XI. The Model Man. "About Him all the sanctities of Heaven Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received Beatitude past utterance." MILTON. HAT says the past concerning the soul and its wants, the meaning of life, the problem of man's destiny? Shall we interrogate the wise men of antiquity concerning the soul? Democrates will tell us that it is fire; Pythagoras says it is a motive number; another, that it is an emanation of the stars; another, that it is a harmony. This one calls it blood, that one, spirit ;—and the divine Plato spends sleepless nights to prove the immortality of the soul, and after all the efforts of his sublime genius, he dies, and dies without having been able to produce any proof, or persuade any one of his hearers of the truth of man's immortality. Shall we ask these men the meaning of life? the destiny of man? But what can they tell us, who worshipped idols, demons, prostrated themselves and adored birds, quadrupeds, and vile reptiles? Even the wisdom of Socrates, and the genius and eloquence of Plato, were not sufficient to preserve them from idolatry and the grossest superstitions. Heathenism gives us no model of a divine life; discovers to us no way to our true destiny. The heathen were just what many are nowseekers. The heathen have nothing to bestow upon us, unless it be the chart of their devious wanderings, and the history of their unsuccessful enterprises. Heathenism shows but one truth plainly—that man must wait for the solution of his destiny till some one comes down from heaven to teach him. Such was the confession of Plato, the greatest and wisest of heathen philosophers. Plato was right. If man is to find out the way to his final end, it can only be by some one descending from heaven to teach him the way. But Plato did not say all. This some one who is to descend from heaven to teach man the way to his beatitude must be God himself! God, as we have already shown, is the end of man. God's destiny is man's destiny. God's beatitude is man's beatitude. God's life is man's life. God, therefore, is the true ideal of man. But God is a pure spirit, and man is not; man is a spirit and body united in one person. God, therefore, does not represent man in all his relations. God, therefore, is not a perfect model to man. Man needs, as a perfect pattern of life, one who unites in his nature both God and man, one whom he can see with his eyes, hear with his ears, touch with his hands. One to whom the human heart can easily attach itself in a way fitting its nature, and can love with familiarity. One who is visible to the mind and accessible to the senses, and in whom both soul and body can find their hopes, their proper objects, and their beatitude. In one word, man needs as his model a God-Man. This is no new idea, there is no nation in which the birth of a God-man was not expected. The ancient patriarchs sighed for his coming; the prophets announced his reign; the sybils chanted his victories; and the poets sung his praises. The universal convictions of the conscience of humanity are the voices of the Divinity. The expectations of men were not doomed to disappointment. In the fulness of time there came. from heaven an angel, and announced the following message to a spotless maiden in a 'Hail, full of grace; "blessed art thou amongst women; humble cottage. 66 "the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and thou shalt conceive and bring forth a son, and his name shall be called 'Jesus the Son of God.' This wonderful child was born in a stable. The moment he was born, angels spoke to men, and said: "This day is born to you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord," and from the clouds angels were heard chanting the hymn,-" Glory be to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.” * A new star at that time appeared in the heavens, and the God-child was adored by shepherds and kings. According to the custom of the Jewish people the babe was brought to the temple, and an old priest receiving it in his arms, in rapture exclaims: "Now dismiss thy servant, O Lord, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” * At the age of twelve years he reappears in the Temple of Jerusalem, "astonishing the Doctors by the wisdom of his questions and an swers. Twenty more years elapse; the child becomes a man while the waters of Jordan are poured upon his head, a spirit in the form of a dove descends upon him; the heavens are opened and a voice is heard saying; "This is my beloved Son." + The Baptist, a man of austere and holy life, |