ut in this case they did not obey orders, nor even try
to do it. Their excuse for not doing so was peculiar. They gave no
ordinary or natural circumstances as hindering the execution of orders.
They made no plea to exculpate themselves. They simply said, "No man
ever spake like this man." How, then, shall we account for this? There
was simply an unearthly majesty in the person, the manner and the words
of Jesus, that awed them into inaction. The very fact that such men
were so unnerved by the presence and words of Jesus, gives us an idea
of His majesty as a teacher, and of His power over men. Thus it was
that He could cleanse the temple, overturn the tables of the
money-changers, drive out the whole crew who were making merchandise of
the house of God, and no one resisted. When did the world produce
another man whose presence alone awed bold officers of the law into
disregard of duty, and the chastised multitude into non-resistance?

Jesus was the world's great teacher, and yet He was never taught. This
fact was recognized by those who knew His history. "The Jews therefore
marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"
Jesus explained it by saying, "My teaching is not mine, but His that
sent me." This is the only satisfactory explanation that can be given.
That Jesus was a man of unequaled wisdom, surpassing infinitely all the
great philosophers of renown, is freely admitted by the best informed
of modern skeptics. That the world has been influenced by His teaching
infinitely beyond what it has been by that of any other man, is not
denied. That the world regards His teaching to-day, after eighteen
hundred years from the day of His death as a malefactor and His rest in
a borrowed grave, as it has never regarded the teaching of another man,
is also an admitted fact. How shall we account for such
teaching--teaching of such accumulating power over ages and generations
of men--when He Himself was untaught? The world can not answer the
question except as Jesus answered it: "My teaching is not mine, but His
that sent me."

Christ was the only teacher among men who never made a mistake. After
nearly two thousand years, during which His teaching has been subjected
to the severest scrutiny, He stands without conviction as to a single
error. Its ethics, its morals, its righteousness, its philosophy, its
wisdom, its accuracy, have stood the test of the most rigid investigation.
How can this be accounted for