'Y^LE«¥ffiYEI&SflirY"

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF
GEORGE M. MURRAY '17
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
WILLIAM D. MURRAY '80

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A New Enquiry

The Man of Galilee
A New Enquiry

"  of quite perennial infinite
character ; whose significance will ever
demand to be anew inquired into, and
anew made manifest." CARLYLE

BY
GEORGE R. WENDLING

OLCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHARLES TOWN. W. VA.

Copyright, 1907
by
George R. Wendling

Entered at Stationers Hall,
London, England.
All Rights Reserved.

Typesetting and Electrotypei
by
The Sun Book and Job Printing Oflice inc.
Baltimore, Md.

A revision and enlargement of the
author's lecture entitled
"THE MAN OF GALILEE"

SEVENTH PRINTING.

Library Edition

Author's Preface
to the
Library Edition

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
ANEW presentation of the great
theme discussed in this volume
can never escape hostile criti
cism. That subject, very strangely, never
evokes peace, but always here and there
a sword. And for many reasons it is well that
this is so. It is not only a verification
of His saying that He came not to bring
peace, but it also shows how very closely
to the hearts of men He lies, how jeal
ously all men would preserve their own
conceptions of Him, and how vital and
fresh the question always is: What think
ye of him; whose son is He?
While many reviews of this book have
appeared since the first edition was pub
lished a few months ago, nearly all of
those reviews carrying a measure of ap
probation very gratifying to the author,
still, a very influential minority, worthy
of great respect, question the value of

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

the argument because, it is said, the
author ignores the results of Historical
Criticism, adheres to ancient and dis
carded landmarks, and seems to be un
aware of the fact that modern scholarship
repudiates as unauthentic much of the
Four Gospels, especially many passages
which the author cites.
This criticism is accepted with a cer
tain sense of its justice, in that it shows
how inadequately the author performed
the task which he set before himself;
how, perhaps, he might with much ad
vantage have gone further afield. That
task, however, was to take the Four
Biographies, knowing fairly well all that
Modern Criticism says about them, and
ask two questions:
(1) Is the character presented in those
biographies in any material respect ficti
tious? (2) Are the actions and the utterances
which are there attributed to Him, God
like?

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

If the book helps the reader to answer
that first question negatively, and the
second question affirmatively, the author
has accomplished his purpose without
stopping on the way to deal with many of
the real merits, and much of the ground
less pretension, of the critics of those
Four Biographies. In other words, he
assumes the truthfulness of the Four
Witnesses as they appear to-day upon
the witness stand, as they testify in the
current versions of the New Testament,
and he makes that assumption, not in
defiance or ignorance of Criticism, but in
order to show that the testimony of those
witnesses, as it stands, presents a state
of facts which that Criticism cannot dis
credit, because that state of facts con
sists of: —
(1) A character beyond the power of
human ingenuity to invent:
(2) Wisdom, power, and perfection
which no other person on earth ever
possessed :

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

(3) A literature which the greatest
geniuses of the world cannot duplicate.
Therefore, while the author repeats
that he is conscious of the imperfect
execution of his work, and while he
might reply that he has made, in the
fourteenth chapter of this book, ample
and grateful recognition of the splendid
achievements of those Historical critics
whose aim is not destructive, he never
theless submits that until the hostile
critics of the New Testament can over
throw the inferences thus legitimately
drawn from the data at hand, the in
ferences prove the data, and the data
prove the inferences. Or, to put the
matter in another form: If the record
as it stands, or the record with the ac
cepted emendations made by impartial
critics, discloses a divine personality, the
material for that record must in some
way have emanated from a divine being,
and therefore so much of the record as
makes such a disclosure is trustworthy.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

and thus we reach a Divine Christ and a
Divine Book.
Nor is this an example of that falla
cious reasoning which is called "argu
ing in a circle," as some of the review
ers have alleged. Rather, may it not be
said, it is taking the scattered segments
and showing by placing them together
that the result is a perfect circle. It is
not the reasoning then, but the result that
suggests the circle — the very symbol of
infinitude. Will the reader permit a very simple
illustration of the author's method in this
book? We see in a certain quarter of
the heavens the brightness, and at the
same time we feel the warmth, of the
sun, and when we so feel and so see,
no criticism of astronomical theories can
overthrow our conviction that the heat
and the light prove the existence there
of the sun, and the existence of the sun
explains the presence here of the light
and the heat. Now, on just that sort of

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

reasoning, men reach a majority of their
convictions every day in business, poli
tics, law, science and philosophy. Why
not then in religion? It is very far from
reasoning in a circle to assume that a
certain mass of phenomena may be ac
counted for by a certain set of conditions,
and then turn about and find that those
conditions alone can produce the phe
nomena. It is, if you please, reasoning
by hypothesis; it is just the kind of rea
soning that runs all through the most
certain of all sciences, the higher mathe
matics; it is the kind of reasoning that
Chief Justice Marshall and Judge Story
and other great jurists use in their most
famous decisions; and it is precisely the
method by which Lord Kelvin, Helm-
holtz, Darwin, Agassiz, Newton, Kepler
and Galileo made their greatest discov
eries. Those great lawyers guided by an
extraordinary judicial instinct, and those
world-famous scientists led on by what
is called the scientific imagination, often

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

reasoned from mere hypothesis to sup
posed conditions, and thence reached ac
cepted facts. It is also worth noting that
their initial steps were often mere acts
of Faith, for an hypothesis always im
plies a certain degree of faith, and then
in the final analysis their Faith became
merged into demonstrations little short of
mathematical certainty.
If these illustrious men entered into
their various kingdoms by a method so
simple, so childlike, and yet so profound;
if indeed after all is said the profoundest
things are when once we apprehend them
always the simplest, is there not a depth
of wisdom which we have not yet sounded
in His great saying that we mu^t become
as children if we would find our way into
His Kingdom?
And once more, it is well worth noting
that while theologians differ among them
selves about that requisite initial step
called Faith, and in truth have made
many sceptics by their disputations about

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE LIBRARY EDITION

the word and by their definitions, the fact
remains that it does require a simple act
of faith to come, though it requires some
thing more to see. Was ever a new ex
periment made in any laboratory, or was
any tentative process of reasoning ever
begun that did not involve some faith?
The final and consummated faith which
He asked for is not faith minus reason,
minus investigation, but faith plus inves
tigation, plus the fullest enquiry that the
human mind is capable of. If a Darwin
then, or a Newton, or a Kepler can re
spond to that far call which nature's won
ders made to them and "come" with faith
in ultimate discovery, are we irrational or
illogical if at first we listen in that same
simple faith to the call which Nathanael
heard concerning the most wonderful be
ing that ever appeared upon the earth —
the call to first come, and then see?
G. R. W.

Mbo tben is tbis tbat
even tbe wfnfc an&
tbe sea obev. bim?

come, see a man
wbtcb tolo me aU
tbtngs tbat ever H bto

Introduction

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A New Enquiry

INTRODUCTION
MEN who are now a little
past middle life read in
their youth two books which
marked an epoch in the history of
modern thought — those famous
books by Strauss and Renan.
Quickly following came Ecce
Homo and Ecce Deus, and Lives
of the Christ by Geike, Farrar,
Edersheim, Schenkel, Keim and
many other writers, and almost
innumerable monographs upon
every controverted point. Within
the same period of ferment and
17

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

unrest there came in full force a
tide which had long been slowly
rising, the tide of the greatest
revolution in the domain of phys
ical science and in the field of
mental and moral philosophy
that has occurred since the Chris
tian era began. We refer, of
course, to the movement signal
ized by the appearance of Dar
win's "Origin of Species" and
"The Descent of Man" — a move
ment summed up in the phrase,
"The Doctrine of Evolution."
Running parallel with the far-
reaching discussion which fol
lowed the advent of Darwin
and his great contemporaries,
Tyndall, Spencer, Huxley, and
Wallace, there was also renewed
activity on the part of the School

THE
INTRODUCTION

of Higher Criticism, making os
tensible havoc with the text of
the Old Testament and the New.
Amid the tempestuous waves
of that world-wide controversy
which was provoked by these
various and popular currents of
opinion, many non-essential and
some essential features of the
Old Theology met with apparent
shipwreck. So, it has come about, that in
the years which have elapsed
since this memorable time of
"storm and stress" began, the
thoughts of men have travelled
fast and far. A new reckoning,
therefore, with new land-marks
and new connotations must be
taken if a thoughtful person
would formulate a definite and
19

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

satisfactory opinion upon the
ever-recurring question of the
Deity of Jesus Christ, and at the
same time remain in touch with
the advancing scholarship and
with the analytical spirit of the
day. This analytical spirit, and
the psychological bias of our age,
must inevitably result in a current
conception of the Great Galilean
which will either strengthen or
weaken belief in His divine
nature.

Say what we will about the
admirable Ethics of the New
Testament, or about the beauti
ful, even the matchless character
of the Nazarene, the whole ques-

20

THE
INTRODUCTION

tion of the very life or speedy
death of Christianity lies, never
theless, wrapped up today, as
it always has been, in the ques
tion of the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, in the present state of the
public mind one need care very
little about this or that System
of theology, for in the presence
of that greater question all else is
for the time being unimportant.
It is so often said that a marked
decline of faith has set in that
many thoughtful persons believe
it. That decline is said by emi
nent observers to be plainly visi
ble everywhere, both in pulpit
and in pew. But what is meant?
A decline of faith in what?
Simply in the divinity of Jesus
Christ. For, the men and women
21

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

of today who believe that it was
a mysterious manifestation of
God Himself that moved for a
season among men as the living
Christ, have no doubt at all of a
future life; they have no doubt
whatever of the sufficiency of
the Bible; and they need no
argument to lead them into that
co-operative effort which results
in a Church. Hence, the para
mount question is today, and
always will be, the supernatural
character of the Great Galilean.
The inspiration of the Bible, the
doctrine of a future state, and
other problems which perplex
the seeker after religious truth,
are all subordinate to this ques
tion of the divinity of Jesus
Christ, they fasten themselves to
22

THE
INTRODUCTION

it and range themselves about it
dependently, as a spiral stairway
is attached to a massive column,
leading up to clouds of doubt and
darkness, or up into the sunlight.

The present writer undertook
the enquiry which is outlined in
this volume for the satisfaction of
his own mind, to decide doubts
which recent criticism had insin
uated, and to widen, somewhat,
the foundation on which his con
victions rested. For himself,
that enquiry has made assurance
stronger. For others, he hopes
that in the thoughts presented
here — fragmentary as the pre-
23

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

sentation is, and often mere sug
gestion — intelligent Faith may
find a firmer foothold, and intel
lectual Doubt a kindly light.
"Maplehurst," Charles Town,
West Virginia.

24

I

A New Point of View

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A New Enquiry

I
A NEW POINT OF VIEW
THE Mental Life of the Man
of Galilee presents some of
the most fascinating problems in
the entire field of psychological
phenomena. There is offered in this volume
the Outline of a new enquiry
into the alleged divinity of the
Galilean — not new as implying
discovery, nor new as meaning
that nothing herein can be found
27

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

elsewhere, for it is an enquiry
necessarily interwoven with many
old and familiar arguments — but
all newly grouped and based upon
a new analysis of His intellectual
qualities. This enquiry touches some
undeveloped chapters in His life,
lays more than usual stress on
internal evidence, seeks to place
the controversy as to His super
natural origin on a broader basis,
and is a Study in psychology and
in comparative religion.

Let it be said at once that the
Mental Life which is to be
examined critically but not irrev
erently in these pages, exhibits
an unparalleled combination of
28

A NEW
POINT OF VIEW

the highest intellectual powers,
and furnishes a supreme man
ifestation of pure intellectual
force, depth, and clearness. Sub
jecting His mental processes and
the general scope, poise, and
strength of His intellect to the
same dispassionate and judicial
analysis with which we appraise
Plato's philosophy or form a crit
ical estimate of Shakespeare's
genius, we cannot escape, even
if we would, the conviction that
in the presence of the Great
Galilean we are face to face with
the most majestic mind that the
human race has known.

Now, it is conceivable that if
a supernatural or divine being
29

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

should assume the form of man
and pass through the natural
stages of birth, childhood, man
hood, and death, He would
thereby necessarily subject Him
self to the physical limitations of
humanity, but not to the intel
lectual limitations. Thus, it is
not only conceivable but it is to
be expected that He may be
weary, He may need sleep, He
may be an hungered, He may
suffer physical pain. It is, how
ever, inconceivable that a divine
being shall be ignorant of any
fact, past, present, or future.
Does the Man of Galilee meet
this condition ? Does He impress
us as one possessed not merely
of the wisdom of a Hebrew seer,
and of an immaculate character,
30

A NEW
POINT OF VIEW

and of the occult power of a
miracle -worker, but possessed
also of the immeasurable insight,
the infallible judgment, the all-
comprehending knowledge, and the
transcendent prescience of a God?
Whether any one else has been
led by long and careful study of
the mental qualities of the
Galilean to a recognition of His
towering intellectual superiority,
and thence to an acceptance of
Him as an infallible guide, this
writer cannot say, but it is here,
in the presence of His Intellectual
Life, that a student of mental
phenomena is awed, here that
a feeling of strange solemnity
comes over us, here that the
question involuntarily starts to
one's lips, — Is He not divine?
31

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

If after nineteen hundred years
of discussion new proofs are dis
cernible from this point of view,
those proofs must not on account
of their novelty be distrusted, for
if later on it is found that the
word "Infinite" is applicable to
Him, it must follow that infinite
revealings and endless disclo
sures of Him are to be made from
time to time as the years come
and go. Some sixteen hundred
years of incessant study of the
New Testament passed by before
Paley made that brilliant discov
ery of the undesigned coinciden
ces between the writings of St.
Luke and St. Paul. The sixth
chapter of a recent book by Fisher
of Yale College entitled, "The
grounds of Theistic and Christian
32

A NEW
POINT OF VIEW

Belief," is another remarkable
instance of new light streaming
forth from the record when in
vestigation is guided by the hand
and insight of genius. No chap
ter in any modern scientific
work is more original in method
and results. "The greatness of
Christ," says Gordon, "must be
the surprise of the centuries; the
last hours of time must have for
their romance the fresh unveil-
ings of his Majesty; and the per
petual delight of the everlasting
future must be the ever grander
discovery of his significance."

