252 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



But this is not all. By common consent Jesus 

 has been the spiritual teacher of all the ages since 

 His words were known. Even Strauss does not 

 hesitate to say : " And among these improvers of 

 the ideal of humanity, Jesus stands at all events 

 in the first class. He introduced features into it 

 which were wanting to it before, or had continued 

 undeveloped ; reduced the dimensions of others 

 which prevented its universal application ; impor- 

 ted to it, by the religious aspect which He gave it, 

 a more lofty consecration, and bestowed upon it, 

 by embodying it in His own person, the most vital 

 warmth ; while the religious society which took its 

 rise from Him provided for this ideal the widest 

 acceptance among mankind."^ Remember that, 

 after all the pruning which this critic gives to the 

 Gospel narrative, this is his conclusion concerning 

 what beyond doubt must be accorded to the person 

 of the historic Jesus. 



Renan did not speak any too strongly when he 

 wrote of Jesus as " the incomparable man to whom 

 the universal conscience has decreed the title of 

 Son of God, and that with justice, since He caused 

 religion to take a step in advance incomparably 

 greater than any other in the past and probably 

 than any yet to come." ^ 



^ New Life of Jesus, Strauss, Vol. II. p. 437. 

 2 Life of Jesus, Renan, p. 64. 



