BELIEF
all who have trusted and followed Him. He Him- self makes the claim : ' I am the way, the truth, and the life ' ( Jn 14*). St. Paiil makes it for Him : ' in whom are all tlie treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden' (Col 2'). This is not the place to unfold the meaning of the claim of Christ to the reverence and trust of all men, nor to set forth His ability to meet all the needs of our nature and to satisfy all our ideals. It would take many treatises to do that work, instead of one brief article. But the scope of the proof may be indi- cated. First, as to the demands which our needs make on Christ ; and, second, as to His ability to meet them. Tlie main demands of our nature may be summed up in the ideals we have noted above: the demand for unity, ithe demand for purity, the longing for beauty and harmony, the tliirst for love and gootlness and fulness of life. The demand for unity, and the belief that unity is there, have led men on towards the conquest of the world, — which conquest has embodied itself, so far as it lias gone, in the sciences and their practical applications and in the philosophies of the world. The demand for beauty and harmony, and its result in the poetries, arts, and beautiful human construc- tions, and in increasing appreciations of the beauty of the Universe ; the demand for goodness, riglit- eousness, love, which has embodied itself in tlie ethical and spiritual life of the world, are illus- trations of the faith of man in the unity, beautj', goodness, and worth of reality, and his own achieve- ments are tributes to the validity of his faith.
But the needs of man make this claim on the perfect human personality. We need One who can reveal to us what human life ought to be and what it may become. We need One who gathers into Himself all the types of greatness that have ever entered into the thoughts of men ; and One who has realized them in His own life and action. But we need to be educated and trained toappreciate the ideal, for it may be, nay, it is, the reversal of many human ideals'. Man has often mistaken his real needs, and has also mistaken the ideals wliieli alone can satisfy them. The first must become last and the last first. The intellectual, moral, ajsthetic, and religious needs of man have sought satisfaction in the pursuit of false ideals, and have not found it. Yet the needs are real and the search was good, and the satisfaction is attain- able. The perfect Iiunian Personality reveals to man how to show reverence to what is above man, love to all his equals, and benevolence to all that is subject to him. He has shown it in His own action, and inspires it in those who trust Him.
Belief in Clirist is thus the outcome of the deepest needs of man's manifold nature, and the prophecy of their complete satisfaction. It means also that there is a revelation to man of what his real needs are. It means instruction, education, training into a true and adequate apprehension of his own nature and calling. He learns from Christ his own value and worth, and the sphere in which these may be realized. He learns how this supreme Personality has thought about him, cared for him, sufl'ered for him, lives for him, and is ever workin" and striving in him and for him. Then, too, he learns, as he trusts Christ, what life and conduct ought to be, and he learns that it is possible through union with Christ to live that life and imitate that conduct. For the furtlier devel- opment of this part of our theme we have to refer to Christian dogmatics, and specially to the NT documents. AVe may also refer to the practical experience of the Christian through the Christian centuries, and to what it has felt and accom- plished.
As to the ability of Christ to satisfy our needs and meet our ideals, we have just to make the .same
BELOVED
reference. We are beginning to understand the cosmical significance of Christ. As our knowledge of the primary revelation of God is widened by the patient and triumphant labours of scientilic workers through the ages, we find increased validity in the process when we reflect that we are following in the footsteps of Him by whom every thing was made that was made. ' In Him all things consist,' and our faith in the Eternal Logos is confirmed as we trace out tlie logos of tilings. Then in the sphere of history we desire a meaning and a unity, we need the belief that a
Sirpose runs through the ages, and we find that of ira, and through Him, and to Him are all things ; that 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,' and that there is a ministry of reconcilia- tion in history. Then comes the personal know- ledge of Him, in His perfect grace, love, wisdom, power ; and the union with Him, till He becomes the atmosphere we breathe, our outlook on life and its possibilities, the source of all our strivings, the goal of all our efforts ; and the only true description of it all is that we are ' in Christ Jesus.