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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13335-0.txt b/13335-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7881e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/13335-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6781 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13335 *** + +Contributed by Jonathon Love + + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +FOREWORD + +I regard it as a high privilege to be associated with this volume. +Many who know and value Mr Glover's work on The Conflict of +Religions in the Early Roman Empire must have wistfully desired to +secure from his graphic pen just such a book as is here given to the +world. He possesses the rare power of reverently handling familiar +truths or facts in such manner as to make them seem to be almost +new. There are few gifts more precious than this at a time when our +familiarity with the greatest and most sacred of all narratives is a +chief hindrance to our ready appreciation of its living power. I +believe that no one will read Mr Glover's chapters, and especially +his description of the parable-teaching given by our Lord, without a +sense of having been introduced to a whole series of fresh and +fruitful thoughts. He has expanded for us, with the force, the +clearness, and the power of vivid illustration which we have learned +to expect from him, the meaning of a sentence in the earlier volume +I have alluded to, where he insists that, "Jesus of Nazareth does +stand in the centre of human history, that He has brought God and +man into a new relation, that He is the present concern of every one +of us and that there is more in Him than we have yet accounted +for."[1] + +In accordance with its title, the single theme of the book is "The +Jesus of History," but the student or exponent of dogmatic theology +will find abundant material in its pages. + +I commend it confidently, both to single students and to those who +nowadays, in happily increasing numbers, meet together for common +study; and I congratulate those who belong to the Student Christian +Movement upon this notable addition to the books published in +connection with their far-reaching work. + + RANDALL CANTUAR + LAMBETH + Advent Sunday, 1916 + + + + + +PREFACE + +This book has grown out of lectures upon the historical Jesus given +in a good many cities of India during the winter 1915-16. Recast and +developed, the lectures were taken down in shorthand in Calcutta; +they were revised in Madras; and most of them were wholly +re-written, where and when in six following months leisure was +available, in places so far apart as Colombo, Maymyo, Rangoon, +Kodaikanal, Simla, and Poona. The reader will not expect a heavy +apparatus of references to books which were generally out of reach. + +Here and there are incorporated passages (rehandled) from articles +that have appeared in The Constructive Quarterly, The Nation, The +Expositor, and elsewhere. + +Those who themselves have tried to draw the likeness attempted in +this book will best understand, and perhaps most readily forgive, +failures and mistakes, or even worse, in my drawing. The aim of the +book, as of the lectures, is, after all, not to achieve a final +presentment of the historical Jesus, but to suggest lines of study +that will deepen our interest in him and our love of him. + + T. R. G. +POONA, August 1916 + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I + THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + Modern study of religion + Historicity of Jesus + The gospels as historical sources + Canons for the study of a historical figure + A caution against antiquarianism here + + CHAPTER II + CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + References in Gospels + Utilisation of the parables to reconstruct the domestic life + Nature. The city. The talk of the market + + CHAPTER III + THE MAN AND HIS MIND + Words and looks, as recorded in the gospels + Playfulness of speech + Movements of feeling + Habits of thought: e.g. Quickness. Feeling for fact. + Sympathy. Imagination + His use of the Old Testament + + CHAPTER IV + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + THE BACKGROUND + Hardness of the human life in those times + Uncertainness as to God's plans for the nation--specially + as to His purposes for the Messiah + Uncertainty as to the immortality of the soul, and its destinies + Re-action of all this upon life + THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE TEACHER + To induce people to try to re-think God + To secure the re-thinking of life from its foundations in view + of the new knowledge + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + His personality, and his genius for friendship + The disciples--the type he prefers + Intimacy, the real secret of his method + His ways of speech + His seriousness + The transformation of the disciples + + CHAPTER V + THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + JESUS' OWN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS + The Nearness of God + God's knowledge and power + God's throne + Jesus emphasizes mostly God's interest in the individual--the + love of God + THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD + The discovery of God + Parables of the treasure finder and the pearl merchant + Faith in God + Prayer + Life on the basis of God + + CHAPTER VI + JESUS AND MAN + Jesus' sympathy with men and their troubles + His feelings for the suffering and distressed + His feeling for women and children + His emphasis on tenderness and forgiveness + The characteristics which he values in men + The value of the individual soul + Jesus and the wasted life + Zacchaeus. The woman with the alabaster box. The penitent thief + + CHAPTER VII + JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + The problem of sin + John the Baptist on sin + Jesus' psychology of sin more serious + The outstanding types of sin which, according to Jesus, + involve for a man the utmost risk: + (a) Want of tenderness + (b) The impure imagination + (c) Indifference to truth + (d) Indecision + Jesus' view of sin as deduced from this teaching + Implication of a serious view of redemption + + CHAPTER VIII + THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + What the cross meant to him + HIS REFERENCES TO THE GOSPEL AND ITS RESULTS + The kingdom of heaven + The call for followers + His announcement of purpose in his life and death + What he means by redemption + FACTORS IN HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + His sense of human need + His realization of God + His recognition of his own relation to God + His prayer life + VERIFICATION FROM THE EVENT + The Resurrection + The new life of the disciples + The taking away of the sin of the world + RE-EXAMINATION OF HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + As it bears on the problem of pain + and of sin + and on God + How a man is to understand Jesus Christ + + CHAPTER IX + THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + THE ROMAN EMPIRE + One rule of many races + General peace and free intercourse the world over + Fusion of cultures, traditions, religions + "The marriage of East and West" + THE OLD RELIGION + (1) Its strength: + in its ancient tradition + in its splendour of art, architecture and ceremony + in its oracles, healings and theophanies + in its adaptability in absorbing all cults and creeds + (2) Its weakness: + No deep sense of truth + No association with morality + Polytheism + The fear of the grave + (3) Its defence: + Plutarch--the Stoics--Neo-Platonism--the Eclectics + THE VICTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH + (1) Its characteristics + (2) Persecuted because it refused to compromise + (3) The Christian "out-lived" the pagan + "out died" him + "out-thought him" + + CHAPTER X + JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + The impulse to determine who he is, and his relation to God + The records of Christian experience + The Study of the personality of Jesus Christ + (a) The Gospels + (b) Christological theory a guide to experience + (c) The new experience of the Reformation period + Knowledge gained by the experiment comes before explanation + JESUS TO BE KNOWN BY WHAT HE DOES + The forgiveness of sin, and the theories to explain it + Is a Theology of Redemption possible which shall not be + mainly metaphor or simile? + THE PROBLEM OF THE INCARNATION + The approach is to be "a posterioria" + In fact, God and man are only known to us in and by Jesus + Only in Christ is the love of God as taught in N.T. tenable + To know Jesus in what he can do, is antecedent to theory about him + + APPENDIX + Suggestions for study circle discussions + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + +If one thing more than another marks modern thought, it is a new +insistence on fact. In every sphere of study there is a growing +emphasis on verification. Where a generation ago a case seemed to be +closed, to-day in the light of new facts it is reopened. Matters +that to our grandfathers were trivialities, to be summarily +dismissed, are seriously studied. Again and again we find the most +fruitful avenues opened to us by questions that another age might +have laughed out of a hearing; to-day they suggest investigation of +facts insufficiently known, and of the difficult connexions between +them. In psychology and in medicine the results of this new tendency +are evident in all sorts of ways--new methods in the treatment of +the sick, new inquiries as to the origin of diseases and the +possibilities of their prevention, attempts to get at the relations +between the soul and body, and a very new open-mindedness as to the +spiritual nature and its working and experiences. In other fields of +learning it is the same. + +To the modern student of man and his history the old easy way of +excluding religion as an absurdity, the light prediction of its +speedy, or at least its eventual, disappearance from the field of +human life, and other dogmatisms of the like kind, are almost +unintelligible. We realize that religion in some form is a natural +working of the human spirit, and, whatever place we give to religion +in the conduct of our own lives, as students of history we reckon +with the religious instinct as a factor of the highest import, and +we give to religious systems and organizations--above all, to +religious teachers and leaders--a more sympathetic and a profounder +study. Carlyle's lecture on Muhammad, in his course on "Heroes and +Hero Worship," may be taken as a landmark for English people in this +new treatment history. + +The Christian Church, whether we like it or not, has been a force of +unparalleled power in human affairs; and prophecies that it will no +longer be so, and allegations that by now it has ceased to be so, +are not much made by cautious thinkers. There is evidence that the +influence of the Christian Church, so far from ebbing, is +rising--evidence more obvious when we reflect that the influence of +such a movement is not to be quickly guessed from the number of its +actual adherents. A century and a quarter of Christian missions in +India have resulted in so many converts--a million and a quarter is +no slight outcome; but that is a small part of the story. All over +India the old religious systems are being subjected to a new study +by their own adherents; their weak points are being felt; there are +reform movements, new apologetics, compromises, defences--all sorts +of indications of ferment and transition. There can be little +question that while many things go to the making of an age, the +prime impulse to all this intellectual, religious, and moral +upheaval was the faith of Christian missionaries that Jesus Christ +would bring about what we actually see. They believed--and they were +laughed at for their belief--that Jesus Christ was still a real +power, permanent and destined to hold a larger place in the affairs +of men; and we see that they were right. Jesus remains the very +heart and soul of the Christian movement, still controlling men, +still capturing men--against their wills very often--changing men's +lives and using them for ends they never dreamed of. So much is +plain to the candid observer, whatever the explanation. + +We find further, another fact of even more significance to the +historian who will treat human experience with seriousness and +sympathy. The cynical view that delusion and error in a real world +have peculiar power in human affairs, may be dismissed; no serious +student of history could hold it. + +For those who believe, as we all do at heart, that the world is +rational, that real effects follow real causes, and conversely that +behind great movements lie great forces, the fact must weigh +enormously that wherever the Christian Church, or a section of it, +or a single Christian, has put upon Jesus Christ a higher +emphasis--above all where everything has been centred in Jesus +Christ--there has been an increase of power for Church, or +community, or man. Where new value has been found in Jesus Christ, +the Church has risen in power, in energy, in appeal, in victory. + +Paul of Tarsus progressively found more in Christ, expected more of +him, trusted him more; and his faith was justified. If Paul was +wrong, how did he capture the Christian Church for his ideas? If he +was wrong, how is it that when Luther caught his meaning, +re-interpreted him and laid the same emphasis on Jesus Christ with +his "Nos nihil sumus, Christus solus est omnia"[2], once more the +hearts of men were won by the higher doctrine of Christ's person and +power, and a new era followed the new emphasis? How is it that, when +John Wesley made the same discovery, and once more staked all on +faith in Christ, again the Church felt the pulse of new life? + +On the other hand, where through a nebulous philosophy men have +minimized Jesus, or where, through some weakness of the human mind, +they have sought the aid of others and relegated Jesus Christ to a +more distant, even if a higher, sphere--where, in short, Christ is +not the living centre of everything, the value of the Church has +declined, its life has waned. That, to my own mind, is the most +striking and outstanding fact in history. There must be a real +explanation of a thing so signal in a rational universe. + +The explanation in most human affairs comes after the recognition of +the fact. There our great fact stands of the significance of Jesus +Christ--a more wonderful thing as we study it more. We may fail to +explain it, but we must recognize it. One of the weaknesses of the +Church to-day is--put bluntly--that Christians are not making enough +of Jesus Christ. + +We find again that, where Jesus Christ is most real, and means most, +there we are apt to see the human mind reach a fuller freedom and +achieve more. There is a higher civilization, a greater emphasis on +the value of human life and character, and a stronger endeavour for +the utmost development of all human material, if we may so call the +souls and faculties of men. Why should there be this correspondence +between Jesus of Nazareth and human life? It is best brought out, +when we realize what he has made of Christian society, and contrast +it with what the various religions have left or produced in other +regions--the atrophy of human nature. + +In fine, there is no figure in human history that signifies more. +Men may love him or hate him, but they do it intensely. If he was +only what some say, he ought to be a mere figure of antiquity by +now. But he is more than that; Jesus is not a dead issue; he has to +be reckoned with still; and men who are to treat mankind seriously, +must make the intellectual effort to understand the man on whom has +been centred more of the interest and the passion of the most +serious and the best of mankind than on any other. The real secret +is that human nature is deeply and intensely spiritual, and that +Jesus satisfies it at its most spiritual point. + +The object before us in these pages is the attempt to know Jesus, if +we can, in a more intimate and intelligent way than we have done--at +least, to put before our minds the great problem, Who is this Jesus +Christ? and to try to answer it. + +One answer to this question is that Jesus was nothing, never was +anything, but a myth developed for religious purposes; that he never +lived at all. This view reappears from time to time, but so far it +has not appealed to any who take a serious interest in history. No +historian of the least repute has committed himself to the theory. +Desperate attempts have been made to discredit the Christian writers +of the first two centuries; it has been emphasized that Jesus is not +mentioned in secular writers of the period, and the passage in +Tacitus ("Annals", XV:44) has been explained away as a Christian +interpolation, or, more gaily, by reviving the wild notion that +Poggio Bracciolini forged the whole of the "Annals". But such +trifling with history and literature does not serve. No scholar +accepts the theory about Poggio--and yet if the passage about Christ +is to be got rid of, this is the better way of the two; for there is +nothing to countenance the view that the chapter is interpolated, or +to explain when or by whom it was done--the wish is father to the +thought. Christians are twice mentioned by Suetonius in dealing with +Emperors of the first century, though in one passage the reading +"Chrestus" for "Christus" has suggested to some scholars that +another man is meant; the confusion was a natural one and is +instanced elsewhere, but we need not press the matter. The argument +from silence is generally recognized as an uncertain one. Sir James +Melville, living at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots, does not, I +learn, mention John Knox--"whom he could not have failed to mention +if Knox had really existed and played the part assigned to him by +his partisans," and so forth. It might be as possible and as +reasonable to prove that the Brahmo Samaj never existed, by +demonstrating four hundred years hence--or two thousand--that it is +not mentioned in In Memoriam, nor in The Ring and the Book, nor in +George Meredith's, novels, nor (more strangely) in any of Mr. +Kipling's surviving works, which definitely deal with India. None of +these writers, it may be replied, had any concern to mention the +Brahmo Samaj. And when one surveys the Greek and Roman writers of +the first century A.D. which of them had any concern to refer to +Jesus and his disciples, beyond the historians who do? Indeed, the +difficulty is to understand why some of these men should have +written at all; harder still, why others should have wanted to read +their poems and orations and commonplace books. One argument, +advanced in India a few years ago, against the historical value of +the Gospels may be revived by way of illustration. Would not Virgil +and Horace, it was asked, have taken notice of the massacre at +Bethlehem, if it was historical? Would they not? it was replied, +when they both had died years before its traditional date. + +But the distinction between Christian and secular writers is not one +that will weigh much with a serious historian. Until we have reason +to distinguish between book and book, the evidence must be treated +on exactly the same principles. To say abruptly that, because Luke +was a Christian and Suetonius a pagan, Luke is not worthy of the +credence given to Suetonius, is a line of approach that will most +commend itself to those who have read neither author. To gain a real +knowledge of historical truth, the historian's methods must be +slower and more cautious, he must know his author intimately--his +habits of mind, his turns of style, his preferences, his gifts for +seeing the real issue--and always the background, and the ways of +thinking that prevail in the background. An ancient writer is not +necessarily negligible because he records, and perhaps believes, +miracles or marvels or omens which a modern would never notice. It +is bad criticism that has made a popular legend of the unreliable +character of Herodotus. As our knowledge of antiquity grows, and we +become able to correct our early impressions, the credit of +Herodotus rises steadily, and to-day those who study him most +closely have the highest opinion of him. + +We may, then, without prejudice, take the evidence of Paul of Tarsus +on the historicity of Jesus, and examine it. If we are challenged as +to the genuineness of Paul's epistles, let us tell our questioner to +read them. Novels have been written in the form of correspondence; +but Paul's letters do not tell us all that a novelist or a forger +would--there are endless gaps, needless references to unknown +persons (needless to us, or to anybody apart from the people +themselves), constant occupation with questions which we can only +dimly discover from Paul's answers. The letters are genuine +letters--written for the occasion to particular people, and not +meant for us. The stamp of genuineness is on them--of life, real +life. The German scholar, Norden, in his Kunstprosa, says there is +much in Paul that he does not understand, but he catches in him +again after three hundred years that note of life that marks the +great literature of Greece. That is not easily forged. Luther and +Erasmus were right when they said--each of them has said it, however +it happened--that Paul "spoke pure flame." The letters, and the +theology and its influence, establish at once Paul's claim to be a +historical character. We may then ask, how a man of his ability +failed to observe that a non-historical Jesus, a pure figment, was +being palmed off on him--on a contemporary, it should be marked--and +by a combination of Jesus' own disciples with earlier friends of +Paul, who were trying to exterminate them. Paul knew priests and +Pharisees; he knew James and John and Peter; and he never detected +that they were in collusion, yes, and to the point of martyring +Stephen--to impose on him and on the world a non-historical Jesus. +To such straits are we brought, if Jesus never existed. History +becomes pure nonsense, and knowledge of historical fact impossible; +and, it may be noted, all knowledge is abolished if history is +beyond reach. + +But we are not dependent on books for our evidence of the +historicity of Jesus. The whole story of the Church implies him. He +is inwrought in every feature of its being. Every great religious +movement, of which we know, has depended on a personal impulse, and +has behind it some real, living and inspiring personality. It is +true that at a comparatively late stage of Hinduism a personal +devotion to Shri Krishna grew up, just as in the hour of decline of +the old Mediterranean paganism we find Julian the Apostate using a +devotional language to Athena at Athens that would have astonished +the contemporaries of Pericles. But Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad +stand on a very different footing from Krishna and Athena, even if +we concede the view of some scholars that Krishna was once a man, +and the contention of Euhemerus, a pre-Christian Greek, that all the +gods had once been human. If we posit that Jesus did not exist, we +shall be involved other difficulties as to the story of the Church. +Mr. F. C. Conybeare, an Oxford scholar avowedly not in allegiance to +the Christian Church, has characterized some of the reconstructions +made by contemporary anti-Christian writers as more miraculous than +the history they are trying to correct. + +We come now to the Gospels; and in what follows, and throughout the +book, we shall confine ourselves the first three Gospels. Great as +has been, and must be, the influence of the Fourth Gospel, in the +present stage of historical criticism it will serve our purpose best +to postpone the use of a source which we do not fully understand. +The exact relations of history and interpretation in the Fourth +Gospel--the methods and historical outlook of the writer--cannot yet +be said to be determined. "Only those who have merely trifled with +the problems it suggests are likely to speak dogmatically upon the +subject."[3] This is not to abandon the Fourth Gospel; for it is a +document which we could not do without in early Church History, and +which has vindicated its place in the devotional life in every +Christian generation. But, for the present, the first Three Gospels +will be our chief sources. + +The Gospels have, of course, been attacked again and again. Sober +criticism has raised the question as to whether here and there +traces may be found of the touch of a later hand--for example, were +there two asses or one, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? has the +baptismal formula at the end of Matthew been adjusted to the creed +of Nicaea? In the following pages the attempt will be made to base +what is said not on isolated texts, which may--and of course may +not--have been touched, but on the general tenor of the books. A +single episode or phrase may suffer change from a copyist's hand, +from inadvertence or from theological predilection. The character of +the Personality set forth in the Gospels is less susceptible of +alteration. + +This point is at once of importance, for the suggestion has been +made that we cannot be sure of any particular statement, episode, +incident or saying in the Gospels--taken by itself. Let us for the +moment imagine a more sweeping theory still--that no single episode +incident or saying of Jesus in the Gospels is authentic at all. What +follows? The great historian, E. A. Freeman of Oxford, once said +that a false anecdote may be good history; it may be sound evidence +for character, for, to obtain currency, a false anecdote has also to +true; it must be, in our proverbial phrase, "if not true, well +invented." Even if exaggeration and humour contribute to give it a +twist, the essence of parody is that it parodies--it must conform to +the original even where it leaves it. A good story-teller will +hardly tell the same story of Mr. Roosevelt and the Archbishop of +Canterbury--unless it happens to be true, and then he will be +cautious. "Truth," to quote another proverb, "is stranger than +fiction"; because fiction has to go warily to be probable, and must +be, more or less, conventional. The story a man invents about +another has to be true in some recognizable way to character--as a +little experiment in this direction will show. The inventor of a +story must have the gift of the caricaturist and of the bestower of +nicknames; he must have a shrewd eye for the real features of his +victim. Jesus, then, was a historical person; and about him we have +a mass of stories in the Gospels, which our theory for the moment +asks us to say are all false; but they have a certain unity of tone, +and they agree in pointing to a character of a certain type, and the +general aspects and broad outlines of that character they make +abundantly clear. Even on such a hypothesis we can know something of +the character of Jesus. But the hypothesis is gratuitous, and +absurd, as the paragraphs that follow may help to show. The Gospels +are essentially true and reliable records of a historical person. + +A survey of some of the outstanding features of the Gospels should +do something to assure their reader of their historical value. But +there is a necessary caution to be given at this moment. When +Aristotle discusses happiness, he adds a curious limitation--"as the +man of sense would define." He postulates a certain intelligence of +the matter in hand. Similarly Longinus, the greatest of ancient +critics, says that in literature sure judgement is the outcome of +long experience. In matters of historical and literary criticism, a +certain instinct is needed, conscious or unconscious, perhaps more +often the latter, which without a serious interest and a long +experience no man is likely to have. + +The Gospels are not properly biographies; they consist of +collections of reminiscences--memories and fragments that have +survived for years, and sometimes the fragment is little more than a +phrase. Such and such were the circumstances, and Jesus spoke--a +story that may occupy four or five verses, or less. Something +happened, Jesus said or did something that impressed his friends, +and they could never forget it. The story, as such impressions do, +keeps its sharp edges. Date and perhaps even place may be forgotten, +but the look and the tone of the speaker are indelible memories. In +the experience of every man there are such moments, and the +reminiscences can be trusted. The Gospels are almost avowedly not +first-hand. Peter is said to be behind Mark; Mark and at least one +other are behind Matthew and Luke. Luke in his preface explains his +methods. They are collectors and transmitters; and the +indications--are that they did their work very faithfully. There is +a simplicity and a plainness about the stories in the Gospels, which +further guarantees them. It is remarkable how little of the +adjective there is--no compliment, no eulogy, no heroic touches, no +sympathetic turn of phrase, no great passages of encomium or +commendation. It is often said about the Greek historian, +Thucydides, that, among his many intellectual judgements, he never +offers a criticism of any act that implies moral approbation or +disapprobation; that he says nothing to show that he had feelings or +that he cared about questions of right and wrong. Page after page of +Thucydides will make the reader tingle with pity or indignation; +there is hardly in literature so tragic a story as the Syracusan +expedition--and the writer did not feel! Is it not the sternest and +deepest feeling, after all, when a man will not "unpack his heart +with words"? Something of this kind we find in the Gospels. There is +not a word of condemnation for Herod or Pilate, for priest or +Pharisee; not a touch of sympathy as the nails are driven through +those hands; a blunt phrase about the soldiers, "And sitting down +they watched him there" (Matt. 26:36)--that is all. (From a literary +point of view, what a triumph of awful, quiet objectivity! and they +had no such aim.) Luke indeed has one slight touch that might be +called irony[4]--"And he released unto them him that for sedition +and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he +delivered Jesus to their will" (Luke 23:25)--and yet the irony is in +the story itself. "Why callest thou me good?" So it is recorded that +Jesus once answered a compliment (Matt. 19:17); and it looks as if +the mood had passed over to his intimates, and from them to their +friends who wrote the Gospels. He meant too much for them to seek +the facile relief of praise. The words of praise die away, yes, and +the words of affection too; and their silence and self-restraint are +in themselves evidence of their truth; and more winning than words +could have been. + +Here and there the Gospels keep a phrase actually used by Jesus, and +in his native Aramaic speech. The Greek was not apt to use or quote +foreign phrases--unlike the Englishman who "has been at a great +feast of languages and stolen the scraps." Why, then, do the +Evangelists, writing for Greek readers, keep the Aramaic sentences? +It looks like a human instinct that made Peter--if, as we are told, +he had some part in the origination of Mark's Gospel--and the rest +wish to keep the very words and tones of their Master, as most of us +would wish to keep the accents and phrases of those we love. Was +there no satisfaction to the people who had lived with Jesus, when +they read in Mark the very syllables they had heard him use, and +caught his great accents again? Is there not for Christians in every +age a joy and an inspiration in knowing the very sounds his lips +framed? The first word that his mother taught him survives in Abba +(Father)--something of his own speech to let us begin at the +beginning; something, again, that takes us to the very heart of him +at the end, in his cry: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (Mark 15:34). +Is it not true that we come nearer to him in that cry in the +language strange to us, but his own? Would not the story, again, be +poorer without the little tender phrase that he used to the daughter +of Jairus (Mark 5:41). + +From time to time we find in the Gospels matters for which the +writers and those behind them have felt that some apology or at +least some explanation was needed. His friendship for sinners was a +taunt against him in his lifetime; so was his inattention to the +Sabbath (Mark 2:24, 3:2), and the details of ceremonial washing +(Mark 7:1-5). The faithful record of these is a sound indication +both of the date[5] and of the truth of the Gospels. But these were +not all. Celsus, in 178 A.D., in his True Word, mocked at Jesus +because of the cry upon the cross; he reminded Christians that many +and many a worthless knave had endured in brave silence, and their +Great Man cried out. It was from the Gospels that his knowledge came +(Mark 15:37). Even during his lifetime the Gospels reveal much about +Jesus that in contemporary opinion would degrade him--sighs and +tears and fatigue, liability to emotion and to pain, friendship with +women. + +With these revelations of character we may group passages where +the Gospels tell of Jesus surprising or shocking his +disciples--startling them by some act or some opinion, for which +they were not prepared, or which was contrary to common belief or +practice--passages, too, where he blames or criticizes them for +conventionality or unintelligence. + +It has been remarked that the frequency and fidelity of Jesus' own +allusions to country life, his illustrations from bird and beast and +flower, and the work of the farm, are evidence for the genuineness +of the tradition. Early Christianity, as we see already in the Acts +of the Apostles, was prevailingly urban. Paul aimed at the great +centres of population, where men gathered and from which ideas +spread. The language of Paul in his epistles, the sermons inserted +by Luke in the Acts, writings that survive of early Christians, are +all in marked contrast to the speech of Jesus in this matter of +country life. When we recall the practice of ancient historians of +composing speeches for insertion in their narratives, and weigh the +suggestion that the sermons in the Acts may conceivably owe much to +the free rehandling of Luke or may even be his own compositions, +there is a fresh significance in his marked abstention from any such +treatment of the words of Jesus. It means that we may be secure in +using them as genuine and untouched reproductions of what he said +and thought. + +This leads us to another point. The central figure of the Gospels +must impress every attentive reader as at least a man of marked +personality. He has his own attitude to life, his own views of God +and man and all else, and his own language, as we shall see in the +pages that follow. So much his own are all these things that it is +hard to imagine the possibility of his being a mere literary +creation, even if we could concede a joint literary creation by +several authors writing independent works. Indeed, when we reflect +on the character of the Gospels, their origin and composition, and +then consider the sharp, strong outlines of the personality +depicted, we shall be apt to feel his claim to historicity to be +stronger than we supposed. + +Finally, two points may be mentioned. The Church from the very start +accepted the Gospels. Two of them were written by men in Paul's own +personal circle (Philemon 24; Col. 4:10, 14). All found early +acceptance and wide use,[6] and after a century we find Irenaeus +maintaining that four Gospels are necessary, and are necessarily +all--there are four points of the compass, seasons and so forth; +therefore it is appropriate that there are four Gospels. The +argument is not very convincing; but that such an argument was +possible is evidence to the position of the Gospels as we have them. +We must remember the solidarity of that early Church. The +constituency, for which the Gospels were written, was steeped in the +tradition of Jesus' life, and the Christians accepted the Gospels, +as embodying what they knew; and there were still survivors from the +first days of the Gospel. When Boswell's Life of Johnson was +published, the great painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a lifelong friend +of Johnson, said it might be depended upon as if delivered upon +oath; Burke too had a high opinion of the book. In the same way the +Gospels come recommended to us by those who knew Jesus, though, it +is true, we do not know their names. + +The Gospels do not tell us all that Christians thought of Jesus, but +they imply more than they say. The writers limited themselves. That +Luke, for years a friend of Paul's, so generally kept his great +friend's theology, above all his Christology, out of his Gospel, is +significant. It does not mean divergence of view. More reasonably we +may conclude something else: he held to his literary and other +authorities, and he was content; for he knew to what the historical +Jesus brings men--to new life and larger views, to a series of new +estimates of Jesus himself. He left it there. In what follows, we +must not forget in our study that behind the Gospels, simple and +objective as they are, is the larger experience of the ever-working +Christ. + +There are three canons which may be laid down for the study of any +human character, whether of the past or of to-day. They are so +simple that it may hardly seem worth while to have stated them; yet +they are not always very easy to apply. Without them the acutest +critic will fail to give any sound account of a human character. + +First of all, give the man's words his own meaning. Make sure that +every term he uses has the full value he intends it to carry, +connotes all he wishes it to cover, and has the full emotional power +and suggestion that it has for himself. Two quite simple +illustrations may serve. The English-born clergyman in Canada who +spoke of a meeting of his congregation as a "homely gathering" did +not produce quite the effect he intended; "home-like" is one thing +in Canada, "homely" quite another, and the people laughed at the +slip--they knew, what he did not, that "homely" meant hard-featured +and ugly. My other illustration will take us towards the second +canon. I remember, years ago, a working-man of my own city talking a +swift, impulsive Socialism to me. He was young and something of a +poet. He got in return the obvious common sense that would be +expected of a mid-Victorian, middle-aged and middle-class. And then +he began to talk of hunger--the hunger that haunted whole streets in +our city, where they had indeed something to eat every day, but +never quite enough, and the children grew up so--the hunger that he +had experienced himself, for I knew his story. With his eyes fixed +on me, he brought home to me by the quiet intensity of his +speech--whether he knew what he effected or not--that he and I gave +hunger different senses. He gave the word for me a new meaning, with +the glimpse he gave me of his experience. Since then I have always +felt, when men fling theories out like his--schemes, too, like +his--wild and impracticable: "Ah, yes! what is at the heart of it +all? What but this awful experience which they have known and you +have not--the sight of your own folk hungering, life and faculty +wasted for want of mere food, and children growing up atrophied from +the cradle"? It is not easy to dissociate the language and the terms +of others from the meaning one gives to them oneself; it means +intellectual effort and intellectual discipline, a training of a +strenuous kind in sympathy and tenderness; but if we are to be fair, +it must be done. And the rule applies to Jesus also. Have we given +his meaning to his term--force, value, emotion, and suggestion? In a +later chapter we shall have to concentrate on one term of +his--God--and try to discover what he intends that term to convey. + +The second canon is: Make sure of the experience behind the thought. +How does a man come to think and feel as he does? That is the +question antecedent to any real criticism. What is it that has led +him to such a view? It is more important for us to determine that, +than to decide at once whether we think him right or wrong. Again +and again the quiet and sympathetic study of what a man has been +through will modify our judgement upon his conclusions; it will +often change our own conclusions, or even our way of thinking. We +have, then, to ask ourselves, What is the experience that leads +Jesus to speak as he does, to think as he does? In his case, as in +every other, the central and crucial question is, What is his +experience of God? In other words, What has he found in God? what +relations has he with God? What does he expect of God? What is God +to him? Such questions, if we are candid and not too quick in +answering, will take us a long way. It was once said of a man, busy +with some labour problem, that he was "working it out in theory, +unclouded by a single fact." Is it not fair to say that many of our +current judgements upon Jesus Christ are no better founded? Can we +say that we have any real, sure, and intimate knowledge of his +experience of God? The old commentator, Bengel, wrote at the +beginning of his book that a man, who is setting out to interpret +Scripture, has to ask "by what right" he does it. What is our right +to an opinion on Jesus Christ? + +The third canon will be: Ask of what type and of what dimensions the +nature must be, that is capable of that experience and of that +language. One of the commonest sources of bad criticism is the +emphasis on weak points. The really important thing in criticism is +to understand the triumphs of the poet or painter, let us say, whom +we are studying. How came he to achieve poem or picture, so profound +and so true? In what does he differ from other men, that he should +do work so fundamental and so eternal? Lamb's punning jest at +Wordsworth--that Wordsworth was saying he could have written Hamlet, +if he had had the mind--puts the matter directly. What is the mind +that can do such things? The historian will have to ask himself a +similar question about Jesus. + +Here we reach a point where caution is necessary. Will the Jesus we +draw be an antiquary's Jesus--an archaic figure, simple and lovable +perhaps, but quaint and old-world--in blunt language, outgrown? A +Galilean peasant, dressed in the garb of his day and place, his mind +fitted out with the current ideas of his contemporaries, elevated, +it may be, but not essentially changed? A dreamer, with the clouds +of the visionaries and apocalyptists ever in his head? When we look +at the ancient world, the great men are not archaic figures. Matthew +Arnold found in Homer something of the clearness and shrewdness of +Voltaire. There is thing archaic about Plato or Virgil or Paul--to +keep abreast of their thinking is no easy task for the strongest of +our brains, so modern, eternal, and original they are. They have +shaped the thinking of the world and are still shaping it. How much +more Jesus of Nazareth! When we make our picture of him, does it +suggest the man who has stirred mankind to its depths, set the world +on fire (Luke 12:49), and played an infinitely larger part in all +the affairs of men than any man we know of in history? Is it a great +figure? Does our emphasis fall on the great features of that +nature--are they within our vision, and in our drawing? Does our +explanation of him really explain him, or leave him more a riddle? +What do we make of his originality? Is it in our picture? What was +it in him that changed Peter and James and John and the rest from +companions into worshippers, that in every age has captured and +controlled the best, the deepest, and tenderest of men? Are we +afraid that our picture will be too modern, too little Jewish? These +are not the real dangers. Again, and again our danger is that we +under-estimate the great men of our race, and we always lose by so +doing. That we should over-estimate Jesus is not a real risk; the +story of the Church shows that the danger has always been the other +way. But not to under-estimate such a figure is hard. To see him as +he is, calls for all we have of intellect, of tenderness, of love, +and of greatness. It is worth while to try to understand him even if +we fail. God, said St. Bernard, is never sought in vain, even when +we do not find Him. Jesus Christ transcends our categories and +classification; we never exhaust him; and one element of Christian +happiness is that there is always more in him than we supposed. + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + +It has been remarked as an odd thing by some readers that the +Gospels tell us so little of the childhood of Jesus. It must be +remembered, however, that they are not really biographies, even of +the ancient order--still less of that modern kind, in which the main +concern is a tracing of the psychological development of the man. +Plutarch, the prince of ancient biographers, put fact and eulogy +together, cited characteristic sayings or doings of his hero, quoted +contemporary judgements, and wove the whole into a charming +narrative, good to read, pleasant to remember, perhaps not without +use as a lesson in conventional morality; but with little real +historical criticism in it, and as little, or less, attempt at any +effective reconstruction of a character. His biography of Pericles +illustrates his method and his defects. + +The writers of the Gospels did not altogether propose biography as +their object either in the ancient or the modern style. They left +out--perhaps because it did not survive--much about the life of +Jesus that we should like to know. The treatment of Mark by Matthew +shows a certain matter-of-fact habit, which explains the obvious +want of interest in aspects of the life and mind of Jesus that would +to a modern be fascinating. They are dealing with the earthly life +of the Son of God--and they deal with it with a faithfulness to +tradition and reminiscence, which is, when we really consider it, +quite surprising. But it is the heavenward side of the Master that +mattered to them most, and it is perhaps not a mere random guess +that they were not in any case so aware of the interest of childhood +and of children as Jesus was. Matthew and Luke record the miraculous +birth, and each adds a story, that has never failed to fascinate +men, of the Magi or the Shepherds who came to the manger cradle. +Luke gives one episode of Jesus' childhood. That is all. + +The writers of the Apocryphal Gospels did their best to fill the gap +by inventing or developing stories, pretty, silly, or repellent, +which only show how little they understood the original Gospels or +the character of Jesus. + +But when we turn to the parables of Jesus, and ask ourselves how +they came to be what they are, by what process of mind he framed +them, and where he found the experience from which one and another +of them spring, it is at once clear that a number of them are +stories of domestic life, and the question suggests itself, Why +should he have gone afield for what he found at home? If we know +that he grew up in the ordinary circle of a home, and then find him +drawing familiar illustrations from the common scenes of home, the +inference is easy that he is going back to the remembered daily +round of his own boyhood. + +In stray hints the Gospels give us a little of the framework of that +boyhood in Nazareth. The elder Joseph early disappears from the +story, and we find a reference to four brothers and several sisters. +"Is not this the carpenter?" people at Nazareth asked, "the son of +Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon? and +are not his sisters here with us?" (Mark 6:3); Matthew adds a word +that may or may not be significant "his sisters are they not all +with us?" (Matt. 13:56). In ancient times a particular view of the +Incarnation, linked with other contemporary views of celibacy and +the baseness of matter, led men to discover or invent the +possibility that these brothers and sisters were either the children +of Joseph by a former wife, or the cousins of Jesus on his mother's +side.[7] That cousins in some parts of the world actually are +confused in common speech with brothers may be admitted; but to the +ordinary Greek reader "brothers" meant brothers, and "cousins" +something different. No one, not starting with the theories of St. +Jerome, let us say, on marriage and matter and the decencies of the +Incarnation, would ever dream from the Greek narrative of the +episode of the critical neighbours at Nazareth, who will not accept +Jesus as a prophet because they know his family--a delightfully +natural and absurd reason, with history written plain on the face of +it--that Jesus had no brothers, only cousins or half-brothers at +best. When History gives us brothers, and Dogma says they must be +cousins--in any other case the decision of the historian would be +clear, and so it is here. + +We have then a household--a widow with five sons and at least two, +or very likely more, daughters. Jesus is admittedly her eldest son, +and is bred to be a carpenter; and a carpenter he undoubtedly was up +to, we are told, about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). The dates of +his birth and death are not quite precisely determined, and people +have fancied he may have been rather older at the beginning of his +ministry. For our purposes it is not of much importance. The more +relevant question for us is: How came he to wait till he was at +least about thirty years old before he began to teach in public? One +suggested answer finds the impulse, or starting-point, of his +ministry in the appearance of John the Baptist. It is a simpler +inference from such data as we have that the claims of a widowed +mother with six or seven younger children, a poor woman with a +carpenter's little brood to bring up, may have had something to do +with his delay. In any case, the parables give us pictures of the +undeniable activities of the household. + +A group of parables and other allusions illustrate the life of woman +as Jesus saw it in his mother's house. He pictures two women +grinding together at the mill (Luke 17:35), and then the heating of +the oven (Matt. 6:30)--the mud oven, not unlike the "field ovens" +used for a while by the English army in France in 1915, and heated +by the burning of wood inside it, kindled with "the grass of the +field." Meanwhile the leaven is at work in the meal where the woman +hid it (Matt. 13:33), and her son sits by and watches the heaving, +panting mass--the bubbles rising and bursting, the fall of the +level, and the rising of other bubbles to burst in their turn--all +bubbles. Later on, the picture came back to him--it was like the +Kingdom of God--"all bubbles!" said the disappointed, but he saw +more clearly. The bubbles are broken by the force of the active life +at work beneath--life, not death, is the story. The Kingdom of God +is life; the leaven is of more account than any number of bubbles. +And we may link all these parables from bread--making with what he +says of the little boy asking for bread (Matt. 7:9)--the mother +fired the oven and set the leaven in the meal long before the child +was hungry; she looked ahead and the bread was ready. Is not this +written also in the teaching of Jesus--"your heavenly Father knoweth +that ye have need of all these things" (Matt. 6:32)? God, he holds, +is as little taken aback by his children's needs as Mary was by +hers, and the little boys did not did not confine their demands to +bread--they wanted eggs and fish as well (Matt. 7:10; Luke 11:11, +12; and cf. John 6:9)--there was no end to their healthy appetites. +It is significant that he mentions the price of the cheapest flesh +food used by peasants (Luke 12:6). They also wanted clothes, and +wore them as hard as boys do. The time would come when new clothes +were needed; but why could not the old ones be patched, and passed +down yet another stage? And his mother would smile--and perhaps she +asked him to try for himself to see why; and he learnt by experiment +that old clothes cannot be patched beyond a certain point, and later +on he remembered the fact, and quoted it with telling effect (Mark +2:21). He pictures little houses (Luke 11:5-7) and how they are +swept (Luke 11:25)--especially when a coin has rolled away, into a +dusty corner or under something (Luke 15:8); and candles, and +bushels (Matt. 5:15), and beds, and moth, and rust (Matt. 6:19) and +all sorts of things that make the common round of life, come into +his talk, as naturally as they did into his life. + +The carpenter's shop, we may suppose, was close to the house--a shop +where men might count on good work and honest work; and what +memories must have gathered round it! Is it fanciful to suggest that +what the churches have always been saying, about "Coming to Jesus," +began to be said in a natural and spontaneous way in that shop? +Those little brothers and sisters did not always agree, and tempers +would now and then grow very warm among them (cf. Luke 7:39). And +then the big brother came and fetched them away from the little +house to the shop, and set one of them to pick up nails, and the +other to sweep up shavings--to help the carpenter. They helped him. +Like small boys, when they help, they got in his road at every turn. +But somehow they slipped back to a jolly frame of mind. The big +brother told them stories, and they came back different people. I +can picture a day when there was a woman in the little house, weary +and heavy-laden, and the door opened, and a cheery, pleasant face +looked in, and said, "Won't you come and talk to me?" And she came +and talked with him and life became a different thing for her. Are +these pictures fanciful--mere imagination? Are we to think that all +the tenderness of Jesus came to him by a miracle when he was thirty +years of age? Must we not think it was all growing up in that house +and in that shop? Or did he never tell a story--he who tells them so +charmingly--till he wanted parables? We have to note, at the same +time, some elements of criticism of the elder brother in the family +attitude, some defect of sympathy and failure to understand him, +even if kindness prompted their action in later days (Mark 3:21, +31). + +Nazareth lies in a basin among hills, from the rim of which can be +seen to the southward the historic plain of Esdraelon, and eastward +the Jordan valley and the hills of Gilead, and westward the +Mediterranean. On great roads, north and south of the town's girdle +of hills, passed to and fro the many-coloured traffic between Egypt +and Mesopotamia and the Orient. Traders, pilgrims, Herods--"the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" (Matt. 6:8)--all within +reach, and travelling no faster as a rule than the camel cared to +go--they formed a panorama of life for a thoughtful and imaginative +boy. More than one allusion to king's clothes comes in his recorded +teaching (Matt. 6:29, 11:8), and it was here that he saw them--and +noticed them and remembered. One is struck with the amount of that +unconscious assimilation of experience which we find in his words, +and which is in itself an index to his nature. We are not expressly +told that he sought the sights that the road afforded; but it would +be hard to believe that a bright, quick boy, with genius in him, +with poetry in him, with feeling for the real and for life, never +went down on to that road, never walked alongside of the caravans +and took note of the strange people "from the east and from the +west, from the north and from the south" (Luke 13:29)--Nubians, +Egyptians, Romans, Gauls, Britons, and Orientals.[8] In the one +anecdote that survives of his boyhood, we find men "astonished at +his understanding" (Luke 2:47), his gift for putting questions, and +his comments on the answers; and all life through he had a genius +for friendship. + +When we consider how Jesus handles Nature and her wilder children in +his parables, another point attracts attention. Men vary a great +deal in this. To take two of the Old Testament prophets, we find a +marked difference here between Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Ezekiel "puts +forth a riddle and speaks a parable" about an eagle--a frankly +heraldic eagle, that plants a tree-top in a city of merchants (Ezek. +17:2-5). Jeremiah is obviously country-bred. He might have been +surprised, if he had been told how often he illustrates his thought +from bird and beast and country life--and always with a certain +life-like precision and a perfectly clear sympathy. + +In the Gospels we find again the same faithfulness to living nature, +another country-bred boy with the same love for bird and beast and +the wild, open countryside. + + The Earth + And common face of Nature spake to me + Rememberable things.[9] + +Nature is enough for Jesus as for Jeremiah; she needs no +remodelling, no heraldic paints--"long pinions of divers +colours"--she will do as she is; she is just splendid and lovable +and true as God made her; and she slides into his mind whenever he +is deeply moved. Think of all the parables he draws from Nature--the +similes, metaphors, and illustrations; every one of them will bear +examination, and means more the nearer we look into it, and the +better we know the living thing behind. The eagle, in Jesus' +sentence, plants no trees, but it has the living bird's instinct for +carrion; the ancient Greek historian and Lord Roberts at Delhi in +1858 remarked that "wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles +be gathered together" (Luke 17:37). In India that year, it was said, +they gathered from all over to Delhi. What brought them? Instinct, +we say; and we find Jesus, in that rather dark sentence, suggesting +somehow that there is an instinct which knows "where." And sheep and +cows and asses, and hens and sparrows, and red sunsets, fill men's +reminiscences of his talk; and we may safely conclude that, when +allusions are so many in fragments of conversation preserved as +these are, the man's speech and mind were attuned to the love of +bird and beast. + +Is there another teacher of those times who is at all so sure that +God loves bird and flower? The Greek poet Meleager of Gadara--not so +very far removed from Jesus in space of time--has a good deal to say +about flowers, but not at all in the same sense as Jesus, not with +any feeling such as his for the immortal hand and eye that planned +their symmetry, and their colours and sweetness. St. Paul is +conspicuously a man of the town--"a citizen of no mean city" (Acts +21:39), and he dismisses the animals abruptly (1 Cor. 9:9); he has +hardly an allusion to the familiar and homely aspects of Nature, so +frequent and so pleasant in the speech of Jesus. He finds Nature, if +not quite "red in tooth and claw", yet groaning together, subject to +vanity, in bondage to corruption, travailing in pain, looking +forward in a sort of desperate hope to a freedom not yet realized +(Rom. 8:19-24). Nature is far less tragic for Jesus, far +happier--perhaps because he knew nature on closer terms of intimacy; +Nature, as he portrays things, is in nearer touch with the Heavenly +Father than we should guess from Paul[10], and there is no hint in +his recorded words that he held the ground to be under a curse. If +we are to use abstract terms and philosophize his thought a little, +we may agree that the four facts Jesus notes in Nature are its +mystery, its regularity, its impartiality, and its peacefulness[11]. +What he finds in Nature is not unlike what Wordsworth also finds-- + + A Power + That is the visible quality and shape + And image of right reason; that matures + Her processes by steadfast laws; gives birth + To no impatient or fallacious hopes, + No heat of passion or excessive zeal, + No vain conceits; provokes to no quick turns + Of self-applauding intellect; but trains + To meekness, and exalts by humble faith; + Holds up before the mind intoxicate + With present objects, and the busy dance + Of things that pass away, a temperate show + Of objects that endure?[12] + +This is not a passage that one could imagine the historical Jesus +speaking, or, still less, writing; but the essential ideas chime in +with his observation and his attitude "for the earth bringeth forth +fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full +corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). Man can count safely on earth's +co-operation. From it all, and in it all, Jesus read deep into God's +mind and methods. + +It has often been remarked how apt Jesus was to go away to pray +alone in the desert or on the hillside, in the night or the early +dawn--probably no new habit induced by the crowded days of his +ministry, but an old way of his from youth. The full house, perhaps, +would prompt it, apart from what he found in the open. St. +Augustine, in a very appealing confession, tells us how his prayers +may be disturbed if he catch sight of a lizard snapping up flies on +the wall of his room (Conf., 10:35, 57). The bird flying to her +nest, the fox creeping to his hole (Luke 9:58)--did these break into +the prayers of Jesus--and with what effect? Was it in such hours +that he learnt his deepest lessons from the birds and the lilies of +the field? Why not? As he sat out in the wild under the open sky, +did the stars never speak to him, as to Hebrew psalmist and Roman +Virgil? + + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; + What is man, that thou art mindful of him? + And the son of man, that thou visitest him? + (Psalm 8:3-4.) + +It is a question men have to meet and face; and if we can trust +Matthew's statement, an utterance of his in later years called out +by the sneer of a Pharisee, shows how he had made the old poet's +answer his own:-- + + Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise + (Matt. 21:16). + +If this were a solitary utterance of his thought upon Nature, it +might be ranked with one or two pointed citations he made of the +letter of the Old Testament; but it is safe, perhaps, to take it as +one of many indications of his communion with God in Nature. The +wind blowing in the night where it listed--must we authenticate +every verse of the Fourth Gospel before we believe that he listened +to it also and caught something? At any rate, in later years, when +his friends are over-driven and weary, quiet and open-air in a +desert place are what he prescribes for them and wishes to share +with them--surely a hint of old experience (Mark 6:31). + +But now let us turn back to Nazareth, for, as the Gospel reminds us, +there he grew up. "The city teaches the man," said the old Greek +poet Simonides; and it does, as we see, and more than we sometimes +realize. Jesus grew up in an Oriental town, in the middle of its +life--a town with poor houses, bad smells, and worse stories, +tragedies of widow and prodigal son, of unjust judge and grasping +publican--yes, and comedies too. We know at once from general +knowledge of Jewish life and custom, and from the recorded fact that +he read the Scriptures, that he went to school; and we could guess, +fairly safely, that he played with his school-fellows, even if he +had not told us what the games were at which they played:-- + + At weddings and at funerals, + As if his life's vocation + Were endless imitation. + +Sometimes the children were sulky and would not play (Luke 7:32). +How strange, and how delightful, that the great Gospel, full of +God's word for mankind, should have a little corner in it for such +reminiscences of children's games! We cannot suppose that he had +access to many books, but he knew the Old Testament, well and +familiarly--better and more aptly than some people expected. Traces +of other books have been found in his teaching, not many and some of +them doubtful. Generally one would conclude that, apart from the Old +Testament, his education was not very bookish--he found it in home +and shop, in the desert, on the road, and in the market-place. + +It is interesting to gather from the Gospel what Jesus says of the +talk of men, and it is surprising to find how much it is, till we +realize how very much in ancient times the city was the education, +and the market-place the school, where some of the most abiding +lessons were learnt. Is it not so still in the East? Here was a boy, +however, who watched men and their words more closely than they +guessed, on whose ears words fell, not as old coinages, but as new +minting, with the marks of thought still rough and bright on +them--indexes to the speaker. + +Proverbs of the market every people has of its own. "It is nought, +it is nought, saith the buyer, but, after he is gone his way, then +he boasteth." And the seller has all the variants of caveat emptor +ready to retort. In antiquity, and in the East to-day, apart from +machine-made things, we find the same uncertainty in most +transactions as to the value of the article, the same eagerness of +both seller and buyer to get at the supposed special knowledge of +the other, and the same preliminary skirmish of proposal, protest, +offer, refusal, and oath. Jesus stands by the stall, watching some +small sale with the bright, earnest eyes which we find so often in +the Gospels. The buyer swears "on his head" that he will not give +more than so much; then, "by the altar" he won't get the thing. "By +the earth" it isn't worth it; "by the heaven" the seller gave that +for it. So the battle rages, and at last the bargain is struck. The +buyer raises his price; the seller takes less than he gave for the +thing; neither has believed the other, but each, as the keen eyes of +the onlooker see, feels he has over-reached the other. Heaven has +been invoked--and what is Heaven? As the words fell on the +listener's ears, he saw the throne of God, and on it One before +whose face Heaven itself and earth will flee away--and be brought +back again for judgement. And by Heaven, and by Him who sits on the +Throne, men will swear falsely for an "anna" or two. How can they? +It is because "nothings grow something"; the words make a mist about +the thing. In later days Jesus told his followers to swear not at +all--to stick to Yes and No. + +Then a leader in the religious world passes, and the loiterers have +a new interest for the moment. "Rabbi, Rabbi," they say, and the +great man moves onward, obviously pleased with the greeting in the +marketplace (Matt. 23:7). As soon as he is out of hearing, it is no +longer "Rabbi" he is called; talk turns to another tune. How little +the fine word meant! How lightly the title was given! Worse still, +the title will stand between a man and the facts of life. Some will +use it to deceive him; others, impressed by it, are silent in his +presence; one way and another, the facts are kept from him. Seeing, +he sees not, and he comes to live in an unreal world. How many men +to-day will say what they really think before a man in clerical +dress, or a dignitary however trivial? "Be not ye called 'Rabbi,'" +was the counsel Jesus gave to his followers, and he would accept +neither "Rabbi," nor "Good Master," nor any other title till he saw +how much it meant. "Master!" they said, "we know that thou art true, +and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any +man; for thou regardest not the person of men" (Matt. 22:16). But as +the evangelist continues, Jesus "perceived their wickedness"--he had +heard such things before and was not trapped. "Hosanna in the +highest!" (Mark 11:10)--strange to think of the quiet figure, riding +in the midst of the excited crowd, open-eyed and undeceived in his +hour of "triumph"--as little perturbed, too, when his name is cast +out as evil. How little men's praise and their blame matter, when +your eyes are fixed on God--when you have Him and His facts to be +your inspiration! On the other hand, when you have not contact with +God, how much men's talk counts, and how easy it is to lose all +sense of fact! + +By and by the talk veers round to what Pilate had done one to the +Galileans--if the dates fit, or if for the moment we can make them +fit, or anticipate once for all, and be done with the bazaar talk +which never stopped. Pilate had killed the Galileans when they went +up to Jerusalem--yes! mingled their own blood, you might say, with +the blood of their sacrifices (Luke 13:1). What would he do next? +There was no telling. What was needed--some time--it was bound to +come--and the voice sank--a Theudas, or a Judas again (Acts 5:36, +37)--it would not be surprising. ... There were no newspapers, no +approved and reliable sources of news such as we boast to have from +our governments and millionaires; all was rumour, bazaar talk--"Lo! +here!" and "Lo! there!" (Mark 13:21). "Prohibiti sermones ideoque +plures", said Tacitus of Rome--rumours were forbidden, so there were +more of them. The Messiah _must_ come some time, said one man who +might be a friend of the Zealots. In any case, reflected another, +those Galileans had probably angered Heaven and got their deserts; +ill luck like that could hardly come by accident; think of the tower +that fell at Siloam--anybody could see there was a judgement in it. +Might it not be said that God had discredited John the Baptist, now +his head was taken off? So men speculated (cf. John 9:2). Jesus saw +through all this, and was radiantly clear about it. + +So they chattered, and he heard. Then the talk took another turn, +and tales were told--bad eyes flashed and lips smacked, as one +story-teller eclipsed the other in the familiar vein. The Arabian +Nights are tales of the crowd, it is said, rather than literature in +their origin, and will give clues enough to what might be told. +Jesus heard, and he saw what it meant; and afterwards he told his +friends: "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil +thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders ... foolishness; all +these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark +7:21-23). The evil thought takes shape to find utterance, and gains +thereby a new vitality, a new power for evil, and may haunt both +speaker and listener for ever with its defiling memory. + +By and by he intervened and spoke himself. Every one was shocked, +and said, "Blasphemy!" They were not used to think of God as he did, +and it seemed improper. + +Then the whole question of human speech rises for him. What did they +mean by their words? What could their minds be like? God dragged in +and flung about like a counter, in a game of barter--but if you +speak real meaning about God it is blasphemy. "Rabbi, Rabbi" to the +great man's face--he turns his back--and his name is smirched for +ever by a witty improvisation. Why? Why should men do such things? +The magic in the idle tale--ten minutes, and the memory is stained +for ever with what not one of them would forget, however he might +wish to try to forget. The words are loose and idle, careless, flung +out without purpose but to pass the moment--and they live for ever +and work mischief. How can they be so light and yet have such power? + +Later on he told his friends what he had seen in this matter of +words. They come from within, and the speaker's whole personality, +false or true, is behind what he says--the good or bad treasure of +his heart. There are no grapes growing on the bramble bush. No +wonder that of every idle word men shall give account on the day of +Judgement (Matt. 12:36). The idle word--the word unstudied--comes +straight from the inmost man, the spontaneous overflow from the +spirit within, natural and inevitable, proof of his quality; and +they react with the life that brought them forth.[13] + +So he grows up--in a real world and among real people. He goes to +school with the boys of his own age, and lives at home with mother +and brothers and sisters. He reads the Old Testament, and forms a +habit of going to the Synagogue (Luke 4:16). All points to a home +where religion was real. The first word he learnt to say was +probably "Abba", and it struck the keynote of his thoughts. But he +knew the world without as well,--turned on to it early the keen eyes +that saw all, and he recognized what he saw. Knowledge of men, but +without cynicism, a loving heart still in spite of his freedom from +illusions--these are among the gifts that his environment gave him, +or failed to take away from him. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN AND HIS MIND + +It is a commonplace with those who take literature seriously that +what is to reach the heart must come from the heart; and the maxim +may be applied conversely--that what has reached a heart has come +from a heart--that what continues to reach the heart, among strange +peoples, in distant lands, after long ages, has come from a heart of +no common make. The Anglo-Saxon boy is at home in the Odyssey; and +when he is a man--if he has the luck to be guided into classical +paths--he finds himself in the Aeneid; and from this certain things +are deduced about the makers of those poems--that they knew life, +looked on it with bright, keen eyes, loved it, and lived it over +again as they shaped it into verse. + +When we turn to the first three Gospels, we find the same thing. +Here are books with a more worldwide range than Homer or Virgil, +translated again and again from the first century of their existence +on to the latest--and then more than ever--into all sorts of +tongues, to reach men all over the globe; and that purpose they have +achieved. They have done it not so much for the literary graces of +the translators or even of the original authors, though in one case +these are more considerable than is sometimes allowed. That the +Gospels owe their appeal to the recorded sayings and doings of our +Lord, is our natural way of putting it to-day; but if for "our Lord" +we put a plainer description, more congenial to the day in which the +Gospels were written, we shall be in a better position to realize +the significance of the worldwide appeal of his words. Thus and +thus, then, spoke a mere provincial, a Jew who, though far less +conspicuous and interesting, came from the region of Meleager and +Philodemos--not from their town of Gadara, nor possibly from their +district, but from some place not so very far away. + +It was not to be expected that he should win the hearts of men as he +did. He had not the Greek culture of the two Gadarenes. Celsus even +found his style of speech rather vulgar. But he has, as a matter of +common knowledge--so common as hardly to be noted--won the hearts of +men in every race and every land. The fact is familiar, but we have +as historians and critics to look for the explanation. What has been +his appeal? And what the heart and nature, from which came this +incredible power and reach of appeal? "Out of the abundance (the +overflow) of the heart the mouth speaketh," he said. (Matt. 12:34). +This he amplified, as we have seen, by his insistence on the weight +of every idle word (Matt. 12:36)--the unstudied and spontaneous +expression or ejaculation--the reflex, in modern phrase--which gives +the real clue to the man's inner nature and deeper mind, which +"justifies" him, therefore, or "condemns" him (Matt. 12:37). The +overflow of the heart, he holds, shows more decisively than anything +else the quality of the spring in its depths. + +Here is a suggestion which we find true in ordinary life as well as +in the study of literature. If we turn it back upon its author, he +at least will not complain, and we shall perhaps gain a new sense of +his significance by approaching him at a new angle, from an outlook +not perhaps much frequented. How did he come to speak in this +manner, to say this and that? To what feeling or thought, to what +attitude to life, is this or the other saying due? If he, too, spoke +"out of the overflow of his heart"--and we can believe it when we +think of the freshness and spontaneity with which he spoke--of what +nature and of what depth was that heart? + +We can very well believe that much in his speech that was +unforgettable to others, he forgot himself. They remembered, they +could not help remembering, what he said; but he--no! he said it and +moved on, keeping no register of his sayings; and so much the more +natural and characteristic they are. Nor would he, like smaller +people, be very careful of the form and turn of his speech; it was +never set. Certainly he gave his followers the rule not to study +their language (Mark 13:11). Whether or no he had consciously +thought it all out; we can see the value of his rule, and how it +fits in with his way of life and safeguards it. Under such a rule +speech will not be stereotyped; no set form of words will impose +itself on the free movement of thought, the mind can and will move +of itself unhampered; and when the mind keeps and develops such +freedom of movement, it commonly breaks new ground and handles new +things. Not to be careful of our speech means for most of us +slovenly thinking; but when a man thinks in earnest and takes truth +seriously, when he speaks with his eye on his object, his language +will not be slovenly, his instinct for fact will keep his speech +pure and true. This is what we find in the sayings of Jesus; there +is form, but living form, the freedom and grace which the clear mind +and the friendly eye communicate insensibly and inimitably to +language. + +Our task in this chapter is primarily a historical one. From the +words of Jesus we have to work back to the type of mind from which +they come. There is always danger in such a task. We may forget the +wide and living variety of the mind we study; our own minds may not +be large enough, nor tender enough, not various, quick and +sympathetic in such a degree as to apprehend what we find, to see +what it means, and to relate it to itself, detail to whole. How much +greater the danger here! While we analyse, we have to remember that +the most correct analysis of features or characteristics may easily +fail to give us a true idea of the face or the character which we +analyse. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. The face and +the character have an "integrity," a wholeness. The detail may be of +immense value to us, studied as detail; but for the true view the +detail, familiar as it may be to us, and dear to us, must be sunk in +the general view. Especially is this true of great characters. The +"reconstruction of a personality"--to borrow a phrase from some +psychologists--is a very difficult matter, even when we are masters +of our detail. There is a proportion, a perspective, a balance, a +poise about a character--my terms may involve some mixture of +metaphors, but if the mixture brings out the complexity and +difficulty of our task, it will be justified. Above all there is +life, and as a life deepens and widens, it grows complex, +unintelligible, and wonderful. It is more so than ever in the case +of Jesus. Yet we have to grapple with this great task, if we are to +know him, even if here as elsewhere we realize quickly that the +beginning of real knowledge is when we grasp how much we do not +know, how much there is to know. Attempted in this spirit, a study +of the mind of Jesus and his characteristics should help us forward +to some further intimacy with him. + +The Gospels do not, like some biographies ancient and modern, give a +place to the physical characteristics of Jesus. Suetonius in a very +short sketch adds the personal aspect of the poet Horace, who, it is +true, had led the way by such allusions (Epist. i. 4, 15-16), and +tells us how Augustus said he was "a squat little pot" (sessilis +obba). The "Acts of Thekla" in a similar way describe St. Paul's +short figure with its suggestion of quickness. But the only personal +traits of this sort that I recall in the New Testament are the eyes +of Jesus and Paul's way of stretching out a hand when he spoke. In +view of this reticence, it is rather remarkable how often the +Gospels refer to Jesus "looking." He "looked round about on" the +people in the Synagogue, and then--with some suggestion of a pause +and silence while he looked, "he saith unto the man" (Mark 3:5). +When Peter deprecated the Cross, we find the same; "when he had +turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter" (Mark +8:33). When the rich young ruler came so impulsively to him to ask +him about eternal life, Jesus, "looking upon him, loved him"--and we +touch there a certain reminiscence of eye-witnesses (Mark 10:21). +There are other references of the same kind in the narratives--the +look seems to come into the story naturally, without the writers +noticing it. There must have been much else as familiar to his +friends and companions. They must have known him as we know our +friends--the inflections of his voice, his characteristic movements, +the hang of his clothes, his step in the dark, and all such things. +Did he speak quickly or slowly? or move his hand when he spoke? The +teaching posture of Buddha's hand is stereotyped in his images. We +are not told such things about Jesus, and guessing does not take us +very far. Yet a stanza in one of the elegies written on the death of +Sir Philip Sidney may be taken as a far-away likeness of a greater +and more wonderful figure--and not lead us very far astray:-- + + A sweet, attractive kind of grace; + The full assurance given by looks; + Perpetual comfort in a face; + The lineaments of Gospel books. + +If we are not explicitly told of such things by the evangelists, +they are easily felt in the story. The "paradoxes," as we call +them--a rather dull name for them--surely point to a face alive with +intellect and gaiety. The way in which, for instance, the leper +approaches him, implies the man's eyes fixed in close study on +Jesus' face, and finding nothing there to check him and everything +to bring him nearer (Mark 1:41). When Mark tells us that he greeted +the Syro-Phoenician woman's sally about the little dogs eating the +children's crumbs under the table with the reply, "For the sake of +this saying of yours ...," we must assume some change of expression +on such a face as that of Jesus (Mark 7:29). + +We read again and again of the interest men and women found in his +preaching and teaching--how they hung on him to hear him, how they +came in crowds, how on one occasion they drove him into a boat for a +pulpit. It is only familiarity that has blinded us to the "charm" +they found in his speech--"they marvelled at his words of charm" +(Luke 4:22)--to the gaiety and playfulness that light up his +lessons. For instance, there is a little-noticed phrase, that grows +very delightful as we study it, in his words to the seventy +disciples--"Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this +house (the common "salaam" of the East); and if a son of peace be +there, your peace shall rest upon it; if not, your "salaam" will +come back to _you_" (Luke 10:6). "A son of peace"--not _the_ son of +peace--what a beautiful expression; what a beautiful idea too, that +the unheeded Peace! comes back and blesses the heart that wished it, +as if courteous and kind words never went unrewarded! Think again of +"Solomon in all his glory" (Matt. 6:29)--before the phrase was +hackneyed by common quotation. Do not such words reveal nature? + +A more elaborate and more amusing episode is that of the Pharisee's +drinking operations. We are shown the man polishing his cup, +elaborately and carefully; for he lays great importance on the +cleanness of his cup; but he forgets to clean the inside. Most +people drink from the inside, but the Pharisee forgot it, dirty as +it was, and left it untouched. Then he sets about straining what he +is going to drink--another elaborate process; he holds a piece of +muslin over the cup and pours with care; he pauses--he sees a +mosquito; he has caught it in time and flicks it away; he is safe +and he will not swallow it. And then, adds Jesus, he swallowed a +camel. How many of us have ever pictured the process, and the series +of sensations, as the long hairy neck slid down the throat of the +Pharisee--all that amplitude of loose-hung anatomy--the hump--two +humps--both of them slid down--and he never noticed--and the +legs--all of them--with whole outfit of knees and big padded feet. +The Pharisee swallowed a camel--and never noticed it (Matt. 23:24, +25). It is the mixture of sheer realism with absurdity that makes +the irony and gives it its force. Did no one smile as the story was +told? Did no one see the scene pictured with his own mind's eye--no +one grasp the humour and the irony with delight? Could any one, on +the other hand, forget it? A modern teacher would have said, in our +jargon, that the Pharisee had no sense of proportion--and no one +would have thought the remark worth remembering. But Jesus' +treatment of the subject reveals his own mind in quite a number of +aspects. + +When he bade turn the other cheek--that sentence which Celsus found +so vulgar--did no one smile, then, at the idea of anybody ever +dreaming of such an act (Matt. 5:39)? Nor at the picture of the kind +brother taking a mote from his brother's eye, with a whole baulk of +timber in his own (Matt. 7:5)? Nor at the suggestion of doing two +miles of forced labour when only one was demanded (Matt. 5:41)? Nor +when he suggested that anxiety about food and clothing was a mark of +the Gentiles (Matt. 6:32)? Did none of his disciples mark a touch of +irony when he said that among the Gentile dynasties the kings who +exercise authority are called "Benefactors" (Luke 22:25)? It was +true; Euergetes is a well-known kingly title, but the explanation +that it was the reward for strenuous use of monarchic authority was +new. Are we to think his face gave no sign of what he was doing? Was +there no smile? + +We are told by his biographer that Marcus Aurelius had a face that +never changed--for joy or sorrow, "being an adherent," he adds, "of +the Stoic philosophy." The pose of superiority to emotion was not +uncommonly held in those times to be the mark of a sage--Horace's +"nil admirari". The writers of the Gospels do not conceal that Jesus +had feelings, and expressed them. We read how he "rejoiced in +spirit" (Luke 10:21)--how he "sighed" (Mark 7:34) and "sighed +deeply" (Mark 8:12)--how his look showed "anger" (Mark 3:5). They +tell us of his indignant utterances (Matt. 23:14; Mark 11:17)--of +his quick sensitiveness to a purposeful touch (Mark 5:30)--of his +fatigue (Mark 7:24; Luke 8:23)--of his instant response, as we have +just seen, to contact with such interesting spirits as the +Syro-Phoenician woman and the rich young ruler. Above all, we find +him again and again "moved with compassion." We saw the leper +approach him, with eyes fixed on the face of Jesus. The man's +appeal--"If thou wilt thou canst make me clean"--his misery moves +Jesus; he reaches out his hand, and, with no thought for contagion +or danger, he touches the leper--so deep was the wave of pity that +swept through him--and he heals the man (Mark 1:40-42). It would +almost seem as if the touching impressed the spectators as much as +the healing. Compassion is an old-fashioned word, and sympathy has a +wide range of suggestions, some of them by now a little cold; we +have to realize, if we can, how deeply and genuinely Jesus felt with +men, how keen his feeling was for their suffering and for their +hunger, and at the same moment reflect how strong and solid a nature +it is that is so profoundly moved. Again, when we read of his happy +way in dealing with children, are we to draw no inference as to his +face, and what it told the children? Finally, on this part of our +subject, we are given glimpses of his dark hours. The writer to the +Hebrews speaks of his "offering up prayers and supplications with +strong crying and tears" and "learning obedience by the things that +he suffered" (Heb. 5:7, 8), and Luke, perhaps dealing with the same +occasion, says he was "in agony" (Luke 22:44), a strong phrase from +a man of medical training. Luke again, with the other evangelists, +refers to the temptations of Jesus, and in a later passage records +the poignant and revealing sentence--"Ye are they that have +continued with me in my temptations" (Luke 22:28). Finally, there is +the last cry upon the Cross (Mark 15:37). So frankly, and yet so +unobtrusively, they lay bare his soul, as far as they saw it. + +From what is given us it is possible to go further and see something +of his habits of mind. His thought will occupy us in later chapters; +here we are concerned rather with the way in which his mind moves, +and the characteristics of his thinking. + +First of all, we note a certain swiftness, a quick realization of a +situation, a character, or the meaning of a word. Men try to trap +him with a question, and he instantly "recognizes their trickery" +(Luke 20:23). When they ask for a sign, he is as quick to see what +they have in mind (Mark 8:11-13). He catches the word whispered to +Jairus--half hears, half divines it, in an instant (Mark 5:36). He +is surprised at slowness of mind in other men (Matt. 15:16; Mark +8:21). And in other things he is as quick--he sees "the kingdoms of +this world in a moment of time" (Luke 4:5); he beholds "Satan fallen +(aorist participle) from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18)--two +very striking passages, which illuminate his mind for us in a very +important phase of it. We ought to have been able to guess without +them that he saw things instantly and in a flash--that they stood +out for him in outline and colour and movement there and then. That +is plain in the parables from nature, and here it is confirmed. Is +there in all his parables a blurred picture, the edges dim or the +focus wrong? The tone of the parables is due largely to this gift of +visualizing, to use an ugly modern word, and of doing it with +swiftness and precision. + +Several things combine to make this faculty, or at least go along +with it--a combination not very common even among men of genius--an +unusual sense of fact, a very keen and vivid sympathy, and a gift of +bringing imagination to bear on the fact in the moment of its +discovery, and afterwards in his treatment of the fact. + +On his sense of fact we have touched before, in dealing with his +close observation of Nature. It is an observation that needs no +note-book, that is hardly conscious of itself. There is, as we know, +a happy type of person who sees almost without looking, certainly +without noticing--and sees aright too. The temperament is described +by Wordsworth in the opening books of "The Prelude". The poet type +seems to lose so much and yet constantly surprises us by what it has +captured, and sometimes hardly itself realizes how much has been +done. The gains are not registered, but they are real and they are +never lost, and come flashing out all unexpectedly when the note is +struck that calls them. So one feels it was with Jesus' intimate +knowledge of Nature--it is not the knowledge of botanist or +naturalist, but that of the inmate and the companion, who by long +intimacy comes to know far more than he dreams. "Wise master +mariners," wrote the Greek poet, Pindar, long before, "know the wind +that shall blow on the third day, and are not wrecked for headlong +greed of gain." They know the weather, as we say, by instinct; and +instinct is the outcome of intimacy, of observation accurate but +sub-conscious. + +It chimes in with this instinct for fact, that Jesus should lay so +much emphasis on truth of word and truth of thought. Any hypocrisy +is a leaven (Matt. 16:19; Luke 12:1); any system of two standards of +truth spoils the mind (Matt. 5:33-37). The divided mind fails +because it is not for one thing or the other. If it is impossible to +serve God and mammon, truth and God go together in one allegiance; +and a non-Theocentric element in a man's thought will be fatal +sooner or later to any aptitude he has by nature for God and truth. + +We find this illustrated in Jesus' own case. At the heart of his +instinct for fact is his instinct for God. He goes to the permanent +and eternal at once in his quest of fact, because his instinct for +God is so sure and so compelling. Bishop Phillips Brooks noted in +Jesus' conversation "a constant progress from the arbitrary and +special to the essential and universal forms of thought," "a true +freedom from fastidiousness," "a singular largeness" in his +intellectual life. The small question is answered in the +larger--"the life is more than meat and the body is more than +raiment" (Luke 12:23). When he is challenged on divorce, he goes +past Moses to God (Matt. 19:4)--"He which made them at the beginning +made them male and female." Every question is settled for him by +reference to God, and to God's principles of action and to God's +laws and commands; and God, as we shall see in a later chapter, is +not for him a conception borrowed from others, a quotation from a +book. God is real, living, and personal; and all his teaching is +directed to drive his disciples into the real; he insists on the +open mind, the study of fact, the fresh, keen eye turned on the +actual doings of God. + +When life and thought have such a centre, a simplicity and an +integrity follow beyond what we might readily guess. "When thine eye +is single, thy whole body also is full of light, ... if thy whole +body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole +shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth +give thee light" (Luke 11:34-36). It is this fullness of light that +we find in Jesus; and as the light plays on one object and another, +how clear and simple everything grows! All round about him was +subtlety, cleverness, fastidiousness. His speech is lucid, drives +straight to the centre, to the principle, and is intelligible. We +may not see how far his word carries us, but it is abundantly plain +that simple and straightforward people do understand Jesus--not all +at once, but sufficiently for the moment, and with a sense that +there is more beyond. His thought is uncomplicated by distinctions +due to tradition and its accidents. His whole attitude to life is +simple--he has no taboos; he comes "eating and drinking" (Matt. +11:19); and he told his followers, when he sent them out to preach, +to eat what they were given (Luke 10:7); "give alms," he says, "of +such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you" +(Luke 11:41). If God gives the food, it will probably be clean; and +the old taboos will be mere tradition of men. He is not interested +in what men call "signs," in the exceptional thing; the ordinary +suffices when one sees God in it. One of Jesus' great lessons is to +get men to look for God in the commonplace things of which God makes +so many, as if Abraham Lincoln were right and God did make so many +common people, because he likes them best. The commonest +flowers--God thinks them out, says Jesus, and takes care of them +(Matt. 6:28-30). Hence there is little need of special machinery for +contact with God--priesthoods, trances, visions, or mystical +states--abnormal means for contact with the normal. When Jesus +speaks of the very highest and holiest things, he is as simple and +natural as when he is making a table in the carpenter-shop. Sense +and sanity are the marks of his religion. + +"Sense of fact" is a phrase which does not exclude--perhaps it even +suggests--some hint of dullness. The matter-of-fact people are +valuable in their way, but rarely illuminative, and it is because +they lack the imagination that means sympathy. Now in Jesus' case +there is a quickness and vividness of sympathy--he likes the birds +and flowers and beasts he uses as illustrations. They are not the +"natural objects" with which dull people try to brighten their pages +and discourses. They are happy living things that come to his mind, +as it were, of themselves, because, shall we say? they know they +will be welcome there; and they are welcome. His pity and sympathy +are unlike ours in having so much more intelligence and +fellow-feeling in them. He understands men and women, as his gift of +bright and winning speech shows. After all, as Carlyle has pointed +out in many places, it is this gift of tenderness and understanding, +of sympathy, that gives the measure of our intellects.[14] It is the +faculty by which men touch fact and master it. It is the want of it +that makes so many clever and ingenious people so futile and +distressing. + +The sense of fact and the gift for sympathy and the foundations, so +to speak, of the imagination which gives their quality to the +stories and pictures of Jesus. He thinks in pictures, as it were; +they fill his speech, and every one of them is alive and real. +Think, for example, of the Light of the world (Matt. 5:14), the +strait gate and the narrow way (Matt. 7:14), the pictures of the +bridegroom (Mark 2:19), sower (Matt. 13:3), pearl merchant (Matt. +13:45), and the men with the net (Matt. 13:47), the sheep among the +wolves (Matt. 10:16), the woman sweeping the house (Luke 15:8), the +debtor going to prison accompanied by his creditor and the officer +with the judge's warrant (Luke 12:58), the shepherd separating his +sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32), the children playing in the +market-place pretending to pipe or to mourn (Luke 7:32), the fall of +the house (Matt. 7:27)--or the ironical pictures of the blind +leading the blind straight for the ditch (Matt. 15:14), the +vintagers taking their baskets to the bramble bushes (Matt. 7:16), +the candle burning away brightly under the bushel (Matt. 5:15; Luke +11:33), the offering of pearls to the pigs (Matt. 7:6)--or his +descriptions of what lay before himself as a cup and a baptism (Mark +10:38), and of his task as the setting fire to the world (Luke +12:49). There is a truthfulness and a living energy about all these +pictures--not least about those touched with irony. + +There are, however, pictures less realistic and more +imaginative--one or two of them, in the language of the fireside, +quite "creepy." Here is a house--a neat, trim little house--and for +the English reader there is of course a garden or a field round it, +and a wood beyond. Out of the wood comes something--stealthily +creeping up towards the house--something not easy to make out, but +weary and travel-stained and dusty--and evil. A strange feeling +comes over one as one watches--it is evil, one is certain of it. +Nearer and nearer to the house it creeps--it is by the window--it +rises to look in, and one shudders to think of those inside who +suddenly see _that_ looking at them through the window. But there is +no one there. Fatigue changes to triumph; caution is dropped; it +goes and returns with seven worse than itself, and the last state of +the place is worse than the first (Luke 11:24-26). Is this leaving +the real? One critic will say it is, "No," says another man, in a +graver tone and speaking slowly, "it's real enough; it's my story." +But have we left the text too far? Then let us try another passage. +Here is a funeral procession, a bier with a dead man laid out on it, +"wrapped in a linen cloth" (Matt. 27:59), "bound hand and foot with +grave-clothes" (John 11:44)--a common enough sight in the East; but +who are they who are carrying him--those silent, awful figures, +bound like him hand and foot, and wound with the same linen cloth, +moving swiftly and steadily along with their burden? It is the dead +burying the dead (Luke 9:60). Add to these the account of the three +Temptations--stories in picture, which must come from Jesus himself, +and illustrate another side of his experience. For to the mind that +sees and thinks in pictures, temptation comes in pictures which the +mind makes for itself, or has presented to it and at once lights +up--pictures horrible and once seen hard to forget and to escape. No +wonder he warns men against the pictures they paint themselves in +their minds (Matt. 5:28; cf. Chapter VII, p. 154). Add also the +other pictures of Satan fallen (Luke 10:18) and Satan pushing into +God's presence with a demand for the disciples (Luke 22:31). Are we +to call these "visions"--the word is ambiguous--or are they +imaginative presentments of evil, as it thrusts itself on the soul, +with all its allurements and all its ugliness? "Visions" in the +sense that is associated with trance, we shall hardly call them. +They are pictures showing his gift of imagination. + +Lastly, on this part of our subject, let us remind ourselves of the +many parables and pictures and sayings which put God himself before +us. Here is the bird's nest, and one little sparrow fallen to the +ground--and God is there and he takes notice of it; he misses the +little bird from the brood (Matt. 10:29; cf. Luke 12:6). Here again +is quite another scene--the rich and middle-aged man, who has +prospered in everything and is just completing his plans to retire +from business, when he feels a tap on his shoulder and hears a voice +speaking to him, and he turns and is face to face with God (Luke +12:20). And there are all the other stories of God's goodness and +kindness and care; is not the very phrase "Our Father in heaven" a +picture in itself, if we can manage to give the word the value which +Jesus meant it to carry? When one studies the teaching of Jesus, and +concentrates on what he draws us of God, God somehow becomes real +and delightful, in a most wonderful way. + +With all these faculties brought to bear on all he thinks, and +lucent in all he says, there is little wonder that men recognized +another note in Jesus from that familiar in their usual teachers. +Rabbi Eliezer of those times was praised as "a well-trough that +loses not a drop of water." We all know that type of teacher--the +tank-mind, full, no doubt, supplied by pipes, and ministering its +gifts by pipe and tap, regulated, tiresome, and dead. "The water +that I shall give him," days Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (John 4:14), +"shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting +life." The water metaphors of the New Testament are not of trough +and tank. Jesus taught men--not from a reservoir of quotations, like +a scribe or a Rabbi, "but as possessed of authority himself" (Matt. +7:29). Who gave him that authority? asked the priests (Matt. 21:23)? +Who authorizes the living man to live? "All things are delivered +unto me of my Father" (Matt. 11:27). "My words shall not pass away" +(Mark 13:31). + +He has proved right; his words have not passed away. The great "Son +of Fact," he went to fact, drove his disciples to fact, and (in the +striking phrase of Cromwell) "spoke _things_." And we can see in the +record again and again the traces of the mental habits and the +natural language of one who habitually based himself on experience +and on fact. Critics remark on his method of using the Old Testament +and contrast it with contemporary ways. St. Paul, for instance, in +the passage where he weighs the readings "seeds" and "seed" (Gal. +3:16), is plainly racking language to the destruction of its real +sense; no one ever would have written "seeds" in that connexion; but +in the style of the day he forces a singular into an utterly +non-natural significance. St. Matthew in his first two chapters +proves the events, which he describes, to have been prophesied by +citing Old Testament passages--two of which conspicuously refer to +entirely different matters, and do not mean at all what he suggests +(Matt. 2:15, 23). The Hebrew with the Old Testament, like the Greek +of those days with Homer, made what play he pleased; if the words +fitted his fancy, he took them regardless of connexion or real +meaning; if he was pressed for a defence, he would take refuge in +allegory. A fashion was set for the Church which bore bad fruit. The +Old Testament was emptied of meaning to fortify the Christian faith +with "proof texts." When Jesus quotes the Old Testament, it is for +other ends and with a clear, incisive sense of the prophet's +meaning. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and +not sacrifice" (Matt. 9:13 and 12:7, quoting Hosea 6:6). He not +merely quotes Hosea, but it is plain that he has got at the very +heart of the man and his message. Similarly when he reads Isaiah in +the Synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:17), he lays hold of a great +passage and brings out with emphasis its value and its promise. He +touches the real, and no lapse of time makes his quotations look odd +or quaint. When he is asked which is the first commandment of all, +he at once, with what a modern writer calls "a brilliant flash of +the highest genius," links a text in Deuteronomy with one in +Leviticus--"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou +shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Deut. +6:4-5), and, he adds, "the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt +love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment +greater than these" (Levit. 19:18; Mark 12:29-31). Thus his instinct +for God and his instinct for the essential carry him to the very +centre and acme of Moses' law. At the same time he can use the Old +Testament in an efficient way for dialectic, when an "argumentum ad +hominem" best meets the case (Mark 7:6; Luke 20:37, 44). + +Going to fact directly and reading his Bible on his own account, he +is the great pioneer of the Christian habit of mind. He is not idly +called the Captain by the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 2:10, 12:2). +Authority and tradition only too readily assume control of human +life; but a mind like that of Jesus, like that which he gave to his +followers, will never be bound by authority and tradition. Moses is +very well, but if God has higher ideas of marriage--what then? The +Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat (Matt. 23:2), but that +does not make them equal to Moses; still less does it make their +traditions of more importance than God's commandments (Mark 7:1-13). +The Sabbath itself "was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" +(Mark 2:27). + +Where the habit of mind is thus set to fact, and life is based on +God, on God's will and God's doings, it is not surprising that in +the daily round there should be noted "sanity, reserve, composure, +and steadiness." It may seem to be descending to a lower plane, but +it is worthwhile to look for a moment at the sheer sense which Jesus +can bring to bear on a situation. The Sabbath--is it lawful to heal +on the Sabbath? Well, if a man's one sheep is in a pit on the +Sabbath, what will he do? (Matt. 12:11), or will he refrain from +leading his ox to the water on the Sabbath (Luke 13:15)? Such +questions bring a theological problem into the atmosphere of +sense--and it is better solved there. He is interrupted by a demand +that he arbitrate between a man and his brother; and his reply is +virtually, Does your brother accept your choice of an arbitrator? +(Luke 12:14)--and that matter is finished. "Are there few that be +saved?" asks some one in vague speculation, and he gets a practical +answer addressed to himself (Luke 13:23). Even in matters of +ordinary manners and good taste, he offers a shrewd rule (Luke +14:8). Luke records also two or three instances of perfectly banal +talk and ejaculation addressed to him--the bazaar talk of the +Galilean murders (Luke 13:1)--the pious if rather obvious remark of +some man about feasting in the Kingdom of God (Luke 14:15)--and the +woman's homey congratulation of Mary on her son (Luke 11:27). In +each case he gets away to something serious. + +Above all, we must recognize the power which every one felt in him. +Even Herod, judging by rumour, counts him greater than John the +Baptist (Matt. 14:2). The very malignity of his enemies is a +confession of their recognition that they are dealing with some one +who is great. Men remarked his sedative and controlling influence +over the disordered mind (Mark 1:27). He is not to be trapped in his +talk, to be cajoled or flattered. There is greatness in his +language--in his reference of everything to great principles and to +God; greatness in his freedom from ambition, in his contempt of +advertisement and popularity, in his appeal to the best in men, in +his belief in men, in his power of winning and keeping friends, in +his gift for making great men out of petty. In all this we are not +stepping outside the Gospels nor borrowing from what he has done in +nineteen centuries. In Galilee and in Jerusalem men felt his power. +And finally, what of his calm, his sanity, his dignity, in the hour +of betrayal, in the so-called trials, before the priests, before +Pilate, on the Cross? The Pharisees, said Tertullian, ought to have +recognized who Christ was by his patience. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TEACHER AND HIS DISCIPLES + +It was as a teacher that Jesus of Nazareth first began to gather +disciples round him. But to understand the work of the Teacher, we +must have some general impression of the world to which he came. The +background will help us understand what had to be done, and what it +was he meant to do. + +Bishop Gore, in a book recently published, suggested that the belief +that God is Love is not axiomatic. Many of us take it for granted, +as the point at which religion naturally begins; but, as he +emphasized, it is not an obvious truth; it is something of which we +have to be convinced, something that has to be made good to men. +Unless we bear this in mind, we shall miss a great deal of what +Jesus has really done, by assuming that he was not needed to do it. + +"Out of a darker world than ours came this new spring." We must look +at the world as it was, when Jesus came. In a later chapter we shall +have to consider more fully the religions of the Roman world. One or +two points may be anticipated. First of all, we have to realize what +a hard world it was. Men and women are harder than we sometimes +think, and the natural hardness to which the human heart grows of +itself, needed more correction than it had in those days. + +Among the many papyrus documents that have been found in late years +in Egypt--documents that have pictured for us the life of Egypt, and +have recorded for us also the language of the New Testament in a +most illuminative way--there is one that illustrates only too aptly +the unconscious hardness of the times. It is a letter--no literary +letter, no letter that any one would ordinarily have thought of +keeping; it has survived by accident. It was written by an Egyptian +Greek to his wife. She lived somewhere up the country, and he had +gone to Alexandria. She had been expecting a baby when he left, and +he wrote a rough, but not an unkind, letter to her. He writes: +"Hilarion to Alis . . . greetings.... Know that we are still even +now in Alexandria. Do not fidget, if, at the general return, I stay +in Alexandria. I pray and beseech you, take care of the little +child, and as soon as we have our wages, I will send you up +something. If you are delivered, if it was a male, let it live; if +it was a female, cast it out . . . . How can I forget you? So don't +fidget."[15] + +The letter is not an unkind one; it is sympathetic, masculine, +direct, and friendly. And then it ends with the suggestion, +inconceivable to us to-day, that if the baby is a girl, it need not +be kept. It can be put out either on the land or in the river, left +to kite or crocodile. The evidence of satirists is generally to be +discounted, because they tend to emphasize the exceptional; and it +is not the exceptional thing that gives the character of an age, or +of a man. It is the kind of thing that we take for granted and +assume to be normal that shows our character or gives the note of +the day; and what we omit to notice may be as revealing. + +In the plays of the Athenian comic poets of the third and fourth +centuries B.C. we find, to wearisomeness, one recurring plot. The +heroine turns out to be, not just a common girl, but the daughter of +the best family in Athens, exposed when she was a baby. When Plato +sketched his ideal constitution, in addition to the mating of +suitable pairs to be decided by government, he added that, if the +offspring were not good enough, it should be put away where it would +not be found again. Aristotle allowed the same practice. The most +cultured race on earth freely exposed its infants; and this letter +of Hilarion to Alis--a dated letter by the way, of September or +October in the year 1 A.D.--makes it clear that the practice of +exposure of children still prevailed; and there is other evidence +which need not now detain us. It is a hard world, where kind people +or good people can think of such things as ordinary and natural. + +Evidence of the character of an age is given by the treatment of +criminals; and that age was characterized by crucifixion. They would +take a human being, spread him out on a cross on the ground, drive +nails through his hands and feet; and then the cross was raised--the +agony of the victim during the movement is not to be imagined. It +was made fast; and there the victim hung, suspended between heaven +and earth, to live or die at his leisure. By and by crows would +gather round him. "I have been good," said the slave. "Then you have +your reward," says the Latin poet, "you will not feed the crows on +the cross."[16] There is a very striking phrase in St. Matthew: "And +sitting down they watched him there" (Matt. 27:36). The soldiers +nailed three men to crosses, and sat down beneath them to dice for +their clothes. Our tolerances, like our utterances, come out of the +abundance of the heart, and stamp us for what we are. + +We cannot easily realize all that slavery meant. When we read in the +Fourth Gospel that "the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world" (John 1:29), that was written before Jesus Christ had +abolished slavery; for, we remember, it was done by his people +against the judgement of the business experts. Slavery meant robbing +the man of every right that Nature gave him; and, as Homer said long +ago, "Farseeing Zeus takes away half a man's manhood, when he brings +the day of slavery upon him."[17] He became a thief, a liar, dirty, +and bad; and with the woman it was still worse. The slave woman was +a little lower than the animal; she might not have offspring. It was +"natural," men said; "Nature had designed certain races to be +slaves; slavery was written in Nature; it was Nature's law." These +were not the thoughts of vulgar people, but of some of the best of +the Greeks--not of all, indeed; but society was organized on the +basis of slavery. It was an accepted axiom of all social and +economic life. + +As to the spiritual background, for the present let us postpone the +heathen world and consider the Jews, who represented in some ways +the world's highest at this period. Modern scholarship is shedding +fresh light on the literature and ideas that were prevalent between +the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. But what +uncertainty about God! Why some people should think that it was +easier to believe in God in those days than now, I do not see. Far +less was known of God; the record of his doings was not so long as +it is for us, and it was not so well known. No one could understand +what God meant, if he was quite clear himself. Look at what he did +with the nation. He chose Israel, he established the kingdom of +David. They did not get on very well, and at last were carried away +into Captivity in Babylon. So much he did for his people; and when +he brought them back again to the Promised Land, it was to a very +trying and difficult situation; and worse still followed after +Nehemiah's day. Alexander the Great's conquest of the East left a +Macedonian dynasty ruling those regions, and one of their great +kings, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to stamp out the religion of +Jehovah altogether. The Book of Daniel is a record of that +persecution about 166 B.C. The Maccabeean brothers delivered Israel, +and rescued the religion of Jehovah; and a kingdom of a sort was +established with them; but the grandsons of the liberators became +tyrants. What did God mean? Out of all the promises to Israel, to +the House of David, this is what comes. Herod follows--a foreign +king and an Edomite; and the Romans are over all, suzerains and +rulers. + +In despair of the present men began to forecast the future. A time +will surely come, they said, when God will give an anointed one, the +Messiah; he will set all Israel free, will make Israel rule the +world instead of the Romans; he will gather together the scattered +of Israel from the four winds, reunite and assemble God's people in +triumph in Palestine. And then, when the prophet paused, a plain man +spoke: "I don't care if he does. My father all his life looked +forward to that. What does it matter now, if God redeems his people, +or if he does not? My father is dead." The answer was, why should +your father not come with the redeemed Israel? But what evidence is +there for that? Does God care for people beyond the grave? Is there +personal immortality?--that became the anxious question.[18] + +But is this kingdom of the Messiah to be an earthly or a heavenly +kingdom? Will it be in Jerusalem or in heaven? Are you quite sure +that there is any distinction in the other world between good and +bad, between Jew and Gentile? Some people thought the kingdom would +be in Jerusalem; others said it would be in heaven, and added that +the Jews will look down and see the Gentiles in hell--something +worth seeing at last. But, after all, it was still guesswork-- +"perhaps" was the last word. + +When the question is asked, "Was Jesus the Messiah?" the obvious +reply is, "Which Messiah?" For there seems to have been no standard +idea of the Messiah. The Messiah was, on the whole, as vague a term +as, in modern politics, Socialism or Tariff Reform. Neither of them +has come; perhaps they never will come, and nobody knows what they +will be till they do come. Jesus is not what they expected. A Jewish +girl, at an American Student Conference a year or two ago, said +about Jesus: "I do not think he is the Messiah, but I do love him." +Of course he was not in her Jewish sense. The term was a vague one. + +The main point was that men were uncertain about God. God was +unintelligible. They did not understand his ideas, either for the +nation or for the individual; God's plans miscarried with such +fatality. Or if he had some deeper design, it was still all +guesswork. It seemed likely, or at least right, that he should +achieve somehow the final damnation of the Gentiles--the Romans, and +the rest of us--but nothing was very clear. In the meantime, if God +was going to damn the Gentiles in the next world, why should not the +Jews do it in this? Human nature has only too ready an answer for +such a question--as we can read in too many dark pages of history, +in the stories of wars and religious persecutions. + +The uncertainty about God in Judaism reacted on life and made it +hard. + +Even the virtues of men were difficult; they were apt to be +nerveless and uncertain, because their aim was uncertain, and they +wanted inspiration. Of course there are always kindly hearts; but a +man will never put forth quite his best for an uncertainty. There +was a want of centre about their virtues, a want of faith, and as a +result they were too largely self-directed.[19] + +A man was virtuous in order to secure himself in case God should be +awkward. There was no sufficient relation between man and God. God +was judge, no doubt; but his character could be known from his +attitude to the Gentiles. Could a man count on God and how far? +Could he rely on God supporting him, on God wishing to have him in +this world and the next? No, not with any certainty. It comes to a +fundamental unbelief in God, resting, as Jesus saw, on an essential +misconception of God's nature; and this resulted in the spoiling of +life. Men did not use God. "Where your treasure is, there will your +heart be also," Jesus said (Luke 12:34); and it was not in God. +Men's interest and belief were elsewhere. + +Now the first thing that Jesus had to do, as a teacher, was to +induce men to rethink God. Men, he saw, do not want precepts; they +do not want ethics, morals or rules; what they do need is to rethink +God, to rediscover him, to re-explore him, to live on the basis of +relation with God. There is one striking difference between +Christianity and the other religions, in that the others start with +the idea that God is known. Christians do not so start. We are still +exploring God on the lines of Jesus Christ--rethinking God all the +time, finding him out. That is what Jesus meant us to do. If Jesus +had merely put before men an ethical code, that would have been to +do what the moralists had done before him--what moralists always do, +with the same naive idea that they are doing a great deal for us. +His object was far more fundamental. + +The first thing was to bring people on to the very centre and to get +there at once--to get men away from the accumulation of occasional +and self-directed virtues, from the self-sustained life, from +self-acquired righteousness, and to bring them to face the fact of +God, to realize the seriousness of God and of life, and to see God. +When he preached self-denial, he did not mean the modern virtue of +self-denial with all its pettinesses, but a genuine negation of +self, a total forgetfulness of self by having the mind set entirely +on God and God's purposes, a readjustment of everything with God as +the real centre of all. This is always difficult; it is not less +difficult where the conception of God is, as it was with Jesus, +entirely spiritual. The whole experience of mankind was against the +idea that there could be a religion at all without priest, +sacrifice, altar, temple, and the like. There is a very minimum of +symbol and cult in the teaching of Jesus--so little that the ancient +world thought the Christians were atheists, because they had no +image, no temple, no sacrifice, no ritual, nothing that suggested +religion in the ordinary sense of the word. We shall realize the +difficulty of what Jesus was doing when we grasp that he meant +people to see God independently of all their conventional aids. To +lead them to commit themselves in act to God on such terms was a +still more difficult thing. To believe in God in a general sort of +way, to believe in Providence at large, is a very different thing +from getting yourself crucified in the faith that God cares for you, +and yet somehow wishes you to endure crucifixion. How far will men +commit themselves to God? Jesus means them to commit themselves to +God right up to the hilt--as Bunyan put it, "to hazard all for God +at a clap." Decision for God, obedience to God, that is the prime +thing--action on the basis of God and of God's care for the +individual. + +His purpose that this shall not be merely the religion of choice +spirits or of those immediately around him, but shall be the one +religion of all the world, makes the task still vaster. He means not +merely to touch the Jews. Whether he says so in explicit terms or +not, it is implied in all that he says and does, that the new +movement should be far wider than anything the world had ever seen; +it was to cover the whole of mankind. He meant that every individual +in all the world should have the centre of gravity of his thinking +shifted. + +Again, he had to think of a re-creation of the language of men, till +God should be a new word. Our constant problem is to give his word +his value, his meaning. He meant that men should learn their +religious vocabulary again, till the words they used should suggest +his meanings to their minds. Something of this was achieved, when +some of his disciples came to him and said: "Teach us to pray, as +John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). Further, he had to +secure that men should begin the rethinking of all life--personal, +social, and national--from the very foundations, on new lines--what +is called a transvaluation of all values. With a new centre, +everything has to be thought out anew into what St. Paul calls the +fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Then finally the question comes, how +to secure continuity? Will the movement outlast his personal +influence? These are his problems--large enough, every one of them. +How does he face them? + +The Gospel began with friendship, and we know from common life what +that is, and how it works. Old acquaintance and intimacy are the +heart of it. The mind is on the alert when we meet the +stranger--quick and eager to master his outlook and his ways of +thought, to see who and what he is--it is critical, self-protective, +rather than receptive. But, as time goes on, we notice less, we +study the man less as we see more of him. Yet, in this easier and +more careless intercourse, when the mind is off guard, it is +receiving a host of unnoticed impressions, which in the long run may +have extraordinary influence. Pleasant and easy-going, a perpetual +source of interest and rest of mind, the friendship continues, till +we find to our surprise that we are changed. Stage by stage, as one +comes to know one's friend, by unconscious and freely given +sympathy, one lives the other man's life, sees and feels things as +he does, slips into his language, and, by degrees, into his +thoughts--and then wakes up to find oneself, as it were, remade by +the other's personality, so close has been the identification with +the man we grew to love. This is what we find in our own lives; and +we find it in the Gospels. + +A sentence from St. Augustine's Confessions gives us the key to the +whole story. "Sed ex amante alio accenditur alius" ("Confessions", +iv. 14, 911). "One loving spirit sets another on fire." Jesus brings +men to the new exploration of God, to the new commitment of +themselves to God, simply by the ordinary mechanism of friendship +and love. This, in plain English, is after all the idea of +Incarnation--friendship and identification. Jesus has a genius for +friendship, a gift for understanding the feelings of men. Look, for +example, at the quick word to Jairus. As soon as the message comes +to him that his daughter is dead, Jesus wheels round on him at once +with a word of courage (Mark 5:36). This quickness in understanding, +in feeling with people, marks him throughout. An instinctive care +for other people's small necessities is a great mark of friendship, +and Jesus has it. We find him saying to his disciples: "Come ye +yourselves apart privately into a desert place, and rest awhile" +(Mark 6:31). What a beautiful suggestion! He himself, it is clear +from the records, felt the need of privacy, of being by oneself, of +quiet; and he took his quiet hours in the open, in the wild, where +there was solitude and Nature, and there he would take his friends. +There were so many coming and going, that they had no leisure to +eat, and Jesus says to them in his friendly way: "Let us get out of +this--away by ourselves, to a quiet place; what you want is rest." +What a beautiful idea!--to go camping out on the hillside, under the +trees, to rest--and with him to share the quiet of the lonely place. +It is not the only time when he offers to give people rest--"Come +unto Me ... and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). How strange, +when one thinks of the restless activity of Christian people to-day, +with typewriters and conventions, and every modern method of +consuming energy and time! How sympathetic he is! + +We may notice again his respect for the reserve of other people. On +the whole, how slowly Jesus comes to work with men! He never +"rushes" the human spirit; he respects men's personalities. Men and +women are never pawns with him. He does not think of them in masses. +The masses appeal to him, but that is because he sees the individual +all the time. To one of his disciples he says, "I have prayed for +thee" (Luke 22:32). What a contrast to the conventional "friend of +man" in the abstract! With all that hangs upon him, he has leisure +to pray intensely, for a single man. It gives us an idea of his +gifts in friendship. His faith in his people is quite remarkable, +when we think of it. He believes in his followers; he shares with +them some of the deepest things in his life; he counts them fit to +share his thought of God. He makes it quite clear to them how he +trusts them. He puts before them the tremendous work that he has to +do--work more appalling in its vastness the more one studies it; and +then he tells them that he is trusting the whole thing with them. +What a faith it implies in their moral capacity! What acceptance of +the dim beginnings of the character that was to be Christian! +Someone has spoken of his "apparently unjustified faith in Peter." +What names he can give to his friends as a result of this faith in +them! "Ye are the light of the world," he says (Matt. 5:14), "the +salt of the earth." When we remind ourselves of his clear vision, +his genius for seeing fact, how much must such praises have meant to +these men! + +Think how he gives himself to them in earnest; how he is at their +disposal. He is theirs; they can cross-question him at leisure; they +tell him that the Pharisees did not like what he said (Matt. 15:12), +they doubt with Peter the wisdom of his open speech (Mark 8:32); +they criticize him (Matt. 13:10). If they do not understand his +parable, they ask what he means (Matt. 15:15) and keep on asking +till he makes it plain. He is in no hurry. He is the Master and +their Teacher, and he is at the service of the slowest of them. + +But there is another side to friendship; for one great part of it is +taking what our friends do for us, as well as doing things for them. +How he will take what they have to give! He lets them manage the +boat, while he sleeps (Mark 4:38), and go and prepare for him (Luke +9:52), and see to the Passover meal (Mark 14:13). The women, we +read, ministered to him of their substance (Luke 8:3). There is a +very significant phrase in St. Luke (22:28), where he says to them +at the end: "Ye are they that have continued with me in my +temptations." He tells them there that they have helped him. How? +Apparently by being with him. Is not that friendship? In the same +chapter (Luke 22:15) we find an utterance that reveals the depth of +his feeling for his friends: "With desire I have desired (a Greek +rendering of a Semitic intensive) to eat this Passover with you +before I suffer." They are to help him again by being with him, and +he has longed for it, he says. The Gospel of John sums up the whole +story in a beautiful sentence: "Jesus, having loved his own which +were in the world, loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). Augustine +is right. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." + +Note again the word which he uses in speaking to them ("Tekna": Mark +2:5, 10:24). It is a diminutive, a little disguised as "children" in +our English version. It reappears in the Fourth Gospel in even more +diminutive forms ("Teknia", 13:33; Paidia, 21:5) with a peculiarly +tender suggestion. The word of Mark answers more closely than +anything I know to "Boys," as we used it in the Canadian +Universities. "Men," or "Undergraduates," is the word in the English +Universities; "Students," in Scotland and in India; in Canada we +said "Boys"; and I think we get nearer, and like one another better, +with that easy name. And it was this friendly, pleasant word, or one +very like it, that he used with them. Nor is it the only one of the +kind. "Fear not, little flock!" he said (Luke 12:32). Do not the +diminutives mean something? Do they not take us into the midst of a +group where friendship is real? And in the centre is the friendliest +figure of all. + +Look for a moment at the men who followed him; at the type he calls. +They are simple people in the main--warm hearts and impulsive +natures. The politics of Simon the Zealot might at one time have +been summed up as "the knife and plenty of it," a simple and direct +enough type of political thought, in all conscience, however +hopeless and ineffectual, as history showed; but he gave up his +politics for the friendship of Jesus. Peter, again, is the champion +example of the impulsive nature. Why Jesus called James and John +"the sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) I am not sure. Dr. Rendel Harris +thinks because they were twins; other people find something of the +thunderstorm in their ideas and outlook. The publican in the group +is of much the same type; he is ready to leave his business and his +custom-house at a word--once more the impulsive nature and the +simple. It is possible that Jesus looked also to another type of +which he gained very little in his lifetime; for he speaks of "the +scribe who has turned disciple again, and brings out of his treasure +things new and old" (Matt. 13:52)--the more complicated type of the +trained scholar, full of old learning, but open to new views. In the +meantime he draws to him people with the warm heart--yes, he says, +but cultivate the cool head (cf. Matt. 10:16). Again and again he +will have men "count the cost" (Luke 14:28)--know what they are +doing, be rid of delusions before they follow him (Mark 8:34). What +did they expect? They had all sorts of dreams of the future. When we +first find them, there is friction among them, which is not +unnatural in a group of men with ambitions (Mark 9:33. 10:37). Even +at the Last Supper their minds run on thrones (Luke 22:24). They are +haunted by taboos. Peter long after boasts that nothing common or +unclean has entered his lips (Acts 10:14). They fail to understand +him. "Are ye also without understanding?" he asks, not without +surprise (Mark 8:17, 21). At the very end they run away. + +There, then, is the group. What is to be the method? There is not +much method. As Harnack says about the spread of the early Church, +"A living faith needs no special methods"--a sentence worth +remembering. "Infinite love in ordinary intercourse" is another +phrase of Harnack in describing the life of the early Church. It +began with Jesus. He chose twelve, says Mark (3:14), "that they may +be with him." That is all. And they are with him under all sorts of +circumstances. "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Luke +9:58). They saw him in privation, fatigued, exhausted. With every +chance to see weaknesses in his character, they did not find much +amiss with him. That is surely significant. They lived with him all +the time, in a genuine human friendship, a real and progressive +intimacy. They were with him in popularity and in unpopularity; they +were with him in danger, when Herod tried to kill him and he went +out of Herod's territory. But friendship depends not only on great +moments; it means companionship in the trivial, too, it means idle +hours together, partnership in commonplace things--meals and +garden--chairs as well as books and crises. Ordinary life, ordinary +talk, gossip, chat, every kind of conversation about Herods and +Roman governors, and the Zealots--custom-house memories, tales of +the fishermen's life on the lake, stories of neighbours and +home--rumours about the Galileans who were murdered by Pilate (Luke +13:1-4)--all the babbling talk of the bazaar is round Jesus and his +group, and some of it breaks in on them; and his attitude to it all +is to these men a constant revelation of character. They are with +him in the play of feelings, with him in the fluxes and refluxes of +his thought--learning his ways of mind without realizing it. They +slip into his mind and mood, by a series of surprises, when they are +imagining no such thing. Anything, everything serves to reveal him. +They tramp all day, and ask some village people to shelter them for +the night. The villagers tell them to go away. The men are hungry +and fatigued. "What a splendid thing it would be, if we could do +like Elijah and burn them up with a word!" So the hot thought rose. +He turned and said, "You know not what manner of spirit you are +of."--What a gentle rebuke! "The Son of Man is not come to destroy +men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:51-56). Then follows one of +the wonderful sentences of the Gospel, "they went unto another +village"--very obvious, but very significant. A missionary from +China told me how, thirty years ago or more, he was driven out of +the town where he lived; how the gentlefolk egged on the mob, and +they wrecked his house, and hounded him out of the place. He told me +how it felt--the misery and the indignity of it. Jesus took it +undisturbed. He taught a lesson in it which the Church has never +forgotten. + +Their life was full of experiences shared with him. He has his +reserve--his secret; yet, in another sense, he gives himself to them +without reserve; there is prodigality of self-impartation in his +dealings with them. He lets them have everything they can take. He +becomes theirs in a great intimacy, he gives himself to them. Why? +Because he believes, as he put it, in seed. Socrates saw that the +teacher's real work, his only work, is to implant the idea, like a +seed; an idea, like a seed, will look after itself. A king builds a +temple or a palace. The seed of a banyan drifts into a crack, and +grows without asking anyone's leave; there is life in it. In the end +the building comes down, but for what the banyan holds up. The +leaven in the meal is the most powerful thing there. There is very +little of it, but that does not matter; it is alive (Matt. 13:33). +Life is a very little thing but it is the only thing that counts. +That is why the farmer can sow his fields and sleep at nights +without thinking of them; and the crop grows in spite of his +sleeping, and he knows it (Mark 4:26). That is why Jesus believes so +thoroughly in his men, and in his message; God has made the one for +the other, and there is no fear of mischance. + +Look at his method of teaching. People "marvelled at his words of +charm" (Luke 4:22)--"hung about him to hear him" (Luke 19:48). He +said that the word is the overflow of the heart. "Out of the +abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45). +What a heart, then, his words reveal! How easy and straightforward +his language is! To-day we all use abstract nouns to convey our +meaning; we cannot do without words ending in -ality and -anon. But +there is no recorded saying of Jesus where he uses even +"personality." He does not use abstract nouns. He sticks to plain +words. When he speaks about God he does not say "the Great First +Cause," or "Providence," or any other vague abstract. Still less +does he use an adverb from the abstract, like "providentially." He +says, "your heavenly Father." He does not talk of "humanity"; he +says, "your brethren." He has no jargon, no technical terms, no +scholastic vocabulary. He urges men not to over-study language; +their speech must be simple, the natural, spontaneous overflow of +the heart.[20] Jesus told his disciples not to think out beforehand +what they would say when on trial (Mark 13:11)--it would be "given" +to them. He was perfectly right; and when Christians obeyed him, +they always spoke much better than when they thought out speeches +beforehand. They said much less for one thing, and they said it much +better. Take the case of the martyr--an early and historical +one--whose two speeches were during her trial "Christiana sum" and, +on her condemnation, "Deo gratias". + +With this, remark his own gift of arresting phrase; the freshness of +his language, how free it is from quotation, how natural and how +extraordinarily simple. Everything worthwhile can be put in simple +language; and, if the speech is complicated, it is a call to think +again. "As a woman, over-curiously trimmed, is to be mistrusted, so +is a speech," said John Robinson of Leyden, the minister of the +Pilgrim Fathers. The language of Jesus is simple and direct, the +inevitable expression of a rich nature and a habit of truth. You +feel he does not strain after effect--epigram, antithesis, or +alliteration. Of course he uses such things--like all real +speakers--but he does not go out of his way for them. No, and so +much the more significant are such characteristic antitheses as: "Ye +cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13), and "Whosoever will save +his life shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25), coming with a spontaneous +flash, and answering in their sharpness to the sharp edges of fact. +His words caught the attention, and lived in the memory; they +revealed such a nature; they were so living and unforgettable. + +Remark once again his preference for the actual and the ordinary. +There are religions in which holiness involves unusual conditions +and special diet. Some forms of mysticism seem to be incompatible +with married life. But the type of holiness which Jesus teaches can +be achieved with an ordinary diet, and a wife and five children. He +had lived himself in a family of eight or nine. It is perhaps +harder, but it is a richer sanctity, if the real mark of a Saint is, +as we have been told, that he makes it easier for others to believe +in God. In any case the ordinary is always good enough with Jesus. +Only he would have men go deeper, always deeper. Why can you not +think for yourselves? he asks. Signs were what men demanded. He +pictures Dives' mind running on signs even in hell (Luke 16:27). +"What could you do with signs? Look at what you have already. You +read the weather for to-morrow by looking at the sky to-day. The +south wind means heat; the red sky fair weather. Study, look, think" +(Luke 12:55). His animals, as we saw, are all real animals; it is +real observation; real analogy. When he speaks of the lost sheep, it +is not a fictitious joy that he describes or an imaginary one; it is +real. The more we examine his sayings with any touch of his spirit, +the more we wonder. Of course it is possible to handle them in the +wrong way, to miss the real thought and make folly of everything. +Thus, when he says he is the door, the interpreter may stray into +silly detail and make faith the key, and--I don't know what the +panels and hinges could be. That is not the style of Jesus. The soul +of the thing, the great central meaning, the real analogy is his +concern. Seriousness in observation, seriousness in reflection, is +what he teaches. Men and women break down for want of thinking +things out. Many things become possible to those who think +seriously, as he did--and, so to speak, without watertight +compartments. + +Jesus is always urging seriousness in reflection. Seriousness in +action, too, is one of his lessons--an emphasis on doing, but on +_doing_ with a clear sense of what one is about, and why. A part of +action is clear thought; always exactness, accuracy; you must think +the thing out, he says, and then act or let it alone. The artistic +temperament, we all know, is very much in evidence to-day. In "The +Comments of Bagshot" we are told that the drawback is that there is +so much temperament and so little art. Why? Because the artistic +temperament means so little by itself. It is one of the secrets of +Jesus, that it is action that illuminates. What is it that makes the +poem? The poet sees beggar children running races, or little Edward +and the weather-cock, or something greater if you like--the light on +a woman's hair, or a flower; and you say, he has his poem. He has +not. He must work at the thing. When we study the great poets, we +realize how these things are worked out to the point of nerve-strain +and exhaustion. The poet devotes himself heart and soul to the work; +he alters this and that, once and again; he sees a fresh aspect of +the thing, and he alters all again; he writes and rewrites, getting +deeper and deeper into the essential values of the thing all the +time. Where in all this is the artistic temperament? It gave him the +impulse, but something else achieves the work of art. I have a +feeling that the great works of art are achieved by the shopkeeper +virtues in addition to the artistic temperament that sees and feels +them at the beginning. It is action that gives the value of a +thought. Jesus sees that. He says that frankly to his disciples. If +you want to understand in the long run, it is carrying the cross +that will teach you the real values. + +I have been treating him almost as if he were an authority on +pedagogy. Fortunately, he never discussed pedagogy, never used the +terms I have been using. But he dealt with men, he taught and he +influenced them, and it is worth our study to understand how he did +it--to master his methods. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." +As for the effects of his words at once, as Seeley put it, they were +"seething effervescence . . . broodings, resolutions, travail of +heart." Men were brought face to face with a new issue; it was a +time of choice; things would not be as they were men must be "with +him or against him"--must accept or reject the new teaching, the new +teacher, the new life. As he said, "I came to send fire on the +earth" (Luke 12:49), to divide families, to divide the individual +soul against itself, till the great choice was made; and so it has +always been, where men have really seen him. We have to notice +further the transformation of the disciples, who definitely accepted +him. "Very wonderful to me," wrote Phillips Brooks, "to see how the +disciples caught his method." The promise was made to them that they +should become fishers of men (Mark 1:17), and it was fulfilled. +Jesus made them strong enough to defy the world and to capture the +world. There is something attractive about them; they have his +secret, something of his charm; they are magnetic with his power. A +new impulse to win men marks them, a new power to do it, a new faith +which grows in significance as you study it--the faith of William +Carey, a hundred years ago, was the same thing--a perfectly +incredible faith, that they actually will win men for God and +Christ. And they did--and along his lines and by his methods of +love--even for Gentiles. "Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel," +says St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:16), who to preach the Gospel shipwrecked +his life and suffered the loss of all things (Phil. 3:8). But these +men are sure that it is worthwhile. They have a new passion for men +and women--an interest not merely in the saving of their souls but +in every real human need. The early Church made a point of teaching +men trades when they had none. They learnt all this from him. The +greatest miracle in history seems to me the transformation that +Jesus effected in those men. Everything else in Christian or secular +history, compared to it, seems easy and explicable; and it was +achieved by the love of Jesus. + +The Church spread over the world without social machinery. The +Gospel was preached instinctively, naturally. The earliest +Christians were persecuted in Jerusalem, and were driven out. I +picture one of them in flight; on his journey he falls in with a +stranger. Before he knows what he is doing, he is telling his fellow +traveller about Jesus. It follows from his explanation of why he is +on the road; he warms up as he speaks. He never really thought about +the danger of doing so. And the stranger wants to know more; he is +captured by the message, and he too becomes a Christian. And then +this involuntary preacher of the Gospel is embarrassed to learn that +the man is a Gentile; he had not thought of that. I think that is +how it began--so naturally and spontaneously. These people are so +full of love of Jesus that they are bound to speak (Acts 8:4). "One +loving heart sets another on fire." + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + +It is worth taking some trouble to realize how profoundly Jesus has +changed the thinking of mankind about God. "Since Jesus lived," Dr. +Fairbairn wrote, "God has been another and nearer Being to man." +"Jesus," writes Dr. Fosdick, "had the most joyous idea of God that +ever was thought of." That joyous sense of God he has given to his +followers, and it stands in vivid contrast with the feelings men +have toward God in the other religions. Christianity is the religion +of joy. The New Testament is full of it. + +We know the general character of Jesus' attitude to God, his feeling +for God, his sense of God's nearness. How immediate his knowledge of +God is, how intimate! Of course, here, as everywhere, his teaching +has such an occasional character--or else the records of it are so +fragmentary--that we must not press the absence of system in it; and +yet, I think, it would be right to say that Jesus puts before us no +system of God, but rather suggests a great exploration, an intimacy +with the slow and sure knowledge that intimacy gives. He has no +definition of God,[21] but he assumes God, lives on the basis of +God, interprets God; and God is discovered in his acts and his +relations. He said to Peter, in effect--for the familiar phrase +comes to this in modern English: "You think like a man; you don't +think like God" (Mark 8:33). Elsewhere he contrasts God's thoughts +with man's--their outlooks are so different "that which is highly +esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15; +the Greek words are very interesting). In other words, he would have +men see all things as God sees them. That we do not so see them, +remains the weak spot in our thinking. What Luther said to Erasmus +is true of most of us: "Your thoughts concerning God are too human." +"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall _see_ God," said +Jesus (Matt. 5:8), and throughout he emphasizes that the vision of +God depends on likeness to God--it is love and a glowing purity that +give that faculty, rather than any power of intellect apart from +them. Jesus brings men back to the ultimate fact. Our views are too +short and too narrow. He would have us face God, see him and realize +him--think in the terms of God, look at things from God's point of +view, live in God and with God. In modern phrase, he breaks up our +dogmatism and puts us at a universal point of view to see things +over again in a new and true perspective. + +How and where did he begin himself? Whence came his consciousness of +God, his gift for recognizing God? We do not know. The story of his +growth, his inward growth, is almost unrevealed to us. We are told +that he learnt "by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), and +that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and +man" (Luke 2:52). Where does anyone begin, who takes us any great +distance? It is very hard to know. Where did our own thoughts of God +begin? What made them? How did they come? There is an inherited +element in them, but how much else? Whence came the inherited +element? How is it that to another man, with the same upbringing as +ours, everything is different, everything means more? Remark, at any +rate, in the teaching of Jesus, that there is no mysticism of the +type so much studied to-day. There is nothing in the least +"psychopathic" about him, nothing abnormal--no mystical vision of +God, no mystical absorption in God, no mystical union with God, no +abstraction, nothing that is the mark of the professed mystic. Yet +he speaks freely of "seeing God"; he lives a life of the closest +union with God; and God is in all his thoughts. A phrase like that +of Clement of Alexandria, "deifying into apathy we become monadic," +is seas away from anything we find in the speech of Jesus. That is +not the way he preaches God. He is far more natural; and that his +followers accepted this naturalness, and drew him so, and gave his +teaching as he gave it, is a fresh pledge of the truthfulness of the +Gospels. + +Again, his knowledge of God is not a matter of quotation, as ours +very often tends to be. He is conscious always of the real nearness +of God. He seems to wonder how it is that man can forget God. We do +forget God. Augustine in his "Confessions" (iv. 12, 18) has to tell +us that "God did not make the world and then go away." The practical +working religion of a great many of us rests on a feeling that God +is a very long way off. Our practical steps betray that we half +think God did go away, when he had made the world. Prayer to us is +not a real thing--it is not intercourse face to face; far too often +it is like conversation over a telephone wire of infinite length +which gets out of order. Even if words travel along that wire, there +is so much "buzzing" that they are hardly recognizable. No, says +Jesus, God is near, God is here--so near, that Jesus never feels +that men have any need of a priesthood to come between, or to help +them to God; God does all that. There is no common concern, no +matter of food or clothing, no mere detail of the ordinary round of +common duty and common life--father and mother, son, wife, +friend--nothing of all that, but God is there; God knows about it; +God is interested in it; God has taken care of it; God is enjoying +it. How is it that men can "reject the counsel of God," refuse God's +plans and ideas (Luke 7:30)? How is it that they forget God +altogether? Jesus is surprised at the dullness of men's minds (Mark +8:17); it is a mystery to him. The rich fool, as we call him, though +it is hard to see why we should call him a fool, when he is so like +ourselves, had forgotten God somehow, and was startled when God +spoke, and spoke to him. That story, seen so often among men,--the +story of the thorns choking the seed (Matt. 13:22)--makes Jesus +remark on the difficulty which a rich man finds in entering into the +kingdom of God. + +God knows--that is what Jesus repeats, God cares; and God can do +things; his hands are not tied by impotence. The knowledge of God is +emphasized by Jesus; "Even the very hairs of your head are all +numbered" (Matt. 10:30); "your Father knoweth" (Luke 12:30); "seeth +in secret" (Matt. 6:4); "knoweth your hearts" (Luke 16:15); knows +your struggles, knows your worries, knows your worth; God knows all +about you. And "all things are possible with God" (Matt. 19:26). +There is nothing that he cannot do, nothing that he will not do, for +his children. Will a father refuse his child bread; will God not +give what is good? (Matt. 7:11). Is it too big a thing for the Giver +of Life to give food--which is the more difficult thing to give? +(Luke 12:23). Look at God, as Jesus draws him--interested in +flowers; God takes care of them, and thinks about their colours, so +that even "Solomon in all his glory" is not equal to them (Matt. +6:30). God knows the birds in the nest--knows there is one fewer +there to-day than there was yesterday (Matt. 10:29). God cares for +them; how much more will he care for you (Matt. 6:26)? "Ye are of +more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:31). And God thinks out +man's life in all its relations, and provides for it. Society moves +on lines he laid down for it; his plans underlie all. Thus, when +Jesus is challenged on the question of marriage and divorce, with +that clear thought and eye of his, he goes right back to God's +intent--not to man's usage, not to the common law and practice of +nations, but to God's intent and God's meaning. God ordained +marriage; he thought it out (Matt. 19:4). Marriages will be better, +if we think of them in this way. God gave men their food, does +still, and all things that he gives are clean (Luke 11:41). We +cannot have taboos at our Father's table. + +Over all is God's throne (Matt. 23:22). That idea, it seems to me, +lapses somehow from our minds to-day. When Luther had to face the +hostility of the Kaiser, the Emperor Charles V., he wrote to one of +his friends: "Christ comes and sits at the right hand--not of the +Kaiser, for in that case we should have perished long ago--but at +the right hand of God. This is a great and incredible thing; but I +enjoy it, incredible as it is; some day I mean to die in it. Why +should I not live in it?" So Luther wrote--in not quite our modern +vein. We hardly calculate on God as a factor; we omit him. Jesus did +not. God's rule is over all; and in all our perplexity, doubt, and +fear, Jesus reminds us that the first thing is faith in God. The +fact is that "Thine is the Kingdom" means peace; it is a joyous +reminder. For if he speaks of the Kingdom of God, the King is more +than the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom, the rule, of the God whom Jesus +teaches us to trust and to love. The Father is supreme. But that has +more aspects than one. If our Father is supreme for us, he is +supreme over us. Jesus emphasizes the will of God--God's commandment +against man's tradition, God's will against man's notions (Mark +7:8). What a source of rest and peace to him is the thought of God's +will! When Dante writes: "And His will is our peace," it is the +thought of Jesus. And at the same time God's judgements are as real +to Jesus' mind. "I will tell you," he says, "whom to fear, God--yes, +fear him!" (Luke 12:5). He feels the tenderness and the awfulness of +God at once. + +In speaking of God, it is noticeable that Jesus chiefly emphasizes +God's interest in the individual, as giving the real clue to God's +nature. On the whole, there is very little even implied, still less +explicit, in the Gospels, about God as the great architect of +Nature--hardly anything on the lines familiar to us in the Psalms +and in Isaiah--"The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed +the dry land" (Psalm 95:5)--"He taketh up the isles as a very little +thing" (Isaiah 40:15). There is little of this in the Gospels; yet +it is implied in the affair of the storm (Matt. 8:26). The disciples +in their anxiety wake him. He does not understand their fear. Whose +sea is it? Whose wind is it? Whose children are you? Cannot you +trust your Father to control his wind and his sea? Of course it is +possible that he said more about God as the Author of Nature than +our fragmentary reports give us; but it may be that it is because +the emphasis on God's care and love for the individual is hardest to +believe, and at the same time best, gives the real value of God, +that Jesus uses it so much. Perhaps the Great Artificer is too far +away for our minds. He is too busy, we think; and yet, after all, if +God is so great, why should he be so busy? If he is a real Father, +why should not he be at leisure for his children? He is, says Jesus; +a friend has leisure for his friends, and a father for his children; +and God, Jesus suggests, always has leisure for you. + +The great emphasis with Jesus falls on the love of God. Thus he +tells the story of the impossible creditor with two debtors (Luke +7:42). One owed him ten pounds, and the other a hundred. When they +had nothing to pay, they both came to him and told him so. The +ordinary creditor, at the very best, would say: "Well, I suppose I +must put it down as a bad debt." Jesus says that this creditor took +up quite another attitude. He smiled and said to his two troubled +friends: "Is that all? Don't let anything like that worry you. What +is that between you and me?" He forgave them the debt with such a +charm ("echarisato"), Jesus says, that they both loved him. One +feels that the end of the story must be, that they both paid him and +loved him all the more for taking the money. What a delightful story +of charm, and friendship and forgiveness! And it is a true picture +of God, Jesus would have us believe, of God's forgiveness and the +response it wakes in men. + +If we do not definitely set our minds to assimilate the ideas of +Jesus, we shall make too little of the heart of God. With Jesus this +is the central and crucial reality. He emphasizes the generosity of +God. God makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad; he sends +rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). God's flowers are just +as beautiful in the bad man's garden. God knows what his child +needs, and gives it, whether it is a very good child or a very bad +one. The Father is the same great wise Friend in either case. The +peacemakers are recognized as the children of God, because of their +family likeness to God (Matt. 5:9). They come among people, and find +them in discord with one another, and their presence stills that; or +they come into a man's life, when it is all in disorder and pain, +and they bring peace there. They may not quite know it, but they do +these things almost without meaning to do them. And Jesus says that +this is a family likeness by which men know they are God's children. +But it is not every teacher, pagan or Christian, who lays such +stress on God's gift of peace, or is so sure of it. He uses Hosea's +great saying about God--"I will have mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea +6:6), as giving the truth about God. Matthew represents him as +quoting it twice (Matt. 9:13, 12:7); and we can well believe that he +found in it the real spirit of God and often referred to it. His own +heart has taken him to the tenderest of the utterances of the Old +Testament spoken by the most suffering of the Prophets. "Love your +enemies," he says (Matt. 5:44); yes, for then you will be the real +children of God. Or he speaks of the great patience of God, how God +gives every man all the time and all the chance that he +needs--sometimes, he half suggests, even a little more. Look at the +parable of the fig tree, how the gardener pleads for the tree, begs +and obtains another chance for it (Luke 13:8); that is like God, +says Jesus. + +It is easy enough to talk in a vague way about the love of God. But +the love of God implies surely the individual; love has little +content indeed if its object is merely a collective noun, an +abstract, a concept. But that God loves individual men is very +difficult for us to believe in earnest. The real crux comes when the +question rises in a man's own heart, "Does God love me?" Jesus says +that he does, but it is very hard to believe, except in the company +of Jesus and under his influence. Jesus throughout asserts and +reasserts the value of the individual to God. Look, for example, at +the picture he draws, when he tells of the recovery of the Lost +Sheep, and brings out the analogy. At the end of the Book of Job +(ch. 38) the poet carries his reader back to the first sight of a +world new-made, and tells how God, like the real artist and +creator--we might not have thought of all this, but the poet +did--loves his work so much that he must have his friends sharing it +with him. He calls them; he shows them the world he has made--"the +beauty, and the wonder, and the power," as Browning says. The poet +tells us that what followed was that "the morning stars sang +together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The sight was so +good that song and shout came instinctively, almost involuntarily. +Is it not the same picture which Jesus draws of "joy in heaven in +the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"? +We can believe in such joy when God made the world; but can we +believe that there was the same joy in the presence of God yesterday +when a coolie gave his heart to God? Jesus does. That is the central +thing, it seems to me, in his teaching about God--that God cares for +the individual to an extent far beyond anything we could think +possible. If we can wrestle with that central thought and assimilate +it, or, as the old divines said, "appropriate" it, make it our own, +the rest of the Gospel is easy. But one can never manage it except +with the help, and in the company, of Jesus. + +Jesus goes a step further, and believes in the possibility of a man +loving God and God enjoying that too. If he speaks of prayer, must +we not think he means that God wants it as much as his child can +want it? How much is involved in the name "Father," which Jesus so +uniformly gives to God? Something less than the word carries in the +case of a human father, or more? What is the attitude of a father to +his child? Jesus, as we have seen, uses this illustration to bring +out God's care for the actual needs of his children. But is that +all? What is the innermost thing in a father's relation to his +children? Surely something more than the bird's instinct to feed her +young, or to gather them under her wings (Luke 13:34). Is not one of +the most real features of parenthood enjoyment of the child? Do not +men and women frankly enjoy the grappling of the little mind with +big things? Is there not a charm, as says one of the Christian +Fathers (Minucius Felix), about the "half-words" that a child uses, +as he learns to talk and wrestles with a grown-up vocabulary? About +the extraordinary pictures he will draw of ships or cows--the quaint +stories he will invent--the odd ways in which his gratitude and his +affection express themselves? Is it a real fatherhood where such +things do not appeal? Jesus' language about God, his whole attitude +to God, implies throughout that God is as real a Father as anybody, +and it suggests that God loves his children the more because they +are real; because they are not very clever; because they do make +such queer and imperfect prayers; because, in short, they need him; +and because they fill a place in his heart. + +We have to remark how firmly Jesus believes in his Gospel of God and +man needing each other and finding each other--his "good news," as +he calls it. He bases all on his faith in what has been called +"Man's incurable religious instinct"--that instinct in the human +heart that must have God--and in God's response to that instinct +which he himself implanted, and which is no accident found here and +missing there, but a genuine God-given characteristic of every man, +whatever his temperament or his range in emotions may be, his +swiftness or slowness of mind. The repeated parables of seed and +leaven--the parables of vitality--again and again suggest his faith +in his message, his conviction that God must have man and man must +have God--that, as St. Augustine puts it, "Thou hast made us for +Thyself, and our heart knows no rest till it rests in Thee" (Conf., +i. 1). That is the essence of the Gospel. + +How this union of the soul with God comes about, Jesus does not +directly say, but there are many hints in his teaching that bear +upon it. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation," he +said (Luke 17:20). Religious truth is not reached by "quick turns of +self-applauding intellect," nor by demonstrations. It comes another +way. The quiet familiarity with the deep true things of life, till +on a sudden they are transfigured in the light of God, and truth is +a new and glowing thing, independent of arguments and the strange +evidence of thaumaturgy--this is the normal way; and Jesus holds by +it. The great people, men of law and learning, want more; they want +something to substantiate God's messages from without. If Jesus +comes to them with a word from God, can he not prove its +authenticity preferably with "a sign from the sky" (Mark 8:11)? For +the signs he gives, and the evidence he suggests, are +unsatisfactory. "And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, `Why +doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there +shall no sign be given unto this generation.' So he left them and +went up into the ship again and went away." That scene is drawn from +life. + +But why no sign? In the parallel passage we read: "`The wicked +generation and adulterous seeketh a sign, but there shall no sign be +given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah'; so he left them and +departed" (Matt. 16:4). The real explanation of this reference to +Jonah is given by Luke (11:32), and missed or misdeveloped in +Matthew (Matt. 12:40). Nineveh recognized instinctively the inherent +truth of Jonah's message, and repented. Truth is its own +evidence--like leaven in the meal, like seed in the field, it does +its work, and its life reveals it. God is known that way. When the +chief priests demand of Jesus to be told plainly what is his +authority (Mark 11:27), he carries the matter a stage further: Was +the baptism of John, he asks, from heaven, i.e. from God, or was it +of men? Does God make His message clear, does He properly +authenticate Himself? And the uneasy weighing of alternatives, +summarized by the evangelist, leads to the answer that they could +not tell whence it was; and Jesus rejoins that he has nothing to say +to them about his authority. He had taken what we might call an easy +case--where it was evident that God had spoken; and this was all +they made of it--they "could not tell." It was plain, then, either +that these men did not recognize the obvious message of God ("the +word of God came upon John," Luke 3:9,), or that, if they did +recognize it, they thought it did not matter. For the insincere and +the trivial there is no message from God, no truth of God--how +should there be? + +If we pursue this line of thought, we can see how, in Jesus' +opinion, a man may be sure of God and of God's word for him. If a +man be candid with himself, if he face the common facts of life with +seriousness and in the doing of duty, perplexities vanish. Such a +man is prepared for the Great Fact, by faithfulness to the little +facts, and then God dawns on him in them. This is put directly in +the Fourth Gospel (7:17), and in parable in the Synoptists. The +leaven works, till the whole is leavened; the uneasy process is over +and the result achieved. Or, it comes more quietly still--the seed +grows while the farmer sleeps and rises, night and day; the blade +springs up and the ear forms on the blade, the seed grows in the +ear; and the end is reached and God's Kingdom is a reality. Or, the +knowledge of God comes like a lightning flash--sudden, illuminative, +decisive. "The Son reveals" God to the simple, Jesus said (Matt. +11:27). The Son of Man may be a disputable figure--"Whosoever +speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him" +(Matt. 12:32)--but there is no forgiveness in this world, or in any +possible real world where God counts at all, for the refusal of the +spirit of Truth. So he taught, and all history shows he was +right--the refusal of truth is fatal. "Jesus," wrote Matthew Arnold, +"never touches theory, but bases himself invariably upon +experience." It is to experience that Jesus goes to authenticate his +message. The real facts of life lead you to God, as the red sky, and +the south wind, teach you to foretell the weather (Matt. 16:2; Luke +12:55). + +"Eyes and ears," said the Greek thinker, Heraclitus, long before, +"are bad witnesses for such as have barbarian souls." The Pharisees +discredited Jesus--he "cast out devils by Beelzebub." Did he, he +asked, or was it "by the finger of God" (Luke 11:20)? Is there no +evidence of God in restored sanity? But the strength of his position +lies in the good news for the poor (Matt. 11:5), for those who +labour and are heavy--laden (Matt. 11:28)--news of rest and +refreshment--as if the intuition of God, with the peace it brings, +were its own proof. Truth is reached less by ingenuity than by +intensity. To the simple mind, to the true heart, to the pure soul +(Matt. 5:8), to those whose gift is peace, Truth comes flooding +in--new light on old fact, and new light from old fact--and God is +evident. So Jesus judged; and here again, before we decide for or +against his view, we have to make sure that we know his meaning, and +realize the experience by which he reached his thought. And then, +perhaps, God will be more evident to us in our turn. "The Kingdom of +God cometh not with observation" (Luke 17:20)--it is "within" (Luke +17:21); so quietly it comes, that we may not guess how in any +particular instance the realization of God came to a soul; but if we +are candid and truth-loving we can know it when it has come to +ourselves, and we can recognize it when it comes to another. We can +recognize it in its power and peace, we can see the greatness of the +new knowledge in the new man it makes, in the new life, the man of +the great spirit, of the great action, the man of the great quiet, +the man who has the peace of God. + +What does the discovery of God mean? Jesus himself speaks of a man +turning right about, being converted (Matt. 18:3); of the revision +of all ideas, of all standards, of all values. He gives us two +beautiful pictures to illustrate what it means; and it repays us to +linger over them. First, there is the Treasure Finder. He is in the +country, digging perhaps in another man's field, or idling in the +open; and by accident he stumbles on a buried treasure. Palestine +was like Belgium--a land with a long history of wars fought on its +soil by foreigners, Babylon or Assyria against Egypt, Ptolemies +against Seleucids. It was the only available route for attack either +on Egypt by land, or on Syria or Mesopotamia or Babylon from the +Southern Mediterranean. In such a land when the foreign army marched +through, a man had best hide his treasure and hope to find it again +in better times, and again and again the secret of its place of +burial died with him. The Treasure Finder had no lord of the manor +to think of, no Treasury department. He made a great discovery, and +made it initially for himself, and his own--"and for joy thereof he +goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field." We can +see him full of his discovery, full of eagerness and trying to hide +his inner joy, as he realizes every penny he can manage, and +achieves the great transaction which gives him the field and the +treasure. The salient points are a sudden and great joy, an instant +resolution, a complete sacrifice of everything, and a life +unexpectedly and infinitely enriched. And so it is, says Jesus, with +the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13:44). + +The Pearl Merchant is a more interesting figure. Perhaps we may +picture him middle-aged, a trifle worn, somewhat silent, a man of +keen eyes. He has been in his trade for years, and he is a master at +it. By now he has a knowledge which years give to a man in +earnest--a knowledge more like instinct than anything acquired. A +glance at pearls on a table--this, and this, and this he will take +the other, perhaps; he would look at that one--the rest? he shook +his head and did not look at them--he saw without looking. One day +he is told of a pearl--a good one. He is not surprised, for pearls +are always good when they are offered for sale. But again a glance +is enough. The price? Yes, it is high, but he will take the pearl, +but he must be allowed till evening to get the money. He goes away +and sells his stock--the little collection of pearls in his wallet, +representing "the experience of a life-time," all of them good, as +he very well knows; and he sells them for what he can get--at a +loss, if it must be. Yesterday's bargainer cuts down his price for +this and that pearl, and he is taken up; he never expected to do so +well against the old dealer, and he laughs. But the merchant is +content, too; he has sold all his pearls for what they would +fetch--lost money on them, yes, and been laughed at behind his back. +But he owns the one pearl of great price; it is his, and he is +satisfied. There is no reference to joy here or exultation; but +there is the same instant recognition of the opportunity, the same +resolve, the same sacrifice, and the same great acquisition (Matt. +13:45). + +Both parables begin with a reference to the Kingdom of God--to that +Rule and Kingship of God, the knowledge of which makes all the +difference to a man. A small grammatical difference points us beyond +minutiae to the common experience of the two men. Each makes a great +discovery, and takes action in a great and urgent resolve; and they +are both repaid. If we are to understand the two parables in the +sense intended by Jesus, the term "God" must become alive to us with +all the life and power and love that the name implies for him. Then +to grasp that this Father of Jesus is King--that the God of his +thoughts, of his faith, with all the tenderness and the power +combined that Jesus teaches us to see in Him--rules the universe, +controls our destiny and loves us--this is the experience that Jesus +compares with that of the Treasure Finder and the Pearl +Merchant--worth, he suggests, everything a man has, and more than +all. + +In passing, we may notice that these stories suggest that this +experience may be reached in different ways. In the parables of the +seed and the leaven he indicates a natural, quiet and unconscious +growth, a story without crisis, though full of change. To the +Treasure Finder the discovery is a surprise--how came Jesus so far +into the minds of men as to know what a surprise God can be, and how +joyful a surprise? The Pearl Merchant, on the other hand, has lived +in the region where he makes his discovery. He is the type that +lives and moves in the atmosphere of high and true thought, that +knows whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report, of +help and use; he is no stranger to great and inspiring ideas. And +one day, in no strange way, by no accident, but in the ordinary +round of life, he comes on something that transcends all he has been +seeking, all he has known--the One thing worth all. There is little +surprise about it, no wild elation, but nothing is allowed to stand +in the way of an instant entrance into the great experience--and the +great experience is, Jesus says, God. + +To see God, to know God--that is what Jesus means--to get away from +"all the fuss and trouble" of life into the presence of God, to know +he is ours, to see him smile, to realize that he wants us to stay +there, that he is a real Father with a father's heart, that his love +is on the same wonderful scale as every one of his attributes, and +in reality far more intelligible than any of them. That is the +picture Jesus draws. The sheer incredible love of God, the wonderful +change it means for all life--that is his teaching, and he +encourages us, in the words of the Shorter Catechism, "to enjoy God +for ever," as Jesus himself does. Those who learn his secret enjoy +God in reality. Wherever they see God with the eyes of Jesus, it is +joy and peace. And they realize with deepening emotion that this +also is God's gift, as Jesus said (Luke 8:10; 12:39). + +Jesus entirely recast mankind's common ideas of holiness. It is no +longer asceticism, no longer the mystical trance, no longer the +"fussiness," with which the early Christian reproached the Jew, +which still haunts all the religions of taboo and merit, and even +Christianity in some forms. Where men think of holiness as freedom +from sin, the negative conception reacts on life. They begin at the +wrong end. Solomon Schechter, the great Jewish scholar, once said of +Oxford, that "they practice fastidiousness there, and call it +holiness." Unfortunately Oxford has no monopoly of that type of +holiness. But with Jesus holiness is a much simpler and more natural +thing--as natural as the happy, easy life of father and child, and +it rests on mutual faith. It is Theocentric, positive, active rather +than passive--not a state, but a relation and a force. Holiness with +him is a living relation with the living God. That is why the first +feature in it that strikes us is Courage. "Be of good cheer; be not +afraid"; that note rings through the Gospels, and how much it means, +and has meant, in sweet temper and cheerfulness in the very +chequered history of the Church! His is the great voice of Hope in +the world. "The Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Hope," Paul said (1 +Tim. 1:1). Even on the Cross, according to one text, Jesus said to +the penitent thief: "Courage! To-day thou shalt be with me in +paradise" (Luke 23:43). We may not know where or what paradise is, +but the rest is intelligible and splendid: "Courage; to-day thou +shalt be with me." Look at the brave hearts the Gospel has made in +every age; how venturesome they are! and we find the same +venturesomeness in Jesus--for instance, as a German scholar +emphasizes, in that episode of the daughter of Jairus. The messenger +comes and says she is dead. Anybody else would stop, but Jesus goes +on. That is a great piece of interpretation. Look again at his +venturesomeness in trusting the Gospel to the twelve and to us--and +in facing the Cross. "It was his knowledge of God," says Professor +Peabody, "that gave him his tranquillity of mind."[22] + +"Jesus," says Dr. Cairns, "said that no one ever trusted God enough, +and that was the source of all the sin and tragedy." Look at his +emphasis again and again on faith; and the language is not that of +guesswork; they are the words of the great Son of Fact, who based +himself on experience. "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). "Be not +afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). "All things are possible to him +that believeth" (Mark 9:23). When he criticizes his disciples, it is +on the score of their want of faith--"O ye of little faith"--it has +been taken as almost a nickname for them. In the hour of trial and +danger they may trust to "the Spirit of your Father" (Matt. 10:20). +It is remarkable what value he attaches to faith even of the +slightest--"faith as a grain of mustard seed" (Matt. 17:90)--it is +little, but it is of the seed order, a living thing of the most +immense vitality with the promise of growth and usefulness in it. + +This brings us to the question of Prayer. Some of us, of course, do +not believe very much in prayer for certain philosophical reasons, +which perhaps, as a matter of fact, are not quite as sound as we +think, because our definition of prayer is a wrong one, resting on +insufficient experience and insufficient reflection. What is prayer? + +We shall agree that it is the act by which man definitely tries to +relate his soul and life to God. What Jesus then teaches on prayer +will illuminate what he means by God; and conversely his conception +of God will throw new light upon the whole problem of prayer. It is +plain history that Jesus, the great Son of Fact, believed in prayer, +told men to pray, and prayed himself. The Gospels and the Epistle to +the Hebrews lay emphasis on his practice. Early in the morning he +withdrew to the desert (Mark 1:35), late at night he remained on the +hillside for prayer (Mark 6:46). Wearied by the crowds that thronged +him, he kept apart and continued in prayer. He prays before he +chooses the disciples (Luke 6:12). He gives thanks to God on the +return of the seventy from their missionary journey (Luke 10:21). +Prayer is associated with the confession of Caesarea Philippi (Luke +9:18), with the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:29), with +Gethsemane (Luke 22:41). The writer to the Hebrews speaks of his +"strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7) in prayer. The Gospels even +mention what we should call his unanswered prayers. The prayer +before the calling of the Twelve does not exclude Judas; and the cup +does not pass in spite of the prayer in Gethsemane. It is as if we +had something to learn from the unanswered prayers of our Master. +Certainly the content of the Gospel for us would have been poorer if +they had been answered in our sense of the word; and this fact, +taken with his own teaching on prayer, and his own submission to the +Father's will, may help us over some of our difficulties. But Jesus +had no doubt or fear about prayer being answered. "Ask, and it shall +be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened +unto you" (Luke 11:9)--are not ambiguous statements in the least; +and they come from one "who based himself on experience." It is +worth thinking out that the experience of Jesus lies behind his +recommendation of prayer. All his clear-eyed knowledge of God speaks +in these plain sentences. + +"As he was praying, they ask him, Teach us to pray, as John also +taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). It looks as if at times his +disciples caught him at prayer or even overheard him, and felt that +here was prayer that took them out beyond all they had ever known of +prayer. There were men whom John had taught to pray; was it they who +asked Jesus to teach them over again? There may have been some of +them who had learnt the Pharisee's way in prayer, and some who stuck +to the simpler way they had been taught in childhood. In each case +the old ways were outgrown. + +We can put together what he taught them. In the first place, the +thing must be real and individual--the first requirement always with +Jesus. The public prayer of ostentation is out of the reckoning; it +is nothing. Jesus chooses the quiet and solitary place for his +intercourse with his Father. The real prayer is to the Father in +secret--His affair. And it will be earnest beyond what most of us +think. We are so familiar with Gospel and parable that we do not +take in the strenuousness of Jesus' way in prayer. The importunate +widow (Luke 18:2) and the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5) are his +types of insistent and incessant earnestness. Do you, he asks, pray +with anything like their determination to be heard? The knock at the +door and the pleading voice continue till the request is granted--in +each case by a reluctant giver. But God is not reluctant, Jesus +says, though God, too, will choose his own time to answer (Luke +18:7). It does not mean the mechanical reiteration of the heathen +(Matt. 6:7)--not at all, that is not the business of praying; but +the steady earnest concentration on the purpose, with the deeper and +deeper clarification of the thought as we press home into God's +presence till we get there. It was so that he prayed, we may be +sure. It is not idly that prayer has been called "the greatest task +of the Christian man"; it will not be an easy thing, but a +strenuous. + +One part of the difficulty of prayer is recognized by Jesus over and +over again. Men do not really quite believe that they will be +answered--they are "of little faith." But he tells them with +emphasis, in one form of words and another, driving it home into +them, that "all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27)--"have +faith in God" (Mark 11:22). One can imagine how he fixes them with +the familiar steady gaze, pauses, and then with the full weight of +his personality in his words, and meaning them to give to his words +the full value he intends, says: "Have faith in God." To see him and +to hear him must have given that faith of itself. If the friend in +the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you will knock till you +get them; and has not God the gifts for you that you need? Is he +short of the power to help, or is it the will to help that is +wanting in God? + +Once more the vital thing is Jesus' conception of God. Here, as +elsewhere, we sacrifice far more than we dream by our lazy way of +using his words without making the effort to give them his +connotation. To turn again to passages already quoted, will a father +give his son a serpent instead of the fish for which he asks, a +stone for bread? It is unthinkable; God--will God do less? It all +goes back again to the relation of father and child, to the love of +God; only into the thought, Jesus puts a significance which we have +not character or love enough to grasp. "Your Father knoweth that ye +have need of these things," he says about the matters that weigh +heaviest with us (Luke 12:30). Even if we suppose Luke's reference +to the Father giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13), +to owe something to the editor's hand--it was an editor with some +Christian experience--it is clear that Jesus steadily implies that +the heavenly Father has better things than food and clothing for his +children. How much of a human father is available for his children? +Then will not the heavenly Father, Jesus suggests, give on a larger +scale, and give Himself; in short, be available for the least +significant of His own children in all His fullness and all His +Fatherhood? And even if they do not ask, because they do not know +their need, will he not answer the prayers that others, who do know, +make for them? Jesus at all events made a practice of +intercession--"I prayed for thee," he said to Peter (Luke +22:32)--and the writers of the New Testament feel that it is only +natural for Jesus, Risen, Ascended, and Glorified, to make +intercession for us still (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). + +We have again to think out what God's Fatherhood implies and carries +with it for Jesus. + +"The recurrence of the sweet and deep name, Father, unveils the +secret of his being. His heart is at rest in God."[23] Rest in God +is the very note of all his being, of all his teaching--the keynote +of all prayer in his thought. "Our Father, who art in heaven," our +prayers are to begin--and perhaps they are not to go on till we +realize what we are saying in that great form of speech. It is +certain that as these words grow for us into the full stature of +their meaning for Jesus, we shall understand in a more intimate way +what the whole Gospel is in reality. + +The writer to the Hebrews has here an interesting suggestion for us. +Using the symbolism of the Hebrew religion and its tabernacle, he +compares Jesus to the High Priest, but Jesus, he says, does not +enter into the holiest alone. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness +to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living +way, which he hath consecrated for us ... let us draw near with a +true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19). In the previous +chapter he discards the symbol and "speaks things"--"Christ is not +entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures +of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence +of God for us" (Heb. 9:24). There he touches what has been the faith +of the Church throughout--that in Christ we reach the presence of +God. Without saying so much in so many words, Jesus implies this in +all his attitude to prayer. God is there, and God loves you, and +loves to have you speak with him. No one has ever believed this very +much outside the radius of Christ's person and influence. It is, +when we give the words full weight, an essentially Christian faith, +and it depends on our relation to Jesus Christ. + +Jesus was quite explicit with his friends in telling them they did +not know what to ask, but he showed them himself what they should +ask. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. +6:33), he says, and tells us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins +and for deliverance from evil. Pray, too, "Thy kingdom come." "Pray +ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into +his harvest" (Matt. 9:38). This is perhaps the only place where he +asked his disciples to pray for his great work. Identification with +God's purposes--identification with the individual needs of those we +love and those we ought to love--identification with the world's sin +and misery--these seem to be his canons of prayer for us, as for +himself. For both in what he teaches others and in what he does +himself, he makes it a definite prerequisite of all prayer that we +say: "Thy will be done." Prayer is essentially dedication, deeper +and fuller as we use it more and come more into the presence of God. +Obedience goes with it; "we must cease to pray or cease to disobey," +one or the other. If we are half-surrendered, we are not very bright +about our prayers, because we do not quite believe that God will +really look after the things about which we are anxious. We must +indeed go back to what Jesus said about God; we had better even +leave off praying for a moment till we see what he says, and then +begin again with a clearer mind. + +"Ask, and ye shall receive," he says; and if we have no obedience, +or love, or faith, or any of the great things that make prayer +possible, he suggests that we can ask for them and have them. The +Gospel gives us an illustration in the man who prayed: "Lord, I +believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). But it is plain we +have to understand that we are asking for great things, and it is to +them rather than to the obvious little things that Jesus directs our +thoughts. Not away from the little things, for if God is a real +Father he will wish to have his children talk them over with +him--"little things please little minds," yes, and great minds when +the little minds are dear to them--but not little things all the +time. There is a variant to the saying about seeking first the +Kingdom of Heaven, which Clement of Alexandria preserves. Perhaps it +is a mere slip, but God, it has been said, can use misquotations; +and Clement's quotation, or misquotation, certainly represents the +thought of Jesus, and it may give us a hint for our own practice: +"Ask," saith he, "the great things, and the little things will be +added unto you" (Strom. i. 158). + +The object of Jesus was to induce men to base all life on God. +Short-range thinking, like the rich fool's, may lead to our +forgetting God; but Jesus incessantly lays the emphasis on the +thought-out life; and that, in the long run, means a new reckoning +with God. That is what Jesus urges--that we should think life out, +that we should come face to face with God and see him for what he +is, and accept him. He means us to live a life utterly and +absolutely based on God--life on God's lines of peacemaking and +ministry, the "denial of self," a complete forgetfulness of self in +surrender to God, obedience to God, faith in God, and the acceptance +of the sunshine of God's Fatherhood. He means us to go about things +in God's way--forgiving our enemies, cherishing kind thoughts about +those who hate us or despise us or use us badly (Matt. 5:44), +praying for them. This takes us right back into the common world, +where we have to live in any case; and it is there that he means us +to live with God--not in trance, but at work, in the family, in +business, shop, and street, doing all the little things and all the +great things that God wants us to do, and glad to do them just +because we are his children and he is our Father. Above all, he +would have us "think like God" (Mark 8:33); and to reach this habit +of "thinking like God," we have to live in the atmosphere of Jesus, +"with him" (Mark 3:14). All this new life he made possible for us by +being what he was--once again a challenge to re-explore Jesus. "The +way to faith in God and to love for man," said Dr. Cairns at Mohonk, +"is, as of old, to come nearer to the living Jesus." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JESUS AND MAN + +When, on his last journey, Jesus came in sight of Jerusalem, Luke +tells us that he wept (Luke 19:41). There is an obvious explanation +of this in the extreme tension under which he was living--everything +turned upon the next few days, and everything would be decided at +Jerusalem; but while he must have felt this, it cannot have been the +cause of his weeping. Nor should we look for it altogether in the +appeal which a great city makes to emotion. + + Dull would he be of soul who could pass by + A sight so touching in its majesty. + +Yet it was not the architecture that so deeply moved Jesus; the +temple, which was full in view, was comparatively new and foreign. +There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant anything to +him, perhaps it meant little to the writers. As for the temple, he +found it "a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46); and he prophesied that it +would be demolished, and of all its splendid buildings, its goodly +stones and votive offerings, which so much impressed his disciples, +not one stone would be left upon another stone (Mark 13:9; Luke +21:5). But the traditions of Jerusalem wakened thoughts in him of +the story of his people, thoughts with a tragic colour. Jerusalem +was the place where prophets were killed (Luke 13:34), the scene and +centre, at once, of Israel's deepest emotions, highest hopes, and +most awful failures. "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" he had said in +sadness as he thought of Israel's holy city, "which killest the +prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I +have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood +under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34). + +And now he is in sight of Jerusalem. The city and the temple +suddenly meet his view, as he reaches the height, and he is deeply +moved. Any reflective mind might well have been stirred by the +thought of the masses of men gathered there. Nothing is so futile as +an arithmetical numbering of people, for after a certain point +figures paralyse the imagination, and after that they tell the mind +little or nothing. But here was actually assembled the Jewish +people, coming in swarms from all the world, for the feast; here was +Judaism at its most pious; here was the pilgrim centre with all it +meant of aspiration and blindness, of simple folly and gross sin. +The sight of the city--the doomed city, as he foresaw--the thought +of his people, their zeal for God and their alienation from God--it +all comes over him at once, and, with a sudden rush of feeling, he +apostrophizes Jerusalem--"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least +in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now +they are hid from thine eyes . . . . Thou knewest not the time of +thy visitation!" (Luke 19:42-44). + +It is quite plain from the Gospels that crowds had always an appeal +for Jesus. At times he avoided them; but when they came about him, +they claimed him and possessed him. Over and over again, we read of +his pity for them--"he saw a great multitude and was moved with +compassion toward them" (Matt. 14:14)--of his thought for their +weariness and hunger, his reflection that they might "faint by the +way" on their long homeward journeys (Mark 8:3), and his solicitude +about their food. Whatever modern criticism makes of the story of +his feeding multitudes, it remains that he was markedly sensitive to +the idea of hunger. Jairus is reminded that his little girl will be +the better for food (Mark 5:43). The rich are urged to make feasts +for the poor, the maimed and the blind (Luke 14:12). The owner of +the vineyard, in the parable, pays a day's wage for an hour's work, +when an hour was all the chance that the unemployed labourer could +find (Matt. 20:9). No sanctity could condone for the devouring of +widows' houses (Matt. 23:14). + +The great hungry multitudes haunt his mind. The story of the rich +young ruler shows this (Mark 10:17-22). Here was a man of birth and +education, whose face and whose speech told of a good heart and +conscience--a man of charm, of the impulsive type that appealed to +Jesus. Jesus "looked on him," we read. The words recall Plato's +picture of Socrates looking at the jailer, how "he looked up at him +in his peculiar way, like a bull"--the old man's prominent eyes were +fixed on the fellow, glaring through the brows above them, and +Socrates' friends saw them and remembered them when they thought of +the scene. As Jesus' eyes rested steadily on this young man, the +disciples saw in them an expression they knew--"Jesus, looking on +him, loved him." Their talk was of eternal life; and, no doubt to +his surprise, Jesus asked the youth if he had kept the commandments; +how did he stand as regarded murder, theft, adultery? The steady +gaze followed the youth's impetuous answer, and then came the +recommendation to sell all that he had and give to the poor--"and, +Come! Follow me!" At this, we read in a fragment of the "Gospel +according to the Hebrews" (preserved by Origen), "the rich man began +to scratch his head, and it did not please him. And the Lord said to +him, `How sayest thou, "The law I have kept and the prophets?" For +it is written in the law, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself"; and behold! many who are thy brethren, sons of Abraham, +are clad in filth and dying of hunger, and thy house is full of many +good things, and nothing at all goes out from it to them.' And he +turned and said to Simon, his disciple, who was sitting beside him: +`Simon, son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through a +needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of +Heaven.'" We need not altogether reject this variant of the story. + +But it was more than the physical needs of the multitude that +appealed to Jesus. "Man's Unhappiness, as I construe," says +Teufelsdröckh in "Sartor Resartus", "comes of his Greatness, it is +because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he +cannot quite bury under the Finite. Will the whole Finance Ministers +and Upholsterers and Confectioners of modern Europe undertake, in +joint-stock company, to make one Shoeblack happy?" We read in a +passage, which it is true, is largely symbolic, that one of Jesus' +quotations from the Old Testament was that "Man shall not live by +bread alone" (Luke 4:4). Hunger is a real thing--horribly real; but +it is comparatively easy to deal with, and man has deeper needs. The +Shoeblack, according to Teufelsdröckh, wants "God's infinite +universe altogether to himself." In the simpler words of Jesus, he +is never happy till he says, "I will arise and go to my Father" +(Luke 15:18). + +This craving for the Father the men of Jesus' day tried to fill with +the law; and, when the law failed to satisfy it, they had nothing +further to suggest, except their fixed idea that "God heareth not +sinners" (John 9:31). They despaired of the great masses and left +them alone. They did not realize, as Jesus did, that the Father also +craves for his children. When Jesus saw the simpler folk thus +forsaken, the picture rose in his mind of sheep, worried by dogs or +wolves, till they fell, worn out--sheep without a shepherd (Matt. +9:36). Every one remembers the shepherd of the parable who sought +the one lost sheep until he found it, and how he brought it home on +his shoulders (Luke 15:5). But there is another parable, we might +almost say, of ninety and nine lost sheep--a parable, not developed, +but implied in the passage of Matthew, and it is as significant as +the other, for our Good Shepherd has to ask his friends to help him +in this case. The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and +helplessness of masses of men was one of the foundations of the +Christian Church. (The Good Shepherd, by the way, is a phrase from +the Fourth Gospel (John 10:11), but we think most often of the Good +Shepherd as carrying the sheep, and that comes from Luke, and is in +all likelihood nearer the parable of Jesus.) + +It is worth noticing that Jesus stands alone in refusing to despair +of the greater part of mankind. Contempt was in his eyes the +unpardonable sin (Matt. 5:22). How swift and decisive is his anger +with those who make others stumble! (Luke 17:2). The parable of the +lost sheep reveals what he held to be God's feeling for the hopeless +man; and, as we have seen, his constant aim is to lead men to "think +like God." The lost soul matters to God. He sums up his own work in +the world in much the same language as he uses about the shepherd in +the parable: "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which +is lost" (Luke 19:10). The taunt that he was the "friend of +publicans and sinners" really described what he was and wished to be +(Luke 7:34). God was their Heavenly Father. The sight, then, of the +masses of his countrymen, like worried sheep, worn, scattered, lost, +and hopeless, waked in him no shade of doubt--on the contrary, it +was further proof to him of the soundness of his message. Changing +his simile, he told his disciples that the harvest was great, but +the labourers few, and he asked them to pray the Lord of the harvest +to thrust forth labourers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38). The very +name "Lord of the harvest" implies faith in God's competence and +understanding. From the first, he seems to have held up before his +followers that this wide service was to be their work--"Come ye +after me," he said, "and I will make you to become fishers of men" +(Mark 1:17)--men, who should really "catch men" (Luke 5:10). + +Like all for whom the world has had a meaning, Jesus, as we have +seen, accepted the necessary conditions of man's life. Human misery +and need were widespread, but God's Fatherhood was of compass fully +as wide, and Jesus relied upon it. "Your heavenly Father knows," he +said (Matt. 6:32), and "with God all things are possible" (Mark +10:27). The very miseries of the oppressed and hopeless people added +grounds to his confidence. People who had touched bottom in sounding +the human spirit's capacity for misery, were for him the "ripe +harvest" (Matt. 9:37), only needing to be gathered (Mark 4:29). He +understood them, and he knew that he had the healing for all their +troubles. With full assurance of the truth of his words, he cried: +"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will +give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). He spoke of a rest which careless +familiarity obscures for us. What understanding and sympathy he +shows, when he adds: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light!" +Misery, poverty and hunger, he had found, taught men to see +realities. The hungry, at least, were not likely to mistake a stone +for bread--they had a ready test for it, on which they could rely. +Poverty threw open the road to the Kingdom of God. The clearing away +of all temporary satisfactions, of all that cloaked the soul's +deepest needs, prepared men for real relations with the greatest +Reality--with God. So that Jesus boldly said: "Blessed are ye poor"; +"Blessed are ye that hunger now"; "Blessed are ye that weep now" +(Luke 6:20, 21); but he had no idea that they were always to weep. +If it was his to care for men's hunger, it was not likely that he +would have no comfort for their tears--"Ye shall find rest unto your +souls" (Matt. 11:29)--"They shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). + +It was in large part upon the happiness which he was to bring to the +poor that Jesus based his claim to be heard. There is little +reasonable ground for doubt that he healed diseases. Of course we +cannot definitely pronounce upon any individual case reported; the +diagnosis might be too hasty, and the trouble other than was +supposed; but it is well known that such healings do occur--and that +they occurred in Jesus' ministry, we can well believe. So when he +was challenged as to his credentials, he pointed to misery relieved; +and the culmination of everything, the crowning feature of his work, +he found in his "good news for the poor." The phrase he borrowed +from Isaiah (61:1), but he made it his own--the splendid promises in +Isaiah for "the poor, the broken-hearted, captives, blind and +bruised," appealed to him. Time has laid its hand upon his word, and +dulled its freshness. "Gospel" and "evangelical" are no longer words +of sheer happiness like Jesus' "good news"--they are technical +terms, used in handbooks and in controversy; while for Jesus the +"good news for the poor" was a new word of delight and inspiration. + +The centre in all the thoughts of Jesus, as we have to remind +ourselves again and again, is God. If, as Dr. D. S. Cairns puts it, +"Jesus Christ is the great believer in man," it is--if we are +reading him aright at all--because God believes in man. Let us +remind ourselves often of that. "Thou hast made us for Thyself," +said Augustine in the famous sentence, of which we are apt to +emphasize the latter half, "and our heart knows no rest till it +rests in Thee" (Confessions, i. 1). Jesus would have us emphasize +the former clause as well, and believe it. The keynote of his whole +story is God's love; the Father is a real father--strange that one +should have to write the small f to get the meaning! All that Jesus +has taught us of God, we must bring to bear on man. For it is hard +to believe in man--"What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and +that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" quotes the author of +"Job" in a great ironical passage (Job 7:17; from Psalm 8:4). The +elements and the stars come over us, as they came over George Fox in +the Vale of Beavor; what is man? Can one out of fifteen hundred +millions of human beings living on one planet matter to God, when +there are so many planets and stars, and there have been so many +generations? Can he matter? It all depends on how we conceive of +God. Here it is essential to give all the meaning to the term "God" +that Jesus gave to it, to believe in God as Jesus believed in God, +if we are to understand the fullness of Jesus' "good news." It all +depends on God--on whether Jesus was right about God; and after all +on Jesus himself. "A thing of price is man," wrote Synesius about +410 A.D., "because for him Christ died." The two things go +together--Jesus' death and Jesus' Theocentric thought of man. + +It is a familiar criticism of idealists and other young hearts, that +it is easy to idealize what one does not know. "Omne ignotum pro +magnifico" is the old epigram of Tacitus. It is not every believer +in man, nor every "Friend of man," who knows men as Jesus did. Like +Burns and Carlyle and others who have interpreted man to us to some +purpose, he grew up in the home of labouring people. He was a +working man himself, a carpenter. He must have learnt his carpentry +exactly as every boy learns it, by hammering his fingers instead of +the nail, sawing his own skin instead of the wood--and not doing it +again. He knew what it was to have an aching back and sweat on the +face; how hard money is to earn, and how quickly it goes. He makes +it clear that money is a temptation to men, and a great danger; but +he never joins the moralists and cranks in denouncing it. He always +talks sense--if the expression is not too lowly to apply to him. He +sees what can be done with money, what a tool it can be in a wise +man's hands--how he can make friends "by means of the mammon of +unrighteousness" (Luke 16:9), for example, by giving unexpectedly +generous wages to men who missed their chances (Matt. 20:15), by +feeding Lazarus at the gate, and perhaps by having his sores +properly attended to (Luke 16:20). That he understood how pitifully +the loss of a coin may affect a household of working people, one of +his most beautiful parables bears witness (Luke 15:8-10). With work +he had no quarrel. He draws many of his parables from labour, and he +implies throughout that it is the natural and right thing for man. +To be holy in his sense, a man need not leave his work. Clement of +Alexandria, in his famous saying about the ploughman continuing to +plough, and knowing God as he ploughs, and the seafaring man, +sticking to his ship and calling on the heavenly pilot as he sails, +is in the vein of Jesus.[24] There were those whom he called to +leave all, to distribute their wealth, and to follow him; but he +chose them (Mark 3:13, 14); it was not his one command for all men +(cf. Mark 5:19). But, as we shall shortly see, it is implied by his +judgements of men that he believed in work and liked men who "put +their backs into it"--their backs, eyes, and their brains too. + +Pain, the constant problem of man, and perhaps more, of woman--of +unmarried woman more especially--he never discussed as modern people +discuss it. He never made light of pain any more than of poverty; he +understood physical as well as moral distress. Nor did he, like some +of his contemporaries and some modern people, exaggerate the place +of pain in human experience. He shared pain, he sympathized with +suffering; and his understanding of pain, and, above all, his choice +of pain, taught men to reconsider it and to understand it, and +altered the attitude of the world toward it. His tenderness for the +suffering of others taught mankind a new sympathy, and the +"nosokomeion", the hospital for the sick, was one of the first of +Christian institutions to rise, when persecution stopped and +Christians could build. "And the blind and the lame came to him in +the temple, and he healed them," says Matthew (21:14) in a memorable +phrase. I have heard it suggested that it was irregular for them to +come into the temple courts; but they gravitated naturally to Jesus. + +The mystic is never quite at leisure for other people's feelings and +sufferings; he is essentially an individualist; he must have his own +intercourse with God, and other people's affairs are apt to be an +interruption, an impertinence. "I have not been thinking of the +community; I have been thinking of Christ," said a Bengali to me, +who was wavering between the Brahmo Samaj and Christianity. The +blessed Angela of Foligno was rather glad to be relieved of her +husband and children, who died and left her leisure to enjoy the +love of God. All this is quite unlike the real spirit of the +historical Jesus. "Himself took our infirmities and bare our +sicknesses," was a phrase of Isaiah that came instinctively to the +minds of his followers (Matt. 8:17, roughly after Isaiah 53:4). +Perhaps when we begin to understand what is meant by the +Incarnation, we may find that omnipotence has a great deal more to +do than we have supposed with natural sympathy and the genius for +entering into the sorrows and sufferings of other people. + +One side of the work of Jesus must never be forgotten. His attitude +to woman has altered her position in the world. No one can study +society in classical antiquity or in non-Christian lands with any +intimacy and not realize this. Widowhood in Hinduism, marriage among +Muslims--they are proverbs for the misery of women. Even the Jew +still prays: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the +Universe, who hast not made me a woman." The Jewish woman has to be +grateful to God, because He "hath made me according to His will"--a +thanksgiving with a different note, as the modern Jewess, Amy Levy, +emphasized in her brilliant novel, where her heroine, very like +herself, corrected her prayerbook to make it more explicit "cursed +art Thou, O Lord our God! Who hast made me a woman." Paul must have +known these Jewish prayers, for he emphasized that in Christ there +is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28). Paul had his views--the +familiar old ways of Tarsus inspired them[25]--as to woman's dress +and deportment, especially the veil; but he struck the real +Christian note here, and laid stress on the fact of what Jesus had +done and is doing for women. There is no reference made by Jesus to +woman that is not respectful and sympathetic; he never warns men +against women. Even the most degraded women find in him an amazing +sympathy; for he has the secret of being pure and kind at the same +time--his purity has not to be protected; it is itself a purifying +force. He draws some of his most delightful parables from woman's +work, as we have seen. It is recorded how, when he spoke of the +coming disaster of Jerusalem, he paused to pity poor pregnant women +and mothers with little babies in those bad times (Luke 21:23; Matt. +24:19). Critics have remarked on the place of woman in Luke's +Gospel, and some have played with fancies as to the feminine sources +whence he drew his knowledge--did the women who ministered to Jesus, +Joanna, for instance, the wife of Chuza (Luke 8:3), tell him these +illuminative stories of the Master? In any case Jesus' new attitude +to woman is in the record; and it has so reshaped the thought of +mankind, and made it so hard to imagine anything else, that we do +not readily grasp what a revolution he made--here as always by +referring men's thoughts back to the standard of God's thoughts, and +supporting what he taught by what he was. + +Mark has given us one of our most familiar pictures of Jesus sitting +with a little child on his knee and "in the crook of his arm." (The +Greek participle which gives this in Mark 9:36 and 10:16 is worth +remembering--it is vivid enough.) Mothers brought their children to +him, "that he should put his hands on them and pray" (Matt. 19:13). +Matthew (21:15) says that children took part in the Triumphal Entry; +and Jesus, clear as he was how little the Hosannas of the grown +people meant, seems to have enjoyed the children's part in the +strange scene. Classical literature, and Christian literature of +those ages, offer no parallel to his interest in children. The +beautiful words, "suffer little children to come unto me," are his, +and they are characteristic of him (Matt. 19:14); and he speaks of +God's interest in children (Matt. 18:14)--once more a reference of +everything to God to get it in its true perspective. How Jesus likes +children!--for their simplicity (Luke 18:17), their intuition, their +teachableness, we say. But was it not, perhaps, for far simpler and +more natural reasons just because they were children, and little, +and delightful? We forget his little brothers and sisters, or we +eliminate them for theological purposes. + +Jesus lays quite an unexpected emphasis on sheer tenderness--on +kindness to neighbour and stranger, the instinctive humanity that +helps men, if it be only by the swift offer of a cup of cold water +(Matt. 10:42). The Good Samaritan came as a surprise to some of his +hearers (Luke 10:30). "It is our religion," said a Hindu to a +missionary, to explain why he and other Hindus did not help to +rescue a fainting man from the railway tracks, nor even offer water +to restore him, when the missionary had hauled him on to the +platform unaided. Not so the religion of Jesus--"bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," wrote Paul +(Gal. 6:2)--"pursue hospitality" (Rom. 12:13; the very word runs +through the Epistles of the New Testament). And, as we shall see in +a later chapter, the Last Judgement itself turns on whether a man +has kindly instincts or not. Matthew quotes (12:20) to describe +Jesus' own tenderness the impressive phrase of Isaiah (42:3), "A +bruised reed shall he not break." + +If it is urged that such things are natural to man--"do not even the +publicans the same?" (Matt. 5:46)--Jesus carries the matter a long +way further. "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him +twain" (Matt. 5:41). The man who would use such compulsion would be +the alien soldier, the hireling of Herod or of Rome; and who would +wish to cart him and his goods even one mile? "Go two miles," says +Jesus--or, if the Syriac translation preserves the right reading, +"Go two _extra_." Why? Well, the soldier is a man after all, and by +such unsolicited kindness you may make a friend even of a government +official--not always an easy thing to do--at any rate you can help +him; God helps him; "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father +which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Ordinary kindness and +tenderness could hardly be urged beyond that point; and yet Jesus +goes further still. He would have us _pray_ for those that +despitefully use us (Matt. 5:44)--and in no Pharisaic way, but with +the same instinctive love and friendliness that he always used +himself. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" +(Luke 23:34). There are religions which inculcate the tolerance of +wrong aiming at equanimity of mind or acquisition of merit. But +Jesus implies on the contrary that in all this also the Christian +_denies_ himself, does not seek even in this way to save his own +soul, but forgets all about it in the service of others, though he +finds by and by, with a start, that he has saved it far more +effectually than he could have expected (Mark 8:35; Matt. 25:37, +40). The emphasis falls on our duty of kindness and tenderness to +all men and women, because we and they are alike God's children. + +With his emphasis on tenderness we may group his teaching on +forgiveness. He makes the forgiving spirit an antecedent of +prayer--"when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against +any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your +trespasses" (Mark 11:25). "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and +there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave +there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled +to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matt. 5:23, 24). +The parable of the king and his debtor (Matt. 18:23), painfully true +to human nature, brings out the whole matter of our forgiveness of +one another into the light; we are shown it from God's outlook. The +teaching as ever is Theocentric. To Peter, Jesus says that a man +should be prepared to forgive his brother to seventy times seven--if +anybody can keep count so far (Matt. 18:21-35). He sees how quarrels +injure life, and alienate a man from God. Hence comes the famous +saying: "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy +right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39). He would have +men even avoid criticism of one another (Matt. 7:1-5). Epigrams are +seductive, and there is a fascination in the dissection of +character; but there is always a danger that a clever +characterization, a witty label, may conclude the matter, that a +possible friendship may be lost through the very ingenuity with +which the man has been labelled, who might have been a friend. It is +not a small matter in Jesus' eyes, he puts his view very strongly +(Matt. 5:22); and, as we must always remember, he bases himself on +fact. We may lose a great deal more than we think by letting our +labels stand between us and his words, by our habit of calling them +paradoxes and letting them go at that. + +It is worth while to look at the type of character that he admires. +Modern painters have often pictured Jesus as something of a dreamer, +a longhaired, sleepy, abstract kind of person. What a contrast we +find in the energy of the real Jesus--in the straight and powerful +language which he uses to men, in the sweep and range of his mind, +in the profundity of his insight, the drive and compulsiveness of +his thinking, in the venturesomeness of his actions. How many of the +parables turn on energy? The real trouble with men, he seems to say, +is again and again sheer slackness; they will not put their minds to +the thing before them, whether it be thought or action. Thus, for +instance, the parable of the talents turns on energetic thinking and +decisive action; and these are the things that Jesus admires--in the +widow who will have justice (Luke 18:21)--in the virgins who thought +ahead and brought extra oil (Matt. 25:4)--in the vigorous man who +found the treasure and made sure of it (Matt. 13:44)--in the friend +at midnight, who hammered, hammered, hammered, till he got his +loaves (Luke 11:8)--in the "violent," who "take the Kingdom of +Heaven by force" (Matt. 11:12; Luke 16:16)--in the man who will hack +off his hand to enter into life (Mark 9:43). Even the bad steward he +commends, because he definitely put his mind on his situation (Luke +16:8). As we shall see later on, indecision is one of the things +that in his judgement will keep a man outside the Kingdom of God, +that make him unfit for it. The matter deserves more study than we +commonly give it. You must have a righteousness, he says, which +exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20)--and the +Pharisees were professionals in righteousness. His tests of +discipleship illumine his ideal of character--Theocentric +thinking--negation of self--the thought-out life. He will have his +disciples count the cost, reckon their forces, calculate quietly the +risks before them--right up to the cross (Luke 14:27-33)--like John +Bunyan in Bedford Gaol, where he thought things out to the pillory +and thence to the gallows, so that, if it came to the gallows, he +should be ready, as he says, to leap off the ladder blindfold into +eternity. That is the energy of mind that Jesus asks of men, that he +admires in men. + +On the other side, he is always against the life of drift, the +half-thought-out life. There they were, he says, in the days of +Noah, eating and drinking, marrying, dreaming--and the floods came +and destroyed them (Luke 17:27). So ran the old familiar story, and, +says Jesus, it is always true; men will drift and dream for ever, +heedless of fact, heedless of God--and then ruin, life gone, the +soul lost, the Son of Man come, and "you yourselves thrust out" +(Luke 13:28, with Matt. 25:10-13). It is quite striking with what a +variety of impressive pictures Jesus drives home his lesson. There +is the person who everlastingly says and does not do (Matt. +23:3)--who promises to work and does not work (Matt. 21:28)--who +receives a new idea with enthusiasm, but has not depth enough of +nature for it to root itself (Mark 4:6)--who builds on sand, the +"Mr. Anything" of Bunyan's allegory; nor these alone, for Jesus is +as plain on the unpunctual (Luke 13:25), the easy-going (Luke +12:47), the sort that compromises, that tries to serve God and +Mammon (Matt. 6:24)--all the practical half-and-half people that +take their bills quickly and write fifty, that offer God and man +about half what they owe them of thought and character and action, +and bid others do the same, and count themselves men of the world +for their acuteness (Luke 16:1-8). And to do them justice, Jesus +commends them; they have taken the exact measure of things "in their +generation." Their mistake lies in their equation of the fugitive +and the eternal; and it is the final and fatal mistake according to +Jesus, and a very common one--forgetfulness of God in fact (Luke +12:20), a mistake that comes from _not_ thinking things out. Jesus +will have men think everything out to the very end. "He never says: +Come unto me, all ye who are too lazy to think for yourselves" (H. +S. Coffin). It is energy of mind that he calls for--either with me +or against me. He does not recognize neutrals in his war--"he that +is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50)--"he that is not with me is +against me" (Matt. 12:30). + +Where does a man's _Will_ point him? That is the question. "Out of +the abundance, the overflow, of the heart, the mouth speaketh" +(Matt. 12:34). What is it that a man _wills_, purity or impurity +(Matt. 5:28)? It is the inner energy that makes a man; what he says +and does is an overflow from what is within--an overflow, it is +true, with a reaction. It is what a man _chooses_, and what he +_wills_, that Jesus always emphasizes; "God knoweth your hearts" +(Luke 16:15). Very well then; does a man choose God? That is the +vital issue. Does he choose God without reserve, and in a way that +God, knowing his heart, will call a whole-hearted choice? + +St. Augustine, in a very interesting passage ("Confessions", viii. +9, 21), remarks upon the fact that, when the mind commands the body, +obedience is instantaneous, but that when it commands itself, it +meets with resistance. "The mind commands that the mind shall +will--it is one and the same mind, and it does not obey." He finds +the reason; the mind does not absolutely and entirely ("ex toto") +will the thing, and so it does not absolutely and entirely command +it. "There is nothing strange after all in this," he says, "partly +to will, partly not to will; but it is a weakness of the mind that +it does not arise in its entirety, uplifted by truth, because it is +borne down by habit. Thus there are two Wills, because one of them +is not complete." + +The same thought is to be traced in the teaching of Jesus. It is +implied in what he says about prayer. There is a want of faith, a +half-heartedness about men's prayers; they pray as Augustine says he +himself did: "Give me chastity and continence, but not now" (Conf, +viii. 7, 17). That is not what Jesus means by prayer--the utterance +of the half-Will. Nor is it this sort of surrender to God that Jesus +calls for--no, the question is, how thoroughly is a man going to put +himself into God's hands? Does he mean to be God's up to the cross +and beyond? Does he enlist absolutely on God's terms without a +bargain with God, prepared to accept God's will, whatever it is, +whether it squares with his liking or not? (cf. Luke 17:7-10). Are +his own desires finally out of the reckoning? Does he, in fact, +deny--negate--himself (Mark 8:34)? Jesus calls for disciples, with +questions so penetrating on his lips. What a demand to make of men! +What faith, too, in men it shows, that he can ask all this with no +hint of diminished seriousness! + +Jesus is the great believer in men, as we saw in the choice of his +twelve. To that group of disciples he trusts the supremest task men +ever had assigned to them. Not many wise, not many mighty, Paul +found at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:26); and it has always been so. Is it not +still the gist of the Gospel that Jesus believes in the writer and +the reader of these lines--trusts them with the propagation of God's +Kingdom, incredible commission? Jesus was always at leisure for +individuals; this was the natural outcome of his faith in men. What +else is the meaning of his readiness to spend himself in giving the +utmost spiritual truth--no easy task, as experience shows us--even +to a solitary listener? If we accept what he tells us of God, we can +believe that the individual is worth all that Jesus did and does for +him, but hardly otherwise. His gift of discovering interest in +uninteresting people, says Phillips Brooks, was an intellectual +habit that he gave to his disciples. We think too much "like men"; +he would have us "think like God," and think better of odd units and +items of humanity than statesmen and statisticians are apt to do. It +has been pointed out lately how fierce he is about the man who puts +a stumbling-block in the way of even "a little one"--"better for him +that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into +the sea"; no mere phrase--for when he draws a picture, he sees it; +he sees this scene, and "better so--for him too!" is his comment +(Mark 9:42). There was, we may remember, a view current in antiquity +that when a man was drowned, his soul perished with his body, though +I do not know if the Jews held this opinion. It is not likely that +Jesus did. What is God's mind, God's conduct, toward those people +whom men think they can afford to despise? "Be ye therefore perfect, +even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). And to whom +did he say this? To the most ordinary people--to Peter and James and +John; for all sorts of people he held up this impossible ideal of a +perfection like God's. What a faith in man it implies! "All things +are possible to him that believes" (Mark 9:9.3). Why should not +_you_ believe? he says. + +His faith in the soul's possibilities is boundless, and in marked +contrast with what men think of themselves. A man, for instance, +will say that he has done his best; but nine times out of ten it +means mere fatigue; he is not going to trouble to do any more. How +_can_ a man know that he has done his best? The Gospel of Jesus +comes with its message of the grace of God, and the power of God, to +people who are stupid and middle-aged, who are absolutely settled in +life, who are conscious of their limitations, who know they are +living in a rut and propose to stick to it for the remainder of +their days; and Jesus tells them in effect that he means to give +them a new life altogether, that he means to have from them service, +perfectly incredible to them. No man, he suggests, need be so inured +to the stupidity of middle age but there may be a miraculous change +in him. A great many people need re-conversion at forty, however +Christian they have been before. This belief of his in the +individual man and in the worth of the individual is the very +charter of democracy. The original writings of William Tyndale, who +first translated the New Testament from Greek into English, contain +the essential ideas of democracy already in 1526--the outcome of +familiar study of the Gospel. Jesus himself said of Herod: "Go and +tell that fox" (Luke 13:32). Herod was a king, but he was not above +criticism; and Christians have not failed at times to make the +criticism of the great that truth requires. + +Jesus had no illusions about men; he sees the weak spots; he +recognizes the "whited sepulchre" (Matt. 23:27). He is astonished at +the unbelief of men and women (Mark 6:6). He does not understand why +they cannot think (Mark 8:21), but he notes how they see and yet do +not see, hear and do not understand (Matt. 13:13). He is impressed +by their falsity, even in religion (Matt. 15:8). He knows perfectly +well the evil of which the human heart is capable (Matt. 15:19). A +man who steadily looks forward to being crucified by the people he +is trying to help is hardly one of the absent-minded enthusiasts, +mis-called idealists. There never was, we feel, one who so +thoroughly looked through his friends, who loved them so much and +yet without a shade of illusion. This brings us to the subject of +the next chapter. + +In the meantime let us recall what he makes of the wasted life. "In +thinking of the case," said Seeley. "they had forgotten the +woman"--a common occurrence with those who deal in "cases." It was +once severely said of the Head of a College that "if he would leave +off caring for his students' souls and care for them, he would do +better." Jesus does not forget the man in caring for his soul--he +likes him. He is "the friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34); +he eats and drinks with them (Mark 2:14). Let us remember again that +these were taunts and were meant to sting; they were not +conventional phrases. See how he can enter into the life of a poor +creature. There is the wretched little publican, Zacchaeus (Luke +19:1-10)--a squalid little figure of a man, whom people despised. He +was used to contempt--it was the portion of the tax-collector +enlisted in Roman service against his own people. Jesus comes and +sees him up in the tree; he instantly realizes what is happening and +invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus as a guest; something +passes between them without spoken word. The little man slides down +the tree--not a proceeding that makes for dignity; and then, with +all his inches, he stands up before the whole town, that knew him so +well, in a new moral grandeur that adds cubits to his stature. "Half +my goods," he says, "I give to the poor. If I have taken anything +from any man by false accusation, he shall have it back fourfold." +That man belonged to the despised classes. Jesus came into his life; +the man became a new man, a pioneer of Christian generosity. Again, +there is the woman with the alabaster box, the mere possession of +which stamped her for what she was. It was simply a case of the +wasted life. I have long wondered if she meant to give him only some +of the ointment. A little of it would have been a great gift. But +perhaps the lid of the box jammed, and she realized in a moment that +it was to be all or nothing--she drew off her sandal and smashed the +box to pieces. However she broke it, and whatever her reasons, +Mark's words mean that it was thoroughly and finally shivered (Mark +14:3). Something had happened which made this woman the pioneer of +the Christian habit of giving all for Jesus. The disciples said they +had done so (Matt. 19:27), but they were looking for thrones in +exchange (Mark 10:37); she was not. The thief on the cross himself +becomes a pioneer for mankind in the Christian way of prayer. +"Jesus, remember me!" he says (Luke 23:42). How is it that Jesus +comes into the wasted life and makes it new? "One loving heart sets +another on fire." + +With all his wide outlook on mankind, his great purpose to capture +all men, Jesus is remarkable for his omission to devise machinery or +organization for the accomplishment of his ends. The tares are left +to grow with the wheat (Matt. 13:30)--as if Jesus trusted the wheat +a good deal more than we do. Alive as he is to the evil in human +nature, he never tries to scare men from it, and he seems to have +been very little afraid of it. He believed in the power of +good--because, after all, God is "Lord of the Harvest" (Matt. 9:38). +He invents no special methods--a loving heart will hit the method +needed in the particular case; the Holy Spirit will teach this as +well as other things (Matt. 10:19, 20). How far he even organized +his church, or left it to organize itself if it so wished, students +may discuss. Would he have trusted even the best organized church as +such? Does not what we mean by the Incarnation imply putting +everything in the long run on the individual, quickened into new +life by a new relation with God and taught a new love of men by +Jesus himself? The heart of friendship and the heart of the +Incarnation are in essence the same thing--giving oneself in +frankness and love to him who will accept, and by them winning him +who refuses. Has not this been the secret of the spread of the +Gospel? The simplicity of the whole thing, and the power of it, grow +upon us as we study them. But after all, as Tertullian said, +simplicity and power are the constant marks of God's +work--simplicity in method, power in effect ("de Baptismo", 2). + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + +"For clear-thinking ethical natures," writes a modern scholar, "for +natures such as those of Jesus and St. Paul, it is a downright +necessity to separate heaven and hell as distinctly as possible. It +is only ethically worthless speculations that have always tried to +minimize this distinction. Carlyle is an instance in our times of +how men even to-day once more enthusiastically welcome the +conception of hell as soon as the distinction between good and bad +becomes all-important to them."[26] + +Here in strong terms a challenge is put to many of our current +ideas. Is not this to revert to an outworn view of the Christian +religion--to reassert its dark side, better forgotten, all the +horrible emphasis on sin and its consequences introduced into the +sunny teaching of Jesus by Paul of Tarsus, and alien to it? Before +we answer this question in any direct way, it is worth while to +realize for how many of the real thinkers, and the great teachers of +mankind, this distinction between good and evil has been +fundamental. They have not invented it as a theory on which to base +religion, but they have found it in human life, one and all of them. +If Walt Whitman or Swami Vivekananda overlook the difference between +virtue and vice, and do honour to the courtesan, it simply means +that they are bad thinkers, bad observers. The deeper minds see more +clearly and escape the confusion into which the slight and quick, +the sentimental, hurl themselves. Above all, when God in any degree +grows real to a man, when a man seriously gives himself not to some +mere vague "contemplation" of God but to the earnest study of God's +ways in human affairs, and of God's laws and their working, the +great contrasts in men's responses to God's rule become luminous. + +When God matters to a man, all life shows the result. Good and bad, +right and wrong stand out clear as the contrast between light and +darkness--they cannot be mistaken, and they matter--and matter for +ever. They are no concern of a moment. Action makes character; and, +until the action is undone again, the effect on character is not +undone. Right and wrong are of eternal significance now in virtue of +the reality of God. + +Gautama Buddha, for instance, and the greater Hindu thinkers, in +their doctrine of Karma, have taught a significance inherent in good +and evil, which we can only not call boundless. Buddha did this +without any great consciousness of God; and many Indian thinkers +have so emphasized the doctrine that it has taken all the stress +laid on "Bhakti" by Ramanuja and others to restore to life a +perspective or a balance, however it should be described, that will +save men from utter despair. Nor is it Eastern thinkers only who +have taught men the reality of heaven and hell. The poetry of +Aeschylus is full of his great realization of the nexus between act +and outcome. With all the humour and charm there is in Plato, we +cannot escape his tremendous teaching on the age-long consequences +of good and evil in a cosmos ordered by God. Carlyle, in our own +days, realized the same thing--he learnt it no doubt from his +mother; and learnt it again in London. In Mrs. Austen's +drawing-room, with "Sidney Smith guffawing," and "other people +prating, jargoning, to me through these thin cobwebs Death and +Eternity sate glaring." "How will this look in the Universe," he +asks, "and before the Creator of Man?" When someone in his old age +challenged him with the question, "Who will be judge?"--(it is +curious how every sapient inanity strikes, as on an original idea, +on the notion that opinions differ, and therefore--apparently, if +their thought has any consequence--are as good one as another)--Who +will be judge? "Hell fire will be judge," said Carlyle, "God +Almighty will be the judge now and always." There is a gulf between +good and evil, and each is inexorably fertile of consequence. There +is no escaping the issue of moral choice. That is the conclusion of +men who have handled human experience in a serious spirit. As +physical laws are deducible from the reactions of matter and force, +and are found to be uniform and inevitable, fundamental in the +nature of matter and force, so clear-thinking men in the course of +ages have deduced moral laws from their observation of human nature, +laws as uniform, inevitable and fundamental. In neither case has it +been that men invented or imagined the laws; in both cases it has +been genuine discovery of what was already existent and operative, +and often the discovery has involved surprise. + +If Jesus had failed to see laws so fundamental, which other teachers +of mankind have recognized, it is hardly likely that his teaching +would have survived or influenced men as it has done. Mankind can +dispense with a teacher who misses patent facts, whatever his charm. +But there never was any doubt that Jesus was alive to the difference +between right and wrong. His critics saw this, but they held that he +confused moral issues, and that his distinctions in the ethical +sphere were badly drawn. + +Jesus could not have ignored the problem of sin and forgiveness, +even if he had wished to ignore it. To this the thought of mankind +had been gravitating, and in Jewish and in Greek thought, conduct +was more and more the centre of everything. For the Stoics morals +were the dominant part of philosophy; but for our present purpose we +need not go outside the literature of the New Testament. Sin was the +keynote of the preaching of John the Baptist. It is customary to +connect the mission of Jesus with that of John, and to find in the +Baptist's preaching either the announcement of his Successor (as is +said with most emphasis in the Fourth Gospel), or (as some now say) +the impulse which drove Jesus of Nazareth into his public ministry. +Whatever may be the historical connexion between them, it is as +important for us at least to realize the broad gulf that separates +them. They meet, it is true; both use the phrase "Kingdom of God," +both preach repentance in view of the coming of the Kingdom; and we +are apt to assume they mean the same thing; but Jesus took some +pains to make it clear, though in the gentlest and most sympathetic +way, that they did not. + +On the famous occasion, when John the Baptist sent two of his +disciples to Jesus with his striking message: "Art thou he that +should come? or look we for another?" (Luke 7:19-35; Matt. 11:1-19), +Jesus, when the messengers were gone, spoke to the people about the +Baptist. "What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed +shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? A prophet? Yea, +I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. Among those that are +born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, +but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he." I am +not sure which is the right translation, whether it is "he that is +less, least, or little," and I do not propose to discuss it. The +judgement is remarkable enough in any case, and the words of Jesus, +as we have seen, have a close relation to real fact as he saw it. +Why does he speak in this way? Our answer to this question, if we +can answer it, will help us forward to the larger problem before us. +But, for this, we shall have to study John with some care. + +There is a growing agreement among scholars that there is some +confusion in our data as to John the Baptist. There are gaps in the +record--for instance, how and why did the school of John survive as +it did (Acts 18:25, 19:1-7)? And again there are, in the judgement +of some, developments of the story. The Gospel, with varying degrees +of explicitness, and St. Paul by inference (Acts 19:4) tell us that +John pointed to "him which should come after him." Christians, at +any rate, after the Resurrection, had no doubt that this was Jesus. +Whether John was as definite as the narratives now represent him to +have been, has been doubted in view of his message to Jesus. But +that is not our present subject. We are concerned less with John as +precursor than as teacher and thinker. + +Even if our data are defective, still enough is given us to let us +see a very striking and commanding figure. We have a picture of him, +his dress, his diet, his style of speech, his method of action--in +every way he is a signal and arresting man. The son of a priest, he +is an ascetic, who lives in the wilderness, dresses like a peasant, +and eats the meanest and most meagre of food--a man of the desert +and of solitude. And the whole life reacts on him and we can see +him, lean and worn, though still a young man, a keen, rather +excitable spirit--in every feature the marks of revolt against a +civilization which he views as an apostasy. Luke, using a phrase +from the Old Testament, says, "The word of God came upon John in the +wilderness" (Luke 3:2). Luke leans to Old Testament phrase, and here +is one that hits off the man to the very life. Jesus himself +confirms Luke's judgement (Mark 11:29-33). The Word of the Lord has +come on this ascetic figure, and he goes to the people with the +message; he draws their attention and they crowd out to see him. He +makes a great sensation. He is not like other men--for Jesus quotes +their remark that "he had a devil" (Luke 7:33)--a rough and ready +way of explaining unlikeness to the average man. When he sees his +congregation his words are not conciliatory; he addresses them as a +"generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7); and his text is the "wrath to +come." + +Jesus asks whether they went out to see a reed shaken by the wind, +or someone dressed like a courtier--the last things to which anyone +would compare John. There was nothing supple about him, as Herod +found, and Herodias (Mark 6:17-20); he was not shaken by the wind; +there was no trimming of his sails. The austerity of his life and +the austerity of his spirit go together, and he preached in a tone +and a language that scorched. He preached righteousness, social +righteousness, and he did it in a great way. He brought back the +minds of his people, like Amos and others, to God's conceptions and +away from their own. Crowds of people went out to hear him (Mark +1:5). And he made a deep impression on many whose lives needed +amendment (Matt. 21:26, 32; Luke 20:6).[27] We have the substance of +what he said in the third chapter of St. Luke; how he told the +tax-collectors to be honest and not make things worse than they need +be; the soldiers to do violence to no man and accuse no man falsely, +and to be content with their wages; and to ordinary people he +preached humanity: "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him +that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." It may +be remarked of John, and it is true also of Jesus, that neither +attacked the absent nor inveighed against economic conditions, as +some modern preachers do with, let us say, capitalists and the +morality of other nations. Neither says a word against the Roman +Empire. Slavery is not condemned explicitly even by Jesus, though he +gave the dynamic that abolished it. The practical guidance that John +gave, he gave in response to men's inquiries. + +Like an Old Testament prophet (cf. Amos 3:2), John tore to tatters +any plea that could be offered that his listeners were God's chosen +people, the children of Abraham. Does God want children of +Abraham?--John pointed to the stones on the ground, and said, if God +wanted, he could make children of Abraham out of them; a word and he +could have as many children of Abraham as he wished. It was +something else that God sought. + +"John," writes the historian Josephus a generation later, "was a +good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue both in justice +toward one another and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; +for so baptism would be acceptable to God if they made use of it, +not to excuse certain sins, but for the purification of the body, +provided that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by +righteousness."[28] This interpretation of John's baptism makes it +look very like the baptisms and other purificatory rites of the +heathen. The Gospels attribute to John a message, richer and more +powerful, but essentially the same; and the criticism of Jesus +confirms the account. The great note in his preaching is judgement; +the Kingdom of God is coming, and it begins with judgement. Again, +it is like Amos--"The axe is at the root of the tree," "His fan is +in His hand." And as men listened to the man and looked at him--his +intense belief in his message, backed up by a stern self-discipline, +a whole life inspired, infused by conviction--they believed this +message of the axe, the fan, and the fire. They asked and as we have +seen received his guidance on the conduct of life; they accepted his +baptism, and set about the amending of character (Matt. 21:32). + +Jesus makes it quite clear that he held John to be an entirely +exceptional man, and that he had no doubt that John's teaching was +from God (Matt. 21:32; Luke 7:35, 20:4; and, of course, Luke +7:26-28). It was all in the line of the great prophets; and the +Fourth Gospel shows it us once more in the work of the Holy +Spirit--"when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of +sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement" (John 16:8). And yet, +as Jesus says, there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist. + +In Mark's narrative (2:18) a very significant episode is recorded. +John inculcated fasting, and his disciples fasted a great deal +("pykna", Luke 5:33); and once, Mark tells us, when they were +actually fasting, they asked Jesus why his disciples did not do the +same? Jesus' answer is a little cryptic at first sight. "Can the +children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with +them?" Who fasts at the wedding feast, in the hour of gladness? And +then he passes on to speak about the new patch on the old garment, +the new wine in the old wine skins; and it looks as if it were not +merely a criticism of John's disciples but of John himself. John, +indeed, brings home with terrific force and conviction that truth of +God which the prophets had preached before; but he leaves it there. +He emphasizes once more the old laws of God, the judgements of God, +but he brings no transforming power into men's lives. The old +characters, the old motives more or less, are to be patched by a new +fear. + +"Repent, repent," John cries, "the judgement is coming." And men do +repent, and John baptises them as a symbol that God has forgiven +them. But how are they to go on? What is the power that is to carry +John's disciples through the rest of their lives? We are not in +possession of everything that John says, but there is no indication +that John had very much to say about any force or power that should +keep men on the plane of repentance. It is our experience that we +repent and fall again; what else was the experience of the people +whom John baptised? What was to keep them on the new level--not only +in the isolation of the desert, but in the ordinary routine of town +and village? In John's teaching there is not a word about that; and +this is a weakness of double import. For, as Jesus puts it, the new +patch on the old garment makes the rent worse; it does not leave it +merely as it was. If the "unclean spirit" regain its footing in a +man, it does not come alone--"the last state of that man is worse +than the first" (Luke 11:24-26). Jesus is very familiar with the +type that welcomes new ideas and new impulses in religion and yet +does nothing, grows tired or afraid, and relapses (Mark 4:17). + +Again, in John's teaching, as far as we have it, there is a striking +absence of any clear word about any relation to God, beyond that of +debtor and creditor, judge and prisoner on trial, king and subject. +God may forgive and God will judge; but so far as our knowledge of +John's teaching goes, these are the only two points at which man and +God will touch each other; and these are not intimate relations. +There is no promise and no gladness in them; no "good news." John +taught prayer--all sorts of people teach prayer; but what sort of +prayer? It has been remarked of the Greek poet, Apollonius Rhodius, +that his heroes used prayers, but their prayers were like official +documents. Of what character were the prayers that John taught his +disciples? None of them survive; but there is perhaps a tacit +criticism of them in the request made to the New Teacher: "Teach us +to pray, as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). One feels that +the men wanted something different from John's prayers. Great and +strenuous prayers they may have been, but in marked contrast to the +prayers of Jesus and his followers, because of the absence in John's +message of any strong note of the love and tenderness of God. + +Finally, the very righteousness that John preaches with such fire +and energy is open to criticism. Far more serious than the +righteousness of the Pharisees, stronger in insight and more +generous in its scope, it fails in the same way; it is +self-directed. It aims at a man's own salvation, and it is to be +achieved by a man's own strength in self-discipline, with what +little help John's system of prayer and fasting may win for a man +from God. John fails precisely where his strength is greatest and +most conspicuous. His theme is sin; his emphasis all falls on sin; +but his psychology of sin is insufficient, it is not deep enough. +The simple, strenuous ascetic did not realize the seriousness of sin +after all--its deep roots, its haunting power, its insidious charm. +St. Paul saw far deeper into it "I am carnal, sold under sin. What I +hate that do I. The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which +I would not, that I do. I see a law in my members bringing me into +captivity to the law of sin. O wretched man that I am! Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:14-24). Sin, in +John's thought, is contumacy or rebellion against the law of God; he +does not look at it in relation to the love of God--a view of it +which gives it another character altogether. Nor has John any great +conception of forgiveness--a man, he thinks, may win it by "fruits +worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:8). Here again Paul is the pioneer in +the universal Christian experience that fruits of repentance can +never buy God's forgiveness. That is God's gift. That forgiveness +may cost a man much--an amended life, the practices of prayer and +fasting and almsgiving--John conceives; but we are not led to think +that he thought of what it might cost God. John has no evangel, no +really good news, with gladness and singing in it (1 Peter 1:8). + +When we return to the teaching of Jesus, we find that he draws a +clear and sharp line between right and wrong. He indicates that +right is right to the end of all creation, and wrong is wrong up to +the very Judgement Throne of God (Matt. 25). He views these things, +as the old phrase puts it, "sub specie aeternitatis", from the +outlook of eternity. Right and wrong do not meet at infinity. There +is no higher synthesis that can make them one and the same thing. +Everything with Jesus is Theocentric, and until God changes there +will be no very great change in right and wrong. Partly because he +uses the language of his day, partly because he thinks as a rule in +pictures, his language is apt to be misconstrued by moderns. But the +central ideas are clear enough. "How are you to escape the judgement +of Gehenna?" he asks the Pharisees (Matt. 23:33; the subjunctive +mood is worth study). It is not a threat, but a question. There +yawns the chasm; with your driving, how do you think you can avoid +disaster? He warns men of a doom where the worm dies not and the +fire is not quenched; a man will do well to sacrifice hand, foot or +eye, to save the rest of himself from that (Mark 9:43-48). But a +more striking picture, though commonly less noticed, he draws or +suggests in talk at the last supper. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan +asked for you to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for thee, that thy +faith fail not; and thou, when thou comest back, strengthen thy +brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). The scene suggested is not unlike that +at the beginning of the Book of Job, or that in the Book of +Zechariah (chap. 3). There is the throne of God, and into that +Presence pushes Satan with a demand--the verb in the Greek is a +strong one, though not so strong as the Revised Version suggests. +Satan "made a push to have you." "But I prayed for thee." + +To any reader who has any feeling or imagination, what do these +short sentences mean? What can they mean, from the lips of a thinker +so clear and so serious, and a friend so tender? What but +unspeakable peril? The language has for us a certain strangeness; +but it shows plainly enough that, to Jesus' mind, the disciples, and +Peter in particular, stood in danger, a danger so urgent that it +called for the Saviour's prayer. So much it meant to him, and he +himself tells Peter what he had realized, what he had done, in +language that could not be mistaken or forgotten. To the nature of +the danger that sin involves, we shall return. Meanwhile we may +consider what Jesus means by sin before we discuss its consequences. + +"The Son of Man," says Jesus, in a sentence that is famous but still +insufficiently studied, "is come to seek and to save that which is +lost" (Luke 19:10). Our rule has been to endeavour to give to the +terms of Jesus the connotation he meant them to carry. The scholar +will linger over the "Son of Man"--a difficult phrase, with a +literary and linguistic history that is very complicated. For the +present purpose the significant words are at the other end of the +sentence. What does Jesus mean by "lost"? It is a strong word, the +value of which we have in some degree lost through familiarity. And +whom would he describe as "lost"? We have once more to recall his +criticism of Peter--that Peter "thought like a man and not like God" +(Mark 8:33)--and to be on our guard lest we think too quickly and +too slightly. We may remark, too, that for Jesus sin is not, as for +Paul and theologians in general, primarily an intellectual problem. +He does not use the abstraction Sin as Paul does. But the clear, +steady gaze turned on men and women misses little. + +There are four outstanding classes, whom he warns of the danger of +hell in one form or other. + +To begin, there is the famous description of the Last Judgement +(Matt. 25:31-46)--a description in itself not altogether new. Plenty +of writers and thinkers had described the scene, and the broad +outlines of the picture were naturally common property; yet it is to +these more or less conventional traits that attention has often been +too exclusively devoted. Jesus, however, altered the whole character +of the Judgement Day scene by his account of the principles on which +the Judge decides the cases brought before him. On the right hand of +the Judge are--not the Jews confronting the Gentiles on the +left--nor exactly the well-conducted and well-balanced people who +get there in Greek allegories--but a group of men and women who +realize where they are with a gasp of surprise. How has it come +about? The Judge tells them: "I was an hungered and ye gave me +meat," and the rest of the familiar words. But this does not quite +settle the question. Embarrassment rises on their faces--is it a +mistake? One of them speaks for the rest: "Lord, when saw we thee an +hungered and fed thee?" They do not remember it. There is something +characteristic there of the whole school of Jesus; these people are +"children of fact," honest as their Master, and they will not accept +heaven in virtue of a possible mistake. And it appears from the +Judge's answer that such instinctive deeds go further than men +think, even if they are forgotten. Wordsworth speaks of the "little +nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love" that are "the +best portion of a good man's life."[29] The acts of kindness were +forgotten just because they were instinctive, but, Jesus emphasizes +the point, they are decisive; they come, as another of his telling +phrases suggests, from "the overflow of the heart," and they reveal +it. With the people on the left hand it was the other way. They were +fairly well in possession of their good records, but they had missed +the decisive fact--they were instinctively hard. Such people Jesus +warns. So familiar are his words that there is a danger of our +limiting them to their first obvious meaning. Eighty years ago +Thomas Carlyle looked out on the England he knew, and remarked that +it was strange that the great battle of civilized man should be +still the battle of the savage against famine, and with that he +observed that the people were "needier than ever of inward +sustenance." Is there a warning in this picture of the people on the +left hand that applies to deeper things than physical hunger? A +warning to those who do not heed another's need of "inward +sustenance," of spiritual life, of God? It looks likely. Otherwise +there is a risk of our declining upon a "Social Righteousness" that +falls a long way short of John the Baptist's, and does less for any +soul, our own or another's. + +The second class warned by Jesus consists of several groups dealt +with in the Sermon on the Mount--people whose sin is not murder or +adultery, but merely anger and the unclean thought--not the people +who actually give themselves away, like the publicans and +harlots--but those who would not be sorry to have that ring of Gyges +which Plato described, who would like to do certain things if they +could, who at all events are not unwilling to picture what they +would wish to do, if it were available, and meanwhile enjoy the +thought (Matt. 5:21, 22, 27-29). Here St. Paul can supply commentary +with his suggestion that one form of God's condemnation is where he +gives up a man to his own reprobate mind (Romans 1:28--the whole +passage is worth study in the Greek). The mind, in Paul's phrases, +becomes darkened (Rom. 1:21), stained (Titus 1:15), and cauterized +(1 Tim. 4:2), invalidated for the discharge of its proper functions, +as a burnt hand loses the sense of touch, or a stained glass gives +the man a blue or red world instead of the real one. Blindness and +mutilation are better, Jesus said, than the eye of lust (Matt. +5:28). How different from the moralists, for whom sin lies in +action, and all actions are physical! The idle word is to condemn a +man, not because it is idle, but because, being unstudied, it speaks +of his heart and reveals, unconsciously but plainly, what he is in +reality (Matt. 12:36). Thus it is that what comes out of the mouth +defiles a man (Matt. 15:18)--with the curious suggestion, whether +intended or not, that the formulation of a floating thought gives it +new power to injure or to help. That is true; impression loose, as +it were, in the mind, mere thought--stuff, is one thing; formulated, +brought to phrase and form, it takes on new life and force; and when +it is evil, it does defile, and in a permanent way. Marcus Aurelius +has a very similar warning (v. 16)--"Whatever the colour of the +thoughts often before thy mind, that colour will thy mind take. For +the mind is dyed (or stained) by its thoughts." "Phantazesthai" and +"phantasiai" are the words--and they suggest something between +thoughts and imaginations--mental pictures would be very near it. + +The third group whom Jesus warned, the most notorious of all, was +the Pharisee class. They played at religion--tithed mint and anise +and cumin, and forgot judgement and mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23). +Jesus said that the Pharisee was never quite sure whether the +creature he was looking at was a camel or a mosquito--he got them +mixed (Matt. 23:24). Once we realize what this tremendous irony +means, we are better able to grasp his thought. The Pharisee was +living in a world that was not the real one--it was a highly +artificial one, picturesque and charming no doubt, but dangerous. +For, after all, we do live in the real world--there is only one +world, however many we may invent; and to live in any other is +danger. Blindness, that is partial and uneven, lands a man in peril +whenever he tries to come downstairs or to cross the street--he +steps on the doorstep that is not there and misses the real one. He +is involved in false appearances at every turn. And so it is in the +moral world--there is one real, however many unreals there are, and +to trust to the unreal is to come to grief on the real. "The +beginning of a man's doom," wrote Carlyle, "is that vision be +withdrawn from him." "Thou blind Pharisee!" (Matt. 23:26). The cup +is clean enough without; it is septic and poisonous within--and from +which side of it do you drink, outside or inside? (Matt. 23:25). As +we study the teaching of Jesus here, we see anew the profundity of +the saying attributed to him in the Fourth Gospel, "The truth shall +make you free" (John 8:32). The man with astigmatism, or myopia, or +whatever else it is, must get the glasses that will show him the +real world, and he is safe, and free to go and come as he pleases. +See the real in the moral sphere, and the first great peril is gone. +Nothing need be said at this point of the Pharisee who used +righteousness and long prayers as a screen for villainy. Probably +his doom was that in the end he came to think his righteousness and +his prayers real, and to reckon them as credit with a God, who did +not see through them any more than he did himself. It is a mistake +to over-emphasize here the devouring of widow' houses by the +Pharisee (Matt. 23:14), for it was no peculiar weakness of his; +publicans and unjust judges did the same. Only the publican and the +unjust judge told themselves no lies about it. The Pharisee +lied--lying to oneself or lying to another, which is the worse? The +more dangerous probably is lying to oneself, though the two +practices generally will go together in the long run. The worst +forms of lying, then, are lying to oneself and lying about God; and +the Pharisee combined them, and told himself that, once God's proper +dues of prayer and tithe were paid, his treatment of the widow and +her house was correct. Hence, says Jesus, he receives "greater +damnation" (A.V.)--or judgement on a higher scale ("perissoteron +krima"). + +The Pharisees were men who believed in God--only that with his +world, they re-created him (as we are all apt to do for want of +vision or by choice); but what is atheism, what can it be, but +indifference to God's facts and to God's nature? If religion is +union with God, in the phrase we borrow so slightly from the +mystics, how can a man be in union with God, when the god he sees is +not there, is a figment of his own mind, something different +altogether from God? Or, if we use the phrase of the Old Testament. +prophet and of Jesus himself, if religion is vision of God, what is +our religion, if after all we are not seeing God at all, but +something else--a dummy god, like that of the Pharisees, some +trifling martinet who can be humbugged--or, to come to ourselves, a +majestic bundle of abstract nouns loosely tied up in impersonality? +For all such Jesus has a caution. Indifference to God's facts leads +to one end only. We admit it ourselves. There are those who scold +Bunyan for sending Ignorance to hell, but we omit to ask where else +could Ignorance go, whether Bunyan sent him or not. Ignorance, as to +germs or precipices or what not, leads to destruction "in pari +materia"; in the moral sphere can it be otherwise? This serves in +some measure to explain why Jesus is so tender to gross and flagrant +sinners, a fact which some have noted with surprise. Surely it is +because publican and harlot have fewer illusions; they were left +little chance of imagining their lives to be right before God. What +Jesus thought of their hardness and impurity we have seen already, +but heedless as they were of God's requirements of them, they were +not guilty of the intricate atheism of the Pharisees. Further, +whether it was in his mind or not, it is also true that the frankly +gross temptations do bring a man face to face with his own need of +God, as the subtler do not; and so far they make for reality. + +The fourth group are those who cannot make up their minds. "No man, +having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). The word is an interesting one +("euthetos"), it means "handy" or "easy to place." (The word is used +of the salt not "fit" for land or dunghill (Luke 14:35), and the +negative of the inconvenient harbour (Acts 27:12).) This man is not +adapted for the Kingdom of God; he is not easy to place there. Like +the man who saved his talent but did not use it (Matt. 25:24), he is +not exactly bad; but he is "no good," as we say. Jesus conceives of +the Kingdom of God as dynamic, not static; state or place, condition +or relation, it implies work, as God himself implies work. He holds +that truth is not a curiosity for the cabinet but a tool in the +hand; that God's earnest world is no place for nondescript, and that +there is only one region left to which they can drift. What part or +place can there be in the Kingdom of Heaven--in a kingdom won on +Calvary--for people who cannot be relied on, who cannot decide +whether to plough or not to plough, nor, when they have made up +their mind, stick to it? Jesus cannot see. (What a revelation of the +force and power of his own character!) + +These, then, are the four classes whom Jesus warns, and it is clear +from the consideration of them that his view of sin is very +different from those current in that day. Men set sin down as an +external thing that drifted on to one like a floating burr--or like +paint, perhaps--it could be picked off or burnt off. It was the +eating of pork or hare--something technical or accidental; or it +was, many thought, the work of a demon from without, who could be +driven out to whence he came. Love and drunkenness illustrated the +thing for them--a change of personality induced by an exterior force +or object, as if the human spirit were a glass or a cup into which +anything might be poured, and from which it could be emptied and the +vessel itself remain unaffected. Jesus has a deeper view of sin, a +stronger psychology, than these, nor does he, like some quick +thinkers of to-day, put sin down to a man's environment, as if +certain surroundings inevitably meant sin. Jesus is quite definite +that sin is nothing accidental--it is involved in a man's own +nature, in his choice, it comes from the heart, and it speaks of a +heart that is wrong. When we survey the four groups, it comes to one +central question at last: Has a man been in earnest with himself +about God's dealings with him? Hardness and lust make a man play the +fool with human souls whom God loves and cares for--a declaration of +war on God himself. Wilful self-deception about God needs no +comment; to shilly-shally and let decision slide, where God is +concerned, is atheism too. In a word, what is a man's fundamental +attitude to God and God's facts? That is Jesus' question. Sin is +tracked home to the innermost and most essential part of the +man--his will. It is no outward thing, it is inward. It is not that +evil befalls us, but that we are evil. In the words of Edward Caird, +"the passion that misleads us is a manifestation of the same ego, +the same self-conscious reason which is misled by it," and thus, as +Burns puts it, "it is the very 'light from heaven' that leads us +astray." The man uses his highest God-given faculties, and uses them +against God. + +But this is not all. Many people will agree with the estimate of +Jesus, when they understand it, in regard to most of these classes; +perhaps they would urge that in the main it is substantially the +same teaching as John the Baptist's, though it implies, as we shall +see, a more difficult problem in getting rid of sin. Jesus goes +further. He holds up to men standards of conduct which transcend +anything yet put before mankind. "Be ye therefore perfect," he says, +"even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). +When we recall what Jesus teaches of God, when we begin to try to +give to "God" the content he intended, we realize with amazement +what he is saying. He is holding up to men for their ideal of +conduct the standard of God's holiness, of God's love and +tenderness. Everything that Jesus tells us of God--all that he has +to say of the wonderful and incredible love of God and of God's +activity on behalf of his children--he now incorporates in the ideal +of conduct to which men are called. John's conceptions of +righteousness grow beggarly. Here is a royal magnificence of active +love, of energetic sympathy, tenderness, and self-giving, asked of +us, who find it hard enough to keep the simplest commandments from +our youth up (Mark 10:20). We are to love our enemies, to win them, +to make peace, to be pure--and all on the scale of God. And that +this may not seem mere talk in the air, there is the character and +personality of Jesus, embodying all he asks of us--bringing out new +wonders of God's goodness, the ugliness and evil of sin, and the +positive and redemptive beauty of righteousness. + +The problem of sin and forgiveness becomes more difficult, as we +think of the positive ideals which we have not begun to try to +reach. Let us sum up what it involves. + +Jesus brings out the utter bankruptcy to which sin reduces men. They +become "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Matt. 23:28), so +depraved that they are like bad trees, unproductive of any but bad +fruit (rotten, in the Greek, Matt. 7:17); the very light in them is +darkness, and how great darkness (Matt. 6:23). They are cut off from +the real world, as we saw, and lose the faculties they have +abused--the talent is taken away (Matt. 25:28); "from him that hath +not, shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Matt. 25:29). The +nature is changed as memory is changed, and the "overflow of the +heart" in speech and act bears witness to it. The faculty of choice +is weakened; the interval in which inhibition--to use our modern +term--is possible, grows shorter. The instincts are perverted and +the whole being is disorganized. In a word, all that Jesus connotes +by "the Kingdom of God" is "taken from them" (Matt. 21:43), and +nothing left but "outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). The vision of God +is not for the impure (Matt. 5:8). Meanwhile sin is not a sterile +thing, it is a leaven (Matt. 16:6). If our modern medical language +may be applied--and Jesus used the analogy of medicine in this very +case (Mark 2:17)--sin is septic. In the first place, all sin is +anti-social--an invasion "ipso facto" of the rights of others. The +man who sins either takes away what is another's--a man's goods, a +widow's house, or a woman's purity--or he fails to give to others +what is their due, be it, in the obvious field, the aid the Good +Samaritan rendered to the wounded and robbed man by the roadside +(Luke 10:33), or, in the higher sphere, truth, sympathy, help in the +maintenance of principle, or in the achievement of progress and +development (cf. Matt. 25:43). Sin is the repudiation of the +concepts of law, duty, and service, in a word, of the love on God's +scale which God calls men to exercise. And its fruits are, above +all, its dissemination. Injustice, a historian has said, always +repays itself with frightful compound interest. If a man starts to +debauch society, his example is quickly followed; and it comes to +hatred. + +What, we asked, did Jesus mean by "lost"? This, above all, that sin +cuts a man adrift from God. In the parable of the Prodigal Son this +is brought out (Luke 15:11-32). There the youth took from his father +all he could get, and then deliberately turned his back on him +forever; he went into a far country, out of his reach, outside his +influence, and beyond the range of his ideas, and he devoted his +father's gifts to precisely what would sadden and trouble his father +most. And then came bankruptcy, final and hopeless. There was no +father available in the far country; he had to live without him, and +it came to a life that was not even human--a life of solitude, a +life of beasts. Jesus draws it, as he does most things, in picture +form, using parable. Paul puts the same in directer language; sin +reduces men to a position where they are "alienated from the life of +God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), "without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), +"enemies of God" (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21); but he does not say more +than Jesus implies. Paul's final expression, "God gave them up" +(thrice in Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), answers to the Judge's word, in +Jesus' picture, "Depart from me" (Matt. 25:41). + + O Wedding-guest, this soul hath been + Alone on a wide, wide sea: + So lonely 'twas, that God himself + Scarce seeméd there to be. + +So Jesus handles the problem of sin, but that is only half the +story, for there remains the problem of Redemption. The treatment of +sin is far profounder and truer than John the Baptist or any other +teacher has achieved; and it implies that Jesus will handle +Redemption in a way no less profound and effective. If he does not, +then he had better not have preached a gospel. If, in dealing with +sin, he touches reality at every point, we may expect him in the +matter of Redemption to reach the very centre of life.[30] How else +can he, with his serious view of sin, say to a man, "Thy sins are +forgiven thee"? (Mark 2:5). But it is quite clear from our records +that, while Jesus laid bare in this relentless way the ugliness and +hopelessness of sin, he did not despair: his tone is always one of +hope and confidence. The strong man armed may find a stronger man +come upon him and take from him the panoply in which he trusted +(Luke 11:21, 22). There is a great gulf that cannot be crossed (Luke +16:26)--yes, but if the experience of Christendom tells us anything, +it tells us that Jesus crossed it himself, and did the impossible. +"The great matter is that Jesus believed God was willing to take the +human soul, and make it new and young and clean again." But the +human soul did not believe it, till Jesus convinced it, and won it, +by action of his own. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that +which was lost"; and he did not come in vain. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + +By what they said, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and +had fought with and slain him that had the power of death (Hebrews +2:14), but not without great danger to himself, which made me love +him the more--"Pilgrims Progress", Part I + +The subject before us is one of the greatest difficulty. Why Jesus +chose the cross has exercised the thought of the Christian world +ever since he did so. He told his disciples beforehand of what lay +before him, of what he was choosing, but it was long before they +realized that he meant any such thing. The cross was to them a +strange idea, and for a long time they did not seriously face the +matter. Once the cross was an accomplished fact, Christians could +not, and did not wish to, avoid thinking out what had meant so much +to their Master; but it has mostly been with a sense of facing a +mystery that in some measure eluded them, with a feeling that there +is more beyond, something always to be attained hereafter. + +A very significant passage in St. Mark (10:32) gives us a glimpse of +a moment on Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem. It is a sentence which +one could hardly imagine being included in the Gospel, if it did not +represent some actual memory, and a memory of significance. It runs +something like this: "And they were in the way, going up to +Jerusalem, and Jesus was moving on before them; and they began to +wonder; and as they followed they began to be afraid." He is moving +to Jerusalem with a purpose. They do not understand it. He is +wrapped in thought; and, as happens when a man's mind is working +strongly, his pace quickens, and they find themselves at a distance +behind him. And then something comes over them--a sense that there +is something in the situation which they do not understand, a +strangeness in the mind. They realize, in fact, that they are not as +near Jesus as they had supposed. And, as they follow, the wonder +deepens into fear. + +Anyone who will really try to grapple with this problem of the cross +will find very soon the same thing. The first thing that we need to +learn, if our criticism of Jesus is to be sound, is that we are not +at all so near him as we have imagined. He eludes us, goes far out +beyond what we grasp or conceive; and I think the education of the +Christian man or woman begins anew, when we realize how little we +know about Jesus. The discovery of our ignorance is the beginning of +knowledge. Plato long ago said that wonder is the mother of +philosophy, and he was right. John Donne, the English poet, went +farther, and said: "All divinity is love or wonder." When a man then +begins to wonder about Jesus Christ in earnest, Jesus comes to be +for him a new figure. Historical criticism has done this for us; it +has brought us to such a point that the story of these earliest +disciples repeats itself more closely in the experience of their +followers of these days than in any century since the first. We +begin along with them on the friendly, critical, human plane, and +with them we follow him into experiences and realizations that we +never expected. It may be summed up in the familiar words of the +English hymn, + + Oh happy band of pilgrims, + If onward ye will tread + With Jesus as your fellow, + To Jesus as your head. + +These men begin with him, more or less on a footing of equality; or, +at least, the inequality is very lightly marked. Afterwards it is +emphasized; and they realize it with wonder and with fear, and at +last with joy and gratitude. + +We may begin by trying steadily to bring our minds to some keener +sense of what it was that he chose. To say, in the familiar words, +that he chose the cross, may through the very familiarity of the +language lead us away from what we have to discover. We have, as we +agreed, to ask ourselves what was his experience. What, then, did +his choice involve? It meant, of course, physical pain. There are +natures to whom this is of little account, but the sensitive and +sentient type, as we often observe, dreads pain. He, with open eyes, +chose physical pain, heightened to torture, not escaping any of the +suffering which anticipation gives--that physical horror of death, +that instinctive fear of annihilation, which nature suggests of +itself. He took the course of action that would most severely test +his disciples; one at least revolted, and we have to ask what it +meant to Jesus to live with Judas, to watch his face, to recognize +his influence in the little group--yes, and to try to win him again +and to be repelled. "He learnt by the things that he suffered" that +Judas would betray him; but the hour and place and method were not +so evident, and when they were at last revealed--what did it mean to +be kissed by Judas? Do we feel what he felt in the so-called +trials--or was he dull and numbed by the catastrophe? How did he +bear the beating of triumphant hatred upon a forsaken spirit? How +did the horrible cry, "Crucify him! crucify him!" break on his +ears--on his mind? When "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter" +(Luke 22:61), what did it mean? How did he know that Peter was +there, and what led him to turn at that moment? Was there in the +Passion no element of uneasiness again about the eleven on whom he +had concentrated his hopes and his influence--the eleven of whom it +is recorded, that "they all forsook him, and fled" (Mark 14:50)? No +hint of dread that his work might indeed be undone? What pain must +that have involved? What is the value of the Agony in the Garden, of +the cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15:34)? When we have +answered, each for himself, these questions, and others like them +that will suggest themselves--answered them by the most earnest +efforts of which our natures are capable--and remembered at the end +how far our natures fall short of his, and told ourselves that our +answers are insufficient--then let us recall, once more, that he +chose all this. + +He chose the cross and all that it meant. Our next step should be to +study anew his own references to what he intends by it, to what he +expects to be its results and its outcome. First of all, then, he +clearly means that the Kingdom of Heaven is something different from +anything that man has yet seen. The Kingdom of Heaven is, I +understand, a Hebrew way of saying the Kingdom of God--very much as +men to-day speak of Providence, to avoid undue familiarity with the +term God, so the Jews would say Heaven. There were many who used the +phrase in one or other form; but it is always bad criticism to give +to the words of genius the value or the connotation they would have +in the lips of ordinary people. To a great mind words are charged +with a fullness of meaning that little people do not reach. The +attempt has been made to recapture more of his thoughts by learning +the value given to some of the terms he uses as they appear in the +literature of the day, and of course it has been helpful. But we +have to remember always that the words as used by him come with a +new volume of significance derived from his whole personality. +Everything turns on the connotation which he gives to the term +God--that is central and pivotal. What this new Kingdom of God is, +or will be, he does not attempt fully to explain or analyse. In the +parables, the treasure-finder and the pearl merchant achieve a great +enrichment of life; so much they know at once; but what do they do +with it? How do they look at it? What does it mean to them? He does +not tell us. We only see that they are moving on a new plane, seeing +life from a new angle, living in a fuller sense. What the new life +means in its fullness, we know only when we gain the deeper +knowledge of God. + +He suggests that this new knowledge comes to a man from God +himself--flesh and blood do not reveal it (Matt. 16:17). "Unto you +it is given," he says on another occasion, "to know the mystery of +the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mark 4:11), and he adds that there are those +who see and do not see; they are outside it; they have not the +alphabet, we might say, that will open the book (cf. Rev. 5:3). He +makes it clear at every point in the story of the Kingdom of God +that there is more beyond; and he means it. It is to be a new +beginning, an initiation, leading on to what we shall see but do not +yet guess, though he gives us hints. We shall not easily fathom the +depth of his idea of the new life, but along with it we have to +study the width and boldness of his purpose. This new life is not +for a few--for "the elect," in our careless phrase. He looks to a +universal scope for what he is doing. It will reach far outside the +bounds of Judaism. "They shall come from the east and from the west, +and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 13:29). "Wheresoever this gospel shall be +preached throughout the whole world," he says (Mark 14:9). "My words +shall not pass away" (Luke 21:33). All time and all existence come +under his survey and are included in his plan. The range is +enormous. And this was a Galilean peasant! As we gradually realize +what he has in mind, must we not feel that we have not grasped +anything like the full grandeur of his thought? + +He makes it plain, in the second place, that it will be a matter for +followers, for workers, for men who will watch and wait and +dare--men with the same abandonment as himself. He calls for men to +come after him, to come behind him (Mark 1:17, 10:21; Luke 9:59). He +emphasizes that they must think out the terms on which he enlists +them. He does not disguise the drawbacks of his service. He calls +his followers, and a very personal and individual call it is. He +calls a man from the lake shore, from the nets, from the custom +house. + +In the third place, he clearly announces an intention to achieve +something in itself of import by his death. There are those who +would have us believe that his mind was obsessed with the fixed idea +of his own speedy return on the clouds, and that he hurried on to +death to precipitate this and the new age it was to bring. +References to such a coming are indeed found in the Gospels as we +have them, but we are bound to ask whence they come, and to inquire +how far they represent exactly what he said; and then, if he is +correctly reported, to make sure that we know exactly what he means. +Those who hold this view fail to relate the texts they emphasize +with others of a deeper significance, and they ignore the grandeur +and penetration and depth of the man whom they make out such a +dreamer. He never suggests himself that his death is to force the +hand of God. + +He himself is to be the doer and achiever of something. We have been +apt to think of him as a great teacher, a teacher of charm and +insight, or as the great example of idealism, "who saw life steadily +and saw it whole." He lived, some hold, the rounded and well-poised +life, the rhythmic life. No, that was Sophocles. He is greater. Here +is one who penetrates far deeper into things. His treatment of the +psychology of sin itself shows how much more than an example was +needed. Here, as in the other chapters, but here above all we have +to remember the clearness of his insight, his swiftness of +penetration, his instinct for fact and reality. He means to do, to +achieve, something. It is no martyr's death that he incurs. His +death is a step to a purpose. "I have a baptism to be baptised +with," he says (Luke 12:50). "The Son of Man," he said, "is come to +seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). + +In discussing in the previous chapter what he meant by the term +"lost," our conclusion was that for Jesus sin was far more awful, +far more serious, than we commonly realize. We saw also that so +profound and true a psychology of sin must imply a view of +redemption at least as profound, a promise of a force more than +equal to the power of sin--that "violence of habit" of which St. +Augustine speaks. If the Son of Man is to save the lost, and if the +lost are in danger so real, it follows that he must think of a +thoroughly effective salvation, and that its achievement will be no +light or easy task. "To give one's life as a ransom for many," says +a modern teacher, "is of no avail, if the ransom is insufficient." +What, then, and how much, does he mean by "to save," and how does he +propose to do it? When the soul of man or woman has gone wrong in +any of the ways discussed by Jesus--in hardness or anger, in +impurity, in the refusal to treat God and his facts seriously--when +the consequences that Jesus recognized have followed--what can be +done to bring that soul back into effective relation with the God +whom it has discarded and abandoned? That is the problem that Jesus +had to face, and most of us have not thought enough about it. + +First of all, how far does Jesus understand salvation to take a man? +The ancient creed of the Church includes the article of belief in +"the forgiveness of sins." There are those who lightly assume that +this means, chiefly or solely, the remission of punishment for evil +acts. This raises problems enough of itself. The whole doctrine of +"Karma", vital to Buddhism and Hinduism, is, if I understand it +aright, a strong and clear warning to us that the remission of +punishment is no easy matter. Not only Eastern thinkers, but Western +also, insist that there is no avoidance of the consequences of +action. Luther himself, using a phrase half borrowed from a Latin +poet, says that forgiveness is "a knot worthy of a God's +aid"--"nodus Deo vindice dignus".