p. 188Ladies and Gentlemen,—
In bidding you farewell, I commend to your notice the crowning illustration of the argument I have been pressing upon your attention during the past four years. The story of Christ as rehearsed in the four Gospels must, above all others, appear to you on reflection a story that could not have been written except as the record of things that actually happened—whether you consider the character of the central figure, the quality of his doctrine, the nature of his performances, or the use that was made of the tragic ending of his life. John Stuart Mill truly said something to the effect that the conception embodied in the Gospels was wholly above the level of first century authorship: and Napoleon is credited with the remark that from his knowledge of men, he was certain that Christ was not a mere man.
The force of the argument, Ladies and Gentlemen, requires for its perception some knowledge of the ways p. 189 of men, in actual or recorded cases; and also some acquaintance with the figure exhibited to us in the New Testament. Without some knowledge under both these heads, it might be difficult to bring home the argument with the force that belongs to it. But I must assume, Ladies and Gentlemen, that you are possessed of some degree of that knowledge, and that, therefore, you are prepared to open your minds to the power of the thoughts that press upon us when we contemplate Jesus of Nazareth as exhibited in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The first feeling created in the mind is the great distance between the motives attributed to Christ and those feelings and ideas that are natural to all men. His leading moral characteristic is outside of the circle of feelings that belong to man. It is not such as a fiction writer could have invented or imagined; e.g., “I am come to do the will of Him that sent me.” The one thing that characterizes all men, without distinction of race or epoch, is the impulse to do their own will. This impulse is glorified under various high-sounding names: freedom, independence, liberty, patriotism, etc. To do the will of another is considered inconsistent with “the dignity of manhood.” It is considered the badge of slavery. Yet this is the actuating thought of all Christ’s teaching: this idea of the subordination of the will of man to a higher will.
It could not have occurred to an inventing writer to consider this as an excellence. It must have appeared the opposite of true virtue. Yet it is the constant and overpowering element in the biography of Christ, which is proof that that biography is a sketch from life, and not an invented story. Especially strong does this feeling become when we remember p. 190 that the story was written by men not gifted—by illiterate men, as all agree the disciples were: a story not remarkable for effort to paint a highly-coloured picture, but the reverse. There is no effort of any kind. There is no praising of Christ: not even a complimentary allusion: only a recital in the simplest language of what Christ said and did. And this bare ungarnished recital conveys to the mind the impression of a personality unapproached by ordinary men, a man such as we never meet, such as we never read of in the wide range of human literature, such as we never imagine, except as a reflex of the apostolic narrative, great-minded, dignified, earnest, pure, kind, and powerful, as men never are.
My argument, Ladies and Gentlemen, is this: That the mere existence of such an artless narrative, the production of “ignorant and unlearned men,” conveying in simple language such a sublime impersonation, is of itself an actual proof of the truth of the things narrated. My argument is that you cannot otherwise account for it. If the things narrated did not occur, then they have been imagined, and the difficulty would then be to account for ignorant and unlearned men, or men of any stamp, imagining such things. Imagination cannot rise higher than experience. Imaginative writing is but the putting together of disconnected fragments of things that have been experienced in some shape or form. It is a performance that can be brought wonderfully near the likeness of truth when done by trained and cultured hands. But in this case, the hands are not cultured hands, and the picture exhibited to the reader is beyond the ordinary experience of men.
How increasingly powerful does the argument become when we ponder the doctrines associated with p. 191 the principal figure of the story. It is not only that Christ was strong where men are weak; that he was great and commanding where men are small and insignificant; that he humbled himself where men are proud; that he “went about doing good” where men go about promoting their own advantage; that he shewed a zeal for God where men exhibit concern for their own honour; that he was holy where men shew relish only for the “desires of the flesh and of the mind;” that he manifested a towering anger against unrighteousness where men are unmoved and indifferent, and that he stooped to the poor where men usually pander to the rich and the great—all these overpowering contrasts are themselves significative of the fundamental difference between this and all other literary works under the sun. But it is when we consider the doctrines that are put into the mouths of Christ and his Apostles that we see the strongest evidence that the Apostolic life of Christ, embodied in the “gospels,” is no work of the imagination, but the simple record of actual fact. It is not in human nature to imagine, still less advocate, such doctrines. Consider them, Ladies and Gentlemen!
