There are the higher critics. They strip Christ of His divine nature; they take away anything He is represented to have been able to do, that we, poor creatures, cannot do, such as raising the dead. But they ave very very strong on His charac: ter. By way of justifying their robbery of His miraculous _attributes, they get quite angry if anyone suggests that they do not believe in His perfect holiness. They sometimes talk as if they were the first to find this out. His goodness is so divine and_ beautiful, that there is no standing against it.
hey write fine books on His character. The Rev. R. J. Campbell tells an apposite story about Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, author of "Three Men in a Boat.'' Mr. Campbell had Mr. Jeronie lecturing at. the City Temple, when Mr. Jerome told them that the "reading of euan's 'Lifd of Jesus' had made him a Christian." That is remarkable, for Renan represents Jesus as a purely human character. But Mr. Campbell rightly says, he understood what Mr. Jerome meant: that the figure of our Lord is so fascinating, His character so beautiful and attractive that you have to be blind not to seo it. Thus, we sce, that a modern humorous author quite agrees with the old bandit, that "this man hath done nothing amiss." The bandit agreed that he and his fellow were in their deserved place on a cross. This man was on a cross by some hideous error or sin. What impression has this Christ made on us? That was the impression men had had of Him. Is it wearing off? Is the world good enough without Him? Is this community fascinated by Him? This thief, the woman the Pharisee's house, the publican friends of Matthew were not scared away from Jesus, but were drawn to Him.
VERY DIFFERENT EFFFECTS, Let us notice next, how different His goodness was, in its effect on men, from that of even admittedly good men, even saints by universal consent. This is very extraordinary. There was Archbishop Laud. No doubt a good man_ personally, who tried to do all the good could according to his lights. But here is something that was said of him with unfortunately bitter truth: "Archbishop Laud was born to make religion unpopular." Jennie Geddes, you remember, was of that opinion. She threw a stool at the bold clergyman, who attempted to use the Prayer Book in St. Giles's, Edinburgh. Laud was good, but Jennie and the Scottish nation could not stand his type of goodness. It was much the same {in England.
The ancestors of a good many of us here could not stand his bobbing up and down in church services, and they got out. You could not say of him, "This man hath done nothing amiss.'" No, fideed. In the "'Autobiography" of Mr. Stacey Marks, the Royal Academician and bird painter, there.is a striking story, that illustrates the same fatal facility, that even the best Christians have to make goodness unattractive. I have given one story of an Anglican archbishop; this is cne of a ance eminent Non-conformist divine, who showed equal facility in dis: crediting his type of goodness. Stacey Marks's parents attended the ministry of Cly. Leifchild, a well-known Crngregational divine in london. He belonged to the generation of preachers, who preached with gloves on. Once great man made a_ pastoral visit to the Marks' home, and seeing young Stacey, put his hands on his head, and said in a pompous voice, "My little man, do you love Jesus?" Stacey *Marks says, "I hated him and his chapel from that moment." J don't vonder at it. When Stacey grew up he became a churchman. Dr, Leif-child did that amiss. Jesus never made mistakes like these. There have been, too many of this type of man in the church. The older men among you will remember reading' "Robert Falconer," George Mac: Donald's great book. You will remember that Robert, who lived with his grandmother, bought a fiddle and was learning it. But one day, entering the parlour, he saw his beloved fiddle burning and sizzling on the fire. His grandmother wus, no dout, a saint, but this did not commend her religion og attractive to her grandson. Hardly. If only Christians of all ages and churches had made a quarter of the favourable impression on their fellow-men the world would have been christian long long ago. The Lord of all, Son of God, and Son of Man, "did nothing amiss."
THE INDESCRIBABLE, Now, here is a further extraordinary fact, that, it may be, you have never thought of: that our most gifted writers, our literary mem of the supreme st genius, never succeed in depicting or pourtraying a really good man. There is not a satisfactory saint in all imaginative literature. That a most extraordinary fact; but it seems to me undoubted. You can challenge anyone to find an attrac tive good man in the Christian sense in all the books that have ever been written. The greatest" men manage to make a mess of it when they try. Something is left out"or put in, that makes you. say, "Well, if that is Christian, I don't want to be one"? The great authors can manage every other kind of character very well, Comic charac-
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