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UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. 
 
 ECCE DEUS-HOMO. 
 
 BY A. W. PITZER. 
 
 12mo. Extra Clotli, |1.50. 
 
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 " An able and devout defence of the Christ of Scripture." — S. S. 
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 Published by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & 00., Philadelphia. 
 
CHRIST, 
 
 THE TEACHER OF MEN. 
 
 "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of 
 Eternal Life." 
 
 Simon Peter. 
 
 BY A. W. PITZER, 
 
 ! j 
 
 AUTHOR OF " ECCE DEUS-HOMO." 
 
 % 
 
 \l 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1877. 
 

 f 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
 
 A. W. PITZER, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
m 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 <u 
 
 This work seems to be called for by reason 
 of the widespread unbelief of this day and genera- 
 tion in the authoritative, infallible, and Divine 
 Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Never was there a time of more general and 
 virulent infidelity than the present — infidelity with- 
 out and within the Church. 
 
 My object is not controversial, but to state the 
 Truth according to the Written Word in its posi- 
 tive and didactic form. 
 
 For that Truth I have no apologies to make; 
 for anything not therein revealed I have no ex- 
 planation to offer. 
 
 This book is written for the glory of the Lord 
 Jesus, and to Him I now solemnly dedicate it, 
 with earnest prayer for His blessing. 
 
 A. W. PITZER. 
 
 Washington, D. C, July 20, 1876. 
 
 1* <? 
 
NOTE. 
 
 In the preparation of this work I am indebted to the following 
 authors, viz. : 
 
 R. J. Breckinridge, " Knowledge of God," 2 vols. 
 Horace Bushnell, " Nature and Supernatural." 
 James Inglis, " Waymarks in the Wilderness." 
 Hugh Martin, " Christ's Presence in the Gospels." 
 J. McCosh, " Typical Forms." 
 P. Fairbairn, " Typology." 
 L. Gaussen, "Inspiration." 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. — The Spirit of the Learner 
 II. — The Prophetical Office of Christ 
 III. — The Extent of Christ's Teachings 
 IV. — Christ, the Covenant Prophet . 
 V. — Christ teaching through the Holy 
 VI. — Christ teaching by Miracles . 
 VII.— Christ teaching by Types . 
 VIII. — Personal Peculiarities of Christ as 
 
 of Men 
 
 IX. — Christ, the Revealer of God . 
 X. — The Credentials of Christ 
 XI. — The Temptation of Christ 
 
 Ghost 
 
 Teacher 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • 9 
 
 . 22 
 . 42 
 
 . 68 
 . 81 
 
 • 97 
 . 118 
 
 137 
 151 
 
 165 
 197 
 
CHRIST, THE TEACHER OF MEN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE LEARNER. 
 
 Understandest thou what thou readest ? And he said, How 
 can I except some man should guide me? He that is of God, 
 heareth God's words. Take heed hozv ye hear. No man can say 
 that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man 
 which is in him ; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 In entering upon the discussion of the subject 
 of this work, it is needful to observe at the outset, 
 that much depends upon the spirit of the learner. 
 In point of fact, in order to profitable teaching, as 
 much depends upon the pupil as upon the pre- 
 ceptor. The best of teachers will make but little 
 progress with an inattentive, disobedient, and stupid 
 scholar. If a child dislikes any particular branch 
 of knowledge, and persistently refuses to apply 
 himself to it, it is absolutely certain that he will 
 be a dunce in that department : no possible wis- 
 dom and skill on the part of the teacher can com- 
 
 A* 9 
 
10 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 pensate for the stupidity, and dislike of study on 
 the part of the learner. To insure success and 
 profit in any study there must be a readiness to 
 receive the truth, and an earnest desire for it on 
 the part of the pupil. 
 
 The general principle underlying these state- 
 ments is, that 
 
 The kind and degree of enjoyment of every created 
 thing is conditioned upon its nature and capacity. 
 
 Under certain atmospheric and chemical condi- 
 tions all kinds of herbs, flowers, and trees grow 
 and thrive ; the life that is in them has the capacity 
 to absorb from the soil and air certain properties 
 or elements, and is thereby fed and nourished : the 
 juices leap from the roots to the trunk, thence to 
 the branches and limbs, and then to the foliage, 
 flowers, and fruits. The flower or tree rejoices in 
 this life, and every pore and fibre of its being is 
 opened wide to receive food and nourishment : 
 there is a capacity for, and delight in receiving; 
 and this capacity conditions the life and growth 
 of the tree or flower. Take away this capacity or 
 faculty of reception, and the life goes with it : if 
 the plant absorbs no carbon or nitrogen it will 
 surely die. The air might be saturated with car- 
 bon, and the soil thoroughly impregnated with 
 nitrogen, but if the receptive faculty were wanting 
 in the plant it could not possibly live. 
 
 If we pass to a form of existence higher in the 
 
The Spirit of the Learner, 1 1 
 
 scale of vitality than the vegetable, we find that 
 irrational animals have certain enjoyments adapted 
 to and determined by their nature. The horse, the 
 cow, the dog, enjoy the freedom and use of their 
 limbs, the moving to and fro on the earth, feeding 
 upon rich pastures, receiving the master's caresses, 
 and resting from labor. Change the nature of the 
 animal, and it will not be able to enjoy the things 
 in which it formerly delighted ; appreciation de- 
 pends upon the receptive capacity. The brute can 
 understand and enjoy the things of a brute, but not 
 the things of man. 
 
 Passing to a still higher form of life, viz., the 
 rational, here, too, we find endless diversities of 
 capacities, and therefore endless diversities of kind 
 and degree of enjoyment. Some men seem to be 
 only one remove from the brute — from pure animal 
 existence. Their motto is, Let us eat and drink, 
 for to-morrow we die. The delights of beautiful 
 scenery, of poetry, of painting, of statuary, of 
 music, of intelloctual and aesthetic pursuits, are 
 lost to them, because they have no capacity to 
 receive them. There must be the taste, the love, 
 the adaptability for these things, or the man will 
 utterly fail to appreciate them. Some persons find 
 their greatest happiness in the fields of literature; 
 they have both the taste and aptitude for acquiring 
 knowledge, and pursuits in this direction afford 
 them the most exquisite delight. 
 
12 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Enjoyment of every sort does not depend so 
 much upon external conditions as upon internal 
 capacities. The magnificent scenery which charms 
 the eye and thrills the heart of the cultivated artist 
 is lost upon the stupid peasant at his side. Here 
 the external conditions are the same, but the in- 
 ternal capacities are different ; the one appreciates 
 and enjoys, the other does not. 
 
 This principle finds its highest illustration in the 
 things of God, and especially in the Person and 
 Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 If attention, aptitude, desire, taste, and capacity 
 be important in other pursuits, how much more 
 important in this the highest of all pursuits, — the 
 knowledge of God, — as that is revealed to us by 
 this Teacher of men. If men cannot acquire a 
 knowledge of any science by merely glancing at 
 the outside of the text-books and an occasional look 
 at the instructor, much less can they master the 
 instructions of this Great Teacher by a few hurried 
 readings of some of the more important writings 
 of Him who is the Prophet of God. Here, too, 
 the learner must be teachable. He that is of 
 God, heareth God's words ; he that is not of God, 
 heareth them not. The holy and godly man is 
 teachable. He has a taste and desire for these 
 Words of Heavenly Wisdom ; is willing to sit at 
 the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. The Teacher 
 Himself says, The Good Shepherd calleth His own 
 
The Spirit of tlie Learner, 1 3 
 
 sheep by name, and the sheep follow Him, for they 
 know His voice ; and a stranger will they not fol- 
 low, but will flee from him, for they know not the 
 voice of strangers. 
 
 The child knows and loves the voice of its 
 father, so the child of God knows and loves the 
 voice of its Heavenly Father, and will instinctively 
 know whether the message brought by the Teacher 
 is Divine or not. 
 
 What man knoweth the things of man, save the 
 spirit of man which is in him ; even so the things 
 of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
 The natural man receiveth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, 
 neither can he know them, because they are spir- 
 itually discerned. It requires rational discernment 
 to understand the things of a man ; it requires 
 spiritual discernment to understand the things of 
 God. Hence the inattentive, stupid, unspiritual 
 man will not receive and profit by the teachings 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. For these words of His are 
 in very deed the words of God, and can be appre- 
 ciated only by the spiritual man. If His Gospel 
 be hid or foolishness, it is only to those who are 
 blind and lost and dead ; for to be carnally minded 
 is death: and to the spiritually minded, the Gospel 
 is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God unto 
 salvation. 
 
 To be in sympathy and fellowship with God is 
 
14 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 necessary to hearing and receiving His words : 
 doing His will is necessary to knowing His 
 Doctrine. 
 
 As the instinct of the animal is needful to under- 
 stand the things of the animal world, as the rational 
 mind is needful to understand the things of the 
 rational world, so the spiritual mind is needful to 
 understand the things of the spiritual world. 
 
 If the animal complains that he cannot compre- 
 hend the things of the rational world, the answer 
 is easy and obvious, the animal does not have the 
 intelligence and understanding of a man. If the 
 stupid ignoramus complains that he cannot com- 
 prehend the higher truths of science and philoso- 
 phy, the answer is easy and obvious, he does not 
 possess the training and mental ability necessary 
 to understand these things. If the carnal man 
 complains that he cannot understand and accept 
 the truths of God, revealed by this Teacher sent 
 from God, the answer is, only the spiritual man 
 can understand the things of the Spirit of God. 
 Only those who are willing to be taught can know 
 and receive the Truth. A man in rebellion against 
 God cannot understand the Doctrines, because he 
 is not doing the will of God. 
 
 Rays of light falling upon the eyes of the blind 
 do not cause vision ; vibrations of the air falling 
 upon the ears of the deaf do not produce sound ; 
 so the Words of this Great Teacher sent from God 
 
The Spirit of the Learner. 1 5 
 
 fail to find any response in the heart of him who 
 has no spiritual discernment, no Divine Life. 
 
 Light falling upon the healthful eye produces 
 sight, and beauteous forms and lovely scenes pass 
 before the enraptured gaze ; the Light of the 
 Glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ, 
 falling upon the healthful spiritual eye produces 
 spiritual vision, and forms and scenes of Heavenly 
 Beauty pass before the renewed soul. To such 
 an one, He who was despised and rejected of men, 
 without form or comeliness, is seen indeed to 
 be the Chief among ten thousand, the One alto- 
 gether lovely. All who are in sympathy and fel- 
 lowship with God ; all who have spiritual vision 
 will hear and receive the Words of God as de- 
 livered to them by Him, who is the Only Begotten 
 Son, and who came from Heaven to reveal God to 
 man. 
 
 As the child will recognize the father's voice, 
 so he that is of God, who is God's child, who has 
 spiritual vision, will recognize and receive and love 
 the Words of God when spoken by the Incarnate 
 Son. To the believer, the highest evidence of the 
 Divine Mission of Jesus of Nazareth is found in 
 Jesus Himself; and the highest evidence of the 
 Divine character and authority of the Word of 
 God is found in the Word itself. To the seeing 
 eye, no argument is necessary to prove that the 
 sun shining in the mid-heavens at noon gives 
 
1 6 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 
 
 light, — the sun is his own proof. The light makes 
 itself manifest. So to the eye, not blinded by sin 
 and darkened by depravity, the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ is its own Light and proof; if men do not 
 see the Light of the Sun of Righteousness it is 
 because they are spiritually blind. 
 
 The external evidences of the Divine origin 
 and authority of the Christian religion are in some 
 cases valuable, but the great proof is to be found 
 in the Gospel itself. The best cure for Infidelity, 
 in all its forms and phases, is the frequent and 
 faithful study of the character, work, and Words 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 In one of his remarkable conversations with the 
 Jews, Jesus gives not only the true, but the philo- 
 sophical reason of their rejection of Him. If ye 
 were Abraham's spiritual seed; if ye were of God; 
 if ye loved the Truth; if ye had spiritual discern- 
 ment, then indeed ye would receive my words : 
 because I tell you the Truth, ye believe me not ; 
 ye therefore hear me not because ye are not of 
 God. The very Truthfulness of Christ is the rea- 
 son why men, in love with lies, reject Him. Light 
 has come into the world, but men love the dark- 
 ness rather than the light because their deeds are 
 evil, and they will not come to the light lest their 
 deeds should be reproved. 
 
 The Bible everywhere ascribes man's rejection 
 of Christ and His Gospel to the blindness of his 
 
The Spirit of the Learner. 17 
 
 mind and the hardness of his heart; if our Gospel 
 be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the 
 God of this world hath blinded the minds of them 
 which believe not, lest the Light of the glorious 
 Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should 
 shine unto them ; for God who commanded the 
 light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
 hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the 
 Glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The full-orbed glories of the Godhead shine out 
 in radiant splendor from the Person and work of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Brightness of the 
 Father's glory, the express Image of His Person; 
 if men loved and honored the Father, they would 
 also love and honor the Son ; they would delight 
 to hear and receive the words of God as spoken 
 by the Son ; and they would reverence and obey 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 If the heart of man were attuned to the percep- 
 tion of moral beauty ; if he were possessed of 
 spiritual vision ; if he naturally loved the Truth, 
 then would he hail with joy the coming of this 
 Teacher sent from God, with messages of mercy 
 to lost and guilty man. 
 
 It is a simple historic fact that, when this Teacher 
 was on earth in the flesh and form of man, the men 
 of His day and generation hated and crucified 
 Him ; and if this was the treatment given to the 
 
1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Teacher Himself, we need not wonder that great 
 masses of our fellow-men, in every age since, have 
 despised and rejected His Teachings. There is no 
 spiritual eye in the natural man to see the Light of 
 the Sun of Righteousness; no ear to hear the Glad 
 Tidings of great joy which are for all the people; 
 no Life to respond to Him, who is the Light and 
 Life of men. The unrenewed mind and heart are 
 enmity against Christ, not subject to his Teaching, 
 neither indeed can be. 
 
 The skepticism, unbelief, and infidelity of man 
 have their origin, not in the head, but in the heart; 
 not in lack of evidences, but in hatred of the Truth ; 
 not because there is no Prophet of God to reveal 
 the truth, but because they hate the message which 
 the Prophet brings. 
 
 Few Teachers who have ever appeared among 
 men have had such difficulties as these with which 
 to contend; spiritual blindness, deafness and death, 
 hatred of the Truth, and the Teacher; and if the 
 world has not received the Instructions of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, this result is due not to the Teacher, but 
 to the mental and moral condition of the scholars. 
 He that is of God heareth God's words. 
 
 It is true that many teachers receive the blame 
 justly due to their scholars for the slow progress 
 made by them in their studies. And Jesus Christ 
 has received a full measure of blame, due not to 
 Him, but to the people whom He came to teach. 
 
The Spirit of the Learner. 19 
 
 We have all seen men so debased and brutalized 
 by long courses of vice and impiety that they 
 seemed to be utterly lost to all the higher and 
 nobler impulses and motives which move and gov- 
 ern man. Appeals to generosity, fidelity, honor, 
 obligation, were powerless to move them, — and the 
 nobler the motive presented, the more callous and 
 insensible were they to its power. 
 
 Hence we should not be surprised that such a 
 Teacher as Jesus of Nazareth, presenting as He 
 does such pure and lofty motives to men, should 
 fail to move those who have no love for the Beau- 
 tiful, the True, and the Good. Not the Teacher, 
 but the learner is at fault in such a case as this. 
 
 History has established nothing more clearly 
 than the intense hatred of the natural man to the 
 Gospel, the Doctrines, the Person, and the Work 
 of this Teacher sent from God. Many of those 
 who heard His Words could not endure His Doc- 
 trines ; and when some turned away from Him, 
 He sorrowfully asks the chosen Twelve, Will ye 
 go away also ? 
 
 If any man, therefore, is willing to listen at all 
 to Christ as a Teacher, he ought to make up his 
 mind to hear Him without prejudice or passion, 
 and with attention and a teachable mind. If he 
 makes up his mind in advance that Christ is an 
 impostor ; that His claims are false ; that His Doc- 
 trines are untrue, it is manifest that he will derive 
 
20 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 but little, if any profit, from His instructions; he 
 hears with prejudice, he has prejudged the Teacher 
 and His Words; he is not an impartial judge in 
 this case. No civil court would permit him to 
 sit in judgment in a cause involving merely- 
 temporal interests in such a frame of mind as 
 this. 
 
 Alas, what multitudes listen to Christ with 
 minds blinded by prejudice, and hearts inflamed 
 with passion against His claims and teachings! 
 They go to His Word, not to learn of Him, but 
 like the scribes and Pharisees, to entrap Him in 
 His talk, and to find some accusation against Him. 
 It is needless to observe that men listening, in 
 such a frame of mind as this, to Christ, fail to find 
 anything lovable in either the Teacher or His 
 Doctrines. 
 
 Not only must the hearer listen without preju- 
 dice, he must also give earnest heed and diligent 
 attention to the Words of this Great Teacher in 
 order to derive profit from His instructions. 
 
 I think it is a universal law that no success is 
 gained in any pursuit of life without attention. 
 The inattentive scholar, or lawyer, or physician, or 
 merchant will be sure to fail of any great measure 
 of success or usefulness in his respective sphere. 
 
 The subjects brought to the attention of men, 
 by this Teacher, are of the highest importance, 
 and demand the earnest attention of every one who 
 
The Spirit of the Learner. 2 1 
 
 hears His voice. They pertain to man's interests 
 in time, and his blessedness in eternity; they can- 
 not be grasped and mastered by a few inattentive 
 hearings of the Teacher, or a few hasty readings 
 of His Word. Like Truth in every other depart- 
 ment of knowledge, here too, she must be sought 
 for with all earnest and eager attention and dili- 
 gence, even as for hid treasures. 
 
 In addition to this quality .of attention, the 
 Learner ought to hear Christ with a " teachable" 
 mind. If he assumes the position of a learner, he 
 thereby accords to Christ that of Teacher; and 
 when this is done, he ought to be prepared to 
 hear with readiness and meekness what the Teacher 
 has to say. He ought to forbear all factious op- 
 position, all caviling criticism, all frivolous objec- 
 tions. The interests involved are too vast to permit 
 of anything less than a readiness to receive the 
 Truth after a candid and attentive hearing of all 
 that the Teacher has to say. 
 
 And every man has a far greater interest in 
 giving earnest heed to this Teacher than to all 
 others who have ever claimed to exercise this office 
 among men. He claims that His Words are Spirit 
 and are Life ; that His Words are imperishable 
 seed, living and abiding forever; that Heaven and 
 earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of 
 all that He has spoken shall pass away. The 
 destinies of our deathless souls depend upon our 
 
22 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 receiving or refusing to receive the Words of this 
 Teacher sent from God, for He is the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the 
 Father but by Him ; and this is Life Eternal, to 
 know the only True God, and His Son Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 " Christ executeth the office of a Prophet in His revealing to 
 the church in all ages by his Spirit and Word in divers ways of 
 administration the whole will of God in all things concerning 
 their edification and salvation." — Larger Catechism. 
 
 " No man hath seen God at any time : the Only Begotten Son, 
 who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." — yohn. 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto thee we speak that we do know, and 
 testify that we have seen." — Jesus to Nicode?nus. 
 
 All religions which have existed among men 
 have had a certain class called Teachers or Prophets. 
 These men were the expounders of the Religion 
 which they professed, — and wherever the Propheti- 
 cal office has failed to exist, there the people were 
 destitute of any religion. 
 
 According to the Sacred Books of the Jews, 
 Moses was a Prophet of God raised up to reveal 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ, 23 
 
 Him to His covenant people. Before his death, 
 he told the Hebrews that God would raise up unto 
 them another Prophet like unto him from among 
 his brethren. 
 
 Fifteen hundred years after these words were 
 spoken, they are quoted by the Apostle Peter, and 
 expressly applied by him to Jesus of Nazareth. 
 He is the Prophet whom the Lord God of Israel 
 hath raised from among and for His covenanted 
 people. 
 
 This Promise made by Moses, and quoted by 
 Peter, is recorded in the Second Giving of the 
 Law, and is recorded in immediate connection with 
 the prohibitions to hearken unto Observers of 
 Times, or Charmers, or Enchanters, or Wizards, or 
 Necromancers, or Consulters with Spirits. This 
 seeking after knowledge of Divine and eternal 
 things by these unhallowed means and methods 
 was one of the prevailing and universal sins of the 
 heathen and idolatrous nations round about the 
 chosen and redeemed people of God; and in this 
 connection they are solemnly warned not to hearken 
 unto these Deceivers, but to the Voice of the True 
 God, and to the Words of that Prophet whom the 
 Lord would raise up unto them. 
 
 Created in the image and after the likeness of 
 God Himself, Man feels within his own soul the 
 pulsations of an endless life. He knows that he 
 is not like the brute which to-day is, and to-morrow 
 
24 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 lies down in the dust to live no more forever. He 
 is conscious of hopes, desires, and longings, which 
 will not and cannot be satisfied with any, or with 
 all the things within the horizon of earth and 
 time. His moral nature asserts with intensest em- 
 phasis that these things mark him as akin, and 
 link him to, not the brutes around him, but to the 
 God in Heaven who made him, and whose son he 
 is by Creation. His Conscience bears witness to 
 his guilt, and points with warning finger to the 
 retributions of the Unseen and Future World. 
 
 Driven, therefore, by the necessities of his being, 
 he seeks anxiously and earnestly to pry into the 
 Secrets of that World which awaits him when 
 Time shall be no more. 
 
 The hungry cry of his deathless spirit is, — I must 
 know something of the' Life beyond the grave; 
 something of those realities upon which I shall 
 enter, when the corruptible shall put on incorrup- 
 tion, and the mortal shall put on immortality. His 
 soul will not rest in dread uncertainty concerning 
 the Eternal Future, and hence Man is found every- 
 where seeking knowledge of what shall befall him 
 beyond the grave. Without a Revelation from 
 God he is left in darkness, dread, and doubt, and 
 becomes the willing dupe of any Soothsayer, 
 Charmer, or Observer of Times, or Consulter with 
 Spirits. 
 
 Abundant evidence is found in the history of the 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 25 
 
 race that, in every age and among all people, men 
 have appeared who claimed to have dealings with 
 the Unseen World, and to have power to foretell the 
 events of the Future. They have been known by 
 different names, as soothsayers, astrologers, necro- 
 mancers, charmers, consulters, wizards, familiar 
 spirits, mediums, clairvoyants, — and it is a remark- 
 able fact that the large portion of the human race 
 have believed that these persons did actually pos- 
 sess the power which they claimed to have. 
 
 While it is true that the great majority of these 
 Dealers with spirits, and the departed, and the 
 Unseen World have been guilty of the grossest 
 frauds and deceptions; it is also true that there are 
 many well-attested cases of power exercised, and 
 knowledge imparted by them, that cannot be ex- 
 plained upon any other theory than that of Satanic 
 and diabolical agency. And if, as many assert, 
 the whole thing is a delusion, then it is simply in- 
 comprehensible that the Divine Lawgiver, in both 
 Testaments, should have so carefully and sternly 
 legislated against a mere "delusion" against some- 
 thing which had no objective existence. How far 
 the Devil may give information to his dupes is not 
 revealed in the Word of God; but the fact of his 
 having dealings with those who are led captive at 
 his will, and of his imparting information to them, 
 no believer in the Divine origin and inspiration of 
 the Bible can for a moment doubt or deny. 
 b 3 
 
26 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 The Devil claimed to be a Teacher, and to impart 
 knowledge to man in his primeval state in Eden, — 
 ye shall not surely die, was his lie to the woman in 
 regard of the forbidden tree, — and from that day to 
 this he has been engaged in deceiving the nations 
 and individuals with his lying words and wonders. 
 
 God's ancient and covenant people were most 
 solemnly commanded not to seek after or consult 
 these wicked and devilish methods of obtaining 
 information ; they must not have dealings with 
 enchanters or charmers or spirits. To do this was 
 treason against that God who had brought them up 
 from bondage ; that God who was their king ; that 
 God who had given them a true Prophet to declare 
 all of His Will concerning them. 
 
 Not unto these false Teachers of the heathen or 
 like unto the heathen must they seek, but unto the 
 True and Living God must they go : unto that 
 Prophet who should speak all the Words which 
 the Lord God should give Him. The Lord Jesus 
 Christ is then the True Prophet, like unto Moses, 
 whom God hath raised up and sent, unto whom men 
 must apply for knowledge of God and eternal things. 
 
 The word Prophet is not used in the sense of a 
 "foreteller" who makes known to men future events, 
 but one who speaks for or in the place of another : 
 a prophet of God is one who speaks for God. " The 
 Greek 'tt/w' is a particle of place, not of time." 
 
 Jesus Christ is a Prophet of God in the sense 
 
The Prophetical Office of CI iris t. 27 
 
 that he speaks for God to men ; He brings a mes- 
 sage from God. I will put my words in his mouth, 
 saith Jehovah, and he shall speak unto them all 
 that I command him. Moses and all the Prophets 
 of the Old Dispensation were "types' of Christ in 
 his Prophetical office. 
 
 Many persons and events of that Economy were 
 types of Christ. Jesus Himself says, As Moses 
 lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
 must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life. David upon the throne of Israel was 
 a type of David's greater son seated upon the Me- 
 diatorial throne. Aaron the High-Priest slaying 
 the victim, and passing with sacrificial blood into 
 the Holiest of all, was a type of our Great High- 
 Priest, who, having offered the sacrifice on the 
 cross, hath passed up into the true Holiest of all 
 to plead before the throne His own precious blood 
 as the righteous and valid ground of His people's 
 acceptance. Moses receiving the Law directly 
 from Jehovah, and speaking for Him to the people, 
 is a type of the Greater Prophet who comes directly 
 from the bosom of God with Divine Messages for 
 lost and ruined man. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, as Mediator between God and 
 men, executeth the office of a Prophet in His re- 
 vealing to the Church in all ages by His Spirit and 
 Word, in divers ways of administration, the whole 
 
28 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 will of God in all things concerning their edification 
 and salvation. 
 
 It must be distinctly understood that Christ, as 
 the Prophet of God, does not propose or profess to 
 reveal all knowledge, but only such as is necessary 
 to salvation. He does not undertake to answer all 
 the curious, prying, impertinent questions which 
 men may ask concerning things which have no 
 bearing whatever upon their salvation as sinners 
 or their edification as saints. When we speak, 
 therefore, of the Completeness of Christ's Teach- 
 ings, we must be understood to apply the word 
 "complete" to the " whole will of God unto the 
 salvation of His people. " 
 
 We are not at liberty to limit the teachings of 
 Christ to His own personally uttered words. He 
 makes Himself responsible for the entire Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testaments. The words writ- 
 ten by Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew, John, 
 and Paul are no less His Words than the parables 
 which fell from his own lips. The whole Bible, — 
 Law, Prophets, Hagiographa, Evangelists, Epistles, 
 and Revelation, — all these are the Words of this 
 Great Prophet sent from God. All Scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God ; by the Spirit of 
 Christ, who led holy men of old to record these 
 words. Hence . the command, Search the Scrip- 
 tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal Life, 
 and they are they which testify of Me. 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ, 29 
 
 The Bible, therefore, contains the "complete" 
 teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this Book, 
 and by His Spirit as an Infallible Interpreter, He 
 makes known the whole will of God unto our sal- 
 vation and edification. 
 
 In this Book of Instructions, it must be remem- 
 bered that Christ does not profess to teach all 
 knowledge, but only that which is unto man's sal- 
 vation. The Bible is not a book of Science, but a 
 book of Salvation. Christ Jesus does not propose 
 to teach Geology, or Astronomy, or Philosophy, 
 or Mathematics, or Geography, or History, or Eth- 
 nology. True, there are teachings here about the 
 Heavens and Earth, about the rise and downfall of 
 empires and nations, about the mind and heart, 
 and about tribes and races ; and all of these, when 
 properly interpreted, are found to be in perfect 
 accord with all the facts of true Science, — but the 
 knowledge thus communicated is always subordi- 
 nate and ancillary to the great end of teaching man 
 the way of eternal Life. 
 
 In this day of boastful scientific infidelity, it may 
 be safely asserted that no statement of this Teacher 
 is contradicted or disproved by any one well-authen- 
 ticated and established fact in any department of 
 knowledge. It ought never to be forgotten that 
 scientific theories are very different things from sci- 
 entific facts. All of Darwin's asserted facts might 
 be true ; and at the same time, his entire theory be 
 
30 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 wholly false. We cannot give up the Teachings 
 of this Prophet sent from God, authenticated as 
 true by every possible evidence, for any theory, 
 however plausible or brilliant, based upon a few 
 asserted facts. Has any fact of science ever been 
 established which disproves the Creation, the 
 Flood, or the Exode ? If so, let that fact be 
 proclaimed. 
 
 Nor does this Prophet undertake to answer all 
 of the questions which men in every age have so 
 anxiously asked, — What is the origin of Evil , how 
 did Sin ever find entrance into a holy universe, 
 under the Government of an Almighty and Benevo- 
 lent God ? How can Divine Sovereignty and 
 human freedom coexist and harmonize? Are 
 there few that be saved ? Are other worlds in- 
 habited? These and many other questions of 
 similar import have no possible bearing upon 
 man's salvation or present duty, and are therefore 
 not answered by this Prophet of God; He teaches 
 all of our duty, but never panders to our curiosity. 
 Doubtless the discussion of these questions is in- 
 teresting, and many minds have revolved them 
 long and anxiously, but it is easy to see that if 
 Jesus had given us their perfect solution, this could 
 in no wise have affected the question either of our 
 duty or blessedness. There is nothing pertaining 
 to our duty or salvation that is not fully and clearly 
 stated : all that we need to know of ourselves, of 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 31 
 
 the universe, of God, is made known; the whole 
 will of God unto our salvation is revealed. 
 
 He comes with a definite object before Him, viz., 
 to reveal God to man in order to salvation ; and 
 everything necessary to this He makes as clear as 
 the light of the sun. He tells how the guilty may 
 find pardon ; how the blind may see ; the deaf, hear; 
 the lame, walk; the dead, live. He tells where 
 the weak may find strength; the tempted, succor; 
 the backslider, healing; the troubled, peace ; and 
 the weary, rest. He answers fully and clearly every 
 question of present or future interest to man. 
 
 Whence came I, and whither do I go ? What of 
 the Future Life, and what relation has the present 
 to that which is to come ? Who is God, and what 
 is His character, and how may I find His favor, 
 and live with Him in peace and blessedness for- 
 ever? What of my duties to my neighbor, to 
 society, to civil government, and to the Church 
 of God? What of guilt and Sin and Death and 
 Heaven and Hell and the Judgment and the Retri- 
 butions of Eternity ? These, and questions of like 
 import, so wide in their bearings, so vast in their 
 results, so infinite in their importance, are all clearly, 
 wisely, satisfactorily, answered by this Prophet sent 
 from God. He teaches all that man is to believe 
 concerning God, and all the duties which God re- 
 quires of Him. No question arises in the human 
 soul having any practical bearing upon our relations 
 
32 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 to God, or our duty to Him or to our fellow-mortals, 
 that does not find here its complete and perfect 
 answer. The teachings of this Prophet are com- 
 plete — yea, perfect : 
 
 " More to be desired are they than gold, 
 Yea, than much fine gold, 
 Sweeter also than honey, 
 And the droppings of the honey-comb." 
 
 It is worthy of special notice that, with all the 
 gathered and garnered wisdom of six thousand 
 years, and all the boasted progress of this restless 
 generation, man has been unable to add to the 
 Teachings of this Prophet of Nazareth one single 
 new truth in morals or religion. The men of our 
 day can repeat truthfully the words of the men of 
 His day, " never man spake as this man." Will 
 the w r orld never learn that no improvements can 
 ever be made upon the Teachings of this Divine 
 Instructor ? 
 
 How foolish and wicked, therefore, are all at- 
 tempts, no matter from what quarter they come 
 nor by whomsoever made, to improve the sure 
 Word of Christ which liveth and abideth forever! 
 How idle the folly that w T ould supplement and com- 
 plete these Divine Teachings with the traditions 
 of men, the investigations of science, the attain- 
 ments of human reason, the results of philosophical 
 inquiry ! As well seek to gild refined gold, or re- 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ, 33 
 
 paint the rainbow, as to improve upon or progress 
 beyond the Teachings of Him who spake as never 
 man spake. 
 
 In this age, so proud and arrogant, wise men 
 write and lecture of Light and Heat, and Law and 
 Star Depths, all evolving themselves, by virtue of 
 inherent forces, out of primordial atoms or cells, 
 and laugh to scorn the Teachings of Him who tells 
 that a Personal extramundane God in wisdom, 
 beauty, and glory, hath made them all : Science, 
 falsely so called, comes telling us that the Cos- 
 mogony of Jesus as delivered to men, by Moses, 
 is in conflict with the researches of modern thought 
 and with the views of teachers far superior to the 
 Christ of God, and that it must be at once rejected 
 as a baleful superstition or the relic of barbaric 
 ignorance : ethnologists loudly proclaim that the 
 Bible doctrine of the human race can be no longer 
 received by educated thought ; that the race is not 
 of one blood, made in the image and after the 
 likeness of God, but that man had many origins 
 and that the ape or gorilla is the father of us all : 
 self-satisfied Reformers, so called, failing to find 
 in the legislation of Jesus anything satisfactory to 
 their gigantic intellect upon the questions of Labor, 
 Woman, and Temperance, proclaim the New Evan- 
 gel as the Panacea for all human ills ; and Cru- 
 saders rising up in all quarters announce doctrines 
 and duties upon these and kindred subjects which 
 
34 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 the Christ of God failed to provide for in His in- 
 complete and imperfect code : the old race of necro- 
 mancers and astrologers lives again in modern 
 mediums and clairvoyants, and turns many a dis- 
 honest penny with senseless dupes and fortune- 
 hunters who prefer the information rapped out on 
 a table by a deceiver, or the Devil, to the Truth as 
 taught by Him who cannot lie ; popularity-seekers 
 in and out of the pulpit tell us that Jesus was all 
 wrong and knew nothing of the nature of God 
 when He declared that all impenitent and unbe- 
 lieving men shall be turned into hell, with all the 
 nations that forgot God ; and that all who have 
 served their country and kept their hands from 
 personal or official theft are at once ushered into 
 that Heaven purchased for penitent and believing 
 sinners by the blood of God's Incarnate Son: no 
 wonder that the very devils should cry out, "Jesus 
 we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye ?" 
 
 Just at this point, around this citadel of the 
 Completeness and Perfection of Christ's Prophetical 
 office, the battle rages with unabated and keenest 
 fury; for both parties well know that everything 
 depends on this. Romanists and Rationalists unite 
 their forces to destroy this stronghold of the Chris- 
 tian Faith. If the Teachings of Christ are to be 
 supplemented by the Traditions of the Church, 
 then He is no longer an Infallible Teacher, and the 
 Church usurps His prerogative: if, on the other 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 35 
 
 hand, Reason is at liberty to reject any distasteful 
 doctrine of His Word, and substitute therefor some- 
 thing more pleasing and palatable, then the same 
 result is accomplished; and every man makes his 
 own Bible, and becomes his own Teacher. 
 
 There is another element entering into Christ's 
 Prophetical office, viz., He teaches with absolute 
 certainty. 
 
 Teaching may be very full and comprehensive, 
 and yet leave us in great doubt and uncertainty, in 
 which case we derive little or no profit : and in fact 
 this is the great difficulty we experience with all 
 merely human teachers ; they do not at all times 
 and on all subjects speak with absolute certainty; 
 and of course, where the teacher is not certain of 
 his own conclusions, the hearer will receive them 
 with hesitation and doubt. In order to carry con- 
 viction to the minds of others, we must be thor- 
 oughly convinced ourselves of the truthfulness of 
 what we advance. If we are in doubt ourselves, 
 all who hear us will doubt. 
 
 Take up the writings of any man, and you will 
 find that there are many points upon which he 
 speaks with diffidence, with hesitation, with doubt. 
 He himself is not certain of the soundness of his 
 own statements and conclusions, and it is impossi- 
 ble for him to impart to another mind a conviction 
 of certainty which he does not himself possess. As 
 a matter of fact, every honest man docs have this 
 
36 Christ, the Teacher of Men 
 
 feeling of distrust as to all of his own reasonings 
 and conclusions. 
 
 The wisest, most careful, and pairfstaking of 
 human teachers are often compelled to review, to 
 modify, to change, what they have said and writ- 
 ten. Opinions held most tenaciously at one period 
 of life, are scornfully rejected at another; doc- 
 trines despised and denounced at one time, are re- 
 ceived and loved at another. We are ever changing 
 our views, opinions, and theories on all subjects, 
 and the man who boasts that he never changes is 
 far more obstinate than he is wise. 
 
 Amid the ceaseless change and conflict of human 
 views and opinions, with what a sense of relief do 
 we turn to the clear, calm, certain utterances of this 
 Great Prophet of God ! The deep, quiet certainty 
 of his own soul impresses itself upon us, and we 
 listen with joyous hearts to Him as He says, Come 
 unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest. Here is One who, unlike all 
 other teachers, speaks with an air of profound 
 conviction, with absolute certainty : and this one 
 element, separating Him from all merely human 
 teachers, marks Him as the Prophet sent from 
 God, the True Teacher of all men, in all ages and 
 all lands. 
 
 Without preparation, or premeditation, or hesi- 
 tation, or delay, or doubt, or uncertainty, He speaks 
 clearly and fully upon all subjects pertaining to sal- 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 37 
 
 vation, whether past, present, or future. He never 
 changes His views, alters His opinions, or modifies 
 His Teachings. As Teacher, He is the same yes- 
 terday, to-day, and forever. With Him there is no 
 Past, nor any Future, all is an ever-living Present. 
 With Him all is Here and Now. By one act of 
 his Infinite Intelligence He comprehends all knowl- 
 edge ; this knowledge can never be either increased 
 or diminished. What He knows now He has al- 
 ways known, nor is it possible for Him ever to 
 know less. All knowledge of all things is ever 
 clearly before Him, and out of this Infinite knowl- 
 edge He speaks for God to men. 
 
 He speaks with the same conscious superiority 
 and certainty, whether the subject be God or man, 
 angels or devils, individuals or nations. Of the 
 Future World, so dark and uncertain to the wisest 
 of mortals, He speaks with the same assurance that 
 He does of things passing immediately under His 
 own personal observation. The beggar dies, and 
 is borne by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich 
 man also dies, and is buried; and in Hell he lifts 
 up his eyes, being in torment. The Angels come 
 forth at the end of the world, and sever the right- 
 eous from the wicked. All angels, men, and devils 
 are gathered together before the Great White 
 Throne. Death and hell are cast into the lake 
 of fire and brimstone. In the whole compass of 
 human teaching there is nothing comparable to 
 
 4 
 
38 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 these words of this Prophet of Nazareth. Who of 
 all the children of men would dare thus to speak 
 of the Unseen and Eternal World ? As we gaze 
 upon these stupendous scenes of that World to 
 which we so rapidly hasten, we are forced to cry 
 out, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art 
 the Teacher of men. The Bible is just the outflow 
 and overflow of this fullness of knowledge which 
 dwells in Jesus Christ. 
 
 It would turn us aside too far from the direct 
 line of thought proposed in this discussion to de- 
 velop just here the relation between this element 
 of certainty in the teachings of Christ and the life 
 of God in the human soul. Faith is the differentia 
 of the Christian, distinguishing him from all other 
 men: the just shall live by his Faith. Faith is 
 the very life of the Christian ; and faith cometh by 
 hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith 
 is always certain. It says, I know whom I have 
 believed. It is the substance of things hoped for, 
 the evidence of things not seen. We have the 
 Substance and the Evidence because of the sure 
 Word of our Divine Teacher. 
 
 In addition to Completeness and Certainty, the 
 Prophetical office of Christ Jesus is clothed with 
 Authority. 
 
 When He ended His sayings, the people were 
 astonished, for He taught them as one having 
 authority, and not as the scribes. Verily, verily, 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 39 
 
 I say unto you, is his emphatic assertion of 
 authority. 
 
 Man instinctively reverences authority, whether 
 it be the authority of Power, or of Law, or of 
 Truth, or of God. Knowing that he is finite and 
 dependent, he looks to some one higher than him- 
 self to control and guide him. His cry is ever, 
 Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. And 
 whatever may be our confidence in, and respect 
 for, any merely human teacher, we still feel and 
 know that, like ourselves, he is finite and fallible. 
 We must hear some voice of Divine Authority 
 and Infinite Truth, or be miserable for evermore. 
 
 This Prophet speaks with all the authority of 
 Infinite and Eternal Truth, and Infinite and Eter- 
 nal Godhead. Come, see a man that told me all 
 that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? 
 
 The Voice that we hear in the Bible is indeed 
 and in truth the Voice of very God, shrined in 
 human flesh and form, One who speaks Divine 
 Words of Truth and Tenderness, and who has the 
 absolute and perfect right to teach man what he 
 shall believe concerning God, and what duties 
 God requires of him. 
 
 In the instructions of all merely human teachers 
 this element of authority is wanting, — they dare 
 not say to their fellow-mortals, You must believe 
 what I say unto you, or die and be miserable for 
 evermore. But this quality is characteristic of all 
 
40 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Christ says to men. His cry ever is, Hear me, 
 believe me, love me, obey me, follow me, and all 
 uttered with a tone of conscious superiority and 
 infinite authority; nor do the words coming from 
 his lips fall unpleasantly upon our ears. Thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of the purest and best 
 of earth recognize His Divine Voice, and yield 
 obedience to His authoritative commands.* 
 
 The authoritative character of Christ's teachings 
 rests upon His Supreme Godhead and Infallible 
 Truth. He is Divine and He is the Truth. We 
 hear much in this day of Church Authority and 
 Infallibility. And some scores of our fellow-mor- 
 tals met in solemn council, and decreed and pro- 
 claimed to the world that one of their number, 
 finite, fallible, and mortal, did indeed possess this 
 attribute of Godhead, and was himself the Infal- 
 lible Teacher of men, and that all who will not 
 submit to him, and yield obedience to his com- 
 mands, are living in mortal sin. 
 
 And even outside the Papal Hierarchy, the 
 dogma of Church Authority is elevated to a posi- 
 tion of prominence not given it in the Teachings 
 of Christ, and the wrath of God is denounced upon 
 all those who are casting out devils not after ap- 
 proved ecclesiastical methods. 
 
 * Read Bushnell's matchless chapter on the " Supernatural 
 Character of Christ.' ' 
 
The Prophetical Office of Christ. 41 
 
 Whenever and just so far as the Church speaks 
 the Words of Christ she is Infallible. Just so soon 
 as she speaks in her own name, her own words, 
 by her own authority, she is not infallible. 
 
 His Infallible, Authoritative, Prophetical office 
 he never delegated to men, or to His Church. 
 The Church is His Witness to take up and repeat 
 to all men, until Time shall be no more, the Words 
 of this Divine Teacher, this Prophet anointed of 
 God. 
 
 The one inalienable right and paramount duty 
 of every human being is to hear the voice of this 
 Teacher. No Pope, or Council, or Church may 
 dare come between the soul and this Prophet who 
 speaks for God. Unto Him must men hearken. 
 To hear and obey, is Life ; to refuse to hear and 
 disobey, is Death, Eternal Death. The men who 
 refused to hear and obey Moses died without 
 mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much 
 sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who 
 refuses to hear the voice of this Prophet who speaks 
 to men from Heaven! The Queen of Sheba shall 
 rise up in the Judgment against the men of this 
 generation, for she came from the uttermost parts 
 of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon, and 
 behold a greater than Solomon is here. See that 
 ye refuse not Him that speaketh. 
 
A 2 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXTENT OF CHRIST'S TEACHINGS. 
 
 " Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets ; 
 I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill ; for verily I say unto 
 you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise 
 pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. Search the Scriptures, 
 for in them ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they 
 which testify of Me. The spirit of prophecy is the Testimony 
 of Jesus." 
 
 " And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded 
 unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." 
 
 The Press is justly regarded as one of the most 
 powerful and controlling forces in modern society 
 and civilization. The Printing Press multiplies 
 books and writings to a degree that is almost in- 
 calculable ; and the words spoken to-day in some 
 great centre of thought or activity, are read to- 
 morrow in hundreds of places thousands of miles 
 away. 
 
 The ancients did not possess this instrument 
 for multiplying copies of the writings of the great 
 and good among them; yet their thoughts were 
 committed to writing, and handed down to sub- 
 sequent generations. The thoughts of David, Isaiah, 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 43 
 
 Homer, Plato, Cicero, Augustine, have come down 
 to us in the very language in which they were 
 spoken and written. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the Greatest of all Teachers, wrote absolutely 
 nothing. 
 
 On a memorable occasion, He stooped down 
 and wrote on the ground, but no trace of that sur- 
 vives ; no fragment of His writing has been handed 
 down from age to age ; no book written by Him 
 can be found in any of the famous libraries of the 
 world; no manuscript of His is laid away in any 
 of the archives of the nations ; and in vain will 
 you search among the treasured things of the 
 earth for even his autograph. And yet no. teacher 
 has ever succeeded in making his thoughts so 
 clearly, so fully, and so generally known. While 
 the thoughts of Plato are known only to the 
 learned few, the words of Jesus of Nazareth are 
 read by hundreds and thousands in almost every 
 language spoken by men, — even the blind read His 
 Teachings in the raised letters of their Bibles. 
 With the lapse of time, other teachers become 
 less and less known ; but Jesus is only the more 
 fully and widely known as the ages roll away. 
 Each day, as the sun rises in the Heavens, mil- 
 lions of men are found diligently and devoutly 
 studying the matchless words of this Teacher 
 come from God. No power of man can expunge 
 
44 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 from the heart of the human race these words of 
 Christ that live and abide forever. 
 
 Four brief biographies, written by Jews of no 
 special culture, contain all that the human race 
 possesses of the Words personally uttered by Him. 
 The Sermon on the Mount, the Parables, His con- 
 versation with Nicodemus, and the woman of 
 Samaria; and His discussions with the Jews at 
 Jerusalem at the Passover preceding His cruci- 
 fixion, and His address and prayer the night before 
 His death, constitute the bulk of His own person- 
 ally spoken instructions. And many suppose that 
 the Teachings of Jesus are limited to these few 
 personally spoken words ; that in these we have 
 all that Christ ever said in the way of instructing 
 men in Divine things ; that as Teacher of men, 
 He is responsible for these, and these only. Hence 
 we often hear men, who reject the entire Doctrinal 
 System of Christ as developed by the Apostles, 
 speak in glowing terms of the pure morality of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, and the matchless beauty 
 of the Parables of our Lord. And yet the Doc- 
 trines of the Epistles are no less the Words of 
 Christ than the Sermon or the Parables ; for He 
 commissioned the Apostles, and His Spirit gave 
 them utterance, and put the Words of the Lord 
 in their lips. 
 
 The question is, therefore, properly answered 
 here, Are these personally spoken Words all of 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 45 
 
 the Teachings of this Prophet of God ; or are there 
 other Words delivered by His Spirit to Holy Men 
 who have delivered the same to us, even as the 
 Spirit of Christ, who was in them, taught them ? 
 
 Are His Words when given to us mediately, 
 through Holy men, even as they received them 
 from Christ, any the less His than those which 
 fell from his own lips ? Are not my thoughts, 
 when dictated to an amanuensis, and written by 
 him precisely as spoken by me, as much mine as 
 if I had spoken or written them ? Would I not 
 be just as responsible for the contents of this book 
 prepared in this manner as I am for it when I 
 write with my own hand all the words contained 
 in it ? 
 
 If forty men had received words at my lips, and 
 then had written them in a book ; and I should 
 make myself responsible for the whole book, and 
 accompany the publication with a statement over 
 my own signature announcing that the words and 
 thoughts were all mine, would not that be my 
 book ? 
 
 This is precisely what Christ has done as regards 
 the entire body of the Sacred Scriptures, both Old 
 and New Testaments. He makes Himself respon- 
 sible for all that the Apostles, Evangelists, and 
 Prophets wrote : He gave His words to them, and 
 they wrote them by Inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
 This point cannot be insisted upon with too great 
 
46 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 emphasis or pertinacity ; for it is true beyond ques- 
 tion that the whole Bible is Christ's; He makes 
 Himself responsible for it all. If men receive 
 Christ, at all, as a Divine Infallible Teacher, they 
 must receive all of His Words; they cannot accept 
 His own personally uttered instructions and reject 
 His other Teachings when delivered by his inspired 
 servants : they must receive or reject both alike. 
 
 The Mosaic Record of Creation, the Fall, the 
 Deluge, the Law given from the burning mount, 
 the Psalms of David, imprecatory and all, the 
 Visions of Ezekiel and Daniel, the Prophecies of 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah, the Gospels of Matthew and 
 John, the Epistles and the Revelation, are just as 
 much His as the Sermon on the Mount or the 
 Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Spirit which 
 pervades the entire Bible, the Inner Life Essence 
 of it all, is a Testimony of and to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. And this Prophecy, or speaking for God, 
 came not in old time by the will of men, but Holy 
 Men of God spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost. It was the Spirit of Christ in the 
 Prophets who testified beforehand His Sufferings 
 and the Glory that should follow. The Teacher 
 Himself says, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye 
 think ye have eternal Life, and they are they which 
 testify of Me. After His Resurrection, when He 
 appeared to two of His Disciples, He said, O fools, 
 and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets 
 
The Extent of Christ s Teachings. 47 
 
 have spoken : ought not Christ to have suffered 
 these things, and to enter into His glory ? And 
 beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He ex- 
 pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
 concerning Himself. These few passages, selected 
 from many of similar import, spoken by the Teacher 
 Himself, establish beyond doubt the fact, that Jesus 
 Christ makes Himself responsible for all the Words 
 of Moses and the Prophets recorded in the Jewish 
 Sacred Scriptures. The writers are but the aman- 
 uenses to record the words that Christ gives them 
 to speak. Nay, they are but the pens which the 
 Divine Teacher holds, and with which He records 
 his own imperishable thoughts. True, the writers 
 preserve their own personal peculiarities, just as 
 the pen, whether steel, rubber, gold, or goose-quill, 
 preserves its own character, but the Mind that thinks 
 is that of Christ, and it is His Hand that holds and 
 writes. It is the same God who spake at sundry 
 times, and in divers manners, unto the Fathers by 
 the Prophets, who now speaks unto us by the lips 
 of His own Incarnate Son, and again by His Spirit- 
 inspired Apostle : from beginning to end, from 
 Genesis to Revelation, it is the Voice of God that 
 we hear. 
 
 There is no conflict of teaching between the dif- 
 ferent parts of the Bible, between the Old and the 
 New Testaments, between the Law and the Gos- 
 pels, between Christ and the Apostles. The same 
 
48 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 Divine life flows through every part, and Christ 
 Himself is the completion and fulfillment of all, — 
 He is the Incarnate Word. He asserts in the most 
 emphatic manner, I am not come to destroy the 
 Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill. When He went 
 into the synagogue, and read from Isaiah's prophecy 
 a description of Messiah and His work, He adds, 
 This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. 
 Paul, who was called and commissioned by Christ, 
 declares that He said none other things than those 
 which the Prophets and Moses did say should 
 come. 
 
 It is, therefore, the supremest folly for men to 
 say that they accept as Divine the Words person- 
 ally uttered by Christ, but reject the Words put by 
 Christ Himself into the mouths of the Prophets and 
 Apostles; that some of the things spoken by Him 
 are true, and other things are false; that in some 
 respects' the Teachings of Christ are good, but in 
 others very bad ; that not all, but only portions 
 can be accepted as true and good. This principle 
 at once robs Christ of all His authority, certainty, 
 and completeness as a Divine and Infallible 
 Teacher, and enthrones Human Reason as su- 
 preme Instructor in the Prophet's office. Christ 
 Himself declares that all of His Words are Divine, 
 the Words given Him to utter by His Father in 
 Heaven. Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as 
 the Father said unto Me, so I speak : and since 
 
 ) 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 49 
 
 He declares that all the Words of Scripture are 
 His, that He is responsible for them all, the con- 
 clusion is inevitable that all are equally of God, 
 equally of the Father, are of Divine origin, au- 
 thority, and obligation. 
 
 Away, then, with that theory of interpretation 
 which says, I accept as Divine the gentle and 
 charitable teachings as uttered by Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, but I reject the harsh and revengeful legisla- 
 tion of Moses. I delight in the beautiful ethical 
 truths of the Evangelists, but I abhor the cruel 
 and vindictive spirit of the Psalms and the Proph- 
 ets. The sublime morality of the Epistles wins 
 my warmest admiration, but the impurity of the 
 Old Testament arouses my deepest detestation. 
 
 Such a view as this involves the absurdity that 
 the Divine and Infallible Prophet teaches one thing 
 by His servant Moses, and another and contradic- 
 tory thing by John and Paul ; that the exposition 
 of the Law given by Jesus Himself is far less rigid 
 than the Law as originally promulgated through 
 Moses from the Burning Mount; that the Lord 
 Jesus far less severely condemned and punished 
 immorality under the Old than under the New 
 Covenant; and that for four thousand years the 
 Prophet of God taught an incomplete and impure 
 code of morals and piety. 
 
 Beyond question the Teachings of Christ in the 
 Bible are not contradictory but harmonious. All 
 c 5 
 
50 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, 
 for Instruction in Righteousness. To the diligent 
 and thoughtful student of the Word there is a pro- 
 found and glorious Unity pervading the Teachings 
 of the Lord Jesus, whether Law or Gospel, Prophet 
 or Apostle, Psalm or Epistle. Whosoever will 
 accept Jesus as a Teacher sent from God must 
 receive all of His Instructions as Divine, must 
 receive the whole Bible as His Inspired and Infal- 
 lible Word unto salvation. 
 
 An examination of the Bible, which contains 
 the complete, certain, and authoritative Teachings 
 of Jesus Christ, the Prophet of God, reveals the 
 fact that this Book consists of three distinct parts 
 or elements, and that these embrace the sum total 
 of all that man is required to believe and do. If 
 man shall know, and believe, and do these Teach- 
 ings of the Infallible Prophet, then Eternal Life 
 and Blessedness shall be his portion with God 
 for evermore. The entire contents of the Bible 
 may be arranged under three heads, viz. : Facts, 
 Doctrines, and Duties, — a threefold cord not easily 
 broken. We have, 
 
 First: A Record of Facts. 
 
 Second: A System of Doctrine. 
 
 Third: A Code of Duties. 
 
 The Facts precede the Doctrines, the Doctrines 
 precede the Duties. The Doctrines flow from the 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 51 
 
 Facts, the Duties grow out of the Doctrines; the 
 Three : — Facts, Doctrines, and Duties, stand or 
 fall together ; the acceptance of one carries with it 
 the acceptance of all; the rejection of one necessi- 
 tates logically the rejection of all. If the recorded 
 facts of Scripture are not true, then the foundation 
 of Doctrine is gone, and with it all Duties disap- 
 pear: there can be no duty apart from some Doc- 
 trine ; nor can any doctrine exist except as based 
 upon some fact, some objective reality. The Di- 
 vine Teacher, with the pen of Moses, records the 
 Fact of Creation ; growing out of this, He reveals 
 the Doctrine of a Personal Creator; and as a re- 
 sult of this Fact and Doctrine He inculcates the 
 duty of the creature. If there be no Fact of a 
 creation, then there is no Doctrine concerning the 
 Creator; and hence of necessity, no Duty of the 
 creature to the Creator; and if the Fact of a crea- 
 tion, the Doctrine of a Creator, and the Duty of 
 the creature be stricken from the Record, then the 
 foundation of the system of Religion taught by 
 Jesus of Nazareth is removed. Many persons are 
 disposed to say, We care nothing for the Facts 
 and Doctrines of the Bible, only the Duties com- 
 manded by Christ concern us : others insist upon 
 the System of Doctrine, but are willing to give up 
 the Facts as of no special importance ; but it is 
 perfectly apparent that we must either hold to all 
 or reject all, — the three cannot be disconnected. 
 
52 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 
 
 The Facts embraced in this Book of Christ's 
 Teachings cover a period of about four thousand 
 years; from the creation to the days when the Son 
 of God was incarnate on this earth of ours. Some 
 of the Facts of Scripture occurred after His Ascen- 
 sion into Heaven, and they are recorded in the New 
 Testament. In the Bible we have an accurate and 
 authentic account of what God and man, angels 
 and devils, said and did. So far as Facts are con- 
 cerned, the Spirit of Christ moved Holy Men of 
 God to record them precisely as the events oc- 
 curred, and to record these and not others. It is 
 of vast importance to remember that a very large 
 portion of Christ's Word is a simple record of 
 Facts ; of what was said and done ; of lies spoken 
 by Devils, of sins committed by men, even by 
 saints, of ministries of Angels, of works wrought 
 by God, and ordinances appointed by Him. 
 
 As regards this element of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, Christ as Teacher is responsible for the 
 accurate record of the Fact, not for its moral char- 
 acter. He is also responsible for the proper ar- 
 rangement and use of the Facts in revealing to 
 man the Will of God unto salvation. As a 
 Teacher of Historic salvation, Christ's statement 
 of Facts must be accurate and authentic. 
 
 It is proper just here to call attention to what 
 has always been to many students of the Word 
 of Christ a great stumbling-block, viz. : 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 53 
 
 The Sins of the Saints in the Old Testament. 
 
 It is true that Christ has recorded, as matters of 
 fact, the sins of those who sincerely loved Hirn. 
 With the Word of God before us, no one can for 
 a moment doubt the sincere piety of Noah, Abra- 
 ham, Jacob, David, or Peter ; for Jesus Himself 
 recognizes these men as His friends, and the Spirit 
 of Christ has made honorable mention of their 
 faith and love. And yet these men sinned; sinned 
 after conversion ; sinned most grievously. Noah 
 was guilty of drunkenness, Abraham of falsehood, 
 Jacob of deceit, David of adultery and murder, 
 Peter of denial and cursing. The Great Teacher 
 has recorded the sins of His saints; and these sins 
 are a grief to the righteous and a stumbling-block 
 to the wicked. And yet it is manifest that the 
 mere record of the fact does not express Christ's 
 approbation of the sin. 
 
 Again : side by side with the recorded facts is 
 Christ's Law forbidding these very sins of which 
 His saints were guilty. And again : side by side 
 with the sins is the punishment inflicted by Christ 
 upon the saints for these very sins. And yet 
 more: side by side with the record of the sins is 
 the repentance of these holy men, bitter and godly 
 sorrow, and hearty turning from sin unto God. 
 In the light of these truths there is no occasion 
 for any honest soul to stumble at this Record. 
 
 5* 
 
54 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 For there is, ist. The Law which condemns the 
 sin. 2d. The punishment for the sin. 3d. The 
 repentance and confession of the saints. The very 
 Record is itself a fearful punishment, and at the 
 same time a solemn warning. Let him that thinketh 
 he standeth take heed lest he fall. 
 
 Another element, in the Teachings of Christ, 
 deserves special notice in this connection, viz., 
 The Imprecatory portions of the Scripture : and 
 the question must be answered, Does Christ make 
 Himself responsible for, and approve those passages 
 of the Sacred Scriptures, in which His servants 
 express a feeling of solemn and holy joy at the 
 destruction of the wicked ; and even pray the 
 Almighty to overthrow and destroy the enemies 
 of Christ and His kingdom ? Do the Impreca- 
 tory portions of the Bible express the Teachings 
 of Christ, or are they the utterances of cruel and 
 bloody men, in a dark and savage age, and at vari- 
 ance with Christ's own Words ? On this point I 
 venture two remarks : 
 
 ist. These Imprecations are not the expression 
 of private and personal hatred. David is an indi- 
 vidual, but he is also king: he is a man, but he is 
 also the Representative of God. He is a Typical 
 king, typical of Christ and His kingdom. He is 
 the visible Representative on earth of Christ, the 
 real king of Israel. His imprecations are not ex- 
 pressive of his private feelings as a man, as an 
 
The Extent of Christ s Teachings. 55 
 
 individual, but of his public and typical character 
 and office. He, in this capacity, prays for and 
 desires the destruction of the enemies of Christ 
 and His kingdom, — the enemies of God, and Truth, 
 and Holiness. A feeling that finds expression in 
 the prayer of every holy man when he prays God 
 "to suppress evil and immorality, and put to con- 
 fusion all workers of iniquity." Let any Christian 
 analyze his prayers in this particular, and he will 
 find that, if not in the same words, he does pray 
 for the same thing, viz., that all enemies may be 
 subdued under Christ, and that His kingdom may 
 come in spite of all opposition of the Devil and 
 wicked men. The imprecatory prayers of the Old 
 Testament saints are for the overthrow and de- 
 struction, not of their private and personal enemies, 
 but of those who are the enemies of God, and who 
 set themselves to resist, and defy, and destroy the 
 kingdom of Christ : and this feeling is not wicked, 
 but righteous and holy. 
 
 2d. This feeling, imprecatory, vindictive, or what- 
 ever else you may choose to call it, can and does 
 coexist with the most ardent love for the sinner, 
 and the most intense desire for his salvation : and 
 just here is the true and highest solution of this 
 difficulty. 
 
 In the Highest and Holiest of all beings, God 
 Himself, there is perfect hatred of sin, and the 
 solemn purpose to punish with eternal death all 
 
56 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 who will not submit to Christ, — and this hatred and 
 wrath of God is revealed, and He declares, Ven- 
 geance is mine, I will repay. Nay more, God acts 
 out this feeling, — He does punish with everlasting 
 destruction the Devil and his angels and all finally 
 impenitent men. And thus we have on the part 
 of God the hatred, the purpose to punish, and the 
 act of punishment itself: and yet all of this coexists 
 at the same time, side by side in the heart of God, 
 with the tenderest love for the sinner : God so loves 
 the world that He gives His only-begotten Son to 
 die for sinful men, for His enemies. And Christ 
 Himself, as He gazes upon Jerusalem, given over 
 to her fearful doom, exclaims, with tears of genuine 
 sorrow streaming from His eyes, O Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
 brood under her wings, and ye would not! 
 
 How these two feelings can coexist in the same 
 heart at the same moment we do not pretend to 
 be able to say. Not the philosophy , but the fact 
 of their coexistence concerns us ; and of this fact 
 there is no shadow of doubt. 
 
 Now this same feeling, to a greater or less degree, 
 is found in the heart of every child of God, whether 
 under the Old or New Dispensation. Every saint 
 does desire that all men should be saved and come 
 to the knowledge of the Truth. He desires the 
 salvation even of the chief of sinners. And at 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 57 
 
 the same time he desires and prays " that the king- 
 dom of Christ may be built up upon the ruins of 
 Satan and His kingdom." And so when Jehovah 
 caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow back 
 upon Pharaoh and his hosts, and when there was 
 a wholesale destruction of the enemies of Christ 
 and His people, we find Moses and all the chil- 
 dren of Israel singing with joy unto the Lord, 
 who had triumphed gloriously, who had cast both 
 horse and rider into the sea. Thy right hand, O 
 Lord, is become glorious in power; Thy right 
 hand hath dashed in pieces the enemy. So David, 
 in the Psalms, gives expression to the same holy 
 joy; and Christ Himself, in the Parable, com- 
 mands that His enemies who would not that He 
 should reign over them be brought and slain 
 before His face. 
 
 In the Prophecy of Jeremiah the Heavens and 
 earth are called upon to rejoice over the utter de- 
 struction of Babylon, the enemy of the kingdom 
 of God. And in the Revelation, when Babylon the 
 great and wicked city is consumed by the wrath 
 of an avenging God, all Heaven and earth, saints 
 and angels, Apostles and Prophets, are called upon 
 by Christ to rejoice over her. The imprecatory 
 Psalms are, therefore, not exceptional and isolated 
 expressions of holy indignation against the enemies 
 of God and man, but are in full accord with, and 
 form part of, the Teachings of the Lord Jesus with 
 c* 
 
5 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 reference to all the finally impenitent enemies of 
 His kingdom. 
 
 Almost every child of God has witnessed some 
 signal display of the power and grace of God in 
 the salvation of sinners. Sometimes a church is 
 revived, and the whole community is moved by the 
 Holy Ghost, — but there is some prominent person 
 who deliberately sets himself against the Spirit of 
 God. Christians labor and pray for his salvation ; 
 he is warned and entreated ; but all this only serves 
 to develop his bitter and malignant hatred of God ; 
 he tries himself to see how wicked and blasphemous 
 he can be, and does all in his power to ruin other 
 souls, and hinder the work of the Holy Ghost 
 Who will presume to say that when under such 
 circumstances Christians pray that this wicked 
 enemy of God and man may be taken out of the 
 way, and destroyed, the prayer is wicked and 
 malignant? 
 
 No teachable student of Christ's Word need 
 stumble either at the sins of the saints or the im- 
 precatory portions of the Scripture; when properly 
 understood and interpreted, they afford new evi- 
 dence that He is the Divine, the Infallible Teacher 
 of men. 
 
 All of the Facts recorded in the Bible have 
 bearings upon the salvation of men, and upon the 
 entire system of doctrinal truth revealed by Christ 
 as the Prophet of God. No one Fact recorded in 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 59 
 
 this Word is trivial or unimportant: each one has 
 its appropriate place, purpose, and use. The names 
 and ages of the Antediluvian patriarchs enable us 
 to determine the chronology of the world ; the 
 Lifting up of a brazen serpent by Moses is a Type 
 of the sacrificial death of the Son of God : and 
 the Swallowing of the Prophet Jonah by a fish is a 
 sign and type of the Son of Man. 
 
 In short, it is upon this solid foundation of Facts, 
 both natural and supernatural, that the entire struc- 
 ture of ethical and doctrinal truth, revealed by 
 Jesus of Nazareth, rests; remove the foundation of 
 Facts, and the superstructure of Doctrine and Duty 
 falls to the ground. It is precisely this element of 
 Facts that distinguishes the religion taught by 
 Jesus Christ from all other forms of religion among 
 men : and because of this element, His Religion is 
 neither theory, nor legend, nor myth, nor supersti- 
 tion, nor spiritualism, — it is a Religion of Fact; 
 and upon two great facts, viz., the Death and Resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ, the whole Gospel absolutely 
 rests. 
 
 Hence the shrewdest and ablest enemies of the 
 Christian religion have always assailed the authen- 
 ticity of the facts recorded in the Word. Especially 
 do they deny the supernatural facts, — the Deluge, 
 the Confusion of tongues, the Passage of the Red 
 Sea, the Sun and Moon standing still, and all the 
 miracles of our Lord and His Apostles, — and then 
 
6o Christ y the Teacher of Men. 
 
 they reject the great fact of the Resurrection of 
 Jesus, and thus seek to reduce His religion to a 
 merely natural thing, and Christ Himself to the 
 place of a merely human teacher. And if the 
 supernatural facts of Scripture are not true then 
 these men are right, and Christ and His teachings 
 are of no more value than any other man and his 
 opinions. But all the facts recorded in Scripture 
 are true, and Christ the Infallible Teacher makes 
 Himself responsible for them all. 
 