It is not only that we are to do to others as we would be done by, but we are to go a step further and “be kind to the unthankful and the evil.” It is not only that we are to abstain from vindictiveness, but that we are to submit to wrong and to resist not evil. We are not only to believe in Christ, but to lose our lives in the confession of him if such a result accompany it. We are informed by Christ that “he that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for Christ’s sake shall find it.” We are apprised by him that whoso forsaketh not all that he hath (when the call of allegiance to him requires it) is not fit to be his disciple. p. 192 These are altogether unnatural doctrines, and become intelligible only on the supposition of the truth of the things narrated by the Apostles—that Christ is the Son of God and was manifested in the world to seek and to save the lost, of which he gave evidence that will stand to the end of the world, in his miraculous performances, crowned by the stupendous miracle of his own resurrection.
And now consider the larger sentiments surrounding and inspiring his work and that of his Apostles. They are such as could not have been imagined at all. They lay hold of God. Men can understand the saving of a man as a work of philanthropy; but this was but a small element of the work of Christ as presented by Christ and the Apostles. Its chief bearing was heavenwards—not earthwards. “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do.” “I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou hast given me out of the world.” This is Christ’s definition of the essence of his work—the glorification of God. It is what the song of the angels put first at his birth, “Glory to God in the highest.” It is what Paul strongly enforced: “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things that are despised hath God chosen; yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
This sentiment will be found running through the p. 193 entire system of New Testament teaching. If Christ is preached, it is but as its highest embodiment. “God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name . . . that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The impossibility of invention here must strike you forcibly. I submit, Ladies and Gentlemen, the sentiment is above and beyond man. Its prevalence in the apostolic writings can only be accounted for on the principle that what is written is true. If you introduce the supposition of fiction or untruth, you involve this literary problem in impenetrable darkness. It is not soluble on any principle but that Christ appeared and did and said the things recorded—from which it would follow that all he said was true.
The same conclusion is yielded by the prominence accorded to his crucifixion and the character imputed to it. It is put forward as the declaration of the righteousness of God with a view to man’s forgiveness on his humble identification therewith in faith and obedience. What man left to himself could have guessed such a view of the transaction? What man left to himself would have thought of teaching that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” I put it to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, as having some acquaintance with the thoughts and ways of men, whether it is conceivable that an inventing historian (who would of course be an historian writing with human motives and human ideas) could have imparted such a colour to the apparently common-place occurrence of the public execution of a reputed criminal. p. 194 And so with his resurrection, not discussing the evidence which exists of its actual occurrence; looking merely to the ideas associated with it in the apostolic proclamation; it is impossible to account for the place it occupies in the New Testament on any theory of the New Testament being a work of fiction or legend. It is put forward as a moral effect with moral aims. “By man—(by one man’s obedience)—came the resurrection of the dead.” “For this cause (because he was obedient unto death), God hath highly exalted him. . . . God hath raised him from death, for it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” As an operation with moral aims, it is thus described: “He is raised again for our justification.” “God raised him from the dead . . . that your faith and hope might be in God.” “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins.”
The combined force of these considerations must be decisive with true intelligence in favour of the character of this wonderful history of Christ that has been in the hands of the world for so many years. Ladies and Gentlemen,—It is a true story: a Divine story: the record of Divine operations that visibly occurred among men over 1,800 years ago, whose verity and whose efficacy have not in the least been impaired by the lapse of time. I earnestly press the conclusion upon you. It is the most momentous in the whole realm of human thought: the most imperative of all the laws of logical induction. The apostle Paul is a proper illustration of the right treatment of the subject. He was a man of vigorous understanding, as well as of an enthusiastic temperament: and his estimate may seem strongly worded, but it is one that reason must endorse, and that consistency must emulate: “I count all things but loss for the excellency p. 195 of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him.” “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “That I may preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”