I God." Hillel, the first Rabbi of the age of Christ, would have said, Blessed are the educated in the Levitical law; "for no common person is pious." But Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." How is it that here we have a character absolutely perfect? Whence came the idea of Jesus? There is only one possible answer. And that answer owns that the one great miracle of Christianity, its sun, to which all other miracles are but the stars, is the character of Jesus Christ! 1 His very words. And yet the Jews, to avoid the force of the powerful argument in support of Christianity of the character of Christ, have intimated that some of his sayings might have come from their Rabbi Hillel; a hint not lost on Rénan in the French novel which he has called "The Life of Jesus." PILAT CHAPTER III. IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED? For we are ILATE'S question, "What is truth?" has been called the question of the ages. made up in such a way as to believe in truth. And no matter how many wrong answers have been given, the fact remains that men will believe that truth is real, and that the truth can be known. This is so, of course, only about what can be proven. And we have seen how careful is the Bible to appeal to evidence. Christianity is a question of fact. It offers proof of its truthfulness in miracle, in prophecy, in peculiar teaching, in the person of Jesus Christ. But every young man opening the pages of his Bible can see that, true at all, the book is peculiarly, grandly true-a kingly book among men's books. The tone of it is unlike anything else in all the literature of the world. It asserts. It speaks with authority. It does indeed give proofs. But it does it easily, incidentally; never with labour, as if men were hesitating and so it must hesitate; never as if doubting somewhat its right to the most direct and positive speech; never as if its absolute authority could be questioned. It is a book that, allowed to have any claim, must be allowed all it claims. True at all, it is true in such a way, and about such things, that there is not nor can there be any other such volume on earth. Nor is this claimed for the Bible simply on the ground of its literary character. It has indeed poetry that is sublime, history that is dramatic in its form and careful in its fact, and narrative that is unequalled in simplicity and dignity. These are the indubitable marks of human genius. It needs no proof that some of these writers-the claim is not made for all-were men of exalted ability. They have made a book that is without a peer. It stands up alone, apart, peculiar in its claims, giving evidences of its truthfulness, and compelling homage for the genius that irradiates its pages. And now comes the further inquiry as to this book, the truthfulness of which we have already ascertained, whether besides human genius there is also divine guidance; whether God had anything to do with this book in a sense in which he |