 Consider how immense the number and how 
 great the variety of Facts here recorded. Facts 
 concerning God and men, Angels and Devils; 
 facts in Nature, Providence, and Grace ; facts con- 
 cerning races, nations, and governments ; facts in 
 every department of the material world, and in the 
 wide domain of the supernatural. All of these 
 facts come down to us attested by the Omniscience 
 and Authority of the Son of God, who is never 
 mistaken and who cannot lie. Every fact of Scrip- 
 ture is important, and every one is precious; they 
 are all recorded by the direction of Jesus Christ; 
 are all considered by Him as necessary for our 
 comfort and salvation. We cannot, we dare not, 
 yield a single fact recorded in His Word ; for to do 
 this is practically to deny His Omniscience and 
 Infallibility as our Divine Prophet; for this is His 
 Word, these are His Teachings ; all is given by 
 Inspiration of His Spirit ; and He is just as respon- 
 
The Extent of Chris? s Teachings. 61 
 
 V 
 
 sible for the statement that the fish swallowed 
 Jonah as for that one that God is Holy, and that 
 the pure in heart shall see Him. If we are at lib- 
 erty to reject any one fact, then we have the same 
 liberty to reject all; for all of them equally and 
 alike rest upon His authoritative and infallible 
 Teaching. 
 
 The Doctrines of Christ. 
 
 The word "doctrine" because of a false meaning 
 attached to it, has fallen into disuse and disfavor. 
 Many have confounded "doctrinal preaching" with 
 polemical preaching, and hence they suppose that 
 a sermon on Doctrine must of necessity be an 
 assault upon views held by others. This is very 
 far from the truth ; for a doctrine is simply a truth. 
 By the Doctrines of Christ we understand His 
 statements of Divine Truth. Christ records facts; 
 He reveals Truth. And the Doctrines revealed by 
 Christ grow out of the Facts which He has left on 
 Record. 
 
 The Death of Jesus of Nazareth is a physical 
 and historic fact ; Salvation by Faith in that Death 
 as a sacrifice for Sin is a Doctrine. The Doctrine 
 of Salvation rests upon the physical fact of the 
 death of Christ; if He did not die for sin, then 
 there is of course no doctrine of Salvation through 
 Faith in His blood. 
 
 Nearly all of the Doctrines of Christ are so in- 
 woven with the Facts of Scripture that it is impos- 
 
 6 
 
62 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 sible to separate them. Taking Christ Himself as 
 the sum of all Christian Doctrine, it is evident 
 that here everything depends upon certain facts. 
 His Incarnation, His Death, and His Resurrection 
 are Facts, and the more carefully one studies the 
 Word of Christ the more clearly does he perceive 
 that the Facts of Scripture are indispensable to the 
 Doctrines. 
 
 The Doctrinal System of Jesus Christ embraces 
 in its infinite sweep and compass the entire Uni- 
 verse. In His Word He develops a complete and 
 perfect Doctrine concerning God. As one with 
 the august Father, He comes to reveal to man 
 the "Unknown God." His threefold definition of 
 Deity, viz., God is a Spirit; God is Light; God is 
 Love, affords the basis of an accurate and exhaust- 
 ive classification of the Being and Nature of God. 
 When we add to this, His own statement, He that 
 hath seen Me hath seen the Father also ; and then 
 add to this, the Teaching of the Holy Ghost, whom 
 Jesus sent as an Abiding Indweller in the human 
 soul, we have a perfect revelation of God. 
 
 Nor is His Doctrine of man any less clear and 
 complete; a doctrine, too, which meets and solves 
 all the strange, dark, terrible problems of human 
 existence. Man's origin, primeval estate of holi- 
 ness, fall, the curse, regeneration, justification, 
 sanctification, and glorification. All that man was, 
 and is, and will be, is revealed with the clearness 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 63 
 
 of light by Him who is no less the Son of Man 
 than He is the Son of God. 
 
 This Doctrinal System of Christ reveals a vast 
 world of spiritual beings, order after order, rank 
 after rank, whose number no human Arithmetic 
 can calculate, who touch our world and destiny on 
 every side, yet invisible to us ; their origin, influ- 
 ence, and destiny. And then the Infinite Fullness 
 of knowledge of this Divine Teacher is projected 
 forward upon the prophetic page, and the issues of 
 all things, Death, Resurrection, Judgment, Heaven, 
 and Hell, are made to gleam before our startled 
 gaze as with the awful Light of Eternity. 
 
 It is impossible, in this chapter, to do more than 
 merely sketch the bare outline of the Doctrines 
 contained in the Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the Prophet of God. 
 
 The Duties enjoined by Christ are connected 
 directly and indissolubly with the Doctrines taught 
 by Him. Truth is in order to godliness, and all 
 Christian Duty is the fruit of Christian Doctrine. 
 The Scriptures uniformly observed this order: 
 first, the Doctrine is stated, then the Duty is en- 
 joined. Hence, too, it is that there is no such 
 thing as profitable " practical" preaching apart from 
 Doctrinal preaching. Christ and the Apostles 
 were eminently doctrinal preachers. 
 
 Christ not only taught all that we are to believe 
 concerning God, but also what Duties God requires 
 
64 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 of man. And how vast and comprehensive are the 
 Duties commanded by this Divine Teacher ! There 
 is our duty to God, as Creator, Governor, Pre- 
 server, Benefactor, Redeemer, and Judge, to love 
 Him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength. 
 Then there is our duty to our fellow-man, to love 
 him as ourselves. 
 
 Then the Duties we owe to the Civil Govern- 
 ment, to Society, to our Families, to our superiors 
 and inferiors ; every duty that we owe to any 
 human being in any and every relation we can 
 occupy ; all of these are made perfectly plain to 
 us by this Prophet anointed of God. If nothing 
 of Christ's teachings remained but the Duties en- 
 joined, by Him, the world would still ask, Whence 
 hath this man this wisdom ? 
 
 How vast in extent, then, are these Instructions 
 of our Divine Teacher! How Infinite His knowl- 
 edge thus to .comprehend in one small volume this 
 record of Facts, this system of Doctrine, this code 
 of Duties; Facts so important, Doctrines so won- 
 derful, Duties so beneficent ! 
 
 And how blessed the truth that, amid the din, con- 
 fusion, and uncertainty of earth and earthly teachers 
 and teaching, we can turn to One with the assured 
 certainty that all that He teaches is true, absolutely 
 true; that He is Himself the Incarnate Truth; 
 that we have a more sure Word of Teaching 
 whereunto we do well that we take heed as unto 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 65 
 
 a Light that shineth in a dark place until the Day- 
 dawn and the Day Star arise in our hearts ! Nay, 
 this is Life eternal, to know Thee, the only True 
 God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent ! 
 
 Facts and Doctrines as related to Christian Life. 
 
 Attention has been incidentally directed to this 
 subject, but its importance demands a somewhat 
 fuller treatment. 
 
 The remark is often made, sometimes even by 
 good men, " The Facts and Doctrines of the Bible 
 are of small value; what we want is Christ Him- 
 self; not what Christ taught, but the Living Christ 
 Himself." 
 
 And thus along with the precious truth of a 
 Personal Saviour much error is also conveyed. 
 For how shall men believe in Him of whom they 
 have not heard ? Faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the Word of God. Apart from the 
 Facts and Doctrines of the Scriptures, we know 
 absolutely nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ; and 
 to talk, therefore, of having the Living Christ, and 
 caring nothing for the Truths which reveal Him, 
 is simply nonsense. We can only know Him as 
 He reveals Himself; and He reveals Himself in the 
 Facts and Doctrines of the Bible; hence to know 
 Him, we must know these facts and doctrines. 
 Jesus Himself most beautifully and clearly illus- 
 trates this Truth. In one of His conversations 
 
 6* 
 
66 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 with His disciples He said, Take heed and beware 
 of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees : 
 and when His Disciples fail to comprehend His 
 meaning, He adds, How is it that ye do not under- 
 stand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, 
 that ye should beware of the leaven of the Phari- 
 sees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they 
 how that He bade them beware of the doctrine of 
 the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 
 
 Leaven has an active working force or principle 
 which changes the character of the entire lump of 
 meal or flour until the mass becomes pervaded 
 with the leaven. So the Facts and Doctrines 
 taught by Christ have a living force, an active 
 working principle, which changes the character 
 of every heart into which they are cast. Christ's 
 Word sanctifies, makes holy, because His Word 
 is Truth. Every man's character and conduct is 
 determined by the Facts and Doctrines he believes. 
 What is in the heart will come out in the life. 
 As a man thinketh so is he. We are what we think, 
 we are what we believe. 
 
 Paul believed the facts of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures and the doctrinal truths revealed to 
 him by Jesus Christ, and the most casual reader 
 of his life and epistles can see how this belief de- 
 termined all that he said and did. Take these 
 away from Saul of Tarsus, and the whole current 
 of his life is changed. Remove from his conscious- 
 
The Extent of Christ's Teachings. 6? 
 
 ness the one fact that the Risen Jesus appeared to 
 him, and who does not see that the mighty moving 
 force of all his activities is gone, and that Paul the 
 Apostle has ceased to exist ? The relation which 
 the seal bears to the soft wax, and the impression 
 made upon it, is not more intimate than that which 
 Christian Doctrine bears to Christian Life. With- 
 out Christian Facts and Doctrines there is no such 
 thing as Christian Life. And those men who are 
 ever crying, Give us Christ Himself, and ignoring 
 or denying His Facts and Doctrines, are doing 
 more to hinder the progress of the Gospel than all 
 of His open and avowed enemies combined. 
 
 When men, professing to love and honor the 
 Lord Jesus, speak lightly and disparagingly of the 
 Facts of His Word and the Truths of His Revel- 
 ation, they do thereby cast dishonor upon His 
 Prophetical office, and show that they have not 
 received Him as an Infallible and authoritative 
 Teacher sent from God. 
 
 Hundreds delude themselves with the specious 
 but false saying, " It makes no difference what a 
 man believes, provided he is honest and sincere in 
 that belief." This is to destroy utterly the funda- 
 mental distinction between Truth and Falsehood, 
 and the very foundation of all moral obligation. 
 If this were true, then the more sincerely a man 
 received, and the more tenaciously he held, and 
 the more zealously he propagated a lie, the more 
 
68 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 praiseworthy he would be, and the more right- 
 eously entitled to a reward. It makes all the dif- 
 ference that there is between Heaven and Hell 
 whether we receive or reject the Doctrines of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. The man who eats arsenic, 
 honestly and sincerely believing it to be powdered 
 white sugar, does not, because of his sincerity, fail 
 to die. No amount of honest sincerity of heart 
 will stay the operation of Law, whether in the 
 physical or spiritual world. 
 
 If men receive the Teachings of Christ in their 
 hearts, they will practice them in their lives. Nor 
 is there any strong and symmetrical Christian Life 
 apart from the cordial acceptance of all the Truths 
 taught by This Prophet of God. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHRIST, THE COVENANT PROPHET. 
 
 Men ought to remember that Jesus of Nazareth, 
 who is called the Christ, either was all that He 
 claimed to be, or that He was an Impostor and 
 Blasphemer. 
 
 Unless He was in very deed and truth the co- 
 equal and co-eternal Son of the Living God, He 
 
Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 69 
 
 was guilty of nothing less than blasphemy when 
 He claimed perfect equality with the august 
 Father ; and the sentence of the Jewish Sanhe- 
 drim, adjudging Him guilty of that crime, was a 
 true and righteous verdict. If He was not the 
 king of Truth, sent of God to establish in this 
 world a spiritual kingdom, then He was a rival of 
 Caesar, and justly chargeable with sedition and 
 treason. 
 
 If Christ did not speak the Truth, He was defi- 
 cient in one of the essential elements of goodness; 
 and unless men are willing to accept as true all 
 the claims put forth by Jesus of Nazareth, they 
 cannot call Him even a good man, for a good man 
 will not assert false claims. 
 
 It is, therefore, the perfection of absurdity for 
 men to affirm in one breath that Jesus was a true 
 and good man, and then in the next deny His own 
 claims as the Son of God ; for if what He says is 
 true, then He is the Son of God, the Saviour of 
 men ; and if what He says is false, then He is not 
 a true and good man. 
 
 The wise members of the Highest Tribunal of 
 the Jewish people well understood this question, — 
 they knew that they must accept Him as their 
 King and Messiah; or if He was not this, it was 
 their duty to put Him to death as an Impostor 
 and Blasphemer. And, in fact, this was what they 
 continually charged upon Him; that He being a 
 
yo Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 man made Himself God. His Wisdom and His 
 Works confounded them, and as they would not 
 believe that these were of God, they charged that 
 He was in league with Baalzebub, the Prince of 
 Devils, and hence they were logically shut up to 
 the sentence which consigned Him to the Cross. 
 
 The old issue, so clearly and sharply defined in 
 the days when Jesus was on earth, is still the living 
 issue of our day, — for every man there is but one 
 of two courses : either to accept Jesus Christ in 
 all the offices which He claimed for Himself as 
 Prophet, Priest, and King, or else to reject Him 
 altogether, as an Impostor and Blasphemer. Here, 
 there is no middle path ; either Christ was altogether 
 true or altogether false : either the Son of God or 
 the wickedest of men. He knew fully the mean- 
 ing of all that He said, and understood clearly all 
 that He claimed; if what He said was not true, 
 and if his claims were false, then he was guilty of 
 the most heinous of sins ; and deserves the repro- 
 bation of all good men. If not the Son of God, 
 then He must have been the Son of the Devil, 
 the Father of Lies. It is to be regretted that this 
 issue is not more frequently and intensely pressed 
 upon the minds and hearts of the men of our day. 
 If Christ is what He claims to be, then it is the 
 immediate urgent paramount duty of every man to 
 submit to Him ; if He is not, then it is equally the 
 duty of every man to join in the cry, Away with 
 
Christ \ the Covenant Prophet. ji 
 
 such a fellow from the earth; He ought to die; 
 crucify Him ! 
 
 During His visit to Jerusalem, at the Feast of 
 Dedication, the winter before His crucifixion, and 
 also at the Passover in the spring, He asserted in 
 the most unmistakable manner His Divine Son- 
 ship and equality with the Father: Before Abraham 
 was, I Am : He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
 Father also: if ye had known Me, ye should have 
 known my Father also. I and my Father are One. 
 He further states, I proceeded forth and came from 
 God, neither came I of myself, but He sent me. 
 Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father 
 said .unto Me, so I speak. For I have given unto 
 them the Words which Thou gavest Me ; and they 
 have known surely that I came out from Thee; 
 and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. 
 
 He claims to be a Teacher sent from God ; to 
 have a Divine commission; and to bring a Divine 
 Message to men ; and that He was Divinely author- 
 ized to say all that He did say; that all of His 
 Words had been given to Him by the Father, and 
 all were alike True and Divine. 
 
 He declares, As my Father hath taught Me, I 
 speak these things : I have not spoken of myself, 
 but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a com- 
 mandment what I should say and what I should 
 speak : I speak to the world those things which I 
 have heard of Him : the Words that I speak unto 
 
72 Clirist, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that 
 dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works : all things 
 that I have heard of my Father, I have made 
 known unto you. 
 
 These Words reveal the fact that Jesus Christ was 
 not a self-appointed Teacher of men ; He did not 
 take this office upon Himself, uncalled of God ; 
 He did not bring to men a message unauthorized 
 by God; He did not offer terms of salvation which 
 His Father in Heaven might not approve. He was 
 Divinely appointed and Divinely authorized to 
 teach men the whole will of God unto salvation. 
 
 If two nations were at hostility, and a citizen 
 should come from one to the other with a view to 
 a reconciliation, one of the very first questions 
 would be, Is. he authorized by the king to treat 
 with us? This citizen might be wise, truthful, and 
 capable ; he might be able to represent correctly 
 the precise state of feeling in his own country; he 
 might suggest terms of peace eminently just and 
 honorable, — nay, more, he might be the son of 
 the king, and possessed of all possible excellencies 
 and virtues ; yet if he came uncommissioned by 
 his king, unauthorized by his sovereign, it is per- 
 fectly manifest that terms of adjustment could not 
 be definitely determined. His message cannot be 
 received unless it be authorized by the king. 
 
 So a very proper question to be asked concern- 
 ing Jesus Christ is, — Does He come from God as 
 
Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 73 
 
 an authorized Teacher of men ? Has God called 
 and commissioned Him to teach? Is His Message 
 Divine ? and will God approve the terms of salva- 
 tion offered by Him? Unless God has appointed 
 Him to this office, He dares not speak in That 
 Name to men. The High- Priest who acted for 
 men in things pertaining to God, did not take the 
 office upon Himself, but was called of God, as was 
 Aaron : so the Teacher who speaks for God to 
 men must be called and authorized of God. And 
 this fact is repeatedly stated in the New Testament 
 concerning the Prophetical office of Christ, — the 
 people were astonished at his Doctrine, — more cor- 
 rectly rendered, Teaching, — for He taught them as 
 one having authority, and not as the scribes. Christ 
 never speaks except with Divine authority. He 
 does not plead, nor beseech, nor exhort, nor argue ; 
 but with an air of conscious authority, and with 
 all the dignity of Deity itself, He says, Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, — He that hath ears to hear, 
 let him hear. 
 
 He never indulges in speculations or conjectures 
 or theories, — never gives advice, never persuades, 
 never appeals to the wise and great of this earth ; 
 all that He says is stamped with Divine authority; 
 The words that I speak unto you, they are Truth 
 and they are Life; for they are not Mine, but His 
 that sent Me. To this end was I born, and for 
 this cause came I into the world, that I should bear 
 i) 7 
 
74 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 witness unto the Truth. He that sent Me is with 
 Me ; the Father hath not left me alone, for I do 
 always those things that please Him. He is at all 
 times profoundly conscious that His Father God 
 has called and qualified and authorized Him to 
 speak to men, and that His Father is always pres- 
 ent with Him. 
 
 Nothing gives to a man such power over his 
 fellow-men as the unwavering belief that He is 
 called and commissioned of God to say and to 
 do; to teach and to act: and without this faith, no 
 great work was ever wrought among men. When 
 man is conscious that the Divine Presence goes 
 with Him, then is he in very deed a man of power, 
 among his fellow-mortals. 
 
 Martin Luther believed himself to be an instru- 
 ment chosen of God to reform a corrupt church, 
 and to correct the abuses of the Papal Hierarchy ; 
 and though Devils thicker than tiles upon the 
 housetops opposed his way, he marched resolutely 
 forward in the Divinely-appointed path of duty ; 
 and the entire Priesthood of an apostate church 
 quailed before the face of one God-anointed man. 
 
 George Whitefield received a call and commis- 
 sion from the Lord to preach the Gospel of His 
 Grace to men ; and strong in the might of this 
 call, he moved the masses, even as the leaves of 
 the forest are swept and swayed by the breath of 
 some mighty wind. 
 
Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 75 
 
 D. L. Moody, girded with Divine strength, so 
 proclaims the Message given him by His Risen 
 Redeemer, that all England and Scotland are moved 
 at his presence. It is this Divine call that makes 
 even the weak things of this world so mighty, en- 
 abling one man to chase a thousand, and two to put 
 ten thousand to flight. It was this that enabled 
 Moses, the servant of the Lord, to do what no 
 other mortal has ever done. 
 
 The certainty of His Divine call, and the Pres- 
 ence of His Father, girded and sustained the Lord 
 Jesus Christ during all the days of His public 
 ministry on earth. In all that He said and did, He 
 showed to the world that He was Divinely called 
 and authorized, and hence he always spake and 
 acted as one having authority and not as the 
 scribes. 
 
 Fifteen hundred years before Jesus was born, 
 Moses told the children of Israel that God would 
 raise up from among them a Prophet, whom they 
 should hear in all things ; and after the death and 
 resurrection of Jesus, Peter quotes these words of 
 Moses, and applies them expressly to Jesus of 
 Nazareth. He is then The Teacher raised up by 
 God Himself to make known His Will and reveal 
 Him to men, and He speaks always with Infinite 
 knowledge and with Divine authority. 
 
 This leads to the remark that Jesus Christ is 
 Teacher under, and in accordance with, a Cove- 
 
?6 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 nant or formal agreement between the Three Di- 
 vine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The 
 Teaching of this Prophet is in order to the salvation 
 of sinners; the gathering into one kingdom all the 
 Elect of God; and the final and complete purifica- 
 tion of the Church, the Bride of the Lamb, — and all 
 of these are the results of that Eternal Covenant 
 of Love and Mercy, called the Covenant of Grace. 
 Christ reveals the whole will of God unto salvation 
 by revealing all the provisions of that Covenant. 
 He is Prophet of the Covenant. All of His Teach- 
 ings are founded upon and are limited by that. 
 Apart from the Covenant, He has no instructions 
 of any sort for men. To make known the pro- 
 visions of that Covenant, to reveal the mind and 
 heart of the Divine Persons who were parties to it, 
 and to apply the Grace contained in it, to all those 
 given Him by the Father, is His glorious Media- 
 torial work, which, as Prophet, Priest, and King, 
 He performs. Possessed of Infinite knowledge 
 Himself, He does not come to teach all knowledge, 
 but only that which is unto the salvation contained 
 in the Covenant. To reveal the Covenant, the God 
 of the Covenant and the Grace of the Covenant, 
 is the sum and the substance of His Prophetical 
 Instructions. 
 
 The Teachings of Christ, like all the other parts 
 of His work, were eternally arranged and ordered. 
 His Teachings are not adapted to the various ex- 
 
Christ, the Covenant Prophet. J? 
 
 igencies of the race as they arise, but were agreed 
 upon and ordained long before Jesus of Nazareth 
 entered upon His public ministry. 
 
 As the wise master-builder makes a complete 
 plan of the entire edifice he is about to erect 
 before the work has commenced, so the Maker 
 and Builder of the Heavenly City, the New Jeru- 
 salem, had prepared all the details of His work 
 long ages before the first lively stone was polished 
 for the Building. Christ, as Prophet of the Cove- 
 nant, comes to unfold the Divine Plan eternally 
 formed. Apart from that Covenant there is no 
 salvation, and therefore no Prophet to reveal any 
 will of God unto any human salvation. 
 
 " Christ executeth the office of a Prophet in His 
 revealing to the church in all ages, by His Spirit 
 and Word, in divers ways of administration, the 
 whole will of God in all things concerning their 
 edification and salvation." 
 
 But this salvation grounds itself in the Covenant 
 of grace ; nay, it is but the application to man of 
 the Covenant, and the Covenant is itself the whole 
 will of God unto salvation. Outside of, and apart 
 from, this Covenant, God has no will unto any 
 man's salvation. If not saved under and through 
 this Covenant, man is hopelessly lost. 
 
 Hence the Prophet who reveals the whole will 
 of God unto salvation, reveals the entire provisions 
 of this Covenant, and hence of necessity His Mes- 
 
78 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 sage is absolutely conditioned and limited by the 
 nature and terms of the Covenant. 
 
 The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
 for both and for all of which Jesus makes Himself 
 personally responsible, must, therefore, be inter- 
 preted as the Book of the Covenant. The Teach- 
 ings of the Covenant Prophet are contained in the 
 Book of the Covenant, in its Facts, its Doctrines, 
 and its Duties. All is given by inspiration of the 
 Spirit of Christ, all is a Testimony to Him. 
 
 If called upon for the proof of any such Cove- 
 nant, the answer is obvious, The ivhole Bible is filled 
 with this doctrine. Christ is everywhere set forth 
 as the Mediator of this Covenant, as the Executor 
 of its provisions. The crowning ordinance of the 
 kingdom, gathered by Him through the Truth, is, 
 This Cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Priest 
 of the Covenant, He seals it with His own precious 
 Blood ; King of the Covenant, He receives His 
 Bride, the Church, as a Covenant Gift from His 
 Heavenly Father; Prophet of the Covenant, He 
 reveals its Truth, to the salvation of His- Elect 
 People. Outside of this Covenant, He is neither 
 Priest, nor King, nor Prophet; and apart from 
 this, He has neither worshipers, nor subjects, nor 
 disciples. 
 
 The whole efficacy of His Teaching, as Prophet 
 sent of God, depends absolutely upon the formal 
 stipulations of this Covenant, so that His People 
 
Christ, the Covenant Prophet. 79 
 
 are made willing in the day of God's Power. All 
 given Him by the Father do come unto Him, and 
 the word spoken cannot and does not return unto 
 Him void, but does accomplish that which He 
 pleases, and does prosper in the thing whereto He 
 sends it. Every one who is of God and of the 
 Truth, hears the word of the Prophet, rests upon 
 the sacrifice of the Priest, and wears the yoke of 
 the King, and thus the Covenant people are re- 
 deemed, taught, and governed. The Gospel call 
 of this Divine Teacher is effectual \.o salvation, be- 
 cause there is a Covenant, and Covenant Promises, 
 and Covenant Power. 
 
 A man may believe that Christ is an authorized 
 Prophet, and that He brings to men a Message 
 directly from God, and yet he may not believe the 
 message itself. Believing in the Divine Commis- 
 sion of the Prophet, he may, nevertheless, not be- 
 lieve what the Prophet says. Naaman believed 
 that Elisha was the Prophet of God, but he did 
 not believe that dipping seven times in the river 
 Jordan would cure him of his leprosy. Many men 
 do believe that the Bible is a Book from God, and 
 are yet unwilling to receive the Doctrines and 
 Truths which it contains. They say that they 
 believe the Bible, meaning by this that they be- 
 lieve this Book to be a Divine Revelation ; but 
 there are many things contained in this Word 
 which they do not believe. They know that God 
 
80 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 has said, The wicked shall be turned into Hell ; 
 but they do not believe that this saying is true. 
 They know that He said, He that believeth not 
 shall be damned; but they do not believe that all 
 unbelievers shall perish. 
 
 We often hear this expression : " I believe that 
 Mr. A. said that he would do a certain thing, but 
 I do not believe that he will do what he says." 
 So men may, and do, believe that Christ is an 
 authorized Teacher, that He brings a Divine Mes- 
 sage, that this Message is contained in the Bible ; 
 and yet they do not believe the Message itself, nor 
 trust the Prophet who delivers it. 
 
 It is manifest, that if the words of Christ can be 
 trusted, He occupies a position wholly different 
 from that of any other Teacher who has ever ap- 
 peared among men. For He is not a self-appointed 
 Instructor, but called to His office by God Him- 
 self, and Divinely authorized to speak for God to 
 men. He is the Prophet of an eternal Covenant 
 of Grace, and appears on earth to reveal the salva- 
 tion therein provided to lost and guilty man. 
 
 That God, who at sundry times and in divers 
 manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by 
 the Prophets, is in these last days speaking unto us 
 by His Son, the Prophet of the Covenant, and the 
 Heir of all things. The commandment which He 
 received of the Father, and which He makes 
 known to us, is Everlasting Life. For this is His 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 8[ 
 
 testimony that God hath given to us Eternal Life, 
 and this Life is in His Son. Not to believe the 
 words of this Divinely-ordained Prophet is to 
 make God a liar, and thus to be guilty of the most 
 heinous and damning of all sins, the Sin of Un- 
 belief. The refusal or neglect to believe the Mes- 
 sage of God as delivered to us by this Covenant 
 Prophet is a direct and gross insult offered to the 
 Most High, and every soul who will not hear this 
 Prophet shall most assuredly be cut off. See that 
 ye refuse not Him that speaketh. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHRIST TEACHING THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 A point has now been reached in this discussion 
 when the mind of the reader must be directed to 
 another Divine Person, the Holy Ghost, or the 
 Spirit. 
 
 The most careless student of the words of Christ 
 cannot fail to have noticed the frequency with which 
 He speaks of the Spirit. He calls Him the Spirit 
 of Truth, the Comforter, the Paraclete; always 
 speaks of Him, not as an Emanation, an Influence, 
 a mere impersonal Force, but as a Person; One 
 
 D* 
 
82 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 who thinks, and feels, and wills ; One who teaches, 
 enlightens, comforts, and sanctifies ; One who can 
 be grieved and resisted ; One who exercises all the 
 faculties, and puts forth all the activities, and is 
 possessed of all the properties essential to a Person ; 
 One to whom Personality, not Bodily Presence, in 
 its highest sense, belongs. This Personal Spirit is 
 most intimately connected with Christ, and is 
 directly related to all of His work, and especially 
 to his office and work as a Teacher of men. 
 
 In the Scriptures, it is recorded that this Spirit 
 came upon men, influenced their minds, controlled 
 their thoughts, inspired their words, directed their 
 pens. It was this Spirit in the Prophets who testi- 
 fied beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the 
 glory that should follow : and the holy men of 
 God spake as they were moved by this Holy Ghost. 
 
 Christ, speaking through the mouth of Isaiah, 
 says of Himself, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon 
 Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach 
 good tidings unto the meek ; He hath sent Me to 
 bind up the broken-hearted. Ezekiel says, The 
 Hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me 
 out in the Spirit of the Lord. When Philip and 
 the Eunuch came up from the water, the Spirit of 
 the Lord caught the Evangelist away. While 
 Christ w r as with the Disciples, He told them plainly 
 that it was expedient for them that He should go 
 away, and that after He departed, He would send 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 83 
 
 them another Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit 
 of Truth; and that this Spirit would bring His 
 words to their remembrance, and would guide 
 them into all Truth. The Holy Ghost inspired 
 the words of the Old Testament Scriptures; He 
 came in mighty power upon the Apostles after 
 the Ascension of Christ; He brought to their 
 memory the words spoken by Christ during His 
 personal ministry, and unfolded their meaning; He 
 taught them what to write ; He abides in the Word, 
 and in the church, and in the heart of each believer, 
 and is the Infallible Interpreter of the Teachings 
 of the Prophet sent from God. 
 
 It is impossible, therefore, to discuss fully the 
 prophetical office of Christ without pointing out the 
 
 Relation which the Spirit bears to the Teachings of 
 Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 According to the Sacred Biographers, the Spirit 
 bears a most intimate and peculiar relation to th # e 
 human body and soul of the man Christ Jesus; for 
 it is true beyond question that Jesus did have a 
 "true body and a reasonable soul." 
 
 There was an ancient promise made to Adam 
 and Eve that the Seed of the woman should bruise 
 the serpent's head ; and that in Him all the nations 
 of the earth should be blessed. Isaiah foretold that 
 a Virgin should conceive and bear a son. In the 
 Gospels written by Matthew and Luke we have 
 
84 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 a record of the fulfillment of this Promise and 
 Prediction. 
 
 When the Fullness of the time had come, the 
 Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a Virgin es- 
 poused to a man whose name was Joseph : and the 
 Angel said, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found 
 favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive 
 in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call 
 His name Jesus. 
 
 Mary expressed great surprise at this strange 
 announcement, seeing that she was yet unmarried, 
 and had never known a man. And the Angel re- 
 plied, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and 
 the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : 
 therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born 
 of thee shall be called the Son of God ; for with 
 God nothing shall be impossible. 
 
 The power of the Holy Ghost enabled the Virgin 
 to conceive, and the same power formed of her sub- 
 stance the human soul and body of Jesus ; and 
 thus He was born of her without sin. And thus 
 the Logos, the Word, the Eternal Son who had 
 been in the beginning, and was with God, and who 
 was God, become flesh, and dwelt among us, and 
 we beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten 
 of the Father, full of Grace and Truth. 
 
 The child Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, 
 and in favor with God and man ; and was a Temple 
 in which the Spirit dwelt continually : so that from 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 85 
 
 His Birth the Man Christ Jesus was under the 
 influence of, and in daily contact with, the Holy 
 Ghost. The Spirit bore a relation to the human 
 soul and body of Jesus that He has never borne 
 to any other human being. 
 
 When His Forerunner John the Baptist inducted 
 Jesus publicly into His office as a Teacher sent 
 from God, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily 
 form like to a Dove and rested upon Him, and He 
 was anointed by the Spirit above measure for His 
 Mediatorial Work as Prophet, Priest, and King. 
 This Spirit was with Jesus as Man in all the days 
 of His earthly life; and it was through the Spirit 
 that all of His words were spoken and all of His 
 works were wrought. 
 
 By the Spirit, He was led up into the wilderness 
 to be tempted of the Devil ; when He returned to 
 Galilee, it was in the power of the Spirit ; and we 
 know that God anointed Him with the Spirit and 
 power; and because the Spirit of the Lord was 
 upon Him, He preached the Gospel to the poor, and 
 proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. His 
 first official teaching was based upon the prophecy 
 of Isaiah, beginning, The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 Me, because He hath anointed Me; and then He 
 adds, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your 
 ears. 
 
 Throughout His entire earthly life the Man 
 
 Jesus was anointed and girded and guided by the 
 
 8 
 
86 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Spirit; and it was through this Eternal Spirit that 
 He performed that great Priestly act, wherein He 
 offered Himself without spot or blemish a sacrifice 
 to God. 
 
 I attempt no philosophical explanation of how 
 these things could be. - Just where and how life 
 begins, how it is sustained and strengthened, how 
 spirit acts upon spirit, how the Son of God became 
 flesh, and how the Holy Ghost dwelt in the man 
 Jesus, are mysteries beyond the power of mortal 
 gaze. 
 
 The facts themselves are plain and easily 
 established ; but how these things are, no mortal 
 can tell: a fact is one thing; its philosophical 
 and satisfactory explanation something altogether 
 different. 
 
