In His Image Part 3

In chapter two, verse four, we are told of the glad day, which we are now trying to hasten, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks--when nations shall not lift up the sword against nations or learn war any more.

If the Old Testament is so fascinating what may we expect of the New? It is day as compared with dawn; it is the morning light, with which Moses and the Prophets beat back the darkness of the night, enlarged--until we have the sun in its meridian glory. "Old things have pa.s.sed away; behold, all things are become new."

The Old Testament gave us the law; the New Testament reveals the love upon which the law rests. John says: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1: 17). The Old Testament restrained by a mult.i.tude of "Thou shalt nots"; the New Testament awakens the monitor within and supplies a spiritual urge that makes the individual find satisfaction in service and delight in doing good. David soothes the dying with sweet a.s.surance: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me;" Jesus inspires them with a living hope: "I go to prepare a place for you that where I am ye may be also."

G.o.d is the center of gravity in the New Testament as in the Old, but the drawing power of Jehovah became visible in Christ; the attributes of the Father were revealed in the Son--the supreme intelligence, the limitless power, the boundless love. Divinity surrounded itself with human a.s.sociates but spiritual enthusiasm crowded out the selfish element; His presence purged their souls of dross. The characters of the New Testament are about their Father's business all the time. If a Judas is base enough to betray the Saviour, even he is so overwhelmed with remorse that life becomes unbearable.

We are introduced to a new group of characters, beginning with a Virgin with a child and ending with her Son upon the cross--a galaxy of men and women whose words and deeds have travelled into every land. One poor widow with two mites, wisely invested, purchased more enduring fame than any rich man was ever able to buy with all his money. Another, Tabitha, by interpretation called Dorcas, drew forth as eloquent a tribute as was ever paid. In the goodness of her heart she made garments for the poor, and the recipients, exhibiting them at her death-bed, expressed their grat.i.tude in tears. The narrative suggests an epitaph which every Christian can earn--and who could desire more? viz., the night is darker because a life has gone out; the world is not so warm because a heart is cold in death.

In John the Baptist, we have the forerunner--"the voice crying in the wilderness." The Apostles, chosen from among the busy mult.i.tude, carried their habits of industry into their new calling; some turned from catching fish to become "fishers of men," while Matthew employed the accuracy of a collector of customs in chronicling the life of the Master. Even the weaknesses of men were utilized: Thomas consecrated his doubts, and John, the disciple, baptized his ambition--each giving the Great Teacher an opportunity to use a fault for the enlightening of future generations. The latter became the most intimate companion of the Saviour--"the disciple whom Jesus loved" and the one who most frequently used the word love.

Peter and Paul stand out conspicuously among the exponents of early Christianity. In the case of Peter, Christ brought an impulsive nature into complete subjection and gave a steadying purpose to an emotional follower. In Paul, we see a giant intellect aflame with a holy zeal.

Both were bold interpreters of Christ's mission and both urged upon Christians the full gospel equipment.

In his second Epistle, chapter one, Peter exhorts:

And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience G.o.dliness; and to G.o.dliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the sixth chapter of Ephesians, Paul pleads:

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of G.o.d, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of G.o.d: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Peter was a rock, hewn into shape and polished by the divine hand; Paul was a "chosen vessel" to bear the Redeemer's Name before "the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel." Paul was an orator with a purpose; he was a man with a message. He was eloquent because he knew what he was talking about and meant what he said. No wonder, for he was called to service by a summons so distinct and unmistakable that he turned at once from persecuting to preaching. Paul is responsible for one of the most inspiring sentences in the Bible--"I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." It was the key to his whole life.

Love is not blind, declares Tolstoy; it sees what ought to be done and does it. So with Paul. His eyes were open to the truth and he saw it; he was sensitive to the needs of the Church and his epistles are filled with wise counsel. He encouraged the worthy, admonished the erring and strengthened the weak. Paul knew well the secret of liberality, as shown in 2 Corinthians 8: 5. The members of the Macedonian church "first gave their own selves"; giving was easy after that. Paul's religion could not be shaken; read his vow as recorded in the eighth chapter of Romans:

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princ.i.p.alities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of G.o.d, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

His sufferings developed patience and deepened devotion. They prepared him to appreciate love and to define it as no other mortal has done.

His tribute to love, contained in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, is not approached by any other utterance on this subject.

(I use the old version with the word charity changed to love.)

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding bra.s.s or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things; For now we see through a gla.s.s, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I cannot leave the Book of Books without referring to one of the supreme moments that it describes. The Bible is full of pictures; the painter has found it an inexhaustible storehouse of suggestion. All the great climaxes of sacred history speak to us from the canvas. Moses and Pharaoh, Ruth and Naomi, Daniel at the Belshazzar Feast and in the Lions' Den, Elijah at Mt. Carmel and before Ahab, Joseph and his brethren, David and Goliath, Mary and the Child, Jesus, the Prodigal Son, the Sower, the Good Samaritan, the Rich Young Man, the Wise and the Foolish Virgins, Jesus in the Temple, Christ Entering Jerusalem, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, and The Saviour on the Cross--these are but a few of the word pictures that have inspired the artist's brush.

