STRONGHOLD OF TRUTH
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the Jews. Of course he cannot understand it, because he looks at it from the naturalistic point of view; but if we believe that the God of the Jews was Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth, we can readily understand why this nation is supernatural. Fourth: Supernatural expectation. There is that in the Old Testa·ment which is always pointing forward to the future, especially to the coming of the Messiah. Some will remember that in Canon Liddon's Bampton Lectures he says there were 333 references to the Messiah in the Old Testament, and Dr. Pierson argued that, based upon mathematical grounds, the concentration of all these 333 references on an individual, in face of the probabilities against it, is simply marvellous. Each time you add a reference, you reduce the probability of the allusions cen tring on one person ; and when we get to 333, and all these concentrate on one Man, the l\fan from the nation of the Jews, from the tribe of Judah, from the family of David, from the place mentioned in Micah (Bethlehem), we see at once the force of this extraordinary expecta tion. And I do not believe that there is any scholarship worthy of the name, which will deny that in the Old Tes tament there is expectation, always looking forward to some one who is to come. A Perfect Character Fifth: Supernatural Incarnation. Here we come face to face with the New Testament and the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. This by itself is more than sufficient for a whole course of studies, but I only ask you to notice the portrait of Jesus Christ, the combination and balance of qualities in Him, and the perfection of His character. I wonder whether we are all aware that not a single great master in literature has ever tried to depict a perfect character. From Homer down to the present day, we cannot find one literary genius who has attempted to depict a perfect man or woman. Who is the most per fect character in Shakespeare? Some people think Ham let. But he is admittedly not very perfect. Yet here is
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