I. THE WAY OF LIFE. THE life of Jesus is of priceless value as a result; both as a result of what had gone before, and as the resultant of a new spiritual force in conflict with the resistance of its environment. That such a person as Jesus was possible at that time marks a long stretch of progress from the beginning, as the appearance of man on the earth marks a long progress from the virginal chaos. His life was not a solitary event thrust into time from eternity, with no intermediate stages of development—as if the fauna or flora of the present earth had been raised by miracle upon the Silurian rocks-but it indicates a result of the past, a general warming and purifying and hardening of the globe in preparation for a higher and better type of life. The great mass of the Christian precepts and principles had already been embodied in other writings. It is a great mistake to suppose that Christianity swept away all that had gone before, and planted in its stead an entirely new civilization. Before gospels or epistles had been put to paper, the results of the former development came from the east and west, the north and south, to recognize in this new life a fulfillment of the old hope. And the re-birth of art and revival of letters was in each case the result of new.combinations between the Christian philanthropy and faith, and the contemporary heathen culture. The church fathers were as much indebted to Plato and Aristotle for their doctrines as they were to Jesus for their triumphant lives. This imputes not the less but the more honor to Jesus. For if he was an unnatural being, raised up miraculously by the power of God to live and teach as he did, it is hard to see how any peculiar merit attaches to him. Had God done so for us, we might have done likewise. The wonder is, that this obscure man, untaught in the schools, living in an unheroic age, when there was every temptation to think meanly of man-that such a one should so live, by the purity of his heart and directness of his intuitions, as to give the best illustration of the destiny of man and the best interpretation of all that had preceded him, so that in him religions of race became religions of the world. This is the wonder and this the glory of Jesus. And in like manner there is more hope and comfort in regarding Christianity as a result of the past, than as an abrupt and exceptional incursion of heaven upon the earth. It shows that the race has never been orphaned of God, but ever helped by him through prophets, teachers, redeemers; that there is no break in the thread of development; that the retrograde movements of an age or generation are like the backward swings of the pendulum, helpful of the ever-moving hand upon the dial. Jesus's life was not like the flash of a meteor upon whose sudden light we can predicate nothing-no hope of light for the traveler nor heat for the grain-but rather like the rising of the sun, prophesied by darkness, heralded by twilight, the natural result of the fullness of time. His life is priceless as the result of a human soul struggling with sin, and temptation, and error; bearing witness to the truth even unto death. That he saw so much to love in common people; that he made common life appear so uncommon, even to publicans and sinners; that in the midst of stupidity, and hypocrisy, and treachery, he did not become soured and distrustful of man; that his peace came not from blindness, but from clearness of vision; that he could look through the transient event to the permanent providence; that his feeble life was made strong from sources so deep and solemn; that, with a woman's capacity for suffering, he suffered in agony to the end, still clinging to the truth, still loving God and the lilies, still trusting in his right and ability to lead the world. He saw, and suffered, and accomplished; and he speaks to you and to me in our pain and pleasure, our success and failure, of what he has tried and conquered. Such a result is priceless; such a life speaks to all lives; and belongs not to one man, nor one race nor age-it belongs to humanity. But, friends, it is not as a result in either sense that the life of Jesus is of most value to the world; its real excellence is hinted at in the text, where he calls himself the Way. He is not the journey's end, but the strait gate and the narrow path; not the living pasture, but the door of the sheepfold; not the end, but the means; not the argument, but the method; not the Infinite and Absolute, but the way to the Father.. This is the crowning glory of Christianity-it is a way and not an end. It is a path which you and I may walk in, step by step, through forest shade and desert gloom, and city tumult, never doubting, even when the end is hidden, that all possible good which can come to us will be met sooner or later on that road. I do not say that Jesus began life with a conscious plan of revealing the only way by which men could find the Father; but by doing, thinking, feeling, |