III.] Only in the God-man. 173 Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, Buddha, etc., Locke, Leibnitz, Kant, Descartes, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Cousin, Schopenhauer, Jacobi, Schleiermacher, Hamilton, Spencer. We listen to what they have to say and unsatisfied look further. And is there no help for man beyond all these? Yes, there is still one man, one whom philosophers with one consent agree in patting on the back to-day and in calling "the peerless," but whose testimony regarding the very message which he declares he came to bring from God to man, and which man has been seeking ever since humanity breathed, they almost as uniformly ignore and smile a smile suggestive of contempt, when Jesus' name is mentioned as an authority, or in any relation but that of a far-off sentiment. We can still consult the visagemarred, the spat-upon, the man of sorrows, the crucified prophet of Nazareth. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah ?—Travelling in the greatness of his strength, the mighty to save ?" My hypothesis is, that Jesus the Christ is "God manifest in the flesh," whose simple historical presence provides us with that which all philosophical schools of all times have aimed at but have failed to give, an actual solution of the problem of the relation of the finite to the infinite. I ask as proof of this, that you leave me only those parts of the New Testament, which the most destructive critics are compelled to leave for fear of destroying all history as well, and then the facts of modern history, together with the scientific method. The alpine facts of Jesus' power on modern civilization, and his ever increasing influence must be accounted for. To say that he was a mere man violates all canons of inductive logic. But why not let him speak for himself? He declares his identity with God. "I and the Father are one," he says. And by a strict study of facts on the scientific method, every candid examiner will see that by scientific induction, the Divine is brought within the sphere of 174 "What think ye of Christ?" [LECT. the human. And God finds no hindrance in the constitution of man to the utterance of his thought. Jesus spake in the very simplest language of man, but "spake as never man spake." All He says or does seems wonderfully human, yet every word and deed is a revelation of humanity and of God. The God-head does not complicate or quarrel with the human mind, but gives man the scientific solution sought for in vain by all the philosophies. What is true for man is true for God. My knowledge and my thought are real. I think as I do because He thinks in the same form; the necessary truths of man's reason are the framework of infinite thought.. Towering again above all giants of mind, above all shattered philosophies, rises the one grand keystone locking the arched span which unites finite mind with the infinite, over which with scientific certainty faith may now rejoicing tread, and find that it has been trodden by millions and millions of satisfied souls during the last two millenniums, and which shows no sign of defect or of logical flaw. Come one, come all; examine these things, not credulously, but scientifically, and tell me "what think ye of Christ ?" Is he the son of Mary, the son of God-the God-man; or is he a lunatic, a deluded and deluding imposter, the impudent son of a village carpenter? One of the two alternatives he must be. Which fits the facts most scientifically? And here will come in perhaps the sneer of anthropomorphism-God an overgrown man. Nay, not so; though we know much of God through human powers and through Jesus, yet by an infinity of remainder, by no means all of God. Just to illustrate, let God be an infinite circle: man is an infinitesimal section, whose normal trend is exactly on an arc of that infinite circle; the historical Jesus makes that one arc of God stand out visible, the ideal standard forever of man's highest endeavor, the tangible proof of man's high destiny, the line of man's oneness with God. 111.] The Prince of Peace and Progress. 175 And now common sense can take that all in, for the common people heard him gladly in the days of his sojourn here; common people have heard him gladly all through these ages, and do hear him gladly to-day. True science finds in all this nothing unscientific, though much that transcends all science, and the profoundest sons of science uncover and bow worshipping at the feet of the youthful carpenter-prophet, the King of Kings, 'the Wonderful, Councellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace." 66 And now "Let science grow from more to more, And more of reverence in us dwell, That mind and soul according well May make one music as before, LECTURE IV. THE HISTORICAL VIEW: CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY. Hon. John A. Bingham, on taking the chair, made the following remarks: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: We will be favored on this occasion with two addresses, one upon History and Christianity by Prof. Dixon, the other by Mr. Eby on the great question "What is man?" It needs no one to acquaint us that these subjects are of deepest interest. History and Christianity! God is said to be in them both. Human History is the record of man's origin, his progress, his suffering and sacrifices, his trials and triumphs. Listen to its utterances, its questionings and its responses. Coming up from the past: History's pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness, 'twixt old systems and the Word, Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim unknown In this latest of the centuries, the whole heavens are aglow with the light of a coming better day, when truth and justice will prevail over error and wrong. Concerning man, permit me to repeat the words of George Herbert : "Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him." 1 This reference arises from the fact that the second part of Lect. III. on "What is man?" although published here in its logical connection, was delivered on the same day as Lect. IV. LECT. IV.J Introductory remarks. 177 Yet with all his endowments and infinite faculties, man like the vast universe rolling above and beneath and around him, lives and moves and has his being, only by the favor of that God by whom the worlds were made. It is not to be wondered at that an inspired Monarch, impressed with the vastness, majesty and grandeur of external nature should have exclaimed, "Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? for thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, and hast given him dominion over the works of thy hand." * * I am sure, good friends, you will be pleased to give respectful audience to what may be said by Professor Dixon and Mr. Eby upon these great themes, History, Christianity, and Man. |