s from the cares and temptations of an active life, under the
false idea of thus rising to a state of superhuman communion with God.
He did not fast himself systematically, nor enjoin upon his disciples
systematic fastings, but left fastings for special emergencies. In a
word, he ate and drank like other men. His heavenly mind lay not in the
renunciation of God's gifts, but in maintaining his affections
constantly raised above the gifts themselves to the divine Giver. It
took on a human, and therefore an imitable form.

And what shall we say of our Lord's spotless _purity_ of heart and life?
We cannot eulogize it, for it is above all human praise. But we can
refresh the eyes of our understanding by gazing upon it, as upon a
glorious sun, until we feel its vivifying and transforming power in our
own souls.

In contemplating the above qualities, it is of the highest importance to
notice that, though they exist in such fulness and perfection, they are
yet human, and therefore imitable. They are not the virtues of an angel
in heaven, or of a king on the throne, or of a philosopher in his
school, or of a monk in his cell; but of a man moving among men in the
sphere of common life, and filling out common life with all the duties
appropriate to it. His example then is available for the imitation of
the lowest not less than the highest. It offers itself to all classes of
men as a model of all that is good in human nature. We may boldly affirm
that such a character as this could never have been conceived of, if it
had not actually existed.

* * * * *

If now we look at our Lord's _character as a teacher_, we find it
equally original and wonderful. Writers on the gospel history have with
reason laid great stress on the fact that he stood high above the errors
and prejudices, not only of his own age and nation, but of all ages and
nations. He saw intuitively and perfectly what God is, what man is, and
what are man's relations to God and to his fellow-men; and was therefore
able to establish a religion for men, as men, that needs no change for
any age, or nation, or condition of life. He has sometimes been called a
"Galilean peasant." The phrase sounds unpleasantly in the ears of those
who adore him as their divine Lord and Master. Nevertheless it is in an
important sense true. He was educated among the common people of
Galilee, and had no special human training. It was an age of narrowness
and fo