H. T//K J'Hi!S(iy or C'linisT. — It is necessai-y that this article should be brought to a close, and the clo.se may .seem rather abrupt. And yet the design which the writer .set before himself is very nearly accomplished. It will be his duty at a later dale to return to his subject on a somewhat larger scale ; and for the present he would con- clude, not so much by stating results as by .stating prolilcuis.
i. The I'rnhlem as it stands. — We have seen that there are four different ways of attempting to grasp what we can of the signilicance of the Person of Christ. Towards these four ways the attitude of different minds will be different. Kor some the decisions of the Undivided Church will be absolutely autlioritalive and tinal. They will not seek to go either behind them or beyond them. Olhei-s will set the comparative simplicity of the (iospel picture against the more iransceiulental and nietaphy.sical conceptions of the age that followed. To others, again, the iiiclure traced in the Gospels will seem meagre ami uncertain by the side of the exalted Christ preached by the
apostles.* Vet otiiei-s will take relu;_'c in the appeal to individual experience, which will seem to give a more immediate hold on Christ and to avoid the necessity and perplexities of criticism. Uthers, still more radical in their procedure, will begin with the a.ssumptioii that Christ was only man, and will treat all the .subsequent development as rellecting the i;rowth of the delusion by which He came to be regarded as God.
This last is a drastic method of levelling down the indications of the divine in history, against which human nature protests and will continue to protest. But, short of this, the other milder alter- natives seem to us to put asunder what ought rather to be combined. They seem to us to pro- pound antitheses, where they ought rather to find liarmony. As the pha,ses in question, distinctly as they stand out from each other, are so many pha.ses in the history of Christianity, they ought to contribute to the elucidation of the Christianity which they have in common.
They ought to contribute to it, and we believe that they do contribute to it. There is, however, room still left for closer study, especially of the tran.iitiiDis. We have been .so much in the habit of studying the (Jospels by themselves and the Epistles by themselves that we have not paid sutiicient attention to the transition from the one to the other. If we follow this clue, it will, we believe, show that the fir.st three (Jospels in par- ticular need .suitplemcnting. that features which in them appear subordinate will bear greater empha- sis, and that the resulting whole is more like that portrayed in the Fourth Go.spel than is often supposed.
For instance, we are of opinion that much of the teaching of ,In 14-10 is required hij the vei-se 2 Co 1.'?'* and other allusive passages in the early Kpp. of St. Paul ; that the comniand of .Mt 28'^ (m something like it) is retpiired by Didarhe vii. 1, 3; .lust. Ajwl. i. (U ; that the teaching resjiecting the Paraclete is rei|nired by the whole Pauline doctrine of the Spirit ; that the allegory of the Vine is required by the Pauline doctrines of the Head anil the Members, and of the Mystical Union ; that the full sense of Mk lO'^;! is required by such pa.s.sai.'es as Uo "r*- -'• 4-' o'^ etc., and the full seii.se of Mk 14-*|| by He !)'»--. And observations of this kind may be very largely extended.
In like manner, while it is certainly right that the conceptions current in the early Church as to the Person and Work of Christ should be rigor- ou.sly analyzed and traced to their origin, full weight should be given to the analogues for them that are to be found in X'l" ; and where they have their roots outside the Bible, even there the elYorls of the human mind to express its deepest ideas may deserve a more sympathetic judgment than they sometimes receive.
And throughout, it is highly important that the doctrinal conceptions, whether of the apostolic age or of suKsequent ages, should be brought to the test of living experience, and as far as possible expressed in tlie language of such experience. The mind and heart of to-day demands before all things ii'ality. It is a right and a healthy demand ; and the Churches should try with all their jiower to satisfy it. If they fail, the lault will not lie in their subject-matter, but in them- selves.
ii. .1 pressing Portion of the Problem. — There is one portion of the problem as to the
• ' We know, literally speakinir, with much prentor certainly what Paul wnilo than w hat .lesus spoke.' ' The centr*' of gravity for the unilerslanillnc of the Person (of t'hrlst) antl of Its sli;iilt1eaiice falls upon wliat we are In the hahlt of calllni; His Work.' Kahler, ./^«IM ii i/.i« .4 T. pp. HJ, CO.
652
JESUS CHKIST
JESUS CHRIST
Person of our Lord Jesus Christ wliicli both in this ciiuntry and in Germany has excited special interest in recent years. In its most concrete (orni this is the question as to our Lord's Human Kno\vledj;e. which, liuwever, runs up directly into wlial is ■;e]ieially known as the (|Uesti()n of the h'riKisis. And thai, a;;ain, when thoroughly ex- annni'd, will be found to raise the whole question ot tlie Two Natures. In regard to this series of connected questions there is still abroad an active spirit ot inquiry.