iii. Characteristics OF Christ.— All character study is necessarily incomplete. A character which could be exhaustively analysed would not be worth the pains taken in making the necessary investiga- tions. The quality of mystery certainly belongs to tlie cliaracter of Christ to a degree that suggests a .source of power, deeper and less restricted than that which would suffice to explain shallower and more intelligible personalities. No biography has ever comprehended Him ; the intent meditation of nineteen centuries has not exhausted His fulness. It would, accordingly, be both ])edantic and unreal to attempt a logical articulation of the elements of His character or a classilii d lisi c.t His virtues. It seems best, therefore, in lln^ ar'.irl.- to move fi-um the more general to the iihir,> pai tiiulur, with<iut too great rigidity of treatment. We begin, then, with those impressions of His character \\hich are at once the broadest and the deepest.
1. Spiritual-mindedness.— St. Paul's great nhrase in Ro 8^ tpp6rriiji.a toO Trveu/taros, 'the general bent of thought and motive ' (Sanday-Headlam) directed
toward Divine things, which is applied even to tlie best men we know, with reserves ami limitations, exactly exprosse, tla- ]irevaiHnu divectiMn of
Christ^S life aial rl,,i,arl<,. II, j„. s the
spiritual mind ('i a 'I' ji.'^- " liali -taiii|i-, llim as being at once iiiii.|Uc anamu iiirn, ami also true and normal man, realizing the ideal and fullilling tlie duty of man as such. He moves habitually in the realm of heavenly realities. He does not visit it at intervals. He dwells there, even while He walks (ill e;nth, and is fuuiid aiiml the throngs and haunt- Ml 111(11. lie ran 11 ■, V. nil llini the aroma of it> li..!n„,,, aii.l iieare aihl I i|r-,~e,lness. That His <li., iples Nveie -wiili hin.' (.Mk 3'^) was the secret uf tlieir jiveparatiou, the source of any wis-
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(lorn they manifested, any success tliey achieved. The most mature experience of the power of Christ, and the most lofty conception of His person, lind their ultimate warrant in this, that the unseen world becomes visible in His character. Apart from this, they are composed of things so unreal as feelings anil opinions. Illustration and proof of the siiirltual-mindedness of Christ are too abundant to be specihed in detail. The following points will suffice to indicate its equality and signi- ficance.
(1) His knowledge.— Yi.e Himself, on one occa- sion, distinguished tlie objects of His knowledge as heavenly things (cTroupdi/io), and earthly things (^7r(7eio, Jn 3'-'). The former are the mysteries of the Kingdom, the counsels of Jehovah, which in the OT He makes known by the medium of the prophets. The latter are the facts of human nature, as that is essentially related to the being and character of God, and is capable of receiving and experiencing the powers and truths belonging to the Kingdom of God. There is no doubt as to the kind of knowledge He evinced, and believed Himself to possess, regarding heavenly things. He is not inquiring like Socrates, nor reasoning like Plato, nor connnenting like a scribe. He knows with absoluteness and fulness (Mt 11-'). He be- holds with immediate direct vision (Jn P* 6^"). He reports what He i sees and hears (Jn 3" 8™ 15'=). ' He does not in any formal way teach the religion which lives in Him. . . . The thing itself He merely expresses, nay, still more presupposes than expresses (Beyschlag).
Christ's knowledge of earthly things, i.e.. His insight into the subjective experiences of men and the moral condition of their .souls, has the same note of absoluteness ; and His judgments upon them and His dealings with them have an authority and finality which would be unwarrantable did they not rest on perfect discernment (Mk 10-', Lk 7'», Jn 1«- ^ 2=-"). Of this He Himself could not but be aware ; and, indeed. He expres.sly made it His claim (Jn 13'*). Peter's heart-broken appeal ( Jn 21") belongs to the incidents of the Forty Days, and so cannot be used directly as jnoof ; but no doubt it reflects the impression whicli the historic Christ made upon those who knew Him, viz. that He saw into their inmost souls with a discernment as intiin.ate and deep as God's, which, like God's, could neither be evaded nor hindered.
Whether Christ possessed supernatural know- ledge of facts in the order of external nature has been much discussed, but does not now concern us. We are not oven concerned at present witli any explanation of His knowledge of Divine things. But we are bound to note, and to give full weight to the fact, that in the Gospel por- traiture the world of heavenly realities, both in themselves and in their earthly manifestations and applications, is open to Jesus, that He is in complete spiritual affinity with it, and speaks upon all matters that belong to it with delinite and self-conscious authority. Even if His Divinity be denied, it must be allowed that He is a man jjos- sessed of undimmed spiritual vision.
(2) His teaching. — Jesus is not a lecturer, mak- ing statements, however brilliant and luminous, of the results of investigation. He is a revealer, disclosing in 'the mother-speech of religion' the lieavenly realities which were open to His inward eye. His teaching, therefore, is inexhaustible, begettin", in the process of studying it, the faculty of ethical insight, and continuously raising, in the effort to practise it, the standard of the mornl judgment. Yet it retains the quality of spiritual delight which enchained its first listeners. It is gracious in its unfoldings of the Divine compas- sions; in its disclosure not merely of the fatherli-