CHAPTER XII

THE INCARNATION AND COMMON LIFE

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light, look favourably on Thy whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; and by the tranquil operation of Thy perpetual Providence, carry out the work of man's salvation; and let the whole world feel and see that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and all things are returning to perfection through Him from Whom they took their origin, even through our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Sacramentary of S. Gelasius.1

THE Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God was not only the fulfilment and summary of all that had gone before it, it was also the starting-point of a new order of things. It was that, not only because it was the setting of a fresh standard, the holding up of a new and perfect example, but because it was above all the re-creation of humanity by its assumption into personal union with the GODHEAD.

1 See Bright, Ancient Collects, p. 98.

I

We must lay firm hold of the truth that in the Incarnation the whole of human nature and of human life was affected. The Eternal Son took human nature in the womb of a Virgin Mother in order to cleanse and to elevate human nature as a whole; had He been born as we are born, by the ordinary mode of generation, we do not see how His birth would have affected the whole race of mankind, for in that case a human personality would have separated Him off, so far as we can see, from all others just as it does in the case of every one born into this world. But, as we believe, by the Virgin-Birth He became Man, not a man; and thus, neither changing nor adding to His Divine Personality, He took unto Himself that which would unite Him to the whole human race, not that which would separate Him from it; He took human nature not a human personality. And as a result of this we do not see in Him that prominence of one characteristic over another which we are accustomed to notice and admire in the saints and heroes of our race, and which is in fact a mark of imperfection. Nor again do we see in the LORD 1 See supra, pp. 166 ft.

2 See MacColl, Christianity in relation to Science and Morals, p. 134. 'All men and women have some special characteristic ; one is brave, another humble, another patient, and so forth.

JESUS CHRIST the prominent characteristic of any particular race or nation; there was in Him that which is best in every race. That is true, we should suppose, even with regard to physical characteristics; the traditional representation of the LORD in Christian art from the earliest times is probably right in not representing Him with the physical characteristics of the Jewish race as some modern realistic art has attempted to do. But most of all is it true of moral characteristics. Our LORD summed up into Himself all mankind, not a part of it; He expressed in His life not some one mark of perfection, but all; not what is the best characteristic of some particular period of history, but all that is best in all time. All mankind, all time, every race, either sex, finds in Him its centre and its archetype. "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in CHRIST JESUS.'1

The contrast between our LORD's Perfect and

Moses was the meekest of men, Solomon the wisest, Job the most patient. What does that mean? It means that those qualities predominated over the rest of the character in their respective possessors. But the predominance of any special quality is a mark of imperfection. The perfection of man's constitution is to have its qualities in equipoise; each in its proper place; each coming to the front when required; but none overshadowing the rest . . . 1 Gal. iii. 28, R.V.

representative Manhood, and the imperfections and limitations of our own, cannot find better expression than in the words of the Bishop of Durham in his lectures on the Creed. For us humanity is broken up into fragments by sex, by race, by time, by circumstance. From the beginning its endowments were not unequally divided between man and woman, whose differences are essential to the true idea of the whole. And we can see that countless nations and ages have not yet exhausted the manifold capacities of manhood and womanhood under the varied disciplines and inspirations of life. Again and again, even in our own experience, some new flash of courage or wisdom or patience or tenderness goes to brighten the picture of man's completed and real self. But in CHRIST there are no broken or imperfect lights. In Him everything which is shewn to us of right and good and lovely in the history of the whole world is gathered up once for all. Nothing limits His humanity, but the limits proper to humanity itself. Whatever there is in man of strength, of justice, of wisdom: whatever there is in woman of sensibility, of purity, of insight, is in CHRIST without the conditions which hinder among us the development of contrasted virtues in one person. CHRIST belongs peculiarly to no one people, to no

is noble in the achievements, or in the aspirations of any people or of any time, it finds a place in His sympathy and strength from His example.'1

Let us then lay firm hold of the truth that the whole of human nature and of human life was affected by our LORD's taking it upon Himself. He was not like Moses or Socrates or Charlemagne or King Alfred, each of whom was characteristically the man of his own race and of his own time. The Jew can as little claim Him as exclusively his compatriot as the Englishman can claim Him as exclusively his; the first century can claim Him exclusively as little as the twentieth. That is why Christianity, at least so long as it is true to CHRIST, can never become worn out; that is why it is adapted to the needs of every race; that is why there is no man who cannot find in it, if he will, all that he most needs. In CHRIST,' as S. Paul teaches, man is ‘a new creature." If only a man is 'in CHRIST' then there is made over to him, in so far as each man needs them, all those great blessings which were infused into humanity by its union with the GODHEAD in the Person of the Son of Man. Our LORD's gracious works which He

1 Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 62.