THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 



89 



is the Divine righteousness which denounces woe on the self- 

 righteous and the hypocrite, on the impenitence of Capernaum, 

 Bethsaida, and Chorazin, but His also is the Divine compassion 

 which weeps over the doomed city, prays for the forgiveness 

 of His murderers, and gently wins back the thrice forsworn 

 apostle. In His death He was mortal as we are, but by His 

 victory over death He was " declared to be the Son of God with 

 power." Above al], He displays the supreme Divine attribute of 

 Holiness. He can fling out to all the ages without fear of 

 contradiction the bold challenge," Which of you convinceth Me 

 of sin ? " Pilate's wife may recognize in Him " that just Man " ; 

 the centurion may confess, " Truly, this Man was righteous " ; 

 but the truth far surpasses either of these declarations. Of Him, 

 and of Him alone among the sons of men, it could be truly said 

 that He was " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners " 

 by that separation which is indicated by the very words for 

 "Holy." 



There are those who, w^hile confessing the ideal beauty of the 

 life and character of the Christ, and acknowledging Him as our 

 great Example and Teacher, will not allow that He could be 

 actually Divine ; and others who would explain away His 

 miraculous birth and the reality of His resurrection, and attribute 

 the accounts of His miracles and His own claims to be one 

 with the Father to the mistaken zeal of His followers. Yet 

 even these cannot deny that the outlines we have been tracing 

 are those drawn by the Evangelists and in the Apostolic writings 

 as we have them. In that portrait, the Scriptural features 

 of the Divine and the human are clearly combined. It is the 

 portrait of the true Superman, not superior to his fellowmen 

 by the craftiness of his cunning or the ambitious " will to power," 

 but superior in being " full of grace and truth," at once " Perfect 

 Man and Perfect God." 



Have we been wandering from our subject of the silences ? 

 Have we not here been considering rather what is said than 

 what is not said ? True, yet how is it that we can so unerringly 

 discern the grandeur of what is set before us ? There are 

 paintings and mosaics that were found amid the ruins of Pompeii 

 where sometimes whole scenes and sometimes single figures 

 are set against an intensely black background. That framework 

 of darkness throws up in high relief the grace of the drawing 

 and enhances the brilliance of the colouring. So the silences 

 of Scripture serve to define accurately and give added vividness 



