His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.—Isaiah 9:6.
In the Teacher sent from God, heaven gave us its best and greatest. He who had stood in the councils of the Most High, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was the One chosen to reveal in person to humanity the knowledge of God.
Through Christ had been communicated every ray of divine light that had ever reached our fallen world. It was He who had spoken through everyone that throughout the ages had declared God’s word to mankind. Of Him all the excellences manifest in the earth’s greatest and noblest souls were reflections. The purity and beneficence of Joseph, the faith and meekness and long-suffering of Moses, the steadfastness of Elisha, the noble integrity and firmness of Daniel, the ardor and self-sacrifice of Paul, the mental and spiritual power manifest in all these men, and in all others who had ever dwelt on the earth, were but gleams from the shining of His glory. In Him was found the perfect ideal.
To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become—for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how we are to be trained as befits the sons and daughters of God; how on earth we are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.
God’s greatest gift was bestowed to meet our greatest need. The Light appeared when the world’s darkness was deepest. Through false teaching people’s minds had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, people had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire which they had kindled. . . .
Anyone who seeks to transform humanity must himself understand humanity. Only through sympathy, faith, and love can people be reached and uplifted. Here Christ stands revealed as the master teacher; of all that ever dwelt on the earth, He alone has perfect understanding of the human soul.—Education, 73, 74, 78.
From Homeward Bound - Page 52
Homeward Bound