JESUS
CHRIST
accomplishes
a
work
—
and
is
forthwith
forgotten.
Enjoying
a
filial
intimacy
with
God
which
contrasts
markedly
with
the
aloofness
of
God
in
OT
times,
and
the
tear
manifested
in
His
presence
even
by
prophets,
He
claimed
prerogatives
which
they
would
have
re-garded
as
a
usurpation
of
the
sphere
of
God.
For
He
forgave
sins,
claimed
a
faith
and
a
devotion
toward
Himself
which
were
indistinguishable
from
worship,
and
foretold
that
He
would
return
to
Judge
the
world.
What
makes
these
utterances
the
more
striking
is
that
He
simultaneously
invited
men
to
learn
of
Him
as
meek
and
lowly
in
heart
(Mt
ll^e).
We
therefore
seem
to
be
driven
to
the
conclusion
that
Jesus
was
less
than
a
saint,
unless
He
was
more
than
a
man.
Unless
He
was
sinless.
He
was
guilty
of
a
self-righteousness
which
was
more
bUnded
than
that
of
the
Pharisees;
and
unless
He
had
a
unique
dignity
and
commission.
He
was
guilty
of
an
overweening
arrogance.
The
hypothesis
of
a
unique
experience
and
vocation,
or
the
belief
that
He
was
in
a
unique
sense
Divine,
is
more
credible
than
the
charge
of
imperfect
piety.
(2)
In
studying
the
character
of
Jesus
on
the
ethical
side,
it
is
useful
to
observe
the
form
in
which
He
recognized
and
realized
the
fundamental
virtues.
Wisdom
He
would
scarcely
have
described
as
a
virtue.
He
did
not
Himself
possess
or
value
it
in
the
range
which
it
began
to
have
with
the
Greeks,
but
He
assuredly
had
wisdom
in
the
grand
way
of
thinking
deep
thoughts
about
God
and
man
wiiich
have
been
worked
up
in
philosophical
systems,
and
also
in
the
homely
form
of
prudent
dealing
with
tasks
and
dangers.
Courage
He
certainly
did
not
illustrate
in
the
typical
form
that
it
assumes
in
a
man
of
war;
but
there
is
abundant
proof
of
physical
as
well
as
of
moral
courage
in
the
heroism
which
led
Him,
while
discarding
force
and
foreseeing
the
issue,
to
go
up
to
confront
His
powerful
enemies
in
the
name
of
God
and
truth.
One
glimpse
of
His
bearing
is
un-forgettable.
'And
they
were
in
the
way
going
up
to
Jerusalem;
and
Jesus
was
going
before
them;
and
they
were
amazed
;
and
they
that
followed
were
afraid
'
(Mk
1032).
The
virtue
of
temperance
or
self-control
might
seem
to
he
on
a
plane
on
which
He
did
not
con-descend
to
be
tried.
But
in
its
essence,
as
the
virtue
which
requires
the
surrender
of
the
lower
for
the
higher,
of
the
temporary
for
the
enduring
good,
it
has
its
illustra-tion,
not
merely
in
the
victory
of
the
Temptation,
but
in
tlie
mould
of
self
-sacrifice
in
which
His
whole
life
was
cast.
Justice,
as
the
virtue
which
renders
to
all
their
due,
entered
deeply
into
the
thought
and
lite
of
Jesus.
The
parable
of
the
Unjust
Steward,
which
on
a
super-ficial
view
makes
light
of
dishonesty,
is
placed
in
a
setting
of
words
of
Jesus
from
which
it
appears
that
He
thought
it
useful
to
give
His
disciples
the
test
of
an
honest
man,
and
even
made
common
honesty
a
condition
of
admission
to
life
(Lk
16'°-").
It
is
also
noteworthy
how
often
He
commends
the
wise
and
faithful
servant;
Willie
His
own
ideal
might
be
summed
up
as
the
performance
with
fidelity
of
His
appointed
work.
Not
even
the
sympathy
of
Jesus
is
more
distinctive
than
His
conscientiousness
in
regard
to
the
claims
both
of
God
and
of
man.
The
character
of
Jesus
also
exemplified
the
funda-mental
quaUty
of
steadfastness.
He
praised
it
in
others:
John
the
Baptist,
who
was
no
reed
shaken
with
the
wind;
Simon,
whom
He
surnamed
the
rock-Uke
man.
His
whole
ministry,
which
began
with
victory
in
the
Temptation,
had
behind
it
the
force
of
steady
and
of
resolute
purpose.
'
He
steadfastly
set
his
face
to
go
to
Jerusalem'
(Lk-S^i)
may
serve
for
a
description
of
the
way
in
which
He
held
straight
on
to
His
preconceived
and
predetermined
goal.
On
this
general
groundwork
of
character
there
emerges
the
love
of
Jesus,
which
was
marked
by
extraordinary
range
and
intensity.
For
man
as
man
He
had
'
a
prodi-gality
of
sympathy'
and
looked
on
Himself
as
a
debtor
to
all
who
were
burdened
by
suffering
or
sin.
It
may
JESUS
CHRIST
Indeed
be
observed
that
His
love,
while
all-embracing,
had
degrees.
