to tell what humanity owes to the Prophet of Nazareth. On his example
the great Christian heroes have based their lives: from the foundation
laid by his teaching the world is slowly rising to a purer faith in God.
We need now such a leader as he was--one who would dare to follow the
Father's will as he did, casting a long-prized revelation aside when
it conflicts with the higher voice of conscience. It is the teaching
of Jesus that Theism gladly makes its own, purifying it from the
inconsistencies which mar its perfection. It is the example of Jesus
which Theists are following, though they correct that example in some
points by his loftiest sayings. It is the work of Jesus which Theists
are carrying on, by worshipping, as he did, the Father, and the Father
alone, and by endeavouring to turn all men's love, all men's hopes, and
all men's adoration, to that "God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and," not in Jesus only, but "_in us all_."
APPENDIX: "Josephus mentions a Zacharias, a son of Baruch ('Wars of
the Jews,' Book iv., sec. 4), who was slain under the circumstances
described by Jesus. His name would be more suitable at the close of the
long list of Jewish crimes, as it occurred just before the destruction
of Jerusalem. But, as it took place about thirty-four years after the
death of Jesus, it is clear that he could not have referred to it;
therefore, if we admit that he made no mistake, we strike a serious
blow at the credibility of his historian, who then puts into his mouth a
remark never uttered."
A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE THREE SYNOPTICS
EVERY one, at least in the educated classes, knows that the authenticity
of the fourth gospel has been long and widely disputed. The most
careless reader is struck by the difference of tone between the simple
histories ascribed to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the theological and
philosophical treatise which bears the name of John. After following
the three narratives, so simple in their structure, so natural in their
style, so unadorned by rhetoric, so free from philosophic terms,--after
reading these, it is with a feeling of surprise that we find ourselves,
plunged into the bewildering mazes of the Alexandrine philosophy, and
open our fourth gospel to be told that, "In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God." We ask instinctively,
"How did John, the fisherman of Galilee, learn these phrases of the
Greek schools, and why does he mix up the simple story of his master
with the philosophy of that 'world which by wisdom knew not God?'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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