266 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



are quite wonderful enough to start the inquiry 

 which is here made ; the facts not only of the 

 man Jesus when He lived in Judea and Galilee, 

 but also of His posthumous ministry, and His 

 influence which has been so pervasive and vital 

 for nineteen centuries. 



In character, in spiritual insight, in knowledge 

 of man, and of what all men feel must be the 

 truth of God ; in ability to see into the very heart 

 of "human life's mystery" and to penetrate the 

 depth of humanity's need ; in ability to speak the 

 word which His own age needed and all ages since 

 have needed, this Galilean peasant, whose youth 

 and young manhood were filled with monotonous 

 toil ; who had never travelled ; who knew few if 

 any books ; who had no teacher but a sweet and 

 gracious mother, has surpassed all the ideal heroes. 

 In a public ministry of only a few months He 

 transcended the wisdom of the philosophers, the 

 intellectual and spiritual forces of the universities, 

 and, more than any other, led men — all men, 

 men of the most diverse tastes and prejudices — 

 toward God. It is impossible for me to think that 

 nature, even as glorious as that in which His 

 youth was spent, taught Him all these lessons. 

 No great poet or artist ever came from the midst 

 of such scenery. If He is explained by natural 



