172 Some Implications of the Incarnation [CH. 



on to some mythical hero Baldur, Krishna, or whom- 

 soever it might be as in fact they did. But mark this 

 difference. The hero to whom they attached the doctrine 

 of incarnation was a hero of the distant past. Him to 

 Whom the first Christians attached the doctrine was a 

 man of their own circle. Many of us of to-day, who did 

 not know Jesus in the time of His Flesh, have to argue 

 first from abstract principles. But having come to a 

 favourable decision we have no right to object to the 

 fact that there was a historic Christ. If He must come 

 as true Man He must have come in some particular 

 nation and at some particular time. Now there are 

 excellent reasons adducible by our human understand- 

 ing, even, for His coming when and where He did. The 

 Jewish religion was as a fact purer and truer in its con- 

 ception of God than any other. The time was suitable 

 for a Divine intervention, however hopeless for the 

 stability of a merely human one, because the men of 

 that nation had reached a point where further enlighten- 

 ment was required if progress was to be maintained. The 

 conditions were particularly suitable for a Divine inter- 

 vention, however hopeless for the stability of a merely 

 human one, with the oncoming Rornan civilisation 

 carrying culture over a considerable part of the world. 

 The danger of narrow nationalism was escapable by the 

 very fact that the Jewish nation was so soon to be 

 scattered abroad. Christ could not be identified with 

 any particular form of civilisation. In short, if the con- 

 ditions were ideally unsuitable for the world-wide in- 

 fluence of a false Christ, they were ideally suitable for 

 the world-wide influence of a true Christ. Is this suit- 

 ability of condition then any real argument against the 

 Incarnation having taken place then, rather than at any 

 other time? The whole futile doubt apparently crum- 

 bles when we examine it. 



But its real roots lie deeper, and this explains its 



