthusiasm He had checked by plac- 
 ing before them the spiritual nature of Messiah's 
 kingdom, who would reject Him with jeers and 
 disdainful contempt, as at Capernaum ; or the 
 Jews of the Capitol, failing to grasp ideas which 
 ran counter to their prejudices, would take up the 
 stones, massed together for the building of the 
 temple, in order to do to the death one whom 
 they reviled as a blasphemer ; or it would be the 
 Scribes, or Pharisees, or Heroclians, coming with 
 honeyed words of insidious flattery, and putting to 
 Him carefully-framed questions, by which they 
 hoped to be able to deliver Him to the Governor 
 as a traitor to the imperialism of Rome. But 
 whatever the occasion might be, the calm strength 
 of Christ never gave way. His presence of mind 
 never failed Him. Unruffled and unmoved, in the 
 security of mental power, He passes quietly through 
 the surging masses, or withdraws Himself from 
 the angry reproaches of the populace, or, eluding 
 them, hides from His enemies, or, with matchless 
 dexterity, turns the tables upon His adversaries 
 
2 20 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 by skilful counter-question. We read these things 
 in the Gospels, but we hardly realise the gravity 
 of the situation. It does not strike us, that on 
 each of these occasions the Lord Jesus was in 
 danger of His life ; and that He was saved, not by 
 any forbearance on the part of the people, but by 
 His own intrepidity, and by His own commanding 
 power, which subdued and overawed His foes. 
 As Elijah by his indomitable will triumphed over 
 all the royal power of Ahab, so the Lord Jesus, 
 by the strength of His moral nature, could pass 
 scatheless and unhurt amid rampant crowds ready 
 for any deed of blood. 
 
 There is one peculiarity about the courage of 
 Christ — it was never aggressive. Peter, with the 
 impulsive bravery common to every Galilean 
 peasant, was ready at any moment to draw his 
 sword, to strike first, and think afterwards. Paul 
 would have made a skilful, watchful general, and 
 yet would have been ready, had the occasion 
 required it, to have shown a courage amounting 
 to rashness, as did Napoleon at Areola, or Ney at 
 Waterloo. But the courage of Christ was not 
 like this. It was not aggressive. It is impossible 
 even to conceive of Christ as attacking. It was 
 never impetuous, as was that of Peter; it could 
 not have been calculatingly rash, as that of Paul 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER. 22 1 
 
 might have been. St. Peter possessed the courage 
 of a trooper ; St. Paul that of a general ; Christ 
 that of a martyr. Yet it was masculine quite as 
 much as (in the old Greek sense) feminine. If 
 the circumstance in which He was placed required 
 it, He could endure with brave patience ; again, 
 if need were, the passive courage could become 
 active. Of set purpose He could denounce in 
 scathing terms the wrong-doer. But the strength 
 of the Lord Jesus was always under restraint, 
 He was never carried away by the impetuosity of 
 feeling. We read in the Gospel of one striking 
 instance of this power of self-control. There had 
 come a time for speaking ; and, in words such as 
 rarely fell upon the ears of the cultivated and 
 polite people by whom He was surrounded, Christ 
 had pronounced woe after woe on their hypocrisy, 
 venality, formalism, and self-satisfaction. Their 
 anger was aroused ; and partly from temper, partly 
 in order to ensnare, they began to urge Him 
 vehemently to say many things, and to speak 
 unadvisedly. Then Christ is silent. He had 
 pronounced His condemnation ; it was not for 
 Him to answer railing by counter-accusations. 
 
 The Gospel of St. John furnishes an illustration 
 of the restrained courage of Christ. The story of 
 the woman taken in adultery is undoubtedly a 
 
22 2 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OP CHRIST. 
 
 true incident in the life of our Lord. It was not 
 written by St. John, and does not form an authen- 
 tic part of the Fourth Gospel. We know from St. 
 Luke that there were many accounts of the doings 
 and sayings of Christ current in the early Church. 
 These were good as far as they went, and in their 
 time served a useful purpose. They were super- 
 seded, because they were replaced by others of 
 apostolic, or quasi-apostolic, authority. In these 
 early narratives there was doubtless many a story, 
 many a miracle, many a saying of the Lord re- 
 corded, which has been lost to us. Doubtless, 
 too, in the early Church there was many an un- 
 written tradition handed down from one to the 
 other, which had been told by those who had been 
 eye and ear-witnesses of Christ's life upon earth. 
 St. Paul has preserved one such traditionary say- 
 ing in his speech to the elders of the Church of 
 Ephesus. So, as I understand it, the story of 
 what had happened in Jerusalem at the Feast of 
 Tabernacles had been preserved, and some one 
 remembering the incident, and appreciating its 
 pathetic beauty, wrote it in the margin of his 
 copy of St. John's Gospel, in the place where it 
 seemed to fit in with the context. From the 
 margin it would easily, in succeeding copies, 
 creep into the text. The incident itself is en- 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 223 
 
 tirely in accordance with our Lord's teaching, 
 and with the general character of His actions ; 
 and — a thing important to remember — it is not a 
 story which the first or subsequent ages of Chris- 
 tianity would have been the least likely to invent. 
 Men have been quick to notice the subtle hostility 
 of the accusers, and the shame which followed 
 their discomfiture ; they have remarked on the 
 tact with which the Lord avoided giving a decision 
 which must in any case have been fatal to His 
 work ; and they have dwelt much on the gentle- 
 ness of Christ towards the sinful woman, and the 
 grace with which He at once pardons her sin, and 
 saves her from the power of her sinfulness. But 
 I think they have overlooked the courage. It 
 needed great moral courage to face in the way 
 that Christ did the hostile band who were attack- 
 ing Him in so covert a manner. Let any one 
 imagine for himself the moral strength it must 
 have required to keep silence in the face of the 
 jeers, and taunts, and inuendoes, which we may 
 be sure were flung at Him with an ever-increasing 
 violence, as His adversaries began to despair of 
 attaining their purpose. Nor must it be forgotten, 
 that, although the terrible conviction of their own 
 sinfulness might have had a salutary effect upon 
 one or two, yet, when the first thought of awestruck 
 
224 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 shame passed away, the feeling in the hearts of 
 the greater number would be a most malignant 
 hatred. Could any vengeance be too great for 
 Him who had thus openly put them — the revered 
 and honoured — to shame in the presence of the 
 populace? Christ must have been fully aware 
 that these men, who were already seeking His 
 life, would never forgive Him their defeat. He 
 must have known, that, in stooping down and 
 keeping silence, He was forging the nails which 
 should fasten Him to the Cross. Yet He did not 
 flinch. The mode of procedure He had chosen 
 was the right one, and therefore, with courageous 
 heart, Christ pursued it. 
 
 So again with another incident in the life of 
 Christ. The exquisite pathos of the story of the 
 raising of Lazarus blinds our perception to every- 
 thing in the narrative not immediately connected 
 with the sorrow of the sisters, or Christ's deep 
 affection for his friends. Its very beauty prevents 
 our giving due heed to the smaller details, which 
 nevertheless have so much to teach us. We 
 hardly perceive the danger which Christ ran in 
 venturing so close to Jerusalem, nor do we appre- 
 hend the courage of the deed He did. St. John. 
 to whom small details are never unimportant, is 
 careful to tell us that Christ had withdrawn to 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 
 
 --0 
 
 Persea, because the Jews sought His life. The 
 astonishment of the disciples, when they heard of 
 the proposition to return to Judaea, is an emphatic 
 confirmation of the reality of the peril. And the 
 gloomy speech, in which St. Thomas summed up 
 the general resolution to follow their Master, and 
 if necessary to die with Him, gives a vivid idea of 
 the apprehension the faithful band entertained. 
 Yet Christ does not hesitate for a moment. Duty 
 called Him to Bethany, and so to Bethany He 
 went. Under somewhat similar conditions Luther 
 went to Worms. All the world recognises 
 Luther's courage and resolution. But the tears 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He ascends the slope 
 which led to Bethany, so engross our imagination 
 and fill our hearts, that we have no mental capa- 
 city left to see, that, under this quiet act of love 
 for those dear to Him, there lies concealed a 
 courage and moral strength which may well call 
 forth our highest admiration. 
 
 Although the courage of Christ was never 
 aggressive, it was not merely passive. The cir- 
 cumstances which Mould call it into active opera- 
 tion were rare. His mission was not to strive, 
 or cry, or lift up His voice, and His object on all 
 occasions was to efface Himself in His mission. 
 
 Christ sought to win men, not so much by oppos- 
 
 r 
 
2 26 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 ing the evil as by holding up the good. Ever and 
 again, when brought into contact with it, Christ 
 showed that for Him evil and sin was the accursed 
 thing with which no parley must be held, and 
 which must not be condoned. But these occasions 
 were the exceptions. We find, therefore, only 
 an instance here and there in the life of Christ 
 in which His courage took an active form. A 
 Pharisee might be held up to shame ; a sancti- 
 monious ruler of the synagogue might be publicly 
 rebuked for his hypocrisy ; but the active courage 
 of Christ showed itself principally in His willing- 
 ness to meet death. It was not merely a willing- 
 ness to die, if die He must, but a willingness to 
 meet death. When Christ heard that Herod 
 sought His life He abode calmly for three days 
 still in Galilee. That was passive courage. But 
 when the time appointed by the Father had come, 
 Christ, of His own deliberate choice, went forth 
 to face His doom. " He steadfastly set His face 
 to go to Jerusalem." This was active courage. 
 He was in no danger. He was safe in Galilee or 
 Persea. If He had chosen to have avoided the 
 capital, and to have remained in seclusion, no one 
 would have interfered with Him. Even had the 
 very worst happened, Syria, or Egypt, or Asia 
 Minor, would have offered a perfectly safe retreat. 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 227 
 
 And Christ knew the danger. He knew it by 
 His Divine knowledge. Supernatural conscious- 
 ness was not indeed needed. There was plenty 
 of indications, clear to the simplest comprehension, 
 that the peril was no idle fear. Christ Himself 
 had given evidence that He was well aware how 
 real the danger was by His withdrawal from 
 Judaea. The disciples, too, were well acquainted 
 with the risk which they, as well as their Master, 
 incurred. When the resolution was taken, and 
 their steps bent in the direction of Judaea, " they 
 followed " their Leader " trembling." And, as if 
 to accentuate the determination, Christ enters 
 Jerusalem publicly with pomp, surrounded by 
 the multitude, with shoutings of hosannahs, with 
 acclamations rending the air. The hour had 
 come ; so Christ threw down the gauntlet, and 
 challenged His foes to the final strife, even though 
 He knew that, judged as man judges, the result 
 could have but one ending — His own ruin and 
 destruction. 
 
 Almost the last act of Christ's earthly life was 
 an act of courage. " Having loved His own, . . . 
 H^e loved them unto the end." Perhaps it was 
 at the cost of His own life that the Lord Jesus 
 saved His apostles. The site of Gethsemane is 
 unknown. We only know that it was one of the 
 
2 28 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 many gardens which were to be found in the 
 vicinity of Jerusalem. We cannot, therefore, 
 judge accurately of the chances which it offered 
 for escape. But we can hardly doubt that those 
 chances were considerable. The night was in all 
 probability moonlight ; but from the configura- 
 tion of the ground, there must have been many 
 a spot in shadow, and capable of concealment. 
 As the approaching band was one of consider- 
 able numbers, and carried torches, those in the 
 garden would not be quite taken by surprise. It 
 is impossible to think that there were not some 
 chances, of which, had He so desired, Christ might 
 have availed Himself. But He did not do so. 
 Many reasons may have united together which in- 
 fluenced Him to allow Himself to be apprehended. 
 The hour towards which all through His life He 
 had been looking had come ; the cup which the 
 Father had given Him to drink was presented for 
 His acceptance. But, while we recognise these 
 motives, we must not overlook the plain narrative 
 of St. John. Christ's first thought was for His 
 disciples. Willing to give Himself up, lie did not 
 wish them to be involved in His arrest. So, very 
 possibly passing to them a word to fly, He boldly 
 fronts those who were approaching to take Him, 
 and inquires what their object was, and whose 
 
MORAL STRENGTH OF CHRIST S CHARACTER. 2 29 
 
 person they "were desirous of securing ? I do not 
 think it is putting any strain upon the narrative 
 to find in the questioning, and in the falling to 
 the ground, an endeavour on the part of Christ 
 to gain time, so that the disciples might have 
 greater facility for escape. Upon the disciples 
 themselves a kind of panic seems to have fallen, 
 causing them to lose their self-possession, and 
 leaving them helpless. Christ comes once more 
 to their aid : "If therefore ye seek Me, let these 
 go their way." And when the rash act of one 
 apostle was likely to involve all in one common 
 ruin, He condones the offence. He caused the 
 deed of Peter to be passed over by stepping 
 forward and healing the high priest's servant. 
 Here, again, in the story of Gethsemane we are 
 apt to lose sight of the lesser in the greater. The 
 tragedy we witness is so tremendous, that we can 
 but pass by the smaller details. The act of Christ 
 is one not unmatched in human history. Others 
 besides the Son of Man have had the grace and 
 courage to act nobly, and to save their comrade 
 by their own self-denying devotion. But although 
 the deed is not without parallel in the annals of 
 history, the manner in which Christ shielded His 
 apostles, and preserved them from being led away 
 captive with Himself on that fatal night, brings 
 
23O MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 out in bold relief the courage and moral strength 
 which was one of the mental characteristics of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The great object of all who glory in the name 
 of Christ should be to have a full knowledge of 
 His character. Eternity itself, indeed, shall be 
 all too short to gain a true and perfect concep- 
 tion of Him, whose dual nature is infinite as the 
 everlasting Godhead. But a close study of His 
 earthly life, as it has been revealed to us in 
 the Gospels, will enable us to form an idea of 
 that life, not altogether incomplete. And while 
 we dwell long and lovingly on the side of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ's character, which must have 
 for all most attraction ; while we linger with un- 
 told satisfaction over every incident, or miracle, 
 or word, which reveals the mercy and love ever 
 influencing the Saviour's heart ; we should err if 
 we omitted to note also the strength which lay 
 beneath the gentleness, and the unflinching 
 courage and determination which no fear could 
 daunt. Perfect in the completeness of the man- 
 hood which He had adopted, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ united in Himself every disposition and 
 every quality wherewith, in the beginning, the 
 nature of man had been endowed by God. 
 
