And why ?--Singly and surely, because we know him to be _a man_: that suffices.

To set up James or John or Daniel as my Model, and my Lord; to be swallowed up in him and press him upon others for a Universal Standard, would be despised as a self-degrading idolatry and resented as an obtrusive favouritism.

Now why does not the same equally apply, if the name Jesus is substituted for these?
Why, in defect of all other knowledge than the bare fact of his manhood, are we not unhesitatingly to take for granted that he does _not_ exhaust all perfection, and is at best only one among many brethren and equals?
II.

My friend, I gather, will reply, "because so many thousands of minds in all Christendom attest the infinite and unapproachable goodness of Jesus." It therefore follows to consider, what is the weight of this attestation.

Manifestly it depends, first of all, on the independence of the witnesses: secondly, on the grounds of their belief.