Sll^lll]^ill;.; fr |.li\~i..il ].ain may have been a
pait of liie a_;ony ol' llie ( linden (Lk 22''" ''■', cf. the iiiteriireLatiou gi\eii in lie 5'-*). Naturally the sacred history, which is engaged with things done rather than with inner processes wliich are con- cealed from human observation, and which finds no occasion to trace the course of inner temptations which never result in outward sin, makes no men- tion of the appeal which alluring objects must have made to the sensibilities of the man Jesus Christ. But the Epistle to the Hebrews ('in all
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HUMANITY OF CHRIST
HUMANITY OF CHKIST
points tempted like as we are,' 4'^) sustains the inference which imist nctessarily follow from the possession of a huniaii nature, that there were such appeals to tliclniiiiaiiityuf.Icsus. See TEMPTATION. 2. HU liumon .yniiL — Had Jesus a true human soul ? The answer to such a question is to be obtained only by observing the phenomena of His recorded life, and drawing the necessary inferences from what we see. The statement of fact is, for- tunately, very clear and copious. The moment we study the account of His independent life we find the evidences accumulating that in its inward, as well as its outward, processes it is a truly liuman life. In the temple we find the exercise of a desire — curiosity — and the acknowledgment of mental processes both like those of other men and commanding their respect (His 'understanding,' Lk 2«-'"). In His home in Nazareth He followed a life of obedience (Lk 2°' 'subject'). As He grew in stature, so He did in ' wisdom ' (Lk 2*- ffo^k, 'varied knowledge of things human and Divine,' Grimm-Thayer). At His temptation He showed an intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures (Mt 4'- ''■"). His discourses moved along accord- ing to the laws of human address, idea suggesting idea according to the laws of natural association. The lower ranges of reasoning are pursued by Him as by others, and once He even expresses His thought syllogistically (Jn 8"). But the higher ranges of reason, the intuitive knowledge of the meaning of great trutlis, were peculiarly His, as is seen in the wider interpretation of the OT (Mt 517. 21-48)^ a.nd in the lofty ethical standard which He sets up, itself another instance of the larger interpretation of the OT, forming the still un- surpassed ideal of human conduct, more and more insisted upon in the social struggles for progress in our own time, the binding force and universal validity of the law of love (Mt 22''-*'). To this standard He held Himself (Jn 10'° 17^_Mt 15^ 20**). Thus He manifested at every essential point the possession of an intellect characterized by the same faculties and working by the same laws as our own. The same was no less true of the seji^ibilifics, even those which we are inclined to view as trivial, the undue indulgence of which we stigmatize as weakness. Traces may be found of the operation of every one of the distinct emotions. Thus, for example, He had a love for esteem, mani- fested in His notice of the omission of certain acts of courtesy in Lk T""** ; He displayed the natural affections, such as love of friends (Jn 15'*), of family (Jn 19=«), of country (Mt 23^-^) ; He exer- cised complacent love (Mk 14«), moral indignation (Lk 11«, Jn 8«); His spiritual background was that of joy and peace (Jn 14", Lk 10"'). The %cill wsls moved by appropriate considerations as ours is (Jn T''"), and displays the same sort of activities, being sustained by the operation of the same forces as in ordinary men. Thus the struggle in time of temptation is to maintain His spiritual ideals (Mt 4'-", Jn 12='), and Jesus concentrates His attention, as men who will be victorious in time of temptation must, upon the proper object of human attention, upon the great purpose for which He has (ome into the world (Jn 18" and 19"). The virtues which may be particularly called the vdrtues of the will are exeniplilied, such as persistence, shown in His repeated liealing upon tiie Sabbath (Jn 5'°, l\Ik 3--'), in His teaching su-stained amid the constant evidence that the Jews were inclined decisively to reject Him (of. the discourses in Jn 5 and foil, chapters). Even the more mysterious operations of the subconscious, or better of the supra-conscious, self are to be noted in Him, not merely in the displays of genius which He, as no other man, po.ssessed, but in the manifestations of a power the operations of which first brought it to His
emi'irical con.sciousness (Mk 5'" RV). In fact, the belter psychologist a man is, the more clearly he can see, in the simple narratives of the Gospels, the operations of every fundamental faculty and law of the luunan soul.