XII. 
 
 CHRIST'S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 In a former essay attention was drawn to the 
 moral strength of Christ, and His consistent 
 courage. The object of the present paper is to 
 present the reverse side of Christ's character — its 
 dependence, rather than its strength ; or, using 
 the words in their old Greek sense, we are to 
 study the feminine, rather than the masculine 
 side of the nature of the Lord Jesus. The perfect 
 man must unite all qualities in himself. He must 
 possess all the masculine characteristics, and all 
 the feminine (feminine, not womanly) which are 
 proper to man's whole nature. The Greeks 
 thoroughly understood this division of qualities ; 
 and they understood, also, that it is only by their 
 amalgamation in due proportion that the perfect 
 man is formed. If the masculine qualities very 
 largely predominate, the nature is apt to be 
 brutal, savage, cruel, and inconsiderate for others ; 
 if the feminine qualities are too pronounced, the 
 
character will be wanting in force of will and 
 energy of purpose. To avoid misapprehension 
 two men may be cited in which the feminine 
 attributes of man were predominant. Both men 
 are very famous ; and, we may add, that in some 
 directions both men were very strong. One is the 
 most celebrated Father of "Western Christianity ; 
 the other is nearly, if not quite, the greatest poet 
 of the nineteenth century. The nature of both 
 was feminine ; but assuredly neither St. Augus- 
 tine nor Lord Byron failed in decision of char- 
 acter, or in the strength of manliness. 
 
 It is matter for regret that the human character 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ should not be more 
 studied. Symptoms of a change, it is true, in this 
 respect may be discerned ; but men are still so 
 exclusively occupied about the work of Christ, 
 that they appear to have no time left to think 
 about His person. Yet, however important the 
 work of Christ may be, the person of Christ is 
 not of less importance. The atonement itself is 
 a dead letter, unless with the atonement we have 
 the Divine personality which made the atonement 
 possible, and the personal love without which the 
 atonement cannot be savingly received. The 
 living personal Saviour must draw men's hearts 
 to Himself before they can be influenced by 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 233 
 
 any doctrine, however wholesome, or however 
 necessary. 
 
 The best means of obtaining an insight into 
 the heart of the Lord Jesus is to take a long clear 
 gaze into one's own heart. The one illustrates 
 the other ; for both are human. It is from within 
 that the key to the mind of Christ will be found. 
 If in reading the sacred narrative of His life 
 which is recorded in the Gospels, we can put our- 
 selves to some extent into the position which He 
 occupied ; if we can note the feelings which under 
 similar circumstances we ourselves should have 
 experienced ; if we w T ill observe the motives which 
 would have influenced our own conduct, and the 
 impulses which would have acted upon our own 
 w r ills ; we may be able, in a measure, to compre- 
 hend the causes through which He acted, and to 
 form some estimate of His character. Of course 
 such an estimate w r ill be at best rough and im- 
 perfect. First there will be in every one the 
 absence, even in idea, of that perfect purity in 
 thought and action which He possessed ; and the 
 estimate will vary very much according to the 
 type of character to which the person making 
 it belongs. The natural psychological character 
 of each will instinctively seize upon the points 
 in the character of Christ to which there is most 
 
affinity. The sanguine temperament, which 
 knows no fear, will esteem most highly those 
 situations, as when Christ rebuked the Pharisees 
 and Scribes, in which Christ stood face to face 
 with His adversaries. The gentler disposition 
 will dwell with most pleasure upon those scenes, 
 as the raising of Lazarus, in which the tenderness 
 of Christ is displayed. The unselfish will set 
 most store by those incidents, as the self-forget- 
 fulness of Christ in His conversation with the 
 woman of Samaria, which appeal to their admira- 
 tion of self-devotion. But, notwithstanding all 
 drawbacks and all imperfections, each will gain 
 some knowledge of the Saviour, and, on some 
 point or other, be brought into closer contact and 
 communion with Christ to their own infinite 
 advantage. 
 
 The desire for sympathy is part of the human 
 character. None are so completely independent 
 of their fellow-men as to be indifferent to their 
 opinion. Even the greatest cynic, who affects to 
 disregard what may be said or thought of him, 
 is not so careless as he seems. The Horatian 
 motto, 
 
 Populus me sibilat ; at milii plaudo 
 Ipse domi, 
 
 is all very well ; but had the singer been as 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 -3D 
 
 unscathed by the popular jeer, and as satisfied 
 by the contemplation of his secret money-hoards 
 as he pretended, he would not have taken the 
 trouble to put his protest into verse. It was 
 because no self-applause could deaden the sting 
 of his unpopularity, that he vaunted his com- 
 placency at home. Even for the most hardened 
 and the most cynical there are some from whom 
 sympathy is sweet. 
 
 How ready Christ was to afford sympathy to 
 others is evidenced in every line of the Gospels ; 
 and Christ Himself needed that sympathy which 
 He gave so freely. It must have been so. Had 
 Christ required no sympathy from those whom 
 He trusted, and on whose love He could rely, 
 how many would miss something necessary to 
 themselves in that Divine life ! There are very 
 few who can altogether dispense with sympathy. 
 Elijah tried to do so. In the day of his disap- 
 pointment, when, deceived in his hope to win 
 the people back again to Jehovah, he fled before 
 the threat of Jezebel, this man — the very type of 
 the strongest and most self-reliant — tried to rest 
 upon himself. He failed. Alone in the anguish 
 of his sorrow, and despair, and weariness, he 
 prayed that he might die ; and God's angels 
 must give sympathy to the man who was too 
 
236 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 proud and self-contained to seek it from his 
 fellows. He tried and failed. God Himself 
 taught him a better lesson. After that terrible 
 experience his solitary life was to end. The first 
 mission assigned to him was to consecrate Elisha 
 to be his present companion, as well as his 
 eventual successor. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ was no cynic, and in 
 Him the need of sympathy was strong. Love 
 and devotion indeed was given Him in no scanty 
 measure. Few teachers have gathered round 
 them a band of followers so thoroughly their 
 own, and perhaps no one was ever personally 
 regarded with stronger love than Christ. The 
 deep affection of St. Peter, the entire devotion of 
 St. John, the faithfulness of the somewhat sullen 
 Thomas, and the honest loyalty of all, with one 
 dark exception, must have been a constant and 
 enduring source of comfort to the Saviour. On 
 them He could always depend ; upon them He 
 could rely with absolute trust. These disciples 
 loved their Master with their whole heart ; but 
 although they gave Him their sympathy to the 
 utmost of their power, there was a limit beyond 
 which they could not pass. Sympathy means 
 more even than love. It means a love which 
 understands. And these men, true and loval as 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 237 
 
 they were, did not understand, and so Christ 
 looked in vain from them for that complete 
 sympathy for which He craved. 
 
 For this lack of understanding there was a 
 cause. The Lord Jesus Christ had aims and 
 purposes very different to those which influenced 
 other men. Especially were His designs opposed 
 to those ideas by which the great majority of His 
 countrymen were animated. But the disciples, 
 with scarcely an exception, were entirely pos- 
 sessed by the hopes and expectations of their 
 nation. Politics — which to a Jew had but one 
 meaning, the emancipation of their country from 
 the hateful yoke of Rome — were never far from 
 their minds, and gave a colour to all their 
 thoughts. One at least of the apostles appears 
 to have belonged to that fanatical party which 
 had adopted the name of zealots. But Christ 
 had no politics. Nothing was further from His 
 thought than to meddle immediately with the 
 existing social or civil order. The Kingdom He 
 came to found was not of this world, and the 
 realm in which He sought to rule was the hearts 
 and consciences of men. We see, therefore, that 
 it was impossible for the disciples to answer to 
 the Lord's desire and need of sympathy, because 
 they could not enter into the nature of His work, 
 
238 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 or fathom the motives of His conduct. This mis- 
 apprehension continued to the very last, and many 
 an expression of the Lord Jesus shows how keenly 
 He felt it. 
 
 They did not understand the nature of His 
 work. 
 
 The idea of Christ as a Saviour never entered 
 into their thoughts. That He taught a morality 
 such as their Scribes had never conceived of, they 
 understood ; that He required a personal holiness 
 beyond the demands of their law, they knew. 
 The sense of their own sinfulness, as we see by 
 the confession of St. Peter, weighed upon them. 
 Yet they had no conception that the Master, 
 whom they followed with so much reverence, was 
 to make atonement for their sin, and for the sin 
 of the whole world, by the offering of His life. 
 Some of them had heard the words of their former 
 Master, the great Baptist. They had stood and 
 listened as He proclaimed : " Behold the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 
 But the words had for them no meaning. Their 
 thoughts did not go back to their own sacrifices, 
 in order that in them they might see the type 
 which this sacrificial Lamb of God was to fulfil. 
 They had doubtless been often present at the 
 presentation of the sin-offering in the Temple. 
 
CHRIST'S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 239 
 
 They had heard in trembling awe the priest, as, 
 with his hand upon the victim's head, he trans- 
 ferred the guilt of the sinful man to the innocent 
 animal. And they had seen the sacrifice com- 
 pleted by the death of the expiatory offering. 
 But the words of the Baptist did not teach them 
 to apply all this to the Christ whose footsteps 
 they followed. And as they thought not of a 
 Messiah whose office it was to make an expiation 
 for the sin of the world, they never dreamed. of 
 a suffering Messiah. Quite other thoughts filled 
 their minds. All their imagination was of the 
 conquest of that. Empire of Borne, which had 
 blasted the greatness and destroyed the freedom 
 of their nation. All their hope was the humilia- 
 tion of that proud Power which had dared to 
 enslave God's chosen people. All their desire 
 was to be freed from the foreign yoke, which 
 demanded tribute from them, and circulated in 
 their midst the imperial coinage, the hateful badge 
 of their degradation, and the visible mark of their 
 servitude. In the all-embracing Kingdom which 
 their Messiah was to establish upon the ruins of 
 Borne, they were to hold the chief positions. 
 They were to be its ministers and viziers, sittiug 
 around Him, on His right hand and on His left, 
 in all the pomp and triumph of earthly dominion, 
 
24O MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Such being the nature of their hopes, how could 
 they understand the nature of the work He came 
 to accomplish, or how could they give Him 
 sympathy, in its pursuit ? 
 
 Nor did they understand any better the motive 
 of His conduct. 
 
 Humility was not a Jewish virtue ; and Christ 
 describes Himself as meek and lowly in heart. 
 Nor was this expression a mere phrase. Of this 
 meekness and lowliness they had daily proof. His 
 preaching was all of self-denial. His blessing was 
 for the poor ; His promise for the meek ; His 
 commendation for the humble-minded. And what 
 He preached, lie carried out in His own life. 
 He w r as poor, oppressed, reviled ; a very scorn of 
 men ; a mark for contumely and derision. And 
 before all reproaches He was dumb ; and in face 
 of all insult He bowed in meekness. The cross, 
 which He declared His followers were to carry, 
 He bore Himself patiently before them. They 
 were very true and very loyal, these disciples of 
 His. They obeyed almost without a murmur. 
 But this meekness, this want of staunch purpose, 
 as it would seem to them, was very hard to bear. 
 As time went on, and lengthened itself into 
 months and years, and the goal they looked for 
 seemed to be receding rather than getting nearer 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 24 1 
 
 to attainment, they grew impatient. There arc 
 little hints, slight indeed, but still hints, of such 
 impatience. They did not care to go to Jerusalem ; 
 they murmured at Mary's waste of ointment at 
 Bethany. The modern idea, that it was this 
 impatience which led to the betrayal, has much 
 to say for itself. If their Master would only 
 declare Himself; if even Tie could be induced 
 to declare Himself through outward pressure ; if 
 He could be constrained, by force of circumstances, 
 to present Himself before rulers and people as 
 the promised Messiah, who was to establish God's 
 theocracy as an universal dominion throughout 
 the world ; then all would be well. And this 
 impatience, based as it was on a complete mis- 
 apprehension, while it culminated in the darkest 
 crime on the part of one, may well have exercised 
 a baneful influence on the minds of many. Judas 
 was alone in his crime ; but perhaps Judas was 
 not alone in the thought which led to it. Their 
 praise is that their love never failed. It remained 
 true through all disappointments. It survived the 
 death of their Master upon the cross, the burial 
 of His body in the garden, and the destruction 
 of all their hopes. But how little they under- 
 stood the scope and purpose of His life is evident 
 from the despairing words in which Cleopas sums 
 
 Q 
 
242 .MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 up their hopelessness and disappointment: "We 
 trusted that it had been He which should have 
 redeemed Israel." 
 
