DIFFICULTIES OF BELIKF. 



171 



now acknowledged, as regards the majority of these hooks, that 

 they helong to the age, and in most cases were written hy the 

 authors, to which tradition assigned tliem. All this is tnie. 

 Yet the fact remains that the impression prevails that these 

 books tell their story with the uncertainties and inaccuracies 

 which belong to old chronicles and folk-lore, and that, however 

 elevated may be their tone spiritually anc] morally, their 

 historical value is at tlie best doubtful. 



Here is one of the most serious difficulties in the w\ay of 

 belief at the present time. How can we deal with it ? First, 

 of course, Christian scholarship must do its duty ; and we can 

 say with thankfulness that it is doing its duty. But, in the 

 realm of pure scholarship, I fear it is true that negative results 

 affect the public mind more definitely than positive. We 

 certaiidy require more than scholarship. The continual 

 fluctuation of opinion — of theory and of conjecture — in the 

 realm of scholarly criticism makes us feel the necessity of some- 

 thing more permanent. Where is tliat permanent basis of truth 

 to be found ? The answer surely must be that we must find it, 

 not in the mere book, but in the revelation which the book 

 contains. It is surely true that all along the ages the source of 

 power has been, not tlie mere letter of certain documents, hut 

 the personality and influence of Jesus Christ. Here is a great 

 theme and one which has been much in the minds of tiiought- 

 ful Christian people in recent years. It was inevitable that it 

 should be so. The discordant voices of the critics and the 

 unsettlement of the Christian mind on the subject of Inspiration 

 drove the faithful hack upon the great central truth. And 

 here the unprejudiced mind finds a basis which cannot 

 be shaken. The wonderful character of our Lord, with its 

 siuiplicity and its profundity, with its amazing completeness, its 

 union of the most opposite qualities, its freedom from all conscious- 

 ness of sin, its realization of humanity iu relation to God and in 

 harmony with His will, its compelling moral force, its undying 

 power of inspiration, its penetrating quality, its clearness of 

 outline — it is this which makes Jesus Christ the most vivid 

 personality in history or literature. Together with His 

 wonderful character must be considered the teaching of Christ, 

 His consciousness of union with God, His superhuman claims, 

 the extraordinary way in which these claims liave called forth 

 a response in the hearts of men in all ages. He speaks to men 

 as their Lord and Master and they acknowledge His supremacy 

 and find in that acknowledgment new life. Through all 

 generations of Christian history this is the source of all that is 



