Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

180 THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.chapters. Now, as we have said, that there wasan order of truth sacred and inviolable above allthings, was borne witness to by the Hebrew martyrs,and therefore was not new to the chosenrace of Israel, though it was new to heathendom,at the time at which our Lord appeared. But theunion of the Truth and of the Life with the Personof One appearing visibly in the world as man,was as new to the Hebrews as to the heathen, wasan absolute novelty to human nature. And so theChristian Faith also, as a system of belief andaction, that is, as embracing the mind and the willof man, as giving both Truth and Life, is entirelynew in this respect; that in this double action itis in its origin and in its whole course and maintenancebound up with a Person. Thus all whichit teaches is not naked truth, unlocalised as itwere, and impersonal, but is the development ofrelations in which the disciples of Christ stand toHim ; for instance, as King, as God, as Head, asBridegroom, as Father. As these, He is at oncethe Truth and the Life. Thus it is that the Chris-tian Faith flows out of the Person of Christ theGod-man; and, as its Truth is centered in thatPerson, so also its continuous Life depends onHim.And further, as the connection of doctrine, ortruth, and of life, that is, action, with a Person isthe point from which all this movement springs,in which respect we have said it was absolutely