Christ, Christianity
and the Bible
BY
I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D.
Pastor First Baptist Church, New York City
Author of
How to Study the Bible, The Coming of Christ, The Signs of
the Times, Christian Science in the Light
of Holy Scripture, etc., etc.
NEW YORK
CHARLES C. COOK
150 Nassau Street
Copyright, 1912,
By Charles C. Cook
IF NOT GOD—NOT GOOD
BY I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D.
“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God” (Matthew 9:17).
THE world has accepted Jesus Christ as a good man.
The evidences of his goodness are manifold.
He was full of compassion.
He never looked upon the people as a crowd. He never thought of them as a mass. He saw them always as individuals. His heart went out to them. All his impulses were to pity them, sympathize with, and help them.
He went among them. He entered into all conditions, accepted all situations. He was present at a wedding, he ate with publicans and sinners and, anon, was guest at a rich man’s table.
He saw the ravages of disease, the shame of sin, the tragedies in life.
He knew there was torture in body and anguish in spirit.
He took the mystery of pain and laid it upon his heart, until tears were his meat and his drink, by day and by night. He became a man of sorrows and an expert in grief. He took upon him the woes of the world till he was bowed and bent, as with the weight of years. The tears of sympathy grooved his cheeks, as when streams carve their way down mountain sides. Because of this men looked at him and saw neither form nor comeliness; neither was there any beauty in him that they should desire him.
He was a beneficent man.
Multitudes of men are benevolent, but not beneficent.
Benevolence is well wishing. Beneficence is well doing. He was always well doing, giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, cleansing the leper, feeding the hungry, raising the dead, unloosing the bonds of Satan—unwinding the serpent’s coil.
He was absolutely un