life and of all human calculations.  No living thing has ever violated this law; even man with all his power has never been able to persuade or compel that intangible, invisible thing that we call life to cross the line of species.

Third:  the 26th verse—­“Let us make man in our image”—­gives us the only explanation of man’s presence on earth.  Without revelation no one has been able to explain the riddle of life.  Man comes into the world without his own volition; he has no choice as to the age, nation, race, or family environment into which he shall be born.  So far as he is concerned, he comes by chance; he goes he knows not when, and cannot insure himself for a single hour against accident, disease or death; and yet, he is supreme above all other things.

The 26th verse reveals a truth of inestimable value.  When man knows that he is “the child of a King,” with the earth for an inheritance—­that the Creator, after bringing all other things into existence, made him, not as other things were made, but in the image of God, and placed him here as commander-in-chief of all that is—­when he understands that he is part of God’s plan and here for a purpose he finds himself.  To do God’s will becomes his highest duty as well as his greatest pleasure and he learns that obedience links happiness to virtue, success to righteousness, and makes it possible for him to rise to the high plane that a loving Heavenly Father has put within the reach of man.

    Where in all the books in all the libraries can one find as much
    that affects the welfare of man as is condensed into these three
    verses?

III

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

The question, What think ye of Christ? propounded to the Pharisees by the Saviour Himself, demands an answer from an increasing number as each year the circle of the Gospel’s influence widens.  It is a question that cannot be evaded.  In every civilized land an answer is made, by word or act, by each individual who is confronted by the facts of His life.  It is in the hope that I may be able to assist some in answering this question that I devote this hour to the inquiry.

Was Christ an impostor?  Or was He deluded?  Or was He the promised Messiah, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” as He declared Himself to be?

Few have dared to accuse Him of attempting a deliberate fraud upon the public.  Impostors sometimes kill others in carrying out their plans, or to escape detection, but they do not offer themselves as a sacrifice for others.  Christ’s whole life gives the lie to the charge that He practiced deception.  One recorded act would be sufficient to establish His honesty of purpose.  In the nineteenth chapter of Matthew we read: