62 The Fundamentals ture, sin and sinful propensities only excepted. His was a real and a true humanity, one which must pass through the various stages of growth like any other member of the race. From infancy to youth, from youth to manhood, there was steady increase both of His' bodily powers and mental facul ties ; but the progress was orderly. “No unhealthy precocity marked the holiest of infancies.” He was first a child, and afterwards a man, not a man in child’s years, As Son of Man He was compassed about with all the sinless infirmities that belong to our nature. He has needs common to all; need of food, of rest, of human sympathy and of divine assistance: He is subject to Joseph and Mary, He is a worshiper in the synagogue and the Temple ; He weeps over the guilty and hardened city, and at the grave of a loved one; He expresses His dependence on God by prayer. Nothing is more certain than that the Gospel narratives present the Lord Jesus as a true man, a veritable member of our race. But we no sooner recognize this truth than we are confronted by another which sets these records alone and unapproachable in the field of literature. This second fact is this: At every stage of His development, in every relation of life, in every part of His service He is absolutely perfect. To no part of His life does a mistake attach, over no part of it does a cloud rest, nowhere is there defect. Nothing is more striking, more unexampled, than the profound contrast be tween Jesus and the conflict and discord around Him, than between Him and those who stood nearest Him, the disciples, John Baptist, and the mother, Mary. All fall immeasurably below Him. THE PATTERN MAN 2. The Gospels exalt our Lord infinitely above all other men as the representative, the ideal, the pattern man. Noth-; ing in the judgment of historians stands out so sharply dis tinct as race, national character—nothing is more ineffaceable.
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