AMONG the fairest legends of Christian antiquity may perhaps be reckoned that of St. Christopher. He is said to have been originally a Syrian heathen, distinguished by great strength of body, and resolved to devote himself only to the service of that master who should be proved to excel him in strength. He was directed to a powerful king; but the latter was afraid of the Evil One, and Christopher draws the legitimate deduction that this last must thus be more powerful than the other. He sells himself now into the service of Satan; but Satan flees in his turn so soon as the cross is planted. Who, then, can this Crucified One be, before whose sign even the prince of darkness trembles? Christopher soon learns, and determines to range himself under His banner. In answer to the question, how he may best show his unlimited subjection to this new master, a hermit counsels him to take his place as a ferryman beside a neighbouring stream, and to offer to all who desire it to bear them on his brawny shoulders to the opposite side. In reality the strong man, who will only bow before the stronger, builds for himself a lowly hut upon the bank, and now daily performs gratuitously the pious labour of love. There, on a certain night, he hears the silvery voice of a little boy, who begs he will also carry him over, and the ready servant at once arises. But hardly has he with his light burden set his feet in the waves, when they begin wildly to roar. It is as though the child whom he carries becomes with every moment heavier: as yet scarcely in the middle of the stream, the exhausted bearer seems about to sink. “Who art thou, child?” asks he, astonished and alarmed; “it is as if I were bearing nothing less than the whole world upon my shoulders!” And, “In reality you bear even more than the world,” is the answer he receives; “you bear Him who made heaven and earth; I am Christ the Lord, whom you serve.” Now he is by the hand of the child immersed in the water, baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and in remembrance of this miracle named Christopher (Christophorus), the Christbearer. In proof thatall this was no empty dream he was to plant the staff which he bore on this occasion on the other side, in the sand of the river’s bank, and in one night the dry wood should become verdant and sprout.

It falls not within the object contemplated by us to investigate the probable origin of this significant legend. But who will be surprised that it presented itself to our mind as we at last overcame a natural shrinking, and addressed ourselves to the work of sketching the image of Christ in all its extent? The experience, in truth, of the man who ventures on the field of Christology is not unlike that of St. Christopher. As though it were a light burden, youthful zeal undertakes this task. Animated with sacred longing desire to test one’s strength to the highest degree, he hardly considers whether it may not. be too heavy for human shoulders. But with every step in advance grows the broad stream which must necessarily be waded through; the burden one has imposed on oneself presses ever more severely the weary shoulder; the consciousness of the rashness of the act expresses itself ever more powerfully than that of the dignity and grandeur of the effort. Unless the Lord Himself reveals Himself to the man, and baptises him with the Holy Ghost, where is the strong man who would not in this path eventually sink down?

The image of Christ as presented in Scripture, this, then, is the task which awaits us. Scarcely have we placed this inscription above the following pages, when it becomes self-evident how almost impossible it is to enter upon a more sublime, but at the same time a more difficult, subject. The difficulties already experienced in the preparation of the Life of Jesus return here, but augmented with many new ones. Not years, but ages, here extend themselves before the eye of him who would investigate the subject; not through earth alone must his imagination roam, to heaven must his spirit soar; not only of the past and the present, also of the mysteries of the future must he testify, under the leading of the Spirit of truth. All the rays of the glory of the Christ must he, so far as possible, collect into one focus, and not merely present a, series of sacred and profane testimonies about the God-man, but, illuminated and guided by God’s own testimony, must display Him Himself, in His peerless lustre, before the eyes of many. Even though the most accomplished pen had become a pencil in the most cautious hand, who would venture to project so much as the first lines of this magnificent painting without the question once more rising to his lips, “Who is sufficient for these things?”

