The Jesus of the Evangelists: His Historical Character Vindicated; or, an Examination of the Internal Evidence for our Lord's Divine Mission, with reference to Modern Controversy. By the Rev. C. A. Row, M. A. [pp. 586-612]

ISTO.] i?ow'8 Jcsus of tIte Lca~j~e~~1~. 6O~
are eon~pel1ed to admit that t}~e time ~vhi~li thQy insist npon
being conceded to them is very short. And yet they coiitend
that even dnring this limited time, Christianity gre~v and ~vas
fully de~~eiopcd-tiiat ~ve see in tlie Christ and tlie Christianity wl~ich he founded, n~erely a natural and nnbroken
ev~1ution of thought out of' J udaism. This, in fact, t1~cy must
contend for as bug as they deny tlie existence of tlie Sn pernatural. The state of thought and feeling in tiie midst of
~vhicli tlie ni.ytli~~logists lived, could have been the only starting point from ~~liich tlie Lvaiigelical conception of tlie Christ
oi4ginated. Tlie forms of Jewish feeling arid ideas on moral
and religions subjects, constituted the materials ~vliicli tlie disciples had ready to their hands on tlie morning following the
crucifl~ion, and out of ~hicl~ tl~cy created tlie coliception of
their Jesus. It could oiily ii ave been from tlie already Cxisting ideas that the myths had tl~cir rise. Indeed this must
have been tlie case had the stories been forgeries, and had their
authors eO?t8CiOU8~j? invented them. They must have been
embodiments of the ideas and conceptions of tl~eir authors,
arid of tlie coilceptions of their times on nioral aiid religious
subjects. The ~-riter of fiction in all cases lias liis materials,
~vliich lie is to ~vork ~vith, ready wl~en lie begins. lie adopts
the religion, tlie morality, and die manners of the times iii
~vhieli he lives. So it ~vas with tlie mytliologists. In inventing the myths ~vhich compose tlie Gospels, they worked ~vitlr
materials already existing, just as truly as Iloiner wlteii he
invented his heroes started with the heroic character, tlie ilieology, and flie morals of liis times. Ilis difibrent heroes are
idealizations of tlie already recognized heroic type of character. It is certain then that tlie materials with which tlie iiiythologists worked could not possibly have been any thiiig different rio in tlie then prevailing forms of thought —die in oral
aiid religious ideas and conceptions already existing, and tlie
models already furnished for their contemplation in their
religious literature, and in the living characters of their own
day. And therefore out of these, tlie linpugners of the liistorical character of the Gospels who deny the reality of tlie supernatural, insist that Christianity was developed by the mere
actioii of the laws which regniate the j)rogress of tlie human