 This want of comprehension was a bitter in- 
 gredient in the Saviour's daily cup of pain. There 
 is abundant direct evidence that Christ needed, 
 and looked for, sympathy from His disciples, and 
 that the non-fulfilment of this expectation was a 
 constant source of disappointment. He is con- 
 tinually breaking out into expressions which mark 
 the bitterness of His feelings. They could not 
 understand His teaching : " Know ye not this 
 parable ? how then shall ye know all parables 1 " 
 They could not read His thoughts : " Whence 
 shall we buy bread that these may eat ? " He 
 asks, as the evening closed in, and a hungry 
 multitude of men looked to Him for sustenance ; 
 and one answers, that two hundred pennyworth 
 of bread was not sufficient that every one might 
 have a little ; and another inquires, almost in 
 despair, of the five loaves and the two fishes, 
 "what are they among so many?" They could 
 not trust His power : He speaks a parable con- 
 cerning the leaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven 
 of Herod, and they whisper together that it is 
 because they have taken no bread. Over and over 
 again do we hear from Ilim the cry : " Are ye 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 243 
 
 yet without understanding? " " Do ye not under- 
 stand?" ''Why are ye so foolish?" On the 
 road to the very cross they dispute among them- 
 selves who shall be greatest in the temporal 
 kingdom they believed Him about to found ; and 
 at the final close, as they gathered round Him for 
 the last time, questions, showing how utterly their 
 comprehension of His person and His mission 
 were at fault, break from their lips, and call down 
 the sorrowful answer, " Have I been so long 
 time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, 
 Philip ? " 
 
 If there were no other indication of the small 
 amount of sympathy which Christ obtained from 
 His apostles, one consideration would bring the 
 fact home to our minds. It is sufficiently obvious, 
 that, if the two disciples, who were pre-eminent 
 among the others, failed in this respect, Christ 
 would not obtain full sympathy from the rest. 
 If the warm-hearted Peter did not answer to his 
 Lord's requirements, and if the beloved Apostle 
 did not understand the mind of Christ, it may be 
 taken as quite certain that Philip, or Thomas, or 
 Judas, would not have a deeper insight. 
 
 St. Peter was at the head of the apostolic 
 college. In all the lists which the Evangelists 
 have handed down, his name stands the first. 
 
244 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 lie it was who ever put himself forward as the 
 representative of his colleagues. He acted for 
 the rest, and spoke for them. Yet Peter failed 
 in comprehension. On one occasion his quick 
 responsive answer had called down warm words 
 of commendation from the Lord's mouth. Christ, 
 as was His wont, had been questioning His 
 followers, and the conversation had turned as to 
 what people thought and said of Him. The 
 opinions were as diverse as the characters and 
 positions of the persons they represented. Then 
 the Lord Jesus, turning to His chosen apostles, 
 inquired what they thought concerning Him. 
 Peter answers immediately, "Thou art the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God." His display of faith 
 was very grateful to the Lord : " Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in 
 heaven ; and I say also unto thee, that thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." 
 But the person of Christ could not be separated 
 from the work of Christ. Whatever drew strongly 
 the attention of the Lord Jesus to His position 
 as the Son of God, scarcely ever failed to remind 
 Him of the purpose for which He came, and the 
 means by which that purpose was to be accom- 
 plished. He continued speaking. But a change 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 245 
 
 had come over His spirit. His tone is no longer 
 one of triumph and exultation. He speaks no 
 more of His power over Satan and the grave, 
 and the impossibility of their prevailing. He 
 sees before Him His own humiliation, the last 
 journey to Jerusalem, the bitter hatred of the 
 scribes and chief priests, the success of their 
 deadly machinations, and His own painful death 
 upon the cross. Peter's love is constant as ever ; 
 but his understanding is at fault. He fails to 
 catch the central idea in the mind of Christ. 
 He does not realise that the very death was the 
 means whereby the triumph was to be gained. 
 He sympathises with the lower feeling — the shrink- 
 ing from the pain, the dread in the face of death ; 
 but he did not sympathise with the high purpose 
 and the determined resolve. Sympathy for the 
 suffering, as suffering, he feels ; but sympathy for 
 the suffering, as Christ's great and deliberately 
 undertaken work by which man's redemption was 
 to be achieved, and Christ's glorification mani- 
 fested, he does not feel. " Be it far from Thee, 
 Lord ; this shall not be unto Thee." Instead of 
 being strength-giving and fortifying, as sympathy 
 ever should be, it was weakening in its effect. 
 The severity of our Lord's answer shows the 
 dissonance and want of harmony between the 
 
246 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Apostle's thought and Tlis own : " Get thee behind 
 Me, Satan ; thou art an offence unto Me ; for thou 
 savourest not the things that be of God, but those 
 that be of men." 
 
 St. John, who drank most deeply of the loving 
 spirit of his Master, did not understand that 
 Master any better than did St. Peter. The love 
 was true and deep, but it was not, like Christ's 
 love, a love which could bear all things and 
 believe all things. St. John was very far from 
 comprehending a love which in its very nature 
 was self-sacrificing. Even now, with all Christ's 
 teaching unfolded before us, and the light of His 
 example to guide us, I doubt if any human love 
 would not be resentful for another. Under the 
 influence of His Divine life, we may, perhaps, 
 forgive the wrongs and injuries done to ourselves, 
 but what man is there who does not resent the 
 injury and wrong offered to the friend who is 
 really dear to him? We have not many of St. 
 John's words recorded in the Gospels. He was 
 not, like St. Peter, the ready spokesman, ever 
 giving voice to the opinions of his companions. 
 I picture to myself St. John as silently contem- 
 plative, seeing and observing much, but making 
 few comments on those things which he saw and 
 heard. Of the few words preserved, two have a 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 247 
 
 direct bearing on the subject we are considering ; 
 and a third, not spoken indeed by the Apostle 
 himself, but by his mother at the prompting of 
 her sons, shows that St. John, equally with the 
 other disciples, had formed an entire misconcep- 
 tion of the object for which Christ came to earth. 
 St. John, like most very enthusiastic persons, 
 was narrow in his ideas ; and his bigotry was the 
 cause of Christ's first reproof. He was not large- 
 hearted enough to perceive that a man might be 
 a true disciple, and yet not be an actual follower 
 with him and his fellow-disciples. A man was 
 casting out devils in the name of Christ. To St. 
 John it seemed an unauthorised proceeding. Let 
 him join their company; let him, like themselves, 
 receive a distinct commission from their Lord ; 
 and then let him cast out devils. But in the 
 meantime let him be forbidden, because he 
 followed not with them. It was an error which 
 might, at first sight, seem venial ; but it was an 
 error, the perpetuation of which in after times 
 was to entail the awful sin of those terrible perse- 
 cutions which have left the deepest stain upon 
 Christ's Church. How far removed, then, was 
 the Apostle's mind from the mind of Christ, and 
 how out of sympathy with the perfect all-em- 
 bracing love of the Divine Master ! In sorrowful 
 
248 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 patience the Lord points out to the offending 
 disciple that he must not attempt to judge all 
 men by his own procrustean standard. This 
 large-hearted breadth of judgment is a difficult 
 lesson to learn ; and St. John, with all his faith- 
 ful love, found it a very hard one to acquire. In 
 after times, when, as we should think, he might 
 have known more of the mind of the Lord Jesus, 
 the same spirit of bigotry broke out again ; for, 
 according to a tradition which may very well be 
 true, the Apostle by his harshness confirmed 
 Cerinthus in his heresy, whereas, by showing a 
 more meek and gentle bearing, he might, possibly, 
 have converted the heresiarch to a better mind. 
 
 The second word of St. John shows a similar 
 want of insight into his Master's spirit. How 
 little did this son of thunder comprehend his 
 Lord's humility, or the extent of His Divine 
 forbearance ! The Samaritans of a certain village 
 refused to receive them because their faces were 
 towards Jerusalem. St. John, as ever, was quick 
 to take offence at the insult offered to His Lord. 
 A far deeper pain than any that could have been 
 caused by this rejection by the Samaritans must 
 have come over the heart of Jesus, when He 
 heard His own most favoured disciple demanding 
 to be allowed to call down fire from heaven to 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 249 
 
 consume the offenders. And what an added 
 intensity of pain must there have been for the 
 Lord Jesus in the word with which St. John 
 clenched his prayer: "As Elijah did." The 
 example of the grand prophet, who more than 
 any other represented that old dispensation of 
 fear and retribution which Christ was to replace 
 by His own blessed message of reconciliation and 
 atonement, was not one to be quoted by a follower 
 of the meek and lowly Nazarene. Later on 
 Elijah himself had been taught, that, not by 
 storm and earthquake, not by fire that destroys, 
 not by man's anger that worketh wrath, but by 
 love which forbears and heals, men's souls were 
 to be won. All this St. John was to learn. But 
 in the meantime what sorrow must have been in 
 the heart of Christ, as He made the sad discovery 
 that even St. John, the most beloved, could under- 
 stand so little the mission of Him who came not 
 to destroy men's lives, but to save them. 
 
 The third word, however, must have been the 
 most painful of all. More even than the other 
 two it showed want of sympathy with the mind of 
 Christ on the part of those brought nearest to Him. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ had told His disciples quite 
 plainly the object for which His journey to Jeru- 
 salem was undertaken. Not to cast down Rome's 
 
25O MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 dominion ; not to erect a banner of victory for 
 Israel ; not to receive a kingdom for Himself. 
 But to die ! To suffer every possible humiliation 
 and degradation ; to put Himself at the mercy of 
 His most cruel enemies ; to be made a prisoner ; 
 to be buffeted, and mocked, and spitted on, and 
 scourged, and at the last to stretch His arms upon 
 the shameful cross ! And this is the moment that 
 St. John chooses to prefer the prayer of his am- 
 bition. With St. James he comes to Christ : 
 " Grant unto us that we may sit, the one on Thy 
 right hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in 
 Thy glory." The answer is almost a sob: "Ye 
 know not what ye ask." Truly they did not 
 know. What their Master had that they should 
 share. From His cup they should drink ; with 
 His baptism they should be baptized. In the case 
 of one it was a martyrdom by death ; in the case 
 of the other a martyrdom by a life of witness. 
 The reward should come afterwards. 
 
 The continuity of character is a distinctly marked 
 feature in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ after 
 His resurrection. But in the case of the mental 
 characteristic we are considering the continuity is 
 broken. Sympathy marks dependence ; and there 
 could be no dependence upon any human being 
 
CHRIST S NEED OF SYMPATHY. 2 5 I 
 
 after Christ rose from the dead. The (sinless) 
 weakness of human nature belonged only to the 
 human life of Christ. It is true, that, after His 
 resurrection and ascension, the risen and ascended 
 Lord still remained the Son of Man ; but as in 
 His mortal life He remained sinless, so from His 
 life in heaven fell away all those weaknesses and 
 imperfections which are inseparable from the 
 present nature of man. The essential charac- 
 teristics remained. Christ's love underwent no 
 diminution ; and His desire for the love of those 
 whom He had redeemed and saved, to speak 
 anthropomorphically, knew no change. Pity, 
 tenderness, compassion, sympathy for us, still 
 remain. But the qualities which belong exclu- 
 sively to earth disappear. The lowliness of 
 Christ, His humility, His meekness and sub- 
 missiveness — these things could not form part of 
 that exalted nature to which all things in heaven 
 and earth are to be subject ; and with these, the 
 dependence on others, without which sympathy 
 cannot be, must of necessity vanish. The King 
 of kings and Lord of lords, before whom angels 
 veil their faces, gives sympathy to His creatures ; 
 from them He receives homage and adoration, 
 glory, and praise, and dominion, for ever. 
 
XIII. 
 
 GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSION AS A 
 STUDY OF CHARACTER. 
 
 The life of the Lord Jesus Christ differs from all 
 other biographies in the simplicity and directness 
 with which it is narrated. It is the act of Christ, 
 His saying, His word, His deed, which is told. 
 And it is told without comment. The opinion 
 of the biographer is never paraded, nor are his 
 surmises stated. If this be true of the life as a 
 whole, it is doubly true of its last hours. All 
 four Evangelists relate the incidents attending 
 the Lord's death ; and they relate them with a 
 minuteness we seek in vain in other portions of 
 their memoirs. This is a great aid to the right 
 apprehension of Christ's mental disposition, for, 
 if character is specially manifested at a great 
 crisis of a man's life, under no circumstances is 
 a truer insight into the character of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ likely to be obtained, than by a 
 study of those scenes which culminate in Geth- 
 semane and the Passion. 
 
GETHSEItfANE AND THE PASSION. 
 
 -oo 
 
 Accordingly we find that at Gethscmane, and 
 at Calvary, certain mental qualities are brought 
 into strong relief ; the qualities, as might be 
 expected, being those which were marked features 
 in Christ's life. 
 
 The exact site of the garden of Gethsemane^ 
 is unknown. Jerusalem was a walled city with 
 a large population, and consequently the space 
 within the enclosures of its ramparts was exceed- 
 ingly circumscribed. There was no room for 
 gardens. The richer citizens, therefore, hired or 
 purchased ground outside the walls, and in the 
 immediate vicinity of the city were many gardens 
 and pleasure resorts. The proprietor of one of 
 these gardens allowed the Lord Jesus to make 
 use of it during His not unfrequent sojourns in 
 the capital ; and it was to this garden that 
 Christ, as St. Luke notes, was wont to resort with 
 His disciples, when He sought rest and quiet 
 from the distracting turmoil of the city crowds, 
 or when he would feign hold communion with 
 His Father. One or two topographical indica- ^ 
 tions are furnished by St. Luke and St. John. 
 The garden was at the foot of the Mount of 
 Olives, on the east side of the city, for Christ 
 and His disciples had to descend into the valley, 
 and pass over the brook Kedron, in order to reach 
 
254 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 it. It is also implied that the distance from 
 Jerusalem was not great. Its name, Gethsemane, 
 'l mentioned by St. Matthew and St. Mark, implies 
 that it was a shrubbery, enclosed and surrounded 
 by trees and festooned by vines, rather than what 
 we should now call a garden. It lay in the 
 valley ; and the steep hills, which surrounded 
 Jerusalem on that side, closed and hemmed it 
 in so that, whether in the sunlight or the moon- 
 light, strong projecting shadows would be thrown, 
 leaving many dark sombre spots where the light 
 would not penetrate. On this account, probably, 
 was it that the soldiers sent to apprehend the 
 Lord Jesus did not trust to the light of the nearly 
 full moon, but carried with them lanterns and 
 torches. These would be necessary to search out 
 those places which lay in the darkness caused by 
 the overshadowing cliffs. It would also appear 
 from the narrative, that the three apostles, Peter, 
 James, and John, chosen to watch with Christ, lay 
 in the shadow, while our Lord Himself was in 
 the full moonlight, so that every movement and 
 gesture could be observed. It is further implied, 
 that the three chosen apostles were the only 
 actual witnesses of our Lord's agony ; the other 
 eight (Judas was not with them) were at some 
 little distance, and neither saw nor heard. 
 
GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSION. 255 
 
 The circumstances accompanying the conflict 
 of Christ in Gethsemane are quite different from 
 those -which were present at Calvary. The agony 
 in the garden was the anticipatory hour. This 
 is not unfrequently far more dreadful than the 
 reality itself. The mind has strange power of 
 presenting to itself by anticipation the suffering 
 which has to be endured on the morrow. And 
 the imagination absorbs all the faculties. When 
 the suffering is actually endured, other things are 
 present with it and help to absorb the attention. 
 The crowd of witnessing onlookers ; the know- 
 ledge that the eyes of all the attendant multitude 
 are fixed upon the sufferer ; the feeling that every 
 gesture is noted, and every action observed ; these 
 things are not without their salutary and bracing 
 influence. The nervous power is strung to the 
 very utmost ; even the coward feels some desire 
 to play the man, and to show fortitude. But in 
 the anticipation these motives for endurance are 
 wanting, and, unsustained by any external help, 
 the mind gives way to its worst fears. 
 
 This explains, in part, the difference of attitude 
 shown by our Lord during the agony, and in the 
 passion. In Gethsemane He was alone ; or He \y 
 had with Him only those who were tried friends. 
 Before them there was no concealment. 
 
256 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Other circumstances there were at Gcthsemanc 
 to render the suffering which Christ endured most 
 
 v terrible. Death was to Him infinitely more 
 appalling than it ever could be to any other 
 descendant of Adam. He was sinless ; death was 
 the curse entailed by sin. His horror in view of 
 death was an unspeakable horror in the face of 
 the sin which it represented. He was made sin, 
 or, as the Revised Version has it, a sin-offering for 
 us ; and, although we have no sympathy with the 
 older theology, represented by St. Anselm, which 
 would make the Lord Jesus Christ actually bear 
 the Father's curse, yet, in submitting Himself to 
 death, sin, as the accursed thing which the Father 
 could not tolerate, was brought very near to the 
 spotless soul of the Lamb of God. Here, we 
 think, is to be found the key to explain the awful 
 horror which overwhelmed the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 v The loathing felt by the All-sinless in sin's presence 
 prostrated Him in an agony to the earth, and 
 caused His sweat (if the reading be correct) to be 
 as great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 
 It was the hour of the power of darkness. 
 
 Only we must not forget it was an agony of 
 prayer. The prayer, and the submission to the 
 Father's will, both prove that the union ever 
 existing between the Father and the Son remained 
 
GETHSEMANE AXD THE PASSION. 257 
 
 unbroken. To this fact we must hold fast. Christ 
 was ever the Beloved Son in whom the Father 
 was well pleased. This is seen in the very words 
 of the prayer which burst forth from the heart of 
 the horror-stricken Christ ; it is seen again (if we 
 receive verse 43) in the Angel, the messenger of the 
 Father's love, which strengthened Him in His 
 conflict with the powers of evil ; and it is seen 
 once more in the serene confidence which declared 
 that, were He but to breathe it, a prayer would 
 bring legions of angels to scatter and annihilate 
 His foes. 
 
 To turn to the special mental qualities which 
 characterise the agony in Gethsemane. 
 
 First we may notice the calm self-possession 
 which was ever a marked characteristic of the 
 Saviour's mind. The agony itself was overwhelm- 
 ing. Yet just before our Lord had uttered a 
 prayer which is unique in the world for its 
 passionless sublimity. In the very midst of thev 
 agony, when Christ returns once and again to the 
 three disciples whom He had chosen to be His 
 witnesses, the words He speaks are composed as 
 those spoken in the upper chamber. And when the 
 High-Priestly guard came to arrest Him, He goes 
 forth to meet His captors with a quiet confidence 
 which shows no trace of the previous agitation. 
 
258 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 The thoughtfulness of the Lord Jesus with 
 regard to the safety of His disciples, and the care 
 He took that they should not be implicated in His 
 arrest, have been alluded to in a previous essay. 
 The compassion and pity for others' pain, which 
 through all the earlier pages of the Gospels had 
 appealed to our sympathy, is shown once more, as 
 Christ puts forth His hand to touch the wounded 
 Malchus. Doubtless the Lord Jesus, like other 
 men, acted from mixed motives. There may 
 have been other reasons besides pity which led 
 our Lord to heal the wounded servant of the 
 Hisrh Priest. A desire to obtain favour in the 
 eyes of His captors for the disciples no doubt 
 exercised its influence ; but the divine life must 
 have been studied to little purpose, if we cannot 
 recognise in this instance the same feeling of 
 compassion as led to the calling of the blind man 
 by the gate of Jericho, or the healing of the leper 
 at the foot of the Mount of Beatitudes. 
 
 We must not fail to notice those mental 
 qualities which specially mark the relationship of 
 the Son to the Father. The perfect trust which 
 enabled Him to resign Himself unconditionally 
 into the Father's hands ; the absolute submission 
 which declined to use the powers He possessed 
 for any purpose of His own ; the filial piety 
 
GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSION. 259 
 
 which carried the bitter cup into the Father's 
 presence, and left the issue unreservedly with 
 Him ; nor should we pass over the human 
 weakness which shrank from death, nor the 
 human sensitiveness which dreaded the pain of 
 crucifixion, even while determining to undergo it. 
 Gethsemane is marked by weakness rather than u. 
 by strength. In the garden we see the Son of 
 Man prostrate, and for the moment almost un- 
 nerved ; but underneath the weakness, and in 
 despite of the nervous prostration, there lay a 
 courage which never thought of yielding, and an 
 endurance which knew no flinching. 
 
 But if weakness marks the agony in Geth-\ 
 semane, the qualities of courage and endurance^, 
 are conspicuous in the Passion. When the 
 Lord Jesus came to die, the fortitude He showed 
 compares with that of any martyr of whom we 
 have the record. Only combined with the courage 
 was a meekness which was all His own. Others 
 have hurled defiance at their judges ; others have 
 marched on to death, dauntless indeed, but in a 
 spirit of bravado. All such ostentation of courage 
 was absent from the manner of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He did not, as did St. Paul in after days, 
 denounce the hypocritical sanctimoniousness of 
 the High Priest, who condemned Him without 
 
260 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 even the pretence of justice. When silence was 
 most dignified, lie stood before Ilis accusers 
 silent. When the time arrived to bear witness 
 for the truth, He spoke boldly, even though He 
 knew full well that His words would be turned 
 into an accusation of blasphemy. The same 
 characteristic calmness pervades His demeanour 
 when He stands in the presence of Pilate. 
 To the false and slanderous accusations of His 
 enemies He opposes only silence ; but when the 
 Roman judge, half in pity to the prisoner, half in 
 pity to himself, condescends to plead the difficult 
 situation in which he found himself placed, the 
 Lord, extenuating in some degree the lesser guilt 
 of the heathen governor, speaks words of warning, 
 which in after days shall recur with terrible force 
 to the memory of Pilate. 
 
 " A bruised reed shall he not break, and 
 smoking flax shall he not quench," were words, 
 borrowed from the prophet, which Christ had 
 quoted as exemplifying His own conduct. And 
 the words were true to the last. He is arraigned 
 before His judges, whose only object was to find 
 some plausible reason for condemning Him. 
 Suddenly, from the lower end of the hall, where 
 the servants and men-in-waiting were gathered, 
 comes to His ears the voice of Peter. It is loud 
 
GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSION. 26 1 
 
 with oaths and imprecations, and it is declaring 
 that he, Peter, had never known the Master in 
 whose footsteps he had followed so long and 
 faithfully. What a pang must have shot through i^~ 
 the heart of the Lord Jesus, as He heard His 
 apostle's denial ! For the moment the pain of 
 His own cruel situation is forgotten in the greater 
 pain caused by the base weakness of Simon Peter. 
 But the pain is forgotten in the sorrow ; and the 
 sorrow itself is lost in pity for the erring man. 
 The Lord, records the evangelist, turned and 
 looked upon Peter. Not resentment, nor indigna- 
 tion, nor anger, were in the look the Lord turned 
 upon His offending apostle. It was a look of 
 reproachful forgiveness. With that look haunting 
 him, well might St. Peter go forth into the night 
 weeping bitterly. But the thoughtfulness and 
 forgiving kindness of the Lord Jesus did not end 
 in the Judgment-hall of Caiaphas. If we may 
 judge by the after history, the knowledge of the 
 bitter sorrow His disciple was undergoing must 
 have been present with Christ through His own 
 long agony of passion. It was on the very day S 
 of His resurrection that the Lord Jesus appeared 
 to Simon Peter, to give him the assurance of 
 forgiveness. 
 
 The self-forgetfulness and consideration for 
 
262 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 others, which were leading traits in the life of 
 Christ, appear in clear relief in the hours of His 
 death. Pitiful women wept for His sad fate, and 
 lamented, as they saw Him toiling up the steep 
 towards Calvary. But the pity of Christ was not 
 for Himself, but for them. In mournful pain, far 
 removed from any spirit of exultation, He saw, 
 in His prophetic gaze, the terrible punishment 
 which, ere that generation had passed away, 
 should fall upon those who had condemned Him. 
 And seeing this, a mighty pity swept across His 
 heart: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for 
 Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children ; 
 for, behold the days are coming, in which they 
 shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs 
 that never bare, and the breasts that never gave 
 suck." 
 
 J In the early days of His ministiy Christ had 
 preached the forgiveness of injuries. He had 
 taught that men were to love their enemies, to 
 bless them that cursed them, to pray for them 
 which despitefully used them. The words were 
 wonderful. Strange indeed they sounded in the 
 ears of Jews, whose God-given law enjoined love 
 for one's friend, and hatred for one's enemy. 
 Stranger still, if possible, they would have sounded 
 to any heathen, who might by chance have been 
 
GETHSEMAXE AND THE PASSION. 263 
 
 in the motley assembly gathered round the Christ. 
 But to say such words, sitting at ease upon the 
 Mount of Beatitudes, was one thing ; to carry the 
 words into practice hanging from the cruel cross, 
 with the pitiless nails rending the tender flesh, 
 was quite another. Would the great Teacher be 
 true to the sublime maxims which He had incul- 
 cated among the Galilean hills ? The answer was 
 given in no uncertain tones. Christ hangs upon 
 the cross ; His lacerated hands and feet are 
 quivering with pain ; fever-thirst consumes Him ; 
 around Him are seething crowds, jeering and 
 mocking ; His former deeds of goodness are 
 paraded to add bitterness to the scorn which is 
 hurled against Him ; elders, and scribes, and 
 priestly dignitaries, do not think it unworthy of 
 their self-respect to gloat over the victim whom 
 they have hounded to the death, and join with the 
 populace in their derision. Then words were 
 spoken which had never before been heard on 
 earth. Above the storm of scorn and insult, the 
 voice of the Lord Jesus rang clear and distinct : 
 "Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do." 
 
 A myth has formed itself around the last scenes 
 of Christ's life.- The myth shows how men's 
 thoughts concerning Christ differed from the 
 
264 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 thought of Christ Himself. Human nature could 
 not rest in the perfect purity of Christ's mind. 
 Men felt indignant at the malice of Christ's 
 enemies, and became angry at their apparent 
 freedom from all retributive justice. The divine 
 forgiveness, though spoken by the lips of Christ 
 Himself, did not satisfy the desire for poetic 
 justice. So they determined that at least one 
 victim should be found. Half way along the 
 Via Dolorosa, so runs the legend, was the work- 
 shop of a shoemaker, with a bench beside it. 
 Here the Lord, exhausted by His sufferings, 
 craved a few moments' rest. The hard soldiers 
 were not unwilling to grant His request ; even 
 the rude mob felt inclined to respect His pain, 
 and to cease awhile from their cruel taunts. But 
 the owner of the workshop had no gleam of pity 
 in his heart. He drove the unoffending Christ 
 from the rough seat with blows and reproaches. 
 80 much may be history. But the myth has 
 added a word singularly out of keeping with the 
 demeanour of the meek and lowly Jesus on that 
 day of humiliation : "Thou hast denied Me rest," 
 Christ is reputed to have said; "from this time 
 thou shalt know no rest, no, not even in the 
 tomb, until I come again to judgment." And the 
 man, adds the legend, went forth, branded as a 
 
GETHSEMANE AXD THE PASSION. 
 
 second Cain — the wandering Jew — doomed un- 
 ceasingly to wander till the judgment-day. 
 