But there is another picture, unsurpa.s.sed in thrilling power and permanent interest, namely, that presented by the trial of Christ--tragedy of tragedies, triumph of triumphs!

Here, face to face, stood Pilate and Christ, the representatives of the two opposing forces that have ever contended for dominion in the world.

Pilate was the personification of force; behind him was the Roman government, undisputed ruler of the then known world, supported by its invincible legions. Before Pilate stood Christ, the embodiment of love--unarmed, alone. And force triumphed; they nailed Him to the cross, and the mob that had a.s.sembled to witness His sufferings, mocked and jeered and said: "He is dead." But from that day the power of Caesar waned and the power of Christ increased. In a few centuries the Roman government was gone and its legions forgotten, while the Apostle of Love has become the greatest fact in history and the growing figure of all time.

Who will estimate the Bible's value to society? It is our only guide. It contains milk for the young and nourishing food for every year of life's journey; it is manna for those who travel in the wilderness; and it provides a staff for those who are weary with age. It satisfies the heart's longings for a knowledge of G.o.d; it gives a meaning to existence and supplies a working plan to each human being.

It holds up before us ideals that are within sight of the weakest and the lowliest, and yet so high that the best and the n.o.blest are kept with their faces turned ever upward. It carries the call of the Saviour to the remotest corners of the earth; on its pages are written the a.s.surances of the present and our hopes for the future.

There are three verses in the first chapter of Genesis which mean more to man than all other books outside the Bible. First; the verse, "In the beginning G.o.d created the heavens and the earth,"

gives us the only account of the beginning of all things, including life. Many subst.i.tutes have been proposed for this verse but none that can be so easily understood, explained and defended.

Second: the 24th verse gives us the only law governing the continuity of life on earth. If life is to continue, reproduction must be according to law or lawless. _Reproduction according to kind_ is the basic scientific fact in the world; all the books on science combined do not state as much that is of value to man as this one verse--it is the foundation of family life and of all human calculations. No living thing has ever violated this law; even man with all his power has never been able to persuade or compel that intangible, invisible thing that we call life to cross the line of species.

Third: the 26th verse--"Let us make man in our image"--gives us the only explanation of man's presence on earth. Without revelation no one has been able to explain the riddle of life. Man comes into the world without his own volition; he has no choice as to the age, nation, race, or family environment into which he shall be born. So far as he is concerned, he comes by chance; he goes he knows not when, and cannot insure himself for a single hour against accident, disease or death; and yet, he is supreme above all other things.

The 26th verse reveals a truth of inestimable value. When man knows that he is "the child of a King," with the earth for an inheritance--that the Creator, after bringing all other things into existence, made him, not as other things were made, but in the image of G.o.d, and placed him here as commander-in-chief of all that is--when he understands that he is part of G.o.d's plan and here for a purpose he finds himself. To do G.o.d's will becomes his highest duty as well as his greatest pleasure and he learns that obedience links happiness to virtue, success to righteousness, and makes it possible for him to rise to the high plane that a loving Heavenly Father has put within the reach of man.

Where in all the books in all the libraries can one find as much that affects the welfare of man as is condensed into these three verses?

III

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

The question, What think ye of Christ? propounded to the Pharisees by the Saviour Himself, demands an answer from an increasing number as each year the circle of the Gospel's influence widens. It is a question that cannot be evaded. In every civilized land an answer is made, by word or act, by each individual who is confronted by the facts of His life.

It is in the hope that I may be able to a.s.sist some in answering this question that I devote this hour to the inquiry.

Was Christ an impostor? Or was He deluded? Or was He the promised Messiah, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," as He declared Himself to be?

Few have dared to accuse Him of attempting a deliberate fraud upon the public. Impostors sometimes kill others in carrying out their plans, or to escape detection, but they do not offer themselves as a sacrifice for others. Christ's whole life gives the lie to the charge that He practiced deception. One recorded act would be sufficient to establish His honesty of purpose. In the nineteenth chapter of Matthew we read:

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, G.o.d; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him. If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

If Christ had been an adventurer or was interested only in gaining a following He would have welcomed this young man, who was not only rich, but, according to Luke, a ruler. And what a splendid recommendation the young man gave himself; all of the commandments he had kept from his youth up. How could one ambitious for worldly success afford to reject such an applicant? But Christ would not lower the standard a hair's breadth even to secure the support of a rich young ruler who had led a blameless life. He demanded the _first place_ in the heart--a very reasonable demand--and, seeing in the young man's heart the first place occupied by love of money, He demanded the throne. The young man, unwilling to purchase eternal life at that price, went away sorrowing--his heart still centered on his great possessions. Of whom but an honest person could such a story be told?

Was Christ deceived? That is the theory set forth in a little volume ent.i.tled "A Jewish View of Jesus" (published recently by the Macmillan Company). The author, H.G. Emelow, pays the following high tribute to "Jesus the Jew" (and it is the most charitable view an orthodox Jew can hold):

"Yet, these things apart, who can compute all that Jesus has meant to humanity? The love He has inspired, the solace He has given, the good He has engendered, the hope and joy He has kindled--all that is unequalled in human history. Among the great and good that the human race has produced, none has even approached Jesus in universality of appeal and sway. He has become the most fascinating figure in history. In Him is combined what is best and most enchanting and most mysterious in Israel--the eternal people whose child He was.