The
centurion
of
Capernaum
and
the
Syro-phcenician
woman
came
within
its
scope,
but
He
looked
on
the
people
of
Israel
as
those
who
had
the
first
claim
on
His
affection
and
service.
He
shared
the
feelings
for
Jerusalem
which
are
expressed
in
many
of
the
Psalms,
and
yearned
over
the
holy
city
more
than
over
the
cities
of
the
Lake.
Within
the
house
of
Israel
there
were
three
—
perhaps
four
classes,
whom
He
regarded
with
a
peculiar
tenderness.
First
in
order
came
the
disciples,
next
the
common
people
and
the
social
outcasts,
and
doubtless
we
may
add
the
children.
It
is
hard
to
believe
that
the
family-circle
at
Nazareth
was
not
also
one
of
the
nearer
groups,
but
during
the
period
of
the
Ministry
the
attitude
of
His
kinsfolk,
with
the
probable
exception
of
Mary
(Jn
ig^s),
diverted
His
strong
natural
affection
to
those
who
were
His
kinsfolk
after
the
spirit.
The
ways
in
which
His
love
expressed
itself
were
on
the
one
hand
to
seek
to
make
those
He
loved
truly
His
own
by
binding
them
to
Himself
by
their
faith
and
devotion;
on
the
other,
to
bestow
on
them,
and
that
at
whatever
cost
to
Himself,
all
benefits
which
it
lay
within
his
vocation
to
confer.
The
forms
of
service
to
which
His
sympathy
prompted
Him
were
as
many
as
the
forms
of
human
distress.
His
mission,
indeed,
proceeded
on
the
footing
that
the
worst
evils
from
which
men
suifer
are
spiritual,
and
that
the
benefactor
whom
they
cliiefly
need
is
one
who
will
lead
them
to
repentance
and
show
them
the
Father.
But
no
small
part
of
His
ministry
also
was
occupied
with
works
of
the
ptiilan-thropic
kind,
wiiich
it
would
be
altogether
wrong
to
interpret
on
the
analogy
of
some
modern
enterprises,
as
having
the
mere
purpose
of
creating
a
favourable
dis-position
for
the
gospel.
His
distinctive
work
was
to
comfort
by
saving,
but
He
also
acted
as
one
who
felt
that
the
relief
of
pain
had
its
own
independent
claim.
In
seeming
contrast
with
the
gentleness
of
the
sym-pathetic
Christ
was
the
sternness
which
marked
many
of
His
words
and
acts.
It
is
of
interest
to
note
that
the
disciple,
whom
Jesus
loved
is
remembered
in
the
Synoptics
(Lk
9"-m)
chiefly
as
a
man
with
a
capacity
for
fiery
indignation;
and
this
quality
may
well
have
been
one
that
drew
Jesus
and
John
more
closely
together.
If
there
were
some
sins
that
moved
Jesus
chiefly
to
compassion,
there
were
others
that
roused
Him
to
holy
wrath.
Those
who,
like
prodigals
and
fallen
women,
could
be
described
as
their
own
worst
enemy.
He
chiefly
pitied,
but
sterner
measure
was
never
meted
out
than
by
Jesus
to
those
whose
guilt
had
the
quaUty
of
pro-fanity
or
of
inhumanity.
The
profanity
which
irrever-ently
dealt
with
the
things
of
God
—
in
swearing,
in
corrupting
His
word,
in
polluting
His
Temple,
was
unsparingly
rebuked
—
on
one
memorable
occasion
by
act;
and
the
great
offence
of
the
Pharisees
in
His
eyes
was
that,
wliile
making
a
parade
of
sanctity
before
men,
they
were
insulting
God
by
acting
a
Ue.
The
second
type
of
sin
which
provoked
His
burning
invective
was
inhumanity
towards
the
weak.
An
example
is
the
sin
of
those
who
make
one
of
the
little
ones
to
offend
(Mt
18«),
which
may
perhaps
be
taken
Uterally
of
those
who
per-vert
children;
and
the
unpardonable
aggravation
of
the
guilt
of
the
scribes
was
that,
while
maldng
long
prayers,
they
devoured
widows'
houses
(Mk
12"||).
While
the
character
of
Jesus
haa
commonly
been
regarded,
even
by
non-Christians,
aa
the
noblest
that
the
world
has
seen
,
it
has
not
escaped
criticism
in
ancient
or
modem
times
.
Two
forms
of
the
indictment
may
be
alluded
to.
Renan
professes
to
find
evidence
of
deterioration,
and
in
this
the
real
tragedy
of
the
life
of
Jesus.
Writing
of
the
last
days,
he
says:
'
His
natural
gentleness
seems
to
have
abandoned
Him:
He
was
sometimes
harah
and
capricious,
contact
with
the
world
pained
and
revolted
Him.
The
fatal
law
which
condemns
an
idea
to
decay
as
soon
as
it
is
applied
t9
convert
men
applied
to
Him.'
He
is
even
said
to
nave
yielded
to
the
wishes
of
His
enthusiastic
friends;
and
to
have
acquiesced
in
a
pretended
miracle
by
which
they
sought
to
revive
His
sinking
cause.
His
death
was
a
happy
release
'from
the
fatal
necessities
of
a
position
which
each
day
became
more