But, notwithstanding all the difficulty of the undertaking, there is not a little which tends at once to banish the dread of its absolute impossibility. It is, indeed, no philosophic Christ, but a purely historic one, whom we are to attempt to depict; no creation of one’s own excited imagination, but the centre of God’s highest and last revelation, to which we now direct our attention. For every one who with us still regards Holy Scripture as the pure source and infallible standard of Christian truth—and the number of these will increase in proportion as unbelief more unblushingly and superficially assails the Divinity of the Gospel—the answer is thus already in principle given to the all-important question, “What think ye of the Christ?” We have shown¹ that the testimonies of Prophet and Apostle concerning Him, far indeed from being in open contradiction with each other, display the fairest harmony, as well one with another as with the words of the Lord Himself. Thus,then, all the stones lie at hand, which, well compacted, must form that Christologic structure, of which the majestic outline already stands before our mind in the examination of the separate utterances of the Old and the New Testament. What we now have to do is in this way nothing less, but also nothing more, than to rear the superstructure upon the foundation thus laid; in other words, to draw the likeness of the Son of God and Son of Man, as, according to the unaminous testimony of Scripture, which cannot be broken, He displays Himself to us. Endless would the task be, if we would make any other conception of the Lord’s person and work, which might assert itself beside or in opposition to ours, the object of a formal and extended criticism. But that which belongs only to the schools of theology, without possessing any value for Christians who will know in whom they believe, is with reason set aside. It is no abstract dogma that we seek to develop, but a living image which we attempt to sketch; no controversy with persons, which we desire to open, but a calm contemplation of things, into which we wish to enter; no running criticism, in a word, which we propose to give of systems about Christ, but a visible picture of the Christ Himself, as He has in some measure obtained a form in us. We are permitted, in doing so, to attach ourselves to the testimony of His believing Church of all ages, and to make an independent use of the light shed by the most’ distinguished men of earlier and later times upon the dignity of His person and the glory of the Redemption given us in Him. We are in some respects in the position of the artist who would make the canvas and marble speak to the honour of the Holy One, and—acquainted with the efforts already put forth by meritorious predecessors—now also essays his own, and however high his ideal remains above his powers, yet does not lose courage, because above his outspread frame has hovered the breath of a devout prayer. Of one of the most renowned Italian maestros, Angelico de Fiesole, it is related that he was wont to paint the head of Christ and of the Holy Virgin only on his knees: why should the Christian theologian need to despair, who has no other design than in his domain in spirit to do the same?

It will be unnecessary in this place at large to indicate or to justify the method we wish to pursue. Already² have we pointed out in broad outline the form designed for an investigation which, while fruit and crown of an earlier labour, may yet be regarded as a wholly independent one. If we had now to begin with the question, who Christ was, and what He has done, it would indeed be most natural to begin with His earthly manifestation, thence to rise, on the one hand, to His pre-existent state, and, on the other, to that which He has become, after passing through suffering into glory. But since our presentation is to embrace as far as possible all that has been revealed to us in the Gospel concerning Christ, it is unquestionably best conducive to the end in view that we make choice of the historic sequence, and begin with penetrating as we are able into the past, in order finally to direct our, glance to the yet hidden development of the future. If it is at all allowable to transfer the idea of time to a domain which in part belongs to eternity, we desire to contemplate the Son of God and Son of Man in the various periods of His existence and activity. As whilom John, we have to place ourselves at the standpoint of believing contemplation, and to speak successively of

THE SON OF GOD BEFORE HIS INCARNATION;
THE CHRIST IN THE FLESH;
THE GOD-MAN IN GLORY.

It will scarcely be necessary to indicate the principles which will guide us in the carrying out of this work. The sacred witnesses of the Lord are for us extraordinary ambassadors of God, before whose high authority we bow, and His own word concerning Himself the end of all controversy, even where we have not yet succeeded, or have only partially succeeded, in independently and clearly penetrating the truth thereof. And yet, while we regard it as folly not to be willing to believe anything which one has not previously comprehended, we regard it as indolence not to wish to comprehend what, and on what grounds, we believe. Where thus the word of truth opens up a depth for our eye, we cast therein a resolute, although ever reverential, glance; and while we begin with sitting down as children at the feet of Supreme Wisdom, we nevertheless continue mindful of our vocation, as men to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and to understand the things which in Christ are freely given to us of God. And, while all our knowing and prophesying in this childhood state necessarily continues limited, we adhere as closely as possible to God’s own testimony contained in the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament—a testimony of whose infallible certainty we are fully assured, not only because it rests upon facts, often assailed indeed, but never refuted, but also, and especially, because the Holy Ghost testifies in our hearts that the word of the Lord is truth. Rather do we esteem it possible that all men should be seen to be liars than that one jot or tittle of that which the God of truth has spoken, and caused to be written in accordance with His will, should fall to the ground. The decisive “It is written” remains thus for us the highest word in this particular domain, no less than others. That which Scripture leaves undecided, we leave likewise an open question; what Scripture testifies of Christ, “we accept always and in all places, with all thankfulness,” but at the same time seek, so far as in us lies, to sound its meaning. Proceeding under the guidance of that infallible light, we desire to leave no single side of His adorable nature and ~ His redeeming work wholly beyond our examination. We seek to bring His heavenly form as closely as possible within the vision of all who desire with unveiled face to behold the glory of the Lord. And while we are thus conscious of giving an unequivocal testimony to the honour of the truth, we at the same time labour for the advancement of that real peace which is effected, not by the concealing, but only by the revealing of the truth.

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!” Seldom was anything of importance spoken or done in former times, in any province, without an invocation of this thrice holy Name, in which—according to the old legend—also Christopher was baptised. What word can better be our last one, where we now without delay wend our steps into the Holy of Holies, than an earnest and solemn, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”?

1) Christologie, i., ii.

2) Christologie des N. V., pp. 24, 25.