never thinking for a moment of what his own genius is to accomplish, but intent only on exhibiting his Lord and Master as the Saviour of the world.  The apostle John, in giving the design of his own gospel, gives that also of the other evangelists:  “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”  John 20:30, 31.

And because this glorious and divine person is a living reality, he possesses from age to age an undying power over the human heart.  Love towards him is the mightiest principle on earth, both for doing and for suffering.  It makes the soul of which it has taken full possession invincible.  When Jesus of Nazareth is enthroned in the castle of the human heart, not all the powers of earth and hell can overcome it.  See farther, chap. 12:8.

9.  Since, as we have seen, the gospel narratives are an authentic record of facts, it follows that in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth we have a supernatural revelation from God in the fullest sense of the words.  That his origin was both superhuman and supernatural, the gospels teach us in the most explicit terms.  He says of himself:  “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world:  again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.”  John 16:28.  “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”  John 17:5.  That the appearance on earth of One who dwelt with the Father in glory before the world was, and after the fulfilment of his mission returned to the Father again, was supernatural, is self-evident.  His person was, as has been shown, divine.  He was God manifest in the flesh; and wherever he went, his supernatural power displayed itself.  The miraculous element is so interwoven into the very substance of the gospel history, that there is no possibility of setting it aside, except by rejecting the history itself.  It is the fashion with a certain class of writers, after denying our Lord’s divine nature and explaining away his supernatural works, to be profuse in their eulogies of his character.  If they can first rid themselves of the obligation to believe on him and obey him as their divine Lord, they are willing to bestow upon him, as a man like themselves, the highest commendations.  But the attempt is hopeless.  What will they do with the fact of his resurrection from the dead—­the most certain as well as the greatest miracle in his history, and which includes in itself all the rest?  Had Jesus not risen from the dead, as he so often affirmed that he should, then he would have been what the Jewish rulers called him—­a deceiver, and no Saviour; but since the miracle of his resurrection must be admitted by all who do not reject the whole gospel history as a fable, why deny the lesser miracles