^ M. G. Pearse.
I TIMOTHY I. 15 S^
same temptations as he had, only the difference was that my will was to do good and abstain from evil ; that this was not a natural, but a changed will, given me by God ; and although I certainl}' did things of which I did not approve yet it grieved me when I did, and that I was continually striving to overcome these failings. I then expounded the doctrine that, in such a case, will-power would be given to overcome evil in proportion as the desire to overcome was strong. I pointed out that, by his own confession, he desired to lead a good life, and that, as I had already made it clear, his past guilt could be atoned for. Although he would continue to stumble for long after taking this step, I explained how he would be given strength to subdue his natural weakness ; how, as his knowledge increased, and his experience ripened, and his desire tended unswervingly in the right direction, so he would in time come to realize the happiness of doing right, and discover that strength to do it would be imparted to him. After this, without giving any decision one way or another, he broke off the conversation and left me.
It was not until four years and a half afterwards that I learnt the immediate result of our talk. He was preaching to his countrymen, and in the course of his address stated distinctly and unhesitatingly that it was on that day that he definitely resolved sincerely to endeavour to carry out what 1 had advised. He remarked that it was only the perception that suddenly dawned on him of the similarity of my own condition with his that encouraged him to make the effort.^
(2) But it is not only because of that consentient chorus of many voices — the testimony of which wise men will not reject — that the word is " a faithful saying." There is no fact in the history of the world better attested, and the unbelief of which is more unreasonable, than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if Christ rose from the dead — and you cannot understand the history of the world unless He did, nor the existence of the Church either — if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, almost all the rest follows of necessity: the influx of the supernatural, the unique character of His career, the correspondence of the end with the beginning, the broad seal of the Divine confirmation stamped upon His claims to be the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world. All these things come necessarily from the fact. And given the consentient witness of nineteen centuries, given the existence of the Church, given the effects of Christianity in the
^ "W. B. Grubb, An Unknoivn People in an Unknown Land., 225.
84 A FAITHFUL SAYING
world, given that upon which they repose — the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead — the conclusion is sound : This is a faithful saying, that He came into the world to save sinners.
^ If the lowest form of energy, however it may be transformed or degraded, be still conserved in some shape and place, can any one believe that the Author of Life in this world was extinguished on a Eoman cross ? The certainty of Jesus' Eesurrection does not rest in the last issue on His isolated appearances during the forty days ; it rests on His Life for thirty-three years. His Life was beyond the reach of death ; it was Ageless Life. Jesus' Life impressed His generation as unparalleled and inexplicable, a Life with inscrutable motives and incalculable principles. What was its explanation according to any known standard ? Jesus was accustomed frankly to admit that it had none ; that it was an enigma from the earthly standpoint. But He pleaded that it was supreme and reasonable from the Heavenly standpoint. It was foreign here; it was natural elsewhere. He did the works He had seen His Father do. He said the words He had received of His Father, He fulfilled the will of His Father. There was a sphere where His Life was the rule, where His dialect was the language of the country and His was the habit of living. His unlikeness to this world implies His likeness to another world. One evening you find among the reeds of your lake an unknown bird, whose broad breast and powerful pinions are not meant for this inland scene. It is resting midway between the two oceans, and by to- morrow will have gone. Does not that bird prove the ocean it left, does it not prove the ocean whither it has flown ? " Jesus, knowing . . . that he was come from God and went to God," is the Eevelation and Confirmation of Ageless Life.^
2. It is worthy of all acceptation. — This phrase, " all accepta- tion," may mean either of two things: it may mean worthy of being welcomed either by all men, or by the whole of each man.
(1) This gospel deserves to be welcomed by every man, for it is fitted for every man, since it deals with the primary human characteristic of transgression. We need different kinds of in- tellectual nutriment, according to education and culture. We need difl'erent kinds of treatment, according to condition and circumstance. The morality of one age is not the morality of another. Much, even of right and wrong, is local and temporary ; but black man and white, savage and civilized, philosopher and ^ J. Watson, The Mind of the Master, 82.