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It remains only to put the question to the great multitude of penitent sinners who believe that they have felt the pardoning grace of the Messiah in their own experience. "How then doth David say, My son is my Lord?" And with united voice they answer on this wise: "I have need of a Prophet who shall be more to me than David's son, since he must instruct me with omniscience and divine authority in the saving truths of the eternal life. I have need of a Priest who shall be more to me than David's son, since he must not only offer a sufficient sacrifice for my sins, but stand in the perpetual exercise of his holy office, interceding at the throne of the heavenly grace. have need of a King who shall be more to me than David's son, since he must rule with indisputable authority and control my life. I find such a One in Jesus the Christ, who is not only of the lineage of David, but his Lord and mine; my Prophet, Priest and King. O strong Son of God! Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent! Mighty to save! The kings of the nations cast their crowns before thee! Kings in the province of science, kings of scholarship, kings in the world of spirits, principalities and powers; all cast their crowns before thee, saying, "Thou are worthy to receive honor and glory, dominion and power forever and ever!" Here is no son of David wearing a tinsel crown; but One able to save even to the uttermost all that come unto him. He is both Son of Man and Son of God. He is Son of David and Lord of David and of all who, like David, have sinned against God; as it is written, " He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of

Holiness, by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans I, 4).

To reject him as the God-Man, flesh of our flesh, yet very God of very God, is to sin against both Revelation and the increasing light of the ages. To reject him, in view of the clear testimony of the oracles as well as of the philosophy of history, is to commit the unpardonable sin; since in so doing we reject the only proffer of pardon that has ever been made to sinful men. To reject him is to be guilty of the crime of the husbandmen who slew the Heir Apparent when he came to the vineyard to collect his own.

We conclude, then, that it is not enough to receive Christ as a son of David; that is, to affirm that he is a good man or even the best of men, while rejecting his divine claim. This is to fall short, infinitely and fatally, of the saving truth. The young man who prostrated himself before Jesus, saying, "Good Rabbi, what shall I do that I might inherit eternal life?" was reproved in these significant terms, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." If this means anything, it means that Jesus rejects, utterly and unreservedly, the adulation of those who regard him as merely the best of men. He is either what he claims to be or else he is obviously far from being the best of men. He will not be "Good Rabbi." Call him God; or rise from thy knees! The only confession of faith which he accepts is that of Peter, who, in answer to the question "Who say ye that I am?” replied, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God!"

A leading Unitarian has said, "Jesus has no divine birth-marks." What, then, are these wounds in his

hands and side? Are they not the fulfilment of all the crimson prophecies of Messiah which run through Scripture from the protevangel to the cross? Are they not the divine sanction of Salvation to the multitude in heaven and on earth who hail him thus, "Thou art worthy to receive honor and dominion and power and glory, because thou was slain for us"? Touch those wounds, friend, as Thomas did, and finding in them the birth-marks of David's Lord, fall before him with the confession, "My Lord and my God!"

VII

THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES

In which certain of the Jews inquiring as to his credentials are referred to his wonderful works.

The Jews, in Solomon's Porch: "How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly."

Jesus: "I told you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me."-JOHN x, 22-25.

It does not seem to have occurred to the cavilers of his time to deny the Miracles of Jesus. The witnesses were so numerous and the evidences so overwhelming that there was no alternative but to admit the fact; the only question being as to what should be done about it.

It was left to people at a remove of some centuries from the scene of action to exploit a different view. This is one of the queer developments of our progressive age; not only a denial of these Miracles as matter of fact, but of their evidential value, Christ to the contrary notwithstanding.

He came into the world to redeem it. To this end he must not only be, but show himself to be, the veritable Son of God. The evidence which he offered was threefold; namely, his character, his preaching and his Miracles.

He affirmed once and again that his Miracles were intended to verify his divine claim. At the beginning of his ministry he went into the synagogue at Naza

reth and opened the Book of Isaiah where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And having read this clear prophecy of the Miracle-working Christ to the waiting congregation, he added, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."

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On a later occasion, when John the Baptist, a prisoner in the castle of Machærus, sent some of his followers to inquire of Jesus, " Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" the answer was deferred while he wrought certain Miracles of healing; then he said, "Go tell John what things which ye have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached."

It is thus manifest that Christ himself put a high estimate on the evidential value of his Miracles. "Believe me," he said, "that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake"; and again, "The works that I do bear witness of me."

It is not, however, to the Miracles of Christ, exclusively, that we address ourselves now, but rather to a consideration of Miracles in general. The man who says, "I do not believe in Miracles," is hasty in his speech. His remark is due to a misapprehension of the question at issue, or rather to a series of misapprehensions, which it is our present purpose to point out.

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