WHAT did he say of himself, and what did his apostles say about him? We summarize the answer, as given in the Bible, by saying that, while conceding and always implying his humanity in the strictest sense, Christ, nevertheless, reported himself to mankind as coming down from Heaven, as coming from God the Father, as being in himself essentially divine, and as bearing with him the credentials, powers, and prerogatives of the God-head in the most absolute sense, and, hence, as God manifested in the flesh. The Jews so understood him, and on this ground charged him with blasphemy. He knew that he was so understood, and meant to be so understood. The apostles so understood him, and so preached him after his ascension into Heaven. Paul correctly stated their doctrine when he said—"For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." It is not by any means immaterial whether we accept or reject this view of Christ. The operation of our minds and hearts in respect to him will not and cannot be in the one case what it will be in the other. Christ to one who does not believe in his divinity, is not the Christ of whom Paul thought when preaching his gospel, or of whom John thought when he said that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and that the "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Any theory which reduces the dogma of Christ's divinity to less than its absolute truthfulness, makes him infinitely less than the Bible makes him, and, in effect, impeaches either his integrity or his knowledge. We do not overstate the truth in saying that Christ, as a teacher, made himself responsible for the doctrine of his own divinity. The apostles received the idea from him, and preached it to others upon his authority. To reject it is in thought essentially to change the Christian system.—Independent.