118 CHRIST AS A TEACHER. almost seem to require another Messiah to do justice to the first. It is not for this age,-far less for this feeble pen, adequately to portray his pure spiritual glory. That I approach this subject, therefore, with a diffidence almost amounting to despair, I pray the reader to believe. Happy shall I be, if to a single mind I can communicate one quickening impression, or impart one inspiring glimpse of him, in whom are hid untold treasures of life, and truth, and beauty. If on any occasion it is appropriate to invoke the inspiration of a higher power,-if my heart ever heaves with unuttered prayers for light and grace,— for the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, it is when I approach this theme with a desire to depict its glories. What eye, dimmed by mortality, shall behold Jesus Christ as he is! I proceed now to consider, at length, some of the prominent traits of the character of Christ, as they may incidentally be gathered from the facts which make up the body of the Christian histories. I shall anxiously endeavour to make no assertion which these facts do not fairly justify. Our first topic is the character of Jesus as a Teacher. With respect to his style of teaching, there does indeed occur here and there in these narratives, a remark of a descriptive character. We are told, for instance, that the people were astonished at his teaching, "for he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes," not as the common teachers of religion, and again, "that he employed CHRIST AS A TEACHER. 119 parables." But these things are incidentally said. They are not stated as formal propositions to be anxiously illustrated and made out, but rather as conclusions forced upon the notice of the writers, so that they could not help stating them. The first thing remarkable about Jesus as a public teacher was his entire freedom as to times and places. On one occasion he was seated for the purpose of instruction on the side of a mountain; at another, in a vessel cast off a little way from the shore crowded with auditors. Again we find him discoursing among men of profligate lives and tax-gatherers, that odious class of persons; and again, at the entertainments of the rich and honourable. There does not, however, appear to have been any affectation in this. For at the same time, he never scrupled to enter the synagogues, the consecrated places of instruction, on the Sabbaths, the stated occasions of religious service, and to teach in accordance with the usual forms. He spoke freely and spontaneously wherever the opportunity offered, either when in the open air and on the highway, or in the synagogue or the temple. By this simple and natural method, all that he uttered acquired a freshness and force of which the formal expositions of the regular teachers of the day were destitute. He confined himself to no set times nor places. He availed himself of no laboured modes of instruction. His teaching was exclusively oral, and this of the most informal character. He used no paper nor parchment. He committed not a word to writing. While he was thus original, he did not 120 CHRIST AS A TEACHER. affect originality. He never sought to magnify his own method of proceeding by denouncing any other. There is a uniform simplicity or unconsciousness in his bearing as a teacher; his peculiarity in this respect is the absence of all peculiarity, the entire freedom from all technicalities. How striking the contrast between him and all other teachers! Although he employed none of the usual means of extending his religion, how wide is the sphere through which his words have ranged! "A poor uninstructed peasant," I use the eloquent language of another,* “ by labouring for three years in the most despised corner of the most despised nation on earth, whose whole territory is but a speck on the map of the world,-laid the foundation of a work which was to survive the changes of empires, and the ruins of the philosophies and religions of man. And this, without seeming to make provision by any means adequate to such an effect. Other teachers have committed their wisdom to writing, lest, being entrusted to words which are but breath, it should be dispersed and lost. But Jesus confided in the divine energy of his doctrine; and, with an unconcern truly sublime, cast it abroad to make its own way and perpetuate its own existence. Other instructers have elaborately wrought out their systems; have sometimes clothed them in eloquence which seemed little less than inspiration, and promised perpetual continuance to their influ * H. Ware, Jr. CHRIST AS A TEACHER. 121 ence over men. Yet how small and short has that influence proved! How have their sects disappeared! And by how very few are their works even read, though still accounted among the perfect productions of the human mind! While Jesus, uninstructed in human philosophy, with no attainment in the elegant learning of the world, teaching but for three years, and putting not a syllable upon record-has yet made his instructions as familiar to the nations as their own native tongues-has bestowed on the humblest of his followers a wisdom superior to that of the Grecian masters themselves-nay, has affected the whole mass both of sentiment and character, throughout, as those great, laborious and long-lived men were able to affect only a few familiar friends within the privileged sphere of their own personal influence." Unfettered by any formalities, the Founder of Christianity was enabled to take powerful advantage of circumstances. This constitutes another trait of his character as a teacher. While the professional teachers of the day were employed in commenting upon the traditions, and in nice and puerile distinctions, Jesus walked amidst the works of nature and the busy scenes of life; almost every object and every circumstance he arrested, and made them the messengers of his instructions. He became a voice to nature and Providence, or rather he made them the witnesses and symbols of the things which he uttered. It is true he frequently expressed himself in general terms, employing those universal forms of speech 122 CHRIST AS A TEACHER. by which abstract truths or principles are enunciated.* But, as I have already observed, this general mode of speaking is almost always suggested by deep feeling. It does not necessarily imply a state of mental abstraction. And I think if we carefully examine the passages, in which at first sight it appears as if Jesus were merely announeing general truths or principles, we may find reason to suspect that he was speaking on those occasions with profound emotion, awakened by some present and particular incident. But however this may be, his utterances are obviously suggested and modified in most instances, by circumstances. Does he speak of the Providence of God? He points to the ravenst wheeling about in the depths of the sky, and to the liliest growing in the fields * See Chap. V. pp. 70, 71. In the exquisite lines of Bryant to the waterfowl, we have an amplification of a passage in the sermon on the mount. The following Sonnet by Mrs. Hemans may be familiar to the reader, but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of enriching my pages with it. "Flowers! when the Saviour's calm benignant eye Fell on your gentle beauty;-when from you Eternal, universal, as the sky,— Then, in the bosom of your purity, A voice He set, as in a temple shrine, That life's quick travellers ne'er might pass you by And though too oft its low, celestial sound, By the harsh notes of work-day Care is drown'd, |