The Jew cannot help glorying in what Jesus thus has meant to the world; nor can he help hoping that Jesus may yet serve as a bond of union between Jew and Christian, once His teaching is better known and the bane of misunderstanding is at last removed from His words and His ideal."

But could honest delusion produce a character who, in "the love He has inspired," "the solace He has given," and "the hope and joy He has kindled" is "unequalled in human history"? Is it not impossible that under a _delusion_ one could (as Emelow says Jesus did) become "the most fascinating figure in history"--unapproachable in the "universality of appeal and sway"? The world has been full of delusions: have any of them produced a character like Christ? Tolstoy says that the words of Christ to His friends and pupils have had a hundred thousand times more influence over the people than all the poems, odes, elegies and elegant epistles of the authors of that age. Lecky, the historian, says that "the three short years of the active life of Jesus have done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all of the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists." Could this be said of a man labouring under a delusion as to his real character?

What Christ _said_ and _did_ and _was_ establishes His claims. In a conversation with Peter (Matt. 16: 16), He approved that Apostle's answer which ascribed to Him the t.i.tle of "Christ" (the Greek equivalent for Messiah) "the Son of the living G.o.d." He not only approved of the answer bestowing the t.i.tle but

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." In John 10, verse 30, He declares, "I and my Father are one"; in verse 36, same chapter, He denies that it was blasphemy to call Himself the Son of G.o.d. In the presence of death He refused to deny the claim (Matt. 26: 63-64).

The deity of Christ is proven in many ways; some offering one line of proof and some another. Some are convinced by the prophecies that found their fulfillment in Christ; some give greatest weight to the manner of His birth and His resurrection. Still others lay special emphasis upon the miracles performed by Him. There is no need of comparison; all the proofs stand together and bear joint testimony to His supernatural character, but I find myself inclined to use the method of reasoning adopted by Carnegie Simpson in his book ent.i.tled, "The Fact of Christ."

Those who reject Christ reject also the miraculous proofs offered in support of His divine character, but the _fact_ of Christ cannot be denied. Christ lived; that is admitted. He taught; we have His words.

He died upon the cross; that we know; and we can trace His blood by its cleansing power as it flows through the centuries. Judged by His life, His teachings, and His death, and the impression they have made upon the human race, we conclude that He was divine and that He has justified the t.i.tles bestowed upon Him. No other explanations can account for Him.

Born in a manger; reared in a carpenter shop; with no access to sages living and no knowledge of the wisdom of sages dead, except as that wisdom was recorded in the Old Testament, and yet when only about thirty years of age He gave to the world a code of morality the like of which the world had never known before and has not known since. He preached a short time, gathered around Him a few disciples and was crucified; His followers were scattered and nearly all of the conspicuous ones put to death--and yet from this beginning His religion spread until thousands of millions have taken His name upon them and millions have been ready to die rather than surrender the faith that He put into their hearts.

How can you explain Christ? It is easier to believe Him to be the Christ whose coming was foretold, the Jesus who was to save the people from their sins--the Son of G.o.d and Saviour of the World--than to account for Him in any other way.

To those who try to measure Him by the rules that apply to man He is incomprehensible; but take Him out of the man cla.s.s and put Him in the G.o.d cla.s.s and you can understand Him. He also can be measured by the work He came to perform; it was more than a man's task. No man aspiring to be a G.o.d could have done what He did; it required a G.o.d condescending to be a man.

When once His divine character is admitted we have an explanation that clears away all the perplexities. We can believe that He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. We can believe that He opened the eyes of the blind when among men--we see Him to-day giving a spiritual vision of life to those who have known only the flesh and the pleasures that come through the flesh. We can believe that He wrought miracles when upon earth--we see Him so changing hearts to-day that they love the things they used to hate and hate the things they used to love.

We can even believe that at His touch life was called back to the body from which it had taken its flight--we have seen Him take men who had fallen so low that their own flesh and blood had deserted them, lift them up, wash them and fill their hearts with a pa.s.sion for service. A Christ who can do that _now_ could have broken the bonds of the tomb.

Volumes innumerable have been written on theological distinctions, some of which have been made the basis of sects. The doctrine of the Trinity has been one of the storm centers of discussion for centuries. It is not difficult for me to believe in the Trinity when I see three distinct ent.i.ties in each human being--a physical man, a mental man and a moral man. They are so inseparable that one cannot exist here without the other, and yet they are so separate and distinct that one can be developed and the others left undeveloped. Who has not seen a splendidly developed body with an ignorant brain to think for it and a puny spiritual life within? A weak body and an impoverished soul are sometimes linked to a highly trained mind: and an exalted character is sometimes found in a frail body, and even a.s.sociated with a neglected intellect. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three in one, present no problem that need perplex either the learned or the unlearned. We have the evidence of the Father on every hand; the proof of the Son's growing influence is indisputable; the witness of the Holy Ghost is to be found in the heart of every believer. The three act in unison.