[31] But in any case escape from +the consequences of sin, when once we look on sin with the eyes of +Jesus, is of relatively small importance. There are two aspects of +the matter far more significant. + +We have seen how Jesus regards sin as at once the cause and +consequence of a degeneration of the moral nature, and as a +repudiation of God. Two questions arise: Is it possible to recover +lost moral quality and faculty? Is it possible for those +incapacitated by sin to regain, or to enjoy, relation with God? + +When we think, with Jesus, of sin first and foremost in connexion +with God, and take the trouble to try to give his meaning to his +words, forgiveness takes on a new meaning. We have to "think like +God," he says (Mark 8:33); and perhaps God is in his thoughts +neither so legal nor so biological as we are; perhaps he does not +think first of edicts or of biological and psychological laws. God, +according to Jesus, thinks first of his child, though of course not +oblivious of his own commands and laws. Forgiveness, Jesus teaches +or suggests, is primarily a question between Father and son, and he +tries to lead us to believe how ready the Father is to settle that +question. Once it is settled, we find, in fact, Father and son +setting to work to mend the past. The evil seed has been sown and +the sad crop must be reaped, the man who sowed it has to reap +it--that much we all see. But Jesus hints to us that God himself +loves to come in and help his reconciled son with the reaping; many +hands make light work, especially when they are such hands. And even +when the crop is evil in the lives of others, the most horrible +outcome of sin, God is still in the field. The prodigal, when he +returns, is met with a welcome, and is gradually put in possession +of what he has lost--the robe, the shoes, the ring; and it all comes +from his being at one with his Father again (Luke 15:22ff.). The Son +of Man, historically, has again and again found the lost--the lost +gifts, the lost faculties, the lost charms and graces--and given +them back to the man whom he had also found and brought home to God. + +Let us once more try to get our thoughts Theocentric as Jesus' are, +and our problems become simpler, or at least fewer. God's generosity +in forgiveness, God's love, he emphasizes again and again. Will a +man take Jesus at his word, and commit himself to God? That is the +question. Once he will venture on this step, what pictures Jesus +draws us of what happens! The son is home again; the bankruptcy, the +hideous solitude, the life among animals, bestial, dirty and empty, +and haunted with memories--all those things are past, when once the +Father's arms are round his neck, and his kiss on his cheek. He is +no more "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), +"without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), an "enemy of God" (Rom. +5:10); he was lost and is found, and the Father himself, Jesus says, +cries: "Let us be merry" ("Euphranthomen"). If we hesitate about it, +Jesus calls us once more to "think like God," and tells us other +stories, with incredible joy in them--"joy in the presence of the +angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." We must go back to +his central conception of God, if we are to realize what he means by +salvation. St. Augustine (Conf., viii. 3) brings out the value of +these parables, by reminding us how much more we care for a thing +that has been ours, when we have lost it and found it again. The +shepherd has a new link with his sheep lost and found again, a new +story of it, a shared experience; it is more his than ever. And +Jesus implies that when a man is saved, he is God's again, and more +God's own than ever before; and God is glad at heart. As for the +man; a new power comes into his heart, and a new joy; and with God's +help, in a new spirit of sunshine, he sets about mending the past in +a new spirit and with a new motive--for love's sake now. If the +fruit of the past is to be seen, as it constantly is, in the lives +of others, he throws himself with the more energy into God's work, +and when the Good Shepherd goes seeking the lost, he goes with him. +Christian history bears witness, in every year of it, to what +salvation means, in Jesus' sense. Punishment, consequences, crippled +resources--no, he does not ask to escape them now; all as God +pleases; these are not the things that matter. Life is all to be +boundless love and gratitude and trust; and by and by the new man +wakes up to find sin taken away, its consequences undone, the lost +faculties restored, and life a fuller and richer thing than ever it +was before. + +Somehow so, if we read the Gospels aright, does Jesus conceive of +Salvation. To achieve this for men is his purpose; and in order to +do it, as we said before, his first step is to induce men to +re-think God. Something must be done to touch the heart and to move +the will of men, effectively; and he must do it. + +With this purpose in his mind--let us weigh our words here, and +reflect again upon the clearness of his insight into life and +character, into moral laws, the laws of human thought and feeling, +upon his profound intelligence and grasp of what moves and is real, +his knowledge (a strong word to use, but we may use it) of God--with +this purpose in his mind, thought out and understood, he +deliberately and quietly goes to Jerusalem. He "steadfastly set his +face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). "I must walk," he said, +"to-day and to-morrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a +prophet perish out of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). To Jerusalem he goes. + +We may admit that with his view of the psychology of sin, he must +have a serious view of redemption. But why should that involve the +cross? That is our problem. But while we try to solve it, we must +also remember that behind a great choice there are always more +reasons than we can analyse. A man makes one of the great choices in +life. What has influenced him? Ten to one, if you ask him, he does +not know. Nothing else, he will say, seemed feasible; the thing was +borne in on me, it came to me: reasons? He cannot tabulate reasons; +the thing, he says, was so clear that I was a long way past reasons. +And yet he was right; he had reasons enough. What parent ever +analysed reasons for loving his children, or would tabulate them for +you? Jesus does not explain his reasons. We find, I think, that we +are apt to have far more reasons for doing what we know is wrong, +than we have for doing what we know is right. We do not want reasons +for doing what is right; we know it is right, and there is an end of +it. Once again, Jesus, with his clear eye for the real, sees what he +must do. The salvation of the lost means the cross for himself. But +why? we ask again. We must look a little closer if we are to +understand him. We shall not easily understand him in all his +thoughts, but part of our education comes from the endeavour to +follow him here, to "be with him," in the phrase with which we +began. + +First of all we may put his love of men. He never lost the +individual in the mass, never lost sight of the human being who +needed God. The teacher who put the law of kindness in the great +phrase, "Go with him twain" (Matt. 5:41), was not likely to limit +himself in meeting men's needs. He was bound to do more than we +should expect, when he saw people whom he could help; and it is that +spirit of abounding generosity that shows a man what to do (Luke +6:38). Everywhere, every day, he met the call that quickened +thought and shaped purpose. + +He walked down a street; and the scene of misery or of sin came upon +him with pressure; he could not pass by, as we do, and fail to note +what we do not wish to think of. He knows a pressure upon his spirit +for the man, the child, the woman--for the one who sins, the one who +suffers, the other who dies. They must be got in touch with God. He +sits with his disciples at a meal--the men whom he loved--he watches +them, he listens to them. Peter, James, John, one after the other, +becomes a call to him. They need redemption; they need far more than +they dream; they need God. That pressure is there night and day--it +becomes intercession, and that grows into inspiration. Our prayers +suffer, some one has said, for our want of our identification with +the world's sin and misery. He was identified with the world's sin +and misery, and they followed him into his prayer. It becomes with +him an imperative necessity to effect man's reconciliation with God. +All his experience of man, his love of man, call him that way. + +The second great momentum comes from the love of God, and his faith +in God. Here, again, we must emphasize for ourselves his criticism +of Peter: "You think like a man and not like God" (Mark 8:33). We do +not see God, as Jesus did. He must make plain to men, as it never +was made plain before, the love of God. He must secure that it is +for every man the greatest reality in the world, the one great +flaming fact that burns itself living into every man's +consciousness. He sees that for this God calls him to the cross, so +much so that when he prays in the garden that the cup may pass, his +thoughts range back to "Thy will" (Matt. 26:42). It is God's Will. +Even if he does not himself see all involved, still God knows the +reason; God will manage; God wishes it. "Have faith in God," he used +to say (Mark 11:22). This faith which he has in God is one of the +things that take him to the cross. + +In the third place, we must not forget his sense of his own peculiar +relation to God. If it is safe to rely on St. Mark's chronological +date here, he does not speak of this until Peter has called him the +Messiah. He accepts the title (Mark 8:29). He also uses the +description, Son of Man, with its suggestions from the past. He +forgives sins. He speaks throughout the Gospels as one apart, as one +distinct from us, closely as he is identified with us--and all this +from a son of fact, who is not insane, who is not a quack, whose +eyes are wide open for the real; whose instinct for the ultimate +truth is so keen; who lives face to face with God. What does it +mean? This, for one thing, that most of us have not given attention +enough to this matter. I have confined myself in these chapters to +the Synoptic Gospels, with only two or three references to the +Fourth Gospel, and on the evidence of the Synoptic Gospels, taken by +themselves, it is clear that he means a great deal more than we have +cared to examine. He is the great interpreter of God, and it is +borne in upon him that only by the cross can he interpret God, make +God real to us, and bring us to the very heart of God. That is his +purpose. + +The cross is the outcome of his deepest mind, of his prayer life. It +is more like him than anything else he ever did. It has in it more +of him. Whoever he was, whoever he is, whatever our Christology, one +fact stands out. It was his love of men and women and his faith in +God that took him there. + +Was he justified? was he right? or was it a delusion? + +First of all, let us go back to a historic event. The resurrection +is, to a historian, not very clear in its details. But is it the +detail or the central fact that matters? Take away the resurrection, +however it happened, whatever it was, and the history of the Church +is unintelligible. We live in a rational world--a world, that is, +where, however much remains as yet unexplained, everything has a +promise of being lucid, everything has reason in it. Great results +have great causes. We have to find, somewhere or other, between the +crucifixion and the first preaching of the disciples in Jerusalem, +something that entirely changed the character of that group of men. + +Something happened, so tremendous and so vital, that it changed not +only the character of the movement and the men--but with them the +whole history of the world. The evidence for the resurrection is not +so much what we read in the Gospels as what we find in the rest of +the New Testament--the new life of the disciples. They are a new +group. When it came to the cross, his cross, they ran away. A few +weeks later we find them rejoicing to be beaten, imprisoned and put +to death (Acts 5:41). What had happened? What we have to explain is +a new life--a new life of prayer and joy and power, a new +indifference to physical death, in a new relation to God. That is +one outcome of the cross and of what followed; and as historians we +have to explain it. We have also to explain how the disciples came +to conceive of another Galilean--a carpenter whom they might have +seen sawing and sweating in his shop, with whom they tramped the +roads of Palestine, whom they saw done to death in ignominy and +derision--sitting at the right hand of God. Taken by itself, we +might call such a belief mere folly; but too much goes with it for +so easy an explanation. The cross was not the end. As Mr. Neville +Talbot has recently pointed out in his book, "The Mind of the +Disciples", if the story stopped with the cross, God remains +unexplained, and the story ends in unrelieved tragedy. But it does +not end in tragedy; it ends--if we can use the word as yet--in joy +and faith and victory; and these--how should we have seen them but +for the cross? They are bound up with his choice of the cross and +his triumph over it all. Death is not what it was--"the last line of +all," as Horace says. Life and immortality have been brought to +light (2 Tim. 1:10). "The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world." So we read at the beginning of the Fourth Gospel, and the +historical critic may tell us that he does not think that John the +Baptist said it. None the less, it is a wonderful summary of what +Jesus has done, especially wonderful if we think of it being written +fifty or sixty years after the crucifixion. For, as we survey the +centuries, we find that the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of +the world--to a degree that no one can imagine who has not studied +the ancient world. Those who know the heathen world intimately will +know best the difference he has made. All this new life, this new +joy, this new victory over death and sin is attached to the living +and victorious Son of God. The task of Paul and the others is, as +Dr. Cairns says, "re-thinking everything in the terms of the +resurrection." It is the new factor in the problem of God, so to +speak--the new factor which alters everything that relates to God. +That is saying a great deal, but when we look at Christian history, +is it saying too much? + +But still our first question is unanswered; why should it have been +the cross? One thinker of our day has suggested that, after all, +suffering is a language intelligible to the very simplest, while its +meaning is not exhausted by the deepest. The problem of pain is +always with us. And he chose pain. He never said that pain is a good +thing; he cured it. But he chose it. The ancient world stumbled on +that very thing. God and a Godlike man, their philosophers said, are +not susceptible to pain, to suffering. That was an axiom, very +little challenged. Then if Jesus suffered, he was not God; if he was +God, he did not suffer. The Church denied that, just as the Church +to-day rejects another hasty antithesis about pain, that comes from +New England. He chose pain, and he knew what he was choosing. Then +let us be in no hurry about refusing it, but let us look into it. He +chose it--that is the greatest fact known to us about pain. + +Again, the death of Christ reveals sin in its real significance, in +its true perspective, outside the realm of accident and among the +deepest things of God, "sub specie aeternitatia". Men count +themselves very decent people; so thought the priests and the +Pharisees, and they were. There is nothing about them that one +cannot find in most religious communities and in all governing +classes: the sense of the value of themselves, their preconceptions +and their judgements--a strong feeling of the importance of the work +they have to do, along with a certain reluctance to face strange +facts, and some indifference as to what happens to other people if +the accepted theory of the Cause or the State require them to +suffer. There is nothing about Pilate and Herod, and the Pharisees +and the priests, that is very different from ourselves. But how it +looks in front of the cross! We begin to see how it looks in the +sight of God, and that alters everything; it upsets all our +standards, and teaches us a new self-criticism. + +"You think like man, and not like God," said Jesus (Mark 8:33). The +cross reveals God most sympathetically. We see God in the light of +the fullest and profoundest and tenderest revelation that the world +has had. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" that is the +cry of Jesus on the cross. I have sometimes thought there never was +an utterance that reveals more amazingly the distance between +feeling and fact. That was how he felt--worn out, betrayed, spat +upon, rejected. We feel that God was more there than ever. As has +been said, if it is not God, it is nothing. "God," says Paul, "was +in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). He +chose the cross; and in choosing it, Christians have always felt, he +revealed God; and that is the centre of the great act of Redemption. + +But there is a condition antecedent to understanding the cross. We +have, as we agreed, to ask ourselves, what is the experience which +led him to think as he did? In the simpler language of the Gospels, +quite plain and easy to understand, the call to follow comes +first--the call to deeper association with Jesus Christ in his love +for men. Do not our consciences tell us that, if we really loved +people as Jesus does, if we understood them as sympathetically and +cared as much for them, the cross would be far more intelligible to +us? But if, in plain fact, we do not see why we should bear the +cross for others, why we should deny and obliterate self on this +scale for the salvation of men--how, I ask, to people of such a mind +should Jesus be intelligible? It is not to be expected. In no other +sphere would one dream of it. When a man avows that he does not care +for art or poetry, who would wish to show him poem or picture? How +should a person, who does not care for men, understand the cross? +Deeper association, then, with Jesus in his love of men, in his +agony, in his trust in God--that is the key to all. As we agreed at +the very beginning, we have to know him before we can understand +him. + +It all depends in the long run on one thing; and that we find in the +verse with which we started: "And as they followed, they began to be +afraid." But they followed. We can understand their fear. It comes +to a man in this way. If Jesus crucified means anything like what +the Church has said, and has believed; if God is in that man of +Nazareth reconciling the world to Himself; if there is real meaning +in the Incarnation at all; if all this language represents fact; +"then," he may say, "I am wholly at a loss about everything else." A +man builds up a world of thought for himself--we all do--a scheme of +things; and to a man with a thought-out view of the world, it may +come with an enormous shock to realize this incredible idea, this +incredible truth, of God in Christ. Those who have dwelt most on it, +and value it most, may be most apt to understand what I mean by +calling it incredible. Think of it. It takes your breath away. If +that is true, does not the whole plan of my life fall to pieces--my +whole scheme of things for the world, my whole body of intellectual +conceptions? And the man to whom this happens may well say he is +afraid. He is afraid, because it is so strange; because, when you +realize it, it takes you into a new world; you cannot grasp it. A +man whose instinct is for truth may hesitate--will hesitate about a +conception like this. "Is it possible," he will ask himself, "that I +am deluded?" And another thought rises up again and again, "Where +will it take me?" We can understand a man being afraid in that way. +I do not think we have much right _not_ to be afraid. If it is the +incarnation of God, what right have we not to be afraid? Then, of +course, a man will say that to follow Christ involves too much in +the way of sacrifice. He is afraid on lower grounds, afraid of his +family, afraid for his career; he hesitates. To that man the thing +will be unintelligible. The experience of St. Augustine, revealed in +his "Confessions", is illuminative here. He had intellectual +difficulties in his approach to the Christian position, but the rate +of progress became materially quicker when he realized that the +moral difficulties came first, that a practical step had to be +taken. So with us--to decide the issue, how far are we prepared to +go with Jesus? Have we realized the experience behind his thought? +The rule which we laid down at the beginning holds. How far are we +prepared to go in sharing that experience? That will measure our +right to understand him. Once again, in the plainest language, are +we prepared to follow, as the disciples followed, afraid as they +were? + +Where is he going? Where is he taking them? They wonder; they do not +know; they are uneasy. But when all is said, the figure on the road +ahead of them, waiting for them now and looking round, is the Jesus +who loves them and whom they love. + +And one can imagine the feeling rising in the mind of one and +another of them: "I don't know where he is going, or where he is +taking us, but I must be with him." There we reach again what the +whole story began with--he chose twelve that they might "be with +him." To understand him, we, too, must be with him. What takes men +there? After all, it is, in the familiar phrase, the love of Jesus. +If one loves the leader, it is easier to follow him. But, whether +you understand him or whether you don't, if you love him you are +glad that he chose the cross, and you are glad that you are one of +his people. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +Imperial Rome governed the whole of the Mediterranean world,--a +larger proportion and a greater variety of the human race than has +ever been under one government. So far as numbers go, the Russian +Empire to-day, the Chinese and the British, each far exceed it; for +the population of the world is vastly larger than it was in Rome's +days. But there was a peculiar unity about the Roman Empire, for it +embraced, as men thought, all civilized mankind. It was known that, +far away in the East, there were people called Indians, who had +fought with Alexander the Great, but there was little real knowledge +of them. Beyond India, there were vague rumours of a land where silk +grew on the leaves of the trees. But civilized mankind was under the +control of Rome. It was one rule of many races, many kingdoms, +princedoms, cities, cantons, and tribes--a wise rule, a rule that +allowed the maximum of local government and traditional usage: Rome +not merely conquered but captured men all over the world; ruled +them, as a poet said, like a mother, not a queen, and bound them to +herself. Men were eager, not so much to shake off her yoke, as to be +Romans; and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates men, not of Roman +blood, were proud to bear Roman names and to be Roman citizens. "I +was free born," said St. Paul, not without a touch of satisfaction +(Acts 22:25-28). A general peace prevailed through the Roman +world--a peace that was new to mankind. There was freedom of +intercourse; one of the boasts made by the writers of the Roman +Empire is of this new freedom to travel, to go anywhere one pleased. +Piracy on the sea, brigandage on the land, had been put down, and +there was a very great deal of travel. The Roman became an +inveterate tourist. He went to the famous scenes of Asia Minor, to +Troy above all--to "sunny Rhodes and Mitylene"--to Egypt. Merchants +went everywhere. And there was a fusing of cultures, traditions, and +creeds, all over the Mediterranean world. Centuries before, +Alexander the Great had struck out the splendid idea of the marriage +of East and West. He secured it by breaking down the Persian Empire, +and making one Empire from the Adriatic to this side of the Sutlej +or Bias. He desired to cement this marriage of East and West in a +way of his own. He took three hundred captive princesses and ladies, +and married them in a batch to Macedonian officers--a very +characteristic piece of symbolism. But his idea was greater and +truer than the symbol. + +The Roman marriage of the East and West was a more real thing, for +behind it lay three centuries of growing intercourse and knowledge +along Alexander's lines. In the sphere of religion we find it most +clearly. There rises a resultant world-religion--a religion that +embraces all the cults, all the creeds, and at last all the +philosophies, in one great system. That religion held the world. It +is true, there were exceptions. There was a small and objectionable +race called Jews; there were possibly some Druids in Southern +Britain; and here and there was a solitary atheist who represented +no one but himself. These few exceptions were the freaks amongst +mankind. Apart from them mankind was united in its general beliefs +about the gods. The world had one religion. + +First of all, let us try to estimate the strength of this old +Mediterranean Paganism. It was strong in its great traditions. +Plutarch, who lived from about 50 A.D. to 117 or so, is our great +exponent of this old religion. To him I shall have to refer +constantly. He was a writer of charm, a man with many gifts. +Plutarch's Lives was the great staple of education in the +Renaissance--and as good a one, perhaps, as we have yet discovered, +even in this age when there are so many theories of education with +foreign names. Plutarch, then, writing about Delphi, the shrine and +oracle of the god Apollo, said that men had been "in anguish and +fear lest Delphi should lose its glory of three thousand years"--and +Delphi has not lost it. For ninety generations the god has been +giving oracles to the Greek world, to private people, to kings, to +cities, to nations--and on all sorts of subjects, on the foundation +of colonies, the declaration of wars, personal guidance and the hope +of heirs. You may test the god where you will, Plutarch claimed, you +will not find an instance of a false oracle. Readers of Greek +history will remember another great writer of as much charm, five +hundred years before, Herodotus, who was not so sure about all the +oracles. But let us think what it means,--to look back over three +thousand years of one faith, unbroken. Egyptian religion had been +unchallenged for longer still, even if we allow Plutarch's three +thousand years. The oldest remains in Egypt antedate, we are told, +4000 B.C., and all through history, with the exception of the +solitary reign of Amen-Hotep III., Egypt worshipped the same gods, +with additions, as time went on. Again an unbroken tradition. And +how long, under various names, had Cybele, Mother of Gods, been +worshipped in Asia? By our era all these religions were fused into +one religion, of many cults and rites and ancient traditions; and +the incredible weight of old tradition in that world is hard to +overestimate. + +The old religion was strong in the splendour of its art and its +architecture. The severe, beautiful lines of the Greek temple are +familiar to us still; and, until I saw the Taj, I think I should +have doubted whether there could be anything more beautiful. +Architecture was consecrated to the gods, and so was art. You go to +Delphi, said Plutarch, and see those wonderful works of the ancient +artists and sculptors, as fresh still as if they had left the chisel +yesterday, and they had stood there for hundreds of years, wonderful +in their beauty. Think of some of the remains of the Greek art--of +that Victory, for instance, which the Messenians set on the temple +at Olympia in 421 B.C. She stood on a block of stone on the temple, +but the block was painted blue, so that, as the spectator came up, +he saw the temple and the angle of its roof, and then a gap of blue +sky and the goddess just alighting on the summit of the temple. From +what is left of her, broken and headless, but still beautiful, we +can picture her flying through the air--the wind has blown her dress +back against her, and you see its folds freshly caught by the +breeze. And all this the artist had disentangled from a rough block +of stone--so vivid was his conception of the goddess, and so sure +his hand. There are those who say that the conventional picture of +God of the great artists is moulded after the Zeus of Pheidias. +Egypt again had other portrayals of the gods--on a pattern of her +own, strange and massive and huge, far older. About six hundred +years before Christ the Egyptian King, Psammetichos (Psem Tek), +hired Greek soldiers and marched them hundreds of miles up the Nile. +The Greek soldiers, one idle day, carved their names on the legs of +the colossal gods seated at Abu Symbel. Their names are found there +to-day. So old are these gods. + +The religion was strong in the splendour of its ceremony. Every year +the Athenian people went to Eleusis in splendid procession to +worship, to be initiated into the rites of the Earth-Mother and her +virgin daughter, who had taught men the use of grain and the arts of +farming-rites linked with an immemorial past, awful rites that gave +men a new hope of eternal life. The Mother of the Gods, from Phrygia +in Asia Minor, had her rites, too; and her cult spread all over the +world. When the Roman poet, Lucretius, wants to describe the wonder +and magic of the pageant of Nature in the spring-time he goes to the +pomp of Cybele. The nearest thing to it which we can imagine is +Botticelli's picture of the Triumph of Spring. Lucretius was a poet +to whom the gods were idle and irrelevant; yet to that pageant he +goes for a picture of the miraculous life of nature. More splendid +still were the rites of the Egyptian Isis, celebrated all over the +world. Her priests, shaven and linen-clad, carried symbols of an +unguessed antiquity and magical power. They launched a boat with a +flame upon it--on the river in Egypt, on the sea in Greece. All +these cults made deep impressions on the worshippers, as our records +tell us. The appeal of religious emotion was noticed by Aristotle, +who remarked, however, that it was rather feeling than intellect +that was touched--a shrewd criticism that deserves to be remembered +still. + +The gods were strong in their actual manifestations of themselves. +Apollo for ninety generations had spoken in Delphi. At Epidauros +there was a shrine of Asclepias. Its monuments have been collected +and edited by Dr. Caton of Liverpool. There sick men and women came, +lived a quiet life of diet and religious ceremony, preparing for the +night on which they should sleep in the temple. On that night the +god came to them, they said, in that mood or state where they lay +"between asleep and awake, sometimes as in a dream and then as in a +waking vision--one's hair stood on end, but one shed tears of joy +and felt light-hearted." Others said they definitely saw him. He +came and told them what to do; on waking they did it and were +healed; or he touched them then and there, and cured them as they +lay. Some of the cures recorded on the monuments are perhaps strange +to our ideas of medicine. One records how the god came to man +dreadfully afflicted with dropsy, cut off his head, turned him +upside down and let the fluid run out, and then replaced his head +with a neat join. Some modern readers may doubt this story; but that +the god did heal people, men firmly believed. We, too, may believe +that people were healed, perhaps by living a healthy life in a quiet +place, a life of regimen and diet; and perhaps faith-healing or +suggestion played as strong a part as anything else. Even the +Christians believed that these gods had a certain power; they were +evil spirits. + +Not only the gods of the temples would manifest themselves of their +grace. Every man had a guardian spirit, a "genius"; and by proper +means he could be "compelled" to show himself visibly. The pupils of +Plotinus conjured up his "genius", and it came--not a daemon, but a +god. The right formula ("mantram") and the right stone in the +hand--and a man had a wonderful power over the gods themselves. This +was called "theurgy". + +But the great strength of this old religion was its infinite +adaptability. It made peace with every god and goddess that it met. +It adopted them all. As a French scholar has said, where there is +polytheism there are no false gods. All the religions were fused and +the gods were blended. The Roman went to Greece and identified +Jupiter with Zeus; he went to Egypt and found him in Amun (Ammon); +he went to Syria and found him in Baal. If the Jew had not been so +foolish and awkward, there might have been a Jupiter Jehovah as +well. It was a catholic faith, embracing everything--cult and creed +and philosophy--strong in all the ways we have surveyed and in many +more, above all because it was unchallenged. + +And yet, where is that religion to-day? That, to me, is one of the +most significant questions in history--more so, the longer I stay in +India. Men knew that that religion of Greece and Rome was eternal; +yet it is utterly gone. Why? How _could_ it go? What conceivable +power was there, I do not say, to bring it down, but to abolish it +so thoroughly, that not a soul in Egypt worships Isis--how many even +know her name?--not a soul in Italy thinks of Jove but as a fancy, +and Pallas Athene in Athens itself is a mere memory? That is the +problem, the historical problem, with which we have now to deal. + +First of all, let us look again, and more closely, at that old +religion--we shall find in it at least four cardinal weaknesses. + +First, it stands for "the unexamined life," as Plato called it. "The +unexamined life," he says, "is not liveable for a human being." A +man, who is a man, must cross-examine life, must make life face up +to him and yield its secrets. He must know what it means, the +significance of every relation of life--father and child, man and +wife, citizen and city, subject and king, man and the world--above +all, man and God. We must examine and know. But this old religion +stood by tradition and not reflection. There was no deep sense of +truth. Plutarch admired his father, and he describes, with warm +approval, how his father once said to a man: "That is a dangerous +question, not to be discussed at all--when you question the opinion +we hold about the gods, and ask reason and demonstration for +everything." Such an attitude means mistrust, it means at bottom a +fundamental unfaith. The house is beautiful; do not touch it; it is +riddled by white ants, by dry rot, and it would fall. That is not +faith; it is a strange confession; but all who hesitate at changes, +I think, make that confession sooner or later. There is a line of +Kabir which puts the essence of this: "Penance is not equal to +truth, nor is there any sin like untruth." This was one of the +essential weaknesses of that old religion--its fear, and the absence +of a deep sense of truth. + +In the next place, there is no real association of morals with +religion. The old stories were full of the adventures of Jupiter, or +Zeus, with the heroines, mortal women, whom he loved. Of some 1900 +wall paintings at Pompeii, examined by a German scholar and +antiquary, some 1400 represent mythological subjects, largely the +stories of the loves of Jupiter. The Latin dramatist Terence +pictures the young man looking at one of these paintings and saying +to himself, "If Jupiter did it, why should not I?" Centuries later +we find Augustine quoting that sentence. It has been said that few +things tended more strongly against morality than the stories of the +gods preserved by Homer and Hesiod. Plato loved Homer; so much the +more striking is his resolve that in his "Republic" there should be +no Homer. Men said: "Ah, but you don't understand; those stories are +allegories. They do not mean what they say; they mean something +deeper." But Plato said we must speak of God always as he is; we +must in no case tell lies about God "whether they are allegories or +whether they are not allegories." Plato, like every real thinker, +sees that this pretence of allegory is a sham. The story did its +mischief whether it was allegory or not; it stood between man and +God, and headed men on to wrong lines, turned men away from the +moral standard. + +There was more. Every year, as we saw, men went to be initiated into +the rites of Demeter at Eleusis, a few miles from Athens. And we +read how one of the great Athenian orators, Lysias, went there and +took with him to be initiated a harlot, with whom he was living, and +the woman's proprietress--a squalid party; and they were initiated. +Their morals made no difference; the priests and the goddesses +offered no objection. In the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth there +were women slaves dedicated to the goddess, who owned them, and who +received the wages of their shame. With what voice could religion +speak for morality in Corinth? At Comana in Syria (we read in Strabo +the geographer, about the time of Christ) there was a temple where +there were six thousand of these temple slaves. I say again, that is +the unexamined life. God and goddess have nothing to say about some +of the most sacred relations in life. God, goddess, priest, +worshipper, never gave a thought to these poor creatures, dedicated, +not by themselves, to this awful life--human natures with the +craving of the real woman for husband and child, for the love of +home, but never to know it. That was associated with religion; that +was religion. There was always a minimum of protest from the Greek +temples against wrong or for right. It is remarked, again and again, +that all the great lessons came, not from the temples, not from the +priests, but from the poets and philosophers, from the thinkers in +revolt against the religion of their people. Curiously enough, even +in Homer himself, it is plain that the heroes, the men, are on a +higher moral plane than the gods; and all through Greek history the +gods are a drag on morality. What a weakness in religion! The sense +of wrong and right is innate in man; it may be undeveloped, or it +may be deadened, but it is instinctive; and a religion which does +not know it, or which finds the difference between right and wrong +to lie in matters of taboo or ceremonial defilement, cannot speak to +one of the deepest needs of the human heart, the need of +forgiveness. There is no righteousness, in the long run, about these +gods. + +In the third place, the religion has the common weakness of all +polytheism. Men were afraid of the gods; there were thousands and +thousands, hosts of them. At every turn you ran into one, a new one; +you could never be certain that you would not offend some unknown +god or goddess. Superstition was the curse of the day. You had to +make peace with all these gods and goddesses--and not with them +alone. For there was another class of supernatural beings, dangerous +if unpropitiated, the daemons, the spirits that inhabited the air, +that presided over life and its stages, that helped or hated the +human soul, spiteful and evil half-divine beings, that sent illness, +bad luck, madness, that stole the honours of the gods themselves and +insisted on rituals and worship, often unclean, often cruel, but +inevitable. A man must watch himself closely if he was to be safe +from them all, if he was to keep wife and child and home safe. + +Superstition, men said, was the one curse of life that made no truce +with sleep. A famous Christian writer of the second century, Tatian, +speaks of the enormous relief that he found in getting away from the +tyranny of ten thousand gods to be under a monarchy of One. A modern +Japanese, Uchimura, said the same thing: "One God, not eight +millions; that was joyful news to me." + +Fourthly, this religion took from the grave none of its terrors. +There might be a world beyond, and there might not. At any rate, "be +initiated," said the priests; "you will have to pay us something, +but it is worth it." Prophets and quacks, said Plato, came to rich +men's doors and made them believe that they could rid them of all +alarm for the next world, by incantations and charms and other +things, by a series of feasts and jollifications. So they said, and +men did what they were told; but it did not take away the fear of +death. + +From the first century onwards men began systematically to defend +this old paganism. Plutarch wrote a series of books in its behalf. +He brings in something like love of god for man. He speaks of "the +friendly Apollo." But the weakness of Plutarch as an apologist is +his weakness as biographer--he never really gets at the bottom of +anything. In biography he gives us the characteristic rather than +the character. Here he never faces the real issue. It is all +defence, apology, ingenuity; but he defends far too much. He admits +there are obscene rites; there had been human sacrifices; but the +gods cannot have ordained them; daemons, who stole the names of +gods, imposed these on men--not the gods; men practised them to +avert the anger of daemons. The gods are good. Waiving the fact that +he had not much evidence for this in the mythology, how was a man to +distinguish god from daemon, to know which is which? He does not +tell us. Again he speaks of the image of Osiris with three +"lingams". He apologizes for it; he defends it; for the triplicity +is a symbol of godhead, and it means that God is the origin of all +life. Yes, but what that religion needed was a great reformer, who +should have cut the religion clear adrift from idols of every kind, +from the old mythology, from obscenity. It may very well be that +such a reformer was unthinkable; even if he had appeared, he would +have been foredoomed to fail, as the compromise of the Stoics shows. +Plutarch and his kind did not attempt this. They loved the past and +the old ways. At heart they were afraid of the gods and were afraid +of tradition. Culture and charm will do a great deal, but they do +not suffice for a religion--either to make one or to redeem it. + +The Stoics reached, I think, the highest moral level in that Roman +world--great men, great teachers of morals, great characters; but as +for the crowd, they said, let them go on in the religions of their +own cities; what they had learnt from their fathers, let them do. So +much for the ignorant; for us, of course, something else. That seems +to be a fundamentally wrong defence of religion. It gets the +proportions wrong. It means that we, who are people of culture, are +a great deal nearer to God than the crowd. But if we realize God at +all, we feel that we are none of us very far apart down here. The +most brilliant men are amenable to the temptations of the savage and +of the dock labourer. There was a further danger, little noticed at +first, that life is apt to be overborne by the vulgar, the ignorant, +if there is not a steady campaign to enlighten every man. The Roman +house was full of slaves; they taught the children--taught them +about gods and goddesses, from Syria, from Egypt, and kept thought +and life and morals on a low plane. An ignorant public is, an +unspeakable danger everywhere, but especially in religion. + +The last great system of defence was the New Platonism. It had not +very much to do with Plato, except that it read him and quoted him +as a great authority. The Neo-Platonists did not face facts as Plato +did. They lived on quotations, on authority and fancy, great +thinkers as some of them were. They pictured the universe as one +vast unity. Far beyond all things is God. Of God man can form no +conception. Think, they would say, of all the exalted and wonderful +and beautiful concepts you can imagine; then deny them. God is +beyond. God is beyond being; you can conceive of being, and +therefore to predicate being of God is to limit him. You cannot +think of God; for, if you could think of God, God would be in +relation with you; God is insusceptible of relation with man. He +neither wills, nor thinks of man, nor can man think of him. A modern +philosopher has summed up their God as the deification of the word +"not." This God, then, who is not, willed--no! not "willed"; he +could not will; but whether he willed or did not will, in some way +or other there was an emanation; not God, but very much of God; very +divine, but not all God; from this another and another in a +descending series, down to the daemons, and down to men. All that +is, is God; evil is not-being. One of the great features of the +system was that it guaranteed all the old religions--for the crowd; +while for the initiated, for the esoteric, it had something more--it +had mystic trance, mystic vision, mystic comprehension. Twice or +three times, Plotinus, by a great leap away from all mortal things, +saw God. In the meantime, the philosophy justified all the old +rites. + +Side by side with this great defence were what are known as the +Christian heresies. They are not exactly Christian. Groups of people +endeavoured to combine Christianity with the old thought, with +philosophy, theosophy, theurgy, and magic. They were eclectics; they +compromised. The German thinker, Novalis, said very justly that all +eclectics are sceptics, and the more eclectic the more sceptic. +These mixtures could not prevail. + +But religions have, historically, a wonderful way of living in spite +of their weaknesses--yes, and in spite of their apologetics. A +religion may be stained with all sorts of evil, and may communicate +it; and yet it will survive, until there is an alternative with more +truth and more dynamic. The old paganism outlived Plato's criticisms +and Plutarch's defences. For the great masses of people neither +might have written. + +Into this world came the Christian Church. I have tried to draw the +picture of the great pagan religion, with its enormous strength, its +universal acceptance, its great traditions, its splendours of art +and ceremony, its manifest proofs of its gods--everything that, to +the ordinary mind, could make for reality and for power; to show how +absolutely inconceivable it was that it could ever pass away. Then +comes the Christian Church--a ludicrous collection of trivial +people, very ignorant and very common; fishermen and publicans, as +the Gospels show us, "the baker and the fuller," as Celsus said with +a sneer. Yes, and every kind of unclean and disreputable person they +urged to join them, quite unlike all decent and established +religions. And they took the children and women of the family away +into a corner, and whispered to them and misled them--"Only +believe!" was their one great word. The whole thing was incredibly +silly. Paul went to Athens, and they asked him there about his +religion; and when he spoke to them about Jesus rising from the +dead, they sniggered, and the more polite suggested "another day." +Everybody knew that dead men do not rise. It was a silly religion. +Celsus pictured the frogs in symposium round a swamp, croaking to +one another how God forsakes the whole universe, the spheres of +heaven, to dwell with us; we frogs are so like God; he never ceases +to seek how we may dwell with him for ever; but some of us are +sinners, so God will come--or send his son--and burn them up; and +the rest of us will live with him for eternity. Is not that very +like the Christian religion? Celsus asked. It has been replied that, +if the frogs really could say this and did say this, then their +statement might be quite reasonable. But our main purpose for the +moment is to realize the utterly inconceivable absurdity of this +bunch of Galilean fishermen--and fools and rascals and +maniacs--setting out to capture the world. One of them wrote an +Apocalypse. He was in a penal settlement on Patmos, when he wrote +it. The sect was in a fair way of being stamped out in blood, as a +matter of fact; but this dreamer saw a triumphant Church of ten +thousand times ten thousand--and thousands of thousands--there were +hardly as many people in the world at that time; the great Rome had +fallen and the "Lamb" ruled. Imagine the amusement of a Roman pagan +of 100 A.D. who read the absurd book. Yet the dream has come true; +that Church has triumphed. Where is the old religion? Christ has +conquered, and all the gods have gone, utterly gone--they are +memories now, and nothing more. Why did they go? The Christian +Church refused to compromise. A pagan could have seen no real reason +why Jesus should not be a demi-god like Herakles or Dionysos; no +reason, either, why a man should not worship Jesus as well as these. +One of the Roman Emperors, a little after 200 A.D., had in his +private sanctuary four or five statues of gods, and one of them was +Jesus. Why not? The Roman world had open arms for Jesus as well as +any other god or demi-god, if people would be sensible; but the +Christian said, No. He would not allow Jesus to be put into that +pantheon, nor would he worship the gods himself, not even the +"genius" of the Emperor, his guardian spirit. The Christian +proclaimed a war of religion in which there shall be no compromise +and no peace, till Christ is lord of all; the thing shall be fought +out to the bitter end. And it has been. He was resolved that the old +gods should go; and they have gone. How was it done? + +Here we touch what I think one of the greatest wonders that history +has to show. How did the Church do it? If I may invent or adapt +three words, the Christian "out-lived" the pagan, "out-died" him, +and "out-thought" him. He came into the world and lived a great deal +better than the pagan; he beat him hollow in living. Paul's Epistles +to the Corinthians do not indicate a high standard of life at +Corinth. The Corinthians were a very poor sort of Christians. But +another Epistle, written to the Corinthians a generation later, +speaks of their passion for being kind to men, and of a broadened +and deeper life, in spite of their weaknesses. Here and there one +recognizes failure all along the line--yes, but the line advances. +The old world had had morals, plenty of morals--the Stoics +overflowed with morals. But the Christian came into the world, not +with a system of morality--he had rules, indeed--"which," asks +Tertullian, "is the ampler rule, Thou shalt not commit adultery, or +the rule that forbids a single lustful look?"--but it was not rules +so much that he brought into the world as a great passion. "The Son +of God," he said, "loved me and gave himself for me. That man--Jesus +Christ loved him, gave himself for him. He is the friend of my best +Friend. My best Friend loves that man, gave himself for him, died +for him." How it alters all the relations of life! Who can kill or +rob another man, when he remembers whose hands were nailed to the +Cross for that man? See how it bears on another side of morality. +Tertullian strikes out a great phrase, a new idea altogether, when +he speaks of "the victim of the common lust." Christ died for +her--how it safeguards her and uplifts her! Men came into the world +full of this passion for Jesus Christ. They went to the slave and to +the temple-woman and told them: "The Son of God loved you and gave +himself for you"; and they believed it, and rose into a new life. To +be redeemed by the Son of God gave the slave a new self-respect, a +new manhood. He astonished people by his truth, his honesty, his +cleanness; and there was a new brightness and gaiety about him. So +there was about the woman. They sang, they overflowed with good +temper. It seemed as if they had been born again. As Clement of Rome +wrote, the Holy Spirit was a glad spirit. The word used both by him +and by St. Augustine is that which gives us the English word +"hilarious." There was a new gladness and happiness about these +people. "It befits Truth to laugh, because she is glad--to play with +her rivals because she is free from fear," so said Tertullian. Of +course, there were those who broke down, but Julian the Apostate, in +his letters to his heathen priests, is a reluctant witness to the +higher character of Christian life. And it was Jesus who was the +secret of it. + +The pagan noticed the new fortitude in the face of death. Tertullian +himself was immensely impressed with it. He had never troubled to +look at the Gospels. Nobody bothered to read them unless they were +converted already, he said. But he seems to have seen these +Christian martyrs die. "Every man," he said, "who sees it, is moved +with some misgiving, and is set on fire to learn the reason; he +inquires and he is taught; and when he has learnt the truth, he +instantly follows it himself as well." "No one would have wished to +be killed, unless he was in possession of the truth." I think that +is autobiography. The intellectual energy of the man is worth +noting--his insistence on understanding, his instant resolution; +such qualities, we saw, had won the admiration of Jesus. Here is a +man who sacrifices a great career--his genius, his wit, his humour, +fire, power, learning, philosophy, everything thrown at Christ's +feet, and Christ uses them all. Then came a day when persecution was +breaking out again. Some Christians were for "fleeing to the next +city"--it was the one text in their Bible, he said. He said: "I stay +here." Any day the mob might get excited and shout: "The Christians +to the lions." They knew the street in which he lived, and they +would drag him--the scholar, the man of letters and of +imagination--naked through the streets; torn and bleeding, they +would tie him to the stake in the middle of the amphitheatre and +pile faggots round him, and there he would stand waiting to be burnt +alive; or, it might be, to be killed by the beasts. Any hour, any +day. "I stay here," he said. What does it cost a man to do that? +People asked what was the magic of it. The magic of it was just +this--on the other side of the fire was the same Friend; "if he +wants me to be burnt alive, I am here." Jesus Christ was the secret +of it. + +The Christians out-thought the pagan world. How could they fail to? +"We have peace with God," said Paul. They moved about in a new +world, which was their Father's world. They would go to the shrines +and ask uncomfortable questions. Lucian, who was a pagan and a +scoffer, said that on one side of the shrines the notice was posted: +"Christians outside." The Christians saw too much. The living god in +that shrine was a big snake with a mask tied on--good enough for the +pagan; but the Christian would see the strings. Even the daemons +they dismissed to irrelevance and non-entity. The essence of magic +was to be able to link the name of a daemon with the name of one's +enemy, to set the daemon on the man. "Very well," said the +Christian, "link my name with your daemons. Use my name in any magic +you like. There is a name that is above every name; I am not +afraid." That put the daemons into their right place, and by and by +they vanished, dropped out, died of sheer inanition and neglect. +Wherever Jesus Christ has been, the daemons have gone. "There used +to be fairies," said an old woman in the Highlands of Scotland to a +friend of mine, "but the Gospel came and drove them away." I do not +know what is going to keep them away yet but Jesus Christ. The +Christian read the ancient literature with the same freedom of mind, +and was not in bondage to it; he had a new outlook; he could +criticize more freely. One great principle is given by Clement of +Alexandria: "The beautiful, wherever it is, is ours, because it came +from our God." The Christian read the best books, assimilated them, +and lived the freest intellectual life that the world had. Jesus had +set him to be true to fact. Why had Christian churches to be so much +larger than pagan temples? Why are they so still? Because the sermon +is in the very centre of all Christian worship--clear, definite +Christian teaching about Jesus Christ. There is no place for an +ignorant Christian. From the very start every Christian had to know +and to understand, and he had to read the Gospels; he had to be able +to give the reason for his faith. He was committed to a great +propaganda, to the preaching of Jesus, and he had to preach with +penetration and appeal. There they were loyal to the essential idea +of Jesus--they were "sons of fact." They read about Jesus,[32] and +they knew him, and they knew where they stood. This has been the +essence of the Christian religion. Put that alongside of the pitiful +defence which Plutarch makes of obscene rites, filthy images, +foolish traditions. Who did the thinking in that ancient world? +Again and again it was the Christian. He out-thought the world. + +The old religion crumbled and fell, beaten in thought, in morals, in +life, in death. And by and by the only name for it was paganism, the +religion of the back-country village, of the out-of-the-way places. +Christ had conquered. "Dic tropoeum passionis, dic triumphalem +Crucem", sang Prudentius--"Sing the trophy of the Passion; sing the +all-triumphant Cross." The ancients thought that God repeated the +whole history of the universe over and over again, like a cinema +show. Some of them thought the kingdoms rise and fall by pure +chance. No, said Prudentius, God planned; God developed the history +of mankind; he made Rome for his own purposes, for Christ. + +What is the explanation of it? We who live in a rational universe, +where real results come from real causes, must ask what is the power +that has carried the Christian Church to victory over that great old +religion. And there is another question: is this story going to be +repeated? What is there about Shiva, Kali, or Shri Krishna that +essentially differentiates them from the gods of Greece and Rome and +Egypt? Tradition, legend, philosophy--point by point, we find the +same thing; and we find the same Christian Church, with the same +ideals, facing the same conflict. What will be the result? The +result will be the same. We have seen in China, in the last two +decades, how the Christian Church is true to its traditions; how men +can die for Jesus Christ. In the Greek Church--a suffering +Church--on the round sacramental wafer there is a cross, and in the +four corners there are the eight letters, IE, XE, NI, KA, "Jesus +Christ conquers." That is the story of the Christian Church in the +Roman Empire. That is the story which, please God, we shall see +again in India. "Jesus Christ conquers." + + + +CHAPTER X + +JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + +Jesus Christ came to men as a great new experience. He took them far +outside all they had known of God and of man. He led them, +historically, into what was, in truth, a new world, into a new +understanding of life in all its relations. What they had never +noticed before, he brought to their knowledge, he made interesting +to them, and intelligible. In short, as Paul put it, "if any man be +in Christ, it is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). The aspects of +things were different; the values were changed, and a new +perspective made clear relations that were obscure and tangled +before. Why should it have been so? Why should it be, that, when a +man comes into contact, into some kind of sympathy with Jesus +Christ, some living union with him, everything becomes new, and he +by and by begins to feel with St. Paul: "To me to live is Christ" +(Phil. 1:21)? Why has Jesus meant so much? Why should all this be +associated with him? + +Plato, in the sentence already quoted, tells us that "the unexamined +life is unliveable for a human being, for a real man." Here, then, +came into man's life a new experience altogether, like nothing known +before altering everything, giving new sympathies, new passions, new +enthusiasms--a new attitude to God and a new attitude to men. It was +inevitable that thought must work upon it. Who was this Jesus that +he should produce this result? Men asked themselves that very early; +and if they were slow to do so, the criticism of the outsider drove +them into it. The result has been nineteen centuries of endless +question and speculation as to Jesus Christ--the rise of dogma, +creed, and formula, as slowly all the philosophy of mankind has been +re-thought in the light of the central experience of Jesus Christ. +In spite of all that we may regret in the war of creeds, it was +inevitable--it was part of the disturbance that Jesus foresaw he +must make (Luke 12:51). Men "could do no other"--they had to +determine for themselves the significance of Jesus in the real +world, in the whole cosmos of God; and it meant fruitful conflict of +opinion, the growth of the human mind, and an ever-heightened +emphasis on Jesus. + +An analogy may illustrate in some way the story before us. One of +the most fascinating chapters of geography is the early exploration +of America. Chesapeake Bay was missed by one explorer. Fog or +darkness may have been the cause of his missing the place; but he +missed it, and, though it is undoubtedly there, he made his map +without it. Now let us suppose a similar case--for it must often +have happened in early days--and this time we will say it was the +Hudson, or some river of that magnitude. A later explorer came, and +where the map showed a shore without a break, he found a huge inlet +or outlet. Was it an arm of the sea, a vast bay, or was it a great +river? A very great deal depended on which it was, and the first +thing was to determine that. There were several ways of doing it. +One was to sail up and map the course. A quicker way was to drop a +bucket over the side of the ship. The bucket, we may be sure, went +down; and it came up with fresh water; and the water was an instant +revelation of several new and important facts. They had discovered, +first of all, that where there was an unbroken coast-line on the +map, there was nothing of the kind in reality; there was a broad +waterway up into the country; and this was not a bay, but the mouth +of a river, and a very great river indeed; and this implied yet +another discovery--that men had to reckon with no mere island or +narrow peninsula, but an immense continent, which it remained to +explore. + +Jesus Christ was in himself a very great discovery for those to whom +he gave himself, and the exploration of him shows a somewhat similar +story. Men have often said that they see nothing in him very +different from the rest of us; while others have found in him, in +the phrase of the Apocalypse (Rev. 22:1), the "water of life"; and +the positive announcement is here, as in the other case, the more +important of the two. The discovery of the volume of life, which +comes from Jesus Christ, is one of the greatest that men have made. +Merely to have dipped his bucket, as it were, in that great stream +of life has again and again meant everything to a man. Think of what +the new-found river of the New World meant to some of those early +explorers after weeks at sea-- + + Water, water everywhere, + Nor any drop to drink-- + +and they reach an immense flood of river-water. It was new life at +once; but it did not necessarily mean the immediate exploration of +everything, the instant completion of geographical discovery. It was +life and the promise of more to follow. The history of the Church is +a record, we may put it, both of the discovery of the River of Life +and of the exploration of its course and its sources, and of what +lies behind it. But the discovery and the exploration are different +things, and the first is quicker and more certain than the second. +Most of us will admit that we have not gone very far up into that +Continent. The object of this chapter is not to attempt to survey or +compendiarise Christian exploration of Jesus, but to try to find for +ourselves a new approach to an estimate of the historical figure who +has been and remains the centre of everything. + +We may classify the records of the Christian exploration roughly in +three groups. In the early Christian centuries, we find endless +thought given to the philosophical study of the relation of Christ +and God. It fills the library of the Early Church, and practically +all the early controversies turn upon it. The weak spot in all this +was the use of the "a priori" method. Men started with +preconceptions about God--not unnaturally, for we all have some +theories about God, which we are apt to regard as knowledge. But +knowledge is a difficult thing to reach in any sphere of study; and +men assumed too quickly that they had attained a sound philosophical +account of God. They over-estimated their actual knowledge of God +and did not recognize to the full the importance of their new +experience. This may seem ungenerous to men, who gave life and +everything for Jesus Christ, and to whose devotion, to whose love of +Jesus, we owe it that we know him--an ungenerous criticism of their +brave thinking, and their independence in a hundred ways of old +tradition. Still it is true that the weakness of much of their +Christology--and of ours--is that it starts with a borrowed notion +of God, which really has very little to do with the Christian +religion. To this we shall return; but in the meantime we may note +that here as elsewhere preconceptions have to be lightly held by the +serious student. Huxley once wrote to Charles Kingsley: "Science +seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great +truth that is embodied in the Christian conception of entire +surrender to the will of God. Sit down before the fact as a little +child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow +humbly wherever and to whatever end Nature leads, or you shall learn +nothing .... I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind +since I have resolved at all risks to do this." So Huxley wrote +about the study of natural science. In this great inquiry of ours we +have to learn to be patient enough--we might say, ignorant +enough--to do the same. The Early Church had a faith in Greek +philosophy, which stood in its way, brave and splendid as its +thinkers were. + +Our second group is represented roughly by the Hymn Book. The +evidential value of a good hymn book will stand investigation. Of +course a great many hymns are mere copies, and poor copies; but the +Hymn Book at its best is a collection of first-hand records of +experience.[33] In the story of the Christian Church doxology comes +before dogma. When the writer of the Apocalypse breaks out at the +very beginning: "Unto him that loved us and washed[34] us from our +sins in his own blood . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever" +(Rev. 1:5), he is recording a great experience; and his doxology +leads him on to an explanation of what he has felt and known--to an +intellectual judgement and an appreciation of Christ. The order is +experience,--happiness and song--and then reflection. The love and +the cleansing, and the joy, supply the materials on which thought +has to work. We have always to remember that thought does not +strictly supply its own material, however much it may help us to +find it. Philosophy and theology do not give us our facts. Their +function is to group and interpret them. + +Our third group of records is given to us by the men of the +Reformation. We have there two great movements side by side. There +is Bible translation, which means, in plain language, a decision or +conviction on the part of scholars and thinkers, that the knowledge +of the historical Jesus, and of men's first experiences of him, is +of the highest importance in the Christian life. The whole +Reformation follows, or runs parallel with, that movement. It is +essentially a new exploration of what Jesus Christ can do and of +what he can be. + +In dealing with all these three groups of records, we have to note +the seriousness of the men who made the experiments, their energy of +mind, their determination to reach real facts and, in Cromwell's +great phrase, to "speak things." They will have the truth of the +matter. Intricate and entangled as is the history, for instance, of +the Arian controversy--that controversy which "turned on a +diphthong," as Carlyle said in his younger days--it represented far +more than mere logomachy, as Carlyle saw later on. It followed from +a determination to get at the real fact of who and what Jesus Christ +is; and the two words, that differed by a diphthong, embodied +diametrically opposite conceptions of him. With all the +super-subtlety that sometimes characterizes theologians, these men +had a passion for truth. It led them into paths where our minds find +a difficulty in following; but the motive was the imperative sense +that thinking men must examine and understand their supreme +experience--a motive that must weigh with men who are in earnest +about life. The great hymns of the Church--such as the "Dies Irae" +of Thomas of Celano, or Bernard's "Jesu dulcis memoria", or +Toplady's "Rock of Ages"--are transcripts from life, made by +deep-going and serious minds. The writers are recording, with deep +conviction of its worth, what they have discovered in experience. A +man who takes Christ seriously and will "examine life," will often +find in those great hymns, it may be with some surprise, an +anticipation of his own experience as Bunyan did in Luther's +Commentary on Galatians. Livingstone had "Jesu dulcis memoria"--the +Latin of it--ringing in his head as he travelled in unexplored +Africa. Men who did such work--work that lasts and is recognized +again and again to be genuine by others busy in the same +field--cannot have been random, light-hearted creatures. They were, +in fact, men tested in life, men of experience of wide and deep +experience--men with a gift for living, developed in heart as well +as in brain. The finest of Greek critics, Longinus, said that, "The +great style ("hupsos") is an echo of a great soul." Neander +said--and it is again and again true--that "it is the heart that +makes the theologian." Where we find a great hymn or a great +theology, we may be sure of finding a great nature and a great +experience behind it. + +Let us sum up our general results so far. First of all, whatever be +the worth of the consensus of Christian opinion--and we have to +decide how much it is worth, bearing in mind the type of man who has +worked and suffered to make it in every age; and, I think, it runs +high, as the work of serious and explorative minds--the consensus of +Christian opinion gives the very highest name to Jesus Christ. Men, +who did not begin with any preconception in his favour, and who have +often had a great deal of difficulty in explaining to others--and +perhaps to themselves--the course by which they have reached their +conclusions, claim the utmost for Jesus--and this in spite of the +most desperate philosophical difficulties about monotheism. With a +strong sense of fact, with a deepening feeling for reality, with a +growing value for experience, and with bolder ventures upon +experience, men have found that their conception of Jesus deepens +and grows; he means more to them the more they are. And, as was +noted in the first chapter, in a rational universe, where truth +counts and error fails, the Church has risen in power with every +real emphasis laid on Jesus Christ. What does this involve? + +So far our records. To-day we are living in an era when great +scientific discoveries are made, and more are promised. Geology once +unsettled people about Genesis; but closer study of the Bible and of +science has given truer views of both, and thinking people are as +little troubled about geology now as about Copernican astronomy. At +present heredity and psychology are dominating our minds--or, +rather, theories as to both; for though beginnings have been made, +the stage has not yet been reached of very wide or certain +discovery. There is still a great deal of the soul unexplored and +unmapped. No reasonable person would wish to belittle the study +either of evolution or of psychology; but the real men of science +would probably urge that lay people should take more pains to know +the exact meaning and scope of scientific terms, and to have some +more or less clear idea in their minds when they use them. However, +all these modern discoveries and theories are, to many men's minds, +a challenge to the right of Christians to speak of Jesus Christ as +they have spoken of him, a challenge to our right to represent the +facts of Christian life as we have represented them--in other words, +they are a challenge to us to return to experience and to see what +we really mean. If our study of Jesus in the preceding chapters has +been on sound lines, we shall feel that the challenge to face facts +is in his vein; it was what he urged upon men throughout. + +The old problem returns upon us: Who and what is this Jesus Christ? +We are involved in the recurrent need to re-examine him and +re-explore him. + +There are several ways of doing so. Like every other historical +character Jesus is to be known by what he does rather than by "a +priori" speculation as to what he might be. In the study of history, +the first thing is to know our original documents. There are the +Gospels, and, like other historical records, they must be studied in +earnest on scientific lines without preconception. And there are +later records, which tell us as plainly and as truthfully of what he +has done in the world's history. We can begin, then, with the +serious study of the actual historical Jesus, whom people met in the +road and with whom they ate their meals, whom the soldiers nailed to +the cross, whom his disciples took to worshipping, and who has, +historically, re-created the world. + +The second line of approach is rather more difficult, but with care +we can use Christological theories to recover the facts which those +who framed the theories intended to explain. We must remember here +once more the three historical canons laid down at the beginning. We +must above all things give the man's term his meaning, and ask what +was the experience behind his thought. When we come upon such +descriptions of Jesus as "Christ our Passover" (1 Cor. 5:7), or find +him called the Messiah, we must not let our own preconceptions as to +the value of the theories implied by the use of such language, nor +again our existing views of what is orthodox, determine our +conclusions; but we must ask what those who so explained Jesus +really meant to say, and what they had experienced which they +thought worth expressing. These people, as we see, were face to face +with a very great new experience, and they cast about for some means +of describing and explaining it. A slight illustration may suggest +the natural law in accordance with which they set about their task +of explanation. A child, of between two and three years old, was +watching his first snow-storm, gazing very intently at the flying +snow-flake, and evidently trying to think out what they were. At +last he hit it; they were "little birds." It is so that the mind, +infant or adult, is apt to work--explaining the new and unknown by +reference to the familiar. Snow-flakes are not little birds; they +are something quite different; yet there is a common element--they +both go flying through the air, and it was that fact which the +child's brain noticed and used. To explain Jesus, his friends and +contemporaries spoke of him as the Logos, the Sacrifice, "Christ our +Passover," the Messiah, and so forth. Of those terms not one is +intelligible to us to-day without a commentary. To ordinary people +Jesus is at once intelligible--far more so than the explanations of +him. Historically, it is he himself who has antiquated every one of +those conceptions, and, so far as they have survived, it has been in +virtue of association with him. They are the familiar language of +another day. "No one," said Dr. Rendel Harris, "can sing, 'How sweet +the name of Logos sounds.'" Synesius of Cyrene did try to sing it, +but most human beings prefer St. Bernard or John Newton. + +The inner significance of each term will point to the real +experience of the man using it. He employs a metaphor, a simile, or +a technical term to explain something. Can we penetrate to the +analogy which he finds between the Jesus of the new experience and +the old term which he uses? Can we, when we see what he has +experienced, grasp the substance and build on that to the neglect of +the term? When we look at the terms, we find that the essence of +sacrifice was reconciliation between God and man (we shall return to +this a little later), and that the Messiah was understood to be +destined to achieve God's purpose and God's meaning for mankind and +for each man. We find, again, that the inner meaning of the Logos is +that through it, and in it, God and man come in touch with each +other and become mutually intelligible. Reconciliation, the victory +of God, the mutual intelligibility of God and man--all three terms +centre in one great thought, a new union between God and man. That, +so far as I can see, is the common element; and that is, as men have +conceived it, the very heart of the Christian experience. + +In the third place, we can utilize the new experiments made upon +Jesus Christ in the Reformation and in other revivals. They come +nearer to us; for the men who report are more practical and more +scholarly in the modern way; they are more akin to us both in blood +and in ideas. Luther, for example, is a great spirit of the explorer +type. He went to scholarship and learnt the true meaning of +"metanoia"--that it was "re-thinking" and not "penance"--and he +grasped a new view of God there. From scholarship he gained a truer +view of Church history than he had been taught; and this too helped +to clear his mind. Above all, as "a great son of fact" (Carlyle's +name for him), his chief interest was the exploration of Jesus +Christ--would Christ stand all the weight that a man could throw +upon him without assistance? And Luther found that Christ could; and +he at once turned his knowledge into action, as the world knows. +"Justification by faith" was his phrase, and he meant that we may +trust Jesus Christ with all that we are, all that we have been, and +all that we hope to be; that Jesus himself will carry all; that +Jesus himself is all; that Jesus is at once Luther's eternal +salvation, and his sure help in the next day's difficulty--his +Saviour for ever from sin, and his great stand-by in translating the +Bible for the German people and in writing hymns for boys and girls. +"Nos nihil sumus", he wrote, "Christus solus est omnia".[35] In the +case of every great revival--the Wesleyan revival, and the smaller +ones in the United States, in the north of Ireland, in Wales--in +every one we find that, where anything is really achieved, it is +done by a new and thoroughgoing emphasis on Jesus Christ. It may be +put in language which to some ears is repulsive, in metaphors +strange or uncouth; but whatever the language, the fact that +underlies it is this--men are brought back to the reality, the +presence, the power, and the friendship of Jesus Christ; they are +called to a fresh venture on Jesus Christ, a fresh exploration: and +again and again the experience of a lifetime has justified the +venture. + +This brings us to the most effective and fundamental method in the +exploration of Jesus, in some ways the most difficult of all, or +else the very simplest. The Church has been clear that there is +nothing like personal experiment, the personal venture. It is the +only clue to the experience. The saying of St Augustine (Sermon 43, +3), "Immo Credo ut intelligas," is to many of our minds offensive--I +think, because we give not quite the right meaning to his "Credo". +But, if the illustrations are not too simple, swimming and bicycling +offer parallels. A man will never understand how water holds up a +human body, as long as he stays on dry land. In practical things, +the venture comes first; and it is hard to see how a man is to +understand Christ without a personal experience of him. All parents +know how much better bachelors and maiden sisters understand +children than they do; but as soon as these great authorities have +children of their own, the position is altered a little. + +The change that Jesus definitely operates in men, they have +described in various ways--rebirth, salvation, a new heart, and so +forth. What they have always emphasized in Jesus Christ, is that +they find he changes their outlook and develops new instincts in +them, and that in one way and another he saves from sin; and they +have been men who have learnt and adopted Jesus' own estimate of +sin. When, then, we remember that, with his serious view of sin, he +undertook man's redemption from it; when we add to this some real +reflection upon how much he has already done, as plain matter of +history, to "take away the sin of the world," we surely have +something to go upon in our attempt to determine who he is. The +question will rise, Have Christians overstated their experience, or +even misunderstood it? Has forgiveness been, in fact, achieved--or +salvation from sin? Can sin be put away at all? What will the +evidence for this be? I do not know what the evidence could be, +except the new life of peace with God, and all the sunshine and +blessing that go with it. This new life is at all events all the +evidence available; and how much it means is very difficult to +estimate without some personal experience. + +Here again the great theories of Redemption will help us to recover +the experience they are to explain; and once more we may note that +they are not the work of small minds or trivial natures, however +badly they have been echoed. Substitution implies at any rate some +serious confession of guilt before God, some strong sense of a great +indebtedness to Christ. The theory of Sacrifice implies the need of +reunion with God. Robertson Smith, in his "Early Religion of the +Semites" brings out that the essence of ancient sacrifice was that +the tribe, the sacrificial beast and the god were all of one blood; +the god was supposed to be alienated; the sacrifice was offered by +the party to the quarrel who was seeking reconciliation, namely, the +tribe. When we look at the New Testament, we find that the emphasis +always lies on God seeking reconciliation with man (cf. 2 Cor. +5:19). The theory of ransom--a most moving term in a world of +slavery--implies the need of new freedom for the mind, for the heart +and the whole nature, from the tyranny of sin. All these are +similes; and tremendous structures of theory have been built on +every one of them--and for some of these structures, simile, or, in +plainer language, analogy, is not a sufficient foundation. It is +probably true that all our current explanations of the work of +Christ in Redemption have in them too large an element of metaphor +and simile. Yet Christian people are reluctant to discard any one of +them; and their reluctance is intelligible. There is a value in the +old association, which is found by new experience. Every one of +these old similes will contribute to our realization of the work of +Christ, in so far as it is a record of experience of Christ, +verified in one generation after another. We shall make the best use +of them, when we are no longer intimidated by the terminology, but +go at once to what is meant--to the facts. + +We come still closer to the facts in the less metaphorical terms of +the New Testament. For example, there is the New Covenant. The +writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews went back to a great phrase in +Jeremiah, and by his emphasis on it he helped to give its name to +the whole New Testament--"I will make a new covenant with the house +of Israel and the house of Judah" (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). +Using this passage, he brings out that there is a new relation, a +new union, between God and man in Jesus. He speaks of Jesus as a +mediator bringing man and God together (Heb. 8:6)--language far +plainer to us than the terminology of sacrifice, which he employed +rather to bring home the work of Jesus with feeling and passion to +those who had no other vocabulary, than to impose upon Christian +thinkers a scheme of things which he clearly saw to be exhausted. +Then there is Paul's great conception of Reconciliation (2 Cor. +5:18-20). Half the difficulties connected with the word "Atonement" +disappear, when we grasp that the word in Greek means primarily +reconciliation. As Paul uses the noun and the verb, it is very plain +what he means--God is in Christ trying to reconcile the world to +himself. These attempts to express Christ's work in plain words take +us back to the great central Christian experience--to the great +initial discovery that the discord of man's making between God and +man has been removed by God's overtures in Christ; that the +obstacles which man has felt to his approach to God--in the unclean +hands and the unclean lips--have been taken away; and that with a +heart, such as the human heart is, a man may yet come to God in +Jesus, because of Jesus, through Jesus. + +The historical character of Christian life and thought is surely +evidence that Jesus Christ has accomplished something real; and when +we get a better hold of that, the problem of his person should be +more within our reach. The splendid phrase of Paul--"Therefore being +justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus +Christ" (Rom. 5:1)--or that of 1 Peter: "In whom ye rejoice ... with +joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8)--gives us the +keynote. The gaiety of the Early Church in its union with Jesus +Christ rings through the New Testament and the Christian fathers +from Hermas to Augustine. The Church has come singing down the +ages.[36] The victory over sin--no easy thing at any time--is +another permanent feature of Christian experience. The psychological +value of what Dr. Chalmers called "the expulsive power of a new +affection" is not enough studied by us. Look at the freedom, the +growth, the power of the Christian life--where do they all come +from? We cannot leave God out of this. At any rate, there they are +in the Christian experience; and where does anything that matters +flow from but from God? There is again the evidence of Christian +achievement; and it should be remarked that the Christian always +tells us that he himself has not the power, that it comes from God, +that he asks for it and God gives it. As for the easy explanation of +all religious life by "auto-suggestion," we may note that it +involves a loose and unscientific use of a more or less scientific +theory--never a very safe way to knowledge. In any case, it has been +pointed out, the word adds nothing to the number of our facts; nor +is it quite clear yet that it eliminates God from the story any more +than the term "digestion" makes it inappropriate to say Grace before +meat. All these things--peace, joy, victory, and the rest--follow +from the taking away of sin, and imply that it no longer stands +between God and man. All this is the work of the historical Jesus. +It is he who has changed the attitude of man to God, and by changing +it has made it possible for God to do what he has done. If God, in +Paul's phrase, "hath shined in our hearts" (2 Cor. 4:6), it was +Jesus who induced men to take down the shutters and to open the +windows. It is all associated, historically, with the ever-living +Jesus Christ, and with God in him. + +This brings us to the central question, the relation of Jesus with +God--the problem of Incarnation. After all that has been said, we +shall not approach it "a priori". We are too apt to put the +Incarnation more or less in algebraic form: + + x+y=a, + +where a stands for the historical Jesus Christ, and x and y +respectively for God and man. But what do we mean by x and y? Let us +face our facts. What do we know of man apart from Jesus Christ? +Surely it is only in him that we realize man--only in him that we +grasp what human depravity really is, the real meaning and +implications of human sin. It is those who have lived with Jesus +Christ, who are most conscious of sin; and this is no mere morbid +imagination or fancy, it rests on a much deeper exploration of human +nature than men in general attempt. Not until we know what he is do +we see how very little we are, and how far we have gone wrong. It is +his power of help and sympathy that teaches us the hardness of our +own hearts, our own fundamental want of sympathy. Again, until a man +knows Jesus Christ, he has little chance of even guessing the +grandeur of which he himself is capable. A man has, as he says, done +his best--for years, it may be, of strenuous endeavour; and then +comes the new experience of Jesus Christ, and he is lifted high +above his record, he gains a new power, a new tenderness, and he +does things incredible. We do not know the wrong or the right of +which man is capable, till we know Jesus Christ. The y of our +equation, then, does not tell us very much. + +When it comes to the x, is it not very often a mixture--an +ill-adjusted mixture--of the Father of Jesus, with the rather +negative "beyond all being" of later Greek speculation, and perhaps +the Judge of Roman law? The exact proportions in the mixture will +vary with the thinker. But, in fact, is it not true now that we +really only know God through Jesus? For it is only in and through +Jesus that we take the trouble, and have the faith, to explore and +test God, to try experiments upon God, to know what he can do and +what he will do. It is only in Jesus that the Love of God (in the +New Testament sense), is tenable at all. It is evanescent apart from +Jesus; it rests on the assurance of his words, his work, his +personality. A vague diffused "love of God" for everything in +general and nothing in particular, we saw to be a quite different +thing from the personal attachment, with which, according to Jesus, +God loves the individual man. That is the centre of the Gospel; it +is belief in that, which has done everything in a rational world, as +we saw at the beginning; and it is a most impossible belief, never +long or very actively held apart from Jesus. Only in him can we +believe it. Only in him, too, is the new experience of God's +forgiveness and redemption possible, in all its fullness and +sureness and power. "Dieu me pardonnera," said Heine, "c'est son +métier";--but he had not the Christian sense of what it was that God +was to forgive. It is only in Jesus that we can live the real life +of prayer, in the intimate way of Jesus. All this means that we have +to solve our x from Jesus--not to discover him through it. The plain +fact is that we actually know Jesus a great deal better than we know +our x and our y, the elements from which we hoped to reconstruct +him. What does this mean? + +It means, bluntly, that we have to re-think our theories of +Incarnation on "a posteriori" lines, to begin on facts that we know, +and to base ourselves on a continuous exploration and experience of +Jesus Christ first. The simple, homey rule of knowing things before +we talk about them holds in every other sphere of study, and it is +the rule which Jesus himself inculcated. We begin, then, with Jesus +Christ, and set out to see how far he will take us. Experience comes +first. "Follow me," he said. He chose the twelve men "that they +might be with him," and he let them find out in that intercourse +what he had for them; and from what he could give and did give they +drew their conclusions as to who and what he is. There can be no +other way of knowing him. "Luther's Reformation doctrines," says +Hermann, in his fine book, "The Communion of the Christian with God" +(p. 163), "only countenance such a confession of the Deity of Christ +as springs naturally to the lips of the man whom Jesus has already +made blessed." Melanchthon said the same: "This it is to know +Christ--to receive his benefits--not to contemplate his natures, or +the modes of his incarnation." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." + + + + +APPENDIX + +SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY CIRCLE DISCUSSIONS + +1. The book is obviously written for private reading, and these +suggestions are added, at the author's request, for those who would +like to study the book in groups. Circles on it, however, will not +be very profitable unless members of them are also carefully reading +the Gospels and come to the circles with copies of the New +Testament. Some acquaintance with the main outlines of New Testament +criticism will be a help. Readers who want to know how the New +Testament was written are referred to Principal Selbie: "The Nature +and Message of the Bible" (S.C.M., IS. 6d.), especially ch. iv. and +v. + +2. The questions suggested for discussion are only a selection of +the many important questions which the book raises. Circles should +not feel bound to follow them, or to try to cover them all at one +meeting. There are many subsidiary questions, which some circles +might pursue With profit. + +3. The circle should try as far as possible to get away from the +text of the book to the text of the Bible; to study and verify the +author's method of exposition. The Leader should give much thought +to this. + +4. A Bible with the marginal references of the R.V. +should be used--also a note-book. The author's clear preference for +the A.V. may be remarked (cf. p. 224). + +5. While the method of the book is historical, its object is +practical. The circles should have the same objective. +Experience comes before theology. Theology is worthless which cannot +be verified in experience. "He that doeth His will, shall know of +the doctrine." + +6. One chapter a week will be as much as a circle can profitably manage. . + + + +QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN CIRCLES + + +CHAPTER I + +I. Does the writer overdo the importance of history? +Would not "spiritual religion" suffice without a "historical basis," +as some Indians and others suggest? + +2. What would our evidence be for" spiritual religion" if we had not +the record of actual history to check fancy and support the ventures +of faith? + +3. Does the writer underestimate the actual impress made on his age +by Jesus? Was he not probably more widely known? + +4. How can ordinary people" make sure of the experience behind the +thought of Jesus?" Does this belittle him? + +5. What becomes of ordinary simple people untrained in historical +research, who are not experts and merely want help in living and +dying? Could not the whole presentation of Christ be much simpler? +Where does "revelation to babes" come in? + + +CHAPTER II + +1. Look up and verify at the circle meeting the references to the +Gospels in the chapter and see if they bear the interpretations put +upon them. + +2. Was Jesus fond of life and Nature? Give instances. + +3. Does intercourse with Nature make communion with God more real? + +4. "Jesus showed and taught men the beauty of humility, tenderness +and charity, but not of manliness and courage." Is there any truth +in this charge as regards (a) the portrait in the Gospels, or (b) +the presentation of Jesus in the teaching of the Church? + + +CHAPTER III + +1. "One of Jesus' great lessons is to get men to look for God in the +common-place things of which God makes so many." Discuss this. + +2. Had Jesus a sense of humour? Give instances. + +3. "The Son of Fact,"--do you think this a true epithet? + +4. What characteristics of the mind of Jesus does this chapter +emphasize as principal? Do you agree that they are the principal +ones? + +(5. What do you imagine Jesus looked like? What do you think of the +conventional figure of modern Art?) + + +CHAPTER IV + +I. To what extent was the hardness of the world during the early +Roman Empire due to current conceptions of God? + +2. What was the secret of Jesus' attractiveness, and what kinds of +men and women did he attract? + +3. How do you picture the life he lived with his disciples? E.g. Can +you reconstruct a typical day in the life of Jesus (cf. pp. 81, 82). + +4. Had he a method of teaching: if so, what was it? Give +illustrations. + + +CHAPTER V + +1. How would you state to a non-Christian the three principal +elements in Jesus' teaching about the character of God? Illustrate +fully from the three Gospels. + +2. What elements in the teaching of Jesus and the relation of God to +the individual would be new to a Jew who knew his Old Testament? + +3. What did Jesus teach his disciples concerning prayer? + +4. "If the friend in the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you +will knock until you get them; and has not God the gifts for you +that you need? Is he short of the power to help, or is it the will +to help that is wanting in God?" Do we pray in order to change the +will of God? Why did Jesus pray? + + +CHAPTER VI + +1. "There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant +anything to him." Would you admit this? Or has the writer too +narrow a conception of the nature of Art? + +2. "The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and helplessness of +masses of men was one of the foundations of the Christian Church." +Discuss this and illustrate from the ministry of our Lord. + +3. "I have not been thinking about the community: I have been +thinking about Christ," said a Bengali. Do you find this sort of +antithesis in the Gospels? + +4. "Jesus' new attitude to women." What is it? Was it continued in +the Apostolic Church? Did it differ from St Paul's? Cf. St John +4:27. + +5. What type of character does Jesus admire? Does your reading of +the Gospels incline you to agree with the writer? Is it the same +type of character which is exalted by Christian piety, stained-glass +windows, and the calendars of Saints? + + +CHAPTER VII + +1. "There is no escaping the issue of moral choice." "One opinion +is as good as another." Discuss these two contradictory statements. + +2. "Jesus says there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist." What is John's teaching +on sin and righteousness (in the Synoptic Gospels), and in what ways +does it differ (a) from the Pharisaic, and (b) from our Lord's +teaching? + +3. What are the modern parallels to "the four outstanding classes +whom Jesus warns of the danger of hell?" + +4. Wherein does Jesus' standard of sin differ from the standard of +sin current to-day? + +5. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" +(Luke 19:10). What does "lost" mean? + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1. What is the connection between the Kingdom of Heaven and the +Cross in the teaching of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels? + +2. How does Jesus conceive of salvation? Illustrate from the +Gospels. Do you agree with the writer's exposition? + +3. Why should the salvation of the lost (i.e. redemption) mean the +Cross for Jesus? + +4. "In choosing the Cross, Christians have always felt, Jesus +revealed God: and that is the centre of the great act of +Redemption." In what way? + +5. Do you think the paragraph on p. 179 beginning: "In the third +place . . ." does justice to the apocalyptic passages in the Gospels +(Mark 13ff, Matt. 24, etc.), or to the interpretation of this +teaching by scholars of the apocalyptic school? (It is no use +discussing this question unless members of the circle have made some +study of apocalyptic thought.) + + +CHAPTER IX + +1. "Into this world came the Church!" With what aspects of the +religion and life of the early Roman Empire, as outlined in the +chapter, would the Church find itself in conflict? + +2. How would you introduce the Christian faith to one who believed +and took part in the Eleusinian cult of Demeter? (Cf. 1 Corinthians +and St Paul's method of dealing with a similar situation, and notice +the things he stresses--e.g. elementary morality.) + +3. "Christ has conquered and all the gods are gone." Why did they go? + +4. But have they gone? What resemblances are there between the world +to-day (in the West and in the East) and the problem of the Church +to-day and the Roman world and the problem of the Church then? + +5. It was often remarked in India that, point by point, the writer's +description of religion in the Roman world is true to the letter of +Hinduism to-day. Work out this parallel. (See Dr J. N. Farquhar, +Crown of Hinduism and Modern Religious Movements in India.) + + +CHAPTER X + +1. "It is the heart that makes the theologian." Where does +your theology come from? + +2. The doctrine of the Atonement has often been stated as an attempt +to reconcile Jesus and an un-Christian conception of God. +"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." "The Cross +is the revelation in time of what God is always." Discuss. + +3. What are the three ways of answering the question: +"Who and what is this Jesus Christ?" Why must people make up their +minds about him? + +4. Does the writer make Jesus too human? Or has the reading of this +book made you feel his divinity more strongly just because he was so +perfectly human? + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, p. 157. + +[2] "We are nothing; Christ alone is all." + +[3] Canon Streeter in Foundations + +[4] Cf. the foreigner's touch at Athens (Acts 17:21). + +[5] because, later on, the Sabbath and Jewish ceremony were not among +the most living issues, after the Church had come to be chiefly +Gentile. + +[6] On this point see R. W. Dale, "The Living Christ and the Four +Gospels"; and W. Sanday, "The Gospels in the Second Century." + +[7] The reader will see that I am referring to Bishop Lightfoot's +article on "The Brethren of the Lord" in his commentary on +"Galatians", but not accepting his conclusions. + +[8] That this is not quite fanciful is shown by the emphasis laid by +more or less contemporary writers on the increased facilities for +travel which the Roman Empire gave, and the use made of them. + +[9] Wordsworth, Prelude, i. 586. + +[10] Cf., F. G. Peabody, "Jesus Christ and Christian Character", pp. +57-60. + +[11] H. S. Coffin, Creed of Jesus. pp. 240-242. + +[12] "Prelude" xiii. 26 ff. + +[13] See further, on this, in Chapter VII., p.168 + +[14] E.g., in his essay on "Mirabeau": "The real quantity of our +insight ... depends on our patience, our fairness, lovingness"; and +in "Biography": "A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." + +[15] Cf. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 154. I have +omitted one or two less relevant clauses--e.g. greetings to friends. + +[16] Horace, "Epistles", i. 16, 48. + +[17] Homer, "Odyssey", xvii. 322. + +[18] It is only about four times that personal immortality comes with +any clearness in the Old Testament: Psalms 72 and 139; Isaiah 26; +and Job 16:26. + +[19] Cf. A. E. J. Rawlinson, Dogma, Fact and Experience, p. 16. "All +the virtues in the Aristotelian canon are self-contained states of +the virtuous man himself .... In the last resort they are entirely +self-centred adornments or accomplishments of the good man; and it +is significant of this self-centredness of the entire conception +that the qualities of display (megaloprepeia) and highmindedness, or +proper pride (megalopsychia), are insisted on as integral elements +of the ideal character. On the other hand, the three characteristic +Christian virtues--faith, hope and charity--all postulate Another." + +[20] Cf. Chapter II + +[21] A French mystic is quoted as saying, "Le Dieu défini est le Dieu +fini." + +[22] Peabody, Jesus Christ and Christian Character, p. 97. + +[23] H. R. Mackintosh, "The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ", +p. 399. + +[24] Clement, "Protrepticus", 100, 3, 4 + +[25] The more or less contemporary Greek orator, Dio Chrysostom, +refers to the old-fashioned ways of the Tarsiots, especially +mentioning their insistence on women wearing veils. + +[26] Wernle, "Beginnings of Christianity", vol. i. p. 286, English +translation. + +[27] So too says Josephus, who gives this as the reason of Herod's +suspicion of him. + +[28] "Antiquities of the Jews", xviii. 5, 8, 117, cf. what Celsus +says of righteousness as a condition of admission to certain +mysteries that offer forgiveness of sins (Origen, c. "Celsum", iii. +59). The "purification of the body" has a ritual and ceremonial +significance. + +[29] Lines Composed above Tintern, 34. + +[30] That he did so is emphasized again and again, in striking +language, by St. Paul--e.g. Rom. 5:15-16, 20; 1 Tim. 1:14. + +[31] Horace, "Ars Poetica", 191, "Nec deus intersit nisi dignus +vindice nodus inciderit". + +[32] Daily reading of the Scriptures is recommended by Clement of +Alexandria ("Strom". vii. 49). + +[33] Perhaps one may quote here, not inappropriately, the famous +saying of Aristotle in his "Poetics", that "poetry is a more +philosophic thing than history, and of a higher seriousness." The +latter term means that the poet is "more in earnest" about his work, +and puts more energy of mind into it than the historian. If the +reader hesitates about this, let him try to write a great hymn or +poem. + +[34] Do not let us be misled by the thin pedantries of the Revised +Version here, or in Romans 5:1 shortly to be cited. In both places +literary and spiritual sense has bowed to the accidents of MSS. + +[35] If my readers do not know his Christmas hymn for children, they +have missed one of the happiest hymns for Christmas. + +[36] What Carlyle says in "The Hero as a Poet" ("Heroes and Hero +Worship") on the close relation of Song and Truth is worth +remembering in this connexion. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus of History, by T. R. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86ab380 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13335 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13335) diff --git a/old/13335-8.txt b/old/13335-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44f6df2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13335-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7158 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus of History, by T. R. Glover + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Jesus of History + +Author: T. R. Glover + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESUS OF HISTORY *** + + + + +Contributed by Jonathon Love + + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +FOREWORD + +I regard it as a high privilege to be associated with this volume. +Many who know and value Mr Glover's work on The Conflict of +Religions in the Early Roman Empire must have wistfully desired to +secure from his graphic pen just such a book as is here given to the +world. He possesses the rare power of reverently handling familiar +truths or facts in such manner as to make them seem to be almost +new. There are few gifts more precious than this at a time when our +familiarity with the greatest and most sacred of all narratives is a +chief hindrance to our ready appreciation of its living power. I +believe that no one will read Mr Glover's chapters, and especially +his description of the parable-teaching given by our Lord, without a +sense of having been introduced to a whole series of fresh and +fruitful thoughts. He has expanded for us, with the force, the +clearness, and the power of vivid illustration which we have learned +to expect from him, the meaning of a sentence in the earlier volume +I have alluded to, where he insists that, "Jesus of Nazareth does +stand in the centre of human history, that He has brought God and +man into a new relation, that He is the present concern of every one +of us and that there is more in Him than we have yet accounted +for."[1] + +In accordance with its title, the single theme of the book is "The +Jesus of History," but the student or exponent of dogmatic theology +will find abundant material in its pages. + +I commend it confidently, both to single students and to those who +nowadays, in happily increasing numbers, meet together for common +study; and I congratulate those who belong to the Student Christian +Movement upon this notable addition to the books published in +connection with their far-reaching work. + + RANDALL CANTUAR + LAMBETH + Advent Sunday, 1916 + + + + + +PREFACE + +This book has grown out of lectures upon the historical Jesus given +in a good many cities of India during the winter 1915-16. Recast and +developed, the lectures were taken down in shorthand in Calcutta; +they were revised in Madras; and most of them were wholly +re-written, where and when in six following months leisure was +available, in places so far apart as Colombo, Maymyo, Rangoon, +Kodaikanal, Simla, and Poona. The reader will not expect a heavy +apparatus of references to books which were generally out of reach. + +Here and there are incorporated passages (rehandled) from articles +that have appeared in The Constructive Quarterly, The Nation, The +Expositor, and elsewhere. + +Those who themselves have tried to draw the likeness attempted in +this book will best understand, and perhaps most readily forgive, +failures and mistakes, or even worse, in my drawing. The aim of the +book, as of the lectures, is, after all, not to achieve a final +presentment of the historical Jesus, but to suggest lines of study +that will deepen our interest in him and our love of him. + + T. R. G. +POONA, August 1916 + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I + THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + Modern study of religion + Historicity of Jesus + The gospels as historical sources + Canons for the study of a historical figure + A caution against antiquarianism here + + CHAPTER II + CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + References in Gospels + Utilisation of the parables to reconstruct the domestic life + Nature. The city. The talk of the market + + CHAPTER III + THE MAN AND HIS MIND + Words and looks, as recorded in the gospels + Playfulness of speech + Movements of feeling + Habits of thought: e.g. Quickness. Feeling for fact. + Sympathy. Imagination + His use of the Old Testament + + CHAPTER IV + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + THE BACKGROUND + Hardness of the human life in those times + Uncertainness as to God's plans for the nation--specially + as to His purposes for the Messiah + Uncertainty as to the immortality of the soul, and its destinies + Re-action of all this upon life + THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE TEACHER + To induce people to try to re-think God + To secure the re-thinking of life from its foundations in view + of the new knowledge + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + His personality, and his genius for friendship + The disciples--the type he prefers + Intimacy, the real secret of his method + His ways of speech + His seriousness + The transformation of the disciples + + CHAPTER V + THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + JESUS' OWN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS + The Nearness of God + God's knowledge and power + God's throne + Jesus emphasizes mostly God's interest in the individual--the + love of God + THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD + The discovery of God + Parables of the treasure finder and the pearl merchant + Faith in God + Prayer + Life on the basis of God + + CHAPTER VI + JESUS AND MAN + Jesus' sympathy with men and their troubles + His feelings for the suffering and distressed + His feeling for women and children + His emphasis on tenderness and forgiveness + The characteristics which he values in men + The value of the individual soul + Jesus and the wasted life + Zacchaeus. The woman with the alabaster box. The penitent thief + + CHAPTER VII + JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + The problem of sin + John the Baptist on sin + Jesus' psychology of sin more serious + The outstanding types of sin which, according to Jesus, + involve for a man the utmost risk: + (a) Want of tenderness + (b) The impure imagination + (c) Indifference to truth + (d) Indecision + Jesus' view of sin as deduced from this teaching + Implication of a serious view of redemption + + CHAPTER VIII + THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + What the cross meant to him + HIS REFERENCES TO THE GOSPEL AND ITS RESULTS + The kingdom of heaven + The call for followers + His announcement of purpose in his life and death + What he means by redemption + FACTORS IN HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + His sense of human need + His realization of God + His recognition of his own relation to God + His prayer life + VERIFICATION FROM THE EVENT + The Resurrection + The new life of the disciples + The taking away of the sin of the world + RE-EXAMINATION OF HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + As it bears on the problem of pain + and of sin + and on God + How a man is to understand Jesus Christ + + CHAPTER IX + THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + THE ROMAN EMPIRE + One rule of many races + General peace and free intercourse the world over + Fusion of cultures, traditions, religions + "The marriage of East and West" + THE OLD RELIGION + (1) Its strength: + in its ancient tradition + in its splendour of art, architecture and ceremony + in its oracles, healings and theophanies + in its adaptability in absorbing all cults and creeds + (2) Its weakness: + No deep sense of truth + No association with morality + Polytheism + The fear of the grave + (3) Its defence: + Plutarch--the Stoics--Neo-Platonism--the Eclectics + THE VICTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH + (1) Its characteristics + (2) Persecuted because it refused to compromise + (3) The Christian "out-lived" the pagan + "out died" him + "out-thought him" + + CHAPTER X + JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + The impulse to determine who he is, and his relation to God + The records of Christian experience + The Study of the personality of Jesus Christ + (a) The Gospels + (b) Christological theory a guide to experience + (c) The new experience of the Reformation period + Knowledge gained by the experiment comes before explanation + JESUS TO BE KNOWN BY WHAT HE DOES + The forgiveness of sin, and the theories to explain it + Is a Theology of Redemption possible which shall not be + mainly metaphor or simile? + THE PROBLEM OF THE INCARNATION + The approach is to be "a posterioria" + In fact, God and man are only known to us in and by Jesus + Only in Christ is the love of God as taught in N.T. tenable + To know Jesus in what he can do, is antecedent to theory about him + + APPENDIX + Suggestions for study circle discussions + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + +If one thing more than another marks modern thought, it is a new +insistence on fact. In every sphere of study there is a growing +emphasis on verification. Where a generation ago a case seemed to be +closed, to-day in the light of new facts it is reopened. Matters +that to our grandfathers were trivialities, to be summarily +dismissed, are seriously studied. Again and again we find the most +fruitful avenues opened to us by questions that another age might +have laughed out of a hearing; to-day they suggest investigation of +facts insufficiently known, and of the difficult connexions between +them. In psychology and in medicine the results of this new tendency +are evident in all sorts of ways--new methods in the treatment of +the sick, new inquiries as to the origin of diseases and the +possibilities of their prevention, attempts to get at the relations +between the soul and body, and a very new open-mindedness as to the +spiritual nature and its working and experiences. In other fields of +learning it is the same. + +To the modern student of man and his history the old easy way of +excluding religion as an absurdity, the light prediction of its +speedy, or at least its eventual, disappearance from the field of +human life, and other dogmatisms of the like kind, are almost +unintelligible. We realize that religion in some form is a natural +working of the human spirit, and, whatever place we give to religion +in the conduct of our own lives, as students of history we reckon +with the religious instinct as a factor of the highest import, and +we give to religious systems and organizations--above all, to +religious teachers and leaders--a more sympathetic and a profounder +study. Carlyle's lecture on Muhammad, in his course on "Heroes and +Hero Worship," may be taken as a landmark for English people in this +new treatment history. + +The Christian Church, whether we like it or not, has been a force of +unparalleled power in human affairs; and prophecies that it will no +longer be so, and allegations that by now it has ceased to be so, +are not much made by cautious thinkers. There is evidence that the +influence of the Christian Church, so far from ebbing, is +rising--evidence more obvious when we reflect that the influence of +such a movement is not to be quickly guessed from the number of its +actual adherents. A century and a quarter of Christian missions in +India have resulted in so many converts--a million and a quarter is +no slight outcome; but that is a small part of the story. All over +India the old religious systems are being subjected to a new study +by their own adherents; their weak points are being felt; there are +reform movements, new apologetics, compromises, defences--all sorts +of indications of ferment and transition. There can be little +question that while many things go to the making of an age, the +prime impulse to all this intellectual, religious, and moral +upheaval was the faith of Christian missionaries that Jesus Christ +would bring about what we actually see. They believed--and they were +laughed at for their belief--that Jesus Christ was still a real +power, permanent and destined to hold a larger place in the affairs +of men; and we see that they were right. Jesus remains the very +heart and soul of the Christian movement, still controlling men, +still capturing men--against their wills very often--changing men's +lives and using them for ends they never dreamed of. So much is +plain to the candid observer, whatever the explanation. + +We find further, another fact of even more significance to the +historian who will treat human experience with seriousness and +sympathy. The cynical view that delusion and error in a real world +have peculiar power in human affairs, may be dismissed; no serious +student of history could hold it. + +For those who believe, as we all do at heart, that the world is +rational, that real effects follow real causes, and conversely that +behind great movements lie great forces, the fact must weigh +enormously that wherever the Christian Church, or a section of it, +or a single Christian, has put upon Jesus Christ a higher +emphasis--above all where everything has been centred in Jesus +Christ--there has been an increase of power for Church, or +community, or man. Where new value has been found in Jesus Christ, +the Church has risen in power, in energy, in appeal, in victory. + +Paul of Tarsus progressively found more in Christ, expected more of +him, trusted him more; and his faith was justified. If Paul was +wrong, how did he capture the Christian Church for his ideas? If he +was wrong, how is it that when Luther caught his meaning, +re-interpreted him and laid the same emphasis on Jesus Christ with +his "Nos nihil sumus, Christus solus est omnia"[2], once more the +hearts of men were won by the higher doctrine of Christ's person and +power, and a new era followed the new emphasis? How is it that, when +John Wesley made the same discovery, and once more staked all on +faith in Christ, again the Church felt the pulse of new life? + +On the other hand, where through a nebulous philosophy men have +minimized Jesus, or where, through some weakness of the human mind, +they have sought the aid of others and relegated Jesus Christ to a +more distant, even if a higher, sphere--where, in short, Christ is +not the living centre of everything, the value of the Church has +declined, its life has waned. That, to my own mind, is the most +striking and outstanding fact in history. There must be a real +explanation of a thing so signal in a rational universe. + +The explanation in most human affairs comes after the recognition of +the fact. There our great fact stands of the significance of Jesus +Christ--a more wonderful thing as we study it more. We may fail to +explain it, but we must recognize it. One of the weaknesses of the +Church to-day is--put bluntly--that Christians are not making enough +of Jesus Christ. + +We find again that, where Jesus Christ is most real, and means most, +there we are apt to see the human mind reach a fuller freedom and +achieve more. There is a higher civilization, a greater emphasis on +the value of human life and character, and a stronger endeavour for +the utmost development of all human material, if we may so call the +souls and faculties of men. Why should there be this correspondence +between Jesus of Nazareth and human life? It is best brought out, +when we realize what he has made of Christian society, and contrast +it with what the various religions have left or produced in other +regions--the atrophy of human nature. + +In fine, there is no figure in human history that signifies more. +Men may love him or hate him, but they do it intensely. If he was +only what some say, he ought to be a mere figure of antiquity by +now. But he is more than that; Jesus is not a dead issue; he has to +be reckoned with still; and men who are to treat mankind seriously, +must make the intellectual effort to understand the man on whom has +been centred more of the interest and the passion of the most +serious and the best of mankind than on any other. The real secret +is that human nature is deeply and intensely spiritual, and that +Jesus satisfies it at its most spiritual point. + +The object before us in these pages is the attempt to know Jesus, if +we can, in a more intimate and intelligent way than we have done--at +least, to put before our minds the great problem, Who is this Jesus +Christ? and to try to answer it. + +One answer to this question is that Jesus was nothing, never was +anything, but a myth developed for religious purposes; that he never +lived at all. This view reappears from time to time, but so far it +has not appealed to any who take a serious interest in history. No +historian of the least repute has committed himself to the theory. +Desperate attempts have been made to discredit the Christian writers +of the first two centuries; it has been emphasized that Jesus is not +mentioned in secular writers of the period, and the passage in +Tacitus ("Annals", XV:44) has been explained away as a Christian +interpolation, or, more gaily, by reviving the wild notion that +Poggio Bracciolini forged the whole of the "Annals". But such +trifling with history and literature does not serve. No scholar +accepts the theory about Poggio--and yet if the passage about Christ +is to be got rid of, this is the better way of the two; for there is +nothing to countenance the view that the chapter is interpolated, or +to explain when or by whom it was done--the wish is father to the +thought. Christians are twice mentioned by Suetonius in dealing with +Emperors of the first century, though in one passage the reading +"Chrestus" for "Christus" has suggested to some scholars that +another man is meant; the confusion was a natural one and is +instanced elsewhere, but we need not press the matter. The argument +from silence is generally recognized as an uncertain one. Sir James +Melville, living at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots, does not, I +learn, mention John Knox--"whom he could not have failed to mention +if Knox had really existed and played the part assigned to him by +his partisans," and so forth. It might be as possible and as +reasonable to prove that the Brahmo Samaj never existed, by +demonstrating four hundred years hence--or two thousand--that it is +not mentioned in In Memoriam, nor in The Ring and the Book, nor in +George Meredith's, novels, nor (more strangely) in any of Mr. +Kipling's surviving works, which definitely deal with India. None of +these writers, it may be replied, had any concern to mention the +Brahmo Samaj. And when one surveys the Greek and Roman writers of +the first century A.D. which of them had any concern to refer to +Jesus and his disciples, beyond the historians who do? Indeed, the +difficulty is to understand why some of these men should have +written at all; harder still, why others should have wanted to read +their poems and orations and commonplace books. One argument, +advanced in India a few years ago, against the historical value of +the Gospels may be revived by way of illustration. Would not Virgil +and Horace, it was asked, have taken notice of the massacre at +Bethlehem, if it was historical? Would they not? it was replied, +when they both had died years before its traditional date. + +But the distinction between Christian and secular writers is not one +that will weigh much with a serious historian. Until we have reason +to distinguish between book and book, the evidence must be treated +on exactly the same principles. To say abruptly that, because Luke +was a Christian and Suetonius a pagan, Luke is not worthy of the +credence given to Suetonius, is a line of approach that will most +commend itself to those who have read neither author. To gain a real +knowledge of historical truth, the historian's methods must be +slower and more cautious, he must know his author intimately--his +habits of mind, his turns of style, his preferences, his gifts for +seeing the real issue--and always the background, and the ways of +thinking that prevail in the background. An ancient writer is not +necessarily negligible because he records, and perhaps believes, +miracles or marvels or omens which a modern would never notice. It +is bad criticism that has made a popular legend of the unreliable +character of Herodotus. As our knowledge of antiquity grows, and we +become able to correct our early impressions, the credit of +Herodotus rises steadily, and to-day those who study him most +closely have the highest opinion of him. + +We may, then, without prejudice, take the evidence of Paul of Tarsus +on the historicity of Jesus, and examine it. If we are challenged as +to the genuineness of Paul's epistles, let us tell our questioner to +read them. Novels have been written in the form of correspondence; +but Paul's letters do not tell us all that a novelist or a forger +would--there are endless gaps, needless references to unknown +persons (needless to us, or to anybody apart from the people +themselves), constant occupation with questions which we can only +dimly discover from Paul's answers. The letters are genuine +letters--written for the occasion to particular people, and not +meant for us. The stamp of genuineness is on them--of life, real +life. The German scholar, Norden, in his Kunstprosa, says there is +much in Paul that he does not understand, but he catches in him +again after three hundred years that note of life that marks the +great literature of Greece. That is not easily forged. Luther and +Erasmus were right when they said--each of them has said it, however +it happened--that Paul "spoke pure flame." The letters, and the +theology and its influence, establish at once Paul's claim to be a +historical character. We may then ask, how a man of his ability +failed to observe that a non-historical Jesus, a pure figment, was +being palmed off on him--on a contemporary, it should be marked--and +by a combination of Jesus' own disciples with earlier friends of +Paul, who were trying to exterminate them. Paul knew priests and +Pharisees; he knew James and John and Peter; and he never detected +that they were in collusion, yes, and to the point of martyring +Stephen--to impose on him and on the world a non-historical Jesus. +To such straits are we brought, if Jesus never existed. History +becomes pure nonsense, and knowledge of historical fact impossible; +and, it may be noted, all knowledge is abolished if history is +beyond reach. + +But we are not dependent on books for our evidence of the +historicity of Jesus. The whole story of the Church implies him. He +is inwrought in every feature of its being. Every great religious +movement, of which we know, has depended on a personal impulse, and +has behind it some real, living and inspiring personality. It is +true that at a comparatively late stage of Hinduism a personal +devotion to Shri Krishna grew up, just as in the hour of decline of +the old Mediterranean paganism we find Julian the Apostate using a +devotional language to Athena at Athens that would have astonished +the contemporaries of Pericles. But Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad +stand on a very different footing from Krishna and Athena, even if +we concede the view of some scholars that Krishna was once a man, +and the contention of Euhemerus, a pre-Christian Greek, that all the +gods had once been human. If we posit that Jesus did not exist, we +shall be involved other difficulties as to the story of the Church. +Mr. F. C. Conybeare, an Oxford scholar avowedly not in allegiance to +the Christian Church, has characterized some of the reconstructions +made by contemporary anti-Christian writers as more miraculous than +the history they are trying to correct. + +We come now to the Gospels; and in what follows, and throughout the +book, we shall confine ourselves the first three Gospels. Great as +has been, and must be, the influence of the Fourth Gospel, in the +present stage of historical criticism it will serve our purpose best +to postpone the use of a source which we do not fully understand. +The exact relations of history and interpretation in the Fourth +Gospel--the methods and historical outlook of the writer--cannot yet +be said to be determined. "Only those who have merely trifled with +the problems it suggests are likely to speak dogmatically upon the +subject."[3] This is not to abandon the Fourth Gospel; for it is a +document which we could not do without in early Church History, and +which has vindicated its place in the devotional life in every +Christian generation. But, for the present, the first Three Gospels +will be our chief sources. + +The Gospels have, of course, been attacked again and again. Sober +criticism has raised the question as to whether here and there +traces may be found of the touch of a later hand--for example, were +there two asses or one, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? has the +baptismal formula at the end of Matthew been adjusted to the creed +of Nicaea? In the following pages the attempt will be made to base +what is said not on isolated texts, which may--and of course may +not--have been touched, but on the general tenor of the books. A +single episode or phrase may suffer change from a copyist's hand, +from inadvertence or from theological predilection. The character of +the Personality set forth in the Gospels is less susceptible of +alteration. + +This point is at once of importance, for the suggestion has been +made that we cannot be sure of any particular statement, episode, +incident or saying in the Gospels--taken by itself. Let us for the +moment imagine a more sweeping theory still--that no single episode +incident or saying of Jesus in the Gospels is authentic at all. What +follows? The great historian, E. A. Freeman of Oxford, once said +that a false anecdote may be good history; it may be sound evidence +for character, for, to obtain currency, a false anecdote has also to +true; it must be, in our proverbial phrase, "if not true, well +invented." Even if exaggeration and humour contribute to give it a +twist, the essence of parody is that it parodies--it must conform to +the original even where it leaves it. A good story-teller will +hardly tell the same story of Mr. Roosevelt and the Archbishop of +Canterbury--unless it happens to be true, and then he will be +cautious. "Truth," to quote another proverb, "is stranger than +fiction"; because fiction has to go warily to be probable, and must +be, more or less, conventional. The story a man invents about +another has to be true in some recognizable way to character--as a +little experiment in this direction will show. The inventor of a +story must have the gift of the caricaturist and of the bestower of +nicknames; he must have a shrewd eye for the real features of his +victim. Jesus, then, was a historical person; and about him we have +a mass of stories in the Gospels, which our theory for the moment +asks us to say are all false; but they have a certain unity of tone, +and they agree in pointing to a character of a certain type, and the +general aspects and broad outlines of that character they make +abundantly clear. Even on such a hypothesis we can know something of +the character of Jesus. But the hypothesis is gratuitous, and +absurd, as the paragraphs that follow may help to show. The Gospels +are essentially true and reliable records of a historical person. + +A survey of some of the outstanding features of the Gospels should +do something to assure their reader of their historical value. But +there is a necessary caution to be given at this moment. When +Aristotle discusses happiness, he adds a curious limitation--"as the +man of sense would define." He postulates a certain intelligence of +the matter in hand. Similarly Longinus, the greatest of ancient +critics, says that in literature sure judgement is the outcome of +long experience. In matters of historical and literary criticism, a +certain instinct is needed, conscious or unconscious, perhaps more +often the latter, which without a serious interest and a long +experience no man is likely to have. + +The Gospels are not properly biographies; they consist of +collections of reminiscences--memories and fragments that have +survived for years, and sometimes the fragment is little more than a +phrase. Such and such were the circumstances, and Jesus spoke--a +story that may occupy four or five verses, or less. Something +happened, Jesus said or did something that impressed his friends, +and they could never forget it. The story, as such impressions do, +keeps its sharp edges. Date and perhaps even place may be forgotten, +but the look and the tone of the speaker are indelible memories. In +the experience of every man there are such moments, and the +reminiscences can be trusted. The Gospels are almost avowedly not +first-hand. Peter is said to be behind Mark; Mark and at least one +other are behind Matthew and Luke. Luke in his preface explains his +methods. They are collectors and transmitters; and the +indications--are that they did their work very faithfully. There is +a simplicity and a plainness about the stories in the Gospels, which +further guarantees them. It is remarkable how little of the +adjective there is--no compliment, no eulogy, no heroic touches, no +sympathetic turn of phrase, no great passages of encomium or +commendation. It is often said about the Greek historian, +Thucydides, that, among his many intellectual judgements, he never +offers a criticism of any act that implies moral approbation or +disapprobation; that he says nothing to show that he had feelings or +that he cared about questions of right and wrong. Page after page of +Thucydides will make the reader tingle with pity or indignation; +there is hardly in literature so tragic a story as the Syracusan +expedition--and the writer did not feel! Is it not the sternest and +deepest feeling, after all, when a man will not "unpack his heart +with words"? Something of this kind we find in the Gospels. There is +not a word of condemnation for Herod or Pilate, for priest or +Pharisee; not a touch of sympathy as the nails are driven through +those hands; a blunt phrase about the soldiers, "And sitting down +they watched him there" (Matt. 26:36)--that is all. (From a literary +point of view, what a triumph of awful, quiet objectivity! and they +had no such aim.) Luke indeed has one slight touch that might be +called irony[4]--"And he released unto them him that for sedition +and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he +delivered Jesus to their will" (Luke 23:25)--and yet the irony is in +the story itself. "Why callest thou me good?" So it is recorded that +Jesus once answered a compliment (Matt. 19:17); and it looks as if +the mood had passed over to his intimates, and from them to their +friends who wrote the Gospels. He meant too much for them to seek +the facile relief of praise. The words of praise die away, yes, and +the words of affection too; and their silence and self-restraint are +in themselves evidence of their truth; and more winning than words +could have been. + +Here and there the Gospels keep a phrase actually used by Jesus, and +in his native Aramaic speech. The Greek was not apt to use or quote +foreign phrases--unlike the Englishman who "has been at a great +feast of languages and stolen the scraps." Why, then, do the +Evangelists, writing for Greek readers, keep the Aramaic sentences? +It looks like a human instinct that made Peter--if, as we are told, +he had some part in the origination of Mark's Gospel--and the rest +wish to keep the very words and tones of their Master, as most of us +would wish to keep the accents and phrases of those we love. Was +there no satisfaction to the people who had lived with Jesus, when +they read in Mark the very syllables they had heard him use, and +caught his great accents again? Is there not for Christians in every +age a joy and an inspiration in knowing the very sounds his lips +framed? The first word that his mother taught him survives in Abba +(Father)--something of his own speech to let us begin at the +beginning; something, again, that takes us to the very heart of him +at the end, in his cry: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (Mark 15:34). +Is it not true that we come nearer to him in that cry in the +language strange to us, but his own? Would not the story, again, be +poorer without the little tender phrase that he used to the daughter +of Jairus (Mark 5:41). + +From time to time we find in the Gospels matters for which the +writers and those behind them have felt that some apology or at +least some explanation was needed. His friendship for sinners was a +taunt against him in his lifetime; so was his inattention to the +Sabbath (Mark 2:24, 3:2), and the details of ceremonial washing +(Mark 7:1-5). The faithful record of these is a sound indication +both of the date[5] and of the truth of the Gospels. But these were +not all. Celsus, in 178 A.D., in his True Word, mocked at Jesus +because of the cry upon the cross; he reminded Christians that many +and many a worthless knave had endured in brave silence, and their +Great Man cried out. It was from the Gospels that his knowledge came +(Mark 15:37). Even during his lifetime the Gospels reveal much about +Jesus that in contemporary opinion would degrade him--sighs and +tears and fatigue, liability to emotion and to pain, friendship with +women. + +With these revelations of character we may group passages where +the Gospels tell of Jesus surprising or shocking his +disciples--startling them by some act or some opinion, for which +they were not prepared, or which was contrary to common belief or +practice--passages, too, where he blames or criticizes them for +conventionality or unintelligence. + +It has been remarked that the frequency and fidelity of Jesus' own +allusions to country life, his illustrations from bird and beast and +flower, and the work of the farm, are evidence for the genuineness +of the tradition. Early Christianity, as we see already in the Acts +of the Apostles, was prevailingly urban. Paul aimed at the great +centres of population, where men gathered and from which ideas +spread. The language of Paul in his epistles, the sermons inserted +by Luke in the Acts, writings that survive of early Christians, are +all in marked contrast to the speech of Jesus in this matter of +country life. When we recall the practice of ancient historians of +composing speeches for insertion in their narratives, and weigh the +suggestion that the sermons in the Acts may conceivably owe much to +the free rehandling of Luke or may even be his own compositions, +there is a fresh significance in his marked abstention from any such +treatment of the words of Jesus. It means that we may be secure in +using them as genuine and untouched reproductions of what he said +and thought. + +This leads us to another point. The central figure of the Gospels +must impress every attentive reader as at least a man of marked +personality. He has his own attitude to life, his own views of God +and man and all else, and his own language, as we shall see in the +pages that follow. So much his own are all these things that it is +hard to imagine the possibility of his being a mere literary +creation, even if we could concede a joint literary creation by +several authors writing independent works. Indeed, when we reflect +on the character of the Gospels, their origin and composition, and +then consider the sharp, strong outlines of the personality +depicted, we shall be apt to feel his claim to historicity to be +stronger than we supposed. + +Finally, two points may be mentioned. The Church from the very start +accepted the Gospels. Two of them were written by men in Paul's own +personal circle (Philemon 24; Col. 4:10, 14). All found early +acceptance and wide use,[6] and after a century we find Irenaeus +maintaining that four Gospels are necessary, and are necessarily +all--there are four points of the compass, seasons and so forth; +therefore it is appropriate that there are four Gospels. The +argument is not very convincing; but that such an argument was +possible is evidence to the position of the Gospels as we have them. +We must remember the solidarity of that early Church. The +constituency, for which the Gospels were written, was steeped in the +tradition of Jesus' life, and the Christians accepted the Gospels, +as embodying what they knew; and there were still survivors from the +first days of the Gospel. When Boswell's Life of Johnson was +published, the great painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a lifelong friend +of Johnson, said it might be depended upon as if delivered upon +oath; Burke too had a high opinion of the book. In the same way the +Gospels come recommended to us by those who knew Jesus, though, it +is true, we do not know their names. + +The Gospels do not tell us all that Christians thought of Jesus, but +they imply more than they say. The writers limited themselves. That +Luke, for years a friend of Paul's, so generally kept his great +friend's theology, above all his Christology, out of his Gospel, is +significant. It does not mean divergence of view. More reasonably we +may conclude something else: he held to his literary and other +authorities, and he was content; for he knew to what the historical +Jesus brings men--to new life and larger views, to a series of new +estimates of Jesus himself. He left it there. In what follows, we +must not forget in our study that behind the Gospels, simple and +objective as they are, is the larger experience of the ever-working +Christ. + +There are three canons which may be laid down for the study of any +human character, whether of the past or of to-day. They are so +simple that it may hardly seem worth while to have stated them; yet +they are not always very easy to apply. Without them the acutest +critic will fail to give any sound account of a human character. + +First of all, give the man's words his own meaning. Make sure that +every term he uses has the full value he intends it to carry, +connotes all he wishes it to cover, and has the full emotional power +and suggestion that it has for himself. Two quite simple +illustrations may serve. The English-born clergyman in Canada who +spoke of a meeting of his congregation as a "homely gathering" did +not produce quite the effect he intended; "home-like" is one thing +in Canada, "homely" quite another, and the people laughed at the +slip--they knew, what he did not, that "homely" meant hard-featured +and ugly. My other illustration will take us towards the second +canon. I remember, years ago, a working-man of my own city talking a +swift, impulsive Socialism to me. He was young and something of a +poet. He got in return the obvious common sense that would be +expected of a mid-Victorian, middle-aged and middle-class. And then +he began to talk of hunger--the hunger that haunted whole streets in +our city, where they had indeed something to eat every day, but +never quite enough, and the children grew up so--the hunger that he +had experienced himself, for I knew his story. With his eyes fixed +on me, he brought home to me by the quiet intensity of his +speech--whether he knew what he effected or not--that he and I gave +hunger different senses. He gave the word for me a new meaning, with +the glimpse he gave me of his experience. Since then I have always +felt, when men fling theories out like his--schemes, too, like +his--wild and impracticable: "Ah, yes! what is at the heart of it +all? What but this awful experience which they have known and you +have not--the sight of your own folk hungering, life and faculty +wasted for want of mere food, and children growing up atrophied from +the cradle"? It is not easy to dissociate the language and the terms +of others from the meaning one gives to them oneself; it means +intellectual effort and intellectual discipline, a training of a +strenuous kind in sympathy and tenderness; but if we are to be fair, +it must be done. And the rule applies to Jesus also. Have we given +his meaning to his term--force, value, emotion, and suggestion? In a +later chapter we shall have to concentrate on one term of +his--God--and try to discover what he intends that term to convey. + +The second canon is: Make sure of the experience behind the thought. +How does a man come to think and feel as he does? That is the +question antecedent to any real criticism. What is it that has led +him to such a view? It is more important for us to determine that, +than to decide at once whether we think him right or wrong. Again +and again the quiet and sympathetic study of what a man has been +through will modify our judgement upon his conclusions; it will +often change our own conclusions, or even our way of thinking. We +have, then, to ask ourselves, What is the experience that leads +Jesus to speak as he does, to think as he does? In his case, as in +every other, the central and crucial question is, What is his +experience of God? In other words, What has he found in God? what +relations has he with God? What does he expect of God? What is God +to him? Such questions, if we are candid and not too quick in +answering, will take us a long way. It was once said of a man, busy +with some labour problem, that he was "working it out in theory, +unclouded by a single fact." Is it not fair to say that many of our +current judgements upon Jesus Christ are no better founded? Can we +say that we have any real, sure, and intimate knowledge of his +experience of God? The old commentator, Bengel, wrote at the +beginning of his book that a man, who is setting out to interpret +Scripture, has to ask "by what right" he does it. What is our right +to an opinion on Jesus Christ? + +The third canon will be: Ask of what type and of what dimensions the +nature must be, that is capable of that experience and of that +language. One of the commonest sources of bad criticism is the +emphasis on weak points. The really important thing in criticism is +to understand the triumphs of the poet or painter, let us say, whom +we are studying. How came he to achieve poem or picture, so profound +and so true? In what does he differ from other men, that he should +do work so fundamental and so eternal? Lamb's punning jest at +Wordsworth--that Wordsworth was saying he could have written Hamlet, +if he had had the mind--puts the matter directly. What is the mind +that can do such things? The historian will have to ask himself a +similar question about Jesus. + +Here we reach a point where caution is necessary. Will the Jesus we +draw be an antiquary's Jesus--an archaic figure, simple and lovable +perhaps, but quaint and old-world--in blunt language, outgrown? A +Galilean peasant, dressed in the garb of his day and place, his mind +fitted out with the current ideas of his contemporaries, elevated, +it may be, but not essentially changed? A dreamer, with the clouds +of the visionaries and apocalyptists ever in his head? When we look +at the ancient world, the great men are not archaic figures. Matthew +Arnold found in Homer something of the clearness and shrewdness of +Voltaire. There is thing archaic about Plato or Virgil or Paul--to +keep abreast of their thinking is no easy task for the strongest of +our brains, so modern, eternal, and original they are. They have +shaped the thinking of the world and are still shaping it. How much +more Jesus of Nazareth! When we make our picture of him, does it +suggest the man who has stirred mankind to its depths, set the world +on fire (Luke 12:49), and played an infinitely larger part in all +the affairs of men than any man we know of in history? Is it a great +figure? Does our emphasis fall on the great features of that +nature--are they within our vision, and in our drawing? Does our +explanation of him really explain him, or leave him more a riddle? +What do we make of his originality? Is it in our picture? What was +it in him that changed Peter and James and John and the rest from +companions into worshippers, that in every age has captured and +controlled the best, the deepest, and tenderest of men? Are we +afraid that our picture will be too modern, too little Jewish? These +are not the real dangers. Again, and again our danger is that we +under-estimate the great men of our race, and we always lose by so +doing. That we should over-estimate Jesus is not a real risk; the +story of the Church shows that the danger has always been the other +way. But not to under-estimate such a figure is hard. To see him as +he is, calls for all we have of intellect, of tenderness, of love, +and of greatness. It is worth while to try to understand him even if +we fail. God, said St. Bernard, is never sought in vain, even when +we do not find Him. Jesus Christ transcends our categories and +classification; we never exhaust him; and one element of Christian +happiness is that there is always more in him than we supposed. + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + +It has been remarked as an odd thing by some readers that the +Gospels tell us so little of the childhood of Jesus. It must be +remembered, however, that they are not really biographies, even of +the ancient order--still less of that modern kind, in which the main +concern is a tracing of the psychological development of the man. +Plutarch, the prince of ancient biographers, put fact and eulogy +together, cited characteristic sayings or doings of his hero, quoted +contemporary judgements, and wove the whole into a charming +narrative, good to read, pleasant to remember, perhaps not without +use as a lesson in conventional morality; but with little real +historical criticism in it, and as little, or less, attempt at any +effective reconstruction of a character. His biography of Pericles +illustrates his method and his defects. + +The writers of the Gospels did not altogether propose biography as +their object either in the ancient or the modern style. They left +out--perhaps because it did not survive--much about the life of +Jesus that we should like to know. The treatment of Mark by Matthew +shows a certain matter-of-fact habit, which explains the obvious +want of interest in aspects of the life and mind of Jesus that would +to a modern be fascinating. They are dealing with the earthly life +of the Son of God--and they deal with it with a faithfulness to +tradition and reminiscence, which is, when we really consider it, +quite surprising. But it is the heavenward side of the Master that +mattered to them most, and it is perhaps not a mere random guess +that they were not in any case so aware of the interest of childhood +and of children as Jesus was. Matthew and Luke record the miraculous +birth, and each adds a story, that has never failed to fascinate +men, of the Magi or the Shepherds who came to the manger cradle. +Luke gives one episode of Jesus' childhood. That is all. + +The writers of the Apocryphal Gospels did their best to fill the gap +by inventing or developing stories, pretty, silly, or repellent, +which only show how little they understood the original Gospels or +the character of Jesus. + +But when we turn to the parables of Jesus, and ask ourselves how +they came to be what they are, by what process of mind he framed +them, and where he found the experience from which one and another +of them spring, it is at once clear that a number of them are +stories of domestic life, and the question suggests itself, Why +should he have gone afield for what he found at home? If we know +that he grew up in the ordinary circle of a home, and then find him +drawing familiar illustrations from the common scenes of home, the +inference is easy that he is going back to the remembered daily +round of his own boyhood. + +In stray hints the Gospels give us a little of the framework of that +boyhood in Nazareth. The elder Joseph early disappears from the +story, and we find a reference to four brothers and several sisters. +"Is not this the carpenter?" people at Nazareth asked, "the son of +Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon? and +are not his sisters here with us?" (Mark 6:3); Matthew adds a word +that may or may not be significant "his sisters are they not all +with us?" (Matt. 13:56). In ancient times a particular view of the +Incarnation, linked with other contemporary views of celibacy and +the baseness of matter, led men to discover or invent the +possibility that these brothers and sisters were either the children +of Joseph by a former wife, or the cousins of Jesus on his mother's +side.