In a recent and very able
publication, DISSERTATIONS ON
SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE.
33

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

INCARNATION : CANON GORE,may
be found a valuable compendium
of theological opinion from the
second century to the nine
teenth, concerning the Infallibil
ity of Christ. It seems remark
able, however, that none of the
great Apologists has presented
certain phases of the intellectual
life of the Galilean as an argu
ment for his supernatural origin.
On the contrary, some of those
writers intimate that to press an
enquiry along this line involves
a degree of irreverence inconsist
ent with a proper recognition of
the profound mysteries of the
Incarnation. That, we submit,
is "irreligious solicitude for God."
If He — the Galilean — is to be,
as Canon Gore says, "a real
34

A NEW
POINT OF VIEW

object of contemplation for the in
tellect as well as for the heart,"
then the enquiry attempted in these
pages has become, in the evolution
of Christian thought, an inevitable
enquiry.

35

II
Mental Characteristics

II
Mental Characteristics
LET us measure Him then
against God, and see if
there be a difference in stature.

If any feel that this is irrever
ent, let it be remembered that
more than once He invited such
comparison. Let it also be
remembered that such an invi
tation implies that men are
39

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

capable of making that compar
ison, and of drawing a trust
worthy conclusion from it.
So, we say again, and rever
ently, let us measure Him against
God and see if there be a
difference in stature. If there be
no difference, then we have two
infinite personalities. That is not
only impossible but unthinkable.
There can not be two distinct,
separate, infinite beings in one
universe. If both are infinite,
they must in some mysterious
way be One.

Observe, in the first place, that
the mind of Jesus Christ is on all
occasions and under all circum-

40

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

stances as lucid as light, and
then observe that not even the
mind of a child has such direct
and perfect simplicity.
No excitement in the surround
ing crowds, no perils, no threat-
enings, no sorrow or grief, no
weariness, nothing whatever at
any time casts the slightest
shadow across the clearness of
His mind. It seems an impossi
bility for any untoward accident
to cause Him mental confusion.
With this thought study His
whole career again, and the
remarkable fact will appear that,
unlike all other men, He is not
dependent on favoring physical
conditions for His highest intel
lectual work. Under circum
stances which would render
41

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

consecutive and lucid thinking
impossible to other men, His
mind preserves its exquisite
balance and moves on, as radiant
and as clear as the sun in a
summer sky.
He is, we say, not only the
clearest, but He is at all times
the most simple teacher of pro
found truth that ever came
among men.
The very commonest things
of everyday life form on all
occasions the staple of all His
phrases :
Birds.Lilies. Ripe corn. 42

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

Flowers.
The ploughman.
The sower sowing seed.
The lost sheep.
The lost coin.
The cup and the platter.
The lamp and the candlestick.
Foxes and sheepfolds.
The meal and the leaven.
The hen and her chickens
Doves and sparrows. 43

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Fish and bread.
Eggs and serpents.
Wheat and oil.
Oxen and lambs.
Dogs and swine.
Rocks and sand.
Rain and wind.
White harvest fields.

Red sunsets, and lowering
skies. 44

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

Is it strange, with His wonder
ful use of common things, that
the common people heard Him
gladly? Study this phase of His
mental life deeply. Burns and
Goldsmith, Bunyan and De Foe
are modern instances of great
genius combined with great sim
plicity. But they brought a
simple style to simple subjects,
while here is perfect simplicity
dealing with the profoundest
problems that can engage the
human mind.
Simplicity with clearness is the
very highest test of genius in a
teacher. Can we find simpler words
than He uses to express His
meaning? 45

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Many of Shakespere's lines can
be changed for the better; this is
proved by the suggestions of a
hundred commentators. But the
most accomplished writer cannot
rewrite one of the Galilean's
parables and improve it. Voltaire
says that the adjective is the
enemy of the noun, and Emerson
wisely says that adjectives are
always a source of weakness.
The Galilean uses none. In His
utterances, as recorded by His
biographer Matthew, may be
found seventy-six different words
which a grammarian would tech
nically call adjectives, but with
out a single exception every one
of them is an essential and indis
pensable part of the substantive
with which it is connected, and
46

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

hence not merely an adjective.
Paul is rhetorical now and then,
and so are the Hebrew prophets,
but is it not a strange thing,
speaking from a purely literary
point of view, that the most
beautiful and the most pathetic
sentences that ever fell on the
ear of man should be independ
ent of all literary artifice?

Let us observe here that the
oriental mind always broods long
on a single point. This has been
an unvarying characteristic of
the oriental mind since its earliest
recorded utterances. This pecu
liarity of the Eastern intellect is
seen in the constant repetitions
47

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

in the Hymns of the Rig Veda,
in the numerous reiterations in
the Psalms of David, in the lofty
prose of Isaiah, and it still sur
vives, as may be seen in the
orations delivered by the oriental
representatives at the World's
Religious Parliament. Not only
has the oriental mind that strik
ing and invariable peculiarity, but
also the oriental mode of speech
is oracular. The western mind
is systematic, and western speech
is more fluent and expressive,
but the Galilean's style is neither
oriental nor western. He uses
figures of speech but He does
not think in images. There is
no speech in any language that
equals His in transparency and
directness. Renan says that in
48

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

going through the Gospels when
ever we touch His words "we feel
them vibrate."

His singular simplicity will
perhaps account, in part, for this
strange mental phenomenon: He
is the only teacher that has
appeared among men who can
be sufficiently comprehended
without any conscious effort of
attention. It seems as if He
sent His words forth like living
spirits to go forever through the
world, and as for His sentences,
"They hang like banners in the air."

49

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Observe next that the Galilean
is seemingly destitute of the log
ical faculty.
There is not enough of formal
logic in all of the four Gospels to
make one syllogism.
The only approach to a state
ment in logical form is the fol
lowing from Luke's narrative:
"Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses shewed at the bush,
when he calleth the Lord the
God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
For, he is not a God of the dead,
but of the living; for all live
unto him."
As one premise is lacking the
argument is obviously defective
if intended to rest merely on its
logic. The whole passage — one
50

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

of exquisite beauty— is clearly
meant, however, as an authori
tative revelation, not as a piece
of reasoning. It is one of two
or three glimpses of the other
world which He allowed His fol
lowers to get — a flash-light, as it
were, into the Beyond — or, shall
we say, a momentary lifting of a
corner of the curtain.
Consciously or unconsciously
every man, in dealing with grave
problems, must use the forms of
logic; the very constitution of
the human mind compels us to
say that is so, and that is so,
and therefore this is so. But
not a trace of this method can
be found in the mental oper
ations of the Galilean. Buddha
reasons, argues, gives definitions,
51

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

draws inferences, toils slowly
and painfully, step by step, up to
the great height which he finally
reaches. Can any thoughtful
person fail to perceive the im
mense difference between the
intellectual quality of the calm,
effortless, majestic utterances of
the Galilean, and the intellectual
struggle disclosed in the follow
ing passage from Buddha?

"From appetences, formative
and organizing, rises awareness
or feelings. Feelings beget or
ganisms that live as individual
beings. These organisms de
velop the six fields — that is, the
five senses and the mind. The
six fields come in contact with
things. Contact begets sensa
tion. Sensation creates the
thirst of individualized being.
The thirst of being creates a
52

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

cleaving to things. The cleav
ing produces the growth and
continuation of selfhood. Self
hood continues in renewed
births. The renewed births of
selfhood are the cause of suffer
ing, old age, sickness, and death.
They produce lamentation, anxi
ety, and despair."

Is it not clear that complete
absorption in a long process of
deep meditation is Buddha's
method? Effort, continuous
effort, is always discernible in
his highest utterances. It is the
same with Confucius, whose
mental processes are also plainly
deductive. As an intellectual
force Mahomet is not compara
ble to either Buddha or Confuci
us; in parts the Koran is labored
and childish. 53

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

But the man of Galilee in His
intellectual movement is as easy
as God.
The entire absence of effort,
not only in His marvelous works
but also in His marvelous dis
courses, is one of the most aston
ishing things about the Galilean.
When exercising His most amaz
ing powers He seems to be
merely pursuing the even tenor
of His way. When He performs
His most wonderful works, or
utters His most wonderful
thoughts, nothing whatever in
His demeanor betrays any con
sciousness that He is in the
slightest degree above His ordi
nary level. He deals intuitively
with the most difficult and stu
pendous questions. He never
54

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

demonstrates anything. There
is concealed argument in some
of His parables, it is true, but it
takes the form of argument in
the mind of the listener, not in
the mind of the speaker. How
profound was that statement,
"He never learned"! We cannot
escape the feeling that He was
never taught anything.

Every great man is related
intellectually to other great men.
In a certain sense a great man is
always an evolution from pre
ceding and surrounding forces;
he is a peak in a mountain range.
55

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

But intellectually the Galilean
stands alone. In this particular
he is absolutely isolated.

Again, there is nothing of the
mathematician in him. He
knows numbers, of course, but
not the science of numbers. In
other words, the theorems, equa
tions, and various mathematical
processes by which Newton,
Kepler, and La Place solved prob
lems of wonderful magnitude
would seem incongruous in the
hands of the Galilean. One can
never believe Him to be in need
of an hypothesis. 56

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

It escapes definition, baffles
analysis, and eludes accurate
statement, but there the fact is
that in a singular way He im
presses us as already possessed
of the wisdom which other men
must strive to attain.
"Perhaps the most impressive
result of the scientific apprehen
sion of the order of the world" —
we quote from Prof. Diman of
Harvard in his great argument for
Theism — "has been the ascer
tainment of the fact that the laws
of the physical universe are laws
of mathematical relations. Thus
the law of gravitation, which
rules the grain of dust in the
sunbeam and the farthest orb
that revolves beyond the reach
of human vision, is a definite
57

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

numerical law. The curves
which the heavenly bodies de
scribe around the sun and around
one another belong to the class
of curves known as conic sec
tions. The laws of chemical
combination always admit of
precise numerical expression.
Each color in the rainbow that
spans the arch of heaven, and
makes the heart leap up, is due
to a certain number of vibrations
within a given time, and so are
the long drawn notes of the organ
that uplift the soul in praise, or
the accents of the human voice
melting with tenderness from a
mother's lips, or thrilling the ear
with the accents of anguish and
despair. A crystal is frozen
geometry. * * * Inthestruc-
58

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

ture of matter we are everywhere
confronted with the same system
of definite proportions."
When, therefore, in His im
pressive discourse to the Twelve
the Galilean said: "But the very
hairs of your head are all num
bered," can we doubt that He
had a perfectly clear perception of
the fact, established by modern
science, that the laws of the
physical universe are laws of
mathematical proportions?
For Him there are no problems.
The ascertained facts of astrono
my, geology, botany, chemistry,
and of other sciences would fall
easily within His mental range,
but we can see that here is a mind
that would know nothing of
the processes of higher mathe-
59

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

matics — does not need those
processes. Why is this? For
the same reason that He seems
to know nothing of logic.
What is that reason ?
Before answering let us go
further.

We next observe that He
knows nothing of metaphysics.
He is spiritual but never meta
physical. Thousands of volumes
of metaphysical dissertation have
been based on His utterances,
but the whole domain of meta
physical subtleties and reasoning
and terminology is foreign ground
to Him. He indulges in no ab-
60

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

stractions. Herein He differs
from any philosopher that we
know of.

Now let the reader's attention
be called to a very astonishing
thing: — the element of Time, in
its relation to the development
and consummation of His Plan,
never appears in any of His
mental operations. He seems to
be always looking beyond the
horizon, out over all the expanse
of Time.
We are not referring to the
kindred fact, wonderful in itself,
that with only a few months of
His thirty years of earthly life He
61

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

changed the whole current of
human history, but we mean to
call attention to the strange thing
that He is everywhere and
always unconscious of the divis
ions of Time. Years, months,
and weeks, never seem to enter
into His reckonings with refer
ence to Himself. It is not meant
that He does not act upon a
knowledge of their existence with
reference to others, but so far as
Himself, His plan, His future, or
His past are concerned, He
always seems oblivious of Time.
He appears to have no yesterday,
today and tomorrow. Once or
twice He speaks of His "hour,"
His "day" and His "time," but
He does not use the words in
their limited sense. In perfect
62

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

congruity with all this, we are
not told, nor can we learn the
day of the month, nor the month
of the year, nor the year of the
world in which He was born.
His whole life upon the earth
has all the marks of an interlude.
In both prologue and epilogue,
or rather in overture and finale,
the rhythmic undertones blend
with audible strains of celestial
music coming before and after.
How vivid, how real, how
genuine are His strange and un-
fathomed references to great
events in which He was a par
ticipant before He came into
this world, and to still other
events of indescribable magni
tude in which He will take part
after He leaves. 63

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

One cannot read His biography
without seeing that, of an inter
ior necessity, there are unwrit
ten chapters at the beginning and
at the end.
This does not arise from any
obscurity in the narrative, for that
narrative is so luminous that the
central figure seems poised in a
bright light between two eterni
ties. It arises from His mysteri
ous relation to those eternities.
In a word, He sustains the same
relation to Time that He would
sustain if He were the Eternal
One. Nothing — whether the report
be truth or fiction — nothing more
profound and penetrating ever
fell from the lips of the great
Napoleon than when he said at
64

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

St. Helena: "Christ proved that
He was the Son of the Eternal
by His disregard of time; all His
doctrines signify one and the
same thing — Eternity."

