oduce a work of
art. They never dream that they are drawing a model for all men to copy.
There is no effort to touch up or tone down the portrait. They simply
reflect what they see without admixture of colours of their own. Hence
the paradox of His personality--the intense humanness and yet the mystery
of godliness ever and anon shining through the commonest incidents of His
life. (2) Even more remarkable than the absence of subjectivity on the
part of the evangelists is the unconsciousness of Jesus that He is being
portrayed as an example. We do not receive the impression that the Son
of Man was consciously living for the edification of the world. His
mental attitude is not that of an actor playing a part, but of a true and
genuine man living his own life and fulfilling his own purpose. There is
no seeming or display. Goodness to be effectual as an example must be
unconscious goodness. We are impressed everywhere with the perfect
naturalness and spontaneity of all that Christ did and uttered.[1]

The character of Jesus has been variously interpreted, and it is one of
the evidences of His moral greatness that each age has emphasised some
new aspect of His {148} personality. In a nature so rich and complex it
is difficult to fix upon a single category from which may be deduced the
manifold attributes of His character. Two conceptions of Jesus have
generally prevailed down the centuries. One view interprets His
character in terms of asceticism; the other in terms of aestheticism.[2]
Some regard Him as the representative of Hebrew sorrow and sacrifice;
others see in Him the type of Hellenic joy and geniality. There are
passages in Scripture confirmatory of both impressions. On the one hand,
there is a whole series of virtues of the passive order which are utterly
alien to the Greek ideal; and, on the other hand, there is equally
prominent a tone of tranquil gladness, of broad sympathy with, and keen
appreciation of, the beautiful in nature and life which contrasts with
the spirit of Hebrew abnegation. But, after all, neither of these traits
reveals the secret of Jesus. Joy and sorrow are but incidents in life.
They have only moral value as the vehicles of a profounder spiritual
purpose. To help every man to realise the fullness and perfection of his
being as a child of God is the aim of His life and ministry, and
everything that furthers this end is gratefully recognised by Him as a
good. He neither courts