The Character of Jesus

By Horace Bushnell

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright
We assume nothing reported of him to be true,
The only character that has a perfect youth,
 
The picture stands by itself,
The absurd pictures given of infant prodigies,
 
Jesus the only great character that holds a footing of innocence,
The only religious character that disowns repentance,
 
He unites characters difficult to be united,
The astonishing pretensions of Jesus,
His pretension enter also into his actions,
Nobody offended by these pretensions,
What mere man could support such pretensions?
 
Peculiar in the passive virtues,
Does not falter in the common trials of existence,
His passion, no mere human martyrdom,
His agony misplaced, taken as being only a man’s,
It is, humanly speaking, excessive,
The pathology is divine,
His defence before Pilate, all that could be made,
 
He undertakes what is humanly impossible,
He assumes to set up the kingdom of God among men,
His plan covers ages of time,
Such attempts not human,
        
He takes rank with the humblest orders of society,
No great social architect ever saw the wisdom of it,
And still he raises no partisan feeling,
No human leader in this,
 
Origins and independent as no man is,
Teaches by no human method,
Warped by no desire to gain assent,
Comprehensive, under no human conditions,
Could not hold a one-sided view,
Clear of all the current superstitions,
But no liberalist,
His simplicity is perfect,
Shining as pure light,
Adequately teaches God even to the humble,
This morality is not artistic,
But intuitive and original,
Never anxious for success,
 
Raised and made sacred by familiarity,
Our experience of men reversed in him,
 
Recapitulation,
 
Did such a being actually exist?
Was he a sinless character?
Mr. Parker’s estimate of him,
Mr. Hennel’s estimate,
Faults charged,
Faults supposed and Intimated,
His invective against the Pharisees,
Milton’s right of invective, 
The fact of his miracles inferred, 
His errand is order itself, 
No disruption of law or system, 
The mythical hypothes is impossible, 
Their success Mr. Parker concedes, 
The miracles are in place in a gospel, 
Miracles rejected, so Is Jesus the Grand Miracle, 
Jesus himself the all-sufficient evidence, 
 
 
 
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