1. Whom do men say that I am? Jesus had een sufficiently long before the eyes of the nation to arrest the interest of the people and Jcompel consideration of His mission. It was a challenging kind of life He lived. He was not one of the crowd. He was not simply a car-enter, knows by Hifs own village and relied on for making implements for their daily avocations. He stood right in the public gaze and was no commonplace character. Ax a teacher He found a groove of His own, or rather got away from all grooves and moval freely and with masterful power over the whole broad field of truth. If there were some who could not be interested in His teaching, none could fail to be challenged by His works.
What then was the opinion which had been growing up among the People concerning Him? He asks the disciples, more for their sakes! than for His, It was good for them to be put upon the alert and made to note tie opinions of the people.
2. But our Lord does not stay with asking what men say of Him. Indeed that question reay have been ut chiefly with a view to the other, "Whom say ye that I am?" He has not put that question hurriedly; [Hie has given them time to amass materials for a judgment. He has manifested Himself to them for many months, and they must, if they have been thoughtful men at. all, have come to some conclusion by' now. And Jesus wants thei: own judgment. However interesting their collection or summary the opinions of the people, what interests Him is the opinion they have arrived at themselves.
It is good for us to sit this twofold examination. Indeed it is necessary. "What think ye of Christ?"
the all-important question. It
like not a roerely literary, question wrote Shakespeare's Bacon or Shakespeare him-It is am religious question, a matter between the soul and Tt is good to take both sections of the examination. To give an exhaustive answer to the first part would require a knowledge not only jof what men said in His lifetime, but of what they have said throughout the centuries—both His, friends and His foes. But some answer we ought to be able to give.
The second part of the examination however, is the more essential. We:
list not say with the speaker i Tennyson's "Palace of Art", "I sit as God, holding no form of creed, But contemplating all." it unkind to remind Him how some had called Him a gluttonous man nda winebibber, how they had that He east out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. The opin-fons they give are all favourable ind highly honourable. Curiously they all imply that Jesus is some prophet raised from the dead. Some tay He is John the Baptist, noticing probably how He echoed and reinforced John's all to repentance. Some say He is Elijah, perhaps impressed by His fierce denunciation fof hypocrisy; some Jeremiah, with reference, perhaps, to the tender, Jeremiah-like tone of many of His utterances. All gave Him a place and a high one in the prophetic succession.
If we ask to-day what place men sive to Jesus, we are at once struck with the high rank assigned to Him even by men who do not claim to be His followers. It is only from scurrilous lips and in polluted pages that one can find such blas-phemius words applied to Jesus as were uttered by His contemporary opponents. We have indeed in ietsche, the German philosopher, whose teachings did so much to create the atmosphere for the late Shristanity una Yegarded war, one who positively hated
utterly wrong direction to give to the development of human life, Hoy: different is the verdict of Mr. Lecky, the historian:—"The three short years of the active life of Jesus have done more to regenerate fand fo soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and a' {the exhortations of moralists Strauss declared that nothing can be added to the moral intuition which Jesus Christ has left us and regards Him as the highest object we can possibly imagine with respect to religion. J. 8. Mill pronounced Him a unique figure, not} more unlike is. predecessors than all His followers, even those who had the direct benefit of His Personal teaching.
IN. The Answer of the Disciples The question put by the Saviour, Whom say ye that I am" was promptly answered by Peter, ever} ready to be the spokesman for the resti—"Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God". No. projphet merely, no mere resurrection of even the greatest of the prophets, but the great one of wher: the prophets "spoke, the Anointed }who was to come and do what no Prophet or lawgiver had been ab! t0 do.
"Thou art the Son of God' this carried the confession to a high-jer level, for, whatever we may: think about Son of God being a title for the Messiah, it was not a phrase any one would use who had Met the highest reverence for Jesus, Jand one can hardly think it mem anything less than it says. To Peter Jesus was simply divine.
The confession moved Jesus He could not help ex-Yesh and blood hath not, revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven."
This confession of Peter which moved Jesus so deeply, does not stand alone. It has been endorsed by all the disciples. John sums up the impression made by Jesus in the words:—"We beheld His glory, the glory of the. only begotten of the "Father, full of grace and.
What is the testimony of men nearer to our own time, within the circle of professed disciples?
Listen to what the poets have said.
We must say what we think of Christ. We must say what He is to ws.
Il, The Answer of the World Tennyson begins his great "In Memoriam" with the words:
"Great Son of God, immortal Love, cen Thy face, a Some say.—-and some..." This is a very remarkable summary, Surely the disciples did not regard comprehensive, for -surely' they krew the horrible things said of: their~ Master by those who regarded Him with blind: Jealousy and unbelief. Perhaps they thought are ours, we know not ho} [Our wills are ours, to make them Thine, Whittier, writing of the crucifix. ion, says: sent the death of Bin ay the conscious Heaven grow oewonted Hehe hath ted say Night actless Gri the middle dale And earthquake from kis caverned, bed Te" waking with a thrill of dread!"
Listen to Charles Wesley:—
"Thow hidden source of alm hog alt-suficien. foe vine!
Secure am if Thou art mince From sin and grief, from" guilt, and T hide me, Jesus, in Thy nome I the glorious names OF wisdom, love and power, That ever mortal 4
All are too mean to speak His worth, Too mean to set_my Saviour forth:
Hear how one of the great creeds of answers the the believe in one Land the urily-begotten Son of God, Begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of one' substance with the Fathers By whom all things were made, Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man, And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried, And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of' the Father. And He shall come.again with glory to judge the quick and the dea Whose kingdom shall have no end."
Now it is of supreme importance for us to be able to add our irony to that of the original ciples ard of all who have followed The challenge of to us as to the 12, and tt is a challenge which we ought not to seek to evade, Nor ought we to give it " perfunctory answer. By singing hymns of high adoration we have all confessed the lordship of Jesus a hundred times, But what had been the value of our singing? Has it been the utterance of our very soul—Has i¢ sprung from a full conviction of His excellent glory? Has it expressed not only an intellectual a sent to the unique majesty of 1 person, but an adoring and tru ful attitude towards Him as personal Saviour and Master? What Tosus looks for ix not, surely, formal assent to a creed, ancient or modern, but 'a full and glad surrender to His saving power and ruling authority, a surrender that might be fitly expressed in the words of Miss Havergall:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.