furious hostility that, at length, for the first
time, broke out in actual violence (viii. 59). Jesus did not indeed
immediately retire, as if further efforts to induce faith were useless,
but when the storm broke out a second time (x. 39, 40) He finally
withdrew, and taught only such as sought Him out.

At this point, then, in the history we are invited to inquire what
grounds of faith Jesus had presented, and what were the true reasons of
His rejection.

1. But first we must ask, In what character or capacity did Jesus
present Himself to men? What did He declare Himself to be? What demand
did He make on the faith of those to whom He presented Himself? When He
required that they should believe in Him, what exactly did He mean?
Certainly He did not mean less than that they should believe He was the
Messiah, and should accept Him as such. The "Messiah" was an elastic
title, perhaps not conveying to any two minds in Israel precisely the
same idea. It had indeed for all Israelites some contents in common. It
meant that here was One upon earth and accessible, who was sent to be
the Bearer of God's good-will to men, a Mediator through whom God meant
to make His presence felt and His will known. But some who believed
Jesus was the Christ had so poor a conception of the Christ, that He
could not accept theirs as a sound faith. The minimum of acceptable
faith must believe in the actual Jesus, and allow the idea of the Christ
to be formed by what was seen in Jesus. Those who believed must so trust
Jesus as to be willing that He should fashion the Messiahship as He saw
fit. It was therefore primarily in Himself the true believer trusted. He
did not, in the first instance, believe He was this or that, but he
felt, "Here is the greatest and best I know; I give myself to Him." Of
course this involved that whatever Christ claimed to be, He was believed
to be. But it is of importance to observe that the confession, "I
believe that Jesus is the Christ," was not enough in Christ's own day to
guarantee the soundness of the faith of the confessor. He had further to
answer the question, "What do you mean by 'the Christ'? For if you mean
a national Messiah, coming to give you political freedom and social
blessings only, this faith cannot be trusted." But if any one could say,
"I believe in Jesus," and if by this he meant, "I so believe in Him that
whatever He says He is, I believe He is, and whatever be the contents
with which He fills the