Let us now say that these four
things, logic, mathematics, meta
physics, and the element of time,
have no necessary connection with
the highest form of intellect.
A perfectly clear intellect
reaches its conclusions without
the aid of logic.
A perfectly clear intellect at
tains its end unaided by the cal
culations of mathematics. 65

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Such an intellect can compre
hend its own operations without
the formulas, and is above the
cloudland of metaphysics.
Such an intellect sees the whole
field instantly and has no need of
time. A perfectly clear intellect is
Godlike. And Jesus Christ has the only
perfectly clear intellect that has
been known among men.

Let us proceed to notice five
other mental characteristics which
can be found combined in no other
man. 66

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

( 1 ) He never has a shadow of
doubt or uncertainty about any
thing. Moses, Elijah, Buddha,
Mahomet, Pascal, Luther, Calvin,
Swedenborg, Wesley — all had
periods of uncertainty and mis
giving: this man never. Never
do we find in any of His utter
ances any perplexity.
We never find Him carefully
balancing the probable and the im
probable. He never conjectures.
He is never afraid of going too
far. He has no consciousness that
there is for Him any mystery in
life or nature, in man or God.
Will the reader pause for a
moment and reflect on the amaz
ing fact that here is a person who
67

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

has no sense of mystery in the
presence of the Infinite? — a per
son who passes in and out, as it
were, of the Holy of Holies, una
bashed, unembarrassed, and with
perfect freedom.
He has no intellectual curiosity.
The whole universe and all its
secrets seem an open book to
Him. He always speaks with the un
compromising authority of eter
nal omniscience.
In saying all this we do not
forget that oft-quoted and much-
mooted passage which seems to
imply a limitation on His knowl
edge, the passage where He said
that not even the Son knew when
the day of judgment should come,
for it is so clearly a self-imposed
68

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

limitation that it cannot be called
ignorance. So, too, when He
asks questions, as He often does,
they are, while interrogative in
form, in fact always suggestions
or incentives to thought or ac
tion. Never in a single instance,
when the context is examined,
can the question be construed as
an expressed or implied confes
sion that He is seeking needed
information. "How many loaves have ye?"
"Whom do men say that I the
son of man am?"
"What will ye that I shall do
unto you?" (To the two blind
men). "What think ye of Christ?
Whose Son is he?"
"Who touched me?"

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

"Have ye here any meat?"
"Where have ye laid him?"
Each one of these enquiries, as
well as every other that He ever
made, indicates a desire on His
part, not to obtain information,
but to direct and fix the undivid
ed attention of those who were
about Him upon one of His im
pressive utterances, or upon the
marvelous thing about to happen.
To this broad statement not an
exception is found in the Four
Gospels. This writer is not unfamiliar
with the arguments of those the
ologians, both ancient and mod
ern, who have insisted that the
questions asked by the Galilean
imply a need for information, and
to that extent indicate the pres-
70

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

ence of merely human intelli
gence. But we repeat, with all
the emphasis which those Four
Gospels can lend, that every
question that He ever asked is
a suggestion or incentive to
thought or action on the part of
those who were about Him, and
in no single instance is it an ex
pressed or implied confession of
ignorance. When, also, it is
said, speaking of His growth
from infancy to manhood, that
He increased in wisdom, one can
not but feel that the phrase is
merely a description of an orderly
manifestation and preordained
development from within, not of
an artificial acquisition from with
out. Where, indeed, in all the
world was the teacher, the school,
71

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the synagogue, or the philosopher
that could impart to Him the in
fallibility which He claims? So,
with that quotation which He
makes from one of the Psalms,
that bewildering Eloi, lama sabac-
thani, of the Cross, it must have
a meaning, if we ever learn that
meaning — for no one on earth
knows it — a meaning not incon
sistent with a perfect knowledge
of all things.

(2) Again: He is never sur
prised. "When Jesus heard it he mar
velled, and said to them that fol
lowed, verily I say unto you, I
72

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

have not found so great faith, no,
not in Israel."
"And he marvelled because of
their unbelief."
The want of an exact equiva
lent in our language to the origi
nal word translated "marvel"
may or may not account for that
word "marvel" in the foregoing
and kindred passages. Surprise,
however, consists in being taken
unawares by an unforeseen event,
and none of the passages is con
tradictory of our statement, for
nothing in any of the incidents
described was invested with such
mystery as to occasion surprise.

73

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

(3) Again: He never enter
tains any suspicions.

(4) Again: He is never found
deliberating or taking counsel
with Himself or with others and
weighing His words. We may
say of Him what can be said of
no other man: He had wisdom
without reflection.

r(5) Again: He is never hur
ried.

74

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

We have said that these five
characteristics could not be found
combined in one man; let us now
say that we cannot find any one
of them singly in any mind of
which we have any record.

Let us observe next that ex
perience is not a factor in His
mental life. He knew no more
at the end of His ministry than at
the beginning: He knew as
much at the beginning as at the
end. All men grow by experience
after contact with the world, they
strengthen and develop. He did
not. Think of Him as a philoso-
75

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

pher, and He is as profound at
the first as at the last. Think of
Him as a teacher, and His first
utterances are as powerful as
anything later. There are no
transitional periods in His mental
life in which he passes from a
lower to a higher plane of think
ing, or from a narrow to a broader
range. Even with the mighty
Paul one can detect a firmer
mental grasp of his subject and
can discern intellectual progress
by comparing his later with his
earlier Epistles. With the Gali
lean there is no such develop
ment. At some time in his
career every man, even the very
greatest, says something weak,
has chaff in his wheat, but the
Man of Galilee never made a
76

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

mistake in His whole life, never
committed an error of judgment,
never failed to adopt the right
course in an emergency, or say
the right thing. A famous English
writer has said :
"Sagacious Mahometans are
often troubled and scandalized
by the secret misgiving that,
after all, their Prophet must
have been an ignorant man. It
is clear that the case of a cold
climate had never occurred to
him; and even a hot one was
conceived by him under condi
tions too palpably limited. Many
of the Bedouin Arabs complain
of ablutions incompatible with
their half-waterless position.
Mahomet, coming from the Hed-
77

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

jas, a rich tract, and through
that benefit the fruitful mother
of noble horses, knew no more
of the arid deserts and Zaarrahs
than do I. These oversights of
its founder would have proved
fatal to Islamism had Islamism
succeeded in producing a high
civilization." Balzac, whose amazing insight
has not been equaled since
Shakespere, recognizes the tre
mendous significance of the limi
tation which we are speaking of
when he says in one of his great
est novels: "The man of the
highest genius does not display
genius at all times. // he did he
would be like to God."

78

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

Involved in what we have just
observed, and commanding our
attention, is another of His intel
lectual traits: His penetrating
insight into character.
If there be weakness here the
leadership of any movement is
fatally weak. What a rare gift it
is! Among the moderns, Lincoln
had it in a high degree, and
Napoleon had it. Cromwell,
Shakespere and Csesar also had
it. Grant did not have it, Luther
did not have it, Milton did not
have it, nor do we believe St.
Paul had it; but beyond all men
that ever lived, the Galilean pos
sessed it in its highest possible
form. Never did a general choose
his captains with such unerring
insight into character. Consider
79

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the material He chose from, and
then consider what lion-hearted,
death-defying men they became!
Are we reminded of the traitor,
Judas? Let us in turn remind
the reader that the Galilean's
death and the manner of it were
a part of His Plan and essential
to His success, and therefore,
mysterious as it is in other
respects, Judas filled a necessary
part.

But if so much can be said of
His knowledge of men, what
shall be said of that astonishing
mental power which gave such

80

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

piercing glances into the future,
such a long look ahead into the
centuries? He never mistook
the future.
He foresaw and foretold that
He would disturb the very foun
dations of human society for
ages to come. Has He not done
so? Is it not absolutely won
derful, in the light of subsequent
history, that this Galilean stead
ily foresaw the distant future so
clearly? He once told His
immediate followers that they
would be hated, persecuted, and
killed — and history so writes it
down. At another time He said,
"If I be lifted up I will draw all
men unto me," and is it not
bewildering proof of His amazing
foresight that in each generation,
81

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

for hundreds and hundreds of
years, countless millions have
gathered around the wooden
instrument on which He was
lifted up? One day a devoted
woman paid Him a very singular
tribute with an alabaster vase of
expensive ointment. In a simple,
quiet way He remarked to the
bystanders that what the woman
had just done would be told of
her as a memorial throughout
the whole world. Does it not
overwhelm one with amazement
when it is remembered that what
He said about that woman,
nearly two thousand years ago.
has proved literally true, year
after year, age after age, century
after century, through nations
that were not born and on conti-
82

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

nents that were not discovered
when he spoke?

Consider another striking fea
ture of His mind — its Compre
hensiveness. He is transcendent
and supreme to the gigantic
intellect of an American like
Jonathan Edwards, to the pro
found and philosophic mind of
a German like Schleirmacher or
Dorner, to a Frenchman like
Bossuet, Fenelon, or Guizot, to
an Italian like Dante, to an
Englishman like Butler, to a
Scotchman like Chalmers, and
no less so to the deepest and
83

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

most patient thinkers of the far
north in Norway, Sweden, and
Russia, and to those of the far
south in India.
No student of mental phe
nomena, and no close observer
of human limitations, can fail to
be profoundly impressed by the
extraordinary fact that the Man
of Galilee never did, nor did He
ever say, a needless thing. Every
sentence that ever fell from His
lips, and every single act of His,
has such immeasurable signifi
cance that it has served for
nearly two thousand years as an
inexhaustible text, and will so
serve as long as time shall last.
It would seem incredible but is
it not true that no priest or poet,
no preacher or philosopher, no
84

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

orator or essayist, in any age or
in any land has yet sounded all
the depths of His most casual
saying? Avoiding, we trust,
with due solemnity the language
of mere eulogy, and simply
directing calm attention to the
fathomless depths and the
boundless range and power of
the Galilean's intellectual life,
who, — is not the question inevi
table — who, except God, could
hold long and frequent discourse
with men and yet never say a
needless thing? We can find not
only something, but we can find
much that is superfluous in every
other teacher that the world has
known, but what recorded sen
tence did Jesus Christ utter that
can be dispensed with ?
85

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

He touches no subject, essen
tial to His purpose, that He does
not with a single stroke com
pletely exhaust. Let one out of
a hundred examples of His com
prehensiveness be cited: In a
prayer of only sixty-five words,
or say four printed lines in an
ordinary book, or six lines in a
daily newspaper, He gives the
essence of every utterance pos
sible to a man in the act of prayer.
Ask for what we will, when we
will, where we will, the germ of
it is all there! Is not this an
unparalleled thing, viewed sim
ply as a comprehensive intellec
tual performance — to gather up,
out of the enormous mass of
liturgy and ritual which lay all
around Him, and condense into

86

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

a few short lines the religious
aspirations of the whole human
race for all time? The medita
tions of Marcus Aurelius, the
teachings of Aristotle, the trag
edies of j£schylus, and the
dialogues of Plato touch the
highest points ever reached by
the intellects of the ancient
world, but in comprehensiveness
and power how far below the
Galilean all of them are! This is
not merely the opinion of the
author of these pages, but it
is the judgment of the intellec
tual giants of our race. Bacon,
Kepler, Newton, and Locke have
bowed their lofty minds in recog
nition of His high superiority.
Emmanuel Kant confesses His
supremacy. Hegel and Leibnitz,
87

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

and a whole multitude of the pro-
foundest thinkers acknowledge
His pre-eminence. The Calvinist,
the Arminian, the Roman Cath
olic, and the Swedenborgian find
in His utterances material for
whole libraries. To the Unitarian
He is the very greatest of men;
to the German rationalist He
is always a perpetual mystery;
to the penetrating intellect of
Napoleon He is above and beyond
the human race; to one great
thinker He is a dreamy mystic;
to another, a practical philan
thropist; to one philosophic his
torian He is the key to all history,
and to one of the guiding spirits
of the French revolution He was
the Child of Humanity,

88

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

There remains one other and
unique attribute of His intellec
tual life, the most marked, the
most commanding. We refer to
His absolute originality.
Much has been heard of His
having borrowed from Buddha
and Zoroaster, from the Rabbin
ical writings and the Alexandrian
philosophers. One may see
pages of parallel columns and
one may read volumes of argu
ment proving that the doctrine
of the Atonement, the Necessity
of Prayer, the idea of the Incar
nation, the Forgiveness of Sin,
and the Final Judgment, are not
original with the Galilean. We
do not doubt, no one can doubt
that other teachers than He pos
sessed and taught certain great
89

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

and universal truths. Neverthe
less this modern challenge must
be accepted, for if the Man of
Galilee is not a Messenger with
new tidings, a weak spot has
been found in His intellectual
armor. Mark Hopkins, the renowned
president of Williams College,
enumerated eight entirely orig
inal features in the Galilean's life
and teachings. That charming
writer of Scotch stories, Ian
Maclaren, says in "The Mind of
the Master": "Christians with
a sense of fitness are not am
bitious to claim originality for
their master. Why should we
bring Him into comparison with
Socrates?" Ian Maclaren, how
ever, forgets that it is not "we"
90

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

but unfriendly critics who bring
Him into such comparisons. A
less romantic or sentimental view
of the grave question involved
would doubtless have led this
pleasing novelist to recognize
the necessity for the argument
presented by the learned and
pious Hopkins. Those eight
original features are the follow
ing: He claimed to be a perfect
teacher. He claimed to set a perfect
example. He claimed to be a sinless
Being. 91

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

He claimed that all should love
and obey Him.
He claimed to work such mir
acles as no other ever did.

He claimed that prophecy was
fulfilled in Him.

He claimed that He would rise
from the dead.

He claimed that He would Him
self be the final judge of the
world.

