AND OF THOSE HE RELIEVED.

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young man come and enroll himself among his followers. He simply tells him to go and obey the commandments. He does not say, "You cannot inherit eternal life unless you immediately and publicly profess yourself a follower of mine," but "keep the commandments." The applicant says in return, "I have kept them from my youth, what lack I yet?" Then says Jesus, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me." This requisition may seem severe and exaggerated, but it is in natural keeping with the circumstances. They who became fellow labourers with Jesus at that day, exposed themselves to the certain loss of property and life. Hence arose an obvious necessity for the young man's disposing of his possessions before he became an adherent of Jesus if he were so inclined. Besides, the great reformer wanted men, not their wealth. The prospect of gaining a rich and youthful partizan made no impression on him, neither did it prompt him to abate one jot of his demands. How singular in Jesus is the alliance of an interest in the cause of truth so strong, that he cheerfully yielded up his life for its sake, with an entire freedom from all undue anxiety about the number of his personal followers! It was upon the departure of the rich young man, who was unable to follow the selfdenying directions of Jesus, that the latter broke forth (how naturally!) with that exclamation, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" How peculiarly must this conviction have been impressed upon him, when he saw one like the young ruler, so amiable and well disposed, to all

appearances so unexceptionable, incapacitated by the influence of wealth to enter into the service of that divine kingdom whose cause required the greatest self-sacrifices.

Once and again, those whom Jesus had relieved from some distressing infirmity by his extraordinary power, would gladly have attached themselves to him, and gone about sounding his fame, but he desired no such heralds. He bade them go home and tell their friends what had been done for them. He directed those who came to him, to obey the Law. If this were done, he had no fear that his pretensions would not be appreciated. With a uniform liberality and wisdom, he distinctly and cheerfully appealed to the good and the true. If any man will do the will of my Father, so far as it has been signified to him, he shall know of my teaching, whether it be true and from God, or whether I speak of myself." "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

The passages which I have just quoted are interesting for the light they throw upon the quality of the faith of Jesus. He virtually appealed to the judgment of all good men to decide the truth of his teaching. He does not address and bribe the passions. He does not seek to intimidate. There is nothing overbearing in his tone. The doer of God's will-to him he speaks. He, he says will discriminate-he will know whether he spake truly. I know not how this mode of proceeding may strike others, but to my mind it is peculiarly original, magnanimous, and calm. It satisfies me perfectly that the faith which Jesus had in his own authority, and in the truth of his teaching, was a true.

HE CONCEALED NOT THE PERILS OF HIS CAUSE. 231

genuine faith, and no delusion. Had he been carried away by a blind enthusiasm, he would have been impatient and peremptory. There would have been a feverish anxiety to produce conviction. But we witness nothing of this kind. All is composed and serene, and he quietly awaits the judgment of all good men, never hasting, never resting.

As a general remark it is undoubtedly true, that the truth of any statement is not established merely because its author is proved to believe it. He may deceive himself. But if his faith bears all the tokens of a true and healthy faith, of being based upon true grounds, if there is nothing narrow, incoherent, hasty, or exaggerated in it, then, though we see not the foundations upon which it rests, yet we know that it is not an air-castle, but a true temple not built with hands, whose builder and supporter is God. Such, it seems to me, was the faith of Jesus. And for my part I freely say, that, even were all other evidence wanting, I should believe Christianity to be of divine origin simply because its author believed it, and feel that I stood upon no doubtful ground. His faith shows itself in every feature to be a true faith, the offspring, not of the imagination, but of living truth. It was no hallucination of mind, but true conviction.

66 If any man come to me," said he, "and hate not his father and his mother, he is not worthy of me." This passage, Iknow, has been the cause of some cavil. It furnishes powerful evidence in favour of the New Testament as an honest narrative. If Jesus Christ did not actually utter these words; if the historians had been eager to embellish their accounts of him; had they had any object but to tell the truth, they would

hardly have thought of putting such language into his mouth. That he uttered it, I cannot but believe; and it must satisfy the intelligent and candid to consider that it is a strong oriental expression of an impressive truth, namely, that no one was worthy to co-operate with Jesus in the arduous work of regenerating the world, who was unable to rise above the strongest ties of nature and affection. He who could not surrender father and mother, and all earthly friends for truth's sake, was unfit to be its advocate and servant. Thus fully and faithfully did the Founder of Christianity depict to those around him the perilous nature of his service. He represented all the trials that awaited his adherents, in the strongest light. He manifested no concern to collect a party and build up a sect. "Not every one," said he, "who saith unto me Lord, Lord,' shall be admitted into my kingdom, but those only who do the will of God." His practice, as we have seen, conformed with this declaration. And, though longing intensely for human sympathy, and full of those affections which yearn after human fellowship— affections not superseded or overlaid, but invigorated by high communion with the Father of Spirits-and regarding man with a more than brotherly interest, yet not every one does he seek for a friend and follower. The few who attended him deserve not the name of a party. They were to him more like a family circle, bound to him by no oath of allegiance, but by the informal, natural bond of reverence and affection. As to the highest and dearest purposes of his soul, he lived and died a solitary being. No one understood him. As he himself said, he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister-not to be magnified and worshipped

66

29 THIS VOICE CAME... FOR YOUR SAKES.

233 as a master, but to labour and bleed as a faithful and unwearied servant.

I have already referred to the passage which records the utterance of a voice from heaven, as an illustration of the perfect honesty of the narrators. But how strikingly was the greatness of his mind shown on that occasion! Whether it were an articulate voice that was heard, or, as was said by the people that stood by, only thunder, natural enough would it have been, had Jesus taken advantage of so remarkable an occurrence to magnify himself, and increase his own influence. But with that disposition to put himself aside, which was one of his most original characteristics, he instantly declared, "This voice came not for me, but for your sakes." The circumstance is related with such unconscious honesty; it is identified with so fine an illustration of the moral greatness of Jesus, that it is impossible to doubt that something extraordinary did actually occur. Which it was, a supernatural voice, or a peal of thunder, I do not pretend to determine. If only the latter, it would be sufficiently startling, occurring at the moment it did, and in an age when thunder and lightning were among the most mysterious phenomena of nature. Still that this is the record of a fact, the whole structure of the passage shows. Were it a mere fiction, it is impossible to conceive how a writer, so much under the influence of a love of the marvellous as to think of exalting Jesus by fabricating a miraculous circumstance, could ever have dreamed of putting into his mouth such an interpretation of the event.

His conduct towards the disciple who betrayed him,