This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: …by a single imperfection or defect. It is therefore superhuman, and cannot possibly be explained by the law of natural development. It is itself a moral miracle of the highest order; and its manifestation in conjunction with physical miracles, such as those which our Lord is reported to have wrought in the presence of crowds of wondering spectators, was natural–an event which might have been antecedently expected. But the beauty of Christ’s character is not merely inseparably associated with the truth of the miracles He is reported to have wrought, but it is indissolubly allied to His Divinity. Admit that Christ worked miracles, and the unspeakable beauty of His character remains intact–above suspicion, above the slightest possibility of a reasonable doubt being entertained by reasonable men. Deny the truth of the miracles ascribed to Christ, and His character becomes, not a fabric of spotless beauty, but a tissue of pride, selfassertion, and arrogancy, combined with unscrupulousness of the most horrible stamp! In the same manner, admit that Christ was God, and the beauty of His character remains intact; but deny that Christ was God, and His character becomes a heap of the most daring impiety, the grossest egotism, and the most execrable imposture! The beauty of Christ’s character is associated with His Divinity, even more decidedly than with the genuineness and credibility of the miracles ascribed to Him in the Gospels. It is simply a matter of fact that Christ claimed Divinity oftener, in more emphatic terms, and in a greater variety of ways, than He referred to the stupendous miracles on which He rested His Messianic claim. And therefore the beauty of His character displays the Divine Nature, which lay concealed within the sphere of…