Christ asserts for man his true dignity and his rightful place in the universe of matter and of spirit. There is no single point in respect to which Christ has wrought so complete a revolution as in respect to the dignity and worth of the individual man. He effected this change, not by teaching a new philosophy, but by living a new life, and consecrating that life by His pitying death. He came to save man, not because man was wise or worthy, but because he was ignorant and lost, and yet could be exalted to wisdom and holiness. Therein did He declare that the lowliest and the most simple have an intrinsic worth in the judgment of God, such as the world had never before accorded to man as man. It was the reproach of Christ, that He consorted with publicans and sinners. His eating with them, however, did not signify that He sympathized with them as they were ; it signified that He knew what they might become. To accomplish His work for man, Christ not only was found in fashion as a man, but, being such. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death — even the death of the cross. In this He attested still more strikingly what manhood, as manhood, is worth in the judgment of God. It is not surprising that the light that streamed from Christ's life and death slowly but surely effected changes so great in all the estimates that Christendom has learned to put upon man.
How great is little man !
Sun, moon, and stars respond to him,
Shine or grow dim Harmonious with his span.
How little is great man !
More changeable than changeful moon,
Nor half in tune With Heaven's harmonious plan.
ST. JOHN VIII. 12 355
Ah rich man ! ah jjoor man !
Make ready for the tenting day
When wastes away What bears not fire or fan.
Thou heir of all things, man
Pursue the saints by heavenward track: They looked not back;
Eun thou, as erst they ran.
Little and great is man :
Great if he will, or if he will
A pigmy still ; For what he will he can.^
(.3) The new ideal of man was set forth hj our Lord not only in His discourses but in Himself. Jesus never taught a systematic and scientific morality. He simply replaced the moral world on its true axis, which is the love of God and of man ; but on no occasion did He attempt a classification of our duties, a complete explanation of the motives, aims, impulses, and restraining forces of our moral conduct. In the Sermon on the Mount, He showed the inner and spiritual nature of the law ; He X-^ointed out what is true purity and love. In His inimitable parables He has taught us, by many examples, what are the conditions of eternal life; but it is, above all, by the manifestation of His Person, and by the radiance of His life, that He has revealed to us the moral ideal of humanity. For the first time, a life absolutely fulfilling the moral law was seen in Him, a life wholly directed by the love of God and man, a life in which there is not an action, a word, a thought, or an impulse of the heart which does not conduce to the glory of God and the good of mankind, and which is not inspired, filled, penetrated by this love. In Him we see for the first time the admirable union of all those virtues which seem contrary to each other, and which usually exclude each other — authority and simplicity, majesty and humility, strength and gentleness, hatred of evil and tender mercy, purity without asceticism, condescension without servility ; so that, to em^jloy an image which the subject affords us, just as the various colours which are separated by the prism — red, orange, yellow,
» 0. G. Rosgetti, Poems, 121.
356 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
green, blue, and violet — vivid and brilliant as they are, form, when united, a perfect white of spotless beauty, so all those different features which compose the form of Christ unite and blend in a harmony so extraordinary and so lifelike that it is imprinted for ever on the conscience of mankind. Through Him, light has for ever been thrown upon man. In Him, man has been seen as he ought to be. This great example stands before us ; and wherever it is seen, the absolute return to darkness is impossible. Doubtless the powers of darkness may fall at times on portions of humanity ; baseness, lying, hypocrisy, and violence may even shelter them- selves under the name of Christ ; but misconception and confusion will not last long; the light will at length be triumphant, the delusive shadows, the hideous nightmares, will disappear, and, in the fair and glorious daybreak of morning, justice, purity, and love will shine forth resplendent.
^ Science is teaching us lessons concerning the physical structure of the universe. The same stuff is ablaze in Sirius and the Sun and the flaming heart of the earth, and so Jesus Christ gives us the moral unity of all the worlds. The setting of the next life we can little imagine, but this we know, that God's ideal of life is Jesus Christ. We are to be like Him. That is the real predestination. He who in both worlds delighted to do His Father's will, suffered with brave hope, obeyed with changeless fidelity, served with supreme, unfailing love, is the universal type. God tells us that it is enough to be like Him. The words He uttered, " Good and faithful," are negotiable in both worlds. Character and capacity are all of life that we can take with us when death swings open the door from this into the next room in our Father's house.^