 Christ was the Son of Man with power on earth 
 to forgive sins. "Thy sins be forgiven thee," 
 were the words addressed to the paralytic man, 
 whom his neighbours had brought in order that 
 he might obtain bodily healing. It was Christ's 
 special mission to forgive sins. The object for 
 which He came to earth was to bear the sin of 
 the world ; and the very name by which He was 
 called pointed to His office. His name was 
 called Jesus, because He w r as to save His people 
 from their sins. And this object had never been 
 lost sight of. Every act of healing was but a 
 type of the soul-healing it represented. "Thy 
 sins be forgiven thee," was pronounced over one 
 sick man ; it was implied in the case of every sick 
 man whose body the Lord restored to health. 
 And so Christ's last hour is consecrated by an 
 act of forgiveness. Two malefactors, less fortunate 
 than the popular hero, Barabbas, had been con- 
 demned to death, and suffered at the same time 
 as Christ. Both, in order to gain the sympathy 
 of the mob, or possibly, at least in the case of one, 
 out of sheer hatred of the good, had joined in the 
 abuse showered upon the head of Christ, and had 
 reviled their fellow-sufferer. But the Lord's 
 
266 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 patience and forbearance, and the wonderful 
 prayer for His persecutors, awakened better 
 thoughts in the least hardened of these male- 
 factors. His past life rose before him. He 
 suffered ; but he suffered, he is constrained to 
 own, justly, for he received the reward of his 
 doings. He listens to the taunts and jeering 
 sarcasms ; but they have for him a meaning very 
 different from the intention of those who uttered 
 them. The conviction arises in his mind : "This 
 man hath done nothing amiss." Perhaps he had 
 been in Galilee, and reports, little heeded at the 
 time, come to his memory of what this dying man 
 had done and said. Or in Jerusalem itself he 
 might have heard, carelessly enough at the time, 
 how his fellow- sufferer had made a blind man to 
 see, or even had called the dead back to life. It 
 was not a likely place to call forth faith. And yet 
 faith did arise in the man's heart. The disdainful 
 words of the priests who mocked were, after all, 
 true, and he recognised their truth. This man, 
 dying a felon's death upon the cross, was, in very 
 truth, the Christ, the King of Israel. So from 
 his cross of shame and agony, he turns to that 
 other cross, on which He, whom he acknowledges 
 as the Messiah, is hanging : " Lord, remember 
 me, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And 
 
GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSIOX. 267 
 
 the dying Christ gathers home the first-fruits of 
 that innumerable multitude whom His sufferings 
 and death shall save : " To-day shalt thou be with 
 Me in Paradise." 
 
 The episode, in which Christ gives His mother 
 
 L — ' 
 
 into the charge of St. John, is one of the most 
 beautiful incidents in the Passion. Mary had not 
 been all that a mother might have been to such a 
 Son. She had not understood ; and not under- 
 standing, she had let a certain estrangement grow 
 up between her and the Lord Jesus Christ. She 
 had suffered herself to be influenced by the un- 
 worthy suggestions of her other children, whose 
 jealousy and dislike of their elder brother was no 
 secret. But the cross had revived the love which _ 
 lay latent in the mother's breast. The disciples, 
 who had hitherto followed Him so faithfully, were, 
 with one exception, absent ; but the mother, who 
 in the day of her Son's popularity had held herself 
 aloof, is found in the day of His ignominy kneeling 
 at the foot of His cross. And as Christ had evei\ 
 forgotten His own pain, or His own discomfort,^ 
 in ministering to the needs of others, so now, at 
 the moment of His own direst pain, is the pain 
 itself set aside, in order that His mother's future 
 should be cared for. The best beloved of His 
 apostles was there. He was able to give His 
 
263 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 mother the protection and home she needed. To 
 his charge, therefore, the Lord solemnly assigns 
 her. In other days, in order to show that the 
 ties of earthly relationship must be replaced by 
 a spiritual consecration, Christ had avoided the 
 use of the word mother in addressing Mary. 
 But now everything else is forgotten in the love 
 and sympathy of this last farewell. He turns to 
 the weeping Mary : " Mother, behold thy son." 
 Then He speaks to St. John : " Behold thy 
 mother." 
 
 An older school of theology has read in the 
 word pressed from Christ as the agony of death 
 overshadowed Him, the Father's desertion of the 
 Son. Those who are inclined to accept this view 
 can have studied their Psalms to little purpose ; 
 were they to consider their own feelings, or to 
 mark their own prayers, when any great or over- 
 whelming sorrow comes into their life, they 
 would learn to understand better. Has not the 
 word of Christ found an echo in the heart of 
 every sufferer, since it was first uttered by the 
 Psalmist, and repeated upon the cross ? Is it not 
 in the very nature of all intense suffering to raise 
 a cloud between the soul and God ? — a law of 
 suffering from which the Son of Man was not 
 excepted. "My God, my God, why hast Thou 
 
GETHSEMAXE AND THE PASSION. 269 
 
 forsaken Me ? " is parallel to the soul's outcry 
 of St. Paul, "I am the chief of sinners." It 
 does not imply an actual desertion by God. It 
 was simply the experience of human suffering, 
 as St. Paul's exclamation was the expression 
 of human sin. To the sin the sinless Christ 
 was a stranger; but the cup of human suffer- 
 ing the Man of sorrows drained to the dregs. 
 The word of Christ does not show that He was 
 forsaken by the Father ; it points only to the 
 intensity of the Lord's pain. Every word and 
 act in Gethsemane, and every incident in the 
 Passion, prove that the perfect confidence ever 
 existing between the Father and the Son re- 
 mained unbroken. As it had been preserved 
 constant in life, so did it continue steadfast in 
 death. If further assurance were needed, that 
 assurance is found in the last word of Christ. 
 In calm reliance Christ resigned Himself into 
 the Father's keeping : " Father, into Thy hands 
 I commend My spirit." 
 
 Thus the character of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 remained to the last consistent. What it had 
 been in life, that it remained through death. 
 The greatest trial which it is possible for man 
 to undergo tried the Christ of God, and He 
 passed through it triumphantly. His patience, 
 
270 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 His gentleness, His meekness under insult, His 
 forgiveness of despiteful injuries ; His calmness 
 in danger, His self-possession in the presence of 
 His enemies, His endurance, His single-minded 
 undauntedness and lofty courage, His flashes of 
 sorrowful anger in face of cowardice and mean- 
 ness ; His self-forgetfulness, His consideration, 
 His care and thoughtfulness for others, His yearn- 
 ing to do good to the bodies and souls of men, 
 His desire to pardon and forgive the sinful ; His 
 entire trust in God, His absolute resignation to 
 the Father's will, His perfect submission to the 
 Divine counsels ; — all are exemplified as the 
 terrible drama of Gethsemane and the Passion 
 is enacted before us. In the Passion, more than 
 elsewhere, we behold the Son of Man ; in the 
 Passion, more than elsewhere, we recognise the 
 truth which even a heathen centurion dimly 
 apprehended : " Truly this was the Son of God." 
 
 AVe have regarded the conflict in Gethsemane 
 and the crucifixion at Calvary as they tended to 
 throw light on the character of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. But who can let his thoughts dwell on 
 that divine tragedy and not remember its personal 
 significance to himself? Who can contemplate 
 the sufferings which Jesus bore without feeling 
 his heart stirred with love and devotion towards 
 
GETHSEMANE AND THE PASSION. 27 1 
 
 the Saviour, who was content thus to suffer and 
 to die, that at such a price He might win man's 
 redemption ? Who can look upon that sacrifice 
 of divine love, and not re-echo the words of Graf 
 Zinzendorf: "Thou hast done so much for me; 
 but what have I done for Thee ? " 
 
XIV. 
 
 THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN 
 CHRIST. 
 
 The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a 
 thing absolutely unique in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 As the Resurrection is the central fact of 
 Christianity, it is around it that controversy has 
 raged most strongly. Friends and foes alike have 
 discerned that the Christian religion, in any real 
 sense, stands or falls as the truth of the Resur- 
 rection is accepted or rejected. Sceptics of the 
 advanced school, as it is falsely called, put it at 
 once aside as the most outrageous of all the 
 legends which have gathered round the name of 
 Jesus of Nazareth. As it is allowed on all sides, 
 that, if it be a fact, it is a miraculous fact, the 
 large school of modern thought which denies the 
 possibility of miracles is bound to deny it ; that 
 is to say, is bound to deny it in any orthodox 
 sense. Thus the Resurrection is regarded as a 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE PJSEN CHPJST. 273 
 
 fraud, though very few remain who persist in 
 taking this view ; or as a legend, the invention of 
 which arose gradually and in all good faith ; or as 
 an hallucination, which is to be explained much 
 in the same way as that in which mesmerism and 
 its many offshoots is accounted for. This last 
 view specially commends itself to those who, 
 while disbelieving the physical fact of the Resurrec- 
 tion, yet maintain the honesty and good faith of 
 the apostles, and are willing to receive the history 
 of Christ as narrated in the Gospels, and the history 
 of the Church as narrated in the Acts, as sub- 
 stantially true. It also commends itself to another 
 large class of persons, namely, those who deny the 
 fact of the bodily resurrection, because their theory 
 obliges them to discredit the miracle. The number 
 of such persons is unhappily largely on the in- 
 crease. They are Christians ; they believe in 
 Christ, and they believe in Christ's religion ; but 
 they regard every miraculous incident narrated as 
 either legendary, or a later addition. And so 
 they persuade themselves, as did Hymenaeus and 
 Philetus of old, that the Resurrection was purely 
 spiritual — a revival of the Spirit of Christ in the 
 hearts of His disciples. 
 
 But these controversies and theories lie alto- 
 gether outside the scope of this present paper. 
 
274 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 It is not our object to prove the fact of the 
 Resurrection, but, assuming its truth, to study the 
 lesson it teaches, especially as it bears upon the 
 nature and mental characteristics of the Saviour. 
 In the same manner it does not enter into our 
 purpose to discuss the authenticity or genuineness 
 of the records. A particular passage may have 
 been added by a later hand to supply the omission 
 of a lost page, or a doubt may be entertained con- 
 cerning the tradition which identifies John the 
 Divine with the son of Zebedee ; but notwith- 
 standing the keen endeavours of a destructive 
 criticism to demonstrate the untrustworthiness 
 of the books on which we rely, the most recent 
 inquiry tends to confirm the authorship of the 
 New Testament writings, and to acknowledge 
 that even the Fourth Gospel, as M. Renan allows, 
 is the work of the apostle whose name it bears. 
 All unwittingly as unintentionally Bauer, and the 
 author of " Supernatural Religion," have, in the 
 end, done good service to the truth they attacked 
 so bitterly. 
 
 The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a 
 thing absolutely unique in the history of the 
 world. There had been revivals. Once and 
 again the dead had been brought back to life. 
 The Old Testament prophets had constrained the 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 
 
 -/O 
 
 soul to re-enter the body it had for a time quitted. 
 The Lord Jesus had Himself recalled the life 
 which had departed. But, as has often been 
 pointed out, there is no analogy between these 
 reanimations and the Resurrection of Christ. The 
 resuscitated child, the raised girl, the reanimated 
 man, were still subject to death, and eventually 
 became death's prey. Over the Eisen Lord death 
 had no more dominion. In that He died, He 
 died unto sin once : in that He lived, He lived 
 unto God. In His case the curse was arrested, 
 because the thing which caused the curse was 
 destroyed. The Eesurrection of Christ was the 
 resurrection of Man to the life eternal. In Adam 
 all had died ; in Christ all were made alive. 
 
 Many difficult questions suggest themselves 
 with regard to the body of the Eisen Christ. 
 These questions gather round them a deep 
 interest, because the body, wherewith the Lord 
 was clothed at the Eesurrection, is the exemplar 
 and pattern of the body which shall pertain to 
 His saints at their resurrection. 
 
 First we may note that it was the same body, \ 
 In the case of Christ it was absolutely the same J 
 body — the same actual body which had been laid 
 in the sepulchre. It is true that in three out of 
 the ten appearances of Christ after the Eesurrec- 
 
2/6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 tion the recognition was not immediate ; but the 
 cause of the failure of recognition lay in the 
 persons beholding, not in the body itself. In the 
 case of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus,' 
 we are expressly told that " their eyes were 
 holdcn " that they should not know Him ; when 
 Christ appeared to the disciples as they were 
 fishing in the Lake of Galilee, it was the half 
 darkness of the early dawn that prevented them 
 from recognising the indistinct form ; and with 
 regard to Mary Magdalene mistaking her Lord 
 for the gardener, not only was her mind pre- 
 occupied, but, as. has been said very beautifully, the 
 falling tears wove a veil before her eyes so that 
 she could not see. But the body was unmistak- 
 ably the same. It bore the marks of Christ's 
 recent sufferings. The appeal to the doubting 
 Thomas was the scar left by the cruel nails and 
 the wound inflicted by the trooper's spear. The 
 manner was the same. He was known to the 
 disciples at Emmaus, when, according to His 
 wont, He took into His hands the bread and 
 broke it. The voice was the same. Mary 
 Magdalene, too absorbed by her sorrow to notice 
 the appearance of a stranger, knew instantly the 
 voice which called her by her name. The general 
 aspect was the same. When the first feeling of 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 2/7 
 
 fear and astonishment had subsided, the disciples, 
 gathered together on that eventful Sunday night, 
 had no difficulty in recognising Him, whom, despite 
 the closed doors, they saw standing in their midst, 
 as their Master. 
 
 It was the same body, and yet it was not the 
 same body. It was the same body, but it was 
 differently conditioned. The Lord Jesus Christ, 
 being man, had conformed Himself even in His 
 Resurrection to the laws which should regulate 
 man. In the case of the Christ "it was sown a 
 natural body, it was raised a spiritual body." 
 
