3. The Lord speaks here, indeed, in a manner that is all His own. Nothing is more profoundly characteristic in His words, from first to last, than His witness to Himself. It is one of the main phenomena of the gospel, most perplexing on the theory of unbelief, most truthlike on the theory of belief — this self-witness of the Man of humility and sorrows. He, the sacred exemplar of all self-denial, yet always and immovably presents Himself in terms of self-assertion, and such self-assertion as must mean either Deity or a delusion, moral as well as mental, of infinite depth.
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398 CHRIST'S WITNESS TO HIMSELF
" I am the truth ; I am the life ; I am the bread of life ; I am the true vine; I am the good shepherd." We have but this same tone, perfectly retained, when here the same Voice speaks from amid the realities of the unseen. The imagery, indeed, is lifted to the scenery of the firmament ; He who is the genial Vine, and the laborious Shepherd, now also reveals Himself as the Star of Stars in a spiritual sky. But the new splendour of the term only conveys the truth which had always stood in the very front of the testimony of Jesus ; the truth of His own sacredness and glory ; the doctrine that He, the Son of the Father, is the ultimate peace, and hope, and joy, of the soul of man.
The Eoot and the Offspring of David.
**I am the root and the offspring of David."
1. In these words Jesus speaks to us as the historic Christ, the Messiah so long expected, who entered human life in con- nexion with a definite human family and race in a definite part of the world. The root of Jesse in time produced the branch; in His human nature He was the descendant of Israel's famous king. Independently of all theories and interpretations, the Church must continually be going back to the historic Christ if she would keep true to the original gospel. And the facts recorded in the Gospels — we must grow familiar with them, meditate on them, search their significance until they become living truths to us. " I am the root and the offspring of David " ; so He speaks, using the language of men, revealing Himself to us in the terms of a perfect human life. We think about Jesus Christ, and, guided by St. John and St. Paul, our thoughts travel wide and high, until, please God, we find that all things are by Him and in Him and unto Him ; He is the Centre, as He is the Beginning and the End of all ; we cannot explain the universe apart from Him. So the Church has built up her Divine philosophy on the foundation of the incarnate Word, the Keason, and the Utterance of Almighty God. But the Church throughout her history has found it necessary to balance her high and large philosophy by laying equal
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emphasis on the facts of Christ's earthly life. Dearly as she values the philosophy of the Incarnation, the Church can never afford to lose touch with Jesus of Nazareth, who lived in Galilee and Judaea and died upon the cross.
^ There is one lecture, delivered at this period, in 1874, which contains much that is original and powerful, on the all- important subject of our Lord's Divinity. It was the first of a series given to the students of the English Presbyterian College. As a Jew, Dr. Saphir throws himself into the very period and circumstances of his fathers at the advent of Christ. ... He concluded his lecture with this very touching personal testimony :
" I was brought up in my childhood in the synagogue, and was taught that there was one God, infinite, incomprehensible, holy Spirit; high above us and omnipresent. Much stress was laid on the unity and unicity of God. But this bare, vague, and abstract Monotheism leaves the mind in darkness, while the heart is chilly and desolate. There was another and a better current which then influenced me. It was the national history, as recorded in the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and com- memorated in the festivals. There I was met by no abstract idea of unicity, but by a loving God, who appeared unto Abraham and spoke to him ; who led Israel through the wilderness and dwelt among them; and after, when I thought of the friendly, kind, concrete, and human way in which the Lord God then appeared unto His people and dwelt with them, I wondered why He was not now with us, known, loved, and followed.
" One day I was looking at some books, and the title of one arrested my eye. It was Die Menschwerdung Gottes — God becom- ing man. The thought went through my mind like a flash of lightning; it thrilled my soul with a most joyous solemnity. ' Oh,' I said, ' this would be the most beautiful thing, if God were to become man and visit us ! ' Not many years after I heard about Jesus, and read the Gospels. I felt here the same presence, the same loving, condescending, redeeming, and sanctifying God, that appeared unto the Fathers. I felt that here was Jehovah ; that all darkness had disappeared, and that the grand but inconceivable glory here shone upon us in the perfect, peaceful, and holy counten- ance of the man Christ Jesus. Peniel ! I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. ... To believe in Jesus, the Son of God, is not an abstract dogma, or a theosophic speculation, but a soul-experience, a new heart-life. It is the mystery of godliness. May the result of all we learn and experience on earth be summed