The Historical and the Inward Christ
“All who since Jesus have come into union with God have come into union with God through Him. And thus it is confirmed in every way that, even to the end of time, all wise and intelligent men must bow themselves reverently before this Jesus of Nazareth; and that the more wise, intelligent and noble they themselves are, the more humbly will they recognize the exceeding nobleness of this great and glorious manifestation of the Divine Life.”
Fichte’s “Way Toward the Blessed Life,” p. 391.
“Christ is the Eternal Humanity in the life of the Infinite.”
George A. Gordon’s “The Christ of Today,” p. 136.
“The word of God is continually born anew in the hearts of holy men.”
Epistle to Diognetus, A. D. 125.
THE HISTORICAL AND THE INWARD CHRIST.
THERE was once a widespread fear that exact methods of historical research would deprive us of that luminous divine Figure toward whom the world had reverently turned its face for more than eighteen centuries. Some suspected that our records of His life were crowded with myth and legend, others believed that the singular story which had so profoundly touched the world’s heart was the creation of highly wrought enthusiastic disciples. To-day, after more than half a century of critical sifting and acute probing, this luminous Life is more firmly established as the central fact of history than ever before.
“That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows
Or decomposes but to recompose
Becomes my universe which loves and knows.”