hypocritical spirit over it, the fires of a righteous anger flashed from his eyes as he looked round about on them, and the surgings of holy grief stirred his heart. When he returned to Bethany and found his dearest earthly friends stricken in sorrow over the death of Lazarus, whom he loved as well as they, he "wept" responsive to their tears, and "groaned in spirit" in answer to their sobs. Of all the mourners none were "troubled" more than he. (John xi, 33.) So humanly sincere were all the tokens of his lamentation that even the Jews were moved with pity, and exclaimed, "Behold how he loved him!" (John xi, 36.) No one who considers how Jesus was subject to weariness (John iv, 6); to temptation (Matt. iv, 2); to ignorance (Mark xiii, 32); to death (John xix, 33); and burial (John xix, 42); can doubt his perfect humanity. Eighty times in Scripture is he called the "Son of man." He was "made flesh" (John i, 14); made of woman-showing that he derived his human nature solely from his mother (Gal. iv, 4); bore the likeness of man (Phil. ii, 7, 8); grew in stature (Luke ii, 52); and in all things exhibited the marks of a child of Adam's race. As a son he was filial and obedient (Luke ii, 51); as a youth he was bright, respectful, docile (Luke ii, 47-52); and as a man pure, truthful, humble, patient, benevolent, prayerful, forgiv ing, and tender of heart. He was a loyal and law-abiding citizen, teaching both by example and precept the duty of sustaining civil government. (Matt. xvii, 24-27.) His obedience to divine law was also exemplary. He did precisely what is required of us, and manifested to the world a full development of what perfect obedience to God's law is and does. "How like heaven," says one, "would this world be if men were once to obey God's law as Christ did!" God approved the spirit of the man Christ Jesus. He not only loved his eternal, co-equal Son, but his heart flowed forth in complacency, approbation, and affection towards the obedient Savior. And as God loved him, so should we. We should count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Without the taint of either inherited or actual sin, and therefore perfectly fitted to become our sacrifice, he stands forth as indeed the chiefest among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely. He is our matchless friend, our elder brother; suffering, yet patient; tried, yet through prayer and faith sustained. We see him weary at the noontide by the well, yet toiling on in the work his Father had given him to do, and the example inspires us to similar endeavor. In no practical aspect does his example lie above the sphere of humanity; so that the obligation to follow, and even attain unto it, should be the burden of every con

science, the plan of every life. Apart from the richer excellency his human nature may have had by intimate alliance with the divine, his example should ever lie in our view just where he left it, who suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps." (1 Peter ii, 21.)

THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF JESUS.

Only a general impression of the personal appearance of Jesus can be gathered from the New Testament. "He was free from bodily defects (for so much is implied in the type of an unblemished victim under the law, and otherwise the people would not have recognized in him a prophet, while the Pharisees would have been sure to throw any physical deformity in his teeth); but his exterior could have presented nothing remarkable, since Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener (John xx, 15), and the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke xxiv, 16), as well as the apostles at his last appearance by the sea of Genesareth (John xxi, 4), did not at first recognize him; but his form then probably bore many permanent marks of his severe sufferings. The whole evangelical narrative indicates sound and vigorous bodily health. In look and voice he must have had something wonderful (John xviii, 6), but at the same time engaging and benevolent: his outward air was the expression of the high, noble, and free spirit dwelling within him."

There are several ancient, but scarcely trustworthy, descriptions of our Lord's personal appearance, one or two of which may be subjoined. The first is reported to have been composed by a Roman officer named Publius Lentulus, and when translated from the Latin, reads as follows: "A man of tall stature, good appearance, and a venerable countenance, such as to inspire beholders both with love and awe. His hair, worn in a circular form and curled, rather dark and shining, flowing over the shoulders, and parted in the middle of the head, after the style of the Nazarenes. His forehead, smooth and perfectly serene, with a face free from wrinkle or spot, and beautiful with a moderate ruddiness, and a faultless nose and mouth. His beard full, of an auburn color like his hair, not long but parted. His eyes quick and clear. His aspect terrible in rebuke, placid and amiable in admonition, cheerful without losing its gravity: a person never seen to laugh, but often to weep."

Tischendorf discovered another description of Jesus, said to have been written by Epiphanius (in Greek) as follows: "My Christ and God was exceedingly beautiful in countenance. His stature was fully

developed, his height being six feet. He had auburn hair, quite abundant, and flowing down mostly over his whole person. His eyebrows were black, and not highly arched; his eyes brown and bright. He had a family likeness, in his fine eyes, prominent nose, and good color, to his ancestor David, who is said to have had beautiful eyes and a ruddy complexion. He wore his hair long, for a razor never touched it; nor was it cut by any person, except by his mother in his childhood. His neck inclined forward a little, so that the posture of his body was not too upright or stiff. His face was full, but not quite so round as his mother's; tinged with sufficient color to make it handsome and natural; mild in expression, like the blandness in the above description of his mother, whose features his own strongly resembled." This latter description bears evident marks of being a later fabrication than the former.

EMINENT WITNESSES.

