Page:W. H. Chamberlin 1919, The Study of Philosophy.djvu/42

40 reveal his character and the nature of the most satisfactory living to man through a human life fundamentally like his own. It is commonly believed by the most civilized peoples of the present time, that God has made the most perfect revelation of these through the life of the Great Teacher, the Man of Galilee. And Jesus himself taught that he came to reveal God’s character (Cf. John 14:7 and 17:6) and man’s fullest life (Cf. John 10:10).

Jesus taught that God was present in the world and immanent in nature, blessing with sunshine and rain the just and the unjust, and clothing the lilies of the field in their splendor. But in trying to describe his character he had to select the best he could find in man as man was already known by men. He drew the picture of a human father silently and hopefully yearning over a wayward son, until that keen and watchful love caught sight of his repentant and returning son, and caused him to run to meet him long before the dull regard of his son enables him to see the father whom he so much needs. This, means Jesus, is the way God loves us men, and yearns over us even when our lives are meagre and rebellious.

In regard to the fullest life Jesus taught by his words and by his life that to achieve it our love for our Heavenly Father should be unselfish, that we should trust his wisdom and love in the face of neglect and obstacles, that we should never impudently presume upon his love because of its abundance, and that we should never become forgetful of him by becoming absorbed in any of the lesser interests of life, by bowing down before evil. In the same way he taught that we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, serving -his children, our brothers and sisters, for naught, as he serves them. He taught that we should actively seek to discover and to satisfy the needs of men. He further taught us to rebuke, severely if necessary, the helplessness and presumption that tend inevitably to grow up in the lives of the recepients [sic] of our generosity, blinding them to their need of the greater reality made accessible to them by our generosity, the spirit of love itself. And, finally, he taught that, like God we should constantly be willing to suffer, to let our cherished life or interests die in order that others may be able to live more abundantly, that only thus through death could we create or rise into our fullest life.

It was the belief of Jesus and his disciples that God often showed his approval of Jesus’ work in cooperating with him in his deeds of love by means of certain signs. It was the undoubted belief of these same disciples that God restored his crucified and dead body to Jesus, and that after the death of his body Jesus again associated with them in order to restore their faith in him