The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-03-28
Reverence for Jesus Christ.

WE all know how lowly reverence
is paid to Jesus Christ in passage after
passage by Shakespeare, the greatest
intellect known, in its wide, many
sided splendors. Men like Calico,
Kepler, Bacon, Newton and Milton set
the name of Jesus Christ above every
other. To show that no other subject
of study can claim an equal interest,
Jean Paul Richter tells us that g the
life of Christ concerns Him who, being
the hottest among the mighty, the
mightiest among the holy, lifted with
His pierced hand Empires off their
hinges, and turned the stream of CEN
turtles out of its channel, and still gov
ems the ages" Spinoza calls Christ
the symbol of Divine wisdom; Kant
and jacob hold him up as the symbol
of ideal perfection, and Schelling and
Hegel as that of the union of the Di-
vine and human. 81 esteem the Cos
pels," says Goethe, I" to be thoroughly
genuine, for there shines forth from the
reflected splendor of sublimity, pro-
ceeding from the person of Jesus
Christ, of so Divine kind as only the
Divine could ever have manifested upon
earth" "How petty are the books OF
the philosophers, with all their pomp,"
says Rousseau, compared with the
Gospelsr' Scan it be that the writings
at once so sublime and so simple are
the work of menp Can He whose life
they tell be Himself no more than a
mere man? Is there anything, in His
character, of the enthusiast or the am
bilious sectary? What sweetness, what
purity in His ways, what touching
grace in His teachings! What lofti-
ness in His maxims, what profound
wisdom in His words! What presence
of mind. what delicacy and aptness in
His replies! What an empire over His
passions! Where is the man, where is
the sage, who knows how to act, to
suffer and to die without weakness and
without display? My friends, men do
not invent like this; and the facts re-
specting Socrates, which no one doubts,
are not so well attested as those about
Jesus Christ. These Jews could never
have struck this tone, or thought of
this morality, and the Gospel has char
acteristics of truthfulness so grand, so
striking, so perfectly inimitable, that
their inventors would be even more
wonderful than He whom they por-
tray" "Yes, if the death of Socrates
be that of a sage, the life and death of
Jesus are those of Cod
Thomas Carlyle repeatedly expresses
similar reverence. "Jesus of Naz-
areth," says he, ''our divinest symbol.
Higher has the human thought rot vet
reached" "a symbol of quite peren-
NAL. infinite character, whose signifi-
canoe will ever demand to be anew in
quired into, and anew made manifest"
DR.. Claiming says: The character of
Jesus is wholly inexplicable on human
principles" Matthias Claudius, one of
the peoples poets of Germany, last CEN
fury, writes to friend: ..'No one ever
thus loved Gas Christ did), nor did any,
thing SO truly great and good as the
Bible tells US of Him ever enter into
the heart of man. 1t is a holy form,
which rises before the poor pilgrim like
star in the night. and satisfies his in
nermost craving, his most secret yearn-
ings and hopes" "Jesus Christi says
the exquisite genius, Herder, lis, in the
noblest and most perfect sense, the real
lied ideal of humanity"
No one will accuse the First Napoleon
of being either pietist or weak-mind-
ed. He strobe the world, in his day,
like Colossus; man of gigantic in
tellect, however worthless and depraved
in moral sense. Conversing, one day,
at st. Helena, as his custom was, about
the great men of antiquity, and COM
pairing himself with them, he suddenly
furv.v 20, rs L
him, "Can you tell me who Jesus
Christ wasp The officer owned that
he had not yet taken much thought of
such things. ''Well, them" said Napo-
leon, 81 will tell YOU" He then COM
pared Christ with himself and with the
heroes of antiquity, and showed how
sssus far surpassed them. IL think
understand somewhat of human ma
ture," he continued, "and I tell YOU
all these were men, and l am a man,
but not one is like Him; Jesus Christ
was more than man. Alexander,
Cesar, Charlemagne and myself found
ed great empires; but upon what did
the creation of our genius dependP
Upon force. Jesus alone founded His
empire upon love, and to this very day
millions would die tor him. 1.-THE
Gospel is no mere book" said he at an
other time, "but living creature,
with vigor, power, which conquers
all that opposes it. Here lies the Book
of Books upon the table touching it
reverently1; | do not tire of reading it,
and do SO daily with equal pleasure.
The soul, charmed with the beauty of
the Gospel, is no longer its own; God
possesses it entirely; He directs its
thoughts and faculties; it is His. What
a proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ. |
Yet in this absolute sovereignty He has
but one aim-the spiritual perfection
of the individual, the publication of his
conscience, his union with what is true. |
the salvation of his soul. Men wonder |
at the conqests of Alexander, but here
is conqueror who draws men to Him.
self for their highest good; who unites |
to Himself, Incorporates into Himself,
not Nation, but the whole human
racer- Geikie's Life and Words of /
Christ.