58 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

that would of itself be sufficient to prove that He spoke the truth, and that what He said of Himself was true.

The Sun has come as the proof of the Sun:
If thou seekest the proof of Him,
Turn not thy face from Him.l

Every careful student of the Gospel will perceive that, besides those verses which prove the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are many others which as clearly teach His perfect manhood. Hence it is that we speak of the incarnation (تَجَسُّم - تَجَسُّد - تأنّسُ) of the Word of God. This doctrine is as distinctly taught in the Gospel as is that with which we have been dealing. For example, St. John says in his Gospel (بشارة): 'In 2 the beginning 3 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.4 In him was

1 آفتاب آمد دليل آفتاب * كر دليلت بايد ازوى رو متاب
Mathnavi
2 John i. 1-4, 14.
3 Observe that the Greek is εν αρχη not εν τη αρχη: hence it means 'originally', not only at the beginning of creation. Hence it should be rendered (as the Hebrew בְּרֵאשִיח Gen. i. 1, which also has no article) إْبتِدَاءً rather than فِي اْلْبَدء.
4 جون قول حق بود آن مرد راست * دست او دركارها دست خداست
(Mathnavi)
PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST 59

life; and the life was the light of men . . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.' So also in another passage in the New Testament it is written of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He: 'Being 1 in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea the death of the cross.' The Gospel shows that this incarnation was not in appearance only, but in reality. Christ Jesus was born, grew in wisdom and stature, ate and drank, slept and awoke, felt hunger and weariness, suffered pain and sorrow, died on the cross, was buried, and rose again from the dead. He spoke of Himself as sent by God, as having received all authority both in heaven and in earth. He stated that He did not know the day and hour fixed for the end of the world. He spoke of His Father as greater than Himself. As a pious man, He often prayed to God,. and He asked that the cup of suffering might pass from Him, if it were God's will to remove it. In His agony on the cross He repeated from Ps. xxii. the words, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' All this proves that the Lord Jesus Christ, besides being the Word of God and existent.

1 Phil. ii. 6-8.