 It has been finely observed, that, in our ignorance 
 of matter, we cannot know how matter itself, and 
 its laws, may be modified by the ruling of the 
 spirit in the spiritual body. The resurrection- 
 body, being a body, must be material ; and the 
 spectroscope has shown, that, so far as our know- 
 ledge extends, all matter throughout the universe 
 is identically the same, and is composed of the 
 same primitive elements, or, as men of science 
 dream, of the same primitive element, as we find 
 on our earth. But as it is supposed that the 
 principles of mathematics, which are axiomatic 
 so far as geometry of three dimensions arc con- 
 cerned, may have to be modified when we have 
 to do with figures of four dimensions, so it has 
 
2; 8 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 been suggested that the ordinary laws of matter, 
 such as that of gravitation, may be overruled by 
 the higher spiritual nature of the resurrection- 
 body. Man's present body is a psychical, or 
 soulish body (o-ay/a ylu-^iKou — " natural body "), that 
 is to say, a body which he possesses in common 
 with the lower animals, and is governed and 
 regulated by the animal life ; but the resurrec- 
 tion-body is a spiritual body (crw.ua irvevixariKov), 
 that is, a body governed and regulated by the 
 spiritual life. The distinction between soul and 
 spirit must be accurately observed. The fifteenth 
 chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians 
 should be carefully studied ; and then it will be 
 seen that the word soul, and its corresponding 
 adjective, is not used, as persons very commonly 
 use it erroneously in ordinary language, as the 
 equivalent of man's immortal part, but simply as 
 the animal life which man possesses in common 
 with the rest of the animal creation. The word 
 soul is always used in the New Testament in 
 this sense of animal life. And curiously enough, 
 there is no word in the New Testament which 
 answers to our popular use of the word soul. 
 The word " spirit " corresponds most nearly, but 
 spirit, applied to man, is used, at all events by 
 St. Paul, as the soul of man (in its popular sense) 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 279 
 
 informed by the Spirit of God. Another popular 
 conception needs also be guarded against. The 
 " glorified " body of the Resurrection is thought 
 of as being aerial, fine like gossamer, attenuated 
 and transparent, as the painters represent the 
 bodies of angels. But there is nothing in Scripture 
 to uphold such an idea. It does not describe 
 man's earthly body as being heavy, gross, sluggish ; 
 nor, on the other hand, does it teach that the 
 resurrection-body shall be light, quick, or im- 
 ponderable. The " glory " may well be an inner 
 glory ; or rather the glory may be sometimes 
 veiled, as when Christ appeared to Mary Mag- 
 dalene, sometimes apparent, as in Christ's trans- 
 figuration. With regard to our Lord's body, it 
 has been well pointed out that, although during 
 His life on earth His body was a " natural " body, 
 and after the Resurrection it was a " spiritual " 
 body, yet in His case the body during the life 
 of earth may have been so " plastic under the 
 power of the Spirit," that the spiritual life may 
 even then have asserted its influence, as it 
 shall in us after the resurrection. In support of 
 this view, the transfiguration, the slipping out of 
 the hands of the mob of Nazareth, His sudden 
 withdrawals from the crowds of Jerusalem when 
 they threatened His life too soon, and especially 
 
2 SO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 His walking on the sea of Galilee, are instanced. 
 It is pointed out that this miracle of walking on 
 the water appears to " occupy a position wholly 
 peculiar to itself among the miracles of the Fourth 
 Gospel ; " that it is not called a sign ; and that it 
 is not introduced, as it is usually the case with 
 St. John in narrating miracles, for the purpose 
 of leading up to a discourse. It seems in the 
 eyes of the Evangelist to be but a natural act 
 on the part of Him, who was as much above, 
 as within, the laws which regulate the lives and 
 acts of ordinary men. 
 
 Anyway the body of the Risen Lord was not 
 subject to the laws which govern the bodies of 
 mortal men. It could penetrate through material 
 obstacles. The closed doors presented no hin- 
 drance to the appearance of Christ in the midst 
 of His disciples. It could make itself visible or 
 invisible. The stranger on the way to Emmaus 
 did not arrive, but was ; the Lord did not come to 
 the shore of the Lake, but stood there. So on the 
 other hand it could become invisible. They were 
 seated at the supper table in a room, doubtless 
 with closed doors, when the Saviour, whom they 
 had recognised, vanished out of their sight. All 
 the appearances of our Lord partook of this sudden- 
 ness. We are never told of any approach ; no 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 28 1 
 
 departure is ever mentioned. He is there ; He is 
 there no longer. The resurrection-body of Christ 
 was not bound by the ordinary laws of locomotion. 
 It was bloodless. " A spirit," said our Lord to 
 His affrighted disciples, " hath not flesh and bones 
 as ye see me have ; " but unless we suppose some 
 further change to have taken place, presumably at 
 the time of the Ascension, a difficulty meets us 
 when we compare this word with the declaration 
 of St. Paul, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit 
 the kingdom of God." Another difficulty to a 
 correct understanding of the nature of the re- 
 surrection-body is in the fact mentioned by St. 
 Luke, that our Lord in the presence of His 
 disciples ate a piece of a broiled fish and of an 
 honeycomb. This is the only instance recorded 
 in which our Lord ate after the Resurrection. It 
 does not appear that Christ ever ate with the 
 disciples after He left the tomb. He certainly did 
 not do so at Emmaus ; and the language of St. 
 John, "Jesus cometh and taketh bread, and giveth 
 them, and the fish likewise," would exclude the 
 idea that Christ Himself partook of the food He 
 had provided by the Lake of Tiberias. The older 
 theory was that man, when clothed with the re- 
 surrection-body, should eat, and much was made 
 of the text which says that " man did eat angels' 
 
2S2 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 food ; " and there is a certain difficulty in the 
 Lord's saying at the last passover, that he would 
 not " henceforth cjrink of the fruit of the vine," 
 until that day when He should drink it new in 
 the kingdom of God. Modern chemistry, with 
 its explanation of food and the mode by which 
 food nourishes, appears to make eating incom- 
 patible with a state in which corruption has no 
 place. Lastly the spiritual body of the Besurrec- 
 tion was not subject to the law of gravitation. 
 This is proved by the Ascension. 
 
 Perhaps a word may be said as to the clothing 
 of the resurrection-body of Christ. It would 
 appear that the clothing was docetic ; that is to 
 say, that the body appeared clothed, either accord- 
 ing to the will of Christ, or in accordance with 
 the nature of the appearance. The clothing was 
 fitted to the occasion. Thus when our Lord 
 appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden, His 
 dress was such as would be worn by the gardener. 
 So we may suppose that on the other occasions 
 on which Christ showed Himself, His dress must 
 have been in keeping. Had there been anything 
 marked or striking about theLord's external appear- 
 ance, St. John, who is careful to tell us that 
 Christ's cloak was seamless, would hardly have 
 failed to notice it. In the Apocalypse when the 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 28 
 
 o 
 
 Lord, after His Ascension, appeared to St. John 
 the Divine, the character of the garments He wore 
 is expressly noted. He appeared as the Priest of 
 His Church, and the style of dress is taken from 
 that worn by the High Priest of the Jews. The 
 story of the transfiguration throws some light upon 
 the matter. On that occasion the " spiritual " 
 dominated the "natural;" and accordingly His 
 attire took its form and appearance from the glory 
 of the glorified body: "His raiment was white 
 as the light." Similarly in the appearance to St. 
 Paul, although no mention is made of the actual 
 clothing, the glistening raiment may be under- 
 stood : "There shone from heaven a great light 
 round about me;" and again, "He saw a light 
 from heaven, above the brightness of the sun." 
 The white raiment of the saints, spoken of in the 
 Revelations, may have a similar origin. 
 
 If the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead 
 clad in the same body, much more did He rise 
 with the same mental attributes. These had 
 undergone no change. The continuity between 
 the life which He led on earth, and the new life 
 which He took from the sepulchre, is preserved 
 in all its integrity. All the qualities which 
 characterised the Saviour as He taught in Galilee, 
 or preached in Jerusalem, are found in the Risen 
 
2S4 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Lord. All the human qualities, which had en- 
 deared Him to His disciples, and had kept their 
 love alive even when their hope had died, were 
 there. All the human qualities which had attracted 
 to His side the weary, the sorrowing, and the 
 sinful, were there. And still more all that in- 
 communicable grace and reserved power, which 
 marked Him as the Son of God, were there. To 
 comfort, to teach, to strengthen, and to forgive, 
 are the proper work of the lliscn Christ, as they 
 had been the proper work of the Son of Man on 
 earth. Only something of the same change to 
 greater glory had come over His mind as had 
 glorified His body. Not less love, not less tender- 
 ness ; but a larger power, a greater majesty, a 
 deeper awe. 
 
 This continuity of mental thought, with some- 
 thing of a diviner reverence superadded, is to be 
 noticed in all the recorded appearances of which 
 any details have been preserved. Omitting the 
 appearances of the ascended Lord, there are in 
 all ten occasions on which Christ showed Him- 
 self after His resurrection. 
 
 They are : — 
 
 Matt, xxviii. 1-10. The appearance to the \ 
 women returning from the empty sepulchre. 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHPJST. 285 
 
 John xx. 1 1- 1 8. The appearance to Mary> 
 
 Magdalene in the garden. 
 Luke xxiv. 34. The appearance to Simon 7 
 
 Peter on the day of Resurrection. 
 Luke xxiv. 13-34. The appearance to the d 
 
 two disciples on the road to Emmaus. 
 John xx. 19-23. The appearance to the ( 
 
 disciples gathered together with closed door 
 
 on the evening of the day of Resurrection. 
 John xx. 26-29. The second appearance on ^ 
 
 the eighth day to the assembled disciples, 
 
 Thomas being with them. 
 John xxi. 1-23. The appearance to the dis- 
 
 ciples who had been fishing by the Lake 
 
 of Galilee. 
 1 Cor. xv. 6, compared with Matt, xxviii. c, 
 
 16-20. The appearance on a mountain in 
 
 Galilee to five hundred disciples. 
 1 Cor. xv. 7. The appearance to James, of q 
 
 which no details are given, and which is 
 
 not mentioned in the Gospels. 
 Luke xxiv. 50-51 and Acts i. 4-9. The ^ 
 
 Ascension. 
 
 How the first word of the Risen Lord comes 
 home to the hearts of His people. The prophet 
 had foretold what the mission of the Messiah was 
 
2S6 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 to be. " The spirit of the Lord is upon rue, 
 because he hath anointed me ... to comfort 
 all who mourn." He has risen, and once more 
 His first office is to comfort one who mourns. 
 "Woman, why wcepest thou?" How the 
 thought goes back to a scene of the life which 
 was closed, when, meeting another sorrowing 
 woman, He had bidden her not to weep, and 
 with his word of power had turned her tears 
 to gladness. And yet while there is a whole 
 volume of tender love in the one word when He 
 calls Mary Magdalene by her name, an awe she 
 had never felt before — an awe not repressing, but 
 ex alting her lo ve — makes itself felt in her heart, as 
 the "Touch me not" tells her that the old life of 
 familiar intercourse was not to be resumed. Some 
 similar feeling was in the mind of the other women 
 whom He met returning from the sepulchre ; and 
 they, with a reverence they had not hitherto known, 
 held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. 
 
 Again, how the former mind of the Saviour 
 manifested itself in the appearance to St. Peter. 
 It is but a little incidental verse, casually (as we 
 say) introduced. " The Lord is risen indeed, and 
 hath appeared unto Simon." It is not difficult to 
 picture to the imagination what St. Peter's feelings 
 must have been. The Lord whom he loved so 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 2S7 
 
 passionately was dead. And in spite of warnings, 
 and in spite of his own protestations, the last act 
 towards his Lord was the denial ; and the last 
 look of his Lord had been one of sorrow. But 
 through His own pain Christ had noted the bitter 
 tears which marked His apostle's repentance ; 
 and almost the first thought in the Lord's heart 
 after His resurrection was how He might comfort 
 His broken-hearted disciple, and assure him of 
 forgiveness. St. Luke wrote his Gospel from 
 information which he received from those who 
 had been eye-witnesses of Christ's acts. May not 
 the beautiful story of the woman who was a sinner, 
 whom Christ forgave, have been told by this erring 
 Peter ; and may not the expression of Christ, " she 
 loved much," have been preserved by this same 
 Peter, who, notwithstanding his grievous fall, 
 could appeal to Him who knew all hearts : "Lord, 
 Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I 
 love Thee " ? 
 
 And once more. In the days of His sojourn 
 upon earth He had quoted as the motto for His 
 own conduct the Messianic words of the prophet : 
 " A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking 
 flax shall He not quench." After the Resur- 
 rection just such a case occurred. Thomas was a 
 man of a dark, melancholy disposition, inclined to 
 
2 88 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 take a gloomy view of things. An unhappy man, 
 and one difficult to get on with, but possessing, 
 as such natures often do, a dogged pertinacity of 
 affection. In his miserable moroseness he had 
 absented himself from the society of his fellow- 
 disciples, and when they told him the joyful news 
 of the Resurrection, he refused to believe it. In 
 his sullen anger he expressed his unbelief in 
 strong and unbecoming terms. But their report 
 produced one good effect ; Thomas no longer 
 separated himself from his companions. Eight 
 days passed by, and then the Lord appeared once 
 more. lie had known all the unbelief; He had 
 heard all the hasty words ; and as in former clays 
 when His disciples had erred, or had been foolish, 
 Christ's anger had melted into sorrow, so now the 
 Risen Saviour's words of rebuke ring with a tone 
 of tender forbearance rather than of harshness : 
 " Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
 and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my 
 side ; and be not faithless, but believing." 
 
 The Teacher, drawing forth with infinite skill 
 the thoughts, and doubts, and difficulties in the 
 minds of His hearers, as in the beginning of His 
 ministry He had drawn forth the latent doubt 
 in the heart of Nathaniel, is seen on the way to 
 Emmaus ; the Master, by a symbolical sign point- 
 
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. 289 
 
 ing out the work which awaited His apostles, and 
 their success, as on the occasion of their call He 
 had instructed them by a similar miracle, is visible 
 by the Lake of Galilee ; the Lord, breathing upon 
 them that they might receive the Holy Ghost, 
 and thus giving the earnest of the fulfilment 
 of the promise He had spoken just before the 
 humiliation of His betrayal, is before us as He 
 stands in the midst of His disciples. Concerning 
 His appearance to James no details are given, nor 
 are there any special circumstances narrated with 
 reference to Christ's showing Himself to the 
 five hundred brethren of whom St. Paul makes 
 mention. But enough is recorded to teach us 
 plainly that the Risen Lord and Saviour is the 
 same Lord and Saviour as died. Enough is said 
 to make our hearts sure that He is as pitiful, as 
 loving, as compassionate, as ready to receive, to 
 pardon, and to bless, as the Lord and Saviour 
 whose footsteps we followed as He walked by the 
 shores of the Lake of Galilee, or to whose teaching 
 we hearkened reverently as lie delivered His 
 sermon from the Mount of Beatitudes. 
 
