112 The Fundamentals revelation to Jesus is of no more import to me than is His revelation to any good man or His revelation in nature. The exemplary moral and religious perfection of Jesus is of no benefit whatever to any one except he has in his being the same moral and religious forces which were in Jesus. But if these powers are inherent in him and can be developed in his life, then it makes no- difference by whom they become energized, by Jesus or by some one else.” Quite pathetic are the words of Professor Drews, show- ing, as they do, the restlessness of an honest but irreligious mind and the dissatisfaction with substitutes in religion: “We are consumed by a burning desire for salvation and we should be satisfied with this fabric of the theologians, this picture of the historic Christ, who changes His features under the hands of every professor of theology who works at it. We need the presence of God, and not His past.” And Dr. Kalthoff writes quite correctly: “A God in whom we must believe because scholars say that two thousand years ago the son of a Jewish carpenter believed in Him, is not worth the printer’s ink that is being squandered about Him.” THE CHRIST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT THE ONLY CHRIST I will come to a close. Why have I asked you to read all these quotations? For two reasons: In the first place, I desired to show that the modern method of subjective analysis of the sources and of the “religionsgeschichtliche” comparison leads, and as a matter of fact did lead, to a complete negation of the historicity of the person of Christ. In the second place, I wished to point out that the modern, liberal conception of Christ, which strips Him of all distinctively divine elements and makes a pure man of Him, be He ever so good and holy, be He ever so sublime a pattern of a perfect life, be He ever so trustworthy a guide to God, does not and can not. satisfy the modern man. He repudiates this man-made Jesus, and even accuses his makers of lack of scientific spirit and of
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