The writer of this Enquiry
comes to this discussion from a
92

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

patient examination of Buddhism
and other Oriental religions, and
from a careful study of the latest
utterances of Rationalism, and he
will venture to add to this list
seven other original features
which may be found in the teach
ings of the Galilean :
1. He was original in claiming
to know all about God, and all
about another world.
2. He was, as Dr. Storrs has
said, entirely original in giving to
men a perfectly new conception
of God.
3. He was original in proposing
to set the world right, not merely
93

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

by His life and precepts, but
largely by His death.

4. He was original in claiming
to give to men an invisible and
potent help in amending their
lives.

5. He was original in His idea
of a divine Society on earth — a
kingdom of God here.

6. He was original in claiming
and exercising the divine prerog
ative to forgive sin.

7. He was distinctly original in
claiming for Himself the supreme
94

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

power to legislate — in saying,
"A new commandment I give
unto you."

Let the bold statement now be
made that He is the only original
thinker of whom the world has
any record.
It is important that a clear com
prehension be had of the full
significance of the statement that
He is entirely original. In the
very nature of things every human
mind is modified by its environ
ment. All men are profoundly
and inevitably affected by family
ties and hereditary influences.
The Galilean is, if you please,
Oriental by race, Jewish by
environment, Roman in His
95

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

authoritative manner, and Grecian
in the breadth of His sympathy,
but intellectually He is absolutely
independent. Moses is Egyptian
and Jewish; Socrates is an ideal
Greek; Job and Mahomet are
Arabs; Goethe is German and
only German; Racine and Mon
taigne are Frenchmen and nothing
else; none of them is universal,
each of them is limited. Take the
two greatest poets the world has
known, Homer and Shakespere;
the two greatest philosophers,
Plato and Kant; then take the
greatest novelist; then add to the
list the greatest orator, the great
est painter, and the greatest musi
cian, and it will be found that the
intellect of each reflects what is
current in the thought of the age
96

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

in which he lives and in the
thought of the preceding ages.
"Virgil who writes the
'yEneid,' Lucan who writes the
'Pharsalia,' Tasso who writes the
'Jerusalem,' Ariosto with his
'Roland,' Milton with 'Paradise
Lost,' Camoens with the 'Lusiad,'
Klopstock with the 'Messiah,'
Voltaire with the 'Henriade,' all
gravitate about Homer, and send
ing back to their own moons his
light reflected at different angles,
move at unequal distances within
his boundless orbit. * * * What
is Regnier? What D'Aubigne?
What Corneille? They are all
scintillations from Juvenal."
Shakspere. Victor Hugo.

"Ye have heard it said, but I
say." There is the keynote to
97

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the intellectual life of the Great
Galilean. "I say." What other teacher
ever rested his own authority on
his own assertions ?
"These sayings of mine."
There is not only the foundation
on which He places the edifice
which He rears, but there also is
the royal seal of His exclusive
ness, His own setting apart of
Himself as the sole and original
source of the truths which He
proclaims. In a word, He reflects
in His fundamental teachings
and distinctive claims nothing
of His own age, nor anything
of any age that had gone before.

98

MENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS

Summing up then His intel
lectual qualities and finding them
all crowned with the high attri
bute of absolute originality, an
originality that is profoundly
creative, where — may we not
say it now — where can we find
in the universe a Being with
whom to compare Him but the
Great Creator himself?

99

Ill
The Note of Universality

Ill
The Note of Universality
LET us pause here and con
template a singular and sig
nificant fact.
This marvelous Galilean, not
withstanding His pre-eminent
moral and intellectual traits, is
not kept by His pre-eminence
aloof or apart from any single
stratum of humanity or any
human interest. He touches all
human life at every point, in
every sphere of thought, and on
every plane of action. 103

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

In Him there is something as
deep as the lowest human needs
can reach, as high as our most
aspiring thoughts can tower, and
as enduring as the flight of time.
Viewed in even the dryest
light of the coldest and most
scientific method, this world-wide
contact is mysterious, and save
on one hypothesis it is unac
countable. No statesman, no philosopher,
no religious leader, no one in all
the annals of history except this
Man of Galilee touches life at all
points, touches it in morality, in
art, in literature, in philosophy,
in politics, in commerce, and in
religion. There is a wonderful
note of universality in Him.
Let us stand in imagination for
104

THE NOTE
OF UNIVERSALITY

a moment above the broad plain
of human history. Before us
pass the shifting phases of human
existence. As in a panoramic
vision we see life, life with all its
sadness and all its joy, with all
its hopes and fears, its struggles
and its aspirations, its successes
and its failures.
Behold! at the very threshold
of life stands the Man of Galilee,
softly saying of all childhood
"Suffer them to come unto me."
At weddings, at feasts, and at
funerals He is a welcome guest.
Out in the swifter currents of
human activities strong men lean
on Him, weak ones cling to Him.
Men of wealth, power, and posi
tion find Him congenial; the
prisoner, the poverty - stricken,
105

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

and the heavy laden lay their
burdens at His feet. To the
philosopher He is a guide; for the
way-faring man He is a support.
To the Magdalens of the world
He is the only brother they have
who gently whispers to them,
"Go and sin no more," and to
the consecrated ones among the
daughters of men He is the lode
star of their highest affections.
To the painter seeking immor
tality for his canvas He gives a
theme, and for the sons of toil
His own history throws an ever
lasting halo around the workshop.
Poetry, art, and literature rise to
their highest achievements in His
name, in His name music gives
to the very utmost its uplifting
power, and in that same wonder-
106

THE NOTE
OF UNIVERSALITY

ful name architecture rears its
loftiest and noblest structures.
We cannot escape Him.
He meets us at every turn.
We may deny Him, and failing
to recognize His pre-eminence
we may classify Him with the
founders of other religions, but
His adaptability to life in all its
movements, in all lands, among
all races, and in all ages, renders
our denial futile. Millions of
men have assailed Him, millions
are indifferent to Him, still He
will not down. Shut the door in
His face, yet He stands there and
gently knocks. No power on
earth can set Him aside as a fac
tor in life. He cannot be elimi
nated. The segis of His name
has been used to shield countless
107

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

crimes, countless hypocrisies,
countless ambitions, still He does
not fall. Cruel wars have pros
pered in His name, the horrors of
religious persecution, the intoler
ance of sectarianism, the absurdi
ties of the creed builders, still He
will not down. Ecclesiasticism
grows weaker, He grows stronger.
Dogmas pass away, He abides.
Churches grow corrupt, but the
effulgence of His glory is not
dimmed. At this very day, here
in the twentieth century since
His birth, more men and women
gather about Him to touch the
hem of His garment than in any
age since He walked the shores
of Galilee, more men and women
love Him, love Him with an
absorbing and passionate devo-
108

THE NOTE
OF UNIVERSALITY

tion, and in the single hour that
has passed since the reader began
these pages, a host of souls all
over the world have faced death
with a gentle smile and gone
cheerfully into the Unknown,
soothed by His surpassing love,
and sustained in the sublime
transition by His strange power.

What if all this should remotely
signify that there may be found
in Him another attribute of the
Eternal One — the attribute of
Omnipresence?

109

IV
A Law of Gravitation

IV
A Law of Gravitation
LET the attention of the reader
now be directed to a con
stantly recurring fact in the affairs
of life: Whatever form of gov
ernment men adopt they are in
reality always governed by
Kings. Except as to their political
methods men are not at heart,
never have been, and never will
be democrats.
A representative democracy, in
its last analysis, is non-heredi
tary monarchy by consent.
113

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

We . want, we always have
wanted, and we always will want
a king. Human nature inclines
to absolute monarchy. Many of
our outward forms may be demo
cratic, but in the final issue, in
every nation, in every state, in
every community, it is the will
and character of the ablest and
best man, that is to say, the
kingliest man, that rule. Human
nature is so constituted. It is
spirit acting on spirit.
The fundamental and everlast
ing truth then in human affairs is
this: There is a law of gravita
tion in the moral, intellectual,
and spiritual world which irresis
tibly draws us to the kingly man.
In the domain of force Napoleon
and Csesar were genuine kings;
114

A LAW
OF GRAVITATION

in the world of art Raphael and
Phidias were kings; in the world
of mental philosophy Plato was
king; in the world of politics and
statecraft Disraeli, Gladstone, and
Lincoln were kings. In the all-
comprehending world of the
affections, emotions, reverence,
duty, mystery, and death, there
must also be a king.
For the moment our pride, a
just sense of one's own impor
tance, a mistaken sense of in
dependence, a spirit of fierce
democracy revolt against all this,
but we must inevitably yield.
Are we told that the day of kings
is over? Not with the genuine
king, but with the average king.
Men are more and kings are less,
it is true, but that is only another
115

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

way of saying kings are no longer
kingly. Apropos of the matter of king
ship let us say further that a real
king comes as often from the
humble as from the high walks
of life.
Let us add another fact: A
king may found a kingdom by
quiet and peaceful methods as
easily as by force.
We would also state one more
fact: A kingdom may be co
extensive with humanity, and of
dominating power, and yet in
many of its manifestations be an
invisible kingdom, as, for exam
ple, many departments in the
kingdom of science.

116

V
A Portrait

V
A Portrait
SOME nineteen hundred years
ago Galilee was one of the
most densely populated regions
on the earth.
It was a subdivision of Judea,
about thirty miles wide and sixty
miles long.
Josephus says, though doubt
less with some patriotic exag
geration, that there were over
two hundred towns and cities
there, the smallest having over
fifteen thousand inhabitants.
Galilee was a beautiful country,
fair even to loveliness. The vine,
119

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the olive and the fig grew there,
and also the oak, walnut, and
cedar, the palm, the cypress,
and the sycamore, the myrtle,
the pomegranate, and many
exquisite varieties of the olean
der, together with an infinite
number of flowers in almost in
finite profusion.
The Sea of Galilee was a bright,
busy, populous lake.
The magnificent city of Tiberias
lay along the shore.
Close to the water edge were
miles of palaces and fashionable
residences surrounded by palm
groves and rich gardens gay with
tropical luxuriance.
Temple after temple with vast
colonnades of graceful columns
lined the broad thoroughfares.120

A
PORTRAIT

The streets were thronged with
rich merchants, pagan priests,
Jewish rabbis, Roman soldiers,
and multitudes of oriental trades
people and peasants.
The government was Roman.
The climate was tropical. The
native Galileans were active, in
dustrious, and poor.
There is a conspicuous eleva
tion west of the lake. It is a hill
with two high peaks. On that
hillside was delivered the most
famous and the most widely circu
lated speech ever heard among
men. That speech has been
called The Sermon on the Mount.
The Author of the speech has
been called a Reformer.
He was not a reformer.
He was a Revolutionist. 121

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

One of the chief notes of His
message from first to last was
that all things must become new,
the old garment will not bear
mending, new wine must have
new vessels.

Let us draw near and look for
a moment at the Wonderful
Speaker. One of the most singular things
about Him is the fact that the
reader will not accept as ade
quate any verbal description of
Him, and can give none himself.
Nor does ever the magic pencil
of the most gifted artist com
pletely satisfy us when he depicts
the face and form of the Galilean.
122

A
PORTRAIT

There may be gleaned, however,
from tradition, and deduced from
certain passages in His biography
a picture which probably is true,
though not all the truth : —
He is tall in stature, perfectly
formed, and there is no spot or
blemish on Him.
It cannot be doubted that phys
ically He is the fairest among
thousands. His brow is smooth.
His complexion is very clear.
His eyes are blue with the dark
blue of the sky.
His long hair and His beard are
brown. His every feature is perfect.
In consequence of His physical
perfection all His motions are
graceful. 123

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

His bearing is modest and
dignified, and His voice is soft
and low.
He wears the costume of His
people and His time: a tunic
and an outer robe, sandals on
His feet, and a square of linen
on His head, doubled so that a
corner falls on each shoulder
and on the back.
We do not see in His face, as
the mediaeval painters saw, the
rapture of a mystic nor the
sternness of a fanatic, nor do we
find in His eye the burning light
of an enthusiast. It seems to
us that we see inexhaustible
patience, immovable firmness,
wonderful majesty, illimitable
sagacity, and fathomless, bound
less love. 124

A
PORTRAIT

We have now seen the coun
try and glanced at a portrait of
the Man of Galilee.
What is He doing among
men? What part is He taking in the
affairs of the world?
If He has a Plan of any kind
that He is working out, what
is it? The story of His birth, His
childhood, His deeds and say
ings, and His death, are as
familiar to us all as our daily
food. Therefore we shall not
quote a line of it for any narra
tive purpose. We wish the
reader to go further with us
along this new line of approach
and see what we can make of
this strange Personage. Let us
125

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

continue our analysis of His
mental life and His intellectual
processes, and let us follow
wherever the truth shall lead us.

126

VI
A Kingdom

VI
A Kingdom
HE came, He preached, He
loved, He healed, He called
followers about Him, He suffered,
and He died.
It is a simple but wonderful
story in all its details, and it has
been told from millions of pulpits
and in millions of books, but
here at the beginning of a new
century we are quietly looking
the whole matter over again as
if that matter itself were entirely
new, in a cold and rationalistic
mood. Therefore we ask > —
129

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

What does it all signify?
What is it all about?
What does He come for?
What is His motive?
What is the matter with the
world that He should want to
set it right?
And if there be anything
wrong, what is His Plan?

The answer is very simple
despite some nineteen hundred
years of controversial theology:
He came to establish a kingdom
with himself as King.
No one can read His life and
fail to note how often, indeed
oftener than any other phrase,
130

A
KINGDOM

there fall from His lips the
words, "The Kingdom," "The
Kingdom," everywhere and al
ways it is "The Kingdom is at
hand." The Kingdom ! A strange
phrase not yet fully compre
hended by Christendom itself.
Whose Kingdom?
What Kingdom?
His own.
He speaks of it interchange
ably as "God's Kingdom," "The
Kingdom of Heaven," and "My
Kingdom." In His interchangeable use of
those phrases lies an assertion
of His co-equality with God.
Perhaps theology, the queen
indeed of all the sciences, has
not yet sufficiently considered
131

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

that fact and the full strength of
the argument deducible from it.

