INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.In this opening chapter I propose to lay before the reader the leadingideas which will be developed in the book. This will necessitate somerepetition, but many readers want to know at starting whither the authoris going to take them, and whether his notions are such that they willcare for his company.In the course of lecturing on the Gospels, being myself interested inquestions of education, my attention turned to the way in which our Lordtaught His disciples. Following the Gospel History with this view, Irecognised in the train of circumstances through which Christ led thedisciples, no less than in what He said to them, an assiduous care intraining them to acquire certain qualities and habits of mind. I observedalso method and uniformity both in what He did and in what He refrainedfrom doing. Certain principles seem to govern His actions and to beobserved regularly so far as we can see, but we have no ground for statingthat our Lord came to resolutions on these points and bound Himself toobserve them. A man sometimes sees his duty so clearly at one moment thathe wishes to make the decision of that moment dominant over his life andhe embodies it in a resolve, but we must suppose that Christ at eachmoment did what was best. So that what I call a Law of His conduct is onlya generalization from His biography, and means no more than that, in suchand such circumstances He usually acted in such and such ways. I caneasily conceive that He might have swerved from these Laws had there beenoccasion.I have fancied that I got glimpses of the processes by means of which theApostles of the Gospels—striving among themselves who should be greatest,looking for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, and dismayed at theapprehension of their Master—were trained to become the Apostles of theActs,—testifying boldly before rulers and councils, giving the right handof fellowship to one who had not companied with them, and breaking throughJewish prejudices, to own that there were no men made by God who werecommon or unclean. The shape which much of the outward course of Christ’slife took, His choice of Galilee as a scene of action, His withdrawal fromcrowds and His wanderings in secluded regions were admirably adapted tothe educating of the Apostles; while His sending them, two and two,through the cities was a direct lesson in that self-reliance which reposeson a trust in God. Were not these courses ordered to these ends? Thetraining was wonderfully fitted to bring about the changes which occurred.That this fashioning of the disciples should have been a very principalobject with our Lord is easy to conceive. For what, except His followers,did He leave behind as the visible outcome of His work? He had founded noinstitution and had left no writings as a possession for after time. TheApostles were the salt to season and preserve the world, and if they hadnot savour whence could help be sought? Is it not then likely that thebest means would be employed for choosing and shaping instruments for thework; and can we do better than mark the Divine wisdom so engaged?On many sides the work of Christ stretches away into infinity. God’spurpose in having created the world, and put free intelligences into it,as well as the changes which Christ’s death may have wrought in therelation of men’s souls to God, belong to that infinite side of things,which we cannot explore. But we _can_ follow the treatment by which Christmoulded the disciples, because the changes are not wrought in them by amagical transformation, but come about gradually as the result of whatthey saw and heard and did.Changes are brought about in the disciples by an education, superhumanindeed in its wisdom, superhuman in its insight into the habits of mindwhich were wanted, and into the modes by which such habits might befostered, but not superhuman in the means employed. We can analyse theinfluences which are brought to bear, judge what they were likely toeffect, and estimate fairly well what they did effect, because they werethe same in kind as we now find working in the world. Christ’s ways,therefore, in this province of His work fall within the range of ourunderstanding. The learners are taught less by what they are told than bywhat they see and do. They are trained not only by listening, but byfollowing and—what was above all—by being suffered, as in the mission tothe cities of Israel, to take part in their Master’s work.