[7] That cousins in some parts of the world actually are +confused in common speech with brothers may be admitted; but to the +ordinary Greek reader "brothers" meant brothers, and "cousins" +something different. No one, not starting with the theories of St. +Jerome, let us say, on marriage and matter and the decencies of the +Incarnation, would ever dream from the Greek narrative of the +episode of the critical neighbours at Nazareth, who will not accept +Jesus as a prophet because they know his family--a delightfully +natural and absurd reason, with history written plain on the face of +it--that Jesus had no brothers, only cousins or half-brothers at +best. When History gives us brothers, and Dogma says they must be +cousins--in any other case the decision of the historian would be +clear, and so it is here. + +We have then a household--a widow with five sons and at least two, +or very likely more, daughters. Jesus is admittedly her eldest son, +and is bred to be a carpenter; and a carpenter he undoubtedly was up +to, we are told, about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). The dates of +his birth and death are not quite precisely determined, and people +have fancied he may have been rather older at the beginning of his +ministry. For our purposes it is not of much importance. The more +relevant question for us is: How came he to wait till he was at +least about thirty years old before he began to teach in public? One +suggested answer finds the impulse, or starting-point, of his +ministry in the appearance of John the Baptist. It is a simpler +inference from such data as we have that the claims of a widowed +mother with six or seven younger children, a poor woman with a +carpenter's little brood to bring up, may have had something to do +with his delay. In any case, the parables give us pictures of the +undeniable activities of the household. + +A group of parables and other allusions illustrate the life of woman +as Jesus saw it in his mother's house. He pictures two women +grinding together at the mill (Luke 17:35), and then the heating of +the oven (Matt. 6:30)--the mud oven, not unlike the "field ovens" +used for a while by the English army in France in 1915, and heated +by the burning of wood inside it, kindled with "the grass of the +field." Meanwhile the leaven is at work in the meal where the woman +hid it (Matt. 13:33), and her son sits by and watches the heaving, +panting mass--the bubbles rising and bursting, the fall of the +level, and the rising of other bubbles to burst in their turn--all +bubbles. Later on, the picture came back to him--it was like the +Kingdom of God--"all bubbles!" said the disappointed, but he saw +more clearly. The bubbles are broken by the force of the active life +at work beneath--life, not death, is the story. The Kingdom of God +is life; the leaven is of more account than any number of bubbles. +And we may link all these parables from bread--making with what he +says of the little boy asking for bread (Matt. 7:9)--the mother +fired the oven and set the leaven in the meal long before the child +was hungry; she looked ahead and the bread was ready. Is not this +written also in the teaching of Jesus--"your heavenly Father knoweth +that ye have need of all these things" (Matt. 6:32)? God, he holds, +is as little taken aback by his children's needs as Mary was by +hers, and the little boys did not did not confine their demands to +bread--they wanted eggs and fish as well (Matt. 7:10; Luke 11:11, +12; and cf. John 6:9)--there was no end to their healthy appetites. +It is significant that he mentions the price of the cheapest flesh +food used by peasants (Luke 12:6). They also wanted clothes, and +wore them as hard as boys do. The time would come when new clothes +were needed; but why could not the old ones be patched, and passed +down yet another stage? And his mother would smile--and perhaps she +asked him to try for himself to see why; and he learnt by experiment +that old clothes cannot be patched beyond a certain point, and later +on he remembered the fact, and quoted it with telling effect (Mark +2:21). He pictures little houses (Luke 11:5-7) and how they are +swept (Luke 11:25)--especially when a coin has rolled away, into a +dusty corner or under something (Luke 15:8); and candles, and +bushels (Matt. 5:15), and beds, and moth, and rust (Matt. 6:19) and +all sorts of things that make the common round of life, come into +his talk, as naturally as they did into his life. + +The carpenter's shop, we may suppose, was close to the house--a shop +where men might count on good work and honest work; and what +memories must have gathered round it! Is it fanciful to suggest that +what the churches have always been saying, about "Coming to Jesus," +began to be said in a natural and spontaneous way in that shop? +Those little brothers and sisters did not always agree, and tempers +would now and then grow very warm among them (cf. Luke 7:39). And +then the big brother came and fetched them away from the little +house to the shop, and set one of them to pick up nails, and the +other to sweep up shavings--to help the carpenter. They helped him. +Like small boys, when they help, they got in his road at every turn. +But somehow they slipped back to a jolly frame of mind. The big +brother told them stories, and they came back different people. I +can picture a day when there was a woman in the little house, weary +and heavy-laden, and the door opened, and a cheery, pleasant face +looked in, and said, "Won't you come and talk to me?" And she came +and talked with him and life became a different thing for her. Are +these pictures fanciful--mere imagination? Are we to think that all +the tenderness of Jesus came to him by a miracle when he was thirty +years of age? Must we not think it was all growing up in that house +and in that shop? Or did he never tell a story--he who tells them so +charmingly--till he wanted parables? We have to note, at the same +time, some elements of criticism of the elder brother in the family +attitude, some defect of sympathy and failure to understand him, +even if kindness prompted their action in later days (Mark 3:21, +31). + +Nazareth lies in a basin among hills, from the rim of which can be +seen to the southward the historic plain of Esdraelon, and eastward +the Jordan valley and the hills of Gilead, and westward the +Mediterranean. On great roads, north and south of the town's girdle +of hills, passed to and fro the many-coloured traffic between Egypt +and Mesopotamia and the Orient. Traders, pilgrims, Herods--"the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" (Matt. 6:8)--all within +reach, and travelling no faster as a rule than the camel cared to +go--they formed a panorama of life for a thoughtful and imaginative +boy. More than one allusion to king's clothes comes in his recorded +teaching (Matt. 6:29, 11:8), and it was here that he saw them--and +noticed them and remembered. One is struck with the amount of that +unconscious assimilation of experience which we find in his words, +and which is in itself an index to his nature. We are not expressly +told that he sought the sights that the road afforded; but it would +be hard to believe that a bright, quick boy, with genius in him, +with poetry in him, with feeling for the real and for life, never +went down on to that road, never walked alongside of the caravans +and took note of the strange people "from the east and from the +west, from the north and from the south" (Luke 13:29)--Nubians, +Egyptians, Romans, Gauls, Britons, and Orientals.[8] In the one +anecdote that survives of his boyhood, we find men "astonished at +his understanding" (Luke 2:47), his gift for putting questions, and +his comments on the answers; and all life through he had a genius +for friendship. + +When we consider how Jesus handles Nature and her wilder children in +his parables, another point attracts attention. Men vary a great +deal in this. To take two of the Old Testament prophets, we find a +marked difference here between Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Ezekiel "puts +forth a riddle and speaks a parable" about an eagle--a frankly +heraldic eagle, that plants a tree-top in a city of merchants (Ezek. +17:2-5). Jeremiah is obviously country-bred. He might have been +surprised, if he had been told how often he illustrates his thought +from bird and beast and country life--and always with a certain +life-like precision and a perfectly clear sympathy. + +In the Gospels we find again the same faithfulness to living nature, +another country-bred boy with the same love for bird and beast and +the wild, open countryside. + + The Earth + And common face of Nature spake to me + Rememberable things.[9] + +Nature is enough for Jesus as for Jeremiah; she needs no +remodelling, no heraldic paints--"long pinions of divers +colours"--she will do as she is; she is just splendid and lovable +and true as God made her; and she slides into his mind whenever he +is deeply moved. Think of all the parables he draws from Nature--the +similes, metaphors, and illustrations; every one of them will bear +examination, and means more the nearer we look into it, and the +better we know the living thing behind. The eagle, in Jesus' +sentence, plants no trees, but it has the living bird's instinct for +carrion; the ancient Greek historian and Lord Roberts at Delhi in +1858 remarked that "wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles +be gathered together" (Luke 17:37). In India that year, it was said, +they gathered from all over to Delhi. What brought them? Instinct, +we say; and we find Jesus, in that rather dark sentence, suggesting +somehow that there is an instinct which knows "where." And sheep and +cows and asses, and hens and sparrows, and red sunsets, fill men's +reminiscences of his talk; and we may safely conclude that, when +allusions are so many in fragments of conversation preserved as +these are, the man's speech and mind were attuned to the love of +bird and beast. + +Is there another teacher of those times who is at all so sure that +God loves bird and flower? The Greek poet Meleager of Gadara--not so +very far removed from Jesus in space of time--has a good deal to say +about flowers, but not at all in the same sense as Jesus, not with +any feeling such as his for the immortal hand and eye that planned +their symmetry, and their colours and sweetness. St. Paul is +conspicuously a man of the town--"a citizen of no mean city" (Acts +21:39), and he dismisses the animals abruptly (1 Cor. 9:9); he has +hardly an allusion to the familiar and homely aspects of Nature, so +frequent and so pleasant in the speech of Jesus. He finds Nature, if +not quite "red in tooth and claw", yet groaning together, subject to +vanity, in bondage to corruption, travailing in pain, looking +forward in a sort of desperate hope to a freedom not yet realized +(Rom. 8:19-24). Nature is far less tragic for Jesus, far +happier--perhaps because he knew nature on closer terms of intimacy; +Nature, as he portrays things, is in nearer touch with the Heavenly +Father than we should guess from Paul[10], and there is no hint in +his recorded words that he held the ground to be under a curse. If +we are to use abstract terms and philosophize his thought a little, +we may agree that the four facts Jesus notes in Nature are its +mystery, its regularity, its impartiality, and its peacefulness[11]. +What he finds in Nature is not unlike what Wordsworth also finds-- + + A Power + That is the visible quality and shape + And image of right reason; that matures + Her processes by steadfast laws; gives birth + To no impatient or fallacious hopes, + No heat of passion or excessive zeal, + No vain conceits; provokes to no quick turns + Of self-applauding intellect; but trains + To meekness, and exalts by humble faith; + Holds up before the mind intoxicate + With present objects, and the busy dance + Of things that pass away, a temperate show + Of objects that endure?[12] + +This is not a passage that one could imagine the historical Jesus +speaking, or, still less, writing; but the essential ideas chime in +with his observation and his attitude "for the earth bringeth forth +fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full +corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). Man can count safely on earth's +co-operation. From it all, and in it all, Jesus read deep into God's +mind and methods. + +It has often been remarked how apt Jesus was to go away to pray +alone in the desert or on the hillside, in the night or the early +dawn--probably no new habit induced by the crowded days of his +ministry, but an old way of his from youth. The full house, perhaps, +would prompt it, apart from what he found in the open. St. +Augustine, in a very appealing confession, tells us how his prayers +may be disturbed if he catch sight of a lizard snapping up flies on +the wall of his room (Conf., 10:35, 57). The bird flying to her +nest, the fox creeping to his hole (Luke 9:58)--did these break into +the prayers of Jesus--and with what effect? Was it in such hours +that he learnt his deepest lessons from the birds and the lilies of +the field? Why not? As he sat out in the wild under the open sky, +did the stars never speak to him, as to Hebrew psalmist and Roman +Virgil? + + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; + What is man, that thou art mindful of him? + And the son of man, that thou visitest him? + (Psalm 8:3-4.) + +It is a question men have to meet and face; and if we can trust +Matthew's statement, an utterance of his in later years called out +by the sneer of a Pharisee, shows how he had made the old poet's +answer his own:-- + + Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise + (Matt. 21:16). + +If this were a solitary utterance of his thought upon Nature, it +might be ranked with one or two pointed citations he made of the +letter of the Old Testament; but it is safe, perhaps, to take it as +one of many indications of his communion with God in Nature. The +wind blowing in the night where it listed--must we authenticate +every verse of the Fourth Gospel before we believe that he listened +to it also and caught something? At any rate, in later years, when +his friends are over-driven and weary, quiet and open-air in a +desert place are what he prescribes for them and wishes to share +with them--surely a hint of old experience (Mark 6:31). + +But now let us turn back to Nazareth, for, as the Gospel reminds us, +there he grew up. "The city teaches the man," said the old Greek +poet Simonides; and it does, as we see, and more than we sometimes +realize. Jesus grew up in an Oriental town, in the middle of its +life--a town with poor houses, bad smells, and worse stories, +tragedies of widow and prodigal son, of unjust judge and grasping +publican--yes, and comedies too. We know at once from general +knowledge of Jewish life and custom, and from the recorded fact that +he read the Scriptures, that he went to school; and we could guess, +fairly safely, that he played with his school-fellows, even if he +had not told us what the games were at which they played:-- + + At weddings and at funerals, + As if his life's vocation + Were endless imitation. + +Sometimes the children were sulky and would not play (Luke 7:32). +How strange, and how delightful, that the great Gospel, full of +God's word for mankind, should have a little corner in it for such +reminiscences of children's games! We cannot suppose that he had +access to many books, but he knew the Old Testament, well and +familiarly--better and more aptly than some people expected. Traces +of other books have been found in his teaching, not many and some of +them doubtful. Generally one would conclude that, apart from the Old +Testament, his education was not very bookish--he found it in home +and shop, in the desert, on the road, and in the market-place. + +It is interesting to gather from the Gospel what Jesus says of the +talk of men, and it is surprising to find how much it is, till we +realize how very much in ancient times the city was the education, +and the market-place the school, where some of the most abiding +lessons were learnt. Is it not so still in the East? Here was a boy, +however, who watched men and their words more closely than they +guessed, on whose ears words fell, not as old coinages, but as new +minting, with the marks of thought still rough and bright on +them--indexes to the speaker. + +Proverbs of the market every people has of its own. "It is nought, +it is nought, saith the buyer, but, after he is gone his way, then +he boasteth." And the seller has all the variants of caveat emptor +ready to retort. In antiquity, and in the East to-day, apart from +machine-made things, we find the same uncertainty in most +transactions as to the value of the article, the same eagerness of +both seller and buyer to get at the supposed special knowledge of +the other, and the same preliminary skirmish of proposal, protest, +offer, refusal, and oath. Jesus stands by the stall, watching some +small sale with the bright, earnest eyes which we find so often in +the Gospels. The buyer swears "on his head" that he will not give +more than so much; then, "by the altar" he won't get the thing. "By +the earth" it isn't worth it; "by the heaven" the seller gave that +for it. So the battle rages, and at last the bargain is struck. The +buyer raises his price; the seller takes less than he gave for the +thing; neither has believed the other, but each, as the keen eyes of +the onlooker see, feels he has over-reached the other. Heaven has +been invoked--and what is Heaven? As the words fell on the +listener's ears, he saw the throne of God, and on it One before +whose face Heaven itself and earth will flee away--and be brought +back again for judgement. And by Heaven, and by Him who sits on the +Throne, men will swear falsely for an "anna" or two. How can they? +It is because "nothings grow something"; the words make a mist about +the thing. In later days Jesus told his followers to swear not at +all--to stick to Yes and No. + +Then a leader in the religious world passes, and the loiterers have +a new interest for the moment. "Rabbi, Rabbi," they say, and the +great man moves onward, obviously pleased with the greeting in the +marketplace (Matt. 23:7). As soon as he is out of hearing, it is no +longer "Rabbi" he is called; talk turns to another tune. How little +the fine word meant! How lightly the title was given! Worse still, +the title will stand between a man and the facts of life. Some will +use it to deceive him; others, impressed by it, are silent in his +presence; one way and another, the facts are kept from him. Seeing, +he sees not, and he comes to live in an unreal world. How many men +to-day will say what they really think before a man in clerical +dress, or a dignitary however trivial? "Be not ye called 'Rabbi,'" +was the counsel Jesus gave to his followers, and he would accept +neither "Rabbi," nor "Good Master," nor any other title till he saw +how much it meant. "Master!" they said, "we know that thou art true, +and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any +man; for thou regardest not the person of men" (Matt. 22:16). But as +the evangelist continues, Jesus "perceived their wickedness"--he had +heard such things before and was not trapped. "Hosanna in the +highest!" (Mark 11:10)--strange to think of the quiet figure, riding +in the midst of the excited crowd, open-eyed and undeceived in his +hour of "triumph"--as little perturbed, too, when his name is cast +out as evil. How little men's praise and their blame matter, when +your eyes are fixed on God--when you have Him and His facts to be +your inspiration! On the other hand, when you have not contact with +God, how much men's talk counts, and how easy it is to lose all +sense of fact! + +By and by the talk veers round to what Pilate had done one to the +Galileans--if the dates fit, or if for the moment we can make them +fit, or anticipate once for all, and be done with the bazaar talk +which never stopped. Pilate had killed the Galileans when they went +up to Jerusalem--yes! mingled their own blood, you might say, with +the blood of their sacrifices (Luke 13:1). What would he do next? +There was no telling. What was needed--some time--it was bound to +come--and the voice sank--a Theudas, or a Judas again (Acts 5:36, +37)--it would not be surprising. ... There were no newspapers, no +approved and reliable sources of news such as we boast to have from +our governments and millionaires; all was rumour, bazaar talk--"Lo! +here!" and "Lo! there!" (Mark 13:21). "Prohibiti sermones ideoque +plures", said Tacitus of Rome--rumours were forbidden, so there were +more of them. The Messiah _must_ come some time, said one man who +might be a friend of the Zealots. In any case, reflected another, +those Galileans had probably angered Heaven and got their deserts; +ill luck like that could hardly come by accident; think of the tower +that fell at Siloam--anybody could see there was a judgement in it. +Might it not be said that God had discredited John the Baptist, now +his head was taken off? So men speculated (cf. John 9:2). Jesus saw +through all this, and was radiantly clear about it. + +So they chattered, and he heard. Then the talk took another turn, +and tales were told--bad eyes flashed and lips smacked, as one +story-teller eclipsed the other in the familiar vein. The Arabian +Nights are tales of the crowd, it is said, rather than literature in +their origin, and will give clues enough to what might be told. +Jesus heard, and he saw what it meant; and afterwards he told his +friends: "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil +thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders ... foolishness; all +these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark +7:21-23). The evil thought takes shape to find utterance, and gains +thereby a new vitality, a new power for evil, and may haunt both +speaker and listener for ever with its defiling memory. + +By and by he intervened and spoke himself. Every one was shocked, +and said, "Blasphemy!" They were not used to think of God as he did, +and it seemed improper. + +Then the whole question of human speech rises for him. What did they +mean by their words? What could their minds be like? God dragged in +and flung about like a counter, in a game of barter--but if you +speak real meaning about God it is blasphemy. "Rabbi, Rabbi" to the +great man's face--he turns his back--and his name is smirched for +ever by a witty improvisation. Why? Why should men do such things? +The magic in the idle tale--ten minutes, and the memory is stained +for ever with what not one of them would forget, however he might +wish to try to forget. The words are loose and idle, careless, flung +out without purpose but to pass the moment--and they live for ever +and work mischief. How can they be so light and yet have such power? + +Later on he told his friends what he had seen in this matter of +words. They come from within, and the speaker's whole personality, +false or true, is behind what he says--the good or bad treasure of +his heart. There are no grapes growing on the bramble bush. No +wonder that of every idle word men shall give account on the day of +Judgement (Matt. 12:36). The idle word--the word unstudied--comes +straight from the inmost man, the spontaneous overflow from the +spirit within, natural and inevitable, proof of his quality; and +they react with the life that brought them forth.[13] + +So he grows up--in a real world and among real people. He goes to +school with the boys of his own age, and lives at home with mother +and brothers and sisters. He reads the Old Testament, and forms a +habit of going to the Synagogue (Luke 4:16). All points to a home +where religion was real. The first word he learnt to say was +probably "Abba", and it struck the keynote of his thoughts. But he +knew the world without as well,--turned on to it early the keen eyes +that saw all, and he recognized what he saw. Knowledge of men, but +without cynicism, a loving heart still in spite of his freedom from +illusions--these are among the gifts that his environment gave him, +or failed to take away from him. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN AND HIS MIND + +It is a commonplace with those who take literature seriously that +what is to reach the heart must come from the heart; and the maxim +may be applied conversely--that what has reached a heart has come +from a heart--that what continues to reach the heart, among strange +peoples, in distant lands, after long ages, has come from a heart of +no common make. The Anglo-Saxon boy is at home in the Odyssey; and +when he is a man--if he has the luck to be guided into classical +paths--he finds himself in the Aeneid; and from this certain things +are deduced about the makers of those poems--that they knew life, +looked on it with bright, keen eyes, loved it, and lived it over +again as they shaped it into verse. + +When we turn to the first three Gospels, we find the same thing. +Here are books with a more worldwide range than Homer or Virgil, +translated again and again from the first century of their existence +on to the latest--and then more than ever--into all sorts of +tongues, to reach men all over the globe; and that purpose they have +achieved. They have done it not so much for the literary graces of +the translators or even of the original authors, though in one case +these are more considerable than is sometimes allowed. That the +Gospels owe their appeal to the recorded sayings and doings of our +Lord, is our natural way of putting it to-day; but if for "our Lord" +we put a plainer description, more congenial to the day in which the +Gospels were written, we shall be in a better position to realize +the significance of the worldwide appeal of his words. Thus and +thus, then, spoke a mere provincial, a Jew who, though far less +conspicuous and interesting, came from the region of Meleager and +Philodemos--not from their town of Gadara, nor possibly from their +district, but from some place not so very far away. + +It was not to be expected that he should win the hearts of men as he +did. He had not the Greek culture of the two Gadarenes. Celsus even +found his style of speech rather vulgar. But he has, as a matter of +common knowledge--so common as hardly to be noted--won the hearts of +men in every race and every land. The fact is familiar, but we have +as historians and critics to look for the explanation. What has been +his appeal? And what the heart and nature, from which came this +incredible power and reach of appeal? "Out of the abundance (the +overflow) of the heart the mouth speaketh," he said. (Matt. 12:34). +This he amplified, as we have seen, by his insistence on the weight +of every idle word (Matt. 12:36)--the unstudied and spontaneous +expression or ejaculation--the reflex, in modern phrase--which gives +the real clue to the man's inner nature and deeper mind, which +"justifies" him, therefore, or "condemns" him (Matt. 12:37). The +overflow of the heart, he holds, shows more decisively than anything +else the quality of the spring in its depths. + +Here is a suggestion which we find true in ordinary life as well as +in the study of literature. If we turn it back upon its author, he +at least will not complain, and we shall perhaps gain a new sense of +his significance by approaching him at a new angle, from an outlook +not perhaps much frequented. How did he come to speak in this +manner, to say this and that? To what feeling or thought, to what +attitude to life, is this or the other saying due? If he, too, spoke +"out of the overflow of his heart"--and we can believe it when we +think of the freshness and spontaneity with which he spoke--of what +nature and of what depth was that heart? + +We can very well believe that much in his speech that was +unforgettable to others, he forgot himself. They remembered, they +could not help remembering, what he said; but he--no! he said it and +moved on, keeping no register of his sayings; and so much the more +natural and characteristic they are. Nor would he, like smaller +people, be very careful of the form and turn of his speech; it was +never set. Certainly he gave his followers the rule not to study +their language (Mark 13:11). Whether or no he had consciously +thought it all out; we can see the value of his rule, and how it +fits in with his way of life and safeguards it. Under such a rule +speech will not be stereotyped; no set form of words will impose +itself on the free movement of thought, the mind can and will move +of itself unhampered; and when the mind keeps and develops such +freedom of movement, it commonly breaks new ground and handles new +things. Not to be careful of our speech means for most of us +slovenly thinking; but when a man thinks in earnest and takes truth +seriously, when he speaks with his eye on his object, his language +will not be slovenly, his instinct for fact will keep his speech +pure and true. This is what we find in the sayings of Jesus; there +is form, but living form, the freedom and grace which the clear mind +and the friendly eye communicate insensibly and inimitably to +language. + +Our task in this chapter is primarily a historical one. From the +words of Jesus we have to work back to the type of mind from which +they come. There is always danger in such a task. We may forget the +wide and living variety of the mind we study; our own minds may not +be large enough, nor tender enough, not various, quick and +sympathetic in such a degree as to apprehend what we find, to see +what it means, and to relate it to itself, detail to whole. How much +greater the danger here! While we analyse, we have to remember that +the most correct analysis of features or characteristics may easily +fail to give us a true idea of the face or the character which we +analyse. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. The face and +the character have an "integrity," a wholeness. The detail may be of +immense value to us, studied as detail; but for the true view the +detail, familiar as it may be to us, and dear to us, must be sunk in +the general view. Especially is this true of great characters. The +"reconstruction of a personality"--to borrow a phrase from some +psychologists--is a very difficult matter, even when we are masters +of our detail. There is a proportion, a perspective, a balance, a +poise about a character--my terms may involve some mixture of +metaphors, but if the mixture brings out the complexity and +difficulty of our task, it will be justified. Above all there is +life, and as a life deepens and widens, it grows complex, +unintelligible, and wonderful. It is more so than ever in the case +of Jesus. Yet we have to grapple with this great task, if we are to +know him, even if here as elsewhere we realize quickly that the +beginning of real knowledge is when we grasp how much we do not +know, how much there is to know. Attempted in this spirit, a study +of the mind of Jesus and his characteristics should help us forward +to some further intimacy with him. + +The Gospels do not, like some biographies ancient and modern, give a +place to the physical characteristics of Jesus. Suetonius in a very +short sketch adds the personal aspect of the poet Horace, who, it is +true, had led the way by such allusions (Epist. i. 4, 15-16), and +tells us how Augustus said he was "a squat little pot" (sessilis +obba). The "Acts of Thekla" in a similar way describe St. Paul's +short figure with its suggestion of quickness. But the only personal +traits of this sort that I recall in the New Testament are the eyes +of Jesus and Paul's way of stretching out a hand when he spoke. In +view of this reticence, it is rather remarkable how often the +Gospels refer to Jesus "looking." He "looked round about on" the +people in the Synagogue, and then--with some suggestion of a pause +and silence while he looked, "he saith unto the man" (Mark 3:5). +When Peter deprecated the Cross, we find the same; "when he had +turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter" (Mark +8:33). When the rich young ruler came so impulsively to him to ask +him about eternal life, Jesus, "looking upon him, loved him"--and we +touch there a certain reminiscence of eye-witnesses (Mark 10:21). +There are other references of the same kind in the narratives--the +look seems to come into the story naturally, without the writers +noticing it. There must have been much else as familiar to his +friends and companions. They must have known him as we know our +friends--the inflections of his voice, his characteristic movements, +the hang of his clothes, his step in the dark, and all such things. +Did he speak quickly or slowly? or move his hand when he spoke? The +teaching posture of Buddha's hand is stereotyped in his images. We +are not told such things about Jesus, and guessing does not take us +very far. Yet a stanza in one of the elegies written on the death of +Sir Philip Sidney may be taken as a far-away likeness of a greater +and more wonderful figure--and not lead us very far astray:-- + + A sweet, attractive kind of grace; + The full assurance given by looks; + Perpetual comfort in a face; + The lineaments of Gospel books. + +If we are not explicitly told of such things by the evangelists, +they are easily felt in the story. The "paradoxes," as we call +them--a rather dull name for them--surely point to a face alive with +intellect and gaiety. The way in which, for instance, the leper +approaches him, implies the man's eyes fixed in close study on +Jesus' face, and finding nothing there to check him and everything +to bring him nearer (Mark 1:41). When Mark tells us that he greeted +the Syro-Phoenician woman's sally about the little dogs eating the +children's crumbs under the table with the reply, "For the sake of +this saying of yours ...," we must assume some change of expression +on such a face as that of Jesus (Mark 7:29). + +We read again and again of the interest men and women found in his +preaching and teaching--how they hung on him to hear him, how they +came in crowds, how on one occasion they drove him into a boat for a +pulpit. It is only familiarity that has blinded us to the "charm" +they found in his speech--"they marvelled at his words of charm" +(Luke 4:22)--to the gaiety and playfulness that light up his +lessons. For instance, there is a little-noticed phrase, that grows +very delightful as we study it, in his words to the seventy +disciples--"Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this +house (the common "salaam" of the East); and if a son of peace be +there, your peace shall rest upon it; if not, your "salaam" will +come back to _you_" (Luke 10:6). "A son of peace"--not _the_ son of +peace--what a beautiful expression; what a beautiful idea too, that +the unheeded Peace! comes back and blesses the heart that wished it, +as if courteous and kind words never went unrewarded! Think again of +"Solomon in all his glory" (Matt. 6:29)--before the phrase was +hackneyed by common quotation. Do not such words reveal nature? + +A more elaborate and more amusing episode is that of the Pharisee's +drinking operations. We are shown the man polishing his cup, +elaborately and carefully; for he lays great importance on the +cleanness of his cup; but he forgets to clean the inside. Most +people drink from the inside, but the Pharisee forgot it, dirty as +it was, and left it untouched. Then he sets about straining what he +is going to drink--another elaborate process; he holds a piece of +muslin over the cup and pours with care; he pauses--he sees a +mosquito; he has caught it in time and flicks it away; he is safe +and he will not swallow it. And then, adds Jesus, he swallowed a +camel. How many of us have ever pictured the process, and the series +of sensations, as the long hairy neck slid down the throat of the +Pharisee--all that amplitude of loose-hung anatomy--the hump--two +humps--both of them slid down--and he never noticed--and the +legs--all of them--with whole outfit of knees and big padded feet. +The Pharisee swallowed a camel--and never noticed it (Matt. 23:24, +25). It is the mixture of sheer realism with absurdity that makes +the irony and gives it its force. Did no one smile as the story was +told? Did no one see the scene pictured with his own mind's eye--no +one grasp the humour and the irony with delight? Could any one, on +the other hand, forget it? A modern teacher would have said, in our +jargon, that the Pharisee had no sense of proportion--and no one +would have thought the remark worth remembering. But Jesus' +treatment of the subject reveals his own mind in quite a number of +aspects. + +When he bade turn the other cheek--that sentence which Celsus found +so vulgar--did no one smile, then, at the idea of anybody ever +dreaming of such an act (Matt. 5:39)? Nor at the picture of the kind +brother taking a mote from his brother's eye, with a whole baulk of +timber in his own (Matt. 7:5)? Nor at the suggestion of doing two +miles of forced labour when only one was demanded (Matt. 5:41)? Nor +when he suggested that anxiety about food and clothing was a mark of +the Gentiles (Matt. 6:32)? Did none of his disciples mark a touch of +irony when he said that among the Gentile dynasties the kings who +exercise authority are called "Benefactors" (Luke 22:25)? It was +true; Euergetes is a well-known kingly title, but the explanation +that it was the reward for strenuous use of monarchic authority was +new. Are we to think his face gave no sign of what he was doing? Was +there no smile? + +We are told by his biographer that Marcus Aurelius had a face that +never changed--for joy or sorrow, "being an adherent," he adds, "of +the Stoic philosophy." The pose of superiority to emotion was not +uncommonly held in those times to be the mark of a sage--Horace's +"nil admirari". The writers of the Gospels do not conceal that Jesus +had feelings, and expressed them. We read how he "rejoiced in +spirit" (Luke 10:21)--how he "sighed" (Mark 7:34) and "sighed +deeply" (Mark 8:12)--how his look showed "anger" (Mark 3:5). They +tell us of his indignant utterances (Matt. 23:14; Mark 11:17)--of +his quick sensitiveness to a purposeful touch (Mark 5:30)--of his +fatigue (Mark 7:24; Luke 8:23)--of his instant response, as we have +just seen, to contact with such interesting spirits as the +Syro-Phoenician woman and the rich young ruler. Above all, we find +him again and again "moved with compassion." We saw the leper +approach him, with eyes fixed on the face of Jesus. The man's +appeal--"If thou wilt thou canst make me clean"--his misery moves +Jesus; he reaches out his hand, and, with no thought for contagion +or danger, he touches the leper--so deep was the wave of pity that +swept through him--and he heals the man (Mark 1:40-42). It would +almost seem as if the touching impressed the spectators as much as +the healing. Compassion is an old-fashioned word, and sympathy has a +wide range of suggestions, some of them by now a little cold; we +have to realize, if we can, how deeply and genuinely Jesus felt with +men, how keen his feeling was for their suffering and for their +hunger, and at the same moment reflect how strong and solid a nature +it is that is so profoundly moved. Again, when we read of his happy +way in dealing with children, are we to draw no inference as to his +face, and what it told the children? Finally, on this part of our +subject, we are given glimpses of his dark hours. The writer to the +Hebrews speaks of his "offering up prayers and supplications with +strong crying and tears" and "learning obedience by the things that +he suffered" (Heb. 5:7, 8), and Luke, perhaps dealing with the same +occasion, says he was "in agony" (Luke 22:44), a strong phrase from +a man of medical training. Luke again, with the other evangelists, +refers to the temptations of Jesus, and in a later passage records +the poignant and revealing sentence--"Ye are they that have +continued with me in my temptations" (Luke 22:28). Finally, there is +the last cry upon the Cross (Mark 15:37). So frankly, and yet so +unobtrusively, they lay bare his soul, as far as they saw it. + +From what is given us it is possible to go further and see something +of his habits of mind. His thought will occupy us in later chapters; +here we are concerned rather with the way in which his mind moves, +and the characteristics of his thinking. + +First of all, we note a certain swiftness, a quick realization of a +situation, a character, or the meaning of a word. Men try to trap +him with a question, and he instantly "recognizes their trickery" +(Luke 20:23). When they ask for a sign, he is as quick to see what +they have in mind (Mark 8:11-13). He catches the word whispered to +Jairus--half hears, half divines it, in an instant (Mark 5:36). He +is surprised at slowness of mind in other men (Matt. 15:16; Mark +8:21). And in other things he is as quick--he sees "the kingdoms of +this world in a moment of time" (Luke 4:5); he beholds "Satan fallen +(aorist participle) from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18)--two +very striking passages, which illuminate his mind for us in a very +important phase of it. We ought to have been able to guess without +them that he saw things instantly and in a flash--that they stood +out for him in outline and colour and movement there and then. That +is plain in the parables from nature, and here it is confirmed. Is +there in all his parables a blurred picture, the edges dim or the +focus wrong? The tone of the parables is due largely to this gift of +visualizing, to use an ugly modern word, and of doing it with +swiftness and precision. + +Several things combine to make this faculty, or at least go along +with it--a combination not very common even among men of genius--an +unusual sense of fact, a very keen and vivid sympathy, and a gift of +bringing imagination to bear on the fact in the moment of its +discovery, and afterwards in his treatment of the fact. + +On his sense of fact we have touched before, in dealing with his +close observation of Nature. It is an observation that needs no +note-book, that is hardly conscious of itself. There is, as we know, +a happy type of person who sees almost without looking, certainly +without noticing--and sees aright too. The temperament is described +by Wordsworth in the opening books of "The Prelude". The poet type +seems to lose so much and yet constantly surprises us by what it has +captured, and sometimes hardly itself realizes how much has been +done. The gains are not registered, but they are real and they are +never lost, and come flashing out all unexpectedly when the note is +struck that calls them. So one feels it was with Jesus' intimate +knowledge of Nature--it is not the knowledge of botanist or +naturalist, but that of the inmate and the companion, who by long +intimacy comes to know far more than he dreams. "Wise master +mariners," wrote the Greek poet, Pindar, long before, "know the wind +that shall blow on the third day, and are not wrecked for headlong +greed of gain." They know the weather, as we say, by instinct; and +instinct is the outcome of intimacy, of observation accurate but +sub-conscious. + +It chimes in with this instinct for fact, that Jesus should lay so +much emphasis on truth of word and truth of thought. Any hypocrisy +is a leaven (Matt. 16:19; Luke 12:1); any system of two standards of +truth spoils the mind (Matt. 5:33-37). The divided mind fails +because it is not for one thing or the other. If it is impossible to +serve God and mammon, truth and God go together in one allegiance; +and a non-Theocentric element in a man's thought will be fatal +sooner or later to any aptitude he has by nature for God and truth. + +We find this illustrated in Jesus' own case. At the heart of his +instinct for fact is his instinct for God. He goes to the permanent +and eternal at once in his quest of fact, because his instinct for +God is so sure and so compelling. Bishop Phillips Brooks noted in +Jesus' conversation "a constant progress from the arbitrary and +special to the essential and universal forms of thought," "a true +freedom from fastidiousness," "a singular largeness" in his +intellectual life. The small question is answered in the +larger--"the life is more than meat and the body is more than +raiment" (Luke 12:23). When he is challenged on divorce, he goes +past Moses to God (Matt. 19:4)--"He which made them at the beginning +made them male and female." Every question is settled for him by +reference to God, and to God's principles of action and to God's +laws and commands; and God, as we shall see in a later chapter, is +not for him a conception borrowed from others, a quotation from a +book. God is real, living, and personal; and all his teaching is +directed to drive his disciples into the real; he insists on the +open mind, the study of fact, the fresh, keen eye turned on the +actual doings of God. + +When life and thought have such a centre, a simplicity and an +integrity follow beyond what we might readily guess. "When thine eye +is single, thy whole body also is full of light, ... if thy whole +body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole +shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth +give thee light" (Luke 11:34-36). It is this fullness of light that +we find in Jesus; and as the light plays on one object and another, +how clear and simple everything grows! All round about him was +subtlety, cleverness, fastidiousness. His speech is lucid, drives +straight to the centre, to the principle, and is intelligible. We +may not see how far his word carries us, but it is abundantly plain +that simple and straightforward people do understand Jesus--not all +at once, but sufficiently for the moment, and with a sense that +there is more beyond. His thought is uncomplicated by distinctions +due to tradition and its accidents. His whole attitude to life is +simple--he has no taboos; he comes "eating and drinking" (Matt. +11:19); and he told his followers, when he sent them out to preach, +to eat what they were given (Luke 10:7); "give alms," he says, "of +such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you" +(Luke 11:41). If God gives the food, it will probably be clean; and +the old taboos will be mere tradition of men. He is not interested +in what men call "signs," in the exceptional thing; the ordinary +suffices when one sees God in it. One of Jesus' great lessons is to +get men to look for God in the commonplace things of which God makes +so many, as if Abraham Lincoln were right and God did make so many +common people, because he likes them best. The commonest +flowers--God thinks them out, says Jesus, and takes care of them +(Matt. 6:28-30). Hence there is little need of special machinery for +contact with God--priesthoods, trances, visions, or mystical +states--abnormal means for contact with the normal. When Jesus +speaks of the very highest and holiest things, he is as simple and +natural as when he is making a table in the carpenter-shop. Sense +and sanity are the marks of his religion. + +"Sense of fact" is a phrase which does not exclude--perhaps it even +suggests--some hint of dullness. The matter-of-fact people are +valuable in their way, but rarely illuminative, and it is because +they lack the imagination that means sympathy. Now in Jesus' case +there is a quickness and vividness of sympathy--he likes the birds +and flowers and beasts he uses as illustrations. They are not the +"natural objects" with which dull people try to brighten their pages +and discourses. They are happy living things that come to his mind, +as it were, of themselves, because, shall we say? they know they +will be welcome there; and they are welcome. His pity and sympathy +are unlike ours in having so much more intelligence and +fellow-feeling in them. He understands men and women, as his gift of +bright and winning speech shows. After all, as Carlyle has pointed +out in many places, it is this gift of tenderness and understanding, +of sympathy, that gives the measure of our intellects.[14] It is the +faculty by which men touch fact and master it. It is the want of it +that makes so many clever and ingenious people so futile and +distressing. + +The sense of fact and the gift for sympathy and the foundations, so +to speak, of the imagination which gives their quality to the +stories and pictures of Jesus. He thinks in pictures, as it were; +they fill his speech, and every one of them is alive and real. +Think, for example, of the Light of the world (Matt. 5:14), the +strait gate and the narrow way (Matt. 7:14), the pictures of the +bridegroom (Mark 2:19), sower (Matt. 13:3), pearl merchant (Matt. +13:45), and the men with the net (Matt. 13:47), the sheep among the +wolves (Matt. 10:16), the woman sweeping the house (Luke 15:8), the +debtor going to prison accompanied by his creditor and the officer +with the judge's warrant (Luke 12:58), the shepherd separating his +sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32), the children playing in the +market-place pretending to pipe or to mourn (Luke 7:32), the fall of +the house (Matt. 7:27)--or the ironical pictures of the blind +leading the blind straight for the ditch (Matt. 15:14), the +vintagers taking their baskets to the bramble bushes (Matt. 7:16), +the candle burning away brightly under the bushel (Matt. 5:15; Luke +11:33), the offering of pearls to the pigs (Matt. 7:6)--or his +descriptions of what lay before himself as a cup and a baptism (Mark +10:38), and of his task as the setting fire to the world (Luke +12:49). There is a truthfulness and a living energy about all these +pictures--not least about those touched with irony. + +There are, however, pictures less realistic and more +imaginative--one or two of them, in the language of the fireside, +quite "creepy." Here is a house--a neat, trim little house--and for +the English reader there is of course a garden or a field round it, +and a wood beyond. Out of the wood comes something--stealthily +creeping up towards the house--something not easy to make out, but +weary and travel-stained and dusty--and evil. A strange feeling +comes over one as one watches--it is evil, one is certain of it. +Nearer and nearer to the house it creeps--it is by the window--it +rises to look in, and one shudders to think of those inside who +suddenly see _that_ looking at them through the window. But there is +no one there. Fatigue changes to triumph; caution is dropped; it +goes and returns with seven worse than itself, and the last state of +the place is worse than the first (Luke 11:24-26). Is this leaving +the real? One critic will say it is, "No," says another man, in a +graver tone and speaking slowly, "it's real enough; it's my story." +But have we left the text too far? Then let us try another passage. +Here is a funeral procession, a bier with a dead man laid out on it, +"wrapped in a linen cloth" (Matt. 27:59), "bound hand and foot with +grave-clothes" (John 11:44)--a common enough sight in the East; but +who are they who are carrying him--those silent, awful figures, +bound like him hand and foot, and wound with the same linen cloth, +moving swiftly and steadily along with their burden? It is the dead +burying the dead (Luke 9:60). Add to these the account of the three +Temptations--stories in picture, which must come from Jesus himself, +and illustrate another side of his experience. For to the mind that +sees and thinks in pictures, temptation comes in pictures which the +mind makes for itself, or has presented to it and at once lights +up--pictures horrible and once seen hard to forget and to escape. No +wonder he warns men against the pictures they paint themselves in +their minds (Matt. 5:28; cf. Chapter VII, p. 154). Add also the +other pictures of Satan fallen (Luke 10:18) and Satan pushing into +God's presence with a demand for the disciples (Luke 22:31). Are we +to call these "visions"--the word is ambiguous--or are they +imaginative presentments of evil, as it thrusts itself on the soul, +with all its allurements and all its ugliness? "Visions" in the +sense that is associated with trance, we shall hardly call them. +They are pictures showing his gift of imagination. + +Lastly, on this part of our subject, let us remind ourselves of the +many parables and pictures and sayings which put God himself before +us. Here is the bird's nest, and one little sparrow fallen to the +ground--and God is there and he takes notice of it; he misses the +little bird from the brood (Matt. 10:29; cf. Luke 12:6). Here again +is quite another scene--the rich and middle-aged man, who has +prospered in everything and is just completing his plans to retire +from business, when he feels a tap on his shoulder and hears a voice +speaking to him, and he turns and is face to face with God (Luke +12:20). And there are all the other stories of God's goodness and +kindness and care; is not the very phrase "Our Father in heaven" a +picture in itself, if we can manage to give the word the value which +Jesus meant it to carry? When one studies the teaching of Jesus, and +concentrates on what he draws us of God, God somehow becomes real +and delightful, in a most wonderful way. + +With all these faculties brought to bear on all he thinks, and +lucent in all he says, there is little wonder that men recognized +another note in Jesus from that familiar in their usual teachers. +Rabbi Eliezer of those times was praised as "a well-trough that +loses not a drop of water." We all know that type of teacher--the +tank-mind, full, no doubt, supplied by pipes, and ministering its +gifts by pipe and tap, regulated, tiresome, and dead. "The water +that I shall give him," days Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (John 4:14), +"shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting +life." The water metaphors of the New Testament are not of trough +and tank. Jesus taught men--not from a reservoir of quotations, like +a scribe or a Rabbi, "but as possessed of authority himself" (Matt. +7:29). Who gave him that authority? asked the priests (Matt. 21:23)? +Who authorizes the living man to live? "All things are delivered +unto me of my Father" (Matt. 11:27). "My words shall not pass away" +(Mark 13:31). + +He has proved right; his words have not passed away. The great "Son +of Fact," he went to fact, drove his disciples to fact, and (in the +striking phrase of Cromwell) "spoke _things_." And we can see in the +record again and again the traces of the mental habits and the +natural language of one who habitually based himself on experience +and on fact. Critics remark on his method of using the Old Testament +and contrast it with contemporary ways. St. Paul, for instance, in +the passage where he weighs the readings "seeds" and "seed" (Gal. +3:16), is plainly racking language to the destruction of its real +sense; no one ever would have written "seeds" in that connexion; but +in the style of the day he forces a singular into an utterly +non-natural significance. St. Matthew in his first two chapters +proves the events, which he describes, to have been prophesied by +citing Old Testament passages--two of which conspicuously refer to +entirely different matters, and do not mean at all what he suggests +(Matt. 2:15, 23). The Hebrew with the Old Testament, like the Greek +of those days with Homer, made what play he pleased; if the words +fitted his fancy, he took them regardless of connexion or real +meaning; if he was pressed for a defence, he would take refuge in +allegory. A fashion was set for the Church which bore bad fruit. The +Old Testament was emptied of meaning to fortify the Christian faith +with "proof texts." When Jesus quotes the Old Testament, it is for +other ends and with a clear, incisive sense of the prophet's +meaning. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and +not sacrifice" (Matt. 9:13 and 12:7, quoting Hosea 6:6). He not +merely quotes Hosea, but it is plain that he has got at the very +heart of the man and his message. Similarly when he reads Isaiah in +the Synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:17), he lays hold of a great +passage and brings out with emphasis its value and its promise. He +touches the real, and no lapse of time makes his quotations look odd +or quaint. When he is asked which is the first commandment of all, +he at once, with what a modern writer calls "a brilliant flash of +the highest genius," links a text in Deuteronomy with one in +Leviticus--"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou +shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Deut. +6:4-5), and, he adds, "the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt +love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment +greater than these" (Levit. 19:18; Mark 12:29-31). Thus his instinct +for God and his instinct for the essential carry him to the very +centre and acme of Moses' law. At the same time he can use the Old +Testament in an efficient way for dialectic, when an "argumentum ad +hominem" best meets the case (Mark 7:6; Luke 20:37, 44). + +Going to fact directly and reading his Bible on his own account, he +is the great pioneer of the Christian habit of mind. He is not idly +called the Captain by the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 2:10, 12:2). +Authority and tradition only too readily assume control of human +life; but a mind like that of Jesus, like that which he gave to his +followers, will never be bound by authority and tradition. Moses is +very well, but if God has higher ideas of marriage--what then? The +Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat (Matt. 23:2), but that +does not make them equal to Moses; still less does it make their +traditions of more importance than God's commandments (Mark 7:1-13). +The Sabbath itself "was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" +(Mark 2:27). + +Where the habit of mind is thus set to fact, and life is based on +God, on God's will and God's doings, it is not surprising that in +the daily round there should be noted "sanity, reserve, composure, +and steadiness." It may seem to be descending to a lower plane, but +it is worthwhile to look for a moment at the sheer sense which Jesus +can bring to bear on a situation. The Sabbath--is it lawful to heal +on the Sabbath? Well, if a man's one sheep is in a pit on the +Sabbath, what will he do? (Matt. 12:11), or will he refrain from +leading his ox to the water on the Sabbath (Luke 13:15)? Such +questions bring a theological problem into the atmosphere of +sense--and it is better solved there. He is interrupted by a demand +that he arbitrate between a man and his brother; and his reply is +virtually, Does your brother accept your choice of an arbitrator? +(Luke 12:14)--and that matter is finished. "Are there few that be +saved?" asks some one in vague speculation, and he gets a practical +answer addressed to himself (Luke 13:23). Even in matters of +ordinary manners and good taste, he offers a shrewd rule (Luke +14:8). Luke records also two or three instances of perfectly banal +talk and ejaculation addressed to him--the bazaar talk of the +Galilean murders (Luke 13:1)--the pious if rather obvious remark of +some man about feasting in the Kingdom of God (Luke 14:15)--and the +woman's homey congratulation of Mary on her son (Luke 11:27). In +each case he gets away to something serious. + +Above all, we must recognize the power which every one felt in him. +Even Herod, judging by rumour, counts him greater than John the +Baptist (Matt. 14:2). The very malignity of his enemies is a +confession of their recognition that they are dealing with some one +who is great. Men remarked his sedative and controlling influence +over the disordered mind (Mark 1:27). He is not to be trapped in his +talk, to be cajoled or flattered. There is greatness in his +language--in his reference of everything to great principles and to +God; greatness in his freedom from ambition, in his contempt of +advertisement and popularity, in his appeal to the best in men, in +his belief in men, in his power of winning and keeping friends, in +his gift for making great men out of petty. In all this we are not +stepping outside the Gospels nor borrowing from what he has done in +nineteen centuries. In Galilee and in Jerusalem men felt his power. +And finally, what of his calm, his sanity, his dignity, in the hour +of betrayal, in the so-called trials, before the priests, before +Pilate, on the Cross? The Pharisees, said Tertullian, ought to have +recognized who Christ was by his patience. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TEACHER AND HIS DISCIPLES + +It was as a teacher that Jesus of Nazareth first began to gather +disciples round him. But to understand the work of the Teacher, we +must have some general impression of the world to which he came. The +background will help us understand what had to be done, and what it +was he meant to do. + +Bishop Gore, in a book recently published, suggested that the belief +that God is Love is not axiomatic. Many of us take it for granted, +as the point at which religion naturally begins; but, as he +emphasized, it is not an obvious truth; it is something of which we +have to be convinced, something that has to be made good to men. +Unless we bear this in mind, we shall miss a great deal of what +Jesus has really done, by assuming that he was not needed to do it. + +"Out of a darker world than ours came this new spring." We must look +at the world as it was, when Jesus came. In a later chapter we shall +have to consider more fully the religions of the Roman world. One or +two points may be anticipated. First of all, we have to realize what +a hard world it was. Men and women are harder than we sometimes +think, and the natural hardness to which the human heart grows of +itself, needed more correction than it had in those days. + +Among the many papyrus documents that have been found in late years +in Egypt--documents that have pictured for us the life of Egypt, and +have recorded for us also the language of the New Testament in a +most illuminative way--there is one that illustrates only too aptly +the unconscious hardness of the times. It is a letter--no literary +letter, no letter that any one would ordinarily have thought of +keeping; it has survived by accident. It was written by an Egyptian +Greek to his wife. She lived somewhere up the country, and he had +gone to Alexandria. She had been expecting a baby when he left, and +he wrote a rough, but not an unkind, letter to her. He writes: +"Hilarion to Alis . . . greetings.... Know that we are still even +now in Alexandria. Do not fidget, if, at the general return, I stay +in Alexandria. I pray and beseech you, take care of the little +child, and as soon as we have our wages, I will send you up +something. If you are delivered, if it was a male, let it live; if +it was a female, cast it out . . . . How can I forget you? So don't +fidget."[15] + +The letter is not an unkind one; it is sympathetic, masculine, +direct, and friendly. And then it ends with the suggestion, +inconceivable to us to-day, that if the baby is a girl, it need not +be kept. It can be put out either on the land or in the river, left +to kite or crocodile. The evidence of satirists is generally to be +discounted, because they tend to emphasize the exceptional; and it +is not the exceptional thing that gives the character of an age, or +of a man. It is the kind of thing that we take for granted and +assume to be normal that shows our character or gives the note of +the day; and what we omit to notice may be as revealing. + +In the plays of the Athenian comic poets of the third and fourth +centuries B.C. we find, to wearisomeness, one recurring plot. The +heroine turns out to be, not just a common girl, but the daughter of +the best family in Athens, exposed when she was a baby. When Plato +sketched his ideal constitution, in addition to the mating of +suitable pairs to be decided by government, he added that, if the +offspring were not good enough, it should be put away where it would +not be found again. Aristotle allowed the same practice. The most +cultured race on earth freely exposed its infants; and this letter +of Hilarion to Alis--a dated letter by the way, of September or +October in the year 1 A.D.--makes it clear that the practice of +exposure of children still prevailed; and there is other evidence +which need not now detain us. It is a hard world, where kind people +or good people can think of such things as ordinary and natural. + +Evidence of the character of an age is given by the treatment of +criminals; and that age was characterized by crucifixion. They would +take a human being, spread him out on a cross on the ground, drive +nails through his hands and feet; and then the cross was raised--the +agony of the victim during the movement is not to be imagined. It +was made fast; and there the victim hung, suspended between heaven +and earth, to live or die at his leisure. By and by crows would +gather round him. "I have been good," said the slave. "Then you have +your reward," says the Latin poet, "you will not feed the crows on +the cross."[16] There is a very striking phrase in St. Matthew: "And +sitting down they watched him there" (Matt. 27:36). The soldiers +nailed three men to crosses, and sat down beneath them to dice for +their clothes. Our tolerances, like our utterances, come out of the +abundance of the heart, and stamp us for what we are. + +We cannot easily realize all that slavery meant. When we read in the +Fourth Gospel that "the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world" (John 1:29), that was written before Jesus Christ had +abolished slavery; for, we remember, it was done by his people +against the judgement of the business experts. Slavery meant robbing +the man of every right that Nature gave him; and, as Homer said long +ago, "Farseeing Zeus takes away half a man's manhood, when he brings +the day of slavery upon him."[17] He became a thief, a liar, dirty, +and bad; and with the woman it was still worse. The slave woman was +a little lower than the animal; she might not have offspring. It was +"natural," men said; "Nature had designed certain races to be +slaves; slavery was written in Nature; it was Nature's law." These +were not the thoughts of vulgar people, but of some of the best of +the Greeks--not of all, indeed; but society was organized on the +basis of slavery. It was an accepted axiom of all social and +economic life. + +As to the spiritual background, for the present let us postpone the +heathen world and consider the Jews, who represented in some ways +the world's highest at this period. Modern scholarship is shedding +fresh light on the literature and ideas that were prevalent between +the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. But what +uncertainty about God! Why some people should think that it was +easier to believe in God in those days than now, I do not see. Far +less was known of God; the record of his doings was not so long as +it is for us, and it was not so well known. No one could understand +what God meant, if he was quite clear himself. Look at what he did +with the nation. He chose Israel, he established the kingdom of +David. They did not get on very well, and at last were carried away +into Captivity in Babylon. So much he did for his people; and when +he brought them back again to the Promised Land, it was to a very +trying and difficult situation; and worse still followed after +Nehemiah's day. Alexander the Great's conquest of the East left a +Macedonian dynasty ruling those regions, and one of their great +kings, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to stamp out the religion of +Jehovah altogether. The Book of Daniel is a record of that +persecution about 166 B.C. The Maccabeean brothers delivered Israel, +and rescued the religion of Jehovah; and a kingdom of a sort was +established with them; but the grandsons of the liberators became +tyrants. What did God mean? Out of all the promises to Israel, to +the House of David, this is what comes. Herod follows--a foreign +king and an Edomite; and the Romans are over all, suzerains and +rulers. + +In despair of the present men began to forecast the future. A time +will surely come, they said, when God will give an anointed one, the +Messiah; he will set all Israel free, will make Israel rule the +world instead of the Romans; he will gather together the scattered +of Israel from the four winds, reunite and assemble God's people in +triumph in Palestine. And then, when the prophet paused, a plain man +spoke: "I don't care if he does. My father all his life looked +forward to that. What does it matter now, if God redeems his people, +or if he does not? My father is dead." The answer was, why should +your father not come with the redeemed Israel? But what evidence is +there for that? Does God care for people beyond the grave? Is there +personal immortality?--that became the anxious question.[18] + +But is this kingdom of the Messiah to be an earthly or a heavenly +kingdom? Will it be in Jerusalem or in heaven? Are you quite sure +that there is any distinction in the other world between good and +bad, between Jew and Gentile? Some people thought the kingdom would +be in Jerusalem; others said it would be in heaven, and added that +the Jews will look down and see the Gentiles in hell--something +worth seeing at last. But, after all, it was still guesswork-- +"perhaps" was the last word. + +When the question is asked, "Was Jesus the Messiah?" the obvious +reply is, "Which Messiah?" For there seems to have been no standard +idea of the Messiah. The Messiah was, on the whole, as vague a term +as, in modern politics, Socialism or Tariff Reform. Neither of them +has come; perhaps they never will come, and nobody knows what they +will be till they do come. Jesus is not what they expected. A Jewish +girl, at an American Student Conference a year or two ago, said +about Jesus: "I do not think he is the Messiah, but I do love him." +Of course he was not in her Jewish sense. The term was a vague one. + +The main point was that men were uncertain about God. God was +unintelligible. They did not understand his ideas, either for the +nation or for the individual; God's plans miscarried with such +fatality. Or if he had some deeper design, it was still all +guesswork. It seemed likely, or at least right, that he should +achieve somehow the final damnation of the Gentiles--the Romans, and +the rest of us--but nothing was very clear. In the meantime, if God +was going to damn the Gentiles in the next world, why should not the +Jews do it in this? Human nature has only too ready an answer for +such a question--as we can read in too many dark pages of history, +in the stories of wars and religious persecutions. + +The uncertainty about God in Judaism reacted on life and made it +hard. + +Even the virtues of men were difficult; they were apt to be +nerveless and uncertain, because their aim was uncertain, and they +wanted inspiration. Of course there are always kindly hearts; but a +man will never put forth quite his best for an uncertainty. There +was a want of centre about their virtues, a want of faith, and as a +result they were too largely self-directed.[19] + +A man was virtuous in order to secure himself in case God should be +awkward. There was no sufficient relation between man and God. God +was judge, no doubt; but his character could be known from his +attitude to the Gentiles. Could a man count on God and how far? +Could he rely on God supporting him, on God wishing to have him in +this world and the next? No, not with any certainty. It comes to a +fundamental unbelief in God, resting, as Jesus saw, on an essential +misconception of God's nature; and this resulted in the spoiling of +life. Men did not use God. "Where your treasure is, there will your +heart be also," Jesus said (Luke 12:34); and it was not in God. +Men's interest and belief were elsewhere. + +Now the first thing that Jesus had to do, as a teacher, was to +induce men to rethink God. Men, he saw, do not want precepts; they +do not want ethics, morals or rules; what they do need is to rethink +God, to rediscover him, to re-explore him, to live on the basis of +relation with God. There is one striking difference between +Christianity and the other religions, in that the others start with +the idea that God is known. Christians do not so start. We are still +exploring God on the lines of Jesus Christ--rethinking God all the +time, finding him out. That is what Jesus meant us to do. If Jesus +had merely put before men an ethical code, that would have been to +do what the moralists had done before him--what moralists always do, +with the same naive idea that they are doing a great deal for us. +His object was far more fundamental. + +The first thing was to bring people on to the very centre and to get +there at once--to get men away from the accumulation of occasional +and self-directed virtues, from the self-sustained life, from +self-acquired righteousness, and to bring them to face the fact of +God, to realize the seriousness of God and of life, and to see God. +When he preached self-denial, he did not mean the modern virtue of +self-denial with all its pettinesses, but a genuine negation of +self, a total forgetfulness of self by having the mind set entirely +on God and God's purposes, a readjustment of everything with God as +the real centre of all. This is always difficult; it is not less +difficult where the conception of God is, as it was with Jesus, +entirely spiritual. The whole experience of mankind was against the +idea that there could be a religion at all without priest, +sacrifice, altar, temple, and the like. There is a very minimum of +symbol and cult in the teaching of Jesus--so little that the ancient +world thought the Christians were atheists, because they had no +image, no temple, no sacrifice, no ritual, nothing that suggested +religion in the ordinary sense of the word. We shall realize the +difficulty of what Jesus was doing when we grasp that he meant +people to see God independently of all their conventional aids. To +lead them to commit themselves in act to God on such terms was a +still more difficult thing. To believe in God in a general sort of +way, to believe in Providence at large, is a very different thing +from getting yourself crucified in the faith that God cares for you, +and yet somehow wishes you to endure crucifixion. How far will men +commit themselves to God? Jesus means them to commit themselves to +God right up to the hilt--as Bunyan put it, "to hazard all for God +at a clap." Decision for God, obedience to God, that is the prime +thing--action on the basis of God and of God's care for the +individual. + +His purpose that this shall not be merely the religion of choice +spirits or of those immediately around him, but shall be the one +religion of all the world, makes the task still vaster. He means not +merely to touch the Jews. Whether he says so in explicit terms or +not, it is implied in all that he says and does, that the new +movement should be far wider than anything the world had ever seen; +it was to cover the whole of mankind. He meant that every individual +in all the world should have the centre of gravity of his thinking +shifted. + +Again, he had to think of a re-creation of the language of men, till +God should be a new word. Our constant problem is to give his word +his value, his meaning. He meant that men should learn their +religious vocabulary again, till the words they used should suggest +his meanings to their minds. Something of this was achieved, when +some of his disciples came to him and said: "Teach us to pray, as +John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). Further, he had to +secure that men should begin the rethinking of all life--personal, +social, and national--from the very foundations, on new lines--what +is called a transvaluation of all values. With a new centre, +everything has to be thought out anew into what St. Paul calls the +fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Then finally the question comes, how +to secure continuity? Will the movement outlast his personal +influence? These are his problems--large enough, every one of them. +How does he face them? + +The Gospel began with friendship, and we know from common life what +that is, and how it works. Old acquaintance and intimacy are the +heart of it. The mind is on the alert when we meet the +stranger--quick and eager to master his outlook and his ways of +thought, to see who and what he is--it is critical, self-protective, +rather than receptive. But, as time goes on, we notice less, we +study the man less as we see more of him. Yet, in this easier and +more careless intercourse, when the mind is off guard, it is +receiving a host of unnoticed impressions, which in the long run may +have extraordinary influence. Pleasant and easy-going, a perpetual +source of interest and rest of mind, the friendship continues, till +we find to our surprise that we are changed. Stage by stage, as one +comes to know one's friend, by unconscious and freely given +sympathy, one lives the other man's life, sees and feels things as +he does, slips into his language, and, by degrees, into his +thoughts--and then wakes up to find oneself, as it were, remade by +the other's personality, so close has been the identification with +the man we grew to love. This is what we find in our own lives; and +we find it in the Gospels. + +A sentence from St. Augustine's Confessions gives us the key to the +whole story. "Sed ex amante alio accenditur alius" ("Confessions", +iv. 14, 911). "One loving spirit sets another on fire." Jesus brings +men to the new exploration of God, to the new commitment of +themselves to God, simply by the ordinary mechanism of friendship +and love. This, in plain English, is after all the idea of +Incarnation--friendship and identification. Jesus has a genius for +friendship, a gift for understanding the feelings of men. Look, for +example, at the quick word to Jairus. As soon as the message comes +to him that his daughter is dead, Jesus wheels round on him at once +with a word of courage (Mark 5:36). This quickness in understanding, +in feeling with people, marks him throughout. An instinctive care +for other people's small necessities is a great mark of friendship, +and Jesus has it. We find him saying to his disciples: "Come ye +yourselves apart privately into a desert place, and rest awhile" +(Mark 6:31). What a beautiful suggestion! He himself, it is clear +from the records, felt the need of privacy, of being by oneself, of +quiet; and he took his quiet hours in the open, in the wild, where +there was solitude and Nature, and there he would take his friends. +There were so many coming and going, that they had no leisure to +eat, and Jesus says to them in his friendly way: "Let us get out of +this--away by ourselves, to a quiet place; what you want is rest." +What a beautiful idea!--to go camping out on the hillside, under the +trees, to rest--and with him to share the quiet of the lonely place. +It is not the only time when he offers to give people rest--"Come +unto Me ... and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). How strange, +when one thinks of the restless activity of Christian people to-day, +with typewriters and conventions, and every modern method of +consuming energy and time! How sympathetic he is! + +We may notice again his respect for the reserve of other people. On +the whole, how slowly Jesus comes to work with men! He never +"rushes" the human spirit; he respects men's personalities. Men and +women are never pawns with him. He does not think of them in masses. +The masses appeal to him, but that is because he sees the individual +all the time. To one of his disciples he says, "I have prayed for +thee" (Luke 22:32). What a contrast to the conventional "friend of +man" in the abstract! With all that hangs upon him, he has leisure +to pray intensely, for a single man. It gives us an idea of his +gifts in friendship. His faith in his people is quite remarkable, +when we think of it. He believes in his followers; he shares with +them some of the deepest things in his life; he counts them fit to +share his thought of God. He makes it quite clear to them how he +trusts them. He puts before them the tremendous work that he has to +do--work more appalling in its vastness the more one studies it; and +then he tells them that he is trusting the whole thing with them. +What a faith it implies in their moral capacity! What acceptance of +the dim beginnings of the character that was to be Christian! +Someone has spoken of his "apparently unjustified faith in Peter." +What names he can give to his friends as a result of this faith in +them! "Ye are the light of the world," he says (Matt. 5:14), "the +salt of the earth." When we remind ourselves of his clear vision, +his genius for seeing fact, how much must such praises have meant to +these men! + +Think how he gives himself to them in earnest; how he is at their +disposal. He is theirs; they can cross-question him at leisure; they +tell him that the Pharisees did not like what he said (Matt. 15:12), +they doubt with Peter the wisdom of his open speech (Mark 8:32); +they criticize him (Matt. 13:10). If they do not understand his +parable, they ask what he means (Matt. 15:15) and keep on asking +till he makes it plain. He is in no hurry. He is the Master and +their Teacher, and he is at the service of the slowest of them. + +But there is another side to friendship; for one great part of it is +taking what our friends do for us, as well as doing things for them. +How he will take what they have to give! He lets them manage the +boat, while he sleeps (Mark 4:38), and go and prepare for him (Luke +9:52), and see to the Passover meal (Mark 14:13). The women, we +read, ministered to him of their substance (Luke 8:3). There is a +very significant phrase in St. Luke (22:28), where he says to them +at the end: "Ye are they that have continued with me in my +temptations." He tells them there that they have helped him. How? +Apparently by being with him. Is not that friendship? In the same +chapter (Luke 22:15) we find an utterance that reveals the depth of +his feeling for his friends: "With desire I have desired (a Greek +rendering of a Semitic intensive) to eat this Passover with you +before I suffer." They are to help him again by being with him, and +he has longed for it, he says. The Gospel of John sums up the whole +story in a beautiful sentence: "Jesus, having loved his own which +were in the world, loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). Augustine +is right. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." + +Note again the word which he uses in speaking to them ("Tekna": Mark +2:5, 10:24). It is a diminutive, a little disguised as "children" in +our English version. It reappears in the Fourth Gospel in even more +diminutive forms ("Teknia", 13:33; Paidia, 21:5) with a peculiarly +tender suggestion. The word of Mark answers more closely than +anything I know to "Boys," as we used it in the Canadian +Universities. "Men," or "Undergraduates," is the word in the English +Universities; "Students," in Scotland and in India; in Canada we +said "Boys"; and I think we get nearer, and like one another better, +with that easy name. And it was this friendly, pleasant word, or one +very like it, that he used with them. Nor is it the only one of the +kind. "Fear not, little flock!" he said (Luke 12:32). Do not the +diminutives mean something? Do they not take us into the midst of a +group where friendship is real? And in the centre is the friendliest +figure of all. + +Look for a moment at the men who followed him; at the type he calls. +They are simple people in the main--warm hearts and impulsive +natures. The politics of Simon the Zealot might at one time have +been summed up as "the knife and plenty of it," a simple and direct +enough type of political thought, in all conscience, however +hopeless and ineffectual, as history showed; but he gave up his +politics for the friendship of Jesus. Peter, again, is the champion +example of the impulsive nature. Why Jesus called James and John +"the sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) I am not sure. Dr. Rendel Harris +thinks because they were twins; other people find something of the +thunderstorm in their ideas and outlook. The publican in the group +is of much the same type; he is ready to leave his business and his +custom-house at a word--once more the impulsive nature and the +simple. It is possible that Jesus looked also to another type of +which he gained very little in his lifetime; for he speaks of "the +scribe who has turned disciple again, and brings out of his treasure +things new and old" (Matt. 13:52)--the more complicated type of the +trained scholar, full of old learning, but open to new views. In the +meantime he draws to him people with the warm heart--yes, he says, +but cultivate the cool head (cf. Matt. 10:16). Again and again he +will have men "count the cost" (Luke 14:28)--know what they are +doing, be rid of delusions before they follow him (Mark 8:34). What +did they expect? They had all sorts of dreams of the future. When we +first find them, there is friction among them, which is not +unnatural in a group of men with ambitions (Mark 9:33. 10:37). Even +at the Last Supper their minds run on thrones (Luke 22:24). They are +haunted by taboos. Peter long after boasts that nothing common or +unclean has entered his lips (Acts 10:14). They fail to understand +him. "Are ye also without understanding?" he asks, not without +surprise (Mark 8:17, 21). At the very end they run away. + +There, then, is the group. What is to be the method? There is not +much method. As Harnack says about the spread of the early Church, +"A living faith needs no special methods"--a sentence worth +remembering. "Infinite love in ordinary intercourse" is another +phrase of Harnack in describing the life of the early Church. It +began with Jesus. He chose twelve, says Mark (3:14), "that they may +be with him." That is all. And they are with him under all sorts of +circumstances. "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Luke +9:58). They saw him in privation, fatigued, exhausted. With every +chance to see weaknesses in his character, they did not find much +amiss with him. That is surely significant. They lived with him all +the time, in a genuine human friendship, a real and progressive +intimacy. They were with him in popularity and in unpopularity; they +were with him in danger, when Herod tried to kill him and he went +out of Herod's territory. But friendship depends not only on great +moments; it means companionship in the trivial, too, it means idle +hours together, partnership in commonplace things--meals and +garden--chairs as well as books and crises. Ordinary life, ordinary +talk, gossip, chat, every kind of conversation about Herods and +Roman governors, and the Zealots--custom-house memories, tales of +the fishermen's life on the lake, stories of neighbours and +home--rumours about the Galileans who were murdered by Pilate (Luke +13:1-4)--all the babbling talk of the bazaar is round Jesus and his +group, and some of it breaks in on them; and his attitude to it all +is to these men a constant revelation of character. They are with +him in the play of feelings, with him in the fluxes and refluxes of +his thought--learning his ways of mind without realizing it. They +slip into his mind and mood, by a series of surprises, when they are +imagining no such thing. Anything, everything serves to reveal him. +They tramp all day, and ask some village people to shelter them for +the night. The villagers tell them to go away. The men are hungry +and fatigued. "What a splendid thing it would be, if we could do +like Elijah and burn them up with a word!" So the hot thought rose. +He turned and said, "You know not what manner of spirit you are +of."--What a gentle rebuke! "The Son of Man is not come to destroy +men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:51-56). Then follows one of +the wonderful sentences of the Gospel, "they went unto another +village"--very obvious, but very significant. A missionary from +China told me how, thirty years ago or more, he was driven out of +the town where he lived; how the gentlefolk egged on the mob, and +they wrecked his house, and hounded him out of the place. He told me +how it felt--the misery and the indignity of it. Jesus took it +undisturbed. He taught a lesson in it which the Church has never +forgotten. + +Their life was full of experiences shared with him. He has his +reserve--his secret; yet, in another sense, he gives himself to them +without reserve; there is prodigality of self-impartation in his +dealings with them. He lets them have everything they can take. He +becomes theirs in a great intimacy, he gives himself to them. Why? +Because he believes, as he put it, in seed. Socrates saw that the +teacher's real work, his only work, is to implant the idea, like a +seed; an idea, like a seed, will look after itself. A king builds a +temple or a palace. The seed of a banyan drifts into a crack, and +grows without asking anyone's leave; there is life in it. In the end +the building comes down, but for what the banyan holds up. The +leaven in the meal is the most powerful thing there. There is very +little of it, but that does not matter; it is alive (Matt. 13:33). +Life is a very little thing but it is the only thing that counts. +That is why the farmer can sow his fields and sleep at nights +without thinking of them; and the crop grows in spite of his +sleeping, and he knows it (Mark 4:26). That is why Jesus believes so +thoroughly in his men, and in his message; God has made the one for +the other, and there is no fear of mischance. + +Look at his method of teaching. People "marvelled at his words of +charm" (Luke 4:22)--"hung about him to hear him" (Luke 19:48). He +said that the word is the overflow of the heart. "Out of the +abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45). +What a heart, then, his words reveal! How easy and straightforward +his language is! To-day we all use abstract nouns to convey our +meaning; we cannot do without words ending in -ality and -anon. But +there is no recorded saying of Jesus where he uses even +"personality." He does not use abstract nouns. He sticks to plain +words. When he speaks about God he does not say "the Great First +Cause," or "Providence," or any other vague abstract. Still less +does he use an adverb from the abstract, like "providentially." He +says, "your heavenly Father." He does not talk of "humanity"; he +says, "your brethren." He has no jargon, no technical terms, no +scholastic vocabulary. He urges men not to over-study language; +their speech must be simple, the natural, spontaneous overflow of +the heart.[20] Jesus told his disciples not to think out beforehand +what they would say when on trial (Mark 13:11)--it would be "given" +to them. He was perfectly right; and when Christians obeyed him, +they always spoke much better than when they thought out speeches +beforehand. They said much less for one thing, and they said it much +better. Take the case of the martyr--an early and historical +one--whose two speeches were during her trial "Christiana sum" and, +on her condemnation, "Deo gratias". + +With this, remark his own gift of arresting phrase; the freshness of +his language, how free it is from quotation, how natural and how +extraordinarily simple. Everything worthwhile can be put in simple +language; and, if the speech is complicated, it is a call to think +again. "As a woman, over-curiously trimmed, is to be mistrusted, so +is a speech," said John Robinson of Leyden, the minister of the +Pilgrim Fathers. The language of Jesus is simple and direct, the +inevitable expression of a rich nature and a habit of truth. You +feel he does not strain after effect--epigram, antithesis, or +alliteration. Of course he uses such things--like all real +speakers--but he does not go out of his way for them. No, and so +much the more significant are such characteristic antitheses as: "Ye +cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13), and "Whosoever will save +his life shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25), coming with a spontaneous +flash, and answering in their sharpness to the sharp edges of fact. +His words caught the attention, and lived in the memory; they +revealed such a nature; they were so living and unforgettable. + +Remark once again his preference for the actual and the ordinary. +There are religions in which holiness involves unusual conditions +and special diet. Some forms of mysticism seem to be incompatible +with married life. But the type of holiness which Jesus teaches can +be achieved with an ordinary diet, and a wife and five children. He +had lived himself in a family of eight or nine. It is perhaps +harder, but it is a richer sanctity, if the real mark of a Saint is, +as we have been told, that he makes it easier for others to believe +in God. In any case the ordinary is always good enough with Jesus. +Only he would have men go deeper, always deeper. Why can you not +think for yourselves? he asks. Signs were what men demanded. He +pictures Dives' mind running on signs even in hell (Luke 16:27). +"What could you do with signs? Look at what you have already. You +read the weather for to-morrow by looking at the sky to-day. The +south wind means heat; the red sky fair weather. Study, look, think" +(Luke 12:55). His animals, as we saw, are all real animals; it is +real observation; real analogy. When he speaks of the lost sheep, it +is not a fictitious joy that he describes or an imaginary one; it is +real. The more we examine his sayings with any touch of his spirit, +the more we wonder. Of course it is possible to handle them in the +wrong way, to miss the real thought and make folly of everything. +Thus, when he says he is the door, the interpreter may stray into +silly detail and make faith the key, and--I don't know what the +panels and hinges could be. That is not the style of Jesus. The soul +of the thing, the great central meaning, the real analogy is his +concern. Seriousness in observation, seriousness in reflection, is +what he teaches. Men and women break down for want of thinking +things out. Many things become possible to those who think +seriously, as he did--and, so to speak, without watertight +compartments. + +Jesus is always urging seriousness in reflection. Seriousness in +action, too, is one of his lessons--an emphasis on doing, but on +_doing_ with a clear sense of what one is about, and why. A part of +action is clear thought; always exactness, accuracy; you must think +the thing out, he says, and then act or let it alone. The artistic +temperament, we all know, is very much in evidence to-day. In "The +Comments of Bagshot" we are told that the drawback is that there is +so much temperament and so little art. Why? Because the artistic +temperament means so little by itself. It is one of the secrets of +Jesus, that it is action that illuminates. What is it that makes the +poem? The poet sees beggar children running races, or little Edward +and the weather-cock, or something greater if you like--the light on +a woman's hair, or a flower; and you say, he has his poem. He has +not. He must work at the thing. When we study the great poets, we +realize how these things are worked out to the point of nerve-strain +and exhaustion. The poet devotes himself heart and soul to the work; +he alters this and that, once and again; he sees a fresh aspect of +the thing, and he alters all again; he writes and rewrites, getting +deeper and deeper into the essential values of the thing all the +time. Where in all this is the artistic temperament? It gave him the +impulse, but something else achieves the work of art. I have a +feeling that the great works of art are achieved by the shopkeeper +virtues in addition to the artistic temperament that sees and feels +them at the beginning. It is action that gives the value of a +thought. Jesus sees that. He says that frankly to his disciples. If +you want to understand in the long run, it is carrying the cross +that will teach you the real values. + +I have been treating him almost as if he were an authority on +pedagogy. Fortunately, he never discussed pedagogy, never used the +terms I have been using. But he dealt with men, he taught and he +influenced them, and it is worth our study to understand how he did +it--to master his methods. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." +As for the effects of his words at once, as Seeley put it, they were +"seething effervescence . . . broodings, resolutions, travail of +heart." Men were brought face to face with a new issue; it was a +time of choice; things would not be as they were men must be "with +him or against him"--must accept or reject the new teaching, the new +teacher, the new life. As he said, "I came to send fire on the +earth" (Luke 12:49), to divide families, to divide the individual +soul against itself, till the great choice was made; and so it has +always been, where men have really seen him. We have to notice +further the transformation of the disciples, who definitely accepted +him. "Very wonderful to me," wrote Phillips Brooks, "to see how the +disciples caught his method." The promise was made to them that they +should become fishers of men (Mark 1:17), and it was fulfilled. +Jesus made them strong enough to defy the world and to capture the +world. There is something attractive about them; they have his +secret, something of his charm; they are magnetic with his power. A +new impulse to win men marks them, a new power to do it, a new faith +which grows in significance as you study it--the faith of William +Carey, a hundred years ago, was the same thing--a perfectly +incredible faith, that they actually will win men for God and +Christ. And they did--and along his lines and by his methods of +love--even for Gentiles. "Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel," +says St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:16), who to preach the Gospel shipwrecked +his life and suffered the loss of all things (Phil. 3:8). But these +men are sure that it is worthwhile. They have a new passion for men +and women--an interest not merely in the saving of their souls but +in every real human need. The early Church made a point of teaching +men trades when they had none. They learnt all this from him. The +greatest miracle in history seems to me the transformation that +Jesus effected in those men. Everything else in Christian or secular +history, compared to it, seems easy and explicable; and it was +achieved by the love of Jesus. + +The Church spread over the world without social machinery. The +Gospel was preached instinctively, naturally. The earliest +Christians were persecuted in Jerusalem, and were driven out. I +picture one of them in flight; on his journey he falls in with a +stranger. Before he knows what he is doing, he is telling his fellow +traveller about Jesus. It follows from his explanation of why he is +on the road; he warms up as he speaks. He never really thought about +the danger of doing so. And the stranger wants to know more; he is +captured by the message, and he too becomes a Christian. And then +this involuntary preacher of the Gospel is embarrassed to learn that +the man is a Gentile; he had not thought of that. I think that is +how it began--so naturally and spontaneously. These people are so +full of love of Jesus that they are bound to speak (Acts 8:4). "One +loving heart sets another on fire." + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + +It is worth taking some trouble to realize how profoundly Jesus has +changed the thinking of mankind about God. "Since Jesus lived," Dr. +Fairbairn wrote, "God has been another and nearer Being to man." +"Jesus," writes Dr. Fosdick, "had the most joyous idea of God that +ever was thought of." That joyous sense of God he has given to his +followers, and it stands in vivid contrast with the feelings men +have toward God in the other religions. Christianity is the religion +of joy. The New Testament is full of it. + +We know the general character of Jesus' attitude to God, his feeling +for God, his sense of God's nearness. How immediate his knowledge of +God is, how intimate! Of course, here, as everywhere, his teaching +has such an occasional character--or else the records of it are so +fragmentary--that we must not press the absence of system in it; and +yet, I think, it would be right to say that Jesus puts before us no +system of God, but rather suggests a great exploration, an intimacy +with the slow and sure knowledge that intimacy gives. He has no +definition of God,[21] but he assumes God, lives on the basis of +God, interprets God; and God is discovered in his acts and his +relations. He said to Peter, in effect--for the familiar phrase +comes to this in modern English: "You think like a man; you don't +think like God" (Mark 8:33). Elsewhere he contrasts God's thoughts +with man's--their outlooks are so different "that which is highly +esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15; +the Greek words are very interesting). In other words, he would have +men see all things as God sees them. That we do not so see them, +remains the weak spot in our thinking. What Luther said to Erasmus +is true of most of us: "Your thoughts concerning God are too human." +"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall _see_ God," said +Jesus (Matt. 5:8), and throughout he emphasizes that the vision of +God depends on likeness to God--it is love and a glowing purity that +give that faculty, rather than any power of intellect apart from +them. Jesus brings men back to the ultimate fact. Our views are too +short and too narrow. He would have us face God, see him and realize +him--think in the terms of God, look at things from God's point of +view, live in God and with God. In modern phrase, he breaks up our +dogmatism and puts us at a universal point of view to see things +over again in a new and true perspective. + +How and where did he begin himself? Whence came his consciousness of +God, his gift for recognizing God? We do not know. The story of his +growth, his inward growth, is almost unrevealed to us. We are told +that he learnt "by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), and +that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and +man" (Luke 2:52). Where does anyone begin, who takes us any great +distance? It is very hard to know. Where did our own thoughts of God +begin? What made them? How did they come? There is an inherited +element in them, but how much else? Whence came the inherited +element? How is it that to another man, with the same upbringing as +ours, everything is different, everything means more? Remark, at any +rate, in the teaching of Jesus, that there is no mysticism of the +type so much studied to-day. There is nothing in the least +"psychopathic" about him, nothing abnormal--no mystical vision of +God, no mystical absorption in God, no mystical union with God, no +abstraction, nothing that is the mark of the professed mystic. Yet +he speaks freely of "seeing God"; he lives a life of the closest +union with God; and God is in all his thoughts. A phrase like that +of Clement of Alexandria, "deifying into apathy we become monadic," +is seas away from anything we find in the speech of Jesus. That is +not the way he preaches God. He is far more natural; and that his +followers accepted this naturalness, and drew him so, and gave his +teaching as he gave it, is a fresh pledge of the truthfulness of the +Gospels. + +Again, his knowledge of God is not a matter of quotation, as ours +very often tends to be. He is conscious always of the real nearness +of God. He seems to wonder how it is that man can forget God. We do +forget God. Augustine in his "Confessions" (iv. 12, 18) has to tell +us that "God did not make the world and then go away." The practical +working religion of a great many of us rests on a feeling that God +is a very long way off. Our practical steps betray that we half +think God did go away, when he had made the world. Prayer to us is +not a real thing--it is not intercourse face to face; far too often +it is like conversation over a telephone wire of infinite length +which gets out of order. Even if words travel along that wire, there +is so much "buzzing" that they are hardly recognizable. No, says +Jesus, God is near, God is here--so near, that Jesus never feels +that men have any need of a priesthood to come between, or to help +them to God; God does all that. There is no common concern, no +matter of food or clothing, no mere detail of the ordinary round of +common duty and common life--father and mother, son, wife, +friend--nothing of all that, but God is there; God knows about it; +God is interested in it; God has taken care of it; God is enjoying +it. How is it that men can "reject the counsel of God," refuse God's +plans and ideas (Luke 7:30)? How is it that they forget God +altogether? Jesus is surprised at the dullness of men's minds (Mark +8:17); it is a mystery to him. The rich fool, as we call him, though +it is hard to see why we should call him a fool, when he is so like +ourselves, had forgotten God somehow, and was startled when God +spoke, and spoke to him. That story, seen so often among men,--the +story of the thorns choking the seed (Matt. 13:22)--makes Jesus +remark on the difficulty which a rich man finds in entering into the +kingdom of God. + +God knows--that is what Jesus repeats, God cares; and God can do +things; his hands are not tied by impotence. The knowledge of God is +emphasized by Jesus; "Even the very hairs of your head are all +numbered" (Matt. 10:30); "your Father knoweth" (Luke 12:30); "seeth +in secret" (Matt. 6:4); "knoweth your hearts" (Luke 16:15); knows +your struggles, knows your worries, knows your worth; God knows all +about you. And "all things are possible with God" (Matt. 19:26). +There is nothing that he cannot do, nothing that he will not do, for +his children. Will a father refuse his child bread; will God not +give what is good? (Matt. 7:11). Is it too big a thing for the Giver +of Life to give food--which is the more difficult thing to give? +(Luke 12:23). Look at God, as Jesus draws him--interested in +flowers; God takes care of them, and thinks about their colours, so +that even "Solomon in all his glory" is not equal to them (Matt. +6:30). God knows the birds in the nest--knows there is one fewer +there to-day than there was yesterday (Matt. 10:29). God cares for +them; how much more will he care for you (Matt. 6:26)? "Ye are of +more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:31). And God thinks out +man's life in all its relations, and provides for it. Society moves +on lines he laid down for it; his plans underlie all. Thus, when +Jesus is challenged on the question of marriage and divorce, with +that clear thought and eye of his, he goes right back to God's +intent--not to man's usage, not to the common law and practice of +nations, but to God's intent and God's meaning. God ordained +marriage; he thought it out (Matt. 19:4). Marriages will be better, +if we think of them in this way. God gave men their food, does +still, and all things that he gives are clean (Luke 11:41). We +cannot have taboos at our Father's table. + +Over all is God's throne (Matt. 23:22). That idea, it seems to me, +lapses somehow from our minds to-day. When Luther had to face the +hostility of the Kaiser, the Emperor Charles V., he wrote to one of +his friends: "Christ comes and sits at the right hand--not of the +Kaiser, for in that case we should have perished long ago--but at +the right hand of God. This is a great and incredible thing; but I +enjoy it, incredible as it is; some day I mean to die in it. Why +should I not live in it?" So Luther wrote--in not quite our modern +vein. We hardly calculate on God as a factor; we omit him. Jesus did +not. God's rule is over all; and in all our perplexity, doubt, and +fear, Jesus reminds us that the first thing is faith in God. The +fact is that "Thine is the Kingdom" means peace; it is a joyous +reminder. For if he speaks of the Kingdom of God, the King is more +than the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom, the rule, of the God whom Jesus +teaches us to trust and to love. The Father is supreme. But that has +more aspects than one. If our Father is supreme for us, he is +supreme over us. Jesus emphasizes the will of God--God's commandment +against man's tradition, God's will against man's notions (Mark +7:8). What a source of rest and peace to him is the thought of God's +will! When Dante writes: "And His will is our peace," it is the +thought of Jesus. And at the same time God's judgements are as real +to Jesus' mind. "I will tell you," he says, "whom to fear, God--yes, +fear him!" (Luke 12:5). He feels the tenderness and the awfulness of +God at once. + +In speaking of God, it is noticeable that Jesus chiefly emphasizes +God's interest in the individual, as giving the real clue to God's +nature. On the whole, there is very little even implied, still less +explicit, in the Gospels, about God as the great architect of +Nature--hardly anything on the lines familiar to us in the Psalms +and in Isaiah--"The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed +the dry land" (Psalm 95:5)--"He taketh up the isles as a very little +thing" (Isaiah 40:15). There is little of this in the Gospels; yet +it is implied in the affair of the storm (Matt. 8:26). The disciples +in their anxiety wake him. He does not understand their fear. Whose +sea is it? Whose wind is it? Whose children are you? Cannot you +trust your Father to control his wind and his sea? Of course it is +possible that he said more about God as the Author of Nature than +our fragmentary reports give us; but it may be that it is because +the emphasis on God's care and love for the individual is hardest to +believe, and at the same time best, gives the real value of God, +that Jesus uses it so much. Perhaps the Great Artificer is too far +away for our minds. He is too busy, we think; and yet, after all, if +God is so great, why should he be so busy? If he is a real Father, +why should not he be at leisure for his children? He is, says Jesus; +a friend has leisure for his friends, and a father for his children; +and God, Jesus suggests, always has leisure for you. + +The great emphasis with Jesus falls on the love of God. Thus he +tells the story of the impossible creditor with two debtors (Luke +7:42). One owed him ten pounds, and the other a hundred. When they +had nothing to pay, they both came to him and told him so. The +ordinary creditor, at the very best, would say: "Well, I suppose I +must put it down as a bad debt." Jesus says that this creditor took +up quite another attitude. He smiled and said to his two troubled +friends: "Is that all? Don't let anything like that worry you. What +is that between you and me?" He forgave them the debt with such a +charm ("echarisato"), Jesus says, that they both loved him. One +feels that the end of the story must be, that they both paid him and +loved him all the more for taking the money. What a delightful story +of charm, and friendship and forgiveness! And it is a true picture +of God, Jesus would have us believe, of God's forgiveness and the +response it wakes in men. + +If we do not definitely set our minds to assimilate the ideas of +Jesus, we shall make too little of the heart of God. With Jesus this +is the central and crucial reality. He emphasizes the generosity of +God. God makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad; he sends +rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). God's flowers are just +as beautiful in the bad man's garden. God knows what his child +needs, and gives it, whether it is a very good child or a very bad +one. The Father is the same great wise Friend in either case. The +peacemakers are recognized as the children of God, because of their +family likeness to God (Matt. 5:9). They come among people, and find +them in discord with one another, and their presence stills that; or +they come into a man's life, when it is all in disorder and pain, +and they bring peace there. They may not quite know it, but they do +these things almost without meaning to do them. And Jesus says that +this is a family likeness by which men know they are God's children. +But it is not every teacher, pagan or Christian, who lays such +stress on God's gift of peace, or is so sure of it. He uses Hosea's +great saying about God--"I will have mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea +6:6), as giving the truth about God. Matthew represents him as +quoting it twice (Matt. 9:13, 12:7); and we can well believe that he +found in it the real spirit of God and often referred to it. His own +heart has taken him to the tenderest of the utterances of the Old +Testament spoken by the most suffering of the Prophets. "Love your +enemies," he says (Matt. 5:44); yes, for then you will be the real +children of God. Or he speaks of the great patience of God, how God +gives every man all the time and all the chance that he +needs--sometimes, he half suggests, even a little more. Look at the +parable of the fig tree, how the gardener pleads for the tree, begs +and obtains another chance for it (Luke 13:8); that is like God, +says Jesus. + +It is easy enough to talk in a vague way about the love of God. But +the love of God implies surely the individual; love has little +content indeed if its object is merely a collective noun, an +abstract, a concept. But that God loves individual men is very +difficult for us to believe in earnest. The real crux comes when the +question rises in a man's own heart, "Does God love me?" Jesus says +that he does, but it is very hard to believe, except in the company +of Jesus and under his influence. Jesus throughout asserts and +reasserts the value of the individual to God. Look, for example, at +the picture he draws, when he tells of the recovery of the Lost +Sheep, and brings out the analogy. At the end of the Book of Job +(ch. 38) the poet carries his reader back to the first sight of a +world new-made, and tells how God, like the real artist and +creator--we might not have thought of all this, but the poet +did--loves his work so much that he must have his friends sharing it +with him. He calls them; he shows them the world he has made--"the +beauty, and the wonder, and the power," as Browning says. The poet +tells us that what followed was that "the morning stars sang +together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The sight was so +good that song and shout came instinctively, almost involuntarily. +Is it not the same picture which Jesus draws of "joy in heaven in +the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"? +We can believe in such joy when God made the world; but can we +believe that there was the same joy in the presence of God yesterday +when a coolie gave his heart to God? Jesus does. That is the central +thing, it seems to me, in his teaching about God--that God cares for +the individual to an extent far beyond anything we could think +possible. If we can wrestle with that central thought and assimilate +it, or, as the old divines said, "appropriate" it, make it our own, +the rest of the Gospel is easy. But one can never manage it except +with the help, and in the company, of Jesus. + +Jesus goes a step further, and believes in the possibility of a man +loving God and God enjoying that too. If he speaks of prayer, must +we not think he means that God wants it as much as his child can +want it? How much is involved in the name "Father," which Jesus so +uniformly gives to God? Something less than the word carries in the +case of a human father, or more? What is the attitude of a father to +his child? Jesus, as we have seen, uses this illustration to bring +out God's care for the actual needs of his children. But is that +all? What is the innermost thing in a father's relation to his +children? Surely something more than the bird's instinct to feed her +young, or to gather them under her wings (Luke 13:34). Is not one of +the most real features of parenthood enjoyment of the child? Do not +men and women frankly enjoy the grappling of the little mind with +big things? Is there not a charm, as says one of the Christian +Fathers (Minucius Felix), about the "half-words" that a child uses, +as he learns to talk and wrestles with a grown-up vocabulary? About +the extraordinary pictures he will draw of ships or cows--the quaint +stories he will invent--the odd ways in which his gratitude and his +affection express themselves? Is it a real fatherhood where such +things do not appeal? Jesus' language about God, his whole attitude +to God, implies throughout that God is as real a Father as anybody, +and it suggests that God loves his children the more because they +are real; because they are not very clever; because they do make +such queer and imperfect prayers; because, in short, they need him; +and because they fill a place in his heart. + +We have to remark how firmly Jesus believes in his Gospel of God and +man needing each other and finding each other--his "good news," as +he calls it. He bases all on his faith in what has been called +"Man's incurable religious instinct"--that instinct in the human +heart that must have God--and in God's response to that instinct +which he himself implanted, and which is no accident found here and +missing there, but a genuine God-given characteristic of every man, +whatever his temperament or his range in emotions may be, his +swiftness or slowness of mind. The repeated parables of seed and +leaven--the parables of vitality--again and again suggest his faith +in his message, his conviction that God must have man and man must +have God--that, as St. Augustine puts it, "Thou hast made us for +Thyself, and our heart knows no rest till it rests in Thee" (Conf., +i. 1). That is the essence of the Gospel. + +How this union of the soul with God comes about, Jesus does not +directly say, but there are many hints in his teaching that bear +upon it. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation," he +said (Luke 17:20). Religious truth is not reached by "quick turns of +self-applauding intellect," nor by demonstrations. It comes another +way. The quiet familiarity with the deep true things of life, till +on a sudden they are transfigured in the light of God, and truth is +a new and glowing thing, independent of arguments and the strange +evidence of thaumaturgy--this is the normal way; and Jesus holds by +it. The great people, men of law and learning, want more; they want +something to substantiate God's messages from without. If Jesus +comes to them with a word from God, can he not prove its +authenticity preferably with "a sign from the sky" (Mark 8:11)? For +the signs he gives, and the evidence he suggests, are +unsatisfactory. "And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, `Why +doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there +shall no sign be given unto this generation.' So he left them and +went up into the ship again and went away." That scene is drawn from +life. + +But why no sign? In the parallel passage we read: "`The wicked +generation and adulterous seeketh a sign, but there shall no sign be +given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah'; so he left them and +departed" (Matt. 16:4). The real explanation of this reference to +Jonah is given by Luke (11:32), and missed or misdeveloped in +Matthew (Matt. 12:40). Nineveh recognized instinctively the inherent +truth of Jonah's message, and repented. Truth is its own +evidence--like leaven in the meal, like seed in the field, it does +its work, and its life reveals it. God is known that way. When the +chief priests demand of Jesus to be told plainly what is his +authority (Mark 11:27), he carries the matter a stage further: Was +the baptism of John, he asks, from heaven, i.e. from God, or was it +of men? Does God make His message clear, does He properly +authenticate Himself? And the uneasy weighing of alternatives, +summarized by the evangelist, leads to the answer that they could +not tell whence it was; and Jesus rejoins that he has nothing to say +to them about his authority. He had taken what we might call an easy +case--where it was evident that God had spoken; and this was all +they made of it--they "could not tell." It was plain, then, either +that these men did not recognize the obvious message of God ("the +word of God came upon John," Luke 3:9,), or that, if they did +recognize it, they thought it did not matter. For the insincere and +the trivial there is no message from God, no truth of God--how +should there be? + +If we pursue this line of thought, we can see how, in Jesus' +opinion, a man may be sure of God and of God's word for him. If a +man be candid with himself, if he face the common facts of life with +seriousness and in the doing of duty, perplexities vanish. Such a +man is prepared for the Great Fact, by faithfulness to the little +facts, and then God dawns on him in them. This is put directly in +the Fourth Gospel (7:17), and in parable in the Synoptists. The +leaven works, till the whole is leavened; the uneasy process is over +and the result achieved. Or, it comes more quietly still--the seed +grows while the farmer sleeps and rises, night and day; the blade +springs up and the ear forms on the blade, the seed grows in the +ear; and the end is reached and God's Kingdom is a reality. Or, the +knowledge of God comes like a lightning flash--sudden, illuminative, +decisive. "The Son reveals" God to the simple, Jesus said (Matt. +11:27). The Son of Man may be a disputable figure--"Whosoever +speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him" +(Matt. 12:32)--but there is no forgiveness in this world, or in any +possible real world where God counts at all, for the refusal of the +spirit of Truth. So he taught, and all history shows he was +right--the refusal of truth is fatal. "Jesus," wrote Matthew Arnold, +"never touches theory, but bases himself invariably upon +experience." It is to experience that Jesus goes to authenticate his +message. The real facts of life lead you to God, as the red sky, and +the south wind, teach you to foretell the weather (Matt. 16:2; Luke +12:55). + +"Eyes and ears," said the Greek thinker, Heraclitus, long before, +"are bad witnesses for such as have barbarian souls." The Pharisees +discredited Jesus--he "cast out devils by Beelzebub." Did he, he +asked, or was it "by the finger of God" (Luke 11:20)? Is there no +evidence of God in restored sanity? But the strength of his position +lies in the good news for the poor (Matt. 11:5), for those who +labour and are heavy--laden (Matt. 11:28)--news of rest and +refreshment--as if the intuition of God, with the peace it brings, +were its own proof. Truth is reached less by ingenuity than by +intensity. To the simple mind, to the true heart, to the pure soul +(Matt. 5:8), to those whose gift is peace, Truth comes flooding +in--new light on old fact, and new light from old fact--and God is +evident. So Jesus judged; and here again, before we decide for or +against his view, we have to make sure that we know his meaning, and +realize the experience by which he reached his thought. And then, +perhaps, God will be more evident to us in our turn. "The Kingdom of +God cometh not with observation" (Luke 17:20)--it is "within" (Luke +17:21); so quietly it comes, that we may not guess how in any +particular instance the realization of God came to a soul; but if we +are candid and truth-loving we can know it when it has come to +ourselves, and we can recognize it when it comes to another. We can +recognize it in its power and peace, we can see the greatness of the +new knowledge in the new man it makes, in the new life, the man of +the great spirit, of the great action, the man of the great quiet, +the man who has the peace of God. + +What does the discovery of God mean? Jesus himself speaks of a man +turning right about, being converted (Matt. 18:3); of the revision +of all ideas, of all standards, of all values. He gives us two +beautiful pictures to illustrate what it means; and it repays us to +linger over them. First, there is the Treasure Finder. He is in the +country, digging perhaps in another man's field, or idling in the +open; and by accident he stumbles on a buried treasure. Palestine +was like Belgium--a land with a long history of wars fought on its +soil by foreigners, Babylon or Assyria against Egypt, Ptolemies +against Seleucids. It was the only available route for attack either +on Egypt by land, or on Syria or Mesopotamia or Babylon from the +Southern Mediterranean. In such a land when the foreign army marched +through, a man had best hide his treasure and hope to find it again +in better times, and again and again the secret of its place of +burial died with him. The Treasure Finder had no lord of the manor +to think of, no Treasury department. He made a great discovery, and +made it initially for himself, and his own--"and for joy thereof he +goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field." We can +see him full of his discovery, full of eagerness and trying to hide +his inner joy, as he realizes every penny he can manage, and +achieves the great transaction which gives him the field and the +treasure. The salient points are a sudden and great joy, an instant +resolution, a complete sacrifice of everything, and a life +unexpectedly and infinitely enriched. And so it is, says Jesus, with +the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13:44). + +The Pearl Merchant is a more interesting figure. Perhaps we may +picture him middle-aged, a trifle worn, somewhat silent, a man of +keen eyes. He has been in his trade for years, and he is a master at +it. By now he has a knowledge which years give to a man in +earnest--a knowledge more like instinct than anything acquired. A +glance at pearls on a table--this, and this, and this he will take +the other, perhaps; he would look at that one--the rest? he shook +his head and did not look at them--he saw without looking. One day +he is told of a pearl--a good one. He is not surprised, for pearls +are always good when they are offered for sale. But again a glance +is enough. The price? Yes, it is high, but he will take the pearl, +but he must be allowed till evening to get the money. He goes away +and sells his stock--the little collection of pearls in his wallet, +representing "the experience of a life-time," all of them good, as +he very well knows; and he sells them for what he can get--at a +loss, if it must be. Yesterday's bargainer cuts down his price for +this and that pearl, and he is taken up; he never expected to do so +well against the old dealer, and he laughs. But the merchant is +content, too; he has sold all his pearls for what they would +fetch--lost money on them, yes, and been laughed at behind his back. +But he owns the one pearl of great price; it is his, and he is +satisfied. There is no reference to joy here or exultation; but +there is the same instant recognition of the opportunity, the same +resolve, the same sacrifice, and the same great acquisition (Matt. +13:45). + +Both parables begin with a reference to the Kingdom of God--to that +Rule and Kingship of God, the knowledge of which makes all the +difference to a man. A small grammatical difference points us beyond +minutiae to the common experience of the two men. Each makes a great +discovery, and takes action in a great and urgent resolve; and they +are both repaid. If we are to understand the two parables in the +sense intended by Jesus, the term "God" must become alive to us with +all the life and power and love that the name implies for him. Then +to grasp that this Father of Jesus is King--that the God of his +thoughts, of his faith, with all the tenderness and the power +combined that Jesus teaches us to see in Him--rules the universe, +controls our destiny and loves us--this is the experience that Jesus +compares with that of the Treasure Finder and the Pearl +Merchant--worth, he suggests, everything a man has, and more than +all. + +In passing, we may notice that these stories suggest that this +experience may be reached in different ways. In the parables of the +seed and the leaven he indicates a natural, quiet and unconscious +growth, a story without crisis, though full of change. To the +Treasure Finder the discovery is a surprise--how came Jesus so far +into the minds of men as to know what a surprise God can be, and how +joyful a surprise? The Pearl Merchant, on the other hand, has lived +in the region where he makes his discovery. He is the type that +lives and moves in the atmosphere of high and true thought, that +knows whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report, of +help and use; he is no stranger to great and inspiring ideas. And +one day, in no strange way, by no accident, but in the ordinary +round of life, he comes on something that transcends all he has been +seeking, all he has known--the One thing worth all. There is little +surprise about it, no wild elation, but nothing is allowed to stand +in the way of an instant entrance into the great experience--and the +great experience is, Jesus says, God. + +To see God, to know God--that is what Jesus means--to get away from +"all the fuss and trouble" of life into the presence of God, to know +he is ours, to see him smile, to realize that he wants us to stay +there, that he is a real Father with a father's heart, that his love +is on the same wonderful scale as every one of his attributes, and +in reality far more intelligible than any of them. That is the +picture Jesus draws. The sheer incredible love of God, the wonderful +change it means for all life--that is his teaching, and he +encourages us, in the words of the Shorter Catechism, "to enjoy God +for ever," as Jesus himself does. Those who learn his secret enjoy +God in reality. Wherever they see God with the eyes of Jesus, it is +joy and peace. And they realize with deepening emotion that this +also is God's gift, as Jesus said (Luke 8:10; 12:39). + +Jesus entirely recast mankind's common ideas of holiness. It is no +longer asceticism, no longer the mystical trance, no longer the +"fussiness," with which the early Christian reproached the Jew, +which still haunts all the religions of taboo and merit, and even +Christianity in some forms. Where men think of holiness as freedom +from sin, the negative conception reacts on life. They begin at the +wrong end. Solomon Schechter, the great Jewish scholar, once said of +Oxford, that "they practice fastidiousness there, and call it +holiness." Unfortunately Oxford has no monopoly of that type of +holiness. But with Jesus holiness is a much simpler and more natural +thing--as natural as the happy, easy life of father and child, and +it rests on mutual faith. It is Theocentric, positive, active rather +than passive--not a state, but a relation and a force. Holiness with +him is a living relation with the living God. That is why the first +feature in it that strikes us is Courage. "Be of good cheer; be not +afraid"; that note rings through the Gospels, and how much it means, +and has meant, in sweet temper and cheerfulness in the very +chequered history of the Church! His is the great voice of Hope in +the world. "The Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Hope," Paul said (1 +Tim. 1:1). Even on the Cross, according to one text, Jesus said to +the penitent thief: "Courage! To-day thou shalt be with me in +paradise" (Luke 23:43). We may not know where or what paradise is, +but the rest is intelligible and splendid: "Courage; to-day thou +shalt be with me." Look at the brave hearts the Gospel has made in +every age; how venturesome they are! and we find the same +venturesomeness in Jesus--for instance, as a German scholar +emphasizes, in that episode of the daughter of Jairus. The messenger +comes and says she is dead. Anybody else would stop, but Jesus goes +on. That is a great piece of interpretation. Look again at his +venturesomeness in trusting the Gospel to the twelve and to us--and +in facing the Cross. "It was his knowledge of God," says Professor +Peabody, "that gave him his tranquillity of mind."[22] + +"Jesus," says Dr. Cairns, "said that no one ever trusted God enough, +and that was the source of all the sin and tragedy." Look at his +emphasis again and again on faith; and the language is not that of +guesswork; they are the words of the great Son of Fact, who based +himself on experience. "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). "Be not +afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). "All things are possible to him +that believeth" (Mark 9:23). When he criticizes his disciples, it is +on the score of their want of faith--"O ye of little faith"--it has +been taken as almost a nickname for them. In the hour of trial and +danger they may trust to "the Spirit of your Father" (Matt. 10:20). +It is remarkable what value he attaches to faith even of the +slightest--"faith as a grain of mustard seed" (Matt. 17:90)--it is +little, but it is of the seed order, a living thing of the most +immense vitality with the promise of growth and usefulness in it. + +This brings us to the question of Prayer. Some of us, of course, do +not believe very much in prayer for certain philosophical reasons, +which perhaps, as a matter of fact, are not quite as sound as we +think, because our definition of prayer is a wrong one, resting on +insufficient experience and insufficient reflection. What is prayer? + +We shall agree that it is the act by which man definitely tries to +relate his soul and life to God. What Jesus then teaches on prayer +will illuminate what he means by God; and conversely his conception +of God will throw new light upon the whole problem of prayer. It is +plain history that Jesus, the great Son of Fact, believed in prayer, +told men to pray, and prayed himself. The Gospels and the Epistle to +the Hebrews lay emphasis on his practice. Early in the morning he +withdrew to the desert (Mark 1:35), late at night he remained on the +hillside for prayer (Mark 6:46). Wearied by the crowds that thronged +him, he kept apart and continued in prayer. He prays before he +chooses the disciples (Luke 6:12). He gives thanks to God on the +return of the seventy from their missionary journey (Luke 10:21). +Prayer is associated with the confession of Caesarea Philippi (Luke +9:18), with the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:29), with +Gethsemane (Luke 22:41). The writer to the Hebrews speaks of his +"strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7) in prayer. The Gospels even +mention what we should call his unanswered prayers. The prayer +before the calling of the Twelve does not exclude Judas; and the cup +does not pass in spite of the prayer in Gethsemane. It is as if we +had something to learn from the unanswered prayers of our Master. +Certainly the content of the Gospel for us would have been poorer if +they had been answered in our sense of the word; and this fact, +taken with his own teaching on prayer, and his own submission to the +Father's will, may help us over some of our difficulties. But Jesus +had no doubt or fear about prayer being answered. "Ask, and it shall +be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened +unto you" (Luke 11:9)--are not ambiguous statements in the least; +and they come from one "who based himself on experience." It is +worth thinking out that the experience of Jesus lies behind his +recommendation of prayer. All his clear-eyed knowledge of God speaks +in these plain sentences. + +"As he was praying, they ask him, Teach us to pray, as John also +taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). It looks as if at times his +disciples caught him at prayer or even overheard him, and felt that +here was prayer that took them out beyond all they had ever known of +prayer. There were men whom John had taught to pray; was it they who +asked Jesus to teach them over again? There may have been some of +them who had learnt the Pharisee's way in prayer, and some who stuck +to the simpler way they had been taught in childhood. In each case +the old ways were outgrown. + +We can put together what he taught them. In the first place, the +thing must be real and individual--the first requirement always with +Jesus. The public prayer of ostentation is out of the reckoning; it +is nothing. Jesus chooses the quiet and solitary place for his +intercourse with his Father. The real prayer is to the Father in +secret--His affair. And it will be earnest beyond what most of us +think. We are so familiar with Gospel and parable that we do not +take in the strenuousness of Jesus' way in prayer. The importunate +widow (Luke 18:2) and the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5) are his +types of insistent and incessant earnestness. Do you, he asks, pray +with anything like their determination to be heard? The knock at the +door and the pleading voice continue till the request is granted--in +each case by a reluctant giver. But God is not reluctant, Jesus +says, though God, too, will choose his own time to answer (Luke +18:7). It does not mean the mechanical reiteration of the heathen +(Matt. 6:7)--not at all, that is not the business of praying; but +the steady earnest concentration on the purpose, with the deeper and +deeper clarification of the thought as we press home into God's +presence till we get there. It was so that he prayed, we may be +sure. It is not idly that prayer has been called "the greatest task +of the Christian man"; it will not be an easy thing, but a +strenuous. + +One part of the difficulty of prayer is recognized by Jesus over and +over again. Men do not really quite believe that they will be +answered--they are "of little faith." But he tells them with +emphasis, in one form of words and another, driving it home into +them, that "all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27)--"have +faith in God" (Mark 11:22). One can imagine how he fixes them with +the familiar steady gaze, pauses, and then with the full weight of +his personality in his words, and meaning them to give to his words +the full value he intends, says: "Have faith in God." To see him and +to hear him must have given that faith of itself. If the friend in +the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you will knock till you +get them; and has not God the gifts for you that you need? Is he +short of the power to help, or is it the will to help that is +wanting in God? + +Once more the vital thing is Jesus' conception of God. Here, as +elsewhere, we sacrifice far more than we dream by our lazy way of +using his words without making the effort to give them his +connotation. To turn again to passages already quoted, will a father +give his son a serpent instead of the fish for which he asks, a +stone for bread? It is unthinkable; God--will God do less? It all +goes back again to the relation of father and child, to the love of +God; only into the thought, Jesus puts a significance which we have +not character or love enough to grasp. "Your Father knoweth that ye +have need of these things," he says about the matters that weigh +heaviest with us (Luke 12:30). Even if we suppose Luke's reference +to the Father giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13), +to owe something to the editor's hand--it was an editor with some +Christian experience--it is clear that Jesus steadily implies that +the heavenly Father has better things than food and clothing for his +children. How much of a human father is available for his children? +Then will not the heavenly Father, Jesus suggests, give on a larger +scale, and give Himself; in short, be available for the least +significant of His own children in all His fullness and all His +Fatherhood? And even if they do not ask, because they do not know +their need, will he not answer the prayers that others, who do know, +make for them? Jesus at all events made a practice of +intercession--"I prayed for thee," he said to Peter (Luke +22:32)--and the writers of the New Testament feel that it is only +natural for Jesus, Risen, Ascended, and Glorified, to make +intercession for us still (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). + +We have again to think out what God's Fatherhood implies and carries +with it for Jesus. + +"The recurrence of the sweet and deep name, Father, unveils the +secret of his being. His heart is at rest in God."[23] Rest in God +is the very note of all his being, of all his teaching--the keynote +of all prayer in his thought. "Our Father, who art in heaven," our +prayers are to begin--and perhaps they are not to go on till we +realize what we are saying in that great form of speech. It is +certain that as these words grow for us into the full stature of +their meaning for Jesus, we shall understand in a more intimate way +what the whole Gospel is in reality. + +The writer to the Hebrews has here an interesting suggestion for us. +Using the symbolism of the Hebrew religion and its tabernacle, he +compares Jesus to the High Priest, but Jesus, he says, does not +enter into the holiest alone. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness +to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living +way, which he hath consecrated for us ... let us draw near with a +true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19). In the previous +chapter he discards the symbol and "speaks things"--"Christ is not +entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures +of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence +of God for us" (Heb. 9:24). There he touches what has been the faith +of the Church throughout--that in Christ we reach the presence of +God. Without saying so much in so many words, Jesus implies this in +all his attitude to prayer. God is there, and God loves you, and +loves to have you speak with him. No one has ever believed this very +much outside the radius of Christ's person and influence. It is, +when we give the words full weight, an essentially Christian faith, +and it depends on our relation to Jesus Christ. + +Jesus was quite explicit with his friends in telling them they did +not know what to ask, but he showed them himself what they should +ask. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. +6:33), he says, and tells us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins +and for deliverance from evil. Pray, too, "Thy kingdom come." "Pray +ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into +his harvest" (Matt. 9:38). This is perhaps the only place where he +asked his disciples to pray for his great work. Identification with +God's purposes--identification with the individual needs of those we +love and those we ought to love--identification with the world's sin +and misery--these seem to be his canons of prayer for us, as for +himself. For both in what he teaches others and in what he does +himself, he makes it a definite prerequisite of all prayer that we +say: "Thy will be done." Prayer is essentially dedication, deeper +and fuller as we use it more and come more into the presence of God. +Obedience goes with it; "we must cease to pray or cease to disobey," +one or the other. If we are half-surrendered, we are not very bright +about our prayers, because we do not quite believe that God will +really look after the things about which we are anxious. We must +indeed go back to what Jesus said about God; we had better even +leave off praying for a moment till we see what he says, and then +begin again with a clearer mind. + +"Ask, and ye shall receive," he says; and if we have no obedience, +or love, or faith, or any of the great things that make prayer +possible, he suggests that we can ask for them and have them. The +Gospel gives us an illustration in the man who prayed: "Lord, I +believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). But it is plain we +have to understand that we are asking for great things, and it is to +them rather than to the obvious little things that Jesus directs our +thoughts. Not away from the little things, for if God is a real +Father he will wish to have his children talk them over with +him--"little things please little minds," yes, and great minds when +the little minds are dear to them--but not little things all the +time. There is a variant to the saying about seeking first the +Kingdom of Heaven, which Clement of Alexandria preserves. Perhaps it +is a mere slip, but God, it has been said, can use misquotations; +and Clement's quotation, or misquotation, certainly represents the +thought of Jesus, and it may give us a hint for our own practice: +"Ask," saith he, "the great things, and the little things will be +added unto you" (Strom. i. 158). + +The object of Jesus was to induce men to base all life on God. +Short-range thinking, like the rich fool's, may lead to our +forgetting God; but Jesus incessantly lays the emphasis on the +thought-out life; and that, in the long run, means a new reckoning +with God. That is what Jesus urges--that we should think life out, +that we should come face to face with God and see him for what he +is, and accept him. He means us to live a life utterly and +absolutely based on God--life on God's lines of peacemaking and +ministry, the "denial of self," a complete forgetfulness of self in +surrender to God, obedience to God, faith in God, and the acceptance +of the sunshine of God's Fatherhood. He means us to go about things +in God's way--forgiving our enemies, cherishing kind thoughts about +those who hate us or despise us or use us badly (Matt. 5:44), +praying for them. This takes us right back into the common world, +where we have to live in any case; and it is there that he means us +to live with God--not in trance, but at work, in the family, in +business, shop, and street, doing all the little things and all the +great things that God wants us to do, and glad to do them just +because we are his children and he is our Father. Above all, he +would have us "think like God" (Mark 8:33); and to reach this habit +of "thinking like God," we have to live in the atmosphere of Jesus, +"with him" (Mark 3:14). All this new life he made possible for us by +being what he was--once again a challenge to re-explore Jesus. "The +way to faith in God and to love for man," said Dr. Cairns at Mohonk, +"is, as of old, to come nearer to the living Jesus." