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one could speak more strongly than he does in support of that great maxim of our Lord, that it is not darkness, but wickedness, for which men will be condemned,-and that it is not light, but virtue, that will secure their acceptance with God. "There is no respect of persons with God," says the Apostle. "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified."

Jesus never exhibits greater elevation and consistency than in that calm superiority he so constantly manifested over all the passions and prejudices by which he was surrounded. We see in him a soul always self-possessed, and too conscious of its own greatness to be disturbed by any false estimation which might be entertained of him by others. Who can name the thing he ever said or did in which he did not appear dignified and simple, and where his moral stand-point did not seem to lie within his own bosom? How little desire he manifested to collect about him imposing numbers or illustrious disciples ! In his conversation with Nicodemus, we perceive a single aim to instruct, and no solicitude merely to please. He addresses the like calm exhortations to the Hebrew dignitary as to Martha of Bethany.

The complimentary style in which the Rabbi had introduced himself makes no difference. Jesus is not to be prevented from speaking his mind decidedly and fully to his distinguished visitor about the false views he entertains concerning the Messianic kingdom.

That firm, dignified manner to the great, that gentleness and condescension to the poor and lowly, which were conspicuous traits in Christ's character, were the unstudied expression of a soul that maintained one constant position of interior sublimity and communion with God. He looked down from too lofty a height to recognize any artificial distinctions among men, or any distinctions but those of goodness and worth. "The Son of Man who came down from heaven and who is in heaven," were words of his which had always a striking illustration in his deportment towards different classes of men. Nothing that is great or small in the world's eye seemed to be so measured in his. Peter was astonished that he should wash his disciples' feet; Pilate knew not what to make of the apparent indifference to the station and power of a Roman governor exhibited by the prisoner before him.

And it must have been so. To a mind in conscious communion with God, what could there have been in any any outward condition of life? The Apostle says that Jesus humbled

himself to the death of the cross. He could have meant only, that he underwent what men consider a humiliating death. Jesus could have been sensible of no real humiliation in his crucifixion. It were exaggerating the value of the external to say that it could hold an important place in his thoughts. We may term him a king, or we may term him a servant; he called himself both, and appeared not to have felt any essential difference between the two.

Had he ever quailed before the great because they were great, or had he ever avoided them or opposed them on this account,—— had he ever conferred favors upon the multitude because they were the multitude, or ever failed to upbraid them when they deserved it, some might have argued that he was not insensible to outward distinctions among men, though he had his own way of treating them. But he allowed them to have no influence upon him at any time or in any manner whatever. It was not his condescension to the ignorant and wretched, nor his fearlessness before the rich and great, which bespoke the exalted tone of his spirit, so much as his constant, entire neutrality of feeling respecting all the mere externals of life indiscriminately. Kindness to the humble is apt to be self-complacent; independence towards the high and powerful somewhat defiant: a superiority to

any considerations either of lowness or loftiness of condition is nobler than either. It is proof that we are standing on a commanding eminence, when hill and valley appear upon a level to our eye.

And as it implies a lofty moral elevation when we lose sight of all external differences among men, affecting our regard to their intrinsic claims upon claims upon our justice, benevolence, and courtesy, so, too, as respects our estimate of the services we render to our brethren: it shows an affinity of our minds with God himself, when we study the happiness of those around us in little things as well as in great,-when we are glad to give a cup of cold water, as well as to bestow some distinguished benefit,-when, in short, we are like Him who could sympathize with the most obscure and neglected sufferers, or suffer himself upon the cross. His heart was in a work whose vast compass embraced the welfare of the world, "And how am I straitened," he exclaimed, “till it be accomplished!" — yet he would take journeys to perform single acts of benevolence to afflicted individuals. He wanted not this resemblance to the Almighty Mercy he professed to represent, the Mercy on which a universe depends, and without which not a sparrow falls to the ground.

CHAPTER XV.

CONVERSATION WITH THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.

JESUS was now preaching not far from the place where John was baptizing, when John's disciples informed their master that the fame of the new teacher was spreading rapidly, and that the people were all flocking to him. His reply evinces how little he was actuated by any personal considerations. "A man can receive nothing," he observes, "except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He must increase, but I must decrease." We mark the interest he takes in the fame of Jesus. His own consideration is so much on the wane that his disciples take notice of it. They tell him what a superior interest the public are now exhibiting in another. So it must be, is his answer, the answer of a sincere man, who felt himself to be a forerunner and nothing more. But to Strauss this answer seems intrinsically unnatural, and therefore he does not believe

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