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itself culpable." The secondary personages are here admirably described, and the scene of action is also faultlessly represented; it is only when we come to consider the Divine hero of the piece that the description fails; and here it is that the most exquisite talent, though it may be the talent of a great artist, must and will always fail. M. Renan, though sincerely admiring the death on the Cross, yet regards it as the result of the unfortunate exaltation of His second period. He is too much of an artist not to comprehend its grandeur-it is the splendid finale of the poem of his life; in the

same manner that the exile at St. Helena was the ideal consummation of the career of Napoleon; they both arrived by their faults at a sad but grand termination of their histories. It was not the first period that eventually led Jesus to Calvary; it was the revolutionary fever which had seized him, and inspired him to enter into a contest with the established powers. Thus speaks M. Renan; and it appears to me that, thus represented, the death of Jesus loses all its sublimity. It arrives in time to put an end to the visionary period which a little later would have merged into fanaticism.

We have already mentioned the manner in which M. Renan appreciates the touching "adieux" in the upper room. The account of the institution of the Lord's Supper is reduced by the historian to the most meagre and commonplace proportions, and loses itself in embarrassed explications. The author supposes that the recital has been arranged after the close of the tragedy, and explains himself in this manner:-Jesus having performed his mysterious rite of the breaking of bread, began speaking to his disciples of their moral union with Himself, in his usual mystic and peculiar manner; the heated imagination of his friends caused them in the fulness of their hearts to turn this last Supper into another and better "Paschal feast" than the one which was then at hand; and they came to believe that their Master was the Lamb of God crucified for their sins. This is the origin of that myth which ever since has occupied so important a place in Christian religious worship. Thus we would say, M. Renan is able at will to form his theories from happy combinations of words and artificial phrases in direct opposition to the plain and literal sense of the narrative. We will also notice, in passing, the parody here given of the agony in the garden it is here represented as a recalling of the happy scenes of former days, and of the beautiful women whose love he had so easily obtained. Although the description of the scenery is appropriate, the author has committed a fault hardly conceivable in one of a spirit so refined and a judgment so correct; he has thrown a rosy hue around that face bathed with a bloody sweat at this hour of his dreadful conflict: this is surely pushing the love of contradiction a little too far.

We are now arrived at the foot of the cross; and M. Renan has

with great labour been able to present us with a full and truthful description of the whole scene, with explanations of the different. events, which are calculated to do away with all the mystery which has hitherto shrouded this awful catastrophe. We are, moreover, informed that no confidence is to be placed in the account given by St. John; for he, in order to outshine the rest of the apostles, has drawn a fantastic picture, in which he plays an important part. He represents himself to have been the recipient of the last words of Jesus. The reason given for this unworthy insinuation against the disciple that Jesus loved, is simply that this detail is not to be found in the other gospels, as if it were possible that the others could have reported words they had not heard; for all except John were absent from Calvary at this hour.

In spite of these drawbacks or blemishes, the crucifixion remains grand and imposing, by reason of the sublime words uttered at times by the Divine sufferer. M. Renan, though he accepts the testimony of the disciples in that which relates to the passion, utterly ignores the truthfulness of their testimony as to the resurrection. The reason for this is, that the resurrection was supernatural, and therefore of necessity false. To the Church the proofs of Christ's resurrection have been always most full and convincing. The author, however, has passed over in silence, or designated as idle tales, the mass of evidence contained in the apostolic writings, and asks, “What is the supernatural? Say rather it is fable and invention." The early Christians mistook for a real resurrection that "moral presence which appears so near during the first days of mourning for one so beloved." The historian has "closed the life of Jesus with His expiring sigh; but so deep was the trace left on the minds of His disciples and some of His friends, that for some weeks He appeared near to and consoling them. The strong imagination of Mary Magdalen is an instance of this assertion. Oh, the Divine power of love! Oh, sacred moments, when this hallucination gave back to the world a God from the grave !" In fact, the whole faith of the Church is a hallucination: here is the sum and substance of this book, so full of new discoveries worthy of the attention and gratitude of all Christians; for now the scales will be swept from our eyes, and we shall see the light! A supplementary chapter is no doubt destined to prove that Judas finished his days under his own fig-tree, or at least that he did not come to the terrible end that we have ascribed to him. As to the other enemies of Jesus, they never had occasion to reflect on the greatness of their crimes. Pilate had simply added one more to the list of innocent victims; it is, therefore, quite unnecessary to entertain any ideas on the subject of a great and exceptional punishment for the Jews, as if they had committed some great crime. Oh, no! And yet we see a people on the face of the earth

unable to efface the drops of blood that fell on them from Calvary. The history of the Jewish nation alone is sufficient to show that the actions we have been considering were not the insignificant occurrences, done in a corner, that some would have us believe.

II.

From this rapid analysis of the book of M. Renan, it is apparent to the impartial reader that the Christ there represented differs in everything from the one represented in the Gospels.

In passing in review the manner in which M. Renan has effected this change in the narrative, we notice that he has attempted, by a greater accuracy in the writing of names, and the altering of phrases, to lead away the mind of his readers with the idea that they have had placed before them a more true and faithful account of the past. He has given some charming sketches of country life and landscapes, and has written Caiaphas instead of Caiaphas, Judas of Kerioth instead of Judas Iscariot, and Mary of Magdala instead of Mary Magdalene. He has failed, however, in painting the holy figure of Christ, in all its moral grandeur, that grandeur composed of sorrow and of love. His description is wanting in that "aureola" of splendour which has attracted the attention of humanity. He has painted Him as a man of the world, witty, pleasant, and admired; and in reading this book the heart of a Christian, when comparing it with his own preconceived ideas, finds it wanting in that purity, tenderness, and love which were the characteristics of He who "went about doing good."