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JESUS AND MAN + +When, on his last journey, Jesus came in sight of Jerusalem, Luke +tells us that he wept (Luke 19:41). There is an obvious explanation +of this in the extreme tension under which he was living--everything +turned upon the next few days, and everything would be decided at +Jerusalem; but while he must have felt this, it cannot have been the +cause of his weeping. Nor should we look for it altogether in the +appeal which a great city makes to emotion. + + Dull would he be of soul who could pass by + A sight so touching in its majesty. + +Yet it was not the architecture that so deeply moved Jesus; the +temple, which was full in view, was comparatively new and foreign. +There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant anything to +him, perhaps it meant little to the writers. As for the temple, he +found it "a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46); and he prophesied that it +would be demolished, and of all its splendid buildings, its goodly +stones and votive offerings, which so much impressed his disciples, +not one stone would be left upon another stone (Mark 13:9; Luke +21:5). But the traditions of Jerusalem wakened thoughts in him of +the story of his people, thoughts with a tragic colour. Jerusalem +was the place where prophets were killed (Luke 13:34), the scene and +centre, at once, of Israel's deepest emotions, highest hopes, and +most awful failures. "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" he had said in +sadness as he thought of Israel's holy city, "which killest the +prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I +have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood +under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34). + +And now he is in sight of Jerusalem. The city and the temple +suddenly meet his view, as he reaches the height, and he is deeply +moved. Any reflective mind might well have been stirred by the +thought of the masses of men gathered there. Nothing is so futile as +an arithmetical numbering of people, for after a certain point +figures paralyse the imagination, and after that they tell the mind +little or nothing. But here was actually assembled the Jewish +people, coming in swarms from all the world, for the feast; here was +Judaism at its most pious; here was the pilgrim centre with all it +meant of aspiration and blindness, of simple folly and gross sin. +The sight of the city--the doomed city, as he foresaw--the thought +of his people, their zeal for God and their alienation from God--it +all comes over him at once, and, with a sudden rush of feeling, he +apostrophizes Jerusalem--"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least +in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now +they are hid from thine eyes . . . . Thou knewest not the time of +thy visitation!" (Luke 19:42-44). + +It is quite plain from the Gospels that crowds had always an appeal +for Jesus. At times he avoided them; but when they came about him, +they claimed him and possessed him. Over and over again, we read of +his pity for them--"he saw a great multitude and was moved with +compassion toward them" (Matt. 14:14)--of his thought for their +weariness and hunger, his reflection that they might "faint by the +way" on their long homeward journeys (Mark 8:3), and his solicitude +about their food. Whatever modern criticism makes of the story of +his feeding multitudes, it remains that he was markedly sensitive to +the idea of hunger. Jairus is reminded that his little girl will be +the better for food (Mark 5:43). The rich are urged to make feasts +for the poor, the maimed and the blind (Luke 14:12). The owner of +the vineyard, in the parable, pays a day's wage for an hour's work, +when an hour was all the chance that the unemployed labourer could +find (Matt. 20:9). No sanctity could condone for the devouring of +widows' houses (Matt. 23:14). + +The great hungry multitudes haunt his mind. The story of the rich +young ruler shows this (Mark 10:17-22). Here was a man of birth and +education, whose face and whose speech told of a good heart and +conscience--a man of charm, of the impulsive type that appealed to +Jesus. Jesus "looked on him," we read. The words recall Plato's +picture of Socrates looking at the jailer, how "he looked up at him +in his peculiar way, like a bull"--the old man's prominent eyes were +fixed on the fellow, glaring through the brows above them, and +Socrates' friends saw them and remembered them when they thought of +the scene. As Jesus' eyes rested steadily on this young man, the +disciples saw in them an expression they knew--"Jesus, looking on +him, loved him." Their talk was of eternal life; and, no doubt to +his surprise, Jesus asked the youth if he had kept the commandments; +how did he stand as regarded murder, theft, adultery? The steady +gaze followed the youth's impetuous answer, and then came the +recommendation to sell all that he had and give to the poor--"and, +Come! Follow me!" At this, we read in a fragment of the "Gospel +according to the Hebrews" (preserved by Origen), "the rich man began +to scratch his head, and it did not please him. And the Lord said to +him, `How sayest thou, "The law I have kept and the prophets?" For +it is written in the law, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself"; and behold! many who are thy brethren, sons of Abraham, +are clad in filth and dying of hunger, and thy house is full of many +good things, and nothing at all goes out from it to them.' And he +turned and said to Simon, his disciple, who was sitting beside him: +`Simon, son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through a +needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of +Heaven.'" We need not altogether reject this variant of the story. + +But it was more than the physical needs of the multitude that +appealed to Jesus. "Man's Unhappiness, as I construe," says +Teufelsdröckh in "Sartor Resartus", "comes of his Greatness, it is +because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he +cannot quite bury under the Finite. Will the whole Finance Ministers +and Upholsterers and Confectioners of modern Europe undertake, in +joint-stock company, to make one Shoeblack happy?" We read in a +passage, which it is true, is largely symbolic, that one of Jesus' +quotations from the Old Testament was that "Man shall not live by +bread alone" (Luke 4:4). Hunger is a real thing--horribly real; but +it is comparatively easy to deal with, and man has deeper needs. The +Shoeblack, according to Teufelsdröckh, wants "God's infinite +universe altogether to himself." In the simpler words of Jesus, he +is never happy till he says, "I will arise and go to my Father" +(Luke 15:18). + +This craving for the Father the men of Jesus' day tried to fill with +the law; and, when the law failed to satisfy it, they had nothing +further to suggest, except their fixed idea that "God heareth not +sinners" (John 9:31). They despaired of the great masses and left +them alone. They did not realize, as Jesus did, that the Father also +craves for his children. When Jesus saw the simpler folk thus +forsaken, the picture rose in his mind of sheep, worried by dogs or +wolves, till they fell, worn out--sheep without a shepherd (Matt. +9:36). Every one remembers the shepherd of the parable who sought +the one lost sheep until he found it, and how he brought it home on +his shoulders (Luke 15:5). But there is another parable, we might +almost say, of ninety and nine lost sheep--a parable, not developed, +but implied in the passage of Matthew, and it is as significant as +the other, for our Good Shepherd has to ask his friends to help him +in this case. The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and +helplessness of masses of men was one of the foundations of the +Christian Church. (The Good Shepherd, by the way, is a phrase from +the Fourth Gospel (John 10:11), but we think most often of the Good +Shepherd as carrying the sheep, and that comes from Luke, and is in +all likelihood nearer the parable of Jesus.) + +It is worth noticing that Jesus stands alone in refusing to despair +of the greater part of mankind. Contempt was in his eyes the +unpardonable sin (Matt. 5:22). How swift and decisive is his anger +with those who make others stumble! (Luke 17:2). The parable of the +lost sheep reveals what he held to be God's feeling for the hopeless +man; and, as we have seen, his constant aim is to lead men to "think +like God." The lost soul matters to God. He sums up his own work in +the world in much the same language as he uses about the shepherd in +the parable: "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which +is lost" (Luke 19:10). The taunt that he was the "friend of +publicans and sinners" really described what he was and wished to be +(Luke 7:34). God was their Heavenly Father. The sight, then, of the +masses of his countrymen, like worried sheep, worn, scattered, lost, +and hopeless, waked in him no shade of doubt--on the contrary, it +was further proof to him of the soundness of his message. Changing +his simile, he told his disciples that the harvest was great, but +the labourers few, and he asked them to pray the Lord of the harvest +to thrust forth labourers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38). The very +name "Lord of the harvest" implies faith in God's competence and +understanding. From the first, he seems to have held up before his +followers that this wide service was to be their work--"Come ye +after me," he said, "and I will make you to become fishers of men" +(Mark 1:17)--men, who should really "catch men" (Luke 5:10). + +Like all for whom the world has had a meaning, Jesus, as we have +seen, accepted the necessary conditions of man's life. Human misery +and need were widespread, but God's Fatherhood was of compass fully +as wide, and Jesus relied upon it. "Your heavenly Father knows," he +said (Matt. 6:32), and "with God all things are possible" (Mark +10:27). The very miseries of the oppressed and hopeless people added +grounds to his confidence. People who had touched bottom in sounding +the human spirit's capacity for misery, were for him the "ripe +harvest" (Matt. 9:37), only needing to be gathered (Mark 4:29). He +understood them, and he knew that he had the healing for all their +troubles. With full assurance of the truth of his words, he cried: +"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will +give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). He spoke of a rest which careless +familiarity obscures for us. What understanding and sympathy he +shows, when he adds: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light!" +Misery, poverty and hunger, he had found, taught men to see +realities. The hungry, at least, were not likely to mistake a stone +for bread--they had a ready test for it, on which they could rely. +Poverty threw open the road to the Kingdom of God. The clearing away +of all temporary satisfactions, of all that cloaked the soul's +deepest needs, prepared men for real relations with the greatest +Reality--with God. So that Jesus boldly said: "Blessed are ye poor"; +"Blessed are ye that hunger now"; "Blessed are ye that weep now" +(Luke 6:20, 21); but he had no idea that they were always to weep. +If it was his to care for men's hunger, it was not likely that he +would have no comfort for their tears--"Ye shall find rest unto your +souls" (Matt. 11:29)--"They shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). + +It was in large part upon the happiness which he was to bring to the +poor that Jesus based his claim to be heard. There is little +reasonable ground for doubt that he healed diseases. Of course we +cannot definitely pronounce upon any individual case reported; the +diagnosis might be too hasty, and the trouble other than was +supposed; but it is well known that such healings do occur--and that +they occurred in Jesus' ministry, we can well believe. So when he +was challenged as to his credentials, he pointed to misery relieved; +and the culmination of everything, the crowning feature of his work, +he found in his "good news for the poor." The phrase he borrowed +from Isaiah (61:1), but he made it his own--the splendid promises in +Isaiah for "the poor, the broken-hearted, captives, blind and +bruised," appealed to him. Time has laid its hand upon his word, and +dulled its freshness. "Gospel" and "evangelical" are no longer words +of sheer happiness like Jesus' "good news"--they are technical +terms, used in handbooks and in controversy; while for Jesus the +"good news for the poor" was a new word of delight and inspiration. + +The centre in all the thoughts of Jesus, as we have to remind +ourselves again and again, is God. If, as Dr. D. S. Cairns puts it, +"Jesus Christ is the great believer in man," it is--if we are +reading him aright at all--because God believes in man. Let us +remind ourselves often of that. "Thou hast made us for Thyself," +said Augustine in the famous sentence, of which we are apt to +emphasize the latter half, "and our heart knows no rest till it +rests in Thee" (Confessions, i. 1). Jesus would have us emphasize +the former clause as well, and believe it. The keynote of his whole +story is God's love; the Father is a real father--strange that one +should have to write the small f to get the meaning! All that Jesus +has taught us of God, we must bring to bear on man. For it is hard +to believe in man--"What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and +that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" quotes the author of +"Job" in a great ironical passage (Job 7:17; from Psalm 8:4). The +elements and the stars come over us, as they came over George Fox in +the Vale of Beavor; what is man? Can one out of fifteen hundred +millions of human beings living on one planet matter to God, when +there are so many planets and stars, and there have been so many +generations? Can he matter? It all depends on how we conceive of +God. Here it is essential to give all the meaning to the term "God" +that Jesus gave to it, to believe in God as Jesus believed in God, +if we are to understand the fullness of Jesus' "good news." It all +depends on God--on whether Jesus was right about God; and after all +on Jesus himself. "A thing of price is man," wrote Synesius about +410 A.D., "because for him Christ died." The two things go +together--Jesus' death and Jesus' Theocentric thought of man. + +It is a familiar criticism of idealists and other young hearts, that +it is easy to idealize what one does not know. "Omne ignotum pro +magnifico" is the old epigram of Tacitus. It is not every believer +in man, nor every "Friend of man," who knows men as Jesus did. Like +Burns and Carlyle and others who have interpreted man to us to some +purpose, he grew up in the home of labouring people. He was a +working man himself, a carpenter. He must have learnt his carpentry +exactly as every boy learns it, by hammering his fingers instead of +the nail, sawing his own skin instead of the wood--and not doing it +again. He knew what it was to have an aching back and sweat on the +face; how hard money is to earn, and how quickly it goes. He makes +it clear that money is a temptation to men, and a great danger; but +he never joins the moralists and cranks in denouncing it. He always +talks sense--if the expression is not too lowly to apply to him. He +sees what can be done with money, what a tool it can be in a wise +man's hands--how he can make friends "by means of the mammon of +unrighteousness" (Luke 16:9), for example, by giving unexpectedly +generous wages to men who missed their chances (Matt. 20:15), by +feeding Lazarus at the gate, and perhaps by having his sores +properly attended to (Luke 16:20). That he understood how pitifully +the loss of a coin may affect a household of working people, one of +his most beautiful parables bears witness (Luke 15:8-10). With work +he had no quarrel. He draws many of his parables from labour, and he +implies throughout that it is the natural and right thing for man. +To be holy in his sense, a man need not leave his work. Clement of +Alexandria, in his famous saying about the ploughman continuing to +plough, and knowing God as he ploughs, and the seafaring man, +sticking to his ship and calling on the heavenly pilot as he sails, +is in the vein of Jesus.[24] There were those whom he called to +leave all, to distribute their wealth, and to follow him; but he +chose them (Mark 3:13, 14); it was not his one command for all men +(cf. Mark 5:19). But, as we shall shortly see, it is implied by his +judgements of men that he believed in work and liked men who "put +their backs into it"--their backs, eyes, and their brains too. + +Pain, the constant problem of man, and perhaps more, of woman--of +unmarried woman more especially--he never discussed as modern people +discuss it. He never made light of pain any more than of poverty; he +understood physical as well as moral distress. Nor did he, like some +of his contemporaries and some modern people, exaggerate the place +of pain in human experience. He shared pain, he sympathized with +suffering; and his understanding of pain, and, above all, his choice +of pain, taught men to reconsider it and to understand it, and +altered the attitude of the world toward it. His tenderness for the +suffering of others taught mankind a new sympathy, and the +"nosokomeion", the hospital for the sick, was one of the first of +Christian institutions to rise, when persecution stopped and +Christians could build. "And the blind and the lame came to him in +the temple, and he healed them," says Matthew (21:14) in a memorable +phrase. I have heard it suggested that it was irregular for them to +come into the temple courts; but they gravitated naturally to Jesus. + +The mystic is never quite at leisure for other people's feelings and +sufferings; he is essentially an individualist; he must have his own +intercourse with God, and other people's affairs are apt to be an +interruption, an impertinence. "I have not been thinking of the +community; I have been thinking of Christ," said a Bengali to me, +who was wavering between the Brahmo Samaj and Christianity. The +blessed Angela of Foligno was rather glad to be relieved of her +husband and children, who died and left her leisure to enjoy the +love of God. All this is quite unlike the real spirit of the +historical Jesus. "Himself took our infirmities and bare our +sicknesses," was a phrase of Isaiah that came instinctively to the +minds of his followers (Matt. 8:17, roughly after Isaiah 53:4). +Perhaps when we begin to understand what is meant by the +Incarnation, we may find that omnipotence has a great deal more to +do than we have supposed with natural sympathy and the genius for +entering into the sorrows and sufferings of other people. + +One side of the work of Jesus must never be forgotten. His attitude +to woman has altered her position in the world. No one can study +society in classical antiquity or in non-Christian lands with any +intimacy and not realize this. Widowhood in Hinduism, marriage among +Muslims--they are proverbs for the misery of women. Even the Jew +still prays: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the +Universe, who hast not made me a woman." The Jewish woman has to be +grateful to God, because He "hath made me according to His will"--a +thanksgiving with a different note, as the modern Jewess, Amy Levy, +emphasized in her brilliant novel, where her heroine, very like +herself, corrected her prayerbook to make it more explicit "cursed +art Thou, O Lord our God! Who hast made me a woman." Paul must have +known these Jewish prayers, for he emphasized that in Christ there +is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28). Paul had his views--the +familiar old ways of Tarsus inspired them[25]--as to woman's dress +and deportment, especially the veil; but he struck the real +Christian note here, and laid stress on the fact of what Jesus had +done and is doing for women. There is no reference made by Jesus to +woman that is not respectful and sympathetic; he never warns men +against women. Even the most degraded women find in him an amazing +sympathy; for he has the secret of being pure and kind at the same +time--his purity has not to be protected; it is itself a purifying +force. He draws some of his most delightful parables from woman's +work, as we have seen. It is recorded how, when he spoke of the +coming disaster of Jerusalem, he paused to pity poor pregnant women +and mothers with little babies in those bad times (Luke 21:23; Matt. +24:19). Critics have remarked on the place of woman in Luke's +Gospel, and some have played with fancies as to the feminine sources +whence he drew his knowledge--did the women who ministered to Jesus, +Joanna, for instance, the wife of Chuza (Luke 8:3), tell him these +illuminative stories of the Master? In any case Jesus' new attitude +to woman is in the record; and it has so reshaped the thought of +mankind, and made it so hard to imagine anything else, that we do +not readily grasp what a revolution he made--here as always by +referring men's thoughts back to the standard of God's thoughts, and +supporting what he taught by what he was. + +Mark has given us one of our most familiar pictures of Jesus sitting +with a little child on his knee and "in the crook of his arm." (The +Greek participle which gives this in Mark 9:36 and 10:16 is worth +remembering--it is vivid enough.) Mothers brought their children to +him, "that he should put his hands on them and pray" (Matt. 19:13). +Matthew (21:15) says that children took part in the Triumphal Entry; +and Jesus, clear as he was how little the Hosannas of the grown +people meant, seems to have enjoyed the children's part in the +strange scene. Classical literature, and Christian literature of +those ages, offer no parallel to his interest in children. The +beautiful words, "suffer little children to come unto me," are his, +and they are characteristic of him (Matt. 19:14); and he speaks of +God's interest in children (Matt. 18:14)--once more a reference of +everything to God to get it in its true perspective. How Jesus likes +children!--for their simplicity (Luke 18:17), their intuition, their +teachableness, we say. But was it not, perhaps, for far simpler and +more natural reasons just because they were children, and little, +and delightful? We forget his little brothers and sisters, or we +eliminate them for theological purposes. + +Jesus lays quite an unexpected emphasis on sheer tenderness--on +kindness to neighbour and stranger, the instinctive humanity that +helps men, if it be only by the swift offer of a cup of cold water +(Matt. 10:42). The Good Samaritan came as a surprise to some of his +hearers (Luke 10:30). "It is our religion," said a Hindu to a +missionary, to explain why he and other Hindus did not help to +rescue a fainting man from the railway tracks, nor even offer water +to restore him, when the missionary had hauled him on to the +platform unaided. Not so the religion of Jesus--"bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," wrote Paul +(Gal. 6:2)--"pursue hospitality" (Rom. 12:13; the very word runs +through the Epistles of the New Testament). And, as we shall see in +a later chapter, the Last Judgement itself turns on whether a man +has kindly instincts or not. Matthew quotes (12:20) to describe +Jesus' own tenderness the impressive phrase of Isaiah (42:3), "A +bruised reed shall he not break." + +If it is urged that such things are natural to man--"do not even the +publicans the same?" (Matt. 5:46)--Jesus carries the matter a long +way further. "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him +twain" (Matt. 5:41). The man who would use such compulsion would be +the alien soldier, the hireling of Herod or of Rome; and who would +wish to cart him and his goods even one mile? "Go two miles," says +Jesus--or, if the Syriac translation preserves the right reading, +"Go two _extra_." Why? Well, the soldier is a man after all, and by +such unsolicited kindness you may make a friend even of a government +official--not always an easy thing to do--at any rate you can help +him; God helps him; "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father +which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Ordinary kindness and +tenderness could hardly be urged beyond that point; and yet Jesus +goes further still. He would have us _pray_ for those that +despitefully use us (Matt. 5:44)--and in no Pharisaic way, but with +the same instinctive love and friendliness that he always used +himself. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" +(Luke 23:34). There are religions which inculcate the tolerance of +wrong aiming at equanimity of mind or acquisition of merit. But +Jesus implies on the contrary that in all this also the Christian +_denies_ himself, does not seek even in this way to save his own +soul, but forgets all about it in the service of others, though he +finds by and by, with a start, that he has saved it far more +effectually than he could have expected (Mark 8:35; Matt. 25:37, +40). The emphasis falls on our duty of kindness and tenderness to +all men and women, because we and they are alike God's children. + +With his emphasis on tenderness we may group his teaching on +forgiveness. He makes the forgiving spirit an antecedent of +prayer--"when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against +any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your +trespasses" (Mark 11:25). "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and +there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave +there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled +to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matt. 5:23, 24). +The parable of the king and his debtor (Matt. 18:23), painfully true +to human nature, brings out the whole matter of our forgiveness of +one another into the light; we are shown it from God's outlook. The +teaching as ever is Theocentric. To Peter, Jesus says that a man +should be prepared to forgive his brother to seventy times seven--if +anybody can keep count so far (Matt. 18:21-35). He sees how quarrels +injure life, and alienate a man from God. Hence comes the famous +saying: "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy +right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39). He would have +men even avoid criticism of one another (Matt. 7:1-5). Epigrams are +seductive, and there is a fascination in the dissection of +character; but there is always a danger that a clever +characterization, a witty label, may conclude the matter, that a +possible friendship may be lost through the very ingenuity with +which the man has been labelled, who might have been a friend. It is +not a small matter in Jesus' eyes, he puts his view very strongly +(Matt. 5:22); and, as we must always remember, he bases himself on +fact. We may lose a great deal more than we think by letting our +labels stand between us and his words, by our habit of calling them +paradoxes and letting them go at that. + +It is worth while to look at the type of character that he admires. +Modern painters have often pictured Jesus as something of a dreamer, +a longhaired, sleepy, abstract kind of person. What a contrast we +find in the energy of the real Jesus--in the straight and powerful +language which he uses to men, in the sweep and range of his mind, +in the profundity of his insight, the drive and compulsiveness of +his thinking, in the venturesomeness of his actions. How many of the +parables turn on energy? The real trouble with men, he seems to say, +is again and again sheer slackness; they will not put their minds to +the thing before them, whether it be thought or action. Thus, for +instance, the parable of the talents turns on energetic thinking and +decisive action; and these are the things that Jesus admires--in the +widow who will have justice (Luke 18:21)--in the virgins who thought +ahead and brought extra oil (Matt. 25:4)--in the vigorous man who +found the treasure and made sure of it (Matt. 13:44)--in the friend +at midnight, who hammered, hammered, hammered, till he got his +loaves (Luke 11:8)--in the "violent," who "take the Kingdom of +Heaven by force" (Matt. 11:12; Luke 16:16)--in the man who will hack +off his hand to enter into life (Mark 9:43). Even the bad steward he +commends, because he definitely put his mind on his situation (Luke +16:8). As we shall see later on, indecision is one of the things +that in his judgement will keep a man outside the Kingdom of God, +that make him unfit for it. The matter deserves more study than we +commonly give it. You must have a righteousness, he says, which +exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20)--and the +Pharisees were professionals in righteousness. His tests of +discipleship illumine his ideal of character--Theocentric +thinking--negation of self--the thought-out life. He will have his +disciples count the cost, reckon their forces, calculate quietly the +risks before them--right up to the cross (Luke 14:27-33)--like John +Bunyan in Bedford Gaol, where he thought things out to the pillory +and thence to the gallows, so that, if it came to the gallows, he +should be ready, as he says, to leap off the ladder blindfold into +eternity. That is the energy of mind that Jesus asks of men, that he +admires in men. + +On the other side, he is always against the life of drift, the +half-thought-out life. There they were, he says, in the days of +Noah, eating and drinking, marrying, dreaming--and the floods came +and destroyed them (Luke 17:27). So ran the old familiar story, and, +says Jesus, it is always true; men will drift and dream for ever, +heedless of fact, heedless of God--and then ruin, life gone, the +soul lost, the Son of Man come, and "you yourselves thrust out" +(Luke 13:28, with Matt. 25:10-13). It is quite striking with what a +variety of impressive pictures Jesus drives home his lesson. There +is the person who everlastingly says and does not do (Matt. +23:3)--who promises to work and does not work (Matt. 21:28)--who +receives a new idea with enthusiasm, but has not depth enough of +nature for it to root itself (Mark 4:6)--who builds on sand, the +"Mr. Anything" of Bunyan's allegory; nor these alone, for Jesus is +as plain on the unpunctual (Luke 13:25), the easy-going (Luke +12:47), the sort that compromises, that tries to serve God and +Mammon (Matt. 6:24)--all the practical half-and-half people that +take their bills quickly and write fifty, that offer God and man +about half what they owe them of thought and character and action, +and bid others do the same, and count themselves men of the world +for their acuteness (Luke 16:1-8). And to do them justice, Jesus +commends them; they have taken the exact measure of things "in their +generation." Their mistake lies in their equation of the fugitive +and the eternal; and it is the final and fatal mistake according to +Jesus, and a very common one--forgetfulness of God in fact (Luke +12:20), a mistake that comes from _not_ thinking things out. Jesus +will have men think everything out to the very end. "He never says: +Come unto me, all ye who are too lazy to think for yourselves" (H. +S. Coffin). It is energy of mind that he calls for--either with me +or against me. He does not recognize neutrals in his war--"he that +is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50)--"he that is not with me is +against me" (Matt. 12:30). + +Where does a man's _Will_ point him? That is the question. "Out of +the abundance, the overflow, of the heart, the mouth speaketh" +(Matt. 12:34). What is it that a man _wills_, purity or impurity +(Matt. 5:28)? It is the inner energy that makes a man; what he says +and does is an overflow from what is within--an overflow, it is +true, with a reaction. It is what a man _chooses_, and what he +_wills_, that Jesus always emphasizes; "God knoweth your hearts" +(Luke 16:15). Very well then; does a man choose God? That is the +vital issue. Does he choose God without reserve, and in a way that +God, knowing his heart, will call a whole-hearted choice? + +St. Augustine, in a very interesting passage ("Confessions", viii. +9, 21), remarks upon the fact that, when the mind commands the body, +obedience is instantaneous, but that when it commands itself, it +meets with resistance. "The mind commands that the mind shall +will--it is one and the same mind, and it does not obey." He finds +the reason; the mind does not absolutely and entirely ("ex toto") +will the thing, and so it does not absolutely and entirely command +it. "There is nothing strange after all in this," he says, "partly +to will, partly not to will; but it is a weakness of the mind that +it does not arise in its entirety, uplifted by truth, because it is +borne down by habit. Thus there are two Wills, because one of them +is not complete." + +The same thought is to be traced in the teaching of Jesus. It is +implied in what he says about prayer. There is a want of faith, a +half-heartedness about men's prayers; they pray as Augustine says he +himself did: "Give me chastity and continence, but not now" (Conf, +viii. 7, 17). That is not what Jesus means by prayer--the utterance +of the half-Will. Nor is it this sort of surrender to God that Jesus +calls for--no, the question is, how thoroughly is a man going to put +himself into God's hands? Does he mean to be God's up to the cross +and beyond? Does he enlist absolutely on God's terms without a +bargain with God, prepared to accept God's will, whatever it is, +whether it squares with his liking or not? (cf. Luke 17:7-10). Are +his own desires finally out of the reckoning? Does he, in fact, +deny--negate--himself (Mark 8:34)? Jesus calls for disciples, with +questions so penetrating on his lips. What a demand to make of men! +What faith, too, in men it shows, that he can ask all this with no +hint of diminished seriousness! + +Jesus is the great believer in men, as we saw in the choice of his +twelve. To that group of disciples he trusts the supremest task men +ever had assigned to them. Not many wise, not many mighty, Paul +found at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:26); and it has always been so. Is it not +still the gist of the Gospel that Jesus believes in the writer and +the reader of these lines--trusts them with the propagation of God's +Kingdom, incredible commission? Jesus was always at leisure for +individuals; this was the natural outcome of his faith in men. What +else is the meaning of his readiness to spend himself in giving the +utmost spiritual truth--no easy task, as experience shows us--even +to a solitary listener? If we accept what he tells us of God, we can +believe that the individual is worth all that Jesus did and does for +him, but hardly otherwise. His gift of discovering interest in +uninteresting people, says Phillips Brooks, was an intellectual +habit that he gave to his disciples. We think too much "like men"; +he would have us "think like God," and think better of odd units and +items of humanity than statesmen and statisticians are apt to do. It +has been pointed out lately how fierce he is about the man who puts +a stumbling-block in the way of even "a little one"--"better for him +that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into +the sea"; no mere phrase--for when he draws a picture, he sees it; +he sees this scene, and "better so--for him too!" is his comment +(Mark 9:42). There was, we may remember, a view current in antiquity +that when a man was drowned, his soul perished with his body, though +I do not know if the Jews held this opinion. It is not likely that +Jesus did. What is God's mind, God's conduct, toward those people +whom men think they can afford to despise? "Be ye therefore perfect, +even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). And to whom +did he say this? To the most ordinary people--to Peter and James and +John; for all sorts of people he held up this impossible ideal of a +perfection like God's. What a faith in man it implies! "All things +are possible to him that believes" (Mark 9:9.3). Why should not +_you_ believe? he says. + +His faith in the soul's possibilities is boundless, and in marked +contrast with what men think of themselves. A man, for instance, +will say that he has done his best; but nine times out of ten it +means mere fatigue; he is not going to trouble to do any more. How +_can_ a man know that he has done his best? The Gospel of Jesus +comes with its message of the grace of God, and the power of God, to +people who are stupid and middle-aged, who are absolutely settled in +life, who are conscious of their limitations, who know they are +living in a rut and propose to stick to it for the remainder of +their days; and Jesus tells them in effect that he means to give +them a new life altogether, that he means to have from them service, +perfectly incredible to them. No man, he suggests, need be so inured +to the stupidity of middle age but there may be a miraculous change +in him. A great many people need re-conversion at forty, however +Christian they have been before. This belief of his in the +individual man and in the worth of the individual is the very +charter of democracy. The original writings of William Tyndale, who +first translated the New Testament from Greek into English, contain +the essential ideas of democracy already in 1526--the outcome of +familiar study of the Gospel. Jesus himself said of Herod: "Go and +tell that fox" (Luke 13:32). Herod was a king, but he was not above +criticism; and Christians have not failed at times to make the +criticism of the great that truth requires. + +Jesus had no illusions about men; he sees the weak spots; he +recognizes the "whited sepulchre" (Matt. 23:27). He is astonished at +the unbelief of men and women (Mark 6:6). He does not understand why +they cannot think (Mark 8:21), but he notes how they see and yet do +not see, hear and do not understand (Matt. 13:13). He is impressed +by their falsity, even in religion (Matt. 15:8). He knows perfectly +well the evil of which the human heart is capable (Matt. 15:19). A +man who steadily looks forward to being crucified by the people he +is trying to help is hardly one of the absent-minded enthusiasts, +mis-called idealists. There never was, we feel, one who so +thoroughly looked through his friends, who loved them so much and +yet without a shade of illusion. This brings us to the subject of +the next chapter. + +In the meantime let us recall what he makes of the wasted life. "In +thinking of the case," said Seeley. "they had forgotten the +woman"--a common occurrence with those who deal in "cases." It was +once severely said of the Head of a College that "if he would leave +off caring for his students' souls and care for them, he would do +better." Jesus does not forget the man in caring for his soul--he +likes him. He is "the friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34); +he eats and drinks with them (Mark 2:14). Let us remember again that +these were taunts and were meant to sting; they were not +conventional phrases. See how he can enter into the life of a poor +creature. There is the wretched little publican, Zacchaeus (Luke +19:1-10)--a squalid little figure of a man, whom people despised. He +was used to contempt--it was the portion of the tax-collector +enlisted in Roman service against his own people. Jesus comes and +sees him up in the tree; he instantly realizes what is happening and +invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus as a guest; something +passes between them without spoken word. The little man slides down +the tree--not a proceeding that makes for dignity; and then, with +all his inches, he stands up before the whole town, that knew him so +well, in a new moral grandeur that adds cubits to his stature. "Half +my goods," he says, "I give to the poor. If I have taken anything +from any man by false accusation, he shall have it back fourfold." +That man belonged to the despised classes. Jesus came into his life; +the man became a new man, a pioneer of Christian generosity. Again, +there is the woman with the alabaster box, the mere possession of +which stamped her for what she was. It was simply a case of the +wasted life. I have long wondered if she meant to give him only some +of the ointment. A little of it would have been a great gift. But +perhaps the lid of the box jammed, and she realized in a moment that +it was to be all or nothing--she drew off her sandal and smashed the +box to pieces. However she broke it, and whatever her reasons, +Mark's words mean that it was thoroughly and finally shivered (Mark +14:3). Something had happened which made this woman the pioneer of +the Christian habit of giving all for Jesus. The disciples said they +had done so (Matt. 19:27), but they were looking for thrones in +exchange (Mark 10:37); she was not. The thief on the cross himself +becomes a pioneer for mankind in the Christian way of prayer. +"Jesus, remember me!" he says (Luke 23:42). How is it that Jesus +comes into the wasted life and makes it new? "One loving heart sets +another on fire." + +With all his wide outlook on mankind, his great purpose to capture +all men, Jesus is remarkable for his omission to devise machinery or +organization for the accomplishment of his ends. The tares are left +to grow with the wheat (Matt. 13:30)--as if Jesus trusted the wheat +a good deal more than we do. Alive as he is to the evil in human +nature, he never tries to scare men from it, and he seems to have +been very little afraid of it. He believed in the power of +good--because, after all, God is "Lord of the Harvest" (Matt. 9:38). +He invents no special methods--a loving heart will hit the method +needed in the particular case; the Holy Spirit will teach this as +well as other things (Matt. 10:19, 20). How far he even organized +his church, or left it to organize itself if it so wished, students +may discuss. Would he have trusted even the best organized church as +such? Does not what we mean by the Incarnation imply putting +everything in the long run on the individual, quickened into new +life by a new relation with God and taught a new love of men by +Jesus himself? The heart of friendship and the heart of the +Incarnation are in essence the same thing--giving oneself in +frankness and love to him who will accept, and by them winning him +who refuses. Has not this been the secret of the spread of the +Gospel? The simplicity of the whole thing, and the power of it, grow +upon us as we study them. But after all, as Tertullian said, +simplicity and power are the constant marks of God's +work--simplicity in method, power in effect ("de Baptismo", 2). + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + +"For clear-thinking ethical natures," writes a modern scholar, "for +natures such as those of Jesus and St. Paul, it is a downright +necessity to separate heaven and hell as distinctly as possible. It +is only ethically worthless speculations that have always tried to +minimize this distinction. Carlyle is an instance in our times of +how men even to-day once more enthusiastically welcome the +conception of hell as soon as the distinction between good and bad +becomes all-important to them."[26] + +Here in strong terms a challenge is put to many of our current +ideas. Is not this to revert to an outworn view of the Christian +religion--to reassert its dark side, better forgotten, all the +horrible emphasis on sin and its consequences introduced into the +sunny teaching of Jesus by Paul of Tarsus, and alien to it? Before +we answer this question in any direct way, it is worth while to +realize for how many of the real thinkers, and the great teachers of +mankind, this distinction between good and evil has been +fundamental. They have not invented it as a theory on which to base +religion, but they have found it in human life, one and all of them. +If Walt Whitman or Swami Vivekananda overlook the difference between +virtue and vice, and do honour to the courtesan, it simply means +that they are bad thinkers, bad observers. The deeper minds see more +clearly and escape the confusion into which the slight and quick, +the sentimental, hurl themselves. Above all, when God in any degree +grows real to a man, when a man seriously gives himself not to some +mere vague "contemplation" of God but to the earnest study of God's +ways in human affairs, and of God's laws and their working, the +great contrasts in men's responses to God's rule become luminous. + +When God matters to a man, all life shows the result. Good and bad, +right and wrong stand out clear as the contrast between light and +darkness--they cannot be mistaken, and they matter--and matter for +ever. They are no concern of a moment. Action makes character; and, +until the action is undone again, the effect on character is not +undone. Right and wrong are of eternal significance now in virtue of +the reality of God. + +Gautama Buddha, for instance, and the greater Hindu thinkers, in +their doctrine of Karma, have taught a significance inherent in good +and evil, which we can only not call boundless. Buddha did this +without any great consciousness of God; and many Indian thinkers +have so emphasized the doctrine that it has taken all the stress +laid on "Bhakti" by Ramanuja and others to restore to life a +perspective or a balance, however it should be described, that will +save men from utter despair. Nor is it Eastern thinkers only who +have taught men the reality of heaven and hell. The poetry of +Aeschylus is full of his great realization of the nexus between act +and outcome. With all the humour and charm there is in Plato, we +cannot escape his tremendous teaching on the age-long consequences +of good and evil in a cosmos ordered by God. Carlyle, in our own +days, realized the same thing--he learnt it no doubt from his +mother; and learnt it again in London. In Mrs. Austen's +drawing-room, with "Sidney Smith guffawing," and "other people +prating, jargoning, to me through these thin cobwebs Death and +Eternity sate glaring." "How will this look in the Universe," he +asks, "and before the Creator of Man?" When someone in his old age +challenged him with the question, "Who will be judge?"--(it is +curious how every sapient inanity strikes, as on an original idea, +on the notion that opinions differ, and therefore--apparently, if +their thought has any consequence--are as good one as another)--Who +will be judge? "Hell fire will be judge," said Carlyle, "God +Almighty will be the judge now and always." There is a gulf between +good and evil, and each is inexorably fertile of consequence. There +is no escaping the issue of moral choice. That is the conclusion of +men who have handled human experience in a serious spirit. As +physical laws are deducible from the reactions of matter and force, +and are found to be uniform and inevitable, fundamental in the +nature of matter and force, so clear-thinking men in the course of +ages have deduced moral laws from their observation of human nature, +laws as uniform, inevitable and fundamental. In neither case has it +been that men invented or imagined the laws; in both cases it has +been genuine discovery of what was already existent and operative, +and often the discovery has involved surprise. + +If Jesus had failed to see laws so fundamental, which other teachers +of mankind have recognized, it is hardly likely that his teaching +would have survived or influenced men as it has done. Mankind can +dispense with a teacher who misses patent facts, whatever his charm. +But there never was any doubt that Jesus was alive to the difference +between right and wrong. His critics saw this, but they held that he +confused moral issues, and that his distinctions in the ethical +sphere were badly drawn. + +Jesus could not have ignored the problem of sin and forgiveness, +even if he had wished to ignore it. To this the thought of mankind +had been gravitating, and in Jewish and in Greek thought, conduct +was more and more the centre of everything. For the Stoics morals +were the dominant part of philosophy; but for our present purpose we +need not go outside the literature of the New Testament. Sin was the +keynote of the preaching of John the Baptist. It is customary to +connect the mission of Jesus with that of John, and to find in the +Baptist's preaching either the announcement of his Successor (as is +said with most emphasis in the Fourth Gospel), or (as some now say) +the impulse which drove Jesus of Nazareth into his public ministry. +Whatever may be the historical connexion between them, it is as +important for us at least to realize the broad gulf that separates +them. They meet, it is true; both use the phrase "Kingdom of God," +both preach repentance in view of the coming of the Kingdom; and we +are apt to assume they mean the same thing; but Jesus took some +pains to make it clear, though in the gentlest and most sympathetic +way, that they did not. + +On the famous occasion, when John the Baptist sent two of his +disciples to Jesus with his striking message: "Art thou he that +should come? or look we for another?" (Luke 7:19-35; Matt. 11:1-19), +Jesus, when the messengers were gone, spoke to the people about the +Baptist. "What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed +shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? A prophet? Yea, +I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. Among those that are +born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, +but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he." I am +not sure which is the right translation, whether it is "he that is +less, least, or little," and I do not propose to discuss it. The +judgement is remarkable enough in any case, and the words of Jesus, +as we have seen, have a close relation to real fact as he saw it. +Why does he speak in this way? Our answer to this question, if we +can answer it, will help us forward to the larger problem before us. +But, for this, we shall have to study John with some care. + +There is a growing agreement among scholars that there is some +confusion in our data as to John the Baptist. There are gaps in the +record--for instance, how and why did the school of John survive as +it did (Acts 18:25, 19:1-7)? And again there are, in the judgement +of some, developments of the story. The Gospel, with varying degrees +of explicitness, and St. Paul by inference (Acts 19:4) tell us that +John pointed to "him which should come after him." Christians, at +any rate, after the Resurrection, had no doubt that this was Jesus. +Whether John was as definite as the narratives now represent him to +have been, has been doubted in view of his message to Jesus. But +that is not our present subject. We are concerned less with John as +precursor than as teacher and thinker. + +Even if our data are defective, still enough is given us to let us +see a very striking and commanding figure. We have a picture of him, +his dress, his diet, his style of speech, his method of action--in +every way he is a signal and arresting man. The son of a priest, he +is an ascetic, who lives in the wilderness, dresses like a peasant, +and eats the meanest and most meagre of food--a man of the desert +and of solitude. And the whole life reacts on him and we can see +him, lean and worn, though still a young man, a keen, rather +excitable spirit--in every feature the marks of revolt against a +civilization which he views as an apostasy. Luke, using a phrase +from the Old Testament, says, "The word of God came upon John in the +wilderness" (Luke 3:2). Luke leans to Old Testament phrase, and here +is one that hits off the man to the very life. Jesus himself +confirms Luke's judgement (Mark 11:29-33). The Word of the Lord has +come on this ascetic figure, and he goes to the people with the +message; he draws their attention and they crowd out to see him. He +makes a great sensation. He is not like other men--for Jesus quotes +their remark that "he had a devil" (Luke 7:33)--a rough and ready +way of explaining unlikeness to the average man. When he sees his +congregation his words are not conciliatory; he addresses them as a +"generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7); and his text is the "wrath to +come." + +Jesus asks whether they went out to see a reed shaken by the wind, +or someone dressed like a courtier--the last things to which anyone +would compare John. There was nothing supple about him, as Herod +found, and Herodias (Mark 6:17-20); he was not shaken by the wind; +there was no trimming of his sails. The austerity of his life and +the austerity of his spirit go together, and he preached in a tone +and a language that scorched. He preached righteousness, social +righteousness, and he did it in a great way. He brought back the +minds of his people, like Amos and others, to God's conceptions and +away from their own. Crowds of people went out to hear him (Mark +1:5). And he made a deep impression on many whose lives needed +amendment (Matt. 21:26, 32; Luke 20:6).[27] We have the substance of +what he said in the third chapter of St. Luke; how he told the +tax-collectors to be honest and not make things worse than they need +be; the soldiers to do violence to no man and accuse no man falsely, +and to be content with their wages; and to ordinary people he +preached humanity: "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him +that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." It may +be remarked of John, and it is true also of Jesus, that neither +attacked the absent nor inveighed against economic conditions, as +some modern preachers do with, let us say, capitalists and the +morality of other nations. Neither says a word against the Roman +Empire. Slavery is not condemned explicitly even by Jesus, though he +gave the dynamic that abolished it. The practical guidance that John +gave, he gave in response to men's inquiries. + +Like an Old Testament prophet (cf. Amos 3:2), John tore to tatters +any plea that could be offered that his listeners were God's chosen +people, the children of Abraham. Does God want children of +Abraham?--John pointed to the stones on the ground, and said, if God +wanted, he could make children of Abraham out of them; a word and he +could have as many children of Abraham as he wished. It was +something else that God sought. + +"John," writes the historian Josephus a generation later, "was a +good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue both in justice +toward one another and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; +for so baptism would be acceptable to God if they made use of it, +not to excuse certain sins, but for the purification of the body, +provided that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by +righteousness."[28] This interpretation of John's baptism makes it +look very like the baptisms and other purificatory rites of the +heathen. The Gospels attribute to John a message, richer and more +powerful, but essentially the same; and the criticism of Jesus +confirms the account. The great note in his preaching is judgement; +the Kingdom of God is coming, and it begins with judgement. Again, +it is like Amos--"The axe is at the root of the tree," "His fan is +in His hand." And as men listened to the man and looked at him--his +intense belief in his message, backed up by a stern self-discipline, +a whole life inspired, infused by conviction--they believed this +message of the axe, the fan, and the fire. They asked and as we have +seen received his guidance on the conduct of life; they accepted his +baptism, and set about the amending of character (Matt. 21:32). + +Jesus makes it quite clear that he held John to be an entirely +exceptional man, and that he had no doubt that John's teaching was +from God (Matt. 21:32; Luke 7:35, 20:4; and, of course, Luke +7:26-28). It was all in the line of the great prophets; and the +Fourth Gospel shows it us once more in the work of the Holy +Spirit--"when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of +sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement" (John 16:8). And yet, +as Jesus says, there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist. + +In Mark's narrative (2:18) a very significant episode is recorded. +John inculcated fasting, and his disciples fasted a great deal +("pykna", Luke 5:33); and once, Mark tells us, when they were +actually fasting, they asked Jesus why his disciples did not do the +same? Jesus' answer is a little cryptic at first sight. "Can the +children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with +them?" Who fasts at the wedding feast, in the hour of gladness? And +then he passes on to speak about the new patch on the old garment, +the new wine in the old wine skins; and it looks as if it were not +merely a criticism of John's disciples but of John himself. John, +indeed, brings home with terrific force and conviction that truth of +God which the prophets had preached before; but he leaves it there. +He emphasizes once more the old laws of God, the judgements of God, +but he brings no transforming power into men's lives. The old +characters, the old motives more or less, are to be patched by a new +fear. + +"Repent, repent," John cries, "the judgement is coming." And men do +repent, and John baptises them as a symbol that God has forgiven +them. But how are they to go on? What is the power that is to carry +John's disciples through the rest of their lives? We are not in +possession of everything that John says, but there is no indication +that John had very much to say about any force or power that should +keep men on the plane of repentance. It is our experience that we +repent and fall again; what else was the experience of the people +whom John baptised? What was to keep them on the new level--not only +in the isolation of the desert, but in the ordinary routine of town +and village? In John's teaching there is not a word about that; and +this is a weakness of double import. For, as Jesus puts it, the new +patch on the old garment makes the rent worse; it does not leave it +merely as it was. If the "unclean spirit" regain its footing in a +man, it does not come alone--"the last state of that man is worse +than the first" (Luke 11:24-26). Jesus is very familiar with the +type that welcomes new ideas and new impulses in religion and yet +does nothing, grows tired or afraid, and relapses (Mark 4:17). + +Again, in John's teaching, as far as we have it, there is a striking +absence of any clear word about any relation to God, beyond that of +debtor and creditor, judge and prisoner on trial, king and subject. +God may forgive and God will judge; but so far as our knowledge of +John's teaching goes, these are the only two points at which man and +God will touch each other; and these are not intimate relations. +There is no promise and no gladness in them; no "good news." John +taught prayer--all sorts of people teach prayer; but what sort of +prayer? It has been remarked of the Greek poet, Apollonius Rhodius, +that his heroes used prayers, but their prayers were like official +documents. Of what character were the prayers that John taught his +disciples? None of them survive; but there is perhaps a tacit +criticism of them in the request made to the New Teacher: "Teach us +to pray, as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). One feels that +the men wanted something different from John's prayers. Great and +strenuous prayers they may have been, but in marked contrast to the +prayers of Jesus and his followers, because of the absence in John's +message of any strong note of the love and tenderness of God. + +Finally, the very righteousness that John preaches with such fire +and energy is open to criticism. Far more serious than the +righteousness of the Pharisees, stronger in insight and more +generous in its scope, it fails in the same way; it is +self-directed. It aims at a man's own salvation, and it is to be +achieved by a man's own strength in self-discipline, with what +little help John's system of prayer and fasting may win for a man +from God. John fails precisely where his strength is greatest and +most conspicuous. His theme is sin; his emphasis all falls on sin; +but his psychology of sin is insufficient, it is not deep enough. +The simple, strenuous ascetic did not realize the seriousness of sin +after all--its deep roots, its haunting power, its insidious charm. +St. Paul saw far deeper into it "I am carnal, sold under sin. What I +hate that do I. The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which +I would not, that I do. I see a law in my members bringing me into +captivity to the law of sin. O wretched man that I am! Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:14-24). Sin, in +John's thought, is contumacy or rebellion against the law of God; he +does not look at it in relation to the love of God--a view of it +which gives it another character altogether. Nor has John any great +conception of forgiveness--a man, he thinks, may win it by "fruits +worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:8). Here again Paul is the pioneer in +the universal Christian experience that fruits of repentance can +never buy God's forgiveness. That is God's gift. That forgiveness +may cost a man much--an amended life, the practices of prayer and +fasting and almsgiving--John conceives; but we are not led to think +that he thought of what it might cost God. John has no evangel, no +really good news, with gladness and singing in it (1 Peter 1:8). + +When we return to the teaching of Jesus, we find that he draws a +clear and sharp line between right and wrong. He indicates that +right is right to the end of all creation, and wrong is wrong up to +the very Judgement Throne of God (Matt. 25). He views these things, +as the old phrase puts it, "sub specie aeternitatis", from the +outlook of eternity. Right and wrong do not meet at infinity. There +is no higher synthesis that can make them one and the same thing. +Everything with Jesus is Theocentric, and until God changes there +will be no very great change in right and wrong. Partly because he +uses the language of his day, partly because he thinks as a rule in +pictures, his language is apt to be misconstrued by moderns. But the +central ideas are clear enough. "How are you to escape the judgement +of Gehenna?" he asks the Pharisees (Matt. 23:33; the subjunctive +mood is worth study). It is not a threat, but a question. There +yawns the chasm; with your driving, how do you think you can avoid +disaster? He warns men of a doom where the worm dies not and the +fire is not quenched; a man will do well to sacrifice hand, foot or +eye, to save the rest of himself from that (Mark 9:43-48). But a +more striking picture, though commonly less noticed, he draws or +suggests in talk at the last supper. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan +asked for you to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for thee, that thy +faith fail not; and thou, when thou comest back, strengthen thy +brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). The scene suggested is not unlike that +at the beginning of the Book of Job, or that in the Book of +Zechariah (chap. 3). There is the throne of God, and into that +Presence pushes Satan with a demand--the verb in the Greek is a +strong one, though not so strong as the Revised Version suggests. +Satan "made a push to have you." "But I prayed for thee." + +To any reader who has any feeling or imagination, what do these +short sentences mean? What can they mean, from the lips of a thinker +so clear and so serious, and a friend so tender? What but +unspeakable peril? The language has for us a certain strangeness; +but it shows plainly enough that, to Jesus' mind, the disciples, and +Peter in particular, stood in danger, a danger so urgent that it +called for the Saviour's prayer. So much it meant to him, and he +himself tells Peter what he had realized, what he had done, in +language that could not be mistaken or forgotten. To the nature of +the danger that sin involves, we shall return. Meanwhile we may +consider what Jesus means by sin before we discuss its consequences. + +"The Son of Man," says Jesus, in a sentence that is famous but still +insufficiently studied, "is come to seek and to save that which is +lost" (Luke 19:10). Our rule has been to endeavour to give to the +terms of Jesus the connotation he meant them to carry. The scholar +will linger over the "Son of Man"--a difficult phrase, with a +literary and linguistic history that is very complicated. For the +present purpose the significant words are at the other end of the +sentence. What does Jesus mean by "lost"? It is a strong word, the +value of which we have in some degree lost through familiarity. And +whom would he describe as "lost"? We have once more to recall his +criticism of Peter--that Peter "thought like a man and not like God" +(Mark 8:33)--and to be on our guard lest we think too quickly and +too slightly. We may remark, too, that for Jesus sin is not, as for +Paul and theologians in general, primarily an intellectual problem. +He does not use the abstraction Sin as Paul does. But the clear, +steady gaze turned on men and women misses little. + +There are four outstanding classes, whom he warns of the danger of +hell in one form or other. + +To begin, there is the famous description of the Last Judgement +(Matt. 25:31-46)--a description in itself not altogether new. Plenty +of writers and thinkers had described the scene, and the broad +outlines of the picture were naturally common property; yet it is to +these more or less conventional traits that attention has often been +too exclusively devoted. Jesus, however, altered the whole character +of the Judgement Day scene by his account of the principles on which +the Judge decides the cases brought before him. On the right hand of +the Judge are--not the Jews confronting the Gentiles on the +left--nor exactly the well-conducted and well-balanced people who +get there in Greek allegories--but a group of men and women who +realize where they are with a gasp of surprise. How has it come +about? The Judge tells them: "I was an hungered and ye gave me +meat," and the rest of the familiar words. But this does not quite +settle the question. Embarrassment rises on their faces--is it a +mistake? One of them speaks for the rest: "Lord, when saw we thee an +hungered and fed thee?" They do not remember it. There is something +characteristic there of the whole school of Jesus; these people are +"children of fact," honest as their Master, and they will not accept +heaven in virtue of a possible mistake. And it appears from the +Judge's answer that such instinctive deeds go further than men +think, even if they are forgotten. Wordsworth speaks of the "little +nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love" that are "the +best portion of a good man's life."[29] The acts of kindness were +forgotten just because they were instinctive, but, Jesus emphasizes +the point, they are decisive; they come, as another of his telling +phrases suggests, from "the overflow of the heart," and they reveal +it. With the people on the left hand it was the other way. They were +fairly well in possession of their good records, but they had missed +the decisive fact--they were instinctively hard. Such people Jesus +warns. So familiar are his words that there is a danger of our +limiting them to their first obvious meaning. Eighty years ago +Thomas Carlyle looked out on the England he knew, and remarked that +it was strange that the great battle of civilized man should be +still the battle of the savage against famine, and with that he +observed that the people were "needier than ever of inward +sustenance." Is there a warning in this picture of the people on the +left hand that applies to deeper things than physical hunger? A +warning to those who do not heed another's need of "inward +sustenance," of spiritual life, of God? It looks likely. Otherwise +there is a risk of our declining upon a "Social Righteousness" that +falls a long way short of John the Baptist's, and does less for any +soul, our own or another's. + +The second class warned by Jesus consists of several groups dealt +with in the Sermon on the Mount--people whose sin is not murder or +adultery, but merely anger and the unclean thought--not the people +who actually give themselves away, like the publicans and +harlots--but those who would not be sorry to have that ring of Gyges +which Plato described, who would like to do certain things if they +could, who at all events are not unwilling to picture what they +would wish to do, if it were available, and meanwhile enjoy the +thought (Matt. 5:21, 22, 27-29). Here St. Paul can supply commentary +with his suggestion that one form of God's condemnation is where he +gives up a man to his own reprobate mind (Romans 1:28--the whole +passage is worth study in the Greek). The mind, in Paul's phrases, +becomes darkened (Rom. 1:21), stained (Titus 1:15), and cauterized +(1 Tim. 4:2), invalidated for the discharge of its proper functions, +as a burnt hand loses the sense of touch, or a stained glass gives +the man a blue or red world instead of the real one. Blindness and +mutilation are better, Jesus said, than the eye of lust (Matt. +5:28). How different from the moralists, for whom sin lies in +action, and all actions are physical! The idle word is to condemn a +man, not because it is idle, but because, being unstudied, it speaks +of his heart and reveals, unconsciously but plainly, what he is in +reality (Matt. 12:36). Thus it is that what comes out of the mouth +defiles a man (Matt. 15:18)--with the curious suggestion, whether +intended or not, that the formulation of a floating thought gives it +new power to injure or to help. That is true; impression loose, as +it were, in the mind, mere thought--stuff, is one thing; formulated, +brought to phrase and form, it takes on new life and force; and when +it is evil, it does defile, and in a permanent way. Marcus Aurelius +has a very similar warning (v. 16)--"Whatever the colour of the +thoughts often before thy mind, that colour will thy mind take. For +the mind is dyed (or stained) by its thoughts." "Phantazesthai" and +"phantasiai" are the words--and they suggest something between +thoughts and imaginations--mental pictures would be very near it. + +The third group whom Jesus warned, the most notorious of all, was +the Pharisee class. They played at religion--tithed mint and anise +and cumin, and forgot judgement and mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23). +Jesus said that the Pharisee was never quite sure whether the +creature he was looking at was a camel or a mosquito--he got them +mixed (Matt. 23:24). Once we realize what this tremendous irony +means, we are better able to grasp his thought. The Pharisee was +living in a world that was not the real one--it was a highly +artificial one, picturesque and charming no doubt, but dangerous. +For, after all, we do live in the real world--there is only one +world, however many we may invent; and to live in any other is +danger. Blindness, that is partial and uneven, lands a man in peril +whenever he tries to come downstairs or to cross the street--he +steps on the doorstep that is not there and misses the real one. He +is involved in false appearances at every turn. And so it is in the +moral world--there is one real, however many unreals there are, and +to trust to the unreal is to come to grief on the real. "The +beginning of a man's doom," wrote Carlyle, "is that vision be +withdrawn from him." "Thou blind Pharisee!" (Matt. 23:26). The cup +is clean enough without; it is septic and poisonous within--and from +which side of it do you drink, outside or inside? (Matt. 23:25). As +we study the teaching of Jesus here, we see anew the profundity of +the saying attributed to him in the Fourth Gospel, "The truth shall +make you free" (John 8:32). The man with astigmatism, or myopia, or +whatever else it is, must get the glasses that will show him the +real world, and he is safe, and free to go and come as he pleases. +See the real in the moral sphere, and the first great peril is gone. +Nothing need be said at this point of the Pharisee who used +righteousness and long prayers as a screen for villainy. Probably +his doom was that in the end he came to think his righteousness and +his prayers real, and to reckon them as credit with a God, who did +not see through them any more than he did himself. It is a mistake +to over-emphasize here the devouring of widow' houses by the +Pharisee (Matt. 23:14), for it was no peculiar weakness of his; +publicans and unjust judges did the same. Only the publican and the +unjust judge told themselves no lies about it. The Pharisee +lied--lying to oneself or lying to another, which is the worse? The +more dangerous probably is lying to oneself, though the two +practices generally will go together in the long run. The worst +forms of lying, then, are lying to oneself and lying about God; and +the Pharisee combined them, and told himself that, once God's proper +dues of prayer and tithe were paid, his treatment of the widow and +her house was correct. Hence, says Jesus, he receives "greater +damnation" (A.V.)--or judgement on a higher scale ("perissoteron +krima"). + +The Pharisees were men who believed in God--only that with his +world, they re-created him (as we are all apt to do for want of +vision or by choice); but what is atheism, what can it be, but +indifference to God's facts and to God's nature? If religion is +union with God, in the phrase we borrow so slightly from the +mystics, how can a man be in union with God, when the god he sees is +not there, is a figment of his own mind, something different +altogether from God? Or, if we use the phrase of the Old Testament. +prophet and of Jesus himself, if religion is vision of God, what is +our religion, if after all we are not seeing God at all, but +something else--a dummy god, like that of the Pharisees, some +trifling martinet who can be humbugged--or, to come to ourselves, a +majestic bundle of abstract nouns loosely tied up in impersonality? +For all such Jesus has a caution. Indifference to God's facts leads +to one end only. We admit it ourselves. There are those who scold +Bunyan for sending Ignorance to hell, but we omit to ask where else +could Ignorance go, whether Bunyan sent him or not. Ignorance, as to +germs or precipices or what not, leads to destruction "in pari +materia"; in the moral sphere can it be otherwise? This serves in +some measure to explain why Jesus is so tender to gross and flagrant +sinners, a fact which some have noted with surprise. Surely it is +because publican and harlot have fewer illusions; they were left +little chance of imagining their lives to be right before God. What +Jesus thought of their hardness and impurity we have seen already, +but heedless as they were of God's requirements of them, they were +not guilty of the intricate atheism of the Pharisees. Further, +whether it was in his mind or not, it is also true that the frankly +gross temptations do bring a man face to face with his own need of +God, as the subtler do not; and so far they make for reality. + +The fourth group are those who cannot make up their minds. "No man, +having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). The word is an interesting one +("euthetos"), it means "handy" or "easy to place." (The word is used +of the salt not "fit" for land or dunghill (Luke 14:35), and the +negative of the inconvenient harbour (Acts 27:12).) This man is not +adapted for the Kingdom of God; he is not easy to place there. Like +the man who saved his talent but did not use it (Matt. 25:24), he is +not exactly bad; but he is "no good," as we say. Jesus conceives of +the Kingdom of God as dynamic, not static; state or place, condition +or relation, it implies work, as God himself implies work. He holds +that truth is not a curiosity for the cabinet but a tool in the +hand; that God's earnest world is no place for nondescript, and that +there is only one region left to which they can drift. What part or +place can there be in the Kingdom of Heaven--in a kingdom won on +Calvary--for people who cannot be relied on, who cannot decide +whether to plough or not to plough, nor, when they have made up +their mind, stick to it? Jesus cannot see. (What a revelation of the +force and power of his own character!) + +These, then, are the four classes whom Jesus warns, and it is clear +from the consideration of them that his view of sin is very +different from those current in that day. Men set sin down as an +external thing that drifted on to one like a floating burr--or like +paint, perhaps--it could be picked off or burnt off. It was the +eating of pork or hare--something technical or accidental; or it +was, many thought, the work of a demon from without, who could be +driven out to whence he came. Love and drunkenness illustrated the +thing for them--a change of personality induced by an exterior force +or object, as if the human spirit were a glass or a cup into which +anything might be poured, and from which it could be emptied and the +vessel itself remain unaffected. Jesus has a deeper view of sin, a +stronger psychology, than these, nor does he, like some quick +thinkers of to-day, put sin down to a man's environment, as if +certain surroundings inevitably meant sin. Jesus is quite definite +that sin is nothing accidental--it is involved in a man's own +nature, in his choice, it comes from the heart, and it speaks of a +heart that is wrong. When we survey the four groups, it comes to one +central question at last: Has a man been in earnest with himself +about God's dealings with him? Hardness and lust make a man play the +fool with human souls whom God loves and cares for--a declaration of +war on God himself. Wilful self-deception about God needs no +comment; to shilly-shally and let decision slide, where God is +concerned, is atheism too. In a word, what is a man's fundamental +attitude to God and God's facts? That is Jesus' question. Sin is +tracked home to the innermost and most essential part of the +man--his will. It is no outward thing, it is inward. It is not that +evil befalls us, but that we are evil. In the words of Edward Caird, +"the passion that misleads us is a manifestation of the same ego, +the same self-conscious reason which is misled by it," and thus, as +Burns puts it, "it is the very 'light from heaven' that leads us +astray." The man uses his highest God-given faculties, and uses them +against God. + +But this is not all. Many people will agree with the estimate of +Jesus, when they understand it, in regard to most of these classes; +perhaps they would urge that in the main it is substantially the +same teaching as John the Baptist's, though it implies, as we shall +see, a more difficult problem in getting rid of sin. Jesus goes +further. He holds up to men standards of conduct which transcend +anything yet put before mankind. "Be ye therefore perfect," he says, +"even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). +When we recall what Jesus teaches of God, when we begin to try to +give to "God" the content he intended, we realize with amazement +what he is saying. He is holding up to men for their ideal of +conduct the standard of God's holiness, of God's love and +tenderness. Everything that Jesus tells us of God--all that he has +to say of the wonderful and incredible love of God and of God's +activity on behalf of his children--he now incorporates in the ideal +of conduct to which men are called. John's conceptions of +righteousness grow beggarly. Here is a royal magnificence of active +love, of energetic sympathy, tenderness, and self-giving, asked of +us, who find it hard enough to keep the simplest commandments from +our youth up (Mark 10:20). We are to love our enemies, to win them, +to make peace, to be pure--and all on the scale of God. And that +this may not seem mere talk in the air, there is the character and +personality of Jesus, embodying all he asks of us--bringing out new +wonders of God's goodness, the ugliness and evil of sin, and the +positive and redemptive beauty of righteousness. + +The problem of sin and forgiveness becomes more difficult, as we +think of the positive ideals which we have not begun to try to +reach. Let us sum up what it involves. + +Jesus brings out the utter bankruptcy to which sin reduces men. They +become "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Matt. 23:28), so +depraved that they are like bad trees, unproductive of any but bad +fruit (rotten, in the Greek, Matt. 7:17); the very light in them is +darkness, and how great darkness (Matt. 6:23). They are cut off from +the real world, as we saw, and lose the faculties they have +abused--the talent is taken away (Matt. 25:28); "from him that hath +not, shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Matt. 25:29). The +nature is changed as memory is changed, and the "overflow of the +heart" in speech and act bears witness to it. The faculty of choice +is weakened; the interval in which inhibition--to use our modern +term--is possible, grows shorter. The instincts are perverted and +the whole being is disorganized. In a word, all that Jesus connotes +by "the Kingdom of God" is "taken from them" (Matt. 21:43), and +nothing left but "outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). The vision of God +is not for the impure (Matt. 5:8). Meanwhile sin is not a sterile +thing, it is a leaven (Matt. 16:6). If our modern medical language +may be applied--and Jesus used the analogy of medicine in this very +case (Mark 2:17)--sin is septic. In the first place, all sin is +anti-social--an invasion "ipso facto" of the rights of others. The +man who sins either takes away what is another's--a man's goods, a +widow's house, or a woman's purity--or he fails to give to others +what is their due, be it, in the obvious field, the aid the Good +Samaritan rendered to the wounded and robbed man by the roadside +(Luke 10:33), or, in the higher sphere, truth, sympathy, help in the +maintenance of principle, or in the achievement of progress and +development (cf. Matt. 25:43). Sin is the repudiation of the +concepts of law, duty, and service, in a word, of the love on God's +scale which God calls men to exercise. And its fruits are, above +all, its dissemination. Injustice, a historian has said, always +repays itself with frightful compound interest. If a man starts to +debauch society, his example is quickly followed; and it comes to +hatred. + +What, we asked, did Jesus mean by "lost"? This, above all, that sin +cuts a man adrift from God. In the parable of the Prodigal Son this +is brought out (Luke 15:11-32). There the youth took from his father +all he could get, and then deliberately turned his back on him +forever; he went into a far country, out of his reach, outside his +influence, and beyond the range of his ideas, and he devoted his +father's gifts to precisely what would sadden and trouble his father +most. And then came bankruptcy, final and hopeless. There was no +father available in the far country; he had to live without him, and +it came to a life that was not even human--a life of solitude, a +life of beasts. Jesus draws it, as he does most things, in picture +form, using parable. Paul puts the same in directer language; sin +reduces men to a position where they are "alienated from the life of +God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), "without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), +"enemies of God" (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21); but he does not say more +than Jesus implies. Paul's final expression, "God gave them up" +(thrice in Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), answers to the Judge's word, in +Jesus' picture, "Depart from me" (Matt. 25:41). + + O Wedding-guest, this soul hath been + Alone on a wide, wide sea: + So lonely 'twas, that God himself + Scarce seeméd there to be. + +So Jesus handles the problem of sin, but that is only half the +story, for there remains the problem of Redemption. The treatment of +sin is far profounder and truer than John the Baptist or any other +teacher has achieved; and it implies that Jesus will handle +Redemption in a way no less profound and effective. If he does not, +then he had better not have preached a gospel. If, in dealing with +sin, he touches reality at every point, we may expect him in the +matter of Redemption to reach the very centre of life.[30] How else +can he, with his serious view of sin, say to a man, "Thy sins are +forgiven thee"? (Mark 2:5). But it is quite clear from our records +that, while Jesus laid bare in this relentless way the ugliness and +hopelessness of sin, he did not despair: his tone is always one of +hope and confidence. The strong man armed may find a stronger man +come upon him and take from him the panoply in which he trusted +(Luke 11:21, 22). There is a great gulf that cannot be crossed (Luke +16:26)--yes, but if the experience of Christendom tells us anything, +it tells us that Jesus crossed it himself, and did the impossible. +"The great matter is that Jesus believed God was willing to take the +human soul, and make it new and young and clean again." But the +human soul did not believe it, till Jesus convinced it, and won it, +by action of his own. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that +which was lost"; and he did not come in vain. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + +By what they said, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and +had fought with and slain him that had the power of death (Hebrews +2:14), but not without great danger to himself, which made me love +him the more--"Pilgrims Progress", Part I + +The subject before us is one of the greatest difficulty. Why Jesus +chose the cross has exercised the thought of the Christian world +ever since he did so. He told his disciples beforehand of what lay +before him, of what he was choosing, but it was long before they +realized that he meant any such thing. The cross was to them a +strange idea, and for a long time they did not seriously face the +matter. Once the cross was an accomplished fact, Christians could +not, and did not wish to, avoid thinking out what had meant so much +to their Master; but it has mostly been with a sense of facing a +mystery that in some measure eluded them, with a feeling that there +is more beyond, something always to be attained hereafter. + +A very significant passage in St. Mark (10:32) gives us a glimpse of +a moment on Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem. It is a sentence which +one could hardly imagine being included in the Gospel, if it did not +represent some actual memory, and a memory of significance. It runs +something like this: "And they were in the way, going up to +Jerusalem, and Jesus was moving on before them; and they began to +wonder; and as they followed they began to be afraid." He is moving +to Jerusalem with a purpose. They do not understand it. He is +wrapped in thought; and, as happens when a man's mind is working +strongly, his pace quickens, and they find themselves at a distance +behind him. And then something comes over them--a sense that there +is something in the situation which they do not understand, a +strangeness in the mind. They realize, in fact, that they are not as +near Jesus as they had supposed. And, as they follow, the wonder +deepens into fear. + +Anyone who will really try to grapple with this problem of the cross +will find very soon the same thing. The first thing that we need to +learn, if our criticism of Jesus is to be sound, is that we are not +at all so near him as we have imagined. He eludes us, goes far out +beyond what we grasp or conceive; and I think the education of the +Christian man or woman begins anew, when we realize how little we +know about Jesus. The discovery of our ignorance is the beginning of +knowledge. Plato long ago said that wonder is the mother of +philosophy, and he was right. John Donne, the English poet, went +farther, and said: "All divinity is love or wonder." When a man then +begins to wonder about Jesus Christ in earnest, Jesus comes to be +for him a new figure. Historical criticism has done this for us; it +has brought us to such a point that the story of these earliest +disciples repeats itself more closely in the experience of their +followers of these days than in any century since the first. We +begin along with them on the friendly, critical, human plane, and +with them we follow him into experiences and realizations that we +never expected. It may be summed up in the familiar words of the +English hymn, + + Oh happy band of pilgrims, + If onward ye will tread + With Jesus as your fellow, + To Jesus as your head. + +These men begin with him, more or less on a footing of equality; or, +at least, the inequality is very lightly marked. Afterwards it is +emphasized; and they realize it with wonder and with fear, and at +last with joy and gratitude. + +We may begin by trying steadily to bring our minds to some keener +sense of what it was that he chose. To say, in the familiar words, +that he chose the cross, may through the very familiarity of the +language lead us away from what we have to discover. We have, as we +agreed, to ask ourselves what was his experience. What, then, did +his choice involve? It meant, of course, physical pain. There are +natures to whom this is of little account, but the sensitive and +sentient type, as we often observe, dreads pain. He, with open eyes, +chose physical pain, heightened to torture, not escaping any of the +suffering which anticipation gives--that physical horror of death, +that instinctive fear of annihilation, which nature suggests of +itself. He took the course of action that would most severely test +his disciples; one at least revolted, and we have to ask what it +meant to Jesus to live with Judas, to watch his face, to recognize +his influence in the little group--yes, and to try to win him again +and to be repelled. "He learnt by the things that he suffered" that +Judas would betray him; but the hour and place and method were not +so evident, and when they were at last revealed--what did it mean to +be kissed by Judas? Do we feel what he felt in the so-called +trials--or was he dull and numbed by the catastrophe? How did he +bear the beating of triumphant hatred upon a forsaken spirit? How +did the horrible cry, "Crucify him! crucify him!" break on his +ears--on his mind? When "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter" +(Luke 22:61), what did it mean? How did he know that Peter was +there, and what led him to turn at that moment? Was there in the +Passion no element of uneasiness again about the eleven on whom he +had concentrated his hopes and his influence--the eleven of whom it +is recorded, that "they all forsook him, and fled" (Mark 14:50)? No +hint of dread that his work might indeed be undone? What pain must +that have involved? What is the value of the Agony in the Garden, of +the cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15:34)? When we have +answered, each for himself, these questions, and others like them +that will suggest themselves--answered them by the most earnest +efforts of which our natures are capable--and remembered at the end +how far our natures fall short of his, and told ourselves that our +answers are insufficient--then let us recall, once more, that he +chose all this. + +He chose the cross and all that it meant. Our next step should be to +study anew his own references to what he intends by it, to what he +expects to be its results and its outcome. First of all, then, he +clearly means that the Kingdom of Heaven is something different from +anything that man has yet seen. The Kingdom of Heaven is, I +understand, a Hebrew way of saying the Kingdom of God--very much as +men to-day speak of Providence, to avoid undue familiarity with the +term God, so the Jews would say Heaven. There were many who used the +phrase in one or other form; but it is always bad criticism to give +to the words of genius the value or the connotation they would have +in the lips of ordinary people. To a great mind words are charged +with a fullness of meaning that little people do not reach. The +attempt has been made to recapture more of his thoughts by learning +the value given to some of the terms he uses as they appear in the +literature of the day, and of course it has been helpful. But we +have to remember always that the words as used by him come with a +new volume of significance derived from his whole personality. +Everything turns on the connotation which he gives to the term +God--that is central and pivotal. What this new Kingdom of God is, +or will be, he does not attempt fully to explain or analyse. In the +parables, the treasure-finder and the pearl merchant achieve a great +enrichment of life; so much they know at once; but what do they do +with it? How do they look at it? What does it mean to them? He does +not tell us. We only see that they are moving on a new plane, seeing +life from a new angle, living in a fuller sense. What the new life +means in its fullness, we know only when we gain the deeper +knowledge of God. + +He suggests that this new knowledge comes to a man from God +himself--flesh and blood do not reveal it (Matt. 16:17). "Unto you +it is given," he says on another occasion, "to know the mystery of +the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mark 4:11), and he adds that there are those +who see and do not see; they are outside it; they have not the +alphabet, we might say, that will open the book (cf. Rev. 5:3). He +makes it clear at every point in the story of the Kingdom of God +that there is more beyond; and he means it. It is to be a new +beginning, an initiation, leading on to what we shall see but do not +yet guess, though he gives us hints. We shall not easily fathom the +depth of his idea of the new life, but along with it we have to +study the width and boldness of his purpose. This new life is not +for a few--for "the elect," in our careless phrase. He looks to a +universal scope for what he is doing. It will reach far outside the +bounds of Judaism. "They shall come from the east and from the west, +and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 13:29). "Wheresoever this gospel shall be +preached throughout the whole world," he says (Mark 14:9). "My words +shall not pass away" (Luke 21:33). All time and all existence come +under his survey and are included in his plan. The range is +enormous. And this was a Galilean peasant! As we gradually realize +what he has in mind, must we not feel that we have not grasped +anything like the full grandeur of his thought? + +He makes it plain, in the second place, that it will be a matter for +followers, for workers, for men who will watch and wait and +dare--men with the same abandonment as himself. He calls for men to +come after him, to come behind him (Mark 1:17, 10:21; Luke 9:59). He +emphasizes that they must think out the terms on which he enlists +them. He does not disguise the drawbacks of his service. He calls +his followers, and a very personal and individual call it is. He +calls a man from the lake shore, from the nets, from the custom +house. + +In the third place, he clearly announces an intention to achieve +something in itself of import by his death. There are those who +would have us believe that his mind was obsessed with the fixed idea +of his own speedy return on the clouds, and that he hurried on to +death to precipitate this and the new age it was to bring. +References to such a coming are indeed found in the Gospels as we +have them, but we are bound to ask whence they come, and to inquire +how far they represent exactly what he said; and then, if he is +correctly reported, to make sure that we know exactly what he means. +Those who hold this view fail to relate the texts they emphasize +with others of a deeper significance, and they ignore the grandeur +and penetration and depth of the man whom they make out such a +dreamer. He never suggests himself that his death is to force the +hand of God. + +He himself is to be the doer and achiever of something. We have been +apt to think of him as a great teacher, a teacher of charm and +insight, or as the great example of idealism, "who saw life steadily +and saw it whole." He lived, some hold, the rounded and well-poised +life, the rhythmic life. No, that was Sophocles. He is greater. Here +is one who penetrates far deeper into things. His treatment of the +psychology of sin itself shows how much more than an example was +needed. Here, as in the other chapters, but here above all we have +to remember the clearness of his insight, his swiftness of +penetration, his instinct for fact and reality. He means to do, to +achieve, something. It is no martyr's death that he incurs. His +death is a step to a purpose. "I have a baptism to be baptised +with," he says (Luke 12:50). "The Son of Man," he said, "is come to +seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). + +In discussing in the previous chapter what he meant by the term +"lost," our conclusion was that for Jesus sin was far more awful, +far more serious, than we commonly realize. We saw also that so +profound and true a psychology of sin must imply a view of +redemption at least as profound, a promise of a force more than +equal to the power of sin--that "violence of habit" of which St. +Augustine speaks. If the Son of Man is to save the lost, and if the +lost are in danger so real, it follows that he must think of a +thoroughly effective salvation, and that its achievement will be no +light or easy task. "To give one's life as a ransom for many," says +a modern teacher, "is of no avail, if the ransom is insufficient." +What, then, and how much, does he mean by "to save," and how does he +propose to do it? When the soul of man or woman has gone wrong in +any of the ways discussed by Jesus--in hardness or anger, in +impurity, in the refusal to treat God and his facts seriously--when +the consequences that Jesus recognized have followed--what can be +done to bring that soul back into effective relation with the God +whom it has discarded and abandoned? That is the problem that Jesus +had to face, and most of us have not thought enough about it. + +First of all, how far does Jesus understand salvation to take a man? +The ancient creed of the Church includes the article of belief in +"the forgiveness of sins." There are those who lightly assume that +this means, chiefly or solely, the remission of punishment for evil +acts. This raises problems enough of itself. The whole doctrine of +"Karma", vital to Buddhism and Hinduism, is, if I understand it +aright, a strong and clear warning to us that the remission of +punishment is no easy matter. Not only Eastern thinkers, but Western +also, insist that there is no avoidance of the consequences of +action. Luther himself, using a phrase half borrowed from a Latin +poet, says that forgiveness is "a knot worthy of a God's +aid"--"nodus Deo vindice dignus".[31] But in any case escape from +the consequences of sin, when once we look on sin with the eyes of +Jesus, is of relatively small importance. There are two aspects of +the matter far more significant. + +We have seen how Jesus regards sin as at once the cause and +consequence of a degeneration of the moral nature, and as a +repudiation of God. Two questions arise: Is it possible to recover +lost moral quality and faculty? Is it possible for those +incapacitated by sin to regain, or to enjoy, relation with God? + +When we think, with Jesus, of sin first and foremost in connexion +with God, and take the trouble to try to give his meaning to his +words, forgiveness takes on a new meaning. We have to "think like +God," he says (Mark 8:33); and perhaps God is in his thoughts +neither so legal nor so biological as we are; perhaps he does not +think first of edicts or of biological and psychological laws. God, +according to Jesus, thinks first of his child, though of course not +oblivious of his own commands and laws. Forgiveness, Jesus teaches +or suggests, is primarily a question between Father and son, and he +tries to lead us to believe how ready the Father is to settle that +question. Once it is settled, we find, in fact, Father and son +setting to work to mend the past. The evil seed has been sown and +the sad crop must be reaped, the man who sowed it has to reap +it--that much we all see. But Jesus hints to us that God himself +loves to come in and help his reconciled son with the reaping; many +hands make light work, especially when they are such hands. And even +when the crop is evil in the lives of others, the most horrible +outcome of sin, God is still in the field. The prodigal, when he +returns, is met with a welcome, and is gradually put in possession +of what he has lost--the robe, the shoes, the ring; and it all comes +from his being at one with his Father again (Luke 15:22ff.). The Son +of Man, historically, has again and again found the lost--the lost +gifts, the lost faculties, the lost charms and graces--and given +them back to the man whom he had also found and brought home to God. + +Let us once more try to get our thoughts Theocentric as Jesus' are, +and our problems become simpler, or at least fewer. God's generosity +in forgiveness, God's love, he emphasizes again and again. Will a +man take Jesus at his word, and commit himself to God? That is the +question. Once he will venture on this step, what pictures Jesus +draws us of what happens! The son is home again; the bankruptcy, the +hideous solitude, the life among animals, bestial, dirty and empty, +and haunted with memories--all those things are past, when once the +Father's arms are round his neck, and his kiss on his cheek. He is +no more "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), +"without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), an "enemy of God" (Rom. +5:10); he was lost and is found, and the Father himself, Jesus says, +cries: "Let us be merry" ("Euphranthomen"). If we hesitate about it, +Jesus calls us once more to "think like God," and tells us other +stories, with incredible joy in them--"joy in the presence of the +angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." We must go back to +his central conception of God, if we are to realize what he means by +salvation. St. Augustine (Conf., viii. 3) brings out the value of +these parables, by reminding us how much more we care for a thing +that has been ours, when we have lost it and found it again. The +shepherd has a new link with his sheep lost and found again, a new +story of it, a shared experience; it is more his than ever. And +Jesus implies that when a man is saved, he is God's again, and more +God's own than ever before; and God is glad at heart. As for the +man; a new power comes into his heart, and a new joy; and with God's +help, in a new spirit of sunshine, he sets about mending the past in +a new spirit and with a new motive--for love's sake now. If the +fruit of the past is to be seen, as it constantly is, in the lives +of others, he throws himself with the more energy into God's work, +and when the Good Shepherd goes seeking the lost, he goes with him. +Christian history bears witness, in every year of it, to what +salvation means, in Jesus' sense. Punishment, consequences, crippled +resources--no, he does not ask to escape them now; all as God +pleases; these are not the things that matter. Life is all to be +boundless love and gratitude and trust; and by and by the new man +wakes up to find sin taken away, its consequences undone, the lost +faculties restored, and life a fuller and richer thing than ever it +was before. + +Somehow so, if we read the Gospels aright, does Jesus conceive of +Salvation. To achieve this for men is his purpose; and in order to +do it, as we said before, his first step is to induce men to +re-think God. Something must be done to touch the heart and to move +the will of men, effectively; and he must do it. + +With this purpose in his mind--let us weigh our words here, and +reflect again upon the clearness of his insight into life and +character, into moral laws, the laws of human thought and feeling, +upon his profound intelligence and grasp of what moves and is real, +his knowledge (a strong word to use, but we may use it) of God--with +this purpose in his mind, thought out and understood, he +deliberately and quietly goes to Jerusalem. He "steadfastly set his +face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). "I must walk," he said, +"to-day and to-morrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a +prophet perish out of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). To Jerusalem he goes. + +We may admit that with his view of the psychology of sin, he must +have a serious view of redemption. But why should that involve the +cross? That is our problem. But while we try to solve it, we must +also remember that behind a great choice there are always more +reasons than we can analyse. A man makes one of the great choices in +life. What has influenced him? Ten to one, if you ask him, he does +not know. Nothing else, he will say, seemed feasible; the thing was +borne in on me, it came to me: reasons? He cannot tabulate reasons; +the thing, he says, was so clear that I was a long way past reasons. +And yet he was right; he had reasons enough. What parent ever +analysed reasons for loving his children, or would tabulate them for +you? Jesus does not explain his reasons. We find, I think, that we +are apt to have far more reasons for doing what we know is wrong, +than we have for doing what we know is right. We do not want reasons +for doing what is right; we know it is right, and there is an end of +it. Once again, Jesus, with his clear eye for the real, sees what he +must do. The salvation of the lost means the cross for himself. But +why? we ask again. We must look a little closer if we are to +understand him. We shall not easily understand him in all his +thoughts, but part of our education comes from the endeavour to +follow him here, to "be with him," in the phrase with which we +began. + +First of all we may put his love of men. He never lost the +individual in the mass, never lost sight of the human being who +needed God. The teacher who put the law of kindness in the great +phrase, "Go with him twain" (Matt. 5:41), was not likely to limit +himself in meeting men's needs. He was bound to do more than we +should expect, when he saw people whom he could help; and it is that +spirit of abounding generosity that shows a man what to do (Luke +6:38). Everywhere, every day, he met the call that quickened +thought and shaped purpose. + +He walked down a street; and the scene of misery or of sin came upon +him with pressure; he could not pass by, as we do, and fail to note +what we do not wish to think of. He knows a pressure upon his spirit +for the man, the child, the woman--for the one who sins, the one who +suffers, the other who dies. They must be got in touch with God. He +sits with his disciples at a meal--the men whom he loved--he watches +them, he listens to them. Peter, James, John, one after the other, +becomes a call to him. They need redemption; they need far more than +they dream; they need God. That pressure is there night and day--it +becomes intercession, and that grows into inspiration. Our prayers +suffer, some one has said, for our want of our identification with +the world's sin and misery. He was identified with the world's sin +and misery, and they followed him into his prayer. It becomes with +him an imperative necessity to effect man's reconciliation with God. +All his experience of man, his love of man, call him that way. + +The second great momentum comes from the love of God, and his faith +in God. Here, again, we must emphasize for ourselves his criticism +of Peter: "You think like a man and not like God" (Mark 8:33). We do +not see God, as Jesus did. He must make plain to men, as it never +was made plain before, the love of God. He must secure that it is +for every man the greatest reality in the world, the one great +flaming fact that burns itself living into every man's +consciousness. He sees that for this God calls him to the cross, so +much so that when he prays in the garden that the cup may pass, his +thoughts range back to "Thy will" (Matt. 26:42). It is God's Will. +Even if he does not himself see all involved, still God knows the +reason; God will manage; God wishes it. "Have faith in God," he used +to say (Mark 11:22). This faith which he has in God is one of the +things that take him to the cross. + +In the third place, we must not forget his sense of his own peculiar +relation to God. If it is safe to rely on St. Mark's chronological +date here, he does not speak of this until Peter has called him the +Messiah. He accepts the title (Mark 8:29). He also uses the +description, Son of Man, with its suggestions from the past. He +forgives sins. He speaks throughout the Gospels as one apart, as one +distinct from us, closely as he is identified with us--and all this +from a son of fact, who is not insane, who is not a quack, whose +eyes are wide open for the real; whose instinct for the ultimate +truth is so keen; who lives face to face with God. What does it +mean? This, for one thing, that most of us have not given attention +enough to this matter. I have confined myself in these chapters to +the Synoptic Gospels, with only two or three references to the +Fourth Gospel, and on the evidence of the Synoptic Gospels, taken by +themselves, it is clear that he means a great deal more than we have +cared to examine. He is the great interpreter of God, and it is +borne in upon him that only by the cross can he interpret God, make +God real to us, and bring us to the very heart of God. That is his +purpose. + +The cross is the outcome of his deepest mind, of his prayer life. It +is more like him than anything else he ever did. It has in it more +of him. Whoever he was, whoever he is, whatever our Christology, one +fact stands out. It was his love of men and women and his faith in +God that took him there. + +Was he justified? was he right? or was it a delusion? + +First of all, let us go back to a historic event. The resurrection +is, to a historian, not very clear in its details. But is it the +detail or the central fact that matters? Take away the resurrection, +however it happened, whatever it was, and the history of the Church +is unintelligible. We live in a rational world--a world, that is, +where, however much remains as yet unexplained, everything has a +promise of being lucid, everything has reason in it. Great results +have great causes. We have to find, somewhere or other, between the +crucifixion and the first preaching of the disciples in Jerusalem, +something that entirely changed the character of that group of men. + +Something happened, so tremendous and so vital, that it changed not +only the character of the movement and the men--but with them the +whole history of the world. The evidence for the resurrection is not +so much what we read in the Gospels as what we find in the rest of +the New Testament--the new life of the disciples. They are a new +group. When it came to the cross, his cross, they ran away. A few +weeks later we find them rejoicing to be beaten, imprisoned and put +to death (Acts 5:41). What had happened? What we have to explain is +a new life--a new life of prayer and joy and power, a new +indifference to physical death, in a new relation to God. That is +one outcome of the cross and of what followed; and as historians we +have to explain it. We have also to explain how the disciples came +to conceive of another Galilean--a carpenter whom they might have +seen sawing and sweating in his shop, with whom they tramped the +roads of Palestine, whom they saw done to death in ignominy and +derision--sitting at the right hand of God. Taken by itself, we +might call such a belief mere folly; but too much goes with it for +so easy an explanation. The cross was not the end. As Mr. Neville +Talbot has recently pointed out in his book, "The Mind of the +Disciples", if the story stopped with the cross, God remains +unexplained, and the story ends in unrelieved tragedy. But it does +not end in tragedy; it ends--if we can use the word as yet--in joy +and faith and victory; and these--how should we have seen them but +for the cross? They are bound up with his choice of the cross and +his triumph over it all. Death is not what it was--"the last line of +all," as Horace says. Life and immortality have been brought to +light (2 Tim. 1:10). "The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world." So we read at the beginning of the Fourth Gospel, and the +historical critic may tell us that he does not think that John the +Baptist said it. None the less, it is a wonderful summary of what +Jesus has done, especially wonderful if we think of it being written +fifty or sixty years after the crucifixion. For, as we survey the +centuries, we find that the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of +the world--to a degree that no one can imagine who has not studied +the ancient world. Those who know the heathen world intimately will +know best the difference he has made. All this new life, this new +joy, this new victory over death and sin is attached to the living +and victorious Son of God. The task of Paul and the others is, as +Dr. Cairns says, "re-thinking everything in the terms of the +resurrection." It is the new factor in the problem of God, so to +speak--the new factor which alters everything that relates to God. +That is saying a great deal, but when we look at Christian history, +is it saying too much? + +But still our first question is unanswered; why should it have been +the cross? One thinker of our day has suggested that, after all, +suffering is a language intelligible to the very simplest, while its +meaning is not exhausted by the deepest. The problem of pain is +always with us. And he chose pain. He never said that pain is a good +thing; he cured it. But he chose it. The ancient world stumbled on +that very thing. God and a Godlike man, their philosophers said, are +not susceptible to pain, to suffering. That was an axiom, very +little challenged. Then if Jesus suffered, he was not God; if he was +God, he did not suffer. The Church denied that, just as the Church +to-day rejects another hasty antithesis about pain, that comes from +New England. He chose pain, and he knew what he was choosing. Then +let us be in no hurry about refusing it, but let us look into it. He +chose it--that is the greatest fact known to us about pain. + +Again, the death of Christ reveals sin in its real significance, in +its true perspective, outside the realm of accident and among the +deepest things of God, "sub specie aeternitatia". Men count +themselves very decent people; so thought the priests and the +Pharisees, and they were. There is nothing about them that one +cannot find in most religious communities and in all governing +classes: the sense of the value of themselves, their preconceptions +and their judgements--a strong feeling of the importance of the work +they have to do, along with a certain reluctance to face strange +facts, and some indifference as to what happens to other people if +the accepted theory of the Cause or the State require them to +suffer. There is nothing about Pilate and Herod, and the Pharisees +and the priests, that is very different from ourselves. But how it +looks in front of the cross! We begin to see how it looks in the +sight of God, and that alters everything; it upsets all our +standards, and teaches us a new self-criticism. + +"You think like man, and not like God," said Jesus (Mark 8:33). The +cross reveals God most sympathetically. We see God in the light of +the fullest and profoundest and tenderest revelation that the world +has had. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" that is the +cry of Jesus on the cross. I have sometimes thought there never was +an utterance that reveals more amazingly the distance between +feeling and fact. That was how he felt--worn out, betrayed, spat +upon, rejected. We feel that God was more there than ever. As has +been said, if it is not God, it is nothing. "God," says Paul, "was +in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). He +chose the cross; and in choosing it, Christians have always felt, he +revealed God; and that is the centre of the great act of Redemption. + +But there is a condition antecedent to understanding the cross. We +have, as we agreed, to ask ourselves, what is the experience which +led him to think as he did? In the simpler language of the Gospels, +quite plain and easy to understand, the call to follow comes +first--the call to deeper association with Jesus Christ in his love +for men. Do not our consciences tell us that, if we really loved +people as Jesus does, if we understood them as sympathetically and +cared as much for them, the cross would be far more intelligible to +us? But if, in plain fact, we do not see why we should bear the +cross for others, why we should deny and obliterate self on this +scale for the salvation of men--how, I ask, to people of such a mind +should Jesus be intelligible? It is not to be expected. In no other +sphere would one dream of it. When a man avows that he does not care +for art or poetry, who would wish to show him poem or picture? How +should a person, who does not care for men, understand the cross? +Deeper association, then, with Jesus in his love of men, in his +agony, in his trust in God--that is the key to all. As we agreed at +the very beginning, we have to know him before we can understand +him. + +It all depends in the long run on one thing; and that we find in the +verse with which we started: "And as they followed, they began to be +afraid." But they followed. We can understand their fear. It comes +to a man in this way. If Jesus crucified means anything like what +the Church has said, and has believed; if God is in that man of +Nazareth reconciling the world to Himself; if there is real meaning +in the Incarnation at all; if all this language represents fact; +"then," he may say, "I am wholly at a loss about everything else." A +man builds up a world of thought for himself--we all do--a scheme of +things; and to a man with a thought-out view of the world, it may +come with an enormous shock to realize this incredible idea, this +incredible truth, of God in Christ. Those who have dwelt most on it, +and value it most, may be most apt to understand what I mean by +calling it incredible. Think of it. It takes your breath away. If +that is true, does not the whole plan of my life fall to pieces--my +whole scheme of things for the world, my whole body of intellectual +conceptions? And the man to whom this happens may well say he is +afraid. He is afraid, because it is so strange; because, when you +realize it, it takes you into a new world; you cannot grasp it. A +man whose instinct is for truth may hesitate--will hesitate about a +conception like this. "Is it possible," he will ask himself, "that I +am deluded?" And another thought rises up again and again, "Where +will it take me?" We can understand a man being afraid in that way. +I do not think we have much right _not_ to be afraid. If it is the +incarnation of God, what right have we not to be afraid? Then, of +course, a man will say that to follow Christ involves too much in +the way of sacrifice. He is afraid on lower grounds, afraid of his +family, afraid for his career; he hesitates. To that man the thing +will be unintelligible. The experience of St. Augustine, revealed in +his "Confessions", is illuminative here. He had intellectual +difficulties in his approach to the Christian position, but the rate +of progress became materially quicker when he realized that the +moral difficulties came first, that a practical step had to be +taken. So with us--to decide the issue, how far are we prepared to +go with Jesus? Have we realized the experience behind his thought? +The rule which we laid down at the beginning holds. How far are we +prepared to go in sharing that experience? That will measure our +right to understand him. Once again, in the plainest language, are +we prepared to follow, as the disciples followed, afraid as they +were? + +Where is he going? Where is he taking them? They wonder; they do not +know; they are uneasy. But when all is said, the figure on the road +ahead of them, waiting for them now and looking round, is the Jesus +who loves them and whom they love. + +And one can imagine the feeling rising in the mind of one and +another of them: "I don't know where he is going, or where he is +taking us, but I must be with him." There we reach again what the +whole story began with--he chose twelve that they might "be with +him." To understand him, we, too, must be with him. What takes men +there? After all, it is, in the familiar phrase, the love of Jesus. +If one loves the leader, it is easier to follow him. But, whether +you understand him or whether you don't, if you love him you are +glad that he chose the cross, and you are glad that you are one of +his people. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +Imperial Rome governed the whole of the Mediterranean world,--a +larger proportion and a greater variety of the human race than has +ever been under one government. So far as numbers go, the Russian +Empire to-day, the Chinese and the British, each far exceed it; for +the population of the world is vastly larger than it was in Rome's +days. But there was a peculiar unity about the Roman Empire, for it +embraced, as men thought, all civilized mankind. It was known that, +far away in the East, there were people called Indians, who had +fought with Alexander the Great, but there was little real knowledge +of them. Beyond India, there were vague rumours of a land where silk +grew on the leaves of the trees. But civilized mankind was under the +control of Rome. It was one rule of many races, many kingdoms, +princedoms, cities, cantons, and tribes--a wise rule, a rule that +allowed the maximum of local government and traditional usage: Rome +not merely conquered but captured men all over the world; ruled +them, as a poet said, like a mother, not a queen, and bound them to +herself. Men were eager, not so much to shake off her yoke, as to be +Romans; and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates men, not of Roman +blood, were proud to bear Roman names and to be Roman citizens. "I +was free born," said St. Paul, not without a touch of satisfaction +(Acts 22:25-28). A general peace prevailed through the Roman +world--a peace that was new to mankind. There was freedom of +intercourse; one of the boasts made by the writers of the Roman +Empire is of this new freedom to travel, to go anywhere one pleased. +Piracy on the sea, brigandage on the land, had been put down, and +there was a very great deal of travel. The Roman became an +inveterate tourist. He went to the famous scenes of Asia Minor, to +Troy above all--to "sunny Rhodes and Mitylene"--to Egypt. Merchants +went everywhere. And there was a fusing of cultures, traditions, and +creeds, all over the Mediterranean world. Centuries before, +Alexander the Great had struck out the splendid idea of the marriage +of East and West. He secured it by breaking down the Persian Empire, +and making one Empire from the Adriatic to this side of the Sutlej +or Bias. He desired to cement this marriage of East and West in a +way of his own. He took three hundred captive princesses and ladies, +and married them in a batch to Macedonian officers--a very +characteristic piece of symbolism. But his idea was greater and +truer than the symbol. + +The Roman marriage of the East and West was a more real thing, for +behind it lay three centuries of growing intercourse and knowledge +along Alexander's lines. In the sphere of religion we find it most +clearly. There rises a resultant world-religion--a religion that +embraces all the cults, all the creeds, and at last all the +philosophies, in one great system. That religion held the world. It +is true, there were exceptions. There was a small and objectionable +race called Jews; there were possibly some Druids in Southern +Britain; and here and there was a solitary atheist who represented +no one but himself. These few exceptions were the freaks amongst +mankind. Apart from them mankind was united in its general beliefs +about the gods. The world had one religion. + +First of all, let us try to estimate the strength of this old +Mediterranean Paganism. It was strong in its great traditions. +Plutarch, who lived from about 50 A.D. to 117 or so, is our great +exponent of this old religion. To him I shall have to refer +constantly. He was a writer of charm, a man with many gifts. +Plutarch's Lives was the great staple of education in the +Renaissance--and as good a one, perhaps, as we have yet discovered, +even in this age when there are so many theories of education with +foreign names. Plutarch, then, writing about Delphi, the shrine and +oracle of the god Apollo, said that men had been "in anguish and +fear lest Delphi should lose its glory of three thousand years"--and +Delphi has not lost it. For ninety generations the god has been +giving oracles to the Greek world, to private people, to kings, to +cities, to nations--and on all sorts of subjects, on the foundation +of colonies, the declaration of wars, personal guidance and the hope +of heirs. You may test the god where you will, Plutarch claimed, you +will not find an instance of a false oracle. Readers of Greek +history will remember another great writer of as much charm, five +hundred years before, Herodotus, who was not so sure about all the +oracles. But let us think what it means,--to look back over three +thousand years of one faith, unbroken. Egyptian religion had been +unchallenged for longer still, even if we allow Plutarch's three +thousand years. The oldest remains in Egypt antedate, we are told, +4000 B.C., and all through history, with the exception of the +solitary reign of Amen-Hotep III., Egypt worshipped the same gods, +with additions, as time went on. Again an unbroken tradition. And +how long, under various names, had Cybele, Mother of Gods, been +worshipped in Asia? By our era all these religions were fused into +one religion, of many cults and rites and ancient traditions; and +the incredible weight of old tradition in that world is hard to +overestimate. + +The old religion was strong in the splendour of its art and its +architecture. The severe, beautiful lines of the Greek temple are +familiar to us still; and, until I saw the Taj, I think I should +have doubted whether there could be anything more beautiful. +Architecture was consecrated to the gods, and so was art. You go to +Delphi, said Plutarch, and see those wonderful works of the ancient +artists and sculptors, as fresh still as if they had left the chisel +yesterday, and they had stood there for hundreds of years, wonderful +in their beauty. Think of some of the remains of the Greek art--of +that Victory, for instance, which the Messenians set on the temple +at Olympia in 421 B.C. She stood on a block of stone on the temple, +but the block was painted blue, so that, as the spectator came up, +he saw the temple and the angle of its roof, and then a gap of blue +sky and the goddess just alighting on the summit of the temple. From +what is left of her, broken and headless, but still beautiful, we +can picture her flying through the air--the wind has blown her dress +back against her, and you see its folds freshly caught by the +breeze. And all this the artist had disentangled from a rough block +of stone--so vivid was his conception of the goddess, and so sure +his hand. There are those who say that the conventional picture of +God of the great artists is moulded after the Zeus of Pheidias. +Egypt again had other portrayals of the gods--on a pattern of her +own, strange and massive and huge, far older. About six hundred +years before Christ the Egyptian King, Psammetichos (Psem Tek), +hired Greek soldiers and marched them hundreds of miles up the Nile. +The Greek soldiers, one idle day, carved their names on the legs of +the colossal gods seated at Abu Symbel. Their names are found there +to-day. So old are these gods. + +The religion was strong in the splendour of its ceremony. Every year +the Athenian people went to Eleusis in splendid procession to +worship, to be initiated into the rites of the Earth-Mother and her +virgin daughter, who had taught men the use of grain and the arts of +farming-rites linked with an immemorial past, awful rites that gave +men a new hope of eternal life. The Mother of the Gods, from Phrygia +in Asia Minor, had her rites, too; and her cult spread all over the +world. When the Roman poet, Lucretius, wants to describe the wonder +and magic of the pageant of Nature in the spring-time he goes to the +pomp of Cybele. The nearest thing to it which we can imagine is +Botticelli's picture of the Triumph of Spring. Lucretius was a poet +to whom the gods were idle and irrelevant; yet to that pageant he +goes for a picture of the miraculous life of nature. More splendid +still were the rites of the Egyptian Isis, celebrated all over the +world. Her priests, shaven and linen-clad, carried symbols of an +unguessed antiquity and magical power. They launched a boat with a +flame upon it--on the river in Egypt, on the sea in Greece. All +these cults made deep impressions on the worshippers, as our records +tell us. The appeal of religious emotion was noticed by Aristotle, +who remarked, however, that it was rather feeling than intellect +that was touched--a shrewd criticism that deserves to be remembered +still. + +The gods were strong in their actual manifestations of themselves. +Apollo for ninety generations had spoken in Delphi. At Epidauros +there was a shrine of Asclepias. Its monuments have been collected +and edited by Dr. Caton of Liverpool. There sick men and women came, +lived a quiet life of diet and religious ceremony, preparing for the +night on which they should sleep in the temple. On that night the +god came to them, they said, in that mood or state where they lay +"between asleep and awake, sometimes as in a dream and then as in a +waking vision--one's hair stood on end, but one shed tears of joy +and felt light-hearted." Others said they definitely saw him. He +came and told them what to do; on waking they did it and were +healed; or he touched them then and there, and cured them as they +lay. Some of the cures recorded on the monuments are perhaps strange +to our ideas of medicine. One records how the god came to man +dreadfully afflicted with dropsy, cut off his head, turned him +upside down and let the fluid run out, and then replaced his head +with a neat join. Some modern readers may doubt this story; but that +the god did heal people, men firmly believed. We, too, may believe +that people were healed, perhaps by living a healthy life in a quiet +place, a life of regimen and diet; and perhaps faith-healing or +suggestion played as strong a part as anything else. Even the +Christians believed that these gods had a certain power; they were +evil spirits. + +Not only the gods of the temples would manifest themselves of their +grace. Every man had a guardian spirit, a "genius"; and by proper +means he could be "compelled" to show himself visibly. The pupils of +Plotinus conjured up his "genius", and it came--not a daemon, but a +god. The right formula ("mantram") and the right stone in the +hand--and a man had a wonderful power over the gods themselves. This +was called "theurgy". + +But the great strength of this old religion was its infinite +adaptability. It made peace with every god and goddess that it met. +It adopted them all. As a French scholar has said, where there is +polytheism there are no false gods. All the religions were fused and +the gods were blended. The Roman went to Greece and identified +Jupiter with Zeus; he went to Egypt and found him in Amun (Ammon); +he went to Syria and found him in Baal. If the Jew had not been so +foolish and awkward, there might have been a Jupiter Jehovah as +well. It was a catholic faith, embracing everything--cult and creed +and philosophy--strong in all the ways we have surveyed and in many +more, above all because it was unchallenged. + +And yet, where is that religion to-day? That, to me, is one of the +most significant questions in history--more so, the longer I stay in +India. Men knew that that religion of Greece and Rome was eternal; +yet it is utterly gone. Why? How _could_ it go? What conceivable +power was there, I do not say, to bring it down, but to abolish it +so thoroughly, that not a soul in Egypt worships Isis--how many even +know her name?--not a soul in Italy thinks of Jove but as a fancy, +and Pallas Athene in Athens itself is a mere memory? That is the +problem, the historical problem, with which we have now to deal. + +First of all, let us look again, and more closely, at that old +religion--we shall find in it at least four cardinal weaknesses. + +First, it stands for "the unexamined life," as Plato called it. "The +unexamined life," he says, "is not liveable for a human being." A +man, who is a man, must cross-examine life, must make life face up +to him and yield its secrets. He must know what it means, the +significance of every relation of life--father and child, man and +wife, citizen and city, subject and king, man and the world--above +all, man and God. We must examine and know. But this old religion +stood by tradition and not reflection. There was no deep sense of +truth. Plutarch admired his father, and he describes, with warm +approval, how his father once said to a man: "That is a dangerous +question, not to be discussed at all--when you question the opinion +we hold about the gods, and ask reason and demonstration for +everything." Such an attitude means mistrust, it means at bottom a +fundamental unfaith. The house is beautiful; do not touch it; it is +riddled by white ants, by dry rot, and it would fall. That is not +faith; it is a strange confession; but all who hesitate at changes, +I think, make that confession sooner or later. There is a line of +Kabir which puts the essence of this: "Penance is not equal to +truth, nor is there any sin like untruth." This was one of the +essential weaknesses of that old religion--its fear, and the absence +of a deep sense of truth. + +In the next place, there is no real association of morals with +religion. The old stories were full of the adventures of Jupiter, or +Zeus, with the heroines, mortal women, whom he loved. Of some 1900 +wall paintings at Pompeii, examined by a German scholar and +antiquary, some 1400 represent mythological subjects, largely the +stories of the loves of Jupiter. The Latin dramatist Terence +pictures the young man looking at one of these paintings and saying +to himself, "If Jupiter did it, why should not I?" Centuries later +we find Augustine quoting that sentence. It has been said that few +things tended more strongly against morality than the stories of the +gods preserved by Homer and Hesiod. Plato loved Homer; so much the +more striking is his resolve that in his "Republic" there should be +no Homer. Men said: "Ah, but you don't understand; those stories are +allegories. They do not mean what they say; they mean something +deeper." But Plato said we must speak of God always as he is; we +must in no case tell lies about God "whether they are allegories or +whether they are not allegories." Plato, like every real thinker, +sees that this pretence of allegory is a sham. The story did its +mischief whether it was allegory or not; it stood between man and +God, and headed men on to wrong lines, turned men away from the +moral standard. + +There was more. Every year, as we saw, men went to be initiated into +the rites of Demeter at Eleusis, a few miles from Athens. And we +read how one of the great Athenian orators, Lysias, went there and +took with him to be initiated a harlot, with whom he was living, and +the woman's proprietress--a squalid party; and they were initiated. +Their morals made no difference; the priests and the goddesses +offered no objection. In the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth there +were women slaves dedicated to the goddess, who owned them, and who +received the wages of their shame. With what voice could religion +speak for morality in Corinth? At Comana in Syria (we read in Strabo +the geographer, about the time of Christ) there was a temple where +there were six thousand of these temple slaves. I say again, that is +the unexamined life. God and goddess have nothing to say about some +of the most sacred relations in life. God, goddess, priest, +worshipper, never gave a thought to these poor creatures, dedicated, +not by themselves, to this awful life--human natures with the +craving of the real woman for husband and child, for the love of +home, but never to know it. That was associated with religion; that +was religion. There was always a minimum of protest from the Greek +temples against wrong or for right. It is remarked, again and again, +that all the great lessons came, not from the temples, not from the +priests, but from the poets and philosophers, from the thinkers in +revolt against the religion of their people. Curiously enough, even +in Homer himself, it is plain that the heroes, the men, are on a +higher moral plane than the gods; and all through Greek history the +gods are a drag on morality. What a weakness in religion! The sense +of wrong and right is innate in man; it may be undeveloped, or it +may be deadened, but it is instinctive; and a religion which does +not know it, or which finds the difference between right and wrong +to lie in matters of taboo or ceremonial defilement, cannot speak to +one of the deepest needs of the human heart, the need of +forgiveness. There is no righteousness, in the long run, about these +gods. + +In the third place, the religion has the common weakness of all +polytheism. Men were afraid of the gods; there were thousands and +thousands, hosts of them. At every turn you ran into one, a new one; +you could never be certain that you would not offend some unknown +god or goddess. Superstition was the curse of the day. You had to +make peace with all these gods and goddesses--and not with them +alone. For there was another class of supernatural beings, dangerous +if unpropitiated, the daemons, the spirits that inhabited the air, +that presided over life and its stages, that helped or hated the +human soul, spiteful and evil half-divine beings, that sent illness, +bad luck, madness, that stole the honours of the gods themselves and +insisted on rituals and worship, often unclean, often cruel, but +inevitable. A man must watch himself closely if he was to be safe +from them all, if he was to keep wife and child and home safe. + +Superstition, men said, was the one curse of life that made no truce +with sleep. A famous Christian writer of the second century, Tatian, +speaks of the enormous relief that he found in getting away from the +tyranny of ten thousand gods to be under a monarchy of One. A modern +Japanese, Uchimura, said the same thing: "One God, not eight +millions; that was joyful news to me." + +Fourthly, this religion took from the grave none of its terrors. +There might be a world beyond, and there might not. At any rate, "be +initiated," said the priests; "you will have to pay us something, +but it is worth it." Prophets and quacks, said Plato, came to rich +men's doors and made them believe that they could rid them of all +alarm for the next world, by incantations and charms and other +things, by a series of feasts and jollifications. So they said, and +men did what they were told; but it did not take away the fear of +death. + +From the first century onwards men began systematically to defend +this old paganism. Plutarch wrote a series of books in its behalf. +He brings in something like love of god for man. He speaks of "the +friendly Apollo." But the weakness of Plutarch as an apologist is +his weakness as biographer--he never really gets at the bottom of +anything. In biography he gives us the characteristic rather than +the character. Here he never faces the real issue. It is all +defence, apology, ingenuity; but he defends far too much. He admits +there are obscene rites; there had been human sacrifices; but the +gods cannot have ordained them; daemons, who stole the names of +gods, imposed these on men--not the gods; men practised them to +avert the anger of daemons. The gods are good. Waiving the fact that +he had not much evidence for this in the mythology, how was a man to +distinguish god from daemon, to know which is which? He does not +tell us. Again he speaks of the image of Osiris with three +"lingams". He apologizes for it; he defends it; for the triplicity +is a symbol of godhead, and it means that God is the origin of all +life. Yes, but what that religion needed was a great reformer, who +should have cut the religion clear adrift from idols of every kind, +from the old mythology, from obscenity. It may very well be that +such a reformer was unthinkable; even if he had appeared, he would +have been foredoomed to fail, as the compromise of the Stoics shows. +Plutarch and his kind did not attempt this. They loved the past and +the old ways. At heart they were afraid of the gods and were afraid +of tradition. Culture and charm will do a great deal, but they do +not suffice for a religion--either to make one or to redeem it. + +The Stoics reached, I think, the highest moral level in that Roman +world--great men, great teachers of morals, great characters; but as +for the crowd, they said, let them go on in the religions of their +own cities; what they had learnt from their fathers, let them do. So +much for the ignorant; for us, of course, something else. That seems +to be a fundamentally wrong defence of religion. It gets the +proportions wrong. It means that we, who are people of culture, are +a great deal nearer to God than the crowd. But if we realize God at +all, we feel that we are none of us very far apart down here. The +most brilliant men are amenable to the temptations of the savage and +of the dock labourer. There was a further danger, little noticed at +first, that life is apt to be overborne by the vulgar, the ignorant, +if there is not a steady campaign to enlighten every man. The Roman +house was full of slaves; they taught the children--taught them +about gods and goddesses, from Syria, from Egypt, and kept thought +and life and morals on a low plane. An ignorant public is, an +unspeakable danger everywhere, but especially in religion. + +The last great system of defence was the New Platonism. It had not +very much to do with Plato, except that it read him and quoted him +as a great authority. The Neo-Platonists did not face facts as Plato +did. They lived on quotations, on authority and fancy, great +thinkers as some of them were. They pictured the universe as one +vast unity. Far beyond all things is God. Of God man can form no +conception. Think, they would say, of all the exalted and wonderful +and beautiful concepts you can imagine; then deny them. God is +beyond. God is beyond being; you can conceive of being, and +therefore to predicate being of God is to limit him. You cannot +think of God; for, if you could think of God, God would be in +relation with you; God is insusceptible of relation with man. He +neither wills, nor thinks of man, nor can man think of him. A modern +philosopher has summed up their God as the deification of the word +"not." This God, then, who is not, willed--no! not "willed"; he +could not will; but whether he willed or did not will, in some way +or other there was an emanation; not God, but very much of God; very +divine, but not all God; from this another and another in a +descending series, down to the daemons, and down to men. All that +is, is God; evil is not-being. One of the great features of the +system was that it guaranteed all the old religions--for the crowd; +while for the initiated, for the esoteric, it had something more--it +had mystic trance, mystic vision, mystic comprehension. Twice or +three times, Plotinus, by a great leap away from all mortal things, +saw God. In the meantime, the philosophy justified all the old +rites. + +Side by side with this great defence were what are known as the +Christian heresies. They are not exactly Christian. Groups of people +endeavoured to combine Christianity with the old thought, with +philosophy, theosophy, theurgy, and magic. They were eclectics; they +compromised. The German thinker, Novalis, said very justly that all +eclectics are sceptics, and the more eclectic the more sceptic. +These mixtures could not prevail. + +But religions have, historically, a wonderful way of living in spite +of their weaknesses--yes, and in spite of their apologetics. A +religion may be stained with all sorts of evil, and may communicate +it; and yet it will survive, until there is an alternative with more +truth and more dynamic. The old paganism outlived Plato's criticisms +and Plutarch's defences. For the great masses of people neither +might have written. + +Into this world came the Christian Church. I have tried to draw the +picture of the great pagan religion, with its enormous strength, its +universal acceptance, its great traditions, its splendours of art +and ceremony, its manifest proofs of its gods--everything that, to +the ordinary mind, could make for reality and for power; to show how +absolutely inconceivable it was that it could ever pass away. Then +comes the Christian Church--a ludicrous collection of trivial +people, very ignorant and very common; fishermen and publicans, as +the Gospels show us, "the baker and the fuller," as Celsus said with +a sneer. Yes, and every kind of unclean and disreputable person they +urged to join them, quite unlike all decent and established +religions. And they took the children and women of the family away +into a corner, and whispered to them and misled them--"Only +believe!" was their one great word. The whole thing was incredibly +silly. Paul went to Athens, and they asked him there about his +religion; and when he spoke to them about Jesus rising from the +dead, they sniggered, and the more polite suggested "another day." +Everybody knew that dead men do not rise. It was a silly religion. +Celsus pictured the frogs in symposium round a swamp, croaking to +one another how God forsakes the whole universe, the spheres of +heaven, to dwell with us; we frogs are so like God; he never ceases +to seek how we may dwell with him for ever; but some of us are +sinners, so God will come--or send his son--and burn them up; and +the rest of us will live with him for eternity. Is not that very +like the Christian religion? Celsus asked. It has been replied that, +if the frogs really could say this and did say this, then their +statement might be quite reasonable. But our main purpose for the +moment is to realize the utterly inconceivable absurdity of this +bunch of Galilean fishermen--and fools and rascals and +maniacs--setting out to capture the world. One of them wrote an +Apocalypse. He was in a penal settlement on Patmos, when he wrote +it. The sect was in a fair way of being stamped out in blood, as a +matter of fact; but this dreamer saw a triumphant Church of ten +thousand times ten thousand--and thousands of thousands--there were +hardly as many people in the world at that time; the great Rome had +fallen and the "Lamb" ruled. Imagine the amusement of a Roman pagan +of 100 A.D. who read the absurd book. Yet the dream has come true; +that Church has triumphed. Where is the old religion? Christ has +conquered, and all the gods have gone, utterly gone--they are +memories now, and nothing more. Why did they go? The Christian +Church refused to compromise. A pagan could have seen no real reason +why Jesus should not be a demi-god like Herakles or Dionysos; no +reason, either, why a man should not worship Jesus as well as these. +One of the Roman Emperors, a little after 200 A.D., had in his +private sanctuary four or five statues of gods, and one of them was +Jesus. Why not? The Roman world had open arms for Jesus as well as +any other god or demi-god, if people would be sensible; but the +Christian said, No. He would not allow Jesus to be put into that +pantheon, nor would he worship the gods himself, not even the +"genius" of the Emperor, his guardian spirit. The Christian +proclaimed a war of religion in which there shall be no compromise +and no peace, till Christ is lord of all; the thing shall be fought +out to the bitter end. And it has been. He was resolved that the old +gods should go; and they have gone. How was it done? + +Here we touch what I think one of the greatest wonders that history +has to show. How did the Church do it? If I may invent or adapt +three words, the Christian "out-lived" the pagan, "out-died" him, +and "out-thought" him. He came into the world and lived a great deal +better than the pagan; he beat him hollow in living. Paul's Epistles +to the Corinthians do not indicate a high standard of life at +Corinth. The Corinthians were a very poor sort of Christians. But +another Epistle, written to the Corinthians a generation later, +speaks of their passion for being kind to men, and of a broadened +and deeper life, in spite of their weaknesses. Here and there one +recognizes failure all along the line--yes, but the line advances. +The old world had had morals, plenty of morals--the Stoics +overflowed with morals. But the Christian came into the world, not +with a system of morality--he had rules, indeed--"which," asks +Tertullian, "is the ampler rule, Thou shalt not commit adultery, or +the rule that forbids a single lustful look?"