THE PROBLEM OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST 25 1 



conditions, while equal to the making of a Rabbi, 

 were not equal to the creation of a Universal 

 Teacher." 1 The force of this reasoning is still 

 more evident when, leaving the historical conditions 

 which were the environment of Jesus, we come to 

 our own time. We live in the splendour of an age 

 which inherits the intellectual treasures of Greece; 

 the religious riches of the Hebrew people, in addi- 

 tion to all the teaching and influence of Jesus, and 

 of those whose lives were moulded by personal 

 contact with Him, as well as all the development 

 of the Christian centuries. We live in circum- 

 stances which make the world practically one ; when ^ 

 the wealth of the intellect of all lands and ages, 

 and all motives toward religion, are the common 

 possessions of every child in even the most humble 

 circumstances. And yet, with the accumulated 

 and improved heredity, and the influence of the 

 better environment, there have been none born 

 since Jesus whom the world thinks of comparing 

 with Him. No other land, no other civilization, no 

 other religion, nor all combined, after nearly two 

 thousand years of continued evolution, have pro- 

 duced another Master who in the slightest degree 

 dims the glory of the young Carpenter of Nazareth. 

 This is a fact worthy of considerate attention. 



1 Studies in the Life of Christ, Fairbairn, pp. 27, 28. 



