The Teacher: Was Christ a Genius?

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The Teacher Was Christ a genius? Putting aside, for argument's sake, the claim to Immaculate Conception, that of Divine Origin, of the performance of miracles, and rising from the dead, and looking upon the Son of Man merely from the •worldly standpoint, the human measurement of greatness, let us ask again, Was Christ a genius ? Where does he stand in purity and beauty of purpose, in magnificence and grandeur of achievement, among the greatest ones of earth those who have filled the ages with their renown? Among certain of the modern psychologists, Jesus of Nazareth has been denied a place as a Superman. He was not a Compeller. He is debased among the pseudo-emotional geniuses. He did not take the sword, he led no cohorts, he left no battle-fields, he did not stain the earth with blood. The logic which gives to Mohammed a place among the greatest geniuses of the earth denies the same to the Gentle Teacher ! What They, the masters of war, must be given !

the first place, and he, the Prince of P.eace, only a second ? Shall we so disparage the Inspired One who spoke the Parables, who taught the Lord's Prayer, and preached the Sermon on the Mount? who wept with emotion over the sins of Jerusalem, saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which art sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not"? Caesar reached to the height of his ambition and met Brutus; Napoleon willed the subjugation of Europe, and — found St. Helena Christ desired the redemption of the ;

— world and suffered on the Cross. Whose labors shall affect most the destinies of mankind? He who believed in the use of the sword, the power of the greatest cannon, or the One who believed in the potency of the gentle word ? "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Hasten the day when there shall be no more the clash of arms, the flow of blood, the glare of flames! Rameses, Nimrod, Xerxes, Belshazzar, Alexander, Hannibal, Csesar, Attila, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Charles V, these and their deeds shall pass away, and so the moderns. And yet shall come the Light of which Christ was the dawn!

Alfred Lam bourne