--but it was not rules +so much that he brought into the world as a great passion. "The Son +of God," he said, "loved me and gave himself for me. That man--Jesus +Christ loved him, gave himself for him. He is the friend of my best +Friend. My best Friend loves that man, gave himself for him, died +for him." How it alters all the relations of life! Who can kill or +rob another man, when he remembers whose hands were nailed to the +Cross for that man? See how it bears on another side of morality. +Tertullian strikes out a great phrase, a new idea altogether, when +he speaks of "the victim of the common lust." Christ died for +her--how it safeguards her and uplifts her! Men came into the world +full of this passion for Jesus Christ. They went to the slave and to +the temple-woman and told them: "The Son of God loved you and gave +himself for you"; and they believed it, and rose into a new life. To +be redeemed by the Son of God gave the slave a new self-respect, a +new manhood. He astonished people by his truth, his honesty, his +cleanness; and there was a new brightness and gaiety about him. So +there was about the woman. They sang, they overflowed with good +temper. It seemed as if they had been born again. As Clement of Rome +wrote, the Holy Spirit was a glad spirit. The word used both by him +and by St. Augustine is that which gives us the English word +"hilarious." There was a new gladness and happiness about these +people. "It befits Truth to laugh, because she is glad--to play with +her rivals because she is free from fear," so said Tertullian. Of +course, there were those who broke down, but Julian the Apostate, in +his letters to his heathen priests, is a reluctant witness to the +higher character of Christian life. And it was Jesus who was the +secret of it. + +The pagan noticed the new fortitude in the face of death. Tertullian +himself was immensely impressed with it. He had never troubled to +look at the Gospels. Nobody bothered to read them unless they were +converted already, he said. But he seems to have seen these +Christian martyrs die. "Every man," he said, "who sees it, is moved +with some misgiving, and is set on fire to learn the reason; he +inquires and he is taught; and when he has learnt the truth, he +instantly follows it himself as well." "No one would have wished to +be killed, unless he was in possession of the truth." I think that +is autobiography. The intellectual energy of the man is worth +noting--his insistence on understanding, his instant resolution; +such qualities, we saw, had won the admiration of Jesus. Here is a +man who sacrifices a great career--his genius, his wit, his humour, +fire, power, learning, philosophy, everything thrown at Christ's +feet, and Christ uses them all. Then came a day when persecution was +breaking out again. Some Christians were for "fleeing to the next +city"--it was the one text in their Bible, he said. He said: "I stay +here." Any day the mob might get excited and shout: "The Christians +to the lions." They knew the street in which he lived, and they +would drag him--the scholar, the man of letters and of +imagination--naked through the streets; torn and bleeding, they +would tie him to the stake in the middle of the amphitheatre and +pile faggots round him, and there he would stand waiting to be burnt +alive; or, it might be, to be killed by the beasts. Any hour, any +day. "I stay here," he said. What does it cost a man to do that? +People asked what was the magic of it. The magic of it was just +this--on the other side of the fire was the same Friend; "if he +wants me to be burnt alive, I am here." Jesus Christ was the secret +of it. + +The Christians out-thought the pagan world. How could they fail to? +"We have peace with God," said Paul. They moved about in a new +world, which was their Father's world. They would go to the shrines +and ask uncomfortable questions. Lucian, who was a pagan and a +scoffer, said that on one side of the shrines the notice was posted: +"Christians outside." The Christians saw too much. The living god in +that shrine was a big snake with a mask tied on--good enough for the +pagan; but the Christian would see the strings. Even the daemons +they dismissed to irrelevance and non-entity. The essence of magic +was to be able to link the name of a daemon with the name of one's +enemy, to set the daemon on the man. "Very well," said the +Christian, "link my name with your daemons. Use my name in any magic +you like. There is a name that is above every name; I am not +afraid." That put the daemons into their right place, and by and by +they vanished, dropped out, died of sheer inanition and neglect. +Wherever Jesus Christ has been, the daemons have gone. "There used +to be fairies," said an old woman in the Highlands of Scotland to a +friend of mine, "but the Gospel came and drove them away." I do not +know what is going to keep them away yet but Jesus Christ. The +Christian read the ancient literature with the same freedom of mind, +and was not in bondage to it; he had a new outlook; he could +criticize more freely. One great principle is given by Clement of +Alexandria: "The beautiful, wherever it is, is ours, because it came +from our God." The Christian read the best books, assimilated them, +and lived the freest intellectual life that the world had. Jesus had +set him to be true to fact. Why had Christian churches to be so much +larger than pagan temples? Why are they so still? Because the sermon +is in the very centre of all Christian worship--clear, definite +Christian teaching about Jesus Christ. There is no place for an +ignorant Christian. From the very start every Christian had to know +and to understand, and he had to read the Gospels; he had to be able +to give the reason for his faith. He was committed to a great +propaganda, to the preaching of Jesus, and he had to preach with +penetration and appeal. There they were loyal to the essential idea +of Jesus--they were "sons of fact." They read about Jesus,[32] and +they knew him, and they knew where they stood. This has been the +essence of the Christian religion. Put that alongside of the pitiful +defence which Plutarch makes of obscene rites, filthy images, +foolish traditions. Who did the thinking in that ancient world? +Again and again it was the Christian. He out-thought the world. + +The old religion crumbled and fell, beaten in thought, in morals, in +life, in death. And by and by the only name for it was paganism, the +religion of the back-country village, of the out-of-the-way places. +Christ had conquered. "Dic tropoeum passionis, dic triumphalem +Crucem", sang Prudentius--"Sing the trophy of the Passion; sing the +all-triumphant Cross." The ancients thought that God repeated the +whole history of the universe over and over again, like a cinema +show. Some of them thought the kingdoms rise and fall by pure +chance. No, said Prudentius, God planned; God developed the history +of mankind; he made Rome for his own purposes, for Christ. + +What is the explanation of it? We who live in a rational universe, +where real results come from real causes, must ask what is the power +that has carried the Christian Church to victory over that great old +religion. And there is another question: is this story going to be +repeated? What is there about Shiva, Kali, or Shri Krishna that +essentially differentiates them from the gods of Greece and Rome and +Egypt? Tradition, legend, philosophy--point by point, we find the +same thing; and we find the same Christian Church, with the same +ideals, facing the same conflict. What will be the result? The +result will be the same. We have seen in China, in the last two +decades, how the Christian Church is true to its traditions; how men +can die for Jesus Christ. In the Greek Church--a suffering +Church--on the round sacramental wafer there is a cross, and in the +four corners there are the eight letters, IE, XE, NI, KA, "Jesus +Christ conquers." That is the story of the Christian Church in the +Roman Empire. That is the story which, please God, we shall see +again in India. "Jesus Christ conquers." + + + +CHAPTER X + +JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + +Jesus Christ came to men as a great new experience. He took them far +outside all they had known of God and of man. He led them, +historically, into what was, in truth, a new world, into a new +understanding of life in all its relations. What they had never +noticed before, he brought to their knowledge, he made interesting +to them, and intelligible. In short, as Paul put it, "if any man be +in Christ, it is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). The aspects of +things were different; the values were changed, and a new +perspective made clear relations that were obscure and tangled +before. Why should it have been so? Why should it be, that, when a +man comes into contact, into some kind of sympathy with Jesus +Christ, some living union with him, everything becomes new, and he +by and by begins to feel with St. Paul: "To me to live is Christ" +(Phil. 1:21)? Why has Jesus meant so much? Why should all this be +associated with him? + +Plato, in the sentence already quoted, tells us that "the unexamined +life is unliveable for a human being, for a real man." Here, then, +came into man's life a new experience altogether, like nothing known +before altering everything, giving new sympathies, new passions, new +enthusiasms--a new attitude to God and a new attitude to men. It was +inevitable that thought must work upon it. Who was this Jesus that +he should produce this result? Men asked themselves that very early; +and if they were slow to do so, the criticism of the outsider drove +them into it. The result has been nineteen centuries of endless +question and speculation as to Jesus Christ--the rise of dogma, +creed, and formula, as slowly all the philosophy of mankind has been +re-thought in the light of the central experience of Jesus Christ. +In spite of all that we may regret in the war of creeds, it was +inevitable--it was part of the disturbance that Jesus foresaw he +must make (Luke 12:51). Men "could do no other"--they had to +determine for themselves the significance of Jesus in the real +world, in the whole cosmos of God; and it meant fruitful conflict of +opinion, the growth of the human mind, and an ever-heightened +emphasis on Jesus. + +An analogy may illustrate in some way the story before us. One of +the most fascinating chapters of geography is the early exploration +of America. Chesapeake Bay was missed by one explorer. Fog or +darkness may have been the cause of his missing the place; but he +missed it, and, though it is undoubtedly there, he made his map +without it. Now let us suppose a similar case--for it must often +have happened in early days--and this time we will say it was the +Hudson, or some river of that magnitude. A later explorer came, and +where the map showed a shore without a break, he found a huge inlet +or outlet. Was it an arm of the sea, a vast bay, or was it a great +river? A very great deal depended on which it was, and the first +thing was to determine that. There were several ways of doing it. +One was to sail up and map the course. A quicker way was to drop a +bucket over the side of the ship. The bucket, we may be sure, went +down; and it came up with fresh water; and the water was an instant +revelation of several new and important facts. They had discovered, +first of all, that where there was an unbroken coast-line on the +map, there was nothing of the kind in reality; there was a broad +waterway up into the country; and this was not a bay, but the mouth +of a river, and a very great river indeed; and this implied yet +another discovery--that men had to reckon with no mere island or +narrow peninsula, but an immense continent, which it remained to +explore. + +Jesus Christ was in himself a very great discovery for those to whom +he gave himself, and the exploration of him shows a somewhat similar +story. Men have often said that they see nothing in him very +different from the rest of us; while others have found in him, in +the phrase of the Apocalypse (Rev. 22:1), the "water of life"; and +the positive announcement is here, as in the other case, the more +important of the two. The discovery of the volume of life, which +comes from Jesus Christ, is one of the greatest that men have made. +Merely to have dipped his bucket, as it were, in that great stream +of life has again and again meant everything to a man. Think of what +the new-found river of the New World meant to some of those early +explorers after weeks at sea-- + + Water, water everywhere, + Nor any drop to drink-- + +and they reach an immense flood of river-water. It was new life at +once; but it did not necessarily mean the immediate exploration of +everything, the instant completion of geographical discovery. It was +life and the promise of more to follow. The history of the Church is +a record, we may put it, both of the discovery of the River of Life +and of the exploration of its course and its sources, and of what +lies behind it. But the discovery and the exploration are different +things, and the first is quicker and more certain than the second. +Most of us will admit that we have not gone very far up into that +Continent. The object of this chapter is not to attempt to survey or +compendiarise Christian exploration of Jesus, but to try to find for +ourselves a new approach to an estimate of the historical figure who +has been and remains the centre of everything. + +We may classify the records of the Christian exploration roughly in +three groups. In the early Christian centuries, we find endless +thought given to the philosophical study of the relation of Christ +and God. It fills the library of the Early Church, and practically +all the early controversies turn upon it. The weak spot in all this +was the use of the "a priori" method. Men started with +preconceptions about God--not unnaturally, for we all have some +theories about God, which we are apt to regard as knowledge. But +knowledge is a difficult thing to reach in any sphere of study; and +men assumed too quickly that they had attained a sound philosophical +account of God. They over-estimated their actual knowledge of God +and did not recognize to the full the importance of their new +experience. This may seem ungenerous to men, who gave life and +everything for Jesus Christ, and to whose devotion, to whose love of +Jesus, we owe it that we know him--an ungenerous criticism of their +brave thinking, and their independence in a hundred ways of old +tradition. Still it is true that the weakness of much of their +Christology--and of ours--is that it starts with a borrowed notion +of God, which really has very little to do with the Christian +religion. To this we shall return; but in the meantime we may note +that here as elsewhere preconceptions have to be lightly held by the +serious student. Huxley once wrote to Charles Kingsley: "Science +seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great +truth that is embodied in the Christian conception of entire +surrender to the will of God. Sit down before the fact as a little +child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow +humbly wherever and to whatever end Nature leads, or you shall learn +nothing .... I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind +since I have resolved at all risks to do this." So Huxley wrote +about the study of natural science. In this great inquiry of ours we +have to learn to be patient enough--we might say, ignorant +enough--to do the same. The Early Church had a faith in Greek +philosophy, which stood in its way, brave and splendid as its +thinkers were. + +Our second group is represented roughly by the Hymn Book. The +evidential value of a good hymn book will stand investigation. Of +course a great many hymns are mere copies, and poor copies; but the +Hymn Book at its best is a collection of first-hand records of +experience.[33] In the story of the Christian Church doxology comes +before dogma. When the writer of the Apocalypse breaks out at the +very beginning: "Unto him that loved us and washed[34] us from our +sins in his own blood . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever" +(Rev. 1:5), he is recording a great experience; and his doxology +leads him on to an explanation of what he has felt and known--to an +intellectual judgement and an appreciation of Christ. The order is +experience,--happiness and song--and then reflection. The love and +the cleansing, and the joy, supply the materials on which thought +has to work. We have always to remember that thought does not +strictly supply its own material, however much it may help us to +find it. Philosophy and theology do not give us our facts. Their +function is to group and interpret them. + +Our third group of records is given to us by the men of the +Reformation. We have there two great movements side by side. There +is Bible translation, which means, in plain language, a decision or +conviction on the part of scholars and thinkers, that the knowledge +of the historical Jesus, and of men's first experiences of him, is +of the highest importance in the Christian life. The whole +Reformation follows, or runs parallel with, that movement. It is +essentially a new exploration of what Jesus Christ can do and of +what he can be. + +In dealing with all these three groups of records, we have to note +the seriousness of the men who made the experiments, their energy of +mind, their determination to reach real facts and, in Cromwell's +great phrase, to "speak things." They will have the truth of the +matter. Intricate and entangled as is the history, for instance, of +the Arian controversy--that controversy which "turned on a +diphthong," as Carlyle said in his younger days--it represented far +more than mere logomachy, as Carlyle saw later on. It followed from +a determination to get at the real fact of who and what Jesus Christ +is; and the two words, that differed by a diphthong, embodied +diametrically opposite conceptions of him. With all the +super-subtlety that sometimes characterizes theologians, these men +had a passion for truth. It led them into paths where our minds find +a difficulty in following; but the motive was the imperative sense +that thinking men must examine and understand their supreme +experience--a motive that must weigh with men who are in earnest +about life. The great hymns of the Church--such as the "Dies Irae" +of Thomas of Celano, or Bernard's "Jesu dulcis memoria", or +Toplady's "Rock of Ages"--are transcripts from life, made by +deep-going and serious minds. The writers are recording, with deep +conviction of its worth, what they have discovered in experience. A +man who takes Christ seriously and will "examine life," will often +find in those great hymns, it may be with some surprise, an +anticipation of his own experience as Bunyan did in Luther's +Commentary on Galatians. Livingstone had "Jesu dulcis memoria"--the +Latin of it--ringing in his head as he travelled in unexplored +Africa. Men who did such work--work that lasts and is recognized +again and again to be genuine by others busy in the same +field--cannot have been random, light-hearted creatures. They were, +in fact, men tested in life, men of experience of wide and deep +experience--men with a gift for living, developed in heart as well +as in brain. The finest of Greek critics, Longinus, said that, "The +great style ("hupsos") is an echo of a great soul." Neander +said--and it is again and again true--that "it is the heart that +makes the theologian." Where we find a great hymn or a great +theology, we may be sure of finding a great nature and a great +experience behind it. + +Let us sum up our general results so far. First of all, whatever be +the worth of the consensus of Christian opinion--and we have to +decide how much it is worth, bearing in mind the type of man who has +worked and suffered to make it in every age; and, I think, it runs +high, as the work of serious and explorative minds--the consensus of +Christian opinion gives the very highest name to Jesus Christ. Men, +who did not begin with any preconception in his favour, and who have +often had a great deal of difficulty in explaining to others--and +perhaps to themselves--the course by which they have reached their +conclusions, claim the utmost for Jesus--and this in spite of the +most desperate philosophical difficulties about monotheism. With a +strong sense of fact, with a deepening feeling for reality, with a +growing value for experience, and with bolder ventures upon +experience, men have found that their conception of Jesus deepens +and grows; he means more to them the more they are. And, as was +noted in the first chapter, in a rational universe, where truth +counts and error fails, the Church has risen in power with every +real emphasis laid on Jesus Christ. What does this involve? + +So far our records. To-day we are living in an era when great +scientific discoveries are made, and more are promised. Geology once +unsettled people about Genesis; but closer study of the Bible and of +science has given truer views of both, and thinking people are as +little troubled about geology now as about Copernican astronomy. At +present heredity and psychology are dominating our minds--or, +rather, theories as to both; for though beginnings have been made, +the stage has not yet been reached of very wide or certain +discovery. There is still a great deal of the soul unexplored and +unmapped. No reasonable person would wish to belittle the study +either of evolution or of psychology; but the real men of science +would probably urge that lay people should take more pains to know +the exact meaning and scope of scientific terms, and to have some +more or less clear idea in their minds when they use them. However, +all these modern discoveries and theories are, to many men's minds, +a challenge to the right of Christians to speak of Jesus Christ as +they have spoken of him, a challenge to our right to represent the +facts of Christian life as we have represented them--in other words, +they are a challenge to us to return to experience and to see what +we really mean. If our study of Jesus in the preceding chapters has +been on sound lines, we shall feel that the challenge to face facts +is in his vein; it was what he urged upon men throughout. + +The old problem returns upon us: Who and what is this Jesus Christ? +We are involved in the recurrent need to re-examine him and +re-explore him. + +There are several ways of doing so. Like every other historical +character Jesus is to be known by what he does rather than by "a +priori" speculation as to what he might be. In the study of history, +the first thing is to know our original documents. There are the +Gospels, and, like other historical records, they must be studied in +earnest on scientific lines without preconception. And there are +later records, which tell us as plainly and as truthfully of what he +has done in the world's history. We can begin, then, with the +serious study of the actual historical Jesus, whom people met in the +road and with whom they ate their meals, whom the soldiers nailed to +the cross, whom his disciples took to worshipping, and who has, +historically, re-created the world. + +The second line of approach is rather more difficult, but with care +we can use Christological theories to recover the facts which those +who framed the theories intended to explain. We must remember here +once more the three historical canons laid down at the beginning. We +must above all things give the man's term his meaning, and ask what +was the experience behind his thought. When we come upon such +descriptions of Jesus as "Christ our Passover" (1 Cor. 5:7), or find +him called the Messiah, we must not let our own preconceptions as to +the value of the theories implied by the use of such language, nor +again our existing views of what is orthodox, determine our +conclusions; but we must ask what those who so explained Jesus +really meant to say, and what they had experienced which they +thought worth expressing. These people, as we see, were face to face +with a very great new experience, and they cast about for some means +of describing and explaining it. A slight illustration may suggest +the natural law in accordance with which they set about their task +of explanation. A child, of between two and three years old, was +watching his first snow-storm, gazing very intently at the flying +snow-flake, and evidently trying to think out what they were. At +last he hit it; they were "little birds." It is so that the mind, +infant or adult, is apt to work--explaining the new and unknown by +reference to the familiar. Snow-flakes are not little birds; they +are something quite different; yet there is a common element--they +both go flying through the air, and it was that fact which the +child's brain noticed and used. To explain Jesus, his friends and +contemporaries spoke of him as the Logos, the Sacrifice, "Christ our +Passover," the Messiah, and so forth. Of those terms not one is +intelligible to us to-day without a commentary. To ordinary people +Jesus is at once intelligible--far more so than the explanations of +him. Historically, it is he himself who has antiquated every one of +those conceptions, and, so far as they have survived, it has been in +virtue of association with him. They are the familiar language of +another day. "No one," said Dr. Rendel Harris, "can sing, 'How sweet +the name of Logos sounds.'" Synesius of Cyrene did try to sing it, +but most human beings prefer St. Bernard or John Newton. + +The inner significance of each term will point to the real +experience of the man using it. He employs a metaphor, a simile, or +a technical term to explain something. Can we penetrate to the +analogy which he finds between the Jesus of the new experience and +the old term which he uses? Can we, when we see what he has +experienced, grasp the substance and build on that to the neglect of +the term? When we look at the terms, we find that the essence of +sacrifice was reconciliation between God and man (we shall return to +this a little later), and that the Messiah was understood to be +destined to achieve God's purpose and God's meaning for mankind and +for each man. We find, again, that the inner meaning of the Logos is +that through it, and in it, God and man come in touch with each +other and become mutually intelligible. Reconciliation, the victory +of God, the mutual intelligibility of God and man--all three terms +centre in one great thought, a new union between God and man. That, +so far as I can see, is the common element; and that is, as men have +conceived it, the very heart of the Christian experience. + +In the third place, we can utilize the new experiments made upon +Jesus Christ in the Reformation and in other revivals. They come +nearer to us; for the men who report are more practical and more +scholarly in the modern way; they are more akin to us both in blood +and in ideas. Luther, for example, is a great spirit of the explorer +type. He went to scholarship and learnt the true meaning of +"metanoia"--that it was "re-thinking" and not "penance"--and he +grasped a new view of God there. From scholarship he gained a truer +view of Church history than he had been taught; and this too helped +to clear his mind. Above all, as "a great son of fact" (Carlyle's +name for him), his chief interest was the exploration of Jesus +Christ--would Christ stand all the weight that a man could throw +upon him without assistance? And Luther found that Christ could; and +he at once turned his knowledge into action, as the world knows. +"Justification by faith" was his phrase, and he meant that we may +trust Jesus Christ with all that we are, all that we have been, and +all that we hope to be; that Jesus himself will carry all; that +Jesus himself is all; that Jesus is at once Luther's eternal +salvation, and his sure help in the next day's difficulty--his +Saviour for ever from sin, and his great stand-by in translating the +Bible for the German people and in writing hymns for boys and girls. +"Nos nihil sumus", he wrote, "Christus solus est omnia".[35] In the +case of every great revival--the Wesleyan revival, and the smaller +ones in the United States, in the north of Ireland, in Wales--in +every one we find that, where anything is really achieved, it is +done by a new and thoroughgoing emphasis on Jesus Christ. It may be +put in language which to some ears is repulsive, in metaphors +strange or uncouth; but whatever the language, the fact that +underlies it is this--men are brought back to the reality, the +presence, the power, and the friendship of Jesus Christ; they are +called to a fresh venture on Jesus Christ, a fresh exploration: and +again and again the experience of a lifetime has justified the +venture. + +This brings us to the most effective and fundamental method in the +exploration of Jesus, in some ways the most difficult of all, or +else the very simplest. The Church has been clear that there is +nothing like personal experiment, the personal venture. It is the +only clue to the experience. The saying of St Augustine (Sermon 43, +3), "Immo Credo ut intelligas," is to many of our minds offensive--I +think, because we give not quite the right meaning to his "Credo". +But, if the illustrations are not too simple, swimming and bicycling +offer parallels. A man will never understand how water holds up a +human body, as long as he stays on dry land. In practical things, +the venture comes first; and it is hard to see how a man is to +understand Christ without a personal experience of him. All parents +know how much better bachelors and maiden sisters understand +children than they do; but as soon as these great authorities have +children of their own, the position is altered a little. + +The change that Jesus definitely operates in men, they have +described in various ways--rebirth, salvation, a new heart, and so +forth. What they have always emphasized in Jesus Christ, is that +they find he changes their outlook and develops new instincts in +them, and that in one way and another he saves from sin; and they +have been men who have learnt and adopted Jesus' own estimate of +sin. When, then, we remember that, with his serious view of sin, he +undertook man's redemption from it; when we add to this some real +reflection upon how much he has already done, as plain matter of +history, to "take away the sin of the world," we surely have +something to go upon in our attempt to determine who he is. The +question will rise, Have Christians overstated their experience, or +even misunderstood it? Has forgiveness been, in fact, achieved--or +salvation from sin? Can sin be put away at all? What will the +evidence for this be? I do not know what the evidence could be, +except the new life of peace with God, and all the sunshine and +blessing that go with it. This new life is at all events all the +evidence available; and how much it means is very difficult to +estimate without some personal experience. + +Here again the great theories of Redemption will help us to recover +the experience they are to explain; and once more we may note that +they are not the work of small minds or trivial natures, however +badly they have been echoed. Substitution implies at any rate some +serious confession of guilt before God, some strong sense of a great +indebtedness to Christ. The theory of Sacrifice implies the need of +reunion with God. Robertson Smith, in his "Early Religion of the +Semites" brings out that the essence of ancient sacrifice was that +the tribe, the sacrificial beast and the god were all of one blood; +the god was supposed to be alienated; the sacrifice was offered by +the party to the quarrel who was seeking reconciliation, namely, the +tribe. When we look at the New Testament, we find that the emphasis +always lies on God seeking reconciliation with man (cf. 2 Cor. +5:19). The theory of ransom--a most moving term in a world of +slavery--implies the need of new freedom for the mind, for the heart +and the whole nature, from the tyranny of sin. All these are +similes; and tremendous structures of theory have been built on +every one of them--and for some of these structures, simile, or, in +plainer language, analogy, is not a sufficient foundation. It is +probably true that all our current explanations of the work of +Christ in Redemption have in them too large an element of metaphor +and simile. Yet Christian people are reluctant to discard any one of +them; and their reluctance is intelligible. There is a value in the +old association, which is found by new experience. Every one of +these old similes will contribute to our realization of the work of +Christ, in so far as it is a record of experience of Christ, +verified in one generation after another. We shall make the best use +of them, when we are no longer intimidated by the terminology, but +go at once to what is meant--to the facts. + +We come still closer to the facts in the less metaphorical terms of +the New Testament. For example, there is the New Covenant. The +writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews went back to a great phrase in +Jeremiah, and by his emphasis on it he helped to give its name to +the whole New Testament--"I will make a new covenant with the house +of Israel and the house of Judah" (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). +Using this passage, he brings out that there is a new relation, a +new union, between God and man in Jesus. He speaks of Jesus as a +mediator bringing man and God together (Heb. 8:6)--language far +plainer to us than the terminology of sacrifice, which he employed +rather to bring home the work of Jesus with feeling and passion to +those who had no other vocabulary, than to impose upon Christian +thinkers a scheme of things which he clearly saw to be exhausted. +Then there is Paul's great conception of Reconciliation (2 Cor. +5:18-20). Half the difficulties connected with the word "Atonement" +disappear, when we grasp that the word in Greek means primarily +reconciliation. As Paul uses the noun and the verb, it is very plain +what he means--God is in Christ trying to reconcile the world to +himself. These attempts to express Christ's work in plain words take +us back to the great central Christian experience--to the great +initial discovery that the discord of man's making between God and +man has been removed by God's overtures in Christ; that the +obstacles which man has felt to his approach to God--in the unclean +hands and the unclean lips--have been taken away; and that with a +heart, such as the human heart is, a man may yet come to God in +Jesus, because of Jesus, through Jesus. + +The historical character of Christian life and thought is surely +evidence that Jesus Christ has accomplished something real; and when +we get a better hold of that, the problem of his person should be +more within our reach. The splendid phrase of Paul--"Therefore being +justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus +Christ" (Rom. 5:1)--or that of 1 Peter: "In whom ye rejoice ... with +joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8)--gives us the +keynote. The gaiety of the Early Church in its union with Jesus +Christ rings through the New Testament and the Christian fathers +from Hermas to Augustine. The Church has come singing down the +ages.[36] The victory over sin--no easy thing at any time--is +another permanent feature of Christian experience. The psychological +value of what Dr. Chalmers called "the expulsive power of a new +affection" is not enough studied by us. Look at the freedom, the +growth, the power of the Christian life--where do they all come +from? We cannot leave God out of this. At any rate, there they are +in the Christian experience; and where does anything that matters +flow from but from God? There is again the evidence of Christian +achievement; and it should be remarked that the Christian always +tells us that he himself has not the power, that it comes from God, +that he asks for it and God gives it. As for the easy explanation of +all religious life by "auto-suggestion," we may note that it +involves a loose and unscientific use of a more or less scientific +theory--never a very safe way to knowledge. In any case, it has been +pointed out, the word adds nothing to the number of our facts; nor +is it quite clear yet that it eliminates God from the story any more +than the term "digestion" makes it inappropriate to say Grace before +meat. All these things--peace, joy, victory, and the rest--follow +from the taking away of sin, and imply that it no longer stands +between God and man. All this is the work of the historical Jesus. +It is he who has changed the attitude of man to God, and by changing +it has made it possible for God to do what he has done. If God, in +Paul's phrase, "hath shined in our hearts" (2 Cor. 4:6), it was +Jesus who induced men to take down the shutters and to open the +windows. It is all associated, historically, with the ever-living +Jesus Christ, and with God in him. + +This brings us to the central question, the relation of Jesus with +God--the problem of Incarnation. After all that has been said, we +shall not approach it "a priori". We are too apt to put the +Incarnation more or less in algebraic form: + + x+y=a, + +where a stands for the historical Jesus Christ, and x and y +respectively for God and man. But what do we mean by x and y? Let us +face our facts. What do we know of man apart from Jesus Christ? +Surely it is only in him that we realize man--only in him that we +grasp what human depravity really is, the real meaning and +implications of human sin. It is those who have lived with Jesus +Christ, who are most conscious of sin; and this is no mere morbid +imagination or fancy, it rests on a much deeper exploration of human +nature than men in general attempt. Not until we know what he is do +we see how very little we are, and how far we have gone wrong. It is +his power of help and sympathy that teaches us the hardness of our +own hearts, our own fundamental want of sympathy. Again, until a man +knows Jesus Christ, he has little chance of even guessing the +grandeur of which he himself is capable. A man has, as he says, done +his best--for years, it may be, of strenuous endeavour; and then +comes the new experience of Jesus Christ, and he is lifted high +above his record, he gains a new power, a new tenderness, and he +does things incredible. We do not know the wrong or the right of +which man is capable, till we know Jesus Christ. The y of our +equation, then, does not tell us very much. + +When it comes to the x, is it not very often a mixture--an +ill-adjusted mixture--of the Father of Jesus, with the rather +negative "beyond all being" of later Greek speculation, and perhaps +the Judge of Roman law? The exact proportions in the mixture will +vary with the thinker. But, in fact, is it not true now that we +really only know God through Jesus? For it is only in and through +Jesus that we take the trouble, and have the faith, to explore and +test God, to try experiments upon God, to know what he can do and +what he will do. It is only in Jesus that the Love of God (in the +New Testament sense), is tenable at all. It is evanescent apart from +Jesus; it rests on the assurance of his words, his work, his +personality. A vague diffused "love of God" for everything in +general and nothing in particular, we saw to be a quite different +thing from the personal attachment, with which, according to Jesus, +God loves the individual man. That is the centre of the Gospel; it +is belief in that, which has done everything in a rational world, as +we saw at the beginning; and it is a most impossible belief, never +long or very actively held apart from Jesus. Only in him can we +believe it. Only in him, too, is the new experience of God's +forgiveness and redemption possible, in all its fullness and +sureness and power. "Dieu me pardonnera," said Heine, "c'est son +métier";--but he had not the Christian sense of what it was that God +was to forgive. It is only in Jesus that we can live the real life +of prayer, in the intimate way of Jesus. All this means that we have +to solve our x from Jesus--not to discover him through it. The plain +fact is that we actually know Jesus a great deal better than we know +our x and our y, the elements from which we hoped to reconstruct +him. What does this mean? + +It means, bluntly, that we have to re-think our theories of +Incarnation on "a posteriori" lines, to begin on facts that we know, +and to base ourselves on a continuous exploration and experience of +Jesus Christ first. The simple, homey rule of knowing things before +we talk about them holds in every other sphere of study, and it is +the rule which Jesus himself inculcated. We begin, then, with Jesus +Christ, and set out to see how far he will take us. Experience comes +first. "Follow me," he said. He chose the twelve men "that they +might be with him," and he let them find out in that intercourse +what he had for them; and from what he could give and did give they +drew their conclusions as to who and what he is. There can be no +other way of knowing him. "Luther's Reformation doctrines," says +Hermann, in his fine book, "The Communion of the Christian with God" +(p. 163), "only countenance such a confession of the Deity of Christ +as springs naturally to the lips of the man whom Jesus has already +made blessed." Melanchthon said the same: "This it is to know +Christ--to receive his benefits--not to contemplate his natures, or +the modes of his incarnation." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." + + + + +APPENDIX + +SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY CIRCLE DISCUSSIONS + +1. The book is obviously written for private reading, and these +suggestions are added, at the author's request, for those who would +like to study the book in groups. Circles on it, however, will not +be very profitable unless members of them are also carefully reading +the Gospels and come to the circles with copies of the New +Testament. Some acquaintance with the main outlines of New Testament +criticism will be a help. Readers who want to know how the New +Testament was written are referred to Principal Selbie: "The Nature +and Message of the Bible" (S.C.M., IS. 6d.), especially ch. iv. and +v. + +2. The questions suggested for discussion are only a selection of +the many important questions which the book raises. Circles should +not feel bound to follow them, or to try to cover them all at one +meeting. There are many subsidiary questions, which some circles +might pursue With profit. + +3. The circle should try as far as possible to get away from the +text of the book to the text of the Bible; to study and verify the +author's method of exposition. The Leader should give much thought +to this. + +4. A Bible with the marginal references of the R.V. +should be used--also a note-book. The author's clear preference for +the A.V. may be remarked (cf. p. 224). + +5. While the method of the book is historical, its object is +practical. The circles should have the same objective. +Experience comes before theology. Theology is worthless which cannot +be verified in experience. "He that doeth His will, shall know of +the doctrine." + +6. One chapter a week will be as much as a circle can profitably manage. . + + + +QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN CIRCLES + + +CHAPTER I + +I. Does the writer overdo the importance of history? +Would not "spiritual religion" suffice without a "historical basis," +as some Indians and others suggest? + +2. What would our evidence be for" spiritual religion" if we had not +the record of actual history to check fancy and support the ventures +of faith? + +3. Does the writer underestimate the actual impress made on his age +by Jesus? Was he not probably more widely known? + +4. How can ordinary people" make sure of the experience behind the +thought of Jesus?" Does this belittle him? + +5. What becomes of ordinary simple people untrained in historical +research, who are not experts and merely want help in living and +dying? Could not the whole presentation of Christ be much simpler? +Where does "revelation to babes" come in? + + +CHAPTER II + +1. Look up and verify at the circle meeting the references to the +Gospels in the chapter and see if they bear the interpretations put +upon them. + +2. Was Jesus fond of life and Nature? Give instances. + +3. Does intercourse with Nature make communion with God more real? + +4. "Jesus showed and taught men the beauty of humility, tenderness +and charity, but not of manliness and courage." Is there any truth +in this charge as regards (a) the portrait in the Gospels, or (b) +the presentation of Jesus in the teaching of the Church? + + +CHAPTER III + +1. "One of Jesus' great lessons is to get men to look for God in the +common-place things of which God makes so many." Discuss this. + +2. Had Jesus a sense of humour? Give instances. + +3. "The Son of Fact,"--do you think this a true epithet? + +4. What characteristics of the mind of Jesus does this chapter +emphasize as principal? Do you agree that they are the principal +ones? + +(5. What do you imagine Jesus looked like? What do you think of the +conventional figure of modern Art?) + + +CHAPTER IV + +I. To what extent was the hardness of the world during the early +Roman Empire due to current conceptions of God? + +2. What was the secret of Jesus' attractiveness, and what kinds of +men and women did he attract? + +3. How do you picture the life he lived with his disciples? E.g. Can +you reconstruct a typical day in the life of Jesus (cf. pp. 81, 82). + +4. Had he a method of teaching: if so, what was it? Give +illustrations. + + +CHAPTER V + +1. How would you state to a non-Christian the three principal +elements in Jesus' teaching about the character of God? Illustrate +fully from the three Gospels. + +2. What elements in the teaching of Jesus and the relation of God to +the individual would be new to a Jew who knew his Old Testament? + +3. What did Jesus teach his disciples concerning prayer? + +4. "If the friend in the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you +will knock until you get them; and has not God the gifts for you +that you need? Is he short of the power to help, or is it the will +to help that is wanting in God?" Do we pray in order to change the +will of God? Why did Jesus pray? + + +CHAPTER VI + +1. "There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant +anything to him." Would you admit this? Or has the writer too +narrow a conception of the nature of Art? + +2. "The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and helplessness of +masses of men was one of the foundations of the Christian Church." +Discuss this and illustrate from the ministry of our Lord. + +3. "I have not been thinking about the community: I have been +thinking about Christ," said a Bengali. Do you find this sort of +antithesis in the Gospels? + +4. "Jesus' new attitude to women." What is it? Was it continued in +the Apostolic Church? Did it differ from St Paul's? Cf. St John +4:27. + +5. What type of character does Jesus admire? Does your reading of +the Gospels incline you to agree with the writer? Is it the same +type of character which is exalted by Christian piety, stained-glass +windows, and the calendars of Saints? + + +CHAPTER VII + +1. "There is no escaping the issue of moral choice." "One opinion +is as good as another." Discuss these two contradictory statements. + +2. "Jesus says there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist." What is John's teaching +on sin and righteousness (in the Synoptic Gospels), and in what ways +does it differ (a) from the Pharisaic, and (b) from our Lord's +teaching? + +3. What are the modern parallels to "the four outstanding classes +whom Jesus warns of the danger of hell?" + +4. Wherein does Jesus' standard of sin differ from the standard of +sin current to-day? + +5. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" +(Luke 19:10). What does "lost" mean? + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1. What is the connection between the Kingdom of Heaven and the +Cross in the teaching of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels? + +2. How does Jesus conceive of salvation? Illustrate from the +Gospels. Do you agree with the writer's exposition? + +3. Why should the salvation of the lost (i.e. redemption) mean the +Cross for Jesus? + +4. "In choosing the Cross, Christians have always felt, Jesus +revealed God: and that is the centre of the great act of +Redemption." In what way? + +5. Do you think the paragraph on p. 179 beginning: "In the third +place . . ." does justice to the apocalyptic passages in the Gospels +(Mark 13ff, Matt. 24, etc.), or to the interpretation of this +teaching by scholars of the apocalyptic school? (It is no use +discussing this question unless members of the circle have made some +study of apocalyptic thought.) + + +CHAPTER IX + +1. "Into this world came the Church!" With what aspects of the +religion and life of the early Roman Empire, as outlined in the +chapter, would the Church find itself in conflict? + +2. How would you introduce the Christian faith to one who believed +and took part in the Eleusinian cult of Demeter? (Cf. 1 Corinthians +and St Paul's method of dealing with a similar situation, and notice +the things he stresses--e.g. elementary morality.) + +3. "Christ has conquered and all the gods are gone." Why did they go? + +4. But have they gone? What resemblances are there between the world +to-day (in the West and in the East) and the problem of the Church +to-day and the Roman world and the problem of the Church then? + +5. It was often remarked in India that, point by point, the writer's +description of religion in the Roman world is true to the letter of +Hinduism to-day. Work out this parallel. (See Dr J. N. Farquhar, +Crown of Hinduism and Modern Religious Movements in India.) + + +CHAPTER X + +1. "It is the heart that makes the theologian." Where does +your theology come from? + +2. The doctrine of the Atonement has often been stated as an attempt +to reconcile Jesus and an un-Christian conception of God. +"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." "The Cross +is the revelation in time of what God is always." Discuss. + +3. What are the three ways of answering the question: +"Who and what is this Jesus Christ?" Why must people make up their +minds about him? + +4. Does the writer make Jesus too human? Or has the reading of this +book made you feel his divinity more strongly just because he was so +perfectly human? + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, p. 157. + +[2] "We are nothing; Christ alone is all." + +[3] Canon Streeter in Foundations + +[4] Cf. the foreigner's touch at Athens (Acts 17:21). + +[5] because, later on, the Sabbath and Jewish ceremony were not among +the most living issues, after the Church had come to be chiefly +Gentile. + +[6] On this point see R. W. Dale, "The Living Christ and the Four +Gospels"; and W. Sanday, "The Gospels in the Second Century." + +[7] The reader will see that I am referring to Bishop Lightfoot's +article on "The Brethren of the Lord" in his commentary on +"Galatians", but not accepting his conclusions. + +[8] That this is not quite fanciful is shown by the emphasis laid by +more or less contemporary writers on the increased facilities for +travel which the Roman Empire gave, and the use made of them. + +[9] Wordsworth, Prelude, i. 586. + +[10] Cf., F. G. Peabody, "Jesus Christ and Christian Character", pp. +57-60. + +[11] H. S. Coffin, Creed of Jesus. pp. 240-242. + +[12] "Prelude" xiii. 26 ff. + +[13] See further, on this, in Chapter VII., p.168 + +[14] E.g., in his essay on "Mirabeau": "The real quantity of our +insight ... depends on our patience, our fairness, lovingness"; and +in "Biography": "A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." + +[15] Cf. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 154. I have +omitted one or two less relevant clauses--e.g. greetings to friends. + +[16] Horace, "Epistles", i. 16, 48. + +[17] Homer, "Odyssey", xvii. 322. + +[18] It is only about four times that personal immortality comes with +any clearness in the Old Testament: Psalms 72 and 139; Isaiah 26; +and Job 16:26. + +[19] Cf. A. E. J. Rawlinson, Dogma, Fact and Experience, p. 16. "All +the virtues in the Aristotelian canon are self-contained states of +the virtuous man himself .... In the last resort they are entirely +self-centred adornments or accomplishments of the good man; and it +is significant of this self-centredness of the entire conception +that the qualities of display (megaloprepeia) and highmindedness, or +proper pride (megalopsychia), are insisted on as integral elements +of the ideal character. On the other hand, the three characteristic +Christian virtues--faith, hope and charity--all postulate Another." + +[20] Cf. Chapter II + +[21] A French mystic is quoted as saying, "Le Dieu défini est le Dieu +fini." + +[22] Peabody, Jesus Christ and Christian Character, p. 97. + +[23] H. R. Mackintosh, "The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ", +p. 399. + +[24] Clement, "Protrepticus", 100, 3, 4 + +[25] The more or less contemporary Greek orator, Dio Chrysostom, +refers to the old-fashioned ways of the Tarsiots, especially +mentioning their insistence on women wearing veils. + +[26] Wernle, "Beginnings of Christianity", vol. i. p. 286, English +translation. + +[27] So too says Josephus, who gives this as the reason of Herod's +suspicion of him. + +[28] "Antiquities of the Jews", xviii. 5, 8, 117, cf. what Celsus +says of righteousness as a condition of admission to certain +mysteries that offer forgiveness of sins (Origen, c. "Celsum", iii. +59). The "purification of the body" has a ritual and ceremonial +significance. + +[29] Lines Composed above Tintern, 34. + +[30] That he did so is emphasized again and again, in striking +language, by St. Paul--e.g. Rom. 5:15-16, 20; 1 Tim. 1:14. + +[31] Horace, "Ars Poetica", 191, "Nec deus intersit nisi dignus +vindice nodus inciderit". + +[32] Daily reading of the Scriptures is recommended by Clement of +Alexandria ("Strom". vii. 49). + +[33] Perhaps one may quote here, not inappropriately, the famous +saying of Aristotle in his "Poetics", that "poetry is a more +philosophic thing than history, and of a higher seriousness." The +latter term means that the poet is "more in earnest" about his work, +and puts more energy of mind into it than the historian. If the +reader hesitates about this, let him try to write a great hymn or +poem. + +[34] Do not let us be misled by the thin pedantries of the Revised +Version here, or in Romans 5:1 shortly to be cited. In both places +literary and spiritual sense has bowed to the accidents of MSS. + +[35] If my readers do not know his Christmas hymn for children, they +have missed one of the happiest hymns for Christmas. + +[36] What Carlyle says in "The Hero as a Poet" ("Heroes and Hero +Worship") on the close relation of Song and Truth is worth +remembering in this connexion. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus of History, by T. R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Jesus of History + +Author: T. R. Glover + +Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESUS OF HISTORY *** + + + + +Contributed by Jonathon Love + + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +FOREWORD + +I regard it as a high privilege to be associated with this volume. +Many who know and value Mr Glover's work on The Conflict of +Religions in the Early Roman Empire must have wistfully desired to +secure from his graphic pen just such a book as is here given to the +world. He possesses the rare power of reverently handling familiar +truths or facts in such manner as to make them seem to be almost +new. There are few gifts more precious than this at a time when our +familiarity with the greatest and most sacred of all narratives is a +chief hindrance to our ready appreciation of its living power. I +believe that no one will read Mr Glover's chapters, and especially +his description of the parable-teaching given by our Lord, without a +sense of having been introduced to a whole series of fresh and +fruitful thoughts. He has expanded for us, with the force, the +clearness, and the power of vivid illustration which we have learned +to expect from him, the meaning of a sentence in the earlier volume +I have alluded to, where he insists that, "Jesus of Nazareth does +stand in the centre of human history, that He has brought God and +man into a new relation, that He is the present concern of every one +of us and that there is more in Him than we have yet accounted +for."[1] + +In accordance with its title, the single theme of the book is "The +Jesus of History," but the student or exponent of dogmatic theology +will find abundant material in its pages. + +I commend it confidently, both to single students and to those who +nowadays, in happily increasing numbers, meet together for common +study; and I congratulate those who belong to the Student Christian +Movement upon this notable addition to the books published in +connection with their far-reaching work. + + RANDALL CANTUAR + LAMBETH + Advent Sunday, 1916 + + + + + +PREFACE + +This book has grown out of lectures upon the historical Jesus given +in a good many cities of India during the winter 1915-16. Recast and +developed, the lectures were taken down in shorthand in Calcutta; +they were revised in Madras; and most of them were wholly +re-written, where and when in six following months leisure was +available, in places so far apart as Colombo, Maymyo, Rangoon, +Kodaikanal, Simla, and Poona. The reader will not expect a heavy +apparatus of references to books which were generally out of reach. + +Here and there are incorporated passages (rehandled) from articles +that have appeared in The Constructive Quarterly, The Nation, The +Expositor, and elsewhere. + +Those who themselves have tried to draw the likeness attempted in +this book will best understand, and perhaps most readily forgive, +failures and mistakes, or even worse, in my drawing. The aim of the +book, as of the lectures, is, after all, not to achieve a final +presentment of the historical Jesus, but to suggest lines of study +that will deepen our interest in him and our love of him. + + T. R. G. +POONA, August 1916 + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I + THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + Modern study of religion + Historicity of Jesus + The gospels as historical sources + Canons for the study of a historical figure + A caution against antiquarianism here + + CHAPTER II + CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + References in Gospels + Utilisation of the parables to reconstruct the domestic life + Nature. The city. The talk of the market + + CHAPTER III + THE MAN AND HIS MIND + Words and looks, as recorded in the gospels + Playfulness of speech + Movements of feeling + Habits of thought: e.g. Quickness. Feeling for fact. + Sympathy. Imagination + His use of the Old Testament + + CHAPTER IV + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + THE BACKGROUND + Hardness of the human life in those times + Uncertainness as to God's plans for the nation--specially + as to His purposes for the Messiah + Uncertainty as to the immortality of the soul, and its destinies + Re-action of all this upon life + THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE TEACHER + To induce people to try to re-think God + To secure the re-thinking of life from its foundations in view + of the new knowledge + THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES + His personality, and his genius for friendship + The disciples--the type he prefers + Intimacy, the real secret of his method + His ways of speech + His seriousness + The transformation of the disciples + + CHAPTER V + THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + JESUS' OWN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS + The Nearness of God + God's knowledge and power + God's throne + Jesus emphasizes mostly God's interest in the individual--the + love of God + THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD + The discovery of God + Parables of the treasure finder and the pearl merchant + Faith in God + Prayer + Life on the basis of God + + CHAPTER VI + JESUS AND MAN + Jesus' sympathy with men and their troubles + His feelings for the suffering and distressed + His feeling for women and children + His emphasis on tenderness and forgiveness + The characteristics which he values in men + The value of the individual soul + Jesus and the wasted life + Zacchaeus. The woman with the alabaster box. The penitent thief + + CHAPTER VII + JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + The problem of sin + John the Baptist on sin + Jesus' psychology of sin more serious + The outstanding types of sin which, according to Jesus, + involve for a man the utmost risk: + (a) Want of tenderness + (b) The impure imagination + (c) Indifference to truth + (d) Indecision + Jesus' view of sin as deduced from this teaching + Implication of a serious view of redemption + + CHAPTER VIII + THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + What the cross meant to him + HIS REFERENCES TO THE GOSPEL AND ITS RESULTS + The kingdom of heaven + The call for followers + His announcement of purpose in his life and death + What he means by redemption + FACTORS IN HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + His sense of human need + His realization of God + His recognition of his own relation to God + His prayer life + VERIFICATION FROM THE EVENT + The Resurrection + The new life of the disciples + The taking away of the sin of the world + RE-EXAMINATION OF HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS + As it bears on the problem of pain + and of sin + and on God + How a man is to understand Jesus Christ + + CHAPTER IX + THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + THE ROMAN EMPIRE + One rule of many races + General peace and free intercourse the world over + Fusion of cultures, traditions, religions + "The marriage of East and West" + THE OLD RELIGION + (1) Its strength: + in its ancient tradition + in its splendour of art, architecture and ceremony + in its oracles, healings and theophanies + in its adaptability in absorbing all cults and creeds + (2) Its weakness: + No deep sense of truth + No association with morality + Polytheism + The fear of the grave + (3) Its defence: + Plutarch--the Stoics--Neo-Platonism--the Eclectics + THE VICTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH + (1) Its characteristics + (2) Persecuted because it refused to compromise + (3) The Christian "out-lived" the pagan + "out died" him + "out-thought him" + + CHAPTER X + JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + The impulse to determine who he is, and his relation to God + The records of Christian experience + The Study of the personality of Jesus Christ + (a) The Gospels + (b) Christological theory a guide to experience + (c) The new experience of the Reformation period + Knowledge gained by the experiment comes before explanation + JESUS TO BE KNOWN BY WHAT HE DOES + The forgiveness of sin, and the theories to explain it + Is a Theology of Redemption possible which shall not be + mainly metaphor or simile? + THE PROBLEM OF THE INCARNATION + The approach is to be "a posterioria" + In fact, God and man are only known to us in and by Jesus + Only in Christ is the love of God as taught in N.T. tenable + To know Jesus in what he can do, is antecedent to theory about him + + APPENDIX + Suggestions for study circle discussions + + + + + +THE JESUS OF HISTORY + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS + +If one thing more than another marks modern thought, it is a new +insistence on fact. In every sphere of study there is a growing +emphasis on verification. Where a generation ago a case seemed to be +closed, to-day in the light of new facts it is reopened. Matters +that to our grandfathers were trivialities, to be summarily +dismissed, are seriously studied. Again and again we find the most +fruitful avenues opened to us by questions that another age might +have laughed out of a hearing; to-day they suggest investigation of +facts insufficiently known, and of the difficult connexions between +them. In psychology and in medicine the results of this new tendency +are evident in all sorts of ways--new methods in the treatment of +the sick, new inquiries as to the origin of diseases and the +possibilities of their prevention, attempts to get at the relations +between the soul and body, and a very new open-mindedness as to the +spiritual nature and its working and experiences. In other fields of +learning it is the same. + +To the modern student of man and his history the old easy way of +excluding religion as an absurdity, the light prediction of its +speedy, or at least its eventual, disappearance from the field of +human life, and other dogmatisms of the like kind, are almost +unintelligible. We realize that religion in some form is a natural +working of the human spirit, and, whatever place we give to religion +in the conduct of our own lives, as students of history we reckon +with the religious instinct as a factor of the highest import, and +we give to religious systems and organizations--above all, to +religious teachers and leaders--a more sympathetic and a profounder +study. Carlyle's lecture on Muhammad, in his course on "Heroes and +Hero Worship," may be taken as a landmark for English people in this +new treatment history. + +The Christian Church, whether we like it or not, has been a force of +unparalleled power in human affairs; and prophecies that it will no +longer be so, and allegations that by now it has ceased to be so, +are not much made by cautious thinkers. There is evidence that the +influence of the Christian Church, so far from ebbing, is +rising--evidence more obvious when we reflect that the influence of +such a movement is not to be quickly guessed from the number of its +actual adherents. A century and a quarter of Christian missions in +India have resulted in so many converts--a million and a quarter is +no slight outcome; but that is a small part of the story. All over +India the old religious systems are being subjected to a new study +by their own adherents; their weak points are being felt; there are +reform movements, new apologetics, compromises, defences--all sorts +of indications of ferment and transition. There can be little +question that while many things go to the making of an age, the +prime impulse to all this intellectual, religious, and moral +upheaval was the faith of Christian missionaries that Jesus Christ +would bring about what we actually see. They believed--and they were +laughed at for their belief--that Jesus Christ was still a real +power, permanent and destined to hold a larger place in the affairs +of men; and we see that they were right. Jesus remains the very +heart and soul of the Christian movement, still controlling men, +still capturing men--against their wills very often--changing men's +lives and using them for ends they never dreamed of. So much is +plain to the candid observer, whatever the explanation. + +We find further, another fact of even more significance to the +historian who will treat human experience with seriousness and +sympathy. The cynical view that delusion and error in a real world +have peculiar power in human affairs, may be dismissed; no serious +student of history could hold it. + +For those who believe, as we all do at heart, that the world is +rational, that real effects follow real causes, and conversely that +behind great movements lie great forces, the fact must weigh +enormously that wherever the Christian Church, or a section of it, +or a single Christian, has put upon Jesus Christ a higher +emphasis--above all where everything has been centred in Jesus +Christ--there has been an increase of power for Church, or +community, or man. Where new value has been found in Jesus Christ, +the Church has risen in power, in energy, in appeal, in victory. + +Paul of Tarsus progressively found more in Christ, expected more of +him, trusted him more; and his faith was justified. If Paul was +wrong, how did he capture the Christian Church for his ideas? If he +was wrong, how is it that when Luther caught his meaning, +re-interpreted him and laid the same emphasis on Jesus Christ with +his "Nos nihil sumus, Christus solus est omnia"[2], once more the +hearts of men were won by the higher doctrine of Christ's person and +power, and a new era followed the new emphasis? How is it that, when +John Wesley made the same discovery, and once more staked all on +faith in Christ, again the Church felt the pulse of new life? + +On the other hand, where through a nebulous philosophy men have +minimized Jesus, or where, through some weakness of the human mind, +they have sought the aid of others and relegated Jesus Christ to a +more distant, even if a higher, sphere--where, in short, Christ is +not the living centre of everything, the value of the Church has +declined, its life has waned. That, to my own mind, is the most +striking and outstanding fact in history. There must be a real +explanation of a thing so signal in a rational universe. + +The explanation in most human affairs comes after the recognition of +the fact. There our great fact stands of the significance of Jesus +Christ--a more wonderful thing as we study it more. We may fail to +explain it, but we must recognize it. One of the weaknesses of the +Church to-day is--put bluntly--that Christians are not making enough +of Jesus Christ. + +We find again that, where Jesus Christ is most real, and means most, +there we are apt to see the human mind reach a fuller freedom and +achieve more. There is a higher civilization, a greater emphasis on +the value of human life and character, and a stronger endeavour for +the utmost development of all human material, if we may so call the +souls and faculties of men. Why should there be this correspondence +between Jesus of Nazareth and human life? It is best brought out, +when we realize what he has made of Christian society, and contrast +it with what the various religions have left or produced in other +regions--the atrophy of human nature. + +In fine, there is no figure in human history that signifies more. +Men may love him or hate him, but they do it intensely. If he was +only what some say, he ought to be a mere figure of antiquity by +now. But he is more than that; Jesus is not a dead issue; he has to +be reckoned with still; and men who are to treat mankind seriously, +must make the intellectual effort to understand the man on whom has +been centred more of the interest and the passion of the most +serious and the best of mankind than on any other. The real secret +is that human nature is deeply and intensely spiritual, and that +Jesus satisfies it at its most spiritual point. + +The object before us in these pages is the attempt to know Jesus, if +we can, in a more intimate and intelligent way than we have done--at +least, to put before our minds the great problem, Who is this Jesus +Christ? and to try to answer it. + +One answer to this question is that Jesus was nothing, never was +anything, but a myth developed for religious purposes; that he never +lived at all. This view reappears from time to time, but so far it +has not appealed to any who take a serious interest in history. No +historian of the least repute has committed himself to the theory. +Desperate attempts have been made to discredit the Christian writers +of the first two centuries; it has been emphasized that Jesus is not +mentioned in secular writers of the period, and the passage in +Tacitus ("Annals", XV:44) has been explained away as a Christian +interpolation, or, more gaily, by reviving the wild notion that +Poggio Bracciolini forged the whole of the "Annals". But such +trifling with history and literature does not serve. No scholar +accepts the theory about Poggio--and yet if the passage about Christ +is to be got rid of, this is the better way of the two; for there is +nothing to countenance the view that the chapter is interpolated, or +to explain when or by whom it was done--the wish is father to the +thought. Christians are twice mentioned by Suetonius in dealing with +Emperors of the first century, though in one passage the reading +"Chrestus" for "Christus" has suggested to some scholars that +another man is meant; the confusion was a natural one and is +instanced elsewhere, but we need not press the matter. The argument +from silence is generally recognized as an uncertain one. Sir James +Melville, living at the Court of Mary, Queen of Scots, does not, I +learn, mention John Knox--"whom he could not have failed to mention +if Knox had really existed and played the part assigned to him by +his partisans," and so forth. It might be as possible and as +reasonable to prove that the Brahmo Samaj never existed, by +demonstrating four hundred years hence--or two thousand--that it is +not mentioned in In Memoriam, nor in The Ring and the Book, nor in +George Meredith's, novels, nor (more strangely) in any of Mr. +Kipling's surviving works, which definitely deal with India. None of +these writers, it may be replied, had any concern to mention the +Brahmo Samaj. And when one surveys the Greek and Roman writers of +the first century A.D. which of them had any concern to refer to +Jesus and his disciples, beyond the historians who do? Indeed, the +difficulty is to understand why some of these men should have +written at all; harder still, why others should have wanted to read +their poems and orations and commonplace books. One argument, +advanced in India a few years ago, against the historical value of +the Gospels may be revived by way of illustration. Would not Virgil +and Horace, it was asked, have taken notice of the massacre at +Bethlehem, if it was historical? Would they not? it was replied, +when they both had died years before its traditional date. + +But the distinction between Christian and secular writers is not one +that will weigh much with a serious historian. Until we have reason +to distinguish between book and book, the evidence must be treated +on exactly the same principles. To say abruptly that, because Luke +was a Christian and Suetonius a pagan, Luke is not worthy of the +credence given to Suetonius, is a line of approach that will most +commend itself to those who have read neither author. To gain a real +knowledge of historical truth, the historian's methods must be +slower and more cautious, he must know his author intimately--his +habits of mind, his turns of style, his preferences, his gifts for +seeing the real issue--and always the background, and the ways of +thinking that prevail in the background. An ancient writer is not +necessarily negligible because he records, and perhaps believes, +miracles or marvels or omens which a modern would never notice. It +is bad criticism that has made a popular legend of the unreliable +character of Herodotus. As our knowledge of antiquity grows, and we +become able to correct our early impressions, the credit of +Herodotus rises steadily, and to-day those who study him most +closely have the highest opinion of him. + +We may, then, without prejudice, take the evidence of Paul of Tarsus +on the historicity of Jesus, and examine it. If we are challenged as +to the genuineness of Paul's epistles, let us tell our questioner to +read them. Novels have been written in the form of correspondence; +but Paul's letters do not tell us all that a novelist or a forger +would--there are endless gaps, needless references to unknown +persons (needless to us, or to anybody apart from the people +themselves), constant occupation with questions which we can only +dimly discover from Paul's answers. The letters are genuine +letters--written for the occasion to particular people, and not +meant for us. The stamp of genuineness is on them--of life, real +life. The German scholar, Norden, in his Kunstprosa, says there is +much in Paul that he does not understand, but he catches in him +again after three hundred years that note of life that marks the +great literature of Greece. That is not easily forged. Luther and +Erasmus were right when they said--each of them has said it, however +it happened--that Paul "spoke pure flame." The letters, and the +theology and its influence, establish at once Paul's claim to be a +historical character. We may then ask, how a man of his ability +failed to observe that a non-historical Jesus, a pure figment, was +being palmed off on him--on a contemporary, it should be marked--and +by a combination of Jesus' own disciples with earlier friends of +Paul, who were trying to exterminate them. Paul knew priests and +Pharisees; he knew James and John and Peter; and he never detected +that they were in collusion, yes, and to the point of martyring +Stephen--to impose on him and on the world a non-historical Jesus. +To such straits are we brought, if Jesus never existed. History +becomes pure nonsense, and knowledge of historical fact impossible; +and, it may be noted, all knowledge is abolished if history is +beyond reach. + +But we are not dependent on books for our evidence of the +historicity of Jesus. The whole story of the Church implies him. He +is inwrought in every feature of its being. Every great religious +movement, of which we know, has depended on a personal impulse, and +has behind it some real, living and inspiring personality. It is +true that at a comparatively late stage of Hinduism a personal +devotion to Shri Krishna grew up, just as in the hour of decline of +the old Mediterranean paganism we find Julian the Apostate using a +devotional language to Athena at Athens that would have astonished +the contemporaries of Pericles. But Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad +stand on a very different footing from Krishna and Athena, even if +we concede the view of some scholars that Krishna was once a man, +and the contention of Euhemerus, a pre-Christian Greek, that all the +gods had once been human. If we posit that Jesus did not exist, we +shall be involved other difficulties as to the story of the Church. +Mr. F. C. Conybeare, an Oxford scholar avowedly not in allegiance to +the Christian Church, has characterized some of the reconstructions +made by contemporary anti-Christian writers as more miraculous than +the history they are trying to correct. + +We come now to the Gospels; and in what follows, and throughout the +book, we shall confine ourselves the first three Gospels. Great as +has been, and must be, the influence of the Fourth Gospel, in the +present stage of historical criticism it will serve our purpose best +to postpone the use of a source which we do not fully understand. +The exact relations of history and interpretation in the Fourth +Gospel--the methods and historical outlook of the writer--cannot yet +be said to be determined. "Only those who have merely trifled with +the problems it suggests are likely to speak dogmatically upon the +subject."[3] This is not to abandon the Fourth Gospel; for it is a +document which we could not do without in early Church History, and +which has vindicated its place in the devotional life in every +Christian generation. But, for the present, the first Three Gospels +will be our chief sources. + +The Gospels have, of course, been attacked again and again. Sober +criticism has raised the question as to whether here and there +traces may be found of the touch of a later hand--for example, were +there two asses or one, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? has the +baptismal formula at the end of Matthew been adjusted to the creed +of Nicaea? In the following pages the attempt will be made to base +what is said not on isolated texts, which may--and of course may +not--have been touched, but on the general tenor of the books. A +single episode or phrase may suffer change from a copyist's hand, +from inadvertence or from theological predilection. The character of +the Personality set forth in the Gospels is less susceptible of +alteration. + +This point is at once of importance, for the suggestion has been +made that we cannot be sure of any particular statement, episode, +incident or saying in the Gospels--taken by itself. Let us for the +moment imagine a more sweeping theory still--that no single episode +incident or saying of Jesus in the Gospels is authentic at all. What +follows? The great historian, E. A. Freeman of Oxford, once said +that a false anecdote may be good history; it may be sound evidence +for character, for, to obtain currency, a false anecdote has also to +true; it must be, in our proverbial phrase, "if not true, well +invented." Even if exaggeration and humour contribute to give it a +twist, the essence of parody is that it parodies--it must conform to +the original even where it leaves it. A good story-teller will +hardly tell the same story of Mr. Roosevelt and the Archbishop of +Canterbury--unless it happens to be true, and then he will be +cautious. "Truth," to quote another proverb, "is stranger than +fiction"; because fiction has to go warily to be probable, and must +be, more or less, conventional. The story a man invents about +another has to be true in some recognizable way to character--as a +little experiment in this direction will show. The inventor of a +story must have the gift of the caricaturist and of the bestower of +nicknames; he must have a shrewd eye for the real features of his +victim. Jesus, then, was a historical person; and about him we have +a mass of stories in the Gospels, which our theory for the moment +asks us to say are all false; but they have a certain unity of tone, +and they agree in pointing to a character of a certain type, and the +general aspects and broad outlines of that character they make +abundantly clear. Even on such a hypothesis we can know something of +the character of Jesus. But the hypothesis is gratuitous, and +absurd, as the paragraphs that follow may help to show. The Gospels +are essentially true and reliable records of a historical person. + +A survey of some of the outstanding features of the Gospels should +do something to assure their reader of their historical value. But +there is a necessary caution to be given at this moment. When +Aristotle discusses happiness, he adds a curious limitation--"as the +man of sense would define." He postulates a certain intelligence of +the matter in hand. Similarly Longinus, the greatest of ancient +critics, says that in literature sure judgement is the outcome of +long experience. In matters of historical and literary criticism, a +certain instinct is needed, conscious or unconscious, perhaps more +often the latter, which without a serious interest and a long +experience no man is likely to have. + +The Gospels are not properly biographies; they consist of +collections of reminiscences--memories and fragments that have +survived for years, and sometimes the fragment is little more than a +phrase. Such and such were the circumstances, and Jesus spoke--a +story that may occupy four or five verses, or less. Something +happened, Jesus said or did something that impressed his friends, +and they could never forget it. The story, as such impressions do, +keeps its sharp edges. Date and perhaps even place may be forgotten, +but the look and the tone of the speaker are indelible memories. In +the experience of every man there are such moments, and the +reminiscences can be trusted. The Gospels are almost avowedly not +first-hand. Peter is said to be behind Mark; Mark and at least one +other are behind Matthew and Luke. Luke in his preface explains his +methods. They are collectors and transmitters; and the +indications--are that they did their work very faithfully. There is +a simplicity and a plainness about the stories in the Gospels, which +further guarantees them. It is remarkable how little of the +adjective there is--no compliment, no eulogy, no heroic touches, no +sympathetic turn of phrase, no great passages of encomium or +commendation. It is often said about the Greek historian, +Thucydides, that, among his many intellectual judgements, he never +offers a criticism of any act that implies moral approbation or +disapprobation; that he says nothing to show that he had feelings or +that he cared about questions of right and wrong. Page after page of +Thucydides will make the reader tingle with pity or indignation; +there is hardly in literature so tragic a story as the Syracusan +expedition--and the writer did not feel! Is it not the sternest and +deepest feeling, after all, when a man will not "unpack his heart +with words"? Something of this kind we find in the Gospels. There is +not a word of condemnation for Herod or Pilate, for priest or +Pharisee; not a touch of sympathy as the nails are driven through +those hands; a blunt phrase about the soldiers, "And sitting down +they watched him there" (Matt. 26:36)--that is all. (From a literary +point of view, what a triumph of awful, quiet objectivity! and they +had no such aim.) Luke indeed has one slight touch that might be +called irony[4]--"And he released unto them him that for sedition +and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he +delivered Jesus to their will" (Luke 23:25)--and yet the irony is in +the story itself. "Why callest thou me good?" So it is recorded that +Jesus once answered a compliment (Matt. 19:17); and it looks as if +the mood had passed over to his intimates, and from them to their +friends who wrote the Gospels. He meant too much for them to seek +the facile relief of praise. The words of praise die away, yes, and +the words of affection too; and their silence and self-restraint are +in themselves evidence of their truth; and more winning than words +could have been. + +Here and there the Gospels keep a phrase actually used by Jesus, and +in his native Aramaic speech. The Greek was not apt to use or quote +foreign phrases--unlike the Englishman who "has been at a great +feast of languages and stolen the scraps." Why, then, do the +Evangelists, writing for Greek readers, keep the Aramaic sentences? +It looks like a human instinct that made Peter--if, as we are told, +he had some part in the origination of Mark's Gospel--and the rest +wish to keep the very words and tones of their Master, as most of us +would wish to keep the accents and phrases of those we love. Was +there no satisfaction to the people who had lived with Jesus, when +they read in Mark the very syllables they had heard him use, and +caught his great accents again? Is there not for Christians in every +age a joy and an inspiration in knowing the very sounds his lips +framed? The first word that his mother taught him survives in Abba +(Father)--something of his own speech to let us begin at the +beginning; something, again, that takes us to the very heart of him +at the end, in his cry: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani (Mark 15:34). +Is it not true that we come nearer to him in that cry in the +language strange to us, but his own? Would not the story, again, be +poorer without the little tender phrase that he used to the daughter +of Jairus (Mark 5:41). + +From time to time we find in the Gospels matters for which the +writers and those behind them have felt that some apology or at +least some explanation was needed. His friendship for sinners was a +taunt against him in his lifetime; so was his inattention to the +Sabbath (Mark 2:24, 3:2), and the details of ceremonial washing +(Mark 7:1-5). The faithful record of these is a sound indication +both of the date[5] and of the truth of the Gospels. But these were +not all. Celsus, in 178 A.D., in his True Word, mocked at Jesus +because of the cry upon the cross; he reminded Christians that many +and many a worthless knave had endured in brave silence, and their +Great Man cried out. It was from the Gospels that his knowledge came +(Mark 15:37). Even during his lifetime the Gospels reveal much about +Jesus that in contemporary opinion would degrade him--sighs and +tears and fatigue, liability to emotion and to pain, friendship with +women. + +With these revelations of character we may group passages where +the Gospels tell of Jesus surprising or shocking his +disciples--startling them by some act or some opinion, for which +they were not prepared, or which was contrary to common belief or +practice--passages, too, where he blames or criticizes them for +conventionality or unintelligence. + +It has been remarked that the frequency and fidelity of Jesus' own +allusions to country life, his illustrations from bird and beast and +flower, and the work of the farm, are evidence for the genuineness +of the tradition. Early Christianity, as we see already in the Acts +of the Apostles, was prevailingly urban. Paul aimed at the great +centres of population, where men gathered and from which ideas +spread. The language of Paul in his epistles, the sermons inserted +by Luke in the Acts, writings that survive of early Christians, are +all in marked contrast to the speech of Jesus in this matter of +country life. When we recall the practice of ancient historians of +composing speeches for insertion in their narratives, and weigh the +suggestion that the sermons in the Acts may conceivably owe much to +the free rehandling of Luke or may even be his own compositions, +there is a fresh significance in his marked abstention from any such +treatment of the words of Jesus. It means that we may be secure in +using them as genuine and untouched reproductions of what he said +and thought. + +This leads us to another point. The central figure of the Gospels +must impress every attentive reader as at least a man of marked +personality. He has his own attitude to life, his own views of God +and man and all else, and his own language, as we shall see in the +pages that follow. So much his own are all these things that it is +hard to imagine the possibility of his being a mere literary +creation, even if we could concede a joint literary creation by +several authors writing independent works. Indeed, when we reflect +on the character of the Gospels, their origin and composition, and +then consider the sharp, strong outlines of the personality +depicted, we shall be apt to feel his claim to historicity to be +stronger than we supposed. + +Finally, two points may be mentioned. The Church from the very start +accepted the Gospels. Two of them were written by men in Paul's own +personal circle (Philemon 24; Col. 4:10, 14). All found early +acceptance and wide use,[6] and after a century we find Irenaeus +maintaining that four Gospels are necessary, and are necessarily +all--there are four points of the compass, seasons and so forth; +therefore it is appropriate that there are four Gospels. The +argument is not very convincing; but that such an argument was +possible is evidence to the position of the Gospels as we have them. +We must remember the solidarity of that early Church. The +constituency, for which the Gospels were written, was steeped in the +tradition of Jesus' life, and the Christians accepted the Gospels, +as embodying what they knew; and there were still survivors from the +first days of the Gospel. When Boswell's Life of Johnson was +published, the great painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a lifelong friend +of Johnson, said it might be depended upon as if delivered upon +oath; Burke too had a high opinion of the book. In the same way the +Gospels come recommended to us by those who knew Jesus, though, it +is true, we do not know their names. + +The Gospels do not tell us all that Christians thought of Jesus, but +they imply more than they say. The writers limited themselves. That +Luke, for years a friend of Paul's, so generally kept his great +friend's theology, above all his Christology, out of his Gospel, is +significant. It does not mean divergence of view. More reasonably we +may conclude something else: he held to his literary and other +authorities, and he was content; for he knew to what the historical +Jesus brings men--to new life and larger views, to a series of new +estimates of Jesus himself. He left it there. In what follows, we +must not forget in our study that behind the Gospels, simple and +objective as they are, is the larger experience of the ever-working +Christ. + +There are three canons which may be laid down for the study of any +human character, whether of the past or of to-day. They are so +simple that it may hardly seem worth while to have stated them; yet +they are not always very easy to apply. Without them the acutest +critic will fail to give any sound account of a human character. + +First of all, give the man's words his own meaning. Make sure that +every term he uses has the full value he intends it to carry, +connotes all he wishes it to cover, and has the full emotional power +and suggestion that it has for himself. Two quite simple +illustrations may serve. The English-born clergyman in Canada who +spoke of a meeting of his congregation as a "homely gathering" did +not produce quite the effect he intended; "home-like" is one thing +in Canada, "homely" quite another, and the people laughed at the +slip--they knew, what he did not, that "homely" meant hard-featured +and ugly. My other illustration will take us towards the second +canon. I remember, years ago, a working-man of my own city talking a +swift, impulsive Socialism to me. He was young and something of a +poet. He got in return the obvious common sense that would be +expected of a mid-Victorian, middle-aged and middle-class. And then +he began to talk of hunger--the hunger that haunted whole streets in +our city, where they had indeed something to eat every day, but +never quite enough, and the children grew up so--the hunger that he +had experienced himself, for I knew his story. With his eyes fixed +on me, he brought home to me by the quiet intensity of his +speech--whether he knew what he effected or not--that he and I gave +hunger different senses. He gave the word for me a new meaning, with +the glimpse he gave me of his experience. Since then I have always +felt, when men fling theories out like his--schemes, too, like +his--wild and impracticable: "Ah, yes! what is at the heart of it +all? What but this awful experience which they have known and you +have not--the sight of your own folk hungering, life and faculty +wasted for want of mere food, and children growing up atrophied from +the cradle"? It is not easy to dissociate the language and the terms +of others from the meaning one gives to them oneself; it means +intellectual effort and intellectual discipline, a training of a +strenuous kind in sympathy and tenderness; but if we are to be fair, +it must be done. And the rule applies to Jesus also. Have we given +his meaning to his term--force, value, emotion, and suggestion? In a +later chapter we shall have to concentrate on one term of +his--God--and try to discover what he intends that term to convey. + +The second canon is: Make sure of the experience behind the thought. +How does a man come to think and feel as he does? That is the +question antecedent to any real criticism. What is it that has led +him to such a view? It is more important for us to determine that, +than to decide at once whether we think him right or wrong. Again +and again the quiet and sympathetic study of what a man has been +through will modify our judgement upon his conclusions; it will +often change our own conclusions, or even our way of thinking. We +have, then, to ask ourselves, What is the experience that leads +Jesus to speak as he does, to think as he does? In his case, as in +every other, the central and crucial question is, What is his +experience of God? In other words, What has he found in God? what +relations has he with God? What does he expect of God? What is God +to him? Such questions, if we are candid and not too quick in +answering, will take us a long way. It was once said of a man, busy +with some labour problem, that he was "working it out in theory, +unclouded by a single fact." Is it not fair to say that many of our +current judgements upon Jesus Christ are no better founded? Can we +say that we have any real, sure, and intimate knowledge of his +experience of God? The old commentator, Bengel, wrote at the +beginning of his book that a man, who is setting out to interpret +Scripture, has to ask "by what right" he does it. What is our right +to an opinion on Jesus Christ? + +The third canon will be: Ask of what type and of what dimensions the +nature must be, that is capable of that experience and of that +language. One of the commonest sources of bad criticism is the +emphasis on weak points. The really important thing in criticism is +to understand the triumphs of the poet or painter, let us say, whom +we are studying. How came he to achieve poem or picture, so profound +and so true? In what does he differ from other men, that he should +do work so fundamental and so eternal? Lamb's punning jest at +Wordsworth--that Wordsworth was saying he could have written Hamlet, +if he had had the mind--puts the matter directly. What is the mind +that can do such things? The historian will have to ask himself a +similar question about Jesus. + +Here we reach a point where caution is necessary. Will the Jesus we +draw be an antiquary's Jesus--an archaic figure, simple and lovable +perhaps, but quaint and old-world--in blunt language, outgrown? A +Galilean peasant, dressed in the garb of his day and place, his mind +fitted out with the current ideas of his contemporaries, elevated, +it may be, but not essentially changed? A dreamer, with the clouds +of the visionaries and apocalyptists ever in his head? When we look +at the ancient world, the great men are not archaic figures. Matthew +Arnold found in Homer something of the clearness and shrewdness of +Voltaire. There is thing archaic about Plato or Virgil or Paul--to +keep abreast of their thinking is no easy task for the strongest of +our brains, so modern, eternal, and original they are. They have +shaped the thinking of the world and are still shaping it. How much +more Jesus of Nazareth! When we make our picture of him, does it +suggest the man who has stirred mankind to its depths, set the world +on fire (Luke 12:49), and played an infinitely larger part in all +the affairs of men than any man we know of in history? Is it a great +figure? Does our emphasis fall on the great features of that +nature--are they within our vision, and in our drawing? Does our +explanation of him really explain him, or leave him more a riddle? +What do we make of his originality? Is it in our picture? What was +it in him that changed Peter and James and John and the rest from +companions into worshippers, that in every age has captured and +controlled the best, the deepest, and tenderest of men? Are we +afraid that our picture will be too modern, too little Jewish? These +are not the real dangers. Again, and again our danger is that we +under-estimate the great men of our race, and we always lose by so +doing. That we should over-estimate Jesus is not a real risk; the +story of the Church shows that the danger has always been the other +way. But not to under-estimate such a figure is hard. To see him as +he is, calls for all we have of intellect, of tenderness, of love, +and of greatness. It is worth while to try to understand him even if +we fail. God, said St. Bernard, is never sought in vain, even when +we do not find Him. Jesus Christ transcends our categories and +classification; we never exhaust him; and one element of Christian +happiness is that there is always more in him than we supposed. + + + +CHAPTER II + +CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH + +It has been remarked as an odd thing by some readers that the +Gospels tell us so little of the childhood of Jesus. It must be +remembered, however, that they are not really biographies, even of +the ancient order--still less of that modern kind, in which the main +concern is a tracing of the psychological development of the man. +Plutarch, the prince of ancient biographers, put fact and eulogy +together, cited characteristic sayings or doings of his hero, quoted +contemporary judgements, and wove the whole into a charming +narrative, good to read, pleasant to remember, perhaps not without +use as a lesson in conventional morality; but with little real +historical criticism in it, and as little, or less, attempt at any +effective reconstruction of a character. His biography of Pericles +illustrates his method and his defects. + +The writers of the Gospels did not altogether propose biography as +their object either in the ancient or the modern style. They left +out--perhaps because it did not survive--much about the life of +Jesus that we should like to know. The treatment of Mark by Matthew +shows a certain matter-of-fact habit, which explains the obvious +want of interest in aspects of the life and mind of Jesus that would +to a modern be fascinating. They are dealing with the earthly life +of the Son of God--and they deal with it with a faithfulness to +tradition and reminiscence, which is, when we really consider it, +quite surprising. But it is the heavenward side of the Master that +mattered to them most, and it is perhaps not a mere random guess +that they were not in any case so aware of the interest of childhood +and of children as Jesus was. Matthew and Luke record the miraculous +birth, and each adds a story, that has never failed to fascinate +men, of the Magi or the Shepherds who came to the manger cradle. +Luke gives one episode of Jesus' childhood. That is all. + +The writers of the Apocryphal Gospels did their best to fill the gap +by inventing or developing stories, pretty, silly, or repellent, +which only show how little they understood the original Gospels or +the character of Jesus. + +But when we turn to the parables of Jesus, and ask ourselves how +they came to be what they are, by what process of mind he framed +them, and where he found the experience from which one and another +of them spring, it is at once clear that a number of them are +stories of domestic life, and the question suggests itself, Why +should he have gone afield for what he found at home? If we know +that he grew up in the ordinary circle of a home, and then find him +drawing familiar illustrations from the common scenes of home, the +inference is easy that he is going back to the remembered daily +round of his own boyhood. + +In stray hints the Gospels give us a little of the framework of that +boyhood in Nazareth. The elder Joseph early disappears from the +story, and we find a reference to four brothers and several sisters. +"Is not this the carpenter?" people at Nazareth asked, "the son of +Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon? and +are not his sisters here with us?" (Mark 6:3); Matthew adds a word +that may or may not be significant "his sisters are they not all +with us?" (Matt. 13:56). In ancient times a particular view of the +Incarnation, linked with other contemporary views of celibacy and +the baseness of matter, led men to discover or invent the +possibility that these brothers and sisters were either the children +of Joseph by a former wife, or the cousins of Jesus on his mother's +side.[7] That cousins in some parts of the world actually are +confused in common speech with brothers may be admitted; but to the +ordinary Greek reader "brothers" meant brothers, and "cousins" +something different. No one, not starting with the theories of St. +Jerome, let us say, on marriage and matter and the decencies of the +Incarnation, would ever dream from the Greek narrative of the +episode of the critical neighbours at Nazareth, who will not accept +Jesus as a prophet because they know his family--a delightfully +natural and absurd reason, with history written plain on the face of +it--that Jesus had no brothers, only cousins or half-brothers at +best. When History gives us brothers, and Dogma says they must be +cousins--in any other case the decision of the historian would be +clear, and so it is here. + +We have then a household--a widow with five sons and at least two, +or very likely more, daughters. Jesus is admittedly her eldest son, +and is bred to be a carpenter; and a carpenter he undoubtedly was up +to, we are told, about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). The dates of +his birth and death are not quite precisely determined, and people +have fancied he may have been rather older at the beginning of his +ministry. For our purposes it is not of much importance. The more +relevant question for us is: How came he to wait till he was at +least about thirty years old before he began to teach in public? One +suggested answer finds the impulse, or starting-point, of his +ministry in the appearance of John the Baptist. It is a simpler +inference from such data as we have that the claims of a widowed +mother with six or seven younger children, a poor woman with a +carpenter's little brood to bring up, may have had something to do +with his delay. In any case, the parables give us pictures of the +undeniable activities of the household. + +A group of parables and other allusions illustrate the life of woman +as Jesus saw it in his mother's house. He pictures two women +grinding together at the mill (Luke 17:35), and then the heating of +the oven (Matt. 6:30)--the mud oven, not unlike the "field ovens" +used for a while by the English army in France in 1915, and heated +by the burning of wood inside it, kindled with "the grass of the +field." Meanwhile the leaven is at work in the meal where the woman +hid it (Matt. 13:33), and her son sits by and watches the heaving, +panting mass--the bubbles rising and bursting, the fall of the +level, and the rising of other bubbles to burst in their turn--all +bubbles. Later on, the picture came back to him--it was like the +Kingdom of God--"all bubbles!" said the disappointed, but he saw +more clearly. The bubbles are broken by the force of the active life +at work beneath--life, not death, is the story. The Kingdom of God +is life; the leaven is of more account than any number of bubbles. +And we may link all these parables from bread--making with what he +says of the little boy asking for bread (Matt. 7:9)--the mother +fired the oven and set the leaven in the meal long before the child +was hungry; she looked ahead and the bread was ready. Is not this +written also in the teaching of Jesus--"your heavenly Father knoweth +that ye have need of all these things" (Matt. 6:32)? God, he holds, +is as little taken aback by his children's needs as Mary was by +hers, and the little boys did not did not confine their demands to +bread--they wanted eggs and fish as well (Matt. 7:10; Luke 11:11, +12; and cf. John 6:9)--there was no end to their healthy appetites. +It is significant that he mentions the price of the cheapest flesh +food used by peasants (Luke 12:6). They also wanted clothes, and +wore them as hard as boys do. The time would come when new clothes +were needed; but why could not the old ones be patched, and passed +down yet another stage? And his mother would smile--and perhaps she +asked him to try for himself to see why; and he learnt by experiment +that old clothes cannot be patched beyond a certain point, and later +on he remembered the fact, and quoted it with telling effect (Mark +2:21). He pictures little houses (Luke 11:5-7) and how they are +swept (Luke 11:25)--especially when a coin has rolled away, into a +dusty corner or under something (Luke 15:8); and candles, and +bushels (Matt. 5:15), and beds, and moth, and rust (Matt. 6:19) and +all sorts of things that make the common round of life, come into +his talk, as naturally as they did into his life. + +The carpenter's shop, we may suppose, was close to the house--a shop +where men might count on good work and honest work; and what +memories must have gathered round it! Is it fanciful to suggest that +what the churches have always been saying, about "Coming to Jesus," +began to be said in a natural and spontaneous way in that shop? +Those little brothers and sisters did not always agree, and tempers +would now and then grow very warm among them (cf. Luke 7:39). And +then the big brother came and fetched them away from the little +house to the shop, and set one of them to pick up nails, and the +other to sweep up shavings--to help the carpenter. They helped him. +Like small boys, when they help, they got in his road at every turn. +But somehow they slipped back to a jolly frame of mind. The big +brother told them stories, and they came back different people. I +can picture a day when there was a woman in the little house, weary +and heavy-laden, and the door opened, and a cheery, pleasant face +looked in, and said, "Won't you come and talk to me?" And she came +and talked with him and life became a different thing for her. Are +these pictures fanciful--mere imagination? Are we to think that all +the tenderness of Jesus came to him by a miracle when he was thirty +years of age? Must we not think it was all growing up in that house +and in that shop? Or did he never tell a story--he who tells them so +charmingly--till he wanted parables? We have to note, at the same +time, some elements of criticism of the elder brother in the family +attitude, some defect of sympathy and failure to understand him, +even if kindness prompted their action in later days (Mark 3:21, +31). + +Nazareth lies in a basin among hills, from the rim of which can be +seen to the southward the historic plain of Esdraelon, and eastward +the Jordan valley and the hills of Gilead, and westward the +Mediterranean. On great roads, north and south of the town's girdle +of hills, passed to and fro the many-coloured traffic between Egypt +and Mesopotamia and the Orient. Traders, pilgrims, Herods--"the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" (Matt. 6:8)--all within +reach, and travelling no faster as a rule than the camel cared to +go--they formed a panorama of life for a thoughtful and imaginative +boy. More than one allusion to king's clothes comes in his recorded +teaching (Matt. 6:29, 11:8), and it was here that he saw them--and +noticed them and remembered. One is struck with the amount of that +unconscious assimilation of experience which we find in his words, +and which is in itself an index to his nature. We are not expressly +told that he sought the sights that the road afforded; but it would +be hard to believe that a bright, quick boy, with genius in him, +with poetry in him, with feeling for the real and for life, never +went down on to that road, never walked alongside of the caravans +and took note of the strange people "from the east and from the +west, from the north and from the south" (Luke 13:29)--Nubians, +Egyptians, Romans, Gauls, Britons, and Orientals.[8] In the one +anecdote that survives of his boyhood, we find men "astonished at +his understanding" (Luke 2:47), his gift for putting questions, and +his comments on the answers; and all life through he had a genius +for friendship. + +When we consider how Jesus handles Nature and her wilder children in +his parables, another point attracts attention. Men vary a great +deal in this. To take two of the Old Testament prophets, we find a +marked difference here between Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Ezekiel "puts +forth a riddle and speaks a parable" about an eagle--a frankly +heraldic eagle, that plants a tree-top in a city of merchants (Ezek. +17:2-5). Jeremiah is obviously country-bred. He might have been +surprised, if he had been told how often he illustrates his thought +from bird and beast and country life--and always with a certain +life-like precision and a perfectly clear sympathy. + +In the Gospels we find again the same faithfulness to living nature, +another country-bred boy with the same love for bird and beast and +the wild, open countryside. + + The Earth + And common face of Nature spake to me + Rememberable things.[9] + +Nature is enough for Jesus as for Jeremiah; she needs no +remodelling, no heraldic paints--"long pinions of divers +colours"--she will do as she is; she is just splendid and lovable +and true as God made her; and she slides into his mind whenever he +is deeply moved. Think of all the parables he draws from Nature--the +similes, metaphors, and illustrations; every one of them will bear +examination, and means more the nearer we look into it, and the +better we know the living thing behind. The eagle, in Jesus' +sentence, plants no trees, but it has the living bird's instinct for +carrion; the ancient Greek historian and Lord Roberts at Delhi in +1858 remarked that "wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles +be gathered together" (Luke 17:37). In India that year, it was said, +they gathered from all over to Delhi. What brought them? Instinct, +we say; and we find Jesus, in that rather dark sentence, suggesting +somehow that there is an instinct which knows "where." And sheep and +cows and asses, and hens and sparrows, and red sunsets, fill men's +reminiscences of his talk; and we may safely conclude that, when +allusions are so many in fragments of conversation preserved as +these are, the man's speech and mind were attuned to the love of +bird and beast. + +Is there another teacher of those times who is at all so sure that +God loves bird and flower? The Greek poet Meleager of Gadara--not so +very far removed from Jesus in space of time--has a good deal to say +about flowers, but not at all in the same sense as Jesus, not with +any feeling such as his for the immortal hand and eye that planned +their symmetry, and their colours and sweetness. St. Paul is +conspicuously a man of the town--"a citizen of no mean city" (Acts +21:39), and he dismisses the animals abruptly (1 Cor. 9:9); he has +hardly an allusion to the familiar and homely aspects of Nature, so +frequent and so pleasant in the speech of Jesus. He finds Nature, if +not quite "red in tooth and claw", yet groaning together, subject to +vanity, in bondage to corruption, travailing in pain, looking +forward in a sort of desperate hope to a freedom not yet realized +(Rom. 8:19-24). Nature is far less tragic for Jesus, far +happier--perhaps because he knew nature on closer terms of intimacy; +Nature, as he portrays things, is in nearer touch with the Heavenly +Father than we should guess from Paul[10], and there is no hint in +his recorded words that he held the ground to be under a curse. If +we are to use abstract terms and philosophize his thought a little, +we may agree that the four facts Jesus notes in Nature are its +mystery, its regularity, its impartiality, and its peacefulness[11]. +What he finds in Nature is not unlike what Wordsworth also finds-- + + A Power + That is the visible quality and shape + And image of right reason; that matures + Her processes by steadfast laws; gives birth + To no impatient or fallacious hopes, + No heat of passion or excessive zeal, + No vain conceits; provokes to no quick turns + Of self-applauding intellect; but trains + To meekness, and exalts by humble faith; + Holds up before the mind intoxicate + With present objects, and the busy dance + Of things that pass away, a temperate show + Of objects that endure?[12] + +This is not a passage that one could imagine the historical Jesus +speaking, or, still less, writing; but the essential ideas chime in +with his observation and his attitude "for the earth bringeth forth +fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full +corn in the ear" (Mark 4:28). Man can count safely on earth's +co-operation. From it all, and in it all, Jesus read deep into God's +mind and methods. + +It has often been remarked how apt Jesus was to go away to pray +alone in the desert or on the hillside, in the night or the early +dawn--probably no new habit induced by the crowded days of his +ministry, but an old way of his from youth. The full house, perhaps, +would prompt it, apart from what he found in the open. St. +Augustine, in a very appealing confession, tells us how his prayers +may be disturbed if he catch sight of a lizard snapping up flies on +the wall of his room (Conf., 10:35, 57). The bird flying to her +nest, the fox creeping to his hole (Luke 9:58)--did these break into +the prayers of Jesus--and with what effect? Was it in such hours +that he learnt his deepest lessons from the birds and the lilies of +the field? Why not? As he sat out in the wild under the open sky, +did the stars never speak to him, as to Hebrew psalmist and Roman +Virgil? + + When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. + The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; + What is man, that thou art mindful of him? + And the son of man, that thou visitest him? + (Psalm 8:3-4.) + +It is a question men have to meet and face; and if we can trust +Matthew's statement, an utterance of his in later years called out +by the sneer of a Pharisee, shows how he had made the old poet's +answer his own:-- + + Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise + (Matt. 21:16). + +If this were a solitary utterance of his thought upon Nature, it +might be ranked with one or two pointed citations he made of the +letter of the Old Testament; but it is safe, perhaps, to take it as +one of many indications of his communion with God in Nature. The +wind blowing in the night where it listed--must we authenticate +every verse of the Fourth Gospel before we believe that he listened +to it also and caught something? At any rate, in later years, when +his friends are over-driven and weary, quiet and open-air in a +desert place are what he prescribes for them and wishes to share +with them--surely a hint of old experience (Mark 6:31). + +But now let us turn back to Nazareth, for, as the Gospel reminds us, +there he grew up. "The city teaches the man," said the old Greek +poet Simonides; and it does, as we see, and more than we sometimes +realize. Jesus grew up in an Oriental town, in the middle of its +life--a town with poor houses, bad smells, and worse stories, +tragedies of widow and prodigal son, of unjust judge and grasping +publican--yes, and comedies too. We know at once from general +knowledge of Jewish life and custom, and from the recorded fact that +he read the Scriptures, that he went to school; and we could guess, +fairly safely, that he played with his school-fellows, even if he +had not told us what the games were at which they played:-- + + At weddings and at funerals, + As if his life's vocation + Were endless imitation. + +Sometimes the children were sulky and would not play (Luke 7:32). +How strange, and how delightful, that the great Gospel, full of +God's word for mankind, should have a little corner in it for such +reminiscences of children's games! We cannot suppose that he had +access to many books, but he knew the Old Testament, well and +familiarly--better and more aptly than some people expected. Traces +of other books have been found in his teaching, not many and some of +them doubtful. Generally one would conclude that, apart from the Old +Testament, his education was not very bookish--he found it in home +and shop, in the desert, on the road, and in the market-place. + +It is interesting to gather from the Gospel what Jesus says of the +talk of men, and it is surprising to find how much it is, till we +realize how very much in ancient times the city was the education, +and the market-place the school, where some of the most abiding +lessons were learnt. Is it not so still in the East? Here was a boy, +however, who watched men and their words more closely than they +guessed, on whose ears words fell, not as old coinages, but as new +minting, with the marks of thought still rough and bright on +them--indexes to the speaker. + +Proverbs of the market every people has of its own. "It is nought, +it is nought, saith the buyer, but, after he is gone his way, then +he boasteth." And the seller has all the variants of caveat emptor +ready to retort. In antiquity, and in the East to-day, apart from +machine-made things, we find the same uncertainty in most +transactions as to the value of the article, the same eagerness of +both seller and buyer to get at the supposed special knowledge of +the other, and the same preliminary skirmish of proposal, protest, +offer, refusal, and oath. Jesus stands by the stall, watching some +small sale with the bright, earnest eyes which we find so often in +the Gospels. The buyer swears "on his head" that he will not give +more than so much; then, "by the altar" he won't get the thing. "By +the earth" it isn't worth it; "by the heaven" the seller gave that +for it. So the battle rages, and at last the bargain is struck. The +buyer raises his price; the seller takes less than he gave for the +thing; neither has believed the other, but each, as the keen eyes of +the onlooker see, feels he has over-reached the other. Heaven has +been invoked--and what is Heaven? As the words fell on the +listener's ears, he saw the throne of God, and on it One before +whose face Heaven itself and earth will flee away--and be brought +back again for judgement. And by Heaven, and by Him who sits on the +Throne, men will swear falsely for an "anna" or two. How can they? +It is because "nothings grow something"; the words make a mist about +the thing. In later days Jesus told his followers to swear not at +all--to stick to Yes and No. + +Then a leader in the religious world passes, and the loiterers have +a new interest for the moment. "Rabbi, Rabbi," they say, and the +great man moves onward, obviously pleased with the greeting in the +marketplace (Matt. 23:7). As soon as he is out of hearing, it is no +longer "Rabbi" he is called; talk turns to another tune. How little +the fine word meant! How lightly the title was given! Worse still, +the title will stand between a man and the facts of life. Some will +use it to deceive him; others, impressed by it, are silent in his +presence; one way and another, the facts are kept from him. Seeing, +he sees not, and he comes to live in an unreal world. How many men +to-day will say what they really think before a man in clerical +dress, or a dignitary however trivial? "Be not ye called 'Rabbi,'" +was the counsel Jesus gave to his followers, and he would accept +neither "Rabbi," nor "Good Master," nor any other title till he saw +how much it meant. "Master!" they said, "we know that thou art true, +and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any +man; for thou regardest not the person of men" (Matt. 22:16). But as +the evangelist continues, Jesus "perceived their wickedness"--he had +heard such things before and was not trapped. "Hosanna in the +highest!" (Mark 11:10)--strange to think of the quiet figure, riding +in the midst of the excited crowd, open-eyed and undeceived in his +hour of "triumph"--as little perturbed, too, when his name is cast +out as evil. How little men's praise and their blame matter, when +your eyes are fixed on God--when you have Him and His facts to be +your inspiration! On the other hand, when you have not contact with +God, how much men's talk counts, and how easy it is to lose all +sense of fact! + +By and by the talk veers round to what Pilate had done one to the +Galileans--if the dates fit, or if for the moment we can make them +fit, or anticipate once for all, and be done with the bazaar talk +which never stopped. Pilate had killed the Galileans when they went +up to Jerusalem--yes! mingled their own blood, you might say, with +the blood of their sacrifices (Luke 13:1). What would he do next? +There was no telling. What was needed--some time--it was bound to +come--and the voice sank--a Theudas, or a Judas again (Acts 5:36, +37)--it would not be surprising. ... There were no newspapers, no +approved and reliable sources of news such as we boast to have from +our governments and millionaires; all was rumour, bazaar talk--"Lo! +here!" and "Lo! there!" (Mark 13:21). "Prohibiti sermones ideoque +plures", said Tacitus of Rome--rumours were forbidden, so there were +more of them. The Messiah _must_ come some time, said one man who +might be a friend of the Zealots. In any case, reflected another, +those Galileans had probably angered Heaven and got their deserts; +ill luck like that could hardly come by accident; think of the tower +that fell at Siloam--anybody could see there was a judgement in it. +Might it not be said that God had discredited John the Baptist, now +his head was taken off? So men speculated (cf. John 9:2). Jesus saw +through all this, and was radiantly clear about it. + +So they chattered, and he heard. Then the talk took another turn, +and tales were told--bad eyes flashed and lips smacked, as one +story-teller eclipsed the other in the familiar vein. The Arabian +Nights are tales of the crowd, it is said, rather than literature in +their origin, and will give clues enough to what might be told. +Jesus heard, and he saw what it meant; and afterwards he told his +friends: "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil +thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders ... foolishness; all +these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark +7:21-23). The evil thought takes shape to find utterance, and gains +thereby a new vitality, a new power for evil, and may haunt both +speaker and listener for ever with its defiling memory. + +By and by he intervened and spoke himself. Every one was shocked, +and said, "Blasphemy!" They were not used to think of God as he did, +and it seemed improper. + +Then the whole question of human speech rises for him. What did they +mean by their words? What could their minds be like? God dragged in +and flung about like a counter, in a game of barter--but if you +speak real meaning about God it is blasphemy. "Rabbi, Rabbi" to the +great man's face--he turns his back--and his name is smirched for +ever by a witty improvisation. Why? Why should men do such things? +The magic in the idle tale--ten minutes, and the memory is stained +for ever with what not one of them would forget, however he might +wish to try to forget. The words are loose and idle, careless, flung +out without purpose but to pass the moment--and they live for ever +and work mischief. How can they be so light and yet have such power? + +Later on he told his friends what he had seen in this matter of +words. They come from within, and the speaker's whole personality, +false or true, is behind what he says--the good or bad treasure of +his heart. There are no grapes growing on the bramble bush. No +wonder that of every idle word men shall give account on the day of +Judgement (Matt. 12:36). The idle word--the word unstudied--comes +straight from the inmost man, the spontaneous overflow from the +spirit within, natural and inevitable, proof of his quality; and +they react with the life that brought them forth.[13] + +So he grows up--in a real world and among real people. He goes to +school with the boys of his own age, and lives at home with mother +and brothers and sisters. He reads the Old Testament, and forms a +habit of going to the Synagogue (Luke 4:16). All points to a home +where religion was real. The first word he learnt to say was +probably "Abba", and it struck the keynote of his thoughts. But he +knew the world without as well,--turned on to it early the keen eyes +that saw all, and he recognized what he saw. Knowledge of men, but +without cynicism, a loving heart still in spite of his freedom from +illusions--these are among the gifts that his environment gave him, +or failed to take away from him. + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MAN AND HIS MIND + +It is a commonplace with those who take literature seriously that +what is to reach the heart must come from the heart; and the maxim +may be applied conversely--that what has reached a heart has come +from a heart--that what continues to reach the heart, among strange +peoples, in distant lands, after long ages, has come from a heart of +no common make. The Anglo-Saxon boy is at home in the Odyssey; and +when he is a man--if he has the luck to be guided into classical +paths--he finds himself in the Aeneid; and from this certain things +are deduced about the makers of those poems--that they knew life, +looked on it with bright, keen eyes, loved it, and lived it over +again as they shaped it into verse. + +When we turn to the first three Gospels, we find the same thing. +Here are books with a more worldwide range than Homer or Virgil, +translated again and again from the first century of their existence +on to the latest--and then more than ever--into all sorts of +tongues, to reach men all over the globe; and that purpose they have +achieved. They have done it not so much for the literary graces of +the translators or even of the original authors, though in one case +these are more considerable than is sometimes allowed. That the +Gospels owe their appeal to the recorded sayings and doings of our +Lord, is our natural way of putting it to-day; but if for "our Lord" +we put a plainer description, more congenial to the day in which the +Gospels were written, we shall be in a better position to realize +the significance of the worldwide appeal of his words. Thus and +thus, then, spoke a mere provincial, a Jew who, though far less +conspicuous and interesting, came from the region of Meleager and +Philodemos--not from their town of Gadara, nor possibly from their +district, but from some place not so very far away. + +It was not to be expected that he should win the hearts of men as he +did. He had not the Greek culture of the two Gadarenes. Celsus even +found his style of speech rather vulgar. But he has, as a matter of +common knowledge--so common as hardly to be noted--won the hearts of +men in every race and every land. The fact is familiar, but we have +as historians and critics to look for the explanation. What has been +his appeal? And what the heart and nature, from which came this +incredible power and reach of appeal? "Out of the abundance (the +overflow) of the heart the mouth speaketh," he said. (Matt. 12:34). +This he amplified, as we have seen, by his insistence on the weight +of every idle word (Matt. 12:36)--the unstudied and spontaneous +expression or ejaculation--the reflex, in modern phrase--which gives +the real clue to the man's inner nature and deeper mind, which +"justifies" him, therefore, or "condemns" him (Matt. 12:37). The +overflow of the heart, he holds, shows more decisively than anything +else the quality of the spring in its depths. + +Here is a suggestion which we find true in ordinary life as well as +in the study of literature. If we turn it back upon its author, he +at least will not complain, and we shall perhaps gain a new sense of +his significance by approaching him at a new angle, from an outlook +not perhaps much frequented. How did he come to speak in this +manner, to say this and that? To what feeling or thought, to what +attitude to life, is this or the other saying due? If he, too, spoke +"out of the overflow of his heart"--and we can believe it when we +think of the freshness and spontaneity with which he spoke--of what +nature and of what depth was that heart? + +We can very well believe that much in his speech that was +unforgettable to others, he forgot himself. They remembered, they +could not help remembering, what he said; but he--no! he said it and +moved on, keeping no register of his sayings; and so much the more +natural and characteristic they are. Nor would he, like smaller +people, be very careful of the form and turn of his speech; it was +never set. Certainly he gave his followers the rule not to study +their language (Mark 13:11). Whether or no he had consciously +thought it all out; we can see the value of his rule, and how it +fits in with his way of life and safeguards it. Under such a rule +speech will not be stereotyped; no set form of words will impose +itself on the free movement of thought, the mind can and will move +of itself unhampered; and when the mind keeps and develops such +freedom of movement, it commonly breaks new ground and handles new +things. Not to be careful of our speech means for most of us +slovenly thinking; but when a man thinks in earnest and takes truth +seriously, when he speaks with his eye on his object, his language +will not be slovenly, his instinct for fact will keep his speech +pure and true. This is what we find in the sayings of Jesus; there +is form, but living form, the freedom and grace which the clear mind +and the friendly eye communicate insensibly and inimitably to +language. + +Our task in this chapter is primarily a historical one. From the +words of Jesus we have to work back to the type of mind from which +they come. There is always danger in such a task. We may forget the +wide and living variety of the mind we study; our own minds may not +be large enough, nor tender enough, not various, quick and +sympathetic in such a degree as to apprehend what we find, to see +what it means, and to relate it to itself, detail to whole. How much +greater the danger here! While we analyse, we have to remember that +the most correct analysis of features or characteristics may easily +fail to give us a true idea of the face or the character which we +analyse. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. The face and +the character have an "integrity," a wholeness. The detail may be of +immense value to us, studied as detail; but for the true view the +detail, familiar as it may be to us, and dear to us, must be sunk in +the general view. Especially is this true of great characters. The +"reconstruction of a personality"--to borrow a phrase from some +psychologists--is a very difficult matter, even when we are masters +of our detail. There is a proportion, a perspective, a balance, a +poise about a character--my terms may involve some mixture of +metaphors, but if the mixture brings out the complexity and +difficulty of our task, it will be justified. Above all there is +life, and as a life deepens and widens, it grows complex, +unintelligible, and wonderful. It is more so than ever in the case +of Jesus. Yet we have to grapple with this great task, if we are to +know him, even if here as elsewhere we realize quickly that the +beginning of real knowledge is when we grasp how much we do not +know, how much there is to know. Attempted in this spirit, a study +of the mind of Jesus and his characteristics should help us forward +to some further intimacy with him. + +The Gospels do not, like some biographies ancient and modern, give a +place to the physical characteristics of Jesus. Suetonius in a very +short sketch adds the personal aspect of the poet Horace, who, it is +true, had led the way by such allusions (Epist. i. 4, 15-16), and +tells us how Augustus said he was "a squat little pot" (sessilis +obba). The "Acts of Thekla" in a similar way describe St. Paul's +short figure with its suggestion of quickness. But the only personal +traits of this sort that I recall in the New Testament are the eyes +of Jesus and Paul's way of stretching out a hand when he spoke. In +view of this reticence, it is rather remarkable how often the +Gospels refer to Jesus "looking." He "looked round about on" the +people in the Synagogue, and then--with some suggestion of a pause +and silence while he looked, "he saith unto the man" (Mark 3:5). +When Peter deprecated the Cross, we find the same; "when he had +turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter" (Mark +8:33). When the rich young ruler came so impulsively to him to ask +him about eternal life, Jesus, "looking upon him, loved him"--and we +touch there a certain reminiscence of eye-witnesses (Mark 10:21). +There are other references of the same kind in the narratives--the +look seems to come into the story naturally, without the writers +noticing it. There must have been much else as familiar to his +friends and companions. They must have known him as we know our +friends--the inflections of his voice, his characteristic movements, +the hang of his clothes, his step in the dark, and all such things. +Did he speak quickly or slowly? or move his hand when he spoke? The +teaching posture of Buddha's hand is stereotyped in his images. We +are not told such things about Jesus, and guessing does not take us +very far. Yet a stanza in one of the elegies written on the death of +Sir Philip Sidney may be taken as a far-away likeness of a greater +and more wonderful figure--and not lead us very far astray:-- + + A sweet, attractive kind of grace; + The full assurance given by looks; + Perpetual comfort in a face; + The lineaments of Gospel books. + +If we are not explicitly told of such things by the evangelists, +they are easily felt in the story. The "paradoxes," as we call +them--a rather dull name for them--surely point to a face alive with +intellect and gaiety. The way in which, for instance, the leper +approaches him, implies the man's eyes fixed in close study on +Jesus' face, and finding nothing there to check him and everything +to bring him nearer (Mark 1:41). When Mark tells us that he greeted +the Syro-Phoenician woman's sally about the little dogs eating the +children's crumbs under the table with the reply, "For the sake of +this saying of yours ...," we must assume some change of expression +on such a face as that of Jesus (Mark 7:29). + +We read again and again of the interest men and women found in his +preaching and teaching--how they hung on him to hear him, how they +came in crowds, how on one occasion they drove him into a boat for a +pulpit. It is only familiarity that has blinded us to the "charm" +they found in his speech--"they marvelled at his words of charm" +(Luke 4:22)--to the gaiety and playfulness that light up his +lessons. For instance, there is a little-noticed phrase, that grows +very delightful as we study it, in his words to the seventy +disciples--"Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this +house (the common "salaam" of the East); and if a son of peace be +there, your peace shall rest upon it; if not, your "salaam" will +come back to _you_" (Luke 10:6). "A son of peace"--not _the_ son of +peace--what a beautiful expression; what a beautiful idea too, that +the unheeded Peace! comes back and blesses the heart that wished it, +as if courteous and kind words never went unrewarded! Think again of +"Solomon in all his glory" (Matt. 6:29)--before the phrase was +hackneyed by common quotation. Do not such words reveal nature? + +A more elaborate and more amusing episode is that of the Pharisee's +drinking operations. We are shown the man polishing his cup, +elaborately and carefully; for he lays great importance on the +cleanness of his cup; but he forgets to clean the inside. Most +people drink from the inside, but the Pharisee forgot it, dirty as +it was, and left it untouched. Then he sets about straining what he +is going to drink--another elaborate process; he holds a piece of +muslin over the cup and pours with care; he pauses--he sees a +mosquito; he has caught it in time and flicks it away; he is safe +and he will not swallow it. And then, adds Jesus, he swallowed a +camel. How many of us have ever pictured the process, and the series +of sensations, as the long hairy neck slid down the throat of the +Pharisee--all that amplitude of loose-hung anatomy--the hump--two +humps--both of them slid down--and he never noticed--and the +legs--all of them--with whole outfit of knees and big padded feet. +The Pharisee swallowed a camel--and never noticed it (Matt. 23:24, +25). It is the mixture of sheer realism with absurdity that makes +the irony and gives it its force. Did no one smile as the story was +told? Did no one see the scene pictured with his own mind's eye--no +one grasp the humour and the irony with delight? Could any one, on +the other hand, forget it? A modern teacher would have said, in our +jargon, that the Pharisee had no sense of proportion--and no one +would have thought the remark worth remembering. But Jesus' +treatment of the subject reveals his own mind in quite a number of +aspects. + +When he bade turn the other cheek--that sentence which Celsus found +so vulgar--did no one smile, then, at the idea of anybody ever +dreaming of such an act (Matt. 5:39)? Nor at the picture of the kind +brother taking a mote from his brother's eye, with a whole baulk of +timber in his own (Matt. 7:5)? Nor at the suggestion of doing two +miles of forced labour when only one was demanded (Matt. 5:41)? Nor +when he suggested that anxiety about food and clothing was a mark of +the Gentiles (Matt. 6:32)? Did none of his disciples mark a touch of +irony when he said that among the Gentile dynasties the kings who +exercise authority are called "Benefactors" (Luke 22:25)? It was +true; Euergetes is a well-known kingly title, but the explanation +that it was the reward for strenuous use of monarchic authority was +new. Are we to think his face gave no sign of what he was doing? Was +there no smile? + +We are told by his biographer that Marcus Aurelius had a face that +never changed--for joy or sorrow, "being an adherent," he adds, "of +the Stoic philosophy." The pose of superiority to emotion was not +uncommonly held in those times to be the mark of a sage--Horace's +"nil admirari". The writers of the Gospels do not conceal that Jesus +had feelings, and expressed them. We read how he "rejoiced in +spirit" (Luke 10:21)--how he "sighed" (Mark 7:34) and "sighed +deeply" (Mark 8:12)--how his look showed "anger" (Mark 3:5). They +tell us of his indignant utterances (Matt. 23:14; Mark 11:17)--of +his quick sensitiveness to a purposeful touch (Mark 5:30)--of his +fatigue (Mark 7:24; Luke 8:23)--of his instant response, as we have +just seen, to contact with such interesting spirits as the +Syro-Phoenician woman and the rich young ruler. Above all, we find +him again and again "moved with compassion." We saw the leper +approach him, with eyes fixed on the face of Jesus. The man's +appeal--"If thou wilt thou canst make me clean"--his misery moves +Jesus; he reaches out his hand, and, with no thought for contagion +or danger, he touches the leper--so deep was the wave of pity that +swept through him--and he heals the man (Mark 1:40-42). It would +almost seem as if the touching impressed the spectators as much as +the healing. Compassion is an old-fashioned word, and sympathy has a +wide range of suggestions, some of them by now a little cold; we +have to realize, if we can, how deeply and genuinely Jesus felt with +men, how keen his feeling was for their suffering and for their +hunger, and at the same moment reflect how strong and solid a nature +it is that is so profoundly moved. Again, when we read of his happy +way in dealing with children, are we to draw no inference as to his +face, and what it told the children? Finally, on this part of our +subject, we are given glimpses of his dark hours. The writer to the +Hebrews speaks of his "offering up prayers and supplications with +strong crying and tears" and "learning obedience by the things that +he suffered" (Heb. 5:7, 8), and Luke, perhaps dealing with the same +occasion, says he was "in agony" (Luke 22:44), a strong phrase from +a man of medical training. Luke again, with the other evangelists, +refers to the temptations of Jesus, and in a later passage records +the poignant and revealing sentence--"Ye are they that have +continued with me in my temptations" (Luke 22:28). Finally, there is +the last cry upon the Cross (Mark 15:37). So frankly, and yet so +unobtrusively, they lay bare his soul, as far as they saw it. + +From what is given us it is possible to go further and see something +of his habits of mind. His thought will occupy us in later chapters; +here we are concerned rather with the way in which his mind moves, +and the characteristics of his thinking. + +First of all, we note a certain swiftness, a quick realization of a +situation, a character, or the meaning of a word. Men try to trap +him with a question, and he instantly "recognizes their trickery" +(Luke 20:23). When they ask for a sign, he is as quick to see what +they have in mind (Mark 8:11-13). He catches the word whispered to +Jairus--half hears, half divines it, in an instant (Mark 5:36). He +is surprised at slowness of mind in other men (Matt. 15:16; Mark +8:21). And in other things he is as quick--he sees "the kingdoms of +this world in a moment of time" (Luke 4:5); he beholds "Satan fallen +(aorist participle) from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18)--two +very striking passages, which illuminate his mind for us in a very +important phase of it. We ought to have been able to guess without +them that he saw things instantly and in a flash--that they stood +out for him in outline and colour and movement there and then. That +is plain in the parables from nature, and here it is confirmed. Is +there in all his parables a blurred picture, the edges dim or the +focus wrong? The tone of the parables is due largely to this gift of +visualizing, to use an ugly modern word, and of doing it with +swiftness and precision. + +Several things combine to make this faculty, or at least go along +with it--a combination not very common even among men of genius--an +unusual sense of fact, a very keen and vivid sympathy, and a gift of +bringing imagination to bear on the fact in the moment of its +discovery, and afterwards in his treatment of the fact. + +On his sense of fact we have touched before, in dealing with his +close observation of Nature. It is an observation that needs no +note-book, that is hardly conscious of itself. There is, as we know, +a happy type of person who sees almost without looking, certainly +without noticing--and sees aright too. The temperament is described +by Wordsworth in the opening books of "The Prelude". The poet type +seems to lose so much and yet constantly surprises us by what it has +captured, and sometimes hardly itself realizes how much has been +done. The gains are not registered, but they are real and they are +never lost, and come flashing out all unexpectedly when the note is +struck that calls them. So one feels it was with Jesus' intimate +knowledge of Nature--it is not the knowledge of botanist or +naturalist, but that of the inmate and the companion, who by long +intimacy comes to know far more than he dreams. "Wise master +mariners," wrote the Greek poet, Pindar, long before, "know the wind +that shall blow on the third day, and are not wrecked for headlong +greed of gain." They know the weather, as we say, by instinct; and +instinct is the outcome of intimacy, of observation accurate but +sub-conscious. + +It chimes in with this instinct for fact, that Jesus should lay so +much emphasis on truth of word and truth of thought. Any hypocrisy +is a leaven (Matt. 16:19; Luke 12:1); any system of two standards of +truth spoils the mind (Matt. 5:33-37). The divided mind fails +because it is not for one thing or the other. If it is impossible to +serve God and mammon, truth and God go together in one allegiance; +and a non-Theocentric element in a man's thought will be fatal +sooner or later to any aptitude he has by nature for God and truth. + +We find this illustrated in Jesus' own case. At the heart of his +instinct for fact is his instinct for God. He goes to the permanent +and eternal at once in his quest of fact, because his instinct for +God is so sure and so compelling. Bishop Phillips Brooks noted in +Jesus' conversation "a constant progress from the arbitrary and +special to the essential and universal forms of thought," "a true +freedom from fastidiousness," "a singular largeness" in his +intellectual life. The small question is answered in the +larger--"the life is more than meat and the body is more than +raiment" (Luke 12:23). When he is challenged on divorce, he goes +past Moses to God (Matt. 19:4)--"He which made them at the beginning +made them male and female." Every question is settled for him by +reference to God, and to God's principles of action and to God's +laws and commands; and God, as we shall see in a later chapter, is +not for him a conception borrowed from others, a quotation from a +book. God is real, living, and personal; and all his teaching is +directed to drive his disciples into the real; he insists on the +open mind, the study of fact, the fresh, keen eye turned on the +actual doings of God. + +When life and thought have such a centre, a simplicity and an +integrity follow beyond what we might readily guess. "When thine eye +is single, thy whole body also is full of light, ... if thy whole +body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole +shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth +give thee light" (Luke 11:34-36). It is this fullness of light that +we find in Jesus; and as the light plays on one object and another, +how clear and simple everything grows! All round about him was +subtlety, cleverness, fastidiousness. His speech is lucid, drives +straight to the centre, to the principle, and is intelligible. We +may not see how far his word carries us, but it is abundantly plain +that simple and straightforward people do understand Jesus--not all +at once, but sufficiently for the moment, and with a sense that +there is more beyond. His thought is uncomplicated by distinctions +due to tradition and its accidents. His whole attitude to life is +simple--he has no taboos; he comes "eating and drinking" (Matt. +11:19); and he told his followers, when he sent them out to preach, +to eat what they were given (Luke 10:7); "give alms," he says, "of +such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you" +(Luke 11:41). If God gives the food, it will probably be clean; and +the old taboos will be mere tradition of men. He is not interested +in what men call "signs," in the exceptional thing; the ordinary +suffices when one sees God in it. One of Jesus' great lessons is to +get men to look for God in the commonplace things of which God makes +so many, as if Abraham Lincoln were right and God did make so many +common people, because he likes them best. The commonest +flowers--God thinks them out, says Jesus, and takes care of them +(Matt. 6:28-30). Hence there is little need of special machinery for +contact with God--priesthoods, trances, visions, or mystical +states--abnormal means for contact with the normal. When Jesus +speaks of the very highest and holiest things, he is as simple and +natural as when he is making a table in the carpenter-shop. Sense +and sanity are the marks of his religion. + +"Sense of fact" is a phrase which does not exclude--perhaps it even +suggests--some hint of dullness. The matter-of-fact people are +valuable in their way, but rarely illuminative, and it is because +they lack the imagination that means sympathy. Now in Jesus' case +there is a quickness and vividness of sympathy--he likes the birds +and flowers and beasts he uses as illustrations. They are not the +"natural objects" with which dull people try to brighten their pages +and discourses. They are happy living things that come to his mind, +as it were, of themselves, because, shall we say? they know they +will be welcome there; and they are welcome. His pity and sympathy +are unlike ours in having so much more intelligence and +fellow-feeling in them. He understands men and women, as his gift of +bright and winning speech shows. After all, as Carlyle has pointed +out in many places, it is this gift of tenderness and understanding, +of sympathy, that gives the measure of our intellects.