question of what relation He bore to the Messiah in that kingdom. But it was not necessary for Jesus to answer this question from the beginning.

The objection need not be urged, that, as Jesus in any case regarded Himself as the founder of the kingdom, on whom its earthly existence depended, and in union with whom alone other men could become its true members; and as, in His own case, the knowledge of the kingdom of God as a present reality had sprung out of the consciousness He attained of His Messiahship, it would have been the true method of preaching the kingdom to others, to teach them first to recognise Him as the Messiah, and so lead on to the kingdom of God as founded by Him. It is sufficient to say in reply to this, that, by the Jews in general as well as by Jesus, the Messiah was always conceived as the means whereby the kingdom of God was to be set up. Even though in reality the means precedes the end to be subserved by it, yet, in the matter of recognition, the understanding of the end must precede the understanding of the means which in its nature is adapted for producing that end. Even Jesus Himself did not attain His Messianic consciousness without preparation. This preparation consisted in having, from childhood, known and loved God as His Father, and in having been conscious of possessing Divine endowments, and in having striven to fulfil God's will in upright obedience. Only by having lived and moved in this relation to God, which He deemed the normal and natural one, could the knowledge have come upon Him at baptism with the sun-burst of a revelation, that on this very relation

the peculiar nature of the expected kingdom of God rested, and that He Himself, in whom that relation was thoroughly realised, had been called to be the founder of the kingdom of God. In analogy with this growth of His own Messianic consciousness, He had also to awaken in others the true recognition of His Messiahship. He had first to impress upon them those spiritual relations between God and men which He now perceived as the essential foundation of the kingdom of God. He had also to produce in them the conviction that where this relation had come to exist, there the kingdom of God was realised. He could then mature in their minds the self-evident truth that He was the Messiah, the perfect founder of the kingdom of God, and that in union with Him men must become genuine citizens of this kingdom. Certainly it was on the ground of their knowledge of His Messiahship that the disciples could alone attain the full knowledge of the realisation of the kingdom of God; but their understanding of the true nature of the kingdom, and of the general law of its realisation, already formed the foundation of the knowledge of His Messiahship.

3. The representation of the contents of the teaching of Jesus which we now seek to give, must be based, as to its arrangement, on the method of the course followed by Jesus in His teaching. We must take as our starting-point the teaching of Jesus as to the nature of the kingdom of God. Jesus nowhere, however, described its character by giving short, concise formulæ, but by more precisely defining and explaining, in His peculiar sense, the points which

the Jews in general conceived to be of essential moment in the kingdom of God, viz. the ideas concerning the salvation to be brought into full realisation in God's kingdom, and the ideas concerning the righteousness through which the members of the kingdom would bring the reign of God to full recognition. This Jesus effected on the ground of the special view which He entertained and proclaimed of the character of God. From a close examination of those ideas of Jesus as to God, and the saving benefits and righteousness of His kingdom, which are found continually as the underlying basis of His judgments and precepts, we can determine the true sense in which He announced the coming of the kingdom of God, and can understand the conditions of membership in it. Here, however, we must not overlook the question, if He Himself, during the period of His ministry, passed through a course of development in His apprehension of the nature and coming of the kingdom of God. Afterwards we shall have to discuss, on the one hand, the personal testimony of Jesus to His Messiahship; and, on the other, His statements concerning the further development of the kingdom of God on earth,-statements which He pronounced on the ground both of His idea of the nature and coming of the kingdom, and of His own personal Messianic experiences. Already, in connection with Mark i. 14, we have noted the circumstance, that Jesus made His practical exhortations in regard to God's kingdom go hand in hand with declarations as to the actual existence of the kingdom; and, in conformity with this, just as our first main section issued in a

practical consideration of the general conditions of membership of the kingdom, so also the two following sections conclude with a consideration of the conduct which Jesus enjoined in relation to Himself as Messiah, and in relation to the further extension which He foresaw for the kingdom of God on earth. The contents of our second and third main sections are related to the contents of our first main section, as the more special exposition and application are related to the general rule. The announcement by Jesus of His own Messiahship, as well as that of the future further extension on earth of the kingdom of God, might be classed under the general theme of the announcement of the kingdom of God, since they define more precisely how the kingdom of God is developed. But we must deal with those two subjects as separate branches, apart from the general teaching of Jesus concerning the kingdom of God; for this reason, because He Himself, on good grounds, refrained from making them from the outset a subject of teaching, in the same way as He taught the general view of the nature and coming of the kingdom of God and of the conditions of its membership. In keeping separate these three main sections, we will, in my view, best express the inner connection of the thought of Jesus, as well as the historical progress in the announcement of His doctrine, so far as it is on the whole observable.

CHAP. II. GOD AS THE FATHER.

1. Speaking paradoxically, we can say that Jesus taught no new doctrine of God, but adopted and built upon the Old Testament Jewish view; and, at the same time, that His conception of God stands on a specifically higher level than the Jewish view; and that in the distinctive peculiarity of that conception lay the root of all the new elements of His teaching, and of the whole divergence of the Christian religion from that of the Old Testament. Jesus, indeed, taught no new doctrine of the particular attributes of God; also His conception of the character of God, taken as a whole, was already formed and recognised by certain Old Testament declarations. Yet that conception had only found occasional expression in the Old Testament, and had not been completely carried out in its consequences, whilst Jesus established it as the normal and standard conception of the Divine character, and with unsurpassable clearness exhibited it in its practical results.

The God of whom Jesus speaks is the one God of Israel (Mark xii. 29), the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mark xii. 26). Jesus has based His view upon the Old Testament revelation of God; and the knowledge of the nature of God, as derived from this revelation, He accepted as valid. Nowhere do we find Him stating and teaching anything as to the nature of God which was impossible on the basis of the Old Testament religion. When He declared that with God all things are possible (Mark x. 27; xiv. 36), or when He spoke of God as being perfect (Matt. v. 48), or when He affirmed