But why a kingdom?
What need for it?
Again the answer seems very
simple: There is a dislocation
or disarrangement in human
affairs, for despite their learning
and their philosophy, their art
and their wealth, men hate one
another, men are selfish, men
are cruel and dishonest, they
have an imperfect conception of
the Ruler of the Universe, and
they know that they must all
die and darkness lies before
them. The mind of the world is
132

A
KINGDOM

struggling with doubt, the heart
of humanity has great sorrows,
and men pass easily into despair.
This condition of things is
clearly abnormal. Even under
the widest and most strenuous
application of the doctrine of
Evolution, and pressing it, as
Herbert Spencer does, into the
field of mental and moral devel
opment, one must nevertheless
say that here is an exception,
here is a condition of things that
implies retrogression. It is as
if some unseen and malign
power had interfered to check
the forward and upward move
ment. It is a condition of things
that points unmistakably to a
moral and spiritual catastrophe
at some antecedent period in
133

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the history of humanity. We
say again it is an abnormal
condition, and it is abnormal
for the simple reason that it
springs from the violation of
law. That violation has received a
specific name, a word of three
letters. We do not know the
history of this word nor do we
comprehend its full significance,
but it is a word that stands for
a great fact in human history.
It is a singular word, though a
familiar one. It is a peculiar
word, though a common one.
It is so common that it loses
force; so often used that it loses
meaning; so often misused and
misapplied that it is frequently
misunderstood. We wish there-
134

A
KINGDOM

fore that we could find a
synonym that we might use it
here. As we cannot, we must
simply say that it is the
much-abused, oft-perverted, old-
fashioned word, Sin, and with
out stopping to consider any of
its multitudinous bearings in
various theological systems, we
repeat that it stands for a fact, —
the Violation of Law. One has
only to reflect a moment to see
that the wilful violation of law
is the source of countless human
ills.

So the Man of Galilee comes
and says : — 135

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

/ am here to found a kingdomi
My motive is love for the human
race. I propose to found an imperish
able Society.
I have come to build up a world
wide Community.
It shall be called a Kingdom
and I will be its King. I propose
to be absolute and without a rival;
I propose to deal directly with
each member of that Society; I will
legislate for that Kingdom, and I
demand homage, allegiance, obedi
ence, love, and complete surrender
to my will.
And now we hear a startling
announcement. He has no
prophet to help him. John is in
prison and soon dies. All the
prophets are gone. He has no
136

A
KINGDOM

books, He has no newspapers,
He has no prestige, no money,
no army, no friends. So the
Galilean says: —
/ will found this Kingdom
alone. I will do it by the force of my
own will; I will do it by agencies
and influences which I myself will
establish and put in motion; the
laws which I make no authority
on earth or in heaven shall repeal
or modify, and all the powers of
the world and the gates of hell
cannot prevail against my work.

137

VII
An Echo

VII
An Echo
WE shall ask the reader to
observe here a remark
able and purely intellectual
feature of this plan: It was
complete and perfect at the
start. After long and careful study of
all that Strauss, Bauer, Schenkel,
Renan, and others of their
schools have said to the con
trary, we find nothing to change
our conviction that the Galilean
came with a complete and per
fect Plan, and that he abated
141

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

nothing, conceded nothing,
changed nothing, but carried
that Plan straight on with no
deviation.

Observe again: His plan,
regarded merely as a mental
conception, is one of immeasur
able breadth and reach. It is as
wide as the universe, it is as
high as the throne of the
Infinite. That Plan, as it presents itself
to His own mind, ante-dates
the Abrahamic age. It even lay
in the bosom of the Eternal long
before the dawn of human his
tory. It moves mysteriously
142

AN
ECHO

behind the veil of prophecy
through four thousand years,
and it looks forward to a time
when the earth shall melt and
the heavens be rolled up as a
scroll. He points majestically
to all the ages of the past and
says, "They lead up to Me,"
and then pointing to the remote,
unfathomed and infinite future
He says, "It is Mine." He
speaks of every creature, He
speaks of all nations, He speaks,
of east, west, north, and south,
unto the end of the world, for
ever. All the mighty schemes of
conquest and all the ambitious
dreams that ever entered into the
mind or heart of the world's great
est conqueror or statesman, grow
dim and fade into utter insignifi-
143

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

cance beside the cosmic outlines
and the gigantic proportions of
this wonderful, this all-embracing,
this amazing Plan,

Observe once more: He
announces this stupendous Plan
— a Plan so vast, so far-reaching
in its purpose, so immense in its
scope that the imagination reels
in the attempt to grasp it; a
Plan involving the whole human
race for all time — He announces
this astonishing Plan, we say,
with perfect calmness, just as
easily, quietly, and simply as
you would say, "The weather
will be fair to-morrow." In his
144

tone, here and elsewhere, one
can catch an echo of the
primeval fiat, "Let there be light,"
even as in His very words, "Keep
my commandments," there is a
distinct echo of Mount Sinai.

Observe also, for it has deep
significance: He makes His an
nouncement without a shadow
of doubt that He will succeed,
and that when He is gone His
wonderful Plan will move right
on to its consummation.

AN
ECHO

145

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

If we were to pause now and
review His advent from this
point, we could only say: Here is
greater audacity than one would
expect in an archangel. If this
were all, it would not be difficult
to dispose of Him by saying
that He is a religious fanatic or
a harmless visionary, a mere day
dreamer; but a tremendous fact
stands in our way: He suc
ceeded! He succeeded, not
temporarily, nor partially, nor
among an ignorant people, nor
with one people only, but among
the best intellects in all the
world, and through long ages,
and over wide areas. The keen
est investigators and the deepest
students of human nature long
since agreed that He had, at the
146

AN
ECHO

lowest estimate, a clear, well-
balanced and undisturbed mind.
If then He is not a dreamer what
is He? And what right has He
to interfere with your and my
desires and purposes?

147

VIII
A Regal Air

VIII
A Regal Air
HE was born in obscurity.
He was reared in poverty.
He was a mechanic.
He was a working man. He
was a worker in wood.
The tradition that He made
wooden ploughs and ox-yokes
is probably true.
Of His later childhood and
early manhood nothing is known
with certainty until He is thirty,
except a glimpse of Him for a
single day in the temple at
Jerusalem. So humble was the
151

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

place of His reputed origin that
Nazareth was a by-word.
It is probable that the only
three books He ever read were
the old Bible, man and nature.
Educated people said of Him
"He never learned," or as we
would say, "He never went to
school." His native tongue was the
Aramaic. He read Hebrew, and
the country being full of Greek
speaking inhabitants He prob
ably spoke Greek. We believe
that He also knew Latin, the
language used throughout the
Roman Empire in all official
proceedings. When He was thirty years old
a great religious excitement sud
denly sprang up in a distant part
152

A REGAL AIR

of Judea and spread throughout
the country. The last of the
Jewish prophets was proclaim
ing on the banks of a famous
river that a new and great Move
ment was at hand. From every
quarter the people went in
crowds to hear Him. Many
went from Nazareth, and among
them was the Man of Galilee.
When the eye of the prophet
fell on Him he declined at first
to administer the baptismal rite,
but yielded, and the Man of
Galilee went away, the prophet
proclaiming that He was the
person by whom the new and
great Movement would be led.
A few weeks later the Galilean
appeared on the shore of that
busy and populous lake we have
153

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

described and said one day to
two fishermen, kindly, no doubt,
but certainly in an imperial way:
Follow me. They followed and
the number grew. Then with
His followers He went from town
to town teaching and healing,
excited the opposition of the rul
ing classes, was put to a cruel
death, and the only estate of any
value that He left was one seam
less garment.

The writer will ask the reader
here to put aside two mistaken
ideas which are widely enter
tained.

A REGAL AIR

First, He was not the meek
and lowly appearing man that
many have come to believe.
Those attributes were among
His spiritual traits, but we do
not associate a frail and bent
form, a thin pale face, pleading
eyes, tear-stained cheeks, and a
poverty-stricken appearance with
the outward seeming of the
great Galilean. Recall the por
trait we have given and remem
ber that He was a majestic,
kindly, noble-looking man.
Then again, do not think of
Him as an unsophisticated peasant
unfamiliar with the ways of the
world. Think of Him rather as
always an evenly poised, courte
ous and self-possessed man.
He was far from being a mere
155

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

provincial; He was in truth
cosmopolitan. He came, as De
Quincey says, into contact with
all classes of men: "Scribes and
doctors, Pharisees and Sad-
ducees, Herodians and the fol
lowers of the Baptist; Roman
officers insolent with authority;
tax gatherers, the pariahs of the
land; Galileans the most under
valued of the Jews; Samaritans
hostile to the very name of
Jew; rich men clothed in purple
and poor men fishing for their
daily bread; the happy and
those that sat in darkness; wed
ding parties and funeral parties;
solitudes amongst hills and sea
shores and multitudes that could
not be counted; mighty cities
and hamlets the most obscure;
156

A REGAL AIR

golden sanhedrins and the glori
ous temple where He spoke to
myriads of worshipers, and
solitary corners where He stood
in conference with a single con
trite heart." Study Him from
the point of view thus indicated,
and you will make the discovery
that this Galilean Peasant comes
with a regal air, and mingles
with all these diverse elements
of society with perfect ease,
always without embarrassment,
and always with the faultless
demeanor of a prince of most
royal blood.

Coming now more closely to
the question which has been

157

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

proposed, — if He is not a
dreamer or a visionary what is
He? — let us venture upon a
definition, or to speak more ac
curately, a description of genius.
Genius is that quality or degree
of mental power or insight
which enables one to see all that
there is to be seen in a given
field. One so endowed is great.
But rising in the scale is a higher
order of genius, and we define
it as that quality or degree of
mental power or insight which
enables one to see at a glance
all that there is to be seen in a
given field. One so endowed is
greater still. But add to the
possessor of this rare intellectual
endowment such moral qualities
as will enable him to impart
158

A REGAL AIR

enthusiasm, — to baptize his fol
lowers, not with water but with
fire, — and we have the highest
possible manifestation of genius.

With this definition let us
proceed with our analysis of the
mental and moral traits of the
Galilean. We wish, if possible,
to reach His intellectual life,
just as we would Plato's or
Shakespere's, and we wish to
see, from a new point of view,
where He belongs in the
catalogue of the human race, or
whether He belongs in that
catalogue at all. 159

IX
Further Analysis

IX
Further Analysis
TO understand the Intel
lectual processes of any
man we must always understand
his motives; therefore let us
now turn to those traits of the
Galilean which are in fact mental
qualities but which, in contradis
tinction to purely intellectual, we
call moral traits.
Approaching Him on that side
the first thing that strikes us is
His astonishing egotism.
His self-assertion is simply
163

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

unparalleled. In all the annals of
biography there is nothing that
approximates it.
His claims are astounding. On
all occasions He calmly appro
priates to Himself all beautiful
similes, all lovely comparisons.
He applies to Himself, as com
placently as if He were the
Almighty Ruler of the Universe,
symbols of omnipotent power
and transcendent wisdom. He
does all this — strange to say — as
unaffectedly as the average man
claims his own, and — stranger
still — it begets in you no
suspicion of immodesty on His
part, or undue pretension.
Somewhere in the background is
an undefined and indescribable
something that makes it all seem
164

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

pertinent and legitimate. Listen
to Him for a moment :
/ am the Light.
I am the Way.
I am the Truth.
I am the Vine.
I am the Life.
Ask in my name.
I will rise from the dead.
Eat my body, drink my blood.
Keep my commandments.
I am the resurrection.
I am from above.
I am the light of the world.
I came down from heaven.
Before Abraham was I am.
All power is given unto me.
I am greater than the temple.
I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
A greater than Solomon is
here. 165

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father.
Come unto Me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest.
Ye call Me Master and Lord;
and ye say well, for so I am.
Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but My words shall not
pass away.

Taken by themselves, and
viewed as a mere psychological
problem, these are the ravings
of wild insanity. From that
conclusion we find no possible
escape, unless the man be indeed

166

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

a Visitor from the other world
veiled in human form.

Consider, however, in con
nection with this boundless
self-assertion His unruffled
calmness, and perfect self-
possession. He never had a
moment of mental excitement
in His whole life. The highest
medical experts tell us that
however slightly unbalanced a
brain may be, the slightest is
enough to send it, sooner or
later, into undue excitement.
But observe His bearing in
scenes of great turbulence, and
167

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

note that in the midst of a mer
ciless rabble in Jerusalem, in
the midst of His terror-stricken
disciples in a storm on the lake,
amid the clamor and tumult of
thousands stirred to the wildest
commotion by His work of
healing the sick and restoring
the deaf and dumb and blind,
before the judgment seat of
Pilate with the roars of a vindic
tive mob ringing in His ears,
amid a hundred scenes that
would stir the blood and shake
the nerves of the bravest man,
the Great Galilean moves
serenely and undisturbed, moves
with the imperturbable calmness
of an all-powerful autocrat,
moves with a coolness and a
kingly poise never continuously
168

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

seen under like circumstances in
any hero that ever lived.

Now observe that with His
wonderful self-assertion and
astonishing calmness there goes
all the time a most remarkable
spirit of self-sacrifice. He is the
only egotist in history who is
always unselfish. Day and night
throughout His whole career He
gives His time and His strength
to others. He is absolutely free
from self-indulgence in any form
whatever.

169

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We next find in Him a group
of three remarkable traits.
He is never jealous of any one ;
He is never impatient;
He is a man of the most
exquisite refinement.
We assert, without a doubt of
its truth, that no man ever
appeared before or since, making
lofty claims and inaugurating a
great movement, and yet never
betraying the slightest impatience
with men or events, and finding
in his path no one of whom he can
be jealous, and withal is a man
of the most sensitive and delicate
refinement. If we would form
an adequate conception of His
refinement let us make a special
study of His attitude towards
women. Such delicacy! Such

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

tenderness! He is the only
perfectly pure man in fiction or
in history. It is sometimes said
with a sneer that it is largely
our women and children who
frequent the houses set apart in
this man's name. What a
compliment to our womankind!
What a tribute to her intuitive
perceptions! What a sheet-
anchor for our civilization that
fact is !