[14] It is the +faculty by which men touch fact and master it. It is the want of it +that makes so many clever and ingenious people so futile and +distressing. + +The sense of fact and the gift for sympathy and the foundations, so +to speak, of the imagination which gives their quality to the +stories and pictures of Jesus. He thinks in pictures, as it were; +they fill his speech, and every one of them is alive and real. +Think, for example, of the Light of the world (Matt. 5:14), the +strait gate and the narrow way (Matt. 7:14), the pictures of the +bridegroom (Mark 2:19), sower (Matt. 13:3), pearl merchant (Matt. +13:45), and the men with the net (Matt. 13:47), the sheep among the +wolves (Matt. 10:16), the woman sweeping the house (Luke 15:8), the +debtor going to prison accompanied by his creditor and the officer +with the judge's warrant (Luke 12:58), the shepherd separating his +sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32), the children playing in the +market-place pretending to pipe or to mourn (Luke 7:32), the fall of +the house (Matt. 7:27)--or the ironical pictures of the blind +leading the blind straight for the ditch (Matt. 15:14), the +vintagers taking their baskets to the bramble bushes (Matt. 7:16), +the candle burning away brightly under the bushel (Matt. 5:15; Luke +11:33), the offering of pearls to the pigs (Matt. 7:6)--or his +descriptions of what lay before himself as a cup and a baptism (Mark +10:38), and of his task as the setting fire to the world (Luke +12:49). There is a truthfulness and a living energy about all these +pictures--not least about those touched with irony. + +There are, however, pictures less realistic and more +imaginative--one or two of them, in the language of the fireside, +quite "creepy." Here is a house--a neat, trim little house--and for +the English reader there is of course a garden or a field round it, +and a wood beyond. Out of the wood comes something--stealthily +creeping up towards the house--something not easy to make out, but +weary and travel-stained and dusty--and evil. A strange feeling +comes over one as one watches--it is evil, one is certain of it. +Nearer and nearer to the house it creeps--it is by the window--it +rises to look in, and one shudders to think of those inside who +suddenly see _that_ looking at them through the window. But there is +no one there. Fatigue changes to triumph; caution is dropped; it +goes and returns with seven worse than itself, and the last state of +the place is worse than the first (Luke 11:24-26). Is this leaving +the real? One critic will say it is, "No," says another man, in a +graver tone and speaking slowly, "it's real enough; it's my story." +But have we left the text too far? Then let us try another passage. +Here is a funeral procession, a bier with a dead man laid out on it, +"wrapped in a linen cloth" (Matt. 27:59), "bound hand and foot with +grave-clothes" (John 11:44)--a common enough sight in the East; but +who are they who are carrying him--those silent, awful figures, +bound like him hand and foot, and wound with the same linen cloth, +moving swiftly and steadily along with their burden? It is the dead +burying the dead (Luke 9:60). Add to these the account of the three +Temptations--stories in picture, which must come from Jesus himself, +and illustrate another side of his experience. For to the mind that +sees and thinks in pictures, temptation comes in pictures which the +mind makes for itself, or has presented to it and at once lights +up--pictures horrible and once seen hard to forget and to escape. No +wonder he warns men against the pictures they paint themselves in +their minds (Matt. 5:28; cf. Chapter VII, p. 154). Add also the +other pictures of Satan fallen (Luke 10:18) and Satan pushing into +God's presence with a demand for the disciples (Luke 22:31). Are we +to call these "visions"--the word is ambiguous--or are they +imaginative presentments of evil, as it thrusts itself on the soul, +with all its allurements and all its ugliness? "Visions" in the +sense that is associated with trance, we shall hardly call them. +They are pictures showing his gift of imagination. + +Lastly, on this part of our subject, let us remind ourselves of the +many parables and pictures and sayings which put God himself before +us. Here is the bird's nest, and one little sparrow fallen to the +ground--and God is there and he takes notice of it; he misses the +little bird from the brood (Matt. 10:29; cf. Luke 12:6). Here again +is quite another scene--the rich and middle-aged man, who has +prospered in everything and is just completing his plans to retire +from business, when he feels a tap on his shoulder and hears a voice +speaking to him, and he turns and is face to face with God (Luke +12:20). And there are all the other stories of God's goodness and +kindness and care; is not the very phrase "Our Father in heaven" a +picture in itself, if we can manage to give the word the value which +Jesus meant it to carry? When one studies the teaching of Jesus, and +concentrates on what he draws us of God, God somehow becomes real +and delightful, in a most wonderful way. + +With all these faculties brought to bear on all he thinks, and +lucent in all he says, there is little wonder that men recognized +another note in Jesus from that familiar in their usual teachers. +Rabbi Eliezer of those times was praised as "a well-trough that +loses not a drop of water." We all know that type of teacher--the +tank-mind, full, no doubt, supplied by pipes, and ministering its +gifts by pipe and tap, regulated, tiresome, and dead. "The water +that I shall give him," days Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (John 4:14), +"shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting +life." The water metaphors of the New Testament are not of trough +and tank. Jesus taught men--not from a reservoir of quotations, like +a scribe or a Rabbi, "but as possessed of authority himself" (Matt. +7:29). Who gave him that authority? asked the priests (Matt. 21:23)? +Who authorizes the living man to live? "All things are delivered +unto me of my Father" (Matt. 11:27). "My words shall not pass away" +(Mark 13:31). + +He has proved right; his words have not passed away. The great "Son +of Fact," he went to fact, drove his disciples to fact, and (in the +striking phrase of Cromwell) "spoke _things_." And we can see in the +record again and again the traces of the mental habits and the +natural language of one who habitually based himself on experience +and on fact. Critics remark on his method of using the Old Testament +and contrast it with contemporary ways. St. Paul, for instance, in +the passage where he weighs the readings "seeds" and "seed" (Gal. +3:16), is plainly racking language to the destruction of its real +sense; no one ever would have written "seeds" in that connexion; but +in the style of the day he forces a singular into an utterly +non-natural significance. St. Matthew in his first two chapters +proves the events, which he describes, to have been prophesied by +citing Old Testament passages--two of which conspicuously refer to +entirely different matters, and do not mean at all what he suggests +(Matt. 2:15, 23). The Hebrew with the Old Testament, like the Greek +of those days with Homer, made what play he pleased; if the words +fitted his fancy, he took them regardless of connexion or real +meaning; if he was pressed for a defence, he would take refuge in +allegory. A fashion was set for the Church which bore bad fruit. The +Old Testament was emptied of meaning to fortify the Christian faith +with "proof texts." When Jesus quotes the Old Testament, it is for +other ends and with a clear, incisive sense of the prophet's +meaning. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and +not sacrifice" (Matt. 9:13 and 12:7, quoting Hosea 6:6). He not +merely quotes Hosea, but it is plain that he has got at the very +heart of the man and his message. Similarly when he reads Isaiah in +the Synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:17), he lays hold of a great +passage and brings out with emphasis its value and its promise. He +touches the real, and no lapse of time makes his quotations look odd +or quaint. When he is asked which is the first commandment of all, +he at once, with what a modern writer calls "a brilliant flash of +the highest genius," links a text in Deuteronomy with one in +Leviticus--"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou +shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength" (Deut. +6:4-5), and, he adds, "the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt +love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment +greater than these" (Levit. 19:18; Mark 12:29-31). Thus his instinct +for God and his instinct for the essential carry him to the very +centre and acme of Moses' law. At the same time he can use the Old +Testament in an efficient way for dialectic, when an "argumentum ad +hominem" best meets the case (Mark 7:6; Luke 20:37, 44). + +Going to fact directly and reading his Bible on his own account, he +is the great pioneer of the Christian habit of mind. He is not idly +called the Captain by the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 2:10, 12:2). +Authority and tradition only too readily assume control of human +life; but a mind like that of Jesus, like that which he gave to his +followers, will never be bound by authority and tradition. Moses is +very well, but if God has higher ideas of marriage--what then? The +Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat (Matt. 23:2), but that +does not make them equal to Moses; still less does it make their +traditions of more importance than God's commandments (Mark 7:1-13). +The Sabbath itself "was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" +(Mark 2:27). + +Where the habit of mind is thus set to fact, and life is based on +God, on God's will and God's doings, it is not surprising that in +the daily round there should be noted "sanity, reserve, composure, +and steadiness." It may seem to be descending to a lower plane, but +it is worthwhile to look for a moment at the sheer sense which Jesus +can bring to bear on a situation. The Sabbath--is it lawful to heal +on the Sabbath? Well, if a man's one sheep is in a pit on the +Sabbath, what will he do? (Matt. 12:11), or will he refrain from +leading his ox to the water on the Sabbath (Luke 13:15)? Such +questions bring a theological problem into the atmosphere of +sense--and it is better solved there. He is interrupted by a demand +that he arbitrate between a man and his brother; and his reply is +virtually, Does your brother accept your choice of an arbitrator? +(Luke 12:14)--and that matter is finished. "Are there few that be +saved?" asks some one in vague speculation, and he gets a practical +answer addressed to himself (Luke 13:23). Even in matters of +ordinary manners and good taste, he offers a shrewd rule (Luke +14:8). Luke records also two or three instances of perfectly banal +talk and ejaculation addressed to him--the bazaar talk of the +Galilean murders (Luke 13:1)--the pious if rather obvious remark of +some man about feasting in the Kingdom of God (Luke 14:15)--and the +woman's homey congratulation of Mary on her son (Luke 11:27). In +each case he gets away to something serious. + +Above all, we must recognize the power which every one felt in him. +Even Herod, judging by rumour, counts him greater than John the +Baptist (Matt. 14:2). The very malignity of his enemies is a +confession of their recognition that they are dealing with some one +who is great. Men remarked his sedative and controlling influence +over the disordered mind (Mark 1:27). He is not to be trapped in his +talk, to be cajoled or flattered. There is greatness in his +language--in his reference of everything to great principles and to +God; greatness in his freedom from ambition, in his contempt of +advertisement and popularity, in his appeal to the best in men, in +his belief in men, in his power of winning and keeping friends, in +his gift for making great men out of petty. In all this we are not +stepping outside the Gospels nor borrowing from what he has done in +nineteen centuries. In Galilee and in Jerusalem men felt his power. +And finally, what of his calm, his sanity, his dignity, in the hour +of betrayal, in the so-called trials, before the priests, before +Pilate, on the Cross? The Pharisees, said Tertullian, ought to have +recognized who Christ was by his patience. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TEACHER AND HIS DISCIPLES + +It was as a teacher that Jesus of Nazareth first began to gather +disciples round him. But to understand the work of the Teacher, we +must have some general impression of the world to which he came. The +background will help us understand what had to be done, and what it +was he meant to do. + +Bishop Gore, in a book recently published, suggested that the belief +that God is Love is not axiomatic. Many of us take it for granted, +as the point at which religion naturally begins; but, as he +emphasized, it is not an obvious truth; it is something of which we +have to be convinced, something that has to be made good to men. +Unless we bear this in mind, we shall miss a great deal of what +Jesus has really done, by assuming that he was not needed to do it. + +"Out of a darker world than ours came this new spring." We must look +at the world as it was, when Jesus came. In a later chapter we shall +have to consider more fully the religions of the Roman world. One or +two points may be anticipated. First of all, we have to realize what +a hard world it was. Men and women are harder than we sometimes +think, and the natural hardness to which the human heart grows of +itself, needed more correction than it had in those days. + +Among the many papyrus documents that have been found in late years +in Egypt--documents that have pictured for us the life of Egypt, and +have recorded for us also the language of the New Testament in a +most illuminative way--there is one that illustrates only too aptly +the unconscious hardness of the times. It is a letter--no literary +letter, no letter that any one would ordinarily have thought of +keeping; it has survived by accident. It was written by an Egyptian +Greek to his wife. She lived somewhere up the country, and he had +gone to Alexandria. She had been expecting a baby when he left, and +he wrote a rough, but not an unkind, letter to her. He writes: +"Hilarion to Alis . . . greetings.... Know that we are still even +now in Alexandria. Do not fidget, if, at the general return, I stay +in Alexandria. I pray and beseech you, take care of the little +child, and as soon as we have our wages, I will send you up +something. If you are delivered, if it was a male, let it live; if +it was a female, cast it out . . . . How can I forget you? So don't +fidget."[15] + +The letter is not an unkind one; it is sympathetic, masculine, +direct, and friendly. And then it ends with the suggestion, +inconceivable to us to-day, that if the baby is a girl, it need not +be kept. It can be put out either on the land or in the river, left +to kite or crocodile. The evidence of satirists is generally to be +discounted, because they tend to emphasize the exceptional; and it +is not the exceptional thing that gives the character of an age, or +of a man. It is the kind of thing that we take for granted and +assume to be normal that shows our character or gives the note of +the day; and what we omit to notice may be as revealing. + +In the plays of the Athenian comic poets of the third and fourth +centuries B.C. we find, to wearisomeness, one recurring plot. The +heroine turns out to be, not just a common girl, but the daughter of +the best family in Athens, exposed when she was a baby. When Plato +sketched his ideal constitution, in addition to the mating of +suitable pairs to be decided by government, he added that, if the +offspring were not good enough, it should be put away where it would +not be found again. Aristotle allowed the same practice. The most +cultured race on earth freely exposed its infants; and this letter +of Hilarion to Alis--a dated letter by the way, of September or +October in the year 1 A.D.--makes it clear that the practice of +exposure of children still prevailed; and there is other evidence +which need not now detain us. It is a hard world, where kind people +or good people can think of such things as ordinary and natural. + +Evidence of the character of an age is given by the treatment of +criminals; and that age was characterized by crucifixion. They would +take a human being, spread him out on a cross on the ground, drive +nails through his hands and feet; and then the cross was raised--the +agony of the victim during the movement is not to be imagined. It +was made fast; and there the victim hung, suspended between heaven +and earth, to live or die at his leisure. By and by crows would +gather round him. "I have been good," said the slave. "Then you have +your reward," says the Latin poet, "you will not feed the crows on +the cross."[16] There is a very striking phrase in St. Matthew: "And +sitting down they watched him there" (Matt. 27:36). The soldiers +nailed three men to crosses, and sat down beneath them to dice for +their clothes. Our tolerances, like our utterances, come out of the +abundance of the heart, and stamp us for what we are. + +We cannot easily realize all that slavery meant. When we read in the +Fourth Gospel that "the Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world" (John 1:29), that was written before Jesus Christ had +abolished slavery; for, we remember, it was done by his people +against the judgement of the business experts. Slavery meant robbing +the man of every right that Nature gave him; and, as Homer said long +ago, "Farseeing Zeus takes away half a man's manhood, when he brings +the day of slavery upon him."[17] He became a thief, a liar, dirty, +and bad; and with the woman it was still worse. The slave woman was +a little lower than the animal; she might not have offspring. It was +"natural," men said; "Nature had designed certain races to be +slaves; slavery was written in Nature; it was Nature's law." These +were not the thoughts of vulgar people, but of some of the best of +the Greeks--not of all, indeed; but society was organized on the +basis of slavery. It was an accepted axiom of all social and +economic life. + +As to the spiritual background, for the present let us postpone the +heathen world and consider the Jews, who represented in some ways +the world's highest at this period. Modern scholarship is shedding +fresh light on the literature and ideas that were prevalent between +the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. But what +uncertainty about God! Why some people should think that it was +easier to believe in God in those days than now, I do not see. Far +less was known of God; the record of his doings was not so long as +it is for us, and it was not so well known. No one could understand +what God meant, if he was quite clear himself. Look at what he did +with the nation. He chose Israel, he established the kingdom of +David. They did not get on very well, and at last were carried away +into Captivity in Babylon. So much he did for his people; and when +he brought them back again to the Promised Land, it was to a very +trying and difficult situation; and worse still followed after +Nehemiah's day. Alexander the Great's conquest of the East left a +Macedonian dynasty ruling those regions, and one of their great +kings, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to stamp out the religion of +Jehovah altogether. The Book of Daniel is a record of that +persecution about 166 B.C. The Maccabeean brothers delivered Israel, +and rescued the religion of Jehovah; and a kingdom of a sort was +established with them; but the grandsons of the liberators became +tyrants. What did God mean? Out of all the promises to Israel, to +the House of David, this is what comes. Herod follows--a foreign +king and an Edomite; and the Romans are over all, suzerains and +rulers. + +In despair of the present men began to forecast the future. A time +will surely come, they said, when God will give an anointed one, the +Messiah; he will set all Israel free, will make Israel rule the +world instead of the Romans; he will gather together the scattered +of Israel from the four winds, reunite and assemble God's people in +triumph in Palestine. And then, when the prophet paused, a plain man +spoke: "I don't care if he does. My father all his life looked +forward to that. What does it matter now, if God redeems his people, +or if he does not? My father is dead." The answer was, why should +your father not come with the redeemed Israel? But what evidence is +there for that? Does God care for people beyond the grave? Is there +personal immortality?--that became the anxious question.[18] + +But is this kingdom of the Messiah to be an earthly or a heavenly +kingdom? Will it be in Jerusalem or in heaven? Are you quite sure +that there is any distinction in the other world between good and +bad, between Jew and Gentile? Some people thought the kingdom would +be in Jerusalem; others said it would be in heaven, and added that +the Jews will look down and see the Gentiles in hell--something +worth seeing at last. But, after all, it was still guesswork-- +"perhaps" was the last word. + +When the question is asked, "Was Jesus the Messiah?" the obvious +reply is, "Which Messiah?" For there seems to have been no standard +idea of the Messiah. The Messiah was, on the whole, as vague a term +as, in modern politics, Socialism or Tariff Reform. Neither of them +has come; perhaps they never will come, and nobody knows what they +will be till they do come. Jesus is not what they expected. A Jewish +girl, at an American Student Conference a year or two ago, said +about Jesus: "I do not think he is the Messiah, but I do love him." +Of course he was not in her Jewish sense. The term was a vague one. + +The main point was that men were uncertain about God. God was +unintelligible. They did not understand his ideas, either for the +nation or for the individual; God's plans miscarried with such +fatality. Or if he had some deeper design, it was still all +guesswork. It seemed likely, or at least right, that he should +achieve somehow the final damnation of the Gentiles--the Romans, and +the rest of us--but nothing was very clear. In the meantime, if God +was going to damn the Gentiles in the next world, why should not the +Jews do it in this? Human nature has only too ready an answer for +such a question--as we can read in too many dark pages of history, +in the stories of wars and religious persecutions. + +The uncertainty about God in Judaism reacted on life and made it +hard. + +Even the virtues of men were difficult; they were apt to be +nerveless and uncertain, because their aim was uncertain, and they +wanted inspiration. Of course there are always kindly hearts; but a +man will never put forth quite his best for an uncertainty. There +was a want of centre about their virtues, a want of faith, and as a +result they were too largely self-directed.[19] + +A man was virtuous in order to secure himself in case God should be +awkward. There was no sufficient relation between man and God. God +was judge, no doubt; but his character could be known from his +attitude to the Gentiles. Could a man count on God and how far? +Could he rely on God supporting him, on God wishing to have him in +this world and the next? No, not with any certainty. It comes to a +fundamental unbelief in God, resting, as Jesus saw, on an essential +misconception of God's nature; and this resulted in the spoiling of +life. Men did not use God. "Where your treasure is, there will your +heart be also," Jesus said (Luke 12:34); and it was not in God. +Men's interest and belief were elsewhere. + +Now the first thing that Jesus had to do, as a teacher, was to +induce men to rethink God. Men, he saw, do not want precepts; they +do not want ethics, morals or rules; what they do need is to rethink +God, to rediscover him, to re-explore him, to live on the basis of +relation with God. There is one striking difference between +Christianity and the other religions, in that the others start with +the idea that God is known. Christians do not so start. We are still +exploring God on the lines of Jesus Christ--rethinking God all the +time, finding him out. That is what Jesus meant us to do. If Jesus +had merely put before men an ethical code, that would have been to +do what the moralists had done before him--what moralists always do, +with the same naive idea that they are doing a great deal for us. +His object was far more fundamental. + +The first thing was to bring people on to the very centre and to get +there at once--to get men away from the accumulation of occasional +and self-directed virtues, from the self-sustained life, from +self-acquired righteousness, and to bring them to face the fact of +God, to realize the seriousness of God and of life, and to see God. +When he preached self-denial, he did not mean the modern virtue of +self-denial with all its pettinesses, but a genuine negation of +self, a total forgetfulness of self by having the mind set entirely +on God and God's purposes, a readjustment of everything with God as +the real centre of all. This is always difficult; it is not less +difficult where the conception of God is, as it was with Jesus, +entirely spiritual. The whole experience of mankind was against the +idea that there could be a religion at all without priest, +sacrifice, altar, temple, and the like. There is a very minimum of +symbol and cult in the teaching of Jesus--so little that the ancient +world thought the Christians were atheists, because they had no +image, no temple, no sacrifice, no ritual, nothing that suggested +religion in the ordinary sense of the word. We shall realize the +difficulty of what Jesus was doing when we grasp that he meant +people to see God independently of all their conventional aids. To +lead them to commit themselves in act to God on such terms was a +still more difficult thing. To believe in God in a general sort of +way, to believe in Providence at large, is a very different thing +from getting yourself crucified in the faith that God cares for you, +and yet somehow wishes you to endure crucifixion. How far will men +commit themselves to God? Jesus means them to commit themselves to +God right up to the hilt--as Bunyan put it, "to hazard all for God +at a clap." Decision for God, obedience to God, that is the prime +thing--action on the basis of God and of God's care for the +individual. + +His purpose that this shall not be merely the religion of choice +spirits or of those immediately around him, but shall be the one +religion of all the world, makes the task still vaster. He means not +merely to touch the Jews. Whether he says so in explicit terms or +not, it is implied in all that he says and does, that the new +movement should be far wider than anything the world had ever seen; +it was to cover the whole of mankind. He meant that every individual +in all the world should have the centre of gravity of his thinking +shifted. + +Again, he had to think of a re-creation of the language of men, till +God should be a new word. Our constant problem is to give his word +his value, his meaning. He meant that men should learn their +religious vocabulary again, till the words they used should suggest +his meanings to their minds. Something of this was achieved, when +some of his disciples came to him and said: "Teach us to pray, as +John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). Further, he had to +secure that men should begin the rethinking of all life--personal, +social, and national--from the very foundations, on new lines--what +is called a transvaluation of all values. With a new centre, +everything has to be thought out anew into what St. Paul calls the +fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Then finally the question comes, how +to secure continuity? Will the movement outlast his personal +influence? These are his problems--large enough, every one of them. +How does he face them? + +The Gospel began with friendship, and we know from common life what +that is, and how it works. Old acquaintance and intimacy are the +heart of it. The mind is on the alert when we meet the +stranger--quick and eager to master his outlook and his ways of +thought, to see who and what he is--it is critical, self-protective, +rather than receptive. But, as time goes on, we notice less, we +study the man less as we see more of him. Yet, in this easier and +more careless intercourse, when the mind is off guard, it is +receiving a host of unnoticed impressions, which in the long run may +have extraordinary influence. Pleasant and easy-going, a perpetual +source of interest and rest of mind, the friendship continues, till +we find to our surprise that we are changed. Stage by stage, as one +comes to know one's friend, by unconscious and freely given +sympathy, one lives the other man's life, sees and feels things as +he does, slips into his language, and, by degrees, into his +thoughts--and then wakes up to find oneself, as it were, remade by +the other's personality, so close has been the identification with +the man we grew to love. This is what we find in our own lives; and +we find it in the Gospels. + +A sentence from St. Augustine's Confessions gives us the key to the +whole story. "Sed ex amante alio accenditur alius" ("Confessions", +iv. 14, 911). "One loving spirit sets another on fire." Jesus brings +men to the new exploration of God, to the new commitment of +themselves to God, simply by the ordinary mechanism of friendship +and love. This, in plain English, is after all the idea of +Incarnation--friendship and identification. Jesus has a genius for +friendship, a gift for understanding the feelings of men. Look, for +example, at the quick word to Jairus. As soon as the message comes +to him that his daughter is dead, Jesus wheels round on him at once +with a word of courage (Mark 5:36). This quickness in understanding, +in feeling with people, marks him throughout. An instinctive care +for other people's small necessities is a great mark of friendship, +and Jesus has it. We find him saying to his disciples: "Come ye +yourselves apart privately into a desert place, and rest awhile" +(Mark 6:31). What a beautiful suggestion! He himself, it is clear +from the records, felt the need of privacy, of being by oneself, of +quiet; and he took his quiet hours in the open, in the wild, where +there was solitude and Nature, and there he would take his friends. +There were so many coming and going, that they had no leisure to +eat, and Jesus says to them in his friendly way: "Let us get out of +this--away by ourselves, to a quiet place; what you want is rest." +What a beautiful idea!--to go camping out on the hillside, under the +trees, to rest--and with him to share the quiet of the lonely place. +It is not the only time when he offers to give people rest--"Come +unto Me ... and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). How strange, +when one thinks of the restless activity of Christian people to-day, +with typewriters and conventions, and every modern method of +consuming energy and time! How sympathetic he is! + +We may notice again his respect for the reserve of other people. On +the whole, how slowly Jesus comes to work with men! He never +"rushes" the human spirit; he respects men's personalities. Men and +women are never pawns with him. He does not think of them in masses. +The masses appeal to him, but that is because he sees the individual +all the time. To one of his disciples he says, "I have prayed for +thee" (Luke 22:32). What a contrast to the conventional "friend of +man" in the abstract! With all that hangs upon him, he has leisure +to pray intensely, for a single man. It gives us an idea of his +gifts in friendship. His faith in his people is quite remarkable, +when we think of it. He believes in his followers; he shares with +them some of the deepest things in his life; he counts them fit to +share his thought of God. He makes it quite clear to them how he +trusts them. He puts before them the tremendous work that he has to +do--work more appalling in its vastness the more one studies it; and +then he tells them that he is trusting the whole thing with them. +What a faith it implies in their moral capacity! What acceptance of +the dim beginnings of the character that was to be Christian! +Someone has spoken of his "apparently unjustified faith in Peter." +What names he can give to his friends as a result of this faith in +them! "Ye are the light of the world," he says (Matt. 5:14), "the +salt of the earth." When we remind ourselves of his clear vision, +his genius for seeing fact, how much must such praises have meant to +these men! + +Think how he gives himself to them in earnest; how he is at their +disposal. He is theirs; they can cross-question him at leisure; they +tell him that the Pharisees did not like what he said (Matt. 15:12), +they doubt with Peter the wisdom of his open speech (Mark 8:32); +they criticize him (Matt. 13:10). If they do not understand his +parable, they ask what he means (Matt. 15:15) and keep on asking +till he makes it plain. He is in no hurry. He is the Master and +their Teacher, and he is at the service of the slowest of them. + +But there is another side to friendship; for one great part of it is +taking what our friends do for us, as well as doing things for them. +How he will take what they have to give! He lets them manage the +boat, while he sleeps (Mark 4:38), and go and prepare for him (Luke +9:52), and see to the Passover meal (Mark 14:13). The women, we +read, ministered to him of their substance (Luke 8:3). There is a +very significant phrase in St. Luke (22:28), where he says to them +at the end: "Ye are they that have continued with me in my +temptations." He tells them there that they have helped him. How? +Apparently by being with him. Is not that friendship? In the same +chapter (Luke 22:15) we find an utterance that reveals the depth of +his feeling for his friends: "With desire I have desired (a Greek +rendering of a Semitic intensive) to eat this Passover with you +before I suffer." They are to help him again by being with him, and +he has longed for it, he says. The Gospel of John sums up the whole +story in a beautiful sentence: "Jesus, having loved his own which +were in the world, loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). Augustine +is right. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." + +Note again the word which he uses in speaking to them ("Tekna": Mark +2:5, 10:24). It is a diminutive, a little disguised as "children" in +our English version. It reappears in the Fourth Gospel in even more +diminutive forms ("Teknia", 13:33; Paidia, 21:5) with a peculiarly +tender suggestion. The word of Mark answers more closely than +anything I know to "Boys," as we used it in the Canadian +Universities. "Men," or "Undergraduates," is the word in the English +Universities; "Students," in Scotland and in India; in Canada we +said "Boys"; and I think we get nearer, and like one another better, +with that easy name. And it was this friendly, pleasant word, or one +very like it, that he used with them. Nor is it the only one of the +kind. "Fear not, little flock!" he said (Luke 12:32). Do not the +diminutives mean something? Do they not take us into the midst of a +group where friendship is real? And in the centre is the friendliest +figure of all. + +Look for a moment at the men who followed him; at the type he calls. +They are simple people in the main--warm hearts and impulsive +natures. The politics of Simon the Zealot might at one time have +been summed up as "the knife and plenty of it," a simple and direct +enough type of political thought, in all conscience, however +hopeless and ineffectual, as history showed; but he gave up his +politics for the friendship of Jesus. Peter, again, is the champion +example of the impulsive nature. Why Jesus called James and John +"the sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) I am not sure. Dr. Rendel Harris +thinks because they were twins; other people find something of the +thunderstorm in their ideas and outlook. The publican in the group +is of much the same type; he is ready to leave his business and his +custom-house at a word--once more the impulsive nature and the +simple. It is possible that Jesus looked also to another type of +which he gained very little in his lifetime; for he speaks of "the +scribe who has turned disciple again, and brings out of his treasure +things new and old" (Matt. 13:52)--the more complicated type of the +trained scholar, full of old learning, but open to new views. In the +meantime he draws to him people with the warm heart--yes, he says, +but cultivate the cool head (cf. Matt. 10:16). Again and again he +will have men "count the cost" (Luke 14:28)--know what they are +doing, be rid of delusions before they follow him (Mark 8:34). What +did they expect? They had all sorts of dreams of the future. When we +first find them, there is friction among them, which is not +unnatural in a group of men with ambitions (Mark 9:33. 10:37). Even +at the Last Supper their minds run on thrones (Luke 22:24). They are +haunted by taboos. Peter long after boasts that nothing common or +unclean has entered his lips (Acts 10:14). They fail to understand +him. "Are ye also without understanding?" he asks, not without +surprise (Mark 8:17, 21). At the very end they run away. + +There, then, is the group. What is to be the method? There is not +much method. As Harnack says about the spread of the early Church, +"A living faith needs no special methods"--a sentence worth +remembering. "Infinite love in ordinary intercourse" is another +phrase of Harnack in describing the life of the early Church. It +began with Jesus. He chose twelve, says Mark (3:14), "that they may +be with him." That is all. And they are with him under all sorts of +circumstances. "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Luke +9:58). They saw him in privation, fatigued, exhausted. With every +chance to see weaknesses in his character, they did not find much +amiss with him. That is surely significant. They lived with him all +the time, in a genuine human friendship, a real and progressive +intimacy. They were with him in popularity and in unpopularity; they +were with him in danger, when Herod tried to kill him and he went +out of Herod's territory. But friendship depends not only on great +moments; it means companionship in the trivial, too, it means idle +hours together, partnership in commonplace things--meals and +garden--chairs as well as books and crises. Ordinary life, ordinary +talk, gossip, chat, every kind of conversation about Herods and +Roman governors, and the Zealots--custom-house memories, tales of +the fishermen's life on the lake, stories of neighbours and +home--rumours about the Galileans who were murdered by Pilate (Luke +13:1-4)--all the babbling talk of the bazaar is round Jesus and his +group, and some of it breaks in on them; and his attitude to it all +is to these men a constant revelation of character. They are with +him in the play of feelings, with him in the fluxes and refluxes of +his thought--learning his ways of mind without realizing it. They +slip into his mind and mood, by a series of surprises, when they are +imagining no such thing. Anything, everything serves to reveal him. +They tramp all day, and ask some village people to shelter them for +the night. The villagers tell them to go away. The men are hungry +and fatigued. "What a splendid thing it would be, if we could do +like Elijah and burn them up with a word!" So the hot thought rose. +He turned and said, "You know not what manner of spirit you are +of."--What a gentle rebuke! "The Son of Man is not come to destroy +men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:51-56). Then follows one of +the wonderful sentences of the Gospel, "they went unto another +village"--very obvious, but very significant. A missionary from +China told me how, thirty years ago or more, he was driven out of +the town where he lived; how the gentlefolk egged on the mob, and +they wrecked his house, and hounded him out of the place. He told me +how it felt--the misery and the indignity of it. Jesus took it +undisturbed. He taught a lesson in it which the Church has never +forgotten. + +Their life was full of experiences shared with him. He has his +reserve--his secret; yet, in another sense, he gives himself to them +without reserve; there is prodigality of self-impartation in his +dealings with them. He lets them have everything they can take. He +becomes theirs in a great intimacy, he gives himself to them. Why? +Because he believes, as he put it, in seed. Socrates saw that the +teacher's real work, his only work, is to implant the idea, like a +seed; an idea, like a seed, will look after itself. A king builds a +temple or a palace. The seed of a banyan drifts into a crack, and +grows without asking anyone's leave; there is life in it. In the end +the building comes down, but for what the banyan holds up. The +leaven in the meal is the most powerful thing there. There is very +little of it, but that does not matter; it is alive (Matt. 13:33). +Life is a very little thing but it is the only thing that counts. +That is why the farmer can sow his fields and sleep at nights +without thinking of them; and the crop grows in spite of his +sleeping, and he knows it (Mark 4:26). That is why Jesus believes so +thoroughly in his men, and in his message; God has made the one for +the other, and there is no fear of mischance. + +Look at his method of teaching. People "marvelled at his words of +charm" (Luke 4:22)--"hung about him to hear him" (Luke 19:48). He +said that the word is the overflow of the heart. "Out of the +abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45). +What a heart, then, his words reveal! How easy and straightforward +his language is! To-day we all use abstract nouns to convey our +meaning; we cannot do without words ending in -ality and -anon. But +there is no recorded saying of Jesus where he uses even +"personality." He does not use abstract nouns. He sticks to plain +words. When he speaks about God he does not say "the Great First +Cause," or "Providence," or any other vague abstract. Still less +does he use an adverb from the abstract, like "providentially." He +says, "your heavenly Father." He does not talk of "humanity"; he +says, "your brethren." He has no jargon, no technical terms, no +scholastic vocabulary. He urges men not to over-study language; +their speech must be simple, the natural, spontaneous overflow of +the heart.[20] Jesus told his disciples not to think out beforehand +what they would say when on trial (Mark 13:11)--it would be "given" +to them. He was perfectly right; and when Christians obeyed him, +they always spoke much better than when they thought out speeches +beforehand. They said much less for one thing, and they said it much +better. Take the case of the martyr--an early and historical +one--whose two speeches were during her trial "Christiana sum" and, +on her condemnation, "Deo gratias". + +With this, remark his own gift of arresting phrase; the freshness of +his language, how free it is from quotation, how natural and how +extraordinarily simple. Everything worthwhile can be put in simple +language; and, if the speech is complicated, it is a call to think +again. "As a woman, over-curiously trimmed, is to be mistrusted, so +is a speech," said John Robinson of Leyden, the minister of the +Pilgrim Fathers. The language of Jesus is simple and direct, the +inevitable expression of a rich nature and a habit of truth. You +feel he does not strain after effect--epigram, antithesis, or +alliteration. Of course he uses such things--like all real +speakers--but he does not go out of his way for them. No, and so +much the more significant are such characteristic antitheses as: "Ye +cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13), and "Whosoever will save +his life shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25), coming with a spontaneous +flash, and answering in their sharpness to the sharp edges of fact. +His words caught the attention, and lived in the memory; they +revealed such a nature; they were so living and unforgettable. + +Remark once again his preference for the actual and the ordinary. +There are religions in which holiness involves unusual conditions +and special diet. Some forms of mysticism seem to be incompatible +with married life. But the type of holiness which Jesus teaches can +be achieved with an ordinary diet, and a wife and five children. He +had lived himself in a family of eight or nine. It is perhaps +harder, but it is a richer sanctity, if the real mark of a Saint is, +as we have been told, that he makes it easier for others to believe +in God. In any case the ordinary is always good enough with Jesus. +Only he would have men go deeper, always deeper. Why can you not +think for yourselves? he asks. Signs were what men demanded. He +pictures Dives' mind running on signs even in hell (Luke 16:27). +"What could you do with signs? Look at what you have already. You +read the weather for to-morrow by looking at the sky to-day. The +south wind means heat; the red sky fair weather. Study, look, think" +(Luke 12:55). His animals, as we saw, are all real animals; it is +real observation; real analogy. When he speaks of the lost sheep, it +is not a fictitious joy that he describes or an imaginary one; it is +real. The more we examine his sayings with any touch of his spirit, +the more we wonder. Of course it is possible to handle them in the +wrong way, to miss the real thought and make folly of everything. +Thus, when he says he is the door, the interpreter may stray into +silly detail and make faith the key, and--I don't know what the +panels and hinges could be. That is not the style of Jesus. The soul +of the thing, the great central meaning, the real analogy is his +concern. Seriousness in observation, seriousness in reflection, is +what he teaches. Men and women break down for want of thinking +things out. Many things become possible to those who think +seriously, as he did--and, so to speak, without watertight +compartments. + +Jesus is always urging seriousness in reflection. Seriousness in +action, too, is one of his lessons--an emphasis on doing, but on +_doing_ with a clear sense of what one is about, and why. A part of +action is clear thought; always exactness, accuracy; you must think +the thing out, he says, and then act or let it alone. The artistic +temperament, we all know, is very much in evidence to-day. In "The +Comments of Bagshot" we are told that the drawback is that there is +so much temperament and so little art. Why? Because the artistic +temperament means so little by itself. It is one of the secrets of +Jesus, that it is action that illuminates. What is it that makes the +poem? The poet sees beggar children running races, or little Edward +and the weather-cock, or something greater if you like--the light on +a woman's hair, or a flower; and you say, he has his poem. He has +not. He must work at the thing. When we study the great poets, we +realize how these things are worked out to the point of nerve-strain +and exhaustion. The poet devotes himself heart and soul to the work; +he alters this and that, once and again; he sees a fresh aspect of +the thing, and he alters all again; he writes and rewrites, getting +deeper and deeper into the essential values of the thing all the +time. Where in all this is the artistic temperament? It gave him the +impulse, but something else achieves the work of art. I have a +feeling that the great works of art are achieved by the shopkeeper +virtues in addition to the artistic temperament that sees and feels +them at the beginning. It is action that gives the value of a +thought. Jesus sees that. He says that frankly to his disciples. If +you want to understand in the long run, it is carrying the cross +that will teach you the real values. + +I have been treating him almost as if he were an authority on +pedagogy. Fortunately, he never discussed pedagogy, never used the +terms I have been using. But he dealt with men, he taught and he +influenced them, and it is worth our study to understand how he did +it--to master his methods. "One loving spirit sets another on fire." +As for the effects of his words at once, as Seeley put it, they were +"seething effervescence . . . broodings, resolutions, travail of +heart." Men were brought face to face with a new issue; it was a +time of choice; things would not be as they were men must be "with +him or against him"--must accept or reject the new teaching, the new +teacher, the new life. As he said, "I came to send fire on the +earth" (Luke 12:49), to divide families, to divide the individual +soul against itself, till the great choice was made; and so it has +always been, where men have really seen him. We have to notice +further the transformation of the disciples, who definitely accepted +him. "Very wonderful to me," wrote Phillips Brooks, "to see how the +disciples caught his method." The promise was made to them that they +should become fishers of men (Mark 1:17), and it was fulfilled. +Jesus made them strong enough to defy the world and to capture the +world. There is something attractive about them; they have his +secret, something of his charm; they are magnetic with his power. A +new impulse to win men marks them, a new power to do it, a new faith +which grows in significance as you study it--the faith of William +Carey, a hundred years ago, was the same thing--a perfectly +incredible faith, that they actually will win men for God and +Christ. And they did--and along his lines and by his methods of +love--even for Gentiles. "Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel," +says St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:16), who to preach the Gospel shipwrecked +his life and suffered the loss of all things (Phil. 3:8). But these +men are sure that it is worthwhile. They have a new passion for men +and women--an interest not merely in the saving of their souls but +in every real human need. The early Church made a point of teaching +men trades when they had none. They learnt all this from him. The +greatest miracle in history seems to me the transformation that +Jesus effected in those men. Everything else in Christian or secular +history, compared to it, seems easy and explicable; and it was +achieved by the love of Jesus. + +The Church spread over the world without social machinery. The +Gospel was preached instinctively, naturally. The earliest +Christians were persecuted in Jerusalem, and were driven out. I +picture one of them in flight; on his journey he falls in with a +stranger. Before he knows what he is doing, he is telling his fellow +traveller about Jesus. It follows from his explanation of why he is +on the road; he warms up as he speaks. He never really thought about +the danger of doing so. And the stranger wants to know more; he is +captured by the message, and he too becomes a Christian. And then +this involuntary preacher of the Gospel is embarrassed to learn that +the man is a Gentile; he had not thought of that. I think that is +how it began--so naturally and spontaneously. These people are so +full of love of Jesus that they are bound to speak (Acts 8:4). "One +loving heart sets another on fire." + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD + +It is worth taking some trouble to realize how profoundly Jesus has +changed the thinking of mankind about God. "Since Jesus lived," Dr. +Fairbairn wrote, "God has been another and nearer Being to man." +"Jesus," writes Dr. Fosdick, "had the most joyous idea of God that +ever was thought of." That joyous sense of God he has given to his +followers, and it stands in vivid contrast with the feelings men +have toward God in the other religions. Christianity is the religion +of joy. The New Testament is full of it. + +We know the general character of Jesus' attitude to God, his feeling +for God, his sense of God's nearness. How immediate his knowledge of +God is, how intimate! Of course, here, as everywhere, his teaching +has such an occasional character--or else the records of it are so +fragmentary--that we must not press the absence of system in it; and +yet, I think, it would be right to say that Jesus puts before us no +system of God, but rather suggests a great exploration, an intimacy +with the slow and sure knowledge that intimacy gives. He has no +definition of God,[21] but he assumes God, lives on the basis of +God, interprets God; and God is discovered in his acts and his +relations. He said to Peter, in effect--for the familiar phrase +comes to this in modern English: "You think like a man; you don't +think like God" (Mark 8:33). Elsewhere he contrasts God's thoughts +with man's--their outlooks are so different "that which is highly +esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15; +the Greek words are very interesting). In other words, he would have +men see all things as God sees them. That we do not so see them, +remains the weak spot in our thinking. What Luther said to Erasmus +is true of most of us: "Your thoughts concerning God are too human." +"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall _see_ God," said +Jesus (Matt. 5:8), and throughout he emphasizes that the vision of +God depends on likeness to God--it is love and a glowing purity that +give that faculty, rather than any power of intellect apart from +them. Jesus brings men back to the ultimate fact. Our views are too +short and too narrow. He would have us face God, see him and realize +him--think in the terms of God, look at things from God's point of +view, live in God and with God. In modern phrase, he breaks up our +dogmatism and puts us at a universal point of view to see things +over again in a new and true perspective. + +How and where did he begin himself? Whence came his consciousness of +God, his gift for recognizing God? We do not know. The story of his +growth, his inward growth, is almost unrevealed to us. We are told +that he learnt "by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8), and +that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and +man" (Luke 2:52). Where does anyone begin, who takes us any great +distance? It is very hard to know. Where did our own thoughts of God +begin? What made them? How did they come? There is an inherited +element in them, but how much else? Whence came the inherited +element? How is it that to another man, with the same upbringing as +ours, everything is different, everything means more? Remark, at any +rate, in the teaching of Jesus, that there is no mysticism of the +type so much studied to-day. There is nothing in the least +"psychopathic" about him, nothing abnormal--no mystical vision of +God, no mystical absorption in God, no mystical union with God, no +abstraction, nothing that is the mark of the professed mystic. Yet +he speaks freely of "seeing God"; he lives a life of the closest +union with God; and God is in all his thoughts. A phrase like that +of Clement of Alexandria, "deifying into apathy we become monadic," +is seas away from anything we find in the speech of Jesus. That is +not the way he preaches God. He is far more natural; and that his +followers accepted this naturalness, and drew him so, and gave his +teaching as he gave it, is a fresh pledge of the truthfulness of the +Gospels. + +Again, his knowledge of God is not a matter of quotation, as ours +very often tends to be. He is conscious always of the real nearness +of God. He seems to wonder how it is that man can forget God. We do +forget God. Augustine in his "Confessions" (iv. 12, 18) has to tell +us that "God did not make the world and then go away." The practical +working religion of a great many of us rests on a feeling that God +is a very long way off. Our practical steps betray that we half +think God did go away, when he had made the world. Prayer to us is +not a real thing--it is not intercourse face to face; far too often +it is like conversation over a telephone wire of infinite length +which gets out of order. Even if words travel along that wire, there +is so much "buzzing" that they are hardly recognizable. No, says +Jesus, God is near, God is here--so near, that Jesus never feels +that men have any need of a priesthood to come between, or to help +them to God; God does all that. There is no common concern, no +matter of food or clothing, no mere detail of the ordinary round of +common duty and common life--father and mother, son, wife, +friend--nothing of all that, but God is there; God knows about it; +God is interested in it; God has taken care of it; God is enjoying +it. How is it that men can "reject the counsel of God," refuse God's +plans and ideas (Luke 7:30)? How is it that they forget God +altogether? Jesus is surprised at the dullness of men's minds (Mark +8:17); it is a mystery to him. The rich fool, as we call him, though +it is hard to see why we should call him a fool, when he is so like +ourselves, had forgotten God somehow, and was startled when God +spoke, and spoke to him. That story, seen so often among men,--the +story of the thorns choking the seed (Matt. 13:22)--makes Jesus +remark on the difficulty which a rich man finds in entering into the +kingdom of God. + +God knows--that is what Jesus repeats, God cares; and God can do +things; his hands are not tied by impotence. The knowledge of God is +emphasized by Jesus; "Even the very hairs of your head are all +numbered" (Matt. 10:30); "your Father knoweth" (Luke 12:30); "seeth +in secret" (Matt. 6:4); "knoweth your hearts" (Luke 16:15); knows +your struggles, knows your worries, knows your worth; God knows all +about you. And "all things are possible with God" (Matt. 19:26). +There is nothing that he cannot do, nothing that he will not do, for +his children. Will a father refuse his child bread; will God not +give what is good? (Matt. 7:11). Is it too big a thing for the Giver +of Life to give food--which is the more difficult thing to give? +(Luke 12:23). Look at God, as Jesus draws him--interested in +flowers; God takes care of them, and thinks about their colours, so +that even "Solomon in all his glory" is not equal to them (Matt. +6:30). God knows the birds in the nest--knows there is one fewer +there to-day than there was yesterday (Matt. 10:29). God cares for +them; how much more will he care for you (Matt. 6:26)? "Ye are of +more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:31). And God thinks out +man's life in all its relations, and provides for it. Society moves +on lines he laid down for it; his plans underlie all. Thus, when +Jesus is challenged on the question of marriage and divorce, with +that clear thought and eye of his, he goes right back to God's +intent--not to man's usage, not to the common law and practice of +nations, but to God's intent and God's meaning. God ordained +marriage; he thought it out (Matt. 19:4). Marriages will be better, +if we think of them in this way. God gave men their food, does +still, and all things that he gives are clean (Luke 11:41). We +cannot have taboos at our Father's table. + +Over all is God's throne (Matt. 23:22). That idea, it seems to me, +lapses somehow from our minds to-day. When Luther had to face the +hostility of the Kaiser, the Emperor Charles V., he wrote to one of +his friends: "Christ comes and sits at the right hand--not of the +Kaiser, for in that case we should have perished long ago--but at +the right hand of God. This is a great and incredible thing; but I +enjoy it, incredible as it is; some day I mean to die in it. Why +should I not live in it?" So Luther wrote--in not quite our modern +vein. We hardly calculate on God as a factor; we omit him. Jesus did +not. God's rule is over all; and in all our perplexity, doubt, and +fear, Jesus reminds us that the first thing is faith in God. The +fact is that "Thine is the Kingdom" means peace; it is a joyous +reminder. For if he speaks of the Kingdom of God, the King is more +than the Kingdom. It is the Kingdom, the rule, of the God whom Jesus +teaches us to trust and to love. The Father is supreme. But that has +more aspects than one. If our Father is supreme for us, he is +supreme over us. Jesus emphasizes the will of God--God's commandment +against man's tradition, God's will against man's notions (Mark +7:8). What a source of rest and peace to him is the thought of God's +will! When Dante writes: "And His will is our peace," it is the +thought of Jesus. And at the same time God's judgements are as real +to Jesus' mind. "I will tell you," he says, "whom to fear, God--yes, +fear him!" (Luke 12:5). He feels the tenderness and the awfulness of +God at once. + +In speaking of God, it is noticeable that Jesus chiefly emphasizes +God's interest in the individual, as giving the real clue to God's +nature. On the whole, there is very little even implied, still less +explicit, in the Gospels, about God as the great architect of +Nature--hardly anything on the lines familiar to us in the Psalms +and in Isaiah--"The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed +the dry land" (Psalm 95:5)--"He taketh up the isles as a very little +thing" (Isaiah 40:15). There is little of this in the Gospels; yet +it is implied in the affair of the storm (Matt. 8:26). The disciples +in their anxiety wake him. He does not understand their fear. Whose +sea is it? Whose wind is it? Whose children are you? Cannot you +trust your Father to control his wind and his sea? Of course it is +possible that he said more about God as the Author of Nature than +our fragmentary reports give us; but it may be that it is because +the emphasis on God's care and love for the individual is hardest to +believe, and at the same time best, gives the real value of God, +that Jesus uses it so much. Perhaps the Great Artificer is too far +away for our minds. He is too busy, we think; and yet, after all, if +God is so great, why should he be so busy? If he is a real Father, +why should not he be at leisure for his children? He is, says Jesus; +a friend has leisure for his friends, and a father for his children; +and God, Jesus suggests, always has leisure for you. + +The great emphasis with Jesus falls on the love of God. Thus he +tells the story of the impossible creditor with two debtors (Luke +7:42). One owed him ten pounds, and the other a hundred. When they +had nothing to pay, they both came to him and told him so. The +ordinary creditor, at the very best, would say: "Well, I suppose I +must put it down as a bad debt." Jesus says that this creditor took +up quite another attitude. He smiled and said to his two troubled +friends: "Is that all? Don't let anything like that worry you. What +is that between you and me?" He forgave them the debt with such a +charm ("echarisato"), Jesus says, that they both loved him. One +feels that the end of the story must be, that they both paid him and +loved him all the more for taking the money. What a delightful story +of charm, and friendship and forgiveness! And it is a true picture +of God, Jesus would have us believe, of God's forgiveness and the +response it wakes in men. + +If we do not definitely set our minds to assimilate the ideas of +Jesus, we shall make too little of the heart of God. With Jesus this +is the central and crucial reality. He emphasizes the generosity of +God. God makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad; he sends +rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). God's flowers are just +as beautiful in the bad man's garden. God knows what his child +needs, and gives it, whether it is a very good child or a very bad +one. The Father is the same great wise Friend in either case. The +peacemakers are recognized as the children of God, because of their +family likeness to God (Matt. 5:9). They come among people, and find +them in discord with one another, and their presence stills that; or +they come into a man's life, when it is all in disorder and pain, +and they bring peace there. They may not quite know it, but they do +these things almost without meaning to do them. And Jesus says that +this is a family likeness by which men know they are God's children. +But it is not every teacher, pagan or Christian, who lays such +stress on God's gift of peace, or is so sure of it. He uses Hosea's +great saying about God--"I will have mercy and not sacrifice" (Hosea +6:6), as giving the truth about God. Matthew represents him as +quoting it twice (Matt. 9:13, 12:7); and we can well believe that he +found in it the real spirit of God and often referred to it. His own +heart has taken him to the tenderest of the utterances of the Old +Testament spoken by the most suffering of the Prophets. "Love your +enemies," he says (Matt. 5:44); yes, for then you will be the real +children of God. Or he speaks of the great patience of God, how God +gives every man all the time and all the chance that he +needs--sometimes, he half suggests, even a little more. Look at the +parable of the fig tree, how the gardener pleads for the tree, begs +and obtains another chance for it (Luke 13:8); that is like God, +says Jesus. + +It is easy enough to talk in a vague way about the love of God. But +the love of God implies surely the individual; love has little +content indeed if its object is merely a collective noun, an +abstract, a concept. But that God loves individual men is very +difficult for us to believe in earnest. The real crux comes when the +question rises in a man's own heart, "Does God love me?" Jesus says +that he does, but it is very hard to believe, except in the company +of Jesus and under his influence. Jesus throughout asserts and +reasserts the value of the individual to God. Look, for example, at +the picture he draws, when he tells of the recovery of the Lost +Sheep, and brings out the analogy. At the end of the Book of Job +(ch. 38) the poet carries his reader back to the first sight of a +world new-made, and tells how God, like the real artist and +creator--we might not have thought of all this, but the poet +did--loves his work so much that he must have his friends sharing it +with him. He calls them; he shows them the world he has made--"the +beauty, and the wonder, and the power," as Browning says. The poet +tells us that what followed was that "the morning stars sang +together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The sight was so +good that song and shout came instinctively, almost involuntarily. +Is it not the same picture which Jesus draws of "joy in heaven in +the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"? +We can believe in such joy when God made the world; but can we +believe that there was the same joy in the presence of God yesterday +when a coolie gave his heart to God? Jesus does. That is the central +thing, it seems to me, in his teaching about God--that God cares for +the individual to an extent far beyond anything we could think +possible. If we can wrestle with that central thought and assimilate +it, or, as the old divines said, "appropriate" it, make it our own, +the rest of the Gospel is easy. But one can never manage it except +with the help, and in the company, of Jesus. + +Jesus goes a step further, and believes in the possibility of a man +loving God and God enjoying that too. If he speaks of prayer, must +we not think he means that God wants it as much as his child can +want it? How much is involved in the name "Father," which Jesus so +uniformly gives to God? Something less than the word carries in the +case of a human father, or more? What is the attitude of a father to +his child? Jesus, as we have seen, uses this illustration to bring +out God's care for the actual needs of his children. But is that +all? What is the innermost thing in a father's relation to his +children? Surely something more than the bird's instinct to feed her +young, or to gather them under her wings (Luke 13:34). Is not one of +the most real features of parenthood enjoyment of the child? Do not +men and women frankly enjoy the grappling of the little mind with +big things? Is there not a charm, as says one of the Christian +Fathers (Minucius Felix), about the "half-words" that a child uses, +as he learns to talk and wrestles with a grown-up vocabulary? About +the extraordinary pictures he will draw of ships or cows--the quaint +stories he will invent--the odd ways in which his gratitude and his +affection express themselves? Is it a real fatherhood where such +things do not appeal? Jesus' language about God, his whole attitude +to God, implies throughout that God is as real a Father as anybody, +and it suggests that God loves his children the more because they +are real; because they are not very clever; because they do make +such queer and imperfect prayers; because, in short, they need him; +and because they fill a place in his heart. + +We have to remark how firmly Jesus believes in his Gospel of God and +man needing each other and finding each other--his "good news," as +he calls it. He bases all on his faith in what has been called +"Man's incurable religious instinct"--that instinct in the human +heart that must have God--and in God's response to that instinct +which he himself implanted, and which is no accident found here and +missing there, but a genuine God-given characteristic of every man, +whatever his temperament or his range in emotions may be, his +swiftness or slowness of mind. The repeated parables of seed and +leaven--the parables of vitality--again and again suggest his faith +in his message, his conviction that God must have man and man must +have God--that, as St. Augustine puts it, "Thou hast made us for +Thyself, and our heart knows no rest till it rests in Thee" (Conf., +i. 1). That is the essence of the Gospel. + +How this union of the soul with God comes about, Jesus does not +directly say, but there are many hints in his teaching that bear +upon it. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation," he +said (Luke 17:20). Religious truth is not reached by "quick turns of +self-applauding intellect," nor by demonstrations. It comes another +way. The quiet familiarity with the deep true things of life, till +on a sudden they are transfigured in the light of God, and truth is +a new and glowing thing, independent of arguments and the strange +evidence of thaumaturgy--this is the normal way; and Jesus holds by +it. The great people, men of law and learning, want more; they want +something to substantiate God's messages from without. If Jesus +comes to them with a word from God, can he not prove its +authenticity preferably with "a sign from the sky" (Mark 8:11)? For +the signs he gives, and the evidence he suggests, are +unsatisfactory. "And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, `Why +doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there +shall no sign be given unto this generation.' So he left them and +went up into the ship again and went away." That scene is drawn from +life. + +But why no sign? In the parallel passage we read: "`The wicked +generation and adulterous seeketh a sign, but there shall no sign be +given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah'; so he left them and +departed" (Matt. 16:4). The real explanation of this reference to +Jonah is given by Luke (11:32), and missed or misdeveloped in +Matthew (Matt. 12:40). Nineveh recognized instinctively the inherent +truth of Jonah's message, and repented. Truth is its own +evidence--like leaven in the meal, like seed in the field, it does +its work, and its life reveals it. God is known that way. When the +chief priests demand of Jesus to be told plainly what is his +authority (Mark 11:27), he carries the matter a stage further: Was +the baptism of John, he asks, from heaven, i.e. from God, or was it +of men? Does God make His message clear, does He properly +authenticate Himself? And the uneasy weighing of alternatives, +summarized by the evangelist, leads to the answer that they could +not tell whence it was; and Jesus rejoins that he has nothing to say +to them about his authority. He had taken what we might call an easy +case--where it was evident that God had spoken; and this was all +they made of it--they "could not tell." It was plain, then, either +that these men did not recognize the obvious message of God ("the +word of God came upon John," Luke 3:9,), or that, if they did +recognize it, they thought it did not matter. For the insincere and +the trivial there is no message from God, no truth of God--how +should there be? + +If we pursue this line of thought, we can see how, in Jesus' +opinion, a man may be sure of God and of God's word for him. If a +man be candid with himself, if he face the common facts of life with +seriousness and in the doing of duty, perplexities vanish. Such a +man is prepared for the Great Fact, by faithfulness to the little +facts, and then God dawns on him in them. This is put directly in +the Fourth Gospel (7:17), and in parable in the Synoptists. The +leaven works, till the whole is leavened; the uneasy process is over +and the result achieved. Or, it comes more quietly still--the seed +grows while the farmer sleeps and rises, night and day; the blade +springs up and the ear forms on the blade, the seed grows in the +ear; and the end is reached and God's Kingdom is a reality. Or, the +knowledge of God comes like a lightning flash--sudden, illuminative, +decisive. "The Son reveals" God to the simple, Jesus said (Matt. +11:27). The Son of Man may be a disputable figure--"Whosoever +speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him" +(Matt. 12:32)--but there is no forgiveness in this world, or in any +possible real world where God counts at all, for the refusal of the +spirit of Truth. So he taught, and all history shows he was +right--the refusal of truth is fatal. "Jesus," wrote Matthew Arnold, +"never touches theory, but bases himself invariably upon +experience." It is to experience that Jesus goes to authenticate his +message. The real facts of life lead you to God, as the red sky, and +the south wind, teach you to foretell the weather (Matt. 16:2; Luke +12:55). + +"Eyes and ears," said the Greek thinker, Heraclitus, long before, +"are bad witnesses for such as have barbarian souls." The Pharisees +discredited Jesus--he "cast out devils by Beelzebub." Did he, he +asked, or was it "by the finger of God" (Luke 11:20)? Is there no +evidence of God in restored sanity? But the strength of his position +lies in the good news for the poor (Matt. 11:5), for those who +labour and are heavy--laden (Matt. 11:28)--news of rest and +refreshment--as if the intuition of God, with the peace it brings, +were its own proof. Truth is reached less by ingenuity than by +intensity. To the simple mind, to the true heart, to the pure soul +(Matt. 5:8), to those whose gift is peace, Truth comes flooding +in--new light on old fact, and new light from old fact--and God is +evident. So Jesus judged; and here again, before we decide for or +against his view, we have to make sure that we know his meaning, and +realize the experience by which he reached his thought. And then, +perhaps, God will be more evident to us in our turn. "The Kingdom of +God cometh not with observation" (Luke 17:20)--it is "within" (Luke +17:21); so quietly it comes, that we may not guess how in any +particular instance the realization of God came to a soul; but if we +are candid and truth-loving we can know it when it has come to +ourselves, and we can recognize it when it comes to another. We can +recognize it in its power and peace, we can see the greatness of the +new knowledge in the new man it makes, in the new life, the man of +the great spirit, of the great action, the man of the great quiet, +the man who has the peace of God. + +What does the discovery of God mean? Jesus himself speaks of a man +turning right about, being converted (Matt. 18:3); of the revision +of all ideas, of all standards, of all values. He gives us two +beautiful pictures to illustrate what it means; and it repays us to +linger over them. First, there is the Treasure Finder. He is in the +country, digging perhaps in another man's field, or idling in the +open; and by accident he stumbles on a buried treasure. Palestine +was like Belgium--a land with a long history of wars fought on its +soil by foreigners, Babylon or Assyria against Egypt, Ptolemies +against Seleucids. It was the only available route for attack either +on Egypt by land, or on Syria or Mesopotamia or Babylon from the +Southern Mediterranean. In such a land when the foreign army marched +through, a man had best hide his treasure and hope to find it again +in better times, and again and again the secret of its place of +burial died with him. The Treasure Finder had no lord of the manor +to think of, no Treasury department. He made a great discovery, and +made it initially for himself, and his own--"and for joy thereof he +goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field." We can +see him full of his discovery, full of eagerness and trying to hide +his inner joy, as he realizes every penny he can manage, and +achieves the great transaction which gives him the field and the +treasure. The salient points are a sudden and great joy, an instant +resolution, a complete sacrifice of everything, and a life +unexpectedly and infinitely enriched. And so it is, says Jesus, with +the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13:44). + +The Pearl Merchant is a more interesting figure. Perhaps we may +picture him middle-aged, a trifle worn, somewhat silent, a man of +keen eyes. He has been in his trade for years, and he is a master at +it. By now he has a knowledge which years give to a man in +earnest--a knowledge more like instinct than anything acquired. A +glance at pearls on a table--this, and this, and this he will take +the other, perhaps; he would look at that one--the rest? he shook +his head and did not look at them--he saw without looking. One day +he is told of a pearl--a good one. He is not surprised, for pearls +are always good when they are offered for sale. But again a glance +is enough. The price? Yes, it is high, but he will take the pearl, +but he must be allowed till evening to get the money. He goes away +and sells his stock--the little collection of pearls in his wallet, +representing "the experience of a life-time," all of them good, as +he very well knows; and he sells them for what he can get--at a +loss, if it must be. Yesterday's bargainer cuts down his price for +this and that pearl, and he is taken up; he never expected to do so +well against the old dealer, and he laughs. But the merchant is +content, too; he has sold all his pearls for what they would +fetch--lost money on them, yes, and been laughed at behind his back. +But he owns the one pearl of great price; it is his, and he is +satisfied. There is no reference to joy here or exultation; but +there is the same instant recognition of the opportunity, the same +resolve, the same sacrifice, and the same great acquisition (Matt. +13:45). + +Both parables begin with a reference to the Kingdom of God--to that +Rule and Kingship of God, the knowledge of which makes all the +difference to a man. A small grammatical difference points us beyond +minutiae to the common experience of the two men. Each makes a great +discovery, and takes action in a great and urgent resolve; and they +are both repaid. If we are to understand the two parables in the +sense intended by Jesus, the term "God" must become alive to us with +all the life and power and love that the name implies for him. Then +to grasp that this Father of Jesus is King--that the God of his +thoughts, of his faith, with all the tenderness and the power +combined that Jesus teaches us to see in Him--rules the universe, +controls our destiny and loves us--this is the experience that Jesus +compares with that of the Treasure Finder and the Pearl +Merchant--worth, he suggests, everything a man has, and more than +all. + +In passing, we may notice that these stories suggest that this +experience may be reached in different ways. In the parables of the +seed and the leaven he indicates a natural, quiet and unconscious +growth, a story without crisis, though full of change. To the +Treasure Finder the discovery is a surprise--how came Jesus so far +into the minds of men as to know what a surprise God can be, and how +joyful a surprise? The Pearl Merchant, on the other hand, has lived +in the region where he makes his discovery. He is the type that +lives and moves in the atmosphere of high and true thought, that +knows whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report, of +help and use; he is no stranger to great and inspiring ideas. And +one day, in no strange way, by no accident, but in the ordinary +round of life, he comes on something that transcends all he has been +seeking, all he has known--the One thing worth all. There is little +surprise about it, no wild elation, but nothing is allowed to stand +in the way of an instant entrance into the great experience--and the +great experience is, Jesus says, God. + +To see God, to know God--that is what Jesus means--to get away from +"all the fuss and trouble" of life into the presence of God, to know +he is ours, to see him smile, to realize that he wants us to stay +there, that he is a real Father with a father's heart, that his love +is on the same wonderful scale as every one of his attributes, and +in reality far more intelligible than any of them. That is the +picture Jesus draws. The sheer incredible love of God, the wonderful +change it means for all life--that is his teaching, and he +encourages us, in the words of the Shorter Catechism, "to enjoy God +for ever," as Jesus himself does. Those who learn his secret enjoy +God in reality. Wherever they see God with the eyes of Jesus, it is +joy and peace. And they realize with deepening emotion that this +also is God's gift, as Jesus said (Luke 8:10; 12:39). + +Jesus entirely recast mankind's common ideas of holiness. It is no +longer asceticism, no longer the mystical trance, no longer the +"fussiness," with which the early Christian reproached the Jew, +which still haunts all the religions of taboo and merit, and even +Christianity in some forms. Where men think of holiness as freedom +from sin, the negative conception reacts on life. They begin at the +wrong end. Solomon Schechter, the great Jewish scholar, once said of +Oxford, that "they practice fastidiousness there, and call it +holiness." Unfortunately Oxford has no monopoly of that type of +holiness. But with Jesus holiness is a much simpler and more natural +thing--as natural as the happy, easy life of father and child, and +it rests on mutual faith. It is Theocentric, positive, active rather +than passive--not a state, but a relation and a force. Holiness with +him is a living relation with the living God. That is why the first +feature in it that strikes us is Courage. "Be of good cheer; be not +afraid"; that note rings through the Gospels, and how much it means, +and has meant, in sweet temper and cheerfulness in the very +chequered history of the Church! His is the great voice of Hope in +the world. "The Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Hope," Paul said (1 +Tim. 1:1). Even on the Cross, according to one text, Jesus said to +the penitent thief: "Courage! To-day thou shalt be with me in +paradise" (Luke 23:43). We may not know where or what paradise is, +but the rest is intelligible and splendid: "Courage; to-day thou +shalt be with me." Look at the brave hearts the Gospel has made in +every age; how venturesome they are! and we find the same +venturesomeness in Jesus--for instance, as a German scholar +emphasizes, in that episode of the daughter of Jairus. The messenger +comes and says she is dead. Anybody else would stop, but Jesus goes +on. That is a great piece of interpretation. Look again at his +venturesomeness in trusting the Gospel to the twelve and to us--and +in facing the Cross. "It was his knowledge of God," says Professor +Peabody, "that gave him his tranquillity of mind."[22] + +"Jesus," says Dr. Cairns, "said that no one ever trusted God enough, +and that was the source of all the sin and tragedy." Look at his +emphasis again and again on faith; and the language is not that of +guesswork; they are the words of the great Son of Fact, who based +himself on experience. "Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). "Be not +afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). "All things are possible to him +that believeth" (Mark 9:23). When he criticizes his disciples, it is +on the score of their want of faith--"O ye of little faith"--it has +been taken as almost a nickname for them. In the hour of trial and +danger they may trust to "the Spirit of your Father" (Matt. 10:20). +It is remarkable what value he attaches to faith even of the +slightest--"faith as a grain of mustard seed" (Matt. 17:90)--it is +little, but it is of the seed order, a living thing of the most +immense vitality with the promise of growth and usefulness in it. + +This brings us to the question of Prayer. Some of us, of course, do +not believe very much in prayer for certain philosophical reasons, +which perhaps, as a matter of fact, are not quite as sound as we +think, because our definition of prayer is a wrong one, resting on +insufficient experience and insufficient reflection. What is prayer? + +We shall agree that it is the act by which man definitely tries to +relate his soul and life to God. What Jesus then teaches on prayer +will illuminate what he means by God; and conversely his conception +of God will throw new light upon the whole problem of prayer. It is +plain history that Jesus, the great Son of Fact, believed in prayer, +told men to pray, and prayed himself. The Gospels and the Epistle to +the Hebrews lay emphasis on his practice. Early in the morning he +withdrew to the desert (Mark 1:35), late at night he remained on the +hillside for prayer (Mark 6:46). Wearied by the crowds that thronged +him, he kept apart and continued in prayer. He prays before he +chooses the disciples (Luke 6:12). He gives thanks to God on the +return of the seventy from their missionary journey (Luke 10:21). +Prayer is associated with the confession of Caesarea Philippi (Luke +9:18), with the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:29), with +Gethsemane (Luke 22:41). The writer to the Hebrews speaks of his +"strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7) in prayer. The Gospels even +mention what we should call his unanswered prayers. The prayer +before the calling of the Twelve does not exclude Judas; and the cup +does not pass in spite of the prayer in Gethsemane. It is as if we +had something to learn from the unanswered prayers of our Master. +Certainly the content of the Gospel for us would have been poorer if +they had been answered in our sense of the word; and this fact, +taken with his own teaching on prayer, and his own submission to the +Father's will, may help us over some of our difficulties. But Jesus +had no doubt or fear about prayer being answered. "Ask, and it shall +be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened +unto you" (Luke 11:9)--are not ambiguous statements in the least; +and they come from one "who based himself on experience." It is +worth thinking out that the experience of Jesus lies behind his +recommendation of prayer. All his clear-eyed knowledge of God speaks +in these plain sentences. + +"As he was praying, they ask him, Teach us to pray, as John also +taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). It looks as if at times his +disciples caught him at prayer or even overheard him, and felt that +here was prayer that took them out beyond all they had ever known of +prayer. There were men whom John had taught to pray; was it they who +asked Jesus to teach them over again? There may have been some of +them who had learnt the Pharisee's way in prayer, and some who stuck +to the simpler way they had been taught in childhood. In each case +the old ways were outgrown. + +We can put together what he taught them. In the first place, the +thing must be real and individual--the first requirement always with +Jesus. The public prayer of ostentation is out of the reckoning; it +is nothing. Jesus chooses the quiet and solitary place for his +intercourse with his Father. The real prayer is to the Father in +secret--His affair. And it will be earnest beyond what most of us +think. We are so familiar with Gospel and parable that we do not +take in the strenuousness of Jesus' way in prayer. The importunate +widow (Luke 18:2) and the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5) are his +types of insistent and incessant earnestness. Do you, he asks, pray +with anything like their determination to be heard? The knock at the +door and the pleading voice continue till the request is granted--in +each case by a reluctant giver. But God is not reluctant, Jesus +says, though God, too, will choose his own time to answer (Luke +18:7). It does not mean the mechanical reiteration of the heathen +(Matt. 6:7)--not at all, that is not the business of praying; but +the steady earnest concentration on the purpose, with the deeper and +deeper clarification of the thought as we press home into God's +presence till we get there. It was so that he prayed, we may be +sure. It is not idly that prayer has been called "the greatest task +of the Christian man"; it will not be an easy thing, but a +strenuous. + +One part of the difficulty of prayer is recognized by Jesus over and +over again. Men do not really quite believe that they will be +answered--they are "of little faith." But he tells them with +emphasis, in one form of words and another, driving it home into +them, that "all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27)--"have +faith in God" (Mark 11:22). One can imagine how he fixes them with +the familiar steady gaze, pauses, and then with the full weight of +his personality in his words, and meaning them to give to his words +the full value he intends, says: "Have faith in God." To see him and +to hear him must have given that faith of itself. If the friend in +the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you will knock till you +get them; and has not God the gifts for you that you need? Is he +short of the power to help, or is it the will to help that is +wanting in God? + +Once more the vital thing is Jesus' conception of God. Here, as +elsewhere, we sacrifice far more than we dream by our lazy way of +using his words without making the effort to give them his +connotation. To turn again to passages already quoted, will a father +give his son a serpent instead of the fish for which he asks, a +stone for bread? It is unthinkable; God--will God do less? It all +goes back again to the relation of father and child, to the love of +God; only into the thought, Jesus puts a significance which we have +not character or love enough to grasp. "Your Father knoweth that ye +have need of these things," he says about the matters that weigh +heaviest with us (Luke 12:30). Even if we suppose Luke's reference +to the Father giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13), +to owe something to the editor's hand--it was an editor with some +Christian experience--it is clear that Jesus steadily implies that +the heavenly Father has better things than food and clothing for his +children. How much of a human father is available for his children? +Then will not the heavenly Father, Jesus suggests, give on a larger +scale, and give Himself; in short, be available for the least +significant of His own children in all His fullness and all His +Fatherhood? And even if they do not ask, because they do not know +their need, will he not answer the prayers that others, who do know, +make for them? Jesus at all events made a practice of +intercession--"I prayed for thee," he said to Peter (Luke +22:32)--and the writers of the New Testament feel that it is only +natural for Jesus, Risen, Ascended, and Glorified, to make +intercession for us still (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). + +We have again to think out what God's Fatherhood implies and carries +with it for Jesus. + +"The recurrence of the sweet and deep name, Father, unveils the +secret of his being. His heart is at rest in God."[23] Rest in God +is the very note of all his being, of all his teaching--the keynote +of all prayer in his thought. "Our Father, who art in heaven," our +prayers are to begin--and perhaps they are not to go on till we +realize what we are saying in that great form of speech. It is +certain that as these words grow for us into the full stature of +their meaning for Jesus, we shall understand in a more intimate way +what the whole Gospel is in reality. + +The writer to the Hebrews has here an interesting suggestion for us. +Using the symbolism of the Hebrew religion and its tabernacle, he +compares Jesus to the High Priest, but Jesus, he says, does not +enter into the holiest alone. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness +to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living +way, which he hath consecrated for us ... let us draw near with a +true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19). In the previous +chapter he discards the symbol and "speaks things"--"Christ is not +entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures +of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence +of God for us" (Heb. 9:24). There he touches what has been the faith +of the Church throughout--that in Christ we reach the presence of +God. Without saying so much in so many words, Jesus implies this in +all his attitude to prayer. God is there, and God loves you, and +loves to have you speak with him. No one has ever believed this very +much outside the radius of Christ's person and influence. It is, +when we give the words full weight, an essentially Christian faith, +and it depends on our relation to Jesus Christ. + +Jesus was quite explicit with his friends in telling them they did +not know what to ask, but he showed them himself what they should +ask. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. +6:33), he says, and tells us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins +and for deliverance from evil. Pray, too, "Thy kingdom come." "Pray +ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into +his harvest" (Matt. 9:38). This is perhaps the only place where he +asked his disciples to pray for his great work. Identification with +God's purposes--identification with the individual needs of those we +love and those we ought to love--identification with the world's sin +and misery--these seem to be his canons of prayer for us, as for +himself. For both in what he teaches others and in what he does +himself, he makes it a definite prerequisite of all prayer that we +say: "Thy will be done." Prayer is essentially dedication, deeper +and fuller as we use it more and come more into the presence of God. +Obedience goes with it; "we must cease to pray or cease to disobey," +one or the other. If we are half-surrendered, we are not very bright +about our prayers, because we do not quite believe that God will +really look after the things about which we are anxious. We must +indeed go back to what Jesus said about God; we had better even +leave off praying for a moment till we see what he says, and then +begin again with a clearer mind. + +"Ask, and ye shall receive," he says; and if we have no obedience, +or love, or faith, or any of the great things that make prayer +possible, he suggests that we can ask for them and have them. The +Gospel gives us an illustration in the man who prayed: "Lord, I +believe; help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24). But it is plain we +have to understand that we are asking for great things, and it is to +them rather than to the obvious little things that Jesus directs our +thoughts. Not away from the little things, for if God is a real +Father he will wish to have his children talk them over with +him--"little things please little minds," yes, and great minds when +the little minds are dear to them--but not little things all the +time. There is a variant to the saying about seeking first the +Kingdom of Heaven, which Clement of Alexandria preserves. Perhaps it +is a mere slip, but God, it has been said, can use misquotations; +and Clement's quotation, or misquotation, certainly represents the +thought of Jesus, and it may give us a hint for our own practice: +"Ask," saith he, "the great things, and the little things will be +added unto you" (Strom. i. 158). + +The object of Jesus was to induce men to base all life on God. +Short-range thinking, like the rich fool's, may lead to our +forgetting God; but Jesus incessantly lays the emphasis on the +thought-out life; and that, in the long run, means a new reckoning +with God. That is what Jesus urges--that we should think life out, +that we should come face to face with God and see him for what he +is, and accept him. He means us to live a life utterly and +absolutely based on God--life on God's lines of peacemaking and +ministry, the "denial of self," a complete forgetfulness of self in +surrender to God, obedience to God, faith in God, and the acceptance +of the sunshine of God's Fatherhood. He means us to go about things +in God's way--forgiving our enemies, cherishing kind thoughts about +those who hate us or despise us or use us badly (Matt. 5:44), +praying for them. This takes us right back into the common world, +where we have to live in any case; and it is there that he means us +to live with God--not in trance, but at work, in the family, in +business, shop, and street, doing all the little things and all the +great things that God wants us to do, and glad to do them just +because we are his children and he is our Father. Above all, he +would have us "think like God" (Mark 8:33); and to reach this habit +of "thinking like God," we have to live in the atmosphere of Jesus, +"with him" (Mark 3:14). All this new life he made possible for us by +being what he was--once again a challenge to re-explore Jesus. "The +way to faith in God and to love for man," said Dr. Cairns at Mohonk, +"is, as of old, to come nearer to the living Jesus." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JESUS AND MAN + +When, on his last journey, Jesus came in sight of Jerusalem, Luke +tells us that he wept (Luke 19:41). There is an obvious explanation +of this in the extreme tension under which he was living--everything +turned upon the next few days, and everything would be decided at +Jerusalem; but while he must have felt this, it cannot have been the +cause of his weeping. Nor should we look for it altogether in the +appeal which a great city makes to emotion. + + Dull would he be of soul who could pass by + A sight so touching in its majesty. + +Yet it was not the architecture that so deeply moved Jesus; the +temple, which was full in view, was comparatively new and foreign. +There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant anything to +him, perhaps it meant little to the writers. As for the temple, he +found it "a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46); and he prophesied that it +would be demolished, and of all its splendid buildings, its goodly +stones and votive offerings, which so much impressed his disciples, +not one stone would be left upon another stone (Mark 13:9; Luke +21:5). But the traditions of Jerusalem wakened thoughts in him of +the story of his people, thoughts with a tragic colour. Jerusalem +was the place where prophets were killed (Luke 13:34), the scene and +centre, at once, of Israel's deepest emotions, highest hopes, and +most awful failures. "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" he had said in +sadness as he thought of Israel's holy city, "which killest the +prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I +have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood +under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34). + +And now he is in sight of Jerusalem. The city and the temple +suddenly meet his view, as he reaches the height, and he is deeply +moved. Any reflective mind might well have been stirred by the +thought of the masses of men gathered there. Nothing is so futile as +an arithmetical numbering of people, for after a certain point +figures paralyse the imagination, and after that they tell the mind +little or nothing. But here was actually assembled the Jewish +people, coming in swarms from all the world, for the feast; here was +Judaism at its most pious; here was the pilgrim centre with all it +meant of aspiration and blindness, of simple folly and gross sin. +The sight of the city--the doomed city, as he foresaw--the thought +of his people, their zeal for God and their alienation from God--it +all comes over him at once, and, with a sudden rush of feeling, he +apostrophizes Jerusalem--"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least +in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now +they are hid from thine eyes . . . . Thou knewest not the time of +thy visitation!" (Luke 19:42-44). + +It is quite plain from the Gospels that crowds had always an appeal +for Jesus. At times he avoided them; but when they came about him, +they claimed him and possessed him. Over and over again, we read of +his pity for them--"he saw a great multitude and was moved with +compassion toward them" (Matt. 14:14)--of his thought for their +weariness and hunger, his reflection that they might "faint by the +way" on their long homeward journeys (Mark 8:3), and his solicitude +about their food. Whatever modern criticism makes of the story of +his feeding multitudes, it remains that he was markedly sensitive to +the idea of hunger. Jairus is reminded that his little girl will be +the better for food (Mark 5:43). The rich are urged to make feasts +for the poor, the maimed and the blind (Luke 14:12). The owner of +the vineyard, in the parable, pays a day's wage for an hour's work, +when an hour was all the chance that the unemployed labourer could +find (Matt. 20:9). No sanctity could condone for the devouring of +widows' houses (Matt. 23:14). + +The great hungry multitudes haunt his mind. The story of the rich +young ruler shows this (Mark 10:17-22). Here was a man of birth and +education, whose face and whose speech told of a good heart and +conscience--a man of charm, of the impulsive type that appealed to +Jesus. Jesus "looked on him," we read. The words recall Plato's +picture of Socrates looking at the jailer, how "he looked up at him +in his peculiar way, like a bull"--the old man's prominent eyes were +fixed on the fellow, glaring through the brows above them, and +Socrates' friends saw them and remembered them when they thought of +the scene. As Jesus' eyes rested steadily on this young man, the +disciples saw in them an expression they knew--"Jesus, looking on +him, loved him." Their talk was of eternal life; and, no doubt to +his surprise, Jesus asked the youth if he had kept the commandments; +how did he stand as regarded murder, theft, adultery? The steady +gaze followed the youth's impetuous answer, and then came the +recommendation to sell all that he had and give to the poor--"and, +Come! Follow me!" At this, we read in a fragment of the "Gospel +according to the Hebrews" (preserved by Origen), "the rich man began +to scratch his head, and it did not please him. And the Lord said to +him, `How sayest thou, "The law I have kept and the prophets?" For +it is written in the law, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as +thyself"; and behold! many who are thy brethren, sons of Abraham, +are clad in filth and dying of hunger, and thy house is full of many +good things, and nothing at all goes out from it to them.' And he +turned and said to Simon, his disciple, who was sitting beside him: +`Simon, son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through a +needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of +Heaven.'" We need not altogether reject this variant of the story. + +But it was more than the physical needs of the multitude that +appealed to Jesus. "Man's Unhappiness, as I construe," says +Teufelsdroeckh in "Sartor Resartus", "comes of his Greatness, it is +because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he +cannot quite bury under the Finite. Will the whole Finance Ministers +and Upholsterers and Confectioners of modern Europe undertake, in +joint-stock company, to make one Shoeblack happy?" We read in a +passage, which it is true, is largely symbolic, that one of Jesus' +quotations from the Old Testament was that "Man shall not live by +bread alone" (Luke 4:4). Hunger is a real thing--horribly real; but +it is comparatively easy to deal with, and man has deeper needs. The +Shoeblack, according to Teufelsdroeckh, wants "God's infinite +universe altogether to himself." In the simpler words of Jesus, he +is never happy till he says, "I will arise and go to my Father" +(Luke 15:18). + +This craving for the Father the men of Jesus' day tried to fill with +the law; and, when the law failed to satisfy it, they had nothing +further to suggest, except their fixed idea that "God heareth not +sinners" (John 9:31). They despaired of the great masses and left +them alone. They did not realize, as Jesus did, that the Father also +craves for his children. When Jesus saw the simpler folk thus +forsaken, the picture rose in his mind of sheep, worried by dogs or +wolves, till they fell, worn out--sheep without a shepherd (Matt. +9:36). Every one remembers the shepherd of the parable who sought +the one lost sheep until he found it, and how he brought it home on +his shoulders (Luke 15:5). But there is another parable, we might +almost say, of ninety and nine lost sheep--a parable, not developed, +but implied in the passage of Matthew, and it is as significant as +the other, for our Good Shepherd has to ask his friends to help him +in this case. The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and +helplessness of masses of men was one of the foundations of the +Christian Church. (The Good Shepherd, by the way, is a phrase from +the Fourth Gospel (John 10:11), but we think most often of the Good +Shepherd as carrying the sheep, and that comes from Luke, and is in +all likelihood nearer the parable of Jesus.) + +It is worth noticing that Jesus stands alone in refusing to despair +of the greater part of mankind. Contempt was in his eyes the +unpardonable sin (Matt. 5:22). How swift and decisive is his anger +with those who make others stumble! (Luke 17:2). The parable of the +lost sheep reveals what he held to be God's feeling for the hopeless +man; and, as we have seen, his constant aim is to lead men to "think +like God." The lost soul matters to God. He sums up his own work in +the world in much the same language as he uses about the shepherd in +the parable: "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which +is lost" (Luke 19:10). The taunt that he was the "friend of +publicans and sinners" really described what he was and wished to be +(Luke 7:34). God was their Heavenly Father. The sight, then, of the +masses of his countrymen, like worried sheep, worn, scattered, lost, +and hopeless, waked in him no shade of doubt--on the contrary, it +was further proof to him of the soundness of his message. Changing +his simile, he told his disciples that the harvest was great, but +the labourers few, and he asked them to pray the Lord of the harvest +to thrust forth labourers into His harvest (Matt. 9:38). The very +name "Lord of the harvest" implies faith in God's competence and +understanding. From the first, he seems to have held up before his +followers that this wide service was to be their work--"Come ye +after me," he said, "and I will make you to become fishers of men" +(Mark 1:17)--men, who should really "catch men" (Luke 5:10). + +Like all for whom the world has had a meaning, Jesus, as we have +seen, accepted the necessary conditions of man's life. Human misery +and need were widespread, but God's Fatherhood was of compass fully +as wide, and Jesus relied upon it. "Your heavenly Father knows," he +said (Matt. 6:32), and "with God all things are possible" (Mark +10:27). The very miseries of the oppressed and hopeless people added +grounds to his confidence. People who had touched bottom in sounding +the human spirit's capacity for misery, were for him the "ripe +harvest" (Matt. 9:37), only needing to be gathered (Mark 4:29). He +understood them, and he knew that he had the healing for all their +troubles. With full assurance of the truth of his words, he cried: +"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will +give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). He spoke of a rest which careless +familiarity obscures for us. What understanding and sympathy he +shows, when he adds: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light!" +Misery, poverty and hunger, he had found, taught men to see +realities. The hungry, at least, were not likely to mistake a stone +for bread--they had a ready test for it, on which they could rely. +Poverty threw open the road to the Kingdom of God. The clearing away +of all temporary satisfactions, of all that cloaked the soul's +deepest needs, prepared men for real relations with the greatest +Reality--with God. So that Jesus boldly said: "Blessed are ye poor"; +"Blessed are ye that hunger now"; "Blessed are ye that weep now" +(Luke 6:20, 21); but he had no idea that they were always to weep. +If it was his to care for men's hunger, it was not likely that he +would have no comfort for their tears--"Ye shall find rest unto your +souls" (Matt. 11:29)--"They shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). + +It was in large part upon the happiness which he was to bring to the +poor that Jesus based his claim to be heard. There is little +reasonable ground for doubt that he healed diseases. Of course we +cannot definitely pronounce upon any individual case reported; the +diagnosis might be too hasty, and the trouble other than was +supposed; but it is well known that such healings do occur--and that +they occurred in Jesus' ministry, we can well believe. So when he +was challenged as to his credentials, he pointed to misery relieved; +and the culmination of everything, the crowning feature of his work, +he found in his "good news for the poor." The phrase he borrowed +from Isaiah (61:1), but he made it his own--the splendid promises in +Isaiah for "the poor, the broken-hearted, captives, blind and +bruised," appealed to him. Time has laid its hand upon his word, and +dulled its freshness. "Gospel" and "evangelical" are no longer words +of sheer happiness like Jesus' "good news"--they are technical +terms, used in handbooks and in controversy; while for Jesus the +"good news for the poor" was a new word of delight and inspiration. + +The centre in all the thoughts of Jesus, as we have to remind +ourselves again and again, is God. If, as Dr. D. S. Cairns puts it, +"Jesus Christ is the great believer in man," it is--if we are +reading him aright at all--because God believes in man. Let us +remind ourselves often of that. "Thou hast made us for Thyself," +said Augustine in the famous sentence, of which we are apt to +emphasize the latter half, "and our heart knows no rest till it +rests in Thee" (Confessions, i. 1). Jesus would have us emphasize +the former clause as well, and believe it. The keynote of his whole +story is God's love; the Father is a real father--strange that one +should have to write the small f to get the meaning! All that Jesus +has taught us of God, we must bring to bear on man. For it is hard +to believe in man--"What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and +that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" quotes the author of +"Job" in a great ironical passage (Job 7:17; from Psalm 8:4). The +elements and the stars come over us, as they came over George Fox in +the Vale of Beavor; what is man? Can one out of fifteen hundred +millions of human beings living on one planet matter to God, when +there are so many planets and stars, and there have been so many +generations? Can he matter? It all depends on how we conceive of +God. Here it is essential to give all the meaning to the term "God" +that Jesus gave to it, to believe in God as Jesus believed in God, +if we are to understand the fullness of Jesus' "good news." It all +depends on God--on whether Jesus was right about God; and after all +on Jesus himself. "A thing of price is man," wrote Synesius about +410 A.D., "because for him Christ died." The two things go +together--Jesus' death and Jesus' Theocentric thought of man. + +It is a familiar criticism of idealists and other young hearts, that +it is easy to idealize what one does not know. "Omne ignotum pro +magnifico" is the old epigram of Tacitus. It is not every believer +in man, nor every "Friend of man," who knows men as Jesus did. Like +Burns and Carlyle and others who have interpreted man to us to some +purpose, he grew up in the home of labouring people. He was a +working man himself, a carpenter. He must have learnt his carpentry +exactly as every boy learns it, by hammering his fingers instead of +the nail, sawing his own skin instead of the wood--and not doing it +again. He knew what it was to have an aching back and sweat on the +face; how hard money is to earn, and how quickly it goes. He makes +it clear that money is a temptation to men, and a great danger; but +he never joins the moralists and cranks in denouncing it. He always +talks sense--if the expression is not too lowly to apply to him. He +sees what can be done with money, what a tool it can be in a wise +man's hands--how he can make friends "by means of the mammon of +unrighteousness" (Luke 16:9), for example, by giving unexpectedly +generous wages to men who missed their chances (Matt. 20:15), by +feeding Lazarus at the gate, and perhaps by having his sores +properly attended to (Luke 16:20). That he understood how pitifully +the loss of a coin may affect a household of working people, one of +his most beautiful parables bears witness (Luke 15:8-10). With work +he had no quarrel. He draws many of his parables from labour, and he +implies throughout that it is the natural and right thing for man. +To be holy in his sense, a man need not leave his work. Clement of +Alexandria, in his famous saying about the ploughman continuing to +plough, and knowing God as he ploughs, and the seafaring man, +sticking to his ship and calling on the heavenly pilot as he sails, +is in the vein of Jesus.[24] There were those whom he called to +leave all, to distribute their wealth, and to follow him; but he +chose them (Mark 3:13, 14); it was not his one command for all men +(cf. Mark 5:19). But, as we shall shortly see, it is implied by his +judgements of men that he believed in work and liked men who "put +their backs into it"--their backs, eyes, and their brains too. + +Pain, the constant problem of man, and perhaps more, of woman--of +unmarried woman more especially--he never discussed as modern people +discuss it. He never made light of pain any more than of poverty; he +understood physical as well as moral distress. Nor did he, like some +of his contemporaries and some modern people, exaggerate the place +of pain in human experience. He shared pain, he sympathized with +suffering; and his understanding of pain, and, above all, his choice +of pain, taught men to reconsider it and to understand it, and +altered the attitude of the world toward it. His tenderness for the +suffering of others taught mankind a new sympathy, and the +"nosokomeion", the hospital for the sick, was one of the first of +Christian institutions to rise, when persecution stopped and +Christians could build. "And the blind and the lame came to him in +the temple, and he healed them," says Matthew (21:14) in a memorable +phrase. I have heard it suggested that it was irregular for them to +come into the temple courts; but they gravitated naturally to Jesus. + +The mystic is never quite at leisure for other people's feelings and +sufferings; he is essentially an individualist; he must have his own +intercourse with God, and other people's affairs are apt to be an +interruption, an impertinence. "I have not been thinking of the +community; I have been thinking of Christ," said a Bengali to me, +who was wavering between the Brahmo Samaj and Christianity. The +blessed Angela of Foligno was rather glad to be relieved of her +husband and children, who died and left her leisure to enjoy the +love of God. All this is quite unlike the real spirit of the +historical Jesus. "Himself took our infirmities and bare our +sicknesses," was a phrase of Isaiah that came instinctively to the +minds of his followers (Matt. 8:17, roughly after Isaiah 53:4). +Perhaps when we begin to understand what is meant by the +Incarnation, we may find that omnipotence has a great deal more to +do than we have supposed with natural sympathy and the genius for +entering into the sorrows and sufferings of other people. + +One side of the work of Jesus must never be forgotten. His attitude +to woman has altered her position in the world. No one can study +society in classical antiquity or in non-Christian lands with any +intimacy and not realize this. Widowhood in Hinduism, marriage among +Muslims--they are proverbs for the misery of women. Even the Jew +still prays: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the +Universe, who hast not made me a woman." The Jewish woman has to be +grateful to God, because He "hath made me according to His will"--a +thanksgiving with a different note, as the modern Jewess, Amy Levy, +emphasized in her brilliant novel, where her heroine, very like +herself, corrected her prayerbook to make it more explicit "cursed +art Thou, O Lord our God! Who hast made me a woman." Paul must have +known these Jewish prayers, for he emphasized that in Christ there +is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28). Paul had his views--the +familiar old ways of Tarsus inspired them[25]--as to woman's dress +and deportment, especially the veil; but he struck the real +Christian note here, and laid stress on the fact of what Jesus had +done and is doing for women. There is no reference made by Jesus to +woman that is not respectful and sympathetic; he never warns men +against women. Even the most degraded women find in him an amazing +sympathy; for he has the secret of being pure and kind at the same +time--his purity has not to be protected; it is itself a purifying +force. He draws some of his most delightful parables from woman's +work, as we have seen. It is recorded how, when he spoke of the +coming disaster of Jerusalem, he paused to pity poor pregnant women +and mothers with little babies in those bad times (Luke 21:23; Matt. +24:19). Critics have remarked on the place of woman in Luke's +Gospel, and some have played with fancies as to the feminine sources +whence he drew his knowledge--did the women who ministered to Jesus, +Joanna, for instance, the wife of Chuza (Luke 8:3), tell him these +illuminative stories of the Master? In any case Jesus' new attitude +to woman is in the record; and it has so reshaped the thought of +mankind, and made it so hard to imagine anything else, that we do +not readily grasp what a revolution he made--here as always by +referring men's thoughts back to the standard of God's thoughts, and +supporting what he taught by what he was. + +Mark has given us one of our most familiar pictures of Jesus sitting +with a little child on his knee and "in the crook of his arm." (The +Greek participle which gives this in Mark 9:36 and 10:16 is worth +remembering--it is vivid enough.) Mothers brought their children to +him, "that he should put his hands on them and pray" (Matt. 19:13). +Matthew (21:15) says that children took part in the Triumphal Entry; +and Jesus, clear as he was how little the Hosannas of the grown +people meant, seems to have enjoyed the children's part in the +strange scene. Classical literature, and Christian literature of +those ages, offer no parallel to his interest in children. The +beautiful words, "suffer little children to come unto me," are his, +and they are characteristic of him (Matt. 19:14); and he speaks of +God's interest in children (Matt. 18:14)--once more a reference of +everything to God to get it in its true perspective. How Jesus likes +children!--for their simplicity (Luke 18:17), their intuition, their +teachableness, we say. But was it not, perhaps, for far simpler and +more natural reasons just because they were children, and little, +and delightful? We forget his little brothers and sisters, or we +eliminate them for theological purposes. + +Jesus lays quite an unexpected emphasis on sheer tenderness--on +kindness to neighbour and stranger, the instinctive humanity that +helps men, if it be only by the swift offer of a cup of cold water +(Matt. 10:42). The Good Samaritan came as a surprise to some of his +hearers (Luke 10:30). "It is our religion," said a Hindu to a +missionary, to explain why he and other Hindus did not help to +rescue a fainting man from the railway tracks, nor even offer water +to restore him, when the missionary had hauled him on to the +platform unaided. Not so the religion of Jesus--"bear ye one +another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," wrote Paul +(Gal. 6:2)--"pursue hospitality" (Rom. 12:13; the very word runs +through the Epistles of the New Testament). And, as we shall see in +a later chapter, the Last Judgement itself turns on whether a man +has kindly instincts or not. Matthew quotes (12:20) to describe +Jesus' own tenderness the impressive phrase of Isaiah (42:3), "A +bruised reed shall he not break." + +If it is urged that such things are natural to man--"do not even the +publicans the same?" (Matt. 5:46)--Jesus carries the matter a long +way further. "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him +twain" (Matt. 5:41). The man who would use such compulsion would be +the alien soldier, the hireling of Herod or of Rome; and who would +wish to cart him and his goods even one mile? "Go two miles," says +Jesus--or, if the Syriac translation preserves the right reading, +"Go two _extra_." Why? Well, the soldier is a man after all, and by +such unsolicited kindness you may make a friend even of a government +official--not always an easy thing to do--at any rate you can help +him; God helps him; "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father +which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Ordinary kindness and +tenderness could hardly be urged beyond that point; and yet Jesus +goes further still. He would have us _pray_ for those that +despitefully use us (Matt. 5:44)--and in no Pharisaic way, but with +the same instinctive love and friendliness that he always used +himself. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" +(Luke 23:34). There are religions which inculcate the tolerance of +wrong aiming at equanimity of mind or acquisition of merit. But +Jesus implies on the contrary that in all this also the Christian +_denies_ himself, does not seek even in this way to save his own +soul, but forgets all about it in the service of others, though he +finds by and by, with a start, that he has saved it far more +effectually than he could have expected (Mark 8:35; Matt. 25:37, +40). The emphasis falls on our duty of kindness and tenderness to +all men and women, because we and they are alike God's children. + +With his emphasis on tenderness we may group his teaching on +forgiveness. He makes the forgiving spirit an antecedent of +prayer--"when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against +any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your +trespasses" (Mark 11:25). "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and +there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave +there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled +to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matt. 5:23, 24). +The parable of the king and his debtor (Matt. 18:23), painfully true +to human nature, brings out the whole matter of our forgiveness of +one another into the light; we are shown it from God's outlook. The +teaching as ever is Theocentric. To Peter, Jesus says that a man +should be prepared to forgive his brother to seventy times seven--if +anybody can keep count so far (Matt. 18:21-35). He sees how quarrels +injure life, and alienate a man from God. Hence comes the famous +saying: "Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy +right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39). He would have +men even avoid criticism of one another (Matt. 7:1-5). Epigrams are +seductive, and there is a fascination in the dissection of +character; but there is always a danger that a clever +characterization, a witty label, may conclude the matter, that a +possible friendship may be lost through the very ingenuity with +which the man has been labelled, who might have been a friend. It is +not a small matter in Jesus' eyes, he puts his view very strongly +(Matt. 5:22); and, as we must always remember, he bases himself on +fact. We may lose a great deal more than we think by letting our +labels stand between us and his words, by our habit of calling them +paradoxes and letting them go at that. + +It is worth while to look at the type of character that he admires. +Modern painters have often pictured Jesus as something of a dreamer, +a longhaired, sleepy, abstract kind of person. What a contrast we +find in the energy of the real Jesus--in the straight and powerful +language which he uses to men, in the sweep and range of his mind, +in the profundity of his insight, the drive and compulsiveness of +his thinking, in the venturesomeness of his actions. How many of the +parables turn on energy? The real trouble with men, he seems to say, +is again and again sheer slackness; they will not put their minds to +the thing before them, whether it be thought or action. Thus, for +instance, the parable of the talents turns on energetic thinking and +decisive action; and these are the things that Jesus admires--in the +widow who will have justice (Luke 18:21)--in the virgins who thought +ahead and brought extra oil (Matt. 25:4)--in the vigorous man who +found the treasure and made sure of it (Matt. 13:44)--in the friend +at midnight, who hammered, hammered, hammered, till he got his +loaves (Luke 11:8)--in the "violent," who "take the Kingdom of +Heaven by force" (Matt. 11:12; Luke 16:16)--in the man who will hack +off his hand to enter into life (Mark 9:43). Even the bad steward he +commends, because he definitely put his mind on his situation (Luke +16:8). As we shall see later on, indecision is one of the things +that in his judgement will keep a man outside the Kingdom of God, +that make him unfit for it. The matter deserves more study than we +commonly give it. You must have a righteousness, he says, which +exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20)--and the +Pharisees were professionals in righteousness. His tests of +discipleship illumine his ideal of character--Theocentric +thinking--negation of self--the thought-out life. He will have his +disciples count the cost, reckon their forces, calculate quietly the +risks before them--right up to the cross (Luke 14:27-33)--like John +Bunyan in Bedford Gaol, where he thought things out to the pillory +and thence to the gallows, so that, if it came to the gallows, he +should be ready, as he says, to leap off the ladder blindfold into +eternity. That is the energy of mind that Jesus asks of men, that he +admires in men. + +On the other side, he is always against the life of drift, the +half-thought-out life. There they were, he says, in the days of +Noah, eating and drinking, marrying, dreaming--and the floods came +and destroyed them (Luke 17:27). So ran the old familiar story, and, +says Jesus, it is always true; men will drift and dream for ever, +heedless of fact, heedless of God--and then ruin, life gone, the +soul lost, the Son of Man come, and "you yourselves thrust out" +(Luke 13:28, with Matt. 25:10-13). It is quite striking with what a +variety of impressive pictures Jesus drives home his lesson. There +is the person who everlastingly says and does not do (Matt. +23:3)--who promises to work and does not work (Matt. 21:28)--who +receives a new idea with enthusiasm, but has not depth enough of +nature for it to root itself (Mark 4:6)--who builds on sand, the +"Mr. Anything" of Bunyan's allegory; nor these alone, for Jesus is +as plain on the unpunctual (Luke 13:25), the easy-going (Luke +12:47), the sort that compromises, that tries to serve God and +Mammon (Matt. 6:24)--all the practical half-and-half people that +take their bills quickly and write fifty, that offer God and man +about half what they owe them of thought and character and action, +and bid others do the same, and count themselves men of the world +for their acuteness (Luke 16:1-8). And to do them justice, Jesus +commends them; they have taken the exact measure of things "in their +generation." Their mistake lies in their equation of the fugitive +and the eternal; and it is the final and fatal mistake according to +Jesus, and a very common one--forgetfulness of God in fact (Luke +12:20), a mistake that comes from _not_ thinking things out. Jesus +will have men think everything out to the very end. "He never says: +Come unto me, all ye who are too lazy to think for yourselves" (H. +S. Coffin). It is energy of mind that he calls for--either with me +or against me. He does not recognize neutrals in his war--"he that +is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50)--"he that is not with me is +against me" (Matt. 12:30). + +Where does a man's _Will_ point him? That is the question. "Out of +the abundance, the overflow, of the heart, the mouth speaketh" +(Matt. 12:34). What is it that a man _wills_, purity or impurity +(Matt. 5:28)? It is the inner energy that makes a man; what he says +and does is an overflow from what is within--an overflow, it is +true, with a reaction. It is what a man _chooses_, and what he +_wills_, that Jesus always emphasizes; "God knoweth your hearts" +(Luke 16:15). Very well then; does a man choose God? That is the +vital issue. Does he choose God without reserve, and in a way that +God, knowing his heart, will call a whole-hearted choice? + +St. Augustine, in a very interesting passage ("Confessions", viii. +9, 21), remarks upon the fact that, when the mind commands the body, +obedience is instantaneous, but that when it commands itself, it +meets with resistance. "The mind commands that the mind shall +will--it is one and the same mind, and it does not obey." He finds +the reason; the mind does not absolutely and entirely ("ex toto") +will the thing, and so it does not absolutely and entirely command +it. "There is nothing strange after all in this," he says, "partly +to will, partly not to will; but it is a weakness of the mind that +it does not arise in its entirety, uplifted by truth, because it is +borne down by habit. Thus there are two Wills, because one of them +is not complete." + +The same thought is to be traced in the teaching of Jesus. It is +implied in what he says about prayer. There is a want of faith, a +half-heartedness about men's prayers; they pray as Augustine says he +himself did: "Give me chastity and continence, but not now" (Conf, +viii. 7, 17). That is not what Jesus means by prayer--the utterance +of the half-Will. Nor is it this sort of surrender to God that Jesus +calls for--no, the question is, how thoroughly is a man going to put +himself into God's hands? Does he mean to be God's up to the cross +and beyond? Does he enlist absolutely on God's terms without a +bargain with God, prepared to accept God's will, whatever it is, +whether it squares with his liking or not? (cf. Luke 17:7-10). Are +his own desires finally out of the reckoning? Does he, in fact, +deny--negate--himself (Mark 8:34)? Jesus calls for disciples, with +questions so penetrating on his lips. What a demand to make of men! +What faith, too, in men it shows, that he can ask all this with no +hint of diminished seriousness! + +Jesus is the great believer in men, as we saw in the choice of his +twelve. To that group of disciples he trusts the supremest task men +ever had assigned to them. Not many wise, not many mighty, Paul +found at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:26); and it has always been so. Is it not +still the gist of the Gospel that Jesus believes in the writer and +the reader of these lines--trusts them with the propagation of God's +Kingdom, incredible commission? Jesus was always at leisure for +individuals; this was the natural outcome of his faith in men. What +else is the meaning of his readiness to spend himself in giving the +utmost spiritual truth--no easy task, as experience shows us--even +to a solitary listener? If we accept what he tells us of God, we can +believe that the individual is worth all that Jesus did and does for +him, but hardly otherwise. His gift of discovering interest in +uninteresting people, says Phillips Brooks, was an intellectual +habit that he gave to his disciples. We think too much "like men"; +he would have us "think like God," and think better of odd units and +items of humanity than statesmen and statisticians are apt to do. It +has been pointed out lately how fierce he is about the man who puts +a stumbling-block in the way of even "a little one"--"better for him +that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into +the sea"; no mere phrase--for when he draws a picture, he sees it; +he sees this scene, and "better so--for him too!" is his comment +(Mark 9:42). There was, we may remember, a view current in antiquity +that when a man was drowned, his soul perished with his body, though +I do not know if the Jews held this opinion. It is not likely that +Jesus did. What is God's mind, God's conduct, toward those people +whom men think they can afford to despise? "Be ye therefore perfect, +even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). And to whom +did he say this? To the most ordinary people--to Peter and James and +John; for all sorts of people he held up this impossible ideal of a +perfection like God's. What a faith in man it implies! "All things +are possible to him that believes" (Mark 9:9.3). Why should not +_you_ believe? he says. + +His faith in the soul's possibilities is boundless, and in marked +contrast with what men think of themselves. A man, for instance, +will say that he has done his best; but nine times out of ten it +means mere fatigue; he is not going to trouble to do any more. How +_can_ a man know that he has done his best? The Gospel of Jesus +comes with its message of the grace of God, and the power of God, to +people who are stupid and middle-aged, who are absolutely settled in +life, who are conscious of their limitations, who know they are +living in a rut and propose to stick to it for the remainder of +their days; and Jesus tells them in effect that he means to give +them a new life altogether, that he means to have from them service, +perfectly incredible to them. No man, he suggests, need be so inured +to the stupidity of middle age but there may be a miraculous change +in him. A great many people need re-conversion at forty, however +Christian they have been before. This belief of his in the +individual man and in the worth of the individual is the very +charter of democracy. The original writings of William Tyndale, who +first translated the New Testament from Greek into English, contain +the essential ideas of democracy already in 1526--the outcome of +familiar study of the Gospel. Jesus himself said of Herod: "Go and +tell that fox" (Luke 13:32). Herod was a king, but he was not above +criticism; and Christians have not failed at times to make the +criticism of the great that truth requires. + +Jesus had no illusions about men; he sees the weak spots; he +recognizes the "whited sepulchre" (Matt. 23:27). He is astonished at +the unbelief of men and women (Mark 6:6). He does not understand why +they cannot think (Mark 8:21), but he notes how they see and yet do +not see, hear and do not understand (Matt. 13:13). He is impressed +by their falsity, even in religion (Matt. 15:8). He knows perfectly +well the evil of which the human heart is capable (Matt. 15:19). A +man who steadily looks forward to being crucified by the people he +is trying to help is hardly one of the absent-minded enthusiasts, +mis-called idealists. There never was, we feel, one who so +thoroughly looked through his friends, who loved them so much and +yet without a shade of illusion. This brings us to the subject of +the next chapter. + +In the meantime let us recall what he makes of the wasted life. "In +thinking of the case," said Seeley. "they had forgotten the +woman"--a common occurrence with those who deal in "cases." It was +once severely said of the Head of a College that "if he would leave +off caring for his students' souls and care for them, he would do +better." Jesus does not forget the man in caring for his soul--he +likes him. He is "the friend of publicans and sinners" (Luke 7:34); +he eats and drinks with them (Mark 2:14). Let us remember again that +these were taunts and were meant to sting; they were not +conventional phrases. See how he can enter into the life of a poor +creature. There is the wretched little publican, Zacchaeus (Luke +19:1-10)--a squalid little figure of a man, whom people despised. He +was used to contempt--it was the portion of the tax-collector +enlisted in Roman service against his own people. Jesus comes and +sees him up in the tree; he instantly realizes what is happening and +invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus as a guest; something +passes between them without spoken word. The little man slides down +the tree--not a proceeding that makes for dignity; and then, with +all his inches, he stands up before the whole town, that knew him so +well, in a new moral grandeur that adds cubits to his stature. "Half +my goods," he says, "I give to the poor. If I have taken anything +from any man by false accusation, he shall have it back fourfold." +That man belonged to the despised classes. Jesus came into his life; +the man became a new man, a pioneer of Christian generosity. Again, +there is the woman with the alabaster box, the mere possession of +which stamped her for what she was. It was simply a case of the +wasted life. I have long wondered if she meant to give him only some +of the ointment. A little of it would have been a great gift. But +perhaps the lid of the box jammed, and she realized in a moment that +it was to be all or nothing--she drew off her sandal and smashed the +box to pieces. However she broke it, and whatever her reasons, +Mark's words mean that it was thoroughly and finally shivered (Mark +14:3). Something had happened which made this woman the pioneer of +the Christian habit of giving all for Jesus. The disciples said they +had done so (Matt. 19:27), but they were looking for thrones in +exchange (Mark 10:37); she was not. The thief on the cross himself +becomes a pioneer for mankind in the Christian way of prayer. +"Jesus, remember me!" he says (Luke 23:42). How is it that Jesus +comes into the wasted life and makes it new? "One loving heart sets +another on fire." + +With all his wide outlook on mankind, his great purpose to capture +all men, Jesus is remarkable for his omission to devise machinery or +organization for the accomplishment of his ends. The tares are left +to grow with the wheat (Matt. 13:30)--as if Jesus trusted the wheat +a good deal more than we do. Alive as he is to the evil in human +nature, he never tries to scare men from it, and he seems to have +been very little afraid of it. He believed in the power of +good--because, after all, God is "Lord of the Harvest" (Matt. 9:38). +He invents no special methods--a loving heart will hit the method +needed in the particular case; the Holy Spirit will teach this as +well as other things (Matt. 10:19, 20). How far he even organized +his church, or left it to organize itself if it so wished, students +may discuss. Would he have trusted even the best organized church as +such? Does not what we mean by the Incarnation imply putting +everything in the long run on the individual, quickened into new +life by a new relation with God and taught a new love of men by +Jesus himself? The heart of friendship and the heart of the +Incarnation are in essence the same thing--giving oneself in +frankness and love to him who will accept, and by them winning him +who refuses. Has not this been the secret of the spread of the +Gospel? The simplicity of the whole thing, and the power of it, grow +upon us as we study them. But after all, as Tertullian said, +simplicity and power are the constant marks of God's +work--simplicity in method, power in effect ("de Baptismo", 2). + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JESUS' TEACHING UPON SIN + +"For clear-thinking ethical natures," writes a modern scholar, "for +natures such as those of Jesus and St. Paul, it is a downright +necessity to separate heaven and hell as distinctly as possible. It +is only ethically worthless speculations that have always tried to +minimize this distinction. Carlyle is an instance in our times of +how men even to-day once more enthusiastically welcome the +conception of hell as soon as the distinction between good and bad +becomes all-important to them."[26] + +Here in strong terms a challenge is put to many of our current +ideas. Is not this to revert to an outworn view of the Christian +religion--to reassert its dark side, better forgotten, all the +horrible emphasis on sin and its consequences introduced into the +sunny teaching of Jesus by Paul of Tarsus, and alien to it? Before +we answer this question in any direct way, it is worth while to +realize for how many of the real thinkers, and the great teachers of +mankind, this distinction between good and evil has been +fundamental. They have not invented it as a theory on which to base +religion, but they have found it in human life, one and all of them. +If Walt Whitman or Swami Vivekananda overlook the difference between +virtue and vice, and do honour to the courtesan, it simply means +that they are bad thinkers, bad observers. The deeper minds see more +clearly and escape the confusion into which the slight and quick, +the sentimental, hurl themselves. Above all, when God in any degree +grows real to a man, when a man seriously gives himself not to some +mere vague "contemplation" of God but to the earnest study of God's +ways in human affairs, and of God's laws and their working, the +great contrasts in men's responses to God's rule become luminous. + +When God matters to a man, all life shows the result. Good and bad, +right and wrong stand out clear as the contrast between light and +darkness--they cannot be mistaken, and they matter--and matter for +ever. They are no concern of a moment. Action makes character; and, +until the action is undone again, the effect on character is not +undone. Right and wrong are of eternal significance now in virtue of +the reality of God. + +Gautama Buddha, for instance, and the greater Hindu thinkers, in +their doctrine of Karma, have taught a significance inherent in good +and evil, which we can only not call boundless. Buddha did this +without any great consciousness of God; and many Indian thinkers +have so emphasized the doctrine that it has taken all the stress +laid on "Bhakti" by Ramanuja and others to restore to life a +perspective or a balance, however it should be described, that will +save men from utter despair. Nor is it Eastern thinkers only who +have taught men the reality of heaven and hell. The poetry of +Aeschylus is full of his great realization of the nexus between act +and outcome. With all the humour and charm there is in Plato, we +cannot escape his tremendous teaching on the age-long consequences +of good and evil in a cosmos ordered by God. Carlyle, in our own +days, realized the same thing--he learnt it no doubt from his +mother; and learnt it again in London. In Mrs. Austen's +drawing-room, with "Sidney Smith guffawing," and "other people +prating, jargoning, to me through these thin cobwebs Death and +Eternity sate glaring." "How will this look in the Universe," he +asks, "and before the Creator of Man?" When someone in his old age +challenged him with the question, "Who will be judge?"--(it is +curious how every sapient inanity strikes, as on an original idea, +on the notion that opinions differ, and therefore--apparently, if +their thought has any consequence--are as good one as another)--Who +will be judge? "Hell fire will be judge," said Carlyle, "God +Almighty will be the judge now and always." There is a gulf between +good and evil, and each is inexorably fertile of consequence. There +is no escaping the issue of moral choice. That is the conclusion of +men who have handled human experience in a serious spirit. As +physical laws are deducible from the reactions of matter and force, +and are found to be uniform and inevitable, fundamental in the +nature of matter and force, so clear-thinking men in the course of +ages have deduced moral laws from their observation of human nature, +laws as uniform, inevitable and fundamental. In neither case has it +been that men invented or imagined the laws; in both cases it has +been genuine discovery of what was already existent and operative, +and often the discovery has involved surprise. + +If Jesus had failed to see laws so fundamental, which other teachers +of mankind have recognized, it is hardly likely that his teaching +would have survived or influenced men as it has done. Mankind can +dispense with a teacher who misses patent facts, whatever his charm. +But there never was any doubt that Jesus was alive to the difference +between right and wrong. His critics saw this, but they held that he +confused moral issues, and that his distinctions in the ethical +sphere were badly drawn. + +Jesus could not have ignored the problem of sin and forgiveness, +even if he had wished to ignore it. To this the thought of mankind +had been gravitating, and in Jewish and in Greek thought, conduct +was more and more the centre of everything. For the Stoics morals +were the dominant part of philosophy; but for our present purpose we +need not go outside the literature of the New Testament. Sin was the +keynote of the preaching of John the Baptist. It is customary to +connect the mission of Jesus with that of John, and to find in the +Baptist's preaching either the announcement of his Successor (as is +said with most emphasis in the Fourth Gospel), or (as some now say) +the impulse which drove Jesus of Nazareth into his public ministry. +Whatever may be the historical connexion between them, it is as +important for us at least to realize the broad gulf that separates +them. They meet, it is true; both use the phrase "Kingdom of God," +both preach repentance in view of the coming of the Kingdom; and we +are apt to assume they mean the same thing; but Jesus took some +pains to make it clear, though in the gentlest and most sympathetic +way, that they did not. + +On the famous occasion, when John the Baptist sent two of his +disciples to Jesus with his striking message: "Art thou he that +should come? or look we for another?" (Luke 7:19-35; Matt. 11:1-19), +Jesus, when the messengers were gone, spoke to the people about the +Baptist. "What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed +shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? A prophet? Yea, +I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. Among those that are +born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, +but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he." I am +not sure which is the right translation, whether it is "he that is +less, least, or little," and I do not propose to discuss it. The +judgement is remarkable enough in any case, and the words of Jesus, +as we have seen, have a close relation to real fact as he saw it. +Why does he speak in this way? Our answer to this question, if we +can answer it, will help us forward to the larger problem before us. +But, for this, we shall have to study John with some care. + +There is a growing agreement among scholars that there is some +confusion in our data as to John the Baptist. There are gaps in the +record--for instance, how and why did the school of John survive as +it did (Acts 18:25, 19:1-7)? And again there are, in the judgement +of some, developments of the story. The Gospel, with varying degrees +of explicitness, and St. Paul by inference (Acts 19:4) tell us that +John pointed to "him which should come after him." Christians, at +any rate, after the Resurrection, had no doubt that this was Jesus. +Whether John was as definite as the narratives now represent him to +have been, has been doubted in view of his message to Jesus. But +that is not our present subject. We are concerned less with John as +precursor than as teacher and thinker. + +Even if our data are defective, still enough is given us to let us +see a very striking and commanding figure. We have a picture of him, +his dress, his diet, his style of speech, his method of action--in +every way he is a signal and arresting man. The son of a priest, he +is an ascetic, who lives in the wilderness, dresses like a peasant, +and eats the meanest and most meagre of food--a man of the desert +and of solitude. And the whole life reacts on him and we can see +him, lean and worn, though still a young man, a keen, rather +excitable spirit--in every feature the marks of revolt against a +civilization which he views as an apostasy. Luke, using a phrase +from the Old Testament, says, "The word of God came upon John in the +wilderness" (Luke 3:2). Luke leans to Old Testament phrase, and here +is one that hits off the man to the very life. Jesus himself +confirms Luke's judgement (Mark 11:29-33). The Word of the Lord has +come on this ascetic figure, and he goes to the people with the +message; he draws their attention and they crowd out to see him. He +makes a great sensation. He is not like other men--for Jesus quotes +their remark that "he had a devil" (Luke 7:33)--a rough and ready +way of explaining unlikeness to the average man. When he sees his +congregation his words are not conciliatory; he addresses them as a +"generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7); and his text is the "wrath to +come." + +Jesus asks whether they went out to see a reed shaken by the wind, +or someone dressed like a courtier--the last things to which anyone +would compare John. There was nothing supple about him, as Herod +found, and Herodias (Mark 6:17-20); he was not shaken by the wind; +there was no trimming of his sails. The austerity of his life and +the austerity of his spirit go together, and he preached in a tone +and a language that scorched. He preached righteousness, social +righteousness, and he did it in a great way. He brought back the +minds of his people, like Amos and others, to God's conceptions and +away from their own. Crowds of people went out to hear him (Mark +1:5). And he made a deep impression on many whose lives needed +amendment (Matt. 21:26, 32; Luke 20:6).[27] We have the substance of +what he said in the third chapter of St. Luke; how he told the +tax-collectors to be honest and not make things worse than they need +be; the soldiers to do violence to no man and accuse no man falsely, +and to be content with their wages; and to ordinary people he +preached humanity: "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him +that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." It may +be remarked of John, and it is true also of Jesus, that neither +attacked the absent nor inveighed against economic conditions, as +some modern preachers do with, let us say, capitalists and the +morality of other nations. Neither says a word against the Roman +Empire. Slavery is not condemned explicitly even by Jesus, though he +gave the dynamic that abolished it. The practical guidance that John +gave, he gave in response to men's inquiries. + +Like an Old Testament prophet (cf. Amos 3:2), John tore to tatters +any plea that could be offered that his listeners were God's chosen +people, the children of Abraham. Does God want children of +Abraham?--John pointed to the stones on the ground, and said, if God +wanted, he could make children of Abraham out of them; a word and he +could have as many children of Abraham as he wished. It was +something else that God sought. + +"John," writes the historian Josephus a generation later, "was a +good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue both in justice +toward one another and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; +for so baptism would be acceptable to God if they made use of it, +not to excuse certain sins, but for the purification of the body, +provided that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by +righteousness."