 Not only did the Spirit give to the Virgin power 
 to conceive the body and soul of Jesus, but His 
 Resurrection from the dead is expressly ascribed 
 to the same Divine Agent ; He was put to death 
 in the flesh, but was quickened by the Spirit, and 
 was declared to be the Son of God w r ith power in 
 and by His Resurrection from the dead by the 
 Spirit of Holiness, or the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The relation, therefore, subsisting between Christ 
 and the Spirit is most peculiar and intimate; ex- 
 tending to the production of His human soul and 
 body, abiding with Him in all of His earthly life, 
 enabling Him to offer Himself in sacrifice to God, 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 87 
 
 and raising Him from the dead. Hence it would 
 be natural to suppose that this Spirit shall occupy 
 a prominent place in the Teachings of the God- 
 man Christ Jesus. 
 
 We are prepared, therefore, to receive the state- 
 ment that Christ spake by the Spirit through the 
 Prophets, the Evangelists, and the Apostles; these 
 men uttered not their own words, but spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It was the 
 Spirit of Christ in them who did testify of His suf- 
 ferings and the glory which should follow. In the 
 twenty-second chapter of Matthew, Christ says 
 that, David by the Spirit called Him Lord, and 
 then He quotes the second Psalm, " Jehovah said 
 unto Messiah." So that David spake the words 
 of God. It is needless, at this point, to raise and 
 discuss the question, — Is the Bible true ? The 
 single matter insisted on in this connection is, that 
 the men who wrote this Book claim to have written 
 under the guidance and influence of the Spirit of 
 Christ : and Christ is responsible for all that is 
 written, because His Spirit inspired it all. It was 
 the Omnipresent Spirit of Christ, moving upon the 
 minds and hearts of the Holy Prophets of olden 
 time, who guided them in the preparation of the 
 Books of the Jewish Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 But what is Inspiration, and what do we mean 
 when we assert that the men who wrote these 
 Books were inspired by the Holy Ghost ? Evi- 
 
88 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 dently, we can mean nothing less than that these 
 words are as much the words of Christ as if He 
 had with His own Hand written them. In authority, 
 authenticity, and obligation these are all Divine 
 words, — the words of the Divine Teacher. They 
 do exactly and completely represent the mind and 
 will of the Lord Jesus Christ, — so exact is the rep- 
 resentation that God Himself cannot make it more 
 exact : had the Divine Hand written the Books 
 they would not vary one iota from what "Is Writ- 
 ten." Inspiration is, therefore, the influence exerted 
 by the Holy Spirit upon the writers of the Sacred 
 Scriptures whereby they have recorded the Facts, 
 revealed the Doctrines, and enjoined the Duties 
 precisely as we have the Record in the Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 The history of the Creation as given by Moses 
 in Genesis is inspired: he records the six days' 
 work of Creation from the Divine stand-point; states 
 the fact and manner of Creation precisely according 
 to the Divine Mind. Had God in Christ written 
 the history Himself it would have been precisely 
 the very one we now have. Nor do I see why 
 Christians should be perplexed, when men living 
 thousands of years from the time of the Creation, 
 charge that God's account thereof is inaccurate, 
 and profess to give one far better than that given 
 by the Creator Himself. 
 
 The accounts of the Garden of Eden, the Temp- 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 89 
 
 tation, the Fall, the Flood, the Dispersion, the 
 Exode, given by the Sacred Writers, are just as 
 accurate as if God, with His own Hand, had written 
 them. For the Spirit of God directed Holy Men 
 to record these Facts exactly as they occurred. 
 The difficulty men have is not with the accuracy 
 and inspiration of the account given, but with the 
 super natural element in the Facts themselves. They 
 are unwilling to admit the direct forthputting of 
 Divine Power in human history. 
 
 The Holy Spirit guided the Writers to record 
 such facts and truths as Christ wished to have re- 
 corded, and only such as He wished ; and He fur- 
 ther influenced them to write precisely as they did 
 write. The Bible is, therefore, the exact represen- 
 tation of the mind of the Great Teacher Jesus 
 Christ. This Book contains His statement of 
 Facts, Doctrines, and Duties: in it, He is teaching 
 men the will of God unto salvation. 
 
 The Spirit so moved upon the Sacred Writers 
 that their mental and spiritual faculties were, during 
 the time of writing, brought into exquisite, exact, 
 and complete harmony with the mind and will of 
 Jesus Christ: so that what they thought, Christ 
 thought; and what they wrote, Christ wrote. 
 
 Only those Facts are left on record that Christ 
 willed to have recorded ; and the Record corresponds 
 exactly with the occurrences : only those Truths 
 are revealed that Christ willed to have revealed ; 
 
 8* 
 
go Christ y the Teacher of Men. 
 
 and they are recorded exactly as He delivered 
 them: only those Duties are commanded which 
 Christ enjoined, and they are recorded exactly as 
 He commanded. The Facts of Scripture are in- 
 spired, the Doctrines are inspired, the Duties are 
 inspired: so that the entire Teachings of Christ as 
 contained in His Word are inspired. 
 
 But little profit is gained in discussing the 
 manner and method whereby this influence of the 
 Spirit was exerted upon the minds of the Writers, — 
 How influence passes from one spirit to another? — 
 the minor question, How does Force act? — are far 
 beyond the reach of our present powers. The 
 facts are beyond doubt; force does act; spirits do 
 influence other spirits ; but how this is done ; the 
 manner and method thereof no wisest philosopher 
 can tell. 
 
 Much time has been wasted in useless discus- 
 sions concerning degrees of inspiration ; the 
 member of degrees varying according to the judg- 
 ment of each writer : one degree being needful for 
 facts, another for doctrine, another for duty. 
 
 Inspiration in each and every case; in facts, doc- 
 trines, and duties, is the same in kind and degree, — 
 for it is always that influence of the Spirit exerted 
 upon the Writers, whereby they made an accurate, 
 authentic, and infallible Record of Facts, Doctrines, 
 and Duties. The Record contains the whole will 
 of Christ unto salvation; and in the very words 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 91 
 
 of Christ; and not one single fact, truth, or word 
 is superfluous. 
 
 When we examine the substance-matter of 
 Christ's Teachings we find great variety : there are 
 facts, truths, doctrines, proverbs, songs, epistles, 
 biographies, and revelations. We have the words 
 and acts, the sayings and doings, of good and bad 
 men, of angels and devils, of God and man. But 
 in each case the Record is inspired, — facts are re- 
 corded as facts; the sins of good men as the sins of 
 good men ; lies spoken by the Devil, as lies spoken 
 by the Devil. In the account of the Temptation and 
 Fall, the Spirit of Christ does not inspire the words 
 of the Serpent, " Ye shall not surely die;" but He 
 does influence Moses to record the facts, and the 
 words of the Devil just as he uttered them, — the 
 lie is the Devil's own ; the record of it is infallibly 
 inspired by the Spirit of Christ : and in this sense, 
 the Bible contains u inspired lies" ; not that the lie 
 is inspired or true, but the record thereof is both 
 true and inspired. 
 
 The influence of the Spirit upon Moses when he 
 records the Temptation is precisely the same in 
 kind and degree as when he records the words of 
 Jehovah, " I am that I am," — in each case we have, 
 through inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, an in- 
 fallibly accurate account; in the one of a lie spoken 
 by the Devil, in the other of a truth uttered by 
 God. It is Christ, the Teacher, by His Spirit, 
 
92 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 speaking through Moses, and making up the Re- 
 cord for all generations. 
 
 If the question be asked, "How can the One 
 Spirit of Christ speak thus through Moses, David, 
 Isaiah, Malachi, Matthew, Paul, and John, and yet 
 each writer preserve his own personal characteristics 
 and peculiarities?" the answer shall be given when 
 the questioner tells us how each man of numberless 
 generations preserves his own distinct individuality, 
 when each and all alike live and move and have 
 their being in God; when he tells us how each be- 
 liever preserves his own distinct, peculiar Christian 
 character, when all alike live in Christ, and Christ 
 lives in each one; when he tells us how each re- 
 generated soul preserves its own peculiar charac- 
 teristics, when all are alike recreated by the one 
 Divine Spirit. Until the questioner can explain 
 the problem of Life in its endless diversities, and 
 reveal the mystery of Force and Influence, we 
 can well decline any attempt to explain liozv one 
 spiritual influence can co-exist with manifold 
 diversities of style and speech. 
 
 When we come to the modes of spiritual in- 
 fluence, we have reached a point in our investiga- 
 tions beyond which we cannot go with either 
 safety, profit, or certainty. 
 
 That, influence, whether human, diabolic, angelic, 
 or Divine, when exerted by one being upon another, 
 does not and cannot destroy personality, individu- 
 
CI iris t teaching through the Holy Ghost. 93 
 
 ality, or responsibility, is a truth established by the 
 universal consciousness; is one of those primal 
 intuitions of the race that no sophistry of argu- 
 ment can shake. So also it is true that the in- 
 fluence of the Spirit does not destroy or impair 
 the personal characteristics of the Sacred Writers. 
 
 The intimate relation subsisting between the 
 Word of Christ and the Spirit of Christ is pointed 
 out with the utmost clearness by the Great Teacher 
 Himself. 
 
 Just before His departure from the earth, He 
 said plainly to His Disciples, It is expedient for 
 you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I 
 will send Him unto you : when He is come, He 
 will not speak of Himself, but shall take of Mine 
 and shew it unto you. He shall testify of Me; He 
 shall glorify Me ; He shall bring to your remem- 
 brance all things whatsoever I have said unto you. 
 And how completely, after the day of Pentecost, 
 this Promise was fulfilled, the Gospels, Acts, Epis- 
 tles, and Revelation do most abundantly attest. 
 
 After Jesus was glorified, the Spirit came in 
 power to the Apostles, and took one, and another, 
 and another of the sayings of Christ, and shedding 
 Divine Light upon the Truth, enabled the Apostles 
 to see it in its fullness and glory, and caused them 
 to record it for everlasting instruction. 
 
 Let an incident from the Acts of the Apostles 
 
94 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 be taken to illustrate this statement. Jesus had 
 said, — John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall 
 be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 
 
 After the Gentiles had received the Word, and 
 had been admitted to the Christian church, Peter 
 went up to Jerusalem and told the Apostles of the 
 conversion of the Gentiles, and adds, — " While I 
 was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on* them, as on 
 us at the beginning; then remembered I the word of 
 the Lord, how He said, Ye shall be baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 This illustrates the truth that the words of Christ 
 were brought to the remembrance of the Apostles 
 by the Holy Ghost, and that the Spirit of Christ is 
 most intimately connected with the words of Christ. 
 Incident after incident could be gathered from the 
 New Testament to illustrate this truth, but one is 
 sufficient to show the principle involved. 
 
 Not only did the Spirit bring the words of Christ 
 to remembrance, unfolding their meaning to the 
 Apostles, and inspiring them to record in perma- 
 nent form the precious truths of the Gospel, but 
 He has adjoined Himself to the Written Word, has 
 shrined Himself in the Scriptures, and thus makes 
 the Word of God a living, perfect, and infallible 
 Testimony of and to the Lord Jesus Christ as the 
 Teacher of men and the Revealer of God. As 
 Christ said to Philip, " He that hath seen Me, hath 
 seen the Father also;" so we can now say, He that 
 
Christ teaching through the Holy Ghost. 95 
 
 hath seen the Word, hath seen both the Father 
 and the Son. 
 
 Rev. Hugh Martin, of Edinburgh, in his inimi- 
 table work," Christ's Presence in Gospel History," 
 says, " I believe that this revelation was not designed 
 for Philip only, but that it is the heritage of them 
 also which shall believe through the Word. But 
 if Jesus looketh forth upon me now from their 
 Word by His Spirit, the Spirit lighteth up that 
 very Word as it has been written, and Jesus thereby 
 looking forth exactly, to the very life, as that written 
 Word, if I may so say, permits him ; there my 
 Beloved — fairer than the sons of men, chiefest am ong 
 ten thousand — is to me altogether lovely, and the 
 express image of the Father, only if this Word be 
 exactly what the Spirit of Christ zvould have, — writ- 
 ten as Holy Men of God were moved by the Spirit, 
 an inspired record and perfect. 
 
 " I demand its absolute infallibility, in order that 
 my Lord be in nothing misrepresented to me. I 
 demand that it be a mirror on which no staining 
 breath of human imperfection has been permitted to 
 pass; that it be a picture without spot, or blemish, 
 or any such thing. For now the question of its 
 perfection implicates my Lord's perfection. His 
 spotlessness is periled on its infallibility. The 
 Word must be perfect ; even in all the perfection 
 He can give to it; yea, in all the perfection He can 
 claim for Himself. It must be an image, as per- 
 
96 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 feet in its kind, in written words of Jesus, — as Jesus 
 is the perfect image in human flesh of the Eternal 
 Father." 
 
 If the inspiration of the Word be imperfect, then 
 its representation of Christ is imperfect ; and if this 
 be imperfect, then God has given us an imperfect 
 representation of Himself. 
 
 The Spirit of Christ has so adjoined Himself to 
 the Word of Christ ; the Holy Ghost doth so ac- 
 company the Teachings of Christ, that He becomes 
 to every earnest and sincere student of the Words 
 of Christ an Infallible Interpreter. How shall I 
 understand the words of the Book unless some one 
 shall guide me? was the question of the Eunuch. 
 The Holy Ghost shall guide you, is the answer 
 of the Teacher Himself. Whosoever will submit 
 himself as a little child to the Holy Spirit shall be 
 nfallibly guided into the Truth. Nor is there in 
 all the universe any Infallible Interpreter of Christ's 
 words save the Spirit of Christ : He shall guide 
 men into the Truth. The Word of God must, 
 therefore, be free to all men, and every man must 
 search the Scriptures for himself. 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRIST TEACHING BY MIRACLES. 
 
 Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, who came to Jesus 
 by night, said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou 
 art a Teacher come from God, for no man can do 
 these miracles that thou doest, except God be with 
 him. 
 
 In this statement, Nicodemus gives expression 
 to a belief common to man in every part of the 
 earth and every age of the world, viz., that a 
 Teacher, claiming to come from God, must authen- 
 ticate his Divine mission by supernatural works. 
 
 The world in which man lives is seen and tangi- 
 ble; when he opens his eye, he beholds it; when 
 he stretches forth his hand, he touches it. 
 
 The Spiritual World is intangible and invisible; 
 the mortal hand cannot touch, the mortal eye can- 
 not see it. The Seen World is so near, the Unseen 
 World so very far away : the one is cognizable by 
 the Senses, the other only by Faith. 
 
 When, therefore, a Teacher claims to come from 
 
 the Unseen World, to bring a message from the 
 
 Invisible God, to reveal to man the truths of the 
 
 spiritual realm, it is not so strange that men should 
 
 E 9 
 
98 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 ask, " Whereby shall we know this? show us a 
 sign? authenticate your claims by supernatural 
 works wrought in a material realm ; works cogniz- 
 able by the senses, by which we have knowledge 
 of an external physical world." In every period 
 of revelation, from Adam to the Apostle John, 
 God, in the authentication and establishment of His 
 religion among men, has addressed Himself to this 
 element of human nature. 
 
 Christ, as a Teacher come from God, speaking 
 by His Spirit, through Patriarchs, Prophets, and 
 Apostles, has enabled them to work signs and 
 wonders in the material creation, above and beyond 
 the power and efficiency of second causes, thereby 
 authenticating as Divine the message they delivered. 
 Evidences in the material world, in the realm of 
 the seen and tangible, evidences cognizable by the 
 senses, have been given abundantly ; so that, if 
 men will not be convinced by these, neither would 
 they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. 
 
 The record of these signs, wonders, works, 
 miracles, — for so they are called, — has been made 
 in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
 by Holy Men inspired by the Spirit of Christ. If 
 these records are authentic, then we see with the 
 eyes, and hear with the ears, and handle with the 
 hands of those who witnessed all the wondrous 
 works. If the Records are trustworthy, then we 
 stand with Moses on the bank of the Nile, and be- 
 
Christ te ad ting by Miracles. 99 
 
 hold the Divine Power operative upon the forms 
 of the material creation ; with the children of Israel 
 in the wilderness, we see the quails, the manna, 
 and the Pillar of Fire ; with Elijah we see the 
 ravens bringing the bread and flesh in the morn- 
 ing, and bread and flesh in the evening ; with the 
 Apostles we walk with Jesus and hear His words, 
 and see Him give sight to the blind, hearing to the 
 deaf, speech to the dumb, cleansing to the leper, 
 and life to the dead. The senses of these men, 
 whereby these phenomena in the material world 
 are apprehended, are as reliable as our own, — if, 
 therefore, the witness can be relied upon ; if the 
 Record is true, then we have all the evidence, so 
 far as this particular matter is concerned, that these 
 men had. With John we have seen and handled 
 the Word of Life ; with Thomas we have seen the 
 print of the nails and the spear. What satisfied 
 them ought to satisfy us. 
 
 But in no age have men been satisfied with the 
 number or the nature of the signs and wonders by 
 which Jesus Christ would authenticate His mes- 
 sengers. Sign after sign, manifestation after mani- 
 festation of Divine Power, authenticating Moses as 
 the servant of Christ, was given to Pharaoh, but 
 still he refused to believe, because he did not wish 
 to let Israel go. When the Son of God was incar- 
 nate on this earth, He manifested His Divine Power 
 over all forms of the material creation, but the un- 
 
103 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 believing Jews remained unconvinced, and cried, 
 time and again, Show us a sign from Heaven. 
 
 Each new generation of infidels proposes some 
 new test, whereby Jesus of Nazareth must vindicate 
 His claims as a Teacher come from God. 
 
 The present generation demands some scientific 
 test ; some material sign and wonder written in 
 the rock leaves of the earth beneath, or upon the 
 star depth in the Heavens above. Let all the 
 patients in a certain ward of some hospital be re- 
 stored to health; or let some dead man rise up out 
 of his grave, and come back to life again, and then 
 they will believe. As if Jesus Christ had not done 
 these things time and again. They have Moses 
 and the Prophets, they have the authentic his- 
 toric record of these things, and unconvinced by 
 these, in vain shall hospital patients be recovered, 
 and dead men rise from the grave. This is an 
 evil generation ; they seek a sign, and there shall 
 no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah the 
 Prophet. 
 
 If what has been advanced in this work in respect 
 to the "Extent of Chrisfs Teachings" be true ; if 
 He makes Himself responsible for all the Facts, 
 Doctrines, and Duties of the Scriptures, then it fol- 
 lows that all the Miracles of the Scriptures form 
 one system, of which Christ is the Author and 
 Worker, and that He is as much responsible for 
 the Miracles recorded in the Old Testament as for 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. ioi 
 
 those of the New. As Prophecy is only the over- 
 flowing of His Omniscience, so Miracles are only 
 the overflowing of His Almightiness. In Miracle, 
 He teaches by action ; in Parable, He teaches by 
 word. In every Miracle Christ is present, teaching 
 by some forthputting of Divine Power. The Mira- 
 cle not only authenticates the Teacher, but does, 
 itself, teach. Christ is in the Miracle teaching. 
 
 The usual definition of a miracle, that it is a 
 " suspension, or violation, or abrogation of the 
 Laws of Nature," seems to be neither satisfactory, 
 Scriptural, nor philosophical. If there is a God, 
 He will not violate His own laws, whether those 
 laws be natural or spiritual ; and if there is no 
 personal God, but only Nature, surely Nature will 
 not suspend or abrogate herself. 
 
 Man has power over the material creation to 
 bring about results which Nature, left to herself, 
 and to the operation of natural laws, never could 
 produce. 
 
 When man reaches forth his hand, and catches 
 an apple, about to fall, through the force of gravi- 
 tation, and prevents the natural result, viz., the fall 
 of the apple to the earth, he does not thereby vio- 
 late, or suspend, or abrogate the law of gravitation ; 
 he simply introduces a force superior to the force 
 of gravitation, — the apple is attracted to the earth 
 in precisely the same proportion as before, — the 
 force is there, all the same ; the law is there, all the 
 
 9* 
 
102 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 same ; nature is there, all the same ; but a new force 
 has been introduced upon the scene of action, and 
 the new force has produced a new result ; if you 
 please, an unnatural result : one that Nature, left to 
 herself, never would produce. 
 
 And just as you enlarge man's knowledge of 
 Nature and her laws, you increase his power to pro- 
 duce results which Nature could not effect. When 
 man, in virtue of his intelligence and will, com- 
 bines two natural forces to produce a certain effect, 
 he does not thereby suspend or abrogate the Laws 
 of Nature: he takes advantage of the Law, and 
 bringing to bear upon Nature a Force, viz., Personal 
 Intelligence and Will, superior to herself, he accom- 
 plishes the desired end. 
 
 The chemist, familiar with the laws of definite 
 proportions and combinations, combines two dis- 
 tinct and different substances, for example, grease 
 and lye, and the result is an entirely new substance, 
 viz., soap. 
 
 Whenever an Intelligent Personal Force is super- 
 induced upon the material creation, a result is pro- 
 duced above and beyond the powers of mere 
 Nature, or natural laws to effect. If man's knowl- 
 edge of the material creation could be infinitely 
 increased, then his powers, to modify the results 
 of the operation of natural forces, would be in- 
 finitely increased. 
 
 The power of man, to modify the result of the 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 103 
 
 operation of natural laws, reaches to a certain 
 point; beyond that limit it cannot go. But God's 
 Power to control the operation of all natural forces 
 is without limit, — since He has perfect knowledge 
 of all substances, forces, and laws, He has power 
 to move upon them when and where He pleases, 
 and to bring about results above and beyond the 
 power of mere natural law or force, and above and 
 beyond the power of any created being. 
 
 When Divine Pozver and Will are thus brought to 
 bear upon the material creation, effecting some change, 
 beyond the pozver of natural force or created intelli- 
 gence to accomplish, this effect zve call a Miracle. 
 
 But in no such miracle is any Law or Force 
 in Nature suspended, violated, or abrogated, — the 
 natural force is as powerfully operative as ever ; 
 but a Divine Force has been superinduced modify- 
 ing the natural effect of the natural law. As in 
 the case of the apple, the outstretched human hand 
 prevents the force of gravitation from drawing the 
 apple to the ground ; so in the miracle, the Divine 
 Hand modifies, according to the Divine Will, the 
 operation of mere natural and material forces, and 
 produces a new and different effect. 
 
 It has been remarked that man has power, up to 
 a certain limit, to modify the results of the work- 
 ings of natural forces or laws, — beyond this limit, 
 however, he cannot pass. The Scriptures clearly 
 teach that man, when aided by satanic or diabolical 
 
104 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 power, may produce results which mere human 
 power could not accomplish. 
 m Jesus Christ teaches, with the utmost fullness and 
 clearness, the existence of angels and devils ; and 
 that these beings do have power in this world. 
 Satan seems to have power over the physical world 
 superior to that possessed by man. And, doubtless, 
 many of the unexplained facts of ancient necro- 
 mancy and of modern witchcraft and spiritualism 
 find their true solution in the presence of satanic 
 and demoniacal influence. 
 
 Of course this influence can be exercised only 
 so far as God shall permit. 
 
 The magicians of Egypt imitated three of the 
 works of Moses, viz., the Rod turned into a serpent; 
 the Water turned into blood ; and the Frogs coming 
 up on the land,-^up to this point the magicians, 
 instigated and aided by the Devil, could go with 
 their enchantments. Jannes and Jambres with- 
 standing Moses ; and the Devil in and through 
 them resisting Christ, who was speaking and 
 working in and through His servant Moses. 
 
 At the fourth plague, wrought by Divine Power, 
 through Moses, the plague of the Lice, the power 
 of the magicians and the Devil ceased, and the 
 necromancers said, This is the Finger of God. 
 
 There was a manifestation of power, so superior 
 to any they possessed, that they could ascribe it to 
 nothing less than God. The power of the Devil 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles, 105 
 
 over the physical creation is manifest in the Book 
 of Job. Jehovah permitted him, within a given 
 limit, to afflict His servant Job : and the great wind 
 that smote the house, and the grievous sores that 
 covered the body of Job, were undoubtedly caused 
 by satanic power. Without multiplying proofs, the 
 Saviour warns us in the most solemn manner that 
 false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and 
 shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that 
 if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 
 The Holy Ghost speaks of one, whose coming is 
 after the working of Satan, with all power, and 
 signs, and lying wonders. 
 
 And here, after all, is the real difficulty as regards 
 miracles, viz., by what criteria shall we know cer- 
 tainly that a given change wrought in the material 
 creation is the direct result of Divine Power? 
 
 If human intelligence and will may modify the 
 action of natural law r ; if satanic power, mediately 
 or immediately, may produce still greater signs and 
 wonders ; if the Divine Teacher warns us that if it 
 were possible even the elect of God would be de- 
 ceived, then the important question is, how shall 
 we know that any work or miracle, any sign or 
 wonder, is the immediate product of Divine Power 
 and will? 
 
 There is, I think, one infallible test of all the 
 miracles of Scripture, viz., that in every instance 
 the power put forth in the miracle is directed 
 
io6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 against Satan and his kingdom. As Nicodemus 
 well says, no man can do the miracles that thou 
 doest except God be with him : there was something 
 in the character of the miracles wrought by Christ 
 that proved their Divine origin : the miracles that 
 thou doest. 
 
 For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, 
 that He might destroy the works of the Devil, — 
 and in every miracle of the Scriptures, Christ is 
 teaching this great truth, that in His forthputting 
 of power He is destroying the works of the Devil. 
 When Christ cast out a devil, the Pharisees did not 
 pretend to deny the fact ; but charged that it was 
 done by Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils. The 
 answer of Jesus throws wondrous light on this 
 whole subject: Every kingdom divided against 
 itself is brought to desolation; and every city or 
 house divided against itself shall not stand: and 
 if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against him- 
 self; how shall then his kingdom stand ? And 
 then He tells them that the kingdom of God is 
 come unto them ; and the proof thereof is that 
 He, by the Spirit of God, is casting out devils. 
 
 Recurring, for a moment, to what has been ad- 
 vanced, it is evident that the miracles must be 
 limited to the realm of the material creation, where 
 the change wrought is cognizable by the senses: 
 where the miracle is an object of sense perception; 
 and thus capable of verification. If we extend the 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 107 
 
 sphere of the miracle to the purely spiritual realm, 
 then it becomes impossible of complete verification, 
 especially to those who have not spiritual discern- 
 ment : hence it is that regeneration, though an 
 immediate work of the Holy Ghost, does not fall 
 under the head of miracles. 
 
 Again, the miracle is not a suspension or viola- 
 tion of the laws or forces of the physical creation^ 
 — these continue to operate with unabated vigor ; 
 but a superior force counteracts this force, and a 
 new product is the result. 
 
 Again, there is something in the character of 
 the Divine Miracle, differentiating it from all the 
 works of man, and all the signs and lying wonders 
 of satanic agency. 
 
 Of course it is evident that this entire argument 
 proceeds upon the assumption that there is an extra 
 mundane Personal God, and that He is the Creator 
 of the material universe. If these two facts are 
 denied by any one, then there can be no force, in 
 this argument, to him. 
 
 When I speak of the miracles of Christ, I do not 
 mean merely those wrought by Him personally, 
 when He was on earth, in the flesh ; but all of the 
 miracles wrought by His Spirit during the entire 
 period of Revelation, and recorded in the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testaments. All of these 
 distinct and diverse miracles constitute but one 
 system ; are wrought by one and the self- same 
 
108 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Spirit, are from one Divine Author, even Christ ; 
 and teach the same great truth, that the Son of God 
 is destroying the works of the Devil. 
 
 Two phases of the miracle must here be con- 
 sidered, viz. : The Miracle as a credential of a 
 Divine Messenger and Message : and the Miracle 
 as teaching Divine Truth. 
 
 THE MIRACLE AS A CREDENTIAL. 
 
 The most casual student of the Word of Christ 
 cannot fail to have noticed how ready God always 
 is to authenticate His messengers and His message 
 to men. 
 
 When Moses said, The people to whom Thou 
 dost send me will not believe me, the Lord gave 
 him power to cast his rod on the ground and turn 
 it into a serpent ; to put his hand into his bosom, 
 and it became leprous, and when returned to his 
 bosom it was restored ; to pour water from the 
 river on the earth and it became blood. And the 
 Lord Himself declared that these were signs 
 whereby the people might know that He had sent 
 His servant. 
 
 When the Lord appeared to Gideon and told 
 him that he should deliver Israel from Midian, 
 Gideon asked for a sign ; that one night the fleece 
 of wool might be wet, and the next night dry, and 
 the Lord gave the desired sign. When the Angel 
 informed Zacharias that his wife should bear him 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 109 
 
 a son in their old age, Zacharias asks whereby 
 shall I know this ; and the Angel gave him the 
 sign that he should be dumb until the birth of the 
 promised son. 
 
 The Pharisees and scribes, the enemies of Christ, 
 were continually demanding of Him some sign of 
 His Divine mission ; and He appeals to His works 
 as the proof that the Father had sent Him ; telling 
 them that if they were unconvinced by these, they 
 would not be persuaded by any number of new 
 and additional ones. 
 
 When the Apostles went forth to bear witness 
 to the Gospel, God also bore witness to and with 
 them, with signs and wonders, and with divers 
 miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to 
 His own will. Jesus of Nazareth was a man ap- 
 proved as a Divine Teacher by miracles, wonders, 
 and signs which God did by Him. The works 
 which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same 
 works that I do bear witness of Me, that the Father 
 hath sent Me. 
 
 These passages prove that works in the material 
 realm, transcending the power of nature, man, or 
 devils, did authenticate men as the messengers of 
 God ; the Divine work bore witness to the Divine 
 Word. 
 
 This leads to the second inquiry, the character 
 of the miracle. All of the miracles of Christ pos- 
 sessed one or two or three characteristics, viz. : 
 
 10 
 
no Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 They were mere signs to authenticate a Divine 
 message, — for example, the sign given to Gideon ; 
 or they were, in addition to this, exhibitions of 
 Divine Power directed against the kingdom of 
 Satan ; Divine judgments on sin and Satan ; as the 
 plagues on Egypt, and all destructive forthputting 
 of Divine Power; or they were manifestations of 
 Divine Power in the way of feeding, healing, and 
 saving. 
 
 Nearly all of the miracles wrought personally 
 by Christ were of this latter class, — the miracle 
 was the Gospel in action; it was Christ, the Feeder; 
 Christ, the Healer; Christ, the Deliverer; Christ, 
 the Restorer; Christ, the Saviour. It is Christ 
 counteracting in the material world the disorder 
 and ruin introduced by sin and Satan ; a sign and 
 a pledge of His counteracting the disorder and 
 ruin brought by sin and Satan into the spiritual 
 realm ; the material healings, deliverings, and 
 savings are types and tokens of the spiritual 
 cleansings and savings. 
 
 And just here is the beauty and glory of the 
 Christian miracle ; it is Divine Power put forth to 
 bind the strong man, the Devil ; to deliver the 
 captives, giving them liberty and life, — and this 
 feature will always enable the thoughtful student 
 to distinguish the miracle of Christ from all lying 
 signs and wonders. 
 
 The works of Christ during the entire period of 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 1 1 1 
 
 revelation, whether wrought immediately by Him, 
 or mediately through His servants, will always con- 
 form perfectly to His Word given during the same 
 period, whether the Word be spoken by Himself 
 in person, or by Holy Men as they were inspired 
 by His Spirit. There is perfect correspondence 
 between the words of Christ as contained in 
 Scripture, and the works of Christ as recorded in 
 Scripture. 
 
 It is a very low view of the miracle to regard it 
 as merely the credential of a Divine messenger; 
 or a supernatural work ; or a judgment upon Satan, 
 — it is all this, but it is far more, it is the manifes- 
 tation of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, in His 
 office and character as Saviour of the world; the 
 vast number of miracles of healing wrought by 
 Christ is evidence conclusive that they were not 
 merely credentials or judgments. 
 
 On this point, Rev. James Inglis, one of the 
 most able, accurate, and devout of Biblical students, 
 says, — " These miracles of Christ were the first 
 fruits of coming deliverance to a groaning creation ; 
 and proclaimed Him to be the Mighty Saviour, 
 who will make all things new. His life was filled 
 up with miracles, because they were the proper 
 acts of His office: they were deeds of mercy, in 
 the relief of human misery, and the removal of 
 human infirmities; mingled with these are some 
 acts of mastery over the elements of inanimate 
 
112 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 existence, shewing that He is the Saviour, the seed 
 of the woman, who shall remove the curse from 
 the material creation and make all things ' new. 
 Miracles are not the mere credentials of His Divine 
 mission, but the manifestation of His Messianic 
 character, the proper functions of His office, and 
 the first fruits of the great deliverance, which He 
 is yet to achieve in a fallen world." 
 
 The miracles of healing wrought personally by 
 Christ, so far from being, as many suppose, few in 
 number, must have numbered hundreds and thou- 
 sands. Mark says, they brought unto Him one day, 
 at Capernaum, all that were diseased and possessed 
 of devils, and He healed them. On another occa- 
 sion, Mark says, great multitudes followed Him, 
 from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from 
 beyond Jordan, from Tyre and Sidon, and He 
 healed them all. 
 
 It is needless to multiply passages of similar im- 
 port; the fact is patent, that the life of Christ was 
 largely taken up in the performance of these-works 
 of healing and saving; and He was thereby reveal- 
 ing Himself as the Healer, Restorer, and Saviour, 
 — the Author and Finisher of the New Creation. 
 