Christ is the key to the history of the world. Not only does all harmonize with the mission of Christ; all is subordinated to it. When I saw this, it was to me as wonderful and surprising as the light which Paul saw on his way to Damascus. (Von Muller.)

Jesus of Nazareth, the purest among the mighty, the mightiest among the pure, who with his pierced hand has raised empires from their foundations, turned the stream of history from its old channel, and still continues to rule and guide the ages. (Richter.)

Whatever be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed; his worship will grow young without ceasing; his legend will call forth tears without end; his sufferings will melt the noblest hearts; all ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus. (Rénan.)

Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne, and I, myself, have founded great empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded his empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men; and I am a man: none else is like him! Jesus Christ was more than man. (Napoleon Bonaparte.)

I suppose that seasons of religious doubt come to every man. But I have noticed this in my own internal experience, that the older I grow the less do I care about dogmas and theories, and the more do I care for the beauty and force that are a part of Jesus Christ. There is no possible means by which any man or any number of men

could have created in fiction a character like his. It is the very highest type of manhood, and the high ideal which any man feels he has a right to imitate, even though he knows he can not reach it. (James A. Garfield.)

Just what the human heart 'everywhere most needs is met in and by the historical Christ. All the human sympathy and human tenderness and fellow-feeling that could possibly be required by the lowliest children of the world in order to make them feel that he can be trusted, is found in Jesus. But that sympathy and identification on the part of Christ with our weakness would of itself be a poor offset to the vast needs of a sin-torn soul! Without Christ's power to say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," that best ethical system rising out of Judean soil would never have swept into its support untold millions of the best life of the world during the Christian era. (F. S. Huntington, D. D.)

Personal immortality was brought to light by Jesus of Nazareth, and only by him. All religions and all philosophies had dreams of immortality, transmigrations, transformations, absorptions, vague and shadowy prolongations of existence; but personal immortality, the same man with identity of constitution and character, man hereafter as he is man here, is the resurrection, the life, a central fact in the teachings of Jesus. This form of immortality has its tap-root in Jesus, and from it spring the luxuriant branches of constitutional governments, under which the peoples of earth come to find shelter and marvelous growth. Does not a man whose teachings so impress the history and transform the principles of human government demand from the lightest and least earnest thinker serious investigation of his character and claims? How much more from the candid mind capable of earnestness? (D. C. Kelley, D. D.)

I was born in a Christian family, and in a Christian Church. Parents and friends lived before me, from the beginning, lives which, in strong contrast with the character of the surrounding community, were unmistakably supernatural. Through the subsequent years I have seen innumerable individuals, of many nationalities, whose lives and deaths, in spite of all inconsistencies, possessed the same supernatural character. All these referred the mystery of their lives to the facts of an incarnation of God eighteen hundred years ago, and to the subsequent indwelling of a Divine Person in their hearts. The history of this stupendous event, and the promise of this indwelling, I found recorded in a Book, itself giving, whenever and wherever believingly received, equal evidence of supernatural origin and power. The Bible and the

Church thus present me with Christ. I find his person, life, words, death, and resurrection, and the consequences thereof, to be, when accepted as intended by the evangelists, the key which gives unity to all history, or, on the contrary, when not so understood, an infinite anomaly, neither to be reasoned away nor explained. The very God immanent in nature and in conscience is revealed in this Christ with a satisfying completeness, solving all problems, and satisfying all needsexpiating human guilt, sanctifying human life, reconciling the Moral Governor to his sinful subject, and uniting the Heavenly Father to his child. This objective revelation of Christ in the Bible and in the Church, once accepted as genuine many years ago, has ever since been developed and strengthened in my consciousness by a religious experience, which, however imperfect, has proved continuous, progressive, and practically real, to this day; a power in my life as well as a light in my sky. This confidence grows more entirely satisfying through every renewed examination I am able to make of the historical monuments by which the fundamental facts of Christianity are certified. The authenticity of the records, the definite certainty of the facts, the miracles wrought, and the prophecies fullfilled, are among the best established events in history. If these be denied, there will be nothing left of which we can be sure. The supernatural birth, life, death, and resurrection of the God-man, and the miraculous growth of the early Church, are all to me certainties, implicated in all rational views of the past or present state of mankind. (Professor A. A. Hodge, D. D.)

Find us a better answer to the questionings of our spirits than Christ has furnished! Show us a better ideal of manhood than he has given! Bring us a better testimony to the life beyond the grave than he has borne! Ah! for four thousand years the world tried in vain to return to God, and now that he has come himself to be the way, we will not give him up for any negation. (William M. Taylor, D. D.)

A personal experience of fifty years gives me an absolute knowledge of the saving, uplifting power of Jesus. His word has a power to rebuke, to cleanse, to comfort, to uphold, to enlighten me, incomparably greater than that of any other word which has ever reached me. The nearer I keep to him, and the more unreservedly I trust in him, so much the more tenderly do I feel the love of God redeeming, guiding, and sanctifying me. In the intimacies and friendships of these same fifty years I have found that the purest, sweetest, and noblest of my friends were also those who kept nearest to Jesus. My