[28] This interpretation of John's baptism makes it +look very like the baptisms and other purificatory rites of the +heathen. The Gospels attribute to John a message, richer and more +powerful, but essentially the same; and the criticism of Jesus +confirms the account. The great note in his preaching is judgement; +the Kingdom of God is coming, and it begins with judgement. Again, +it is like Amos--"The axe is at the root of the tree," "His fan is +in His hand." And as men listened to the man and looked at him--his +intense belief in his message, backed up by a stern self-discipline, +a whole life inspired, infused by conviction--they believed this +message of the axe, the fan, and the fire. They asked and as we have +seen received his guidance on the conduct of life; they accepted his +baptism, and set about the amending of character (Matt. 21:32). + +Jesus makes it quite clear that he held John to be an entirely +exceptional man, and that he had no doubt that John's teaching was +from God (Matt. 21:32; Luke 7:35, 20:4; and, of course, Luke +7:26-28). It was all in the line of the great prophets; and the +Fourth Gospel shows it us once more in the work of the Holy +Spirit--"when he is come, he will reprove (convict) the world of +sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement" (John 16:8). And yet, +as Jesus says, there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist. + +In Mark's narrative (2:18) a very significant episode is recorded. +John inculcated fasting, and his disciples fasted a great deal +("pykna", Luke 5:33); and once, Mark tells us, when they were +actually fasting, they asked Jesus why his disciples did not do the +same? Jesus' answer is a little cryptic at first sight. "Can the +children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with +them?" Who fasts at the wedding feast, in the hour of gladness? And +then he passes on to speak about the new patch on the old garment, +the new wine in the old wine skins; and it looks as if it were not +merely a criticism of John's disciples but of John himself. John, +indeed, brings home with terrific force and conviction that truth of +God which the prophets had preached before; but he leaves it there. +He emphasizes once more the old laws of God, the judgements of God, +but he brings no transforming power into men's lives. The old +characters, the old motives more or less, are to be patched by a new +fear. + +"Repent, repent," John cries, "the judgement is coming." And men do +repent, and John baptises them as a symbol that God has forgiven +them. But how are they to go on? What is the power that is to carry +John's disciples through the rest of their lives? We are not in +possession of everything that John says, but there is no indication +that John had very much to say about any force or power that should +keep men on the plane of repentance. It is our experience that we +repent and fall again; what else was the experience of the people +whom John baptised? What was to keep them on the new level--not only +in the isolation of the desert, but in the ordinary routine of town +and village? In John's teaching there is not a word about that; and +this is a weakness of double import. For, as Jesus puts it, the new +patch on the old garment makes the rent worse; it does not leave it +merely as it was. If the "unclean spirit" regain its footing in a +man, it does not come alone--"the last state of that man is worse +than the first" (Luke 11:24-26). Jesus is very familiar with the +type that welcomes new ideas and new impulses in religion and yet +does nothing, grows tired or afraid, and relapses (Mark 4:17). + +Again, in John's teaching, as far as we have it, there is a striking +absence of any clear word about any relation to God, beyond that of +debtor and creditor, judge and prisoner on trial, king and subject. +God may forgive and God will judge; but so far as our knowledge of +John's teaching goes, these are the only two points at which man and +God will touch each other; and these are not intimate relations. +There is no promise and no gladness in them; no "good news." John +taught prayer--all sorts of people teach prayer; but what sort of +prayer? It has been remarked of the Greek poet, Apollonius Rhodius, +that his heroes used prayers, but their prayers were like official +documents. Of what character were the prayers that John taught his +disciples? None of them survive; but there is perhaps a tacit +criticism of them in the request made to the New Teacher: "Teach us +to pray, as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). One feels that +the men wanted something different from John's prayers. Great and +strenuous prayers they may have been, but in marked contrast to the +prayers of Jesus and his followers, because of the absence in John's +message of any strong note of the love and tenderness of God. + +Finally, the very righteousness that John preaches with such fire +and energy is open to criticism. Far more serious than the +righteousness of the Pharisees, stronger in insight and more +generous in its scope, it fails in the same way; it is +self-directed. It aims at a man's own salvation, and it is to be +achieved by a man's own strength in self-discipline, with what +little help John's system of prayer and fasting may win for a man +from God. John fails precisely where his strength is greatest and +most conspicuous. His theme is sin; his emphasis all falls on sin; +but his psychology of sin is insufficient, it is not deep enough. +The simple, strenuous ascetic did not realize the seriousness of sin +after all--its deep roots, its haunting power, its insidious charm. +St. Paul saw far deeper into it "I am carnal, sold under sin. What I +hate that do I. The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which +I would not, that I do. I see a law in my members bringing me into +captivity to the law of sin. O wretched man that I am! Who shall +deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:14-24). Sin, in +John's thought, is contumacy or rebellion against the law of God; he +does not look at it in relation to the love of God--a view of it +which gives it another character altogether. Nor has John any great +conception of forgiveness--a man, he thinks, may win it by "fruits +worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:8). Here again Paul is the pioneer in +the universal Christian experience that fruits of repentance can +never buy God's forgiveness. That is God's gift. That forgiveness +may cost a man much--an amended life, the practices of prayer and +fasting and almsgiving--John conceives; but we are not led to think +that he thought of what it might cost God. John has no evangel, no +really good news, with gladness and singing in it (1 Peter 1:8). + +When we return to the teaching of Jesus, we find that he draws a +clear and sharp line between right and wrong. He indicates that +right is right to the end of all creation, and wrong is wrong up to +the very Judgement Throne of God (Matt. 25). He views these things, +as the old phrase puts it, "sub specie aeternitatis", from the +outlook of eternity. Right and wrong do not meet at infinity. There +is no higher synthesis that can make them one and the same thing. +Everything with Jesus is Theocentric, and until God changes there +will be no very great change in right and wrong. Partly because he +uses the language of his day, partly because he thinks as a rule in +pictures, his language is apt to be misconstrued by moderns. But the +central ideas are clear enough. "How are you to escape the judgement +of Gehenna?" he asks the Pharisees (Matt. 23:33; the subjunctive +mood is worth study). It is not a threat, but a question. There +yawns the chasm; with your driving, how do you think you can avoid +disaster? He warns men of a doom where the worm dies not and the +fire is not quenched; a man will do well to sacrifice hand, foot or +eye, to save the rest of himself from that (Mark 9:43-48). But a +more striking picture, though commonly less noticed, he draws or +suggests in talk at the last supper. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan +asked for you to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for thee, that thy +faith fail not; and thou, when thou comest back, strengthen thy +brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). The scene suggested is not unlike that +at the beginning of the Book of Job, or that in the Book of +Zechariah (chap. 3). There is the throne of God, and into that +Presence pushes Satan with a demand--the verb in the Greek is a +strong one, though not so strong as the Revised Version suggests. +Satan "made a push to have you." "But I prayed for thee." + +To any reader who has any feeling or imagination, what do these +short sentences mean? What can they mean, from the lips of a thinker +so clear and so serious, and a friend so tender? What but +unspeakable peril? The language has for us a certain strangeness; +but it shows plainly enough that, to Jesus' mind, the disciples, and +Peter in particular, stood in danger, a danger so urgent that it +called for the Saviour's prayer. So much it meant to him, and he +himself tells Peter what he had realized, what he had done, in +language that could not be mistaken or forgotten. To the nature of +the danger that sin involves, we shall return. Meanwhile we may +consider what Jesus means by sin before we discuss its consequences. + +"The Son of Man," says Jesus, in a sentence that is famous but still +insufficiently studied, "is come to seek and to save that which is +lost" (Luke 19:10). Our rule has been to endeavour to give to the +terms of Jesus the connotation he meant them to carry. The scholar +will linger over the "Son of Man"--a difficult phrase, with a +literary and linguistic history that is very complicated. For the +present purpose the significant words are at the other end of the +sentence. What does Jesus mean by "lost"? It is a strong word, the +value of which we have in some degree lost through familiarity. And +whom would he describe as "lost"? We have once more to recall his +criticism of Peter--that Peter "thought like a man and not like God" +(Mark 8:33)--and to be on our guard lest we think too quickly and +too slightly. We may remark, too, that for Jesus sin is not, as for +Paul and theologians in general, primarily an intellectual problem. +He does not use the abstraction Sin as Paul does. But the clear, +steady gaze turned on men and women misses little. + +There are four outstanding classes, whom he warns of the danger of +hell in one form or other. + +To begin, there is the famous description of the Last Judgement +(Matt. 25:31-46)--a description in itself not altogether new. Plenty +of writers and thinkers had described the scene, and the broad +outlines of the picture were naturally common property; yet it is to +these more or less conventional traits that attention has often been +too exclusively devoted. Jesus, however, altered the whole character +of the Judgement Day scene by his account of the principles on which +the Judge decides the cases brought before him. On the right hand of +the Judge are--not the Jews confronting the Gentiles on the +left--nor exactly the well-conducted and well-balanced people who +get there in Greek allegories--but a group of men and women who +realize where they are with a gasp of surprise. How has it come +about? The Judge tells them: "I was an hungered and ye gave me +meat," and the rest of the familiar words. But this does not quite +settle the question. Embarrassment rises on their faces--is it a +mistake? One of them speaks for the rest: "Lord, when saw we thee an +hungered and fed thee?" They do not remember it. There is something +characteristic there of the whole school of Jesus; these people are +"children of fact," honest as their Master, and they will not accept +heaven in virtue of a possible mistake. And it appears from the +Judge's answer that such instinctive deeds go further than men +think, even if they are forgotten. Wordsworth speaks of the "little +nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love" that are "the +best portion of a good man's life."[29] The acts of kindness were +forgotten just because they were instinctive, but, Jesus emphasizes +the point, they are decisive; they come, as another of his telling +phrases suggests, from "the overflow of the heart," and they reveal +it. With the people on the left hand it was the other way. They were +fairly well in possession of their good records, but they had missed +the decisive fact--they were instinctively hard. Such people Jesus +warns. So familiar are his words that there is a danger of our +limiting them to their first obvious meaning. Eighty years ago +Thomas Carlyle looked out on the England he knew, and remarked that +it was strange that the great battle of civilized man should be +still the battle of the savage against famine, and with that he +observed that the people were "needier than ever of inward +sustenance." Is there a warning in this picture of the people on the +left hand that applies to deeper things than physical hunger? A +warning to those who do not heed another's need of "inward +sustenance," of spiritual life, of God? It looks likely. Otherwise +there is a risk of our declining upon a "Social Righteousness" that +falls a long way short of John the Baptist's, and does less for any +soul, our own or another's. + +The second class warned by Jesus consists of several groups dealt +with in the Sermon on the Mount--people whose sin is not murder or +adultery, but merely anger and the unclean thought--not the people +who actually give themselves away, like the publicans and +harlots--but those who would not be sorry to have that ring of Gyges +which Plato described, who would like to do certain things if they +could, who at all events are not unwilling to picture what they +would wish to do, if it were available, and meanwhile enjoy the +thought (Matt. 5:21, 22, 27-29). Here St. Paul can supply commentary +with his suggestion that one form of God's condemnation is where he +gives up a man to his own reprobate mind (Romans 1:28--the whole +passage is worth study in the Greek). The mind, in Paul's phrases, +becomes darkened (Rom. 1:21), stained (Titus 1:15), and cauterized +(1 Tim. 4:2), invalidated for the discharge of its proper functions, +as a burnt hand loses the sense of touch, or a stained glass gives +the man a blue or red world instead of the real one. Blindness and +mutilation are better, Jesus said, than the eye of lust (Matt. +5:28). How different from the moralists, for whom sin lies in +action, and all actions are physical! The idle word is to condemn a +man, not because it is idle, but because, being unstudied, it speaks +of his heart and reveals, unconsciously but plainly, what he is in +reality (Matt. 12:36). Thus it is that what comes out of the mouth +defiles a man (Matt. 15:18)--with the curious suggestion, whether +intended or not, that the formulation of a floating thought gives it +new power to injure or to help. That is true; impression loose, as +it were, in the mind, mere thought--stuff, is one thing; formulated, +brought to phrase and form, it takes on new life and force; and when +it is evil, it does defile, and in a permanent way. Marcus Aurelius +has a very similar warning (v. 16)--"Whatever the colour of the +thoughts often before thy mind, that colour will thy mind take. For +the mind is dyed (or stained) by its thoughts." "Phantazesthai" and +"phantasiai" are the words--and they suggest something between +thoughts and imaginations--mental pictures would be very near it. + +The third group whom Jesus warned, the most notorious of all, was +the Pharisee class. They played at religion--tithed mint and anise +and cumin, and forgot judgement and mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23). +Jesus said that the Pharisee was never quite sure whether the +creature he was looking at was a camel or a mosquito--he got them +mixed (Matt. 23:24). Once we realize what this tremendous irony +means, we are better able to grasp his thought. The Pharisee was +living in a world that was not the real one--it was a highly +artificial one, picturesque and charming no doubt, but dangerous. +For, after all, we do live in the real world--there is only one +world, however many we may invent; and to live in any other is +danger. Blindness, that is partial and uneven, lands a man in peril +whenever he tries to come downstairs or to cross the street--he +steps on the doorstep that is not there and misses the real one. He +is involved in false appearances at every turn. And so it is in the +moral world--there is one real, however many unreals there are, and +to trust to the unreal is to come to grief on the real. "The +beginning of a man's doom," wrote Carlyle, "is that vision be +withdrawn from him." "Thou blind Pharisee!" (Matt. 23:26). The cup +is clean enough without; it is septic and poisonous within--and from +which side of it do you drink, outside or inside? (Matt. 23:25). As +we study the teaching of Jesus here, we see anew the profundity of +the saying attributed to him in the Fourth Gospel, "The truth shall +make you free" (John 8:32). The man with astigmatism, or myopia, or +whatever else it is, must get the glasses that will show him the +real world, and he is safe, and free to go and come as he pleases. +See the real in the moral sphere, and the first great peril is gone. +Nothing need be said at this point of the Pharisee who used +righteousness and long prayers as a screen for villainy. Probably +his doom was that in the end he came to think his righteousness and +his prayers real, and to reckon them as credit with a God, who did +not see through them any more than he did himself. It is a mistake +to over-emphasize here the devouring of widow' houses by the +Pharisee (Matt. 23:14), for it was no peculiar weakness of his; +publicans and unjust judges did the same. Only the publican and the +unjust judge told themselves no lies about it. The Pharisee +lied--lying to oneself or lying to another, which is the worse? The +more dangerous probably is lying to oneself, though the two +practices generally will go together in the long run. The worst +forms of lying, then, are lying to oneself and lying about God; and +the Pharisee combined them, and told himself that, once God's proper +dues of prayer and tithe were paid, his treatment of the widow and +her house was correct. Hence, says Jesus, he receives "greater +damnation" (A.V.)--or judgement on a higher scale ("perissoteron +krima"). + +The Pharisees were men who believed in God--only that with his +world, they re-created him (as we are all apt to do for want of +vision or by choice); but what is atheism, what can it be, but +indifference to God's facts and to God's nature? If religion is +union with God, in the phrase we borrow so slightly from the +mystics, how can a man be in union with God, when the god he sees is +not there, is a figment of his own mind, something different +altogether from God? Or, if we use the phrase of the Old Testament. +prophet and of Jesus himself, if religion is vision of God, what is +our religion, if after all we are not seeing God at all, but +something else--a dummy god, like that of the Pharisees, some +trifling martinet who can be humbugged--or, to come to ourselves, a +majestic bundle of abstract nouns loosely tied up in impersonality? +For all such Jesus has a caution. Indifference to God's facts leads +to one end only. We admit it ourselves. There are those who scold +Bunyan for sending Ignorance to hell, but we omit to ask where else +could Ignorance go, whether Bunyan sent him or not. Ignorance, as to +germs or precipices or what not, leads to destruction "in pari +materia"; in the moral sphere can it be otherwise? This serves in +some measure to explain why Jesus is so tender to gross and flagrant +sinners, a fact which some have noted with surprise. Surely it is +because publican and harlot have fewer illusions; they were left +little chance of imagining their lives to be right before God. What +Jesus thought of their hardness and impurity we have seen already, +but heedless as they were of God's requirements of them, they were +not guilty of the intricate atheism of the Pharisees. Further, +whether it was in his mind or not, it is also true that the frankly +gross temptations do bring a man face to face with his own need of +God, as the subtler do not; and so far they make for reality. + +The fourth group are those who cannot make up their minds. "No man, +having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). The word is an interesting one +("euthetos"), it means "handy" or "easy to place." (The word is used +of the salt not "fit" for land or dunghill (Luke 14:35), and the +negative of the inconvenient harbour (Acts 27:12).) This man is not +adapted for the Kingdom of God; he is not easy to place there. Like +the man who saved his talent but did not use it (Matt. 25:24), he is +not exactly bad; but he is "no good," as we say. Jesus conceives of +the Kingdom of God as dynamic, not static; state or place, condition +or relation, it implies work, as God himself implies work. He holds +that truth is not a curiosity for the cabinet but a tool in the +hand; that God's earnest world is no place for nondescript, and that +there is only one region left to which they can drift. What part or +place can there be in the Kingdom of Heaven--in a kingdom won on +Calvary--for people who cannot be relied on, who cannot decide +whether to plough or not to plough, nor, when they have made up +their mind, stick to it? Jesus cannot see. (What a revelation of the +force and power of his own character!) + +These, then, are the four classes whom Jesus warns, and it is clear +from the consideration of them that his view of sin is very +different from those current in that day. Men set sin down as an +external thing that drifted on to one like a floating burr--or like +paint, perhaps--it could be picked off or burnt off. It was the +eating of pork or hare--something technical or accidental; or it +was, many thought, the work of a demon from without, who could be +driven out to whence he came. Love and drunkenness illustrated the +thing for them--a change of personality induced by an exterior force +or object, as if the human spirit were a glass or a cup into which +anything might be poured, and from which it could be emptied and the +vessel itself remain unaffected. Jesus has a deeper view of sin, a +stronger psychology, than these, nor does he, like some quick +thinkers of to-day, put sin down to a man's environment, as if +certain surroundings inevitably meant sin. Jesus is quite definite +that sin is nothing accidental--it is involved in a man's own +nature, in his choice, it comes from the heart, and it speaks of a +heart that is wrong. When we survey the four groups, it comes to one +central question at last: Has a man been in earnest with himself +about God's dealings with him? Hardness and lust make a man play the +fool with human souls whom God loves and cares for--a declaration of +war on God himself. Wilful self-deception about God needs no +comment; to shilly-shally and let decision slide, where God is +concerned, is atheism too. In a word, what is a man's fundamental +attitude to God and God's facts? That is Jesus' question. Sin is +tracked home to the innermost and most essential part of the +man--his will. It is no outward thing, it is inward. It is not that +evil befalls us, but that we are evil. In the words of Edward Caird, +"the passion that misleads us is a manifestation of the same ego, +the same self-conscious reason which is misled by it," and thus, as +Burns puts it, "it is the very 'light from heaven' that leads us +astray." The man uses his highest God-given faculties, and uses them +against God. + +But this is not all. Many people will agree with the estimate of +Jesus, when they understand it, in regard to most of these classes; +perhaps they would urge that in the main it is substantially the +same teaching as John the Baptist's, though it implies, as we shall +see, a more difficult problem in getting rid of sin. Jesus goes +further. He holds up to men standards of conduct which transcend +anything yet put before mankind. "Be ye therefore perfect," he says, +"even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). +When we recall what Jesus teaches of God, when we begin to try to +give to "God" the content he intended, we realize with amazement +what he is saying. He is holding up to men for their ideal of +conduct the standard of God's holiness, of God's love and +tenderness. Everything that Jesus tells us of God--all that he has +to say of the wonderful and incredible love of God and of God's +activity on behalf of his children--he now incorporates in the ideal +of conduct to which men are called. John's conceptions of +righteousness grow beggarly. Here is a royal magnificence of active +love, of energetic sympathy, tenderness, and self-giving, asked of +us, who find it hard enough to keep the simplest commandments from +our youth up (Mark 10:20). We are to love our enemies, to win them, +to make peace, to be pure--and all on the scale of God. And that +this may not seem mere talk in the air, there is the character and +personality of Jesus, embodying all he asks of us--bringing out new +wonders of God's goodness, the ugliness and evil of sin, and the +positive and redemptive beauty of righteousness. + +The problem of sin and forgiveness becomes more difficult, as we +think of the positive ideals which we have not begun to try to +reach. Let us sum up what it involves. + +Jesus brings out the utter bankruptcy to which sin reduces men. They +become "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Matt. 23:28), so +depraved that they are like bad trees, unproductive of any but bad +fruit (rotten, in the Greek, Matt. 7:17); the very light in them is +darkness, and how great darkness (Matt. 6:23). They are cut off from +the real world, as we saw, and lose the faculties they have +abused--the talent is taken away (Matt. 25:28); "from him that hath +not, shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Matt. 25:29). The +nature is changed as memory is changed, and the "overflow of the +heart" in speech and act bears witness to it. The faculty of choice +is weakened; the interval in which inhibition--to use our modern +term--is possible, grows shorter. The instincts are perverted and +the whole being is disorganized. In a word, all that Jesus connotes +by "the Kingdom of God" is "taken from them" (Matt. 21:43), and +nothing left but "outer darkness" (Matt. 22:13). The vision of God +is not for the impure (Matt. 5:8). Meanwhile sin is not a sterile +thing, it is a leaven (Matt. 16:6). If our modern medical language +may be applied--and Jesus used the analogy of medicine in this very +case (Mark 2:17)--sin is septic. In the first place, all sin is +anti-social--an invasion "ipso facto" of the rights of others. The +man who sins either takes away what is another's--a man's goods, a +widow's house, or a woman's purity--or he fails to give to others +what is their due, be it, in the obvious field, the aid the Good +Samaritan rendered to the wounded and robbed man by the roadside +(Luke 10:33), or, in the higher sphere, truth, sympathy, help in the +maintenance of principle, or in the achievement of progress and +development (cf. Matt. 25:43). Sin is the repudiation of the +concepts of law, duty, and service, in a word, of the love on God's +scale which God calls men to exercise. And its fruits are, above +all, its dissemination. Injustice, a historian has said, always +repays itself with frightful compound interest. If a man starts to +debauch society, his example is quickly followed; and it comes to +hatred. + +What, we asked, did Jesus mean by "lost"? This, above all, that sin +cuts a man adrift from God. In the parable of the Prodigal Son this +is brought out (Luke 15:11-32). There the youth took from his father +all he could get, and then deliberately turned his back on him +forever; he went into a far country, out of his reach, outside his +influence, and beyond the range of his ideas, and he devoted his +father's gifts to precisely what would sadden and trouble his father +most. And then came bankruptcy, final and hopeless. There was no +father available in the far country; he had to live without him, and +it came to a life that was not even human--a life of solitude, a +life of beasts. Jesus draws it, as he does most things, in picture +form, using parable. Paul puts the same in directer language; sin +reduces men to a position where they are "alienated from the life of +God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), "without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), +"enemies of God" (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21); but he does not say more +than Jesus implies. Paul's final expression, "God gave them up" +(thrice in Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), answers to the Judge's word, in +Jesus' picture, "Depart from me" (Matt. 25:41). + + O Wedding-guest, this soul hath been + Alone on a wide, wide sea: + So lonely 'twas, that God himself + Scarce seemed there to be. + +So Jesus handles the problem of sin, but that is only half the +story, for there remains the problem of Redemption. The treatment of +sin is far profounder and truer than John the Baptist or any other +teacher has achieved; and it implies that Jesus will handle +Redemption in a way no less profound and effective. If he does not, +then he had better not have preached a gospel. If, in dealing with +sin, he touches reality at every point, we may expect him in the +matter of Redemption to reach the very centre of life.[30] How else +can he, with his serious view of sin, say to a man, "Thy sins are +forgiven thee"? (Mark 2:5). But it is quite clear from our records +that, while Jesus laid bare in this relentless way the ugliness and +hopelessness of sin, he did not despair: his tone is always one of +hope and confidence. The strong man armed may find a stronger man +come upon him and take from him the panoply in which he trusted +(Luke 11:21, 22). There is a great gulf that cannot be crossed (Luke +16:26)--yes, but if the experience of Christendom tells us anything, +it tells us that Jesus crossed it himself, and did the impossible. +"The great matter is that Jesus believed God was willing to take the +human soul, and make it new and young and clean again." But the +human soul did not believe it, till Jesus convinced it, and won it, +by action of his own. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that +which was lost"; and he did not come in vain. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS + +By what they said, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and +had fought with and slain him that had the power of death (Hebrews +2:14), but not without great danger to himself, which made me love +him the more--"Pilgrims Progress", Part I + +The subject before us is one of the greatest difficulty. Why Jesus +chose the cross has exercised the thought of the Christian world +ever since he did so. He told his disciples beforehand of what lay +before him, of what he was choosing, but it was long before they +realized that he meant any such thing. The cross was to them a +strange idea, and for a long time they did not seriously face the +matter. Once the cross was an accomplished fact, Christians could +not, and did not wish to, avoid thinking out what had meant so much +to their Master; but it has mostly been with a sense of facing a +mystery that in some measure eluded them, with a feeling that there +is more beyond, something always to be attained hereafter. + +A very significant passage in St. Mark (10:32) gives us a glimpse of +a moment on Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem. It is a sentence which +one could hardly imagine being included in the Gospel, if it did not +represent some actual memory, and a memory of significance. It runs +something like this: "And they were in the way, going up to +Jerusalem, and Jesus was moving on before them; and they began to +wonder; and as they followed they began to be afraid." He is moving +to Jerusalem with a purpose. They do not understand it. He is +wrapped in thought; and, as happens when a man's mind is working +strongly, his pace quickens, and they find themselves at a distance +behind him. And then something comes over them--a sense that there +is something in the situation which they do not understand, a +strangeness in the mind. They realize, in fact, that they are not as +near Jesus as they had supposed. And, as they follow, the wonder +deepens into fear. + +Anyone who will really try to grapple with this problem of the cross +will find very soon the same thing. The first thing that we need to +learn, if our criticism of Jesus is to be sound, is that we are not +at all so near him as we have imagined. He eludes us, goes far out +beyond what we grasp or conceive; and I think the education of the +Christian man or woman begins anew, when we realize how little we +know about Jesus. The discovery of our ignorance is the beginning of +knowledge. Plato long ago said that wonder is the mother of +philosophy, and he was right. John Donne, the English poet, went +farther, and said: "All divinity is love or wonder." When a man then +begins to wonder about Jesus Christ in earnest, Jesus comes to be +for him a new figure. Historical criticism has done this for us; it +has brought us to such a point that the story of these earliest +disciples repeats itself more closely in the experience of their +followers of these days than in any century since the first. We +begin along with them on the friendly, critical, human plane, and +with them we follow him into experiences and realizations that we +never expected. It may be summed up in the familiar words of the +English hymn, + + Oh happy band of pilgrims, + If onward ye will tread + With Jesus as your fellow, + To Jesus as your head. + +These men begin with him, more or less on a footing of equality; or, +at least, the inequality is very lightly marked. Afterwards it is +emphasized; and they realize it with wonder and with fear, and at +last with joy and gratitude. + +We may begin by trying steadily to bring our minds to some keener +sense of what it was that he chose. To say, in the familiar words, +that he chose the cross, may through the very familiarity of the +language lead us away from what we have to discover. We have, as we +agreed, to ask ourselves what was his experience. What, then, did +his choice involve? It meant, of course, physical pain. There are +natures to whom this is of little account, but the sensitive and +sentient type, as we often observe, dreads pain. He, with open eyes, +chose physical pain, heightened to torture, not escaping any of the +suffering which anticipation gives--that physical horror of death, +that instinctive fear of annihilation, which nature suggests of +itself. He took the course of action that would most severely test +his disciples; one at least revolted, and we have to ask what it +meant to Jesus to live with Judas, to watch his face, to recognize +his influence in the little group--yes, and to try to win him again +and to be repelled. "He learnt by the things that he suffered" that +Judas would betray him; but the hour and place and method were not +so evident, and when they were at last revealed--what did it mean to +be kissed by Judas? Do we feel what he felt in the so-called +trials--or was he dull and numbed by the catastrophe? How did he +bear the beating of triumphant hatred upon a forsaken spirit? How +did the horrible cry, "Crucify him! crucify him!" break on his +ears--on his mind? When "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter" +(Luke 22:61), what did it mean? How did he know that Peter was +there, and what led him to turn at that moment? Was there in the +Passion no element of uneasiness again about the eleven on whom he +had concentrated his hopes and his influence--the eleven of whom it +is recorded, that "they all forsook him, and fled" (Mark 14:50)? No +hint of dread that his work might indeed be undone? What pain must +that have involved? What is the value of the Agony in the Garden, of +the cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15:34)? When we have +answered, each for himself, these questions, and others like them +that will suggest themselves--answered them by the most earnest +efforts of which our natures are capable--and remembered at the end +how far our natures fall short of his, and told ourselves that our +answers are insufficient--then let us recall, once more, that he +chose all this. + +He chose the cross and all that it meant. Our next step should be to +study anew his own references to what he intends by it, to what he +expects to be its results and its outcome. First of all, then, he +clearly means that the Kingdom of Heaven is something different from +anything that man has yet seen. The Kingdom of Heaven is, I +understand, a Hebrew way of saying the Kingdom of God--very much as +men to-day speak of Providence, to avoid undue familiarity with the +term God, so the Jews would say Heaven. There were many who used the +phrase in one or other form; but it is always bad criticism to give +to the words of genius the value or the connotation they would have +in the lips of ordinary people. To a great mind words are charged +with a fullness of meaning that little people do not reach. The +attempt has been made to recapture more of his thoughts by learning +the value given to some of the terms he uses as they appear in the +literature of the day, and of course it has been helpful. But we +have to remember always that the words as used by him come with a +new volume of significance derived from his whole personality. +Everything turns on the connotation which he gives to the term +God--that is central and pivotal. What this new Kingdom of God is, +or will be, he does not attempt fully to explain or analyse. In the +parables, the treasure-finder and the pearl merchant achieve a great +enrichment of life; so much they know at once; but what do they do +with it? How do they look at it? What does it mean to them? He does +not tell us. We only see that they are moving on a new plane, seeing +life from a new angle, living in a fuller sense. What the new life +means in its fullness, we know only when we gain the deeper +knowledge of God. + +He suggests that this new knowledge comes to a man from God +himself--flesh and blood do not reveal it (Matt. 16:17). "Unto you +it is given," he says on another occasion, "to know the mystery of +the Kingdom of Heaven" (Mark 4:11), and he adds that there are those +who see and do not see; they are outside it; they have not the +alphabet, we might say, that will open the book (cf. Rev. 5:3). He +makes it clear at every point in the story of the Kingdom of God +that there is more beyond; and he means it. It is to be a new +beginning, an initiation, leading on to what we shall see but do not +yet guess, though he gives us hints. We shall not easily fathom the +depth of his idea of the new life, but along with it we have to +study the width and boldness of his purpose. This new life is not +for a few--for "the elect," in our careless phrase. He looks to a +universal scope for what he is doing. It will reach far outside the +bounds of Judaism. "They shall come from the east and from the west, +and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the +Kingdom of God" (Luke 13:29). "Wheresoever this gospel shall be +preached throughout the whole world," he says (Mark 14:9). "My words +shall not pass away" (Luke 21:33). All time and all existence come +under his survey and are included in his plan. The range is +enormous. And this was a Galilean peasant! As we gradually realize +what he has in mind, must we not feel that we have not grasped +anything like the full grandeur of his thought? + +He makes it plain, in the second place, that it will be a matter for +followers, for workers, for men who will watch and wait and +dare--men with the same abandonment as himself. He calls for men to +come after him, to come behind him (Mark 1:17, 10:21; Luke 9:59). He +emphasizes that they must think out the terms on which he enlists +them. He does not disguise the drawbacks of his service. He calls +his followers, and a very personal and individual call it is. He +calls a man from the lake shore, from the nets, from the custom +house. + +In the third place, he clearly announces an intention to achieve +something in itself of import by his death. There are those who +would have us believe that his mind was obsessed with the fixed idea +of his own speedy return on the clouds, and that he hurried on to +death to precipitate this and the new age it was to bring. +References to such a coming are indeed found in the Gospels as we +have them, but we are bound to ask whence they come, and to inquire +how far they represent exactly what he said; and then, if he is +correctly reported, to make sure that we know exactly what he means. +Those who hold this view fail to relate the texts they emphasize +with others of a deeper significance, and they ignore the grandeur +and penetration and depth of the man whom they make out such a +dreamer. He never suggests himself that his death is to force the +hand of God. + +He himself is to be the doer and achiever of something. We have been +apt to think of him as a great teacher, a teacher of charm and +insight, or as the great example of idealism, "who saw life steadily +and saw it whole." He lived, some hold, the rounded and well-poised +life, the rhythmic life. No, that was Sophocles. He is greater. Here +is one who penetrates far deeper into things. His treatment of the +psychology of sin itself shows how much more than an example was +needed. Here, as in the other chapters, but here above all we have +to remember the clearness of his insight, his swiftness of +penetration, his instinct for fact and reality. He means to do, to +achieve, something. It is no martyr's death that he incurs. His +death is a step to a purpose. "I have a baptism to be baptised +with," he says (Luke 12:50). "The Son of Man," he said, "is come to +seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). + +In discussing in the previous chapter what he meant by the term +"lost," our conclusion was that for Jesus sin was far more awful, +far more serious, than we commonly realize. We saw also that so +profound and true a psychology of sin must imply a view of +redemption at least as profound, a promise of a force more than +equal to the power of sin--that "violence of habit" of which St. +Augustine speaks. If the Son of Man is to save the lost, and if the +lost are in danger so real, it follows that he must think of a +thoroughly effective salvation, and that its achievement will be no +light or easy task. "To give one's life as a ransom for many," says +a modern teacher, "is of no avail, if the ransom is insufficient." +What, then, and how much, does he mean by "to save," and how does he +propose to do it? When the soul of man or woman has gone wrong in +any of the ways discussed by Jesus--in hardness or anger, in +impurity, in the refusal to treat God and his facts seriously--when +the consequences that Jesus recognized have followed--what can be +done to bring that soul back into effective relation with the God +whom it has discarded and abandoned? That is the problem that Jesus +had to face, and most of us have not thought enough about it. + +First of all, how far does Jesus understand salvation to take a man? +The ancient creed of the Church includes the article of belief in +"the forgiveness of sins." There are those who lightly assume that +this means, chiefly or solely, the remission of punishment for evil +acts. This raises problems enough of itself. The whole doctrine of +"Karma", vital to Buddhism and Hinduism, is, if I understand it +aright, a strong and clear warning to us that the remission of +punishment is no easy matter. Not only Eastern thinkers, but Western +also, insist that there is no avoidance of the consequences of +action. Luther himself, using a phrase half borrowed from a Latin +poet, says that forgiveness is "a knot worthy of a God's +aid"--"nodus Deo vindice dignus".[31] But in any case escape from +the consequences of sin, when once we look on sin with the eyes of +Jesus, is of relatively small importance. There are two aspects of +the matter far more significant. + +We have seen how Jesus regards sin as at once the cause and +consequence of a degeneration of the moral nature, and as a +repudiation of God. Two questions arise: Is it possible to recover +lost moral quality and faculty? Is it possible for those +incapacitated by sin to regain, or to enjoy, relation with God? + +When we think, with Jesus, of sin first and foremost in connexion +with God, and take the trouble to try to give his meaning to his +words, forgiveness takes on a new meaning. We have to "think like +God," he says (Mark 8:33); and perhaps God is in his thoughts +neither so legal nor so biological as we are; perhaps he does not +think first of edicts or of biological and psychological laws. God, +according to Jesus, thinks first of his child, though of course not +oblivious of his own commands and laws. Forgiveness, Jesus teaches +or suggests, is primarily a question between Father and son, and he +tries to lead us to believe how ready the Father is to settle that +question. Once it is settled, we find, in fact, Father and son +setting to work to mend the past. The evil seed has been sown and +the sad crop must be reaped, the man who sowed it has to reap +it--that much we all see. But Jesus hints to us that God himself +loves to come in and help his reconciled son with the reaping; many +hands make light work, especially when they are such hands. And even +when the crop is evil in the lives of others, the most horrible +outcome of sin, God is still in the field. The prodigal, when he +returns, is met with a welcome, and is gradually put in possession +of what he has lost--the robe, the shoes, the ring; and it all comes +from his being at one with his Father again (Luke 15:22ff.). The Son +of Man, historically, has again and again found the lost--the lost +gifts, the lost faculties, the lost charms and graces--and given +them back to the man whom he had also found and brought home to God. + +Let us once more try to get our thoughts Theocentric as Jesus' are, +and our problems become simpler, or at least fewer. God's generosity +in forgiveness, God's love, he emphasizes again and again. Will a +man take Jesus at his word, and commit himself to God? That is the +question. Once he will venture on this step, what pictures Jesus +draws us of what happens! The son is home again; the bankruptcy, the +hideous solitude, the life among animals, bestial, dirty and empty, +and haunted with memories--all those things are past, when once the +Father's arms are round his neck, and his kiss on his cheek. He is +no more "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21), +"without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12), an "enemy of God" (Rom. +5:10); he was lost and is found, and the Father himself, Jesus says, +cries: "Let us be merry" ("Euphranthomen"). If we hesitate about it, +Jesus calls us once more to "think like God," and tells us other +stories, with incredible joy in them--"joy in the presence of the +angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." We must go back to +his central conception of God, if we are to realize what he means by +salvation. St. Augustine (Conf., viii. 3) brings out the value of +these parables, by reminding us how much more we care for a thing +that has been ours, when we have lost it and found it again. The +shepherd has a new link with his sheep lost and found again, a new +story of it, a shared experience; it is more his than ever. And +Jesus implies that when a man is saved, he is God's again, and more +God's own than ever before; and God is glad at heart. As for the +man; a new power comes into his heart, and a new joy; and with God's +help, in a new spirit of sunshine, he sets about mending the past in +a new spirit and with a new motive--for love's sake now. If the +fruit of the past is to be seen, as it constantly is, in the lives +of others, he throws himself with the more energy into God's work, +and when the Good Shepherd goes seeking the lost, he goes with him. +Christian history bears witness, in every year of it, to what +salvation means, in Jesus' sense. Punishment, consequences, crippled +resources--no, he does not ask to escape them now; all as God +pleases; these are not the things that matter. Life is all to be +boundless love and gratitude and trust; and by and by the new man +wakes up to find sin taken away, its consequences undone, the lost +faculties restored, and life a fuller and richer thing than ever it +was before. + +Somehow so, if we read the Gospels aright, does Jesus conceive of +Salvation. To achieve this for men is his purpose; and in order to +do it, as we said before, his first step is to induce men to +re-think God. Something must be done to touch the heart and to move +the will of men, effectively; and he must do it. + +With this purpose in his mind--let us weigh our words here, and +reflect again upon the clearness of his insight into life and +character, into moral laws, the laws of human thought and feeling, +upon his profound intelligence and grasp of what moves and is real, +his knowledge (a strong word to use, but we may use it) of God--with +this purpose in his mind, thought out and understood, he +deliberately and quietly goes to Jerusalem. He "steadfastly set his +face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). "I must walk," he said, +"to-day and to-morrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a +prophet perish out of Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). To Jerusalem he goes. + +We may admit that with his view of the psychology of sin, he must +have a serious view of redemption. But why should that involve the +cross? That is our problem. But while we try to solve it, we must +also remember that behind a great choice there are always more +reasons than we can analyse. A man makes one of the great choices in +life. What has influenced him? Ten to one, if you ask him, he does +not know. Nothing else, he will say, seemed feasible; the thing was +borne in on me, it came to me: reasons? He cannot tabulate reasons; +the thing, he says, was so clear that I was a long way past reasons. +And yet he was right; he had reasons enough. What parent ever +analysed reasons for loving his children, or would tabulate them for +you? Jesus does not explain his reasons. We find, I think, that we +are apt to have far more reasons for doing what we know is wrong, +than we have for doing what we know is right. We do not want reasons +for doing what is right; we know it is right, and there is an end of +it. Once again, Jesus, with his clear eye for the real, sees what he +must do. The salvation of the lost means the cross for himself. But +why? we ask again. We must look a little closer if we are to +understand him. We shall not easily understand him in all his +thoughts, but part of our education comes from the endeavour to +follow him here, to "be with him," in the phrase with which we +began. + +First of all we may put his love of men. He never lost the +individual in the mass, never lost sight of the human being who +needed God. The teacher who put the law of kindness in the great +phrase, "Go with him twain" (Matt. 5:41), was not likely to limit +himself in meeting men's needs. He was bound to do more than we +should expect, when he saw people whom he could help; and it is that +spirit of abounding generosity that shows a man what to do (Luke +6:38). Everywhere, every day, he met the call that quickened +thought and shaped purpose. + +He walked down a street; and the scene of misery or of sin came upon +him with pressure; he could not pass by, as we do, and fail to note +what we do not wish to think of. He knows a pressure upon his spirit +for the man, the child, the woman--for the one who sins, the one who +suffers, the other who dies. They must be got in touch with God. He +sits with his disciples at a meal--the men whom he loved--he watches +them, he listens to them. Peter, James, John, one after the other, +becomes a call to him. They need redemption; they need far more than +they dream; they need God. That pressure is there night and day--it +becomes intercession, and that grows into inspiration. Our prayers +suffer, some one has said, for our want of our identification with +the world's sin and misery. He was identified with the world's sin +and misery, and they followed him into his prayer. It becomes with +him an imperative necessity to effect man's reconciliation with God. +All his experience of man, his love of man, call him that way. + +The second great momentum comes from the love of God, and his faith +in God. Here, again, we must emphasize for ourselves his criticism +of Peter: "You think like a man and not like God" (Mark 8:33). We do +not see God, as Jesus did. He must make plain to men, as it never +was made plain before, the love of God. He must secure that it is +for every man the greatest reality in the world, the one great +flaming fact that burns itself living into every man's +consciousness. He sees that for this God calls him to the cross, so +much so that when he prays in the garden that the cup may pass, his +thoughts range back to "Thy will" (Matt. 26:42). It is God's Will. +Even if he does not himself see all involved, still God knows the +reason; God will manage; God wishes it. "Have faith in God," he used +to say (Mark 11:22). This faith which he has in God is one of the +things that take him to the cross. + +In the third place, we must not forget his sense of his own peculiar +relation to God. If it is safe to rely on St. Mark's chronological +date here, he does not speak of this until Peter has called him the +Messiah. He accepts the title (Mark 8:29). He also uses the +description, Son of Man, with its suggestions from the past. He +forgives sins. He speaks throughout the Gospels as one apart, as one +distinct from us, closely as he is identified with us--and all this +from a son of fact, who is not insane, who is not a quack, whose +eyes are wide open for the real; whose instinct for the ultimate +truth is so keen; who lives face to face with God. What does it +mean? This, for one thing, that most of us have not given attention +enough to this matter. I have confined myself in these chapters to +the Synoptic Gospels, with only two or three references to the +Fourth Gospel, and on the evidence of the Synoptic Gospels, taken by +themselves, it is clear that he means a great deal more than we have +cared to examine. He is the great interpreter of God, and it is +borne in upon him that only by the cross can he interpret God, make +God real to us, and bring us to the very heart of God. That is his +purpose. + +The cross is the outcome of his deepest mind, of his prayer life. It +is more like him than anything else he ever did. It has in it more +of him. Whoever he was, whoever he is, whatever our Christology, one +fact stands out. It was his love of men and women and his faith in +God that took him there. + +Was he justified? was he right? or was it a delusion? + +First of all, let us go back to a historic event. The resurrection +is, to a historian, not very clear in its details. But is it the +detail or the central fact that matters? Take away the resurrection, +however it happened, whatever it was, and the history of the Church +is unintelligible. We live in a rational world--a world, that is, +where, however much remains as yet unexplained, everything has a +promise of being lucid, everything has reason in it. Great results +have great causes. We have to find, somewhere or other, between the +crucifixion and the first preaching of the disciples in Jerusalem, +something that entirely changed the character of that group of men. + +Something happened, so tremendous and so vital, that it changed not +only the character of the movement and the men--but with them the +whole history of the world. The evidence for the resurrection is not +so much what we read in the Gospels as what we find in the rest of +the New Testament--the new life of the disciples. They are a new +group. When it came to the cross, his cross, they ran away. A few +weeks later we find them rejoicing to be beaten, imprisoned and put +to death (Acts 5:41). What had happened? What we have to explain is +a new life--a new life of prayer and joy and power, a new +indifference to physical death, in a new relation to God. That is +one outcome of the cross and of what followed; and as historians we +have to explain it. We have also to explain how the disciples came +to conceive of another Galilean--a carpenter whom they might have +seen sawing and sweating in his shop, with whom they tramped the +roads of Palestine, whom they saw done to death in ignominy and +derision--sitting at the right hand of God. Taken by itself, we +might call such a belief mere folly; but too much goes with it for +so easy an explanation. The cross was not the end. As Mr. Neville +Talbot has recently pointed out in his book, "The Mind of the +Disciples", if the story stopped with the cross, God remains +unexplained, and the story ends in unrelieved tragedy. But it does +not end in tragedy; it ends--if we can use the word as yet--in joy +and faith and victory; and these--how should we have seen them but +for the cross? They are bound up with his choice of the cross and +his triumph over it all. Death is not what it was--"the last line of +all," as Horace says. Life and immortality have been brought to +light (2 Tim. 1:10). "The Lamb of God taketh away the sin of the +world." So we read at the beginning of the Fourth Gospel, and the +historical critic may tell us that he does not think that John the +Baptist said it. None the less, it is a wonderful summary of what +Jesus has done, especially wonderful if we think of it being written +fifty or sixty years after the crucifixion. For, as we survey the +centuries, we find that the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of +the world--to a degree that no one can imagine who has not studied +the ancient world. Those who know the heathen world intimately will +know best the difference he has made. All this new life, this new +joy, this new victory over death and sin is attached to the living +and victorious Son of God. The task of Paul and the others is, as +Dr. Cairns says, "re-thinking everything in the terms of the +resurrection." It is the new factor in the problem of God, so to +speak--the new factor which alters everything that relates to God. +That is saying a great deal, but when we look at Christian history, +is it saying too much? + +But still our first question is unanswered; why should it have been +the cross? One thinker of our day has suggested that, after all, +suffering is a language intelligible to the very simplest, while its +meaning is not exhausted by the deepest. The problem of pain is +always with us. And he chose pain. He never said that pain is a good +thing; he cured it. But he chose it. The ancient world stumbled on +that very thing. God and a Godlike man, their philosophers said, are +not susceptible to pain, to suffering. That was an axiom, very +little challenged. Then if Jesus suffered, he was not God; if he was +God, he did not suffer. The Church denied that, just as the Church +to-day rejects another hasty antithesis about pain, that comes from +New England. He chose pain, and he knew what he was choosing. Then +let us be in no hurry about refusing it, but let us look into it. He +chose it--that is the greatest fact known to us about pain. + +Again, the death of Christ reveals sin in its real significance, in +its true perspective, outside the realm of accident and among the +deepest things of God, "sub specie aeternitatia". Men count +themselves very decent people; so thought the priests and the +Pharisees, and they were. There is nothing about them that one +cannot find in most religious communities and in all governing +classes: the sense of the value of themselves, their preconceptions +and their judgements--a strong feeling of the importance of the work +they have to do, along with a certain reluctance to face strange +facts, and some indifference as to what happens to other people if +the accepted theory of the Cause or the State require them to +suffer. There is nothing about Pilate and Herod, and the Pharisees +and the priests, that is very different from ourselves. But how it +looks in front of the cross! We begin to see how it looks in the +sight of God, and that alters everything; it upsets all our +standards, and teaches us a new self-criticism. + +"You think like man, and not like God," said Jesus (Mark 8:33). The +cross reveals God most sympathetically. We see God in the light of +the fullest and profoundest and tenderest revelation that the world +has had. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" that is the +cry of Jesus on the cross. I have sometimes thought there never was +an utterance that reveals more amazingly the distance between +feeling and fact. That was how he felt--worn out, betrayed, spat +upon, rejected. We feel that God was more there than ever. As has +been said, if it is not God, it is nothing. "God," says Paul, "was +in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). He +chose the cross; and in choosing it, Christians have always felt, he +revealed God; and that is the centre of the great act of Redemption. + +But there is a condition antecedent to understanding the cross. We +have, as we agreed, to ask ourselves, what is the experience which +led him to think as he did? In the simpler language of the Gospels, +quite plain and easy to understand, the call to follow comes +first--the call to deeper association with Jesus Christ in his love +for men. Do not our consciences tell us that, if we really loved +people as Jesus does, if we understood them as sympathetically and +cared as much for them, the cross would be far more intelligible to +us? But if, in plain fact, we do not see why we should bear the +cross for others, why we should deny and obliterate self on this +scale for the salvation of men--how, I ask, to people of such a mind +should Jesus be intelligible? It is not to be expected. In no other +sphere would one dream of it. When a man avows that he does not care +for art or poetry, who would wish to show him poem or picture? How +should a person, who does not care for men, understand the cross? +Deeper association, then, with Jesus in his love of men, in his +agony, in his trust in God--that is the key to all. As we agreed at +the very beginning, we have to know him before we can understand +him. + +It all depends in the long run on one thing; and that we find in the +verse with which we started: "And as they followed, they began to be +afraid." But they followed. We can understand their fear. It comes +to a man in this way. If Jesus crucified means anything like what +the Church has said, and has believed; if God is in that man of +Nazareth reconciling the world to Himself; if there is real meaning +in the Incarnation at all; if all this language represents fact; +"then," he may say, "I am wholly at a loss about everything else." A +man builds up a world of thought for himself--we all do--a scheme of +things; and to a man with a thought-out view of the world, it may +come with an enormous shock to realize this incredible idea, this +incredible truth, of God in Christ. Those who have dwelt most on it, +and value it most, may be most apt to understand what I mean by +calling it incredible. Think of it. It takes your breath away. If +that is true, does not the whole plan of my life fall to pieces--my +whole scheme of things for the world, my whole body of intellectual +conceptions? And the man to whom this happens may well say he is +afraid. He is afraid, because it is so strange; because, when you +realize it, it takes you into a new world; you cannot grasp it. A +man whose instinct is for truth may hesitate--will hesitate about a +conception like this. "Is it possible," he will ask himself, "that I +am deluded?" And another thought rises up again and again, "Where +will it take me?" We can understand a man being afraid in that way. +I do not think we have much right _not_ to be afraid. If it is the +incarnation of God, what right have we not to be afraid? Then, of +course, a man will say that to follow Christ involves too much in +the way of sacrifice. He is afraid on lower grounds, afraid of his +family, afraid for his career; he hesitates. To that man the thing +will be unintelligible. The experience of St. Augustine, revealed in +his "Confessions", is illuminative here. He had intellectual +difficulties in his approach to the Christian position, but the rate +of progress became materially quicker when he realized that the +moral difficulties came first, that a practical step had to be +taken. So with us--to decide the issue, how far are we prepared to +go with Jesus? Have we realized the experience behind his thought? +The rule which we laid down at the beginning holds. How far are we +prepared to go in sharing that experience? That will measure our +right to understand him. Once again, in the plainest language, are +we prepared to follow, as the disciples followed, afraid as they +were? + +Where is he going? Where is he taking them? They wonder; they do not +know; they are uneasy. But when all is said, the figure on the road +ahead of them, waiting for them now and looking round, is the Jesus +who loves them and whom they love. + +And one can imagine the feeling rising in the mind of one and +another of them: "I don't know where he is going, or where he is +taking us, but I must be with him." There we reach again what the +whole story began with--he chose twelve that they might "be with +him." To understand him, we, too, must be with him. What takes men +there? After all, it is, in the familiar phrase, the love of Jesus. +If one loves the leader, it is easier to follow him. But, whether +you understand him or whether you don't, if you love him you are +glad that he chose the cross, and you are glad that you are one of +his people. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +Imperial Rome governed the whole of the Mediterranean world,--a +larger proportion and a greater variety of the human race than has +ever been under one government. So far as numbers go, the Russian +Empire to-day, the Chinese and the British, each far exceed it; for +the population of the world is vastly larger than it was in Rome's +days. But there was a peculiar unity about the Roman Empire, for it +embraced, as men thought, all civilized mankind. It was known that, +far away in the East, there were people called Indians, who had +fought with Alexander the Great, but there was little real knowledge +of them. Beyond India, there were vague rumours of a land where silk +grew on the leaves of the trees. But civilized mankind was under the +control of Rome. It was one rule of many races, many kingdoms, +princedoms, cities, cantons, and tribes--a wise rule, a rule that +allowed the maximum of local government and traditional usage: Rome +not merely conquered but captured men all over the world; ruled +them, as a poet said, like a mother, not a queen, and bound them to +herself. Men were eager, not so much to shake off her yoke, as to be +Romans; and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates men, not of Roman +blood, were proud to bear Roman names and to be Roman citizens. "I +was free born," said St. Paul, not without a touch of satisfaction +(Acts 22:25-28). A general peace prevailed through the Roman +world--a peace that was new to mankind. There was freedom of +intercourse; one of the boasts made by the writers of the Roman +Empire is of this new freedom to travel, to go anywhere one pleased. +Piracy on the sea, brigandage on the land, had been put down, and +there was a very great deal of travel. The Roman became an +inveterate tourist. He went to the famous scenes of Asia Minor, to +Troy above all--to "sunny Rhodes and Mitylene"--to Egypt. Merchants +went everywhere. And there was a fusing of cultures, traditions, and +creeds, all over the Mediterranean world. Centuries before, +Alexander the Great had struck out the splendid idea of the marriage +of East and West. He secured it by breaking down the Persian Empire, +and making one Empire from the Adriatic to this side of the Sutlej +or Bias. He desired to cement this marriage of East and West in a +way of his own. He took three hundred captive princesses and ladies, +and married them in a batch to Macedonian officers--a very +characteristic piece of symbolism. But his idea was greater and +truer than the symbol. + +The Roman marriage of the East and West was a more real thing, for +behind it lay three centuries of growing intercourse and knowledge +along Alexander's lines. In the sphere of religion we find it most +clearly. There rises a resultant world-religion--a religion that +embraces all the cults, all the creeds, and at last all the +philosophies, in one great system. That religion held the world. It +is true, there were exceptions. There was a small and objectionable +race called Jews; there were possibly some Druids in Southern +Britain; and here and there was a solitary atheist who represented +no one but himself. These few exceptions were the freaks amongst +mankind. Apart from them mankind was united in its general beliefs +about the gods. The world had one religion. + +First of all, let us try to estimate the strength of this old +Mediterranean Paganism. It was strong in its great traditions. +Plutarch, who lived from about 50 A.D. to 117 or so, is our great +exponent of this old religion. To him I shall have to refer +constantly. He was a writer of charm, a man with many gifts. +Plutarch's Lives was the great staple of education in the +Renaissance--and as good a one, perhaps, as we have yet discovered, +even in this age when there are so many theories of education with +foreign names. Plutarch, then, writing about Delphi, the shrine and +oracle of the god Apollo, said that men had been "in anguish and +fear lest Delphi should lose its glory of three thousand years"--and +Delphi has not lost it. For ninety generations the god has been +giving oracles to the Greek world, to private people, to kings, to +cities, to nations--and on all sorts of subjects, on the foundation +of colonies, the declaration of wars, personal guidance and the hope +of heirs. You may test the god where you will, Plutarch claimed, you +will not find an instance of a false oracle. Readers of Greek +history will remember another great writer of as much charm, five +hundred years before, Herodotus, who was not so sure about all the +oracles. But let us think what it means,--to look back over three +thousand years of one faith, unbroken. Egyptian religion had been +unchallenged for longer still, even if we allow Plutarch's three +thousand years. The oldest remains in Egypt antedate, we are told, +4000 B.C., and all through history, with the exception of the +solitary reign of Amen-Hotep III., Egypt worshipped the same gods, +with additions, as time went on. Again an unbroken tradition. And +how long, under various names, had Cybele, Mother of Gods, been +worshipped in Asia? By our era all these religions were fused into +one religion, of many cults and rites and ancient traditions; and +the incredible weight of old tradition in that world is hard to +overestimate. + +The old religion was strong in the splendour of its art and its +architecture. The severe, beautiful lines of the Greek temple are +familiar to us still; and, until I saw the Taj, I think I should +have doubted whether there could be anything more beautiful. +Architecture was consecrated to the gods, and so was art. You go to +Delphi, said Plutarch, and see those wonderful works of the ancient +artists and sculptors, as fresh still as if they had left the chisel +yesterday, and they had stood there for hundreds of years, wonderful +in their beauty. Think of some of the remains of the Greek art--of +that Victory, for instance, which the Messenians set on the temple +at Olympia in 421 B.C. She stood on a block of stone on the temple, +but the block was painted blue, so that, as the spectator came up, +he saw the temple and the angle of its roof, and then a gap of blue +sky and the goddess just alighting on the summit of the temple. From +what is left of her, broken and headless, but still beautiful, we +can picture her flying through the air--the wind has blown her dress +back against her, and you see its folds freshly caught by the +breeze. And all this the artist had disentangled from a rough block +of stone--so vivid was his conception of the goddess, and so sure +his hand. There are those who say that the conventional picture of +God of the great artists is moulded after the Zeus of Pheidias. +Egypt again had other portrayals of the gods--on a pattern of her +own, strange and massive and huge, far older. About six hundred +years before Christ the Egyptian King, Psammetichos (Psem Tek), +hired Greek soldiers and marched them hundreds of miles up the Nile. +The Greek soldiers, one idle day, carved their names on the legs of +the colossal gods seated at Abu Symbel. Their names are found there +to-day. So old are these gods. + +The religion was strong in the splendour of its ceremony. Every year +the Athenian people went to Eleusis in splendid procession to +worship, to be initiated into the rites of the Earth-Mother and her +virgin daughter, who had taught men the use of grain and the arts of +farming-rites linked with an immemorial past, awful rites that gave +men a new hope of eternal life. The Mother of the Gods, from Phrygia +in Asia Minor, had her rites, too; and her cult spread all over the +world. When the Roman poet, Lucretius, wants to describe the wonder +and magic of the pageant of Nature in the spring-time he goes to the +pomp of Cybele. The nearest thing to it which we can imagine is +Botticelli's picture of the Triumph of Spring. Lucretius was a poet +to whom the gods were idle and irrelevant; yet to that pageant he +goes for a picture of the miraculous life of nature. More splendid +still were the rites of the Egyptian Isis, celebrated all over the +world. Her priests, shaven and linen-clad, carried symbols of an +unguessed antiquity and magical power. They launched a boat with a +flame upon it--on the river in Egypt, on the sea in Greece. All +these cults made deep impressions on the worshippers, as our records +tell us. The appeal of religious emotion was noticed by Aristotle, +who remarked, however, that it was rather feeling than intellect +that was touched--a shrewd criticism that deserves to be remembered +still. + +The gods were strong in their actual manifestations of themselves. +Apollo for ninety generations had spoken in Delphi. At Epidauros +there was a shrine of Asclepias. Its monuments have been collected +and edited by Dr. Caton of Liverpool. There sick men and women came, +lived a quiet life of diet and religious ceremony, preparing for the +night on which they should sleep in the temple. On that night the +god came to them, they said, in that mood or state where they lay +"between asleep and awake, sometimes as in a dream and then as in a +waking vision--one's hair stood on end, but one shed tears of joy +and felt light-hearted." Others said they definitely saw him. He +came and told them what to do; on waking they did it and were +healed; or he touched them then and there, and cured them as they +lay. Some of the cures recorded on the monuments are perhaps strange +to our ideas of medicine. One records how the god came to man +dreadfully afflicted with dropsy, cut off his head, turned him +upside down and let the fluid run out, and then replaced his head +with a neat join. Some modern readers may doubt this story; but that +the god did heal people, men firmly believed. We, too, may believe +that people were healed, perhaps by living a healthy life in a quiet +place, a life of regimen and diet; and perhaps faith-healing or +suggestion played as strong a part as anything else. Even the +Christians believed that these gods had a certain power; they were +evil spirits. + +Not only the gods of the temples would manifest themselves of their +grace. Every man had a guardian spirit, a "genius"; and by proper +means he could be "compelled" to show himself visibly. The pupils of +Plotinus conjured up his "genius", and it came--not a daemon, but a +god. The right formula ("mantram") and the right stone in the +hand--and a man had a wonderful power over the gods themselves. This +was called "theurgy". + +But the great strength of this old religion was its infinite +adaptability. It made peace with every god and goddess that it met. +It adopted them all. As a French scholar has said, where there is +polytheism there are no false gods. All the religions were fused and +the gods were blended. The Roman went to Greece and identified +Jupiter with Zeus; he went to Egypt and found him in Amun (Ammon); +he went to Syria and found him in Baal. If the Jew had not been so +foolish and awkward, there might have been a Jupiter Jehovah as +well. It was a catholic faith, embracing everything--cult and creed +and philosophy--strong in all the ways we have surveyed and in many +more, above all because it was unchallenged. + +And yet, where is that religion to-day? That, to me, is one of the +most significant questions in history--more so, the longer I stay in +India. Men knew that that religion of Greece and Rome was eternal; +yet it is utterly gone. Why? How _could_ it go? What conceivable +power was there, I do not say, to bring it down, but to abolish it +so thoroughly, that not a soul in Egypt worships Isis--how many even +know her name?--not a soul in Italy thinks of Jove but as a fancy, +and Pallas Athene in Athens itself is a mere memory? That is the +problem, the historical problem, with which we have now to deal. + +First of all, let us look again, and more closely, at that old +religion--we shall find in it at least four cardinal weaknesses. + +First, it stands for "the unexamined life," as Plato called it. "The +unexamined life," he says, "is not liveable for a human being." A +man, who is a man, must cross-examine life, must make life face up +to him and yield its secrets. He must know what it means, the +significance of every relation of life--father and child, man and +wife, citizen and city, subject and king, man and the world--above +all, man and God. We must examine and know. But this old religion +stood by tradition and not reflection. There was no deep sense of +truth. Plutarch admired his father, and he describes, with warm +approval, how his father once said to a man: "That is a dangerous +question, not to be discussed at all--when you question the opinion +we hold about the gods, and ask reason and demonstration for +everything." Such an attitude means mistrust, it means at bottom a +fundamental unfaith. The house is beautiful; do not touch it; it is +riddled by white ants, by dry rot, and it would fall. That is not +faith; it is a strange confession; but all who hesitate at changes, +I think, make that confession sooner or later. There is a line of +Kabir which puts the essence of this: "Penance is not equal to +truth, nor is there any sin like untruth." This was one of the +essential weaknesses of that old religion--its fear, and the absence +of a deep sense of truth. + +In the next place, there is no real association of morals with +religion. The old stories were full of the adventures of Jupiter, or +Zeus, with the heroines, mortal women, whom he loved. Of some 1900 +wall paintings at Pompeii, examined by a German scholar and +antiquary, some 1400 represent mythological subjects, largely the +stories of the loves of Jupiter. The Latin dramatist Terence +pictures the young man looking at one of these paintings and saying +to himself, "If Jupiter did it, why should not I?" Centuries later +we find Augustine quoting that sentence. It has been said that few +things tended more strongly against morality than the stories of the +gods preserved by Homer and Hesiod. Plato loved Homer; so much the +more striking is his resolve that in his "Republic" there should be +no Homer. Men said: "Ah, but you don't understand; those stories are +allegories. They do not mean what they say; they mean something +deeper." But Plato said we must speak of God always as he is; we +must in no case tell lies about God "whether they are allegories or +whether they are not allegories." Plato, like every real thinker, +sees that this pretence of allegory is a sham. The story did its +mischief whether it was allegory or not; it stood between man and +God, and headed men on to wrong lines, turned men away from the +moral standard. + +There was more. Every year, as we saw, men went to be initiated into +the rites of Demeter at Eleusis, a few miles from Athens. And we +read how one of the great Athenian orators, Lysias, went there and +took with him to be initiated a harlot, with whom he was living, and +the woman's proprietress--a squalid party; and they were initiated. +Their morals made no difference; the priests and the goddesses +offered no objection. In the temple of Aphrodite at Corinth there +were women slaves dedicated to the goddess, who owned them, and who +received the wages of their shame. With what voice could religion +speak for morality in Corinth? At Comana in Syria (we read in Strabo +the geographer, about the time of Christ) there was a temple where +there were six thousand of these temple slaves. I say again, that is +the unexamined life. God and goddess have nothing to say about some +of the most sacred relations in life. God, goddess, priest, +worshipper, never gave a thought to these poor creatures, dedicated, +not by themselves, to this awful life--human natures with the +craving of the real woman for husband and child, for the love of +home, but never to know it. That was associated with religion; that +was religion. There was always a minimum of protest from the Greek +temples against wrong or for right. It is remarked, again and again, +that all the great lessons came, not from the temples, not from the +priests, but from the poets and philosophers, from the thinkers in +revolt against the religion of their people. Curiously enough, even +in Homer himself, it is plain that the heroes, the men, are on a +higher moral plane than the gods; and all through Greek history the +gods are a drag on morality. What a weakness in religion! The sense +of wrong and right is innate in man; it may be undeveloped, or it +may be deadened, but it is instinctive; and a religion which does +not know it, or which finds the difference between right and wrong +to lie in matters of taboo or ceremonial defilement, cannot speak to +one of the deepest needs of the human heart, the need of +forgiveness. There is no righteousness, in the long run, about these +gods. + +In the third place, the religion has the common weakness of all +polytheism. Men were afraid of the gods; there were thousands and +thousands, hosts of them. At every turn you ran into one, a new one; +you could never be certain that you would not offend some unknown +god or goddess. Superstition was the curse of the day. You had to +make peace with all these gods and goddesses--and not with them +alone. For there was another class of supernatural beings, dangerous +if unpropitiated, the daemons, the spirits that inhabited the air, +that presided over life and its stages, that helped or hated the +human soul, spiteful and evil half-divine beings, that sent illness, +bad luck, madness, that stole the honours of the gods themselves and +insisted on rituals and worship, often unclean, often cruel, but +inevitable. A man must watch himself closely if he was to be safe +from them all, if he was to keep wife and child and home safe. + +Superstition, men said, was the one curse of life that made no truce +with sleep. A famous Christian writer of the second century, Tatian, +speaks of the enormous relief that he found in getting away from the +tyranny of ten thousand gods to be under a monarchy of One. A modern +Japanese, Uchimura, said the same thing: "One God, not eight +millions; that was joyful news to me." + +Fourthly, this religion took from the grave none of its terrors. +There might be a world beyond, and there might not. At any rate, "be +initiated," said the priests; "you will have to pay us something, +but it is worth it." Prophets and quacks, said Plato, came to rich +men's doors and made them believe that they could rid them of all +alarm for the next world, by incantations and charms and other +things, by a series of feasts and jollifications. So they said, and +men did what they were told; but it did not take away the fear of +death. + +From the first century onwards men began systematically to defend +this old paganism. Plutarch wrote a series of books in its behalf. +He brings in something like love of god for man. He speaks of "the +friendly Apollo." But the weakness of Plutarch as an apologist is +his weakness as biographer--he never really gets at the bottom of +anything. In biography he gives us the characteristic rather than +the character. Here he never faces the real issue. It is all +defence, apology, ingenuity; but he defends far too much. He admits +there are obscene rites; there had been human sacrifices; but the +gods cannot have ordained them; daemons, who stole the names of +gods, imposed these on men--not the gods; men practised them to +avert the anger of daemons. The gods are good. Waiving the fact that +he had not much evidence for this in the mythology, how was a man to +distinguish god from daemon, to know which is which? He does not +tell us. Again he speaks of the image of Osiris with three +"lingams". He apologizes for it; he defends it; for the triplicity +is a symbol of godhead, and it means that God is the origin of all +life. Yes, but what that religion needed was a great reformer, who +should have cut the religion clear adrift from idols of every kind, +from the old mythology, from obscenity. It may very well be that +such a reformer was unthinkable; even if he had appeared, he would +have been foredoomed to fail, as the compromise of the Stoics shows. +Plutarch and his kind did not attempt this. They loved the past and +the old ways. At heart they were afraid of the gods and were afraid +of tradition. Culture and charm will do a great deal, but they do +not suffice for a religion--either to make one or to redeem it. + +The Stoics reached, I think, the highest moral level in that Roman +world--great men, great teachers of morals, great characters; but as +for the crowd, they said, let them go on in the religions of their +own cities; what they had learnt from their fathers, let them do. So +much for the ignorant; for us, of course, something else. That seems +to be a fundamentally wrong defence of religion. It gets the +proportions wrong. It means that we, who are people of culture, are +a great deal nearer to God than the crowd. But if we realize God at +all, we feel that we are none of us very far apart down here. The +most brilliant men are amenable to the temptations of the savage and +of the dock labourer. There was a further danger, little noticed at +first, that life is apt to be overborne by the vulgar, the ignorant, +if there is not a steady campaign to enlighten every man. The Roman +house was full of slaves; they taught the children--taught them +about gods and goddesses, from Syria, from Egypt, and kept thought +and life and morals on a low plane. An ignorant public is, an +unspeakable danger everywhere, but especially in religion. + +The last great system of defence was the New Platonism. It had not +very much to do with Plato, except that it read him and quoted him +as a great authority. The Neo-Platonists did not face facts as Plato +did. They lived on quotations, on authority and fancy, great +thinkers as some of them were. They pictured the universe as one +vast unity. Far beyond all things is God. Of God man can form no +conception. Think, they would say, of all the exalted and wonderful +and beautiful concepts you can imagine; then deny them. God is +beyond. God is beyond being; you can conceive of being, and +therefore to predicate being of God is to limit him. You cannot +think of God; for, if you could think of God, God would be in +relation with you; God is insusceptible of relation with man. He +neither wills, nor thinks of man, nor can man think of him. A modern +philosopher has summed up their God as the deification of the word +"not." This God, then, who is not, willed--no! not "willed"; he +could not will; but whether he willed or did not will, in some way +or other there was an emanation; not God, but very much of God; very +divine, but not all God; from this another and another in a +descending series, down to the daemons, and down to men. All that +is, is God; evil is not-being. One of the great features of the +system was that it guaranteed all the old religions--for the crowd; +while for the initiated, for the esoteric, it had something more--it +had mystic trance, mystic vision, mystic comprehension. Twice or +three times, Plotinus, by a great leap away from all mortal things, +saw God. In the meantime, the philosophy justified all the old +rites. + +Side by side with this great defence were what are known as the +Christian heresies. They are not exactly Christian. Groups of people +endeavoured to combine Christianity with the old thought, with +philosophy, theosophy, theurgy, and magic. They were eclectics; they +compromised. The German thinker, Novalis, said very justly that all +eclectics are sceptics, and the more eclectic the more sceptic. +These mixtures could not prevail. + +But religions have, historically, a wonderful way of living in spite +of their weaknesses--yes, and in spite of their apologetics. A +religion may be stained with all sorts of evil, and may communicate +it; and yet it will survive, until there is an alternative with more +truth and more dynamic. The old paganism outlived Plato's criticisms +and Plutarch's defences. For the great masses of people neither +might have written. + +Into this world came the Christian Church. I have tried to draw the +picture of the great pagan religion, with its enormous strength, its +universal acceptance, its great traditions, its splendours of art +and ceremony, its manifest proofs of its gods--everything that, to +the ordinary mind, could make for reality and for power; to show how +absolutely inconceivable it was that it could ever pass away. Then +comes the Christian Church--a ludicrous collection of trivial +people, very ignorant and very common; fishermen and publicans, as +the Gospels show us, "the baker and the fuller," as Celsus said with +a sneer. Yes, and every kind of unclean and disreputable person they +urged to join them, quite unlike all decent and established +religions. And they took the children and women of the family away +into a corner, and whispered to them and misled them--"Only +believe!" was their one great word. The whole thing was incredibly +silly. Paul went to Athens, and they asked him there about his +religion; and when he spoke to them about Jesus rising from the +dead, they sniggered, and the more polite suggested "another day." +Everybody knew that dead men do not rise. It was a silly religion. +Celsus pictured the frogs in symposium round a swamp, croaking to +one another how God forsakes the whole universe, the spheres of +heaven, to dwell with us; we frogs are so like God; he never ceases +to seek how we may dwell with him for ever; but some of us are +sinners, so God will come--or send his son--and burn them up; and +the rest of us will live with him for eternity. Is not that very +like the Christian religion? Celsus asked. It has been replied that, +if the frogs really could say this and did say this, then their +statement might be quite reasonable. But our main purpose for the +moment is to realize the utterly inconceivable absurdity of this +bunch of Galilean fishermen--and fools and rascals and +maniacs--setting out to capture the world. One of them wrote an +Apocalypse. He was in a penal settlement on Patmos, when he wrote +it. The sect was in a fair way of being stamped out in blood, as a +matter of fact; but this dreamer saw a triumphant Church of ten +thousand times ten thousand--and thousands of thousands--there were +hardly as many people in the world at that time; the great Rome had +fallen and the "Lamb" ruled. Imagine the amusement of a Roman pagan +of 100 A.D. who read the absurd book. Yet the dream has come true; +that Church has triumphed. Where is the old religion? Christ has +conquered, and all the gods have gone, utterly gone--they are +memories now, and nothing more. Why did they go? The Christian +Church refused to compromise. A pagan could have seen no real reason +why Jesus should not be a demi-god like Herakles or Dionysos; no +reason, either, why a man should not worship Jesus as well as these. +One of the Roman Emperors, a little after 200 A.D., had in his +private sanctuary four or five statues of gods, and one of them was +Jesus. Why not? The Roman world had open arms for Jesus as well as +any other god or demi-god, if people would be sensible; but the +Christian said, No. He would not allow Jesus to be put into that +pantheon, nor would he worship the gods himself, not even the +"genius" of the Emperor, his guardian spirit. The Christian +proclaimed a war of religion in which there shall be no compromise +and no peace, till Christ is lord of all; the thing shall be fought +out to the bitter end. And it has been. He was resolved that the old +gods should go; and they have gone. How was it done? + +Here we touch what I think one of the greatest wonders that history +has to show. How did the Church do it? If I may invent or adapt +three words, the Christian "out-lived" the pagan, "out-died" him, +and "out-thought" him. He came into the world and lived a great deal +better than the pagan; he beat him hollow in living. Paul's Epistles +to the Corinthians do not indicate a high standard of life at +Corinth. The Corinthians were a very poor sort of Christians. But +another Epistle, written to the Corinthians a generation later, +speaks of their passion for being kind to men, and of a broadened +and deeper life, in spite of their weaknesses. Here and there one +recognizes failure all along the line--yes, but the line advances. +The old world had had morals, plenty of morals--the Stoics +overflowed with morals. But the Christian came into the world, not +with a system of morality--he had rules, indeed--"which," asks +Tertullian, "is the ampler rule, Thou shalt not commit adultery, or +the rule that forbids a single lustful look?"--but it was not rules +so much that he brought into the world as a great passion. "The Son +of God," he said, "loved me and gave himself for me. That man--Jesus +Christ loved him, gave himself for him. He is the friend of my best +Friend. My best Friend loves that man, gave himself for him, died +for him." How it alters all the relations of life! Who can kill or +rob another man, when he remembers whose hands were nailed to the +Cross for that man? See how it bears on another side of morality. +Tertullian strikes out a great phrase, a new idea altogether, when +he speaks of "the victim of the common lust." Christ died for +her--how it safeguards her and uplifts her! Men came into the world +full of this passion for Jesus Christ. They went to the slave and to +the temple-woman and told them: "The Son of God loved you and gave +himself for you"; and they believed it, and rose into a new life. To +be redeemed by the Son of God gave the slave a new self-respect, a +new manhood. He astonished people by his truth, his honesty, his +cleanness; and there was a new brightness and gaiety about him. So +there was about the woman. They sang, they overflowed with good +temper. It seemed as if they had been born again. As Clement of Rome +wrote, the Holy Spirit was a glad spirit. The word used both by him +and by St. Augustine is that which gives us the English word +"hilarious." There was a new gladness and happiness about these +people. "It befits Truth to laugh, because she is glad--to play with +her rivals because she is free from fear," so said Tertullian. Of +course, there were those who broke down, but Julian the Apostate, in +his letters to his heathen priests, is a reluctant witness to the +higher character of Christian life. And it was Jesus who was the +secret of it. + +The pagan noticed the new fortitude in the face of death. Tertullian +himself was immensely impressed with it. He had never troubled to +look at the Gospels. Nobody bothered to read them unless they were +converted already, he said. But he seems to have seen these +Christian martyrs die. "Every man," he said, "who sees it, is moved +with some misgiving, and is set on fire to learn the reason; he +inquires and he is taught; and when he has learnt the truth, he +instantly follows it himself as well." "No one would have wished to +be killed, unless he was in possession of the truth." I think that +is autobiography. The intellectual energy of the man is worth +noting--his insistence on understanding, his instant resolution; +such qualities, we saw, had won the admiration of Jesus. Here is a +man who sacrifices a great career--his genius, his wit, his humour, +fire, power, learning, philosophy, everything thrown at Christ's +feet, and Christ uses them all. Then came a day when persecution was +breaking out again. Some Christians were for "fleeing to the next +city"--it was the one text in their Bible, he said. He said: "I stay +here." Any day the mob might get excited and shout: "The Christians +to the lions." They knew the street in which he lived, and they +would drag him--the scholar, the man of letters and of +imagination--naked through the streets; torn and bleeding, they +would tie him to the stake in the middle of the amphitheatre and +pile faggots round him, and there he would stand waiting to be burnt +alive; or, it might be, to be killed by the beasts. Any hour, any +day. "I stay here," he said. What does it cost a man to do that? +People asked what was the magic of it. The magic of it was just +this--on the other side of the fire was the same Friend; "if he +wants me to be burnt alive, I am here." Jesus Christ was the secret +of it. + +The Christians out-thought the pagan world. How could they fail to? +"We have peace with God," said Paul. They moved about in a new +world, which was their Father's world. They would go to the shrines +and ask uncomfortable questions. Lucian, who was a pagan and a +scoffer, said that on one side of the shrines the notice was posted: +"Christians outside." The Christians saw too much. The living god in +that shrine was a big snake with a mask tied on--good enough for the +pagan; but the Christian would see the strings. Even the daemons +they dismissed to irrelevance and non-entity. The essence of magic +was to be able to link the name of a daemon with the name of one's +enemy, to set the daemon on the man. "Very well," said the +Christian, "link my name with your daemons. Use my name in any magic +you like. There is a name that is above every name; I am not +afraid." That put the daemons into their right place, and by and by +they vanished, dropped out, died of sheer inanition and neglect. +Wherever Jesus Christ has been, the daemons have gone. "There used +to be fairies," said an old woman in the Highlands of Scotland to a +friend of mine, "but the Gospel came and drove them away." I do not +know what is going to keep them away yet but Jesus Christ. The +Christian read the ancient literature with the same freedom of mind, +and was not in bondage to it; he had a new outlook; he could +criticize more freely. One great principle is given by Clement of +Alexandria: "The beautiful, wherever it is, is ours, because it came +from our God." The Christian read the best books, assimilated them, +and lived the freest intellectual life that the world had. Jesus had +set him to be true to fact. Why had Christian churches to be so much +larger than pagan temples? Why are they so still? Because the sermon +is in the very centre of all Christian worship--clear, definite +Christian teaching about Jesus Christ. There is no place for an +ignorant Christian. From the very start every Christian had to know +and to understand, and he had to read the Gospels; he had to be able +to give the reason for his faith. He was committed to a great +propaganda, to the preaching of Jesus, and he had to preach with +penetration and appeal. There they were loyal to the essential idea +of Jesus--they were "sons of fact." They read about Jesus,[32] and +they knew him, and they knew where they stood. This has been the +essence of the Christian religion. Put that alongside of the pitiful +defence which Plutarch makes of obscene rites, filthy images, +foolish traditions. Who did the thinking in that ancient world? +Again and again it was the Christian. He out-thought the world. + +The old religion crumbled and fell, beaten in thought, in morals, in +life, in death. And by and by the only name for it was paganism, the +religion of the back-country village, of the out-of-the-way places. +Christ had conquered. "Dic tropoeum passionis, dic triumphalem +Crucem", sang Prudentius--"Sing the trophy of the Passion; sing the +all-triumphant Cross." The ancients thought that God repeated the +whole history of the universe over and over again, like a cinema +show. Some of them thought the kingdoms rise and fall by pure +chance. No, said Prudentius, God planned; God developed the history +of mankind; he made Rome for his own purposes, for Christ. + +What is the explanation of it? We who live in a rational universe, +where real results come from real causes, must ask what is the power +that has carried the Christian Church to victory over that great old +religion. And there is another question: is this story going to be +repeated? What is there about Shiva, Kali, or Shri Krishna that +essentially differentiates them from the gods of Greece and Rome and +Egypt? Tradition, legend, philosophy--point by point, we find the +same thing; and we find the same Christian Church, with the same +ideals, facing the same conflict. What will be the result? The +result will be the same. We have seen in China, in the last two +decades, how the Christian Church is true to its traditions; how men +can die for Jesus Christ. In the Greek Church--a suffering +Church--on the round sacramental wafer there is a cross, and in the +four corners there are the eight letters, IE, XE, NI, KA, "Jesus +Christ conquers." That is the story of the Christian Church in the +Roman Empire. That is the story which, please God, we shall see +again in India. "Jesus Christ conquers." + + + +CHAPTER X + +JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT + +Jesus Christ came to men as a great new experience. He took them far +outside all they had known of God and of man. He led them, +historically, into what was, in truth, a new world, into a new +understanding of life in all its relations. What they had never +noticed before, he brought to their knowledge, he made interesting +to them, and intelligible. In short, as Paul put it, "if any man be +in Christ, it is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). The aspects of +things were different; the values were changed, and a new +perspective made clear relations that were obscure and tangled +before. Why should it have been so? Why should it be, that, when a +man comes into contact, into some kind of sympathy with Jesus +Christ, some living union with him, everything becomes new, and he +by and by begins to feel with St. Paul: "To me to live is Christ" +(Phil. 1:21)? Why has Jesus meant so much? Why should all this be +associated with him? + +Plato, in the sentence already quoted, tells us that "the unexamined +life is unliveable for a human being, for a real man." Here, then, +came into man's life a new experience altogether, like nothing known +before altering everything, giving new sympathies, new passions, new +enthusiasms--a new attitude to God and a new attitude to men. It was +inevitable that thought must work upon it. Who was this Jesus that +he should produce this result? Men asked themselves that very early; +and if they were slow to do so, the criticism of the outsider drove +them into it. The result has been nineteen centuries of endless +question and speculation as to Jesus Christ--the rise of dogma, +creed, and formula, as slowly all the philosophy of mankind has been +re-thought in the light of the central experience of Jesus Christ. +In spite of all that we may regret in the war of creeds, it was +inevitable--it was part of the disturbance that Jesus foresaw he +must make (Luke 12:51). Men "could do no other"--they had to +determine for themselves the significance of Jesus in the real +world, in the whole cosmos of God; and it meant fruitful conflict of +opinion, the growth of the human mind, and an ever-heightened +emphasis on Jesus. + +An analogy may illustrate in some way the story before us. One of +the most fascinating chapters of geography is the early exploration +of America. Chesapeake Bay was missed by one explorer. Fog or +darkness may have been the cause of his missing the place; but he +missed it, and, though it is undoubtedly there, he made his map +without it. Now let us suppose a similar case--for it must often +have happened in early days--and this time we will say it was the +Hudson, or some river of that magnitude. A later explorer came, and +where the map showed a shore without a break, he found a huge inlet +or outlet. Was it an arm of the sea, a vast bay, or was it a great +river? A very great deal depended on which it was, and the first +thing was to determine that. There were several ways of doing it. +One was to sail up and map the course. A quicker way was to drop a +bucket over the side of the ship. The bucket, we may be sure, went +down; and it came up with fresh water; and the water was an instant +revelation of several new and important facts. They had discovered, +first of all, that where there was an unbroken coast-line on the +map, there was nothing of the kind in reality; there was a broad +waterway up into the country; and this was not a bay, but the mouth +of a river, and a very great river indeed; and this implied yet +another discovery--that men had to reckon with no mere island or +narrow peninsula, but an immense continent, which it remained to +explore. + +Jesus Christ was in himself a very great discovery for those to whom +he gave himself, and the exploration of him shows a somewhat similar +story. Men have often said that they see nothing in him very +different from the rest of us; while others have found in him, in +the phrase of the Apocalypse (Rev. 22:1), the "water of life"; and +the positive announcement is here, as in the other case, the more +important of the two. The discovery of the volume of life, which +comes from Jesus Christ, is one of the greatest that men have made. +Merely to have dipped his bucket, as it were, in that great stream +of life has again and again meant everything to a man. Think of what +the new-found river of the New World meant to some of those early +explorers after weeks at sea-- + + Water, water everywhere, + Nor any drop to drink-- + +and they reach an immense flood of river-water. It was new life at +once; but it did not necessarily mean the immediate exploration of +everything, the instant completion of geographical discovery. It was +life and the promise of more to follow. The history of the Church is +a record, we may put it, both of the discovery of the River of Life +and of the exploration of its course and its sources, and of what +lies behind it. But the discovery and the exploration are different +things, and the first is quicker and more certain than the second. +Most of us will admit that we have not gone very far up into that +Continent. The object of this chapter is not to attempt to survey or +compendiarise Christian exploration of Jesus, but to try to find for +ourselves a new approach to an estimate of the historical figure who +has been and remains the centre of everything. + +We may classify the records of the Christian exploration roughly in +three groups. In the early Christian centuries, we find endless +thought given to the philosophical study of the relation of Christ +and God. It fills the library of the Early Church, and practically +all the early controversies turn upon it. The weak spot in all this +was the use of the "a priori" method. Men started with +preconceptions about God--not unnaturally, for we all have some +theories about God, which we are apt to regard as knowledge. But +knowledge is a difficult thing to reach in any sphere of study; and +men assumed too quickly that they had attained a sound philosophical +account of God. They over-estimated their actual knowledge of God +and did not recognize to the full the importance of their new +experience. This may seem ungenerous to men, who gave life and +everything for Jesus Christ, and to whose devotion, to whose love of +Jesus, we owe it that we know him--an ungenerous criticism of their +brave thinking, and their independence in a hundred ways of old +tradition. Still it is true that the weakness of much of their +Christology--and of ours--is that it starts with a borrowed notion +of God, which really has very little to do with the Christian +religion. To this we shall return; but in the meantime we may note +that here as elsewhere preconceptions have to be lightly held by the +serious student. Huxley once wrote to Charles Kingsley: "Science +seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great +truth that is embodied in the Christian conception of entire +surrender to the will of God. Sit down before the fact as a little +child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow +humbly wherever and to whatever end Nature leads, or you shall learn +nothing .... I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind +since I have resolved at all risks to do this." So Huxley wrote +about the study of natural science. In this great inquiry of ours we +have to learn to be patient enough--we might say, ignorant +enough--to do the same. The Early Church had a faith in Greek +philosophy, which stood in its way, brave and splendid as its +thinkers were. + +Our second group is represented roughly by the Hymn Book. The +evidential value of a good hymn book will stand investigation. Of +course a great many hymns are mere copies, and poor copies; but the +Hymn Book at its best is a collection of first-hand records of +experience.[33] In the story of the Christian Church doxology comes +before dogma. When the writer of the Apocalypse breaks out at the +very beginning: "Unto him that loved us and washed[34] us from our +sins in his own blood . . . be glory and dominion for ever and ever" +(Rev. 1:5), he is recording a great experience; and his doxology +leads him on to an explanation of what he has felt and known--to an +intellectual judgement and an appreciation of Christ. The order is +experience,--happiness and song--and then reflection. The love and +the cleansing, and the joy, supply the materials on which thought +has to work. We have always to remember that thought does not +strictly supply its own material, however much it may help us to +find it. Philosophy and theology do not give us our facts. Their +function is to group and interpret them. + +Our third group of records is given to us by the men of the +Reformation. We have there two great movements side by side. There +is Bible translation, which means, in plain language, a decision or +conviction on the part of scholars and thinkers, that the knowledge +of the historical Jesus, and of men's first experiences of him, is +of the highest importance in the Christian life. The whole +Reformation follows, or runs parallel with, that movement. It is +essentially a new exploration of what Jesus Christ can do and of +what he can be. + +In dealing with all these three groups of records, we have to note +the seriousness of the men who made the experiments, their energy of +mind, their determination to reach real facts and, in Cromwell's +great phrase, to "speak things." They will have the truth of the +matter. Intricate and entangled as is the history, for instance, of +the Arian controversy--that controversy which "turned on a +diphthong," as Carlyle said in his younger days--it represented far +more than mere logomachy, as Carlyle saw later on. It followed from +a determination to get at the real fact of who and what Jesus Christ +is; and the two words, that differed by a diphthong, embodied +diametrically opposite conceptions of him. With all the +super-subtlety that sometimes characterizes theologians, these men +had a passion for truth. It led them into paths where our minds find +a difficulty in following; but the motive was the imperative sense +that thinking men must examine and understand their supreme +experience--a motive that must weigh with men who are in earnest +about life. The great hymns of the Church--such as the "Dies Irae" +of Thomas of Celano, or Bernard's "Jesu dulcis memoria", or +Toplady's "Rock of Ages"--are transcripts from life, made by +deep-going and serious minds. The writers are recording, with deep +conviction of its worth, what they have discovered in experience. A +man who takes Christ seriously and will "examine life," will often +find in those great hymns, it may be with some surprise, an +anticipation of his own experience as Bunyan did in Luther's +Commentary on Galatians. Livingstone had "Jesu dulcis memoria"--the +Latin of it--ringing in his head as he travelled in unexplored +Africa. Men who did such work--work that lasts and is recognized +again and again to be genuine by others busy in the same +field--cannot have been random, light-hearted creatures. They were, +in fact, men tested in life, men of experience of wide and deep +experience--men with a gift for living, developed in heart as well +as in brain. The finest of Greek critics, Longinus, said that, "The +great style ("hupsos") is an echo of a great soul." Neander +said--and it is again and again true--that "it is the heart that +makes the theologian." Where we find a great hymn or a great +theology, we may be sure of finding a great nature and a great +experience behind it. + +Let us sum up our general results so far. First of all, whatever be +the worth of the consensus of Christian opinion--and we have to +decide how much it is worth, bearing in mind the type of man who has +worked and suffered to make it in every age; and, I think, it runs +high, as the work of serious and explorative minds--the consensus of +Christian opinion gives the very highest name to Jesus Christ. Men, +who did not begin with any preconception in his favour, and who have +often had a great deal of difficulty in explaining to others--and +perhaps to themselves--the course by which they have reached their +conclusions, claim the utmost for Jesus--and this in spite of the +most desperate philosophical difficulties about monotheism. With a +strong sense of fact, with a deepening feeling for reality, with a +growing value for experience, and with bolder ventures upon +experience, men have found that their conception of Jesus deepens +and grows; he means more to them the more they are. And, as was +noted in the first chapter, in a rational universe, where truth +counts and error fails, the Church has risen in power with every +real emphasis laid on Jesus Christ. What does this involve? + +So far our records. To-day we are living in an era when great +scientific discoveries are made, and more are promised. Geology once +unsettled people about Genesis; but closer study of the Bible and of +science has given truer views of both, and thinking people are as +little troubled about geology now as about Copernican astronomy. At +present heredity and psychology are dominating our minds--or, +rather, theories as to both; for though beginnings have been made, +the stage has not yet been reached of very wide or certain +discovery. There is still a great deal of the soul unexplored and +unmapped. No reasonable person would wish to belittle the study +either of evolution or of psychology; but the real men of science +would probably urge that lay people should take more pains to know +the exact meaning and scope of scientific terms, and to have some +more or less clear idea in their minds when they use them. However, +all these modern discoveries and theories are, to many men's minds, +a challenge to the right of Christians to speak of Jesus Christ as +they have spoken of him, a challenge to our right to represent the +facts of Christian life as we have represented them--in other words, +they are a challenge to us to return to experience and to see what +we really mean. If our study of Jesus in the preceding chapters has +been on sound lines, we shall feel that the challenge to face facts +is in his vein; it was what he urged upon men throughout. + +The old problem returns upon us: Who and what is this Jesus Christ? +We are involved in the recurrent need to re-examine him and +re-explore him. + +There are several ways of doing so. Like every other historical +character Jesus is to be known by what he does rather than by "a +priori" speculation as to what he might be. In the study of history, +the first thing is to know our original documents. There are the +Gospels, and, like other historical records, they must be studied in +earnest on scientific lines without preconception. And there are +later records, which tell us as plainly and as truthfully of what he +has done in the world's history. We can begin, then, with the +serious study of the actual historical Jesus, whom people met in the +road and with whom they ate their meals, whom the soldiers nailed to +the cross, whom his disciples took to worshipping, and who has, +historically, re-created the world. + +The second line of approach is rather more difficult, but with care +we can use Christological theories to recover the facts which those +who framed the theories intended to explain. We must remember here +once more the three historical canons laid down at the beginning. We +must above all things give the man's term his meaning, and ask what +was the experience behind his thought. When we come upon such +descriptions of Jesus as "Christ our Passover" (1 Cor. 5:7), or find +him called the Messiah, we must not let our own preconceptions as to +the value of the theories implied by the use of such language, nor +again our existing views of what is orthodox, determine our +conclusions; but we must ask what those who so explained Jesus +really meant to say, and what they had experienced which they +thought worth expressing. These people, as we see, were face to face +with a very great new experience, and they cast about for some means +of describing and explaining it. A slight illustration may suggest +the natural law in accordance with which they set about their task +of explanation. A child, of between two and three years old, was +watching his first snow-storm, gazing very intently at the flying +snow-flake, and evidently trying to think out what they were. At +last he hit it; they were "little birds." It is so that the mind, +infant or adult, is apt to work--explaining the new and unknown by +reference to the familiar. Snow-flakes are not little birds; they +are something quite different; yet there is a common element--they +both go flying through the air, and it was that fact which the +child's brain noticed and used. To explain Jesus, his friends and +contemporaries spoke of him as the Logos, the Sacrifice, "Christ our +Passover," the Messiah, and so forth. Of those terms not one is +intelligible to us to-day without a commentary. To ordinary people +Jesus is at once intelligible--far more so than the explanations of +him. Historically, it is he himself who has antiquated every one of +those conceptions, and, so far as they have survived, it has been in +virtue of association with him. They are the familiar language of +another day. "No one," said Dr. Rendel Harris, "can sing, 'How sweet +the name of Logos sounds.'" Synesius of Cyrene did try to sing it, +but most human beings prefer St. Bernard or John Newton. + +The inner significance of each term will point to the real +experience of the man using it. He employs a metaphor, a simile, or +a technical term to explain something. Can we penetrate to the +analogy which he finds between the Jesus of the new experience and +the old term which he uses? Can we, when we see what he has +experienced, grasp the substance and build on that to the neglect of +the term? When we look at the terms, we find that the essence of +sacrifice was reconciliation between God and man (we shall return to +this a little later), and that the Messiah was understood to be +destined to achieve God's purpose and God's meaning for mankind and +for each man. We find, again, that the inner meaning of the Logos is +that through it, and in it, God and man come in touch with each +other and become mutually intelligible. Reconciliation, the victory +of God, the mutual intelligibility of God and man--all three terms +centre in one great thought, a new union between God and man. That, +so far as I can see, is the common element; and that is, as men have +conceived it, the very heart of the Christian experience. + +In the third place, we can utilize the new experiments made upon +Jesus Christ in the Reformation and in other revivals. They come +nearer to us; for the men who report are more practical and more +scholarly in the modern way; they are more akin to us both in blood +and in ideas. Luther, for example, is a great spirit of the explorer +type. He went to scholarship and learnt the true meaning of +"metanoia"--that it was "re-thinking" and not "penance"--and he +grasped a new view of God there. From scholarship he gained a truer +view of Church history than he had been taught; and this too helped +to clear his mind. Above all, as "a great son of fact" (Carlyle's +name for him), his chief interest was the exploration of Jesus +Christ--would Christ stand all the weight that a man could throw +upon him without assistance? And Luther found that Christ could; and +he at once turned his knowledge into action, as the world knows. +"Justification by faith" was his phrase, and he meant that we may +trust Jesus Christ with all that we are, all that we have been, and +all that we hope to be; that Jesus himself will carry all; that +Jesus himself is all; that Jesus is at once Luther's eternal +salvation, and his sure help in the next day's difficulty--his +Saviour for ever from sin, and his great stand-by in translating the +Bible for the German people and in writing hymns for boys and girls. +"Nos nihil sumus", he wrote, "Christus solus est omnia".[35] In the +case of every great revival--the Wesleyan revival, and the smaller +ones in the United States, in the north of Ireland, in Wales--in +every one we find that, where anything is really achieved, it is +done by a new and thoroughgoing emphasis on Jesus Christ. It may be +put in language which to some ears is repulsive, in metaphors +strange or uncouth; but whatever the language, the fact that +underlies it is this--men are brought back to the reality, the +presence, the power, and the friendship of Jesus Christ; they are +called to a fresh venture on Jesus Christ, a fresh exploration: and +again and again the experience of a lifetime has justified the +venture. + +This brings us to the most effective and fundamental method in the +exploration of Jesus, in some ways the most difficult of all, or +else the very simplest. The Church has been clear that there is +nothing like personal experiment, the personal venture. It is the +only clue to the experience. The saying of St Augustine (Sermon 43, +3), "Immo Credo ut intelligas," is to many of our minds offensive--I +think, because we give not quite the right meaning to his "Credo". +But, if the illustrations are not too simple, swimming and bicycling +offer parallels. A man will never understand how water holds up a +human body, as long as he stays on dry land. In practical things, +the venture comes first; and it is hard to see how a man is to +understand Christ without a personal experience of him. All parents +know how much better bachelors and maiden sisters understand +children than they do; but as soon as these great authorities have +children of their own, the position is altered a little. + +The change that Jesus definitely operates in men, they have +described in various ways--rebirth, salvation, a new heart, and so +forth. What they have always emphasized in Jesus Christ, is that +they find he changes their outlook and develops new instincts in +them, and that in one way and another he saves from sin; and they +have been men who have learnt and adopted Jesus' own estimate of +sin. When, then, we remember that, with his serious view of sin, he +undertook man's redemption from it; when we add to this some real +reflection upon how much he has already done, as plain matter of +history, to "take away the sin of the world," we surely have +something to go upon in our attempt to determine who he is. The +question will rise, Have Christians overstated their experience, or +even misunderstood it? Has forgiveness been, in fact, achieved--or +salvation from sin? Can sin be put away at all? What will the +evidence for this be? I do not know what the evidence could be, +except the new life of peace with God, and all the sunshine and +blessing that go with it. This new life is at all events all the +evidence available; and how much it means is very difficult to +estimate without some personal experience. + +Here again the great theories of Redemption will help us to recover +the experience they are to explain; and once more we may note that +they are not the work of small minds or trivial natures, however +badly they have been echoed. Substitution implies at any rate some +serious confession of guilt before God, some strong sense of a great +indebtedness to Christ. The theory of Sacrifice implies the need of +reunion with God. Robertson Smith, in his "Early Religion of the +Semites" brings out that the essence of ancient sacrifice was that +the tribe, the sacrificial beast and the god were all of one blood; +the god was supposed to be alienated; the sacrifice was offered by +the party to the quarrel who was seeking reconciliation, namely, the +tribe. When we look at the New Testament, we find that the emphasis +always lies on God seeking reconciliation with man (cf. 2 Cor. +5:19). The theory of ransom--a most moving term in a world of +slavery--implies the need of new freedom for the mind, for the heart +and the whole nature, from the tyranny of sin. All these are +similes; and tremendous structures of theory have been built on +every one of them--and for some of these structures, simile, or, in +plainer language, analogy, is not a sufficient foundation. It is +probably true that all our current explanations of the work of +Christ in Redemption have in them too large an element of metaphor +and simile. Yet Christian people are reluctant to discard any one of +them; and their reluctance is intelligible. There is a value in the +old association, which is found by new experience. Every one of +these old similes will contribute to our realization of the work of +Christ, in so far as it is a record of experience of Christ, +verified in one generation after another. We shall make the best use +of them, when we are no longer intimidated by the terminology, but +go at once to what is meant--to the facts. + +We come still closer to the facts in the less metaphorical terms of +the New Testament. For example, there is the New Covenant. The +writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews went back to a great phrase in +Jeremiah, and by his emphasis on it he helped to give its name to +the whole New Testament--"I will make a new covenant with the house +of Israel and the house of Judah" (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). +Using this passage, he brings out that there is a new relation, a +new union, between God and man in Jesus. He speaks of Jesus as a +mediator bringing man and God together (Heb. 8:6)--language far +plainer to us than the terminology of sacrifice, which he employed +rather to bring home the work of Jesus with feeling and passion to +those who had no other vocabulary, than to impose upon Christian +thinkers a scheme of things which he clearly saw to be exhausted. +Then there is Paul's great conception of Reconciliation (2 Cor. +5:18-20). Half the difficulties connected with the word "Atonement" +disappear, when we grasp that the word in Greek means primarily +reconciliation. As Paul uses the noun and the verb, it is very plain +what he means--God is in Christ trying to reconcile the world to +himself. These attempts to express Christ's work in plain words take +us back to the great central Christian experience--to the great +initial discovery that the discord of man's making between God and +man has been removed by God's overtures in Christ; that the +obstacles which man has felt to his approach to God--in the unclean +hands and the unclean lips--have been taken away; and that with a +heart, such as the human heart is, a man may yet come to God in +Jesus, because of Jesus, through Jesus. + +The historical character of Christian life and thought is surely +evidence that Jesus Christ has accomplished something real; and when +we get a better hold of that, the problem of his person should be +more within our reach. The splendid phrase of Paul--"Therefore being +justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus +Christ" (Rom. 5:1)--or that of 1 Peter: "In whom ye rejoice ... with +joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8)--gives us the +keynote. The gaiety of the Early Church in its union with Jesus +Christ rings through the New Testament and the Christian fathers +from Hermas to Augustine. The Church has come singing down the +ages.[36] The victory over sin--no easy thing at any time--is +another permanent feature of Christian experience. The psychological +value of what Dr. Chalmers called "the expulsive power of a new +affection" is not enough studied by us. Look at the freedom, the +growth, the power of the Christian life--where do they all come +from? We cannot leave God out of this. At any rate, there they are +in the Christian experience; and where does anything that matters +flow from but from God? There is again the evidence of Christian +achievement; and it should be remarked that the Christian always +tells us that he himself has not the power, that it comes from God, +that he asks for it and God gives it. As for the easy explanation of +all religious life by "auto-suggestion," we may note that it +involves a loose and unscientific use of a more or less scientific +theory--never a very safe way to knowledge. In any case, it has been +pointed out, the word adds nothing to the number of our facts; nor +is it quite clear yet that it eliminates God from the story any more +than the term "digestion" makes it inappropriate to say Grace before +meat. All these things--peace, joy, victory, and the rest--follow +from the taking away of sin, and imply that it no longer stands +between God and man. All this is the work of the historical Jesus. +It is he who has changed the attitude of man to God, and by changing +it has made it possible for God to do what he has done. If God, in +Paul's phrase, "hath shined in our hearts" (2 Cor. 4:6), it was +Jesus who induced men to take down the shutters and to open the +windows. It is all associated, historically, with the ever-living +Jesus Christ, and with God in him. + +This brings us to the central question, the relation of Jesus with +God--the problem of Incarnation. After all that has been said, we +shall not approach it "a priori". We are too apt to put the +Incarnation more or less in algebraic form: + + x+y=a, + +where a stands for the historical Jesus Christ, and x and y +respectively for God and man. But what do we mean by x and y? Let us +face our facts. What do we know of man apart from Jesus Christ? +Surely it is only in him that we realize man--only in him that we +grasp what human depravity really is, the real meaning and +implications of human sin. It is those who have lived with Jesus +Christ, who are most conscious of sin; and this is no mere morbid +imagination or fancy, it rests on a much deeper exploration of human +nature than men in general attempt. Not until we know what he is do +we see how very little we are, and how far we have gone wrong. It is +his power of help and sympathy that teaches us the hardness of our +own hearts, our own fundamental want of sympathy. Again, until a man +knows Jesus Christ, he has little chance of even guessing the +grandeur of which he himself is capable. A man has, as he says, done +his best--for years, it may be, of strenuous endeavour; and then +comes the new experience of Jesus Christ, and he is lifted high +above his record, he gains a new power, a new tenderness, and he +does things incredible. We do not know the wrong or the right of +which man is capable, till we know Jesus Christ. The y of our +equation, then, does not tell us very much. + +When it comes to the x, is it not very often a mixture--an +ill-adjusted mixture--of the Father of Jesus, with the rather +negative "beyond all being" of later Greek speculation, and perhaps +the Judge of Roman law? The exact proportions in the mixture will +vary with the thinker. But, in fact, is it not true now that we +really only know God through Jesus? For it is only in and through +Jesus that we take the trouble, and have the faith, to explore and +test God, to try experiments upon God, to know what he can do and +what he will do. It is only in Jesus that the Love of God (in the +New Testament sense), is tenable at all. It is evanescent apart from +Jesus; it rests on the assurance of his words, his work, his +personality. A vague diffused "love of God" for everything in +general and nothing in particular, we saw to be a quite different +thing from the personal attachment, with which, according to Jesus, +God loves the individual man. That is the centre of the Gospel; it +is belief in that, which has done everything in a rational world, as +we saw at the beginning; and it is a most impossible belief, never +long or very actively held apart from Jesus. Only in him can we +believe it. Only in him, too, is the new experience of God's +forgiveness and redemption possible, in all its fullness and +sureness and power. "Dieu me pardonnera," said Heine, "c'est son +metier";--but he had not the Christian sense of what it was that God +was to forgive. It is only in Jesus that we can live the real life +of prayer, in the intimate way of Jesus. All this means that we have +to solve our x from Jesus--not to discover him through it. The plain +fact is that we actually know Jesus a great deal better than we know +our x and our y, the elements from which we hoped to reconstruct +him. What does this mean? + +It means, bluntly, that we have to re-think our theories of +Incarnation on "a posteriori" lines, to begin on facts that we know, +and to base ourselves on a continuous exploration and experience of +Jesus Christ first. The simple, homey rule of knowing things before +we talk about them holds in every other sphere of study, and it is +the rule which Jesus himself inculcated. We begin, then, with Jesus +Christ, and set out to see how far he will take us. Experience comes +first. "Follow me," he said. He chose the twelve men "that they +might be with him," and he let them find out in that intercourse +what he had for them; and from what he could give and did give they +drew their conclusions as to who and what he is. There can be no +other way of knowing him. "Luther's Reformation doctrines," says +Hermann, in his fine book, "The Communion of the Christian with God" +(p. 163), "only countenance such a confession of the Deity of Christ +as springs naturally to the lips of the man whom Jesus has already +made blessed." Melanchthon said the same: "This it is to know +Christ--to receive his benefits--not to contemplate his natures, or +the modes of his incarnation." "Come unto me, all ye that labour and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." + + + + +APPENDIX + +SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY CIRCLE DISCUSSIONS + +1. The book is obviously written for private reading, and these +suggestions are added, at the author's request, for those who would +like to study the book in groups. Circles on it, however, will not +be very profitable unless members of them are also carefully reading +the Gospels and come to the circles with copies of the New +Testament. Some acquaintance with the main outlines of New Testament +criticism will be a help. Readers who want to know how the New +Testament was written are referred to Principal Selbie: "The Nature +and Message of the Bible" (S.C.M., IS. 6d.), especially ch. iv. and +v. + +2. The questions suggested for discussion are only a selection of +the many important questions which the book raises. Circles should +not feel bound to follow them, or to try to cover them all at one +meeting. There are many subsidiary questions, which some circles +might pursue With profit. + +3. The circle should try as far as possible to get away from the +text of the book to the text of the Bible; to study and verify the +author's method of exposition. The Leader should give much thought +to this. + +4. A Bible with the marginal references of the R.V. +should be used--also a note-book. The author's clear preference for +the A.V. may be remarked (cf. p. 224). + +5. While the method of the book is historical, its object is +practical. The circles should have the same objective. +Experience comes before theology. Theology is worthless which cannot +be verified in experience. "He that doeth His will, shall know of +the doctrine." + +6. One chapter a week will be as much as a circle can profitably manage. . + + + +QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN CIRCLES + + +CHAPTER I + +I. Does the writer overdo the importance of history? +Would not "spiritual religion" suffice without a "historical basis," +as some Indians and others suggest? + +2. What would our evidence be for" spiritual religion" if we had not +the record of actual history to check fancy and support the ventures +of faith? + +3. Does the writer underestimate the actual impress made on his age +by Jesus? Was he not probably more widely known? + +4. How can ordinary people" make sure of the experience behind the +thought of Jesus?" Does this belittle him? + +5. What becomes of ordinary simple people untrained in historical +research, who are not experts and merely want help in living and +dying? Could not the whole presentation of Christ be much simpler? +Where does "revelation to babes" come in? + + +CHAPTER II + +1. Look up and verify at the circle meeting the references to the +Gospels in the chapter and see if they bear the interpretations put +upon them. + +2. Was Jesus fond of life and Nature? Give instances. + +3. Does intercourse with Nature make communion with God more real? + +4. "Jesus showed and taught men the beauty of humility, tenderness +and charity, but not of manliness and courage." Is there any truth +in this charge as regards (a) the portrait in the Gospels, or (b) +the presentation of Jesus in the teaching of the Church? + + +CHAPTER III + +1. "One of Jesus' great lessons is to get men to look for God in the +common-place things of which God makes so many." Discuss this. + +2. Had Jesus a sense of humour? Give instances. + +3. "The Son of Fact,"--do you think this a true epithet? + +4. What characteristics of the mind of Jesus does this chapter +emphasize as principal? Do you agree that they are the principal +ones? + +(5. What do you imagine Jesus looked like? What do you think of the +conventional figure of modern Art?) + + +CHAPTER IV + +I. To what extent was the hardness of the world during the early +Roman Empire due to current conceptions of God? + +2. What was the secret of Jesus' attractiveness, and what kinds of +men and women did he attract? + +3. How do you picture the life he lived with his disciples? E.g. Can +you reconstruct a typical day in the life of Jesus (cf. pp. 81, 82). + +4. Had he a method of teaching: if so, what was it? Give +illustrations. + + +CHAPTER V + +1. How would you state to a non-Christian the three principal +elements in Jesus' teaching about the character of God? Illustrate +fully from the three Gospels. + +2. What elements in the teaching of Jesus and the relation of God to +the individual would be new to a Jew who knew his Old Testament? + +3. What did Jesus teach his disciples concerning prayer? + +4. "If the friend in the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you +will knock until you get them; and has not God the gifts for you +that you need? Is he short of the power to help, or is it the will +to help that is wanting in God?" Do we pray in order to change the +will of God? Why did Jesus pray? + + +CHAPTER VI + +1. "There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant +anything to him." Would you admit this? Or has the writer too +narrow a conception of the nature of Art? + +2. "The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and helplessness of +masses of men was one of the foundations of the Christian Church." +Discuss this and illustrate from the ministry of our Lord. + +3. "I have not been thinking about the community: I have been +thinking about Christ," said a Bengali. Do you find this sort of +antithesis in the Gospels? + +4. "Jesus' new attitude to women." What is it? Was it continued in +the Apostolic Church? Did it differ from St Paul's? Cf. St John +4:27. + +5. What type of character does Jesus admire? Does your reading of +the Gospels incline you to agree with the writer? Is it the same +type of character which is exalted by Christian piety, stained-glass +windows, and the calendars of Saints? + + +CHAPTER VII + +1. "There is no escaping the issue of moral choice." "One opinion +is as good as another." Discuss these two contradictory statements. + +2. "Jesus says there is all the difference in the world between his +own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist." What is John's teaching +on sin and righteousness (in the Synoptic Gospels), and in what ways +does it differ (a) from the Pharisaic, and (b) from our Lord's +teaching? + +3. What are the modern parallels to "the four outstanding classes +whom Jesus warns of the danger of hell?" + +4. Wherein does Jesus' standard of sin differ from the standard of +sin current to-day? + +5. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" +(Luke 19:10). What does "lost" mean? + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1. What is the connection between the Kingdom of Heaven and the +Cross in the teaching of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels? + +2. How does Jesus conceive of salvation? Illustrate from the +Gospels. Do you agree with the writer's exposition? + +3. Why should the salvation of the lost (i.e. redemption) mean the +Cross for Jesus? + +4. "In choosing the Cross, Christians have always felt, Jesus +revealed God: and that is the centre of the great act of +Redemption." In what way? + +5. Do you think the paragraph on p. 179 beginning: "In the third +place . . ." does justice to the apocalyptic passages in the Gospels +(Mark 13ff, Matt. 24, etc.), or to the interpretation of this +teaching by scholars of the apocalyptic school? (It is no use +discussing this question unless members of the circle have made some +study of apocalyptic thought.) + + +CHAPTER IX + +1. "Into this world came the Church!" With what aspects of the +religion and life of the early Roman Empire, as outlined in the +chapter, would the Church find itself in conflict? + +2. How would you introduce the Christian faith to one who believed +and took part in the Eleusinian cult of Demeter? (Cf. 1 Corinthians +and St Paul's method of dealing with a similar situation, and notice +the things he stresses--e.g. elementary morality.) + +3. "Christ has conquered and all the gods are gone." Why did they go? + +4. But have they gone? What resemblances are there between the world +to-day (in the West and in the East) and the problem of the Church +to-day and the Roman world and the problem of the Church then? + +5. It was often remarked in India that, point by point, the writer's +description of religion in the Roman world is true to the letter of +Hinduism to-day. Work out this parallel. (See Dr J. N. Farquhar, +Crown of Hinduism and Modern Religious Movements in India.) + + +CHAPTER X + +1. "It is the heart that makes the theologian." Where does +your theology come from? + +2. The doctrine of the Atonement has often been stated as an attempt +to reconcile Jesus and an un-Christian conception of God. +"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." "The Cross +is the revelation in time of what God is always." Discuss. + +3. What are the three ways of answering the question: +"Who and what is this Jesus Christ?" Why must people make up their +minds about him? + +4. Does the writer make Jesus too human? Or has the reading of this +book made you feel his divinity more strongly just because he was so +perfectly human? + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, p. 157. + +[2] "We are nothing; Christ alone is all." + +[3] Canon Streeter in Foundations + +[4] Cf. the foreigner's touch at Athens (Acts 17:21). + +[5] because, later on, the Sabbath and Jewish ceremony were not among +the most living issues, after the Church had come to be chiefly +Gentile. + +[6] On this point see R. W. Dale, "The Living Christ and the Four +Gospels"; and W. Sanday, "The Gospels in the Second Century." + +[7] The reader will see that I am referring to Bishop Lightfoot's +article on "The Brethren of the Lord" in his commentary on +"Galatians", but not accepting his conclusions. + +[8] That this is not quite fanciful is shown by the emphasis laid by +more or less contemporary writers on the increased facilities for +travel which the Roman Empire gave, and the use made of them. + +[9] Wordsworth, Prelude, i. 586. + +[10] Cf., F. G. Peabody, "Jesus Christ and Christian Character", pp. +57-60. + +[11] H. S. Coffin, Creed of Jesus. pp. 240-242. + +[12] "Prelude" xiii. 26 ff. + +[13] See further, on this, in Chapter VII., p.168 + +[14] E.g., in his essay on "Mirabeau": "The real quantity of our +insight ... depends on our patience, our fairness, lovingness"; and +in "Biography": "A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." + +[15] Cf. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 154. I have +omitted one or two less relevant clauses--e.g. greetings to friends. + +[16] Horace, "Epistles", i. 16, 48. + +[17] Homer, "Odyssey", xvii. 322. + +[18] It is only about four times that personal immortality comes with +any clearness in the Old Testament: Psalms 72 and 139; Isaiah 26; +and Job 16:26. + +[19] Cf. A. E. J. Rawlinson, Dogma, Fact and Experience, p. 16. "All +the virtues in the Aristotelian canon are self-contained states of +the virtuous man himself .... In the last resort they are entirely +self-centred adornments or accomplishments of the good man; and it +is significant of this self-centredness of the entire conception +that the qualities of display (megaloprepeia) and highmindedness, or +proper pride (megalopsychia), are insisted on as integral elements +of the ideal character. On the other hand, the three characteristic +Christian virtues--faith, hope and charity--all postulate Another." + +[20] Cf. Chapter II + +[21] A French mystic is quoted as saying, "Le Dieu defini est le Dieu +fini." + +[22] Peabody, Jesus Christ and Christian Character, p. 97. + +[23] H. R. Mackintosh, "The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ", +p. 399. + +[24] Clement, "Protrepticus", 100, 3, 4 + +[25] The more or less contemporary Greek orator, Dio Chrysostom, +refers to the old-fashioned ways of the Tarsiots, especially +mentioning their insistence on women wearing veils. + +[26] Wernle, "Beginnings of Christianity", vol. i. p. 286, English +translation. + +[27] So too says Josephus, who gives this as the reason of Herod's +suspicion of him. + +[28] "Antiquities of the Jews", xviii. 5, 8, 117, cf. what Celsus +says of righteousness as a condition of admission to certain +mysteries that offer forgiveness of sins (Origen, c. "Celsum", iii. +59). The "purification of the body" has a ritual and ceremonial +significance. + +[29] Lines Composed above Tintern, 34. + +[30] That he did so is emphasized again and again, in striking +language, by St. Paul--e.g. Rom. 5:15-16, 20; 1 Tim. 1:14. + +[31] Horace, "Ars Poetica", 191, "Nec deus intersit nisi dignus +vindice nodus inciderit". + +[32] Daily reading of the Scriptures is recommended by Clement of +Alexandria ("Strom". vii. 49). + +[33] Perhaps one may quote here, not inappropriately, the famous +saying of Aristotle in his "Poetics", that "poetry is a more +philosophic thing than history, and of a higher seriousness." The +latter term means that the poet is "more in earnest" about his work, +and puts more energy of mind into it than the historian. If the +reader hesitates about this, let him try to write a great hymn or +poem. + +[34] Do not let us be misled by the thin pedantries of the Revised +Version here, or in Romans 5:1 shortly to be cited. In both places +literary and spiritual sense has bowed to the accidents of MSS. + +[35] If my readers do not know his Christmas hymn for children, they +have missed one of the happiest hymns for Christmas. + +[36] What Carlyle says in "The Hero as a Poet" ("Heroes and Hero +Worship") on the close relation of Song and Truth is worth +remembering in this connexion. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jesus of History, by T. R. 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