Rabbinical Invention about two Messiahs-Pontius Pilate and his Official Report to Rome-The Article of the Creed abundantly sustained....85-101 King Clovis The Bearing of this Article-The History of the Cross-The Empress Helena-Death by Crucifixion described-This Doctrine funda- mental-Christ's Trophies still hanging on the Cross as his Great Christ Suffering an exact Fulfilment of the Prophecies of the Jewish Church concerning the Messiah-The Specialities of this Article of the Creed confuting Mohammed and early Heretics-Our Lord's real Death, and Invited to Jesus' Funeral-The Hebrew Belief--Christianity teaches Respect for the Dead and their Bodies-The Prophecies fulfilled in a Roman Death and a Jewish Burial-Our Lord's Pall-bearers-Why Jesus was Unsatisfactory State of this Article-Its History-Use of Abstracts-Calvin, Dr. A. Alexander, Reformed Dutch Church--History of Terms, Sheol, Hades, Hell-Theory of Witsius, Calvin, and others rejected-What the Historic Notice of Ascension Day-Place from which He Ascended-Sacred Associations with Nature-Time of the Ascension-The Fact itself and "AND SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD." Our Lord's "Session" at the Right Hand of God-Heaven of Heavens--Sir William Rowan Hamilton's Suggestion that our Lord was Ten Days in Ascending Equality with the Father--The Place of Honor-Sitting PAGE JNIVEL I. BELIEVING IN THE NAME OF JESUS. "And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."--1 JOHN iii. 23. JESUS CHRIST is "the greatest miracle of history. He is himself the strongest "testimony to Christianity." And man himself is the most complete proof that he needs Christ. Human history is an illuminated pictorial series demonstrating man's need of a Saviour, just such as the Gospel makes known to us. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Cor. i. 21, 30, 31. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Gal. iv. 4, 5. DEAN STANLEY well says: "First and above all, stand those great moral doctrines of the Gospel, to which the highest place has been assigned, beyond dispute, in the Gospel itself. But, next after these, ecclesiastical history teaches us that the most vital, the most comprehensive, the most fruitful has been, and is still-not the supremacy of the Bible, or the authority of its several books; not the power of the Pope or of the Church; not the sacraments, not original sin, not predestination, not justification, but the doctrine of the Incarnation."* Now, if I am not mistaken in my reading of Dean Stanley's various works, there is in them a decided tendency to Broad Churchism, and perhaps to Monotheism or Sabellianism, with which I cannot sympathize. I say this, however, in no invidious sense. What I wish here to say is mainly this, that I am not willing to be held responsible for the opinions or views of any author, however learned or great his reputation, whom I quote, except as far as I expressly adopt them. I acknowledge no king in Zion but the LORD JESUS, and no Rule of Faith but the HOLY SCRIPTURES. Nor do I wish here to dogmatize in any unfriendly manner on the great question of the relative importance of the doctrines taught in the Word of God. It is not for me to settle the proportion or quantity of the doctrines of Revelation necessary to salvation, but in this case, as I understand the Dean, we have the truth, the great truth. For whatever may be said of the point of a standing or falling church, our holy religion, from beginning to end, depends upon the Incarnation. This certainly was included in the Apostle's direction: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." God the Father Almighty is known to us by His two great works of creation and redemption. The Gospel of St. John opens with a solemn declaration that the Son of God is the author of both these works. "In * Lecture V., on Eastern Church. |