synonymous with His other declaration that He bears witness
of Himself.

Now, here we come upon one of the great peculiarities of Christ as a
religious teacher. The new thing, the distinctive peculiarity, the
differentia between Him and all other teachers, lies just here, that His
theme is not so much moral or religious principles, as His own nature
and person. He was the most egotistical man that ever lived on the face
of the earth, with an egotism only to be accounted for, if we believe,
as He Himself said, that in His person was the truth that He proclaimed,
and that when He witnessed to Himself He revealed God. And thus He
stands, separate from all other teachers, by this, that He is His own
theme and His own witness.

So much for the matter of the good confession to which we need only add
here its pendant in the confession before the High Priest. To the
representative of the civil government He said, 'I am a king,' and then,
as I remarked, He soared up into regions where no Roman official could
rise to follow Him, and to the representative of the Theocratic
government He said, 'Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at
the right hand of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.' These two
truths, that He is the Son of God, who by His witness to the truth, that
is, Himself, lays the foundations of a Monarchy which shall stretch far
further than the pinions of the Roman eagles could ever fly, and that he
is the Son of Man who, exalted to the right hand of God, is to be the
Judge of mankind--these are the good confessions to which the Lord
witnessed.

Then with regard to the manner of His witness. That brings us to another
of the peculiarities of Christ's teaching. I have said that He was the
most egotistical of men. I would say, too, that there never was another
who clashed down in the front of humanity such tremendous assertions,
with not the faintest scintilla of an attempt to prove them to our
understandings, or commend them by any other plea than this, 'Verily,
verily, I say unto you!'

A witness does not need to argue. A witness is a man who reports what he
has seen and heard. The whole question is as to his veracity and
competency. Jesus Christ states it for the characteristic of His work,
'We speak that we do know, and bear witness to that we have seen.' His
relation to the truth which He brings to us is not that of a man who has
thought it out, who has been brought to it by experience, or by feeling