This tribute to the completeness and power of Christ’s personality is calculated to remind one of a memorable chapter in the well-known work of the late Dr. Horace Bushnell, entitled, “Nature and the Supernatural.”  With a wonderful power it portrays Christ as rising above the plane of merely human characters—­as belonging to no age or race or stage of civilization—­as transcendent not in some of the virtues, but in them all—­as never subject to prejudice, or the impulse of passion, never losing that perfect poise which it has been impossible for the greatest of men to achieve—­as possessed of a mysterious magnetism which carried conviction to His hearers even when claiming to be one with the Infinite—­as inspiring thousands with a love which has led them to give their lives for His cause.[218]

I have often thought that one of the most striking evidences of the divine reality of the Christian faith is found in the reflection of Christ’s personality in the character and life of the apostle Paul.[219] No one can doubt that Paul was a real historic personage, that from having been a strict and influential Jew he became a follower of Jesus and gave himself to His service with a sublime devotion; that he sealed the sincerity of his belief by a life of marvellous self-denial.  He had no motive for acting a false part at such cost; on the contrary, an unmistakable genuineness is stamped upon his whole career.  How shall we explain that career?  Where else in the world’s history have we seen a gifted and experienced man, full of strong and repellant prejudices, so stamped and penetrated by the personality of another?

On what theory can we account for such a change in such a life, except that his own story of his conversion was strictly true, that he had felt in his inmost soul a power so overwhelming as to sweep away his prejudices, humble his pride, arm him against the derision of his former friends, and prepare him for inevitable persecution and for the martyr death of which he was forewarned?  So vivid were his impressions of this divine personality that it seemed almost to absorb his own.  Christ, though He had ascended, was still with him as a living presence.  All his inspiration, all his strength came from Him.  His plans and purposes centred in his Divine Master, and his only ambition was to be found well-pleasing in his sight.  He saw all types and prophecies fulfilled in Him as the Son of God, the fulness of His glory, and the express image of His person.  Paul never indulged in any similes by which to express the glory of heaven; it was enough that we should be like Christ and be with Him where He is.

The writings of all the apostles differ from the books of other religions in the fact that their doctrines, precepts, and exhortations are so centred in their divine Teacher and Saviour.  Buddha’s disciples continued to quote their Master, but Buddha was dead.  Theoretically not even his immortal soul survived.  He had declared that when his bodily life should cease there would be nothing left of which it could be said “I am.”