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Let it be duly considered that the Old Testament was written by different men, during a period of about one thousand years; and the New Testament by different authors, living in the same age, some four hundred years after: and I think it will appear, that the progressive development of the Revelation through so long a period, and by the instrumentality of so many men in succession; the unity and harmony which, notwithstanding, runs through and binds together the whole; and the entire and peculiar correspondence between the Old Testament and the New, forming as they do, a completed system of types and realities, prophecies and fulfilments, promises and curses, doctrines and duties, at once elevated, sublime, pure, and true;-all together constitute an argument for the Divine origin of the Christian religion, as forcible and convincing, as it is unique, in its character. challenge the production of a similar phenomenon from the whole range of literature ancient and modern, sacred and profane; and demand a satisfactory solution of this on any other hypothesis than that, which maintains that the authors of these books wrote by command of God, and as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

I commend them, therefore, to you as the Law and the Testimony of God. As he gave them, so has he preserved them; and they come down to us freighted with his pure and precious and imperishable truths. Their entrance giveth light and liberty and life. They reclaim the vicious, they establish the righteous; they humble the proud, they exalt the meek; they break the oppressor, they loose the prisoner; they still the avenger, they strengthen the weak. They chasten mirth, they comfort grief; they enlighten life, they conquer death. They expose our iniquity, and provide a ransom; they reveal God's wrath and offer his grace. They proclaim our ruin, and publish a Saviour; they warn us of hell, and point us to heaven. "I testify," therefore, “unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and out of the things which are written in this book." Rev. xxii. 18, 19.

The Character of Jesus Christ,

AN

ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.

BY

REV. JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D.D.,

NEW YORK.

In a contracted portion of ancient Asia, among a people seldom named by the elegant classics, and then only touched by the satiric thong of Horace and Juvenal, or the caustic sneer of Tacitus; in a country without arts and refinements, and without other letters, certain books have been handed down, originating at distant epochs, and carefully preserved to our day. These writings are partly in the language of the nation, and partly in that of their conquerors. From so obscure an origin, these works have spread over a great part of the earth, and are rapidly passing into every human language. Upon inspection they are found to lay claim to a divine origin; and this claim has been admitted, by numbers increasing with successive ages. In support of these extraordinary pretensions, two classes of argument have been alleged, one from external proof, the other from internal evidences. Of the latter there is one founded upon the singular fact, that the whole volume of doctrine, opinion and precept, in these books, revolves about the centre of an individual personage. Omitting for the present all other points, I invite you to consider the argument in favor of Christianity, derived from the character of Jesus Christ.

My first proposition is, that in the person of Jesus Christ, as presented in the Christian Scriptures, we have a perfect model of moral excellence.

The founder of Christianity stands forth in a character absolutely original and unique. The attempt was never made to trace it to any foregoing exemplar. Neither history nor fiction approach to anything which could serve even as the germ of such a description. It is a quality to which justice is seldom done, perhaps from our extreme familiarity with every trait; but it was doubtless felt by the great inquirers of antiquity, when first summoned into the sublime and winning presence. There are

objects in nature, which previous to all scrutiny or analysis, strike us with the impression, This is unlike all we ever beheld before. Such is the august personality of Christ, while as yet unstudied in its more delicata lineaments. The picture is intensely and sublimely moral. With a reserve almost without a parallel, there is not a touch or color thrown in, to gratify even what might be considered a reasonable curiosity. Hence there is not a syllable respecting the outward figure, countenance, or demeanor of our Lord. Even the intellectual development is left under a veil ; while the moral and spiritual representation stands out with the austere simplicity of a sculpture.

Approaching more nearly, we observe that the character of Jesus is not such as would be produced by what is called the Spirit of the Age. In the philosophy of history there is an opinion, common if not prevalent, which refers every commanding personage to the necessary progress of the race. In the judgment of this transcendental school, the man is the product of the juncture, a necessary resultant of forces just concentrated in mature action. That Christ is not such a character, must be obvious at a glance. It was not in subjugated, unlettered Judaism to give birth to such an advent. The effect is too colossal for such a cause. It was not even the felicitous anticipation of an age about to dawn. It is not the embodied genius of any age. The ideal is one which no age of human progress has yet overtaken. We are the more surprised and confounded when we see its matchless proportions emerging from the mists and corruptions of such a period and such a nation. I will go further and assert that the character of Jesus Christ is one which would have been beyond the power of human conception, before its actual appearance.

If we look then more nearly, and inquire what accidental attractions surround the portrait here given, we find the character entirely devoid of the glare which beams from outward circumstance. As if to escape every appendage which belongs to the brilliant personages of human annals, and especially the subjects of fiction in all its forms, Jesus Christ is represented on the stage of simple and ordinary life. There is nothing of secular heroism. Even the platform of the events is a remote corner of ancient civilization, and a contemned province of the Empire. The action, though often great and startling, is within the circle of familiar life. The earthly origin of our Lord is obscure and misapprehended; and he walks among men in humble garb, as the

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