That human character, what was it ? Was it simply one character among many ? Was it a superlatively good man side by side with whom there were the Caiaphases and the Pilates, the weak men and the desperately wicked men ? Was it simply one out of many ? No, it had dawned upon them more and more that here He had not only one human character. He had some- thing which drew from deeper depths than that, and covered an infinitely wider area. True, He was very Man, the Word was indeed made flesh, but that which they saw here in the reality of human nature was nothing less than the Divine Being, no other than the Eternal Son. The Word, the Son of God, had been made flesh ; this human character was God's character ; this human love, this human justice, this human severity, this human compassion, are the Divine love, the eternal love, the eternal justice, the eternal severity, the eternal compassion. Verily, it is God made man! And here in the intelligible form of a human character we have disclosed to us the great secret of God. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son — God only begotten — He declared it.
^ In the rays of the sun, the topaz surpasses in splendour all
ST. JOHN I. 14 67
precious stones; and even so does the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ excel in glory and in majesty all the saints and all the angels because of His union with the eternal Father. And in this union the reflection of the Divine Sun is so clear and glorious that it attracts and reflects in its clearness all the eyes of saints and angels in immediate vision, and those also of just men to whom its splendour is revealed. So likewise does the topaz attract and reflect in itself the eyes of those who behold it, because of its great clearness. But if you were to cut the topaz it would darken, while if you leave it in its natural state it will remain clear. And so, too, if you examine and try to penetrate the splendour of the eternal Word, that splendour will darken and you will lose it. But leave it as it is, and follow it with earnest gaze, and with self-abnegation, and it will give you light.i
5. The doctrine of the Incarnation involves the reality of the Divine Sonship of Jesus. " The Word was God." We have here a substantive used as an adjective. The Word was Divine in essential being. And this essentially Divine Being "became flesh and dwelt among us." The man Christ Jesus was the Son of God. Translate the term " Word " into the language of per- sonality, it becomes "Son." Such was the faith to which the Apostles bore witness, into which many who had seen Jesus of Nazareth, and heard His voice, and followed Him, grew. It was a faith which had power to propagate itself ; it knows not how to die.
^ The first preachers of the gospel were aware how the language they used about Jesus would strike the ear, how it would startle men to be told that Jesus had come from heaven to earth ; that the Father had singled Him out from all others, had watched and guarded and glorified Him as the Son of His begetting and His love. They were Jews, with the first com- mandment ringing in their ears, followed by the second and the third, which fence about the Divine Name from intrusive curi- osity and undisciplined fancy and too fervent speech. They knew what their words meant ; how the faith they aimed at awakening would draw men's thoughts more and more to Jesus ; how wor- shippers would no longer seek to scale the distant heavens, but would let affection settle, and the heart's worship centre, in a human life. They knew that a passionate loyalty would be kindled toward Christ; that tragedies of devotion would result
* M. Maeterlinck, Ruyshrotck a/nd The Mystics^ 61,
6S THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD
from it; that when once that faith was rooted in the soul it would mean a
Toiling up new Calvaries ever, "With the Cross that turns not back.
And they could not but speak the things which they had seen and known ; this was their deepest faith, their clearest knowledge, their surest certainty, and it must be spoken. And the genera- tions which have followed them have felt the same necessity. The same solemn constraint of faith and confession is upon us.^
* A. Mackennal, The Eternal Son of God and The Human Sonshijp, 18.
The Lamb of God.
Literature.
Alexander (J. A.), Tlie Gospel of Jesus Christy 48.
Banks (L, A.), GJirist and His Friends^ 27.
Bernard (J. H.), Via Dominiy 124.
Bo wen (W. E.), Parochial Sermons, 110.
Duncan (J.), In the Pulpit and at the Communion Table, 442, 462.
Flint (R.), Sermons and Addresses, 197.
Jejfferson (C. E.), Things Fundamental, 225.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : John i.-viii. 40.
Mozley (J. B.), Sermons Parochial and Occasional^ 130.
Newbolt (W. C. E.), The Gospel Message, 61.
Perowne (E. H.), The Godhead of Jesus, 83.
Eagg (L.), Christ and our Ideals, 131.
Simpson (W. J. S.), The Prophet of the Highest, 139.