Let us pause again for a
moment to contemplate the
great personal dignity of the
Galilean, and note, by contrast,

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A NEW ENQUIRY

an ineradicable weakness in all
famous men.
There are hours in the life of
every great man when he lets
himself down from his usual
height, and the world is always
anxious to see great men at such
times. We read with interest
such episodes in the life of
Lincoln and Luther, and we find
that even Alexander, Socrates,
Cicero, and Mahomet, became
too familiar with their associates.
But the Man of Galilee from
first to last, from the age of
twelve to the closing days of
His life, is always at His highest
level. There is nothing com
monplace in Jesus Christ at any
time, nor in anything He ever
said. It is well to think how
172

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

gentle and tender He was, but
has the reader ever gleaned from
His story the fact that there was
always a mysterious power in
His mere presence, a power that
could overawe and subdue
strong men ?
And it was not artificial. If
we watch narrowly we can
detect in every public personage
something theatrical in his
mental or physical make-up.
The greatest man fails here. He
strives, consciously or uncon
sciously, to produce effects. He
may do it unskillfully, or he may
do it with consummate art, but
he does it. Close inspection
will detect it.
He poses.
He has attitudes. 173

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

He does not mean it but He
cannot help it. He is simply
striving to rise above limitations
of which he is conscious. In
striving his effort is visible, and
so he misses the grand simplicity
of God. Only one being in
human form ever achieved it.
We cannot name a man in his
tory entirely free from the defect
we have indicated, save only
the Galilean.
What strange and irresistible
power in that eye of His, that
voice, that face! John the
Baptist in his rude raiment and
with his fiery energy probably
feared no living man, yet he was
abashed in the presence of this
man. The money-changers in
the temple were not forced but
174

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

awed into submission. The
Roman soldiers when their eyes
fell on Him in Gethsemane
suddenly recoiled from Him.
"He simply looked at Peter and
Peter's heart was broken."

Consider now the fact that He
bore towards mankind a singular
affection, a phenomenal affec
tion, an affection that was
unfathomable and boundless.
All the work put on the
revised edition of a very famous
book a few years since, by the
scholarship of two continents,
was well bestowed if it had
175

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

done nothing but redeem that
single sentence where it said
"The greatest of these is
charity," but now says, and
rightly says, "The greatest of
these is love." Men and women
do not want charity, they want
love. It is easy to give money,
and easy to give largely if you
are rich, but the thing the
millions want, and always have
wanted, is love. You may give
a man money or bread and he to
whom you give can find reasons
to hate you still, but no man
can hate you if from a heart of
love you give him your sym
pathy. As for reforming a man,
try every sentiment — fear, ambi
tion, avarice, despair — all fail.
Love alone can give a man clean

17fi

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

hands with a pure heart. Thus
far we have avoided the words
"Supernatural" and "Divine,"
but may we not say now that
the Galilean's love was simply
superhuman? Man as he is
cannot love his enemy: He did.
Man as he is cannot even love
the average man: He did. You
may educate a fellow-being who
is not of your own household,
you may clothe him, shelter
him, and divide a loaf with him,
but love him? — it is a hard thing
to do! If the story of the
Galilean's life had all been
written down what a story we
should have of love! What a
volume lies concealed in those
words, "He went about doing
good"! How He loved children!
177

THE MAN OF GALILEE
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How He loved the poor! How
He loved His companions! And
how He even loved bad men,
went to them, mingled with
them, and won them! He alone
of all the great leaders of the
world recognizes the full dignity
and the priceless worth of
human nature, of man as man,
loves all men, lepers and beg
gars, Samaritans and publicans,
dishonest men and sinful women,
the rich and the poor, all are
great in His eyes, to His heart
all are precious.
We have asked what right had
the Man of Galilee to interfere in
our affairs? Here is one of His
title-deeds — He loved. He saw
our race groping in the darkness
of pagan philosophy, and loving
178

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

us He came and offered Light.
He saw us face to face with
Doubt and Death, and loving us
He offered Hope and Life. He
loved us — that's all — simply
loved us — and such love has had
from the beginning of the world
the absolute and indefeasible
right to love in return.

There remains another of His
moral qualities, one in which He
stands without a rival. It has
been charged against Him that
He is effeminate.
There is indeed a strange and
even mysterious vein of feminine
179

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

softness running all through His
character, and many a brave,
stalwart, earnest man by reason
of it has misconceived Him.
Therefore in summing up His
moral traits we emphasize the
fact that His audacity, His
egotism, His absence of jealousy,
His exquisite refinement, His
personal dignity, His overawing
presence and His boundless love,
all go hand in hand with the
highest form of genuine man
hood. He was a courageous
man, a manly man, in truth the
Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Remember how young He was
and then remember that He
resolves to stand alone, to cut
Himself off from home, family,
friends, and even from His
180

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

country and His race. See Him
at the age of thirty fearlessly
confront the hatred of the rulers
of His race. Think of Him assail
ing single-handed the powerful
and relentless ecclesiasticism of
His day. At the mention of
Herod's name, the tyrant who
had just murdered John the
Baptist, this young Galilean sends
him a message with the prelude,
"Go tell that fox."
He never resorts to finesse, as
did Paul on the temple stairs.
He never vacillates, as did
Peter. He never made a concession in
His whole life.
He accommodated his Ian-
guage and Himself to nothing but
man's ignorance. 181

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Observe the cool, self-reliant
manner in which, among the
Jews themselves, He sets aside
parts of the Mosaic law. What
astounding boldness lay in His
saying among a people who had
been taught for over a hundred
generations to revere the awful
name of Jehovah, — "Ye believe
in God, believe also in Me"!
Courageous manhood ! The
whole world is against Him, but
He never shows a shadow of
timidity. Hear Him in the great
temple, that magnificent and
glorious structure overlooking
all Jerusalem. His enemies were
seeking to entrap Him there in
the matter of the tribute money,
and then to perplex Him with a
piece of casuistry, and then to
182

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

entangle Him in another idle dis
pute. Calmly, quietly, patiently
He confused and abashed them
all. It was, as Farrar says, "the
only attempt ever made so to
trifle with him." Then came
the lightning flash of His terrible
indignation, and in the audience
of all the people He uttered
that unparalleled denunciation —
unparalleled when falling on
Jewish ears — unparalleled even
among all the frightful curses of
Greek tragedy and among all the
imprecations that have come
from Shakespere's pen:
Woe unto you Scribes and
Pharisees because ye shut the
kingdom. Woe unto you ye hypocrites.
183

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Woe unto you because ye
make of a proselyte two-fold
more a son of hell than your
selves. Woe unto ye, full of extortion
and excess.
Woe unto ye, full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness.
Woe unto ye, sons of them that
slew the prophets, ye of -spring of
vipers. Then with that touching ten
derness, which in high natures
always follows righteous anger,
He utters His solemn warning,
utters it we doubt not with
tears :
Ol Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
which killeth the prophets and
184

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

stoneth them that are sent unto
thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and
ye would not!
Follow the Man of Galilee in
all His journeyings; study His
bearing in every emergency;
remember that He predicted His
death and all the horror of it;
see Him go slowly, solemnly,
but unfalteringly and without a
shadow of hesitation, into the
Jewish capital to meet His in
evitable and awful fate; see Him
at last in the moonlit garden of
Gethsemane, where in an agoniz
ing and mysterious conflict His
dauntless spirit overcomes the
185

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

reluctance which springs from
His environment of flesh and
blood; see Him advance to the
soldiers; go and stand near Him
on the mosaic pavement in front
of the palace where the court is
held in the open air; hear the
insults of the rabble; listen to
the strokes of the scourge falling
on His limbs; go with Him to
Herod's hall and return with
Him to Pilate's judgment seat,
and though the blood is flowing
down His face from a crown of
thorns, we find no sign of weak
ness or surrender, no sign of
terror or timidity, but find
instead, here, and all through
His whole career, the sublimest
exhibition of genuine manhood,
physical courage, and moral
186

FURTHER
ANALYSIS

heroism that can be found in all
the annals of the world, or in all
the flights of epic poetry, or in
any vision that ever came to the
soul of mortal man.*

*In what the author has here written con
cerning the moral and physical courage of
the Great Galilean, he acknowledges his in
debtedness to a little volume entitled "The
Manliness of Christ," by Thomas Hughes,
Q. C., Houghton, Mifflin & Co. See Part
VIII, Sixteenth Edition — a series of widely
known papers of great beauty and value.

187

X
Absolute Perfection

X *
Absolute Perfection
WE have now reached a
summit where we may
well pause again and look back
a moment.
On the moral side of the
Galilean we have found the most
surprising thing in all the world
— absolute perfection! No man
has ever been so great, so wise,
so good, that we cannot imagine
him as being greater, wiser, and
better — excepting only Jesus
Christ. He alone reaches the
191

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

utmost possible limit of all con
ceivable excellence. Think of it
— He has no failings, no short
comings! Would the reader
realize the tremendous import of
this? Then contrast yourself
with Him. Every man of genius
and every member of our race has
had some moral defect, except
only the Man of Galilee. For
example, men who are remark
able for dignity of deportment
are as a rule cold and reserved;
if a man is tender and ardent his
judgment is weak; if he be saga
cious and decisive he is unsym
pathetic; but here is a man, and
the only man, who combines all
virtues and has none of their
opposites. Nineteen hundred
years of investigation and relent-
192

ABSOLUTE
PERFECTION

less criticism confirm the verdict
of His contemporaries. "I have
shed innocent blood," was the
last testimony of Judas, the
betrayer and the suicide; "I find
no fault in this man," calmly said
the representative of the Cassars
from his judgment seat; "Have
thou nothing to do with that just
man," said Pilate's wife; at his
side a crucified criminal exclaimed
with his dying breath, "This
man hath done nothing amiss,"
and when all was over a Roman
centurion cried out, "Surely this
was a righteous man."

Ponder thi& question: "Why
has there been in all history no

193

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

other man like Him? One feels
the impossibility of it the moment
the question is asked.

We will go further: You can
not imagine another man like
Him. You can imagine another
Caesar, another Napoleon, an
other Washington; you can easily
imagine another Buddha, another
Confucius, another Mahomet;
and you can imagine Christ come
again, but you cannot — in some
strange way it transcends the
powers of the human mind — you
cannot imagine another Christ.
Let us go further still. In the
whole range of creation— men,
194

ABSOLUTE
PERFECTION

women, angels and archangels —
no Being so wise, so calm, so
perfect, and so attractive, can be
found or imagined until the mind
passes beyond them all and rests
on God Himself.

195

XI
The Court of Final Resort

XI
The Court of Final Resort

w

E appeal unto Caesar.

He — Himself — the King — asks
that we make that appeal. We
find in none of His utterances
anything concerning an appeal
to an Infallible Church, or to
an Infallible Book.
The appeal is to Him.
Both Church and Book are to
be accepted later on — but at
199

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

first subordinately — they dis
closing Him, and then by Him
they become authenticated.
"Come unto me."
"Come and see."
"My words."
"My works."
"These sayings of mine."
There is the court of final
resort, established by Himself.

The writer of these pages
has profound respect for the
intellectual doubt represented
by Professor Huxley, Herbert
Spencer and Goldwin Smith.
He believes in the sincerity of
Strauss, Bauer, Schenkel, and
200

THE COURT
OF FINAL RESORT

Renan; has entered fully into
the spirit of Amiel; recognizes
the force of much that the
brilliant and profound Martineau
has said as to the Seat of
Authority; has shared Robert
Elsmere's perplexities as to the
value of testimony, and no one
holds in higher esteem the
scholarship, industry, and
honesty of the later school of
historical critics. For many
years the writer has been a
student of the utterances of
these various schools. Modern
rationalism and the rationalistic
method have a certain fasci
nation which it is idle to deny
or ignore. Moreover, it is
equally idle to deny and it is
disastrous to ignore the inroads
201

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

which that method has made.
There is something not only
obviously sincere but deeply
pathetic in the bewilderment
which surrounds multitudes of
doubters who have been driven,
in spite of their wishes, to dis
card the Man because they
cannot now see their way to
accept the Book. It is a plain
tive and an earnest cry they
utter, and a very old one —
Show us the Master.

The intellectual movement
which at present goes under the
general name of Higher Criticism
is very ancient in its origin, but

202

THE COURT
OF FINAL RESORT

in its modern form it may be said
to have begun about one hundred
years ago. It made slow progress
for fifty years. Then in the next
twenty-five years it made a lodg
ment in many universities and
literary circles. Naturally it has
at last reached the masses. Is it
too much to say that a majority
of reading people to-day in
Europe and America are agnos
tic? Statistical tables showing
large percentages of increase in
Church membership and Church
societies are strong tributes to
the immense social influence and
superb organizing power of Mod
ern Christianity, but do they
reflect the real condition of the
public mind upon vital questions?
203

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

What then is to be done? Is
the battle fought and lost?
Admitting that conclusive
answers, in kind, can be made to
the scientific and critical argu
ments against miracles, against
the resurrection, against the
alleged authorship, divine origin,
and textual sufficiency of the
Four Gospels, such answers,
nevertheless, involve a course of
labored and exhaustive argument
which the people at large have
neither the time nor the disposi
tion to follow. Nor can we con
ceive that the Master left His
Cause to be dependent on such
a prop for essential support.
We therefore advance this
proposition as incontrovertible :
It is a moral and a mental
204

THE COURT
OF FINAL RESORT

impossibility for the Evangelists,
the Mythical Process, wilful
forgery, pious enthusiasm,
honest deception, or any other
human agency to have invented,
not merely the commanding
personality and the immaculate
character, but also the Intel
lectual Life of the Man of Galilee,
as disclosed in the Gospels.
If then, in going the way that
proposition points, we reach a
position where we, too, can say,
as some who once stood near
Him said, "Now are we sure
that Thou knowest all things,"
may we not determine for our
selves, on that basis, as they
did, whence He came forth?
He proves Himself.
His sayings prove themselves.
205

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

His origin proves itself.

We appeal unto Caesar.

206

XII
Some Mysteries

XII
Some Mysteries
LET us turn from the path
we have thus far followed
and pass up now to a higher
level, a level from which we
may see things which transcend
all human limitations.

We discover this singular fact
about the Galilean: the more we
study Him and His surroundings,

209

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

and the more we study the-
various influences which con
spire to produce great men, the
more we feel that He is an utter
stranger, a stranger in His native
land, a stranger in this country
of ours, and a stranger in all
other countries.
We cannot "place" Him.
We are unable to fix on a resi
dence for Him and say "He
belongs there." He is a for
eigner everywhere. He could
not be the product of local
circumstances and influences
which are found anywhere.
His home is elsewhere.
He is somehow our kinsman,
but He lives in some unknown
country, came from there, and
has gone back. It is evidently
210

SOME
MYSTERIES

a country where there is neither
marrying nor giving in marriage,
for not only did He say so, but
His life here was of a piece in
that respect with what it was
there. He was a stranger to His
reputed father, and in some
respects He was a stranger even
to His mother.
He was not at home here, and
it did not seem to be in the
nature of things for Him to stay
here very long. There is mar
velous consistency in His dying
young; had His life been pro
longed it would have been a
violation of all the essential
unities. The more deeply we ponder
these striking, mysterious, and
211

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

unparalleled phenomena, does
not the fact become more
evident that He is, as was fore
told, "without descent"?
All other men, even the
greatest, seem to be one of our
selves. Buddha is one of us;
he is like you and me. This
writer sees no difference between
Buddha and himself in kind, but
only in degree. Buddha is
wiser, purer, and better — but
not infinitely so. Moreover, he
became so by tremendous effort,
by an awful struggle, as you or
another might. Clearly, Buddha
is one of us. Mahomet is one of
us. Confucius is one of us.
These men have touched, if you
please, the supernatural, but
still they are largely of the earth",
212

SOME
MYSTERIES

earthy. But we cannot feel or
think that about the Galilean.
He is outside of ourselves. He
made Himself one with us, but —
though it be a paradox — He is
not one of us.

Is it not a very significant
thing, a thing indeed of extra
ordinary significance, that He
never took part in the worship
of the Sanctuary in Jerusalem or
elsewhere? As man He often
communed in prayer — if He were
also God He could not worship.
He never worshipped. And
even in His prayers, excepting
that one which He prescribed
213

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

for the use of His followers,
there is a very strange conversa
tional tone, an assured and
obvious intimacy.
That He is conscious of a very
wide difference between His
own relation to God and the
relation sustained by His fol
lowers is evident from that
prayer; they must say "Our
Father," but as for Himself it is
always "My Father," or simply
"Father."

Observe further, that while
every other historical character
grows dimmer with time, the

214

SOME
MYSTERIES

Galilean in a very strange way
grows more distinct. The
greatest men wear out by per
fect and constant familiarity
with them, and everything of
human invention wears out.
The Man of Galilee never wears
out. There is perennial freshness
in Him and in all He says.

Again. The French people, it
is said, never fully comprehend
Shakespere, and Goethe cannot
be adequately rendered into Eng
lish; an Italian will tell you that
none but Italians know Dante;
no foreign tongue can preserve
the stately march and musical
215

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

rhythm of Milton's majestic
lines, and even the simple fables
of La Fontaine and the artless
love-songs of the Germans lose
half their flavor by translation,
but every saying of the Galilean
goes with all its original beauty
and power into every language
and dialect spoken among men.
Here we catch once more that
strange note of universality
which we have already men
tioned. One can see that His
utterances are meant for transla
tion into all languages. They
are normal to the intuitions of
the whole race.
He is the contemporary of all
epochs.

216

SOME
MYSTERIES

Note again that every other
leader in every department of
thought or human endeavor
has followers who sooner or
later equal or surpass him.
Ptolemy, for example, gives way
to Copernicus; Copernicus in
the great forward movement of
astronomical investigation is
surpassed by the brave Galileo;
Galileo by the indomitable
Kepler; Kepler by Sir Isaac
Newton; and then come the two
Herschels who unveil secrets in
the stellar world hidden from
all their illustrious predecessors.
With the enlightenment of our
time we see, in their own lines
of thought, what Franklin,
Bacon, Aristotle, and Socrates
never saw. The Galilean, how-
217

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

ever, is still above and beyond
us all.

We also notice this mysterious
thing, quite indescribable, but
verified by the experience of
multitudes: After resolving to
accept the teachings of the
Galilean, and to live by them,
and to confess allegiance to Him,
you have the singular conscious
ness that you are not exactly the
same person you were before.
Moreover, that consciousness
never diminishes with familiarity
but increases. Believe it! the
most wonderful work in all the
world is not to take iron, steel
218

SOME
MYSTERIES

and brass and make a locomo
tive; nor is it to take gold and
diamonds and cog-wheels and
make a watch; nor is it to take
canvas and colors and brush
and paint an Angelus; nor yet is
it to take pen and parchment
and write an Iliad or a Hamlet,
but an infinitely greater work
than all is to take an ignoble,
cruel, impure, and dishonest
being and transform him into
an upright, gentle, noble, and
pure man. Here we touch the
creative power of the Galilean —
and bow before the mystery.
Here we find the crowning
glory of all the Evidences,
attested by millions of intelligent
men and women, the fact,
mysterious but not illusory,
219

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

that His very presence is found,
is realized, is verified, and that
He is as helpful, as vital, and as
inspiring now as when the
matchless beatitudes fell upon
the ears of a listening multitude
two thousand years ago.

Let us bring to the attention
of the reader now a singular
phenomenon in literature.
It has often been remarked
that there runs through the
philosophies and religions of the
ancient world a dream of some
Wonderful Man to come, some
anticipated Being with a mes
sage from the Most High. The
Chaldeans yearned for Him;
220

SOME
MYSTERIES

Egypt dimly foresaw him; the
Magi of Persia were ever looking
for him; Confucius prophesied
his coming; India longed for
him in her Vedas; his image
floated in the incantations of the
Brahmins; the religion of Judea
was filled with one long aspira
tion for his appearance, and the
hope of Greek philosophy found
expression in Plato's famous
prediction that such a Messenger
would some day visit the human
race. All this, we repeat, is
well known and often has been
mentioned, but what we wish
to impress upon the reader is
this marvelous fact: after the
year of our Lord 33, all that
longing and aspiration found no
further expression. We have
221

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

searched widely, but can learn of
no further trace of it in the
literature of any nation on earth.
It survived for awhile in Jewish
literature, but even with the
Jews, and notwithstanding the
tenacity of that wonderful race,
the Messianic idea began, soon
after the Crucifixion, to fade
away. Nowhere in poetry or
in art, in fiction or in philosophy,
can we find it. His re-appear
ance has been and is looked for,
but not the appearance of
another in His stead, or another
with like claims.
Did not then something very
strange come over the spirit of
the whole human race when
the Galilean cried "It is
finished"? 222

XIII
The Adequate Cause

XIII
The Adequate Cause
THERE remains a question:
Was He an invention? It
is clear that He was not a fanatic
nor a dreamer nor an impostor,
but was He invented? There
is a convincing answer to that
question, but let us first remind
the reader that there was
nothing strange in crucifying a
Galilean Jew. When the Naza-
rene was twelve years old two
thousand Jews were crucified by
the Romans along the highways
225

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

of Judea. There was, we repeat,
nothing at all strange in the
Roman authorities ordering the
crucifixion of a young Jew.
What made this case unique?
Why did not death end His
career? Why in this case is death only
the beginning?
One looking indifferently at
the' scene would have reported a
few heart-broken mourners, a
few trembling peasants, some
rude soldiers, a hasty funeral,
and all was over. Why was not
that the end? The famous
Mythical theory is only a learned
way of saying He was invented,
and we have turned from a
patient study of that theory to
say, in a single sentence, why
226

THE ADEQUATE CAUSE

one cannot believe that He was
an invention.
First let us say, show us a
flaw in Plato, a fallacy in Aris
totle, a misconception in Augus
tine, a blunder in Luther, or an
error in Bacon, and we esteem
those men not one whit the less,
but point out one single defect
in the Man of Galilee, or even
the shadow of a defect, and
He falls forever. He must be
absolute perfection, perfect
morally, and perfect intellec
tually, or He is a failure. Now
we have found Him too sane a
man to be a fanatic, too calm to
be an enthusiast, and too good
to be an impostor. If then He
is not perfect He might be an
Invention, but if He is absolutely
227

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

perfect He could not have been
invented, for, as has often been
said, it requires a perfect human
being to invent a perfect human
character. In other words, no
one but a Shakespere can write
a Hamlet. Theodore Parker, in
one of his moments of clearest
vision said: It takes a Jesus to
fabricate a Jesus. Bishop Hay-
good profoundly says that to
originate such a picture of His
life as we have in the four
biographies "is beyond the
power and foreign to the whole
genius of the Jewish race." Yes
— but go a step further — to draw
the picture of His death! Ah,
there indeed is something
beyond all inventive art and
skill to execute and all imagi-
229

THE ADEQUATE CAUSE

nation to conceive! We are
willing, as lawyers say, "to
rest the whole case," on the
inherent and plainly visible
truth of the twenty-seventh
subdivision of Matthew's nar
rative. Such a mingling of
majesty and power with weak
ness and suffering — such a
combination of the scourge and
the cross with transcendent
sublimity — such helplessness
and pain with the God-like
prerogative of forgiving a dying
thief — such tenderness to His
mother and such mortal agony —
such merciless mockery and
such ineffable dignity — invent
all this? The inventor of that
could speak a universe into
existence. 229

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Did humble and unlettered
fishermen invent such a wonder
ful mind, such superhuman in
sight, such infallible prophecies,
such a marvelous grouping of
amazing and unequaled intel
lectual powers, and such an
immaculate character as we
have been analyzing? Did
they invent the matchless litera
ture we have been considering?
One may safely challenge the
French Academy, the whole
School of German rationalists,
all the sceptics of England, and
the best literary talent of
America to combine their efforts
and produce a new chapter of
fifty verses to be inserted in any
one of the four biographies, and
let that chapter contain two
230

THE ADEQUATE CAUSE

new miracles and two new para
bles, and be consistent, beyond
all criticism, in tone, style and
matter, with the rest of the
narrative. Take the single
feature of sarcasm or irony.
Socrates and Moliere, Cervantes
and our English dramatists only
touch the skin; the Galilean,
says Renan, carries fire to the
very marrow. Did some Judean
peasant about the year A. D. 50
or 75 invent that irony?
Invent Him?
Why, the disciples themselves
did not even comprehend Him.
One doubted Him, one denied
Him, one betrayed Him, and all
forsook Him.

231

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

Can there be need now to go
further and argue the question
of miracles?
Can there be need now to
argue the question of the Resur
rection ?
Have we not found a Cause
adequate to such Effects?
Are not marvelous works pos
sible to a marvelous Being?

The Miracles! that honest,
not unreal, nor artificial, nor
disingenuous, but honest stum
bling block, the Miracles!
Fabulous ?
Illusions ?
Insufficient proof?
Of themselves — yes!
232

THE ADEQUATE CAUSE

This writer sees no more
reason, if confined to the bare
recital of the incidents, for
accepting the statement that
water was turned into wine by
a word, or that five loaves and
two small fishes fed five
thousand people and left a sur
plus of twelve basketfuls, than
he sees for believing that Ma
homet's coffin hung suspended
in mid-air. Take each chapter
by itself — the one that tells of the
raising of Lazarus from the dead,
and the other that tells of that
stupendous event, that immeas
urably great transaction, the
greatest in all history, the Res
urrection — who to-day among
thoughtful students can accept
as literal truth either of those
233

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

recitals on any theory of Inspira
tion, Traditional truth, Infallible
text, or Infallible Church? As
isolated narratives they have no
more intrinsic credibility than
have many of the beautiful
fables of Aryan or Greek
mythology. Nevertheless, we believe,
firmly, fully, absolutely believe,
in the face of every argument
against miracles that has been
brought forward from the days
of the scoffing Celsus to the
days of the brilliant but embit
tered Huxley, that in the beauti
ful country overarched by the
lovely and low-hanging sky of
Galilee, those tremendous mira
cles did happen at the hands of
the great Galilean. Why do we
234

THE ADEQUATE CAUSE

believe it? To-day, as of old,
the abiding answer may be
found in His words: Come unto
me — unto ME. As in that mag
nificent and far-famed line
describing the miracle at Cana —
"The conscious water saw its God and
blushed,"
so modern and manly doubt,
looking long and steadily on
Him, may change to manly
faith. Himself a miracle, Himself
unparalleled, what ground for
doubt should there be that He
wrought works without a par
allel, works miraculous, and at
the last, having conquered nature
and conquered the heart of
humanity, He conquered death
itself. 235

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

The divinity of Christ does
not rest upon the miracles — the
miracles rest upon His divinity.
And even so, we do not
believe in Him because of the
Resurrection, but we believe in
the Resurrection because of
Him.