 His works bore witness to the words spoken by 
 His Spirit through the Prophets ; and the words 
 of the Prophets bore witness to His works wrought 
 by the same Spirit: and both words and works 
 attest' Him as the Teacher sent from God. Here 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 1 1 3 
 
 we reach the crowning glory of the miracle, it is 
 the manifestation and revelation of Jesus Christ in 
 His person, character, and office, as the Son of God, 
 the Saviour of men, — as the One who has power 
 on earth to forgive sin ; to say to the palsied man, 
 Be whole ; to the leper, I will be thou clean ; to the 
 dead Lazarus, Come forth. The miracle is the 
 Gospel in act; just as the parable is the Gospel in 
 word. 
 
 The miracles of Christ, considered as a manifes- 
 tation and revelation of Him, as the Son of God, 
 the Saviour of men, admit of a simple and natural 
 classification, viz. : 
 
 1st. Over inanimate nature. 
 
 2d. Over human bodies and souls. 
 
 3d. Over death. 
 
 4th. Over Satan and all demons. 
 
 1st. Over inanimate nature. — The first Adam was 
 the visible head of the original creation ; and He 
 was invested with dominion over all orders of 
 creatures below him. This dominion, lost by sin, 
 is to be regained by the second Adam, the head 
 of the New Creation : for He says, Behold I make 
 
 ALL THINGS NEW. 
 
 The whole inanimate creation which now groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain is to be restored ; and there 
 shall be a New Heaven and a New Earth. The 
 curse, which passed over from the sinning head to 
 
114 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 all the parts and forms of the original creation, is 
 to be removed by Him, who comes as the sinless 
 head of the new creation. For all things are now 
 put in subjection under His feet, who was for a 
 little while made lower than the Angels, but who is 
 now crowned with glory and honor. The inani- 
 mate creation, lost in its first head, Adam, is to be 
 restored and made new in its second head, the 
 Lord from Heaven. And all the miracles of Christ 
 in this domain, whether wrought immediately by 
 Him in person, or mediately through His servants ; 
 whether before, during, or after His incarnation, 
 are Divine works revealing Him as the head of the 
 new creation : as all things were made by Him at 
 the beginning, so shall all things be made new by 
 Him at His second coming. Between these two 
 points ; the miracles over inanimate nature, the 
 manna in the wilderness, the unfailing cruse of oil, 
 the harmless fire in the seven times heated furnace, 
 the water turned to wine, the stilling of the tempest, 
 the opening of the prison doors for Peter's escape, 
 are the types and pledges of the new creation, and 
 the manifestations of the infinite dominion of the 
 Son of God. So far from miracles being incredi- 
 ble, it is absolutely incredible that there should 
 not be miracles : incredible that Jesus is the Son 
 of God, and yet not manifest His Supreme God- 
 head and infinite dominion ; incredible that He 
 should be the head of the new creation, and yet 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 115 
 
 not have and manifest power to make all things 
 new. 
 
 2d. His miracles over human bodies and souls. — 
 Jesus Himself connects these two things. When 
 He healed the palsied man, and the scribes mur- 
 mured because He said, Son, thy sins be forgiven 
 thee, He answered them, Whether is it easier to say 
 to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee, 
 or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk, — 
 but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath 
 power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to the sick 
 of the palsy, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy 
 way into thine house. 
 
 The name given Him by the Angel was laeaus, 
 Jesus, Healer. He comes to heal man of all the 
 dire maladies caused by sin ; to open the eyes of 
 the blind, to unstop the ears of the deaf, to loose 
 the tongue of the dumb, and to cleanse the leper. 
 Prophecy had foretold that Messiah should do 
 these things ; and in the doing of them He is mani- 
 fested in His Messianic character as the Healer, the 
 Restorer, the Deliverer. If Jesus of Nazareth be 
 the Messiah, then it is sknply impossible for Him 
 not to do these miracles of healing. 
 
 As the Light of the world, He must give sight 
 to the blind ; as the Bread from Heaven, He must 
 feed the hungry; as the Divine Physician, He must 
 cleanse the leper. Upon the supposition that what 
 He says of Himself is true, miracles of healing are 
 
Ii6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 a necessity of His office. And all these works of 
 healing, cleansing, restoring, delivering, feeding, in 
 the material realm, are types and tokens of the 
 greater work of healing and cleansing in the invisi- 
 ble spiritual realm. He took our infirmities and 
 bare our sicknesses. 
 
 3d. Power over death. — Jesus is the Resurrection 
 and the Life. As the Father had life, so also did 
 He give to the Son to have life in Himself, — and 
 this life was manifested, and manifested its power 
 over death. Because of sin, death passed upon the 
 whole human family : and the last enemy to be 
 destroyed is death. 
 
 Jesus as the Infinite Fountain of Life and the 
 Resurrection asserts and manifests His power over 
 death and the grave. He translates Enoch that he 
 shall not taste death ; He catches Elijah up to 
 Heaven in the chariot of fire ; He causes the dead 
 man to revive when he touches the bones of Elisha ; 
 He brings back to a mortal existence in the flesh 
 the son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of 
 Jairus, and His friend Lazarus. And then after 
 His own death and burial He rises from the dead, 
 bringing life and immortality to light. These mira- 
 cles manifest Him as the Resurrection, — they do 
 not create, but bring to light the life and immor- 
 tality which were in Him in Divine fullness. We 
 speak of the resurrection of Lazarus, but it is 
 simply resuscitation, revivification, not resurrection. 
 
Christ teaching by Miracles. 117 
 
 Christ was Himself the first fruits of them that 
 slept. 
 
 4th. Over Satan and all demons. — The seed of 
 the woman shall bruise the serpent's head ; for this 
 purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He 
 might destroy the works of the Devil. 
 
 No man who accepts the teachings of Jesus Christ 
 as Divine can deny the personality of the Devil, or 
 the objective reality of demoniacal possessions : 
 and one of the most glorious manifestations of His 
 power and character is seen in His mastery over 
 the world of fallen spirits. As seed of the woman, 
 He is in fierce and deadly conflict with Satan and 
 his kingdom. 
 
 The devils recognized and confessed Him as 
 their Lord, saying, u Let us alone, what have we 
 to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth ? art Thou 
 come to destroy us ? I know Thee who Thou art, 
 the Holy One of God." In His casting out of 
 devils, He is revealed as the destroyer of the 
 works and the kingdom of the Devil, — and these 
 miracles are the Tokens, Pledges, and Types of 
 His complete and eternal triumph over Satan 
 and his kingdom. 
 
 Christ was, and is, and is to come ; the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever; and as such all of 
 His work is retrospective, present, and prospec- 
 tive, — past, present, and future are all with Him, 
 an everlasting Now. 
 
1 1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 A supernatural element runs through the entire 
 period of revelation, through all the teachings of 
 Christ, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments, — there is everywhere a power, a 
 force, above and superior to Nature and all her 
 forces and laws, and this supernatural element, this 
 force, is the power of the Son of God. And this 
 miraculous power of the Son of God is manifested 
 towards His enemies as judgments; towards His 
 friends as salvation. It is a savor of death unto 
 death, and of life unto life. 
 
 He is set for the rising and the falling of many 
 in Israel. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHRIST TEACHING BY TYPES. 
 
 If the entire universe lives and moves and has 
 its being in God, then it must be, in some sense, a 
 representation and revelation of Him. The invisi- 
 ble things of Him, His eternal power and God- 
 head, are seen in the things that are made : and 
 since God is absolutely One, we must look for 
 unity or oneness in the works of creation. And, 
 however different things may seem to us, they are 
 after all near akin : so much so, that the Great 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 119 
 
 Teacher is accustomed to explain the things of the 
 heavenly by those of the earthly kingdom. There 
 is oneness of principle between the growth of a 
 mustard-seed and the growth of the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Naturalists tell us that the vast universe is built 
 up after certain typical forms, — that there are cer- 
 tain patterns after which all things seem to be made. 
 There are correspondences, resemblances, like- 
 nesses, onenesses, unities running through all the 
 varied orders of creation. There are homologues, 
 homotypes, and analogues; there are types and 
 archetypes. 
 
 All flowers, plants, herbs, and trees are built up 
 according to certain fixed laws, after certain pat- 
 terns, in certain forms. Throughout the entire 
 vegetable kingdom all things are formed according 
 to Tuizoq, — a Type. As far as man has knowledge, 
 from the creation of the world to the present time, 
 this law of typology has prevailed. 
 
 This is equally true of the inorganic world, — all 
 crystals adjust themselves according to certain fixed 
 patterns or types ; assuming regular solid forms, 
 with a certain definite number of smooth plane 
 faces. Within certain fixed limits there are varia- 
 tions from the original pattern ; but beyond that 
 limit the variations never extend. 
 
 So also in the wonderful science of numbers : 
 there are laws of definite proportion for the com- 
 
1 20 Christ y the Teacher of Men. 
 
 bining of substances ; they combine according to 
 these proportions, and in no other. 
 
 There are laws of addition and multiplication ; 
 and squaring and cubing ; certain typical numbers 
 among all nations, controlling the whole science 
 of numeration. The knowledge of these typical 
 numbers, and their laws, is the foundation of some 
 of the noblest sciences among men. 
 
 Then, too, there are typical colors ; and the whole 
 beautiful world of color is formed in exact accord- 
 ance with these typical laws. 
 
 And in our day scientists are proclaiming, with 
 the utmost confidence, that there are correspond- 
 ences, resemblances, — in the nature of types,— 
 between the varied phenomena of heat, light, color, 
 and sound ; and the day may not be far distant 
 when the typical law pervading all these phenomena 
 shall be discovered and stated. 
 
 But the Type finds its highest and best illustra- 
 tion in the animal world : here, amid the multiplied 
 and diverse forms of animal existence, the law of 
 type reigns in unabated force. All races and tribes 
 and nations are formed after the model man; there , 
 are almost infinite varieties of face, form, look, 
 gesture, color, — but man is ever and everywhere 
 man ; made after the fixed model or type. Even 
 Adam himself, the model man, was a Tonoq 9 — a 
 Type of Him that was to come. 
 
 The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 121 
 
 Archetype, the original pattern or model of the 
 work of creation, — the First Born, the Head. Is 
 it too much to say that the creation is modeled 
 after Him ? First, that which is natural, afterwards 
 that which is spiritual : a Living Soul, and then a 
 Quickening Spirit; the First Man, earthly; the 
 Second Man, heavenly; we bear the image of both, 
 made in the image and after the likeness of God. 
 Within certain limits, well defined in the teachings 
 of Christ, development, evolution, is true. Not 
 Life and being and form developed, by inherent 
 forces, from primordial atoms or cells, — but all 
 creation, the work of one Personal extramundane 
 God ; from the lower ever upward to the higher ; 
 all forms of existence according to the Tunoq^ — • 
 inorganic matter and forms pointing to organic; 
 the lower organic pointing to higher, vegetable 
 to plant, plant to tree, tree to dumb animal, 
 dumb animal to man, man to Christ, Christ to 
 God. The whole Cosmos according to God 
 Himself, the Eternal Archetype and Antitype of 
 All. 
 
 Dr. Fairbairn, in his Typology, says : — " Dr. 
 McCosh pursues the subject even into the veg- 
 etable field of nature, and endeavors to show 
 that in plants which have leaves that strike the 
 eye, the leaf and plant are typically analogous: 
 the leaf is a typical plant or branch, and the tree 
 or branch a typical leaf. In this field, however, 
 
122 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 the facts are neither so fully established, nor do 
 they appear so perfectly uniform, as in the higher 
 region of animal forms, or comparative anatomy. 
 Here it is found, by a wide and satisfactory induc- 
 tion, that the human is what may be called the 
 pattern form of animal existences, — the archetype 
 of the vertebrate division of animated nature. In 
 the structure of all other animal forms there are 
 observable striking resemblances to that of man, 
 and resemblances of a kind that seem plainly de- 
 signed to assimilate the lower, as near as circum- 
 stances would admit, to the higher. It is found, 
 that in all vertebrate animals, from fishes to man, 
 the vertebrate skeleton is composed of a series of 
 parts of essentially the same order, though modi- 
 fied in a great variety of ways to suit the particular 
 functions which each organ has to perform in the 
 different animals respectively. 
 
 " Thus to give only a single instance, every seg- 
 ment, and almost every bone present in the human 
 hand and arm, exist also in the fin of the whale, 
 though they do not seem required for the support 
 and movement of that undivided and inflexible 
 paddle; and one can think of no specific reason 
 for such a peculiarity of structure, excepting the 
 intention of having it brought into the nearest pos- 
 sible conformity to the archetype. Most strikingly 
 does the similarity to the human type, coupled 
 with its relative superiority to the others, appear 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 123 
 
 in regard to the brain, which is the most peculiar 
 and distinguishing part of the animal frame. 'Na- 
 ture/ says Mr. Miller, ' in constructing this curious 
 organ in man, first lays down a grooved cord, as 
 the carpenter lays down the keel of his vessel; and 
 on this narrow base, the perfect brain, as month 
 after month passes by, is gradually built up, like 
 the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a 
 brain closely resembling that of a fish ; a few ad- 
 ditions more convert it into a brain undistinguish- 
 able from that of a reptile ; a few additions more 
 impart to it the perfect appearance of the brain of 
 a bird ; it then develops into a brain exceedingly 
 like that of a mammiferous quadruped ;'and finally 
 expanding atop, and spreading out its deeply cor- 
 rugated lobes, till they project widely over the 
 base, it assumes its unique character as a human 
 brain. Radically such at the first, it passes through 
 all the inferior forms, from that of the fish upwards, 
 as if each man were in himself, not the microcosm 
 of the old fanciful philosopher, but something 
 greatly more wonderful, — a compendium of all 
 animated nature, and of kin to every creature that 
 lives. Hence the remark, that man is the sum 
 total of all animals, — "the animal equivalent," says 
 Oken, "to the whole kingdom/' ' 
 
 " This, however, is not the whole. For, as geology 
 has now learned to read with sufficient accuracy 
 the stony records of the past to be able to tell of 
 
1 24 Ovist \ the Teacher of Men. 
 
 successive creations of vertebrate animals, from 
 fish, the first and lowest, up to man, the last and 
 highest; so here also we have a kind of typical 
 history, — the animal productions of nature during 
 those earlier geological periods bore, as the imper- 
 fect, a prospective reference to man, as the com- 
 plete and ultimate form of animal existence. They 
 were the types, and he is the antitype in the mun- 
 dane system. 
 
 " In the words of Professor Owen, ' all the parts 
 and organs of man had been sketched out in an- 
 ticipation, so to speak, in the inferior animals ; and 
 the recognitions of an ideal exemplar in-the verte- 
 brated animals proves, that the knowledge of such 
 a being as man must have existed before man 
 appeared. For the divine mind, which planned 
 the archetype, also foreknew all its modifications. 
 The archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh 
 long prior to the existence of those animal species 
 that actually exemplify it. To what natural laws 
 or secondary causes the orderly succession and 
 progression of such organic phenomena may have 
 been committed, we are as yet ignorant. But if, 
 without derogation of the divine power, we may 
 conceive the existence of such ministers, and per- 
 sonify them by the term nature, we learn from the 
 past history of our globe that she has advanced 
 with slow and stately steps, guided by the arche- 
 typal light amidst the wreck of worlds, from the 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 125 
 
 first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its 
 old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed in 
 the glorious garb of the human form/ 
 
 " In this view of the matter, what a striking anal- 
 ogy does the history of God's operations in nature 
 furnish to His plan in providence, as brought out 
 in the history of redemption ! Here, in like man- 
 ner, there is a grand archetypal idea in the person 
 and kingdom of Christ, towards which for ages the 
 divine plan was continually working. Partial ex- 
 hibitions of it appear from time to time in certain 
 personages, events, and institutions that rise prom- 
 inently into view as the course of providence pro- 
 ceeds, but all marred with obvious faults and imper- 
 fections in respect to the great object contemplated; 
 until, at length, the idea in its entire length and 
 breadth is seen embodied in Him to whom all the 
 prophets gave witness, — the God-man foreordained 
 before the foundation of the world. 'The Creator/ 
 to adopt again the language of Mr. Miller, who, in 
 an article in the 'Witness* newspaper of 2d August, 
 185 1, has very felicitously described the analogy 
 in this respect between the natural and the moral 
 departments of God's plan, — ' the Creator, in the 
 first ages of His workings, appears to have been 
 associated with what He wrought simply as the 
 producer or author of all things. But even in those 
 ages, as scene after scene, and one dynasty of the 
 inferior animals succeeded another, there were 
 
 11* 
 
1 26 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 strange typical indications which pre-Adamite stu- 
 dents of prophecy among the spiritual existences 
 of the universe might possibly have aspired to 
 read, — symbolical indications to the effect that the 
 Creator was in the future to be more intimately 
 connected with His material works than in the past, 
 through a glorious creature made in His own image 
 and likeness. And to this semblance and por- 
 traiture of the Deity — the first Adam — all the 
 merely natural symbols seem to refer. But in the 
 eternal decrees it had been forever determined that 
 the union of the Creator with creation was not to 
 be a mere union by proxy or semblance. And no 
 sooner had the first Adam appeared and fallen, 
 than a new school of prophecy began, in which 
 type and symbol were mingled with what had now 
 its first existence on earth, — verbal enunciations ; 
 and all pointed to the second Adam, " the Lord 
 from heaven." In Him creation and the Creator 
 meet in reality and not in semblance. On the very 
 apex of the finished pyramid of being sits the ador- 
 able Monarch of all : — as the son of Mary, — of 
 David, — of the first Adam, the created of God ; as 
 God and the Son of God, the eternal Creator of 
 the universe. And these — the two Adams — form 
 the main theme of all prophecy, natural and re- 
 vealed. And that type and symbol should have 
 been employed with reference not only to the 
 second, but — as held by men like Agassiz and 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 127 
 
 Owen — to the first Adam also, exemplifies, we are 
 disposed to think, the unity of the style of Deity, 
 and serves to shew that it was He who created the 
 worlds that dictated the Scripture.' 
 
 " The subject might even be prosecuted farther 
 still, for it is as well fitted to stimulate the aspira- 
 tions of hope toward the future, as to strengthen 
 the foundations of faith in the past. If the arche- 
 typal idea in animated nature has been wrought 
 at, through long periods and successive stages of 
 being, till it found its proper realization in man ; 
 now that the nature of man is linked in personal 
 union with the Godhead, for the purpose of repair- 
 ing what is evil, and raising manhood to a higher 
 than its original conditions, who can conceive to 
 what peerless glory and perfection it may yet 
 attain ? The divine power is no longer to be dis- 
 played in creating what is new, but in a work of 
 'regeneration' upon the old, to the intent that the 
 earthly and human in us may be brought to the 
 nearest possible conformity to the spiritual and 
 divine in Christ. The frame and condition of re- 
 deemed men, therefore, though relatively perfect 
 as compared with the past, is yet but in embryo 
 when viewed with respect to the more elevated 
 future. All has still to assume the form and im- 
 press of a more glorious type, which eye hath not 
 seen nor ear heard; of which the whole we can 
 now say is, — 'We know not what we shall be, but 
 
128 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 we know that when He shall appear we shall be 
 like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' " 
 
 If the general principles thus briefly stated, and 
 truths rather hinted at than elaborated, be true, 
 then we should expect that the Divine Teacher 
 would make a large use of Types in His instruc- 
 tions to the children of men ; and when we ex- 
 amine His Book, this expectation is fulfilled, — 
 Christ throughout His Word teaches by Types. 
 
 As Christ has had from everlasting a perfect 
 knowledge of all His works, so has He had perfect 
 knowledge of all His words ; the Word of God 
 is constructed precisely according to the Pattern 
 in the Divine Mind. As the World is made accord- 
 ing to the Tu-oq } so also is the Word ; and as there 
 are resemblances, correspondences, types, in nature, 
 so are these also to be found in the various parts 
 of the Word. And just as God reveals Himself 
 in the typical forms of creation, so Christ reveals 
 God to men in the Types of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 While the Scriptures, like Nature, abound in 
 types, yet we are to remember that everything in 
 the Word is not typical. 
 
 The very possibility of a revelation of the things 
 of the invisible and eternal world rests upon the fact 
 that there are Divinely-appointed resemblances be- 
 tween the things that now are and the things that 
 shall be hereafter. Heavenly truths are conveyed 
 through earthly language : the eternal things are 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 129 
 
 the substance ; the temporal things are the shadows. 
 Persons, things, and events in one dispensation, are 
 shadows of good things to come, — the substance in 
 the future casts the shadows backward to the past; 
 both are real, both are true, but one is substance, 
 and one is shadow. The Law was a shadow of good 
 things to come ; the Gospel was the substance. 
 
 What Rev. Hugh Martin* says of the biographies 
 of Christ is true of all the Teachings of Christ, 
 — of all the Scriptures: "You do not deal with 
 reminiscences of Christ ; memories and mementos 
 of Him, however accurate, — conceptions, notions, 
 ideas concerning Him, however true ; no, not even 
 with mere doctrines concerning Him, however truly 
 divine and precious, — you deal with Him and He 
 with you, — the true and Living Christ in His own 
 Holy Word and History. Ah, we have not the 
 records of a past, but revelations of a present 
 Saviour. By the lively oracles and the perpetual 
 presence we have true intercourse with Jesus Him- 
 self. Every Word and Work of Christ, manifest- 
 ing forth His glory, doth now suit my case, benefit 
 my soul, promote my salvation, up to this very 
 moment, by a Saviour the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and forever, who in His marvelous biography is 
 living with us still by His Spirit. In all the 
 spiritual and permanent efficacy of what He said 
 
 * Christ's Presence in Gospel History. 
 F* 
 
1 30 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 and did on earth, and left on. record, He is with us. 
 The conducting power of the Eternal Spirit, dwell- 
 ing in Christ's person above measure, and glorify- 
 ing to the utmost the excellence and glory and 
 efficacy of Christ's work, fills all time, past, pres- 
 ent, and future, so that the element of time is 
 utterly eliminated. What was transacted in the 
 passing moments of His Incarnate Life was trans- 
 acted in the permanent perpetual might of the 
 Eternal Spirit, and as recorded by that Spirit who 
 is enshrined in the Word, is itself, therefore, per- 
 manent and perpetual. And so when Jesus retired 
 to His Father's glory, and the Heavenly things 
 that had been figured forth in swift succession, by 
 His temporary sojourn in the flesh, were passing 
 into swift oblivion, they were arrested ere it was 
 too late, and placed on full and rich record on this 
 other indelible dial of Christ's biography; and when 
 the Spirit comes, this dial yields up the power, 
 grace, truth, and glory of the Only Begotten of 
 the Father exactly as He was on earth ; and so He 
 is Present with us always, even to the end of the 
 world." 
 
 Let these glowing words of this gifted author 
 be applied, as they do apply, to all the works and 
 words of Christ, to all of His teachings in the 
 Scriptures of both Testaments, and then, lo, the 
 whole Word is a Testimony to Him, He is present 
 in it all, — all is given by His Spirit, — all testifies of 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 131 
 
 Him, — and He is the substance of all the shadows, 
 the Archetype of all the types ; and the whole 
 Word becomes at once a typical Book radiant with 
 the glories of the Divine Redeemer. The whole 
 Word is a Type of Christ ; it is the forthputting 
 of the Divine Mind, in human speech, and form, 
 and events, and persons, and things, according to 
 the Eternal Pattern, to show forth the glory of Him 
 who is the End and Model of all creation. Ordi- 
 nances, rites, services, sabbaths, sacraments, per- 
 sons, and. events are the shadows, — but the Body, 
 that projects them all, is Christ Himself, the Eternal 
 Archetype and Antitype. 
 
 Christ Himself liveth in the Word, is adjoined 
 unto it by the Holy Ghost, is Himself the Incar- 
 nate Word ; and hence the Word is for all men 
 and all ages, and liveth and abideth forever. Noth- 
 ing in which Christ is enshrined, in which the Holy 
 Spirit dwelleth, can ever grow old, obsolete, or 
 effete. The eternal Tu-oq — the type — runs through 
 it all forever; whatsoever things were written, were 
 written for us, and for all men. 
 
 Persons, things, events of the Word of God, in 
 one period, containing and conveying Truth to the 
 men of that period, serve as Types of Him who is 
 to come; shadows cast backward by His Body, the 
 Fullness of Life and Immortality; unto whom the 
 generations shall afterwhile come, as they sweep on 
 to the Infinite and Eternal. 
 
132 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 The germ, the norm, of all is in the Eden Promise, 
 the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the serpent's 
 Head, — the very Promise and form thereof beauti- 
 fully typical, — the Development ever upwards, to 
 the fullness of Time, and the Fullness of Incarnate 
 Godhead : grace for grace, and glory for glory, on- 
 ward and upward forever and forever. Patriarchal 
 passing over into Mosaic, Mosaic into Kingly, 
 Kingly into Personal Ministry, Personal Ministry 
 into dispensation of the Holy Ghost, dispensation 
 of the Holy Ghost into Personal Reign, Personal 
 Reign into Eternal State, — God in Christ the Full- 
 ness of all, revealing Himself, according to the 
 Tu-oq y eternally to the intelligent universe. 
 
 If the Word is full of Christ, if Moses, and the 
 Psalms, and the Prophets testify of Him, if the 
 entire spirit of all prophecy is a testimony to Him, 
 then it is no strange thing that He should call 
 Himself, 
 
 The Root of David, 
 
 The Branch, 
 
 The Vine, 
 
 The Bread of God, 
 
 The Hidden Manna, 
 
 The Rose of Sharon, 
 
 The True Light, 
 
 The Day Star, 
 
 The Sun of Righteousness, 
 
 The Bridegroom, 
 
Christ teaching by Types. 133 
 
 The Lamb. 
 
 The Good Shepherd, 
 
 The Corner-Stone, 
 
 The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, 
 
 The Prince, 
 
 The Leader, 
 
 The Faithful Witness, 
 
 The Forerunner, 
 
 The Second Adam, 
 
 The Shadow of a great Rock, 
 
 An Hiding-Place from the wind. 
 These are not all, but some of the Types used 
 by Christ in His Word to reveal God to man. 
 Here we have natural objects, persons, things, used 
 as shadows of Him who is substance, the Eternal 
 Archetype of them all. Here, too, there are cor- 
 respondences, resemblances, likenesses, and uni- 
 ties : resemblances Divinely ordained, appointed, 
 constituted, declared. 
 
 We speak of these things as figures, symbols, 
 metaphors, similes; are they not much rather Twcot t 
 — Types, shadows of the eternal substance, the Di- 
 vine Archetype? As an illustration of this subject, 
 take Bread as a Type of Christ. In the garden of 
 Eden was there The Tree of Life, of which man 
 was to eat: then our fathers did eat Manna in the 
 wilderness, and are dead ; then Jesus multiplies the 
 Bread, until thousands are fed; then Jesus says, I 
 am the Bread of Life, if any man eat of this Bread, 
 
134 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 he shall live forever ; whoso eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my blood hath eternal life, dwelleth in 
 Me, and I in him. Behold I stand at the door and 
 knock, if any man open the door, I will come in 
 and sup with him, and he with Me. To him that 
 overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna; 
 and all the redeemed of God sit down in the New 
 Jerusalem to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb ; 
 and in the Paradise regained, the Tree of Life bears 
 twelve manner of fruit, and the leaves of the tree 
 are for the healing of the nations. Now add to 
 all this the saying of Christ, Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every Word of God, and we 
 have a vivid and beautiful Type of Christ the true 
 Bread, Christ the Incarnate Word. 
 
 The Levitical Ritual, Sacred History, Prophecy, 
 Miracles, Parables, are all pre-eminently typical ; 
 each containing truth in its day for the men of 
 that period, but each also containing other and 
 higher truth for the men of the coming ages. 
 
 The Parables of Christ are, perhaps with not a 
 single exception, typical ; and it is this feature 
 which makes exhaustless fountains of truth and 
 knowledge. 
 
 Christ, the Divine Teacher, Himself the Eternal 
 Archetype, with infinite knowledge of all worlds, 
 all things, all resemblances and relations, points 
 out to the children of men, wherein one thing is 
 the type of another, — and thus, the tares, the raus- 
 
Christ teaching by Types, 135 
 
 tard, the leaven, the net, become types of the king- 
 dom of Heaven. 
 
 " We behold the incarnate Word, standing in 
 the midst of the world which He made, the rela- 
 tions which He instituted, and the operations of 
 Providence, whose intricate lines He held in His 
 hand, and reading off the wonderful lessons which 
 the visible — the world in which He was— teaches 
 of the invisible, — the world from which He came ; 
 and interpreting the shadows of spiritual things, 
 the hieroglyphics of God. With His omniscient 
 eye, He can see what man with his short-sighted 
 vision cannot. Physical objects, natural processes, 
 material things, earthly occupations and relation- 
 ships, are made to serve as types of Heavenly, 
 spiritual, and eternal realities ; — or rather, the 
 Heavenly are the substantial, enduring realities, 
 of which the earthly are the shadows." 
 
 " What if earth 
 Be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein, 
 Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought." 
 
 Throughout the Scriptures there are certain 
 Numbers, Objects, Persons, Offices, Places, Rites, 
 Institutions, Events used by Christ, the Teacher 
 of men, to convey spiritual Truth ; and because of 
 resemblances, relations, correspondences, between 
 these and the good things of the Gospel, and the 
 kingdom of Heaven, they are appointed and de- 
 
136 Christ \ the Teacher of Men, 
 
 clared to be types. Melchizedek, Moses, David ; 
 the wilderness, Egypt, Canaan ; the smitten Rock, 
 the lifted serpent, the Vail of the Temple ; the 
 sacrifices, oblations, and washings ; the Altar, the 
 Shew-Bread, the Mercy Cover; the Lamb, the 
 Passover, the Sabbatic year; — all of these, and 
 thousands more, are types of the Heavenly king- 
 dom, of the good things of the Gospel, of Christ 
 Himself. They are not old, nor effete, nor dead, — 
 they are for our instruction, our comfort, our edi- 
 fication, — they live and abide forever, and Christ 
 liveth in them, and liveth to and in us, through 
 them. Search the Scriptures, for they testify of 
 Me. 
 
 In John xx. 25, we have this use of the Greek 
 word " Tu-oc^ — Eng. Type, — " Except I shall see 
 in his hands the Tunov of the nails." 
 
 In Acts vii. 44, That Moses should make the 
 Tabernacle according to the " Tunov" that he had 
 seen. 
 
 In Romans v. 14, Adam who was a Tu-o~ of 
 Him that was to come. 
 
 In 1 Cor. x. 1 1, Now all of these things happened 
 unto them for Tuizot. 
 
 The meaning of the word, as seen from its use 
 in these four cases, is very evident and most in- 
 structive. 
 
Christ teaching by Types, 137 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PERSONAL PECULIARITIES OF CHRIST AS TEACHER 
 OF MEN. 
 
 Christ's personal ministry continued a little over 
 three years ; it was confined exclusively to Judea 
 and to the Jews, a hated and despised people, and 
 yet its influence has been wider and deeper than 
 that .of all other ministries combined. 
 
 The officers sent by the Chief Priests and Phari- 
 sees to arrest Him spoke the truth when they said, 
 " Never man spake like this man." 
 
 Unheralded and unattended, the youthful Jesus 
 of Nazareth began His public teaching by the proc- 
 lamation, Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand. He had grown up in obscurity at Naza- 
 reth, and yet the whole nation is moved by a com- 
 mon impulse to hear the wondrous words which 
 fall from the lips of the humble carpenter. 
 
 Men do not agree in their views concerning Him, 
 but all are alike eager to see and to hear. Phari- 
 sees and Sadducees, Lawyers and Scribes, Priests 
 and Publicans, Saints and Sinners; men of all 
 ranks, classes, and conditions press in tumultuous 
 throngs upon His teaching. 
 
138 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Some said He had a devil and was mad ; others, 
 that He was Elijah or Jeremiah ; others, that He 
 was John the Baptist risen from the dead ; others, 
 that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living 
 God : now they shouted Hosanna, and now they 
 cry, Away with Him, crucify Him ! but so far as we 
 have information none ever heard Him unmoved : 
 the interest excited by His preaching was universal 
 and most intense. In this particular, no other 
 Teacher who has ever appeared among men can 
 for a moment compare with Him. From the com- 
 mencement to the close of His ministry He never 
 failed to awaken the deepest thoughts and feelings 
 of the vast multitudes who pressed upon Him to 
 hear the Word. 
 
 Immediately after His temptation by the Devil 
 in the wilderness, He returned in the power of the 
 Spirit to Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him 
 through all the region round about. When He 
 entered into Capernaum, and it became known, 
 straightway many were gathered together, inso- 
 much there was no room to receive them, no, not 
 so much as about the door. At another time, the 
 press was so great that He was compelled to enter 
 into a ship and thrust out a little from the shore, 
 and preach to the immense throng gathered at the 
 water's edge. The whole country, from Dan in the 
 North to Beersheba in the South, is aroused under 
 the magic power of His preaching. He was never 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 139 
 
 at a loss for a congregation ; for the people always 
 attended in crowds when it was known that Jesus 
 of Nazareth was to preach. Methinks that the best 
 instructions on Homiletics, on teaching young 
 ministers how to preach, is to be found, not in the 
 many volumes written on Sacred Rhetoric and Ser- 
 mon-making, but in these wonderful Biographies, 
 which set before us, in living character, the Great- 
 est of all Teachers in His matter, manner, and 
 methods. To all Teachers of Divine Truth I say, 
 study this Teacher, imbibe His spirit, matter, and 
 manner, and try to teach as He taught. Perfect 
 success in this direction is of course impossible, 
 but approximate Jesus as Teacher as nearly as 
 possible. 
 
 I would note this, then, as the first peculiarity of 
 Christ's personal ministry, viz., the intense interest 
 which He awakened among all classes and condi- 
 tions of men. Multitudes attended that ministry, 
 and no one was unmoved under His teaching. 
 
