Jesus
Jesus spoke with the sublimest eloquence.
—Thomas Jefferson.
The best of men that e’er wore earth about him was a sufferer; a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, the first true gentleman that ever breathed.
—Thomas Dekker.
The one name above all glorious names—Jesus.
—Bishop Porteus.
If Jesus Christ is a man,—
And only a man,—I say
That of all mankind I cleave to Him,
And to Him will cleave alway.
If Jesus Christ is a God,—
And the only God,—I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea, and the air.
—Richard Watson Gilder.
Jesus wrote no book; He formed no system; His words were jets of truth, and chose their own forms. The Empire was not in the consciousness of Jesus: His only point of contact with Rome was the cross. When His followers wished to make Him king, He shuddered and fled as from an insult. As for wealth, it seemed so dangerous that He laid poverty as a condition of discipleship, and Himself knew not where to lay His head. You cannot trace Jesus: you cannot analyze Jesus. His intense spirituality of soul, His simplicity of thought, His continual self-abnegation, and His unaffected huimility descended on a worn-out, hopeless world, like dew upon the dry grass.
—John Watson.
Alternate Reading: Acts 2:14-42.