hand; it was no other than the spirit of obedience and fidelity, of loyalty and love to God, and service of men, and that it could only grow gradually and despite much opposition. His teaching was illustrated by his life. He seemed utterly careless of the things for which men generally are most eager, -wealth, fame, social position, power. He lived wholly for others. The contradictions of his character constitute an enigma which the world has never been weary of studying: his fearlessness in defending others, and his meekness when assailed himself; his quiet assumption of authority over his followers, and his absolute self-abnegation; his purity of life, and his understanding of and sympathy with every form of sin; his unassailable dignity and his approachableness; his disregard of the conventions and ceremonies of religion, and his transparent devoutness of spirit; his humility and his challenge to his enemies to search the record of his life for a flaw; his reverence and the familiarity of his intercourse with God; his joyousness and his participation in the sins and sorrows of the world.1 The leaders of his time arrayed themselves against him as an iconoclast; the people regarded him with admiration as a prophet; his immediate followers believed that he was the One of whom the ancient prophets had spoken as he that was to come and bring with him a new and divine life to the world.

1 See, for an admirable presentation of this contrariety of character in Christ, chapter x. in Nature and the Supernatural, by Horace Bushnell.

After his death they recalled and recorded his first sermon, in which he had declared that he had come to fulfill those ancient prophecies; his private conversations with them, in which he had indicated still more clearly this as his mission; the trial scene before the Jewish Sanhedrim, in which, put upon the stand and under oath, he had affirmed that he was the expected Messiah; the trial scene before the Roman procurator, in which he had affirmed that he was a king, and had come to establish a kingdom on the earth, not by force of arms, but by force of truth. His death disheartened and scattered his followers; but their faith in his resurrection gave them new courage and a new understanding of him and his mission. Since that time, and apparently due to his influence, a new life has appeared in the world. He contributed nothing to architecture, yet there are no such noble monuments as those built to his memory; nothing to song, yet his inspiration has created a new order of music; nothing to art, yet his spirit has permeated most of modern art; nothing to literature, yet no one teacher has created so profound an influence on literature as he has exerted; he promulgated no laws and instituted no reforms, yet where the story of his life and death has gone, slavery has been abolished, government has grown more just, war has been ameliorated, education has become general, and in some communities practically universal, and the home has been recreated; he taught no creed, formulated no ritual, and organized no

church, but his influence on religious philosophy has far transcended that of the greatest of ancient philosophers, and his name is mingled with that of his Father in the prayers and praises of the great liturgies of Christendom, and scores of ecclesiastical organizations claim the authority of his name. More than all, his influence has almost created the virtues of meekness, gentleness, and forbearance, and taught the world how to unite them with those of sturdiness, courage, and energy. If he is not the prophet whom Moses foretold, he has done more than all other prophets to interpret the divine nature to man; if he is not the king whom the unknown author of the Seventy-second Psalm anticipated, his spirit has done more than that of all other lawgivers combined to imbue law with a new and humane spirit; if he is not the shepherd whom Ezekiel foresaw, he has done more than all other shepherds to protect and enrich the life of man; if he is not the princely priest whom Zechariah saw, he has done more than all other priests to bring humanity back to God; if he is not the suffering servant of whom the Great Unknown had a mystical vision, his life and death have given to suffering a new and glorious significance.

This is not the place to answer the questions here barely suggested. Yet I cannot close this volume in the life and literature of the ancient Hebrews without saying that I do not see how any one can accept the general interpretation of that life and literature here given, and not see in Jesus of

Nazareth the fulfillment of Israel's aspirations; not see, at least, that he more than any other of the sons of men, more, I will say, than all the other sons of men, gives answer to the four great questions of religion: his god-like character answers the question, Who is God; his simple, spontaneous, earnest and radiant life answers the question, What should man be; his unity with the Father interprets that ideal comradeship between the spirit of man and the spirit of God which should be the goal of all life; his passion tells us what we who possess any measure of that comradeship are to do that we may impart the divine life to others.

INDEX