 Another marked feature in the teaching of Jesus 
 was His profound conviction of the absolute truth- 
 fulness of all that He spoke. His own soul was 
 filled and moved with the truths which He pro- 
 claimed to others. He moved others, because He 
 was Himself moved by the Truth. No man can 
 impress others with his teachings unless those 
 teachings have first impressed his own soul. Let 
 some precious truth take deep hold upon some 
 
140 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 great soul; let it pervade the man's whole being; 
 let it be the guiding-star of his own life; let it 
 govern his whole conduct, then when he comes 
 forth to tell that truth to his fellow-mortals, it will 
 come to them with such tremendous energy and 
 force that they cannot resist it. When Luther's 
 own heart, after terrific conflicts and mighty wres- 
 tlings with the Devil, had received the truth of 
 justification by faith alone, is it any marvel that 
 all Europe trembled beneath his words of fire, 
 bursting from a heart itself on fire ? 
 
 Of all men, Jesus had, in largest measure, this 
 inward impulse, this enthusiasm of and for the 
 Truth. He knew and believed the Truth, and, 
 therefore, he must speak. His Father's Word was 
 in His heart; that Father's Word must be spoken 
 by His lips. Did any man ever give a mighty and 
 lasting impulse to his fellow-men by delivering a 
 message which he himself did not believe ? Would 
 Christ's doctrine have stirred the nation as it did 
 if He Himself had not believed it ? Surely men 
 can have no doubt as to the sincerity of this Teacher; 
 they must know that Jesus believed and felt the 
 truth of all that He taught. 
 
 He felt in all its Divine fullness the preciousness 
 of the Truth that He preached: it was indeed His 
 meat and drink to do and declare His Father's will ; 
 that Word was a burning fire within Him, and 
 kindled the zeal that consumed Him. He knew 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 141 
 
 in His own soul that His words were spirit and 
 life, and hence He spake with such an air of cer- 
 tainty and such a depth of conviction. No wonder 
 that the people came in crowds from all parts of 
 the country to listen to a man so thoroughly in 
 earnest, so profoundly impressed Himself with the 
 truth and importance of His doctrines. 
 
 Thirdly. So far as authority is concerned, He 
 calmly rests His teachings upon the Authority of 
 the Truth : Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth 
 shall make you free. To this end was I born, and 
 for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
 bear witness to the Truth. I am the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life. 
 
 This question of authority is continually rising 
 among men. One man appeals to the Pope, another 
 to the church, another to precedent, another to 
 tradition. Jesus appeals to the Truth. 
 
 The religious teachers of His day pointed to the 
 traditions of the Elders ; it was enough for them 
 that some eminent Rabbi of a distant generation 
 had taught this or that doctrine, — the teaching 
 must be accepted upon this authority. Not thus 
 did Jesus teach ; and the scribes and Pharisees 
 continually charged Him with making void the 
 traditions of the Elders. 
 
 So men now say, I believe this upon the authority 
 of the church, or the Pope, or the brethren ; whereas 
 we ought to believe upon the authority of the 
 
142 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Truth or the God of Truth. Man must have some 
 firm and abiding foundation for his beliefs and 
 hopes ; the time will come when his soul shall stand 
 face to face with the Eternal Verity, and then all 
 that is not of the Truth shall be stripped from him 
 and cast into the outer darkness. Christ teaches 
 the Truth, is Himself the Truth, and always appeals 
 to the authority of Truth. Beyond the Truth no 
 man need to go. 
 
 Christ comes as a witness to the Truth; and He 
 would have men receive His words because they 
 are true ; and every one that is of the Truth heareth 
 His words. 
 
 There must be some ultimate, absolute, infallible 
 authority upon which the soul of man can calmly 
 and safely rest, — and this infallible authority is 
 found in the Truth and the God of the Truth; and 
 that Truth and that God are revealed to us by Him 
 who is Himself the Truth and the true Revealer 
 of the God of Truth. 
 
 When Christ teaches upon His personal authority 
 it is because He is the Truth, and because His 
 words are true. 
 
 Fourthly. I wish to call attention to another 
 peculiarity of Christ's personal teaching, as related 
 to the Law. This subject has already been dis- 
 cussed, but it is worthy of further notice in this 
 connection. 
 
 It is a very popular and prevailing belief that 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 143 
 
 Christ inculcated a much less rigid righteousness 
 than that contained in the Law, — that Christ is all 
 mildness, while Moses is all vengeance, — that it is 
 much easier to obey the Sermon on the Mount 
 than the Law given from Sinai. Never was there 
 a greater mistake than this. Of all the intense 
 and terrific preachings of the Law, none can com- 
 pare with the Sermon on the Mount. Much as 
 men may decry the preaching of the Law, let them 
 remember that Christ is the Prince of Legal 
 Preachers. He did not come to destroy the Law, 
 but to fulfill ; and He assures us that not one jot 
 or tittle shall ever fail, — Heaven and earth may pass 
 away, but the Law shall never pass away. 
 
 When He re-enacts and expounds the Law, He 
 reveals, with Divine fullness, its intense spirituality; 
 showing that mere outward observance of its 
 commands comes far short of its requirements. A 
 man who cherishes anger in his heart is a murderer, 
 though his hands are unstained with human blood. 
 A man who harbors a lustful desire for a woman 
 in his heart is in the eyes of God an adulterer, 
 though guiltless of actual crime. According to 
 the Jewish interpretation, murder was the shedding 
 of blood; according to Christ, anger in the heart is 
 murder. He expounds the Law until it reaches to 
 the very innermost recesses of the mind and heart. 
 
 He shows to the young ruler who claimed that 
 he had kept all the precepts of the Law from his 
 
144 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 
 
 youth up, that while outwardly blameless, he had 
 loved his gold more than his God, and was there- 
 fore guilty in the eyes of the Law. The Law de- 
 manded supreme love of the soul to God, and this 
 the young man had never rendered, — hence he 
 went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. 
 
 So far from Christ abating one iota of the Law's 
 demands, He increases them a thousand-fold, by 
 revealing their intense spirituality. If men think 
 it so easy to live in obedience to the teachings of 
 Christ, let them try for one day to order their lives 
 in accordance with the Law as expounded by Him 
 in the Sermon on the Mount. As their hearts are 
 searched in the light of these words, they will learn 
 something of the extent and spirituality of the Law, 
 and will know whether Christ inculcates a lower 
 morality than that taught by Moses from the burn- 
 ing mount. 
 
 Fifthly. It is a popular and prevailing miscon- 
 ception that the Teachings of Christ were all gen- 
 tleness, goodness, and charity; that He was a Being 
 of simple Benevolence, and taught nothing but 
 Love and Mercy. 
 
 Too much cannot be said in praise of Love, for 
 Love is the fulfilling of the Law, and God Him- 
 self is Love. Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, 
 but the greatest of these is charity. 
 
 To every broken-hearted sinner Jesus was all 
 tenderness and love; the bruised reed He did not 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ. 145 
 
 break, the smoking flax He did not quench. To 
 the penitent thief dying on the cross at His side 
 He says, To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
 dise : to the publican despised by his own people, 
 He says, Make haste, Zaccheus, and come down, 
 for to-day I must abide at thy house : to the woman 
 taken in the very act of adultery, He says, Neither 
 do I condemn thee, go and sin no more : for the 
 men who cry aloud for His blood He prays, 
 Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. 
 
 Would to God that all professed Christians had 
 more of this Divine sympathy, tenderness, and love, 
 — more of this Charity, that beareth all things, be- 
 lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 things ! 
 
 But let us not forget that there is a false as well 
 as a true charity, and as we cultivate the true let 
 us also shun the false. 
 
 True charity does not confound all moral distinc- 
 tions, and call darkness, light; and bitter, sweet; and 
 evil, good. Christ-like Charity does not proclaim 
 that all doctrines, all creeds, all churches, all wor- 
 ship, are equally and alike acceptable to God. This 
 modern sentimental Broad-church charity found 
 no place in the heart and teachings of Jesus of 
 Nazareth. He did not hesitate to denounce in 
 unmeasured terms untruth, hypocrisy, false doc- 
 trine, and false teachers. 
 
 Among His first official acts as a Teacher sent 
 g 13 
 
146 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 from God was His purifying the Temple. This 
 Holy Place of prayer and worship had been trans- 
 formed into a place of merchandise; when He came 
 up to the Passover, and found the Temple thus 
 desecrated, He overthrew the tables of the money- 
 changers, and drove them, in righteous indignation, 
 from its sacred precincts, saying, Ye have made 
 this house of prayer a den of thieves. 
 
 The scribes and Pharisees, the leaders and 
 teachers of the people, had corrupted the Word 
 of God, and by their traditions had made void His 
 commandments. Does Christ speak to them in 
 words smoother than butter, and sweeter than 
 honey? I trow not; His words are, Woe unto 
 you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut 
 up the kingdom of Heaven against men : for ye 
 neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them 
 that are entering to go in: ye compass sea and 
 land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, 
 ye make him twofold more the child of hell than 
 yourselves. Woe unto you, scribes and hypocrites! 
 whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones and 
 of all uncleanness ! — ye serpents, ye generation of 
 vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ? 
 Remember that it is the meek and lowly Jesus 
 who thus tears the mask from the face of hypoc- 
 risy, and who scathes with the lightnings of His 
 righteous wrath all false doctrine and false teachers. 
 
 So also as regards the torments of the lost, 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 147 
 
 Christ of all teachers presents this subject in its 
 most awful and appalling light. It is Jesus who 
 tells us of the fire that is never quenched, and of 
 the worm that never dies ; of the outer darkness, 
 where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing 
 of teeth ; of the great gulf that is eternally fixed, 
 across which none can ever pass ; of the cry from 
 the place of torment for one drop of water to cool 
 the parched tongue. Beware of Him who has 
 power to cast both soul and body into hell forever. 
 Ah, my friends, have you ever paused to think that 
 these fearful words fell from the lips of Him who 
 was indeed Incarnate Love, but who was also Incar- 
 nate Righteousness ? 
 
 We have fallen upon evil times when men are 
 boastful of a charity that exceeds the charity of 
 God Himself; when men are clamorous for an en- 
 thusiasm of humanity beyond the love which Jesus 
 had for a lost and ruined race; when we must 
 have a Broad-churchism that welcomes and cher- 
 ishes as true, doctrines denounced as false by the 
 Son of God Himself; when the sickly sentimental- 
 ism of this perverse generation will not and can- 
 not endure the solemn and searching words of 
 truth and soberness that fall from the lips of the 
 wise and Holy Jesus. 
 
 Another prominent peculiarity in the personal 
 ministry of Christ i-s his large-hearted human 
 sympathy. 
 
148 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 He was a full and perfect man, with a true body 
 and a reasonable soul ; and His human sympathies 
 were ever going forth in Divine fullness to all the 
 children of men. For every age and class and 
 condition of mankind His heart is filled with the 
 tenderest love ; while His humble birth and man- 
 ner of life fitted Him pre-eminently to be the 
 friend of the common people who ever heard 
 Him gladly. He moved men because He felt for 
 them, and yearned after them with all a brother's 
 tenderness. 
 
 He is an honored and welcome guest at the tables 
 of the rich and the homes of the poor ; He blesses 
 with His presence the marriage festival in Cana of 
 Galilee, and sheds tears of human sorrow in the 
 abodes darkened by death ; He resolves the doubts 
 of rich rulers who come to Him at night, and gives 
 healing and sight to blind beggars who cry to Him 
 by the wayside ; He has words of compassion for 
 wretched women, and takes little children in His 
 arms to bless them. His words of wisdom come 
 welling forth warm from a heart full of truest 
 human tenderness and love, and hence they fall 
 not unheeded upon human hearts ; the common 
 people heard Him gladly, and even the officers sent 
 by His enemies to arrest Him were forced to bear 
 witness, Never man spake like this man. 
 
 The true orator has ever been a man of warm 
 impulses and emotions ; the cold-blooded man can 
 
Personal Peculiarities of Christ, 149 
 
 never move powerfully the feelings of his hearers. 
 Above all teachers who have ever lived Jesus of 
 Nazareth possessed the soul of largest human 
 sympathies, and hence it is no marvel that He 
 always so moved the hearts of His hearers. 
 
 His sympathy for the poor, the needy, the suf- 
 fering, was absolutely inexhaustible. No child of 
 sorrow ever applied to Him in vain. Nor was this 
 human tenderness confined to His own friends or 
 family or nation : it goes forth as warmly to the 
 despised Samaritan as to the favored children of 
 Israel. With Him there is neither circumcision 
 nor uncircumcision : all the children of Adam are 
 alike the objects of His kindly regard. It is safe 
 to say that no other Teacher ever had such world- 
 wide sympathy with the human race. 
 
 There is a most striking contrast between Christ 
 and all other teachers in one particular, viz., The 
 effect of His doctrines upon the public mind. Per- 
 haps no human teacher is entirely free from a feel- 
 ing of uneasiness as to the result of his teachings. 
 He is ever asking, How will this doctrine be re- 
 ceived by the public ? What effect will it have 
 upon the people ? Will this book which I have 
 written live? In spite of himself the earthly 
 teacher has always a feeling of more or less uneasi- 
 ness as to the reception which his instructions will 
 meet with from the general public. In vain will 
 you search most carefully through all the teach- 
 
 13* 
 
150 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 ings of Jesus of Nazareth for the slightest trace of 
 this feeling of uneasiness. He never has the least 
 misgiving as to the result of His words, — those 
 words shall not return unto Him void ; some will 
 fall by the wayside, some on stony ground, some 
 among the thorns, some into good soil, but the 
 harvest is sure ; the Word shall accomplish His 
 pleasure, and shall prosper in the thing whereto 
 He sent it. 
 
 And this results from that profound knowledge 
 of all things, past, present, and future, which He 
 seems to possess, and which is inseparable from 
 all His teaching. He cannot have any uneasiness 
 as to the result, if He has perfect knowledge of 
 what that result will be upon all generations, 
 through all time. 
 
 So perfect is this knowledge of Christ that no 
 man has ever been able to show that He was ever 
 mistaken in the least particular upon any subject 
 on which He ever spoke. If He were not a Di- 
 vine teacher, surely these eighteen hundred years 
 of keenest scrutiny and hostile criticism would 
 have found some mistake somewhere in His teach- 
 ings. 
 
Christy the Revealer of God. 151 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHRIST, THE REVEALER OF GOD. 
 
 Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it suf- 
 ficeth us. 
 
 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and 
 yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath 
 seen the Father. 
 
 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in 
 Me ? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but 
 the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe me 
 that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth was not only a Teacher come 
 from God, He was also the Revealer of God to 
 man ; neither knoweth any man the Father save 
 the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
 Him. 
 
 Jesus claimed that He was the Brightness of the 
 Father's glory, the Express Image of His Person ; 
 that whosoever had seen and known Him had seen 
 and known the Father also. He came not merely 
 to tell us about God, but to show us precisely what 
 God was. 
 
 In this conversation He unfolds in the clearest 
 possible manner the mode of the Divine Existence. 
 
 There is absolute oneness of Life and Being be- 
 
152 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 tween the Father and the Son; not only is there 
 oneness, there is also mutual indwelling ; so that 
 the Father dwells in the Son and the Son in the 
 Father: and so absolute and complete and perfect 
 is this oneness and indwelling that he who knows 
 the Son knows the Father ; and he who knows all 
 that is to be known of the Son, knows all that can 
 be known of the Infinite and Eternal Godhead. 
 
 These are most remarkable statements, and if 
 true, carry our knowledge of God up to the high- 
 est possible point; for nothing less is claimed than 
 a perfect revelation of the Godhead. I do not re- 
 member that this claim has ever been put forth by 
 any human being save Jesus of Nazareth ; and its 
 boundless presumption, if false, must have con- 
 . signed Him and His teachings to everlasting con- 
 tempt. 
 
 We may not be able to explain fully to our own 
 satisfaction all that is involved in these words of 
 Jesus, or how it is that He and the Father are 
 one, and dwell mutually in each other, but the im- 
 port of the words is obvious, and the fact is indis- 
 putable. Our knowledge of facts is not limited by 
 our ability to explain and harmonize them. The 
 point insisted on here is, that Jesus of Nazareth 
 does claim that in His Person, words, works, and 
 character He is a Perfect Revelation or Manifesta- 
 tion of God ; he that hath seen Me hath seen the 
 Father. 
 
Christ, the Rev e ale r of God. 153 
 
 Everything in nature has within itself some ca- 
 pacity or power whereby it manifests or makes 
 known to intelligent beings its properties and 
 characteristics. We have no certain knowledge 
 of essences ; all that we know is properties, phe- 
 nomena, manifestations. The character or nature 
 of a tree is revealed or manifested to us by its 
 foliage and fruit. Every tree has this capacity 
 for making itself known, and we know the tree 
 only through its properties and manifestations. 
 So man has the capacity for making himself 
 known to his fellow-men. His innermost being 
 is revealed in his words, works, and conduct, and 
 by these we have a more or less perfect knowl- 
 edge of every man's character. 
 
 If we had perfect knowledge of all the words and 
 deeds of a man, and if these words and deeds ac- 
 corded perfectly with his thoughts and feelings, we 
 would have a very complete knowledge of the man. 
 
 Now this same principle has its finest illustra- 
 tion when applied to God. We may have no 
 knowledge of the Essence of the Godhead, but 
 if there are any works and words of God, these 
 must of necessity reveal or make Him known to 
 all beings possessed of intelligence. 
 
 It is simply impossible for God to be and speak 
 and do without thereby revealing Himself to man. 
 It is an absolute necessity, in the very nature of 
 existence, that His works and words shall make 
 
 G* 
 
154 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Him known. If the fact of a Personal, extra- 
 mundane Creator be admitted, then it follows that 
 all of His works will make Him known to the 
 thoughtful and honest seeker after truth. God is 
 manifested, revealed, made known to men in all 
 of His works and words. 
 
 As the careful husbandman is manifested in the 
 well-tilled farm and luxuriant harvest, as the skill- 
 ful artisan is mirrored forth in the admirably con- 
 structed engine, as the statesman is revealed in his 
 able address on Government, as the poet is made 
 known in the song which all men sing, so the In- 
 finite and Eternal God is revealed in His works 
 of skill and power, and in His words of wisdom, 
 truth, and love. 
 
 So far from it being impossible for the Infinite 
 to reveal Himself to man, it is utterly impossible 
 for that revelation not to be made, if there be any 
 Infinite Creator and any intelligent creature. Every- 
 thing that God makes must and does, to a greater 
 or less degree, make Him known to all intelligent 
 creatures. 
 
 It is true that the light would not reveal the 
 sun to a man born blind, so neither would the Light 
 reveal the Sun of Righteousness to the spiritually 
 blind. There must be a capacity to receive the 
 revelation which God makes. The sweetest song 
 of the poet would not reveal the poet to the dumb 
 brute. 
 
Christ, the Revealer of God. 155 
 
 In everything that God makes, in every word 
 that God speaks, in every work that God performs, 
 He reveals Himself to all who have capacity to 
 receive the knowledge thus conveyed, and in this 
 sense and to this extent the whole universe is a 
 manifestation of God. If there be works and 
 words of God, they must make Him known who 
 made and spoke them. 
 
 Hence His Eternal Power and Godhead are 
 clearly seen in the things that are made by Him. 
 The skill of the artisan is seen in the watch, the 
 work of his hands ; the wisdom and power of the 
 builder are revealed in the steam-engine that he 
 has constructed ; so the wisdom and power of God 
 are manifested in all the works of creation. Every- 
 thing that is made reveals something of the Infinite 
 Creator. 
 
 Mere material works, however, cannot make 
 known to us the moral character of God. Foras- 
 much, then, as we are the offspring of God, we 
 ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto 
 gold or silver or stone. The existence of the 
 human soul, made in the image and after the like- 
 ness of God, is evidence conclusive of His spirit- 
 uality, that He is not material; and hence in the 
 moral and spiritual nature of man we have an ad- 
 ditional and better manifestation of God. God's 
 intelligence, will, and holiness were seen mirrored 
 forth in the human spirit, made originally in the 
 
156 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 very image of God Himself. To the utmost limit 
 of his capacities man, in his unfallen condition, 
 was a correct likeness of God. The Father re- 
 vealed Himself to the children of men in the 
 human soul itself. To know man, therefore, was 
 to a certain extent to know God. 
 
 And so, as the activity of God goes forth into 
 all human history, in that Providence which works 
 all things according to the purpose of His own 
 will, His character as Moral Ruler is revealed, 
 and thus by all of these manifestations we learn to 
 know Him, whom to know aright is life eternal. 
 
 It is evident that these revelations of God, how- 
 ever perfect they may be in kind, are in their very 
 nature limited and incomplete ; they are at best 
 only partial manifestations of Him who is abso- 
 lutely Infinite. The revelation is clear but not 
 complete. The engine reveals the wisdom and 
 power of its builder, but tells us nothing of his 
 moral character. The song of the poet makes 
 known the heart of the writer, but it does not tell 
 us all of the soul of the man. It may be perfect 
 as far as it goes, but it does not go all the way. 
 
 So the material creation, the moral nature of 
 man, and the Providential Government fail, from 
 their very nature, in revealing God fully and com- 
 pletely. It is impossible to know God fully save 
 through the Son. Not until we see Him can we 
 say we have seen God. We may see in His 
 
Christ, the Revealer of God. 157 
 
 works some of His attributes, but not until we 
 see Jesus Christ can we see God Himself. 
 
 I may read one of Burns's sweet songs, or one 
 of Shakspeare's immortal plays, or one of Bulwer's 
 incomparable stories, and acquire thereby some 
 knowledge of the gifted author, but this does not 
 completely reveal the writer to me, for there may 
 be other works that I have not seen containing 
 more of the mind and heart of the author than 
 what I have seen ; and if I saw all, I have not seen 
 the man himself. Until I see him, the revelation, 
 however clear and perfect in kind, is still incom- 
 plete. 
 
 So I may examine the works of God, and thereby 
 learn something of Him who, by the Word of His 
 Power, in beauty and glory made them all ; but 
 here, too, the revelation is limited by the very 
 character of the works: I have not yet seen God 
 Himself. 
 
 I may hear His voice in the crashing thunders 
 of the cloud ; see the glance of His eye in the 
 lightning's flash; behold His immensity mirrored 
 in the voiceless space that stretches on every side 
 of me boundlessly away ; read of His eternal 
 righteousness in that adorable providence over 
 men, angels, and devils; understand something 
 of His intelligence and will as I gaze into the 
 depths of my own being; and feel the foretastes 
 of everlasting retributions in the monitions of 
 
 14 
 
158 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 my own conscience ; but still I have not seen God 
 Himself; these manifestations are, at best, incom- 
 plete. And still the soul of man cries out after 
 God, Oh, that I might see Him face to face, — that 
 I might find and know Him, and be eternally at 
 rest! 
 
 If now some Being should appear in our midst; 
 One who knew all that God knew, who felt all that 
 God felt, who dwelt in God, and in whom God 
 Himself dwelt; whose nature was of the very 
 same essence with that of God ; whose will was 
 always one with the will of God, — if this Being 
 thought all the thoughts of God, and had all the 
 feelings, desires, and purposes of God ; if he spoke 
 the words of God, and did the works of God, and 
 had the character of God, — if in all respects the 
 Oneness between Him and God was so complete 
 and exact that He could truthfully say, I and the 
 Father are one ; the Father that dwelleth in Me 
 doeth the works ; the words that I speak are not 
 mine, but the Father's who sent me, — if such a 
 Being as this should appear among us, if we heard 
 His words, and saw His works, and beheld Him as 
 He was, then I claim that we would have a full, 
 complete, and perfect revelation of God; so that 
 we could say in strictest truth, having seen this 
 Being, we have also seen God. But unless this 
 has actually occurred, unless this be strictly and 
 exactly true, then the entire Gospel is worse than 
 

 Christ, the Rcvealer of God. 159 
 
 an idle tale or dream, and Jesus of Nazareth is the 
 Prince of impostors, deceivers, and liars. 
 
 Unless Jesus Christ embodies within Himself 
 the fullness of the Universe and the fullness of 
 Infinite Godhead, then, indeed, is He worth to us 
 less than the veriest bauble of earth; for unless 
 He is this He is false in His being, claims, 
 teachings, and works. We must receive Him as 
 God or reject Him altogether: either the Only 
 Begotten of the Father or the First Born of the 
 Devil. 
 
 In the further development of this subject, let 
 me recall the attention of the reader to what has 
 been already advanced in the chapter on "Christ 
 teaching by Types." 
 
 It was there seen that the entire material universe 
 was built up according to certain patterns or Typi- 
 cal Forms; that the law of Type prevailed in every 
 part of the Cosmos ; and that every order and 
 period of creation was anticipative, typical, pointing 
 to something higher than itself; that all the orders 
 of creation pointed forward to man the highest and 
 head of the material and spiritual creation. That 
 the Perfect Man, the Adam, was not final, but a 
 Figure, a Tuno~ y a Type of Him who was to come, — 
 that Adam was anticipative of the Second Adam, 
 first the Living Soul, then the Quickening Spirit; 
 the whole six days' creation not final, but in order 
 to and anticipative of the Second and New Crea- 
 
160 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 tion, in and by Him who is its Head and Lord. 
 That God, in Christ, by whom all things were 
 made, and without whom was nothing made that 
 is made, is Himself in Christ, the Eternal Arche- 
 type, and that all orders, and ranks, and forms of 
 creation head up and are recapitulated in Him, the 
 Pattern, the Model, after whom they were all 
 created. 
 
 If, as the Scriptures abundantly teach, man in 
 his physical and spiritual being is the highest and 
 head of the whole physical and spiritual creation, 
 then in man we have the best and fullest revelation 
 of God; but Jesus Christ is the perfect man, He, 
 too, has the u true body and the reasonable soul." 
 Christ is all that Adam was, and more: for the first 
 Adam was of the earth, earthy ; the second Adam 
 is the Lord from Heaven, — one was created, the 
 other was uncreated ; one had life breathed into 
 him, the other had life in Himself eternally. 
 Hence in this Second Man, Christ Jesus, this Lord 
 from Heaven, we have the complete fullness of 
 every revelation of God made anywhere in the 
 boundless realms of the physical universe. 
 
 The sea and sky, heavens and earth, moon and 
 stars, suns and systems, cannot reveal more of the 
 Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness of God to us 
 than we can discern in the Person of this Seed of 
 the Woman, this Son of Man, this Second Adam; 
 for He is before all things, and by Him all things 
 
Christ, the Rev } e 'ale r of God. 161 
 
 consist, and it hath pleased God that in Him all 
 fullness should dwell. 
 
 The works of the material creation reveal the 
 wisdom, power, and Godhead of the Creator: the 
 mighty miracles over all forms of nature — mira- 
 cles, creative and supernatural — wrought by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ reveal Him as the Mighty God, 
 the Head of the New Creation. His miracle of 
 turning the water into wine, in its very nature a 
 creative act, manifested forth His glory, and pro- 
 claimed Him nature's Monarch and Maker. The 
 works wrought by Christ make known to us the 
 Wisdom, Power, and Presence of Incarnate God- 
 head. When we see Christ's miracles, we see God 
 Himself at work, — He that hath seen Me, hath 
 seen the Father also ; he that hath seen the crea- 
 tive miracles of Christ, hath seen God Himself in 
 the work of creation. The miracle, as we clearly 
 saw in the chapter on that subject, being a manifes- 
 tation of Christ, as the Messiah, Son of God, Head 
 and Lord of the New Creation. 
 
 When we hear the words of Christ, then, too, 
 wc hear the words of God, for the words are not 
 His, but the Father's who sent Him. 
 
 The thoughts of the Godhead are expressed in 
 words. Throughout the period of creation the 
 Record reads : " and God said!' The words of 
 God are always true words, — they correspond 
 precisely to the thoughts and feelings of the Di- 
 
 14* 
 
1 62 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 vine mind and heart. There is exquisite and per- 
 fect accord between the mental states and the words 
 of God. The words of Christ, therefore, always per- 
 fectly express what He thinks and feels. In the 
 words, no less than the works of Christ, we have 
 then an exact and perfect manifestation of the 
 mind and heart of God. 
 
 But there is more here than works and words : 
 God Himself is before us manifest in the flesh. 
 The Divine Life is on earth in human form, that 
 Life we have heard and seen and looked upon 
 and handled. 
 
 The Word — a personal name of the Son — Who 
 was with God, and Who was God, was made flesh, 
 and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, 
 the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth ; in whom were all the 
 treasures of the Godhead. There is absolutely 
 nothing that pertains to God that is not possessed 
 in infinite fullness by His Incarnate Son, — All that 
 the Father hath is Mine. Standing in the Pres- 
 ence of the Word made flesh, we stand in the 
 august Presence of the Infinite and Eternal God- 
 head. 
 
 The Names, the Nature, the Titles, the Attrib- 
 utes, the Words, the Works of the Father are 
 equally His. All men must honor the Son even 
 as they honor the Father. The Life of Jesus of 
 Nazareth, what He was, and did, and said, is the 
 
Christ, the Rev e ale r of God. 163 
 
 perfect, full, and complete revelation of God. If 
 we know the Son, then do we also know the 
 Father, and to know Them is Life eternal. No 
 need to ask now, " Shew us the Father, and it 
 sufficeth us," for we see the Father in that Son 
 who is the Brightness of His Glory and the Ex- 
 press Image of His Person. 
 
 Does any man wish to know what God thinks 
 or feels or will do in reference to any subject con- 
 nected with the eternal interests of man, then let 
 him come and follow the Life of the God-man 
 Christ, as that Life is portrayed in the Gospels. 
 In these Records he will find the Eternal God 
 Himself living, moving, teaching, and working. 
 
 Does the problem of sin rise dark and gloomy 
 before his affrighted gaze ? Does he ask with 
 dread and terror, Will God surely punish the sin- 
 ner? Then let him hear those words of awful 
 horror fall from the lips of Incarnate Deity: Son, 
 remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
 good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things ; 
 but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented ; 
 and the great gulf is fixed, and fixed eternally. 
 
 Nay, more than this : come to the Cross itself, 
 where the Son of God hangs in the awful and un- 
 told agonies of death. He is the Innocent, the 
 Pure, the Holy One of God. Neither man, nor 
 God, nor Devil find in Him any fault at all ; and 
 yet Sin is laid upon Him, who, as our Surety and 
 
164 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Substitute, has taken our Lazv place. The Sin of 
 the world is laid upon Him, the spotless Lamb of 
 God, and hence He must die ; die amid the con- 
 vulsions of nature, and in the gloom of natural 
 and spiritual darkness. Until time shall be no 
 more can mortal man doubt the truth of God, the 
 wages of sin is death. 
 
 But does guilt still press upon the awakened 
 conscience ? Does the sinner ask, How will God 
 treat me a poor, lost, helpless, hell-deserving 
 wretch ? what are His feelings towards me ? will 
 He have mercy? God Himself is saying to you, 
 Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh 
 unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. Son, daugh- 
 ter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
 Look to the leper, to the woman who was a sin- 
 ner, to the blind Bartimeus, to the thief, to Saul 
 of Tarsus, then learn the feelings of God towards 
 you. Does any poor wretched backslider ask, 
 Ah ! how does God deal with such as I am ? can 
 He have mercy upon me ? may I dare come to 
 Him after my sad and shameful fall ? Go stand 
 in Pilate's Hall, and see that eye of unwearied love 
 turned full upon poor Peter; then go to the sea 
 of Tiberias, and hear His words of tenderness: 
 Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? feed my 
 sheep, feed my lambs, and learn how freely and 
 how fully God can forgive the backslider. 
 
The Credentials of CI iris t. 165 
 
 Ah ! my friends, it is in the Person and work of 
 Jesus Christ that we learn all that is to be known 
 of God, for He is God manifest in the flesh, and 
 no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he 
 to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him; and 
 this is Life eternal to know Thee the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CREDENTIALS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Without any question, the most remarkable 
 person who has ever appeared on this earth among 
 men is Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 However much men may, and do, differ in their 
 views concerning Him, all must admit that His 
 Person, Teachings, and Influences were most won- 
 derful. 
 
 The greater part, if not all of the reliable infor- 
 mation we have concerning Him, is contained in 
 the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 
 This Record concerning Him, if true, places the 
 reader just where those who saw and heard Him 
 stood. We who have these Books stand where 
 Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, John, and Paul stood ; we 
 
1 66 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and handle 
 with their hands. If the testimony of these men 
 is true, then with Thomas, we put our hands into 
 the Saviour's side; with John, we see the water 
 and blood; with Saul of Tarsus, we hear the audi- 
 ble voice. The organs of sensation in these men 
 are just as trustworthy as the organs which any 
 men now living have ; if I can trust the testimony 
 of my own senses concerning any external phe- 
 nomena, then I can trust the testimony of the 
 senses of these writers, provided, I believe them 
 to be competent and credible witnesses. 
 
 I assume, throughout, the perfect reliability of 
 these writers ; and the point here insisted on is 
 that, this being so, then I can just as readily be- 
 lieve what I see and hear through the eyes and 
 ears of Paul and John, as what I see and hear with 
 my own organs of sight and sound. 
 
