And here I might inquire, whether there was anything in their personal knowledge of Christ which could have suggested such a thought to those men.  We have seen that the grand lesson of their education as Jews was, “Hear, O Israel:  the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  Whatever other faith or worship did not harmonise with this was deadly idolatry.  It is true that, with the exception of Paul, all the apostles had seen Jesus in the flesh, and John specially pleads for His humanity, and presses it home with every form of expression.  “That,” says he, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.”  But if we lay aside all supernatural and miraculous evidences of our Lord’s person, what was there in His life which could have produced this impression, or awakened this strange conviction of His divinity?  Not surely His lowly birth, nor the long years in which He was known only as the carpenter’s son; not the sorrow and grief with which He was familiar, or the real though sinless infirmities to which He was subject; not the reception He met with from His countrymen, or the death by which His short earthly career was ended!  What was there in an earthly life so intensely human, to convince such true, thoughtful, godly men as the apostles that this man was one with the Holy One of Israel, the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth?  Yet such was the conviction of John, who leant upon His bosom at the Last Supper, watched Him in Gethsemane, beheld Him in the judgment-hall, and stood by Him at the cross!  Such was the faith of Paul also who never saw Him in the flesh, or ever heard His voice while He tabernacled among men.  If, however, the alleged supernatural facts in the Bible are true,—­including the gift of the Spirit who was to “glorify” Jesus,—­we can easily account for those convictions, but not otherwise.

And let me here notice in passing, how beautifully harmonious the facts of this Person’s life were as a man, yet also as “Emmanuel, God with us!” These, when “called to remembrance,” were such as must have confirmed and established the faith of the apostles.  If there were evidences of a humility belonging to Him as the Son of man, there were equal evidences of a dignity which belonged to Him as the Son of God.  He was born of the Virgin Mary, yet by Divine power.  “The Holy Ghost,” said the angel Gabriel to His mother, “shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:  therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”  He was brought forth in a stable, and laid in a manger, but wise men from the East, guided by a star, came to worship Him, and to present Him with kingly offerings, while the hosts of heaven announced His birth with songs of rejoicing.  He was baptized of John, yet a voice from heaven said,