happiness of man, while it was the most amazing and almost inconceivable display of Divine Love, has presented difficulties even to those who recognise the purpose. The coming of Jesus Christ was a stumbling-block to the Jews. The main lesson of their whole history was that there is only one God. It was set forth in the front of the commandments delivered to them. Their frequent lapses into idolatry were combated by the reiterated assertions of their prophets that their God was the only true one. Therefore we cannot wonder that to their priests and scribes the proposition that there was a Trinity of persons, a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, seemed inadmissible, and that these doctrines must be false. it matter for surprise that after Christianity began to spread there arose innumerable explanations of the doctrine, and that the advocates of each view denounced all the others as heretics. These controversies are in fact embalmed in the Creeds and Confessions which were drawn up to silence them. But even in our own day there are many who are unable to accept the idea that Christ was God, though at the same time they reverence Him as one supernaturally inspired by God.

Neither is

The evidence of His being really God is, how

CHAP. VII]

CHRIST'S DIVINITY

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ever, overwhelming. Since even the opponents of that doctrine concede that as man He was perfectly righteous and holy, they must admit that His own testimony could not be consciously false. No perfect man can be either an impostor or liar. Let us review, then, what Christ said of Himself.

1st. He had power to forgive sins, and he wrought miracles in evidence of that power. Over and over again He said to those who were brought to Him for healing, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee,' and when this power was questioned he added, 'Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.'1

The forgiveness and the healing were granted to those who recognised and believed in His power. To those who in hostility demanded of him 'a sign,' He refused it, knowing that if they had already rejected the evidence of their senses they would accept no further proof. So also He refused to state His authority for the works He

1 Matt. ix. 1-7; Mark ii. 1-12; Luke v. 18-26.

2 Matt. xii. 38-42, and xvi. 1; Mark viii. 11; Luke xi. 29.

did, since the works themselves proved His authority. And His condemnation of those who

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saw His works, but attributed them to Satanic agency, was decisive, for this was the the sin against the Holy Ghost that could never be forgiven. When, in answer to the question put to His disciples, they declared their belief that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God,' He commended their faith; and in the Transfiguration He appeared in His glory to Peter, James, and John. At different times He made to both disciples and opponents the clearest announcements. Nathanael was told, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.' 5 The High Priest was told that he should hereafter see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven,' and like expressions were often used to the disciples, sometimes with the further announcement that then He should

Matt. xxi. 23; Mark xi. 27; Luke xx. 1.

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· 2 Matt. xii. 22-37; Mark iii. 22-29; Luke xi. 14-24.

3 Matt. xvi. 16; Mark viii. 29; Luke ix. 20.

4 Matt. xvii. 1; Mark ix. 2; Luke ix. 27.

5 John i. 51.

6 Matt. xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62.

7 Matt. xix. 28, xxiv. 30, xxv. 31; Mark xiii. 26; Luke

xxi. 27; John v. 17-38.

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send His angels to gather His elect together. This is still further emphasised in the announcement of the day of Judgment, Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Then came the wondrous scenes of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.2 Thomas, who had doubted of the Resurrection, on seeing the wounded hands and feet, exclaimed, 'My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.' Believed what? That Christ was his Lord and his God.

Such is the evidence of Christ's own declaration, irresistible in its clearness and force. Against it we have only the difficulty of believing in two persons being one God, but it is a difficulty of mere human creation. The word Persons as applied to God never occurs in the Bible. It is a term invented by theologians to explain their own ideas as expressed in their creeds. But these creeds are only human expositions, or perhaps they might rather be called collocations of words. They state

Matt. xxv. 31-46. 2 Luke xxiv. 3 John xx. 28, 29.

I

propositions which were not uttered by Christ, and try to explain the Divine by the language of human philosophy. Let us be content humbly to express our incapacity to understand all the deep mysteries of the entrance of the Spirit of God into the substance of a human body. Yet without presuming to explain the methods of God there are some obvious facts, the consideration of which may relieve our minds from the oppression of a faith which appears incomprehensible.

In the first place we may remember that the idea of God and of the Spirit of God was no new thing. In the second verse of the very first chapter of Genesis we are told that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' Again God said, 'My spirit shall not always strive with man.'1 Throughout the whole history of the Jews and in the writings of the prophets there are innumerable references to the Spirit of God coming to men for their direction or reproof. It was a method of expressing the action of God in regard to men, which never occurred to the Jews as involving a separate God. When then a new method of entering into communication with men was adopted by God, by means of assuming the human form, and passing

1 Gen. vi. 3.