 The Scriptures, therefore, is, in one sense, a great 
 mass of human testimony to Jesus of Nazareth ; 
 the writers tell us what they saw and heard : if 
 we believe them to be true, intelligent, trustworthy 
 men, then do we not occupy the same position in 
 respect of Jesus of Nazareth as that held by them? 
 If I believe what Saul of Tarsus says about his 
 interview with Jesus on the way to Damascus, 
 would the evidence be any stronger if Christ ap- 
 peared in Person to me ? Are not the senses of 
 Saul as trustworthy as my own ? 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 167 
 
 Each generation asks for some new evidence, 
 some sign from Heaven, some credential beyond 
 the possibility of doubt, — the sign is not, and will 
 not be given ; if men will not hear and believe 
 these witnesses, neither would they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead. 
 
 It has never been claimed that the Credentials of 
 Christ compel the belief of men ; it is only claimed 
 that they are sufficient to satisfy any honest, candid, 
 truth-seeking man that Jesus, who is called Christ, 
 is indeed a Teacher come from God. 
 
 Taking the Scriptures, then, at this point as a 
 great mass of human testimony concerning Jesus 
 Christ, the question to be considered is, Are the 
 credentials of Christ as a Teacher come from God, 
 herein contained, of such a nature as to satisfy the 
 candid inquirer that Jesus is what He claimed to 
 be? 
 
 Not only is the Person of Christ wonderful and 
 His works most marvelous, but His claims are 
 absolutely amazing. He claims all that is involved 
 in the widest possible meaning of the word God ; 
 all of this, and nothing less will satisfy Him; and 
 unless we thus receive Him, we must reject Him 
 altogether. 
 
 Any inquiry into the Credentials of Christ must 
 make full account of the testimony contained in 
 the Old Testament concerning Him; for lie Him- 
 self claims to be the Messiah therein promised, 
 
1 68 Christ, the Teacher of .Men. 
 
 and adduces the words of the Prophets as evidence 
 of His Divine Mission, — telling men that if they 
 believed Moses, they would also believe Him ; if 
 they believed not Moses, neither would they be- 
 lieve Him, — thus connecting the two Testaments 
 in such a manner that they must stand or fall to- 
 gether. 
 
 1st. Jesus Himself laid great stress upon the 
 testimony borne to his claims, character, and office 
 by the great wilderness Prophet, John the Baptist, 
 — of him Jesus says, he was a Prophet, yea, I say 
 unto you, more than a Prophet: verily I say unto 
 you, among them that are born of women, there 
 hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist ; and 
 if ye will receive it, this is Elijah who was to come. 
 His contemporaries had profound confidence in 
 John as a true Prophet, — saying all things that 
 John spake of this man are true : and there went 
 out to him, Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region 
 round about Jordan, to hear and to be baptized by 
 him. No man has ever lived who was held in 
 higher estimation as a wise, true, and holy man, 
 by those of his own day and generation, than John 
 the Baptist. 
 
 His father Zacharias, who was a very devout and 
 pious man, says of him : 
 
 Thou shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest : 
 for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to 
 prepare His ways. 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 169 
 
 The testimony which John bore to Jesus is as 
 follows : 
 
 When I came baptizing with water, I knew Him 
 not; but He that sent me to baptize said, Upon 
 whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and re- 
 maining, the same is He which baptizeth with the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 The God of the Old Testament had authorized 
 John's baptism and ministry; John himself did 
 not know which one of all the vast multitudes be- 
 fore him was the Messiah ; God promised to give 
 a token whereby John might know ; the token was 
 the Presence of the Spirit. 
 
 And John adds : I saw, and bear record that 
 this Jesus is the Son of God. He must increase, 
 but I must decrease. He that cometh from above 
 is above all ; and what He hath seen and heard, 
 that He testifieth. Behold the Lamb of God 
 which taketh away the sin of the world. 
 
 Is the testimony of this man John, who, in the 
 opinion of all who knew him, was so true, so honest, 
 so faithful, trustworthy? Is not he a far more 
 competent and credible witness to the character 
 and claims of his kinsman and contemporary, 
 Jesus Christ, than Strauss or Renan ? Shall we 
 believe the Prophet of Judea or the Prophet of 
 Germany ? 
 
 If some skeptical imbecile asks, " How do you 
 know that such a man as John the Baptist ever 
 
 H 15 
 
170 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 lived ?" I answer, How do I know that such a man 
 as Renan or Strauss ever lived ? How do I know 
 anything outside the sphere of my own personal 
 observation ? 
 
 2d. The Testimony of Prophecy. 
 
 It is not denied by any one who has any in- 
 formation that the Old Testament Scriptures ex- 
 isted in their present form hundreds of years 
 before Christ was born ; and it is equally certain 
 that these Scriptures are prophetic. They contain 
 predictions of things in the future. 
 
 Jesus Himself said, Search the Scriptures, for in 
 them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are 
 they which testify of Me. 
 
 This Testimony is of a twofold character, viz., 
 general and special. The spirit of the whole is a 
 testimony to Jesus; and there are also special, 
 minute, particular predictions concerning Him. 
 
 The great theme of all prophecy is the Coming 
 One, the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, Prophet, 
 Priest, and King. Take this element out of the 
 Scriptures, and nothing remains. 
 
 From the days of Moses to Malachi, a period 
 of about one thousand years, thirty different writers 
 of all ranks and conditions, and degrees of cultiva- 
 tion, are portraying the character, office, work, and 
 life of Him who is to come ; and the remarkable 
 feature of these writings is that all the writers de- 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 171 
 
 scribe one and the same Person. Each one in 
 his day and generation wrote his part of the gen- 
 eral description, and then passed away. And when 
 fifteen hundred years had elapsed, and the descrip- 
 tion was finished, lo ! it was a perfect unit, and de- 
 scribed one Person; and the living Jesus of Naza- 
 reth corresponded with the description in whole 
 and in every part. Is this accident, or is it a 
 testimony to Jesus Christ? 
 
 Did the world ever know of a portrait of sur- 
 passing beauty, of perfect proportion, of matchless 
 symmetry, and of infinite grace, dignity, and ele- 
 gance, to be painted by thirty different men, in dif- 
 ferent parts of the globe, and in different ages of 
 the world ? 
 
 Nay, more, suppose this impossible thing to be 
 possible. Let the exquisite portrait be thus painted ; 
 and you come to it, and look upon it, and lo ! it is 
 not a dead portrait on canvas, but a living man, 
 who looks and speaks and breathes and lives. 
 The ideal man of the thirty writers, through the 
 thousand years, is not a mere ideal man whose 
 portrait we have, but a Living Man, who walks 
 among us, manifesting His glory, even as of the 
 Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 truth. Again, we ask, Is this Life an accident, or 
 is it a testimony to the truth of these writers, and 
 the writer's testimony to the truth of the Life? Is 
 this one spirit of Prophecy a testimony to Jesus, 
 
\*]2 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 and is the Living Jesus a Testimony to His own 
 Spirit speaking by the mouth of the Prophets? Is 
 this sword of the Spirit any the less sharp because 
 it is two-edged ? 
 
 The special prophecies are far too numerous to 
 mention ; and the particulars concerning the Prom- 
 ised Messiah are of the most minute and exact 
 character. The manner of the Incarnation, the 
 place of His birth, the line of His descent, His 
 flight into Egypt, the form of His teachings, the 
 nature of His miracles, the mode of His death, the 
 casting of lots for His garments, His betrayal by a 
 friend, His thirst on the Cross, His cry of deser- 
 tion, the place and manner of burial, all of these, 
 and many others equally specific, are an unmis- 
 takable Testimony to the truth of His claims, and 
 prove Him to be the Seed of the Woman, the 
 Promised Messiah. 
 
 ^d. The Testimony of His own Works. 
 
 Jesus says of John, He was a burning and a 
 shining light. But I have greater witness, better 
 credentials, than that of John ; for the works which 
 the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works 
 that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath 
 sent Me. The works that I do in my Father's 
 name, they bear witness of Me. 
 
 And surely there is no better test of what a 
 man is than his works. The tree is known by 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 173 
 
 its fruit. Jesus vindicates Himself to be the Son 
 of God, the Promised Messiah, by His works. 
 
 It is not the mere exercise of supernatural and 
 superhuman power which establishes as true the 
 claims of Christ ; for the Devil has this power, and 
 has exercised it ; and one of the marks of the 
 " Son of Perdition," of him whose coming is after 
 the working of Satan, is that it is with all power, 
 and signs, and lying wonders, duva/jLsi — (ryfieiui<; — 
 xat zzpaai (peudooq : the very words descriptive of 
 Christ's works. It is not, therefore, the work of 
 power, but the kind of work of power, and the kind 
 of truth proclaimed, with which the work is con- 
 nected. Hence the necessity of the recognition 
 of the personality of the Devil, and the distinct 
 appreciation of the nature of his kingdom and 
 works, in order to an intelligent understanding of 
 Christ's claims, credentials, and works; for this 
 purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He 
 might destroy the works of the Devil. 
 
 It is not the miracle, but the character of the 
 miracle, and the relation of the miracle to the 
 Devil and his kingdom; and the relation of the 
 miracle to the Truth taught by Messiah, that is 
 the true and unmistakable credential. It is the 
 peculiar character of the works of Christ that 
 attests His claims as Son of God. 
 
 There is complete correspondence in the char- 
 acter of the Son of God, and the character of the 
 
 15* 
 
174 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Messiah as predicted in the Scripture, and the 
 character of the works performed, and the truth 
 proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth ; and it is this 
 correspondence, this resemblance, that is the strongest 
 element in the testimony of Christ's works to His 
 Divine Sonship and Messiahship. No man can 
 do the miracles that Thou doest except God be with 
 him. 
 
 The works of Christ are works of Divine Love 
 to lost man, works of Divine cleansing to corrupt 
 man, works of Divine mercy to suffering man; 
 they are works of Divine Justice and Judgment 
 upon Satan, the Enemy, the Adversary, the De- 
 stroyer, and upon His kingdom of Darkness and 
 Death : they are works in perfect harmony with 
 the Gospel of love, and cleansing, and mercy, and 
 righteousness, and truth, and justice, and judgment, 
 — the Gospel proclaimed, bears witness to the 
 works, and the works bear witness to the Gospel ; 
 and both are the Testimony, the Credentials to the 
 Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 The works of Christ are the forthputtings of 
 Divine Power over all parts of the visible creation, 
 in such manner as to destroy the works of the 
 Devil, and to show forth the Wisdom, Grace, 
 Mercy, and Righteousness of the Godhead, — the 
 works manifest the character of God, the works 
 harmonize with the character given to Messiah by 
 the Prophets, the works are directed to the destruc- 
 
The Credentials of Christ, 175 
 
 tion of Satan and his works, and the works corre- 
 spond with the Truth proclaimed by Him who is 
 the Prophet from God, the Teacher of men. The 
 manifestations of the Life of the Seed of the Woman 
 are themselves a Divine Work ; and thus Christ's 
 Life, in its manifestations, is the Great Miracle of 
 all human history. And this manifested Life of 
 Jesus Christ, which men heard, and saw, and looked 
 upon, and handled, is in perfect accord with all that 
 we know of God, and with all the teachings of all 
 the Prophets for more than a thousand years. His 
 Works are in very deed His Credentials. 
 
 But this Teacher of men affirms that He has a 
 still higher credential, a greater witness than John, 
 or the Prophets, or even His works ; the Father 
 Himself which hath sent Me, hath borne witness 
 of Me. And the Apostle John adds, If we receive 
 the testimony of men, the testimony of God is 
 greater; if we receive what men say, much more 
 ought we to receive what God says ; if we trust 
 our fellow-men, much more ought we to trust 
 God; if the testimony of human persons is believ- 
 able, much more is the testimony of Divine Persons 
 believable. 
 
 This brings us face to face with the Mode of the 
 Divine Existence, a subject which cannot be dis- 
 cussed in this connection. The doctrine of the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit is not a dim, vague abstrac- 
 tion, but is the very foundation upon which the 
 
176 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 whole superstructure of salvation rests, — it is in- 
 woven with all the teachings of Christ, and is 
 assumed as a fact throughout this discussion. 
 
 If there are three Divine Persons, the same in 
 substance or being, equal in all the attributes of 
 Godhead and Personality, then we affirm that they 
 are competent and credible witnesses, one to the 
 other. 
 
 Now Jesus declares, 4th, that He has the Testi- 
 mony of the Father, — the Father bears witness to 
 the Son : can we receive His testimony ? is this a 
 valid credential to Christ? 
 
 The testimony borne by the Father was in the 
 realm of the physical and material, — it was within 
 the sphere of the senses, — men, who were the wit- 
 nesses of it, would know it, just as they knew any 
 other physical phenomenon, — by the evidences of 
 their senses. It was the glory of God seen with 
 the eye; the voice of God heard with the ear. 
 
 Upon three momentous occasions in the life of 
 Jesus, the Father bore witness to Him, viz., at the 
 Baptism, the Transfiguration, and the Last Pass- 
 over: at each of these, the Father testified to the 
 Sonship of Jesus. — This is my Beloved Son in 
 whom I am well pleased. At the Baptism the 
 Father testifies to His Son as the Teacher of men; 
 at the Transfiguration, He testifies to His Son as 
 King in Zion ; at the Last Passover, He testifies to 
 His Son as Priest. 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 177 
 
 A careful examination of the Scriptures will 
 show that this testimony of the Father at these 
 three different times has a direct bearing upon His 
 threefold office as Prophet, King, and Priest. At 
 His Baptism He is inducted into His ministry as a 
 Teacher come from God ; on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, the Shekinah Glory appears, and the 
 Voice of the Father commands that obedience be 
 given to the Son, the King ; at the Passover He 
 goes up as High-Priest to offer Himself a Sacrifice 
 for sin, and the Voice is again heard, — I have both 
 glorified my name, and will glorify it again ; and 
 the Voice comes to Him, even as He cries to be 
 saved from the hour of the Agony and the Cross. 
 
 John the Baptist heard the Father's Voice, and 
 saw the descending Spirit, and bare Record, and 
 His testimony has come down to us ; Peter, James, 
 and John were with Him on the Mount, and saw 
 the Glory, and heard the Voice, and saw and heard 
 Moses and Elias, and have handed down to us the 
 testimony of their organs of sensation to these 
 physical facts; John, and Philip, and Andrew, and 
 Peter, and others heard the Voice at the Passover 
 in Jerusalem; and if we receive their testimony, 
 then we, too, have heard the Voice of the Father 
 testifying that Jesus is 1 1 is Son. The Father's 
 testimony comes to us through human channels; 
 but if He should speak now to each one of us, the 
 testimony would have to come through a human 
 
 H* 
 
178 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 channel, even the organ of hearing of each one 
 who heard the Voice. 
 
 The Divine Father declares that Jesus of Naza- 
 reth is His Beloved Son, and of all beings in the 
 universe He is the most competent to tell us who 
 is His Son. If we cannot believe what God the 
 Father says, then whom can we believe ? 
 
 But again : The Father bears witness to the Son 
 by raising Him from the dead. Jesus said plainly 
 that after His death He would rise from the dead, 
 and He claimed that the Resurrection would be 
 the proof of His Messiahship. Before His death 
 He staked the truthfulness of His claims and char- 
 acter upon the fact of His Resurrection. If He 
 did not rise, then His claims were all false; if He 
 did rise, then they were all true. 
 
 Now the Resurrection of Jesus was the work 
 of the Father, and is expressly ascribed to Him, 
 and is His testimony to the truth of all the claims 
 put forth by His Son. After the Resurrection, 
 Peter says of Jesus, "Whom God raised up;" Paul 
 speaks of the exceeding greatness of His Power, 
 which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him 
 from the dead. David, a thousand years before, 
 had said, Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, 
 Thou wilt show Me the path of life. Him God 
 raised up the third day, and showed Him openly. 
 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with 
 you that God should raise the dead? It is true 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 179 
 
 that by reason of the oneness of the Divine Es- 
 sence, the Resurrection is ascribed to the Son, and 
 also to the Spirit : this, however, does not prove 
 that the Father did not raise Him from the dead ; 
 but that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one in 
 Essence and Life. 
 
 The question whether or not Jesus was raised 
 from the dead is one of simple fact. If Jesus did 
 rise from the dead, then it is a fact, an event, a 
 phenomenon in the physical world, in the sphere of 
 the visible, the tangible, the material ; and as such 
 it can be authenticated in no other way than by 
 the evidence presented to the senses ; precisely as 
 any physical phenomenon, any fact, any event is 
 authenticated. Did men see Him with their eyes, 
 hear Him with their ears, handle Him with their 
 hands, and did they upon this testimony of their 
 senses know Him as the same" Jesus ? Upon this 
 point, the testimony of the eye and ear witnesses 
 to the fact alleged is abundant, clear, competent, 
 and credible. More than five hundred persons 
 saw, heard, handled, and knew Him; and then 
 many of them suffered death rather than modify 
 or retract this testimony. If these witnesses are 
 true, if Jesus is risen, then has God the Father 
 testified in the most open, convincing, and emphatic 
 manner to the Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. If one purpose of the human testi- 
 mony of the Bible is to place us where these wit- 
 
1 80 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 nesses stood, that we may see with their eyes, hear 
 with their ears, and handle with their hands, then 
 do we see, hear, handle, and know the Risen Jesus, 
 and we know too that He is True, for God hath 
 certified Him to us by raising Him from the dead. 
 
 There is another line of thought in the same 
 direction, viz., the witness borne by the Holy 
 Ghost to the character and claims of Jesus Christ. 
 Not one, but two Divine Persons bear witness to 
 the Son : the Father and the Spirit. 
 
 The Word spoken by the Lord was confirmed 
 unto us : God bearing witness both with signs and 
 wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost. Jesus spoke of the testimony 
 that the Spirit would bear to Him: He shall testify 
 of Me. There is a Person possessed of Divine 
 attributes called the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, the 
 Comforter, from whom spiritual influences emanate, 
 and by whom spiritual impulses are communicated 
 to men ; and the influence thus exerted is always 
 in the nature of Testimony to Christ, and is thus 
 one of His Credentials as the Teacher of men. 
 
 The Spirit never speaks of Himself, but whatso- 
 ever He shall hear, that shall He speak. This 
 testimony borne by the Spirit to Christ is thus 
 classified by Jesus Himself: 
 
 1st. He shall abide with the believers in Christ 
 forever. 
 
 2d. He shall be in them and dwell with them. 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 181 
 
 3d. He shall teach them. 
 
 4th. He shall bring all things to their remem- 
 brances, whatsoever Jesus said. 
 
 5th. He shall testify of Christ. 
 
 6th. He shall guide them into Truth. 
 
 7th. He will reveal things to come. 
 
 8th. He will convince the world of sin, of right- 
 eousness, and of judgment. 
 
 The work of the Spirit in His relation to men is 
 that He is 
 
 1st. An Abider, 
 
 2d. An Indweller, 
 
 3d. A Teacher, 
 
 4th. A Remembrancer, 
 
 5th. A Witness, 
 
 6th. A Guide, 
 
 7th. A Revealer, 
 
 8th. A Reprover. 
 
 In all these various offices or functions of His 
 office the Spirit is a Divine Witness to the Truth 
 of the Claims of Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit 
 beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth. 
 
 The Spirit reveals Christ to men, brings His 
 Words to their remembrance, guides them into 
 truth, teaches them, abides with them, dwells in 
 them, convinces men of sin, righteousness, and 
 judgment; and in all this work He never speaks 
 of Himself, never brings Himself into view, but 
 always testifies of Christ. 
 
 16 
 
1 82 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, from 
 the day of Pentecost down to the present time, 
 testifies that whatever spiritual impulse or life he 
 has is due to the Holy Ghost, and whatever knowl- 
 edge of Christ the Lord he has, has been com- 
 municated to him by the Spirit. And this testi- 
 mony ought to be conclusive: for these believers, 
 if they can know anything, do know what passes 
 within their own souls, and what relation the Spirit 
 of God bears to the inner knowledge they have of 
 Jesus. If Jesus is a Person, and the Spirit is a 
 Person, and the Spirit dwells in the human soul and 
 reveals Christ to the Soul ; then if that soul can 
 possibly have any certain knowledge of anything, 
 it must know the Spirit, and it must know Christ. 
 
 And thousands and millions of the wisest, and 
 best, and truest of earth tell the same story, bear 
 the same witness to the Spirit's works as related to 
 Christ. If some few men, of imperfect faculties 
 and unworthy character, had told us these things 
 as testified to them by the Spirit, there would be 
 room for doubt ; but when such men as Paul, John, 
 Polycarp, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Knox, Wes- 
 ley, Baxter, Milton, Newton, Duff, and thousands 
 of others, true and good men, tell us that the Holy 
 Ghost did tell them these truths about Christ, and 
 when we know that the same Spirit is teaching us 
 the very same truths, may we not ask, How is it 
 possible for any candid man now to doubt ? 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 183 
 
 Men claim to have certain knowledge of vegeta- 
 ble, animal, and intellectual life ; while they may 
 not know what is the essence of life, they do know 
 that there is such a thing as life: now may not 
 man have the same certain knowledge of Spiritual 
 life? May he not have as certain knowledge that 
 Saul of Tarsus had spiritual life as he has that 
 Julius Caesar had physical life? is the evidence of 
 life any the less in the one case than the other ? 
 
 But if there be spiritual life in man, then the 
 universal testimony of all who have it, is that, the 
 Spirit gave it through Jesus Christ; or that Christ 
 gave it through the Spirit, — He shall testify of Me. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Parker, minister of the City Temple, 
 London, in his book, "The Paraclete," says of this 
 testifying work of the Spirit, as glorifying Christ : 
 
 "The sun does not create the landscape. The 
 mountain and the sea are just as high and as wide 
 in the gray cold dawn as at noonday. The sun 
 adds nothing to the acreage of the meadows or the 
 stature of the rocks. Yet how wonderful is the 
 work of the sun ! Look upon the earth in the 
 pale dawn, and watch the ministry of the sun from 
 hour to hour. How the light strikes the hill, 
 burnishes the sea, flushes the trembling dew, and 
 makes the blossoming bush burn as if with the 
 presence of God ! Everything was there before, 
 yet how transfigured by the ministry of light! 
 The commonest things arc made almost beautiful 
 
1 84 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 by that benign service, and as for the higher forms 
 of culture, it would seem as if one more flash of 
 sunshine would make them as the angels of God. 
 In this respect, what light is to the earth the Holy 
 Ghost is to Jesus Christ. The Saviour is glorified 
 by the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is revelation 
 not creation. He does not make Christ, He ex- 
 plains Him. The sun in doing all his wonderful 
 work does not speak of himself; he will not, in- 
 deed, allow us to look at him. If we turn our 
 eyes upon him the rebuke is prompt and intolera- 
 ble : the language of that rebuke is, — Look at the 
 earth, not at me; see the opportunity for service 
 and culture which is given you ; do not intrude 
 upon my tabernacle, but work within your own 
 sphere while it is called day. The Holy Ghost, in 
 like manner, does not speak of Himself. He will 
 not answer all our inquiries respecting His person- 
 ality. We cannot venture with impunity beyond 
 a well-defined line. To the very last men will in- 
 quire, What is the Holy Ghost? showing that all 
 attempts at exhaustive definition have ended in 
 failure and disappointment. Yet whilst He Him- 
 self is the eternal secret, His work is open and 
 glorious. His text is Christ. From that theme 
 He never strays. To the individual consciousness 
 He reveals the mystery of the beauty of Christ. 
 The Christian student sees a Christ which he did 
 not see twenty years ago, — the same, yet not the 
 
The Credentials of Christ 185 
 
 same ; larger, grander, tenderer, every day ; a new 
 music in -His speech, an ampler sufficiency in His 
 grace; a deeper humiliation in His cradle ; a keener 
 agony in His cross. This increasing revelation is 
 the work of the Holy Ghost, and is the fulfillment 
 of Jesus Christ's own promise. That the Son of 
 Mary should have claimed the Holy Ghost as His 
 interpreter ! Observe this as an incidental contri- 
 bution towards the completeness and harmony of 
 the mystery that is embodied in Christ Jesus. Re- 
 garded in this light it is very wonderful. The 
 beginning and the end are the same, — equal in 
 mystery, in condescension, in solemn grandeur. 
 Thus: 'That which is conceived in her is of the 
 Holy Ghost,' — this is the beginning; 'He shall 
 not speak of Himself, He shall glorify Me,' — this 
 is the end : are the tones discordant ? The incar- 
 nation of the Son of God was the work of the 
 Holy Ghost ; how natural that the explanation of 
 the Son of God should be the work of the same 
 minister ! As He was before the visible Christ, so 
 He was to be after Him, and thus the whole mys- 
 tery never passed from His own control. 
 
 "The life of the Son of Man, as written in the 
 Gospels, needs to be glorified ! He was despised 
 and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and ac- 
 quainted with grief: He had not where to lay His 
 head; He gave His back to the smiters, and His 
 cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; He 
 
 16* 
 
1 85 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 made Himself of no reputation; He humbled Him- 
 self and became obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross ; He was rich, yet for our sakes He 
 became poor : upon all this chasm, so deep, so 
 grim, we need a light above the brightness of the 
 sun. When that light comes, the root out of a 
 dry ground will be as the flower of Jesse and the 
 plant of renown, and the face marred more than 
 any man's will be the fairest among ten thousand 
 and altogether lovely. Such is the wizardry of 
 light!" 
 
 Thus two Beings who possess all Divine perfec- 
 tions, the Father and the Spirit, bear Witness to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ; if we receive the testimony 
 of men, this testimony of God is greater, and more 
 worthy of our credence. 
 
 5 tli. Christ Himself His own Credential. 
 
 If the question were raised, "Is there a sun, and 
 what is his character ?" the best answer would be 
 obtained from a consideration of the sun himself ; 
 so Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shining 
 with full-orbed splendor in the spiritual firmament 
 furnishes in Himself the best answer to the ques- 
 tion, What, think ye of Christ, and whose Son is 
 He? "As no proof beside the Light is necessary 
 to show r that the Sun shines ; so we find that Jesus 
 proves Himself by His own self-evidence. ,, I am 
 the Light of men. 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 187 
 
 An observer looks upon the sun day after day ; 
 he sees the light streaming forth, and feels the heat 
 radiating from that orb ; no proof is needed to 
 convince him of the existence of the sun ; nor is 
 the testimony of any wisest astronomer necessary 
 to prove that the sun is a light -bearing and heat- 
 giving body. 
 
 And if our observer will carefully note the 
 movements of the sun in the skies, and the rota- 
 tion of the seasons on earth, he will soon be satis- 
 fied that the influence of the sun is felt throughout 
 the bounds of his observation. 
 
 So he who will look upon the Lord Jesus as re- 
 vealed to us in the Word of God will have the 
 best possible proof of His existence, and that He 
 is a Light- and Life-giving power in the world ; 
 and the more carefully he surveys all human 
 movements, the more clearly will he see the power 
 of this Sun of Righteousness in them all. If man, 
 by observation, may have certain knowledge of the 
 material sun, may he not in the exercise of the 
 same powers of observation have certain knowledge 
 of the Spiritual Sun ? — unless the absurd posi- 
 tion be taken that our powers of observation 
 and capacities for acquiring knowledge are far 
 less in the spiritual than the physical world; 
 and that man is so constituted that the more im- 
 portant and necessary knowledge of certain kinds 
 is to him, the less facility has he for acquisition, 
 
1 38 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 and the less certainty there is in his information 
 when acquired. 
 
 Beyond any question, the most remarkable phe- 
 nomenon in human history is the person and work 
 of Jesus of Nazareth; and we affirm that His work 
 on earth is of such a nature that it is the best cre- 
 dential to His claims. 
 
 The mighty pile of St. Peter's at Rome is the 
 best proof of the genius of its immortal designer; 
 the Suez Canal is the living monument to the en- 
 gineering ability of Lesseps ; the plays of Shak- 
 speare demonstrate the poetic power of him who 
 wrote them; so the works of the Jesus of Nazareth 
 stand out in all human history as the everlasting 
 monument of His Eternal Godhead and Divine 
 compassion. 
 
 The woman of Samaria, at Jacob's well near 
 Sychar, was right when she returned to the city, 
 after her conversation with Jesus, saying, " Come, 
 see a man, which told me all things that ever I 
 did: is not this the Christ?" 
 
 As we gaze upon this Jesus of Nazareth, as we 
 hear His words of wisdom, and see His works of 
 power and mercy, the cry is forced from our hearts 
 that burst from the lips of the Roman centurion 
 who saw Him die, Truly, this was the Son of God ! 
 
 Thousands and tens of thousands, who have 
 looked the longest and most earnestly and care- 
 fully upon Him, have come to the same conclusion, 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 189 
 
 and have made the same confession. And so 
 deep and steadfast has been their faith, and so 
 intense and burning their love to Him, that this 
 faith and love have transformed their whole char- 
 acter, and assimilated them into the likeness of 
 Him whom they received as Divine King and 
 Lord. The Life of the Son of Man has been per- 
 petuated and prolonged in the lives and characters 
 of men for more than eighteen hundred years. The 
 power of this Jesus is no less to-day on earth 
 among men than it was eighteen centuries ago, 
 when He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, 
 the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father. 
 
 This is the perpetual miracle, the demonstration, 
 against which all the weapons of infidelity fall 
 harmless and broken. 
 
 Jesus is either dead or living ; if dead, whence 
 comes it that He is such a living Power in all 
 human history? If living, then He is all that 
 He claimed to be ; His Resurrection, Ascension, 
 and Enthronement demonstrate the truth of His 
 claims. 
 
 Whatever opinions men may hold as to the 
 character and career of Napoleon Bonaparte, no 
 one can doubt his extraordinary mental power ; 
 perhaps the human race has never furnished his 
 equal. 
 
 When a prisoner upon the island of St. Helena, 
 a conversation occurred between him and General 
 
190 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 Bertrand, of so remarkable a character, and so per- 
 tinent to the subject under discussion, that I here 
 copy it almost in full ; and I do this the more 
 readily, in the hope of placing this consummate 
 argument in the hands of some who otherwise 
 might have no opportunity for seeing it. 
 
 General Bertrand : 
 
 " I cannot conceive, sire, how a great man like 
 you can believe that the Supreme Being ever ex- 
 hibited Himself to men under a human form, with 
 a body, a face, mouth, and eyes." 
 
 Napoleon replied : 
 
 " I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ 
 is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance 
 between Christ and the founders of empires and 
 the gods of other religions. That resemblance 
 does not exist. There is between Christianity and 
 whatever other religion the distance of infinity. 
 
 " We can say to the authors of every other re- 
 ligion, ' You are neither gods nor the agents of the 
 Deity. You are but missionaries of falsehood, 
 moulded from the same clay with the rest of mor- 
 tals. You are made with all the passions and vices 
 inseparable from them. Your temples and your 
 priests proclaim your origin.' Such will be the 
 judgment, the cry of conscience, of whoever ex- 
 amines the gods and the temples of paganism. 
 
 " Paganism was never accepted, as truth, by the 
 wise men of Greece ; neither by Socrates, Pythag- 
 
The Credentials of Christ 191 
 
 oras, Plato, Anaxagoras, or Pericles. On the other 
 side, the loftiest intellects, since the advent of 
 Christianity, have had faith, a living faith, a prac- 
 tical faith, in the mysteries and the doctrines of 
 the Gospel ; not only Bossuet and Fenelon, who 
 were preachers, but Descartes and Newton, Leib- 
 nitz and Pascal, Corneille and Racine, Charle- 
 magne and Louis XIV. 
 
 " Paganism is the work of man. One can here 
 read but our imbecility. What do these gods, so 
 boastful, know more than other mortals ? these 
 legislators, Greek or Roman, this Numa, this 
 'Lycurgus, these priests of India or of Memphis, 
 this Confucius, this Mohammed? Absolutely 
 nothing. They have made a perfect chaos of 
 morals. There is not one among them all who 
 has said anything new in reference to, our future 
 destiny, to the soul, to the essence of God, to the 
 creation. 
 
 " I see in Lycurgus, Numa, and Mohammed 
 only legislators, who, having the first rank in the 
 State, have sought the best solution of the social 
 problem; but I see nothing there which reveals 
 divinity. They themselves have never raised their 
 pretensions so high. As for me, I recognize the 
 gods and these great men as beings like myself. 
 They have performed a lofty part in their times, 
 as I have done. Nothing announces them divine. 
 On the contrary, there are numerous resemblances 
 
192 Christ, the Teacher of Men, 
 
 between them and myself; foibles and errors 
 which ally them to me and to humanity. 
 
 "It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him 
 astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will 
 confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in 
 the world there is no possible term of comparison. 
 He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and His 
 sentiments, the truths which He announces, His 
 manner of convincing, are not explained either by 
 human organization or by the nature of things. 
 
 " His birth, and the history of His life ; the pro- 
 fundity of His doctrine, which grapples the mighti- 
 est difficulties, and which is of those difficulties the 
 most admirable solution ; His Gospel, His appari- 
 tion, His empire, His march across the ages and 
 the realms, — everything is, for me, a prodigy, a 
 mystery insoluble, which plunges me into a reverie 
 from which I cannot escape, — a mystery which is 
 there before my eyes, — a mystery which I can 
 neither deny nor explain. Here I see nothing 
 human. 
 
 " The nearer I approach, the more carefully I 
 examine, everything is above me, — everything 
 remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. 
 His religion is a revelation from an intelligence, 
 which certainly is not that of man. There is 
 there a profound originality, which has created a 
 series of words and of maxims before unknown. 
 
 " I search in vain in history to find the similar 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 193 
 
 to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach 
 the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor 
 the ages, nor nature offer me anything with which 
 I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here 
 everything is extraordinary. The more I consider 
 the gospel, the more I am assured that there is 
 nothing there which is not beyond the march of 
 events, and above the human mind. 
 