Christ, painted by M. Renan, resembles one of those light-haired, melancholy, and effeminate conceptions, with which the religious pictures of the present day abound. There is idealism, combined with a benevolence well developed, a certain moral languor, and that scepticism which withdraws itself from public contest, combined with transcendentalism; and these are the ingredients which M. Renan has combined to form the character of a Christ. Compared with this, the sketches of the Middle Ages, or on the walls of the catacombs of St. Agnes, are living pictures, and recall to the mind of a Christian the object of his love, better far than the refined pastils of the present day; for in them the innate sentiinents of our nature are not shocked. There is in reality no ironical smile upon His lip; but His looks are full of compassion and love, piercing the soul. He is the good shepherd and the compassionate brother, ever ready to seek and to save that which was lost; He is also the God-Christ whom we worship, and who was crucified for us. Let us, therefore, strive to preserve this image in our hearts, to the exclusion of every other.

It results from this that M. Renan, in endeavouring to sacrifice

everything to art, has completely failed in producing either a faithful picture, or a true history. It is a mistake noticeable in all his works; everywhere a constant tendency to confound religion. with æstheticism, the good with the beautiful; to him, evil is the same as vulgarity, and goodness only another name for elegance and nicety. Nowhere is this more evident than in this book of the Life of Jesus. He takes no account of the evils which were preying on humanity; sin and repentance are utterly ignored. He passes by those great abysses of iniquity to be found on the right hand and on the left of our path in life, and he paints his Christ as blind as himself. Christ does not here enter into the sufferings around Him, and in His actions there is mixed a levity and gaiety very different from the sorrowful original. He reveals none of that infinite tenderness, that sorrowful love which succoured every. trouble, which was ready to save even to the uttermost, and at last perished on the cross, a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Another fault in this book is the contradictoriness of the character of Christ. It is impossible to conceive of the Christ of the two periods as being the same man; there is no unity in the narrative, it is the composite production of speculation. We see the figure of Christ floating about in all manner of fantastic shapes. We are not told how it came to pass that the teacher of the people in the country round Galilee was transformed into the fanatic, this intractable and revolutionary spirit; neither are we shown the manner in which this movement, beginning among women and children, ended at the Prætorium, and on the cross. The reasons already given, of a wish to rival John the Baptist, and the clever calculations on the use of the marvellous, are quite insufficient to account for this great change; for, as M. Renan himself affirms, the doctrines of the first period are in direct opposition to these suppositions.

M. Renan, in the course of his work, has not been able entirely to hide his admiration for the results that Christ has produced in the world. He is forced to acknowledge that from Him dates the commencement of the new grand era of history; and thus modern civilization, with its various lights and its benefits, proceeds from Him. It is He that has laid the foundations of a new state of society; it was He who replaced corruption by a healthy morality, life by death, and who opened to dying humanity the career of an illimitable progress. With Him was buried the old world, with its beliefs, its gods, its glories, and its liberties, and on His resurrection we see the commencement spoken of above. "All history is incomprehensible without Him. He is the incomparable man to whom our conscience ascribes the title of Son of God, and with justice, for it is He that has made in religion this advance, to which nothing else is equal. We owe to Him that which in us is pure

and good. He is not the reformer of an old religion." He is the creator of the eternal religion of humanity.

This testimony of M. Kenan is nevertheless rendered in spite of himself, and shows plainly all that is insufficient and ridiculous in his interpretation of this life. He says expressly that an effect should be accounted for by a proportionate cause. This remark is made in connexion with the subject of the renovation of the world. He says that this was effected by the appearance of a young man in Judæa, differing in hardly anything from the people around him, and only remarkable for a greater gentleness of spirit and purity of morals; but in His teaching developing nothing either startling or new. In the writings of Seneca, Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus, we meet with the same subjects treated in the same manner; but they were unable to retard for a single moment the fall of the ancient state of society. How was it, then, that Jesus was able to bring about so great a change? It is because He was so full of unction, the force of His will was so prodigious, and because He mingled with His teachings an accent so full of conviction. These are the causes of this extraordinary effect: so says M. Renan; and we are able to convict him of the falsity of his axiom; for, according to his own evidence, the causes were disproportionate to the effect. To a Christian, however, there is something shocking in thus ascribing to these agencies alone this grand result, and in altogether ignoring the action and intervention of divine love; but let us recall to mind the death on the cross with its attendant horrors, and we shall see that this world was not regenerated by the repetition of old maxims, or saved by a smile. It required more than the contact of this refined nature to cure humanity as it lay stretched before Him sick unto death; and when reflecting on the petty wisdom of man in endeavouring to fathom the greatness of God, we would say with Paul, "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

Let us compare with these attempts at explanation, this Life of Jesus, and this history of the world, the great solution accepted and professed by the Church in all ages, and which stands alone in its sublimity, superior to all other methods devised by man for his salvation. Man there appears both in his native nobleness and his fallen state; and we have laid before us the grand and vast plan of his redemption. Called to moral life by God, whose image he bears, man undergoes the solemn trial of liberty. He falls, and in his fall carries with him the whole world, of which he is the king; but even in this fallen state he bears upon him still the marks of his illustrious origin. The spark of divine life still burns within his breast, shedding a pale and sickly ray across the darkness of his soul, and

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