The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-05-23

that he believed in Him not simply as the
" homo" but as the Deus-homo and so might
many of his degraded hearers. But this is
very different thing from believing nothing
about Him, or disbeheving the truth as actu
ally presented to the mind. Indeed the idea
of loyalty to a person concerning whom we
believe or know nothing, is an idea which
passes our comprehension. The writer OF
" Ecce Homo" and his admirers have power
of perception which does not belong to ordi-
nary mOrtals.
The very least, then, that the words of our
Saviour in Mark xvi: 16, can mean, is that
he, that does not believe that am the COM
missioned Saviour Of sinners, able to save
unto the uttermost all who come unto God
by me, shall be damned. That He is Re
storer, Healer, Saviour of men, endowed With
power which is, practically, to our concep
tons, without limit, ia fact which stands
out in His whole history, and must be known
to every sinner who knows anything abou
Him, who knows even the meaning of His
name. And every sinner, knowing this and
at the same time knowing that he is a sinner
and in need Of salvation, may be saved. On
the other hand, every sinner who has had this
Saviour offered to him, and rejects him is
obliged to be damned, from the nature Of
the case and by the righteous Judgment Of
God. "If ye believe not that l am-ye shall
die in your sins" Thus it stands in the
Greek of John viii "a, and the like ellpsis
occurs elsewhere. How is the blank to be
filed? At least with the words, the Sa-
viour from SIM" Or, as the force of the ex-
preston suggests (Ex. iii: IA, vi: 81 with
the am" if ye believe not that I am J;
that l am the self.existent and eternal God
who appeared to your fathers in Egypt and
the wilderness, as their Redeemer, ye shall
die in your sins as many Of them died by the
same unbelief. Comp. 1 Cor. x: Ill,
speciality 81 "EoCe Homo" will, no doubt,
treat such an Interpretation with scorn, and
no marvel. He has written seventy pages on
the mission of Christ, and said not wOrd Of
san or salvatiOn.
Our author is right, when he says that
g Christian belief is fully as hard thing as
Christian practice" but it is not true, in
the sense in which he intends it. He makes
the assertion for the purpose Of showing that
the same allowance ought to be made for fun
damental error, as for occasional fragrant
alterations from the moral law. But mo-
ments consideration will suggest to any man,
that it is better to have sound principles with
occasional transgressions, than to have the
same transgressiOns with unsOund principles.
Few men are better than their principles, IN
less they are constrained by some external
force. GAS a man thinketh in his heart, SC
is he. The kingdom of Christ, therefore,
could not but insist upon faith, upon belief
of the truth, since, as "ECce Homo" himself
admits that kingdom was internal and founded
upon the love of virtue, and made no preten.
sion to the use of force.
But Christian belief Is fully as hard thing
as Christian practice; and for this excellent
reason, that they are radically one. See
John iii: 1921, vii: II, 1t is the want Of
{" single eye" of full purpose of heart to
obey God, which keeps men in the dark
Hobbies long ago said that if men thought it
was to their interest that the propositions Of
mathematics should not be true, they would
either prove them false, or burn all the books
on mathematics. Truth comes as a conqueror
and therefore, men receive it as an enemy.
The difficulty which the author of Ecce
Homo" feels is only the difficulty of becoming
little child and Of preferring Gods wisdom
to his own. Nothing is more disgusting than
the complaints of our modern philosophers
that they cannot be satisfied with evidence,
which satisfied Bacon and Newton, Locke
aud Boyle.