 " You speak of Caesar, of Alexander; of their 
 conquests, and of the enthusiasm which they en- 
 kindled in the hearts of their soldiers. But can 
 you conceive of a dead man making conquests, 
 with an army faithful and entirely devoted to his 
 memory ? My armies have forgotten me, even 
 while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot 
 Hannibal. Such is our power! A single battle 
 lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends. 
 
 11 Can you conceive of Caesar as the eternal em- 
 peror of the Roman senate, and from the depths 
 of his mausoleum governing the empire, watching 
 over the destinies of Rome ? Such is the history 
 of the invasion and conquest of the world by Chris- 
 tianity. Such is the power of the God of the 
 Christians; and such is the perpetual miracle of 
 the progress of the faith and of the government of 
 His church. Nations pass away, thrones crumble, 
 but the church remains. What is then the power 
 which has protected this church, thus assailed by 
 the furious billows of rage and the hostility of 
 1 17 
 
194 Christ \ the Teacher of Men. 
 
 ages ? Whose is the arm which, for eighteen 
 hundred years, has protected the church from so 
 many storms which have threatened to engulf it ? 
 
 " Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself 
 founded empires. But upon what did we rest the 
 creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ 
 alone founded His empire upon love ; and at this 
 hour millions of men would die for Him. 
 
 " In every other existence but that of Christ, 
 how many imperfections? Where is the charac- 
 ter which has not yielded, vanquished by obstacles ? 
 Where is the individual who has never been gov- 
 erned by circumstances or places, who has never 
 succumbed to the influence of the times, who has 
 never compounded with any customs or passions ? 
 From the first day to the last He is the same, always 
 the same ; majestic and simple, infinitely firm and 
 infinitely gentle. 
 
 " Truth should embrace the universe. Such is 
 Christianity, the only religion which destroys sec- 
 tional prejudice, the only one which proclaims the 
 unity and the absolute brotherhood of the whole 
 human family, the only one which is purely spir- 
 itual ; in fine, the only one which assigns to all, 
 without distinction, for a true country, the bosom 
 of the Creator, God. Christ proved that He was 
 the Son of the Eternal, by His disregard of time. 
 All His doctrines signify one only, and the same 
 thing, Eternity. 
 
The Credentials of Christ. 195 
 
 "It is true that Christ proposes to our faith a 
 series of mysteries. He commands, with author- 
 ity, that we should believe them, giving no other 
 reason than those tremendous words, '/ am God! 
 He declares it. What an abyss He creates by that 
 declaration, between Himself and all the fabri- 
 cators of religion! What audacity, what sacri- 
 lege, what blasphemy, if it were not true ! I say 
 more; the universal triumph of an affirmation of 
 that kind, if the triumph were not really that of 
 God Himself, would be a plausible excuse, and 
 the proof of atheism. 
 
 " Christ speaks, and at once generations become 
 His by stricter, closer ties than those of blood; by 
 the most sacred, the most indissoluble of all unions. 
 He lights up the flame of a love which consumes 
 self-love, which prevails over every other love. 
 The founders of other religions never conceived 
 of this mystical love, which is the essence of Chris- 
 tianity, and is beautifully called charity. In every 
 attempt to effect this thing, namely, to make him- 
 self beloved, man deeply feels his own impotence. 
 So that Christ's greatest miracle undoubtedly is, 
 the reign of charity. 
 
 " I have so inspired multitudes that they would 
 die for me. God forbid that I should form any 
 comparison between the enthusiasm of the soldier 
 and Christian charity, which are as unlike as their 
 cause. 
 
196 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 " But, after all, my presence was necessary ; the 
 lightning of my eye, my voice, a word from me ; 
 then the sacred fire was ^kindled in their hearts. 
 I do indeed possess the secret of this magical 
 power, which lifts the soul, but I could never im- 
 part it to any one. None of my generals ever 
 learnt it from me. Nor have I the means of per- 
 petuating my name and love for me, in the hearts 
 of men, and to effect these things without physical 
 means. 
 
 " Now that I am at St. Helena; now that I am 
 alone chained upon this rock, who fights and wins 
 empires for me ? who are the courtiers of my mis- 
 fortune ? who thinks of me ? who makes efforts 
 for me in Europe ? where are my friends ? Yes, 
 two or three, whom your fidelity immortalizes, you 
 share, you console my exile." 
 
 Here we reach the highest possible point in the 
 argument for the truthfulness of the claims of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. He comes to us attested as the Son 
 of God in every possible way, and is Himself His 
 own Credential. 
 
 The issue presented to every man by this dis- 
 cussion is very simple. Either Christ is all that 
 He claimed to be, or He is an impostor, a deceiver, 
 a blasphemer. There is no middle position between 
 these two points. We must receive, believe, and 
 adore Him as the Son of God, the Messiah of 
 Scripture, the Saviour of men, or we must join in 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 197 
 
 the cry, Away with such a fellow from the earth ! 
 Crucify Him, crucify Him! 
 
 What think ye of Christ ? whose Son was He ? 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 Matt. iv. 1 : Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the will 
 derness to be tempted of the Devil. 
 
 Heb. iv. 15 : But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin. 
 
 Heb. ii. 14 : That through death He might destroy him that had 
 the power of death, that is, the Devil. 
 
 At the first glance, this subject may seem to be 
 aside from the general scope of this treatise ; but 
 closer inspection will show its direct and imme- 
 diate connection with Christ's work, as the Teacher 
 sent from God. In the Temptation there is a most 
 signal display of His Mediatorial office, and a most 
 marvelous exaltation of the written Word, given 
 by Him as Teacher of men. 
 
 There is the more need of a thorough Scriptural 
 statement of the truths involved in the temptation, 
 since one of the most popular of the recent lives 
 of Christ seems to ignore or reject the objective 
 reality of demons and demoniacal possessions, and 
 
 17* 
 
198 Christy the Teacher of Men, 
 
 therein to vitiate the doctrine of the inspired author- 
 ity of all of Christ's teachings. 
 
 The Baptism, by John, of Jesus of Nazareth was 
 to reveal Him to Israel as the Messiah of God, 
 promised to His chosen and covenant people. The 
 Baptism manifested Jesus as the Messiah. 
 
 Baptized thus, as the Prophet like unto Moses, 
 Jesus of Nazareth, the Teacher of men, goes into the 
 wilderness, and, after the example of the two great 
 Prophets of the Old Dispensation, fasts forty days. 
 
 In order that He may be a faithful and merciful 
 High-Priest, touched with a feeling of our infirmi- 
 ties, He must be tempted in all points like as we 
 are. In order that as King He may conquer him 
 who had the power of death, it behooved Him to 
 be a partaker of flesh and blood, that by death He 
 might destroy the Devil. 
 
 All of Christ's dealings with the Devil, in the 
 temptation, are not private and personal, but pub- 
 lic and official ; and all of Satan's assaults are di- 
 rected against Him, not as the individual man, 
 but as the Baptized Mediator of the Covenant of 
 Redemption. 
 
 The record of the temptation as given by the 
 three Evangelists marks it most distinctively as an 
 objective historic event. 
 
 It is located in the narrative immediately after 
 His Baptism, and just before His preaching in the 
 synagogue at Nazareth. 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 199 
 
 It is not a mere subjective description, not the 
 record of certain ideas or conceptions passing 
 through the mind of the man Jesus, not what He 
 thought or felt or imagined, not a mere imaginary 
 temptation by a merely imaginary Devil : it is a 
 record of realities, of actual transactions, of definite 
 objective persons and things ; there is the river 
 Jordan, the Prophet John, the audible voice from 
 Heaven. So also there is a Messiah Saviour, the 
 howling wilderness, the wild beasts, and a personal 
 Devil. We must hold fast the integrity of the his- 
 toric record ; the moment we begin to tamper with 
 the Word of God, to wrest the Sacred Scriptures, 
 to spiritualize away its objective facts, that moment 
 we undermine the whole foundation of the Chris- 
 tian Religion. 
 
 Attention has been called to the relation of the 
 Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Godhead, to 
 the work of Jesus Christ as the Teacher of men ; 
 so here, in the temptation, Matthew and Luke are 
 both careful to state that Jesus was led by the 
 Spirit into the wilderness. Mark uses the strong 
 language, the Spirit driveth him into the wilder- 
 ness. It was under the influence and guidance of 
 the Holy Ghost that Jesus went into the wilder- 
 ness, that, as the Second Adam, He might be 
 tempted of the Devil. 
 
 As has been seen, there is a most intimate and 
 abiding connection between the work of Christ 
 
200 Christy the Teacher of Men. 
 
 and the work of the Holy Ghost, — both of these 
 Divine Persons were parties to the Covenant of 
 Grace, and it was by the agency of the Spirit that 
 Christ's entire work under that Covenant was 
 wrought. 
 
 In accordance with the statements of Scripture, 
 the Creed of the Church universal teaches that the 
 humanity of Jesus was by the Holy Ghost; His 
 human soul and body were formed for Him of the 
 human substance of His Virgin Mother by the 
 direct formative agency of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 At His Baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon 
 Him, anointing Him above measure, and dwelling 
 in Him, and thus qualifying Him for His Propheti- 
 cal, Priestly, and Kingly work : as Prophet, He 
 taught by the Spirit; as Priest, He offered up 
 Himself a sacrifice by the Spirit; as King, He 
 rose from the dead, and reigns in and over Zion 
 by the same eternal Spirit. 
 
 Nor is it too much to affirm that though His 
 human soul and body were united to His Divine 
 Person, so that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt 
 in Christ Jesus, yet it was not more in virtue of 
 His inherent Divinity than by the indwelling 
 agency and co-operation of the Holy Ghost that 
 He executed His glorious work as the Redeemer 
 of God's elect. 
 
 He is in the wilderness to fast forty days, even 
 as His great Prophetical Types, Moses and Elijah, 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 201 
 
 fasted forty days ; in the wilderness to be tempted 
 of the Devil, even as the first Adam was in the 
 garden to endure temptation from the same fallen 
 and malignant Being ; He is in the wilderness by 
 the Providential ordering of His Father, God, and 
 by the special guidance of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Temptation, as the word is ordinarily used, is 
 the presentation of some motive to the mind and 
 heart influencing or inducing the person to sin. 
 
 As thus defined, temptation may be either objec- 
 tive or subjective, outward or inward, — it may be 
 presented to us from without, or it may arise from 
 within, from the unholy motions of our own de- 
 praved natures. 
 
 Temptation may be either with or without sin 
 on the part of the person tempted, — temptation 
 does not in itself necessitate sin. If the tempted 
 person yields to the evil suggestion, gives it place 
 in his heart, encourages it, then there is sin ; but 
 if he sets his face against it, resists and repels it, 
 then there is no sin. 
 
 When Satan tempted the woman, she yielded to 
 his evil suggestion, her will consented, and thus 
 she sinned and fell. Joseph was tempted by Poti- 
 phar's wife to commit adultery, but he repelled the 
 thought, his will resisted the evil, and he fled from 
 the temptation. In the one instance there was sin, 
 in the other no sin, only temptation. Let no man 
 
 say when he is tempted, " I am tempted of God," for 
 1* 
 
202 Christ, the^ Teacher of Men. 
 
 God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth 
 He any man; but every man is tempted when he 
 is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. 
 
 The statement is explicitly made in the Scrip- 
 tures that Jesus was tempted in all points like as 
 we are, yet without sin. It is impossible for us to 
 comprehend or explain how evil can originate in 
 the heart of a perfectly pure and holy being, — how 
 the inward temptation presents itself to the sinless 
 creature, all of whose dispositions and tempers are 
 holy; and if we could understand and explain this, 
 then we would have a perfectly satisfactory solution 
 of the great and perplexing problem of the origin 
 of evil. 
 
 Jesus was a holy creation, — the direct product 
 of the power of the Holy Spirit; so that He was 
 that Holy Thing born of the Virgin Mother, and 
 harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. 
 His human nature was replenished and strength- 
 ened above measure by the Holy Ghost, so that 
 He could not sin, — " non posse peccare!" What- 
 ever temptation therefore he may endure, must in 
 the very nature of the case be without sin. Evil can- 
 not possibly originate with Him, sin cannot arise, 
 nor can temptation be presented from within; while 
 the evil suggestion coming to Him " ab extra" 
 from without, will find no response in Him, and 
 the temptation will be resisted, repelled, rejected; 
 tempted in all points, yet without sin. 
 
The Temptation of Christ, 203 
 
 As it is impossible for sin to be self-originating 
 in the heart of Him who is at once the Son of 
 Man and God, the temptation must come to Him 
 from without. 
 
 The Agent in the temptation is the same fallen 
 and malignant Being who seduced and ruined the 
 First Adam in the Garden of Eden ; not a mere 
 spiritual influence, but a Wicked Person, one pos- 
 sessed of all the attributes of a proper personality, 
 called Satan, Devil, Baalzebub, the Prince of the 
 Power of the air, the God of this world. Once a 
 bright, pure, unfallen Spirit around the throne of 
 God, in light; One who kept not his first estate, 
 who felt not his dependence upon God, who asserted 
 his own self-sufficiency, who, in the exercise of the 
 freedom of his own will, fell from his high and 
 holy position. 
 
 A being of vast intelligence, of immense power, 
 full of malignant cunning, the enemy of God and 
 man, a Liar and a Murderer, — who is in revolt 
 against the Lord, and who delights in the ruin and 
 spiritual death of all the works of His Creator's 
 hand. The being who in form of a serpent tempted 
 Eve, the mother of us all ; who presented himself, 
 with the sons of God, before Jehovah, and accused 
 and tormented Job ; who sifted Peter as wheat, so 
 that he denied his Saviour; who filled the heart of 
 Judas, so that he betrayed the Lord of glory ; who 
 has tempted and tormented all of God's saints in 
 
204 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 all ages, and who never ceases his wicked warfare 
 against Christ and His church for ever and ever: 
 even when shut up in the fires of the bottomless 
 pit, his hatred anly glows with a keener intensity 
 and a fiercer malignity. His depravity is so com- 
 plete and unalterable, that for him there is neither 
 hope nor pardon in the boundless realms of God's 
 grace and mercy; for him there is nothing, through- 
 out the endless ages, but the blackness and dark- 
 ness of an eternal Hell, prepared in judgment and 
 justice for him and for all who are his followers 
 and servants. He is not omniscient, but among 
 all created intelligences there is no one wiser than 
 he ; he is not omnipresent, but does seem to be 
 ubiquitous. 
 
 He made his way from the domains of darkness 
 to this world of ours on the morning of its crea- 
 tion, and deceived and ruined the First Parents of 
 our race, and in and with them all of their count- 
 less children. 
 
 The curse of God fell upon him for 'this, his sin; 
 and he well remembered the Eden Promise, that 
 the Seed of the Woman should bruise the serpent's 
 head ; that some one coming in man's nature would 
 overcome him and destroy his kingdom. 
 
 He is not ignorant of God's purpose of Redemp- 
 tion ; God of this world as he is, he is conscious 
 of some mighty Saving Power at work among 
 men ; having the power of death, he knows that 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 205 
 
 two men, Enoch and Elijah, have been caught 
 away from his grasp, and, not tasting death, have 
 passed into glory ; with unwearied curiosity he has 
 followed the history of Redemption as unfolded in 
 the Old Dispensation, and is so familiar with the 
 Word of God that he can quote the Scriptures ; 
 nor are the wonderful events connected with the 
 birth of the Babe of Bethlehem hidden from his 
 superhuman gaze. 
 
 He has witnessed the Baptism of Jesus by John; 
 has heard the voice of the Father from Heaven, 
 " This is my beloved Son" ; has seen the Holy 
 Ghost descending and resting upon Him ; he 
 knows that the time is near at hand when he must 
 meet the "Seed of the Woman" promised in Eden. 
 
 With his usual sagacity, he wisely selects the 
 time and place for his temptation and assault. The 
 Son of Man is in the wilderness, wearied with His 
 'fast of forty days ; His human nature, exhausted 
 with hunger and the dreary solitude of the wilder- 
 ness and companionship of wild beasts, craves food 
 and human sympathy. Son of God though He is, 
 He is Man also; and as Man, like other men He 
 is subject to weariness, hunger, and thirst. 
 
 The Devil approaches Him with the abrupt 
 salutation, "If Thou be the Son of God, command 
 that these stones be made bread." 
 
 If we regard this temptation as addressed to 
 the private individual, Jesus of Nazareth, we shall 
 
 iS 
 
206 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 utterly fail to grasp its mighty import and signifi- 
 cance. It is not addressed to Him as a private 
 individual, but to Him as Seed of the Woman, as 
 Son of God, as Mediator of the Covenant of Grace; 
 it is addressed to Him in His public, official, author- 
 ized, representative character ; if we may so speak, 
 it is presented rather to His office than to His 
 person. 
 
 If He is a mere private person, and has power 
 to turn stones into bread, there can be nothing 
 wrong in His exercise of this power to satisfy His 
 hunger, — but if He holds an office, if He repre- 
 sents others, if He has entered into and is now 
 discharging covenant obligations, if He has au- 
 thority to use this power only in accordance with 
 that covenant, then it may be wrong to use His 
 office and its power to minister to His private, 
 personal wants. The minister who represents his 
 nation at a foreign court may not do many things 
 which it would be perfectly lawful for him as a 
 private citizen to do. 
 
 There is nothing sinful in Godhead making 
 bread out of stones or out of nothing, if it please 
 Him so to do ; but it is sinful for the Son of God, 
 as Seed of the Woman, as Son of Man, as Medi- 
 ator of the Covenant of Grace, it is sinful for Him 
 in His official capacity to put forth Divine Power, 
 to use His office to supply the wants of His human 
 nature. The hand of the Eternal Son must not 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 207 
 
 create bread in the wilderness to satisfy the hunger 
 of the man Jesus, who is there enduring that hunger 
 by the will and Providence of His Father, God ; 
 who is there to suffer and endure by express di- 
 rection and guidance of God the Holy Ghost. 
 As Son of Man He suffers, as Son of Man He 
 must conquer. 
 
 This statement needs to be examined more 
 closely, for it affords the solution of this entire 
 transaction. 
 
 The Son of God, in accordance with Covenant 
 obligations — obligations voluntarily assumed by 
 Him in behalf of His people, has agreed to take 
 human nature — "a true body and a reasonable soul" 
 — into eternal union with His Godhead. In this 
 nature and estate He has, of His own free will, 
 subjected Himself to the laws and limitations of 
 this condition and sphere ; to the natural laws of 
 hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, and refreshment, — 
 in all things, sin excepted, it behooved Him to be 
 made like unto His brethren. He shall hunger 
 and thirst as men do, and as they do He shall sat- 
 isfy that hunger and thirst. It is not in accordance 
 with the laws and limitations of this natural sphere 
 for man to satisfy his hunger by creating bread 
 from stones. So the Son of Man acting for men 
 may not lawfully use the power of His Godhead 
 to satisfy the natural hunger of the Man Jesus. 
 
 This, then, is the precise point of attack : Satan 
 
208 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 seeks to induce Him to violate His covenant ob- 
 ligations, and thus at one blow he will destroy 
 the Second Adam and all who are represented in 
 and by Him under the Covenant of Grace ; Satan 
 tempts Him to put forth His Divine power to an 
 unlawful end, to do a thing in nowise sinful in 
 itself, but sinful to Him in His official character. 
 
 The Son of Man is in the wilderness by direction 
 of the Holy Ghost, and under the special protec- 
 tion of His Father in Heaven ; to that Father He 
 must look for the supply of all His needs, and not 
 to the superhuman exercise of His Mediatorial 
 Power. 
 
 Jesus knew well that He could not be true to 
 His covenant obligations, true to His complete 
 humanity, to its laws and limitations, if He should, 
 as Son of God, change the stones around Him into 
 bread. He will not violate that Covenant, He will 
 not ruin those represented by Him, He will not 
 use official power to supply personal wants, He 
 will not give place even for one instant to this evil 
 suggestion of the Wicked One. 
 
 He answered and said, Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
 out of the mouth of God. Perceiving at once the 
 wickedness of the proposition, He does not permit 
 it to make any impression upon Him, but at once 
 repels it ; there is nothing in Him to respond to 
 the temptation. 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 209 
 
 Prophet and Son of God, His mind reverts to 
 the Old Testament Scriptures ; to the history of the 
 Covenant people who for forty years in the wilder- 
 ness were fed by a Father's hand, — the same Father 
 who cared for them will also provide for Him, the 
 First Begotten Son ; the answer is ready, Man 
 shall not live by bread alone. As much as to say, 
 " I am here as Son of Man by the will and direc- 
 tion of my Father, God; I must live by faith in 
 Him and the sure word of His promise ; I am in 
 the path of duty; the Spirit led me into this wilder- 
 ness, I will trust my God to feed me ; I will not 
 transcend those laws and limitations to which as 
 Mediatorial Son of Man I voluntarily subjected 
 myself. There is a higher and nobler life than that 
 of the flesh ; I cannot live by bread alone, my 
 spiritual nature craves Heavenly food, even com- 
 munion with my Father, God, His sure Word is 
 my meat and drink." The flesh is weary and 
 hungry and thirsty, but the Spirit triumphs; the 
 Mediator is true to His Covenant, to the interests 
 of His " Covenant Clients," true to all of the con- 
 ditions of His office and sphere. The tempter's 
 suggestion is no sooner made to Him than it is 
 rejected. 
 
 The Apostle John says, For all that is in the 
 world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
 and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of 
 the world. 
 
 18* 
 
2 i o Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 Under these three categories may be ranged the 
 totality of man's nature ; to one or the other of 
 these classifications all sins may be referred; to 
 one or the other of these elements of man's nature 
 every temptation is addressed. The lusts or de- 
 sires of the flesh refer to bodily appetites, our 
 senses : the lust of the eyes to our intellects, the 
 eye being used figuratively for the mind : the pride 
 of life to our emotions, — sins of the senses, of the 
 intellect, of the heart. So all temptations are ad- 
 dressed to one or the other of these elements of 
 man's being, to his bodily appetites, or to his in- 
 tellect, or to his emotions. This analysis seems to 
 be exhaustive as defining the avenues whereby sin 
 enters into man. The first temptation, " command 
 that these stones be made bread," was addressed 
 to the senses, the lusts of the flesh, — through the 
 bodily desires of Jesus Satan seeks to find access 
 to this soul, and draw Him away from His alle- 
 giance to His Father, God, and His Covenant obli- 
 gations. This temptation fails. 
 
 In the second, the appeal is to the hist of the eyes, 
 to the intellect; through this avenue the Devil 
 now seeks to assail the integrity of the Mediator : 
 then the Devil taketh Him up into the Holy City 
 and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the Temple. In 
 what manner and by what means Jesus was taken 
 into the city and to the pinnacle of the Tempje 
 we know not, for the Scriptures are silent on this 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 211 
 
 point ; nor is it a matter of the least possible im- 
 portance for us to know. 
 
 Once on the Temple, the Devil shows his knowl- 
 edge of Scripture, and his ability to quote texts, — 
 If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : it 
 is written: you have just cited Scripture as a rule 
 of duty, listen now to this, — He shall give His 
 Angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands 
 they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou 
 dash thy foot against a stone. 
 
 " John has baptized you as the Messiah ; all 
 Israel is looking for your manifestation ; they seek 
 a sign from Heaven : if you are the Son of God, 
 the Messiah, give them the sign they seek ; cast 
 yourself down into the crowded court below, and 
 the people will hail you as the Promised Seed of 
 the Woman; you have the protection of your 
 Father in Heaven, He will give His Angels charge 
 concerning Thee, for so it is written in the Psalms." 
 Here, again, the assault is not upon the personal 
 character, but the Mediatorial office of Jesus of 
 Nazareth ; here, too, the wicked suggestion is 
 spurned as soon as made. 
 
 Jesus said, It is written again, Thou shalt not 
 tempt the Lord thy God. Men must not rush 
 rashly and needlessly into danger, disregarding all 
 the laws of nature and Providence, and thus try 
 the goodness and love of God; by expecting Di- 
 vine deliverance out of danger which was in- 
 
2 1 2 Christ y the Teacher of Men. 
 
 curred by violation of the Laws of God ; this is not 
 trusting, but trying God. Man may not disregard 
 the Law of Gravitation, and jump from some lofty 
 elevation, and then look to the Lord to interpose, 
 by some miracle of power and mercy, to save him 
 from the natural results of his own folly. This is 
 not faith y but fool] tardiness ; not trusting, but trying 
 the Lord God. 
 
 If, disregarding the laws and limitations of my 
 human estate, I cast myself down from this pinna- 
 cle of the Temple, I have no right to claim the 
 protection of my God, and expect His Angels to 
 bear me up, lest I be dashed to pieces, — this will 
 be to " tempt" the Lord my God ; this I cannot do. 
 Nor is my Messiahship and Sonship to be manifested 
 and established by any such signs from Heaven ; 
 by any such needless exercise of Divine Power in 
 my behalf. 
 
 Coming as the Messiah predicted in the Old 
 Testament, Jesus of Nazareth must vindicate Him- 
 self as the Son of God, by a life conformed, in all 
 particulars, to the teachings of that Word concern- 
 ing the Messiah. 
 
 Jesus Christ, as the Teacher of Men, had in the 
 Scriptures, by the mouth of His Prophets, inspired 
 by His Spirit, accurately and fully described the 
 Person and Work of the Messiah. Whoever, 
 therefore, claims to be the Messiah must authenti- 
 cate His claims by perfect conformity to the de- 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 213 
 
 scription given by the Great Teacher in His in- 
 spired Word. If Jesus is the Messiah Son of God 
 He will perform works of healing and mercy, and 
 by these He will manifest His glory and Messianic 
 character. He may open the eyes of the blind, 
 cause the tongue of the dumb to sing, make the 
 lame man leap as the hart ; all of these works, in 
 the physical domain, typical and illustrative of his 
 cleansing and saving works in the spiritual realm, 
 He may, nay, must perform; for these are the 
 proofs of the Messiah; but there must not be 
 one iota of unnecessary forthputting of Divine 
 Power; not one single display of Omnipotence 
 for its own sake, or for any merely personal end ; 
 not one step in the line of tempting God, by work- 
 ing a miracle to deliver the Son of Man from 
 danger into which He has needlessly thrown Him- 
 self. 
 
 This was the precise kind of a sign from Heaven 
 which the unbelieving Jews were continually ask- 
 ing of Him, and which He so persistently refused 
 to give ; saying, They have Moses and the Prophets, 
 if they will not hear them, neither will they be per- 
 suaded though one rose from the dead. " If with 
 the Scriptures in their hands they refuse to receive 
 Me as the Messiah ; if with all the evidence that 
 there is to my Sonship and Messiahship, they will 
 not believe, neither will they be persuaded though 
 I cast myself from this pinnacle, and the Angels 
 
214 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 bear Me safely to the court below. Thou shalt 
 not tempt the Lord thy God. " 
 
 Just here there is a lesson of profound wisdom 
 and instruction for every son of God ; he must not 
 rush needlessly into places of worldliness, folly, 
 and sin, and then look to his Father God for some 
 special miracle to save him from the consequences 
 of his own rashness and impiety. The Angels 
 have no charge concerning deliverance from such 
 dangers. The saints must not tempt the Lord 
 their God. 
 
 This assault upon the Mediatorial Sonship, this 
 temptation addressed to the lust of the eyes, the 
 intellect, fails most signally, — there is no response 
 whatever in the heart of Jesus to this second sug- 
 gestion of the Wicked One. 
 
 The third and last assault is now to be made 
 through the emotions, the pride of life, upon the 
 kingly office of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 The first temptation was in the line of His office 
 as a Teacher or Prophet: command that these 
 stones be made bread, — supply the wants of the 
 lusts of the flesh, the bodily appetites. This was 
 the temptation : the answer is most instructive : 
 Man has a soul, no less than a body; the true 
 man, the entire man, the spiritual man cannot live 
 by bread alone ; he shall by the Word, the Pro- 
 phetic Word of God ; by feeding upon that Bread 
 shall his soul live. 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 215 
 
 The second is in the line of His Priestly office. 
 Cast thyself down; thou shalt not die; God will 
 give His Angels charge concerning Thee: this is 
 the temptation, and the answer is, — Not so : I 
 came to die as the Sacrifice for man's sin ; I am 
 both Priest and Victim, I must finish the work my 
 Father gave me to do, and die upon the cross. 
 Were I to ask, He would send twelve legions of 
 Angels to bear me safely in triumph on high, — I 
 will save others, myself I cannot save : I do not 
 ask any miracle in my behalf; I have taken man's 
 place to die for him, and I will fulfill to the last jot 
 and tittle these voluntarily assumed obligations. 
 Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 
 
 Through the emotional element of His nature 
 Satan now assails the kingly office of Christ. He 
 taketh Him up— we know not how, nor does it 
 concern us to know — into an exceeding high moun- 
 tain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the 
 world and the glory of them, and saith unto Him, 
 All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall 
 down and worship me. The Devil is fully satisfied 
 now that Jesus is the Son of God, the Promised 
 Seed of the Woman, who is to bruise the serpent's 
 head ; and he makes one more bold, brazen, auda- 
 cious attempt to destroy His integrity. 
 
 Satan removes the mask, and reveals himself in 
 all his hideous and hateful deformity, and tempts 
 the Son of the Most High to worship him, instead 
 
2i6 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 of the True and Living God, whom only men 
 may worship. All these things will I give Thee, 
 if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. He appeals 
 to the pride of life, to the ambitious desires of Jesus. 
 He knows that the Son of God is to have a king- 
 dom that shall extend from shore to shore, and 
 from the rivers to the ends of the earth. He must 
 have some knowledge, too, — even as Jesus well 
 knew, — that the pathway to the Throne lies 
 through blood, and that the Cross is before the 
 Crown. 
 
 Is it not possible for Satan to tempt Jesus aside 
 from that bloody and bitter path, from that shame- 
 ful and cruel cross ? He will offer Him a kingdom 
 at much less cost; a kingdom which He may have 
 without blood and without the cross. How much 
 easier to secure a kingdom by this one single and 
 simple act of homage than to win one by the awful 
 anguish of the Garden, and the unutterable agonies 
 of the Cross! His great mission into this world 
 was to secure a kingdom, and, lo, now the Crown 
 is in His very grasp ; fall down and worship Satan, 
 and the kingdom is His. 
 
 But this assault fails, most signally, even as the 
 others had. The kingly Mediator is true to His 
 covenant engagements ; that kingdom which is now 
 His by gift of His Divine Father He will wrest 
 from the God of this world, who shall be bruised 
 under His Princely feet: His kingdom is not of 
 
The Temptation of Christ. 217 
 
 this world; it does not lay in the sphere of the 
 visible, the tangible, the material ; it is unseen, but 
 it is eternal ; and can only be won by the bloody 
 sweat of the Garden and the death-cry of the 
 Cross. 
 
 Jesus cannot be turned aside from the path of 
 duty, however painful and dark that pathway may 
 be, by any such temptation as this. 
 
 What! He, the Sinless Son of God, worship 
 this foul and fallen Spirit, this Liar and Murderer, 
 in order that He, the Son of Man, may escape the 
 shame of the Cross and be spared the gloom of 
 the grave ? 
 
 Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt 
 worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt 
 thou serve. 
 
 The battle has been fought, the victory has been 
 won : what the First Adam, as Mediator of the 
 Covenant of Works, failed to do amid- the beauties 
 of the unfallen Eden, the Second Adam, as Mediator 
 of the Covenant of Grace, in the Wilderness, an 
 hungered, and surrounded with wild beasts, has 
 most gloriously accomplished. The Tempter has 
 been met and vanquished. The Better Covenant 
 and the covenant people are eternally safe in the 
 hands of their Divine Representative. He is able 
 to save eternally them that come unto God by 
 Him. 
 
 The Weapon of His defence was simple but sure; 
 k 19 
 
2 1 8 Christ, the Teacher of Men. 
 
 it was the Scriptures, the Word of God, the sharp 
 two-edged Sword of the Spirit. 
 
 The Written Word, given by the Great Teacher 
 of men, given by inspiration of His Spirit, through 
 holy men of old, who spake as moved by the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 To every suggestion of the Wicked One, the 
 only answer He makes is, It is wrtiten, Man shall 
 not live by bread alone : Thou shalt not tempt the 
 Lord thy God : Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
 God, and Him only shalt thou serve. What an 
 exalted idea should this give of the Teachings of 
 Jesus, when we see Him, in this dreadful encounter 
 with the Enemy of God and man, wield His own 
 Word with such tremendous power and such signal 
 success ! His Word liveth and abideth forever. 
 
 Then the Devil leaveth Him, and behold Angels 
 came and ministered unto Him. 
 
 In the path of duty and obedience is safety and 
 supply: the Son of Man has been true to His 
 covenant obligations and to His Father in Heaven ; 
 that Father careth for the Son of His love, and 
 provideth for all His wants. The obedient Son, 
 who refused to use His mediatorial power to an 
 unlawful end, shall not perish of hunger in the 
 wilderness. He who gave Manna to Moses and 
 the children of Israel in the desert; Who sent, by 
 the ravens, to His faithful prophet, Elijah, bread 
 and flesh in the morning and the evening, will also 
 
The Temptation of Christ, 219 
 
 send, by the Angels, heavenly supplies for all the 
 needs of His earthly Son. 
 
 He has been faithful at the post of duty; He has 
 been tempted as Prophet, Priest, and King ; He has 
 been assailed through the lust of the flesh, the lust 
 of the eyes, and the pride of life ; He has obeyed 
 as a Son, and triumphed as a King ; He has learned 
 official obedience by the things that He has suffered, 
 and, lo, now the Father has given the Angels 
 charge concerning Him. 
 
 F I N I S. 
 
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