And the same is true of another kindred class of passages, in which the Saviour asserts his inward dominion over the human spirit.  Hear him, as he stands and proclaims:  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Matt. 11:28.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you:  not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”  John 14:27.  The world gives peace at best outwardly, and often only in empty words; but Jesus has direct access to the inmost fountains of feeling.  He gives peace inwardly and efficaciously.  When he turned into songs of joy the tears of the widow of Nain by raising her son to life, that was a wonderful instance of his giving peace; but far greater and more glorious is the work when, by his inward presence in the soul, he makes it victorious over all “the sufferings of this present time.”  This is what he meant when he said to his disciples:  “These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulations; but be of good cheer:  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33.  In his name, apostles raised the dead to life; but no apostle—­no mere man—­would have ventured to say, “In me ye shall have peace.”

These last words naturally lead to the consideration of another very peculiar form of speech first introduced by our Lord, and passing from him to the church; that of the mutual indwelling of himself and his disciples:  “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”  John 15:1-7.  It is a vital union of the believer’s soul with Jesus, through which he receives from Jesus life and fruitfulness, as the branch from its union with the vine.  Here is an assertion of deity.  The Jews regarded Moses with the highest reverence; but no one of them ever spoke of abiding in Moses, or having Moses abiding in himself.  Had any Christian disciple represented himself as dwelling in Peter or Paul, the apostle would have rent his clothes at the blasphemy of the words.

Other peculiar ways in which our Lord manifested his deity could be specified, but the above will suffice as examples.  Let any candid man consider all these examples in their connection, each of them so original and so majestic, so simple and natural, and yet so far removed from anything that could have occurred to one sitting down to draw from his own imagination the picture of a divine person; and he will be convinced that such a record as that contained in our four canonical gospels was possible only because it is a simple and truthful history of what Jesus of Nazareth was and did.  Plain men can give a straightforward account of what they have seen or learned from eye-witnesses; but it transcends the genius of any man to invent such narratives of such a character.  The gospel narratives are marked throughout by artless simplicity.  Each of the writers goes straightforward with his story,