hief battle-field of the New Testament? Battle-field is a good word. The
fire has been thick and fast, needle-guns--sharp needles--and
machine-guns--Gatling guns and rattling--but no smokeless powder. The
cloud of smoke of a beautiful scholarly gray tinge has quite filled the
air. Men have been swinging away from a man, the Man to a book. But no
critic's delicately shaded and shadowing cloud of either dust or smoke, or
both, can hide away the Man. He's too tall and big. The simple hearted man
who will step aside from the smoke and noise to the shade of a quiet tree,
or the quiet of some corner, with this marvellous bit of manuscript from
John's pen for his keen, Spirit-cleared eye, will be enraptured to find a
_Man, the_ Man, the _God_-Man.

<u>Whom Moses Saw.</u>

What did Jesus say about Himself? The critics of the world, including the
skeptical, infidel critics, seem to agree fully and easily on a few things
about this Jesus on whose dissection they have expended so much time and
strength. They agree that in the purity of His life, the moral power of
His character, the wisdom of His teachings, the rare poise of His conduct
and judgment, the influence exerted upon men, He clear over-tops the whole
race. Surely His own opinion of Himself is well worth having. And it is
easy to get, and tremendous when gotten. It fits into John's conception
with unlabored simplicity and naturalness.

According, then, to Jesus' own words, He had come down out of heaven, and,
by and by, would go back again to where He was before. He had come on an
errand for the Father down into the world, and when the errand was
finished He would go back home to the Father again. He had seen the
Father, and He was the only one who _had_ ever seen Him. He was the Son of
God in a sense that nobody else was, a begotten Son, and the only Son who
had been begotten. Therefore He naturally called God His Father, and not
only that, but His _own_ Father, making Himself _equal_ with the Father.

This statement it was that swung the leaders over from silent contempt to
aggression in their treatment of Him. The Jews understood this perfectly
and instantly. They refused to accept it. Reckoning it blasphemous, they
attempted to stone Him. They were partly right. If it were not true, it
_was_ blasphemous, and their law required stoning. Yet they were fools in
their thought, and not even keen fools. For no blasphemous man could have
revealed the character and mo