ture, a relation to God, a
freedom from sin, that other men according to the measure of their
godliness would shun as blasphemy. If the personal claim was true, and not
the blind pretence of vanity, the Jesus of the gospels is the exception to
the uniform fact of human nature, but he is no longer unaccountable; and
if his claim was true, his knowledge of the absolute religion, and his
choice of the irresistible propaganda, are no less extraordinary, but they
are not unaccountable. Paul, whose life was transformed and his thinking
revolutionized by his meeting with the risen Jesus, thought on these
things and believed that "the name which, is above every name" was his by
right of nature as well as by the reward of obedience (Phil. ii. 5-11).
John, who leaned on Jesus' breast during his earthly life, and who
meditated on the meaning of that life through a ministry of many decades,
came to believe that he whom he had seen with his eyes, heard with his
ears, handled with his hands, was, indeed, "the Word made flesh" (John i.
14), through whom the very God revealed his love to men. Through all the
perplexities of doubt, amidst all the obscurings of irrelevant
speculations, the hearts of men to-day turn to this Jesus of Nazareth as
their supreme revelation of God, and find in him "the Master of their
thinking and the Lord of their lives."

"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we
have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God."

Appendix

Books of Reference on the Life of Jesus

1. A concise account of the voluminous literature on this subject maybe
found at the close of the article JESUS CHRIST by Zockler in
_Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_. Of the earlier of
the modern works it is well to mention David Friedrich Strauss, _Das Leben
Jesu_ (2 vols. 1835), in which he sought to reduce all the gospel miracles
to myths. August Neander, _Das Leben Jesu Christi_, 1837, wrote in
opposition to the attitude taken by Strauss. Both of these works have been
translated into English. Ernst Renan, _Vie de Jesus_ (1863, 16th ed.
1879), translated, _The Life of Jesus_ (1863), is a charming, though often
superficial and patronizing, presentation of the subject. For vivid word
pictures of scenes in the life of Jesus his book is unsurpassed. Renan's
inability to appreciate the more serious aspects of the work of Christ
appears constantly, while his effort to discover roma