Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

50 THE GODS OF THE NATIONShimself to be a king, the cause of whose birth ando iadvent into the world, the function of whose royalty,was to bear witness to the truth, receivedfrom the power which then ruled the world thepunishment allotted to the slave who was worthyof death. For many ages a false worship had overshadowedthe earth, hiding the true God frommen, and setting up instead a multitude of demonsfor gods. And during this time the thinkers ofGreek and Roman society had been asking, Whatis truth ? And now the officer who asked thatquestion of the Truth Himself, replied to it bycrucifying Him. And when the body of that CrucifiedOne was the same day taken down from thecross and laid in its sepulchre, the power whichreigned in polytheism and spoke by the mouth ofthe judge, seemed to have given the final answerof triumphant force to its question, What is truth?and falsehood might be thought to reign supremeand victorious in the world.It was with the resurrection of that Body, infwhich Truth was enshrined, that the resurrectionof truth among men began. He had said to Hisdisciples a few hours before, not " I show thetruth," but UI am the Truth." His birth andHis advent took place J. that His witness might begiven to it, the witness to it being that very birthand advent, His appearance among men, and thereception He would meet with. The crucifixionitself-the reply of triumphant force to its own