Religious Reality | Page 4

was prepared by His Father; the

important thing was whether a man was prepared to drink His cup of
suffering, and be baptized with His baptism of blood. But He did speak
of Himself as King, He accepted the designation of Himself as the
Christ of GOD, and spoke strange words about His coming upon the
clouds of heaven to judgment. He held that by their relation to Himself
and to His ideals the lives of all men should be tested, and the verdict
passed upon their deeds. For making these and similar claims He was
convicted of blasphemy and put to death.
His disciples failed to understand Him. The Gospels are full of the
contrast between their minds and His. Of the chosen Twelve who, as
He said, had continued with Him in His trials and to whom He
promised that they should eat and drink at His table in His Kingdom,
and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, one betrayed and
one denied Him when the time of crisis came, and the rest forsook Him
and fled. The fact that their faith and loyalty were subsequently re-
established--that the execution which took place on Calvary was not the
complete and summary ending of the whole Christian movement--that,
in the days that followed, the recreant disciples became the confident
Apostles, requires for its explanation the assertion in some form of the
truth of the Resurrection.
With regard to the precise form which the Resurrection took there may
be room for differences of opinion: the accounts of the risen Jesus in
the various Gospel records cannot be completely harmonized, and the
story may here and there have been modified in the telling. The fact
remains that apart from the assumption as a matter of historical truth
that Jesus was veritably alive from the dead, and that He showed
Himself alive to His disciples by evidences which were adequate to
carry conviction to their incredulous minds, the origins of historical
Christianity cannot really be explained.
In the Gospel according to S. John it is stated that the crowds said of
Jesus, "This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world":
and so much, at the least, the average Englishman is ready to admit: for
to call Jesus Christ a Prophet--even to call Him the supreme Prophet--is
to claim for Him no more than a good Mohammedan claims for

Mohammed.
The word "prophet" in itself means one who speaks on behalf of
another: and a prophet is defined to be a spokesman on behalf of GOD.
He is essentially a man with a message. In so far as he is a true prophet
he is one who by an imperious inner necessity is constrained to declare
to his fellows a word which has come to him from the Lord. And the
prophet's word is urgent: it brooks no delay. It is impatient of
conventionalisms and shams. It breaks through the established order of
things in matters both social and religious. It is dynamic, vivid,
revolutionary. It goes to the root of things, with a startling directness, a
kind of explosive force. It disturbs and shatters the customary
placidities of men's lives. It forces them to face spiritual realities, to
look the truth in the face.
All this is true in a pre-eminent degree of the words of Christ. There is
a force and directness, an energy and intensity about His teaching,
which is without parallel in the history of the world. It might have been
thought impossible for His utterances, in any age or under any
circumstances, to become conventionalized: but the miracle has been
achieved. Christianity is to the average Englishman an established
convention and nothing more.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," said Jesus: but we say rather, "Blessed
are the rich in substance."
"Blessed are they that mourn": but that is not the general opinion.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"--but who
amongst us really believes it?
"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled."
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy": but to-day a
more popular maxim is, "Be not merciful unto them that offend of
malicious wickedness."

"Blessed are the pure in heart"--and how many of us are that?
"Blessed are the peace-makers": but in a time of war they are not very
favourably regarded.
"Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake"--is that
your ambition, or mine?
"Ye are the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world"--then the earth,
it is to be feared, is a somewhat insipid place, and its light comparable
to darkness visible. "If any man will come after Me, let him take up his
Cross, and follow Me": but most of us