fact for them to rest upon. If falsely, the Christians themselves were either ignorant, or cognizant, of the falsehood. Take the former supposition, and you present yourself with the inexplicable theory that what Pliny the Younger called superstitio prava immodica, and imagined would be easily and certainly extirpated, was able to hold its own against all the assaults of learning and philosophy. Take the latter supposition, and you are forced to the incredible assumption that a conscious deception was the fountain of highest and strongest moral force that the world has ever felt. How then did the "pure and austere morals of the Christians" come into existence? From a lie, or from a truth? If from a truth, what was the nature of that truth, in what form was it expressed, and how did it win credence? And, finally, how did "the Christian republic" succeed in maintaining and increasing itself as an independent state in the heart of the Roman empire? Every other attempt to do this particular thing, by secret philosophic doctrine, or by open political organisation, failed, and was violently crushed by imperial power, or silently dissolved by imperial statesmanship. How was it that this one invisible fellowship, this one visible organization, lived, and spread, and

stood out at last, serene, complete, and magnificent, when the time-worn ruins of the empire crumbled around it?

The answer to these questions is found in the person of Christ. This is not a matter of choice. It is a matter of necessity. For if he was, as all candid observers will admit, the originator and animator of Christianity, then to stop short of him in our inquiry as to the causes of its existence and progress is to stop half-way, as if one should account for the flow of the Nile, after the fashion of the ancient geographers, by attributing it to the melting of the snows on the Mountains of the Moon.

Christ stands above and behind the Church, and all these secondary causes which have been enumerated to account for her growth and power flow directly from him. He it was who purified and humanized the zeal of Christians, so that they emerged from the narrowest of races to preach the broadest and most universal of all religions. He it was who cleared and enlarged their view of immortality, so that it became at once important and efficacious, the only doctrine of a future life that has exercised a direct and uplifting influence upon the present life. He it was who endowed the Church with whatever powers she possessed. He it was

who cleansed and ennobled her moral ideals and gave her the only pattern and rule of virtue which has been universally acknowledged as self-consistent, satisfactory, and supreme. He it was who cemented her union and strengthened her discipline to such an indestructible solidarity, that the tie which bound the individual soul to him was regarded as superior to all earthly relations, and the fellowship which that common tie created, surpassed and survived all fellowships of race, of culture, of nationality.

These are simple historical facts. In stating them we make no assumptions and propound no theories. It is not necessary to take anything for granted or to adopt any particular theological or philosophical system, in order to see clearly and beyond the possibility of mistake that all the force and influence of Christianity in the world have, as a matter of fact, flowed directly from Jesus Christ and from the faith which he has inspired in the hearts of men.

The one question of supreme importance, then, if we would understand what Christianity really means, is, Who is this person who stands at the centre of it and fills it with life and strength? What did the first Christians see in him that made them believe in him so absolutely and implicitly and gave them power

to do such mighty works? What has the church seen in him through the ages that has bound her to him as her living Lord and Master? And what are we to see in him if he is to be in deed and in truth the theme of our gospel? "What think ye of Christ?"

This question is vital and inevitable. If we are to have a Christianity which is real and historical, we must get into line with history. If we are to have behind us the power which comes from actual achievements of our gospel in the world, we must understand the relation which it has always held to the person of Christ. If we are to be in any sense the followers of the first Christians, and to share the joy and peace and power of their religion, we must take the view which they took, of Jesus of Nazareth.

I

We are not to suppose that faith in Christ began with a clear and definite conception of his divinity. On the contrary, it is evident from the whole gospel record that the belief that Christ was divine gradually developed and unfolded in the minds of those who knew and loved and trusted him. The idea of an incarnation was foreign to the Hebrew mind. There was no race in the world that held so strongly

to the thought that God was solitary, unsearchable, and incommunicable. They believed that even his true name could not be pronounced by human lips, and that it was impossible for human eyes really to behold his glory. And the very strength of this ancestral faith of theirs, standing as it must have done directly in the way of belief in an incarnation, is an evidence of the tremendous power and unquestionable reality of the experience which forced the disciples, by slow degrees, to believe firmly and unhesitatingly in the divinity of Christ.

The process by which this result was accomplished lies open to our thought in the New Testament. We must go back to the point indicated in the second lecture. It was the impression made upon the disciples by Christ's own manifestation of himself, his character, his actions, and his words, evidently consistent and unique, which led them at last to see in him the divine object of faith and worship. He was not a mere man. That was evident and undeniable. He was higher than men; holier than men; he possessed an excellence and a power which made them feel in his presence that he was more than they were. What then was he? There were but two directions in which their faith could move. The alterna