XV. 
 
 THE APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED 
 LORD. 
 
 In studying the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 one circumstance is calculated to make a strik- 
 ing impression upon the mind, viz., the manner 
 in which our Lord performed His actions. The 
 Lord constantly appealed to His works as a proof 
 of His Divine mission. " Believe Me," He said 
 to the Jews who were cavilling at Him, " for the 
 very works' sake." Yet never were works done 
 with greater simplicity. The mighty works which 
 He did arose out of the accidental circumstances 
 of His daily life. Never once did our Lord per- 
 form a miracle of which it can be said, that He 
 wrought it for effect, and even directly as evidence 
 of His power. When pressed by His adversaries 
 to show a sign, He invariably refused. Christ's 
 miracles were acts of kindness, or of pity, such as 
 we might any day perform. The happy gladness 
 of the marriage feast was likely to be over-clouded, 
 because the stock of wine was failing, and the 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 29 1 
 
 Lord Jesus works His first miracle to prevent the 
 disappointment. A wretched cripple is lying by 
 the side of the health-giving spring, which through 
 his infirmity he cannot reach, and Christ, moved 
 with compassion, heals him. Multitudes are 
 around Him, their provisions are expended ; and 
 the Lord, to save them from hunger, multiplies 
 the loaves of bread. A blind man calls upon Him 
 for help as he is passing onwards into Jericho, 
 and a gracious word of the Saviour sends him to 
 his home restored to sight. 
 
 After His resurrection Christ acts in the same 
 manner. Sceptics have asked scornfully, why did 
 Christ only show Himself to His friends ? why did 
 He not at once shame and convict His enemies by 
 appearing to them after he was risen from the 
 dead ? Such a mode of action would have been 
 altogether foreign to the Lord's character. Had 
 He done so, sceptics, far from being convinced, 
 would have urged, as they might have done with 
 reason, the want of mental continuity as an objec- 
 tion. But the Lord, after His resurrection, con- 
 tinued to act precisely in the same manner as 
 before His passion. As His miracles were per- 
 formed for the purpose of giving comfort and 
 relief to the individuals who benefited by them, 
 so the appearances were granted in order to 
 
292 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 console, or strengthen, or bless His disciples. 
 He manifested Himself to Peter in order that He 
 might seal to him forgiveness for the denial. He 
 showed Himself to Mary Magdalene in order that 
 Tie might diy her tears. He penetrated through 
 the closed doors into the chamber, where the 
 disciples were assembled, in order that He might 
 relieve them from the fear, and suspense, and 
 sorrow, which filled their hearts. As there was 
 no miracle which had not its object of mercy, so 
 was there no appearance which had not its purpose 
 of comfort. The Lord has risen, not only with 
 the same body, not only bearing in His hands the 
 imprints of the nails, not only carrying on His 
 side the piercing of the spear ; but animated with 
 the same spirit, endued with the same mental dis- 
 position, possessed with the same feelings, endowed 
 with the same emotions, marked by the same 
 character. 
 
 And this same continuity of character is to be 
 traced in the Lord after His ascension. The 
 appearances did not cease after He had ascended 
 to the right hand of the Majesty on high. At 
 rare intervals He showed Himself to one or 
 another of His servants. And these appearances 
 had an individual character, and a personal sig- 
 nificance. As the miracles were kindly actions, 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 2Q3 
 
 and not irresistible signs of overwhelming power ; 
 as the appearances after the resurrection were 
 missions of comfort to His disciples, and not 
 convincing revelations to the world ; so the 
 manifestations after the ascension were visits 
 of mercy to His servants, and not mighty displays 
 of majesty to unbelievers. It was to His proto- 
 martyr St. Stephen that Christ revealed Himself, 
 standing at the right hand of God to aid and 
 succour the confessor who was content to suffer 
 in his Master's cause. It was to the angry Saul, 
 breathing out threatenings and slaughter against 
 His Church, that the Lord showed Himself on 
 the way to Damascus, that He might change the 
 persecutor into the noble Paul, the great Apostle 
 of the Gentiles. It was to His servant John, an 
 exile in the isle that is called Patmos, for the 
 Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ, that the Lord appeared, in order that in 
 the glorious mysteries of the Apocalyptic vision, 
 the pains of his banishment might be forgotten. 
 In His life, in His resurrection, in His ascension, 
 in His glory at the right hand of God, it is ever 
 the same Saviour, bearing man's infirmities, carry- 
 ing man's weaknesses, pitying man's sorrows, re- 
 lieving man's ills ; ever aiding, ever comforting, 
 ever blessing. 
 
294 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Let us glance briefly at the history of Stephen. 
 A Hellenistic Jew, upon the murmuring of the 
 Grecian widows that they were neglected in the 
 daily ministration, he was chosen one of the seven. 
 He seems, as is not unfrequently the case, to 
 have derived a new energy from a new sphere ; or, 
 possibly, his new office opened an opportunity of 
 influence which before had been lacking. Holy 
 Scripture, which rarely deals in superlatives, 
 seems almost to fail in finding words to mark the 
 importance of himself and of his work. He 
 alone of all the seven is declared to be a man 
 " full of faith and of the Holy Ghost ; " a few 
 verses further on he is described as being " full of 
 faith and power ; " his miracles and wonders were 
 "great among the people;" the wisdom and the 
 spirit by which he spake were "irresistible ;" his 
 very face was " as it had been the face of an 
 angel." Nor was his character marked only by 
 energy and power. He had drunk fully of Christ's 
 spirit. The meekness of the Master was not 
 wanting in His disciple ; the gentleness of the 
 Lord was not lacking in His servant ; the first 
 witness for Christ emulated his Lord's Divine 
 spirit of forgiveness ; the love which Christ dis- 
 played so conspicuously, shone forth brightly in 
 His proto-martyr. Forgetful of his enemies' cruel 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LOPD. 295 
 
 hatred, regardless of his own sharp pains, the 
 dying Stephen kneeled down, and prayed for 
 those who slew him : " Lord, lay not this sin to 
 their charge." 
 
 Stephen was the forerunner of St. Paul. In 
 his speech before the council can be traced the 
 germs of that teaching which St. Paul afterwards 
 so nobly developed. While the apostles were 
 still daily going up to the Temple to pray ; while 
 St. Peter was still scandalised at the mere idea 
 that Gentiles could be anything but unclean ; 
 while the Church was ready to be thrown into a 
 ferment, which an apostle could scarcely allay, 
 because an uncircumcised man had been admitted 
 to baptism ; we find Stephen — as St. Paul later — 
 denouncing Jewish local worship with the Jewish 
 customs which belonged to it. At this time the 
 apostles and the Christian community were 
 clinging fast to Judaism and the ceremonial law. 
 The holy land of Israel, the holy city of the Jews, 
 above all the holy place of the Jewish Temple, — 
 these things, with all the narrow bigoted religious 
 notions which were inseparable from them, were 
 adhered to by the disciples of Christ, as tena- 
 ciously and zealously as by the Jews themselves. 
 They had no conception of an universal Church 
 which should embrace in its large fold all nations 
 
296 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 without distinction. Stephen was the first to 
 grasp this wide truth. And for this truth he died. 
 Almost as if to give sanction to this truth did the 
 ascended Christ appear. 
 
 For it was to St. Stephen, dying under the 
 hands of those to whom its enunciation was as 
 blasphemy, that the Lord Jesus manifested Him- 
 self: "He being full of the Holy Ghost, looked 
 up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of 
 God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of 
 God, and he said, Behold I see the heavens 
 opened, and the Son of Man standing on the 
 right hand of God." 
 
 Our thoughts instinctively recur to the words 
 which Christ had himself spoken only a short 
 time back in the presence of this very council. 
 When the High Priest had asked him, " I adjure 
 Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us 
 whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God," 
 the Lord had answered, " Thou hast said : 
 hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the 
 right hand of the power of God." For the 
 moment the Jewish rulers had had their way. 
 The Son of God had bowed His head in meek- 
 ness, and submitted Himself to their passionate 
 vengeance. His words had been thrown back in 
 scorn and derision ; they had afforded a handle to 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 297 
 
 the charge of blasphemy ; they had been the pre- 
 text for passing the sentence of death. The Jews 
 had wrought their deadly purpose ; they had 
 rejoiced as their machinations succeeded ; they 
 had stood in triumph beneath the cross on which 
 their victim hung in agony. But retribution had 
 come. His disci pies had not been crushed by the 
 death of their Master. Jerusalem was resounding 
 with the story of His resurrection, and now, in 
 their very presence, this man echoes the words 
 which had raised their anger, as a defiant truth : 
 "I see . . . the Son of Man standing on the 
 right hand of God." 
 
 The expression spoken is the same as that used 
 by Christ. The title " Son of Man " was one very 
 frequently on the lips of the Saviour. It was a 
 name which Christ took pleasure in applying to 
 Himself. But the sacred writers hesitate to use 
 it when speaking of Christ. Even the three 
 Galilean Evangelists, who delight in drawing be- 
 fore us the picture of the Man Christ Jesus, who 
 show us the Christ of God suffering under human 
 trials, giving way under human burdens, yielding 
 to human weaknesses, moved by human emotions, 
 shedding human tears, never give Him this 
 specially human name, or mention it as being 
 used of Him by others. The proto-martyr alone, 
 
298 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 in order to bring conviction to the hearts of those 
 who had condemned the guiltless, repeated the 
 word of power which Christ had pronounced be- 
 fore His judges, and gave as His last testimony : 
 " I see . . . the Son of Man standing on the 
 right hand of God." The Lord had said, The Son 
 of Man shall sit on the right hand of God. St. 
 Stephen said, I see the Son of Man standing on 
 the right hand of God. The Fathers were quick 
 to see the beautiful thought which is shown by the 
 difference of attitude. Christ sitteth at the right 
 hand of God in heaven ; but when distress or trials 
 are near to His servants, then the Lord Jesus 
 sitteth no longer, but, rising up, standeth in order 
 the better to aid and protect them. The thought 
 is embodied in the collect for St. Stephen's day, 
 which reminds us that the "blessed Jesus standeth 
 at the right hand of God, to succour all those who 
 suffer for Him." And so St. Stephen found it. 
 True, for him there was the cruel stoning, as there 
 had been the bitter cross for his Master. But in 
 his death victory was sealed to the servant, as 
 victory had been won by his Lord. "And they 
 stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, 
 Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; and he kneeled 
 down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 299 
 
 this sin to their charge. And when he had said 
 this, he fell asleep." 
 
 Doubtless this recorded appearance of the 
 ascended Saviour in heaven is valuable on account 
 of the additional evidence it affords of our Lord's 
 resurrection. But what renders this account of 
 the manifested Lord more precious, is the atti- 
 tude in which St. Stephen beheld Him. "We 
 believe " that Christ sitteth at the right hand of 
 God ; " but the thought which brings comfort, and 
 strength, and courage to the human heart, is that 
 the Lord Jesus standeth to succour all those who 
 need His help. It is the objective evidence that 
 the ascended Lord is still the Son of Man. It is 
 the visible proof that He is the same Saviour who 
 preached by the Lake of Galilee, and taught in 
 the streets of Jerusalem. It is the distinct witness 
 that He is as ready to aid and pity us now that 
 He is in heaven, as He was to heal the sick, or 
 restore the dying, or gladden the comfortless when 
 He was on earth. It is the blessed assurance that 
 we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities, but One to 
 whose throne of grace we can come boldly, that 
 we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 
 time of need. 
 
 The mere history of the appearance of Christ to 
 
300 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 St. Paul may be passed over. The details of what 
 happened on that journey to Damascus- — the 
 sudden flashing light from heaven exceeding the 
 brightness of the sun, the falling to the earth 
 of Saul and those who journeyed with him, the 
 unexpected voice carrying conviction to the 
 heart of the persecutor, the three days' blindness, 
 the prayer, the baptism — all these things are as 
 twice-told tales. 
 
 But there are at least two points in connection 
 with this appearance of the ascended Lord, which 
 are well worth serious consideration. 
 
 The appearance to St. Paul is of very great 
 evidential value. A class of writers exist w r ho 
 would distinguish between what they are pleased 
 to call subjective and objective appearances ; and 
 while they acknowledge the truth of the one, they 
 deny the reality of the other. Dr. Carpenter, 
 Dr. Abbot, the author of " Supernatural Religion," 
 and Canon Freemantle are names which occur 
 in this connection. Now had the account of the 
 appearance to St. Stephen stood alone, and in 
 an uninspired writing, it might be argued with 
 plausibility that it was of a subjective character ; 
 that is to say, that it was a vision which the 
 exalted state of Stephen's mind caused him to see. 
 But it is difficult to hold such a theory in the 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 3OI 
 
 case of the appearance to St. Paul. That the 
 Lord Jesus Christ did actually in His own proper 
 person appear to Saul on the road to Damascus, 
 does not rest on the mere narrative in the Acts. 
 It does not rest only on the fact that others were 
 affected by it, as well as the future apostle — 
 although that is a very strong proof of its reality. 
 The proof that the appearance was an objective 
 fact — that Christ being risen, and having ascended 
 into the heavens, did show Himself to St. Paul, 
 and that Paul did behold Him, and did hear His 
 very voice — the proof of this is to be sought, and 
 is found, in the whole after-life of the apostle. It 
 must have been a very strong cause which could 
 suddenly, without previous anticipation or pre- 
 paration, change this ruthless persecutor of Christ's 
 Church into its chief sustaining pillar. And 
 when a man like Paul — a keen reasoner, a subtle 
 disputcr, an educated scholar — declares that the 
 cause was the appearance of the risen and 
 ascended Lord, it seems mere incredulity to 
 doubt his word. This incident, then, affords one 
 of the strongest historical proofs, that our holy 
 religion rests on a sure foundation, and that the 
 Church has full warrant for declaring her belief 
 that " Christ rose again from the dead, ascended 
 into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God 
 the Father Almighty." 
 
