and has changed the estimation of this quality in the eyes of mankind. ' I am in the midst of you as he that serveth ' (Lk 222"), jjg would say, or show them even more vividly in deed ( Jn 13^'). ' I am meek and lowly in heart' (Mt IP*) was what He felt as He welcomed the weary, and gave thanks that the highest wisdom was ' revealed unto babes. ' Yet never were such tremendous assertions made by any one about himself, or such unfaltering emphasis laid upon the place he must hold in the eyes of others, and the claims he made upon them : ' He that loveth father or mother . . . son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me' (lO^^-ss). < The Spirit of the truth shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine ' ( Jn IG^'^"^^). Again, the stern independence which would not bend to make a ' hard saying ' more easily acceptable, but would let all who would not receive it go their way, even if His closest intimates were to be included (6^^"''*), and which justly called forth F. W. Robertson's re- joinder, ' Don't care was crucified on Calvary,' was no less characteristic of Him than that craving for sympathy which Avent with His sensitive and afiec- tionate nature, and led Him to beseech the com-. panionshijD of those whom He could best trust in such hours of agonized prayer as are recorded on the Mount of Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the one hand. He always saw things just as they are, undistorted by His own feelings, unconcealed by custom or convention, neither excused nor glorified, if faulty, by their associations, nor hackneyed or degraded by their common abuse. This holds equally of the smallest details of the natural world (Mt IF) or of human life (Lk 14'' IS^- "), and of the greatest forces at work in the world (Mk 13'-). All this marks Him out as a genuine realist. But, on the other hand, beyond all others He was an idealist. F'or Him the most real world was that Kingdom of heaven which He always felt to be ' at hand ' — within direct and instant reach. It was His own most positive ex- perience not to 'live by bread alone,' but to satisfy the needs of His nature with food and drink that were spiritual ( Jn 4"- "■ 2^). The story of the Temptation is perhaps the purest idealism ever written : but glimpses into His thoughts which are subsequently aiforded show how the habitual work- ing of His mind was on no lower level of idealism (Lk lO^^--'^). Again, He was intensely individual- istic in His point of view (Mt 6^- ^- "), and, even in the widest sweep of forecast on the fate of the world, did not fail to regard each several individual in and for himself ; in fact, His influence has given the world a different and a deeper conception of the worth and meaning of individual lives, and has gone far towards the making of the best modern thoughts of personality. But none the less He was quite free from the segregative and disintegrating individualism which has been the bane of Puritan- ism and Benthamism and other phases of thought in which the individualist standpoint has been pro- minent. And the aims He set forward were always communal. E.g. His followers were «described as 'a flock,' 'a church,' 'a vine,' in which the sever- ance of a member involved its utter futility. The ' Kingdom of God ' was the one great end for which all were to live and work (6^), careless of personal needs ; and no condition for association with Himself was more imperative than that every one should _' disown himself ' completely (Mk 8^-*-^'). But what is most remarkable of all is not that these and other antithetic characteristics, which are in other cases met with singly, were found in concurrence and in full development in the mind of the Lord Jesus, but that in Him they Avere in such perfect
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MEXTAL CHARACTERISTICS 163
proportion and such intimate relation that they were not opposing tendencies at all. To say that it is impossible to indicate which -way the balance of contrasted impulses inclined, so stable was the equipoise, is not enough. These things, which in other natures are conflicting, were in Him mutually supporting and at one. In nearly all minds one can detect more or less cleavage ami internal strain, but that of the Lord Jesus was wholly annealed, showing onlj' the finest temper without any tension.
The fulness, balance, and unity of the Master's nature make it impracticable to use in His case what is the comruontst and readiest way of portraying a person. This is to throw into the foreground of the picture those features in which the character is exceptionally strong, or those deficiencies which mark it off from others, and to leave as an unelaborated background the conuuon stuff of human nature. Thus by sketching the idio- syncrasies, and casting a few high-lights, the man is set forth sufficiently. But what traits are there in the Lord Jesus which stand out because more highly developed than other features "? Where are His foibles or defects'? Nothing truly human was wanting in Him, notliing was exaggerated. The fact which distinguished Him from all others was His completeness at all points, so that in the first and in everj' succeeding generation of His followers the greatest have declared, ' Of his fulness we all receive ' (Jn 116). And this surely is what we must expect to be its mode if we try to conceive of a Di\ine Incarnation. Even as Christ's power and presence give to such as trust Him 'perfect wholeness' (tkv i'/.ox>.r,p.a.y tiivt-<>, Ac 316), so the power and presence of the Infinite reabzed in humanity is disclosed in a ' perfect wholeness ' which raises every human feature and faculty above itself, and compels the confession, ' In him dwelleth all the plenitude of the Godhead bodily-wise ' (Col 2»). It is difficult to mention more than four features which can fairly be called personal traits of the Lord Jesus. These are : His keen appreciation of the beauty of the natural world : His fondness for little children, whom again and again He held up for the reverence of His disciples, and whom He Himself looked upon with a feeling akin to awe (Mt ISi") ; His love of being on a height (many of the cardinal points in His career were on the hill-tops, just as the crises of temptation were on 'an exceeding high mountain.' and when He wa,s 'set on the pin- nacle of the temple,' cf. lit 5i 14-a \a^ 171 2SI6 , Mk 313); and His love of being oft€n alone. On tlie other hand, if one seeks for personal characteristics due to the marked absence of any- thing that most men share, there is nothing that can be named, except that, unlike others. He was without ' the defects of His qualities.' Thus exaltation never passed into ecstasj- ; zeal never into rashness or one-sidedness ; symi>athy never into sentimentality ; det«nnination never into obstinacy ; conscience never into scrupulosity ; the habit of moral discrimination never into casuistry ; standing indignation against the h\-pocrisies of the day never made Him censorious ; a wonderful tenderness of heart left Him stern and uncompromising ; and an energy which rejoiced in work, and shrank from nothing, never led Hun to be- come exacting towards others or inconsiderate of their weakness.