The Irish standard., 1903-11-07

the Father was greater than He, and
that of Himself He could do nothing
at all. 1t is evident, therefore, some
affirm, that Christ is not equal to the
Father and therefore, He cannot
rightly be called God. AS a, conse-
quence the Catholic position is unten
able.
Without following up all the lines
of thought that suggest themselves in
answer to this objection, at present
it is quite enough to say that since
Christ was a man and as man infin-
itely less than His Father, then He
could and did state that fact from
time to time in one way or another
without contradicting in the slightest
degree His other and oft repeated
claim that He was also God and
should be honored, even as was His
Heavenly Father.
With this merely seeming difficulty
behind us, we will now enter into a
brief considera ton of the witness that
Christ himself bore as to His own
Divinity.
DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
He testified to it many ways-f1rst
of all by the seemingly strange claim
that He had lived before His own an.
cestors were born.
One day, in defending His doctrine
and authority from the attacks of the
Jews, Jesus told them that their
father Abraham had looked forward
for His day and had rejoiced to see it.
"Thou art not yet fifty years DID,"
answer the Jews, 'sand hast thou seen
Abraham" "Amen, amen, I say to
you," was the reply Of Jesus, "before
Abraham was made, am"
Consider for moment the thoughts
that have been stirred up in the minds
of the Jews by these striking words.
There was in them, as we shall see
later on, a clear, explicit claim to div
Unity and that Of itself is quite
SAOuSA " aSSouAL IOI Iue VIII rage
of His enemies. But distinct from
this assertion, though bound up in it
and dependent upon it, there is an
other claim which merits our atten-
ton. Abraham had been dead and
buried close on 1000 years, and yet
here was man of less than fifty, the
son of a well-known carpenters wife,
declaring that he had existed before
their great forefather. What did He
mean?
Doubtless some Of the crowd paid
no heed to the words, holding that He
was plainly out of His mind, but the
majority took no such lenient view
they looked on Him as proud bias
phemer and picked up stones to cast
at Him.
To us, however, my friends, neither
opinion is right or reasonable. Jesus
Christ was a keen-minded man-gift-
ed with an unusual wisdom and per-
fectly free from even the slightest
shadow of self-deceit. He had deep
ly tender love for the Father, and a
passionate eagerness for His glory.
Moreover, He was truthful beyond
question. According to this, our ad-
mitted estimate of His character to
these words must be weighed. In them
we find an express claim to an ex-
istence stretching back over 1000
years. 1t is not claim that stands
alone. There is to supplement it one
even more solemn. On the night be-
fore He died our Lord addressed a
long discourse to His apostles to pre-
pare them for the trials and sorrows
that We're so near at hand, especially
the sorrow Of parting from Him. He
had glorified His Father on earth; He
had finished the work given to Him;
now he was going back to the Father.
"Glorify thou me, o Father" He pray
ed, with the glory which had be-
fore the world was, with Thee" What
thrilling and tremendous claim!
Existence and glory with the Father
before even the world was created.
Could he who made it be a man?
Yes. He was a man-of that there
was no doubt. The mother who held
Him in her arms when He was but
a babe, was still alive. But could He
truthfully make it and yet be only a
man? No! No! as man He was not
fifty years old. What then shall we
say-that Jesus lied? God forbid.
Rather let us confess the truth-even
though it be beyond our comprehen-
sion, the truth that He possessed two
natures-7one in which He suffered
and died, the other in which He lived
before Abraham was made and had
glory with the Father before the
world was.
What that other nature was we NAV
readily learn through the title-Son of
God-given to Him by the Heavenly
Father and accorded to Him by the
Jews. To some this title has no es-
pecial significance. He was the Son
of God-but so are we. He is the first
born among many brethren--more per-
feet and more holy than we, it Is true,
hllt for all th1t n son in tho vo,x, sonco