302 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 The second thought which the appearance of 
 our Lord to St. Paul forces on the mind is of a 
 more p ractical natu re. It is the same as that 
 which meets us everywhere in the life of Christ. 
 The object was to bring conviction to the in- 
 dividual. It was a personal act of grace to the 
 man himself. Primarily, it was the rescuing of a 
 sinful soul from error. The good Shepherd was 
 seeking His sheep that had strayed. The after- 
 consequences were of the most momentous kind. 
 They issued in such an enlargement of the Church 
 as the original apostles had never dreamed of. 
 They caused such a wide extension of the prin- 
 ciples of Christianity as the first followers of 
 Christ could not grasp. They opened the door 
 to the whole world of the Gentiles. But it is 
 not with these consequences that the narrative 
 occupies itself. The conversion, the prayer, the 
 baptism of the man; — these are the things on 
 which St. Luke lays stress. It is but the re- 
 petition of the appearance to St. Stephen. As 
 Christ then appeared, standing on the right hand 
 of God, to aid and succour His servant who was 
 suffering for His sake, so on this occasion does 
 the Lord Jesus manifest Himself in grace and 
 pity, in order that He may reclaim this blas- 
 phemer and injurious to better and truer thoughts. 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LOPD. 
 
 3"->J 
 
 It is a re-acting of any one of those miracles 
 Christ wrought on earth, when, touched with 
 compassion at the sight of man's suffering, or 
 moved with pity at the thought of man's sin, He 
 put forth His hand to relieve him, or exerted His 
 power to save him. The continuity of Christ's 
 character is preserved. As He was on earth, so is 
 He still in heaven. 
 
 As the direct purpose of our Lord's miracles 
 was to give relief to those who sought His aid, 
 as the primary object of the appearance of our 
 Lord after His resurrection was to comfort and 
 console His disciples, so the immediate cause of 
 the manifestations of our Lord after His ascension 
 was to succour, convert, or comfort those to whom 
 He showed Himself. But beyond this primary 
 and direct purpose there were other ends to be 
 fulfilled. The miracles were the outward witness 
 of the Father to the divinity of the Eternal Son ; 
 the appearances after the crucifixion were the 
 proofs of the reality of the resurrection ; and the 
 manifestations after the ascension into heaven, 
 were the visible tokens that Christ had not left 
 His Church, but continued as her Head, to rule 
 and govern her. 
 
 Christ appeared to strengthen Stephen in the 
 hour of his martyrdom ; He appeared to convert 
 
304 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 St. Paul when his rage against His Church was 
 at its hottest : He manifested Himself to St. John 
 in Patmos to comfort him in the exile which he 
 suffered for the Word of God, and for the 
 testimony of Jesus Christ. The individual and 
 personal object of the manifestation must by no 
 means be lost sight of. However wide may be 
 our interest in the world at large, however keen 
 may be the concern which we take in the well- 
 being of the Church as a whole, still the centre 
 around which each one revolves, is, undeniably, 
 his own life, and that of those immediately dear 
 to him. And the Bible, which recognises all 
 truths, does not fail to apprehend this one. It 
 gives us the history of God's Church ; of its first 
 commencement as a distinct Church by the call 
 of Abraham ; of its gradual growth and extension 
 through the patriarchs and the Jewish people ; 
 of its first lesson in holiness through material 
 fasting, and denial of the animal appetites ; of the 
 dawn of true spiritual life by the teaching of some 
 inspired judge or seer, who saw more clearly than 
 his contemporaries ; of the slow advancement of 
 the spiritual life by the music of the Psalms, and 
 by the preaching and writings of the prophets ; 
 of the supercession of the Jewish Church by the 
 coming of Messiah and the founding of Christ i- 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 305 
 
 anity. But how is it all told? Not by essays 
 on church government ; not by abstract discus- 
 sions on mental and spiritual progress ; not by 
 historical disquisitions ; not by philosophising on 
 the nature of the Godhead ; not by homilies on 
 holiness. Such things as these might, perhaps, 
 have attracted the few, but they would have 
 been passed over by the many. They would have 
 awakened no interest in the minds of the mass 
 of men and women. So a different plan altogether 
 was pursued. The stoiy of Abraham's life was 
 told. Or a series of pictures were drawn in which 
 we see God watching over Jacob ; or the deliver- 
 ance of the Israelites from Egypt's bitter bondage 
 was narrated. Or we read the tale of a shepherd 
 boy who grew into the hero of his nation, and 
 became its poet-king. Or we followed the won- 
 derful fortunes of the grand prophet, Elijah, and 
 saw the ravens carrying him food, and the child 
 restored to life at his prayer, and the whole 
 people falling prostrate as God's fire consumes 
 his sacrifice. And so on all through the history. 
 God's dealings with His Church are shown by 
 the manner in which He dealt with His individual 
 saints. The interest is always strictly personal. 
 It is ever the story of men and women, moved 
 by the same hopes, and fears, and passions, tried 
 
 u 
 
306 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 by the same temptations, falling into the same 
 sins, as we ourselves experience. And so it 
 comes to pass that the Bible— which is the history 
 of the Church— is not a book specially for scholars ; 
 but men and women of common life pore over 
 its pages, and read it with a never-dying interest, 
 and listen to its stories with an attention that 
 never flags ; and are moved by it to tears, and 
 are excited by it to noble thoughts, and are 
 stirred by it to brave deeds, and learn by its 
 pages to struggle with constancy and to endure 
 manfully. So it is in the example before us. 
 We know nothing but the bare fact that St. John 
 was an exile in the Isle of Patmos. Whether 
 St. John enjoyed the boon of personal liberty in 
 his banishment, or whether he was confined and 
 subjected to harsh treatment, we know not. We 
 do know that for the most part the life of a 
 Roman exile was one not to be envied, and that 
 the bare and rugged aspect of the place was in 
 keeping with the custom of sending the condemned 
 to the most rocky and desolate islands which could 
 be found. Picturing to ourselves the state of St. 
 John's mind, remembering that he was torn from 
 all his friends, cut off from all sympathy, deprived 
 of all that makes life worth living, we like to 
 read that the Saviour was not unmindful of His 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LOPD. T>°7 
 
 prisoner, and appeared from His throne in heaven, 
 that, by the blessedness of His presence He might 
 rejoice the heart of His servant, suffering for the 
 Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Scripture, then, itself teaches us to lay much 
 stress upon the personal aspect under which the 
 manifestations of Christ were granted. It must 
 not be lost sight of or forgotten. By doing so half 
 the teaching to be derived from them would be 
 lost, and much more than half the comfort they 
 are designed to give. But as in giving the story of 
 Abraham, God taught the history of His Church, 
 the miracles, and appearances, and manifestations 
 of Christ, pass beyond the immediate benefit 
 which any individual may have received from 
 them, and are the eternal inheritance of the 
 Christian Church. By His manifestation to St. 
 Stephen Christ sanctioned and made His own 
 those wider views of Christianity which the 
 martyr proclaimed, and for which he died. The 
 results of the conversion of St. Paul by the 
 manifestation of Christ did not stop at the per- 
 sonal salvation of the man, but extended them- 
 selves to all countries and to all time. And 
 although we may rightly regard the vision of 
 the Apocalypse as given, in the first instance, 
 
30S MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 for the special comfort of St John, yet who can 
 estimate the influence which the Book of the 
 Revelations may be designed to have in future 
 ages, when its dark visions shall be made plain ? 
 
 To us, indeed, its visions still remain dark. 
 We attempt in vain to fathom the meaning which 
 lies beneath its words of mystery. The seals on 
 the book still remain unbroken. Few who have 
 made any real study of the Revelation have not 
 felt a" feeling of impatience and despair come over 
 them, as turning from one expositor to another, 
 they found that each interpreter commenced by 
 decrying the work of all his predecessors as con- 
 ducted on wrong principles, or based on false 
 methods of exegesis. This difference of opinion 
 does not, however, detract from the real value of 
 the inspired vision. It proves only that the time 
 has not yet come for the vision to be declared. 
 The same thing happened in the Jewish Church. 
 To the Jews many of the inspired utterances of 
 their prophets were dark and enigmatical. The 
 teachers, and lawyers, and Rabbis, tried in vain 
 to understand them. Their attempted explana- 
 tions were false, and wide of the true meaning 
 of the text. But with the coming of Christ and 
 the preaching of the Gospel, the veil was lifted. 
 The smallest Christian child understands the 
 
APPEARANCES OF THE ASCENDED LORD. 309 
 
 meaning of the seventh chapter of Isaiah, which 
 Jewish scribes could, at best, only very partially 
 comprehend. The Ethiopian eunuch could not 
 think of whom the prophet spoke, as of a lamb 
 led to the slaughter, but the simplest Christian 
 sees now in the passage a prophecy of the suf- 
 ferings and death of the Messiah. Some Old 
 Testament writings still remain dark, as those 
 of Zechariah or Daniel. But as the history of 
 the Church, unfolding itself, has already shed 
 light upon much prophecy which was once 
 obscure, so as time rolls on, and the fulfilment 
 is accomplished, shall the Holy Spirit open men's 
 minds to see and understand those visions which 
 the ascended Saviour unfolded to His disciple, 
 and which, until the fulness of time shall come, 
 God has purposely left shrouded in mystery. 
 
 These appearances, then, of the Risen Lord are 
 a most precious legacy to His Church. They are 
 of great evidential value. They are direct evidence 
 of what Scripture elsewhere declares, viz. : — the 
 continuity of Christ's character. The Christ who 
 lived on earth, who died, who rose again, is still 
 the same Christ now that He has ascended into 
 the heavens. But they contain a deeper truth. 
 For these manifestations of the ascended Christ 
 are types and examples of the way in which He is 
 
3IO MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 ever acting. Each unit in the world's vast exten- 
 sion is dear to the heart of the Saviour as the 
 saint on whose head a halo rests. If Christ 
 appeared to uphold His martyr in his agony, if 
 the heavens opened that St. Paul might behold 
 Him whom he had persecuted, if the vision of 
 Christ was granted to St. John that he might be 
 comforted in his rough island home, we may be 
 sure that the same Christ — unchanging and un- 
 changeable — exists for us, and that when our hour 
 of need shall come, we may by the eye of faith 
 behold Him standing at the right hand of God, 
 in order that He may succour and defend us. 
 
XVI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Thus have we passed in review the mental charac- 
 teristics of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they are 
 manifested forth in His life. We have seen that 
 He was man ; the human son of a human mother ; 
 bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh ; not ashamed 
 that a common nature should enable Him to call 
 us brethren. We have marked how the same 
 feelings and motives, which regulate man's con- 
 duct, guided and directed the life of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. We have noted how the hopes and 
 desires, which influence man's actions, exerted 
 their full sway over His mind. We have not 
 been afraid to acknowledge that the very weak- 
 nesses (apart from sin) which belong to human 
 nature, had their counterpart in Him ; that He 
 was moved by fear, that He shrank from pain, 
 that He felt dread and shrinking in the view of 
 death. Hunger and thirst, weakness and lassitude, 
 
3 I 2 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 fatigue and nervous exhaustion belonged to His 
 nature, as they form part of ours. 
 
 Each page, as we wrote on, gathered some 
 brightness, because it could not fail to be illu- 
 minated with the light of His tender compassion 
 and of His never-wearying pity ; just as each page 
 of the sacred story itself glows with the glory His 
 mercy sheds upon it. His sympathy with human 
 suffering, and His pain at the world's sorrow, were 
 never far from the heart of Christ. But under- 
 neath the pity, and born of the intenseness of the 
 sympathy, lay a deep horror of human sin, which 
 now and then broke out in scathing words of 
 condemnation, when religious hypocrisy, or an 
 affectation of pretended piety, stirred him to 
 sorrowful anger. The manliness and courage of 
 His character, although to a great extent masked 
 by the meekness and humility which belonged to 
 the human nature of the Son of Man, asserted 
 itself, when factious opposition to good called for 
 rebuke, or when danger, or death itself, had to 
 be faced. The intrinsic beauty of His mind 
 manifested itself in the unequalled beauty of 
 form and style in which His teaching clothed 
 itself, and which added a wonderful charm to the 
 deep thoughtfulncss and intense purity which 
 are the chief characteristics of that divine 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 o 1 o 
 
 philosophy we call is the Christian religion. And 
 over all, apparent in every action He performed, 
 manifesting itself unconsciously in almost every 
 word He uttered, impressing itself upon His 
 disciples without their understanding it, and 
 filling His adversaries with an awe they could 
 not account for, was the transcendent glory of the 
 Divine nature, which the low estate He had 
 adopted could not hide, and which belonged to 
 Him inherently as the Son of God. 
 
 And thus we have a picture of the God-man, 
 bringing with Him to earth pardon and atone- 
 ment, revealing to man the Fathername of God, 
 making much that is dark clear, strengthening 
 our resolution for good, raising our hopes, animat- 
 ing our affections. We have a Saviour, who has 
 not only given us the example of His life in order 
 that we may follow it ; who was not only content 
 to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, and 
 to suffer death for our sakes upon the cross ; but 
 who has risen from the dead, and has ascended 
 into the heavens, and who liveth ever at the right 
 hand of the Father's majesty, in order that, con- 
 tinuing the work He commenced on earth, He 
 may be to all everlasting ages the merciful and 
 compassionate High Priest of all those who seek 
 His grace. 
 
314 MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 " Therefore with angels and archangels, and 
 with all the company of heaven, we laud and 
 magnify His glorious name, evermore praising 
 Him, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of 
 Hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory : 
 Glory be to Thee, O Lord, most High. Amen." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
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