246 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



have heard about God, or who have drawn infer- 

 ences concerning Him as the result of rational 

 processes. There is a quality of intimacy and 

 acquaintance with the Deity in the words of Jesus 

 unlike the awe-struck humiliation of Isaiah, or the 

 inspired meditation of the Psalmist. He was a 

 Jew, and yet His sympathy was wide as human- 

 ity. Occasionally the greatest of the prophets 

 had visions of a kingdom coterminous with human- 

 ity, but those visions were of far-off times and dim 

 and uncertain in details. Jesus was born in Judea, 

 and yet was not a Jew. All His ancestry was in 

 one category ; He seemed to belong in an en- 

 tirely different one. Every prejudice of His na- 

 tion against other nations was absent from Him. 

 The whole world was his fatherland, and all men 

 who loved God and their fellow-men were His 

 brethren. This may not seem remarkable until it 

 is remembered that race prejudices are almost un- 

 conquerable. His people were intensely national- 

 istic and narrow ; He was positively humanistic 

 and broad. His people imagined themselves to be 

 the favourites of the Almighty ; He declared that 

 all were favourites who did right and obeyed God, 

 His reputed father and mother were citizens of 

 Judea; He was a citizen of the world. Where did 

 those qualities come from .'' We search in vain for 



