The Character of Jesus

by Charles Edward Jefferson

hearts of his readers by reminding them that ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and forever.’ Jesus never called himself the Rock, but the Christian heart so...

proved so popular in the English-speaking world as — “Rock of Ages, cleft for me! Let me hide myself in thee.” What Jesus was in Palestine he is to-day and shall be for evermore. All hi...

unchanged. His attitude to sinners is to-day what it has been from the beginning and what it will be to the end. You cannot discourage him by your ingratitude, you cannot make him other than he is...

folly or driven from his plan by human perversity. From age to age he is about his Father’s business, and in the midst of all nations and kindre...

THE GENEROSITY OF JESUS “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts XX: 35.

“It is more blessed

to give than to receive.” These words express with rare fulness one of the finest of the traits of Jesus, his generosity.

all action is to be subjected to the limitations of love.

Love can never give where giving would work hurt.

“Freely ye have received, freely give.”

He liked givers because he himself was always giving.

He saved others but himself he did not know how to save. He had thought and he gave it. He had ideas and he scattered them.

He had truth and he shared it with men. Behold a sower goes forth to sow! It is Jesus. Look at him. Watch the swing of that arm. What a generous arm! He scatters the seed upon the beaten path. No matter. He scatters the seed on the soil that

is rocky. What of it? He scatters the seed in brier patches and thorny corners. He does not mind that. The seed is abundant, and he will scatter it with a prodigal hand, hoping that some of it will find the so...

to make glad the heart of God. Many a teacher has saved his best ideas for a chosen few. Jesus scattered his broadcast. He had often ignorant and prejudiced and unresponsive hearers, but he threw his pearls by the handful wherever he went. What glorious ideas he scattered over the crowds of Galilean farmers, w...

It was not merely the work of the intellect, but also the blood of the heart which he gave. His affection toward men flowed in a

stream constant and full. His sympathy covered all classes, and no individual, however low and despised, ever appealed to him in vain.

He was a man with a loving heart. He loved both his friends and his enemies. He loved them at the beginning and he loved them to the end. The love which he lavished upon his disciples purified them and

bound them to him with bonds which nothing could break. But his love went out also to those who hated him and schemed to bring about his death. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” it is in such a prayer that the loving heart of

Jesus is clearly revealed. He poured out his love with a generosity which reminded men of the generosity of God. Having given time and strength and thought and sympathy and love, he finally gave up...

an unwilling victim of circumstances, or the helpless prey of ungovernable political forces, or a martyr like Caesar, or William the Silent, or Lincoln. He gave his life consciously and deliberately. It was not snatched from him by accident or fate, but freely surrendered by a heart willing to pay the great price. Again and again he endeavored to make this plain. “I have power to lay down my life,” he ...

world to minister to men’s needs, and to give his life a ransom for many. It was only by the giving of his life that he could soften men’s hearts and bri...

This, then, was the earthly career of Jesus —...

manifestation of generous and bou...

In his character we see not only what is possible for man to be, but we also behold a revelation of the character of the Eternal. “He that hath seen me hath seen...

the nearest to him, and it is a saying which should be often in our thoughts. In studying the character of Jesus we get light not only upon the possibilities of man, but also upon the disposition ...

same God revealed by Nature. The God of Nature has always been known as a generous God. The days and nights, the sky and sea and land, the changing seasons, all bear witness to His amazing generosity. He is prodigal in all His doings. He is lavish in all His benefactions. He scatters good things with the bountiful munificence of a King. He scatters the stars not in paltry thousands but in coun...

and confounds the imagination. He always gives more than can be accepted. He throws sunsets away on eyes which do not care for them. He gives fruit trees more blossoms than the trees can use....

remaining filling twelve baskets. He is a munificent, free-handed, bountifu...

He breaks the alabaster box upon our head every day we live. He spreads a table before us. He makes our cup run over. There are a thousand toothsome things to eat, and a thousand lovely

things to see, and a thousand exquisite pleasures to experience, and a thousand sublime truths to learn, and a thousand good opportunities to seize — more than we can ever make use of in the short span of life allowed us. In the realm of nature He

assuredly a lavish and bewilderingly bounteous God, and what He is in the world of nature He is likewise in the realm of the spirit. Jesus says, “Ask and ye shall receive.” Do not hesitate to do it...

that asketh, receiveth.” It is an eternal principle, deep-seated in creation and deep-rooted in the heart of God, that gifts rich and royal may be had for the asking. It is the purpose of the Christian relig...

what we are willing to ask or able to think. The generosity of Jesus is intended to remind us of the measureless beneficence of the all-Father. His message thrills with the thought that we constan...

an ungrudging and open-handed God is deli...

If you ask why was Jesus generous, the answer is, God is love. When was love anything but liberal? When has love ever dealt out good things wit...

Love never counts. It is the nature of love to give, and to keep on giving, and then to devise new ways of larger giving, and to imagine

still additional needs which may be supplied.

If generosity so great has appeared in Time, it must be because there is a generous heart in Eternity; if a grace so beautiful has blossomed on our earth, we have a right to expect the same grace in heaven.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea: There’s a kindness in his justice, Which is more than liberty. There is welcome for the sinner, And more graces for the good; There is mercy with the Saviour;

There is healing in his blood. “For the love of God is broader Than the measure of man’s mind; And the heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully...

We should take him at his word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the sweetness of our Lord.”

THE CANDOR OF JESUS “If it were not so I would have told you.” — John xiv: 2.

in modern speech candor is openness, fairness, outspokenness, sincerity. It is a rare virtue, one of the most winsome of all the virtues.

Jesus was loved. Men loved him so intensely they were willing to die for him. One reason

was that he was a man with his heart open.

Outspoken and frank himself, Jesus was en rapport with souls which were free from guile.

And here we find one of the reasons why Jesus always

extolled the disposition of a child. Without the child heart no man can enter heaven. And why? Because the child heart is always the open heart. Where can you find such candor, such beautiful frankness, such surprising and sometimes discomfiting outspokenness as in a little child? He will tell you just what he thinks, all he thinks, nothing will he hold back. He will make known his feelings, all his feelings...

Jesus set a child in the midst of the disciples, saying, “This is what you ought to be,” is because a little child is the embod...