solace He has given,” and “the hope and joy He has kindled” is “unequalled in human history”?  Is it not impossible that under a delusion one could (as Emelow says Jesus did) become “the most fascinating figure in history”—­unapproachable in the “universality of appeal and sway”?  The world has been full of delusions:  have any of them produced a character like Christ?  Tolstoy says that the words of Christ to His friends and pupils have had a hundred thousand times more influence over the people than all the poems, odes, elegies and elegant epistles of the authors of that age.  Lecky, the historian, says that “the three short years of the active life of Jesus have done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all of the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.”  Could this be said of a man labouring under a delusion as to his real character?

What Christ said and did and was establishes His claims.  In a conversation with Peter (Matt. 16:  16), He approved that Apostle’s answer which ascribed to Him the title of “Christ” (the Greek equivalent for Messiah) “the Son of the living God.”  He not only approved of the answer bestowing the title but

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona:  for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”  In John 10, verse 30, He declares, “I and my Father are one”; in verse 36, same chapter, He denies that it was blasphemy to call Himself the Son of God.  In the presence of death He refused to deny the claim (Matt. 26:  63-64).

The deity of Christ is proven in many ways; some offering one line of proof and some another.  Some are convinced by the prophecies that found their fulfillment in Christ; some give greatest weight to the manner of His birth and His resurrection.  Still others lay special emphasis upon the miracles performed by Him.  There is no need of comparison; all the proofs stand together and bear joint testimony to His supernatural character, but I find myself inclined to use the method of reasoning adopted by Carnegie Simpson in his book entitled, “The Fact of Christ.”  Those who reject Christ reject also the miraculous proofs offered in support of His divine character, but the fact of Christ cannot be denied.  Christ lived; that is admitted.  He taught; we have His words.  He died upon the cross; that we know; and we can trace His blood by its cleansing power as it flows through the centuries.  Judged by His life, His teachings, and His death, and the impression they have made upon the human race, we conclude that He was divine and that He has justified the titles bestowed upon Him.  No other explanations can account for Him.  Born in a manger; reared in a carpenter shop; with no access to sages living and no knowledge of the wisdom of sages dead, except as that wisdom was recorded in the Old Testament, and yet when only about thirty years of age He gave