The life and character of Jesus is the best solution of this paradox. If we ask, "Which is the best kind of goodness, that which consists in struggle and effort, or that which comes naturally and easily without struggle?" we find that Jesus had both kinds of goodness in equal and harmonious union. His whole life, on one side, was a struggle and a battle. He was tempted on all points, like as we are; but without sin. He fought against wrong, and lived and died a martyr to the truth. His way through life was no path of flowers. He went down into the depths of all kinds of evil. He suffered, being tempted, and so could save others who are tempted. Though a son, he learned obedience through the things which he suffered. Yet he was the well-beloved Son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father, pure from all stain of evil. He combined these two forms of goodness perfectly-that of nature and that of effort. This made him complete and perfect.

For though Jesus had this struggle and battle, it did not consist in any struggle with evil in himself. He was born wonderfully pure and exceptionally free from stain. The story of the miraculous conception is the gospel way of stating this fact. He was born of the Holy Spirit. No drop of black blood corrupted his heart. We have all of us seen and known persons who were born somewhat so; who were half angels, even while on earth. But Jesus was all angel while on earth. One example was needed to show us what man could be if perfectly free from selfishness and falsehood. One illustration of human nature was sent us to reveal how God made it and meant it; one man to whom we can all look and say, "Here is one who illustrates humanity; not Jewish humanity, nor German humanity, nor Hindoo humanity, nor English, nor American, but humanity in its central, normal type. Only by having one such man in the world, can mankind become one. He is

the principle of unity in the race. If we had to make allowances for him, and criticize him, and say, This part of him was the Jew, and that part belonged to his age, and this to his own limited idiosyncrasy," it is evident that he is not the son of man; not the man who was to come, but that we must still look for another.

human hearts from Seeing everywhere

A great prophecy has lain hidden in the beginning, of such a being as this. among men weakness, ignorance, sin, the human heart has cried out for some one to come who, while being a man like ourselves, should be an example of uncorrupt humanity. God, who made us with this longing and this prophetic hope, sent to us in Jesus Christ its answer and fulfilment. He showed us this one pure soul, in whose life the most searching criticism has never yet found a stain, and yet he was one who had to struggle, as we struggle, suffer as we suffer, resist temptation as we resist it, and whose whole life was not only growth, but also battle; in whom, therefore, we find the fulness of the Godhead by finding the fulness of manhood, since man was made in the image of God.

It shows how fully we have been indoctrinated in the belief of human depravity that we find it so hard to believe in the perfect goodness of Jesus Christ. Approximations and approaches to that goodness we have all seen and known. We have seen lives of devoted generosity, fidelity, loyalty, purity, courage, conscience; but we cannot quite make up our minds to think that even one man should ever be perfectly good. Modern criticism, filled with this faith in human imperfection; with this confident persuasion that man is so radically bad that nothing perfectly good can come out of him; has tried to find faults in the life of Jesus. But the charges are infinitesimally little, they merely show this persistent skepticism in the possibility of

any perfect goodness. But why should we doubt it-we who do not believe in total depravity? Those who think man naturally and wholly depraved are obliged to assume a miracle to explain the purity of Jesus; and behind that they place another miracle, the miraculous conception of Mary his mother, in order to make his mother also pure. And I do not see why the next Pope should not proclaim, as another dogma, the immaculate conception of his grandmother, and so on. If human nature cannot produce goodness, without a miracle, then we ought to have a series of miracles to keep the sources of the life of Jesus pure all the way back to Adam. But to my mind it seems something natural, and to be expected, since mankind has a tendency upward, not downward; since progress is the law, and development the habit of the race; that we should find at least one man in history coming into the world perfect under happy circumstances and benignant conditions. In him such a fortunate organization may be combined with such favorable influences that he shall become the Son of Man -the pure, unstained, unperverted type of human nature. In him, the two tendencies of struggle and growth are harmonized. He fought a battle, but not with himself. He resisted temptation, but not temptation born of an evil nature. The temptations he resisted were toward an excessive devotion, an extravagant virtue: the struggle was to maintain the perfect equipoises of life, which make in him reason and faith one, which balance piety and morality, love to God and love to man; reverence for the past and hope for the future; true reform and true conservatism; patriotic desires for his nation, and the larger love of his race. He solved thus the problem of our text; showed what it was to be well-born, and also to obtain freedom with a great outlay; how the sweetest growth need not be unmanly, nor the most martyr devotion stern; how the

prophet may be a saint, and the saint a man. So Jesus stands as the central figure in history; the reconciliation of races, creeds, philosophies, and religions; the Son of God in holiness, the Son of Man in good will and humility.

There are, therefore, those two kinds of goodness: the goodness which comes from struggle, and that which comes from nature; but the life of Jesus shows that they are at heart one. This also appears from the fact that each tends to produce the other. A natural growth into good prepares us to struggle for it. Struggle and effort to do right at last consolidate into right habits and tendency. Mr. Darwin says that a long-necked horse by straining upward to get the leaves from the. trees may, after a few thousand centuries, have been developed into a giraffe. About this we cannot be certain, but I do not doubt that a bad man after a while may become a good man.

The goodness is incomplete which does not unite the virtue which struggles and the sweetness which grows. There are in all our lives a natural happy development, and hours of crisis. With Jesus the development came first, and prepared him for the final crisis. With others the struggle comes first, and ripens into a calm and assured peace.

I have seen a family grow up happily together. Two young people were drawn together by likeness and unlikeness, by circumstances and choice, by instinct and reason. They made a home. All therein was content and joy. It was all sunlight except a little moonlight and starlight, which added their picturesque charm to the beauty of the day. If a little gust of transient trouble came, it only made them come nearer together. Children appeared in this home, one after another, each bringing some special added joy. Wealth brought ease, and the power of helping others by dispensing abroad. All the poor in the town came to know the hospitable door, from which they were never

turned away. All who needed advice knew where to go. They knew there were in that house kind and sagacious friends ready to counsel them.

So the home grew into a centre of usefulness. The children grew up; their characters were unfolded. It seemed like a beautiful garden of various fruits and flowers. It was complete all through, with the kind grandparents, the strong parents and relatives coming and going. Happy is the family in such a case. All was prosperity and peace.

easy growth

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But change came here, as at last it comes to all. Trial came, and trial on trial. One link after another of this prosperity was snapt. One vacant place after another was left at the table, by the fireside. Disease, accident, sudden losses, cruel death, arrived. The cloud, darker and darker, covered the whole sky. Then is seen how the warm sunlight and has been a preparation for the hour of trial. meet the storm, and find it an air from heaven, not a blast from hell. Then we see how brave, how patient, how tender, how cheerful, men can be when all their joy seems blighted, and all their hopes blackened in solid darkness, a darkness like that of Egypt, which may be felt. Then growth becomes patient effort; natural goodness prepares the way for struggle. Then it appears that strength can come out of sweetness. These children of love and joy were found equal to trial and storm. Love prepares for effort, just as a peaceful nation accumulates the wealth and strength which can encounter war. Thus we see how goodness in the form of joy and beauty, natural and spontaneous goodness, will, if it be genuine, create strength for the goodness which is effort and will.

So have I seen a fair summer morning, when heavenly clouds floated in the sky, spiritual as angels, around the