It may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists. This has, indeed, been the wellspring of whatever is best and purest in the Christian life. Amid all the sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft and persecution and fanaticism, that have defaced the Church, it has preserved, in the character and example of its Founder, an enduring principle of regeneration.
JOSEPH ERNEST RENAN.
[The Life of Jesus. New York: 1864, pp. 215, 365, 375, 376.]
He founded the pure worship—of no age, of no clime—which shall be that of all lofty souls to the end of time. Not only was His religion that day (John iv. 24) the benign religion of humanity, but it was the absolute religion; and if other planets have inhabitants endowed with reason and morality, their religion can not be different from that which Jesus proclaimed at Jacob’s well.…
Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young without ceasing; His legend will call forth tears without end; His sufferings will melt the noblest hearts; all ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST—A SUCCINCT HISTORY
BY DANIEL SEELYE GREGORY. D.D., LL.D.
The legend of “The Wandering Jew,” in its various forms, has its basis in the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, or of His personal return to this world. This is true of the form of the legend that underlies Croly’s romance, the Lord Himself having given assurance of His return to the hero of the work and the arch-plotter, in the words of doom: “Tarry thou till I come!” The doctrine of the Second Coming has been accepted by the Christian Church and embodied in its creeds in all ages.