20 MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION 



scarcely worth the trouble to study a history which 

 has now extended through eighteen centuries, if it 

 started out upon a false basis. We might gratify 

 our curiosity as we would in reading the history of 

 Buddhism or of Mahommedanism, but it would be 

 of little value to study a history of the Christian 

 Church if that Church were based upon the preten- 

 sions of one who after all was not what he claimed 

 to be. 



It is particularly important at the present day to 

 have this point well fixed in our minds, viz. , that 

 the Christian Church is based upon the belief that 

 Jesus Christ is God in human form, for it has be- 

 come part of the labor of many in our day to deny 

 His true Divinity, and to explain away all that is 

 supernatural in His life. Church history would be 

 a very different story to-day if such views were true, 

 for it would begin with the account of imposture, 

 it would continue with the strange phases of 

 the delusion of myriads of those who have believed 

 in Him ; and it would end — how could it end ex- 

 cept in the story of shameful defeat and extinction ? 



Starting then with the truth that the second Per- 

 son of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate, we 

 look upon Jesus Christ as obeying the Law for us, 

 as paying the penalty of our sins by His sufferings 

 and death ; and as overcoming death by His resur- 

 rection. In order to secure to men the perpetual 

 memorv of His work, and to extend to them its 



