CHRIST MORE THAN TEACHER.
By Frederick A. Noble
THERE is something in the nature of the truths which he taught which seems to take Jesus quite out of the category of those whom we call the instructors of mankind. His themes revolved around moral centers. His discussions had both a personal application and an outlook which made them unique. He spoke as one having an original authority. He did not speculate about God, like Socrates and Cicero and Seneca. He revealed God. He did not ask whether there be truth, and whether truth may be known, and what are the metaphysical conditions of the knowledge. He spoke the truth out to men. He disclosed the divine will and the divine way. He sought to impress men with a sense of the imposing grandeur, the lofty dignity, and the vast worth of the human soul. There has been no such acute psychologist, no such profound philosopher, in the world as Jesus of Nazareth. He opened the minds of men to themselves and to God. He soared into the realms of the spiritual. He made the way of duty plain. He lifted life up till men saw how august a thing it is to be a living soul, and to bear God's image, and to front an endless destiny. He made the here and hereafter meet and lock hands at the sacred altar of the heart. Had he talked about ethics merely, or geology, or astronomy, or art, or music, or commerce, or political economy, there would have been no difficulty in apprehending him as a teacher, and no hesitation in assigning to him his proper rank as a teacher. As it is, his whole department is so much higher, and his instruction is so much higher, than we ordinarily associate with the teacher, that we find it hard to locate him in this work.—Frederick A. Noble, D.D., in The Pulpit.