Unlike Shakspeare, Jesus is always conscious and personal, and that, as we have seen, is the grand distinction between great intellect and great character. Character is essentially and intensely personal, genius is not. History furnishes abundant illustration of this. Moses, Elijah, Daniel and Paul were each intensely personal. Every great Reformer has been:-Cromwell, Luther, Savonarola, Wesley, Washington, Lincoln. The missionary would be nothing without it. Livingston, Moffatt, Williams and Hudson preached and opened the ways of jungle and desert, not by force of intellect but by character. The philosophers are not so. Socrates depreciated himself and discounted his own personality. Christ, on the contrary, came to win men to himself as the very source and center of his gospel. Socrates cared nothing for loyalty to himself if only his disciples studied his philosophy. Christ demanded loyalty to himself as an essential test of discipleship, for he did not come to establish a system, but a kingdom. Socrates promoted science but was unable to offer a redemptive scheme for the spiritual woes and sins of humanity. Christ left science to others and gave Himself to the saving of man. Socrates died the death of a martyr, but his martyrdom is of little concern to the world, while his philosophy is much. Christ died a martyr's death and his death, even more than his life, changed the entire current of human affairs and, with his resurrection, is the supreme fact of Christianity.1 It matters little to the world whether or no Shakspeare wrote the works that bear his name,- their value does not depend upon his character or personality. But it matters all whether or no Jesus be The Christ. Shakspeare's works are of priceless value but his name is no charm or power to redeem or transform men. He wrote from time to time the splendid thoughts which emanated from his surpassing genius and then fell back to the level of ordinary men. Christ spoke his grandest words without thought of editing or revising them for publication; but his life ever reached the highest mark of his teachings. He raised the standard of moral thought and deed so high that none of his followers ever attained its highest point, yet he himself never once fell below it during all his life of labor and deprivation and sacrifice.2 "If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."-Rousseau, the French Sceptic. "It is said that Charles Lamb in the course of a discussion with some literary friends remarked: "If Shakspeare were now to enter this room we should all stand up to do him honor; but if Jesus of Nazareth were to come in, we should all fall down and kiss the hem of his garment.” The world needs Christ, not simply for the gospels that record his life and teachings, but for Himself. The gospels that tell of him are of value beyond price, but what we need most of Jesus,—is Jesus. And that is true of every Saviour of men or nations. When a nation is in distress, or a people oppressed, it is the personal enthusiasm, the passion, the power, the leadership of a Statesman, a General, a Tribune that is needed;-a Moses, Washington, Garibaldi, Lincoln, Grant or a Gladstone. The world needs its Saviours, not for what they can say, but for what they are and do. When a heart is in distress or is held captive by some demon of sin it is not the philosophy or science of a scheme that can save but-a SAVIOUR. He, therefore, who reveals a perfect personality and sustains it, is the ONE whom the world needs for its moral hunger and heart sorrows,the supreme I AM who never fails to declare himself the essential personal Life of the Kingdom of heaven. But such character knows no self. It is "all-suffering, all-abstaining, all-aspiring." Christ never once asserted himself for his own glory. In every self-announcement He proclaimed the advantage of others not of himself. There is no record of his having once exercised his power or authority in which we can, by the most searching inquiry, discover a selfish purpose, or a means to promote his interests in society. We know of no miracle performed by him to contribute to his own comfort, or to relieve his own needs in poverty, hunger, or weariness of body. His great grand infinite I AM'S were every one of them benevolent and gracious towards others. He never said, "I am divine, therefore all men must concede to me." But he said "I am the Way" therefore all men should "Come unto Me." All his invitations and announcements had the needs and sorrows of men in view: "Come,' weary," "burdened," "heavy laden,” “ I am the Door," "the good Shepherd," "the Vine," "the Way," "the Truth," "the Life;" I tell you this because "no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Blessed, glorious assumption of Jesus Christ! the very essence of humility for it seeks not itself but others. 66 99 66 Men are rarely, if ever self-sacrificial in their work from first to last and all through. Paul became so! the Christian martyrs became so! But from the beginning to the end Christ's life was wholly and entirely self-sacrificing and other-seeking. He moved, every hour of his life, towards the cross, and when he entered upon the active ministry for which he had prepared himself he bore the cross without cessation. “I lay down my life for my sheep," he said and this he did, in living as in dying, never once faltering or excusing himself from the hardest task, the darkest Gethsemane, or the most self-forgetting labors. Men who have not understood this have wondered at his assumptions and self-assertions; and yet the most severe and the most cynical of all critics have never witnessed against him a single act of self-seeking or self-interest. His self-giving is the most marvelous thing known to men. Never did he consult his own ease or necessities at the expense of human suffering; never did he say to the needy or the distressed; “Wait until I rest—come again to-morrow!" How vastly greater is such giving than is that, even of genius. It is the very gift of love and that is "the greatest thing in the world." Genius gives without stint or measure, but it brings no touch of love to the human heart. It cannot give rest or peace to its own most favored sons and daughters. The loftiest genius has ever needed a personal Saviour. Not a few of the most transcendent human intellects have dwelt in souls who have fallen" weary and heavy laden "- living and dying moral wrecks and spiritual bankrupts. - Poor Chatterton!-prodigy of youthful genius, the wondrous boypoet of more than a century ago committed suicide at the age of eighteen; broken-hearted, he shut out the light of one of the brightest stars of genius that ever God gave to the race of men. He had found no heart-rest, he knew no infinite love, and hope perished within him. If ever a human spirit needed a personal saviour it was young Chatterton of whom Wordsworth wrote:-"The marvelous boy, the sleepless soul that perished in his pride." Perhaps the most fertile, and certainly one of the richest of American poets was Edgar Allan Poe. But the story of the moral wreck of this gifted soul is painfully notorious. Surely Poe needed a saviour other than genius. Burns, the idol of Scottish hearts, the pride of the glens and groves of Ayrshire, author of the immortal "Cotter's Saturday Night," the bard of whom his biographers wrote, "he perished at thirty-seven, he can hardly be said to have died," was another example of the need of men of genius, as of other men, for a personal saviour. All the genius of the inimitable dramatic orator was in John B. Gough when he drifted down the moral plane until he fell into the very gutter of human society, a mere saloon clown. But Gough was transformed by a power greater than genius. Personal kindness, human sympathy, love incarnate, touched his heart and behold! the dead was awakened, the resurrected man came forth. And when his star of genius was set in a moral firmament, inspired by divine love, he transported millions by the story of his own redemption. And that is it. Genius is wealth, a mine of great riches, a constellation of light and beauty and power. But it needs love, the vital essence of character to complete it, to guide it, to inspire it, and to redeem its prophets. This is the incarnation, the vital personal energy to redeem the world, to direct genius, to qualify teachers, to ennoble life, to purify society, to exalt government, to advance the truest and highest and best civilization, to redeem the world. one in Love It is going on,- this incarnation,- the Christ spirit,-manifesting itself in various ways, breaking the horizon, broadening the view, bringing the world into touch with the world and with God, making the sentiment of universal peace and brotherhood a fact, converting all mankind into one family, one in Christ· one in Sympathy. Herein is true greatness. Greatness that never falters, that "will be a wretch and also a fool in this world sooner than soil its white hands by any compliances," that gives itself to a sinful world in purity, in love, in sacrifice. What, if it were possible, that this infinitude of the personal Christ could cease? Shakspeare's work of genius itself could hardly sustain the shock. So much of his glory does he borrow from the inspiration of that life, so much does he depend for abiding fame and increasing appreciation upon Him of whom he wrote: "In those holy fields Over whose acres walked those blessed feet |