That this consciousness of a divine mission, and of supernatural communication with God, was in him, and in a manner made a part of his being, we have not only the testimony of his express declaration, but the constant and consistent testimony of his whole conduct, after the commencement of his public ministry. He assumed at once, humble as he was in his outward appearance, to be the Founder of a new religion, commensurate with the human race, and as lasting as time. He laid down its essential doctrines, he showed wherein it was coincident with Judaism, which was the existing religion, and in what it differed. He declared what part of the old religion was retained, and what part was done away. He appointed the ritual of the new religion, and commenced its celebration. He appointed twelve Apostles to be the constant attendants of his ministry, to receive his doctrines, to imbibe his spirit and be the witnesses of his life and actions, and after his resurrection he commissioned them to spread his religion over the world. "Go," said he, "teach all nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you." On this clear, calm, consistent, and unchanging consciousness of Jesus, revealed through all his words and actions, has been mainly based the faith of the Christian world in all ages. They have regarded him as the faithful and true witness, and, dying as he did in testimony to this claim, his death has been understood as a martyrdom to this great fact. His mission was sealed by his blood. By placing this ground of faith at the head, I would not be understood to exclude or disparage other grounds of belief. Christ himself did not. He gave his testimony, but he declared that his testimony was corroborated by his supernatural words and works. "It is written in your law," said he, "that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." These different grounds of evidence remain to the present day, not unchanged in relative strength, but in substance essentially the same. The miracles were conclusive to them who saw them, but they come to us at second hand. As they are recorded in the Gospels by the Evangelists, they are the testimony of a testimony. The miraculousness of the words of Christ consists in their essential wisdom and spirituality. This is not only as manifest to our minds as to those who first listened to them, but more so. The mind of the world has made vast progress, intellectually, since that time. Science and experience have expanded it in every direction. Christianity has developed the moral and spiritual capacities of men, as they were never developed before. Neither man's intellectual nor spiritual advancement has gone beyond Christianity. They are still far behind it. But every step of their progress makes men more sensible how great and wise a thing Christianity is, how sublimely true are the words of Jesus, how necessary it is to suppose them to have come directly from the wisdom of the Omniscient Mind. DISCOURSE V. THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. THEN SPAKE JESUS AGAIN UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM THE If we may believe the history of the New Testament, Jesus was miraculously sent by God to set up a new religion upon the earth, which was to embrace the whole world and continue to the end of time. But in order to do this, it was necessary that he should possess certain endowments. He must possess superhuman knowledge, and must know that he possessed it, in order to have confidence in himself and in his enterprise. No human wisdom was competent to frame a religion for the world. Without conscious inspiration from above, he could not have assumed the position of authority which was necessary to the character of the promulgator of a new religion. The offices of prophet and philosopher are totally different. The philosopher promulgates truth upon the authority of reason and argumentation. He wins others to coincide with him in opinion by argument. The prophet promulgates truth on the ground of certainty, and of course on the basis of an authority which commands, not only assent, but obedience. He who is sent by God has a right, and feels that he has a right, to command. The philosopher only persuades, and feels that he has only a right to persuade. One establishes a religion, the other a philosophical sect. It may be objected, that the certainty from which Christ spoke was only a higher degree of moral conviction, which all men have in a degree. When he said, "There is one God," he uttered only the conviction which is inspired by the consentaneous phenomena of the universe; and when he said that this and that was God's will and law, he only gave utterance to the dictates of conscience, that universal moral nature which God has given to all men; when he said that God would reward the righteous and punish the wicked, he only said what ought to be, and, if God is just and omnipotent, what will be; and, of course, he only prophesied out of that moral and spiritual nature which is common to all men. In that case, he really knew no more than any one else; he had merely stronger moral convictions than the rest of mankind. This ground cannot be taken without questioning his veracity and moral integrity. For he claims immediate, conscious inspiration, direct communication with God, and makes it the ground, not only of absolute certainty, but of just authority over mankind. Not only was there necessary to his enterprise supernatural knowledge, and the consciousness of it, but some supernatural seal from God, confirming and substantiating his assertion. This was indispensable for two reasons. It was necessary for the establishment of his claims to authority over mankind. It performed the same office to them that the voice from heaven did to his immediate followers: "This is my beloved Son: hear ye him." Still more was it necessary to his success with the Jews. Without it, he could not have made a single convert. No Jew would ever have forsaken a religion founded on the evidence of miracle, for one sustained merely by philosophical argument and logical demonstration. Accordingly, the Jews make this continual demand upon him, throughout his whole ministry. "A miracle, a miracle!" say they. "Give us a sign, a sign from heaven. We know that God spake unto Moses, but as for this fellow, we know not whence he is.". Moses had shown them signs from heaven, that is to say, the giving of the Law was accompanied by thunder and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, from the cloud on Sinai. Bread for their sustenance had apparently fallen from the celestial regions for forty years. A religion thus authenticated could not have been superseded by philosophical argument,.nor by any revelation of spiritual truth, however clear and demonstrative, unaccompanied by miraculous testimony. Accordingly, this was the first instrument of his success, before the excellence of his teaching was developed. "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater |