declared himself to be Messiah, and in so doing gave an
intelligible expression to his abiding significance for them and for his
people. In a solemn hour at the close of his life, as well as on special
occasions at an earlier period, he referred to the fact that the
surrender to his Person which induced them to leave all and follow him,
was no passing element in the new position they had gained towards God
the Father. He tells them, on the contrary, that this surrender
corresponds to the service which he will perform for them and for the
many, when he will give his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
By teaching them to think of him and of his death in the breaking of
bread and the drinking of wine, and by saying of his death that it takes
place for the remission of sins, he has claimed as his due from all
future disciples what was a matter of course so long as he sojourned
with them, but what might fade away after he was parted from them. He
who in his preaching of the kingdom of God raised the strictest
self-examination and humility to a law, and exhibited them to his
followers in his own life, has described with clear consciousness his
life crowned by death as the imperishable service by which men in all
ages will be cleansed from their sin and made joyful in their God. By so
doing he put himself far above all others, although they were to become
his brethren; and claimed a unique and permanent importance as Redeemer
and Judge. This permanent importance as the Lord he secured, not by
disclosures about the mystery of his Person, but by the impression of
his life and the interpretation of his death. He interprets it, like all
his sufferings, as a victory, as the passing over to his glory, and in
spite of the cry of God-forsakenness upon the cross, he has proved
himself able to awaken in his followers the real conviction that he
lives and is Lord and Judge of the living and the dead.

The religion of the Gospel is based on this belief in Jesus Christ, that
is, by looking to him, this historical person, it becomes certain to the
believer that God rules heaven and earth, and that God, the Judge, is
also Father and Redeemer. The religion of the Gospel is the religion
which makes the highest moral demands, the simplest and the most
difficult, and discloses the contradiction in which every man finds
himself towards them. But it also procures redemption from such misery,
by drawing the life of men into the inexhaustib