2. But is not permanence opposed to progress ? Our thinking to-day is denominated by the idea of evolution, by the belief in progress. Does not even the mention of a principle of perman- ence in the Christian Church provoke a suspicion of, and an antagonism to, stagnation of thought, fixity of doctrine, and bondage to the dead past? It may be pointed out that this principle of permanence is not a creed or code, a ritual or a polity, but a Person ; and that personal identity does not exclude develop- ment in self-manifestation. Just because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever," is continuity of progress in Christian thought and life possible. On the one hand, the living Christ may and does communicate Himself more fully in the spread of His gospel and the growth of His Kingdom upon earth ; and on the other hand, our apprehension of the meaning of
1 H. C. G. Moule, in The Record, Jan. 27, 1911, p. 88. I THESS.-HEB. — 3 I
482 THE UNCHANGING CHRIST
His Person, and our appreciation of the worth of His work, may and do develop. Within this principle of permanence there is this twofold possibility of progress.
So, if we have Christ for our very own, then we do not need to fear change, for change will be progress ; nor loss, for loss will be gain ; nor the storm of life, which will drive us to His breast ; nor the solitude of death, for our Shepherd will be with us there. He will be " the same for ever " ; though we shall know Him more deeply; even as we shall be the same, though "changed from glory into glory." If we have Him, we may be sure, on earth, of a " to-morrow," which " shall be as this day, and much more abundant." If we have Him, we may be sure of a heaven in which the sunny hours of its unending day will be filled with fruition and ever-new glories from the old Christ who, for earth and heaven, is " the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever."
^ Much in the popular conception and representation of Christianity is in the act of passing. Let it go ; Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever. We need not fear change within the limits of His Church or of His world. For change there means progress, and the more the human creations and embodiments of Ciiristiun truth crumble and disintegrate, the more distinctly does the solemn, single, unique figure of Christ the Same, rise before us. There is nothing in the world's history to compare with the phenomenon which is presented by the unworn freshness of Jesus Christ after all these centuries. All other men, however burning and shining their light, flicker and die out into extinction, and but for a season can the world rejoice in any of their beams ; but this Jesus dominates the ages, and is as fresh to-day, in spite of all that men say, as He was at the beginning.^
^ One of the strongest pieces of objective evidence in favour of Christianity is not sufficiently enforced by apologists. Indeed, I am not aware that I have ever seen it mentioned. It is the absence from the biography of Christ of any doctrines which the subsequent growth of human knowledge — whether in natural science, ethics, political economy or elsewhere — has had to dis- count. This negative argument is really almost as strong as the positive one from what Christ did teach. For when we consider what a large number of sayings are recorded of — or at least attri- buted to — Him, it becomes most remarkable that in literal truth
^ A. Maolaren.
HEBREWS XIII. 8 483
there is no reason why any of His words should ever pass away in the sense of becoming obsolete. Contrast Jesus Christ in this respect with other thinkers of like antiquity. Even Plato, who, though some four hundred years before Christ in point of time, was greatly in advance of Him in respect of philosophic thought, is nowhere in this respect as compared with Christ. Eead the Dialogues, and see how enormous is the contrast with the Gospels in respect of errors of all kinds reaching even to absurdity in respect of reason, and to sayings shocking to the moral sense. Yet this is confessedly the highest level of human reason on the lines of spirituality, when unaided by alleged revelation.^
II-
The Unchanging Christ is a Living Christ.
1. The great glory of our Christian faith is that we have not to do with a dead Christ, but with a Christ who is living still, and who is to all disciples to-day just what He was to disciples who saw and heard Him twenty centuries ago. His biography is not the biography of one who sleeps now, and has slept for ages, in a Syrian tomb ; it is the biography of an earthly life that is con- tinued in the heavens, the life of a Divine Redeemer who is " alive for evermore," the same in love and power as once He was, the unchanged and unchangeable One. The sinful to-day find Him the same Forgiver as of old; the ignorant find Him the same Teacher, the sorrowful the same Comforter, the despairing the same Deliverer, as He ever was. And what He is to-day the same He will be found to be when heaven comes. Every disciple, seeing Him as He is, will recognize at once the same Jesus who loved him, and whom he loved, long before.