236

XIV
Seeming Contradictions

XIV
Seeming Contradictions
BUT, did He not say, All
power is mine, and at
another time say, To sit on my
right hand is not mine to give?
Did He not say, I am with
you always, even unto the end
of the world, and at another
time say, But me ye have
not always?
At one time He says, If I bear
witness of myself my witness is
not true, and the same biog
rapher, John, tells us on almost
239

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

the same page that He said,
Though I bear record of myself
yet my record is true.
On one occasion He says,
Peace I leave with you, and on
another, I came not to send
peace but a sword.
Does He not advise the hatred
of father, mother, and sister,
rather than that men should
reject Him, and yet preach a
gospel of universal love, and
straightway set the seal of sin
cerity on all His utterances by
submitting to the most awful
sacrifice that ever stained the
annals of our race?
If He asserts with deep so
lemnity that He and the Father
are one, does He not also with
strange humility make the
240

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

assertion, My Father is greater
than I?
How are these and many
other seeming contradictions to
be reconciled?

Eminent scholars, masters of
Oriental languages, will tell us
that many of these contradic
tions are apparent, not real.
The fact, however, remains that
the revelations made by Jesus
Christ concerning Himself have
curious double aspects and
phases which cannot be recon
ciled without a more intimate
knowledge of Him than comes
from a purely intellectual con-
241

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

templation of His utterances.
The present writer believes —
else this book had not been
written — that by such contem
plation Christian faith can be
strengthened, but He does not
believe that in such a way faith
can be born. Hence he does
not hesitate to say to those who
seek that faith that Jesus Christ
cannot be realized by mere
intellectual inspection. Why?
Because — adopting the language
of the very profoundest of all His
interpreters, the chief of His
apostles, and the greatest man
that ever lived within the con
fines of the Roman Empire —
"The letter killeth."

242

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

The letter indeed killeth. It
is death in poetry, it is death in
art, it is death in all high things
of the Spirit.
No fact in the entire history of
religious thought is more firmly
established and more rarely
recognized than the fact that
critical study of the text fur
nishes no clue to the enigma
which confronts us in these
and kindred passages. Biblical
scholarship has dissipated many
doubts, overcome many objec
tions, and won many victories
in the great controversies which
have sprung up around the
Imperial Book, but scholarship
has not yet plucked the heart
out of this mystery, and we
may add with perfect confi-
243

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

dence, it never will, it never
can. No new translation, no
newly discovered manuscript, no
restoration of missing words,
no achievement of the many
accomplished scholars who are
constantly bringing to the light
new treasures in the Four
Biographies can solve the prob
lem. The mystery lies beyond
the range of Greek lexicon or
Hebrew grammar. If it lay
within that range, or anywhere
within the scope of scientific or
philosophic vision, it would not
be a mystery, and if there were
no element of mystery in the
disclosures which the Galilean
makes concerning Himself, His
rank would have been fixed long
since beyond all possible con-
244

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

troversy. In the absence of that
mystery He would have taken
His place many centuries ago as
simply a great man, and receded
with other great men into the
dimness of the remote past.
And yet, more now than ever,
men are unwilling to close their
eyes to these contradictions.
More than ever, thoughtful men
are asking a solution. Less
than ever is heard the plea that
it were better to go peacefully
on and in blind, hopeful faith, or
perchance from motives of public
policy continue to print Bibles,
build churches, and solemnly
recite the Creed.
Whence came the recoil, now
almost universal, from the
suggestion of an organized

245

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

hypocrisy that would build a
church from public or from pri
vate policy? From Him — Him
who denounced Pharisees.
Whence came that ever increas
ing spirit of free and untram-
meled inquiry with which we
have bravely entered the new
century, a spirit which instantly
resents, even indignantly rejects
a Faith that lacks visible, pal
pable, and rational foundation?
From Him — Him who said, "Seek
and ye shall find." To whom
then may we turn for an infal
lible clue to the perplexing
mystery with which the mere
text so often confronts us?
To Him.

246

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

In these days when thought
ful, educated, and sincere men
and women in greater numbers
than ever before are passing up
and down the highways and
by-paths of modern culture,
manifesting their earnest desire
for truth by organizing on every
hand societies for research, inves
tigating every cult, and looking
even to the theosophical mist of
the far East with longing eyes
for light, is there no strong
clear voice to tell them in their
own language, from their own
point of view, and in their own
intellectual mood, the deepest
secret of Christianity, and so
point out anew the only way to
look upon and know the hidden
truth? Made in God's own
247

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

image these men and women
feel and have a right to feel that
they may boldly question every
Sphinx, or wander in pursuit of
the Supernatural, as Hamlet did,
up to the heights which make
men dizzy, or defy the ingenuity
of every modern Daedelus and
step bravely forward into every
labyrinth. If it walk hand in
hand with a wise recognition of
the immutable fact that the
Finite may discern but cannot
comprehend the Infinite, this
restless, eager, inquiring Spirit
merits praise,, not condemnation.
Within it lie wonderful possi
bilities. From it springs that
measureless activity which
to-day relentlessly dissects all
sacred literature. This is the
248

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

source from which come our
Revised Versions, our Historical
Criticism, our Higher Criticism,
our Polychrome Bibles, our
Popular Bibles, and the long
and patient search for corrobora
tive testimony on time-worn
monuments and in ancient
tombs. All these have a value
beyond price, but —
The letter killeth.

Does the Christian scholar
ship of to-day with its boundless
labor and its inestimable achieve
ment realize the fact that it
may solve every problem of
authorship, manuscript, and
249

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

text, and may even place the
Book on a thrice impregnable
Gibraltar, and yet leave un
touched the problem which
most perplexes the men and
women to whom we have
referred? After the splendid
work of the painstaking students
of this generation is all done —
and in the very nature of things
their present enormous industry
must soon be followed by that
exhaustion of energy which
demands repose — will the intel
ligent and critical inquirer find,
even in a canon that cannot be
questioned, or in a text that is
above suspicion, the eagerly
sought solution? Alas, No!
for —
The letter killeth. 250

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

It needs, therefore, to be said,
in no dogmatic spirit, however,
but in a spirit of cool and accu
rate statement, with no more of
emotion than is involved in an
algebraic equation, and with the
same scientific precision with
which a professor of chemistry
would discuss a formula in his
class room, it needs to be said
wherever Christianity is pro
claimed, that the only possible
way to learn the essential, or if
you please to call it so, the
esoteric truth, about Jesus
Christ, is to go — to Him. Set
aside for the time being every
theory of Inspiration, postpone
your inquiry into the basis of
the miraculous, defer your
studies in ecclesiastical history,
251

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

and formulate your creed after
the material for faith is found,
and then fortify faith with
dogma — all this is needful and
will follow in proper sequence
by a law of evolution which
obtains in religious thought as
well as in the physical world —
but first go, go with the closet
door shut, go persistently, go
with importunity, to Him. If
some strange metamorphosis in
your mental and moral nature
does not follow, and some new
light break in upon you, by
which you get an insight into
these profound mysteries and
apparent contradictions — not a
full solution, nor even a full
comprehension of the great
enigma of Man as God and God
252

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

as Man, but get a clearer dis
cernment of the Infinite and the
Finite in their mutual relations
— then, and not till then, may
you pronounce the Christian
faith irrational and Christianity
a failure.
The unalterable and crucial
fact in the whole Christian
scheme lies just here: If Jesus
Christ has not the power in this
the twentieth century — now —
here — to-day — to verify Himself
to the conscience, to the heart,
and to the apprehension of men,
then He has no permanent
standing at all. Then, as time
goes on, He must slowly fade
and ultimately become only a
beautiful memory, and then the
253

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

whole sad world will say with
Matthew Arnold —
Now he is dead ! Far hence he lies,
In the lorn Syrian town,
And on his grave, with shining eyes,
The Syrian stars look down.
If He indeed did vanish from
the earth as other men have
vanished; if He is not at this
very hour a living, loving,
spiritual Intelligence, filling the
world and all the heavens with
His wonderful Personality; if
He is not at hand and accessible
now, and if no distinct answer
comes from Him in response to
our cry, and the Door is not
opened when we knock, then
there is no way on earth, or in
the seas, or under the earth by
which we can reach that reason
able certainty which the human
254

SEEMING
CONTRADICTIONS

heart, the human soul, and the
human mind have a right to
demand. That right He recognizes.
That test He invites, entreats,
implores. The letter killeth.

But is not this Mysticism?
Assuredly it is.
And if Christianity in its
essence is not mystical, is not at
its very heart mysterious, it is
nothing. But is not Christianity the
most practical of all religions?
Assuredly it is.
255

XV
The Sunlight

XV
The Sunlight
AT last, and in the fullness
of time, the whole Chris
tian world is -face to face with
the nations of the Orient, for
America has followed England,
Germany, Russia, Spain and
France into the far East. So
swiftly did the curtain rise upon
that act in this new and world
wide drama, wherein America
made sudden entrance upon the
scene, that all Europe, and
America herself stood amazed,
and as it were, at a pause.
259

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

History is soon to repeat itself
very strangely — the Wise Men
of the East again, and at an
early day will gather inquiringly
around the Manger and the
Child. And what are we to say to the
learned and thoughtful scholars
who will come from the great
universities of China and from
Buddhist temple and Mahome
tan mosque, with their deep,
pertinent, and far - reaching
questions? Never again will the world see
a great religious war waged
with arms; the impending
religious conflict which is to
follow the commercial invasion
of the regions inhabited by six
hundred millions of the human
260

THE
SUNLIGHT

race will be a conflict with
subtler and surer weapons.
Across the waters of the wide
Pacific is coming, even now, the
echo of more than one hon
est inquiry which must be
answered, and answered in
that broad and tolerant spirit
which marked the Apostolic age.

Do not many of the arguments
which support the claims of
Christianity support also the
claims of the religions of the
Orient ?
Is not the long continued
existence of Buddhism a refuta-
261

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

tion of much that is claimed for
Christianity? Why do Buddha and Mahomet
survive and command the hom
age of millions of the human
race? Why does Confucius still rule
the minds of a great segment of
humanity?

The answer, and the argu
ment, may be summed up in
one brief statement: It is an
error, a deep and a far - reach
ing error, to characterize these
religions as false religions. Each
262

THE
SUNLIGHT

contains some truth, much
truth, great truth. But the Man
of Galilee taught all truth.
He taught the central truth of
Buddhism — purity and self-
denial — but He taught more.
He taught the high morality
of Confucius, but He taught
more. He taught the great doctrine
of Mahomet — the existence,
unity, and omnipotence of one
God — but He taught more.
He accepted the divine lega
tion of Moses, and recognized
the exalted and exclusive mis
sion of the Jewish race, but
speaking as if He were the God
Himself who had instituted the
Hebrew Code, He sets aside
parts of it as having fulfilled
263

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

their purpose — and then adds
more. In these fundamental truths,
held in common, lies the basis
for the ultimate coalescence of
all religions; in that more, which
the Galilean taught, lies the
assurance of His ultimate and
undisputed supremacy.
Each of these religions gives
light, but one is starlight, one is
as the twilight, one is the
light of the dawn, and one is —
sunlight.

Kant says that we cannot
avoid considering the Sermon
on the Mount as the Word of
God. Hegel says that the

264

THE
SUNLIGHT

Chinese religion is that of meas
ure or temperate conduct: Brah-
minism that of dream life:
Buddhism that of self-involve
ment: the religion of Egypt that
of Enigma symbolized by the
Sphinx: that of Greece the
religion of Beauty: the Jewish
that of Sublimity: but the
religion of Christ is the absolute
religion.

MS

XVI
Behold the King

XVI
Behold the King
WE have said that human
ity always seeks a king.
The Man of Galilee, at the
close of His career, standing
before Pilate, says with regal
dignity and majesty,
1 am a Iking, anb
even? true man is
ms subject.
He is indeed a King, morally a
King, intellectually a King, every
inch a King.
His Kingdom is almost world
wide. 269

THE MAN OF GALILEE
A NEW ENQUIRY

The highest geniuses of earth
bow before Him.
The greatest poets in the
world praise Him.
The best of art is His.
The noblest of architecture is
His. The gems of literature are His.
The loftiest music of the ages
is His. Countless millions of human
hearts are His.
Ecce Homo.
Ecce Deus!
Ecce Rex!!

I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee
All questions in the earth and out of it.

Browning
1V

^oM

270

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE
PUBLISHERS

ANNOUNCEMENT
SIX VOLUMES ON MODERN DOUBT
MR. WENDLING'S lectures on
Modern Doubt, revised and greatly
enlarged, will appear in book form,
making six octavo volumes, bound
uniformly, and will be sold sepa
rately or in sets.
In their logical order, or proper
sequence, the volumes will stand as
follows:Volume I Unseen Realities
Volume II The Hebrew Lawgiver
Volume III The Man of Galilee
Volume IV Saul of Tarsus
Volume V The Imperial Book
Volume VI Is Death the End
In "Unseen Realities" the author
traverses the field of modern mate
rialism and sets forth the grounds
for belief in an unseen world and in
higher forms of intelligence. From
the unseen emerges "The Hebrew
Lawgiver," the subject of the

ANNOUNCEMENT

author's second volume. The third
volume, "The Man of Galilee,"
is the presentation of a new line of
argument concerning the divinity of
Christ. The next volume, "Saul
of Tarsus," is a careful appreciation
of the intellectual life, the moral
heroism, and the literary and ora
torical powers of St. Paul. "The
Imperial Book" is a discussion of
the Bible in the light of today, with
a full consideration of the methods
and results of modern criticism. The
closing volume of the series, "Is
Death the End?" considers from new
points of view the momentous ques
tion of immortality.
These six volumes deal in a novel
way with every phase of modern
skepticism, from the deism of the
eighteenth century to the agnosti
cism of the twentieth.
It is unnecessary to say to the
many persons who have heard the
author on the lyceum platform in
America that these great subjects
are dealt with in these volumes by a

ANNOUNCEMENT

believer in the cardinal truths of
Christianity. Mr. Wendling has
withdrawn from lyceum work to
devote his time to the preparation of
these volumes for publication, and it
is hoped that they will all be ready
at an early day.
Meanwhile, pending the author's
preparation and final revision of the
other volumes, this present volume,
"The Man of Galilee— A New
Enquiry," is published now in re
sponse to a very wide demand and
out of the order stated above.
The Publishers.